Showing results by narrator "Lynn Norris" in All Categories

When Leslie Nelson, a naive, small town girl, got a job as a prison guard, her friends called her a female Barney Fife. But that job turned out to be a unique on-the-job training for motherhood. This non-fiction short will take you inside the prison and share tips on how to avoid riots in your own home. Leslie is the mother of five children (three teenagers, heaven help her!). Her youngest is seven so "parole" is a long way off.

Widowed and without grandchildren, the loneliness becomes crippling for children's illustrator Beverly Vernon. So she begins a portrait of the ideal granddaughter, who is blonde, violet-eyed and smiling. Until she uncovers the bones of a young child in her back garden. Then Beverly's painting changes of its own accord; the girl's smiling expression turns grim. As Beverly endeavours to identify the child and how it died, her sanity is tested to the limit. While hunting for the truth in a dark past, Beverly risks everything in her present.

Mackenzie Walker wasn't planning on using her college radio show to solve a decades-old murder, but when she receives an anonymous tip that the wrong man may have taken the fall, she can't resist digging deeper. It doesn't take long for Mackenzie to discover gaps in the official story. Several potential witnesses conveniently disappeared soon after the murder. The victim, a glamorous heiress and founder of a Kentucky horse-racing dynasty, left behind plenty of enemies. And the cops don't seem particularly interested in discussing any of it.

Born the heir of a master woodcutter in a queendom defined by guilds and matrilineal inheritance, nonbinary Sorin can't quite seem to find their place. At seventeen, an opportunity to attend an alchemical guild fair and secure an apprenticeship with the queen's alchemist is just within reach. But on the day of the fair, Sorin's mother goes missing, along with the Queen and hundreds of guild masters, forcing Sorin into a woodcutting inheritance they never wanted.

Magic has been banished back to the edges of the continent, and Sorin the Master Chemist has one remaining task: restore the guilds of Gasta Fletcha to save the continent's economy, and its soul. Except the continent has never been more prosperous. Queen Magda is ready to leave the guilds behind and embrace the incoming factories. Sorin's task of releasing trapped skills from magic amulets is no longer a priority of the crown. Sorin would rather die than give up on the guilds, but Sorin does not get to make these decisions.

In the midst of ongoing news about Southwestern water scarcity, Martha Retallick sees an opportunity. For 20 years, she has been transforming her central Tucson home into an urban oasis. The secret to her success: Water harvesting. Since Retallick purchased her central Tucson home in 2004, she has incorporated two types of water harvesting – passive and active – into her landscape. Passive water harvesting is simply the act of sculpting the landscape to direct the water to where it should be – like plants – and away from where it shouldn’t be – like a home’s foundation.

Water Harvesting 101 introduces you to Passive and Active Water Harvesting. Passive Water Harvesting is the act of sculpting your land with basins, berms, and drainage swales. The goal? To channel rainwater toward plants and away from structures – like your house. Passive water-harvesting earthworks eliminate the need for landscape irrigation connected to municipal water systems. In arid regions, that spells substantial cost savings.

Sisters Kisare and Belili uproot an ancient box in their owner's orchard and find a miracle inside: a fifth godfruit in a society that knows only four. It is punishable by death for non-nobles to eat godfruit, so the sisters hide the discovery and plot to escape servitude for good. With the power represented in the box, they could live as nobles themselves.