Category Archives: Blog tours

Review: Requiem, by John Palisano

Product format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-78758-953-7
Pages: 256 pp

Ava must fight an entity locked in on taking out the crew of the Eden, a moon-sized cemetery in space, as it brings back the souls of the dead buried aboard. One such soul is Ava’s lost love, Roland.

The spirits of the interred on the Eden haunt those aboard, including a visiting musician is tasked with writing a new song for the dead. Her Requiem calls a cosmic entity that illuminates their darkest fears and secrets. One by one, they’re driven mad. Ava fights her grief and must rise up before they’re lost and the entity reaches Earth.

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/requiem-isbn-9781787589544.html

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Promo Post: Unique Minds, Ed. by Rosemarie Cawkwell

Yes, that’s me. I edited an anthology of work by Autistic people for my employer, Faraway, and now it’s ready for sale. We received funding through the Amazon Literary Partnership, and worked with Matthew’s Hub over in Hull to run creative writing groups.

Here are the details:Link:

https://amzn.eu/d/1OYN9Wr

ISBN: 9781914313073

Blurb: This anthology contains stories, poems and art by neurodivergent creatives and explores the diversity of the human mind and how art is made even more beautiful by the inclusion of voices often left unheard. The power of Autism is not one of ‘blacks and whites’, but a full spectrum of experiences that you may have yet to encounter.

The book is available as a paperback, it is currently available for pre-order with 20th July being publication day.

I have a sci-fi story in there. There are poems and art. There is a piece of memoir and several fantasy stories. I got to read a wide variety of work to as part of my editing process, and the choices were difficult to make. I decided any work by Faraway members would go in automatically, to encourage them to keep writing their stories and poetry, and creating their art.

Plus, they’re really enjoyable works.

There were one or two stories that I had to do a lot of editing on, mainly spelling and grammar. Autistic people can have idiosyncratic approaches to words and sentence structure, and I’ve tried to keep those idiosyncrasies where they make sense. Sometimes I’ve had to correct a systematic misunderstanding of sentence structure that detracts from the work but otherwise not changed anything.

I have a lot of respect for professional editors!

We’re planning to send copies to contributors and sell some copies from our office, so people in the area can buy a copy direct from Faraway. The funds raised will be used to support our work supporting Autistic adults. I’m hoping we make enough for me to restart our creative writing group.

Review: Named, by Camilla Balshaw

Bedford Square Publishers
05 June 2025
£18.99
978-1-8350-1071-6
Hardback

The book
Our names are a shadow we carry around with us. They are part of who we are. Our names are a marker of our self-identity and our sense of self. Our names have the power to shock. They have the power to heal, and they have the power to trigger conversations around race, class, social mobility and belonging. But what is a name? What do our names tell us about ourselves? And why do they matter?

Named is a fascinating exploration of names, global naming conventions and identity politics woven into a moving, personal narrative about the finding of family and self. At the intersection of memoir and social and cultural history it is a truly fascinating book about the seemingly ordinary and every day.

The author’s own narrative about her estrangement from her Nigerian father, the grapples with her Jamaican mother and her journey towards identity is woven through the chapters making it an engaging and intimate investigation of what makes us who we are.

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Review: Cheddar Luck Next Time, by Beth Cato

April 8th, 2025 | Datura Books
ISBN: 9781915523471 | £9.99 / $18.99

A cosy cheese-scented mystery with delightful characters, a dash of murder and tons of intrigue, perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club and The Maid.

Cheese-obsessed Bird Nichols has just inherited her grandmother’s estate in a quiet, quirky Californian town. But when a body is found on her property, her life begins to get rather loud…

Bird Nichols is ready to make a fresh start in a familiar place. Last year, her
parents died together in a car crash and her beloved grandmother is
presumed dead from an ocean drowning. Bird is now moving onto her
grandmother’s California coastal property, and finally living out her dream.
Bird loves cheese like nothing else. It’s her autistic special interest, and she
designs her boards along her sensory needs, and other people love them,
too.

But just when everything seems to be going right, the local troublemaker ends up dead on her rural road.

Grizz, the closest thing Bird has to family, is the sheriff department’s favourite suspect, but she is determined to prove Grizz’s innocence. So now, Bird needs to unpack her possessions, assemble her pretty cheese boards, and find the true murderer before they strike again.

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Review: The Hatter’s Daughter, by W.A. Simpson

FICTION / Fantasy / Epic
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-78758-911-7
Pages: 272 pp
Series: Tales from the Riven Isles
FLAME TREE PRESS

The Hatter’s Daughter is the third book set in W.A. Simpson’s Riven Isles
universe.

There is more to the Vine than mortals and immortals know. It reaches its
branches and tendrils into realms beyond the Riven Isles. On the night Faith
was born, her mother perished, but not before sending Faith to safety, in
Underneath. Discovered by The Mad Hatter, he takes Faith home to raise as
his own. When the Rot invades, Faith determines to fight. She won’t do it
alone. Her childhood friend, Prince Rowan accompanies her. Faith must
return to her birthplace to find a Legendary Heroine. But Overland is
dangerous, and the minions of the Rot are in pursuit. If she doesn’t succeed, the minions of the Rot will destroy everything they know.

Tales from the Riven Isles is a dark fantasy series set in a world outside of our own, where the characters of myth and fairy-tales exist, and their legends live on. Featuring the novels: ‘Tinderbox’, ‘Tarotmancer’, and ‘The Hatter’s Daughter’.

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