Dragonstone Stories

I'm happy to announce that I have just signed the agreements with Cresting Wave Publishing ( https://gocwpub.com/ ) to publish the 3rd and 4th books of the Dragonstone Story Saga. Although there have been some delays in getting the 2nd book (The Power of the Emerald Ring) to market, we are now expecting it to be available this spring. With these new agreements, we will jump right into the editing and artwork process for the 3rd book of the series (tentatively titled, The New Lizard Queen) and hope to have all 4 books available by Christmas 2020. If you haven't gotten a copy of the first book (The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol), just click on the ORDER NOW button...

Donated book to Fort Dodge Middle School

January 13, 2020

Almost a year ago, I was finalizing my manuscript of The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol. At that time, I felt that I needed to "test" the market and find out if my book hit the mark with middle school aged kids. My sister, Melissa, is an 8th grade reading teacher in Fort Dodge, IA and she created, on my behalf, a reading club with about 15 of her students to read the manuscript and to provide me feedback on the story. At the time, her students did not know that the author of the then-unpublished book was her brother, so we both felt we would get some honest feedback. And actually, the feedback was quite positive and they even...

Review by Indie Reader

December 26, 2019

The website, IndieReader, completed a review of The Wonders of The Peculiar Parasol. They called it " a magical fusion of several fairytales into a single plot, with a nice sense of the family and an impressive grasp of childhood interaction and narrative." You can read the entire review at https://indiereader.com/book_review/the-wonder-of-the-peculiar-parasol/

Reviewed by Midwest Book Review!

December 20, 2019

My publisher submitted The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol to the Midwest Book Review. Here is their review, in its entirety: The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol is a children's fantasy story about dragons, wizards, and a powerful parasol that lands three cousins in a strange new world, and will appeal to advanced elementary to early middle school readers with its story of magical empowerment and struggle. Mandy is on her way to her grandmother's house. She looks forward to giving her cousin Mickey his belated birthday present and to meeting up with her other cousin Gina. A fun time is planned by all, but when a red flash from a crystal and a family heirloom in the form of a...

Alton Library and Spalding Catholic

November 12, 2019

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| Blog Posts, Book signings, Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol

I went to my hometown of Alton, IA and donated a book to the public library and to the grade-school I attended there. As yesterday was Veteran's Day, the donation to the library was in honor of my parents, Mike & Jane Even. My dad was a veteran of the Korean War and was very active in the American Legion throughout his life. My donation to the school was in remembrance of the Sisters of St. Francis, who taught in Alton for many, many years -- my 5th grade teacher there actually taught my dad in high school! While the school doesn't have a library (the public library is just across the street), they intended to auction the signed copy...

The Dragonstone Story Series

October 28, 2019

The Dragonstone Story Series As you know, the sub-title of The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol is “A Dragonstone Story”. We added this to the book name to indicate that it was part of a series of books. After writing “Wonders”, my creative juices kept flowing and I plotted and wrote three more stories with the same set of characters. The stories are chronological, with the characters aging and growing from book to book. Each book expands the story and the magic from the previous book(s). The next book, “The Power of the Emerald Ring” introduces more characters and sets Mandy and her extended family onto a new adventure. Hopefully, the second book is well received and the momentum will...

IBMer to Author – How did that Happen??

October 25, 2019

IBMer to Author – How did that Happen?? I’ve always had the ability to “make stuff up”. My colleagues at IBM would say I have the gift of B.S. – not a great term, but I always took it positively. I could come up with new ideas and innovations to solve problems throughout my career. Looking back, my wife and I always joke about how I helped her get through her creative writing class in college. She would struggle with coming up with a unique idea to demonstrate a writing style, so I would write a story that met the assignment need and then she would re-write it in her own style and ensure the format was what the professor...

Who’s Who?

October 22, 2019

I wanted to share the origin of some of the names of people and my thoughts on a few of the characters in The Wonders of the Peculiar Parasol. The names of all of the people in Mandy’s extended family come from actual names of my family (my wife, my kids and their spouses, my grandkids, and a few of my siblings); and, from my niece Gina’s family (her husband, her sons, her parents/my brother). Some of the names used are nicknames or derivatives of the real-life names, while some are identical. I mixed things up a bit though, the names of some of the parents in Mandy’s family are actually grandkids in mine. Some adults in real-life, are...

Comic books, Harry Potter, SyFy movies – Oh My!

October 18, 2019

I grew up loving comic books and science fiction movies. As a child of the 60s, TV was a dominant part of my life and the only reading I ever did was comics. Superman and Batman were my early favorites, but I gradually moved into “team” books and stories. When I was in grade-school, the Legion of Super-Heroes was my favorite. The heroes were all teen-age kids who came from many different worlds, each with a unique power. Lightning Lad could shoot bolts from his hands, Ferro Kid could turn into solid iron and steel, Saturn Girl could change the gravity around items or people making it impossible to move. High school diverted my attention for a bit (sports, girlfriend,...

Countdown

October 14, 2019

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