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The discount code for February’s promotion is BIRTHDAYBASH. To make this even
easier for my amazing readers, here’s
the link for the sale which automatically applies the discount, along with the
QR Code below it if you wish to use that:

https://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com?cc=BIRTHDAYBASH

The year, 2024, also marks the 10th Anniversary for my
publisher, Mirror World Publishing, which is a big deal in my humble opinion,
and quite an achievement. Why, you ask? Well, since I’ve been a published
author, I’ve witnessed many publishers who’ve closed their doors through
bankruptcy or failed business practices, and left their authors to find other
publishers or alternatives. Many authors never did, and some had a hell of a
time getting their rights returned to them. I feel grateful for connecting with
Mirror World Publishing when I did, as the publisher I was contracted with shut
down in 2015. Call it kismet. Call it fate. Call it destiny. It was totally
meant to be, and I applaud my publisher for keeping up with the times, and
choosing their brand wisely. Kudos, Justine, Robert, Sabrina, and Rhiannon!

If you’re interested
in a journey to Atlantis or Fairy Falls, check out the covers and blurbs for
each book featured
at Mirror World Publishing’s online bookstore. You never know. Maybe you’ll get an intuitive hit of living in
Atlantis in a past life, or have a nostalgic feeling of visiting a small
tourist town like Fairy Falls where anything is possible. Wink.

The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis
(Book #1):

When 13-year-old Amanda Sault and
her annoying classmates are caught in a food fight at school, they’re given a
choice: suspension or yard duty. The decision is a no-brainer. Their two-week
crash course in landscaping leads to the discovery of a weathered stone arch in
the overgrown back yard. The arch isn’t a forgotten lawn ornament but an
ancient time portal from the lost continent of Atlantis.

Chosen
by an Atlantean Magus to be Timekeepers–legendary time travelers sworn to keep
history safe from the evil Belial–Amanda and her classmates are sent on an
adventure of a lifetime. Can they find the young Robin Hood and his merry band
of teens? If they don’t, then history itself may be turned upside down.

Legend of the Timekeepers
(prequel):

Lilith
was a young girl with dreams and a family before the final destruction of
Atlantis shattered those dreams and tore her family apart. Now refugees, Lilith
and her father make their home in the Black Land. This strange, new country has
no place in Lilith’s heart until a beloved high priestess introduces Lilith to
her life purpose—to be a Timekeeper and keep time safe.

Summoned
through the seventh arch of Atlantis by the Children of the Law of One, Lilith
and her newfound friends are sent into Atlantis’s past, and given a task that
will ultimately test their courage and try their faith in each other. Can the
Timekeepers stop the dark magus Belial before he changes the seers’ prophecy?
If they fail, then their future and the earth’s fate will be altered forever.

The Last
Timekeepers and the Dark Secret (Book #2):

Fourteen year-old Jordan Jensen
always considered himself a team player on and off the field, until the
second
Timekeeper mission lands him in Amsterdam during World War Two. Pulled into the
world of espionage, torture, and intolerance, Jordan and the rest of the
Timekeepers have no choice but to do whatever they can to stay one step ahead
of the Nazis in order to find and protect a mysterious book.

With the help of the Dutch Resistance, an eccentric
baron, Nordic runes, and an ancient volume originating from Atlantis, Jordan
must learn that it takes true teamwork, trust, and sacrifice to keep time safe
from the evils of fascism. Can Jordan find the hero within to conquer the
darkness surrounding the Timekeepers? If he doesn’t, then the terrible truth of
what the Nazis did will never see the light of day.

The Last
Timekeepers and the Noble Slave (Book #3):

Eleven-year-old Drake Bailey is an analytical
thinker and the genius of the Timekeeper crew. However, no logic or
mathematical acumen can change the color of his skin, or prepare him for this
third Timekeeper mission in antebellum Georgia. To survive, Drake must learn to
play the role of a plantation slave and when confronted with the brutality,
hatred, and racism of the deep south, he’ll have to strategically keep one move
ahead of his sadistic captors to ensure his lineage continues.

In a dark world of Voodoo, zombies,
and ritualistic sacrifice, the Timekeepers must ensure a royal bloodline
survives. Can Drake remove both literal and figurative chains to save both
himself and a devout slave girl from a terrible fate? If he can’t summon the
necessary courage, humanity could stand to lose one of its greatest leaders.

Lost and Found,
Book One: Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls:

The Fairy Falls Animal Shelter
is in trouble. Money trouble. It’s up to an old calico
cat named Whiskey
—a shelter
cat who has mastered the skill of observation—to find a new human pack leader so that their home will
be saved. With the help of Nobel, the leader of the shelter dogs, the animals
set out to use the ancient skill of telepathy to contact any human who bothers
to listen to them. Unfortunately for fifteen-year-old Meagan Walsh, she hears
them, loud and clear.

Forced to live with her Aunt Izzy in the safe and quiet
town of Fairy Falls, Meagan is caught stealing and is sentenced to do community
hours at the animal shelter where her aunt works. Realizing Meagan can hear
her, Whiskey realizes that Meagan just might have the pack leader qualities
necessary to save the animals. Avoiding Whiskey and the rest of shelter animals
becomes impossible for Meagan, so she finally gives in and promises to help
them. Meagan, along with her newfound friends, Reid Robertson and Natalie
Knight, discover that someone in Fairy Falls is not only out to destroy the
shelter, but the animals as well. Can Meagan convince her aunt and co-workers
that the animals are in danger? If she fails, then all the animals’ voices will
be silenced forever.

Blackflies and Blueberries, Book Two:
Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls:

City born and bred, Hart Stewart possesses the gift of
psychometry—the psychic ability to discover facts about an event or person by
touching inanimate objects associated with them. Since his mother’s death,
seventeen-year-old Hart has endured homelessness, and has learned ways to keep
his illiteracy under wraps. He eventually learns of a great-aunt living in
Fairy Falls, and decides to leave the only life he’s ever known for an
uncertain future.

Diana MacGregor lives in Fairy Falls. Her mother was a victim of a
senseless murder. Only Diana’s unanswered questions and her grief keeps her
going, until Hart finds her mother’s lost ring and becomes a witness to her
murder.

Through Hart’s psychic
power, Diana gains hope for justice. Their investigation leads them into the
corrupt world threatening Fairy Falls. To secure the town’s future, Hart and
Diana must join forces to uncover the shocking truth, or they risk losing the
true essence of Fairy Falls forever.

Remember,
this fantastic deal won’t last long! Plus, I can’t think of a better way to
ride out the forecast that Mr. Groundhog gives us than relaxing with a good
book, a comfortable chair, and cozy blanket. Unless you live in the southern
hemisphere and get to enjoy reading by the pool or at the beach. Keep warm (or
cool), and I hope you choose to escape to the past and have a blast with me,
this February! Cheers, and thank you
for taking the time to celebrate my birthday month with me. I appreciate you!

Since January is National Soup month, I’ve invited renown cookbook author, Sloane Taylor into my virtual kitchen to prepare a hearty soup that will to keep you warm and toasty right down to your toes. Take it away, Sloane…

This
recipe is the perfect way to use veggies that have been around a while and
leftover roast beef. Serve with crusty bread, a dry red wine and your dinner is
complete.

Warm
oil in a Dutch oven set on medium heat. Add onions. Sauté 3 – 4 minutes until
lightly colored. Add garlic, cook 30 – 60 seconds, stirring constantly. Mix in
carrots and celery. Adjust heat so onions and veggies don’t burn.

Swirl
butter into pan. Add remaining veggies and meat. Sauté 5 – 8 minutes.

Combine
remaining ingredients into pot. Bring soup to a boil. Cover pot, lower heat,
and simmer 30 minutes.

May you enjoy all the days of your life filled with good friends, laughter, and seated around a well-laden table!

Sloane

Taylor’s cookbooks, Hot Mean Wear Aprons, Date Night Dinners, Date Night Dinners Italian Style, Sizzling Summer, and Recipes to Create Holidays Extraordinaire are released by Toque & Dagger Publishing and available at all book vendors.

Be Ready for Rejection

Even if someone had told me about this, I’m not sure I would
have believed just how much rejection there would be. I even used Query Tracker
to hone my agent and publisher searches, making sure my manuscript fit what
each agent or publisher was looking for and that I followed their query rules. I
can look back now and smile at how many rejection letters I received for my
first novel, only because there were a few kind agents in the bunch who took
the time to offer brief critiques on what I had submitted. 

I would send out 15-20 queries at a time, then I’d wait to
hear back from the literary agents or small press publishers. I didn’t always
get a response, but when I did, it was ultimately a rejection (cue sad music).
With some of those rejections came little nuggets of advice. Trust me, those
nuggets aren’t meant to be mean, they were bits of gold meant to improve my
writing. I took that gold and made revisions. And I made revisions. And I made
revisions. This book was my first attempt at writing a novel and I had a lot to
learn. The rejections were disappointing and hurt at first, but the advice was
necessary, appreciated, and it did make the book better. So I’d say be ready
for rejection and be open to any advice a writing professional offers you. 

Be Prepared–the Publishing Process Moves Slowly

Once I received a publishing offer for my first book (woohoo!),
I was slated for edits. There were three rounds of edits that had to fit the
various editors’ schedules. Completing a round of edits does take time.
Fortunately, I am good with deadlines, even when I had to take a chapter and
rewrite it completely. Once that was done, the book went to their graphic
designer for cover art, and it was typeset (set up for printing). The book was then
scheduled for a release date that worked for the publisher and their other book
releases. Plus they had to plan social media events leading up to and for the
week of the release.  

My favorite part of this slow-moving process is the cover
art. There’s nothing like getting to see what your “baby” is going to look like
on a bookshelf! 

Don’t Give Up on Your Dreams

Dreams do come true, but they may not happen the way you
expected or on your perfect schedule. 

After my first book was published, three months later the
publisher went out of business. I was blessed to find another publisher that
was excited to take on my novel along with my second book. My third book was
discovered during a Twitter pitch party. That was a nice surprise. However,
after the book was published the pandemic happened. That publisher suffered
financial losses and went under. The company’s name was purchased by someone
who had their own catalog of books, so that allowed me to take ownership of the
third book. Finally, after years of hoping, I signed with a literary agent for
my fourth book. I worked with her on the edits for that manuscript and it is currently
out on submission to editors and publishers. 

When that book went on submission, I finished my fifth book
which is a YA thriller set in coastal South Carolina. There are three sisters,
an exotic garden, and Big Pharma causing lots of deadly trouble. I just love
it. Fingers crossed that my agent finds the best homes for both of these books.
My sixth book idea is being outlined at present. It will be a YA thriller set
in D.C. and it’s going to be super fun to write! 

Leigh Goff is an author of three published young adult novels and is represented by Lauren Bittrich. She is working on her next novel, a young adult thriller, while her current manuscript, Wicked Sweet, is on submission.

You can find her current published novels at Audible | Amazon | Apple   

Learn more about Leigh Goff on
her website and blog.
Stay connected on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkTree

We’re good eggs here in Carpenter Country, and we subscribe to the waste-not philosophy of life. In our kitchen, one cooked chicken results in multiple meals, including delicious homemade chicken soup.

For this soup recipe, we began with a chicken slow cooked in the crockpot. Once the chicken was cooked and the initial chicken-and-vegetable-and-potato meal eaten, we separated the remaining meat from the bones. We used the darker chicken meat in the soup, and the white-meat portions in chicken salad, chicken potpie, and chicken sandwiches.

Then we got out our soup pot and put together this stovetop soup. For extra flavor, when we filled the pot with water, we added a few spoonsful of the drippings collected in the crockpot as the chicken cooked.

Note that this recipe works exactly the same if you prefer to roast your chicken in the oven.

Here’s our souped-up video. The full recipe follows below.

CHICKEN SOUP CARPENTER STYLE
Chicken trimmings (bones and skin) from fully cooked chicken
Water (enough to cover the trimmings and fill the pot)
2-4 tbsp. pan drippings, depending on the size of your pot
2-4 cups fresh or frozen vegetables of your choice (we used frozen mixed)
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
2 tsp. garlic salt (or regular salt if you prefer)
2 tsp. minced garlic
Dash black pepper
2 cups shredded chicken meat

Add chicken trimmings to pot.

Add enough water to cover the trimmings and fill the pot.

Add pan drippings.

Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.

Remove chicken trimmings from pot with strainer or slotted spoon and skim off any foam from the broth.

Add vegetables, seasonings, and shredded chicken to pot. Add additional water if necessary.

Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.

Serve hot with bread or crackers.

TIPS and TRICKS
Add a packet of chicken bouillon with the drippings to punch up the flavor.

For a thinner broth, leave out the vegetables (or cook them until they are very soft) and reduce the amount of shredded chicken. Use the broth in other recipes or serve in mugs.

To make chicken noodle soup, add noodles or pasta of your choice along with the vegetables.

Be creative with the spices. For instance, a dash of curry powder adds a unique flavor.

Once upon a time there was a mother/daughter author duo named Helen and Lorri, who wrote as HL Carpenter. the Carpenters worked from their studios in Carpenter Country, a magical place that, like their stories was unreal but not untrue. Then one day Lorri left her studio to explore the land of What-If, and like others who have lost a loved one the magical place lost much of its magic. But thanks to family, plus an amazing group of wordsmiths named Authors Moving Forward (AMF), the magic is slowly returning.

Ah, a new year, and new plans. So much hope, and so much faith in
new beginnings. A clean slate, a fresh start. As I went through my business plan
and goals for 2023, I was pleased to find that I managed to complete them all,
save for nabbing a foreign rights agent. But, I realized that goal was totally
out of my control, with the exception of sending out queries. Among my other
lofty goals were creating a writing resource PDF I called, Tips,
Tools & Tricks for the Tenacious Writer and putting it up on my
website as a free download, connecting with the local libraries to see if they’d
purchase and carry my books, and finish writing the third installment of
Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls called Sticks
and Stones. Done. Done. Done. Well, the libraries never got back to me, so
I assume it’s a flat no. Sigh.

I guess authors nowadays have to try many possible avenues to get
their books out there. Shows. Events. Ads. Giveaways. Bribes. Begging. Sorry,
got carried away. LOL! Actually, I was lucky enough to attend a couple of
events in the fall of 2023. One at our town’s bookstore, River Bookshop, who hosted a Local Author
Book Fair, and another with my publisher, Mirror World Publishing at a
Local Author Christmas Book Show. I love events that only allow authors and
publishers, as opposed to anything-goes craft shows, because you get actual readers
wandering the aisles instead of people looking aimlessly around at the
different tables. Plus, we get to network with other authors, and learn what
book promotion strategies work for them, and what doesn’t. A win-win in my
eyes.

I also bought a program that helps authors create ads instantly.
If you’ve never heard of BookGraphix,
I
urge you to check it out if you like doing your own ads to share on your
social media accounts. The program allows authors to place their book or books
(up to three) in images that are appropriate for your audience, create content,
and download them to your computer. They also have holiday inspired ads as
well, and you can do trailers, cover reveals, and other creative stuff. For the
last three and a half years, I’ve been steadily running Facebook ads for ten
days, and rolling over a new ad when one finishes. This strategy has garnered
me a reach of over a million people for many campaigns that I’ve run, and about
two to five thousand clicks on the links I provide. I use my Amazon Author link
with all my books, and my website books page for those links. It’s certainly
been an investment for sure. The trick is to get those link clickers to buy one
of my books instead of click and go. It’s a patience game for sure!

As for my plans for 2024, I’ll be revising and editing Sticks and Stones so it’s ready for
publication either late this fall or in 2025. Yup. That’s how the publishing
game works! Slow, but sure. I’m going to continue to query foreign rights
agents seasonally until I attract the best one for me (fingers crossed), as
well as run my ten day Facebook ads to extend my reach and hopefully connect
with readers throughout the world. It’s also my intention to start gathering
research and plotting the story for the next installment of The
Last Timekeepers time travel adventure series, which will be in Treena Mui’s
point-of-view. Should be a blast!

On a personal note, my hubby and I got e-bikes from Santa for Christmas
in 2022, and have been riding our butts off all spring, summer and fall, in an
effort to put a lot of mileage on them. Best. Presents. Ever. Plus, it’s great
exercise and gets us outside in nature. For more current news, please check my blog, as I periodically give
updates to what’s going on in my author life. So how about you? Do you have any
big or small plans, goals, desires you want to make manifest in 2024? Dream
big, life is short. Would love to read your comments. Cheers and Happy New Year! Thanks for
taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate you!