Making Sense When Life Doesn't
Written By Cecil Murphy
Publisher: Summerside Press
ISBN: 978-1609362249
Pub. Date: April 3, 2012 
Pages: 208

 The Litfuse Publicity Group and Summerside Press sent me a review copy of Making Sense When Life Doesn't last month free of charge for a honest review. I read the book right away, but for some reason I have been having the hardest time trying to start this review for it. As it says on the back cover, "Life is Messy. Cluttered. Disorganized." So I think my life is currently cluttered too, with all the books and papers piled up on my desk.

I have been an avid reader all my life. My mother was a voracious reader too. She would go to the library every week to pick up books for herself and books to read to us children. I can hardly remember a time in the evening when my mother didn’t have a book tucked under her chin devouring the words at warp speed. My father was a big reader too. He read magazines like Life and Look, non-fiction biographies or autobiographies, and he read the whole set of Encyclopedia Britannica just for fun. I’m serious!

I definitely picked up the reading gene from both my mother and father. I loved the trips to the library especially when I was old enough to pick out my own books. I thought that was so cool. I read anything and everything to include being a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys fan.

As I grew older I developed such respect for the authors whose work I read. I adored how they put the words together to tell a story. I would read certain passages in a book over and over again because I loved the flow, the rhythm of how the words came together and the intent behind the words. The art of writing and storytelling held me spellbound and I wanted to be a person who could work magic with words like the authors I read.

In the tradition of the 80s and 90s Point Horror teen books, comes The Unsacred Gift by C.S. Dorsey, where a young woman, Sissy, carries a terrible secret - she has visions of someone's death just by touching them.

Her grandmother's birthday is approaching and Sissy returns home, after leaving her small town for several years, to attend the party. To her surprise, her mother has been engaged to a man for over a year. Sissy continues to have nightmares of her sister's death from when she was a child. She recalls trying to warn her mother of what was going to happened, but it was too late.

Summer is ending and the school year is about to begin for high school students and College students. While getting the proper school supplies and school clothes is normally a high priority for parents this time of year, there is another priority you should consider - making sure your teenager has the proper vehicle to drive. Accidents happened everyday and finding a reliable, safe vehicle for your son or daughter to drive is a must for parents.

Before you hand over those keys to your teenager, you want to make sure they have the best vehicle to suit their needs, like the Dodge Journey, which can seat up to seven people, but you might want to tell your kids not to over crowd the vehicle. Too many distractions can cause car accidents, so as a parent you might want to set some limits as too how many people can be in the car, no texting while driving, loud music is a no-no-no, drive within the speed limit, etc. Tell you’re teen if the cell phone rings, never answer it while you are driving. You can pull over and then check your messages. Now not letting your teen have a cell phone in the vehicle will cause you nothing but worry because you don't know their whereabouts, so telling them how to correctly use one while in a car is a must, especially if there is an emergency.

Forty-some-years ago, an apocalypse destroyed most of civilization all except for a small group of humans whom has established a community called Genesis. Life isn't easy for these people, as clans of vampires and werewolves want to eliminate the human race.

Rachel Clancy is struggling with her newfound responsibility of being part of the "Warriors," a select members of Genesis who have the ability and strength to take on the night creatures. And of course she is still has mixed feelings about her ex-boyfriends, all while she is somewhat handed pick to lead the Warriors. There is no more hiding from the creatures. They must fight back with everything they have or humanity will be lost forever.

When I was younger (we won’t get into age specifics here), the alpha-male hero was predominant. You know, the rude, aggressive, and inflexible man that needed to find his heroine before he grew a heart and any real sense of humanity. Am I exaggerating? Maybe a little, sure. But this was (and still is) a typical romance hero. And while I appreciate reforming a too manly-man with the power of love I don’t think it’s the only type of hero women want to read in romance.

Josh Wiley, my hero in Hollywood Ever After, is not an alpha-male – in the traditional kick-butt and take names kind of way. But he is, without a doubt a hero. He is singularly swoon-worthy and masculine without kicking anyone’s butt. Well, he does kick alien butt, but only in the movies he stars in.

So why did I choose to write a young, straight-forward, and romantic hero?