Showing results by narrator "Jay Dyess" in All Categories

I thought it would be a good idea to buy a dog…. I ended up with an ATV I have no idea how to drive. I’m not sure how this happened, especially since the man I purchased it from, Justin Gabriel, introduced himself by running his remote-controlled monster pickup into my high heeled shoe. I’m serious, studious, and a high school English teacher at Good Grief High. Needless to say, Justin Gabriel is not my type.

I’m a city girl and proud of it. Chicago is my hometown and I’m in my element surrounded by people and buildings and busyness. Actually, my business—my vlog—depends on my interactions with people. You can’t go viral talking about your pet turtle. Well, maybe some people can, but that’s not how I became a highly paid influencer. I was happy to use my influence to help my grandmother, Agnes, save her assisted care facility. I thought I was going to hate being out in the wilderness for days on end…bugs and bears and no internet or sushi bars.

People are so serious about life. I feel it was made to be enjoyed. I’m not interested in having a great career or climbing a corporate ladder or being inside much at all, actually. I don’t like to stay with things too long, either. I’ve worked as a short line cook, a firefighter, and a dolphin trainer among other things. So, when the ladies at the Good Grief senior living center offer me a short term job as the photographer for the risqué nature calendar they want to pose for—to cross it off of Miss Agnes’s bucket list—I am all in.

It took me a while—most of my life, in fact—to decide that my hometown of Good Grief, Idaho, is the best place in the world to live. But I have and I love it...except for one thing. My boss. Okay, so the man is good at his job. We just have a tendency to disagree on how much activity the seniors at our assisted-living center want to have.

Willen Hawkins knew exactly what she wanted to do with her unexpected inheritance: use it to fix up the Indigo Inn at Blueberry Beach. After all, it’s been more than 18 years since she graduated from Blueberry Beach High and left town. The life she’s created for herself is far more lonely than the life she’d envisioned for herself as a teen. But if she wants to reinvent herself and start building the life she wants, she has to stop waiting for everything to be perfect and start now.

Tiffany Grant wanted to return to her hometown of Blueberry Beach in style—but a bunch of bad choices mean that she’s crawling back with barely a penny to her name. At least her debts are paid off, even if she had to sell everything she owned to make that happen. She has a lot of regrets and a lot of sins and secrets to make up for. So the first thing she does when she arrives at Blueberry Beach is to stop at the church and volunteer for every program they have. Kane Burton has a secret past of his own. No one expects their pastor to have been a male stripper.

As they agreed on the night of their high school graduation, Leiklyn and her two friends, Tiffany and Willen, meet on the porch of the Manor at Blueberry Beach on April Fool’s day, 18 years after being given their diplomas. Life hadn’t turned out as expected for any of them. A single mother for 15 years, Leiklyn recently lost her job and her unemployment is running out. Could the manor she and her friends bought for one dollar be the change she needs to move forward in her life? Or will it just complicate things when she finds out the explosive secret her daughter is hiding?

After working beside her sisters for years on their Iowa farm, Meg McCartney finds herself alone, trying to do the work of three people. She’s never been one to mope around, but she’s lonely and tired and at the end of her rope—desperate enough to give serious thought to an offer that has come in for the farm…and for her.

They were high school sweethearts, but money and pride came between them. Can their twin sons trick them into falling in love again? Reid Hudson would be happy on his Missouri farm except he’d always thought he’d be sharing it with his soul mate, Emerson. Instead, he gets six months with each of his boys and splits the holidays. Not the life he’d planned.

Candace McClosky thought the billionaire tycoon actually loved her and would help her save her family’s ranch. She fancied herself in love for the first time in her life. She was a fool. Now, she’s stuck with even more problems and, as the oldest, she feels responsible for helping her sisters and saving their ranch. So, she comes up with a desperate plan and pitches it to an even more desperate cowboy.

Chip Inman’s life trajectory was always meant to lead him straight to the NFL. But a nasty head injury during his last college home game threw him into uncertain territory where memories were hard to come by. Greta Griffin, a shy dog groomer with aspirations to train service dogs, was instrumental, years ago, in helping Chip Inman graduate high school. She’d had feelings for the star quarterback for as long as she could remember, but didn’t run in his circles.

It’s 1844, and Mount has returned to his secluded cabin nestled in the Rocky Mountains, bringing with him his new bride, Sandra, and stepson, Andy. The new family is happy beyond words, and just starting to build a wonderful future. Suddenly, their lives are shattered, and that happy future in jeopardy, when Sandra is kidnapped by a ruthless band of outlaws led by the notorious assassin, Li Zhang. The resulting adventure is packed full of excitement, danger, and surprises, and, of course, plenty of Mount’s special brand of humor.

Everyone’s favorite mountain man returns! The year is 1843. On his way to Fall Rendezvous, Mount meets up with his old friend Patch, along with Sunshine, Patch’s traveling companion. What starts out as an expedition for fun soon turns to an epic struggle for survival amid the dramatic and exciting Western wilds. The biggest escapade for Mount lies ahead in Oregon City, as his past adventures catch up with him in the form of the woman he loves...and is determined to make his own.

Arlen Blumhagen captures the feel of the western wilderness of the late 1800s in this story of one man's adventures across the American wilderness. Mount leads a simple life, using his skills to survive in his cabin on the side of a mountain. When circumstances require him to make a trip into St. Louis, Mount thinks it will be a quick visit to the big city and then home. What he isn't prepared for is the request of Andrew Worthington to lead his family through the wilderness and up through the Oregon Trail.

If you've always wanted to develop a magnetic personality by mastering the art of small talk but feel intimidated and uncomfortable in social situations, then keep reading...A study published in the Journal of Social Psychology and Personality Science has linked small talk with improved brain power and overall life satisfaction. Which means you can learn to break the ice, energize your brain cells and greatly improve your quality of life. You can do this all without having to pretend to be someone you’re not.

In an age where technology makes life as absurd as it does convenient, Science Fiction does for sci-fi what Pulp Fiction did for crime noir. Somewhere in the galaxy a cooking competition goes terribly wrong-a new contestant must be found.... Joe Gillette has two issues he's working through: he's terrible with technology, and he's developed a fear of naked women. Just in time, he is befriended by Old Cool, an alien who has been disguised as a British rock star for decades. Old Cool offers to help Joe with his problems - if Joe accompanies him back to Vermicula Prime.

Lincoln Larkin’s most recent novels are so awful that they’ve pushed him to the brink of self-destruction. Now, those same stories are literally trying to kill him and everyone he gets close to. His novel Vriends is anything but a masterpiece and didn’t land him on any best-seller lists, but the characters from this spoof - a quirky group of vampires who crave caffeinated blood - are coming to life and draining innocent people all over the city.

Teri Campbell is on the run, on a bus ride to nowhere. An unscheduled stop on the windblown plains of Wyoming leaves her at M&J's Truck Stop...and in the arms of Mike Gallagher, the young trucker who appoints himself her protector, who understands her as no one else could. But will her new life and her newfound love be enough when events take an unexpected turn? And can even Mike keep her safe from the past that threatens to reclaim her?

We need to fight against sugars and prolonged sitting; have a zero-tolerance policy for high blood pressure, high LDL, and smoking; and learn what gives the obesity-diabetes-artery disease epidemic strength and what its weak points are.

After losing his wife to cancer, Gilbert McBride just wants to raise his three kids and give them the best life he can. Now that he's gotten his business in the black after losing his wife to cancer he's going to buy a farm and spend lots of time with his kids doing what they love.