Jack Stone works for Biotrust, a large and secretive biotechnology company. Van's father is on the verge of making one of the most stunning discoveries in over a century, a technology that could change the world forever. While finishing the project, Biotrust forces Van's father into a leave of absence. In an effort to protect his secrets, Jack may have endangered his family.
As The Card barrels forward, Van slams headfirst into a plot that threatens the people near to him. Working through adversity, Van finds an inner strength. He draws on his deductive powers and an unstoppable attitude, to battle the corrupt forces. Not knowing who to trust, Van sets out with his two best friends to solve the secrets behind an innocent gift, a Moe Berg baseball card.
Set in Seattle, Washington, this faced paced mystery takes you behind the scenes in professional baseball and into a world of cutting edge science and technology. Full of unexpected twists and high stakes drama, this first in a series adventure will keep you guessing until the final scene. As fresh as today's headlines, Jim Devitt, in his debut novel, weaves a suspenseful ride that blows the lid off scientific advancement, in a story of breathtaking action and suspense.
Question: Your path to becoming a published author has been anything but traditional. You became an overnight success after self-publishing your books on Kindle, and a publishing contract with AmazonEncore followed shortly thereafter. What finally made you decide to take matters in your own hands by self-publishing your books? Was that a difficult decision?
Karen McQuestion: No, it was an easy decision! For years I tried to get published the traditional way. When I learned that anyone could self-publish an ebook (for free!), I decided I had nothing to lose. I’m very glad I took the plunge.
Question: What advice do you have for struggling writers out there who find themselves in the same position you did years ago with no publishing contract, but stories to share with the world?
Karen McQuestion: If you’ve gotten feedback from others, and are convinced your writing and stories are solid, take advantage of the new opportunities for writers today. Between blogs, online publications, and ebooks, writers can get their work in front of readers faster and easier than ever. And of course, keep writing, because that’s the only way to improve.
Question: Your first book, A Scattered Life, was a huge success--a Kindle bestseller (reaching #5 in the Kindle Store) with more than 100,000 copies sold and over 150 days in the top 100. What has this success been like?
Karen McQuestion: It’s been unbelievable. I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, appeared on ABC's World News Now and America This Morning, and the novel was optioned for film by an L.A. production company. But the best part? After years of having the novel languish on my hard drive, people were finally reading it and enjoying it.
Question: A Scattered Life is an adult novel. Your two new books, Favorite and Life on Hold are young adult novels. Have you always wanted to write for teens and young adults?
Karen McQuestion: I think young adult fiction has gotten smarter and better than when I was a teenager. When my daughter started reading YA novels, she’d recommend books to me. I found that I loved them and started to get ideas for YA novels I wanted to write.
Question: Life on Hold is about 15-year-old Rae Maddox who has spent her entire life on the move thanks to her mother. To protect herself, she’s decided to put her life on hold until she turns 18 and can make her own decisions. This is a really sad concept. Do you think a lot of teens out there can relate to Rae? If so, what do you hope they take away from this book?
Karen McQuestion: I think everyone can relate to the feeling that something in life is holding you back. If only you had a different job, or lost weight, or were done with school, or owned a car, things would be better and you could finally live the life you want. But the truth of the matter is that today is all we’ve got. A person could wish their life away if they don’t find things to appreciate in the here and now.
Question: Favorite has a mysterious element to it. Part thriller, part coming-of-age, it is about a young girl in search of her mother who went missing years before. Nothing--and no one--is quite as it seems in this book. Was it fun for you to write a story that has elements of a mystery/thriller in it? Do you think we’ll see more of this from you in the future?
Karen McQuestion: I loved writing the book, but since I don’t outline I had no idea how it was going to go. More than once, I wrote myself into a corner, which was a little scary. I’d love to write another book in this genre, but next time I’ll think it through beforehand.
Question: Your path to becoming a published author has been anything but traditional. You became an overnight success after self-publishing your books on Kindle, and a publishing contract with AmazonEncore followed shortly thereafter. What finally made you decide to take matters in your own hands by self-publishing your books? Was that a difficult decision?
Karen McQuestion: No, it was an easy decision! For years I tried to get published the traditional way. When I learned that anyone could self-publish an ebook (for free!), I decided I had nothing to lose. I’m very glad I took the plunge.
Question: What advice do you have for struggling writers out there who find themselves in the same position you did years ago with no publishing contract, but stories to share with the world?
Karen McQuestion: If you’ve gotten feedback from others, and are convinced your writing and stories are solid, take advantage of the new opportunities for writers today. Between blogs, online publications, and ebooks, writers can get their work in front of readers faster and easier than ever. And of course, keep writing, because that’s the only way to improve.
Question: Your first book, A Scattered Life, was a huge success--a Kindle bestseller (reaching #5 in the Kindle Store) with more than 100,000 copies sold and over 150 days in the top 100. What has this success been like?
Karen McQuestion: It’s been unbelievable. I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, appeared on ABC's World News Now and America This Morning, and the novel was optioned for film by an L.A. production company. But the best part? After years of having the novel languish on my hard drive, people were finally reading it and enjoying it.
Question: A Scattered Life is an adult novel. Your two new books, Favorite and Life on Hold are young adult novels. Have you always wanted to write for teens and young adults?
Karen McQuestion: I think young adult fiction has gotten smarter and better than when I was a teenager. When my daughter started reading YA novels, she’d recommend books to me. I found that I loved them and started to get ideas for YA novels I wanted to write.
Question: Life on Hold is about 15-year-old Rae Maddox who has spent her entire life on the move thanks to her mother. To protect herself, she’s decided to put her life on hold until she turns 18 and can make her own decisions. This is a really sad concept. Do you think a lot of teens out there can relate to Rae? If so, what do you hope they take away from this book?
Karen McQuestion: I think everyone can relate to the feeling that something in life is holding you back. If only you had a different job, or lost weight, or were done with school, or owned a car, things would be better and you could finally live the life you want. But the truth of the matter is that today is all we’ve got. A person could wish their life away if they don’t find things to appreciate in the here and now.
Question: Favorite has a mysterious element to it. Part thriller, part coming-of-age, it is about a young girl in search of her mother who went missing years before. Nothing--and no one--is quite as it seems in this book. Was it fun for you to write a story that has elements of a mystery/thriller in it? Do you think we’ll see more of this from you in the future?
Karen McQuestion: I loved writing the book, but since I don’t outline I had no idea how it was going to go. More than once, I wrote myself into a corner, which was a little scary. I’d love to write another book in this genre, but next time I’ll think it through beforehand.
Ida B. Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun.
That's why she's so happy to be homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook.
Then some not-so-great things happen in her world. Ida B has to go back to that Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture—school. She feels her heart getting smaller and smaller and hardening into a sharp, black stone.
How can things go from righter than right to a million miles beyond wrong? Can Ida B put together a plan to get things back to just-about perfect again?
The Gods have abandoned Ai Ling.
Her mysterious power haunts her day and night, and she leaves home—with just the moon as her guide—overwhelmed by her memories and visions and an unbearable sense of dread. For Ai Ling knows that Chen Yong is vulnerable to corrupt enchantments from the under-world. How can she do nothing when she has the skill and power to fight at his side? A dream has told her where he is, the name of the ship he is traveling on, his destination. So she steals off and stows away on board.
The ocean voyage brings with it brutal danger, haunting revelations, and new friendships, but also the premonition of a very real and terrifying threat. Zhong Ye—the powerful sorcerer whom Ai Ling believed she had vanquished in the Palace of Fragrant Dreams—is trapped in Hell, neither alive nor dead. Can he reach from beyond the grave to reunite with Silver Phoenix and destroy Chen Yong? And destroy whatever chance Ai Ling has at happiness, at love?
In this sequel to the acclaimed novel Silver Phoenix, four lives are woven together and four destinies become one, now and forever.
A rich and luminous novel about three generations of women in one family: the love they share, the dreams they refuse to surrender, and the secrets they hold
Samantha is lost in the joys of new motherhood—the softness of her eight-month-old daughter's skin, the lovely weight of her child in her arms—but in trading her artistic dreams to care for her child, Sam worries she's lost something of herself. And she is still mourning another loss: her mother, Iris, died just one year ago.
When a box of Iris's belongings arrives on Sam's doorstep, she discovers links to pieces of her family history but is puzzled by much of the information the box contains. She learns that her grandmother Violet left New York City as an eleven-year-old girl, traveling by herself to the Midwest in search of a better life. But what was Violet's real reason for leaving? And how could she have made that trip alone at such a tender age?
In confronting secrets from her family's past, Sam comes to terms with deep secrets from her own. Moving back and forth in time between the stories of Sam, Violet, and Iris, Mothers and Daughters is the spellbinding tale of three remarkable women connected across a century by the complex wonder of motherhood.
It would be nice to go back to that old suburban life…or some grown up, high school version of it, complete with nice, normal boyfriends who wear crew neck sweaters and like social studies. So, what’s wrong with normal? Well, kind of everything. She knows that, of course, why else would she learn bass and join Jam Band, how else would she know to idolize infamous wild-child and high school senior Emma (her best friend Sarah’s older sister), why else would she get arrested while doing a school project on a local freedom school (jail was not part of the assignment). And, why else would she kind of be falling in "like" with a boy named Monster—yes, that is his real name. Janie was going for normal, but she missed her mark by about ten miles…and we mean that as a compliment.
Frances O’Roark Dowell’s fierce humor and keen eye make her YA debut literary and wise. In the spirit of John Green and E. Lockhart, Dowell’s relatable, quirky characters and clever, fluid writing prove that growing up gets complicated…and normal is WAY overrated.
(Age 11 and up)
Could this summer be any worse? Thirteen-year-old Amy’s dreamy boyfriend, Seth, is off to Rome, while she gets to spend two weeks on a tiny Irish island with a nagging mom and a neurotic aunt locked in a feud, not to mention a crazy stepdad and a surly cousin. Good thing Clover, teen advice columnist supreme, is there to keep Amy from going completely nuts! It doesn’t help Amy’s changeable mood that Seth keeps mentioning some girl in his e-mails, or that Amy feels an electric attraction to the mysterious young gardener next door. So when The Goss magazine unexpectedly sends Clover to glitzy Miami to write a revealing piece on a hot young actor (with Amy as her sidekick, of course) it couldn’t come at a better time. U.S. of A-mazing- here they come!
Ronald "Cheesie" Mack is not a genius or anything, but he remembers everything that happened before, during, and after fifth-grade graduation, and he's written it all down in his own unique and hilarious way—with lots of lists, drawings, and splenderful (that's splendid plus wonderful!) made-up words.
Cheesie—with a little help from Steve Cotler—writes about family, friendship, and tough choices in an unforgettable voice that will have kids laughing out loud. Readers of Diary of a Wimpy Kid will love both the clever humor and the black-and-white illustrations throughout.
Nick Gautier's day just keeps getting better and better. Yeah, he survived the zombie attacks, only to wake up and find himself enslaved to a world of shapeshifters and demons out to claim his soul.
His new principal thinks he's even more of a hoodlum than the last one, his coach is trying to recruit him to things he can't even mention and the girl he's not seeing, but is, has secrets that terrify him.
But more than that, he's being groomed by the darkest of powers and if he doesn't learn how to raise the dead by the end of the week, he will become one of them...
Newbery Honor-winning author Marion Dane Bauer spins a fourth spooky tale to complement her previous stories, The Blue Ghost, The Red Ghost, and The Green Ghost.