Whitney Award Finalists!

Yesterday, the finalists for the Whitney Awards were announced. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that my book, Felicity and the Fire Stoppers, though it was a nominee, was not one of the five finalists in its category. But I am happy for my friends and other authors who are! Check out the categories for the Whitney Awards here! I also would like to mention a few friends by name.

Heather B. Moore

Heather Moore has three books that are finalists, Slave Queen, Deliverance, and Exodus.

Janette Rallison

Janette Rallison also has three books that are finalists, How I Met Your Brother, The Wrong Side of Magic, and The Girl Who Heard Demons.

Jennifer Moore

Jennifer Moore has two books that are finalists, A Place for Miss Snow, and Lady Helen Finds Her Song.

Julie Daines

Julie Daines' book Willowkeep is a finalist in Historical Romance .

J. Scott Savage

J Scott Savage's book Mysteries of Cove: Gears of Revolution is a finalist in Middle Grade.

Julie Wright

Julie Wright's book Death Thieves is a finalist in Speculative Young Adult.











All the above mentioned authors, and so many others, are great writers, and I am very happy that their works are finalists in the Whitney Awards!

Condemn Me Not by Heather B. Moore

Condemn Me Not by Heather B. Moore is coming out March 14, and like all of Ms. Moore's books that I have read, I really enjoyed this one. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and have left a review on Goodreads.  Here is the review again:

Condemn Me Not (c) 2017 Heather B. Moore

This was a sobering and personalized look into the life of one of the people executed during the Salem Witch Trials. That the woman was an ancestor of Heather Moore made the story especially meaningful to me. Ms. Moore's writing, as always, was fantastic. She is one of my favorite authors because of her skill at crafting words. I liked that the story went back and forth between her time in jail to her younger years, meeting her husband, having conflict in the community, giving birth to children. I like that it was told in first person. All I know of the Salem Witch Trials I have learned at a distance. But for a little while, in this book, I became one of the innocent accused. I have often tettered back and forth between despising the wretched girls who started it all, and feeling sorry for them, wondering what led them to start their fits of hysteria, of lashing out at innocent people in the first place; innocent people who ended up dead because of them. I don't know everything, and all I can say is that the fate of these girls, who are murderers though they didn't pull the trap door open under these innocent people, is in the hands of God, not me.
That this book could evoke such an emotional response from me, again shows what a fantastic writer Heather Moore is. This was a beautiful, painful, wonderfully-written book!

Michael Young's Paladin: Pawn

I recently finished reading Michael D. Young's MG book, Paladin: Pawn. This was a fun book that I enjoyed reading! 

Rich is the main character, a young kid with regular kid dreams and problems. All he wants is to get his package on time, thinking that's all he's got to worry about, then... BAM! All sorts of problems happening at once, and he alone can fix them! He finds himself a white knight in training, up against a black knight. Who will win? It's a good thing that there are more books in this series! 

This beginning book sets things up nicely. More of the story is coming, but still, I would have preferred to see some sort of resolution instead of things left basically unresolved. Evenso, I still think the book is very well written, and exciting. 

J. Scott Savage's Far World Series

I have enjoyed reading J. Scott Savage's books for years, especially his Far World Series.
In Far World, Kyja, a young girl, has grown up without the ability to do magic, thinking of herself "cripple" despite the encouragement of her friends, including Master Therapass, a wise, elderly wizard, and Riph Raph, a skyte. (Skytes are like tiny flying dragons, about the size of a chihuahua.)
Meanwhile on Earth, Marcus, the same age as Kyja has grown up needing a wheelchair to get around, but at the same time having the strange ability to turn himself slightly invisible, which has always puzzled him. Once they meet, via Kyja seeing him through an "Aptura Discerna" and pulling him to Far World in time to save his life, things start falling into place. They come to realize they need the help of the Elementals of (Water, Land, Air, and Fire) in order to save both their worlds, and the adventure begins!

I've enjoyed this series, and recommend it to readers young and old, who love fast moving, clean fantasy!

My Book Cave Group Promotion: Warm Up Your Winter

The website, My Book Cave is doing a group promotion for several of my friends' books, and I was lucky enough to get my book, Felicity~ A Sparrow's Tale,included in the group! All the ebooks are free for a limited time, so hurry and check them out, and get a free copy! I haven't read them all, but I have read Loyalty's Web by Joyce DiPastena, Lay Me Down by Tamara Hart Heiner, and House Without Lies by Rachel Branton, and those three books are extremely good! Loyalty's Web takes place in medieval times, Lay Me Down is a sad/happy YA, and House Without Lies is a contemporary story about a young woman trying to help teen girls escape abuse.  Here is a link to these books, and others: https://mybookcave.com/g/c40b3f90/  Happy Reading!

Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree

The Education of Little Tree (c) 1976 Forrest Carter

The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter, follows the character Little Tree from the time he is five years old on through a number of years as he lives with his grandparents during the Great Depression, and Prohibition.

The story is in chronological order, but doesn't have much of a main theme or plot to it, which works perfectly for the book. There isn't a main story goal, just bits and pieces from Little Tree's life with his grandparents. Each chapter is like its own little short story. Some of them are sad, some serious, and some laugh out loud funny, especially the story that includes Mr. Chunk and Mr. Slick.

The book does have some swearing in it, but only mild swearing.

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit (c) 1937 by J. R. R. Tolkien

I have just started reading The Hobbit again by J. R. R. Tolkien with my seniors. And while I've lost count of how many times I've read it before, it's a book I haven't yet gotten tired of reading. I enjoy Tolkien's light-hearten language, the way he sometimes speaks in first person and talks directly to the audience, and
the encouraging story behind it all.
Bilbo is a quiet hobbit who is very content to stay at home, and doesn't want to go on any adventures, thank you very much. "Nasty, disturbing things! Makes one late for dinner!" Yet still, he finds himself off in the wild with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves, doing things he never expected he'd do, and finding courage he didn't think he had.
I enjoy the story of The Hobbit partly because of the fun, fantastical adventure Bilbo has, and partly because of what I learn from Bilbo. People can move out of their comfort zones. People can confront frightening things, and not back down. People can stand up to bullies. And most importantly, that those bullies, whether they're dragons, orcs, or anything scary, can be beaten.