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TWILIGHT HEALER
by Barbara
Custer
ISBN 1-4033-5446-4
To order go to
BN,
Amazon, or Borders.
Interested in writing a
review?
Call 1-800-839-8640 x 244
Night To Dawn #13
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Reviews
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would like to submit your review for publication consideration, please fill out
this short form and Ms. Custer will reply shortly:
For Night To Dawn Reviews, click here.
Read Barbara's interview at Urban Book Battles.
Click Here!
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 Blaster
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.
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Copyright
2004 Barbara Custer