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142 Wellington Place
Price range: $3.99 through $10.99The suspense in this engaging crime narrative is riveting and keeps building up until it reaches a most unexpected climax filled with excitement and pathos.
Fourteen years after the end of World War II, former RAF fighter pilot Ben Benison gets a frantic phone call from Celia, the wife of his best friend, Don. It seems Don has been unfaithful, and the proof stands in the hallway of the couple’s home: Ada Hamilton, a young, fragile, pregnant girl who clutches love letters written in Don’s hand. Unfortunately, Don is in London, and Celia wants Ben to fi nd out if her husband truly is a liar and a cheat.
Ben heads up to London to confront his old friend and then returns to Celia’s house to deliver the sad news that Don has admitted to the affair. But then things take a strange and sudden turn. Two police inspectors arrive minutes later and reveal that Don’s body has been found in his rooming house at 142 Wellington Place. Whether his death was by suicide or murder, they can’t–or, more accurately, won’t–say.
The authorities open up an inquest into Don’s death, and Ben accompanies the police back to London, where they interview witnesses and gather evidence. Tracking down Don’s mistress complicates things and there is a great twist when a second ‘Miss Hamilton’ turns up. Something is certainly rotten at 142 Wellington Place.
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A Diamond Bomb Threat
Price range: $3.99 through $10.99Three future centuries from now, John Luck decides to enter a pool tournament instead of joining his father’s law firm. He is unaware of a proposed diamond bomb threat from an ex-employer of a space program that purchases diamond batteries. Further potential is that carbon atoms uniquely bond with themselves to be fertilizer, bombs, diamonds or whatever, and that solar energy along with atomic nuclear waste from power plants are being used. John further becomes intertwined with Nelly Nelson, who is there attempting to rescue her father.
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A Haunted Symphony
Price range: $12.99 through $22.29A stolen priceless Stradivarius violin, a poisoned dart, a haunted music library, and a jilted lover present a captivating mystery for the Palms Symphony Orchestra. Who has the motive and opportunity?
Join the Conductor to save the orchestra from thieves, ghosts, and recover the valuable instrument.
THE MOVING WORDS REVIEW
BOOK INFORMATION:
Title: A Haunted Symphony
Author: Michele Wallace Campanelli
Publisher: Author Reputation Press, LLC Publication
Date: November 16, 2023
Review date: November 24, 2023
Genre: Mystery, Supernatural Fiction, Drama
BOOK REVIEW:
Our story begins with Maria, a passionate and dedicated orchestra volunteer, who starts a new role filled with unexpected twists and turns. The symphony, a place of harmony and artistry, soon becomes the background for occurrences that hint at a supernatural presence. The other members and volunteers, each with unique personalities and stories, find themselves involved in secrets and past connections that slowly unravel as the story progresses.
Maria and her colleagues discover that their beloved symphony hall is haunted by more than just the echoes of music past. Strange sounds, unexplained events, and ghostly apparitions begin to stir, bringing to light old legends and tales long thought to be mere folklore. Amidst this, the characters deal with their personal challenges and relationships, adding breadth to the story.
What are the hidden secrets of the symphony’s past, and how are they connected to the mysterious occurrences within its walls? This was the start of a book that promises to keep one fascinated until the very end.
Set against the backdrop of an orchestra, the story peeks into the lives of its characters, including their relationships, secrets, and past events. Michele Wallace Campanelli truly shines in her storytelling in A Haunted Symphony. She created a vivid and attention-grabbing world. For example, the descriptions of the symphony, its music, and the characters’ interactions with their tools and environment are so detailed that readers can almost hear the music and feel the emotions (e.g., Donnie losing a limb).
Campanelli’s characters are well-developed-each with their individual backstory and motivations. How she intertwines their lives and reveals their connections and secrets as the story advances is satisfying. As the pages flip, readers can appreciate the seamless integration of supernatural elements into the tale-the ghostly aspects are handled with a deft touch, ensuring that they enhance rather than overpower the plot.
Overall, A Haunted Symphony is well-paced, balancing moments of tension and mystery. Building suspense is one of its strongest suits, keeping readers guessing and on the edge of their seats. The twists and turns of the story are well-executed, with surprising yet believable revelations. It’s a novel that will appeal to fans of mystery and the supernatural, as well as those who appreciate well-crafted, character-driven stories.
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A Reason for Living
Price range: $3.99 through $14.99It is the mid-1960s in Kingston, Jamaica, and the country is steeped in social, political, and economic inequities. Howard Baxter, the heir to a real estate empire, has no interest in seeking or managing wealth. Painting and deflowering Jamaican maidens are his passions. As he combs the streets looking for greater meaning in his pathetic life, it soon becomes apparent that Howard’s journey will not be easy. Bernaldo Lloyd, a member of the Baxter clan, is a medical student who is sensitive to the hopelessness of the Jamaican masses. Inspired by his close friend and Howard’s cousin, Ras Robin Pone, and their ties with the Rastafari movement that calls for social and economic equity, Bernaldo is determined to overthrow the corrupt government. As Howard, Bernaldo and Robin become influenced by The American Black Power and Civil Rights movements demanding equal rights for African Americans, the women in their lives both love and criticize them. But when revolution breaks out, Howard finally discovers a purpose for his twisted life that leads him in a direction he never anticipated. In this tale of love, passion, and self-discovery, three Jamaican men become caught up in a 1960s revolution that reveals injustices, oppression, and a purpose for one of them.
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A Roof Over Our Heads and Food on the Table
Price range: $3.99 through $19.99Pat Kavanaugh wanted to major in English at Nutmeg State University. His parents persuaded him to major in accounting because it would be more practical than being a writer. At NSU, he met his roommate named Sean Donnelly. Both Irish-Americans, they became friends despite Sean’s troubling secret. Pat then becomes a cashier at Delacroix’s Grocery Store. After graduation, Pat continued working at Delacroix’s, but the chances of advancement are rather slim.
Pat then began a job search. Along the way, he moved to his own apartment, attended Sunday Masses at All Saints Church, became friends with another parishioner, and met a young woman. He also invested in a business that his parents felt was unethical. In the end, Sean was always there for him. -
A Siren’s Call
Price range: $4.99 through $20.99Tess is a thief of the highest caliber. Years of expertise and the support of her criminal family have led her to the biggest job of their lives. But when her life is shattered by a bullet of betrayal, only revenge will sate her raging bloodlust.
Paige on the other hand, is a romantic, filled with a shy adventurous side that wishes to stay by the man she loves, and care for nothing else in this world. When her facade begins to crack under the pressure though, who will she be in the end?
These two personas clash in the ring of love and bloodlust, with only a winner, and the other who must disappear forever. Through the combat of dodging cameras and living double lives can they decide who will be who in the end.
Tim Wolfe is a growing author from the San Diego area who has been inspired by the concepts of society, and a deep yearning to convey those beliefs through his writings of romance and the adventure that is life. Tim enjoys spending time with his family, learning about history and science, and strives for a peaceful, carefree tomorrow.
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A Very Powerful Gift
Price range: $3.99 through $14.99About the Book
Stewart the spider is afraid to jump to spin fancy webs like all of the other spiders. His mom gives him a special hat to help him have the faith in himself he needs to spin his webs. When a human waves a broom at the spiders’ webs to destroy them, Stewart must face his fear of jumping-or else!
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Adam To The Rescue!
Price range: $3.99 through $12.99Eleven year old Adam Elgin is an avid baseball player who has been playing the piano since he was four years old.
An orchestra is to be formed in his small elementary school in order to participate in a Gala for the Year of the Child Project. They have teamed up with another small elementary school to expand the orchestra’s numbers. All interested students must audition for the orchestra. Adam gets the audition music for the piano, from the school’s music teacher and has a short time to prepare for the audition.
Everybody who plays an instrument, wants to be in the orchestra and so they practice, and practice, and practice for their audition. But on the weekend
before Adam’s scheduled audition on Monday morning, he gets ill and misses his audition. Two students are chosen for the piano, one is to be the alternate, and rehearsals begin.
But a lot is going on to prepare for his school’s customary year-end festivities, taking place the last week of school: the winter concert on Tuesday, the play on Wednesday, and the orchestral debut in a dress rehearsal on Thursday, school is closed on Friday, plus the school has started a gigantic fundraiser to help with expenses for the Year of the Child gala. Both teachers and students are “stretched to the limit” in these endeavors.
It is the last day of school before the Christmas vacation, and the first dress rehearsal, but at this first dress rehearsal the two students chosen for the piano, fail to perform their best and the dress rehearsal comes to a screeching halt.
Without a reliable pianist, the gala seems unlikely for these two schools. Can the Principal fi nd a suitable replacement that can play without fear of the crowd and the pressures of performing, someone who can take them to the Gala!
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Alumni Fund
Price range: $3.99 through $11.99Abington College, very small, antique, once women-only New England college, is venerable and broke, hires a butch Jewish PhD from Brooklyn to salvage what can be in the face of crashing enrollment and desperate need to retain full paid tuition students despite their academic deficiencies. Add to this crisis management, Amanda Hyde (with Jekyll as foreground), English, former au pair girl employed by a New York mafia family, now head of the Abington College Alumni Fund, a picaresque rise from au pair to stripper at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan and by means of forged documentation to eligibility for her current position, aided in her financial and professional success by a hit man and a plague of fatal accidents among the alumni. All part of the larcenous tale you are about to read if you are lucky enough to get a copy of this book.
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Any Way Out
Price range: $3.99 through $25.99A teenage Ashley Ames is painfully growing up in a rural area before the technology boom. Her parents are bitterly divorced and caught up in their own lives, too busy to care about what goes on with Ashley. However, she does find support with her stepmother Ruth.
Ashley bounces back and forth between her parents homes, with good reason. Either she moves because it’s gone bad or they throw her out.
Ashley’s behavior is erratic and self-destructive at home and at school. She gets selected to participate in a Scared Straight program, at a prison. It helps for a while.
A young man, Ryan doing a repair job at Ellen’s house, Ashley’s mother, notices Ashley. She has just moved back in with her. As Ashley goes through high school her escapades get her into trouble, while she deals with deep depression leading to a suicide attempt.
She has struggles but eventually finds her way out.
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Big Foot: Monster of The Ice
Price range: $3.99 through $20.99Frantic about his missing wife, Adam Reese travels to a small island off the coast of Canada with their thirteen-year-old son, Sean. There the two learn that a major new animal discovery was made while Mary was filming a documentary on polar bears for Planet X. Now members of that film crew are disappearing, one by one. Is it because the documentary is now worth millions? Not any amount of money or new animal discovery drives Adam on. Adam won’t give up finding the love of his life, Mary, especially for the sake of their son. Somehow, Adam must rescue Mary from the fanged creature that has snatched her out of the cold, freezing snow. He must save her from the white-haired Bigfoot, the Yeti…the monster of the ice.
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Black Widow
Price range: $3.99 through $20.99Romeo Maroni, incensed that an ancient Egyptian belt disappeared from his museum, vows to capture the beautiful thief, Blackie Widow, a woman rumored by the FBI to be as dangerous as she is seductive. Teaming up with private investigator Martin, Romeo discovers millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds she has stolen, fashioned into a giant spider web. Uncovering her lair, he becomes prey for the gorgeous and poisonous Blackie Widow. Join in
the hunt for stolen treasure and get entangled in Romeo’s unrelenting desire to find his true love caught in a web of trouble.
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Call of The Panther
$3.99A Novel of the Ancient Maya
An aspiring anthropologist journeys to Mexico and becomes entangled in a tale of the Ancient Maya, amidst the Late Classic political upheaval, where foreigners infiltrate cities and social changes break up economies and families. In the midst of this turmoil, a young woman struggles to make her way, haunted by visions and a mysterious summons from a Panther Spirit. Raised to value the old traditions, unable to accede to her husband’s heartless demands to participate in bloody rituals, she flees with her infant son into the unknown, discovering lost kindred and caring helpers, and learning to walk in the Otherworld in search of the key to her family’s destiny. When she faces the ultimate challenge, will the Panther Spirit’s power enable her to overcome it?
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Chronicles of the Ancient Future
Price range: $3.99 through $19.99I was a successful businessman who was always looking for a new adventure to invest in to make my legacy greater. I should have known my next adventure was going beyond anything previously encountered. Despite my disturbing dream, I was not aware of what was to ensue.
At the onset, this adventure appeared to be quite lucrative. However, as the adventure progresses, in its unfoldment, it led me to some other unsettling paradigms. I found myself in other time zones and even on other planets.
Initially, the pattern of these events seemed obscure. After a few shocking revelations, I realized that there was a purpose to the pattern. The purpose was that of the Ancient Future.
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Connections
Price range: $3.99 through $15.99Contrary to the dazzling wealth, glitz and glamour portrayed in the media, the Upper East Side of Manhattan is not only glass penthouses, hedge fund managers, and $500 dinners. There are also ordinary side streets where hard-working singles rent, where roommates split expenses, where elderly women live orderly lives. For many of them, home means a loving animal, the steadfast presence that shares a life, hears a secret, heals a hurt, claims the heart.
That’s how it is for long-term resident Rosa Bassetti. There is no better friend than Princess, her arthritic Poodle. Rosa’s neighbor, Eileen Hargan, feels the same about Fibber McGee, her little Boston Terrier. Strangers at first, the two senior citizens become friends as they meet while walking their dogs, come sun, rain, or snow.
Their peaceful routine is shattered when Eileen receives an anonymous note demanding money, threatening to kidnap or hurt her dog if she doesn’t pay. A dangerous criminal? Cruel prankster? Rosa is determined to find out.
Played out against Manhattan’s aging brownstones, tree-lined streets and pre-war buildings, CONNECTIONS brings together an intriguing cast of New Yorkers-a same-sex couple, a tough social worker finding love, a troubled boy, a lonely office manager-who all come together through their love for animals, and join forces against a terrifying menace.
Author Jackie Wein writes with warmth, subtle wit, and intimate knowledge of the powerful bonds we share with our four-legged families. Sometimes, it is our beloved pets that help us to get through life’s difficult experiences. But, as CONNECTIONS never lets us forget, the ultimate connection is with each other.
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Dark Castle
Price range: $3.99 through $7.99DARK CASTLE is told from the point-of-view of a 12-year-old girl who from her earliest memory has been a prisoner in a black-walled castle surrounded on three sides by a remote, even darker forest. On one side, the darkest of all, is a forbidding sea where roaring waves crash against the sheer cliffs along the shore, even in the quiet times between horrendous storms. The sun never shines here, and strange creatures roam and creep and crawl from every corner and hole.
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Deadly Treasures: Second Chances
Price range: $20.99 through $27.99Forget diamonds! These Deadly Treasures wear camo, carry a rifle, protect the innocent, and are Hotter than Hades. Navy SEAL team Echo is sent to the most dangerous places on Earth to do the impossible. From the Dark Heart of Africa to the Frigid Tundra of Siberia, the SEALs must face hard choices with dangerous consequences. Failure is never an option, but when Echo gets a new member, they will face their greatest challenge yet. Th e UCMJ forbids fraternization, but she’s beautiful, curved in all the right places, and tantalizingly tempting. Protecting her from themselves might be an impossible mission.
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Douggie’s Super Science Adventures: Stories for Teaching the Next Generation Science Standards for Third Graders
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Edgar: Companion to “Want To Go West Lady”
Price range: $3.99 through $13.99A good tale about the spoiled son of a Virginia planter his loss pf innocence as a Confederate soldier and his return home to find the love of his childhood grown to womanhood convinces him that the west holds his future.
Tom Glass- Author of: Stenoshe/The Allegheny West
Edgar, by Ben Steinlage is another gripping story about the one of the characters in his first novel “Want to Go West Lady.” This story is about Ida Duncan’s first husband. As in the first novel it begins prior to the Civil War and into the Reconstruction. In this novel you get a better feeling of what it was like fighting in the war. Then the chaos and the loss of dignity as the southern people try to get their lives together again. In this battle for their lives their salvation was the love shared by the couple, children and friends. Along with the war the reader is taken on their journey to a new life out west.
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Education Of A Native Son
Price range: $3.99 through $19.99Education of a Native Son begins where the novel, Native Son, by Richard Wright ends.
Thomas, a Black young man who grew up in Harlem is accepted to a prestigious Ivy League university in New England. While in college Little, as he is known, will be confronted with the pressures of the everyday college student, being Black at an all-white university and being Black in America. In addition to adjusting to college life, he will soon learn the secret of his parent’s past, a past the could lead to the destruction of his family, friendships and ultimately his life. What takes him from a proud feeling of triumph when entering the university to feelings of betrayal, abandonment, self-hatred and the brink of self-destruction.
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El Monstruo de la Pradera
Price range: $3.99 through $11.99La historia está a nuestro alrededor, pero no siempre sabemos dónde hallarla. ¿Se nos ocurriría mirar en el patio de nuestra casa?
En el libro del autor Ronald S. Martínez Sr., El monstruo de la pradera, dos niños juegan, como suelen hacerlo todos los días. Pero, esta vez, descubren huellas que se asemejan a las de las pequeñas lagartijas con las que se entretienen. En su imaginación, establecen conexiones, visualizando una criatura más extraña que la realidad. Pero, con la ayuda de un sacerdote que comparte su entusiasmo, descubren que ¡el monstruo de la pradera existió de verdad! Al descubrir las huellas de dinosaurios en los lechos de los ríos en las áridas praderas al sur de lo que hoy conocemos como La Junta, Colorado, los niños y el sacerdote deciden emprender una emocionante expedición para dar a conocer la existencia del monstruo de la pradera a un mundo que lo desconoce.
El monstruo de la pradera es una historia cautivadora con referencias históricas. Al embarcarse en este viaje de descubrimiento, los niños y el sacerdote se convierten en testigos, y también contribuyentes, de la historia de Colorado en desarrollo.
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Espionage In Miniature
Price range: $3.99 through $10.99Jake Barrada worked as an undercover intelligence agent in a super-+secret government organization called The Bureau of Research and Information Acquisition or BRIA.
Now Jake had assignment that was unlike any of his previous missions. The mission objective was a building in a remote Upstate wooded area. American intelligence sources suspected that the building was the headquarters of a terrorist organization. The building was an impenetrable fortress and no one could get in or out without being detected.
The masterminds in the BRIA organization designed a machine that could reduce Jake to the size of a rat. As a miniature man he would fly onto the roof of the enemy fortress on a drone and make his way down the HVAC duct into the interior of the building. Once inside, he would penetrate the large computer and install listening bugs and transmitter devices into the circuitry then get out without being discovered.
The plan looked foolproof on paper, but what would happen when Jake actually tried to execute it?
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Field of Oleander
Price range: $3.99 through $17.99When Raymond Karr is approached by a murderous gang to become a drug smuggler bringing narcotics from Africa, he immediately rejects the proposition. A straight-shooting immigrant, he abhors besmirching his family’s honor. But his deep-seated passion to attend George Washington Medical School is unmatched by his dismal financial capability, causing him to vacillate as his better instinct struggles with his ambition.
Eventually, through a series of coincidences and inertia, despite the re-occurrence of an eerie dream in a field of Oleander, he is swept along the road to criminality. After a tempestuous affair with a beautiful Latina whom he determines to impress into a permanent relationship, it’s game on.
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Fools and Children
$14.99Enjoy a romp through the 1950s with two small town boys hell-bent on action and adventure. Fools and Children is an unblinking and touching collection of memorable childhood escapades as it chronicles the outlandish and often dangerous exploits of these creative but naïve lads. Ed Frye and Herb Bierly, with their rogues’ gallery of friends, create havoc and consternation for town residents when they flood a section of town, loose a horse on the streets, and plan a bank robbery. Caves, creeks, hills, and farms are scenes of perilous undertakings.
Millheim provides their earliest up close and personal experiences with death, as well as poignant lessons for life. Along the way, they experiment with guns, horses, the sins of the world, and girls. Frye and Bierly skip none of the rites of passage, but almost always with a twist. Both learn early that the difference between hero and victim is often too close to call.
Filled with leisurely-told tales, colorful characters, cultural references to the Golden ’50s, and humor, Fools and Children takes Baby Boomers back to their own youthful years. With the freedoms available to these young adventurers in a simpler time and place, their zeal for life is reflective of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
What would a reader expect in a collection of leisurely-told tales? Danger? Humor? Sex? Insight? Naiveté? Creativity? Stupidity? Fools and Children provides them all.
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Forgiven! Redeemed! Reconciled!
Price range: $3.99 through $11.99Paul Tanner, a stressed senior pastor who threw away his life. Sara Petersen, a pastor’s daughter who was gang raped. Zach Petersen, a young, traumatized husband who thought the worst. What do they have in common besides sharing some DNA? Peer into the lives of peo-ple who squander their spiritual heritage and see how their lives af-fect those around about them. Not everyone ends up in the pigsty, but everyone needs forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation. See what blessings can come from broken, shattered, and scarred lives. Yes, all things can work for good for those who love the Lord.
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From Destroyed Webs to Masterpieces
Price range: $3.99 through $14.99Mike belongs to a group of spiders that spin fancy webs and in order to spin these types of webs, these spiders have to have wonderful imaginations. However, Mike lives in a house
where the lady destroys his webs when she cleans (which is constantly).Now most spiders may not care if their webs are swept away, but Mike’s webs are artistic masterpieces. A decision is made, and Mike moves out of the house into the backyard. He discovers a wonderful, magical land of trees, shrubs, and flowers. As a result, Mike decides to use the bush by the backdoor as his canvas for creating his artistic designs. I could tell you the rest of this story, but it is more fun for you to open this book and discover what happens to Mike as he creates some amazing designs as he spins his webs. In the end, you might want to have a paper and colored pencils next to you so you can draw colorful, magical webs as well
and become part of the group that draws amazing and unusual webs.
From Destroyed Webs to Masterpieces – This short story starts in the living room of the house owned by the lady with the broom and ends with fantastic webs designed in the back yard. Discover how the sun shines brighter, more smiles are occurring as many come to inspect these artistic webs. Yes, this book is part of a series. This book about Stewart’s brother, Mike, is
the second book of the series.
From Destroyed Webs to Masterpieces – This short story starts in the living room of the house owned by the lady with the broom and ends with fantastic webs designed in the back yard. Discover how the sun shines brighter, more smiles are occurring as many come to inspect these artistic webs. Yes, this book is part of a series. This book about Stewart’s brother, Mike, is the second book of the series -
Gift From A Magical Frog
Price range: $3.99 through $11.99Yvonne is a self-taught painter who enjoys painting realistic florals, dogs, birds, and almost any subject. She has evolved into a serious and passionate artist. Yvonne was born in Middletown, New York, is married and lives in Rio Rancho, NM with husband, Michael Korotky.Yvonne has been a member of Rio Rancho Art Association since 2004 and is a Signature Member of International Society of Acrylic Painters since 2008. Yvonne does commission paintings, and donates to various charities or individuals. For several years Yvonne has lived by the motto, “it is better to give than to receive”. Yvonne and Michael are members of Living Word Church in Rio Rancho. You may contact Yvonne by emailing her at: ykorotky444@gmail.com or calling 505-892-5254.
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Hansello and Gertrude Hood Fables (1)
$12.99From Heal The Hood Foundation of Memphis , the creative forces that brought you the Wake Up Tour and the Evolution Comic Book Series, presents Hansello and Gertrude, the 13th and 14th children of Larry and Shantae.In this magical fairy tale from the Hood Fables Series, Hansello and Gertrude take a magical journey that blurs the lines of fact and fiction. This amazing parody gives you an urban twist on an old fable that takes you from cold cuts to candy ladies. Join Hansello and Gertrude as they meet up with other friends from the Hood Fable Universe while finding out that following instructions can keep you from cavities and a lifetime of trouble. It’s the first story out of the gate of side-busting humor that will have you reading, laughing and telling everyone about these amazing stories. Let the fun begin!
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Heaven Scent
Price range: $3.99 through $10.99Sammy is hunting for something, but he doesn’t know what it is. Even though he can’t find it, he doesn’t give up. He continues his search until he finds the greatest treasure ever.
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Her Story: The Road Taken
Price range: $3.99 through $6.99This is a story of a young girl getting pregnant and went ahead and had a baby girl. And she had her baby by a very wealthy man. The story is about a little girl who was born out of wedlock. This is her story.
“This is an old saying…if a man gets the milk for free, why buy the cow?”
