Review in short, Tombstones by Vincent Spada at Goodreads

Jacqueline Howett is the author of The Greek Seaman. A seafaring novel.

TOMBSTONES: Ten Tales from Beyond the Grave by Vincent Spada

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reviewed by Jacqueline Howett.

Tombstones, ten tales from beyond, by Vincent Spada's. Here's the short on it. Short stories from a walk through the grave yard.

Experiences in graveyards make for great reflected walks and you may even get a few answers from those in their graves. Did you ever wonder about the lives in those graves? Vincent Spada brings them to life. You also become a little more educated with American history from some of ten tombstones that start from the 1670 period and reveals the mentality back then and the civil war, right up through to 1985. But there's a twist to the last grave, but it makes sense of the whole book. Well, it makes you think what others might say about you when you pass on. And there is so much more to this little book when given to reflection. Once you know more about these real life people who once lived, but now in these graves as bones. It makes you think, hmm, and your not so scared any more. Especially when you think about your own family and those closest to you.

I shall try to scan his book cover in later when I get a moment. It is a black and white book cover. You can buy his books at Amazon. Scroll down through my October blog post to see my other review on Vincent Spada's book, One Under The Sun. Or you check out my goodreads page.

Vincent states in his intoduction. "There is a graveyard in the town I live in. It's very old and decrepit, and foliage has crept up on its tenants and turned the grounds into a spooky forest. I sometimes walk along the walls of this cemetery and gaze down upon the names chiseled into the headstones. I wonder; Who were these people? How did they come to their untimely, or timely, demises? perhaps I can shed some light on their darkened pasts."

Vincent Spada's discription sounds just like one where I grew up near to in Wimbledon, London, England called Putney Vale. There is a forest and a pond and a walk down to a wall to the entrance of the graveyard. It is where I buried my mother in 1996 just along the wall.

CAN ANYONE INTERPRET DREAMS/
Funny I should be doing this kind of review today, I really had no intentions. It wasn't in my mind, and I had read this a month or so ago. But last night I had a dream I was going to die the day after tomorrow. Some people - angels came and told me it was time to go. So if I don't post around next week, you know my number was called. I also remember in the dream they wanted to cut my hair just under my ears for some reason before I left and then all I can remember is giving my BF the longest kiss ever. It was so real, this world didn't matter any more.

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I have now reviewed all three of Vincent Spada's books. His other two, One under the sun, poetry book, and Said the Kitty to the cat, is a childrens book.



View all my reviews

Jacqueline Howett is the author of The Greek Seaman. A seafaring novel.

Turkey soup recipe.

Making Stock
1 Remove all the usable turkey meat from the turkey carcass to save for making sandwiches later or for adding to the soup.
2 Break up the leftover bones of the carcass a bit, so they don't take up as much room in the pot. Put the leftover bones and skin into a large stock pot and cover with cold water by an inch. Add any drippings that weren't used to make gravy, and any giblets (except liver) that haven't been used already. Add a yellow onion that has been quartered, some chopped carrots, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, celery and tops, and some peppercorns.
3 Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to bring the stock to a bare simmer or just below a simmer. ( If you would like to have a clear stock, do not bring the stock to a boil, but keep the stock below a simmer, as the more you simmer, the more cloudy the stock will be.) Skim off any foamy crud that may float to the surface of the stock, if any.
4 Add salt and pepper, about 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper. It sort of depends on how big your turkey is. You can always add salt to the soup later.
5 Cook for at least 4 hours, uncovered or partially uncovered (so the stock reduces), occassionally skimming off any foam that comes to the surface, if any.
6 Remove the bones and veggies and strain the stock, ideally through a very fine mesh strainer.
7 If making stock for future use in soup you may want to reduce the stock by cooking it longer, uncovered, at a bare simmer or just below a simmer, to make it more concentrated and easier to store.

Making the Turkey Soup
Prepare the turkey soup much as you would a chicken soup. With your stock already made, add chopped carrots, onions, and celery in equal parts. Add some parsley, a couple cloves of garlic is optional. I like mine plain. Add seasoning - poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram, and the oregano as optional.  A bouillion cube or better, Swansons broth. Cook at a bare simmer until the vegetables are cooked through.
Optional.You can add rice, noodles*, or even leftover mashed potatoes (or not if you want the low carb version). or simply just cut up some nice size bite pieces of potatoes half way through cooking. Add little of the stuffing towards the end into the soup is good too.
Take some of the remaining turkey meat you reserved earlier, shred it into bite sized pieces and add to the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes a dash or two of cayenne gives the soup a nice little kick or add a dash of Tobasco.
 Yummy.

Links to buy The Greek Seaman, the debut seafaring novel

Jacqueline Howett is the author of The Greek Seaman. A seafaring novel.

The Greek Seaman novel is available to buy for the moment as an eBook online on Kindle from Amazon and they have downloads for the PC computer, iphone, ipad, Blackberry & Android. Here is... the Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Greek-Seaman-ebook/dp/B003XF22PU

Also you can buy The Greek Seaman online from Smashwords in so many more varied formats and aslo from borders online. Here's is the link:http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/21046

I am placing this up today due to having queries where and how to buy my book. So this link should help without scrolling and digging untill I can fix a widget connection.
Jacqueline Howett

SPICED COFFEE BREAK AND GREAT SIGHTINGS

Jacqueline Howett is the author of The Greek Seaman. A seafaring novel.
On my second cup of Joe, in the morning I have taken to adding a dash of cinnamon and a dash of cayenne. It is great for the sinuses and a nice change to bring in the holiday season. A Happy Thanksgiving to you all. It's time to cook the Turkey.

Great Sightings – At McQuestionable Musings

I like to read from a broad spectrum and for those of you who also do, Debbie Mack a Mystery and crime writer is giving everyone a chance to win a free signed copy of her book, Identity Crisis, if you leave a comment to a question. She is presently on her last stop of her blog tour called 20 Question blog Tour at McQuestionable Musings, Karen McQuestion’s blog, and Karen has a lively, colorful and exciting blog to read I may add. Check it out. She is also number one on kindles best sellers list. Now dig this question: Question 20: If you had your life to live over again, what would you do differently?

The drawing will be held on Debbie Mack's blog My Life on the Mid-List next Saturday, Nov. 27, to allow time for people to leave comments.

Poetry Reading on video

Welcome. I am posting here a video reading as a poetry excerpt from  my chapbook Amorphous Angelic, selected poems. You can find more of my poetry readings on YouTube. Click on video links in the side bar to stay on the blog or click the link below. Hope you enjoy these metaphysical poems in my British accent. The ebook should be available very soon. Jacqueline Howett.

Click here to hear YouTube video Poetry Reading by Jacqueline Howett

The Greek Seaman book. A video excerpt. Click on the arrow in picture to view.