Good news! California Trail Discovered and Underground Scouts both recently won Five-Star Readers Review Awards. Underground Scouts also won honorable mention in the YA historical novel Angel Award’s category. Last year, Yosemite Trail Discovered won 1st place in the YA historical novel Angel Award’s category.

Even more fun than winning awards, is meeting young people who enjoy reading. Honestly! I had several opportunities to meet with students in California this year, as well as in Texas. I will have more visits next spring as I meet with parents and students during homeschool conventions in Texas, Missouri, and Ohio. I’m really looking forward to those. If you live in any of these areas, let’s try to get together! My husband and I may also try to drive up as far as Wisconsin to visit with my aunt and cousins. I haven’t seen them in quite a while!

Another exciting event was the publication of The Alabaster Jar & the Hidden Tomb. You can view a trailer for this middle-grade historical novel here. It was previously published by Sunbury Press, but has an updated cover and text published by WordCrafts Press.  Don’t miss this exciting follow-up to The Bronze Dagger & the Stolen Jewels.

Join twelve-year-old Samsuluna (Sam) as he and his teen friends travel throughout Ancient Mesopotamia during the time of King Hammurabi. Read all about it in the four-book series titled Ancient Elements by Marie Sontag.

In Book One, Sam leaves his sheep behind in the Zagros Mountains to search for his uncle in Phoenicia. Unfortunately, a conniving caravan driver steals the jewels Sam plans to use  to take a caravan to the Mesopotamian coast. Due to Sam’s skill in finding healing herbs, an asu (Babylonian healer) in Susa takes him on as an apprentice. All goes well until the secrets Sam keeps and the lies he tells endanger not only his life, but also those of his new friends–especially when he violates Hammurabi’s Code. Will Sam ever reach his uncle? Will he ever solve the mystery of the stolen jewels?

This historical fiction book has a free study guide and other teaching resources, such as Accelerator Reader questions. Great for ages 9-13.  Available in paperback and hardback. An audio version is in the works. Stay tuned!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I never want these days of family, food, and fun to end, but they always do as I post a new calendar on the kitchen wall. Here’s our family Christmas pic. Jon and Rachel are in CA, but we included them in the family photo. Didn’t want to leave them out!

Thanks for sharing life with me and taking time to peek inside my writing room through these small chats. Today I’m working on the publisher’s final edits for Underground Scouts, a WWII Novel. You can see more info about the upcoming novel such as part of chapter one, and a book trailer.
https://mariesontag.com/books/underground-scouts/

You can also hear our “adopted” thirteen-year-old son Henry from Warsaw read part of chapter one. He did this when he visited us in TX this past August.

In 2023 I’m looking forward to my continued work with our junior youth group at church, playing with my grandkids, and publishing a new book for the Ancient Elements series. Mark and I hope to take a short getaway trip to Comfort, TX for his birthday.

Drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. What’s one thing you’re looking forward to in 2023? You can email me at: mesontag@gmail.com.

How the months have sped by! Like many of you, we celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday with loved ones. Now, Christmas preparations are upon us.

The holidays are my favorite time of year. This year, I’m especially mindful of change. The varied-colored autumn leaves, the spurt of growth in my two grandchildren, and turning 69 a few weeks ago! Six-eight wasn’t so bad, but sixty-nine daily reminds me that seventy peeks it’s gray head out from around the corner. (Sorry seventy, I refuse to go gray until at least my nineties!)

I continue to embrace the thrill of working with and writing for middle grade and young adult readers. It keeps me feeling young in spite of changes in my hair color, age, and body! To that end, several author friends and I started a new business venture called Family-Friendly Fiction Writers. Combining our passion of writing for kids, we will present various author talks to homeschool groups, and both public and private schools, both in person and online. See our various offerings here. We also plan to visit homeschool conventions this year, so if you or others you know attend these, have them visit our booth exhibit! You can also encourage others to check out and “like” our Facebook page for more information.

 

My newest release, Underground Scouts, a WW2 historical novel about the Scouts’ efforts to help push the Germans out of Warsaw in 1944, will hopefully appear before Christmas. My editor and I are feverishly working to finish the edits. I’ll keep you posted Happy Thanksgiving and happy changes to you this holiday season!

 

 

 

Good News Update

With charges of “fake” news and “bad” news filling digital spaces, I thought I’d have some fun giving you good gnus – er – ah – good news!

One bit of good news is that my cataract surgery went well. I can see now without glasses. The bad news is, I still need glasses for long-distance (driving) and reading!

Another piece of good news is that our “adopted “ grandson Henry will join us  in TX for the next three weeks. He is 12, and from Warsaw, Poland. We hosted his dad for a year as a foreign exchange student in 1996. Henry arrives tomorrow, and we’re excited! We hope to show him fun places such as Six Flags, the Alamo, the Polish Heritage Center, and the ICR Discovery Center, to name a few. If you have other ideas of fun places near the DFW area, let us know.

I was on an author panel at the Burleson Library last week, and I will be a presenter at the Mid-Cities Teen Festival in October. I also hope to line up author events with homeschooling groups in my area this fall through entities such as the HEART of Texas. If your school or homeschooling co-op would like to invite middle-grade or young adult authors to share with your students about writing, click the icon below that looks like a paper airplane.

Have some good gnus? I’d love to hear it! (Or even bad gnus – I want to keep in touch!) You can always email me at mesontag@gmail.com.