Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Trouble at the Winston Hotel

 

A Mouse Mystery


Children's Book, Middle Grade

Date Published: July 15, 2025



 


After his father’s death, Theodore has the task of caring for his mother and thirteen siblings by working as a doorman for the mice at a glitzy seaside Florida hotel where the rich and famous come and go.

The moment Theodore sets eyes on petite, lovely Lila, he vows to do anything to win her heart. When the hotel owners threaten to close it down after unexpected bad publicity hurts their business, Theodore is drawn into the mystery of who is causing the movie stars at the hotel to become ill.

Intent on saving the hotel, winning Lila’s affection, and keeping his family safe, Theodore sets out to solve the mysteries behind the dangerous situation. Being a detective can be a hard business, and he ends up with a few surprises of his own. 

A unique little story for all … man and mouse. Another book by J. S. Keim full of fun, fantasy, and danger.


About the Author


J.S. (Judith) Keim is a USA Today Best-Selling Author of adult stories. She enjoyed her childhood and young-adult years in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their dachshund, Wally and Kacy, and other members of their family..

While she was growing up, books were always present - being read, ready to go back to the library, or about to be discovered. Information from the books was shared in conversation, giving everyone in the family a thirst for sharing ideas. Perhaps that is why she was drawn to the idea of writing stories early on.

As J.S. Keim, she writes children's stories full of fun, fantasy, and danger. She particularly loves to write novels about characters who have interesting, fun, and exciting experiences with creatures both real and fantastical, and who learn to see the world in a different way.

She has written over 50 adult women's fiction books, and as a writer of children's books, she enjoys self-publishing and has had three of her children's stories published in magazines - Highlights for Children, Jack and Jill, and Children's Playmate.

 

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Illusionist by Laurie Buchanan 

  

 A Sean McPherson Novel, Book 5

Mystery/Thriller/Private Investigator
Date Published: 04-15-2025
Publisher: SparkPress






A contemporary crime thriller perfect for Louise Penny and Robert Dugoni fans, Illusionist presents PI McPherson with an impossible dilemma: kill an author at a writing retreat in the Pacific Northwest, or let a college student die.


When an illusionist arrives at Pines & Quill, one of the retreat’s owners vanishes—right in front of witnesses who see nothing. Meanwhile, crime boss Georgio Gambino tightens his grip, blackmailing a writer into murder and framing Sean McPherson. His threat is clear: obey, or your daughter dies.


As McPherson investigates, he uncovers a brewing power struggle—Carmine Fiore, Gambino’s second-in-command, is staging a coup. While Gambino’s network traffics drugs, weapons, and humans, Fiore manipulates the Sureños gang, planting evidence to shift blame.


Desperate to turn the tide, McPherson seeks a dangerous alliance. But when deception is the game, only illusion can outmaneuver the truth. Enlisting the retreat’s eclectic writers—including a NASCAR driver, a triathlete, a house-flipping architect, and a magician with secrets of her own—McPherson sets the stage for the ultimate trick: survival.



Excerpt

Sean “Mick” McPherson drives the Pines & Quill van to Bellingham International Airport. The last time I went to the airport was to drop off the September writers in residence who barely lived to tell about their stay.
    His thoughts home in on Gambino, head of a trifecta-based crime family—Seattle, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Mick tightens his grip on the steering wheel. You learned the hard way that Gambino’s reach is long and elusive. That his minions infiltrate even the most inaccessible places to do his bidding, so stay on your A game.
      Last month, over the Labor Day weekend, Emma, Mick’s pregnant wife, and Carly and Brianna, the daughters of one of his best friends, Joe Bingham, were abducted and held hostage in a secluded cabin on Mount Baker by Gambino’s thugs. Joe, a Bellingham homicide detective, took a bullet in his right shoulder, saving his daughters.
    After the incident, local police chief Bruce Simms referred to him, Joe, and Rafferty, Mick’s other best friend, as “The three musketeers” at a press conference. He went on to say, “Though nontraditional—an ex-cop turned PI, a homicide detective, and an FBI special agent—they accomplish what no others do; they solve crimes and put bad guys behind bars. Consistently.
    Mick smiles at what Simms didn’t say to the press—they let me assist in criminal investigations because, unlike Rafferty and Joe, I have fewer restrictions, protocols, and no red tape as a PI.

 

About the Author


A blend of Dr. Doolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie Buchanan is an active listener, observer of details, payer of attention, reader and writer of books, kindness enthusiast, red licorice aficionado, and lover of the Oxford comma.


As a novelist, photographer, and voracious reader, she never travels without three essentials—a laptop, a camera, and a book.


Growing up, she dreamed of being a magician, an international spy, and a mad scientist. There’s still time!


Her writing studio is the hayloft of a historic carriage house in the Pacific Northwest, where creativity thrives. Her husband, Len, a private pilot, and Henry, their not-so-standard Standard Poodle, join her on daily walks. She always carries a camera because sometimes, the best word choice is a picture.


A journey that left an indelible imprint on her was a 20-day, 211-mile trek across the majestic landscapes of Scotland. She, her husband, and their son hiked from the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, with the pinnacle being the climb of Ben Nevis at the midpoint of their adventure, the highest point in the British Isles.


"My writing goal is simple: to leave you wanting more." —Laurie Buchanan


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The Beast’s Healer The Hamlia Tales Trilogy Book 1 by Rae Lori Genre: Fairytale Fantasy Romance

 


Something stirs in the darkness.

And soon, lines blur where myth ends and danger begins.

The Beast’s Healer

The Hamlia Tales Trilogy Book 1

by Rae Lori

Genre: Fairytale Fantasy Romance 



Something stirs in the darkness. And soon, lines blur where myth ends and danger begins.

Megalyn Hartwood has always known the forbidden forest's rules: which plants heal and which shadows kill. But when a child's life hangs in the balance, she breaks the ultimate taboo and ventures into the depths where no villager dares to tread.

There, she encounters him.

The legendary beast spoken of only in whispers. Ancient. Powerful. And far more complex than the monster of village tales.

Forced to his hidden lair deep in the forest's heart, Meg discovers that some legends hide deeper truths.

But before she can unravel the mystery of the beast who guards the ancient woods, danger strikes from an unexpected source, threatening not only Meg's life, but her quiet village as well...

Perfect for fans of Beauty and the Beast inspired tales, forbidden romance, tense action scenes, and enchanted forests where nothing is quite what it seems.

  

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Rae Lori is a multi-published, award-winning author and a geek girl at heart. She was first bitten by the writing bug at ten and never stopped loving the written word. Over a twenty-year-plus writing career, she has been published with various zines, journals and publishing companies and taught new writers the craft of novel writing in between her projects. She has won various awards including an Honorable Mention in the 73rd Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, the 2011 ForeWord Book of the Year Gold Award Winner in Writing (Adult Nonfiction), and Best Romance Novella in SORMAG’s 2009 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Rae can usually be found with her head in the clouds daydreaming of her next story. That is, when she isn’t gaming or watching her fave movies with her fellow geekazoid husband (it’s time for another Aliens rewatch!), crocheting, or has her nose in a book.

 

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Monday, July 14, 2025

The Plight of Pudgy by TammyWaldoch

 

 Health & Fitness Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss Humorous Memoir

Date Published: 07-29-2025

Publisher: BookBaby


Studies have shown that laughter and music are proven ways to facilitate healing. Author Tammy Waldoch uses this potent secret sauce in her book Plight of the Pudgy: Stories, Inspirations, and Preposterous Parodies for the Slim at Heart. From weight loss drugs, chronic diets, and toxic body shame, the book is an open invitation to connect authentically with someone who deeply understands the plight. Her own pilgrimage to finding self-love and a place to "fit in" includes a near-death car accident, a bipolar diagnosis that turned her life upside down, and a lifelong struggle with poor body image.

Waldoch authentically pours her heart and soul into sharing raw stories and songs filled with deep faith, side-splitting humor, and a resounding message that we are all perfectly made in God's eyes.

Tammy writes this book not only as a testimony of her faith but also to share her private path of redemption and healing.

Among the pages, readers will also enjoy fiction stories designed to encourage laughter and reflection, along with some preposterous (and creative!) parodies that provide a backdrop of humor to lighten the burdens of The Slim at Heart.



Early Review

Heart Felt And Honest - This book will make you laugh and cry.

 The lament of women who struggle with body image applies to a good majority of women.


Excerpt


A Mountain of Never Good Enough

I guess you could say it all began in childhood. By “it,” I mean my destructive habit of looking down on myself and hating my body no matter how good I looked. The years of damage I inherited as a child compounded into a mountain of never feeling “good enough” as a young adult and adult. I believe that the scars from the aftermath of my Dad’s infidelity only deepened my emotional pain, but the emotional ramifications were not addressed. I did not know what to do with the grievous shackles of insecurity that had bound me. Much of it was a severe reaction to my Dad’s actions and how he treated my mother like an object. My Dad was a salesman and a real-wheeler-dealer type. They used to say he could sell ice to Eskimos.

Unfortunately for my mom, her sweet-talking man used that charisma unprincipled. He was quite the Casanova who seduced multiple women with his flattering tongue and lips dripping in honey. To be fair, my parents were only teenagers when they married and welcomed their first child. They were babies having babies and were still trying to figure out how to be adults when they were pulled together in holy matrimony. But my Dad’s cheating ways broke both my Mama’s heart and mine as he strayed from my mom time and time again. Gone was the sanctity of sexuality and the sacredness of marriage. Even as a child, I experienced my mother’s pain and hurt as if it were my own. Even though there were four of us kids, I had always been “Daddy’s little girl,” so his actions felt like a betrayal to me as well. I had, and still have, so many questions I’d like to know the answers to.

 


About the Author


Tammy Waldoch is an imaginative author/singer/songwriter/painter with a degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse, emphasizing Aesthetic Education—teaching using the creative arts. She did just that in The Plight of the Pudgy, combining musical parodies with literature to teach others how to overcome obstacles and rise above adversity. She is actively involved with the Writer’s Well at the White Bear Center for the Arts and gathers with other inspiring writers of all ages to explore their creativity. She also consults with the Springboard Center for the Arts in St. Paul, MN for further resources.

She and her husband of 38 years share a dynamic love for better for worse, in sickness and in health, that has endured all things.

She is also a proud parent of two sons and has two beautiful daughters-in-law who share life’s joys and challenges. Her faith is at the heart of everything she does, and this book is a testimony of her Lord and Savior’s incredible loving kindness toward her. Gilda Radner once said, “Life is full of delicious ambiguities.”

Tammy invites everyone to share those ambiguities with her!


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Saturday, July 12, 2025

Your Aging Body

  


Nonfiction / Aging / Self-Help

Date Published: 06-12-2025

Publisher: The Woodtick Press




Written in understandable language, this book describes the ways in which our body changes with age and outlines some practical ways to counter many of these changes. It begins by discussing the aging process in general terms and why some people seem much younger than others of the same chronological age. After a presentation of general characteristics of the aging body, subsequent chapters focus on what lies behind the aging of specific parts of the body and how the reader can counteract or slow down the aging process through lifestyle changes. The text illustrates how some seemingly quite different aging changes, for example skin wrinkles and high blood pressure, are due to very similar underlying mechanisms. Although not focusing on disease, the book deals with a number of conditions, e.g., hypertension, arthritis, Type II diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, which affect many older adults. A concluding chapter pulls together many of the details presented earlier in the book and offers some practical advice for navigating the aging process.

As both a professional anatomist and a gerontologist, the author is well qualified to write a book on the aging body. Forty years as a professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, he served as Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and also Director of the Institute of Gerontology. For several decades he conducted research on the aging of muscle. He is a past-president of the American Association of Anatomists and of the Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairpersons.


About the Author

 

 Bruce Carlson has had a long and varied career in a number of fields. As an undergraduate student at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, he majored in biology, languages and chemistry. As a prelude to becoming a fish biologist, he worked for the Minnesota Conservation Department (now DNR) as an aquatic biologist during summers except for one when he conducted research at the University of Georgia Marine Laboratory on Sapelo Island, Georgia. He entered a program in ichthyology at Cornell University, but became fascinated with the phenomenon of regeneration. After receiving an MS from Cornell, he entered the MD-PhD program at the University of Minnesota where he conducted research on limb regeneration in salamanders.

In 1966 he joined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Michigan Medical School and became Chairman of the Department and later, Director of the Institute of Gerontology. He taught microscopic anatomy and human embryology and received several major awards for his teaching. His research on regeneration, embryology and muscle biology led him to live for extended periods in five countries – The USSR, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Finland and New Zealand. A prolific writer, he has written over 200 articles and chapters in scientific publications, has edited 15 symposium articles and translations, and he has written twenty books on a variety of topics.

Bruce is an avid fisherman, who is on the water well over 100 days per year, either night-fishing for walleyes or fly fishing for smallmouth bass in northern Minnesota. He has also taken many trips to New Zealand, his favorite country, to fish for trout in a remote lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. For many years he wrote articles for several national fishing magazines. The main theme was that the more you understand the biology of the fish you are trying tocatch, the better will be your results.

Since retirement in 2006, Bruce has reverted to his scientific childhood and has again taken up work on fish and lake biology. In addition to weekly collections of data about the lake by his cabin, he has directed a ten-year study on the growth of northern pike on a nearby lake and has spent hundreds of hours taking underwater videos in northern lakes. This activity has led to his writing two popular books on lake biology and one on aquatic invasive species.

In addition to his outdoor work, Bruce has maintained an active professional writing schedule, with seven editions of his book “Human Embryology and Developmental Biology” and other books on regeneration, the human body and muscle biology. His work in the area of embryology has led him into expert witness work in that area and writing a new book on the abortion controversy – “The Abortion Controversy – An Embryologist’s Perspective.” His background in anatomy and the biology of aging has him thinking about writing a new book on understanding the aging body.


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The Wakeful Seed

 

 A Philosophy and Guide to Discovering Your True Power


Self-Help

Date Published: May 7, 2025

Publisher: Manhattan Book Group


In life there is often a question that continuously surfaces. That question is, "who am I?"

This thought further provokes the question: "Who am I beneath the layers of conditioning?" The truth is you were born great. We all were. You still are.

 

Through social conditioning and societal expectations, many have lost the connection with their true power and nature. This power holds the truth of the soul, and allows us to explore change and rise to our highest potential. Each person has an offering. A seed of power they were born with. Once cultivated, amazing things begin to happen. You shift.

 

The Wakeful Seed not only invites introspection in, but also provides you with tools and philosophies to help you gain perspective and clarity. Various topics and philosophies are explored through storytelling and self explorations the author calls "Moment of Effort." If you've been curious about hypnosis, past lives, life and death, navigating fear, how to become more authentic, or how to connect with your power, this book is for you.


About the Author


Evelyn Tormos is devoted to the exploration of the soul. She is a spiritual teacher, certified reiki master, intuitive healer, and certified hypnotherapist. She is the owner and founder of Wakeful Seed, LLC in Overland Park, Kansas where she supports others in self discovery and development. Her specialties include therapeutic imagery, past life regression, future progression and enhanced awareness and change using hypnotherapy. She currently offers clinic hours at Very Well KC, plans retreats, and is in the process of writing a new book. A proud veteran, native of New York, and now Kansan, she continues to seek the richness of each experience she is offered.


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