Greg Pattridge hosts Marvelous Middle Grade Monday (MMGM) on his Always in the Middle website each week. Check it out for more great kidlit! Published in 1961 and receiving Newbery honors the next year, The Golden Goblet still rates high on any reading list decades later. Within, young Ranofer wants nothing more than to become a goldsmith in […]
The Mouse and the Motorcycle Trilogy, by Beverly Cleary, 1965
Greg Pattridge hosts Marvelous Middle Grade Monday (MMGM) on his Always in the Middle website each week. Check it out for more great kidlit! In honor of Beverly Cleary, who passed this year at the age of 104, I’ve chosen three of her works for this week’s MMGM. As a kid, I dearly loved Ramona, but my all-time […]
The Beast of Talesend: After Beauty and the Beast (Beaumont and Beasley, 1), by Kyle Robert Shultz, 2017
Greg Pattridge hosts Marvelous Middle Grade Monday (MMGM) on his Always in the Middle website each week. Check it out for more great kidlit! This is the first time I’ve participated in MMGM in a few years, and I picked a great book for my return. The premise grabbed me right away. I’ll post a […]
A FREE Self Publishing Short Course
As part of my new editing sideline business, I’ve put together a short course that covers the basic steps of self publishing: writing, editing, interior layout, cover design, publishing, marketing. I go into considerable detail for each topic and include insider pro tips as well as to-do lists, so anyone can make their dream of […]
Editing On the Side
Ever since I finished my Taylor Davis series back in late June, I’ve been putting together a sideline business editing manuscripts for fellow authors at affordable rates. This is something I’ve been doing freely (for swap, actually) with my inner circle of authors for ten years. I’ve also “taken a look” at many a new […]
Barskoon 2, a Medieval Silk Road Caravanserai
This is the final post in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in my Taylor Davis trilogy. The Silk Road was a network of overland trade routes connecting Europe and the Middle East to the Orient. It flourished during the Middle Ages […]
The Nestorian Trading Community and the Start of the Black Death
This is the third in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. The Black Death outbreak of the fourteenth century features heavily in my final Taylor Davis book. Over a course of approximately 15-20 years, the pandemic followed […]
A Lost Armenian Monastery and the Bones of St. Matthew
This is the second in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. My research into my last Taylor Davis book carried me to Kyrgyzstan, where I found some fascinating history and legends concerning the coming of Christianity to […]
Taylor Davis: Lake Issyk-Kul
This is the first in a 4-part series about the research that went into Taylor Davis and the Quest for the Immortal Blade, book three in the Taylor Davis trilogy. Eight years ago, in 2013, I published Taylor Davis and the Flame of Findul. Book two, Taylor Davis and the Clash of Kingdoms followed the […]