Review by Meg of Up Up and Away- Amazon.com

Kay’s emotional and moral struggle with her impassioned love for Captain Graham Pender causes real conflict within herself ...

ByMegon March 31, 2017

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

Up Up and Away
by Nesta Tuomey

As I read Ms. Tuomey’s’s novel Up Up and Away, I was
captivated by Kay Martin, the Irish protagonist (heroine), in the story.
Kay is lovely, young, and winsome. Her only ambition in life is to become an
Air Hostess for Celtic Airlines. The story is doubly intriguing since
I was the same age as Kay living in the turbulent times of the mid-1960’s.
Ms. Tuomey paints convincing images of the cultural and historical
period during which Kay lives. In the same way, Kay’s emotional and
moral struggle with her impassioned love for Captain Graham
Pender causes real conflict within herself and the reader.
Personally, I didn’t know whether to cheer Kay on or counsel
her.
Ms. Tuomey takes the reader into the bewitching but provocative
world of Irish Airlines to view the rivalry between young
Air Hostesses struggling for independence and competition
in a world fraught with changes. As for the character
of each Airline Captain , I give you leave to draw your own
conclusions. It isn’t quite the undertaking one may imagine. Think
conquest, sex, and infidelity.
A delicious must read.

Meg
South Carolina

#poweredByindie Enrolling another book on the Amazon program

Following the success of Like One of the Family enrolled in the Amazon exclusive program in December and kicking off on 1st December with five days of freebies, my thanks to all who downloaded copies. Just to let you know I propose to enrol another of my books shortly. Up Up and Away is all about the loves and lives of pilots and air hostesses in an Irish airline and two aircrew in particular: one is married and mature. the other young and free to love but as Pascal says more eloquently -  the heart has its reasons of which reason has no part. Keep you posted!

#poweredByindie Review of Kate O'Brien's The Land of Spices

I read The Land of Spices over twenty years ago and immediately became a fan of Kate O'Brien's books. Recently I was drawn to read it again and enjoyed it even better the second time around. Once again I was filled with admiration for her style, her beautiful, evocative writing, erudite and dramatic, the depth of her character portrayal, the tautness of the story. Set in an Irish convent school the two main characters are the highly intelligent Reverend Mother Marie-Helene Archer, a rather lonely introspective figure who is daunted by the Irish environment, so rustic and unsophisticated, very different to her cultivated English background. Through her letters to her superior in Belgium we learn that although challenged by it, she is not satisfied with her task as convent head and wishes to be recalled. But when six year old Anna Murphy comes as a boarder to the school because of the unsettled atmosphere at home between her parents, her father who drinks too much and has a roving eye, her mother who thinks it best for her child to go to the nuns who educated her and with whom she has kept in close contact since her schooldays, Reverend Marie-Helene changes her mind, thrust into a protective role towards Anna with whom she identifies, reminded of herself at that age. The child has the same gift for remembering and reciting poetry, the same quest for knowledge. She recalls her own childhood with her erudite father who had early on mapped out a career for her, a college education followed by a brilliant career. At eighteen Helen Archer witnesses a traumatic incident only gradually revealed and it changes the course of her life, causing her to enter the religious order against her father's wishes. As a result the relationship between them is never the same. Mere Marie-Helene has a great influence on Anna's life and supports her against the bias of some of the nuns who, in the name of character building, wish to make humble and submissive the bright, intelligent little girl, as well as the cruel snobbish attitude of one or two of the wealthier pupils who have heard the rumours of her parents' breakup. But most of all Helen Archer influences Anna in her choice of an academic career, encouraging her in face of her grandmother's opposition, for this proud wealthy old lady holds the old fashioned belief that it is only men who should continue on to higher education and a woman's place is in the home as wife and mother. An erudite and compelling book. Now that I am reacquainted with Kate O'Brien I hope to reread more of her work; in particular my favourite set in Spain, Mary Lavelle.

#poweredByindie Just when I thought I had made a breakthrough..

Just when I thought I had made progress I took two steps back. I am referring to blog sharing on Google+. Tonight is one night I was convinced that I wouldn't be up until the small hours trying to solve the problem and all because I managed to write and share a blog with Google+ without having the blown up profile photo dominating the post.

How did this happen?

Well, for the first time when I hovered over the enlarged profile photo I got the option of a clicking on a lefthand arrow which returned me to the blog. When saved it was sans photo. Next time out, however, I couldn't share the blog at all so this one is in the nature of a test.

There is a saying beware of getting what you ask for. Maybe I should have left well alone!

#poweredByindieThe malice of inanimate objects

I think it was Evelyn Waugh who said something about 'the malice of inanimate objects' I think he was talking about such things like the sweeping brush lying in wait for you on the floor which you step on by accident and it leaps up and bashes you on the nose.

 One of the worst incidents I ever heard was about the man who went up the ladder to knock a nail into the wooden beam and when it wasn't in the right place and he needed to take it out again, he slapped the wood in his frustration hoping to loosen it and it flew right back at him and embedded itself in his brain. Sadly, with fatal consequences. Minor irritations would be energetically brushing sand from the car seat and being almost blinded in the process or when the toggle on your overcoat gets caught on the door handle firmly yanking you back and making you drop the tray you carry.

What is bugging me at the moment is my profile photo which has somehow blown itself up to full size and appears embarrassingly in addition to my thumbnail photo as a background to all my shared blogs. How it came to do this I don't know only that I've wasted too much time on it already.

Seeking help from Google+ I was directed to Blogger Forum Help by an agent who shall be nameless and when not having solved my problem I turned back to Google+ for assistance encountered this same person again who this time sent me a message asking me how much money was it worth to me to rectify the fault, this was followed promptly by an appearance on screen of the smiling would-be assistant himself who declared that he was now free to personally deal with my problem, estimating upwards of £30 for a successful outcome and a variety of credit cards for ease of payment. At which point I exited the conversation.

The story of four sisters and much more

The Lost Sister by Laura Elliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Lost Sister caught and held me right from the beginning. So much so, having finished this remarkable book, travelled so far with the Lambert sisters since the time of their parents death in a car accident until they set out together some twenty years later to journey to New Zealand for their youngest sister's wedding, I must confess to feeling acutely lonely for them all. Rebecca, Julie and Lauren have not heard from Cathy, since she ran away from home aged fifteen. When they receive a phone call from her asking them to attend her wedding in New Zealand they are unable to refuse this olive branch and, with mixed feelings,decide to go. So many questions need answering, so many personal issues to settle.
Beautifully written with a wonderful mix of poetry, music and depth of feeling the author brings us back in time using the medium of letters from the eight year old Cathy to her dead parents - touchingly addressed to Nirvana - which allow the reader come to know the child and her older sisters,the terrible loss and upheaval they experience in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Rebecca, the eldest, takes responsibility for her younger sisters' welfare even though her actions and decisions sometimes made her unpopular with them. On arriving in New Zealand this role is still hers as she makes them keep to their tight schedule while covering huge distances of this immense country packed into the cramped quarters of a camper van. They combine travel with sightseeing and we come to know not only about the Lambert sisters and the tensions between them with past hurts and grievances sometimes bubbling to the surface, but the spectacular landscape and the fascinating ethnic lore. But this is a close loving family who have shared a lot and survived in a fashion. The darkness of the past, with its secrets and betrayal, while always in the background there, nevertheless, exists great affection between them. There are funny moments bonding them even closer - like urging each other to go with the flow and discard their bras following the example of travellers before them and to tie their bras to a fence festooned with garments of every size and colour.. Bikers arrive on the scene and Julie and Lauren rush to take cover behind the camper van. Rebecca, the only clothed one, draws the men off and makes them tea in the camper. When her sisters finally emerge they take it in good part. There are even romantic encounters on this journey that might result in worthwhile relationships and time for the sisters to explore their strengths and weaknesses and face up to certain issues. When the sisters finally reunite with Cathy at Havenswalk old memories are painfully revived and searing self-knowledge experienced. As the drama unfolds, the past revisited and painful issues faced there is the hope of better, happier times and more honest relationships between them in the future. Very enjoyable book. Highly recommend.


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#poweredByindie The best thing about my Ipad

How do I love my Ipad. Let me count the ways.

There are so many. The neat look of it, the ease of carrying it about, not to mention the long battery life. But without a doubt what I like best is reading Kindle books when tucked up warm in bed, these times the best place for catching up on my reading.

I have come to appreciate this particular pleasure all the more since losing the facility a few weeks ago because of an error in my Ipad to do with the email and password used for setting it up some years ago and recently changed. Many frustrating hours trying to puzzle it out, seeking help from Amazon through my Author Central Page and making at least ten changes of AppleID password all became clear at last.

It came down to the cloud setting and by exiting all devices managed to regain my sanity and my reinstalled Kindle. The downside was the loss of all my purchased books, many still unread.

So what about all those people almost religiously clinging to their print books, enthusing about the smell and feel of them. Well,  I suppose they have a point. But better than anything to my mind is that bright screen, the ability to increase the font size - no need for glasses - and the way each new page jumps to attention when, anxious to get on with the story, you lazily swipe it.

Okay, so there's no new book smell but that's a small price to pay.

#poweredByindie Makeover for writers.

Chatting with a writer friend recently she told me that someone she knew was getting a new knee. 'I wish I could get a new me,' she added wistfully. She's not the only one I suspect when the years have taken their toll on ageing limbs and dulled the faculties.

Whatever about new body parts writers can start over it seems, reinvent themselves by using a new author name and republishing their books online with new covers and even new titles. Only the plot remains the same but, if altering details here and there suited their purpose hey, that too can suffer a change into something rich and strange.

There are advantages, of course, to presenting yourself as a brand new author. You gain a new readership and another chance to draw attention to your books published a decade or two before. But what about giving up your name that has stood you in good stead for so long?  It must be like relinquishing your identity. and the actual rewrite of your novels a form of forgery.

 It makes you wonder if it's worth it all, running the risk of losing your former hard-earned readership. The thing is you won't know, will you, until you have taken the plunge and tried it  Last word those writers who have taken that step tell me they are very pleased with the way their writing career has taken off second time around, some have been launched in America and their readership is growing fast.  And they are making money. In this regard no doubt Dr Johnson would heartily approve having had very decided views on the subject..

#poweredByindie The great thing about being a writer.

The great thing about being a writer you get to portray life as you would like it to be for your characters.Life doesn't always go well for them but then life isn't always fair or just, that's for sure.  You get to test their courage and resourcefulness with the option of bringing them through or letting them go under. Even your villains go through reverses and, here again, you can allow them to be top dogs for a while, bearing in mind they are human too, for it's true to say no one is all black and even gangsters have families and someone to love them.

All of it goes into constructing riveting plots to keep your readers reading your book and not someone else's. Playing God is irresistible so long as it doesn't  turn out like the film 'Bruce Almighty' when it soon became clear to him not everyone is cut out to be a deity.  Still, as writers we can dream awhile.

#poweredByindie writing resolution number one

This writing resolution has to be number one on my list - to finish my new book by the end of this year, if not sooner. In the words of Sean O'Casey 'Get on with the bloody play'  The playwright wrote this in big letters to motivate himself and put it up on the wall opposite his work table.

Replace 'play' with 'novel' and we're in business.

Once I have finished putting order back into what my grandson refers to as 'my office' and lugged the black plastic sacks overflowing with books to my local Oxfam shop I have no more excuses to procrastinate.

The plight of the marginalized Tamil people in their fight for independent rule has long interested me. In my story a young Tamil adopted by an Irish pilot with whom he shared four years in captivity, is brought back to Ireland to be raised and educated with the man's sons. When he graduates from college and returns to his homeland to find his people he is gradually drawn into the ethnic conflict and before long finds himself in danger of betraying his principles when his ideals and integrity are put to the test in the brutal struggle for civil liberty.  Location Ireland and Sri Lanka in the early 1980's.

Much of my research is done, now it's a matter of putting flesh on bones.

#poweredByindie writing wish list for 2017

I know my wish list for the New Year will be similar to a lot of other writers - to publish, not kill my darlings. I am in the fortunate position, some might say, of having two novels ready to go but with the brake still on. Although drawn to being a fully committed #poweredbyindie author I am like someone poking their toes into the water and holding back from taking the plunge.

Like the song of indecision sung by Jimmy Durante at one time 'Did you ever get the feeling like you wanted to go and yet still got the feeling you wanted to stay,' I haven't quite made the transition and am  still cravenly weighting all the options. Maybe still wanting someone else to be the one to say 'Hey, this is good. We want to publish it.'

I can see some of you smiling a bit sadly at such foolishness but others will confess to feelings of a similar nature before they moved purposefully forward and put their own precious book online for their readers enjoyment. Indeed, they were clearly wasting no time in creating that well-deserved buzz.. So this is the indie author I am now concentrating my attention on, fondly remembering the thrilled colleague who recently posted on Facebook how she had just received paperback copies of her new book, bubbling over with love for her cover, boasting how the pair of them were 'dancing giddily about the kitchen together.'

Isn't that what it's all about for all writers this coming year - to be read and experience the buzz of excitement, the satisfaction that will inevitably be theirs. I think it is and I am greatly looking forward reading your indie experiences and maybe even picking up a few hints along the way.

Four days to Christmas

The twelve days to Christmas are now down to four. No need to ask what everyone is doing. Joining in the last mad dash to the shops to buy, buy buy! . Today I was fooled into thinking I would have a quick 'n easy entry and exit to the Shopping Centre when the road leading to it was not chock-a-block with cars until  I saw further along the packed slope vehicles bumper to bumper. Got a vacant space after circling the carpark three times.All that effort in search of the fresh sprouts reported to be in short supply  this year when personal greed took over and I rode the lift to the ground floor in search of delicious bars of gluten-free  marzipan chocolate.

In the line of cars people were making use of the enforced wait absorbed in their Ipads. As a writer of novels and short stories I like to thinkof them as potential customers and with a wave of my magic wand boldly display my wares on their windscreens in coloured lights. Would that I could and see their looks of shocked delight as they viewed the covers of my books and maybe peeked inside 'The Mask'  to read the opening lines of the prizewinning story Menomadness whose ageing heroine built on Rubenesque lines became enthralled by her own own buxom body. Or the sad old lady with the failing memory trying in vain to recall her son's parting words at their last meeting only hazily recalling his vague promise to pick her up from the Old People's Home on Christmas Day and when he is running late forlornly wonders if it could have been, 'If we don't see you for Christmas we'll be sure to have you out for the New Year.'

Christmas is coming.

My favourite occupation at Christmas before marriage and family-raising took priority was reading.   In those earlier festive times my list was made up of fiction, it was only later biography caught hold. One memorable Christmas I read about the Bronte sisters and was soon enjoyably lost in 'The Path to the Silent Country'. Gripping stuff, impossible to put it down. All that talent, passion and frail health.

Undoubtedly, books written about people, especially about authors, can be fascinating. Maybe that's why so many works of literature are dramatized and adapt so well to radio or television. This Christmas will be the first without the usual popular two hour drama featuring Downton Abbey. It will be missed but there is sure to be something else historical offered in its stead.

But to my mind books are better by far than television. I have my list already compiled and although committed to cooking Christmas dinner this year with all the trimmings I'm hoping to get the chance to indulge a bit with the memoirs of Alexander Fuller who grew up in Rhodesia before it was renamed Zimbabwe and writes so evocatively of that troubled time  Maybe make some progress on Wing CommanderThomas Francis 'ginger' Neill's The Silver Spitfire. I am about half way through this RAF pilot's exciting and often humorous account of his assignment to assist and advise American fliers in England  during WW11 and the Spitfire he somehow came to acquire for his own personal use.

For a little light relief I can take up again where I left off in 'French Women Don't get Facelifts' by Mireille Guiliano...and keeping my commitment to updating in Goodreads

And dare I hope that other readers might be reading some of my books curled up by the fire and getting lost in 'Like One of the Family' or 'The Straw Hat' short story collection with what-do-you know - four Christmas stories on offer. Check it out.

amazon.com/author/nestatuomey

Offer ends today 5th December.

Day 4 just ending.One more day to go, one more chance to download for free from Amazon 'Like One of the Family'  Just click on the link amazon.com/author/nestatuomey

Looking forward to hearing your opinion. It's a big book so I don't expect to hear back until 2017. Even a few lines would be great, encourage other readers to suss it out and post their views. Alice Sheridan of Commuting Times said, 'Like One of the Family' is a sensitive, powerfully written novel that will have you in tears one moment, smiling the next and in a state of shock the next. It is one of the best books from an Irish author this year."

So be sure and avail of the chance to check it out and see if it's true.

Today

Today's rhe day. You can download for free my book Like One of the Family from Amazon. Offer lasts for 5 days until Monday 5th December. Share and enjoy. If you feel moved write a review. Would love to see it. Hope so anyway. 

#poweredbyindieOne More Day.

Looks like there's just one more day to go and then it will be Thursday 1st December and the beginning of five days of plenty.

 I'm talking about plenty of free books by the title Like One of the Family. 

Everyone can download one for free on that day and begin reading.  Enjoy!

#poweredByindieTwoweeksuntilfreegiveawayof LikeOneoftheFamily

Time is flying. Only another two weeks left to go before the start of free downloading of  Like One of the Family.As the back blurb goes it is a moving story of an Irish family of passion, tragedy and love. Just the thing to get deep into over the Christmas holidays. It has all the ingredients of a good read. Free give away starting Thursday lst December until 5th December. 

#poweredByindieDon't say I don't keep my promises!

Good news! Starting on Thursday lst December copies of my ebook 'Like One of the Family' are available for downloading from Amazon free.

The offer lasts for five days.

The story is about Claire Shannon,  the child of a broken marriage, who experiences happiness for the first time when drawn into the warmth of the McArdle's family circle. Later, in the aftermath of a tragedy that occurs she believes her childhood secret is buried and forgotten - until she falls in love with the son of the man who abused her.  Download and enjoy.

#poweredByindieTiming is everything

I love Chris De Burgh singing that song 'Timing is everything' and when you think about it he has a point.  Maybe for writers and artists more than anyone else timing can make or break your career -  or for writers lessen  your chances of having your book published - and is the reason why Chris sings that song with such feeling. Of course the song is all about the power of love but so are many of the books we write or the lives we portray.  In Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' it was timing in every case that led poor Tess to her sorrowful ending at Stonehenge. If only she had met Angel Clare before the wretched Alec had  taken her innocence and made her pregnant, if only the priggish Angel had had time to mature a bit before falling in love with Tess or that they had both lived in a more enlightened age - one in which Angel did not blindly believe in double standards, one more lenient for men and less so for women.

But Hardy wrote about the age he lived in with all its hypocrisy and pitiful human failings. He wrote about what he knew and he wrote it honestly, tragically,even poetically.  It's what he did best.

So here now is one writer becoming obsessed with time, desperately hoping to choose the right day to begin the  Amazon KDP Selection Program having received confirmation that copies of my ebook 'Like One of the Family' have been successfully removed from all selling outlets other than Amazon -  and my enrollment completed. So far so good.

Shortly I will be starting off my 90 day Amazon exclusivity with five days of giving away free copies of  my book to anyone who wants to download and read it. All I want  in return is that they like the book and have an enjoyable time reading it.  Well, maybe I want a little more if I am being honest. I would be pleased no, absolutely delighted if they felt moved to write a review of my book and maybe even get a discussion going of who it was who did what and why they did it and what happened then. How great that would be!

 In the meantime I am spending time consulting the stars, pondering on my horoscope and pulling petals off flowers while murmuring this week, next week. Perish the thought. Only kidding!.

But undoubtedly the timing of this venture is crucial if readers are to know about this big beautiful book coming their way for free.  Anyway I will soon have to name the day and get busy drumming up a bit of advance publicity. All I can tell you now is that you will know very, very soon,

That's a promise!.

An eight year old's memoir of Rhodesia during the Bush War.

For my birthday this year my son who greatly admires Alexandra Fuller's writing gave me 'Don't let's Go to the Dogs Tonight'. I read this well written memoir while on holidays and very much enjoyed it.Fuller writes with honesty, insight and vivacity resonant of Molly M. Kaye's writings on the Indian Mutiny and her childhood growing up in India. The words spring off the page, the style explosive, her story of growing up in Rhodesia during the Bush War written without sentimentality of her loving but eccentric racist, hard-drinking parents who teach their children once they are five years old to strip and clean a gun and keep it in readiness on their beds at night in case of attack. She writes of her beautiful older sister Vanessa whom she describes as 'the conversation-stopping beauty in our family' without envy, with awe even, admitting to her own desire to win the approval of her Dad and be like 'an army guy' cleaning and loading her father's FN rifle and her Mum's Uzi wllingly, not wanting to be classed as just one of what her father angrily calls, 'Bunch-of-bloody-women-in-the-house'. But it is the languid Vanessa when goaded by her father to 'Bloody well strip and clean your gun' who surprises them all when she decisively lifts the heavy gun and with deadly precision fires off a few rounds, putting shots clean through the head and heart of the target, a cutout crouching terrorist figure stationed at the end of the garden. Fuller labels these the happy years and describes them with a certain humour and deprecating honesty. When the greatest tragedy occurs Fuller is eight years old and she leads into it with the line 'It's during Christmas when everything is green-growing with the rainy season'. While her parents take Vanessa with them and go shopping they leave Alex at her Aunty Rena's farm in charge of her three year old sister Olivia whom they all adore. There is an entrancing store on the farm sweet with treasures. Bright nylon dresses hanging from beams in the roof among the gleaming silver-black bicycle wheels, crates of Coca-Cola, an explosion of incandescent sweets, bubble gum with gold foil inside a pink, bubbled wrapper and sweet gobstoppers all of which make Alex forget her little charge long enough for the terrible thing to happen. Only when someone remarks on the absence of the toddler and a search commences is the heartbreaking discovery of the child lying face down in the muddy pond behind the farm and she says 'my whole happy world spins away from me.... I will never know peace again, I know. I will never be comfortable or happy again in my life. ' Is it any wonder Fuller's parents drink to excess, all joy gone, no longer caring how they live, their sadness and grief over Olivia's accidental drowning coming after the earlier catastrophic death of two other infants bornto them in earlier years. Fuller's mother goes into a deep depression from which she never recovers. From then on she always has a glass of brandy in her hand, desperately drinking non-stop, trying to eradicate the pain of loss. Running through the book is the deep enduring affection between the two sisters who look out for each other feeling thwarted by their parents refusal to acknowledge the turmoil raging about them. 'Don't exaggerate,' is their typical reaction when the children speak of falling bombs and the sight of dead, mutilated bodies or the sexual assault on them by their parents' drunken friend when left in his care and forcing them to run across the street to seek asylum in a neighbour's house. Apart from their sorrow there is one thing binding the family together and that is their deep, abiding love for the land they live in, whatever name it is called by, Rhodesia or Zimbabwe, for no matter what this land continues to lie unblinking under the African sky and succeeds in drawing them back every time as they struggle to survive the trauma of those early years, and to live with the scars they have suffered.


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