Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Catching up on Old News.

I was shocked to see that it's been over a year and a half since I posted any news from Raven Publishing. Do I have an excuse? No, but I'll just say, it's been quite a busy nineteen months since the last post. With my mind on the books being published, it seems I forgot all about this blog. I plan to do better, but I'm not making promises.

We published six books in 2014 and two—well, three, counting one that is only available as an ebook—in 2015. Here are the books and a bit about each.

The Whole Nine Yarns, by Jim Moore, is an attractive little book that will fit nicely in your hand, purse, or pocket—or someone's Christmas stocking.  Mind you, that's YARNS, not yards—and delightful yarns they are, some humorous, The Proposal, for one; some poignant and sad, Jerry Brayed and Swamp, just to name a couple; some with lessons learned the hard way, like Cut Fence, but all tales about life in the west.

Starting the Colt, by Jan Young is a sequel to her first book, The Orange Slipknot. Ben, the twelve-year-old son of a cowboy on a large cattle ranch in the Great Basin region of Nevada is being taught two conflicting methods of starting a colt. It is up to him to decide what he believes is best (not just in horse training, but in life) and to decide whether to follow his convictions.

Starting the Colt Curriculum Unit, by Jan Young give teachers and home-school parents a comprehensive lesson plan that covers several disciplines and is based on her novel. It includes an answer key.

Joe Henry's Journey, by Marcia Melton is a well-researched, historically accurate, exciting novel about the adventures of a young boy and his Pa as they escape war-torn Kentucky and travel up the Missouri River to Fort Benton, Montana, and then on to the gold fields on Grasshopper Creek, near Bannack, Montana, in 1862.

The Body in the Freezer, by Janet Muirhead Hill, explores homelessness through the eyes of a smart and arrogant rich kid who meets a homeless girl while he’s doing community service. She has a secret that he give anything to find out. It’s a story of life, hard times, and transforming circumstances.

The Dishwater Tree, a novel by Angela Janacaro, in which the old willow tree on a lonely, windswept hill outside of Miles City, Montana, saw three generations of women—and kept their secrets. But when 80-year-old Worthy learned that she hadn't long to live, she was ready to unlock the secret of her heritage if she could. Why was she left upon the doorstep of an orphanage in Williston, ND as a newborn? Who was her mother? What was her story? Worthy's daughter comes home from San Fransisco to help her find out, and finds herself as well.

That covers it for 2014. Here are our 2015 titles:

The Jenny, by Jim Moore, is a legal murder mystery set in central Montana in 1920. Young, attractive, independent, and adventuresome Merci Bruce brings a WW II biplane to her parents' ranch near Two Dot. Merci is of the next generation of the Bruce family  that was introduced in Ride the Jawbone. When the mechanic who came with Merci from California to assemble the plane is found dead on the Two Dot sidewalk, there is a note pinned to his chest with a German bayonet. The question, of course, is, "Who committed the murder?"

The Horse and the Crow, by Janet Muirhead Hill, is a Miranda and Starlight story. The six-book series about the young girl, Miranda, and Starlight, the horse she loved, was completed in 2005. Miranda was ten years old in the first two books and fourteen at the end of book six. Young readers have been asking for more ever since. Finally, in 2015, Ms. Hill answered with The Horse and the Crow, in which Miranda loses a horse and almost loses her life. Teddy Hungry Horse, a young Crow Indian boy, saves her—three times. Fans of Miranda will be interested to know that Laurie Langley, and especially, Christopher Bergman continue to play a big part in Miranda's life.

More about the e-book, Danny's Choice, by Janet Muirhead Hill, in the next post. 






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