BOOKS BY MY FRIENDS JANICE CARR SMITH, GERRY WILSON & LAURIE WOODFORD
February 1, 2024
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Welcome to Books By My Friends! Today we are featuring
JANICE CARR SMITH
GERRY WILSON
LAURIE WOODFORD
BOOK: Look 'N Up Invasion
AUTHOR: Janice Carr Smith
GENRE: Fantasy
BLURB: It’s Baput’s 12th birthday. The battle begins today. In three years, Baput will succeed his grandfather as Akash, the ruler of the known universe; a tiny, stone-aged village of green-skinned pomegranate famers. If he lives. One can never be sure, in a world attacked every three years by ravenous flying predators. This time is different. The Akash takes his family to the Holy Cave, where he has discovered a mysterious weapon that might turn the tide. Instead, it transports the royal family to a pomegranate farm in California, where they find themselves powerless and ignorant. When Baput and the Akash try to meditate, the internet floods their primitive minds. Jerry Musik, also twelve, is heir of the Look’N Up Pomegranate Ranch and the Look’N Up gene, a misplaced left eye socket, cocked up and to the left, that visits one Musik in each generation. It spared Jerry and his dad, but his uncle and 10-year old cousin, Belinda, share the deformity. Knowing how this world treats people who look different, and desperate for help, Jerry’s parents hire the green, undocumented aliens and hide them for three years until the portal might open again. Warm friendships form as the two families explore each other's cultures in a richly woven story of religion vs. science; theocracy vs. democracy; women’s rights; racism; marginalization; castigation and the shocking psychological effects of living in a world with no otherwhere. When they discover that the predators are hibernating on the farm, waiting to attack Earth, it will take all of their diverse skills to defeat them.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raised by Liberal parents in 1960's Cambridge, Mass, near Harvard University. Orphaned and moved to rural Florida at 14. Retired from a career in Environmental Science, writing environmental reports for public works projects.
BOOK: That Pinson Girl
AUTHOR: Gerry Wilson
GENRE: Literary historical fiction
BLURB: In a bleak MS farmhouse in 1918, Leona Pinson gives birth to an illegitimate son whose father she refuses to name, but who will, she believes, return from the war to rescue her from a hardscrabble life with a distant mother, a dangerous brother, and a dwarf aunt. When instead her lover returns with a wife in tow, her dreams are shattered. As her brother’s violence escalates and her aunt flees, Leona must rely on the help of Luther Biggs, the son of her grandfather and one of his former slaves, to protect her child. Told against the backdrop of the deprivation of World War I, the tragedies of the influenza epidemic, and the burden of generations of betrayal, That Pinson Girl unfolds in lyrical, unflinching prose, engaging timeless issues of racism, sexism, and poverty.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Debut novelist at 82! 7th generation Mississippian. Former high school English teacher.
BOOK: Unsettled: A Memoir
AUTHOR: Laurie Woodford
GENRE: Memoir
BLURB: At the age of forty-nine, driven by an urgent restlessness, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and relocates to Asia. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English overseas, evolves into a nomadic adventure as Laurie works and volunteers in South Korea, Ethiopia, Peru, Spain, and Mexico. After four years of traveling, Laurie's return "home" to the U.S. becomes an unexpected adventure of its own when she ends up in Arkansas and meets Bruce, a bird-loving, bearded Quaker, who challenges her to reconcile her life of fierce independence with her longing to feel settled and loved.
3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:*served as a drill sergeant in the Army* *is a proud poodle mama* *loves all furry creatures (husband included)*
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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of
Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020)
Writer Wellness Workbook: A Guided Workbook and Journal to Accompany Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2023)
The Mermaid Riot (Melange, 2024) Young Adult Historical Fantasy
She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.
She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:
West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.
New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.
Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.
She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.
She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.
She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.
