If you like Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, you will love Esther and her best friend Sophie in book one of the By The Sea Cozy Mystery series.
Oceanside High students Esther and Sophie prefer life between the covers of their favorite books, but they open an entirely new adventure and begin an exciting new chapter when the Stuart twins, Parker and Paisley, move from Great Britain to an old mansion in Esther and Sophie’s small beach town. The girls score invitations to a celebrity author’s book-launch party at the twins’ mansion, but after the selfies are snapped, someone goes missing, and everyone is a suspect.
Used to hiding behind her glasses and cardigans, Esther has secrets that only her cat and Sophie know. But when someone’s life is at stake, what will Esther risk to solve the mystery and save her friends?
TAGLINE: Best friends from a small beach town leave the library to race against time when a student’s selfie looks like the last one they’ll ever take.
I love chatting with readers. Recently, a reader invited me to speak to their local congregation in Utah. Because of Covid-I am doing the next best thing. I am reading Safe House and sharing what I’ve learned about supporting survivors after each chapter. Here is a link to my YouTube Channel and Safe House Reading and Fireside Chat Playlist.
Do you know someone who has experienced intimate partner violence (domestic violence)? Do you work with survivors, have family or friends who are survivors? Are you a survivor and your connections don’t understand or support you? Have people given you unwelcome advice, like why don’t you just leave? Send me your questions and concerns. Let’s chat after each chapter.
Safe House by Shannon Symonds
Welcome to the free video reading of Safe House, published by Cedar Fort Publishers. I thought it would be fun to read my first book to you while sharing the beauty of the Pacific coast or the settings for Safe House, Finding Hope, and my upcoming novels.
After I read the chapters, I will tell you a little about what inspired them. Feel free to end the video before the chat. I know how busy life can be!
Hello from the beach!
I hope you and everyone you care about is well. I’ve finished the first two books in my new series. Book three is underway. We are still sheltering in due to Covid-19. Books (writing and reading) are our only form of escape.
I am excited to share Kierstin Marquet’s book, Shattered Lives. Read on, get your free copy, and meet an author I am learning to love.
On January 1st, 2020, I chose one goal. I was going to go into this year with fearless faith and hope.
You might be laughing right now. My extended (huge) family has laughed about winning Pandemic Bingo. So far we have experienced:
Job loss
Major illness diagnosed in our immediate family
Earthquake
A kidney patient in complete quarantine
A tree falling on two vehicles and the roof
The great chicken massacre of 2020
Business closed
Protests and riots about issues we really care about and impacting people we love
Murder hornets in the neighborhood
Homeschool chaos
First responders still at work in health care and law enforcement
Sewing hundreds of masks for first responders and family
Babies born during a pandemic
All travel canceled
Feeling like we are personally supporting Costco by hoarding food, Lysol, and toilet paper
Cutting–no–butchering our own hair
But so far, we are well and grateful to God for that blessing. All the experiences on our Pandemic Bingo cards have
only brought us closer together. We met each fresh challenge on our knees.
When my future was as clear as mud, time, and time again, I went forward with fearless faith. Either I should be careful for what I pray for–or grateful the Lord inspired and prepared me.
On those big days—those life-altering moments–I recited a scripture my sister taught me after she learned she was dying of cancer.
I am guessing you have your own bingo card. But, do you have a blessings card? Through it all, we have experienced so many blessings.
Financial miracles allowing me to write a new series of books
Staying close to family than ever before through video chat
Watching my adult children support each other because our family is all we have
Home church with extended family
After praying for years, we received direct answers and blessings
Feeling closer to God and grateful for the good things
Daily tender mercies from Heaven
I would love to hear how you are doing. I read every comment.
During these difficult days authors like me wonder what we can do for you. Because I wish I could do more, I’ve priced my latest release, Finding Hope, for 0.99 cents on Kindle (The lowest amount Amazon allows).
Let me know how you are. It matters.
John 14:27.
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Today the World Health Organization declared the “novel” Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. This is one novel I hope you never have to read.
When we originally heard about it, we noticed that the shelves were empty of toilet paper and had a wonderful chuckle. Then our family welcomed a new baby. Suddenly, germs seemed a bit more serious. One of us has CKD or Chronic Kidney Disease, and others in our tight-knit family have weaknesses that make us worry.
We realized the problems surrounding the virus were bigger than we thought when my daughter went to a big box store to buy toilet paper. Ironically, after 3 stores she ended up snatching one of the last cases off a pallet in a Walmart and in a game of chicken with another shopper.
We all cope in our own way. My kids cope with humor. I don’t know who created this meme, but it’s priceless. I hope the creator doesn’t mind sharing.
For the first time in my memory, on a recent workday, I went to a big box store to get some things for the new baby. Our small town Costco was packed, on a day it should have been empty. Carts were full of toilet paper, water, and interestingly, televisions.
At first I smiled, then I noticed the people pushing the carts were the same age as my parents, who are ordering their groceries delivered for the first time in their life. And I wondered, would we lose one of these family faces? Even one would be too many. The drinking water is safe and our bathrooms are stocked, but still we seem to all be nervous. It has become a small world, indeed.
And so we have cancelled the world. Meetings are online, school is online, stadiums are empty, and so are my friends restaurants. We are all going to be impacted, either through our health, finances, or loss of loved ones. It is a forced slow down and as you can see, everyone who can has stocked up.
My hope is that you get more time at home around the dinner table, more time with good books, and more time to write and collect your thoughts. I also hope that you look around and realize that time with loved ones is priceless, that person matters, and cherish each other just a little bit more. And most of all, I pray you and your loved one’s stay well.
“I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.” Moroni 8:3
Stay tuned for the first few chapters of my next book. We will be sitting by the fire, walking by the ocean alone, and writing a book about a small beach town, Grace’s daughter, her hilarious friend, and the kids and families of Oceanside High.
Writing to you from here, behind closed doors, with pasta, lots and lots of pasta.
I don't know about your family, but kids all around me are getting out for Christmas Break. Parents everywhere are looking forward to baking cookies, sledding, package wrapping, and fun....right up until the kids have been home for days and you run out of things to do.
I am pleased to share this Thursday's author and all of her fun ideas for things to do with your kids, just in time for families everywhere to be snowed in. And trust me, Nina is an expert. She has eight children and still finds time to write children's books.Nina Harris, Author of a children's book called The Ten Leopards, not only has an adorable book, but she has a fun website!
In honor of the Savior’s Birthday, Christmas, and until my January 7th Birthday, I am giving away 100 kindle copies of Finding Hope on Goodreads. If you don’t use Goodreads, check it out. The Giveaways are a blast. And! As I only know about 100 people in a tiny town on the Oregon Coast, the odds are with you.
Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and mine!
Thursdays, I like to feature authors committed to writing clean or inspirational books like Lauraine Henderson, author of highly rated clean romances like her recent release, Rock My World. I asked Lauraine why she is committed to writing clean novels and she said:"I love romance and happily-ever-afters. I was never comfortable with ...
She’s hiding in her present.
With nothing but her guitar and a few belongings, Hope Flanagan escapes the abuse and negligence from her mother’s boyfriend. Hope’s lucky enough to find a warm exhaust vent in an alley of her coastal town and blessed with help from a coffee-shop employee who sees her desperate situation. But Hope is determined to stay under the radar from social services and the other homeless kids, who seem to go missing once they fall under the notice of the local homeless tough girl.
She’s hiding from her past.
Grace James works with the police to help survivors of abuse while desperately fighting to keep her own family safe from her vindictive ex-husband. News of her husband’s release from prison pushes her to accept help from the handsome and secretive Officer Joe Hart. But then her mother brings home a stray from her coffee shop, and Grace finds herself catapulting through her fears to do for Hope what she just might not be able to do for herself—find out who she really is to save her before it’s too late.You can find "Finding Hope" on Amazon:Paperback, OR Kindle, Kindle Unlimited
