Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Pre-Order—The Rocky Adventures Omnibus by Carlie Simonsen

The omnibus collecting the first six titles of Carlie Simonsen's Otherworld Adventures series is now available for pre-order. Called The Rocky Adventures Omnibus this volume is available direct from Amazon, Smashwords, DriveThruFiction, Google Play, and Kobo, and via Smashwords and Draft2Digital distribution. More links can be found at Books2Read.



Being a big brother isn’t easy—especially when your sister believes her Teddy is on a mission to save the world. And all because you said so. From trying to rescue his parents, to saving Christmas, to protecting his sister from rogue kitties, moon dragons and ravenous velociraptors, Rocky discovers some things never change—and that being a brother is one of them.

The Rocky Adventures Omnibus collects the six stories following Rocky’s adventures as he travels from Earth to the distant world of Tallonna, where his family will make its home with the aliens that have asked for their help.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

99c Pre-Order Available on Smashwords: Granny Finds a Gas Mask

Granny Finds a Gas Mask is now available for pre-order from Smashwords for 99c. It will revert to its usual price of 2.99 shortly after its February 17, 2018 release date, when it will also be available for purchase from Amazon and DriveThruFiction, as well as via Smashwords and DriveThruFiction distribution.


Helping Gran is a chore, but with her holding their mobile phones hostage, Gareth and Giselle have no choice. Unpacking boxes of books is no surprise. Unpacking the gas mask is—and so is finding themselves back in the war, in Gran’s war, because ‘some things are meant to be changed’. How on Earth, does Gran expect them to help with this? Better yet, how on Earth, can they get back home?

Granny Finds a Gas Mask is the first book in a series where the things Granny finds lead to adventure, and Gareth and Giselle have to figure out how to get back to their own time and place.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

NEW COVER: Rocky Rides the Space Range - Carlie Simonsen

We have just approved the cover for Carlie Simonsen's February release, Rocky Rides the Space Range, a science fiction chapter book for young adults or teens. The book is currently undergoing the editing process, but will soon be available for pre-order.

Rocky Rides the Space Range Ebook Cover
Rocky Rides the Space Range PoD Cover





















When Rocky’s ship stops to resupply at Tallona’s First Moon, Rocky and his classmates head down to the surface. Seeing moon dragons, ice beetles, dangerous butterflies and flowers that grow on the moon’s surface seem like a good way to spend a day. Rocky never expects to have to deal with moon raiders as well. When his little sister runs away to protect the dragon eggs, Rocky’s troubles really begin. Can he sneak out of the base, find his sister, and bring her back without the pirates or moon base security ever finding out? All he knows is that he has to try.


Rocky Rides the Space Range is the fourth book in the Otherworld Adventures series, which is set on Rocky’s journey to the world of Tallona, where his parents will farm alongside the aliens who have asked them for help.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

First Chapters: Troll-Mist Morning by Carlie Simonsen

Troll-Mist Morning is the story of a teen who goes the extra mile so his mum can feel safe. Early morning starts, and standing around in the mist in the middle of winter, however, are one thing; trolls are another. When magic returns to the world and the trolls come, too, how is Daniel going to get his mum to see sense? Troll-Mist Morning is the first book in the series exploring what happens When Worlds Collide.

When Daniel’s mum wakes him at five-thirty in the morning, he knows it’s so she can go and take photographs. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times he points out that most photographers take their early morning shots in perfect safety, his mum just can’t feel safe—so Daniel goes with her, even when its early and cold and the mist hasn’t cleared. Especially when the mist hasn’t cleared. Muggers, Daniel can handle, but what on Earth is he going to do about trolls?

Troll-Mist Morning is about family, and caring for even the crazy members. It’s about a young person who looks after his mum, even when he doesn’t see the same kind of dangers.

Troll-Mist Morning is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

First Chapters: Troll Mist Morning

Carlie Simonsen

Five-Thirty Start


My mum does crazy things like waking me at five-thirty in the morning and saying, “Hey Daniel, can you come for a walk with me?”
So, I roll over and look up at her, blinking my eyes against the light and pulling the quilt up to my chin, and I say, “Why?”
She says “I’d like to photograph that church in the mist.”
“Which church?” I ask.
“You know, that one on the corner. The white one with all the curves and that tower thing.”
Yeah, real good words, mum. But I know why she’s asking me to come with her. She’s not as happy-go-lucky as a lot of other photographers. She knows about the monsters that live in the real world.
There are days when she wishes she could be like the other guys in her class—the ones who go down by the lake on their own at weird hours of the day, or the ones that take their expensive cameras into the rougher parts of town to take pictures of graffiti. Poor mum.
She’s a bit scared of being out alone with her camera. She says when she’s behind the camera, she can’t see what might be sneaking up behind her. I don’t tell her that plenty of other photographers take photos in the early morning without getting mugged. She’d just point out the few who have been mugged, and tell me that’s what they said before they got the snot beaten out of them.
She’d say the others have just been lucky.
What can I say? She’s my mum. I’ve seen her when she’s behind a camera. Lost isn’t the word. It’s like she’s in another world. Forget muggers and murderers. Mum’s more likely as to step out in front of a car, or fall down a hole. When she takes pictures, all that she sees is the picture. Someone has to take care of her.
So, what do I say when she asks me to go for a twenty-minute walk at five-thirty in the morning? I always say “Yes”, and then I roll out of bed and get dressed, and do my best not to mind.

END FIRST CHAPTER

If you would like to read more, Troll-Mist Morning is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.



Friday, March 1, 2013

First Chapters: Legacy of Dreams by Carlie Simonsen




Carlie Simonsen's Legacy of Dreams is a teen to young adult story about how Tanya learns to cope with losing her ability to walk, the withdrawal of her best friend, the disappearance of her boyfriend, and her ability to do the sport she loves. Faced with the chance of losing her beloved horse as well, Tanya has to come up with a plan that will somehow let her salvage something of the life she used to have, and the dreams she was making reality. Legacy of Dreams is a tale of learning to live again.

Tanya knows her parents have been tip-toeing around the problem of keeping a horse she can no longer ride, and whose very name makes her burst into tears. Tanya has only just discovered something that might help things, when she is faced with having to face losing her horse, Copper, altogether. The only question is, whether the family budget can stretch that far. Must she lose the only link left to the life she used to have?

The non-illustrated version of Legacy of Dreams can now be found at Smashwords, Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iTunes.

First Chapter: Legacy of Dreams



If Copper hadn’t bolted—set off as fast as a scalded cat and taken a running jump over Brumby’s fence with my best friend and my new saddle on his back—I’d never have met Daniel Tulloch.
Now some of you will say that meeting Daniel was a bad thing, anyway. Some would even say that, if I’d never met Daniel, I wouldn’t be in this wheelchair now.
I can’t argue with you about the wheelchair thing. At least, I can’t argue with you about it in a way that will make any sense. Someone once told me that ‘these things happen for a reason’. If they’re right, then I’d probably be in this wheelchair, Daniel Tulloch or not, in which case not meeting him wouldn’t have helped.
To be honest, I don’t think they were right. It’s possible that there were some things I had to learn, but I didn’t have to be in a wheelchair in order to learn them. The hiking accident with Daniel was just that—an accident. You can argue with me until you’re blue in the face, but don’t you ever try and tell me the wheelchair was a thing that ‘had to happen’. If you do, I’ll ask you to leave, because you won’t be my friend any more.
Do you know what I miss the most? Riding in the moonlight on the track by Maple Creek. Actually, no, that isn’t what I miss the most. I think I miss Daniel’s company the most. I miss that a lot.
He went away after the accident. He didn’t even say goodbye. I’ve asked all my friends at school if they know where he’s gone, but none of them do. It seems he didn’t tell them he was leaving.
Now, I’m leaving, too.


END FIRST CHAPTER

If you would like to read more, Legacy of Dreams can now be found at Smashwords, Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iTunes.