SALAMANDER SIX, by Michael A. DiBaggio

I am so glad I was lead to read this short story SALAMANDER SIX, by Michael A. DiBaggio. It gives me a whole other universe to explore. A universe that comes from the creative minds of Micheal and Shell “Presto” DiBaggio, a husband and wife writing team. I love the clean cut writing, and that they provide full explanations of this new universe in the Appendix.

The protagonist, Florian Archambeault, is a fire fighter, owner of a fire fighting company called Marin-Pyronef. His method of airborne fighting enables him to get to the scene faster than land locked methods such as trucks and boats. The Salamander Six is a jumpcraft, command central so to speak, used in concert with raw vacuum drones called LV20 pyronefs that can swarm in close and dowse the fire to make way for the larger airborne fighting vessel. (Way cool!)

The story begins with chaos and mayhem on the island of St. Martin. The island Florian Archambeault was exiled to a decade ago by his nemesis, Commissioner Beaulieu, and that by a lucky turn of events, his nemesis is now evacuating the island because The French Colonial Authority, under Commissioner Beaulieu’s command, had been “abruptly and unceremoniously thrown off” the island. Florian pours himself a glass of Chambord to celebrate but is abruptly interrupted when notified that there is a fire on the 28th floor of the Tour de l’Uniteˋ building, and Commissioner Beaulieu is trapped inside. During all the intense firefighting action, with all the strapping on the “ceramic-and-steel struts of his exo-frame”, and “the hopper banking hard left”, and the “LV20 pyronefs remotely piloted firefighting ‘digs “delivering their flame-suffocating payload with maximum effect”, right in the middle of all that action there is a backstory that fully develops the characters and their relationships, all knit together producing an action packed, wham-bam, huge short story! Whew!!!!!!

After finishing this short story the question is posed “Looking for More?”, and my answer is yes.

Discovery of an Eagle by Grace Mattioli


I am sorry, but no stars for this book. I have NEVER not finished a book. This is a first for me. My choice would be to not write a review, but I got this ebook free from AMC (Author Marketing Club) with an understanding that the free part comes with an agreement that I would write an honest review.

This author’s voice is bland. The character’s have no character. As I tried to push through this story I kept thinking of the first level “Dick and Jane” books. The story begins with Cosmo Greco getting laid off from his job of eight years, but it is never revealed what that job was. Then there are sentences like “Hey, Cosmo,” she shouted out to him because he was still in the kitchen.” There is something innately wrong with this sentence. How did she know he was still in the kitchen? Could she hear him in there? Too much is missing, as is in the rest of this book. It soured my reader’s ear. There was an overuse of the “seeing it for the first time in his life” scenario. 90% of the first chapter is Cosmo seeing everything for the first time because he had been laid off. At location 751, first sentence, Chapter Four, I read “As Cosmo looked out the car window, he felt as if he was seeing the world for the first time in his life.” I got to location 950 and read, “Almost as if he were hearing Dylan for the first time.” Bland voice, bland character, impossible to want to continue reading. The list of "firsts" goes on and on.

Another problem is the lack of introducing a character. Instead, a name just appears. I was paging back thinking who is this too many times. Sometimes his father is Frank, sometimes he is his father. The name Donna just appeared with no introduction or clue that he was talking about his mother. Same with Vince, who I figured out was a brother.

I really wanted to find out what the story would reveal about the meaning of the title “Discovery of an Eagle”; the story revealed nothing. By the time I got to location 1389 I didn’t care. Great title, no story.

I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm writing this review with the intentions of being constructive, and helpful. I would suggest that this writer subscribe to some of the established writer’s blogs, like K.M. Weiland, C. Hope Clark, From Left to Write, Writer Unboxed, The Kill Zone, She Writes, and subscribe to Writer’s Digest Magazine. There is no limit to the great writer’s blogs out there. Take advantage of them. I am curious if this author let any of her friends read this manuscript before publishing it. Maybe joining a book club, or a local writing group could benefit, where other people could give some feedback as the WIP is developing. I cheer you on, Grace Mattioll, and encourage you to do a few more edits. At least you are writing; getting it down on paper. But, there is clearly more stone to grind here.

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