Book Review at Novels Alive

Amy at the book blog Novels Alive book blog just posted a review of The Acorn Stories, saying “The Acorn Stories delivers insight into a fictional small town, illustrating the ups and downs of life.”

"In Acorn, Texas, every hidden story wrestles with humor and heart."

In Acorn, Texas, every hidden story wrestles with humour and heart.https://t.co/8K70gN75Oi@DuaneSimolke #booktwitter #bookstoread #booktwt #bookreader #booksbooksbooks #fortheloveofbooks #booklove #kindlebooks #kindle pic.twitter.com/9QrPKNgSR2

— PromoCorner - Find your next Book. (@PromoCornerX) April 7, 2025

JP MacDougall's Indie Author Features

JP MacDougall, author of The Pangean Chronicles, has made the following announcement about free book promotion on his website. Authors looking for more exposure should visit now.

Promoting books online can feel like shouting into the void. That’s why I’m offering FREE promotion on my website, https://t.co/5epWtkHCrr, to help you reach more readers. 📚✨
📩 Send your book details, links, and images to authorjpmacdougall@outlook.com, and I’ll showcase your… pic.twitter.com/UouD1QmEpN

— JP Macdougall (@PangeanChrons) March 25, 2025

About The Pangean Chronicles

Millions of years ago in the time of Pangea, when the continents were still as one, there existed the demon world. A race known as the Sanctorians reigned over a peaceful existence until the mysterious and unsettling birth of a dark demon cast a long shadow over this peace. Following the rise of this dark lord, who became known as Satanicus, a terrible war ensued, with Sanctorians leading a resistance against this new tyranny. By the end of the catastrophic war, with Satanicus incarcerated within 'The Book', the super-continent of Pangea was shattered into its separate continents and human existence, as we know it now, came to be.

Now the human race faces a threat greater than ever before. Lord Masshawus has spent millions of years in the shadows, raising an army and now plots to unify Pangea. It is down to Michael Shaw and his allies to stop the unification of Pangea and to recover 'The Book'. The future of civilisation is in the balance and there are very few who can be trusted.

For Poetry Lovers!

My eBook Selected Poems is part of the Indie Poetry Sale hosted by Author, Poet & Graphic Designer Despoina Kemeridou. Despoina wrote Pieces of my Heart, Of Darkness and Light, and Whispers of the Soul. Though many of the discounts there are temporary, please keep visiting Despoina’s site for more indie writing and resources.

N. N. Light’s Book Heaven presents Duane Simolke #authorspotlight

N. N. Light’s Book Heaven presents Duane Simolke #authorspotlight #sciencefiction #shortstories #fiction #mustread Read this author spotlight at N. N. Light’s Book Heaven about my fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. It covers a lot of my writing journey. #BookThreads

Readers' Favorite: Short Story Collection

“Duane Simolke presents an enthralling collection of slice-of-life stories set in a fictional Texas town.” —Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite. Read the review on Bookstagram/Instagram.

Taldra Part of Bookish Event

Taldra: Science Fiction Adventures is part of a Kobo Plus Bookish Event at N. N. Light's Book Heaven. Some of my other books are also available through Kobo Plus.

A First Nation family will gather allies to protect the Earth of an alternate reality in these scifi adventures for Star Trek fans.

A New Interview at Tweetables.Com

Jane at Tweetables.Com reviewed my Texas fiction collection The Acorn Stories and interviewed me about my writing. In a follow-up interview for the 2nd anniversary of Tweetables, I talk about my scifi novels and the importance of book blogs. https://www.tweetables.com/2024/03/revisiting-duane-simolke.html

A New Way to Read Some of My Books.

Kobo Plus users can now read Taldra and some of my other eBooks at no extra charge.

The Picky Bookworm: Sons of Talda

Read about Sons of Taldra: A Science Fiction Adventure at the bookblog The Picky Bookworm.

From the bookblogger: "Hello, new friend! Welcome to The Picky Bookworm! I am so glad you’re here! If you’ve been looking for a place to hang out, be encouraged, and find support for your writing journey, you are in the right place! My name is Pamela, and I am a huge supporter of indie and self-published books and authors. One of my favorite things about the book community is how supportive we all are of each other. When I found this community, I knew I’d found my place."

"Here on The Picky Bookworm you’ll find tons of tips, prompts and discussions to help you find your place. I also love posting book reviews, so you’ll find a ton of those to help you find your next favorite read."

"A more real and honest book about the struggles we all face."

From a new 5-star book review of The Acorn Stories at Goodreads:

“I get life isn’t perfect and we all have problems but man. I thought this was going to be a feel good book. But maybe that is why I liked it. Because it was a more real and honest book about the struggles we all face.”

Read the full review at Goodreads.

Author Shay Mills Reviews SciFi Adventure Sons of Taldra at Substack

“Truly unique and amazing!” —Shay Mills, author of The Secret Life Series. Read the review here.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Released! "Sons of Taldra: A Science Fiction Adventure" by @DuaneSimolke

It wasn’t just good — it was truly unique & amazing!

Substack: https://t.co/n9CmQMFpRr
Medium: https://t.co/n86zBeGCOn
GoodReads: https://t.co/pBss1BKZlK#Writingcommunity #LGBTQIA pic.twitter.com/7fukwCRnRd

— Eric Rench - Shay Mills Fiction Author (@IDOBOOKREVIEWS) May 16, 2023

From the Substack bio of Eric - Author Shay Mills: "After a successful career in the military, I took to telling my tales. I am known for being an eclectic author who writes Horror, Thriller, Crime-Drama, Paranormal, Suspense, and Literary Coming of Age Tales."

The Acorn Stories is a LitNuts Book of the Day

LitNuts, a site that calls itself “crazy about books,” has announced the Texas fiction collection The Acorn Stories as a “LitNuts Book of the Day.” The Acorn Stories is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.

According to the site, “LitNuts LLC is a woman-owned, family-run business founded by Kathleen Meyer and her father, Mike O'Mary, who share a love of literature. Kathleen is an avid reader with 11 years of marketing experience, including with Dream of Things, a small press founded by Mike in 2009. From 2009 - 2016, Dream of Things published three New York Times Bestsellers, three winners of the Hoffer Award, and one book that was optioned for a film.”

LitNuts Book of the Day: The Acorn Stories. #BookTwitter #BookRecommendation 🍁📙 #CrazyAboutBookshttps://t.co/fu8mCLUrL8

— BookTWT and SciFi Geek (@DuaneSimolke) May 9, 2023

“A poignant look into small towns and the people that make each small town unique.”

From a new book review of The Acorn Stories:

“This collection is a poignant look into small towns and the people that make each small town unique. I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories. Take my advice and grab your copy today. Escape to the small-town life.”

Read the full review at N. N. Light's Book Heaven.

Discover Books a New Way with BookHylla

Ray Ferch, author of But What If Harry? and Blueburrie, is creating a new book search system. BookHylla allows authors to create unique keyword combinations for searches, called “Ferch Phrases.”

I added some of my books and created some Ferch Phrases. They didn’t take long to start appearing in Google search results.

On Bookhylla’s “About this” page, Ray explains, “What makes Bookhylla so powerful is that we can really create unique Ferch Phrases that define our book and make it really easy for readers to find our book. We can create phrases that tie movies to our book, for example.”

BookHylla featured books.

BookHylla featured authors.

My BookHylla page.

Bookhylla Featured Author - Duane Simolke - https://t.co/G0S40o6AQx @DuaneSimolke pic.twitter.com/PtJ6lyoIXA

— rayferch (@rayferch) March 21, 2023

Discussion Questions for Reading Groups/Book Clubs

Was your home town anything like Acorn? If so, how?

How would setting The Acorn Stories some place other than West Texas change it? What about setting it in the 2020s, instead of the late twentieth century?

How would changing the nonlinear structure of stories like “Knock” and “Mae” affect the stories?

Which characters did you like most in The Acorn Stories? Why? Did any of them remind you of yourself or anyone you know? Are the characters you enjoyed most necessarily ones that you would want to meet in real life?

The stories “Echoes” and “Come With Me” both take their names from paintings, while “Survival” takes its name from a student essay. How do the themes and imagery from those internal, creative works affect the overall stories? Is creativity a theme in any of the other stories?

Why do some of the characters in The Acorn Stories seem to care so much about names, and variances of names?

Does The Acorn Stories glamorize or criticize small-town life?

The Acorn Stories is a story collection, but does it resemble a novel?

Many characters reoccur in this collection. Are there any who seem important to the overall book, rather than just to one or two particular stories?

Texas contains many oddly named towns. Some of those names appear in The Acorn Stories and its spin-off, The Acorn Gathering. Did you catch any?

How do acorns work as a metaphor in The Acorn Stories? Are there other metaphors in the book?

Does The Acorn Stories reflect the diversity of Texans? Americans?

The Acorn Stories is mostly set during the 1990s. If it became a movie, which 1990s songs would work best for the soundtrack?

If you’ve seen the Del Shores play or movie Sordid Lives, how would you relate it to The Acorn Stories?

Which books, plays, or movies would you suggest for people who like The Acorn Stories?

Discuss The Acorn Stories at GoodReads and BookBub.

Read the reviews at Kirkus Reviews, Amazon.Com, bn.com, and Goodreads.

Excerpts from The Acorn Stories

The Individual Stories

Historical Acorn, Texas

The Acorn Gathering, a Spin-off from The Acorn Stories

One of the Most-Read Interviews in Tweetables Book Blog’s First Year

Please visit the award-winning book blog Tweetables. My author interview there ranked as one of the top-five most viewed of the blog’s first year. That top five also includes Jane’s discussions with authors Lisa Thomas, Liz Treacher, Shane Scott, and Martin Featherston.

“I swung from sad to happy, angry to laughing out loud,” Jane wrote in a review of my short story collection The Acorn Stories at Tweetables. The review appears just below the interview.

Please follow jane @ tweetables on Twitter.

Keywords: book blog, bookblogger, reviewed, reviewers, review, short stories, writer resources, awards.

Queer Indie 2023 Nomination

What an honor to receive a nomination for the 2023 Queer Indie Awards! That makes two years in a row.

🏳️‍🌈 VOTE NOW in the Queer Indie Awards! This nomination involves the overall works of an author, instead of just one particular book.

🏳️‍🌈 VOTE NOW! 🏳️‍🌈

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

Vote for the 2023 @Queer_Indie Awards!
OUR 3RD ANNUAL AWARDS SHOW!

Pledge your sword to your favorite author in each category, and let the games begin!https://t.co/yf3rcEzM4q

— Queer Indie 🏳️‍🌈 (@queer_indie) January 25, 2023

Tweetables: The Acorn Stories Review and Interview

The book blog Tweetables now features a book review and author interview about my book The Acorn Stories. That collection of short stories celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023.

“I swung from sad to happy, angry to laughing out loud” –from the review at Tweetables.

Jane writes the Tweetables blog, Twitter account, and Facebook page. The Tweetables “About” page includes the following background.

“The #writing community on twitter has opened my eyes to new writers too. There are so many talented people, but how do these wonderful authors get their message out? I find myself wanting to help and I'm hoping to find other people like me, who want to learn about new titles whilst meeting the brilliant authors who penned them.”

Please visit the Tweetables blog to read Jane’s review and interview about The Acorn Stories. Please also read some of the other entries there and visit again to read more.

Spotlight on Scintilla.info: “A small spark igniting imaginations.”

Scintilla.info is a book and lifestyle blog that celebrates and fosters a love of reading by focusing on these four categories:

• Books for Growing & Learning — nonfiction & reference

• Books for Nurturing & Sharing — children’s literature & young adult

• Books for Enjoying & Experiencing — fiction & literature

• Resources for Inspiration & Encouragement — celebrations, words, quotes, & resources

Recent posts include book reviews of works by J.M. Briscoe, O.C. Heaton, Damyanti Biswas, and Karl Drinkwater. Visit the site often for other reviews, features, and blog tours. You can also follow via Twitter: scintilla.info or the blog roll off to the right on this blog.