Happy Left-Hander's Day!

A Great Sc-Fi novel with a Left-handed Plot surprise!

by Warren Graffeo

   Sub-Commander Jarn D’Arl has lived with a dream since he was twelve years old. Service aboard Star Wolf, the most famous battle cruiser in the Union fleet, and her equally legendary commander Captain, Dav Tolber. Unaware that Star Wolf has a deep secret, he eagerly awaits his arrival. In transit he meets a Malageon woman, Elera, who excites him, but bound by the rule of non-fraternization between Crew and officers, he must put aside his feelings. He soon finds himself in the middle of the kind of battle he has sought throughout his meteoric rise in the fleet. Battles like the kind that won Star Wolf her status as the greatest war ship in the fleet. Faced with overwhelming Gryll force, a crippled Star Wolf prepares to make a last stand while Jarn and Elera are ordered to make a suicidal dash through the Gryll ranks to warn the fleet.

Starburst Cookies You'll Wolf Right Down

Direction

• Cook
  20 m
• Ready In
  1 h 40 m

1. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. In a larger bowl, beat 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar with butter using an electric mixer until the mixture is creamy and free of lumps. Beat in the lemon extract, then mix in the flour mixture to make a smooth dough. Chill the dough for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Mix 1 cup of confectioners' sugar with the lemonade drink mix in a plastic zipper bag. Close the zipper, and shake the bag to blend.
3. Scoop up about 1 1/2 teaspoon of dough per cookie, and roll into balls. Place the cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the cookies are set, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on sheets for 2 minutes.
5. Drop the warm cookies into the bag of lemon sugar, about 5 or 6 at a time, and shake to coat with the mixture. Shake off excess sugar, and allow the cookies to finish cooling on wire racks. When cool, shake them in the lemon sugar one more time.

CATCHING UP!

No Books Went to Press this Week

Galleys that went out, or went out again,  this week:

Serge Dziminowicz is hampered by his past in a dysfunctional family. Having trained himself in self-sufficiency, he fends off approaches from women, shuns occasions for disappointment or betrayal. A college classmate is his only friend. He cannot trust others, or himself. 

   With success come real surprises. Through his professional ability, he meets not only a wife, but a new luxury, a startling attachment with horses, a budding appreciation for the natural world, and a child he adores.

   When his career and his marriage both are destroyed by his feckless father, his reputation and his livelihood in shambles, he is forced to leave behind everything that has become meaningful to him.

   In rural Vermont, he stumbles on a way of life that nourishes a second growth. A near tragedy is the catalyst that enables him to dare to trust. He ultimately learns he must lower his own barriers.

   Second Growth is about overcoming the past, about learning how to accept, as well as how to offer, help. A brilliant physician must find a way to heal himself — in spite of himself.

Three Slightly Tarnished Golden Girl Step Out!

by C.M. Albrecht

When retired cop Harry “Bulldog” Drummond dies, his free-spirited widow Mary, suddenly freed from the Bulldog’s strait-laced ideas, recruits a couple of gals from her colorful past and the girls go on a tear. Meaning they create mayhem wherever they show up, much to the consternation of Mary’s son, Creighton. Poor Cray just lost his job, he has a wife, two kids, two mortgages, a lazy dog and an old Chevy he was planning to replace with a new Jaguar. But the big raise he expected has vanished and so has his mother…along with his aging Chevy. To make matters worse, she  doesn’t even have a driver’s license!

GAIA'S DREAM, A Collection of Poetry by Terry L. White

   Poetry that embraces the heart and the soul.  

   An Indonesian army general's son, who recently graduated high school, continues his education at a college in San Francisco. The 19-year-old was a boy headed for trouble. His father hoped that the responsibility and overseas life experience would change his son's attitude. In fact the culture shock does make him change, but not in the way his father hoped for...

   Serge Dziminowicz is hampered by his past in a dysfunctional family. Having trained himself in self-sufficiency, he fends off approaches from women, shuns occasions for disappointment or betrayal. A college classmate is his only friend. He cannot trust others, or himself. 

   With success come real surprises. Through his professional ability, he meets not only a wife, but a new luxury, a startling attachment with horses, a budding appreciation for the natural world, and a child he adores.

   When his career and his marriage both are destroyed by his feckless father, his reputation and his livelihood in shambles, he is forced to leave behind everything that has become meaningful to him.

   In rural Vermont, he stumbles on a way of life that nourishes a second growth. A near tragedy is the catalyst that enables him to dare to trust. He ultimately learns he must lower his own barriers.

   Second Growth is about overcoming the past, about learning how to accept, as well as how to offer, help. A brilliant physician must find a way to heal himself — in spite of himself.

   MINISTER'S CORPORATE ESCAPADES, Reverend Castle Mystery Series, Vol. 2. by Celine Rose Mariotti.

   In the second book of the Rev. Castle series, the good reverend is solving another big case. This time he is solving a case of corporate sabotage and murder. Tyler Cotton’s environmental company is being sabotaged by four of his employees. Tyler asks Rev. Castle to find out what they’re doing and who’s involved. Rev. Castle sets out on a quest to find the saboteurs, gather the evidence, and bring them to justice. Meanwhile, Tyler is framed for the murder of Jacob Punch, one of the saboteurs.Can Rev.Castle prove that Tyler is innocent? The story has a climactic ending. And in the quest to solve this case, Rev. Castle falls in love with Lydia. A real page turner!

  

LOVE BITES: A poetry Collection by Barbara Garro

  A Collection of poetry about all aspects of Love.

Work began or continued on the following:

THE LAST CHRONICLER by Judy Johns Heathcoe

While tunneling through a mountain in the Russian Southern Urals, a team of engineers are trapped in a deep, large, cavern containing a living rain forest. Looking for a way out, they discover a hermitage that once was home to a historical society who called themselves chroniclers, whose members were able to travel in time to view a famous person or event in order to record history correctly.
In the hermitage library, among the many chronicles, they are privileged to view the lives of Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia, and his family.  But hiding out and watching their every move are the remaining chroniclers who are determined to keep their existence a secret, even to the point of murdering any that discover it. The engineers find themselves running for their lives through the seemingly endless forest, wondering whether they would face death at the hands of the dangerous and adamant chroniclers. . .or the primeval creatures of the forest.

Jack' Substitute Cover

THE LIMITEDS, A Geocaching Mystery, Vol. 2. by Jennifer Kirsch

   Fourteen-year-old, Luke, dreams of spending July at Camp Unlimited, where campers explore cave networks, set off fireworks in pyrotech workshops, and sleep in tree house hammocks. But to get into the camp, Luke needs to demonstrate excellence in a sport, the arts, or school. More likely, he’ll end up at SURF, his town’s rec camp, where athlete’s foot, mildew, and warts plague the gym, bedbugs and lice infest the couches, and clumps of hair make frequent appearances in the burgers. When weird blobs start popping up on Luke’s computer, he’s too busy trying to complete his Unlimited application to notice. But when the blobs start looking like a secret, uncharted geocache, he and his friend Gabe follow their trail, only to find themselves battling superbug viruses and navigating labyrinths while on a quest to save lives.

NOODLES, by Evanita MuftiAn 

Indonesian army general's son, who recently graduated high school, continues his education at a college in San Francisco. The 19-year-old was a boy headed for trouble. His father hoped that the responsibility and overseas life experience would change his son's attitude. In fact the culture shock does make him change, but not in the way his father hoped for...

BLEEDING HEARTS: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 1

    Winner of the Stonewall Society's 2002 Pride in the Arts Literary Award in the Whodunit Category! 

    Killian Kendall is used to being overlooked, even in his own family. That's about to change. With the arrival of a new kid at school, Killian's whole world is about to be turned upside down. The new guy is openly gay and, for reasons he can't really understand, Killian finds himself drawn to him. When the boy is killed in a brutal attack, and Killian is injured in the process, Killian begins to questions everything around him. 

 REAP THE WHIRLWIND: Killian Kendall Mystery Series, Vol. 2,  by Josh Aterovis. 

    Suicide, or murder? That's the question in the second Killian Kendall mystery. Will Smith suspects murder when an old childhood pal drowns, and asks his friend Killian for help in solving the mystery.

TRUTH OF YESTERDAY,  by Josh Aterovis

ALL LOST THINGS, by Josh Aterovis

CHANGE  OF WORLDS, by Josh Aterovis 

 Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Everyone,

    Heard from author D.J. Swykert, who got the Gallley this week for the second in the Maggie Harrington Series. He wrote:

    I'm going to do a book signing for Maggie Harrington in the Porcupine Mountains in September. I also have a promotion running on August 9th with The Fussy Librarian for Maggie Elizabeth Harrington. 

Can't wait to see what happens.

   As for around here, it's been a bit frought! Arline met with someone called a CPA and told Roger it's looking pretty bad.  The CPA needs all the accounting files updated as corporate taxes are due. So that will put Real Work behind for a bit, even though we haven;t made enough money to have to Pay them, everything we've done has to be reported. 

SHE HATES doing accounting, because if she sees 141 she's apt to type 414 and has to check everything Three Times!   Wish I could help, but I have my paws full taking care of the bookstore and keeping my baby sister in line....

   Well, folks, that's the Big News from the bookstore this week.  Please HELP! Send me some Good News, so I'll have something juicy  to write about. 

    Don't forget to let me know what's going on with all of you, so I have something cheerful to write about next time.

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!

Research Advice

by Andy Nunez,

an expert, who always does his research first.

    The Delmarva Peninsula abounds with tales of buried pirate loot and the off-shore wrecks of treasure ships. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Nunez, and his group of local treasure hunters, explore local sites and research legendary hoards with methods that can be used in any location.

Question from the e-mail:  I have a  story in mind to write set in the 1930s. But I'm wondering about doing research on the period. I'm no scholar and all I really know about the period was stories my grandmother told me about when she was a child in the Great Depression. How much research do I have to do before I begin?

Answer: Of course non-fiction writers, like our friend Andy Nunez above, have to do their research FIRST. But fiction writers, at least according to author Stephen King, need to do NONE ahead of time! 

In his excellent book On Writing, King said he just sits down and writes his story. If there's something he can't envision he just makes a note in brackets [ find out what a Stutz Bearcat looks like]. Then once the first draft is COMPLETE, he goes back, searches for the brackets, and hits the Internet for a picture so he can insert a description...

Of course fictionally handling the past IS a bit trickier than a contemporary story, trust me I know. Most of the background for my Spirit Series came out of tales my own Great-Granny told me when I was small. She had a hilarious one about trying to climb aboard a streetcar wearing a "Hobble Skirt." I'd sure have to look up a picture of a hobble skirt! She said you couldn't step up without showing your  whole leg, all the way up past your knee! SHOCKING in the 1890s of her youth.

You can use a slang dictionary to give the language a feel for the past, but be sure not to have them say "Twenty-three Skiddoo!" every other paragraph. Pick one or two phrases from the period, but be sure not to overdo it. With slang in any book it's always better to make something up, than to use stuff that will inevitably sound like a cliche. The trick is to not use anything that would not have been around then. Harder to find than hen's teeth, would be fine then, but NOT "harder to find that moon rocks." And pick something that will be easily understandable, now. Even in this day and age, where chicken comes from the supermarket, anyone who ever saw Foghorn Leghorn knows that chickens have no teeth.

Then, I'd suggest you use "automobile" instead of "car,"  Or even better, be more specific, say a Model T roadster. If you need an expensive or classy car, make it a Packard,  Pierce Arrow, or La Salle, because those were luxury cars then, and Cadillac is still around now.

Use some brief images to show objects that will help reinforce your time period, as well. Have the lady of the house straighten a pile of Coronet or Liberty magazines, or wear a cloche hat, or some other dated item, but NOT a hobble skirt. They were before far too early. Now you don't have to do this a lot. More than once or twice a chapter would be overkill. Just give one essential detail now and then and it will remind the reader of the era and give your story just the right touch.

Also Time Magazine put out a great series of books (I think they were called Time Capsules) with things that happened in specific years, lots of photos in them, so if you can get hold of the exact year for your story, that would be all you'd need. 

Just don't forget our old friend Steven's advice. ALWAYS TELL THE STORY FIRST! Then worry about the research.

Happy National S'Mores Day

Mmm Coconut, Marshmellow, and Choccolate

Paradise Indeed...

by Carolyn LeComte

Sara Chandler has come to the big island of Hawaii to escape her troubled past and find peace in this place all the guidebooks call "Paradise." Lucas Henshaw is the first obstacle in her path to happiness. But he's not the last…

Faux Campfire S'Mores Cookies

Ingredients

25 m16226

Easy Treats to Make at Home

• 1 (18 ounce) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1 cup marshmallow creme

• 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut
• 1/4 tsp. Hickory Smoke Flavor
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• • 4 graham crackers, crushed

• Directions

  • 10 m
  • Cook
    15 m
  • Ready In
    25 m

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
  2. Place cookie dough slices about 1 1/2 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.
  3. Bake in preheated oven until cookies are light gold, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
  4. In a bowl, Mix Marshmallow Creme with Hickory Smoke Flavoring
  5. When the cookies are cool, spread tops with marshmallow creme mixture. Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips, coconut,  and graham cracker crumbs.