Shelf Unbound April/May 2016

APRIL /MAY 2016

AMERICAN SCENES

MARY VOLMER GEORGE SINGLETON SARA MAJKA 1

SEPTEMBER 2010

what to read next in independent publishing

BRINGS YOU CHILDREN’S LITERATURE FOR ALL AGES!

Captain No Beard—An Imaginary Tale of a Pirate’s Life Captain No Beard and his pirate ship The Flying Dragon set sail for a voyage of the imagination with his fearless crew of four: First Mate Hallie, Mongo the Monkey, Linus the loudmouthed lion, and Fribbet the floppy frog. Once on board, their world is transformed into a magical vessel sailing the seven seas on dangerous and exciting adventures!

The first in the series of nine Captain No Beard books!

Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012!

Also available by Carole P. Roman “If You Were me and Lived In... ” A groundbreaking new nonfiction series for children about culture around the world Countries featured include: Mexico, France, South Korea, Norway, Turkey, Kenya, Australia, Peru, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Scotland, India ...and coming soon China and Italy!

ABOUT CAROLE P. ROMAN Award-winning author Carole P. Roman started writing as a dare from one of her sons.

Using an imaginary game she played with her grandson as a base, Captain No Beard was born. She is currently working on the groundbreaking new nonfiction series about culture around the world. “If You Were Me and Lived in...” combines her teaching past with her love of exploration and interest in the world around us.

ALL TITLES AVAILABLE NOW ON

staff

Margaret Brown fo u n d e r a n d p u b l i sh e r Anna Nair edito r i n ch i e f Christina Davidson c re a t i ve d i re c tor Ben Minton circ u l a t i on ma n a g e r Patricia McClain c o py e d i to r Marc Schuster c o n t r i b u t i n g e d i tor Morgan Siem c on su l ta n t , soc i a l me d i a

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Photograph: from Cities I’ve Never Lived In: Stories

by Sara Majka

what to read next in independent publishing

april/may

contents

DEPARTMENTS 6

a note from the publisher

8

shelf media podcast

56

author interviews

84

self-published journey

88

dystopian fangirl

90

poetry

92

on our shelf

94

small press reviews last words

12

Reliance, IL interview with Mary Volmer

95

22

Calloustown interview with George Singleton

32

Cities I’ve Never Lived In interview with Sara Majka

On the cover: From The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip, by David Campany, Aperture, aperture.com

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The Making of the American Essay

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The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip

Above Photography: (top) Foreign Park: Poems by Jeff Steudel. (bottom) The Open Road by David Campany.

“Bitingly intelligent.”

“Nice read! I’ve come to love Matson’s idiosyncrasies, Kwong’s patience, focus and wisdom, and Warren’s savvy.”

“Five Stars for The Fog.”

THE INSPECTOR KWONG MYSTERIES

BY VIC WARREN

Vic Warren’s third novel, Hong Kong Blues, is a Hitchcock-style thriller about a newly-married couple being chased by two Hong Kong Triads who want to learn the last words of a man who died in their arms.

Readers liked the characters so well that he has started a spinoff series of novellas: The Inspector Kwong Mysteries.

Set ten years later, Chief Inspector Lawrence Kwong of the Hong Kong Police is sixtyish and weighs in at 308 pounds. Matson Tai, the eleven-year-old street kid in the first novel, is now twenty-one and just graduated from the university with a degree in criminology.

Kwong’s First Two, featuring both The Quartz and The River, has been named one of Shelf Unbound’s 100 Notable Books for 2015.

WARREN IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON THE NEXT KWONG MYSTERY, TITLED THE RAIN.

WWW.VICWARREN.COM

Lamb to the

Slaughter

by Pete Delohery A novel about love and cour age, sin and redemption “Iron” Mike McGann is facing the twilight of his prizefighting career.

Desperate for his future, he has refused to honor his promise to his wife to quit the ring and start a family.

Rufus “Hurricane” Hilliard is the most menacing presence in prizefighting. But behind his menacing ring presence lives a man nobody knows, a complex man who despises his own image.

Rufus “Hurricane” Hilliard vs. “Iron” Mike McGann, just another fight shown on The Continuous Sports Network, but by the time it is over the lives of these and many others will be forever different.

“This heartfelt tale makes a powerful emotional impact.”

—Blue Ink Starred Review Also in Spanish: El Cordero al matadero Available in print and e-book at Amazon, xlibris, and Barnes & Noble.

w w w. p e t e d e l o h e r y. c o m

a word from the

publisher

I

AMERICAN SCENES

n this highly charged political season, the disparate views of what America is and what it should be are writ large. In this issue we’re staying away from blue states and red states and the arcane rules of brokered conventions but instead taking a look at scenes from America as imagined by a handful of novelists. In Reliance, Illinois, Mary Volmer examines the lives of women in the late 1800s.

A woman then, says Volmer, “might have wished for self-reliance, but barred from most professions and without the means to better herself, she was reduced to an ornament if she were rich, and a laborer if she were not.”

The residents of George Singleton’s Calloustown persevere against hard knocks and strife. “Calloustown, the setting, appeared in my head as just one of a hundred or so ex-textile towns in the Carolinas fighting near-ghost town status. I could’ve called the town Nine Fingers, or No Hope Left, really. Inconceivable Dream, South Carolina,” says Singleton with his signature humor.

Sara Majka’s debut collection of connected stories, Cities I’ve Never Lived In, is a haunting, mesmerizing dreamscape. “New Englanders are sparse and reticent by nature, but with anyone who compresses that much emotion, the internal life is going to be strange territory,” says Majka of her characters.

On tour across the country this year is the exhibit The Open Road: Photography & the American Road Trip, David Campany’s survey of road trip photography from 1906 to the present. A book of the same title has been rereleased in conjunction with the exhibit. “Is America even imaginable without the road trip,” asks Campany. The answer to that is probably one we can all agree on.

Margaret Brown publisher

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APRIL/MAY 2016

Photograph: Debra Pandak

The Dragon Waking

by Grayson Towler

The Curious Cat Club: Kelsey The Spy

by Linda Joy Singleton

For thirteen-year-old Rose Gallagher, having a friend who is really a dragon and can perform magic, change shape, and fly her away from the predictability of small-town life feels like a dream come true. But secrets have a price, and the more Rose learns about her friend Jade and the world of dragons, the more dangerous her life becomes.

Kelsey can’t resist collecting secrets in her spy notebook.

But Kelsey accidentally brings her Notebook of Secrets to school and loses it. Everything she’s collected about classmates, friends, and family could be released into the world! When she receives a ransom note, she tries to solve the mystery on her own but soon realizes she needs everyone in the CCSC to rescue the notebook, help a homesick 130-year-old Aldabra tortoise, and unmask a thief.

albertwhitman.com/book/ the-dragon-waking

albertwhitman.com/book/ kelsey-the-spy

The Lost Cipher

by Michael Oechsle

The Boxcar Children:

Lucas’s father has recently died Celebrity Cat Caper in Afghanistan, and to help

by Gertrude him cope, his grandmother Chandler Warner sends him to Camp Kawani, a camp for kids who have lost a parent. While there, he The Aldens are excited to meet hears about the local legend their favorite celebrity— of Thomas Jefferson Beale.

Walter the Cat, who makes Beale supposedly hid a hoard the funniest videos on the of gold in the mountains 200 Internet! And when this years before. The location is celebrity cat inherits a million encrypted in a set of codes dollars from his owner, he no one has ever been able to becomes even more famous! decipher. When Lucas and his But someone seems to be newfound friends decide to angry about the will and is track down the treasure, they stealing things from Walter’s embark on a mission that could house. Is this cat too famous be too dangerous to survive. for his own good? albertwhitman.com/book/ the-lost-cipher

albertwhitman.com/book/ celebrity-cat-caper

Now Available on

In the first Shelf Media Podcast, publisher

Margaret Brown talks to author Matt Bell about his three books and about writing, teaching the craft of writing, and his

forthcoming novel. She also talks to book reviewers David Rice and Michele Filgate about Bell’s most recent novel, In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods.

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APRIL/MAY 2016

As All My

Fathers Were

“An extraordinarily well written and unfailingly entertaining read from beginning to end, “As All My Fathers Were” showcases the impressive storytelling talents of novelist James A. Misko.”

—Midwest Book Review—

Ranchers, Richard and Seth Barrett, are devoted to running the family ranch on Nebraska’s Platte River. It is their intent to keep doing so the rest of their lives; however, the terms of their mother’s will requires them to travel by horse and canoe along the Platte River, to understand why their maternal grandfather homesteaded the ranch three generations earlier.

From the grave, she commands them to observe industrial farming’s harm to the land, air, and water.

A 90-old bachelor farmer, with a game plan of his own, butts in and threatens to disrupt and delay the will’s mandatory expedition. Using a gullible hometown sheriff and a corrupt local politician, a conniving, wealthy neighbor, seeking to seize the property, thwarts their struggle to keep their ranch and meet the will’s terms.

The Platte River, “A mile wide and an inch deep,” becomes its own character in this turbulent novel and lives up to its legend as being “too thick to drink and too thin to plow.”

Available for purchase at the following links.

www.jimmisko.com

You’ll rest in peace when we tell you, you can.

The End

is John Crawley’s 15th novel: this one truly deals with life and death.

Your final act in life is to ask your estranged brother—your only next of kin—to do one last thing for you—let you die in peace. But he refuses. He can’t, fulfill your requests because God and the Catholic Church are standing in the way. He is a priest and his faith and duty to his calling won’t allow it. And you do not share his theology. And he doesn’t approve your lifestyle. After all, you are lesbian and he is God’s pious servant.

You haven’t talked in twenty years.

And here it is on your deathbed he holds all the power over you. Death with Dignity is the premise of John Crawley’s 15th novel, The End.

w w w.johncrawleybooks.com Available at Amazon, iBooks, BarnesandNoble, and Lulu

What if survival required you to unlearn who you are?

How far would you fall to save yourself? Sometimes happiness is a long way down.

The Johns family is unraveling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, isolates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation with a colleague’s daughter. Susan, his wife of forty years, risks everything for a second chance at who she might have become.

David, their eldest, thrashes to stay afloat as his teaching career capsizes in a storm of accusations involving a missing student and the legacy of Christopher Columbus.

And young Tilly, the black sheep, having traded literary promise for an improbable career as a Hollywood starlet, struggles to define herself amid salacious scandal, the demands of a powerful director, and the judgments of an uncompromising writer.

By turns comical and poignant, the Johns family is tumbling toward the discovery that sometimes you have to let go of your identity to find out who you are.

… a powerful, gripping and realistic tory. …Wonderful...Worth every minute…”

Owen Thomas

What happens when you get the life you aim for and it hurts ke hell?

A Novel

a powe RT 1 rful and promising debut.”

THE LION TREES Owen Thomas

A Novel

urns comical and poigna nt, the Johns family is tumbl ing ard the discovery that somet imes you have to let go of your tity to find out who you are.

Owen Thomas

The Johns family is unrave ling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, olates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation th a colleague’s daughter.

Susan, his wife of forty years, risks erything for a second chance at who she might have becom avid, their eldest, thrashes e. to stay afloat as his teachi ng career psizes in a storm of accusa tions involving a missing student d the legacy of Christopher Columbus. And young Tilly, the ck sheep, having traded literar y promise for an impro bable eer as a Hollywood starlet , struggles to define herself amidst cious scandal, the deman ds of a powerful director, and the gments of an uncompromi sing writer.

rkus Reviews

THE LION TREES

THE LION TREES

“

—Pacific Book Reviews

Part 1 Unraveling

PART 2

Part 2 Awakening

“ ...highly addictive, spectacular, and mind blowing...Thomas is a wizard of fiction.”

—US Review of Books “A sweeping literary saga in the tradition of ‘Dr. Zhivago’, ‘Gone with the Wind’, and ‘The Thorn Birds’, this book has it all...original and stirring...”

—The Eric Hoffer Book Award “ ...Every now and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a new voice comes along and knocks your socks off.

Owen Thomas owns that voice... .”

—The Anchorage Press “ ...This is a powerful, gripping and realistic story... . The Lion Trees does what so very few great novels can: it will take a lot out of you, but leave you with much more than you had when you began.”

—Pacific Book Review AWARDS: WINNER of the 2015 KINDLE BOOK AWARD, the 2015 GLOBAL EBOOK AWARD, BOOKS AND AUTHOR.com 2015 BOOK of the YEAR, and 12 other International Book Awards, including The Eric Hoffer Book Award, The London Book Festival, The New York Book Festival, The Amsterdam Book Festival, and The Beverly Hills International Book Awards.

Owen Thomas lives and writes in Anchorage, Alaska. His two-volume novel “The Lion Trees” is available in paper and electrons at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Reviews, excerpts, interviews, discussion guides, as well as other information about the author and his work, are available at

www.OwenThomasFiction.com.

feature

interview

Richly rendered characters populate Reliance, Illinois, which examines the lives of women in the late 1800s.

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Reliance, Illinois

by Mary Volmer Soho Press sohopress.com

Shelf Unbound: How did you come up with the name of the imaginary town, Reliance, Illinois?

Mary Volmer: I titled the book Reliance after Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance.” I remember loving the essay in college. It still moves me.

The problem is that the premise of the essay presupposes people are born with the freedom to take responsibility for their circumstances, which isn’t always the case. Slavery wasn’t abolished until decades after the essay was published, and for most of the nineteenth century (and well into the twentieth) a woman’s body, her belongings, even her children became property of her husband upon marriage. She might have wished for self-reliance, but barred from most professions and without the means to better herself, she was reduced to an ornament if she were rich, and a laborer if she were not.

The story explores these realities.

Some female characters strive for, and some achieve, a measure of autonomy. To others, self-reliance remains a fantasy. All characters, men

and women, rely in some way on one another and on their communities.

In the second draft I named the town Reliance, too. I loved imagining “reliance” as a place you could travel to or away from. Later, my editor suggested we add “Illinois” to the title and I liked the balance of the two words together, how well they grounded the thematic concerns in the grit of the story. So the title became Reliance, Illinois.

Shelf Unbound: Why did you choose to make your character Madelyn disfigured?

Volmer: I first imagined Madelyn as a grown woman, a suffragette in Oakland, whose birthmark and appearance enhanced her fame. Then I wondered what kind of childhood she would have had to endure to prepare her for such a role? How did this woman come to be and would she trade her fame for an anonymous beauty?

The questions became part of the main story line of the book. How will Madelyn come to terms with her appearance? Does she? What

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hardships does it impose? What assumptions will people have about her? How will she find love, or a husband? Marriage is, after all, one of few “careers” open to her. What effect will romance stories and women’s magazines have on a girl so hopelessly beyond the ideal? What hardships do women, like Madelyn’s mother, endure because of their beauty?

In the book, these questions played out with a dramatic urgency that wouldn’t have translated if Madelyn had merely been plain or ugly. I had fun playing with masculine ideals, too. Mr. Dryfus’s limp and physical limitations and Hanley’s size affect the way they are perceived and how they encounter the world. In each case there is a difference between how a character is judged based on their appearance and who they are inside.

Shelf Unbound: Miss Rose, the suffragette, is a tragic figure.

Why did you decide to write her that way?

Volmer: Miss Rose is of a generation of suffragettes who died before

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achieving their goal. I find this tragic, but I don’t think that circumstance alone explains Miss Rose. She is an outsized personality—flamboyant, charismatic, self-aggrandizing—who spent her youth and middle years on the stage and championing women’s rights. In Reliance she continues to seek the respect and adoration she believes she deserves. She complains that she is “persecuted” wherever she goes, yet seems to welcome—even invite—persecution. Other characters criticize her because, they say, she champions causes for profit, and to bolster her waning reputation. The criticism is, at least in part, warranted.

But, so what if she does profit? Must altruism always be selfless, selfsacrificial even?

Miss Rose doesn’t think so. “Why should profit nullify the intent?” she says. “I tell you, if it were profitable to fight injustice, then injustice would become as scarce as gold.”

She’s right, but how do we judge her motivation? How do we judge Miss Rose? Not even Miss French, and later Madelyn, who glimpse the

Literary fiction debut weaves elegant, exciting tale of friendship, love, and international intrigue.

Remembrance of Blue Roses follows a man and a married couple in New York City, whose intricate relationship oscillates among friendship, love, love-triangle, and even obsession.

Its romantic ambience is interwoven with classical music, opera, art, family legend, and international affairs.

Readers’ Favorite book reviewer Tracy Slowiak proclaims, “Remembrance of Blue Roses is a stellar read by a new novelist.

I was engaged from the very beginning and read obsessively to the end. … Readers who enjoy a sophisticated and wellwritten book about the complexity of human relationships will definitely enjoy Remembrance of Blue Roses.”

woman beneath the persona, are entirely sure who that woman is. Her attempt to write her autobiography is an effort to leave a flattering record, but even she can’t decide what definitive image to leave behind. So she doesn’t, and, like so many other women, is lost to history.

That’s the tragedy, I think. She’s not an enigma, exactly; we know her by the end of the story, even if we don’t completely understand her motivations or her history. But she’s impossible to fully champion, or to loath. She’d never fit nicely on a silver dollar.

Shelf Unbound: What interested you in writing about women’s lives in the late 1800s?

Volmer: I didn’t think I’d write any more about the nineteenth century after finishing Crown of Dust. But while researching that novel I kept coming across references to female reformers I’d never heard of, like Victoria Woodhull, Myra Bradwell, Eliza Farnham, Olympia Brown, Mary Livermore. These were outspoken, idealistic, sometime scandalous

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women, well known in their own time for living outside the private sphere assigned them, yet largely missing from textbook history. Why? What became of well-known female reformers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony after the Civil War and through the end of the nineteenth century? Did they retire? What happened to the suffrage movement? Why a gap of more than fifty years after the passage of the fifteenth amendment before women won the vote?

Well, they didn’t retire. Some of those reformers fought their whole lives for rights they never enjoyed. They fought for their daughters’ rights, and for mine. The epigraph by Susan B. Anthony at the beginning of my novel says, “Our job is not to make young women grateful. It is to make them ungrateful so they keep going.” The funny thing is, after the first pulse of curiosity got me reading, it was a sense of gratitude to Stanton and company that motivated me to write. That and the parallels which emerged between their lives and times, and my own.

LITERARY LOU DISCOVER A Small amount of courage has a giant impact in this book that is sure to be fun for the whole family.

When a small, fluffy cat teams up with an advice giving canary, a cockatoo, some jazzloving alley cats and a fancy mouse to protect their home from a villainous hoodlum rat, a hero is born.

Discover the imagination of author

Louis Paul DeGrado www.LiteraryLou.com

Destiny is a choice in this Fantasy Adventure!

ALSO AVAILABLE:

Within the towering walls of the city by the sea, a dark secret is being kept. Its history wiped out two hundred years ago by foreign invasion; even now the city stands poised to repel another attack and lives in fear of the people across the sea.

The Questor’s are BACK! Pueblo, Colorado—What do you call a group of young boys who dare to seek out and investigate the paranormal?

They called themselves the Questors! What happens when four young boys visit a haunted house? Excitement, adventure and mayhem.

Evil once controlled the 13th Month and is looking to do so again!

When a revered priest, Father Frank Keller learns that a family in his parish has been targeted by evil entities, he’s thrust into a covert battle between forces of good and evil.

Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme.” I love that quote and probably repeat it too often, but it’s true. Reliance, Illinois is set ten years after the Civil War, a time when the country, still divided, was mired in a world-wide economic depression, brought on by real estate over speculation and insurance and bank fraud. Familiar? Women were fighting for economic and political freedoms, not to mention the right to govern their bodies. The definition of marriage and rights within that institution was being challenged in the courts. New federal morality laws made it illegal to transport through the mail any items deemed “obscene” (a purposely ill-defined and flexible category into which contraceptives were also cast). Then you have the rise of Jim Crow and the start of a systematic oppression that continues in place of slavery today.

Shelf Unbound: There is much misfortune in the novel, yet you end on a note of optimism, with the last line in which Maddy

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says: “And I am filled again with a familiar, stubborn, and obligatory hope.” Why choose this ending?

Volmer: There is misfortune in the book, but it was always a story about hope and optimism. When you’re young, you hope for yourself. It’s naïve and fragile and easily lost. The sturdier kind is the obligatory hope you maintain for the next generation.

Young Madelyn is the vessel into which Miss Rose and Mrs. French pour their hopes. Later, Madelyn hopes for her daughters. This naïve and obligatory hope lives side by side, and allows for a generational resilience, without which these slow social changes would not be impossible. It’s a powerful and necessary combination.

The books ends in 1908, years before the passage of the nineteenth amendment. The narrator, an older Maddy, doesn’t know if her efforts to gain the vote will be successful in her lifetime. But we know better. We know the law did, finally, change. The optimism we feel at the end of the book should be our own.

J.A. Klassen

A Shade If “Fifty Shades of Grey” featured vampires and starred Johnny Depp, the outcome may be shockingly similar to J.A. Klassen’s “A Shade of Darkness.”

of

Darkness

Bronwyn is a successful author who has just finished her second book.

She is now thinking of her third one.

She might as well enjoy herself while she is working, so she decides to go on a working holiday. She flies to all the old pirate haunts in the Caribbean to do some research. When she gets there she runs into a very unlikely character who just happens to be a pirate from the 16th century.

But, of course, he has some baggage from living so long. Then she meets his maker and really finds out what kind of baggage he has.

“J. A Klassen does a good job weaving an interesting tale of romance and betrayal. A Shade of Darkness is the kind of story that clings to the reader.”

CIVIL WAR HISTORIC FICTION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS AND ADULTS

BY J. ARTHUR MOORE

The regiments and their histories in these stories are real, the events did happen.

www.acrossthevalleytodarkness.com/the-book

www.acrossthevalleytodarkness.com/blakes-story

www.acrossthevalleytodarkness.com

feature

interview

Persevering against hard knocks and strife, the residents of Calloustown are rendered with humanity and humor by short story master George Singleton.

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Calloustown

by George Singleton Dzanc Books Dzancbooks.org

Shelf Unbound: How did you come up with the book’s title and what does it mean?

George Singleton: Calloustown, the setting, appeared in my head as just one of a hundred or so ex-textile towns in the Carolinas fighting nearghost town status. I could’ve called the town Nine Fingers, or No Hope Left, really. Inconceivable Dream, South Carolina. I guess that I chose Calloustown for a couple of easy reasons: the lost attitudes hard-won by the denizens of the town, and the homophone for “callus.”

Shelf Unbound: In your book, Pep Talks, Warnings, and Screeds: Indispensable Wisdom and Cautionary Advice for Writers, you write, “In writing, it’s much easier to cut your story or novel down than it is to add fifty pages. Overwrite, in regard to length.” Do you still follow this advice when writing, and how much and what kind of things do you end up cutting?

Singleton: I probably don’t mean

to do it, but in the editing process I usually—for a short story—have an easy 500 words that I can cut (or that an editor asks to cut). These can be plain old wordy sentences, or redundancies, or bad jokes that only I find hilarious. And redundancies (that’s a joke—that would be cut later, now that I think about it).

I’m serious: Pick up a telephone and pretend to have an editor say, “We need you to cut this novel by 10,000 words” or “We need to cut this short story by a page.” Now compare that with, “We need you to add about forty pages to the novel” or “Find another 400 words for the story.”

Which is more difficult? In my world, it’s adding.

Go build a spec house. Someone says, “It’s too big. Make it 800 square feet smaller.” That’s easy. Go cut off the sun room. But if someone says, “Add 800 square feet”—and you already have a sunroom—what’re you going to do? Add an extra two bedrooms? Make some kind of mother-in-law suite? You have to think about the actual lot—how’re you

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going to do this without encroaching on the neighbor’s land?

Or: Cook a great seafood stew.

Someone says, “Cut out some of the spices.” Okay. I’ll take out the red pepper and bay leaf. Someone says, “Add some spices!” What do I do?— look at everything from which I have to choose—salt, pepper, bay leaf, paprika, those million other options down in the herb garden. What do these diners want? Shoot me.

Shelf Unbound: What appeals to you about writing broken-down characters?

Singleton: Samuel Beckett believed that there was nothing funnier than human misery. Aristotle had all that stuff to say about catharsis. Harry Crews said something about the best fiction concerns everyday people doing the best they can with what they’ve got.

When you (or at least when I) add all that up, it seems to me that most Americans like to read about broken down people. They’re more interesting, for one. And then there’s

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the “Man, my life sucks and I’m a bad person, but at least I’m not that bad and my life doesn’t suck that much ...” feeling one gets. “I lost my job, but I didn’t kill my daddy, have sex with Mom, and stab my eyes out.” Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Job from the Bible. Joe Lon Roberts in A Feast of Snakes. Even Madame Bovary. Both the Misfit and the Grandmother, both Hulga and Manly Pointer in Flannery O’Connor. I think I’m thinking correctly here when it comes to broken characters.

Shelf Unbound: The story “Muddling” is 20 pages, but the main plot doesn’t begin until three-quarters in. Can you describe how you went about conducting this story?

Singleton: First off, I never thought about the main plot starting until three-quarters in. Hell—you’re the first person who’s ever even said that I had any kind of plot in my fiction.

Maybe I “muddled” through the story, ha ha ha. (This joke would be cut, I know ...)

NJOPBO! TJHOT An African Decipherment

By

GJK Campbell-Dunn MA (NZ), MA (Camb), PhD (Cant) 2014

For twenty years I taught the art of the Minoans at university level, fascinated by its vitality and frustrated by ignorance of its origins. Only after I retired did I embark on a search for its context, a search which led me unexpectedly to Africa. Minos came from Minona, the African fertility goddess. This book presents the results of my researches into African substrate on Crete.

I don’t really remember the process of particular stories, and I’m not being coy. When they’re done, to me, they’re dead meat.

(This is the truth: I just got up and got the collection, looked for “Muddling,” read the first page, jumped toward the end, and it came back to me.)

I would bet that the beginning of the story came to me after noticing how gas stations’ prices always seemed to go down immediately after I filled up my tank. So there’s that.

For better or worse, I kind of start off with a character in an uncomfortable situation and see where that leads. I would bet that when I had the narrator get gasoline, I had no clue that there would be a man trying to sell blackberries out of season, on a moped, and that he’d follow the narrator soon thereafter.

Because of your previous question, I’d bet that both protagonist and antagonist are broken. The narrator’s obviously been wounded by his exwife, about his fathering a child out of wedlock, about not succeeding as

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a ukelele luthier. The antagonist (hold on while I go look that dude’s name up) Ruben Orr might be broken for being a hoarder, for having a bastard grandchild, something.

I don’t know. Here’s what I would love—for every reader of this interview to go buy a copy of Calloustown, and tell me what she or he thinks. I can see it now! My sales skyrocket from 100 people buying my work, right up to 125,100. And then I’ll buy a Quonset hut and shove needless ukeleles in the thing.

Shelf Unbound: The stories in Calloustown are in first person and third person. For the final story, “What Could’ve Been,” you switch to second person, which I found to have great impact, making it feel like all of humanity resides in Calloustown. What were you trying to do with that final story by writing it in second person?

Singleton: That second-person story was some kind of gift from the gods. I mean, I’d like to say, “What a genius

PARI SPOLTER

Pari Spolter’s latest book Dance of the Moon explains the complex motion of the Moon.

In this book, you will not find a long series of advanced mathematical equations. There are no theory or assumptions. Instead, you will find many easy to understand graphs based on the latest ephemerides of unprecedented accuracy.

See Review by Dr. Thomas E. Phipps, Jr. in PHYSICS ESSAYS, Volume 28 Number 2 June 2015 page 290.

Author’s Background: See biography of Dr. Pari Spolter in Contemporary Authors, Volume 163.

WWW.PARISPOLTER .COM

I am to carefully wrap up this entire collection with a story that you, dear readers, understand to be infiltrating your own lives.” Not the case, sadly.

Listen, I don’t know how many times I’ve had a stranger come up to me and think it necessary to say, “You only write in first person!” It’s not the case, though I do “hear” stories in first person narrative, and I feel more comfortable writing such.

I love reading other writers’ thirdperson narratives, but when I write the things they come off, in my head, as sounding slightly dull. I try to write a few third-person stories per year, just to stay in practice, but it’s kind of a painful slog-fest when I do it.

Anyway, I think that if I had written, “I took a left out of my driveway, took another left, then saw a McDonalds,” et cetera—or if it went “Margaret looked over at the grocery store, that used to be a Bi-Lo, that used to be a Food Lion, a PigglyWiggly, and IGA,” then it wouldn’t have the universality. I think.

It’s hard to pull off a second-person narrative without coming off as

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didactic, presumptuous, cutesy, and a number of other bad things. But I think it worked for “What Could’ve Been?” I read that story a ton during this last book tour, and I can’t think of anyone who came up later and said, “You’re a jerk.”

Yes, I did plant that story at the very end of these linked stories, kind of hoping that the read will say, “Oh, yeah, man—maybe these characters shouldn’t wish for so-called Prosperity.

Every town is starting to look alike.”

But maybe I’m wrong. Hey, if everyone reading this interview goes out and buys Calloustown, then contacts me...!

THIS YEAR’S MOST THRILLING NAIL-BITER!

Gerry Burke’s new thriller goes where no

other crime writer has ventured—the multilayered, brown envelope contract killing.

As if the CIA, FBI and Secret Service didn’t have enough on their plate; enter the fearless Aussie detective, Paddy Pest.

Paddy causes havoc wherever he goes, and no one is immune to his charm, charisma and individual type of sleuthing. You’ll meet his new friends, Saffron Splendido and Manfred Knuth, and some old flames, Nadia Nickoff and Gregoria Killanova. This is humorous crime fiction at its best. Order your copy now.

Follow Paddy Pest in his other award-winning adventures.

www.gerryburke.net

ASSASSINATION!

It is this kind of fear and trepidation that has high profile politicians continually looking over their shoulder.

TotIs invites you to join with the likes of Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking for a fascinating discussion about the nature of time and reality.

This symposium, using Socratic questioning, guides the reader through the books surprising and extraordinary ideas in a sequential and comprehendible way.

Author J. Joseph Kazden, with considerable finesse, presents his keen insights into many strange and wonderful concepts, including: • We do not so much live in the world as create an experience of a world we live in.

• The nature of ultimate, or totIs, reality is very different from the reality we experience in our daily lives • Observation is a product of our biological bio-sensory system and is not an attribute of the universe such as mass or wavelength • There is no all-powerful “now” moment in the universe.

• Time neither ticks nor flows; it just is.

• The physical properties of the universe have no meaning.

“ARE YOU READY TO RETHINK EVERYTHING YOU’VE LEARNED ABOUT THE UNIVERSE AROUND YOU?” “Kazden offers a mindexpanding debut novel about a symposium examining the core concepts of the universe.”

—Kirkus Reviews—

WWW.JJKAZDEN.COM jjkazden@gmail.com

Could this be the book your community has been waiting for?

“One of the most important books on race in recent memory.”

Readers + Writers Journal

“...transformational...”

Peggy McIntosh

“...a rare window into the process of socialization...”

Van Jones

“...a brutally honest, unflinching exploration of race personal identity, told with heart by a truly gifted storyteller...”

Tim Wise

waking w ak i n g u p up

and finding myself in the story of race

and finding myself in the story of race Available wherever books are sold.

Visit debbyirving.com for more information.

feature

interview

Sara Majka’s debut collection of connected stories is a haunting, mesmerizing dreamscape.

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Cities I’ve Never Lived In: Stories

by Sara Majka

Graywolf Press graywolfpress.org

Shelf Unbound: Your style is sparse and dreamlike. How did you decide on and create this style?

Sara Majka: This answer could probably work for most questions, in that it just sort of happened that way, because of the experiences in my life and because of where I come from. New Englanders are sparse and reticent by nature, but with anyone who compresses that much emotion, the internal life is going to be strange territory.

Shelf Unbound: Your main character is a woman in the aftermath of a divorce, and almost all the other characters are broken in some way, such as her alcoholic brother and the formerly institutionalized Peter, who seeks connection in inappropriate places. What interested you in writing about damaged characters?

Majka: I’m really not sure. I saved this question until last and still don’t have a good answer. I don’t think I wanted

to write about regular people. I wanted the people in the book to be people, but also representative of a feeling, or something in one’s imagination. That’s my best understanding of it as I look back, though I don’t truly know why I had that impulse.

Shelf Unbound: The characters do not openly express a lot of emotion, but their frequently heart-breaking situations elicit the emotions of the reader. Can you talk about this?

Majka: Conveying what I know of New Englanders—and not necessarily the ones I knew growing up, but a more romantic or mythic version in extreme circumstances—was a lot of what drew me into writing this book.

Shelf Unbound: I love the last paragraph in the book, where Anne is talking to her mother about her estranged father.

That last line, “She said, After a time, I thought maybe I had the wrong house, or maybe I hadn’t seen him at all.” Spoken by the

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mother, this line exemplifies the poignancy of the whole book. How do you go about constructing a sentence such as this one?

Majka: When I wrote that story, I knew it would be the end of the collection, which would normally have made the ending stressful to write, but that story itself is pretty straightforward and simple.... What am I saying here?

It was an easy one to write, and most aren’t. And I wasn’t trying to do too much by the end of it, just convey how the mother experienced that story.

Though the last line probably has to do more with ending the book than the mother. It seemed ripe to be written as a way to circle back.

Shelf Unbound: Your debut is a collection of short stories; will you write a novel next?

Majka: Oh, if only!

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D

uring the trip, the lover I had left behind in New York had stopped calling. I was glad to be traveling, for the movement it gave me, but I was uncertain how my life would be when I got home.

I didn’t want another period of instability, and I felt the suspension one feels when you’re fine, but you’re worried it won’t last, and there’s nothing you can do to make it stay.

I had come up with the idea years before—when I first became interested in soup kitchens. I made the plan to travel the U.S., going to small interior cities and going to kitchens there. I had volunteered in kitchens in the past and had found it comforting. I would work for a few hours and then would sign my name and get in line and eat, scrunched over, not poor enough to eat there if I hadn’t worked, but not

a volunteer doing it out of goodness. Lost, probably, in ways that made me more comfortable in places like those—the church halls, the Styrofoam plates, the trays, the gentle feeling of caretaking and cafeteria lines—and lost perhaps in ways understandable to those around me.

I didn’t get far in the trip, however, before I became unsure why I was doing it.

My first city was Buffalo and I arrived late, by train, taking a taxi to the hostel.

The next day I walked to a mobile kitchen that was supposed to be parked outside the library at 7 p.m., but it was already gone when I arrived. I decided to stay an extra night so that I could go to the kitchen the next day, at the time the kitchen now arrived. The next day I stood in line to get the plastic bag that held dinner.

A woman carried a box

with more food—baggies filled with granola bars and crackers—and people took those as she passed.

When she came to me, I said that I only wanted the food there, pointing to where dinner bags were being passed down. I was surprised to hear my voice, that vulnerability that was of such little help usually, but it was honest in that line, honest and understandable. No, it’s okay, the woman said gently, this is food, too. I took the bag of snacks, and, when it came time, took the plastic bag that held dinner.

I carried the food into the library. Holding the bags changed how I felt about myself. It made me feel more vulnerable or exposed or fragile. For a number of years I had been struggling to hold myself together, though I had worked to disguise this, and

now carrying the thin bags made this visible, made people look at me. I walked around the library until I found the café. I asked the man working the register if I could eat there, and he said yes. Dinner was bland macaroni with tomato sauce and meatballs. There was also a turkey sandwich and cookies for the bus the next day.

After, I stood in the foyer.

Windows overlooked the street where the mobile kitchen had been. It was gone now, and I felt the loss of it, as if I had not done it properly and wanted to try again. Others waited there.

An older black man asked if I was waiting for a bus. No, I said. He then assumed I was waiting for a ride. No, I said, I’m just here.

From Cities I’ve Never Lived In by Sara Majka, Graywolf Press. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

“A rare example of inspirational fiction that will appeal to believers and nonbelievers alike.”

Kirkus Review

One day Max, a young idler who drifts along his tedious and uneventful life, meets Bill, an angel on an undisclosed assignment. They start a series of conversations covering a variety of issues. Gradually, these sessions develop into a friendship. Being an angel, Bill is capable of analyzing intricate situations and offering infallible solutions, but his talents are greatly limited when it comes to love…

Available at

A

senior in high school, Molly, accompanies her grandmother and a sad alcoholic neighbor to a faith healer in a seedy section of downtown Boston. Molly is told by Lady Jane, the faith healer, that she is an Angel of Death, and will be surrounded by tragedy most of her life.

Some of those deaths will be gruesome and violent. Within a short time, it seems the faith healer’s prediction has come true. Not a person disposed to believing in the paranormal, psychic abilities, or even religion, Molly goes on a quest to live an authentic life and learn everything that she can about what is really true. She moves away from her provincial Catholic neighborhood to explore the world. Pondering questions about the meaning of life and faith itself, she meets quirky, colorful people, laughing and sometimes crying during her experiences. At the age of forty-one, Molly discovers that there are more mysteries and twists in our lives than we could ever imagine. She is shocked by the knowledge that she gains, as well as startled by the events and surprises along the way.

For information on publishing, agency representation, or film rights, please contact authormulhern@gmail.com

The Making of the American Essay edited and introduced by John D’Agata

O

Graywolf Press graywolfpress.org

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ne summer evening, in 1908, the hay in the fields around Folsom, New Mexico, was cut and waiting for baling. The town’s two hundred residents had gone to bed that night after a light rain cleared just in time for the sunset. But by midnight, when everyone was asleep, heavier clouds settled over the mountains above the town, and soon more than twenty inches of rain began to fall.

Streams of it poured down the mountains all night, rushing into the fields, gathering up the hay, and carrying it to a trestle that spanned a nearby creek. The hay clumped and clogged around the railroad bridge’s beams, and for a while the debris managed to choke off the surging water, but as the rain continued to fall, and as the pressure began to swell, the accidental dam of iron, mud, and hay burst

onto the town, killing people in their sleep, drowning the town’s livestock, crushing almost every permanent building along the way. The next morning, while surveying the flood’s damage, a local cowboy noticed the bones of a very large animal protruding from the creek. The flood had washed away so much of the creekbed that previously hidden layers of earth were now exposed—ancient, secret, long-lost layers, suggesting that the animal the cowboy came upon was not only very old but probably extinct. As he inspected the bones more closely, the cowboy noticed an arrowhead lodged between two ribs, but he couldn’t figure out how an arrow had killed such an animal before it was even thought that humans lived in America. The cowboy’s discovery was so incredible, in fact, that it took over a decade

A LEGAL THRILLER

BY CHRISTOPHER LEIBIG

THREE BRUTAL MURDERS ONE MYSTERIOUS JOURNAL Can Sam solve the “Rosslyn Ripper” case before the killer strikes again?

Emerging criminal defense attorney Sam Young has always known he had a gift. Or a curse. He thinks of them as just minor psychic abilities. When Sam is hired by an attractive young nun named Camille Paradisi, he must discover the identity of a serial killer. Otherwise Camille’s Pastor will be exposed for not having turned in the man after a confession—thereby allowing another murder to occur. While Sam’s psychic abilities increase as he investigates the case, he quickly learns that the enigmatic Camille is not revealing the complete truth.

Camille shares an old journal anonymously mailed to the Church, which she believes may have been authored by the killer/confessor.

The journal purports to tell the life story of a man with mind control and other special powers who claims to be a descendant of the fallen angels cast of out Heaven by God. As he learns more about the murders, the mystery author, and Camille, Sam begins to realize the so called “Rosslyn Ripper” case may have implications beyond his imagination—including his own past.

“The Verdict is in—

Attorney Christopher Leibig offers a legal thriller for the ages. Realistic yet unpredictable, with a clever metaphysical twist, Almost Mortal is a thrilling roller coaster ride.”

Robert Dugoni, New York Times and Amazon number one bestselling author of “My Sister’s Grave.”

Christopher Leibig is a novelist and criminal defense lawyer who lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia.

www.chrisleibig.com

The Making of the American Essay

before any archaeologists would come to examine it. Yet by the time they did, arrowheads in nearby Clovis, New Mexico, were found in bones determined to be even older still. And quickly thereafter, artifacts were discovered in Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia that pushed back the date for human presence in America to 14,000 B.C.E.—long preceding the Neolithic Revolution, that cultural explosion in the ancient Near East that led to the domestication of animals, the cultivation of land, the development of towns, and the beginning of civilization.

What this means, say most archaeologists today, is that whatever the earliest occupants of the Americas achieved they achieved in isolation, negating the long-held belief that their only real achievement was in emigrating from the Old World with inherited skills.

Indeed, the first occupants of the Americas constructed their world from scratch. They lived collectively on massive farms that they developed after clearcutting huge tracts of land.

They developed cities that

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held hundreds of thousands of people. They maintained an estimated twenty-five thousand miles of complex highway systems, dozens of written languages, giant athletic arenas, stone towers, observatories, libraries, schools. They created a 365-day calendar that was more accurate than any other calendar in the world. They developed the concept of zero.

They perfected mummification.

And in the most striking example of their independent innovations, they also invented the wheel—yet they only found a use for it as a novelty in children’s toys. The obvious lesson here is that we ought to pay tribute to the talents and ambitions of America’s earliest occupants, those pioneering humans who frequently fell victim to the dreamy racist stereotype of the gentle noble savage, peacefully living in unison with an uncorrupted Earth. But I have to admit that the lesson that interests me more about our earliest American ancestors is that we all apparently have a need to shape the world around us, to build it into something new,

After the accidental death of his wife, Miranda, Benjamin Vlahos, an American theoretical physicist, relocates to a remote resort town in Northern Queensland to work on a set of equations in an attempt to prove that time travel to the past is possible. As he struggles with the math, a deadly cyclone approaches, dragging with it ghosts from an unresolved past.

“A thought provoking novel that excels at creating a rich, layered world for his characters, with lines you want to read out loud, just to hear them.”

—Hannah, Amazon review “... This little work is in the best tradition of thoughtful and literate sci-fi and phantasmogoria, and I would not hesitate to compare it favourably with the work of, say, Kurt Vonnegut.“ —Donovan Roebert “The Nostalgia of Time Travel was wonderful! I love your word choices and the flow of your sentences were poetry. Chapter six made my eyes itch with unshed tears, chapter thirteen made them fall. It was touching and beautiful.”

—Lily

WWW.STAVROSHALVATZIS.COM

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The Making of the American Essay

to make it into what we want.

The best illustration of this comes from a creation story from Northern California. In the mythologies of the Cahto, who live in the Pacific Coast Ranges, the world is made by two gods who spend their time designing mountains, trees, animals, and people, only to see them wiped away by a devastating flood. The flood doesn’t come as a punishment, or a warning, or even as a lesson, but instead it seems to come because floods will sometimes come—leaving us with nothing but the opportunity to rebuild. So that’s what the Cahto do. But before they reconstruct the world they lost in their creation story, the Cahto make a point of lingering on the details of the flood’s devastation, noting how it methodically disassembled the world around them by erasing each part of it, piece by piece: the mountains, trees, birds, people, weather, dirt, and light. What we’re left with, momentarily, is just the shell of what had been there, the physical shape of nothingness, an emblem of the ineffable that we’re nevertheless allowed to see

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and smell and touch. The Cahto want us to palpably know what nothing really means, because the meaning behind “Creation” is creativity itself, the power and the pleasure of making.

What we all have is a world, the Cahto seem to say, but what we do with it is create. To my ear, this is the predicament of every essay too, situated as essays always are between chance and contrivance, between the given and the made. The world provides nonfiction, and humans provide the rest. The essays in this anthology have an appetite for the rest—for what else nonfiction can do. They are essays with a penchant for making new things, regardless of expectation, regardless of consequence. Let floods come, let dreams come, let something unexpected overtake us and make us new. The world, we all know, is already a nonfiction.

Let the essay be what we make of it.

“To the Reader” copyright © 2016 by John D’Agata. Reprinted from The Making of the American Essay with the permission of Graywolf Press, www.graywolfpress.org.

“Science fiction fans, particularly those who question violence in its many forms, will appreciate Aftermath.”

A hypokinetic alien attack tale sets a non-standard pace for the sci-fi genre.

Kirkus Reviews

Foreword Clarion Review

NOMADS, PIRATES, AND FROGFACES

“...this story features some of the stylistic flair common to Romance language authors, lending a nice touch to magic realism...”

BlueInk Review

S.L. FERREIRA

It has been two years since the earth was invaded by the aliens that humans refer to as frogfaces. The majority of the human race has either been killed or abducted, and those who remain wander with little direction or hope, forming nomadic groups who stay on the run to keep themselves out of the hands of the invaders.

Albert is a former biology teacher who does his best to keep his friends fed, sheltered, and safe not only from the aliens but also from lawless gangs of nomads who call themselves pirates and who raid other human survivors. When his small band is saved from pirates by another collection of survivors, however, it soon becomes clear that change is in the air. The new group is large, and their leader, Julia, is working to make life better for humanity. But what are they really after—and what is it that the frogfaces ultimately want from earth? Only time will tell whether there is any hope left for humankind.

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“Down Under romance with tinges of Austen.”

—Jill Allen, Clarion Foreword Reviews

I love the setting, the story, and the characters!

—Amazon Review Romance featuring Australian outback and two characters that really have kept me hooked reading it from the very start.

—Amazon Review www.victoriacapper.com

RELEASED THIS MONTH, PART FIVE OF THE EPIC 7-PART SERIAL

“A LIFE SINGULAR” sweeps readers further along the spectacular journey. Winner of a Notable Book of 2014 Award from Shelf Unbound, a New Apple Awards Official Selection in 2015, and two WILDsound Festival Review features for the first book, the serial follows rock star, Jeff Diamond, as he writes his autobiography after the tragic loss of his soul-mate to a bullet meant for him.

“Having read the first three books, I feel I know these (fictional) people on a personal level, having shared so much of their experiences. A Life Singular is a romance story told with such care and attention to detail that I struggle to believe the author is not recapping real events. The exploration of love, of morality, of adversity of many kinds is wonderfully woven into the subtext in a thought-provoking but non-pedantic way. Subjects such as mental illness are carefully and authentically touched upon. The birth of children is beautifully handled and adds an additional layer of emotion to proceedings.”

— Lorraine Pestell was born in London and has had a successful career as an Information Technology professional in the UK, US, Europe, Singapore, and more recently Australia. Lorraine currently resides in Melbourne, Victoria, with her 8-year-old Belgian Shepherd, Nikki.

As a longstanding sufferer of depression and PTSD, Lorraine has two main goals for her writing: first, to inspire fellow sufferers of mental illness to rise above their symptoms and make a success of their lives; and second, to encourage non-sufferers to tolerate, support and even love those afflicted in their quest to live a “normal” life.

www.ALifeSingular.com

Available at

Amazon review

excerpts

SHELF UNBOUND’S

RECOMMENDED

READING Take a bite from your next favorite book.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION 46

APRIL/MAY 2016

The Quartz

An Inspector Kwong Mystery

by Vic Warren www.vicwarren.com

S

low, to Matson, was not like slogging through a marsh. Rather it reminded Kwong of racing the shine on the harbor at sunset.

He hurried along and saw Matson pause two blocks ahead of him.

When he reached him, Matson asked, “There are more than two hundred rentals in this building.

Which one is she in?”

“There is only one unit at this address that I know Two Feathers uses. Shall we try that?”

Fortunately for Kwong, the Two Feathers Triad rental was on the third floor rather than the eighth.

They climbed the interior stairway and walked quietly down the hallway, listening to the cries of infants and the chatter of multiple TVs. Matson recognized the powerful smells of kimchee, sesame and bacon fat that he had lived with in times past.

Kwong stopped and looked at a piece of paper

he had pulled from the pocket of his vest, then pointed at the door one unit ahead of them on the right.

“There should only be two of them guarding her,” he whispered to Matson.

“We have the element of surprise. Draw your gun, but use it only if necessary, and aim for their knees.”

He put his hand delicately on the knob and turned it. It was unlocked, and he threw it open. A tall, slender man with long hair stood with his back to them not ten feet away. The other, stockier with a pockmarked face, was sitting on a couch with a cocker spaniel lying in his lap. Kwong swung his cane and swept the closer man’s legs out from under him.

Matson stepped forward holding the gun, and the second man frowned and put his hands up, kicking the dog to the floor. It wagged its tail and crossed to Kwong for a treat.

They cuffed them both and called out to Charlotte.

Kwong heard the muffled sound of someone speaking through a gag and opened the door to a tiny bedroom.

Charlotte lay on a cot, her wrists bound and her mouth gagged with a cloth.

He untied it, and she began to cry with relief.

“Your timing was perfect, young lady,” he said, untying her wrists. “We were just down the street sightseeing.”

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION UNBOUND

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A Life Singular - Part Five by Lorraine Pestell www.ALifeSingular.com

“T

he songwriter stocked his lungs full of air, ready to put the world to rights. ‘So… Where are we?’

‘Together, I hope,’ Lynn replied, moved to tears again. ‘I’m so sorry, Jeff. I mean it. I was wrong, and you’re completely right.’

A strange mix of satisfaction and relief rendered the philosopher unsteady, and he shook his head to stave off the vertigo. Of all the myriad mots justes darting around his mind, not a single one made it past his vocal cords. The couple stayed motionless for a few seconds, as if two paintings of the same landscape were fusing together from different perspectives.

Breaking the spell, Jeff leaned forwards and kissed his wife’s chilled lips.

‘Merci, mon amie. Y’know, I don’t think there’s anything else to be said, is there?

Let’s get out of here and leave all this suffocation behind. What did you

arrange with the others?’

Lynn pulled back in surprise, smiling eyes shooting downwards from his face to his crotch. ‘Don’t you want to go to the hotel?’

‘Angel, I’m not nineteen anymore,’ the red-blooded star scolded, wagging his finger at the preposterous suggestion. ‘Give me credit for an attempt at selfcontrol at least, will you?’

Smiling, the compassionate woman stood tall and hugged her larrikin husband, wrapping her arms around his torso. Belying his previous statement, he secured her lithe frame with hungry hands while his mouth smothered the grin from her mouth, relishing her relaxing into his strong grip.

‘But what about my self-control?’ she asked, running her fingers along the swollen front of his jeans. ‘Am I allowed to want to take you to bed?’

‘Oh, yeah. Absolutely you are,’ Jeff snarled, ‘but first there are dos pequeñitos preciosos back

home who’d give anything to hear us smile.’

Tears of guilt welled up in both pairs of eyes at the poignant phrase which had slipped so nonchalantly out of the poet’s mouth, and the conjoined parents clung to each other in desperate deliverance. The wise man stroked his dream girl’s long, golden hair as she sobbed on his shoulder, a dainty knock on the dressingroom door ignored while they enjoyed this sublime interlude. The delightful image of the children hearing their parents smile was far too powerful to dismiss too soon.”

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION 48

APRIL/MAY 2016

Caledonia

A Song of Scotland

by William D. McEachern http://williammceachern.wordpress.com

The Battle of Prestonpans

claymore was doing the work for which I had trained for years. The din crescendoed... awn was breaking. I Parts of bodies were ordered my men up. I everywhere. A hand here. waved my claymore in the An arm there. A groan air. Clanranald’s guttural, emanated from a body next Gaelic battle cry rent the to me. There was blood on air, as the pipers’ bagpipes my sleeve. A headless body were skerling, drums were was in front of me. beaten, men fired their As our surge hit the muskets…lochabar axes English line, they broke and cutting the sky, dirks raised, ran for the rear. The walls and swords swinging. As which they had thought they charged, our clan would be their protection began its special pibroch… quickly proved to be their The blades of swords bottleneck and trap. struck one another, sparks General Cope tried to flew, muskets fired…the stem the rout. He pulled his acrid smell of burnt gun gun and yelled, “I will shoot powder and smoke hung the man who leaves his post! over obscuring the field.

Stand with me men!”

The caustic smoke caused Seeing General Cope my eyes to burn, while my standing against the flood, tears flowed, distorting Colonel James Gardiner, my vision. Sweat poured the commander of the from every pore… the salty Dragoons, tried to rally liquid creased the corners the foot soldiers, his own of my mouth …stung my horsemen having ingloriously eyes. My hands…spun, fled the field. He was atop sliced, smashed, thrust, cut, his white charger, when hacked on and on again. My three Highlanders attacked

D

him. One using a musket with bayonet…stabbed the horse causing it to rear, while another swung his sword missing the brave Colonel’s head. The third…raised his pistol…the Colonel… fell from his horse mortally wounded.

With this Cope’s army dissolved…clumps of men fleeing in all directions, throwing down their muskets, pistols, swords, and daggers.

It was as if the starter of a race had yelled “Go!” In less than 15…minutes, an entire army had been wiped off the face of the earth.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION UNBOUND

49

Remembrance of Blue Roses

by Yorker Keith

I

have heard a wise man say that love is a form of friendship, and friendship a form of love; the line between the two is misty.

I happen to know that this holds true because I have roamed that misty line.

Time has passed since then, but I cherish the memory of the blue roses in grace and perpetuity—our blue roses. It all began with a fortuitous encounter.

*** On a fine day in early April 1999, I was sketching in the sculpture court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I felt hesitant working in such a public space, but this was a homework assignment for the art class I was taking. The object of my sketch was a sculpture of an adorable young woman, a nude, reclining on a mosscovered rock surrounded by an abundance of flowers.

The smooth texture of the white marble sensually expressed her lively body, which shone with bright

sunlight beneath the glass ceiling of the court.

I had almost completed sketching the woman’s body and was working on the rock and flowers. I was not doing badly, I thought, for a small crowd of museum visitors had gathered around me, showing approving faces and nods.

“Ah, this is excellent!” one man exclaimed.

I recognized the voice and turned to see Hans Schmidt, standing amid the crowd wearing a big grin.

“What a surprise!” he continued. “I didn’t know you had such an artistic talent, Mark. How are you?” He came forward and firmly shook my hand.

I greeted him, then pointed to my drawing. “I’ve been working on this for a while.

I wasn’t sure how it would come out. But it’s coming along all right, I guess.”

“I don’t know much about drawing, but this looks great.” He gestured enthusiastically to a young

woman next to him. “What do you think?”

“It’s pretty.” Her voice sounded like a bell.

“This is Yukari, my wife.”

He guided her toward me, his hand lingering at the small of her back.

I swallowed. I knew Hans was married, but this was my first time to meet his wife. Hans’s wife is Japanese?

How lovely she is. Hans, you devil, you’re a lucky man!

“Pleased to meet you.”

I gently shook her small refined hand. “I’m Mark Sanders. Hans and I are good friends.”

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APRIL/MAY 2016

Almost Mortal

by Christopher Leibig www.chrisleibig.com

August 13, 2015 Havana, Cuba

O

ther than the famed Zapruder film of the JFK assassination, it was probably the most viewed video clip of a true-life murder in world history.

Rarely had a killing been so vividly and suddenly perpetrated at a moment when its victim was already the focal point of dozens of state-of-the-art digital video cameras and thousands of curious eyes. The perfection of the angle, the crispness of the color, the starkness with which a viewer could watch the transformation of a human body from a vibrant vessel to empty flesh had never before been achieved, at least not publicly. All the networks, local and national, got the footage. But it was the local ABC 7 News that scored the ultimate prize—the shot that actually captured the eyes going blank a fraction of a second before the body

collapsed. More spellbinding than the quality of the film, though, was its significance, given later events. It was the mystery that made people watch the clip again and again.

In the days since its making, the lawyer, despite having been a close eyewitness to the event itself, had never watched the clip. Nor had he taken part in the international debate, fostered mostly by cable news and religious groups, about whether the victim could possibly have survived the brutal bullet wound. People had survived being shot in the head, said some. But not like that, said others.

The lawyer gazed across the Plaza Vieja. Three elderly women, evenly spaced, walked slowly across the square through a foraging flock of pigeons.

He had never met or seen any of the trio before, but he knew that all three of them were widows who

had been friends since childhood. All of that information flowed from their strides, their pace, and the gestures of the fat one in the middle who was telling a boring old story about her husband again.

He looked down at his tablet. His finger hovered over the link that would show him the video clip of the famous murder. He may as well watch it now.

The clock in the corner of the screen said 2:25.

He sipped his coffee and took a long drag from his cigarette.

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Waking Up White,

and Finding Myself in the Story of Race

by Debby Irving www.debbyirving.com

I

n my late twenties a back spasm led me to try a chiropractor for the first time. My white doctor recommended someone he and several of his patients had gone to with great success. When I got to the appointment, I was caught off guard to find a black chiropractor. Immediately, my subconscious began spewing forth feelings of being unsafe. As I began to question his credentials and abilities, my conscious mind was horrified. I tried to turn off the voice of prejudice in my head but couldn’t. Every move made me wonder, Did he do that right? What if that snap permanently injures me? When he suggested I get some X-rays, a suspicion flashed into my mind that he was somehow in cahoots with the X-ray business and scamming me. Back in his office, as we recapped our first session and laid out a plan for the weeks ahead, I noticed the wall behind him

slathered in framed diplomas and certificates from his extensive education at white institutions. Suddenly I relaxed. While the symbol of his skin color triggered negative thoughts, the symbols of the whitedominated institutions triggered positive thoughts.

Both of these responses made me feel confused and ashamed. Where was my commitment to judge people by the content of their character? Each incident like this only fueled an inexplicable anxiety that would carry over to the next interaction with a person of color.

Though today I am still taken aback by intrusive racialized thoughts, it’s happening less often, and I no longer find them bewildering or judge myself for them. How could I live in a racially organized society and not have filed away racial stereotypes?

Though I may never get

beyond my mind’s tendency to lump and label, at least now I’m aware enough to say to my overloaded subconscious, “Thanks for sharing—buh-bye.”

A favorite read of mine, Whistling Vivaldi, takes its title from an anecdote by New York Times columnist Brent Staples. As a black college student he noticed that, upon seeing him walking down the street, white people would react, reaching for the hand of the person beside them or even stepping off the sidewalk to cross the street.

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APRIL/MAY 2016

d e b by

i rv i ng

wa k in g u p

and finding myself in the story of race

Journey Into Darkness | Blake’s Story, Revenge and Forgiveness Caledonia

J. Arthur Moore A by Song of Scotland

“D

www.acrossthevalleytodarkness.com by William D. McEachern

“W

http://williammceachern.wordpress.com ee,” Jonah’s voice hy are you “How’d you know what I startled in thisa war?” was seein?” musket The Battle of him from claymore was doing the work him. One using his thoughts.

“Will Johnny Christopher asked.

“What else would ya be with bayonet…stabbed the Prestonpans for which I had trained for go to heaven? Will he be Thiscausing time Blake was while seein?” it to rear, years. The din crescendoed... horse with God?” caught guard The two smiledwere at each awn was breaking. I anotheroff swung hisand sword Parts of bodies Theordered voice and the didn’t want to answer. other. my men up. I everywhere. A hand here. missing the brave Colonel’s question caught the youth He hesitated a long time.

“Is Johnny with God?” An arm there. A groan waved my claymore in the head.

The third…raised completely by surprise. sipped their coffee in Jonah asked.

Colonel… emanated from a body next All air.

Clanranald’s guttural, his pistol…the “I ain’t knowin fer sher, silence, waited.

Jimmy sher is,was Jonah,” fromand his horse mortally to “He me. There blood on fell Gaelic battle cry rent the Jonah.”

Duane pulled watched his young friend’s Duane replied.

“An’ he’s my sleeve.

A headless body wounded. air, as the pipers’ bagpipes himself from his dreams face andthis saw an unexpected withinus,front too. of Asme. long as With Cope’s army was were skerling, drums were and reflections.

“He sher hurt. we ain’t fergittin ar time dissolved…clumps of men As our surge hit the beaten, men fired their oughtta.”

“Myin father was kilt at tageth’r, he ain’t neve’ goin all directions, English line, they broke and fleeing muskets…lochabar axes Jonahthe hadsky, been wakened Shiloh,” he began, fromfor us.” throwing down theirthen muskets, the rear. The walls cutting dirks raised, ran by his companion’s song stopped.

The boy remained “What about the box?” pistols, swords, and daggers. which they had thought and swords swinging. As and had listened without silent minutes.

“He’s ther, too.

But he’s in It was for as ifseveral the starter of a would be their protection they charged, our clan moving until it was over.

No one spoke.

Then thet trunk as has his thin’s. race had yelled “Go!” he In less began its special pibroch… quickly proved to be their Now he stretched, sat up, simply stated, “I thought An when his box is in the than 15…minutes, an entireI bottleneck and trap.

The blades of swords and moved to the window wanted tabeen kill Yanks.” ground, hisCope thin’stried ‘ll still army had wiped offThat the General to be struck one another, sparks to gaze at the passing was all.

He said no more. with me, an’ so will he.” stem the rout. He pulled his face of the earth. flew, muskets fired…the countryside, washed in gun and yelled, “I will shoot acrid smell of burnt gun the radiant glow of the powder and smoke hung the man who leaves his post! dawning day. over obscuring the field.

Stand with me men!”

“Is God really there?” he Seeing General Cope The caustic smoke caused asked without turning from standing against the flood, my eyes to burn, while my the window.

Colonel James Gardiner, tears flowed, distorting “He has ta be, Jonah.” the commander of the my vision. Sweat poured Duane faced the small Dragoons, tried to rally from every pore… the salty voice.

“We ain’t no the foot soldiers, his own liquid creased the corners accident.

The flowers ‘n horsemen having ingloriously of my mouth …stung my trees ‘n living creatures ya’s fled the field. He was atop eyes. My hands…spun, lookin at ain’t no accident his white charger, when sliced, smashed, thrust, cut, neither.” hacked on and on again. My three Highlanders attacked

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53

“William D. McEachern has reached into history and brought it to life for the reader.

CALEDONIA tells the fascinating story of the tumultuous formation of Great Britain, and will make you want more books from this talented author.”

Robert N. Macomber Award-winning author of the Honor Series

CALEDONIA A SONG OF SCOTLAND

By the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Casting Lots, William D. McEachern, Caledonia: A Song of Scotland is his second historical novel. Caledonia is the epic tale of Scotland’s struggle to become an independent nation. In the process, the story of Scotland is revealed in its people, the Picts, the Irish Missionaries, the Norsemen, and the Highland Clans. Told from the viewpoint of one clanthe MacDonalds of Clanranald-the reader is swept along through the major events in the history of Scotland, from the writing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, the Massacre at Glencoe by the Campbells, the MacDonalds greatest enemy, through the Rising of 1745 under Bonnie Prince Charles’ to the decisive defeat at The Battle of Culloden and the bloody Highland Clearances under William, the Duke of Cumberland. Caledonia acquaints the reader with why so deeply ingrained in Scotland’s national psyche is its fight for freedom, both political and religious. Caledonia is the first novel in the series which will tell the story of the Scots not only in Scotland, but also in America.

WILLIAM D. MCEACHERN http://williammceachern.wordpress.com

MARIA G. MACKAVEY illustrated by BEE JOHNSON

“A wonderful, wellillustrated look at the relationship between a grandparent and granddaughter who live miles apart.”

AVAILABLE AT

–Kirkus Review

Through the story, children get to experience the anticipation and joy of a reunion between a little girl and her grandmother. Yiayia, who is Amalia’s grandmother, uses several modes of transportation to get to the apartment where Amalia lives with her parents. On her journey, Yiayia experiences some unanticipated hurdles that threaten to derail her visit. www.facebook.com/yiayiavisitsamalia

www.beejohnson.com/childrens-illustration

A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR The Snoodle Contract: A Provocative Power Play of Political Perfidy

by Gerry Burke

Shelf Unbound: You’ve written a number of humorous mystery novels starring Aussie detective Paddy Pest.

Tell us about Pest and about how you created him.

Gerry Burke: Patrick Pesticide aka Paddy Pest is an extension of a pseudonym I gave myself as a freelance writer. I wrote opinion pieces and commentary on Politics, Entertainment, Sport and Travel. You have to be a bit of a pest to get your work published in the general media and so I maintained the name when my character also exhibited these tendencies. To my readers I explained that he acquired this moniker at a gentleman’s club, where his stunningly beautiful consort, Stormy Weathers, worked. The place is owned by Australia’s foremost intelligence agency and all the female employers are spies. The girls all claimed he was a pest and this is understandable. He is a shameless and dissolute ladies’ man and cheats on Stormy at every opportunity. Nevertheless, I have managed to paint him as a lovable rogue.

Shelf Unbound: Your latest adventure has Pest coming to the rescue of a Republican president seeking reelection.

Burke: Paddy is a frequent visitor to North America, even though there are people who are always keen to revoke his visa.

In his youth, he worked for MI6 and acquired spycraft skills and thus he is in demand by foreign governments for jobs that are deniable. However, who would have thought he would have ended up as a bosom buddy of President Gus Snoodle?

Shelf Unbound: How did you develop your humorous writing style?

Burke: A number of reviewers have made comparisons of my style to various American writers I was not familiar with (although I later learned who David Sedaris was). I am not conscious of any writing style other than the fact that I am not ponderous; probably due to my experiencing the demands of writing good advertising copy: communicate quickly. I liked to entertain and be clever and my ads were mostly humour orientated. There’s a certain amount of acerbic wit locked away in my brain somewhere, and I often like to play with words, even if many of the readers miss the inference.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Opal Ridge

by Victoria Capper

Shelf Unbound: How does the setting of the Australian Outback influence the story?

Victoria Capper: They say, “write what you know,” and I know the Australian Outback. It’s different, distinctive with its own special atmosphere. It is a fascinating way of life and my aim is to make it come alive for other people. I want my readers to feel that they are really there—close to the land with the birds and the animals and the sky and the seasons an integral part of daily life.

Shelf Unbound: How do you go about creating your characters, such as Jenna Mackenzie?

Capper: I develop my characters from an amalgamation of several different people I know, gathering the characteristics I need. I wanted a girl who was born and bred on the land who knew her way around quite comfortably so I thought of a few girls I knew like that. Then a city girl who was a ballet teacher was a template to make Jenna very different in style and build.

Shelf Unbound: Opal Ridge is your first novel.

What interested you in writing a romance?

Capper: Romance is such a deeply natural part of human life. Once our food, water and shelter needs are met, we crave and need relationships. Love stories abound wherever there are people, especially young people.

Shelf Unbound: Opal Ridge is the first in a series.

Can you give us a hint about what comes next for Jenna and Charles?

Capper: My series is about life in the Australian Outback set in the Opal Ridge district and covers numerous people. These people all know each other and interact naturally together but each story is about a different set of typical circumstances in the bush. The second book is about Thea, the girl who travels out with Jenna in the bus and how she finds the life and relationships. Coming out she finds the bush scary, spiders, men with guns, murky water, what will she find next? She finds Bruce, an attractive, protective man. But there are a lot of experiences, good and bad, before she can decide if this is a life for her or not. Can she tolerate these harsh conditions? What else will terrify her? Is there any point?

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR The End

by John Crawley

Shelf Unbound: Your main character Lucy is dying from cancer; her estranged brother, a devout Catholic priest, is her next of kin in control of her end-oflife decisions and disapproves of her long-term relationship with her partner Christine. What made you want to write about end of life issues?

John Crawley: Over the years I had watched relatives suffer and die from debilitating diseases. Then one night, my wife and I had to put our pet cat down. The process was so peaceful and humane that I began to wonder why we could not do the same for people. I followed closely several cases of people, on their deathbeds, seeking the assistance of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, and thought it would make a fine basis for a story.

And it is a topic I feel strongly that we need to have discussion about in our society.

Shelf Unbound: You’ve written a number of novels.

What interested you in creating a lesbian main character?

Crawley: I needed a point of conflict between Lucy and her devoutly Catholic brother and between the two women and the state of Oregon. Them being lesbian gave me the two-sided conflict I needed. It also handed all the power in the decision to Lucy’s brother, who was at great odds with her decision, which was a means to get the other side of the death with dignity story told.

I did a great deal of research into the lives of lesbians and how they react to certain language, definitions, applied stigmas and life events. Many women in the lesbian community read the script and while I got feedback on certain phrases or words, they were all pleased with the portrayal of their community.

Shelf Unbound: What’s your writing process: do you map out a story at the start or let the story take you where it will?

Crawley: I once asked a singer-songwriter buddy of mine if he heard the entire song as he sat down to take on a piece of music for the first time. He said he did. I am somewhat of the same mind as I sit and approach a novel. I know where it is going, and usually in great detail.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Minoan Signs: An African Decipherment

by GJK Campbell-Dunn

Shelf Unbound: You’ve written several books on IndoEuropean and Niger-Congo languages. What interested you in these topics?

Graham Dunn: My mother believed in the value of Latin, teaching me the names of the plants in that language at a young age. My father started me on the piano and I encountered musical words in Italian. At school I was instructed in Latin by the Catholic priests who also taught me phonetics.

The professor of Classics at university advised me to take Greek, and recommended learning French and German.

He introduced me to Mycenaean, which was written in a pictographic script known as Linear B, clearly not designed for Indo-European but for some exotic language. After a period of study at Cambridge I returned to New Zealand and married an Italian. She brought with her a grammar of Swahili and introduced me to African languages.

Shelf Unbound: How do you go about researching language origins?

Dunn: Identifying the language of Linear A began with a comparison between Bantu language names and Minoan words. Homeric (W)ANAX had Congolese cognates, typically WANA “child.” The Homeric “sacred king” had once been an African “child king.” Analysis of Minoan KURO “big total” and KIRO “small total” in terms of Bantu revealed KU “big” and “total.”

NJOPBO! TJHOT

An African Decipherment

By

GJK Campbell-Dunn

Shelf Unbound: Can you in layman’s terms explain the Dunn: Fula and Gola (also called Gura) are Atlantic languages, belonging to the western branch of Niger-Congo. Major Nigerian dialects of Fula are centred on Kano, Sokoto, and Adamawa. Gola, unlike Fula, retains the labiovelars, eg. GWE “sun,” which exist in Minoan.

Not only Minoan, but all Indo-European languages derive from the Atlantic subgroup, particularly the subsubgroup of Fula, Gola, Bulom, Limba etc. This has serious implications for

MA (NZ), MA (Camb), PhD (Cant) 2014

relevant to laryngeal theory.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Aftermath: Nomads, Pirates, and Frogfaces

by S.L. Ferreira

Shelf Unbound: Aftermath is a science fiction novel about humans banding together in small groups to survive after an apocalyptic alien invasion. How did you come up with the idea for this story?

S.L. Ferreira: The idea came to me. I’m not a writer or someone born with the gift. Everything started when I had a dream on December 25th, 2013. Where I saw two women escaping from ETs by a dark and dusty hotel. The next morning when I got up I decided to write a book.

Shelf Unbound: Your main character Albert, a former biology teacher, strives to be a leader and keep his group safe from pirate groups and from the aliens.

Tell us about Albert and how you came up with this character.

Ferreira: He didn’t choose this nomad life nor being the group leader. He only learned how to be because he knew that position.

I find him fascinating because he’s a very common person, without military experience, and he didn’t have any survival training. Albert shows us that sometimes in our lives we have challenges and we aren’t prepared for but we need to face.

Shelf Unbound: Aftermath is your first novel. What did you learn about writing from the process of creating the novel?

Ferreira: Writing a novel was a wonderful experience, very different from anything that I’ve done in my life.

The impression that we have is that the writer is Lord and owner of the story and gives life to his characters. But I learned that the characters have their ways of thinking, acting, and they want to lead their lives. Many times we think that they don’t exist because they aren’t physical, but this is a mistake; they exist with vigor in the writer’s imagination. The story formed step by step, and each moment I lived an adventure with the characters, only saying what I saw and heard.

It took me four to five months to write the book and after this it took me eighteen months to rewrite and polish.

I learned that no matter how many people are going to read the book, it is necessary to give readers a pleasurable experience.

I can’t say if I got it but I tried.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR The Nostalgia of Time Travel

by Stavros Halvatzis

Shelf Unbound: Your main character is an aging theoretical physicist who has been rather alone for many years since losing his young wife in an accident.

Tell us about Benjamin and how you came up with this character.

Stavros Halvatzis: I drew on many sources—people I have known, loved and admired, places I have experienced first hand.

But those fragments needed glue to bind them together into a single character. That glue is Benjamin’s relentless obsession, fed by the memory of two events that changed his life.

The first event contains knowledge about his uncle that he dares not reveal to himself. The second lies in the sense of loss resulting from the death of his wife, Miranda, in a boating accident in Sydney, thirty years previously. As the years pass his yearning mixes with memory, hope and despair, settling into a state of perpetual nostalgia.

Being a theoretical physicist working on the problem of time travel, Benjamin believes that if he can prove that travel to the past is possible, he can go back and change it. He can save his wife.

Shelf Unbound: Benjamin is working on cracking the math on time travel. What intrigues you about time travel?

Halvatzis: Well, it’s a very fascinating subject. Time travel to the future, implicit in Einstein’s theories of Special and General Relativity, has already been proven as a measurable effect. But travel to the past is different, because it involves paradoxes. If something has already happened it can’t unhappen. Or can it?

Benjamin is still working on that one.

Shelf Unbound: You’ve written a few other sci-fi/ thriller novels. What is generally your starting point for creating a story?

Halvatzis: In the past I generally started with a concept—a what if. In my first novel, Scarab, for example, I asked the question: What if a secret formula is discovered in a hidden chamber under the paws of the Sphinx of Giza that turns out to be the missing clue for perfecting the world’s first quantum computer? What if this computer could change the laws of physics? Who would win the scramble to posses it? Having come up with the concept, I tackled the characters next.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Conversations with an Angel Named Bill

by Michael Hanian

Shelf Unbound: The book begins with Max, an unremarkable guy out on an evening walk, suddenly being engaged in conversation by an angel named Bill.

Where did the idea for this book come from?

Michael Hanian: Many years ago I used to live close to a park. I had a habit of staying up late and I would often go for a short walk well past midnight when the whole park was at my private disposal. On one such walk I started to have conversations with … well, a part of me probably, which I imagined to be an angel. These conversations lasted for several weeks and eventually I had a fairly good picture of my late night companion: no wings, no angelic posture, just a short and funny guy with a ponytail and a big rimmed hat.

Shelf Unbound: Bill gets Max to start thinking more deeply about his own life. Where does your interest in existential topics come from?

Hanian: One day I realized there is no death and writing one’s own obituary is my way of making this point. Death is just a transition from one state to another, a liberation of the soul from the bonds of the flesh. So why should we lament about it? This is how an angel named Bill wants Max to see death.

Shelf Unbound: Do you personally believe in angels?

Hanian: Of course I do! And most of all I believe in the variety without wings and feathers. We mistakenly call them humans, and they don’t object. It’s their actions that expose them as angels: they are tailored to help, to save, to empathize, and to love those who look like them, but who do very non-angelic things.

Shelf Unbound: In your book, Max finds out that women are a higher sex. Is there something in your experience that prompted this theme?

Hanian: Life is an experiential paradox. You grow up with certain assumptions like men are stronger, smarter and more advanced than women and then you meet someone who turns everything on its head. This happened to me when I met my future wife.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR TotIs

by J. Joseph Kazden

Shelf Unbound: You came to an epiphany in 2012, which inspired this book. What can you tell us about the epiphany?

Joseph Kazden: I have been exploring the nature of knowledge and human perception since I was a boy. At 12 or 13, while walking home from school, and following the yellow traffic line down the center of our deserted neighborhood street, it hit me that the veil separating sanity and insanity was as easily crossed as stepping to the left or right of that yellow line. It was revealed to me, at this young age, that major shifts in perception and behavior could be driven by the tiniest of movements.

Over the course of the next 12 years, my studies led me in two directions. One was in math and science, which I loved and had an aptitude for. The other was in alternative, for the times, philosophies and religions, especially eastern ones. I innately felt that the worlds of science and metaphysics, with their own unique experiences and knowledge, were deeply connected along the continuum of one seamless reality.

Late one night, in early 2012, I awoke with a start. I had seen the outlines of this persistent illusion and how it functioned in reality, and knew that I had to put this tenuous idea on paper, for if I went back to sleep it would disappear. For the next three years I would struggle to bring it into clarity.

Shelf Unbound: What existential questions have you been seeking to answer?

Kazden: My mother was Catholic and my father Jewish. I was both baptized and received communion, as well as attending Hebrew school and having a bar-mitzvah. Eventually, though, I came to realize that these two, mutually exclusive ideologies couldn’t both be true. And yet, I yearned for their promise, something that might reveal what is true, whatever that may be.

Shelf Unbound: Where did the idea for the book’s structure come from?

Kazden: I flashed back to The Republic, by Plato. I remembered how using the Socratic method, Plato was able to bring the reader on a journey of discovery during which the ideas themselves came naturally into focus. This was when the idea to write my treatise in such a manner came to me.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Banished Threads

by Kaylin McFarren

Shelf Unbound: Your main characters Rachel Lyons and Chase Cohen try to solve the mystery of the theft of a valuable collection of paintings from her uncle’s art gallery. Having owned your own gallery for several years you know this world well. Has this plot line been in your head since you were in the gallery world?

Kaylin McFarren: Yes, it has! Another gallery located near my former gallery was involved in a robbery involving a half million dollars worth of art a few years ago. However, it turned out the owner had staged it all due to financial issues and was forced to face charges when an insurance investigator determined the truth. I always thought there was an interesting story angle tucked in there somewhere that I could use one day.

Shelf Unbound: Banished Threads is a complex thriller with multiple plot lines. How do you organize all of the different elements as you write?

McFarren: It’s definitely a challenge, but somehow I manage to keep it all straight in my brain. It also seems to help when I use one of my social media sites, Pinterest, where I have a board for each of my books. Since I’m basically a visual person, I enjoy seeing my characters and the situations they’re going to encounter before I buckle down and start writing.

Shelf Unbound: Tell us about Rachel and Chase and about how you created them.

McFarren: Rachel Lyons is an attractive former marine biologist, who has faced tremendous challenges in her life.

Her mother ran off when she was young, her father died in a mysterious diving accident, and her lover, Chase Cohen, left town when she needed him most. She’s back with him now but she still struggles with trust issues. Chase is a handsome, rugged and determined treasure-hunter who came close to facing financial ruin and truly owes Rachel for turning his life around, in more ways than one. He loves her unconditionally but finds himself doubting her devotion and loyalty - which stirs his jealous nature. They’re complex, three-dimensional characters that bring out the best and worst in each other; however, they’re perfectly matched when faced with challenges and personal threats.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Journey Into Darkness: a story in four parts

by J. Arthur Moore

Shelf Unbound: What fueled your interest in the Civil War? J. Arthur Moore: When I was in high school my parents got a monthly magazine, Saturday Evening Post. The April 30, 1960, issue carried a story by Ray Bradbury, “Drummer Boy of Shiloh.” I had been to Gettysburg and was aware of the war but had not yet delved into it that much. The story was a conversation between a drummer boy and a general on the eve of battle—nicely done, but no action. I determined that I could do a better job and started to write my own story. Over the next three years I worked on it on and off and then took a notebook and laid out a story outline. Realizing I didn’t have the knowledge to create a historically accurate story, I set it aside and told the story as an oral presentation at camping trip campfires before finally picking up the story decades later and writing a novel.

Shelf Unbound: Tell us about your main character, Duane Kinkade.

Moore: I liked the sound of the name and used it. Active in the Boy Scouts at the time, I worked with a number of kids and think one, in particular, may have influenced the creation of the character, an eleven-year-old mischievous boy of brown hair and brown eyes. He was a good kid full of energy and adventure, enjoyed camping and the outdoors, and was kind and considerate of others. The location for the Kinkade farm was selected using a period map of the United States that was geographic as well as labeled for historic events. Some of the events came from incidents in my own life. The journey by riverboat was influenced by Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and the use of the historic map.

Shelf Unbound: You’re also a photographer and have illustrated your books with your own photos. Has photogrpahy taught you anything about storytelling?

Moore: I think that being a photographer has encouraged me to use descriptive writing within my stories to create photographic images in the reader’s mind and that the presence of photography within the book provides visual prompts that aid in that process.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR Molly Bonamici

by James Mulhern

Shelf Unbound: Your main character Molly is a quirky original, deemed by a faith healer as an “Angel of Death.” How did you come up with this character?

James Mulhern: Molly is a derivative of Moll, from Daniel Defoe’s novel Moll Flanders, one of the first novels published in English. I was inspired by her character, whom some critics called dissolute, but whom I admire because of her survival instincts and strength of character. She, like Molly Bonamici, is a strong female protagonist who takes on the challenges of the world, respecting the integrity of her own mind. I have always loved strong females; there are several strong women in my family.

The true genesis of Molly is the fact that five important people in my own life died in less than a year. Like Molly, I felt like an “Angel of Death.” Certainly the circumstances of the deaths were not the same, but Molly’s being “surrounded by death” was how I felt while writing the book. For me, the writing was cathartic.

Shelf Unbound: What is usually a starting point for you in writing a book?

Mulhern: If I am writing fiction, the starting point is always a character. The next most important aspect of writing a story is the voice of that character. Many writers have said this before, but it is true: The characters will write the story for you if you let them speak.

Shelf Unbound: Molly’s life becomes an existential search for truth. What made you interested in exploring this theme?

Mulhern: The existential search is within all of us. Why are we here? What is the point of life? What is God? When I was a kid, as nerdy as this sounds, I would read the Bible and take notes, trying to understand religion and what I was learning in church from the priests. I was introverted by nature. Not shy. Sometimes people confuse shyness with introversion; they are very different.

I was always asking questions, and I still am. Like Molly, the protagonist, I love books and learning.

I am very analytical and this sensibility is reflected in the novel. Any work of art enlarges our consciousness. We become wiser by “digging deep” as we create.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR The Lion Trees

by Owen Thomas

Shelf Unbound: What interested you in writing a novel about a family?

Owen Thomas: Setting the action for a novel in a family context helps to make the story instantly relevant and relatable to the reader. I also find that a well-drawn set of family relationships presents both a good microcosm of society at large and an excellent literary laboratory in which to explore issues of deception, trust, forgiveness, sacrifice and, particularly important in this book, the development of individual identity.

Shelf Unbound: Has being an attorney for 25 years contributed to your writing skills?

Thomas: Brief writing requires adherence to not only a professional tone, but a set of organizational and narrative conventions that seriously limit what you can say and how you can say it. Also, the truth happens to be a very big deal in legal briefs. In writing novels, every decision about what to say and how to say it is entirely up to the writer, and the truth is only as important as the writer wants it to be. So brief writing has made me crave the freedom inherent in writing novels.

Shelf Unbound: How do you create your characters?

Thomas: Main characters usually present themselves in the first instance as ideas, rather than as people. A major theme in The Lion Trees concerns how we work tirelessly to reinforce our sense of identity even if that identity is counter-factual and threatens our own well-being. Developing that kind of theme requires characters whose lives are emblematic in ways that will illustrate the point. So I first needed a cast of ideas. I needed hubris. I needed guilt. I needed self-deception and self-sabotage and a host of other foibles that I could animate to serve my thematic needs. Eventually those ideas condense down into people with names and histories and physical dimension.

What’s the secret to writing great dialogue? The secret is authenticity. It has to read on the page like it sounds to the ear.

Rhythm is important. Dialect. Idiomatic shortcuts. Building in negative space. Using implied sequiturs and believable nonsequiturs. Threading in the surrounding environment. You have to care as much or more about how characters sound to the mind’s ear as what information they exchange.

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A WORD WITH THE

AUTHOR The Dance of the Moon

by Pari Spolter

Shelf Unbound: You say that Newton’s and Einstein’s theories of space and time are mutually exclusive and you have proposed a new lunar theory. What’s a layman’s description of your theory?

Pari Spolter: Equating the gravitational force with the quantity or density of inert matter is incorrect. The correct interpretation of Kepler’s third law is: Gravitational force is equal to acceleration times the area: F = a. A. The weight of a body is equal to its mass times the acceleration: W = m . a. Weight is not Force.

Please see my book Gravitational Force of the Sun, my articles “New Concepts in Gravitation,” in Physics Essays, Volume 18, (2005), pages 37–49, “Problems with the Gravitational Constant” in Infinite Energy, Volume 10, No. 59, (2005), page 39, and parispolter.com.

Shelf Unbound: What initially interested you in studying the moon’s movements?

Spolter: My many years of work on gravitational force naturally included the moon problem. Whatever the reason for her attraction, the moon has captivated numerous poets, composers, and literary authors throughout the centuries. The search to understand and explain the complicated motions of the Moon, our closest celestial neighbor, has also been the subject of extensive work by numerous luminaries of the past.

Shelf Unbound: You say that modern calculators and software have made the work in your book possible. How so?

Spolter: I would not have been able to complete the work presented in this book in one lifetime, if not for the advances in technology. The invention of the atomic clock, the US Apollo landings and placement of the corner reflectors, the advent of lunar laser ranging technique, the Lunar Polynomial Tables published in The Astronomical Almanac since 1981 and the availability of computers, of small handheld scientific programmable calculators, of software for plotting and statistical calculations, have made the work presented in this book possible.

Shelf Unbound: How did you go about making complicated concepts accessible?

Spolter: When complicated motion of the moon is presented based on accurate data it is easy to understand.

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Emerged THE RISE OF A

TRUE WARRIOR

It was the chance of a lifetime—to witness China’s greatest engineering exploit since the Great Wall in person. He would perform research for his dissertation and help his friend’s family move to higher ground.

But Joe’s plans are suddenly altered by a debilitating accident. The unexpected detour brings the civil engineering graduate more than he had planned. While recuperating from his injury in modern-day Arcadia, he is commissioned to carry out a four-hundredyear-old tradition soon to be submerged by the construction of the mega dam. Now equipped with unsurpassable martial mastery, Joe pursues a lost heirloom and a crafty killer.

BY M.H. KERRIGAN

photo essay

THE OPEN ROAD

PHOTOGRAPHY & THE AMERICAN ROAD TRIP

by David Campany Aperture aperture.org

“T

he Open Road considers the photographic road trip as a genre in and of itself, and presents the story of photographers for whom the American road is muse.� The book has recently been re-released by Aperture in conjunction with a touring museum exhibit. The exhibit is currently on view at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, AR, through May 30 and then travels to the Detroit Institute of Art, the Amarillo Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

All images reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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Aperture aperture.org

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(Previous spread) Justine Kurland, Spare Some Gas, 2010. © Justine Kurland, Courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York (This spread) Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, Wires, 2008. © Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, Courtesy the artists and RaebervonStenglin, Zurich and Peter Lav, Copenhagen.

Inge Morath, Outside Memphis, Tennessee, 1960. © Inge Morath/Magnum Photos.

Stephen Shore, U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973. © Stephen Shore, Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York.

(Following spread) Joel Meyerowitz, Florida, 1970. © Joel Meyerowitz, Courtesy of the artist and Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

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BOOK SHELF Solaris Seethes

by Janet McNulty Every myth has a beginning.

A

fter escaping the destruction of her home planet, Lanyr, with the help of the mysterious Solaris, Rynah is forced to unite with four unlikely heroes from an unknown planet (the philosopher, the warrior, the lover, the inventor) in order to save her people and embarks on an adventure that will shatter everything Rynah once believed. www.mcnultyjanet.com Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo Clara’s Return

by Suzanna J. Linton

C

lara, lost and disillusioned, goes in search of answers about her past and her abilities.

A traitor enacts careful plans of sabotage, playing on people’s fears of the monsters left behind

by sorcerer-king Marduk.

Emmerich struggles to hold onto power as he battles ever-present nightmares.

Will the kingdom of Lorst finally fall?

To be released May 13, 2016 www.suzannalinton.com

Destiny’s Forge

by Theresa M. Moore

H

onor and duty, loyalty and betrayal, murder and revenge, espionage, adventure and vampire romance. In the 23rd century, a stranger from another planet comes to Earth in search of an ancient enemy. Through a quirky twist of fortune she winds up serving on the military starship Destiny’s Forge, where the crew is haunted by murder and sabotage. But as she is faced with a series of monumental challenges, she finds her course changed by destiny when the fate of two worlds is placed in her hands. www.antellusbooks.com Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Books A Million, and VRomans Bookstore.

Elle Burton and the Reflective Portals

by Peggy M. McAloon

E

lle Burton’s been enlisted to assist winged creatures from the Dimension of Fiori to help protect Earth’s children. Fiori has waited for centuries for a human guide able to unleash the pendant’s magic and accomplish three challenges predicted in ancient scrolls.

Evil forces from both worlds do everything in their power to stop her in this Coming of Age Fantasy series. www.peggymcaloon.com Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Books A Million.

BOOK SHELF Claims of Family

by Ezekiel Nieto Benzion

I

n Vienna, 1803, Antonio performs nightly as “Miss Nancy” in a male brothel, lashing out at the repressive society that torments gay men.

He seethes with anger at those who robbed him of all he could be. When dangerous men offer to get him his revenge, he doesn’t ask the price.

But then the bill comes due....

A Judah Halevi Tale 2015 Honors Received National Indie Excellence Book Award Finalist Notable 100 Books, Off the Shelf Unbound Winner, New England Book Festival http://tellingourtales.net Available at Amazon.

Ghosts of War

by David Kerr Chivers

O

llie Morton encounters, a ghost from over a hundred years before, with Ollie's name, and whose past life mirrors Ollie's present. The story shifts to Pittsfield in 1861 where two brothers, Oliver and Ben Morton, are heading off to war, and dealing with their own growing rivalry, played out on the battlefields of the Civil War. As Ollie's own problems with Ben head to their climax, is he doomed to repeat the mistakes of his family's past? Will the ghosts of his family's past lead Ollie to safety, or push him into a fight that echoes down the generations?

Available at Amazon.

Necessary Death

by R. Michael Markley

S

teve pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of Rhino’s head. His arm twitched. He had never killed before.

The fact Rhino had been a mentor, and like a father to him, didn’t make it any easier. It seemed impossible to pull the trigger.

Did he really want to taint his life with murder?

He pulled the trigger! www.rmichaelmarkley.com Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, and Books A Million.

Take a Byte Out of Murder

by Millie Mack

T

he New Year bells have barely finished tolling before Carrie and Charles Faraday discover a dead body on the beach near their vacation home in the quiet resort of Pear Cove.

Murders, blackmail, computer espionage— there are lots of clues. Can the Faradays’ detecting skills put all the puzzle pieces together before the wrong person is charged with murder? www.milliemack.com Available at Amazon.

BOOK SHELF Gabriela and The Widow

by Jack Remick

Letters to the Editor that were never published: (And some other stuff)

by Alex Caemmerer Jr. M.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Ret., Columbia Medical School

G

abriela and The Widow is the story of a young Mexican girl after the loss of family when her village was destroyed.

The story traces her emotional journey to El Norte where she meets The Widow who is also a tortured soul. As The Widow weaves stories about her husband’s infidelities, she and Gabriela find meaning in the tragic world they have survived.

www.jackremick.com Available at Amazon and Alibris.

Raf i ki An Unlikely Friendship with a Mountain Gorilla

O

ver the decades of his career, Dr. Caemmerer has written well over one hundred letters to the editors of the New York Times, the Record (of Bergen County, New Jersey), and Psychiatric News. The letters represent his response to articles on a variety of topics, including psychiatry, psychoanalysis, religion, priests and bishops, depression, violence, homosexuality, and miscellaneous subjects of general interest. These letters capture his unique perspective and his creative solutions to get things back on track.

BLUEINK REVIEW LINK Available at Amazon.

RAFIKI

by David Minier “a touching book” —Kirkus Review “an enjoyable but also informative...story” —Blue Ink Review

A

n inspirational adventure story set DAVID D. MINIER in the heart of Africa, by the author of The Ararat Illusion. Rich in detail, this novel follows a medical mission to Uganda, where a grieving professor finds solace in an incredible encounter, and ultimate friendship, with a silverback mountain gorilla. www.davidminier.com Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

LITERARY AGENT WANTED

Woe for a Faerie

by B. Brumley

O

ne spellbound night, nine award-winning and Amazon best-selling authors joined together to bring you a collection of tales featuring our favorite otherworldly creatures, fairies.

This collection will seduce you into the wondrous world of the fae with magic, romance, fantasy, adventure, fairy tales, and folklore.

Woe for a Faerie in Enchanted: The Fairy Revels Collection Coming to Amazon April 2016 www.bokerah.com

BOOK SHELF Stem Cell Battles

by Don C. Reed

Trio of Lost Souls

by Jack Remick

T

“...a real page turner...I will enthusiastically recommend to friends, family, and colleagues.”

—Sandi Pantages, former Manager, Fremont Main Library

rio of Lost Souls, a masterwork of the literary genre, makes a rousing finale to Jack Remick’s California Quartet. This novel sings with precision description and uncompromising dialogue. As relentless as the California sun on high desert landscape, Remick’s writing grabs the reader by the throat and refuses to let go until long after the final notes fade.

www.stemcellbattles.net www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9255 Available at Amazon.

www.jackremick.com Available at Amazon and Alibris.

“Easy to read, full of good stories, and the science is accurate.”

—Brock Reeve, Christopher “Superman” Reeve’s brother, and director of Harvard Stem Cell Institute “How a small group of people can bring change for many...”

—Foreword Reviews (5 hearts)

The Collection of Heng Souk

by S.R. Wilsher

“T

he words he had heard in the chapel had been well chosen, gleaned from listening to those who had known the man. But they were not enough. To understand what one person meant to another it can only be heard directly. The truth was not in the words; it was in the catches of emotion and the breath of remembrance.” www.srwilsher.com Available at Amazon.

Faeborne

by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

W

hen the deer Brennon shoots transforms into a woman before his eyes, he has no choice but to bring her home, hoping she’ll recover. But he knows nothing of Seren’s healing glamour, magic powerful enough to cure the wounds plaguing his soul.

“Faeborne, a standalone Novel of the Otherworld, is entertaining, informative and rollicking good fun.”

—C. Pratt www.jennaelizabethjohnson.com Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play.

BOOK SHELF Lei Crime Series

by Toby Neal

H

awaii is palm trees, black sand and blue water—but for policewoman Lei Texeira, there’s a dark side to paradise. Lei has overcome a scarred past to make a life for herself as a cop, but often the cases she works activate wounds and complications from her tangled family history.

www.tobyneal.net Available at Amazon,Barnes & Noble, Audible, iBooks, Inktera, and Kobo.

Hard Knocks and Consequences Too – You Still Have a lot to Learn

by Fred G. Dickenson

Hard Knocks and Consequences – You Can Always Learn Something

by Fred G. Dickenson

E

very life has meaning. Finding that meaning and purpose is a major part of life. Learn from the school of hard knocks—or suffer the consequences. As Dad said, “you can learn from my mistakes or your own.” Which is more painful? I wish I had learned more from his.

Available at Amazon and AuthorHouse.

Dominion of Man

by Francesco Ficarra

M

his is a folksy and practical walk down the path of life. It is about learning from personal experience in ways that imprint upon one’s character. It inspires the reader to reflect a little deeper into how everyday life can teach profound spiritual lessons. Whether read as a daily devotional or a biographical journey, it will inspire any reader.

y breathing slows as I feel the effects of the cool breeze enter the courtyard lifting the sand gently across my face. Each particle firing my nervous system alive bombarding me. So close to death, I have never felt so alive. The beast brushes aside two men approaching without breaking stride, its eyes wanting, until without notice it stops suddenly, almost falling over its own weight as the booming call of another creature fills the valley.

Available at Amazon and Westbow Press.

Available at Amazon and iTunes.

T

BOOK SHELF The Vampire Girl Next Door

by Richard Arbib

M

ark falls in love with Sylvia, the beautiful, but quirky girl next door, not realizing that she’s a vampire who killed his last neighbor.

When Mark first meets Sylvia, he tells her, “You’re the girl of my dreams!” Sylvia smiles and responds with a warning—“Be careful what you wish for.”

“The Vampire Girl Next Door is a choice pick for one looking for a romance with a supernatural twist, highly recommended.”

—John Burroughs, Midwest Book Review

Make Us Say WOW! Waldorf Publishing Manuscript Contest

Want to see your book PUBLISHED! Enter the “Make us say WOW” Waldorf Publishing Manuscript Contest.

Open to all Authors & All genres.

Your book printed in: Paperback, eBook and Audiobook http://waldorfpublishing.com/contest Contest #1:

Entries are open from March 13, 2016 until April 30, 2016

Contest #2:

Entries are open from May 1, 2016 until August 31, 2016

www.thevampiregirlnextdoor.com

The entrance fee is $45.00 USD per manuscript and you may enter as many manuscripts as you wish.

Paperback and all e-book formats available on author’s website.

www.WaldorfPublishing.com

Available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

the Star

by Michele Breza

“Journey with this tiny star as it seeks its purpose in the Milky Way Galaxy and discovers that it is destined to participate in a wonderful Christmas event.”

Vivid illustrations complement this spectacular and unique re-telling of the birth of Baby Jesus.

This book is a SILVER MEDAL WINNER in the 2016 Illumination Awards!

Facebook.com/theStarChildrensBook Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Alibris.

Published and Distributed by Diamanda Publishing.

A Supersleuth is Born

by T. Mara Jerabek

S

ixth grader Ethan Pero has never let being blind stand in the way of his big dream of becoming a Supersleuth. One day after school, Ethan stumbles onto a pair of magical goggles and can hardly believe what happens when he slips them on. Follow along with him, and it just might make you want to be a SuperSleuth too!

www. tmarajerabek.com Available at Amazon.

BOOK SHELF Runes

by Ednah Walters

Western Crossing

by Fred Hensley

F

A world Raine Cooper never thought existed is not only real, it is part of her past, present, and future.

The key is her new neighbor, Torin St. James. He has the answers to her father’s disappearance, her mother’s strange behavior and the secret she’s kept from Raine all these years; her destiny. Is she bold enough to believe the impossible?

riends, disillusioned with life, set out on a quest to discover the truth behind everything and, as fate allowed, found it. A true story from the mid-1970s, three young men from North Carolina, all from different backgrounds, forged a friendship and took a journey that led them to the Avatar and spiritual secrets known only to a few.

www.ednahwalters.com Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Audible.

www.staratma.com Available at Amazon.

Universal Spiritual Philosophy and Practice

by David B. Low, MS, PhD

W

ith 48 illustrations and lively, wordballoon graphics, this 200-page book systematically presents the central insights of mysticism, imparting experience to the reader and offering perspectives on the nature of belief and religion, rebuttals of orthodoxy, cosmologies and theories of enlightenment, over 20 spiritual practices, teachers and groups, the mechanics of dreams, affirmations and more. www.davidlowmsphd.com Available in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in ebook at Smashwords.

The Second Tree, Book I

by John Butziger “An immensely promising start to a new thriller series” —Kirkus Reviews

A

freak accident in Uganda leads two friends to New York’s newest culinary craze. What they’ve discovered is nothing less than miraculous—but miracles can be deadly...

“Eden’s Revelation”, Book Il of the Order Series Available Now. www.johnbutziger.com Available in print/ebook/audio at Amazon & iTunes.

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE www.shelfmediagroup.com What to read next in independent publishing.

FE BR UA RY

15 /M AR CH 20

KEVIN MORRIS JACK LONDON THE INSTAGRAM BOOK

Y SHORT STOR

S T O H S P SNA

t publishing

1

SEPTEM

0 BER 201

xt in independen what to read ne

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Success

by Jake Kerr

E

my self-publishing journey

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ntering September of 2015, Tommy Black and the Staff of Light had sold less than 200 books and was sputtering along with no real hope for a future. Book two, Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility, was delayed to a January 2016 release, and I had a final plan to kickstart the series—apply for a Bookbub promotion.

As I outlined in my previous column, Bookbub has become so powerful in the publishing industry that their promotions alone can push books into the top 100 of the Amazon store, effectively launching careers. However, getting a Bookbub promotion is incredibly difficult. That said, they have outlined what they are looking for, and I embraced this as my last hope for Tommy Black and the Staff of Light.

So I raised the price to $3.99, since Bookbub wants to see serious discounts. I made the book available in all of the ebook stores, not just Amazon. I applied for a promotion that would give the book away for free, and I did it in a less popular category—middle grade. To my delight, Bookbub approved me for a promotion.

Knowing I was about to have a few thousand people download my book, I created a special book two sampler of three chapters (you can download it here if you like) with a link at the back of Tommy Black and the Staff of Light.

I also added a link for people to sign up for my mailing list if they wanted more information.

Ideally this promotion would have happened with book two already out, but I realized that a bit too late to change it. (I’ll discuss this more in my next column). But I felt that with the sampler and the link to the series page (which you can visit here) and a sign up I had done my best.

The results of the promotion were astonishing. Bookbub said to expect 5,000 downloads on average. Tommy Black and the Staff of Light had over 13,000 downloads on Amazon alone. The following few weeks saw 79 people download the Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility sample chapters,

The Association of Independent Authors (AiA) is a global not-for-profit membership organization representing, advancing, supporting and encouraging self-published (independent) authors. Our membership spans five continents, with directors based in the USA, Asia, Australia and South Africa.

The role of the AiA is to guide, educate, support, encourage and unite authors who have chosen to self-publish.

Our Body of Knowledge (BoK) is a comprehensive resource on all aspects of selfpublishing and running a small business—today’s authors must understand the business side of publishing (sales, marketing, promotion, legal and financial issues) and how to sell a book in a global marketplace.

Our vision is that independent publishing will be the preferred, first choice, for all authors.

Our mission is to create a culture of excellence, teamwork and professionalism in a community environment where sharing and collaboration benefits each individual member and independent authors as a whole.

Annual membership subscription (Associate, Member) US$50. Affiliate level is free. Come join us! (Mention promo code SHELF to receive an additional three months membership for the annual subscription of US$50.)

www.independent-authors.org

Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility is now available in paperback and ebook formats.

PURCHASE HERE.

about Jake Kerr

After fifteen years as a music industry journalist Jake Kerr’s first published story, “The Old Equations,” was nominated for the Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America and was shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon and StorySouth Million Writers awards. His stories have subsequently been published in magazines across the world, broadcast in multiple podcasts, and been published in multiple anthologies and year’s best collections. Tommy Black and the Staff of Light is his first novel, and is the first volume of the Tommy Black series. tommyblackseries.com.

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and nearly 200 signed up for news about the next release.

With an early January release date of book two, I had thousands of people who had downloaded book one. Despite the success of the Bookbub, I had to manage my expectations for book two’s release. Just because someone downloaded a free book doesn’t mean they will read it. Also, just because they read it, doesn’t mean that they would enjoy it. Still there were good indications. I gained over 12 new reviews, and my average review of Tommy Black and the Staff of Light went up (it currently sits at 4.4 stars).

As book two’s release approached I once again had the amazing M.S. Corley create the cover. I also had two editors edit the book. Even if you self-publish, you need to stand out as professional. So with the packaging in place I moved on to launch marketing.

Launch marketing was much simpler and less expensive than what I did for book one. You may remember that I spent an enormous amount of time and money marketing book one to little effect. This time I kept things simple: I added promotional pages about the book in the back of all my other books. I sent announcements to my mailing list (which was now significantly larger thanks to Bookbub). I promoted the release on Facebook and Twitter to my own followers. And, finally, I did some modest advertising of less than $100 on Facebook.

Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility launched on January 4 and reached a rank of 34,740 in the Kindle Store, which is very good, but certainly not a bestseller. Two things happened, however, which fundamentally changed the launch. The first was that the most popular fantasy and science fiction website on the Internet, io9.com, did a feature on the book on January 7. That moved the rank all the way up to 20,339, which is very strong for an unknown author release. The second was a feature on the blog of popular science fiction author John Scalzi. That happened the next week and increased my rank to 19,704.

All told, I made more than $1,000 from the Tommy Black series in January, a strong indication that as I release more books, a reasonable income from writing books is possible.

CROWDFUNDING, FOR BOOKS ONLY

P

ubslush is a global crowdfunding and analytics platform for the literary world.

Our niche platform allows authors to raise money and gauge audience response for new book ideas while readers pledge their financial support, democratically bringing books to life. By offering publishers and industry professionals their own unique pages, Pubslush gives these innovators the power of customized crowdfunding. Pubslush’s highly-rated personalized service and focus on user education helps to ensure our authors are as successful as possible. Our community bridges the gap between writers, readers and industry leaders, facilitating a more open and comprehensive publishing process. While our philanthropic cause, The Pubslush Foundation serves to aid in the fight against illiteracy by providing books to children with limited access to literature.

www.pubslush.com

dystopian fangirl Animus The Oldest Soul Trilogy Book 1

by Tiffany FitzHenry Hierarchy Publishing theoldestsoul.com

Animus: The breath, soul, conscience

What to read next in YA dystopian fiction? Our intrepid fangirl Sarah Kloth reviews some of her favorites.

“Who knew that mapping the genome would lead to carbon dating the soul. And the oldest soul on earth—unbeknownst to her—is a seventeen-year-old girl named Evelyn O’Cleirigh, Eve, living in present day North Dakota. With scientists on the brink of decoding our DNA to determine the number of lifetimes a soul has lived, Eve meets a spellbinding boy named Jude, the only brand new soul on earth in centuries, and finds herself fatefully drawn to both him and Roman, her apparent love of lifetimes. But how will she choose between her soul mate and her fate? With no idea that her choice will alter the course of history—Paving the way for a world war of old souls versus new.”

The Oldest Soul: Animus is strange, intriguing, and intellectually captivating. Tiffany FitzHenry has created a truly unique story, unlike anything I have ever encountered. She takes sci-fi and fantasy beyond the typical “out of this world” realm.

In this novel, the human soul continues to exist, reincarnated hundreds, thousands, millions of times. It purports that our souls are innately drawn to events and people of our past and continuously taken back by past negative encounters and sworn enemies.

At one point, Eve thinks, “I’m either getting answers I don’t want or questions that scare me. And all the unwanted answers I do get only lead to an unending cycle of more questions, every one of them more frightening than the last.” This sentiment exactly describes how I felt while reading this compelling novel.

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poetry

Expanding the Community Garden

by Jeff Steudel Kale raised in cedar boxes between the SkyTrain

pillars. The propinquity of corn along boulevards.

A dream of zero emissions for the wheat leaning beside highways. And from the rooftops, fields next to airstrips. Golf courses. Freedom Space Station Grow-ops and the back of a Dodge Ram. Bush beans between parking plazas. Schoolyard potatoes and pumpkins. More food and flowers for Hastings Street. Bees on the block. Biosphere plums on university farms. Apple trees espaliered beside bike lanes. Carrot bins behind bus stops.

Backyard chickens. The alley where I planted the raspberries two years ago. They were picked while I slept.

From Foreign Park: Poems by Jeff Steudel, Anvil Press, anvilpess.com. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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JUNE/JULY 2012

BEACH READS

SURF, SUN AND

SUMMER

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JUNE/JULY 2011

what to read next in independent publishing

SEPTEMBER 2010

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011

THE

Poetry After 9/11

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SEPTEMBER 2010

SEPTEMBER 2010

68

Street Photographer

IRAQ THE RETURN OF STEPHEN STARK

GEEK MYTHOLOGY

OCTOBER 2010

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68

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SEPTEMBER 2010

NOVEMBER 2010

blows to the head

anti-twitter

speed vegan

SAMANTHA BEE 68

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SEPTEMBER 2010

what to read next in independent publishing

portland, oregon slut lulla bies

FEBRUARY 2011

THE ART OF CHARCUTERIE

KATRINA

THE GREAT FITNESS EXPERIMENT

BEFORE (DURING) AFTER

how they were found

ULYSSES SEEN

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SEPTEMBER 2010

JOA N JETT

TAXI DRIVER

Kael Alford

MIGRATION

SEPTEMBER 2010

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Canal House Cooking

sharon pomerantz

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68

JANUARY 2011

PAM GRIER

the end of baseball

Essays on Madonna

DECEMBER 2010

RISING FROM

Detroit Disassembled

Laura Dern

RENAISSANCE READS

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SEPTEMBER 2010

TOWARDS ZERO ENERGY ARCHITECTURE

IDENTITY

The Enlightened

BOY SCOUT BOOKS

Portlandia’s Indie Bookstore

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SEPTEMBER 2010

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012

Vivian Maier

LEGO Lit

Suitcase Books

Orange Prize Finalist Kathleen Winter 68

Novel ties Literary Tattoos

Ed Ruscha The L Life

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012

INSIDE

AUTO

MOBILE

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011

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máze MERIT BADGES

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SEPTEMBER 2010

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014

DORTHE NORS ELVIRA DONES CARMEN BOULLOSA

SHELF UNBOUND WRITING COMPETITION

AWARD WINNERS

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KEVIN MORRIS JACK LONDON THE INSTAGRAM BOOK

SHORT STORY

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create dangerously THE WARBLER ROAD

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Chanel, Astaire, Lindbergh, and other Twenties somethings

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SEPTEMBER 2010

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on our shelf

YOUR SICK I’m a big fan of Carol Guess’ poetry and prose and thus was eager to dive into Your Sick, her recent collaboration with Elizabeth J. Colen and Kelly Magee. In these stories, illnesses engender the stricken with magical qualities, such as the toddler who contracts Zero Fever and turns into a parrot. “I remember hearing strange sounds from the nursery, opening the door, stepping into her flight path.”

—Margaret Brown Your Sick by Elizabeth J. Colen, Carol Guess, and Kelly Magee, Jellyfish Highway Press, jellyfishhighway.com.

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GIRL WAITS WITH GUN It’s 1914 and pity the despicable factory owner who runs down the Kopp sisters’ buggy. For Constance Kopp, the very opposite of a shrinking violet and one of the most fun characters I’ve read in a while, seeks damages and will not take no for an answer. Constance soon becomes embroiled in an investigation that puts and her sisters in harms way but also provides them (and the reader) with an exciting, madcap adventure.

—Anna Nair Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hmhco.com.

SQUARE WAVE: A NOVEL Mark de Silva’s debut novel is many things: a relentlessly intelligent exploration of art and power and politics and climate change, a dystopian thriller, a mystery, and above all some of the finest prose you’ll read this year. The story centers on a night watchman, Carl Stagg, who while researching and writing about the topic of power simultaneously discovers the military is conducting experiments with the weather.

A great read.

—Ben Minton Square Wave: A Novel by Mark de Silva, Two Dollar Radio, twodollarradio.com.

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ALEX AN GOLEPDLYM , ALL R

GRETCHEN RUBIN HAPPIER WITH IN GRETCHEN RUB

ELDON EL AINE M. SH NSBURG GI H RA SA and She Does Behind the th Theme Music wi R TE AS KM EA BR CYLINDER

JANUARY 2016

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small press reviews Single Stroke Seven

by Lavinia Ludlow

I

Casperian Books casperianbooks.com

f gross-out humor has a tragic cousin, then Lavinia Ludlow is a master of the form. Her new novel, Single Stroke Seven, begins with the protagonist, Lillith, castrating a drug-crazed former coworker in self-defense and then blasts off into a stratospheric series of riffs on trying, failing, and trying again to follow one’s passion in a world dulled in equal measure by the nine-to-five demands of corporate adulthood and the empty nihilism of prolonged adolescence.

Adding to the drama is the fact that Lillith’s band, Dissonanz, includes three man-children who can’t get their act together long enough to rehearse so much as a single song, let alone get a gig.

That they’ve been together for over a decade only adds to her ennui, and even side gigs—like playing for a post-Riot Grrrl punk band fronted by a psychopath—complicate her life exponentially.

Yet for all of its—grit, for lack of a better word—Single Stroke Seven is a novel with heart. The title refers to a basic drum pattern, but it’s also a metaphor for everything Lillith wants from life.

Teaching percussion to earn extra money, she transcribes the pattern onto a sheet of manuscript paper for a young student who responds to the image with pleasure. “I like this one,” he says.

“They’re all holding onto each other so no one’s lonely.”

Ultimately, this is what Single Stroke Seven is all about—searching for meaning in a soul-sucking world and hanging onto friends (even if they’re losers) because the alternative is unbearable.

—Marc Schuster, www.smallpressreviews.wordpress.com Shelf Unbound Contributing Editor Marc Schuster is the author of The Grievers, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl, Don DeLillo, Jean Baudrillard, and the Consumer Conundrum, and, with Tom Powers, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Discerning Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. He is the editor of Small Press Reviews, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals.

Marc teaches writing and literature courses at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

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ROAD SCHOLAR

“

This is the story of America.

Everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do.

”

―from On the Road: the Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac

UNBOUND

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