#PUYB - Ten Things About "Shaytan" - A Journey into Evil by @davidsarthur1 #Suspense #Military

About the Author

David S. Arthur is an American novelist. His new novel is Shaytan: A Journey into Evil. It is an historical action thriller set in the jungles of India in 1947. A man-eating leopard, Vedic gods and the history of the world. (Among other things.)

His previous book is The Kingdom of Keftiu: A Mystery of the Ancient World. It is an historical adventure set in the Greek Islands in 1935-36 about an expedition in search of lost Atlantis and the truth behind the myth.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shaytan-A-Journey-into-Evil/546937092117979?skip_nax_wizard=true

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kingdom-of-Keftiu/372020742971818

Link: www.davidarthurnovelist.com

David was born in Dallas, Texas in 1949. He was a champion age group and All American high school and college swimmer, graduating Southern Methodist University with a business undergraduate degree ('71) and a Masters in Fine Arts ('73).

He began his professional career in 1973 as a documentary film maker for PBS. In 1977, David went to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. He published his first novel, The Oasis Project in 1980. In the late 80's David formed a multi-media production company in Dallas, which he operated profitably until 2006 when he retired and began writing books again.

During his challenging and rewarding career, he has produced and directed hundreds of film and digital video projects, created and staged theatrical performances, written plays, and produced concerts and large audience events. He also served as a communications consultant and media producer for well-known international consumer products companies whose American brands are global icons. (Frito-Lay, Pepsi, KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut.)

On several occasions David's film making has received recognition; a USA Film Festival Award for Cinematography, a Gold Award from the Houston International Film Festival for his indie feature, Scenes in the Dark, a number of Telly Awards for client projects and a Dallas Press Club Award for Best Television Documentary.

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Ten Things & More About Shaytan - A Journey into Evil

Brighton Publishing LLC

“Novelist David S. Arthur explores the wilds of India and the darkest realms of human behavior.”

• Shaytan is a novel about the hunt for a man-eating leopard set in India – in 1947. British explorers Richard and Emily Quizzenbury unexpectedly find themselves on the hunt for this killer as the guest of Victor Bloodworth, an Anglo-Indian marksman. The hunt soon turns into a battle for survival as the hunters become the hunted.

• Shaytan is an Arabic word that means demon. It is a reference to Iblis, the fallen angel in the Quran, who refused to bow before Adam at God’s command. Shaytan in essence is Satan.

• Shaytan is the name given to man-eaters by the superstitious inhabitants of the remote Indian wilderness. When a predator is killing humans, the people believe it is actual someone living among them who by day wears the skin of as man but when craving human flesh becomes a beast they call Shaytan.

• Shaytan is much more than a jungle adventure. Shaytan is a book about India – India’s history, its Hindu (Vedic) religion and superstitions, its fascinating array of Vedic gods and demons, the struggle for independence, the role that colonial commerce played in discovering the new world. And somehow what began as the hunt for a man-eater turned into a much bigger saga – a saga about the nature of man, our triumphs and tragedies – the full spectrum of our best and worst – and the timeless battle between good and evil. I would have to say, if I have one theme, it is the nature of mankind. Truth be told, humans are an appalling contradiction. On the one hand, we can be absolutely savage and unimaginably cruel, most often in the name of ideologies and tyrants. On the other hand, the story of humanity is a tale of remarkable invention and self-expression. From the Paleolithic cave paintings of France and Spain to the Hubble Telescope and beyond the fringe of our own solar system, man’s brilliance knows no boundaries. So why the dark side and the horror of those who would still do evil in this world – ISIS, Iran, Al Qaeda, Putin in Russia and who knows what or who comes next?

• Shaytan is also a tale of a western man’s search for enlightenment and an eastern man’s quest for spiritual redemption. As a historical scholar, Quizzenbury absolutely must know the truth – the truth about India’s past, its religions, its conquerors and its struggle for independence – through which we discover that the Indian subcontinent was the epicenter of world events for the past 4000 years. Victor Bloodworth, as a half-Indian, is in search of his own spiritual salvation. Through his hunt for the leopard he discovers the truth about himself and achieves reconciliation with his Indian heritage and Hindu beliefs.

• Presently, I'm writing a series of books featuring Quizzenbury. He is an English scholar of antiquities and our guide par excellence into the riddles of the past. Shaytan is the second in the Quizzenbury historical adventure series. The first book, The Kingdom of Keftiu – A Mystery of the Ancient World, is an archaeological adventure that begins in an Egyptian tomb in 1935 and culminates on the Aegean island of Santorini with the discovery of a miraculous Bronze Age civilization buried beneath the ash of an ancient volcano. It is an exploration of man’s history, our mythology and a revelation of the truth behind Plato’s legend of Atlantis.

• Shaytan is the perfect example of what I try to accomplish in my novels. They are journeys into mysterious worlds and ancient times. Monuments in the desert. Palaces in the jungle. Lost cities and buried treasures. Myths and legends and eons of rare history. What I enjoy is peeling back the layers of time and memory, digging up the past, looking for clues, searching for answers about who we are. I'm curious about what shaped the destiny of empires. What unexpected events influenced human progress? What has been forgotten in the rubble of antiquity? My intent is to entertain by taking my readers to exotic places they may never go and revealing things they might never know. In short, I write for the thrill of discovery and I want my readers to share that experience.

• Shaytan is a story that began long ago, not in India but in Los Angeles, where I was living in the 70’s, working as a screen writer. Then Shaytan was a screenplay about a man-eating tiger. Over the years I poked and prodded it, until in 2011 with the publication of Kingdom, I realized Shaytan would make an excellent Quizzenbury adventure. India’s ancient civilizations were the perfect backdrop, its Hindu mysticism and pantheon of gods the quintessence of a mystery begging for Quizzenbury to solve, and the harrowing hunt for a jungle killer…what more could I have asked for? Now four years later,

• Shaytan is in publication worldwide.

• Shaytan is not the last of Quizzenbury. There’s another Quizzenbury escapade in the wings, foreshadowed in the last pages of Shaytan. Another supernatural history-mystery with a surprising Shakespearean twist. But I’ve done more than write novels over the years. My professional training was in film production and screenwriting and I have enjoyed a rewarding career as a producer and director of a wide variety of media projects. These have run the gamut from documentaries to feature length drama, elaborate theatrical performances to the staging of concerts and large audience events. Now I write books, collect and play guitars and dabble in art.

• Shaytan is currently available as an eBook on Amazon & Barnes &Noble and other eBook retail sites, for $5.99 US. The printed edition will be available soon for $13.95 US. You can learn more about Shaytan and me by visiting my website: http://www.davidarthurnovelist.com/

 You can also visit with me on my Face Book pages: Shaytan – A Journey into Evil or The Kingdom of Keftiu. Or follow me on Twitter at: David S. Arthur @davidsarthur1.

Cheers! And good reading!

About the Book

INDIA 1947. In the heart of the jungle, death stalks the night. It strikes without warning-like a shadow in the shadows-stealing away with its victims and devouring them. The authorities claim it is a man-eating leopard. The natives believe it is something far more terrifying-a creature that by day wears the skin of a man, but when craving human flesh becomes the demon... SHAYTAN! While on expedition in India, British explorers Richard and Emily Quizzenbury embark on the hunt for a killer. 

They are the guests of Victor Bloodworth, an expert marksman of Anglo-Indian descent. Suddenly, they are plunged into an alien world in which time marches to the pulse of the cosmos-where the spiritual and the supernatural merge and reality shares equal footing with illusion. Little do they imagine what awaits them in the ageless realm of the undying gods. In a land still ruled by primal superstitions, there is an ancient invocation. From all that flies, from all that crawls From all that prowls the mountain O Night protect us!

#PUYB #BookReview - Aeromancist (Seven Forbidden Arts - Book 3) by Charmaine Pauls #PNR

About the Book 

All he could offer was thirty days of passion.
He condemned her to death instead.
Now he’ll do everything in his power to save her.

He is known as the Weatherman. Lann Dréan is the last of his kind. A price on his head, chased for a power he should not possess, he can’t promise any woman forever. All he can offer Katherine White is thirty days of passion. But his uncontainable desire comes with an unforeseen price. Lann’s lust will cost Kat her life. Now he’ll do anything to save her from the fate he has brought upon her.

AEROMANCIST is Book 3 of the Seven Forbidden Arts series. All books in the series are stand-alone novels with no cliffhangers, but it is recommended that they are read in chronological order.


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About the Author 

Charmaine Pauls was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. She obtained a masters degree in Communication at the University of Potchestroom, and followed a diverse career path in journalism, public relations, advertising, communications, photography, graphic design, and brand marketing. Her writing has always been an integral part of her professions.

After relocating to France with her French husband, she fulfilled her passion to write creatively full-time. Charmaine has published six novels since 2011, as well as several short stories and articles.

When she is not writing, she likes to travel, read, and rescue cats. Charmaine currently lives in Chile with her husband and children. Their household is a linguistic mélange of Afrikaans, English, French and Spanish.

The Author Speaks  

 I always wanted to travel. The far-off borders of lands I only read about in books piqued my curiosity. I wanted to taste a tagine from Morocco and other dishes I couldn’t pronounce. I wanted to dance to the hypnotic music of Arabian cobra flutes and see what a Chinese silk kite looked like flying over Shanghai. I wanted to see the Persia that Aladdin journeyed to on his magical carpet and hear the wind howl through a turret window in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. There were parts of the world that were mysteries to me, and I wanted to know these beckoning corners of the globe with all of my senses by submerging myself into their culture, culinary traditions, music, language, nature, architecture and history. After completing my studies, I backpacked through Europe, exploring most of its countries from east to west, and also parts of Denmark, Sweden and England. New civilizations opened up to me. The travel bug had bitten. Since then, I have never stopped.

There is a richness in discovering new cultures and learning new tongues, because with diversity comes appreciation. Not only do you open your heart and mind to new ideologies and philosophies, but also to the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that each culture brings. Today, thanks to global connectedness and communication, we can profit from cutting edge medical breakthroughs, like the heart transplant by Dr. Chris Barnard from Cape Town to green medicine from China. Whether your choice for enhancing your inner happiness is Tibetan meditation or Dr. Phil’s advice, everything is accessible to anyone with internet access. We can tap into the limitless well of information and apply the findings that vibrate with our unique soul and emotional makeup. To me, diversity is a privilege and a necessity for spiritual growth.

This is partly why I do not have a choice but to dole out the roles of the Seven Forbidden Arts books to an international cast. Another big influencing factor is my traveling, which greatly inspires the settings and plotlines of my stories. Using these real-life, existing locations in novels is my way of immortalizing them for myself. It is a way of recording experiences about place, ambience, food, music and language that move each and every one of the senses, as well as the feelings these encounters evoke. Coming from South Africa where we have no less than eleven official languages (and about twenty-six spoken, the last time I checked), employing a multicultural cast for my books comes as no surprise. I can’t imagine a society without the variety that has labeled South Africa the rainbow nation, simply because this is my reality and my norm. I have always been surrounded by the international influence of Portuguese, Greek, Chinese, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Swazi, Ndebele, Dutch, British, Indian and French, to name just a few of the multinational faces that make up the South African crowd.

In the paranormal Seven Forbidden Arts series we meet a wide range of actors, including Japanese, French, Russian, South African, Senegalese, American, Australian, Scottish, Danish, British and Dutch. The assignments take the team on a journey from the magical forest of King Arthur in French Brittany, the oldest Franciscan monastery in Chile, the tropical beach of Costa Rica, rustic Pirate’s Island in Colombia, the Knysna elephant sanctuary in wild South Africa, the royal and the famous in the streets of London, England, and the red-light district of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, to the old-time Portuguese glory of Brazil. From a mystical firestarter to a bloodsucker, timid librarian, ambassador with a dark side, super-mixer bartender, French-Breton baron, Russian weatherman with more up his sleeve than a forecast and a surfer babe who makes her own waves, the characters will take the reader on a whirlwind world tour of action, passion, love and diverse magic.

Seven Forbidden Arts, 9 Books in a nutshell
American Cain Jones’ mission is not governed by rules or laws. Backed and funded by powerful politicians and businessmen, Cain has to protect mankind from the dawn of a new Dark Age of communication. In the Middle Ages, the church has forbidden the practice of seven specific arts. Individuals possessing one of these gifts have gone underground in fear of persecution. Cain recruits a paranormal crime taskforce of individuals possessing these arts to fight his elusive archenemy, a man only known as Godfrey, to prevent Godfrey from the world domination by global communication control he is after.

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My Review
While this book is easy to read and understand, it is best to read the books in sequence as it seems that some of the plot from the second book spills over to the second book and you will have a better understanding of the characters from reading the first two books.

That being said, Lann and Kat are in a difficult stage of their relationship. Think City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Lann's supernatural abilities lands Kat's in trouble because despite the love they share for each other, her life is in danger.

It is easy to read this book. The plot can be understood whether you have read other books in the series. There is more than one evil who is after Kat in the book. Lann strikes me as sensible. Then there is Kat. While her reactions are logical, her selfishness and lack of common sense seemed to overpower her which then makes it obvious to the reader that she is not necessarily working in the best interest of both of them.

Would I recommend this read? Yes. If you like a paranormal romance with a strong male character, you will definitely like this book.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4.5/5
Editing: 4/5
Formatting: 4/5
Pacing: 3.5/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book for anyone aged 18 and up.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

   

#PUYB #BookReview - The Demons of Plainville by Daniel R. Mathews #Memoir

About the Book 

Some true stories read like fiction, but for those who have to personally live through the experiences, the nightmare is vividly real. Daniel R. Mathews digs into the darkness of his past with his haunting memoir, The Demons of Plainville.

As a child, Daniel struggles to find his footing in an upside-down world. His mother is mentally ill and addicted to drugs; she performs black masses to summon demons, is physically abusive, and plays brutal mind games that make him doubt his sanity and despair of ever making sense of life or himself. Even his father beats Daniel after "rescuing" him from his mother. Thanks to a few unexpected friends, Daniel survives his devastating youth and emerges stronger for it.

But Daniel's battles aren't over. Finally free of his abusive parents, he now must face himself and wrestle with his sexual identity in a community that sees nothing wrong with homophobia.

Candid and compelling, this is a triumphant tale of a young man who walked through the darkness, bravely faced his demons, and against all odds carried the faint light of hope with him every step of the way.
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About the Author 

An avid reader of science fiction, horror, and fantasy, Daniel R. Mathews is a novelist and nonfiction writer whose books feature LGBT youth braving danger with honor and dignity, including his personal memoir, The Demons of Plainville, and debut horror novel, The Unseen Kingdom.

For the past two decades, Mathews has worked as a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified ground instructor, meteorologist, and a member of the web development and Internet technical support community. He currently lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

I have spent the bulk of my life doing PHP & MySQL development, along with internet technical support. However, I'd always gravitated toward any excuse to write. It was only recently that dissatisfaction prompted me to make significant changes to my life and start a formal writing career.

Please check out my memoir: 'The Demons of Plainville: A Survivor's Story of Storms and Reconstruction' to get a better understanding of where I've been and why I am compelled to write.

 
My Review
Crazy people don't know their crazy. Unfortunately, the same applies for stupid people. And that best describes the author's mother who is at the centre of this memoir. Reading this memoir made my blood boil. Parents are given gifts when they are given children. To then abuse, destroy and have no concern for this gift shows there is something wrong with the parent, not the child.

I salute Daniel R. Mathews for having the strength to pen down his past and to share it with the world. As with many memoirs, I know some people who will find negative points about his life story. But I say, before you criticise the author for sharing his story, pay close attention to what he is actually saying. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother was not his doing.

This is a story of a boy who became a man despite having the adults in his life let him down. Sharing his story lends hope to others who are or have been in his situation. A well-written memoir that will make you appreciate every moment of your life.

Would I recommend this read? Definitely. While some parts of the memoir may contain details that could trigger other child abuse survivors, I do recommend reading this memoir to understand the long-term affects of child abuse.

Overall assessment:
Content: 5/5
Editing: 4.5/5
Formatting: 5/5
Pacing: 4/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book for anyone aged 18 and up.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.