Sharon Ledwith: I came. I saw. I wrote.: Middle Grade

Showing posts with label Middle Grade. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 November 2020

Book Review: The Ghost in the Gardens; A Flower Girl Mystery by HL Carpenter…

If you enjoy stories filled with intrigue, mystery, and a dash of the supernatural, then HL Carpenter’s The Ghost in the Gardens about a ten year old girl trying to ignore an intrusive ghost haunting her while attempting to find a rare orchid without trying to get killed may be just up your alley.

So what’s my take on a story that’s all about a determined tween girl trying to solve the mystery of her teacher’s disappearance and discover a rare orchid? This is what I posted on Amazon and Goodreads…

A 4 Star Bouquet of Flowers for The Ghost in the Gardens…

A perfect read for middle graders who are drawn to ghosts, mystery, and anything that goes bump in the night, or in this case, the garden. I found this well-written story filled with enough conflict to keep it going and growing (pun intended) with plenty of cliffhangers at the end of each chapter.

Chrysantha Howe dreams of being a botanist when she grows up, and is true to her nature with her knowledge of plants and flowers. Haunted from the get-go by a pesky ghost while searching for the illusive Coralroot orchid doesn’t deter the resilient tween. Chrys, her best friend, and a boy dubbed ‘the Nuisance’ face many obstacles and dangers throughout the book while learning to work together as a team to bring justice to their small town community.

In a nutshell, HL Carpenter works her storytelling magic, and is not afraid of getting her hands dirty from the very first chapter!

About the Book:

Until the first spooky visit, ten year old Chrysantha Howe doesn't think about ghosts. She thinks about plants.

All.

The.

Time.

She has her future planned out, and that future includes plants. Chrys is going to be a plant scientist like her uncle and her favorite teacher, and she's determined to find the very rare Coralroot orchid.

The ghost is not in the plan.

But when her teacher disappears and the police suspect her uncle was involved, Chrys has to figure out what the ghost is trying to tell her—before it's too late.

Read an Excerpt:

I tugged Barkley's ear and picked up one of the quarter-size flat stones scattered beside the path. I tossed the stone into the deep end of the Water Garden pond.

Barkley scrambled to the bank, then yipped and jumped back, almost jerking the leash from my hand. The ruff on his neck rose straight up. He stared at the pond, his lips curled, his teeth bared.

I gripped the red plastic leash more tightly.

The ghost liked water.

Barkley growled.

In the pond, twin black shafts of water shifted into the wavy outline of feminine eyes. Pale lips, reed-thin and white as unearthed slugs, parted. The lips tried to form a word. A gurgle rose from the depths like a deep sigh.

"Daaaaay...daaaay..."

Bubbles roiled the surface of the water.

Barkley growled again. Then he barked, as if to prove the ghost hadn't silenced him.

I tried to speak, to ask the ghost what she wanted. My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth. My lips moved in a quivery jiggle as if I were silently whistling. But I could not force out a sound, much less a whole question.

Maybe if I could think a question, the ghost and I could communicate. Maybe she didn't need actual words to hear me and to answer.

I tipped forward. My glasses slipped down my nose. I wanted to ask her...something...something...important...

What would touching her feel like?

I stretched out my hand.

The buzz of a bee snapped me out of my trance. I scrambled back as the edge of the bank crumbled under my foot. The ghost vanished.

I had the future planned out.

The ghost was not in the plan.

After the first visit, I still didn't really believe in ghosts. But when she came back the second time, I had to change my mind. I hadn't been dreaming and I wasn't crazy. The only other alternative was: I had seen a ghost.

I started researching ghost visitations. What made them stick around in this world? How did they choose who to haunt? Why had no one ever caught a legitimate sighting on video or made a recording?

Mostly what I learned was that people argued a lot about whether ghosts existed. People who believed in ghosts liked other people who believed in ghosts. People who didn't believe in ghosts thought people who did were crazy.

I was not crazy.

Finding out the answers to my questions about ghosts should have been easy. I had my own personal ghost to ask. But every time she visited me, I couldn't say a word. My thoughts got all tangled and my breath stuck in my throat and I got dizzy. Having my own personal ghost was not helpful. The visits were...creepy. Like are-you-here-because-I'm-going-to-die creepy. Maybe the creep factor was why no one had ever documented a ghost.

I shivered, though I hadn't seen the ghost in hours and cheerful sunlight warmed the early June morning. The Water Garden, a magical green fairyland of trickling streams and arched bridges, closed in around me. Shadows shifted. Bushes rustled.

I'd never seen a ghost before, not even when my dad died. Why had one decided to haunt me now?

"Just lucky, I guess," I said. "What do you think, Barkley?"

My long-legged Schnauzer scratched his ear with his hind foot.

"That's what I think too."

I tugged Barkley's ear and picked up one of the quarter-size flat stones scattered beside the path. I tossed the stone into the deep end of the Water Garden pond.

Barkley scrambled to the bank, then yipped and jumped back, almost jerking the leash from my hand. The ruff on his neck rose straight up. He stared at the pond, his lips curled, his teeth bared.

I gripped the red plastic leash more tightly.

The ghost liked water.

Barkley growled.

"Daaaaay...daaaay..."

Bubbles roiled the surface of the water.

Barkley growled again. Then he barked, as if to prove the ghost hadn't silenced him.

Maybe if I could think a question, the ghost and I could communicate. Maybe she didn't need actual words to hear me and to answer.

I tipped forward. My glasses slipped down my nose. I wanted to ask her...something...something...important...

What would touching her feel like?

I stretched out my hand.

Book Details:

Genre: Middle Grade Paranormal Mystery

Page Count: 152 pages

Publisher: Mirror World Publishing (http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40072894-the-ghost-in-the-gardens

Order Links:

Mirror World Publishing: Ebook Paperback

Amazon

Special Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Ghost in the Gardens will only be available for purchase until the end of December 2020, and then it will be removed from both virtual and physical book shelves forever.

Meet the Author:

Florida-based mother/daughter author duo HL Carpenter writes family-friendly fiction. The Carpenters
write from their studios in Carpenter Country, a magical place that, like their stories, is unreal but not untrue. When they’re not writing, the Carpenters enjoy exploring the Land of What-If and practicing the fine art of Curiosity.

Connect with HL Carpenter:

Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5820921.H_L_Carpenter

Monday, 18 March 2019

Book Tour: The Gimmal Ring by Karen Koski...

She wants the ring and she wants it bad!

Book Details:

Title: The Gimmal Ring

Author: Karen Koski

Page Count: 124

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Adventure, Middle Grade

Publisher: Mirror World Books

(https://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/)

About The Gimmal Ring:

Gwendolyn Gimmal desperately wants an invitation to the mysterious Gimmal Gala where her family’s coveted ring is bestowed upon new inductees. It’s not that she particularly likes bling, but because she knows it will unlock exciting secrets and reveal what she believes will be her true life’s path. Her younger brother, Gage, also wants to attend the party, but mostly for the food.

After finding her way into the hidden gala, Gwen learns that The Gimmal Ring is not only a piece of jewellery, but also a secret society of people. Things go awry when their parents are kidnapped from the Gala and held for ransom. Gwen and her brother must solve the clues and find the hidden formula the kidnappers have demanded by midnight, or they will never see their family members again.

Their newly discovered enhanced abilities, while fun, are not completely reliable. Cracking newspaper codes, deciphering invisible maps, and playing a high stakes game of Enigma Machine Twister, are just some of the challenges they must overcome if they are to succeed in time. The adventure starts when they flush themselves in The Tele-Potti, a teleporting commode, and it all goes down the drain from there.

Read an Excerpt:

Gwen got ready to go to her aunt and uncle’s house, as she did every day after school. Her dad usually got home late. Her mom, like always, was gone. Gwen knew that her aunt would be baking up delicious treats for her mail order cookie and tea business. If she timed it right, she would get to sample the latest creations. She put on her shoes and tied them to just the right snugness. Then she put on her backpack, adjusted the straps to distribute the staggering weight of her advanced textbooks so she wouldn’t topple over. She affixed a baseball cap over her unruly auburn hair at just the right angle to avoid sun exposure on her pale skin. Never too early to prevent wrinkles, she thought. She did a couple of calf raises and shrugged her shoulders, warming up her muscles for the journey. Leaving the outside light on, she exited the side door, locked it, took a deep breath, and set off in the direction of her aunt’s house.

Exactly twenty-two and a half steps later, Gwen let herself into the side entrance that led directly into the pantry. Like a snake shedding its skin, Gwen slithered out of her backpack and coat, and left them in a pile on the floor, where they would stay until she begged her Uncle Stan to give her a ride home. The smell of cookies lured her into the kitchen. Through the smoke, she could make out the shape of her Aunt Gerri standing at the stove working her magic.

“Fire in the hole!” Aunt Gerri yelled.

Gwen ducked as a pot lid zipped by and narrowly missed her eyebrows that had just grown back. At least all that time practicing my ninja moves came in handy, somewhere, she thought. She belly-crawled to the safety of the kitchen island and hid behind it until the sparks stopped flying. Gwen never felt more at home than she did right here. Even after the crushing disappointment of her brother discovering her hiding spot, again, and the dreadful day she had had at school, Gwen was comforted by the familiar smoke and flying objects in this kitchen.

Staring out the window, Gwen let her mind wander as she watched Gage balance on rocks while attempting to cross Coghill Creek. Their houses were located on sloping, treed lots with a creek that flowed past at the back of the properties. The stream emptied into Lake Erie at the southernmost part of Kingsville, the small town where generations of her family had always lived. He wobbled once, twice, and then lost the battle as his sneaker-clad foot dunked into the water up to his ankle. Gage owned rubber boots but he refused to wear them, saying “That was like admitting defeat before you even started”. So instead Gage had the largest, smelliest, wet shoe collection going. Usually watching her brother acting like an idiot was enough to distract her, but not today. Her mind kept replaying the humiliating events of the day. It had all started when Gwen got to school this morning. It was raining, her hair frizzed and her glasses fogged. Gwen attempted to navigate the busy hallways peering through her misty glasses. The bell rang and Gwen rushed to class. BIG mistake! Before she knew what was happening, she bounced off of something. Her books went flying and her shoes made a loud, moist squeak. “I am sooo sor...” Gwen’s apology stopped short when she realized who she had run into. It was Nicole, the self- appointed leader of the popular girls. Gwen dove onto the ground to retrieve her books.

Nicole glared. “Honestly Gwen, you shouldn’t break wind in public. It’s not very ladylike.” Nicole watched Gwen’s horrified expression with pleasure. “Perhaps if you did something with that mess you call hair, you would be able to see where you were going.”

Gwen was too mortified to point out that it was her foggy glasses and not her hairdo that was to blame. She fled to the bathroom to scrape together what was left of her dignity. Not a great start to her day, and it only got worse.

Purchase Links:

KOBO:

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-gimmal-ring/9781987976519-item.html?ikwid=Karen+Koski&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0

MW paperback:

https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-gimmal-ring-ebook

MW Ebook:

https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-gimmal-ring-paperback

Amazon:

https://amzn.to/2ERGIaG

Meet the Author:

Karen Koski writes stories set in magical Windsor and Essex County, Ontario where she was born and raised. Karen’s love of a good mystery inspired her to become a licensed Private Investigator. She is intrigued by anything that is not what it appears to be.

Karen resides in Windsor, Ontario with her husband, two daughters and a Moose.

Enter the Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, 14 May 2018

Book Tour: Dog Eared by Jojo Debrazza, plus Guest Post; The Highs and Lows of Training a Dog...

Welcome to the virtual book tour for Jojo Debrazza's new children's book, Dog Eared!

Follow the tour to read reviews, excerpts, and book spotlights:

https://saphsbookpromotions.blogspot.com/2018/05/book-tour-schedule-dog-eared-by-jojo.html

Publication Date: April 10, 2018

ASIN: B07C47Z4V4

Length: 140 pages

Genres: Children's Fiction

Amazon

Goodreads

The Highs and Lows of Training a Dog

In Dog Eared, Sophie has to find a way to train her new dog, Lector, before her half-sibling is born. I’m no expert dog trainer but I’ve had experience of training an unruly dog. That dog is a mini-labradoodle called Fozzy. She came into my life bringing a lot of fun but also a whole load of chaos and destruction. She is the inspiration behind Dog Eared.

Like Sophie, I found the journey to having a perfectly trained pooch was not always an easy one. Here are four times when training Fozzy didn’t quite go according to plan:

1. The first thing she did at her dog training class was pee on the floor. She knows how to make a good first impression.

2. She spent most of the dog training classes hiding under a chair and refusing to take part. I thought these were obedience classes, not disobedience classes.

3. She made me cross the road because she didn’t want to walk past a suitcase. She knows her own mind.

4. The first time we let her off the lead, she bolted because she saw a bike. Now she chases them out of the park instead.

Top tip for anyone training a dog:

Persevere. It will be worth it in the end and you’ll have a well behaved, loving, loyal, and furry best friend.

About Dog Eared:

Dogs can’t read. Right?

When Sophie’s grandfather moves in to a retirement home, Sophie is delighted to take over responsibility for his super obedient dog, Lector. Her grandfather also gives her two journals for Lector and tells her how important they are. But listening isn’t one of Sophie’s strong points.

Sophie’s dream-come-true turns into a nightmare when the usually well behaved Lector turns super-bad overnight. After midnight on his first night with Sophie, Lector gets himself into all kinds of trouble and leads Sophie into a run-in with the local bully. Dogs in the town have been going missing too. Could there be a dog snatcher on the loose?

Sophie desperately needs Lector to return to his former obedient self, especially when her dad and step-mum-to-be announce, to Sophie’s horror, that they are having a baby. Lector’s future with the family is in danger. If Sophie can’t retrain Lector before Sophie’s new half sibling is born, he’ll have to be rehomed.

Can Sophie discover the magical secret to training Lector, and keep him away from the dog snatcher, before it’s too late?

Read an Excerpt:

“I don’t think any of us were expecting this.” Sophie’s dad nodded toward Lector who was now trying to chew the bottom of a kitchen cupboard door.

“He’s not normally like this,” she said hoping her dad wasn’t regretting his decision to let her have Lector. “He’s a good dog really. Maybe he’s missing Grandpops?”

“Possibly,” said Sophie’s dad. “But he’d better get over it soon or else we’ll have no house left. You should’ve seen the state of the front room this morning. Emma was not pleased.”

Sophie was careful not to let her dad see her rolling her eyes. Emma had been nice as pie earlier. She should have said if she was upset. “I saw the sofa, I’m really sorry about that,” Sophie said.

“It wasn’t just the sofa,” Sophie’s dad pulled Lector away from the cupboard. “He ripped up all the magazines and papers that were on the coffee table to shreds too. With all the tiny bits of paper and foam from the sofa, it looked like it had snowed in the front room last night.”

Sophie pulled Lector away from the cupboard again. “No Lector.” She turned to her dad. “Strange. He never chewed anything at Grandpops’ place and he had the run of the whole bungalow.”

Sophie’s dad finished buttering a slice of toast and slid the plate towards Sophie. “Well, it’s all new for him, living here and being without Grandpops, so we can’t be too hard on him. We’ll have to keep him in the kitchen tonight though. He can only destroy so much in here and these units are falling apart anyway.”

Sophie ran her fingers over the rough wood where the laminate was missing on the corner of one of the cupboard doors. She’d peeled it away as a small child. “Okay,” she said. Sophie wasn’t keen on confining Lector, but her dad had let her keep him rather than rehoming him to a stranger and she needed to make sure he didn’t regret his decision.

Spotting an opportunity, Lector jumped up at the worktop in the direction of Sophie’s toast.

“No,” said Sophie. “Off.”

Lector’s front paws were on the edge of the worktop. He stretched his neck towards the toast.

Sophie lunged towards him and reached for his collar, but it was too late. Lector had the toast in his mouth. He jumped down and danced around the kitchen as if the toast between his teeth was a fantastic prize. His tail swiped against the washing machine painting it muddy brown. Sophie’s dad grabbed Lector by the shoulders.

Lector dropped the toast onto the kitchen floor.

Meet the Author:

Jojo is a writer from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, England—although she mostly lives in her head, a carefree happy place where everything is bright and fluffy.

Her debut novella, The Charm, was published in 2014 and the sequel, Mind Games, in 2016.

Jojo likes to take photos of her dog and post them to Instagram and Twitter @jojodebrazza

More Jojo Debrazza stuff can be found on her facebook page, and her blog: https://jojodebrazza.com

Become a tour host for Sapphyria's Book Promotions

Monday, 18 July 2016

Book Review: Black Lightning by K.S. Jones…

I absolutely love Arizona! I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice (Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale areas), and would love to go back and see the Grand Canyon, since I never got a chance to go there. K.S. Jones paints a vibrant and beautiful picture with her words, that allows me to feel my skin sizzle under the Arizona heat, and make my mouth water for buttery cornbread. So what’s my take on a story set in a place that can conjure up Geronimo’s ghost and make you sweat with every page you turn? This is what I posted on Amazon and Goodreads…

Lightning does indeed strike twice with this 5 Star Winner!

K.S. Jones combines a mixture of Apache folklore, natural phenomenon, and science fiction in a dessert setting to create her middle grade sci-fy adventure about 10 year-old Samuel Baker and his incredible journey into another dimension. Fast-paced from beginning to end, Jones weaves a fantastic and emotional tale wrought with love, death, magic, and hope.

Jones’s imaginative story is a must for any bookshelf (or ereader), and though geared for tween boys, there’s plenty of action to get the girls cheering for Samuel and his friend Isabelle to get them back home to the families they love. High fives for K.S. Jones and her electrifying tale!

Tagline and Blurb:

Life moves on — no matter what...

Following his father’s puzzling disappearance and his mother’s death, ten-year-old Samuel Baker goes through the motions of living in a world turned upside down. He wears an Apache talisman, a long ago gift from his father, in hopes its promise of strength and guidance is true. But what he truly wants is the power to bring his parents back.

Heartless Aunt Janis is elated at the prospect of becoming Samuel’s legal guardian. She is sure an orphan boy will elicit such an outpouring of public sympathy that her husband will win his Senate bid by a landslide. But when Grandpa Tate arrives, things don’t go as expected, especially when black lightning strikes!

Read an Excerpt:

Samuel stood beside his mother’s rain-speckled casket. He had cried his tears dry, so there was no point in trying to find more.

“Chin up, young man,” Aunt Janis said as her fingers nudged Samuel’s jaw upward. “Death is just part of life, and our photographer needs a good picture of you for the newspapers.”

A camera flashed, leaving Samuel’s red and swollen eyes burning as if stung by the sun instead of grief.

So many important days had come and gone without his father, but surely he would come home today, wouldn’t he? Samuel closed his eyes. He pretended his father was beside him holding his hand. They had a right to hold hands, he told himself. Not because he was ten, but because it was his mother’s funeral. Two years had passed since his father left, never to be seen again. Vanished, was the word his mother had used. Into thin air, she’d said.

“Take that silly thing off.” Aunt Janis flicked Samuel’s wood and bead necklace.

“No,” he said and shook his head. “My dad gave it to me.” It was a pinewood tile, the size of a domino shaved nickel-thin, which hung from a leather cord around his neck. Burned onto the front side of the wood was a lightning bolt. Its flipside bore the blackened imprint of a tribal dancer. It had a turquoise nugget and a shiny black hematite bead strung together on each side. His father had given the talisman to him with a promise: It will guide you and give you strength when you need it most.

Today, dressed in a black suit and starchy white shirt, Samuel wore it in hopes the promise was true.

As mourners gathered, Samuel’s friend Brian came to stand beside him. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Samuel answered without taking his eyes off the casket.

“Is that the necklace your dad gave you? You don’t usually wear it.” Brian’s wire-rimmed glasses slid down his straight arrow nose. He pushed them back up the bridge with one finger until they encircled his eyes again. “Can I see it? I promise I’ll give it right back.”

“It’s not a necklace.” Samuel pulled the leather cord off over his head, mussing his overgrown blond hair. “It’s a talisman.” He handed it to Brian. “My dad said it would help me, but it hasn’t done anything yet. I think it was just one of his stories. It’s probably just an old piece of scrap wood with a couple rocks tied to it.”

Brian shrugged after examining the piece then he handed it back to Samuel. “I think it’s cool. You should keep wearing it anyway.”

Nodding, Samuel hung the talisman around his neck again, but this time he dropped it down beneath his shirt where it was no longer visible. It felt warm against his skin.

“Has anybody told you where you’re going to live now?” Brian asked.

“Probably with Aunt Janis and Uncle Jack.”

Brian frowned. He kicked the tip of his shoe into the muddy soil. “They live so far away. Why can’t you just stay here and live with Mrs. Abel? She doesn’t have any kids.”

Mrs. Abel was their fourth grade teacher. She had plainly stated to all who would listen that her job was to teach the proper use of the English language to children who behaved properly. A babysitter, she had said, she was not. Today, she stood in the rain with the other mourners, eyeing the ground where the hem of her long, gray dress lay caked in mud. Tufts of brown hair jutted out from under her pink plaid scarf. Even though she stood a few feet from him, she had not spoken to Samuel since his mother’s death. Few people had. Everyone had words for Aunt Janis and they talked to Uncle Jack, but no one but Brian and a few classmates had spoken to him. Maybe talking to an orphan was harder than talking to a normal kid.

Purchase Links:

Mirror World Publishing

http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/products/black-lightning-ebook

Amazon

http://amzn.to/24H7yrY

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-lightning-ks-jones/1123660287?ean=9781987976120

Meet the Author:

Karen (K.S.) Jones grew up in California, but now lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio with her husband, Richard, and their dogs Jack Black, Libby Loo, and Red Bleu. Black Lightning is her first middle-grade novel. She credits her love of fantasy to the early influences of authors J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Her award-winning first novel, Shadow of the Hawk, a Young Adult Historical, released in 2015.

Connect with K.S. Jones:

Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/Karen.S.Jones.Author

Website ~ http://ksjones.com/

Twitter ~ https://twitter.com/KSJones2011

Monday, 23 May 2016

Book Blog Tour and Guest Post: Black Lightning by K. S. Jones...

About Black Lightning:

Life moves on — no matter what...

From the award-winning author of Shadow of the Hawk

Title: Black Lightning

Author Name: K.S. Jones

Genre(s): Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Length: Approx. 132 pages

Release Date: May 17, 2016

Publisher: Mirror World Publishing (www.mirrorworldpublishing.com)

Follow the Tour for Reviews, Guest Posts, Exclusive Excerpts, and Spotlight Posts:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/blog-tour-schedule-black-lightning-by.html

~Black Lightning and its Apache influences~

A century ago, the word “Apache” would have conjured up images of warriors on horseback with whoops, hollers, and painted faces—worthy adversaries and fierce fighters trying to protect their families, their land, and their life-way. In my new middle-grade novel, Black Lightning, a modern-day (although rural) Chiricahua (cheer-uh-kaw-wuh) Apache family is integral to the story, adding flare to the tale with their traditional ways in a contemporary world.

The Chiricahua are most closely associated with an area in southeastern Arizona known as the Chiricahua Mountains. Within this mountainous range is the Chiricahua National Monument, which today is part of the National Park Service. It is an amazing architectural wilderness of rock pinnacles and formations, once known to the Apache as the “Land of Standing-Up Rocks.”

Storytelling has always been important in the Apache culture, and Chiricahua children are expected to be well-versed in the oral traditions and lore. These storytelling sessions are often held for the benefit of the kids and usually take place at night. Can you imagine sitting outside under a starry night and listening to the story about a race of “supernaturals” who inhabit the nearby mountains? Or maybe hear the story of a girl who married a water monster? Or learn about a place that opened a door where no door had been before?

And sometimes, Apache men and women wear amulets, or talismans, made from wood struck by lightning, called tzi-daltai. Among other virtues, it is believed the wearer can learn things from the tzi-daltai and know the right direction when lost. Most amulets are made of wood, shaved-thin and incised with a simple human form then decorated with lines to signify lightning. Some even believe lightning talks to them, while others think the flash is the flight of the arrow thrown by the Thunder People. Talismans can be worn like necklaces or carried.

Black lightning, although not a rendering of Native American lore, has gained recent recognition in the science world with what scientists are calling “dark lightning.” And given the fact that the American Southwest has some of the most spectacular thunderstorms on earth, where better to imagine the phenomenon and its potential? To a storyteller, Native American or otherwise, the possibilities are endless and interesting!

More information related to the book BLACK LIGHTNING can be found on my Pinterest page! https://www.pinterest.com/ksjones/black-lightning-by-ks-jones/