Books with author M.A. McDonald

The collection of stories in Dirt Road Memories will take the reader back to my boyhood dreams of playing second base for the Yankees while growing up in a small frame house inhabited by a band of siblings and extended family in the Deep South. We travel from riding my horse during my boyhood to the trials and tribulations of a shy teenage boy attending high school in the sixties in a very small rural school. I tell stories of raising pigs, encountering poisonous snakes on the front porch and hiking and camping in the Great Smoky Mountains as an adult. Hopefully, the reader will find some of the stories amusing while others may bring a few tears. I sincerely hope these stories will transport the reader back to a time when life was more carefree and innocent.

A long time ago, Aladdin's Genie was set free on Aladdin's final wish.Would that Genie have descendants?All her life Jasmine Evans has moved from around the world with her Dad never settling anywhere for long. When they move to a small coastal town in Australia Jasmine hopes that all this will change and she will have the chance to be an ordinary girl. But things do not go according to plan and one fateful afternoon she discovers that she has the power to grant wishes. Her new powers unlock a dangerous secret that threatens her new home, her friends and her very existence. Now as she begins to solve the mystery of her past with the help of ancient societies and mythical creatures she realizes she is being stalked by a dark enemy and must race against time to stop them from imprisoning her forever in the mystical and fabled lamp of Aladdin.Don’t miss Jasmine Evans and the Master of the Lamp, the first in the Jasmine Evans series by Alex C. McDonald. If you like P.B. Kerr, Rick Riordan, Eoin Colfer and Sever Bronny, then you are going to enjoy turning the pages of this new fantasy world.

Fiona can't wait to attend the performance of Coppelia at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh. Her old friend, Silja Ramsay, is dancing the principal role. They have dinner after the show, but when they return Pittsburgh Ballet Theater is down one dancer! Ballerina, Alexis Cartwright, has been found dead in the dressing room. Is this murder a result of hot tempers among the cast members? Or is it a random act of violence? Will there be more murders? Homicide Detective, Nathan Landry, isn't taking any chances. After finding out Fiona has a strong background in ballet he recruits her to go undercover among the cast of Coppelia. Can Fiona help catch a killer, or will she be the next victim?

Can a twelve-step program help Sadie kick her unrequited crush for good? Abby McDonald serves up her trademark wit and wisdom in a hilarious novel.Seventeen-year-old Sadie is in love: epic, heartfelt, and utterly onesided. The object of her obsession — ahem, affection — is her best friend, Garrett Delaney, who has been oblivious to Sadie’s feelings ever since he sauntered into her life and wowed her with his passion for Proust (not to mention his deep-blue eyes). For two long, painful years, Sadie has been Garrett’s constant companion, sharing his taste in everything from tragic Russian literature to art films to ‘80s indie rock — all to no avail. But when Garrett leaves for a summer literary retreat, Sadie is sure that the absence will make his heart grow fonder — until he calls to say he’s fallen in love. With some other girl! A heartbroken Sadie realizes that she’s finally had enough. It’s time for total Garrett detox! Aided by a barista job, an eclectic crew of new friends (including the hunky chef, Josh), and a customized selfhelp guide, Sadie embarks on a summer of personal reinvention full of laughter, mortifying meltdowns, and a double shot of love.

World-hopping, high-action adventure starring a smart boy with computer skills and a tough girl who pilots a blimp The airship Everness makes a Heisenberg Jump to an alternate Earth unlike any her crew has ever seen. Everett, Sen, and the crew find themselves above a plain that goes on forever in every direction without any horizon. There they find an Alderson Disc, an astronomical megastructure of incredibly strong material reaching from the orbit of Mercury to the orbit of Jupiter. Then they meet the Jiju, the dominant species on a plane where the dinosaurs didn't die out. They evolved, diversified, and have a twenty-five million year technology head-start on humanity. War between their kingdoms is inevitable, total and terrible. Everness has jumped right into the midst of a faction fight between rival nations, the Fabreen and Dityu empires. The airship is attacked, but then defended by the forces of the Fabreen, who offers theEverness crew protection. But what is the true motive behind Empress Aswiu's aid? What is her price? The crew of the Everness is divided in a very alien world, a world fast approaching the point of apocalypse.

The next installment of the multiple award-winning author's exciting YA series.Everett Singh has escaped with the Infundibulum from the clutches of Charlotte Villiers and the Order, but at a terrible price. His father is missing, banished to one of the billions of parallel universes of the Panoply of All Worlds, and Everett and the crew of the airship Everness have taken a wild, random Heisenberg Jump to a random parallel plane. Everett is smart and resourceful, and, from a frozen earth far beyond the Plenitude, he plans to rescue his family. But the villainous Charlotte Villiers is one step ahead of him.The action traverses the frozen wastes of iceball earth; to Earth 4 (like ours, except that the alien Thryn Sentiency occupied the moon in 1964); to the dead London of the forbidden plane of Earth 1, where the remnants of humanity battle a terrifying nanotechnology run wild--and Everett faces terrible choices of morality and power. But Everett has the love and support of Sen, Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, and the rest of the crew of Everness. He learns that the deadliest enemy isn't the Order, or the world-devouring nanotech Nahn--it's yourself.

Can a boy-hungry Jersey girl survive the wilds of Canada – with her eco-identity intact? A witty new YA novel from the author of Life Swap.Seventeen-year-old Jenna may hail from the ‘burbs of New Jersey, but Green Teen activism is her life. So when her mum suggests they spend the summer at Grandma’s Florida condo, Jenna pleads to visit her hippie godmother, Susie, up in rural Canada. Jenna is psyched at the chance to commune with this nature she's heard so much about – and the cute, plaid-wearing boys she's certain must roam there. But after a few unpleasant run-ins with local wildlife (from a moose called Madge to Susie's sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna gets the idea that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don't play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. A dusty survival guide offers Jenna amusing tips on navigating the wilderness, and those who call it home – but can she learn to navigate the surprising turns of her heart?

After the events of the past year all Jasmine Evans wants to do is settle into a regular life. But just as she’s beginning to realise that ‘normal life’ has its own set of challenges a talking goanna known as Trevor from the World Magical Postal Service shows up with some terrible news, her Aunt Gabrielle has been kidnapped. Luckily though, Jasmine’s Aunt has hidden Aladdin’s lamp, but warns of others who are in pursuit of the lamp.The others are the Forty Thieves and they have a new mysterious leader from within the Antediluvian Order. Jasmine must race to Switzerland where Gabrielle has hidden the lamp to a place called ‘Pierre’s Mysterious Antiques’, where she will find a mysterious helper.Jasmine will find that every time she gets close to discovering answers about her powers or the lamp, she meets people who have their own agenda and she doesn’t know who to trust. Can Jasmine get control of her wish-granting powers and stop the terrible weather changes before her closest friends and family get really hurt? And who is this mysterious person who wants to own her?

Raven never expected to be a mother at sixteen. Is she going to be just another high school dropout, a project girl with few prospects? Could be, except Raven has ambition. Still, when is she going to find the time to finish school? Then her older sister tells her about a spelling bee that promises the winner a scholarship for college. Spelling? There isn't a subject she's worse at. But once Raven's got her mind set, nothing gets in her way...

An uptight Brit and a hard-partying American swap lives in the smartest comedy of the season.Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup, and "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you’ve got two thoroughly unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. With an anthropologist’s eye for detail and a true ear for teen-speak, Abby McDonald crafts a funny, fast-paced, poignant look at survival, sisterhood, and the surprising ways we discover our true selves.