Shepherd- It’s All About Books!

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Gail

This week, Ben Fox highlights his vision for his remarkable new site. I’m excited about this venture, and think you will be, too. Ben invites readers to send him feedback and ideas at ben@shepherd.com

I love to read and I love wandering through my local bookstore. Nothing can replace the pleasure I get from that experience. That said, I want to try to build something like that but for the online world and help readers discover books in a new way while helping authors meet more readers.

Shepherd is my attempt to try to find new ways to discover amazing books. I ask authors and experts to recommend 5 books on a topic they know well. Alongside that list, I introduce readers to the author and their book.

This is a win-win situation where readers can find amazing books and authors get to introduce their book to more readers.

For many years I’ve been wanting to do something to promote books and reading. I started working on the project full-time in December 2020, with no background in publishing. But I am a long-time tech entrepreneur. I think that brings a fresh perspective to this industry and I am hopeful I can bring some value to readers and authors.

I bought the domain Shepherd.com many years ago. I wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for, but when building this project I felt the domain name was a perfect match for this project. It matches the goal of shepherding readers to pastures full of amazing books.

In addition to myself, I work with a freelance developer in Berlin and a designer in Serbia on a part-time basis. For the April launch of Shepherd, I manually created data entries for 400+ book recommendation lists, 2,340 books, and 2,457 author profiles. I should have some help soon to speed that up, and along with the developer, have built a really great system to improve the process.

There is a growing trend in publishing that authors have to become their own marketing team. This concerns me because it takes time away from writing and is very difficult to do. I have decades of experience with online marketing, which it is not easy to learn and requires daily investment.

One of my long-term goals with Shepherd is to make it easier for authors to market themselves and figure out how I can help. To start, I ask authors to recommend 5 books on a subject they are passionate about and we feature one of their books alongside that list forever. The goal is to help authors meet more readers interested in that topic and sell more books.

This is just the start, and we have a lot more coming at Shepherd.

I love to read and books, and stories are one of my favorite things about humanity. I want to see more authors make enough from their writing to do it full time. Partially for the selfish reasons that I love reading and want to read more great books. And, partially because I think the more we share our experiences and perspective with others, the more we create a more understanding world.

We live in a time where social-media algorithms serve only to reinforce our world view. I want Shepherd to play a role in combatting that. A book is one of the best ways to help someone see the world through different eyes. We need a lot more of that right now.

I’ve got a lot planned for Shepherd! Between now and August we will be rolling out a feature to relate book lists to each other to help readers follow their curiosity through the site, full topic pages to help readers find books they are interested in, and a search feature. Plus, a lot of improvements to the front page to help readers find something that interests them.

Visit Ben’s site to find what may become your favorite book!

https://shepherd.com/.

EARTH LAUGHS IN FLOWERS

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Gail

And today, she’s laughing in yellow! (Thank you, R.W. Emerson.)

All I Have Seen . . .

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Gail

Out back, our “cottage garden,” is aiming to mimic those in England. These botanical gems appear rather scattered, but are, in fact, designed to appeal to the eye like a butterfly flitting from blossom to blossom.

Our early flowers include coreopsis, and behind, barely peeking through, forget-me-nots with their delicate periwinkle hue.

The Romantic poets–think Thomas Hardy and Coleridge–created floral treasures just outside their cottages–hence the name. There, beauty was allowed space to run wild, much like the human imagination.

Here, a few of our daisies are blooming against purple stalks of my favorite ground cover, ajuga.

Our garden includes vegetables, and some of our first lettuces added flavor and color to today’s lunch:

The novel I’m working on right now moves from England to Texas Hill Country, and over the next few weeks, I plan to share photos from our courtyard here in Northern Iowa, and then some from those Texas Hills as I embark on a short research trip.

After some severe disappointments, our hero emigrates from his native land in the years before World War II. As he begins a new life, he wonders if the climate of these Texas hills will support a cottage garden.

Well, there’s only one way to find out! RW. Emerson encourages him along the way: “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”

Seeing developments in Europe through this British chap’s eyes intrigues me. At the same time, his perspective on developments here in the States, like the Pearl Harbor attack, broadens my understanding of those tumultuous days in our history.

Hope you enjoy the blossoming of our cottage garden and an inside glimpse as this story gradually takes shape.(Yep . . . like a cottage garden!)

Aw, I had to run out for a better shot of those lovely little forget-me-nots!

A Harebrained Idea, a NANO Project, and Loads of Fun

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Gail

Welcome to Georgiana Daniels, who veered from her normal writing path a few years back . . . and discovered a new genre! She’s offering a giveaway: a paperback copy of Crumbs of Passion to a reader hungry for some FUN READING. (USA only)

Have you ever had a harebrained idea that you had to see through to the end? That was me, back in November 2019—and that’s how Crumbs of Passionwas born! Every year I try (and fail spectacularly) at National Novel Writing Month, NANO for short. That year, I decided to switch things up and write a cozy mystery, just for the fun of it.

Until then, I’d written Christian fiction, and my hope was always to share a deeper purpose and meaning. But when KC Crumb—a woman on the wrong side of 35, returning home after losing her job and her boyfriend—presented herself to me, I had to see what would happen. (I mean, once she found the dead body of her ex in her garage, I knew things were about to heat up!)

Creating a small-town mystery with a cast of zany characters was both a creative release and a way to slip into someone else’s stilettos. I have to say, following my harebrained idea was the most fun I’ve had writing in years, and I believe it comes through in the book!

Now I’m inviting you along on my harebrained adventure, to join KC and her gang of gung-ho ladies from Crumb’s Bakery as they solve murders and share a whole lot of laughs and friendship along the way. (KC Crumb is also hoping for romance, but we’ll just have to see about that! Book 2, Crumb and Punishmentis in the works—due out Summer 2021.)

You can get to know the gang when you join my newsletterand receiveThe Mystery of the Missing Groom, the short story prequel to Crumbs, as a thank you!

What harebrained ideas have you had lately? Enquiring minds want to know!

Buy link: Crumbs of Passion

Let’s connect!

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Back cover:

What do you get when you cross a jilted ex, a dead body, and a killer canine named Pooh Bear?

When social media manager KC Crumb is fired from her bougie job in L.A., she returns home to Beaver Bluff, Oregon only to discover a dead body in her new rental. Unfortunately, the body belongs to her philandering ex-boyfriend—a man she publicly threatened before she left town 15 years ago. Now all eyes are on KC, including those of hunky officer Antonio Hamson. With the help of her new best friend, who happens to be a jiu-jitsu expert/librarian, and a gaggle of gung-ho ladies from her aunt’s bakery, KC and Pooh Bear set out to track down the real killer. Half the town is under suspicion, including a shady car salesman and a preening personal trainer, causing the clues to mount faster than the followers on her newly single social media profiles. And when her life is mysteriously threatened, KC has to sniff out the murderer…before the handsome officer hauls her in for homicide.

Author bio:

Georgiana Daniels is an author, homeschooling mom, and master’s
degree student. “Busy” is her middle name, but if she finds a nugget of free time she enjoys knitting, reading, and fumbling around on the piano to the dismay of others. Georgiana lives with her family in Arizona where she’s always on the lookout for her next great adventure.

Night Bird Calling

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Gail

Q & A with Cathy Gohlke

Three-time Christy and two-time Carol and INSPY Award–winning author Cathy Gohlke writes novels steeped with inspirational lessons from history. Her stories reveal how people break the chains that bind them and triumph over adversity through faith. When not traveling to historic sites for research, she and husband, Dan, divide their time between northern Virginia and the Jersey Shore, enjoying time with their grown children and grandchildren.

Cathy is giving away a hard copy of Night Bird Calling to one commenter on this blog. And here’s my review of this novel: Religion can cause great pain when it’s used to control others, and there’s a vast difference between this kind of travesty and true spirituality. The author has the courage to go behind the scenes with abuses kept hidden in other eras, but also shows how healing results through honesty and faith.

What inspired you to write Night Bird Calling?

Years ago I wrote a number of short stories based on some quirky characters in a fictional North Carolina foothills town called No Creek. I loved those characters, but in order to create a novel I needed an outside character who could see both strengths and foibles in my town folk and still care about them, still want to become part of their community, and who could tie their stories together.

For many years I’ve also wrestled with the idea of writing about the racial divide and abuse I saw growing up during years of the civil rights movement in the South, as well as domestic abuse and church oppression, things I experienced in my youth and young womanhood. Night Bird Calling is the marriage of all those experiences and stories.

Night Bird Calling involves some very challenging topics like domestic abuse, racism, and church abuse. What motivated you to write on these topics? I grew up mostly in the South during years of the civil rights movement, where I witnessed segregation, desegregation, racial oppression, and abuse but also heroic stands against injustice and some hard-won changes. I learned that attitudes do not change just because laws change. Transformation of the heart is also needed.

That is as true today as it was then. As a young woman, I ran away from an abusive marriage and an oppressive church. My journey toward emotional and spiritual healing took many years. I want women in similar situations to know that they are not alone, that God loves them so very dearly and that the condemnations of their oppressors do not come from Him.

I wrote Night Bird Calling not only for victims of abuse, but in the hope that readers might gain insight, sympathy, and empathy for those who’ve been abused or pushed down, that they might better understand and see creative ways they can help, ways they can be a voice for the voiceless or those needing someone to walk alongside them.

Visit website at cathygohlke.com and Facebook at CathyGohlkeBooks.

Tyndale: https://www.tyndale.com/p/night-bird-calling/9781496429728

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Night-Bird-Calling-Cathy-Gohlke/dp/1496429729/
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/night-bird-calling-9781496429728/9781496429728

ChristianBook.com: https://www.christianbook.com/night-bird-calling-softcover/cathy-gohlke/9781496429728/pd/429729

Psychedelic Spies

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Gail

The word Psychedelic doesn’t show up here very often, but that’s what Sally Carpenter has titled her series. Those of us who came of age in the 60’s either were drawn to, or stayed away from those lights! Writing about this era would be daunting for me, but below, Sally tells us how she chose it. Leave a comment to enter a giveaway for a paperback copy of “Flower Power Fatality.” (U.S. addresses only.)

The Glint of an Idea

By Sally Carpenter

How did a week at church camp lead to the creation of a cozy mystery series?

As a youth, I attended a summer church camp in Santa Claus, Indiana. Yes, that was the name of the town. At the time the Methodist Church owned a campground there. When mom picked me up from camp, I wanted to visit the town’s claim to fame: Santa Claus Land, the world’s oldest theme park that opened in 1946. The park is still in operation as Holiday World/Surfin’ Safari.

In about 2016. I was searching for a setting for a new mystery series, something different than the usual cozy towns. Santa Claus became Yuletide, Indiana, which, like its counterpart, has streets and stores with holiday names.

Santa Claus Land became the Country Christmas Family Fun Park. My protagonist, Noelle McNabb (she was born December 25), works as an actress in the park’s Candy Cane Capers musical show.

In a radical move, I set the books in 1967. I’m not hip on modern technology; I don’t even own a cellphone. I love the culture of the 1960s: the music, media, clothes, vibes. It was a dark time too, with the generation gap, Vietnam War, civil rights movement, space race and the Cold War.

With the popularity of the James Bond, movies and TV shows were full of spies. Television sets brought the Cold War into everyone’s living room. I created a spy agency that recruits Noelle. With her acting skills, she was a natural for undercover work. However, Noelle is a Christian; she attends Bethlehem Community Church in Yuletide. Her morals clash with the actions of the spy agency. Noelle loves her country, but what if her duty conflicts with her Christian beliefs?

Noelle also discovers she has an aunt she’s never heard of. Should she find the woman or let it be? Can Noelle bring her relative over from the dark side?

But when Noelle is confused, she returns to the solace of her holiday-themed hometown. Christians also draw their strength from the Christmas story, the birth of the babe that brought salvation to the world.

From a week at church camp to the Psychedelic Spy series is quite a jump. One never knows which experiences God uses to inspire a writer.

Sally Carpenter is a native Hoosier now living in Southern California. She works full time at a family-owned community newspaper, including penning the Roots of Faith column. She serves as a lector (scripture reader) at her parish. Sally writes two mystery series for Cozy Cat Press.

Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/Flower-Power-Fatality-Psychedelic-mysteries-ebook/dp/B07DLJS6FF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=flower+power+fatality&qid=1620143869&s=books&sr=1-1
Online links: My website: http://sandyfairfaxauthor.comFacebook.com.SallyCarpenter.54
Sally Carpenter
Psychedelic Spy mysteries

Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol mysterie

Connecting Generations

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Gail

Becky Van Vleet preserves family memories in her picture book series–she tells us how she got started and is offering a free hardback copy of Harvey, The Traveling Harmonica to one commenter this week.

Let me add a short review: A Harmonica can find a way into your heart–I discovered this while reading Harvey, the Traveling Harmonica. The generations come together in Harvey’s delightful travels from a father to his son. And surprise! Our hero experiences great danger, rescue, and newfound friendship in the process of family life. I highly recommend this colorful, exciting children’s book, and plan to share my copy with our eight-year-old grandson.

I love creating and preserving family traditions and passing down stories to the next generation. That’s who I am! Sharing family stories with my children, journaling, preserving family traditions from my own childhood came naturally for me as a new wife and mother in the 1970s.

In my current season of life with adult children and my lovely Grands, more than ever I pass down our family stories, and I constantly fan the embers for past and new family traditions. After all, I’m a baby boomer. Shouldn’t we be sharing our stories with the next generations? We have firsthand knowledge of our parents enduring the depression and our fathers fighting in World War II. It is more important than ever before to share our stories.

As a sixty-something retiree, I decided to try my hand at writing a children’s picture book about a true family story. With a little plaid skirt that had been traveling in our family more than seventy years, I couldn’t let this story fade away. I wanted my book to capture this story and preserve the family memories. Thus, Talitha, the Traveling Skirtcame to be.

With the publication success of my first book, I asked myself, why not try another one? What family memory did I want to capture? In my growing up years, my father played the harmonica and I came to love that sweet music from a little instrument that could fit inside his pocket. When my keyboard met up with my memory of my father, Harvey, the Traveling Harmonicawas published soon thereafter.

As I held my second children’s book for the first time, I asked myself, why not create a series of traveling books? All kinds of family stories swirled through my mind for preserving memories in the form of future children’s books. And I’m excited to say that Rosie, the Traveling Rockeris slated for publication later this year.

We all have stories to share along with family traditions. Our stories make our world. And what better way to preserve our stories, memories, and traditions than through books to connect us all together? I would love for you to check out my website which is devoted to family stories and traditions: https://www.beckyvanvleet.comIf you have a story to share, let me know and I’ll feature it on my website for others to enjoy!

https://www.amazon.com/Becky-Van-Vleet/e/B07WPFZ98X?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000 Amazon author page

https://www.facebook.com/authorbeckyvanvleet FB author page

https://www.pinterest.com/beckyvanvleet/_saved/

https://www.instagram.com/becky_van_vleet_author/

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/becky-van-vleethttps://www.goads.com/author/show/19507194.

In my current season of life with adult children and my lovely Grands, more than ever I pass down our family stories, and constantly fan the embers for past and new family traditions. After all, I’m a baby boomer. Shouldn’t we be sharing our stories with the next generations? We have firsthand knowledge of our parents enduring the depression and our fathers fighting in World War II. It is more important than ever before to share our stories.

As I held my second children’s book for the first time, I asked myself, why not make a series of traveling books? All kinds of family stories swirled through my mind for preserving memories in the form of future children’s books. And I’m excited to say that Rosie, the Traveling Rocke ris slated for publication later this year.

We all have stories to share, along with family traditions. Our stories make our world. And what better way to preserve our stories, memories, and traditions than through books to connect us all together? I would love for you to check out my website devoted to family stories and traditions: https://www.beckyvanvleet.com If you have a story to share, let me know and I’ll feature it on my website for others to enjoy!

Connect with Becky at these sites:

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/becky-van-vleethttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19507194.Becky_Van_Vleethttps://www.facebook.com/authorbeckyvanvleet/https://www.pinterest.com/beckyvanvleet/https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-van-vleet-806055181/https://www.instagram.com/becky_van_vleet/

Research on a Musical Note

Posted on April 24, 2021 by Gail

I’ve been having fun listening to CDs of World War II broadcasts to the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces Radio Services was formally established on May 26, 1942.

Initially AFRS programming included transcribed commercial network radio shows such as the Kraft Music Hour without the commercials.

Soon numerous original AFRS programs such as Mail Call were added. Famous crooners (mostly Bing Crosby) and musicians (Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington) regaled their audiences with songs, dialogue, and jokes.

So much to learn about the “trivia” of the era . . . what new products were being advertised, and even how many ration points they would cost the buyer.

Delightful stuff! I may just keep on and on. (:

Borrowed Lives

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Gail

Carol McClain is with us again this week, with a novel that delves into the darker side of our society, yet with hope and humor. Knowing goats, an eccentric family, and recovery are involved in this story tweaks my curiosity. Carol’s giveaway to one commenter is a kindle version of BORROWED LIVES. Also love this title! Tell us about your book, Carol.

One of my most frequently asked questions is, “How do you get your ideas?”

The answer is simple. From people.

I love people—their quirks, their heroism, their frailties. All of us have the capacity for greatness or great cruelty.

When I moved to Tennessee, I became involved in helping addicts overcome their addictions and the issues those addictions caused. The stories I heard appalled me—what people had to endure would not be believable.

In our church, we have one family devoted to foster care. The work they do astounds me. I tried my hand at foster care many years ago and discovered how totally inept I was with the process.

From these factors, Borrowed Lives was born.

Borrowed Lives

After her own tragedy, Meredith Jaynes finds three abandoned children. If she turns them over to DCS, the sisters will be separated. But healing them isn’t possible in her broken world.

Borrowed Lives is a novel about loss, hope, love, and faith from beginning to end.

God Only Lends Us Those We Love for a Season

Distraught from recent tragedy, Meredith Jaynes takes pity on a young girl who steals from her. Meredith discovers “Bean” lives in a hovel mothering her two younger sisters. The three appear to have been abandoned. With no other homes available, Social Services will separate the siblings. To keep them together, Meredith agrees to foster them on a temporary basis.

Balancing life as a soap maker raising goats in rural Tennessee proved difficult enough before the siblings came into her care. Without Bean’s help, she’d never be able to nurture these children warped by drugs and neglect—let alone manage her goats that possess the talents of Houdini. Harder still is keeping her eccentric family at bay.

Social worker Parker Snow struggles to overcome the breakup with his fiancée. Burdened by his inability to find stable homes for so many children who need love, he believes placing the abandoned girls with Meredith Jaynes is the right decision. Though his world doesn’t promise tomorrow, he hopes Meredith’s does.

But she knows she’s too broken.

https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Lives-Carol-McClain-ebook/dp/B08Z3HL2FZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Borrowed+Lives&qid=1617991853&sr=8-1

Carol McClain My times are in His hands.

Carol McClain is the award-winning author of four novels dealing with real people facing real problems. She is a consummate encourager, and no matter what your faith might look like, you will find compassion, humor and wisdom in her complexly layered, but ultimately readable work.

Aside from writing, she’s a skilled stained-glass artist, an avid hiker and photographer. She lives in East Tennessee. Her most recent interests are her two baby does Peanut & Buttercup. Like all babies, they love sitting on our laps and being bottle fed.

You can connect with her at carolmcclain.com.

On Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/author.Carol.McClain

On twitter and Instagram: @carol_mcclain

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14030286.Carol_McClain

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/carol-mcclain

Heroes of The Tundra

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Gail

A warm welcome to Laurie Wood, who lives in Central Canada and writes inspirational romantic suspense with an edge of danger. She’s also a military wife who’s raised two wonderful special needs children to adulthood. They’ve lived all over Canada and are still on that journey. When she’s not writing she can be found at her spinning wheel, knitting, or hanging out with her dogs in the garden.

AND… Laurie has served as a police officer. This hooked me immediately–in her series about PTSD and police officers, she knows what she’s talking about! She’s giving away an e-copy of Northern Protector to a commenter. Thanks for visiting!

If He’s Not a Cop, He’s Nobody

Constable Ben Koper is still healing from the polar bear attack that almost killed him. Nine months after it happened, he returns to Churchill, Manitoba, a changed man—scarred more than just physically. PTSD is his new shadow, haunting his every step, and he can’t seem to kick the pain meds he shouldn’t need anymore. He’s determined to prove, to himself and his colleagues, that he’s still up to his job. Failure isn’t an option.

ER nurse Joy Gallagher spent the entire last winter texting with a healing Constable Koper. What started as friendly concern from this single mother has grown into full-fledged romantic feelings, and she’s eager to level up their friendship and introduce him to the idyllic comfort of small-town life. Until a teenager is murdered at a summer party. The crime is strikingly similar to the cold case murder of Joy’s foster sister, stirring old trauma Joy has never fully dealt with.

When another victim is snatched in town, Ben and Joy must confront their own demons, and join forces to track down an elusive killer. The race to rescue the next victim before it’s too late will test Ben and Joy to their limits. Can they survive their encounter with this heinous killer, or will the past destroy them.?

NORTHERN PROTECTOR is the second book in my Heroes of the Tundra series. (NORTHERN HEARTS is a Christmas novella set in the same town of Churchill, Manitoba) The hero, Ben Koper, is the best friend of the hero from the first book. He’s actually mauled by the polar bear in book 1, and this book is the story of his recovery from PTSD from that traumatic experience and injury, as well as how he grapples with addiction to painkillers.

I wanted to write about PTSD because it’s more common in the life of police officers than we like to think. Not every officer will face down a polar bear, but police work isn’t like it’s shown in TV or the movies. When I was a police officer, I faced off against a man with a gun one-on-one, several who wanted to use a knife on me, a hostage situation outside a liquor store, and was in many, many physical fights trying to arrest someone.

I’ve arrested rapists, drunk drivers, men who’d just beaten their wives or children, women who’d beaten other women, women who’d beaten up their children, and people in bar fights. And while I was never shot or knifed, I had my wrist broken once by a biker who refused to give up his booze when I said he couldn’t take it back. I won that fight but ended up with a broken wrist and the rest of the summer off because I was in a cast. I also got a permanent back injury from being thrown against the concrete wall in our prisoner’s cell block by a guy on some kind of drugs who mistook me for someone else.

Back in the mid-1980’s when I was a police officer, no one called the after-effects of situations like these PTSD. We just had to “shake it off”. However, I can tell you that being in a hostage situation isn’t like it is on shows like “The Rookie” or “Law and Order.”

Nor was going one on one with a biker who outweighed me by about a hundred pounds like anything I’d ever seen on TV. The “bad guys” don’t conveniently fall to the ground with one punch to the jaw. It’s more like a Mixed Martial Arts battle, heavy on the face punches.

When police officers take off their uniforms after their shift, they’re just regular people. They have to make split-second decisions about their safety and that of others around them. A situation can change in an instant. On a tv show, the police might be out of breath after a foot chase, but they don’t have nightmares, or feel like their skin is crawling the next day when they go to pick up their start-of-shift coffee.

This book is my favourite of the ones I’ve written so far. It takes courage to go back to work after a traumatic experience on the job. I hope I’ve done our police officers proud with this story.