The tides of politics are ever changing and this is not so different throughout the centuries. After the Elizabethan era, the Stuart kings represented a time of great unease. Those who frequented the Royal Court were always on their guard as to what they said...

“Writing books for children is a marathon, not a sprint.” So claims children’s author, Simon Rose. With quite a few children’s books published and in circulation, the author knows the amount of time and effort that goes into writing a book. And the work never...

It’s not easy making a living as a writer. Gone are the days when book royalties alone would constitute a substantial income. Unless you’re one of those writers who can instantly make it to the top as a best seller and keep your books on...

The famous bard, Shakespeare, knew how to make a candid point in very few words. “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, sums up the need to be short and to the point, or, quite frankly,...

There is nothing better than a good story to sweep one’s imagination away to another world. But these stories originated somewhere and there are always some interesting tangents that a reader can pursue based on a good story. Teachers are always looking for new and...

Once a book is written, edited and published, the work is by no means complete. Authors have to be very resourceful in how they promote their work. This doesn’t have to be a burden. Some parts of self-promotion can be quite enjoyable. For example, a...

Exploring the Fantasy Realm: Magic in Stories for Children and Young Adults is small in size, but packs in a lot of information about writing in the fantasy genre. Included in the book are examples from fantasy books, including fairy tales, children’s stories, and YA...

The Time Traveler’s Guide: Writing Time Travel Stories and Historical Fiction serves as a go-to reference when writing both historical fiction books and novels that include elements of time travel. The book begins by asking the question: What is time travel? The concept of time...

Aloysius Wachter was a simple twenty-something who was encouraged by his mother to set aside his aspirations as a hacker and wannabe graphic novelist to get a real job. As a high school dropout living in Chicago, his choices were limited, until his cousin came...

Murder for the Time Being by Joanie Bruce is a fictional mystery suspense novel with a bit of romance that would appeal most to a mixed audience of young adults and adults who enjoy clean reads with no explicit language, sexual situations, or graphic violence....

Notes of a Naive Traveler: Nepal and Thailand by Jennifer S. Alderson is the entertaining and fascinating travel story of a twenty-seven-year-old whose entire perspective changes after the amazing experience she has after traveling to Nepal and Thailand. Traveling is an adventure and the author’s...

Sanctuary is a motivational, nonfiction picture book by Jody Sims. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer, and then her spouse suffering from a traumatic brain injury, the two made the decision to move to Tennessee. Feeling out of place and sad, Jody fell into a...

Reading Keep Forever by Alexa Kingaard is a bit like enjoying one of those warm fuzzy movies that dominate the TV channels at Christmas…not because it’s centered on Christmas, but because it reminds us of those cherished, homey values and feelings that surface, for most...

The Children's Writer's Guide 2 by Simon Rose is a writing/publishing book and is part of a series. It is a succinct and short guide. Simon Rose writes about writing while being a well-established and recognized author, which means that his advice and remarks are...

Walt Disney's Melody Makers: A Biography of the Sherman Brothers is written by Kathryn M. Price. Bob and Dick Sherman came from a musical family, and they would prove to be no exception to the family’s gifts. While they were youngsters, they created musical...

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” is one of the revolutionary messages of Jesus, one on which hope for humanity should hang. The problem is that few people actually understand Jesus’ paradigm of the fullness of life...

In Death in Disguise: A Beth Getty Mystery, Volume 1 by Karen Neary Smithson, Beth Getty is an amateur sleuth, married to a police detective, who manages to get herself into some scary situations while trying to solve the case of who murdered the nanny...

Jamie hadn't seen her father, Bernard Mattson, for years. They had drifted apart, but things had been about to change. They had planned to reunite, but then his murder put a stop to the plan. But murder is not the only thing she finds in...

Fortress of Gold by David Harten Watson is the second book in the Magicians Gold series. Pran and his three companions, Vitina, Samir, and Jelal, travel through a portal to another world: Earth. Everything is going according to the prophecy. The group just needs to...

The Chosen Man by JG Harlond is an historical novel set in 17th century Europe during the period known as “Tulip Mania”. Tulip bulbs in the Netherlands were fetching incredibly high prices at the time, making many people extremely rich. The story of Ludovico de...