Note: Your book is only free from January 4th-8th. Don’t let it slip by! It reverts to .99 outside of that time period.
What is my book all about? It’s a classic about how four teens get different superpowers. But they’re all in a special ed class with different disabilities. Eventually, they decide they must use their powers to fight crime.
Wouldn’t you fight crime if you got superpowers?
You Can Get Secret Supers – As An Audiobook
Chapter 1 icon
Do you like audiobooks? All my novels are on Audible. Get them here.
Unique and wonderful book for young people. Kids see a whole new side of kids with special needs. Not weird. Just kids who are facing a different sort of challenge than they are. The story is fun and believable. It kept me interested, and I’m an old lady!
You Can Get Secret Supers – And the next book for $2.99
Villain’s Vacation Audio book
Four disabled seventh-graders with superpowers take a vacation at Coaster World. They need a break from fighting criminals.
Ever since the beginning of the school year when they acquired their unusual abilities, they’ve been training and using those powers to fight crime in their town. Little do they know the arch-villain they recently defeated also loves coasters and is vacationing at Coaster World. Worse, the villain wants revenge. Nothing less than turning these teens to a life of crime will satisfy the villain.
Can Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey withstand the villain’s attacks? Or will they become Super Villains? You can only find out by reading the adventure ‘Villain’s Vacation’.
In this sequel to Secret Supers, Jeremy has been experimenting on his hamster. As a result, Dancer has learned how to read, and is reading everything he can to learn about the human world. When Jeremy discovers this, he gets Dancer one of his old cell phones so Dancer can text the group.
As for the superhero business, the group needs some downtime and goes on vacation to Coaster World. What they don’t realize is that the villain they defeated also loves roller coasters and wants revenge against the Secret Supers.
Will the Secret Supers be able to defeat the villain and enjoy their vacation, or are their crime-fighting days numbered?
This was a fun sequel to Secret Supers. Not only did we have Andy Zach as a character in the book, as though the events were true and actually happened, but I loved the inclusion of a Super-Hamster helping out Jeremy and his friends. In this battle against the villain, the Secret Supers struggle, as the villain seems to have figured out how to neutralize their powers, and they not only have to call in support but also reveal themselves to some non-Supers.
The action was well-paced throughout, and the mystery of the identity of the villain was well-done. While I had suspicions, I wasn’t sure before the reveal, which was nice. If you enjoyed Secret Supers, I feel confident that you will also enjoy Villain’s Vacation.
For this book, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Michael Stafford. This was a different narrator from The Secret Supers, which was a little odd to my ears at first, but I think that was only because I had listened to Secret Supers so
Let me know what you think by clicking here or emailing me at [email protected]. As always, everyone who responds with a comment or email will get a free book from me.
Ten Books, Ten Chapters Free, all for Advent 20. I’m giving a gift daily. These books were from the previous ten days. Today, you get the gift of convenience. All the books are in one spot for you.
He felt different. More energetic, more alive. He bred with female after female in his flock without tiring. The tom stayed awake through the night. He feared no predator.
Then a turkey hunter shot him.
The setting sun overlooked a crisp, clear evening in early November. South of Bartonville, Illinois, a farmer had leased his wood lot to two turkey hunters. Big and burly in their bulky camouflaged outfits, they had just bagged one.
“Good shot, Pete!”
“He’s a big ‘un!”
Pete and Bob walked up to the tom turkey, bleeding on the cold ground. The rest of the flock had scattered into the woods. He had exceptionally good plumage and weighed perhaps twenty pounds. Pete reached down and picked him up by the neck.
“He weighs at least twenty-five pounds!”
Then the turkey’s eyes opened—and gleamed red. He kicked with his spurs and pecked savagely at Pete’s arms and eyes. Dozens of his hens attacked the men from behind.
“Gobble! Gobble!”
He felt different. More energetic, more alive. He had no memory of being shot, but a certain turkey satisfaction at killing his killers. The tom also enjoyed pecking at their dead meat. He had always liked frogs, but this meat tasted better. He led his flock down the road in search of more predators to eat.
“Sam, you’re fired.” Lisa’s green eyes met Sam’s brown ones.
“What? Lisa, you and I have worked together at the Midley Beacon for ten years! And we’ve known each other for fifteen! And we’ve been married almost two months!” Sam broke eye contact, stood up from his desk, and paced about their small office.
“Sorry, Sam. Romance has to take a backseat to finances. Ever since the bottom dropped out of the zombie turkey news market since the first of the year, the Midley Beacon hasn’t made enough to pay your salary.”
“But that’s our salary. We share and share alike.”
“We can still live on my salary. And you can apply for unemployment now that you’re fired.”
“But what’ll I do all day? I can only play Fortnite for so long.”
“What did you do before I hired you ten years ago? What did you do while I was in college?”
“Uh, mow lawns. Handyman repair. Stuff like that. But I’m a grown man now. I want more.”
“Hmm, you are a decent reporter.”
“Thanks, Lisa. That’s high praise coming from you.”
“Well, it’s the truth. You’ve grown from a crappy reporter, like ninety-nine percent of all reporters, to well above average. I did lay off everyone else on the staff before you, you know.”
Sam’s eyes misted. “Aw, you’re making me feel warm and mushy.”
“You know I love your mother. But your mother’s a zombie. Who wants to see one zombie, let alone four of them?”
“Now that’s not fair. Mom and Dad have adjusted to their zombiism very well. Mom still volunteers at church and bakes cookies and pies for the bake sales. Dad still works as an accountant at GM. There’s nothing to worry about!”
“That covers Diane and George. I know them. I guess I’m ready for them. What about your brother and this new girlfriend of his? I don’t think Don has said two whole sentences to me since I’ve known him!”
“He’d never get a word in edgewise with you, Ron. You said it yourself—you’ve had diarrhea of the mouth since you were born. He and his friend Maggie will be fine.”
“Whatever you say, Karen.” I knew when to surrender. I focused my eyes on the Indiana turnpike ahead.
“Hmmph!”
I glanced at Karen while I drove. Her arms were crossed under her breasts, and she looked out the window, away from me. Trying to make peace, I said, “I thought we dodged a bullet when the zombie turkey plague just missed Gary, Indiana. I never dreamt this zombie thing would hit our own family.” I kept my tone neutral
“So far it hasn’t hit us hard. Life goes on as usual.”
Great! At least she was still talking to me. “As great as it can with glowing red eyes,” I said with a big grin.
“Maybe. I hadn’t really thought about how hard life would be like that.”
Dirac sighed with relief when the US flag came down, and the surrender flag went up on the mast of the titanic luxury yacht. He didn’t mind firing rounds from his AK-47 over their heads, but he hated killing people. He knew they were only infidels, but they were still people.
Chapter 1 icon of Paranormal Privateers
Inhaling the salted breeze, he grinned back at Muhammed. He cheered and laughed in his seat behind the M2 machine gun in the bow of the boat they used to patrol the coasts and fishing waters of Somalia. The sun gleamed off his white teeth.
“Look, Dirac!” he said. “They’re stopping!”
True enough. The bow wave ceased as he watched. A pod of dolphins ended their sporting on the wave and submerged. The gleaming white yacht loomed above them. What were they doing in the fishing waters of Somalia? He couldn’t imagine the wealth on board. Enough for their whole village to eat well for a year!
Their supreme leader, Omar Ogala, organized Somali fishermen and former coast guard sailors to patrol their fishing waters. He ordered them to capture any fishing or cargo vessels they spotted. He told them the Americans and Europeans no longer cared about Somalia with the other crises around the world and they could defend their coasts from foreign competition—and dumpers. Many foreign nations, knowing Somalia’s military weakness, sent cargo ships full of pollutants and dumped them into their waters.
Dirac never expected to see a luxury ship here. It was as big as a cruise liner, but apparently a private yacht. He’d seen one once before when an Arab sheik visited Mogadishu. This one was three times the size! The owner would pay big to get it back. Maybe even a billion dollars? He couldn’t imagine that much money, and he was good with numbers. Let’s see: fourteen million people lived in Somalia. Divide a billion dollars among them would give each about seventy dollars. Unbelievable. A family of five could live comfortably for a year on that!
Now, what was he going to do? His boss just told him to double the productivity of Vegan Inc.’s pickle strain they used for their Kilwowski Pickle brand. That was completely impossible.
But keeping his job required it. Bryce was the low man on the genetic engineering totem pole at Vegan Inc., the last one hired and the first one to be fired if another recession hit.
He couldn’t think. He couldn’t face this. So he cruised the internet.
“The origin of Zombie turkeys? I didn’t know they’d found that. Hmm, a Midley Beacon exclusive, the foremost zombie news source,” he read to himself.
Zombie turkeys had ravaged Illinois and the US at Thanksgiving. Thankfully, they hadn’t hit near Terre Haute, where he lived. He skimmed the article rapidly. Corn All, one of their agribusiness rivals, had genetically modified its corn to fight off corn disease. The genetic modification would adapt to the disease at a cellular level and neutralize it by copying the DNA from the disease organism, whether fungal or bacterial.
“Dear diary,” Jeremy Gentle dictated into his app on his tablet in his bedroom. “Today, I became a superhero.” Jeremy stopped, uncertain. Was that the best way to start his journal? Might as well just tell the story. He needed to sleep. He had a big algebra test tomorrow at Maryville Middle School.
Yesterday, school went as usual. It was the same old seventh grade. Same handicapped kids in the same class. Same problems transferring to the toilet from my wheelchair. Nothing new.
Oh, I take that back. I had one new, bad thing happen— I fell during physical therapy. There I was, between the parallel bars, halfway done. I tried with all my might to take another step. I couldn’t. My muscles screamed, at their end. My legs collapsed, and I hung like a marionette from the gait belt, held by my therapist, Fred Bernstein.
How fascinating! This book says there are libraries where hundreds of books live. It also says the fiction books are in order by author name.
Dancer scurried off Your Sixth Year Reader to look at Jeremy Gentle’s bookshelf again. Jeremy was Dancer’s owner and unknowing educator. Ever since he’d taught himself to read by studying the newspapers lining the bottom of his cage, Dancer had craved reading.
He hadn’t figured out why he’d started reading. One day Dancer had noticed patterns in the markings. He saw they repeated themselves in clumps which then formed more patterns. Then he started listening to his owners differently. They also spoke in patterns. “Jeremy” was always called “Jeremy” or “Jeremy Gentle” by his mother and sometimes by his father.
Dancer had learned to understand Jeremy and his parents, and then he’d put the terms they said with the clumps on the paper. Each letter had a sound, and together they formed clumps his master called “words.” The idea was brilliant. No wonder they were his owners and he was only a hamster.
Dancer read each paper eagerly to the point of memorizing it, but reading started to bore him. Jeremy only changed the lining about once a week. So he’d watched Jeremy open and close his cage door. Then he copied the motion, using his paws and nose. He left to search for more words to read.
Startled, I looked up from my computer and turned around in my wheelchair. My best friend, Dan, had slipped silently into my lab. I still thought of it that way, but we’d made it into the Secret Supers clubhouse almost a year ago. Dan’s round, brown face smiled down at me while his tall, wide frame loomed behind me. His dark glasses hid his blind eyes.
“I didn’t hear you come down the elevator.”
“I took the stairs. Your mom made cookies, so I came over. I could smell them from my house.”
“You mean, you could smell them from my mom’s thoughts?”
“And your’s and your dad’s. You were all excited, so I couldn’t help myself from taking a sniff from your mom’s nose. I didn’t snoop any further than that.”
“I know you respect everyone’s privacy with your mindreading power.”
“Except maybe yours. You did permit me to read yours anytime. But I haven’t read your mind about what you’re concentrating on. C’mon, tell your old friend Dan.”
“Don’t tell anyone. I want to surprise the Secret Supers.”
1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Pre-Existence of Jesus Christ
The Gospel Medley back cover
John 1:1–5, 10–13
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [1]2The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.[2]
This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John, 2 who testified to God’s word and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
What is the origin of the book of Revelation?
How did John get the book of Revelation? Through which Persons did the Revelation pass?
What is the purpose of the Revelation?
Who is the intended audience of Revelation?
What is in the Book of Revelation?
Prayer: Thank You, Almighty God, for giving us the book of Revelation, directly from You through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank You for using Your created angels and sons of men to spread Your truth through all the world. Amen.
God gives us the name of the book: the Revelation of Jesus Christ. He gives us the topic, things which must happen soon, and shows the provenance of the book as the knowledge flows from His throne through Jesus, to His angel, to John, and then to the whole church.
Read Free Secret Supers Chapter for You. – Why? It’s the 15th day of Advent and I’m giving a gift per day! Enjoy chapter 1 of my book Secret Supers. In it, four seventh graders with four different disabilities get four different super powers. Merry Christmas to all!
“Dear diary,” Jeremy Gentle dictated into his app on his tablet in his bedroom. “Today, I became a superhero.” Jeremy stopped, uncertain. Was that the best way to start his journal? Might as well just tell the story. He needed to sleep. He had a big algebra test tomorrow at Maryville Middle School.
Yesterday, school went as usual. It was the same old seventh grade. Same handicapped kids in the same class. Same problems transferring to the toilet from my wheelchair. Nothing new.
Oh, I take that back. I had one new, bad thing happen— I fell during physical therapy. There I was, between the parallel bars, halfway done. I tried with all my might to take another step. I couldn’t. My muscles screamed, at their end. My legs collapsed, and I hung like a marionette from the gait belt, held by my therapist, Fred Bernstein.
For once I was glad I was a skinny, twelve-year-old. Soaking wet, I don’t even weigh eighty pounds.
I gave up completely and flopped bonelessly. I might as well be on the floor, I thought. And then I was.
“What?” yelled Mr. Bernstein. “Jeremy, are you okay? The belt must have slipped. I’m sorry about that!”
“It wasn’t your fault, Mr. Bernstein.”
“Here, let me help you up.” He picked me up and put me in my electric wheelchair. “Now let’s see that belt. Ah, this little pin popped off. Bad design. I’ll complain to the manufacturer.”
Part 2
I made it through the rest of my otherwise boring day with no problems but a few bruises on my arms and face. With CP, cerebral palsy, you have no reflexes to break your fall. After that, all I wanted to do was get home and play in my science lab with my new equipment.
Jeremy, superhero
My parents, Denise and Bradon Gentle, both have good salaries from their jobs as an occupational therapist and Certified Financial Planner. When I showed interest in math and science in elementary school, they bought me lab equipment for experiments. Over the years, they kept adding to it as my interests changed and grew. Eventually, I had a whole room in the basement of our home as my lab.
My dad bought me a new set of super magnets yesterday. I experimented using magnetic fields on living creatures and tested them on my pet hamster, Dancer. He seemed to get a little dizzy, but I saw no other effects.
I read up on bioelectromagnetics on the internet and discovered not many experiments had been done on frequencies above 300 hZ. Then, I rigged up a frequency modulator to test a variety of frequencies. I could hardly wait to try it with my new super magnets.
I assembled the magnets into my variable frequency circuit. Just as I was about to try it I heard, “Jeremy! It’s time for dinner.” It was my mom.
My parents make a big deal out of eating together and discussing the day’s events. It was interesting, hearing about Dad’s job in finance and Mom’s in occupational therapy. I didn’t have much to say, as usual. Quickly, I excused myself and left as soon as possible.
Read Free Secret Supers – Part 3
I tried the new arrangement on my hamster and got him dizzy again. Then I thought of adding the power of my capacitor array. That would give a sudden burst of magnetism.
I connected it to the circuit and released the twenty-five thousand volts it contained. It knocked me out! Later I found out the whole house went dark.
Dan-from-Secret Supers, superhero
“Are you okay, Jeremy?” asked my Mom, shaking me awake.
“Uh, I think so.” I slumped in my wheelchair, as groggy as my hamster.
“We lost power for a few minutes, and then we thought to check on you.”
“I’m sorry about the outage. I ran an experiment with the new electromagnets, and I must have overloaded the home circuits.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Dad. “Are you okay? Do we need to call the doctor or the ambulance? You were out when we came in here.”
“I think I’m okay,” I repeated. I stretched and sat upright. “Don’t bother calling the doctor. Let me see what happened to my experiment. The capacitors all discharged correctly,” I commented, checking my instruments.
“What does that mean? You know we don’t know as much as you do about electronics,” Dad said.
“Oh, it just means I used all the stored power for my experiment. I discharged the capacitors into the new magnets you bought me.”
“Were you tormenting your poor hamster again?” asked Mom.
“No, I just wanted to see what would happen with more current. I found out. It knocked me out, and I wasn’t even in the center of the magnets. It must have caused a power surge that tripped the house’s circuit breakers.”
“Are you sure you feel okay?” asked Mom.
“Yeah, I’m just tired. I think I’ll go to bed.”
Read Free Secret Supers Part 4
“That’s a good idea,” said Dad. “Let’s see how you feel in the morning.”
The next morning I felt great. I wriggled out of bed and dressed, as usual, crawling around my carpeted floor. My legs were hopelessly spastic, but my upper body was strong enough to drag me around my room.
Kayla of the Secret Supers, superhero
After packing my chair’s pannier with my school supplies, I pulled myself into my chair. Getting in and out was a long, painful process. I picked up my phone, preparing to leave my room, but it slipped from my hand to the floor.
Crap. Now I have to climb down again. Desperately, I bent over and tried to reach the phone where it lay, tilted against my bed. Not quite.
With a burst of frustrated anger, I said, “Come here!” And the phone zipped into my hand.
Wow. That never happened before. There was a pencil on my desk, across the room. “Come here,” I said.
Zip! It smacked into my palm.
Then, I experimented. I could make my bed far more efficiently than from my knees. I even tidied my desk.
“The bus is here,” called Mom from the kitchen.
I went down to the bus more excited about school than I ever had been before.
At school, I tried different things. I secretly moved chairs and other blockages to my wheelchair out of my way. In therapy, I tried to move my limbs with my newfound power. Success! At least I didn’t fall or get exhausted.
“That’s great, Jeremy,” said Mr. Bernstein, his voice rising in excitement. “You got all the way through the parallel bars. Do you think you can go back?”
Part 5
“Let’s try it.” Going back was even easier. I got the hang of moving my legs with my mind.
“This is a breakthrough. That’s it for today. We may be able to get you out of that wheelchair!”
“Fantastic!”
Aubrey, superhero
Driving out of the room to the bathroom, I got another idea: could I actually pick up myself with my thoughts? Why not try? Focusing on my whole body in my chair, I imagined myself lifted up in a sitting position from my chair and onto the toilet.
At first I thought I had failed, for I felt no difference from sitting in my chair. Then I realized I was looking down at the toilet from a height. I eased myself down on the toilet.
I was so excited I could hardly go. It was as if I was Magneto of the X-Men! I wondered how much I could pick up. I tried to lift my electric wheelchair. It weighed more than two hundred and fifty pounds. Slowly, carefully, I made it float an inch, then a foot, then two feet off the floor.
I felt no strain. The chair hovered there as easily as if it were suspended from a cable. I lowered it and levitated back into my seat. Now, I had study hall. I wonder what my limits are?“
“Miss Smith, could I have a hall pass to the gym? I’ve got some new PT I want to try,” I said to the study hall teacher.
Read Free Secret Supers – Part 6
“Sure, Jeremy. Physical therapy is always a top priority.” I went to the weight room next to the gym. No one was there during the school day. Moving the pin holding the weights, I set the bench press machine to three hundred pounds and lifted it with my mind. Up it went like a balloon.
Chapter 2 icon
I added forty-five-pound iron plates to the machine. Three-forty-five, three-ninety, four-eighty! All rose like soap bubbles in a breeze. One more plate to add. Five-twenty-five. Nothing. It was like I had no power at all. Replacing the forty-five-pound plate with a twenty-five, I tried five hundred even. It stirred, moved up one inch, and stopped. So that was my limit.
I wondered if I could make my wheelchair fly. I concentrated, and it slowly rose, with me in it. Zip! I moved around the weight room, circling faster and faster. Then I heard someone coming. I set myself down with a clump.
“Hi, Jeremy,” said Mr. Finney, the PE teacher. “What brings you here?”
“Uh, I had a good day in therapy,” I said, thinking fast. “I wanted to see if there were any weights I could lift.”
“Good for you. Did you find any?”
“Yes, but I’m tired now.” There. I satisfied him, without really lying at all. And I was tired, from all my concentrating.
I had another study hall at the end of the day. I had one more experiment to try. After getting another hall pass, I went outside to the batting cages used by our baseball team. They had speedometers to measure the pitching machines.
Looking around and seeing no one, I turned one on remotely with my mind. I was gaining finer control. With a pen, I could write well using just my thoughts.
Part 7
I picked up a bat and ball. I floated the ball to the pitching machine and the bat over the plate. Using my mind, I pushed the ball toward me. Zip! It went over the plate. I swung and missed. It was way faster than I thought.
Looking at the speed readout, I saw eighty-eight mph. Woah! That’s a major league fastball. I hadn’t even tried my best.
I repeated my experiment, trying with all my might. One hundred and one. I tried again and again, but I couldn’t beat that.
I glanced at my phone. It was time for the bus. I’ll never get there in time. But, what if I flew?
If I skimmed the ground, people wouldn’t notice I was flying. I did it and got to the bus stop faster than a person could have run. I wonder what my top speed in my scooter was? Why not try it on the road?
“Hey, Mr. Williams!” I called out when my bus driver opened the door for me. “I won’t need a ride today. I’ve got another ride home.”
“Okay, Jeremy.”
I waited until the bus pulled away and then slowly moved down the sidewalk to the front of the school. I sped up on the sidewalk until I matched the speed of the cars in the street. It was great! I didn’t have to worry about curbs or bumps, as I just sailed over them.
Since I didn’t have to worry about stopping to let off other students, I went straight home and arrived ten minutes earlier than usual. My mom got off work first and would be home in half an hour. How fast could I go?
Read Free Secret Supers – Part 8
I skimmed to the end of our street, where it dead-ended into the freeway. Then, I hopped over the fence and traveled on the green grass margin next to the road. I matched the highway speeds of the cars and then surpassed them. I zoomed home and flew to my lab. Literally.
I had an accelerometer in my lab. I tested it by swinging it in my hand. The electronic readout on the remotedial on my lab bench fluctuated between .1 and .3 g. Now, how much acceleration could I generate with my mind?
I zoomed the instrument from my hand to the wall and back again. No apparent acceleration. I repeated it, going faster and faster. Nothing.
Puzzled, I sat and thought. How could there be no acceleration? I must be affecting the whole instrument, every atom of the it, so that it detects no acceleration at all.
I was still thinking through the implications of this when my mom came into the lab.
Jeremy stopped dictating. That was enough. He’d have a lot more to say tomorrow.
