Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds

  

Change Your Mindset to Achieve Desired Outcomes

Self-help, Motivational, Success, Transformational Psychology

Date Published: November 8, 2023

 

 

 What if the biggest obstacle to your success isn’t your circumstances—

but your mindset?

Every day, your brain consumes a steady diet of negative news, social media noise, unhealthy beliefs, and self-limiting ideas. Just like poor nutrition damages the body, poor mental input sabotages discipline, productivity, and long-term success.

In Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds, U.S. Army combat veteran, Fortune 500 technology executive, and high-performance advisor Derrick Pledger delivers a powerful and practical framework for transforming how you think, act, and achieve.

This thought-provoking and highly accessible book presents 100 short lessons—called “recipes”—designed to help you detox your mindset, strengthen discipline, and build habits that compound into life-changing results.

Whether your goal is career advancement, entrepreneurship, improved relationships, better health, or personal fulfillment, this book shows you how success is built—not overnight—but daily.

Inside This Book, You’ll Learn How To:

● Reframe failure as fuel for growth and long-term achievement

● Build discipline and consistency without burnout

● Eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors and mental clutter

● Develop habits that drive upward mobility and performance

● Create clarity around goals and obsess over what matters

● Treat your brain like your body—by feeding it the right “mental nutrients”

Grounded in real-world experience, extensive research, and years of personal journaling, Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds distills complex success principles into clear, actionable insights you can apply in minutes a day.

Why Readers Love This Book

Readers from all walks of life have experienced profound transformation, including:

● Losing significant weight and reclaiming control over their health

● Advancing from mid-level roles to executive leadership positions

● Gaining clarity, confidence, and momentum after years of stagnation

“I read this book on a four-hour flight and landed as a completely different person.”

This isn’t motivational fluff. It’s a mental operating system for becoming a daily achiever—someone who understands that success is the by-product of learning, failing forward, and getting better every single day.

If you’re ready to put your brain on a better mental diet and finally achieve the outcomes you want, this book is your recipe for success.

 

About the Author

 

 Derrick Pledger is a U.S. Army combat veteran, Fortune 500 technology executive, digital strategist, and author passionate about helping people unlock their full potential through mindset, discipline, and intentional action.

Currently serving as Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) at Maximus Inc., Derrick leads enterprise-wide technology strategy, artificial intelligence operations, and large-scale digital modernization initiatives. With more than 20 years of industry experience, his expertise spans systems integration, automation, cloud and edge computing, AI, data analytics, IT governance, and end-to-end solution development.

Before joining Maximus, Derrick was Chief Information Officer at Leidos, where he oversaw global IT delivery operations supporting a $17-billion organization with more than 48,000 employees worldwide. Earlier in his career, he ran a multi-million-dollar export business in his twenties and became a Fortune 500 CIO by age forty.

As an author, Derrick’s journey is rooted in resilience and persistence. While serving in the U.S. Army, he transformed a failed screenplay into a novel manuscript—written during downtime in Iraq. After dozens of rejections, that effort led to a co-written book deal with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, resulting in the 2008 release of The Diamond District.

Fifteen years later, driven by a mission to democratize success, Derrick released his second book, Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds, after investing more than 1,500 hours researching mindset, habits, and high-performance behaviors. His work challenges conventional thinking about failure, goal-setting, and achievement, offering readers a practical blueprint for sustained personal and professional growth.

In addition to writing, Derrick advises individuals, teams, and organizations on high performance and leadership, and he is a partner at 500 Pound Media, a digital content company focused on personal development and achievement.

Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Derrick believes that success is not reserved for the lucky or the privileged—but for those willing to develop the right mindset and show up consistently, even when failure is part of the process.

Contact Links

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram: @derrickrpledger

Youtube: @500poundmedia 

Goodreads

Purchase Links

Amazon

B&N

Kindred Schemes Schemes Book 1 by R. K. Harrington Genre: Historical Regency Romance

 

One bookish debutante. 

Two dashing suitors.

 And a season full of scandal.

Kindred Schemes

Schemes Book 1

by R. K. Harrington

Genre: Historical Regency Romance

 

One bookish debutante. Two dashing suitors. And a season full of scandal.

Lady Alaina Sinclair never expected London society to be so treacherous—or so tempting. She has always preferred books to ballrooms, but with a disastrous start to her first season, she’s determined to rewrite her fate. With her heart set on the respectable—and very eligible—Duke of Ashford, Alaina is ready to embrace society’s expectations… even if it means silencing her true desires.

Alaina’s world is set awry by Christopher Kendall, the Marquess of Rochester—sharp-tongued, maddeningly handsome, and inconveniently, the duke’s closest friend. Their first encounter is a disaster. Their next, a temptation. And every moment together after that, increasingly impossible to ignore. But with a web of secrets, jealous relatives, and mysterious threats unraveling around her, it soon becomes clear: this is no ordinary season.

Kindred Schemes is a modern take on a regency romance with glamour, a steamy love triangle, and enough mystery to keep readers turning the page.

 

What readers are saying:

"The story’s central love triangle will delight romance fans...Harrington excels in crafting multidimensional characters...[A] satisfying blend of romance, intrigue, and character-driven storytelling." — Booklife 

 

An entertaining period love story, nicely balancing breathless lust with social satire and high-mindedness.” — Kirkus Reviews

 

"The characters are colorful and sharply etched…the prose has a droll, Austen-esque verve to it, using pompously polite palaver to reveal the crassness of high society...In keeping with the style is the spirit of the book’s message—that true love triumphs over mercenary calculation. Readers will root for the feisty Alaina to overcome the stuffed shirts and find her heart’s desire.” — Kirkus Reviews 

 

Amazon * Apple * B&N * Kobo * Books2Read * Bookbub * Goodreads

 

London, 1809

Oh no, here he comes, the lascivious Lord Finch and his merry band of drunken fools. Alaina looked out at the crowded ballroom, her eyes connecting with the group of men making their way toward its center. Alaina had only been at the ball for a quarter hour before this particular disaster struck, the leers of the men making the hairs at the nape of her neck prickle. It did not escape Alaina’s attention that Lady Barbara, Lord Finch’s sister, accompanied the group, and wore a sly smile. Hopefully, this latest encounter would be short. Surely, Lord Finch would not want to be rejected twice, let alone in front of a large crowd.

Alaina looked to her right to find her parents close at hand, thankfully, and she stood a little straighter knowing she would not face this alone.

The group of men seemed to move in unison before coming to a halt a few paces before Alaina and her family. A group of onlookers formed a circle around them as if ready to enjoy the ensuing spectacle, Lady Barbara taking her place in the throng. Alaina struggled to focus on the faces of the onlookers as she held her head high, ready to meet Lord Finch and his friends with as much dignity as she could muster. She hoped to project a more serene exterior than she currently felt, her heartbeat accelerating to such a degree that she could feel the blood rushing in her ears.

Lord Finch stepped to the fore of the now halted group, and gallantly bowed to Alaina before speaking, his voice so loud that Alaina was sure people arriving in carriages outside could hear.

“My dearest beautiful Alaina,” he started, clearing his throat before continuing, “You have set upon me quite a conundrum. I fear I have fallen madly in love with the idea of having you as my wife, and I feel you should be happy with such an arrangement. I am quite the catch, you know, especially for someone from the country, and one who likes to read.”

From behind him, Lady Barbara piped up with an added insult, “Amazing, really, that Alaina found her way out of the library to be here.” Laughter rippled through the crowd.

Alaina cringed at his easy use of her given name, devoid of any honorific, and seethed at the mockery of her character. Lord Finch and his sister sounded ridiculous, pompous, and conceited.

Alaina was frozen in place, her lips trembling in rage, and when no comment ushered forth from her lips, Lord Finch rejoined, unfazed by the one-sided nature of their conversation. “I find myself at an impasse. Shall I continue to press my suit with decorum, or should I make my feelings known to the whole world, so that you may not so easily dismiss them as you have in the past?”

A warmth crept up Alaina’s neck and touched her cheeks, giving her pale skin a glow, although one not easily perceptible in the dim light of the ballroom. She turned once again to where her parents stood, only to find that her father had disappeared, and her mother’s pale face was drawn in embarrassment as she watched her eldest child with dismay. Oh, how Alaina wished her father would have stayed; his tall frame was intimidating to a crowd, and his familiar umber eyes were always reassuring to her.

Resolved to put a stop to this farce, Alaina turned back to Lord Finch and remarked, her voice distant and strange sounding in her ears, “Lord Finch, it seems my earlier rejection of your suit did not deter you in the least, but I ask you to have a care for your surroundings.”

As the words left her mouth, Alaina watched Lord Finch’s face change, his outwardly serene expression making way for something more sinister. His smile twisted into an outright leer, and his pale green eyes seemed to burn of their own accord, the candlelight no longer just a reflection in them. He lowered to one knee and reached out his hands in supplication as he sneered, “Please, will you marry me, my lady?” The emphasis on the last word ensured that Alaina felt the insult.

Lord Finch was quickly joined by his friends, their idiocy knowing no bounds, all of them dropping to their knees in a chorus of marriage proposals, each more mocking and infuriating than the last. Soon laughter rang loudly in Alaina’s ears as the men and then the onlookers seemed to find amusement in her predicament. Her world blurred through a sheen of tears, the faces of the laughing men—now resembling something like demons—the only clear points in her vision.

Alaina glanced about to find her mother and threw herself into her open arms, shielding her from the worst of the crowd. The two women made their way to the outer edge of the ballroom and quickly to the front entrance, only stopping a moment to gather their cloaks before heading out into the cool night. Her father, having had the forethought to make his way to the exit, met them in the front drive, where he had already called for their carriage to be brought around, and not a moment too soon.

The Sinclair family hastened into the carriage, a pall falling on them as the conveyance made its way onto the main thoroughfare and toward their London townhome. Alaina squeezed her eyes shut, focusing on the clip clop of the well-matched team of four, grateful for the silence of her parents, as she let tears make their way unchecked down her cheeks.

 

R. K. Harrington is a debut historical romance author, combining swoon-worthy romance with a bit of mystery. Her first novel, Kindred Schemes, is scheduled to be released February 2026.

In 2021, R. K. Harrington found that her daydreams were yearning to spill over to the written page, and, ever since, has been writing historical romance with a dash of mystery in hopes of publishing her work one day. After much editing, and long hours designing, she is gearing up to release her first novel, with many more to come!

R. K. Harrington grew up reading romance novels at a (maybe too) young age, and the stories entranced her. Give her a Happily Ever After (HEA) and there is no better book in the world. While romance books (namely historical romances) are her first love, R. K. Harrington is an avid reader of all genres. She has gone through many phases: medical mysteries, crime dramas, science fiction, romantasy, and is currently in a fantasy phase (she does do the occasional non-fiction book as well, namely history). Through every season of reading, romance books of all kinds are sprinkled liberally.

When R. K. Harrington is not writing or reading (or working her day job as an engineer), she is having fun with her husband, their kids, and her very cute dog, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Maximus. They all live in the DMV area, where the summers are hot, the winters are cold, and the two days of Spring and Fall are beautiful enough to open the windows!

 

Website * Facebook * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads

 

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a $20 giveaway!

Enter the Kindred Schemes Giveaway Here

Looks that Kill by Lee Gemmill Genre: Serial Killer Thriller

  

Sometimes death is not enough.

Looks that Kill

by Lee Gemmill

Genre: Serial Killer Thriller

Sometimes death is not enough...

Laura Johnson's life has been a mosaic of terror, each piece a fragment of her haunted past. In her world, to be unnoticed is to be safe, yet, beneath her camouflage lies a burning desire to live without the constant pulse of fear.

Enter Diablo, a serial killer who transforms his victims into chilling avatars that appear within his dark and popular computer games. With the police powerless to peel back his many masks, Diablo sets his sights on Laura.

In this heart-stopping race against time, Laura is thrust into a deadly play where facing fear isn't a choice-it's survival. With the killer's shadow looming, can she stand against the darkness? Or will she become the next character in his twisted games of death?

The terror begins now....

  

“A wounded soul becomes the target of a brutal serial killer’s game in this dark, gripping, game of cat and mouse.” ★★★★★ – Explore Authors Magazine

 

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

“Laura, girl. It’s me! Your pa has come to see you.” His voice was oily and sinister.

He reached for her arm, but she recoiled. A horrible weakness overtook her, and Laura found herself feeling like a child again, as she always did in Brian’s presence. She hated him deeply, yet had feared him for most of her life. Her entire personality had been constructed around her terror of this man, who was worse than Gorch in many ways—certainly just as bad. This man had caused nearly all of her fear.

Her muscles turned almost limp. He seized her by the throat, as he always did to assert his control over her, and shoved her against the wall. She trembled violently, her legs turning to water. Helpless in his presence, she wondered why she couldn’t move. What was wrong with her?

“I’ve missed you, Laura,” he said, his face inches from hers. His breath reeked of an acrid mix of cigarettes, coffee, and unclean teeth, just as it always did. He kissed her hard, thrusting his tongue as far into her mouth as he could. That was the trigger that set her off.

As his free hand slipped into her shirt, she reached over the arm holding her against the wall, seized his wrist, and twisted it with all her might.

“What—!” was all he managed to utter before his face hit the floor. She kicked him hard in the ribs and was about to kick him again when he rolled away with surprising quickness. He stood, looking both alarmed and furious.

He cursed at her wildly, then shouted, “I’m gonna beat the living hell out of you!” Rubbing his sore wrist, he fixed her with a deadly gaze. Laura regretted not breaking his arm when she had the chance. This was her moment to run—hit and run. She headed for the door.

“Like hell you’ll get away from me!” he yelled, lunging forward but stumbling over the edge of the coffee table. On his knees, he looked up at her with fire in his eyes. In that instant, she knew he intended to kill her. He cursed again.

She gripped the doorknob with time to spare. Hit and run. Without taking her eyes off his, she reached for the top lock on the door and bolted it shut. She followed with the second lock, her hands instinctively finding the locking mechanism. The last thing she secured was the chain.

In an instant, the fear that had consumed her dissipated, replaced by an icy hatred that transformed her shaky legs into steel.

“What’re you doing?” For the first time, Brian looked unsure. Laura glared at him with all the hatred she could muster. She advanced in long, sudden strides and kicked him in the face before he could regain his footing. Hit and run.

Not this time.

 

At 20, Lee Gemmill set off on a hitchhiking adventure from Virginia to California, climbing Handies Peak in Colorado and losing all his food to sneaky ground squirrels in the Grand Canyon along the way. A former biology and anatomy teacher with 32 years of experience in Virginia, he’s now retired and fully dedicated to writing.

Lee’s mission is to reshape storytelling by blending fantasy, science fiction, and horror into unforgettable tales. His work pushes the boundaries of imagination, delivering thrilling experiences that stay with readers long after the last page — all while building a legacy of unique, genre-defying stories that cultivate lifelong fans.

 

Facebook * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

Enter the Looks That Kill Giveaway Here

Long Lost Midwife

  

 

Historical Fiction | Race & Identity | Women’s Stories | 1930s America

Date Published: September 19, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

Set against the charged racial landscape of 1934 St. Louis, Long Lost Midwife is a gripping historical novel about identity, obsession, and the dangerous cost of defying social order.

Pamela appears to be a privileged young white socialite, newly married and expecting her first child. But beneath the polished surface lies a restless, unsettled woman struggling against the suffocating expectations placed upon her. As her pregnancy advances, Pamela becomes fixated on one thing: finding Miss Minnie, the Black midwife who delivered her at home in 1911.

Her request ignites fierce resistance. Both families condemn the idea, and Pamela’s husband, Frank, fearing scandal and loss of control, tightens his grip—bringing in relatives to monitor her movements and even hiring surveillance to ensure she never makes contact with the midwife. Determined and increasingly reckless, Pamela secretly pressures her Black maid to help locate Miss Minnie, setting in motion a chain of events neither family can contain.

What begins as a quiet domestic drama escalates into a volatile confrontation with race, power, and truth. As long-buried histories surface, the search for a midwife becomes a catalyst for racial tension, betrayal, and violence—raising the chilling question: will this birth end in life… or murder?

Long Lost Midwife starts with measured restraint and builds relentlessly toward a tempestuous, unforgettable conclusion. It is a haunting exploration of white blindness, Black resilience, and the fragile illusions that sustain privilege in early 20th-century America.

Perfect for readers who enjoy:

● Thought-provoking historical fiction

● Novels examining race, class, and gender

● Character-driven stories set in pre-Civil Rights America

● Books that begin quietly and end with devastating force

 

About the Author

Skye Smith is a historical fiction author and retired mechanical designer whose career spanned decades of designing complex machinery using advanced computer-aided design (CAD) systems. That background in precision and structure deeply informs Smith’s approach to storytelling—where narrative architecture, historical accuracy, and character motivation are carefully engineered.

During the final ten years of a professional career, Smith moderated the Plymouth Writers Group, a MeetUp-based genre writing collective composed of engineers, doctors, legal professionals, technical writers, and MFA graduates. Within this collaborative environment, Smith completed first drafts of three novels, with two additional works developed independently.

Smith holds a degree in History from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, an academic foundation that profoundly shapes the thematic and contextual grounding of the work. Historical setting, for Smith, is never decorative—it is the backbone of character behavior and moral conflict.

Another significant creative influence comes from many years singing in Sonomento, a Minneapolis-based operatic choir active until 2024. Immersion in opera introduced Smith to the disciplined exactness of musical phrasing and libretto, where text is fluid, expressive, and shaped by emotional register. That sense of linguistic “plasticity” carries directly into Smith’s prose style.

Long Lost Midwife reflects these influences in a novel that begins with restraint and builds toward controlled chaos—examining race, power, and identity in 1930s America with precision, tension, and historical depth.

Contact Links

Website

Instagram

TikTok

Purchase Links

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

To Die For

 

Young Adult

Date Published: April 10th 2026

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

To Die For is a harrowing look into the life of a narcissist who refuses to take accountability for the damage she inflicts. 

High school senior Dei Fields appears completely harmless, but she has a keen instinct for manipulation. When she first sets eyes on hot star athlete Mika St. John, she’s determined to have him … and Dei always gets what she wants. There are only three obstacles: Mika’s friends, his family, and his girlfriend. But Dei isn’t afraid to destroy relationships to satisfy her fantasies. 

In a matter of weeks, she love-bombs Mika into thinking he has found his soulmate, but when Dei’s plans go awry, everything changes—including her identity. Will Dei get what she wants this time? Or will she finally get what she deserves?

 

Excerpt

        “Why are you always spoiling things? Why couldn’t you have just believed me?” 
        Then the girl charged toward her, rage in her eyes. Marion had seen this before – it was the bully on the playground, the mean girl at the gym – why are you making me do this??
        And suddenly Marion knew that she was fighting for her life. Swinging the flashlight she connected it with Dei’s upper arm, unbalancing her, if only for a moment. As Dei staggered back, Marion glanced at the front door and knew that she would never make it in time. Instead, she headed for the balcony and tugged the glass door open with all her might. At once, the rain whipped against her face, stinging like shards of glass, but she knew that Dei could feel it too.
        And then she began to scream. After all, they were only one floor up from the boardwalk. Surely someone would see them struggling!
        But there was no one there. It was as if Naples had become a ghost town. There was nothing but abandoned cars and boarded up windows – and rising water.
        A tiny, claw-like hand grabbed at her arm and twisted, but she wrenched free. With Marion’s clothing soaked, it was harder for Dei to hold onto her, but she stepped all the way out onto the concrete patio, now slick with rain.
        “You bitch!”
        Marion heard Dei scream behind her and turned to face her abuser but before she could raise the heavy flashlight again, it slipped from her wet grip and clattered to the floor.
        Seeing it fall, Dei kicked the flashlight under one of the chairs and then lunged at Marion.  Grabbing her by the hair she was surprised to feel the old woman fighting back. They were both soaked, their bodies slick with rain and debris carried in by the fierce wind.
Suddenly one of the chairs slammed into Dei, hitting her back legs, and she lost her hold on Marion. As Dei staggered back, Marion moved toward the door, intending to lock her out, but Dei caught her by the wrist.
        “No, you don’t!” she said fiercely, propelling Marion towards the rail of the balcony.  For one terrifying moment, Marion feared that she would lose her balance and pitch forward over the ledge to the street below. Instead, her core held -- and years of yoga and gardening paid off in that moment, saving her life.
        Pushing herself away from the railing, Marion saw Dei rushing toward her like a linebacker. She had youth and energy and agility, but Marion had one thing Dei didn’t have in that moment – her wits.
        As Dei charged towards the railing, Marion waited until the last millisecond and then stepped aside - the impact to Dei enough to knock the wind out of her. Falling to her knees, she was now doubled over beside Marion, if only for a moment.
        But that moment was all that it took for Marion to see the iPhone sticking out of the pocket of Dei’s jeans. Adrenaline surged through Marion as her right hand connected with the phone, and in one sweeping movement, she took it and flung it over the balcony to the flooded street below.
 

About the Author

 

Audrey Steidl is the award-winning author of the romantic thriller The Fallen. Her passion for storytelling began at an early age when she wrote scripts and performed them with her neighborhood friends in full costume and makeup. This love blossomed into a career as an actress and as a producer for cable television.Now, when she’s not writing page-turners, Audrey is a hotel travel executive, a pilates fiend, and a lover of travel and art. A long-time San Diego resident, she shares her home with her husband Jamie and their mischievous Pomeranian Loki. Her latest novel, To Die For, is inspired by those who have the courage to walk away from narcissists and emotionally abusive relationships.

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

LinkedIn

 

Just Calle Me Pardner

  

Children's Book

Date Published: 08-16-2025

Publisher: Solander Press

A.J. had always dreamed of being a cowboy on his family's Oklahoma farm. Without a horse, he felt like something was missing. How could he care for the animals and help with the farm work without a trusty steed?

One afternoon, A.J. returned home from school to find a surprise waiting for him in the barn - a beautiful little horse named Lady Star. She was now his to ride and care for. From that day on, A.J. spent all his free time learning how to ride Lady Star and caring for her. He dreamed of being skilled enough to ride alongside his grandfather, father, and Jon, the farm hand, during the cattle roundups.

Award-winning author Sherry Roberts weaves a heartfelt story about growing up in the 1930s and 1940s. Based on the tales passed down by her father, Just Call Me Pardner is a must-read for history lovers and those who enjoy stories of the American West. 

Excerpt

“Hey, Grandpa. I got the stall cleaned out. Is it time?”

“Follow me.” Grandpa says as he goes to the corral. There stands Lady Star with Jon. Already saddled up and ready for a ride.

“You have to listen to everything Jon tells you.”

“Yes, sir,” I tell Grandpa as I climb up the corral railing. “Hi, Jon.”

“Hi, pardner. Are you ready to ride?” Jon is smiling as big as me.

Leaning over the rail, I pat Lady Star on the neck. Lady Star is brown with white marks all over. Right above her eyes there’s a white mark like a star. The mark must be how she got her name.

“Okay. Lady Star is a really gentle horse and will give you a good ride. Be nice to her, and she’ll be nice to you, too.” Dad comes to stand beside me at the corral rails.

“I wish I had a new cowboy hat. My old one barely fits.”

“Well, you’ll have to wear the old one for now when you ride your horse. You decide.” Dad says as he leans over the railing.

I push my old hat tight on my head. Grandpa grins and gives Dad that look. You know the one. When an adult thinks they’re right and you have to agree.

I head to where Jon holds Lady Star close to the fence. He tells me how to mount Lady Star from the fence. Jon told me we’d work on how to get on her from the ground another day. Then I’ll be like a real cowboy. “Cowboys learn this way all the time. Especially when they’re young.” Jon gives my knee a tap.

 

About the Author

Sherry Roberts is an award-winning children’s book author. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Louisville. She has written multiple award-winning fiction picture books such as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas…A First for Gus, Hello, Can I Bug You?, Gabriel and the Special Memorial Day, What’s Wrong with Barnaby, and The Best Reading Buddy. She also has written two non-fiction award-winning picture books, Sonnet, Sonnet, What’s in Your Bonnet? and A Visit Through the Wetlands. These two were illustrated with her photography. Sherry’s newest picture book, Amica Helps Zoe, was featured in Kirkus e-newsletter June 2025 as Indie Pick and received a Get It: Recommend review.

As a former middle school teacher, Dr. Roberts decided to write her first middle-grade novel (ages 8-13). Her debut novel, The Galaxy According to CeCe, is the first book in a three-book series. It was officially released on February 24, 2024. Book two, The Galaxy According to Cece: The Mysterious Dr. Pruitt, was released August 2024. Book three, The Galaxy According to Cece: The Stars Align, released February 2025.

Sherry’s next venture is a chapter book series (ages 6-8). The first book, Just Call Me Pardner, was released August 1, 2025. The series is about a young boy in the 1930s on a small farm in Northeastern Oklahoma and is inspired by stories of her father’s childhood in the 1930s. Book 2, Just Look at Those Boots, launches in early 2026, with Book 3, Just Don’t Give a Girl a Frog, launching in November 2026.

Dr. Roberts has also written many articles that appear in various academic journals, along with three textbooks. Personal Financial Literacy is in its fourth edition (Pearson). She is an associate professor of Marketing in Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University.

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

Instagram

Purchase Links

https://mybook.to/JustCallMePardner

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Secrets of the Midwife

  

Women's Fiction

Date Published: 03-18-2026

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Anabel Leigh has spent years pouring herself into her career, polishing her image, and protecting her fragile heart after too many losses. But everything changes when a stranger presses a baby into her arms in a crowded New York park and vanishes. The child’s golden hair and trusting eyes stir a deeply personal longing Anabel thought she’d buried forever.

What begins as a surreal moment unravels into a storm of headlines and police questions.

Savannah Maas knows the truth. She’s hiding on a farm in Georgia, living by a different code—one forged from secrets, desperation, and choices that blur the line between compassion and crime.

As the world closes in, each woman struggles to keep her dreams from crumbling. For one, receiving the baby is a miracle. For the other, the handoff is a devastating mistake.

Heart-stirring and suspenseful, Secrets of the Midwife is a story of hope, resilience, and the unexpected ways love finds us.

 

 

About the Author

Ann Ormsby earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has worked in marketing communications for nonprofit and government organizations. When she left full-time employment to raise her boys, she started writing short stories and novels that dig deep into family relationships. Her op-eds have appeared in the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger, and The Huffington Post.

Invested in her small New Jersey town, Ann serves as co-vice president of the Westfield Service League, a nonprofit that raises money for local charities. As a bookseller at The Town Book Store, she loves helping people find their next good read.

Secrets of the Midwife is her third novel.

Contact Link

Website

Facebook

Instagram