Wednesday, April 19, 2017

P is for...Pete and Peggy #AtoZChallenge


P is for...Pete of the Viridian System, and Peggy of Skunk Corners

So why do the best characters keep falling on the same letters? I couldn't miss either of these, so you get both!

From the Viridian System stories by Jemima Pett, we have
Pete Garcia
In a nutshell: One of many exiles from Corsair waiting to be called to arms to rescue the planet from the Imperium, and biding his time with wine, women and asteroid mining.

Biggest secret: His ear-ring

Favourite line: "Any chance of some food, mate?" As an adventurer and a miner, Pete has his priorities straight!

Pete is one of the central characters in the Viridian System books by Jemima Pett.  Book 1 of the series, The Perihelix, will be reissued around November, and work is underway on Book 2! Meanwhile, check out the short stories that started it all:
http://www.ppbooks.co.uk/
And, from the Ninja Librarian books, we have
Peggy Rossiter
In a nutshell: the smartest kid in the Skunk Corners school, and the best mathematician for a long way in any direction, Peggy wants an education like no one’s ever wanted anything before.

Biggest secret: what she thinks of Tommy Colson. She may have other, bigger secrets, before it's all over, but this one's a mystery even to her.
Favorite line:  Explaining why she didn't finish some work: "There was an equation...it took me most of the morning to work it out."
 
 Book Three of the Ninja Librarian books--The Problem With Peggy is the story of how Peggy manages to get her chance at that education. Here's how Big Al learns of the problem, from the first chapter of the book:

When I dismissed the class, I kept Peggy back.

“What’s wrong? When I said school was letting out for the summer you looked like I hit you.” I was almost sorry I asked. The look of desperation on Peggy Rossiter’s face would have broken a tougher heart than mine. She looked like she was about to cry, but Peg was no baby.

“I had a birthday a few weeks ago,” she said as though that answered everything. I kept looking at her, hoping she’d tell me what she meant. “Pa says, now I’m fourteen I should be done with school, like the law says.” Her tone was angry, to keep the tears in.

“The law doesn’t say you have to quit school at fourteen. Only that you can. You’re good at it. You should keep going.” 

Peggy shrugged. “I told him that, and that I want to go on. I even cried, but he won’t listen. Pa doesn’t believe in educating girls. He’s letting me finish this year, but I can’t come back next year. I guess,” she said with a smile that made me want to cry, “I was sorta hoping we just wouldn’t quit, and I could keep on coming to school here forever.” 


http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/p/blog-page_11.html
The Ninja Librarian’s back in town, school’s out, and all’s right with the world…or is it? Big Al may be looking forward to spending her time swimming in the creek and wandering the hills, but Peggy’s looking forward to a life of drudgery. If Al can’t find a way to sway her pa, the brightest kid in Skunk Corners is going to take drastic action. With a mystery from the past haunting one of the houses and creating the biggest threat yet to the town, Big Al’s going to be kept busy this summer, and not just with practicing her moves for the Ninja Librarian!
 
 

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

O is for...Kevin Olsen #AtoZChallenge



O is for Kevin Olsen, of the Pismwallops PTA mysteries

In a nutshell: Kevin Olsen is a high school senior who plays a minor role in each of the Pismawallops PTA books. He plays football and gets his heart broken a lot.
Biggest Secret: He isn't much for keeping secrets, really. JJ finds it easy to get information out of him, most of the time.
Favorite Line: "But man, you know, I really liked her."

What do you serve when all you have in the freezer is an ice-cold corpse? 
JJ and her best friend Kitty struggle to hold the Pismawallops PTA together, and new volunteer Letitia LeMoine isn’t making it any easier.  But when Letitia’s strangled corpse turns up where the ice cream bars should have been, things get a whole lot worse.  JJ has to shoehorn in a search for the killer along with all her other problems: divorce, a 15-year-old son with his first girlfriend, a desperate race to complete the Yearbook on time, and her own tendency to get all wobbly-kneed around the Chief of Police.  JJ just can’t help asking a few questions.  But a loud mouth and insatiable curiosity can be a dangerous combination.  Especially when someone wants her stopped.

Amazon as Paperback or Kindle.
Smashwords (all ebook formats) 
Barnes and Noble for Nook or paper 
iBooks
Kobo Store 
Paperbacks also in the Createspace Store!


Following the suggestion of fellow blogger and amazing author Jemima Pett, I'm doing a very simple A to Z with characters from my writing and the books of my author friends! I'm just posting a brief profile, sometimes a quote, and the book cover with links. Though you may also see some of my typical reviews (when I feature other peoples’ books) and the usual Friday Flash Fiction.

Monday, April 17, 2017

N is for The Ninja Librarian #AtoZChallenge



N is for...the Ninja Librarian, of course!


In a nutshell: A calm, quiet, moderate man who walked into Skunk Corners library one day and became a fixture.  And of course, he's a ninja.
Biggest secret: His past.
Favorite line: “Does that completely answer your question?”

The series is The Ninja Librarian, with three books, suitable for ages 8 or 9 and up (way up--adults love the books too!). And while the narrator is Big Al, there is no question that the star is the Ninja Librarian himself. A mysterious character, he has only a single name--Tom--and has never told Al much of anything about himself, though bits leak through--everyone knows he grew up in the city--some city--and doesn't know country stuff very well. He's quick study, though, and can think of things no one else would dream of. Then he turns around and gets others to think as creatively.
The Ninja Librarian is a humorous set of tall tales set in the highly fictional gold-country town of Skunk Corners.  It’s the story of a dusty, tough, unfriendly town that gets a new outlook on life thanks to the advent of the Ninja Librarian—a mild-mannered librarian who offers his wisdom...with a little extra when folks don’t listen.
Amazon Kindle ebook  
Barnes & Noble (Nook or paper)
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/p/blog-page_11.html  
When Big Al wakes up one morning and finds the Ninja Librarian has left town, everything seems to go wrong.  And just about the time she’s thinking maybe the town can cope after all, he comes back.  After that, it’s business as usual in Skunk Corners: bad guys, irritated skunks, and crises big and small that require the Librarian’s unique brand of outside-the-box thinking and direct action.
Paperbacks:
Barnes & Noble paper
Ebooks:

Amazon (Kindle)
Smashwords (all ebook formats)
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/p/blog-page_11.html
The Ninja Librarian’s back in town, school’s out, and all’s right with the world…or is it? Big Al may be looking forward to spending her time swimming in the creek and wandering the hills, but Peggy’s looking forward to a life of drudgery. If Al can’t find a way to sway her pa, the brightest kid in Skunk Corners is going to take drastic action. With a mystery from the past haunting one of the houses and creating the biggest threat yet to the town, Big Al’s going to be kept busy this summer, and not just with practicing her moves for the Ninja Librarian!
 


Following the suggestion of fellow blogger and amazing author Jemima Pett, I'm doing a very simple A to Z with characters from my writing and the books of my author friends! I'm just posting a brief profile, sometimes a quote, and the book cover with links. Though you may also see some of my typical reviews (when I feature other peoples’ books) and the usual Friday Flash Fiction.