Neighborlee Visitor's Guide: RETURN OF THE LIVING PROOF, book for September

 

Return of the Living Proof

What do a pregnant, shape-changing, interdimensional visitor, a questionable summer job at an even more questionable new business, a college life sciences project, and returning nemeses have to do with finally finding out what happened to Charlie and Rainbow Zephyr?

That's what Lanie and her growing team of allies are trying to figure out.

Cerb is back, with Loralee, the "girl" of his dreams -- both of them stuck in dog shape while on Earth -- and looking forward to a "blessed event." Instead of suffering cravings, Loralee digs up Lanie's yard, in her sleep, uncovering jewels and bones and trouble.

Then there are strange visions that result from unwise exploration of Black Water Pool and Jinx's pond. Both are off-limits spots in the quarries that have been seriously and strangely affected by past magic. And Senior Prank Night escapades.

When magically altered water seems to open a doorway to view the past, Lanie and her brothers take  advantage of a chance to figure out what happened to their parents in Bermuda, going on two years ago. The question is if they're preparing to rescue their parents -- or if they are the cause of the mystery after all.

 

Remember to check out YeOldeDragonBooks.com for information on the book and discount pricing all September.

Check back here later for the quiz, to earn points toward FREE books!

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 

"Okay …" Maurice nodded. "I see what you mean. Didn't see that coming. I do like Star Trek …" He clasped his hands under his chin and fluttered his eyelashes.

Angela sputtered, fighting laughter. "We'll see. If you behave yourself for the next couple weeks. Now, to business. The guardians can handle the reality of you, in theory. With others who are sensitive enough to see you, we must tread lightly. To avoid tipping them in the wrong direction."

"Like Ken?"

"Perhaps. Ken noticed something, even if he isn't sure what. You don't want to get off to a bad start."

"I think I'm off to a great start. Helping two lonely hearts has to make big points with the Fae Council, don't you think?"

"Did you make Ken--"

"Nah, he thought of that all by himself. Guys like that need full-time keepers, helping others and ignoring themselves." His frustrated look faded into sympathy. "They'd look good together, you think?"

"I think those two would be very good together, yes." Angela tugged Maurice's outfit straight. "And I think they could do with a little help. A little. Not interference. A few nudges. Clearing a few obstacles out of their path. That sort of thing. Nothing drastic to catch the attention of Humans, and no strong use of magic."

"What strong magic?" he snarled. "When the Council pasted these stupid wings on me and shrank me, they shrank everything."

"If you don't fix that attitude, you can spend the entire Christmas season on that tree." She fought not to burst out laughing when terror blanched his ruddy complexion.

"It's kind of hard not to have an attitude when you're used to being over six feet tall and you're condemned to five inches for two Human years," he moaned He glanced toward the doorway and leaped into the air, before vanishing in a shower of purple sparks.

Jo came back into the room, accompanied by Holly. She wore a royal blue calf-length knit shirt-dress that hugged her slim frame. "What do you think?" She turned around, making the skirt flare out.

"You are going to knock them dead. They'll have to make you secretary to the president when you interview," Angela said.

"I'll just be glad to have a job with regular hours, indoors, and no newsprint or diesel fumes or engine pieces all over the floor."

"Go on back into that room," she made a twirling motion with her hand, "and don't come out until you have at least one outfit for each day of the week. That's an order."

Jo and Holly picked out three more dresses, two skirts, two pairs of dress pants, and several sweaters and blouses. They chattered excitedly as they left together, hauling Jo's new clothes out to her car.

Angela curved her hands around the Wishing Ball. The dragon's ruby eyes glowed softly in the dim afternoon light. "I wish for you a happily ever after," she whispered. Sparks spun up out of the Wishing Ball and shot out across the shop, through the front door. They split into two streams outside, following the paths Jo and Ken had taken.

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 The moment they vanished down the hall, the light in the main room lost some of its warmth. The Christmas tree shuddered. Angela's smile flattened. The angel shot off apple green sparks, fluttered his wings, and slid down a succession of branches until he was eye-level with Angela. He used the last branch as a springboard and did a quadruple twist through the air to land on the counter in front of her.

"Maurice."

"Angela." He gestured at his angel outfit. "Mercy? Haven't I been a good boy most of the day?"

"Most of it." Her lips twitched as she fought a smile.

His gold and white robes changed to the camouflage clothes he had stolen from G.I. Joe. Maurice sighed in relief, then glanced sideways at her.

"You know what I'm like. You read that report Asmondius sent you. You asked for it when you sentenced me to the top of the tree in that ridiculous get-up." He crossed his arms and returned her glare for five seconds. Then they both grinned. "Come on, Angie-baby. If I have to help Humans, I can have a little fun, can't I?"

"A 'little fun' is what got you sent here." She stepped back and looked him over. "People see more at Divine's."

"Uh, duh," Lanie Zephyr said, wheeling into the room. "First winkies, now … mini-Legolas?"

"Hey, babe." Maurice saluted, bending over far enough to make himself turn a somersault in mid-air. "Thought I saw you seeing me."

"Nice to know everything we went through this summer hasn't driven me bonkers just yet."

"Lanie, could you let Maurice and me deal with some business?" Angela said, never taking her gaze off Maurice.

"Hey, sure. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't …" She twirled her forefinger by her right temple. "I gotta run, committee meeting. You're not into Star Trek, are you, Maurice?"

"Please." Angela rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched, fighting a smile. "That is the last thing we need. Most of the people who might be able to hear or even see Maurice belong to your club. It might not be wise. Not yet, at the start of his exile."

"Exile?" Lanie looked like she was going to ask more questions. She took a deep breath, shook her head, and turned to head out of the room. "They'd be less likely to notice at our Christmas party. Someone's always trying to spike the fake Romulan ale …"

"Lanie, go!" 

She flashed the Vulcan salute and her wheelchair sped down the hallway and out of sight. Without touching the wheels.

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 "Hey, Angela?" She yanked her baseball cap off, letting her sweaty, toffee-colored curls fall down around her shoulders.

"What do I know about Ken Jenkins and Myerhausen?" She leaned forward on her partially cleared counter, blue eyes sparkling. "Myerhausen is about eight miles north of Neighborlee. It handles a lot of the shipping, logistics and warehousing for companies around Cleveland. As for Ken..." She sighed and shook her head. "Ken is a nice guy who always lends a helping hand, but never seems to get a break."

"That's what I thought," Jo murmured. She thought of Ken's big, chocolate brown eyes, his snub nose and his short-cropped hair. Something warmed deep inside.

"The two of you would make a nice couple." Angela almost sang the words, under her breath.

"Don't even go there. Until Auntie's hospital bills are all paid up, I'm too busy working three different jobs to have a social life, much less..." Jo sighed.

"Get distracted by a truly nice guy?"

"Hormones. Especially if I end up working with, or even for, my Santa Claus. So Myerhausen does warehousing and shipping, huh? Well, that suits me. All my clothes look like this." She slapped at her grime-streaked clothes. "Working all the time has been great for my diet, but not my wardrobe."

Jo had worn her oldest clothes today to help haul boxes out of storage. Her good clothes weren't much better. She had lost a lot of weight since coming to Neighborlee, so her baggy clothes made her look like a ragamuffin. That hadn't mattered before, because her paper route and other odd jobs didn't leave her time for socializing. With Aunt Myrtle's bills to pay off, she didn't have the money to shop for a new wardrobe now, either.

"You are not aiming at a dirty warehouse job," Angela scolded. "I have some nice dresses in the back, just perfect for an office job." She hooked her thumb over her shoulder, in the direction of the secondhand clothing room. "Holly, you helped me hang them up, you know where they are. Don't let her leave until she has something nice." 

Holly saluted. She wiped her hands on the seat of her jeans as she crossed the room. When Jo didn't follow her immediately, she growled teasingly and grabbed hold of her hand. They went laughing through the doorway, Holly pretending to drag her.

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

"Good luck." Ken held out his hand. He caught his breath when a spark shot up his arm at the touch of Jo's warm, smooth hand.

His last task before he left the decorating party was to haul two garbage bags to the back storage room and put them in the wheeled garbage bins. Angela was waiting for him when he picked up his coat from the pile in the book room.

"I hope you don't think making that wish was a waste of time." She rested a hand on his arm.

"I'm not exactly in a mood for believing in wishes and magic." He felt almost ashamed to say that to her. What was Divine's Emporium, if not a magical place?

Angela sighed, and the sympathy in her eyes was warming, and didn't tie him up in knots inside like the sympathy he saw in other people. That was part of the magic of this place, too. A magic he could still believe in, maybe even needed, desperately.

"Just because Brittney used you to get Allistair's attention doesn't mean you, Ken Jenkins, are worthless or a fool. There is still magic in this world. There is still true love. And those who are willing to look for magic and love will find them. Take a chance."

~~~~~

Jo sighed as the last few people left the decorating party. Only she, Angela and Holly were left in the main room, though she thought she heard Lanie and her brothers talking in the book room. She watched Ken stride out the front door, into the swirling snow. His shoulders were bowed like Santa Claus carrying an impossibly heavy pack.

He seemed like Santa Claus right now. In the three years since she had moved to Neighborlee to take care of Aunt Myrtle, Jo had made many wishes at Divine's, but none had ever come true this fast and this clearly before.

She laughed silently at herself when she felt the business card crumple in her fist and watched Ken tugging his Willis-Brooks College varsity jacket closer around his shoulders. Her smile faded, remembering the stress lines around his mouth and eyes. Somebody needed to do something nice for him. How many people nowadays lifted their heads out of their own problems to help someone else?

See You At Books In the Barn!

 

Can you Come??

Saturday, August 23, 2025

10 AM – 3 PM

5530 Radnor Rd, Radnor Ohio

It's going to be great! This will be my third year, and I'm really looking forward to it. Lots of books, vendors with all sorts of goodies besides books, indoors in the shade -- and did I mention there will be BOOKS?

Family-friendly, kid-friendly, fun, interesting BOOKS!

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 Make a wish. Ken fought a snort of skepticism. That attitude didn't belong at Divine's. He walked up to the tree. When he picked his ornament, he glanced up at the angel.

It winked at him.

He flinched. I wish… I need a date for the company Christmas party. Someone classy. A real lady. Someone wonderful, who'll stick around forever. After all, if he was going to take a chance on wishes, why not go for broke? And if Allistair shows his true colors in front of the boss, that'd be great, too.

He watched Jo while the rest of the decorating party made their wishes. Some aloud, others silent. Ken remembered when he had been part of the laughing and teasing, the complaints about the crowds at the malls, comparing plans for holiday celebrations. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Jo didn't join in the teasing, which reinforced Ken's suspicion the kid was new in town and didn't know many people. Poor kid, looking for work while he was still in school. He wondered if Jo was from the orphanage. Angela mentored the kids who lived there, finding jobs for them in her shop or other shops in town.

If you want good things to happen in your life, his mother used to say, you should make good things happen for other people.

"I swear," Diane, one of Angela's clerks said, laughing, "you get a bigger tree every year, but it's never a problem."

"We don't believe in problems at Divine's Emporium." Angela looked positively prim in her smugness. "You've worked for me long enough to know that."

"Just solutions and miracles," Jo said. "Christmas is the right time of year for miracles, that's for sure." He smiled, but there was something wistful in his expression, and that decided Ken.

"Hey, Jo." Ken dug in his wallet for a business card. He held it out to the boy, whose eyes were bright blue among the dust from lugging boxes of decorations up from Angela's cellar. "Go see the Human Resources director at Myerhausen. She'll find you a job."

Jo's eyes widened and his long, delicate fingers twitched as he took the card. "Thanks -- uh," he glanced at the card, "Ken. That's really nice of you."

"That's one wish already come true," Angela said.

"I haven't even applied yet." The boy laughed.

"Oh ye of little faith. Where's your Christmas spirit?" She wrapped an arm around Ken's shoulder for a brief hug. "I think I can guarantee your wish will come true."

"I didn't do it to make my wish work," Ken muttered. He hated it when his face got so hot. Brittney had always teased him about being able to use his face for a warning beacon.

"That's exactly why it'll work." Angela winked and walked on past to talk to Jane Wilson.

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 "Make a wish?" Jo's voice cracked with a cold. The kid hopped down off the counter and stepped over to the Wishing Ball. The rainbow metallic ball in its stylized dragon stand seemed to glow with a light of its own.

"Not there." Angela gestured at the tree. "Here. Hold an ornament in both your hands and make a wish."

"That's easy." Jo wiped his hands on the seat of his jeans and reached for an ornament. "I wish I had a job. Better than my paper route." He grinned over his shoulder at Angela. "Better hours, and indoors, please."

Ken could have sworn he saw the Christmas tree angel lean down and shake glitter on the boy's baseball cap.

Shaking his head, he wondered if he had been working too hard. Now he was hallucinating, from fatigue and the shifting lights in the shop. Maybe instead of worrying about his date for the company Christmas party, he should just ask for the entire month off and go to some place quiet and restful.

"Oh, no you don't," Angela said, when Jo made a move to put the ornament back on the tree. "How can your wish come true if you don't take it home with you?"

"I don't have a tree."

"It's still three weeks until Christmas." She closed the boy's hands around the ornament again. "Something might happen between now and then." She met Jo's eyes until the boy gave in and tucked the ornament into the front pocket of his sweatshirt. Angela nodded, and looked around the room. "Ken?" She winked at him when he startled. "Your turn next."

"But --"

"You don't have to say your wish out loud. It won't negate what you wish for." She glanced at Jo. 

The boy stuck his tongue out. Under the smears of dust and strands of cobweb hanging from the brim of his ball cap, his face looked delicate. Ken couldn't remember seeing him in the shop before. Maybe he was new to town? Sickly?

QUIZ TIME!

 

Time for the quiz to earn points toward FREE books in the Neighborlee, Ohio fantasy series.

How do you play?

• Listen to Chapter 1 of SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE either on the Ye Olde Dragon’s Library storytelling podcast page at www.YeOldeDragonBooks.com, or on your favorite podcast app.
• Answer the questions.
• Send the answers to 2OldeDragons@gmail.com

Points add up to get a free ebook or audiobook or print book in the Neighborlee series.

All month, the featured book is at a discounted price, if you need to fill in the holes in your collection. I mean, there are 13 books altogether. If you have all 13 already, THANK YOU!! But chances are good you don’t have all of them. Yet.

This is your chance to get more and catch up on the weirdness that is Neighborlee, Ohio.

• What was the name of Maurice's curiosity shop?
• Who was Maurice's target, and who was that person abusing?
• What was the illusion that wrapped around the people of the town of Sunrise?
• What illusion did Maurice use to prepare his trap?
• What did Maurice say that he didn't mean to say?
• Maurice was allergic to iron enough for what to happen?
• What color robes did Asmondius Pickle wear?
• What color robes did Strictus Hooper wear?
• What did the stand look like that held the iridescent globe? What gems were its eyes?
• Who was his probation officer?

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

 All he wanted for Christmas was a date to the company party. A girl to make Brittney jealous enough to dive headfirst into a vat of ice cream and not come out until she had lost her uber-slim super-model look. He especially wanted a girl with the brains and good taste to laugh in Allistair's face when he made a play for her. Because he would make a play for her, just because Ken had her.

He had considered asking Lanie Zephyr to pretend to be his girlfriend. He thought she was great. If he didn't have a raw wound where his heart used to be, he might pursue her as a girlfriend someday. However, that wheelchair got in the way. Even if Lanie were pretty enough to elicit jealousy from Brittney, his soon-to-be-ex-wife was too shallow to see the woman inside the wheelchair. She would only see the handicap and wouldn't be jealous. The whole point of finding someone new and wonderful was to make her jealous. On a positive note, Allistair thought anybody in a wheelchair had a communicable disease, so he would never try to take Lanie from Ken. Although it would certainly be fun to see her shred Allistair with her sharp, lunatic sense of humor.

"Perfect," Angela sighed as she stepped back from the tree. "Thank you, everyone. I don't know how I would have done it without your help." She turned, her long, gleaming golden hair swirling out from around her like a satin cape.

"You don't need anyone's help, Angela." The speaker was a kid in baggy jeans, ball cap, and oversized gray sweatshirt, sitting on the front counter. "If we hadn't stopped in to help, you would have just called the elves, and they would have decorated."

His remark earned laughter from the others around the tree. Ken laughed along with them. The boy was right. Angela always managed to work miracles, and Divine's Emporium seemed to be a source of never-ending strange and wonderful things and occurrences. Angela always had advice and something to suit everyone's need, so when she needed help, there was always someone ready and willing.

Metallic, rainbow-streaked balls, miniatures of the Wishing Ball hung on the tree. Ken admired the ornaments and longed for the ability to believe in magic and make a wish. But if magic was real, then belief was the key ingredient in making it work. If he couldn't believe, no matter how strong and real the magic was, it wouldn't work for him.

"Just for that, Jo," Angela said, "you get the first wish."

Ken caught his breath. Wishes? He laughed silently at himself. Even if there was no more magic left in the world for him, that didn't mean other people couldn't believe and enjoy.

PENELOPE'S TALE

 

I'm starting a new project and YOU can be part of the process.

Many, many moons ago, I wrote a book about Penelope's side of THE ODYSSEY. That book is currently out of print, but I want to re-release it. First I need to decide on a new title. Feedback, please! Go with a former title -- see above -- or call it something new? I'm leaning toward simplicity: just call it PENELOPE. What do you think? Leave comments, please!

Then, I need new cover art. I'll display some ideas for that in the next few weeks. I'll want feedback from you here, too!

Please leave comments and be part of the process, and maybe get your name in the thank you section of the book! Join me on this EPIC adventure.

Speaking of EPIC .... yes, EPIC: THE MUSICAL. Have you seen it? What do you think? For those who haven't heard of it (and I was one of you just a week ago) it's the story of THE ODYSSEY, put to music. Gotta find it, because I love THE ODYSSEY.

And this is why I'm re-releasing my Penelope book!

Excerpt: SHRUNK: THE EXILE OF MAURICE, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 8

Christmas at Divine's Emporium was a study in merry chaos. Ken Jenkins retreated to the sidelines and watched a dozen people help Angela decorate the tree and string pine garland from room to room. He had done his part, bringing the granddaddy pine tree to the shop and manhandling the monster in through the side door. A side door that only seemed to appear at Christmastime.

The ceiling seemed higher than usual, too. Things always seemed to work out just the way Angela needed them to, inside her shop. Sometimes it seemed like the walls adjusted to comfortably fit everything she put inside the store. Too bad the rest of the world didn't reshape itself to accommodate Angela's friends.

Ken snorted softly at his flight of fancy. He had given up on magic long ago. Not that he wouldn't appreciate a bit now. This first Christmas without Brittney was one of those grit your teeth and face it like a man situations, since this should have been his first Christmas with Brittney.

It would be a lot easier if he wouldn't see her traipsing around the company Christmas party in two weeks, on the arm of Allistair Somerville.

Ever since nursery school, Allistair believed whatever Ken had was his to take. If he couldn't steal it from Ken, he lied or whined until someone gave it to him to shut him up. All through school, no matter how big or small, whatever Ken prized or needed, Allistair went after. Then used up, destroyed or discarded it a day or a month or a year later. Ken's rubber ball. His tricycle. His basketball. His BMX bike. His homework. His prom date. His expected promotion to junior vice president at Myerhausen.

Allistair had mostly ignored Brittney, who had come close to drooling after him, Ken realized in retrospect. When she finally gave up and started dating Ken, Allistair saw the light and went after her in a big way. Big gifts. Derailing Ken's plans for dates. Trying to get him transferred out of state.

Ken wished now Allistair had worked faster, or Brittney had given in sooner. Like between the engagement ring and the wedding. They had barely been married four months when she met Allistair for lunch. Two of Ken's buddies from college had seen them and told him. Brittney lied when he asked, and Ken chose to believe her. He thought she had better taste. Until she dumped him at their ten-month anniversary.

Merry Christmas? Ken didn't think so.
 

Firsty Freebie: HOMESPUN, prequel to BEHIND THE SCENES

 

The Firsty Freebie story for August 1 is HOMESPUN, a Tabor Heights story before the stories.

How Joel Randolph and Emily Keeler met in summer stock and planted the seeds of a community theater called Homespun.

Ebook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/346u1w24fc

Audiobook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/mpllip5ojl

This is also the prequel to the next Tabor Heights release, coming August 15 from MtZionRidgePress.com: BEHIND THE SCENES.

Tony and Max are best friends. Writing partners. People swear he doesn't know she's a girl and she doesn't know he's a boy. When Tony goes away for a few months as a teacher, he realizes that empty place inside is Max-shaped. His revelation isn't something he can tell her over the phone. Every idea to tell her how he feels sounds like the plot for a book they would never write.

Then Max's parents are nearly killed in an accident. Tony drops everything to come home and be there for her and her brothers. He'll just have to wait until things calm down before he confesses his love. The only problem is, between the accident and the usual chaos of running a community theater and the world suddenly "discovering" where Max's mother, actress Emily Keeler has been "hiding" for the last twenty-five years, things might never calm down.

All Tony can do is prove his love by being her rock, drop lots of hints, and look for the best opportunity to make his case. Before the new guy in the tech crew makes his move. He's certainly been paying a lot more attention to Max than Tony is comfortable with.

Max has tried for a long time now not to want more, and closer, than what she and Tony have. With all the chaos of holding together Homespun Theater, staging a new production, and dealing with the paparazzi invasion, she shouldn't have time for useless wishing and dreams that can only get her into trouble. And yet …