Books with author Mark Steven Johnson

Oscar is a strange looking little seagull. He is smaller than the others, a bit clumsy and has blue legs but he sure is loveable. Danger is in the air and Oscar's family is forced to flee, leaving Oscar alone. Come along with Oscar, a sheepdog named Cooper and a wise old eagle as they show us the meaning of courage, determination, teamwork, and friendship. I know, I know, a sheepdog usually chases seagulls and an eagle might see a seagull as today's dinner. The thing is that Oscar is just too loveable. Enjoy this heartwarming narrative supported by rich, colorful illustrations that breathe life and emotion into the characters.

Oscar is a strange looking little seagull. He is smaller than the others, a bit clumsy and has blue legs but he sure is loveable. Danger is in the air and Oscar's family is forced to flee, leaving Oscar alone. Come along with Oscar, a sheepdog named Cooper and a wise old eagle as they show us the meaning of courage, determination, teamwork, and friendship. I know, I know, a sheepdog usually chases seagulls and an eagle might see a seagull as today's dinner. The thing is that Oscar is just too loveable. Enjoy this heartwarming narrative supported by rich, colorful illustrations that breathe life and emotion into the characters.

'Light bulbs, sound recordings, air-conditioning, a glass of clean tap water, a wristwatch, a glass lens': these everyday things are the subjects of Johnson's book. In six chapters on glass, cold, sound, clean, time and light he traces the histories of problems and the attempts to solve them - from Galileo's watching a pendulum swing in Pisa cathedral to atomic clocks keeping time in microseconds - and he considers how these scientific innovations have set in motion social change.

World affairs were deteriorating as the autumn courtship letters of Walter and Margaret came to a close. In this winter sequel, which begins shortly after their Christmas engagement, the cattle and potato markets flounder. Walter’s fledgling farming operation is jeopardized, and his wedding plans are tabled as he searches for meaning in God’s perplexing will. Troubling concerns naturally arise. Margaret struggles to know her soulmate’s feelings when her own are astir leading her to question Walter’s desire for her and God’s will for her life. Both are children of the horrors of the Great War and the following Great Depression. When the Nazis drive into Austria, Walter and Margaret find themselves pondering scriptures for insights on which to ground their faith in God and in each other. As they share their insights, they witness to a faith that carries them through each struggle as it arises. Although Walter and Margaret are two individuals going about two very ordinary lives, both are caught up in a desire to understand and find meaning in their lives as well as in the news. It is not surprising that they point out and comment on many issues and events with which we can all identify. Hopefully, my reflections on how their understandings later played out in their lives and mine will aid readers in gaining a deeper insight into their own. That may be the sole benefit of this book for some. Other readers will also be caught up in the three pivotal issues raised in the letters: our fundamental sources of truth, the coming world order, and the early understandings surrounding the resurrection of Jesus. These issues cut across national boundaries. Their significance touches many. Our views on these issues shape our institutions and occasionally create deep divides. For that reason, we usually avoid discussing them in polite conversation. Yet, as these letters document, they lurk and easily surface.

In his memoir and writer’s mosaic, debuting author Mark Johnson searches for answers after his mother dies. He leaves behind his corporate job in his mid-fifties and soon discovers a love for writing and nature across three generations of his family. In each chapter, he weaves together more than fifty years of diary accounts from his grandfather’s North Carolina farm, his mother’s encouraging and wisdom-filled letters from her complicated life, and his own narrative as a gay man coming to terms with his past and his grief. Mark leads you on a writer’s journey to reawaken his artistic sensibilities, remember the important people and moments in his life, and rediscover his southern roots. From Fertile Ground examines our human desire to make sense of our heritage, find our own path, and leave our mark on the world. Born in St. Louis, Mark Johnson graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1979. He built a multi-faceted career as a communication professional before retiring and beginning a new chapter in 2014. Mark and his husband Tom divide their time between the Chicago area and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Imagine you and some of your closest friends decide to find a new place to hang out. You don’t want the same old type of hangout. No, you want something special. And just when you think you have found the perfect one, well, it turns out to be more than it seems. In his book, Para Troupers: The Case of Old Man Rutledge, author Mark Stephen Johnson tells such a story. A group of teen friends in the town of Spider Lake stumble across a vacant, haunted mansion. They have hopes of making it the next great hangout in town. But little did they know the mansion hides a violent past and a curious link to one of the clairvoyant teens who found it. More than one entity haunts this palatial estate … and not all of them are friendly. Para Troupers: The Case of Old Man Rutledge is an exciting, paranormal thriller about a rescue mission and a deadly game when supernatural entities resist and threaten the teens’ lives. Hold on tight as the friends come together to confront the evil in front of them.

SOMETHING'S DIFFERENT ABOUT JONAHOther Civil War re-enactors thought all along there was something different about Jonah the way he corrected the placement of a line of Confederate riflemen, the way he took apart and reassembled an old cannon with ease, the way he walked over the battlefield like he'd been there before.Their suspicions were confirmed when he started firing live ammo into the Yankee lines. Find out if there are any additional casualties at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads more than 150 years after the last shots were fired.WHERE DID HE COME FROM?In the deepest mud at the bottom of the Tennessee River a great fish stirs. Awakened by a heat wave, worst since the Civil War, it moves toward the surface, starved for water richer in oxygen.Grayish-green from nose to tail, the mysterious fish crawls up on the bank and yawns and from its massive jaws comes the last Confederate, a man of honor in a dishonorable world. Naked and afraid, Jonah isn't too happy with what he finds but he doesn't mind setting a few things straight - if he can.General Wheeler has taught him well and he wouldn't want to disappoint the general or his daughter - the woman he loves, his darling Evangeline. A man with a mission, Jonah's back in uniform - one borrowed on a clandestine visit to the Wheeler museum along with a sword and pistol - and he's ready to ride.VIEWS OF AN HONORABLE MAN TRAPPED IN A DISHONORABLE WORLDJonah on smart phones: "I can't imagine what's in those little glass bricks that's so interesting people want to peer into them all day."Jonah on NFL players protesting: "Why are those slaves kneeling like that? Are they waiting to be punished? They're wearing gold chains so they must have rich masters."Jonah on Black Lives Matter: "Don't all lives matter? I thought we learned that at Shiloh." Jonah learns more about the Black Lives Matter movement when he helps and befriends Bud Knight, a black man beaten and wounded at a rally around the Emma Sansom statue in Gadsden, Alabama.Jonah on generals Wheeler and Forrest: "Their men would follow them inside the gates of hell to do battle with the devil himself but those two never did get along - too much jealousy."Jonah on the Rebel yell: "It can't be bought, sold or imitated. When it comes time to ride out from the trees onto the battlefield and you don't know whether you're going to live or die, it comes from somewhere deep within the heart of any man born south of the Mason-Dixon line."Jonah on Civil War letters: "We wrote them to our ladies right before battle to let them know we love them and we shed tears only moments before we shed blood."Jonah on honor: "A man of honor is an army of one."READY TO MOUNT UP?Jonah invites you to ride with him: "I'm ready to ride. How about you? Come along, if you'd like. But time's a-wasting. I ain't got all day."Read all about him with just one click.

"A hidden war is being waged, and the prize is the most powerful army that can exist. If both you and your brother precede your father in death, heir less, this world and many others stand on the brink of doom, for there is nothing that can stand against the army of a Dragon King."- Queen Tamilla. If you enjoy lots of action, plenty of intrigue, and a complex, twisted plot, then you may find this book to be a lot of fun. Wizards, dragons, warriors and spies. Clean language and nothing explicit apart from the violence which is not too graphic.