Source: Iowa Author Fest 2017 Featured Authors

Source: Iowa Author Fest 2017 Featured Authors

Source: Iowa Author Fest 2017 Featured Authors

First Two Featured Authors Attending Iowa Author Fest 2017 at Jasper Winery in Des Moines, Iowa.

Jan Walters Bio

Jan Walters is a life-long resident of Iowa and enjoys working on their farm with her husband. Besides her love for writing and creating paranormal adventures for her characters, Jan loves to explore her family genealogy.

Jan’s new series, A Ghost and A Cop, is set in Des Moines. York Street is the first book in the supernatural thriller series. The series features a serious-minded cop and an irksome ghost who pair up to catch serial killers, who have unique abilities. York Street was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award in 2016. The link for the book trailer is www.vimeo.com/183570288 or on utube

The second book in the Ghost and A Cop series is Red Sunset Drive. This book was released January 2017. The book has received the Editor’s Choice Award and the Rising Star Award from the publisher, iUniverse.

Her books are available in paperback or e-books at Pageturners Book Store in Indianola, Amazon, iUniverse, Barnes and Noble at Jordan Creek Mall, as well as their website, and other major distributors.

Francis Sparks Bio

Francis Sparks grew up on a farm in Iowa where he spent his days avoiding bulls and other livestock as he created castles in the pasture with odds and ends from the machine shed and his imagination.

In middle school, he fell in love with reading when he discovered TSR/Wizard of the Coast’s treasure trove of fantasy novels and he began to dream of one day becoming a writer. Working as a librarian’s assistant in college, he stumbled upon The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and quickly devoured all of his novels and Francis’s love of the mystery/detective story was born.

In his early thirties, Francis began chasing his dream of becoming an author and began writing seriously. That dream came true when his debut novel Made Safe was signed by Pandamoon Publishing in late 2015. Francis Sparks currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his amazing wife, Kelly. If he’s not working on his next novel or short story, you can find him teaching his children about dragons.

“Francis Sparks’ MADE SAFE is a gripping, fast-paced and hard hitting thriller. Sparks’ depiction of the gritty underbelly of the heartland will grab you by the throat and not let go. Hold on tight for a wild ride.” Heather Gudenkauf – NYT bestselling author of The Weight of Silence

For Private Investigator, Moses Winter, the job just got more complicated. His adultery case has taken a violent turn landing the subject of his investigation, Fred Dunsmore, in the hospital and Moses in jail. Moses is held for questioning along with his erratic client, Sharon Dunsmore, and Fred’s mistress, a Bosnian refugee who just happens to be related to the DCI agent investigating the case, Raif Rakic.

After Rakic secures their release, Fred goes missing, and Moses Winter finds himself compelled to find him. With the assistance of Rakic, Moses unravels Fred’s ties to Des Moines’s underworld and is forced to confront the most heinous crimes of his career.

—-

Links:

website –  www.francissparks.com

Twitter – www.twitter.com/WritingSparks

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/francis.sparks

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Made-Safe-Francis-Sparks/dp/1945502231

More Buy Links – http://francissparks.com/book/made-safe/

https://iowaauthorfest.com/2017/07/21/iowa-author-fest-2017-featured-authors-2/

https://iowaauthorfest.com/2017/07/21/iowa-author-fest-2017-featured-authors-2/

Second group of featured authors

1. NELSON FREEMAN is a retired police sergeant of 30 years, holding expert status as a fingerprint, handwriting and polygraph examiner.  He served on 5 ships in the Navy and attained the rank of Chief Petty Officer, and Master Sergeant in the Iowa Army National Guard.VX America continues to be the primary target of insane men running around with nuclear and chemical weapons purchased on the black market.Elliot Foster and the USDFDA (United States Domestic and Foreign Defense Agency) are behind the power curve and face a nightmare of terrorists who are bent on destroying the United States and her allies.
2.   Sara J. Weis is a creative and passionate teacher who has inspired children for over eighteen years. Through her bestselling book, Go Go Yoga for Kids: A Complete Guide to Using Yoga for Kids, she has combined her experience as an elementary and junior high teacher and as a certified kid and adult yoga instructor to help introduce children to the lifelong benefits of yoga. She is also the creator of the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards which allow adults and children to move progressively through yoga poses at their own rate and abilities.Sara holds a Master’s degree in Education as well as a Bachelor’s degree in both Early Childhood and Elementary Education. She is a teacher for the West Des Moines School District and leads kids yoga classes for a nationally known health and fitness club. She lives in West Des Moines, Iowa, with her three children and her husband.You can find Sara at gogoyogakids.com, on facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest and youtube.Go Go Yoga for Kids:The Complete Guide to Using Yoga with Kids

   http://www.gogoyogakids.com

3. NAN Mc ADAM  njmcadam@mchsi.comNan has always enjoyed writing. Nan’s first published nonfiction novel, Surviving the STRESS of Your Parents’ Old Age, is a book about her journey through elder care published in 2013. Nan’s first young adult fantasy novel, Saving Mim, was published in February 2015, the second book, The Secret Key of Mim, in 2016 and the third book at the end of the year.
4. SUE RAYMOND
5. http://sueraymondladylaindora.wordpress.comLady Laindora dwells in the imagination of author  Sue Raymond. There many tales are spun of adventure with dragons, wizards, knights, and  spells. Lady Laindora’s first  novel  is Healer of Surflex. Sue writes crime  murder mystery DeBois series and a drama novel Resin La Rock. Five children books loom in the future.
6. JORDYN MERYL meryljordyn@gmail.comCrossing many genres, Jordyn Meryl spins chronicles of romance ,  paranormal  and  fantasy, for they are stories worth telling, even at the risk of  revealing true feelings.
7. KATHRYN DAUGHERTY http://www.kathryndaugherty.comKathryn Daugherty is a romance writer who resides in Pella, Iowa. Kathryn has two indie published novels, A Case of Hearts and She Promised Her Heart. Kathryn has also written several award- winning short stories. For more information about Kathryn’s work.
8. J.C. HAMM  hamboart.jc@gmail.comEmerging from the dark world of drugs, abuse, and  domestic violence, Because of Me, is a story about starting over and the lessons learned from past mistakes.J.C.’s new book “Life Beneath The Willow” is about a Marine and single father reluctantly returns to his hometown with his daughter Honor. He confronts events from the past.

   Available on Amazon, and Barnes&Noble.

9. BIRDIE HAWKS ajsfcng7@netins.net RomanceBirdie Hawks is from Iowa and has been married for 36 years. She is retired from the Iowa Army National Guard and as a federal technician. She has two sons, 12 grandkids and 3 great grandkids.
10.  RICKY DRAGONI  rickydragoni@yahoo.comI’m originally from Puerto Rico but have spent half of my life in Iowa.  My favorite authors include Edgar Allan Poe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  My books are based on reality but sprinkled with a good dose of faerie dust.  I hope my books can be entertaining but also thought provoking.Ricky Dragoni
    http://www.rickydragoni.com
    Twitter @RickyDragoni

    Instagram: ricky_dragoni

    Facebook: rickydragoni

 

KATHRYN DAUGHERTY http://www.kathryndaugherty.com Kathryn Daugherty is a romance writer who resides in Pella, Iowa. Kathryn has two indie published novels, A Case of Hearts and She Promised Her Heart. Kathryn has also written several award- winning short stories. For more information about Kathryn’s work. JORDYN MERYL meryljordyn@gmail.com Crossing many genres, Jordyn Meryl spins chronicles of romance ,  paranormal  and  fantasy, for they are stories worth telling, even at the risk of  revealing true feelings. NAN Mc ADAM  njmcadam@mchsi.com Nan has always enjoyed writing. Nan’s first published nonfiction novel, Surviving the STRESS of Your Parents’ Old Age, is a book about her journey through elder care published in 2013. Nan’s first young adult fantasy novel, Saving Mim, was published in February 2015, the second book, The Secret Key of Mim, in 2016 and the third book at the end of the year. J.C. HAMM  hamboart.jc@gmail.com Emerging from the dark world of drugs, abuse, and  domestic violence, Because of Me, is a story about starting over and the lessons learned from past mistakes. SUE RAYMOND http://sueraymondladylaindora.wordpress.com Lady Laindora dwells in the imagination of author  Sue Raymond. There many tales are spun of adventure with dragons, wizards, knights, and  spells. Lady Laindora’s first  novel  is Healer of Surflex. Sue writes crime  murder mystery DeBois series and a drama novel Resin La Rock. Five children books loom in the future. LARRY STUMBO https://www.createspace.com/5650496  https://www.createspace.com/5675741 Larry became interested in his family history, when his uncle and a distance cousin started gathering together family history. Larry was lucky enough to receive some of this history from both sides of his family with one special contribution of his Great-grandmother’s poems, photos and history from his grandfather. He has added a book of memories of his military experience.

Hello everyone,
It has been awhile since I have posted anything here.
We are still working on getting the High School short stories in the format to be published for the young writers.
While I am here, this is an invitation to those young aspiring authors, along with your family, to come down to Iowa Author Fest 2017, in Des Moines, on Saturday September 23rd at Jasper Winery to meet published authors.
Update on the activities: Don Brown and friends will provide music, Asian Cuisine will have food available, there will face painting and the Iowa Black Squadron 13 (Ghost Corp Official Franchise) will be there with their car.
I will post more information will be in the features of the authors, food, music, and activities as we get closer to September 23rd.
I will be sending emails to authors that have registered and expressed an interest about featuring them here.
Thank you for your patience,
Larry

We are working on placing the stories in the format that can be published.

The scanning process took sometime,we have checked to make sure that the content was all there. A problem we have ran into is that there extra pages, blank and titles that are adding to the page count, adding to the cost but we get it taken care of.

We have tried to make sure the appearance is as close to the submission as possible with the OCR scanning process we used. I would say that we are very close to submit the finished product to the publisher.

Once we know that we have product that will  pass the publsher’s guidelines we will pass the word along.

I am sorry that this process is taking so long to achieve our goal of a book for the high school writers.

In the mean time if your students submitted a story,we would like to know how many students want a copy and we will let you know the cost of any extra copies they may want. Email us

Thank you,

Larry Stumbo

Iowa Author Fest to be held at Jasper Winery,2400 George Flagg Parkway Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, September 23rd, hours 11:30 am to 5:00 pm. We are promoting the creative arts of writing, painting, and music. Food from a food vendor will be available. iaaufe@outlook.com https://iowaauthorfest.wordpress.com

Link for registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZOeBWQN__XoaCMxZPrx4q3KqPG8DPg5zin7Xk85ml1nH49A/viewform

First of all, we apologize for the long period of time it took us to process the contest entries. Some already know some of this information; we received a whopping 93 entries this year. Out of these, we narrowed them down by the rules; high school student, font size and style, word count, and double spacing.

We then split those that were left into two groups; closest to the word count and alternatives that was slightly under the word count. The judges looked at the story content, grammar, and continuity. Each judge picked the top three and honorable mentions. Each story was rated and the numbers tallied. The highest tally was the first place and so on.

Letters are going out to all of the students this week to let them know their standing in the contest. The work on the anthology is in progress and the available date will be posted for the contestants and their family.

We want to thank all the students, teachers, and parents for the great participation in the contest.

Side notes about the participates: there were 35 boys and 55 girls, from over 26 high schools represented from around Iowa. We did have one seventh grader send a very good story, meeting the other criteria, but was not eligible because she was not in high school, bummer. We invite her to enter the contest when she becomes a high school student.

Iowa Author Fest Committee

We have had a tremendous response to our high school short Story writing contest with 93 stories as of the deadline date of November 25th. We sorted the stories according to the rules stated in our…

Source: 2016 High School Short Story Contest