Becky Ann Woods Photography

Good photography is something that not everyone has the skill for, but that nearly everyone appreciates.  You have to get the light just right, the right time of day, the right sunlight... the right backdrop... so many things!

And have you noticed how a really great photo tells a story of its very own?  Just in one still shot, without words.  Some photographers know how to do that very well.

Becky Ann Woods is one of those photographers.   And she's a pretty awesome person too!

Check out her great website at beckyannphotography.com, and browse some of her wonderful photos!

Against the Odds by Jewel Adams

Against the Odds is a fantastic book by a great writer, Jewel Adams (or J. Adams as she often goes by, on her books).  Check it out, here!

In this story, we follow Raine, a character who has been through a terrible marriage to an unfaithful man, and finally leaves, going to stay with her good friend on her ranch.  Being on the ranch she can clear her head, and get her life in perspective.  But just as she's doing that, she meets Hayden.

Despite her reservations, she finds herself drawn more and more to him.  Having been hurt before, she is reluctant and distrustful, but as she gets to know Hayden, she realizes more and more that he isn't anything like her former spouse.  He's honest, moral, caring, and genuine.  And most especially, he's drawn to her too.  Ooh, goodie!

But things aren't smooth sailing for them, and troubles get thrown at them left and right, threatening to tear them apart.  Can Raine learn to trust him, or are the problems from her past just too great to overcome?

I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good, clean romance!

Bookmarked Bargains and My Book Cave

From today until October 15, the ebook version of my newest book, Felicity and the Featherless Two-Foot is offered for free on amazon.  And I was very pleased that  Bookmarked Bargains and My Book Cave were gracious enough to list the book for their readers to see.

Felicity and the Featherless Two-Foot is a middle grade fantasy about a young sparrow, Felicity, who can read.  She's already been on one adventure, and is friends with the fairies now as a result of he heroic actions in the last book.  Still, there's a lot about the world that she doesn't know...  


Felicity doesn't know much about featherless two-foots, those strange folks her friends the fairies call people. But she's about to learn a lot. Like why they're so fascinated by those flat silver . . . rocks many of them carry around. And what the heck is a come-putter?

If it sounds like something you would enjoy, I hope you head over to amazon and pick up a copy of Felicity and the Featherless Two-Foot!

Mysteries of Cove Fires of Invention by J. Scott Savage Launch Party

Yesterday evening, my two younger children and I were very lucky to attend the launch party for J. Scott Savage's newest series, Mysteries of Cove.  The first book is called Fires of Invention. 

It was a great launch party, and I really enjoyed it!  The marvelous James Dashner was the MC, and he did a great job. 
We got to meet some of the characters from J. Scott Savage's books, including Marcus and Kyja from Far Word, and there were several hilarious skits played, all including a steam punk theme.  

One especially funny one was regency romance combined with  steam punk where the "hero" tried to make a steam powered automatic fan for his sweetheart which then malfunctioned, and... well, the results weren't pretty.

My favorite was a dance performed to the song Immortal from the movie Big Hero 6.  I forgot the name of the dance group.  But they did an amazing job, complete with steam punk attire, and everything!

Another funny scene was the "dragon" in tights which really made the kids in the audience crack up.  He was a pretty funny guy!

After he was shooed away, (well, he never quite left) the screen came down, and we got to see a pretty cool dragon surrounded by flames on the big screen.  

And of course, Mr. J. Scott Savage was there (being the author it would be odd if he wasn't) clad in minion pajamas of course, to talk about his book.

And of course I can't fail to mention that one of the great parts was the Fires of Invention trailer that played on the screen for us.  Watch it, here!  It's great!

What I really like about Mysteries of Cove, is that its message emphasizes how important it is to invent and create and make new things; not just simply regurgitate information from the past.  Sure we need the past to learn from it, but we also need to move forward into the future, and be individuals who contribute and make things better for ourselves and for others.

From the book description:
"Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and invention is a curse word.

Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion; an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.

Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin to assemble a strange machine that is unlike anything they've ever seen before. They soon discover that what they are building may threaten every truth their city is founded on and quite possibly their very lives."

To read more about this fantastic book and the author who wrote it, visit his website here. 

And happy inventing!