Browse A-Z Authors: Wn-Wz

The Phantom Files series, book 1. Dead men tell no tales. Except to me. When I'm around, they can't shut up. My name is Alex April, and I see ghosts. Worse, they see me. If my paranormal-obsessed best friend Bones knew, he'd be crazy happy. But only one thing happens when I acknowledge their presence. Trouble. I've gotten so good at hiding my ability, everyone believes it. Even the ghosts...most of the time. Except now I've got the nightmare of all homework assignments: write a book report about Mark Twain. Trouble is, I have to go to the library to check out a book. Not just any library--the Hannibal, Missouri's Free Library. It's the most haunted building in town. And it's haunted by none other than Samuel Langhorne Clemens, himself. Now this spook is haunting me. Following me everywhere I go, desperate to find the legendary Twain Treasure. What exactly is that treasure? Not even Sam can say. Well, Bones has always wanted to go on a real-life ghost adventure. I just hope this one doesn't land us both in ZIP code 63409-DEAD.

The Phantom Files series, book 2. The Greatest Escape Artist of All Time is Trapped. And he thinks I have the key... After our adventure with Mark Twain, I'd hoped Bones and I were out of the ghost hunting business for good. But a crafty magician has other plans. Houdini himself is stuck between worlds, and Bones can't wait to help him. When the mysterious Reaper666 is added to our crew and we come up against a powerful vengeful spirit, it's not just Houdini's afterlife on the line. We better have some fantastic tricks up our sleeves, or we're going to all end up imprisoned with Houdini. Or worse.

Our fourth anthology of science fiction stories for middle grade readers, with a focus on diversity and representation. Kirkus Review of Books said of the 2017 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide: "This collection of short science fiction is an ideal entrée to the genre for neophytes, as it's not laden with heavy doses of technological jargon or larded with dystopian violence. Offering just the right amount of imagination, humor, and contemporary nuances to engage young readers, this is a must-have in science-fiction collections serving middle graders and teens."

Mythic Adventures Collection, book 1. A storyteller weaves an adventure of a Native American boy challenged to save a family of eagles or become their meal. With famine looming for animals and humans, the boy, Naa'ki, labors to feed the eagles and learn their wisdom. As a reward for his help, he begs the eagles to teach him to fly. Naa'ki battles fear and wind in his struggle to soar with the eagles. And he attempts to convince his people that the disappearance of the salmon is due to their actions. To succeed, he will have to give up his future. The story combines myth, environmental awareness, and the concept of working together. It is a short middle grade novel with illustrations.

Mythic Adventures Collection, book 2. An ancient forest, a dark night, a strange woman--and whispers. What is going on in this eerie Irish forest? Ten-year-old Declan has to find out. His brother is missing and only he can solve the mystery. But why him? He doesn't even like his always-yelling brother who his sister says was eaten by wolves. But there are no wolves in Ireland. Then a witch-like woman tells him the two of them have to go into the spooky woods to save his brother. But from what? The strange trees only whisper the answer and he must discover what they are trying to tell him. But he will learn much more than he ever dreamed. Whispers of Trees is a fun, page-turning thriller hinting of myth that delivers a multicultural adventure. Ages 8-12.

Hundreds of donuts...whizzing by. Every kind she could imagine. And Elizabeth had to have one. But when she has MORE than one, strange and hilarious things happen. Ages 3-8.

Bubbles is a frog with a problem - he's stinking up every corner of Frog Pond! Can he overcome his smelly issue, or will he be forced to leave his friends? A fun book that's sure to get your little one laughing.

"Hang on to your hats as you read six short stories of excitement and adventure. Thrilling tales for kids 7 and up." --Amazon

… a bird that can’t sing… creatures from a graveyard… and a murder mystery. Three short stories for elementary students inspired by teachers and written by Ben Woodard. Includes a section on teaching children the writing process with information on the Kentucky Reading Project.

These short stories were inspired by the students of Ekron Elementary. Children's Author, Ben Woodard, challenged the students to write a story using techniques that they learned in school and during his visit. All five classes came up with wonderful stories that Ben edited, trying to stay true to the children's ideas. The book contains tales of dragons, unicorns, a space ship, time travel, and so much more. Stories of excitement and adventure from elementary students.

Shakertown Adventure series, book 1. It's the summer of 1923 and two cousins hunting for hidden gold stumble on a decayed body. Fourteen-year-old Tom Wallace is convinced the death was murder and drags his older cousin into a harrowing struggle against a shadowy group. Repeated attempts on their lives can't stop the boys from relentlessly pursuing the mystery. But when their curiosity leads them to investigate a derelict barge, what they find is bigger and more dangerous than anything they could have imagined.

Shakertown Adventure series, book 2. Fourteen-year-old Tom Wallace plans to escape the small town in the 1923 Kentucky countryside--the town that won't let him forget his past--when a horrific explosion changes his mind. He teams with his cousin Will and young FBI agent Rick Sweeney to solve a perplexing mystery. Someone is trying to kill the boys, and a bewildering list of suspects keeps them on edge and confused. False clues mislead them until they discover a surprising name and rush to confront the real enemy--and then wish they hadn't.

Shakertown Adventure series, book 3. A quiet town in Kentucky explodes from a racial incident and fourteen-year-old Tom Wallace is in the thick of it. His past haunts him and now he's witness to a horrific event leaving him devastated and afraid. Along with his cousin, Will, he searches for lost gold he believes can help him escape his town and memories. But leaving has consequences. He will lose his friends and his new love. On a fiery staircase Tom finally realizes that he must face his inner demons and his horrific nightmares. To do so requires him to take a stand that could change his life ... or end it. Kentucky author, Ben Woodard, relies on personal experience and family history to tell this moving story of personal tragedy and racial hatred set in the rolling countryside of Kentucky in 1923.

Two boys, two stories, and one horrific memory. Follow Tom and Will through two short story adventures.In The Trestle, Tom craves danger-to forget. He persuades his cousin Will to walk across High Bridge, a single track railroad bridge with no railings. Danger follows them onto the track, and Tom has to has to make a deadly choice. In the Hunt, Will and Tom stumble bleary-eyed into the farm fields before daybreak. But Tom's inexperience in this Twain-like story leads to hilarious antics until they finally bag their animal. Tom finds that hunting is fun, but the killing is not. Two YA short stories plus historical photographs and information about the setting.

"This book was handset in Cloister Lightface type, printed on a hand-fed C & P, then handbound. 450 copies were printed on Mohawk Superfine paper and a special edition of 32 copies was printed on Zerkall Book paper. The wood engravings were cut by Laura Lee Cundiff and printed from the wood. Design, composition, printing and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press."--Colophon.

Poems, 76 pages.

As in his first two books--The Only Time There Is, which won the Mid-List Press First Series Award for Poetry, and A Simple Human Motion, published by Larkspur Press--Worley's fearless, funny, and contemplative poetry is attentive to detail, faithful to inflection, and happy to embellish.

Poems; 25 pages.

"In A Little Luck, Jeff Worley presents that rarest of commodities--a voice encyclopedic in its attentions, clever, self-aware, and deeply likeable. Worley's humor throughout is dark and smart, his phrasings elegant. I would give A Little Luck to the reader who loves the work of Ted Kooser or Rodney Jones. I'd give this book to the reader who does not yet realize he loves poetry."--Sandra Beasley, Final Judge THE DAY AFTER MY DEATH --after lines by Michael Van Walleghen The moon, stars and weather will happen as they always have, though surely with my breath gone the wind, in some slight measure, will falter. Absent my footsteps the earth will feel along its spine a momentary shiver of abandonment. And my friends?  Won't they gather with me again, in whatever purple- swagged room, for wine and stories, some of them nearly impossibly true? Meanwhile, the mailman, humming like a bee in a blossom, will slip my name into the metal box: an unsigned note from The Paris Review saying, simply, Sorry.

Poetry. Award-winning poet Jeff Worley returns with a chapbook of short poems, several previously published but all brought together here for the first time. The result is a distillation of his ever-present wit and scattered bits of wisdom accumulated over seventy years, a spirit as pure and clear and bracing as any backwoods liquor. In some poems he fondly recalls his parents, into whose lives he landed "like a sack / of old socks on their shoulders," and his Kansas boyhood. In others he laments the indignities of age, such as the loss of memory, the appearance of mysterious spots, or the waitress who tells him his eyes are beautiful, only to add "Ya know, you remind me of my grandfather." (Ouch!) In between we are treated to Worley's thoughts and observations on a number of topics, a reminder that some of the best poems are indeed LUCKY TALK, the title borrowed from William Stafford who described poems as "pieces of talk, savored and sustained." Here that talk ranges over cats and snowflakes, deer and quilting bees, UFOs and turtle shells, a declaration of faith and the "cosmic observation" that "The stars increase their twinkling / the more I increase my drinkling." In the end, these poems are a feat not unlike that of Eunice Winkless and her 1905 ride on the back of a diving horse, "determined to take / the whole whooping crowd with / her, make them never forget..." Prepare to do some whooping, as Worley rides these words. You won't forget them.

The creatures in the poems draw us into thickets of self-discovery; then they raise upon their haunches to announce that we live among mysteries. --Maria L. Hurlow, Professor of English and journalism at Asbury College, Ace Magazine.
Winner, Still Waters Press Chapbook Competition (1993)

Poems; 70 pages. Winner of the Mid-List Press First Book Series (1995)

Poems; 36 pages. Winner of the Devil's Millhopper Press Chapbook Contest (1990)

"This book was handset in Eric Gill's Joanna type and jprinted on a hand-fed C&P. 450 copies were printed on Mohawk Superfine paper and cloth bound. 40 copies were printed on dampened Schiller paper and handbound by Carolyn Whitesel. The illustrations are photoengravings from line drawings by Laura Lee Cundiff. Design, composition and printing by Cranford Campbell, Deborah Kessler, Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press."--Colophon.

What Comes Down To Us features twenty-five of Kentucky's most accomplished contemporary poets. Together they serve to illustrate the diversity and richness of poetry being written today in the Commonwealth. The poems were collected by Jeff Worley, a poet who has lived in Kentucky for more than two decades. Although the subject matter of the poems transcends the state's borders, the collection communicates a strong sense of Kentucky as a place. Worley's introduction places contemporary Kentucky poetry in the context of the state's rich literary tradition, and the poet biographies include their reflections and, often, their poetic approach and technique.

In Girl Singer, poet Marianne Worthington often blurs the lines between the historical and the romantic, much like the artists to whose songs and stories she pays careful attention and homage. Locals or country music fans will recognize the names and histories documented here, but even those unfamiliar with these references will understand the intricacy and intimacy with which they are woven together. From Tom Dula to The Carters to Patsy Cline, Girl Singer not only documents this wealth of stories with care and accuracy, but it also dares to venture into the subjects' innermost thoughts. The speaker places her personal life on the same level of importance as the subjects of local stories, elevating the collection from a simple report of facts into a work of art. Her own family history dances among those of celebrities. The collection is as invested in the poet's own life as it is in Appalachia as a whole. With poems about birds and the moon, the collection also harbors an abundance of natural imagery that highlights the dramatic details of the speaker's daily life, even within the mundane. Skillfully divided into three distinct yet harmonious parts, cantillating local, familial, and personal histories, Girl Singer is a collection of lyrical and descriptive poems that offer unique insight on famous and infamous Appalachian tales from this life and the next.

Poems; 30 pages. New Women's Voices series, no. 43.

MOTIF Anthology series, v.2. Each submission in this collection takes chance as a motif, either prominently or in subtle ways. The anthology includes fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Anthology; 199 pages.