Letters from Annie Douglass Lima
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The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: a NEW Resource for Writers!
Emotion Amplifiers are specific states and conditions that can strain a character to the point they lose control. Learn about an awesome new resource for authors wanting to increase the emotional power of their novels and win a free workshop!
Emotion Amplifiers are specific states and conditions that can strain a character to the point they lose control. Learn about an awesome new resource for authors wanting to increase the emotional power of their novels and win a free workshop!
A Superhero for Christmas, a holiday superhero romantic comedy by H. L. Burke, arrives to save the day November 5th, 2022. Pre-order now so it hits your e-readers in plenty of time for Christmas!
The Conflict Thesaurus is actually a two-book set; the first book, the GOLD EDITION, started a deep dive into CONFLICT, and this new SILVER EDITION continues that exploration, helping writers master this oh-so-important storytelling element.
Xiao Liu Qiu is a pretty little island off the southwest coast of Taiwan. My husband and I spent a few days there during our recent spring break, and I think it just might be my new favorite place in Taiwan (which is saying a lot in a country so full of natural and cultural beauty)!
She's the girl next door and he's rich, popular, and from a famous political family. Brendon's the guy in high school everyone wants to date, and sparks fly when the two are paired together in class.
Far from home, an 18-year-old servant caught between castle intrigue and kingdom infighting must decide where his loyalties lie or lose those closest to him.
Today I get to spill the news that The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 1) has hit the shelves.
I'm excited to announce that my latest book is now available for purchase! Since it's thankfulness-themed, it would make a great Thanksgiving gift for your guests or hostess, or a meaningful pre-Thanksgiving way to get your heart focused on gratitude leading up to the holiday. Read on to find out more! Featuring inspirational verses from […]
Witches Tales came to be because of six little girls with very interesting fears or challenges that I hoped to quench in a cute yet poignant way. Halloween presented the opportunity since they all love this holiday and were excited to be witches.
world of Voodoo, zombies, and ritualistic sacrifice, the Timekeepers must ensure a royal bloodline survives. Can Drake remove both literal and figurative chains to save both himself and a devout slave girl from a terrible fate? If he can’t summon the necessary courage, humanity could stand to lose one of its greatest leaders.
I sit here in my mostly-packed-up room on my final evening of quarantine, my main emotion is thankfulness. I'm thankful to be getting out of here tomorrow, yes, but also thankful for so many blessings God gave me in this place. I love my wonderful city and sunset view up here on the 22nd floor, and the amazingly comfortable bed (it's actually comfier than my bed at home!).
Today I will give you a tour of my suite here at the HiOne Gallery Hotel! I bet you didn't know it had so many rooms and facilities!
We'd been told the taxi would arrive at 10:00 this morning to take Floyd and me to get our PCR tests. At 11:30, right after lunch was delivered, someone from the front desk finally called my room to say the taxi was there. I stuck my uneaten lunch in the fridge, put on my shoes, picked up my purse, put on my mask and face shield, remembered at the last minute to grab the key card to my room, and stepped out into the hallway. Wow, what a weird feeling.
Today's dinner was one of my favorites so far! It was sort of like a stew, but with only the tiniest bit of broth, just enough to make everything juicy and moist. There was a layer of rice at the bottom, topped my mushrooms, greens, and other veggies, plus a bit of seafood, I guess? (I don't actually remember.) In any case, it was delicious. This was one of the few times I've eaten everything they served in a meal here (well, everything except the asparagus juice).
Since this was the tenth day of my quarantine, it was time for me to take the COVID self-test they gave me at the airport. I had never done anything like it before, and I was quite nervous, but with the help of an instructional video (that I watched twice), I managed to get through it. Later, my quarantine officer called to ask me if I had administered the test to myself and what my results were. I offered to send her the picture I had taken (below) as proof, but she said she was happy to hear I was negative, and that was all she needed.
Long before we left California, Floyd bought me this special package of coffee nut M&Ms as a quarantine treat. I was very disciplined and did not open the package early! Once we got here and I unpacked my luggage in my room, I put it in the little fridge. Every evening in between dinner and bed-time, I take it out and empty eight M&Ms onto a tissue on the little table where I eat my meals.
Today I got to enjoy video calls with a total of six different friends and family members (some of them together on one call). It was awesome to connect with so many special people! And another blessing that came later was that I received another care package today. Yippee! One thing I have learned is that the little things can be big blessings in quarantine!
That's right, ladies and gentlemen. We are officially halfway through our quarantine! Sometimes I can hardly believe we've been here only a week. But knowing that we've made it to the halfway point makes the rest of it seem more doable.
This is the label on the outside of the door of my cell, er, hotel room. When I open the door to pick up my meals from the chair outside, or to set my daily bag of trash out, I see notes like this on all the doors up and down the hallway. They are the constant reminders of the dates each prisoner, er, guest, came in and will be allowed to come out.
I'd heard and sung "Here Again" many times, but the lyrics were never so meaningful as they were to me today, shut in a room away from everyone and everything.
I had promised my Kindle we would have a dinner date this evening, so all in all, the meal was quite delightful.
Typhoon In-Fa is hanging out off the east coast at the moment. Rain splattered my window, "falling" almost horizontally at the time. All day, there have been intermittent heavy winds, sometimes making my windowpanes rattle, and it's rained on and off.
There's a typhoon moving in at the moment. It's been raining on and off all day, interspersed with blue skies overhead but fast-moving dark clouds traveling south just above the horizon. My window panes have occasionally rattled in the wind, and when I stand near the door, I hear the wind whistling through some window that must have been left ajar somewhere down the hall. I wonder what it will be like in the next couple of days to watch a typhoon hit the city from the 22nd floor.
I woke up this morning feeling joyful and grateful, thinking of how much I have to be thankful for. Yes, I'm going to be stuck in this room for the next fortnight, but at least it's a pretty nice room!
My husband Floyd and I have just returned home to Taiwan after a summer in California visiting relatives. Taiwan is taking the current COVID situation very seriously, and all incoming travelers are now required to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks upon arrival. I decided to record my quarantine experiences for anyone who might be interested (and to give myself one more thing to do in what I'm calling my luxury incarceration)!
Twenty-year-old Larkspur is trapped 2,000 years in the future, but that’s not her biggest problem. Bestowed with strange superpowers, she’s adopted by one of the most powerful families known to the four inhabited planets. As heir, she’s responsible for an entire kingdom she didn’t know existed a few days ago. But when tragic surprises emerge from her past, Lark must decide where her loyalties will lie—past, or future?
Rebekah, Pinterest Virtual Assistant: helping authors, artists, teacherpreneurs, homeschoolers, special needs & disability advocates, ministries, and artisans increase their visibility via the Pinterest platform.
Orion City has been on lockdown for ten years. Courtney Spencer, a disillusioned barista doomed to live a “normal” life in a quarantined fishbowl, is certain she’ll never see over the Wall again. Until one rainy evening, Courtney unintentionally befriends W, an eccentric customer who leaves a switchblade in the tip jar. The unexpected acquaintance soon opens the door to a frightening string of questions that flips everything she knows upside down. Stumbling into a world of secrets, lies, and disturbing truths, Courtney grapples with a burning temptation to look again at the Wall. Surrounded by citizens trained to ignore its looming shadow, Courtney no longer can. Intrigued and terrified to expand her world, Courtney finds herself toeing a knife’s edge between the law and justice, learning quickly that the two are not always compatible. She wants to cling to her morals. She also wants to stay alive. But most of all, she wants to see a certain customer again, despite everything in her whispering W is dangerous. In a gritty urban clash of hope and fear, passion and survival, The Walls of Orion explores the edges of light, dark, and the gray in between.
The FBI locates the mastermind behind Coterie, but attempts to bring him in result in a shootout that sends Coterie’s members scrambling for cover. When Devyn’s partner is left fighting for his life in a Puerto Rican hospital, she becomes more determined than ever to bring them to justice.
Devyn’s decision to ignore her orders and pursue the head of Coterie to Brazil puts her job and her relationship with Sheriff Gage Harris in jeopardy, but she is unwilling to allow those responsible for so much death to live out their lives in paradise.
Hayden fell through a mirror and was thrust into an alternate, magical place. Destiny Falls is not on any map and is home to a family she never knew she had. The town is enchanted and charming, but something is amiss. She gets an ominous warning, and the promise of a package. Once it arrives, someone turns up dead and there are too many other suspicious episodes to call them coincidences. All signs point to the mysterious disappearance of her mother - way back when Hayden was just two days old. Can she identify and eliminate the threat before another person in her life is stolen away?
History comes to amazing life in this narrative based on true events. It All Started in Africa takes young children on a journey through generations of African Americans over the course of history. Children will gain a better understanding of African American history as they engage with discussion questions. They will be challenged to make life better for themselves and for the people around them. Join in with exciting, interactive experience all the way to its surprising finale!
When it comes to how our culture should address the issue of Race in America, the voice of God is deafeningly silent. Public dialogue continues without much or decisive input from the contemporary Christian community. In fact, the Body of Jesus Christ in America as a whole, is pretty much divided along racial lines. This is clearly reflected in the split within the contemporary church along political party lines and social policies. To be sure, there is preaching about how we ought to, or how we want to treat one another as children of God. Each voice declares that they are on the right side of history or the right side of the political spectrum; but what about being on the right side of God?
Bensin, a teenage slave and martial artist, is just one victory away from freedom. But after he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he is condemned to the violent life and early death of a gladiator. While his loved ones seek desperately for a way to rescue him, Bensin struggles to stay alive and forge an identity in an environment designed to strip it from him. When he infuriates the authorities with his choices, he knows he is running out of time. Can he stand against the cruelty of the arena system and seize his freedom before that system crushes him?
For a hundred years, the once-prosperous kingdom of Perin Faye has suffered under the rule of the greedy and power-hungry Thungrave kings. Maralyth Graylaern, a vintner's daughter, has no idea her hidden magical power is proof of a secret bloodline and claim to the throne. Alac Thungrave, the king’s second son, has always been uncomfortable with his position as the spare heir—and the dark, stolen magic that comes with ruling.
When Maralyth becomes embroiled in a plot to murder the royal family and seize the throne, a cat-and-mouse chase ensues in an adventure of dark magic, court intrigue, and forbidden love.
When one camp rule is broken, five teenagers embark on a mysterious journey full of magic, romance, and true friendship…
High school senior Whitnee has spent six years rebuilding her identity after her father’s mysterious disappearance left her with more questions than answers. With her two best friends, Morgan and Caleb, she returns as a mentor to the summer camp of her childhood. Nestled in the Texas hill country, Camp Fusion is everything Whitnee remembers—except for the haunting visions that only she can see. One fateful night, Whitnee and her friends embark on a magical voyage where unexpected adventure and heart-stopping romance collide—a journey that might unlock the dark, complicated mysteries of Whitnee’s family history. But will she find the answers she is looking for?
Polly Michaels is trying to forget that her mom has cancer. She keeps busy at school and plods through a normal social life. Until a freak electrical storm and a unicorn appear in the orchard next to her house.
Sy'kai wakes on an orchard floor to the smell of rotting cherries and wet earth. She doesn't know where she is-or what she is-but she knows something is hunting her.
Polly recruits her friends to find the mysterious creature she saw from her window while Sy'kai, a confused shape-shifting endling from another dimension tries to piece her mind back together. Once the human girls find Sy'kai (whom they nickname Psyche) the mystery unravels and the danger facing all of them comes into focus.
A gritty struggle ranges throughout the girls' rural hometown and in the wild terrain around it. All while two questions hang over their heads. Can an alien deliver a miracle for a human mother? Can a group of teens defeat an interdimensional demon?
When the Fäe go to war with a Nazi cult, one woman will protect humanity's future.
As World War II rages, accidental immortal Pepper Elizabeth Jones is on the run from government agents on both sides of the Atlantic. Hidden in neutral Ireland, she is summoned to meet with a mysterious general, The Righ, who tasks her to save magic itself from the Nazis. Now, she must race against the clock to stop an evil ritual and prevent the Nazis from gaining a world-shattering supernatural power.
Pepper Jones and the Dragon's Stone is part of the Strowlers Shared Cinematic Universe, a collaborative global story that anyone can join.
A companion book to the YA fractured fairytale retelling Queen of Thieves.
If saving your family meant becoming your nightmare, could you do it?
Everyone knows Yaksah, The King of Thieves, is not to be trifled with. His swiftness and stealth are legendary. Nothing valuable is safe from his nimble, sticky fingers.
But the King and the city of Vymn aren't all they appear. Yaksah has a secret... and Ahd, a simple woodcutter, could expose it to the world. Keeping it though gives Ahd an upper hand over Yaksah like no one's ever had. It may save his life… or destroy them both.
Seventeen-year-old Marisol Holmes wants to live up to the family legacy; after all, she is the great-great-great granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes. What's more Holmesian than a grisly murder? The Conclave, an underground organization of detectives solving supernatural cases, is giving her just one chance to catch a killer and join them. After all, as a half-blood jaguar shifter, Marisol is uniquely qualified to solve this murder—since every scrap of evidence points toward the culprit being a fellow jaguar shifter.
Alyssa asked Jerrik to marry her when she was eight-years-old. When he finally makes good on his promise to return when she's old enough to wed, nothing could prepare her for what becoming his queen truly means.
Jerrik is haunted by a tortured past, and has done everything he can to avoid any ties to his parents' mistakes. Life has other plans, and against his wishes, he agrees to assume the cursed throne that has taken the lives of his loved ones. Now a king, he must wed, and the only real choice is his best friend's sister - the girl who has loved him since she was a child.
His bride has grown into a beautiful, tempting woman, and Jerrik succumbs willingly to her charms. But lies and betrayal surround them at every turn, and while she holds true, he makes the ultimate mistake, almost ruining an incandescent love.
Shut ’em Down is the battle cry of Black women who have suffered abuse and trauma at the hands of corporate America. Composed of the stories of 20 Black women who have been impacted by racism in the workplace, this anthology not only offers us conversation starters on how to combat racism on the job, but also transformative ideas to create safer work spaces for Black professionals.
Can it be real? Or is it bake believe?
All Cat Anderson wants out of life is a circle of friends to giggle with and a few cute boys to flirt with. Her first day of eighth grade is looking perfect—until a scheduling mishap places her in a culinary arts class.
Food, it turns out, is a very big deal. In her family there is a secret, too big to stay hidden any longer. A secret too fantastic to be real. Something happens when Cat bakes. Something impossible.
Saturn. The Ringed Planet. Harbinger of ideas and wonder. The planet that gave birth to the modern era of science envisioning the myriad of multi-colored rings circling the planet, one of the reasons for the invention of the telescope and the second largest in our solar system. These are the stories of Saturn, the great Titan. Tales of time, age and endings.
Dragon Lad: Wand of the Black Sphere Juvenile Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle-Grade Fantasy Publisher: Dragon's Egg Books A shapeshifting magic fantasy adventure filled with dragons, witches, wizards, fairies and fun. Dirk is a budding boy wizard who hatched as a dragon and has a ring that turns him back into one. For his summer vacation, […]
On Tour with Prism Book Tours Sunder of Time(The Mason Timeline #1)By Kristin McTiernan Time Travel/Alternate History Paperback & ebook, 380 Pages May 12, 2015 Isabella Jaramillo is accustomed to getting what she wants.Living a comfortable life as the daughter of the world’s sole time travel magnate, Isabella has never suffered the irritation of being […]