Book Force

07/24/2023

Check out this incredible review on Betty Vaughn's Bear Tracks.

Dear Betty,
I completed reading BEAR TRACKS this past week and thought it would be fun to let you know why/how!

First of all, your plot dynamics are so well thought out that it is a joy to observe how smoothly (and threateningly!) the plot moves from one crisis to another, but never in a grim, gray manner; in one case, as the leadership team of POTUS, Dianna, and their attendants needs to move from the White House out to their transportation to Wilmington, NC, for some necessary R & R, they dress in outlandish disguises, entertaining the reader as well as the tourists visiting the President’s home—and escaping scot-free! So, in that turn of the plot, you bring in staging, costuming, and humor on a grand scale—something totally NEW to camouflage the dangers on every side! Plot is a key skill of yours, and the reader admires it wherever it takes him/her! Brava!

Yet your writing also appears to smoothly guide us to intermittent scenes of love and kind repartee between the married couple in the story, Quint and Lila, lowering the stress & natural anxiety that “enters in” at intervals of threat and possible loss of life among those the married partners are asked to protect. Thus, unlike many, many other novels, the scenes relieved by talk and affection between a married couple serve to relieve the gathered tensions of threats on every hand, and what a fine relief it is, too—just in time, often! So Betty, hooray to you for your rare ability to know when to change the dynamics of the story with a “soft and thoughtful” scene between the two principals, then ramp up tension, secrecy, and anxiety again just when the reader is rested and ready for some fighting to the death!

Keep writing, now! Exercise your gifts and abilities again to entertain with refreshing plots in humor, sheer danger, and moments of repartee—and many thanks for sharing your lively BEAR TRACKS with this ready reader!
With best regards and many thanks,
Linda Hobson
Dr. Linda Hobson is an emeritus professor of Literature from UNC

Bear Tracks (Quint Cord Novel)

02/17/2023

Check out A. Hardy Roper's book on Amazon, Girl Lost. A detective story centering around Galveston, Texas.

Best friends, Akemi and Maria do everything together including lunch at school and Friday night sleepovers at each other’s home. But when they disappear following a school volleyball game, their world and everyone’s close to them, turns upside down. Retired army intel officer, Parke...

02/15/2023

A lonely swamp frog sets on a log singing night after night in hopes of finding a mate.
A charming book that encourages a child to just maybe find a friend.
This illustrated story books is sure to please the read-aloud crowd.
The perfect Story Time book series for both boys and girls ages 3-7 Grades: K-1.
Get your copy from Amazon today.
https://www.amazon.com/Frog-Log-Lonnie-Budro/dp/1648833047/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3PI8OM6RUCLRD&keywords=the+frog+on+a+log+lonnie+budro&qid=1676476916&sprefix=the+frog+on+a+log+lonnie+budro%2Caps%2C119&sr=8-1

02/03/2023

Check out this whimsical book by Lonnie Budro about a bee who goes on a trip to visit friends.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTRPGVZS

08/19/2022

Check out this great video on TikTok!
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7133605122407566638?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

School Mice and the Summer Vacation

08/17/2022

Check out this great video on TikTok!
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7129908356126428458?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Stammering Sam

08/04/2022

Check out this great children's book!
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7119899817555266859?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Holey Moley

08/01/2022

Check out this great children's book!
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7120255983221345582?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Stammering Sam

07/28/2022

Check out this great reading by Maureen Keller-Kirby.

https://www.tiktok.com//video/7125428275115052334?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

The Leprechaun Who Was Not A Mouse

07/27/2022

Check out this TikTok video and more on MouseGate
https://www.tiktok.com/@7117299515905066026/video/7119896597630094635?browserMode=1

The Vampire Who Had No Fangs

07/26/2022

Check out this book by Molly O'Connor. Your kids will LOVE it!
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7119877918225927466?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Morty the Morton Street bus

07/22/2022

Check out the Mouse Gate Press TikTok page and find your next favorite book!
https://www.tiktok.com/

1 Followers, 0 Following, 17 Likes - Watch awesome short videos created by MouseGatePress

04/13/2022

Author Carl Trepagnier survived the 1947 Texas City Explosion 75 years ago.
Join us on April 14, 2022 at the Helen Hall Library in League City, TX and listen as Mr. Trepagnier reviews his historical novel, Rise Up.
But if you can’t make it, please Zoom in at https://bit.ly/3rjhTNH
His book is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Novel-About-Texas-Explosion/dp/1648831540/ref=sr_1_1?crid=11SJF8CX9Z2IP&keywords=rise+up+carl+trepagnier&qid=1649859950&sprefix=rise+up+Carl%2Caps%2C332&sr=8-1

Rise Up A Novel About The 1947 Texas City Explosion

03/31/2022

This Jim West mystery/thriller, the sixth in the series, finds Jim traveling to the Texas Hill Country to attend the grand opening of a friend’s winery and vineyard. Upon arriving in Fredericksburg, Jim witnesses a brutal kidnapping at a local coffee shop. The next morning while driving down an unpaved country road to the grand opening, he comes across an active crime scene barely a quarter mile from his friend’s winery. A Fredericksburg policeman who talked to Jim the day before at the kidnapping scene recognizes Jim and asks him to identify the body of a dead young woman as the woman who was kidnapped. Jim does, and as a result of this unwelcome relationship with the police is asked the next morning to identify the body of another murdered person as the man who had kidnapped the young woman. A third murder throws Jim’s vacation into complete disarray and draws Jim and a female friend into the sights of one of the killers.
https://www.amazon.com/Caffeine-Can-Kill-West-Novel-ebook/dp/B00W2DICWQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MUXFPWK4DY3N&keywords=caffeine+can+kill+bob+doerr&qid=1648734335&sprefix=caffeine+can+kill+bob+doerr%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1

Caffeine Can Kill: A Jim West Novel

03/30/2022

Check out this review for The Enchanted Coin by Bob Doerr.
https://blogmumjd.wordpress.com/2022/03/22/the-enchanted-coin-by-bob-doerr-book-review/

Disclosure. This post is a review of an e-book I was sent for free.. All opinions are my own. I received a free e-copy of the book The Enchanted Coin by Bob Doerr to review. It is the first title i…

03/30/2022

In No One Else To Kill, Jim West travels to a small, remote hunting lodge in the Pecos Wilderness area in New Mexico to rendezvous with an old friend and do some hiking. His friend stands him up, and Jim is about to return home when a murder occurs in the lodge. Law enforcement jumps in, and Jim’s early departure plans are scrubbed. When a second murder occurs less than twenty four hours later, things really start to get dicey. Both crimes were intricately planned to mislead the authorities, no one appears to have a motive for the killings, and everyone has an alibi. Up against a wall with time running out, the deputy-in-charge asks West to be their man on the inside, but West is adamant that this is not his case to solve. Since his retirement from the Air Force, however, Fate has had her own plans for West. Why should this be any different?

03/25/2022

ANOTHER COLORADO KILL is the fourth book in the Jim West mystery/thriller series. In this fast paced story, Jim and friend Edward “Perry” Mason are in route to Colorado Springs to play some golf when they discover a dead body, an apparent murder victim, at a rest stop along the interstate highway. Perry’s stress levels hit the max during the subsequent police interview. He has a heart attack and the golf outing falls apart.
When the police find two more murder victims the next day, both killed with the same weapon that killed the victim whom West had discovered the day before, and the female victim has his name written on a notepad in her purse, their focus on West intensifies. West explains that by chance both the female victim and he had eaten at the same restaurant, but at separate tables, the night before. She had been with two men at the restaurant and had left before he had a chance to talk to her. They had met a few times in the past, but weren’t close.
A Sheriff’s deputy, Lieutenant Michelle Prado befriends West, and the two work together in an effort to find the real murderer. As their relationship develops, West finds himself physically attracted to her, but does she feel the same way?
Soon an attempt is made on Jim’s life and he realizes that for some reason the killer, like the police, believes that West knows more about the killings than he has admitted. Jim finds himself playing “cat and mouse” with the killer while trying to convince the police that their focus on him is a waste of time and resources.
When the FBI moves in to help out, the pressure to solve the case mounts. West and Lieutenant Prado discover the local murders may be connected to a larger, nationwide FBI investigation into organized crime and political corruption.
West finally has permission to go home to Clovis and is about to leave when the killer shoots Ollie, a young female Deputy whom had become friends with West. The killer leaves her to die on a dirt road. The killer had gone too far. As Michelle leaves with Ollie’s crumpled body in her back seat, West picks up Ollie’s issued 9mm and heads off into the woods to track the killer. The time had come to stop the killings. If he can catch up with the killer, only one of them will return alive.

https://www.amazon.com/Another-Colorado-Kill-Jim-West-ebook/dp/B005GNIC1K/ref=sr_1_1?crid=148QAWSJW5HAF&keywords=another+colorado+kill+bob+doerr&qid=1648222059&sprefix=another+colorado+kill+bob+doer%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-1

03/21/2022

LOOSE ENDS KILL is a fast paced mystery/thriller that takes place in the historic city of San Antonio, Texas, and throws Jim West into the middle of a police investigation of the murder of an old friend’s wife. The police already believe they have the killer in custody – West’s friend.

West is drawn into this mystery by a call from the old friend who requests his assistance. West agrees to help his friend and digs deep to try to find another suspect. In the process he soon discovers that he is being followed and targeted for harassment, but by whom?

West quickly discovers that he didn’t know his old friend’s wife as well as he thought. To his surprise, he learns that she has had a number of affairs dating back for more than a decade. In fact, while investigating the murder, he realizes that his friend and he may be the only two people unaware of her philandering behavior.

Theorizing that one of her lovers could have had just as much motive as her husband, West starts turning over the rocks identifying one lover after another. In doing so, West unintentionally ignites an outbreak of more death and mayhem. The police and his friend’s lawyers want West to go back home. The police even threaten to arrest him.

Soon, West believes the real killer wants him gone or dead. Deciding the only way to resolve the case before the outside pressures force him to leave, he sets a trap for the killer using himself as bait. However, he soon learns he may have only outsmarted himself.