Anselm by Florence Byham Weinberg

Florence is a friend and a fellow author at Twilight Times books. I've not read the book yet, but I have bought it because it sounds like fun. Thought you guys might be interested. 

Summary: Fearing imminent death from a heart defect, Anselm Farnese, a 53-year-old, overweight Benedictine monk, discovers a 12th-century ritual in a dusty archive. If he locates a victim who—even momentarily—wishes to be someone else, he can usurp that person’s body. But he must commit himself to the Powers of Evil. Twenty-seven-year-old, cocky Professor Eric Behrens seduces an undergraduate student. Summarily fired, he curses the world and wishes to be someone else. He trips, falls, and wakes up in Anselm’s ailing body. Each man retains his own consciousness. One gleefully usurps Eric’s parents, lover and life; the other lives a nightmare as he desperately struggles to survive.

If, as Christians believe, the soul, mind, or consciousness survives the body, then, as the philosopher René Descartes tried to prove, it is separate and distinct from the body. This fantasy novel imagines the metaphysical, psychological and real-life consequences of transplanting the self in an alien body.

Chapter excerpt:
http://twilighttimesbooks.com/Anselm_ch1.html

Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Anselm-Metamorphosis-Florence-Byham-Weinberg-ebook/dp/B00DSVDJ60 

Author Bio: A native of Alamogordo, NM, Florence Byham Weinberg traveled extensively with her military family during World War II. Travels continued after marriage to scholar-critic Kurt Weinberg in Canada, France, Spain and Germany. After earning her PhD, she taught for twenty-two years at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, and ten at Trinity University, San Antonio.
http://www.florenceweinberg.com/

 

Good Intentions: A DragonEye Novella for The Midnight Diner

I'm thrilled to announce that Good Intentions: A DragonEye Novella, will be published in serial in The NEW Midnight Diner.  (They are currently fundraising via indigogo, which I talked about on Monday.  If you are a fan of Christian spec-fic with a rough, realistic edge, please consider helping them out.  Like all fundraisers, there are prizes, including a chance to be a character in the novella.) 

Good Intentions is one of the serious DragonEye stories, dealing with murder, immigration issues, and racism of a different kind. 

The story opens when Guster Brody, an immigration officer, is found dead by his wife--an obvious suicide.  Or is it?  Guster is a faithful Catholic, and Sister Grace is convinced he would never commit such a terrible sin.  Mrs Brody insists that her husband was troubled.  Grace, however, is not alone in her suspicions.  Brody had helped several Faerie folk gain US citizenship or legal immigrant status, and one of his former clients approaches Vern and Grace with her suspicions.  The next morning, she's found dead.

While the police chalk that up to anti-Faerie gang activity, neither Grace nor Vern--nor the deceased woman's husband--are buying it.  As thier investigations get closer to the truth, the villain gets more desperate, sending a wight to possess Grace and even trying to blow up their car.  Who else must die before Vern and Grace discover the killer.

Hey, for $80, it could be you!

I'm so excited to write this story for The Midnight Diner.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of writing a serial again.  (My first one was World Gathering, which became Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem; and I have some others I've done as fundraisers that I plan to publish as novellas in the future.)  I also think The Midnight Diner will be a terrific quarterly magazine.   Please check out the fundraiser, and in 2014, check out the magazine itself.

Mini-Review: My Beautiful Disaster by Michelle Buckman

Summary:  When Dixie catches the eye of Vince, she’s in heaven. She thinks it’s love at first sight, and there’s nothing she wants more than to be Vince’s girl, no matter what it takes—until his nice-guy façade slips away.

Mini-Review:  I'm usually not into this kind of teen lit, but I make an exception for Michelle Buckman because she's an exceptional writer.   The plot is the usual after-school-special fare, but Michelle has an ability to show relationships and address faith issues in a way that rings true. You could believe this family lives down the block or goes to your church.  A great read for teenage girls and their mothers.

Get it on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/My-Beautiful-Disaster-Pathway-Collection/dp/1600060838