When the wilderness becomes both teacher and test, survival is only part of the story. In Never Lost by Aaron C. Anderson, man and nature meet in a raw, soul-stirring journey through the untamed heart of Idaho’s backcountry. Part survival tale, part spiritual odyssey, this novel explores what it truly means to endure — and to stay connected to the wisdom of generations past. Learn more about this book and its author--and be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post. 

General Fiction

Date Published: October 23rd, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

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Zane Carter and his sons, eleven-year-old Ty and thirteen-year-old Joseph, venture one hundred miles into the Idaho wilderness with only a knife and the knowledge of their Nez Perce ancestors. Danger awaits at every deadfall and lurks in every snowy shadow as the boys hunt, fish, make weapons, and build shelter, learning to survive, taking only what they need from the land, and leaving no trace.

 

During their eighteen-day journey, Zane’s determination to fulfill a promise to his grandfather, an Indigenous warrior who exemplified the tenets of a wise and spiritual existence, is thwarted by a fatal encounter that transports Zane into an ancient realm as he straddles the thin line between life and death.

 

He wonders what has become of his boys. Have they learned enough patience, resourcefulness, and courage to complete this rite of passage? Will they make it out of the wildlands alive? Or will the unforgiving forces of the natural world take them too far from home to ever return?

 

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About the Author

After high school, Aaron Anderson set out to see the world, embarking on adventures through North America, Europe, and North Africa. He enjoyed traveling as a bicyclist, motorcyclist, train passenger, and even as a hitchhiker, reveling in the excitement of the unknown.

 

At the age of twenty-two, Aaron returned to the US and worked on oil rigs in Wyoming. He later became a carpenter and eventually a real estate appraiser. However, his true passions have always been writing, developing powerful friendships, and exploring new country. 

 

During the 1980s he and his two sons hunted, hiked, and camped throughout the western states. Here, his love for the natural world and respect for Indigenous people prompted him to write his second novel, Never Lost.

 

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Before video games and smartphones, adventure was homemade — and sometimes a little hazardous. Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis invites readers to step back into the dusty boots of frontier childhood, where imagination ruled and every day promised discovery — or danger! Learn about the book and the authors & be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.

Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger written by Preston Lewis and Harriet Kocher Lewis

Date Published: 11-04-2025

Publisher: Bariso Press

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While their parents settled the land, these pintsized pioneers explored it, creating their own adventures with homemade toys, daring games, wild animal encounters, and risky escapades. This engaging sequel to the award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time shines a spotlight on the joys and perils of play in a land still being tamed. 

From exploring the prairie and wrangling critters to celebrating frontier holidays and watching traveling circuses, this book reveals how children carved out fun and entertainment in a rough-and-tumble world. Learn how railroads and mail-order catalogs brought new toys, how schools and churches doubled as social hubs, and how a simple game could end in laughter—or injury. 

Written for young adults but fascinating for readers of all ages, Pintsized Pioneers at Play is packed with history, heart, and a hint of danger. Written at a tenth-grade reading level perfect for curious minds, Pintsized Pioneers at Play includes a glossary of related terms. 

Perfect for fans of Western history, educators, homeschoolers, and lovers of untold American stories!

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About the Authors

 Preston Lewis is the award-winning author of more than sixty western, historical, juvenile, and nonfiction works. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his literary achievements. The Will Rogers Medallion Awards named him the 2025 recipient of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the literature of the American West.

Western Writers of America (WWA) has honored Lewis with three Spur Awards, one for best article, a second for best western novel and a third one for YA nonfiction in 2025. He has received eleven Will Rogers Medallion Awards (seven gold, two silver and two bronze) for written western humor, short stories, YA nonfiction, short nonfiction, and traditional Western novel. 

Harriet Kocher Lewis is a retired physical therapist and PT educator. As an assistant clinical professor of physical therapy at Angelo State University, she taught documentation and scientific writing among other topics as the department’s coordinator of clinical education. 

After retirement she became the publisher of Bariso Press and in that capacity an award-winning author and editor. Books she has edited have earned a Spur Award, Will Rogers Gold and Bronze Medallions for YA nonfiction and western humor, a Literary Global Book Award for cookbooks, and an Independent Author Award for western nonfiction. Other books she has edited have been finalists for Spur Awards in juvenile nonfiction and for Independent Author Awards for both memoirs and humor. 

Kocher Lewis is co-author with her husband of the Spur Award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time and three books on artificial Intelligence, all published by Bariso Press. They live in San Angelo, Texas.

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Today, I have a children's book to share in our book spotlight! Learn about The Wheels on the Stroller and author Claudia Kramer Kohlbrenner & be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Date Published: 2025

Publisher: Serapis Bey Publishing

Illustrator: Brian Dumm

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Ready…Set…Let’s Roll!

About the Author

When teaching at the preschool level, Claudia encouraged busy parents to utilize the time spent carrying out daily routines as language-rich opportunities. Parents were counseled to talk about what was happening in a child’s “here and now” - while getting dressed, brushing teeth, taking a stroller walk! Claudia used available and self-generated rhymes and songs and involved as many bodily senses and movements as possible to facilitate developmental skills in preschoolers. She considers the repetition used in The Wheels on the Bus book and now in The Wheels on the Stroller to be a valuable learning tool for young children. According to early childhood research, repetition reinforces language processing, pattern recognition and a sense of predictability. It also provides children with opportunities to rehearse new sound and word sequences.

After retirement, Claudia’s love of rhyme inspired her to take a few children’s poetry writing classes. She was pleased to have several poems published in “Highlights High Five” and “Highlights” magazines, with two poems also published in children’s anthologies. The joy of reading to her sons long ago and now her grandchildren sparked her desire to write a children’s book as well. One day, after she and her young grandson enthusiastically sang and motioned along with The Wheels on the Bus book, grandma and grandson set out for one of their many adventure-seeking neighborhood stroller walks. As the wheels on his stroller went round and round, they greeted neighbors with tail-wagging dogs, watched squirrels scurry up trees and delighted in the “ding! ding! ding!” of an approaching bicycle along with other encounters- The Wheels on the Stroller was spontaneously born!

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Sister Acts Brings a Well-Developed Emotional Family Drama to Readers. The author does an excellent job of exploring the life events, challenges, personalities, and family dynamics that unfold over time. For the Malinsky family, grief, dysfunction, jealousy, and drama shape the characters (and influence their paths in life). For readers, this emotional drama is well-organized, well-developed, and realistically portrayed, making it an intense page-turner. 

Expect to Find a Relatable, Provoking Story. I am an only child, so I do not have experience with my own sibling dynamics. However, I have seen complicated relationships in other families, especially after grief resolves (or doesn't). The author presents the sisters' lives and relationships very realistically, giving each a relatable personality that readers will either connect with or love to hate. I felt for Rose, understood Betti and Naomi, and know many women who are very much like Marla. While the story is built on the loss of the girls' mother, it includes family secrets, drama, events and challenges to keep the storyline moving and engaging from beginning to end. 

Would I Recommend Sister Acts by Sharon Adelman Reyes? If you enjoy family dramas with strong, imperfect female characters that are emotional and thought-provoking, this novel is very well done. As the author explores the sisters' relationships and their life paths, readers will grow to understand the characters on a deeper level — and will encounter thoughts that linger after the last page.  

Meet the Author

Sharon Adelman Reyes is a writer, editor, and equestrienne in Oregon, living on the slopes of an extinct volcano and looking out on an active one. During a lengthy professional career, she has published various works drawing on her experiences in multicultural teaching. Sister Acts is her first novel.

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Today, I have a fun children's book to share! Learn about The Adventures of Hairy Spinner by author Heidi Scarano! Be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Children's Book

Date Published: 11-23-2024

Publisher: Bright Communications

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About the Author

 Author Heidi Scarano resides in Berks County, PA. She is a avid lover of nature, science, and photography. She enjoys outings with her family and seeking new adventures via traveling, when she likes to experience local customs, cultures and foods.

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This morning, I have a contemporary romance that features a touch of magic in the story! Learn about Formula for Fate from the Fairy Godmothers, Incoporated series by Maya Tyler! Be sure to enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Fairy Godmothers, Incorporated Book 2

Date Published: 10-28-2025

Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing

About the Author

When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, listening to music (alternative rock, especially from the 1990s), practicing yoga, and watching movies and TV.

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Political Satire/Fiction

Date Published: October 28th, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

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About the Book

 

At the turn of the next century, a corporate oligarchy rules America with an iron fist. Commercial jingles have replaced the Top Forty, babies come from factories, and the race captivating the nation isn’t between political candidates. It’s the cutthroat competition to find the formula for No-Sog Stay-Crisp Cornflakes.

 

The battle pits cereal titan Todd Swindell, head of Flakes Alive Incorporated, against Chad Scandalman of the Great American Flake Company. When Scandalman hires a diminutive assassin named Twinkle to bump off his rival’s top chemist, it sparks a war of the flakes that makes the bloody feud of York and Lancaster look tame by comparison. 

 

But not everyone in the Cornflake capital of Domino, Indiana, is happy with the status quo. Ziggie Wexler, an unemployed pipefitter and all-around average Joe, knows that something is deeply wrong with his country. 

 

All history prior to 2040 has been banned, but old-timers whisper about the days when people still voted for their leaders. After Ziggie posts fiery polemics against the state to the Clandestine Journal, he becomes a marked man. But in a world built on lies, there’s one truth he’s sure of. Somebody needs to fight back.

 

About the Author

Retired IT professional, James Owens is a trained computer engineer and technical documentation specialist who earned an A.A.S. in computer programming and a B.A. in English from Purdue University.

 

Immensely curious about human behavior, James spent the 1970s hanging out on the streets to observe people, many of whom became inspirations for his fictional characters. Later, he worked in cube farms at conservative insurance companies, where the idiosyncrasies of corporate personalities sparked his imagination. 

 

James has spent the last decade reading and writing offbeat fiction about bizarre protagonists. Corporate Almighty: 2098, a dystopian tale about the rise of the corporation and the fall of democracy, follows his first two novels, Animal Candy and Pods of Bubbledumb: A Study in Mass Depravity. 

 

Born and raised in an industrial suburb on the south edge of Chicago, James lives with his wife Sue and four cats in Evansville, Indiana.

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