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The much anticipated new time travel romance by the author of the #1 Kindle Gothic/Time Travel Romance, ISLAND OF SECRETS. Their arrival was foretold in a journal and protected by one family for generations. The time has come and one woman will succeed or fail - She'll have to help to fulfill the past, but they'll have to protect her future. Dak Bartholomew is a US Secret Service agent. When he wakes up locked in a dark room, it's just another day until he realizes that he's not alone. Protecting the woman covered in dirt comes natural, but the feelings she stirs inside him are anything but ordinary. Elizabeth Porter would like nothing more than to plunge her knife through the stranger's heart for all the trouble he's caused, but he doesn't seem nearly as bad as they said he was. When he looks at her, she fears her heart is the one in danger. . Together they'll take an unexpected journey to a time and place they could never have imagined and discover a secret they'll be sworn to protect. An unlikely alliance...a love born from the ashes of adversity....but will it be enough to preserve the past and guarantee their future? Don't miss Tammie's other novels- ISLAND OF SECRETS: GOTHIC TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE KEEPING SECRETS: HISTORICAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE Book One- Undercover Heroes

<!-- START INTERCHANGE - DOODLE WITH MAISY -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> Last year I reviewed Create with Maisy by Lucy Cousins, which I adored above all else for the fact that Cousins really did create a craft book with projects

During the year 2399, a team of two computer hackers doing a routine job for an unknown client, unwittingly trigger an Artificial Intelligence’s elaborate plan to gain a physical presence into our world. The two hackers are forced into a frantic escape for their lives and along their way they meet many allies and foes, only they’re unsure about who’s really a friend or an enemy. In a cataclysmic showdown with this Artificial Intelligence, a side of this hacking team discovers the other has a hidden agenda. A few questions arise: What are this AI’s real intentions? Does it care for humans? Does it have a soul? Find out about Mankind’s destiny in this thrilling account of a possible future, made scary by its plausibility.

       May issues of several publications are now available online:

• Words without Borders' May 2013: North Korean Defectors issue -- with a dose of New Swahili Writing, too
  
  
• The first issue of the new-look transcript has Armenia as a theme
  
  
• Open Letters Monthly

My friend Domee Shi and I have started a tumblr about our food fantasies. Food Fantasies you ask? Why yes, after our strenuous workout class (Booty-Camp) me and Domee get so hungry we imagine ourselves eating huge portions of food, and it makes us happy! Bon Apetit!

       Surely it should already be punishment enough for any translator to have to work with Dan Brown's prose, but his publishers have -- appropriately enough, I suppose -- found new circles of hell for them: love german books has the story and the links in reporting on Dan Brown's Translators in Berlusconi's Bunker.
       Yes, there's apparently a new Dan Brown novel coming out, Inferno -- pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk -- and they want it to come out in a lot of languages simultaneously, so eleven translators have frantically been rendering it into a variety of languages. What's ... impressive ? is that they have been working in a bunker, the manuscripts kept in safes there when they're not working on them. They aren't allowed to even bring cellphones in -- and can't even admit what they're working on to anyone else in the building (yes, they all have cover stories for why they're there -- though presumably it's for their own safety, since otherwise they'd presumably be laughed and shamed out of the building). Never mind the rush to finish the translation so quickly .....
       TV Sorrisi e Canzoni has the (Italian) story, as well as Q & As with several of the translators; one of them amsuingly responds to their situation:

Qual è la prima cosa che farai quando tornerai a casa ?

E chi ne è mai uscito ?

A doomed vampire hunter. A kid trapped in the sewers with an undead thing. A town that could be yours… but hides a terrible, dark secret. A scary cosmic balance. A dead brother and his revenge beyond the grave. An unspeakable future and three eerie girls: all these elements lurk within Cuentos, this collection of eight short stories and two short novellas that may make you reconsider how you contemplate darkness… after you’re finished reading it. 45000+ words

       Tomorrow (Friday) at 17:30 the winner of the Best Translated Book Award will be named; see Chad Post's explanation of the where and when.
       I expect to be there; hope to see you there as well.

Colors of a place: from the Fairy Detective Clairvoyant class

from the Fairy Beginner class

From the Animal Mediumship class

From the Flower Essence class

from the Care of the Sensitive class

from the Fairy Healing the Feminine class

from the Talking to Angels, Guides and Dead People class

Great response to our Fairy Online School sale!

Classes are $15 off until Friday. Did you sign up and reserve your space yet? See the catalog and pick out your class here.

“The Most Powerful Man in the World and other stories” is a collection of five, short, scifi stories by Stephen L. Thompson to provide a sample of his writing. A being from the distant future with almost unlimited powers comes back to help Ian Steele make the world a better place in “The Most Powerful Man in the World.” The bookstore customer has an entirely different reason for wanting books in “Black Market Books.” “Motherhood” tells the story of Thomas Gillespie, the surrogate mother for an AI. “Storyteller” is about an author thinking his book into existence. And “Deadworld” is about the alien world humans are reborn on – in alien bodies – after they die. Excerpt from “The Most Powerful Man in the World” “What happened?” Ian asked from the floor. “You fainted.” Ian sat up and looked around the empty room. It was maybe fifteen feet on a side and painted a dull grey. “Where am I?” “A dimensional intrusion located within your living room wall.” “Huh?” Pulling him to his feet, she explained, “Basically, it’s a space that can be as large,” here Karen threw her arms out and the walls zoomed away beyond sight, “or as small as I want.” She then drew her arms in and the two stood in a space the size of a phone booth. The room returned to its original size and Karen stretched. “But I think this is a good size.” Ian spun around, trying to keep an eye on each of the walls as if they might sneak up and squish him. “What the hell is this?” Karen put her arm around him. “Arthur C. Clarke once said that ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’” Shrugging, Karen stated, “This is magic.”

LATEST NEWS

The North Carolina Press Foundation is offering four of Artie’s serial stories to Newspapers in Education (NIE) newspapers across the United States. This year’s theme is Dig into Reading. In addition to the NIE, the foundation will also be offering Artie’s work to libraries and other newspapers throughout the United States. To read the works, please click on the NC Press Foundation link listed above.

Fans of Artie’s children’s literature that are on Facebook, can check out a new page dedicated to his work there. To visit the page, please click on the logo below.

View from a Zoo – Bored with her life, a housecat seeks out adventure in this new fully illustrated picture book coming in the summer of 2013. Written by Artie, the book is being illustrated by the incredibly talented Indian artist Sunayana Nair Kanjilal. More to come as the book’s release date gets closer….

Artie’s children’s story The Hummingbird Who Chewed Bubblegum is being published in a coursebook by the Oxford University Press  in India. More to come.

Artie’s children’s story The Sweet Smelling Skunk is being published in a coursebook by Orient BlackSwan in India. More to come.

Use of any of the content on this website without permission is prohibited by federal law

A teenager is trapped in a sewer with an undead thing. Find out how he got there and whether he'll escape by reading this amazing short story.

       The Library of America updates it's look at The Library of America's Best-Selling Titles.
       Always interesting to see -- and not much change from two years ago (but no updated actual sales-numbers, unfortunately ...).

Something very odd is happening in Eco Station One: although it's doomed because a highway is bound to be built over it, the deranged ecological researcher in charge seems unworried about it. Enter Eduardo Sinnombre to complicate matters: appointed to perform his Arcane Accounting skills on the Station's finances, he finds himself immersed into an insane plan to protect the place. Can he cope?

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Javier Marías' While the Women are Sleeping.
       I'm pretty much just trying to fill in some of the blanks here while I wait for The Infatuations (not even an ARC in sight, yet, sigh ...).

Learning to Love your Spouse. A book for Husbands and Wives. Prayer to God and Couples Therapy if you take time to Pray and Read this book. We all say "For better or worse" but do we really understand what it is we are saying? We need to know the art of Making Love Not War." Sometimes we are concerned with living in our spouses shoes but we need to live in our own shoes. Learning to love gives you an overcoming life. Yes, after all these years I am Still So In Love. Chapters of the Book: For Better or For Worse For Richer or For Poorer In Sickness and In Health In Sorrow or Joy Love and Cherish Making Love not War Living in Your Own Shoes Learn to Live Your Priorities Till Death Do Us Part Still So In Love

Lately it feels like my brain is running way faster than my legs could ever keep pace. That’s a darn shame, because one would certainly opt for running a new PR rather than mentally shouting, “SHUT UP!” to your brain at 2am and imploring it to go to bed.

Speaking of PR’s, track racing season is getting to be in full swing. Some people have a bit of a phobia when it comes to the track, others find the monotony of double-digit laps, well, monotonous. The thing with track though, is it BLEEDS speed…as a runner, how can you not love that?

Each distance is unique, duh, the number of laps to the race you’ll be running presents its own challenges. The ratio of speed to endurance, the contrast between utter lactic ONSLAUGHT from the gun versus the more gradual building of the pain in the 10k. Both grueling, just in a different way.

Each race has a ‘volatile’ factor. This would be the crucial moments and laps that can make or break your race. The margins of time where if you’re not ON IT you may have very well lost the race even if you’re still got laps and laps to go.

There’s not just ONE moment in time of course, but for the sake of brevity let’s highlight a few of the volatile factors for the events:

* 1500/Mile: That dang third lap. Here is where the pain of the pace has already set in, the ‘taste’ of the finish isn’t quite close enough to kick in. Your mind starts to dauntingly anticipate that grueling last lap. COMBAT: Know that third lap is going to suck, know that it will make your race if you can pass the people letting their brain wander.

* 3200: Right around laps 4-6 it is easy to let your brain check-out. It’s prime time to make a move, surge and establish a gap on those who either went out too fast for that first mile or the poor souls who are just letting their mind wander. COMBAT: Go out on pace the first mile and throw down a move…remember the beauty of negative splits.

* 5k: It’s funny how running that first mile can feel so easy, a breeze, too easy. The middle mile is where you need to wrangle your brain and keep it FOCUSED. Much like the 3rd lap of the mile, the middle of your 5k can lapse into a fog if you’re not careful. COMBAT: Don’t let yourself get pulled out too fast the first mile, stay mentally engaged the middle mile, and anticipate the cold slap of pain somewhere after the second mile. It’s funny how it can suddenly sneak up on you, but be prepared for it and stay strong through to the finish.

Each race has its own set of ‘volatile’ factors…that’s what makes each and every track distance so fun. It’s a test, as is everything with running, testing mostly yourself. The competition is there as an opportunity to propel your performances forward…feed off of their presence.

Track is awesome, just don’t let the distance of the race pull a fast one on you. Be prepared and then enjoy the unique challenges of each event.

1) What is your favorite track distance to race?

2) Pick a distance I didn’t highlight and share one of their ‘volatile’ factors.

3) Share a ‘volatile’ factor that I didn’t address for one of the above races.

In the streets of Lagos, it takes a little to excite a crowd. An accusation of theft is usually enough for a person to be lynched brutally. All that is required is an old tire, some fuel, a box of matches, or a lighter. On a busy day in the streets, a young girl who has recently been transported from her uneventful life in a poor village, to live a life of forced servitude in Lagos, witnesses the vicious lynching of an innocent young man, as well as the brutal and questionable justice that soon follows.

Editorial Reviews

Salisbury is a rising star in genre fiction. This book makes a unique and exciting contribution in the fantasy realm. The first of great things to come. –Jake Black, “The Authorized Ender Companion” “Smallville” “Ender’s Game: Recruiting Valentine”

Amazon Reviews

Conclusion:
A fantasy adventure that features lots of action and intrigue that is geared to a YA audience.
There are moments in this tale that are especially well done… story telling at a level that I’d be interested to see what this author would do with an adult orientated fantasy work.
As a dedicated YA work… 5 Stars.
~ Ray Nicholson

The beginning of a great adventure!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first book of the Trail of Bones series. It is an unpredictable adventure, with heartwrenching acts of love and friendship. The story ended before I was prepared to put my Kindle down, and now I will wait anxiously for the second book to be published. In the meantime, I think I’ll read it again with my eleven-year-old son; I’m sure he’ll love it as much as I do. Give it a read!
~ HRL

Enthralling story line that really pulls you in
…The characters were some that I will not easily forget because he explains their background in a way that makes the reader really connect and believe they are real. He creates a world that I long to see. I really grew to both love and hate different characters. I think that is a sign of a really great author when they can make us feel so much emotion towards a character.
~ Janason

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Ada has her life planned, and there's no place in it for men or relationships. Even if she had the time or the inclination, Eddie Bakare is the last man she would ever consider. He may be every girl's fantasy - handsome, rich, charming, and so sure of himself - but Ada is not interested in fantasy when reality keeps her very well occupied. But Eddie is determined to make her change her mind. Will she be able to resist him now that she is the center of his attentions, and does she even want to?

Michael Ade-Cole took her innocence and left Sophie with the knowledge that it meant nothing to him. She cut him out of her life completely, but almost five years later, she is still desperately in love with him. The best way to get over someone is to see them again, or so they say. So when Sophie engineers a meeting with Michael, all she wants, is to finally be able to forget him, or so she tells herself. But as soon as she sees him again, she realizes that she wants him as much as ever, and he appears to want her too. It would be perfect, if only he wasn't engaged to the beautiful Folake. Can Sophie succeed in falling out of love with Michael? Or will she give in to the temptation of loving him, even though he belongs to someone else?

It seems more and more picture books and middle grade books are being picked up and brought to stages around the country. We all dream of seeing our books on the big screen, but more and more production companies are looking at children’s books to bring to the stage. I thought you might like to know that if you live in the New York area you can see Eileen’s Spinelli’s picture book “Wanda’s Monster” played out on stage.  It sounds like a lot of fun and runs through May 12 at Theater 3, 311 West 43rd Street, NYC (646) 250-1178, www.makingbookssing.org .

Here is a an article that appeared in Theater Review on April 25th.

Feared Fiend to Gentle Friend

Wanda’s Monster,’ With Laurie Berkner’s Tunes, at Theater 3

By LAUREL GRAEBER

Anyone familiar with cable television knows that plenty of adults believe in monsters. But the parents of Wanda, the heroine of the new family musical “Wanda’s Monster,” must not be fans of series like “Finding Bigfoot.” Wanda can’t convince them or her brother that a creature lives in her closet.

Audiences at Theater 3, however, know he’s there. Looking more like a Honker from “Sesame Street” than like Nessie or Sasquatch, this fuzzy beast enters from the aisles. Like the children around him, he’s been enjoying the show’s opening, set at a rock club run by Wanda’s grandmother. Granny, you see, is Joan Jett.

Well, not really Joan Jett, though she does wear black leather and ride motorcycles. Mostly Granny evokes Laurie Berkner, a wholesome singer-songwriter who’s bigger than Justin Bieber, if you happen to be 4 or 5. Making Books Sing, which turns children’s books into musicals, commissioned Ms. Berkner to write the score and lyrics for “Wanda’s Monster,” based on Eileen Spinelli’s 2002 picture book. Ms. Berkner, who doesn’t perform in the show, has filled it with catchy, folk-flavored pop, arranged by the production’s music director, Kristen Lee Rosenfeld. The upbeat melodies include one of Ms. Berkner’s longstanding hits, “Monster Boogie,” which fans are invited to dance to.

Barbara Zinn Krieger, founder of Making Books Sing, wrote the script, one of whose most inspired touches is turning Granny, who wears sweat pants and sensible shoes in Nancy Hayashi’s book illustrations, into this kick-out-the-jams rocker. Vibrantly played by Jamie Kolnick, Granny alone takes Wanda’s side, acknowledging the Monster’s existence but persuading her granddaughter (Laura Hankin, a grown-up who makes a convincing 5-year-old) that monsters are really shy, gentle, misunderstood souls.

In this hourlong adaptation, briskly directed by Adrienne Kapstein, the Monster is not only sweet but also sublimely silly. Winningly portrayed by James Ortiz in a role greatly expanded from the book, he eats the flowers Wanda slips into the closet for him and attaches her artwork to the wall with his spit. While the hulking, horned Mr. Ortiz may frighten a few little theatergoers at first, most, like Wanda, will want to hug him at the conclusion. This charming musical brings home a point worth considering at any age: embrace what you fear, and you just may find a friend.

“Wanda’s Monster” runs through May 12 at Theater 3, 311 West 43rd Street, Clinton; (646) 250-1178, www.makingbookssing.org.

Congratulations, Eileen! It must be exciting to see your book come to life.

Everyone, please let me know if you get to see this show. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

A Girl Called Problem
By Katie Quirk
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
$8.00
ISBN: 97800-8028-5404-9
Ages 9-12
On shelves now.

Who says that mystery novels for kids all have to include the same tropes and settings? I tell you, half the time when a kid comes up to a reference desk asking for a mystery they think what they want is the standard white kids in suburbia model perfected by Encyclopedia Brown and his ilk. They’re wrong. What they really want is great writing and a good mystery with a twist they don’t see coming. So I will hereby give grand kudos and heaping helpfuls of praise to the librarian/bookseller/parent who hears a kid ask for a mystery and hands them Katie Quirk’s A Girl Called Problem. This book is a trifecta of publishing rarities. A historical novel that is also a mystery set in a foreign country that just happens to be Tanzania. Trust me when I say your shelves aren’t exactly filled to brimming with such books. Would that they were, or at the very least, would that you had as many good books as this one. Smart commentary, an honestly interesting storyline, and sharp writing from start to finish, Quirk quickly establishes herself as one author to watch.

The thing about Shida is that in spite of her name (in Swahili it would be “problem”) you just can’t get her down. Sure, her mom is considered a witch, and every day she seems to make Shida’s life harder rather than easier. Still, Shida’s got dreams. She hopes to someday train to be a healer in her village of Litongo, and maybe even a village nurse. In light of all this, when the opportunity arises for all of Litongo to pick up and move to a new location, Shida’s on board with the plan. In Nija Panda she would be able to go to school and maybe even learn medicine firsthand. Her fellow villagers are wary but game. They seem to have more to gain than to lose from such a move. However, that’s before things start to go terribly wrong. Escaped cattle. Disease. Even death seems to await them in Nija Panda. Is the village truly cursed, just unlucky, or is there someone causing all these troubles? Someone who doesn’t want the people of Litongo there. Someone who will do anything at all to turn them back. It’s certainly possible and it’s up to Shida to figure out who the culprit might be.

The trouble with being an adult and reading a children’s work of mystery fiction is that too often the answer feels like it’s too obvious. Fortunately for me, I’m terrible at mysteries. I’ll swallow every last red herring and every false clue used by the author to lead me astray. So while at first it seems perfectly obvious who the bad guys would be, I confess that when the switcheroo took place I didn’t see it coming. It made perfect sense, of course, but I was as blindsided as our plucky heroine. I figure if I honestly as a 35-year-old adult can’t figure out the good guys from the bad in a book for kids, at least a significant chunk of child readers will be in the same boat.

Now I’ve a pet peeve regarding books set in Africa, particularly historical Africa, and I was keen to see whether or not Ms. Quirk would indulge it. You see, the story of a girl in a historical setting who wants to be a healer but can’t because of her gender is not a particularly new trope. We’ve seen it before, to a certain extent. What chaps my hide is when the author starts implying that tribal medicines and healing techniques are superstitious and outdated while modern medicine is significantly superior. Usually the heroine will fight against society’s prejudices, something will happen late in the game, and the villagers will see that she was right all along and that she’ll soon be able to use Western medicine to cure all ills. There’s something particularly galling about storylines of this sort, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that Quirk was not going to fall into that more than vaguely insulting mindset. Here is an author unafraid to pay some respect to the religion of the villagers. It never dismisses curses but acknowledges them alongside standard diseases. Example: “Though Shida was certain Furaha should take medicine for malaria, she was equally certain she should guard the spirit house that night. Parasites were responsible for some sicknesses and curses for others, and in this case, they needed to protect against both.”

Quirk is also quite adept at using the middle grade chapter book format to tackle some pretty complex issues. To an adult reading this book it might be clear that Shida’s mother suffers from a severe form of depression. There’s no way the village would be prepared to handle this diagnosis, and Shida herself just grows angry with the woman who stays inside all the time. You could get a very interesting book discussion going with child readers about whether or not Shida should really blame her mother as vehemently as she does. On the one hand, you can see her point. On the other, her mother is clearly in pain. Similarly well done is the final discussion of witches. Quirk brings up a very sophisticated conversation wherein Shida comes to understand that accused witches are very often widows who must work to keep themselves alive and that, through these efforts, acquire supposedly witchy attributes. Quirk never hits you over the head with these thoughts. She just lets her heroine’s assumptions fall in the face of close and careful observation.

All this could be true, but without caring about the characters it wouldn’t be worth much. I think part of the reason I like the book as much as I do is that everyone has three dimensions (with the occasional rare exception). Even the revealed villain turns out to have a backstory that explains their impetus, though it doesn’t excuse their actions. As for Shida herself, she may be positive but she’s no Pollyanna. Depression hits her hard sometimes too, but through it all she uses her brain. Because she is able to apply what she learns in school to the real world, she’s capable of following the clues and tracking down the real culprit behind everyone’s troubles. Passive protagonists have no place in A Girl Called Problem. No place at all.

Finally, in an era of Common Core Standards I cannot help but notice how much a kid can learn about Tanzania from this book. Historical Tanzania at that! A Glossary at the back does a very good job of explaining everything from flamboyant trees to n’gombe to President Julius Nyerere’s plan for Tanzania. There are also photographs mixed into the Glossary that do a good job of giving a contemporary spin on a historical work.

Windows and mirrors. That’s the phrase used by children’s literature professionals to explain what we look for in books for kids. We want them to have books that reflect their own experiences and observations (mirrors) and we also want them to have books that reflect the experiences and observations of kids living in very different circumstances (windows). Mirror books can be a lot easier to recommend to kids than window books, but that just means you need to try harder. So next time a 9-12 year-old comes to you begging for a mystery, upset their expectations. Hand them A Girl Called Problem and bet them they won’t be able to guess the bad guy. In the process, you might just be able to introduce that kid to their latest favorite book.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Like This? Then Try:

• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

• Burn My Heart by Beverly Naidoo

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare

Notes on the Cover:  Now was that so hard?  We ask and we ask and we ask for brown faces on our middle grade fiction and still it feels like pulling teeth to get it done.  Eerdmans really blew this one out of the water, and it seems they spared no expense.  The book jacket is the brainchild of Richard Tuschman who you may know better as the man behind the cover of Claire Vanderpool’s Newbery Award winning Moon Over Manifest.  Beautiful.

Other Blog Reviews: Loganberryblog

Professional Reviews: A star from Kirkus

Misc:

• This is utterly fascinating.  In this post author Katie Quirk talks about the process that led to the current (and truly lovely) cover.

• And here’s the story behind the book itself.

• And Ms. Quirk shares what a typical day for Shida might look like in this video.