The Time Travels of Annie Sesstry


Book Description

Annie Sesstry's family roots trace back to Laverne Fox MacElmurry, a man born in slavery in 1829, and freed after the Civil War. Annie, his twenty-first descendant, is a smart and sassy thirteen-year-old from an upper-middle-class family, anxious to spread her wings. Annie's mother, a writer, and her father, a history professor and curator at the Smithsonian Institution spend weekends with their children exploring historical and cultural points of interest. Though Annie hates everything about bygone times, her parents insist understanding history is essential to the children understanding who they are and from where they came. One summer day, Annie, her sister Emma, and her cousin Joshua slip through a portal and travel back in time to post-Civil War Georgia. They meet Fox and discover a secret about family time travelers through the generations, learning that history isn't so dull after all. *** "Using time travel as a crafty device, Brenda Welburn gifts the reader with a mlange of family history, creative artistry and historical facts that educates and entertains. The eventful journey from contemporary metropolitan D.C. back to post civil-war Georgia where sassy teenage protagonist Annie encounters her ancestral family is riddled with intrigue. While exposing with accuracy some of the terror and darkest moments of the era, the poignant journey illuminates the values, determination, and courage of a people forging a new life of freedom. The window on conditions experienced by our collective ancestors not only underscores how far we have come but reminds as well that the struggle continues". The Honorable Alice Dear Former Ambassador, African Development Bank




The Time Travels of Annie Sesstry


Book Description

The history of the MacElmurry-Calhoun family unfolds through the mystical travels of Annie Sesstry, a bright, audacious, and artistically talented African American teen who is resistant to her parents' efforts to instill in her an appreciation for her bloodline and African American culture. Book one of the Time Travels of Annie, Sly as a Fox, introduces Annie to a family secret of time travelers searching through the ages attempting to identify an ancient, unknown ancestor brought to America on a slave ship. On a family outing, Annie, her sister Emma, and her cousin Joshua fall through a time portal that takes them back to Crawford County, Georgia, in 1867. They meet their fourth-generation great-grandparents and a slew of ancestral aunts and uncles, experiencing the post-Civil War South during Reconstruction. When danger threatens, the community comes together for a rescue mission. Their adventures give a whole new meaning to family.




Missouri's Memories


Book Description

Missouri's Memories is the second in the trilogy of the Time Travels of Annie Sesstry, advancing the young time-travelers beyond America's Reconstruction era into the twentieth century. Annie, Emma, and Josh prepare for the National Museum of African American History and Culture grand opening when the winds of history catapult them to the past once again. Encountering their fourth generation great grandmother, Missouri McElmurry Calhoun on her 50th wedding anniversary reminiscing about her life, surprise and adventure await her descendants as they continue their search for an unknown ancestor brought to the shores of a fledgling nations generations earlier. An unexpected companion joins the young adventurers this time, adding to the sweet marvels of coming of age with the challenges of navigating unfamiliar exploits. The remnants of the Red Summer and the impediments of Jim Crow once again expose the children to history lessons never imagined.




The Lonesome Shepherd


Book Description

What would you do with a second chance? It is September 1943 when the captured German submarine, U-830, fails to return to the surface with its American crew. Thomas Shield’s father was supposed to be on board that day but was ordered away at the last minute. Riddled with survivor’s guilt, Thomas’s father returns home and devotes his time to looking after the loved ones his deceased comrades left behind. Thomas, who feels ignored by his father, begins a dark journey fueled by his sense of abandonment. As substance abuse and psychological issues cloud Thomas’s reasoning and path forward, he immerses himself in a rather dark and tragic existence—or so he thinks. He becomes less sure of what is real and what has simply been renting space in his head, when he meets a mysterious stranger who believes in second chances. As Thomas struggles with his predicament, he returns to the past, with help from his father’s diary and others, where he learns the true meaning of sacrifice. In this historical novel, the troubled son of a Second World War veteran suspects he has been offered a second chance to reconcile the past and heal. “Riveting from the onset with a cliff hanger that leaves the reader begging for more, only to find an enthralling tale.” – Laura’s List: Books for Women




Fred


Book Description

Fred: Buffalo Building of Dreams, built in 1900, tells the oral history and legacy of generations of his ethnically and culturally diverse tenants and their families who arrived in America from all over the world, during the span of a hundred twenty years. This multi-period historical fiction novel shares Fred's appreciation of the value of freedom and what it means to thrive and survive in the 21st Century and beyond. It is a legacy of hope for current and future generations to come.




Crowning Conversations


Book Description

Do you feel you should be doing more with your life, but you just don’t know what? Do you have things you want to do, but you don’t know how to get started? Have you tried and failed too many times and are afraid to put yourself out there again? Crowning Conversations helps you discover the tools to heal from your past so you can unlock the goals of your future. Packed with real-life testimonies and solutions for success, this collection of essays teaches you and inspires you to become confident in walking unapologetically in your true, authentic self. It challenges every woman to reframe her perception of a bad situation. A career-driven serial entrepreneur, hip-hop artist and psychotherapist, stage playwright/producer/director, and fitness instructor come together from different walks of life to meet and share on common ground. They reveal a piece of their story that should have taken them out, yet they overcame. This dynamic group of empowered black women delivers authenticity, transparency, inspiration, and passion to help you reach your next level of self-awareness.




UNfatally Dead: to thaw or not to thaw?


Book Description

This alternative history novel begins with a mouse trying desperately to follow an ambulance occupied by a VIP being transported into a laboratory/clinic. It's Dec. 16, 1966… the day WALT DISNEY’s body supposedly was placed into cryonic suspension. He faces a momentous decision: a contractual provision requires a review, every five years, to assess whether enough medical advances would be feasible for reanimation. Although absent for 50 years, he has not been forgotten, figuratively or literally. This poses questions that each of us may have to answer in our own lives as we measure ourselves against the changes wrought by medical and scientific progress. Moreover, who might enjoy being the first person to be revived to a functioning life more than Walter Elias Disney? This new science fiction and fantasy novel exposes both Disney and curmudgeon mentor, celebrated icon Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain (notorious for his way of yarn spinning) to numerous time travel and enlightening experiences – some predetermined, others not so much - all to ensure a heightened awareness of the possible pitfalls or foibles experienced herein: • Disney and Clemens experience San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury twice, 20 years apart. • They are seen by dismayed Mission Control at NASA, while on the moon. • They listen to famed singer Joan Baez at Woodstock. • They meet Steve Jobs at a garage sale. • Twain realizes there is more than one Mark Twain on the Bonanza television set. • There is a run-in with an Olympic runner and encounter an obnoxious biker with his unruly chick. • They have a run-in with a bank robber; visit a nightclub, and an important tool is stolen. • And of course, they visit both Disneyland and Disneyworld with hilarious and heartwarming outcomes. • When they interact with modern audiovisual technology and kitchen appliances, anything can and does happen. • They also experience the dismay of traumatic world-changing events and the pitfalls of not following the dictate.




Winter's Captive


Book Description

Recently separated from her cheating husband and unaware of a budding pregnancy, Georgia Charles is on her way to Yukon to visit a childhood friend. After she's attacked by unknown men, Georgia's trip becomes a fight for survival. Escaping to the wild, she seeks shelter in an abandoned cabin. With no survival skills and an impending childbirth, Georgia has to face the harsh elements of British Columbia's Last Frontier - and her inner demons - in order to survive. As adversity and unrelenting conditions test her character and will to live, can Georgia save herself, and her unborn child? NOTE: This is the large print edition of Winter's Captive, with a larger font / typeface for easier reading.