Loralee Evans's Blog: Loralee Evans, page 52

Precision Editing Group

I wanted to give a few words of praise to Heather B. Moore, and Precision Editing Group. I've used their help for my last couple of books, and have been grateful for the help they've given. It's great to have a second pair of eyes look over my work; in fact it's pretty much saved my life (not literally but it's really improved my stories) to have the help. And for the quality of work, they're quite reasonably priced. I think they're great, and I highly recommend Heather Moore and her team at Precision Editing Group.

The Glory of the Stars by Angie Lofthouse

The Glory of the Stars by author Angie Lofthouse is coming out November 16th!
Angie LofthouseOn the vast generation ship, the Kingdom of Heaven, President Jeremiah Black’s word is law. It is doctrine. It is the voice of God.
400 years ago, the First Families boarded the Kingdom of Heaven to leave behind a wicked Earth and find a new home where they could build Zion—on a planet they named Canaan, a place the ship wouldn’t reach for a thousand years. Only their descendants would see this new world. But after so many years, conditions on the Kingdom of Heaven are much different from what those First Families had planned.
The Glory of the Stars (c) 2016 by Angie LofthouseWhen Nephi Packard of Telestial Deck runs afoul of President Black and his High Council, he learns the hard way why Leftovers like him don’t mingle with the Celestials. While recovering from his harsh punishment for violating the rules with Black's own granddaughter, an archangel appears to Nephi, and a calling to restore the true gospel to the Kingdom of Heaven turns Nephi’s life upside down. Now, armed with the word of God, Nephi and his friends from Telestial Deck must bring light, truth, and freedom to the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven without getting cast out of the ship into Outer Darkness for heresy by President Black and his Celestials.
The Glory of the Stars is a testament to faith, courage, and the power of God.

The Glory of the Stars by Angie Loft House

The Glory of the Stars by author Angie Lofthouse is coming out November 16th!
Angie LofthouseOn the vast generation ship, the Kingdom of Heaven, President Jeremiah Black’s word is law. It is doctrine. It is the voice of God.
400 years ago, the First Families boarded the Kingdom of Heaven to leave behind a wicked Earth and find a new home where they could build Zion—on a planet they named Canaan, a place the ship wouldn’t reach for a thousand years. Only their descendants would see this new world. But after so many years, conditions on the Kingdom of Heaven are much different from what those First Families had planned.
The Glory of the Stars (c) 2016 by Angie LofthouseWhen Nephi Packard of Telestial Deck runs afoul of President Black and his High Council, he learns the hard way why Leftovers like him don’t mingle with the Celestials. While recovering from his harsh punishment for violating the rules with Black's own granddaughter, an archangel appears to Nephi, and a calling to restore the true gospel to the Kingdom of Heaven turns Nephi’s life upside down. Now, armed with the word of God, Nephi and his friends from Telestial Deck must bring light, truth, and freedom to the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven without getting cast out of the ship into Outer Darkness for heresy by President Black and his Celestials.
The Glory of the Stars is a testament to faith, courage, and the power of God.

The Butterfly Circus

The Butterfly Circus is an inspiring short film about overcoming our shortcomings, and becoming magnificent despite what others (and ourselves) may think of us.

In The Butterfly Circus, Will (played by Nick Vujicic) is a man without arms or legs, who earns his keep in a circus side show, being gawked at by patrons, and insulted by his employer. After being treated with kindness by Mr. Mendez, the showman of the Butterfly Circus, he decides to run away and try his luck with Mr. Mendez and his associates.

What follows is an inspiring story of discovering a person's true worth and potential, despite what others think, and overcoming the boundaries that we think we can't overcome. "The greater the struggle, the more magnificent the triumph!" -Mr. Mendez

This is a beautiful movie, and I heartily recommend it to everyone!

Rachel Nunes' Ongoing Battle Against Plagiarism

Please consider making a donation to help Rachel Nunes' ongoing court costs against plagiarism here: Standing Against Plagiarism


I have posted about this before, several times, but I feel it's important to continue to talk about it. Just over two years ago, in August of 2014, a friend of mine, Rachel Nunes was contacted by book reviewers who were concerned that Ms. Nunes might have been plagiarized.  A book that had just come out, The Auction Deal by Sam Taylor Mullens, was almost word for word like a book that Rachel Nunes had written called Love to the Highest Bidder, (its name has since been changed to A Bid for Love) and which had been first published in 1998.

Hoping that it was just a misunderstanding, Rachel Nunes reached out Sam Taylor Mullens, asking for some sort of explanation, and a quick end to what she wanted to believe was just a mistake.

This began a nightmarish time in Ms. Nunes' life. Not only was it true that Sam Taylor Mullens had plagiarized Ms. Nunes novel, changing little more than the POV and adding sex scenes, but she decided not to own up to what she did when confronted about it. Instead of coming clean, Tiffanie Rushton (the real name of the plagiarist which I haven't mentioned before in my posts about this case) decided to lash out at Ms. Nunes. Using an army of sock puppets, Rushton pretended to be a multitude of supporters for herself, and attacked Ms. Nunes online, attempting to frighten her, and hurt her reputation as a writer and as a human being. Pretending to be various people, Rushton told one lie here, and another lie there to Nunes and others in order to keep from being found out and held accountable. As a friend and a fan of Rachel Nunes, I was outraged for her sake. I know what it feels like to be attacked verbally and online by someone who is determined to frighten me and bully me in whatever ways he thinks will effectively hurt me in order for him to get what he wants, or avoid punishment. That was exactly what Rushton was doing to Rachel Nunes. A person who ironically, had not wronged Rushton at all, but instead had been wronged by Rushton already. Rushton was not content to slap Rachel across one cheek, but when Rachel tried to stand up for herself, Rushton decided it was appropriate to slap her across the other cheek as well.

Rachel Nunes began a case against Tiffanie Rushton, wanting to hold her accountable, and stop her from harassing Nunes and others, as well as to stop her from plagiarizing others' work. Even then, Rushton's harassment did not stop.

Following the case from what I could see online, and what I learned directly from Rachel Nunes, I became more and more astounded. Bloggers and book reviewers who came forward to stand up for Nunes would become the victims of Rushton's vitriol as she attempted to discredit these people as well. More and more things kept happening. It was uncovered that Nunes was not Rushton's first victim; Sgt. Chase Weston, a soldier suffering from PTSD had written a stirring real life account of the day he was wounded, and Rushton had stolen that to begin an earlier book. Later it came to light that many of the names of Rushton's sock puppets were the names of children who had attended the school where Rushton taught. Later, Rushton started impersonating the parents of these children, threatening bloggers and other supporters of Nunes if they didn't take down the blogs talking about Rushton's unethical actions.

As of the writing of this post, it is August 2016. The month that Nunes had hoped the court date would be where Rushton would have to answer for herself and everything could be resolved. That date has not yet come. I hope it does, soon.

Read more about this situation here: John Doppler's Blog 
here:  Rachel Nunes' Blog
and again here: Standing Against Plagiarism

Mysteries of Cove Series: Book 2!

One of my favorite authors of all time, J. Scott Savage, has a new book coming out on September 20th that I am super excited about!  This is the second book in the steampunk Mysteries of Cove series that began with Fires of Invention.
Mysteries of Cove (c) 2015 J. Scott Savage
In Fires of Invention, Trenton and Kallista are young, inventive teens living in a society that has outlawed invention. Despite this, the two team up to follow clues left by Kalista's dad that lead them to one piece of equipment after another that help them construct something that ends up being extremely useful.

Gears of Revolution (c) 2016 J. Scott SavageI am excited to read Gears of Revolution, and can't wait to find out what is next for this adventurous team!
Author J. Scott Savage
Even though I don't know what happens yet in this second book of the Mysteries of Cove series, of one thing I am certain: the story will be exciting, fast paced, appropriate for all ages, and with an ending you might not expect, but that totally makes sense! J. Scott Savage is a fantastic author, and I highly recommend all his books!

Born to Treason by E. B. Wheeler

Born to Treason (c) 2016 by. E. B. WheelerBorn to Treason by E. B. Wheeler is a fantastic book combining well researched history, an exciting plot, believable, well-rounded characters, and a sweet, clean romance! Joan Pryce is a Catholic, living during the time when Queen Elizabeth is ruling, enforcing Protestant beliefs on her subjects. Caught in a conundrum between doing what is expected of her and doing what she believes is right, she meets Nicholas, and her growing feelings for him become tangled with her personal believes. I enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys history combined with clean romance!

The Utah Shakespeare Festival!

Earlier this month, my family took our annual trip down to Cedar City, one of my favorite places on the planet, to experience this year's Shakespeare Festival. We saw the play Much Ado About Nothing in the new Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre, which was designed to look like the original Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's plays were first performed. I enjoyed the play, as I have enjoyed the plays every year. I hope that next year, it will be easier to purchase refreshments during intermission, but on the whole, I enjoyed the experience. While Much Ado About Nothing was the only play I saw, there were many other plays offered, not all of them written by Shakespeare. The play utsekf was well done, and the theatre, as well as the rest of the new campus for the Festival, helped the experience. I plan to continue going to the festival every year for a long time, and encourage others to do the same! Visit the following link to learn more about the Utah Shakespeare Festival!

Sapporo Japan LDS Temple

When I first heard that there was going to be an LDS (Mormon) temple built in Sapporo, I was extremely excited. I had served an LDS mission in the Japan Sapporo mission, and I loved the people there, and the island of Hokkaido, which is where Sapporo is located. While I haven't been able to afford to go to the open house, where the public is allowed to go inside the temple and see all the rooms before the building is dedicated, I was so pleased to hear that so many of my fellow missionaries, and wonderful Christensen Shimai (Sister Christensen) our mission president's wife, were able to go and see it. I especially got choked up that my trainer, Akau Shimai's (Sister Akau's) husband and kids were able to go in her memory. I've mentioned Akau Shimai before, and how she passed away in the fall of 2014. I was so glad they were able to go, and took so many pictures. Her daughters are absolutely beautiful young ladies, and look so much like her, it makes me tear up. While on my mission, I always believed that someday an LDS temple would be built on the island of Hokkaido, and it has been!
Follow this link here to learn more about the Sapporo Temple, and other LDS temples.

Author L T Kodzo

L T Kodzo is a great writer whose books written for and about young people, focus on issues that teens face, and deal with them in effective and powerful ways. 



Her book, which I read with my journalism class, titled Dead Things, deals with abuse. The main character, Jimmy, is a sixteen year old young man who is half-Ute, and who has a lot of difficulty trusting people because of the abuse he suffered when he was younger. His favorite things are dead things; dinosaurs, and dead men who can't hurt him any more because they're gone. His issue now, is learning how to trust the right people who are still alive. Can he learn which people he can trust, and which people he can't, before he gets hurt again?


Aother book, Locker 572 deals with the issue of bullying, and the very real pain that comes with it. Sheridan Alexander, who has moved from one foster home to another, finds the abandoned journal of someone named Ribbon Barber. In the journal, she reads about the girl's pain from being bullied. Sheridan wants to find the author of the journal and help her before it's too late.

We don't have control over other people, nor do we have control over what they've done to us in the past; but what we do have control over, is ourselves.  We can choose to move in a positive direction regardless of how other people have treated us. We can choose to be kind, empathetic people who make the world a better place. I think L T Kodzo's books are fantastic because of how they show how even after bullying and abuse, it is possible to be positive and move in a positive direction.