Totally fun brain teasing poetry with Kelleyina Johnson

 

I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU: Treasure hunt your mind and house for answers to these brain teasing poems
Kelleyina Johnson
 
April 2021
58 pg, print $13.99
Buy on Amazon

About the book

The selected poems are brain-teasing, mentally stimulating, and fun! What makes them unique is that each poem asks a series of questions. After hearing them, the listener has to figure out what those questions are revealing about the answer. I provide the answers, but I don't just give them to the reader, they have to unscramble them.

 
A brief interview with the author:
 
Kelleyina, share a little about your writing journey. What prompted you to write a book, and how did you go about learning how to do it?
What prompted me to write this book was a little journal I purchased. I saw it and it was just the cutest most delicious looking cover. I looked at it and said, "I know just what I'm going to do with you, I'm going to put poems in you, then put them in a book and get it published." In my mind all of that was happening. After I had gotten enough poems, so I thought, I sent my manuscript out to get my copyright  registration. After that I was not sure what to do, so I prayed. That's when God sent a young lady named Robyn Norwood to me. She was starting an authorship class and  she was the answer to my prayers. Her class taught me what I needed to do to complete the process of getting my book published.
 
How did you come up with your lovely, intriguing, and fun poems?
The way I came up with most of my poems were spirit led. I would arise, after sleeping, with a thought in my head to write something down. Of course I was obedient. Even throughout my day when I got an idea I always stopped to jot down what I was thinking. 
 
What are your favorites? Which gave you the most trouble and why?
OK, so, I have to be biased here and say, "they are all my favorites." Even when I had about twelve poems and thought I was done, and Robyn challenged me to add a few more, I was always consulting my Heavenly Father for the words.
 
What do you like to read in your spare time? What are you reading now?
In my spare time I like to read books on leadership, positive thinking, creating a better future for myself, relationships and prayer verses. Right now I am reading Think Big by Terri Savelle Foy, In The Meantime by Iyanla Vanzant and Kicking Over Sacred Cows by Charles Capps. It depends on whichever room I'm in that determines my read for that moment.
 
What’s next for you?
My next project is a children's book as well. Except This one will consist of illustrations for the poems. It will be about the yellow school bus.

Sneak peek from Lisa: it's really cute. Can't wait to see it. Thank you for your time today, Kelleyina.
 
About the Author:

Kelleyina Johnson is a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, friend, woman of God and teacher to preschoolers in-home daycare. Many years ago she survived a car accident, totally uninjured, after the car she was in flipped over three times before coming to a stop. This was a blessing because God has used her as a vessel to do so many things outside of her box. She’s a member of the Franklin Road Community Association in Marietta, Georgia and the secretary of “Advance To Excellence,” Toastmasters Club, District 44. She also teaches in the Junior class at her church, World Changers Church International, Marietta Satellite location, which consists of middle schoolers from eleven to thirteen years of age.

Meet Michelle Caffrey multitalented author

 

Welcome, Michelle Caffrey!
 
Michelle, you write both fiction and non-fiction for different age ranges. What’s that like, switching between reality and what might be?
Writing fiction frees my imagination. Narrative non-fiction has the same elements of plot and character that a novel has, along with respect for the facts and for the people involved. I spent two and a half years researching before writing Bring Jade Home. For hundreds of hours, I interviewed everyone with a connection to finding the dog lost for 44 days in Yellowstone. I used Facebook and emails to get people’s stories, and read books about Yellowstone Park, particularly its history and grizzles and wolves. I researched Australian shepherds, lost dogs and how to find them, pet safety while traveling, and dog agility contests. It was an incredible learning experience.
 
Tell us about Jade, and your motives for writing your adult and children-focused books about her.
I met Laura Gillice, when she was a guest aboard our barge “Imagine” in France in 2001. We became friends and stayed in close contact. In 2015, she and her friend, David Sowers, were traveling in Yellowstone National Park with their two young Australian shepherds when they were involved in a horrific head-on crash. Seriously injured David and Laura were ambulanced away, and when the rangers went to take the dogs from the wrecked SUV, David’s fifteen-month-old dog, Jade, ran from her damaged carrier into the wild.
 
Jade was lost in Yellowstone for 44 days, and returned safely, after hundreds of people searched for her. Laura had admired my memoir Just Imagine and asked if I would like to write their story. I was excited by the opportunity to tell the true story of the miraculous Australian Shepherd puppy who faced starvation, rugged terrain, and grizzlies, coyotes, and wolf packs. It was the story of a lifetime, so of course, I said “Yes!”
 
My publisher, Farcountry Press, specializes in National Park-related books including the best-selling picture book series Who Pooped in the Park?  I wanted to tell Jade’s story from her point of view and used a combination of educated guesses and imagination to write it. Farcountry had the talented Steph Lehmann illustrate Jade—Lost in Yellowstone.  It received the Creative Child Magazine 2020 Book of the Year Award and is the recipient of the Dog Writer’s Association First Place Award for Children’s Early Reader 2020. I recently completed a young reader chapter book for the 8-12-year-old reading level in the series.
 
Talk about how setting is important to your intriguing mystery Dairyland series. Can you share anything about the third book?
My husband and I have lived in the Lake Geneva area on and off since 1983. Originally from “Chicagoland,” southeastern Wisconsin has always been my “happy place.” For the ten years we had our barge “Imagine,” we spent summers in France and winters in our RV traveling the country. Dairyland Acres RV Park is a compilation of campgrounds we experienced, set in the mythical small town of Eureka, Wisconsin. Campgrounds and homeports have a commonality: Everyone is a nomad, and both are  microcosms of small close-knit communities—with the closeness having both pros and cons. If you find a small town confining, try living cheek to jowl with your neighbor’s RV or boat and you’ll learn little is private!
 
What’s your writing and marketing schedule/strategy like?

I do every podcast, radio, written and TV interview my publisher lines up for me. I reached out to friends via email and am active on social media.  I like Facebook, but also use Instagram and YouTube. I contacted my local libraries in Lake Geneva and Delavan and made presentations and during the pandemic, virtual visits.

I view book signings and events like Lake Geneva’s Beachfront Authorfest as promotional investments rather than big sales opportunities. I have attended other author’s book signings and found that the personal impression an author makes can create loyalty or lose fans.

And speaking of fans, I really have fun meeting younger people who are reading!
 
What are you reading now?
I just finished Anthony Bourdain’s World Travel, and started Beneath the Flames by Gregory Lee Renz, a fellow WWA member, and loving it.

I'll have to check out Bourdain, and can say I loved Renz's story too! Thank you, Michelle.

Read Kerri Lukasaviz's reviews of Jade here and here.

About Michelle:

After years in the software industry, my husband Paul and I abandoned our successful careers and bought a converted 1906 Dutch barge, Imagine. We established a boat charter business, Barge and Breakfast, and cruised the European waterways for ten adventure-filled years. I wrote and indie published Just Imagine: A New Life on an Old Boat, the true story of our first-year adventures—and misadventures—as we journeyed from Holland to Burgundy, France.

I’ve written two of my three-novel Dairyland Series. I recently completed Sconnie, which was a finalist in the RWA SWFL Joyce Henderson contest in the Romantic Suspense category.

Bring Jade Home: The True Story of a Dog Lost in Yellowstone, published by Farcountry Press, was my first narrative non-fiction book. My picture book, Jade—Lost in Yellowstone, received the Creative Child Magazine 2020 Book of the Year Award and is the recipient of the Dog Writer’s Association First Place Award for Children’s Early Reader 2020. I recently completed a young reader chapter book for the 8-12-year-old reading level in the series.

I am a member of RWA, the Wisconsin Writer’s Association, former attendee of the Writer’s Institute of the UW, and take part annually in Lake Geneva Library’s Authorfest by the Beach.

My husband Paul and I currently live in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When not on the water, I enjoy reading and am addicted to knitting. Both of us love to cook, especially French food.

www.BringJadeHome.com
www.MichelleCaffrey.com
https://bringjadehome.blogspot.com/

Buy on Amazon 

Just Imagine A New Life on an Old Boat

Bring Jade Home

Jade - Lost in Yellowstone

 

Western Romance promo and free drawing April 21-28

 

I’m so excited to be a part of @NNP_W_Light’s Western Fiction/Romance Bookish Event. Check out all the western-themed books and enter the giveaway to 

win a $45 Amazon gift card: 

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/western-fiction-romance-event

My ebook, Crazy Creek Christmas, will be featured on the above site Thursday April 22 at 9 AM

purchasing the book and sending a photo as directed in the link will get you five extra chances at the drawing for the Amazon Gift Card.

#western #fiction #romance #mustread #books #bookish #giveaway

DRAWING INFORMATION

Enter to win a $45 Amazon (US) gift card - here or below: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750106

Open Internationally.
Runs April 20 – April 28, 2021.
Winner will be drawn on April 29, 2021.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Trickster's Sister by R Chris Reeder

The Trickster’s Sister, sequel to The Changeling’s Daughter

R Chris Reeder

Black Rose Writing
YA Fantasy
440 pp April 8, 2021

Print $22.95 
Buy on Amazon 
Barnes and Noble
Publisher - The Trickster's Sister

Publisher -- book 1, The Changeling's Daughter

About the Book
After getting kidnapped by a demigod and imprisoned in another dimension, Makayla was really hoping that her life would get back to normal. Or at least as normal as life could be when you had a goblin for a best friend.

But now her sleepy midwestern town is being invaded by shadows. Her neighbors are being stolen away and replaced by changelings. And when she tries to escape, her path threatens to take her to the one place she never wanted to return to: the mysterious and dangerous Land of Annwfyn.

My review

Reeder’s fantasy YA is a story of friendship, the best kind of friendship; of finding and using your gifts, and family. It’s a quest for a missing brother; it’s a take-care-of-the-baby-while-we save-the-universe, figure-out-who-we-are, and a rescue adventure, all wrapped in girl power—the kind that needs only best friends.

Universal truths still compete as good and evil vie for dominance. Reeder has a way of twisting common perceptions into misperceptions that bare our prejudices. A mystifying and frightening invasion is taking place, and the ministry in charge of the changeling operations all over the universe is purposefully being misdirected. I love how Reeder confabulates the changeling log book. Scenes like that, and how the girls work together to unravel the mystery are amazing and beautiful. Sure, the girls argue and fight, but realize they must work together and help each other face their worst nightmares in order to survive. What one does, sacrifices, is willing to take on for love of another, is the framework. I enjoy Reeder’s use of short, tight chapters to ramp up tension, although occasionally the breaks are a distraction from the story.

Persistence, never give up, fight for what you believe, and most of all: appreciate yourself are all qualities that define this story as told from Makayla’s point of view on the human side and the administration minister’s side. Everyone must rise above if good is to win in this serial adventure. As in the first book, the author uses typical teenage issues of identity challenges, cursing, and quite a bit of fantasy violence, so parents who mind might want to check it out first.

About the Author

R. Chris Reeder grew up in a tiny town you've never heard of and attended college in Walla Walla, Washington. He founded a theatre company, worked across the country as a professional Shakespearean actor, traveled the globe as an international courier, took a year and a half detour to be a singing activist, and then settled down into the comfortable life of a stay-at-home father and part-time author.

He currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, two children, and a pair of cats named Monster Jack and Tiny Jill. www.rchrisreeder.com

It's Read an EBook WEEK!

Check out Lisa's ebooks as well: the "Everything" short romantic novella series From Prism Books - $2.99 each Everything About You, Everything About Us, Everything Noel, the romantic holiday contemporary Western, Crazy Creek Christmas and the origins of the Meow Mysteries: Meow Mistletoe

READ AN E-BOOK WEEK 

Read an E-Book Week during the first full week in March is an opportunity for book lovers and writers alike to share their passion in digital form. 

For the one week of Read an Ebook Week, publishers and authors offer thousands of original ebooks for free and at deep discounts to encourage book lovers around the globe to give ebooks a try.

The week promotes the advantages of reading ebooks such as:

• Convenience – lighter to carry around than physical books
• Ease of use – more accessible to take notes and look up books
• Customization – You can set your ebooks to look exactly how you want. 
• Price – They tend to be cheaper, and you can get many for free.
• Environmentally friendly – no chopping up trees to make them.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Download an ebook and brew a fresh cup of coffee.  It’s time for some great reading! There are several ways to download ebooks. Visit smashwords.com or follow the facebook page. 

Share why you read or publish ebooks by using #ReadAnEbookWeek or #eBookWeek on social media. 

HISTORY

Up to 2004, Rita Toews, from Winnipeg was writing books but had no way to get them into reader’s hands, so she started writing ebooks. Ebook popularity was just getting started, and few people knew about the availability of ebooks. So, she created “Read an E-Book Week” to create a mass opportunity for one week out of the year for writers to get international publicity.

Shut em Down: Black Women, Racism and Corp America

 

Write Now Literary is pleased to be organizing a two-week book tour for Shut’em Down: Black Women, Racism & Corporate America by Co-author Dr. Tara Hines-McCoy. The book tour will run February 22- March 5,  2021.
            
Genre: Nonfiction/Anthology
ISBN-13: 978-0985031640

 

Dr. Tara Hines-McCoy, a native of Little Rock, AR is a compelling communicator who uses her gifts, her experiences and her faith to inspire women to take control and move forward in life. Dr. Tara has been a rising thought leader in corporate America for over 15 years specializing in Human Resources. She has worked for Fortune 500 and multinational companies with multi-state and regional leadership roles. Her professional approach equips leaders with the tools needed to improve business performance and increase employee engagement. 

As a divorced mother of one daughter she has a vibrant personality that aids in her ability to connect with people on all levels. Dr. Tara has overcome life changing experiences throughout her personal and professional career. She has found a way to connect with women by encouraging them to move past their failures, by defining their own character in order to turn uncertainty to passion. An avid walker, lover of all thing’s basketball, football, and tennis. She is a self-proclaimed popcorn connoisseur. Of her many accomplishments, Dr. Tara is most proud to be a mother. 

 

 Shut’em Down is the battle cry of Black women who have suffered abuse and trauma at the hands of corporate America. Composed of the stories of 20 Black women who have been impacted by racism in the workplace, this anthology not only offers us conversation starters on how to combat racism on the job, but also transformative ideas to create safer work spaces for Black professionals.

 

Chapter Title: Black Roadblocks

Racism is an interesting creature as it can be presented in such an unobscured manner that it slides right over your head. As you trek along in life, the smallest or biggest milestones and accomplishments will somehow take you back to that day and time you were faced with roadblocks. That is when you know for sure that you, too, have come face to face with some form of unacceptance, micro-aggression, racial hostility, double consciousness or colorism. If you are like me, you have told yourself that you are not bothered by these biases.  However, together over time, they can create doubt, lack of confidence, and uneasiness for no logical reason besides the fact that, deep down, you are always trying to ensure you are as good or better than the white athlete, student, or colleague. 

 

 

 

                                        TWITTER                         FACEBOOK

 

 

 

                                AMAZON             AUTHOR WEBSITE
 

 

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Chicago and Me in the Time of a Pandemic by Jack Gregus

Chicago and Me In the Time of a Pandemic

Jack Gregus
Art book with poetry, paintings, and photography
October, 2020, 175 pp
 
Buy on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KRHYQPJ
Ebook, $9.99
Print, $14.95
 
About the Book
A work of poetry, paintings, short stories, and photographs made in the time of a pandemic whilst living in Chicago. It holds a light for the lonely. It asks you to think and feel. It wants to be a friend of your heart. Breathe in original passion and invigorating truth. You matter and so does knowledge. The days have been long with doubt and fear, rinse yourself with these written words and feel something more. Feel the independence of love and its many forms. What is presented is for pleasure and guided action so life may continue. A sensual creation awaits your gaze.
 
My Review
Gregus has put together a series of heartfelt, sometimes gut-wrenching queries in reflection of our times. I admit, there is some aspects of the work that I find disturbing, but just because I'm a little old Quaker grandma, I'm not going to decline to share the book. The author approached me for a potential review.
 
“Used patience lulls submission, Is Nobody capable of impossible truth?” he writes in between photos of fanned book pages and the quietude of a lit, peaceful living room with sofa.
 
“Of Slices” and “Of Remnants” show what’s there, and what’s left behind.
 
“I need new plans” and “Please God help me not overreact when things go array” are certainly pleas everyone experiences now more than ever. Gregus shares images of nature and man in poses of praise and repentance, essays with graphic language and adult situations common, I suppose, with the frustrated generation of today. It’s not a book for those looking for clean spiritually-themed stories or reflections.
 
“I need to challenge myself, I need to go past what I know,” he writes. A brutal but thought-provoking story of murder follows. “I have often thought very little about death,” the story concludes in his character Casey’s voice, “the hunger of a man to kill. The unwant to be killed.”
 
Chicago and Me is a collection of Gregus navigating his way through the confusing and frustrating current times, and sharing these observances and reflections through poetry, prose, and visual art. The book is adult-themed and contains profanity and graphic written material.
 
About the Author
When not creating art I tend to ease back and eat delish sustenance in my home of Chicago. I love to listen to music on extreme levels that I can feel the music pass from one ear to the other. I am a movie fan as well. The movies that really touch me are those which involve great feats of emotion. The reason that I write, take photographs, and paint is because the expression is everything. I really respect Basquiat and his constant promotion of the audience to think. Expression is universal and it can tell cliche stories or something more interesting. For me, it's the something more. I dig into euphoria when I can speak for the voiceless and include my faith.