Shades of Gray by Andy Holloman, Free Book Giveaway Sponsored by the Peak City Book Festival

Combine "Breaking Bad" and "Cops" with a disturbing, dark remake of "The Love 

Boat" and you have all the flavors of  SHADES OF GRAY

How far would you go to save your child's life?  Could you break the law?    What if your  business was suddenly in danger of going under because of 9/11?

A single father decides to partner up with woman from the opposite side of the tracks. Can their partnership deliver the cash they BOTH desperately need?   Could they fall in love? And will they survive to see the Summer of 2002?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Reviews

January 2013 - #1 BestSeller, American Drama
July 2012 -- KBR Semi-Finalist for Best Thriller/Mystery
July 2012 -- Semi-Finalist for Readers Favorite, Suspense

April 2012 -- Shades of Gray hits #1 BestSeller on Amazon for Fiction - Men's Adventure..... Start your adventure.

"Debut novelist Andy Holloman speeds us on a journey with punch, twist, and emotional dilemmas straight from our worst fears. - Franz Wisner, NYT Best Selling Author
"Shades Of Gray by Andy Holloman is a wonderful suspense thriller that will hook you right from the very start." - Amazon Reviewer

"This was a great read! Enjoyed the characters and what a father would do for his daughter. Very much worth the price." - Amazon Reviewer

 -- April 2012 --  Shades of Gray  hits #1 BestSeller on Amazon for  Fiction - Men's Adventure..... Pick up a copy today and start your adventure.
    ----------------------------------------

Shades of Gray grew out of Author Andy Holloman's experiences as a travel agency owner, and the murder of a client. Suspecting she was a drug smuggler, a story sprouted in Holloman's over-active imagination: How far would a desperate person go to save their child and their business? A graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Holloman lives in the Raleigh, N.C., area with his wife of twenty years and three children. When he's not writing, Holloman is carpooling, keeping his wife happy, and attending school and sporting events. He loves the great outdoors, is an avid reader, and a social media goofball. Most evenings, he can be found tapping on his well-worn keyboard as he "births" his next novel. Visit AndyHolloman.com for updates on his latest writing ventures.

Peak City Book Festival Spotlight: Life Protection Skills

Life Protection Skills

• 2172 North Salem Street
• Apex, North Carolina 27523

The Peak City Book Festival is fully funded by authors, businesses and organizations.  And, every week brings new sponsors which are posted to Facebook, Pinterest and the web-site.  

Today, we are spotlighting Life Protection Skills of Apex for their generous sponsorship and program: Life Saving Skills for the young and old.

The Apex Ki Do Kwan is a family owned and operated modern self-protection school that instructs individuals of all ages and abilities in skills to help keep safer and stronger. Their staff combines over 50 years of martial arts experience with practical experience in law enforcement and weapons training to provide the best possible curriculum. The Ki Do Kwan is unique in so many ways. There are no contracts, enrollment fees or testing fees. Belt ranks are earned through dedication and training and outreach extends to all persons interested in self-protection skills, regardless of their interest in long-term training.

Program for the Peak City Book Festival

Imagine the following:  You come into your classroom at school and your teacher has fallen and has been injured. She cannot communicate with you. What do you do?  The Life Protection Skills Demonstration Team will present a scenario-based 'story' teaching you what to do in such an emergency.  You will learn how the 911 system works, how to get others to assist you, how police and EMS respond and how to make a bad situation better for every one. This is important for your Life Protection Skills!  You will also see some cool martial arts thrown in at the end to highlight what else we do at the Life Protection Skills Training Center.

Join us for a presentation by the Apex, NC based Martial Arts Training Center at the #PeakCityBookFestival for Life Protection Skills Workshop.  Get hands-on experience and build your knowledge to write in life-saving scenes from an expert.

Peak City Book Festival Spotlight: The Learning Experience of Apex

The Peak City Book Festival is fully funded by authors, businesses and organizations.  And, every week brings new sponsors which are posted to Facebook, Pinterest and the web-site.  Today, we are spotlighting The Learning Experience of Apex for their generous sponsorship of the Story Time room, dedicated to children's books and story sessions from NC authors.  See our website for the Story Time events!

The Learning Experience of Apex

http://apex.tlechildcare.com/

http://apex.tlechildcare.com/

The Learning Experience enhances the lives of children ages 6 weeks to 6 years. In each contemporary, colorful building children learn in a fun fashion starting with sign language for infants through preschool, technology, early literacy, math, sciences, music, theater, creative arts, dance, physical fitness, nutrition, etiquette and much more. Graduates of TLE are more than prepared to enter Kindergarten and first grade. All the curriculum is proprietary and has been designed, written and published especially for TLE children.

At The Learning Experience early learning is an art. We believe that knowledge is like the sky, never ending. Parents dream of the best for their children and at TLE their dreams become reality making those important first years creative, productive, happy and most importantly filled with lots of love.

560 Evening Star Dr. • Apex, NC 27502
Phone: 919-303-7475

At TLE, each staff member is a loving and nurturing individual with a genuine interest in benefiting the lives of the children they teach. Teachers and assistants must follow strict guidelines and meet all state certification requirements. Staff members are required to participate in our sponsored continuing education programs and mandatory First Aid training and CPR courses are provided annually. Consistent evaluations by superiors and parents help maintain the center’s high standard of excellence.

Connect with them on Facebook !

We're Going ALL IN! Links to Free Children's Books from Peak City Publishing

So, the kids are back in school, or watching the siblings go back to school?  We know what that means...READING LOGS!  Help them break up the nightly reading by mixing in some e-books.  Here are a few to download for free!

Available for a limited time only.

Read Aloud and Learn to Read

Book	Title	Link & Description
	Welcome Back Sun	http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Back-Sun-ebook/dp/B00B0MPDSQ/ Welcome Back Sun is a preschool bedtime story for children who wonder... Where does the sun go when the moon comes out? Do the animals roam and wander about? How many stars light up the night's sky? Will the moon come back if I tell it goodbye?  This book provides teachers and parents guidance on how to use the book to encourage learning and language development for preschool age children, including: Recall, Color Recognition, Animals and Animal Sounds, Vocabulary Development, Rhyming Pairs and Counting.
	Peanut Butter Toast	http://www.amazon.com/Peanut-Butter-Toast-ebook/dp/B00B1FGMBE/ Allie Miszewski, now a young adult, wrote this book to share her tradition of sharing Peanut Butter Toast with her Dad over the years.  Children's Book Author, Carol Crane, praised the book by saying, "This story with its message is timeless. Beautifully written, the story offers a believable picture of love between a father and daughter. The short, graceful repetitive text offers an introduction to a period we all wish for in our lives.” Carol Crane, author of fourteen children’s books, including "T is for Tarheel, A North Carolina Alphabet Book", "Wright Numbers, A North Carolina Numbers Book" and "P is for Palmetto, A South Carolina Alphabet Book".
	Follow The Bouncing Ball	http://www.amazon.com/Follow-The-Bouncing-Ball-ebook/dp/B007R0KZX8/ Kicker, the bouncing ball, takes the reader on a counting adventure - in English and Spanish. **New and revised version includes information for parents and teachers to help children recognize Sight Words and Rhyming Pairs.**

Book	Title	Link
	How To Milk a Dinocow	http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Milk-DinoCow-ebook/dp/B006S8DF50/ If a freak milk accident that sparks life to a half cow, half stegosaurus isn’t weird enough, imagine how strange it’s going to get when Trip Stanley’s class starts drinking the milk! Trip Stanley’s best friend Jules spills a glass of creamery milk onto his uncle’s dinosaur machine and activates the contraption. A creature hatches and grows rapidly into a black and white spotted stegosaurus with and an udder. A stegcowsaurus. When the last bottle of creamery milk that Jules had planned to bring to school for show and tell is knocked over, Trip decides to milk the stegcowsaurus. Everyone in class is given a taste and the reaction causes spots and horns. One classmate even grows a tail.  It’s up to Trip to figure out how to de-dinosaur his classmates and keep from getting kicked out of school, all while preventing his mom from discovering the stegcowsaurus in his bedroom. With angry classmates and an upset teacher in his living room, Trip finds a solution in his own advice, when life give you lemons you make lemonade. Realizing the correlation between milk and lemons, Trip reverses the beverages and changes his classmates back into classmates and his dinocow into a cow.
	When Farts Had Colors	http://www.amazon.com/When-Farts-Had-Colors-ebook/dp/B006RMTQRI/ Don't let the title throw you off - this is a hilarious book with an anti-bully theme.  When Farts Had Colors is the story of 4th grader Lance Chance who hates Mondays. This particular Monday Lance's mom coaxes Lance to school with his favorite sandwiches and a 'wish-kiss'. On his way to school Lance is tormented by "the biggest, meanest 4th grader ever to stalk the halls of Alfonso Orr Elementary School. Merry Maddox. Bully Extraordinaire…”A legend" and her posse of mayhem, the Crazy M&Ms. If having to hand over his sandwiches and perform a certain humiliating act wasn't enough, Lance gets blamed by Merry Maddox for letting out a fart so horrible it forces the entire school to evacuate. Lance runs away from school and wishes that farts had colors. "Then everyone would have known it was Merry Maddox who sent out those heat seeking missiles of doom and destruction," thinks Lance. And just like that, Lance's wish comes true.  Will Lance come up with a plan to expose Merry Maddox and reveal her true colors?
	The Goodwill Vultures Club	http://www.amazon.com/The-Goodwill-Vultures-Club-ebook/dp/B00CARMIFG/  “A heart-warming story of a boy who learns that while some see his disabled pet vulture as ugly, others can see her as inspiration and joy. The story of "Buzz" and Rob is a lesson in acceptance of disabilities as normal, not different." – Mark Lawton Thomas, author of My Lemonade Stand Can’t Stand Me and Amazon Best Seller, When Farts Had Colors  There is no shortage of heroic stories laden with love and loyalty between humans and their four legged friends. But there are very few about vultures - at least not the kind with wings. In The Goodwill Vultures Club, Roberta, AKA, Rob, is just such a furry friend. – Ann Eisenstein, author of Hiding Carly (2012)
	Peggy Noodle	http://www.amazon.com/Peggy-Noodle-Hula-Queen-ebook/dp/B00882CANM/ Meet Peggy Noodle, the twelve-year-old new kid on the block who’s interesting and fun—and teaching the kids in her neighborhood that not only is there more to her than meets the eye, but that everybody can find a way to be great.
	A Piece of Paper	http://www.amazon.com/A-Piece-of-Paper-ebook/dp/B00AC4L2DS/ Full Color, Illustrated, Photographs with Michael Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Larry "Gator: Rivers, Meadowlark Lemon and more... Tyrone “Hollywood” Brown played for the Harlem Globetrotters from 1985 - 1996. When he was nine, he wrote down a goal on a piece of paper. “I want to be a Harlem Globetrotter”. He didn’t realize it at the time, but it took more than just hard work to reach his goal. It took a positive attitude, perseverance and determination to become a Harlem Globetrotter. For 16 years, he worked hard to improve his game, keep a good attitude and not give up. This is the story of his journey to achieve his goal and see his dreams come true.  “an entertaining and educational book for children of all ages.” ~ Larry Gator Rivers, former Harlem Globetrotter “this book will teach, inspire and motivate children to set goals and a plan for success.” ~Meadowlark Lemon, former Harlem Globetrotter
	My Lemonade Stand	http://www.amazon.com/My-Lemonade-Stand-Cant-ebook/dp/B00AOM7ESU/ Amazon Best Selling author of "When Farts Had Colors" and rhyme schemer, Mark Lawton Thomas, has teamed up with master illusionist/illustrator, Jeehyun Hoke to present 50 fun and witty poems for readers ages 8-12. Atlanta Parent Magazine praises the author as "Mark Thomas is just what youngsters need these days: a teacher who gets them excited about wordplay and the power of language so that they will form a lifelong love of reading and writing. His witty and utterly delightful poems in “My Lemonade Stand Can’t Stand Me” are sure to light the fire under any budding poet.” ---- Julie Bookman, editor, Atlanta Parent Magazine The Savannah Morning News describes it as "kid-friendly poetry with some real gems."

Life Protection Skills Demonstration at The Peak City Book Festival

The first annual Peak City Book Festival is taking place on November 9th, 2013 from 11AM-5PM at The Halle Cultural Arts Center in Apex, NC.  Join us for a presentation by the Apex, NC based Martial Arts Training Center:  Life Protection Skills Workshop.  Get hands-on experience and build your knowledge to write in life-saving scenes from an expert.

Imagine the following:  You come into your classroom at school and your teacher has fallen and has been injured.  The teacher cannot communicate with you.  What do you do?  The Life Protection Skills Demonstration Team will present a scenario-based 'story' teaching you what to do in such an emergency.  You will learn how the 911 system works, how to get others to assist you, how police and EMS respond and how to make a bad situation better for everyone. This is important for your Life Protection Skills!  You will also see some cool martial arts thrown in at the end to highlight what else we do at the Life Protection Skills Training Center.

More information on the Peak City Book Festival can be found on our website.

Meet Holly Springs, NC Author, Hugh Willard

The creator of The Goodwill Vultures Club, the 3rd to 6th Grade chapter book which focuses on the therapeutic value of our pets.  

At the event, Hugh will sign copies of both books and speak on the relevance and value of pet therapy and service animals.

Buy Now

An exponentially growing body of literature and research supports the therapeutic value of our pets. Specially trained animals, ranging from dogs and cats, to llamas and miniature horses are being used to support and improve the lives of special needs children, the elderly, and persons living with various debilitating medical conditions, such as diabetes and epilepsy.  The list of conditions for which our animal friends are helpful is quite extensive.

In Hugh’s books, he highlights these important relationships.  Specifically, in A Day of Heroes, Rob, the turkey vulture, serves a pivotal role in helping her human, Buzz, adjust to his parents’ divorce.  She also is a catalyst for Chrissy, a young non-verbal girl with autism, to grow and blossom. 
In No Time For Play, we are introduced to Sergeant Geoff Murphy, a US Army vet having returned from Afghanistan with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Rob remains a key player with both Sergeant Murphy and Chrissy.  Readers are also given a closer look at the direct impact of dogs who are trained for either pet therapy or to be service animals.

Buy Now

Come join us and hear more about Hugh’s passion for all animals and his message on their impact in our lives.  He will read excerpts from No Time For Play and will answer questions on the writing of The Goodwill Vulture Series.