Michael Everett Palmer was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and at a young age moved with his family to Southern California.
His early years were chock full of outdoor adventures in the wilderness of Southern California. At the age of eight, his father signed him up in the Cub Scouts to try and fill his burning desire for adventure. Scouting allowed him to learn the skills he needed, to be confident in life, as well as in the outdoors. Boy Scouts followed him into his high school years, where he became an Eagle Scout in 1967.
He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, and surfing the beaches of Southern California, as well as walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals for his collection.
As a young adult, he needed more space than Southern California could offer him and his young family. In 1979 at the age of 26, he moved to Northern California and settled down in “Natures Wonderland,” the small mountain town of Pollock Pines, California.
While in college he became captivated by the “Mother Lode” and the California Gold Rush. Classes like Geology 1 and 2 and the Mining History of the Mother Lode, among many others, fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining.
In 1980 he picked up a gold pan for the first time, and on that day, “the winds of change” blew in his direction. Little did he know that gold pan, would in time, take him around the world.
His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years. He operated his business under the name of “California Chance Mining.” Twenty plus years of that were spent as a professional gold dredger, dredging in the rivers of El Dorado County and Placer Counties. He also worked in Ghana, West Africa, as an explorer, working on both gold and diamond concessions. He also owned and operated a sand and gravel quarry/gold mine in El Dorado County for twelve years.
When he retired in 2019, he began to tell his story, five years later the manuscript of Seasons of Gold was complete and ready for publication.
The romantic history of the California Gold Rush, combined with his passion for gold dredging have inspired him to write this historic gold mining adventure, California Chance: Dredging the Mother Lode in Seasons of Gold.
CALIFORNIA CHANCE is a creative nonfiction memoir, about taking a chance in life and chasing your dreams, much as the early 49ers did chasing their dreams. The romantic history of the California Gold Rush combined with passion for gold dredging inspired this historic gold mining adventure.
Michael Everett Palmer at a young age moved with his family to Southern California. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, surfing the beaches, and walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals. At the age of twenty-six, he moved his young family to Northern California and settled down in “Natures Wonderland,” the small mountain town of Pollock Pines. In college he became captivated by the “Mother Lode” and the California Gold Rush, which fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years.
In journal format, he describes his experiences while dredging for gold on the American River during the mining season of 1995, from the start of the season to the end of the season. It details every phase and aspect of gold dredging that takes place. Below the surface of the water, out of sight and out of mind, there is a time capsule hidden deep within the overburdened gravels resting on bedrock. It is full of artifacts lost or left behind by the Gold Rush miners who mined this ground from 1849 to 1851, and there’s a fortune in gold yet to be found. The time capsule also holds within it another secret. It contains the lost souls of the early 49ers who hoped to strike it rich. When finding the personal artifacts they left behind, they create a powerful medium, a corridor, to go back in time and enter the souls of the miners who lost the artifacts while washing these gravels over 175 years ago.
CALIFORNIA CHANCE is a creative nonfiction memoir, about taking a chance in life and chasing your dreams, much as the early 49ers did chasing their dreams. The romantic history of the California Gold Rush combined with passion for gold dredging inspired this historic gold mining adventure.
Michael Everett Palmer at a young age moved with his family to Southern California. He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, surfing the beaches, and walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals. At the age of twenty-six, he moved his young family to Northern California and settled down in “Natures Wonderland,” the small mountain town of Pollock Pines. In college he became captivated by the “Mother Lode” and the California Gold Rush, which fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining. His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years.
In journal format, he describes his experiences while dredging for gold on the American River during the mining season of 1995, from the start of the season to the end of the season. It details every phase and aspect of gold dredging that takes place. Below the surface of the water, out of sight and out of mind, there is a time capsule hidden deep within the overburdened gravels resting on bedrock. It is full of artifacts lost or left behind by the Gold Rush miners who mined this ground from 1849 to 1851, and there’s a fortune in gold yet to be found. The time capsule also holds within it another secret. It contains the lost souls of the early 49ers who hoped to strike it rich. When finding the personal artifacts they left behind, they create a powerful medium, a corridor, to go back in time and enter the souls of the miners who lost the artifacts while washing these gravels over 175 years ago.
Michael Everett Palmer was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and at a young age moved with his family to Southern California.
His early years were chock full of outdoor adventures in the wilderness of Southern California. At the age of eight, his father signed him up in the Cub Scouts to try and fill his burning desire for adventure. Scouting allowed him to learn the skills he needed, to be confident in life, as well as in the outdoors. Boy Scouts followed him into his high school years, where he became an Eagle Scout in 1967.
He spent his spare time backpacking in the mountains, and surfing the beaches of Southern California, as well as walking the Mojave Desert looking for interesting rocks and minerals for his collection.
As a young adult, he needed more space than Southern California could offer him and his young family. In 1979 at the age of 26, he moved to Northern California and settled down in “Natures Wonderland,” the small mountain town of Pollock Pines, California.
While in college he became captivated by the “Mother Lode” and the California Gold Rush. Classes like Geology 1 and 2 and the Mining History of the Mother Lode, among many others, fired up his enthusiasm to learn all he could about gold mining.
In 1980 he picked up a gold pan for the first time, and on that day, “the winds of change” blew in his direction. Little did he know that gold pan, would in time, take him around the world.
His career in the mining industry spanned thirty-two years. He operated his business under the name of “California Chance Mining.” Twenty plus years of that were spent as a professional gold dredger, dredging in the rivers of El Dorado County and Placer Counties. He also worked in Ghana, West Africa, as an explorer, working on both gold and diamond concessions. He also owned and operated a sand and gravel quarry/gold mine in El Dorado County for twelve years.
When he retired in 2019, he began to tell his story, five years later the manuscript of Seasons of Gold was complete and ready for publication.
The romantic history of the California Gold Rush, combined with his passion for gold dredging have inspired him to write this historic gold mining adventure, California Chance: Dredging the Mother Lode in Seasons of Gold.
Carol Fricke is a retired teacher and coach from Derry Township School District in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Fryburg, a small town. After high school, she attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she competed on their gymnastics team. Following graduation, she moved to Hershey where she spent the next thirty-five years teaching Health and Physical Education at Hershey High School and coaching gymnastics for thirty of those years.Being an animal lover her entire life, Carol knew her retirement had to involve her passion for dogs. She started volunteering with the Susquehanna Service Dogs in Grantville, Pennsylvania after reading about the organization in a local paper. The trainers, volunteers, puppy raisers and dogs that she met there inspired her to write.
Carol lives near Hershey Park in Pennsylvania with her husband and two Newfoundlands. She spends her time playing music, tennis, and as vice-chair for the South Hanover Township Parks & Recreation Board.
Hope Transported is her second book and is a story based on some of her life experiences. She is also the author of Detours, A Novel about the Resiliency of the Human Spirit.
For more information, visit
www.CarolFricke.com
A Novel about Searching, Belonging and Finding a Forever Home
Unwanted is one of the saddest words in the English language.
She was trying to save one dog. He was trying to save himself. When their worlds collide, neither of them will ever be the same again.
Jordy Jenkins is an abused sixteen-year-old foster kid who has never experienced a break. Moving from foster home to foster home, with no prospects of adoption, he withdraws into himself, shutting out the world that will not embrace him.
Maya Jones is a retired high school teacher who finds herself alone for the first time in her life. Her quiet world is shattered after one dog rescue, and for the first time, she finds herself fearful and uncertain.
Through the Lancaster Retriever Rescue, Jordy and Maya strike up an unlikely friendship that begins to heal both their wounds. For the first time in his life, Jordy finds security and acceptance in the world of shelter dogs. His life is on the upswing until one night when everything comes crashing down. With his life in a shambles, Jordy decides to fight back or die trying.
Everybody has a story. Everyone is on a journey. A love story that will touch your heart.
Haley Duncan is a high school English teacher. At thirty-nine-years old, she has already experienced more than enough tragedies in her life after facing the death of her husband and her own infertility. In an attempt to jump-start her life and fill her empty spaces of time, she starts volunteering at the local Service Dog Association. After much persuasion, she reluctantly agrees to finish raising one of their puppies when its puppy raiser becomes ill. This has heartbreak written all over it, keeps running through her mind as she embarks on this journey. But knowing that this puppy could change someone’s life for the better, Haley embraces the challenge ahead of her.
Mark Lancer is a forty-five-year-old divorced father and state policeman whose life certainly has not gone as planned. Within five months, his son left for college, his wife filed for divorce, and his accident happened. All three life-changing events left him bitter and angry. The worst one being the head trauma from the accident that left him with seizures. As he faced an unknown future, his son MJ urged him to apply for a service dog. “I’ll be advertising to the world that I’m disabled,” he argued. But finding it hard to say no, he reluctantly agreed to fill out the application.
When Jed, a service dog, brings together Haley and Mark, both are surprised by their instant attraction for each other. But can these two tragedy-riddled people overcome their pasts and open their hearts to a new beginning? Can giving love a second chance mend two broken hearts and change the path of their lives?
What happens when tragedy strikes . . . and changes everything?
A Novel about Searching, Belonging and Finding a Forever Home
Unwanted is one of the saddest words in the English language.
She was trying to save one dog. He was trying to save himself. When their worlds collide, neither of them will ever be the same again.
Jordy Jenkins is an abused sixteen-year-old foster kid who has never experienced a break. Moving from foster home to foster home, with no prospects of adoption, he withdraws into himself, shutting out the world that will not embrace him.
Maya Jones is a retired high school teacher who finds herself alone for the first time in her life. Her quiet world is shattered after one dog rescue, and for the first time, she finds herself fearful and uncertain.
Through the Lancaster Retriever Rescue, Jordy and Maya strike up an unlikely friendship that begins to heal both their wounds. For the first time in his life, Jordy finds security and acceptance in the world of shelter dogs. His life is on the upswing until one night when everything comes crashing down. With his life in a shambles, Jordy decides to fight back or die trying.
Carol Fricke is the author of Detours, A Novel about the Resiliency of the Human Spirit. Hope Transported is her second book and is a story based on some of her life experiences. She lives near Hershey Park in Pennsylvania with her husband and two Newfoundlands.
Darryl Johnson’s poetry and essays have appeared in regional and national journals. A recipient of the Missouri National Education Association’s Horace Mann Award, Darryl is a former Missouri Teacher of the Year and member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Education from Northwest Missouri State University. He resides in Smithville, Missouri with his wife Renee.
Dear Mom, Dear Dad: A Son’s Thank You is a poignant, autobiographical, epistolary-style book filled with affiliative humor that, through a series of childhood and coming-of-age narratives, underscores how my parents’ attributes of humor, humility, service, and imagination deeply influenced my adult roles.
The sentiments that bombard our lives are mostly ornamental. Memes on social media and front porch signage are well-intended, but projecting a value and living it are two separate things. Sharing these letters may be a gesture of generativity that is not unnatural for somebody my age. I celebrate my parents’ contrasting ideas about learning and education. It prepared me to see parenting and teaching through a wider lens and pushed me to the conclusion that education—in all its forms—is the interstate to independence, the antidote for apathy, and the safeguard against suppression.
Dear Mom, Dear Dad: A Son’s Thank You is a poignant, autobiographical, epistolary-style book filled with affiliative humor that, through a series of childhood and coming-of-age narratives, underscores how my parents’ attributes of humor, humility, service, and imagination deeply influenced my adult roles.
The sentiments that bombard our lives are mostly ornamental. Memes on social media and front porch signage are well-intended, but projecting a value and living it are two separate things. Sharing these letters may be a gesture of generativity that is not unnatural for somebody my age. I celebrate my parents’ contrasting ideas about learning and education. It prepared me to see parenting and teaching through a wider lens and pushed me to the conclusion that education—in all its forms—is the interstate to independence, the antidote for apathy, and the safeguard against suppression.
Darryl Johnson’s poetry and essays have appeared in regional and national journals. A recipient of the Missouri National Education Association’s Horace Mann Award, Darryl is a former Missouri Teacher of the Year and member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Education from Northwest Missouri State University. He resides in Smithville, Missouri with his wife Renee.
Author Fred Berl is a US Navy veteran and an Adjunct Professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Recently retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was a senior manager leading complex, high-risk projects in the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, as well as Ukrainian nuclear power plants and the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment. Fred earned a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering Technology and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from New Mexico Tech.
A Russian FSB agent murders to steal T-90 tank technology that makes them invulnerable to countermeasures. The inventor, Dr. Chandra, secretly reaches out to Carl Stockwell, a former student and ex-CIA agent, to protect himself and his family. Fueled by revenge and geopolitical maneuvering, Carl leads a Polish-Ukrainian covert team racing to reclaim stolen technology from deep within Russia. High-stakes confrontations in Ukraine, Kashmir, Moscow, and St. Petersburg drive a mission that could alter the global power balance. Amidst the chaos, personal loss, and unwavering loyalty intertwine, pushing the characters to their limits as they navigate the treacherous world of espionage.
A Russian FSB agent murders to steal T-90 tank technology that makes them invulnerable to countermeasures. The inventor, Dr. Chandra, secretly reaches out to Carl Stockwell, a former student and ex-CIA agent, to protect himself and his family. Fueled by revenge and geopolitical maneuvering, Carl leads a Polish-Ukrainian covert team racing to reclaim stolen technology from deep within Russia. High-stakes confrontations in Ukraine, Kashmir, Moscow, and St. Petersburg drive a mission that could alter the global power balance. Amidst the chaos, personal loss, and unwavering loyalty intertwine, pushing the characters to their limits as they navigate the treacherous world of espionage.
Author Fred Berl is a US Navy veteran and an Adjunct Professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Recently retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was a senior manager leading complex, high-risk projects in the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, as well as Ukrainian nuclear power plants and the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment. Fred earned a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering Technology and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from New Mexico Tech.
Founded to support independent publishers nationwide, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) leads and serves the independent publishing community through advocacy, education, and tools for success. With over 4,000 members, IBPA is the largest independent publishing association in the U.S. Its vision is a world where every independent publisher has the access, knowledge, and tools needed to professionally engage in all aspects of an inclusive publishing industry. For more information, visit www.ibpa-online.org.
Lana Duncan-Hartgraves is a multifaceted spiritual guide, author, educator, artist, illustrator, Reiki Master, Herbalist, Hypnotist, gardener and Farm Owner dedicated to helping others awaken their inner wisdom.
A psychic medium and channeler, she communicates with Guides, Angels, and Pleiadians, offering insights that bridge the earthly and the cosmic. With a background in therapy and two master’s degrees, Lana brings a deep understanding of trauma-informed ancestral healing and spiritual growth.
Born and raised in Wisconsin with roots in a farm family, Lana’s upbringing instilled in her a strong connection to the land, nature’s rhythms, and the wisdom of generations past.
Lana currently lives on a small hobby farm in Wisconsin with her family, where she cares for her horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. She integrates her love for animals and nature with her spiritual practices, bringing balance and harmony to all aspects of her life.
With over 31 years of teaching experience, Lana has guided countless students, helping them expand their minds and embrace personal growth. Her ability to blend education with spirituality allows her to make complex metaphysical concepts accessible and practical.
Writing under the pen name L. Duncan Hartgraves, she has authored works spanning fiction, art, and dream exploration. As an accomplished artist and illustrator, she has brought stories to life through her creative works, blending visual and spiritual storytelling in unique and inspiring ways.
Lana’s mission is to guide others through their spiritual awakenings with love, authenticity, and wisdom, helping them connect with their higher selves and navigate their destiny paths.
In this electrifying and transformative memoir, readers partake of an unforgettable journey into the mysterious world of psychic phenomena and spiritual awakenings.
What happens when the world you know shatters, and you suddenly find yourself receiving messages from beyond the grave, communicating with angels, and even hearing whispers from extraterrestrial beings? For Lana, a woman raised in the heart of traditional beliefs, this was the shocking reality she couldn’t escape.
In this bold and riveting memoir, Lana recounts her unexpected journey from skepticism to full-fledged psychic medium. What starts as a series of eerie, inexplicable events quickly spirals into a life she never imagined—one filled with ghostly encounters, jaw-dropping messages from the otherside, and jaw-clenching moments when the unknown came knocking on her door.
From messages delivered by ancient guides to psychic predictions that became startlingly true, Lana’s experiences are both thrilling and deeply human. This book takes you on a wild ride through unexplained phenomena, and the revelations that unfold will make you question everything you thought you knew about the world around you.
Memoirs of an Accidental Psychic is more than just a recount of paranormal experiences. It is a story of profound personal transformation. Lana’s struggles to reconcile her spiritual gifts with a conventional upbringing, and her search for meaning in a world full of mystery, will resonate with anyone on their own quest for truth. If you’ve ever wondered what lies beyond the physical world, or if you’ve felt an inexplicable pull toward the spiritual realm, this book is your invitation to discover what’s out there—and what’s inside you. Prepare to be captivated, inspired, and left questioning the boundaries of reality itself.
