Category Archives: Joan’s books

Secrets of the Sorcerers: A Quest Fantasy

Book One in the Chronicles of the Library of Sorcery

A vengeful plan. An impossible impasse. When confronted by the magnitude of past deeds, will she be caught in a spellbound standstill?

High Sorcerer Marlys has earned the respect of her colleagues. Twelve years after freezing her ruthless predecessor in time to protect her region, the powerful leader has worked hard to bring about peace and tranquility. But while presiding over a beautiful double wedding, a rival enchantress traps Marlys’s friends with an identical spell in malicious payback.

Denying the intruder’s demand to free Marlys’s predecessor after more than a decade bespelled, Marlys and her companion sorcerers frantically search for a way to crack their adversary’s magic. And with each side refusing to compromise and driven by distrust, they face a mountainous task—to find the legendary Library of Sorcery, which they hope contains the knowledge to restore their friends.

With their opponent also on the passage to the Library, can Marlys and her companions reach their destination first to end the magical deadlock?

Secrets of the Sorcerers is the refreshing first book in a quest fantasy series. If you like strong characters, gentle humor, and action-filled adventure, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s enthralling story.

Join the sorcerers on their quest. Read Secrets of the Sorcerers to break the spell today!

Summoned by Dragons: Fire and Friendship

A voracious predator. A frantic plea for aid. Can she stop a dangerous menace from devouring the dragons’ offspring?

Rhea Monroe has missed her childhood friend. She’s excited when the young dragon she grew up with returns to Earth after years away. Hearing that the dragons are in desperate need, the recent college grad immediately vows to help. But the instant they arrive in the dragon world, they’re tasked with helping to defeat a frightening, formless creature known simply as The Terror.

Teaming up with her boyfriend and other allies both human and winged, the resourceful companions struggle to cultivate a plan to defeat the ravenous attacker. But after a huge misstep awakens the monstrous horror, they’re aghast as two of their own are consumed….

Can Rhea and her friends stop The Terror and prevent a devastating apocalypse?

Summoned by Dragons is an absorbing fantasy novel. If you like compassionate heroine journeys, nuanced characters, and grand new worlds, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s sky-high adventure.

Available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats

Twelve: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

His love is locked inside an enigma. Can he solve the mystery to make himself a home?

A hidden kingdom. The 18th century. Alden grew weary of battle long ago. And now the honorable soldier seeks to put the horrors of war behind him to settle in a land of peace and start a family. And while an attractive shopkeeper catches his eye, he finds himself caught up in the kingdom’s greatest riddle: the twelve daughters of the king and queen vanish every night and reappear in the morning with their shoes worn out.

Drawn to a shared passion for dancing as he spends more time with the woman of his dreams, Alden can’t avoid a growing involvement with the land’s enchanted magic. And as he does so, he starts to realize that the alluring woman he’s falling for may hold the key to answering the perplexing mystery.

Can Alden unravel a magical entanglement and find his way to happily ever after?

Twelve is a charming fairy tale retelling. If you like upstanding heroes, picturesque romance, and delightful surprises, then you’ll adore Joan Marie Verba’s heartwarming story.

Buy Twelve to expose the realm’s enchanting secrets today!

An enchanting version of a classic story…also a charming love story. – P. C. Hodgell, author of the Kencyrath Chronicles

Cover for upcoming novel, Twelve, updated cover for Revenge, Denied

I’ve settled on a title and a cover for the novel I’ve recently completed, a retelling of the fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”

I’m hoping to release the novel in late summer or early fall.

I’ve also revised the cover for my self-published young adult fantasy short story, “Revenge, Denied.”

 

Currently working on…

I’m  planning on constructing a website for Twelve. As a web developer, I always find it exciting to start building a new website.

Modern Surprises reissued with the title The Arachne Portal

The Arachne Portal: Same story, different title!

Women scientists having fun saving the world…unless someone kills them first and steals their tech.

Their goal is to make the world a better place. One billionaires’s obsession may turn their altruism into destruction.

Jay Ecklund is desperate to belong somewhere. Rejected by his family and former employer, he really needs this job as a receptionist at an up-and-coming tech corporation. He’s astonished when he discovers the all-woman staff is secretly developing a portal capable of instantaneous transport to anywhere on Earth.

Thrilled to be part of a company designing innovations to help others, Jay is excited when the machine is at last operational. But he worries about it falling into the wrong hands when an ambitious billionaire hell-bent on accumulating power makes a bid to get it…at any cost.

Will the portal be used as a rescue device as intended, or will a relentless manipulator warp it to a more sinister purpose?

The Arachne Portal is an electrifying standalone science fiction novel. If you like fast-paced adventures, phenomenal science, and thought-provoking themes, then you’ll love this compelling story.

Read The Arachne Portal to open a gateway to the future today!

Defying the Ghosts: A Haunted House Story by Joan Marie Verba

A teen without a home. A dangerous residence. Can she survive one terrifying night to secure her future?

Charlene Griffin never thought she’d be without a home. But when she’s kicked out on her eighteenth birthday, she has no choice but to sleep inside an ominous Victorian mansion. And with the owner offering the estate to anyone who can spend a full night in the haunted property, Charlene decides to risk life and limb to get off the streets.

Refusing to heed the warnings of those sent running in fear for their lives, Charlene is confident she can last from sunset to sunrise. But she’ll need all her wits about her to withstand the hours of terror, because these ghosts are determined to get rid of her.

Will Charlene outsmart her supernatural foes and make it to dawn?

Defying the Ghosts is an eerie YA haunted house story. If you like heart-racing action, fearless heroes, and survival adventures, then you’ll love Joan Marie Verba’s thrilling tale.

Buy Defying the Ghosts to explore forbidden shadowy corners today!

Created Worlds – Short Story Collection by Joan Marie Verba

Created Worlds: Science fiction and fantasy short stories by Joan Marie Verba

The Wisest Wizard: Who will be the next Wisest Wizard? Maybe not who you think.

* The Sum of the Parts: Susan Page is a pacifist, who is attacked repeatedly by a criminal who evades arrest. Will she need to compromise her principles to defeat him?

* This One Time: Allira Elhalyn-Alton, and her daughter, Bruna, have always been protected by the men in their life. Can they stand on their own in a crisis?

* Death’s Scepter: Brothers Regis and Stefan Hastur have always been close. Will politics make them turn on each other?

* Mind-eater: Domenic MacAran seeks shelter in a house where the residents are terrorized by a bully. Can they turn the tables on him?

* The Honor of the Guild: A murder is committed and the Renunciates are blamed. Can Janna n’ha Cassilde solve the crime and restore the reputation of the guild?

* An Invitation to Chaos: Gwynn Alton has harbored resentment of his father since childhood. Will their simmering conflict mean danger for the Domains when the Towers experiment with their powers?

* The Mystery Woman of the Kilghard Hills: Young Kennard Lanart encounters a mysterious young woman in the woods, but his family is skeptical of his story. Will he, or they, uncover her secret?

* Safe Passage: Orain, a peddler, is beaten and robbed and left in an approaching blizzard. Can he get his merchandise back and evade the determined robbers?

“Safe Passage” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Snows of Darkover, January 1995. Reprinted by permission.

“The Madwoman of the Kilghard Hills” (retitled “The Mystery Woman of the Kilghard Hills”) was originally published in the Darkover anthology Towers of Darkover, July 1993. Reprinted by permission.

“An Invitation to Chaos” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Leroni of Darkover, November 1991. Reprinted by permission.

“The Honor of the Guild” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Renunciates of Darkover, March 1991. Reprinted by permission.

“Mind-eater” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Domains of Darkover, March 1990. Reprinted by permission.

“Death’s Scepter” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Four Moons of Darkover, November 1988. Reprinted by permission.

“This One Time” was originally published in the Darkover anthology Free Amazons of Darkover, December 1985. Reprinted by permission.

 

Real World Web Development

Since I graduated from The Iron Yard, I’ve turned my attention to my own websites, of which I have several, to rewrite them and improve them. As I anticipated, real world experience is a little different than the experience in the classroom.

I’ve started with 2 sites: a site promoting me as a web developer/social media expert/video provider at http://websites.co.technology, and an informational site featuring my healthy living books at http://weightlosssuccessbook.com.

I wasn’t far along in developing these sites when I realized I would have to learn some additional skills in coding: working with social media widgets, for instance. But, I knew enough to realize I needed to find the developer’s area of Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get the code that I needed to put a social media widget or badge on a website. Once there, I needed to select the options I needed, and modify the code for the website, and again, the concepts I learned in class helped me to get everything working. In some cases, the process was fairly clear. In others, I had to search through the developer part of the site before I found the code or the combination thereof to use. I got one widget working in a timely manner. Another didn’t work, so I had to keep going back until I found a section that had code that worked for me. Yet another time, I kept getting error messages which did not make sense. So I did what I remembered hearing in class: I copied and pasted the error message right into Google, and immediately Stack Overflow said that the code wouldn’t work in a simulator, or even localhost…it would only work on a live web page. And indeed, that’s what did work.

I found some curious omissions, such as getting error messages because of the absence of “http” in the code for an “src=”…when I inserted the “http” it worked, but I wonder why it was missing in the first place.

Some code worked…and then it didn’t…and then it did…and then it didn’t. Same code.
Also, as I mentioned earlier in this blog, the documentation for these and other items was sometimes frustratingly obscure. Again, I learned enough in class to eventually determine what was going on by myself, but I can definitely see how, when I was just starting my classwork, I was not able to grasp some of the coding concepts explained in online documentation right away. They definitely presume that the reader knows things that a novice may not, in fact, know.

In spite of these obstacles, I got the 2 websites working satisfactorily. (I even successfully added a favicon and web counter to each site!) Now to see whether I can get my other websites updated as well.