Trailer Trash & Oil Field Brat by Andi Stracener

Trailer Trash and Oil Field Brat is about how I grew up in the turbulent years following World War Two. Jobs were scarce and the job market was flooded with young men returning from the war. My father chose to work in the oil fields even though it meant leaving home and living in trailers or the occasional apartment.

I have tried to be as factual as possible in the telling of my life. It was easy to bring out the funny and interesting things that just naturally happens to boys as they grow up. Before the book was started I had my doubts if I could think of enough things to write about. As it progressed, at one point I told my wife that people wouldn’t believe all the things that did take place.

Trailers are interwoven throughout the book. There is literally no way to estimate how many miles my wife and I have traveled in RVs of some kind since we were married. The Alaska trip alone covered over 13,000 miles. We don’t regret a single penny that we spent in this endeavor. It is like the book says; once trailer trash, always trailer trash.

Get your copy here.

*****

 Love'd this. Very interesting and cool to see how life was back then.

Unknown Magic by Evelyn M. Byrne

Discovering she is a Tuatha Dé Danann and that, on her twenty-fifth birthday, she will be able to wield magical powers she never knew she possessed, turns Megan’s life upside down. As if that was not enough, an arrogant, drop-dead gorgeous man tells her she is his mate.

Seamus escaped his mysterious captors seventeen years earlier, taking a little girl with him and returning her to her home. Running for his life since then and needing a respite, he returns to the one location he considers his safe haven. Once there, he spots Megan across the lake and realizes she is the same young child he rescued. Only now, she is stunning enough to make him forget, almost, just how treacherous his life is.

Megan soon realizes fighting her attraction for Seamus, is a losing battle.  But when the people hunting Seamus track them down, Megan and Seamus are faced with a much more immediate and deadly threat—a battle for the lives of all the Tuatha Dé Danann. Can they overcome their pursuers and win?

Get your copy here.

*****

This is a great paranormal romance series. Love the characters and story.  Here's two more of the series.

During the rescue mission to save his niece Megan, Patrick discovers and brings to safety a petite black wolf. Despite his growing attachment to the wolf, Patrick soon realizes something is very off.

Drugged and tortured, for over a year, Brenna lacks the power to transform back into human form.

She must now face the fact that she killed her own family. When she figures out Patrick is her mate, she knows she will likely to do the same to him. Unable to run or transform she tries to fight the inevitable.

When Megan examines Brenna, she discovers that Mallaidh is now using the black arts and has imbedded a malevolent presence in Brenna’s brain. Megan and Seamus rush to discover a way to break the spell and save Patrick from sure death. In the process, Mallaidh turns her evil magic toward them. Have Megan’s powers grown strong enough to thwart Mallaidh or are they all doomed?

                       

                                                                                             Get your copy here.

After realizing he has been drugged, Colin O'Kelly transports from his enemy, only does not make it home. Instead, he falls into Kate Sweeny's backyard. When he awakens, he has none of his powers, but worse he does not even know who he is.

Kate has been hiding for twenty-five years and now she has a stranger drop into her protected haven. Can she overcome the fear she carries for her own people, the Tuatha Dé Danannor will she run once she finds out who Colin really is. 

Frantic to find Colin before Mallaidh, Seamus and Megan try to trace him from his last known appointment. Unfortunately, Mallaidh tires of looking and decides she will either flush him out or drown him by sending two hurricanes on a collision course for the Florida Keys. Can Megan and Seamus stop them before they hit or will they not only wipe out Colin and Kate, but most of Florida as well?

Get your copy here.

Defiance on Indian Creek by Phyllis Still

Thirteen-year-old Mary Shirley wants a normal life with friends her age and someday, suitors. But Papa intends to remove the family to Kentucky territory, and she believes he’s a loyalist spy, endangering the family.

Internal struggles lead to lost trust and acts of defiance until Mary is faced with a dangerous decision: loyalty to Papa or loyalty to a cause. Lives are at stake no matter what choice she makes—one, puts hers at risk.

Get your copy here.

*****

Another one I really enjoyed reading. 

Revenge of the Awful Pawful by Audrey K. Miller

Glitter Pug has been kidnapped, and Polly is the only one who can save her.

Get your copy here.

*****

This is an amazing little book.  Written and illustrated by young author, Audrey K. Martin. Not only will kids love it, but dog lovers too. 

The Adventures of Sam Maverick by Lynn M. Fichtner

This biography of the legendary Texas pioneer Sam Maverick recounts the incredible stories that shaped his life, a life that is entwined with some of the most pivotal moments in the early history of Texas. Sam Maverick participated in hand-to-hand combat at the Battle of Bexar in San Antonio, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, fought with Comanche Indians, and survived a forced 900-mile march through the desert to the Perote Prison in Mexico, to name just a few of the many heroic adventures that are retold in this exciting biography. Included are dramatic illustrations, a Texas map, a Maverick family tree, and vocabulary with definitions at the end of every chapter

Get your copy here.

*****

 Very cool book. Really nice bio of a Texas legend. 

Dangerous Threads by David Ciambrone

Virginia Davies-Clark must find a quilt missing for seventy years. An award-winning quilt hiding an amazing secret. Virginia Davies-Clark is called back into the service of the Smithsonian Central Security Service and the Department of Defense, along with her husband, Andy, and her friend, Donna, to locate a quilt. This isn't just any quilt. At the 1933 Century of Progress in Chicago, Sears Roebuck Company sponsored a quilt contest. The Grand Prize was to be $1,000.00. The quilt that won the prize was a pieced called "The Unknown Star" by the maker, Margaret Rogers Caden of Kentucky. The quilt itself was presented to the President's wife, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Sometime during FDR's presidency, the quilt disappeared and has not been seen for almost seventy years. Virginia questions why the DOD is interested in an old quilt. As she, Andy and Donna start their quest, they find they are not the only ones searching for the quilt and they are attacked by various organizations bent on stopping her. Their adversary list grows as they try to accomplish an impossible assignment. Virginia makes some strange alliances across the country to take down the organizations trying to stop her. Using her wits, cunning, intellect, and guts, she, Andy and Donna attempt to locate the quilt and use any means she can to undermine a bold strategy by her adversaries trying to kill her and her little group. Her conniving, devious and messy strategy brings the villains to an explosive end.

Get your copy here

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*****

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I love David's books. He has a whole series with Virginia including another "quilt" mystery.

 Get your copy here.

A Plain Wish by Cyndi Lord

Just before her sixteenth birthday, Kristi’s world implodes when her parents who are divorced, remarry others whom she cannot tolerate. Life for her will never be the same, and her only hope of escape is to leave both homes where she no longer feels included. Her Amish pen-pal, Betty, sends a letter and Kristi decides to run away from her father’s house in Batesville, Indiana. On her journey to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she overcomes many challenges. What will happen when she arrives in a community where no cars, electricity, or worldly clothes are allowed? From a background with no religious instruction, will she fit in where God and separated living dominate the Amish? Will her plain wish for a new family become a reality?

Get your copy here.

Cyndi has a second in the series too.

Kristi Becker ran away from Batesville, Indiana after her parents divorced. Once she made it to her Amish friend, Betty Miller’s house in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she learned about family life grounded in God. She thought her grandmother lived somewhere in Lancaster, and her fondest hope to find her and regain the love she remembered neared. When she learned her grandmother had moved to Clarksville, Texas, Kristi decided to drive across the country with her friend, Betty, and friend’s brother, Jacob. While they journey in A Plain Adventure, they encounter fears, trials, challenges, and something else happens. Is Jacob, the Amish young man, falling in love with the Englischer, rebellious, Kristi? In Texas, conflicts begin in ways Kristi never anticipated. In the end, love prevails, but what will the future bring?

Get your copy here.


*****

These are nice, kid friendly, fun reads.

Four Days to Fusion by Lira Brannon

To save her friends she will have to burn.

In a small town in the middle of the U.S., the only thing Seren wants to do is fit in.  This proves difficult when everything about her is different and people call her freak behind her back. Things change suddenly when she gives a boy her necklace, the one her parents told her never to take off. Next thing she knows she’s running for her life with a smart-mouth water globule with two personalities, putting out hot flashes that burn her clothes off, and dealing with two boys she will have to choose between.

Get your copy here.

*****

A really nice young adult sci-fi. Lots of action and twists. If you like sci-fi, you'll love this.

I Just Came Here to Dance by Susan Mary Malone

Paula Anne Fairbanks understands all about the unexamined life. And she likes hers that way—until her world gets ripped smooth apart.

Running from reality, Paula falls under the mythological yarns being spun on Diana Maclean's porch. Surely Paula's own choices aren't to blame for the summer of insanity she spends under the spells of Diana...who is, after all, known as the White Witch of Sociable, Texas.

I JUST CAME HERE TO DANCE, a modern allegory, waltzes atop the line between the creative and the crazy, the sacred and the maligned. Through myths it weaves together the multi-layers of personal Self with that of the collective whole. And finally, Paula Anne and the townsfolk learn the simplest of truths: that the fire's ashes produce wisdom and courage, just as the stories say.

*****

I'm not a big "women's fiction" fan but I loved this one.

Get your copy here.

And, if you are ever in need of an editor, Susan is the one you want. Seriously, she is amazing. You can check her editorial services out here.

Secrets of the Dead by Caleb Pirtle !!!

Ambrose Lincoln is one of the government's prized operatives, a trained assassin, a man whose past is continually erased by mind control treatments. He is dispatched to Baden-Baden after the Night of Broken Glass to find rolls of film that will tell the truth and uncover the lies. The photographs will reveal to the world the sadistic threat that exists for everyone if Hitler's mad march isn't stopped. Lincoln’s mission is to uncover the deadly secrets that his own government doesn't want him to find, secrets that can change history.

Get your copy here.

      It was the race for the Atomic bomb. America was at war a long way from home. Hitler’s war machine was storming across Europe. Russia feared the German threat and secretly wanted to become a world power, more feared than it already was. All three nations knew that whoever split the atom and developed the Atomic Bomb first would rule the world.

      A stealth espionage operation within the U. S. Government dispatched their man with no memory to Los Alamos where physicists, chemists, and scholars were frantically trying to build the bomb. Ambrose Lincoln was himself a human experiment, a man whose mind had been erased by electronic shock treatments because the rogue political operation believed he could be more effective if he wasn’t shackled by fears and memories of the past. It would be his duty to uncover and silence those spies who were trying to steal America’s most vital secrets and selling them to Russia and Germany.

      If he fails the United States might well lose the war, and Lincoln finds himself embedded in a conspiracy of lies where nothing is as it seems to be.

Get your copy here.

American operative Ambrose Lincoln has no idea where he is or has been or where he's going. He believes he has been to the night side of dark, a place of the first death, from which no one can return. So why does he find himself on the bomb-ruined landscape of Poland, or has he been exiled to the second death? Lincoln only realizes, if the man in the shadows has not lied to him, he must find an ancient religious painting that has been missing for centuries. The German Gestapo will pay a fortune to buy it, or take a man's life to get it. The painting, if legend holds true, is the German hierarchy's final and only chance to escape the onslaught of the war that is crumbling around their feet.

Get your copy here.

*****

I LOVE reading Caleb's writing.  I once heard him call himself a "used word salesman" but I call him a wordsmith.  He has learned his craft and wields words the way a master swordsman wields a sword. Even if you don't like this "time in history"  I urge you to give these a read. I think you'll love them.

More Than A Witness by Jack Moseley

The apparent homosexual murder of a fellow Army recruit inexorably leads Alex Massey into a maze of seemingly unrelated violence, corruption and intrigue—in, out, and back in uniform.

To survive, the young police reporter/mobilized weekend warrior must discover himself and be MORE THAN A WITNESS; he becomes a participant in the events that shape his life and provide him an expose that shakes the highest levels of the Pentagon. An unlikely, unsavory and absolutely fascinating cast of characters cross Alex’s path on his way to a life and death climax in an isolated area of a resurrected military post.

*****

This is a real gritty one. I did like it though. Just be warned, it is not g-rated.

Get your copy here.

How to Eat Like a Dragon - M. Lopez & L. Simmons

This really cool cookbook will become a kid favorite. Not only is it full of healthy recipes, it has nutrition tips and pointers on taking care of bearded dragons.I'm not one who eats a lot of veggies, but for those of you who do, or who would like to get the kiddos to eat them, this might be a great book to have.  It's available as ebook or hardcover.

Get your copy here.

Here's a pix of the Viking Opera Duckies with Chef Zutoo at the Lousiana Book Festival last Oct.

Dragons of Jade by Jean Lauzier

There’s no such thing as dragons.

Of that, Jade Delaney was sure.  She may not have known who she was or where she came from, but at least she had a plan for her future.

All that changes when a dragon summons her back to the world from which she came. There, she learns dragons are real, the truth of her birth, and just why she was abandoned as a toddler.

Now she must discover and stop whoever is killing the dragons, while avoiding the man who is hunting her.

*****

Okay, so this is my book. But since this is my blog, it seems fitting to put it here.  At least once in a while.  It is a stand alone, however, I am working on a sequel. It's going to be really good.

Get your copy here or if you'd like a signed copy, let me know and we'll work out details.

Not Bound By Blood by Gay Ingram

In a friendship forged in high school days, solemn athletic Miriam Meyer and flamboyant actress Blanche LaRue seem as different as apples and kumquats.

After winning an Olympic Gold Medal while still a teenager, a plane crash forces Miriam to give up her dream of a repeat performance. She marries and settles for small-town life as the wife of her banker husband, Brad Hammond.

Blanche disposes of anything that will come in the way of achieving her goal, even husband and child. Her career carries her into the European war scene. An enamored Count Romano Vicente comes to rescue her. 

Although continents sometimes separate the friends, their strong bond of friendship remains.

*****

This is another historical that I enjoyed reading.

Get your copy here.

Stop That Turtle by Beth Lauzier

Who knew turtles could go so fast? 
As Kobe is on the ride of his life, Zippy must find a way to stop that turtle. 

Maybe it’s a good thing turtles go slow after all.

*****

This is the sequel to A Tough Little Squirrel. This is also a great bedtime read. Kids will learn we all have our special talents and it's okay to be different. 

Get your copy here. 
Or, want a signed copy, then email me and we'll work out the details.

A Tough Little Squirrel by Beth Lauzier

Who knew being brave would be so hard. That’s a lesson Zippy learns when challenged by his older brother. So he sets out to prove just how courageous he is. 

Join Zippy on a nighttime adventure as he discovers not everyone in the forest is friendly.

*****

Okay, I admit it. I love this!

 Of course, my daughter being the author has nothing to do with that. :-)

Seriously though, this is a great bedtime read-to-the-kids book that they will love to read over and over. Not only is there a great story, we also put fun facts about some of the animals at the back of the book. Your kids will love it.

Get your copy here.

Or, if you'd like a signed copy, just email me and we'll work out the details.

The Doctor's Wife by Myra Hargrave McIlvain

Young teacher Amelia Anton leaves Germany in 1845 on an immigrant ship bound for Texas. After the death at sea of the child she is hired to tutor, her employer abandons her. Amelia quickly accepts the marriage proposal of the much-respected physician, Joseph Stein, only to discover that he is not the husband she expected.

*****

I'm not normally a historical reader but I really enjoyed this one. If you love historicals or novels set in Texas, then this fills the bill. 

Get your copy here.