Deadline Books

If someone really USES it and really does the exercises (which I need to now that I have finished the book), this book could be life-changing. The way the processes and excercises are peppered with amazing success stories from real life, and fantastic quotes...I highlighted like crazy. But now it's time to take action!

I'd give this book ten stars if I could.

Jack Canfield has gone the extra mile to provide us with an exceptional plan. His writing style and technique ensures that we all beleive we can achieve. Page after page I've highlighted text. Page after page I've read about Jack Canfield's thoughts and ideas and those pages include individuals stories which support those ideas. This book is a handbook on personal growth and self development. Take the leap. Buy it. Read it and continue to refer to it.

This book reveals how to begin with you by transforming your thoughts and actions into positive goal oriented thinking. It persuades you to take personal responsibility to be and have the success that you have always desired. It encourages you to BELIEVE and take the leap into a world of success. It offers techniques for learning to let go of complaining by suggesting you surround yourself with positive influences. Jack gives a completely different way of handling rejection and how to turn it into positive experiences. He stresses the concept of giving and being a part of something greater to truly find success and happiness. He believes that being a continual student of learning is what shapes a new and better future for everyone. If you are ready to transform yourself into a positive, successful, abundant person this book gives easy to follow suggestions for your new journey.

This book is an essential Daily Reference. The chapters are broken down into concise explanations with Action points to improve a particular aspect of your own Success Formula. Each section has a Specific goal to prepare you for Success. Fundamentals, Transformation, Team, Relationships, Money and more. This book does not read like a self-help tome that you have to read all the way through to get anything out of it. Rather, the five page chapters can be reread while you're drinking coffee, waiting in line during an errand, etc, In that way, you can integrate these elements into your daily routine to give greater power to your efforts.

This comprehensive book is an encyclopedia of success principles unfolded in a logical sequence that will give anyone willing to put in the effort a blueprint for success. Canfield guides you through the 64 principles with plenty of examples, exercises, and real-life success stories that he is so good at telling.

The formula he uses is an effective teaching method. A success principle is presented, then a story about how someone applied the principle, or an example of an application, and then an instruction for applying the principle by the reader.

Many of the ideas I have read before but Canfield puts them altogether in one volume. He credits much of the material to his mentor, W. Clement Stone, as well as his coaches, including Dan Sullivan. And he quotes many famous successful people throughout the book.

Some of the book's principles that really resonate with me are "Take 100% responsibility for your life", "Reject rejection", "Ask for what you want", "Transcend your limiting beliefs", and "Make a 100% commitment".

I think the material in this book is as valuable for the CEO of a big corporation as it is for a mother with a home-based business. Reading and applying the principles is like taking a course in self-development, success fundamentals, team building, money management, and motivational therapy, all rolled into one. My recommendation is to not only read and study the book, but also keep it on hand as a reference book, especially for the times when you feel stuck or challenged. It will pull you through the down times.

And it wouldn't hurt to use this book as a textbook for high-school seniors. If they read this before embarking on their life journey, it would be a lot easier and more fun.

DEADLINE's Ben Wolf knows he is dying. An aggressive blood disease will kill him within the year if he isn't treated. With treatment, he might extend his life some. Ben chooses to refuse treatment. He also chooses to keep his condition a secret from everyone except his doctor and the therapist his doctor forces him to see. He throws himself into his last year of life. He finally tries out for football. He pursues the girl he's in lust with. He tries to sober up the town drunk. He acts up in class because what does it matter if he doesn't graduate?

Crutcher, as usual, doesn't fear including issues in his story. There's sexual and physical child abuse, alcoholism, and bigotry. At some points these issues threaten to overshadow Ben's story, but Crutcher keeps them under control.

The diminutive Ben feels fear. He feels sad and he doesn't want to die. Every time his brother or girlfriend talks to him about the future he feels guilty for his lies. But, at the same time, he's a happy narrator. He's doing things he loves and making the most of his final year. He does not regret choosing not to fight the illness with drugs nor does he regret the relationships he makes. (He should regret some of his jokes.)

I don't regret reading DEADLINE. I cried at the end, yes. Ben dies. There is no miracle cure. But I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in his head, watching him do some things so right while still making large mistakes. I cried, but I felt happy. Ben worked hard to make sure the people he affected most would be able to handle his death. He made a choice at the beginning of the novel and defended it to the death. I respect him for that. I will also continue to read Crutcher faithfully, no matter how many of his books get banned.

Excerpted from In Bed With Books

This is the first Chris Crutcher book that I have read, at least I cannot remember another at this time. I am confident that I will read more of his books. He is an exciting and captivating writer. I find it very interesting that he writes in the first person of his main character, but then adds this interesting dialogue with a spiritual character. There is great depth in the dialogues and interactions between characters. The book moved me.

This book would be appealing to oler adolescents. I would package it as follows: Have you ever wondered what you would do if you were told you had a limited time to live? This novel introduces one way that a person may choose to live a limited time. The characters are believable and come alive in this well written novel. I think you will enjoy this book.

The book was really good. At times it can get slightly boring and slow, but Crutcher always brings things back up to pace again.
It's written very, very well, and the ending wraps it up nicely. Few parts are predictable, having many surprises throughout.
I would definitely recommend it.

If you have ever read the book A Walk to Remember, or even watched the movie, then you know the feeling that you get when you find out that your favorite character is dying. Intense sadness; anger; desire for change; hope that it's not true; and then finally, you just give up. You know it's true, but in the end it doesn't make it any more bearable.

In Deadline, you know from the very beginning that Ben Wolf is going to die. It is inevitable... even on the front cover it says it. The evidence is everywhere. But, since it's introduced so early in the story, you don't really think about it as more than a plot point.

So, what would you do if you were going to die? Well, I'm sure there are different answers for different people, but I know Ben's answers. He wants to make a difference. He wants to stick out. He wants to live life to the fullest; and he does. He goes out for football, despite the fact that he weighs less than a hundred and thirty pounds. He befriends the town drunk. He starts arguments in class, trying to get people to think about life and the way things are. And he finally gets the guts to ask out that perfect girl he's had a crush on.

And throughout all of this, he is the only person (besides his doctor and his therapist) who knows that he's dying. But obviously he can't keep it that way.

This book was truly amazing. It's a real page turner, from the very first sentence. Chris Crutcher isn't one to waste words; he doesn't write anything that doesn't mean something to the story, so this book isn't full of pointless banter. It has feeling. It has meaning. I can truly connect to the characters in a deep way. I felt like there was just the right amount of sarcastic humor and life messages to make this a really enjoyable book; you will laugh, you will cry... and you will also fall in love with this book.

I am a middle school teacher and read this book over the holiday break. I really enjoyed it but would recommend it for high school-aged readers. There is some cursing and references to sex, which I'm not saying is bad. As a teacher, I just know I'd have some unhappy parents to deal with if I assigned this to my 6th graders (although they would have really enjoyed the story). Great themes of loyalty, friendship, and courage.

This first chapter captivated me. It was political, romantic, exciting, and meaningful. Engelhard's expressions were original and made me say to myself, "Hey, he just said what I've always thought but never said it so succinctly." I loved the dialogue, made me want to join in the conversation.

Someting I haven't done in decades:
I read it in one sitting.
(which made dinner over an hour late!).
Bringing King David's own
story into the newsroom and connecting
it with the current situaion
in the Middle East, and its nexus with Muslim extremism,
has put me on the edge of my seat.
Can hardly wait for the next installment!
Please hurry.
JUDY SILVER-SHAPIRO
Mill Valley, California

...about Papa Hemingway, drinker, Civil War aficionado, and famous resenter of the Hebrew tribe, bordering on severe dislike.

Engelhard doesn't waste an Iacoccan-iota with this story, settling right into the brass tacks of the matter, the prose mirroring the profession of leading man and Managing Editor of the Manhattan Indpendent, Jay Garfield: lines remain always to the point, present only the facts, are spill out in a no-nonsense style. Indeed.

I was making notes during my read-through, and I'm going to reproduce a few of the quotables from this first segment:


~~~

"Babies are born with their fists clenched -- that tells you something."

"Be kind," said Philo of Alexandria, "for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."

"Never get too close to your heroes; you will always be disappointed."

"Culture is good if you've got the time. America is in a hurry."
(ADM: this one was my absolute fave!)

~~~

Four examples of metaphorical mastery, care of Jack Engelhard.

It's clear to see why his story has garnered a perfect 5-star rating, with -- as of my writing -- a week's worth (7) reviews to his credit.

The message which Engelhard attempts to put across in this piece comes through subtly, though fairly.

I sensed a tendency to want to tar a group (Arab Muslims residing in the 22 "Arab" nations) with a larger (and perhaps rightfully so?) brush, yet Engelhard opts for something less incendiary. I suppose -- though I don't necessarily *want* to state this one fairly -- that's the so-called "right" thing to do, isn't it? (Am I bootlicking enough yet? I can bend lower, if you like).

In getting to know the protagonist of Jay Garfield well, one would tend to think Garfield's views should automatically tilt towards the "pro-Israel" side of the spectrum; in other words, anti-terrorist.

Yet when character has an opportunity to exact his revenge -- as you'll read -- and to demonstrate a marked predilection for either one side or the other, the author clearly leaves this up to us to decide for ourselves. No spoonfeeding here.

I'm sure there are hordes of bleeding-heart liberals who would gladly appreciate such an equanimical gesture. Go, liberals, go.

Like I mentioned at the outset, shades of Hemingway are readily visible in this piece. Boxing metaphors -- as I'm sure the jolly mojito-sipping white bearded one would have liked -- abound, and the text bears this out: One-two, jab-cross, Engelhard works us over with a few stray combos, peppering us lightly with a series of plot turns, seeing what we're "made of."

With each passing transition, Jack takes us one step further into his narrative, the realization becoming clear that we'll eventually have to commit to one side or the other, unable to fence-sit as to whether or not we admire the seeming despicable likes of the character of Phil Crawford, for example.

In terms of the "damsel in distress," Lyla Crawford, Engelhard draws up this character delightfully, and several times I could envision myself, with shades of past experiences, having been through the sorts of rendez-vous that characters Jay and Lyla get stuck into. I've loved and lusted like that before in this short mortal life, and a mighty Standing-O to Jack for thrusting my wet noodle back into that mental sphere; a place I once so wanted to remain, and perhaps where I shall eventually return.

I've got heaps more to say about this Short, though I suppose I'll leave more of it for Parts 2-9, coming right up. I've already whipped out my plastic.

Jack knows how, folks. God bless him, Jack knows how.

-- ADM in the Golden City, admiring the bums who drink themselves batty on homemade rum, then lean over like Mr. Creosoat in the Monty Python picture to hurl, and watching the Africans who are disparaged in this very racist white Czech society, which aspires to strident EU-membership but which doesn't really deserve the opportunity.

Witty, sexy, romantic and filled with political and philosophical gems. The shifting sands of modern journalism are well captured, as are the civilizational rifts at the forefront of global politics since 9/11. Intriguing characters and excellent writing make this a real pleasure to read. The first installment ends on a tantalizing note and I look forward to what promises to be a thrilling part two.

There's something in this novel which feels to me like votive candles flickering in the church at night... I can't adequately explain why, yet.

Having begun reading the serialized version of this novel with the first part in the Amazon Shorts series, The Bathsheba Deadline - Part 1, I was thoroughly impressed after finishing chapter 4 (half-way through part 1), and ordered the book:

The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel.

That's how Amazon Shorts are supposed to work!

Really liked the rhythmic, colloquial writing style, especially from the perspective of a warmly human journalist who would, in his professional mode, be required to write in a nearly opposite style. The effect of that colloquial rhythm is of an intimate conversation with the reader, who immediately likes this guy's openness, his free flowing "speak," and his interesting/unusual takes on everything in his life, profession, and path. That easy, personal prose made getting into the read a snap.

In fact, my husband happened to see the printout of part 1 on our table, while I was cooking breakfast, and he sat on the stool by that copy and began reading. He didn't look up until he had finished the first stapled segment of half of part 1. Even when he moved from the stool to his normal seat at the table he didn't look up, and ate breakfast while reading. Whenever Tom does that, you can take it as a supreme compliment. Of course, every opinion and life blurb the author wrote, along with every attitude would be exactly to what he would say "right on!"

He's done that only with a couple other Amazon Shorts singles or series, one of which was John Cassell's Armageddon pair Armageddon: 1973 - Part 1 and Armageddon: 1973 - Part 2.

I enjoy reading a book so much more if I can share it with my husband, which is, sadly, rare, because we are usually drawn to read different types of material. We do have satisfying conversations, but I love reading words I know he has also read.

Now I can see more clearly why Jack Engelhard's work is special. His editorials are excellent, too, but his writing in his novels comes alive from an even higher plateau; that's where he lives, as it appears to me. I can feel his joy in the writing process there. The complexity of his mind and soul seem to need that artistic, circular space in which to stretch out and express.

The way Engelhard ended part 1 in the Amazon Short made me want to, anxious to, read more. He had developed quite a situation for Jay, Lyla, and Phil, with the intensely personal developments working so uncannily into the professional, religious, and political realms. It was shocking to realize the ramifications to even an American female citizen, a professional woman, of having her husband join Islam.

It's so easy to be in this story, mostly due to the natural flow, open intimacy of the colloquial rhythm in the way the author uses First Person Narrative, but also due to the character and plot development, and the fact that most readers (including me) seem to have a high degree of interest in the inside world of the newspaper industry. It's so rare that good novels are written from a perspective which is more mature than the typical overdone altruism, which in real life is empty words true humans couldn't stand up to if they were super-human.

Engelhard's views, as dramatized through Jay, on life, politics, and religion are as refreshingly sane as they are rare.

Reading onward, I noticed that this voice of Engelhard's through Jay Garfield was so clean and laser-etched it was easily becoming addicting.

Another quality I noticed was the appeal of Jay's habit of bringing out opposites, stating one thing, then bringing in a sort of au contraire, seeming to flow his thoughts through a dynamic equilibrium, which appeared to be part of the resulting effect of syntactic rhythm. Here's a string of examples of that effect:

--- Paraphrasing, "Phil is not likeable... that's probably why I like him... but not much... well maybe..."

--- The introduction note that the author couldn't control the character Lyla, as she was able to control Jay

--- Descriptions of Lyla frowning/fearful, then smiling, with a back-and-forth emotional flickering of clouds and sunlight.

Through Garfield, Engelhard's prose, voice, rhythm, whatever, has an amazing amount of that flickering, contrasting of polarities. The effect might be seen as a delightful political hedging, but it isn't hedging... it's much more than that. To me, It feels like a mind trying to comprehend the duality of the universe, not wanting to leave untouched any polar end of any definite continuum, so that any ultimate conclusion won't have missed acknowledgment or awareness of any cache of opposition.

The moral conflict was well dramatized, of the desire in Jay and Lyla to allow Phil to go ahead and get himself killed through at-risk reporting, as Phil seemed to want to do (not get killed, but to "go there"). The way Engelhard indirectly explained the thematic connection to the King David dilemma (though it appears that He solved the dilemma simply, seemingly without internal conflict, with Kingly entitlement?)... was a good exercise of literary art. I don't have an in-depth recall of Biblical parables, and enjoyed how the author evolved that enlightenment in crafty layers, almost like a delicate pastry dough (I've forgotten its name).

Appreciated the irony in Jay's comment, "Lyla's an atheist, thank God." That's an even more tightly connected example of Garfield's (or Engelhard's?) flickering-duality concept-chains.

Regarding my review's title here, I had the most awesome vision/feeling of those votive candles, the night before writing the review, with a clear connection of how it fit into the sense of the novel. Still can't quite get back to what I was conceptualizing in parallel, but I'm sure I will, as I continue immersing into the significant depths of this novel honed with the dreamy edge of a reality swirling back on itself in perpetual observation.

The relationship developing between Jay and Lyla began flowing so naturally it felt like it "was" rather than like it was developing. Engelhard's ability to dramatize depression oozed into the plot mood, collecting in Jay and Lyla's Atlantic City get away, which wasn't quite that. Both characters' personality needs were clearly contrasted, in Garfield's "This, but that, too" way of approaching life's issues.

The earlier scene with Arnold in the temple was warm and fascinating, in Jay's being there emotionally with Arnold, contrasted to Jay's too right views on how the words in the prayers didn't reflect the reality. Those ponderings were enlightening, as the mood was darkening, descending, as it needed must, due to what Jay was covering... and uncovering. The continued contemplation was intriguing, building plot tension about Phil's moving forward in his at-risk project. The way the author analyzed Jay's shifting personal motivations was complex and enthralling. Got the brain cells squinting in attempts to see through to the heart of the matter, as it appears Jack Engelhard can do, one way or another.

With great respect,
Linda Shelnutt
Author of several Amazon Kindle books and Amazon Shorts, including:
Molasses Moon
Myrtle's Ultimate Mystery
Morning Comes: the Pre Dawn Blues - Part 1
The Rose and the Pyramid (The Books of Gem)

Like most Romantics, Jack Engelhard in "The Bathsheba Deadline, Part 2" looks back to a time when a man got tangled in a woman's hair and caught up in her stockings. Our hero newspaper editor Jay Garfield drinks in reviewer Lyla Crawford like a cat lapping milk. Whatever Lyla has, Jay is hooked and so are we. The man/women thing is spun into a cannon, a musical theme, "Shall I kill my lover's husband?" repeated in numerous voices. The narrator is Man's soul-searching need for love, approval, justification, or as Jay calls it, "THE BIG PICTURE."

As Jay turns over the possibilities in his mind, he indulges in self torture. Lyla encourages Jay with "a hint of light fire playing in her green eyes." Her marriage has gone stale. Her husband's ranting, since his conversion to Islam, has left her with tell-tale "fistfuls of silence." Will she become another she-killer like the cool blondes Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity" and Lana Turner in "The Postman Rings Twice"? She says, "I feel like I'm living inside a James M. Cain novel." So do we readers, and it's a pleasure.

As someone who is barely able to recognize the names of the tribes at war in the Mideast, I can chew into this love and war epic because the characters carry it smoothly. As the writer comments, Americans think the Middle East is filled with "exotically costumed people out of Robert Bolt's Central Casting who show up for background but have no lines." Bolt, who wrote "Lawrence of Arabia," made large-scale epics human but lacked Jack Engelhard's gift of making the domestic grand.

"The Bathsheba Deadline, Part 2" holds up a screen on which we can focus, in a personal way, the great themes of today. They include religion, the power and responsibility of the media, and the Internet. Jay, raised half Jewish and Catholic, is caught in a personal struggle that stems from the roots of our civilization. He wryly remarks, "There must be a God in heaven. Otherwise things couldn't get this bad."

Arnold, a newspaper man from the old days, laments the death of responsible journalism. Today, we are left with eyelash-flapping Babes and Geraldo, news that is mere mustache. Will hard news and newsmen become extinct like dinosaurs? They have on TV, but now there is a new player. Jay hints: "The Internet is the righteous sound and fury that threatens print journalism."

A cocky young reporter Sam Cleaver comes on the scene in Part 2 of "The Bathsheba Deadline." Will he become another spider caught in Lyla's web of love and murder? Will Jay send columnist Phil, Lyla's husband, to the Middle East to get his Pulitzer Prize or get killed or both? The carefully spun story intrigues. If you missed Part 1, just click and get it. And luckily, there are more episodes to come! This contemporary noir, based on the Biblical love triangle of David, Bathsheba, and her husband, will lure you into its den with the finesse of a femme fatal.

Could not stop reading Part 2:
It was emotional for me,
happy and sad, and constantly
wanting more.
If you don't know what is happening in the world today, particularly with regard to terror, Islam etc, read this.
Was reminded of the terror-filled world I live in, and of the extremely high price Israel is paying.
The interweaving of the sacred rites of the Old Testament with the ultra-modern machinations of the newsroom is superb.
What about weekly installments, rather then monthly?

...and if you weren't convinced of his ability to spin sentences like Chinese silk within the pages of Part One, then you're clearly getting the picture right about now in this (here) second installment. I made a few notes describing several of the winning lines from this particular section, which I thought I'd share with you now:

** "The man who cured cancer surely went up in smoke at Auschwitz along with the cure."

** "Are you a bigot if by their words and deeds they turn you into one?"

** "How can you believe, but how can you *not* believe? How can you have faith, but how can you *not* have faith?"

** "He was spooked by the rage of the mixed multitudes [ADM
s note: the "erevrav"] that were again agitating for the blood of his people."

~~~

These four lines are a pure example of what goes into a Jack Engelhard piece of intelligent fiction.

To be sure, I could've scrawled a heck of a lot more than I did on this readthrough, but then I'd be filling up my review space with Engelhard-ian gems and you wouldn't be able to enjoy them for yourself, right? (Besides, a review isn't intended to be an expose...those are what I consider to be the lousy ones).

There exists a true conviction behind this man's writing, such that you're lured into the narrative magnetically -- Mr. Engelhard isn't merely telling a story for "telling a story's sake," and I, for one, appreciate that. Not to mention that I'm inclined most favourably to the position which Jack surreptitiously (and thankfully!) professes here, and I'll never cross him on that score; it's nice to know that a position on the matter can be delivered with such literary tact and taste that you hardly think of the magic that, almost McLuhan-esque, the medium is indeed the message of this piece.

>>>>> Every incident described is so real.

>>>>> Every depiction elicits a reaction or an emotional response, and I, for one, need that in the writing I choose to read.

>>>>> Every character can be any one of us, regardless of our ethnic backgrounds, etc.

What casts this Bathsheba series into the realm of mastery, is how a message is being put across that doesn't have a preachy quality to it, and I challenge any scribe out there in Amazonia to come up with the goods simiarly.

Like the Aussies say, 'good on ya, mate.

Jack, keep doin' the business. Bless you.

-- ADM in Prague

Reading onward in Bathsheba Deadline, part-2, I noticed that this voice of Engelhard's through Jay Garfield was so clean and laser-etched it was easily becoming addicting.

Another quality I noticed was the appeal of Jay's habit of bringing out opposites, stating one thing, then bringing in a sort of au contraire, seeming to flow his thoughts through a dynamic equilibrium, which appeared to be part of the resulting effect of syntactic rhythm. Here's a string of examples of that effect:

--- Paraphrasing, "Phil is not likeable... that's probably why I like him... but not much... well maybe..."

--- The introduction note that the author couldn't control the character Lyla, as she was able to control Jay

--- Descriptions of Lyla frowning/fearful, then smiling, with a back-and-forth emotional flickering of clouds and sunlight.

Through Garfield, Engelhard's prose, voice, rhythm, whatever, has an amazing amount of that flickering, contrasting of polarities. The effect might be seen as a delightfully political hedging, but it isn't hedging... it's much more than that. To me, It feels like a mind trying to comprehend the duality of the universe, not wanting to leave untouched any polar end of any definite continuum, so that any ultimate conclusion won't have missed acknowledgment or awareness of any cache of opposition.

The moral conflict was well dramatized, of the desire in Jay and Lyla to allow Phil to go ahead and get himself killed through at-risk reporting, as Phil seemed to want to do (not get killed, but to "go there"). The way Engelhard indirectly explained the thematic connection to the King David dilemma (though it appears that He solved the dilemma simply, seemingly without internal conflict, with Kingly entitlement?)... was a good exercise of literary art. I don't have an in-depth recall of Biblical parables, and enjoyed how the author evolved that enlightenment in crafty layers, almost like a delicate pastry dough (I've forgotten its name).

Appreciated the irony in Jay's comment, "Lyla's an atheist, thank God." That's an even more tightly connected example of Garfield's (or Engelhard's?) flickering-duality concept-chains.

Regarding my review's title for part 1 of Bathsheba (The Bathsheba Deadline - Part 1) and the paperback (The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel) I had the most awesome vision/feeling of those votive candles, the night before writing the review, with a clear connection of how it fit into the sense of the novel. Still can't quite get back to what I was conceptualizing in parallel, but I'm sure I will, as I continue immersing into the significant depths of this novel honed with the dreamy edge of a reality swirling back on itself in perpetual observation.

The relationship developing between Jay and Lyla began flowing so naturally it felt like it "was" rather than like it was developing. Engelhard's ability to dramatize depression oozed into the plot mood, collecting in Jay and Lyla's Atlantic City get away, which wasn't quite that. Both characters' personality needs were clearly contrasted, in Garfield's "This, but that, too" way of approaching life's issues.

The earlier scene with Arnold in the temple was warm and fascinating, in Jay's being there emotionally with Arnold, contrasted to Jay's too right views on how the words in the prayers didn't reflect the reality. Those ponderings were enlightening, as the mood was darkening, descending, as it needed must, due to what Jay was covering... and uncovering. The continued contemplation was intriguing, building plot tension about Phil's moving forward in his at-risk project. The way the author analyzed Jay's shifting personal motivations was complex and enthralling. Got the brain cells squinting in attempts to see through to the heart of the matter, as it appears Jack Engelhard can do, one way or another.

It's a cut, wrap, and then some... and maybe a "Dim Sum Banquet" as well,
Linda Shelnutt
Author of several books and Amazon Shorts, including:
Molasses Moon
Myrtle's Ultimate Mystery
Morning Comes: the Pre Dawn Blues - Part 1

AMAZON SHORTS AND JACK ENGELHARD AND I ARE JUST MADE FOR EACH OTHER. WHAT A WAY TO READ THIS BREATHTAKING NOVEL.

...because there's just too many that need repeating. Engelhard rocks!

Sheesh, you knwo, I'm just glad I've at least got a place to capture them all...so that *you* can enjoy them as well (you're going to have to read these segments and buy them on your own, folks, to get the remainder of them. Mine are merely snippets).

~~~~

"One of his books, Whittings, ran 900-plus pages, and that's longer than the Bible, and, it's been my conviction that if a writer can't get it done in 400 pages or less he's got nothing to say."

"Imagination can be fun. The rewards are endless."

"This man Spielberg and that man Kushner who wrote part of the screenplay, listen, they are okay with a Jewish State as long as it is not Jewish and it is not a state." Then: "We don't need anti-Semites. We've got plenty coming from our own families and homes."

"...that's another thing. Women are always ready. We just don't know the plot. We go one scene at a time. They've got the whole play written out."

"...since he'd switched to Islam -- and wasn't everybody these days? All over Europe, and even over here, this is happening. Phil Crawford is not alone. They go for it because it sets boundaries."

~~~~

Alright (or is it "all right?"), and this is just one segment of at least ten that are a part of what will eventually be a full novel...can you imagine the goodness?

The feelings which are so viscerally real for me in this work, the ones that I could relate to:

** men and women that are supposedly engaging in an adulterous relationships and the lust/love dynamic that they're forced to brook in being so involved.

** work colleagues who are having sex outside of the workplace, and how to deal with the dalliances as concerns other uninvolved co-workers (my question to the author would be...has this ever happened to him?).

** how to keep your personal opinions under wraps when you work for a publication which espouses views which aren't necessarily your own, or, how to temper your personal opinions when they dovetail just a little too strongly with the published opinions of the paper in question? (Again, I'm going to ask the author is this has ever happened to him?)

Moving right along to segment five...

-- ADM in Prague

The 'Bathsheba Deadline' is the perfect novel for serialization: it's timely, prescient, and a cracking good read. Be forewarned: reading an installment is like watching an episode of 24-you'll be hooked almost immediately. When readers come to the end the latest installment, they'll be tempted to shout at the author, "Hurry Up!"

This superb author makes the dilemma of King David so timely, it is as though it happened yesterday.
He is able to transport the reader back over 2,000 years ago, and connect it to the machinations of one of today's biggest and most influential newspapers.
(On top of that, he appropriately quotes the Bible!)
The dilemmas are increasing for the main players:
Should a man who has converted to Islam
be put deeper into harms way by his
boss, and perhaps killed, because of his "magic" with a woman?
(the convert's wife whom he adores...)
Today it is a much more dangerous neighborhood
over there, in King David's land.
Hamas, in charge:
Primary purpose is to murder Jews:
A Jewless Israel, a Jewless world!
They are called "Hitler in A Head Scarf."
Hamas' Chief, hiding in Syria, plans to enter Israel.
I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE AUTHOR WILL DO WITH HAMAS!

"The Bathsheba Deadline - Part 4"

Boss Editor Jay Garfield of the Manhattan Independent is in deep trouble. He is stuck on sexy book editor Lyla, married to reporter Phil, who converted to Islam. Lyla, sensational as ever, in "The Bathsheba Deadline Part 4," reveals a little dark secret that throws new light on her relationship to husband Phil and her romance with Jay. She glitters, she shines, but what does she really want--fun, someone's head on a stick, power, a juicy story?

Tortured by loyalty to a powerful father figure, not to mention his typically Jewish guilt, Jay wonders if his clandestine affair with Lyla, which is becoming ever more public, is really worth it. He wonders how the Biblical King David wrestled with himself over murdering Uriah, the husband of his lover Bathsheba. Jay believes, "If this is not high romance, then it is nothing. If this is not David and Bathsheba, then it really is nothing." At the same time, he can enjoy the excitement of sin.

Jay's personal torment makes the affair and the players universal. We love it, every tense, fascinating minute! Jack Engelhard comprehends--BECOMES- the characters and we are drawn inevitably into a tight web of suspense. Read it now. If you missed, parts 1 - 3, go get them. You are in for a treat. It's hot!

Letha Hadady, author of Asian Health Secrets

I've been following this novel and love every installment. Can't wait for part 5! Simply outstanding!

It isn't often that a novel manages to encapsulate both the current and the classic---to exist in the present alongside echoes of the past. Jack Engelhard's The Bathsheba Deadline is a notable member of this rare species.

On one hand, a scintillating love triangle based on the biblical story of King David, Uriah and the beautiful and desirable Bathsheba, The Bathsheba Deadline is also a clever and wonderfully perceptive look at contemporary journalism and the post-9/11 political backdrop.

Indeed, political junkies looking for fiction straight out of the headlines need look no further. Engelhard captures a country, and a world, caught up in conflict and haunted by the specter of the unknown. It is a time in which the modern and the ancient all too often collide.

Engelhard also captures the crucial role of journalism amongst it all. The setting for the novel is a fictional daily newspaper called The Manhattan Independent and the lead characters are its managing editor, book editor, and a reporter. As they grapple with news cycles, deadlines, internal power plays, and shifting ethics, it's clear that Engelhard, who has years of newspaper experience under his belt, knows of what he speaks.

Nonetheless, the new media looms large and Engelhard is clearly taking the pulse of the future. He gives credit to the growing influence of online journalism and the blogosphere, or, what he accurately labels in the novel, "Bypass Journalism."

Online journalism is, in fact, starting to supercede the mainstream media and Engelhard knows it. Given that he himself is an accomplished online columnist, his observations are right on the money.

So too is the way in which he weaves fictional characters with real life figures from the world of online journalism. Being a member of the latter group, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself a recurring character, of sorts, in The Bathsheba Deadline. Various fellow travelers in the new media also make appearances in the novel's pages.

But the book has much more to offer than journalism or politics. Filled with romance, sex, witty banter, philosophical reminiscences, heart stopping thrills, a no-nonsense (and, I might add, sexy) lead man and an ever-alluring femme fatale, The Bathsheba Deadline is an entertaining ride.

It's the kind of novel I found myself nodding in knowing agreement and smiling or sighing in shared sentiment throughout. Beyond the great characters, the elegant writing, and the charming slices of life, it touched on so many issues that I found personally and politically relevant that I couldn't help but be drawn in.

And I have no doubt others will do the same.

**This review appears as the book's Foreword.

In his novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, Jack Engelhard has crisply, brilliantly reflected our deadly world in its ugliest, dirtiest descents. Yet the novel's varied moods shift regularly into a barely perceived, underlying beauty, seeming to refract darkly, through a war-cracked looking-glass. Using a simple, yet subtly-sophisticated syntax, this author voices deeply-rhythm-ed Songs of Israel, back-dropped by the relentless clacking of dedicated Underwoods.

"Phil Crawford was easy to dislike, which is probably why I liked him.... Maybe I didn't like him all that much, but he was okay. We had our differences, politically."

I'm not merely impressed, but in awe, of how many threads of vital issues Engelhard has woven and mirrored in BATHSHEBA... right-now politics; media foibles and "facts"; deadly-dangerous, romantic roller-coaster rides; political correctness spotlighted in hypocrisy and lack of glory; spiritual moments dawned in the ebony richness of potential doom...

Yet the weave is not too tight. It allows spaces for contemplation between color contrasts; it allows repetition of subplots to prevent unraveling of wayward strings.

The result is a kaleidoscopic tapestry of an engrossing tale which should be terrifying and depressing by content, yet which gives an incredible amount of hope, because of, rather than in spite of, Jay Garfield's last line, which is as exquisitely honest as it is inevitable. Loved that line, though my favorite line was of political incorrectness gone right, from Jay to Lyla, "Can't you stop being a girl for a minute?" I wanted to stand up and cheer.

A favorite plot twist was Jay's Muslim friend's wife breaking out in compassion to Jay, "Allah be with you." THEE favorite plot twist was a Muslim acting rightly to save Jay's bacon, no fuel intended! My favorite exposure was not a Northern one; it was the "going South" of the dark sides of religion and politics, as they enact the power and purpose to sink humanity in one tar glob, into the black holes of anti-life, where falsehoods are sold as truth. (That tar would not be aligned with environmental mania's attempts to discard industrial waste; it would be the byproduct of philosophical idiocy burned balsamic into goo.)

Every word in this novel, alone and by its placement within phrase, syntax, paragraphing... speaks of literary power, full-on and brilliant. The reader receives those searing spotlights willingly (actually he begins craving them). This reception occurs within a strange type of comfort, within what could ironically be called light entertainment. I see this light touch as essential, since what the author is exposing through Jay is a world, now and through history, which should be irrevocably hopeless.

Engelhard's composing style, and gentle use of constant contrast ("This, but that, too") seem to serve as a continual release of the bondage of powerlessness... a bondage which sometimes arrives from setting in concrete a belief or stand, before the time has come to do so. As Garfield says, a true prophet always knows what time it is. Jay comes to his time at the right moment.

I believe Engelhard could accomplish this release for readers through fiction or through his type of journalism, as he chose. In this wholeness of effect Jack Engelhard has transcended the literary greats (who too often begin and end with nothing beyond eloquently detailed depression).

This transcendence comes through a painting in words of the elemental forms of profanity and powerlessness.

This transcendence comes within a syntactic paradigm of a not overdone, barely-there sense of hope for redemption, a sense of joy in the power of a soul connected to the Height of Good...

(... even if that good is way up there somewhere, barely reachable beyond ozone layers and holes in the Universe, beyond the broadest rainbow... yes it was a HUMAN who stole the ONLY pot of gold... and it wasn't John Galt!)

For me, the most potent segment of this novel is Jay's journey to, and short stay in Jerusalem, where he sinks into the physically dark, spiritually enduring events and ambiance there. In that pilgrimage, this novel's power explodes and implodes. An uncanny dynamic balance comes to catharsis through a scene in a motel room in the middle of the night:

... the sense of a presence... the shadowed, mirrored image of a tall, thin, bearded man... the gifting, discovery, and working into acceptance of The Blessed Cane.

That scene had the seated feel of being lifted from a lucid dream Engelhard may have had, around which he may have written this book. The actual dream there served as a quantum kernel of hope, seeded within the essence of horror.

The motel room sequence felt like touching a spiritual force, delicately but absolutely, like touching a purity of potency which is not limited to any religion, book, or viewpoint, possibly not to be as easily found in any of those, as through the individual soul of each human being. It was so very appropriate that Jay would touch that through his father's heritage, sharing it from that paradigm. Icons of religious trappings, talismans, and traditions exude a mesmerizing magic. These can be good, as can an un-tethered soul in solitary search.

After contemplating the Jerusalem sequence in the middle of night, I clarified what I saw in connection to this novel, in a puzzling vision of red votive candles, which I had after reading the first part of the book. This novel subtly nurtures a type of hope I felt in my youth, from red-votive-candles flickering in church at night. I felt a clean, quiet sense of rightness to come. As I felt that subtle connection to BATHSHEBA, doubts flared, discounting the feeling and votive candle parallel:

Why would an image from my Catholic past intrude on a novel with Jewish spiritual symbolism (which has always fascinated me). Yes, Garfield's mother was Catholic; his father Jewish. But that joined contrast wasn't woven into BATHSHEBA'S plot or subplot tapestry...

It was after reading the scene of the Rabbi-Blessed-Cane, that I realized the link of the cane to the candle. I was sparked to visualize those images artistically overlapped in a painting of spirit-in-oils which might do justice to this novel's holy moment. I couldn't hold the symbols within the same visual, tactual space. They needed to be kept separate to avoid breaking down a reality, a reality which is working both those icons, and more like them, from different spiritual kaleidoscopes. Yet, I wanted to see them together.

I can recreate my vision of the votive flickering... or I can call up Jay's vision of the shadowed presence in the mirror (felt like a rabbi from higher realms), and the cane.

The red-votive flickers gave a welcome memory of my few times as a child going alone to the church at night, sitting in a middle pew on the right, breathing the presence, focusing the candle collections, always lit. Sometimes I would kneel by the candles and pay my coins to the box, then watch the flame I had lit, for a long, peaceful time. I enjoyed being in the church alone at night much more than I enjoyed the Masses with their Holy Words (they were supposed to be holy, were to me then, but I don't quite see some of the meanings that way now) voiced, read, and prayed, among the day's light and crowds.

The above doesn't begin to hint what this novel draws to consciousness, even on the spiritual tumbles of the kaleidoscopic tapestry of BATHSHEBA. Then there are the political, journalistic, romantic...

Buy and read the book! See how this wealth of global microcosms works into a story of high entertainment, possibly better than any other book you've read, with more truth exposed than you'll know what to do with. Months will go by; you'll reflect on these scenes and schemes, and you'll know.

With confidence I say that Jack Engelhard expertly manages the medium of the novel, as he does journalism and op-eds. He is an Nth degree, mastered professional of the effective use of the writer's voice.

With greatest respect for those among us who walk with words,

Linda Shelnutt

Shelnutt is the author of several Kindle books, including MYRTLE'S ULTIMATE MYSTERY; including The Books of Gem: THE ROSE AND THE PYRAMID, FULL MOON RISING, NEW MOON BLUES, QUARTER MOON DUES; including in Amazon Shorts a serialized novel, MORNING COMES The Pre Dawn Blues (Book 2 in The Books of Gem), and a Visceral History series of short true stories featuring the mining industry in a small town in Colorado.

I enjoyed Linda Shelnutt's story about her husband at the breakfast table. That's been my experience as well...at each sitting, I was unable to put The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel down until I had read at least twelve-fifteen chapters. It's that good....it's better. TIMELY, TIMELESS, FAST-PACED, TRAGIC, CONTROVERSIAL TRIUMPHANT...ITS ALL OF THOSE AND MORE BESIDES.

Thank goodness for self-publishing...the traditional New York houses would NEVER let this one see the light of day.

The characters are entertaining, authentic, larger than life yet so very human. Jack draws on his years of experience as a journalist to recreate the excitement, forbidden desire,ambition and backstabbing of the newsroom of the MANHATTAN INDEPENDANT [circulation close to half a million]. The story combines the fast-paced Manhattan scene and the terrorist-infested world in which we live here and now with the ageless story of fatal attraction between a tough,if pleasantly self-critical, successful man and tough, successful, gorgeous woman.

In the background throughout are several subplots spinning their way to masterful conclusion....all as seen and told through the eyes and agendas of truly first-rate characters, from the protagonist Jay Garfield, the zealous and sad Sam Cleaver, through the 100% all American Arab Jimmy Smokes and the scheming Peter Brand to the unfathomable,nutty and fatally-charming Lyla Crawford. BATHSHEBA DEADLINE is the story of something unusual and exciting for most readers, a newspaper in the thick of controversy, yet something as timeless as a steamy love-triangle...a love triangle in which the two willing members may have a way of getting rid of the third.

Jack Engelhard has another classic here...a controversial politico-romantic thriller of the first water. Beautifully populated with great characters and a story line, as Cinnamon Stillwell writes, "right out of the headlines"...and the Bible. Five Stars! John W. Cassell

John W. Cassell is the author of six novels on the American Counterculture of the 1960's-1970's and a politico-military thriller: Uncertain Paradise: 1973

I thought reporters all wore fedoras as they sat smoking Old Golds at their Underwoods. Jack Engelhard, who knows the newspaper game inside and out gives us a fascinating peek into a modern newsroom.

At the same time....reading this book I could almost skip reading the morning paper. The story line reads like the headlines of today.

Really good...really entertaining.

Critic Letha Hadady called this book "A towering literary achievement." I expected to read something special. And was I DELIGHTED to find it! Jack Engelhard's Bathsheba Deadline reads like a classic, but it contains current news, personalities, and even popular Internet columnists that keep things hopping. The main players are Jay Garfield, chief editor of The Manhattan Independent, the unlikely hero, a newspaper man of the old school. Lyla is his lover. She is brainy, busty--a dame who is a book critic. Her husband, Phil, is a born-again converted to Islam. They make an eternal triangle that involves us all in a web of suspense and current day headlines.

Reading Bathsheba Deadline is like enjoying a good cigar and brandy with your feet on the desk after a long day. You become part of a satisfying film noire. But who are the John Garfield and Lana Turner who can play these exciting movie roles today? You have to read the book: Their love, hate, guilt and retribution keep you glued until the very end. The Bathsheba Deadline cuts through the layer cake of what it is to be human - from angel to animal. We are left breathless. Bravo for a sterling work.

Yes, yes, mon!

My goodness, and what a line, what a line. Courtesy of that scribe we all know (by now) and admire, Mr. Jack Engelhard.

Indeed, folks, while the "videots" are busy arguing about the merits of banning such pre-Civil Rights movement greats like Papa Hemingway or Mark Twain (aka Samuel Adams) from the annual US high school curriculum for their over-strident use of the "n-word," you betta' believe your bottom dollaz that one wise and saintly teacher is going to have the wit and savvy to be preaching from the pages of Mr. Engelhard's collected canon.

Then again, who knows? Maybe some crackpot in the 22nd-century (will we even get there?) educational hierarchy is going to find some bunk-filled reason to purge the curriculum of even Mr. Engelhard's writings on account of his overabundant use of the "I-word:" Israel.

To them I will always say: FOOEY!

Alright, where was I now...?

Aha! Ach zo! Yet again, the Jack is back folks, with his eleventh installment of his well-spun THE BATHSHEEBA DEADLINE.

Wha'-cho got in here, you ask?

Tons, say I, Frank.

Part 11 is chock-a-block with heroism, bravery, and honor, slapdashed with that most Engelhard-ian of penchants for things of the truly deliciously (may it never end!) carnal. We zoom right back into that moral conundrum par excellence of Jay Garfield's, and his ultimate decision to "be a man" by taking due responsibility for his, um..."charges." More than that hint, I can't tell you. Guess you'll just have to go back to Bereishis (Genesis) and find out what sort of mess the good Jay's gotten himself into.

Alright.

So I'm going to just gonna flick the dust off a few of these note pages o' mine and unsheathe some of Jack's beauts here from Part Eleven:

** note to Sir Jack: William Holden portrayed the lousiest of chiefs of police as Manfred Schreiber (god, we were so naive in those days...an American as a German?--I can just hear the voices in the cheap seats yellling at the top of their lungs, "suspend that disbelief, baybee, SUSPEND IT!) in his 1976 TV movie 21 HOURS AT MUNICH. I thought it was a damn rip-off of a way for the late great actor to make his thespian exit...anyways, as I was saying...

p5 --> Great line: (Am I losing my precious editorial detachment? This is a worry).

p9 --> Another great line: She wore glasses that had gone out of style with Himmler.

p12 --> "This is a code for dump Israel." (LOVED that line!)

ps the F. Scott and King Solomon link? How did you EVER come up with THAT? I'm SO not worthy!

p22 --> Lyla introduced me all around as her editor, not her lover, though I would not have been surprised if some people did the math. (This line resonated with me...I'm still trying to figure out why...I'm going to consult with my yogi tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be right as rain then. Ohhhhhhmmmmmmm....).



~~~~


If the act of writing were akin to a tabla drum, and words were a beat, then Jack Engelhard would be the Ravi Shankar of the 'zon Shorts world.

Good golly miss molly!

But these 28 pages just "lambada" past you (even in the virtual universe). And I doubly admit that we're potentially entering a danger zone here, Jack. Soon, I'm not going to wish this yarnette to end, as I'm sure plenty of your other readers who've made it this far (wa-salaam-aleikum, peace to ya, bruthaz and sistaz, hehe) feel.

Questions I ask myself as I go about my read:

** how does he manage to do this?
** what does he eat for breakfast?
** why are Montreal-born scribes so goshdarn prodigious? (I, myself, don't count as a native, because I'd only spent six years in the city, and wasn't born there--pshaw!)

I certainly ask myself plenty more questions, but those are a darn fine start. Something on the scale of the old Cadbury's secret (is this a Canadian thing, btw?), and how do they get that Cadubry's caramel into the Caramilk bar?

Never mind...

So here are your orders, private:

** read Part Eleven.
** read all of it.
** savor the words.

DISMISSED!

In the upcoming Part Dozen (12), Jack Engelhard will disprove the oft-bandied about theory that "siz of one is half-a-dozen of the other." NOT!

Hand on the heart,
--ADM in the golden magical and booze-infested post-Communist but mostly politically corrupt, but I say that's okay because this is Central Europe and it's the so-called Czech "Republic" (whatever the heck *that* means!) and it's only a middle power, but full of hot chicks and great beer which I don't even drink by the way, Prague.

Phew...

The kidnappers have demanded Jay, by
name. come to Gaza.
They say they have Phil
(Jay's employee and his lover
Lyla's husband).
Meetings are held all over
the place to debate whether Jay
be sent on such a dangerous mission.
What they don't know is that
Jay is already packed and knows
what he has to do.
He visits his track buddy
(Muslim) and his wife blesses
him in the good old-fashioned
Islamic way as she warns of
impending danger.
Engelhard masterfully takes
us from the wise King Solomon
to Julius Caesar, to Yehuda Halevi,
to Hemingway to Brahms, and
to everything current in today's
Middle East.
As 'briefers' meet Jay,
he is almost oblivious.
Much to their consternation
he has no questions.
(They foolishly think it is
because all of their information
is overwhelming.)
Earlier Jay had been informed by
his love goddess, Lyla, that their
'lovechild' is history.
and that this lovechild, in fact,
may not be his.
As the chapter ends, Jay is being
driven to the airport on his way
to Israel.
It leaves me wondering WHERE,
WHEN, HOW, WHAT and
WILL he come back alive?

If you are not up to date reading this rousing suspense tale, Bathsheba Deadline, order the earlier episodes. This serial novel is worth 10 stars! A lot happens in this installment. Some things are finalized. I had wondered about that baby. Jay Garfield--chief editor of the Manhattan Independent, Lyla's illicit lover, inveterate sports enthusiast, and both reluctant and blasé hero--is off on the adventure of his life. Will he come to terms with his fate? land on his bum? or save the day?

What is Lyla planning to do about the love tangle involving Jay, her husband reporter Phil Crawford covering a story in the middle east, and herself? She mentioned revenge. Lyla and another very different woman, Seena, have endured similar mistreatment from men. One of them reacted in ways that prove the nobility possible in women. What will be the outcome of this tense three-way struggle for freedom of expression, love, and God's direction?

Who among us has had the opportunity to live so fully, to get this close to values that matter and answer questions that shape life? In Bathsheba Deadline the author, Jack Engelhard, sends us on a rocket ship of self discovery.

In his novel, THE BATHSHEBA DEADLINE, Jack Engelhard has crisply, brilliantly reflected our deadly world in its ugliest, dirtiest descents. Yet the novel's varied moods shift regularly into a barely perceived, underlying beauty, seeming to refract darkly, through a war-cracked looking-glass. Using a simple, yet subtly-sophisticated syntax, this author voices deeply-rhythm-ed Songs of Israel, back-dropped by the relentless clacking of dedicated Underwoods.

"Phil Crawford was easy to dislike, which is probably why I liked him.... Maybe I didn't like him all that much, but he was okay. We had our differences, politically."

I'm not merely impressed, but in awe, of how many threads of vital issues Engelhard has woven and mirrored in BATHSHEBA... right-now politics; media foibles and "facts"; deadly-dangerous, romantic roller-coaster rides; political correctness spotlighted in hypocrisy and lack of glory; spiritual moments dawned in the ebony richness of potential doom...

Yet the weave is not too tight. It allows spaces for contemplation between color contrasts; it allows repetition of subplots to prevent unraveling of wayward strings.

The result is a kaleidoscopic tapestry of an engrossing tale which should be terrifying and depressing by content, yet which gives an incredible amount of hope, because of, rather than in spite of, Jay Garfield's last line, which is as exquisitely honest as it is inevitable. Loved that line, though my favorite line was of political incorrectness gone right, from Jay to Lyla, "Can't you stop being a girl for a minute?" I wanted to stand up and cheer.

A favorite plot twist was Jay's Muslim friend's wife breaking out in compassion to Jay, "Allah be with you." THEE favorite plot twist was a Muslim acting rightly to save Jay's bacon, no fuel intended! My favorite exposure was not a Northern one; it was the "going South" of the dark sides of religion and politics, as they enact the power and purpose to sink humanity in one tar glob, into the black holes of anti-life, where falsehoods are sold as truth. (That tar would not be aligned with environmental mania's attempts to discard industrial waste; it would be the byproduct of philosophical idiocy burned balsamic into goo.)

Every word in this novel, alone and by its placement within phrase, syntax, paragraphing... speaks of literary power, full-on and brilliant. The reader receives those searing spotlights willingly (actually he begins craving them). This reception occurs within a strange type of comfort, within what could ironically be called light entertainment. I see this light touch as essential, since what the author is exposing through Jay is a world, now and through history, which should be irrevocably hopeless.

Engelhard's composing style, and gentle use of constant contrast ("This, but that, too") seem to serve as a continual release of the bondage of powerlessness... a bondage which sometimes arrives from setting in concrete a belief or stand, before the time has come to do so. As Garfield says, a true prophet always knows what time it is. Jay comes to his time at the right moment.

I believe Engelhard could accomplish this release for readers through fiction or through his type of journalism, as he chose. In this wholeness of effect Jack Engelhard has transcended the literary greats (who too often begin and end with nothing beyond eloquently detailed depression).

This transcendence comes through a painting in words of the elemental forms of profanity and powerlessness.

This transcendence comes within a syntactic paradigm of a not overdone, barely-there sense of hope for redemption, a sense of joy in the power of a soul connected to the Height of Good...

(... even if that good is way up there somewhere, barely reachable beyond ozone layers and holes in the Universe, beyond the broadest rainbow... yes it was a HUMAN who stole the ONLY pot of gold... and it wasn't John Galt!)

For me, the most potent segment of this novel is Jay's journey to, and short stay in Jerusalem, where he sinks into the physically dark, spiritually enduring events and ambiance there. In that pilgrimage, this novel's power explodes and implodes. An uncanny dynamic balance comes to catharsis through a scene in a motel room in the middle of the night:

... the sense of a presence... the shadowed, mirrored image of a tall, thin, bearded man... the gifting, discovery, and working into acceptance of The Blessed Cane.

That scene had the seated feel of being lifted from a lucid dream Engelhard may have had, around which he may have written this book. The actual dream there served as a quantum kernel of hope, seeded within the essence of horror.

The motel room sequence felt like touching a spiritual force, delicately but absolutely, like touching a purity of potency which is not limited to any religion, book, or viewpoint, possibly not to be as easily found in any of those, as through the individual soul of each human being. It was so very appropriate that Jay would touch that through his father's heritage, sharing it from that paradigm. Icons of religious trappings, talismans, and traditions exude a mesmerizing magic. These can be good, as can an un-tethered soul in solitary search.

After contemplating the Jerusalem sequence in the middle of night, I clarified what I saw in connection to this novel, in a puzzling vision of red votive candles, which I had after reading the first part of the book. This novel subtly nurtures a type of hope I felt in my youth, from red-votive-candles flickering in church at night. I felt a clean, quiet sense of rightness to come. As I felt that subtle connection to BATHSHEBA, doubts flared, discounting the feeling and votive candle parallel:

Why would an image from my Catholic past intrude on a novel with Jewish spiritual symbolism (which has always fascinated me). Yes, Garfield's mother was Catholic; his father Jewish. But that joined contrast wasn't woven into BATHSHEBA'S plot or subplot tapestry...

It was after reading the scene of the Rabbi-Blessed-Cane, that I realized the link of the cane to the candle. I was sparked to visualize those images artistically overlapped in a painting of spirit-in-oils which might do justice to this novel's holy moment. I couldn't hold the symbols within the same visual, tactual space. They needed to be kept separate to avoid breaking down a reality, a reality which is working both those icons, and more like them, from different spiritual kaleidoscopes. Yet, I wanted to see them together.

I can recreate my vision of the votive flickering... or I can call up Jay's vision of the shadowed presence in the mirror (felt like a rabbi from higher realms), and the cane.

The red-votive flickers gave a welcome memory of my few times as a child going alone to the church at night, sitting in a middle pew on the right, breathing the presence, focusing the candle collections, always lit. Sometimes I would kneel by the candles and pay my coins to the box, then watch the flame I had lit, for a long, peaceful time. I enjoyed being in the church alone at night much more than I enjoyed the Masses with their Holy Words (they were supposed to be holy, were to me then, but I don't quite see some of the meanings that way now) voiced, read, and prayed, among the day's light and crowds.

The above doesn't begin to hint what this novel draws to consciousness, even on the spiritual tumbles of the kaleidoscopic tapestry of BATHSHEBA. Then there are the political, journalistic, romantic...

Buy and read the book! See how this wealth of global microcosms works into a story of high entertainment, possibly better than any other book you've read, with more truth exposed than you'll know what to do with. Months will go by; you'll reflect on these scenes and schemes, and you'll know.

With confidence I say that Jack Engelhard expertly manages the medium of the novel, as he does journalism and op-eds. He is an Nth degree, mastered professional of the effective use of the writer's voice.

For a copy of this novel in trade paperback:
The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel

With greatest respect for those among us who walk with words,

Linda Shelnutt
Author of several Kindle books and Amazon Shorts.

You won't know how this dramatic thriller ends until you read the last word. It's a shocker with depth. The story, taken off newspaper headlines, could be happening around us. The novel reads like a layman's guide to the corrupt business of Media and a Who's Who of people--real and imagined- we ought to recognize. We would love to have this novel open-ended and ongoing!

Like many classic films, the story revolves around a love triangle. But Jack Engelhard's characters in Bathsheba Deadline are far more subtle than characters taken from the film noires of the 1930s and 40s because they have psychological verity. We readers demand it. In film noires, the characters are pawns moved on a chessboard, but the love triangle in Bathsheba Deadline is real. We cannot escape the consequences of the action. The story is happening in real time: we read it as it unfolds.

Throughout the novel, we live inside the head of the main character, newspaper man, Jay Garfield, chief editor of The Manhattan Independent. Inevitably, we incorporate into our own thoughts Jay's self-doubts, tormented guilt, joys, and regrets. In this installment of Bethsheba Deadline #12, we experience cutting through the delicate layers of what it is to be human - from angel to animal - like cutting through a layer cake. We are left breathless.

Letha Hadady
[...]

Is it coincidence or fate that as I write
this headlines around the world are:
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl."
In addition the slaughterer boasts that if you don't believe him you can see him carrying Pearl's head yourself on the web!
(I do not think it is coincidence at all.)
I won't tell you why, but it fits right in with part 12 of Bathsheba.
Jack Enfelhard has this gift of taking the reader right along with his main players.
Be it making a minyan at the airport where he utters the holy Shema, going to Jerusalem and putting a note in the Western Wall, like thousands of others who have hopes and dreams.
Then I am catipulted into a car with
strangers on a more then a perilous
ride to Gaza (yes folks this is real and actually happening today) where he
'sees' Phil.
[I wonder how much the BBC will pay the
Hamas terrorists who kidnapped
their reporter several days ago.]
Still entangled with Phil's Lyla,
Jay returns home to NY to a bogus 'trial'
(by his so-called peers), on trumped up charges.
Then we are off to the racetrack for the
grand surprise finale.
Throughout Bathsheba I constantly learn from the author.
History does repeat itself:
Decades ago my grandfather, the late Rabbi Eliezer Silver, in the late 30's and early 40's clearly and forcefully told of the destruction of Europe's Jews by the Nazis.
His pleas fell upon deaf ears.
Three days before Yom Kippor in 1943 he organized the 300+
Rabbis Grand March On Washington.
Rather then meet with the delegation,
FDR chose to play golf, heeding the
advice of his 'Court Jews.'
Grandfather took it upon himself to
rescue living Jews in post-war Europe,
be they in orphanages or anywhere else.
He traveled in my late Father Dr. Nathan Silver's Army Captain uniform
(Patton's 3rd Army).
As Engelhard writes decades later,
Meir Kahane warned what the Arabs
and Muslims would do to Israel,
and they have done exactly as he said.
[One can only wonder why the FBI had
him under surveillance 24/7, while they
turned a blind eye to the Muslim
terrorists coming into the US!]
Engelhard's review of the Millenia-old treatment of Jews by majority
populations is masterful.
Doesn't the world get it yet?
The Jews are NOT going away.
Like every other people on this earth
the Jews have a right to their
homeland, Israel.
Did you ever take a look at that sliver of land on a map of the world?
It is much smaller then the state
of New Jersey!
Throughout The Bathsheba Deadline I am on
an emotional roller coaster,
sad, joyful, calm and worried.
Only Engelhard could pull this off!
WHERE IS THE SEQUEL?

In his novel, The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel, Jack Engelhard has crisply, brilliantly reflected our deadly world in its ugliest, dirtiest descents. Yet the novel's varied moods shift regularly into a barely perceived, underlying beauty, seeming to refract darkly, through a war-cracked looking-glass. Using a simple, yet subtly-sophisticated syntax, this author voices deeply-rhythm-ed Songs of Israel, back-dropped by the relentless clacking of dedicated Underwoods.

"Phil Crawford was easy to dislike, which is probably why I liked him.... Maybe I didn't like him all that much, but he was okay. We had our differences, politically."

I'm not merely impressed, but in awe, of how many threads of vital issues Engelhard has woven and mirrored in BATHSHEBA... right-now politics; media foibles and "facts"; deadly-dangerous, romantic roller-coaster rides; political correctness spotlighted in hypocrisy and lack of glory; spiritual moments dawned in the ebony richness of potential doom...

Yet the weave is not too tight. It allows spaces for contemplation between color contrasts; it allows repetition of subplots to prevent unraveling of wayward strings.

The result is a kaleidoscopic tapestry of an engrossing tale which should be terrifying and depressing by content, yet which gives an incredible amount of hope, because of, rather than in spite of, Jay Garfield's last line, which is as exquisitely honest as it is inevitable. Loved that line, though my favorite line was of political incorrectness gone right, from Jay to Lyla, "Can't you stop being a girl for a minute?" I wanted to stand up and cheer.

A favorite plot twist was Jay's Muslim friend's wife breaking out in compassion to Jay, "Allah be with you." THEE favorite plot twist was a Muslim acting rightly to save Jay's bacon, no fuel intended! My favorite exposure was not a Northern one; it was the "going South" of the dark sides of religion and politics, as they enact the power and purpose to sink humanity in one tar glob, into the black holes of anti-life, where falsehoods are sold as truth. (That tar would not be aligned with environmental mania's attempts to discard industrial waste; it would be the byproduct of philosophical idiocy burned balsamic into goo.)

Every word in this novel, alone and by its placement within phrase, syntax, paragraphing... speaks of literary power, full-on and brilliant. The reader receives those searing spotlights willingly (actually he begins craving them). This reception occurs within a strange type of comfort, within what could ironically be called light entertainment. I see this light touch as essential, since what the author is exposing through Jay is a world, now and through history, which should be irrevocably hopeless.

Engelhard's composing style, and gentle use of constant contrast ("This, but that, too") seem to serve as a continual release of the bondage of powerlessness... a bondage which sometimes arrives from setting in concrete a belief or stand, before the time has come to do so. As Garfield says, a true prophet always knows what time it is. Jay comes to his time at the right moment.

I believe Engelhard could accomplish this release for readers through fiction or through his type of journalism, as he chose. In this wholeness of effect Jack Engelhard has transcended the literary greats (who too often begin and end with nothing beyond eloquently detailed depression).

This transcendence comes through a painting in words of the elemental forms of profanity and powerlessness.

This transcendence comes within a syntactic paradigm of a not overdone, barely-there sense of hope for redemption, a sense of joy in the power of a soul connected to the Height of Good...

(... even if that good is way up there somewhere, barely reachable beyond ozone layers and holes in the Universe, beyond the broadest rainbow... yes it was a HUMAN who stole the ONLY pot of gold... and it wasn't John Galt!)

For me, the most potent segment of this novel is Jay's journey to, and short stay in Jerusalem, where he sinks into the physically dark, spiritually enduring events and ambiance there. In that pilgrimage, this novel's power explodes and implodes. An uncanny dynamic balance comes to catharsis through a scene in a motel room in the middle of the night:

... the sense of a presence... the shadowed, mirrored image of a tall, thin, bearded man... the gifting, discovery, and working into acceptance of The Blessed Cane.

That scene had the seated feel of being lifted from a lucid dream Engelhard may have had, around which he may have written this book. The actual dream there served as a quantum kernel of hope, seeded within the essence of horror.

The motel room sequence felt like touching a spiritual force, delicately but absolutely, like touching a purity of potency which is not limited to any religion, book, or viewpoint, possibly not to be as easily found in any of those, as through the individual soul of each human being. It was so very appropriate that Jay would touch that through his father's heritage, sharing it from that paradigm. Icons of religious trappings, talismans, and traditions exude a mesmerizing magic. These can be good, as can an un-tethered soul in solitary search.

After contemplating the Jerusalem sequence in the middle of night, I clarified what I saw in connection to this novel, in a puzzling vision of red votive candles, which I had after reading the first part of the book. This novel subtly nurtures a type of hope I felt in my youth, from red-votive-candles flickering in church at night. I felt a clean, quiet sense of rightness to come. As I felt that subtle connection to BATHSHEBA, doubts flared, discounting the feeling and votive candle parallel:

Why would an image from my Catholic past intrude on a novel with Jewish spiritual symbolism (which has always fascinated me). Yes, Garfield's mother was Catholic; his father Jewish. But that joined contrast wasn't woven into BATHSHEBA'S plot or subplot tapestry...

It was after reading the scene of the Rabbi-Blessed-Cane, that I realized the link of the cane to the candle. I was sparked to visualize those images artistically overlapped in a painting of spirit-in-oils which might do justice to this novel's holy moment. I couldn't hold the symbols within the same visual, tactual space. They needed to be kept separate to avoid breaking down a reality, a reality which is working both those icons, and more like them, from different spiritual kaleidoscopes. Yet, I wanted to see them together.

I can recreate my vision of the votive flickering... or I can call up Jay's vision of the shadowed presence in the mirror (felt like a rabbi from higher realms), and the cane.

The red-votive flickers gave a welcome memory of my few times as a child going alone to the church at night, sitting in a middle pew on the right, breathing the presence, focusing the candle collections, always lit. Sometimes I would kneel by the candles and pay my coins to the box, then watch the flame I had lit, for a long, peaceful time. I enjoyed being in the church alone at night much more than I enjoyed the Masses with their Holy Words (they were supposed to be holy, were to me then, but I don't quite see some of the meanings that way now) voiced, read, and prayed, among the day's light and crowds.

The above doesn't begin to hint what this novel draws to consciousness, even on the spiritual tumbles of the kaleidoscopic tapestry of BATHSHEBA. Then there are the political, journalistic, romantic...

Buy and read the book! See how this wealth of global microcosms works into a story of high entertainment, possibly better than any other book you've read, with more truth exposed than you'll know what to do with. Months will go by; you'll reflect on these scenes and schemes, and you'll know.

With confidence I say that Jack Engelhard expertly manages the medium of the novel, as he does journalism and op-eds. He is an Nth degree, mastered professional of the effective use of the writer's voice.

With greatest respect for those among us who walk with words,

Linda Shelnutt

Shelnutt is the author of several Kindle books, including MYRTLE'S ULTIMATE MYSTERY; including The Books of Gem: THE ROSE AND THE PYRAMID, FULL MOON RISING, NEW MOON BLUES, QUARTER MOON DUES; including in Amazon Shorts a serialized novel, MORNING COMES The Pre Dawn Blues (Book 2 in The Books of Gem), and a Visceral History series of short true stories featuring the mining industry in a small town in Colorado.

Alright Readers...I've been champing at the bit to rattle off this assortment of word zingers care of Mr. J. Engelhard. I'll have you know there were many many more (say this with your best Carl Sagan accent, ps) than this...though these were the choicest fruit which caught my scribbler's fancy:

** "Still virgins after all those guests?" (<-- why I didn't think of that, I still don't know...BRILLIANT!)

** "Oil is thicker than newsprint." (<-- okay, it's situation specific, but you tell *me* how many writer's would be able to muster up that sort of creativity?!)

** "In 1920, 1921, and 1929 there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody." (<-- how true this is!)

** love the word "whoopee." Now THERE'S something I haven't heard in a long long time.

** "This is Jerusalem. Three major faiths drink from this well."

** "People turn Messianic just by breathing in the air."

** "This is what we get for trying to make peace with them."

** "This is about the love of murder and the joy of bloodshed."

~~~~

I dunno folks. You?

I'm deadset in my belief we're all going to have massively mixed reviews from this latest T.B.D. installment. To this here Reviewer's eyes, it marks a radical departure from the tried and true character study and truths which marked Jay and Layla all the way through.

I suppose, like Fleming's quintessential Bond character, Jay and Layla, too, require a new way of being looked at. Prepare to encounter a fiercier and roguer Jay, one clearer of conscience and firmer of conviction, one who seeks righteousness in all his ways, but is perhaps disabused of his illusions about his place in the world as a result of what transpires to him inside these pages.

Why, oh why, I've been asking myself.

Indications are that Sir Engelhard has heard the plump lady sing on this number, folks, but I'm *still* scratching my noggin wondering which director called "CUT!" and which producer called it a wrap on this yummy clambake. We've only just begun to take a good look at Jay's inner soul, and as I scroll through to the final page of this delectable dozen of Shorts, I'm left hanging high like unreachable fruit, dangling above the level like a mighty orangutan, craving fruity sustenance and nourishment but unable to grasp for it.

Jay, oh Jay. Where art thou, oh steadfast brother of ours?

For all who know me from the Land of Amazonia, I'm generally chock-a-block with praise whilst on Shorts Duty. Heaps of same have I for Sir Engelhard, but I'm reluctant to get anywhere near discussion of what goes down in Part 12. Ugh.

My ultimate conclusion is that you must read for yourself all of this. These...these... You must sit back and digest the sour and the sweet of it all, arriving at a suitable conclusion for yourself. I cannot help you, Luke.

As for my overall take? Hue and cry. Filibuster. I say, please Sir Jack, bring Jay back.

Signed,
A somewhat sad, ADM.

...because then you're going to accuse me of being arbitrary with my granting of stars, and I've got to admit that I'm not. I'm actually quite judicious...reading right along...

First off, more Engelhard quotables from Part Five...p.s. Jack, I totally digged the way you brought back a couple of Montreal momentoes and references from your childhood days with mentions of that "Letters to the Editor" gal Marie something-or-other and then the two-in-a-row references (Parts Four and Five) to Maurice Richard, the late great player on the Canadiens hockey squad.

Here goes, let's begin with the quotables:

** from the prophet Isaiah: "Woe when day is called night, night is called day, bitter is called sweet, sweet called bitter." (<--- LOVED that verse, ain't it so true?! I'm sure people have been quoting this for, well...for centuries! What a sage insertion at this point in the game, power to you, I prostrate myself before thee and touch your feet, in the finest of Hindustani traditions -- I can't believe it took me this long to get to the bottom of this series, incidentally!)

Okay, so some more of these...

** "To get to the top a woman has to go down."

** "But he was terrifically square-jawed and handsome and you just knew that he was just biding his time for the next casting call." (<--- brilliant refernece to the vapidness of L.A. I once heard John Leguizamo say the same thing about L.A. in comparison to New York, said he: "At least in New York you can get out there and TALK to people! In L.A., everyone's locked into their cars...it's crazy, L.A. sucks!)

** "'You're pro-Israel, aren't you?' I said I'm pro-truth and immediately hated myself for being so pompous and self-righteous."

** "He grinned when he said, yes, he was an Arab himself, but that 'we're great at deception. Deceiving ourselves, deceiving the world.'" (<--- this was a particularly apt little quotable, and, basically, the entire passage where it appears, I'm generally impressed to the nines with how it was laid out. I had to reread it, and then marvel (like the comics) at how fantastic this was.)

~~~~

Part Five delves into areas of the lead character's rock-solid sense of integrity.

You're going to learn a great deal about Jay's moral boundaries, the sorts of things he's comfortable with (because we all push those limits now and again), and even though he might be slightly morally compromised (okay, he's boffing Phil's woman), you realize that he's got an essential underlying morality that won't be tossed out the window (he's not going to send Phil to his death just because. And Jay's also not the sort of dude to sit idly by when a damsel is in distress -- note how he slugged Kevin the heck out -- I mean, come on, we ALL know that Phil wouldn't do that -- the last time Phil had a chance, he turned tail and ran).

I think Jay's dilemmas are indicative of the rest of the human condition, in that certain aspects of morality are variable and fluid. Meaning, there's a fixed portion which we won't compromise for a soul -- in Jay's case it's his pro-Israel stance (really, the only stand possible) and his old-fashioned sensibilities with respect to loyalty (for Lyla) and his unwillingness to cop to any fanciful notion and cover story/feature article in his paper strictly because it's fanciful). Conversely, then there's a part of him and his moral code which is up for grabs, that depends on the current situation in which we find ourselves at whichever point in the story. Morality isn't a monolith. It shifts and moves and adjusts. I like that about Jay, makes him all the more accessbile to me, and I want to empathize with his troubles, his inability to resist Lyla's charms, even though he knows in the end that it will probably end up badly for him.

You've also just got to love the manner in which he kicks around the idea of sending Phil to the West Bank to see the Hamas-ites. First he's enthusiastic, then he quibbles, then he's all for it again, then he splits himself again. Depending on the level of his righteous indignation is the level at which he's going to stick doggedly to his decision to banish Phil -- like, as Jay often cites, "Uriah in battle."

All I'd like to know is how does Jack manage to do this? Where does he come up with the lines?

A theory about the writing of this part, however...I bet Jack was actually in L.A. at the time he'd written this portion. That explains the copious Brentwood references, from what I can tell. Even if I'm wrong, which I probably am, it's a humdinger of a guess, ain't it?

Moving onto Part Six....

-- ADM in the Golden City on a Friday night, realizing that the charms and the hot girls in Prague are virtually no comparison for a night of excellent fiction with the likes of Jack E.

If you don't know what's making news in the US or the world, read Bathsheba.
You yourself become more worldly!
Everything from the Cheney hunting episode to the explosive and violent reactions to the Mohammed cartoon, and the effect it has on the end of part 5 left me gasping for more, and wondering what will happen next.
We are introduced to new characters and the players we already know are further developed.
Did he really think Lyla would be a lady?
A lady is not what he wants anyway!
(The JD Salinger sub-plot is genius.)
He names names in contemporary media and talks his truth about what it takes to either get ahead or not.
He shows himself humanely when he tells Lyla's husband, a man he purposely was placing in harm's way, to come home (to safety).
Jack Engelhard knows how to tell a story!
He does a good job comparing LA "Girls" to Manhatten women.
I couldn't agree more, and that's why I live in Northern Calif.
He is so right about attitude:
I would only add that the attitude in LA
is as sanitized as the rest of it wants to be.
Can't wait for part 6!

Author Jack Engelhard in "The Bathsheba Deadline Part 5" proves himself a genius at walking a thin line between comedy and drama. Tough-minded but thoughtful Engelhard contrasts New York and Los Angeles even better than Woody Allen did in his classic movie Annie Hall. Our protagonist in Bathsheba, Jay Garfield, chief editor of The Manhattan Independent, flies to L.A. to get privileged information from a photographer that may save him from scandal. Jay's descriptions of L.A. are quietly hilarious. He finds smiling movie stars everywhere and streets so clean you could eat off them. "In New York," he quips "poor people would be eating off the streets."

As usual, Engelhard, who has a large international Internet following, jabs at the media Establishment, naming names. He suggests that sexual favors get anchor people their jobs. But a skimpy view of Baba Wawa is going too far... I can't imagine any sort of sexual scene involving her except perhaps in a pre-historic cave hooked up for cable.

Engelhard is topical and uses the uproar over the Danish Mohammed cartoons to move his characters' actions. The old saw suggests that a picture is worth a thousand words, but Englehard proves it wrong: You need words, lots of edgy, thought-provoking ones to move mountains. This installment of Bathsheba, like the first four, is fast-moving so that you jump right into the sophisticated political, social, sexual scene that is Engelhard's meat. You'll gasp, applaud, and enjoy!

by Letha Hadady
author Asian Health Secrets

Part 5 keeps the fast-moving tempo of 1 through 4, and you beome concerned whether you should be worrying more about the next terrorist attack than if Jay and Lyla are going to get caught. The action is so contemporary that the headlines in Jay's Manhattan daily someimes seem to beat the ones we read over breakfast or see on the morning news.

Uhuh, I say, to the previous reviewer from a couple of sections back who mentioned that Engelhard was beginning to lose his sauce. Right...not!

The plot has picked up nicely here, and Part Seven concludes on a nice little cliffhanger. Jay Garfield receives an unexpected visit from the likes of the security chief Elias Francone of the Manhattan Independent's grounds staff, and all hell threatens to break lose when a tape emerges which shows Jay getting it on with none other than...

...ach, you know, what's the point in giving you a play-by-play? That's not what you come here for -- to read my reviews of plot points and the like. You like my schmaltz, my Bohemian charm (literally -- check out where I'm from), my essential chutzpah, and for an irreverant twist and the tried and tested book review, no?

Look, my friends, just get out there and purchase this Short and read it for all for yourselves, if you're so curious! (said with my best Jackie Mason accent, incidentally) -- besides, if you're reading a review for Part Eight here, it means that you've already had the brass literary cojones to make it until part seven (and what's that, $3.50?)-- so g'head and splurge the extra half a dollar on this penultimate section -- aren't you burning up with curiosity? I'd be... :-) Jay Garfield and Lyla Crawford SIZZLE up the page! I can't wait to see who's going to be casted in this one...

Besides, Eight is a darn good little yarn, and nothing that I myself could purport to say and ascribe my name to would even dare to match the clever delivery of author Engelhard's punchy prose. Best leave the expertise to the fiction experts, and that's that. I don't profess to be one...

Here are some of my choice Jack Engelhard quotables (as I've been doing for Parts 1-7, inclusive) from this little 24pp. read:

"...and not even New Year's -- what are people so happy about? Another year? This is good?" (<-- ADM: I imagine this should be delivered in my best "Polishe-grandmother" tone. Mind you, it might sound off well in just about any accent...power to the Jack-man!)

(ADM question: Hey Jack, did you really work for a carpet company in a previous life in Cinci? Would love to know where that particular Jay Garfield facet comes into play here, since (admirably) so much of your BATHSHEBA narrative mirrors your earlier days in Canada and Ohio. I love how things are beginning to come full circle.)

"Truth is not my business. Facts are my business." (<-- ADM says that's a beautiful spin on the old Kosinski line. Nice going! One of my favourite writers, now being liberally quoted by one of my new favourite writers. Yes mon!)

These were the two which stood out most strongly for me in this Part. Usually I've got something of a smorgasbord on offer, but you'll have to forgive me on this go. None but these two stood out as starkly.

Very little was mentioned here about Phil, and that's a good thing. Inside these Part Eight pages, we dove deep-down and delectably into the psyche of the writers -- the real scribes, people like the fictional Jay Garfield, Managing Editor of the Manhatten Independent, and the man *used* to be; reinforced by Sam Cleaver, a cub journalist who's beginning to "see the light." I majorly digged how we feasted on the writers waxing poetic about the practice of their craft, and with Jack liberally quoting from Hemingway, I love how they arrive at a conclusion that Sam might be on the fast-track to "selling out," and how Jay might be washed up for having sold out on his ideals.

It's a scathing indictment of the practice of (a somewhat perfidious?) journalism. Loved every word, sentence, and paragraph of that passage.

I don't want to waste too much time here. Onto Part Nine.

-- ADM in Prague with the flying fingers...

The reader is taken into the depths of today's newsroom:
Human nature reigns.
A "good writer" is facing a real dilemma.
He is an idealist in a business where luck is everything.
He wants to tell only the truth.
He is a purist.
He is also gravely disillusioned with his work at the newspaper, media in general, book publishers, etc, and feels it necessary to quit his job.
Not so easy.
He can't let go of the story about the "Miracle Rabbi", Rabbi Eliezer Silver, who saved thousands of Jewish orphans and adults in postwar Europe, wearing my father, Dr Nathan Siver's 3rd Army, (Patton) Captain's uniform.
As though it was yesterday, I vividly remember a call to grandfather's home in '68 from Russia, needing help 6 hours before he passed.
A Jew in the Soviet Union was being persecuted for alleged "ribbon crimes."
In actuality, he was being persecuted for being a Jew!
The meeting of the idealist and his boss takes place at Belmont Racetrack.
The reader gets a quick efficient lesson on horseracing and the thoroughbred world.
We're truthfully reminded of our 12 minute attention spans!
Was anything settled at the track?
What will happen to the "lovechild"
and parents?
What role will Islam and Sharia play?
Will someone die because of the discovery at the very end?
Why has Engel