First Steps Publishing

Oregon Coast Publishing : For Authors Seeking a Solid Foundation

Bookstore

“Where is Bear? ~ Let’s Play Hide and Seek” by Sumi Fyhrie

by Leave a Comment

Where is Bear?- Let's Play Hide and Seek by Sumi Fyhrie
Where is Bear?- Let’s Play Hide and Seek by Sumi Fyhrie – Available Where books are sold.

CHILDREN’S | AGE: 3-8

Bear loves to play Hide and Seek.
While Adam is counting. Bear says “Don’t peek.”

Adam looks in a forest of tall, green trees.
“Woof, woof,” says Bear. “He can’t see me.”

Adam explores Bear’s cave that is dark and small.
“Woof, woof,” said Bear. “Why are their bats on the wall?”

Help Adam find Bear in this fun, playful adventure. Delightful illustrations and rhyming text engage young readers. Perfect for pre- and emerging readers.

Hidden inside are things in threes. Can you find them all? Look inside and see.

Available from: Barnes & Noble, Amazon

UPDATED Release Date:  September 2017
ISBN: 978-1-937333-34-8
Published by: White Parrot Press (imprint of First Steps Publishing)

 

“NAM, The Story of a Generation” a novel by Mel Smith

by 2 Comments

It was war… not the kind waged in the 21st century, with terrorists; but war with armies and uniforms and borders and national interests. It’s all encompassing, conscripted, waged, politicized, and lied about. It’s cruel, bloody, noisy, messy, rife with mistakes, deadly, gross, inhuman, and unfair. It is never played on an even plain, righteous, warranted, or clear-minded. Every war is mankind’s biggest mistake and what makes it worse is that the men caught up in it are the innocents; the losers, in this case, sold an unrealistic ideal, a patriotic slogan, a vision of greatness in sacrifice they eventually found wanting.

War has a face that’s different depending on your vantage point. Who wins and who loses may not be right, or virtuous, and those who fight are always on the losing side.

In the Vietnam War two ideologies met with predictable results.

The Vietnamese fought not for communism, but for nationalistic goals. Vietnam had been occupied by foreigners for a thousand years, since before Ghangis Kahn. The latest to occupy were the French, then the Japanese, then the French again. The Vietnamese national who led Vietnam’s rebel forces in dispatching the Japanese, also fought the French and the Americans. He was a true Vietnamese patriot; and he was a communist.

Through the Americans, readers will see the conflict of serving and going to war with little understanding of the consequences their commitment would have. Most of these young kids served without a clear vision of America’s interest in Vietnam or a strident reason for putting their lives on the line. Of course, the draft made service mandatory, but our American characters joined the service of their own accord.

NAM (a novel), The Story of a Generation deals with the fallout that happens to both sides of the war and asks questions that never can be truly understood: Why did we fight and what was gained and lost from the war?

Dearest Minnie, a sailor’s story

by Leave a Comment

Dearest Minnie, a sailor's story about the Great White Fleet by Leslie Compton

DEAREST MINNIE,
a sailor’s story

Narrative-Driven Historical Fiction |
Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet

Dearest Minnie is a strong narrative-driven historical fiction which brings to light a typical sailor’s life on the USS Virginia during Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet cruise of sixteen battleships around the world in 1907-1909.

 

Travel with Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet through the eyes of an enlisted sailor, during 1907-1909. A wonderfully accurate portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt’s sixteen battleships good will tour that is seldom told in depth in history books. Extrapolated from over 200 actual postcards sent home to “Dearest Minnie” this book is an engaging narrative as seen through the eyes of a sailor on the USS Virginia.

This documented event is only a couple of paragraphs in most history books. Learn, through the eyes of an enlisted sailor about the battleships, the reason for the cruise, the political climate, the animals aboard, the entertainment at each port and aboard ship, and the unexpected mishaps. This book includes over 200 colored postcards printed during the cruise. A wonderful book for any age — you need only have a love of history and a desire to learn something new.

 

My book, Dearest Minnie, began when I was ten years old though I didn’t know it at the time.  I received a large box containing three albums filled with postcards from around the world from an estate of someone I had never met.   I spent hours studying the pictures on the cards.  As an adult my fascination grew.  I took the postcards out of their disintegrating albums to discover they had been sent to my grandfather’s cousin, Minnie Camp from the USS Virginia during the Great White Fleet cruise around the world. Thus began my research and passion for this period of history.

Release Date: August 2017

Book Title: Dearest Minnie, a sailor’s story
Subtitle: Travel with Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet 1907-1909  through 200+  full-color postcards

Author: Leslie Compton

ISBN: 978-1-937333-39-3
Price: $34.95

Published by: First Steps Publishing, Oregon

Publication Date: July 1, 2017
Release Date: August 1, 2017

Distributed by: Ingram Distribution
Wholesale Discount: 50%: returnable
Format: Paperback, full-color, 70 lb, acid-free stock
Weight: 1.34 lbs
Size: 8 x 10 in

Available from: First Steps Publishing, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Amazon and other booksellers.

Author Website: www.LeslieCompton.com

“Round House, a deadly side to paradise” by Pat Wiley

by Leave a Comment

Round House, a deadly side to paradise by Pat Wiley
Available from: Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Amazon

Writer Jack Quinn suspects the secretive, high-security, barbed-wire resort next door is connected to a local captain’s murder. When his research uncovers something far more hideous, Jack finds himself in a race against time to stop what lies beyond the fence.

– – – – – – – – – –

For the second time in his life, writer Jack Quinn finds himself involved in a murder. Within days of arriving at his favorite island retreat on the Caribbean island of Utila, he rescues the crew off a stranded catamaran only to be robbed, beaten, tied up and left for dead by the same two men. When freed by the house caretaker the next morning, he learns the Captain of the catamaran was found murdered on the boat, and that Jack, along with the “supposed two-man crew”, are now the prime suspects.

A new twist unfolds when Jack finds the popular resort next door to the Round House villa he’s renting has been transformed into a secretive, high-security, barbed-wire enclosure complete with guard towers and armed sentries. A chance meeting with Ned Foster, a scientist from the resort, provides the perfect opportunity for Jack to dig into what lies within.

The doctor claims he’s on the verge of perfecting an experimental life-altering drug that ‘will change life on earth as we know it’ and he wants Jack to document his journey. Despite concerns from friends, Jack agrees to Ned’s lucrative writing contract, but while researching Foster’s background, Jack uncovers a startling and hideous secret.

Risk mounts when false evidence anonymously arrives causing police and locals to suspect Jack as not only complicit in the captain’s murder but connected to the mysterious resort. The unexpected arrival of Jack’s wife sets up a climax filled with twists, turns, and a dramatic conclusion where someone loses their life.

Author Pat Wiley maintains a plot ripe with twists, turns, and suspense up until the end, raising questions about our divided loyalties to science, money, ego and the ones we love.

Book 2, ROUND HOUSE, a deadly side to paradise
Book 1, EYEWITNESS, a nautical murder mystery

Book Title: ROUND HOUSE
Subtitle: a deadly side to paradise
Series: A Jack Quinn Novel, Book 2
By: Pat Wiley
Published by: First Steps Publishing, Oregon

Available for Sale at: Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Amazon and other booksellers.
Retail Price for Print: $16.95
Retail Price for eBook: $3.99

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-937333-28-7
eBook (epub) ISBN: 978-1-937333-29-4
eBook (mobi/KINDLE) ISBN: 978-1-937333-27-0

Author/Book Website: www.PatWileyAuthor.com
Publisher: First Steps Publishing

“Eyewitness” by Pat Wiley, A Jack Quinn Novel

by Leave a Comment

Eyewitness, Book 1, Jack Quinn Novel, Pat WileyMy name is Jack Quinn. I’m in prison, awaiting trial for murder on the high seas. The nightmare leading to my arrest began while sailing alone to the island of Bermuda. I swear, with God as my witness, I was coming to aid a boat in distress. I am writing this in the hope someone may know something––anything to help prove I’m innocent.

***

Freelance writer, Jack Quinn, has lost everything – his job, his life savings and now his freedom. What turned out to be an opportunity to fulfill his dream of sailing single- handed from New England to Bermuda has transformed into a nightmare.

Barely surviving a hurricane, Jack offers aid to survivors on a dis-masted sailboat. But something is wrong. After arriving back to the mainland, Jack’s arrested and finds himself the prime suspect in an extensive FBI investiga- tion of smuggling, money laundering and murder. Overwhelming evidence mounts as Jack relies on two women, one of whom risks her life, to find corroborating evidence to his story and track down the only witness in his favor––a humpback whale.

The Jack Quinn Novel series
Book 1, Eyewitness, a nautical murder mystery
Book 2, Roundhouse, a deadly side to paradise

Book Title: EYEWITNESS
Subtitle:  a nautical murder mystery
Series: A Jack Quinn Novel, Book 1
By: Pat Wiley
Published by: First Steps Publishing, Oregon

Available for Sale at: Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Amazon and other booksellers.
Retail Price for Print: $16.95
Retail Price for eBook: $3.99

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-937333-23-2
eBook (epub) ISBN: 978-1-937333-26-3
eBook (mobi/KINDLE) ISBN: 978-1-937333-25-6

Author/Book Website: www.PatWileyAuthor.com
Publisher: First Steps Publishing