Kevin Coolidge, Children's Author, Presenter

Kevin Coolidge is not just the owner of From My Shelf Books & Gifts, he's also the author of twelve children's books and one fantastical adventure novella for adults. Kevin is available for school presentations from kindergarten to the 4th grade. Presentations include information on the writing process and encouraging fun in literacy.

He's also available for interviews across the media spectrum. He's especially good on the radio, and as a bookstore owner, he can talk books, bookstores, small business, literacy, and most aspects of popular culture, as well as discuss his books.

Kevin resides in Wellsboro, just a short hike from the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. When he's not writing, you can find him at the bookstore which he could not run without his lovely wife, several helpful employees, and two friendly bookstore cats, Huck & Finn.

He's recently become an honorary member of the Cat Board. When he's not scooping the litter box, taking out the garbage, or feeding Gypsy her tuna, he's writing more stories about the Totally Ninja Raccoons.

The Totally Ninja Raccoons is a series of early chapter books, target audience first through fourth grade. The books are specially structured to encourage reluctant readers. Short chapters, humor, adventure, and one picture per chapter keep kids feeling a sense of engagement and accomplishment as they plow through these stories and ask for more!

Each book has the Totally Ninja Raccoons encountering a cryptid — a creature from folklore or mythology, whose existence is not currently confirmed by modern science.

The first book in the series is The Totally Ninja Raccoons Meet Bigfoot. Although this first book establishes their origin story, the series can really be read in any order.

For more information, contact Kevin at: From My Shelf Books & Gifts, 7 East Avenue, Wellsboro, PA 16901

Julia Spencer-Fleming's new mystery: the wait is over!

About 3 years ago, I finally started reading Julia Spencer-Fleming's mysteries. My friend, Judith Sornberger, is a retired English professor from Mansfield University, and she had taught an upper-level seminar in women authors of mysteries. In this course, she taught the first in the Spencer-Fleming series, entitled "In the Bleak Midwinter." Someone had traded in a copy of this book, but it was in such well-loved shape that it wasn't really suitable for resale. I took it home to read.

At the time, there were 8 books in Russ Van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson series. I inhaled these books. To be honest, I don't usually read all the books in a series in one go: I mostly prefer to mix my authors and genres, so that my reading life isn't too formulaic. Didn't matter on this series. I wanted more, more, more of the story of this small town in upstate New York which so closely reflected life in our area. More of the story of Russ Van Alstyne, small town police chief, Vietnam vet, and his increasingly close relationship with the new Episcopal priest in town, a nontraditional woman who was a helicopter pilot and medic in the Army before going to seminary. I was so impressed with how Spencer-Fleming's books were able to capture the real human struggles behind issues taken right out of contemporary news headlines, even though the earliest books were written nearly 20 years ago.

So, I inhaled the books and then the series came to a screeching halt, leaving her audience on a cliffhanger. When would book #9 come out? Bad news, friends -- book 8 was released in 2014. Now what?

A little research showed that Julia Spencer-Fleming's beloved husband of 30 years, Ross Hugo-Vidal, died of cancer in Sept. 2017, within a year of his diagnosis. Julia found herself unable to move forward with the draft of book nine. She promised her fans she would get back to it as soon as she could, and asked for their patience.

Finally, my friends, the wait has paid off!!! Book Nine, "Hid From Our Eyes", releases in hardcover on April 7, 2020. If you are someone who has come to Julia Spencer-Fleming through our recommendations at From My Shelf, pre-order your copy for book nine with us! If you pre-pay, we can give you 30% off the suggested cover price of $27.99, making your copy $19.59 + PA sales tax. If you can't prepay, but would still like to pre-order to have a copy reserved for you, we can offer you 20% off cover price.

Send us an email, a Facebook private message, or call us at 570-724-5793. The game in Miller's Kill is afoot once again!

You Know What Gets My Goat?

You know what really gets my goat? Yeah, chupacabras*, damn chups. There's a reason why the government puts a bounty on them. Chupacabras are a menace to society.

The local Cryptid Hunter society was planning to submit Chupacabra Chow for the local chili cook off. Well, it was a great idea and it worked. It worked too well.

Chupacabras raided the compound and got into the goats, literally, sucked 'em dry. We are all out of goat. Part of being a chup hunter and a chef is improvising. So, the cook off is still on, however, we can't use goat.

If anyone local to the Wellsboro Pennsylvania can get us a couple pounds of goat meat, we'd love to still do it, otherwise, we'll use our favorite chupacabra recipe and continue our fight against the chups.

*chupacabra for those uninitiated means "goat sucker" in Spanish. If you don't know what a chupacabra is, you are welcome. We are doing our jobs.

Fall in Love at From My Shelf Books & Gifts

I was talking to a single friend of mine, and he was really discouraged. He's having a hard time meeting women. In the age of social media, people don't seem to leave their house. Where do you do to meet people?

I met my wife doing a play. I had entered a play writing contest, but did not win. I decided to be in a play to observe the inner workings more, and to get new ideas. My wife was in another of the plays. She also loved books and we ended up opening a bookstore together.

Are you Single? Is your dating pool not as deep as you'd like? Maybe you aren't into the bar scene. It can be hard to meet people. Sure, there's social media, but I mean really connect with someone.

At From My Shelf Books, we've already had several marriage proposals over the last decade, and we see many happy couples browse for books. Now it is your turn.

Visit From My Shelf Books February 14th from 6 to 8PM and meet other singles that love books. Everyone who loves books is welcome. From My Shelf Books East Ave Wellsboro. Love your local bookstore; we'll love you back. Love us on Facebook.

Kevin Will be at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in August

In August of 2019, I was a guest at Children's Weekend at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It was a LOT of fun. If you've never been, I heartily recommend it, and I've been officially asked back for 2020.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival has become the region's premier outdoor event and the second largest Renaissance Festival in the country. Since the Festival's first season as a ramshackle village in 1977, the event has matured into a large theme show with more than 1,300 participants and 280,000 guests per season.

There are several themed weekends, and I'll be attending Children's Weekend August 29th and 30th. Kids 15 and under, with an accompanying adult ticket purchased, are admitted free. CHILDREN UNDER 15 DO NOT NEED A TICKET FOR August 29th & 30th.

I can't wait for this great event. In addition to signing books, I watched jousting, threw axes, and drank mead. This is a really child friendly festival with a lot of fun activities for children to participate.

If you can't wait until August to meet me, I can be found most days at From My Shelf Books & Gifts. I also do several events a year and post those events to my Facebook page. I also love doing school events. If you are interested, contact me.