Book Review – The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent

The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent

The Heretic’s Daughter: A Novel

In the summer of 1692 in Salem, MA, 14 women and 5 men were hung as witches and many more were incarcerated in ghastly and inhumane prisons.  It was a shameful time in American history, when the accused were guilty until proven innocent (and how do you prove that you are NOT a witch?)  and confession was obtained by torture (ok, that has been a consistent method for all time).  The words of disgruntled neighbors and hysterical teenage girls were considered evidence.  It was a fearful and difficult time for the Puritan colonists, with the constant threat of Native American raids and poor harvests ranking only slightly lower in importance than terror of a vengeful God and a spiteful Devil.  Mass hysteria ruled for less than a year, and is nearly incomprehensible to us today.  Kathleen Kent is the descendant of Martha Carrier, one of the women excommunicated from the Church and hung as a witch (later remanded) and has written a powerful, terrifying fictionalized account of the trials, displaying the inexorable move from suspicion to accusation to execution.

Top Free Kindle Business & Investing Books – 10/8/12

Here are the top free Kindle Business and Investing ebooks, as of Monday, October 8 2012.  This list will be updated every week.

NOTE: These ebooks were free at the time of publication. Please verify the current price before purchasing.

1. How People Tick: A Guide to Over 50 Types of Difficult People and How to Handle Them  By Mike Leibling

Normally priced at $1.99 or $19.95 for the print version. 4.0 stars.

2.  Life After Debt: Practical Solutions To Get Out of Debt, Build Wealth, And Radically Transform Your Finances Forever!  By Rob Kossberg.

Normally priced at $2.99. 4.9 stars.

3. Stress-Free Retirement Planning By Mark J. Orr

Normally priced at $4.99. 5.0 stars.

4. Couponing for the Beginner: A Guide to Couponing for the Uninitiated  By Jenny Dean

Normally $4.99. 4.8 stars.

5. Head in the Clouds: The Location Independent Office – How To Take Your Business or Job Online and Work Remotely from Wherever You Please!  by Phil Byrne and Indi Debah

Normally priced at $4.99. 5.0 stars.

Portfolio – Accounting Firm Articles

Here is a sample of some of the articles I have written for businesses. Where possible, I am linking to the actual live content. In other cases, I ghost-wrote the article for clients, so it is not published under my byline. I can provide full writing samples on request.

5 Questions to Ask Your New Tax Consultant

Accounting Tools and Documents: The Balance Sheet

Accounting Tools and Documents: The Profit and Loss Statement

Accounting Principles and Definitions, Part 1 and 2

Most Important U.S. Tax Filing Deadlines

Who Will Fall Off the Fiscal Cliff?

Book Alert – The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro

The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

I recently receieved the ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) of this book from the Amazon Vine program, and it’s next on my to-read list.

On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art worth today over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Claire makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer. Desperate to improve her situation, she lets herself be lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting—one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum—in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the long-missing Degas painting—the one that had been hanging for one hundred years at the Gardner—is delivered to Claire’s studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Claire’s search for the truth about the painting’s origins leads her into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. B. A. Shapiro’s razor-sharp writing and rich plot twists make The Art Forger an absorbing literary thriller that treats us to three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors. it’s a dazzling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

Book Review – The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

The Ill-Made Mute by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

OK, why this woman is not a household name in the Fantasy genre is beyond me.  Her writing is AMAZING!  I picked up The Ill-Made Mute (The Bitterbynde, Book 1) just because I liked the title, but I couldn’t put it down because it was so good.  This is the first novel by Dart-Thornton, an Australian writer, and fortunately there are 2 more in the Bitterbynde series as well as another 4-book series (of which her U.S. publisher has chosen to only publish the first three, very annoying… and makes it hard to get a copy.)  The Ill-Made Mute is the story of an orphaned, nameless, disfigured, mute child with absolutely no memory, who works as a drudge in the castle of a powerful family.  The first secret of the orphan is not very well kept, but still resonates when revealed. The language is poetic and romantic, and the story (although only the first of a trilogy) is wonderfully complex and satisfying.

New HubPages Articles

7 Reasons why ETFs are Better Than Mutual Funds

Why Your Small Buiness Should Hire a 401(k) Consultant

Three Easy Ways to Buy Gold

Revenue Share sites

Lately I have learned about the concept of revenue-share websites, where a writer forgoes an upfront payment in return for the opportunity to earn perpetually from the product. I’ve begun writing for two revenue-share sites.

One is called HubPages, and the other is Examiner.com, where I am the new Detroit Finance Examiner.

I look forward to writing about all kinds of business and personal finance topics on both sites.

Portfolio – Youth Soccer articles

Here is a sample of some of the articles I have written for businesses. Where possible, I am linking to the actual live content. In other cases, I ghost-wrote the article for clients, so it is not published under my byline. I can provide full writing samples on request.

Coaching Your Own Child

Head’s Up: Concussions in Youth Soccer

For Coaches: How to Conduct a Pre-Season Parent Meeting

Helping Your Child Handle Rejection

How to Talk To Your Child’s Coach

Ten Signs of a Good Youth Soccer Coach

The Difference Between a “Bad” Coach and a BAD Coach

What to Do When Parents Behave Badly

Book Review – The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff is hilarious.  Her urban fantasy stories are liberally seasoned with profanity, sex of all kinds, pop culture references and loads of sarcastic humor.  This book features dragons, sorcerers, a tall leprechaun, a number of creepy-crawly things from the UnderRealm, and the Gale family, a huge and incredibly close-knit family of powerful cousins ruled by the “Aunties”, who appear to be capable of taking charge of the world if they feel like it. The Enchantment Emporium is the first book in a series about the fascinating Gale family. The second book, called The Wild Ways, was released this summer, and is just as excellent and funny as the first. The younger Gale girls are starting to come into their own power in ways that the Aunties don’t always like, and it infuriates them that they can’t get them under their collective thumbs.  I can’t wait for more in the continuing Gale saga.

New article on The Motley Fool

Battle of the Beers: Which is the Best Buy?

Compares Anheuser Busch (NYSE: BUD), Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP) and Boston Beer (NYSE: SAM).