Announcing My New Audio Book – Let Me Be Frank

Congratulations to Don Massenzio on the release of his new audio book.

Author Don Massenzio

I am proud to announce that my book, Let me be Frank, has been released in audiobook format. This is the second book in the Frank Rozzani detective series.

Here is a synopsis:

A young girl is senselessly murdered. The police believe the murder to be a random homeless casualty until it is discovered she has ties to Fat Sam and his mysterious past life in the Big Easy. 

Join Private Detective Frank Rozzani and Clifford “Jonesy” Jones as they travel to historic New Orleans and other areas in the Gulf Coast to search for clues in the girl’s trek to Jacksonville, Florida, that will help them uncover evidence implicating those responsible for the murder so they can be brought to justice. They soon discover that things are not as they seem. 

As the case progresses, the evidence uncovered has ties to the tragic events that drove Frank from…

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Chess Anyone?

“Nanny”  said my 6 year old grandson Ethan, “Can we have a game of Chess?”

I’m always up for a Chess game.  Dad started to teach me Chess when I was about 5 or 6, and I still use the same board and pieces that we used back in the 1960s and early 1970s. Dad never let me win, although I suffered (and so did he I expect) many meltdowns as a result.  Mum would implore him to let me win, but he always stood firm and replied that letting me win would do me no good at all.   Okay I never beat Dad, but when I was 12 I did beat my uncle.  I felt like dancing around the room, and so did Dad!

I taught my two boys to play, which helped Leon no end with his concentration.  I never let them win either, and by the time they were teenagers they took great delight in beating me fair and square at the odd game or five.

Marc has now started to teach Ethan.  So on Sunday when they came to lunch Ethan and I sat down at the Chessboard and started to play.  My daughter-in-law hovered by my right shoulder, expecting me to let Ethan win.  However, I had no intention of doing so, as I realised my dad had been right.  Letting Ethan win would do him no good at all.

The meltdown came when he was left with three pawns and a king.  He stomped off and announced he was not going to play anymore.  Memories came flooding back of myself doing exactly the same thing and Dad quietly packing up the Chess pieces and putting them back in the box.

I picked up the Chess pieces and put them back in the box.   What goes around comes around!

Would you let your six year old win, or do you think that letting them win would do them no good at all?

 

The Bloggers Bash Blog Competition Entry

Tags

#bloggersbash

Here is my entry below for the Bloggers Bash Blog Competition, which you can read about here.

Five Felix Street, by Stevie Turner (copyright Stevie Turner 2019)

The door was olive green, and the brass knocker and doorstep always shone. My grandparents had brought up three children whilst living in 3 small rooms at 5, Felix Street, Bethnal Green, London East 2.

All the houses in Felix Street would eventually fall to the ‘new broom’ of slum clearance sweeping through the East End in the late 1960s, but to my 8-year-old self the house had warmth and character.

On the top floor of number 5 lived Nan and Grandad in their tiny flat. Downstairs on the first floor was Nan’s sister Lou and her husband, and another sister, Mary, and her husband lived on the ground floor. The sisters and their husbands, now minus their grown offspring, all shared an outside lavatory and wash house in the small back yard.

The front door was always open. The ground floor hallway, dark and odoriferous with cabbage, still had its Victorian gas mantles. I would hurry along past Mary’s three rooms and the yard to the stairs going up to Nan and Grandad’s flat. None of the three flats had any front doors, and the sisters walked in and out of each other’s rooms just as they pleased.

Next door at number 6 lived the sisters’ cousins. Nan could lean out of her kitchen window and carry on a conversation with Cousin Pam opposite. They shared a washing line strung between the two houses, and I soon learned to peg out each item of clothing and pull the line along on its runner. More sisters lived within a stone’s throw of number 5.

When it rained, the roof leaked. However, Nan took it all in her stride and placed saucepans in appropriate positions. She had her family around her, and that’s all she needed.

One by one the husbands died, and then the sisters. The cousins were re-housed, and Nan was the only one left at number 5. She was eventually given a brand new place with an inside lavatory and all mod-cons. Ensconced in her newly decorated flat, she sat on the settee and cried as though her heart would break.

 

 

Open Book Blog Hop – 11th March

This week the topic is:

‘When you are daydreaming, what do you dream about?’

I do the majority of my daydreaming when I’m walking about the village or at work typing clinic letters.  I know I shouldn’t, but I can listen to the dictation, type and daydream at the same time (don’t worry – I always read each letter through before I submit it!).  I tend to think about subjects for blogs or plots for books, or I have been known to think up the first few lines of a poem.  Now we have a new system starting today where I don’t even have to input anything – all I have to do is check what’s been automatically typed!

At other times I’ll be typing or walking about and singing a song to myself or classical music will be running through my brain.  I typed a 2 minute dictation on Thursday whilst singing Curtis Mayfield’s ‘Move on Up’, as I’d watched ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ the night before on TV.  I can’t actually sing it because the voice doesn’t go that high, but I can reach that top note in my head.

As you can probably tell, I’ve been doing my job for so long that I don’t really have to think about it. However, I cannot do what one of my old consultants could manage … he could take part in and listen to three different conversations all at the same time!

What do other blog-hoppers daydream about?  Click on the blue button below to find out.  You can even add your own blog to the link!

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Reflecting on My Early Work – a third short story

An entertaining story from Don Massenzio, which reminded me of a holiday I had in 2017 that included a few days in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.

Author Don Massenzio

As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I’m getting ready to release my second collection of stories soon.

This week’s story was one that I wrote specifically to include in my first collection. It was never published as a single.

It was a story that came from a trip to New Orleans for work. I’m a musician and I was able to hear some of the best jazz musicians around and watch them play for tips in bars along Bourbon Street and beyond.

This tale is included in my short story collection, Random Tales,  a collection of unrelated stories.

My next collection, releasing on March 29th, will have four related stories that are essentially novellas. It’s been a long journey in four years.

I hope you enjoy,Play it again, Des, posted here as it exists in the book along with a prelude explaining the origins of the story.

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Sunday Stills Photography Challenge

This week’s Sunday Stills topic is ‘Daylight’.  I thought I add three photos; the first one heralds daylight arriving in my garden.  The second one shows another photo in my garden during daylight hours, and the third one says goodbye to daylight at the Download music festival.

Would you Like to Contribute to my Anthology?

Thanks to a little nudge from Clive at Take it Easy, I’m sending out another call for collaborators to my ‘Understanding’ anthology, which has been a work in progress for a couple of years.

I’m looking for volunteers interested in answering 20 of my questions on any life experience they have undergone.  Clive was kind enough to answer 20 questions on depression, which you can find here.  I also have completed interviews on alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, caffeine addiction, sexual abuse, and chronic pain.  You can find all the interviews so far in the ‘Understanding‘ category on my website https://www.stevie-turner-author.co.uk/

If you have experienced a significant life event and would like to answer 20 questions for my anthology, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Amongst others, I’d be interested in people who have undergone:

A near death experience

A paranormal experience

Significant weight loss

Quitting smoking

I plan to set the book up free on Draft2Digital when I have enough collaborators.  Hopefully the experiences can help other people.

Not Everyone Will Like Your Story — That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Story

Absolutely correct. What is awful to one person can be great to another. We writers cannot ever hope to please all readers all the time.

Novelty Revisions

One summer between college semesters, I wrote a book. I had only written several full-length novels before this, so it was not a publish-worthy book by any means. But I was proud of it. And after passing it around to a few friends who were genuinely interested in reading it (and did so — bless them!), I handed the book off to my mom.

She read it (bless her!) and gave it back to me. Of course I asked her what she thought of it, and because I was old enough at that point to handle the truth, she gave me her honest opinion.

“It’s not that I didn’t like it,” she said. “It was just too dark for me. Not my kind of book. But I’m proud of you.”

Aw. Thanks Mom.

This was the first — and certainly not the last — time I learned the difference between…

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Friday Click & Run – March 8th

Sometimes when we’re busy it’s nice to simply leave a link to our blog or blog post and run, and so Friday Click and Run is just for that purpose. However, of course you can check out others’ links and share away if you want to. So… every Friday do add some info of what your blog is about and also a link to your blog or blog post in the comments if you’ve got a minute. You don’t have to do anything else such as sharing or commenting unless you really want to. Isn’t that cool? People may decide to check your link out, or they may not. They might decide to leave their own link and run as well, so you may meet each other heading out the door. If I see a post that’s a bit risqué, then I shall be running too – straight to the ‘delete’ button!

Fire away then… let’s see what we end up with.  Thanks to the 6 bloggers who left their links last time.

Cover Reveal and New Book Announcement

Don Massenzio has a new book out on March 29th!

Author Don Massenzio

Well, after a great deal of time, effort and procrastination, I am happy to announce my new book, kongo.com, that will be released on March 29, 2019.

I thought I would take a minute to reveal the cover and announce that it is available for pre-order. Here is the synopsis:

Imagine a company so large that it touches the lives of the majority of citizens around the globe. Through technology, seemingly unlimited resources and philanthropy, kongo.com set out to change the world while making profits never seen before in business. 

Follow the actions of this behemoth company through four stories detailing the life-changing methods used to make the world a better place.

What could possibly go wrong? Read these stories to find out exactly what can go wrong, even with the best intentions, when one company’s vision is unleashed on its customers without their knowledge.

The book is a…

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