Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Mental Health, Me, and My Characters

 My teacher once walked up to me and slammed a ruler on my desk - I never saw her coming though I was staring straight ahead, my eyes wide open. But I was lost in a daydream. I daydreamed my way through school, on the bus, at home. I was a docile, easy child most times because I would just sit down and disappear in my own mind. Daydreamer, the teachers called me. Scatterbrained, my parents said, when I couldn't clean my room or find my socks. 

I am easily stressed by silly things like parking a car or getting the heater turned on. A few months ago, I started my first full time job after raising three children and working from home or in part-time jobs. I get up extra early so I have time to do what most people can do in half an hour - wash, get dressed, take care of the dog, eat breakfast - and I make sure not to turn on the TV or computer or else I will lose track of time. 

I'm lucky in that my job requires a lot of different skills, so I'm not bored, and it's demanding, so I can't daydream at all or I'll miss something vital. I have adjusted, but I do feel on the very ege of being completely overwhelmed. I have had to put a lot of things on hold just to do my work. Luckily I have the most understanding husband in the world, who has taken over meal planning and laundry - otherwise I would never cope. But it's a feeling I have always gotten, so I know I'll get over it sooner or later. One day, I'll be able to think about other things than my work, and I'll let my creativity back into my world. 

No one ever told me that I had AHD or was on the autism spectrum, and I usually find I can cope with my quirks which include high levels of anxiety, and a tendancy to over-analyze and dwell on details for far too long. There is a good chance that I do have a mild form of AHD, because I do tick a lot of the boxes. I tend to over-react to things, I am hypersensitive to criticsm, I deal badly with frustration, I lose my temper easily, and I get distracted by the slightest thing. I lose things the minute I put them down, I need lists for everything, and I my imaginary world and dreams are often more vivid than my 'real' life. It took me a long time to be able to 'read' people and empathize. I'm extremely dislexic as well, but somehow I've managed to muddle through life, raise children (by following a book nearly word for word), work, and deal with setbacks and disasters. But some days are hard - some days I's a struggle to get out of bed, I can hardly understand what people want from me, and I feel as if my head is full of fog. Other days everything is clear, I can concentrate on one task at a time, and I get a mountain of work done. 

It took me years to be comfortable with myself (I truly think most people are like me)! When I started my last book, after I saw a blog post about a sabre tooth tiger, one of my early passions - I started writing with my own voice in my head instead of inventing a completely new character. Usually I love to write because it's like acting in a way - I can 'be' whoever I want to be - but this time the character's voice was my own, her view was similar to mind. She suffered from a disasociation with reality, a tendancy to see and feel things that didn't align with how others saw and felt things. A certain disregard for rules and regulations crept in. The character was flawed, but I was writing my own flaws into her. 

She's not as emotionally detached, like my first character Ashley was, in the Time for Alexander series. Ashley and I have a lot in common as well, Ashley rarely lets her emotions cloud her judgement unless it's falling in love, which was always my Achilles heel as well. Isobel, my character in 'A Crown in Time' was prone to depression. When my twins were born prematurely, I struggled for months, and I suffered post-partum depression after my daughter, Julia, was born. It ended after a couple weeks, but I can remember how frightening it was, how suddenly it struck, and how everyting suddenly seemed 'wrong', from how things looked (everything seemed to be the wrong shape or size), to how things felt, like cotton or wood. So I wrote my depression into Isobel's story, and I wondered if anyone else had felt like that - as if all the light had gone out of the world. 

Every character of mine is flawed, and they are, I'm afraid to say - many of my own flaws. What has made my life easier has always been my friends and family. Without their support and love, I don't know if I would be able to cope. Just as Ashley needed her two husbands, as Isobel needed her freindship with Charles, and as Robin needed her best friend Yasmine, I need my own support system to keep afloat. I am now working on a new book, and for once, Helen, my new character has no support system. It's one of the hardest books I've had to write, because it's too easy to imagine being completely alone with one's weaknesses, helpless to go on. She will have to ask for help, which is one of the bravest things anyone can do because for people like Helen, and me, showing any kid of weakness is the worst thing we can do. 

If you or your loved ones need help, don't hesitate. Reach out. Talk to friends and family. Request an appointment with your doctor - he will be happy to help you get the tools you need to cope. Mental health is worth talking about, or in my case - writing about.  

A Remedy in Time will be available January 11, 2021 

To save the future, she must turn to the past . . .


San Francisco, Year 3377. A deadly virus has taken the world by storm. Scientists are desperately working to develop a vaccine. And Robin Johnson – genius, high-functioning, and perhaps a little bit single-minded – is delighted. Because, to cure the disease, she’s given the chance to travel back in time.

But when Robin arrives at the last Ice Age hoping to stop the virus at its source, she finds more there than she bargained for. And just as her own chilly exterior is beginning to thaw, she realises it’s not only sabre-toothed tigers that are in danger of extinction . . .

Preorder from:


  Amazon.com  ; Amazon.co.uk ; Amazon.com.au :  Hachhette UK ; 




Tuesday, November 24, 2020

The Rose by PD Alleva

 


The Rose

by PD Alleva

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Dystopian Science Fiction Thriller

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB: A masterful, dystopian science fiction thriller of underground genetic experiments, telepathic evil greys, mysterious rebellion, conspiracy, martial arts, and Alien Vampires.


Sandy Cox believed WW3 was over. But for those Alien Vampires, War Has Just Begun.


Forty-eight hours after a World War III treaty is signed Sandy Cox awakens in an underground compound unable to move. Tied to machines she screams for help but no one answers. At least NO ONE HUMAN.


And they’ve taken her unborn child.


Enter Phil, a rebel freedom fighter who has had more than his share of Alien Vampires. Armed with THE BLADES, a sacred alien martial art, he enters the compound on a mission to find Sandy. But as he battles his way through the compound, Phil discovers Sandy has her own agenda. Finding her stolen child is all that matters.


But the vampires have their own plan and Sandy’s baby is at the heart of their diabolical plot. Joined by a crew of rogue soldiers, they must navigate the underground compound, battling genetically mutated humans, aliens and monsters.


When battling Alien Vampires, one thing is certain…Get Ready To Bleed!


Fans of The Hunger Games, George RR Martin, VE Schwab, Star Wars and Ancient Aliens will be fascinated by this high-powered, intelligent, edge of your seat dystopian sci-fi action thriller.

~~~~~~~~~~~~


Excerpt:  
It’s in the blood, dear,” said Ellen, one of the women Sandy shared time and space with, her skin worn by age, hard labor, and days spent under the sun. Blotches, liver spots and creases led the observer to the eyes. One dark, the other a cataract milky white and she always wore a dark shawl draped over the head and shoulders. Sandy was afraid of Ellen, she reminded Sandy of a gypsy or witch from a fairy-tale.

Come again?” said Sandy, her eyes shifting from soldier to Ellen to soldier then back to Ellen.

Ellen had cut herself transferring a wood bucket filled with rice to add to an already large trough of buckets. A thick wood splinter pinned in the bottom of her palm dripping with a thick stream of blood. She turned to Sandy raising the bloodied palm and caught a drop of blood in her unwounded hand.

The blood dear,” said Ellen. “All magic comes from the blood.”

Sandy cringed at the sight; she’d always been squeamish. Her stomach bumped, blood curled. Magic, Sandy thought. If only magic was real. How wonderful would that be? Sandy understood she was naïve, the result of an isolated childhood and her parents’ death when she was ten years old. Not that they had taught the young Sandy about the world she lived in either. They’d kept her under lock and key, never so much as offering a glimpse or advice on the outside world. They were always so cryptic with their explanations, living in an abundant and overgrown mansion as if luxury were a childhood friend. Sure there were plenty of rooms for a child to explore but as time went by those rooms seemed more like a prison than a home.

Years of neglect, isolation and secrets were as torturous as physical suffering. And she was tired of secrets. She wanted to know truth. Truth was like a blanket that keeps you warm in the coldest winter.

The blood, Sandy,” said Ellen who clenched her fist around those crimson droplets, shaking her hand in front of her face. “All is in the blood.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~



AUTHOR Bio and Links:  
PD Alleva is an alternative fiction author. His novels cross genres,
blending mystery, conspiracy, psychology, and action with horror and dystopian science fiction. Alternative fiction is PD's attempt at describing what readers uncover in any one of his books, a new discovery towards mainstream storytelling. He's been writing since childhood, creating and developing stories with brash and impactful concepts that he would describe are metaphors for the shifting energies that exist in the universe. PD exists inside of his own universe, working diligently on The Rose Vol. II and exceptional h
orror novels. Be prepared for Golem, PD’s upcoming horror thriller.

Social Media Info:

Website/Newsletter www.pdalleva.com

Facebook Page: @pdallevaauthor

Twitter: @PdallevaAuthor

Instagram: pdalleva_author

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/pdalleva

Buy links:

https://www.amazon.com/Rose-Vol-Dystopian-Science-Thriller-ebook/dp/B089JTPJ8G

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-rose-vol-1-a-dystopian-science-fiction-thriller-pd-alleva/1137496315

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION: One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

Hi, and welcome to my blog! Just a few quick questions for my readers, if you don't mind! What advice would you give new writers?

Follow your gut. Connect with other authors and ask questions. The indie author community is a vast resource for help and advice. Learn it, use it, love it, but always figure out what will work best for you and what fits your personality and career needs.

That is good advice! What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding?

Anything really, but mostly landmarks, blips of historical periods, mythical and magical lore, old worlds with societies that have gone into the wasteland of the phantom abyss, and imagining a dystopian future based on current events.

Not hard to imagine anymore, is it? ;-) What inspires you to write?

Great storytelling, conspiracy theories, and interests in alien lore, the surreal, the unknown, mythology, philosophy, quantum physics, and the metaphysical.

What is your routine when writing, if any? If you don’t follow a routine, why not?

Wake up, drop out of bed, drink a few cups of coffee, throw on the headphones, read the last chapter or two that I wrote the day before including the first paragraph or two in the new chapter, then start to think. Get into the character and the scene that’s coming up. Once I got it clear in my head I sit down to write. Where it goes from there no one really knows except the characters on the page.

Coffee! Yes, nectar of the gods, or in this case, the writers! What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write in any of your books, and why?

The many action and fight sequences in The Rose. Writing those scenes was great fun. I had the images in my head that played out like watching a badass movie trailer. I’d use music, most specifically, Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, to get the juices flowing and implement the best action sequences possible. My goal was for the reader to feel like they were inside of the scene, kind of like a referee in an MMA fight. Considering the reviews the book has been receiving it appears this goal was accomplished.

Thank you very much, and best wishes for your writing! Your book sounds fascinating!



Thursday, November 12, 2020

Pink Triangle by Lea Bronsen

 

 

Fearing and desiring the enemy... Sometimes you can’t choose who you love.

Oslo, April 1945

Paul is a handsome, free-spirited Norwegian in the prime of his life, but he doesn’t fit the German occupant ideology simply because he’s gay. And so, when the Gestapo catches him for producing illegal propaganda, he’s tortured and threatened to be sent to a German concentration camp with a pink triangle sewn on his shirt, the symbol for homosexuals.

It will take great courage and mind-blowing circumstances of luck, as the Führer commits suicide and the end of the war seems nearer by the day, for Paul to avoid his death transport to Germany.

And it will take the growing attraction of the Gestapo commander himself to regain his full freedom—and capture his heart.

 

#WWII #WW2 #Historical #Manlove #MM #Gay #Erotic #Romance

 

Available from

Books2Read / Amazon.com / Amazon.uk / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks / Smashwords

Put the book on your to-read shelf on Goodreads

See photos that inspired me to write the book on Pinterest

 

 

Excerpt

A couple hours later, when the sun stood high and bright in the sky, the sound of horseshoes came from the garden. Paul had dozed in the hay, enveloped by the soft jacket lining and lulled by happy bird songs and the rustling of leaves outside, but the commander’s return had him sit up against the wall.

The horse’s hairy muzzle appeared in the crack before the big animal pushed the door open and stepped into the shed.

Heimlich sat straight in the saddle, bare-chested, slim but muscular in all the right places, his uniform folded across his lap. Paul tried not to gape at the sight. With ease and grace, the commander dismounted and hung his clothes on hooks on the wall. Drops of sweat pearled on his forehead and temple and rolled down his firm chest and abdomen, making his skin shine. So, so very sexy. He took off his hat, uncovering his dark blond hair slick with sweat—but it only accentuated the sexiness.

He turned to Paul and caught him staring. “What are you smiling at?”

Oops.

Paul straightened and regretted having let himself be carried away. “I wasn’t smiling.”

“Yes, you were. You think I’m not aware I look like an office rat? You need to rub it in?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I know very well I could use more muscle, and that I need to strengthen my stomach.” He tapped his six-pack, which was perfect in Paul’s world.

“Well, that hasn’t crossed my mind.”

An understatement.

“Really?” The commander raised a brow. “Do you honestly like what you see?”

Holy fuck, what a question...

Uncertain whether the man realized what he’d just said, Paul waited a bit before he asked, voice low, “Are you honestly asking a homosexual if he likes your body?”

The commander blinked slowly. “When you put it like that...” With a goofy smile, he turned to gaze out of the shed and shook his head.

Paul allowed him a moment to recoup. He was tempted to tease, but didn’t.

When the commander returned to Paul, he pointed at him. “Forget I said that. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Yeah, I’m likely to forget...

They held each other’s looks for a while, the commander inscrutable.

“Listen,” Paul said, emboldened by the awkward situation. “I’m going to be very frank with you. I hate you with all of my heart—”

No reaction.

“—But when you parade around me like that,” he pointed at the man’s naked torso, “you make it difficult for me to...”

“To what?”

To not like you.

 

About the author

Lea Bronsen likes her reads hot, fast, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After a deep dive on the unforgiving world of gangsters with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between romantic suspenses, dark erotic romances, and crime thrillers.

Meet Lea Bronsen on

Blog / Facebook / Twitter / BookBub / Instagram / Goodreads / Amazon

 

Monday, November 9, 2020

APOPHIS by Raj Anand

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Raj Anand will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

January, 2022: A dark monstrous twin-headed apparition – Apophis – feverishly races past the expanse of the Milky Way galaxy and bolts to the edge of the solar system. Recklessly accelerating, the sinister rock-dyad enters the gravitational keyhole of the blue planet and continues its resolute inebriated journey – to soon arrive with an apocalyptic impact on Earth.

December, 2012: Five sentient beings born in different cities – New York, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Azores Islands and Istanbul, discover amongst haunting memories of their phantasmal past lives, that it is their destiny to save humanity from the evil forces unleashed by the alien fiends – the Skyllats.

And now, the reincarnated 9-year-olds must rely on their shared, ancient wisdom to prepare humanity for the war across the galaxy that is imminent.

A Note from the Author:


Writing Apophis over these past five years, has been a cathartic inner-journey that rippled across my life. It extracted all of my patience, diligence and life-learnings of my past 52 years lived on this orphic blue bubble, as it floats across a conscious Universe.

Now its journey complete, it was launched a few days ago on several platforms across the world. And I am left exhausted, numbed and humbled by this Initiation.

I acknowledge that it is a book that I have NOT written, for it was willed from me – by the Universe. And now, it is like a child set free – floating away – ready to choose its own path, life-journey and future.

Where it goes from here?

It is for the Universe to decide.

I did, what was willed of me to do…

All I can promise the reader is a book imbued with a magical wisdom. A restlessly paced story that transports you across time, teamed up with five children along their phantasmal, breathtaking journeys.

These 9-year-olds the reincarnations of ancient philosophers, including Confucius, Plato, Buddha, Ptah Hotep and a mysterious another.

Happy Reading!

Read an Excerpt

30.45506N, 130.48804E
Isso Town, Yakushima Island, Japan
January 19, 2022 (0700 hours)
“Peter, what is their present position?” the 1.7-meter-tall Claire with a sharp nose and radiant blue eyes inquired, “Quelque chose d’autre a signaler – do you have anything else to report?” She adjusted her glasses, pushing back her long brown hair.

“Herodotus has crossed into the belt, and is travelling at a speed of 346,000 kilometers per hour,” Peter replied, seated next to the astrophysicist, “I am amazed, Claire, how well the mission has progressed so far.”

Their Command and Control Centre located in a narrow peninsula, beyond Mount Yahazudake on Yakushima Island was housed several floors below an old island home that camouflaged its true purpose.

“You really doubted them? Incroyable!” smiled Claire, when she was interrupted by her secretary with an urgent message.

“It is my job to question and doubt,” grinned Peter and turned around. But Claire had already stepped into a high-speed elevator, climbing seven levels up.

A stoic Colonel Yoshimoto dressed in a dark gray suit and a black tie, stood inside a glass partitioned conference room, studying a large photograph of a Mongolian shaman staring ardently at the moon. The rustic house with rice paper screen walls or shoji, that separated the inner office from the outer living area, was capped with a gray shingled sloping roof supported by polished wooden trusses.

Colonel Yoshimoto bowed when Claire entered and addressed him, “How are you, Koki San? I don’t believe we had a meeting scheduled. In fact, I was about to leave for a connecting flight to New York from Kagoshima.”

“We are aware of your flight to New York, Claire San.” Colonel Yoshimoto spoke apprehensively. “So, I shall be brief. About two days ago we received an unexpected signal from the Sentinel Observatory. We have modelled it several times and have arrived at conclusions…that we frankly find deeply disturbing.”

About the Author:

Savinder Raj Anand is an architect and has been teaching Architecture & Design at various Universities in India for more than 12 years. A long-distance runner with a wanderlust to explore the world, and write stories that traverse across diverse cultures. He lives in Goa with his daughter, a dog, and two cats.

Inspired by his then 18-month-old daughter – when she quoted Socrates – while they together sat in a children’s bookstore in Bangalore (LIGHTROOM) in early January of 2015, he has completed this – his first book – as she turns 7 years old.

Website: https://www.rajanandbooks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rajanandbooks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rajanandbooks/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXPA0eY42VQ

The book is FREE November 5 to December 5.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-First-Chronicles/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-Raj-Anand/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apophis-Folds-Darkness-First-Chronicles/dp/1648508979/ref=sr_1_1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/apophis-into-the-folds-of-darkness
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Raj_Anand_Apophis_Into_the_Folds_of_Darkness
Notion Press: https://notionpress.com/read/apophis-into-the-folds-of-darkness-1339326
FlipKart: https://www.flipkart.com/apophis-into-folds-darkness-first-book-kleos-chronicles/p/itm7dbd182022818

 Raj Anand will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Lions and Tigers and... Mammoths?

I've had a passion for time travel ever since I found out about dinosaurs. I admit, I've watched the Jurassic Park series about a hundred times. The dinosaurs never get boring for me. When I was in kindergarten, I stood at the blackboard and drew huge dinos. A t-rex chased a triceratops, a stegosaurus lumbered across a swamp, while a huge brontosaurus (now known as apatosaurus, which is a pity, given that brontosaurus meant "thunder lizard") grazed on high tree tops. One of my teachers discovered my obsession, and she would take me from class to class so I could draw and give a talk about dinosaurs.

Then one day I happened on a Reader's Digest that featured sabretooth tigers. In the illustration, the tigers are attacking a mammoth that has somehow gotten entrapped in a tar-pit. I stared at that illustration for hours, trying to imagine how the sabretooth tigers could hunt and eat their prey with such massive canines.


That was that for the dinosaurs. Suddenly I was fascinated by a time when woolly mammoths, huge cave bears, and even sloths the size of small houses, roamed the frigid plains of the ice-age tundra. The sabretooth tiger, with its out-sized canines became my spirit animal - I read everything I could about them, and spent my time drawing pictures of extinct mammals.

Years and years later, I stumbled on a blogsite that featured fossils, and it amused me to try and guess the mystery photos the author posted. And then one day, lo and behold, there was a sabretooth tiger! I recognized it right away. In the blog post, the author admitted that scientists still argued about how the animal hunted its prey. I started imagining a trip to the past to film a documentary about sabretooth tigers. 

Of course, the trip would start at Tempus U, where my time travel books all start from. And the heroine this time would be a single-minded young woman who not only specialized in paleolithic animals but infectious diseases as well, because when I started writing the book, there had been a breakout of an especially virulent form of typhus in California. And so I wove a story about corporate greed, vaccines, man-made diseases, and a trip to the far, far past. A Remedy in Time is available for preorder, and will be published January 7th, 2021!

And here is the fabulous cover my publisher, Headline Accent, made for it! 


To save the future, she must turn to the past . . .

San Francisco, Year 3377. A deadly virus has taken the world by storm. Scientists are desperately working to develop a vaccine. And Robin Johnson – genius, high-functioning, and perhaps a little bit single-minded – is delighted. Because, to cure the disease, she’s given the chance to travel back in time.

But when Robin arrives at the last Ice Age hoping to stop the virus at its source, she finds more there than she bargained for. And just as her own chilly exterior is beginning to thaw, she realises it’s not only sabre-toothed tigers that are in danger of extinction . . .

Preorder from:


  Amazon.com  ; Amazon.co.uk ; Amazon.com.au :  Hachhette UK

 



Tuesday, November 3, 2020

PINE ISLAND HOME by Polly Horvath



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a print copy of the book *US only* to a randomly drawn winner via the Rafflecopter at the end of the post. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

    Four sisters search for true family in this story of resilience by a Newbery Honor author.

    When the McCready sisters' parents are washed away in a tsunami, their Great Aunt Martha volunteers to have them live with her on her farm in British Columbia. But while they are traveling there, Martha dies unexpectedly, forcing Fiona, the eldest, to come up with a scheme to keep social services from separating the girls - a scheme that will only work if no one knows they are living on their own.

   Fiona approaches their grouchy and indifferent neighbor Al and asks if he will pretend to be their live-in legal guardian should papers need to be signed or if anyone comes snooping around. He reluctantly agrees, under the condition that they bring him dinner every night.

As weeks pass, Fiona takes on more and more adult responsibilities, while each of the younger girls finds their own special role in their atypical family - But even if things seem to be falling into place, Fiona is sure it's only a matter of time before they are caught.

Written in Polly Horvath's inimitable style, gentle humor and tough obstacles are woven throughout this story about the bonds of sisterhood and what makes a family.

Read an Excerpt:

THE McCready sisters, Fiona, fourteen, Marlin, twelve, Natasha, ten, and Charlie, eight, were raised in a missionary family. They had been happily and safely moving from pillar to post all over the world when their parents, taking their first vacation ever, having come into a small sum of money from an aging uncle who “felt it strongly” that they had never had a honeymoon, invited them to Thailand, where he ran a small hotel. The three of them and the hotel were swept away in a tsunami. The four girls were, at the time, living in Borneo, in a small cottage far back in the jungle without benefit of internet or phone service, being seen after by a visiting church volunteer who couldn’t continue to take care of them as she had other plans. So the church had a Mrs. Weatherspoon from Australia come to stay with them until someone in their family could step forward. That took a year.

Mrs. Weatherspoon sent out appeals to all the relatives she and the girls could find except for a great- aunt, Martha McCready, who lived off the coast of British Columbia. The girls’ mother, when opening Martha’s annual Christmas card, called her “that peculiar woman hiding in the woods.” Mrs. Weatherspoon said they would save her as a last resort. But surely someone more suitable would respond first. There were aunts and uncles in Tampa, Florida; Lansing, Michigan; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Kingsport, Tennessee. That was the lot. It took a while for the responses to Mrs. Weatherspoon’s appeal to trickle in. The mail pickup and delivery in the jungle was unreliable and slow. After receiving the appeal, the relatives then had to think about it. These were their sister’s or brother’s children, it was true. But there were four of them. Fitting four children into an already- established household was no small matter. Some of them wrote to ask Mrs. Weatherspoon to write them if no one else had come forward. When Mrs. Weatherspoon did, they had to think about it all over again. This took time. And none of them had met the McCready children. Mr. and Mrs. McCready had become estranged from their brothers and sisters many years before when they had made what the siblings considered a “very weird choice,” joining a church that none of them had heard of and of which, for some reason never explained to the girls, they all disapproved.

About the Author:
Polly Horvath has written many books for children including Everything on a Waffle, a Newbery Honor Book; The Canning Season, a National Book Award winner; and The Trolls, a National Book Award finalist. She lives in British Columbia with her family. Visit her at www.PollyHorvath.com.

Website: http://www.PollyHorvath.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Polly-Horvath/e/B001IU4S6S/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

Buy Links:

Publisher: https://holidayhouse.com/book/pine-island-home/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pine-Island-Home-Polly-Horvath-ebook/dp/B082S1VSJZ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pine-island-home-polly-horvath/1135275323

The author will be awarding a print copy of the book *US only* to a randomly drawn winner via the Rafflecopter at the end of the post. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Picasso's Lovers by Jean Mackin

  This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions . Jeanne Mackin will award a randomly drawn winner a $25 Am...