HOT OFF THE PRESS!
TK’s next book-signing appearance will be at The Conyers Book Festival on Saturday, April 20th, 2024 where she wil be signing copies of her award winning book, Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom, as well as the second book in Ranger’s The Guardian Series, Ranger Nader & The Unsolvable Riddle. You can read more about the festival here: www.ConyersBookFestival.com.
After that she’ll be giving a talk about self-publishing at the Fairview Public Library. Here’s the deets:
August, 2022:
Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom was a 2022 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards Winner! Beginning of the month, my book about a boy inheriting his family’s feud with the demi-God Gilgamesh in a fight over the survival of Lebanon’s famous Cedar Forest and the Phoenician way of life, won it’s FOURTH award!
Don’t read another book where the kids got to school to become wizards; read one where they battle evil while training to crew a Guardian Ship, save the Forest, fight demi-gods, ALSO have magical powers, AND is based on local history and mythology. This book was inspired by climate change and my family’s generations of serving as “Keepers” of the Cedars of Lebanon–ancient, holy trees mentioned in the bible multiple times. As part of their duties, these tree farmers had to combat deforestation by those that wanted to use the wood for building ships, railroads, and palaces. Today in Lebanon their work continues as the Lebanese toil ceaselessly to replant the forest. co-authored 100 Small Fires To Make Your Book Sales BLAZE! A marketing how-to guide with plans, budgets and timelines for writers. You can find it at Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/ycu3ckqg
Winning a fourth award required a cover re-design, as all those darn awards just wouldn’t fit, so…. here it is!
RANGER NADER & THE SUNSTRUCK PHANTOM RECEIVES A FIVE STAR REVIEW FROM THE WISHING SHELF!
‘A superbly plotted magical adventure, stylishly and flamboyantly written.’ The Wishing Shelf FULL REVIEW: I do enjoy a good adventure story, even if it’s for children and not me, a 49 year old English lecturer. And – WONDERFUL NEWS! – this is a GOOD adventure story.Written in imaginative prose, the plot is well-constructed and full of exciting twists and turns. Not only that, the characters doing all the twisting and turning are fully formed, interesting, and even charismatic.So, what is the story? Basically, Ranger Nader has powers – BIG POWERS! – so he attends a sort of Hogwarts school – but not Hogwarts – where he must develop his powers, battle a demigod and, of course, do all the things teenagers do. Now, it is similar to Harry Potter in a number of ways but it’s also original in a number of ways too. For example, the background of the central character and the mix of myths and legends within a futuristic plot.So, on to the nuts and bolts. Firstly, the characters spring off the page. It is a plot driven story, but the characters are the jam which holds everything together. The author knows her characters through and through and this shows in the consistent and very individual way they act. I also thought the speech between the characters was very well written. In fact, the story is a perfectly balanced mix of ‘speech’ and ‘a well-paced plot’.Well, I finished the novel three nights later and I did very much enjoy it. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me turning the page and the characters (good and evil) were interesting – even memorable. The ending was also excellent and, closing my computer, I knew I’d be happy to open another of this author’s books. So, can I recommend this book? Yes. Who to? Well, I think younger teenagers will find this book a blast! Reluctant boy readers…THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU!Enjoy!A ‘Wishing Shelf’ Book Reviewthewsa.co.uk
RANGER NADER & THE SUNSTRUCK PHANTOM FINALED IN THE WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS!
JUST ANNOUNCED: Ranger Nader finaled in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards, a British award judged by kids. Here’s a link to that award page: https://www.thewsa.co.uk/ Last year the book was a finalist The NIEA, The IAN, and was Long Listed by the Green Earth Book Awards. You can read more about these awards below.
OCTOBER 2019: THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE: Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom was named a Finalist in the 2019 IAN Book of the Year Awards!
You can read more about the award, here: https://tkread.com/2019/10/ranger-nader-the-sunstruck-phantom-named-finalist-in-the-2019-ian-book-of-the-year-award/
May 2019: HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE: Ranger Nader was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Award!
You can read more about the awards here: https://www.indieexcellence.com/13th-annual-finalists whew, the Green Earth Book Awards wasn’t a fluke! While the validation feels excellent, I’m also stoked the story is gaining exposure for Lebanon.
February 2019: HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE: Ranger Nader has made the Green Earth Book Award’s Long List for YA! I’m besides myself! I’m in there with some very prestigious company. Here’s the list:
Beyond the Sixth Extinction: A Post-Apocalyptic Pop-Up, Shawn Sheehy, Jordi Solano (Candlewick Press)
Countdown, Book One – The Skye Van Bloem Trilogy, Carol Fiore, Rebecca Lown (Flying Kea Press)
Dry, Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman, Jay Shaw (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Orphaned, Eliot Schrefer (Scholastic)
Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom, Kam Karen (Kam Karen & Wings Publishing)
The Big Melt, Ned Tillman, Nan Barnes (South Branch Press)
For more info on the award, go here: https://tinyurl.com/y5oxq29v
*RANGER NADER & THE SUNSTRUCK PHANTOM*
0N SALE AT AMAZON NOW! : https://amzn.to/2yMX15A
Ranger Fights Mad King Gilgamesh Over a Magic Axe & the Fate of the World. On Sale Now at Amazon, But Get Your *Free Author Swag* HERE!
Ranger Nader’s an ordinary 9th grader – or so he thinks. Then, he inherits a magical axe from his Lebanese grandmother and learns he’s this generation’s “Guardian of the Cedars.” Eons ago, Gilgamesh, a sun-struck demi-god, used this very same axe to clear-cut Lebanon’s famous Cedar Forest. The resulting Great Flood nearly wiped out all life. Now, the evil king has returned to finish what he started. With the help of his sister, his cousins, and the axe of course, Ranger has to stop him.
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK: https://amzn.to/2yMX15A
THEN, EMAIL ME A COPY OF YOUR RECEIPT AND YOUR ADDRESS : [email protected], AND YOU WILL GET *FREE AUTHOR SWAG!*
* While Supplies Last, Ebook buyers will receive two free bookmarks.
Print Book Buyers will receive two free bookmarks and a free wrist band.
*RANGER NADER & THE SUNSTRUCK PHANTOM is a middle grade fiction book appropriate for anyone over the age of ten. With spaceships, a secret school, time travel, pirates, and an epic show-down between Ranger and crazy King Gilgamesh, its great entertainment for the whole family.
Ranger combines mythology and fact. Here’s more information about the book and an author’s note on why I wrote it and published it under the name “Kam Karem.”
FACTUAL UNDERPINNINGS FOR THE BOOK:
- The Epic of Gilgamesh was written approximately 4000 years ago and is considered to be the oldest surviving written work of literature.
- The Epic is about Gilgamesh, a semi-mythical Sumerian King who under takes several quests seeking fame, glory and immortality.
- In the Epic, Gilgamesh is reputed to be a demi-god, having been born to goddess Nnisun.
- On one of his quests, Gilgamesh kills the guardian of the famous holy cedar forest of Lebanon, then clear-cuts the forest.
- The cedar forests in Lebanon are ancient and are mentioned in Bible over 70 times.
- The most famous grove in the cedar forest is called “The Cedars of God,” and is located near Bsharri, Lebanon.
- The Cedars of God were made a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1998. The Grove has over 375 trees, some 115 feet high x 14 feet around. That is as high as an 11-story building and wider than a garage door.
- The townspeople of Bsharri, Lebanon have long had a special relationship with the Cedars of God, and for generations, have considered themselves to be, “The Keepers of the Cedars of God.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
My family, the Karems, emigrated to the United States from “BSharri” or “Becharre,” Lebanon in the early 1900s. In BSharri, they had served with the town’s other inhabitants as “Keepers” of a grove of holy trees called “The Cedars of God.” For generations they shared responsibility for tending to these trees, which have been venerated for thousands of years and are mentioned in the Bible numerous times.
In Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom, Ranger Nader is born into a family of Keepers. When a magical axe starts chasing him, he discovers he is this generation’s “Guardian,” i.e.: person entrusted with this axe to preserve and protect God’s Holy Cedars from the ultimate threat – Gilgamesh.
Lebanon’s deforestation at the hands of raiders and invaders, and its decimation due to over-use, is a matter of historic record, and has been documented for eons. The Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Romans, Greeks, Myceneans and Ottomans all contributed to shrinking the forest to one fifth of its former glory.
The clear-cutting of Lebanon’s forests has gone on for so long and has been so large in scale, it is the stuff of many legends – The Epic of Gilgamesh being one. In The Epic, 4700 years ago, Gilgamesh, who was reputed to be a demi-god with god-like powers, fought Humbaba, the guardian of the forest, for the right to use the trees to build his kingdom. When Gilgamesh won, the forest lost.
In Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom, Gilgamesh is sun-struck, or insane with power, and resurfaces in today’s world where he intends to finish what he started – Earth’s destruction. Ranger confronts the crazy king with his magic axe in an epic show down.
In some respects, you can say Ranger is a stand-in for my family and Gilgamesh represents those who squander our heritage because they can. In reality, they both represent all of us. Everyone who lives and breathes, and has lived and breathed, has a shared responsibility to stand-up for our planet and take positive steps to insure its resources are not squandered and instead are preserved where they can be.
Read more below about how Lebanon is taking positive steps to protect its rich horticultural treasures, and how you can help!
But first, here’s where you can go to read more about Lebanon and its famous cedar forests:
and http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/lebanon_cedar.htm
If you’d just like a few talking points, well, here you go:
THE CEDARS OF GOD:
- The most famous grove, called “The Cedars of God,” is located near Bsharri, Lebanon. Ranger Nader is set in Bsharri, Lebanon.
- The Cedars of God were made a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1998. The Grove has over 375 trees, some 115 feet high x 14 feet around. That is as high as an 11-story building and wider than a garage door.
- The Cedars of God are endangered by over-cultivation and the lack of snow.
- A Cedar tree is the central image of Lebanese national flag.
- In 2014 Lebanon’s Agriculture Ministry began a new plan to plant 40 million trees, including some cedars
- While to date they have planted hundreds of thousands of trees, they are over 38 million away from reaching their goal to restore the forest.
See https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org at: https://bit.ly/2AlnFnU
See http://www.middleeast.com/thecedars.htm
See The New York Times at: https://nyti.ms/2JDzuY3
If you’d like to contribute to Lebanon’s reforestation efforts, or adopt a cedar tree that will be planted in one of the country’s struggling forests, here’s where you need to go:
To contribute money to Lebanon’s Reforestation efforts, go to:
To adopt a cedar tree in order to help Lebanon reach its 40 million tree goal, go here:
BOOKS BY T.K. READ:
October/November 2018, TK’s published her Middle Grade Book, Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phantom. The book will be rolled out in a slow launch in different formats and at different locations. TK published the book under the pseudonym “Kam Karem” to honor her great grandmother, Kamilla Karem.
In TK’s words, this is why this book is so important to her:
“My family, the Karems, were “keepers of the Cedars of God” in Bsharri, Lebanon, where for generations they shared responsibility for tending to the holy grove of trees with other residents of their town. My direct family left Bsharri in the 1900’s as part of the large migration fleeing taxation and persecution by the Ottomans.
Lebanon’s deforestation at the hands of raiders and invaders, and thousands of years of over-use, is the stuff of many legends – The Epic of Gilgamesh being one. In The Epic, 4700 years ago, Gilgamesh fought Humbaba, the guardian of the forest, for the right to use the trees to build his kingdom. Gilgamesh won, and proceeded to clear-cut the Cedar Forest,
In Ranger Nader & The Sunstruck Phanom, Ranger take’s on Gilgamesh and deals justice that’s been a long time coming. So basically, its a mythological, futuristic fantasy where the little guy fights to save the world against incredible odds.”
The official book blurb reads:
Ranger Nader’s an ordinary 9th grader; or so he thinks. Then, he inherits a magical axe from his Lebanese grandmother and learns he’s this generation’s “Guardian of the Cedars.” Eons ago, Gilgamesh, a sun-struck demi-god, used this very same axe to clear-cut Lebanon’s famous Cedar Forest. The resulting Great Flood nearly wiped out all life. Now, the evil king has returned to finish what he started. With the help of his sister, two cousins, and the axe of course, Ranger has to stop him.
Here’s the link to Amazon in case you want to check it out: https://amzn.to/2yMX15A
TK also co-authored 100 Small Fires To Make Your Book Sales BLAZE!
It is a marketing how-to-guide with plans, budgets and timelines for writers. Recently revised, and out in both eBook editions, and paperback, you can find it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2PH5HBK
For more information on 100 Small Fires, check out its’ blog at www.100smallfires.com.
ABOUT TK READ, AUTHOR:
TK Read works by day as an attorney and mediator at The Read Law Firm, P.C. She’s the mother of three and uses her young adults as background research for her books. In the wee hours of the morning before the rush of the day, she downs coffee and chocolate and writes Romances books, young adult thrillers and middle grade fantasies. A life-long student, she also signs up for just about every class she can fit in her schedule – that way when her college kids gripe about their coursework, she can match them moan for moan. When she’s not writing, she’s reading all the fiction she can load onto her Kindle, running slowly for miles and miles, painting portraits, and messing around in the dark alleys and back streets of the Net. The next time your computer crashes while you’re watching a YouTube video, you might want to blame her.
Here’s what she’s got out you can find on Amazon and other book outlets.