Monday, September 14, 2020

*Book Tour & Giveaway* The Miracle Ladies by Jean-Michel Desire-GUEST POST


The Miracle Ladies
by Jean-Michel Désiré
Genre: Supernatural Thriller 


Apostles and a man who calls himself the Redeemer ... a scenario pointing to the promised return of Jesus-Christ, except that way above all prophecies and expectations, no one anticipated a series of miracles by women worldwide. Faced with the ultimate puzzle, the Vatican recruits academics Krystelle Vignelot and Guillermo Ricci for help in understanding the perplexity of the events.


Observers, protectors, academics, a covert medical facility, a concealed endeavor, and a gun-for-hire with the self-assigned nickname of Ghost will clash in the race to demystify the unexplainable, but miracles are by definition contrary to the laws of nature and attributed to supernatural causes. And so, allegiances and non-believers alike face the ultimate test of faith.

But even the darkest facet of the human heart could not foresee the events that would climax in Rio de Janeiro, a huge light and sound shadow that the world would remember forever because of the miracle ladies.





Jean-Michel Désiré was born on the magnificent tropical island of Mauritius, where he completed his primary and secondary studies in compulsory bilingual French and English languages. An acute love of reading combined with a great interest in art (drawing and painting) pushed Jean-Michel from a young age to want to write his own comic books, but a lack of opportunity blocked his efforts. It was this same lack of opportunity of the time that triggered a need to perform further studies. At age 22, Jean-Michel left Mauritius for North London, England, where he completed a bachelor of Engineering in Electronics followed by a Master of Philosophy in Microelectronics.
While concluding his Master’s degree, Jean-Michel met the lady who became his wife a year later, year during which they also moved to Montreal Canada where Jean-Michel had been offered an engineering position in the Aerospace industry. Life had its own agenda, and within the first eighteen months, their daughter was born in the middle of a snow storm in Montreal. Six years later, their son came into the world and the obvious demands of family life became the main priorities.
During the winter of 2008, Jean-Michel slipped on the ice during a storm and fractured his ankle in multiple locations. Recovering at home after surgery, Jean-Michel decided that the time had come to revive his passion for writing. Within two years, his first book ‘The Storyteller’s Nights’ was published. The positive feedback from readers fueled Jean-Michel to exploit his bilingualism and he translated the story into French, ‘Les Nuits du Conteur’ being published in 2015. He then felt the wind in his sails and published ‘Fantasy Man’ in 2017, and recently, ‘Revanche (Revenge)’ (the follow-up to ‘Les Nuits du Conteur’) in 2019. ‘Fantasy Man’ is presently nominated for an award, top ten finalist to be announced on 22 August 2019. He has just completed his next English book, entitled ‘The Miracle Ladies’.
Engineer by day, writer by night, Jean-Michel plans to keep letting his imagination go wild while capturing it all on paper. Surrounded by a great family, he plans to write a whole lot more. When he is not writing, he spends quality time with his family and travels yearly back to Mauritius to visit his Mom and brothers.
If you're interested in getting in touch with Jean-Michel, the best place to reach him is on Goodreads.



GUEST POST

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!

Perhaps the strangest thing that happened to me was a recurring dream I had, whereby I had to face seven masked people in a glade. They wore robes similar to those worn by monks, ad had their faces hidden by theatrical masks. This recurring dream lasted for over three years and would always end up at the same point. It became an obsession for me to find out what this dream was trying to tell me and I did a lot of research. The explanation did come to me in the end, and this entire episode in my life is what inspired the main storyline for ‘The Storyteller’s Nights’.


What are some of your pet peeves?

My main pet peeves are abuse of power (as often seen in the corporate, political and sometimes religious institutions). Unfair practices, especially by self-righteous people who claim loud and clear that they will save the world, really gets under my skin, to the point where I often wonder if life would not be better as a hermit in a remote location, with only my own survival would matter. This is one thought that I have struggled with, but on the other side, I have a fantastic family that I love and that has become my reason for living and loving my blessed life. So to anyone who, like me, may struggle with these existential challenges, find, understand and accept all the great things in your life and never look back.


Where were you born/grew up at?

I was born in the beautiful tropical island of Mauritius and lived there until the age of twenty-two. Growing up on a tropical island has a fascinating side whereby one has no choice but to enjoy nature, gorgeous beaches and lagoons with water warming up to above thirty degrees Celsius(30oC) during the summers. In addition, tropics tend to have only two seasons, summer and winter. Winters are windy, and the coldest that I can remember is about fifteen degrees Celsius (15oC) at night time, in the high plateau where my parents’ home is. Summers can sometimes be brutally hot and the main drawback is cyclones (known as typhoons in East Asia and tropical storm in the Western world). As kids, we loved cyclones, because schools were closed and whenever electricity was not cut-off due to fallen electric poles, we would have full TV programs all day. I have great memories of growing up in Mauritius, to the point that I chose the island as the main location for the adventures of ‘Les Nuits du Conteur’ (French version of ‘The Storyteller’s Nights’) and its follow-up, ‘Revanche’. I am also blessed to be able to visit my old Mom and my brothers there once a year.


If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?

If possible, I would spend it with my family, remembering (i) all the things that made us laugh, and (ii) when things appeared to be so hard that we would likely succumb, it was all small stuff. The important things in life, as far as I’m concerned, are those unforgettable moments of laughter, pure joy, in the company of our loved ones. The rest is all small stuff. We must however always be grateful to the Universe for everything. By simply looking around, we should all see that life could be a whole lot harder…


Who is your hero and why?

I have many heroes, and each of them has fueled my passions at one point in time. It all started with the fictitious character ‘Tintin’. This character made a great statement of always fighting the good fight, every moment of every day. I was even more fascinated when decades later, I found out that he was the character that inspired the first Indiana Jones movie, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.


My next hero was (and still is to this day) Jackie Chan. I was a teenager in Mauritius when his movie ‘The Big Brawl’ came to the big screen. It was one of these rare occasions where everyone in the theater applauded at the end of the movie. I was stunned when I recently read Jackie Chan’s autobiography ‘Never grow up’, that the movie was an actual flop. As my life went on, I kept watching as many Jackie Chan movies as possible. Upon reading ‘Never grow up’ recently, I realized that the main things that this actor taught me were to always see the funny side of anything, and that only hard work pays off, if one is willing to accept that everything has a price. I won’t spoil it for those who are truly interested and will read the book.


Another hero is Ritchie Blackmore, lead guitarist of the seventies hard rock band ‘Deep Purple’. He portrayed another who worked very hard at achieving perfection. You have figured out by now that I too tried my luck at becoming a good guitar player. I never got there, although I did have some wild times with a band named ‘Beware’ and the couple of gigs we did in a bar. To this day, some of ‘Deep Purple’s’ music brings a smile and excitement. Blackmore and the band were pioneers who in my view, changed music more than Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. If there ever is an autobiography of ‘Ritchie Blackmore’, I will certainly read it. I’ve heard bits and pieces of side stories that he was also a psychic, and that’s an aspect that has a lot of interest from me.


Finally (I could likely find more heroes but for the purpose of this blog, I believe this is enough), there is the man who made the world’s best guitarist for many years in a row, Yngwie Malmsteem. What Ritchie Blackmore had pioneered into great music, Yngwie turned into a science so precise that it will always be to me an enigma. Again, some of Yngwie’s music still gets me jumping up and down in joy and whenever I feel sad or down, his music will bring me back up in no time.


What kind of world ruler would you be?

I would be a lousy ruler, because I’ve understood that no one can please everyone. As such, a ruler whose prime directive is to treat everyone fairly, is doomed to failure by the mere nature of our humanity, whereby the grass is always greener next door. Yet, our society is set-up in such a way that we do need rulers. I can only conclude that the good ones are few and far in between.


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$25 Amazon - 3 winners!






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