Archive for the ‘Untreed Reads’ Category

I have had the privilege of reading three of the Zagzagel Diaries by Bryl R. Tyne.
All of the stories are exceptional writing. I loved the way the author pulls you into the stories with all the emotions they are conveying in print. I felt like a voyeur in the corner watching these stories unfold and each character taken life. All three books Denial, Desperate, and Forsaken are excellent reads and are not dependent with one another if you’d rather not read all three. My only wish is that they were longer because I always want more so I hope Bryl R. Tyne will keep writing stories in this same vein. What a wonderful setting this author has brought to us to experience.

Cinderella

Denial: The guardian angel Zagzagel returns to save another of his charges, this time a young woman selling herself on the streets instead of saving herself for love. This is Book 2 of The Zagzagel Diaries series.

Desperate: Coming to terms with who you are can sometimes make you take desperate measures. The angel Zagzagel returns in this third entry to the series to help his charge choose love over murder.

Forsaken: An unconventional guardian angel attempts to keep his gay charge from committing suicide, while wrestling with his own personal issues. This is the first in the Zagzagel Diaries series.

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Wonderful book. Such unique twist and turns, you will not be disappointed in this short story.   Ms. Sims is an exceptional author and delivers a story that will have you thinking twice about the person next to you on the street or the next stranger you are having a conversation with, and if these people you run into daily are sane or insane.

Cinderella

Book Description: Tormented as a young boy, a man decides to settle the score and devises an intricate plan to get back at the one person who truly wronged him.

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At the Diner is only 6 pages, but in those few pages Neil Plakcy shows us two men, father and son, estranged and, without saying anything, trying to find their way back to a relationship.  Told from the son’s—Jerry—point of view I was immediately connected with what he was feeling.  Not only had he lost his mother but his father as well… a father whom he felt he could never satisfy.

My heart went to him totally and I mourned even as he couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

But as the story progresses we see that, by small degrees, Phil is trying to mend the rift between them.  Even seeing through Jerry’s eyes I still got a real feel for his father but, not being invested emotionally the way that Jerry was, I could understand that in his own mostly non-verbal way Phil was trying.

Now this is a story that, even as short as it is, holds a solid wallop that I felt for quite some time. In fact I’ve re-read Neil’s short At the Diner a few times in the time I’ve had it… and I believe that I will continue to do so.

It’s about a journey that most of us have either undertaken or at least understand and tied to family it has the potential to really affect the reader. Beautifully done Mr. Plakcy; it’s no wonder you’re one of my favorite authors.

Kathy K.

Book Description:  “At the Diner” is the story of a young man trying to deal with the relationship he has with his estranged father. Unable to communicate with one another, they start to forge a new bond over meals at the diner where the narrator works. The question becomes: can a mutual love of food overcome a father/son dynamic that’s so badly damaged?

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A really, really short story, Flying Solo is 7 pages long and yet I was left reeling and all in a good way. When, in the description, it says that you’ll never look at stories about fairies the same way they hit the nail on the head!

Flying Solo isn’t a story that’s going to change your world, other than to send you off into giggles, but it is going to provide a brief respite from the day-to-day.

And for me it’s given me yet another author that I’m very interested in reading more from.

Just the whole idea of a hairy-legged Fairy named Larry is enough to let you know just how serious to take the story, but what cements the appeal is the mind behind the hairy legs. Oh my, never get on Larry’s wrong side is the lesson I take from this tale. And this is also what has me very curious about Mr. McMahan’s other writing… what a treat.

Kathy K.

Book Description: In “Flying Solo,” Larry the hairy-legged Fairy gets called up on the carpet by the Queen’s representative, Rupert the Low. A meeting of the two minds at a local Bug Bar, however, is about to change the situation. You’ll never look at stories about Fairies the same way again!

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I am not sure how Casey Dyson did it but this story was so poignant. It is only four pages but the content the author has made available will blow your mind. It is an excellent read, delving right into the lives of the characters. I loved it.  If you want a quick read at lunch pick this up it will get you thinking.

Cinderella

Book Description: Sometimes what isn’t said between two people is louder than what is.

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Untreed Reads or 1 Place for Romance

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Ugly Naked People offers a brief glimpse in the troubled relationship of its main characters.  Rave – accepting of others, herself as a lesbian and her love for a woman, Astrid, was fully developed even in these too brief pages.  Astrid – embarrassed by public displays of affection from her lover, hiding her relationship from her mother is unaware of her own self loathing. She captivated me.  I wanted to know how these two opposites came together.  I wanted to know what event occurred which causes Astrid to spiral down the self destructive path of not eating.  For me the best stories either wrap everything up into a neat package or are those that leave me wanting more.  After reading Ugly Naked People I wanted more.  In this case, that’s a good thing!

Justine

Book Description: Rave is concerned about her girlfriend Astrid’s rapidly declining weight and health. As Astrid’s eating disorder begins to take its toll on the couple’s relationship, Rave hopes that a dramatic move on her part will save both Astrid and the future they could have together.

We hope that people enjoy reading the work, but also take a bit of hope to those who may be suffering under similar circumstances.

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Continuum is a well-crafted read. Mr. Seaton’s gift for weaving subtext and themes is evident. I found his humor terrific. It was sparingly used so its impact was maximized. Like the narrator, I’ve been with the same man for almost three decades and many of Mr. Seaton’s observations rang so true I thought at times he was writing about me.

I liked Mr. Seaton’s story but it would have benefited from a few more trips across an editor’s desk. I was pulled out of the story again and again due to confusion caused by multiple punctuation errors . After a point, fortunately, I was able to simply ignore the errors entirely and for the most part, just get on with reading the book.

In the end, Continuum was well worth the read.

Eve Pelco

Book Description: It’s been often said that to know where you’re going you have to know where you’ve been. Such is the premise of our latest release in our Diversity short story line, entitled “Continuum” by George Seaton.

In this story a gay man, looking back at the evolution of his relationship from the onset of AIDS in the 1980’s to the present, discovers that love and time both have their own continuity. With a longing for the carefree days gone by, the narrator grows to accept the time he now finds himself in. Part historical, part romance and mostly literary, we think everyone will find something to relate to here regardless of their sexual orientation.

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If short horror stories are your cup of tea, Comedy And Tragedy will eat you up. Er, you’ll eat Comedy And Tragedy up. Mr. Calkins-Treworgy has crafted a tight, divine piece of terror. I found the main character, a spindly boy named Jake, to be wise and compassionate beyond his years. That’s no easy feat. The author showed a deft hand in keeping the boy fully grounded in his tween years, and gave him intelligence and maturity that didn’t wander into adult-in-kid’s-body land.

This is the second book in a series but stands well on its own. The narrative moves from viewpoint to viewpoint so smoothly it contributed beautifully to the layering of suspense as the story progressed. The principal villain also has layers. He’s never wholly good or bad and, for me, that made him authentic.

A word of warning. There’s graphic violence in the book, perpetrated against children. Despite the fact it makes me sound ghoulish, the violence worked for me because we’re led into the terror slowly and gently. I’d invite Mr. Calkins-Treworgy to take my hand again and lead me down another road in Amelia anytime.

Eve Pelco

Book Description: It’s time to take another horrifying trip through the streets of Amelia. In this outing, Jake and Emily are pressured by a bully and his friends to spend one hour in Amelia’s abandoned theater. With the discovery of two unusual masks inside, Jake and Emily are about to show their abusers who the real victims are. This is Book 2 in the Roads Through Amelia short story series.

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It took me a bit to get into this book. I find it can be difficult to read non-fiction on the computer screen. The layout of this book was not very conducive to that. There wasn’t very much white space, and there were not any boxes or tips to break up the blocks of text.

However after jumping in, I found some very useful tips. This book talks about how to straighten up your life and how to manage your time, so that you can have a Life Worth Living. I agreed with one of the themes in this book, about knowing that your life is your own, and it is up to you to make the changes you need to have a worthwhile life – and that sometimes in order to change, you need to ask for help. I understood the complexity they were trying to get across in regards to how you need to make tough decisions about your life. Sometimes this involves cutting activities from your life that you enjoy, in order to devote time to areas that are more important.

There were a few things that made me realize how I could improve my day to day living by making it more efficient. Things like layout out or starting the days meals the night before; putting a clock in the bathroom (I know I never realize how much time has gone past while I am in there doing hair and makeup); remember that just because the phone rings, it doesn’t mean you have to answer it (I love this one, and is one we already use); and for families, create set bathroom times so that there is no fighting in the morning.

There were also some tips that I didn’t find very practical, in fact I felt like I was being talked down to. I felt like this book was catering to a different social class, one that I don’t belong to. I don’t have a staff that needs to be culled.

Ultimately I’m not sure I would recommend this book. I feel that there are others on the market already that deal with this and it is something that could be easily borrowed from the library.

Nixie

Book Description: Is your life in overdrive? Are the times when you feel a sense of satisfaction at the end of each day getting more rare? Are you simply running out of time? You can make simple changes to break the cycle of running frantically just to fall behind. The trick is to make a concerted effort to do less by simplifying and reducing the complexity in your life. A LIFE WORTH LIVING will show you how.

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This was a very bizarre piece of fiction. It felt more like I was reading a long blurb then I was a story. This piece could definitely have used some expansion. It felt like the author tried to write an entire novel in four pages.

The story is of a not-so-good-looking man who sees an ugly woman eat a banana at a cafe. This leads to an intense summer of learning how to eat fruit in sensual ways. Unfortunately, it left me dissatisfied.

Nixie

Book Description: When Jacob meets an unknown woman in a cafe, he begins a series of sensual encounters, the like of which he has never experienced before. During that summer, he learns many things but, when autumn comes, will he have learned enough to stay with her?

Read an Excerpt

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