BOOK BY NANCY LEE SHRADER

MY HOME STATE 

WILD AND WONDERFUL

WEST VIRGINIA 

I was born Nancy Lee Pilkington in the year 1948 to the late William Thomas Pilkington and Ora Estella Pilkington.  I married Dennis Shrader of Clarksburg in a church ceremony at St. Stephens Episcopal Church—where I am still a member.  I have lived almost my entire life here in Beckley—with a brief time spent in Charleston while attending school, and a few years in Clarksburg when I was first married, but the rest of my fifty-nine years were spent here in Beckley, where my husband and I raised three children, and buried a son who died at the age of three from cancer. 

Meet The Family HERE 

My writing career began many years before I typed the first word on my computer.  It was my love for the written word—a love that had been lost over the years and only through a medical problem did this old love find a new place in my life.  My love for reading began early in life—as a child I spent hours at the library reading of exciting people and far away places.  My favorite Author back then was Elisabeth Ogillvie—I read her books over and over—Blueberry Summer was my favorite.  I also enjoyed the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Mysteries, and of course the Little House Series.   However, those quiet hours in the Public Library came to an end on a sunny afternoon when my father bought our first color television, and a top-of-the-line antenna that turned in all directions—picking up five channels instead of the one that was pretty good and the other that was fuzzy.  Reading took a back seat to the little box full of color.  I hate to admit it, but I spent most of my adult life glued to the television screen—and not until recent years did my love for the written word find its way back into my life.

Once in high school, I tried my hand at writing, but failed miserably.  It wasn't until I discovered the computer, and the program Word Perfect did my writing skills improve, but I'm getting ahead of my story.  I didn't just one day pick up a book and began reading, rediscovering the pleasures of my youth. You see, I have a problem with short term memory loss, caused from a medication I was taking.  It didn't happen all at once, but slowly over time—I was forgetting more and more.  Then one day as I was writing a grocery list—I couldn't remember how to make a (k) in milk.  Needless to say that got my attention.  I didn't know what to do or where to turn—not wanting to face the hard truth—I had a very real problem.  Then one day I took an elderly friend, who was in the early stages of  Alzheimers, to her doctor's appointment.  The doctor gave her some advice that I adopted for myself.  The doctor told my friend to read everything she could get her hands on, write letters, poetry—to just exercise her mind in order to slow the effects of the disease.  You've heard the old saying, if you don't use it you'll lose it—well I took that doctor's advice to heart, and I'm here to tell you, the advice from that doctor has been a godsend.  I'm now back to reading instead of watching television.  My mind might not be at 100%, far from it, but it's better than it was three years ago. I still have problems, but my memory problems have been instrumental in my becoming a published author. 

One evening I sat down at my computer determined to write a short story—to exercise my mind like the doctor had told my elderly friend.  I have over the years wrote simple little poems, because I love to write things that rhyme, so I figured a short story couldn't be that hard to do—and it didn't have to be good—just an excerise.  What to write about was the first question I asked myself.  I had been working on a Bible Study of the End Time Prophecies for a few weeks, so a story about Christians sounded good.  I have for most of my life enjoyed science fiction and ghost stories, so I decided to combine the two.  I entitled my short story In the Image.  I would write about Christians from a far off galaxy who travel to earth in search of other Christians.  I had overheard several children at a church dinner discussing among themselves about people on other planets—and if there was—then who was their God.  These innocent children gave me the idea for my first book—if there was life out there—then God created that life.  Well that first short story turned into three books, In the Image, Shoulder to Shoulder as One, and United the Army of God. I must admit that they were not my first submissions to the publishing world. All three now renamed still are hidden inside my computer, but soon they will be ready. 

I had finished my Bible Study into the End Time Prophecies by then so I started another Bible Study on the Messianic Prophecies, and while working on that I started my next attempt—this time a ghost story, using my grandchildren as the main characters.  I called the next series The Mayweather House series, the first in that series was was released April 8, 2007, by Saga Books in Alberta, Canada.

The day I began my search into the prophecies concerning the End Times, wasn't a day I decided to sit down and write a book for publication.  IS IT NOW? The End of Days!, was not intended to become a book. I had only planned to look up a few passages in scripture to confirm what I had read by other authors. For all intents and purposes my hunger for knowledge soon turned into my personal hunger for God's Word.  Soon I found myself spending the entire day combing through the Bible, hungry for the Word of God.  Each passage I found made me hungry for more—and because of my memory problems I had to write everything down—all my thoughts on each prophecy.

While looking for a publisher for the first of my Mayweather House books, I decided to send in my Bible Study to test the waters.  I figured if they stole my Bible Study, they would be passing around the Word of God, and that would be great.  When I was offered a contract from the first publisher I queried, I was, for a better word—flabergasted—and after several months of contract negotiations, I signed on the dotted line with Publish America—and I was on my way to becoming a published author.  IS IT NOW? The End of Days! was not my personal Bible Study anymore, but on its way to becoming a real book. A year later IS HE MESSIAH? Messianic Prophecies Revealed and The Curse of Mayweather House were released within days of each other. I signed my first contract on February 14, 2005 and now April 2007, I have three books in print. Waiting in the computer are The Haunting of Mayweather House, The Ghosts of Mayweather House, The Evil of Mayweather House, Celestial Invasion,
Terrestrial Invaseion, United the Army of God, Michael and the BIG FOOT Mystery, Lyndsey's Special Friend, and several collections of poetry. 

My memory has improved over the past few years, and I could give my new found love of writing the credit, but I won't.  Maybe my memory problem was given me for a reason—to turn my mind from the world and allow God to work through me; if it weren't for my memory problems, would I have been content to sit in church and listen as scripture was read each Sunday, hearing, but not really absorbing.  I've heard it said that God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.  Has God performed a miracle in me?  I would like to think so.  I said that my memory has improved, but it isn't resolved; I can't remember chapter and verse, like I'd like.  I know a passage of scripture is in the Bible, but couldn't tell you where or recite it word for word.  A Bible site I found on the computer helps a lot, not to mention the dictionary.  Words that I could spell ten years ago seem to escape me at times. At times even the knowledge of a word's definition is totally absent from my mind.  I can tell you for a fact, reading the scriptures over and over has cleared my mind, and brought about a healing. I'm not saying that I don't forget many things, because I do, but I do finally remember. The love of God's Word has pulled me out of the darkness and into the light.

 Michael Anthony,  began his road to becoming and author long before he learned to read. By the time Michael entered school, he was already an avid reader. Michael created his first book at the age of five and co-authored a book with his grandmother at the age of seven, titled Bigfoot Comes To Our Town .  Michael's book is for sale on Amazon.

Michael enjoys baseball and is on a traveling baseball team and travels to other states for tournaments.  At the moment he is on a basketball league.  Michael is very sports minded.  He hunts, fishes with his dad.  Michael and his dad enjoy target practice in the back yard with their bows.  Michael loves the outdoors.  He spends time riding his bike and playing with his dog Rocky.  Indoors he enjoys reading, playing his video games and watching televison.  Michael is a well rounded young man.