Showing posts with label Black Gold. Show all posts

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Author Spotlight

From Rene's Getaway Blog

Books by Augustine Sam #WomensFiction #Poetry #Suspense #Romance #Mystery #RenesGetaway

Take Back The Memory

Paige Lyman, an accomplished psychiatrist, is on the verge of madness but she doesn’t know it yet. The madness begins when she gets it into her head to write her memoir. As her brilliant mind assembles bits and pieces of her life for the book, ugly skeletons, long forgotten in the closet, rear their heads.

It all begins with a simple act of love. And love, for her, is a blond-haired Irish boy named Bill, so when Bill abandons her for priesthood, the world around her collapses. Seized by a different passion—vengeance—she seeks her proverbial pound of flesh in the beds of various priests. But that’s before she meets Stern W, a medical researcher, who sweeps into her life like a hurricane and marries her. And they live happily after until he dies in a helicopter crash and she discovers the startling truth about who he really was. Now, Paige, transformed from psychiatrist to patient, is saddled with a damning memory she must decipher to be free.

Take Back the Memory is the saga of her compelling backward journey through her own life on a psychotherapist’s couch.

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The Conspiracy of Silence

The conscience of a town steeped in sexism, vanity, and hypocrisy is pricked by the brutal murder of a mysterious woman in a park in Los Angeles. The shock is soon transformed into a steamy, seductive scandal when the victim turns out to be Susan Whitaker, the flamboyant wife of the governor of California. A dazzlingly intricate shuffle of volatile links leads the police to the delicate theory of secret lover/blackmailer, and the indictment of Benjamin Carlton, Hollywood’s most influential black celebrity.

Then curious things begin to happen when Carlton’s ambitious girlfriend, Rita Spencer suddenly unearths the shocking secret that Susan Whitaker did not, in fact, exist. She little realizes however that her discovery of this colossal fraud is a mere curtain-raiser to a chilling world of ugly skeletons dating back to the assassination of a U.S. senator in a Washington hotel sauna, skeletons connected to riveting sex scandals in high places, skeletons the FBI and political king-makers will kill for…

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Flashes of Emotion

An anthology of romantic poetry, this work is both timely and timeless. It allows the reader to tap into the poet’s insights on a wide variety of topics from life and love to death and drudgery. It is contemporary poetry with a classical edge, highlighting a lively, refreshing, and innovative style – a “must-have” for anyone who has ever experienced love, pain, defeat, or joy…

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Black Gold

They are young and carefree and broke…

Femi, a young, black graduate with a 1st class degree in Chemistry, has no long-term ambitions until he meets Jessica Rhodes, a blonde exchange student from San Diego. When they miraculously land two spectacular job offers within the first week of graduation, their bleak honeymoon is transformed into a dream. With a 30-day grace period to accept one offer and a free trip to New York to evaluate the other, they soon find themselves hopping from the skyscrapers of Manhattan to the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, their once-uncertain future dangling over a multi-million dollar cliff-hanger. What they don’t know is that undisclosed details of the deal will drag them to the place where dreams end and nightmares begin.

Will their fragile marriage survive the greed, the captivating allure of Black Gold, and that vile, ancient tradition that seeks to determine who should be married and to whom?

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Meet Augustine Sam

Augustine Sam is a journalist by profession, a novelist by choice, and a poet by chance. A bilingual writer and an award-winning poet, he writes, not only hard news but literary works as well.

Journalists, they say, can be a pretty soul-less bunch at times, and while they are great at communicating hard facts they are generally less adept at expressing their feelings and their sensitivities. That’s not true of all journalists, according to Andy Smith, the editor of The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, U.K. “It certainly isn’t true of Augustine Sam who has somehow managed to combine a career in mainstream journalism with an equally successful career as a creative writer.”

It all began when he fell in love with poetry the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once. He was the winner of the Editors’ Choice Award in the North America Open Poetry Contest. His poems have been published in international anthologies, including “Measures of the Heart” & “Sounds of Silence.”

His poetry collection: “Flashes of Emotion” was the finalist in the International Book Award Contest.

Augustine Sam’s Social Media

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00QOREIB0
Website: https://www.augustinesam.com
Blog: https://authorsuite.blogspot.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/austin_sam001
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austin.sam001
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austin.sam001
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1 831067.Augustine_Sam
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/austinsam001

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

#MFRWhooks: Young, Carefree and Broke…

A black man, a white girl, and a deceptive job offer

#RomanticThriller #Interracial #Blackmail

Femi, a young, black graduate with a First Class degree in Chemistry, has no long-term ambitions until he meets Jessica Rhodes, a blonde exchange student from San Diego. When they land two spectacular job offers within the first week of graduation, their bleak honeymoon is transformed into a dream. Egged on by a free trip to New York to evaluate one offer and a 30-day grace period to accept the other, they are surprised to find their future dangling over a multi-billion dollar cliff-hanger as they hop across the Atlantic. What they don't know is that undisclosed details of the deal will not only pitch them against each other but will also drag them to the place where dreams end and nightmares begin.

Will their fragile marriage survive the greed, the captivating allure of Black Gold, and that vile, ancient tradition that seeks to determine who should be married and to whom?

Blurb

He’s black. She’s white. And they think nothing of it until he takes her home...

The scene where the young man takes his new American bride back to visit his parents without having first informed them of her existence is riveting, agonizing, and devastating as he runs unsuspectingly into a titanic clash between his parents’ traditional values and his European education, and this passage stands out as a gem in 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝.

The Hook - {Book Excerpt}

The splendid country-style bistro named Replay Café was located on Rue Grimaldi in the heart of Monte Carlo. It was a chic spot for high rollers and charming tourists, and its best-selling drink was the champagne-based l’apèritif Stephanie, a compulsive choice for the glamorous people who patronized it.

This evening—the last day of Femi and Jessica’s short-lived honeymoon—the bistro was packed, as usual, with many of its patrons waiting in line for a chance to enter. Notwithstanding the long queue, the honeymooning couple successfully bluffed their way in and found a table at the rear of the café beside a group of young, extravagant tourists, who were guzzling the expensive, sought-after drink and chattering away in French.

No sooner had they settled in than a waiter stepped forward, making them exchange gloomy glances. “Should we stay?”

Jessica’s gaze dropped to the fancy tablecloth. Teeth gritted, she sat still, unsure of what to do.

Femi gazed at her in trepidation, embarrassment oozing from every pore of his skin the way sweat seeps through a runner’s shirt. Short on cash, he realized he couldn’t afford two glasses of the drink though he was eager to treat her to it.

The waiter reached their table. “Hi,” she smiled.

Jessica lifted her face. “L’apèritif Stephanie,” she said in a steady voice. “One glass.”

The waiter glanced sideways at Femi, nodded and turned without speaking.

“We can afford one glass, right?” Jessica mumbled, averting her gaze. “I think it’s better than walking out in embarrassment, don’t you agree?”

“I agree,” Femi’s gaze remained on her face. “One day…” he said.

Jessica waved him to silence. “We’ll share it,” she offered, reaching for his hand on the table. “I understand, okay? Now, don’t give me that look.”

His gaze moved from her face to their clasped hands. He grimaced. “Okay.”

They lapsed into silence until the drink arrived. The surrounding noise increased. Gleeful laughter filled the bistro. Several couples, including new arrivals, chatted, laughed, and kissed. In silence, the duo sipped the drink through two straws, listening to the loud chatter at the nearby table with increasing discomfort.

“It’s the eve of our D-day…” Femi whispered, watching Jessica over his straw.

“Don’t say that,” she rebuked him in a mild voice. “It’s just the beginning. We have two offers on the table; we only have to decide which one to accept.”

Femi exhaled. “We know nothing about this VenChemical Group except that it is based in New York and its chairman is Italian,” he paused and regarded her. “If we accept their offer, we don’t quite know where they’ll send us.”

“New York,” Jessica said without hesitation.

“I doubt it. I was interviewed for their Africa Operations Unit, I’m not sure that’s based in New York.”

Jessica sipped the champagne-based drink and gazed thoughtfully at him. “Well, we’ll be in New York in the first week of your employment, isn’t that what they said? The orientation…”

“Yes, yes,” he nodded. “The orientation program comes first and then the moment of truth.”

“You aren’t considering the NNPC offer first, are you?”

Femi puffed his cheeks in thought.

“I mean, they gave you until the end of the month to respond…”

“I know,” he averted his gaze, pondering the job offer from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation—NNPC—a seemingly simple decision that was somehow enmeshed in the complexity of his craving for foreign currency.

Jessica regarded him. “If you choose the NNPC, I’ll understand,” she hesitated for a fraction of a second. “It’ll be like a homecoming for you, right?” She breathed. “You know I’ll live with you anywhere but if you think about it, the VenChemical Group is offering you a better condition of service and they’ll be paying you in dollars.”

Femi did not respond.

“Listen, seeing as we have until the end of the month to respond to the NNPC, why don’t we play all the cards?”

He looked up. “You mean, going to New York tomorrow to assess the VenChemical offer?”

“Right,” Jessica beamed. “After all it’s an all-expenses-paid trip. If it works out, we stay, if not we go to Lagos and take up the NNPC job.”

Their eyes locked.

She softened her face when he smiled. “Would you have acted differently if I were the one with two job offers on the table?”

“Nope,” he shook his head and a broad smile crossed his face.

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Sunday, January 26, 2020

Quotes To Live By

“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”

- John Irving

“Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.”

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

- Oscar Wilde

“Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.”

- E. Joseph Cossman

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

- Emile Zola

“The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.”

- James Baldwin

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

- Maya Angelou

“It’s easy to sit up & take notice. What’s difficult is getting up & taking action.”

- Honore de Balzac

“A great artist is always before his time or behind it.”

- George Edward Moore

“If you judge a book by the cover you might miss an amazing story”

Sunday, June 17, 2018

How To Stay Inspired

AuthorSuite Reading Room

Washington Irving says “Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune, but great minds rise above them.”

Put differently, “The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” - Eric Hoffer

And as John Ruskin puts it, “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it?”

In relation to creative endeavors according to Aristotle, it must be remembered that “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

“The hardest part of writing is not the conception of a story but the presentation of the story to readers. While it isn’t effortless to conceive an idea—though writers are generally blessed with a fertile imagination, which, in a way, is what distinguishes a creative mind from a non-creative one—presenting a story to readers in a way that makes sense to them as it does in your head, in terms of characterization, style, and plot is not easy at all.”

“Illusion,” Voltaire says, “is the first of all pleasures.” But that’s not all. “It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.”

Herbert Read, of course, agrees with that. “The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol,” he says.

“To send light into the darkness of men’s heart - such is the duty of the artist,” Robert Schumann adds.

Henri Matisse acknowledges, however, that “Creativity takes courage.”

“If you try, you risk failure. If you don’t, you ensure it,” chimes in an anonymous voice.

Elizabeth Bowen explains that it’s important because “Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.”

“The purpose of a writer,” after all, “is to keep civilization from destroying itself,” says Albert Camus.

Which might explain why Buddha says that “Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.”

But what about books? Can reading books, by any chance, be considered living wisely? Cassandra Clare seems to have a unique take on books. “One must be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

And sometimes, so do critics. But...