I spent a good amount of time grossing out my friends on Facebook this weekend. My beekeeping mentor had given me a bunch of beeswax that hadn’t been cleaned yet. It was still filled bee body parts, dirt, and other such nasty debris. I had joked that Pinterest makes everything look so pretty, but the process of cleaning beeswax is anything but pretty. The process starts with you making dirty beeswax balls and wrapping them in cheesecloth. Next you soak it in very hot water and the wax filters through the cheesecloth, leaving behind a NASTY ball of dark brown gunk. I posted pictures on my timeline. So gross. So far I have repeated the process twice and I think the third time will get it completely clean. My friends were surprised at how much work it took to clean the wax and asked if it was worth it. From cleaning the wax yourself to actually making a product, such as lip balm or lotion, from beeswax is a very long, tedious process. Having done it myself I can see why these products are so expensive. I like the whole process though. It’s not something you can rush, so it’s very relaxing. Plus it’s nice knowing that you have control over every single ingredient going into the lip balm or lotion. Nothing bad sneaking in. Maybe a little bee poop… but I think I got it all.
Tall Man in Ray-Bans (A John Tall Wolf Novel Book 1)
by Joseph Flynn
Genre: Mystery | Crime Fiction
FREE for a limited time
Out for a day’s adventure exploring the dry bed of Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, two young boys stumble upon a skeleton. It might be all that remains of a fugitive named Randy Bear Heart. Wanted for robbing three banks and killing three cops, Bear Heart was never brought to justice.
The FBI is called on to determine how the outlaw avoided arrest for twenty-five years and who put him in the lake wearing chains. The BIA — Bureau of Indian Affairs — gets the very same job. Special Agent John Tall Wolf is put on the case because one of the dead cops was a Native American who worked at the Mercy Ridge Reservation.
The FBI wants John to “coordinate all your efforts” through SAC Gilbert Melvin. John is having none of that, saying, “I’ll conduct my investigation as I see fit.” He doesn’t even get along with his own boss, Marlene Flower Moon, head of the BIA’s Office of Justice Services.
While interviewing John for his job, Marlene was amused by his assertiveness, and asked him, “What do you want, a license to take scalps?” John said, “Yeah, that’d be good.”
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Romancing the Conflicted Cowboy (Sage Valley Ranch Book 1)
by Crystal Walton
Genre: Romance | Literature & Fiction | Contemporary Fiction
FREE for a limited time
An out-of-place writer risking everything to stay. A conflicted cowboy afraid to risk letting her. And one little arrangement about to become more complicated than either bargained for.
For romance author Callie Claston, visiting a Texas dude ranch to save her career makes perfect sense. The harebrained idea to romance a veterinarian who thinks sending her into cow patty landmines is the art of subtlety, however, might qualify her as crazy. Then again, little does he know how much a challenge fuels her. Until it collides with a dream she never expected to be real.
Single dad Reed Allen has at least two reasons — both with smiles just like his — for trying to run off the intriguing city girl hiding a secret. But when he reluctantly agrees to help Callie with her research, knowing he should stay guarded around her does absolutely nothing to prepare him for the moment when he can’t.
Can a writer who’s never found her own ever-after and a cowboy who lost his too soon restore enough faith in love to start a new chapter together?
Find out now. Download Romancing the Conflicted Cowboy today and escape to the countryside in a laugh-out-loud cowboy romance that feels like coming home.
Romancing the Conflicted Cowboy is the first book in a heartwarming group series that’ll keep you laughing and swooning from one clean romance to the next. You’ll have fun watching the meddlesome owners of Sage Valley Ranch as they work their matchmaking magic on the unsuspecting cowboys. Get ready to fall in love with Sage Valley Ranch, where country life is sweet, and romance is even sweeter.
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Kitchen Canary
by Joanne Parsons
Genre: Historical Fiction | Literature & Fiction
FREE for a limited time
Kitchen Canary is the first in a series of two novels that follow the journeys of two young Irish immigrants who come to America to work as domestics.
Boston 1868… At the insistence of her parents, sixteen-year-old Katie O’Neil reluctantly left her beloved Galway. She joined her cousin, Moira Murphy to work as a nanny and domestic. In mid-nineteenth century Boston, Irish domestics were often referred to as Kitchen Canaries and considered property of their employers.
The young women are violated by their employer, Charles Brennan. Their shame and guilt is so great, they keep the abuse a secret even from each. When Katie becomes pregnant, Charles Brennan’s victims, Moira, his wife Rose, and the negro household help, bond together to hide the newborn.
In this post-Civil War era, Boston is bustling with change as wealthy Englishmen and Boston Brahmins expand world trade routes, build railroads and develop land. Immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Poland establish neighborhoods, existing in overcrowded, disease-ridden shacks and tenements. They, and negroes flocking North, suffer hate, humiliation and rejection from the establishment. The only value they have to the rich Bostonians is their willingness to work for little money performing menial or back-breaking, dangerous jobs on the docks, and building railroads.
This story is about the goodness of others, black, white, Irish and English whose strength prevails to overcome evil and guide Katie and Moira to true redemption. The sequel, Through the Open Door is now available.
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The Kingmaker Series Box-set: Books 1-3
by Gemma Perfect
Genre: Teen & Young Adult
FREE for a limited time
Devour the first three books in The Kingmaker Series in one fantastic read.
The Kingmaker. Seize the Crown. Born to Rule
“I am sixteen years old and I will die on the morning of my seventeenth birthday. As tradition dictates, I will be sacrificed and my life’s blood will determine which one of my two brothers will be King. My blood will kill one and crown one. My name is Everleigh and I am the Kingmaker.”
The legend of the Kingmaker goes back millions of years. Kingmakers are special; their magic chooses the rightful King of the Realm and they all die on their seventeenth birthday.
Except this one.
Saved from the inevitable, Everleigh learns that she is the Kingmaker who will live, the Kingmaker who will rule, the Kingmaker who will be Queen.
But not everyone agrees with an age-old prophecy that says a girl will rule the Realm and soon Everleigh is locked in a deadly battle for the throne.
Can she escape her blood-thirsty enemies and live long enough to be crowned Queen?
The Kingmaker is a magical young adult fantasy, packed with fantastical twists, heart-stopping action and fabulously feisty females.
Seize the Crown
Seize the Crown follows Everleigh on her quest for revenge, and the throne, as she battles against her brother and his murderous tyranny.
Millard’s deadly ambition sees him sit on the throne that should rightfully be hers. Everleigh is determined to avenge her loved ones and seize the crown and if a fight is what it takes to rule, she will fight or die trying, in this fantastic follow up to The Kingmaker.
Born to Rule
Maddeningly, the crown still eludes Everleigh as we begin the breath-taking third instalment of The Kingmaker Series.
With Millard on the run and attacks being made ‘in the name of the King’, Everleigh must put a stop to her brother before her Kingdom is in ruins and if, as Queen, she must slay her own sibling, she will gladly do it.
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The New Punk
by Zev Lawson Edwards
Genre: Literature & Fiction | Humor & Satire
FREE for a limited time
Once upon a time… in the city of Detroit
In the heart of Detroit, America’s most neglected city, lies Desolation Row, an all-boys orphanage. Abandoned by society, the orphans of Desolation Row find hope and salvation in their leader, Teenage Wasteland, T.W. for short, a self-proclaimed anarchist. Through his stalwart leadership they do whatever is necessary to prevent adoption, putting faith in The Cause, creating their own whimsical world, sticking it to The Man, and resorting to revolution if all else fails. But with the arrival of a new recruit and the intrusion of a corrupt mayor, their world is about to be turned upside down. Can they overcome the odds, keep their autonomy intact, or is the city of Detroit just no place for a street fighting orphan? Comical and touching, The New Punk explores the age old question of where does an outsider fit in when they don’t fit in anywhere at all? The answer is Desolation Row.
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