There’s trouble at the North Pole! After five hundred years of snow, ice and polar bears, Mrs. Claus is ready for a change. But dear old Santa is pretty set in his ways. She may have to take drastic measures. Aloha Santa gives a merry new spin on the beloved Christmas characters with a fun verse and bright, charming illustrations.
Ho! Ho! Ho! and Mele Kalikimaka! It’s the time of year to share one of my favorite books, ALOHA SANTA. The book reminds me of the years I sang with the Na Leo Lani Chorus of Sweet Adelines in Honolulu. What a wonderful time we had spreading the Spirit of Aloha across Oahu. Aloha Santa began as a performance verse I created for a Christmas show. After hearing it, chorus members encouraged me to turn it into a children’s book.
Thanks to the wonderful artist, Jaana Baker, the story came alive through her illustrations. Aloha Santais a read-aloud family tradition for many families. Perhaps you can make it one of yours!
ALOHA SANTA is available at Amazon in both paperback and eBook. Order HERE today to spread the Aloha Spirit with your family and friends!
It’s that time of year to enjoy stories with a Christmas spirit of love and joy. Through the years I’ve been inspired to write several tales for the holiday season. I invite you to relax and refresh your spirit with my creative offerings. ~ Dana Taylor
My very first novel is closer to my heart with each passing year. Taking the advice, “write what you know,” I based the heroine on myself, a natural healer who runs a health food store in a small Oklahoma town. The hero, based on my husband, is a no-nonsense lawyer.
“The Healer vs. the Lawyer. Energy healer, Persephone Jones, has a new neighbor in Peeler, Oklahoma—hot shot lawyer, Jason Brooks. They meet in June; it would take a miracle to bring these two together by Christmas. She bans white sugar; he’s a chocolate cookie connoisseur. She’s about saving Mother Earth while he protects the interests of Big Business. Their attraction is mutual, but disturbing. And life gets even more complicated when the whole town is caught in a conflict that pits these two on opposite sides of a political fence.Available at Amazon
Do you believe in angels? Here are three short stories featuring angels in various guises.
“Shiny Green Shoes”—Life was hard on old Route 66 in 1935 in Luther, Oklahoma. The unlikely friendship between Mazie McDonald, a poor black child, and Peach Knight, an aging white actress, brings hope to a town down on its luck and proves dreams do come true!
“Refiner’s Fire”— Inspired by an incident from the 2008 San Diego firestorms. Flamboyant California real estate agent, Dina Stein, doesn’t care that she’s spending Hanukah alone with her dog, Angel. Better than spending it with her ungrateful daughter and son-in-law. Funny how Mother Nature can change your perspective.
“Patty’s Angels”–Los Angeles, 1960. California is becoming a state of great contrasts. Downtown LA and the suburbs are only minutes, yet worlds, apart. A little girl named Patty brings people together, with the help of her celestial best friends.
As the weather gets colder and the holidays fast approach, it’s nice to turn to some seasonal reading. Here are my offerings to bring a smile to your heart.
My first novel has autobiographical overtones. Following the sage advice “write what you know,” the personalities of the H/H are basically me and my husband, David. The story is fictional, but the Oklahoma setting and culture reflects where I was living at that time. This year marks the 10th anniversary of David’s passing. This story is close to my heart.
The Healer vs. the Lawyer. Energy healer, Persephone Jones, has a new neighbor in Peeler, Oklahoma—hot shot lawyer, Jason Brooks. They meet in June; it would take a miracle to bring these two together by Christmas. She bans white sugar; he’s a chocolate cookie connoisseur. She’s about saving Mother Earth while he protects the interests of Big Business. Their attraction is mutual, but disturbing. And life gets even more complicated when the whole town is caught in a conflict that pits these two on opposite sides of a political fence….Foreword Magazine says AIN’T LOVE GRAND? is “written with a fresh voice, an impeccable sense of comedic timing, vivid narrative, and fascinating characters.” Available in the Kindle Store at Amazon.
Aloha Santa began as a performance piece for a Christmas show of the Na Leo Lani Chorus of Sweet Adelines in Honolulu. The chorus became ohana (family) for me in the six years I lived in there. The fun poem was so well received, I turned it into a children’s book with the wonderful illustrations by Jaana Baker. It’s a fun read-aloud book for the whole family. Available as e-book or print atAmazon.
Do you believe in angels? Here are three short stories featuring angels in various guises.
“Shiny Green Shoes”— Life was hard on old Route 66 in 1935 in Luther, Oklahoma. The unlikely friendship between Mazie McDonald, a poor black child, and Peach Knight, an aging white actress, brings hope to a town down on its luck and proves dreams do come true!
“Refiner’s Fire”— Inspired by an incident from the 2008 San Diego firestorms. Flamboyant California real estate agent, Dina Stein, doesn’t care that she’s spending Hanukah alone with her dog, Angel. Better than spending it with her ungrateful daughter and son-in-law. Funny how Mother Nature can change your perspective.
“Patty’s Angels”—Los Angeles, 1960. California is becoming a state of great contrasts. Downtown LA and the suburbs are only minutes, yet worlds, apart. A little girl named Patty brings people together, with the help of her celestial best friends. Available in the Kindle Store at Amazon.
I’m happy to support fellow author, Ellis Nelson, and her new release of the middle school adventure, Down the Treacle Well. It’s been fun to watch this release unfold. Here is a short review:
Down the Treacle Well combines time travel, fantasy, and psychic phenomena in this fun adventure to Wonderland of Victorian England. While visiting Oxford, Ben and Kyle, two young American brothers, are tumbled back in time to 1864 to meet Reverend Charles Dodson, who later generations know as author, Lewis Carroll. It turns out Wonderland is a parallel universe and Alice has gone missing there. As the boys get drafted into rescuing the ever-curious, Alice, we get to meet many of the beloved Wonderland characters. Ben and Kyle each have psychic gifts and much of the character development revolves around Ben learning to embrace his special abilities. Author Ellis Nelson weaves the venerated Wonderland traditions with 21st century characters and ideas into a fun “what-happens-next” page turner. Highly recommended for the middle school reader.
Ellis posted short YouTube videos along the path the publication. I especially enjoyed this one that gives a lot of background information to the original Alice in Wonderland tales. Also, Ellis is engaging to watch.
Below is the very well done book trailer. If you’ve got a young reader in your life, Down the Treacle Well would make an excellent gift for the holiday season.
Kathy J. Forti intrigues me. In 2015 I happened upon her autobiographical book, FRACTALS OF GOD:A PSYCHOLOGIST’S NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE AND JOURNEYS INTO THE MYSTICAL. In it she tells of her near death experience, astral projection, meeting new spirit guides, and the subsequent invention of a new healing energy device, the Trinfinity8. (See blog post here) As a Facebook friend, I have followed her expeditions to the pyramids of Egypt, her move to Maui, and the occasional revealing political post.
In 2022 I was surprised to see her release two sci-fi novels. Forti’s sudden turn as a sci-fi writer further intrigued me. I downloaded the first in the series, STACKS, with low expectations. First novels by indie authors usually have a lot of rough edges. But, the premise captured my interest, so I decided to at least read a couple of chapters. Well, I was hooked. I’ve finished both books and am anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
From Kathy J. Forti’s Facebook page, “Yes, there really is a portal in the Library of Congress!…I’d say these books are truly channeled and so much fun to write. I call them non-fiction sci-fi.”
STACKS and STACKS: AWAKENING TRUTH are complex, fast-paced, character driven books right out of my favorite Gaia/YouTube channels. The story centers on Zach Eldridge, a young Library of Congress librarian with Acquired Savant Syndrome and Synesthesia. Zach possesses unique psychic powers, high intelligence, and a strong moral compass. He might just be the right guy to save the world. A time-honored hero’s journey set-up. The great fun of this yarn arises from current events regarding the ruling Elite, Big Pharma, Aliens (good and bad), and just about every other conspiracy theory floating around out there.
Book One begins with Zach receiving an urgent message from his mentor, Roone Sawyer, to meet him in his office at the Library of Congress. Zach arrives to discover Roone has committed suicide (not). Having planned for his untimely demise, Roone left clues and instructions for his protege. Zach is soon sucked through a portal to another dimension to the Library of Truth (LOC), where otherworldly beings watch over the evolution of mankind and planet earth. A plot thousands of years in the making is about to overtake the human race unless Zach rises to all challenges coming his way.
The supporting characters are well fleshed out. Cali Caliveri is the hot-shot reporter eager to get big scoops, despite personal danger. Zach’s high-powered parents each play critical roles in world events. Meghan March, a Senator’s daughter, is Zach’s love interest. Her daughter, little Izzie, a crystal child, possesses psychic powers to rival Zach’s.
The story flows. Enough action to make it a page turner, balanced with sympathetic characters and growing relationships. And even some satisfying hot sex scenes. Both books end with dramatic moments and cliff hangers. I’ll definitely be one of the first to purchase book three when it is released in 2023.
Of course, underneath it all, I’m wondering–how much is fiction and how much is fact? Forti claims it is channeled material and dubs it “non-fiction sci-fi.” Hmmm. Very intriguing indeed.
December 21, 2012 marked the end of the ancient Mayan calendar. If you recall, many predicted the end of world in some cataclysmic event. Others saw it as the end of one cosmic age and the beginning of another. Well, we’re still here, so the first camp of believers must have been wrong. Or were they? What if a doomsday device had been set to explode. What stopped it? And herein lies the intriguing set up to AWAKE: The Legacy of Akara by Dayna Dunbar and Julia Nadine Padawer. From the book jacket–
Akara is Home to A Civilization Far More Evolved Than Our Own. Long ago on Akara, a planet in the Pleiades cluster, The Ravaging Era raged. It was a time of toxic greed, rampant warfare, and environmental devastation. Akarans were on the brink of extinction. Out of the turmoil, a critical mass of beings experienced an awakening, which sparked a spontaneous shift in consciousness across the planet and ushered in the Rebirthing.
A Thousand Years Later. Mobius–a candidate for the Discovery Corps, Akara’s elite space program–stumbles upon an ancient relic. The artifact reveals that a rogue space commander from the Ravaging Era attempted to colonize Earth. The legacy of his reign now places Earth in jeopardy.
AWAKE does a cracking job of setting up a classic Hero’s Journey with young Mobius, a less-than-perfect Akaran, given the mission to save Planet Earth. The opening chapters of the book jump between the four-fingered, big-eyed Akaran crew and the drug infested jungles of Guatemala. Diego, a slightly crooked jungle ranger, emerges as a secondary hero. Two story lines ultimately converge when the earthlings meet the E.T.’s and race the clock and numerous bad guys to save the world.
This tale is fun on several levels. Mayan legends and visionary spirituality add dashes of spice and flavor to the sci-fi adventure. Mobius, Diego and their small collected team are all individually interesting characters. Dialogue and action is laced with humor. There’s even a little romance between Diego and the rich American girl, Jillian. A little something for everybody here.
As I write this review Earth seems on the brink of our own Ravaging Era, so the book becomes a timely cautionary tale. We can go the path of destruction, as the doomsayers predict. However, we live in a freewill zone. Hence, a Rebirthing Era is also a possibility, if enough humans Awake.
Author Dayna Dunbar shares a deeply personal out-of-this-world experience in Sedona that changed the course of her life and ultimately inspired the book. She met co-author Julia Nadine Padawer at the University of Santa Monica, a school known for spiritual exploration. This collaboration took seven years to complete. Their work honing AWAKE into a well-paced, layered adventure results in a real page turner.
Enjoy Dayna’s intriguing real-life experience and then click over to Amazon and purchase a copy.
Available at Amazon in paperback, kindle and audio version.
