Sacrifice of the Sage Hen by Susie Schade-Brewer

1859: Pre-Civil War Independence, Missouri. The people are restless - the effects of prejudice and hate. Blood has already been spilled by some from over the border, and there is talk of war.

To add to the unrest from the border skirmishes, a devastating drought has fallen over the entire Northern region of Missouri.

Full of spirit and restless rebellion, Charlotte Mary West, called Charlie by her friends, is concerned, but what captures her most frequent thought is finding relief from her own boring and uneventful life. Grant, her husband of an arranged marriage, owns a general store in the embarkation town of Independence, Missouri. His only ambition is to make fistfuls of money selling supplies to the pioneers of the wagon trains leaving down the Oregon and California Trails. But waiting on customers and stocking shelves in a general store has never been Charlie’s idea of adventure. She feels life is going on without her.

And now her father and her best friend are joining a wagon train to go west, leaving her behind with her husband. Already chafing at the expectations he places on her to act like a proper lady, Charlie longs to break away and fly to freedom. Somehow, someway, she must convince her husband to forfeit his dream and join the wagon train.

Then tragedy strikes when a fire comes off the dry prairie and ravages half the town. Many buildings including West’s Mercantile burn to the ground. Some are injured – and a few die, including Charlie’s husband. Now at only age 19, she is a widow, no means of support - and quite unexpectedly - a mother to an orphaned mixed-race child.

Dirks Braelen is on the run from his life as a hired gun in Texas. He's ready to hang up his holster and try to find some peace for his soul. He may be ready to leave his old life behind, but the people he knew then may not let him.

He's trying to escape his past. She's trying to escape her present. To find happiness, Charlie and Dirks have to reach back into a story from Charlie's father and find out the true sacrifice of the Sage Hen.


For More Information: www.TheSacrificeOfTheSageHen.com



Interview with Susie Schade-Brewer:

Why did you write this book?

At the time I started writing the book, I was around 50 years old, and although I had done a lot of writing over the years, it had been bits and pieces, mostly because I was busy working, raising my family, and taking care of elderly parents. By the time the kids were raised and gone, my marriage was falling apart. I found writing to be like therapy. One can be as sweet – as angry – as submissive -- or rebellious as they want, and (I hate to admit it) the empowerment was wonderful.
I remembered an idea that had stuck in my head since I was about seven years old. The storyline revolved around one central character, a feisty young woman who was not remiss to speak her mind, and for some odd reason, a sage hen was always there too. I don’t know why that in particular, but who understands the brain anyway, right? I thought, ‘now is the perfect time to indulge this flight of my imagination.’ The manuscript underwent about 20 revisions over a 6-year period, and the end result was exactly what I had always wanted. Plus, the therapeutic value probably saved me a lot of money!

What was your favorite part?

I think the easiest parts to write, because they just flowed out of me, were the more intimate thoughts and feelings of the main character, Charlie West. She is 19, and stuck in a loveless marriage. Because she is living a life that others had arranged for her, she is unable to pursue her own dreams -- all of which seemed apropos for me (except the 19 year old part – but I was once). And although she wishes to be good and dutiful and obedient, there is a certain defiance at having lost control of her life.

What was the hardest to write?

The parts about the fire and the dying and having to describe to the reader how bad it hurts and make them really feel it. Also the parts about the criminal acts of the villains, because he killed and mutilated animals.

What do you hope your readers will get from your book?

This story is about life – and love – and making choices, which all humans must do. And making our dreams as much a priority to us as others’. I guess it’s about understanding our self-worth, the importance of not allowing anyone to take that from you. It is my hope that the reader will take that key message away with them.

What’s next for you?

I am working on the sequel to The Sacrifice of the Sage Hen. In this first book, much of the story takes place in Independence, Missouri, which in the 19th century was what they called ‘the jumping off’ place for those who wanted to travel over the Oregon or Santa Fe Trails. Charlie’s life is as a storekeeper’s wife.
The next book, which most of my readers have said they really want to read about, will be when they actually get on the trail and deal with the day-to-day challenges and dangers of trail life. At that time, those who were brave enough to pack up their families and all their worldly goods into a 4’ x 10’ wagon knew that 1 in 5 of them would die before reaching their destination. The trail to Oregon was wild and 2,000 miles long, would take them 4 to 6 months to get there, and was fraught with many hidden dangers.

So, this is what I’m currently working on, plus working at my other business, a professional writing service called TPW Writing Services, doing copywriting and resumes. Both projects are very time-consuming. I’ve thought about petitioning my Congressman to pass some kind of bill to avail more hours in the day, but I didn’t think it would do much good.

If anyone wants to visit my book’s website, it is www.TheSacrificeOfTheSageHen.com. Please also visit my blog, www.OneWritersView.blogspot.com, and leave a comment on a subject written there, or start a new one. I like discussing anything having to do with western lore or the writing life. Thanks, Karina, for the interview. All the best to you.

Rajah and the Big Blue Ball by Mosetta Penick Phillips-Cermak

Rajah, the big black dog, likes to play in his big back yard. He chases the leaves. He sniffs the air every day. It is his favorite place. One day a strange thing happens. Something hits Rajah on the head. It scares him. A blue ball is up in the sky. Where did the ball come from? Did it do it on purpose? Did it want to make him afraid? Rajah has to find the courage to take back his own world. Written by the author of The Wishing Flower and The Magic of Laven-Rock, Rajah and the Big Blue Ball looks into the face of the unknown.

Available from: Barnes and Noble Online
Note: She is donating $1.00 of each sale to the Cleveland Animal Protective League.

Interview with Dr. Mosetta:

1. Why did you write this book?

It was originally written for one of my favorite group of children, in my favorite classroom. The classroom was in a model school for the District. Although the school first opened its doors eighty-four years ago (in 1924), it was the first year that this school had been K-8. As such, most of the 65 teachers were new to the school. I was new to the school.

Located in the middle of what is still considered a particularly dangerous inner-city neighborhood of a large metropolitan city, all of our students were considered disadvantaged. The families in our school were at or slightly above poverty level.

Most of the children came from single parent families, or were living with foster or adoptive families, but many have extensive support systems through a lattice of extended family within the same household, or within walking distance of the school.
There were no discipline problems even though two children were under psychiatric care. One student had seizures, and one student had severe asthma.

Of the 21 students, two were African-American, one was Asian Indian, five students were Hispanic, one was of mixed black/white ethnicity, and the remaining 13 students were white.

It was for these children that I wrote "Rajah and the Big Blue Ball". It was from their "Tell Me a Story" time that this book evolved.

Some students in the classroom were the subject of custody battles by their parents, and another student watched as one of his cousins was shot in the head by a drive-by shooter. The child was so traumatized by the sight of blood and neural material splattered all over him, that he did not speak for six months. But when he did, he asked me to tell him a story. And the story I told was "Rajah and the Big Blue Ball".

2. What was most fun about writing this book?

I think that the most fun part of writing this book came when the students asked me every Monday to read the new part of the story that I had written over the weekend.

We had an agreement. I set aside the last period of the day, every Monday, just to read the new parts of the story. They were so patient. They would ask me "what's going to happen next"? I would answer "Rajah hasn't told me, yet".

3. What was most difficult?

The most difficult part was the editing. It was often heart wrenching to let go of parts of the story that were great for oral story telling, but were not so great from a publishing standpoint.

4. Who should read this book?

This book was written for students in the second grade, but I believe that it is a wonderful story to read to children as young as kindergarten. In fact, one of neighbors reads Rajah and the Big Blue Ball to his four year old. She loves the story and asks for it by name. I have even had some students as old as middle school who have read it and seemed to enjoy it.

5. What's next for you?

I am under contract for six more "Rajah" books. I am also editing a middle grade chapter book, and a Young Adult title.

In addition, I have three new stories that I am trying to hone. These three stories are related to things we, as parents, want to teach or children. And, I hope to start an adult horror that I outlined. Finally, I have been working on a parenting book. I hope that after rearing successful children, who have also reared successful children, that I may have something to offer related to this concept.

CSFF Presents Vanish by Tom Pawlik

Three strangers each encounter the same mysterious storm and awake the next day to find that everyone else has vanished. There's Conner Hayden, a successful but unscrupulous trial lawyer who has forsaken his family for his career; Helen Krause, a middle-aged model struggling to come to grips with her fading beauty; and Mitch Kent, an enterprising young mechanic unable to escape a past that still haunts him. Afraid and desperate for answers, their paths eventually cross and they discover they are being watched. Elusive and obscured in shadows, the "observers" are apparently forcing them to relive vivid hallucinations of events from their past. They discover a mute homeless boy in tattered clothing and believe he may hold the key to the mystery, but the "observers" soon become aggressive and the four are forced to flee. When the boy disappears, the four decide to head from Chicago to Washington, D.C., in search of answers...and more survivors. Winner of the 2006 operation first novel contest, Vanish is a nonstop suspense thriller in the vein of Ted Dekker.




Tom Pawlik’s Web site - http://www.tompawlik.com/
Tom Pawlik’s blog - http://www.tompawlik.com/blog.htm

*Participants’ Links:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Donita K. Paul
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

Jumble Pie by Melanie Lynne Hauser

JUMBLE PIE is the story of the elusive nature of friendship, sometimes clinging, other times liberating; a story for any woman who has ever lied to her best friend just to make her feel better - and who has been brave enough to tell the truth, even when it hurts. And of course, it's a story about the remarkable healing power of pie.

"IN THE BEGINNING, there was the pie. The pie was without form and texture (and any manner of identifiable filling), and darkness was upon the face of the Home Ec Teacher…"

So begins the story of two women, a friendship, and a pie. JUMBLE PIE, to be exact. A Home Ec project gone very wrong, except for the fact that it brings together two very different young girls and helps them form a friendship that lasts through bad haircuts, unrequited love, endless incarnations of Madonna, and their own evolving dreams... Until New Year's Eve, 1999, when another pie comes along, resulting in a pre-party blow-up that sets Juliet and Emily, women now, to remembering how it all got started.



More about Melanie Lynne Hauser

Review:

Get ready to laugh, cry and find yourself totally involved in the lives of Emily and Juliet as they share a friendship that begins, ends and begins anew with pie.

"Girlfriend lit" isn't usually my thing, but I get drawn into the quirky yet very real characters right off. Hauser has a knack for creating unique characters that are nonetheless very familiar. Emily reminded me a little of myself (brainy and thinking that guaranteed success) and my best friend, who can be clueless and impulsive. I thought her passion for big words was a little overdone in the chapters of their childhood, but not enough to make me put down the book--and believe me, I have low tolerance. Juliet really captured my heart. Not incredibly gifted, coming from a broken family, she blossoms in college and learns how to capitalize on her strengths.

I really enjoyed that aspect of the book--that you make the most of what God gives you. Emily, while brilliant, didn't understand that smarts are not enough--you need to work on your skills. Life does not guarantee you success. This is a theme I am constantly hammering home to my own children; I'll be giving Amber a copy of this book when she's older.

I definitely recommend this book!

Jesse’s Girl by Gary Morgenstein

How much should a parent sacrifice for a troubled child? In Gary Morgenstein’s taut new thriller, Jesse’s Girl, the answer is – anything. Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds, the timely novel about teen addiction and adoption follows a desperate father’s search for his son, who has run away from a wilderness program to find his biological sister in Kentucky.

Jesse’s Girl opens as a jarring phone wakes lifelong Brooklynite Teddy Mentor well after midnight. It’s the Montana wilderness program saying that his 16-year-old adopted son has vanished – and they haven’t a clue where he’s gone. Only two weeks ago, Jesse had been taken to the program by escorts to deal with substance abuse problems.

Jeopardizing his flagging PR job in New York, Mentor rushes across the country to find Jesse, who is off on his own quest: to find Theresa, the sister he’s never known. When Teddy finally discovers Jesse at a bus stop in Illinois, he is torn between sending him back or joining his son on a journey to find this girl in Kentucky. He decides to go. They become embroiled in a grisly crime when Theresa’s abusive husband Beau attacks her – Jesse stabs the big beast of a man, leaving him for dead.

Given Jesse’s misdemeanor criminal record, Teddy can’t go to the authorities without risking his son’s arrest. However, Beau is not dead, merely wounded, and he hunts them down, thirsty for revenge. Teddy, Jesse and Theresa flee across the Bluegrass State with Beau in hot pursuit. Seeking safety but finding trouble, their story leads them to an ultimately shattering question: is Theresa really Jesse’s sister or has he been scammed?

Gary Morgenstein’s previous novels are Take Me Out to the Ballgame and The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His latest novel Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, a romantic triangle about a divorced middle-aged man who falls in love with a beautiful rabbi, was just published on Amazon.com. His play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival.



Interview with Gary Morgenstein:

1. Why did you write this book?

Along with “Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman,” this comprises both sides of my Baby Boomer head and soul and heart: Love and parenthood. In "Jesse's Girl," I wrote from the perspective of a father of a teenager, which is fairly rare. Since we’ve lived in the caves, generation after generation it has been the duty of teenagers to torture their parents. As an adoptive Dad, I wanted to find a story that would weave in a father and son’s floundering relationship besieged by troubling issues on both sides -- a teen struggling with addiction and a father who feels he has failed as a parent. Then let all hell break loose over them and send them into a cauldron of a thriller, pursued both by the police and a deranged killer.

2. What was your favorite part of writing this?

My old and very dear friend who is my brother, John Balchunas, inspired the character of Klaus Weber. I had such fun writing Klaus and seeing what was sort of like him, but wasn’t entirely. Some things I wrote about Klaus, I said to John, that is how it really happened isn’t it, and he said no, and I said, well, I like my version better, more dramatic, feel free to use that for your life story. That is a very slippery mental slope to start on....Anyway, John, who lives in Madisonville, Kentucky (where several climactic scenes in the novel are based), was my unofficial “Bluegrass State” advisor. I’d worked in Kentucky for the now defunct Kentucky Post. Over the years I’d visit John, who’d lived in various parts of the state pretty much since we graduated college. But that’s not quite the same as living there. I’d be writing a passage and I’d email him, okay, if the characters are heading west from here, what road would they take…?

3. Where did you get the idea for this book?

I’ve never written about being a father. Maybe because it’s the hardest thing to write about since parenting is such a bewildering and painful confluence of emotions. In the novel (yes it is arrogant to quote yourself but bear with me), the protagonist, Teddy Mentor, talks about how when we marry we recite the vow “‘til death do us part.” Which is nonsense, as someone who is no longer married can attest. Or as the divorce rate can attest for that matter. But that vow really applies to being a parent. Take all the intense life-changing love and loyalty and feelings you have for your child, the way it changes when they become teens and aren’t your little doting boy anymore. Then blend in the anger and resentment and bristling rage that the parent of a teen battling the illness of addiction feels. Like could you please become an astronaut and blast off into space and leave me alone? Any parent who says they haven’t felt that -- or even said it -- are simply lying. This novel is my way of talking to all those parents and saying, you are not crazy. Hang in there. It will get better.

4. Are you a father? Were parts of it hard to write, emotionally, because of that?

Oh, there were times when I brought myself to tears. There’s nothing so nakedly raw as writing a difficult scene depicting the relationship with your child, because it is always layered with the emotional footprints of reality. Sometimes I’d have to break off because it was so agonizing. Then again, you can write scenes where your child actually listens to you and shows you respect, so how is that for the miracle of writing?

5. What's next for you?

My novel "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" will be published by Amazon in June. It's a political baseball novel, taking the economic turmoil and fear of contemporary America and combining it with the fanaticism of a baseball town. In my novel, Buffalo, New York goes mad over their Cinderella team, the National League Buffalo Matadors, driven by a ruthless owner, devious spinmeister, fading journalist – and one fan who really believes the rival team is the enemy.

Italian for Tourists by Jo Linsdell

Italian For Tourists: Pocket Edition a phrasebook published through the online content marketplace Lulu.com is a basic guide to the Italian language covering phrases and words most needed by tourists. It includes all the words and phrases a tourist is likely to need during their stay in Italy as well as a pronunciation guide and a map of Italy.

The phrasebook is divided into 17 chapters including; Emergency, The basics, Common expressions, Learning Italian, Greetings and introducing yourself, Transport, Hotel, Sightseeing, Asking and giving directions, Food and drink, Health, Shopping, Offices and bureaucracy and Signs and notices and more.

Jo Linsdell came to Italy from the UK in June 2001 and now lives in Rome working as a freelance writer. She wrote the book drawing on her own experience. She explains “A tourist doesn’t need to know everything about Italian grammar or the in’s and out’s of buying an apartment. They want to have an easy to use reference book of the language they will need to use and understand during their stay”.

Jo Linsdell is a freelance writer who lives in Rome with her Italian husband and their baby son. She is also the creator and manager of the award winning site http://writersandauthors.blogspot.com and founder and organiser of PROMO DAY (http://jolinsdell.tripod.com/promoday), an online event for people in the writing industry.



A Peek Into the Book (My apologies, but formatting was lost putting it into the blog; however, it gives you a good idea of the information it contains.)


Contents

About the author: 11
Preface: 13
Pronunciation guide: 15
Personal pronouns: 17
Emergency: 19
The basics : 21
Common expressions: 31
Questions: 33
Learning Italian: 35
Greetings and introducing yourself: 37
Transport (public, car, train, Airport) : 39
Hotel: 49
Sightseeing: 51
Asking and giving directions: 53
Food and drink: 55
Health: 61
Shopping : 69
Offices and bureaucracy: 73
Signs and notices: 77
Map of Italy: 79
Useful Websites: 81
Notes: 83


Preface

Of all the countries in the world, there is none more magical than Italy, a traveller's dream destination. Millions of tourists come here every year from all over the world; be it for the fashion shows in Milan, the art in Florence, the history in Rome or the beautiful beaches of Sicily.

This book contains all the important vocabulary and phrases a tourist is likely to need when visiting Italy. It is divided into 17 sections to help you find what you are looking for in the shortest possible time. This is a really handy guide to have and refer to whenever you need to.

Italian words have been migrating to English over the course of many centuries, so you’ll be happy to discover you already know quite a bit of Italian (mafia, paparazzi, graffiti, ghetto, pianoforte, lasagne…to name a few). Many English words have also been adopted in Italian (club, flirt, shopping…).
Happy travelling!

Emergency

Emergency: Emergenza
HELP!: AIUTO!
DANGER: PERICOLO
FIRE!: FUOCO!
LOOK OUT!: ATTENZIONE!
Quick: presto

Get help quickly: chiami aiuto, presto
Get a Doctor: chiami un medico
There’s been an accident: c’é stato un incidente
I’m ill: sto male/ mi sento male
Call the police: chiami la polizia!
Police headquarters: questura
Thief!: Ladro!
My….has been stolen: mi hanno rubato...
I’ve lost my...: Ho perso...
Handbag: la mia borsetta
Passport: il mio passaporto
Wallett: il mio portafoglio
Documents: i documenti
Money: soldi
I’m lost: mi sono perso/a
Go away: Se ne vada
Leave me alone: mi lasci in pace
Poison: veleno

Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman by Gary Morgenstein

What happens when a hopelessly romantic divorced man falls madly in love with a beautiful woman rabbi -- but he's not yet over his ex-wife? In other words, why are relationships always so difficult? Especially when you’re starting over again with all that baggage…

Welcome to Gary Morgenstein’s new novel, Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman, a look at love in the 21st Century from a man’s perspective: good, bad and everything in between.

As this poignant romantic triangle opens, women’s cable network publicist Joss Katz crashes a bat-mitzvah and becomes smitten with the enigmatic Rabbi Kleinman. Desperate to meet her, Joss contrives a wild excuse about needing spiritual guidance and they begin a roller-coaster relationship.

But Kleinman has a past shadowed by terrorism. She manipulates Joss into mentoring her younger brother Bobby. Brilliant and troubled, Bobby is embroiled with Meir Schlom, who has a dangerous and controversial scheme for confronting surging world-wide anti-Semitism.

Besides pursuing Thalia and his kooky former spouse Ellen, Joss deals with his curmudgeonly roommate and best friend, Mandelbaum. Embittered by his messy divorce, Mandy creates an organization dedicated to a life free of entanglements with women called Straight and Happy Without Them.

Gary Morgenstein’s previous novels are Take Me Out to the Ballgame and The Man Who Wanted to Play Center Field for the New York Yankees. His latest novel Jesse’s Girl, about a widowed Brooklyn father’s desperate search for his adopted teenage son who has run away from a wilderness treatment program, is also available on Amazon.com. His play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival.



Interview with Gary Morgenstein:

1. Why did you write this book?

A few years ago I was dragged to a synagogue for a friend's daughter's bat mitzvah. Now while I’m very spiritual, I don't fare too well in organized religion. So I'm sitting there pretty bored and then onto the dais walks the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. My knees buckled -- and I was sitting down. I nudge this guy who is praying and whisper, "who is that woman?" and he mumbles, "the rabbi." Holy smokes. The rabbis I knew as a kid reeked of gefilte fish and were 130-year-old men. So I thought, what if a guy like me, completely secular, fell in love with a gorgeous woman rabbi? I brought in what it's like to be middle-aged and divorced, yet you're still a hopeless romantic and you want to believe in love but experience tells you, maybe not. Is love possible again after a certain age when you’re no longer looking to breed?

2. Do you read a lot of romances? How does a romance by a female author differ from one by a male author, do you think?

While my reading ranges from history to sci-fi and fantasy, with little romances in between (well there is Uhura and Spock now…), men and women view relationships fundamentally different. Big surprise, Venus, Mars…It grows more pronounced over the years as we add on baggage and suspicions. But we’re all lonely and all looking for someone who would care if we fell down an elevator shaft. We all want to hold hands and snuggle and whatever…In this novel, I want women to see what guys want, how we feel, and I do mean feel (and not just lust), our perspectives about love and romance and sex or the lack thereof. How we are emotional and sensitive and can cry and hurt, too. And guess what, we’re not perfect! My protagonist Joss Katz is about as imperfect as they come, cute, okay, but he is constantly messing up. Guys require a great deal of patience and understanding, we ain’t cactuses, but, for the most part, our hearts are in the right place.

3. What was the most difficult part of writing this book?

As an SFM (someone formerly married) I needed to separate that emotional baggage and turn it into fiction and not a rant. Taking what happened and using that as a foundation for entirely new, fictitious characters was at times very hard because it’s easy to use reality as a crutch, but I’m proud that some 95% of the novel never ever happened. I must confess those two online dates in the novel were pretty close to reality, though. OMG, people post pictures from the second Reagan Administration and then get angry when you don’t recognize them. And sure, guys do it, too.

4. What was the most fun?

Other than finishing, you mean, and not being obsessed 24/7 with the characters and story and whether I misused a semi-colon? Other than once again resembling a semi-normal human being, as much as a writer ever can? I think writing the wacky and passionately loyal friendship between Joss and his best friend Mandy, spanning more than 35 years of love; two guys who would do anything for each other. It was and is a very special relationship to me

5. What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

Never give up on love. That’s a difficult mantra since the preponderance of relationships/marriages fail and, if superficially alive, are as often as not merely convenient shells for financial needs or the kids. Yeah, because children never suspect their parents aren’t happy, I mean come on…But love can still happen. I wouldn’t say it’s all that likely and you might be disappointed and your heart might be broken again but you know, so what? Better to have loved and lost…