SEEDS OF A NEW BIRTH

Good morning all and welcome to Monday Book Reviews. Today I’ll be reviewing Seeds of a New Birth – Book One of the Kindred Series, by Orrin Jason Bradford. I believe the series is a trilogy.

 

BOOK: SEEDS OF A NEW BIRTH

AUTHOR: ORRIN JASON BRADFORD

GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION

RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ / ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

2.5 HEARTS

 

 

BOOK BLURB:

Unlocking the Potential of the Human Mind
Scientific Breakthrough… Or a Really Bad Idea?

Research geneticist and genetic engineer, Lionel Adams is onto something hot –the key to unlocking the vast reserves of the human mind. Everyone is interested in it. Bio Vita Tech, the genetics research lab he works for, is excited about the possibilities and the potential mega-profits. So are their foreign competitors who are counting on their inside man at Bio Vita to deliver Adam’s secret into their hands.

Everyone seems to want a sample of Adam’s formula, except his college buddy, Flip MacDougal, who makes a surprise visit to Bio Vita to play a practical joke on his old friend. Unfortunately, it’s Flip who ends up with the sample. His world is turned upside down as he struggles and maneuvers his way through the trouble he has gotten himself into as he unwittingly spreads his “gift” to others.

MY REVIEW:

While research scientist Lionel Adams is working one night on a secret genetic engineering project, his old college friend, Flip MacDougal pays him a visit. Flip, a smooth-talking ladies man, convinces Lionel’s secretary Debbie to lend him her keycard so he can enter his secure research lab. He wants to ‘prank’ him. In return, he’ll take her out to dinner.

After Flip startles Lionel in the lab, he accidentally knocks over a beaker of liquid that’s on the counter which contains Lionel’s most recent project ‘alteration’ – It turns out to be bio-genetically active recombinant DNA. He advises Flip to go to the bathroom and wash his hands with soap. When he gets there, he decides that nature’s call comes first. He washes his hands when he’s done.

He subsequently takes Debbie out to dinner and back to his hotel room, and you can guess the rest. Flip finds himself falling madly for her after that first night. When she declines his invitation for a second date because she has plans, he goes back into his player mode, flying out the following afternoon to see one of his lady friends. It’s on this trip that he finds out that he is being used as a ‘boy toy’ by a group of professional women. With his male ego shattered, he makes trips to various cities, visiting each one for a final tryst and confrontation.

Because of his lack of personal hygiene back at the lab, each woman ends up becoming impregnated with girls by him despite the fact that he’s had a vasectomy and each woman is either sterile or on birth control of some kind. The fetuses are growing at an alarming fast rate.

Lionel must now report the leak to the corporate sponsor who funded the grants for his research. The sponsor sends their own researcher to work with him. How many women are there? Has he taken his experiment too far in the name of science and profit?

I liked the premise of this story. The idea of genetically altered DNA that unlocks the possibilities of the mind – telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, etc. makes for awesome science fiction writing. There was so much potential here and the plot wasn’t bad. There were some parts I didn’t see coming, and I liked that.

I was pulled out of the story more times than I wanted to be. Suspending reality in fiction is expected, especially in science fiction. The problem is, it still has to be believable. The setting is in modern day and the location is an ultra secure research facility. First of all, no one can gain access with a little sweet talk and the promise of a date. Second, even a lay person knows that a leak of any potentially dangerous/hazardous specimens calls for an immediate lockdown and/or quarantine until whatever implemented safety protocols are initiated. It would be like me gaining access to the CDC by batting my eyelashes, entering the labs, checking out all the vials, and asking “What are these?”, and then being told to go wash my hands in the bathroom down the hall with soap after opening a vial containing a deadly virus – thus contaminating everything and everyone I come into contact with. It is not going to happen.

As a reader, it seemed to me that the author wanted to get past the more uninteresting parts of the writing to get to the ‘action’. I mentioned earlier that the premise and plot were good, but the accident scene fell flat with me. The writing wasn’t bad, and the characters were okay.

Overall, this was an okay read. I may read the second book in the series if it is highly discounted or a free download on Amazon (as this one was). I’m rounding it up to three hearts because I really liked the premise, plot, and the story. I feel it has a lot of potential for improvement. Perhaps in a future edition?

RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ / ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

2.5 HEARTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Orrin Jason Bradford is the pen name for speculative fiction author, W. Bradford Swift, who chose to use a pen name for The Kindred Series to make it clear to his Young Adult fantasy readers that these books are of another breed entirely. Currently the series includes Seeds of a New Birth and book two, Seeds of a New Power.

Dr. Swift is a graduate of Clarion West in Seattle where he honed his skill and passion for writing fantasy and science fiction. These two genres are forms of visionary fiction – fiction that first and foremost entertains while also enlightening and encouraging the reader to embrace greater possibilities in their own lives.  Giving back to future generations of young adults and adults through visionary fiction and non-fiction is an integral part Swift’s legacy of a life on purpose. To learn more about additional books by the author go to: www.wbradfordswift.com  and amazon.com/author/wbradfordswift

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Embryo by J.A. Schneider

Doing another book review. I’ve always loved thrillers, always. Crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, mystery thrillers, you name it. Medical thrillers? Eh, not so much. I read  a couple a few months ago, they were OK.

The description for Embryo by J.A. Schneider sounded really good, and since I’m never one to pass up an e-book on sale, I took a chance and bought it. Plus, I never know when I might find another new favorite author. Great investment; This was Ms. Schneider’s first novel, published in March 2012.

Embryo by J.A. Schneider

**** Stars

Dr. Jill Raney is a medical intern at a prestigious teaching and genetic research hospital in New York City. While doing her obstetrics rotation, some very bizarre and tragic cases come through its doors. Babies born with the rarest of conditions and disabilities, never making it out of the delivery room. The mothers are dying, or disappearing.

Dr. Raney begins to dig into some of the cases, trying to find a link, anything that can connect these women and the hospital together. It seems that some of the other interns have come across similarly bizarre cases. Jill finds some small similarities initially; when she first discusses it with her supervisor-then lover, third-year resident Dr. David Levine, he doesn’t believe there’s any link.

When a pregnant woman is found murdered near the hospital and her belly drained of amniotic fluid, Jill suspects something much more sinister. The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she finds herself in.

I found this to be a good read; The first page drew me right in. That’s hard to do with me. I suppose it’s the EMT in me; I’m surprised medical thrillers have never been at the top of my list of favorite genres. The book was fast-paced and I liked the way Jill and David’s characters were drawn out. There were several good plot twists in the story, things I didn’t even see coming.

There wasn’t much that I disliked about the book, but I did think the relationship between Jill and David would’ve started off more slowly. I did notice some minor medical procedural discrepancies, but they were not enough to take away from the thrill of the story. I did find the museum scene near the end was a bit much, but for a first novel, this book was amazing.

Overall, I give this book four stars **** and will definitely read the next book in the series. I’d love to watch the growth of the characters and Ms. Schneider as an author.

Until next post…

 

http://jaschneider.net

 

 

 

 

More Devastation and Loss. Enough is Enough!

Whenever I come back to blogging and writing after dealing with medical issues, events, and personal losses, I get hit with more devastation.  

Within the past two weeks, I have lost two people very dear to me in different ways, from the same killer – the hemorrhagic stroke. First, I am now in Puerto Rico, where we put my ex-girlfriend’s brother Petie, to rest yesterday afternoon. When he didn’t show up for work the night of the 11th, co-workers kept calling him because it was unlike him to miss a shift. They called til his mailbox was full. His sister did the same when morning came.

It was two brothers and one sister, always looking out for each other long distance. She called consistently on the 12th, until someone answered his phone. The person on the other end was an NYPD lieutenant who broke the news to her. An autopsy was required because of his age (46), and on the 14th, the ME determined the cause as a brain hemorrhage.

Being there for me during my darkest hour, I felt that the only right thing to do as a friend, was be there for her. I loved Petie in a special way. We understood each other when it came to his sister. There was a wake in NJ for family, friends and co-workers on the 15th; we flew with his flight to Puerto Rico the 16th, had an all day wake the 17th til 10pm, and finally last viewing, church and burial, yesterday. What a week it’s been.

Two days after losing Petie, I lost a former co-worker who also suffered a hemorrhagic while sleeping. I remember working many shifts with him on over- nights. Between all the sick and injured calls we took, we always made time for some humor. One thing I knew about him was his history: hypertension. When I heard, the first question I asked was if he had still been taking care of himself. The answer was a resounding ‘Yes’. I hadn’t seen him much since my illness and the last I’d heard, he’d just recently (within the past 2-3 months) moved to Florida with his partner to start a new life. Though he passed in Florida, most of his family, friends and former co-workers still live in NJ, so he was being flown back for viewing, mass and burial. Unfortunately, I can’t pay my last respects to my friend and co-worker because I won’t be back from PR until next week. Thinking back over the past three years, out of four people who’ve had hemorrhagic strokes that I’ve known well, myself included, I’m the sole survivor. It’s hard to swallow, especially knowing that hemorrhagic strokes are the least common, with the highest mortality rate, of the two types. It makes me question why I was spared. Do I have a life mission? I know I’ve touched on this briefly in a earlier post or two, but it is really hitting me hard now.

I love writing. I say it all the time and I try focusing on it every chance I get. I ask myself sometimes too, if that’s one of the reasons death escaped me; so I could write about the killer that is a stroke: both ischemic and hemorrhagic. Am I supposed to be an advocate for those who can no longer speak for themselves? For those who left this world before their time? Or for those who think it can never happen to them and don’t take care of themselves the way they should? I don’t know. But I know that I am going to start something or somewhere along those lines. Everyone that has died was younger than 50. Younger than me. Enough is enough. There is too much loss going on and it’s got to stop. I’ve had my blog for over a year and I love it. I write it under a pen name; always have. Dont know if I will much longer. I used it because I wasn’t really comfortable sharing my story or being myself, bearing my naked soul for the world to see. I wasn’t ready. Now, I don’t care anymore.

Heck, for my fiction, I might just keep the pen name since I have authors to help when their new books come out, reviews that I’ve promised to make and writing that I need to complete. Everyone already knows me as Lilica/Lily or some variation of the two. Works for me…plus, I like it.  🙂

I’m lucky to be alive. Period. Maybe next post I’ll formally introduce myself. I don’t know anyone who’d write a memoir under a pen name. That being said,

I have no more free time to give devastation and loss that has infiltrated my life and tried to suck me dry. Get the hell out of my way; I’ve got shit to do.      LE Blake

That’s all for today, my dear friends. I’m here. I’m strong. I’m determined. Most of all, I’m just pissed.

 

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain_spinal_cord_and_nerve_disorders/stroke_cva/hemorrhagic_stroke.html http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/TypesofStroke/Types-of-Stroke_UCM_308531_SubHomePage.jsp http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/symptoms-of-a-hemorrhagic-stroke http://jomurphey.blogspot.com/

IWSG For March – Time For Spring Cleaning

Hidey-ho all my blogger buddies! Guess what. It is the first Wednesday of the month and we know what that means! It’s time for my posting for The Insecure Writer’s Support Group #IWSG which was founded by the incredible Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, our resident Sci-fi master, author extraordinaire, and all around in-house celebrity nice guy. The purpose of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group is give all writers a safe haven where they can express their doubts, concerns and insecurities without fear of appearing weak or foolish. We can even celebrate our triumphs and successes!

Posting is the first Wednesday of every month and you post your thoughts on your own blog. It is an awesome group to be a part of and I have been a proud member since I started blogging last year. If you are interested in becoming a member of our élite group of insecure writers, please click on the image and you will be transported to the #IWSG site where you can add your name to the list. This is a blog hop, so whenever you post, make sure you visit other insecure writers and offer them support as well.

This month’s  #IWSG co-hosts are: 

• Elsie, over at http://www.elsieiswriting.com,
• Tina Downey, over at http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com,
• Elizabeth Seckman, over at http://www.eseckman.blogspot.com and
• Julie Flanders over at http://www.julieflanders.blogspot.com.

I’d like to thank our co-hosts for doing an amazing job this month!

I’ve been very busy these past few weeks. I was extremely proud to share my NaNoWriMo win on my December post for the IWSG. Um, yeah. Out of those 50,091 words or so, I’ve probably chucked about a quarter so far and will probably dump more before I’m done. Kind of like the Spring cleaning I’m going to be doing shortly; packing away the winter stuff and bringing out the warm weather wear… Hey, I can dream!!

Mind you, the work is nowhere near complete, but I guess Ernest Hemingway was right, “The first draft of anything is shit.” Aside from the fact that I had a bunch of useless junk in it, I also noticed that while I was reading it, my POV has a tendency to shift every so often, which is frustrating as hell. It’s bad enough that I have to really focus on what I’m doing so I don’t wander, but every so often I go from third person to first and don’t even realize it until I’m in the middle of reading the story; makes me want to pull my hair out. I’ve really got to get a grip on POV. Sometimes I feel like a toddler trying to swim in the big kids pool.

I’ll admit that while I haven’t been able to write or blog most of December through the better part of February, I was able to get in a lot of reading; not only novels that I’d like to review, but books on the craft of writing as well. I bought another copy of Stephen King’s On Writing, the original I misplaced long ago, and The Elements of Style, which is turning out to be a priceless tool for me. I’ve also been doing some research and looking at various writers resources because I know that I have weaknesses now that were not present before my hemorrhage, mainly focus, attention and memory.

My one promise to myself this New Years was that I would self-publish something and it would be good. It may not be a novel, but I will be happy with a short story or a novella. I think I’ve put so much pressure on myself to be the person I was before, and truth be told, I will never be the person I was before. I’m not going to look at it as a bad thing though. The things I used to take for granted before, I don’t anymore. So it’ll take me longer to finish my works and that’s OK. I’ll make sure I have good people behind me reviewing and editing them so when I do finally put out my project, it will be something I can be proud of.

I’m just curious, does anyone else have a lot of trouble with POV? A little is understandable, but I seem to be all over the place at times. I do know that first drafts of anything are always bad, but if almost half your manuscript is unusable, isn’t that worse than bad? I’d appreciate the truth on this, gently, of course.  🙂

That being said, that’s all I have for this month’s post for The Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Please feel free to comment and if you are interested in being a part of this phenomenal group, as I stated earlier, just click on the image above to join.

Until next post, Ciao!

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Good morning my fellow bloggers. I hope everyone is chipper and well this fine day. I haven’t posted in about a week; which is not too bad for me. I’ve gone off the radar for three weeks at the very beginning of my blog!  But I made a commitment to myself that I would do whatever it takes to follow my dreams, no matter what it takes; and that is what I am doing.

I remember mentioning in one of my very first posts that I may, at times, go off my path and talk about other things besides my dreams of writing. Today is going to be one of those days. The past few days have been extremely brutal for me in several ways. My pain scale has been through the roof, my energy has been nil and I spent the better part of the past two days crying a river of tears. My pain management barely managed. However, not once did I ask myself, “Why me?” I never forget that I am one of the lucky ones.

Since I don’t get out very much, being that I can’t drive anymore YET, I spend quiet time on the deck with my lhasa apso Sophie and speak to friends who still live in NJ. Other than that, I rely on the friends I’ve been blessed with here in the cyberworld to help me through my days. Many of you don’t even realize the impact you have on my life, truly. You inspire and motivate me; some of you calm me when I don’t know what I’m doing…you guys know who you are 😉 . I feel like I’m part of a small town community that really cares about me. I, in turn, care about you all as well. I never thought of all this when I first started this blog.

The fact that I haven’t blogged in about a week gets to me. The fact that I haven’t even had a tweet conversation or done any real writing for a few days bothers me even more. The only thing I don’t forget to do is thank any new followers I get on Twitter because it’s just the right thing to do.

As always, I will continue to research sites, books, blogs and articles that may be of interest to my fellow fledgling writers and post them on upcoming blogs. I am currently working on another page for this blog for resources but it is still in my drafts. I am still working things out with WordPress.

Today, I am feeling quite a bit better, and will be writing away throughout the day, thrown in with a healthy dose of tweeting. What I look forward to most of all, is finishing the novel I started two nights ago, LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE: BEGINNING OF A HERO by Charles E Yallowitz.

That would be the perfect end to what I hope will be a remarkably productive day.

Until next time…