Dear Reader, Love Kate Damon

 

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your interest in my book Jury Duty is Murder. Some of you might know me as Margaret Brownley.  Under that name, I’m a New York Times bestselling author with more than forty-six romance novels to my credit.  You may wonder why, after all this time, I would change genres.  It wasn’t intentional.

I initially intended to write a courtroom romance about a sequestered jury set in the 1800s. However, after conducting research, I discovered that the first sequestered jury did not occur until 1907, which is quite late for stories set in the Old West. This knowledge led me to abandon the idea—or at least attempt to do so, but the characters kept popping up in my thoughts.  Finally, I gave in and began writing the story alongside my other projects.  What started out to be a historical soon turned into a contemporary mystery.

The story begins on the day the trial concludes, and the jurors—finally released after four grueling months—are free to return to their lives. But their relief is short-lived. One by one, jurors begin to die under suspicious circumstances. CeeCee, who served as juror number five, is convinced that someone is targeting them. She calls a meeting, but only three other former jurors—Harold, Helen, and Alex—show up. Ironically, the four who could barely tolerate each other during the trial are now forced to work together to uncover the truth before they also become victims. As their journey unfolds, so do powerful themes of friendship, betrayal, and the unforeseen cost of justice.

The book not only explores the suspense of tracking down a killer, but also the personal struggles each character faces after being sequestered for four long months.  Their journey reflects how a verdict can rip through lives in unexpected ways. 

For those who appreciate the humor in my romance novels, there's no need for concern. Our four amateur detectives will keep you laughing with their comical antics as they work to solve the mystery.

I really enjoyed writing the book, but it didn’t come about without a lot of headaches. Since the book is so different from what I normally write, I had to use a pen name.  That made me an unknown writer, and finding a publisher was no easy task.  I will forever be grateful to The Wild Rose Press for publishing the book.

I hope you enjoy the story and have fun attempting to unravel the mystery alongside the four jurors who have taken on the role of amateur detectives. The question is, who will arrive at the solution first? Them or you?

Love Kate Damon

When Kate Damon is not writing, she and her husband enjoy RVing, spending time with family and friends, raising Monarch butterflies, and playing a wicked game of bridge.

Writing as Margaret Brownley, she has published more than 40 novels and is a New York Times bestselling author. Known for her memorable characters and humor, she is a two-time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist.

Not counting the book she wrote in sixth grade, and the puzzle of the missing socks, this is her first mystery.

Website ➜http://margaret-brownley.com/

Twitter ➜https://www.x.com/katejuryduty

Facebook ➜https://www.facebook.com/MargaretBrownleyAuthor/ and https://www.facebook.com/p/Kate-Damon-61565155275435/

Instagram ➜https://www.instagram.com/katedamonbooks

BookBub➜https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-damon

Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4072660.Kate_Damon and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/163681.Margaret_Brownley

The verdict is in; a famed athlete is headed for prison. The jurors have done their job and are free to go back to their lives. But after being sequestered for four months, life as some knew it no longer exists.

HAROLD ASHMAN’s house is almost destroyed by a careless driver. Exotic dancer, CEECEE LAINE, discovers that her boyfriend is two-timing her, and she no longer has a job. Actor ALEX MANNING learns his career is down the tubes, and 72-year-old, HELEN RYDER, discovers her family is plotting to put her in an old folks home.

Then things take a turn for the worse. When former jurors start dropping like flies, CeeCee, Helen, Harold and Alex are convinced there’s a killer on the loose. Now the feuding foursome must find him before he kills them—or before they save him the trouble by killing each other.

Jury Duty is Murder is available at Amazon.

 

Dear Reader, Love Christopher Kaufman

 

Dear Reader,

I am a creative artist and a storyteller. I create books with vivid audio albums filled with cinematic/symphonic music, narration and sound design and which are also live theatrical shows. I compose music for the classical concert stage and film. I present multiple concert series’ and perform as reader, conductor and player. 

Looking back…I started writing fantasy books with illustrations when I was nine years old. Later, I discovered music and lived the life of a composer for many years. My stories never left me. In fact, I am the type of person who needs some kind of active imaginative world to get myself to sleep. I emerged from my schooling phase with a Doctorate in music composition (Cornell) and the complete event structure for Tales Of The Ocean City through book eight, which I am completing now. Of course, when I get to each new area of the story it burgeons out, grows new branches and new things happen from the early conceptions.

There is much autobiography in my stories.

In Tales Of The Ocean City is chronicled a young civilization turning the corner into the future. The main characters are young Harl’ut and his lifelong companion, Vispushin - she is a perianth (a kind of telepathic pegasus).  They are close, like family, and speak to each other mind-to-mind.

Before moving into the future, the citizens of The Ocean City must face their brutal and primitive past. This happens in multiple ways. For Harl’ut, he undergoes an initiation ritual adventure at the end of Book Two where he faces images and personifications from the past, resolves them and battles a terrible monster. The Ocean City itself, in the over-all five book opening series, must face an enemy from ancient times, The Vorm, with whom they co-evolved on the ancestral isle and who are now threatening their very existence. In books four and five, the heroes of The Ocean City engage in epic war with the Vorm and Harl’ut and Vispushin lead a cadre of young warriors into the Vorm Hive on a vital mission.

Much of this can be interpreted as a metaphor for our personal journeys. I emerged from much conflict in my youth to a very positive place filled with career and personal success and am moving forward as a storyteller. When writing TOC, I realized that there were specific things that relate to my childhood experiences and that certain characters relate to people of my past and present. I will save going into those specifics for another time - but am happy to report that the perianth race is based on my animal family - we call them pets…but they are so much more.

I believe in the transformative power of imagination, especially as demonstrated in the fine arts.  That’s why I like to use the word classical in defining TOC, i.e. Classical Epic Fantasy.  Much of my work is about feeding and growing imagination in one way or another. I hope people experience my work and then feel differently about how they experience the world around them.  Imagination is the highest function of the human mind - it gives us art, music and scientific theories…and helps us envision a better future for ourselves and our civilization. It has been damaged in many ways in our modern lives. Fantasy can help cure this.

I hope experiencing my work help you to see and experience life with imagination. Everything around you is alive, everything is a story waiting to be told.  Tell yourself these stories as you walk through life.

Keep reading fantasy! Live with imagination!

With love for my readers and fantasy,

Christopher Kaufman

Christopher Kaufman is an author, composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of nine. During high school years he found music and attended The New Orleans Center for The Creative Arts and went on to major in music composition in college. He finished his schooling – earning his DMA in music composition at Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize Winning composers who prize his abilities as a composer.

Christopher is the type of person who needs imaginative fantasy scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, he emerged from Cornell, not only with his degrees in music, but with the full event structure for his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The Ocean City in his mind.

He began writing the story down in the early 2000’s, but it did not really come to life until he developed his home music ‘laboratory’ and started creating the music and text at the same time. Thus books one and two of TOC came about simultaneously as both graphically illustrated pages and effulgent audio albums filled with cinematic epic symphonic music.

They exist now as physical books and audio albums (that go together) and the new Video Book version.  He performs live tours with the music pouring through speakers, live narration and the colorful pages streaming on screen – a true immersive multi-media experience.

He also maintains his career as a composer for the concert stage with a full body of work, from solo works thru orchestral. He specializes as well in ‘environmental works’ which feature soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds, live musicians (from soloists, chamber groups and to full orchestra), videos filled with both natural and artistic images and readings from the works of John Muir and others.

Kaufman’s books feature full-page graphic illustration and go-with audio albums filled with epic cinematic music, narration and sound design.  All available, with generous discount packages, at kaufmantales.com (epubs and the new Video  Book version available there!).

His author page is talesoftheoceancity.com.

His you-tube channel is SOUNDARTUS.

Visit him at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talesoftheoceancity.

Christopher believes in the transformative power of imagination.

“Live with imagination!”

 

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past – THE VORM.

The main characters are a young man named Harl’ut and his lifelong companion Vispushin – who is a perIanth, a kind of telepathic pegasus. Join them on this epic adventure as they lead a group of young warriors into the heart of the Vorm Hive.

Book One: Battle In The Sky is the first of five books which comprise the opening series of this epic tale. Here, Harl’ut and Vispushin and The Princess Bryn’lynn, engage in desperate battle over the southern plain with savage Vorm warriors. You will be uplifted by the passionate and thrilling conclusion of the first installment of this fantasy adventure. 

In Book Two: Descent Into The Abyss, Harl’ut recovers from his harrowing adventure from Book One: Battle In The Sky. He walks through the streets of The Ocean City, visits the Sculpture Garden and his friend, Elá, the bard, and engages in exciting training games with warrior/mentor, Calanctus. Then the story takes you down the throat of the vast volcano, Pla’than’taa, once worshipped as a god, where Harl’ut enacts a deadly initiation ritual, confronts the barbaric past of his people and battles a terrifying monster. 

Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/.

 

 

Dear Reader, Love Michael Okon

 

Dear Reader,

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time and reading what was in my head just a few months ago.

I’ve been writing as far back as I could remember, specifically screenplays. After I learned about self-publishing, I began turning my scripts into novels under a pen name. Specifically, for my book Monsterland, in 2015, I was watching an 80s & 90s movie marathon with my kids – The Goonies, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, etc… I wrote the ghost novels, I wrote the witches novels, but I wanted to write a monster novel. After watching all these films, it literally popped into my head – why isn’t there a theme park with zombies. I called my brother and told him about my idea and he flat out said no. It has to be a theme park with werewolves, vampires AND zombies. I started beating out the story that night. 

My mom is my publicity manager and she blitzed the bloggers with my book. That fall I was reading a book called Selling a Screenplay by Syd Field. In the book, there was an entertainment attorney named Susan Grode who seemed very knowledgeable about the publishing and film industry. I told myself, when I receive my first contract, I’m going to reach out to her to see if she could help me. About two months later, I received a post on Facebook from an agent in London who asked to represent me. I said sure and asked him to send me a contract. I emailed Susan and introduced myself and mentioned that I had someone who wanted to rep me and I was hoping she could read this contract. She told me before I sign with this London agent, why don’t I meet her friend in Brooklyn, an agent named Nick Mullendore with Vertical Ink Literary Agency. I met Nick for lunch and he signed me that day as his client. That evening, Susan brought me on as her client as well. Nick began trying to sell my book Monsterland to the big publishers and, as expected, it was rejected. Throughout his attempts of selling, he had a call with a film agent and he was pitching her a romance novel. She said she wasn’t really into romance and was looking for something with monsters. He sent her my book Monsterland, she read it over a weekend, and we had a call that Monday. She told Nick and me if we get the book published, she will get it into a producer’s hands to make into a film. Nick found a publisher called WordFire Press owned by Kevin J. Anderson, who has written all the Star Wars and Dune canon books. WordFire signed me to a two-book deal for Monsterland 1 & 2. After the deal was signed, my film agent did what she promised and got my book into the hands of a billion-dollar grossing producer who is now shopping my book to certain studios.  In two years, I went from a self-published author, to a published author with a literary agent, an entertainment attorney, a film agent, a two-book publishing deal, a publicist, and a producer who is interested in turning my book to a film. It’s been one wild ride, to say the least. 

Love, Michael Okon

 

Michael Okon is an award-winning and best-selling author of multiple genres, including paranormal, thriller, horror, action/adventure, and self-help. He graduated from Long Island University with a degree in English and then later received his MBA in business and finance. Coming from a family of writers, he has storytelling in his DNA. Michael has been writing from as far back as he can remember, his inspiration being his love for films and their impact on his life. From the time he saw The Goonies, he was hooked on the idea of entertaining people through unforgettable characters.

Michael is a lifelong movie buff, a music playlist aficionado, and a sucker for self-help books. He lives on the North Shore of Long Island with his wife and children.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.michaelokon.com

Twitter ➜ https://www.x.com/IAmMichaelOkon

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/IAmMichaelOkon

 

Logan Osborne has spent his life chasing the shadows of the past.

As a child, he watched helplessly as his father was snatched from a fishing boat by what he swore was a mermaid. No one believed him then. No one believes him now.

Determined to prove that mythical creatures exist, Logan is drawn back to the small coastal town where his nightmares began after another mysterious disappearance stirs the waters.

Teaming up with his pragmatic colleague Elliot Sheppard and his fiercely loyal friend Penny Swanson, Logan dives headfirst into an adventure packed with danger and deception. As they dig deeper, the trio faces resistance at every turn—a secretive agency with its own agenda, a suspiciously unhelpful police force, and Logan’s old flame, who may know more than she’s letting on.

What they uncover is far darker and more terrifying than Logan ever imagined: the truth about his father, the secrets of Minatuck, and the horrifying reality of the Mermaid of the Hamptons.

Will Logan and his friends expose the lies that have haunted him for years, or will they be Dragged Down Deep into the swampy, secretive underbelly of a town that guards its mysteries with deadly intent?

Dragged Down Deep is available at Amazon.

Dear Reader, Love Caitlin Rother

 

Dear Reader,

This book is about serial killer Wayne Adam Ford, a long-haul trucker who raped and killed four women, dismembered two of them, then did the rare deed of turning himself in so he wouldn’t kill again. I wrote this book because I was intrigued to learn more about the only serial killer I know of to surrender to authorities like this. As I dug deeper into this case, I found Ford to be a fascinating case study in what makes a sexual predator. 

I’m the New York Times bestselling author of 15 books, the majority of which are true crime books. My characters are not depicted in black and white terms, or as all good vs. all evil, because I don’t see the world that way. We live in a world of gray. I don’t believe mentally people are evil. They’re sick. 

So, it shouldn’t surprise you that I present Ford’s positive characteristics along with his telling interview sessions with detectives, during which he cries, confuses details about the more than 50 women he had rough sex with, including the four whom he choked out, but could not be brought back with CPR. Those interviews illustrate just how psychologically disturbed this man really is, and that he is aware of that. Please know that I’m not rationalizing or sympathizing with what he did to those women, I’m merely explaining it so you, the reader, can understand him better. 

Ford’s childhood surely had a formative influence on his actions later in life. His father, who worked in Army intelligence, was seen as intimidating and aggressive. His mother, who was apparently bipolar, tried to kill herself several times, and was promiscuous while her husband was away on intelligence missions. She told Ford that he was the product of his father raping her, which the father denies, but the fact is that Ford grew up believing that. 

Ford also joined the military. While he was a 19-year-old Marine, stationed at the El Toro base in Orange County, California, he stopped on the freeway to help a car crash victim. While he was holding his hand against the victim’s neck to stop the bleeding, he was hit by a drunk driver and knocked 40 feet down an embankment, suffering a severe head injury that kept him in the ICU for nine days. Ford was an odd bird and liked kinky sex with his girlfriend before the head injury, but according to his brother, this injury caused significant changes to his personality, and only heightened those urges, which were later diagnosed as paraphilias (think fetishes x 10). While Ford was still in the military, he also experienced a mental breakdown, during which he had to be restrained, administered Haldol, and hospitalized. He also sang a mean Elvis tune at karaoke and drove a school bus. Not what you’d expect in a serial killer, right? 

I don’t write books I want to read, but one word of caution. This is my second-bestselling title, but it is more gruesome than most of my other books, due to the subject matter. Still, I don’t go out of my way to present gore or violent details, just the opposite. So, for the hard-core true crime lovers, this book should be right up your alley. Same for those who are interested in learning about the dark side of the human condition. And for all readers, I want you to know that this updated re-released edition has 32 new pages of case developments that make for a happy ending, if there is such a thing in a book about a serial killer: Ford’s first victim, whom he dismembered, was recently identified via genetic genealogy as Kerry Anne Cummings—25 years after she went missing and was murdered. So, now Kerry has her name back, her family has closure, and I was able to pay a tribute to who she was before she became Ford’s victim, which I wasn’t able to do in the original edition. 

I hope you enjoy the book. If you did, I always enjoy hearing from readers!

For more information about me and my books, please go to my website, https://caitlinrother.com, or find me on social media. 

New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 15 books, ranging from narrative non-fiction crime to thrillers and memoir. Among her recent titles is an updated edition of BODY PARTS with 32 pages of new developments about the Wayne Adam Ford case, and DEATH ON OCEAN BOULEVARD, the story of the Rebecca Zahau death case. Coming out in June is DOWN TO THE BONE, about the McStay family murders, and in 2026, DOPAMINE FIX, the first in a two-book deal for a new crime fiction series with Thomas & Mercer. An award-winning investigative reporter for 19 years, Rother’s stories have been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and The Daily Beast. Her more than 250 TV, radio and podcast appearances include 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australia’s World News, and numerous shows on Netflix, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime, HLN and REELZ. A popular public speaker, she also works as a writing-research coach-consultant and website designer. For fun, she binges on limited series, swims, and plays keyboards and sings in a jazzy bluesy trio called In the Lounge with her partner. Rother earned a bachelor’s in psychology from UC Berkeley and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. 

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ https://caitlinrother.com  

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/caitlinrother 

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/caitlinrother/  

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/the_real_caitlin_rother 

BlueSky ➜ @caitlinrother.bsky.social 

BODY PARTS takes a deep psychological look at serial killer Wayne Adam Ford. A long-haul trucker, Ford confessed to picking up dozens of prostitutes and troubled women along California roads. He tortured and repeatedly choked them during sex, revived them with CPR, then did it again. Only four of them didn’t survive, he said, claiming that was an accident. After dismembering two of his victims, he dumped their bodies in the California Aqueduct and other waterways in Humboldt, Kern, San Joaquin, and San Bernardino Counties. Ford’s complex death penalty case made national news because he is one of the only serial killers to turn himself in and help authorities identify his victims. He was recently transferred from death row at San Quentin to a state prison in San Luis Obispo.  

Originally released in March 2009, this new edition of BODY PARTS has been updated with 32 pages of new developments about the identification of Kerry Anne Cummings, Ford’s first victim, whom he dismembered and who went unidentified for 25 years. If there is such a thing as a happy ending to a book about a serial killer, this is it. The new material takes the reader through the investigative process involved in solving a cold case like this one so many years after the fact. Kerry now has her name back and her family has closure after so many years of not knowing what happened to her, after being prevented from reporting her missing to police because she was using drugs. Rother is the first to interview the Cummings family about Kerry and her troubled life before she went missing in late 1997. 

Overall, the book is based on exclusive information Rother uncovered during her extensive research and exclusive interviews with Ford’s father and brother. She also interviewed, the prosecutor, sheriff’s detectives from all four counties, the defense’s sole investigator, and a woman who survived after being raped and tortured by Ford.  By obtaining a court order to release sealed court files and digging through boxes of evidence and investigators’ reports, Rother was able to paint comprehensive and compelling portraits of Ford, his family and his victims. Rother’s book shows readers how Ford’s family dynamics, his severe head injury, his bouts of mental illness, and his compulsive sexual perversions led to his tragic killing spree, tearful confessions, and dramatic trial.

This is a re-release with 32 pages of new developments about the recent identification of Ford’s first victim, Kerry Anne Cummings, through genetic genealogy 25 years after her murder. So, now she has her name back and her family has closure.

BODY PARTS is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Body-Parts-Serial-Killers-Compulsions/dp/0806543914.

Dear Reader, Love Kenneth A. Baldwin

 

Dear Reader,

We’re different, you and I. Maybe you remember the first time a grown-up told you that magic was just pretend. I do. When they said it, something didn’t sit well in me. How could grown-ups, people who admittedly didn’t even have an answer to all of a child’s many probing questions about the world, have any credibility to say magic was only pretend?

When I was an adolescent, I set out on a crusade to find where dragons came from. Yes, they told me dragons were only make-believe. But if that were true, why did they seem to pop up everywhere from every part of the world with only minor variations in their description? 

As I got older, I learned the truth about magic is more disappointing than it being make-believe. No. The truth of magic is that it’s right under our noses, and we choose to ignore it. But if you listen closely, at times, you can hear it sing.

It sang for me as I read the diaries of a French aero captain detailing his commission in 1916. He led a group of American volunteer combat pilots called the Lafayette Escadrille. The United States had yet to enter the WWI, but for some reason, magical or otherwise, this group of young men left all behind to risk their lives flying in airplanes and fight in a war for a country not their own. Airplanes had only been invented about ten years prior, but Germany, England, and France were already busy strapping machine guns to their wings. 

What do you call something like that? Courage? Insanity? Several of these pilots abandoned an Ivy League education. Some came from much humbler backgrounds. All of them were drawn to the call of adventure–a call with a scientifically immeasurable characteristics that yield tangible, world-changing consequences.

The Lafayette Escadrille’s celebrity contributed in great part to turning the tide of US public opinion about WWI, leading to its eventual alliance with the Triple Entente.

The hearts and souls of pilots like those men are what power the magic system in my novel series, The Shards of Lafayette. The story follows a young man, Marcus Dewar, who wants more than anything to be like his heroes from the Lafayette Escadrille, but despite being at war for years, can’t bring himself to take the life of another human being. His best friend, Jane Turner, is an aviation mechanic known for her unorthodox (pronounced magical) aircraft repairs. And despite her better judgment, she still believes she can protect her loved ones from the effects of the conflict.

The story celebrates the people and hearts that made history, and allows readers an opportunity to dive into a magic that hinges on what makes human nature so very powerful, in a time when it was almost lost.

If you pick up a copy, I hope that you’ll fall in love with the courage and contradictions of the people that populated one of history’s most enigmatic and important eras. I know I did.

Love, 

Kenneth A. Baldwin

 

Kenneth A. Baldwin writes stories that blur the lines between history, magic, dreams, and reality. He loves finding oddities in history books with unbelievable tales or unexplained phenomena. His first series, The Luella Winthrop Trilogy, takes place during just such a time when late 19th-century Victorians struggled to balance a surge of occultism and never-before-seen scientific advancements.

Before he started writing novels, Kenny paid his way through law school by writing, performing, and teaching humor. You can still catch him on stage or in corners of the Internet that feature sketch and improv comedy. Now, he lives nestled under the Wasatch Mountains with his wonderful wife, sons, and Golden Retriever.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.kennethabaldwin.com 

X ➜ http://www.x.com/kennethabaldwin 

Facebook ➜ www.facebook.com/kennethabaldwin 

Goodreads ➜ www.goodreads.com/kennethabaldwin  

1918. France. Reports of unexplained rogue attacks have come in from both sides of the Western Front.

When Marcus Dewar is tasked with investigating the aerial bombardments, it’s not because of his aviation record. To make a name for himself, he will have to escort his best friend, a woman named Jane Turner known for her witchlike repairs on damaged aircraft, through some of the war’s most dangerous battle zones.

But when they learn the rogue pilots seek out arcane devices filled with magic powerful enough to alter the war, it will take more than some hedgewitch tactics and smart flying to return with their lives.

And in a conflict that values human life so little, that’s the least they have to lose.

The Shards of Lafayette: Drops of Glass Book 1 is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Drops-Glass-Magic-Shards-Lafayette-ebook/dp/B0C42B144X .

Dear Reader, Love Kimberly Cole

 

Dear Reader,

If you’re searching for a simple bump in the night or a teardrop falling from the sky, this is not your story. But if you seek adventures beyond the unknown—where time bends, danger lurks, and heroes are forged—then step into a mysterious portal to a kingdom on the brink of destruction. This is more than an adventure; it’s a fight for courage, unity, and hope.

I invite you to take an unfamiliar step, reach within yourself, stir up your God-given gifts, and step into your destiny—a journey that often requires great faith. So, let’s embark together. Pack your bags, fall in line, and follow me, because once you move forward, there is no turning back.

Love,

Kimberly Cole

 

 

Kimberly Cole was born in Baltimore and raised in Millersville, Maryland. She grew up in a very small home with six brothers and sisters. This was the beginning of where the fuse was lit with great expectations of creating stories to be read throughout the world. She completed high school at Old Mill High. Her hobbies are writing novels and reading good books. She finds it an enjoyment to help others by giving to charities, because they go to places she cannot be and charities impact lives which she may never get to see.  Ms. Cole’s favorite authors are C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Frank Peretti (Piercing the Darkness). 

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ www.kcstories4life.com

X ➜ https://x.com/TEPKimberlyCole

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564976310953

Liana, a widowed mother of Alicia and Emily, is in a desperate situation. After her car breaks down on a desolate road, she feels lucky to have her daughter’s friend Roger with them. As they begin a trek to seek help, Liana has no idea that she, her daughters, and Roger are all about to embark on the adventure of their lives. After the group finally reaches the vast doors of a mansion in the middle of nowhere, they are greeted by an eerie butler, who leads them to Sir Bronze Pierce, the master of the mansion who soon captivates Liana with his charming personality. Roger and the rest of the group are slowly drawn, one-by-one, through a portal into a different time, where they are soon thrust into a battle with a wicked warlord whose ultimate goal is complete domination. It is up to Alicia, Roger, and Emily to bring back harmony and peace to these strange kingdoms. As the three young people seek the help of the king’s court — a loyal Griffin, a powerhouse rock man, and other valiant warriors– they must unite against the forces of a warlord intent on destroying anyone who stands in his way.

Praise:

“During the late hours of the night, Roger woke up abruptly. He thought he was dreaming; an evil presence drew him out of his bed and into the hallway. He walked through all kinds of twists and turns and stopped suddenly in front of a door needing a repainting…In the center was a narrow slide with a small opening. ‘Look and see! Look and see!’ the voices called him out and urged him on. Bit-by-bit, Roger looked into the slot…” So begins a suspenseful, page-turning, dark fantasy read in the spirit of work like Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Gary Dauberman, and even the author’s literary inspiration, C.S. Lewis, who shares the author’s faith.

What Kimberly Cole does not have in terms of out-and-out, one hundred percent originality, she more than makes up for in terms of overall ideological presentation, characterization, and rich, immersive worldbuilding. You really feel like you’re experiencing a fast-paced fever dream if you delve into the text. There really is this sense of total, emotive immersion in the stakes at play, likely coming from the decidedly personal origins of the work. Cole herself clearly has decided to make this her passion project. The choices feel as much informed by superb storytelling technique, as they do by Cole’s unique vision. Cole herself states the following: “(The Vision of the Quest) was a test for me to write. At times, I struggled to tell my story…pushing on always, faith pulled me through to my goal. This book is special to me because I was talking with my husband sharing how I would love to write a book like Narnia with three children…The next morning my daughter, Meghan, had awoken from her sleep. She came to me excited saying, ‘Mom, I had an awesome dream with three children and their mother stranded on a dark road. I came to a mansion and knocked on a door when a butler answered’. She said there was an evil man named Sir Bronze Pierce and then I had taken the story from there. I could not have completed this book first without God’s help and my husband’s support.”

Indeed, Sir Bronze Pierce is one of the juiciest dark fantasy villains to grace the pages of a work like this in some time. He has this kind of dramatic, old-fashioned menace that at once retains a good sense of fun, while not shying away from what the narrative needs to be. I’m a big fan of a good, scary villain to raise the stakes for our heroes and heroines, and Sir Bronze Pierce is no exception to this. Again, this kind of quality likely comes from the work being intensely personal for Cole. Core aspects of the narrative are inspired by Cole’s daughter’s dreams, which adds a poetic and innocent quality to even the darker aspects of the story, and necessarily menacing scenes. The Christian element is also intriguing. More often than not, popular genre work with Christian themes tends to lean into distinctly paranormal, if not paranormal horror stories. Seeing something appealing to a wide audience with Christian themes is compelling, and a bit different from the usual, pantheistic nature of fantasy. — Cyrus Rhodes

The Vision of the Quest is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Ewings Publishing LLC.