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Following is the review that
will be posted at
www.lighthouseliteraryreviews.com under July 2006
reviews. Â Thanks!
 Courtney
Review Coordinator for
Lighthouse Literary Reviews
FOUR AND A HALF BEACON REVIEW FOR TWILIGHT HEALER
by Barbara Custer
Leslie Taite has a learning dysfunction and even though
some believe with her impediment she might not have the
mentality to work as quickly as others, she is indeed a
good worker. Working as a respiratory therapist at the
Betsy Ross Hospital, the co-workers have a tendency to
be judgmental when it comes to her mother’s suicide and
one of her brothers sometimes feels the same. After one
highly upsetting incident she leaves the hospital only
to end up in an automobile accident. When she awakes,
she has a memory loss, but is thankful for Alex Wallach
who saved her. Â He not only becomes her protector, but
her friend as well as some strange things begin
happening in the hospital. As deaths begin rapidly
occurring in the hospital , she doesn’t know who to
trust when vampires begin to appear, as well as some
duplicates that bear an uncanny resemblance to her.
When someone named Hades plans to kill every vampire,
it leaves her wondering will she even be safe with Alex
as her protector after learning the real truth
surrounding him.
Twilight Healer is a mesmerizing page-turner. Leslie’s
character emits a wide range of emotions as she is
dealt a loaded deck in her life. I loved the part where
Alex was thinking about loneliness after Leslie’s
accident and he envisioned it as if it were in a
circle, comparing it to the way the bats circled a body
in Adria. The in-depth characters of Leslie and Alex
seasoned the story greatly. The way Ms. Custer pens her
characters and the plot is truly magnificent. Her
detailed descriptions allow the reader to visualize
everything in the story making it quite believable. For
a moment I almost felt those icy fingers of dread
touching my spine just like Leslie. Great dialogue,
intense writing and a turn of events that will keep one
on the edge of their seats, this is a fantastic read.
Reviewed by: Â Linda
Disilgold Soul Magazine salutes Barbara
A. Custer with the YOUnity Guild Best Debut Horror Website of the
Year Infusionary Award of Excellence 2005, YOUnity Guild Best Horror
Magazine of the Year Infusionary Award of Excellence 2005, and
YOUnity Guild Breakthrough Vampire Horror Author of the Year
Infusionary Award of Excellence 2005 . To contact Barbara A. Custer,
try the DSG Brown Pages YOUnity 5 Star Book Directory online
featured at pressreleaseblaster.ibuilder.com.
Book Information: Title: Twilight Healer
Author: Babara A. Custer Publisher: Author House Genre: Fiction
Horror ISBN: 1-4033-5446-4. (Paperback) Price: $15
Barbara, thank you for your Night to Dawn
newsletter. I received it Saturday and read most of the short
stories (?) before falling asleep. No, no nightmares. LOL As you
know, I'm very familiar with the supernatural genre. Marsden's
review of Vampire vs. The Werewolf was interesting. But I'm
surprised he didn't mention the myth about Lilith, allegedly being
the first female vampire after being expelled from the Garden of
Eden.
Publishing NTD is quite an accomplishment. Wow!
Minnie E Miller
www.millerscribs.com
Amnesia and work related hassles become the
least of Leslie's worries
when she discovers she has become a vampire. Though this has some
advantages, among them a healing gift, the need for blood and the
facts
that she is now part of a centuries old war with other vampires and
demonic deities of legend are drawbacks. To have the man she has
come to
love, to have a life, she must stop Drusilla, an otherworldy vampire
and
fight Hades.
This is certainly not the usual vampire novel. Bringing together
elements
never before mixed, Ms. Custer creates a unique setting in which
other
worlds are only a heartbeat away, or less if your heart no longer
beats.
Thanks for all your hard work. Let me know if you have any questions
Barbara
I was delighted to
receive my copies [of Night To Dawn] in today's mail. From PA to
the Badlands of New Mexico in only two days! The stories, art work
and poetry were great. I read it from cover to cover in one sitting,
just couldn't put it down. I especially enjoyed The Visitor and
Canopied In Darkness. I am already counting the days until October
and issue #8.
It's an honour to have
Rolf's first printed appearance among the pages of Night To Dawn.
Thank you, for giving the Chylde a home.
-Harrison Q.
Blackwood, http://hqb.8k.com
by Ginger Johnson, editor of
Detective Mystery Stories
Ms. Custer has a winner here. I was taken into her
world of vampires and the Undead.
Leslie Taite is a respiratory therapist who is mildly
handicapped, and is taunted by her co-workers and one of her
brothers, who blames Leslie for their mother's death. She is always
being called stupid or some other euphemism because she is "slow".
Leslie comes to blame herself for things that go
wrong in her life, especially on her job, and her mother's death.
Leslie
is employed by the Betsy Ross hospital, and tries really hard to do
the job at hand perfectly. She gets really upset when things happen
very fast and she doesn't completely understand the instructions or
doesn't get them done fast enough to suit her boss or co-workers.
This happens with one or her patients, and she leaves
the hospital in an upset state one night. She has an accident and
develops amnesia as a result of a head injury. She has selected
memories, but a lot of her recent memories are gone.
She is saved by a man that she knows slightly, who
later becomes her friend and protector, Alex Wallach.
During this time, there are some murders and attacks
on some of the hospital workers, and bats have been seen around the
hospital. They sit on window ledges outside Leslie's room. Leslie
is terrified by them and terrorized by her co-workers.
Ms. Custer brings out the best in Leslie and has her
becoming Undead/Immortal in this story. (Leslie finds out that Alex
is Undead, and he changes her into being Undead also, when she faces
actual death from being attacked by Drusilla, a vampire that hates
Leslie.) Leslie agrees to her "turning" Undead, as she faces certain
death otherwise.
Meanwhile, she falls with love with Alex and they
both face Hades and his minions so that they can survive.
Ms. Custer has a winner here. And I'm sure you will
enjoy this book. She makes vampirism and Undead believable. A must
read for the horror enthusiast.
Review By Ginger Johnson, editor of
Detective Mystery Stories
Read this review and interview by Delores
Thornton:
Click here to read (opens in a new window)
From PressReleaseBlaster.com-
“ Twilight Healer was one book I could
not put down without reading all 501 pages from beginning to end,
and missing any details. Barbara Custer may very well be one of the
hippest horror fiction writers to hit the literary scene, and just
in time for Halloween alongside your fireside. Get some hot
chocolate, a warm robe, cuddly slippers and your favorite reading
glasses, Twilight Healer has just brought back science fiction
intertwined with vampires, mythological creatures of the underworld
and reminiscent of the movie, The Twilight Zone, but fit for a
television series like the X Files.”
Leslie Taite is your ordinary worker at a hospital that administers
respiratory therapy to patients, but there is a big problem, her
boss, Daniel Crawdord, fails to issue adequate supplies causing
Leslie to accidentally kill a patient. On top of the death of a
patient, dead bodies are showing up in Pennsylvania leading people
to think Leslie is insane and dangerous. It does not help that she
has a learning impediment.
In the midst of Leslie’s struggles to overcome amnesia from a car
accident, she becomes susceptible to a parallel and dimensional
world that allows a murderous, and modern day vampire by the name of
Drusilla to transfer memories to each other. Now Drusilla wants
Leslie dead who harbors her thoughts and may lead Hades, ruler of
the underworld to find these vampires roaming the earth and sentence
them to eternal damnation. Leslie believes she is dreaming, and
refuses to believe that vampires are existent until she is kidnaped
by Drusilla and left in a cave to die without her IV. It becomes
apparent that Alex her friend, is a vampire as well, and does the
inevitable to save Leslie from death.
The plot twists and turns with suspense as Kentworthy, Drusilla’s
husband, and a 200 year old vampire is sought by Hades for seducing
his wife, Persephone. Leslie must bring Kentworthy to Hades to spare
her own life after costing a patient his life, and keep the dreaded
Drusilla away. All forces clash with horror, and graphic scenes that
make readers wish this book was a movie to watch.
What I enjoyed the most, was fact checking Barabara’s mythical
reminisces of fictional characters that were on point and made me a
believer that the author who apparently resides in Pennsylvania with
her husband is a serious contender for “Science Fiction Queen of the
Millennium!”
My only suggestion to bring this work into the mainstream market at
full force would be 1. to correct frequently underscored lines
evident throughout the book for italicized dialogue among the
characters due to a change in font by her print on demand company to
make her text fit margin guidelines for printing, and fortunately
can be fixed right away with a change in font. 2. modernize the
cover to make it more vivid, appealing, and possibly in hard cover
to compliment number of pages. Perhaps, the author’s own talented
drawing as exhibited in her Horror Magazine publication, “Night To
Dawn” instead of a manufactured cover by her printing company would
serve better. 3. Seek to promote this work to a big house publisher
for a book deal and make a mark in a genre this author is clearly a
leader in and may be on her way to branding her name in an arena
that has a lot of fans. 5 STARS!
-Review by Press Release Blaste
I finished Twilight
Healer and really enjoyed it. One of the strengths
was the fact that, though there was medical stuff in it, there was
no
jargon involved. In fact, I think a lot of people can relate to
those
medical situations. For example, I actually own a BIPAP machine
because I
have sleep apnea. I hope I won't have to wear that thing forever
though.
My grandmother had a situation with a nasty therapist during her 8
month
hosptal stay in 2003. It's funny because that same therapist has
gone on
to become a minister and is doing her co-op at our church, much to
my
grandmother's dismay!! haha. But it's neat that it would be in the
book
because it shows how there are those types of therapists out there,
even
if the behavior is unprofessional.
I liked the issues Leslie had with her brothers as I think a lot of
people will find it easy to relate.
Also, I have a colleague at the library who reminds me very much of
Leslie because of her learning problems and occasionally negative
treatment from peers.
One other thing.....I acquired some US postage the other day for
SASEs.
My neighbor was in Buffalo and picked them up, which is good because
George Dubbleyuh has made border crossing very difficult. Do you
think
one 37 cent stamp is enough for a normal sized envelope?
Later
DEREK
Love the site
- best of luck with book sales!
Sarah Richard
www.sarahvrichard.zoomshare.com
Dear Barbara,
Just got in from a long day at work to find #8 on my welcome mat.
Good
mag, and it was nice to see some others I'm working with like Nancy
Jackson in there as well.
Just to let you know that I will NOT be cashing my cheque. You see,
not
only is the first cheque I have received for a story, it is also a
very
fancy looking one. It is going in a frame for my office, hopefully
the
first of many!!
Can't wait for to see the vending machine in issue 10!
Yours, with dark gratitude,
Dan.
