For All Who Have Grandchildren!

 

Kay Swatkowski

More Grandmother's Prayers the follow up book to the original A Grandmother's Prayers from grandmother and pastoral counselor Kay Swatkowski. 

This involved grandma invites you to pray for your grandchildren and gives you practical ways to encourage their faith through these 60 devotions.

You'll read inspiring stories, find Scripture-based prayer prompts, and discover new and fun ways to connect with your grandchildren in person or from afar.

Kay Swatkowski holds a degree in elementary education and a master's in pastoral counseling. 

Grandmother of nine, Kay draws on her own life experiences and years of working with families in church settings as she writes to encourage grandmothers.

Kay and her husband, Ray, have nearly five decades of ministry and leadership experience.

"Grandmothers will find encouragement and biblical guidance in how to pray for and meaningfully interact with their grandchildren through 60 days of devotions"

This book is published by Daily Bread Publishing and released in June 2022.

 

The original A Grandmother's Prayers book description is:   Have you ever thought about how much a praying grandparent impacts future generations? If you want to play a pivotal role in your grandchildren’s lives through prayer, this devotional prayer guide is for you. With inspiring stories, Scripture-based prayer topics, and practical ideas for fostering loving relationships, A Grandmother’s Prayers presents a sixty-day journey of prayer for your grandchildren. In the pages of this devotional prayer guide, you’ll find insightful and uplifting daily readings, sample prayers, activities and conversation starters, and questions for reflection and application.

Michael Connelly~ One of the Most Successful Writers Working Today!

Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of over thirty novels and one work of nonfiction. With over eighty million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty-five foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today.

Connelly was a former newspaper reporter who worked the crime beat at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his fiction.

His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. 

His most recent New York Times bestsellers include The Law Of Innocence, Fair Warning, The Night Fire, Dark Sacred Night, Two Kinds Of Truth, and The Late Show.

Michael is the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver and streaming on Amazon Prime. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, "Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story' and 'Tales Of the American.' He spends his time in California and Florida.

Just released, in April this year, The #1 New York Times–bestselling author brings you into the world of the LAPD’s Harry Bosch, and the history that shaped him with his book
Hieronymus Bosch: A Mysterious Profile .

In this short work, Michael Connelly delves into the origins of his famed police detective,—how he faced down the horrors of his childhood (a background story that was based on the life of another renowned crime writer); his past as a tunnel rat in Vietnam; and why jazz is his soundtrack. Connelly also shares the story of how his character Hieronymus Bosch came to be named after a fifteenth-century Flemish painter, and how his own youthful experiences of fear led to his literary creation. Those who have followed the cases of this tough cop more interested in justice than ambition will find much to enjoy and to ponder in this behind-the-scenes account.

The Chicago Tribune said,  “No writer exploits Los Angeles—its geography, its historical power wars, its celebrity culture, its lore—as compellingly as Connelly.”

"Tears Are Often. . .

 

Never fill bad about tears for sometimes through them you will find the answers your soul seeks. MSR

Bill Browder Exposing What Putin Did to Sergei Magnitsky

 Bill Browder, author of Freezing Order. Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses. Before founding Hermitage, Browder was vice president at Salomon Brothers. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Chris Schluep, Senior Editor at Amazon who specializes in History and Nonfiction has written words about this new book. I think Chris has certainly written the best blurb for this book.He said, "There might not be a more timely or compellling nonfiction book in this moment, as Browder describes his efforts to go after the Russians who killed his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky. Intrigue, murder, money laundering-and in the end, Putin himself."

Freezing Order is a true story of money laundering, murder, and surviving Vladimir Putin's wrath.

Bill Browder chronicles how he became Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy by exposing Putin’s campaign to steal and launder hundreds of billions of dollars and kill anyone who stands in his way.
When Bill Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life’s mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discover that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime.

As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder’s campaign to expose Putin’s corruption that prompted Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election.

At once a financial caper, an international adventure, and a passionate plea for justice, Freezing Order is a stirring morality tale about how one man can take on one of the most ruthless villains in the world—and win.

One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2022!

Tara M. Stringfellow

“Readers will come to see that Stringfellow is demonstrating the erratic movements of history, the false starts and reversals and, yes, the moments of progress that are reflected in our haphazard march toward realizing King’s vision for America. . . . With her richly impressionistic style, Stringfellow captures the changes transforming Memphis in the latter half of the 20th century.”—The Washington Post

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.

“A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New York Times Book Review

“I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, Essence, Glamour, Business Insider, Marie Claire, The Millions, She Reads, Book Riot, Bad Form

Who is the author every one is talking about?

She is Tara M. Stringfellow. A Southern Storyteller. Stringfellow is a poet, former attorney, Northwestern University MFA graduate, and semifinalist for the Fulbright Fellowship. Tara M. Stringfellow has written for Collective Unrest, Minerva Rising, Jet Fuel Review, WomensArts Quarterly Journal, and Apogee Journal, among other publications. After having lived in Okinawa, Ghana, Chicago, Cuba, Spain, Italy, and Washington DC, she moved back home to Memphis, where she sits on her porch swing every evening with her hound, Huckleberry, listening to records and chatting with neighbors.

What is her book, Memphis about?

Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.

As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.

Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.

Be sure and follow Tara at: https://www.tarastringfellow.com/

Happy Friday!

HAPPY FRIDAY

 

TIME AFTER TYME - ADDING SPICE WITH SECONDARY CHARACTERS

Kay DiBianca

I had always intended that each book in my cozy mystery Watch series would stand out with an originality of its own. I had thrown some pretty serious issues at the main characters, Kathryn Frasier and Cece Goldman, in the first two books, and I wondered how I could keep things fresh.

So, in the third book, I decided to create new secondary characters to add spice to the story. At the same time, I had decided to dedicate the book to my cousin Joan, my best friend from childhood. While I was mulling over these two lines of thought, it dawned on me to combine them. Thus, ten-year-old Reen Penterson and her nine-year-old cousin, Joanie Finelson, were born. And, oh goodness, did they add spice to the novel.

The story takes place on the campus of fictional Bellevue University, and the plot revolves around mysterious codes left in the prayer box in the university chapel. Suspecting the codes might contain a clue to the recent death of Mr. Tyme, the university librarian, the chapel minister enlists the help of Kathryn and Cece to try to decipher the codes.

But when Reen overhears a conversation that convinces her the university librarian was murdered, she recruits Joanie, and they dive into their own “investigation,” with occasional hilarious results. Their all-out, no-holds-barred curiosity had me laughing out loud.

Contrasting the two teams of female sleuths added depth to the story. The adults, Kathryn and Cece, were analytical and responsible in trying to understand the meaning of the codes and how they related to the death of Mr. Tyme. On the other hand, Reen and Joanie turned the campus upside down with their “interrogations” of people. In the end, both teams contributed to solving the mystery and finding a killer.

Now that the book is published, I look back and realize that writing the story had taken me back to an era of innocence and childhood that I had almost forgotten. The antics, occasional disagreements, but unabridged trust between best friends in childhood is a special bond that lasts forever. And this is one of the reasons I find novel-writing to be so fulfilling. We as authors are renewed and edified by our own writing. Old experiences combine with new thoughts to lift us up to a new understanding of ourselves and others.

I may have to write Reen and Joanie into their own series as main characters. If they bring as much joy to others as they have to me, they would be a gift to the world.

Kay DiBianca is a former software developer and IT manager who retired to become an award-winning author of cozy mysteries. She loves to create literary puzzles for her readers to solve, and her characters come to life as they struggle to solve murders and create relationships amidst the ongoing themes of faith and family.

Kay is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Collierville Christian Writers Group. She is also a regular contributor to the Kill Zone Blog. An avid runner, she can often be found at a nearby track, on the treadmill, or at a large park near her home. Her background in software development fuels her fascination with puzzles and mysteries, and her dedication to running helps supply the endurance and energy she needs to write about them!

Kay and her husband, Frank, live, run, and write in Memphis, Tennessee.

You can connect with Kay through her website at https://kaydibianca.com.

 

 

Pulitzer Prize Winner, Writer of Classic Film The Verdict and Wag The Dog!

David Mamet


From David Mamet comes a new book, non fiction, titled

Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch by David Mamet

“Savagery appeased can only grow. Once you give in to it, it must escalate, like a fire searching for air.”

The man who won the Pulitzer Prize for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, who wrote the classic films THE VERDICT and WAG THE DOG sounds his alarm about the Visigoths at our gates.

In RECESSIONAL he calls out, skewers, mocks, and, most importantly, dissects the virus of conformity which is now an existential threat to the West.

A broad-ranging journey through history, the Bible, and literature, RECESSIONAL examines how politics and cultural attitudes about rebellion have shifted in the United States in the last generation. By screaming down freedom of thought and expression, Mamet explains, we kill invention and democracy – the foundations of security and growth.

A wickedly funny, wistful and wry appeal to the free-thinking citizen, RECESSIONAL is a vital warning that if we don’t confront the cultural thuggery now, the commissars and their dupes will transform the Land of the Free into the dictatorship at which they aim.

 DAVID MAMET is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, as well as a director, novelist, poet, and essayist. He has written the screenplays for more than twenty films, including Heist, Spartan, House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, The Winslow Boy, Wag the Dog, and the Oscar-nominated The Verdict. His more than twenty plays include Oleanna, The Cryptogram, Speed-the-Plow, American Buffalo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and the Pulitzer Prizewinning Glengarry Glen Ross. Born in Chicago in 1947, Mamet has taught at the Yale School of Drama, New York University, and Goddard College, and is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company.

Debut Novel Becomes A Movie!

Delia Owen's Novel hits the big screen July 2022

                                                   

Delia Owens is an American author and zoologist. Her debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing topped The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers  32 non-consecutive weeks and was on the list for 135 weeks in total.

Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

Delia Owens lived in some of the most remote areas of Africa for twenty-three years while she conducted scientific research on lions, elephants and others. Based on these expeditions and adventures, she co-authored three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior from the University of California in Davis. She has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, Journal of Mammalogy, The African Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She currently lives in Idaho.

Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel and has been made into a movie. Delia was born in southern Georgia, and grew up riding horses in the woods around Thomasville. Her mother, also an outside-girl, encouraged Delia to explore far into the oak forests, saying “Go way out yonder where the crawdads sing.” Her mother taught her how to hike without stepping on rattle snakes, and most important not to be afraid of critters of any kind. Delia went on to spend most of her life in or near true wilderness, and since childhood has thought of Nature as a true companion. One of her best friends.

Since her family spent some of every summer in the mountains of North Carolina, Delia has a special attachment to the wild and beautiful places of that state. Where the Crawdads Sing is based in the lush Carolina coastal marsh.

For more  information https://www.deliaowens.com/ 

See the movie trailer below.

It's Not Easy Being A Bunny!

One of the top three books on Amazon's Charts Most Sold and Read Fiction for last week was

It's Not Easy Being a Bunny

BY MARILYN SADLER

PUBLISHER: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

It was on the list for eight weeks. 

Meet P. J. Funnybunny in this humorous and touching Beginner Book by Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen. It’s Not Easy Being a Bunny tells the “tail” of P.J. and his quest to become something other than what he is. Is it more fun to be a bear, a bird, or a pig? Read along as P.J. tries to determine who he is—and where he belongs.


What a fun book to give your children and grandchildren. Even adults may enjoy the book after all, don't we as adults try to figure out who we are and where we belong?

In this book P.J. Funnybunny is not having a good day. His mom won't let him eat ice cream for breakfast. She won't let him hang upside down from a tree. She won't even let him watch a scary movie! P.J. visits Potts Pig, whose mom lets them do all those things. But when he gets a stomachache and has a bad dream, P.J. Funnybunny realizes that--while it's fun to be a pig--it's better being a bunny!

This new tale of self-discovery is the perfect Easter treat for beginning readers and bunny fans of all ages!

Marilyn Sadler is a children's book author, writer and television producer. Here is her story:

With a degree in Fine Arts, I assumed I would be an illustrator.


But when early in my career I was presented with the opportunity to write, I seized it and quickly discovered that I‘d found my true love. No sad, sappy stories for me, however. I liked to make myself laugh and my characters usually end up looking pretty silly for one reason or another.


My first children’s book featured a fastidious little English boy named Alistair Grittle and was originally created for the English publisher, Hamish Hamilton, as well as for Simon & Schuster in the United States. Having created a boy with such perfect behavior, I then turned my attention to a not so-perfectly-behaved little boy. His name was P.J. Funnybunny, and he has existed for many years in a series of books for Random House, including the highly prestigious "Dr. Seuss Cat In the Hat" series.



My television credits include two PBS Reading Rainbow programs featuring Alistair, an Alistair program for the BBC, three ABC Weekend Specials featuring P.J. Funnybunny and a show based on my children’s book, "Elizabeth and Larry", for Showtime’s Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories.



Between 1999 and 2004, The Disney Channel produced three "Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century” Original Movies based on my book, illustrated by Roger Bollen, "Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century” . Needless to say, I was “over the moon”. Each of the Disney Zenon movies had exceptionally high ratings, with "Zenon, Girl of the 21st Century" and "Zenon the Zequel" among the highest rated shows in the history of The Disney Channel.



In 2004, Playhouse Disney began production on an animated series created by me and Roger Bollen, titled "Handy Manny". "Handy Manny" premiered September 16, 2006, as the highest rated Playhouse Disney series premiere of all time and averaged approximately 2 million viewers a week, generating consistent critical acclaim and developing a deeply loyal audience. In 2009, I was nominated for an Emmy Award as Executive Producer of "Handy Manny" in the category of “Outstanding Special Class Animated Program."



In September of 2015, Eric Comstock and I introduced a 3-book "Charlie Piechart" mystery-math series which was launched by Harper Collins Publishers with the release of our first book, "Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice", and was followed by two subsequent titles, "Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Hat" and "Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Dog”.

Visit Marilyn at:  https://marilynsadler.net/

Being Transported!

 

Susan Reichert

To have a gift of words is, a wonderful blessing. By writing those words in a book, you can reach people all over the world, be an influence for love, peace, and understanding. In the process you create worlds that delight and entertain others.

I heard several years ago that a story does not point you “there” it puts you “there.” To think of it as a form of transportation.

Well, having just finished a book titled Fields of Fire by Ryan Steck, I can honestly say I believe the statement above to be true. While reading this book I was transported to a place I had never been, seemed like I was in the middle of the people shooting at people, and discovered through the writers clues some very evil people had invented something to harm many people all over the world. It was a fast paced, gripping, page turner novel. I can’t give away the secrets of the book, but I can tell you, it is worth reading.

This was the first time I realized a book is like a form of transportation. In books we meet the leading characters that we like and then we meet people we don’t like. People we call bad. And while we are reading the book, the writer takes us by the hand and carries us into the world they created. And for the most part we don’t want the book to end.

Truly a writer entertains the reader and transports them into new adventures.

 

Susan Reichert, author of Listen Close, Between Me and You, God’s Prayer Power and Storms in Life. Published numerous magazine articles and stories in 9 anthology books. Speaker at writing conferences, seminars, and libraries.

She is the founder of Southern Author Services, and Editor of Suite T. She is the retired Editor-in-Chief of Southern Writers Magazine. Reichert has a passion for writing about God in devotionals, prayers, and inspirational works.

She and her husband live in Tennessee. They have four grown daughters with families of their own. Susan is a member of the DAR and a member of the First Families of Mississippi

Visit Susan at: https://www.susanlreichert.com/

Cheer Up! Things Could Be Verse…

Sara M. Robinson

Here are two questions for you: Do you have to be sad, depressed or angry to write good poetry? Does how you feel determine your subject matter?



I often read articles by other poets and essayists where they discuss how mood or state of mind influences their writing. Poets, as an historical bunch of writers, often brag they are in touch with all that surrounds them, and this plays a huge part in their subjects. I think this is very true, but often we are not in physical or even mental place where we can create poetic lines. This is where my writing journal comes in. I jot down how I feel or how the particular setting affected me, then later I come back to it to write.



Now, however, when I come back to the writing, my mood is no longer the same. For me, the return to my notes is more objective, less subjective or emotional. I don’t mean to say less involved; I only present to you that now the poetic part of my brain is “translating” the emotional part I felt at the time into worthy lines.



Meditative poems are examples, I think, of where you might experience a real emotional connection to the writing. Say, you lost a beloved pet, and you wanted to write about your feelings, but you simply were too saddened to compose. You let your mind and soul grieve, then you make some notes which later become the beautiful lines.



I’ve seen a lot of angry poems. One I read recently was from a poet who was particularly upset about a poetry class he was in. He was very angry at the instructor. This poet thought the instructor did not pay enough attention to him. So, this poem, to me, was more of a poison pen letter than a creative rendering. Maybe the poet should have used that version as notes and then created a poem about the heartbreak of disappointment or rejection. When you release your writing to the public, then you have engaged them, good or bad.



It can be tricky determining your emotional state and then turning it into poetry. What do you want your writing to do? Wallace Stevens wrote a poem, “Poetry is a Destructive Force.”

His first stanza goes like this: “That’s what misery is, / Nothing to have at heart. / It is to have or nothing./…” He goes on to use animals as metaphors to portray the violence man can have. But the poem is quiet, contemplative. That’s what makes his poem so good.



Think about your feelings and how you want to put them into verse. “I felt the coldness of time when my mother died. / Then I saw the sky, and felt warm suddenly…” S. Robinson



Until next time…

Sara M. Robinson, founder of the Lonesome Mountain Pro(s)e Writers’ Workshop, and former Instructor of a course on Contemporary American Poets at UVA-OLLI, was poetry columnist for Southern Writers Magazine and inagural poetry editor for Virginia Literary Journal. She has served as guest lecturer at UVA’s College at Wise, Wise, VA. Her poetry has appeared in various anthologies, including We Grew Wings and Flew (2014), Scratching Against the Fabric (2015), Virginia Writer’s Club Centennial Anthology (2017), Blue Ridge Anthologies and Mizmor Anthology (2018). Journals include: Loch Raven Review, The Virginia Literary Journal, vox poetica, Jimson Weed, Whisky Advocate, and Poetica. She is poet and author of Love Always, Hobby and Jessie (2009), Two Little Girls in a Wading Pool (2012), A Cruise in Rare Waters (2013 Stones for Words (2014), Sometimes the Little Town (2016), a finalist for the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2017 Book Award. In 2019, Needville, her poetry about effects of coal mining on SW Virginia was released and in 2020 debuted as play in Charlottesville. Her most recent publication is Simple River (2020, Cyberwit).

Escape to the Past in New Time Travel Adventure

Jody Hedlund

Award-winning author Jody Hedlund knows how to entice readers with her captivating historical novels. In 2021, Hedlund began the fantastical journey through time in Come Back to Me (June 1, 2021). Now Hedlund returns readers to fourteenth-century Canterbury in the next installment in the Waters of Time series, Never Leave Me.

Ellen Creighton’s outlook on life is bleak as she comes to grips with the final stages of an inherited genetic disease that also took her mother’s life. Her father, sister, and now her longtime friend Harrison Burlington have risked it all to find a cure—but often to their own detriment.

Harrison has always been in love with Ellen. But as a paraplegic, he’s never allowed himself to think about getting romantically involved with anyone. Refusing to give up hope, he desperately tries to save Ellen by locating two
flasks of holy water that he believes will heal her disease. But can he convince her to take it—especially when she believes the holy water led to her father and sister’s deaths? When dangerous criminals enter the equation, Ellen soon learns they will go to any length to get the powerful drug—including sending her back into the past to find it for them.

Never Leave Me is a breathtaking and emotional saga that will have readers racing through time to find a cure before the clock runs out.

Jody Hedlund (www.jodyhedlund.com) is the bestselling author of more than
thirty historical novels for both adults and teens, including Come Back to Me,
and is the winner of numerous awards, including the Christy, Carol, and
Christian Book Awards. 

Jody lives in Michigan with her husband, busy family, and five spoiled cats. She loves to imagine that she really can visit the past, although she’s yet to accomplish the feat, except via the many books she reads.

Forgiving the Unforgivable

Erin Bartel

Erin Bartels’s novels have been described as moving, compelling, engaging, heartfelt, entertaining, and thought-provoking. While each novel weaves a different tale, Bartels maintains a common thread of redemption throughout each of her works. In her newest novel, The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water, Bartel explores the theme of forgiving what seems unforgivable and also addresses how our memories may not be exactly as we remember.

When Kendra Brennan moves into her grandfather’s old cabin on Hidden Lake, she has a problem and a plan. The problem? An inflammatory letter from a Very Disappointed Reader that’s keeping her from writing her next novel as long as its claims go unanswered. The plan? To confront Tyler, her childhood best friend’s brother—and the man who inspired the antagonist in her first book—in order to prove to herself that she told the truth, as all good
novelists should.

What Kendra discovers as she delves into the murky past is not what she expected. Facing Tyler isn’t easy, but facing the consequences of her failed friendship with his sister, Cami, may be the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. Kendra will have to start asking the right questions if she is ever to settle her mind, make her peace, and write her next book. Will she discover what matters most before it’s too late?

Award-winning novelist Erin Bartels searches the heart with this lyrical exploration of how a friendship dies, how we can face the unforgivable, and how even those who have been hurt can learn to love with abandon.

Erin Bartels is the award-winning author of All That We Carried, 2020 Christy Award finalist The Words between Us, and We Hope for Better Things, a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, 2020 WFWA Star Award winner, and 2019 Christy Award finalist. A publishing professional for twenty years, she is the current director of WFWA’s annual writers retreat in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She lives in Lansing, Michigan, with her husband, Zachary, and their son. Find her online at www.erinbartels.com.

Bestselling Author Plunges Readers into the Heart of Alaska

Susan May Warren

Fan favorite Susan May Warren is back with another exhilarating tale set in the Alaskan wilderness. Filled with Warren’s signature blend of action, danger, and romance, Sunrise takes readers on a search and rescue mission where a blizzard, a grizzly, and the biting cold are only some of the perils one encounters in this inhospitable backcountry.

Sunrise is the epic first book in a trilogy set in beautiful Alaska. This series is about three brothers who return home after serving their country. Our male hero, Dodge, sets about healing a terrible rift that has driven the brothers apart—starting with forgiving the woman who betrayed him. In the mix, he discovers the ignition of a plot that spans the globe and will bring his brothers home to help save the world.

Dodge Kingston was the heir to Sky King Ranch, a bush pilot service basednear Denali National Park. But after a terrible family fight, Dodge left Alaska. Now a decade later, he returns home to the destiny that is waiting for him. However, he doesn’t count on meeting up again with Echo, his childhood bestfriend and former flame.

Echo is a true Alaskan—a homesteader, dogsledder, and a research guide for the DNR—but her free spirit can lead her into danger. When one of her research assistants goes missing, she heads into the wilderness to find her. But what she encounters is much more than the fierce elements.

When Echo goes missing, Dodge can’t ignore the twist of worry in his gut, and he is right. Echo is in trouble and on the run. Will Dodge be able to find her in time? And if he does, is there still room for him in her heart?

Susan May Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 85 novels with more than 1 million books sold, including the Global Search and Rescue and the Montana Rescue series. Winner of a RITA Award and multiple Christy and Carol Awards, as well as the HOLT Medallion and numerous Readers’ Choice Awards, Susan makes her home in Minnesota. Find her online at www.SusanMayWarren.com,

on Facebook @SusanMayWarrenFiction, and on Twitter

@SusanMayWarren.

Irene Hannon Welcomes Readers Back to the Oregon Coast in Sea Glass Cottage

Irene Hannon

Over the years, bestselling author Irene Hannon has written more than 60 novels. Fans have come to love her captivating tales whether they immerse themselves in one of her spine-chilling psychological thrillers or wrap themselves in one of her heartwarming romances. 

Now, in Sea Glass Cottage, she invites readers to return to the beautiful seaside town of Hope Harbor—a place where hearts heal . . . and love blooms.

Christi Reece is desperate. The one-time golden girl’s life has tarnished, and a
cascade of setbacks has left her reeling. She needs help, and she’s certain Jack
Colby is in a position to provide it.

When she shows up in Hope Harbor, however, Jack wants nothing to do with
the woman who betrayed him. He’s built a new life on the Oregon coast—and
there’s no room in it for Christi, even after she takes refuge in a charming but
mysterious cottage nearby. Yet it soon becomes apparent his opinion of her may need revising . . .especially when he ends up needing her help.

Can these two hurting souls make peace with their past and open their hearts to a new beginning?

Bestselling and award-winning author Irene Hannon delivers another heartwarming and romantic story set

in the enchanting seaside community of Hope Harbor that is loved by readers the world over. Once you visit, you’ll never want to leave.

Good news for Irene's fans! She has signed a new contract for another suspense series launching in 2023—plus three more Hope Harbor books, bringing the total in that long-running series to 11 books. I for one am hoping there will be more.

Irene Hannon is the bestselling author of more than sixty novels, including the long-running Hope Harbor series, as well as Labyrinth of Lies, Point of Danger and the Code of Honor, Private Justice, and Men of Valor suspense series, among others. Her books have been honored with three coveted RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America, and she is a member of that organization’s elite Hall of Fame. Her many other awards include National Readers’ Choice, Daphne du Maurier, Retailers’ Choice, Booksellers’ Best, Carol, and Reviewers’ Choice from RT Book Reviews magazine, which also honored her with a Career Achievement Award for her entire body of work. In addition, she is a two-time Christy Award finalist. Learn more at www.irenehannon.com.

What It Means to Be Chosen

 

Julia Brewer Daily

Adoptees are told from an early age: we are chosen. During the first years of our lives, we feel safe, loved, important. We even lord it over our siblings who may be birth children after us, the old adoption syndrome of having children after adopting. “I am chosen,” we say importantly. “You,” pointing a finger at a sibling, “are an accident.” Just as brothers and sisters will use any method at their disposal to acquire an upper hand, we may have used what we considered our most important trait.



Our parents were told they would never be able to conceive, so they underwent rounds of physical exams and embarrassing procedures. Finally, they understand, their route to having a family is to adopt. Others arrive at that decision without the medical statements of infertility and choose to welcome an older child into their home. However, they arrive, it is a tremendous decision, often fraught with questions like, “Do we know what life will look like if we adopt?” or “Will we love an adopted child as much as we would have a biological child?”



I am one of the Chosen. I am an adopted child from a maternity home in New Orleans. My adoptive parents adopted me at 2 months of age and took me to my childhood home in Mississippi.



There were always questions in my mind about my birth family and my imagination ran wild. Was I a princess stolen from a tribe of Cherokees or the love child of my father and a mistress in the Bayou Country? Every adopted child has fantasies about their origin. We all have a deep-seated desire to know our maker. Not every adoptee wants to search, but I was a curious person and did. I wanted to know the health issues in my background. I found my birth mother and, through DNA results, my birth father’s family. It was satisfying to see someone who looked like me and to hear the health issues that run in the family genes. Meeting my birth mother was a good experience. It did not change the fact that the mother and father who reared me are my parents.



I always had a fictional story brewing in the back of my mind about the women of the maternity home where I was born. Finally, in my retirement, I was able to get it on paper and find a publisher.



The premise of the story is three unwed women who meet in a maternity home in New Orleans to relinquish their babies for adoption and return home as if nothing happened. Twenty-five years later, a blackmailer threatens to expose their secrets . . . all the way to the White House.



Being knowledgeable about the eras and how maternity homes worked was a great help in my research and in creating a setting that seemed believable. Incorporating states and stories from my own childhood helped the writing become richer in depth.



The book is becoming a fan favorite, especially among book clubs where the complex topic of adoption and the current issues of same-sex adoptive parents, closed versus open record states, international or in-country adoption, and transracial adoption are pertinent today. And, I hope the conversation is sparked about the hundreds of thousands of children in foster care in this country waiting for a family.



If you would like to learn more about me and my writing, visit me at www.juliadaily.com. You can also order No Names to Be Given, my historical debut novel, on Amazon, Bookshop.org, and wherever fine books are sold. My second novel launches in August 2022.

Julia Brewer Daily is a Texan with a southern accent. She taught at every level from kindergarten to university and even shadowed Martha Stewart. She is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas, the Women Fiction Writers’ Association, the San Antonio Writers’ Guild, and the Women’s National Book Association. Daily is an adopted child from a maternity home in New Orleans and searched and found her birth mother and, through DNA results, her father’s family, as well. She and her husband live on a ranch with their Labradors, Memphis Belle, and Texas Star.

Do You Love Food and Reading?

How many books do you read (that are not receipe books) where at least one of the characters is a chef, owns a bakery, or a restaurant, or a tea shop? These books are called the cullinary cozy mystery theme books.

Here are a just a few authors who write in this theme:

VIVIEN CHEN (Noodle Shop Mystery Series)

DIANE MOTT DAVIDSON (GOLDY BEAR CULINARY)

JENN MCKINLAY (CUPCAKE BAKERY MYSTERY)

BY A.L. HERBERT (MAHALIA WATKINS SOUL FOOD)

ABBY COLLETTE (THE ICE CREAM PARLOR MYSTERIES)

LAURA CHILDS (TEA SHOP MYSTERIES)

TINA KASHIAN (A KEBAB KITCHEN MYSTERY)

WINNIE ARCHER (Bread Shop Mysteries)

KATHY AARONS (A CHOCOLATE COVERED MYSTERY)

SARAH FOX (PANCAKE HOUSE MYSTERY)


Why do we like reading these cullinary cozy mystery theme books so much? Isn't it obvious? We like mysteries and we like food. As you can see from some of the titles above, the characters usually have a specialty. The great thing about some of these books, we can find in the back of the books wonderful receipes used in the story.


For instance, Diane Mott Davidson, who writes the Gold Bear Culinary Cozy Mystery features in the back of her book, Killer Pancakes, original recipes for such luscious (and lowfat) dishes as Fettuccine Alfredo with Asparagus, decadent Fudge Soufflé, and irresistible what-to-do-with-all-the-egg-yolks bread!

Or Sarah Fox, who writes the Pancake House Mystery series. In her book, The
Crepes of Wrath, you have bonus content that includes original recipes inspired by the Flip Side Pancake House menu!

I must tell you though, not all of the books have receipes in the back. So check out the ones that do, you will thouroughly enjoy the food.

Lisa Harris Says, "It's Almost Magical"

                           Lisa Harris

I wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I have chapters of handwritten stories stashed away in a worn box that I started writing while I was in junior high. That love of writing came from a love of reading. Throughout my childhood, I spent every free moment engrossed in books, and those stories spurred my own imagination and made me dream of becoming an author one day. Because I loved mysteries and Nancy Drew, I started with my own version of a teen-girl detective. I read the Diary of Anne Frank, and wrote about a girl caught up in horrors of the holocaust. The first book I actually finished was a gothic novel inspired by Victoria Holt who had an amazing gift of bringing characters and intriguing settings to life. Each book I read imprinted on me the love of story, adventure, romance, tragedy, and redemption. Powerful stories that managed to tug on my heartstrings and kept me turning the page to the very end.


I was hooked.


I quickly discovered, though, that writing isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The first time I took chapters of my story to a local crit group, I was terrified. Letting other writers get a glimpse of my story ended up being both nerve wracking, and insightful. I was told—nicely—that my characters were cardboard and my wonderful story needed work. I discovered that night that writing is a never-ending learning journey, and forty plus books later, I’m still learning, taking classes, and reading. The process has been both fun and challenging. I love the anticipation of discovering what happens next in a story. (Yes, sometimes even I’m surprised during the writing process.) The process of taking ideas, building on them, and weaving them together can feel almost magical. Some of the characters come unannounced, begging to have their story written down. Others I have to struggle to get to know them. The process of bringing their stories to life, though, always involves layering plotlines, drawing from the setting, developing characters, then editing, brainstorming, lots of scribbled notes, reworking timelines, and more editing. In the end, if I’ve done my job, I can share a story that does exactly what I love about a good book. . .Tugs on readers’ heartstrings and keeps them turning the pages.

My latest series with Revell is a fast-paced, suspense story about two US Marshals, Madison James and Jonas Quinn. While each story is a standalone novel, there are threads that tie the three books together, including their romance and Madison’s hunt for the person who murdered her husband. Book three, The Catch, will tie up the romance between Jonas and Madison—yeah—but Madison will also come face-to-face with the person who murdered her husband.



The Catch starts out with a harrowing attempt on a judge's life at the courthouse, after which Deputy US Marshals Madison James and Jonas Quinn are tasked with finding a missing woman and an endangered child in connection to the murder of the judge's wife. What seems like a fairly straightforward case becomes hopelessly tangled when the marshals discover that the woman they are searching for is in witness protection and the Amber Alert put out for the missing child has put two lives in danger.

Madison and Jonas are forced into a race to find the woman and the child before the men who want her dead discover her location. And in a final showdown that could cost her everything.


Writing for me continues to be an adventure I don’t think I’ll ever tire of. The stories, characters, and settings, the lessons I’ve learned along the way, as well as the friends I’ve made on this journey of both writers and readers. Because who hasn’t in some way been challenged and changed by a good book?

Lisa Harris is a USA Today bestselling author, a Christy Award
winner, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel from Romantic Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta.

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The author of more than forty books, including The Escape, The Chase, The Traitor’s Pawn, Vanishing Point, A Secret to Die
For, and Deadly Intentions, as well as The Nikki Boyd Files and the Southern Crimes series, Harris and her family have spent over
seventeen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. She is currently stateside in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn more at www.LisaHarrisWrites.com.