Category Archives: Joan’s books

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.

Writing Code, Writing Stories

I’m probably not the first to notice that writing code is very similar to writing stories. There is structure and creativity involved. There’s writing the first draft, editing the draft, and then publishing the result for the public to view. There can be second/revised editions. There can be collaborations. Reviewers check and comment on the published result.

In particular, I’ve noticed that when I write a story, and think it’s complete, I still wait before sending it off or publishing it, because in the following days or week, I will get additional ideas on what to add, delete, or change. This has also happened with my code: I thought my “Demo Day” project was complete, but after a couple of days, I got additional ideas for improvements.

There’s definitely a similar feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction upon publication of either code or prose. The sense of fun in building also applies to both activities.

It’s hard to select a preference for one or the other; I think I’ll continue happily doing both.

Modern Surprises – science fiction novel

Having fun while saving the world

Modern Surprises was no ordinary company: the science division had secretly developed a portal that would take them anywhere. The plan was to use the portal to help those in need. However, a billionaire industrialist found out about the portal, and would lie, cheat, and steal to get it. But the Modern Surprises team was not about to let him have it.

“Joan’s prose is always cool, it’s a majority female team and that’s such a good title.” —Paul Cornell, author of Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?

“Modern Surprises [is] a delightful adventure story…. This book is tremendous fun, and has a lot of really strong, fascinating characters, most of whom happen to be female. Really groovy stuff, and you should check it out.” —Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of Dragon Precinct

Wondry Dragon Finds a Home

Children’s Bookwatch: February 2016
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane Donovan, Editor
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575

The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf

Wondry Dragon Finds a Home
Joan Marie Verba
FTL Publications
PO Box 1363, Minnetonka, MN 55345-0363
www.ftlpublications.com
9781936881444, $6.87, PB, 66pp, www.amazon.com

Do you like dragons? The follow the adventures of Wondry Dragon as she finds a new home with her new human friend, Rhea in Joan Marie Verba’s delightful story, “Wondry Dragon Finds a Home”. Rhea and her mom and dad have never had a dragon in the house before, and they all learn what Wondry can and cannot do. Rhea and Wondry play together, help out their neighbors — and try to stay out of trouble. Rhea can never tell what Wondry will do next because Wondry is always surprising her with what dragons can do. Wondry will surprise young readers ages 6 to 8 as well! A children’s chapter book story suitable for students in grades 1-3, “Wondry Dragon Finds a Home” is very highly recommended for both community and elementary school libraries. For children’s personal reading lists it should be noted that “Wondry Dragon Finds a Home” is also available in a Kindle edition ($2.99).

Coloring Books from Joan Marie Verba

I’ve recently started putting together coloring books. Here are the first two:

These 25 designs are generic cityscapes for both children and adults who want easy drawings to color. Most of the drawings are simple, though some are more complex. Feel free to color entire sections or individual buildings. You can even create a mural or write on the side of a building. There are dotted lines at the side of each page. There is only one drawing per piece of paper, so if you wish to cut them out and save them, use the dotted line as a guide. Whether you need a coloring book for an adult or a child, this is one to consider!

Paperback available here.

This coloring book is for both kids and grownups who want easy drawings to color. Most of the 26 drawings are simple, and you can add your own designs in the blank areas if you wish. There is only one drawing on each piece of paper (the back side of the page is blank). The dotted lines on each page show where you can cut out the page from the book if you want to display the finished piece, or color the drawing outside of the book. Whether you need a coloring book for an adult or a child, this is one to consider!