Thursday, July 17, 2025

Unspoken: The Dust Series by Jann Alexander




 
Unspoken: The Dust Series
By Jann Alexander



A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered.

And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage.


Ruby Lee Becker can't breathe. It's 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice —one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.


To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place she's ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, she's determined to get back.


Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she's broken by their separation.


Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home —and faces her one unspoken fear.


Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lee's dogged perseverance and Willa Mae's endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.


    Praise 

"Reminds me, in tone, of Texas classics like The Time it Never Rained and Giant. I loved it. Alexander is a great new talent in the genre of Texana."
W.F. Strong, author, Stories From Texas

Excerpt

In April, President Roosevelt died from a cerebral stroke while he was at his Little White House near the Warm Springs hydrotherapy retreat for polios. Dazed and grief-stricken, many of us followed news of US Railcar No. 1, the wheelchair-equipped Ferdinand Magellan Pullman that carried Roosevelt’s casket back home as he was honored by thousands of stunned mourners lining the Southern Railway tracks. When the grieving Mrs. Roosevelt wrote of her deep appreciation to the people who waited in the stations and along the railroads to pay their last respects, I longed to be among them. If she could walk by now, Celesta would have been there. The image of Celesta appeared vivid, how bright and hopeful she’d looked boarding the Southern Pacific bound for the rehabilitation hospital in Gonzales, bolstered by the president.
With the death of Mussolini two weeks later, then Hitler’s death in May, there were near-daily surrenders of German forces occupying Europe. Okinawa finally fell to US forces on June 22, 1945, and everyone dared hope the war’s end was in sight. I paid another visit to the army airfield, to bargain with the supply sergeant for a deal on what I speculated would soon be a surplus of Piper Cubs. They’d spewed by the thousands from Piper Aircraft factories, turning the skies golden with the little yellow tail-draggers favored by the War Training Service and the Army Air Forces for flight instruction. Before the start of the war, Mrs. Roosevelt had promoted the civilian pilot training program in a Cub flown by a Tuskegee Institute airman—I still had the yellowed newspaper clipping that showed her famous wide smile, the brim of her flower-trimmed hat skimming her sparkling eyes, comfortably seated behind the colored pilot who was Moton Aviation Field’s chief flight instructor. Their half-hour flight over Alabama four years ago had made news across the country, the First Lady demonstrating her approval of the advanced training for colored pilots.
That’s when I knew I’d be the one flying my own airplane one day.
I’d pored over the dog-eared pages of the book by stunt pilot Genevieve Haugen scores of times since leaving Waco. Its blue-sky cover was emblazoned in stirring gold lettering: Women with Wings: A Novel of the Modern Day Aviatrix. Reading it kept my passion for flight aloft.
At night I’d fall asleep practicing the insouciance of cross-country aerial derby flier Babe Dugan, in her ridiculous reply to a mechanic from the movie Tail Spin:
Bud: Say, don’t you know better than to smoke around gasoline?
Babe Dugan: Oh, don’t be so superstitious!
Of course I knew better than to smoke my asthma cigarettes anywheres but behind a tree and nowheres near an airplane. But I sure admired her spunk. 

At the airfield, I walked among the yellow Piper J-3s that had trained many an aviator, looking for the Cub I’d soloed in. Fresh off the factory floor in 1939, the Cub sold for less than a new automobile. I peered in at the familiar bear in the logo on the altimeter, who wore a reassuring wink. With a tank in the spare seat, a spray boom under the wing, and a supply of Weedone, I’d have a fine crop duster. I approached the supply sergeant and we made a deal on the spot.
The plans I’d drawn for our house—with a dining room to handle a table for twelve, a sitting area, a massive living room beside a shelf-lined study, and six bedrooms along the east side with a long covered gallery facing west—were still just that. My drawings needed builders, but the war effort sucked every able-bodied male into the never-ending draft.
I needed a runway, too. It would be the layout I’d seen at Elliott Roosevelt’s Dutch Branch Ranch, where Mrs. Roosevelt had taken me in her private Pullman car.
All I needed was another banner harvest to pay for it all. 

A dry spring was again threatening the crops. And the shortage of manpower was holding back the harvest. 
Farmers had turned to hired help from Germany—the kind that needed a guard. All across Texas, from Marfa to Mexia, POW camps housed not just Germans, but Italians, even some Japanese. 
At first they were a town curiosity, hearty-looking and suntanned, fed well enough, and plenty of them were learning to speak some English to the teen girls flirting on the other side of the fence. The shortage of field workers had grown acute. Where cotton needed chopping in the east, or fruit needed picking in the Rio Grande Valley, POWs became trusted substitutes for our drafted farmhands. Despite their earlier animosity, folks agreed the Germans especially had shown themselves to be good laborers. 
At a small agricultural work camp nearby, German POWs were trucked in and farmed out from the air base, and housed in barracks fenced in by barbed wire. Some still didn’t trust the POWs, but most farmers realized without their labor, we’d have lost the entire cotton crop in Texas last year. The German prisoners were resourceful with what little irrigation we could muster, and skilled at building. They were as disciplined at their work as the Texas sons and brothers who’d battled their kin overseas. It was ironic, but dodgy it was not. I figured the risk from the German prisoners was smaller than a gnat’s whisker. Losing out on the harvest, on the other hand, would really put me on the spot. 
And that yellow Piper J-3 was calling my name.


Doesn't this book sound utterly amazing?! You can find your copy here.

Book Trailer


Jann Alexander


Jann Alexander writes characters who face down their fears. Her novels are as close-to-true as fiction can get.

Jann is the author of the historical novel, Unspoken, set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras, and her first book in The Dust Series. 

Jann writes on all things creative in her weekly blog, Pairings. She's a 20-year resident of central Texas and creator of the Vanishing Austin photography series. As a former art director for ad agencies and magazines in the D.C. area, and a painter, photographer, and art gallery owner, creativity is her practice and passion.

Jann's  lifelong storytelling habit and her more recent zeal for Texas history merged to become the historical Dust Series. When she is not reading, writing, or creating, she bikes, hikes, skis, and kayaks. She lives in central Texas with her own personal Texan (and biggest fan), Karl, and their Texas mutt, Ruby.

Jann always brakes for historical markers.




Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Book Review: The Trials of Arthur Whitty by Tim Walker

 




The Trials of Arthur Whitty
 By Tim Walker



This novella is the story of plain old Arthur Whitty, a man whose dreams are never dull and whose vivid imagination and sense of humour carries him through a series of sometimes challenging situations. Arthur has retired to a pair of slippers and jigsaw table in a quiet cul-de-sac in Berkshire, England. He walks his dog, Max, and lets his mind wander to a series of dreams in which he is more daring, skilful and adventurous that his real-life humdrum self. He is an irritant to his orderly wife, Emilia, and has succumbed to irksome cancer treatment following a run-in with skin cancer.

Once a date has been set for corrective surgery, Arthur sets his mind on organising a real-life adventure – a bucket list trip to Machu Picchu in Peru where he finds peace and a calming of the spirit. Arthur’s bullish nature carries him through a series of situations but there is little the retired couple can do about the onset of dementia. But Arthur is well supported by Emilia and their daughter, Holly, as the family rally round to make his declining years as comfortable as possible. And there’s always escape to his secret world of risk, responsibility and danger.

The author has drawn on personal experience and observations of elderly men in a support group he helps run for Men’s Matters charity in Windsor, Berkshire. Half of all royalties from the sales of this book will be donated to Men’s Matters, who support older men by encouraging social interaction and connecting them to health and wellbeing support services.


I have never read a book that takes you on such a journey of emotions. One minute you are literally laughing out loud, and then in the next, you are reaching for the tissues. 

Arthur Whitty, a retired accountant and now chief dog walker to their small dog, Max, is struggling to adapt to his retirement, as is his wife, Emilia, who must now share her house with him full-time. Emilia thrives on routine, whereas Arthur is more of a lucky-go-happy sort and somehow the two of them muddle together. 

Arthur has a wicked imagination and he constantly finds himself daydreaming, making mundane things such as driving a car or waiting in line at the pharmacy into epic adventures in his head, which are incredibly funny, especially when he crashes back to reality and remembers what he is doing!  The scene when he is imagining driving a rally car, and then his wife bringing him back to earth by telling him he was going over 30mph made me laugh out loud!

But as the story progresses, and Arthur grows older, his health begins to rapidly decline. First, it is arthritis, then cancer and finally dementia. Through it all Arthur remains surprisingly upbeat, and with the help of his imagination, and pretending he is somewhere / someone else, is an escape from his reality.

As the story progresses what is real and what is fantasy becomes muddled and it is difficult even for the reader to separate the two. 

I have to say that this is one of the most wonderfully fabulous books I have ever read. Even though it is only a novella, the story has the same impact as a hammer drill. And because of its length, it can easily be read in one sitting, which is a good thing as it is utterly captivating. 

I think the story will resonate with anyone who has experienced or going through or knows someone going through the illnesses mentioned in this book, and although the tone is kept quite lighthearted throughout, the gradual decline of Arthur's memory is certain to make the reader cry.

I would recommend everyone to read this book, as it is a real eye-opener as to how dementia robs the person and their families of life. 

*I was gifted a copy of this book by the author, I was under no obligation to leave a review.

If you would like to pick up your copy, and I highly recommend that you do, you can do so over on Amazon.

Tim Walker


Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, he grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years.

In the mid-90s he opted to spend a couple of years doing voluntary work in Zambia through VSO, running an educational book publishing development programme. After this, he set up his own marketing and publishing business in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, then managed a mineral exploration company before returning to the UK in 2009.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2014, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. The series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of Arthur in an imaginative narrative. It starts with Abandoned, then Ambrosius: Last of the Romans; Uther’s Destiny; Arthur Dux Bellorum and Arthur Rex Brittonum, the last two books charting the life of an imagined historical King Arthur.

More recently, he has written a dual timeline historical novel set at Hadrian’s Wall, Guardians at the Wall. His two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales and London Tales combine contemporary and historical themes and are now available as audiobooks. Somewhere along the way, he co-authored a three-book children’s series with his daughter, Cathy, The Adventures of Charly Holmes.

Thank you for reading The Trials of Arthur Whitty. Please leave a star rating and review on Amazon and/or Goodreads so others can benefit from your experience.

Tim’s Amazon author page: www.author.to/TimWalkerWrites  




Sunday, July 13, 2025

Dagger’s Destiny (Curse of Clansmen and Kings, Book 2) by Linnea Tanner, narrated by Kristin James

 

Dagger’s Destiny (Curse of Clansmen and Kings, Book 2)
By Linnea Tanner
Narrated by Kristin James


A Celtic warrior princess accused of treason for aiding her enemy lover must win back her father’s love and trust


In the rich and vibrant tale, author Linnea Tanner continues the story of Catrin and Marcellus that began with the award-winning novel APOLLO’S RAVEN in the Curse of Clansmen and Kings Series. Book 2: DAGGER’S DESTINY sweeps you into an epic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia.


War looms over 24 AD Britannia where rival tribal rulers fight each other for power and the Romans threaten to invade to settle their political differences. King Amren accuses his daughter, Catrin, of treason for aiding the Roman enemy and her lover, Marcellus. The ultimate punishment is death unless she can redeem herself. She must prove loyalty to her father by forsaking Marcellus and defending their kingdom—even to the death. Forged into a warrior, she must overcome tribulations and make the right decisions on her quest to break the curse that foretells her banished half-brother and the Roman Empire will destroy their kingdom.


Yet, when Catrin again reunites with Marcellus, she is torn between her love for him and duty to King Amren. She must ultimately face her greatest challenger who could destroy her life, freedom, and humanity.


Will Catrin finally break the ancient prophecy that looms over her kingdom? Will she abandon her forbidden love for Marcellus to win back her father’s trust and love? Can King Amren balance his brutality to maintain power with the love he feels for Catrin?


Praise

Tanner is a masterful wordsmith and storyteller. There were no plot holes, everything was believable, and her characters grew as did the plot.”
~ The Audiobook Reviewer

For those with an interest in epic fantasy, the characters and their interactions, each with their personal goals and motivations, and often in conflict with each other, Dagger’s Destiny is a book sure to keep your interest.”
~ Geoff Habiger for Readers' Favorite (GOLD MEDAL Fiction: Magic / Wizardry)

Book Trailer


Audiobook excerpt

If you would like to read or listen to this book, click on the links: Universal Buy LinkAudible US, Audible UK


 *AUDIOBOOK GIVEAWAY*
Linnea Tanner is giving away an audiobook copy of Dagger’s Destiny!
A winner will be chosen at random and announced after the tour has finished.

Linnea Tanner


Award-winning author, Linnea Tanner, weaves Celtic tales of love, magical adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. Since childhood, she has passionately read about ancient civilizations and mythology. She is particularly interested in the enigmatic Celts, who were reputed as fierce warriors and mystical Druids.

Linnea has extensively researched ancient and medieval history, mythology, and archaeology and has traveled to sites described within each of her books in the Curse of Clansmen and Kings series. Books released in her series include Apollo’s Raven (Book 1), Dagger’s Destiny (Book 2), Amulet’s Rapture (Book 3), and Skull’s Vengeance (Book 4). She has also released the historical fiction short story Two Faces of Janus

A Colorado native, Linnea attended the University of Colorado and earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry. She lives in Fort Collins with her husband and has two children and six grandchildren.

Author Links:
Website • Facebook • Instagram • Twitter / X • Pinterest • Bluesky • Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Threads • LinkedIn • Goodreads 

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald Zander


Today I am welcoming historical fiction author, Julie McDonald Zander, on to Oh Look, Another Book!



Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence
By Julie McDonald Zander


A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.

When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.

Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.

As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.

Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.

If you would like to read this book, then click on this link: https://books2read.com/u/4AyWBp 

Julie McDonald Zander


Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor.

Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories. Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.

She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.

Social Media Links:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • Bluesky • Pinterest • Amazon Author Page • TikTok • BookBub • Goodreads






Unspoken: The Dust Series by Jann Alexander

  Unspoken:  The Dust Series By Jann Alexander A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered. And one Texas girl determined to sa...