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Friday, December 10, 2021
Holiday Reads from The Wild Rose Press, Inc
Thursday, December 09, 2021
Chocolate Chip Christmas Wishes by Nicole McCaffrey
. . .“Welcome to Christmasville where it’s Christmas all year long.”
He
turned to her. “Let me guess. I died and this is Hell.”. . .
Lucy Prescott is all alone in this world. She left college and abandoned her dream of running her own business to care for the ailing grandparents who raised her. Since they died, she has struggled to keep their Christmas novelty shop running in a dated, dying Christmas-themed tourist town. But she is running low on hope and it’s hard to feel the holiday spirit when you live it all day, every day.
After Jake appears in the tiny town in Northern New York, magic seems to fill the air. And what’s up with the enticing aroma of chocolate chip cookies that seems to follow everywhere he goes? For the first time in ages, life holds excitement and Lucy finds herself wondering what if?
In
order to truly enjoy this terrific tale of an elf and a hard-working selfless
shop owner, one needs to get ready for one hoot after another. Jake is a
darling; Lucy owns a heart as big as all outdoors. Neither is about to give up
on their dreams. So take a visit to Christmasville, meet Lucy, Jake and the rest
of the gang who inhabit this delightful holiday-themed village, and prepare to
have your heart warmed like never before.
On a scale of 1-5, Chocolate Chip Christmas Wishes deserves a 7.
Kat Henry Doran,
Wild Women Reviews
Tinsel and Tea Cakes by Jill Piscitello
. . . Step back in time for an unforgettable winter wedding . . .
After a chaotic year, executive Wes Harley settles into his family's
event venue, The Timeless Manor. His carefully structured world is shaken to
its core when Scarlett arrives for the Victorian Christmas wedding weekend. The
feelings he never quite erased flood to the surface.
When secrets are revealed, will a magical chateau and
a sprinkle of tinsel be enough to charm Scarlett?
Wednesday, December 08, 2021
Sometimes you just can’t force it
Originally posted at https://darlenedeluca.com/2015/10/23/sometimes-you-just-cant-force-it/
Reposted with permission from Darlene Deluca
I see this meme or some variation of it posted a lot: children become readers on the laps of their parents, or children who are read to become lifelong readers. And I’m always tempted to like and repost and say “yeah!”
But then I remember, there’s no guarantee. I wish I had hard and fast scientific data. I don’t. But I do have two children. One girl, one boy. One a reader, one not. I read (or attempted to) to each of them when they were little. So why did one become a lifelong reader, and the other have absolutely no interest?
Despite my repeated efforts – years of efforts – my son is not a
reader. The little book pictured here is one of our very earliest
attempts. You can see that it is well-worn. Looks well-loved, right? It
did, actually, become a favorite chew toy. 
There were a couple of glimmers of hope through the years. He seemed to enjoy Captain Underpants. Yay, boy humor. OK, I could roll with that. We bought the entire series, and he even dragged them around when we went out to eat or to an appointment. A few years later, I was again encouraged when he discovered Lemony Snicket and the Series of Unfortunate Events. But that was about it. From then on, I don’t think he read many other books except those that were required in school.
We subscribed to Time magazine and National Geographic and Sports Illustrated for Teens, and I hoped the shorter non-fiction might appeal to him. Mmm, not so much. When he was in high school, I tried to read the required books, too, so that I could talk to him about them and make sure he was understanding and processing them. He was. It wasn’t that he couldn’t read. He simply didn’t enjoy it. Unlike my daughter, my son did not entertain himself for hours lost in imaginary play. He didn’t work puzzles and create elaborate set-ups with Legos or Playmobile sets the way my daughter did.
For a reader/writer mom, this is hard. I can gnash my teeth and
lament, “where did I go wrong?” But the fact is, it was out of my
control. He needed more action, more stimulation. In grade school and
middle school he played soccer and tennis and baseball and basketball.
His dad tried to get him to play golf, and that didn’t work out. Too
slow for this kid. He played soccer and tennis into high school, and
plays tennis in college. Lots of action, constant running and movement.
We joke about whether he’s ever stepped foot inside the campus library,
or could even identify the building (he can). And, yes, he can read and
write, but it’s not his personality to sit and read for enjoyment. Not
his thing. Never has been.
His dad isn’t a reader, either. So, I’m thinking maybe it’s genetic. He just didn’t get the reading gene!
Darlene Deluca
Saturday, December 04, 2021
It's the Season for Reading
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Wednesday, December 01, 2021
MYSTERY FANFARE BLOG GUEST POST
originally published on https://www.
GUEST POST
Randy Overbeck, author of Blood on the Chesapeake
THE STRANGE IS SOMETIMES
RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU
The
minds of mystery writers work in mysterious ways.
I
came upon this traditional, two-story, red-bricked school building with this
perfect widow’s walk atop the second floor, complete with white railing around
three sides. And I pictured a naked, dead body hanging from one cracked post.
Weird, huh?
I guess I should introduce myself.
My name is Randy Overbeck and I’m the author of the new ghost story/mystery, Blood on the Chesapeake, which features—among
other usual twists—you guessed it, a naked, dead body hanging from a widow’s
walk atop a high school.
Have you
ever visited a place, been so captivated by everything about the area, you
thought you might’ve just found your perfect place? That was my response to the
Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Charming, quaint resort towns nestle into
coves along miles and miles of undulating shoreline, the quiet blue-green
waters of the Bay stretching out in all directions and, when you take time to
watch, breathtaking sunsets over a multi-colored canopy of trees. Then, when I
learned of the unusual duality of the history and culture of the area, I was
hooked. The hallmarks of a proud New England heritage like fishing and shipping
run deep throughout the Chesapeake area, but the region also with roots still very
much in the south. The area was home to infamous slave plantations, where the
freedom fighters Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were both born. It is
little wonder that the area’s loyalties were divided during the Civil War.
I thought it’d be interesting to explore this
historical dichotomy in a work of fiction. I wondered, in this most peaceful
and beautiful setting on the Chesapeake Bay, what if something happened in a
small town, something so horrific and vile—like some kid being lynched from
that widow’s walk—it was buried deep in a town’s memory, an ugly secret
festering below the surface? This is the intriguing (though entirely fictional)
premise of my new book, Blood on the
Chesapeake, a ghost story/mystery about a thirty-year-old murder and the
newcomer who uncovers the secret—with a little ghostly help.
Oh and the whole story did all start
with a widow’s walk atop the school in the photo above. I actually encountered
that school building in another small town, this one in an actual New England
town in Maine. Okay, so I took some liberty in transplanting it to the Eastern
Shore, but that’s what literary license is for, right?
Early
reviews for the novel have started coming in and I’m thrilled the response the
book is generating.
William
Kent Krueger, Edgar Award winner and best-selling author of Ordinary Grace wrote: “Blood on the
Chesapeake is a tale to be savored in a darkened room, with an eye to
all the possibilities lurking just out of sight.”
Here’s what Hank Phillipi Ryan, best-selling author of Trust Me, thought of Blood on the Chesapeake: "Timely and original, this contemporary ghost story
is genuinely entertaining! A terrific, one-sitting read.”
Blood on the Chesapeake has even garnered
notice across the pond. UK thriller writer, Zoe Sharp, author of Fox Hunter, penned: "An absorbing
and genuinely creepy debut tale that will have you gripped to the final
chapter!"
As I travel, I keep my
eyes and imagination open. When you possess the strange mind of a mystery
writer, especially a weird ghost story/mystery writer, you never know where the
next inspiration is going to come from. Perhaps a painstakingly restored
Victorian mansion?
Dr. Randy Overbeck is a writer,
educator, researcher
and speaker in much demand. During his three plus decades of educational
experience, he has performed many of the roles depicted in his writing with
responsibilities ranging from coach and yearbook advisor to principal and
superintendent. His
new ghost story/mystery, Blood on the
Chesapeake, will be released on April 10, 2019 by The Wild Rose Press. As
the title suggests, the novel is set on the famous Eastern Shore of the
Chesapeake Bay, home to endless shorelines, incredible sunsets and some of the
best sailing in the world. Blood is
first in a new series of paranormal mysteries, The Haunted Shores Mysteries.
Dr. Overbeck’s first novel, Leave No
Child Behind, a thriller about the terrorist takeover of a Midwest high
school and one teacher’s stand against the intruders, won the 2011 Silver Award
for Thrillers from ReadersFavorite.com. Dr. Overbeck is a member of the Mystery
Writers of America and an active member of the literary community. You can
follow him on Twitter @OverbeckRandy, friend him on Facebook at Author Randy
Overbeck or check out his webpage, www.authorrandyoverbeck.com
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Relax with a new book this holiday season!
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