Tag Archives: books

Author Jessica K. Foster pens Andy and the Extroverts

February 9, 2024 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7ftdz-1577bfe

When an introvert winds up at a summer leadership camp, it’s a comedy of errors and a romance she’ll never forget. Seventeen-year-old bookish Andy has no friends.

When her over-involved mother dares to ship her off to summer leadership camp, she’s thrust into an introvert’s nightmare.

Everyone is a Communicator with a capital C, icebreaker activities are scheduled into every waking moment, and horror of all horrors: there’s no coffee. Even the girls who take her under their wing are the self-assured people Andy could never dream of becoming.

Then she meets Lucas—hot, attentive, and everything Andy reads about in her books. Though the girls in her cottage try to warn her about him, she’s swept into the first romance of her life. But when she discovers her friends may be right, she’ll have to find her inner confidence to save her summer and become the leader she was always meant to be.

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Andy and the Extroverts

Sponsored by Doc Chavent

book podcasts, Indie authors, writing

Author Marie LaPres pens Beyond the Fort

February 1, 2024 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ggraq-156bb02

In Marie LaPres’ young adult fiction Beyond the Fort, the main character Christine Belanger has always loved learning about the past. Still, she may get more history than she bargained for when she finds herself at Colonial Michilimackinac in the year 1775. In the past, Christine meets fellow time travelers, Henri and Jacques, French fur traders, and British soldiers.

She quickly learns that the tensions are high between the French and British, and Henri and Christine uncover the plot of a British Leftenant who plans to eradicate all French settlers in the Mackinac Straits area. It’s up to Christine and Henri to save the settlers, and possibly change the course of history. Can Christine and Henri outwit Lewis and save the fort? Will Christine be able to survive Colonial America without all of the amenities she is used to…especially her cell phone?

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Beyond the Fort.

Sponsored by Doc Chavent.

book podcasts, Indie authors, writing

Author H. William Ruback pens Scribe: The Apprentice

January 26, 2024 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-kwcfn-1561e01

In an age where magic and the wizards that wielded that power, have faded into disputed myth. The Darkness and the evil it shrouds is an all too real presence.

Young Gareth has spent his life training, dreaming of following in his father’s footsteps as the greatest warrior to have served the Crescent Lands.

Knowing the true horror of battle, his father has other plans for his son. He has used the last vestige of his political favor, to secure an apprenticeship for his son in the venerable Guild of Scribes.

The Order of Scribes has recorded every event since the dawn of history. They are present at every political or academic gathering. They walk the battlefields for every conflict. They are held in awe and feared at length: for no man truly wants history to speak ill of them. And in that way, their presence has altered the exact events they were sent to chronicle.

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Scribe: The Apprentice

Author Pamela Withrow pens memoir Madam Warden

January 12, 2024 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-qwh27-154a6c3

Pam Withrow was an Indiana farm girl transplanted to Michigan. After a teen marriage and a stint on welfare, she graduated from college and began work with the Michigan Department of Corrections. Within seven years she was named the first woman to head a prison for men in Michigan. She then worked at the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia for 15 years.

Madam Warden takes the reader with Pam as she moves through progressively responsible positions in the Michigan Department of Corrections, introducing you to the people who lived and worked in the institutions she managed. Evidence-based programs and the story of one prisoner who benefitted from cognitive restructuring are featured.

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of Madam Warden.

Sponsored by Doc Chavent

book podcasts, Indie authors, writing

Author Kenneth Harmon pens In the Realm of Ash & Sorrow

January 12, 2024 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-iw9nq-154a5fb

When bombardier Micah Lund dies on a mission over Hiroshima, his spirit remains trapped in the land of his enemies. Dazed, he follows Kiyomi Oshiro, a war widow struggling to care for her young daughter, Ai.

Food is scarce, work at the factory is brutal, and her in-laws treat her like a servant. Watching Kiyomi and Ai together, Micah reconsiders his intolerance for the people he’d called the enemy. As his concern for the mother and daughter grows, so does his guilt for his part in their suffering. Micah finds a new reality when Kiyomi and Ai dream—one which allows him to interact with them. While his feelings for Kiyomi deepen, imminent destruction looms. Hiroshima is about to be bombed, and Micah must warn Kiyomi and her daughter.

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of In the Realm of Ash & Sorrow.

Sponsored by Doc Chavent

book podcasts, Indie authors, writing

Holiday Author Talk & Moravian Sons Liquor Tasting

December 14, 2023 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-5tfsd-15265dd

Get into the holiday spirit this Saturday at The Book Nook & Java Shop in cozy Montague with four authors and four spirits.

The special holiday event organized by Written in the Mitten starts with author founder Ingar Rudholm talking about book descriptions, followed by Rudholm on memoirs and short stories, authors H. William Ruback and Marie Lapres.

Moravian Sons Distillery based in Lowell will offer free samples of 100 percent Michigan-made liquors and cocktails, available for purchase at the bar of The Book Nook.

Come and enjoy the spirit of the season on Dec. 16 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 8744 Ferry Street in downtown Montague.

Author Cassie Veselovsky creates sing-along Bingo Books

December 7, 2023 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-h2kf5-151ca72

Making reading time a bit more musical with Bingo Books.

Author librarian Cassie Veselovsky makes reading time a bit more musical in her sing-along books for the five-year-olds and under crowd, and their grown-ups.

“I’ve taken my old rhymes and converted them into books,” she said in the podcast interview.

A librarian of 40 years, Veselovsky also loves pairing books with readers to see the joy in kids’ eyes when they say, “I loved the book.”

In her sing-along books, Veselovsky matches up the rhymes with online purchased illustrations.

“Rhyming books are not easy,” she said, “so they don’t sound silly.”

She would like to disperse a common misconception about her Bingo Books that they are like a bingo game.

“They’re not a game,” she said. “They’re sing-along books with five-letter words.”

Veselovsky will be at Winter Whimsy in Hartford on Dec. 8.

She has attended Reading Rocks in Rockford, hosted by the Rockford branch of the KDL system.

Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of ‘Tis the Season.“

Happy Holidays.

Sponsored by Doc Chavent and author Ed Bentley.

Artists Market, arts, author events, books

Past NaNo Day 3, Advent begins

December 3, 2023 Author Emma Palova Leave a comment

I have yet to write today after wrapping up a shift at @LowellArts Artists Market located on 223 W. Main St. until 5 pm.

I will be at Artists Market next weekend, Dec. 9 from 10 am to 2 pm, and Dec. 10 from noon to 5 pm. Stop by to check out my books from the Shifting Sands Short Stories collection and Greenwich Meridian Memoir.

It’s a beautiful market with a variety of unique gifts ranging from jewelry, ceramics, paintings, fused glass to knitwear among others.

Of course my favorite are Petoskey stones and jewelry made with them. I love rocks, stones and geology.

Today is also the first Sunday of advent and a very short one since Christmas Eve is on Sunday.

I have learned about the three elements of Advent: penance, longing and hope.

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NaNoWriMo Day 1

November 1, 2023 Author Emma Palova Leave a comment

A freezin g 24F morning followed a snowy Halloween. But the view of my garden in the morning was beautiful . The remaining fall colors mixed with the white of the frost on the ground and shrubs.

“The hardest thing is to start,” said author Vera West in the special episode about NaNoWriMo. “Just like going to the gym or anything else.”

My stomach fluttered with anxiety from the unknown of the 50-k word challenge even though I had been preparing for my project, but not enough.

“It’s never enough,” I say about anything.

But the tips and advice from yesterday’s podcast stayed with me, “I have to keep on moving one foot in front of the other, right? I have to keep on writing.”

I logged in 1803 words as I sighed with relief.

book podcasts, Indie authors, writing

NaNoWriMo special panel advises to keep on writing

October 31, 2023 emmapalova Leave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gv9mu-14e78fe

Are you up to the 50k-word marathon challenge that starts on Nov.1 aka NaNoWriMo?

The NaNoWriMo special panelists suggest just keep on writing without any interruptions even if you hit the proverbial wall. Make November your writing month.

“This is my writing month,” author Jean Davis said.

Davis will be participating in the 18th year of the challenge.

That sentence resonated with all the panelists because as Jane Smiley said,

“Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist. It’s perfect in its existence. The only way it could be imperfect would be to NOT exist.”

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Don’t punish yourself, and have fun. Enjoy the camaraderie.

The panelists are authors- Vera West, Emma Palova, Jean Davis, John Winkelman, Andrew Smith, and Ed Bentley.

Listen in for a chance to win some free E books, and mainly to win the challenge.

Sound editing and effects by Douglas Kelly of Evolve Solutions, LLC.

Sponsored by Doc Chavent, Emma Palova, Ed Bentley, John Winkelman, and Andrew Smith.