The Touchstone Diary (The Red Thread Book 1)

A dozen drummers, one flute player, one guy with rattles and several people dancing under the stars — including Jenn and Kelli. We settled Izzy and Stella on a blanket, all bundled up, and me in a chair next to them with my drums — they had drums and rattles too. At one point Stella started howling at the moon like a wolf.

Love how these girls are so spontaneous and free. If you want to feel humbled, hang around 3 and 4-year-olds. Us adults made crowns for each of the kids out of fresh flowers and they danced around a giant maypole with long ribbons extending from the top for each of them to hold. It was very sweet. Kelli had a flat tire on her car the other day so we went to the Bearsville Garage to get it fixed.

Stella told me she knew how to fix a tire. My daughter Cris, in Minnesota is just starting a new job. In August, she will finish her last semester of school to get her BSN and starting in , she plans to work toward her Masters Degree in Science and Education at a much slower pace. Twenty-one artists were chosen to concept art in public places. They have speakers, similar to the Tuesday Club in CF, but there were over 60 women there — with accents from many different countries — Germany, Romania, France, etc.

The two speakers talked about how to market your books. The first woman had an incredible history with publishing and editing and has written ten non-fiction books, mainly on the Hudson Valley — where to go, Hudson Valley famous cooks, etc. The second speaker self-published her book and spoke all about social media and how to market online, network, etc. An upcoming meeting will have a speaker on How to Write a Business Plan. That sounds very informative too.

I think this will be a good group for information. I am working a few days a month at Menla Mountain Retreat and Conference Center near Phoenicia, which is about 25 minutes from here, further up the mountain. Check out their website at www. Glad to be on their staff. The people there are so nice. They have a greenhouse and huge organic garden, a big yoga studio, conference center, a beautiful spa with an outdoor swimming pool, and lots of hiking trails.

I think they can accommodate about people in their housing rooms, plus campers. I was always doing events of some sort. Giant tents filled with vendors. Great sun shiny day after our four days of rain. Sure enjoyed being outside. The photo of Stella painting was taken by her mom, Jenn, at her house. How did she grow up so fast? She has a busy life, with sports, working and friends. Hopefully everyone is heading home for the graduation — Cassi from California??? Hope to see many of you…until then, hold on to some nice weather for us — and see if you can get those Minnesota gas prices down!

Looking forward to our road trip and some Minnesota time! Albany , the capitol of New York, is a hour north. I am very happy about that. And that is where our airport of choice is, because it is closer and easier to get to we like Southwest Airlines — you can check two 50 suitcases for free and also change your ticket at no cost. Funny how when they give us back things that we had in the first place, we are so pleased. Tolls are new to me. I will soon be the owner of a toll express card, which will make it easier — not cheaper, just easier — to go through tolls.

Driving here is easy except in NYC , just like at home. Well, they do that here too. It makes me smile. It must be the similar landscape and wholesome attitude. It seems that everyone is from somewhere else. I have yet to meet someone born and raised in Woodstock. Why am I so surprised? No fast food or big box stores here.

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Lots of tofu, spinach, seaweed soup, juice bar drinks, and smoothies. We do have a pizza restaurant, which probably sells more veggie pizza than pepperoni. But there are many others choices. You can also get a burger or taco. Not everyone is a vegetarian me. The food everywhere has been amazing. People walk a lot and ride bikes. They recycle — not just glass, paper and plastic, but they also restructure clothing, make art out of junk, and bring their own reusable grocery bags.

Who says everything has to be new? I like this concept — and it teaches kids about value and about the thought that goes behind giving. Protesting — There are peace signs and environmental signs everywhere. The conversation is also organic. I like the positive, cheery attitude. On weekends people with signs stand in the town square in the center of the village. A group called Women in Black carry a long banner for Justice and Non-violence and hand out brochures.

Having said all that about the organic side of the area, there are also a lot of meat-eating Harley Davisson lovers here. There is a huge Woodstock Harley Store about five miles down the road and the World Headquarters for that Chopper guy who had the reality TV show, is in Newburgh, about 25 miles away. Long hair, dreadlocks, beards, it all mixes together here and stirs into the pot. After all, Woodstock originally got its reputation during the hippie era in the 60s.

A lot of people came and never left. Tinker Street is the main street through downtown Woodstock — which is about the same population as Cannon Falls, around 5, They have a healthy retail district — of course — tourists love to come here. My daughter, Nicole, and I went through some of them while she was here. There are some great little shops. Even the hardware store is fun! There are always people downtown.

We live within walking distance, which is great, because I think it is very hard to find a parking place on weekends. Another interesting note is that most of the retail stores and businesses are in old houses that have been remodeled. White Christmas lights on trees lining the streets are on at night year round.

Very festive and inviting. Where else can you hear Bob Marley or the Beatles piped over the music system in the grocery store?! The Woodstock Radio Station also plays these oldies. The last one with the blackboard and the Frank Zappa quote was a poster at the library! You will automatically get my blogs whenever I post them.

I've been traveling around the US for the past 18 months staying with family and friends, occasionally camping and enjoying this new adventure. Along the way I'm researching for books I'm writing, seeking out historic sites and legends that fit into the third of my "Touchstone Diary" book series. Book three is in progress. I will soon release my first romance novel, "Jungle Moon. You can also find out more about my books at http: They are my pride and joy. More can be found about me on my website: Nik and I at Westgate Center. Where did that time go?

Thanks Traci Auger for taking the photo! Such a tribe of strong, smart, beautiful women and girls! Amazing suites, grounds, and people. You can see more at: This book tells a different story of the life of Jesus, Mary his mother, Mary Magdelan and his family and disciples. It holds your interest as the story is woven into the life of two modern day people.

Enjoyable while opening you up to new ideas, questions and answers that may surprise you. Loved it can not wait for the third one. Very impacting for me. I have enjoyed the book. I have read other novels of a similar bloodline genre, such as the Expected One.

This is a very interesting take on the bloodline subject. The book is well written and captures the imagination.

Get to Know Us. Delivery and Returns see our delivery rates and policies thinking of returning an item? See our Returns Policy. Visit our Help Pages. Cass was no where this bad, but her powers got to be so special, that you knew there was no way in hell anyone but her was going to be able to save the world. I personally like a story better when a unique, but not super-powerful, individual, through ingenuity, perseverance and other valuable but otherwise ordinary character traits, saves the world or helps save the world.

Cass had the character traits -- there was no need to make her superwoman, in my opinion. Anyway, despite my disappointment with the third book, I would recommend this series anyone looking for a creative, well-written, soft sci-fi story with some enjoyable characters, some interesting world-building, a cute love story and a little adventure.

Touchestone trilogy is a favourite read of mine, and I was very happy to be able to purchase its hard cover version after rereading my ebooks for the second time. The series is the story of a young girl, quite average if clearly clever, who suddenly finds herself Very afraid as she progresses in a beautiful but alien landscape, she decides to write a diary, using a present she had in her school bag.

The first part is about surviving alone, with nearly nothing, then about discovering a Touchestone trilogy is a favourite read of mine, and I was very happy to be able to purchase its hard cover version after rereading my ebooks for the second time. The first part is about surviving alone, with nearly nothing, then about discovering alternative humans, other planets and slowly adapting, first to this brand new reality, then to the incredible powers she's inexplicably showing.

The story is enthralling and the writing addictive. Cassandra's voice is admirable; she's courageous, funny and wise, but never too perfect. Her reactions are exceedingly credible, her thoughts exactly what we could have in this so strange context. As a result the read is one of the strongest sense of reality in fiction I've ever felt while reading a SF or Fantasy book. And the first time ever that I felt like living in an alternate world! I don't know what would think of it a physics specialist, but the hypothesis were totally credible for me, never over explained with pseudo scientifical explanations just credible and matter of fact.

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An incredible story, which I'll love rereading very often! View all 4 comments. Feb 08, Becky rated it it was amazing Shelves: Oh she did it again! I mean I have been in a real reading slump the past year. Nothing but craptastic crap out there, such as Beautiful Disaster and Fifty Shades. You know what I hate about Insta-love?

I hit the jackpot! I haven't been this obsessed with something since the Fever series and as my tastes change I can tell I find the Fever series just a tad cheesy now a n Oh she did it again! I haven't been this obsessed with something since the Fever series and as my tastes change I can tell I find the Fever series just a tad cheesy now a new development due to the utter crapness of the books I've been reading.

It's just been impossible to find something that moves me, that makes me love the characters past the ending. This trilogy did that! Oh did it do that! I began re-reading before I was even finished reading a lot of that was due to major skimming over some plot points to find out about the two main characters! It's been a long time since I had that slightly achy depressioney feeling because I know something I love is about to be over and this trilogy gave me that. That's not a request! View all 3 comments.

Jul 25, Kara-karina rated it it was amazing. This series made me lose quite a few nights of sleep, folks, but it was well worth it. Gripping and alien world, hot space samurai and amazing adventures of one girl from our world in a universe far, far away. It was an incredibly absorbing and wonderful read, and I'm resolved to go through everything that Andrea has ever written, because I adore her unique style of writing.

And what I love is that each and every one of her stories has been refreshingly different from other books out there. Having said that, this did end up working for me once it became more realistic for Cass to be keeping a diary. I thought Cass had a great voice — sort of snarky, self-deprecating, and honest — and I liked how we got to know her, the other characters and the world via the diary. Basically the story is about Cass making a space for herself in this very different world, helping to beat the bad guys, and oh yes, falling in love.

This aspect could so have easily moved the story into pure Mary Sue territory, but for a couple of things: Creating unique worlds without masses of info-dumping, instead sneaking in bits and pieces of information until the reader gets it — that, and just being able to come up with something different. There were some things that bothered me slightly — the first being more thematic, while the others were less important. On the first, Cass ends up playing guardian to a couple of refugees and essentially setting up home — I did think Cass was a bit on the young side to take on that responsibility, but on the other hand, she and the Setari was in the process of saving their world, so I suspect age does not come into it that much.

I got the main characters straight, but ended up confusing the secondary ones.

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I also will say that the second and third book pretty much dive straight into the story without much background. All in all though, this book — flaws and all — had that indefinable magic that puts it firmly on my keeper shelf. And oh, her Medair duology may even be better than Touchstone.

The description sums it up perfectly.

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I could have not read it, but well, I dare you to finish the Touchstone trilogy and not cave in. And the tongue-in-cheek title works — gratuitious is the perfect description for this. A version originally posted on my blog: Jan 27, Sheridan rated it it was amazing Shelves: A relentless barrage of weddings, babies, and planetary colonisation! Meandering through the two years following the conclusion of the Touchstone Trilogy, this self-indulgent collection of family reminiscence is more saccharine than dramatic, with the most action to be found in snowball fights.

For those who truly just want to know what happens next, no matter how mundane, read on for the everyday, ordinary lives of psychic space ninjas playing house" Apr 07, Suralxiong rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Touchstone Trilogy by Andrea K Host. I began reading the Stray which hooked me because it reminded me of some of Robert Heinlein's later works where people could take a a left turn in just the right way and end up in another dimension.

Maybe even get lost as his character JOB did. Sort of jarring as an opening sentence. This novel is done from a first person perspective and that works well for this story. Contrary to what many believe, first person is not what makes this YA its the YA in the story that does that. This is a sort of Young Adult story so it throws one that it starts right way with this type of language-or at least it does us older folk.

Her full name is Cassandra Eloise Devlin. She's been living a sheltered life in Australia and the last thing she wanted today was to get lost on the way home. Well at that age it's a bit embarrassing to get lost. But with this the wrong left turn thing going here it's going to take a while for Cassandra to figure out that she's not just lost. The good news is she has her wilderness survival kit. The bad news is it has everything she might need if she's lost in Sydney.

Not much use for where she's at. At one point she's speculating New Zealand- she's still thinking just a bit on the shallow side of the galactic pool. In the next few pages I have sympathy for Cassandra because she's going to do a lot of camping. And she's being forced to do it while still rather lost all the way around. Of course this camping becomes survivalist pretty soon, which is totally different from camping- not that I like it any more. No there's not hope for that. Things have gotten real by this time when Cassandra has found all sorts of mysterious flora and fauna.

They look almost familiar but very much strange and unfamiliar. And very much wild and dangerous. After wearing down her few useful tools and walking endlessly she comes across a settlement. Unfortunately it seems to be abandoned. Having some time to relax a little and become frustrated by her lack of survival skills Cassandra also has a chance to check out the new world to make some few observations about things.

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These become handy later but for now its mostly her own curiosity. She tries unsuccessfully to make her own materials for bedding and clothing and other house items. Thankfully there are others who know of this world and settlement and who also seem aware of the openings between dimensions and worlds through which Cassandra has stumbled. A team of these people show up at her settlement and a couple of them scare the daylights out of her when she wakes up to them hovering over her.

At this point though she's sick and feverish so she's more relieved than frightened. Taken to a hospital like environment she is poked prodded and injected. She doesn't understand the language right away but there seems to be a technology that helps her with this. Once she starts to learn things she realizes that she's considered a savage and that she possibly will never reach their level. When it finally dawns on her that they're treating the savage like a lab rat she begins to balk and that's when her true character kicks in.

They say that they will try to return her to her home, but they don't have a clue yet where that is, though they seem to know how to do it once they find it. Later we find its not so easy to do that. Of course at this time Cassandra also begins conflict with the people who saved her and it interferes with whats up for her future. This is a sort of Science Fiction fantasy and almost Paranormal romance, which will contain some romance for Cassandra down the road.

But with the speed bumps she creates for herself in the first two books it's going to take a while. I loved this story as Science Fiction. The characters were every much as engaging as I hope for. I'm a character driven story lover and don't much care that all the science is believable nor do I demand a long explanation of the science for validity. It's a bonus that there's a cute romance story that comes out eventually and of course one whole underlying thread that's resolved at the end of the trilogy. I think YA and Sci-Fi and fantasy and paranormal romance lovers will not only love this book but whatever else Ms Host has in that great mind of hers.

Keep it coming Andrea.

Mar 17, Paradoxical rated it really liked it Shelves: I spent a good chunk of my life this past week reading this book. It is only mildly embarrassing. The Touchstone Trilogy is, as is fairly obvious, three books in one. It's in diary format, which isn't my preferred sort of format, but it works here and I didn't mind it so much well, until the end, where I thought that any sense of im I spent a good chunk of my life this past week reading this book. It's in diary format, which isn't my preferred sort of format, but it works here and I didn't mind it so much well, until the end, where I thought that any sense of immediacy is lost when you know that the main character is writing the entry so obviously she is all right.

It takes Cassandra, a girl from Australia, and lands her right dab in the middle of an alien world. She has no idea. One second she was on earth, the next she was These books detail her adventures, how she acclimates to her new environment and the people she finds herself with, and the looming threat of creatures that the people around her fight against.

Cassandra is a special person, and I happen to like her. She's brave and tries her best. She's not very strong and she can't fight her way out of a wet paper bag, really, but she doesn't need that to be special or to help. And she is, special. Her abilities give her more than a leg up and it gets to the point where it's almost silly, how important she is I end up loving this anyway, go figure.

Not to mention how in danger she is all the time and how hurt she gets. It kind of gets rather predictable. She gets hurt using said power! Cue angst and people panicking! It does get a little old after a while, but she somehow manages to endear herself to you anyway. She is, however, a Mary Sue. No matter how much she gets scratched up you can't really escape this fact. There's a fantastic amount of characters in the books. Each one is given their own little spin and circumstances that you may or may not find out completely.

They're all just fun and you feel that as you read. It might be because I sped along in reading it, but it's rather slow going and the entire premise is rather fantastical. In the end, I didn't get a few answers that I wanted to know, and I had to be content with that, because the scale of the plot made it so that getting answers right away would be impossible. It doesn't mean that I didn't wish for all the answers to fall right in my lap though, aha. I would have to say that the second book is my favorite, for all that it concentrated a lot on Cassandra pining eh heh.

I apparently ate that up with a spoon because the middle made me race along like a greyhound after a mechanical rabbit. My least favorite would have to be the third book, which is a pity because I would want the ending to make me happiest. But, unfortunately, my love of the book waned at that point view spoiler [mostly due to Cassandra and Kaoren adopting some kids.

Don't like kids in books popping up like that. They were cute, but that didn't make me like them any, which just kind of put a damper on my mood throughout the entire third book. There were a few things I thought suspect. There were other things I found suspect but I liked anyway the romance, for example. It developed at a snail pace and suddenly it hurtled forward like a meteor. The plot is fairly slow, though, and the end just kind of seemed anti climatic, which is a pity. The books are more an evolution of Cassandra and her finding her own place in this brand new world than anything else. Overall, I did enjoy reading this.

Jul 27, J. Dobias rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: I had already put the three books in my wish list prior to that. But after reading that sample I had a feeling I should just buy the whole and totally unrelated trilogy. I read through them in three days. People have told me that writing in first person is hard to do. They have given various reasons why it does not work and sometimes those reasons are conflicted. Some even suggest that it's this decades fad to write in first person. Because this is written as a diary it's naturally in first person.

Andrea nails first person right on the head, and right out of the box. Cass is such an engaging character in Stray that she sucks you right into her story at the beginning. There is not doubt of Andrea's world building abilities and her strong characterization.

But what really got me in this story is in the chapter February when Cass's birthday arrives. And I'm not giving anything away, other than to honestly say I was so into Cass by then that I nearly cried. It's not often a book does that. And then there was Lab Rat One. And by now this series is peopled with a couple of handfuls of characters that you would think you'd need a score card but there are more to come and Cass has a way of making sure we don't lose track of who is who.

Or maybe I should say that Andrea does. It doesn't take long before Andrea does it to me again. Even though Cass sometimes begins to sound a bit whinny I just get so into her whole dilemma that I can't help but feel what she must be feeling. So by Caszandra the third installment, you would think I was steeled and ready to handle it. But, Andrea through Cass has a way of now drawing you into her life and the extended family of people around her. This series of books is one powerhouse. Well told tightly packed.

But what really got me was how it all touched me. I would need more stars if I gave a star for every time I was greatly affected by this story. Jan 17, Charlotte rated it liked it Shelves: This was a compelling story, but there were some flaws.