Award Issue - Winter 2024 - Shelf Unbound

WINTER 2024

SHELF UNBOUND WRITING COMPETITION

2 0 24 I N D I E B E S T

AWARD WINNERS

WHAT TO READ NEXT IN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

OUR STORY

S H E LF

U N B O U N D

M A G A Z I N E All we wanted was a really good magazine.

About books. That was full of the really great stuff. So we made it. And we really like it. And we hope you do, too.

Because we’re just getting started.

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Shelf Unbound Staff.

PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kloth PARTNER, PUBLISHER Debra Pandak DIGITAL DESIGNER Corinna Kloth CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Christina Consolino Michele Mathews Anthony Carinhas Corinna Kloth FINANCE MANAGER Jane Miller

For Advertising Inquiries: e-mail sarah@shelfmediagroup.com For editorial inquiries: e-mail media@shelfmediagroup.com

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WINTER 202 CONTENTS

I N TH IS

ISSUE

AWARD WINNERS 12 Overall Winner Daughters of Green Mountain Gap

by Teri M Brown

50 Long-Listed A Trial of Fate

by J.E. Larson

28 Finalists

Like Sapphire Blue

by Marisa Billions

The Half-Caste

by Jason Zeitler

The Culture of Burnout: Why Your Exhaustion is Not Your Fault

by Kristen Donnelly & Erin Hinson

Beautiful and Terrible Things

by S.M. Stevens

The Tender Silver Stars

by Pamela Stockwell

Broken Pencils

by J.R. Rice

Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers

by James Aylott

Abilene

by Dare DeLano

Shitamachi Scam

by Michael Pronko

Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way

by Jeffrey Blount

Blindspot

by Maggie Smith Anna's Shadow

by Ingrid K. McCarthy An Impossible Life: A True Story of Hope and Mental Illness

by Rachael Siddoway and Sonja Wasden

70 Recommended Reading 78 Top 100 Notables

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WINTER 2024

2003: THE TIME-LOOP DEVICE

Nolan Emerson, PhD, is a brilliant young theoretical and experimental physicist who is a professor at the University of Geneva, and the lead scientist at the CERN particle accelerator. He is a leader in the areas of general relativity and quantum mechanics. Dr. Emerson devises an experiment so radical and revolutionary that it seeks to unlock the astounding, complex, and mysterious secrets of Einstein’s space-time.

Ultimately, his work challenges the fundamental notions of consciousness and of the concept of reality itself. «(AUDIOBOOK available! See DavidCornishBooks.com)«

1918: THE GREAT PANDEMIC Major Edward Nobel’s mission, as a physician, is to help protect American troops from infectious ailments during the First World War. However, his unique vantage point in Boston allows him to detect an emerging influenza strain that is an unprecedented global threat.

Eventually, the 1918 influenza pandemic killed up to 100 million people, and became the worst natural disaster in human history.

1877: A NORTHERN PHYSICIAN IN SOUTHERN UNGOVERNED SPACES Colonel Charles Noble is a US Civil War veteran, and an Army surgeon reservist. Extreme violence in the former Confederacy, in anticipation of a national election, has caused President Grant to send additional federal troops to the Southern states. Terrorists are determined to counter Noble’s good intentions, as they threaten the civil rights, and the very lives, of all who oppose them.

1980: THE EMERGENCE OF HIV Dr. Arthur Noble is a brilliant first-year medical resident in San Francisco. Noble encounters a strange new ailment that seemingly appears out of nowhere, and delivers its victims a most horrible merciless death. Dr. Noble struggles to find answers to the medical mystery, even as many researchers and society refuse to believe that it is a serious public health hazard, or that it even exists.

LEARN MORE AT

WWW.DAVIDCORNISHBOOKS.COM

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A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER

Indie Book Awards.

BY SARAH KLOTH, PUBLISHER

Every year, we are privileged to read and celebrate the incredible diversity of voices in the indie publishing world.

The entries to the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition come from authors who share their stories with passion and dedication.

This year, the competition was especially fierce, with so many wonderful books that made selecting a winner both exciting and challenging.

We are thrilled to announce that the 2024 overall winner is Daughters of Green Mountain Gap by Teri M. Brown. Teri’s novel captivated our judges with its authentic portrayal of 6

WINTER 2024

community, resilience, and the deep connections we form with the places we call home. It’s a work that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

In this issue, you’ll find not only our winner, but also our five finalists, ten long-listed books, and over 100 notable titles. We’re proud to share these extraordinary works with you and thank every author who submitted. Your talent and creativity are what make the indie publishing world so vibrant.

Dive in, discover something new, and celebrate these incredible voices.

Enjoy the issue!

N E W & NOT E WORT H Y I N M I DDL E G R A DE !

“Readers and bakers alike will root for Jackson as he writes his own recipe for happiness.”

—Kate Albus, award-winning author of Nothing Else

But Miracles and A Place to Hang the Moon

Three delicious recipes inside!

“Laura Anne Bird has created an endearing, messy, marvelous main character.”

—Jenni L. Walsh, USA Today bestselling author of

Operation: Happy and The Bug Bandits

“A charming story of perseverance and family bonds.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Marvelous Jackson celebrates the power of humor, friendship, and sweet treats to make any situation better, even a broken heart.

Order the Book! orangehatpublishing.com laurabirdbooks.com US $14.95 Paperback | US $23.95 Hardcover

M A RV E LO U S JAC K S ON I S A F OL L OW- U P TO L AU R A A N N E B I R D’ S AWA R D - W I N N I NG DE BU T, C R O S S I N G T H E PR E S SU R E L I N E .7

The CRYING TREE AND THE MAGIC ROCK is a mesmerizing journey into the mystical and unexplained.

Authentic, heartfelt, and truly extraordinary.

The Crying Tree and the Magic Rock is a mesmerizing journey into the mystical and unexplained. Authentic, heartfelt, and truly extraordinary. John Russell stands as a distinctive voice in the realm of paranormal literature, crafting narratives that transcend the ordinary and delve into the mystic aspects of the psychic and paranormal realms. With an illustrious career that merges real-world psychic experiences with rich storytelling, Russell's works are a treasure trove for enthusiasts of the uncanny and the supernatural.

www.johnrussellauthor.com Available online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more.

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WINTER 2024

The Mystical Guatemalan Robes: The Pilot and the Priest

A ruthless, sixteenth-century pedophile monk is granted immortality by a mysterious robed sect secluded in the highlands of Guatemala. He carves a tortuous, secretive path forward in time until he is discovered by a troubled airline pilot suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Pilot and priest engage in a holy war only to discover that both share a painful, common past. The winner in this epoch battle carries the fate of humanity in his palms. Victory or defeat may well rest in the secrets and power of a single robe.

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The Bridge to Tomorrow: Two Part Series

"Schrader is well on her way to writing the ‘War and Peace’ of the Berlin Airlift.” — BookTrib

The Berlin Airlift -- Turning Enemies into Friends.

Pilots who once risked their lives bombing Berlin are now flying around the clock to deliver milk, coal and chocolate bars.

Award-winning Helena P. Schrader brings the first battle of the Cold War to life in her threepart series "Bridge to Tomorrow."

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WINTER 2024

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OUR 2024 WINNER

SHELF UNBOUND

BEST

INDIE BOOK

COMPETITION AWARD WINNER DAUGHTERS OF GREEN MOUNTAIN GAP TERI M. BROWN

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WINNER

2024 SHELF UNBOUND COMPETITION

Our Winner. of the 2024 Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book

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W I N N E R CONTINUED

Daughters of Green Mountain Gap. An Appalachian granny woman. A daughter on a crusade. A granddaughter caught between the two.

Maggie McCoury, a generational healer woman, relies on family traditions, folklore, and beliefs gleaned from a local Cherokee tribe. Her daughter, Carrie Ann, believes her university training holds the answers. As they clash over the use of roots, herbs, and a dash of mountain magic versus the medicine available in the town’s apothecary, Josie Mae doesn’t know whom to follow. But what happens when neither family traditions nor science can save the ones you love most?

Daughters of Green Mountain Gap weaves a compelling tale of Maggie, Carrie Ann, and Josie Mae, three generations of remarkable North Carolina women living at the turn of the twentieth century, shedding light on racism, fear of change, loss of traditions, and the intricate dynamics within a family. Author Teri M. Brown skillfully navigates the complexities of their lives, revealing that some questions are not as easy to answer as one might think.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TERI M. BROWN ​ orn in Athens, Greece as an Air Force brat, Teri M Brown came B into this world with an imagination full of stories to tell. She now calls the North Carolina coast home, and the peaceful nature of the sea has been a great source of inspiration for her creativity.

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Not letting 2020 get the best of her, Teri chose to go on an adventure that changed her outlook on life. She and her husband, Bruce, rode a tandem bicycle across the United States from Astoria, Oregon to Washington DC, successfully raising money for Toys for Tots. She learned she is stronger than she realized and capable of anything she sets her mind to. Teri is a wife, mother, grandmother, podcaster, and author who loves word games, reading, bumming on the beach, taking photos, singing in the shower, hunting for bargains, ballroom dancing, playing bridge, and mentoring others.

W I N N E R CONTINUED

Interview with Teri M. Brown.

DAUGHTERS OF GREEN MOUNTAIN GAP IS SET AGAINST THE RICH HISTORICAL BACKDROP OF LATE 19TH-CENTURY APPALACHIA. HOW DID THE APPALACHIAN SETTING INFLUENCE THE STORY, AND WHAT ELEMENTS OF THE CULTURE AND HISTORY WERE ESSENTIAL FOR YOU TO INCLUDE?

TMB: Maggie, the oldest of the three main characters, is a granny woman, a type of healer found in the Appalachian Mountains. This type of healer uses roots, herbs, knowledge of the past, and what I call a bit of mountain magic – the ability to heal in ways that rely on a belief in having a call to do so. In addition to the medicinal practices, I also focused on the idea of community, both the small town of Burnsville and the Cherokee who remained in NC after the Trail of Tears.

MAGGIE, CARRIE ANN, AND JOSIE MAE EACH GRAPPLE WITH THEIR IDENTITIES AND ROLES IN A

CHANGING SOCIETY. HOW DID YOU DEVELOP THEIR UNIQUE VOICES, AND WHAT DID YOU WANT READERS TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT EACH OF THESE WOMEN?

TMB: I love writing about generations in a family because each generation sees life from a unique viewpoint. When developing these three characters, I looked at healing practices, racial tensions, family dynamics, and the fear of change based on their ages and experience.

I read an article several years ago that showed that even the word ‘change’ affects brain waves in the same way as fear. Maggie has the ability to think through this fear. Carrie Ann, on the other hand, deals with her fear by trying to control everything around her. Josie Mae, the youngest, sees both points of view and isn’t sure which way to turn.

When readers finish Daughters of Green Mountain Gap, I hope they see themselves in all three characters. I know I found myself lurking in all three.

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W I N N E R CONTINUED

THE THEME OF HEALING – BOTH PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL – IS WOVEN THROUGHOUT THE STORY.

attends a modern school in Boston.

And Josie Mae finds a way to assimilate both styles of medicine, taking the best from each.

WHAT DREW YOU TO EXPLORE THIS THEME, AND HOW DID THE

THE TENSION BETWEEN

PRACTICE OF FOLK MEDICINE

TRADITIONAL BELIEFS AND

SHAPE THE CHARACTERS AND

MODERN MEDICINE IS EVIDENT,

PLOT?

PARTICULARLY BETWEEN MAGGIE AND HER DAUGHTER CARRIE ANN.

TMB: My reason for exploring the theme started as complete curiosity. My brother told me that he had a buddy who could talk off a wart. I had never heard of such a thing and jumped into the research rabbit hole. Not only did I find those who could talk to a wart and have it disappear, I discovered those who could blow in someone’s mouth to remove thrush, talk the heat out of a burn, and turn a breech baby with a chant. All of this took me into the world of an Appalachian granny woman.

Folk medicine is passed from one generation to the next, which led to my family of healers, each taking what the last generation understood and adding a new twist. Maggie learns lessons from a Cherokee medicine man. Carrie Ann 16

WINTER 2024

WHAT DO YOU HOPE READERS TAKE AWAY FROM THEIR DIFFERING APPROACHES TO HEALING?

TMB: My husband was diagnosed with an incurable brain cancer two and a half years ago. During that time, we have relied on modern medicine to prolong his life. However, the modern approach often leans toward quantity rather than quality. That’s why we have also looked at herbs, probiotics, aroma therapy, massage therapy, nutritional smoothies, and yoga.

My hope is that readers will learn that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to health and healthcare. Sometimes, the best soluti

W I N N E R CONTINUED

ANCESTRY AND FAMILY LEGACY PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN SHAPING THE CHARACTERS’ LIVES. HOW

context of what they have experienced.

Sometimes this builds family connections. Sometimes it creates family conflicts.

DID YOU APPROACH WRITING ABOUT THE CONNECTIONS AND

MAGGIE’S RELATIONSHIP

CONFLICTS BETWEEN MULTIPLE

WITH THE CHEROKEE

GENERATIONS?

HEALER, OUKONUNAKA, IS A CORNERSTONE OF HER OWN

TMB: As a child, I often heard my grandparents talk about The Great Depression. I remember thinking, “Not this again. It’s over. Why are you still talking about it?” For me, the Depression was an ancient event that had no bearing on my current life. After 9/11, I realized that my grandchildren would think the same thing about my remembrances of that time as I did about my grandparents ramblings.

I wasn’t a terrible child, but the Depression was not part of my life. My parents had a vague recollection and lived the aftermath. My grandparents knew firsthand what it was like to live such depravation. This will always be true for any event. The older generation will share what they know, and the younger generations will digest it in

HEALING PRACTICE. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE INSPIRATION BEHIND HIS CHARACTER AND THE CULTURAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN MAGGIE AND THE CHEROKEE COMMUNITY?

TMB: As I was doing research about the 1890s in the North Carolina mountains, I realized that a small portion of Cherokee were permitted to remain rather than relocate to the west.

I find the native American cultures fascinating, so I researched healing practices of the Cherokee. What I found fit well with Maggie’s ideas of healing and provided an amazing backdrop for information about a native North Carolinian culture as well as a look into the racism that existed during this time.

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SPIRITUALITY AND INTROSPECTION SEEM TO GUIDE MANY CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY IN TIMES OF CRISIS. HOW DID YOU INCORPORATE THESE ELEMENTS TO ENHANCE THE STORY’S EMOTIONAL DEPTH?

TMB: I do my best to make my characters as real as possible. As someone who attends church and has a strong belief system, my own spirituality guides me. Therefore, it makes sense that my characters find the same guidance.

I’ve also noted that people tend to look to their religion in times of difficulty, even if they don’t embrace that religion at other times in their life. Why? When we struggle, we are more prone to look for answers rather than rely on our own strengths.

THE GREEN MOUNTAIN GAP ITSELF ALMOST FEELS LIKE A CHARACTER WITHIN THE NOVEL. HOW DID YOU ENVISION THIS SETTING IN YOUR WRITING PROCESS, AND WHAT DOES THE MOUNTAIN REPRESENT FOR THE CHARACTERS? 18

WINTER 2024

TMB: I’ve visited the Appalachian region of North Carolina many times over the past 45 years. Even today, with the growth of the region, it is still rural and serene. It also holds the secrets of generations of people who have lived there.

The mountain represents home – a place to come back to – a place to set down roots and raise a family – a place that provides what is needed from food to medicine to friends.

GIVEN THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS IN DAUGHTERS OF GREEN MOUNTAIN GAP, WHAT WAS THE RESEARCH PROCESS LIKE FOR YOU, AND WERE THERE ANY SURPRISING DISCOVERIES THAT SHAPED THE NOVEL?

TMB: I love research and call myself a #researchjunkie. I’m grateful for the Internet that allows me to find great sources of information without having to leave my home, especially now that my husband is ill.

The Cherokee healing practices

W I N N E R CONTINUED

were the most fascinating part of the research. In particular, I loved the idea of balance and used this concept throughout Maggie’s healing journey. However, the most surprising discovery was about the plants and how to process them for medicinal use. For instance, some plants must be harvested during the winter once the sap is down in the roots. Otherwise, the plant will not be useful for the body. Also, plants that are poisonous, like poison ivy, can be used to treat illness. My research has given me a new appreciation for those who understand the use of herbs and plants in healing the body.

WITH SUCH A COMPELLING AND EMOTIONAL JOURNEY FOR THE CHARACTERS, IS THERE A PARTICULAR SCENE OR MOMENT IN THE BOOK THAT STANDS OUT AS A FAVORITE OR ONE THAT WAS PARTICULARLY CHALLENGING TO WRITE?

TMB: There was a scene that was very difficult to write, and when readers come to this scene, they will know which one I mean – but I don’t want to

give it away. However, I will talk about the writing process around this scene.

I came up with the idea but decided it might be ‘too much.’ And, quite frankly, I didn’t want it to happen. So, I stopped writing and tried coming up with an alternative. At this point, I was about 75% of the way into the book and still was not sure how I was going to wrap everything up. Even as a pantser – one writes by the seat of her pants – I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t be able to wrap everything up. I simply couldn’t see how it would all end.

After six weeks of refusing to write the scene and desperately trying to find an alternative, I finally sat down at the computer. I decided to write the scene knowing I could throw it away. The next morning, I woke and the entire book opened up before me. I knew exactly what needed to happen. I swear, Maggie whispered in my ear, “See? You have to listen to me. Now that you’ve written the scene, I can let you in on the ending!” 

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READ AN EXCERPT

W I N N E R CONTINUED

Daughters of Green Mountain Gap.

BY TERI M. BROWN

Maggie concentrated on her steps as she hurried through the darkened town, intent on reaching the Stallard place before it was too late – if it wasn’t already too late. Her breath came out in puffs, translucent wisps floating in the moonlight, the early freeze suggesting another harsh winter.

She lamented, as she often did, on the entirety of the human race and their inability to use the seasons to their advantage. Cows, horses, pigs, birds – they all gave birth in the spring, so their precious young had the best chance of staying alive. Not so with people. Babies came into the world despite severe winters, influenza outbreaks, and the lack of necessities.

This was Esther’s seventh, though only two survived the delivery. Her hips were tiny, making the passageway narrow and unforgiving.

Esther’s continued survival was miraculous, but Maggie, understanding a woman could only count on so many miracles, quickened her pace.

Maggie didn’t fault Esther for seeking out the new doctor in town. Dr. Daniel McKeithen hung his shingle a year earlier, and a good deal of her clients began to frequent his office for their ailments.

The shiny tools and bottled medicines lulled the townsfolk into false security, as though brain fever or consumption wouldn’t find them sitting 20

WINTER 2024

in his showy examination room.

Unfortunately, as far as Maggie could tell, his success rate had been no better than her own.

Although Esther followed the doctor’s instructions, eating specific foods, avoiding others, resting more than was necessary in Maggie’s opinion, and taking a daily tonic, the labor did not progress. Now, twentyeight hours in, Esther’s husband, John, had reached out to Maggie, frantic to save his wife – no longer worried about the baby, who, he felt confident, had succumbed like so many of those who preceded it. 

A simple investigation focuses private detective Bart Rezco on political infighting and felonies. Of course, there’s a beautiful woman, romance, convoluted crimes, gunplay, and death. “Happily ever after” doesn’t happen easily for Bart.

Bart Rezco, a hard-drinking, wiseass Private Eye in Houston, Texas, during the oil-crazy Seventies, has lost Marriages, Money, and Means of employment. He draws the line working for Mayor Jeff Wiseman’s dirty tricks reelection campaign. Bart has enough evidence to scuttle the mayor’s reelection, and resigns to help the mayor’s wife, Kaye, secure a divorce. He didn’t mean to fall for her, but it happened.

Conspiracies, beatings, shootings, and accidents happen to and around Bart and his friends blocking his efforts to win Kaye and thwart the mayor. Bodies are falling, the climactic scene looms, and Bart has to decide. Blackmail or murder, how far will he go?

The mayor calls the shots with his deadly henchman, Big Ralph, and Bart is the target. Bart takes counter measures but the outcome is in doubt until the last shot is fired.

Available at Amazon | cliftonnixon.com

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ARE YOU WELL-READ ON BLACK OPS and BLUE MURDER? Gerry's latest potboiler even involves the White House—can you believe it? If you haven't joined the author's bandwagon yet, check out what reviewers have been saying about him.

"A great piece of literary work featuring well-crafted stories, focused scenes, and unpredictable endings.” - Kim Calderon, The Book Commentary "He has a well-furnished mind, with an ingenuity dedicated to making readers laugh” - Joe Kilhore, U.S. Review "The Ladies from Long Island is one of the year’s best thrillers - BestThrillers.com

Learn more at: www.gerryburke.net 22

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Mary L. Tabor’s ingeniously constructed and emotionally rich WHO BY FIRE! -Margaret Brown, founder Shelf Unbound

Award-winning author Mary L. Tabor shares the secrets behind her creative process in this exclusive interview.

"

Shelf Unbound: You have your main character creating the story of his deceased wife’s affair through memory and invention. It’s a novel approach to narrative — how did you arrive at it?

Find Mary on Substack Finding love, essays on art and literature, A Course: Write it!, This Writing Life, Who by Fire: a serial novel, (Re)Making Love: a serial memoir

Mary L. Tabor: It’s fascinating to me that you use these two words memory and invention.

Robert invents the story he didn’t know as he tries to discover what his wife actually did while she was alive. Perhaps the biggest risk I take in the novel is that use of invention. But I still have to make clear to the reader that real time, what I call the “now” or the present action of the story, is always operating, driving the plot forward, driving my narrator Robert forward. As Robert and I invented the story he didn’t know, my own memories invaded as they inevitably will for the writer of any story.

"

Read the full interview with Mary L. Tabor at www.maryltabor.com

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A KILLER SUNSET STIRS A COLD-HEARTED ATTACKER TO STRIKE. "I appreciated Bell's masterful storytelling and the skill, dedication, and effort that went into crafting this masterpiece." ★★★★★ READER'S FAVORITE "A smartly plotted murder/ mystery with a strong cast of memorable characters. Highly recommended!" ★★★★★ THE WISHING SHELF, UK Review "Marlene M. Bell proves herself to be an exceptional novelist.

Her storytelling captivates, her characters resonate, and her writing elevates the entire book." ★★★★★ LITERARY TITAN

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“

In a book filled with wisdom, one of the most remarkable lessons is the way the author views his limitations... The Way I See It is a labor of love.”

- Foreword Review

This book offers hope and inspiration to: • People who are visually impaired • People who have other bodily impairments • Parents who have a physically challenged child • People who ponder about the purpose of life The Way I See It is Joseph K. Chan's autobiography, chronicling his journey of overcoming two birth conditions: retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD). Despite physical and academic challenges, including slow reading speed and embarrassing muscle spasms, Joseph’s story is one of resilience and selfdiscovery. The updated 2023 edition includes new insights from his experiences during the COVID pandemic. The Way I See It is a powerful story of personal triumph and spiritual growth.

“We need more North Country novels like Without Grace, novels with a keen sense of place.” —North Country Public Radio Joseph K. Chan, being legally blind, is now a volunteer who provides management services to non-profit organizations. He retired from the Association of Bay Area Governments after twenty-six years as CFO. Mr. Chan is a CPA and holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Now widowed, he has a daughter, a son, and five lovely grandchildren.

Learn more at www.josephkchan.com 25

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WINTER 2024

Levitate Into Adventure: A Science Fiction Winner You Can’t Put Down The Levitation Game

Esme Wright’s magical ability to levitate takes a wild turn when a live TV appearance goes wrong. A mysterious reunion with childhood friend Joseph Estrada sends them on a chaotic journey filled with supernatural forces and life-threatening puzzles. As they uncover dangerous secrets tied to their past, Esme and Joseph must race against time to solve a cosmic riddle before their levitation mishaps spiral out of control. Will they survive the truth—or is the game impossible to win?

"Engaging, unique, and playful. From the start, there's the question of how everything connects, and the pieces don't completely slot together until the dazzling conclusion." -Independent Book Review

www.sharonwagnerbooks.com

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FINALISTS

xxxxxra.

BY XXXXXX

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FINALISTS

2024 SHELF UNBOUND COMPETITION

INTRODUCING....

2024 FINALISTS

THE HALF-CASTE

BY JASON ZEITLER

BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE THINGS

BY S.M. STEVENS

Introducing our finalists of the 2024 Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book

BROKEN PENCILS

ABILENE

BY J.R. RICE

BY DARE DELANO

MR. JIMMY FROM AROUND THE WAY

BY JEFFREY BLOUNT

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F I N A L I S T S CONTINUED

The Half-Caste.

A thrilling tale of political intrigue, love and loss, and the soul-stirring value of f riendship.

London, mid-1930s. Fascism is on the rise.

Against the backdrop of political upheaval, two friends—Vernon, a mixed-race Ceylonese postgraduate student, and Saul, a wealthy Jewish intellectual and connoisseur of music—meet regularly for tea at a Lyons’ Corner House on Coventry Street. They discuss everything under the sun. Despite their blossoming friendship, however, neither of them is completely frank with the other.

They both have dark secrets: Vernon about his political activities; Saul about his wife. As the narrative progresses, and as Vernon’s and Saul’s storylines converge, their secrets slowly come to light to the reader and to each other.

After his father becomes seriously ill in 1936, Vernon takes sabbatical leave from university and, with Saul accompanying him, returns to Ceylon. The personal drama and political intrigue continue from there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR JASON ZEITLER Jason Zeitler is the author of the novella Like Flesh to the Scalpel (Running Wild Press, 2018), and his stories and essays have appeared in the Journal of Experimental Fiction, Midwestern Gothic, Two Thirds North, and elsewhere. He lives in Tucson with his wife and son. His debut novel The HalfCaste was shortlisted for the 2022 JEF Books competition. It also won a silver medal in the Best New Voice category of the 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards.

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F I N A L I S T S CONTINUED

Interview with Jason Zeitler.

Could you give us a glimpse into the heart of your book?

JZ: The Half-Caste is about a lot of things, but it’s mainly about human progress. A point the book makes is that orchestral music is the pinnacle of human achievement because it exemplifies a sophisticated kind of pluralism: all these disparate voices working together to achieve a common end. Saul Maccabee, one of the book’s two main characters, says this very thing in the “Point” chapter. It’s for this reason that music features so prominently in the narrative. Essentially I viewed the book as a musical composition, and I chose to have two protagonists and to alternate perspectives between them because it was the closest I could get to approximating multi-voiced counterpoint. Consistent with this, the book’s ending emulates a musical coda. The Half-Caste has strong plotlines, but ultimately it’s a book of ideas, so it made sense for the ideas to drive the narrative structure.

What sparked the initial idea for your story?

JZ: I’ve always been fascinated by the 1930s.

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, I majored in English in what was then called the modern-studies program. I mostly read literature from the early twentieth century, with an emphasis on the inter-war years. After I graduated, I continued reading books from that era, including ones by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and eventually I decided to write a novel of my own. I set it during the 1930s as a way of insinuating myself into the period, of creating my own version of that world and directly experiencing it through my characters. Leonard Woolf was the inspiration for the Saul character

in The Half-Caste. One of my attractions to Woolf, besides his marriage to Virginia, was that he spent seven years in Ceylon as a British civil servant. As part of my research for The HalfCaste, I read his five-volume autobiography.

In creating Saul Maccabee, however, I took considerable creative license, so he ended up looking very different from Woolf ’s self-portrait.

The inspiration for The Half-Caste’s other protagonist, Vernon Prins, was closer to home.

My wife is Sri Lankan, and so our son is himself a “half-caste.” I created Vernon to get a better understanding of what my son might have gone through if he had lived during the politically turbulent 1930s.

How did writing this book impact you personally?

JZ: It took me over 6,000 hours to write, so I lived in the world of The Half-Caste for a long time. When you do that, when you immerse yourself in a fictional world of your own making for years at a time, it’s impossible not to identify with the characters you’ve created. In fact, you wish to become them. What I admire most about Vernon and Saul is their political activism and their almost pathological desire to do the right thing. It has caused me to want to follow in their footsteps.

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries along the way?

JZ: A significant insight was that even humans who are diametrically opposed politically have more in common than not because of their shared humanity. As a result, The Half-Caste thoroughly explores the idea of empathy. Inherent in empathy is the recognition that experiences are subjective and that everyone has a different perspective. Throughout the novel, Vernon and Saul often have similar experiences, such as the death of a loved one, to which they respond in their own unique ways—and yet sometimes those 31

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responses differ only in degree. Two sections in the “Rebirth” chapter actually render the same action from both protagonists’ perspectives to illustrate through narrative how and why perspectives can differ.

Another thing I spent time researching for The Half-Caste was political theories that were prevalent during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I discovered, for example, that progressive Victorians believed that human evolution could become a conscious process. Such thinking underpinned certain policies the British Liberal and Labour Parties pursued around the turn of the century. It occurred to me as I wrote The Half-Caste that the Victorian notion about evolution has corollaries in Buddhism, the Sri Lankan majority religion. Because Vernon’s mother is Sinhalese, he would have learned about Buddhism growing up—which is why the religion features in The Half-Caste. What I realized in writing the Ceylon part of the book is that the Buddhist idea of rebirth could be considered a metaphor for human progress. To get this point across to the reader, I used Vernon as my mouthpiece and had him describe the metaphor in a letter to Zoe, his British girlfriend.

What lasting message or experience do you hope readers will carry with them?

JZ: Readers and reviewers alike have characterized The Half-Caste’s ending as satisfying. Part of the reason for this is that the ending is hopeful. The book doesn’t have a happy ending by any stretch of the imagination, but it does contain a message of hope. The reader walks away feeling satisfied because they know that Vernon and Saul will do the right thing, whatever obstacles the future holds for them. The book’s characters also convey a message of hope by taking the long view of human progress. In a 32

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flashback at the end of the book, Vernon’s sister Minnette tells Saul that the world is destined to improve, reframing a conversation in the “Interlude” chapter in which Vernon and Saul discuss taking the long view from an economic perspective. My hope is that readers will internalize this message but also remain vigilant.

It’s no coincidence that in the novel Vernon takes to heart the maxim “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Can you share a sneak peek of what you’re working on next?

JZ: My I’m currently working on a second novel.

I finished The Half-Caste with a desire to delve more deeply into Buddhism. The new novel isn’t a sequel to The Half-Caste, but it’s definitely an offshoot. The working title for my latest novel is A New Birth, which takes place from 1932 to 1942 and which has three settings: Berlin, Germany; Dehra Dun, India; and various parts of Ceylon.

To make the book’s weighty philosophical content more engaging and accessible to readers, I’m writing the narrative in first-person point of view from the perspective of a German who speaks in a dialect known as Berlin snout. You could say the book blends the seriousness of The Half-Caste with the dark comedy of my shorter fiction. In some ways the narrator of A New Birth is a return to the irreverent narrator of my novella Like Flesh to the Scalpel, which was recently republished as part of my story collection The Breatharian and Other Stories. 

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The Half-Caste.

BY JASON ZEITLER

… He had been seeing a Sinhalese girl on the sly. She was a student at the Girls’ High School in Kandy. Whenever they spent time together, Vernon would walk or bicycle her home to a secluded spot a half-mile from her house, where they would part ways to avoid being seen by her parents or the neighbours. One weekend, after spending the morning together at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Vernon took her home on his bicycle as usual. But when they reached the drop-off spot, the father was there waiting for them. He had a scowl on his face and was slapping a cricket bat against the palm of his hand.

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‘Go home!’ the father shouted at his daughter in Sinhala.

She scrambled off the back of the bicycle and gave Vernon a quick side-glance, with tears welling up in her eyes. ‘It’ll be all right,’ Vernon said. ‘Go.’ He could hear her sniffling as she ran home.

The father came toward him. ‘No daughter of mine is going to associate with a lowly cockroach.’

Everything happened so fast, Vernon did not have time to be scared, so he held his ground. He had never been called a cockroach before, but he understood the word’s connotations. Cockroaches were vile creatures, living in filth, and those that dwelled in the dark for long periods of time underwent a moulting process that rendered them an off-white colour. On exposure to sunlight, they got progressively darker, browner. It was similar to what happened to the skin colour of the progeny from interracial marriages. And the Dutch translation for the Sinhala word kärapottā, or cockroach, was kakkerlak, which also meant half-caste.

was well over a head taller than the father, and weighing fifteen stone, he also was much heavier. In school he had earned the nickname Nandhimitra, the strongest of King Dutugamunu’s legendary giant warriors described in the Mahāvaṃsa, a fifth-century epic poem about the history of Ceylon.

The bat was swinging toward his head when he caught it in mid-air and wrested it from the father’s hands. He tossed it into a nearby thicket of lantana. The father fell back, stunned. Standing at six feet five inches, Vernon

The father turned tail and ran, cursing as he went. Vernon never saw him, or the daughter, again.

‘Do your worst,’ Vernon said, and raised his fists to the low-guard position.

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Beautiful and Terrible Things.

Charley Byrne isn’t really living. At age 29, she hunkers down in her apartment above the bookstore she manages, afraid of a 7-year curse.

Then quirky activist Xander Wallace lures her out of social exile with the prospect of friendship and romance. Charley joins Xander’s circle of friends diverse in their heritage, race, gender and sexual orientation. She thrives, even leaving her comfort zone to join protests in a city struggling with social justice ills.

But the new friendships bring back-to-back betrayals that threaten the bookstore—Charley’s haven—and propel her into a dangerous depression. Can her friends save the store? And Charley?

Beautiful and Terrible Things offers a compelling portrait of modern American life in a major city with its vibrant culture and rampant social issues.

At once enlightening and entertaining, it reminds us that friendship has the power to validate, destroy, transform, and save lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR S.M. STEVENS After many years as a business writer, S.M. Stevens found the time to pen her first novel when a pelvis broken in 3 places absolved her from housework and chauffeuring the kids around for several months. The result was her middlegrade novel Shannon's Odyssey, written for adventurous animal-lovers.

A year later, while in treatment for cancer, she wrote the first of the Bit Players series to fill the void of fiction for music and theatre-loving teens. The YA series now has three books, and appeals to all teens not just drama-loving ones.

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Interview with S.M. Stevens.

Could you give us a glimpse into the heart of your book?

SMS: Charley Byrne is an introverted, superstitious bookstore manager who is drawn out of social isolation by a group of diverse friends. She takes a chance on life, even joining in on marches and rallies, until betrayal strikes. While social justice challenges swirl around the characters, at its heart this novel is about friendship and its power to validate, transform, destroy and save lives.

With my group of six friends, I was striving to replicate the camaraderie of the movie The Big Chill, or the TV shows Friends, New Girl and the Big Bang Theory. So it was incredibly rewarding to have many reviewers— professional and readers alike—make those same comparisons, and to voice that the friends represented a group they wanted to hang out with, be a part of, and not leave behind at the book’s end.

What sparked the initial idea

for your story?

SMS: I have two daughters and they and their friends are as far from the lazy, entitled Millennial stereotype as you can get. They are smart, motivated and passionate about equality. So first, I wanted to paint a more accurate picture of that generation. From there, I decided that to convey them accurately, I had to dig into not one or two social justice challenges, but the whole array of issues in our country, including racism, immigration and mental health, in order to present a realistic portrait.

Interestingly, some of my readers in their 70s have said their eyes were opened; my readers in their 20s say, “Yep, that’s life in America today.”

How did writing this book impact you personally?

SMS: It drove home to me that there is not a single Black or Brown person in this country who has not experienced racism in some form. I am so grateful to my sensitivity readers who shared their painful stories and then let me use their pain to educate.

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries along the way?

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SMS: I learned more about how mindsets must evolve in order to effect social change. My character Xander, an activist, calls this the “spectrum of change.” What might start as apathy or ignorance has to be transformed into awareness, then understanding, then empathy and then outrage before people will stand up and fight for disenfranchised populations.

What lasting message or experience do you hope readers will carry with them?

SMS: First, there are many paths to greater social engagement; people should follow the one that works for them.

what you’re working on next?

SMS: I am seeking a publisher for my next contemporary novel about a cranky, outspoken, successful business owner and grandmother who posts snarky, sarcastic parenting advice on social media, while harboring a series of secrets some would say make her the world’s worst mother. And also, for something completely different, I’m helping two friends write their true crime memoir—a very dramatic story about a horrific crime, how the victim escaped, how she helped the police catch the perpetrator, and how she and the investigating detective fell in love decades later. 

Second, regardless of your views on an issue, there are always real people behind the statistics. Real human beings are affected by society’s attitudes and government policies every single day.

And third, friendship is a powerful thing. Wield it carefully, use it wisely, nurture it and never throw it away.

Can you share a sneak peek of 36

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Beautiful and Terrible Things.

BY S.M. STEVENS

By morning, Charley’s newfound willingness to go away for the weekend was smothered by a fresh pile of doubts. Jogging through State Park, she poured all her attention into her leg muscles and the pounding rhythm of her steps.

Faster and faster, she ran until a stitch in her side forced her to stop.

After catching her breath she walked, fixated on the section of path a few feet in front of her. Whoosh! The hairs atop Charley’s head lifted as a large brown bird swooped over her from behind. Her eye reflexively followed it down the path and up into the trees where it disappeared in a towering oak. Heart pitterpattering with excitement, Charley approached the bird’s landing zone. Only a hawk or maybe an owl had that much mass. Standing near the bottom of the oak tree, she spied the brown form resting on a branch high above. On a whim, she hoo-ed twice like an owl. The bird slowly rotated its head around to look at her.

Pure joy filled Charley’s troubled mind as she marveled at seeing an owl in the daytime and at such close proximity. And it had reacted to her!

She laughed out loud. When the owl swiveled its head back around, she floated down the path.

The owl’s unusual behavior had to mean something. It was as if it had targeted Charley, flying into her line of vision to force her

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attention up and away from the path in front of her. Charley’s head bobbed up and down in understanding. It was time for her to look beyond her small bubble of existence, to explore a bit of the larger world around her.

She changed her mind again, for what she knew was the last time.

She would go away with Xander and his friends.  37

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Broken Pencils.

Jonah Tarver, a troubled Oakland teenager grappling with his parents' troubled marriage, his own mental disorder, and the weight of his best friend's death, embarks on a desperate quest to find meaning in life. On his eighteenth birthday, coinciding with his Senior prom, Jonah, along with his girlfriend Taniesha, his best friend Trevon, and a group of peers, spirals into a night of reckless indulgence in drugs and alcohol in the vibrant city of San Francisco. As tensions escalate and emotions run high, Jonah finds himself thrust into a gripping twelve-hour journey through the dark underbelly of San Francisco's nightlife, forever altering his perception of the world. Will Jonah uncover the purpose he so desperately seeks, or will he discover that life, like broken pencils, may have no point?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR J.R. RICE

Once upon a time, in the bustling city of Oakland, California, there was a man named J.R Rice. He was a Black man with a passion for writing, teaching, and spoken word artistry. J.R had always been captivated by the power of words and their ability to inspire, motivate and transform lives. As a young man, he knew that he wanted to make a difference in the world through his writing and his ability to connect with people. After receiving his B.A in Creative Writing and an English Education teaching credential from California State University of Long Beach, J.R set out to pursue his dreams. He traveled abroad to Greece, where he had the honor of being mentored by the renowned author, George Crane. It was there that he honed his skills and developed his unique voice, which he would later use to inspire and empower countless others.

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Interview with J.R. Rice.

Could you give us a glimpse into the heart of your book?

JRR: The heart of the novel lies in the book's title: Broken Pencils. If you take a pencil and break it at the end, usually the tool is pointless.

In the novel, the story revolves around the protagonist, Jonah Tarver, a troubled Black teenager from Oakland who believes that all lives are like broken pencils and that life is pointless. On the night of his Senior prom and the anniversary of his best friend's death, Jonah is trying to discover his point in life or uncover that we're all a bunch of broken pencils. a dark coming-of-age work of fiction written for a new adult audience.

Broken Pencils is a dark, coming-of-age work of fiction that explores themes of existentialism, alienation, mental health, and grief from the perspective of a troubled Black teenager. The reader follows Jonah Tarver through his chaotic twelve-hour journey, as he searches for life's purpose in San Francisco on the night of his prom.

What sparked the initial idea for your story?

JRR: The initial idea for Broken Pencils arrived almost coincidentally. While studying at Cal State Long Beach, I was developing a teaching unit on Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, my favorite book in high school. I had dissected nearly every page and researched as much as possible of the book so that I could create a thorough curriculum for my class. In doing so, I was also seeing many aspects of my own teenage life within the protagonist as well as understanding how to craft a literary masterpiece.

After wrapping up the unit, I felt motivated to write my own story inspired by Catcher in the Rye, but with the people and places near to my heart and my experiences. Only problem was that I was missing one important part. Salinger used Holden's character as a driver to convey

the phoniness of society and the need to save the innocent, which was the theme driving the story.

My book had a driver, but no car to drive the story.

After weeks of frustration in writing the first draft, I took a short trip to Pismo Beach in hope of inspiration over procrastination. On the drive there, I saw a billboard that read: “Broken pencils are pointless.” I remember turning my car around, pulling over near the sign, and just reading the words over and over. I'll never forget that moment because that was the time I found my theme. I had discovered Broken Pencils.

How did writing this book impact you personally?

JRR: Over the course of writing my novel and releasing the book to the world, I felt deeply impacted by the amount of my personal life reflected in the story. Much like Jonah Tarver, I too struggle with bipolar disorder and carry a long history of mental health issues such as depression, mania, panic attacks, and suicidal ideations.

Initially, my intentions for the book was to shed light on mental health from a young Black teenager’s perspective. However, over the course of completing the story, I found myself confronting many of my past traumas and carefully reflecting and deciphering the cause & effects of my personal issues.

In the past few years, I have taken my self-care more seriously by returning to therapy, attending support groups, and regularly doing wellness activities like walks, meditation, yoga, and connecting more with my family, friends, and community. In a sense, I have been following the lessons from the novel, and learning to value the life that I have while I still have it. Broken Pencils has tremendously impacted my life because this story led to a deeper understanding and love for my imperfect, beautiful, true self.

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries along the way?

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JRR: The journey toward completing Broken Pencils wasn't easy by far, and along the way, there were many unexpected ups and downs.

After finishing my first draft out of college in 2009, I went into beast-mode and submitted my novel to as many publishers as I could, only to receive countless flood rejection letters and emails. “Unfortunately, your book is just not the right fit for us,” “Your book has potential, and we wish you the best,” “Please try again,” were common criticisms; however, I would take heed of their comments, go back and revise the novel so that the story was better, and then, as I did before, I would submit it again to different publishers and agencies, only to receive more rejection.

I wrote a third draft and then a fourth, and a fifth…sixth…tenth, yet more and more rejection. Years went by where I simply gave up on the project, leaving my dream on the shelf to dry up like a raisin in the sun. On top of the rejection, I had to cope with the loss of my father and friend, which added to the bitterness that perhaps my dream was deferred. Though the grief was unbearable at times, I was able to stay strong through the support of my loved ones. A deeper appreciation of life had emerged from the grief and despair. A motivation had arisen to use every ounce of my talents and embrace the life I have. In honor of my father and friend's memory, I dedicated my book in their names.

A funny thing happened back in 2020. After feeling deep in grief, I decided to leave Oakland and go live and teach in Spain for three years, but upon feeling homesick, I returned to America a few months prior to COVID. So like most people on lockdown I was stuck inside with my TV, books, Cheez-its, bored as hell, and realizing that my life wasn't getting any younger. I dusted off the old Google Doc file and opened my novel draft after going almost five years since my last edits. Within a year, I was able to rewrite Broken Pencils to where the story needed to be and then submitted my final draft to a variety of publishers and agencies, once again.

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The most unexpected lesson learned was that you will lose and get rejected a thousand times, so that you will appreciate that one win forever.

In December 2022, a small indie press called Tea with Coffee Media picked up and read my manuscript out of hundred submissions. The novel received the green light of approval from everyone on the staff, and the following night, they contacted me to see if my book had been published. On June 11th, 2024, Broken Pencils was released out into the world after living fifteen long years as a dream deferred.

What lasting message or experience do you hope readers will carry with them?

JRR: Throughout the novel, the theme of the broken pencil or pointless life is driven by Jonah's action and interactions with people, recognizing that everyone is fragile and damaged in some way. However, I want the reader not to feel discouraged by this message, but rather inspired that we are not defined by our past.

Even a broken pencil can still pen a beautiful masterpiece. A broken life carries a value more than the perceived damage. No, we are what remains from damage. Through this pain we managed to gain an understanding that our names are no longer damaged.

Can you share a sneak peek of what you're working on next?

JRR: I do plan to develop Broken Pencils even further with an audiobook narrated by yours truly, along with a student reader's guide that could be implemented within the classroom.

I plan to continue the Broken Pencils by showcasing Jonah's journey within a poetry collection called, I WAS, AM, WILL BE. Lastly, be on the lookout for Broken Pencils Part 2, but instead of the bay area, this time Jonah is searching for his purpose in Europe… 

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Broken Pencils.

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BY J.R. RICE

Mosswood Sirens jolted my senses. Blue and red lights blinded my sight. Within my blurry vision appeared a parked police car. Loud static erupted from inside.

And then it hit me.

My bed was a bench.

“No loiterers in Mosswood park before six a.m,” a male voice said. “Please vacate.”

The warm sunrise caressed my cold face and stiff body. My bandaged hand wiped the dry crust from my eyes then smeared the grime onto the bench.

The Kaiser hospital stood across the street, the place where I was born eighteen years ago today.

Behind the bench stood a yellow sign that stated: Looking for a better home? Under the banner was an Asian lady with this constipated Mona Lisa smile. She wore an eighties tan suit straight from Claire Huxable’s closet, an outfit my mama would have worn back in the day, when life was simple, our family happy. Before Keon. Before the medication. Before prom.

“Please vacate the park now,” the voice ordered.

The ringing sirens screamed louder and louder, deafening my ears. The looped circus whistle rang far and wide, awaking all of Mosswood Park.

Within moments, dawn broke through the tall oak trees. The bushy leaves casted a shadow through which no light traveled. Then the ground rumbled as the bench rattled. Three brown squirrels

sprinted across the grassy field. A roaring street sweeper had arrived at the corner of the MacArthur sign. The machine’s brush-like tentacles rustled and roamed along the curb lines, moving slowly around a parked beige Mercedes. The scraped front bumper appeared to have survived a bear attack.

“Is that my father’s car?” I whispered into the cool air, already knowing the answer.  41

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Abilene.

Three strong Southern women -- twelveyear-old Len, her mother Cora, and her Aunt Jean -- grapple with love and loss in this poignant tale set on a hardscrabble cattle ranch in a small Texas town. Len yearns to find the father who abandoned her, and after a chance encounter with a country music star who she suspects is him, she embarks on a life-altering journey to find the truth about her past. At the same time, Cora and Jean must deal with another shocking family betrayal that complicates everything.

Told in turns by these three remarkable women, Abilene explores the boundaries of love and the transformative power of self-discovery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DARE DELANO Dare DeLano writes literary fiction for adults and middle grade fiction. Her debut novel, Abilene, was released on November 1, 2023, by Mint Hill Books. Her work has been a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and is represented by Jennifer Thompson of Nordlyset Literary Agency.

Her middle grade novel, Odus and the Long Way Home (The Odyssey), won the San Diego Book Award and Gold Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. Dare holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University, with her work featured in the A Year in Ink Anthology and the San Diego Central Library’s Local Author Exhibition.

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Interview with Dare DeLano.

Could you give us a glimpse into the heart of your book?

DD: Abilene is about three strong Southern women -- twelve-year-old Len, her mother Cora, and her Aunt Jean -- who are each searching for something in an effort to find themselves. Len yearns to find the father she has never known, and after a chance encounter with a country music star who she suspects is him, she embarks on a lifealtering journey to find the truth about her past.

Cora searches for her lost love, and in the process remembers who she was before she became a mother. Jean must find her sense of self again after landing in jail for shooting her husband and along the way she learns that her marriage was not what she thought it was. Abilene is part mystery and part coming of age story, but at its heart it’s a love story. Told in turns by these three women, the novel explores the boundaries of love and the transformative power of self-discovery.

What sparked the initial idea for your story?

DD: For every story idea that I’ve actually been able to build into a novel, I’ve had a similar experience – two completely separate things connect in my head at some point. It’s like a crash of lightning where I then have this story idea that I get really excited about. For Abilene, the character of Len came to me first, and I had actually written a story about her but then put it away in a desk drawer while I worked on some other things, because it didn’t have enough of a plot. I was really struggling with the rest of the story outside of Len as a character who was longing to find her father. Then, one night I went to a Tim McGraw concert. I don’t typically listen to country music to be honest, so it was a little outside of what I would usually do, but I went with a friend – and it turned out to be a great show, he is really an incredible performer. I was watching Tim McGraw put on this amazing show, and watching the fans go crazy, and all of a sudden, I just had this thought – what

if Len’s father was someone like this? Once I had that character of Len’s father in my head I was able to flesh out her mother Cora’s story of long lost love as well, and the novel really fell into place at that point.

How did writing this book impact you personally?

DD: When I was writing from these three different perspectives, I needed to be in a different head space depending on which section I was writing. I think of it as very similar to the process an actor would go through to get into character for a role. I had to basically “get in character” when I sat down to write – I wanted to get the voice right, and to really be in that character’s head.

Cora is an idealist at heart, and her story is one of lost love. The love of her life, Len’s father, left her before she even knew she was pregnant, and she never knew why. There is a secret that is revealed at the end of the novel – I’m not going to give it away here – but the lead up to revealing that secret was really important to me. I wanted to do that in a way that had an emotional impact. And to get that impact I had to really channel those feelings of first love – all the nostalgia, and the pain of that first heartbreak. Cora feels all those things throughout her search for Edison, and I needed the reader to come along with her in that journey so that the final chapters of the novel would have the emotional impact I wanted. To get myself in the head space to write the Jean sections, I had to go to a bit of a dark place. Jean is reeling from an abusive marriage, but in the beginning of the novel she thinks she’s crazy. Her journey is this sort of slow building to a realization that she has actually been manipulated and gaslit and subject to narcissistic abuse. To write from Jean’s point of view. I did a lot of research. I read books on emotional abuse, I visited online communities and read a number of first-hand accounts from women who were in emotionally abusive relationships. And I thought about and explored my own experiences in relationships. So many women who had been in emotionally abusive relationships talked about feeling like they were going crazy and feeling like they just couldn’t trust their own perspective or judgement anymore. The controlling, narcissistic abuser will do that in a 43

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relationship –they are masters at manipulation and will turn everything around their partner until the victim believes that they must be the one who is argumentative and controlling and forgetful and lazy and selfish. The relationship doesn’t start out with those abusive behaviors of course; it creeps in over time. So Jean feels as if she doesn’t even know herself anymore – she’s lost in many ways.

And throughout the novel her story is really about her finding herself again after this really traumatic marriage.

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries along the way?

DD: It took me a long time to write this novel, and then a long time to get it published. Along the way, I learned a lot about how to be a writer.

I learned to make writing a priority - which was not easy at first. I often hear people say something like: “If I only had time, I’d love to write a book.”

But no one is ever going to hand it to you. You have to make the time, carve it out and guard it carefully. While I was writing Abilene, I had kids to raise and a business to run, and I often found myself up in the early hours or staying up late at night to write. It felt selfish sometimes to focus on writing when there was so much else to do.

But I truly believe that making art is important, and so I learned to fiercely carve out and protect my writing time. I also learned to redefine what “success” looked like for me. I had a long road to publication (including a previously completed novel that did not sell to a publisher even after I landed an agent), and it was hard not to become completely disheartened by all the rejection. I got to a point finally where I was able to toss out all the preconceived notions of what “success” would look like for me and just focus on the work I was doing. Because at the end of the day, all the rest – all the commercial things that we tend to call success – may happen, or they may not. So just you have to persevere in your goal to write a great story that you are proud of. That became my new definition of success.

What lasting message or experience do you hope readers will carry with them?

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author, when I sit down to write a novel, I have a couple of goals. First and foremost, I just want to tell a story. If I ever get swept up in trying too hard to bring a theme into something I’m writing, or teach the reader a lesson, that is when I ultimately feel the fiction doesn’t work – it can come out as too didactic and that is not what I want to do as a writer. But I think as humans, the way we make sense of our world is through story. And hearing someone else’s story can teach us things about our own lives, and about big themes like love, loss, and family. So my other goal in writing fiction is always to move the reader emotionally – I want the reader to feel something. I want them to be invested in the characters. In Abilene, one thing I really wanted to do in writing Jean’s story was to pull back the curtain to reveal how narcissists work and the devastating effects of emotional abuse. I tried to write it so that anyone who has ever been in an emotionally abusive relationship could see themselves in the story.

And so that those who haven’t could perhaps recognize patterns and warning signs they might not have been aware of otherwise. I also hope that readers will connect with the theme of resilience in the novel. Each of the three main characters is going through a rocky time in their life, and they each come through these times of difficulty with renewed strength and purpose. I hope that will speak to readers and that they will feel an emotional connection to the story.

Can you share a sneak peek of what you're working on next?

DD: I’m actually working on two different projects at the moment. One is a novel about an heiress whose parents die, years apart, but both in mysterious circumstances. Like Abilene, it’s part love story and part mystery. And it will also be set in the south, probably in my home state of Virginia. The other thing I’m working on is middle grade book that combines my love of Tudor England with my love of portals and time travel.

I can’t say much more about it at the moment because it is with my agent – so I am just hoping she thinks it is as fun as I do. 

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Abilene.

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BY DARE DELANO

Moonchild, Granny called me. For I was born when the moon was full, in a flat ranch house in Abilene, Texas. Granny always said that on account of that moon, I would move with the rhythm of nature – that my intuition was strong and I would know about the insides of people – see things in my head before others watched them happen in the world. She stroked my hair and taught me songs with no words.

We’d sit out on the screen porch before supper, shucking corn and shelling butter beans, the wind wrapped around us like a blanket. She’d tell me stories about her cousin Dweasel who could speak in tongues and heal people just by touching ‘em.

Granny’d stare right at me, squint her eyes and say, “You got it too, honey, I can tell.” And as I looked at her strong, wrinkled face and watched her strip an ear of corn clean in three sharp tugs, I believed her with my whole heart.

And I knew in my bones she was right. For often, with the first winds of morning, I could feel how the day was gonna go. I could feel the long, strange cry of a wolf, or the glorious scream of the eagle, circling.

I knew someday that wind would bring news of my father. For although I’d never seen him, I knew his face like it was part of me, memorized from the only picture I had of him. Not a nice, framed picture like at some people’s houses – I had a

dog-eared piece of a polaroid, almost thirteen years old, that I kept in my underwear drawer. I’d been waiting for that news my whole life.

By the time I turned twelve years old, I was mighty impatient. 

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Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way. James Henry Ferguson doesn't belong here. After a highly publicized fall from grace, James attempts to flee from the chaos in his life. He ends up in a community he had never heard of before, one that has been neglected and ignored by everyone in rural Ham, Mississippi. A place of abject poverty, the neighborhood is commonly referred to as "Around the Way." Within a place forgotten by the rest of the world, politics can be a dangerous game. When a troubling discovery is made, the entire neighborhood is rocked to its core and James is forced to confront his own past in order to help the community have a future. He will have to find the strength to fight for the neighbors he once disregarded and avert a heart-breaking disaster. A self-identified failure is forced to uncover the wisdom of his past in order to recognize that money can't solve every problem.

Full of never-ending twists and turns, no one can prepare themselves for the surprises in store. Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way is a story about failure, self-discovery, empowerment, and the possibility of redemption.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JEFFREY BLOUNT

Jeffrey Blount is an award-winning author of four novels, including The Emancipation of Evan Walls, which won the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for African American fiction.

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Alongside his literary achievements, he is an Emmywinning television director and a Virginia Communications Hall of Fame inductee. During his 34-year career at NBC News, he directed iconic programs like Meet The Press and Today, becoming its first African-American director.

Blount’s documentary scripts are featured in institutions like the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

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Interview with Jeffrey Blount.

Could you give us a glimpse into the heart of your book?

JB: Two quotes that were inspirational to me as I wrote this book take you to the heart of the story quickly. From Bryan Stevenson, Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. And Article One of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Every Human Being is Born Free and Equal in Dignity and Rights. First, the novel is about failure and the possibilities of redemption. Where and how can we find it. Sometimes it is in how we help others and in the notion of selfforgiveness. Second, it is about, first and foremost, recognizing each other at the level of our shared humanity.

If we do that, I feel it is almost impossible for us to allow our fellow human beings to suffer in this world.

And we will step up and provide the care that is necessary to help others

have the same kind of life and dreams that we desire for ourselves.

What sparked the initial idea for your story?

JB: I like to think of my work as literary activism. I hope to entertain but I truly hope to influence readers.

I have carried several issues for quite some time that I’ve wanted to highlight with my books. Separate conversations with my wife and my father helped me cull the idea for Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way out of my library of ideas. Those conversations centered around rural poverty and stepping up to help others. I call the main idea The Activism of Kindness.

How did writing this book impact you personally?

JB: I certainly change with every book that I write. It’s like having an extended conversation with myself.

The life lessons I hope to share with readers often intensify within me by 47

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the time I’ve finished. The motivation I hope to inspire in readers grows in me also and I am changed. With this book, it’s caused me to look closely at the people in my community. It’s taught me to realize that I am capable of helping people in ways that I never considered. It’s taught me that I should do those things and that even as I help others, I am helped.

Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries along the way?

JB: Yes. Particularly while researching rural American poverty.

I think many readers will be shocked by what I found and included in the novel.

What lasting message or experience do you hope readers will carry with them?

JB: I have mentioned the poverty and the struggle of folks who live in that world. But there is so much 48

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more. There is laughter, joy, fun, and so much love and care. First, I would like them to sit with all of that goodness for a while. Then, I want them to acknowledge that there are fellow human beings in need. I want them to remember the quote every human being is born free and equal in dignity and rights. I want them to feel motivated to go out into the world to do their part in making that a reality.

And in that way, Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way is already succeeding and it makes me so happy. Two quotes from readers speak to this and their words are the really important messages I’d like folks to hear.

“In addition to rooting for Mr. Jimmy and his neighborhood, you may f ind the inspiration to help out in your own unique way.”

“I have never had a f ictional book strike such a call to action in my soul before.” 

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Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way.

BY JEFFREY BLOUNT

A deep, full breath accompanied his first steps.

Country air seemed to be the same everywhere, he thought. Lung candy, his mother sometimes called it—fresh and sweet. The soft crunching sound of his shoes in the unsophisticated dirt also brought him comfort. Even the old For Sale sign added to his rustic, bucolic sensibility.

His eyes smiled. The grasses in the field were beginning to show the first signs of their autumn browning. Soon, the leaves would be turning, boasting a palette of gold, brown and orange. This is why he came here. To hear nothing but birds and the rooster’s morning call. To be in a space that reminded him of a simpler time in his life, where good, kind people were living good, decent lives, striving to better themselves in a less complicated world. But the joke really was on him. Fully.

Because Ham, Mississippi, was not the world James Henry Ferguson had in mind.

As he neared Miss Septima’s, the air turned quickly from sweet to rot. His stride slowed as he began to see what he apparently couldn’t or wouldn’t see before. Back in Washington, when he first sat down at his computer to look for refuge from the misery he had created, did he not look at the Google Street View? Was there

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one? Did he not take a virtual walk through this place that was now his community? Was he so enamored of the little house, sitting at the edge, off by itself, that he just couldn’t see the forest for the trees? What were you thinking? This, as he began to witness the tragedy of poverty unfolding before his eyes.  49

LONG-LISTED

xxxxxra.

BY XXXXXX

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LONG-LISTED

2024 SHELF UNBOUND COMPETITION

INTRODUCING....

A TRIA L OF FATE

2024 LONG-LIST

LIKE SAPPHIRE BLUE

Introducing our longlisted titles for the 2024 Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book

THE CULTURE OF BURNOUT

BLINDSPOT

THE TENDER SILVER STARS

TALES OF WHISKEY SCHITAMACHI SCAM TANGO

ANNA'S SHADOW

AN IMPOSSIBLE LIFE

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A Trial of Fate.

One night can change your life. One decision can change...everything.

Our world is dying. Every century, the High Fae venture past the magical veil in search of a shifter to compete as the champion in the trials of their Inner Kingdom. Only a shifter who completes the trials can unlock the healing powers of the Heart of Valdor, a magical stone that has the power to save our world. For five hundred years, no shifter has been victorious or returned alive. The dark magic of the wilt is steadily growing, devouring our world piece by piece with each passing day. The fate of all fae, shifters, and humans is at stake.

And somehow...this task has fallen to me.

Skylar Cathal is a twenty-two-year-old halfhuman, half-shifter with a curious mind and knack for bending the rules. Gilen Warrick, Skylar’s childhood friend and the next Alpha of the Solace pack, wants more than just her friendship– but fate has a will of its own.

When Skylar is marked as the shifter champion, she must overcome her darkest fears to leave her home and those she loves behind. Daxton Aegaeon, High Fae Prince of Silver Meadows, has sworn to protect Skylar as his ward, but only she can protect her heart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J.E. LARSON "Alaska Grown," with a passion for creating my own worlds, which comes in handy when I live in a uniquely beautiful place such as my home state. I started writing in middle school with a good old-fashioned pencil and paper. Jotting down ideas of characters, adventures, and different worlds. In my thirties, with the encouragement of my husband, I began writing... and writing... until I finally created my first trilogy(yet to be released).

After the birth of our two daughters and work, I had to find the quiet 5 am mornings and the secluded nights after bedtime to finally give voice to my ideas. My greatest wish was to write my stories and to have others read and enjoy them with me. So please enjoy what I have created. And thank you for taking a leap of faith into my world.

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A Trial of Fate.

BY J.E. LARSON

Before I could think of a way to comfort Shaw and assure him it would be all right, my own nightmare unfolded before my eyes. Queen Minaeve stopped in front of the youngest group of shifters, turning eighteen only this year or the last, with her gaze set firmly on my cousin, Neera.

She raised her tan-golden glowing hand and pressed it gently onto Neera’s paling cheek.

“You, my young darling shifter, will be our champion and compete in the trials.”

No … Not Neera!

---------------------Without thinking further, I released Shaw and drew my shoulders back to yell across the open night air. “Take me,” I shouted.

Every pair of eyes snapped to me in both animal and human form. I could feel the stares prickling across my skin, yet I knew what I had to do.

“I will compete in the trials. I will travel to the Inner Kingdom and unlock the Heart of Valdor.” I didn’t know if I could achieve this task, but the alternative was not an option.

Neera would not be chosen.

A strange sense of calmness settled in my limbs, combined with a surge of strength

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swirling inside me. My animal agreed with my decision. She was balancing my fear with beats of courage that surged through my being.

“Take me.” I didn’t say it as an option. The High Fae would be bringing meinstead of Neera. I walked away from Shaw, confidently standing alone in the meadow.

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Like Sapphire Blue.

Emma Landry is tough, independent, beautiful, and smart.

Being an outcast unable to identify with her classmates, she was willing to do whatever it takes to climb her way out of poverty.Having never known a mother’s love, her father “Bear”, raised her on the wrong side of the tracks in a wealthy town.

When success beckons, the woman she’s been in love with is, finally, within her grasp. Life is now worth living and loving. That is, until a dark family secret tied into the very fabric of who she is, and what she spent a lifetime working to overcome is revealed. Emma finds herself at the crossroads. Can she overcome a destiny stronger than death and destitution, to prove she is more than her father's daughter?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Marisa Billions Marisa Billions is a high school English teacher in Southern California. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Criminology. She is the author of the fiction novels, This Too Shall Pass and Like Sapphire Blue, Into the Blue Again, and Till Death Do You Part. She is working on her upcoming fifth novel. Like Sapphire Blue and Into the Blue Again both were awarded 5 Star Editorial Review Awards with Reader Views. Like Sapphire Blue also won grand prize for best literary fiction in the 2023 Reader Views contest and Book Fest Awards. She lives in Southern California with her wife, Stephanie and son Alexander and three dogs, Max, Bonnie, and Tinsley.

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Like Sapphire Blue.

BY MARISA BILLIONS

Emma walked in still in her bespoke suit for work. Fine black wool and high thread count button-down shirt with a fitted vest and jacket.

Her hair was clean cut in a trendy faux hawk.

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I should apologize for putting them on the backburner and not making time for them. It was so fucked- up of me. She looked at Bear on the bed. He looked small and wasted. His hair was gone, and his body withered. He looked infantile and helpless. Not the big man with the booming voice of her youth. Larger than life and the center of her whole world for so long reduced to a shriveled being.

Bear opened his eyes and he saw Emma. He sat up slowly and was straining.

“Bear, no...” Emma choked.

“Princess....” Bear whispered.

Emma forced a smile. “Bear, I’m so sorry.”

Tears were spilling from her big blue eyes. I’m such a bitch. I can’t take this back and make more time.

“No, Princess. I need to talk to you. I need you to hear me. You are right to go away. I didn’t deserve the time I had with you. I was selfish. I was stupid.”

“No, Bear. Shhhhh...” He thinks he deserves to suffer for the mistakes I made. That is selfless love. I am the worst daughter ever.

“Princess, listen to me.” His voice was weak.

“I know where your ma is.” Emma stopped

breathing, and she was sure her heart had also stopped. Leaning forward, her hands reached up and grabbed the metal rails of his hospital bed.

Wait. What?

“I have prayed on this, and I prayed to God that you will forgive me all of it.”

“I’m listening, Bear.” Emma’s heart was racing. Just tell me. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this  55

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The Culture of Burnout.

Burnout is as American as apple pie, baseball, and the 4th of July. Its foundations go all the way back to the first White folks who permanently settled in North America: the Puritans.

Culture is made through the decisions and actions of everyone who lives in that culture. So if we all want to be less burned out and more balanced, we can be. It’s difficult, but not impossible -— and most importantly, it’s doable.

Inside this book is a breakdown of why your exhaustion and your burnout are not your fault. Finally, pragmatic to its core, it also starts every reader on their own path to dismantle the culture of burnout and start working toward a culture of balance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KRISTEN DONNELLY, PHD & ERIN HINSON, PHD

Kristen Donnelly (MSW, M.Div, PhD) is an award winning, four time TEDx speaker, international empathy educator, and researcher with two decades of experience in helping people understand the beauty in difference, and the power in inclusivity.

Erin Hinson (MA, PhD) is a researcher, international educator, and tea enthusiast with over a decade of experience in cultivating curiosity in herself and others. As one of The Good Doctors of Abbey Research, Erin advocates for inclusion, equity, and understanding through conversation.

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The Culture of Burnout.

BY KRISTEN DONNELLY, PHD & ERIN HINSON, PHD

The short and short of it is that burnout is a normal stress response pushed too far. A human body designed to handle brief, intense periods of stress, such as the threat of a tiger attack, is instead plunged into a constant state of tiger-stalking until every ringing phone, crying child, or project request feels like another tiger added to the ever-growing, nevershrinking ambush of tigers.

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While burnout is often defined as being a workplace issue, a workplace is more than the place you show up to from 9-5 to earn money, and burnout isn’t the same for everyone. There are many compounding factors for how we experience burnout individually, and a singular list of signs or symptoms doesn’t serve us all that well.

Burnout is destructive, both to individuals and to organizations. The approach in the past has largely been that burnout is an individual problem with individual solutions, but we need to examine the cultural environment that is cultivating more experiences of burnout in record numbers.

So what do we do about it?

Our culture of burnout means that we are

all, collectively, fostering an environment that breeds exhaustion, disconnection, and a sense of personal failure. If we can, instead, move to a culture of balance, then we can foster an environment that supports growth, comfort, safety, and community.

We think the first step to that is understanding.  57

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The Tender Silver Stars.

In 1972, change is sweeping the world, but it isn't coming fast enough to South Carolina. Not for Triss, anyway. She has always wanted to become an attorney, but her influential grandfather who raised her won't hear of it. She attempts to go it on her own-until she commits an impetuous act that threatens to derail her life. Everlove, the daughter of a working-class family, is not looking for change, but it finds her anyway. She has always followed the rules-until one day she doesn't and blows up the life she has always known. The women meet, become friends, and help each other find new paths forward. Can the two women build new lives from the ones they shattered?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAMELA STOCKWELL

Pamela Stockwell lives with her husband in Central New Jersey. She has three children in various stages of young adulthood and too many cats. She is a living kidney donor, as well as the author of A Boundless Place, which debuted in 2021 and has garnered several awards. Her second novel, The Tender Silver Stars, will be published in April 2024. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in several online literary journals and anthologies.

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The Tender Silver Stars.

BY PAMELA STOCKWELL

Triss could say she had thought it a good idea to take the money, but it would be more accurate to say she had not thought at all. Like other times when she had gotten into trouble, she had an impulse, she jumped to obey it, and consequently found herself on the wrong side of a bad decision. Like now.

Here she was, at her kitchen table, hyperventilating, wondering if Horace Haine had a way of tracing the cash sitting in front of her.

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A knock sounded at the door, and Triss jumped so high she momentarily lost contact with her chair.

She clutched her chest as if that would slow down her heart’s galloping pace. What if it was the police?

She gathered the cash and stuffed it under the kitchen sink, then smoothed her clothes as she walked to the door. After clearing her throat, she called through the door, “Who is it?”

“It’s your next-door neighbor, Arabella Fitzgerald.”

A young girl’s clear, fluting voice contrasted with her own tremulous squeak.

Triss eased open the door and found a young blonde girl standing in the pool of porch light, the late autumn night stretching out behind her.

“Hi! I just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. I meant to come by last weekend when you moved in, but we went to see my aunt.

But I’m here now. My mom sent these and says

hello.” She thrust a cookie tin at Triss. “She wanted to come herself, but she’s keeping an ear out for my baby brother who’s supposed to be going to sleep but isn’t. She’s right over there.”

Triss blinked, struggling to switch gears from thinking the police were on her doorstep to instead finding this little girl who talked a mile a minute.  59

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Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers.

Missouri Towers, once the swankiest address in St. Louis, but now tagged “Misery Towers,” is a shabby apartment building blessed with breathtaking views of the iconic Gateway Arch. Amongst its eccentric dwellers is a trapeze artist whose love life is dangling from a wire, a struggling realtor who can never close a deal, a Bosnian immigrant who is infused with the spirit of Winston Churchill, an aging stripper who refuses to relinquish her grip on the pole, an undertaker on a mission of vengeance, a broken-hearted soul searching for his own pretty woman — one hooker at a time, a beat cop tired of dodging bullets, and a dogged collector of lucky pennies who picks up a cursed coin. On a hot and dangerous August night, against the backdrop of a city on edge, the interwoven lives of these characters will collide with devastating consequences.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES AYLOTT

James Aylott is a former Hollywood paparazzo and supermarket tabloid photo editor. His award-winning debut novel, Tales from The Beach House, was both critically acclaimed and a hit. His follow-up work of fiction, Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers is set in St. Louis, Missouri, one of America’s most dangerous cities. The author took inspiration not only from the colorful characters he met while embedding himself in the real estate business but also from the mayhem of everyday life on the wild streets of downtown St. Louis. James Aylott is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and King’s College, London. He is happy to call a leafy suburb of St. Louis, Missouri his home.

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Tales of Whiskey Tango from Misery Towers.

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BY JAMES AYLOTT

They moved closer to each other. He could smell Lizzy’s perfume; she was the same freespirited, braless self under the flouncy dress that she had always been. He was slightly selfaware about his own sweaty-stinky state. But for Lizzy, even that would be an aphrodisiac.

She was wearing a third of the articles of clothing she had on the last time they rode the tram together, and that day they had quite the tryst. If her lusty eyes were any indication, what was on the menu for tonight’s ride? A double home run on the way down wasn’t out of the question.

Lizzy moved towards Mike and took hold of his right hand. For Mike, this was electric and his emotions raced. Lizzy then took his other hand and brought him closer. She whispered to him a quote from her favorite poet, T. S. Eliot, that spoke to the moment: “And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.”

Lizzy embraced Mike and began kissing his ear.

Mike wanted to take her down to the banks of the Mississippi River. Watch the barges go by under the Eads Bridge. Listen to the trains rumble under the levee. Rewind the clock to where they left off the first time they had been together. Start planning their new lives.

Somehow take a ride back to the future.

But he couldn’t.

With tears in his eyes, he said to Lizzy: “I am not going to California.

I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s me.” 

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Shitamachi Scam.

In Tokyo, there isn't always respect for older people. Sometimes, it's the opposite. After the suspicious deaths of a seventy-something woman and a student recluse, Detective Hiroshi tracks down a gang of scammers who target retirees, robbing them of their pensions, life savings, and even the deeds to their homes. Hiroshi teams up with Detective Ishii, who’s been running a women’s crime task force. Together, they find out who has been ripping off the pensions, life savings, and deeds to homes in shitamachi, the older, eastern side of the city. With his personal life on hold (almost), Hiroshi finds out how complex the traditional life of Tokyo still is. With old-school Detective Takamatsu and ex-sumo wrestler Chief Sakaguchi watching his back, he finds out who’s behind the scams, and who’s behind the scammers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MICHAEL PRONKO Michael Pronko is a Tokyo-based writer of murder, memoir, and music. His writing about Tokyo life and his characterdriven mysteries have won awards and five-star reviews.

Kirkus Reviews selected his second novel, The Moving Blade for their Best Books of 2018. The Last Train won the Shelf Unbound Competition for Best Independently Published Book.

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Shitamachi Scam.

BY MICHAEL PRONKO

A short line formed in front of the bank, older people waiting in silence. Takuya checked his cell phone for the info. Yasui failed to upload a reference photo on the shared scheduling app, but at least he’d scouted the surveillance cameras. A wide-brimmed baseball cap and mask would be enough, but he kept his head tilted away out of habit.

Precisely at nine, the bank employee came out to welcome the waiting customers with a series of stiff bows. The line trooped in.

Takuya sucked the last of the flavor out of the cartridge and put it in his shirt pocket. He’d get this over quickly.

When the first stooped woman came out of the bank, Takuya started toward her. If that wasn’t her, he could excuse himself and try the next.

He checked the scheduling app for her name.

“Ueno,” the same as the station south of there.

Takuya pulled his black baseball cap down as she headed across the crosswalk toward him.

The street was too small for a stoplight, just “tomare” “stop” painted on the blacktop.

Takuya met her halfway across. He leaned down and spoke in a loud voice. “Ueno-san, how are you doing?”

She straightened up and looked at him curiously. “You aren’t Yasui.”

Takuya pulled on the bill of his cap and kept speaking in the loud voice he used with the elderly. “Yasui couldn’t come, so I’ll be assisting you today. Let’s get a cup of coffee, shall we?”

Ueno-san frowned and looked around.

He reached for her nylon shopping bag. “Can

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I take that?” The packets inside pushed the bag into an awkward shape. A large A4-size envelope poked over the top. That must be it.

Ueno-san pulled the bag forward with sprightly grace. “I’ve got it.”

“I’m sorry. Of course.” He was used to that sense of dignity and independence. They all believed they were still young.  63

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Blindspot.

Rachel Matthews is used to stress— from the cutthroat world of the district attorney's office to her escalating clashes with her teenage daughter. So when a stranger sends a lavish bouquet with a macabre message and leaves a disturbing video on her doorstep, she's quick to act. Teaming up with an old classmate turned private investigator, she wades through old case files, searching for someone harboring a grudge against her.

But before she has time to pinpoint a suspect, her stalker issues a demand— he wants money, lots of it, or he'll hurt her daughter. In a dangerous gamble, Rachel agrees to meet her stalker on an isolated beach, only to find herself fleeing from a shocking crime scene.

Can she solve the puzzle of who wants to destroy her before she loses her family, her career, and her freedom?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR MAGGIE SMITH In a career that’s included work as a journalist, a psychologist, and the founder of a national art consulting company, Maggie Smith added novelist to her resume with the publication of her debut, Truth and Other Lies. A women’s fiction novel set in Chicago, it won NIEA’s Juror Grand Prize, the Star Award for Debut Fiction from Women’s Fiction Writers Association, a Foreword INDIES General Fiction Book of the Year, and was selected for the Women’s Book Association Great Group Reads. Blindspot, a psychological suspense, was the First Place Winner in the Mystery/ Suspense category by Pencraft Book Awards, and is a finalist for CWA’s Book of the Year award for Indie Fiction.

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Blindspot.

BY MAGGIE SMITH

The killer is in this courtroom and it’s up to me to prove it.

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Everyone involved is high profile, which means my boss of nine years, Marcus Huntley, Deputy DA, is sitting first chair. I catch his eye and his expression confirms what I already know. This is the most important case of my career, and if the verdict goes south, any hope for that promotion goes right along with it.

But this isn’t just about winning for me. There’s a lot more at stake. Consequences I don’t dare think about or I’ll lose my nerve. Because I know they’ve arrested the wrong person.

Because I witnessed the murder. But for reasons I can’t reveal, I have to keep quiet.

I watch the crowd. Examine every person in detail.

Who’s talking to whom, who’s staring at the floor, who’s looking around? Who’s fidgeting, adjusting their tie, or rummaging through their purse? Who looks bored and who looks agitated? But even though I’m an expert at spotting a tell, I come up empty.

The electricity in the air ratchets up as the judge enters and the bailiff calls the case. I’ve been up most of the night, pacing the floor, rehearsing my lines, imagining how today would go. What to say and what not to say. What needs to happen so I can walk out of here satisfied.

Part of me wants to scream. Part of me wants to

whimper. Part of me wants to rush out the door and never look back.

But I don’t do any of those things.

Instead I steel my nerves. A bead of sweat slithers down my spine as I stand.

In an orange jumpsuit. And handcuffs. “Rachel Elizabeth Matthews. You stand accused of first-degree intentional homicide.

How do you plead?”

“Not guilty, Your Honor.”  65

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Anna's Shadow.

Traumatized by her fiancé's murder, Italian-Canadian orthopedic surgeon Sofia Rossi is on leave from Doctors Without Borders, spending time with family in Verona and volunteering at Verona’s Juliet Club to respond to letters from hapless lovers from around the world. A request to find Veronese Anna Bissoli, missing since the end of WWII, plunges Sofia into the destructiveness of that war, profoundly altering her life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR INGRID MCCARTHY After a 33-year career in the theatre as a producer, director, and actress, Ingrid McCarthy now writes dramatic novels and novellas that are famous for their many twists and turns. She is the author of the children's fantasy trilogy, The Black Pearl of Osis, and the Sex and the Seasons series, an erotic romp offstage and onstage in the world of theatre, written under her pen name Rose D. Franklyn. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, and when not writing paints decorative watercolours while drinking her favourite brew: Earl Grey.

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Anna's Shadow.

BY INGRID MCCARTHY

READ AN EXCERPT

Dear Juliet, I’m writing for my father, Luke Miller. Macular degeneration prevents him from putting pen to paper to tell you that he has one wish before losing his sight forever and that is to see again a woman he had met many years ago in Verona. Her name is Anna Bissoli. She lived on Via Mazzini, above a millinery shop, located almost a third of the way up the street when coming from the Coliseum. And that is all I know. The year was 1945. My father was eighteen years old at the time and a soldier in the German army that occupied Verona. He has never forgotten his brief encounter with Anna, who appeared to be his age. Please help. I would very much like to see his wish fulfilled or receive information about Anna.

Hopefully, she is still alive.

With many thanks in advance, Yours sincerely, Romeo Teresa is right. A response to the letter will indeed be a challenge. A big one. But something doesn’t feel right. We, the Secretaries of Juliet, are here to deal with matters of heartbreak and sorrow, not play sleuth. I think the request is going a bit too far. Luke Miller’s son should have engaged a detective agency and not troubled the Club, which is already dealing with more letters than it can handle in a day.

I catch Teresa’s attention and ask her permission to tell Luke Miller so.“Read between the lines, Sofia,” says Teresa after I suggested my response.

“Between the lines? I don’t get it.” I shrug and look at her with incomprehension, convinced it’s she who doesn’t seem to get it. “What do you mean?” I press.

Teresa laughs and puts a hand on my arm. “Sofia, where’s your romantic bone? Don’t you sense a hidden, perhaps forbidden love affair somewhere between the lines?  67

L O N G - L I S T E D CONTINUED

An Impossible Life.

An Impossible Life tells the powerful true account of one woman's descent into depressive and manic episodes—and how she found life-saving therapy and medication to overcome and triumph.

When thirty-five-year-old Sonja Wasden is involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital by her husband and father, she is certain it must be a mistake. Wife of a CEO, mother of three, and living in a beautiful suburb, Sonja's life appears ideal.

How did she get here?

In this gripping and deeply personal narrative, Sonja reveals her delusions and battles with mental illness, making the reader feel as though they are listening in on a private conversation. When all hope seems lost, her true story of perseverance becomes both inspiring and unforgettable. Readers will walk away with a greater understanding of the challenges faced by those who struggle with mental health conditions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RACHAEL SIDDOWAY & SONJA WASDEN Sonja and Rachael are authors, speakers, and passionate mental health advocates. They are a mother/daughter duo who have been interviewed across all 50 states on local and national news about their families struggle with mental illness. CBS This Morning Correspondent, Dr. Tara Narula, said that Sonja’s story was “one of my most sacred and special I’ve ever done.” They also have a TEDx talk!

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L O N G - L I S T E D CONTINUED

An Impossible Life.

BY RACHAEL SIDDOWAY & SONJA WASDEN

Mrs. Wasden, I’m a crisis worker and we are admitting you to the psychiatric hospital,” he stated.

I wanted to run, but my feet felt glued to the floor.

“There is a van outside waiting for you.” He continued as two security guards watched.

I faced the crisis worker. “You can’t force me. I won’t go!”

“We have a physician evaluation certificate with your name on it, Mrs. Sonja Wasden. So, yes, we can force you. And we will if necessary.” He held open the door and waited for me to walk out.

There was nowhere to run.

READ AN EXCERPT

“You’re making a big mistake. I’m not sick!”

“Mrs. Wasden, you’re actually very sick,” he responded. “Let’s go.”

“I am not crazy!” I screamed. I hated his use of “very sick.” I knew what he really meant.

He stood in front of me, arms folded. “No one’s saying you’re crazy, Mrs. Wasden.”

“Yet you’re forcing me into the psych ward.” I reached out and grabbed Mitch’s arm again and shook him. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Doing anything? “Help me!” I yelled.

He stepped back and lifted my chin with his thumb, but I kept my eyes down. “Look at me, Sonja.”

I looked up and saw exhaustion hanging heavy in his eyes. Mitch looked too weathered and beaten down to help me anymore. Had I been so

consumed by my pain that I hadn’t noticed him silently suffering beside me? Or had Mitch’s “I’m fine” facade fooled me into believing he was? I craved to know his deeper feelings, to understand his hurt, but doubted he’d ever share. At that moment I realized this hospital visit was Mitch running out of ways to make things better.

“Please go. This could save us,” he said.  69

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Contact publisher Sarah Kloth to reserve your space. sarah@shelfmediagroup.com

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The Hive

BY MELISSA SCHOLES YOUNG

The Fehler sisters wanted to be more than bug girls but growing up in a fourth- generation family pest control business in rural Missouri, their path was fixed. The family talked about Fehler Family Exterminating at every meal, even when their mom said to separate the business from the family, an impossible task. They tried to escape work with trips to their trailer camp on the Mississippi River, but the sisters did more fighting than fishing. If only there was a son to lead rural Missouri insect control and guide the way through a crumbling patriarchy.

Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops

BY ALLISON HONG MERRILL

Allison Hong isn’t a typical fifteen-year-old Taiwanese girl. Unwilling to bend to the conditioning of her Chinese culture, which demands that women submit to men’s will, she disobeys her father’s demand to stay in their faith tradition, Buddhism, and instead joins the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Six years later, she drops out of college to serve a mission—a decision for which her father disowns her.

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Pig Who Wanted to Jig

GAS PEDAL TO BACK-PEDAL: THE SECOND CENTURY OF AUCKLAND TRANSPORT

BY DANETTE KEY

Marvin always wanted to learn the jig. But finding someone who can teach him became a chore. He asked several animals; for example Mr. Cow who didn't know how and the dog that coughed up a frog. However, none had the skills. Until he found Mr. Fig who became a teacher and a friend.

Available at Amazon.

BY KEITH MEXSOM

This Part Two of a trilogy examines Auckland’s transport systems from 1940 to the present, tracing the motor vehicle’s evolution from a 1920s novelty to a necessity that replaced public transit and caused chronic road congestion. It reveals the costly, ignored studies and the fragmented vision of city leaders, which enabled purse-stringholding Governments to favor the laissez-faire ideals of the ‘Road Gang.’ These tyre-and-tarmac entrepreneurs, descendants of Auckland’s early land speculators, continue to shape the city’s growth and future through financial control.

Available at Amazon, Kobo, Ingram Spark

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Darcy

A Haunting at Linley

McVeigh puts the spotlight on Darcy in this imaginative re-telling of Austen’s classic tale. In a timeless story of love amid the clash of social classes, Darcy is faced with a terrible choice: to stay in London to force Wickham’s hand – or to go to Rome, to salvage his family’s reputation.

With a new Darcyesque slant, omitted scenes from the original, and an extra helping of humour – including excerpts from The Wisdom and Wit of Miss Mary Bennet – this is a fresh new Pride and Prejudice with (wedding) bells on!

Clive and Henrietta return to England to find Castle Linley in financial ruin.

When Clive’s cousin, Wallace, invites an estate agent in to assess the home’s value, the agent is later found poisoned. Clive and Henrietta are soon drawn into an investigation, which is slowed by an incompetent local inspector and several unexplained phenomena—the cause of which many believe to be the workings of the ghost of a hanged maid. Meanwhile, Gunther and Elsie have begun life on a farm in Omaha.

Circumstances are difficult, but they are content—until Oldrich Exely appears, proposing an option Elsie finds difficult to ignore.

Of White Ashes

The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft

BY ALICE MCVEIGH

BY CONSTANCE HAYS MATSUMOTO & KENT MATSUMOTO

The bombing of Pearl Harbor propels America into WWII and two Japanese Americans into chaos. Separated by the Pacific, each embarks on a tumultuous path to survive and live the American dream. Ruby Ishimaru loses her liberty and uproots from her Hawaii home to incarceration camps on the mainland. Koji Matsuo strains under the menacing clouds of the Japanese war machine and atomic bombing while concealing a dangerous secret-one that threatens his family's safety. When destiny brings Ruby and Koji together, their chemistry is magnetic, but wounds of trauma run deep and threaten their love as another casualty of war.

BY MICHELLE COX

BY DIANA DEMPSEY

The year is 1844. On a May midnight, Eliza Haycraft flings herself into a canoe to escape a husband who beats her and a life that does the same. She is penniless and illiterate. Yet a decade later, sex and secrets will make her the wealthiest woman in St. Louis, a frontier boom town at the western edge of a restless nation. With only herself to rely on, Eliza becomes a prostitute and madam, then a property owner and puller of strings. She tangles with a vindictive rival and a governor who will become a Civil War turncoat. Scarred by experience, she finds true love but dares not admit it even to herself.

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Black, White, and Gray All Over

Cold as Hell

From shootouts and robberies to riding in cars with pimps and prostitutes, Frederick Reynolds' early manhood experiences in Detroit, Michigan in the 1960s foretold a future on the wrong side of the prison bars. Frederick grew up a creative and sensitive child but found himself lured down the same path as many Black youth in that era. No one would have guessed he would have a future as a cop in one of the most dangerous cities in America in the 1980s---Compton, California.

In the West, there are worse things to fear than bandits and outlaws.

Demons. Monsters.

Witches. James Crowley's sacred duty as a Black Badge is to hunt them down and send them packing, banish them from the mortal realm for good. He didn't choose this life. No. He didn't choose life at all. Shot dead in a gunfight many years ago, now he's stuck in purgatory, serving the whims of the White Throne to avoid falling to Hell. Not quite undead, though not alive either, the best he can hope for is to work off his penance and fade away.

I'm So Glad There's Someone

Climate Change Family: Lord’s Town

BY FREDERICK REYNOLDS

WRITTEN BY RUTH BURES ILLUSTRATED BY AMY KLEINHANS

I'm So Glad is a positive and uplifting story that contains a template for healthy communication about feelings. The words validate a range of emotions that children (and adults) experience, from anger to loneliness, to sadness, to happiness.

It also provides a guide to discussing these feelings, without judgment, for both the listener (child) and the reader (mentor/adult/parent) that does not patronize or criticize the child.

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BY JAIME CASTLE AND RHETT C. BRUNO

BY MATT BOXALL

Lord's Town is a refuge in a hungry world destroyed by climate change. Serving the soil is hard and cruel, but the seeds of humanity may yet survive in a young tender called Charlotte, and the friends she makes on her journey to discover Lord's Town's disturbing secret.

Here is the future we don’t want. A decade from now, Charlotte lives in Lord’s Town – a tyrannical horticultural fortress cobbled together from the remnants of the old world.

A forever-hungry slave, clever Charlotte grows food in her sealed “greenhome” for the brutal elite. But after saving the citadel from disaster, the mysterious “Lord Himself ” grants Charlotte the opportunity to embrace a new family… and uncover a horrifying truth.

BOOK SHELF

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Squeeze Plays

Adventures On The Bloody Trail

A financial thriller and satire, Squeeze Plays is a contemporary morality tale set principally in New York and London. It centers on a bank CEO, a tabloid publisher, and a cunning Russian oligarch who steps in when the bank’s loan to the publisher goes sour. An intrepid financial reporter catches wind of the gambit and develops a front-page expose.

Adventures On The Bloody Trail is a travel guide that sends you to the best Bloody Marys in Wisconsin and so much more! If you're looking for those out-of-the-way places where good food and great views can be found, Fiebig's guide will take you there with Bloody Mary stops along the way. Filled with the history of the cocktail and instructions on how to score Bloodys using Fiebig's 50-point criteria, this is a fun-filled adventure guide to Wisconsin with a twist. As always, please take a designated driver with you on your adventures. Cheers!

BY JEFFREY MARSHALL

Professional reviewers have called the novel “captivating” and “thoroughly entertaining.”

BY SUSAN FIEBIG

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Grenadine and Other Love Affairs

BY CAROLYN GRACE

In this sensuous debut poetry collection, Carolyn Grace explores meaning through body, image, form, music, myth, history, and language. To read these poems is to touch, taste, and hold love deeply in body and soul, to celebrate love, unflinching and painful and joyful.

Come, enter this magical, essential world.

Let its music sound your depths, its precision sharpen your mind. Then prepare to leave changed, your self challenged and enlarged.

Pandora's Eyes: The Alex Cave Series Book 5

BY JAMES M. CORKILL

The color of your eyes will determine if you live or die!

Geophysicist Alex Cave discovers an alien spacecraft under the ice in Greenland, and is deceived by its artificial intelligence, who uses a woman named Pandora to represent it for what is about to happen. To protect her human slaves, she demands we kill every person with brown eyes, or she willSdestroy U B S Cour R Ientire B E species.

A fantastic ride, with thrilling scenarios, exhilarating situations, and nail-biting suspense, by this bestselling and award-winning author.

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Syrup Sandwiches

The Journal of Hidden Truths

Syrup Sandwiches

Syrup Sandwiches is an inspiring story that gives hope to all children, especially poor children of color, providing a message of hope and success. In a time when society is looking at stories that speak to the black American experience, this is a story that is unapologetically authentic.

Sometimes an unimaginable tragedy can bring a new outlook on life and love. Twelve years ago, in the wake of a tragedy, Mariah rejected the church community that failed her. Mariah moved a thousand miles away to Boulder, Colorado, with her infant daughter, Star. But the past continues to haunt her, and Mariah has yet to reveal to Star what had happened. At thirteen, Star is brilliant and sensitive, with an uncanny ability to intuit truth. Through dreams, observations, and journaling, Star inches ever closer to uncovering her mother’s secrets.

Laugh Cry Rewind

48 States

Growing up in 1970s and 80s suburban Houston, Judy Haveson is funny, sarcastic, and fiercely loyal, especially to her family, friends, and big sister, Celia.

When she suffers a series of unimaginable traumatic events, her seemingly idyllic childhood comes to a halt, changing her life forever.

In 2042 the United States is recovering from terrorist attacks that upended the government, rewrote our civil liberties, and erased two states from the map. River, a widow, single mother, and veteran of the Caliphate Wars, works as a waste hauling trucker, is weeks away from the end of her contract and returning to her young daughter.

Finn Cunningham, a hydrologist, is suspicious of environmental changes he’s seeing in nearby western waterways and decides to investigate.

His decision sets him on a collision course with River, sending them both on the run. One a fugitive, the other a reluctant participant, they develop an affinity for each other.

BY ANTHONY OWENS

is a powerful story about a young black boy who defeats the odds. Anthony Owens shares how he became a successful man as he had to rise above the expected outcome for a child raised in poverty.

BY JUDY HAVESON

In Laugh Cry Rewind, Judy takes readers on her journey of self-discovery, sharing funny, touching, and heartbreaking stories. Her message to others who have experienced loss or tragedy is this: stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let life go on, and good things will be waiting for you on the other side of the pain.

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BY MARY AVERY KABRICH

BY EVETTE DAVIS

BOOK SHELF

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Dancing Between The Raindrops: A Daughter's Reflections On Love And Loss

BY LISA BRAXTON

Kairos

BY JENNY ERPENBECK, TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL HOFMANN

A powerful meditation on grief, a deeply personal mosaic of a daughter's remembrances of beautiful, challenging, and heartbreaking moments of life with her family. It speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to navigate the world without them while coming to terms with complicated emotions.

Lisa Braxton takes us to the core of her loss and extends a lifeline of comfort to anyone who needs to be reminded that in their grief they are not alone.

Berlin. 11 July 1986.

They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married.

Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power.

Pride and Perjury

Truman's Glen

BY ALICE MCVEIGH

The fourth in what PUBLISHERS WEEKLY describes as "McVeigh's celebrated series", PRIDE AND PERJURY illuminates the less well-lit corners of Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Its twelve delicious stories range from "Lady Catherine Regrets" to Wickham’s (mis)behaviour in Brighton, prior to his elopement. Light, mercurial and brilliant, PRIDE AND PERJURY also illuminates Mr Elton’s simultaneous pursuit of the wealthy but arrogant Miss Bingley and the flirtatious Miss Hawkins in Bath.

Download your copy today!

BY GREGORY WRIGHT

Having compiled debt to mobsters, Michael Planck tries to figure out how to get out of trouble and stay alive.

In the confusion of an explosion, he fakes his own death and escapes; effectively disappearing. After his escape, he is discovered and adopted by a team of vagrants living in a local forest preserve, each having their own reasons to disappear. In the end, through a quirk of fate, he finds a path home.

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N O TA B L E

UNTIL SEPTEMBER by Harker Jones

STOLEN TRUTH by Henya Drescher

In the lull between the conservative ’50s and turbulent ’60s, Kyle Ryan Quinn leads a golden life. He’s rich, beautiful and smart, and he summers every year on the same island with the same group of friends. Haunted by a tragedy that took place in his youth, he’s more sensitive than his privileged peers. He understands loss, and secrets. When he meets Jack Averill, a quiet, bookish boy, his 18th summer, Kyle attempts to integrate him into his troubled circle while he himself is pursued by another summer boy, and his best friend toys with the affections of an island girl. Amid mounting familial, sexual and peer pressures, all four young men make heartbreaking decisions that will steal their innocence, destroy lives and consume them forever.

Bree Michaelson wakes up one day feeling drugged and confused, to find her boyfriend, Todd Armstrong, and her infant son, Noah, missing. But why does no one believe her?

Lacking witnesses to her pregnancy, a birth certificate to prove a child was born, or a marriage license to prove her invisible husband ever existed, Bree will find it impossible to get the help she so desperately needs to find her baby.

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Nevertheless, despite suspicious friends, family, and authorities, Bree sets out to find Todd and Noah. Only when her sister commits her to a hospital psych ward that Bree begins to doubt her own story. In the past, she suffered from a false pregnancy. Is this an imagined recurrence? She must fight to find the truth of what has happened to her-or admit that is all in her own mind.

TO P N O TA B L E I N D I E S N O TA B L E

SHADOW RUNNER by K.J. Fieler “Adventurous, clever, unique, and compelling.

Shadow Runner weaves a fantastic tale that will leave you enchanted, entertained, and eager for more.” -Tara C. Allred, awardwinning author of The Other Side of Quiet Born to aristocracy, Ada will marry and never want for anything, except freedom. An unearthly visitor and a series of seemingly supernatural events unexpectedly deliver her from the mundane. But no one could have predicted the darkness that comes with it.

Taken in and raised by a secret society, Ada is groomed as an assassin. As she comes of age, she must become a predator, targeting

N O TA B L E

JUDGE NOT by Nikki Stern

In the fourth installment of the awardwinning mystery series, Lieutenant Sam Tate comes up against a vengeful killer with a warped sense of justice. Five detectives in five states once enjoyed a moment of fame for solving high-profile serial cases. Now they’re dead, victims of an assailant known only as the Judge.

As the murderer cuts a homicidal swath across the country, the FBI invites Sam onto the investigation. Sam is a county cop with a complicated history and a talent for catching serial killers. Her unique skill set makes her an asset to the Bureau. It also marks her as a target.

members of the very nobility to which she was born... or try to escape. But if she leaves, she risks the lives of the two she loves most... her adopted sister... and her captor.

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THE STORY IS IN OUR BONES: HOW WORLDVIEWS AND CLIMATE JUSTICE CAN REMAKE A WORLD IN CRISIS by Osprey Orielle Lake The dominant cultural worldviewis based upon extraction and exploitation practices that have brought us to the precipice of social, environmental, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, climate justice analyses, and collective knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world in crisis. Author, activist, and changemaker Osprey Orielle Lake weaves together ecological, mythical, political, and cultural understandings and shares her experiences working with global leaders, climate justice activists, Indigenous Peoples, and systems-thinkers. She seeks to summon a new way of being and thinking in the Anthropocene, which includes transforming the interlocking crises of colonialism, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ecocide, to build thriving Earth communities for all.

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N O TA B L E

FUNDRAISING WITHOUT BURNOUT by Radha Friedman Fundraising for your nonprofit can feel never-ending and stressful, causing many fundraisers to burn out and quit. You believe in the mission, and you do whatever it takes to reach your fundraising goals.

However, somewhere along the way, you’ve inadvertently run over your boundaries and confused your priorities. You are overworked, overstressed, and starting to understand how Sisyphus must have felt pushing that boulder up the hill in vain.

In Fundraising without Burnout, Radha Friedman, a philanthropic advisor with decades of experience funding nonprofits around the world, offers a frank and witty critique of how the “best practices” we’ve been taught are actually sabotaging our fundraising efforts. By debunking the myths that keep inequitable practices in place, Radha provides solutions that help nonprofit leaders redefine their purpose, prevent burnout, and meet their fundraising goals while reclaiming their peace.

TO P N O TA B L E I N D I E S N O TA B L E

N O TA B L E

THE VIXEN AMBER HALLOWAY by Carol LaHines

THE ASCENDITURE by Robyn Dabney

Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when

Klarke Ascher has a singular goal: to become

she discovers that her husband Andy has been

an Ascenditure, a member of the kingdom’s

cheating on her with a winsome colleague.

elite climbing team who scale the treacherous

What follows is Ophelia’ s figurative descent

peaks of Miter’s Backbone in search of an

into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects,

elusive medicine to treat the lung sickness

performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo,

that ails the populace. However, in a kingdom

and moves into the property next door to

governed by centuries of tradition, where

Amber’ s, which has gone into foreclosure.

women are legally bound to home and hearth,

She spies on the lovers, growing more and

owned by the men they are forced to marry,

more estranged from reality. Andy’ s betrayal

the Ascenditures have always been male.

reawakens the earlier trauma of abandonment

As the strongest climber of her generation,

by her mother at the age of eight. When

Klarke’ s skill and strength are undeniable,

Andy and Amber become engaged, Ophelia

and her courage and persistence prompt a

snaps. The story is a jailhouse confessional,

civil uprising to which the king is finally

a dark comedy, an oeuvre of women’ s rage,

forced to concede. Klarke’ s fight for justice,

a suspenseful revenge fantasy, and a moving

however, quickly becomes a struggle for

portrait of one woman’ s psychological

survival as fellow Ascenditures, one by one,

breakdown.

are inexplicably murdered.

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TO P N O TA B L E I N D I E S NOTABLE

BY MEANS OF PEACE by Don Johnston In 2148, a charismatic politician, Reuben Rogov, wins the presidency. During his first term, he brings peace to the Mideast, stares down Russia and China, solves the border crisis, and conquers the Phoenix-75 virus. Due to his unparalleled success, he is viewed as a sociopolitical messiah, and no opponent dares to run against him.

Once Rogov secures his second term by acclimation, multiple problems arise. Most Americans trust the President, but a few think he created the problems to control the people.

A young Houston couple, Darien and Marisa, are caught up in this melee. Marisa, a budding politician, moves to Washington to work for NatGov, but Darien, a struggling Sci-fi author, stays behind. Chaos disrupts their lives as they attempt to maintain a long-distance relationship.

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N O TA B L E

THE MAGICAL ADVENTURES OF QUIZZLE AND PINKY PALM by Teresa Mae Waterland, illustrated by Aletha Heyman These are modern fairy tales for new generations! Humans have grown in awareness since fairy tales first revealed their secrets. Now, we must take care to carry this great tradition forward. No magic has been left behind in this fiercely imaginative work. The lyricism and layers of meaning in these stories bring pleasure and laughter to children, as well as to the adults who read aloud to them.

Meet your fellow adventurers: Quizzle, a feisty little fairy with red hair, and her best friend, Pinky Palm, an everyanimal whose fur changes colours to reflect his emotions.

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N O TA B L E

GUIDANCE TO DEATH by Daniel V. Meier, JR.

DANCING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS by Lisa Braxton

Amertec Electronics company jet carrying the Senior VP and soon to be CEO mysteriously crashes shortly after taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was a cold, rainy day with low visibility.

A powerful meditation on grief, a deeply

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says it was an accident. The victim’s wife says it was murder. Frank Adams, retiree from the NTSB, now independent aviation accident investigator, has been hired to find out. Mounting evidence and an additional murder of a former Amertec employee convinces Adams that there was indeed foul play. As the investigation continues, evidence indicates what seems to be disparate events that are linked, revealing a crime of international dimensions. Accustomed to working independently, Adams is forced to call on the help of an old girlfriend and a retired DC cop. But unraveling the truth could cost him his life as well as those of his friends.

to navigate the world without them while

personal mosaic of a daughter’s remembrances of beautiful, challenging and heartbreaking moments of life with her family. It speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying coming to terms with complicated emotions.

Lisa Braxton’s parents died within two years of each other-her mother from ovarian cancer, her father from prostate cancer. While caring for her mother she was stunned to find out that she, herself, had a life-threatening illness—breast cancer. In this intimate, lyrical memoir-in-essays, Lisa Braxton takes us to the core of her loss and extends a lifeline of comfort to anyone who needs to be reminded that in their grief they are not alone.

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N O TA B L E

DEPUTY #714 IS DOWN by Christine Husom

BEAUTIFULLY BLENDED by Sonji K Grandy

When Deputy Vincent Weber is gunned

“Beautifully Blended” is a poignant

down in a café, Detective Dawes and Sergeant

memoir chronicling Sonji K. Grandy’s

Aleckson respond to the scene, and work to

profound journey of love, life, & family.

keep their friend alive till EMS arrives. Then

With heartfelt candor, Grandy shares her

it’s all hands-on deck to find the shooter.

transformative path from fractured to

When a deputy in another county is killed,

wholeness, illuminating the power of truth,

the FBI takes over the investigation. They

love, & forgiveness. Through her insightful

follow leads and paths, then set a trap for

reflections, she identifies the universal

the shooter. No one could’ve predicted the

bonds that unite us as human beings,

stunning way it would end.

transcending social, cultural, & economic barriers. Grounded in unwavering faith & practical wisdom, she imparts invaluable lessons learned from over four decades of navigating complex familial relationships. By highlighting potential pitfalls & advocating for positive behaviors, she expertly crafts a harmonious narrative of resilience & love, offering hope & inspiration to all.

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FINDING ISOBEL by Mary Behan

EVE’S BLESSING by J.J. Park

For as long as Isobel can remember, she has

Narrowly escaping the cops, Eve accidentally

yearned to uncover the mystery surrounding her own birth and why her adoptive parents have steadfastly refused to share this information with her. Fueled by the pain of rejection and empowered by a bequest from her de facto grandmother, Isobel embarks on a quest that spans continents and generations.

Her search takes her from the tranquil landscapes of Wisconsin to the rugged beauty of New Zealand and ultimately to Bosnia, where she was born. Along the way, she encounters a diverse cast of characters, each with their own secrets and stories to share.

Isobel discovers that the past holds far more than mere answers, setting her up for a future she could never have imagined.

stumbles in the strange world of Walyre, where few “lucky” persons have innate powers called Blessings. For once, Eve can find a place of contentment and peace in this new world, any effort to escape the horrid obligations in her own reality. Prince of Walyre, Safir Astana, suffers under his Blessing that forces those around him to experience exactly what he feels and recalls from his torturous childhood. Upon meeting Eve, he discovers that her mere presence can block Blessings.

Divine intervention or random luck? A story of shared grief and trepidations love, watch these two strangers find their own purpose in their respective worlds while having the worst things in common.

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WHAT NOT TO FORGIVE by Loring Walawander

THE REIGN OF THE ANTISANTAS by Colin Dodds

Characters of different means and

Rudolph’s in a Cadillac, Santa’s in hiding

backgrounds each carry their personal

and Christmas itself is being bought and

burden: a leg lost in war, an unjust sentence

sold with the fate of the world at stake. The

served, a life wasted by drinking, a child

Reign of the Anti-Santas tells how Christmas

withheld and a spouse dying alone. They each

fell into the hands of Santa’s spoiled kids,

come to terms with help from unexpected

low-level gangsters, faded TV-movie

sources as they make their own life journeys

heartthrobs, tech bros and lifestyle gurus,

through Montana, Switzerland and upstate

and what happens when one elf and an

New York. M O N TA N A I S N ’ T J U S T

old Santa on the lam step up - against all

A P L A C E . It’s a state of mind and of the

odds - to save the day. A raunchy thrill ride

heart, and it can help you see the journeys you

through seventy Christmas Eves, The Reign

need to take to find what you need to find,

of the Anti-Santas is Goodfellas meets ‘Twas

and to become what you need to become. A

the Night Before Christmas - just in time

story of ordinary yet extraordinary human

to wash the candy-cane taste out of your

beings trying to do the right thing, finding it

mouth, get Mariah Carey out of your ears,

far from easy, and yet not giving up. After all,

and change how you see December 25th

forgiveness is a complicated thing.

forever!

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TEA AND TOIL AT THE WOMAN’S CLUB by Bainy Cyrus

TO THE BOY WHO WAS NIGHT by Rigoberto González

The historic Martin Mansion, owned by the Woman’s Club of Norfolk since 1925, is facing neglect and bankruptcy after a century of hosting teas, cocktail parties, wedding receptions, college lectures, bridge tournaments, and charity drives. And the club itself has shrunk significantly, almost to extinction with only a small handful of members. Located in a unique semi-circle neighborhood called The Hague, the Martin Mansion is known as “The Woman’s Club” and watches itself intertwined in the histories of the Woman’s Club of Norfolk, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), the city of Norfolk, and even America for the past 115 years. Since its establishment in 1890, GFWC has improved the world by founding the National Park Service, advocating streetlights and seatbelts, producing 75% of public libraries, funding 431 WWII warplanes for the U.S. military, protecting endangered species, and many more.

To the Boy Who Was Night collects the poetry published by Rigoberto González since 1999, including selections from five previous books as well as new work. Mirroring González’s personal trajectory, the arc of this work articulates the course of a life: these poems recall leaving a beloved homeland, confront masculinity and sexuality in new adulthood, imagine the earth devoid of human inhabitants, descend into the realm of ghosts, and return to arrive at Dispatches from the Broken World. This latest section ventures into foreign terrain — an autobiographical confrontation with isolation and the aging body. To the Boy Who Was Night bears the fruit of 25 years of poetry, González’s boldest and most comprehensive volume yet.

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BACK TO THE WOODS by Cynthia Cruz Could it be that in ceaselessly snuffing ourselves out we are, in fact, trying to survive?

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner Cynthia Cruz reevaluates the paradox of the death drive in her eighth collection of poetry, Back to the Woods. In “Shine,” Cruz’s speaker attests that “if [she] had a home, it would be // a still in a film / where the sound / got jammed.” This book inhabits the silence of the empty orchestra pit, facing “dread, and its many / instruments of sorrow.” We return to the site of our suffering, we perform the symphony of all our old injuries, to master what has broken us. Cruz heeds the urgency of our wandering, the mandate that we must get back to the woods, the tree line, where we might vanish to begin again.

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THE MANSIONS by Daniel Tobin From award-winning poet Daniel Tobin comes The Mansions, an epic trilogy of book-length poems which examines exemplary 20th-Century figures Georges Lemaître, Simone Weil, and Teilhard de Chardin, all at the crossroads of science, history, and religion. Capacious in their philosophical explorations, immaculate in their form, stirring in their alchemy of faith and empiricism, each complete section works both autonomously and as part of the whole, building a house that contains many mansions, simulating the dynamic enormity of creation itself — always already entire and yet unfinished, borderless, infinite. Immersed in a time when cataclysmic geopolitical events coincided with revolutionary scientific progress, The Mansions charts a Dantean journey as it confronts the exigencies and contingencies which define modernity: history, religion, our planet’s fate, and the purpose of humankind.

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EYES OF BLUE by S.M. Sykes In a world ravaged by an inexplicable plague, society lies in ruins. Amidst the desolation, a lone survivor perseveres in a secluded state park along the Delaware Coast. Over a year has passed since she lost everything, yet as the sanctuary she’s carved for herself begins to crumble, she must summon the strength to endure once more. Venturing beyond her haven exposes her to the horrors spawned by the plague, creatures both cunning and primal. Their origins shrouded in mystery; they pose a formidable threat to any who cross their path. Armed with scant knowledge and a grim resolve, she understands only two truths: they hunt relentlessly, and their chilling gaze is unmistakable—they have eyes of blue.

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THE ROOTS RUN DEEP by Chris Strong The Roots Run Deep follows a group of childhood best friends who reunite in their mid-twenties when one of them has a failed suicide attempt. In order to show their struggling friend his life is still worth living, the group decides to embark on an epic road trip that was once a childhood promise.

Intertwined with moments throughout their youth that depict the closeness and freedom they once had, the individual battles of adulthood each of them internalize begin to surface. The friends soon realize this trip isn’t for one of them but for all of them.

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COLLABORATIVE CONFIDENCE by Dr. Heather Backstrom

STAKED: A VAMPIRE’S TALE by Kim Catanzarite

When women engage in Collaborative Confidence, they are naturally truer to themselves, and help other women feel the same. Combining stories, research, and Dr. Backstrom’s many years of experience with actionable takeaways, Collaborative Confidence is written to help you weave together a happy and fulfilling life and career.

Activate your self-awareness, inner champion, core values, and strengths; Amplify your visibility and accomplishments, as well as other women leaders; and Accelerate humancentric organizational cultures to discover a career that truly reflects your passions, values, and goals.

Gregorie Babin has existed in a gently lulling darkness for so long he’s not even sure he’s human anymore. Surrounded by four walls, without light or space in which to move, he has become what he envisions as a mollusk inside a shell. Is he alive or dead, or perhaps in some kind of purgatory or Hell? The answer lies in a past he no longer remembers. It is only when random forces break him out of this perpetual darkness that he can begin to know the devastating truth—and what it means for his future.

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Written with the author’s signature talent for “psychological conflict . . . and emotional tension” (The Book Commentary), this is a speculative journey of a young man’s desperate desire to get back home to the ones he loves. Prepare to be captivated by a tale that tests the boundaries of your imagination and leaves you questioning the darkness that lies within us all.

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WHEN THE GRASS IS RISING by Rose Gonsoulin

HEART TO HEART by Sara Furlong Burr

After his alcoholic father dies, Sam’s mother moves the family to Tennessee. The journey gives Sam a glimpse of the wider world. Under the thumb of his older brothers, Sam runs away and lives among the Cherokee. At a dance he falls in love with a young Cherokee girl but her family spurns him and he returns home. Bored and lonely, he gets drunk and fined by the sheriff. When he returns to the Cherokee, much has changed. He borrows heavily to support his lifestyle but his mother shames him into repaying his debts. He takes a job as a schoolteacher but when the War of 1812 begins, he joins the infantry. Under General Jackson, Sam rushes to the front of the line in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

Wounded and left to die, he survives the night.

To save her parents’ business and home from foreclosure, Avery Martin goes on Heart to Heart, a popular dating show, to win the second-place cash prize. There’s only one problem: this season’s star is Tristan Tate, a former action star and Avery’s teenage crush. After one night of stupidity destroyed his career, Tristan is determined to make a comeback, and starring on Heart to Heart may do just that. But what happens when faking it turns real and the chemistry between Avery and Tristan threatens to derail both of their plans?

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THE SUMMER OF GRACE by Karen Jones

HEROES OF THE EMPIRE BOOK 1: THE CAVALIER by Israh Azizi

In 1951 Tidewater, VA ten-year-old Gracie sits, tears streaming, clutching her dog. Her daddy is sending her and Brown Hound to Grandma Emily for the summer. They are too rowdy for her high-strung mother.

Death is Velamir’s close acquaintance. As a student in the Chishman academy, he cannot escape the brutal war. When he’s sent on a mission with three fellow academy cadets, Velamir returns to the Empire, the land of his birth. Calamity befalls the group as they trek through enemy territory, and Velamir learns a part of his past that makes the mission far more personal. Burdened with the deaths of the unavenged and the chance of losing his own life, Velamir must decide if revenge is worth the cost.

On the North Carolina farm Gracie meets her family. Great Granny Jane smokes a pipe and is fast with her cane, Grandma Emily is loving but firm, and cousin Jane has a swashbuckler’s heart. It is a wild and heady freedom, away from her mother’s scorn and her father’s indifference. The girls explore ancient cemeteries, brave the conjure woman, fight, make up, and sleep tangled like puppies.

But Marcell looms.

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Natassa knows her role well: The silent and obedient girl. The one who looks away from the torture her father, the emperor, inflicts on the Empire’s inhabitants. The princess.

But she’s a shackled prisoner, and somewhere under the mask is a spark of rebellion. When she learns of her father’s intention to marry her to a man she loathes, Natassa crafts a risky plan of her own—one dangerous enough to get her killed.

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RUINED A LITTLE WHEN WE ARE BORN by Tara Isabel Zambrano For fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Jhumpa Lahiri, Ruined a Little When We Are Born delivers a stunning exploration of family and motherhood against the backdrop of Indian diaspora and culture. Tara Isabel Zambrano weaves elements from both the physical and supernatural worlds to beg the question: are we all ruined a little from our first breath?

A young couple ponders their opposing religions after one of them finds a cow’s tongue left on their porch. A widow helps her neighbor mourn the death of his wife by burying the woman’s belongings in the backyard. A mother forces her daughter to undergo various rituals to lighten her skin to find a good match. And when a man needs a son as his heir, he brings his new, much younger wife to live with his current wife and daughter, changing his daughter’s life in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

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MEMOIRS OF A SUBURBAN TROUBLEMAKER by Ellen R.B. Smith Attention troublemakers, parents of troublemakers, and everyone who embraces a rebellious spirit! This captivating narrative is dedicated to you. In the heart of Reston, Virginia, an openly integrated community established amidst the civil rights movement, Ellen’s coming-of-age journey unfolds against the backdrop of societal change. With vivid detail and emotional depth, Ellen chronicles a blissful childhood that comes to an abrupt end when her parents divorce. Labeled as a troublemaker, Ellen becomes the voice of dissent within her hometown, responding to perceived injustices and seeking attention with acts of rebellion - shoplifting, drinking, and fighting. Yet beneath the seemingly defiant exterior lies a soul yearning for belonging and grappling with the complexities of life.

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THE MAHDI by Robert Cook The Mahdi is a tale where Islamic and Orthodox Jewish ideologies clash, seen through the lens of a modern, liberal Muslim.

Alex Cuchulain, Cooch, is a former US Marine, CIA operator, and entrepreneur.

Partnered with Dr. Caitlin O’Connor, the selfdescribed “smartest person in the world,” they make an unlikely yet formidable duo. When Alex takes on a mission to reclaim stolen Bedouin land, he finds himself imprisoned and branded a criminal. Caitlin faces her own dangers, becoming the target of an extremist plot. But the rules of warfare change forever when Caitlin condenses an electromagnetic pulse into shootable ammunition and deploys an AI chatbot–quantum computer that can use the internet to control secure Israeli communications.

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ETHOSBOT by S. Sky EthosBot is realistic fiction packed with adventure and romance, centered around a devious medical nanobot. Situated in the enchanting Southwest, teens defiantly investigate the EthosBot and its mysterious connection to geomagnetic sandstorms.

An eerie tempest rolls across the high desert of the Southwest. Within minutes, the ecosystem is overwhelmed by a force field and a ruthless sandstorm causing physical mayhem.

Turamali Innovative Arts, a nearby biotech company, and the EthosBot are immediately suspect in the catastrophe that injures humans and animals alike. For nearly two decades, Crystal BioBots have been healing humanity’s common afflictions and pain, but ‘Ethos’ is different. Tampering with fundamental neurobiology to heal anxiety and depression, it unexpectedly alters more than emotion.

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TOYS IN BABYLON by Patrick Finegan Çoki is missing!

Who murdered the mascot and spokesbear of the world’s most successful foreign language app? Was it an executive, employee, investor, lover, or one of the company’s animated instructors – endearing cartoon personalities invested with the power of Artificial Intelligence? What began as a chain novel prompt along the lines of “It was a dark and stormy night” on a language app fan site morphed into a full-fledged novel and parody by the prize-winning author of Cooperative Lives. The story originally appeared online in thirteen riveting installments but is now expanded and available in book format as the definitive parody, page turner, and murder mystery for anyone who has ever studied language with a cast of digital cartoon characters and an anthropomorphic mascot.

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WHITE POND DRIVE by Charissa Soful The post-industrial city of Akron, Ohio is losing its trees. Politicians have been selling off the community’s greenspace instead of fixing up the areas in blight. However when a developer comes in with plans to destroy a forested wetland on White Pond Drive, a group of concerned citizens begin speaking up. One of the people involved is a biology teacher hoping to protect the frogs and other wildlife in the area before her memories of them are all that’s left.

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TWO OVER EASY ALL DAY LONG

by Shari Lane When the president of a toy company, guilty of a tragic negligence, is sentenced to a year of minimum-wage work in an Oregon diner, he loses his familiar Manhattan privileges. But Giles Gibson, now “Tony,” gradually learns to appreciate the tangles and complexities of “ordinary” lives, and those who somehow manage to keep on going with compassion and wit. The diner’s (secretly kindhearted) boss has other secrets too, as does the curmudgeonly cook. (He’d gone AWOL from Vietnam half a century earlier.) Much of the novel is set in Sunnyside Up, the diner where staff and customers mingle. There’s a drug ring just outside town, headed by the ex-sheriff, a lavender farm whose workers tend to be undocumented, a gay couple who aren’t quite in or out of the closet.... Each character is an individual, created uniquely by Shari Lane’s colors, textures, language, subtle symbols, and deep sense of balance.

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THE LIGHT BULB EFFECT by Jennifer Michelle, MS Do you feel like the world around you has broken your hope for the future?

Looking to find joy, peace, and happiness?

Let The Light Bulb Effect help! It’s time to find your peace and experience hope in an exciting new way. Discover strength you didn’t know you have. This book will help you gain insight into your relationship with life and illuminate a more empowered path.

Don’t let the past keep you from experiencing your full light in the future.

Darkness cannot live where there is light. All it takes for the light to get in is just a little hope. Hang on to that hope, read The Light Bulb Effect, and find your new beginning.

The light that you seek is waiting for you.

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KILL ME NOW by Scott Moon But when the diminutive mech with a big mouth finds himself stuck between an invasion force and a Delta City, even he doesn’t like his chances.

With damaged gear, an inexperienced squad of do-gooders, and all the bad luck the universe can dish out, Shorty finds himself fighting the most important battle of his career. Live-streamed. Without ammunition.

Or backup. Or even air.

It’s just another desperate day of survival for Shorty. Underpaid, underappreciated, and underwater.

What could go wrong?

If you dig epic battles between bad-ass mechs with bad-ass attitudes, you’ll love “Kill Me Now,” the second book in the Shortyverse series. Get your copy today and share it with a friend.

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THAT SUMMER SHE FOUND HER VOICE by Jean Burgess Set against a backdrop of the 1970’s Baltimore music scene, this is the story of 23-year-old Margie Stevens as she pulls herself out of a spiraling, heartbreak-induced depression and begins a personal journey of discovery.

Clarifying her own views on emerging feminism, social injustice, and personal spirituality—all while touring across the country as a singer in King Vido’s Swing Band—Margie encounters sexist and moral challenges that cause her to question her future path.

Will she redefine her personal values in order to break away from uncomfortable ways of thinking? Will she find the courage to conquer fears of intimidation from the band leader and others on the tour? Finally, will Margie learn to speak up for herself using her authentic voice?

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CAST AWAY by Kase Johnstun What would you do for your shot at the American Dream? Veronica Chavez and her great nephew Chuy immigrate from Mexico to the US, their journeys seventy years apart, each willing to do whatever it takes to build the life of their dreams. In 1922, Veronica’s romantic expectations are crushed by the dangers of living alone in a foreign country.

Young and determined, she finds community in Utah’s desert railroad towns. Decades later, Chuy comes with his family to Salt Lake City, but his parents are soon sent back to Mexico.

Out of place but together, Chuy and Veronica manage to connect across generations— hatching a plan to finally win it big on reality TV.

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MAX’S WAR by Libby Fischer Hellmann A sweeping World War 2 saga in which a young German Jew flees Europe, emigrates to America, and joins the Army to fight Nazis As the Nazis conquer Europe, Jewish teen Max and his parents flee persecution in Germany for Holland, where Max finds true friends and a life-altering romance. But when Hitler invades in 1940, Max must escape to Chicago, leaving his parents and friends behind. When he learns of his parents’ deportation and murder, Max immediately enlists in the US Army. After basic training he is sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he is trained in interrogation and counterintelligence.

Deployed to the OSS as well, Max carries out dangerous missions in occupied countries.

He also interrogates scores of German POWs, especially after D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, where, despite life-threatening conditions, he elicits critical information about German troop movements.

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MODEL WAVE by TK Sheffield

FINDING LILA by Licia Chenoweth

In Model Wave, Mel Tower travels Up North for a vacation and a date with a handsome sheriff. When a boat owner is found dead on “No Bullship,” his new pontoon, Mel’s plans for relaxation and romance are sunk faster than a popped beach ball. In this small-town summer mystery, Mel acts as an amateur sleuth because she fears a friend is being set up for the murder.

Raini Fraser has a penchant for getting herself into trouble.

Meanwhile, the Northwoods is hosting “The Deliveree,” a summer competition for delivery drivers, knights of the road. Mel attends oddball games such as boxing (with actual boxes) and skiing on cardboard skis while pursuing the killer. Mel discovers the victim’s ex-wife had no alibi—even though the name of her pontoon is My Alibi!

One day, trouble finds her when she receives a phone call from her estranged mother, who wants to see her again. Her only requirement?

She can’t tell another soul, especially her dad.

Anxious and curious, Raini is ready to go through with the late-night rendezvous when her dad suddenly whisks her away from her island home to live with him in New York City. There, Raini meets a new friend, Cecilio, a young animal rescuer who loves to surprise her with snakes in his pocket, ribbons on a lamppost, and rescuing exotic animals. Thus, her new adventure begins. Will she find Lila?

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LOVE IN THE SHADOWS by Steve Bassett

INFINITE IMPACT by Amber Vilhauer

“LOVE In the Shadows,” the final book of the Passaic River Trilogy, takes the reader from 1947 Newark through the dark shadows where mindless brutes of all classes preyed on the helpless. Women were fighting back and for the first-time muscular feminism was changing the world with Rosie the Riveter pumping her biceps on posters from coast-to-coast.

We live in an era when misinformation and artificially created content are on the rise.

This is breeding consumer distrust, causing traditional marketing and sales strategies to plummet in effectiveness.

One woman used her fists to fight back, driving her abusive husband from their home. Four physically abused women enlist a mafia gangster in a crazy scheme to payback powerful men who escaped punishment despite years of brutal behavior. Newark’s Police Homicide Chief is astonished to discover there is no difference in the battery and mayhem affecting the rich and poor.

A rich and beautiful woman, physically and mentally abused, goes on a three-continent search after her wealthy German aristocrat husband fatally beat a household member she had loved since childhood.

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There is one proven way forward to ensure your business survival and create sustainable long-term growth in your profit and impact.

You must optimize your books and business platform by becoming authentically selfexpressed in sharing your cause. Only then will your ideal buyers be attracted to you and convert more naturally, allowing infinite impact and personal freedom to inevitably follow.

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THE TASTE OF DATURA by Lorenzo Petruzziello

WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES YOUR CHILD by Kelly Cannon

An alluring affair in Napoli.

When Kelly’s 12-year-old son, Nicky, was diagnosed with an improbable form of cancer—a diagnosis so rare he stood a better chance of being struck by lightning three times— her world unraveled into crisis.

Kelly’s story offers a candid glimpse into the profound impact a strike like this can have on a family’s foundation. With raw, unfiltered sincerity, from the heart of a mother who will do anything it takes to save her child’s life, Kelly guides us through the challenges of her strained marriage, the seismic impact of medical treatments, the agonizing daily decisions we all face when life is on the line, and the magic we can discover when our heartbreak is wrapped in hope, our grief, held by gratitude, and our pain, finally transformed into purpose as her son won his fight.

Nick seeks the value of an antique bracelet in his possession. He encounters Laura, an amateur medium cursed by uncontrollable visions. With Laura’s help, Nick closes in on the origin of his treasure. But as the word gets out, the quest puts them both in danger.

A noir-inspired story ensnared by mystery, myth, and murder; all under a watchful eye shadowing Italy’s vibrant city of Napoli.

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A MEASURE OF RHYME by Lloyd Jeffries

IT RHYMES WITH TRUTH by Rich Miller

Rhyme Carter has a problem. She’s married to the Antichrist. But her heart belongs to another man. A man she deserted to the Devil himself. Emery Merrick wakes in a hospital to find the woman he loves has betrayed him. Swept away on a drug-fueled tsunami of madness and mayhem, he plummets further into addiction, misery, and the machinations of immortal madmen. But Rhyme has plans of her own. Plans to thwart her evil husband and reclaim her life. A Measure of Rhyme continues the saga of a secret society’s quest to fulfill prophecy and offer the Earth as a sacrifice to a bloodthirsty God. As Mankind races toward the apocalypse, can a former librarian overcome staggering odds to save the planet—and the man she loves—from certain destruction?

Sometimes the truth sets us free. But most of the time, it’s the scariest thing in the world – so scary it keeps us on the run for our entire lives.

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Which is why, when an eight-and-a-halfyear-old homeless boy and an eccentric elderly woman trapped in a retirement community forge a fragile bond and become each other’s accidental family, they only have one rule: never speak about before.

But the truth has a way of catching up to us, spoken or unspoken. And when the pair’s bond is tested, they may finally have to face their pasts. Or they could just run like hell.

Their fateful decisions lead to misadventures that include a 30 mile taxi ride, smuggled brownies, angry bees, a soundtrack by Cole Porter, and a rising body count that is (mostly) not their fault.

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BECOMING FEARLESS by Dr. Benjamin Ritter

YOUR CREATOR MATRIX by Cathleen Beerkens

Are you ready to break free from self-doubt and embrace your true potential? In “Becoming Fearless: Journey from SelfDoubt to Self-Mastery,” Dr. Benjamin Ritter provides a transformative guide to overcoming fears and unlocking the power within. This book serves as your roadmap to building confidence, resilience, and a fearless mindset. Dr. Ritter’s compassionate and insightful approach empowers you to face your fears head-on and transform your life. Whether you’re striving to improve your personal relationships, advance in your career, or simply achieve a greater sense of inner confidence, “Becoming Fearless” provides the tools and inspiration you need to succeed.

As human beings, we are beginning to wake up to our inner multidimensional power and our ability to consciously co-create our lives. However, with this power comes the responsibility to master the creation process so that we can be who we were designed to be while here on Earth.

Your Creator Matrix is the interconnected framework that links your mind, body, and spirit on all levels (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual) with the Unified Field. When we master our stories—the deeply-held narratives and beliefs that influence all of our choices and creations— and learn how to digest our life experiences in new ways, we gain the power to choose new future timelines and manifest the wellness, abundance, and love we truly desire.

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PRIDE AND PERJURY by Alice McVeigh Twelve deliciously witty short stories, the fourth in what Publishers Weekly described as “McVeigh’s celebrated Austenesque series”.

What really happened when Wickham eloped with Lydia? What did the Longbourn servants secretly think of the Bennet sisters? Take a deep dive into Caroline Bingley’s scheming, Lady Catherine’s de Bourgh’s diary - and Mr Knightley’s heart.

Download your copy today, and fall in love with your favourite Austen characters all over again!

Previous books in this series have been shortlisted for the UK Selfies Book Awards, runner-up for Foreword Indies’ “Book of the Year,” and quarterfinalists in Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Prize. In April 2024, McVeigh’s Jane Austen series won Chanticleer International’s Book Series (historical).

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HERE, WHERE DEATH DELIGHTS by Mary Jumbelic, MD

Mary Jumbelic has been obsessed with death since the loss of her father when she was 13. The sudden departure of her dad, the mother left behind, and her position as an only child led her to grow up quickly. Yet the why and how of her father's death plagued her. She chose to view an autopsy at the age of 15 and discovered a science that explained the process. Becoming a forensic pathologist wasn't a given. She struggled before deciding on a career as a medical examiner.

For 25 years, Dr. Jumbelic analyzed corpses, faced unimaginable tragedy, became an advocate for preventing fatalities, and honored lives by speaking for the voiceless— while confronting her own loss in a journey to integrate death into a life of hope. How did she finally integrate death into her own life so filled with hope? This is her journey.

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THE DREAM COLLECTOR by R.W. Meek

THE WIDER WORLD by Andrea Jones

Sabrine, hospitalized for five years at the infamous Salpêtrière Asylum for Women, gains her release due to intervention of her sister Julie Forette and a young Sigmund Freud. The reunited sisters are introduced to the dazzling art milieu of 1886 Paris, and soon become close friends to the leading Impressionists. Sabrine attracts a cult following as a poetess, the enigmatic “Haiku Princess.” Seemingly cured by Freud of her Grand Hysteria, Sabrine soon enters into a tumultuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh.

Dread the unexpected... No longer the girl who came of age in Captain Hook’s arms, Red-Handed Jill is a storyteller. She is a wife, mother, mistress— and murderess. Doctor Johann Heinrich is convinced he is Jill’s rightful husband. His need to dominate her deepens. While he plots her recapture, Hook, Jill, and Cecco contrive Jill’s visit to Italy to shelter among Cecco’s gypsies. A complication arises: Hook and Jill are two halves of one soul, but to win trust from the Romani, Jill must forget her lover ever existed. The gypsy clan tests her loyalty to Cecco while Heinrich sways Jill’s father, the credulous Mr. Darling.

Darling sails with Heinrich, scuttling the trio’s schemes to keep Jill out of her false husband’s hands. Assisted by the treacherous DéDé LeCorbeau, French privateer, Heinrich maneuvers Jill to his home in Vienna. But before he turns his scar-marked back to the fleet, the doctor deposits an irresistible hindrance from Hook’s history upon the Roger. To counter the consequences of her tales, Jill applies all her artifice, forging alliance with other women in her world.

Jule and Sigmund Freud, alarmed by the eerie parallels between the emotionally volatile couple and their self-destructive impulses, begin an urgent search to discover the root causes for Sabrine and Vincent’s growing psychoses. Julie, ‘The Dream Collector’ seeks their most unforgettable dream for Freud’s interpretation and revelations occur.

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ARROYO CIRCLE by JoeAnn Hart ARROYO CIRCLE starts with wildfires, filling Boulder, Colorado with smoke, as Shelley, a white, middle-aged handmaiden to a hoarder is violently confronted by police who believe she put a baby in the trunk of her car. Shelley winds up in the legal system, and in her absence the hoarder’ s house and occupants burn to the ground. Unemployable, Shelley rents out her home and is forced to sleep in an unheated garage. Les, an alcoholic, shape-shifting scientist, lives in the creek bed behind her house and helps her navigate this new world, even as Covid sweeps through town. With a strange mix of quantum physics, Buddhism, and Tito’ s, Les teaches her about the healing powers of nature and the deeper meanings of home. Into their midst comes a dazed walker who is more closely connected to Shelley than she can imagine. When the warm Chinook winds blow through the mountains and melt the heavy snows, everyone, including the police, has one last shot at redemption.

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THE EXILED QUEEN by Roxana Arama Rome is marching. Cities and temples are falling. On the outskirts of the empire, Princess Andrada convinces her father to tutor her as his heir despite a taboo against women rulers. But her lifelong battle against entrenched customs shatters when she fails the King’s Challenge and is sentenced to death.

To save Andrada from execution, her father marries her off to a neighboring king who doesn’t care about governing. Devastated, the new queen resolves to watch over her country from exile, preparing for the inevitable Roman attack. Although the crystal bell she risked everything to claim during the challenge grants odd wishes, she’s dangerously unarmed against an unloving husband who needs a son from her. And as she falls in love with a medicine woman, her worst enemy is plotting to kill her once and for all.

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SANCTUARY by Valentina Cano Repetto

THE NIGHT OWL SINGS by Judy McConnell

Sibilla Fenoglio wants nothing more than to live with her husband in this run-down, derelict watermill. Uninhabited since the Renaissance after a mysterious disaster befell the previous owners, the mill requires extensive repairs. But there is something frightening about the mill. Repairs are violently undone, half-seen figures begin stalking Sibilla through the grounds, and haunting echoes of the previous owners’ lives infiltrate the present. As the disturbances grow more vicious and her husband more secretive, she realizes that she and her child are in danger.

Too often in literature, and American society, the old person is a trope: they are only a grandparent, or only an ailing body, or only an inability to keep up. In The Night Owl Sings, Judy McConnell’s protagonists-all of them old-bust the stereotype of old age as a reductive experience.

As time tapers, love, relationships, disappointments, change, and everyday life sharpen. As each character lives their final years, a deep, literary complexity emerges, and the sum of a long life is totaled as it nears its conclusion.

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THE SECRETS OF SHADOWCREST

by Lance McColgan

YOUR STORY STARTS HERE by Jim Zervanos

A unique blending of Medieval history and high fantasy into an action-packed adventure that spans across seas and cultures.

Jim Zervanos, a seasoned high-school English teacher and father of two, embarks on a mission at the cusp of a new school year. He realizes that today’s youth are thrust into a tumultuous world and burdened with saving it. To chronicle this extraordinary period in America, he assigns himself a unique task: keeping a journal.

As England teeters on the brink of civil war, a faithful knight is sent by his king on a secret mission to the Island of Cabalia: a secluded land of unknown origin and fantastic magic.

But when his errand goes awry, Lord William Steele must embark on an unexpected journey across the island, brushing shoulders with cutthroat mercenaries, conspiring kings, and legendary monsters. Forgotten histories and timeless truths must be grappled with in his attempt to discover the Secrets of Shadowcrest and survive to tell the tale.

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Within its pages, we witness “his kids” grappling with pressing issues like identity politics, gun violence, and political uncertainty. A sophomore prodigy wrestles his demons onto the pages of his fiction before entering a psychiatric hospital. An estranged junior posts ominous threats on Snapchat, while a principal sabotages a student walkout. Meanwhile, in his classroom, Jim prepares a hiding space for an active shooter event and, back home, finds solace in the eulogy of his young sons’ pet fish, sent on its final journey with a flush.

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THAT TIME I GOT CANCER: A LOVE STORY by Jim Zervanos

AWAKE FOR EVER IN A SWEET UNREST by Chuck Rosenthal

One minute Jim Zervanos was carrying his one-year-old boy to a baseball game; the next, he was in the ER, where for days he lay in limbo, being strangled from the inside. Teams of the best doctors were stumped by his worsening condition, before telling him there was nothing they could do.

Deep within the hidden library of Los Angeles’ iconic poetry venue, Beyond Baroque, all modern electronics mysteriously fail. There, 19-year-old Beatriz encounters Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, who promises a magical adventure back to 19th-century Europe.

That Time I Got Cancer: A Love Story is about experiencing joy even in desperate times. It’s about the relationships that anchor us, even as they must be entirely redefined.

At forty-one, married, with a young son, Jim said goodbye to his family. When a brilliant new surgeon performed a radical operation, Jim was diagnosed with lymphoma, which led to chemotherapy and an uncertain road to recovery. Five years would pass before Jim began to understand what he had endured.

Through mortality and back to life, this is the inspiring journey of a man awakened to the full experience of being alive, and being present for it all.

There, Beatriz meets literary legends John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron, experiencing the romantic landscapes and dangerous exploits of their world. As she navigates this liminal space, Beatriz discovers the power of poetry and art, and the courage to find her own identity.

Rosenthal, an acclaimed author, brings historical figures to life, offering a deeply intimate tale of passion, creativity, and selfdiscovery. Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest is perfect for anyone who has ever lost themselves in the magic of a hidden library.

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FAYTHE OF NORTH HINKAPEE by James T. Hogg

THE SECRET DOORS OF CANNONDALE by Stephanie Brick

In a world where women are silenced, one dares to roar. Colonial America, 1600s. A land of opportunity . . . and oppression.

Faythe never fit the mold of a proper young woman. Now, as she flees into the forest, her sister’s fate fuels a fire for vengeance that will shake North Hinkapee to its core.

Pitted against the ruthless Downing family and a corrupt church, Faythe’s quest for justice becomes a thrilling saga of forbidden romance, unlikely alliances, and swashbuckling adventure. As she navigates a world determined to silence her, Faythe finds strength in unexpected places: a reformed courtesan with a heart of gold, an aging swordsman whose blade still strikes true, a smitten farm boy with hidden depths, and a silver-tongued lawyer with questionable motives. But can Faythe outwit the devious Martha Downing and expose Minister Brown’s hypocrisy before it’s too late?

An outcast girl looking to belong discovers a secret doorway to other realms in a thrilling portal fantasy novel for middle-grade readers.

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When twelve-year-old Adeline Perle’s transient military family finally plants roots in an old, creaky mansion - Cannondale - the girl craves to build the lasting friendships that she, as a constant outsider, never had. At last, on the cusp of bonding with a new group of affable teens on Cannondale’s grounds, Adeline discovers an unusual treasure behind a secret door, unveiling portals to extraordinary realms where she is confronted with disappearing creatures and magical people, good and evil, and a boy who’s desperate to help her find her way back home.

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THE ISLANDER by David W. Berner Seamus Damp is an aging American-born writer who retreats to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to escape to a monastic life.

But his troubled past is always near, and his estranged relationship with his son is fraught with heartbreak. When a young woman who carries her own heartache-filled past comes to the island on a solitary spiritual and hiking adventure, she and Seamus discover an unusual bond and together attempt to find a way to heal their hearts and erase their collective sorrows.During a harrowing coastal storm, the young woman seeks refuge at Seamus’ door. A night of conversation while the wild weather rages begins their journey toward a mutual understanding of their personal stories of betrayal, death, and emotional hopelessness. Eventually, the young woman helps Seamus through health emergencies, and emergencies of the heart -- old and new -- as she, too, attempts to discover her own way toward an emotional breakthrough on a beautiful yet rugged, windswept island where solitude is its greatest gift.

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THE CENTERED HEART by Susi Amendola Stress is often the first domino in chronic illness and disease. Too often, however, doctors have little training or information to offer patients about managing stress.

In The Centered Heart, yoga therapist, stress management expert and senior trainer for Ornish Lifestyle Medicine, Susi Amendola, navigates the intricate relationship between stress management and overall health. She invites readers into transformative experience with the ancient and time-tested somatic practices of yoga that have been shown to improve cardiac outcomes as well as outcomes from many of the chronic diseases that plague our society.

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THE FORAGER CHEFS CLUB by Rita Mace Walston Celeste Harp knows what they say about her and her free-spirited hippie mother. She also knows no one can forage field and forest better than she can. But she’s still relegated to mundane duties in the kitchen of the prestigious hotel where she works. That could change when she receives an invitation to a cooking competition hosted by the enigmatic Forager Chefs Club. But after meeting her competitors, Celeste realizes that her biggest competition may be her own self-doubt, even as she discovers the underlying motivations— and secrets—the others are trying to hide.

Filled with heart and foraging and cooking tips, The Forager Chefs Club shows that where food comes from matters, and what comes out of the kitchen feeds more than just the body.

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I, SOLDIER by Drew W. Allbritten In this mixed-genre collection of evocative verses and vignettes, a Civil War reenactor brings to life the experiences of a young, semi-literate Union soldier. With a new perspective, readers are transported back in time using 1860s grammar and cadence as this soldier vividly describes the emotions, fears and tales of his comrades. These writings are thought-provoking with many story elements eliciting tears, sighs, anger and smiles. The author’s historicallybased storytelling visualizes a homesick boy leaning into a flickering candlelight, and with a shaven pencil stub, scrawling down his scores of encounters. This book is dedicated to the Union soldiers of old, and those now, who always kept their oaths to support and defend our Constitution and America’s democracy. Huzzah!

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THE DRYBURGH CHRONICLES PART 1: THE EXISTENCE OF SHADOWS by L.P Halliday Scotland is a land steeped in magic and mystery, but Lilian Darling doesn’t believe in such things.

She has dedicated her career at Oxford University to clearing the names of those falsely accused of consorting with the devil, and that never involves any actual witchcraft.

Until now.

When she and her research partner, Edgar Falkirk, head to the misty hills of the Scottish Borders to meet a promising source, their journey takes an unexpected turn. Edgar’s accidental discovery of an ancient spell book, combined with an encounter with an overly enthusiastic research student, thrusts them back through time to the 16th century at the outbreak of the witch craze ensnaring early modern Scotland.

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NEMESIS AND THE VAULT OF LOST TIME by PJ Davis Thirteen-year-old Max is a daydreamer. It gets him into trouble at school, but his restless curiosity really turns problematic when he runs into a mysterious professor at his uncle’s bookstore. The old man informs Max that time is being sucked out of the planet by invisible bandits, stolen from unsuspecting people one breath and one sneeze at a time, and is being stored in a central vault. Once full, the vault will fuel a hungry horde of invaders looking to cross into earth, and cross out all its people. What’s more, the professor claims he knew Max’s missing scientist father.

With the help of his best friends, Derek and Samantha, Max must harness his compulsive curiosity and find passage to this place called Nemesis to stop the sticky-fingered time thieves and halt their planned invasion. But when the professor goes missing and the clock starts ticking, Max discovers far more than he imagined. Just how much Max is willing to sacrifice hinges on the realization of just who or what he is beyond the bounds of time.

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WHIRL OF BIRDS by Liana Vrăjitoru Andreasen

GUARDIAN OF MONSTERS by Catherine Stine

This story collection is a journey into the human mind, from prehistory to our globalized times. One story follows a Neanderthal girl as she attempts to flee human tribes (“My Big Man”), while another offers a glimpse into the friendship of three girls during the Great Depression (“Painted Snails”). In one story, a boy disappears into a cloud (Stolen Light). In another, a boy’s mother attempts to uncover the secret of his molestation (“Away from the Flock”). In one story, a horse lies dying at the outskirts of a modern city (“Valley of the Horse”), while in another, a strange bird formation foretells a woman reaching the end of her life (“Whirl of Birds”). One story addresses religious sects (“At Taft Point”), one peeks into the life of an animal hoarder (“The Return”), while another explores the seductive power of art (“Mahogany”).

Celestine, witch and wolf shifter has a talent for prophetic drawings. She’s shocked when she draws her landlord Ray with his eyes gouged out and a strange winged-mermaid leaning over him. Later she finds an eyeless Ray dead on the sidewalk. All she wanted to do was open a gallery, but first she must apprehend his killer. In a posthumous note, Ray wrote he wasn’t just a leather-smith but a supernatural pirate mage. Years back, his Jekyll crew trapped the evil Demon Three Eyes clan. Ray feared they’d escaped, were stalking him, and would soon wreak havoc on Savannah.

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Oryn, a fellow student in Celestine’s continuing ed art class, is a fae and a thorn in her side, when he asks nosy questions about the case. Yet, she’s drawn to him when he’s her masseur at the spa she frequents, and he’s clever at brainstorming leads regarding Ray’s case. He insists his air magic could come in handy.

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FREEING TERESA by Franke James Franke James is an environmental activist who got into trouble in her own backyard— family trouble. She objected when she heard her siblings’ plan to put their disabled sister, Teresa Heartchild, into a nursing home.

Teresa, who has Down syndrome, refused to go. But the other siblings insisted and secretly put Teresa into an institution for end-of-life care.

Teresa was in shock. Franke was horrified and organized a rescue. That’s when all hell broke loose. The two sisters had to stand together— against their siblings, the medical system, and the police—to defend Teresa’s right to be free.

This is a true story about a key civil rights issue for all people with disabilities—the right to decide where you live.

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WONDER OF THE WEST by Stephen G. Yanoff In this fascinating, epic biography, awardwinning historian Stephen G. Yanoff vividly narrates the adventurous life-journey of John Charles Frémont, the most celebrated American explorer and mapper of his time.

This is history on a grand scale -- a book about discovery and exploration, but also about human character, virtue, ambition, love, and sacrifice.

Above all, WONDER OF THE WEST is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most courageous and important Americans of the 19th century -- an illegitimate child who rose to become “The Conqueror of California,” Civil War general, two-time Republican presidential candidate, pathfinder of the West, and husband to the extraordinary Jessie Benton Frémont.

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FOREVER BOY by Michael J. Bowler

THESE HANDS by Darcy Daniel

Orphan Drágan Albescu moves in with Isaac and his mom, claiming to be an emancipated minor and a model, but the more Isaac, Stephanie, and others learn about him, the more they want to know, like why his modeling photos go back to 1920. Drágan displays more knowledge and wisdom than the teachers at school, coupled with the uncanny ability to know what others long to keep private, a power that frightens Stephanie due to her own dark secrets. Who is this enigmatic boy who becomes the best friend Isaac ever had? Why do bullies at school suddenly stop their bullying? And what about the dead deer found torn to shreds in the woods? When Isaac learns the full truth about Drágan, he’ll almost wish he hadn’t.

A reclusive country veterinarian with a mysterious healing power has managed to keep his secret for decades, but now risks exposure when the girl he failed to heal - his childhood best friend - moves to town.

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With the release of These Hands, Darcy Daniel does a remarkable job of capturing the tension and anxiety that comes with not only first love but being different whilst giving us an affecting evocation of a man who can literally give his life to save another.

Daniel is particularly good at finding the right balance between damaged hearts and longing for this material and steers away from trite tropes.

Good authors convince us that the hearts of their characters are actually at risk and Daniel has this down to a fine art.

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I LOVE YOU MORE by Joan Burleson

IN SEARCH OF YOU by Kasey Compton

How do you forgive the unforgivable?

Forget everything you think you know about success and self-care and learn how to really love yourself, with this revolutionary guide from an acclaimed therapist who gets it.

Betty Jean was left penniless with three children in 1960’s Appalachia. Desperate, she followed her husband, uprooted their family, and bootstrapped failure into a fresh start in Anchorage, Alaska. Once transplanted, she became inspired by the audacious country and established herself as a true Alaskan pioneer. Principled and headstrong, she began to succeed in the wild culture of early Anchorage. Betty Jean refused to leave her troubled marriage, creating a toxic home. But when she met steadfast Dale, she faced an unexpected opportunity for happiness. Her choice drove her husband insane, and he hired an assailant to maim she and Dale with acid.

Although the vicious assault left Betty Jean with grave injuries, she survived, and made an astonishing bargain to regain her eyesight.

Many modern women experience a frustrating phenomenon: No matter how much we accomplish, the feeling of satisfaction we anticipated never actually comes. Raised in a society of gender-influenced expectations— be an amazing mom, be an extraordinary partner, be an incredible executive and execute on all these roles flawlessly—women have lost the one thing that can ever truly fulfill us: self-love.

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THE MELTING GRANDMOTHER AND OTHER SHORT WORKS by David Benjamin Is GiGi—Biggy’s grandmother—a living repository of all past human adventures, or is she a liar? And will she keep shrinking until she disappears forever from the wonderful book-smelling room in her house on Lake Street GiGi has told Biggy that she’s a thousand years old and that she went through the looking glass with Alice. She was a Spanish princess captured off a galleon by Blackbeard and she was a G.I. at the liberation of Auschwitz. She knew the Brothers Grimm and she was with Vonnegut during the Dresden firestorm. This all can’t be true but she explains it all so believably—and Biggy wants to believe. Especially, he wants to believe that GiGi will never die.

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DEAR ELIZA by Andrea J. Stein Ten years after her mother’s death, Eliza Levinger never imagined she’d hear from her again. But then The Letter arrived.

Eliza’s world broke apart when she was sixteen and her mom died of cancer.

Now, years later, she has rebuilt her life to include a director-of-development job at a nonprofit, a Manhattan apartment, and an easy-on-the-eyes bedroom buddy—just the kind of no-strings relationship she wants, even if it’s less than her best friend, Mo, thinks she deserves. But when Eliza’s dad dies unexpectedly, her beloved aunt Claude arrives at the shiva with a letter from her mom—to be opened only after her father’s death. Inside the letter? A bombshell.

Suddenly, all of Eliza’s relationships are upended. Her brother is angry, her stepmother is threatening to disinherit her, and Mo—who has always been her rock— doesn’t seem to understand what she’s going through.

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THE SHARD OF ASCLEPIUS by Stewart F. Brennan

BEYOND THE CEMETERY GATE by Valerie Biel

They are always watching. Always listening.

Even when your phone is turned off, they’re still there with their ear pressed against your device’s invisible back door. They thrive in darkness and secrecy. They control the economy and bend authorities to their will, yet they remain faceless. They are the silent force tightening their grip around our crumbling society, and they will not stop until their power over the world is complete.

When the police rule her dad’s death an accidental overdose, 16-year-old Chloe refuses to believe it and vows to find his killer. Alone against a potentially corrupt, small-town police force, a persistent social worker seeking proof that she has adult supervision, and precariously low funds, Chloe learns that her dad’s life as a cemetery caretaker masked a web of family secrets that quite possibly led to his death—and are now putting her in mortal danger.

Who is this most malevolent secret organization that holds the strings of power?

They are known only as the Collective, and their invisible reign across the world seemed unstoppable. That is, until a soul‑searching Montrealer named David Collins followed his intuition to uncover a broken shard of advanced ancient technology with the power to change everything.

Needing freedom to investigate, Chloe pretends that her only surviving relative, a famous war correspondent, has returned from an overseas assignment to be her guardian. But living alone in the caretaker’s house in the middle of the cemetery, mere feet from the crime scene, puts Chloe’s nerves on edge even before she unearths clues about the shadowy side of her small town.

Help comes from unlikely and surprising allies: the colorful owner of the local retro diner, the quiet new classmate with his near-perfect memory, and a spirit who visits in her moments of greatest need.

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OLDEST MOM ON THE PLAYGROUND by Judy Haveson

RAVEN’S GRAVE by Charlotte Stuart

Judy Haveson always believed she would one day “have it all.” Then she turned forty and wondered if she had waited too long. After countless failed first dates and fewer second ones, she finally found love, got married, and became a mother at forty-three.

It is 1979 in a small native village in Alaska accessible only by boat. The local Tlingits continue to honor many traditions of the past, although increased contact with the outside world is accelerating a cultural shift.

Caught in a slipstream of time, the village has become a curious blend of old and new.

Oldest Mom on the Playground is a collection of relatable, heartwarming, and humorous essays. Written in her signature conversational style and with a touch of sarcasm, Judy takes readers on her journey of getting pregnant after forty (and delivering the baby during a full moon), raising a child in New York City (including the time she lost him in a grocery store and found him standing on Broadway), leaving the career she spent decades building to volunteer as a preschool class rep, to becoming a card-carrying member of the sandwich generation.

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A runaway becomes the object of a search in the Alaskan wilderness after a young boy dies during a midnight ceremony.

A fish buyer and $75,000 goes missing.

And Jonah St. Clair, Koloshan’s only police officer, becomes both prey and predator as he investigates the bittersweet secret of the Raven’s Grave.

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MOLLY’S MILESTONE by Marlys Beider 30-year-old Molly Miraldo is trapped in a shroud of amnesia caused by a traumatic accident at the age of four. Raised by her narcissistic grandfather and philandering father, she relies on their words as they insist her mother and twin perished under mysterious circumstances soon after they abandoned her. Molly’s quest to reclaim her stolen memories not only unearth the sinister motives behind her family’s lies but as each layer peels away, the truth is more devastating than the memories she longs to recover.

Will she find redemption, or will darkness consume her as she navigates the painful path to self-discovery?

Molly’s Milestone is a gripping psychological mystery, exploring family and the treasures awaiting those who dare to pursue its challenging truths.

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A CURSE IN KYOTO by S.J. Cullen When a supposedly cursed traditional Japanese instrument arrives at the British School of Kyoto, strange things start to happen. A phantom geisha haunts the halls, a star student vanishes, and cryptic symbols appear across the campus.

For Jessica Hunter, a seasoned globetrotter trying to adapt to life at BSK, the eerie events are more than just schoolyard rumours.

Teaming up with Kenta Higashi, a local boy with his own connection to the missing student, Jessica suspects a sinister force is at play.

As they investigate, they uncover a web of secrets, lies, and a vengeance plot tied to the instrument’s shadowy past. Can Jessica and Kenta unravel the truth behind the curse before it claims another victim? Or will they become the next targets of its wrath?

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SUN NIGHT by E.H. De La Espriella Sun Night is a memoir about two brothers growing up in 1976 Panama and follows the events that would transform their young lives forever. The brothers, Sebastian and Santiago are very close and highly protective of each other and rely on their shared love and creative storytelling to manage through the adversity of their lives.

The story takes readers on a magical journey through the imaginative narratives they share with each other at nighttime. These tales influenced by the beauty and vibrancy of the Panamanian city life, countryside, and beaches, transform their raw world of reality into a realm of colorful visions and exciting adventures helping the children to escape from their deepest worries and fears.

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ROME’S LAST NOBLE PALACE by SUN Kimberly Sullivan Two women. Two different centuries. One attic room. American Isabelle Field has been shipped off to Rome to live with her aunt, Princess Elizabeth Brancaccio. Isabelle’s aunt and mother share a common goal - replicating Elizabeth’s success by marrying Isabelle off to a European nobleman.

But Rome in 1896 is on the cusp of a new century and Isabelle longs for more than a titled husband. She secretly designs costumes for Rome’s burgeoning theatre environment and dreams of opening a fashion atelier.

Can she gather the courage to forge a life for herself, even if it means going against expectations?

Over a century later, doctoral candidate Sophie Nouri can’t believe her good fortune when she is selected to intern in Rome’s Near Eastern Art Museum. Even better, the position includes an attic apartment in the spectacular museum property, the Palazzo Brancaccio.

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SERVING LIFE by Justin Michael Morales

NOT YOURS TO KEEP by Zelly Ruskin

“Serving Life: Behind Bars, Kitchens, and Hospitality” is a compelling narrative that takes readers on a journey through the vibrant yet challenging world of hospitality. Authored

by Justin Morales, a seasoned professional, this book offers an authentic glimpse into the life behind the scenes of kitchens and bars.

Starting at 17, Morales navigates through dyslexia, financial hardships, and a feral upbringing to find his true calling in the chaotic yet rewarding realm of hospitality.

Called a “sensational debut” by Rea Frey, this psychological thriller delves into themes of reproductive rights and healthcare, confronting the complexities that define family—or the risks that lose it all.

Each chapter delves into different aspects of the industry – from the adrenaline rush in the kitchen, the camaraderie found in shared struggles, to the art of bartending and the impact of crazy hours. Morales shares not only his personal experiences but also the stories of diverse colleagues, celebrating the unique fabric of the hospitality world.

Billie Campbell, a Massachusetts adoption specialist grappling with fertility issues, dreams of adopting a baby, but not just any baby—her pregnant client’s baby. While her longing threatens to send her down a dark path, her husband, Tyler, is keeping secrets: he’s full of doubts about becoming a father, and he’s also trying to figure out who is sending him upsetting anonymous texts and photos. On the other side of town, Anne, a woman scarred by childhood abuse, obsesses with a second chance at becoming a family with the two people she regrets ever having let go of: the baby she gave up for adoption twenty years ago and the man of her dreams.

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THE BOY WHO LEARNED TO LIVE

by D.N. Moore Seventeen-year-old Oliver Mc’Neil has never been outside. Like everyone else in the Fifth City in the year 2085, he and his mother live in an apartment where the air and water are sterile, their food is couriered to them, and all their activities--work, school, exercise, entertainment--are done indoors on sims, machines that simulate life using computer monitors, virtual reality headsets, and holograms.

When Oliver wakes up in the middle of the woods drugged and delirious, he has no idea how he got there, but he is certain it is a death sentence. He is taken in by Shakespeare-loving Autumn, whose family is loud, rambunctious, and three children over the legal birth limit.

They are outlaws, living with thousands of others in a network of underground caves, where modern technology is forbidden and secrecy is paramount.

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THE PRODUCTIVE PERFECTIONIST by Kathryn C. Mayer Is perfectionism paralyzing you? Become a Productive Perfectionist, instead—and free yourself from the “shackles of shoulds” so you can play a bigger game!

Do you still struggle trying to figure out when your work is good enough? Are you losing hours editing a draft for the 29th time? Are the higher-ups getting nervous that you’re not up to the job? Are you tired of settling for the smaller, safer roles instead of finding your greatness—because you’re too afraid of failing?

In The Productive Perfectionist, you’ll find hope—and action-oriented solutions to move you from paralysis to productivity in this new age of constant change and ambiguity!

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WHEN FLOWERS SING: A POETRY ANTHOLOGY edited by Christina Isobel

THE OBJECTIVE SCHOLAR: POETIC WORDPLAY by Troy R. Legette

This poetry odyssey provides a path into the primal—mystical, miraculous, land of flowers.

A shared ritual across human cultures, flowers are given in every aspect of our lives: births, graduations, friendships, weddings, anniversaries, and deaths. The anthology includes 90 poems from 66 poets around the world, crowdsourced online during a global pandemic. Our process of selection was a feeling-based blind reading. The writers range from award-winning poets to those published for the first time. Our anthology was born from simple beliefs: Flowers, if noticed, make people smile. Given flowers are from one heart to another. In a time when the world is tumultuous and technological advances are rapid, we wanted to create something tangible that deepened our connection to ourselves, each other, and the planet.

In his second poetry collection, author and poet Troy R Legette shares a blend of various poetic forms providing inspiration, motivation, and healing to readers of all ages.

The Objective Scholar: Poetic Wordplay is a literary work that stems from a journey of self-improvement as a writer.

Written to eloquently deliver sounds, rhythm, and style that honor and bend the rules, the content is a resource for librarians, teachers, and professors to use when working with novice writers. These poems are fueled by the author’s experiences and observations as an Afro-American male within Black America, offering a solid confluence of themes and ideas relevant to the present-day.

May you hear the flowers sing. They wait for us...

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JOURNEY TO EVERLAND BAY by Lynne Shaner Jemma Avalon is the daughter of a gentle part elf-fae mother and a father with fiery dragon blood, an unusual combination even in the magical world.

Ten years after her mother’s sudden death, Jemma is working at a major museum in DC, where magic is all but outlawed. Her father wants her to assimilate and live without magic, but Jemma is determined to fully embrace her heritage. She longs to return to Everland Bay, the enchanting world where her Grandmother Annalyn lives, and find a way to join the renowned magical research institute there, like the women in her family before her.

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WINE AND THE WHITE HOUSE: A HISTORY by Frederick J. Ryan Jr. Winner of fourteen national and international awards. Wine and the White House is a comprehensive journey through the history of White House hospitality that explores every president’s experience of wine. Whether you’re a devotee of presidential history, a lover of wine, or both, Wine and the White House: A History is sure to prove informative and entertaining. The fully illustrated pages also feature memorable presidential toasts, menus from historic White House gatherings, a catalog of vintages served, and spectacular photography of the White House glassware collection. This new edition has been expanded to include entertaining during the Biden presidency. Early presidents recognized the important function wine played in entertaining at the White House. While some appreciated and enjoyed wine, others considered it merely a ceremonial necessity.

Still others campaigned to outlaw wine and banned it from the White House; their successors celebrated its return. More recently, all presidents, regardless of whether they enjoyed wine themselves, have used the White House as a venue to showcase the fine wines produced in the United States.

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ANGELINA’S CHOICES by Angelina Wang Angelina Wang started work on this book when she was 13 years old and finished when she was 15. As she states on the back cover, she wrote it because she believes that every choice contributes to something and does make a difference. And has an impact.

Highly creative, she wanted to explore her own choice-making to learn and grow as a person while helping others as well. The book carefully addresses the choices that Wang considered crucial in our lives from the choice to be happy to that to make a difference, be prepared, be consistent, compromise, be diligent, self-reflect, help others, relax, do things for yourself, be self-ware and take action. This is a very important young mind at work - through the writing of books.

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THE SECRET by Eve M Riley YOU COULD SAY MY RADAR IS A LITTLE BROKEN. CHARMERS. CHEATERS. THE WORST OF THE WORST. IT TOOK ME ALL OF TEN SECONDS TO WORK OUT THAT HE WAS NOTHING LIKE THAT …

Blond hair, broad shoulders, heartbreaking smile. So maybe I was bowled over. A little starry-eyed. Especially when he didn’t shy away from all my sass. Gave as good as he got. So I didn’t ask too much. Didn’t probe when he answered a question with a question.

I guess I thought he had secrets. Yeah … well … I have a few of those myself. It’ll all come out in its own good time. At least that’s what I thought. But then I was forced to think about it. Forced to confront the fact that I knew nothing about him. And then I got mad. And I went looking for an answer.

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Instructions for living a life.

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.”

—

MARY OLIVER

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WINTER 2024

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