05 Wednesday Aug 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
BnV, BooknVolume, Daily Meditations, Dealing with Stress, Finding Peace, Harmony, Inspiration, Poetry Blog, spirituality, ~Morgan~
Life is All you Ever Want it to Be,
When you spend the Least amount of Time
Worrying about how to Make it Be
All it Is.
~Morgan~
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(Beautiful artwork found on Pinterest: Acknowledgement given to the original artist, whoever they may be)
02 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in Palate Pleasing
Tags
food, food blogger, foodie, foodporn, foodstagram, Fresh Recipes, instafood, Recipes, scallops, Seafood, seafood lover, Seafood recipes
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2 lbs Fresh Shrimp (Cleaned)
1 Lbs Langostino tails
Small Bag 50 count Little Neck/Mahogany Clams
1 pound sea scallops
Smoked Andouille Sausage (4 Links)
3 Haddock Loins (4 Ounces each)
2 Cups (or so) Baby potatoes
1 Large Pepper – cut into 1 inch pieces
5 Green Onions – diced
1/2 red onion- cut into 1 inch pieces
1 / 2 cup roasted garlic cloves
Brown Sausage in a skillet and chop
Par boil potatoes until 50% cooked
Place vegetables and par-boiled potatoes on the bottom of a large roasting pan
add shrimp, langostinos, sausage, scallops, and clams
In a separate bowl blend:
2 sticks butter* melted
1 cup Ex Vir Olive Oil
1/2 cup cocktail sauce w/ horseradish
the juice from 2 lemons
The roasted garlic cloves
4 TBSP Old Bay Seasoning
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 Worcestershire sauce
Pour this mixture over everything in the roasting pan and use your hands to gently stir to combine.
Bake at 450F for 45-60 Mins until shrimp is pink, fish is cooked and clams are open ( DO NOT eat any clams that don’t open)
Serve with a french baguette to enjoy the broth!
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~Morgan~
29 Wednesday Jul 2020
Posted in The Mercy Series
Tags
#NewRelease, Audio Books, Award Winning Books, Best Fantasy Books, Dark Fantasy, Dystopian Fantasy, Fantasy, free audio book, Free Download
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Misericorde (Mercy Series Book One) Is now #AVAILABLE ON #AUDIBLE !!!
Even better, I have #FREE #AudioBooks to give away For a VERY Limited Time. (Comment below to request a copy)
It’s the year 2446, and the first three Horsemen of Revelation’s Apocalypse have ridden.
Pestilence, War and Famine have changed the world into a dictatorship ruled with an iron fist. Commoners have few rights, and liberty is a distant memory.
Before the final Horseman is released, the Archangel of Mercy – Tzadkiel – makes a bold plea, asking for permission to find even one human who remembers the meaning of mercy and compassion. He is given 100 years, until Death will sweep across the land.
Taking human form and coming to Earth, he finds a place ruled by greed, hatred and fear. With time running out and Death growing impatient, can Tzadkiel find what he’s looking for… and how much will he need to sacrifice?
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~Morgan ~
27 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
#COVID19, BooknVolume, Challenging Times, compassion, Humanity, Kindness Matters, Love, Morgan, Pandemic, Random Acts of Kindness
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The Capacity to Love is far Greater than any,
It reaches across vast divides
Drawing the disillusioned together
Building bridges
and
Healing wounds
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Unless it is never Given Expression.
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In these troubled times, our random acts of Kindness may not be trusted, but they are invaluable. Our compassion may be met with incredulity, but it is inestimable. Our willingness to be more than what the world around us has become may raise eyebrows or garner suspicion, but the alternative is more lethal than any pandemic will ever be.
~Morgan~
25 Saturday Jul 2020
Posted in About Me (since you Insist)
Tags
Author Blogs, Author Websites, Best Fantasy Books, Creative Arts, Dystopian Fantasy, Fantasy Books, Official Website, ~Morgan~
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BooknVolume has been my home away from home for seven years – yes, can you believe that – Seven Years! Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, BUT, I do now have a vacation cottage in addition to my BnV mansion.
Today it became official (whatever that means, exactly) the Cynthia A. Morgan Author website is up and running and waiting for you! Pop on by, say hello, check it out and let me know what you think?
Personally, Im delighted, but I’m also open to feedback. Is it easy to navigate? Easy to read? Does it have too much? Too Little? OR is something missing you’d really like to see? I’d love to know.
24 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews
Tags
5 Star Books, Award Winning Books, Book Club, Book Lover, Book Review Blogs, Books, Books to Read, Bookstagram, Fantasy Books, Interviews, Kindle Unlimited, Reading, Reading community
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Winner – Pinnacle Book Achievement Award.
Runner-up – Independent Publisher Book Awards.
Finalist – Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards.
Finalist – National Indie Excellence Awards.
Darkness stirs in a world that is ill-equipped to confront it.
A prophesied king is born, but not all will benefit from his foretold conquests. In a realm where only clerics are permitted to practice magic, Kibure, a mere slave, draws the attention of much more than just his master after wielding an unknown force in a moment of desperation. In a twist of fate, Sindri, the priestess hired to strip Kibure of his power, defies the law, revealing designs of her own. But trust is in short supply in a land ripe with deceit. This wayward pair will have to work together if they hope to evade capture at the hands of the Empire’s most potent wielders.
Halfway around the known world, Aynward’s knack for discovering trouble drives him deep into conspiracies within which he does not belong. Too arrogant to accept counsel, he will have to learn the hard way that some actions have consequences that cannot be undone…
This epic fantasy series will be especially enjoyed by fans of Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Michael J. Sullivan, Patrick Rothfuss, and Michael Wisehart. .
In a unique Reverse Interview, Author Derrick Smythe interviewed on of his readers for more insights into the book:
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~Morgan~
21 Tuesday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
BnV, BooknVolume, Challenging Times, Current Events, Dark Times, Fear, Hatred, Politics, Riots, spirituality, ~Morgan~
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When shadows fall dark and deep
and echoes of Gladness
weep in reverie,
When callous choices strut with bravado
while Kindness goes unheard,
unseen;
Where anger laughs vitriolic
and Need sleeps empty,
The door stands open for ebon shades
to clutch and tear
while Mercy Keens
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~Morgan~
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This poem was Inspired, in part, by this post
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Amazing Image created by Ursula88
20 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Please be sure to stop by and see whats happening on my new blog Word Mongery and Musings…Great New Book Reviews, spotlights, and More 🙂
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If you’re looking for your next book review read, The Mercy Series is a (Dark) Fantasy Dystopian Drama that has been compared to Stephen King’s Gunsligner opus and Bernard Shaw’s historical fiction; Outlander and Game of Thrones!
“Clandestine reminds me of an awesome blend between Bernard Cromwell’s historical fiction (if you haven’t read it, see “The Last Kingdom”) and Steven King’s Gunslinger opus. It’s an excellent balancing act that draws you in and makes the story somehow feel plausible, thus allowing you to share in the emotion of the characters along the way.” – Audrey Dickman Reviewer 5 Stars
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Author Cynthia A. Morgan has crafted a beautifully atmospheric fantasy piece that delivers on all fronts of storytelling. Readers seeking strong characters with realistically developed emotions will enjoy the central pair, who are put to the test in many exciting ways as the novel unfolds. For those who…
View original post 132 more words
20 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Please be sure to stop by and see whats happening on my new blog Word Mongery and Musings…Great New Book Reviews, spotlights, and More 🙂
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Indie author E. Ozols lives in Alexandria, Virginia, where she spends her time on walks with her dog. Her articles and posts have appeared in Latvians Online, Laiks Newspaper, and Femme au Foyeur.
Ozols’ newest novel, Hope the Little Fox, is already receiving rave reviews. Reedsy Discovery selected it as one of the “best indie books to read this week,” and gushed “With its lush writing and incisive critique of gendered expectations, Ozols’ novel will enchant adventure readers and fans of strong female protagonists.” Reedsy Discovery’s full review, written by Rebecca Reed, was recently featured right here on Word Mongery and Musings.
What was it like writing Hope the Little Fox? E. Ozols talks about it below.
Oddly enough, I don’t remember how or why the initial idea for this book materialized. I can’t pinpoint where I got any of the early ideas for the story. What I…
View original post 581 more words
17 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
#COVID19, Beautiful Photographs, BnV, BooknVolume, Challenging Times, Coping with Stress, Hope, Nature, photography, Poetry Blog, spirituality, ~Morgan~
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Mysteries
of Golden Truth
Whisper in Delicate Splendor
Vestiges
of Forgotten Time
Shimmering
to be Remembered
Mysteries
of Honest Wonder
Transpose the Silken Shades
of Mysteries
of Timid Courage
Asking
Waiting
to be Displayed.
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~Morgan~
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Beautiful Photographs found on Pinterest. Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the Original Photographers.
Thank you~
14 Tuesday Jul 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
#COVID19, BnV, BooknVolume, Dealing with Depression, Dealing with Grief, Loneliness, Love, Poetry Blog, relationships, spirituality, ~Morgan~
Silence Grieves
Standing Alone
Yet
Bear not the Burden of Sorrow into the darkness
Alone
For where your shadow falls into shade,
There my love waits,
Standing Alone
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~Morgan~
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Image found at: customize.org
10 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in About Me (since you Insist)
Tags
Author Interviews, Book Club, Book Events, Book Review Blogs, Book Teasers, Books, Character Spotlights, Reading community, Writers Community
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I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of my (Blogging) family….Word Mongery and Musings…a new blog focusing solely on Books, Reviews, Author Interviews…Reverse Views….Editorials about Books…Characters, Plots, Favorite Scenes and schemes….ok, you get the idea, right?
Book blogs, review rendezvous, spotlight sprees, hype headquarters, and chutzpah hullabaloos. What do they all have in common?
Writers! Word mongers and musers. Oh, and the essential other half of the equation: Readers!
Creation is a two-fold phenomenon. A Yin and Yang, action-reaction, cause and effect, inception and conclusion relationship. Writers create worlds, characters, and circumstances with which readers can connect. Readers search for writers whose creations hold a resonance that seems to speak directly to them. It’s almost a symbiotic relationship where one cannot exist without the other. Or at least, one cannot truly be fulfilled without the other.
The reader reads what the writer writes, then writes about what they’ve read so other readers may also read what was written. That’s where the aforementioned book blogs, review rendezvous, spotlight sprees, hype headquarters and chutzpah hullabaloos come into play. Because as sure as the reader will read what the writer wrote, there are other writers who will write about what was written so readers know what to read.
Are you dizzy yet? So am I.
This is the bewildering boondocks into which each writer wanders when they put the proverbial pen to paper. This is the maelstrom that spins around us in a confusing concoction of words, phrases, jargon, lexical madness and magic that leaves all of us more than a little muddled.
This is the realm into which Word Mongery and Musings will wander, leaving a trail for others to follow. A trail of writings for readers and readers for writers.
Please stop by and say Hi 🙂 OH and don’t worry, there’s plenty of poetry in this brain to keep BnV readers happy 🙂
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~Morgan~
06 Monday Jul 2020
Posted in The Mercy Series
Tags
5 Star Books, Book Club, Book Review Blogs, Book reviews, Bookstagram, Dark Fantasy, Dystopian, Kindle Unlimited, Must Read Books, Readers, Reading community, the Four Horsemen
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So here it is…the very first (Possibly ever!) Reverse Book Review where the reader reviews the book and then is interviewed by ME….and YOU! Yes, thats right, you can ask any questions you like about the book(s) and Chad will be happy to answer them. So lets get right to it, shall we?
Cynthia A Morgan wrote the Dark Fey trilogy and I loved that…this is a very different sort of book. For one, it’s slower paced and the work of a very talented author who has time (there are 3 more books to come in the series) to let the story unfold, to allow the reader to know and understand the characters, times, environments. She is patient and assured – 2 words I would hesitate to use to describe most anything culturally. We are raised on soundbites and fed headlines, but this book/series is, especially the more I think about it, so difficult to adequately distill into a short synopsis. It’s spiritual and human. It’s violent and tender. It’s desperate and deeply hopeful. I can’t wait to see where she takes us from here.
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Who is your favorite/least favorite character and why?
My least favorite is easy: Sauvage. In a space that is forgetting any resemblance of gentleness or care, his absolute lack of humanity is repulsive.
My favorite has been Chevalier or Levesque for the same reason. As I raged at their apathy and unwillingness to DO SOMETHING, I knew why they didn’t (or couldn’t.) They did for the same reason we stand idly by while the least of us are utterly taken advantage of and great violence is inflicted. Morgan couldn’t have known the specific political/social landscape when she wrote it, but this story is perfect for us, now. I guess it’s perfect for any time, because we are too often Chevalier or Levesque and not enough Tzadkiel and Lourdes. (As it turns out, why I love them is that they DID finally DO SOMETHING and I am proud of them, and it gives me hope for us, for me.)
What surprised you about the story that you didn’t expect
In my reviews I talk about your patience. It’s shocking to me that this story is given such beautiful space to breathe and be exactly what it is. It feels much less like a contrived product driven by bells and whistles and more like a living breathing organism. Then when the bells and whistles do come, they are genuine and unforced and we discover that we actually care deeply for these characters. It’s like we’re watching lives unfold and not just an event.
What are you hoping to see happen as the story moves forward?
Of course, I hope they find their way home and that they can heal from the tremendous amount of pain they’ve suffered. I don’t know if I can hope for anything other than Death to ride, it sounds like that is written so it shall be done. I just hope they all find peace. I love a happy ending (whether there can be a complete one with Death is doubtful.)
Which scene has lingered with you the most? Why?
The 2nd rape/abuse scene at the campsite was horrible and not something I will soon leave behind. It was much more impactful than the 1st (though the act itself is so vile) because I had grown to love them. I read it through tears, with an upset stomach. The visceral reaction I had was surprising…actually, I was absolutely sure the abuse wouldn’t happen. Absolutely sure! And then it did, written so descriptively it was REAL, and I barely kept from throwing up in horror. I still can’t move on.
Does the story remind you of any other books/movies?
There’s nothing like this.
Did you disagree with any of the characters decisions and why?
I think the disagreement was in the complete breakdown in human kindness and civility, like “how can they do that???” But I know, I know. It’s a mirror of what we can become and an invitation to become something more of what we were created to be.
Did you get any message / positive inspiration from the story?
The invitation I mentioned previously, and the quote, “May we show our thankfulness through kindness and appreciate our blessings through generosity,” has become the subject in a series I am teaching in our faith community and has been quoted often in my life. We should all aim so high.
If you could ask the author anything about the book, what would it be?
How does it end???? And How COULD you DO THAT to HER???????????
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Chad Slabach is a friend I’ve known for twenty+ years. If you are a long time follower of my blog, he was the inspiration for The Burning Question series. He is the leader of a non-denominational faith community based in south-central PA as well an as avid music fan and writer. You can find Chad on his WordPress Blog The Bridge Faith Community.
I’d like to Thank Chad immensely, not only for his enthusiastic support, but for taking time out of his busy schedule to read and review The Mercy Series AND to provide his insights in this Reverse View 🙂
~Morgan~
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Amazing Original Artwork by the following Exceptionally Talented Artists:
Telyuka
Lee Jun at DeviantArt.com
01 Wednesday Jul 2020
Posted in Authors Books Reviews & Interviews
Tags
Author Interviews, BnV, Book Review, Book Review Blogs, Book Reviewers, BooknVolume, Books, Readers, Reading, What to Read, ~Morgan~
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Book reviews are a marvelous thing. For an author, each one is the Holy Grail; an invaluable treasure we are ever searching to acquire. Yet, I have found very often after reading a review that I want to know more. Whether the review is for one of my own books or a tale I want to learn more about, I am always left wondering what else the reader thought.
Limited in most cases to under 300 words, reviewers typically choose and use their lexicon wisely, but how do you adequately summarize a daring adventure, sweeping romance, or beguiling mystery of over 100K words with so few?
Being a creative problem solver, I have thought about this repeatedly, wondering how to free the reviewer of the constraints of social media attention spans and give them the opportunity to pontificate pleasingly and profusely.
Here enters the Reverse ‘View. Note the apostrophe, please. It’s placement is intentional. Not only does this title indicate what you are about to see or read is not what you might anticipate, but it denotes, in this case, the omission of the letters INTER.
How often have you read an author interview? Come on now, be honest; how often have you actually read the entire thing? I confess, I’m as guilty as most, but what if I interviewed YOU? We do it all the time. We ask each other what we thought about the movie we saw over the weekend, how the restaurant we went to compared to others; we even ask each other about books we’ve read.
We interview each other. So why not interview READERS about the books they’ve read? This is what you want to know…not what the author wants to tell you to make you buy it, but what the reader thought. Was it good or an epic failure? Did you read it all in one weekend because you couldn’t put it down? Why? What made it so good?
Now, imagine if YOU could read the reader’s interview and then ask them whatever it is YOU want to know. It a nifty notion, not? (Ok, I love alliterations, but ‘lest I digress..) Enter the Reverse ‘View. An interview of a reader. An interactive interview! Interested? (sorry, it was right there!)
Before I lose you…In the coming weeks (and months, depending on how much YOU like them) I will be posting a series of Reverse ‘Views. Interviewing readers about books you may or may not have ever heard of… and giving YOU the opportunity to ask them questions too (in the comments, of course!)
I hope you will enjoy them. I hope you will join them. And, of course, ultimately, I hope you will read them 🙂
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~Morgan~
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Beautiful photograph found on Pinterest. Credit Gratefully Acknowledged to the Original Photographer and Artist. Thank You.
27 Saturday Jun 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tags
#COVID19, Beautiful Photographs, BnV, BooknVolume, Centering the Spirit, Daily Meditations, Harmony, Inspiration, poetry, spirituality, ~Morgan~
Delicate Thread
Of All my Understanding
Touching my Soul in this Dimness,
Speak to me in Whispers
Loud enough to Hear
Yet Gentle enough
That my Fragile, fearful heart
Does not Take Flight.
Delicate Thread
Of All my Comprehension
Leading me Onward Into the Breaking Morn,
Cast Your Light onto
My clouded Path
So my weak and straining Perception
May Ever See
Delicate Thread
Of All my Boundless Joy
Transforming In this Bleak and Tainted Place,
Shine From me into the World
So others may See
And Know this All Encompassing Pleasure
For Themselves.
~Morgan~
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Beautiful original Artwork by: valeriemonthuit at Deviantart.com
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