Michelle L Levigne

Kathryn's retreat for relaxation and contemplation is interrupted to take a fugitive to safety, beyond the reach of authorities who may be compromised. The injured woman knows her name is Regina, but not why people were shooting at her. The journey to reach a friend in the FBI is complicated when Kathryn's illness requires frequent stops, permitting Regina's pursuers to nip at their heels. When the mountains interfere with cell reception, and she can't stop long enough to make a call for help and advice, Kathryn has only her companion dog, her own wits, and prayer to depend on. Deception waits around every corner and Regina's attitude tests Kathryn's sympathy and her faith.

Elli arrives on the Defender with her older brother, Dom, an engineer. Their parents died several years ago, and Dom has been taking care of her ever since. Elli is worried that she won't be able to make friends. Her colony world was hit with an epidemic, and everyone has been living in isolation. Even worse, Elli is afraid to admit that she was exposed to the Rewire Fever. Something seems to be wrong with her brain. She can smell people's emotions, and she hears sounds that tell her what people are feeling. Elli wants to hide all these strange, new things she can do. Then she meets Tress Lore, who has just learned she can hear what people are thinking. They both become students of Master Maenta, who teaches them that Enlo gives special gifts for specific reasons, and even when something goes wrong, good things, better things can come from it.

When an evil enchanter killed her mother, Taran should have inherited her magic, but she didn't. She had none of her own, though her mother always said she was magic. Then Bard came to her cottage in the forest, seeking her help. By day, he was cursed to be a wolf, and only freed to be a man under the power of the moon. Together, Taran and Bard set out across kingdoms in search of magic to cure him. Along the way, she discovered the secret of the white wolf, which threatened the very fabric of her soul. Their search brought them to the seeress, Kalista, who gave them a quest to earn their answers: find a child born with magic strong enough to change the world. Rescue her before the rebel enchanter Durmad found her and turned her into his weapon. STEWARD'S WORLD Magic can be learned, earned, or Gifted -- given to a person with magic potential, along with all the experience and wisdom of the one who Gifts it. Sometimes, magic-users forget the first and most important rule: Yeshen made magic to be shared, used for good. If it is stolen, hoarded, and bound with lies, it turns to poison, ruining one kingdom after another. In this world of many kinds and strengths of magic, a war has been simmering for centuries, waiting to break out. Durmad waits, exiled beyond the Cascade Mountains, sending his agents into multiple kingdoms, to steal magic, enslave magic-users, and corrupt kings to serve him and his plans. Steward stands against him, the duty and the magical ability passed from father to daughter, mother to son. The tides of magic and powers and the strength of kingdoms are shifting, as allies and pawns move into place in preparation for what could be the war to decide the fate of the world.

Ess Fremont and the Blue Lotus Society know the Originators have been infiltrated by Revisionists, their ancestral enemies in the quest to rewrite or protect history. The treachery has reached even to their headquarters, Sanctuary, an underground complex near San Francisco. Problem: The Society can't contact Sanctuary, or risk putting power into the enemy's hands. Yet Ess must go there to claim her heritage and learn how and why her grandparents vanished seven years ago. All her answers, and a vital weapon in the battle against the Revisionists could lie in her grandparents' vault -- and Ess herself is the key to open it. Solution: Ask her family lawyers to "turn her in," and on the train ride cross-country, begin her education. The journey launches revelations that threaten everything Ess knows as truth. As she uncovers schemes within lies within treachery, the fulfillment of her family's destiny rests heavy on her shoulders. Who can she trust when her own grandparents blocked her memories, and the means to save or destroy them all are hidden in the vaults of her mind?

Ess Fremont already hated her boarding school before discovering the headmistress was trying to steal her inheritance. With her archeologist grandparents presumed dead in South America's turmoil, and her older brother missing, she struck out for freedom. Guided by her grandparents' maxim to always help where she was able, and aided by their inventions, Ess made her mark. First step: reveal a Resurrectionist plot to the Secret Service before the Southerners could re-start the Civil War. Disguised as a boy, Ess headed West. Sharp eyes, scientific principles, and engineering knowledge put her in the right place at the right time to do the right thing. Powerful allies included President Lincoln, the Secret Service, circus performers, train inspectors, and Pinkerton agents. Not bad for a girl between her fourteenth and seventeenth birthdays. If she could only find her missing brother and uncover the secrets their grandparents kept from them...

Etrusca was a warrior woman in the distant past of Nisandros, who defied the clan heads and fought to turn her world from the worship of the Ancestors and back to worshipping and serving Enlo. For that she nearly died.Many times. Blue tattoo lines marked the scars around her eyes and mouth where her enemies tried to blind her and silence her forever. Women of Nisandros tattooed their eyes with blue lines to honor Etrusca and to vow service to Enlo. M'kar earned her blue lines at age eight, when an adventure nearly killed her, and dropped her into a mystery she would spend the next twenty-some years trying to unravel. Follow her as her Talent awakens and she gains allies and enemies, until the day she returns to Nisandros to solve the mystery, very much against her will.

Dragons Are they good or bad? Do they help humanity or devour them? Depending on the author and the story, you'll find both. In fact, you'll find both within the covers of this book Jasmine is a human child who loves all the creatures of the forest, but the one thing she loves more than anything else is a rescued dragon egg, the one thing that is forbidden in her village. But perhaps with enough love, her dragon will be different. Won't breaking the rules be worth it if her dragon can protect them all?Fragmar is a wise old dragon who wants very much to be left alone with her books and scrolls. But the ambitions and insanity of the human race call to her for solutions to their dilemmas over and over as the centuries of her life unfurl. Where will it all end?The Hideaway is a cozy little getaway in upstate New York where the wealthy can take their trysts without being seen. At least that's what Alice has been told. But when she finds her husband's car, its interior covered in blood, the plot becomes darker, and much more sinister.Confri Audascus has psionic Talent, which makes her a good candidate for the project with the Defender's crew. Only a Talent can establish communication with the Castitaran dragons, known as numenjax. But when the communication short-circuits Confri and knocks her out cold, she thinks her part in the project is over. Until the numenjax come up with a much more creative plan The Two Olde Dragons are pleased to introduce The Bard, James K. Bowers, with his epic dragon poems, "Dragonbane" and "Ice Dragon" to open and close the collection.

Many moons ago, when I was in grad school, I had a dream. An idea, motivated by a statement from C.S. Lewis about using speculative fiction for evangelism. Could I actually use my love of SF, my far-roaming imagination, for the glory of my Savior ... and reach people who wouldn't come within a mile of a church if it was the last building standing at the end of the world? If Lewis thought so, why not at least try? Then a classmate decided that my science fiction books had invited demons into my life. Really? CS Lewis? JRR Tolkein? Steve Lawhead? (At this time, there wasn't much good SF from identifiably Christian writers. Amazon wasn't around. Many Christian bookstores didn't support fiction, period, let alone have room on the shelves for "that weird stuff." This was a year before Peretti published This Present Darkness.) So what could a recovering Trekker do, when someone tried to impose their square hole on her star-shaped peg? Contained in the pages of this book is my answer.My master's portfolio thesis and defense of speculative fiction as not only an evangelistic tool, but good for your soul. Dedicated to the nerds and geeks and dreamers who have been bruised by 50-pound Bibles and still love Jesus.

The shadows from Lanie's past continue to haunt her and her friends as Neighborlee moves from Christmas to New Year's Eve. Something or someone is tampering with the magical defenses of the town. Things and people disappear and reappear, with no explanation, and gaps in memories and time. An age-old nemesis is gathering its strength for another attempt to shatter the door that Divine's Emporium holds shut. Sylvia Grandstone returns, and she's got her sights set on Daniel, Lanie's new boss. It's the same old Grandstone scheme to gain power and wealth by any means possible, including marriage. It would be easy to blame Sylvia for the new problems and mysteries, applying the Jessica Fletcher theory of crime-solving: the most famous guest artist is the murderer. However, Sylvia's years in Hollywood never got her anywhere near star status, and no one would ever believe she could be a criminal mastermind. Or so the guardians would like to believe. As New Year's Eve approaches at Eden, the Neighborlee community center, the disappearances and time gaps increase. Instead of trying to convince town officials to cancel the New Year's Eve party, the guardians prepare for a showdown, and brace themselves to do what they have always done: defend the people of Neighborlee from the outside world, and defend the outside world from the magic and wonder and general weirdness that is Neighborlee, Ohio.

Eve was sure that God had created her for ministry rather than marriage, thanks to a bunch of guys who swept through her life with various levels of damage and frustration. Every time she thought about getting rid of that stupid wedding dress, something happened Guys such as: A patriarchal bully of a cousin who thought he owned her -- and could sell her, for his own benefit. Her college sweetheart. The guy she bought the dress for -- it didn't suit him any more than it suited her. The guy she was dating on the rebound -- and didn't even know it until he dumped her. A wacko who tried to terrify her into running into his arms. A hero who pretended to be dating her to protect her from the guy she thought she didn't want.It wasn't until she finally got rid of the dress, and the attached dreams, that true love came into her life.Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

There's a special place called Crooked Creek. Only boys and girls can go there.Most of the time, they visit in their dreams, after they say their prayers and kiss Mommy and Daddy good night and go to bed and close their eyes.Bitty Mouse lives there with his ten brothers and eights sisters and Mama Mouse and Papa Mouse.

Like the Pirates' Code, many alleged "rules" of writing are more like guidelines...But don't believe anyone who insists there are NO rules for writing. There are rules: the mechanics. The craft, as opposed to the art. The tools for sculpting clay or stone, or spinning and dyeing thread for weaving, or learning to play scales and read music and keep your instrument in tune, when creating music. The rest -- the "art" portion -- is flexible and adapts to what works best for YOU the writer. The technique for playing the instrument, the point of view and voice for the story, the genre you write in, the images you create from stone and clay, the pattern of the cloth you weave, and the colors you choose to use.When you understand the why of the rules, then you can bend or break them.So Do Yourself A Favor and learn what's hard-and-fast, and what is flexible. It'll save you pain and effort and wasted time in the long run.This collection of advice started as blog postings (read: semi-rants) while editing people who had something to say ... but didn't take the time to figure out how to say it. Basically, whenever I ran into something noteworthy in my own writing journey, or things I encountered too often in editing, I blogged about it, hoping the things that frustrated or fascinated me would be helpful to others. Along with those blog posts, revised because of timeliness or to cover a broader subject, or to fit in new discoveries along the way, or because I repeated myself ... I offer bits of advice about topics that other authors have found worthy of discussion. Or argument. Or mockery. Or complaint. Or wailing. Or amusement of the I'm-losing-my-mind variety.

Claire came to Tabor five years ago to make a new start. Her life is wrapped up in the Mission, a former elementary school turned into an outreach center for Tabor Christian Church. They now have funds for renovations and expansion, thanks to teaming up with the Arc Foundation. Paul comes to be the new head custodian, threatening her equilibrium. First, his daughter, Sammy, decides Claire will be her new mommy, then Claire begins to fear Paul will take over, changing the vision and goals of the Mission. Paul only wants a fresh start and a safe home for Sammy. The Mission's vision has caught his imagination, and Claire has caught his heart. She stands by him when his dead wife's vicious relatives threaten to take custody of Sammy. In turn, he is there for her when family problems threaten to follow her to Tabor. Jennifer has almost finished recovering from a brutal injury while protecting a fugitive mother and her children. Coming to the Mission as minister to children will help her ease back into her work for the Arc Foundation. But then Doug is hired as Pastor Wally's assistant. Jennifer and Doug have a bad history, thanks to his father and her mother and an affair that destroyed several Air Force careers and families. All Jennifer wants is for Doug not to recognize or remember her, but sometimes God doesn't answer prayers the way His children want. Teamwork for the sake of the Mission promises to become so much more, if the four of them only have the courage to take a chance.