Joy Oden wasn’t always a writer. English wasn’t her major; instead, the lucrative field of sociology beckoned, so naturally, she ended up in advertising. A few international moves, a couple of children and life became hectic; the thought of writing scratched at her consciousness once or twice, the solitude to attempt it probably more appealing that the art itself. Mostly, with those little kids racketing around, she considered myself a ‘wiper’ – spills, faces and bottoms.
But when it came time to earn a paycheck, she bought some time by going back to school where she earned a Masters in English. Why? Because of her passion for the written word? Because of her mania to record the original nuggets that clamored for release from the inside of her brain? No. It was because colleges need English professors.
She’s been teaching at Houston City College ever since. As a teacher, she learned to be a writer. Now words and she are friends. (Although it may be a bit one-sided.)
Her short fiction has appeared in Free Fall Literary Journal, Ariel Chart International Literary Journal, Literally Stories, and others. She’s a Canadian sweltering in Houston with her husband and dog, Bella.
James V Morris is a retired forty-year career educator and school administrator. He first pursued fashion merchandising and design, a short stint as a floral designer, then returned to his original career desire completing a Bachelor’s in elementary education at Lipscomb University. He taught in both public and private schools for thirteen years before earning a Master’s in Administrative Leadership at Trevecca Nazarene University.
His first role as principal then president landed him in a private Christian school fourteen years. Within a legalistic environment he attempted to enact change regarding a host of strict conservative bylaws. He respectfully battled with the board of directors, but little change occurred. He gave up the fight and returned to his roots in a large urban public elementary school with a 96% poverty rate. He was suddenly inundated again but this time with a different set of challenging circumstances. This time battling the devastating impacts of poverty upon families and children’s learning.
He officially retired at age fifty-seven due to some unforeseen bureaucratic circumstances beyond his control. James then returned to the same school district for part-time work, first as a substitute, interim teacher, academic interventionist, and a 120-day assistant principal for six years at a large elementary school in south Nashville with a low poverty rate. He treasured his last stint as an administrator, but called it quits at the even number of forty years.
James is happily married to his wife Pamela forty-three years, and they raised one daughter. James and his wife reside in a rural portion of Davidson County north of Nashville, Tennessee. They have lived at the same location for thirty-eight years and like to refer to the location as “our wooded sanctuary.”James is a man of deeply held faith, relishes his retirement, loves writing, traveling, flower gardening, and always looking for new restaurants to enjoy with his wife or friends. Late in the sixth decade of life he still marvels how his life has unfolded, often stating, “How can this be!”
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.
