Seems like yesterday that I bought them. With the long cold Spring we had, they didn’t get planted until June, so yeah, only a few months. Then we had a way early hard freeze, and BOOM, all gone. It will be a long winter staring out my patio door looking at empty tables. Oh well, nothing I can do about it as I’m not Mother Nature. 😁
I will have been in this apartment eleven years in December and I’ve always had flowers. When I first moved in, there was an actual outer wall around my deck and they were lined with planters. Instead of rebuilding the wooden fences, management just tore them down (cheap bastards), and suddenly I was exposed to everyone walking by. So I bought tables to replace the fence and loaded them with bright rays of joy.
I’ve received lots off compliments over them from fellow residents of my building and other people walking by with their dogs. When I used to walk to the bus, before I started working from home, I’d notice that a few balconies had plants on them. In fact, my neighbor above me had a small vegetable garden on theirs. But the greenery was far and few between.
Then, several weeks ago, my sister was brining me back from an appointment and we came in through the east part of our driveway and WOW, there were plants everywhere. Almost every balcony or patio had some containers. I’m not sure if it was my display of beauty that inspired them, but if I did, how cool is that? You never know when something so simple as flowers can change someone’s life.
An in-depth healing strategy for women whose lives have been turned upside down due to Wife Abandonment Syndrome by international psychotherapist Vikki Stark
The book is published by Green Light Press and is available in print and e-book format
Based on a study of over 400 women worldwide, Runaway Husbands: The Abandoned Wife’s Guide to Recovery and Renewal, is the first book to explore and offer healing strategies to women whose lives have been turned upside down by Wife Abandonment Syndrome. Wife Abandonment Syndrome is a pattern of behavior on the part of a husband who leaves his wife out-of-the-blue from what she believed was a happy marriage. Following his sudden departure, he replaces the caring he’d typically shown her with anger and aggression. He often moves directly in with a girlfriend, leaving his bewildered wife totally devastated. Written by family therapist Vikki Stark who was herself affected by Wife Abandonment Syndrome, Runaway Husbands helps women understand what motivated their loving husbands to turn into uncaring strangers and provides them with the tools they need to move forward and rebuild their lives in new and unexpected ways.
What Readers Are Saying:
“Thank you so much for this wonderful book! I experienced a whole range of emotions as I read along – sometimes tears, sometimes giggles – but a whole lot of head nodding and “Yep, that was him all right!” as I turned the pages. Your book and your website have provided invaluable comfort and support in my journey towards recovery from this life altering event.”
“YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE!!!! I just finished Runaway Husbands. I’m recovering from Wife Abandonment Syndrome and your book has been SO Instrumental in my healing.”
“I have now read your book four times. I finally understand. You left no stone unturned. My healing has been amazing. There was always that little part of me that wanted to hang onto him and I have now cut the ties that bound me to him. I feel light and free.”
About Vikki
My work life is multi-faceted.
I have an active international psychotherapy practice in which I work with clients both in my lovely Montreal office and worldwide online.
I’m the founder and director of the Sedona Counselling Centre of Montreal, where we have experienced therapists providing a full range of therapy services to individuals, couples and families.
I’m also an international guest expert on television and radio on issues related to mental health and emotional well being, notably appearing on NBC’s The Today Show and Oprah radio. I was featured in Time Magazine and Maclean’s (Canada), among many other media appearances.
I write a blog for Psychology Today called Schlepping Through Heartbreak for magazine that has had over 4 million views.
I have written three books and edited a fourth. My first book is about sister relationships and the other three are about divorce and divorce recovery. As a result of one of my books, Runaway Husbands, I lead a worldwide community of women supporting each other through recovery from sudden unexpected divorces (learn more at the Runaway Husbands website.)
Other Books by Vikki Stark:
What else?
I’m a New Yorker but moved to Montreal in the 80’s and feel at home in both places! I practiced Buddhism in my twenties so eastern thought informs my practice. I love nature, puzzles, walking, yoga, my little dog Chloe, world music and anything that makes me laugh.
To request additional review copies or an interview with Vikki, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.
A new direction from Award-Winning #Own Voices Author Natasha Deen
The series is available by Penguin Random House across all platforms!
Is it science…or strange and ghostly?
Asim’s new town is freaking him out! There are weird noises at night, eerie lights, and now an evil tree that is growing way faster than it should. he’s sure there’s something supernatural going on. His friend Rokshar believes that everything can be explained by science. But even she’s worried when the tree takes control of their teacher! It’s starting to look like an evil spirit straight out of Guyanese folklore is to blame. Can Asim and his friends save their teacher–and the town–from the ghost tree?
Find out…if you dare! It’s a new spooky series based on ghost stories from Guyana.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:
“An excellent series starter and contribution to the supernatural mystery genre, perfect for older chapter book readers easing into early middle grade. Highly recommended.”–School Library Journal, starred review
“A spooky adventure rooted in Guyanese folklore…with just the right amount of chills.”–Kirkus Reviews
AboutNatasha Deen:
NATASHA DEEN writes for kids, teens, and adults, and believes the world is changed one story at a time. As a Guyanese-Canadian and a child of immigrants, she’s seen first-hand how stories have the power to shape the world. Her works include the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Thicker than Water, Guardian which was a Sunburst Award nominee, and the Alberta Readers’ Choice nominated Gatekeeper. When she’s not writing, she teaches Introduction to Children’s Writing with the University of Toronto SCS and spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince her pets that she’s the boss of the house. Visit Natasha at www.natashadeen.com and on Twitter/Instagram, @natasha_deen.
Accolades:
CCBC Recommended Read
CBC Books’ 14 YA Books to Watch for in Spring
Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD Kids) September Book of the Month
49th Shelf Selection
Amy Mathers Award Winner MYRCA Award Nominee R. Ross Arnett Award Nominee American Library Association YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers Red Maple Award Nominee Red Maple Honour Book
Red Maple Teen Committee Summer Reading List Barnes & Noble’s Top 25 Most Anticipated Own Voices Novels Chapters-Indigo Most Anticipated Teen Books Junior Library Guild Selection CCBC Best Pick for Kids & Teens CCBC Red Leaf Literature OLA White Pine Teen Committee Summer Reading List
To request additional review copies or an interview with Natasha Deen, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com | 403.464.6925.
A fantastic soccer journey through space and time brought to you by critically acclaimed children’s author Matthew Bennett Young
The book is published by Compton Press and is available worldwide in paperback
Do you Love Soccer? Do you also dream of scoring the Greatest Goal in The History of Everything? Find out how it’s done in this thrilling soccer space adventure.
The soccer ball in this story leaves Earth with a mighty strike of the boot and rockets past every planet. Each planet has a landmark of a famous soccer city in the UK. See if you can work out which city and soccer club it is!
The collage illustrations in this picture book are fun and vibrant and really make the story come alive. It genuinely seems as if you are travelling along with the soccer ball through space. Children will learn about the planets in our solar system in a fun and exhilarating way, travelling faster than the speed of soccer!
Let your imagination travel to new soccer frontiers on this magical fantasy adventure. Follow the journey of the world’s most adventurous soccer ball as it travels through our solar system and finally lands….where?
Buy the book today and get the world’s most fantastic soccer surprise!
More Books from Matthew Bennett Young:
About Matthew Bennett Young:
Matthew Bennett Young is a British author and has published in many forms (picture books, flash fiction, short stories and poetry) although his big passion is for picture books. Not only does he write but sometimes he illustrates as well. He is also an artist-educator and has been teaching his inspiring workshops all over the world. He currently resides in Montreal and is a member of Artist Inspire and Culture a L’Ecole. He believes all creativity is a form of expression and is essential for wellbeing, especially now, and it takes practice!
To request additional review copies or an interview with Matthew Bennett Young, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.
Released and published by Brigids Gate Press / The novels are available worldwide in paperback and e-format
Return to the Weald, the world Stephanie Ellis introduced us to in The Five Turns of the Wheel.
Reborn is the story of Cernunnos, the Father of all, who has risen. Born of blood offerings, he travels to the Layerings—one of those places, like Umbra, which sit just beyond the human veil.
Reborn is the story of Tommy, Betty and Fiddler, the infamous troupe whose bloody rituals were halted by Megan, Tommy’s Daughter. Rendered weak by Megan’s refusal to allow them to hunt in the human world of the Weald, they seek their rebirth and forgiveness from the Mother and Cernunnos.
Reborn is the story of Megan, who follows Cernunnos and Hweol’s sons on a pilgrimage of hope—one that would see her husband restored to her and the dark presence of Hweol removed.
Ultimately, though, Reborn is the story of Betty, the most monstrous of the three brothers. He is Nature, red in tooth and claw. He is what the Mother made him. And who are we to judge?
With Reborn, Ellis delivers another powerful tale of folk horror that will captivate the reader from the first page until its final bloody climax.
A terrifying pandemic sweeps the world, rendering its victims completely immobile but leaving them conscious with their minds intact. The victims are helpless against the environment, completely at the mercy of wild animals, weather, out of control fires, and other dangers. There’s no hope for those safe in their homes either, as they slowly starve to death, unable to feed themselves or drink.
Dr. Alex Griffiths leads a team racing against time to find a cure before it’s too late. Will he succeed?
Tyler Torrence has inherited his late grandfather’s house, a home filled with bad memories and nightmares from his childhood. He returns hoping to learn the truth of his grandfather’s secrets, especially the secret of the ‘impossible bottles’ and what lay beyond the black door. The door through which he was never allowed to enter as a child.
But returning to the house is a mistake. It doesn’t take long for Tyler to realize the hold the house has over him, and that he is a prisoner of the ancestral curse that claimed his grandfather. Now he must fight to break the curse before it claims him and his son.
About Stephanie Ellis
Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, the most recent being Scott J. Moses’ What One Wouldn’t Do, Demain Publishing’s A Silent Dystopia and Brigids Gate Press’ Were Tales. Her longer work includes the novel, The Five Turns of the Wheel and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her short stories can be found in the collections, The Reckoning, and As the Wheel Turns.
Her poetry has been published in the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII and VII, Black Spot Books Under Her Skin and online at Visual Verse. She has also co-written a collection of found poetry, Foundlings, with Cindy O’Quinn based on the work Alessandro Manzetti and Linda D. Addison. A gathering of her dark twists on traditional nursery rhymes can be found in the collection, One, Two, I See You.
She is co-editor of Trembling With Fear, HorrorTree.com’s online magazine and also co-edited the Daughters of Darkness anthologies. She is an active member of the HWA and can be found at https://stephanieellis.org and on twitter at @el_stevie.
To request additional review copies or an interview with Stephanie Ellis, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com | 403.464.6925.
The newest adventure into horror by critically acclaimed author, Kev Harrison
Released and published by Brigids Gate Press / The book is available worldwide in paperback and e-format
Decades after his grandfather was buried alive in a Californian gold mine, Dr. Nick Jones teams up with an adventure travel influencer to venture underground and film a documentary, telling the story of what really happened.
What should be a dream come true soon becomes a nightmare as someone or something stirs…BELOW.
“Expect some truly chilling scenes and to definitely get creeped out by what happens in that mine! This is my first book by the author, and I can tell you it won’t be my last. I enjoyed his storytelling style immensely and found myself feeling like I was stuck in that mine with our characters!” Outlaw Poet, Top 1000 Reviewer Vine Voice
About Kev Harrison:
Kev Harrison is a writer of dark fiction and English language teacher from England, living and working in Lisbon, Portugal. He has previously lived in various areas of the UK, as well as Turkey and Poland.
He is a staff writer for This is Horror and has had short fiction published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Lost Films, from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, Below the Stairs: Tales From The Cellar from Things in the Well, Aphotic Realm Magazine’s ‘Fangs’ issue and ‘In Darkness Delight: Creatures of the Night from Corpus Press. He has also had short fiction featured on The Other Stories and Tales to Terrify podcasts. Thirteen tales of his short fiction are now collected in his debut collection, Paths Best Left Untrodden.
His acclaimed debut novella, ‘The Balance,’ a work of folk-horror with eco-horror themes, is available now, from Lycan Valley Press. He has two releases in Demain Publishing’s Short Sharp Shocks! range: ‘Cinders of a Blind Man Who Could See’ and ‘Curfew’. His second novella, ‘Below,’ is available now from Brigids Gate Press.
To request additional review copies or an interview with Kev Harrison, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.
The debut novella that speaks to secrets within a dying town by the horror genre’s newest sensation, Shannon Felton
Released and published by Brigids Gate Press / The book is available worldwide in paperback and e-format
Stewartville. A town living in the shadow of the prisons that drive its economy. Haunted by the ghosts of its past. Cursed by the dark secrets hidden beneath. A town so entwined with the prisons waiting outside the city limits that it’s impossible to imagine one without the other, or to ever imagine escaping either.
When a teenage boy digs into the history of the town, he discovers a tunnel system beneath Stewartville, passageways filled with dark secrets. Secrets leading not to freedom, but to unrelenting terror.
Stewartville. Where the convicts aren’t the only prisoners.
“This book was fast paced, tense, and full of creep factor. Not only was the horror potentially supernatural, but there was the horror of humanity (murder, drugs, prostitution, domestic violence, etc)”_Rescue and Reading
About Shannon Felton:
Shannon Felton lives in Buckeye, Arizona with her husband, their four children, and three dogs. The Prisoners of Stewartville is her debut novella.
Follow her on Twitter @ShannonNova3
To request additional review copies or an interview with Shannon Felton, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.
Luke Irontree minds his business and leaves mortal humans alone. But if you’re a vampire, he has a magic sword and a silver-inlaid stake for you.
Every night, the immortal vampire slayer haunts the streets of Portland, hunting vamps and protecting innocent people from becoming vampire chow. Then, he goes home alone to his quiet house and his cat, Alfred. This is his life.
But when he runs into a local werewolf pack, he has two choices – continue his lonely hunt or a take a chance on making friends. Allies would make the job easier, especially with hordes of bloodthirsty vampires flooding the streets. However, trusting means opening himself to betrayal and loss.
Luke might not have a choice though. With homeless people disappearing off the streets, 20-somethings being snatched from night clubs, and heavily armed vampires flooding the streets, he must risk everything if he wants to save Portland from becoming a vampire wasteland…
This box set contains 3 full-length novels plus an exclusive bonus novella and novelette.
They stand between the balance of light and darkness. Invited into their ranks, will a lonely teen answer the call to be a hero?
Marston Ames’s parents have ruined everything. Forced to move away from all his friends for his dad’s new job, the unhappy fifteen-year-old is sure his life is over. And just when he believes things can’t get worse, a man from his dreams attempts to kill him in the waking world.
Barely escaping before stumbling upon a magical portal, Marston transports to another realm. There, an invitation to join an ancient order standing against evil seems like the solution to his isolation… until he discovers a terrifying connection to his nightmares.
Can Marston embrace a fate beyond his wildest imagination without summoning his doom?
The Keeper is the action-packed first book in The Keepers of the Balance YA fantasy series. If you like relatable characters, adventures full of surprises, and coming-of-age tales, then you’ll love Shana Dow’s captivating page-turner.
Sometimes, your case takes a left turn. Or three or four. Marten Mingenstern and Boog Eggstrom are provisional inspectors, fresh out of Inquisitor’s Guild training and eager to prove themselves. Assigned the mundane task of tracking down stolen jewels, they instead uncover a mysterious cult set on destroying the city. After a thief explodes, they earn the enmity of a vicious noble, the Chief Inquisitor gets bought off and goes rogue, they are seized by barbarians, and they are sentenced to death at least a couple of times. In a final, frantic race with prophecy, they face ruthless fanatics, a city turned against them, and terrible forces long buried.Flames Over Frosthelm is the first novel about the Inquisitor’s Guild, the investigative arm of the government of Frosthelm, a medieval city-state where criminals thrive, nobles scheme, and dark secrets lurk. Expect intrigue, mystery, swordplay, adventure, politics, romance, and the strong bonds of friendship. And a little magic along the way. Described as Princess Bride meets CSI, this new novel is a tale of classic adventure with a healthy dose of humor.
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