Month: May 2023

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Soul Mates and Life Partners by D. G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Published on by dgkaye39 Comments

Welcome back to my most recent article I shared for Sally Cronin’s Blog Magazine in my Spiritual Awareness series. In this article, I’m talking about the difference between Soul Mates and Life Partners.

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spiritual awareness

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Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

You can find part fifteen of the series: Timing of people and events in our lives

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Welcome back to my spiritual awareness series. As I recently had a session with a Medium who channels spirit and angels, I thought I’d write about the difference between soul mates and life partners.

Soul Mates and Life Partners – What’s the Difference?

I thought I had two soul mates. One is my BFF, Zan, in the UK, and I thought the other is/was my husband. But I was informed differently after a session with the Medium who channeled my husband. She clarified to me the difference between a soul mate and a life partner. They are similar, both having soul connection, except soul mates are also on the same wavelength, whereas life partners don’t necessarily have to have that mind connection, it’s more about the heart connection.

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What is a Soul mate?

A soul mate brings us lessons to learn and enters our lives to enrich us and guide us into opening up a new chapter in our lives. Some soul mates may disappear from our lives once the lessons have been delivered, and some may show up again at other times in our lives. Other soul mates will remain in our lives – if we are lucky enough to find one. Soul mates recognize each other instantly by experiencing a feeling of familiarity upon first meeting, the energies attract, yet, this doesn’t necessarily mean our soul mate is a love attraction.

We recognize a soul mate when we feel we can bear our souls openly without judgements and be completely free with that person about who we are inside and out. This is a mutual understanding between both souls. Again, a soul mate can definitely be our spouse, but this isn’t always the norm. There are romantic and platonic soul mates. Generally speaking, a soul mate is someone we mesh beautifully with in thinking, values, likes, and they come into our lives to teach us something. But for many, a soul mate is much more. For instance, we often can feel or ‘know’ what they’re thinking, and sometimes even what they are up to without speaking. We will often find the ability to finish each other’s sentences. Soul mates help us, and often our hearts, evolve and help to improve and enrich our lives by helping to transform us and elevate our lives.

A soul connection with someone feels as though we connected on a same soul level. A soul mate is someone we feel a deep, natural affinity with, someone our soul recognizes and resonates with spiritually. Usually, there is a common bond which has brought the two souls together. This can be in friendships or relationships of the heart. When we find this person, we just know. It’s a special bond that makes us feel as though we’ve known that person in another life. Sometimes soul mates in our life come into our lives because we’ve made a pre-destined pact in a past life to be together in this life, in various capacities.

What are the Elements of a Soul Mate?

Often this person will give us the feeling we’ve met before in another life, and often that is the case. That feeling of deja vu we experience with them is often just that, a feeling you’ve been together before doing something just like in the moment you experience the feeling. Many soul mates together in another life choose to come back to same soul mates, so that is where the ‘familiarity’ can come from. Soul mates often have a mental connection similar to that of twins.

With my best friend Zan, we’ve been through thick and thin and in between for just over forty years. We are completely on the same wavelength of most everything in our lives and have led parallel lives with situations and events similar in both our lives, including our dysfunctional childhoods and mothers. We can finish each other’s sentences and communicate even without words. We’ve also phoned each other so many times at the same moment.

I met Zan when I first moved away from home. I was green! I knew nothing about the world or relationships. I began living when I moved away from home and Zan became my best friend, but more than that – she was a teacher, a mother, a mentor, and sister to me. Twenty-five years ago, she moved to the UK after she met her now husband who came here on a business trip and happened to visit a popular after work drinking hole that Zan happened to be at with a friend. And only months after, packed up her life and went to the UK. She had finally found her life partner. But no distance could keep us apart because we are soul mates. She comes to visit every year, and phone and video chats (in recent years) have enabled us to continue our friendship as though no miles are between us. A soul mate shows up in our life when we are in need of learning new life lessons, and my BFF showed up at the most needed time in my life, even if I was unaware at the time after leaving home and beginning my solo life.

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Life Partners

A life partner is someone we form a love and life relationship with. Our life partner is different than the average marriage or living together. It’s a unique relationship with someone we spend much of our time with and we form a special bond with. A life partner is the one meant for us to fulfill our lives with and who is always dependable, nurturing, caring, loving, trustworthy, and always listens to what we have to say, without judgement. . .Please read the conclusion at Sally’s Smorgasbord

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©DGKaye2023

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Soul Mates and Life Partners by D. G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – The Widow by Valerie Keogh #psycho-thriller

Published on by dgkaye55 Comments

My Sunday Book Review for another psychological thriller about a widow – The Widow by Valerie Keogh. This isn’t a sad widow story, rather a twisted tale about secrets of the past, nasty characters, and a plot that will keep you turning the pages to find out what exactly Allison has done in her younger life to spur on her desire to keep a low profile. But nobody can hide from their past, because there will always be someone who knew you back then – even if you think there isn’t.

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Blurb:

‘Keogh is the queen of compelling narratives and twisty plots’ Jenny O’Brien

The brilliant new psychological thriller from bestseller Valerie Keogh.

‘A wonderful book, I can’t rate this one highly enough. If only there were ten stars, it’s that good. Valerie Keogh is a master story-teller, and this is a masterful performance.’ Bestselling author Anita Waller.

Grieving or guilty?

When Allison’s wealthy and charming husband Peter is found dead, she appears distraught, devastated….delighted?

Because despite an apparently picture-perfect marriage, Allison knows it was all built on a bed of lies.

And as the truth regarding Peter’s life and death are revealed, Allison must try to keep her own dark past buried.

Because if Peter was keeping secrets, then his widow is too…

Don’t miss the brand new thriller by Valerie Keogh! Perfect for fans of Sue Watson, Shalini Boland and K.L. Slater.

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My Five Star Review:

This book kept me turning the pages. When we first meet Allison we’re given a snippet of an unhappy and emotionally neglected childhood with snippets of Allison’s petty jealousies in school about another girl in her class who seemed to be shown such affection from her adopted mother, stirring Allison’s jealousies and leaving her wondering if ‘her own parents were to die’, would she be lucky to get a doting adopted mother. Every time Allison heard the word ‘family’, it brought a chill to her.

Swiftly the plot moves to present where we learn of Allison’s whirlwind romance with lawyer, Peter who she’d met at a party, and a marriage two months later. We the readers are both happy that this seemingly lonely girl who had a hard life has found happiness and a cushy life, but has she? But sprinkled throughout the story are snippets not brought to light into more detail until almost halfway through the book, keeping us turning the pages as we try to discover who Allison really is. Is she a sweet girl who had some hard knocks and is finally getting her dream life or was there a reason Allison chose to accept Peter’s proposal when her rumblings of past inform us she wasn’t completely happy?

Lots of action and plot twists kept me excited for every new chapter. Allison is stalked on social media by Jo, only Allison isn’t aware Jo has been following her for some time, and then ultimately connects with her and agrees to meet Jo for lunch in London. This is when the thriller in this book heats up. Jo has revenge on her mind for something Allison has done to her in the past and now she’s sneaking into Allison’s life without Allison realizing who Jo is. But it didn’t take now, bereaved Allison long to figure out that Jo is a menace and potentially dangerous.

On the same night after the two women had lunch, Allison gets ready for her dinner date with her husband Peter to celebrate their three month anniversary, only to feel stood up then ultimately shocked when the police show up to tell her Peter has fallen into the subway tracks.

In this psychological thriller, Allison’s planned perfect life begins to unravel after meeting Jo, and Peter’s sudden death. In the first half of book we are privy only to incoherent pieces of Allison’s younger life, through her flashback thoughts. She remembers a fire, then kids in school calling her monster. How can that be when Allison comes off as a protagonist our heart goes out to? And we learn that Jo is a psycho who has been stalking Allison for some time now to exact some sort of revenge on her for the past.

As Allison’s real life nightmare is happening all at once, the hits keep coming as she learns from Peter’s attorney that nothing is what it seemed – Peter isn’t who he said he was and Allison’s new planned out life of leisure with a big house and enough money to leave her set for life are shattered by reality. Peter’s personna was a sham. And it turns out her other newfound friend, Portia who has been coddling Allison during her grieving, has ulterior motives for befriending Allison too.

The story keeps heating up as the diabolical shenanigans progress – especially when Portia decides to hold Allison captive and the only one who knows where she is, is Jo. Can Allison’s nemesis Jo be the one who actually saves her?

A diabolical tale and a wicked read with secrets held and ultimately revealed as the plot twists keep coming and keep us guessing right up until the end.

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©DGKaye2023

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ive Star Review:

My Five Star Review:

My ve Star RevieMy Five Star Review:This book kept me turning the pages. When we first meet Allison we’re given a snippet of an unhappy and emotionally neglected childhood with snippets of Allison’s petty jealousies in school about another girl in her class who seemed to be shown such affection from her adopted mother, stirring Allison’s jealousies and leaving her wondering if ‘her own parents were to die’, would she be lucky to get a doting adopted mother. Every time Allison heard the word ‘family’, it brought a chill to her.

Florence Arno River

In The Know – When the world answered – 1966 Great Flood in Florence, Italy and Women in the Artworld

Published on by dgkaye68 Comments

I was a very young child in 1966 and knew nothing about the world, let alone that Florence, Italy had one of the worst floods in modern history. The Arno River flooded after long periods of rain, and burst LaPenna and Levane dams, leaving in its wake, over 600 thousand tons of mud, and killing dozens of people. The flood over three meters high, drowned homes, businesses, people, and over 14,000 pieces of precious art from centuries ago taken down in its wake as water quickly engulfed the Ponte Vecchio and swept through, sending damaging floods some 200 miles north to Venice. There was barely any warning of these floods coming, leaving no time to remove artwork. Restorations are still being made.

This event came to my attention when I came across and watched a documentary on PBS called, When the World Answered. As Italy is probably my most favorite country in the whole world, I’ve always wanted to go back to Florence to visit art and museums because, quite frankly, I was definitely too young to fully appreciate it all the first time I’d toured European museums. Going back to Florence is a definite on my bucketlist!

Amid the aftermath of the event, a woman art historian from Pisa, named Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, got on a bus, headed to Florence, and joined a group of both local volunteers and young people visiting from abroad, named angeli del fango – translating to, the mud angels who were young men and women from around the globe who banded together to help salvage what they could of some of the world’s most treasured art and artifacts. Much of the art that was saved was thick with mud and oil. The floods also ruptured the heating tanks in buildings, causing oil to spew and mix with the muddy waters. Piacenti and a professor from the Uffizi Gallery met up, and along with other art officionados, organized opening new chemical labs to treat the ruinations and residues on marbled artifacts to help restore. Donations poured in from around the world to help restore the art of Florence. Because of all the new developments that came from the restoration efforts, Italy is now known for its excellence in art conservation.

Besides the aid of the mud angels, there were also the flood ladies. After the flood, Florence put out a call to the world for new art donations to open a ‘Modern Uffizi Gallery’ and among the many, 32 international women artists donated artwork to Florence to replace the damaged art in many museums. Some of these women were already famous artists, but many were not yet, then. This restoration project was sponsored by the AWA – Advancing Women Artists Foundation.

Amazing efforts have and still are ongoing to restore artwork from the Arno Florence flood, and one of the most treasured pieces of art – The Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari that was kept in storage for forty years, was finally restored in 2016 after fifty years, from being severely damaged after submerged in water at the Basilica di Santa Croce, and is considered the last important piece of ‘injured’ art to go back on display.

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More about the ladies who helped Florence:

More about Mud Angels

The Flood Ladies

©DGKaye2023

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Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Published on by dgkaye51 Comments

My Sunday Book Review for one of my favorite reads on vacation – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by one of my new favorite authors, Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is a wonderfully written book full of revealing truths, compassion, survival, glamor and heartbreak where Evelyn tells her lifestory of her rise to fame in the 1950s thru 80s Hollywood.

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Blurb:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“If you’re looking for a book to take on holiday this summer, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo has got all the glitz and glamour to make it a perfect beach read.” —Bustle

From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six—an entrancing and “wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet” (PopSugar) as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

“Heartbreaking, yet beautiful” (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is “Tinseltown drama at its finest” (Redbook): a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth.

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My 5 Star Review:

This book was not on my reading list, but a friend gave it to me at the pool while on vacation, and I was addicted. This book was an addictive, fictional story that read as juicy as though reading a biopic on any famous actress of the golden era. Iconic actress, Evelyn Hugo, begins telling her story of her meager beginnings as an immigrant child from Cuba who lived in Hell’s Kitchen New York as a child with an abusive father and her loving mother who died when Evelyn was a young child. Her mother’s dream was to make it to Hollywood, but she never did, so beautiful and cunning Evelyn vowed that she would get there for her mother.

The book begins by Evelyn handpicking journalist Monique (for reasons we will find out at the end of the book) to write her autobiography. Monique was a young journalist writing for Vivante magazine and jumped at the chance to have the only rights to writing about Evelyn’s life. Monique is told that she may publish it after Evelyn dies – which would be soon after Evelyn tells her story in detail, complete with raw honesty, truths, pain, and her ambitions, which made her become the most iconic movie star of her time. We will learn why she had seven husbands – each of them methodically chosen to both, advance her career, and to protect secrets.

Evelyn’s first husband was a handsome, but not so intelligent young man who lived above her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. Ernie Diaz was going to Hollywood to become a grip on set, so Evelyn, aged 15, befriended and feigned her love for him so she could marry him to get away from her father – and a ride to Hollywood. Evelyn was sexy and smart and learned quickly which lunchbars the studio execs liked to hang out at in hopes of getting discovered. She was eventually discovered by producer Harry Cameron who got her some small roles, and incidentally, eventually became her best friend in life. Evelyn knew that to get the bigger roles she’d have to sleep her way to the top and had no qualms doing so.

In this story, we get to see the other side of Hollywood, what goes on in the backgrounds with producers and top execs calling the shots, fixing up dates with rising stars with big stars to be seen in public to attract buzz, the chauvenism and crap female actresses had to put up with, from leading men and execs. After Evelyn does her first big movie with leading man Don Adler, sparks fly between them, and suddenly, Evelyn is marrying Don, a man she thought she loved until she saw his dark side, but nevertheless, her marriage to him was a huge rung in her ladder to success. Don tries to ruin her career when she leaves him, which has producer friend Harry getting her new roles with a friend at another studio.

In the meantime, Evelyn befriends famous actress, Celia St. James, and it is that relationship that will become the utmost important in Evelyn’s life as she reveals that Celia became the love of her life, introducing secret bi-sexuality topic that was a forbidden thing back in the Hollywood 1950s. To detract the papparazi always on their trail, Evelyn comes up with a plan to marry hearthrob singer Mick Riva, formulating the plan with Celia that she’d make him fall for Evelyn, suggest going to Vegas, getting drunk and married and shortly annulled. Throughout the shenanigans of having to sleep with husbands and other men, Celia, a confirmed lesbian, was often jealous and broke it off with Evelyn several times. Evelyn begins doing movies with sex for French producer Max, and Celia can’t get passed that. Eventually, Evelyn gets a new role as Anna Karenina, playing with hot actor Rex North, who Evelyn marries to further her career. Meanwhile, Ev hears Celia married famous football quarterback John, and when Evelyn and Celia reconnect, they discover the perfect storm.

Evelyn and producer/best friend Harry Cameron formulate a plan to keep the press out of their personal lives and their choice of partners. Harry was in love with John and they’d quietly been together for a long time. Harry and Evelyn decide to marry so she could live with Celia and Harry with John without causing attention to the media. And Harry and Celia decide to have a child together because they both wanted a child – another thing Celia had to digest. The storyline is a clever one and depicts the times well, as in the early 60s, being gay was not even an option to admit to publicly. But once again, paradise is ruined when Celia can’t get past Evelyn’s sex scenes in a new movie produced by Max – starring her ex-husband Don Adler.

After many good years together, tragedy strikes Celia’s husband, and then Evelyn’s husband Harry who is heartbroken and ruined after John’s demise. Since Celia has once again left Evelyn, Ev caves to the advances of old friend producer Max and marries him. As Max’s love in reality was just star struck with Evelyn, she once again leaves him and makes her way back to Celia. They decide to leave the Hollywood world and move to Spain, and once again, to divert attention on them, Celia asks Evelyn if she’ll marry her playboy brother Robert, so the three of them can live happily ever after. But it wasn’t always happiness as Evelyn’s daughter Connor grew up struggling with the crazy Hollywood lifestyle, and Celia develops a serious illness. While married to Robert, Celia and Evelyn decide they must marry, not legally, but to sew up their lifetime love and committment. Robert becomes a great friend to Ev and even a good father figure to Connor.

Evelyn reveals this both enthralling, yet often, heartbreaking story to Monique, admitting her flaws and downfalls, detailed with reasons for doing everything she did in her life with resolve, despite a few regrets, her climb to stardom and whatever it took to get her star to rise, and ultimately, her real desire for privacy because of the greatest love of her life, Celia.

The author has painted a complex picture of characters caught up in the Hollywood glamor and the Hollywood emotional instability and heartache of actors and marriages, and at a time where being gay meant having to hide it from the public. By the time I finished this book, I felt like Evelyn really was a big movie star from the Hollywood glamor era who led a fascinating life. This was one of those ‘hard to put down’ books.

©DGKaye2023

Writer's Tips

Writer’s Tips May Edition – Copyright Page, Italics, Web Content, Amazon, Canva

Published on by dgkaye56 Comments

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Welcome to May edition of my curated Writer’s Tips. This month I’m sharing some informative articles on, when to use Italics by author/editor, Anneli Purchase, how to create a proper Copyright page by Kindlepreneur, Dave Chesson, as well as info on reducing Amazon Download Fees, how to write Web content by Anne R. Allen, how to Translate Text into another Language in Canva by Natalie Ducey, Word Conversion with Harmony Kent.

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Author/Editor, Anneli Purchase on how and when to use Italics

https://annelisplace.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/italics-when-to-use-them/comment-page-1/#comment-9115

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Kindlepreneur – Dave Chesson on What Goes into a Book’s Copyright Page

Guide to Writing a Book Copyright Page [With 6 Templates]

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Dave Chesson shows us how to minimize KDP Download Fees when downloading our books

How to Reduce KDP Download Fees and Instantly Improve Your Royalties

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Anne R. Allen explains why it’s important for authors to learn how to write Web Content

How to Write for the Web: All Writers Need to be Web Content Providers Now

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Natalie Ducey has another helpful tutorial – How to Translate Text into other Languages using Canva

https://natalieducey.com/2023/03/27/how-to-translate-text-in-canva-into-over-100-languages/

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Harmony Kent at the Story Empire talking about writing conventions – American, British, English

https://storyempire.com/2023/04/26/homonyms-with-harmony-part-2-american-and-british-english-conventions/comment-page-1/#comment-171244

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©DGKaye2023

Vision perception - Memoirs

Writing Your Life – #Epistolary Writing, Forever Love

Published on by dgkaye77 Comments

Another month or so from now I plan on going back to working on my next book, a monumental task that I feel compelled to write about. I began writing this book about a year before my husband passed. I didn’t know then I was writing a book, but it turns out I was.

I began writing a conversational documentary on moments and conversations that would come up sporadically between me and my husband. I found some haunting, some humorous, but also, some that left me questioning. I kept adding to the conversations and thoughts almost nightly – late at nightly. I didn’t know why I felt compelled to write my questions and feelings about random things between us, I just did. I also didn’t know my husband was dying when I began writing these observations. Almost like a diary of poignant moments and thoughts. By the time my husband’s death was impending, I knew my reason for beginning these writings. I needed to talk about him, to him. I wanted to keep track of our poignant discussions. I needed to share his wit and wisdom. I needed to shine a light on a magnificent man and moments with him so that others could know him too. And most of all, although this is my life, this book will definitely be food for thought for those who will read it. My husband was funny, loving and wise – but mostly, remarkable.

The book I want to write is in a very rough draft of disarray of almost 100,000 words in dire need of revising. I honestly haven’t even began to look at the writing, I merely keep adding to the doc whenever an important memory pops up. I began with three different Word documents with these working titles – Observations and Conversations, Obituary, and Poetry. Not even looking at the pages yet as just thinking about, it gives me shivers to reread. I will have to print out the many pages and lay them on the floor as a mosaic, piecing things in order, to begin the rewriting, adding, substracting, and editing. I have many a working title listed, and hoping this will be my best book, and undeniably, the most difficult to write (with P.S. I Forgive You as a distant second as a heart-wrenching book to write) as I reread and rewrite, many times over. I also plan to write the book in epistolary writing style. See my featured article as guest writer at Wendy Van Camp’s blog, No Wasted Ink, on epistolary writing.

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Writing Our LIfe

When I began writing books, my husband was so proud of me. He used to ask me if I would write a book about him. I asked, what exactly would he like me to write about? I also told him I’m not a ghostwriter, I’m a memoir writer. We laughed. Well, I suppose the joke is on me because it appears that I am now that ghostwriter in the literal sense – writing about the life between me and my beautiful husband, now a ghostly spirit as I remain the one who holds the love for both of us – on this planet.

Below is an example of how I’d like to convey my stories in epistolary style. Using my husband’s asking me if I’d write a book about him as a sample of how I’d write it below:

You asked, “Cubby, will you write a book about me?” I chuckled and asked you, as my eyes caught that sweet boyish grin of yours, what exactly is it you want me to write about? As though there weren’t a thousand and one things I could write about you. You laughed and said you had lots of good and funny stories to share. And certainly you did. But I backed off, telling you I wasn’t a ghostwriter, and memoirs are personal stories belonging to the writer. Remember? I’m a memoir writer. But the universe gets the last laugh on that one. In my life, I never thought I’d ever be writing about grief stories. And especially -that all those stories would be featuring YOU.

Me, the person who would or could not ever for one moment, allow myself to even entertain the thought that I could possibly one day be left, living without you. I’d never let my brain entertain one second of a thought of a life without you, especially with my strong believe in manifestation about – you get what you focus on. And being without you was just something I would never let cross my mind. But here I am, writing about you, sharing both my joy and grief, and questions. So many questions.

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Below, you will find more in this article from Writer Mag on what epistolary writing is:

https://www.writermag.com/improve-your-writing/fiction/epistolary-novels/

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©DGKaye2023

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – The Lilac Notebook by Carol Balawyder

Published on by dgkaye53 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. I was very much looking forward to Carol Balawyder’s newest release – The Lilac Notebook, and Carol’s books never disappoint. Carol’s story is a delicious mixture of broken and dubious characters. This murder mystery encompasses much more than just murders, always left with a calling card – a post card of Vincent Van Gogh’s, Starry Night.

The author takes on the challenge of early onset Alzheimer’s, as her protagonist Holly is navigating through beginning stages of the horrible disease, and in the process, her incompassionate husband Roy, leaves her, although he agrees to take care of her financially (isn’t that charming?). And once Holly sets up her new life and apartment near McGill University in Montreal, she decides to take a poetry class there to keep her mind sharp. While there, she befriends Kim and Amelia, both victims of childhood abuse, but they’ve digested their horrors in different ways, and so both of them are affected different ways.

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Blurb:

Three university friends. One in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, another out for revenge and a third murdered.


Holly Baranov is in the beginning stages of fast advancing Alzheimer’s at 40. Unwilling to care for her, Holly’s husband leaves her. While frightened to be on her own, Holly is relieved to be freed from the clutches of a controlling husband.


She moves out of her large home in the middle-class west end section of Montreal and into a small apartment near McGill University where she enrols in a poetry course in the hopes of stimulating her brain.


There she meets Kim Harris, a thirty-something beautiful but damaged law student and Amelia Rose, a twenty-year-old pole dancer in a seedy nightclub who wants nothing more than to graduate, teach high school, marry and raise a family. Both Kim and Amelia were victims of incest, though each see her perpetrator differently. Kim chose law so as to right the justice she was denied while Amelia is angry at the justice system for separating her from a flawed father who was nonetheless her whole world.
When Amelia is found strangled in her apartment, Holly becomes involved in the investigation, both as prime suspect and as a means to defend herself.


Detective Alice Vireovich and her rookie partner, Detective Dan Cardoni, currently investigating the murders of two middle aged men, are also tasked with investigating Amelia’s murder: They come to believe all three murders may be linked because of a Van Gogh Starry Night postcard found at the scene of all three crimes.


Holly’s health worsens quickly. She is transferred to a support facility. Along with her fading memory, Holly is also losing her ability to speak and write. She is uncertain whether she killed Amelia as her friend Kim, ex-husband Roy and the police suspect.


A niece (whom Holly doesn’t recognize and whose motives she distrusts for suddenly wanting to help her) visits Holly regularly and reads Holly’s notes about Amelia’s investigation. This eventually leads the investigation away from her as they seem to implicate Kim.


Kim’s law teacher at McGill agrees to take on the case pro bono, motivated by her interest in litigating whether damaging effects of childhood abuse pose the question whether murder can ever be justified in such cases.


The expanding investigation leads to more findings relating to the postcard found next to Amelia’s body, bringing into view a surprising new suspect.

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My 5 Star Review:

Another page turner by Carol Balawyder. The book begins with our introduction to Holly’s life and marriage to Roy. He is a dominating husband who realizes he doesn’t want to take care of his wife when she is newly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, so he asked her for a divorce – charming he is not. Not completely heartless, Roy sets up Holly in a lovely apartment near McGill University. Holly enrolls in a poetry class in efforts to keep her mind intact. She also keeps her Lilac Notebook handy so she can write down things she wants to remember for that proverbial day her memory leaves her for good. But it turns out, Holly keeps more notes in that book than just things to remember in her daily life.

Holly meets two girls in poetry class, who ultimately, will unknowingly, bring Holly into a murder scenario . Kim is beautiful, in her thirties, law student, and damaged from the incestuous abuse of her childhood, and Amelia is a mere twenty years old who pays for her schooling through her pole dancing activities at a dance bar. Amelia has a father complex. Her father touched her in places a father shouldn’t ever, since she was a very young child, and Amelia took that as love and still misses her father after her mother threw him out a few years prior.

One day Holly calls on Amelia, and when she doesn’t answer, Holly discovers her dead body in her apartment when she tried the unlocked door. All we know at that point is that Kim drove Amelia home, and Amelia was supposed to be meeting an online date at a cafe after Kim dropped her off, and Holly’s husband Roy had previously been spotted with Amelia. Yet, there’s also a serial killer out there and one of his Van Gogh postcards was left behind at the murder scene. Could any of these characters be the killer?

With Holly’s inner confusion, she trains herself to make mental notes in her head and in her Lilac Notebook about her own investigation about facts she’d gathered about Amelia’s last moves, before those remembered moments get jumbled in her head. So while she still has her wits about her, Holly keeps notes of all she’s seen and her thoughts on possible suspects.

Holly found a phone number in Amelia’s coat pocket and discovers the meetup time at the cafe. Not yet telling anyone, including the police, Holly ventures out to the cafe to feign accidentally meeting the person who Amelia was to meet to see if she can detect foul play. But when someone decides to implicate Holly as the potential killer, her mixed up mind goes into tailspin when she begins doubting herself and her own memory as people ignorant about Alzheimer’s are whispering that Alzheimer’s patients can get violent. But why would Holly want to kill Amelia? Holly becomes the amateur sleuth in the case on her own until she herself becomes the suspect. Holly now with trouble speaking, although her mind seems clear on what she wants to say, keeps all her thoughts and investigations in that Lilac Notebook.

The story brings in murder, incest, abuse and Alzheimer’s and ties them in all together succinctly, giving us well researched information about the state of Holly’s mind. Balawyder demonstrates the human condition by sharing what goes on in Holly’s head, the lack of compassion from some people, and the sadness of Holly losing her independence through her horrible journey through the mind-stealing disease.

This book was hard to put down as suspects were mounting, and poor Holly who had enough to contend with in her own upside down world, besides the police on her case, because her finger prints were found in Amelia’s apartment, and someone is looking for a scapegoat to hide their crime. I had my idea about who the perp was, but the author knew how to throw in those curveballs that continued to have me change my mind, adding a great twist on a suspect as the killer is ultimately revealed.

The author has done an amazing job informing us with her research, about the dark path that Alzheimer’s takes on one’s life by incorporating the knowledge through Holly’s words, thoughts, and actions. At the same time, Balawyder has taken us on a nail-biting story of a murder among friends with some unscrupulous characters to keep us guessing till the end.

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©DGKaye2023

Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Timing by D. G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

Published on by dgkaye25 Comments

I’m over at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine with my latest Spiritual Awareness post – Timing. Timing is everything in what we do, where we go, who we meet.

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Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Timing by D. G. Kaye

Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.

You can find part fourteen of the series: Automatic Writing

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spiritual awareness

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Life is All About Timing

Welcome back to my Spiritual Awareness series. In this episode I’m talking about Timing and how significant it is to everything we do in life.

When life feels like it is at a standstill, the universe is giving us a pause. Like anything else we do in life like expending physical endurance, we need to take a minute to recover. The universe takes pauses too.

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The universe will take us to where we need to be when the timing is most appropriate and in the right moment of our life.  I’m a firm believer in divine timing.

The right timing is crucial for events to run smoothly. If you’re late for work, you may be in trouble. If you give up on something too early, you may miss a good opportunity. If you keep doing the same thing over in the same way with the same unwanted results, you are wasting your time. If you get to the concert early, you’ll get a good seat; if you’re late, you may be in the back row. I think you catch my drift here.

Just as the examples above state the importance and relevance to timing, divine timing in life is just how the universe works with time and how those timings affect different aspects of our lives. How many times have we heard stories about people missing their planes, getting stranded and meeting someone then who’d they never have got to meet had they caught their flight? The universe decides when it’s time for us to meet someone who is supposed to be in our lives. It makes the circumstances around our lives at a certain moment coincide with where we need to be at that right particular moment to meet someone who may eventually become our life partner, and it may potentially be saving our life in divine timing because it’s not our time yet to leave this earth. An example of this:

My husband, who loved to tell me stories, often repeated pertinent stories that held great significance in his life. He’d told me about a trip he’d taken with a few guys for a hockey tournament they were playing in, about thirty years ago. In those days, my husband was a naughty playboy who was always in for a few drinks. The three men were sitting in the bar waiting for their flight when their names were called and told the flight was overbooked and asked if one of them could wait for the next flight. My husband put up his hand and offered to hang out at the bar and wait for another hour for the next flight. The flight he missed crashed. No survivors. I can only imagine digesting that moment when your plan was changed and you find out if you hadn’t done that, your life was over. Divine timing was responsible for that one. No different than the people who were sick or late for work, or day off from work when their work was in the towers warred down in New York on 9/11.

Timing is akin with reasons and seasons, we meet people for reasons and sometimes only for seasons, and if we don’t allow the time to come to make what needs to happen, we’ll get something else than what was meant for us.

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Famous sayings with my thoughts attached:

There’s a time and a place for everything. Not everything is for now. If you make it so, it’s not going to be as beneficial as if the universe’s plans.

Time to call it a day. The end of the day, the mission, project, visit, etc., has ended.

Time is a healer. Is it? Time heals all wounds. Does it? The idea is that in time a physical wound will heal, an emotional wound will heal, but more like, soften. As the immediate sting dulls itself down, it is part of the healing.

Time to move on. We’ve over-extended our welcome. The project or relationship is finished.

Time is up. You must make that decision. You must stop what you’re doing now. The party is over.

Bad timing. When you meet someone in your life who could possibly be ‘the one’, but circumstances can’t allow it to happen.

Divine timing. Meant to be at that precise moment the universe makes something important, fun or good, happen.

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A prime example of the right timing meant for me in my own life – I was stuck in a bad relationship for seven years before I met my husband. The circles I traveled in were the exact same circles my husband traveled in during that time frame, yet we never crossed paths. . .please continue reading at Sally’s blog

Source: Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Timing by D. G. Kaye | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

©DGKaye2023