Wild Pines Press

What would you do for $35,000,000?

Jessi Bell once daydreamed about all the things she would buy with $1,000,000, but after spending her last dollar on a chance to win $35,000,000, she loses the lottery ticket. When the winning numbers are announced and she believes she has won the jackpot, Jessi sets off on a wild ride to recover the missing ticket.

During her quest, she meets an aardvark with muscle car envy, a truck stop waitress serving more than biscuits and coffee, and a former chef with a cocaine habit who sends her into the back roads of North Carolina.

Did Jessi lose her lottery ticket in Nick's Mustang? Will Jessi get the to ticket before anyone else cashes it in? Will her best friend Irene save her from being sold into the sex slave trade? After the truth is revealed, will Jessi still be a winner?

"I am very pleased with the chapbook you've created for me, Mary. You took my compilation of poems and turned it into a masterful work of art. I have been writing poems for years, but didn't know how to put them in booklet form, since I couldn't afford the expensive publishing companies. When I first contacted you online, you responded right away, answering all my questions on how to submit my poems to be developed into a chapbook.

I appreciate the way you kept me informed of the progress of my chapbook, and how sensitive you were to my requests for changes at times. You were very professional, yet personal enough to let me know you cared and wanted me to be satisfied. The cover design is beautiful and the formatting of the pages, impressive.

My poems have been published in The Oasis Journal - 2004, The Unity Center of Christianity, Wash.DC Newsletter, and The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, Wash. DC Newsletter, but this is my first chapbook and I wanted it to be just right. Mary, you have made a dream come true for me. Thank you. I recommend you highly to anyone who want to have their own chapbook published."

-- Pearl Boyd

"Mary, you did an excellent job of collaborating on my chapbook. I asked you to do a different type of booklet than you had done before and you took to the task like a duck to water. Your cover design for "Joy At Work" was very attractive and much more than I expected. I liked the way you were attentive to my concerns about the project and how carefully you made any I requested. I will not hestitate to use Wild Pines Publishing Services when I do my next chapbook. Thank you very much. It has been a pleasure to work with you."

-- William A. Poppen, PhD

"Mary...I got the books today. Thanks for everything. You did a wonderful job. I am very pleased with the formatting and the general layout of the book. When I was looking for someone to help me publish my first chapbook, I, of course, checked out all the big services (Xlibris et al) and soon became uneasy with the crassness and impersonal flavor of their hype. Chapbooks are about poetry after all and I wanted this book to be born in a more poetic atmosphere. You provided such a service. It was evident at once that you would be very attentive to my wishes and that I was not about to submit my poems to the 'maws of mercilous machines.' Again that you so very much."

-- Thomas Lisenbee

Excerpt from Bottled: "I'd like to say I remember the first time I had either coke or X but I can't. All the nights have become a blur. I'd like to say there was a definitive line I crossed when my life became a constant party. I'd like to, but that's a blur too. I honestly can't remember what it feels like to be without the drugs."

Stephanie Thompson is a world traveler, a writer, a musician, an artist, and a compulsive dreamer. In her 21 years she has moved so many times that to list them all would be tedious. She currently resides in Northern Virginia with her parents, her little brother, and her dog Lucky. Bottled is her first chapbook.

Mary Elizabeth Thompson is a writer and artist who sees the world through a sensitive lens and captures its simultaneous bliss and heartache in any medium she employs. Her poetry is raw and sensual, filled with provocative images and sharp language meant to snatch the audience from its complacency by the throat and say, "Feel this." Nothing is hidden in these pages; everything is shown. Delving through the full spectrum of human feeling from frustration to ecstasy, the selected poems in Domesticated Animus take the reader on an emotional journey through the author's experience of her world.