Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

   (Visionary Living Publishing, 2021). ISBN: 978-1-94217-56-4 A few disclaimers to start. My wife Tonya and I have investigated some of the locations discussed in this book. The author also references some of our findings as they pertain to the Greene County Historical Society and Museum, which we have investigated with him on several occasions. We are listed in the Acknowledgments and one of our books is listed in the Further Reading section. That said, we have been visiting and investigating southwestern Pennsylvania for more than a decade—well before we were introduced to Kevin Paul by his coauthor on the first book in this series, the now deceased Rosemary Ellen Guiley. We have friends who own considerable acreage in the area, and we have done several home and business investigations and haunting mitigations in the county independent of our work with the author. If you read the bestselling Haunted Hills and Hollows , you’ll notice that Paul takes a slightly different approac

 (Odyssey Books, 2021). ISBN: ISBN: 978-1922311238 (ebook) The Amber Crane is richly researched historical fiction with complex metaphors and a touch of magical realism. Before you begin, have a look at the cover, which holds a clue: a squadron of World War II planes and, amidst them, a crane carved in a chunk of amber. Once you begin to read, you’ll see that the story primarily takes place in 1644, during The Thirty Years’ War (although no one living and fighting in that time knew how long it would be). The story’s protagonist is Peter, who is training under a master to join the amber guild and become a paternostermaker , so named because they mostly made rosary beads. Like my 22-year-old daughter, Peter has never known life without war, and it has touched him in many ways. His older brother Lorenz—handsome, charming, and popular—who served in Queen Christina of Sweden’s Army, was killed during the war, although it was not combat related. Peter’s mother died of grief at the new

  (Next Chapter, 2021). ISBN: 9798451056851 For the past three years, as part of my work as a Chautauquan and historical education specialist, I have portrayed Ernesto “Che” Guevara, one of the key personalities in the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro in the late 1950s. Much has been made of Che—to some a hero/Messiah-like savior and to others a heartless mass murderer. He is admittedly complex. As are all who choose the life of the revolutionary. This is the core subject matter of Alejandro’s Lie . Taking place in a fictitious country called Terreno (meaning “ground”) in 1983, which has suffered a military takeover ( junta) and now dictatorship by General Pelaron (meaning “to skin an animal”), the book explores the motivations of both those on the side of the general and those fighting against him. Although the book is rife with political complexities, it is primarily a character study. The main characters in this drama are the Alejandro of the title, who is a former guit

 (Gumshoe – A Next Chapter Imprint, 2021). ISBN: 9781034490845 “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” —Thomas Jefferson With this opening epitaph, Pete Adams had me hooked. As the US Federal Reserve (neither Federal nor a Reserve) buys up all it can at a bargain under the banners of Qualitative and Quantitative Easing amid whispers of a trillion-dollar platinum coin Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen could use to avoid a government shutdown, even some old-money families like the Rockefellers in West Virginia are chiming in to say “The Fix Is Fully In.” Dead No More opens with a car fire that kills two police officers—a mother (Dawn) and daughter (Carol)—and facially scars their granddaughter/daughter, Juliet. Carol’s husband, who is “something in the City,” which is code for a man of importance, is also killed. It’s clear that the two officers were murdered because they were working on a case involving high-level families and

  (Glannant Ty Publishing, 2016). ISBN: 978-1539080763 A few months ago, I reviewed Solaris Blueraven’s Alien Intelligence . Although One Million Miles ‘till Midnight uses much of the same subject matter (the abuse of technology to create a Matrix-like false reality on Earth and unlocking our true nature as cosmic beings), Alien Intelligence was Blueraven’s nonfiction account of what she experienced at the hands of operators of “synthetic telepathy” and artificial intelligence. In her words, it is “a reflection and parallel of an event I was inducted into in 2004 involving exotic technology and artificial intelligence” (from the Foreword). Blueraven’s story is provocative, as well as controversial. Considering, however, the debate about secret-society symbolism in pop culture (especially music); that, through Operation Paperclip, the US State Department brought Nazi scientists to America after World War II; and the existence of nefarious government-sponsored programs like MKUltra

  (Next Chapter, 2021). ISBN: 9781006495731 “Buy me a drink, Becker, and I will tell you a story.” (Part Three) Spanning four decades in three parts, Tom Vater’s Kolkata Noir is a good old-fashioned detective story with the addition of a love affair never enacted and abundant socioeconomic and political commentary. Part One takes place in 1999 in Calcutta, India. Although thoughts of a hellish place and the Broadway revue Oh! Calcutta! immediately come to mind, the author tells us in the Acknowledgments that “[d]uring the Raj [the period of British rule from 1858 until the independence of India in 1947], Calcutta was the world’s second most economically powerful metropolis.” The story opens with the hunt for suspects in the brutal back-alley murder of Abir Roychowdhury, a powerful and wealthy man whose wife, Paulami, a socialite and well known in her own right, is unfaithful with two men, one of whom—an Englishman—is the principle suspect. Leading the investigation is Inspec

  “Secrets in the Sky”: A Review of Imagine That: The Magic of the Mysterious Lights by George Yuhasz. Illustrated by Egle Bartolini (Outskirts Press, 2019). ISBN: 978-1-9772-0267-3 Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world .—Albert Einstein Human beings have always been Starwatchers. Skygazers. From stone calendars like Stonehenge to elaborate cosmologies and creation mythologies involving the Moon and Sun to the personification of the constellations as humans and animals, humankind has been fascinated with the Sky from the very start of our journey here on Earth. Pictographs in ancient caves are the first Sky Stories. The procession of the constellations marked the cycles of both agriculture and religion, giving birth to countless rituals and traditions. There is also a fascination with the Sky at work in the lives of Dreamers and Visionaries. A child who is labeled one or the other is also referred to as a Skylarker, a

   (Ptolemaios Publishing and Entertainment LLC, 2021). ISBN: 978-0-09892584-8-7 It’s always interesting to read the end of a main character’s arc, rather than its start (David Chase’s The Sopranos ). We meet in Immortal Alexandros an Alexander the Great whose cumulative battle wounds (including numerous blows to the head) lead him to paranoia, violence with staff, and a relentless march to the Mediterranean over seven years. As age, disease, harsh environments, and constant battles decimate his army, I reflected on the “Myth of the Great Man” that’s caused suffering and death throughout human history. Immortal Alexandros presents a historically accurate physical world, with immersive descriptions of open-air markets, harems, battlefields, the Hindu Kush, and other locations. Equally immersive are descriptions of Zoroastrianism, military tactics, and medicinal techniques. Like William Hurt’s accent in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village , I found the language at first to be too mo

   (HRPR Blackberry Publishing, 2021). ASIN: B09FKTCVZP When I was a boy, I was lucky enough to have a giant finished basement in which to play. My grandfather, a talented wood-worker, made my brother and me a big toy box (you had to be careful, because if you didn’t lock the hinges, the heavy lid came down on your head while you were digging to the bottom for some action figure you needed RIGHT NOW). After a long day of active imagination and deep-immersion play (which I never outgrew: I am a writer, actor, and content creator), it was then time to clean up. Uh-oh! What a mess! Hundreds of toys spread throughout the room and my Dad on his way home from another long, frustrating day at work. Suddenly, it was a shift from the free-reign of imagination to the discipline of having to follow the rules in a hurry. My solution? I would take two of my father’s barstools (the cool kind, with circular seats that swiveled) and drag them over to the toy box. Instant garbage truck! I would p

(Next Chapter, 2021). ASIN: B096M2H3PP If I’ve learned anything in my 11 years as a paranormal investigator, it is that a high percentage of hauntings are the result of a ghost—a sentient being with emotions, moods, and wants—who needs to tell their story. The reasons vary… unresolved issues, revealing a secret, acknowledgment, and the seeking of justice are the major motivations, with the last being the subject of this review. Tainted Harvest is a ghost story in the grand tradition. It takes as its time and place (in addition to the present) the Deep South during the U.S. Civil War. Cities in the South (Savannah, Charleston, Harper’s Ferry) owe their atmosphere and personality to the aftermath of the war and the stain of slavery. Their navigation of the history of slavery and Jim Crow alongside the tourism industry has been the subject of countless academic studies. The ghosts of slaves and the oppressed are everywhere. In the North, Civil War–era hauntings tend to be contained t

  The Spirit of a Rising Sun , by K. R. Galindez, is a Game of Thrones–style fantasy adventure maintaining a brisk pacing of action and intrigue within a well-built story world full of rich detail. The (s)hero of the story is Oyza, daughter of a minister and main foil for the villainess, Liviana, an ambitious warrior-ruler known as Blacklance. At the opening of the story, Oyza is in a dungeon and Liviana is the reason. In the dungeon, Oyza meets Yars, a thief and witchdust addict with a taste for rum (think Disney’s Aladdin for adults). Yars is the charming, reluctant hero archetype, the drunken rogue whom the heroine with high ideals slowly molds into shape in time for the big battle. The world of the book is rich and complex, with its own book titles, oaths, different ages and epochs, and snippets of languages and songs. The countries are all at war with one another or uneasy allies, and their ministers and priests are each making political power moves within the countries the

    (2021). ISBN: 978-1-985021730 Carola Schmidt, a pediatric oncology pharmacist and author of several children’s books, including others on cancer, brings hope and passion to all of her works. She has been on the front lines and has used both her expertise in the field (she also writes nonfiction for the scientific mega-publisher Springer) and her big heart to craft stories that inspire confidence and positive action. Bald is Beautiful: A Letter for a Fabulous Girl reinforces the positive feedback and support that everyone needs—most especially youth battling cancer. Since the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, power and identity have been associated with hair. And, as we know from personal experience and film/TV, cancer treatment often leads to hair loss. When the heroine of the story is faced with losing her hair, it is an opportunity, not to mourn loss, but to have a Hat and Scarf Shower to celebrate creativity and self-expression. Many of us have hat and scarf collectio

    (Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press, 2017). ISBN: 978-1-5043-8603-6 Over the past eight months, I have reviewed several books produced in conjunction with a higher energy. Celestial beings, spirit guides, aliens, the Brotherhood, God… they go by different names, depending on the channeler or medium’s worldview and belief system. You’ll notice that what the receiver calls themselves also changes. I am married to an acknowledged and publicly tested psychic medium, so I have a deep interest in this subject. I have studied Esther Hicks/Abraham, Darryl Bashar/Anka, and many others from the lens of my lifelong training in theatre. I study voice, mannerisms, vocabulary, syntax, and gesture. I mention Esther and Darryl because I believe they are true to their word. Many others are easily outed as frauds. Because I believe she has done much more harm than good, I’ll name one—JZ Knight, who professes to be channeling an entity called Ramtha. She isn’t. It’s much harder to make a judgment—to

  (2021). ISBN: 9798677725210 I will be the first to admit, I am not a fan of zombies. I do like Zombieland , got a few laughs out of Return of the Living Dead recently, and enjoyed the third through fifth seasons of The Walking Dead . I was even a lead actor in a remake of White Zombie several years ago, although the Haitian-type zombies are another thing altogether. This is my first review, out of more than 230, to engage with the subject of this unique brand of monster, and I have made a commitment to get to know this subgenre better. I have another zombie book on my to-be-read list, so expect another review on the subject before the end of the year. As to Infection , it is a quick, action-filled read, which operates squarely in the zombie subgenre of horror/adventure, offering plenty of violence, gore, and all the tropes zombie fans love. It lies somewhere between The Walking Dead and Shaun of the Dead , the latter solely because good mates with everyday lives suddenly are fac

   (Night Vision Press, 2020). ISBN: 978-0-578-63344-2 Every so often, a book comes along that requires me to assess just where I am on the healthy skeptic continuum. Being a healthy skeptic is crucial to being a good paranormal investigator and researcher. It is not to be confused with being a cynic —a person for whom no amount of evidence will change their position that we live in a predictable, mechanistic universe where one lives and dies and is forever gone. I’m a mix of Mulder and Scully. I “want to believe” and know “the truth is out there,” but I also know we’re bombarded with false flag ops and disinformation, while some people are just looking for attention, memory is stunningly unreliable when tested, and there are mostly mundane explanations for what is initially termed paranormal or supernatural. I also believe that, one day, as science catches up to experience, there will only be the normal and the natural. We are getting there, slowly but surely. About a decade a

  (2021). ISBN: 979-8723574601 It is a joy when two authors you admire for their positive messaging and high level of craft join forces—especially for a cause as worthwhile as childhood cancer. Carola Schmidt is a pediatric oncology pharmacist and author of several children’s books, two of which are about her Ukrainian grandmother and her experiences leaving Ukraine and coming to American to escape the atrocities being committed by the Russian army, and then returning to Ukraine decades later. She is also the author of Bald is Beautiful , which is a letter to a young person with cancer. When a Brave Bear Fights Cancer is filled with photographs by Mark O’Dwyer, the author of the Mawson the Bear children’s series. Mawson—sort of a Winnie the Pooh, especially when considered through the lens of books like The Tao of Pooh —is a dreamer and seeker who is a big fan of naps and working with his equally inquisitive friends to explore just what it is that drives and fulfills us. The c

 (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2019). ISBN: 978-0-7643-5792-3 Legends of vampires have become so much a part of the fabric of who we are as human beings that we often give little thought to their origins, although those origins and how they manifest in popular culture are rather complex. There are true revenants—the stinking, almost mindless undead rising from the earth and their graves each night to satiate their bloodlust. There are the tuxedo’d, hypersexualized vampires that began with Bela Lugosi and culminated with Frank Langella on stage and screen in 1979. There are the teen and 20-something vampires best represented in Lost Boys and Twilight (the latter ushering in an age where the “monster” is analog for the human outsider and their bonding is their mutual salvation). Last, we must include the vampire/zombie hybrids that have derived from Matheson’s I Am Legend . In the age of COVID-19, we cannot overlook the virus as monster-maker, with too many films, TV series, and