Release of new books!

This spring I am very excited to have a few things published in a short time frame. The first is Santa Barbara Fire Song in Three Parts which was just published this week at Smashwords as an ebook collection of stories about wildfire in Santa Barbara. There is a link on this blog that will take you to Smashwords where you can download a free copy! You can read it on your ereader or iPhone/smart phone or your computer. Each story was written for a different age group from young children to young adult. Last year Jen used these stories to begin a discussion with her class on concerns and understanding of firestorms. Not only is Santa Barbara high profile fire country, so are many parts of the world that didn't expect to be. I wrote Fire Song to help kids wrestle with the experiences as well as enjoy the stories.

I am waiting for my hard copy book: The Adventures of Frieda and her Friends. My great friend Kaan from Turkey asked to publish this book a few years ago. He found an illustrator and a print shop and the book was just published two weeks ago. The illustrations are super. The stories I wrote over a period of years. This is good fun for children using a fairytale mode with frog characters in adventurous situations in nature. My hope is to interest more young people to pursue outdoor experience like my characters! Currently I am expecting Kaan will be bringing copies of the book to Santa Barbara. He has also published a Turkish language version of the book which is very exciting to me for the opportunity to have it presented to kids over there!

My teen/young adult mystery novel of current-era characters reaching back in time to mysteries from the early 20th century.From buried clues and researching through 100 years of faded history, the story unfolds on the north slope of Alaska and comes back to local hidden treasure and surprising revelations. Evangeline as Gel returns from the Fire Song to lead her group of intrepid investigators on their journey, while Brandon escapes his vagrant father to frontier of wild Alaska in the throes of the early 20th Century. I expect to release it in the next month or two on Smashbooks as another ebook.