Maddie~A Little Ghost with a Secret: Review

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Haley Ringer

MADDIE ~ A LITTLE GHOST WITH A SECRET

By Cindy J. Vanous

Children’s Age 6-8

Pages: 28

Publication Date: September 25, 2025

SYNOPSIS

In the enchanting ghost town of Terlingua, Texas, Maddie isn’t your typical ghost. She’s a friendly spirit on a heartfelt quest to discover her own special superpower just like the ones her parents and the other resident spirits proudly possess. As Maddie experiments with their ghostly gifts, she learns that each superpower is unique and can’t be borrowed. Still, she holds close a passion that fills her days with whimsy and warmth, a secret hobby that brings back precious memories of time spent with her mom. Through her journey, Maddie uncovers not only her true talent but also reminds her ghostly family that the most magical gifts come from the heart.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cindy J. Vanous is a Texas children’s author who writes heartfelt picture books filled with vintage charm, hope, and imagination. Her stories, from a lost puppy at the North Pole to a little ghost in Terlingua, Texas, celebrate courage, belonging, and the magic found in everyday moments.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS ◆ FACEBOOK

ENTER TO WIN!

REVIEW

Maddie doesn’t let her quest get her down and stays positive and cheerful while she tells us about the amazing ghostly gifts that surround her. It’s a heartfelt tale about finding what gifts you have in the things you love to do. Her passion of baking comes from happy memories, hers and others. It was nice to see she still had her parents to liven her days and a robust community of other ghosts she could play with.

I thought the story and illustrations of the book were excellent. Maddie immediately introduces herself and take us through her ‘after’ life. She a friendly ghost (which brought me back to my own childhood of a similar ghost) but has a unique and color design and experience that grabs your attention. I think this is an excellent story for children and will be sure to entertain them.

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLMaddieALittleGhostWithASecret on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER taking part.

Hummingbird Moonrise: Spotlight

Posted on November 7, 2025 by Haley Ringer

HUMMINGBIRD MOONRISE

By Sherri L. Dodd

Paranormal Thriller / Fantasy / Magical Realism / Witch-Lit

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 304

Publication Date: October 9, 2025

SYNOPSIS

The past two years have taken their toll on Arista Kelly. Once an eternal optimist, now she has faced the darkness and must recalibrate what true happiness means for her. Meanwhile, Shane, her ex-boyfriend, is pulling all the right moves to help keep her sane from her heightening paranoia. But it doesn’t help that Iris, her Great Aunt Bethie’s friend, has disappeared.

Still, one additional trial remains. While searching for Iris, Bethie and Arista stumble upon a grand revelation in the eccentric woman’s home. With the discovery, they realize their run of chaos and loss of kin may have roots in a curse that dates back to the 1940s-the time when their family patriarch first built Arista’s cottage in the redwoods and crafted his insightful Ouija table.

This pursuit will not follow their accustomed recipe of adrenalized action, but the high stakes remain. Will the mysterious slow burn of unfolding events finally level Arista’s entire world or be fully extinguished, once and for all?

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon ◆ Barnes & Noble ◆ Bookshop.org

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sherri L. Dodd was raised in southeast Texas. Walking barefoot most days and catching crawdads as they swam the creek beds, she had a love for all things free and natural. Her childhood ran rampant with talk of ghosts, demons, and backcountry folklore. This inspired her first story for sale, about a poisonous flower that shot toxins onto children as they smelled it. Her classmate bought it for all the change in his pocket. Shortly thereafter, her mother packed the two of them up and headed to the central coast of California. Since that time, she has worked corporate, married, raised two sons, and now writes full-time creating atmospheric paranormal fiction. Her debut novel – Murder Under Redwood Moon – shot straight to #1 on Amazon, holding firm as a Best Seller in the Occult Supernatural genre.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM

BOOKBUB ◆ AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

ENTER TO WIN!
Giveaway Link

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLHummingbirdMoonrise on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

Queen of Cotton: Spotlight

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Haley Ringer

QUEEN OF COTTON

By Laurie Moore-Moore

Historical Fiction

Publisher: Goat Mountain Press

Publication Date: September 9, 2025

SYNOPSIS

1861: The Civil War is raging. The men have gone to fight, leaving the women behind to cope. Cotton is the lifeblood of the South.

Sara, a young wife, risks her life and reputation to lead an official Confederate Camel Caravan hundreds of miles across Texas to Matamoros, Mexico. There, cotton can be sold and shipped to the buyer, avoiding the Union blockade and providing critical funds for the South and desperate Dallas cotton growers.

But . . .“It’s not a job for a woman.” The Texas frontier is fraught with danger. The caravan will face fierce Comanche, bandits, extreme weather, internal vandalism, and unforgiving desert. The Mexican cotton market is complex and full of fraudsters. The trail home, carrying gold and armaments, makes the caravan a rich target.

Joining Sara on the adventure are a fascinating mix of real and fictional characters, including a slave— who quotes Machiavelli—and forty-six camels! Can Sara face peril and uncertainty with grit and unyielding determination? Can she survive, succeed, and as a result, shed the past that haunts her? Queen of Cotton: Confederate Camel Caravan is a woman’s adventure with roots in true history. Climb aboard, your camel is waiting.

A stand-alone novel and book two in the Texas Brave & Strong series.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laurie Moore-Moore and her husband, Roger, have been blessed with many adventures–from trekking across India’s Thar desert on camels (and sleeping in the sand on camel blankets) to repeating marriage vows in a remote Maasi village in Kenya (Laurie’s dowry was one cow and one goat). Laurie’s favorite adventure? As a fifth-generation Texan, Laurie says, “It is discovering more and more Texas history and writing about it!”

After decades in Dallas, Texas the couple moved to a mountaintop overlooking a lake in the Cherokee Nation. “The cabin is unique,” Laurie says. “There is a nine foot chainsaw bear in our entry hall. The house was built around it. Never thought I’d own a piece of chainsaw art, much less a nine foot bear. Life is full of surprises–just like a good historical novel.”

Laurie is a retired entrepreneur who has built and sold multiple businesses and served on the board of directors of an international Corporation.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ AMAZON ◆ FACEBOOK

ENTER TO WIN!

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLQueenofCotton on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH PARTICIPATING REVIEWER.

To Condemn A Witch: Spotlight

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Haley Ringer

TO CONDEMN A WITCH

By LISA A. TRAUGOTT

Historical Fantasy

Publisher: Rose Castle Media

Pages: 399

Publication Date: August 11, 2025

SYNOPSIS

A stolen scroll. A cursed bloodline. A prophecy that binds three witches across life and death…

Scotland, 1729. When clairvoyant healer Fiona MacLeod discovers an enchanted scroll, she awakens a prophecy linking her fate to two other women: Eleanor, a servant-turned-mistress caught in a scandal, and Matilda, a vengeful ghost burned for witchcraft. Together, they must form a coven—maiden, mother, and crone—to protect a changeling child marked by ancient magic.

But a ruthless witch hunter is closing in—one who will stop at nothing to destroy the child and the women sworn to defend her.

Spanning the infamous Hellfire Caves of England to haunted Scottish glens and the wilds of colonial Virginia, To Condemn a Witch is a haunting prequel in the Tales of the Witchblood series—a dark tale of feminine power, sacrifice, and the unbreakable bond between witches who rise, no matter how often they are condemned.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa A. Traugott is the award-winning author of the Tales of the Witchborn series (To Rescue a Witch and To Condemn a Witch), a haunting historical fantasy saga in the realm of ghosts, goddesses, and rebellion. She double majored in history and theater to guarantee unemployment yet somehow became a full-time author. An original cast member on American Grit with John Cena, she also had five lines on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

She lives in Austin with her husband and two kids where they enjoy walking ghost tours and telling scary stories around the campfire. You can get a FREE chapter of To Rescue a Witch at LisaTraugott.com.

WEBSITE ◆ NEWSLETTER ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ BOOKBUB

AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS ◆ FACEBOOK

ENTER TO WIN!

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLToCondemnAWitch on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

The Rise of the Mad March: Spotlight

Posted on May 31, 2025 by Haley Ringer

THE RISE OF THE MAD MARCH

By ROBERT ESPENSCHEID JR.

New Adult / Coming of Age / Friendship

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing

Pages: 374

Publication Date: May 9, 2025

SYNOPSIS

This one is for all the rock bands who never headlined the big stage, who never needed protection getting to the limo, who never made any money, who never got signed, who had no answer to the cry of “why aren’t you guys famous?” It’s for those who wrote killer songs never heard on the radio, who never made a Rolling Stone cover—or even a mention inside. It’s for those whose collars

were always blue, who were promised this and wound up with that, who always opened and never closed.

America, 1973. Christine on lead, Henry on rhythm, Gretchen on bass and Melissa on drums. A chaotic rise, fighting amongst themselves, battling self-destruction, finding their sound, learning to trust, finding a helping hand, overcoming convention (girls can’t play guitar) to become one band, on one tour, for one month – New York to LA and all the stories in between.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon | B&N | BookBub

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rob Espenscheid, Jr. is a Connecticut native and a 1966 Wake Forest College graduate. After an Army RVN stint in 1969, Rob pulled up stakes and moved to the rural Midwest, settling in southern Iowa in the early 1970s. Prairie life provided a career tuning and repairing pianos from cattle country small towns to

collegiate concert halls. When not tinkering on a piano, he can usually be found either on a golf course or working on a manuscript. In 1998, family connections led to a move, with his wife Sharon, to Smithville, Texas.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM

AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLTheRiseOfTheMadMarch on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE  LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

The Calendar: Spotlight

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Haley Ringer

THE CALENDAR

By WM Gunn

Science Fiction

Pages: 302

Publication Date: April 3, 2025

SYNOPSIS

Long-range monitors detect a massive rock plunging through space on a path toward Earth. Will it miss our planet, deliver a glancing blow, or destroy Mankind? And how will people react to an uncertain future? Or will they be told?

What if everything and everyone you cherish vanished in a heartbeat? What if you knew the very day your world would cease to exist? What if you could not save those you love?

What if all your dreams and hopes of a brighter tomorrow would never be realized? How would you react if there was nothing you could do to delay it or prevent it? What would you do?

Prepare yourself for the upcoming end of all that is right and wrong. Prepare yourself for the fear and uncertainty of the unknown. Prepare to feel the tension grow and grow.

Prepare to read The Calendar.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon | BookBub

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WM Gunn is a native Texan who spent many years in the pharmaceutical industry in sales, sales management, and training and development. He is active in writing groups and volunteering with non-profit groups. He lives in his hometown in Texas with his high school sweetheart bride of many years. To date, he has written hundreds of short stories,

three novellas, and two novels. Holmes, Moriarty, and the Monkeys and Chasing the Sun are two novellas released earlier in 2024. His debut full-length novel The Two Terrors of Tulelake was released in October 2024, as an e-book and as a paperback. The Calendar is his newest novel available in April 2025 as an e-book and in paperback.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ YOUTUBE ◆ FACEBOOK ◆ BOOKBUB

AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS ◆ NEWSLETTER

ENTER TO WIN!

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLTheCalendar on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING

Under The Gulf Coast Sun: Spotlight

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Haley Ringer

UNDER THE GULF COAST SUN

By SKIP RHUDY

Romance / Coming of Age / Surfing

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing

Pages: 266

Publication Date: April 22, 2025

SYNOPSIS

This coming-of-age tale set against the sun-soaked beaches of 1970s Port Aransas, Texas, is a love letter to the people and culture of the Texas coast and the enduring allure of the Gulf of Mexico.

Eighteen-year-old Connor O’Reilly isn’t ready to leave his beloved hometown until the tourist girl he met the

previous summer, Kassie Hernandez, returns to Port Aransas for one final vacation before college. Their tumultuous summer fling is wrecked by a freak accident in which Connor is lost at sea. His long years of surfing and fishing in the Gulf, as well as Kassie’s desperation to reunite with him, are pitted against the enormity and utter indifference of the sea.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon | B&N | Bookshop

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Skip Rhudy grew up surfing in Port Aransas, Texas. He has translated poetry and prose from German to English, and translated Wolfgang Hilbig’s novella Die Weiber for his master’s thesis in 1990 at the University of Texas. His short stories were published in numerous small press magazines in the mid-1990s,

and his novella One Punk Summer was published in 1993 and reprinted in 2021.

INSTAGRAM ◆ FACEBOOK

AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLUnderTheGulfCoastSun on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

Moonset on Desert Sands: Spotlight

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Haley Ringer

MOONSET ON DESERT SANDS

Murder, Tea, & Crystals, Book Two

By Sherri L. Dodd

Paranormal Thriller / Fantasy / Magical Realism / Witch-Lit

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 360

Publication Date: March 27, 2025

SYNOPSIS

With a traumatic year of fending off a serial killer behind her, Arista has settled contentedly into her temporary home with Auntie in Sedona, Arizona. She enjoys her new job selling all things metaphysical and even has her eye on the hot security guard, Dakota, after her recent breakup with Shane.

But a series of new fainting spells

has her worried, and when Auntie witnesses one, they decide the answer lies in her home of Boulder Creek. However, returning means not only dealing with her breakup and its heartache but also the possibility of drawing her bloodthirsty Uncle Fergus to her once safe haven in the redwoods. And this time he has recruited an even more dangerous alliance.

Arista’s closest bonds will be strengthened, but the mounting tension of a death in the desert, a stalker on the streets, and the relentless pursuit of Fergus puts her in dangerous territory, and escaping sorrow proves impossible.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon | B&N | BookBub | Bookshop

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sherri L. Dodd was raised in southeast Texas. Walking barefoot most days and catching crawdads as they swam the creek beds, she had a love for all things free and natural. Her childhood ran rampant with talk of ghosts, demons, and backcountry folklore. This inspired her first story for sale, about a poisonous flower that shot toxins onto children as they smelled it.

Her classmate bought it for all the change in his pocket. Shortly thereafter, her mother packed the two of them up and headed to the central coast of California. Since that time, she has worked corporate, married, raised two sons, and now writes full-time creating atmospheric paranormal fiction. Her debut novel – Murder Under Redwood Moon – shot straight to #1 on Amazon, holding firm as a Best Seller in the Occult Supernatural genre.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM

BOOKBUB ◆ AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

ENTER TO WIN!

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLMoonsetOnDesertSands on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

Runners: Spotlight

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Haley Ringer

RUNNERS

BOOK TWO IN THE OAKLEY SERIES

By Phil Oakley

Historical Fiction / Depression Era / Family Saga

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing

Pages: 206

Publication Date: March 31, 2025

SYNOPSIS

From the author of Little Hatchet, this gripping historical saga continues—a powerful story of resilience, family, and the price of ambition. Perfect for fans of epic generational tales and action-packed historical fiction.

Walter Oakley and his wife, Ada, used the westward expansion of America to establish themselves as model citizens in the town of Telegraph, Texas. Now, they

watch in despair as their children lurch from one crisis to another — rum running, train-hopping outlaws, shattered dreams. With one child dead and another on the wrong side of the law, Walter and Ada struggle to keep their younger children on the straight and narrow. But trouble and temptation beckon as Prohibition and the Great Depression give way to the horrors of World War II. Will hope survive the chaos?

CLICK TO PURCHASE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phil Oakley is a novelist and veteran journalist with experience in the motion picture industry. He is a retired regional executive with The Walt Disney Company (ABC News), a former director of the Louisiana Film Commission, and a retired editor with the Dallas Morning

News. He covered presidents and presidential campaigns beginning with Lyndon Johnson and ending with George W. Bush. He was a television and radio anchor and reporter with national awards from Columbia University, the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and a National Headliner Award. He began work on his first novel in 1964 while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written nine novels.

INSTAGRAM ◆ AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

To learn more about the book, look for #LSLLRunners on your preferred social media platform.

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE CAMPAIGN PAGE

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH REVIEWER PARTICIPATING.

The Scientist and the Serial Killer: Spotlight

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Haley Ringer

THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER:

THE SEARCH FOR HOUSTON’S LOST BOYS

By Lise Olsen

True Crime / History

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 464 Publication Date: April 1, 2025

SYNOPSIS

The Scientist and the Serial Killer is the gripping, upside-down detective story of a Texas forensic anthropologist named Sharon Derrick who, determined to close the cases of the notorious 1970s Houston-area serial killer Dean Corll, painstakingly deploys the latest science to identify victims who had become known as the Lost Boys of Houston. This is an unforgettable narrative of forensic science,

missing persons, and unsolved crimes by award-winning investigative journalist Lise Olsen.

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Amazon | B&N | Bookshop.org

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lise Olsen is a senior investigative reporter and editor whose work has appeared in the Texas Observer, Inside Climate News, and the Houston Chronicle, as well as in documentaries on Netflix, CNN, A&E, and Paramount+.

WEBSITE ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ X/TWITTER

AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS

LINKEDIN ◆ BLUESKY