TopShelf - May 2021

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INTERVIEWS CATE HOLAHAN

KATHRIN HUTSON

COLUMNS

MORAL GREY AREAS & RELATABLE VILLAINS LIVING WITH AN INNER CRITIC

REVIEWS, SPOTLIGHTS, AND MORE! May 2021

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table of contents

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interviews 6 8 10 14 16

Keith A. Katsikas Jr.

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Cate Holahan Kathrin Hutson CP Hoff Edward M. Learner Vince Spinnato

President & Publisher Rebecca Katsikas

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Lead Editor Kyle Magnus

articles

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21 Moral Grey Areas & Relatable Villains 23 Living with an Inner Critic

Assistant Editor Sharon Isbell

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reviews 29 29 29 31 31 31 32 33 33 33

The Fog Seller Beyond Beauport Kick Ass Kinda Girl Pinto Bound for Gold Nerve Damage Goddess of Justice Second Chance for Love My Pursuit of Beauty Scorpion Scheme

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Contributors & Reviewers

Mickey Mikkelson, Creative Edge Media Kathrin Hutson Miranda Oh Jenna Greene Grady Harp Jon Land Michael Rowland Kyle Magnus Belle Ami Donald Richard

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Strap in, turn down the lights, and enter worlds that will stretch your imagination to the full…

From a stranded alien comedian to the darkest depths of the human psyche; from a mind-blowing galactic adventure to clandestine extraterrestrial behavior on Earth.

They’re all here in this spell-binding collection of short stories to keep you guessing at every turn. With tales of alien invasion, deep space mystery, time travel, and dystopian future Earths, this is a collection which takes inspiration from the much respected ‘old masters’ of Science Fiction…

Against an international landscape of power, a uence, and fear Truth Gives Strength to Wings, the creative memoir by child sex abuse prevention advocate, Katy Sudano, breathes life into the tormented soul of a young woman who de ed the odds and de ned what it means to dig deep for strength, passion, and love of life. Katy's refusal to allow the abuse of her past to interfere with an insatiable desire to nd happiness and break the vicious cycle of abandonment that nearly had destroyed her entire world, is a testament to her extraordinary determination.

Genre: Science Fiction Price: $19.99

Genre: Memoir Price: $16.99

The Vatican has been in ltrated by the most lethal terror organization in the world and only one man can stop it.

With his career on thin ice and fresh ink on his divorce papers, Sacramento PD Detective Connor Parks goes searching for solace at the bottom of a bottle…and winds up in the arms of a beautiful woman. By morning she’s gone, and the one clue she left behind sends Connor on a desperate mission to unravel a decade-old mystery—her abduction.

Presumed dead for the last ten years, Claire Fletcher has been living her life as “Lynn,” a woman in the terrifying grip of her captor.

After her unforgettable night with Connor, Claire clings to the hope that she’ll see him again, that he’ll follow her into the dark…

Ever since witnessing an avalanche devour his parents at age twelve, Michael DiBianco has had an odd obsession with the divine. Today, a renowned physicist, Harvard Divinity professor, and bestselling author, DiBianco has devoted his life to uncovering the secrets of the Bible.

Genre: Thriller Price: $15.99

Genre: Kidnapping Thriller Price: $15.95

Teddy is a dog in need of a new home after living at the animal shelter for so long. Lisa is on a quest to find a home for Teddy.

When her plans to invite some friends over to meet the dog fail, she lets him stay at her house temporarily. but not forever. Poor Teddy! Will he ever find a family that will love him and make him their own?

Skyla Overland is proud to work for Overland Insurance, the company founded by her grandfather. Besides one nervewracking insurance fraud case in the past, her sheltered life is uneventful and just the way she likes it. Until one day, everything changes... Skyla and Troy, the manager at Overland Insurance, are the last ones to leave the office. In the empty parking lot, Troy takes her in his arms. Why would he ruin their easy-going friendship by kissing her, especially since he knows she’s dating Edmond? Left alone, Skyla hurries to her car, puts on her seatbelt, and glances in her rearview mirror. The face of a stranger grins at her from the backseat.

Genre: Children’s Price: $19.95

Genre: Kidnapping Thriller Price: $15.95

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TOPShelf Spotlights

"..a deeply personal memoir of abuse written from the inside out by someone who's now fighting for fellow victims both past, present and future."

JON LAND, USA BESTSELLING AUTHOR

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Please tell us about your latest release, Her Three Lives.

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Her Three Lives tells the story of Jade Thompson, a 32-year-old Jamaican American interior designer and social media influencer, whose seemingly perfect life is shattered after a home invasion injures her fiancé Greg Hamlin, a 52-year-old prominent architect. As he recovers from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the attack, Greg installs Web-connected cameras outside and inside their home to keep them safe. But obsessively watching the live feeds results in him spying on his wife-tobe. Soon he is wondering if Jade may have had something to do with the attack. Jade has her own secrets, but are they to preserve her pride or because she really is the woman whom Greg’s adult kids fear her to be?

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, CATE HOLAHAN

I drew upon some of my own heritage to craft the character of Jade. I am American of Jamaican and Irish descent, and I have citizenship in both Jamaica and the U.S. Jade, as a lifestyle blogger and designer, highlights foods and décor from Jamaican culture in her work. The character of her mom, Abigay, also speaks some patois.

If you had to describe Jade in three words, what would those three words be?

Jade is determined, creative, and somewhat insecure character.

What was the hardest scene for you write?

The hardest scene to write was the finale— not the epilogue, but the chapter before the last one. I sympathize with all my characters, even the villains. I think you have to as a writer. Whenever my bad guys face the natural consequences of their actions, part of me wishes it could be different and there was some way to redeem them beyond the pages.

How do you select the names of your characters?

I try to find names that speak to individual character’s backgrounds. For example, if I am writing someone who was born in America in 1987, I’ll look up some of the popular names in America that year. If the character has a cultural background that would draw upon different influences, I’ll look up the popular names for the country’s kids in that same year.

What does literary success look like to you?

I think anyone who has made the NYT bestseller list has MADE IT. So, that’s my goal. But I think ultimate measure of literary success is having the freedom to write stories in different genres and different mediums and be nancially compensated for it. The ability to tell a story and have people trust you to tell that story, even if it doesn’t fall into a box that you typically write in, is the pinnacle of success.

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

I think it gave me the con dence to truly pursue ction writing full-time.

If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?

I wouldn’t know how to do anything else but write. If I weren’t writing fiction, I believe I would still be a journalist writing non-fiction articles.

suspense. There are novels by Wendy Walker, Liv Constantine, Kimberly Belle, Vanessa Lillie, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Riley Sager, Joe Clifford, Jennifer Hillier, Gillian Flynn, Harlan Coben, etc. I also have a ton of more literary work and nonfiction, which is what I read when I am writing so as not to unintentionally adopt any character voices.

I recently read “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer which won the Pulitzer in 2018, and I thought it was fantastic. I also read “Yes, Chef,” a memoir by Marcus Samuelsson, which was amazing, and Marlon James’s “A History of Seven Killings,” which was challenging but worth it.

There’s a bunch of Margaret Atwood and Stephen King on my shelves, too, because I like folks who scare the bejeezus out of me while teaching me new words and making me marvel at their mastery of craft.

TOPShelf Interviews

If you could choose three people to invite for a dinner party, who would they be and why?

Trevor Noah, Stephen King, and Margaret Atwood. I think Trevor Noah’s memoir “Born A Crime,” was one of the best I’ve ever read. He was able to educate his reader about what it was like to be born bi-racial in South Africa during apartheid as well as speak about the ways people all over the world are the same, and how individuals will behave given various motivations. He has a real deep understanding of humanity, I think.

Stephen King and Margaret Atwood have that same well of knowledge concerning what it means to be human, how people act and react given certain stimuli and experiences, as well as what they think about in quiet—plus an absolute mastery of craft. I think the three of them would have a fascinating discussion about the human condition. I’d want to be a y on the wall serving wine and cake.

Read our interview with Cate Holahan at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

What books are on your book shelf?

I have many books in my favorite genre of psychological thrillers and domestic

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Can you share something with us about the book that isn’t in the blurb?

May 2021

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When did you first know you were meant to be a writer?

I’ve known it since I was ten. That seems to be when the switch of my “meness” turned on (and I really don’t remember much of my life before that age anyway). I woke up the morning of my tenth birthday with the epic realization that I could literally write whatever I wanted and make it end the way I wanted it to end. All this stemmed from a two-week period of reoccurring nightmares about my favorite movie at the time, Fern Gulley.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR, KATHRIN HUTSON

Apparently, I disliked the ending so much that I brought it back into my dreams, tried to change it, but never could.

But realizing that this was what authors— and storytellers of any ilk—actually do, that they make the stories begin, flow, and end the way they wanted, was the lightbulb moment of inspiration for me. So I sat down on my birthday and started to write.

Over the next two years, that little spark of inspiration became a whopping 183 pages of dark, morose, violent, intensely ageinappropriate fantasy about fairies (and dead mothers, dying fathers, a world ravaged by disease). It will never see the light of day, and I will not go back to revisit the story. I will, however, say that it sparked both my love of writing and my dedication to the craft over the years. And I’ve been writing dark, morose, violent, tear-jerking, occasionally humorous fiction ever since.

What is it about the speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) genre that appeals to you?

Any fan of fantasy and sci-fi, in my opinion, has a love of “strange new worlds”. When I was a kid, these worlds were escapes for me— unknown places I could explore and grow to love with the characters; fantastical realms where anything was possible; magic and aweinspiring creatures and heroes/heroines I could connect with because they wanted the same thing I did. To be special. To have meaning. To figure out what the heck their part to play really was within the grand scheme of things.

I love that about speculative fiction. Even if I’m not specifically writing about magic, there’s still a certain level of it within the art of making the impossible come to life on the page and seem so very, very real. The same holds true for sci-fi as well, which I define personally as including technology/biology/ biotech that seems like magic but isn’t entirely beyond the realm of possibility in the future of our planet or solar system or beyond.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t admit that I enjoy writing fantasy and sci-fi far more than literary fiction or even non-fiction simply because of the wider range of control I have over a given world, it’s laws (magical and/or technological), and how the characters interact within those parameters. Even with Urban Fantasy, where the setting is most often within our own current cities and towns, as if the secret world exists right under our noses, I have more freedom to play with how I want that secret world to look, smell, feel, sound, and operate. Research is my least favorite part of any project (it doesn’t even make the “enjoyment” list), but it’s still

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How important to you is it to have diverse characters?

Diversity is incredibly important to me, as is representation for a number of marginalized communities I either care deeply about or am a part of myself. The Blue Helix books probably have the most diverse cast of characters—all different races, sexual orientations, gender identities, health and disability levels. I started writing Book 1, Sleepwater Beat, with the intention of providing insight through diversity in my main character on a number of different points. We meet Leo Tieffler as a homeless, devil-may-care loner in her early twenties; she is a queer woman, an ex-drug-dealer, the product of childhood trauma and abuse, a victim affected by her father’s drug use, and a woman with an extraordinary ability to make anyone who hears her use a certain type of word believe anything she says—her beat.

These topics and highlighting representation in this way through Leo was incredibly important to me. She’s probably got more of me and my life experiences intertwined in her story than any of my other characters to date (or possibly tied with Jessica Northwood from my newest Accessory to Magic series). Beyond that, though, I also wanted to highlight and showcase other social issues through creating a ctional group of people who all have similar abilities to Leo’s—they can spin a beat, elicit physical responses in people who hear them speak a certain way. It’s the “superpower via storytelling”, in a way. And these people like Leo are ostracized, discriminated against, feared, hated, and even hunted for possessing this ability with which they were born and over which they have very little control, if any.

TOPShelf Interviews When I realized Sleepwater’s story wasn’t actually finished and started working on Book 2, Sleepwater Static, I decided to focus more on diversity and representation when it came to writing about race, racism, racial injustice, and the horrors still suffered by so many people in this country and across the world based on nothing more than the color of their skin.

Writing diversity isn’t just about adding characters from different backgrounds or who look different and calling it good, though. It takes a level of respectful exploration, intention, and forethought so as not to portray anyone or anything in a way that perpetuates harmful stereotypes or misconceptions (otherwise, what’s the point?). And for Sleepwater Static, it took an agonizing wait to receive what was honestly incredible feedback from a sensitivity reader to ensure I was going about what I set out to achieve in the right way.

The best route for me was to write the book from the perspective of a seventy-one-year-old white woman in the south with a Black partner and a biracial child, fighting for what she believed in both for her family and for those crossing her path who have the same beat-spinning ability as she does (and I couldn’t have picked a better character to get to know and love and cry with than Bernadette Manney).

The trick to writing diversity isn’t about finding what should be different about one’s characters or even what can be different. It’s about finding the common thread of humanity that exists in all of us no matter who we are, who we love, what we look like, or where we come from. After that, the representation in a cast of characters becomes something as natural to who they are within the story as having tattoos, being “the jokester”, or hating to wake up before 7:00 a.m.

Read the complete interview with Kathrin Hutson at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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necessary to bring that level of reality into the surreal. Yes, even when I’m creating an entirely new Epic Fantasy world. The blending of possible with the impossible is where all the real magic happens.

May 2021

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You were nominated for the “Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.” How would you describe your own sense of humour and how do you communicate humour through your writing?

What a hard question. So much of humour is instinct, and even that is subjective. It’s like pinning down a raindrop; timing is everything. That being said, I think I lean towards dysfunctional deadpan, if there is such a thing. If not, I claim it now. A bit of thumbing my nose at convention and waiting to see if it thumbs back.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, C.P. HOFF

I think all my books are a bit tongue-incheek. They delve into sentiments that have been felt across the ages—belonging, desire, rejection, and loss, just to name a few. What makes each unique are the characters that populate the pages. They come from different sensibilities and places in time. They have diverse goals. Each is looking at the world through their own quirks and biases. As for settings, they are fictional, although they do have a rhythm of their own; a beat that complements the souls that inhabit them.

To me, it’s finding the right mix between setting and character. It’s like a good wine, bound together in ways that complement and standout.

How has your writing style developed and changed over the years?

I’ve become more confident in knowing the components of a story. I sometimes still get lost, lose the thread, but each time I’m a little faster at picking it up again.

What techniques do you use to develop full, realistic characters?

For me, the best way to develop character is through dialogue. It’s my favorite thing to write. I nd description heavy, and narrative bores me to tears. But dialogue, that’s where the life is. It’s akin to eavesdropping. Sitting at a kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee and digging into the nitty gritty. What could be better than that?

What inspired the title for the “Canterberry Tales?”

Tales. Although my book isn’t about a group of travelers trying to outdo each other with the best yarn, it is a tale told for gain. The Happy Valley Journal runs a comic strip hoping to gain notoriety.

The strip focuses on seven-year-old Celia Canterberry, a local child abandoned at the hospital. Obstreperous Celia flits across the page with havoc dripping from her fingertips, all to the chagrin of her overwhelmed Nan. Celia was a delight to write and hopefully equally as delightful to read about.

What writing advice would you give your past self, or new and emerging voices in writing?

Know what you want to write. If it’s to publish, nd a good editor, someone who knows the market and can give you good advice. And believe you me, that someone can be hard to nd, so be careful. But most of all, close your eyes and take a deep breath. You’re in for a bumpy ride.

Are you involved in other creative endeavors, aside from writing?

There are so many things I love to do. I paint, garden, cook, quilt, and crochet to name a few. There is so much to learn and so little time.

What books fill your bookshelf, other than your own?

There are so many. I have some my grandmother passed down to me—How Green was my Valley, Beautiful Joe, and Captain from Castile, to name a few.

Then there are the ones I have picked up over the years—Anam Cara, The Amulet of Samerkand, Furiously Happy, the Chief Inspector Gamache books, and so many others. Those are just the ones that come to mind.

Interview

provided by: Award-winning Canadian authors, Jenna Greene (YA Fantasy) and Miranda Oh (Contemporary Chick lit) pair up to provide you with engaging interviews with authors from all genres to give you a sneak peak into their lives and writing styles.

Read our interview with C.P. Ho at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

Of course it was Chaucer’s Canterbury

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What similarities do each of your books have? How are they each unique? How much does setting affect the development of your stories? Do you recreate actual places or create fictional ones?

May 2021

Norman the Button loved his job. He helped keep his coat closed and his person warm.

This made Norman feel needed and that made him very happy.

But after falling off his coat Norman feels depressed, he is convinced he must find a new job to feel needed again. He tries several new jobs but none are a good fit. After being burned as a firefighter and nearly drowned as a plumber, Norman almost decides to give up and let himself be recycled.

Once Norman realizes his greatest strength is in being a button, he finally sees the perfect job is right in front of him.

Be like the eagle in ight that soars above the troubles of the world. Insecure librarian Emma gets swept up into the highstakes world of politics and marries in haste. Disillusioned by her new husband Jesse, she embarks on a cross-country journey to nd an old acquaintance. Will Emma and Jesse’s temporary separation clear the distance between them, or will she nd love in the arms of another man?

Genre: Children’s Price: $9.98

Genre: Romantic Suspense Price: $14.99

She’s a legal shark—sleek and deadly—but doesn’t trust anyone beyond her small circle of family and friends.He’s internationally famous—and yet a mystery to the world as he cloaks himself in privacy.Can they shed their fears and open their hearts to one another?

Actor Wynn Gallagher is at the peak of his fame, playing superhero Carbon Man in the Alpha Tharra Universe lm franchise. While the role has made him wealthy, he’s ready to move on to newer challenges…

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, a man and a woman fell in love. They were very happy. Until one day they weren’t – their happily ever after disappeared. This is their story. Summer Have you ever been in love?The kind of love that leaves you breathless and makes you feel like you can fly? I have…. It was the biggest mistake of my life. I let him become my everything; my sun, moon and stars but that wasn’t enough for him.What he did nearly destroyed me….

Genre: Contemporary Romance Price: $10.99

What if you could time-travel back into the past to meet the man of your dreams for a steamy, fantasy romance at a time when it would be possible for him to fall in love with you? Susan does just that when she meets two ladies from Haiti while on a cruise with her childhood friend, Lynn. Mika, the elderly of the two ladies claims she can see into Susan’s soul, and that if she sends her back in time to meet James, the man who Susan has dreamed of for fifty years, Susan will learn something important about him and about herself.

Genre: Time Travel Romance Price: $.99 (Kindle)

Genre: Contemporary Romance Price: $9.99

A woman unjustly imprisoned . . .

A duke jilted at the altar . . .

Lady Samantha Wallace has been in love since childhood with her brother’s best friend, the Duke of Colebourne, but George only sees her as a little sister. She weds a viscount who is George’s opposite, only to find herself trapped in a miserable marriage. When she becomes a widow, she is held against her will and finally escapes, vowing to live life her own way and never be controlled again.George is jilted at the altar and becomes one of London’s most scandalous rakes, bedding women left and right.

Genre: Historical Romance Price: $11.99

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TOPShelf Spotlights

Due to hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are extending the early-bird pricing for our TopShelf Book Awards for duration of the 2021 season.

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What has influenced you as a writer? Who has supported or helped shape your career?

The easier question might be, what hasn’t influenced me? It often feels as if I have countless muses, starting with much of what I’ve read, both fiction and non. As for who? I hesitate to name names, because I’m bound to omit some important influencer—but I make one exception. Long before I took up writing, one of my favorite authors was Larry Niven. That appreciation led, eventually, to my reaching out to Larry about collaborating and, in short order, to us doing five novels together.

In that sense he both influenced my writing and helped to shape my career.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, EDWARD M. LERNER

And then there’s my rst career ….

What career(s) did you pursue before becoming a writer full-time? How did these paths influence your writing?

My formal training is in physics, computer engineering, and, several years after those, business administration. I’ve had the opportunity to work at some of the world’s leading high-tech companies. Several of the projects in which I was involved and some workplaces in which I was immersed have contributed prominently to my storytelling.

As an influence on my writing, one job in particular stands out. For more than seven years I worked at NASA contractor Hughes Aircraft. Beyond the day-to-day exposure to NASA projects and personnel, that job also gave me the opportunity to “fly” the spaceshuttle training simulator and tour the International Space Station training simulator. Much of that experience found its way into my novel Moonstruck. When Moonstruck became my second novel sold— meaning the first book hadn’t been a fluke—I left the day job to write SF full time.

How would you define the sub-genres of science fiction such as techno-thrillers?

There are certainly recurrent themes in SF: First Contact, time travel, arti cial intelligence, near-future space exploration, far-future space opera, and the like. The thing is, most science ction, in my experience, touches upon several of these themes at once. A novel about establishing a permanent settlement on the Moon, for example, generally won’t be just about constructing lunar habitats. The same story will likely also consider developments in space ight technology, power generation, arti cial intelligences to assist the settlers, and maybe biological or medical advances that facilitate life in the weak lunar gravity.

Why? Because all these capabilities, and more, will be advancing, if not all at the same pace, at the same time. Because the interdependencies of everything are such that You Can’t Change Just One Thing (TM). So, in the case of SF, I feel the subgenre labels can be misleading as often as instructive.

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TOPShelf Interviews Techno-thrillers, in my opinion, are fundamentally different from SF. A typical techno-thriller takes one real (or hoped-for) technological advance and then focuses narrowly on just some of its implications. One well-known example: Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. It looked only at the scenario of bringing back extinct species, the dinosaurs, with no thought expressed as to how the gengineering to recreate the dinosaurs might also revolutionize medicine, agriculture, life extension, and so much more. And not only did the broader implications of new gengineering go unexamined, no other technology seemed to have advanced.

In drawing this distinction, I don’t mean to imply criticism. I write techno-thrillers, such as Fools’ Experiments (about arti cial intelligence) and Small Miracles (about medical nanotech) as well as SF. My forthcoming novel, Déjà Doomed (dealing with lunar exploration, First Contact, and more) is rmly in the SF category.

Moonstruck straddled the boundary.

What appeals to you about the science fiction genre?

First things rst, science appeals to me.

There is no more successful invention of humankind to explain the world around us, or to improve our lot. That being so, science ction is a way to explore how new science, or new applications of the science we already have, might be used or abused. SF is also a great way to interest people in science, a Certi ably Good Thing.

Is all science fiction predictive, even allegorically so? No, nor does most SF even try to be. Is SF then (in the words of colleague David Brin) a self-denying prophecy, like Brave New World or 1984?

Seldom that, either. Most SF is simply Good Fun, stories free to consider times, places, species, and extrapolations of science beyond the ken of non-SF. I’d put most of my writing in that for-entertainment category.

Are there any themes that are consistent through all your stories?

Take First Contact. Moonstruck, early on, has an alien starship announcing itself to, and then landing on, Earth.

InterstellarNet: Origins—which launched what became the three-novel InterstellarNet series —opens with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and astronomers nding evidence in a radio signal. Déjà Doomed begins with ancient archaeological traces of aliens— encountered on the Moon.

Arti cial intelligence is another theme I’ve explored in many guises, in several books and stories.

Computer technology overall is also a favored topic—though not in the downer/ dystopic/cyberpunk way so often seen.

Time travel is yet one more.

What is your most recent release and what can readers expect to find between the pages?

That would be the aforementioned Déjà Doomed, released on May 25.

After the archaeological surprise to which I’ve alluded, readers can expect: small groups of lunar explorers, Russian and American, each distrustful of the other, to scheme for national advantage from the recovery of alien technology. For both sides’ efforts to go terribly, catastrophically wrong.

For the survivors to undertake desperate measures, venturing where no human has gone before, to just maybe save … everyone.

However dismal their odds ….

What writing adventures do you have planned for the future?

In the back of any author’s mind, something’s always churning. The likeliest projects to emerge next, I believe, are yet another twist on the First Contact theme and an unrelated look at colonizing Mars.

Interview provided by:

Award-winning Canadian authors, Jenna Greene (YA Fantasy) and Miranda Oh (Contemporary Chick lit) pair up to provide you with engaging interviews with authors from all genres to give you a sneak peak into their lives and writing styles.

Read the complete interview with Edward M. Lerner at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

Some themes certainly recur, if seldom in the same way, but no theme spans all my writing.

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What else? Things in the zeitgeist, digital and otherwise. Things people say, without intending to in uence, much less to initiate, future story scribbling. Catchy turns of phrase that, sometimes with years-long persistence, haunt me before nding release in some story. Vacation stops. Family history.

In short, being receptive to the myriad myriads of stimuli all around. Yet more brie y: no writer is ever entirely off-duty.

May 2021

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How does it feel to have your life’s story (so far) documented and shared with others?

I’m thrilled about it and have zero shyness about putting my life “out there” because I want to help other entrepreneurs learn from my mistakes and reach their personal and business goals. It’s also been life changing, like a weight being lifted.

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ENTREPRENEUR/ AUTHOR, VINCE SPINNATO

story to Mickey Goodman turned my life into a comprehensive story made it possible.

It was tough, for sure, and I shed lots of tears, but telling my story from beginning to end was more cathartic than my years of therapy. Because I’m seriously dyslexic, I had to dictate into a recorder instead of typing it onto a computer screen. Dredging up incidents like the time I was so badly gay bashed at college that I ended up in the hospital was horri c, but it helped put it behind me. I’m hoping the story will help others know they can and will survive when life goes very wrong. Another incident, my ight post 9/11 that was almost shot down by ghter pilots, still gives me goosebumps.

Most devastating was losing both my parents close to one another, as well as the death of my boyfriend due to an overdose.

Talking about them helped bring a modicum of closure.

For decades I hated the way I looked and had far too many plastic surgeries. Despite the quote in the front of my book: “Beauty comes from within…jars, bottles and tubes,” I came to realize that beauty on the outside is strictly super cial. True beauty comes from the inside out. I’m not attracted Hollywood types who sit in the chairs of famous Hollywood makeup artists for hours on end. The women I admire most who look gorgeous without makeup, or just a light dusting of powder and lipstick.

What do you hope readers will learn from reading your book?

I often joke with people and say, “Read my book and then don’t do anything I did.” But I honestly hope they’ll have some takeaways: never take no for an answer, just approach it from a different direction. Hang in there.

Persevere until you reach your goals. And believe in yourself.

How have your past struggles shaped the person you are now?

For decades I was so naïve that I trusted everyone—lovers, business colleagues, socalled friends, and they took advantage of me. The crazy thing was that they had to betray me over and over before I finally recognized what was happening. During the last few years, I’ve hardened, which is good for self-protection but not necessarily the best way to be. I have always believed people are good, but now I’m wary. I watch out for lies, manipulation and broken promises from people in Hollywood that’s built around smoke and mirrors. I’m not necessarily on edge any longer, but I’m on high alert which is why my ghost writer and publisher are in Atlanta, Ga., where life moves at a slower pace and people tend to be kinder. Recently, I’ve modeled my business practices after Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson who always said, pay me up front, then I’ll put on a performance.

What is the writing process like when working with a ghostwriter?

With all my learning disabilities, there is no way I could have done it without my ghost writer. The thing I had going for me was a nearly photographic memory. Telling my

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What are your beliefs surrounding ‘beauty’?

What first inspired your interest in the cosmetic industry?

When I was 10, I didn’t like “boy stuff ” like ball games, playing cowboy, shing or hunting. My favorite activity was sitting on my grandmother’s couch watching the TV soap, “The Young and the Restless.” Every.

Single. Day. The show revolved around Abbott family’s perfume business, Jabot, that became such an obsession that I began creating scents in my sister’s Easy Bake Oven. My dream never died, and at age 20, I took off for Hollywood to develop skincare products for rich and glamorous people like I saw on TV. It took a number of years learning the business before I was able to launch TurnKey Beauty, Inc.

Tell us a little bit about TurnKey Beauty, Inc. After studying my craft for a number of years, I founded Turnkey Beauty, Inc., as a one-stop company that could develop beauty products for celebrities, brands, retail companies and private and white label products. We handle developing, testing, bottling, packaging, labeling, barcoding, global translation and distribution. And yes, all that goes into bringing every skincare product to market. One of my rst

TOPShelf Interviews celebrity clients was Jennifer Lopez who asked me to create a perfume which she named “Still.” It remains on shelves today.

She was followed by Michael Jordan, Gwen Stephani, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Damone Roberts and scores of others.

Today my skincare and bath & beauty lines also include Aegean Skincare, LLC, Vincenzo Skincare, LLC., and VS Vincenzo Ltd. Inc.

What projects lay on the horizon for you?

I’m currently working on a skincare line for a renown plastic surgeon and creating a “post mortem” fragrance for a Hollywood legend. My latest luxury product, Caviar and Diamond, is made from real caviar (yes, those little black sh eggs) and diamond sirt (dust) that are crazy good for the skin.

How important is it to you to ‘pay it forward’?

It’s extremely important to me.

Shortly after my father and grandfather died, I established two scholarships in the arts at Vineland High School in New Jersey, to honor both who were well known musicians. I named it The Professor Enrico Serra & Vincent Spinnato Sr. Scholarship and personally present the awards every year.

They’re each worth $20,000 over four years.

Because water is essential to health and wellness, I’m working with Wells of Life, a non-pro t that provides reliable water projects to communities in African nations.

Last year I sponsored my rst water well in Uganda. There will be more to come.

Interview provided by:

Award-winning Canadian authors, Jenna Greene (YA Fantasy) and Miranda Oh (Contemporary Chick lit) pair up to provide you with engaging interviews with authors from all genres to give you a sneak peak into their lives and writing styles.

Read the complete interview with Vince Spinnato at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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You share many personal stories that are very raw. How did revisiting these moments affect you?

May 2021

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TOPShelf Discoveries

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REMINDER This is an interactive magazine. Click on a book cover to learn more or to purchase.

You write romance under a pen name (SB - four) and you also write thrillers. Which one do you prefer and which one do you enjoy most?

I wrote romance the first 8 years of my career then I went more transitional from incorporating more mystery and suspense into the novels and they were standalone books, they weren’t category books. It was 1990, I wrote Mirror Image and that was my first New York Times Bestseller. It www.TopShelfMagazine.net

NY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, SANDRA BROWN

was a suspense and then they have grown more and more that way but I still incorporate romance because that’s what i like and I love to read. So all of my novels have a strong relationship element to them, they’re sexy, they’re al lot of sexual tension. I don’t feel like I really deserted anything but a bonafide romance reader who would read my book now would go - that’s a little gritty for me. I don’t left anything behind, I just kind of brought it into what I do now and I love what I do now so if I didn’t love it I wouldn't be doing it because its too hard to do if you don’t love it.

Read our interview with Sandra Brown at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

TOPShelf magazine

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The protagonist is fantastic, well-developed, strong-arm female heroine. What (or who) inspired you to write this character?

Thanks for your kind words about Thea Paris. I always wanted to write an alpha-female character. We have many strong male protagonists, like Jason Bourne, Jack Reacher, and James Bond —but a female hero offers something fresh and new. Thea is

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BESTSELLING AUTHOR, K.J. HOWE

feminine, intelligent, and has type 1 diabetes, and she can handle herself with great skill during tactical missions. I hope readers will connect with her. When she was eight years old, she watched her brother being kidnapped. Frozen in fear, she wasn’t able to help. Her brother returned home after nine months in captivity but was never the same. That experience shaped her dreams and goals. She wanted to become a freedom broker and spend her life bringing hostages back home.

Read our interview with K.J. Howe at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

by Christine Stratos

disturbed nature manifests in odd behavior, something he can’t fix without help. And the only man who offers him a helping hand is one with bad intentions, one who plays off Jude’s pain and tendency toward violence and uses it to his own advantage.

IF EVERYTHING IN LIFE WER black and white, there would be no confusion in any situation. You’d always know what to do, and it would be easy. But life is made of gray areas of uncertainty. Our choices and our perspectives make us unique individuals—and it’s no different in fiction.

Moral gray areas and characters’ decisions about how to handle them make the story interesting and create both likable and dislikable characters.

But most importantly, they create relatable characters. Life isn’t easy, and it shouldn’t be for characters, which is why all my books include those moral gray areas. Villains aren’t so easy to judge harshly if you can understand where they’re coming from. In fact, villains can be readers’ favorite characters and the most relatable ones.

Most of the time they’ve been through hell, and a lot of the time, they never really came back. They’re still stuck in their own living hell, one made of poor decisions, pain, and confusion caused by their background.

One of my most beloved characters in the Dark Victoriana Collection books is Jude from Brotherhood of Secrets, who is also the most dangerous character. He’s violent, has a lot of unresolved anger issues, and nobody understands him nor cares to. He doesn’t fit in Victorian society. His

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MORAL GREY AREAS & RELATABLE VILLAINS

But can you, as the reader, really dislike a character whose weaknesses are used against him in such an ugly way? Can you condemn Jude for his actions, even if his violence saves some people from even worse brutality?

The complexities of characters in fiction reflect the intricate web of real life. Complex characters and moral gray areas are just a couple of examples of what makes fiction both relatable and enjoyable.

Christie Stratos is an award-winning writer who holds a degree in English Literature.

She is the author of the psychological suspense novels Anatomy Of A Darkened Heart and Brotherhood Of Secrets, the rst two books in the Dark Victoriana Collection. Also a poet and short story writer, Christie has been published in anthologies, literary journals, and magazines.

DO YOU LIKE TO READ AND REVIEW BOOKS?

Her social media links are as follows: Patreon Author Website Newsletter Amazon Author Page Instagram Facebook Twitter Goodreads Author YouTube Pinterest

Read more articles like this one at www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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How much work do you personally put into promoting your books and events? And how long before do you start promoting?

My publisher expects me to do a lot of my own promoting. I'm on twitter, but I prefer my Facebook Author page, which I think of as a salon about books, movies, music, and the arts in general. Readers come to that page for recommendations and literary discussions. They also visit my page for news about what I'm doing. They seem to welcome my remarks about what I'm working on, so I often start promoting a project when I'm halfway through it, telling readers how many pages I write each day and whether the work is coming easily or not. I make this

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NY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, DAVID MORRELL

sort of remark occasionally. I show a new cover. I quote from early reviews. The only time I do a "hard sell" is within a month of publication. Readers understand why I need to do that. But I never forget that they visit my Facebook page because of the discussions about books, movies, and music, etc.

What are your feelings on authors giving away thousands of copies of their ebooks, hoping it will raise their rank on Amazon? Is this a viable strategy? Or are these authors making a terrible mistake? And why?

I myself don't give away my work. I worry that doing so would create the impression that if a reader waits long enough, more free stuff will become available. On average, it takes a year for me to write a book. Why would I give away a year of my life?

Read our interview with David Morrell at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

LIVING WITH MY INNER CRITIC: HOW I CONTROL THE CHAOS OF MY MIND

Yes, my marks were good, but I was always interrupting despite trying not to. I always needed reminding what page we were on because I somehow had already jumped ve chapters ahead of the class, but I learned how to keep my nger on the correct page, and come back to it before my turn. My work-arounds improved with age and experience, but I still struggle with waiting my turn.

MY LIFE IS A SERIES OF adventures.

All our lives are.

We are born into the world with a family (if we are lucky) where we learn the skills we need to adult somewhere along the way. Some of us learn the skills better and earlier than others, someone us get more help than others, and some of us keep asking why like a small three-year old. (That would be me) We have our own gifts, and challenges. We are all uniquely us, whatever that package is.

I’ve always had a thirst for knowledge. I was the kid that turned down TV in favor of reading a new book. Learning how people in the world lived, particularly throughout history, was my favorite subject, but I wasn’t picky. I read history, mystery, ction, fantasy, and even For Whom the Bell Tolls in Grade ve. I didn’t appreciate Hemingway at that age, and haven’t read him since. Perhaps my 11-year-old self didn’t give him a fair shake, but I thought he was boring.

In general, my problem has usually been an abundance of things I want to do instead of being bored. Focus has been a life-long struggle for me because of this. For a long time, I wondered what was wrong with me. It wasn’t because I didn’t like school— I loved it.

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I did well too, graduating top of my class in high school, and going on to earn two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees, but I wasn’t able to sit still and pay attention the way others did. All my report cards through my primary education bore witness to that fact, and in university I was the girl who crocheted in anatomy classes instead of taking notes, just so I could pay attention.

Some days, there’s so much in my head it feels like it wants to burst out, like the creature in Alien.

What this means is that somewhere along the line, my tangential, hyperactive self-learned how to scold myself. I got good at it too, long before I understood why I do it. I still remember my A-ha moment. I was taking Intro to Psychology, and we had just learned about attention de cit disorder.

Unfortunately, in the same breath the professor explained it, they mentioned how many university students take ADHD meds to get an “edge” in their school work.

While I knew in my soul I was that thing, that ADHD the professor had summarized, there was an instant stigma in my head. I didn’t even realize the Inner Critic had made the decision never to see anyone about it until years later. Surely, if I could get through high school with good marks, I didn’t need those meds.

I wasn’t one of those students, looking for an edge.

So, I continued for another twenty years without them, graduating with good marks from a Bachelor of Science degree, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honors, no less!) in Psychology with a minor in History, all without seeing anyone or ever trying medications for ADHD.

by H.M Gooden

I even completed medical school and residency, got married and had three children before nally admitting I was struggling. Yes, I could get everything done, but the mental exhaustion of listening to that nagging voice of my Inner Critic in my head was wearing me down. I was getting sick more, (kids in preschool are germ factories) and developed migraines and back pain, all around the same time.

I was having problems sleeping and with anxiety, both of which were new to me. Part of my challenges were inevitable, and related to age, but it meant my usual medication, running, was off the table for several months, and that compounded my issues.

Without the physical outlet I relied on, the exhaustion mounted and nally made me stop and look at my life critically.

I had reached a crossroad where a decision had to be made.

Read the complete article, here.

H. M. Gooden has been scribbling on everything since she rst learned how to hold a pencil. While often told that her handwriting was atrocious, she persisted, and upon discovering computers and learning how to type, she realized that she was no longer limited by her (admittedly) messy writing.

Read more articles like this one at www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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How much work is required, even as a bestselling traditionally published author, to maintain your current level of success?

I write seven days a week, five hours a day, two hours a day while I’m on vacation. I’m usually working on two to three books at a time, each of them in differing stages of development. If I’m polishing one book, I’m outlining one for the future. I might work on one solo, one with Patterson, and a third, which is always a passion project. Beneath A Scarlet Sky was

What is the secret to becoming a New York Times or USA Today Bestselling author?

Write a lot. Study fine writers. Believe you have something to say, and say it. Write an unforgettable character. Tell a kick-ass story, or one we’ve never heard before. Make me laugh. Move me in ways that bring me to tears.

Read our interview with Mark Sullivan at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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NY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, MARK SULLIVAN

my passion project for ten years. But a lot of maintaining or increasing success comes down to faith in my ability to give the reader deep value for the time they’ve traded to be with me.

When you think like that you’ll work harder and smarter to earn and re-earn that magical bond between reader and au

What if God's most closely guarded secret fell into the wrong hands?

THE PROPHET CRUCIFIED IN A SACRED GROVE...

A MILLENNIA-OLD SECRET ABOUT TO BE EXPOSED...

A HOLY RELIC CAPABLE OF DESTROYING THE WORLD WITH A SINGLE TOUCH...

The prophet of the Mormon Church has been murdered, hung cruciform in the Sacred Grove…

Genre: Thriller Price: $15.99

This crime/mystery from award winning author Peter S. Rush is the riveting story of Tommy Logan, a small time pot dealer, who is swept into the international smuggling scene by the cunning con man Harry Burr. Trying to extricate himself and his girl friend Sandy, he nds himself confronted by the dilemma of saving Sandy or himself.

Genre: Crime Thriller Price: $15.96

While Forrest goes to college, quick witted Annet works at the Keizer Manor, the museum where the oils from 19th century master painter Alexander Keizer are exhibited.After a fight, the couple strolls through the dunes to make up. When dark clouds roll in, the beautiful sunny weather turns into a thunderstorm so violent that they get separated. The next morning, Forrest finds himself alone. So does Annet.Regaining consciousness in a monastery, Annet is convinced the nuns are playing a prank on her. It can't be the 1800’s!

Genre: Time Travel Romance Price: $14.99

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TOPShelf Spotlights Twenty-one years after eeing Earth due to a genetic plague that decimated the population, the Galileo Colony Ship Kutanga arrives at Gaia, an Earth-like world in the Alpha Centauri system. The ship carries the memories and DNA of 4,492 human survivors and Aneni, the ship’s AI commander, is on a mission to save them. But she has a problem—instead of finding an uninhabited world, devoid of intelligent life and ready to receive her precious cargo, she finds a planet populated by ten’s of millions of people…

Genre: Science Fiction Price: $15.99

The Alaska Territory, 1925.

When Yura Noongwook’s husband abandons her and her thirteen-year-old son, she vows to win him back and destroy the woman who stole his heart. They embark on an epic cross-country quest that leads them to the Nevada desert, where they meet a man who has turned into the last thing anyone expected him to become …

Genre: Christian Fiction Price: $12.95

Valor survived betrayal, captivity torture, and DNA manipulation along with his special ops team.

Most of the males who survived this testing and restructuring have no memory of who they were beforehand. Valor, however, has repetitive nightmares that are always the same. A female running after him, calling out for him — only she’s calling him another male’s name. She’s desperate, begging for him to wait for her, come back for her, but he doesn’t know her…

Genre: Science Fiction Price: $9.99

TOPShelf magazine

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Quill and Ink is a podcast for book lovers where hosts Miranda Oh and Jenna Greene take you behind the scenes to see how stories are created.

LISTEN ON:

We are proud to be part of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network.

This Key West coffee table book is a handsome, linen-bound volume with thirty full-color paintings by a local artist paired with twelve short stories inspired by the continental US’s southernmost point. A new Southern voice, Vicki Riley captures the essence of Key West with prodigious prose, vivid characters, and provocative stories…

Genre: Florida Travel Guide Price: $50.00

What is a twelve year old girl to do when she nds herself in the silver boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, in 1880, and her only home is a brothel and her only parent is a drug-addicted mother? If she is Carissa Beaumont, she outsmarts the evil madam and gures a way out. After tricking the madam, Miss Lucille, into summoning a doctor for her mother, Lisette, she discovers that Miss Lucille has been drugging her. She and the kind doctor make a plan to try to save Lisette by dosing her down on the drug…

Genre: Teen & YA Historical Fiction Price: $11.99

Some things are better than living.

Some things are worse than dying.

What matters most is how you meet the moment when history hangs in the balance.

Genre: Mystery Price: $8.99

She can save his soul if she sacrifices her own…

Catherine “Tink” Mary, an up and coming attorney, is shocked by her recent inheritance from her estranged family on the bayou.

After her mother died during childbirth, Tink’s father had quickly relocated them to the big city of Atlanta, Georgia. With no memory of her mother, she is determined to learn more about her lineage and decides to visit the bayou town of Kane, Louisiana. Candace, Tink's co-worker and best friend, agrees to make the trip with her…

A Fated Warrior Decallion is the only blade lord whose soul is not tethered to one of the rulers of the Circle Kingdoms. That makes him the most valuable warrior in the realm… it also makes him the most vulnerable. When the Valour Corp escorting him to the temple for the tethering ceremony is ambushed, Decallion is abducted and sold in the lawless Guildlands…

Genre: Fantasy Price: $14.99

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The usually serene island of Land's End has been in turmoil for the past six months. It started with the deaths of three important people very close to Samantha Patrick and her family.

Secrets were being kept and secrets were being told. Sam's life and the lives of her family began to change drastically as a result of these secrets. Some changes were good and some were bad. Would life on Land's End ever be the same?

Genre: Political Thriller Price: $11.99

But he’s destined to never even remember her name…

TOPShelf Spotlights

Genre: Thriller, Suspense Price: $16.99

TOPShelf magazine

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Award Winning Historical TimeTravel Romance "...engaging novel, Storm at Keizer Manor will sweep you up in the storm of Annet's and Forrest's lives and command your emotions. It's a jewel for romantics to treasure. Like a fabulous meal lingers on your tongue, this story remains with you to mull over and savor in quiet moments."

Romantic Thriller

Award Winning Romantic Suspense

"Dark, haunting, and heartbreaking, and I simply couldn't put it down. 5 darks stars from me."

"...learning to trust your heart after a painful betrayal." ~ Laura Taylor - 6-Time Romantic Times Award Winner

~ Fiction Ebook Review

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~ Laura D. Child, Tirza's Bookstore

TOPShelf Reviews

Mystery

Paperback

$14.99

Sea Adventure

Paperback

$14.95

Memior

Paperback

$16.00

DAGLOW IS A TRUE WORDSMITH PACKED WITH ADVENTURE AND NOT TO BE MISSED! 500 STARS! & A MASTER STORYTELLER! OCEANIC THRILLS…A When teacher-turned-deckhand Steve Ondelle is framed for the killing of a San Francisco Supervisor, he tumbles into a world of billion-dollar deals and bizarre sexual adventures, a world where hard evidence depicts him as a misfit who turns to murder. To expose these freshly-minted lies, Steve must first make peace with a lifetime of painful truths. He travels from the piers of Sausalito to the penthouses of San Francisco, with unlikely allies like Leonard the Human Statue, Eli of the Coral Reef, The Prophet of Market Street. And Liam the Fog Seller. Winner of the 2019 TopShelf Book Awards in the category of Mystery, Don Daglow's The Fog Seller is an absolute MUST READ! Daglow is a true wordsmith and a master storyteller. TopShelf gives The Fog Seller a firm 5 STARS and our highest recommendation. Read this book! ~Kyle Magnus, TopShelf Reviews

FANTASTIC READ!

If you like adventure, and sailing the wild blue seas, Beyond Beauport is the perfect read for you. Throw in a feisty heroine who is searching for a second chance in life, and her seafaring uncle who is determined to help her nd it, and you have the makings of a truly entertaining book. The two chart a course in search of a treasure that their ancestors, the fearless, redheaded, pirate Anne Bonny and her pirate lover Calico Jack Rackham purportedly buried on Marco Island off the coast of Florida.

Shannon’s dream is to become a sailing master, and to do that, she must rst master Paddy’s sailing brigantine, the Second Wind. They set out from the old port of Gloucester with two intentions, to make a sailor of Shannon and to nd a treasure worth millions. The adventure begins with beautifully descriptive historical locations from Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Charleston South Carolina, to Florida, and island hops all over the Caribbean. Packed with adventure and oceanic thrills Beyond Beauport is a fantastic read.

Emotional and profoundly affecting, Kick-Ass Kind of Girl hits every note on the scale.

Between deep joy and crushing sadness, the lowest despair, and the highest level of soaring victory, this true story of love, loss, and quiet triumph is truly inspiring as it brings you on an unforgettable journey of love and selfdiscovery. Kathi Koll, the founder of the Kathi Koll Foundation, has lived a life of adventure, having been close childhood friends with Lucie Arnez, a young model and an actress in commercials during the Seventies and Eighties. Her toughest challenges come when her second husband, Don Koll––a successful hotel owner and world traveler with an unquenchable zest for life––suffers a tragic and devastating stroke that leaves him prisoner in his own body. But her most significant role was that of a caregiver. Dedicating all of her heart, soul, and strength, Kathi Koll's story of endurance and love, dotted by moments of soaring triumph and agonizing grief, will not easily be forgotten and will keep readers turning pages deep into the night. ~Donald Richard, TopShelf Review

~Belle Ami, TopShelf Review

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What is the appeal for you in writing to a young adult audience versus an adult audience?

More potentials. Young adults aren’t settled yet. They don’t know who they are, what they want or who they are ending up with. They are in a mode of discovery and that makes their stories so much fun and rich. Their immaturity and naivety is also a huge component. Now, don’t get me wrong, writing for the adult audience is also amazing for different reasons. There are potentials there that can be even more fun.

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BESTSELLING AUTHOR, SARAH NOFFKE

You write Sci-Fi Fantasy about a separate race of people called Dream Travelers. Describe to use what a Dream Traveler is and what the powers are.

Dream Travelers is a race of people who can travel to any place and time when sleeping. Think out-of-body experience.

Through dreams they are able to take their consciousness anywhere, operating freely in the dreamscape. This power, since science believes dreams to have incredible benefits, lends them a psychic or super ability or two, like telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, heightened senses, psychometry, levitation, etc.

Read our interview with Sarah Noffke at:

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

TOPShelf Reviews

Paperback

Teen & YA

$10.95

Thriller

Paperback

$9.99

A GREAT READ!

BOUND FOR GREATNESS!

A book about a little horse named Pinto with big dreams. PINTO, a children's historical fiction book by M.J. Evans, follows four men, calling themselves the "Overland Westerners," who, back in 1912, decided fame and fortune awaited them if they embarked on the longest horseback ride in history. Their goal was to visit all forty-eight state capitals over three years and complete their journey at the San Francisco World's Fair on June 1, 1915. This is Pinto's account of his arduous adventure, crossing fast-flowing rivers, snow-covered mountains, treacherous valleys, red-hot deserts, and wetlands in this gripping tale. And the hardships and joys the men and horses experienced along the journey will touch readers. Being from the UK, I loved this book, especially reading about the United States back in 1912. PINTO is well written, and you don't have to fancy horses to gain a real appreciation for their strengths, emotions, and steadfastness. A great read!

William Martin solidi es his claim as king of the historical thriller in the glittering Bound for Gold (Forge, $29.99, 490 pages), spiriting us back in time to the days of the California Gold Rush. Boston Yankees James Spencer and Michael Flynn embark on a journey for riches that morphs into a nineteenth century version of The Treasure of Sierra Madre.

Flashing to the present, it’s left to Peter Fallon to uncover the truth behind their adventures, a truth somehow connected to a mythical lost river of gold that may not be so mythical after all. Martin displays a deft hand in mastering both timelines and the result is an expansive tale drawn on a bold and bright canvas. Bound for Gold is bound for greatness. ~Jon Land, USA Today Bestselling Author

Thriller

Paperback

$12.99

BLOCKBUSTER IN THE MAKING!

It’s impossible to sleep when you have Nerve Damage! This masterfully written medical drama follows three ER doctors as they research a breakthrough treatment to regenerate damaged spinal cords––a treatment that could be worth millions to whoever holds the secrets. Author, Tom Combs, grabs hold of your jugular right from page one and refuses to let go until the shocking conclusion. Nerve Damage is a lightning-fast read packed with twists and turns that will keep readers fully engaged and continually guessing. This is the stuff blockbusters are made of! ~Rebecca Katsikas, TopShelf Review

~Michael Rowland, TopShelf Reviews

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Paperback

$19.99

READ ONE VOLUME AND THE ADDICTION RESULTS!

Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 50 Reviewer and has collaborated with Creative Edge Media to provide quality book reviews. Creative Edge is a publicity rm specializing in arranging events such as book signings, library or school presentations, online and print media opportunities, and many other related events.

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Thriller

Author Dwayne Clayden offers Book 5 of his Brad Coulter Series with GODDESS OF JUSTICE. He has a depth of experience as a police of cer, paramedic, tactical paramedic, re ghter, emergency medical services chief, and educator. In electing to succeed with an ongoing series of novels, the primary hurdle is to create a chief character who is able to sustain interest and suggest imagination for episodes beyond the initial story.

Dwayne has achieved this brilliantly in his wholly credible Brad Coulter – a Canadian cop whose acumen in performing his duties is spot on, as is his irresistible personality. His writing style is so attuned to the multiple aspects of this ne story, a fusion of skills, danger, and yes, humor, that the novel speeds by like a bullet. Read one volume and an addiction results: bring on the next! GODDESS OF JUSTICE in one ne novel by a man who knows the arena! Highly recommended. ~Grady Harp

Paperback

$14.99

Memoir

Paperback

$16.99

Mystery

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SETTLE IN FOR HAPPY-EVER- A MEMOIR OF A FIRST CLASS BOOK AFTER ANALECTS! EXTRAORDINARY SENSITIVITY! DESERVING READERSHIP! A collection of authors provide wellchosen romances to share in this compendium of works they call A SEA GLASS BAY ROMANCE BOOK. California author Anna J Stewart, Canadian author Kayla Perrin, Oregon author Melinda Curtis, and South Carolina author Cari Lynn Webb. The characters of each of theses four novellas nd not only the location of Sea Glass Bay in common, but they also interrelate in a manner that makes the stories not only strong individually, but also when taken as a collection they grow in sensitivity and beauty. A major tie-in is that time of year as Mother’s Day approaches, allowing the spotlight to illuminate the challenges and successes of each character’s needs. With Mother’s Day approaching, four women living in a picturesque coastal town discover a second chance at love when they nally nd their happily-ever-after partners. Each of the four contributing authors makes a strong impression in this sensitive and positive lifeenhancing book – individually and in tandem.

Feel good romance collections are too rare these days when emphasis in the media – including books! – is on social problems and discontent.

Settle in for happy-ever-after analects!

A memoir of extraordinary sensitivity, mirth, madness, setbacks and triumph, Vince opens by sharing, ‘‘My entire life I’ve been searching for beauty – in the skincare industry, in my outward appearance, and within myself….To truly understand my journey, I need to first take you back to my upbringing, through my family’s neuroses, my torments, adversities, phobias, and lovers. Each played a significant part. Only I knowing m past will you be able to understand my present.’ And from that blast off Vince escorts us through a life that is at once laudable in accomplishments, deeply touching in his personal revelations about gender preferences and extensive therapy sessions, witty and often hilarious in the manner in which he expresses his encounters, and impressive in his contributions to the beauty industry. The result – one of the most entertaining (and informative) overview of a life of significance yet to be shared in a memoir. ~Grady Harp

Canadian author Melissa Yi, the nom de plume for Melissa Yuan-Innes, MD, is a physician who works in the emergency room and whose primary interest is health education, writing columns for The Medical Post and publishing studies on medical matters.

Her mystery series – HOPE SZE MYSTERIES now is comprised of eight volumes, of which SCORPION SCHEME is Book 8. Hope Sze has become a treasured character in the hands of Melissa Yi – Sze is a medical resident in Canada whose penchant for solving mysteries provides fine fodder for the Hope Sze Mystery Series. One of the many reasons Dr Sze’s adventures ring so well is the author’s obvious gift for relating the medical information aspects of the novel with veracity, underling the credibility of her character. But it is the wit, humor, and romantic touches that align the novel with the ancient history aspects of Egypt and the intriguing mysteries unfolding that make this novel special. A first class book deserving a side readership! ~Grady Harp

~Grady Harp

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Romance

May 2021

33

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