LESSER KNOWN TRAVEL TRIPS - Book IV "How to React When Woken at 3am by Drunk Argentinian Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips" by Simon Yeats

 

Welcome to the cover reveal of Book Four of the LESSER KNOWN TRAVEL TRIPS series, How to React When Woken at 3am by Drunk Argentinian Backpackers While Staying in a Youth Hostel and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips. The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Book 4 of an original and hilarious book series of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection by Australian author Simon Yeats, who from an early age learned that the best way to approach the misfortunes of this world is to laugh about them. Simon shares his comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living life as an Aussie ex-pat and having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as COVID hysteria in the early part of this decade. From how to negotiate traffic in Los Angeles when your car can only drive at 5 miles/hr, to what to do when locked out of your hotel room in your underwear, to the emotions of attempting the world’s second highest bungee when you have a pathological fear of heights, to how to deal with the trials and tribulations of staying in a youth hostel with travelers who have no respect for the other guests. Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to empty your bank account, get squeezed sitting in a middle airline seat, or deal with border security at the Ukraine/Russia boundary.

Read an Excerpt

Big Wednesday was my first day at work as a liftie on the Burgess Creek lift at the Steamboat ski resort as a wide-eyed 20-year-old. I do not remember the exact date, but I am absolutely certain it was a Wednesday because everyone who was present at the resort that day referred to it as ‘big Wednesday.’

Overnight, between ‘ordinary Tuesday’ and ‘big Wednesday,’ the town and resort received a mammoth amount of snowfall. It absolutely dumped. A biblical amount of snow. Even though I do not recall snow being mentioned once in either the old testament or the new testament. But I could have missed the reference.

And Moses went up the mountain at God’s direction and there was fresh dump of powder snow, and he cried out, “ye verily, gonna cut me some wicked turns.”

To get to work on my first day, I take the shortcut straight down the hill to the main road and bus stop. I am decked out in my official Steamboat resort onesie ski suit. The snow level is over my belly button. It is like wading through waist high surf for a half mile.

I scramble onto the bus, and I am on my knees huffing and puffing while dripping with sweat.

An inauspicious start to the day.

About the Author:

Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0CBNQLSPW/about
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authoryeats
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authoryeats

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One Little Witch by Crystal Beach

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A brilliant Little Witch counts the pumpkins in her pumpkin patch and discovers some surprising surprises. Join author and illustrator Crystal Beach (One Polar Bear and Two Polar Bears) as she captivates you with her latest adventure story and a brand-new series—One Little Witch. You and your child will be delighted by this hilarious tale as together you learn counting and sight words, and experiment with sound.

A charming holiday tale for autumn, or any time of the year, One Little Witch is filled with pumpkins and childlike enthusiasm for learning. This little book is sure to enchant, and will make a spooky addition to your child's library.

If you can be anything, be inclusive.

About the Author:

Crystal Beach is an adoptive mother and caregiver of two adoptive children who have complex medical needs and disabilities. Her children are often represented in her work as strong, caring individuals with special gifts and powers. Her writing projects are intended to ensure financial support for her children's future.

Crystal has a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her focus is in children's literature, publishing, and journalism. She has had many careers including ten years as a MedA with the Canadian Naval Reserve, advertising with a daily newspaper, communications and marketing, training as an EMT, and continued studies in developmental psychology.

She and her family live in Regina, Saskatchewan in a simple little house with two giant support dogs.

For more information visit Website: http://www.crystalbeachauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystalbeachauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/40712712.Crystal_Beach
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@crystal.beach.aut
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystal_m_beach

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Journey to the Dark Galaxy by Hannah D. State

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

A mysterious signal from deep space. Mischief and murder at a military base.

Earth’s leaders are given an ultimatum: deliver Sam Sanderson to Logom, a planet known to house a hostile AI civilization, or face interplanetary war.

When Sam receives a strange letter drafting her into the Great Alliance for Interplanetary Affairs as a matter of international security, she expects to get answers. But instead of receiving a warm welcome, she finds that most people under the surface are distant, cold, and have built walls of silence. While grappling with her unique power and the consequences of her actions, she learns that the organization she’s supposed to serve has a chilling past and guards a dark secret.

While Earth’s scientists scramble to defend their world and the planetary alliance from the AI threat, Sam is forced on a mission to the Dark Galaxy. A place where dangers lurk, tensions run high, and things are never what they seem.

But will the journey change her forever?

As Sam desperately navigates a maze of lies, dark secrets, and finds herself at the heart of a dangerous journey, she discovers that it will take much more than her courage and power to save humanity.

Time’s running out, and there’s no turning back now…

From the award-winning author of Journey to the Hopewell Star comes the highly anticipated sequel that’s sure to be a thrilling ride!

Read an Excerpt

Sam’s throat tightened. Tears collected in her eyes, but she wiped them away before the others saw. She couldn’t let them see her like that, vulnerable and fragile. She didn’t want them to worry about her.

She instead focused on the people they passed in the hallways. Joyful and welcoming and…

Wait. No, that’s not right.

She slowed down and tried to take in every detail about their features and body language.

When they looked at Rian and her friends, their expressions were easy to read—relaxed, carefree. Delighted to see them. Yet, when their eyes traveled to Sam…

Their expressions changed, if only by a fraction. Nothing anyone would notice. Except she noticed. She sensed…discomfort, fear. Their eyes shifted, and within them, an apprehension lingered. They tensed up slightly, too; a tightened jaw, a rigid stance. Hesitation. They seemed to be holding back, nervous about something.

Sam smiled, trying to elicit a similar response from them.

But they didn’t smile. Or if they did, it was forced.

It was like they were all hiding a deep, dark, terrible secret.

And it was about her.

About the Author

Hannah D. State is an award-winning Canadian author. She graduated from McGill University with a BA and earned her MPL from Queen’s University. Hannah is bothered by inequality, violence, greed, complacency, snakes, entering a dark room, and not getting enough sleep. She enjoys writing about strong-willed characters who don’t fit the norm and who overcome great obstacles with perseverance, self-discovery, and help from others. Sometimes Hannah can’t keep up with her characters’ ideas and plans, so she takes breaks, drinks coffee, does yoga and tai chi, and takes nature walks to calm her mind and really listen. Journey to the Dark Galaxy is her second novel. You can find her author page on Facebook.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahdstate/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20560327.Hannah_D_State
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahdstate/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Dark-Galaxy-Book-ebook/dp/B0CPB1ZM2P/

Read for free on Kindle Unlimited

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PLAYING ARMY by Nancy Stroer

 

PLAYING ARMY

Nancy Stroer

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GENRE: UpLit / domestic war

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BLURB:  It’s 1995 and the Army units of Fort Stewart, Georgia are gearing up to deploy to Bosnia, but Lieutenant Minerva Mills has no intention of going to war-torn eastern Europe. Her father disappeared in Vietnam and, desperate for some kind of connection to him, she’s determined to go on a long-promised tour to Asia. But the Colonel will only release her on two conditions—that she reform the rag-tag Headquarters Company so they’re ready for the peacekeeping mission, and that she get her weight within Army regs, whichever comes second. Min only has one summer to kick everyone’s butts into shape but the harder she plays Army, the more the soldiers—and her body—rebel. If she can’t even get the other women on her side, much less lose those eight lousy pounds, she’ll never have another chance to stand where her father once stood in Vietnam, feeling what he felt. The Colonel may sweep her along to Bosnia or throw her out of the Army altogether. Can you fake it until you make it? Min is about to find out.

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Excerpt:

I sucked in my gut and forced the top button of my BDU trousers through the hole. Pounds never melted off me like they did in the diet pill commercials. As I wrestled with my body’s ill-fitting container the latrine door opened and two pairs of boots tromped in. Specialist Pettit’s voice floated over the sound of running water. “Not to be mean or anything, but female commanders are the worst. And Lieutenant Mills is the absolute worst. I worked for her for two years in Personnel and she ragged on me the whole time.”

Whoa, shit. Enemy inside the wire. I stopped breathing altogether and leaned so close to the stall door my eyes crossed.

“Hey, now.” That was Lieutenant Logan, my replacement at my old job. Female soldiers carved their hierarchies along different lines, never straight down the military ranks, and new alliances were being tested. Would Logan stick up for me, officer to officer? “It’s a short-term thing. She won’t be here long.” Instead of reproach, Logan’s voice was edged with mirth. “The colonel needs a body in that chair until a real commander comes in, and now that I’m here, Lieutenant Mills is over strength. She’s the body.”

My face grew hot. Real commander? Body? I clamped my lips shut against the urge to burst out of the stall, roaring. I imagined inhaling the entire room then blowing them away with the release of my torso, all tightly packed plastic explosives and buckshot. These two, Logan especially, had no freaking clue.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Nancy Stroer grew up in a very big family in a very small house in Athens, Georgia and served in the beer-soaked trenches of post-Cold War Germany. She holds degrees from Cornell and Boston University, and her work has appeared in the Stars and Stripes, Soldiers magazine, Hallaren Lit Mag, Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Things We Carry Still, an anthology of military writing from Middle West Press.

She’s a teacher and a trainer, and an adjunct faculty member of the Ellyn Satter Institute, a 503(c) not-for-profit that helps individuals and families develop a more joyful relationship to food and their bodies. Playing Army is her first novel.

Social media links:

https://twitter.com/Nancy_Stroer

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49311942.Nancy_Stroer https://www.facebook.com/nancy.stroer/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-stroer-86213089/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

RAFFLECOPTER

A randomly drawn winner will be awarded a $25 Amazon/BN gift card.

Fresh Grown by Andrea Kristin

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Andrea Kristin will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Written, photographed, and designed by Andrea, this book is filled with firsthand imagery and knowledge direct from the farm. For beginners and experts alike, its unique insights, stunning visuals, and practical approach make it an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to fully utilize and enjoy their fresh produce. Featuring over 50 types of vegetables (with applications for far more), from asparagus to zucchini and everything in between, it will help you reap maximum benefits, stretch your dollars, and make it all go farther than you ever thought possible while deepening your appreciation for nature's delicious bounty.

Filled with:
- stunning images
- staple recipes
- creative uses
- cooking + storage tips
- preservation guides

A book you'll return to time and time again— a staple in any home kitchen.

Read an Excerpt

I wasn't always passionate about vegetables. My first memorable encounter with fresh vegetables was the evening Denis (the cute guy I had been dating for a couple of months) first brought me to visit his family's farm. I was 17 at the time. Growing up in the suburbs, my only experience with produce up to that point was a few staples from the supermarket and frozen foods section. We had no garden and no real produce variety in my childhood home. Our family dinners involved the classics— carrots, potatoes, frozen peas, and the odd green salad thrown in for good measure. Farmers markets and CSAs were completely foreign to me; fresh was not something I thought about, and I had never seen or heard of most of the vegetables in this book.

It was a warm, sunny evening as 19-year-old Denis drove me through the agricultural landscape in his bright red compact car. Pulling into the gravel driveway of his parents' property, we parked next to a large, weathered, white barn. Hopping out of the vehicle, we were met by a few of his brothers coming in from the field with dirt on their hands and grins on their faces. It was an expansive, hundred-acre, organic vegetable farm that his parents had started from scratch and that he and his siblings grew up cultivating. There was so much pride in him around it and a real passion for the produce they grew. It lit me up to see the enthusiasm sparking in him to show me all of it, and I couldn't wait to discover this unique world that made him tick so vibrantly.

After enjoying an energetic outdoor supper with everyone back at the house, Denis invited me for a stroll to see the garden.

"Kick off your shoes," he said, tossing his own aside. We proceeded to walk barefoot through the acres of dirt and lush growth.

The sun was beginning to set behind the surrounding mountains, bathing the whole valley in a golden glow. The birds were chirping and flying overhead as he took my hand. I gazed in wonder as he proudly named the different kinds of plants. I thought he was teasing me when he pointed and told me the kale was something to eat. (That dark green, weird, leafy thing? That surely couldn't be food!) I look back and laugh now, but it was just so far from my food experience at the time.

I remember when he bent down to the damp earth, pulled a handful of carrots from the soil, and wiped the dirt from them with the old T-shirt he was wearing. Then he handed me one to munch on as we continued talking. It tasted incredibly crunchy and sweet— far better than anything I'd ever eaten from a grocery store. I was caught up in wonderment. What was this incredible lifestyle?

About the Author: 

Andrea Kristin and her husband have been growing vegetables on their organic market garden farm outside of Edmonton, Alberta for nearly a decade. They sell at farmers markets and feed their local community through their thriving CSA program (@greyarrowfarm). In this book, Andrea draws from her wealth of firsthand knowledge to walk the reader graciously through all the ways to use, store, and enjoy your vegetables. She shares a bounty of insightful information, including which parts of each plant are edible, how to use them, what to do with your excess, and the various ways to preserve them to last throughout the year.

https://andreakristin.ca/
https://greyarrowfarm.ca/
https://www.instagram.com/greyarrowfarm/
https://www.facebook.com/greyarrowfarm

https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Grown-Essential-Guide-Vegetables-ebook/dp/B0D7QN6Q64

Andrea Kristin will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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My Second Life by Simon Yeats

 

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Simon Yeats is awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

We all have two lives. We only get to experience living in the second after we realize we only have just one.

I have my first real scare in life when I get attacked by a kangaroo when I am seven. My first brush with the cliff-face edge of death comes when I am 12. My dad drives the family down the dangerous Skipper’s Canyon dirt road in New Zealand in a rented minivan.

Including the occasion I am almost involved in two different plane flight crashes, in the same night, there have been at least a half dozen more occasions when I have been within a moment’s inattention of being killed.

However, none of those frightening incidents compare to what I experience after my son is abducted.

This memoir is the story of how I used the traumatic experiences of my life to give me strength to forge on during a 13 year fight to be a father to my son.

What did it take for me to get to my second life?
It took me to truly understand what fear is.

Read an Excerpt

How does a second life differ from a first? My story of reaching the second will demonstrate it perfectly for those languishing in the latter. I guarantee the perception of your life will never be the same after reading about it.

What did it take for me to get to a second life?

Was it an occasion of cheating death? Was it multiple occasions of evading the grim reaper? Was it being arrested and thrown in jail for no reason?

Perhaps a better question might be. How much do I love my child? What am I willing to go through to be in my child’s only life?

Until recently, I had never even heard of this saying by Confucius. But, when a person sees something that resonates with a chord in their heart, they feel it.

I felt it like an earthquake.

Before then, I had never given thought to who I might have ever met that I would consider was living a second life.

Yet this would seem to be our very point of being.

While there have been many occasions in my existence when I have felt like the world is against me. The true nature of life often seems a cruel device. Callous. Savagely unforgiving. And the puppeteer of fate in control of all our lives does not seem to care that we do not want it to be this way.

How many people would admit that they are suffering during their first life?

Rhetorical question.

We all are. Some more than others. But we all are.

Not surprisingly then, that humanity thrives on the ever-unfolding tragedies around us. The devastation of the tsunami in Thailand. The OJ Simpson trial. World War Two concentration camps. The collective work of The Cure and The Smiths.

If it bleeds, it leads.

This is what people want to see.

But the hordes in their first life are primarily concerned with the suffering of the mighty.

However, many of us are not mighty.

Most of us are ordinary.

And the suffering in our first life is done in silence.

About the Author:

Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.


Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0CBNQLSPW/about
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authoryeats
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authoryeats

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/My-SECOND-Life-Simon-Yeats-ebook/dp/B0CB4LCCPN/ref=sr_1_1

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Playtime Clothes Kim MacLean

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kim MacLean will award a randomly drawn winner a $15 Amazon/BN gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The young boy's room is an undeniable mess. Did he actually clean his room, as he is telling his mom? Or do his clothes come to life and play?! They are, after all, playtime clothes. Is he learning a lesson to tell the truth and be accountable, as we all do in life? Or is it a world of make believe? It is for you to enjoy while you decide.

About the Author: Kim MacLean was inspired to be creative while she and her little girls made their own fun inside their home on long, cold winter days. Her girls sat for hours painting and gluing crafts into works of art on paper. Oh, the rows and rows of finished masterpieces drying on the floor while Kim sat and wrote! And there were the hundreds of books that they read and enjoyed together that further inspired creativity and an adult love of children's books!

Tia Bates is an artist, illustrator, and storyteller from London, Ontario. She is inspired by the beautiful illustrations she grew up looking at in children's books just like Playtime Clothes, the first children's book she has illustrated! Currently pursuing a master's degree in fine art, Tia's personal artwork is all about the stories we tell.

Amazon: https://amazon.com/dp/0228883547
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/playtime-clothes-kim-maclean/1143163085
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Playtime-Clothes-Kim-Maclean/9780228883548

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