Magical Missions Await a 12-Year-Old Girl in Fantasy Series

A new exciting read for all who believe that challenges – and some magic – are simply part of life to be featured in Bologna Children's Book Fair 2014 on Mar 24, 2014 - Mar 27, 2014 in Bologna, Italy

Oyster Bay, NY(March 6, 2014)– A story of adventure, fantasy and magical action comes alive in the pages of author Sunayna Prasad’s first book of Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions, From Frights to Flaws.  There’s more to challenges than meets the eye – and that’s what readers are about to find out as they follow a young girl overcome some seemingly impossible trials and obstacles.  Will a young girl with an unhappy life have a chance at being happy again?  The story is about to unfold.

Twelve-year-old Alyssa McCarthy can no longer stand the toughness of her uncle and wants a better life.  But what she didn’t expect is a different reality where magic thrives.  Unfortunately, she won’t only discoverthe existence of magic, but she also learns that an evil wizard is hunting her down. The villain uses magic and magical technology to kidnap her to the Fiji Islands.  She wants to go home; but before she can, she still has to face some dangerous challenges first. Not only that, the villain himself must also be defeated. Even with help from her mentors, the challenges are tough.Can Alyssa succeed? Readers will find out in this American fantasy-adventure set in modern times, where the wizarding culture is the complete opposite of old-fashioned.

Challenges are part of life. But everyone needs to accept them.  And that’s what these magical missions unravel.

This book is available online and can be purchased atwww.friesenpress.com, www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

About the Author

Sunayna Prasad has been writing stories for over thirteen years, starting at the age of six. Now nineteen, she will start her junior year of college this fall, and will study accessory design as well as continue to write for children. Aside from that, Sunayna also likes to cook, watch movies, and draw. She lives on Long Island, New York, with her family.

From Frights to Flaws (Alyssa McCarthy’s Magical Missions, Book 1) by Sunayna Prasad

Publication Date: August 22, 2013

Paperback: $12.99; 216 pages; ISBN 978-1460207017

To request a complimentary paperback review copy, please contact Raffi Anderson at BookWhirl.com  (877) 207-1679 or info@BookWhirl.com.

Shakespeare and Sleep

 

Shakespeare’s plays have always been fascinating. But do you know of something in particular that adds to their fascination? It is something that even the most avid fan of his plays may have failed to realize. And that is the subject of sleep.

Sleep or, more specifically, the way in which sleep relates to Shakespeare’s plays performs a surprisingly significant role. Through this stimulating book, author Thomas Vail discusses how Shakespeare uses sleeping characters to help move plot situations forward and explores the way in which Shakespeare utilizes certain sleep disorders to help delineate a variety of characters. In addition to addressing the subject of premonitory dreams and the unfortunate consequences that can ensue if such dreams are ignored, he seeks to discover, in spite of Shakespeare’s treatment of sleep as generally troubled, elusive, or akin to death, if there are any Shakespearean characters who actually have a good night’s sleep.
What he discovers may surprise you.

Thomas E. Vail

This multi-talented author is originally from Portland, Oregon. While attending high school, he studied oil painting with the Oregon artist Albert Patecky (1906-1994) and acting at the Portland Civic Theatre School of Drama. After graduation, he attended Portland State College and, later, the Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Art Students League.

Over the years, while exhibiting occasionally as an artist, he worked as a professional actor, a lighting consultant to architects and interior designers, and a staff member at Pace University. Currently a member of the Shakespeare Society, he retired in 2002 and devotes his time to writing, painting, and theatergoing.

The Bluebird Flower

 
Letters bring life to a collection of interestingly mysterious stories…
What would you do if you found a bundle of letters inside a trunk in an attic?
Find out what’s inside the letters written by a man named Chuck to a certain Mrs. Ainsworth in author Craig Downey’s The BlueBird Flower.

Open each letter penned by Chuck, a man with a questionable occupation (got an office in town and money to gad about, may be married or bachelor, and lives in some era), who addresses each letter to a particular Mrs. Ainsworth (who may be his aunt, sister, or perhaps just a friend).With a few exceptions, each letter is a story unto itself and mostly in or about Wetowannabee (a town in upstate that is not listed on modern maps or in past land records).

Discover more about the town of Wetowannabee and Chuck as you leaf through this letter collection. Learn about some incidents that he heard about or observed or that someone else has written. He takes no blame or credit for the story as some are merely his observations on a specific condition of life or after life…

Craig Downey

It was my good fortune to be born to a penniless man who’s father had 12 children, was a carpenter, taught school and many other things to feed his family. On the other hand my mother’s family were successful farmers. The great depression was not kind but somehow they muddled through.

I say fortunate because we lived in a pump handle house where the outhouse was a sufficient distance from the back door. Life was tough and I sat on the front row and watched as my parents struggled, I was no stranger to hard work.

Gary, Indiana was the place of my birth and home until I had a family of my own. We struggled but not like my father. Now a retired shuttle engineer I always managed to find a job. I hopped from job to job looking for what would be a job of interest to me. After college I took a job as electrician, then on to the Ford Motor Co. where I maintained the electronics that controlled the machinery that made cars, then it was Union Carbide where I maintained their instrumentation, on I went to General Manager and Head Instructor teaching radio and television and then to calibration of electronics instruments used in the missile launch division of the Air Force.

A year in Fort Yukon as a site representative for RCA and on to California where I worked on the Titan missile installations.

Next was Cambridge, Ohio in a calibration test set up engineer department manager for the calibration lab. Then I hit pay dirt and spent my last 35 years as a calibration engineer and later shuttle electronics design engineer. Just off hand I would say it has been a fun ride.

The Playdough Poem

Does special creation by an awesome God explain how people got here, or does evolution make more sense? Is God real, or is chance in charge? Many people talk about God but struggle to answer important questions such as: Who is God? Why should people trust him? Does God care? Now, The Playdough Poem illustrates how a handful of modeling clay can help everyone understand answers to these questions. Author Sandra Edwards’ unique approach makes learning and sharing fun.
The playdough didn’t get here by evolving from something else, and it won’t transform into anything in a million years all by itself. Readers will be amazed at how a simple object lesson can teach children and adults alike that nothing—including planets, plants, animals, and people—could make itself by accident, even if the process continued for a million years. God truly is the Creator of the universe!
This simple poem’s rhyming text refutes the Theory of Evolution quickly and easily. It’s easy to memorize and share, pointing out that the playdough can only be produced by careful measuring, mixing, and cooking of selected, prepared ingredients according to a specific recipe, so a Designer–God–must have been required to make living, functioning, reproducing creatures. Multicultural paintings and complete chapters for English, Spanish, and French illustrate that God has one message for all of humanity: He created the universe, and He is in charge. Bonus poems show how Creation is connected to the Christian gospel.

Sandra Edwards

God has gifted me with lots of artistic interests and talents, among them knitting, scrapbooking (both cut&paste and digital), sewing, quilting, and furniture painting; this is my first book illistration project. I enjoy teaching children in Sunday school, VBS, and Awana Club settings, and wrote a Creation vs Evolution workshop to give teachers resources to share God’s truth creatively. Feel free to share anything from this site: just credit www.theplaydoughpoem.com.
Once upon a time my husband & I had 5 children, ages 0, 2, 4, 6, & 8…now they’re 15, 17, 19, 21 & 23! I appreciate their support & enthusiasm over all these years, & look forward to mandatory family fun at speaking engagements and book-sending sessions for a long, long time.