Category: Book Announcements

Book Announcements, Children's Books, Poets & Events, writing

Meet Ellen Kolman: Children’s Book Author

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
A portrait of Ellen Kolman, an award-winning author from Ohio, smiling with glasses and wearing a floral-patterned shirt, against a blue background. The text beside her highlights her passion for teaching children about kindness and Jesus.

Prolific Pulse Press LLC is proud to welcome award-winning Ohio author Ellen Kolman’s latest book to our collection.

Meet Ellen Kolman

Ellen Kolman has spent more than 35 years teaching and entertaining children in church and Christian school classrooms. Few authors know young readers as well as she does.

Her stories grow directly out of that work. Her students inspire tales about kindness, forgiveness, empathy, and friendship, the values she has nurtured in classrooms for decades. The result is books that delight children and give parents and teachers natural openings for meaningful conversations.

Ellen’s work has already earned recognition. Her picture book Crabby Abby the Decorator Crab’s Big Heart is an Ella’s Way award winner for promoting kindness through children’s literature, and a Children’s Book International finalist.

While we are featuring books published by Prolific Pulse Press LLC, you can find all of Ellen’s books here:

Ellen Kolman Website

The Books

Colorful book cover featuring cartoon sea creatures including a crab, fish, and seahorse. The title reads 'Crabby Abby The Decorator Crab's BIG Heart' with awards for children's literature visible in the corner.

Crabby Abby the Decorator Crab’s Big Heart Illustrated by Kaelen Felix. Dive under the sea with Crabby Abby, a decorator crab whose big heart shows young readers what kindness and friendship look like. Kaelen Felix’s vivid, colorful illustrations bring Abby and her ocean friends to life.

Crabby Abby is a decorator crab who literally looks like a sparkly boutique on ten legs! Abby’s clothing choices are unusual but so is Abby. Decorator crabs use whatever materials are nearby to camouflage themselves from predators. Abby is not worried about her safety; she just wants to pile on all the clothing and accessories she can because she loves them all! There is also a coloring book available!

Purchase Your Copy Here

Illustration of a colorful underwater scene featuring cartoonish sea creatures. The title 'The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas' is prominently displayed, along with author and illustrator names.

The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas Illustrated by Kaelen Felix Crabby Abby returns for a holiday adventure beneath the moonlit sea. Just in time for the Christmas season, it makes a heartwarming gift for families, classrooms, and Sunday schools.

It’s Christmas Eve in Ruby Reef, and no one under the sea is more excited than Crabby Abby the Decorator Crab. Covered from claw to shell in bows, baubles, and sparkly trinkets, Abby looks like a walking Christmas boutique!
The whole reef has gathered for the town tree-lighting ceremony when Daniel the Lionfish notices something is missing: there’s no star at the top of the tree. Daniel reminds everyone why the star matters so much. It was a star that led the wise men to Bethlehem to worship the baby Jesus.

With the lights waiting and Christmas almost here, Crabby Abby, Daniel, and their friend Lavender Urchin set off on an undersea quest to find a star. Along the way, they hear someone crying, and the friends stop to offer help and loving kindness to a sea creature in need. Could their new friend be exactly what they’ve been searching for? Will sharing God’s love turn out to be the truest blessing of Christmas?

Warm-hearted and full of ocean charm, The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas is a faith-filled picture book for children ages 4 to 8. It celebrates the true meaning of Christmas and the story of Jesus’s birth, along with the joy of friendship, teamwork, and kindness. It’s a perfect Christmas Eve read-aloud, Advent story time, Sunday school lesson, or stocking stuffer for young ocean lovers.

Purchase Your Copy Here

Cover of 'Who Is Jesus? Easter Devotional and Coloring Book' featuring a cartoon depiction of Jesus with open arms, surrounded by colorful flowers and Easter-themed illustrations.

Who Is Jesus? Easter Devotional and Coloring Book A hands-on way for children to learn about Jesus during the Easter season. Devotional readings pair with coloring pages, making it a natural fit for families, children’s ministries, and Christian classrooms.

Spark your child’s curiosity and deepen your family’s faith this Easter season with Who Is Jesus? Easter Devotional Book—an engaging resource designed to bring parents, educators, and children together for meaningful conversations about Jesus.

Built around ten thoughtful questions—including “Does Jesus pray for me?” and “Does Jesus want me to be kind?”—these interactive devotionals invite children to explore who Jesus is and what His love means for their daily lives. Each question features a key Bible verse, a short, child-friendly devotion, space for personal reflection, one or two thought-provoking discussion prompts, and a guided prayer to help children speak to God with confidence and trust.

Young readers can practice reading the devotions aloud and sharing their insights. Families can gather to read, reflect, and pray together—creating intentional moments that strengthen both faith and connection.

Ideal for home use, Sunday school, Christian classrooms, or homeschool settings, Who Is Jesus? Easter Devotional book offers a simple yet powerful way to prepare hearts for Easter. Through Scripture, creativity, and honest conversation, this devotional helps children discover who Jesus is—and how deeply He loves them.

Purchase Your Copy Here

Every Reader Starts Somewhere

Every leader, teacher, and professional was once a child learning to read.

Before the degrees, the job titles, and the quarterly goals, there was a picture book. Someone sat beside us, turned the pages, and showed us that words open doors.

That is why we believe children’s books deserve a place in every serious conversation about education, careers, and community. Early reading builds the communication and critical-thinking skills every workplace depends on. Stories teach empathy and perspective long before any leadership training does. And for educators, librarians, and therapists, books are essential tools of the profession.

Why We Publish Children’s Books

Creating a children’s book is real professional work. Behind every title are months of writing, editing, illustration, design, production, and marketing. At Prolific Pulse Press, producing books like Ellen’s is some of the most meaningful work we do.

These books are made for the people who put stories to work every day: parents and grandparents reading at bedtime, teachers building literacy in the classroom, librarians, and children’s ministry leaders. The young readers they reach today will be the colleagues, founders, and leaders of tomorrow.

Please join us in congratulating Ellen Kolman. Pick up a copy for the children in your life, share this post with an educator who would love these books, and tell us in the comments: what book from your childhood still stays with you?

A Fun Video

Ready for a bonus?

Complete the Contact form and request a coloring page. You will receive a complimentary coloring page!

Announcements, art, Book Announcements, book launch, poetry, Poets & Events

Indelible Ink: Jennifer Gurney’s Postcard Poems and Paintings Arrive October 30

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Three colorful postcards featuring abstract artwork, alongside a book cover titled 'Indelible Ink' by Jennifer Gurney, which includes the subtitle 'Postcard Poems and Paintings from the 2025 Postcard Poetry Fest'.

Prologue to summer, epilogue to summer, and every sun-soaked day in between: Prolific Pulse Press is thrilled to announce the release of Indelible Ink: Postcard Poems and Paintings from the 2025 Postcard Poetry Fest by Colorado poet and painter Jennifer Gurney, available October 30, 2026.

Thirty Postcards, Thirty Poems, Two Days

Every August, writers around the world sign up for the Postcard Poetry Fest. Each receives a list of names and addresses, and through the month they write a poem on the back of a postcard and mail it to a stranger, while poems from fellow poets arrive in their own mailbox.

Jennifer didn’t just write her postcards. She painted them. In a single day at her kitchen table, with music playing, coffee within reach and her curious cat keeping watch, she painted all thirty cards. The next day she wrote all thirty poems. Every poem in Indelible Ink is a true first draft, sent out into the world unrevised, paired with the bold, layered abstract painting it traveled on.

The result is a book of summer: watermelon, fireflies, thunderstorms, and a teacher’s wish that August would slow down just a little.

A Gift Economy in Book Form

What makes the Postcard Poetry Fest special, Jennifer says, is that someone writes a poem just for you, and you write one just for them. She calls the festival the epitome of authenticity and generosity. Indelible Ink honors that community of poets and brings its spirit to readers everywhere.

The vibrant cover painting is Jennifer’s own favorite from the collection, and, like the covers of all 16 of her poetry books, it comes from her brush.

Read the Interview

Want the story behind the book? In our new interview, Jennifer talks about painting thirty postcards in a day, the German and Irish voices in her head that argue over revisions, her Art Heals project after the Marshall Fire, what her fourth graders thought of the poems, and her advice for anyone nervous about sharing a first draft.

👉 Read the full interview with Jennifer Gurney

About the Author & Artist

Jennifer Gurney is a Colorado-based poet and painter who also teaches and hikes. She has published 16 books and nearly 3,500 poems internationally, with work recognized in two international contests and featured in a choral performance, a D.C. yard sign, Australian theater screens, the Rx Poetry project, and a bus sign in Racine, Wisconsin. Her manuscript We Are Never Ready: A Collection of Grief Poems earned Honorable Mention for the 2025 Concrete Wolf Louis Award, and Curvature of Life was a semi-finalist for The Word Works’ 2025 Tenth Gate Prize. As a painter, she creates vibrant, experimental abstract acrylics that have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and local exhibitions, and she was GloMag’s 2024 Artist of the Month.

Find her on Instagram at @pelican6527 and on Etsy at Jennifer Gurney Art.

Get Your Copy

Indelible Ink: Postcard Poems and Paintings from the 2025 Postcard Poetry Fest by Jennifer Gurney Available October 30, 2026

Order now at ProlificPulse.com

Bring a little summer home, one postcard at a time.

Announcements, Book Announcements, book launch, Children's Books, Gift Ideas, holiday

It’s Here! The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas Is Ready for You!

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Cover image of 'The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas' featuring colorful underwater characters and a star on a blue background, promoting themes of kindness and God's love.

A Christmas Eve Problem in Ruby Reef

The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas by Ellen Kolman, illustrated by Kaelen Felix, is out today from Prolific Pulse Press.

It’s Christmas Eve in Ruby Reef. The ornaments are hung, the ribbons are wrapped, and the whole town is ready to celebrate. There’s just one problem: the town tree has no star.

If you’ve ever stood back to admire a Christmas tree and felt that something was missing, you already know how big a problem that is. And if you know Crabby Abby, you know she won’t sit still while it goes unsolved.

An Undersea Quest

Crabby Abby, the decorator crab who first won readers over in Crabby Abby the Decorator Crab’s Big Heart, sets off with her friends Daniel and Lavender to find a star for the tree before Christmas morning.

Their search takes them across the reef, past swaying kelp forests and glowing coral, under a bright Christmas Eve moon. Along the way, young readers will find plenty to point at, laugh about, and talk over together.

We won’t spoil where the search leads. But we will say that the star they find may not be the one anyone expected.

The Light That Shines Brightest

At its heart, this is a story about what really makes Christmas shine. As Abby, Daniel and Lavender search the reef, they discover that kindness and God’s love shine brightest of all.

That message is woven into an adventure, not tacked on at the end. Children experience it through the friends’ choices along the way, which makes it easy to talk about afterward: Who was kind? How did it help? Where do we see God’s love at Christmas?

Meet the Creators

A portrait of Ellen Kolman, an award-winning author from Ohio, wearing glasses and a floral shirt. The background is a light blue, and she is smiling at the camera.

Ellen Kolman, author. Ohio native Ellen Kolman is an award-winning author driven by a passion to teach children the love of Jesus. She has been teaching and entertaining children in church and Christian school settings for over 35 years. Her young students inspired her to write stories that help them understand kindness, forgiveness, empathy, and friendship. Ellen and her husband Andy have five adult children, five grandchildren, and a little white dog named Chip. Learn more on Ellen’s author page.

Portrait of Kaelen Felix, an author and illustrator, smiling in a black outfit against a blurred green background. She is featured in a section highlighting her work in children's books.

Kaelen Felix, illustrator. Kaelen Felix brings Ruby Reef to life with richly colored, hand-drawn art, from Abby’s mismatched shoes to every ornament on the tree. She is the author, illustrator, and designer of Wings and Whispers – Tales of Friendship, Volume 1, and has been creating children’s books for clients since 2018 in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. She holds a BFA in Illustration from Memphis College of Art.

Ways to Share It This Season

  • At home: Make it a Christmas Eve read-aloud, then let kids pick the star for your own tree.
  • In the classroom: Pair it with a lesson on kindness, or have students draw their own undersea Christmas tree.
  • In Sunday school or children’s church: Use the story to open a conversation about God’s love and the true light of Christmas.
  • As a gift: Tuck it into a stocking, an Advent basket, or a teacher gift bag.

Get Your Copy

The Search for a Star: A Crabby Abby Christmas is available now on Ellen Kolman. Order today and it can be under your tree well before Christmas Eve.

New to Crabby Abby? Start with her first adventure, Crabby Abby the Decorator Crab’s Big Heart (2025).

More books by Ellen Kolman

  • An Egg Called Easter (2026)
  • Who Is Jesus? Easter Devotional & Coloring Book (2026)
  • The Wonder of the Twinkly Lights (2025)
  • A Gentle Whisper (2025)
  • Sunshine Makes a Difference (2024)
  • Seeds of Sunshine (2022)
  • A Special Kind of Halo
  • Darwin the Wonder Dog Goes to School
  • And Purdie the Unicorn Can’t Stop Popping Balloons

Share your Christmas reading photos with us. We’d love to see Crabby Abby under your tree!

Announcements, Book Announcements, poetry, Poetry Forms

Announcing! Red Threads and Silver Linings by Adele Evershed is Now Available

Lisa Tomey-Zonneveld
Cover of a haiku collection titled 'Red Threads and Silver Linings' by Adele Evershed, featuring a sketched illustration of a woman.

Celebrate today as the new release of Red Threads and Silver Linings, A Woman’s Life in Haiku, One Bloody Drop at a Time!

Red Threads and Silver Linings is a haiku exploration of the female lifecycle, tracing womanhood through the intimate terrain of the body. Inspired partly by Jaques’ “All the world’s a stage” speech in As You Like It, Evershed moves through menarche, puberty, menstruation, fertility, conception, miscarriage, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum life, motherhood, menopause, and aging. Her short-form poetry illuminates the quiet power, vulnerability, and resilience held within the body’s cycles.

The collection catalogues the blood that marks each stage of women’s biological lives – periods, miscarriages, birthing blood – threading these experiences to seasonal change, the moon’s rhythm, and nature’s wider cycles. The “red threads” are crimson tides, blossoming flowers, the blood moon: metaphors for menarche’s first shock, miscarriage’s sadness, labor’s endurance, and postpartum’s complexity. The “silver linings” gather later pleasures – reblooming azaleas, HRT’s sticky petals, a bruised peach scented with second chances. Grief and loss coexist here with endurance, humor, desire, and deepening self-knowledge.

Organized into sections like It’s Just a Period She’s Going Through, Childbirth and Other Horrors, and An Old Wife’s Tale, the book blends the personal with the mythical, the natural world with the biological. Daughters and mothers share pages with ghosts of earlier selves and ancestral echoes. Through haiku’s precision, the result is a map of womanhood both grounded and lyrical.

At once meditation and celebration, the collection offers poems that are tender, raw, and unflinchingly honest – honoring the shifting landscape of a woman’s life from girlhood’s first flush to menopause’s soft letting-go, and the humanity found in every bleed, every change, every reckoning of living in a woman’s body.

Catch this video of my interview with author Adele Evershed.

Prefer the Podcast?

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About Adele Evershed

Portrait of Adele Evershed, a poet with long hair, wearing a cozy jacket, and looking thoughtfully at the camera, accompanied by a text introduction highlighting her background and achievements.

Adele Evershed is a Welsh writer who swapped the Valleys for the American East Coast. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and Touchstone Award winner for an individual poem, she is co-editor of Thin Skin Journal. Her work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, The Heron’s est, Presence, Prune Juice, Poetry Wales, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry collection Turbulence in Small Spaces (Finishing Line Press), the short story collection Suffer/Rage (Dark Myth Publications), three novellas-in-flash, and the haiku collections Pressed Between Palms (Nun Prophet Press) and They F#% You Up Your Mam and Dad (Cuttlefish Books). When she’s not writing, Adele can be found drinking PG Tips tea and trawling thrift shops for teacups to add to her collection.

Get Your Copy!