Ellwyn’s Blog

An inspiring story of determination and grit . . .

Where Birds Land 

by Mary Ruth Barnes 

Genre: Native American Women’s Fiction

An inspiring story of determination and grit . . .

Ella McSwain is a Chickasaw woman raising her family amidst evolving turmoil within the budding state of Oklahoma. After Ella is left with an unusable plot of land, she finds herself fighting for her family’s rightful allotment. Faced with crooked businessmen, land grifters, and grueling court battles, can she summon the strength to persevere against all odds?

In this stand-alone companion to Little Bird, Mary Ruth Barnes crafts an engaging family saga that spans from Indian Territory to Oklahoma statehood against the backdrop of the state’s changing landscape.

Amazon * B&N * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FTBQ3561/

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/where-birds-land-mary-ruth-barnes/1147562641?ean=9781952397493

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/where-birds-land-by-mary-ruth-barnes

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235693553-where-birds-land

About the Author 

Mary Ruth Barnes graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina State with high honors and a Master’s Degree from Montana State. After college, Barnes taught high school and college English, Art and Computer Science for 14 years.

Barnes has received numerous awards for her art and writing on the state and national level from 2011-2022. Barnes recently published her first novel “Little Bird” with the Chickasaw Press about her great-great-Grandmother’s journey in Indian Territory. “Little Bird” won two 2022 Ippy awards, receiving gold for the cover design and silver for best Midwest regional fiction.

Barnes is extremely active in her community through Rotary (a member since 1996), P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization), and Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumni Association. She is also a current member of the National Watercolor Society. 

In 2022, Barnes was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame and Capitol Hill High School Hall of Fame for leadership in her community. She also won the 2022 “55 Over 55 Inspiring Oklahomans” award for making a difference in the lives of others.

In 2019, Barnes won the Women in the Arts Recognition award from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And in 2015, Barnes was selected as the Chickasaw Dynamic Woman of the year.

Barnes has had many short stories and watercolors featured in several issues of the journal of Chickasaw History and Culture, Ishtunowa. She was also honored as a Chickasaw Artist in the July 2015 issue of the Distinctly Oklahoma magazine.

Her story of inspiration leading to painting and drawing was featured in a book by Allison Fields, Chickasaw Artisans. In 2017, Barnes was selected for the registry of Native American Artists located at the Heard Museum in Scottsdale, AZ.

While traveling and vacationing in South Texas with her art, Barnes was interviewed and featured in the RV Wheel Life Magazine for the 2017 issue. Barnes retired from a career as the Director of Planned Giving for American Cancer Society in 2017, where she raised over 35 million dollars for cancer research.

Her artwork “Fight of Hope” is currently featured in the Cancer Journal of Native American Research and is on display in the surgery waiting room of the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center. Her watercolors can also be found at several locations across the State of Oklahoma, including the Artesian and the Welcome Center located in Davis.  

She has been a long-time equestrian, Barnes and her husband, Mike live on a ranch in south central Oklahoma. They have two sons, Wiley and Selby Barnes, and six grandchildren. Both sons work for the Chickasaw Nation. Mrs. Barnes enjoys traveling with her husband in retirement. 

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Amazon 

Author Links

Website:  https://maryruthbarnes.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chickasawauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryruthbarnes1/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mary-Ruth-Barnes/author/B0BBXPWGPP

Giveaway 

$10 Amazon or Paypal 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

https://sdbook.promo/WhereBirdsLand

Direct link:

https://gleam.io/Acd29/where-birds-land

What is something unique/quirky about you?

My first job after college was a belly dancer at The Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas where I also learned to walk and dance on stilts.

Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?

I didn’t grow up knowing that I wanted to be a writer, it happened by accident. I was always obsessed with stories, movies first and then as I got older, I became a reader.

When I was getting my Master’s Degree in Media and Journalism Studies, we had to take a graduate course outside of our degree focus. I thought I wanted to be a film critic so I took screenwriting as my outside course.

The only assignment for screenwriting was to pitch and write a full-length screenplay. So, I pitched and wrote a screenplay about my dad’s life story. He had been an investigator for the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the 1970’s and uncovered the skim portrayed in the movie casino.

The class loved the story. The pitch was supposed to be around twenty minutes, but I ended up talking for the entire class period which was about an hour and a half. I ended up turning that screenplay into a treatment, getting an agent, and writing my first book—Hit Me! Fighting the Las Vegas Mob by the Numbers. In that process, I found that I loved writing and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. 

Who is your hero and why?

My parents are my heroes. They both had incredible careers and raised my siblings and me with so much love and support. My dad was a law enforcement agent and then went into the casino business and became one of the most successful casino executives in the industry.

He passed away about ten years ago, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. His motto in life was “Love is the most powerful force in the Universe.” He truly believed that. He helped so many people.

My mom was a professional dancer and ballerina. She’s the epitome of grace and beauty. Now in her 70s, she recently launched her second career. She invented and patented a new nail care tool. She’s incredible and so filled with love.

What inspired you to write Roll Them Bones?

I grew up in the casino business. When I was about twelve, we even lived in a casino for almost a year. When my family moved from Las Vegas to Atlantic City and our house was being built we lived at the Taj Mahal (now Hard Rock) Casino.

Then later in my dad’s career, he worked at Resorts Casino Hotel. While he was there, I learned about the history of the building, I toured the basements, saw the twelve-and-a-half floor, and heard all of the ghost stories.

The building has such an incredible history and trust me when I tell you, the basement is creepy! I thought it would make the perfect setting for a horror. 

Convince us why you feel your story is a must read.

Roll Them Bones is inspired by a real place with an incredible history. The Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel, which is now Resorts Casino Hotel, was built in the 1920s.

During World War II, the hotel was converted to the Thomas England General Hospital which was the largest surgical hospital during that time. Roll Them Bones takes the history of the building and infuses it with the true history of the occult, some conspiracies from that era, and merges it with a modern spin.

Roll Them Bones is a spine-tingling read with a unique setting. At its heart it’s the origin story of a new female anti-hero, Lillith, that will leave you craving more of her.

What is your advice to new authors?

I will give new writers the same advice that I received and led me to write Roll Them Bones—write what you know.

I know the casino business and as a trained researcher and journalist I know how to do research. With Roll Them Bones, I started with a strong foundation built on what I know.

This foundation allowed my imagination to run wild and create a completely off-the-wall, fun, terrifying story that’s grounded in fact.

Winning at this casino can be HELL

Roll Them Bones 

by Danielle Gomes

Genre: Supernatural Thriller, Horror

A gripping supernatural thriller where the house always wins—unless you’re willing to burn it all down.

When Lilith Umbra flees Las Vegas for a fresh start at the Golden Sands Casino in Atlantic City, she thinks she’s escaping her tragic past. But some fates can’t be outrun.

Strange occurrences plague the crumbling casino: phantom sounds, impossible shadows, and visions that feel disturbingly real. Local journalist Sharp insists the building is cursed, while her charismatic boss Amon dismisses such claims as nonsense.

But when Lilith uncovers a mysterious book detailing the rituals of a powerful occult organization, she realizes the truth is far more sinister than any ghost story.

As ancient prophecies collide with modern ambition, Lilith discovers she hasn’t stumbled into evil’s path—she’s been guided there. With allies who may be enemies and time running out, she faces an impossible choice that will determine not just her fate, but the fate of humanity itself.

Perfect for fans of supernatural thrillers who love unreliable narrators, shocking twists, and stories where nothing is as it seems.

Some games are rigged from the start. But sometimes, the only way to win is to change the rules entirely.

Excerpt:

Excerpt from Roll Them Bones by Danielle Gomes

“How big is the basement area?” I ask, a weak attempt to dispel the quiet.

“It’s very large. The shipping dock unloads to an underground warehouse, so we have some storage areas. Facilities has a few offices down here. Then everything’s connected by these tunnels. It’s very safe, just don’t explore alone ‘til you really learn your way around.”

“I don’t plan on spending much time down here.”

“The tunnels can be very confusing. Some lead nowhere. They used to run under the street and connect multiple buildings, but most of those buildings have been torn down and the tunnels closed off.”

I have to jog a little to keep up with Peter, he’s moving so quickly . . . for which I’m grateful. We take a quick left, followed by a right, and another left—I think.

“Am I going too fast?” Peter yells back to me.

“Nope,” I say as my heel catches and I stumble, nearly going down. As I regain my balance, I turn to look for whatever caught my heel. It felt like a trick kids do to each other, but I don’t see anything that could have tripped me.

“Sorry,” Peter says. “I should’ve told you to wear your walking shoes.”

“I should know better than to wear shoes like this to work.” Mom’s insistence that heels belong in a workplace hadn’t considered a basement tour. The lights flicker then go dark. It’s pitch black. “Peter!” I grope at the darkness, searching for something to hang onto. My fingers brush across something soft—Peter’s sweater. I grab on. The dark is so absolute that my fingers instinctively tighten into a frenzied clutch, as though this sweater is the only thing that anchors me to the real world. “I’m sorry,” I say.

“Did you say something?” His voice is much too far away. Whatever I’m holding onto, it isn’t Peter’s sweater. Immediately, I let go and swallow as a current of cold, dense air pours down on me. “Peter?”

“Yeah, I’m here,” he yells from up ahead.

“Where?” I know someone is right by me and it’s not Peter. My scalp tingles like thousands of ants have poured out of the darkness and are working their way through my hair. As I gasp for air, I’m hit with the acrid aroma of old fabric, wet and rotten. Part of me wants to thrash my arms, wildly fighting off whatever is close, but the other part wants to shrink back and hide in the dark.

“Just a little farther up. It’s very dark. Hold on.”

I freeze. Even my breath becomes shallow. Tears burn.

I’m completely and utterly paralyzed.

Something inches closer.

Edgeweaver Books * Amazon * Apple * B&N * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Edgeweaver Books: https://www.edgeweaverbooks.com/product-page/roll-them-bones-digital-epub

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH5B2N7K

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/roll-them-bones/id6748436658

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roll-them-bones-danielle-gomes/1147826382?ean=9781968100124

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=oJJuEQAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/roll-them-bones-3

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/roll-them-bones-by-danielle-gomes

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238520162-roll-them-bones

About the Author

 

Danielle Gomes is an accomplished author, freelance journalist, and brand development specialist known for her dynamic, cinematic storytelling and ability to blend real-world themes with suspenseful narratives.

She holds a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), a foundation that supports her diverse work in nonfiction, fiction, and media. Gomes gained recognition with Hit Me!

Fghting the Las Vegas Mob by the Numbers, a gripping true crime book co-authored with Jay Bonansinga that chronicles her father’s efforts to dismantle mob influence in 1970s Las Vegas.

She later ventured into science fiction with EVE-0 and Lucien, a high-stakes thriller series exploring genetic engineering and global pandemics. Her work has earned critical acclaim, including a Telly Award and a Videographer’s Award of Excellence for a documentary short on homelessness. She is a member of the Authors Guild, International Thriller Writers, and Horror Writers Association.

Website * Website * Facebook * Facebook * X * Instagram * Instagram * Bookbub * Goodreads

Author Links

Website: https://danielle-gomes-writes.com/

Website:  https://www.edgeweaverbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielleGomesAuthor

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/edgeweaverbooks/

X: https://x.com/EdgeWeaverBooks

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielle.n.gomes

Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/edgeweaverbooks

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/danielle-gomes

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6544137.Danielle_Gomes

Giveaway

Choice of print or ebook of Roll Them Bones, 

$20 Amazon/Paypal – 1 winner each! 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

https://sdbook.promo/RollThemBones