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Join us for this tour from Jan 14 to 31, 2019!
Book Details:
Book Title: Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge Category: Adult Fiction, 371 pages Genre: Literary fiction , Mystery, Coming of age Publisher: Michael E. Burge Publishing | Release date: June 2017 Content Rating: PG-13 (The book alludes to criminal acts and deviate behavior, but does not provide graphic description.) Book Description: Twelve-year-old Evan Mason’s life has been turned upside down by the sudden death of his father. His mother isn’t home much, the insurance office during the day, waiting tables at night. Evan is spending a great deal of time alone. Now he finds himself on a Greyhound bus headed for a small town on the Wabash River where he’ll spend the summer of 1958 with his loving grandmother. Evan soon meets his new neighbor, Katie Dobbins. She’s a feisty blue-eyed girl with a ponytail, the type of girl Buddy Holly might sing about on American Bandstand. Evan is instantly enamored with her. It seems the perfect summer is underway—but strange things are happening in the woods surrounding the Ghost Hill Indian Mound. There’s a dark cloud lingering over the Wabash Valley—It won’t be long before it erupts into a raging storm. Buy the Book: Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ KOBO ~ iBooks ~ Indigo ~ IndieBound, ~ Add to Goodreads Read the first few chapters...
MY REVIEW: (LAWonder10)
Melding Spirits is a coming of age story, a mystery/thriller with a touch of romance. This is a story of a young man named Evan, who lost his father and tried to make it as easy on his mother, while she worked and struggle to support them. His mother received an opportunity to rain for a promotion, so took Evan to live with his paternal grandmother for the summer. He remembered her as being "cool" so didn't mind. He just hated leaving his friends. At his grandmother's house, he quickly made a few friends of various ages and with very unique personalities. Although the towns were small in the area where his grandmother lived, there was evil lurking though the various communities. The description of the scenes and characters are very vivid, allowing the reader to feel a part of this tale. The book Cover is passable but I feel the title is not a great fit. There is a lot of suspense, adventure, companionable compassion, and inspiration in this one story. There are also nostalgic scenes which leads one to reflect on past memories. ^^This is a YA genre but there are parts, I personally feel are inappropriate for YA reading. (^^ I stand corrected! I wrongfully assumed this was written fro YA but it is, in fact, written for Adults, so disregard that portion of my review.) BEWARE: There are crude references and sexual situations, plus, some profanity. I offer a Four Stars rating.
GUEST POST: “Mr. Sharp” Michael E. Burge One of the questions authors hear repeatedly is, “How do you come up with your characters?” I’m sure the answer varies from one writer to the next, but I would have to say, aside from the main characters in my story, many of the secondary characters were born out of necessity. For example, during one of the scenes in Melding Spirits, the children see Zachary Aiken rolling down the street with a wagon hitched to the bumper of his car. The wagon is similar to the one Professor Marvel used to flimflam his way across Kansas in The Wizard of OZ, except it is beat- up and weathered. Everyone is gathered around, inspecting the old wooden relic when thirteen-year-old Katie looks at Mr. Aiken and says, “What kind of wagon it is , Mr. Aiken?” When I was writing the scene, I honestly didn’t know Katie was planning to ask that question. As a writer, those are the sort of surprises you often get when you let the characters drive the plot. I had to come up with an answer to Katie’s question, so I invented a new character. Zachary explains it thusly: “Belonged to a guy folks called Mr. Sharp, a negro gentleman. He had two gray mules hitched to this thing. Traveled all over the valley sharpening knives, saws, axes, and anything else that needed an edge. He was also a bit of an artist. He crafted some beautiful knife handles.” “His name was Mr. Sharp?” Katie said. “That wasn’t his real name. His real name was Mayberry . . . Oscar Mayberry,” Zachary said. “Been dead for twenty years. This old wagon was stashed way back in the corner of an old barn up near Bargetown.” I’m not exactly sure how Zachary came up with that little bit of history, but it seemed like a reasonable reply to Katie’s question. Of course, there was substantially more to the scene, but in essence, that was how the character, Mr. Sharp, was hatched. When you’re a writer . . . an active imagination is a good thing! 
Meet the Author:
Michael E. Burge grew up in the Chicago suburbs and a small town on the Wabash River in Southern Illinois. In the late sixties, he left college to serve on a U.S. Navy destroyer out of Norfolk, Virginia. Upon leaving the service, he transitioned to a career in the burgeoning computer industry, positions in product management and marketing. He is now pursuing his lifelong interest in writing, publishing his debut novel, Bryant’s Gap, in 2015 and his second, Melding Spirits, in 2017. Michael also plays piano, paints, and is an avid golfer. He and his family currently live in Illinois. Connect with the Author: Twitter ~ Facebook 
Prizes: Win Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge. Two winners will also get a $20 Amazon.com gift card (open to USA & Can / 7 winners total)
(ends Feb 7, 2019) 
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