"Heads in Beds" Book Review

One of the most informative and enjoyable books I've read this year is "Heads in Beds" by Jacob Tomsky. He lets people see inside the confines of the hotel industry and does it with humor and irreverence. He explains that his entire career has been at hotel jobs from being in valet parking, being a bellhop, in housekeeping and at the front desk. He tells how hotel employees get back at recalcitrant guests and how he has managed to tolerate the foibles of the industry.

Tomsky graduated from college with a degree in philosophy, a rather difficult degree to explain to potential employers, and followed through on someone's suggestion to try hospitality. He landed a job in a luxury hotel in New Orleans, worked his way up the ladder, took a year off to travel Europe and returned with a need for a job. He settled in New York, and again landed a job with a luxury hotel.

He tells readers how to get exactly what they want and more when they check-in to a hotel and when they check-out, and it's not by screaming and demanding. Basically, money talks. The reader appreciates his honesty and devil-may-care attitude. Travelers and frequent hotel guests will be delighted with the tales out of school and think twice the next time they want to complain about the service they have received. An upbeat, fascinating account of an industry nearly everyone uses at sometime in their lives but one most people don't understand.

Joan Leotta, storyteller, shines at Dickens Festival

The Charles Dickens Christmas Festival in Southport, N.C.on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 included a variety of activities and presentations, and Joan Leotta, storyteller, gave one of them. She created her own version of "A Christmas Carol" she titled "Bah Humbug" that had a special appeal because she encouraged audience participation. The children particularly enjoyed shouting "bah humbug" with Joan's prompting, and the adults didn't hesitate to join in. 

Joan is a talented actress, storyteller and writer and understands how to make a story come alive. Ebenezer Scrooge became a real person with Joan's fresh approach to the story, and Charles Dickens' story became a modern tale.

The entire community participated in the Festival by submitting entries in the Christmas tree, wreath and gingerbread house contests. Children entered the art contest. Charles Dickens' England--he lived from 1812 to 1870--was brought to life in Southport. Hopefully, the Brunswick Arts Council will continue this new tradition, so people can be aware of Dickens' influence, which continues today.

"The Community of Writers," Guest Blog by Julie Steele

Polarization. Red versus Blue. Rich versus poor. Gender wars. Liberal versus Conservative. Christian versus atheist. The media is full of articles on our divided nation. Is it really? On some levels, yes, but often we find commonality in spite of differences.

I have a wide array of friends and some people seem shocked by the diversity. I spent the turbulent week post- election pondering what so many people from all ends of the political and religious spectrums have in common – besides friending me, of course. Freelance writer. Creative non-fiction writer. Romance-in-all-its- many-forms writer. Fortune cookie fortune writer. Politically, spiritually, economically, they run the gamut. What is the common denominator for so many of them?

Words. They love words, putting fingers to keyboard or pen to paper. There is something about the craft of writing, combining words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, that creates a community out of people who write for a living or who must carve out minutes in the middle of the night to write.

Creativity. Those who write are not just good writers. They are creative souls in other ways. Many of the writers I know use their hands to knit, paint, garden, cook, upcycle, build furniture or take pictures. Maybe all the words set fire to the artistic side of our brain. Maybe we need to make something three-dimensional because we throw out our words and never hear how they have affected readers. Whatever the reason, writers are blessed with an abundance of imagination and the need to produce things of beauty.

Generosity. Writers are givers. They share tips with others who may be writing a similar book, not fearing their ideas will be stolen. Their time is spent paying forward as well as paying backward in honor of those who have helped them.

Books. We all have heard it takes books to make a writer. Not books on the craft of writing but reading books, period. The love of reading is as powerful as the need to write. The best book clubs are those whose members don’t always agree on a book but they all find time to turn the page or turn on the Kindle.

Story. Leo Rosten wrote, “A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood.” I would add “the need to understand.” When life throws writers a curve, what do they do? They write it into their book (hence of the most popular memes on FB about ending up in someone’s book if they don’t treat the writer right!). Writers experience pain, suffering, and unexpected life challenges. They use words to reach the reader and heal themselves.

The love of words and joy in writing them down is a powerful thing, helping us to see another side, find new friends and new outlets for our craft. Think about your writing community. Are there other things, besides those I have listed, you share? Do you need a little more diversity in your writing contacts, creative outlets or reading to get the pump primed in your own writing?

Pictures from balloon ride

Up in a hot-air balloon fulfilled a long-time wish

I don't know if it was the influence of "Around the World in 80 Days" or the more recent "Up," but I became enamored with the idea of floating above the trees in a hot-air balloon. I likened the experience to being free so creative ideas for future novels could flow through my veins as the balloon floated through the air.


The opportunity to fulfill this desire appeared in October when we went to my nephew’s wedding in New Mexico. We landed in Albuquerque, the city of the International Balloon Fiesta, a week after the festival ended. Residents and visitors alike talked about the 600 or so balloons and million people who had attended the event. Despite the commitment to wedding activities, I was able to reserve a spot and go up in a balloon the morning we were scheduled to return to North Carolina.

I thought I’d just hop in the gondola and be off! Not so. The massive balloon was first removed from what looked like a very large pillow case and lay crumpled on the ground. Then electric fans were put on that began blowing up the balloon. The pilot stepped inside and untangled the multiple ropes attached to it. When he finished that job, he righted the gondola from its side and tested the propane tanks. The procedure took about an hour before the eight riders climbed in.

What impressed me the most was how quiet it was as we glided 1,600 feet in the air. We could make out homes, buildings and cars below, but we couldn’t hear any of the congestion or commotion.

The hour ride provided memories that will last a lifetime. I remember the other riders: the couple who used sign language because the woman was deaf, the young married couple who didn’t have plane reservations back to D.C., the man who reminded his teen son to be polite to the others even though he was behaving himself, the 20-something lady who stayed by herself but took endless pictures with her high-powered camera, and the serious experienced pilot who had the safety of his riders as his primary concern.

I don’t know how I’ll fit these people or the experience in stories, but my mind is spinning possibilities as I write this.

"Circle of Twelve" by Ted Gagliano and Bob O'Brien

Bitter satire is the weapon of malcontents, and the characters in Circle of Twelve, a novel by Ted Gagliano and Bob O’Brien, leave no doubt how frustrated they are with the current White House. The key word throughout the book is “change,” and that’s what the 12 circle members want. Since they rule the world, it’s simply a matter of choosing the candidate that does their bidding.


The circle of 12 are financiers who meet in Switzerland 10 times a year and make decisions that affect the world. Gregory Szucs is the primary mover, and he chooses “loyals” to do his bidding from newspaper columnist Dave Krapman to his hand-picked candidate for U.S. president, Brett Pseudoman.

However, Suzanne Parker and her husband, Tim are also dissatisfied with the direction the U.S. is going, so Suzanne decides she can do something: run for office. She starts by running for he school board and wins. She climbs up the ladder: legislature then governor.

Szucs realizes Suzanne chooses to run for president as an independent and she’s preaching a message people want to hear. If she is a party candidate, she says she’d be “selling my soul to veiled forces trying to control our country.”

However, since he and his cohorts control the world, they will not let her dismantle their plans.

The book reads more like a political treatise than a novel. It covers all aspects of the political process from running for office to buying votes to re-election.

Suzanne says, “Most [politicians] are hustlers…”

“Money, since its invention, has become the ultimate instrument of power.”

“By means of confiscatory taxation the federal government uses our money to control what our children are allowed to learn and believe,” Suzanne says when she’s running for governor. “I believe that the policy of federal handouts is wrong…”

“Our federal government is gobbling up our freedoms,” she says.

“Currently, each and every crisis is met with the same vagueness and indecision that has characterized his entire career.”

The book never mentions real names except for Michael Jordan and Walter Payton, both last names are misspelled, which is so thinly veiled. The book is a total slam against President Obama, although his name is never mentioned. Pro-Obama readers will be incensed at what the book says, and anti-Obama/pro-Republicans will praise the book for its insights. It’s a personal choice, as voting in November is.

Summer Promises by Laura Simcox

Take set designer Carly Foster, artist Asher Day and degenerate police officer Wheeler Barstow and the results are a contemporary romance filled with intrigue.

Carly admits that closing her eyes and pointing to a map wasn’t the wisest way to choose a summer job, but Ruby Spring, N.M. offered her the opportunity to flee Chicago’s sweltering heat. When Daniel Day hired her to do set design and restore Ruby Spring Theater for an old play he wanted to produce, she accepted the challenge and looked forward to an exciting summer——with one exception. No romance.

Summer romances ended in heartbreak, and Carly had enough of them. No more! Until she met Daniel’s brother, Asher Day. “…his hands moved up her thighs and caressed her hips….Struggling for a good reason to stop him was pointless…” Carly thrills readers by wavering, getting involved with the wrong man and finally finding the man of her dreams.

Unfortunate situations and mysterious happenings follow Carly throughout the summer and she questions her rationale for ditching the city for the mountains. By the end of the story, readers approve of her decision. They also like Carly for her independent, adventurous spirit. She understands that life throws curves, but she adjusts to them and forges ahead with a positive attitude.

Simcox describes Albuquerque and its environs with expertise, which entices the uninitiated to mark that area of the U.S. a must-see destination. Her cast of characters are people in real life: homosexual Ross; young, happily married Daniel and Sophie Day with newborn baby Daniel; the incomparable, aging actress Marilyn Masters with her outrageous antics and her young lover, Nicky. Throughout the book there is the hope that another antagonist will appear, which heightens the intrigue.

The overall theme affirms the principle that good prevails and evil fails, and, of course, that people can find their true love.