by Lea Tassie
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About Lea Tassie
I grew up in northern BC farming country, where men are men and women drive tractors. Because nothing except winter happened between October and March, my passion for books began as soon as I could read. I've traveled to various parts of the world and worked at a variety of jobs, which no doubt explains why I can't stick to one genre as an author. My books include humor (about cats), romantic suspense, contemporary, short stories, and lately, science fiction. My left brain enjoys crossword puzzles and bridge. My right brain enjoys watching people and imagining what might happen if they were from another planet. When I have any spare time, I read other people's stories.
Connecting: I'm having way too much fun plotting and writing novels and short stories, doing research, learning to play the piano, and trying to get through my stacks of to-be-read books to find time for social media. However, I'd be happy to talk to you, so if you'd like to get in touch, please email me at:
ibltassie at gmail dot com
More Books by Lea Tassie
Siamese Summers – Adriana Island #2 (Humor)
George the Magnificent still rules over the small farm on Adriana Island. His slaves, Ben and Holly, have been whipped into shape but he has a new challenge when a mere kitten moves in. Kaylie, a purebred Siamese, aims to be Queen of Holly Haven and can hardly wait until she's big enough to knock George off his throne. Ben and Holly are distracted by another arrival, Holly's mother-in-law. Ben loves his mother, but she shocks him with her new independence and modern ideas about how to live her life. Meanwhile, Holly discovers skulduggery as ambitious land developers move onto Adriana and, already expert in feline politics, realizes she must take action to help save the way of life she's come to love.
Cat Under Cover – Adriana Island #3 (Humor)
Change is afoot on Adriana Island. George the Magnificent is fighting hard to keep his realm from being taken over by Kaylie, the ambitious pure-blood Siamese queen. Holly, along with Adriana's other two trustees, is waging a legal battle to protect Norma Brentwood's precious land from her greedy son and the threat of development. Norma herself is struggling with serious illness. Ben is under siege by Father Time and Ben's mother, Maggie, is trying to reconcile a youthful mind with an aging body. And what about Shazaam, the mysterious stray kitten living under the couch? Is she hatching nefarious plans to take over everybody?
Cats & Crayons -- Adriana Island #4 (Humor)
When Holly Sutton learns that squatters have taken over the old house scheduled to open as a heritage museum for Adriana Island, she promises to get rid of them. But Jason and his partner, Jody, surprise her. His colored pencil art work is brilliant and Jody is blind. Holly and husband Ben invite them to live at Holly Haven with them and their fur menagerie. Then they all, including tabby-Siamese King George the Magnificent, have to deal with Jody's parents who believe her incapable of living unsupervised and will go to any length, including having Jason arrested for dealing drugs, to regain control of her. Meanwhile, Ben's mother, Maggie, agrees to foster an unmanageable cat from a shelter, though she fears the danger to her own four-footed clan. Looming over all is Holly's up-coming sixtieth birthday. Will she really carry out her threat to fly off to Tibet just to avoid a not-really-a-surprise surprise party?
A Clear Eye (Coming of Age)
In 1947, twelve-year-old Callie lives on a primitive, isolated homestead in northern Canada. A lover of nature and seeker of truth, she wants to become a botanist. But her mother, Lillian, insists that Callie's only purpose in life is to be a dutiful wife and mother, and her father, a veteran haunted by memories of war, refuses to interfere. Her innocence, fostered by isolation and her mother's determination to force Callie into an outdated mold, is the catalyst of a family feud that tests all Callie's growing strength as she struggles for the freedom to be herself.
Harvest (Short Stories)
This West Coast cornucopia of short stories and poems covers a wide range of nature and human life. In the prize-winning speculative story Guardians, nature reclaims power in a surprising way, while in Fishing Expedition, the cash-strapped narrator uses a lesson learned from bird watching. In Grand Slam the characters discover there's many a slip between brownie and lip, and the hero of A Muse For Michael learns to be careful what he wishes for. The short poems round out this banquet of obsessions, dangerous secrets and unique snapshots of the human condition.
Double Image (Contemporary Women)
Zanni Howard, from her beginnings in a small prairie town to a career that takes her around the world, is an expert photographer, seeking to reveal both truth and beauty in her art. But, in her personal life, she blindly makes assumptions about who she is and what will bring her contentment. Zanni’s struggle to comply with society’s compelling pressures and find the ideal soul mate leaves an agonizing wake of broken marriages, frustrating love affairs, guilt and confusion. How will she learn that her only chance for happiness lies in discarding her tangled and misleading youthful dreams so she can see the truth about herself as clearly as she sees the image in a camera’s view-finder?
Tour into Danger (Romantic Suspense)
Penny is booked on a flight to Toronto to look for her sister. Her 9-year-old nephew, Rob, says Angela went on holiday...without saying goodbye. But when Rob sees his stepfather murder a man and begs Penny for asylum, she changes direction. Rather than call the police, who she believes are corrupt, Penny takes Rob to Honolulu. They'll be safe there. Or so she thinks. Followed by two hit men, she is desperate to keep her nephew safe and worried sick about her sister. And who is the attractive but bumbling tourist who turns up wherever they go?
Green Blood Rising – Green Blood #1 (Science Fiction)
In 2050 mankind still believes nature can be conquered. Until The Devastation changes everything. Trees develop a powerful electrical system which zaps anything metal, including people wearing it. Young trees sprout up everywhere, the rapid growth promising to destroy most man-made structures. In days, the supermarkets are stripped bare. On Wescara, a small holding on Vancouver Island, a family fights to survive. When the power fails and the technology they once took for granted is useless, the struggle escalates as desperate gangs attack, willing to kill for a morsel of food.
Red Blood Falling – Green Blood #2 (Science Fiction)
Twenty years after the Devastation described in Green Blood Rising, the Metchosin clan votes 15 to 14 to allow an exchange student, Erik, to devote all his time trying to harness electricity produced by the trees to recreate "civilization." Spider, daughter of a clan leader, falls in love with Erik. When a close friend of Spider's is found murdered, the clan soon discovers the culprit.
The crucial question is what kind of justice can be meted out to punish this individual and protect the fragile community without incurring guilt? There are no police, law courts or jails in this fledgling new world. Will these become necessary? And if so, will this lead to history repeating itself? The clan must answer these questions fast, before the culprit escapes and kills again.
Shockwave – Green Blood #3 (Science Fiction)
Thirty years after the Devastation, when astounding tree growth destroyed technology and much of humanity, the Metchosin clan is thriving, perfecting their self-reliance with ongoing education about such subjects as herbal medicine. But no matter how simple life may be now, questions always arise. Miles is writing a backwards history of mankind, trying to find out where the human race went so wrong that it almost destroyed itself as well as planet Earth. When he finds the answer, Casey plans to take the news to other clans. What puzzles her is why she’d rather travel than partner with Cam, whom she loves deeply. Even the Earth itself raises questions about survival. A megathrust earthquake erupts, then a tsunami, violent reminders that natural forces are stronger than humans. The shockwaves will reverberate for years to come.
Deception Bay (Contemporary)
To a tourist, the sleepy village of Deception Bay appears to be an idyllic, peac
eful retreat, anything but deceptive. But Larry, the bartender in the old, quaint, ivy-covered inn, and Brenda, his realtor buddy, know better. They discover the secrets lurking below the surface, such as who attends the occult meetings and who committed the unreported rape. They can guess who lit the mysterious fire, though there’s no proof, and they discover the motives of the man who is definitely not what he seems to be. And they are not above starting a few rumors of their own to make the local news more interesting!
Charger the Soldier - The Charger Chronicles #1 (Science Fiction)
In 2030, extraterrestrials attack Earth with poison mist and terrifying technology. Sacrificing his chance for a normal life, Henry is converted to a powerful super-soldier. He becomes Charger the Hyborg, twice as big, with metal armor as skin, artificial blood, two genetically modified werewolves mind-linked to him, and four wicked fangs –– Frankenstein meets Dracula.
Billions die … Earth becomes a burned-out ruin … and humans are grateful that Charger and the other Hyborgs are on their side.
Sweeping back 65 million years, Charger the Soldier revisits the moment when aliens first arrived on Earth, reveals potentially lethal secrets about the history of dinosaurs and humans, and visits ancient cities buried deep beneath Stonehenge and the African city of Dhuusamareeb.
While Charger struggles to accept his peacetime duties as a soldier, the ethics of doomsday are explored, along with the lengths man will go to in order to protect his home.
But that’s only the beginning, because space-faring, technology, and human nature will create many new challenges in the millennia to come. Look for Charger the Weapon, and Charger the God, Books 2 and 3 of The Charger Chronicles.
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