children's fantasy author Teresa Schapansky

September 2015

Amazon
$4.99
12.99

Children's Fantasy
for advanced readers ages 9-12

From the author:

Imogene is only five years old when her parents suddenly and mysteriously disappear. Left with no choice but to live with an abrasive relative, she finds comfort in the alliance she's forged with an unlikely friend. She secretly holds dear, her mother's last words. "Five years, Imogene. I shall come for you in five years." Imogene sadly soon learns, that things are not always as they seem. Upon reaching the age of ten, she has new confidence, and eagerly awaits her parents' return. Under the encouragement of her friend, Imogene embarks on a journey to an incredible world, learns who she really is, and where her true destiny lies.

My review:

Imogene of the Pacific Kingdom is a mix of other wildly popular adventures for younger readers, without the gore and murder situations found in stories for slightly older readers. The story is lengthy, with a vocabulary that may require occasional explanation.

A daughter is left in the care of an uncompassionate relative during her youth, and learns at age ten that she is no ordinary child. Imogene’s strange and compelling love of water nearly gets her in trouble with the relative who thinks perhaps soccer is more suitable. When the time is right, Imogene’s parents do not return…Imogene is drawn to them in their fantastic world. Imogene quickly adjusts to her new life with her quirky new gifts, until the Pacific Kingdom is in danger once more.

As the author notes, it’s up to Imogene to not only learn, but follow her true destiny. I tried to read the story through the eyes of a fourth or fifth grader and enjoyed Imogene’s spunk. As a parent and grandparent, however, I was sometimes dismayed at an occasional lapse of respect for adults, even if Imogene’s cantankerous aunt was quite over the top, Lemony Snicket-style. Although I imagine young readers won’t notice the healthy amount of exclamation points on a page, they really weren’t necessary as the dialog and action moved along just fine. I think the story would have been much stronger if the author had chosen only one or two characters to narrate, at least at one time, instead of an occasionally confusing multiple point of view style. That would have allowed Imogene to carry the story with her own heroism. Imogene of the Pacific Kingdom is aimed at older elementary school female readers, though boys would certainly find much to like as well.

The next book in the series, Dager of the Tasman Empire, releases February 24.

Spotlight on "Anything for a Story" by Cynthia Hickey

Stormi is delightful as the accident prone and bumbling wanna be detective. What she lacks in skill she makes up for in nosiness. Add in the sexy detective and a slightly nutty family and our lead character has her hands full.

~Amazon reviewer

About the book:
Stormi Nelson, best-selling romance author, moved into her huge Victorian house in the private community of Oak Meadows Estates. When her agent tells her that her characters are becoming too cardboard and that she needs to get out and mingle with people, she comes up with the idea of a Neighborhood Watch Program. The only problem is … she’s the only member. On her first night of patrol, she stumbles over a dead body, meets a hunky detective, who happens to be her neighbor and clearly frustrated with her, and her mother, sister, niece and nephew arrive to shake up Stormi’s peaceful life. As she is immersed ever deeper into the mystery surrounding a neighbor’s murder, she decides to change writing tactics and write a romantic mystery based on her experiences. What follows is a frolicking good time as Stormi finds herself the nosiest neighbor of them all. Can she find the killer before she becomes the next victim?

PURCHASE

Amazon

A note from the author, Cynthia Hickey:

"Why I Became a Writer"

Funny how this roller-coaster business can tug on someone until it’s either write or die. A bit dramatic, yes, but that’s how most writers feel.

I started reading at the young age of five and became hooked on words and stories. Being a shy child, I would make up stories to act out, but it wasn’t until Junior High when an English teacher assigned a

writing project that I realized how much I loved putting the story to paper. I began writing short stories in which my younger brother was featured as the hero, or I’d write a romance featuring me and whatever boy I had a crush on at the time.

When I turned fifteen, I wrote my first “real story” about terrorists taking over a high school. Funny how I have now seen that very plot made into a movie. I couldn’t be stopped after that first “book.” I kept writing, keeping my stories in a notebook, which I unfortunately lost when I married and moved out of state. Then, life happened and I didn’t take up writing again until the age of forty when my children were older and I had time to devote to it.

In 2007, I published my first cozy mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, with Barbour Publishing and haven’t slowed down since. Forty books later, and several genres added to the mix, I have no intentions of stopping this crazy career any time soon. It’s as much a part of me as breathing.

About the author:

Multi-published and Amazon Best-Selling author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries and two novellas published through Barbour Publishing. She had several historical romances release in 2013, 2014, 2015 through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents, and has sold half a million copies of her works. She is active on FB, twitter, and Goodreads, and is a contributor to Cozy Mystery Magazine blog and Suspense Sisters blog. She and her husband run the small press, Forget Me Not Romances, which includes some of the CBA’s well-known authors. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs, two cats, three box turtles, and two Sulcata tortoises. She has seven grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”. Visit her website at www.cynthiahickey.com

LOVE IS series debut Anita Klumpers with Hounded

Hounded

By Anita Klumpers

Love is Patient

from Prism Book Group, a series of fifteen novellas based on I Corinthians 13. Releasing Fridays in February, then the last Friday of the month--watch for them, and an opportunity to win fabulous prizes this month during our Sweet Valentine Promotion through the month.

2.99 single ebook

Print bundle coming soon

Old Maid, Do-Si-Do, and the Bottomless Cup of Love

Anita Klumpers

By the time I was twenty-five my mother had given up on the hope that I would marry. She bought me pots and pans and Pfaltzgraf and flatware because, she reasoned, even single women need to live. And, Lord willing, I wouldn’t live with her and Daddy forever.

Dad wasn’t too concerned. After all, he hadn’t married Mom till he was in his early 40’s. And if God didn’t want me to wed, then I could follow in Cousin Angie’s footsteps and be a missionary in Africa.

The idea of a single life filled me with dread. Please, please, PLEASE God, don’t be equipping me to remain unmarried. I developed crushes. Friends tried setting me up with their relatives. I went out dancing with friends. To bars. After all, I was a nice Christian lady at a bar. Why couldn’t there be nice Christian guys there too? Maybe there were. I never met one.

A few months shy of my 27th birthday I decided I was tired of looking for potential mates. Although not at the point of picking up books on how to enjoy the gift of singleness, I figured it might be time to focus on my relationship with God. So, along with several wonderful single girlfriends I went to a spiritual winter retreat for young adults from a dozen churches across our state. Did I mention I’d determined not to check out every eligible young man also in attendance?

I meant it. So when I took note of a devastatingly handsome man with dark eyes and a dimpled chin sitting across the room, it wasn’t his good looks that got my attention. Arms crossed, looking bored, he was the only one sitting out the square dance mixer. In gracious and generous Christian-girl fashion I thought ‘Jerk,’ and went back to dancing my little size 9’s off and trying to remember my allemande left from my do-si-do right.

Later that night, after devotions, a group of us played cards. A game I didn’t know, called euchre. I’m a dab hand at Old Maid but this one had me flummoxed, and a group of generous friends tag-teamed trying to teach me to play. It was hilarious. Really hilarious.

Later that night a group of us went into town for coffee. The dark-eyed square-dance-boycotter came too. He sat across from me and told me he got a kick out of watching me laugh over euchre. He flirted just enough to make me feel interesting but not so much as to make himself look insincere or lecherous.

We went our separate ways after that weekend and didn’t meet up till early summer. It took him till late summer to ask me out and in the meantime one of my major crushes from the previous few years, a Christian marathon runner and photographer I’d met at work, finally returned my interest and began asking me out. After I lectured God about his timing I realized maybe He knew what He was doing. I had to make a decision between two attractive men (my daydream back in the days before I realized it would be painful) and I chose the right one.

Wouldn’t my story make a fine romance movie? Sort of an ‘At Long Last Love’ type of life? But now, three sons, four grandsons and countless prayers and tears and rejoicings later, I realize that my entire life has been filled with love.

From birth, before my birth, my parents loved me, and continued until their last breath on earth. Aunts and uncles and cousins by the dozens meant extended love and the kind of safety net children long for but don’t always enjoy. Then there is my family in Christ. Brothers and sisters more than the sands on the shore, and wherever there are God’s children there is my family, and we love each other. We don’t always play well together, but the love is there.

My friends—oh, my friends! When I bemoan my limited practical skills and meager dose of common sense I remember my glorious friendships with some of the most godly, delightful, gracious, fault-overlooking women as can be found. I would rather have my friends than an artist’s eye, a singer’s silver tongue, or an athlete’s supple limbs.

On all this abundance of love God set a gem of a husband. He is as attractive, open, and affirming as when I first met him, and he still refuses to dance. Those three sons love me in spite of a plethora of faults and mistakes and my little grandsons still give me smooches in public.

Do I know I have been gifted far and above anything I could think or ask, much less deserve? You bet. But what if God had not seen fit to give me a husband, children, grandbabies? What if my parents had been cold, negligent, absent, and I didn’t have some sort of strange ability to find wonderful friends? Would I be any less blessed? No. Not a bit.

God loves me. God has loved me before I knew what love was. If I had never known human love, God’s love would be beyond the heights and depths and breadths of what I think I need. Jesus prayed for me the night before His death and prays for me today and the Spirit intercedes for me with sighs too deep for words and the Father’s love is vast beyond all measure. What wondrous love is this?!

Family, friends, husband and children have all hemmed me in love, and the love that comes from God is greater than these.

Check out Anita’s contribution to Prism Book Group’s new Love Is series…

Hounded

“Love is patient…” 1 Corinthians: 13:4

Elise Amberson’s husbands always die before she can get the marriage momentum going. At least this last one left her with lots of money. Now she can hang out with her dogs, avoid men, and try to keep off God’s radar.

But her dogs are behaving oddly, a pesky pastor can’t keep his hands off her soul, and God is backing her into a corner.

It’s all more than a rich, beautiful young woman should have to bear. But when someone begins targeting Elise, she’ll have to figure out why before she becomes the late Widow Amberson.

Read an excerpt at www.prismbookgroup.com/Hounded.html

Available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/1nIiqWm.

My review:

Elise Amberson has multiple demons to battle when her unbeloved second husband Timothy is murdered. Naturally she’s the chief suspect. Timothy’s family is less than cordial, the detective assigned to the case has his own challenge which includes putting uppity Elise in her place. Then there are the unseen battles, the God who won’t stop bugging her in the form of a pastor friend from school days, and the Amberson family closet.

Cleverly formulated around the classic nineteenth century poem, Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson, Hounded is a delightfully-crafted novella with enough clues and miscues, romance and family secrets, and charming detail to satisfy savvy readers. Klumpers writes for lit lovers with jests and innuendo in a skillful use of language. A lot of fun that will bring a smile to readers and an occasional need to dive back in to recall a quote.

Author Jewell Tweedt and Historical Romance

     

A holiday story from inspirational historical author, Jewell Tweedt! 

The story, a novella titled Christmas Bells, is a stand alone e-book or available bundled in a print anthology with two other stories in Love's Christmas Past from Prism Book Group, November 2015.

About Christmas Bells:
Come hear the sounds of Christmas… 

Vivacious frontier widow Connie Rose Simonson manages two cafés while dreaming of the perfect Christmas for her son Andrew, but not everyone welcomes her success. A corrupt banker wants her properties and will manipulate anyone in his way. 

Dr. James Connor heals others while forsaking his own needs. The town’s only doctor, an influenza outbreak, and the holiday season leave him exhausted and discouraged. 

It looks like another lonely holiday for the Connor and the Simonsons until Andrew is injured and the doctor becomes entranced by the attractive widow. But James has been hurt before and hesitates to get involved, after all, a physician must always maintain a proper relationship with his patients. 

It’s up to angelic newcomer Diana to bring them together creating new beginnings, new memories, and to hear When Christmas Bells Are Ringing. 

A brief interview with the author:
Jewell, tell us what you love about your holiday story.
What I loved about Christmas Bells is that it's about faith and hope for two lonely people, Connie Simonson and Dr. James Connor. They are hard-working respected members of the community who put aside their needs to help others. When they find each other it takes the interference of a nosy angel to finally bring them together.

Introduce us to your least favorite character.
My least favorite character is banker JJ Dawson who has plans to bankrupt Connie by shutting down her cafe and spreading rumors of unsanitary practices. He's despicable!

About the Author:

Jewell Tweedt was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, the setting for the Nebraska Brides series. She lives in western Iowa and divides her time between teaching middle school students and writing. In her spare time she reads, gardens and grades papers. Lots of papers.  Readers can learn more about Jewell and her books at www.tweedtjewell.blogspot.com

NOTE: Besides the Nebraska Brides Series, including A Bride for the Sheriff , Tweedt authored the Back to Omaha Adventure series, starting with Faith of the Heart.