Andy and Spirit in Search and Rescue just released from Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. It is the 5th in the Andy series about a little boy in a wheelchair and a therapy horse that was a wild mustang.In this episode the two help search for a dog that has been dumped. When she is rescued, she keeps running back to where she was left. It takes a bit to figure out why. Even when they resolve the problem, she leaves for one last time until the mystery is solved. ~*~Annabel's Story, the 5th in the Homesteader series, just released July 1!!!My maternal grandmother was a woman homesteader in New Mexico. When I visited the remnants of her homestead, the idea for The Homesteader (which is now a five-book series with Wings-Press.com) refused to be ignored. It was a Wing's Best Seller in May 2005. Since then, Wings has brought out, The Homesteader's Legacy, Back to the Homestead, Life on the Homestead and just released Annabel's Story. These characters have become such good friends it is hard to say goodbye to them. My paternal great-great-grandmother (Catherine Jennings) was one of the women in the Runaway Scrape in Texas. She sent her 10-year-old daughter, Katy (my great-aunt)bareback on her horse to warn the neighbors that Santa Anna was coming to kill all the settlers. Her husband, my great-great-grandfather was killed at the Alamo. Gordon C. Jennings was the oldest man killed there. One of his brothers was killed at Goliad. Catherine and Gordon's son, Samuel Jennings was a Texas Ranger. He was also my great-grandfather. The fact that I knew he was a Texas Ranger is what led me to create Tom Jennings in The Homesteader. Samuel Jenning's daughter, Laura Ellen Jennings married C.A. Williams who's second son was my father, Thomas Jasper Williams.With all this family history in my background, how could I not be a story teller?? I remember my father telling of the family exploits when I was a child. Of course, like most kids, I heard them so much they became just routine family history. Now, as I research the family tree, the stories come to life for me. However, all of the characters and actions in the books (while the history might give me a germ of an idea) are completely my imagination. I enjoy turning the characters loose and getting the story first hand. For me, it is like the experience you get when you read the finished book. That's the fun part. The rest is a whole lot of hard work!Wings-press.com also Reprinted two of my YA mysteries, A Virginia City Mystery, as Goodbye Is Forever and Abducted! as No Time For Goodbye (released March 1, 2012). Whiskey Creek Press.com released Blue Coat, a historical romance set in Northern Nevada including Virginia City. They also reprinted another YA, Goodbye, Bodie as Kat's Cradle. It has been a longlong dream of mine to see my children's books published as picture books. Thanks to some great illustrating by K.C. Snider and Julie Hammond and our esteemed Guardian Angel Publishing under guidance of Lynda S. Burch, that dream is fulfilled. Artist Julie Hammond has completed the art work for my Birds in the Flowerbasket which will be released soon. Many of my books have been released with at least another dozen in the pipeline. Andy and the Albino Horse has become an ongoing series and is in a Tween format as well. Andy and Spirit in Search and Rescue (about a rescue dog) also releases in the near future. Two of the books have been issued in hardback, The Christmas Angel and Cowboy James. One Family's Christmas is on track to be released as hardback as well. Gradually we hope to have all of the books available in both paperback and hardback. They are all in digital formats including some for the Kindle and others at BeThereBedtimeStories.com.Writing for a group of Nevada newspapers which includes The Nevada Appeal and The Lahontan Valley News and their sister papers, I was honored to receive a 1st Place Award from the Nevada Press Association and 3rd place from The National Press Association for my part in the Best Spot News Story 2008 for coverage of the Fernley Flood.I hope you will enjoy reading the stories I spin.Mary Jean Kelso