TopShelf Magazine - Summer 2019

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books!

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FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

A Riveting Dialogue with ER Physician Turned Bestselling Author, Tom Combs Also, We Touch Base with Our Friends Sandra Brown and Daniel C. McWhorter

P. 11

P. 9 & 17

PLUS TopShelf Reviews, Marketing Advice, and More!

Summer 2019

TopShelf Reviews Nerve Damage on Page 45

“An exquisite exercise in psychological suspense... cut from the cloth woven by the likes of Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben.” ~Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author of the Murder, She Wrote series

“Chilled me to the bone.” ~Julie Gray, Just Effing Entertain Me

“Amazingly well written.” ~Dr. Olivia Dsouza, Readers’ Favorite

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On Australia’s island state, more than one species of Tasmanian Devil exists...

Beneath the surface of Nina Holt’s perfect marriage lurks a life of terror inflicted upon her by her politically powerful husband Michael and his brother Greg, a sadistic detective. For over a decade they have managed to keep Nina imprisoned, using her to satisfy their every whim.

Worse still, the only light in her life—her 9-year-old son, Sam—considers Michael a hero. When Sam imitates Michael’s violence by lashing out at her, Nina knows it is time for both of them to escape before Sam truly turns into the monster Michael is grooming him to become. After crashing her car in her haste to escape, kind motorist Case Herder offers her help.

Unaware that he has his own plans for her, Nina accepts, igniting a deadly game of cat and mouse as they flee across Tasmania with Sam. As Michael and Greg relentlessly hunt them down to Cradle Mountain, Nina finds herself with nowhere left to run. Cornered, she has no choice but to face evil head-on.

Thriller & Suspense 978-0992400408 Available Now!

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A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books!

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table of contents

masthead

interviews

CEO & Publisher

9 11 17

Sandra Brown Tom Combs Daniel C. McWhorter

columns 19 21 23 25

Could Indie Authors... HUGE Mistake?

The Ultimate Bookstore Experience TopShelf Visits Powell’s Bookstore Thrillerfest ...Is It Right For You

reviews 31 31 31 33 33 33 37 37 37 39 39 39 43 43 43 45 45 45 49 49 49

The Amazing Snowman Duel Becoming Enough The Blazing Gilded Age Blood Lake Born to Hustle Capital Kill Death Votes Last Demon King Ghosts and Shadows The Ghost Manuscript The Kitty Leave No Trace Morocco Or Bust Mother Knows Best Murder in Red Nerve Damage Once a Liar Red Hotel The Suspect The Torch Betrayal Yara’s Tawari Tree

editorial policy TopShelf Magazine is a bookseller-focused trade journal packed with the crème de la crème in indie and traditionally published authors and books. There’s no junk here!

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featuredspotlights

...books worth a closer look!

Sarah Ryan’s hope for a new life in the Arizona Territory is shattered in an instant by gunfire. Suddenly, she has to rebuild an uncertain future with her orphaned nephew, Will, and take on the challenges of a cattle ranch.

The Girl Who Knew DaVinci unravels an unforgettable mystery. Three destinies, one remarkable painting. Will her visions lead her to the truth?

Art historian Angela Renatus, is haunted by dreams of Leonardo da Vinci and a mysterious painting of Giuliano Medici and his mistress Fioretta Gorini. A painting that, as far as the world knows, doesn't exist.

Compelled by her visions, Angela is determined to find out the truth…

Genre Romance, Western Price $16.99 ISBN 978-1633557550

Genre Time Travel Romance Price $14.77 ISBN 978-1732207103

BINGO is a simple game a format for gossip, fun and occasional windfalls of cash. Yet in Woodland Park, it seems to trigger burglaries and murder.

Key personalities focus on these frightening events, among them, Bishop Leland Burkey, and Lt. Chester Devlin, each especially frustrated at their inability to calm a nervous community absorbing Muslim and Sikh arrivals. Jonas Kirk returns…

An American soldier (Richie) and a Vietnamese woman (Linh) fall in love and have a baby during the war in Vietnam. He attempts to marry Linh but fails to get permission from the Army and is then pulled out of Vietnam. They meet again in Hong Kong two decades later and achieve their ultimate destiny.

Genre Suspense, Thriller Price $23.99 ISBN 978-1546265245

Genre Romance Price $16.95 ISBN 978-1634987004

Who's the greatest basketball player ever?

When modern day twists with the old texts from the creation of time, you find a story that leads a group of friends on a journey of revelations, ones that will change their lives and possibly the world's....

It's not Michael Jordan.

Madness is the intriguing story of Hank Luisetti, the predawn of March Madness, and how modern basketball was born.

Genre Biography Price $10.99 ISBN 978-0997174113

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This book is the first in a series that will take you on a unique journey of love, lust, revenge, and betrayal.

Genre Fantasy, Romance Price $12.48 ISBN 978-0999606506

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

“Simply amazing!

I couldn't put it down.”

- Heather Hart, Christian Women Reader's Club

"Riveting... The characters are vivid and well defined, emotions are intense, and the story carries you along on a tumultuous journey. Excellent."

- Deborah Stone, 5-Star Readers' Favorite

"An un-put-down-able masterpiece… A thriller not to be missed."

- Susan Peek, bestselling author of God's Forgotten Friends novels

"Compelling reading, complex and realistic characters, unpredictable plot and solid writing."

- Ellen Gable, bestselling Christian author of Stealing Jenny, In Name Only, and A Subtle Grace

Available in Paperback. ISBN: 978-0996805704 Also available on audiobook from Tantor Audio. ISBN: 978-1977372772

www.thereseheckenkamp.com

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...books worth a closer look!

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Laurie is a very active little girl. She loves school, but she has to keep busy all the time or she starts to fidget. She loves playing soccer and she's even the captain of her soccer team. So when Laurie suddenly lacks energy and her cheeks lose their rosy glow, her parents are understandably worried. They take her to see the family doctor and he runs a bunch of tests. The results are not happy news…

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.

Genre Children’s Price $11.99 ISBN 978-2924526279

Genre Contemporary Romance Price $2.99 ISBN B076KPCB2V

Prison camp, starvation, execution...all threaten her little family.

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.

A true wartime drama based on the experience of Dorothy Joy Kinney Chambers M.D. and her family.

This is their story.

This is their story.

This sweeping biographical novel brings to life the dramatic experience of a valiant woman who, armed only with the white coat of her profession, found the courage to live her life on the razor’s edge and survived it…

Genre Women’s Biography Price $18.00 ISBN 978-1719542654

Paul Fisher's a plain man with a simple plan. Just as his life seems to settle into a seamless pattern, a beautiful Englischer shows up that could change everything he has planned for his future. A romantic relationship with Rachel Adams is forbidden, but the more time he spends with her, the more he wants to overcome every obstacle that's keeping them apart…

Genre Romance Price $10.99 ISBN 978-1541326378

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Genre Contemporary Romance Price $2.99 ISBN B076KPCB2V

A few short blocks from the safety of the museums and monuments on the National Mall, a ruthless killer prowls the streets of Washington DC. Federal prosecutor Jeff Trask joins a team of FBI agents and police detectives as they try and solve the series of brutal murders. As the body count rises, the investigation leads to a chilling confrontation with the leader of an international drug smuggling ring, and no one is safe, not even the police…

Genre Legal Thriller Price $12.50 ISBN 978-1468180213

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“Atmospheric and tense, with plenty of treachery and a heavy dose of history. What more could you ask for in a thriller?

Take a walk on the perilous side and check this one out.”

— Steve Berry NY Times, USA Today & Internationally Bestselling Author

A disgraced agent. A missing battle plan.

Will he find redemption or damage the Allies beyond repair?

London, 1942. OSS Agent Conor Thorn is desperate for a second chance. After a botched mission in Tangier, Thorn knows failure is not an option. When confidential directives for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, go missing, the agent must recover the plans before the Nazis thwart the crucial mission.

Thorn teams up with MI6 agent Emily Bright to seek out the traitor in their midst. Untangling the web of suspects leads them to Nazi sympathizers, double-crossing Soviet spies, and Vatican clergymen with motives of their own. As their mission grows more and more dangerous, Thorn and Bright have one chance to retrieve the document before it falls into enemy hands, leaving countless Allied troops in danger.

The Torch Betrayal is a high-stakes World War II thriller inspired by true events. “. . . a classic spy story in the vein of John Le Carré or Daniel Silva . . .”

— BlueInk Stared Review “ . . . In this highly entertaining tale . . .

Dyer has hit all the notes in the thriller genre . . .”

— IndieReader FiveStar Review IN

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AVAILABLE NOW! www.glenndyer.net

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featuredspotlights

...books worth a closer look!

Calling all talented students. The Shark Tooth Talent Quest is on again. Do you have what it takes to amaze an audience?

Are you a superstar in the making? Take to the stage with knife-throwing crocs, sleepdancing sloths and singing seagulls. And that's not to mention the headline act: Nora the Magnificent. But when Mischief McScruff teams up with his friends for a sea shanty gangster rap about the Hungry Hairy Sea Monster, talent quickly turns to TERROR!

At first glance, Jake, Shayna, Seneca, and Conner seem like average teens. Maybe even like some kids you know. But they're not. They know that magic, spells, and prophecies are real. In Crossroads and the Dominion of Four, author C. Toni Graham continues the tale introduced in Book 1, Crossroads and the Himalayan Crystals. The teens have accepted their fate as defenders of the Otherworld.

Genre Children’s Price $11.65 ISBN 978-0648280422

Genre Teen & YA Epic Fantasy Price $21.99 ISBN 978-1504391610

People fly beyond their limitations to perform miracles under life-threatening circumstances, just as penguins fly up from the water to land on ice at higher levels when threatened by predators lurking under the ice.

Flying Penguin helps you create such miracles in your everyday life by awakening your vast inborn human potential. It explains how to develop the six dimensions of success…

Workplace disengagement and the cost of rework around the globe is staggering. Staff are frustrated, looking for other work or even worse, they quit and stay (and the cycle continues).

In The Ego-Continuum II, Mark Robinson delves deeper into Active Leadership and the three pillars of Self-Awareness, Leadership Brand, and Effective Feedback Delivery…

Genre Motivational Self-Help Price $16.80 ISBN 978-1482852943

Genre Office Management Price $14.99 ISBN 978-0473427962

Yara lives with her Mama in the jungle. She is trying to rescue her beloved but increasingly besieged rainforest home.

When Yara falls gravely ill, the forest returns the love and saves Yara's life.

Perfect for ages 3 to 7, Neat Freaks is a rollicking adventure about what happens at night when kids don't clean up their toys before bed. Hint, the Neat Freaks come out to play ... and to clean in a most unexpected way!

Written in rhyme and featuring gorgeous watercolor illustrations by Joanna Pasek, this is the first book in a new series…

Genre Children’s Price Available July 1, 2019 ISBN 978-0997389951

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Genre Children’s Price Available June 29, 2019 ISBN B07RTXYMC7

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

interviews

What would you like readers to know?

I would like to be known for, is that I have worked hard for a long time. I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to be able to do what I love and make a living at it for as long as I have. Someone asked me recently, what do you consider your most outstanding achievement and it can’t be kids or marriage or anything like that, it had had to career related, and I said longevity because our industry has changed so radically since I began. I am very fortunate to have managed to stay in the industry and to remain viable.

I consider that not so much an achievement as it is a tremendous blessing because it been a struggle at times. I have moved from category genre books into more mainstreams. I went from strictly romance into mysteries and suspense and thrillers. So with all these slight transitions, I’ve been fortunate enough to pursue and continue. That’s something that I would like readers to know. It has been a lot of hard work. But I’m very grateful to still be here after all this time.

As if the craft of writing weren't hard enough, you also have to pay attention to the business aspects of it. I don’t find that nearly as enjoyable. It's

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Its very hard. I think its harder really because there’s was a certain night when I first began. I thought gosh if I published one book I’ll be so happy. Well, of course. Then it was number two then can I do three and then can I do four and now its like can I do seventy eight. So for me, I’m never quite there.

People say gosh it must be so easy now. Are you kidding its so much harder. Not only am I in competition with every other fiction writer on the face of the earth but I’m also in competition with the last seventy eight Sandra Browns. So your last book has to be as good but better than the last one as so and every book that I’m working on, every book thats still in my computer is the worst thing I’ve ever written. Its like the self-doubt just eats at me all the time and I think in a way that the fear factions is healthy and motivating. I think its the complacency is anathema because if you ever complacent, if you’re ever satisfied with where you are then you’re never getting better. You’re never improving. I’m constantly striving to try something new. The one thing in this book that that you’ve never done before and see if you can pull it off. If I don’t challenge myself like that then the writing will get stale, readers will stop reading. So I’m trying to constantly come p with something different and fresh while maintaining whatever it is that keeps them reading Sandra Brown. The remaining three to five voices but doing it in a different way with a different character. Thats another thing, I’ve never written a series for the very reason that I think I would become very bored with that.

It would have been a whole lot waiter for the publisher to market me, to sell me, and to sell television rights and the rights knowledge that had I had one character. But I was never interested, it never interested me. Once I close out the story and locked it up, I’m ready to start with something entirely different. I admire my colleagues who do

So would that be your advice to aspiring authors? To use a lot of dialogue?

SUMMER2019

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-nine New York Times bestsellers, including Seeing Red, Sting, Friction, Mean Streak, Deadline, Low Pressure, Lethal, and the critically acclaimed Rainwater. Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-three languages. Brown recently was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer's Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.

How much work is required––even as a tremendously successful author, as yourself––to maintain this level of success?

that and do it so well. They keep the character constantly evolving, I suppose thats how they do it, but I have never been interested in that. So with each book that starts, I start from scratch. Yeah, I think its harder and also harder to do with all the outlets now and with all of the devices you have to adapt to that too. I think that writing has evolved in that I use dialogue every possible way to convey information because readers now a days want it.

We all have the Twitter mentality, if it cant be told in a hundred and forty characters then I’m on to something else. We have the attention span of a two year old or less. Its got to be quick, its got the be fast moving and you’ve got to get information across from one side of an exposition and narrative and now try to get as much dialogue as possible because thats what the reader wants.

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essential, and the challenging part is that it's ever changing. It's ever evolving; it changes every day.

We’re still on the learning curve of what’s going on between the shake out between the print books and e-books. How do we adjust? How do we market?

And all of these things so at a time when you think, veteran writers, such as myself, could be able just to sit back and enjoy the craft. We still have to pursue all of these business decisions. I think that presents itself to be a challenge not only to new writers but to those of us who have been in the business forever.

The industry that we know now is not anything like what it used to be thirty years ago. Its quantum leaps and so we have to adjust and deal and reprogram.

Sometimes just getting away, which I do two or three times a year, and doing nothing, just unplugging and writing. Everyone says, oh gosh you’re going to be working the whole time your there, and I’ll go, but I’m going to work on the part that I love. Working strictly, I’m just writing, and that’s like the best vacation. If it's all, I had to do.

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INTERVIEWS

My advice to new authors is to write from your gut because I could wax poetic for hows its doe and actually nobody knows how its done. If you were to ask the next person you interview how they do it, everything that I said would be different totally different. Its so subjective. I am very analytical about my writing but when I turn on the keyboard it comes from a part of me separate from the thinking Sandra Brown. Does that make sense?

I know it doesn’t make sense because it comes from another stream of consciousness.

I’ll go back and read, well, certainly books, but I’ll go back and read work done just a few days before and I’ll go… I don’t even remember writing that. I think the main thing that writers and aspiring writers need to pay attention to is not to pay attention to anybody else. I think its to pay attention to what come from your gut. If you want to make a business out of it, ultimately, you’re going to have to be willing to make adaptations. You’re going to have to be willing to give a little here and give a little there. because its not going to be perfect. I’ve know a lot of gifted writers who cut off their nose to spite their face simply because they would never take the advice of a really good editor or a really good reader who said you kind of lost me on this part. They get their back up and get so defensive. Keep in mind thats the first reader, so if they’re not getting it they’re going to represent a hundred thousand people. So, why wouldn’t you get with an editor that you trust and sooner or later you’re going to have to write it to where its marketable. I think the best writing a writer does comes from the best plot twists I didn’t plan. They characters were in the moment and they did something and I went OH MY GOD i can’t believe that just happened. I feel like its not so much a creator as an excavator. I discover the stories there. The story is there, its living in my head, I’ve just got to bring it out.

Read more of this and other interviews at

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SUMMER2019

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featuredspotlights

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...books worth a closer look!

Facing extinction, the MetalHorned Unicorns of MarBryn are desperate for hope. Any hope. . .

A lady with a dark secret refuses to marry the man of her dreams in order to protect him... but will he let her?After returning to London from his Grand Tour, serious-minded Jeremy St. Clair, the Marquess of Sather, attends a ball and meets a luminescent beauty who draws him out of his shell.

They share a searing kiss—her first—and though he never planned to wed, Jeremy desires to make this young woman his…

Genre Mythology & Folk Tales Price $14.99 ISBN 978-1535455992

Genre Regency Romance Price $11.99 ISBN 978-1092602433

Stop stressing and learn to chill with this mindfulness and meditation guidebook that can help workaholics and others let go of anxiety and achieve and maintain the healthy work/life balance they need.

Aaron Reece Caydon has repeated this mantra every day of his life from the age of four. He looks into the mirror and slowly turns his head to look at the scar running across the side of his face. A furrow begins to grow between his eye, an anger that takes his mind to a dark an unforgiving place. He screams and slams his fist into his reflection, causing the mirror to fracture…

If you enjoyed reading Lord of the Rings, Alice In Wonderland or even Watership Downs, you will love this book about a tribe of unicorns stranded a universe away from the home world of Unimaise. This is a purely fanciful unicorn fantasy full of magic and science and adventure.

Genre Self-Help, Motivational Price $22.99 ISBN 978-0062896018

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Genre Crime Thriller Price $17.95 ISBN 978-1635052145

Joe Gerrard was interested in sharing his knowledge of World War II bombers at the History Extravaganza until his dream topic was assigned to a girl, studious Sandi Howard. She wanted music of the 1940's, not aircraft. Neither could have predicted how their unwanted assignments would bring them together, solve a mystery and uncover forgotten history in the process.

A panoramic tale as uniquely American as Franklin Roosevelt and Al Capone.

A multi-generational saga of loyalty and deceit, law breakers and enforcers, and families torn apart or bound together in a one-hundredyear battle for survival.

American History is a historical novel and epic crime novel in the tradition of East of Eden, The Immigrants and The Godfather.

Genre Teens Price $9.99 ISBN 978-1723432231

Genre Thriller, Suspense Price $18.95 ISBN 978-1946502704

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

interviews

Tell us about your experience as an ER physician; what a fascinating topic!

Working in emergency medicine in a big city, level I trauma hospital is intense. The challenges are continuous and time-pressured. One never knows what’s going to arrive via ambulance, rescue helicopter, or personal transport (occasionally a gunshot victim dumped out the door of a moving car at the ER entrance).

No matter what desperate illness or injury presents it is the emergency physician’s responsibility to make the immediate and appropriate response. It is a daunting challenge.

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How did you go from a successful ER physician to becoming a writer?

SUMMER2019

Tom Combs is an as an award-winning now retired emergency physician whose 25 years working in level one Trauma center ERs provided the foundation for his best-selling medical suspensethriller series. A Minnesota kid from a big family, Tom was a bit of a goof-off in high school and characterized the “major” for his early college years as “misdirected studies”. Maturation happened, he met his wife and settled down with he dream of becoming a physician. He worked his way through college doing jobs using jackhammers, chainsaws, and heavy machinery. A biochemistry degree, work as a research assistant in pharmacology and a job as a technical writer led up to his dream-come-true acceptance to medical school. Tom discovered the relatively new specialty of Emergency Medicine as an intern and his career path was clear. His tools became the stethoscope, scalpel and other instruments of the emergency medicine specialist.

Specialty training included 3 years as a flight physician for helicopter rescue. Following 25 years working in metropolitan level one trauma center ERs the opportunity for him to indulge his passion for writing presented. His current tools of choice are the keyboard and a fertile imagination.

ones who I have met in the high-stakes world of the ER inspire me.

I was fortunate to have teamed with such amazing people and to have been a part of so many people’s lives. The opportunity to have helped is among my life’s greatest satisfactions. It is easy to understand how dramatic interventions that saved lives are rewarding but I also learned that being kind and helping a mentally ill, substanceabusing homeless person who has nothing could be similarly meaningful.

In my writing I attempt to create stories involving characters readers care about in fast-paced engaging stories. My ER experience allows me an authentic and special perspective that informs my writing and that readers seem to enjoy.

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A TOPSHELF EXCLUSIVE WITH TOM COMBS

It is both exciting and sobering to know that at any moment if something terrible happens to anyone in your community that they will be raced to you to do what can be done. Emergency medicine is shift work and round-the-clock. It is commonplace that within the first five minutes of being at work challenges as desperate as a crashing newborn, several multiple trauma victims, a person dying of respiratory distress or any of too numerous to list life or death problems can arrive.

Due to the skills and teamwork among medics, emergency nurses, physicians and many others there are oftentimes dramatic successes – lives are saved and suffering relieved.

Unfortunately there are also the distressingly frequent deaths, tragic accidents and illnesses, where the damage can not reversed. The terrible burden that patients and their loved ones experience is shared by the emergency team. It is part of every shift.

The ER is the ultimate safety-net for our communities. In my early exposure as a medical student I learned of the very large number of people who live a life totally unlike anything I had been exposed to. Poverty, mental health issues, substance abuse, and criminal activity was much more frequent/commonplace than I recognized based in my fortunate upbringing.

The ER exposes caregivers to aspects of our world that are completely unlike what most people have any familiarity with.

At times in my years it was rare that I could get through a shift without a gunshot victim arriving by ambulance.

When patients have profound mental health crises the ER is where they are taken for help.

When an individual is too violent or out of control for police to manage they are brought to the emergency room. People in the community who are suffering or without any support and who are in crisis are brought to the emergency room.

Most everyone in the United States has experience with emergency rooms and oftentimes the events involved are among the most powerful in their or loved ones’ lives. I spent twenty-five years working with others to make outcomes the best possible. It involved being exposed to emotions that were blast-furnace intense.

As an emergency physician was my good fortune to work with the very special people.

Police, fire/rescue, emergency medical services, medics, emergency nurses, and many more these are people who respond when illness, trauma or tragedy strike. Oftentimes we are able to help and those times make it all worthwhile. That is what drives these special people who are out there 24/7/365 for us all. I was honored to be a part of those efforts.

Successful fiction writings involves characters that readers care about, high stakes, and trigger emotional engagement. My emergency medicine experience immersed me in real life drama and emotion of the greatest intensity. The people I have worked with and the patient’s, families and loved

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INTERVIEWS

I had an experience on the other side of critical care medicine. An aneurysm (abnormal blood vessel) in my brain burst causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage (more than 50% fatality rate). I was treated in the Stabilization Room of the ER I worked at. I then spent ten days in the neuro-trauma ICU that I do not recall.

I was lucky. Survivor’s of brain bleeds are frequently left with significant stroke damage. My residual issues were not movement or coordination but aspects of memory and concentration. I could not read for the first few months and had other issues with concentration and multi-tasking. With time and work I improved dramatically though I was unable to continue as an emergency physician(memory and multitasking essential). I was able to regain full reading skills and began studies in creative writing.

I enrolled at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and completed over thirty writing courses, conferences and seminars over the next six years. In that time I began Nerve Damage (book one of my series), wrote extensively and secured a top-notch editor.

How has your experience as an ER physician helped with your writing?

The real-world, human drama that was part of my life for so long fuels my writing. The stakes were high and the emotional aspects intense. I interacted everyday with people who were facing crises. Disease, trauma, mental illness, behavioral emergencies, crime (both victims and criminals) and the worst of what occurs in society visits the ER. The patients and families show incredible courage and too often face heart-breaking loss – that is what I was a part of.

Additionally my work teamed me with police, fire/rescue, medics, emergency nurses, physicians of every specialty, and more. The people who are there to help others when things are at their worst are inspiring.

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SUMMER2019

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...books worth a closer look!

Betrayed by an ambitious traitor to The Realm and doomed to an unimaginable fate, Prince Kirin of Greynor seeks to avenge his father’s name—not knowing whether the King is alive or dead. Cursed to live a half-life as both man and dragon, Kirin finds his situation advantageous to his cause until he stumbles upon a massacre where his boyhood friend—a Nephilim named Tyriel—lies horribly maimed and barely alive…

Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the protest era of the early 1970s, a gripping novel of a power, corruption, injustice, courage, and hope–– and one tenacious young man whose determination to overturn the system holds unexpected consequences for his own life.

Genre Fairy Tales Price $2.99 ISBN B07RLQMZPN

Genre General Fiction Price $16.95 ISBN 978-0999066546

A multiple award-winning book that describes a unique investment strategy that teaches investors how to consistently and safely generate a substantial passive income stream in all market conditions. It is important to note that although there are numerous investment strategies in the arsenal of every investor, adding private mortgages to the investment mix can reduce volatility by adding a non-correlated component to the investor's overall investment portfolio.

A family becomes an assassin’s target after a crime lord’s sister is brutally murdered in Kaylin McFarren’s latest erotic, psychological thriller.

Genre Business & Money Price $24.95 ISBN 978-1612443447

Genre Thriller, Suspense Price $13.95 ISBN 978-1975921354

When Trish is dragged along to mingle with Tabitha’s new boss and his family, she is introduced to a strangely familiar man with rogue good looks. Diego holds all of Dallas in his hands. It will take all the faith, prayer, and patience Trish can muster as she straddles the line between the Michelli family and everyone else. Will Trish overcome her fears and learn to trust Diego? Or will Diego’s past prove too strong of a pull for him to leave behind?

In the first book of this new series, Sage Stone and his twin sister Hanah have no idea how their lives will change on the day that Sage is chosen by the Thunder Beings. He is brought back from the brink of death by their Grandfather Jack, the shaman of the Tachi nation.

The tragic death of their father is still raw as the twins are sent on a dangerous adventure to fight the darkness…

Genre Christian Romance Price $16.49 ISBN 978-1498451796

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“Wild World is a crime novel, a love story, and a mystery all rolled into one…well written and keeps your attention.” ~Peace Corps Journal

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree 2018 Global Ebook Award 2018 eLit Book Award 2018 Feathered Quill Book Award • 2017 NYC Big Book Award Winner • • • •

Genre Children’s Folk Tales Price $12.99 ISBN 978-1732242227

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

Overview In a story taken from current headlines, a successful Beverly Hills hedge fund manager is pulled into a violent battle among China’s Red Nobility for control of billions of dollars in hidden wealth. It’s a battle that may cost him his business, his family, and his life.

ISBN (Paperback) 978-1504962698

www.gregorysellerauthor.com

“Delightfully Imaginative!” ~Book Viral Spotlight Review

“A must-read for everyone.”

~Trisha Dawn for Readers' Favorite

“A powerful story of good battling evil.

Highly recommended.” ~Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Samuel Buckland is a young man who has it all and is planning for the future. Gregory Caitlin is a businessman and politician. He has designs to bring hope back to a world in need...and he'll be damned if anyone gets in his way! When the two cross paths, even the angels tremble. An ancient magic has been rediscovered. Sam must overcome his lack of faith and accept his destiny, or the world he knows will suffer the consequences. A skeptic who must harness the powers of demons and genies. A zealot who has begun to walk a darker path.

Bound together by a stolen secret. Can any of them escape the Chains of Prophecy?

www.jasonpatrickcrawford.com 978-0996055802

interviews

The victims of illness, trauma and crime and those dedicated to helping them people my books. The people and experiences of my ER career are a rich source for my writing.

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

Your work is high-quality and likely could have been picked up by a traditional publisher. What ultimately lead to you choosing to self-publish?

As I shared in my answer to an earlier question I started writing after surviving a near-death experience. The traditional publishing path involves significant application effort and agent pursuit before a book can get in a publisher’s hands. Additionally I learned from writing colleagues and blogs that it is not uncommon for a book to take two years before release if and when accepted by a publisher. It was also communicated that many traditional publishers no longer are able to provide significant editing, marketing support, or sizable contracts.

I’m impatient by nature and was very eager to get a top-quality book in readers’ hands. I did not skip any steps in study, preparation or editing - my books are professional in all respects but I did not pursue agents or a traditional publishing contract.

There are major trade-offs. At this point in my career I view the primary distribution networks that the traditional publishers control with envy.

I’ve created books that readers identify they greatly enjoy but it is a major challenge increasing readership as an independent author.

Being responsible for publishing involves learning new skills and investing time. Effective marketing is a challenge and I am thankful to have teamed up with TopShelf as an excellent resource.

Traditional or independent publishing? it is a tough call and dependent on each individual’s inclination.

Has self-publishing been a positive or negative experience?

It’s been hugely gratifying to have released three books and have tens of thousands of readers. I’d

SUMMER2019

Introduce us to Drake Cody. Is this series protagonist fashioned after you?

Drake Cody is a young emergency physician and medical researcher. His past is one that no physician is allowed to have.

He’s married to Rachelle and they have two young children. He is dedicated to his family, his patients, his medical research and feels responsible for any who are abused by persons in power. His fundamental makeup is that of a protector.

His past includes terrible hardship and loss. His passion to protect others and capacity for violence has cost him greatly. He has difficulty controlling his passions and his work in the ER frequently places him in the middle of major conflicts with powerful individuals and institutions. He is incapable of ignoring injustice or those being victimized.

He finds the life-or-death challenges of the ER both gratifying and terrifying. He is immensely skilled and respected in the hospital yet his make-up and troubled history drive him relentlessly. He is constantly battling to meet his responsibilities as a physician, a husband and father, a medical researcher, and more.

He is both driven and haunted by personal loss and what he has been forced to do in the past.

He revels in the ER “saves”, helping others, and those times Rachelle and the kids are happy and secure. When he sees anyone victimized his anger and capacity for violence are sometimes beyond his control. He fears what he is capable of but also, fundamentally, is at a base level gratified to deliver primal justice .

Is Drake fashioned after me? I have to say in some ways yes, though he is much better than I. His professional self, approach to patient care and appreciation of his coworkers is something I share.

I suspect, as for many authors, there are number of my characters that are in some respects “me”.

An amusing and potentially troublesome situation arises when people I know or have worked with believe that other characters in my series represent individuals they and I know.

Virtually all of the characters in my stories have been inspired by patients, coworkers, or

You have three novels: Wrongful Deaths, Hard to Breathe, and Nerve Damage. Can you tell us a little about number four?

The new story will include more headlines reflecting content. I’ve been very interested in Ebola epidemic from 2014 to the present. I’ve spoken several times on the radio regarding this threat both in the earlier West African outbreak and the immensely dangerous outbreak that is now raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The issue of terrorism and, as always, the overwhelming power of greed, corruption and ugliness in the “business” of modern medicine will play a part. Additionally romance, redemption, and the influence of the media will be key. First and foremost it is a story of characters facing critical challenges and desperate circumstances.

like to think that if I had pursued a traditional contract I would’ve been published but that can’t be known for sure.

Traditional publishing has pros and cons.

Deadlines, some lack of autonomy, and the long time involved in production and book release are negatives. Conversely greater exposure, potentially more marketing, less of my writing time taken up by the business of publishing and the potential for a greater readership (especially print books) look very appealing to me at this time.

I’ve met a lot of great people and have had wonderful reader support. That being said I suspect I’m like a lot of other authors where oftentimes the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. Whether traditional or independently published the thing I desire most is a large number of readers who genuinely enjoy my work. That is more important than money, prestige or anything else. I truly value every satisfied reader and that is what drives me to continue.

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How hard is it to put medical terms into a language people can understand?

I work very hard to make my work accessible to those who have no medical or science background yet compelling for nurse-readers and others who are medical experts. I use authentic language (can’t have dialog such as “hey nurse give me that sharp cutting thing”) but always include context or parallel description that makes it totally clear to the reader what is involved.

Additionally of benefit is that my excellent editor is not familiar with medical matters and does not have a science background – she provides a foolproof screen.

acquaintances, but none of them “are” anyone I’ve known. I often take a unique feature or trait of an individual I know or have interacted with and create a hybrid character incorporating that.

If the unique feature is recognizable to others and the hybrid fictional character is a jerk, murderer or otherwise evil, it can be awkward.

TOPShelf

INTERVIEWS

How important would you say marketing is for self-published authors?

That marketing and discovery are hugely important as is self-evident. My philosophical joke-line is “if an author writes a book and no one reads it, does a tree fall in the forest?”

Tips I would offer are try not to let marketing and the business of publishing rob you of too much writing time and energy. The quality of the books you create is what is overwhelmingly most important.

My second tip is to hook up with the great folks at TopShelf magazine!

How much time do you put into promoting your book?

It’s varied from book to book and I can’t quantify…more than I’d like.. Unfortunately, I feel that the time required for marketing and other non-writing chores slows my book creation time and can be an energy drain.

How do you interact your readers and do you enjoy getting feedback?

I do a number of speaking events such as library fundraisers, and upcoming event with the Minnesota Medical Association, and a 100 member local book club/philanthropic organization. I never turn down a local book club as those gatherings are great fun and become a better writer. I also include contact information in each of my books and have received a large number of communications that have been particularly enjoyable. As I’ve stated it’s all about the reader experience for me and when I receive reports of someone’s appreciation of my work it makes me a very happy fellow.

Read more of this and other interviews at

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

TOPShelf magazine

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featuredspotlights

...books worth a closer look!

Bridget takes refuge in wacky misunderstandings of Bible Stories and Catholic beliefs to avoid problems in her Irish/ Italian family life. Her musings on sadistic nuns, domestic violence, emerging sexuality, and God the Father's romantic life will delight readers. Bridget creates glorious supernatural worlds--with exorcisms, bird relics, Virgin Martyrs, time travel, Biblical plagues, even the 'holy' in holy water…

When modern-day twists with the old texts from the creation of time, you find a story that leads a group of friends on a journey… The love of Alexander’s life was dying. And he’d do anything to save her.

Even if that included treason.

Even if it included defying the God he’d sworn to obey. In a race against time, Alexander scours the multiverse for the three gatekeepers who blocked the way to the only cure.

Genre Humor Price $18.95 ISBN 978-1937818326

Genre Romance Price $12.75 ISBN 978-0999606513

Sara Lee Jacobs has been overweight her entire lonely life. Peggy Jenkins-Hall sacrificed her hard-earned figure to her third and final child. Both women are obsessed with their weight and enroll in an exclusive diet program called Sunrise, which touts an incredible success rate. They soon understand why. Instead of the usual starvation and aerobic exercise, they are coupled with gorgeous men in a Paradise-like setting where they receive undivided attention and plenty of TLC.

A Blazing Gilded Age is the epic story of a volatile nation burning with ambition, yet bleeding with injustice. It was a time of profound change; boldly transforming from an agrarian backwater into an industrial powerhouse.

Genre Humor & Satire Price $10.89 ISBN 978-1521179581

Genre Action & Adventure Price $34.95 ISBN 978-0981762562

A Dystopian Urban Fantasy Desperate times have come to Emma Maya Ando’s country. A totalitarian regime with no tolerance for deviation has marginalized thousands.

Neither physical exceptionality nor freedom of thought has a place. All is conformity. But Maya doesn’t conform, and time is running out on her ability to conceal her condition. Can Maya find a cure before she is swept up in a purge… or will she take her secret to the grave?

Genre Science Fiction Price $13.00 ISBN 978-1724958648

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Both powerful and poignant, “A Blazing Gilded Age" serves as an entertaining and enlightening read of how and why America has gone astray, and why it became a world leader.

In this first volume of her humorous, sharp-witted and brutally honest memoir, Squitiro welcomes the reader into her journey of selfdiscovery and perseverance.

Stand with her on the edge of reason and certainty as she travels with her family to live a cost-free summer of selfdiscovery in Europe…

Genre Humor, Biography Price $14.95 ISBN 978-1732721609

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

interviews

book is a mistake, you just need to be thoughtful about when and why you do it!

Daniel C. McWhorter (“Dan” to everyone who knows him) is an avid reader and life-long science fiction and fantasy fan who has long dreamed about writing for a living. As is the case for many of us, the realities of life took him in a different direction and his dream was put on hold while he worked to achieve successful careers in telecom, software engineering and talent development. In 2017, Dan decided to leave corporate America and start writing. His first book, Restoration, was the result.

Dan lives in the beautiful mountains of North Georgia with his wife and three dogs. When he's not writing, he likes to hike, boat, fish and experience the exceptional beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If the weather is bad, you may find him online playing the current MMO flavor of the month or banging away on his Xbox controller. For more information about Dan and previews of his upcoming works, please visit www.danmcwhorter.com.

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?

I'm a proponent of giveaways. You've got to do something to get your book in people's hands, and most people are willing to try just about anything if it's free. I don't do it to raise my rank so much as to start a buzz--I need people to write reviews and tell their friends about my book. That said, you don't want to overly devalue your work. If your book is always free then people will assume its that price for a reason (eg. poor quality). I spread my giveaways out so that people that got my book in a giveaway will feel like they got a deal. The same thing goes for books that are perpetually 99 cents.

I priced my e-book at $2.99 because 1) I feel it's a fair price for a quality product from a new author and 2) I want my promotions to mean something.

So, to summarize, I don't think giving away your

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

How do you feel about self-publishing in today's market? Is it a good idea? Or should authors still be trying to find an agent and get traditionally published?

I think it's awesome. I am not averse to traditional publishing, but I think that it's entirely possible to achieve breakout success without being signed by one of the "Big Five".

The advantages that any publisher (indie or traditional) brings to the table are: experience, reach (ie. distribution and audience size) and resources. It's almost a certainty that you are going to need a publisher at some point in your writing career, but many indie authors are doing just fine acting as their own publisher and/or partnering with other indie publishers for certain services (like editing, reviews, promo/marketing, etc).

In a bookstore or library what do you think makes a patron pick up a book and want to take a closer look?

Cover and placement. The book cover has to grab the reader's attention, and the book has to be placed somewhere that's easy to see and that shows the cover off in all its glory. Good lighting never hurts either.

What can a bookstore or library do to encourage patrons to pick up a specific book and check it out?

Ask questions. Find out what your customers are

How do you work with an editor without pride making a guest appearance like Jack Nicholson in The Shining?

All feedback is a gift. I appreciate the harshest criticism as much as I do the most effusive praise, and I learned a long time ago that I learn far more from the criticism! A good editor's job is to point out opportunities for improvement. It's up to you to decide if you are going to take their advice and make the changes they are suggesting. Never ever take it personally. They aren't trying to offend you, they are trying to help you!

SUMMER2019

A TOPSHELF EXCLUSIVE WITH DANIEL C. MCWHORTER

On the flip side, what is the best part of what you do? That one thing that makes the answer to the last question worth every minute of it?

I love story-telling. I love being able to create a world, fill it with interesting, believable characters and send them on amazing journeys through their fictional lives. But what I love most of all, and the reason why I aspire to be a successful author, is that moment when someone tells me that they read my book and they enjoyed it. I like bringing people joy, and writing is the means I've chosen to reach the greatest number of people possible.

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What is the most difficult part by far about your craft? What's the one thing about being an author you wish you did not have to do?

Marketing and marketing! I touched on it a little in a previous question, but marketing is hard work and takes a lot of time. Doing this interview is a great example. It's taken me a couple of hours to come up with thoughtful answers to these questions, but I am investing the time because I believe that people like to know about the authors they follow. If I could figure out how to pump out best-seller after best-seller without ever doing a bit of marketing you can believe that I would do it!

interested in and then make meaningful recommendations. Think in terms of Amazon's "Customers who bought this also bought..." feature. Your recommendation means more if you've taken time to get to know me, even a little. And I am more likely to buy the book you suggest if it is, in fact, interesting and relevant to me!

TOPShelf

INTERVIEWS

How should an author divide their time between writing and marketing?

I aim for 60 percent writing and 40 percent marketing, but some weeks marketing gets 60%. I don't know what the right number is, but this ratio seems to work for me. I make good progress on my new book, and I continue to drive sales of my existing book and grow my readership.

What steps should an author take to build their platform?

Know yourself and know your brand. The most successful authors find a niche and then build on their strength in that space. It's rare to find an author who is successful in multiple genres, at least at the beginning of their career, so I suggest pick one and stick with it. You can always try out other genres later, after you've achieved success in one of them. Don't try to be all things to all people.

Know your audience, know what they like and give it to them!

Do you edit and proofread your own work at all or do you just write it and hand it off to an editor?

I edit and proofread extensively because I don't want my editor wasting time finding and marking up the obvious stuff. Editing is expensive, but its money well spent and you have to do it. Even still, I don't want to pay someone to spend their time finding all the really obvious typos and grammatical errors that I can (and should) catch myself with a re-read or two (or twenty, as the case may be).

Read more of this and other interviews at

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

TOPShelf magazine

SUMMER2019

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INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

A lady with a dark secret refuses to marry the man of her dreams in order to protect him... but will he let her?




Dragonblade Publishing, Inc. ISBN (Paperback) 978-1092602433

www.AlexaAston.com

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posted an article on their website stating that retail sales at bookstores are on the incline still today.

As the CEO and Publisher of a publishing company and literary magazine, and previous owner of several independent hobby/bookstores, it’s my personal and professional experience that booksellers across America are eager to discover and help manifest the next bestselling indie author. Authors need to understand that each one of the thousands of independent bookstores and public libraries across America could become a mouthpiece for their book.

All it takes is a well written, carefully edited, beautifully designed, and strategically marketed book and it is entirely possible to win over a few hundred bookstores and their staff. That's only 5% of the total U.S. bookseller market. And these booksellers can often act like personal publicists, promoting an author’s book across social media as well as in their bookstores. Only when this happens will an author truly start to see a

bookstores... that means something. This sudden movement of physical books could cause Amazon (as well as other online booksellers) to amp up their promotions of your book, and it could also spawn the curiosity of traditional publishers, opening other, even bigger possibilities. But this will never happen so long as authors continue that same old routine of giving all their time and money to websites promising the world, only to give away their books.

That’s where TopShelf Magazine can help.

We utilize the influence of the growing TopShelf brand to help authors of all levels get the attention they so desperately need and deserve. And when indie authors list their books in TopShelf Magazine, they know that true and committed professionals are standing behind them, promoting their books across all of the same websites and social media platforms major releases are promoted on.

Booksellers are tremendously busy people. As much as they may desire it,

return on their investment.

I hear it all the time, “But, Keith, I just don’t make enough money selling wholesale.” This statement drives me out of my mind. It simply makes no sense. These are sales that would never have materialized without the wholesale market. Who cares if you only make $1.75 a book instead of $3.00. These are brand new sales, which are almost inevitable in the long run to increase your ebook sales. Not to mention, this could cause Amazon to take notice. After all, they pay attention to the sale of print books just as much as ebooks.

When an unknown author starts selling thousands of books through brick-and-mortar

they simply cannot sift through the hundreds-of-thousands of independent book titles published in America each year.

Therefore, booksellers rely heavily on bookstore industry resources, such as TopShelf Magazine to get the information they need to make invaluable decisions on which books to investigate further. Authors need to realize that alienating over half of their potential sales market and losing out on hundreds of potential mouthpieces, could be a HUGE mistake.

magazine SUMMER2019

COULD INDIE AUTHORS BE MAKING A HUGE MISTAKE?

TOPShelf

COLUMNS

by Keith Katsikas (CEO & Publisher at TopShelf) Twitter @TopShelfPub | KeithKatsikas.com

An author can spend countless hours and thousands of dollars giving their books away on sites like BookBub hoping that it will boost their rank enough for readers to find them on Amazon, and still, that may never be sufficient to create the attention needed to sell books.

All the while many indie authors are neglecting a massive, expanding market. Indie bookstores are back with a passion, says The New York Times. CBS News reports, Indie bookstores see growth for the seventh straight year. According to the American Booksellers Association, independent bookstores in the United States are thriving, up over 27% since 2009. The ABA’s chief executive, Oren Teicher told The New York Times, American indie bookshops have filled the vacuum left by big box bookstores like Borders (which went out of business in 2011) and Barnes & Noble (which has closed hundreds of stores). They have also capitalized on a spirit of localism and urban renewal that is coursing through some American cities. “The enthusiasm and optimism is pretty staggering,” Mr. Teicher said. “Despite all the quantum leaps in technology, the fact is nothing beats a physical, bricks-and-mortar store to discover books that you didn’t know about.”

But this is more than just an increase in the number of bookstores thriving across America. Perhaps even more shocking is the growing volume of bookstore sales as compared to a stagnating ebook market. In 2015, national sales in independent bookstores were up more than 10%, said ABA spokesman Dan Cullen. And the ABA

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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SUMMER2019

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featuredspotlights

...books worth a closer look!

Based in part on a True Story, THE RIGEL AFFAIR produces a fast-paced Romantic Thriller that delivers the reader to the heart of the war that changed history.

This unforgettable novel of tears, triumph, and bloodshed will stick with you long after you turn the final page. Fans who like James Patterson, Eoin Dempsey, Danielle Steele, or Nora Roberts will love The Rigel Affair!

An autobiographical account of one US Marine Reservists tours as a Mortuary Affairs Marine.

His story begins in 2002 as an everyday postal letter carrier in Springfield, Ohio when he gets the call to muster. In the next three years, his life is thrust onto the world stage as an active participant in combat. His unique experiences as an MA (Mortuary Affairs) Marine puts him and his fellow teammates directly into the path of war.

Told in first person view…

Genre Romantic Thriller Price $14.95 ISBN 978-0473474874

Genre Memoir Price $22.99 ISBN 978-1546604938

Some wounds heal.

Others leave scars.

A global spectacle of triumph and anguish...

A grand pageant of violence and drama...

But in the future, and with its first female superstar...

Four years ago, Charlene Perigard survived a brutal kidnapping. Now at twentytwo, she's put that trauma behind her for a promising future with handsome firefighter Ben Jorgensen. But when new trauma strikes, a new nightmare begins…

America's pastime is much more than a game...

It is a tool used to change the world!

Genre Christian Romance Price $13.99 ISBN 978-0996805704

Genre Sports Fiction Price $23.49 ISBN 978-1643163727

One dead girl.

Born to Hustle follows the lives of identical twin brothers as they learn to survive their abusive upbringing by identifying with fictional conmen, imitating behaviors of gangsters and secret agents, to become the bad-ass boys in black. With no one to protect them, the twins grow up fearful of attachments to anyone else but each other. When one brother becomes involved with a female grifter, their differences become apparent, and threatens their relationship.

One broken hero.

A sorceress and a serial killer.

One massive conspiracy.

Who will prevail?

A transgender teen goes missing, but Charlie Starker, LA's most respected and feared private investigator thinks the girl may have been murdered….

Genre Psychic Suspense Price $24.98 ISBN 978-1684540181

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TOPShelf magazine

Genre General Fiction Price $16.95 ISBN 978-0692192436

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

columns

Twitter @TopShelfPub | BeckyKatsikas.com

customers to have a review dangling beneath local authors? Odds are your customers will at least pick the book up to see what all the fuss is about.

Cross-Market Books by the Same Author If a popular author has a new book out, make sure to have copies of their older stuff on hand. This prevents customers from going to chain bookstores or online retailers.

Free WiFi Customer’s love to wander aimlessly up and down the aisles, so why not give them a comfy chair and free WIFI? It will enable them to read reviews on their next book purchase.

Have a Cafe It's a fact that a cafes bring people into your store. It's also a good idea to partner with a local bakery to provide a variety of pastries. Place big comfy chairs,

Use Shelf Talkers Have you ever walked around a bookstore and gone outside your norm? How helpful would it be for you to come upon a handwritten note stating why the bookseller loved the book it's dangling beneath? Do you think it would be helpful to your

several tables and make sure the area is well lit. This will enable customers to browse through books and magazines while sipping on coffee.

SUMMER2019

by Becky Katsikas (EVP, Marketing Director at TopShelf)

Partner with Other Local Businesses Host a local business event. Partner with the local bakery to sell their goods and offer coffee and tea to your customers. Have a bulletin board with advertisements of local businesses.

Remind people that if you don’t support local businesses then your neighborhood could become something completely different in time.

Partner with Local Self-published Authors Help them sell their books to the community. Have self-published authors come and do readings and book signings.

Don’t Put Bargain Books Right in Front of the Store No one wants to see an often messy section of books and toys that nobody wants. The discounted section is often my favorite section of a store; however, I don’t enjoy seeing it the moment I walk through the door.

magazine

CREATING THE ULTIMATE BOOKSTORE EXPERIENCE

TOPShelf

COLUMNS For someone who loves books, there is no place more exciting than a well-designed bookstore. Shelves upon shelves of stories and characters yet to be discovered. So, how do you make it easier for customers to find these inspiring stories and characters?

Here are some techniques – “secrets” – that successful bookstores are currently implementing:

Employ Knowledgeable Employees Provide training to employees regarding up and coming authors, local authors, and best sellers. This is helpful for a customer who comes into your store looking for a new book but isn’t familiar with titles or authors. After an employee asks a customer a few key questions that employee should be able to gather some books for them. It’s like having a personal shopper.

Place the Kids Section in the Back of the Store This way parents will have to walk through the whole store and perhaps something else will catch their eye on the way. www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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“Epiphanies await Bridey throughout Dodging Satan, and such well-drawn, jaw-dropping moments are significant for the ways that they promote a rethinking of the role of a good little girl.” ~Foreward Reviews

“Deeply perceptive and slyly voiced.” ~George Guida, author of The Pope Stories and Other Tales of Troubled Times

“Exceptionally well written with wit and weirdness, Dodging Satan will linger in the mind and memory long after the book has been finished…” ~The Midwest Review

DODGING SATAN…a coming-ofage story that navigates gender in the contexts of domestic and celestial hierarchies set in Irish/Italian Boston in the 1960s-70s. Bridget Flaherty is an avid young reader whose saints, martyrs, ancient gods and goddesses and bony Christs are alive and audible within her. She’s a girl who hears God’s reply and whose devil visits in the dark. Scenes run the gamut from hilarious misapprehensions of religious doctrine, to domestic violence, to developing sexuality.

Bridget tries to make sense of a world of raging men and domestically subjugated women and carve a future for herself, wrestling with how God and men treat women. Frightening and glorious relationships exist between phosphorous and holiness, virgins and bicycles, crucifixes and spices, time-travel and world hunger, exorcism and mascara, purgatory and card games, silkworms and puberty, ears and pregnancy. Caught between the larger world and the Church, Bridget develops a close, if misguided, relationship with the Virgin Mary that allows her to accept her incipient womanhood and enter adolescence armed with significantly more awareness than the reader or even Bridget would have thought possible.

ISBN: 978-1-937818-326

www.kathleenzmccormick.com

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by Timothy Sunderland (TopShelf Contributor) Twitter @timthewriter | www.rulesforgiving.com

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

SUMMER2019

San Francisco used to be the catch-all for everything edgy on the west coast. No longer so. Now the City by the Bay is the home to pricey hipster restaurants, the financial center of Silicon Valley, and real estate values so high that residents get nosebleeds when they pay the mortgage.

All that’s edgy has migrated 600 miles north to Portland, Oregon. Any visit to Bridgetown includes a visit to Voodoo Doughnuts, home of the maple iced doughnut with two strips of bacon on it (and racier delicacies whose shapes and colors we can’t mention on these pages, but you get the point). Once you get through the 45-minute line to get your sin food, you can eat them within view of the sign on the side of Music Millennium that reads “Keep Portland Weird.”

From Voodoo, it is an eight-minute walk to the corner of Burnside and 10th Avenue.

Make sure your last will and testament is updated, however, because once you enter Powell’s City of Books, with its almost one million volumes, your loved ones may never see you again.

Since its beginnings in 1971, Powell’s has grown to occupy the four buildings on its corner, filling an entire city block. Two of the buildings are one-story, another is three stories, and a fourth rises four floors. There are seven color-coded rooms, 75,000 square feet of retail space, and 35 different sections.

Powell’s has four locations and more than 500 employees in the Portland area, but the Burnside store is by far the largest. In 2014, this location was voted one of the Ten Coolest Book Stores in the World by CNN. Powell’s started in 1971 in the most improbable of ways—as a second-hand book store. A year earlier, founder Walter Powell loaned his son $3,000 to buy a used-book store in Chicago. After spending a summer working with his son, who paid back the loan

focus on long-term planning, and Sontz was brought on. She has a good handle on the retail book business, including the specter of e-books.

“Screens are good for lots of things,” she said, ‘but they are not the death knell of the printed book. A lot of people, at the end of their work day, do not want to look at a screen anymore. They want the tactile experience of a printed book.”

But some customers will sacrifice community for the sake of convenience, and sometimes you have to go where your competition is. Twenty-five percent of Powell’s revenue comes from online sales. But even then, the online experience at Powell’s focuses on books.

“We are passionate about books,” said Sontz. “That’s what we sell. I don’t know what Amazon is passionate about. They sell things, but not necessarily books.”

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TOPSHELF VISITS POWELL’S BOOKSTORE

in six months, Walter saw the potential and returned to Portland. Within a decade, Powell’s was offering new books side-by-side with the used ones.

What has turned out to be true,” says Powell’s CEO Miriam Sontz, “is that used books spur the sale of new books. New books spur the sales of used books. The two do not seem to have a negative impact on each other.”

So how do they do it. How, did Powell’s expand to legendary status, with a weird mix of new and old, and how have they stayed relevant in what has been a tumultuous time in the retail book industry, in the face of internet retailers, and in the wake of megastores like Barnes & Noble and Borders (remember those guys?)?

“Online retailers have not figured out a logarithm that creates the experience of a real store,” says Sontz. “That’s what we sell.”

Next to the classics at Powell’s, you’ll find a selection of manga and graphic novels.

And guess what?

Readers like to touch and handle these genres before they decide on a purchase.

Powell’s capitalizes on the realization that not every reader knows what their next book will be. Powell’s allows them to kick the tires. Rather than going to the large retailers, where the book table gets smaller every day, today’s reader wants a wider selection.

Powell’s reportedly takes in 3,000 used books a day, guaranteeing an inventory that’s as diverse as the city it calls home. Taking in all four stores and the mail-order business, Powell’s reportedly controls an inventory of 4 million volumes. Powell’s also seeks out the smaller, independent presses, knowing that readers want more than what the New York publishers are dictating we should read.

Programming is part of the mix, too. As many as 500 authors each year give readings, answer questions, and spend time with readers.

Before Sontz became the CEO, the Powell family was into its third generation of family members running the store.

Founder Walter was followed by son Michael, and then granddaughter Emily.

The Powell family stepped aside in 2013 to

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Powell’s also realizes that with books comes community. People want to talk about what they are reading and get referrals from other people.

That’s why 4,000 square feet of the first floor at Powell’s is set aside as a coffee shop called World Cup. It’s part of what keeps folks in Powell’s for hours, and the longer they are in the store, the more they are likely to buy.

So, the next time you are in Portland, take any one of eleven bridges across the Willamette River (that’s why they call it Bridgetown). Stop and get your Voodoo doughnuts, then take the quick stroll to Powell’s. We hope you have three or four hours set aside. It will take at least that long, and you’ll wish you had more time.

And … don’t forget to update the last will and testament before you walk in.

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by Jon Land (TopShelf Contributor) Twitter @JonDLand | JonLandBooks.com

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: how I can I know a particular writer’s conference is for you, when I don’t actually know you? Point taken and, as the former Vice President of Marketing, and current Chair of the Marketing Committee, for International Thriller Writers, the sponsor of Thrillerfest, I’m not exactly objective. But let me lay out the reasons why Thrillerfest is for you, no matter the stage and state of your writing career. It starts with the fact that Thrillerfest is both a craft conference and wonderful fan experience. And, since pricing is “a la carte,” there are plenty of attendees who don’t stay for all four days, instead opting for the portion that most interests them. Let’s take a look at the primary components of the conference to see if we can find the right fit for you.

CRAFTFEST: The first day and a half of the conference, Wednesday and Thursday, focuses on big name authors serving as teachers to help you hone your craft with classes on such topics as dialogue, structure, plotting, character development, setting, conflict, as well as more promotionally oriented topics. The participants vary every year but you can expect to see the likes of Heather Graham, Walter Mosely, David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, Steve Berry, R. L. Stine, John Sandford, and many more, there to help you learn to master the tools that have made them bestselling authors. (To see last year’s Craftfest grid, go to www.thrillerfest.com.)

CAREERFEST: A two hour track that runs late Thursday morning and changes the focus from craft to how to find the best publishing home for your work and what do after you get there. Careerfest caters to authors interested in going the independent as well as the traditional publishing route, and features panels by top

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you at a number of signings that take place both morning and afternoon on both days.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking now: when, where and how much? The dates for Thrillerfest 2019 are July 9-13, Wednesday through Saturday. The conference is held annually at the Grand Hyatt New York, conveniently located right next to Grand Central Terminal, a stone’s throw from the headquarters for all the major publishers. As for cost, well, it’s not cheap but it’s reasonable.

And you can save by signing up earlier, rather than later. It’s tough to be more specific about pricing, because there are so many options you can pick and choose from, including a single day rate, if that’s all the time you have.

Hey, where else you can meet, schmooze with, and learn from your idols, while having an absolute blast to boot? Thrillerfest is a great experience, not just for all the tangible reasons listed above, but also for the intangible ones like the friends and contacts

evening’s annual Awards Banquet, Thrillerfest itself is two days chock full of authors. both big and not yet big, discussing topics relevant to fans, readers, and writers alike who’ve come to look a this as kind of a literary summer camp. You can check out last year’s fun and informative panels, which are more or less typical, again by visiting www.thrillerfest.com. And, on that topic, you’ll find even the biggest names at Thrillerfest to be very accessible, spending much of their time mixing and mingling. And there are also ample opportunities to get them to sign their books for

you’ll make. I speak from experience here, given that I knew absolutely no one when I attended the first Thrillerfest in 2006. Today, a number of authors I met then are among my closest friends in the world. We’re a true community, and I hope you can attend Thrillerfest so you can join it.

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names from both the agent and publisher/editor world. Like its big brother Craftfest, it’s very hands-on with the focus being to introduce in detail what it takes to succeed in such a challenging profession, covering the pratfalls and obstacles you’re likely to face along the way.

PITCHFEST: Thursday afternoon features upwards of 50 agents who will listen to your pitches and want to hear what your book is about. They’re looking for new clients, just like you’re looking for an agent. It’s kind of like literary speed-dating, providing you with around 5 minutes to make your case to each agent you’re able to see. With lines and some waiting factored in, writers are able to present, on average, to around a dozen agents. And, in case the whole process unnerves you, Thrillerfest offers a Practice Pitchfest immediately prior to the main event, where several dozen authors are available to help you hone your presentations.

THRILLERFEST: From the Thursday night opening cocktail party, right through Saturday

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This article was updated from an earlier written piece by TopShelf Magazine; therefore, some details may not be completely accurate.

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978.1-5462-6254-5

personality, Sharon Cunningham. Fancy that— Lady Justice and Mr. Scales. Can Bishop Burkey sanction their work? Can Devlin? A dramatic announcement captures the crowd and a special Bingo game reveals a secret as Kirk and

Cunningham restore stability to Woodland Park.

www.JonasKirk.com

Bingo is a simple game, a format for gossip, fun and occasional windfalls of cash. Yet in Woodland Park, it seems to trigger burglaries and murder.

Key personalities focus on these frightening events, among them, Bishop Leland Burkey, and

Lt. Chester Devlin, each especially frustrated at their inability to calm a nervous community absorbing Muslim and Sikh arrivals. Jonas Kirk

returns from a self-imposed hiatus and finds himself working with a new and seductive

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Happy in her new life in River's End, Christie Ryan loves the little cottage she's renovating and the man she longs to marry. But storm clouds gather when a mysterious woman commissions a painting from Martin Blake, insisting on secrecy and creating undercurrents of suspicion. Christie's cottage is targeted as part of a shocking crime spree as pressure builds for her to sell it. In a heartstopping series of events, Christie comes face to face with her greatest fear…

Genre Romantic Suspense Price $14.95 ISBN 978-0648013846

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Mossad Agent Cyrus Hassani stopped a nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island and rescued his kidnapped wife, Layla. Finally, he’s gotten his marriage back on track when the head of Mossad, the Ramsad, drafts him to stop a Hezbollah plot to eradicate Israel with a nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse attack.

But a traitor mole at Mossad could spell disaster, and the Ramsad creates a black op mission…

Genre Espionage Thriller Price $3.99 ISBN B07PGKM5Y1

Sixteen-year-old Bella Kynaston has been the victim of a brutal rape, by someone she can only describe as ‘the scar-faced man.’ With little recollection of what happened, she must somehow rebuild her life.

Being the person she once was proves more difficult than she imagined.To complicate matters, Bella has just met Jeremiah Detrone, the new guy in school…

Some wounds heal.

Others leave scars.

Genre Teen & YA Price $11.99 ISBN 978-1732953604

Genre Christian Romance Price $13.99 ISBN 978-0996805704

Four years ago, Charlene Perigard survived a brutal kidnapping. Now at twentytwo, she's put that trauma behind her for a promising future with handsome firefighter Ben Jorgensen. But when new trauma strikes, a new nightmare begins…

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

“I want to show the world that no matter what life throws way, you can still be in control of who you are, what you your do, where you go, and be Forever Strong.” ~Rob Besecker

“Motivation is the key with any challenge, and Rob has plenty... in this amazing adventure.”

“Reminds us... with willpower, determination... we [can] accomplish our goals despite what life gives.”

~JAMLING TENZING NORGAY, mountaineer, son of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, author of Touching My Father’s

~PETER HILLARY, mountaineer, son of Sir Edward Hillary, coauthor of In the Ghost Country: A

Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest

Lifetime Spent on the Edge

“A MUST READ!”

“Will guide you to the silver lining and beyond.”

~AUGIE NIETO, chairman

of ALS Therapy Development Institute, founder of Life Fitness and Augie’s Quest to Cure ALS, and coauthor of Augie’s Quest: One Man’s Journey from Success to Significance

~JIM SKOGSBERGH,

president and CEO, Advocate Health Care

“Compelling, raw, and inspiring.”

“[Rob Besecker] an awe-inspiring heart warrior.”

~LISA HARVEY-DUREN,

former founding executive director and board member of the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation

~HOLLY MORRELL, founder & executive director, Heartfelt Cardiac Projects

From the time Rob Besecker was a little boy, he was strong. The youngest child in a dysfunctional family, he threw himself into sports and found he excelled at them. Athletics became his world, and by his junior year, his mailbox was stuffed with scholarship offers from university football programs from across the US. Then something happened. His body started to unravel—and everything changed.

www.RobBesecker.com 978-0999439418

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Not only does the book address what to do with human turds, but it is also a priceless manual for anyone involved in composting or gardening, or looking for basic survival skills. There is no other book like this in print!

Genre Soil Science Price $25.00 ISBN 978-0964425880

Fiction book for girls and boys 8-13 years of age, about a pretty and kind-hearted girl, Emma, who lives in a castle with her rich father Baron Geoffrey during the Middle Ages in the early 14th century.

Emma and a brave young peasant named Thomas have many adventures together riding their horses. There is mystery and suspense due to thieves trying to steal Emma's and her father's jewels and a siege in her uncle's castle…

Genre Children’s Price $9.13 ISBN 978-1517429089

Sage Stone and his twin sister Hanah have no idea how their lives will change on the day that Sage is chosen by the Thunder Beings. He is brought back from the brink of death by their Grandfather Jack, the shaman of the Tachi nation.

The tragic death of their father is still raw as the twins are sent on a dangerous adventure to fight the darkness. Their uncle Malakai has other plans for them…

No friends. No family. No respect. As the worst fisherman in his village, lonely “Dim Jim” was an easy target and the butt of every joke.One day, the thought strikes him: “If I can do something truly extraordinary, I’m sure to be accepted!” So, Jim set his sights on capturing the elusive green tail fish -- a feat locals have only fantasized about.Soon after setting sail, Jim encountered a wicked storm…

Genre Children’s Price $12.99 ISBN 978-1732242227

Genre Action & Adventure

Set against the backdrop of the protest era of the early 1970s, Wild World is a gripping novel about one tenacious young man whose determination to overturn the system holds unexpected consequences for his own life.

Two murders. Two trials. And two kids who were not exactly guilty. The odd part is that the defendant in the first case is the lawyer in the second, which occurs in the same courtroom against the same prosecutor fifteen years later.

When young defense attorney David Stillman takes an alcohol-fueled hiatus from his law practice, he meets Michaela, an exotic older woman who gradually pulls the story of David’s haunted and past out of him as a romance develops…

Peter S. Rush brings the '70s to vivid life in his stunning debut novel WILD WORLD…

Genre Coming of Age Fiction Price $16.95 ISBN 978-0999066515

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Price $17.99 ISBN 978-1724906366

Genre Thriller Price $5.99 ISBN 978-1980335252

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

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AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ TAKE THE AMAZING SNOWMAN DUEL FOR FOR WOMEN OF ALL AGES A SPIN. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED The Amazing Snowman Dual is a splendidly written story that can be enjoyed any time of year. The wonderful illustrations truly bring the story and characters to life . An entertaining read, with a lovely ending. And the large typeface is perfect for early readers.

I’m not about to give away this story, so grab yourself a copy, wrap yourself in a warm blanket, curl up with your little ones, and take The Amazing Snowman Dual for a spin. You will not be disappointed. ~Michael Rowland, TopShelf Reviews

True freedom is found when you lay down your shield and live from a place of perfection. You are free to be exactly who you are, trusting that what you do is complete. Becoming Enough is a story of courage—that first step into the unknown requiring trust and a deep understanding, that after all is said and done, the most perilous pathway is found within all evolving beings. Amanda shares her personal journey—unique and empowering, much like the stories and emotional baggage we all carry. Her open-hearted narrative clearly shows the moments when seeds of judgment and egoconfusion were planted by well-meaning parents and mentors. Amanda’s story is brilliant, and her witty personality shines brightly throughout this inspiring, highly relatable masterpiece. This is an absolute must-read for women of all ages. ~Rebecca Katsikas, TopShelf Reviews

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A CLASSIC "RAGS TO RICHES" FOLLOWING ONE MAN'S RISE FROM COAL MINER TO MINE OWNER The explosive, yet long first chapter set’s the stage for an engaging story about an immigrant family from Poland. Perhaps more engaging, is the way the author loads history into the trials and tribulations of this “gilded age” drama. Nearly every imaginable historical figure of the time makes an appearance as the author explores their achievements in the fields of music, art, science, industry, and politics. DiSilvia holds no punches when depicting an imperfect capitalistic system— the very foundation of America’s success. Abuse, corruption, and greed is balanced with the spectacular achievements that could only have been possible in a nation that rewards hard work, creativity, and brilliance. If you love historical novels A Blazing Gilded Age is a worthy read. ~TNM TopShelf Reviews

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Multi-Award Winning Author!

“A beautiful…love story, with a strong line of suspense. Well written.” ~Mrs B’s Book Reviews

“Phillipa Nefri Clark keeps readers glued to every page…” ~TopShelf Reviews

“…never lets up from page one until the end.” ~Blue Cat Review of The Stationmaster’s Cottage (Book Two in the River’s End Series)

Sometimes facing the past is the only way forward.

Happy in her new life in River’s End, Christie Ryan loves the little cottage she’s renovating and the man she longs to marry. But storm clouds gather when a mysterious woman commissions a painting from Martin Blake, insisting on secrecy and creating undercurrents of suspicion.

Christie’s cottage is targeted as part of a shocking crime spree as pressure builds for her to sell it. In a heart-stopping series of events, Christie comes face to face with her greatest fear… and there is no going around it. With only one chance to save those she loves, will her life be the price?

Jasmine Sea follows on from The Stationmaster's Cottage, set shortly after its stunning conclusion.

www.phillipaclark.com

ISBN: 978-0648013846

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A STANDOUT WINNER A FIRST-RATE CRIME MURDER, MYSTERY, NOVEL... NOT ONE TO ADVENTURE BE MISSED No one knows how long the Cherokee lived in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, although artifacts have been found that indicate their ancestors were there more than 11,000 years ago...at the end of the last Ice Age. In one of the most despicable acts in history, after the discovery of gold in Cherokee territory, the U.S. Army forcibly removed 16,000 Cherokee men, women and children from the land they had occupied for countless generations. More than 4,000 died during the brutal 1200-mile forced migration, in the dead of winter, known to history as The Trail of Tears. Author R.L. Herron has created a spine-tingling modern thriller, in this 2018 TopShelf Book Awards, first-place horror winner, Blood Lake, where John Burnett is the latest member of his family to confront a Cherokee curse laid upon his bloodline in 1838, succumbing to terrors both mortal and supernatural. The Native American background and milieu make this tale of ghostly revenge stand out as a clearcut, standout winner! ~Kyle Magnus, TopShelf Review

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Born to Hustle is a first-rate crime novel about twin brothers, Brian and Alan, sons to a timid 19-year-old mother and an abusive alcoholic for a father. With no real direction on parenting their mother, Martina does the best she can while their father does nothing but make their world unbearable. Follow the boys as they form the skills necessary to survive an abusive upbringing, grow that deep bond that only twins have, and mature into sharp-minded men with enthusiasm for hustling. Then witness their entire way of life become threatened when Brian starts spending time with Cynthia, a known con artist. In classic Edward Dreyfus style, Born to Hustle is a first-rate crime novel, with characters that pop to life, situations that are genuinely intense, and, for the first time, a cover that matches the contents within. Without question, NOT one to be missed!

Set in our Nation’s capital, Capital Kill takes us through a fictional account of the Jamaican cocaine ring run by a former Jamaican posse leader. Demetrius Reid was a pivotal member of the Shower Posse in Tavoli during the height of the Jamaican drug wars. After the slaying of his mother and brother, he takes his anger out on the rival gang members earning him an elevated status in the Shower gang. After the wars settle in Jamaica, and after years of dedication to the gang, Shower leaders reward Read by sending him to the safe island vacation spot to be a cook at a beach resort. But after several years of cooking at the resort, a lack of action creates a stir in Reid. He sets his sights on Miami, a hotbed of drug activity, with excellent potential for making big money. In the States, Reid reshapes the traditions of Jamaican cocaine dealing, leading to his success as a drug lord.

Careful not to draw the attention of local law enforcement as well as running a reputable business with no direct dealings in the trafficking of drugs, Reid profits as both a local restaurant owner and a drug lord in Washington DC. Each page of Capital Kill will leave you wondering, who exactly is corrupt, and how are they involved.

Working against Reid are the newly appointed Attorney from the Air Force, Trask, local police experts, The Twins, as well as a few other experts in the FBI and DEA. Who will prevail on the streets? Who will die next? Capital Kill has no lack of murder, mystery, or adventure.

~Kyle Magnus, TopShelf Review

~Sharon Isbell, Topshelf Review

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From the vivid imagination of author/artist Rich DiSilvio comes this spellbinding collection of strange, weird, and Sci-Fi tales. Inspired by the likes of Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, George R.R. Martin and other titans of the genre, multiaward-winning author & illustrator Rich DiSilvio offers 7 riveting tales that will transport readers into the surreal realms of the imagination…

Maxine Aronheart is the stunning wife of a handsome and successful Beverly Hills hedge fund manager. A celebratory evening on the company yacht Copious turns to horror as the yacht suddenly explodes and is engulfed in flames. Maxine is thrown overboard by her husband Logan, as Copious is rapidly sinking. He says to her, "You'll forgive me!" Then, he vanishes. Was he trying to save her or kill her?

Genre Short Stories Price $11.99 ISBN 978-0998337586

Genre Thriller Price $15.99 ISBN 978-1947938472

Daily Writing Resilience provides advice, inspiration, and techniques to help you turn roadblocks into steppingstones.

You'll find tips and support through exercises such as meditation, breath work, yoga, stress management, gratitude, de-cluttering, sleep, exercise, mindful eating, and more. These 365 meditations will help you navigate the ups-and-downs of your writing practice, creating positive habits that will guide you toward the success and fulfillment that you've been seeking.

Tel Aviv, Israel. Archaeologist Joshua Agar makes a stunning discovery when on one of his excavation sites, they unearth an ancient ossuary, untouched since the day it was buried.

Evidence and analysis reveals that the contents of the find appear to be the six of the Seven Seals mentioned in the bible's Book of Revelations.

Genre Motivational Self-Help Price $19.99 ISBN 978-0738753430

Genre Supernatural Thriller

“F--k you NFL.” That was the first of 50 tweets Hamza Abdullah directed to the NFL on October 31, 2013. What led the normally calm and levelheaded athlete to tweet a diatribe of expletives directed at his former employer? His explosion on Twitter quickly became a trending topic and ultimately caught media attention. Mike Golic of ESPN’s Mike & Mike in the Morning…

A love story that spans centuries…

Genre Football, Biography Price $16.99 ISBN 978-0998112916

Genre Christian Fiction Price $3.99 ISBN B07PW8BQJ4

The Seventh is missing…

Price $15.00 ISBN 978-1975849030

Two people trying to escape their pasts find a connection through an old house—and fulfill a destiny through the secrets it shares. Part love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless Southern novel about love and loss, roots and belonging, and spirits of the past that refuse to be quieted…

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

“This vivid story embraces hoaxes, dreams, legal processes, scientific revelations, and a buried treasure that changed the lives of all who touched it.

Very, very highly recommended…” ~Midwest Book Review

“A creative, engaging, and informative read.” ~Carol Hoyer, BLOGcritics.org

“A gripping read… replete with insights into special interests and social, scientific and political subterfuge… a stellar example of what happens when reality runs head-on into special interests on all sides.” ~Donovan’s Bookshelf

978-0983355168

A true story about two backwoods treasure hunters who discover and excavate a world class dinosaur skeleton and become mired in controversy and conflict. Arkansas hillbilly Cephis Hall and partner Sid Love, a Choctaw Indian, battle an international corporation, two major universities, world-renowned scientists, the Oklahoma State Legislature, prominent politicians, a wealthy tycoon, and scores of other antagonists, all determined to sweep them out of the picture and confiscate their prize. At the crossroads of science, politics, and religion, and grossly outgunned by the rich and powerful, Cephis and Sid miraculously hold their own in a bitter struggle over ownership and possession of one of the greatest scientific specimens in history.

www.independentauthornetwork.com/russell-ferrell

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When aliens capture Laura’s son, it's going to take a lot more than a mother's love to get him back. After infiltrating a military research base, Laura discovers a terrifying secret: their plans to engineer humans for galactic exploration…

If I asked you what are your top priorities in life, how would you answer? I think most people would answer by saying family and career. Everyone sees health and fitness as something that is important, but we always seem to put it off until later. We all have obstacles in our lives that we use as excuses as to why we can’t make our own health a priority at the moment. We use these obstacles as validation…

Genre Science Fiction Price $2.99 ISBN B01A4XY0UI

Genre Health, Fitness & Dieting Price $9.59 ISBN 978-0692701232

"A Dog For Leo," is about a young boy who wants a dog of his own, but his parents don't feel he is responsible enough to take care of a pet. Leo will have to prove to his parents that he is responsible enough, but not without a few snags in the road first.

Shannon Clarke raised a family and worked waterfront jobs in America's oldest seaport. Her childhood dream to become a sea captain is revived when her long-lost seafaring uncle Patrick visits with a salty tale of their maritime family ancestry of pirates and privateers. He shares recovered family letters and artifacts from the Golden Age of Piracy. They take to the sea in Patrick's brigantine to follow the siren song of their ancestors in quest of destiny, truth and treasure…

A tangled web of alien intrigue traps a mother and son in its deadly embrace …

Genre Children’s Price $9.99 ISBN 978-1517162962

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Genre Sea Adventures Fiction Price $17.95 ISBN 978-1633936553

BEN and SARA DONOVAN live in a small community called Wolfe Lake with their two daughters, six year old MEGAN and eight year old KATIE. The family has two pets, Polly, a multi-colored talking parrot and Stubby a tan colored, bowlegged English bulldog. Daddy Ben owns a small landscaping business. Mama Sara is a housewife and animal lover…

One boy… One Rite… And a world of deadly secrets that could change the course of history—forever And so begins the tale of Mierta McKinnon. When a horrible fate reveals itself during his Rite of Wands ceremony, he must find a way to change not only his destiny but also the land of Iverna’s…

Genre Children’s Price $11.60 ISBN 978-1512129793

Genre Coming of Age, Fantasy Price $14.95 ISBN 978-1946006431

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A MASTERFULLY WRITTEN A HORROR READERS LEGAL THRILLER! NIGHTMARE! Death Votes Last, book #5 in the Jeff Trask crime drama series by Marc Rainer, is a masterfully written, ultra-realistic courtroom drama that both thrills and intrigues as it draws readers deep into its clutches. With an evenly-divided United States Senate, the stakes are high for the nation's political power brokers. The leader of one party decides to change the numbers by arranging the elimination of one of the other party's senators. As the death sends shock waves through the nation's capital, federal prosecutor Jeff Trask and a team of FBI agents and police officers must solve not only the senator's homicide but the murder of one witness and the attempted murder of another. Further complicating their efforts is the fact that the trial of the killer must take place in the political swamp of Washington, D.C. As Trask and his team investigate the deaths and prepare for the trial of the century, the nation's political fate hangs in the balance. TopShelf loves this book and begs the question, why are we only today learning about this author and this riveting series. We WILL be reading more by Marc Rainer! ~Kyle Magnus, TopShelf Reviews

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

Erik Henry Vick’s Demon King is a horror readers nightmare—meaning, a dream in horror parlance among those favoring such authors as the ‘Kings’ of horror. While favorably compared to Stephen King’s IT––in particular––and King & Koontz in general, by hundreds of reviews, I found the novel just as close to Stranger Things. Thus, one might say it is a cross between the two—Stranger IT. Demon King is a dark, suspenseful tale that pits bike-riding kids against demonic forces. While they are no match for such evil, we cheer them on nonetheless (Do it, do it, do it––the chorus in the novel repeats). As adults, the kids must again challenge the evil at play in their small-town, Upper New York community. Vick’s prose is straightforward, pleasantly clever at times, with authentic dialogue, compelling characterizations, and scenes and backdrops set with the utmost care. While lapses in logic do rear their head here and there, they do not lessen the gripping, sometimes grotesque horrors found in Demon King. ~Robert W. Walker, TopShelf Reviews

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REFUSES TO BE PUT DOWN Intense drama and intrigue draws readers in and forces them along a taut high-wire, grasping on to every word as the cliffhanger mystery of King Arthur’s tomb unfolds. Legends have been passed down for centuries from Celtic lore to American folktale of King Arthur and his demise, but the location of his tomb and the vast treasures he took with him have never been located, despite massive efforts of treasure hunters. Rare book authenticator Carys Jones has always believed in truth. Truths she can find in research of rare and old books, or carbon date in a science lab–– verifiable truth. She never gave much thought to the legends of King Arthur, that is until she stumbles upon an ancient manuscript, which she verifies is by a monk in the early sixth century, believed to be a protector and comrade of King Arthur and his people. The manuscript leads Carys down a dangerous rabbit hole in search of King Arthur’s final resting place. But she has no idea the gruesome lengths her adversaries will go to stop her. Suspense and mystery to the very last page will leave readers gasping. The Ghost Manuscript is a masterfully written book that refuses to be put down! ~Sharon Isbell, TopShelf Reviews

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DIVIDED BY WAR. UNITED BY MUSIC. ENDANGERED BY PASSION. Inspired by a true story, WAR SERENADE is compelling, heart-wrenching, sometimes funny and always dramatic as it celebrates the endurance of the human spirit, the evolution of rich friendships, and love's triumph against impossible odds.

Cooking with Adrienne is a cookbook and the amazing, often hilarious, story of a woman who became the American doyenne of French cuisine during the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. She helped pave the way for many chefs to bring their New Cuisine to America…

Genre WWII Historical Fiction Price $19.95 ISBN 978-0999776803

Genre International Cookbook Price $19.99 ISBN 978-1539936077

Sara Lee Jacobs has been overweight her entire lonely life. Peggy Jenkins-Hall sacrificed her hard-earned figure to her third and final child. Both women are obsessed with their weight and enroll in an exclusive diet program called Sunrise, which touts an incredible success rate.

They soon understand why…

BINGO is a simple game a format for gossip, fun and occasional windfalls of cash.

Yet in Woodland Park, it seems to trigger burglaries and murder. Key personalities focus on these frightening events, among them, Bishop Leland Burkey, and Lt. Chester Devlin, each especially frustrated at their inability to calm a nervous community absorbing Muslim and Sikh arrivals. Jonas Kirk returns…

Genre Humor, FIction Price $10.89 ISBN 978-1521179581

Genre Suspense, Thriller Price $23.99 ISBN 978-1546265245

A tangled web of alien intrigue traps a mother and son in its deadly embrace …

Samuel Buckland is a young man who has it all and is planning for the future. Gregory Caitlin is a businessman and politician. He has designs to bring hope back to a world in need...and he'll be damned if anyone gets in his way! When the two cross paths, even the angels tremble. An ancient magic has been rediscovered.

Sam must overcome his lack of faith and accept his destiny, or the world he knows will suffer the consequences…

When aliens capture Laura’s son, it's going to take a lot more than a mother's love to get him back. After infiltrating a military research base, Laura discovers a terrifying secret: their plans to engineer humans for galactic exploration…

Genre Science Fiction Price $2.99 ISBN B01A4XY0UI

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Genre Christian Fantasy Price $12.95 ISBN 978-0996055802

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

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SUMMER2019

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HANDS DOWN, ONE OF THE YOU WILL INSTANTLY BEST READS IN A LONG TIME ADORE THE KITTY! When Detective Holland’s friends and family are put at risk, he is forced to call upon the skills, and mindset learned as a Special Forces and Intelligence operative to keep the peace between local heroin dealers and a violent Mexican drug cartel. Ghosts and Shadows by H. Max Hiller is a fantastic novel, packed with great dialogue, and a protagonist who is both intriguing and likable. It helps to read the first books in the series, so one has a better idea of Detective Cooler ‘Cadillac’ Holland’s background. However, that did not make this book hard to read at all. And because I enjoyed this book so much, I will be reading the others soon. The plot––fast-paced and ultrathrilling––hooked me instantly. Hands down, one of the best reads in a very long time! ~Michael Rowland, TopShelf Reviews

Shawn Flynn and his fiancée are excited to start a new life together. They’re planning a wedding and have bought a new home; the last thing they need is a cat. But their new house seems to come complete with a stray orange feline—a cat with a vibrant personality and a talent for mousing. Little does Shawn realize, this cat will become more important to him than anything he could have ever imagined. As Shawn’s life begins to shift, Kitty remains a constant source of stability and comfort.

Shawn gave Kitty a home, and now Kitty gives Shawn the love he needs to heal. Shawn Flynn’s The Kitty: Who Rescued Me After I Rescued Him is a touching and inspiring story of heartfelt companionship that offers an uplifting perspective on what it means to find true friendship in this world. Anyone who has ever shared a meaningful connection with a pet will fall in love with Kitty and Shawn, as we discover, sometimes we don’t realize we need to be rescued—until we are. This story immediately lured me in and captivated and entertained me until I was forced to put it down–– the last page comes too fast. If you love cats and believe in the absolute power of animal companionship, you will instantly adore The Kitty!

~Kyle Magnus, TopShelf Reviews

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

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BRILLIANTLY ABSORBING...

IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN Mindy Mejia is a master at creating people you can see, feel, and touch. Maya, a newly graduated speech therapist with a rocky past, is assigned to the case of Lucas, a nineteen-year-old patient in a mental hospital. Ten years before, he and his widowed dad disappeared into the Minnesota wilderness known as the Boundary Waters. They were assumed dead until Lucas broke into an outfitter’s store and was captured. Now Maya is tasked with getting Lucas to communicate with her about where he and his father went and why. The death of a landlady occurred just before they disappeared, and the father is a prime suspect. But a bond has formed between Maya and Lucas, and Maya is torn between betraying Lucas’s trust or betraying the mentor who has seen her through thick and thin. A strong sense of place pervades this novel. The author transports us to Duluth, Minnesota, and the Boundary Waters. We feel the draw the glacial lakes have on Lucas, and we find that Maya herself is no stranger to the outdoor life.

Leave No Trace is a brilliantly absorbing book that’s impossible to put down. An unexpected twist near the end was just frosting on a well-constructed cake.

~Rosemary Fifield, TopShelf Reviews

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featuredspotlights

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Bingo is a simple game, a format for gossip, fun and occasional windfalls of cash.

Yet in Woodland Park, it seems to trigger burglaries and murder. Key personalities focus on these frightening events, among them, Bishop Leland Burkey, and Lt. Chester Devlin, each especially frustrated at their inability to calm a nervous community absorbing Muslim and Sikh arrivals.

Jonas Kirk returns from a self-imposed hiatus…

In the 1880s, during America's first Gilded Age, two eccentric and aristocratic scientists, Othniel Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, engaged in an anomalous, competitive trek to outdo each other in a paleontological contest of numbers - a bone war. This war, fought in the vast panorama of the American West, was an invidious contest of egos and wills to decide who could recover, identify, and document the most prehistoric fossils from an unrecorded past…

Genre Suspense, Thriller Price $13.99 ISBN 978-1546265245

Genre General Fiction Price $16.49 ISBN 978-0983355106

All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the Orlando United Assistance Center.

Do we ever really die? Or, do we return to live again with those we knew before? In the future, will man and machine learn to procreate? For generations, the population of Sky Parlor has believed that, long ago, the lands beyond the walls of their domed city were made uninhabitable during the "Great Rapture”…

Using expert language from Psychotherapist Kenny Tello, who worked directly with children affected by Pulse and featuring illustrations by over 20 passionate artists, My Tio’s Pulse explains what happened at Pulse on June 12, 2016 in a clear and simple way that will give children the tools to talk about difficult topics and empower them to feel safe.

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Genre Children’s Price $9.95 ISBN 978-1945493119

Genre Science Fiction

The objective of this awardwinning book is to educate the consuming public about the effectiveness of the many available hair-loss treatment and restoration modalities. It is an important, comprehensive, and valuable tool for both men and women who are afflicted with hair-loss problems. It provides the reader with a historical perspective regarding hair-loss, as well as its causes, treatments, and promising future trends.

Mercy hovered in the back of the cage at the shelter. She knew people were coming through the shelter looking for the perfect dog! Why put herself through more pain? Mercy had accepted the fact that no one was going to choose her long ago. All of the other dogs made fun of her homely face and wide-set-apart eyes. She didn't have any friends. The keeper of the shelter tried to encourage Mercy, telling her that one day just the right family would come and take her home. Aidan was born blind. Today was his eighth birthday...

Genre Grooming, Style Price $26.95 ISBN 978-1612445427

Genre Children’s Price $13.50 ISBN 978-1795415927

Price $20.50 ISBN 978-1684540150

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

“An action-packed, mind-blowing thriller.” ~Susan Sewell, Readers’ Favorite

Multi-Award Winning Author!

Troy Turner is a writer who enjoys the peaceful life in his remote lake-side cabin, nestled in a pine strewn Rocky Mountain valley, an hour's drive from the ski resort town of Hawthorn. Troy invites his old college buddies to stay a few weeks and take advantage of the great hunting and fishing, only, they become the hunted.

www.paulgbuckner.com 978-1532961441

Winner 9 Book Awards ─ Inspirational & Spiritual Fiction “Riveting… a page-turner.” “Highly recommended.”

“Filled with dynamic, rich imagery.”

— An enthralling story reminiscent of C.S. Lewis & Madeleine L’Engle’s works — Born gifted with a rare seventh sense ─ the ability to read human hearts coupled with keen intuition ─ Kate Kindrick struggles against her superpowers while surrounded by skeptical, sometimes cruel, family members and their secrets.

Kate’s parents fear that their young daughter suffers from delusional psychosis. Their concerns are intensified by her claims that she has conversations with an angel. Only her grandmother, who is gravely ill, and her uncle, a writer, encourage Kate to develop her gifts.

Yet it’s her naiveté of the intuitive signs that augur trouble. When she doesn’t heed an inner warning, her world spins into a dangerous spiral that spells hazard for her and those she loves.

With startling twists, the story brims with inspiration and daring while exploring many of today’s societal woes: deteriorating family relationships, prejudice, abuse, eating disorders, and limiting belief systems. It delves into the mysteries of death and of angels, plus intuition, finding God in all, and true love. Tantalizing and spiritual.

“Intriguing… supernatural… seductive plot…”

Foreward / Clarion Reviews “Highly recommended, evocative read… combines spiritual reflections with social issues…”

Midwest Book Reviews “An inspirational story that vividly treats the themes of intuition, religion, god, love….”

Readers’ Favorite Reviews Published by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. Hardcover | ISBN 9781504351133 Trade paperback | ISBN 9781504351119 e-book | ISBN 9781504351126 Available ─ Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon, wherever books are sold Sherry@Maysonave.com @SherryMaysonave 512.633.1611 www.TheGirlWhoCouldReadHearts.com 919.931.9991 [Type here]

© 2017 Empowerment Productions LLC

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A WELL-WRITTEN MEMOIR THAT A HIGH-STAKES THRILLER SLICED SIMPLY PUT… THE BEST MAKES US LONG TO PLAN OUR FROM THE CONTROVERSIAL WORLD MURDER, SHE WROTE MYSTERY EVER PENNED OWN MEMORABLE ADVENTURE OF IN VITRO FERTILIZATION It’s been 50 years since seven lads went on an adventure of a lifetime as they drove through the heart of France and Spain in 1969. Morocco or Bust August ’69 is a heart-felt Coming of Age ripped straight from the journal written, at the time, by one of the seven. It was a bitterly cold December evening in 1968, when the seven sat around a beer-stained table in a smokeladened watering-hole, and hashed out plans for what would become the vacation of all vacations. Author, Michael Rowland––one of the seven––does a phenomenal job putting us in the heart of each moment along this incredible journey. Morocco or Bust August ’69 is a well-written memoir that makes us long to unplug from our demanding lives and plan our own memorable adventure. ~Rebecca Katsikas, TopShelf Reviews

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

Claire Abrams, desperate to conceive a healthy child after the loss of her son to a deadly genetic mutation, convinces her husband to seek out the services of Dr. Robert Nash—perhaps their only chance to conceive, and save their ailing marriage.

Unknown to her husband, Dr. Nash’s untested methods would combine the genetic material of his wife’s egg with an egg from his ambitious and cunning lab assistant, Jillian, to create the first baby with genetic material from three parents—an unprecedented feat that promises to eliminate all biologically inherited disorders. But when Clair’s husband finds out, all hell breaks loose, forcing Dr. Nash and a very pregnant Claire into hiding. Ten years later, Abigale, the spunky and resourceful result of Dr. Nash’s experiment, seeks answers, leading her family into a dangerous meeting with fate that threatens their survival. Packed with heartpounding thrills and jaw-dropping twists, Mother Knows Best by Kira Peikoff will keep you long past midnight, sweating through it’s thrilling climax.

To say that Murder in Red is the ultimate page-cranking mystery would be the greatest understatement ever told. Jon Land’s ability to captivate readers is simply unparalleled, and the man never fails to impress.

Simply put… the best Murder, She Wrote mystery ever penned. Land keeps the suspense high, and the mystery steeped in darkness, maintaining reader intrigue from the very first word to the shocking last. As the story unfolds, it's like we're actually solving the crimes of Cabot Cove alongside the famed murder-mystery author, Ms. JB Fletcher. But it doesn't take long for Ms. Fletcher to discover that she’s entangled in an all too real––all too close to home––mystery of her own, as she attempts to peel back the layers of truth shrouding the mysterious death of her friend, Mimi. Ms. Fletcher goes where the police haven’t in an attempt to crack the case, only to find that she knows very little about her dear friend. Mimi kept many secrets, and Ms. Fletcher intends to unravel every one of them. But, the situation grows even more intense when her friend––an investigator from Scotland Yard––suddenly turns up missing. Will Ms. Fletcher be able to solve the mysterious deaths and disappearances surrounding Cabot Cove before it’s too late?

~Donald Richard, TopShelf Reviews

~Sharon Isbell, TopShelf Reviews

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SUMMER2019

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TOPShelf magazine

When the dismembered body of a young woman is found, Detectives Joe Leverette and Philip Marsden are assigned the case. After investigating the Port Huron, Michigan area where the six body parts were found, but there's a twist in the case: The Murderer goes after each individual who found the parts, one by one…

Grace Ward's sterile existence is thrown into chaos when an unconscious baby is abandoned at her hospital during a hurricane. From the instant a mysterious couple thrusts the infant into her arms and disappears, Grace's life is transformed…

Genre Mystery Price $11.00 ISBN 9781545107652

Genre Medical Thriller Price $11.97 ISBN 978-0998127422

Accepting a new job in Texas seems like a good idea when Tabatha decides to escape the heartbreak of her broken engagement. But when she meets the mafia-like family who are her new employers, the last thing Tabitha wants to do is honor her word and take the position. Making the situation worse, her first meeting with her new employers is an experience she prays to forget. She questions why God allowed her path to cross the infamous Mitchell family…

I always saw relationships as a burden instead of a gift… until my world imploded...until Wynn showed me their true value. Now, I have to find a way to convince her that I've changed my tune…

Genre Teen & YA, Romance Price $18.99 ISBN 978-1545619209

Genre Women's Fiction

A frightening vision stalks November, even in her grave . . . and things go severely sideways just as soon as she claws her way out of it.

Continuing the story begun in the well-received paranormal romp She Dies at the End, She Lights Up the Dark finds November Snow struggling to adjust to her new life as a vampire with none of the support she'd expected…

In late January 1879, following news of the terrible disaster to befall British forces at Isandlwana, Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood, commanding officer of the northern No. 4 Column, withdraws his forces to Khambula, near the Natal and Transvaal borders. Adding to their woes, the southern No. 1 Column finds itself trapped under siege at the abandoned mission station of Eshowe. The General Officer Commanding, Lord Chelmsford, orders Wood to continue harassing the Zulus…

Genre Paranormal Price $13.99 ISBN 978-0692652589

Genre Great Britain History Price $21.95 ISBN 978-1797576015

Price $14.00 ISBN 978-1723958847

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

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TOPShelf magazine

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SUMMER2019

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A BLOCKBUSTER IN THE MAKING

WILL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS!

RAISES HAIRS AS MUCH AS STAKES

It’s impossible to sleep when you have Nerve Damage!

When Peter Caine––an ambitious Manhattan Criminal defense attorney, a man who represents everything morally reprehensible about the legal system, concerned only with gaining successful acquittals for the very worst dregs of society––is framed for the murder of a former mistress, the stepdaughter of New York’s own District Attorney, his life is thrust into a desperate search for clues, forcing him to confront his own deep moral flaws, and face the dreadful recompense of his life’s actions. A.F. Brady has woven a masterpiece of psychological tension; guiding readers down a long and winding countryside, quickly gaining steam, and finally speeding like a runaway train, toward one of the best last chapters of any suspense novel, EVER! Once a Liar is a taut psychological thriller with an ending that will leave you breathless! You will NOT be disappointed!

Gary Grossman and Ed Fuller have woven an international shocker that questions why hotels are not protected the same way air travel is, and why no one is taking the lead on this issue. After a deadly bombing destroys the Kensington Hotel in Tokyo, Danial Reilly, international hotel executive and former Army Intelligence with CIA clearance, dives into the investigation with a singular mission: find the man captured on closed circuit video, walking away from the carnage with a smug look playing on his face.

As he digs deeper, Reilly untangles a sinister web that implicates the Russians in a conspiracy that could lead to more strikes on Kensington properties and precipitate an unprecedented and deadly war between Russia and the US. Seething with heart-pounding suspense and intrigue, Red Hotel will leave you breathless as you read into the wee hours, only to reconsider all your travel plans! An absolute masterpiece and a timely thriller! DO NOT miss this one!

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 Reviews

~Donald Richard, TopShelf Reviews

~Donald Richard, TopShelf Reviews

www.TopShelfMagazine.net

TOPShelf magazine

SUMMER2019

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TOPShelf magazine

A Blazing Gilded Age is the epic story of a volatile nation burning with ambition, yet bleeding with injustice. It was a time of profound change; boldly transforming from an agrarian backwater into an industrial powerhouse.

Ten stories in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and Roald Dahl, with a touch of Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, and Harlan Ellison. Mr. Buford applies a sensibility and an intellect to his examinations of character in each of these stories, told in a style all his own…

Both powerful and poignant, “A Blazing Gilded Age" serves as an entertaining and enlightening read of how and why America has gone astray, and why it became a world leader.

Genre Action & Adventure Price $34.95 ISBN 978-0981762562

History’s most peaceful race created one of its deadliest weapons. Forged in the Living Flame by a long-extinct alien race, The Gem of Notna is the stuff of legends, on par with Pandora’s Box or the Holy Grail. But once archaeologist Dr. Jack Corbett stumbled upon the crystal deep in the Amazon, he triggered a whirlwind of events and found himself neck-deep in a centuries-old holy war…

Genre Paranormal Price $14.00 ISBN 978-1975865061

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Genre Horror Short Stories Price $14.95 ISBN 978-0996878487

Troy Turner is a writer who is enjoying a peaceful life in his remote lake-side cabin. His new home is nestled in a pine strewn Rocky Mountain valley an hour's drive from the ski resort town of Hawthorn. Troy invites two of his old college friends up to stay with him for a few weeks and take advantage of the great hunting and fishing only to become caught up in a dangerous game…

Genre Supernatural Thriller Price $10.99 ISBN 978-1532961441

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books

Learn to #CHILL with this inspirational meditation guidebook and achieve the healthy work/life balance you deserve.

“Bryan Robinson saved my life.

He is a leading-edge voice in the world of work addiction recovery.

The meditations are chock full of warm and powerful wisdom, guidance, and empathy. On a personal level, I am grateful for how they have helped me on my own journey of recovery.” ~Alanis

Morissette singer/songwriter

Good health and happiness depend on the proper balance of private and professional life. In today’s hectic environment we must do more in less time and with fewer resources.

Goals can feel impossible to attain.

We spend all our time at the office rather than being with our families.

We work well into the night and even on weekends, perfecting that presentation or just trying to catch up. Under the constant pressure to over-perform, work quickly becomes the dominant force in our lives.

Stopping this cycle is difficult. But there is a solution. Licensed psychotherapist and professor Bryan Robinson explains how ending the cycle of work addiction can be achieved. Filled with wise advice, inspiring quotes, and gentle guidance, #CHILL provides the tools needed to quiet our anxiety, break our addiction to work, and bring compassion, calm, confidence, and creativity to our daily lives.

Self-Help, Motivational 978-0062896018 Available January 2019

www.BryanRobinsonBooks.com

Every person with that little voice in their head―the one that tells them to write everyday―must own this book.

JAW -DROPPING...

EVERYTHING I LOVE IN A BOOK.”

“

~ JAMES

~ STEVE BERRY New York Times and #1 Internationally bestselling author of The Patriot Threat

AVAILABLE

ROLLINS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Seventh Plague

What if God's most closely guarded secret found itself in the wrong hands?

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THE EFFECT THRILL “ANLIAHONA ADRENALINE-FUELED RIDE FEATURING LOVE, FAITH, MYSTERY, AND REDEMPTION. OPEN UP TO PAGE ONE AND HANG ON FOR DEAR LIFE.”

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~ ALLAN LEVERONE NY Times & USA TODAY Bestselling Author of over a dozen novels, including the acclaimed MR. MIDNIGHT

“A CRISPLY PLOTTED LABYRINTH OF INTRIGUE, ACTION, AND ADVENTURE.”

www.BryanRobinsonBooks.com Llewellyn Publications

| 978-0738753430

| On Sale: January 8, 2018

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Copyright © 2017 - TopShelf Publishing

~ STEVE BERRY New York Times and #1 Internationally Bestselling Author

“NOT TO BE MISSED. THE BEST BOOK OF ITS KIND SINCE THE DA VINCI CODE.” ~ JON LAND USA TODAY Bestselling Author of over 38 Novels, including THE RISING and the acclaimed CAITLIN STRONG Series

Llewellyn.com The ultimate bookseller guide to indie authors and books

www.THELIAHONAEFFECT.com TopShelf Publishing

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ISBN: 978-1946865007 1

Two murders… Two trials… And two kids who were not exactly guilty.

www.ChrisLeibig.com 978-1980335252

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SUMMER2019

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HARD TO PUT DOWN Two teenaged British girls disappear while on a post-graduation trip to Thailand. Newspaper reporter Kate Waters takes an interest in learning more after meeting the girls’ parents.

Kate’s own son is on a gap-year trip, and she can relate to a mother’s worry, especially when the travelers do a poor job of keeping in touch.

Little does she realize how personal her interest will become once she travels to Thailand to flesh out her story. Three characters narrate the novel in alternating chapters—one of the missing girls, Kate, and Detective Inspector Bob Sparke of the London police. Through their eyes, we experience the seedy side of Bangkok, the angst of parents waiting for news they may not want to hear, and the damage that dogged commitment to career can wreak on families. Interesting twists keep the ending from being predictable even though one must wonder at the coincidence that brings all of the characters together in the first place. Barton’s enjoyable writing style keeps it all moving along, creating a book that will have you reading late into the night. ~Rosemary FiField, TopShelf Reviews

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MASTERFULLY CRAFTED A DELIGHTFUL CHILDREN'S BOOK, TO BE TREASURED If anyone asks me what kind of book I love to read, the first thing that would come to mind is thrillers––especially those set in World War II. This book ticked both boxes. London, 1942.

OSS Agent Conor Thorn is desperate for a second chance. After a botched mission in Tangier, Thorn knows failure is not an option.

When confidential directives for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, go missing, the agent must recover the plans before the Nazis thwart the crucial mission.

The Torch Betrayal is a high-stakes WWII thriller inspired by true events. I tend to make mental notes as I read any novel, and in this case, I made no exception. The first thing I noted was the amount of time the author must have spent with his research, which I applaud. This is backed up with the author’s detailed notes at the back of the book, which I found quite interesting. I have to applaud the author for his attention to detail. The Torch Betrayal by Glen Dyer is a masterly-crafted cloak and dagger spy novel, which I enjoyed immensely. I look forward to reading the sequel.

The World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the people in developing countries still rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care needs. Without money, access to, or faith in modern facilities, indigenous people depend on shamans, herbal healers, and rainforest plants for their survival. Yara’s Tawari Tree is a refreshing way to get across to people, all over the world, that ‘one good turn deserves another.’ The illustrations are beautiful, giving the reader the feeling they are in a rain forest. A delightful children’s book, to be treasured! ~Michael Rowland, TopShelf Reviews

~Michael Rowland, TopShelf Reviews

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featuredspotlights

...books worth a closer look!

Unlike other books about addiction, Saving Bobby begins after rehab is over. Told in part through journal entries, e-mails, and personal recollections, this raw, honest, deeply moving memoir―begun to keep the family accountable―describes the sixteen months that Hodges, her husband, and their community struggled alongside Bobby as he attempted to successfully reenter the day-to-day world…

In a time where history and the future collide. Horse sized Scorpions and the living dead roam the earth and the only hope for survival is The Rise Of The Black Horse Rider

Genre Drug & Alcohol Recovery Price $16.95 ISBN 978-1631523755

Genre Thriller, Suspense Price $15.99 ISBN 978-0999117309

When Cici discovers a body in the forest, she's shocked to realize the victim's wounds are identical to the ones that killed her sister a year ago. Now she's embroiled in the takedown of a massive criminal operation, and the stakes couldn't be higher...

Grace Ward's sterile existence is thrown into chaos when an unconscious baby is abandoned at her hospital during a hurricane. From the instant a mysterious couple thrusts the infant into her arms and disappears, Grace's life is transformed…

Genre Thriller Price $13.99 ISBN 978-1945090226

50

TOPShelf magazine

Genre Medical Thriller Price $11.97 ISBN 978-0998127422

A second chance, summer beach romance from IAN award-wining author, LJ Evans. Inspired by Luke Bryan's "Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset," this novel shows all the ways dreams can be lost and remade, and how love can guide you through.

The pure, unvarnished truth: sometimes the people we work with demonstrate shitty behaviors--this doesn't mean they're shitty people! In the workplace, some managers have shitty leadership moments which impact our employees' personal and business experiences. By developing your leadership brand, self-awareness and the art of bespoke feedback delivery, The Ego-Continuum is the blueprint to unshittify your leadership skills…

Genre Women’s Fiction Price $15.99 ISBN 978-1090224569

Genre Emotional Self-Help Price $14.95 ISBN 978-0473380984

A Comprehensive Bookseller’s Guide to TopShelf Authors & Books




978-0997389951

“If you like adventure, Caribbean seas and family intrigue, you’ll surely enjoy this tale.” ~Katherine A. Sherbrooke, author of Fill the Sky SHANNON CLARKE raised a family and worked waterfront jobs in America’s oldest seaport. Her childhood dream to become a sea captain is revived when her long-lost seafaring uncle Patrick visits with a salty tale of their maritime family ancestry of pirates and privateers. He shares recovered family letters and artifacts from the Golden Age of Piracy. They take to the sea in Patrick’s brigantine to follow the siren song of their ancestors in quest of destiny, truth and treasure. The voyage is fraught with raw forces of nature, past traumas and present day sea raiders, as their talents and beliefs of family, identity and purpose are shaken to the core.

www.JamesMasciarelli.com Koehler Books

SOFT COVER: $17.95 978-1-63393-655-3

HARD COVER: $26.95 978-1-63393-657-7