Michael Thal and the Koolura Series on Penny's Tales

Spotlight on THE KOOLURA SERIES

When I was teaching sixth grade I noticed that my pre-teen daughter wasn’t reading. During her toddler years and first three years in elementary school I had read books to her prior to bedtime. Once her reading level was fluent, I figured she would enjoy reading on her own. But now in middle school, she only read when she had to.

So one day I confronted Channie. “Sweetie, why aren’t you reading on your own for enjoyment?”

“Books are boring. I like to do cool things like play with video games and put together puzzles.”

I thought for a second and said, “Would you read a book about a very cool girl?”

She had to think for a while, and then shrugged. “Maybe.”

Channie was always interested in psychology, so I said, “How about if I wrote a book about a very cool girl with psychic powers.”

Channie’s eyes lit up. “That’s real cool. I’ll read that.”

That was when Koolura was born.

The Legend of Koolura tells the story of a sixth grade girl and how she obtained the cool powers. She has the ability to dematerialize at will and reappear where she chooses. She can move objects with her mind and she can even defy gravity! But will these powers be of any use in stopping a stalker intent on her destruction?

The stalker is determined to retrieve Koolura’s unrealized psychic powers and hurt any of her friends who get into his way.

As the hour approaches for Koolura’s final confrontation with her nemesis, she may finally find vengeance to the man who killed her mother.

By the time Channie became a parent herself, Solstice Publishing published The Legend of Koolura during the winter of 2012. True to her word, Channie read the book dedicated to her and her sister, Koren.

I had taught public school for 28 years until a virus robbed me of my hearing. Unable to understand what my students were saying to me, I retired from my profession and reinvented myself. I taught myself how to write like a pro.

By this time, my youngest daughter was attending the University of California at Santa Barbara. One weekend I visited her and we took a ride into the nearby Santa Ynez Mountains where we discovered Lake Cachuma and a nearby sleep away camp. I thought this would be a great setting for my second Koolura book. I wanted to make sure the books were connected, but survived nicely on their own. As Koren and I strolled the surrounding forest and the water’s edge of the lake, a plot began to coalesce.

In Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback, Koolura reveals to readers her powers—teleportation, flying, healing and levitating. However, after her first night in the girls’ bunkhouse, Koolura wakes up drained and powerless. Who or what has stolen her psychic abilities?

As Koolura searches for the truth about her power loss, she and the Chumash Girls have to deal with pranksters ruining their cabin and destroying their summer. Campers plan revenge but problems escalate as lives are threatened. Will Koolura and the Chumash Girls solve the mystery at Camp Saddleback? (Solstice Publishing published Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback November 27, 2013.)

Since Koolura officially entered puberty during The Legend of Koolura, I wanted to show her continued growth and power development. During the course of The Mystery at Camp Saddleback, Koolura discovers she can time travel. Now how cool is that, Channie?

Currently, I’m working on book three in the Koolura Series, “Koolura and the Mayans”. The novel opens about four months after Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback ends. Koolura is traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico with her friend Leila, a deaf girl she befriended during summer camp. Koolura’s dad will be marrying Terri Lather, the police officer who helped Koolura in the first book. (Terri reappears in book two when dad announces the engagement at the Santa Monica camp.)

In The Legend of Koolura, we learn that Koolura got her amazing powers from an alien machine called the Decoolerizer. In book three, while Koolura and Leila are traipsing through a Mayan ruin, days before the wedding, they discover a Decoolerizer, which when handled by Koolura, transports the duo back to the time when the Mayans ruled pre-Columbian Mexico.

All three books in The Koolura Series are connected, but the plots are not dependent on the previous book(s). If a reader never read The Legend of Koolura it wouldn’t affect his or her understanding of Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback nor “Koolura and the Mayans”.

During the 15 years out of the classroom since my hearing loss, I wrote two other novels besides The Koolura Series. These books include Goodbye Tchaikovsky ( Royal Fireworks Press, 2012), the story of a teen violin virtuoso who wakes up on his twelfth birthday deaf, and The Abduction of Joshua Bloom (Solstice Publishing, 2014), a science fiction novel about the abduction of a teen by an alien race of humans determined to find a new home for their people.

Feel free to visit my website at www.michaelthal.com to read the reviews about my books.

For five days beginning August 1-August 5 The Koolura Series will be on sale for $.99 at these sites (the print books are available, too):

Amazon-Kindle

The Legend of Koolura: http://amzn.to/1rALj4x

Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback:

http://amzn.to/1qDnQSl

Barnes & Noble- Nook

The Koolura Series: http://bit.ly/1phKPvv

Smashwords- epub, mobi, pdf, rtf, lrf, pdb, txt

Books by Michael Thal: http://bit.ly/Urls28

Solstice Publishing- mobi

The Koolura Series: http://bit.ly/1qDob7x