Exciting Happenings This Week! The Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme 

Tonight I'm a guest host on the podcast Christmas Countdown! Exciting! I've been listening to the podcast since it started and now I get to be on an episode sharing my top five favorite (recent) Christmas movies!  Do you listen to podcasts?  If you like Christmas, you must check out the five-star goodness of Christmas Countdown! 

https://christmascountdownshow.com/

And then later this week I'll be attending the Chicago North Romance Writer's Spring Fling. I'm volunteering and I've been assigned to be a moderator for two different panels! I'm more nervous about that than the podcast. I don't want to mess up a panel! Fingers crossed that it goes smoothly! And then on Saturday, as I mentioned previously I'll be doing my first author signing. Amazing, it feels surreal! If you had told me a year ago I'd be writing a series of romance books, I wouldn't have believed you.

Speaking of books, I'm happy to share the cover for my second book in the Marley Creek Romance Series! 

Coming out 4//30/2024!  You can pre-order it now here: https://a.co/d/39I9z4x

Stay tuned for Tomorrow's blog where I will talk about my brother's North Carolina restaurant and the book Last Night by Luanne Rice. 

Dr. Death is the Must Listen to Podcast of the Fall

Have you heard about this podcast?  Oh my gosh, it's fantastic and awful. This is a horrifying tale of  medical malpractice.  Dr. Death is new podcast by Wondery, one of my top three favorite podcasting companies. This is the same group that brought Dirty John to ear holes across the land. Interestingly, Dirty John was also a shady criminal in the medical field.  Dr. Death is a neurosurgeon you never want to meet, let alone allow to operate on you.

This podcast is very compelling.  These patients, like Barry, who decided to have surgery instead of trying diet and exercise one more time, will break your heart.  Patients were butchered by this doctor and then Dr. Death went on to practice at another hospital!  You cannot listen to this and not be shocked at how long he is able to 'practice' medicine.  He gets away with murderous malpractice via bravado, a slick website and the greed of the medical establishment.

 Keep listening, he will get his comeuppance---and that will only because a couple of doctors kept sounding alarms and going to the medical board. Frankly the police should have been involved after the second surgery gone wrong.   This guy is an extreme example of systematic problems in our medical system that values profit over lives far too often.  It's also an unvarnished look at how far a white man with Dr. before his name can get before finally being stopped.

A couple of facts from the Wondery website "1.3 million 'bad doctor' reports on the National Practitioner Data Bank," and "in 2017 13 state boards never checked the data bank." Ugh!  Oversight doesn't work if no one uses it!

Patient beware! If you have to have a surgery, get that second opinion and research your doctor.  This organization provides doctor report cards. 

What if Fairy Tales Were True in the Age of iPhones?

I have to share with you this book I've read!  If you aren't a big reader, check out the audiobook. After you read this tale, which you will love, get excited for the FX adaptation!


The Changeling by Victor LaValle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If this whole book was just the story of Apollo & Emma's first year of parenting Brian in NYC, I would have enjoyed it immensely. However, this is not a simple tale of parenting, this is an old school- Black Forest Germany - fairy tale where children are spirited away and monsters walk among us. I completely enjoyed the way Mr. LaValle weaves classic fairy tale lore into the 21st century and works with all the trapping of modern life while telling this ancient tale.

"The Changeling" doesn't shy away from the reality in America where for a black man, any encounter with the police can end in death. This story doesn't shy away from reminding us that far too often the concerns of new moms are brushed aside as they suffer silently with postpartum psychosis. This story doesn't shy away from reminding us we all cling to fairy tales we tell ourselves in order to sleep through the night.

In the end, Victor LaValle gives Emma, Apollo, and Brian some happiness. It's not forever but it's happily for now.


View all my reviews

*****

The summer is already winding down and with that I'm ready to enjoy Fall. I'm hoping for lots of sunny days, low humidity and temps that stay around 70 degrees throughout all of  September. Frankly, I'm in no hurry to break out my boots.  I am ready to enjoy spooky stories and for that I'm subscribed and enjoying each installment of the podcast Spooked (from Snap Judgement and WNYC Studios). Each week they are counting down to Halloween with a new tale of the paranormal.  Are the stories real, are they fiction?  I don't know!  You can listen via the website or subscribe at iTunes, Stitcher, Npr.org, etc. 

Have you heard this podcast already?

Happy Sunday!!  In case you missed it, you need to know that I love podcasts.  And I love to share my favorites with anyone who will listen or read me so check these out and subscribe! 

You may not realize there are a few companies that produce a wide variety of podcasts, there are Slate, Panopoly and Gimlet. 

Today I thought I'd share a couple from Gimlet Media since they recently sent me an email promoting their two-day podcast festival.  I would totally be there except it's in Brooklyn and alas, I am not.

My two favorite podcasts from Gimlet are Sandra and Uncivil.

Sandra is fictional and one of the voices is Kristen Wiig.  It's a comedy, revolving around an imaginary system like Alexa but called Sandra and the main character works in a call center as a Sandra, when you say Hey Sandra and ask a question about birds, then your answer comes from this call center employee.  An interesting and fun story unfolds as the voice behind Sandra tries to make a life for herself away from Ex. 

 Uncivil is entirely different than Sandra.  It is an incredibly enlightening podcast showcasing the stories from the Civil War and Reconstruction that you've never heard before-- and you should.  It's history that informs who America is today.  Does that sound dry?  Trust me this podcast is nothing like you remember of U.S. History in school.  Everyone should listen to this insightful series. You can also follow the creators on Facebook and Twitter where they share books highlighted in the series. 

Uncivil won a Peabody Award in 2017,  you *know* this is really good stuff for your ear holes.
****
On the writing front: A friend is reading the first chapter of my book.  She is an English major; I hope I have not made it too chockful of grammerical and capitalization errors. Currently, I have crossed the bridge into chapter 14!! and I accidently introduced a new character and my protagonist is now going on her first date in for-eveh! I don't see them together long term, he was really just supposed to impart some information to the protagonist , but now who knows what is going to happen next.

What's in my ear holes this week? #HitParade and #Keepit!

If you haven't taken advantage of the amazing world of podcasts, you need to start listening now! There literally hundreds of amazing podcasts on any subject you can possibly imagine.  Have a hobby?  Have an interest?  Want to catch up on World History or listen to a fictional tale?  All is yours in the land of podcast.  But wait there's more! Almost all are offered free to you the listener, so put a podcast your ear holes today!

One of my new favorite podcasts is Hit Parade from Slate. You don't have to be well versed in popular  music to find it fascinating.  One recent episode discusses how the Billboard Top 100 changed a few years ago to include You Tube music video plays vs. just purchases of music. Most interesting was learning that if someone makes a parody or fan video and uses the original song audio; that fan video or parody counts toward the original song's number of plays.  So when a song goes viral with a dance, like the Harlem Shake, and thousands of people film themselves dancing--the original song gets the credit.

You can listen to the latest episode HERE (or at iTunes, Stitcher, etc.)

Do you like pop culture?  Ira, Kara and Louis give a weekly review of the biggest happenings in pop culture and call people on the absurdity of it all. They shade those who deserve it and point out whats good.  And they laugh, a lot.  It's infectious.  I look forward to Keep It hitting my feed each week.

You can find the latest Keep It HERE (or at iTunes, Stitcher, etc.)