Welcome to the new home of Author & Professional Speaker, L. Diane Wolfe (AKA "Spunk on a Stick") and The Circle of Friends!

The Circle of Friends series follows a group of young adults as they face different challenges and learn to overcome. The emotionally gripping stories focus on love, friendships and the pursuit of dreams. Aimed at adults/young adults, these books defy the growing trend of salacious titles, especially for teenagers. Positive and uplifting, this series will leave readers determined to overcome their obstacles and achieve their goals.

This blog is now the home of the original The Circle of Friends website.


Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Release the Barn Cats!

I’m excited to bring to the world a captivating tale about loss, healing, barn cats.

Follow her blog tour through MC Book Tours for your chance to win a free copy.

HE GAVE ME BARN CATS

By Maria Santomasso-Hyde

Inspired by true events...

Losses send a woman’s soul into its darkest winter...

Maria has cared for her very ill mother for many years. Her burdens are heavy, causing a sadness bordering on darkness. When she discovers her historic barn is now home to a mother cat and kittens, she feels lighter than she has in years. As the kittens grow, they teach her as only animals can do.

Then tragedy strikes. As Maria loses her family, the darkness envelopes her like the heavy fog that blankets her Blue Ridge Mountain home each morning. She creates a scorecard: God: 9, Maria: 0. Her questions turn into anger at God. She searches to find answers as to why her loving God would take away so much in such a short time.

How will she learn to trust again? Can the kittens in her barn help her heal?

Christian Fiction / Christian Life-Death, Grief, Bereavement
$10.95 Print ISBN 978-1-939844-21-7,$3.99 eBook ISBN 978-1-939844-22-4
From Dancing Lemur Press

“...accessible, compelling and deeply infused with the heartbreaking and heart-lifting realities of life.” - Kurt Rheinheimer, Editor in Chief, Blue Ridge County magazine.

“A gracious, gentle tale of faith, told with refreshingly unexpected perspectives.” - Cathy Pickens, award-winning author of the Southern Fried mystery series

“Maria Santomasso-Hyde spins a yarn exquisitely told — a raw and truthful journey that travels from the depth of despair to the edge of salvation.” - Tom Mayer, executive editor, Mountain Times Publications

Formerly a newspaper reporter, Maria Santomasso-Hyde now owns Alta Vista Fine Art Gallery. She lives in Valle Crucis, North Carolina, with her husband, Lee, and The Queen of the Universe (Roma, their Black Cat)… and other Black Cats who decide to move in.
Website / Alta Vista Gallery

Purchase at Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / iTunes / Kobo / Nook / Foyles / Indigo / Dancing Lemur Press / Everything Cats
Add on Goodreads


Wednesday, March 1, 2017

New Releases and IWSG Twitter Pitch Party

See the IWSG site regarding our first Insecure Writer’s Support Group Twitter Pitch Party!


The Remnant
By William Michael Davidson

One nation, without God...
Colton Pierce apprehends Abberants—those who display symptoms of faith—and quarantines them on a remote island to ensure public safety. Years prior, the government released a genetically-engineered super flu that destroyed the genes believed to be the biological source of spiritual experience in an effort to rid the world of terrorism. As an extractor with the Center for Theological Control, Colton is dedicated to the cause.
But Colton's steadfast commitment is challenged when he learns his own son has been targeted for extraction. An underground militia, the Remnant, agrees to help Colton save his son in exchange for his assistance with their plan to free the Aberrants on the island.
Colton is faced with the most important decision of his life. Remain faithful to the CTC? Or give up everything to save his son?

$15.95, 6x9 Trade paperback, 242 pages, $4.99 EBook
Science Fiction (FIC028000) / Christian Futuristic Fiction (FIC0402020)
Print ISBN 978-1-939844-29-3 eBook ISBN 978-1-939844-30-9

William Michael Davidson lives in Long Beach, California with his wife and two daughters. A believer that "good living produces good writing," Davidson writes early in the morning so he can get outside, exercise, spend time with people, and experience as much as possible. A writer of speculative fiction, he enjoys stories that deal with humanity's inherent need for redemption.

Purchase the eBook: Amazon / iTunes / Barnes & Noble / Kobo
Purchase the print book: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Chapters / Books A Million / Book Depository / Foyles
Mark to-read on Goodreads



Galactic Outlaws III: The Outlaw's Savior
By Susan Kelley (Gourley)
Futuristic Romance

A dark paladin walks in shadows, venting his wrath onto the deserving, until she pulls him into the light.

The Federation had cleaned up most of its corruption, but criminal gangs of pirates linger on the fringes of the settled universe. Innocent settlements are attacked, and their people taken as slaves to these dregs of society.

Rain Silver’s mission to destroy every criminal gang in the verse takes him to many dark places. But he likes the shadows and longs to restore his honor that he unknowingly compromised.

Mercy McElroy rescues those abused and enslaved by the pirates, somehow always avoiding danger. When one of her missions intersects with the dark and dangerous Rain, she recognizes the mysterious knight who saved her years ago.

Rain isn’t sure why he allows Mercy to act as his partner, but soon he’s breaking all the rules his lives by to keep her at his side. The largest and meanest gang either of them have ever faced forces them both to reevaluate their methods. If they want peace and justice in their corner of the universe, they’ll have to trust each other beyond what they’ve ever dared. And for that peace to last, Mercy will have to lead her tarnished knight back into the light.

Purchase at New Concepts Publishing