Dana Taylor's book "That Devil Moon" is a combination of   drama -comedy. The story takes place in Beaver Cove, Arkansas.

The story revolves around a female character. The female character Madelaine Harris  commits a moral turpitude. She blames her moral turpitude on the moon. Madelaine works as an assistant principal.

She gets pregnant and she has to make a choice between  abortion or keeping the baby. Her gay friend,  Randall, decided to save her honor by pretending to be the father of the child. . In the end, Madelaine  finds the true biological father of her baby. 
The story is a mixture of drama and comedy.  Madelaine is kidnapped and threatened with  rape by an acquaintance Wade Finn, who is a drug peddler and father of one of the her student. Reba Finn. .

Madelaine is rescued by Randall and  Phil. Phil  is married to Pam. But Phil and Madelaine falls in love after she was  rescued by Phil from her would-be rapist.

The book is sprinkled with moral dilemmas: A woman choosing to  abort or not to abort an unwanted pregnancy....A man making a choice between two women.....

I leave  to the readers to evaluate the main female character.- Madelaine Harris..

As to Dana's style of writing, Dana likes to quote lines from   Shakespeare's plays. She also likes to mention movies (ex. Beautiful Mind, A Few Good Men, Casablanca,  etc)  to characterize her characters.   She starts every chapter with a quotation.

Dana's  novella is gay-friendly since one of the supporting characters (Randall Bailey)  in her novella is a gay man. Dana writes that  women could be God's joke to man. (p.214)

If you enjoy light drama and light comedy, you will enjioy reading this book.


Muses Review-Book Reviews
Spring 2005 - April
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Book Review by Andrew Angus

Title of Book:
That Devil Moon
Author:
Dana Taylor
ISBN::
1-59080-344-2
Price:
$13.50 US.
No.of pages:
234
Printed by:
Echelon Press
:
Chapbook Review by Andrew Angus

Title of chapbook:
Mofo' Risin'
Poet: 
Joseph Powell
Price:
7$
Printed by:
Instant Publisher

Joseph Powell likes to compose acrostic. Acrostic is a poem whereby the first letter of each line forms a word when read downwards..

Example 1:

Divorce

Dearth of love
Intimacy broken
Violation of treaty
Odium unleashed
Repudiation of promise
Change in status
End of story

Example 2:

Blackman

Bravery beyond belief
Lover of women and mankind
Ability to see truth behind the lie
Courage to overcome
Knowledge of his heritage
Manhood unequalled
Autonomous, yet willing to share his self
No turning him around.

Some of Joseph's poems are sprinkled with expletives (ex. son of bitch) like in the poem "The Death of Cupid".

"The Death of Cupid" could have been a good poem if he did not include the expletive.

The poem "On Quill St." is the poet's search for a utopia in a house of writers.

The poem "Freak's Blues" is a  painful poem  about a person who looks different and feels he is being talked about when he passes by.

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