A Birthday Wish in 2026
Posted: February 20, 2026 Filed under: Book Release, Books, Fiction, Kickstarter, Science Fiction, Time travel, WordCrafter Press | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, Kickstarter, My Birthday, The Rockstar & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions, Writing to be Read 6 Comments
My birthday is March 3! And this year, I have a birthday wish that you can help to fulfill.
After two long years of waiting, the second book in my Time Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions is finally ready to release. I’m doing the launch for this one a little different and run the book blog tour simultaneously with a Kickstarter campaign. Buying through the Kickstarter is better, because you can get digital copies much cheaper than you can through retailers, or exclusive items, like signed print copies and merchandise that isn’t available anywhere else. And, when you buy through the Kickstarter, I get to keep more money from the sale than I do when they sell through retailers. My funding goal is $500, but I wouldn’t cry if we exceeded that by far.
I haven’t run a Kickstarter in a couple of years, so it feels good to get back in the saddle. It is wonderful to watch those pledges rise, and there is nothing like the feeling of success once your campaign funds.
So, that’s my birthday wish; to successfully fund The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions Kickstarter campaign. And while I doubt that it will fund in only two days, (it would be nice, but doubtful), if it funds before the end of the campaign, on March 28th, I will still consider my birthday wish fulfilled. You can help give me my birthday wish by clicking on the link below and indicating your interest. Once I have at least ten followers, my following will be shown publicly. All you are doing now is expressing interest. Then, you will be notified when the campaign launches on March 1, and you can show your support at the reward level of your choice.
You can back the project for as little as $5, and every little bit counts when the pledges are building. You don’t need to pay your pledge until after the campaign ends, and if it doesn’t fund, you owe nothing. But my wish is that the campaign funds and maybe even exceeds the goal, which is why I’m asking for your support.
Won’t you please help give this old gal the best birthday ever?
About The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions
If you read the first book, you may not need any coaxing to buy Book 2. But in case you haven’t, let me tell you a little about The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions. This is a ‘gotta have it’ time travel story; a truly wild and crazy ride.
In 1887, LeRoy is stuck, bringing trouble down on those around him. Sissy is kidnapped and he’s the only one who can save her.
She wakes up in 2030, in a future very different to the one she knows, one in which she may not have been born. Amaryllis will stop at nothing to find LeRoy fix what she messed up in the past.
She and a version of Monique which is different from the one she grew up with travel back to 1887 to try and make things right.
Add two time travel regulators from the future who are after the time module, and things begin to get wild.
When the time loops are crossed, things change, but not the way Amaryllis intended and pretty soon, everybody is seeing doubles.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
___________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_________________________________________
This post is sponsored by the Time Travel Adventure Series and WordCrafter Press.
When a Woman with a Guitar Meets a Cowboy with a Gun, It’s Time to Travel
The Rock Star & The Outlaw: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Star-Outlaw-Time-Travel-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CJBRRCN1/
The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Seeing Doubles: Coming in March 2026
Share this:
Birdwatching: My Best Bird Photos
Posted: February 16, 2026 Filed under: Bird Watching, Birds, Nature, Photography, Wildlife | Tags: Birds, Birdwatching, Kaye Lynne Booth, Nature Photography, Writing to be Read 5 Comments
For many years I have been a birdwatcher, mostly due to the fact that there are so many different kinds of beautiful and fascinating birds that visit my yard and make the surrounding forest their home. But one thing about my flighty little friends is that many are skittish and don’t willingly do photo ops. But, every once in a while, the perfect opportunity arises and I get a really good picture. The rest of the time, the photos I get may be barely passable, if at all.
The good ones, like the one above of a red-tailed hawk, each have a story behind them, or at least the birds featured in them do. The story behind the photo above is a sad one. The only reason I was able to get close enough to get that photo was that the hawk had run into some power lines and electrocuted itself, disabling it from taking flight. I took several photos while waiting for the rescue workers from a local bird sanctuary to arrive. Unfortunately, they were unable to save him. He was a beautiful and majestic bird.
The young flicker in the photo below was another rescue that I made one spring day. The baby bird somehow ended up in my water garden pool, which is only has a small amount of water in the winter. In the photo, you can see its wet feathers, which were preventing him from flying back out, so it huddles by the drainpipe, cold, wet and afraid. I donned a pair of gloves and removed him gently, setting him on the ground to dry.
Not all my photo opportunities result from rescues and not all result in good photos. Flickers are in the woodpecker/sap sucker family of birds. Other birds in that family visit my mountain home, such as the downy woodpeckers, shown in the photos below. These guys just stop by from time to time for a bite to eat from my suet cakes. The one on my trellis must have been during mating season as he was flying from spot to spot on the trellis making strange clicking sounds to attract a mate.
Then we have my resident ravens, who are very camera shy, but I manage to snap one every once in a while. The ravens are characters. They fly by and yell at you, “Caw! Caw!” and I’m just crazy enough to caw back at them. They watch the activity around my yard, often fly by real low to tease the dog, and steal things that you leave lying about, especially if it is shiny. One watches from the trees when I walk the dog, and wait until we are right below, then screams out a caw and flies away, thinking it a pretty good joke he played.
They are social birds. They frequently gather in large groups in neighboring horse fields, sometimes with their crow cousins, and jump up and down, cawing and acting silly. I call these little bird parties Raven Raves. Ravens mate for life, and at first, I had four resident birds, but a neighbor kid shot one down with a bb gun one summer. Those ravens flew madly, cawing and cawing for days afterward. They were in mourning. 😦
Most of the photos I get of the ravens are in flight, and they appear as small specks of black against a sky of blue and white. They don’t sit still often when they know you are watching. But I did get one nice photo of a pair perched in my tree, and a carefully placed game camera near my feeders caught a single raven swooping in to steal a bite.
Another bird rarely caught on camera except in flight are turkey vultures. As carrion eaters, turkey vultures have gotten kind of a bad rep. Their role in nature isn’t pretty, and neither are they, with their bald red heads, which actually serves a purpose of cleanliness for the birds. Just think how bad they would be if their bloody meals stuck to the feathers on their heads. They are commonly seen riding the wind currents on blustery days. I am not a fan of wind, but they truly enjoy the weather that makes me want to stay inside.
Other resident avians include juncos, chickadees, nuthatches and blue jays, which are her year round, and robins make their appearance each spring. Visiting birds include evening grossbeaks, colorful western tanagers, rock doves, and western bluebirds.
The blue jays are the neighborhood bullies. They fly in in flocks and take over the trees, chasing the littler birds such as juncos and chickadees away while they devour all the food I put out. They are a noisy bunch. That’s for sure.
The chickadees are what I call my little forest bandits, with their little black masks around their eyes. They are bold little birds, as the picture of the chickadee on the deck shows. That little guy was about an inch away from my foot. I have had them land on my hand and one summer, I sat and read in a sombrero with birdseed in the brim and the chickadees came and landed on the hat. They are real characters, and the inspiration for my children’s book, Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home.
Nuthatches are my little acrobats, able to go down the tree trunk headfirst or even navigate branches completely upside down. Their black and white coloring reminds me of formal dinnerware. They are so cute. They are the inspiration for the character Nicholas Nuthatch in the above-mentioned book.
Juncos are mostly winter birds, although I see one or two occasionally in the summer. In the winter they flock in, feeding mostly on the ground rather than hitting the feeders in the trees, although they certainly are able.
I feel like I have raised several generations of robins. I watch the babies grow up each spring, then I see them return and have their own brood the following spring. I know because I get to know their markings.
But my favorite seasonal residents are the hummingbirds that stop by on their tract up from South America. These tiny birds are really amazing when you think about the massive distances they travel. I have two different kinds of hummingbirds that visit my mountain home. First arrivals in the spring are the rufus hummingbirds. Then, mid-summer we see the Allen’s come in, which are louder and more aggressive than the rufus, and the skies around my home become an ariel warzone as the Allen’s guard all the feeders. Apparently, they don’t like to share, but their arial antics never cease to amaze me. And of course, they are the inspiration for my children’s book, Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend.
Hummingbirds mate twice a year, so I get to welcome in two sets of new generation youngsters, and twice a year I get to enjoy their amazing courting dance as the males dive and swoop in their arial courting dance. They build their nests of grass and bark, and they are very well camouflaged. In fact, even with hummingbirds by the dozens every year, I’ve only once been able to spot a nest.
One fall we had a really early snow which caught us all by surprise, including the hummingbirds, which were huddled on snow cover branches, stuck and unable to fly in the storm. I placed a feeder under my porch so they could get to nourishment in a sheltered area and boy was it a big hit, as you can see in the video below.
Then there are the birds which just drop by occasionally to say hi and partake in the seed and suet cuisine at my bird sanctuary. Frequent visitors include Rock Doves, Bluebirds (which are much smaller than Blue Jays), Western Tanagers, and Sparrows.
Although they do not appear in my yard, the waterfowl in the area is pretty amazing, too. Below, are photos from my many trips to nearby Lake DeWeese, Canon City’s Centennial Park, or Salida’s Sand Lake.
I also see wild turkeys in the area, and they have wondered onto my property on occasion. They travel in flocks and roost in the treetops.
That’s what I have to share for this month. Are any of you at there birdwatchers? Tell me about the birds in your area.
Until next time…
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
_______________________________
This post is sponsored by the My Backyard Friends Kid’s Book Series and WordCrafter Press.
The My Backyard Friends kid’s book series is inspired by the birds and animals that visit the author Kaye Lynne Booth’s mountain home. Beautiful illustrations by children’s author, poet, and illustrator, Robbie Cheadle, bring the unique voices of the animal characters to life.
Get Your Copy Now.
Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/MBF-HeatherHummingbird
Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans (Ages 3-5): https://books2read.com/MBF-TimothyTurtle
Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home (Ages 6-8): https://books2read.com/MBF-CharlieChickadee
Share this:
Book Review: “Wild Seduction”
Posted: February 13, 2026 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Fiction, Review, romance, Western, western romance | Tags: Amber Everly, Book Reveiw, Kaye Lynne Booth, western romance, Wild Seduction, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
About Wild Seduction
Dr. Rowan Ashford is an elite equine trauma surgeon—precise, ambitious, and on the run from a career-ending crisis. Her task is simple: travel to the snowy isolation of Montana, save a prize stud named Legacy, and earn enough to wipe out a crushing, $500,000 debt. The only thing standing between her and financial freedom is Jake Wild, a formidable, stone-cold rancher whose only priority is the bottom line—the crippling ledger of Wild Acres.
Haunted by his father’s legacy of failure, Jake views Rowan as a temporary, high-cost asset. He’s determined to keep the brilliant, fiery surgeon who saved his horse at arm’s length, fearing that any emotional attachment will lead to the ultimate loss. But when a brutal winter blizzard traps them alone in the isolated ranch house, the fight for survival quickly ignites a desperate, undeniable passion.
Under the pressure of a life-or-death rescue, Jake’s stoic shell shatters, revealing the vulnerable man beneath. Rowan forces him to choose: cling to the past and the fear of commitment, or embrace a future where their passion is matched by a powerful, multi-million dollar partnership. The seduction of Wild Acres is fierce, but the vow they make in the firelight is forever.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Seduction-Amber-Everly-ebook/dp/B0FWV7DNMY
My Review of Wild Seduction
I received a free digital copy of Wild Seduction, by Amber Everly, from the review program on Sandra’s Book Club in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own.
I chose this book because I liked the cover. The cover image and the title told me the story would be western romance, which is right up my alley. Although I’m not a big romance reader, in 2018, I was a judge for the Western Writers of America Spur awards and romance was my category, so I can honestly say I’ve read a lot of western romance.
Luke Wild is a traditional rancher, who values the old ways handed down by his father. He bears the weight of his father’s legacy, but feels inadequate to carry it on, especially when the ranch is failing and on the verge of going under. Rowan is the headstrong veterinarian who can save his prize horse and the ranch with all her modern medicine and equipment, if he’ll give her control to do so. Two strong willed characters, they go head-to-head in the struggle to save the horse and accept each other for their strengths.
In Wild Seduction, Everly follows classic romance story structure, for the most part, and romance tropes, making this book 1 in the series. She veers from the standard his view/her view with alternating chapters by adding more than main two P.O.V. characters, Luke and Rowan, including brief chapter viewpoints of brothers Nick and Mike , and that of foreman Pete. We don’t hear a lot from these other characters, and I found it kind of distracting, as I couldn’t see the author’s purpose in including them. If they were being introduced because their stories will be told in subsequent books in the series, they did not feel important enough here, I felt like they were just there to make the reader aware of the characters, but that could have been accomplished through the viewpoint of Luke, and not felt out of place. That being said, I felt the alternating chapters worked well to let the story unfold.
I had some difficulty relating to the characters for a couple of different reasons. One, I am not familiar with the ranching world or the veterinary world, but Everly did a great job of introducing me to these other areas and educating me in an unobtrusive way. But also, these character’s insight is way too clear to be believable. Luke knows he’s his own greatest obstacle because of his feelings of obligation to tradition and his father’s ways. Rowan knows the faults that are holding her back, giving both of them clear choices to make. But I find most people are not that honest with themselves and must struggle to identify and admit what’s blocking them before they can deal with it, and I don’t see that happening with either of these characters. Usually everyone around can see the trouble before the main character does. But these two know who they are and what they want quite clearly, leaving the path to creating a romance with their opposites on a straight path with few surprises.
A classic western romance with a good volley between character point of views. I give Wild Seduction four quills.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
________________________________________
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARC digital copies, (she also accepts print copies). Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
Share this:
Writer’s Corner: Who Are You Writing For?
Posted: February 2, 2026 Filed under: Book Promotion, Writer's Corner, Writing | Tags: BookMarketing, Kaye Lynne Booth, Writer's Corner, Writing, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
Who are you writing for?
This was the first question posed to me in graduate school. And it baffled me. What did my instructor mean? I write because I have something to say, because there are words inside of me that need to come out. At the time, if there was any one person I wrote for it was my deceased son, Michael, who had been my biggest fan when he was alive.
But that wasn’t what he meant. He meant who was my target audience. I wasn’t writing for an audience of teenaged boys, who were on the verge of becoming men, which is the audience my son would fall into. At the time I had written a few short stories, and had not yet tried my hand at a longer, book length work, but nothing that members of such an audience would be drawn to.
He meant that I needed to know about the persons who would want to read my books, so I could write them in a way that would appeal to them and draw readers from that group to them. I needed to know what their reader expectations are, so I can be sure my story meets them. After all, it’s not a romance if there isn’t a HEA (Happily Ever After), or at least a HFN (Happy For Now), in the ending.
That’s a trope of romance, but it is one that every reader of romance will expect to find, and they will be disappointed if your story doesn’t deliver it. So, it’s important to know the tropes for your genre, as well. But the original question of who you are writing for is important for more reasons than that one, because you need this knowledge about your target reader audience not only to write to expectation, but to market your book properly. You need to know who your book is aimed at and then you need to know where to find them, so you can get book promotions in front of them.
Being a multi-genre author makes it all more difficult. Multi-genre authors need to know tropes for each genre they write in, and they need to know the audience for each genre, as well. I must be sure I’m not marketing my western historical women’s fiction of my Women in the West adventure series someplace where all the gamers hang out, because they won’t give a fig about those books. However, they might be interested in the dark fiction anthologies in the Midnight anthology series, so it might be smart to market those books there. Anthologies have several authors, who all write to a slightly different audience, so in that way, they may widen the scope of audience appeal. But the need to know who you are trying to appeal to is just as great, if not greater than it was when I was creating the books.
Children’s books are tricky, because you’re writing for the kids, but marketing to the parents. Although the books aren’t written for adults, if they don’t appeal to the parents, they aren’t going to sell. When you write for kids, you bury the message within the story framework, so it is delivered subtly, as they are entertained by the story. In my marketing, I point out that each book carries with it a moral lesson, even though the kids wouldn’t give a fig about that. If the wonderful illustrations by Robbie Cheadle draw the child’s attention, the ammunition is there to help convince the parents.
As you can see, who you are writing for is important to know for several reasons. So, what’s your answer?
Who are you writing for?
About Author Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
_________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_______________________________________
This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by the Robbie’s Inspiration blog site, where you can find ideas on writing and baking with hostess, Robbie Cheadle.
Share this:
Chatting with New Blood: Author Thomas M. Jacobson
Posted: January 19, 2026 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Chatting with New Blood, Interview, Memoir, Nonfiction, Review | Tags: Book Review, Chatting with New Blood, Interview, Kaye Lynne Booth, Memoir, Thomas M. Jacobson, Underdog: Against All Odds, Writing to be Read 12 Comments
My guest today is a holocaust survivor, the youngest surviving passenger on the MS St. Louis, who grew up to be a successful civil rights attorney, representing civil rights activists in Milwaukee in the 1960s through the end of the twentieth century. and he was the attorney who sued and obtained half a million dollars for the families of the victims of the serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. He seems to find ways to think outside the box and make change happen, even in stagnant times. He has written a fascinating book, Underdog: Against All Odds, which relates his story, including a thrilling deposition with Dahmer in the Columbia Correctional Institution.
About Author Thomas M. Jacobson
Thomas M. Jacobson, born May 8, 1938, in Bamberg, Germany, escaped Hitler, coming to America on the harrowing MS St. Louis voyage one year later. He graduated from UW Madison Law School in 1962, partnering with Lloyd Barbee to start the first integrated law firm in Milwaukee. Jacobson represented all the Milwaukee civil rights movers and shakers over the next thirty years, including Father James Groppi, the Daniel Bell family, comedian/human rights activist Dick Gregory, and Alderperson/Black Panther Commander Michael McGee. He successfully argued two cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, overturning Wisconsin’s Garnishment before Judgment and Change of Venue laws. In 1970, Jacobson was the Democratic candidate for Wisconsin Attorney General. In the late 1970s, he served as the Chairperson of the Wisconsin Public Defender’s office. Jacobson represented eight families of the victims of the world’s worst serial murderer, Jeffrey Dahmer, suing and successfully obtaining one-half million dollars for eleven victim families.
My Interview with Thomas
Kaye: Would you begin by telling us about your author’s journey? What inspired you to write a book about your experience?
Tom: My path to becoming an author wasn’t planned, but grew out of a life shaped by story and consequence. I was a child refugee, one of the youngest surviving passengers on the MS St. Louis, turned away from safety, and that early experience of injustice stayed with me long after I built a career as a civil rights lawyer. For decades, I focused on advocacy rather than authorship. A memoir wasn’t on my agenda. But over time, I realized that the arc of my life, from refugee to advocate, was itself a narrative worth preserving.
I wrote Underdog, Against All Odds, The Fight For Justice, because stories can carry truth in a way arguments alone cannot. As fewer firsthand witnesses remain, personal testimony becomes essential. I hoped to show how lived experience can inform a lifelong commitment to justice, how writing can serve as another form of resistance, remembrance, and standing up for democracy.
Kaye: When approaching the writing of the book, what’s the best piece of writing advice you were given?
Tom: As a lawyer, I was trained to persuade and to control the narrative. Writing a memoir required me to unlearn some of that, to slow down, to sit with uncertainty, and to trust the reader. Once I stopped trying to justify every decision and focused instead on bearing witness, the story found its voice. That advice shaped the entire book. It reminded me that a memoir isn’t about winning an argument, it’s about offering an honest account and letting the truth do the work. The best advice was to write what you know to be true, even when it’s uncomfortable. Honesty, intellectual and moral, is what gives writing its power and authority.
Kaye: Underdog has three different themes, each representing a different time in your life. Can you talk a little bit about each one?
Tom: The opening of Underdog focuses on childhood survival. As a young refugee, life was defined by forces beyond my control: The Nazi government’s atrocities against my family and the indifference of people to this injustice. This theme centers on vulnerability, displacement, the moral consequences and decisions of others, and what it means to begin life with no voice and no leverage or power to resist.
The middle of the book marks the transition from survival to resistance. This period of my life is about education, self-definition, and the decision to fight back using intellect rather than force. Law becomes the weapon that replaces the power that I never had. This theme is learning how institutions work, how they fail, and how an underdog can still challenge them.
The final theme centers on adulthood and professional life, when I finally had standing in the courtroom and a measure of authority. This part of Underdog addresses moral responsibility, representing the powerless, pursuing justice even when it’s unpopular, and recognizing that winning a case is not the same as standing up for justice.
Together, these three themes trace a life that moves from powerlessness to agency to accountability, the journey of an underdog who never forgot what it was like to have nothing.
Kaye: What happened after immigrating to the U.S. that led you to be a civil rights attorney later in life?
Tom: After immigrating to the U.S., I learned that power could be challenged through law. As a child refugee, authority had meant danger or indifference. In America, I saw that, slowly and imperfectly, the law could be used to protect the vulnerable rather than crush them.
I was drawn to civil rights law because the Holocaust taught me to fight and to resist was the only path to justice and survival. I understood what it meant to be excluded, unheard, and disposable. Education gave me a voice, and the law gave me standing to confront injustice. Becoming a civil rights lawyer wasn’t a career choice so much as a continuation of survival, resilience, and insistence that the system live up to all that the U.S. Constitution guaranteed its citizens: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Kaye: Do you view Underdog as a way to raise awareness about civil rights?
Tom: While Underdog is not primarily an advocacy book, it inevitably raises awareness about civil rights. The story shows how rights are lost long before they are violated through indifference, silence, and the normalization of exclusion. By tracing my life from refugee to civil rights lawyer, the book invites readers to see civil rights not as abstract ideals, but as lived experiences with real human consequences. If Underdog encourages readers to recognize that injustice can be challenged through resistance, strength, and perseverance, then it has accomplished one of the messages I want to send.
Kaye: What are some of the major events represented in Underdog?
Tom: My family’s escape from Nazi Germany in 1939, Hitler’s ascension to power in 1933, the Nuremberg laws, Krystallnacht, my father’s incarceration in the Dachau concentration camp, the failed voyage of the MS St. Louis, the commencement of the 1960s civil rights struggle in Milwaukee with the murder of Daniel Bell, a young Black man shot in the back of the head by a white police officer, and the planting of a knife to falsely create a self-defense cover-up by the cities entire law enforcement agencies, the struggles for a fair housing bill in Milwaukee by Father James Groppi and Alderperson Vel Phillips, Lloyd Barbee’s lawsuit finding defacto segregation in Milwaukee public schools unconstitutional, my suing successfully the City of Milwaukee on behalf of the Daniel Bell family twenty years after his murder, my lawsuits finding Wisconsin’s Change of Venue and Garnishment before Judgement laws unconstitutional in the U.S. Supreme Court, and my deposition of the world’s worst serial murderer, Jeffrey Dahmer, leading to eleven victim families receiving a half million dollars.
Kaye: What is the most important message or messages which you hope to bring to your readers?
I want readers to understand that what happened to refugees like those on the St. Louis was not inevitable, but the result of a choice, indifference, silence, and lack of courage. The most important message is that justice is never automatic. Survival exists only when you are willing to fight. Your rights exist only when you are willing to defend them, especially for those in the minority, the unpopular, the powerless, and those easy to ignore and exploit. One life, fully lived, can push history. You don’t need power to matter. You need persistence, guts, and moral resolve.
Kaye: What advice would you give to another with a message to get across?
Tom: Know your audience. Lead with the key point. Use simple language and be clear and concise. Use empathy and perspective. Leave the reader with a call to action, telling them what you want them to do, think, or feel.
Kaye: What are some of the challenges that you faced in writing this book?
Tom: Writing Underdog was one of the most intense experiences of my life. Revisiting memories of trauma, injustice, and loss was emotionally exhausting, yet necessary to tell the story honestly. I faced the challenge of balancing truth with readability, ensuring the legal cases, civil rights battles, and personal experiences were accurate, yet engaging. Deciding what to include and what to leave out was difficult because every memory felt significant, and I had to confront my own perspective honestly—translating complex legal and historical events in a way that anyone could understand, while keeping the narrative cohesive required careful editing. Writing about real people and sensitive events also required courage, knowing it might draw scrutiny, but I believed the story was important enough to write.
About Underdog: Against All Odds, the Fight for Justice
UNDERDOG is the memoir of one of the youngest passengers on the MS St. Louis, escaping Nazi Germany to Holland and eventually settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Against All Odds, Fighting for Justice is the story of a human rights lawyer representing all the prominent civil rights leaders in Milwaukee during the 1960s and decades thereafter.
The world’s worst serial murderer, Jeffrey Dahmer, writing from Columbia Correctional Institution on February 4, 1994, had this to say about Thomas Jacobson’s efforts to make him pay for his gruesome slaughter of seventeen victims.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Underdog-Against-Odds-Fight-Justice/dp/B0DV45SFC2
My Review of Underdog: Against All Odds, the Fight for Justice
I received a print copy of Underdog: Against All Odds from author Thomas M. Jacobson in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own.
As the youngest passenger on the MS St. Louise as a fleeing refugee from the brutal Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, it came as no surprise that Thomas M. Jacobson, grew up and took a profession where he defended the underdogs of the U.S. Defender of civil rights and protector of those scorned unfairly, he has made some huge strides in bringing equality and fairness in the U.S. from one of the most prejudiced cities in America. He managed to bring some semblance of compensation to the families of the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer when many refused to see them as victims at all. His accomplishments are huge. His methods may be a bit unorthodox, but they produced successful results.
I have to admit that at times, reading about writs and filings, and court proceedings can be a bit dry, but the methods he used and the ways he managed to get around the obstacles adversaries set in front of him are fascinating, and I couldn’t wait to learn how he triumphed. Often, his triumphs were small and didn’t result in immediately noticeable changes, because change moves slowly, especially when pushed by the heavy wheels of justice. Scorned by many in his own life, as bigoted people opposed him for his stance on civil rights, justice and fairness and his efforts to undo biased laws to ensure the fair treatment of his clients in the extremely biased city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jacobson stopped at nothing in pursuit of a favorable verdict, making him a formidable force to feared by those who opposed him.
Although I don’t agree with all of Jacobson’s opinions, I do admire his determination and tenacity to fight for what he believes in. Underdog is a well written, gripping struggle for justice for the weak and disadvantaged. I give it four quills.
More About Thomas M. Jacobson
Underdog Press Clippings
State Bar of Wisconsin YouTube
Phoenix Holocaust Museum Interview
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZd3Knv3rR_rSTU_EIhiWcwyJja8W359/view?usp=sharing
The Daily Cardinal
The Milwaukee Community Journal
The CapTimes
LA Holocaust Museum
https://www.holocaustmuseumla.org/event-details/underdog-against-all-odds-the-fight-for-justice
92.7 WMDX
https://civicmedia.us/shows/whats-going-on/2025/07/01/jeffrey-dahmer-attorney-thomas-jacobsons-role
Village Well Book Talk
https://villagewell.com/events/3642720251109
About Author Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
___________________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________________
This post sponsored by WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services.
Whether it’s editing, publishing, or promotion that you need,WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services can help at a price you can afford.
Stop by and see what we have to offer today: https://writingtoberead.com/readings-for-writers/wordcrafter-quality-writing-author-services/
Share this:
Book Review: “Shadows of Deceit” & “The Gift”
Posted: December 26, 2025 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Dark fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Review | Tags: Book Review, Kaye Lynne Booth, Shadows of Deceit, Stephanie M. Matthews, The Gift, Timothy R. Baldwin, Writing to be Read Leave a commentAbout Shadows of Deceit
A rookie PI. A city full of secrets. One deadly game she may not survive.
When rookie private investigator Cassie Maddox takes on her first big case in the gritty streets of Lenape City, she stumbles into a web of corruption, betrayal, and murder.
What begins as a simple job spirals into a dangerous cat-and-mouse chase with the city’s most powerful figures.
Haunted by her father’s legacy as a decorated detective, Cassie is determined to prove herself—even if it means uncovering secrets that cut too close to home.
To find the truth, she must risk everything: her independence, her family, and maybe even her life.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FG3B7LFB
My Review of Shadows of Deceit
I received a digital review copy of Shadows of Deceit, by Timothy R. Baldwin through Sandra’s Book Club in exchange for an honest book review. All opinions stated here are my own.
Young Cassie is overwhelmed by a need to prove herself as she avoids following in her father’s footsteps. So, when her first case as a P.I. turns into more than just a cheating husband, she is determined to solve it on her own. But her bulldog determination causes her to make mistakes, miscalculations and misjudgements until she finds herself over her head in web of corruption and deception, and playing a very dangerous game.
A typical hard crime novel, but the stakes aren’t high enough. Although we’re told that Cassie is swimming in dangerous waters, we don’t really see it past her friends being kidnapped and knocked around. But we don’t see that, just the after effects. It doesn’t feel so dangerous. I never really felt the peril. Even when the case is solved, I’m not sure what the real scam was, or who was doing what.
While it could be a good detective story, Shadows of Deceit fell short of the mark for me. I give it three quills.
About The Gift
“The Gift” will change Christmas forever.
The breakout thriller novel of Canadian author Stephanie M. Matthews, “The Gift” will leave you breathless in this story about a darkness that haunts a little Belgium village, and the lengths it will take to save a young woman from being lost to it forever. This is a vividly haunting Christmas story that will not be easily forgotten.
The darkness begins here.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Stephanie-M-Matthews/dp/0995313202
My Review of The Gift
I received a digital review copy of The Gift, by Stephanie M. Matthews, through Sandra’s Book Club, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own. The author, Stephanie M. Matthews has done a smashing job of weaving religious and philosophical symbolism in to make the storyline work in this fantastical tale.
The Gift is a dark Christmas tale with an undercurrent theme of the age-old struggle between good and evil. Fae goes to the village of her heritage at her grandmother’s request. It is her grandmother’s wish Fae receive a very special gift, and Fae can’t imagine what it might be. The village closes down to the outside world on Christmas eve, allowing no one in or out on account of a strange event when the village was saved from a Nazi invasion which no one is willing to talk about. In order to receive her gift, she must spend the night in the village, but the villagers are less than welcoming, strongly urging her to leave before Christmas eve begins.
The more she learns about the village residents and their strange customs, the more mystery that shrouds her anticipated present, the more determined she becomes to collect it. But everything comes with a price, and the price of Fae’s gift may be higher than she ever imagined.
The Gift is everything that a Christmas tale shouldn’t be: dark and scary, with Christmas horror, rather than Christmas cheer. I give it four quills.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
____________________________________
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
Share this:
Everyone is a Critic: “Tulsa King”, Season 3
Posted: December 22, 2025 Filed under: Everyone is a Critic, Television review | Tags: Everyone is a Critic, Kaye Lynne Booth, Tulsa King Season 3, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
Back in December of 2024, I wrote my first review of what quickly became one of my favorite series, Tulsa King after I’d watched the first two seasons and was anxiously awaiting the third season, for which they kept us waiting until this past fall. Last week, I watched the season finale, and I just had to write a review for this season, as well.
At the end of the 2024 season, viewers are left with the General, Dwight Manfredi (Slyvester Stallone), being yanked from his home in the middle of the night with the impression that perhaps it is the Feds who took him. In the opening of this season, we learn that it was special agent Musso (Kevin Pollack), of the FBI, who took Dwight, and we find out he has a personal agenda for his actions. Setting up a main story line for season 3, as Musso uses Dwight to set up the terrorist who killed his partner.
We also see the return of an old girlfriend, Cleo Montague (Bella Heathcote), for Mitch (Garrett Hedlund), and an opportunity to take Manfredi’s business ventures in a new direction: bourbon. It seems Cleo’s father is being pushed into selling his distillery by a man named Jeremiah Dunmire (Robert Patrick), the head of the Dixie Mafia, setting up another main story line for season 3.
In the first two seasons, the General and his crew kicked butt and cleaned house on Kansas City and New York crews, as well as the Chinese Mafia. This third season with Dixie Mafia doesn’t disappoint. Added to the General’s crew is Spencer, played by Stallone’s daughter, (Scarlett Rose Stallone), who plays a major role as she moves up in the ranks of Dwight’s inner circle and befriends Dunmire’s son, Cole (Beau Knapp). And we have the reappearance of Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) as Margaret (Dana Delaney) helps him rise up in the race for Governor of Oklahoma.
However, early in the season, Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo), the Kansas City boss, who joined forces with the Tulsa crew in season 2, pushes too hard and Agent Musso takes him out of the equation, when he keeps too close an eye on Dwight as he tries to figure out what is going on, and threatens to interfere with Musso’s plans. Dwight spends a good part of the beginning of the season riling up Quiet Ray in New York, trying to find Bill, as Bill’s wife and crew are breathing down his back, suspicious that he has something to do with Bill’s disappearance. Mid-season, Musso admits to Dwight that he has detained Bevilaqua, but as soon as he does, Bill’s crew disappears from the scene. Apparently, once Manfredi knows where Bill is, no one else is worried about him anymore.
Not to mention that this is a highly unlikely scenario anyway. Are we to believe the FBI is so powerful they can incarcerate people for convenience, since Bill had broken no laws, but was proving an obstacle to Musso’s plans? And, further, that his wife and crew would just fade into the background, once Musso admits arresting him to Dwight Manfredi? We don’t hear about Bevilaqua for the rest of the season, and they leave his storyline unresolved with the finale, so now Bevilaqua fans are just hanging until next fall. Wtf?!
While I had great interest in the third season story line, and Dunmire turned out to be a worthy adversary for the General. The two main story lines which are unraelated at first, come together quite nicely for an exciting climax in the final episode. I also liked the story line for Cole Dunmire, as well, even if his moment of self-realization is a little predictable. But, to leave one of my favorite characters in a not so believable situation, and then try to sweep it under the rug and pretend like he doesn’t exist, for me, is unacceptable and uncool.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
_________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
________________________________
This segment of “Chatting with New Blood” is sponsored by the Time Travel Adventure Series and WordCrafter Press.
When a Girl with a Guitar Meets a Man with a Gun, It’s Time to Travel
The Rock Star & The Outlaw: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Star-Outlaw-Time-Travel-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0CJBRRCN1/
The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions: Coming in 2026
Share this:
Christmas for Kids Sale
Posted: December 13, 2025 Filed under: Book Promotion, Book Sales, Children's Books, Holidays | Tags: Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home, Heather Hummingbird Makes a NEw Friend, Kaye Lynne Booth, My Backyard Friends series, Robbie Cheadle, Timothy Turtle Discovers JEllybeans, WordCrafter Press, Writing 3 Comments
Starting Black Friday, November 28th and running clear through December 25th, for those last-minute gifts.
Click on the book title to go to the landing page. Then, select the distributor of your choice.
The My Backyard Friends kid’s book series is inspired by the birds and animals that visit the author Kaye Lynne Booth’s mountain home. Beautiful illustrations by children’s author, poet, and illustrator, Robbie Cheadle, bring the unique voices of the animal characters to life.
Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans – $2.50 – Timothy Turtle Discovers Jellybeans is a picture book with a moral message from a young turtle’s perspective. Meet Timothy Turtle, who has a sweet tooth. He eats too many jellybeans and finds himself in a pickle. His friends Katy Cat and Betsy Beaver try to help, and Timothy learns that you can get too much of a good thing.
Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend – $2.50 – Heather Hummingbird Makes a New Friend is a picture book with a message of friendship and cooperation. Heather Hummingbird and Ethan Eagle are two unlikely friends who discover that it is good to accept help from others and that is what friends are for.
Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home – $2.99 – Charlie Chickadee Gets a New Home is a story of survival from a young bird’s perspective. Charlie Chickadee is happy with his family in their cozy nest. But whem the violet-green swallows take the nest for their own, Charlie finds himself alone, separated from his parents and on his own to face the dangers of the forest. His new friend Nicholas Nuthatch shows him the ropes and teaches him about the other birds and the woman who puts out food each day, and by a stroke of luck, Charlie discovers the perfect spot and builds a new nest that he can be proud of.
November 28th – December 25th, 2025
Get your copies today!
Share this:
WordCrafter Holiday Book Bash
Posted: December 8, 2025 Filed under: Book Promotion, Book Sales, Books, Dark Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Stories, Time travel, Western, Women's Fiction, WordCrafter Press | Tags: Baiting the Hook, Chris Barili, Danari Lai series, Delilah, Hidden Secrets, Kaye Lynne Booth, Sarah, Shadow Blade, The Rock Star & the Outlaw, Time Travel Adventure Series, Women in the West adventure series, WordCrafter Holiday Book Bash, WordCrafter Press 3 CommentsStarting Black Friday, November 28th and running clear through December 25th, for those last-minute gifts.
Click on the book title to go to the landing page. Then, select the distributor of your choice.
WordCrafter Novels
Women in the West Adventure Series, by Kaye Lynne Booth
•Strong Female Protagonists
•Fictionalized Historical Characters
•The Western Frontier Brought to Life
Delilah – $1.99 – Delilah is a woman haunted by her past.
Her homecoming from prison quickly turns into a quest for vengeance when she is brutally raped and left for dead, and her fourteen-year-old ward is abducted. Sheer will and determination take this tough and gritty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest, Indians and outlaws to Leadville.
Can the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado mining town work their way into Delilah’s heart, offering a chance for a future she thought she’d lost along with her innocence?
If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Delilah.
Sarah – $2.99 – Sarah is a young girl trying to make a place for herself in the world.
Sarah is not the young girl stolen away from Delilah anymore. Now she is Hair of Fire, mate of Three Hawks, even as she blossoms into a young woman and tries to make a place for herself among the Ute tribe.
When she is stolen away from the life she’s made, she struggles to survive in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. A streak of stubbornness and determination take this tough, feisty heroine up against wild beasts of the forest and the rugged mountain landscape to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where she receives a less than welcoming reception by some.
Will this young woman find her way back to the Ute tribe, which she’s come to think of as family, or will she discover a place among the colorful inhabitants of the Colorado hot springs and mining town?
Follow along on her journey to learn who she truly is and where she belongs in this rough, and often hostile frontier.
If you like strong and capable female protagonists, you’ll love Sarah.
Marta – Coming in 2026
Time Travel Adventure Series, by Kaye Lynne Booth
The Rock Star & The Outlaw – $2.99 – A time-traveler oversteps his boundaries in 1887. Things get out of hand quickly, and he is hanged, setting in motion a series of events from which there’s no turning back.
In 1887, LeRoy McAllister is a reluctant outlaw running from a posse with nowhere to go except to the future.
In 2025, Amaryllis Sanchez is a thrill-seeking rock star on the fast track, who killed her dealing boyfriend to save herself. Now, she’s running from the law and his drug stealing flunkies, and nowhere is safe.
LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.
They can’t go back to the future, so it looks like they’re stuck in the past. But either when, they must face forces that would either lock them up or see them dead.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Double Visions – Coming in 2026
Shadow Blade, by Chris Barili
Shadow Blade – $5.99 –
The Denari Lai: An order of religious zealots who control their assassins through an addiction to magic.They haven’t failed in over one hundred years.
Ashai Larish: An unstoppable Denari Lai assassin sent covertly to kill the Pushtani king and his daughter. But he falls in love with the princess and finds himself, despite struggling withdrawal symptoms from his magic, as they flee from a second assassin and the King’s guard.
Makari: A beautiful and unconventional princess seeking to change the laws of her father’s kingdom when she learns Ashai’s true identity.
Pachat: A Pushtani slave who unknowingly sparks a slave rebellion all along the border between their nations.
Will Pachat gain the revenge he so lustily seeks?
Can Ashai kill the second assassin, win back Makari’s love and return her to the throne that is rightfully hers?
Short Fiction Singles
Baiting the Hook – Free! – On the ice-polished rooftops and the otherwise dark allies now choked with snow, Tabe Ge Nishi, the past pursues the future, old chases young. The Chargh Lai—leader of the brutal assassin’s guild, the Denari Lai—searches for the perfect leader to take over the order when he passes on. But the boy has other suitors and wishes only to be left alone. Betrayals have made Ashai cautious, and just as he rebuffs the advances of a street gang, he also rejects the Chargh Lai’s offer of constant brotherhood. But “no” is not an answer the Chargh Lai is used to hearing. And he pressures Ashai to join him. And meanwhile, another assassin hunts them both.
What will Ashai choose? The camaraderie of the Denari Lai, or freezing alone on the streets? The final battle will determine the fate of both men, and an entire nation.
Hidden Secrets – $.99 – Cassie wants nothing to do with the legacy her grandmother wants to hand down to her.
She doesn’t believe in all those Native American legends anyway.
She and Tony are to be married and start a family. They’re returning to her ancestral lands now to tell her grandmother to pass the tribal legacy on to someone else, along with the cursed gold that goes with it.
When she forces herself to go out on the lake where her parents drowned, she discovers the cave which holds the tribal treasure and the lake takes another life. Now Cassie must rethink all that she believes. If the treasure is real, could the curse be real, too?
Can Cassie find a way to stop it before Tony becomes the next victim?
November 28th – December 25th, 2025
Get your copies today!
Share this:
Writer’s Corner: NaNoWriMo No Mo
Posted: December 1, 2025 Filed under: Books, Historical Fiction, NaNoWriMo, Western, Women in History, Women's Fiction, Writing, Writing Challenge | Tags: Kaye Lynne Booth, Marta, NaNoWriMo, Women in the West, Writer's Corner, Writing Challenge, Writing to be Read 4 CommentsI look forward each year to participating in the NaNoWriMo challenge in November. In fact, I depend on it to get a major portion of one novel completed and I schedule it into my production calendar. Even if I do not make the word count for the set goal at the end of the month, I’m still that much closer to a finished novel, so it is a win-win situation.
November 2022 produced The Rock Star & The Outlaw, book 1 in my Time Travel adventure series. In 2023, I used it to get a start on Sarah, book 2 in my Women in the West adventure series. 2024 brought a good start for the second book in my Time Travel series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw 2: Doubles Visions, which will be released early in 2026. This year’s NaNoWriMo was scheduled to create the third book in the Women in the West series, also scheduled for release in 2026.
So, you can imagine my surprise when a few days before Halloween, I’d done my research, I had my outline, and I went to sign up for the challenge and found that NaNoWriMo is no more. Apparently, the traditional challenge which has been around for over a decade and attracted writers from near and far, had an incident involving AI material last year, unbeknownst to me, which turned the whole event topsy-turvy. I still am not sure what the problem was, or why it was so serious as to shut down the whole event permanently. I was too busy panicking as I searched the web for my favorite month-long writing event, to read any more in depth than that.
What I did find was a new event called Novel November which looked to similar to NaNo, so I signed up. After I had begun setting up my dashboard, it became apparent that they were expecting me to upload my manuscript so they could keep track of my word count, instead of self-monitoring, like NaNo. So… ProWritingAid will have direct access to the words I write? That made me pause.
All of the articles I’ve read about the hullaballoo over AI snatching authors’ works illegally for training, etc…, I had to wonder how smart that would be. Then, add to that, the fact that something happened which involved AI writing, which shut down NaNo after last year’s challenge, and doing the challenge through this site seemed like a a really bad idea. So, that’s as far as I got with that.
I started thinking about the aspects of NaNo which I found valuable. It was always fun to earn their little badges, but that and the word count was all I really used. For me, NaNoWriMo was a motivator that offered achievable goals and helped me keep track of my progress. I never really used the community aspects of the challenge, although I did adopt a writing buddy one year and we held each other accountable, sort of. I realized that both of the aspects I used most during the challenge, the ones I depended on, were actually things I could do myself pretty easily.
So, this past November, I ran my own personal writing challenge. It was the same challenge NaNo set; 50,000 in 30 days. That’s a good start on any novel, and it’s enough to enable me to finish the book within the next few months. And there was nothing stopping me from setting my own goal and keeping track of my own word count.
So, that’s what I did. On November first, I began writing on Marta. I’m keeping track of my word count on a sheet of notebook paper. I am maybe not quite as disciplined as I have been in past years during NaNo, but I’m following the same principles. I sit down to write every single day, utilizing every spare minute that I can to write.
I’m a realist, however, and I learned long ago that you can’t always put life on hold, so my writing times are spread out with ten minutes here, thirty minutes there. Of course, I try to get in as many hour, or two hour, stretches as I can. So, on days when I have to go out and work in the real world, and can’t stay in my world of fiction, I may not get as many words in. I don’t always make my daily word count goal, and I might be lagging behind in the overall goal, even on the days when I do make it. But, again, any number of words I get down adds to my overall word count and moves my story forward.
I am writing this post on November 26, the day before Thanksgiving, and to date, I have 39, 298 words down. If I had made the word count every single day, the expected word count by the end of this day is 43, 342, so I still have a ways to go, but the story line is coming along nicely. Where the first two books in the Women in the West series had long periods when the protagonists must survive alone in the wilderness, with inner dialog to carry the story, Marta is surrounded by a full cast of characters on her journey with lots of external dialog. The characters are diverse and colorful, and they find themselves in some unusual situations.
I don’t know how many words I will have by the time this post is published, on December first, or how many words I will have left to type. I’m sure this story will not be completed at 50,000 words, since they haven’t yet reached their destination with over 40,000 words. Whether I reach my goal or not, Marta will be scheduled to be released in June of 2026.
**Update: It is December 1st and I did not reach my writing goal for November, but I do have 47,651 words toward the story of Marta. That’s not a bad start. As I’ve said before, any way you look at it, a 50,000 word challenge is a win-win for me. 🙂
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
__________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
_________________________________
This segment of “Writer’s Corner” is sponsored by the Robbie’s Inspiration blog site, where you can find ideas on writing and baking with hostess, Robbie Cheadle.
