Book Review: Keys to Atlantis

Get it here: Keys to Atlantis

This is the second book in a trilogy. Following a letter left to him from the notorious Captain Blackheart in the 16^th century (see the first book for how That happened), Jon sets out again across time and space to meet up with Blackheart and assist him in his search for the lost city of Atlantis. Before they leave we given some mysterious clues of how the time travel machine may have been left in Jon’s Grandparents hands and that his parents death may vey well not have been an accident after all.

We are treated to yet another wild ride across time and the globe and I love the return of Jon as well as a introduction of the sassy Haley! The characters have great details and individualizations and the transitions are (as in the first book) flawless! Another great story from Mrs. Copus and I will be keeping my eyes out for the next book in this series.

Book Review: Blackhearts Legacy

Get it here: Blackhearts Legacy

This book was a breeze! I practically swallowed it up in a day! Even though the tale is very suited to a younger audience I find that adults can find much pleasure in this as well.

We start the journey with Jon, an orphan taken in by his grandparents who have a unusual hobby: time Travel. After a trip goes terribly wrong it’s up to Jon and his Grandmother to keep their wits together to make it home before a terrible Natural Disaster destroys the area where they landed.

I really enjoyed this story and the flow was great. Although there are many different views (Jon, Gammy, Gramps, Captain Blackheart), your not left lost and confused between each change. The author does a fine job of smoothly transitioning us from one character to another and the story just keeps on rolling! There are a few loose ends at the end and an obvious setup for the next book (which I already picked up) so be prepared to get hooked!

Book Review: You are This!

Get it here: You are This!

This Spiritual Self Help book is written by an Expert in the Field. Mr. Harrison already has other successful books published and has an impressive resume within the field of Spirituality (as described in his bio). I’ve had some minor experience with the spiritual aspects and views of our Bodies and self, through my Mother who is a Reiki Teacher among other things. I was interested in this book and was pleasantly surprised to find a glossary of the main term used in the book right up front. This made it easier for me whenever I had to reference something.
Even with the little that I know, the book is very complex and at times I had to set it down to really meditate (or re-read) on what the author was trying to make me consider. This book (IMHO) is not a beginner’s guide. This book is for those who are well on the path to understanding their place in this world, self-realization and consciousness.

Book Review: One More

Get it here: One More



This book was about a solar flare that kicked out the world’s communications systems and everything that goes with it and the resulting chaos. It is a survival story, basically but there are elements of personal turmoil, strength and the perseverance it takes for Richard Evans to continue his journey to home to his wife and remaining children.
I’ve read apocalyptic stories before, but I really liked how this book was very realistic and fitting to what is currently going on in the world. We don’t get fed miraculous set of people who just happened to have the right skills and everything works out for them every time in this book. This is a real, gritty and down-to-earth struggle for survival and for humanity. What will you do when the power goes out forever? Will you have the strength to return to your loved ones? Pick this book up, you will not regret reading it!

New items in the Shop!

I recently posted some new Product in the shop so here are some Photos: OfftheNeedle

Book Review: Behavioral Genes

Get it here: Behavioral Genes

Why do we react in certain ways? Why are we driven to different types of behavior? Is there anything that we can do to really control what and when we do something? These are some of the questions that Dr. Baird poses and answers within this book. It was very fascinating and at times eye-opening, making me go: Aha! So That’s why I reacted that way! The way we react to certain situations stems in large part from our genes, from the times we were Cavemen and those types of Right or Flight mannerisms do not apply anymore. Lets face it: when was the last time you had to run from a dinosaur? Or fight a lion for dinner?

This is not you typical “happy-go-lucky” Self help book, this is a serious book, for serious people who truly want to understand what makes them tick and how they can change. I found some of the tips and strategies that Dr Baird writes about very interesting and I will be trying to incorporate them into my own daily life. We will see how it works out. That said, it was well written and easy to understand for some one like me who is not from a science background, just an everyday person.

Book Review: Clutch

Get it here: Clutch

This was a fun, fast and quirky read. I loved the main character, even though I wanted to strangle her sometimes over her idiotic choices in men, I still was able to identify with her and I loved rooting for her in the end when she finally wised up. Our main Gal is Caroline Johnson, she has the Brains and a Bod for sin as the story so aptly puts it. She starts and owns her own handbag line and tends to compartmentalize her men into the different types of handbags (hobo, wallet, clutch, etc). She has one true friend who has stood by her through it all, not judging: Mike. They met on their first day in college and have stuck together ever since.

Like I said, a very fun and fast read. It’s a feel good romance story and that is exactly what I wanted when I picked it up.

Book Review: Greylock

Get it here: Greylock

On top of Mt Greylock, Pianist seeks solitude to compose his beloved masterpiece, a symphony of Beluga Whales. He has been dreaming of this since his times in the Navy when he first heard their songs in the submarines he worked on. His family is originally from Russia and with that heritage comes a chest wherein he finds a brilliant sonata.. He claims it as his own and goes on to become famous with it. But it all has a dark side. His marriage to Ballerina Carole Anne turns sour and then she gets murdered. He seduces a local weather girl and is tormented by a ghostly dark apparition. His Aunt warns him to take the sonata and never play it again, to burn it before it destroys him.

This novel was full of passion, murder, mystery and despair. The main character is poised perfectly to fall into madness with his theft and then the murder. There are a few suspects and we are left wondering with little clues left here and there on who actually did it? The drive and sometimes single-mindedness of Alexei is very well written, it draws you in and even though I didn’t like him for it sometimes, I could still respect him. Excellent mystery Novel.

Book Review: Clandestine

Get it here: Clandestine

I really enjoy spy/secret clandestine organizations starring in my novels, but this book was so hard to start. The first few chapters were nothing but information. Granted, it helped with following the story plot later, but I think that the author could have found a better way of integrating all that info into the story.

The book sets before you the idea that there is a clandestine organization operating towards one goal: a world wide democracy that is beneficial to all people and looks at long-term goals rather than short. But in there operations things go sour, such as Egypt during the Arab spring. It should’ve been the smoothest transition, but it wasn’t. Following along after agent Koshka and Andy, the reader is taken upon a wild ride of missions and top secret dealings sure to please the conspiracy theory reader. Apart from the beginning the rest of the book was well written and it moved at a fast pace.

Book Review: Finding the Way

Get it here: Finding the Way

This was a really good book. The story is breathtaking in its historical details and the emotional tolls that Mr. Mueller goes through on his journey from Prussia to America, (and even through America) are riveting and enjoyable. Part Immigrants tale, part Western I think that the author did a fantastic job of weaving all the different viewpoints and characters to create an exciting tale.

Mr. Mueller leaves Prussia after time served in the military to make a life for himself in the USA. He relies upon skills learned in his home country to get by and starts expanding upon those as he moves deeper into the American west. The people he meets all touch his life in one form or another.

The fact that the author is Mr. Muellers grandson brings a personable feel to this story. Even though it states in the foreword that this is a work of fiction, I am wondering just how much of this might very well be true?

Book Review: Cold beer and a Hot Dart

Get it here: Hot Dart

I bought this book not so much for the positive message it contains (although that didn’t hurt), but more for the journal of his journeys. I have family in Australia so anything that has to do with Australia interests me. Aussie land wasn’t the biggest portion of his book; it seemed to me that Africa played the bigger role. And that was ok, because I was intrigued and ensnared in the storyline of this amazing and once in a lifetime journey from the jungles of Borneo.

The author set out to write this book as if we were two friends, sitting and enjoying a drink or two and he sure achieved this. It’s a frank and stark description of a world so completely different from our own (first world problems anyone?) that grips you and will leave you pondering how you live your life after you are finished with it. This book is great for anyone wondering what is truly out there.

Book Review: Sharing the Secrets

Get it here: Sharing the Secrets

Even though I’m from Texas I picked up this book, it seemed interesting and I haven’t seen or found any book that is pertinent to TX Laws. As such, the information provided herein is a great and useful tool to prepare you for the aftermath of an accident. There are a few rules in here the author mentions are based upon Florida laws, but I think that even from another state you get a lot of information that this book is really useful.

The information that is provided covers not only what to do in an accident, but also how to deal with Insurance Companies, doctors and lawyers. He gives good tips and explains on why you should not just accept anyone’s word that they are trying to help you. Sometimes it IS to good to be true. I recommend this book as a good intro and guide to any person wishing to familiarize and prepare themselves for the unexpected.

Book Review: One Great Goal

Get it here: Great Goal

This is not your typical self-help book in that it tells you how to figure out your goals and then tells you to go do them. No this book helps you align your goals with your soul purpose (not a typo). Your soul purpose is what the little voices inside are trying to tell you. I picked this book up since I recently started a small business and figured this could help me with realistic goal setting and achieving these goals.

Now this book did help me with that but it also helped me realize how to effectively prioritize as well as how to stay motivated while I work on achieving my goals. Ursula did a great job in putting this book together and giving me all the information and tools I needed without overwhelming me in the process. Once you realize that if you work towards your one great goal your secondary goals will fall into place thing will go much easier for you!

Book Review Goddess of Fortune

Get it here: Fortune

Goddess if Fortune is a small connected group characters dealing with an alternate history Timeline. If you like this genre then this will be a fantastic book for you. And if you’re new to the genre, then this book would make a good introduction. We start with a forward from our author, wondering if certain small events had not transpired, how would the world be different today? If an assassin would have stopped in a bakery a few streets down and missed his mark, would the world have gone to war? What if the Japanese had taken a different approach to their naval strategies?

The Characters of Louise, Kaito, Hermann Goering and Roosevelt, give us the perspective of different major players within the WW2 era and how the small things they do, no matter how insignificant they seem matter in the end. The writing style is smooth and fluid and moves the plot along nicely. The changing between the characters is seamless and doesn’t detract from the story. Excellent book.

Book Review: Dominion

Get it here: Dominion

A nice book full of Swashbuckling Pirates, Captains, crooked magistrates, slave traders and damsels in Distress. It s a romance at its heart and as such I found it to be a tad predictable in the plot flow but the story was still enjoyable. I was able to follow along and really connect with Atia and her losses, first her mother and younger brother who perish in the shipwreck and then when she is separated from her sister Livia. I also liked the selflessness of the doctor throughout the story as he rushes to try and save people who are hurt, or doomed by their illness to die and being poor the majority of his patients cannot pay him but he helps anyway. This was a heartwarming character for me, not many of these are seen in these types of books. This book is the first in a series and it does well to set the stage for the next books to come.

Book REview: The Game Master

Get it here: Game Master

This book reminded me of the SpyKids movies. It has a similar premise where a brother and sister get stuck in a game. The difference here is that we start out with two friends who are very competitive and they get enticed to play a virtual reality game wherein they have to figure out how people operate to “win” the game. This book was interesting in its ideas of using the virtual reality to switch us into other people, our friends and maybe even our enemies to see just how they differ from us (if at all).
Even though the book is geared towards young adults I think that it can easily be read by many generations. It is not childish and yet easy to understand. I liked the writing style
 And that there were no formatting issues which can really jar you out of the flow of the story was good too. I think this is a good book, well worth picking up.

Book review: Twist

get it here: Twist

This book was a very good story although I had some qualms with how it began. Our heroine loses her virginity within 48 hours of meeting this guy at her new school she just started to attend. It seemed a little “loosey goosey” to me, but then the things with the FBI started happening, her dad being on the most wanted list and all, and the story took off. We are treated to Luke’s point of view for some chapters of the book and they bring a nice angle to the story. The questions about why her dad was wanted, why and how her Mom died, and what it all has to do with this secret organization sanctity are posed and answered. The writing style is smooth and helps with moving the story forward at a good pace. This is a good conspiracy story centered on a young Teenage girl and her Father, but I wouldn’t let my young daughter read it due to the alluded sex scenes I wrote about above. I think it is good for adults who like a good mystery.

Book Review: Melting Steele

Get it here: Melting Steele

The second book in a series, I enjoyed the first so I decided to pick up this one as well. Once again, Detective Jasmine Steele is the lead and she is a strong willed, stubborn Female character. She is perfect for this intriguing crime Novel. The novel deals heavily with the Internet and all the things you can find on it. It also shows how you may be able to find things on there that you didn’t expect. This was very Eye-Opening and thought provoking for me. The story picks up a little while after the first book ends and is a good continuation. I did get a little tired of watching her relationship totter with Frankie, since it was pretty much the same as the first book I felt there could have been some more progress, either, they start working together or call it a quits for good.

The writing style is once again very well executed and I find that I am looking forward to a third book in this series. 

Craft Fair

So today was my first Craft Fair. After perusing tons of articles on tips and ticks, do's and don'ts The day arrived. And I think i did fairly well. It was a small fair, mainly for the teachers of the local Elementary school and the Neighboring school.
I made through Custom Order Requests than my actual Product. It's all good though, I can sell them in the Shop OfftheNeedle (for those who haven't been there yet)

Here are some pictures from my booth:

Book Review: Intelligent Design

Get it here: Design

Right off the bat this book was hard for me to really delve into the story. It felt disjointed and not until a good quarter of the way in did it start to make sense. The story starts off with what appears to be an alien talking to a AI about the ongoing “planetary Projects” within our sola system before the planet he is on is wiped out. Cut to current time and we get introduced to Perez, a young scientist in the Light spectrum field. She is somehow taken by these aliens and now lives among them (how this happens wasn’t clear till later).  She is tasked with saving them by fixing their holographic emitters. And I can’t say more about this otherwise I’ll be spoiling this book.

The writing and plot layout are solid and once I was able to follow the storyline the book took off in terms of depth and speed of the story. It was a nice change of pace from the usual Science Fiction stories and the characters are given enough details to truly become individuals to me. A good book with a rough start.

Book Review: Nuclear Mission

Get it here: Nuclear Mission

This is an interesting twist on the whole “alien abduction” Genre. In this story Mark gets abducted but instead of prodded and probed he gets outfitted with an Invisibility cloak and a mission: Convince the Leaders of Earth to get rid of their Nukes. That way the aliens can evacuate to Earth. They are fleeing asteroids that are going to destroy their home planet. Besides the nukes, (and the convoluted politics of earth), our planet is just right for them. We are joined on this rollercoaster of how Mark goes about this mission by Marks, girlfriend and his co worker. The author, being a Veteran, has the Government and military sides of the story masterfully covered. Again, a interesting twist. I liked it.

All characters are fleshed out and you do get wrapped up in the story but I that maybe some more action (this is Sci-Fi after all) or some more conspiracy theorists would have made this story greater.

Book Review: Dangerous Brains

Get it here: Dangerous Brains

This was an extremely well written apocalyptic novel. In the veins of SkyNet, The TV show Revolution and all the other SciFi flicks, that always ask us what happens once machines take over the world; this book seeks to answer the hypothetical question of how do we get there? How do the machines evolve to that point of intelligence and how do we stop them from wiping us out of existence?
You are dropped in the middle of this book and it grips you from the first few pages, like a movie plot it is unrelenting in its tempo and just when you are comfortable with the info you have gained, you get new players and new circumstances thrown at you.
Regardless if this book is true or not (and I hope it isn’t) it was entertaining, and detailed. It used flashbacks to flesh out details that were important, but they did not detract from the story and it never even gave me pause while reading it. The twists and turns, of this story were brilliantly carried out (was Vladimir involved? What is Cronus’s mission exactly?) And the end was surely unpredicted. A great book, I loved it and couldn’t put it down.

Business Cards!!

Just received my awesome Business cards in the mail today! Just in time for the craft Show next week!!

Book Review: The Gift Knight

Get it here: Gift Knight

This story is full of court intrigue, centuries old clan feuds and youngsters full of hope that they can make a place for themselves amidst all of this in a world rich in detail. The author does a very good job handling the individual characters and their plot lines and weaves this all into an entertaining book. There is much information given, between Derek, and Chandra the two main characters and I find it leads the story well, throughout the entirety of the book. I know some people said that the book was slow to start, but I liked the flow. It was steady and well paced throughout.

I enjoyed the plotting, and the court scenes, (reminded me a bit of Game of Thrones) but the I love intricate stories full of betrayals and mysteries of who did what when… This entertaining tale will keep you awake waiting for “just one more chapter”. 

Book Review: Night Sea Journey

Get it here: Night Sea Journey

Wow, What a Story! I couldn’t put this one down and it’s been a while since a story has gripped me this way! I was unsure at first when the story seemed centered on two priests, both struggling with their personal burdens, but once it took off, man did it ever! There are Biblical Demons, Jewish Genealogies and Prophecies, a troubled young woman who you can’t be sure if she is experiencing hallucinations and Night Terrors, or actual real life Visions. And each new piece will have you questioning what came before, and if t all might be one big dream, and not reality at all. I know when Garcia came back into play I was thinking, ok here we go, maybe he was a hallucination as well, but I can’t reveal what did happen. Don’t want to spoil it. The ending let me down I wanted it to end different, but it was a good ending after all. Can’t always get what we want, right? So pick up this book, enjoy the story and get lost in it an d just maybe be a little bit wary of what your dreams may become…

Book Review: The Sword and The Dragon

Get it here: Sword and Dragon

What a read! This fantasy tale has it all, sorcerers, imps, giants, dragons, elves, and brothers fated to be on opposite ends of Good and evil despite their love for each other.

Gerard and Hyden each have majestic destinies, but one is to die and live again only to bring doom and evil to the kingdom while the other will gather strong allies and rally the forces of good against his brother. Originally I thought that the two brothers would eventually unite and fight against the sorcerer Pael, but that stunning twist of betrayal in the middle of the book that set Gerards feet upon the much darker path foiled that plotline.

This read was refreshing in its telling. The story did slow here and there, but the pace in general was steady from one moment to the next. Even the different Point of Views did not detract as they so often can, but rather added the detailed layers to the individual characters. A fantastic story to pick up and cozy up with a cup of hot chocolate on these cold, rainy days!

Some items for the Craft Fair coming soon!