You can find it to purchase here:
The Michigan Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) shared a wonderful interview with me about this story. You can read it here.
I'll certainly be posting more about this book soon, but today I'm celebrating it's Book Birthday!! Welcome to the world, Ivar's Mackinac Weekend.
At the Corner of Magnetic and Main was released in September of 2015 through my dear friends at Pen-L Publishing. This book is so close to my heart! It's different from my other titles and sometimes gets lost in the fuss over alien cats and genetically created tigran, but I'm still so proud of it. One of my goals for its 10 year anniversary was to bring this title under my own imprint at Serenity Mountain Publishing. Pen-L did it proud for a decade, but there's so much more promotion I can do if this book is under my wing. I got to this new edition a bit later than planned due to our cross-country move, but it's finally here. Celebrating Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and their ghostly traditions.
One of the exciting things over the last year was the new cover design and addition of two books in the Tigran Chronicles series. While I loved the first cover, when I saw it in promotions with other science fiction books, it clearly didn't fit in well. With the talented help of Jaycee from Sweet 'N Spicy Designs, there's now a new cover for Book 1 and an adapted title to signify different books in the series.
Book 1 is now The Tigran Chronicles: The Gathering. There's a book containing three novellas that go with Book 1, taking place between the end of the story and the epilogue. And Book 2, The Tigran Chronicles: The Rescues, is now out in the world.
You can find these books under the pen name M. W. Dendler, to separate them from my middle grade books. These tigran stories are definitely PG-13, and I hope the pen name clarifies that difference.
There may be another book in this series over time (I 100% left the ending open for that!), but for now I wait and see how these stories are received. Publishing is a business, so if you're enjoying the tigran tales, leave a review at your favorite store and/or let me know. If I'm going to write more about Taliya and Kano and Aliania and their adventures, I need to know that someone out there will read and enjoy them!
While the links above are for Amazon, you can also find them online at other stores:
The Tigran Chronicles: The Gathering
The Tigran Chronicles: The Rescues
Happy Reading!
I have been away from this blog for a LONG time. 2025 was a wild year, with multiple books published and a cross-country move from Arkansas back to Michigan. But the dust is settled, and there's much book news to share.
I'm really going to try keeping up on things more here. Apparently, it lets all the lovely internet algorithms realize that my books are real and not AI (which they absolutely are!). So, look for more here in the coming weeks about all I've been up to over the last year.
Just dropping by to give a shout-out to my newest book, Poppy and Marigold. Great reviews are coming in, and I'm so thrilled that readers are enjoying this story. If you are an educator using this book in a classroom, contact me for a copy of the study guide.
Blue citizens are absolutely superior to all others, especially ignorant, uncivilized Orange. Poppy has been taught this relentlessly for twelve years. But when she accidentally crosses the forbidden border and is befriended by Marigold—a tangerine-skinned girl—and her kind-but-quirky family, Poppy is forced to rethink everything. Questioning that Blue is Best or the rest of the 50 Rules governing Poppy’s world would get her sent to a dangerous Detention Center. Or worse. But how can she return to her blindly obedient, anti-Orange life now that she knows the truth?
You can purchase copies at these links:
My online Square store for signed copies with matching bookmark
Besides a dog on the cover (which really is a part of the story, not a trick to get you to buy it), Wish has lots to recommend itself to middle grade readers. For this very reason, even though it was published in 2016, it still hits the NYT top 10 bestseller list now and then. Still! And is among the top-ranking books on Amazon right now with 83% 5-star ratings. (Most of the 1-star ratings were upset about how the book was printed incorrectly, which an author has zero control over.)
You may know Barbara O'Connor from How to Steal a Dog, and Wish hits on the same themes--love, family, home, belonging. And a dog.
Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly, Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.
From award-winning author Barbara O'Connor comes a middle grade novel about a girl who, with the help of a true-blue friend, a big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places.
The "blurb" for this book tells you everything you need to know, so I won't blab on about it. Lovely book. Kids adore it. Grab a copy now.
I have seen bits online saying a sequel to Wish will be coming soon. You can bet I'll be reading it!
*I saw reviews for Wish that were upset by some of the content. Charlie's parents are neglectful (why she's sent to North Carolina). The teenager smokes. Doesn't seem like anything most eleven-year-olds would be shocked by, but you decide for your child. Maybe read it yourself first to judge. Your local library is certain to have a copy.
