Alaska’s Savage River
by Valerie Winans
Chapter 11 to Epilogue

Hyroc
by Adam Freestone
Chapter 22 to 25

Prince Ali
by Victoria Hardesty & Nancy Perez
Chapter 21 to 25

All in Jest
by Carl Douglass
Chapter 3 to 4

One Last Cast
by Evan Swensen
Chapter 18 to 21

The Matter of the Vanishing Greyhound
by Steve Levi
Chapter 13 to 16

Ravens Cove
by Mary Ann Poll
Chapter 18 to 21

Becoming a Published Author
by Evan and Lois Swensen, and many fine Authors
Chapter 21 to 24

Steve Levi
Master of the Impossible Crimes

“If you do not have something unique, you have nothing.”

Steve Levi lives up to his motto. He makes every one of his books unique – history, impossible crime, creative thinking, or narrative poetry. And completely different from every other book he has ever written. His subjects range from a fourth-panel novel, the biography of a black street hustler, an in-depth analysis of the impact of a terrorist bomb on a civilian population, to the biography of his father, an Italian Jewish Holocaust refugee.

Currently, Steve specializes in three unique themes. First is the impossible crime. An impossible crime requires the detective to solve HOW a crime was committed before arresting the perpetrators. For example, in The Matter of the Vanishing Greyhound, a greyhound bus with bank robbers pursued by the police vanishes off the Golden Gate Bridge. Before the detective can capture the bank robbers, he has to figure out how they could ‘disappear’ off the Golden Gate Bridge.

When it comes to history, Levi specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush. So few Americans know about the Alaska Gold Rush that when you pull it up on Wikipedia, the Klondike Strike comes up. The Klondike Strike, made famous by Jack London and Robert Services, was centered in Dawson in Canada’s Yukon Territory. That strike lasted about 15 months. The Alaska Gold Rush started in Juneau in 1880, and its heyday ended with the First World War. The Klondike Strike was concentrated in an area of about 30 miles by 30 miles; the Alaska Gold Rush covered an area equivalent to 1/5 the sizw of the Lower 48. Levi’s scholarly history of the Alaska Gold Rush, Boom and Bust in the Alaska Gold Fields, is an in-depth examination of the era. His companion book, The Human Face of the Alaska Gold Rush, is a compendium of the fascinating tidbit of that era.

His third subject area is off the wall thinking. “Education is failing because we are not teaching students to think outside the box,” Levi says. “We teach students out of a textbook and then test to see if they learned what was in the textbook.” Levi’s off-the-wall thinking concept won a $40,000 prize from the University of Oklahoma in 2005. “The future belongs to the students who can think differently, off the wall,” Steve says. “It’s what you know that’s important; it’s how you think.”

Steve is proud to be a member of Author Masterminds. “Not every book is a good one, but every good book will change your life,” he is fond of saying. “The tremendous strength of Author Masterminds is that all of the authors are outstanding writers.

Whatever subject you choose, the authors have a book to change your life. Give us a try. You can even read a few chapters for free—to see if this is the book that will change your life.”

Carl Douglass gets my vote for excellence in his new novel, The Struggle: A Fighting Woman Against All Odds. Sybil Norcroft is the protagonist – an intelligent, strong, and decisive woman, and if she were real, she would be my hero. Sybil is not the only semblance of reality – similar to the conflicts in the story are some related on the nightly news. Book ten in the series does not disappoint. Its fast pace was intriguing and thought-inspiring. I read it in an afternoon simply because I could not put it down.

– Valerie Winans
Dog’s Best Friend
Member of Readers and Writers Book Club and Author Masterminds

Events

The Three Amigos
How to Survive Your Book Signing
February 15, 2022
5 PM EDT
Go to the Three Amigos Facebook Page to join the event.

Monthly Raffle

The Readers and Writers Book Club is giving away one (1) signed copy of The Matter of the Vanishing Greyhound by Steve Levi.

The winner will be drawn LIVE in our General Monthly Meeting. Be sure to join our Facebook Live to be eligible.

Enter the raffle by clicking the button below.

Featured Club Member

Joanna Ohnanik

I grew up in St. Louis. The year I graduated from high school, my father’s job moved our family to Arkansas, where they were opening a new factory.

I started trying to write when I was in high school and college, but college got interrupted when my father died and I felt I had to go to work. We lived in a small town, so I got a job in the factory where my Dad had been working. After 19 years there, the products we made were being outsourced to Mexico, so I decided to take my severance pay and go back to college, where I finally finished my degree.

Not too long after that, my mother died, and a couple of years later I moved back to St. Louis for a better chance at finding a job. After working here for 18+ years, I finally retired. I’d like to get back to writing ✍️, but haven’t been very successful at it.

I really enjoy the book club meetings. It’s a pleasure to watch and listen to the authors and their interaction with each other. And they’ve always been very gracious with my comments and questions. A great bunch of people who I’d like to know better!