Customer Reviews:

• "Jan Turner’s beautifully crafted chapbook A Shift in Time will take you on a magical journey with the gift of her inspired poetry and art. Her Ekphrasis poetry as in her poems, “Castle in the Clouds,” “Enchanted” and “Winter Serenade,” are wonderfully illustrated by the photographs she includes. Jan demonstrates the ability of great masters as she writes in many different forms, several of which are her own created forms, such as her Wrapped Refrain (Form No. 2), Trifall and the Alouette. I quote from one of my favorite poetry forms she created, the Alouette, in “Spring Eternal”:

          “Though the autumn years
          of my life bring tears
          for old friends who now are gone,
          my heart’s here in spring
          where the robins sing
          in these early hours of dawn.”

I read with delighted anticipation her poems and short stories that took me on exciting adventures to sacred places around the globe. Much of the photos and artwork in this lovely chapbook are in vivid color. Jan demonstrates what a talented artist she is by her artwork that accompanies and enhances many of her poems and short stories. This chapbook, following her last publication, Reflections of the Inner Eye, will substantiate the fact that her ability to enchant you with the passions of her creativity keep growing in the most astounding ways. I highly recommend this enchanting work of art." - Connie Marcum Wong - author of Island Creations, Heart Blossoms, and the web-mistress of Poetry for Thought poetry forum.

• "With a cover showing a brightly colored kaleidoscope-like design set against a white background, Jan Turner’s newest chapbook is striking. More important, of course, is the content of her book, A SHIFT IN TIME, which comprises a part 1 (poetry) and a part 2 (short stories), both of which are filled with delightful illustrations! I begin by reviewing the second part of Jan’s lovely book.

Ms. Turner’s short stories are based on mystical and/or historically sacred places on our planet earth. In these places Jan has set fictional characters who, like Jan, feel the wonder of these places and who become spiritually affected by them. Paying close attention to detail, Jan describes the various settings presented in her stories and provides us also with illustrations in the way of drawings and photographs to enable us to visualize even more completely these unique spots on our world. Of special note is the computer imaging she presents with the fourth story in her collection, an interesting and vivid display of “The 2012 Galactic Gateway.”

Part 1 of Jan Turner’s book is filled with poetry depicting magical places and other wondrous things such as Europe’s Neuschwanstein, the castle on which Disneyland’s is based, Egypt’s Sphinx and the sword Excalibur. She also includes poetry about mythical and/or magical places. Easter Island, Atlantis, and Puma Pinku come alive on the pages of Jan’s book.

As someone who enjoys traditional poetry, I can say Jan writes laudibly in a variety of forms, and I particularly enjoy her use of the Ottava Rima in such poems as “Nazca Lines of Peru” or in “The Stonehenge Space/Time Curve,“ in which Jan aptly illustrates the message of her chapbook’s title A SHIFT IN TIME. Through Jan’s writings, I was able to learn a little bit more than I already knew of some of these ancient wonders of the world.

The most delightful poems in Jan’s chapbook are those which are displayed along with some beautifulartistic pictures. Among my favorites are her poems depicting the seasons of winter and spring. Here is the first stanza of “Enchanted,” a poem presented with the drawing of a blue winter landscape. With these lines, she truly enchants us!

          Winter is magic through blue-shaded glasses:
          tinted icicles and snow covered grasses, cold lacy images framing its scene. . .
          frozen se-meadows and hints of blue-green.

In her chapbook, Ms. Turner includes a double English Sonnet entitled “Fountain of Youth.” I have not seen many sonnets from her and am pleased to report she did very well with the form, as she did too with the Rondeau form in “She Walks at Dusk” (a poem inspired by a lovely picture depicting Spring as a goddess) and the poem “Whispers of the Sphinx.”

Finally, I am mostly impressed by the way Jan’s words seem to be their most eloquent when she uses her very own created forms of poetry as shown by her use of the Wrapped Refrain (Form No. 2) to describe Neuschwanstein with her poem “Castle in the Air.” With “Spring Eternal,” another favorite of mine in this chapbook, she employs a sweet and unique new form she’s named The Alouette. I conclude my review by showing the last stanza of the one example in this book of Jan’s created form, the flowing Tri-fall. It is shown with John William Waterhouse’s picture “Windflowers.” Who cannot help but let themselves “linger” over lovely lilting lines such as these?

          windflowers round my face
          velvet touch
          sensuous nature’s fingering. . .
          I’m in the perfect place
          and as such
          I find myself still lingering

- Andrea Dietrich/ Poetry editor for SPQuill, co-author of FRIENDSHIP GARDEN and author of 6 other chapbooks sold at Shadow Poetry's Bookstore.

• "In Jan Turner's poem, "Whispers of the Sphinx," we experience the expectancy of discovering mysteries associated with the Sphinx. The lines in this poem flow smoothly from start to finish. In her poem about the Moai of Easter Island, Jan invites us to join her in speculations regarding this ancient civilization. I have always been intrigued by the Nazca Lines of Peru, and her descriptive poem about the aerial view of them is a compelling one. There are many other mystic places awaiting you in A Shift in Time." - Emily Romano, author of Rainbow Mystique

• "From Jan Turner’s delightful preface poem inviting us to journey to “Mystical Places” we are swept into the Bavarian Alps to the very castle that inspired Disney’s famous castle with all its magical allure. And so the adventures begin. Through inspired verse and short stories we experience natural and man-made wonders as we are carried through space and time.

Jan’s beautiful phrasing provides peaceful resting stops along the way, allowing the reader’s imagination to explore new possibilities. “Wild rose words” from her poem, windflowers is a phrase that lingers on my tongue, while reflections in “sky-born streams” from Fountain of Youth flicker through my mind’s eye.

I was Enchanted as I viewed winter through “blue-shaded glasses” and marveled at the achievements of ancient cultures expressed in The Moai of Easter Island, Puma Punku, and The Nazca Lines of Peru. Jan reveals her deep interest in archeology with these and other poetic glimpses through windows into mankind’s past.

The beautiful layout of this chapbook with many color illustrations and sheer inserts is as irresistible as a magic carpet ride through A SHIFT IN TIME." - Margaret R. Smith