Wrinkles by Mian Mohsin Zia

Wrinkles: A True Love Story by Mian Mohsin Zia

“Wrinkles” by Mian Mohsin Zia WINS Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest 2016 held in USA.

According to Readers' Favorite the 2016 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest featured thousands of contestants from over a dozen countries.

Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest features entries from new authors to New York Times best-sellers, as well as Hollywood celebrities like "Jim Carrey" and "Henry Winkler".

Mian Mohsin Zia is an International Award Winning Author, Self-Publishing Specialist & a Marketing Specialist.

About the Book:

Wrinkles is a tender story of unconditional love that crosses generations and genders, cultures and creeds and removes the wrinkles from souls. Well-developed characters that carry beyond the pages from Cape Town, South Africa into readers’ hearts and reveal the wrinkles resident there. Zia is a voice for tolerance and change one person, and perhaps one wrinkle at a time. Once again the author takes a slice of a life lived by a strong, complex central character in a circle of relationships that makes him everyman (and everywoman by extension). He asks the hard questions of life and leads readers to sometimes surprising answers that hold TRUTH that teach and transcend without a hint of didacticism.

I have enjoyed watching Zia’s writing career unfold from book to book. He is a strong voice of not only literary Pakistan but the literary world without pretension, heavy-handedness or wordiness. His writing is honed and deep while telling a simple story in simple words that is not simplistic and lingers long after the final page is read.

About the Author

Mian Mohsin Zia aka "M I A N---No Time for Love" is a brilliant, humble and dedicated author obsessed with writing great books. He is an Internationally acclaimed Pakistani author, marketing, and self-publishing specialist. His books have been rated 4 and 5 stars on Amazon and other sales channels. He has set new trends worldwide in novel writing with his books. New York Times bestseller & Edgar Award winner author Mr. Burl Barer refers to Mian Mohsin Zia as "the brightest light on Pakistan's new literary horizon." For more visit: www.mianmohsinzia.com

I received a .pdf copy of this book from the author to read and respond with my unbiased review.

An Interview with Author Ella Jackson

E. C. Jackson

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

I’m excited. Finally, the number one goal of my freshman English class has been realized. After a lifetime of wanting to write books, “A Gateway to Hope” is published. This one accomplishment answers many years of prayers.  

Describe the plot of “A Gateway to Hope” in a few sentences.

Neka (Nikhol Lacey) is a beautiful twenty-one-year-old introvert. Without a word to anyone, she leaves home to support a friend when his fiancée breaks off their engagement. James Copley is twenty-nine and every woman’s dream man. Despite his fiancée’s desertion, James still needs a fiancée so he can take control of his family’s business. Neka’s arrival offers the perfect solution to Teri’s defection — until Neka’s father attempts to maneuver James’s scheme into fulfilling the Lacey agenda. 

Who do you think would most appreciate this book?

Anyone who wonders what their life might have been had they made different choices. And those still seeking God’s purpose for their life.  

What inspired you to write a book about a shy, beautiful young woman who has the opportunity to help out her friend in a very unique way?

I believe that there is a little of Neka in all of us, but life has a way of muddying those unique qualities everyone receives from God. Difficulties, missed chances and thwarted dreams obscure our pathway, and then we accept the mundane instead of utilizing our natural gifts and talents. Neka can allow life to lead her into an alternate position or she can make decisions that fulfill her destiny.

Tell us a bit about the protagonists, Neka and James Copley.

Though grief came from different sources, they both suffered hurts while growing up. Neka masked the pain by putting on a brave face and pretending not to notice the exclusion and snide remarks. James harnessed each attack, using them to validate his calculating behavior.  

What are some of the challenges Neka and James face?

Can they embrace a life together without losing themselves in the process? How do they blend two diverse lifestyles into one? And they must decide if it’s worth taking a chance on each other.  

Who was your favorite character to write?

Actually, I liked writing both characters equally. I enjoyed Neka’s optimistic approach to life as she came to terms with reality. And James’s self-styled stage managing of everyone else’s life bumps heads against another master manipulator.

How do you hope readers react to “A Gateway to Hope”?

A Gateway to Hope

I hope they relate to the characters as believable and see the story as a real slice of life. That is part of the slogan on my website. The write way – a real slice of life. 

Are there any authors who have influenced your writing style?

Jane Austen. I’m pulled into her stories, especially my all-time favorite book, “Pride and Prejudice.”   

Tell us about your creative process, from initial idea to published manuscript.

The story flowed once I placed my fingers on the keys. Yet, I learned a lot through writing this first book. It’s hard to believe that I rewrote each chapter several times before moving on to the next one. However, I wised up halfway through the first draft and wrote the last 15 chapters before critiquing them. Many scenes were removed during the editing stage. No more overwriting. 

While writing “A Gateway to Hope,” did you ever use personal experiences as a reference?

On occasion, I identified with certain aspects of both characters.

How do you feel about the increasing popularity of eBooks?  

Publishing the e-Book was simpler than publishing the paperback.

What are your goals as a writer for the next ten years?

Writing one bestseller per year that adds purpose to the reader’s life.

Is there any aspect of writing you don't like?

Book promotion is difficult. The introvert in me shies away from exposure.

What do you have in mind for your next project?

Another standalone book following the hope theme.

Is there anything else you'd like potential readers to know about your book?

“A Gateway to Hope” was a labor of love. I hope everyone enjoys Neka and James’s story just as much as I enjoyed sharing it with them.

The interview was featured on: http://www.writersinterviews.com

Strait to You by Fran Reinert

Reinert, Fran. Strait to You: A Novel. Tate Publishing and Enterprises: 08/28/2012.

Publisher: Perfect Paperback ISBN-10: 1620241692 ISBN-13: 978-1620241691 $22.99

Publisher: Tate Digital Edition $15.99

Amazon: Kindle Edition ASIN: B008FQRFAO $7.99

★★★★

For their thirtieth wedding anniversary, agoraphobic Fran plans an Alaskan cruise for herself and her husband Larry. She works with a travel agent to be sure there are no buses. To be sure there is a table for two. To be sure there are direct flights between Philadelphia and Seattle. All to deal with Larry’s phobias. The direct flights were not quite so straightforward, and they have to ride a bus from the airport to the ship, however there is a table for two.

At last they embark on the last cruise of the season, and things go well until the ship, with engines silenced, passes groaning glaciers. Larry and Fran watch from the terrace of their cabin. Suddenly, the ship's captain urgently asks all passengers to return to their rooms since there is a lot of glacial motion reported. Fran and Larry continue to watch, as massive pieces of ice break off and crash into the water, as the ship heads for the last port of call, a logging village called Pastore.

After visiting a few tourist shops, they head to an arena to watch a logging demonstration. Fran realizes they left the video camera in their room. Concerned Fran’s arthritis is bothering her, Larry seats her on a bench. There, just above they landing, where people are catching tenders going to and coming from the two cruise ships anchored some distance off shore, she can sit and watch for him. Larry moves toward the tenders, and Fran tries to keep him in sight, but soon the end of the line beomes the middle of the line…

Suddenly sirens go off in the town. Then the bone-chilling whistles of the cruise ships begin to sound their emergency signal. People with panicked faces rush toward the line leading to the gangways to the tenders. Fran loses sight of Larry as she joins the other passengers focused on getting to their ships. She panics. All she wants is to get to her room and Larry. Larry is not there. There is no sign Larry has been there at all. Anywhere. Fran falls to her knees.

Thus begins a journey. Way beyond her itinerary. Way beyond her comfort zones. With the help of God and the people she befriends, Fran sets out to find Larry. To go home. And to never leave again.

Reinert sends her vulnerable characters loose in Alaska where people take care of each other, just because that is what people do. Being in Pastore, the temperate fictional coastal town, a day’s drive from Anchorage, across the strait from Russia, as winter begins, provides layers of urgency and suspense to Fran’s search. The right people, in the right place, at the right time is a little over-simplistic. But, at the same time, this allows the reader to remain focused on Fran as she bravely sets out to do something she has never had to do before, without the one person she has been able to lean on since she was a teenager.

Minor inconsistencies in grammar and sentence structure, and uses of clichés gives the writer opportunity to grow as she explores other characters in other settings. Reinert handles twists in the plot that could easily look contrived, in such a way to keep the reader turning pages. And, at the end, the reader will want to follow Fran home to see how the new Fran handles being home again. The reader will also want to follow Reinert home to see where she will take us next, and whom we will need to cheer on as we did Fran.

Chapman, Vannetta. A Simple Amish Christmas.

Chapman, Vannetta. A Simple Amish Christmas. Abingdon Press, 2010. ISBN: 1426710666 Rated G – Adults and Young Adult 

Annie Weaver returns to her Amish home and roots when her father’s buggy is hit by a car. She drops everything and comes home to Mifflin County from Philadelphia, where during her rumspringa, she has secretly gotten her GED and received her RN degree.

Expecting to nurse her father back to health, she is peeved when Samuel Yoder “a farmer with a minimal knowledge regarding herbs and medicinal workings” shows her three times how to dress her father’s infected wound.

Chapman has written another warm, innocently sweet romance. Annie comes to understand God’s intent for her life along with realizing how she can use what she has learned to support not only her father, but to assist the rest of her community, and even Samuel Yoder.

“Not your average” Amish novel. Chapman incorporates not only her knowledge of all things Amish, but of human nature and love whether found in caring for young cancer patients in a modern hospital, but in a simple farm house where a difficult birth calls on bravery and gentleness.

Nickels by Karen Baney

Niki’s roommate, Marcy is determined to find the perfect man for her friend. With her twenty-sixth birthday coming, Niki feels no urgency to find love. Her blind date Chad would be perfect for Marcy.

She does regret that her entire life could be minimized into one word: coding. Between assignments,  she waited for Brian, the CEO of Elite Software to transfer her to a new client. Brian assigns her to her dream job at Helitronics, the largest DoD contractor for helicopter aviation electronics.

Then Kyle Jacobs reenters her life and turns everything upside down. Niki has to learn to work with him since he also is assigned to the new project because of his military record and flight experience. Niki has a hard time letting go of the image she has carried of Kyle since high school.

The letter she received just before her brother was killed by an IED carries a passion about getting to know Jesus. Somehow Niki has to go beyond the past, and move beyond her painful memories, then when her heart is open, she finds the One who can hold her heart and even make Todd, who seems to be sabotaging the project, insignificant.

Karen Baney has penned a story and characters that linger past the last page. The reader is invited into the world of a computer programmer, a software engineer, or coders, or developers or whatever one wishes to call them. The characters are  a “snarky, funny, unique breed.”  Baney’s faith allows her characters to change.