#ExclusiveExcerpt The Secret in Mossy Swamp by @RitaMonette #middlegrade @Saphs_Books

I sat on the dock with my ruined birthday gift in my lap. Snooper trotted up next to me and laid his head on my leg. “I wish we had our own place, Snoop.” He gazed up at me with his I know how you feel look.

Snooper was the only creature in the whole world that understood me. I put my arm around him and nuzzled my face in his short fur. Snooper had been my best buddy since Papa brought him home as a hunting dog. After he found out he was useless at that particular chore, he set out to get rid of him, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. Me and him were two of a kind. Neither of us fit in. Snoop couldn’t hunt coons or rabbits on account of his smeller not working, and it seemed I couldn’t keep my nose out of trouble.

I glanced out at an old oak tree with low, moss-covered branches that reached out over the bayou. “That there would make a grand getaway, don’t you think? Maybe a tree house.”

My old friend, Lydia Hebert, from Pierre Part, had her own tree house. We had a lot of fun playing in hers. Spikes and his brothers had their own clubhouse. That’s where we figured out the pirate map from our last adventure. I thought it was time I had one of my own. My dog cocked his head at where I pointed and blinked.

Mama came up behind me. “Come in for some breakfast, honey.”

“I’m not hungry,” I huffed. “And why’s Papa so grumpy anyway?”

Mama sat down on a wooden bench. “Oh, he’s just fretting over that missing boy.”

“What missing boy?” I squinted at her.

Things are never what they seem... in a foggy Louisiana swamp

Book Information:

Title: The Secret in Mossy Swamp

Series: Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, Book 3

Author Name: Rita Monette

Genre(s): Juvenile/Middle Grade, Adventure, Mystery

Length: Approx. 204 pages

ASIN: B01KIQNDD6
ISBN Paperback: 978-1987976168

Release Date: Septemer 17, 2016

Publisher: Mirror World Publishing

(http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/)

Follow the Blog Tour:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/book-tour-schedule-secret-in-mossy.html

About The Secret in Mossy Swamp:

Living in a tiny houseboat, Nikki is stuck with sharing a room with her little brother, Jesse, who does what little brothers do best…torture their sisters. Fed up, she decides to build a place of her own…a tree house where no boys are allowed. Meanwhile, something strange is happening on Bayou Platte. Things and people are coming up missing…and little stick dolls covered in moss, known locally as “signs” from the legendary Rougarou, are showing up in their place.

Is the Rougarou really to blame? Can Nikki get to the bottom of the mystery before things get worse? Find out in this third instalment of the Nikki Landry Swamp Legends Series!

Add the Book on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31622394-the-secret-in-mossy-swamp

Purchase Links:

Mirror World Publishing ~
Paperback: http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-secret-in-mossy-swamp-paperback

eBook: http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/juvenile/products/the-secret-in-mossy-swamp-e-book

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2cbkPHy

Meet the Author:

Behind Every Legend Lies the Truth!

Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. She loves to write stories set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state. She is currently retired and lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee. Besides writing and illustrating, She enjoys participating in festivals and craft shows where she does face and body art, along with selling her books.

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/RitaMonetteBooks

Amazon:  

http://amzn.to/2d0B4aF

Goodreads Author Page:  

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6580833.Rita_Monette?from_search=true

Blog: http://ritamonette.blogspot.com/

Author Website: http://www.ritamonette.com/

Black Lightning #newrelease from @KSJones2011 @MirrororWorldPub @Saphs_Books

About Black Lightning:

Life moves on — no matter what...

Following his father’s puzzling disappearance and his mother’s death, ten-year-old Samuel Baker goes through the motions of living in a world turned upside down. He wears an Apache talisman, a long ago gift from his father, in hopes its promise of strength and guidance is true. But what he truly wants is the power to bring his parents back. 

Heartless Aunt Janis is elated at the prospect of becoming Samuel’s legal guardian. She is sure an orphan boy will elicit such an outpouring of public sympathy that her husband will win his Senate bid by a landslide. But when Grandpa Tate arrives, things don’t go as expected, especially when black lightning strikes!

From the award-winning author of Shadow of the Hawk

Title: Black Lightning

Author Name: K.S. Jones

Genre(s): Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Length: Approx. 132 pages

Release Date: May 17, 2016

Publisher:  Mirror World Publishing (www.mirrorworldpublishing.com)

Follow the Tour for Reviews, Guest Posts, Exclusive Excerpts, and Spotlight Posts:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/blog-tour-schedule-black-lightning-by.html

Read an Excerpt:

Samuel stood beside his mother’s rain-speckled casket. He had cried his tears dry, so there was no point in trying to find more.

“Chin up, young man,” Aunt Janis said as her fingers nudged Samuel’s jaw upward. “Death is just part of life, and our photographer needs a good picture of you for the newspapers.”

A camera flashed, leaving Samuel’s red and swollen eyes burning as if stung by the sun instead of grief.

So many important days had come and gone without his father, but surely he would come home today, wouldn’t he? Samuel closed his eyes. He pretended his father was beside him holding his hand. They had a right to hold hands, he told himself. Not because he was ten, but because it was his mother’s funeral. Two years had passed since his father left, never to be seen again. Vanished, was the word his mother had used. Into thin air, she’d said.

“Take that silly thing off.” Aunt Janis flicked Samuel’s wood and bead necklace.

“No,” he said and shook his head. “My dad gave it to me.” It was a pinewood tile, the size of a domino shaved nickel-thin, which hung from a leather cord around his neck. Burned onto the front side of the wood was a lightning bolt. Its flipside bore the blackened imprint of a tribal dancer. It had a turquoise nugget and a shiny black hematite bead strung together on each side. His father had given the talisman to him with a promise: It will guide you and give you strength when you need it most.

Today, dressed in a black suit and starchy white shirt, Samuel wore it in hopes the promise was true.

As mourners gathered, Samuel’s friend Brian came to stand beside him. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Samuel answered without taking his eyes off the casket.

“Is that the necklace your dad gave you? You don’t usually wear it.” Brian’s wire-rimmed glasses slid down his straight arrow nose. He pushed them back up the bridge with one finger until they encircled his eyes again. “Can I see it? I promise I’ll give it right back.”

“It’s not a necklace.” Samuel pulled the leather cord off over his head, mussing his overgrown blond hair. “It’s a talisman.” He handed it to Brian. “My dad said it would help me, but it hasn’t done anything yet. I think it was just one of his stories. It’s probably just an old piece of scrap wood with a couple rocks tied to it.”

Brian shrugged after examining the piece then he handed it back to Samuel. “I think it’s cool. You should keep wearing it anyway.”

Nodding, Samuel hung the talisman around his neck again, but this time he dropped it down beneath his shirt where it was no longer visible. It felt warm against his skin.

“Has anybody told you where you’re going to live now?” Brian asked.

“Probably with Aunt Janis and Uncle Jack.”

Brian frowned. He kicked the tip of his shoe into the muddy soil. “They live so far away. Why can’t you just stay here and live with Mrs. Abel? She doesn’t have any kids.”

Mrs. Abel was their fourth grade teacher. She had plainly stated to all who would listen that her job was to teach the proper use of the English language to children who behaved properly. A babysitter, she had said, she was not. Today, she stood in the rain with the other mourners, eyeing the ground where the hem of her long, gray dress lay caked in mud. Tufts of brown hair jutted out from under her pink plaid scarf. Even though she stood a few feet from him, she had not spoken to Samuel since his mother’s death. Few people had. Everyone had words for Aunt Janis and they talked to Uncle Jack, but no one but Brian and a few classmates had spoken to him. Maybe talking to an orphan was harder than talking to a normal kid.



Purchase Links:



Mirror World Publishing

 http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/products/black-lightning-ebook



Amazon

http://amzn.to/24H7yrY



Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-lightning-ks-jones/1123660287?ean=9781987976120



Quote:

“If you’ve forgotten the magic that lives in a child’s heart, this book will remind you. Black Lightning is a rare and beautiful mythic journey about one boy’s struggle with paralyzing grief and the powerful bonds that can carry a person through this world and beyond...” W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors of People of the Thunder

Meet the Author:

Karen
(K.S.) Jones grew up in California, but now lives in the beautiful Texas Hill
Country northwest of San Antonio with her husband, Richard, and their dogs Jack
Black, Libby Loo, and Red Bleu. Black Lightning is her first middle-grade
novel. She credits her love of fantasy to the early influences of authors
J.R.R. Tolkien, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Her award-winning first novel, Shadow
of the Hawk, a Young Adult Historical, released in 2015.

Visit K.S. Jones:

Facebook
~ https://www.facebook.com/Karen.S.Jones.Author

Website
~ http://ksjones.com/

Twitter
~ https://twitter.com/KSJones2011

The Legend of Ghost Dog Island #NewRelease from @RitaMonette @MirrorWorldPub #middlegrade #kidlit @Saphs_Books

Behind every legend lies the truth… 

About The Legend of Ghost Dog Island:

Moving is nothing new for ten-year-old Nikki Landry. Her father relocates their raggedy old houseboat several times a year in search of better crabbing spots. However, their latest move has brought her to a mysterious bayou where she feels something is watching her from a nearby island.

Nikki learns of a local legend about something sinister inhabiting those swamps, stealing the souls of dogs...which would explain the strange howling sounds. Papa reassures her there’s nothing on the island but gators and snakes. He should know. He’s spent his whole life trapping and fishing those bayous and swamps…But maybe there’s something Papa doesn’t know.

Nikki and her new friends begin to uncover strange happenings from years ago that may have started the old legend…and town folks aren’t talking.

Then her beloved beagle goes missing.

Join Nikki as she seeks to discover the real truth behind the legend of Ghost Dog Island…before it’s too late.

Book Details:

Title: The Legend of Ghost Dog Island
Author Name: Rita Monette
Genre(s): Middle Grade, Adventure, Mystery
Tags: Adventure, mystery, middle grade, louisiana, bayou, dogs
Length: Approx. 204 pages
E-book:  978-1-987976-00-7
Paperback:  978-0-9947490-9-3
Re-Release Date: September 1, 2015
Publisher:  Mirror World Publishing

Read an Excerpt:

“I’m going to hate Morgan City,” I complained to my dog Snooper, “no matter what Papa says.”

My beagle laid his head on my lap and gazed up at me with his watery eyes. He pretty much agreed with me on everything.

I sat on the deck of our old flat-bottomed houseboat as it glided through the winding bayous. Papa’s fishing boat, filled with baskets of line and crab crates, trailed behind on its rope. We were leaving Pierre Part…Lydia…far behind. I rolled the legs of my overalls up and dangled my feet over the edge.

“Nicole Landry, keep your feet out of that filthy water,” Mama hollered from the doorway of the small living area of our floating home. She wiped her hands on her stained apron, then fixed the comb that held her long dark hair in a pile on top of her head. Mama was born and raised in New Orleans, but left the big city for a life in the bayous with Papa. She never looked back. At least that’s what she always told folks.

“They ain’t in the water, Mama.” I held my legs up so she could see they were dry.

She opened the patched screened door and shooed a fly out, before closing it and going back inside.

I twirled the end of my long black braid. Moving to a new place always gave me a lump in my throat as big as a bullfrog. But I wasn’t going to cry this time. I was ten years old after all.

I’d lived in that same house since the day I was born—as Mama always tells it, "the coldest morn’ of 1946." But I couldn’t rightly recall how many times it got tied up to a new dock. Mama liked to say Papa never let the grass grow under his feet. But I could hardly think of a time when his rubber boots ever touched grass.

Papa grew up in Morgan City, and he said folks there were mighty friendly. But it seemed to me, most city dwellers weren’t too welcoming to my kind, being from the wrong side of the levee and all. And the city was where I’d have to go to school.

“And, as for making friends with any kids there, no way.” I shook my finger in Snoop’s face. “Just to up and leave ’em behind anyway.”

He managed a tiny whimper, as if I was fussing at him.

I thought about Lydia standing on the Belle River Bridge waving goodbye. My eyes burned, and I squeezed ’em shut. I felt in my pocket for her note. I’d read it at least a hundred times since she’d handed it to me, right before I went stomping down the ladder from her tree house. She’d scribbled down her post office box address and "write me," then signed her name with the little heart over the i like she always did.

“Hmph!” I told Snooper. “She’s crazy if she thinks I’m gonna write her after what she did.”

Lydia Hebert was my best friend in the whole world…until yesterday. It was a lot easier to leave while I was still mad at her. But now it felt like an empty hole inside me.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/1VbZ7jq

Mirror World Publishing Links:
eBook http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/history/products/the-legend-of-ghost-dog-island-ebook
Paperback  http://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/history/products/the-legend-of-ghost-dog-island-paperback


Meet the Author:

Rita Monette was born and raised in Southwest Louisiana. She loves to write stories set in the beautiful, yet mysterious, bayous and swamps of her home state.

Her middle grade series, The Nikki Landry Swamp Legends, is based on tales told by her father—who made his living in those bayous—of reasons to stay out of the swamp.

She currently lives with her husband, four lap dogs, and one lap cat, in the mountains of Tennessee. Besides writing and illustrating, she loves watching the many birds that make their habitat on the Cumberland Plateau, working in the garden, and frequenting waterfalls.

Follow the Tour:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/blog-tour-schedule-legend-of-ghost-dog.html