Friday, August 24, 2012

Silver’s Treason by Clifford W. Dunbar


About a week ago I posted my willingness to review books on the Eternal Press web site, one of my publishers. Clifford W. Dunbar responded right away. He is an author with Damnation Books, the parent company of Eternal Press. In some cases, receiving a book to review based on a "cold call" can be a disaster because the book could be completely outside the realm of the genres that interest me. Most of the time, I ask an author if he or she would like me to do a review of a specific book. Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge, not really knowing what to expect. I'm delighted I did.

My five-star review of Mr. Dunbar's excellent novel is provided below. I really loved the book, and probably learned a lesson myself: don't be so shy about what I read. If an author believes in his work enough to risk evaluation by a complete stranger, then the work just could be one of the best manuscripts I've ever read, as this one definitely was.
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Ever walk into a dark room, only to have the light flick on and people jump up yelling, SURPRISE!” Me neither, but that’s the feeling I got as I began reading Silver’s Treason. The book was a joy to read. Great plot. Impeccable editing. Flawless writing. The things that make a reviewer’s eyes sparkle … at least this reviewer. If ever there was a novel begging for a movie, this is it. The book is action packed from start to finish, and the characters come alive in their interaction with their animals and each other.

Jeff Thompson is an army private assigned to handle a hermesdog. Hermesdogs are bred for their paranormal capabilities, like the ability to alter the path of an oncoming bullet. Hermesdog endure protracted and intense training, and are controlled by the deep bond established between the handler and the dog. Because the dogs are extremely dangerous to humans, only a narrow range of capabilities are permitted in breeding. Dogs that don’t meet rigid army standards are classified as “salvage” and euthanized; however, the dogs and trainers are so tightly bound emotionally that trainers don’t always reveal “extra” capabilities they observe. Therefore, hermesdogs can be more than they appear to be.

Jeff and his dog, Silver, are ordered to accompany a DEA mission to disrupt a Columbian cartel deal. Everything goes wrong; the team is ambushed. Only Jeff and Silver survive. Captured, tortured and left for dead by the cartel, Jeff is saved by Silver’s unusual skills, some of which are revealed to Jeff for the first time during his ordeal. Dog and master must then survive cartel captivity, native superstition and the wile of the cartel boss’s stunning beautiful daughter, Ariana.

This novel really captivated me. Ariana is as naturally evil as she is beautiful. Of course Jeff falls for her, but the situation is impossible. Clifford W. Dunbar is a master juggler as Jeff is torn between his love for the woman and his duty to his country – the interplay between temptation, violence and reality is truly amazing. And through it all, the devotion between Jeff and Silver grows stronger. I couldn’t help but love that dog, and I couldn’t put the book down.

By the time I had completed 90% of the book, I pictured a romantic HEA ending between Ariana and Jeff, but … a scorpion is always a scorpion … and reality bites. I won’t spoil the ending. It is a heartwarming surprise, just not the one I pictured. All I can say it this: buy this book. Read it. You will be very glad you did.
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Thank you for offering your book for review, Mr. Dunbar. It was my pleasure to review it.

James L. Hatch

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Story of Egyptian Heart


I want to extend a warm welcome to Kathryn Meyer Griffith today, author of many outstanding books (listed below) and one in particular that caught my eye, Egyptian Heart. My review of that marvelous novel follows Kathryn's back story below. Please welcome Kathryn Meyer Griffith. 
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Thank you, James.

     Let me start with this: I have always loved ancient Egyptian stories since I was a child. I remember I wrote one of my first school papers at around eleven years old in pencil on the ancient Egyptians after dragging home an armful of musty smelling books from the library. I don’t recall exactly why I loved this particular time period and the people that lived in it but it might have had something to do with the movies The Ten Commandments (I was raised a Catholic), the horror mummy movies of the 1960’s and the early TV shows on Nefertiti and Cleopatra. I just had this affinity for the period.


It was February 1994 (I noted it on the outside of the manila folder where I keep a running book history on each novel) when I began Egyptian Heart. Originally I called it The Cursed Scarab. Later, I retitled it Egyptian Heart because I wanted it to more reflect the romance tale it had become.

I still had my agent, Lori Perkins, who’d sold four earlier novels for me to Zebra Books (Vampire Blood, 1991; The Last Vampire, 1992; Witches, 1993 and The Calling, 1994…after I’d sold my first three novels on my own to Leisure Books: Evil Stalks the Night, 1984: The Heart of the Rose, 1985; Blood Forge,1989) and she’d told me about a new romantic horror line that Silhouette was starting called the Shadows Line. They wanted to tap into the darker romantic paranormal market. Lori said they wanted the kind of story I wrote but with more romance. It was Silhouette after all.  I’d been labeled as a horror writer from the get go, though all my novels blended genres; usually I wrote a romantic horror mixture with dashes of adventure, suspense and sometimes threw in a little history or mystery as well…but in those days the big publishers felt the need (and I think they still do) to squeeze a writer into one narrow slot. So I was a horror writer.

But by 1994 I’d lost my sweet editor at Zebra and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my latest book (Predator, a story about a dinosaur in Crater Lake…which never came out but still lingers like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator, bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and it was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book – my first ever – dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and had already done my final edits! I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “No one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” And six months later Jurassic Park came out! The book is still sitting in a drawer somewhere and perhaps one day I’ll resurrect and finish it as well).

At that point, my agent wanted me to branch out so I wrote two manuscripts for the Silhouette Shadows Line or tried to.  Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road (a romantic suspense about a woman truck driver driving a dangerous wintry route with a murderer on her tail, and a hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the killer; which later I retitled and sold as Winter’s Journey). To make a long story short, Silhouette Shadows turned both down. Seems I had too much horror in them; not enough sex. I didn’t follow the formula. Sheesh. I’ve never liked depending too much on sex in any of my books or writing a book too predictable. The originality of the novel and the characters make the story for me.

After that my agent dropped me. Ah, the life of a writer.

So, then life (as it has many times in my 39 year writing career), family and job problems, and my other novels (I was into murder mysteries for years and sold two to Avalon Books), got in the way and Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road went into drawer hibernation until, oh, about 2004, when I rediscovered them, dug them out, rewrote them and began trying to sell them again. Sometimes, I’ve found, a book left alone in a dark cubbyhole ages like good wine. (Or sometimes it just turns to vinegar.)

Fast forward three years to 2007 and a new e-book (e-books still being considered a risky new-fangled craze at that time!) publisher called The Wild Rose Press contracted both and eventually a third called The Ice Bridge, a ghostly romantic murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, and published them. Good publisher. They treated me well. But in 2010 when I contracted my two newest novels, Before the End: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson (both romantic horror) my new publisher, Kim Richards Gilchrist at Damnation Books wanted to bring out all my old out-of-print novels again (going back to those early Leisure Books from the 1980’s) in print – and e-books for the first time ever.  Seven old paperbacks. I’d rewrite them all, get new covers and they’d all live again. I was thrilled. And grateful. It would take a lot of work on both our parts but when we were done ALL my old novels would be in print again and in electronic form out in the world. I jumped right in.

Then when my two year contract (I was lucky, e-books still being new, it was only for two years; now most e-book publishers contract for five years or longer) ran out with The Wild Rose Press. I happily switched Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge and a novella Don’t Look Back, Agnes to Eternal Press (Damnation Books sister company).

So. Egyptian Heart has had a very long history. Simply put, it’s a time travel paranormal romance set in the ancient times of Nefertiti and her heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton.  It’s more romance than history, though I did a lot of research in 1994… originally for my 1994 Zebra horror paperback The Calling. I thought: why waste all this hard worked for research on just one novel? So I also used it for Egyptian Heart and an erotic short story, The Nameless One, one that Zebra had placed in their 1994 horror anthology Dark Seductions and now it’s available from Damnation Books.

The new cover for Egyptian Heart by Dawne Dominique is amazingly beautiful and Kim Richards herself was my editor. Thank you both.

So from a child’s love of ancient Egypt to the finished book, it’s been a long journey and goes to show all you writer’s out there that, yes, persistence does sometimes win out.  And a good book never dies. It just ages like wine in a dark drawer.

I hope you’ll give Egyptian Heart a look and a read. The best way to describe it is through its blurb and so here it is: 

Maggie Owen is a beautiful, spirited Egyptologist, but lonely. Even being in Egypt on a grant from the college she teaches at to search for an undiscovered necropolis she’s certain lies below the sands beyond the pyramids of Gizah doesn’t give her the happiness she’d hoped it would.
There’s always been and is something missing. Love.
Then her workmen uncover Ramose Nakh-Min’s ancient tomb and an amulet from his sarcophagus hurls her back to 1340 B.C – where she falls hopelessly in love with the man she was destined to be with, noble Ramose, who faithfully serves the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti.
She’s fallen into perilous times with civil war threatening Egypt. She’s been mistaken for one of Ramose’s runaway slaves and with her light hair, jinn green eyes and fair skin she doesn’t fit in. Some say she’s magical and evil. Ramose’s favorite, Makere, tries to kill her.
The people, angry the Pharaoh has set his Queen aside and forced them to worship one god are rising up against him.
Maggie’s caught dangerously in the middle.
In the end, desperately in love, will she find a way to stay alive and with Ramose in ancient Egypt–and to make a difference in his world and history?
Because Maggie has finally found love.
                            

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A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith, 2012.

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21 (over forty years ago now) and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance and two mysteries) previous novels published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-four years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have two quirky cats, Cleo, our live cat and Sasha, our beloved ghost cat, and the four of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die.
       
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, June 2012)
The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out 2010)
Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2012)
Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2011)
The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2010)
Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2011)
The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;
  Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2011)
The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2011)
Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)
All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)
Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in 2012)
BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books 2010)
The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books 2010)
The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction Volume 1 (I wrote the Introduction)

Her Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)
http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith
http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

Thank you, James. Readers can e-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net -- I love to hear from them.
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Egyptian Heart by Kathryn Meyer Griffith; Review by James L. Hatch

I asked Kathryn Meyer Griffith if she would permit me to review Egyptian Heart because I like time travel romances. I also loved her book cover. Although every story I’ve read involving a character going back in time and falling in love ends the same, I still enjoy seeing how the author brings the character to the point of decision, “Do I stay … or do I return.”

Egyptian Heart was especially intriguing because, instead of the character going back to a time of greater moral righteousness, the heroine/Egyptologist, Maggie Owen, was swept away to a time of brutality and immoral behavior. Maggie brought her personal code of conduct with her, and the courage and conviction to live by it. She was honorable. She stood up for others as well as herself. She demanded reasonable treatment. Rather than adapt to the time in which she found herself, she required the people of that time adapt to her. That was a twist I enjoy finding in novels I read – high standards and moral behavior. The heroine is a strong character. She is also quite beautiful and extremely lucky. Were it not for a benevolent benefactor, she would have been killed outright.

The historical references throughout the story added considerable depth. Many of the events in the novel were recently chronicled on the History Channel; however, Kathryn added her own view of everyday life around 1350 B.C. The descriptions of homes, slaves, palaces and even the river Nile, as those things might have been at the time, could well have been written by an eye-witness.  That made Egyptian Heart an even more enjoyable read. I also liked the way the heroine walked a thin line to keep her true identity hidden and information about the future concealed, else she be declared an evil “jinn.” Her Western appearance already being a problem, any hint of capability beyond the norm could have meant a death sentence.
Beyond the time travel and the interesting incorporation of Pharos, Queen Nefertiti, first and second wives, and court drama, Egyptian Heart is a solid romance novel. The heroine falls deeply in love in an impossible situation and must, in the end, decide for herself if love can indeed conquer all. The book was clearly written for women; however, as a guy, I can honestly say I enjoyed it very much. If all women were like Maggie Owen, this would be a fascinating world indeed.

Egyptian Heart is published by Eternal Press. The story is told in first person past tense, something I had not seen before, and book is fairly well edited. I rate it at four and one-half stars.





Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Twice Upon a Time - The Making of a Story


The following article was extracted from the Fairfield Plantation News and Views. The article was provided to me by Frank Allan Rogers, and tells the story of how he wrote Twice Upon a Time. Following the news article is my full review of the story.

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Can a man from the 21st century survive in 1847? Murdered on his birthday, August Myles finds crossing over is nothing like he'd ever heard, read, or imagined, and learns he has not earned a ticket to Paradise. In a grand experiment, the members of the Divine Council gave August another chance. Or did they?

With all the limitations of a mortal, he is sent back in time with an impossible mission – an adventure filled with triumph and tragedy, courage and fear, happiness and heartbreak, sex and violence - a grueling journey on the Oregon Trail. The mission is brutal and demanding, even on a horse named Aristotle. “This trip ain't all fun, Mr. Myles,” the wagon master told him. “It's back-breaking work day in and day out on a trail worn by ornery animals, busted wagons, and broken dreams. It beats the life out of good, God-fearin' people, and there's grave markers along the way for a lot of brave souls who gave it all they had. Sometimes, good ain't good enough.”

Along with the limitations, August is also burdened with all the needs and passions of a mortal. He must battle the advances of two gorgeous women during long months and close encounters on the trail, though wagon-train life offers few chances for privacy. One woman just wants to seduce him. Another falls in love. But for August Myles, carnal knowledge is forbidden. Is there no justice?

Solstice Publishing has just released Twice Upon a Time, the second novel by author Frank Allan Rogers, following Upon a Crazy Horse in 2009. “I’m not the fastest writer around,” Frank says with a grin. “My goal is not to see how many books I can write, but to create stories that people enjoy, with characters they can’t forget. My greatest satisfaction is when someone says, I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to end.”

He explains that creating a fictional world that seems believable, filled with things, places, animals, and people all from the author’s imagination demands hard work, passion, and dedication – a thousand cups of coffee and many long nights on the computer keyboard.

“In my head, I have to live in the time and place of the story,” he offered. “I have to see the trees, grass, and flowers, the streets, homes, and other buildings. I have to become each character I invent, and I read the dialogue aloud to make sure it sounds like real talking.”

“When I was writing Upon a Crazy Horse, I was involved in a scene with thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. When I finished the scene, I left my computer to go to the mailbox. I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out, and as I reached the door, I realized we had a bright, sunny day outside – no storm.”

“I wanted Twice Upon a Time to be as realistic and authentic as I could make it, to take the readers back in time, let them see America in 1847, make them endure the hardships and celebrate the triumphs of those rugged pioneers. So I tried to learn everything I could about life on the Oregon Trail, what it feels like to have a covered wagon for your home, and everything you own rides in that wagon as you trudge across a strange land full of hazards, countless obstacles, insects, disease, and often hostile people who resent the intrusion on their homeland. And you risk everything including the lives of your family in search of a dream.”

Research took more time than writing, and Frank is grateful for all the help he received. He discovered Elaine Juska Joseph, an Amish lady in Connecticut who is an expert on draft animals and how those animals impacted the mass migration across the continent. She was very generous with her time and knowledge, and so were the people at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville.

“In the museum’s basement, a vast library contains thousands of books, paintings, and DVD’s with information about The Old West,” the author said. “I logged several hours in that place, lost in an author’s paradise.” Liz Gentry, the chief librarian, was a great help, and never seemed to tire from the endless questions and requests.

With Frank Allan Rogers and Mary Thibeault Rogers
Frank was also in touch with the Overland Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri, and he read lots of diaries kept by people who made the trip. Most diaries didn’t help, but some were golden. He bought books about foods, cookware, clothing, weapons, tools, American Indian tribes, and anything connected with the places and time period of the story. He and his wife, artist Mary Rogers, worked at a Cowboy Cook-off in New Mexico and ate food cooked in a Dutch oven, the cookware used on the trails. Frank bought and built a scale-model covered wagon kit so he could become familiar with the various parts that made up the home emigrants lived in for months. “I know what covered wagons cost in 1847,” he says. “I know what they were made of, the parts that wore out first, and that most of them were built by Weston’s Wagon Shop in Independence.”

The author also says he gained a new respect for the determination, discipline, and undaunted courage of those who braved the journey west, and he learned why the Oregon Trail was referred to as the world’s longest graveyard. Approximately ten percent of those who started the journey died along the way. In spite of the odds, Oregon fever spread like a real virus, and an often-repeated phrase of that time period says a lot about the people who were afflicted: If Hell lay in the west, Americans would trample across Heaven to get there.

“It’s a powerful setting for a dramatic story,” the author says. “From the start, I knew it would take a real commitment, but I drew inspiration from those who traveled the real trail.” More than two years, and 346 pages later, Frank Allan Rogers created Twice Upon a Time.

The book is available by special order from most bookstores, and is sold online by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sites as an e-book or printed copy. Autographed copies are available directly from the author. www.frankallanrogers.com  / franktheauthor@yahoo.com
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Review by James L. Hatch

Ever read a novel so good that when you finished you missed the characters, like you might miss a friend who moved to another city? Twice Upon a Time is like that. I absolutely loved the book, and was genuinely sorry to reach the end. Don’t get me wrong. The ending was wonderful. That’s not it. I actually missed the people in the story. I missed having them as a part of my life, even though I only had them for the short time I was enmeshed in the story. Frank Allan Rogers is a master at presenting his characters in such a life-like way that the people become part of you … and you become part of them.

Twice Upon a Time had a wonderful paranormal component that moves the plot between the current day and the mid-1800s; however, the 1800s part of the story, a wagon train trip to Oregon, stands solidly on its own – it is that good. I don’t consider myself a historian, but I suspect Mr. Rogers did considerable homework in bringing the arduous and dangerous trip from Missouri to Oregon to life. The struggles and hardships encountered were artfully balanced against the strength and resolve of “Bonner’s Disciples”, the people making the trip.

I am at a loss as to whether I should present any of the plot as part of this review. I don’t want to spoil anything because it all leads to an incredible ending, one that will leave even the strongest individual with a tear in his or her eye. What I can say is that the elements that lead to the conclusion are presented throughout the story in such subtle ways that I did not guess the ending, even though, in retrospect, Mr. Rogers was enticing me with clues all along. I loved that.

While the wagon train saga involved me emotionally with the main characters, I will also say that the paranormal component was a pleasure to read. It presented some heady philosophical concepts with such skill that they did not interrupt the flow of the story. The hero, August Myles, was assigned an impossible mission and he fought a good fight, but he was, after all, only human. How he comes to terms with the devil in the end is a cliffhanger without question. You won’t be able to put this book down.

I asked Mr. Rogers if I could review his book based on an excerpt he posted on Facebook, and I’m thankful he agreed. Not only is Twice Upon a Time a solid five-star read, it is also the most meticulously edited book I have ever reviewed. It was a pleasure having the opportunity to read something put together with such skill and attention to detail.
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Thanks for reading,

James L. Hatch
amazon.com/author/jameshatch

Monday, August 13, 2012

S.J. Drum's new release: Surprisingly Supernatural

Elaina Matthews

In celebration of my newest release, Surprisingly Supernatural, I’d like to introduce you to the story’s heroine, Elaina Matthews.

Elaina is a bit older—and quite a bit wiser—than your average Urban Fantasy heroine. She’s nearing 30 instead of the standard barely-twenty-something you find starring in a lot of other UF genre novels. Elaina’s recently been relocated to small-town Yellow Springs, and she’s not very happy about it. She’s quickly faced with the existence of an entire supernatural world she isn’t sure she believes in, and the townspeople seem to know nothing about. Two warring clans of elves, a love triangle, and her unexpected supernatural powers, all combine to test Elaina’s strength, convictions, and will to live.


Elaina Matthews’ Stats

Height: 5' 7"
Build: Size 8 when she has money to eat
Eyes: Green/Gold
Hair Color: Depends on the day
Hobby: Hiking and avoiding Ellis
Occupation: Receptionist, Jai-all
Favorite Song: "Alive" by Joey Lauren Adams


Elaina’s story is in: SURPRISINGLY SUPERNATURAL by S.J. Drum


Things in small-town Yellow Springs are about to become Surprisingly Supernatural.

When Elaina moves to Yellow Springs after the death of her parents, she discovers her mother's life was steeped in secrets and there is something very strange about the town and its residents. There is a pixy clan taking up residence in her inherited home, a gorgeous but strange elf bent on making her his, and a handsome, troubled man who can read her mind. Thrust into a supernatural war, Elaina is forced to choose sides between the two men who mean everything to her.

Finding S.J. Drum on the Web
·         Blog: http://sj-drum.blogspot.com
·         Website: http://www.sj-drum.com
·         Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authors.j.drum
·         Twitter: @AuthorSJDrum

Thursday, August 9, 2012

THE CHOSEN series by Andrea Buginsky


A warm welcome to Halli, one of Andrea Buginsky characters. Thanks for being here today, Halli.
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Hi everyone! This is Halli from THE CHOSEN series of books written by Andrea Buginsky. I’m having a get-together at my hut to celebrate the launch of the second book in the series, “Nature’s Unbalance,” and you’re all invited! Bring your appetite, because I’ll be serving up my dad’s favorite dish: split pea and ham soup! I know it looks just like the murky swamp of Loch Moss, but believe me, it’s delicious! Oh, and don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of ale on tap, courtesy of the Tavern. Look forward to seeing you there!

Jacob’s Split Pea and Ham Soup

1 Bag of Peas with Ham Seasoning
Ham Bone from Cooked Ham
Cooked Ham Pieces
1 Onion
Celery
Carrots

Fill up a large pot with water. Add ham bone and peas. Let simmer for a few hours. Cut up vegetables and cooked ham pieces, add to soup mix. Add packet of ham seasoning and stir thoroughly. Continue to simmer for a few hours.

Enjoy!

Andrea Buginsky is a freelance writer and author. “The Chosen” was her first book, and was followed by “My Open Heart,” an autobiography about growing up with heart disease. “Nature’s Unbalance” is the second story in THE CHOSEN series. Andrea plans to write more in the series. She’s already done with the first draft of book 3 and has a concept for book 4. You can find Andrea on her website, Andi’s Realm. Her books are available at Amazon.