Posted in fiction, Historical, Interview, Spotlight on April 26, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Clarissa Martinez, a biracial young woman, has lived in seven different countries by the time she turns twenty. She thinks it’s time to settle in a place she could call home. But where?

She joins a quest for the provenance of stolen illuminated manuscripts, a medieval art form that languished with the fifteenth century invention of the printing press. For her, these ancient manuscripts elicit cherished memories of children’s picture books her mother read to her, nourishing a passion for art.

Though immersed in art, she’s naïve about life. She’s disheartened and disillusioned by the machinations the quest reveals of an esoteric, sometimes unscrupulous art world. What compels individuals to steal artworks, and conquerors to plunder them from the vanquished? Why do collectors buy artworks for hundreds of millions of dollars? Who decides the value of an art piece and how?

And she wonders—will this quest reward her with a sense of belonging, a sense of home?

 

 

Amazon

 

 

Interview with Evy

 

 

How long have you been writing?

 

At least 50% of my time in previous jobs was devoted to writing proposals and reports. Before that, I wrote short stories for a school paper, term papers, a thesis, a dissertation. If you include those, then I’d say I’ve been writing a long time. As far as published fiction is concerned—twelve years.

 

What is your next project?

 

How about a novel on Edouard Manet (“father” of modern art, Le Dejeuner Sur L’herbe) and Berthe Morisot, one of very few female Impressionist painters? Were they more than friends, or was he just a mentor/painter to her student/muse? She eventually married his brother. If I find enough intrigue in what’s been written about them, I’ll be sorely tempted.

 

What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?

 

The chapter before the Epilogue was supposed to show the male character, in his POV, disclosing his feelings for Clarissa, and what happens  after she kisses him. More intimate and a bit sexy, it’s part emotional hook/part deeper characterization, but I decided it would distract from the story’s main themes and is out of sync with the story presentation. And why not leave something for the reader’s imagination? So, I excised it before I sent my draft to the editor.

 

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

 

My author website tagline reads “I see, I listen, I think. Therefore, I write.” I live in a multicultural region where my reality consists of stories of the “Other”—multiracial or transcultural characters navigating separate “realities.” I’ve packaged my stories of the “Other” into a series (Between Two Worlds) of standalone books, each of which delves into a specific subject that interests me—for The Golden Manuscript, it’s art.

 

 

 

TheGoldenManuscripts-FIN.mp4 from Evy Journey on Vimeo.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Evy Journey writes. Stories and blog posts. Novels that tend to cross genres. She’s also a wannabe artist, and a flâneuse.

Evy studied psychology (M.A., University of Hawaii; Ph.D. University of Illinois). So her fiction spins tales about nuanced characters dealing with contemporary life issues and problems. She believes in love and its many faces.

Her one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She has visited and stayed a few months at a time.

 

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Posted in excerpt, romance, Spotlight, women on March 11, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Twenty-nine-year-old Nina Abrahams is not in a good place. She’s been fired from her restaurant manager job after she stands up to her bully of a boss, her motivational speaker mother is helping other people get their lives on track and ignoring the derailing of her daughter’s, and her best friend, Lucas Wilson, the guy she’s loved since she was eighteen, can’t seem to look beyond the girl in braces to the woman she is now.

When a new opportunity comes up, Nina decides it’s the perfect time to start over. The restaurant needs a reinvention and so does she. Unfortunately for Nina, the restaurant comes with hostile servers, a belligerent chef, and an owner averse to change.

But if Nina’s brave enough to take on the restaurant and tackle the people out to sabotage her, perhaps she can find the courage to tell Lucas how she really feels, even if it means risking the most important relationship in her life.

 

 

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Universal Book Link: Books2Read

 

 

Excerpt

 

Chapter One

 

If Nina Abrahams hadn’t been fired this morning, she never would have said yes. At least, that’s what she told herself. Her face flushed with the humiliating memory: standing alone in front of Pablo’s massive I’m-obviously-compensating-for-something desk and realizing no one had backed her, Pablo’s smug face as he uttered the words his Napoleonic ego had been squirming to say for weeks, the sympathetic stares of her staff as she packed up her stuff, and the guilty absence of those who’d sworn to stand by her, but who’d evidently caved somewhere between vigorous nods in her attorney-general moment—Pablo is stealing money from youhe’s exploiting you, enough’s enough, we shouldn’t let him get away with it—and the sobering reality of monthly bills that needed to be paid.

As if Mondays weren’t bad enough.

As the credits for another Grey’s Anatomy episode rolled onto the screen, Nina blew her nose, dug out the remote from under a throw pillow, and hit the Mute button. She checked the time: 5:00 p.m. After being thrown out of the restaurant, she’d spent the day stretched out on her couch, working her way through copious amounts of Coke and corn chips while she watched impossibly attractive doctors tear into each other and their patients.

Her phone rang, and she glanced at the screen: Lucas. Not Pablo, the Uruguayan chef turned restaurateur, admitting to a colossal mistake in firing her, begging her forgiveness and offering her and the rest of the staff at Mateo’s Grill a threefold pay increase. That was Fantasy Number Two. Lucas had taken the number one spot years ago, and it had never changed.

Sitting upright, Nina cleared her throat of the residues of a crying jag. “Lucas,” she answered lightly.

“So there’s a charity fundraiser this Saturday,” he said by way of greeting.

“No, no, and no,” Nina said. And then, as though Lucas was hard of hearing, which she knew he was not, just hard on resolve, she said again, “Definitely, no.”

“It’s for charity.”

“Still no.”

“The tickets cost me five hundred dollars. Each.”

She rolled her eyes, which only magnified her headache. That was a bodyguard for you. Trained to think of all the angles. “You can afford seven hundred.”

“Think of the kids in Zambia,” Lucas said. “They walk two hours every day to get fresh water. This will give them a tap right in their village.”

She frowned at her phone. And at the man who called himself her friend on the other end of the line. “Low blow, Lucas.”

“Did it work?” he asked hopefully. “Can you get someone to cover for you Saturday night?”

She’d been fired, so that wasn’t an issue, but she wasn’t ready to tell him. Not yet. She couldn’t cope with the resulting lecture—and there most certainly would be a lecture filled with uninteresting words like “prudence” and “responsibility” and “discretion.” Unlike the satisfying words she’d tossed at her ex-boss this morning: cretin, thief, bully.

“Saturday night?” she asked, considering. “You must be desperate.”

“Desperate enough to continue begging, if that would help.”

She laughed. And that was when she found herself saying yes.

Lucas gave a satisfied whoop. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

Add it to the tally, she thought, suppressing a sigh.

Wedging the phone between her shoulder and ear, Nina stood and stretched out too many hours of lying curled around comfort food. Finding a Doritos snagged on her pajama top, she absently pulled it free and bit into it.

There was a charged silence. “What was that noise?” Lucas asked suspiciously.

She swallowed. Quickly. “Noise? What noise?”

“Are you eating chips?”

“What?”

“You are,” Lucas accused. “You’re eating chips! Doritos, I bet.” She heard him give a loud sniff. “I can smell them.”

“As if,” Nina scoffed, and then groaned as she realized how neatly she’d fallen into his trap.

“What happened?” Lucas demanded.

“What makes you think something happened?”

“The last time you binged on junk food, that lowlife of the unmentionable name had just dumped you and you single-handedly upped Doritos’s profit margin.”

A half chuckle, half sob escaped her. “Objection to the word dumped,” she said, and burst into tears.

“Nina Sarah Abrahams,” Lucas said, drawing out her name in warning. “You better not be watching something sad and romantic.”

She hiccupped out a “Talking to you…so not watching…at this very moment.”

“Why do you do it?” he asked in exasperation. “Why do you torture yourself like this?”

“Meredith and Derek are never going to get it right!” she wailed.

Grey’s Anatomy? Seriously?” Lucas’s sigh was heavy. “I’m coming over. You better not drink all the Coke.”

 

 

About the Author

 

Lara Martin writes books about imperfect people living messy lives, falling in love and getting their perfect happily-ever-after. She’s lived in South Africa and Australia and now calls a cozy village in England her home. She’s tried a variety of amazing and awful jobs: video game reviewer, graphic designer, insurance claims agent (she has no idea how she landed this one), proof reader, feature writer, and magazine editor. She lives with her husband (always the first reader of her novels), two slightly terrifying teenagers, and the requisite psychotic cat. When she’s not writing, she can be found haunting local coffee shops.

 

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Posted in excerpt, mystery, Spotlight on March 5, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Sylvia Wilson, a bar owner in St. Louis, Missouri, arrives at work to discover the body of an ex-police officer in her locked bar. The police focus on her as their primary suspect, so she decides to launch her own investigation into the dead man and his accomplices. But when the killer sends her clear messages that she and her loved ones are on his radar, she knows it’s just a matter of time before someone ends up dead.

 

 

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Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

 

 

Excerpt

 

I moved to the front again, checking shadows before dodging into them. Reaching the door, I leaned into it, listening. Silent as a ball of cotton. The key slid smoothly into the lock and turned. I eased open the door. Watched and listened for any movement or noise. Nothing. I slipped my arm in and turned on my lights. The alarm was already off.

Mayhem erupted from my backyard as my dogs snarled and threw themselves at the sliding glass door with angsted fervor. I hadn’t let them out there. Maybe Aaron had stopped by. But the dogs were clearly upset, and they wouldn’t be if it had been my brother who’d visited.

Even if there was a noise, I wouldn’t hear it over the violent ruckus. I sidled into the room. Nothing but my blue furniture and beige carpet. Through the glass door, I saw Ruffles was foaming and standing stock still. When he moved, it was with the stiff-legged, high-toed, movements of a mechanical being. His upper lip was curled completely over his nose and the resulting sound came through the glass like an outboard motor. I’d never seen him so livid, and I honestly wondered how he could breathe like that.

Satan was throwing herself at the door again and again, as if she were a small missile that would weaken and eventually punch through the glass. I could picture the trauma her body experienced every time she made contact. If I didn’t do something fast, she would be covered in bruises, maybe even broken bones.

Something had upset them so much that even my presence didn’t calm them. Moving quickly through my home, I cleared all the rooms; no one was hidden anywhere. Then, I put the safety back on the gun, set it down, and went to focus on my poor dogs. I pulled out the rod I kept in the track. That’s when I noticed the dark brown handprint on the sliding door.

Unless I missed my guess, that was dried blood.

I pulled my cellphone and dialed Eccheli. It took him a long time to answer, and he didn’t sound too happy, but his sleep-cracked voice got animated the moment I explained what had happened.

He said, “Don’t touch anything. We’ll be right there.”

“My dogs might be injured. I need to go out there and check them.” Satan had calmed a little, but she still paced the window in agitation. Ruffles was standing stock still, growling.

He hesitated. “Do you have kitchen gloves?”

“I have painter’s gloves.” Actually, I didn’t. But I did have some of the gloves the police left behind at the bar. Close enough.

“Perfect. Go out to them, don’t let them in. We’ll get there right away.” He disconnected.

I probably was working my way back up Johnson’s ‘person of interest’ list with this middle of the night phone call. Nothing to be done about it.

When he’d said they’d get there right away, he wasn’t kidding. I’d managed to find my gloves, put them on, and had only been outside a few minutes. I was sitting in the soaked grass, trying to calm a frantic Satan so I could inspect her for injuries when my cellphone vibrated against my thigh.

Eccheli asked, “We good to come in?”

“Yeah, we’re out back.”

The minute the front door opened, Satan became all claws and teeth and twisted out of my arms. She threw herself at the glass door, ballistic missile at work again. As for Ruffles, I was used to his snarls, but the intensity of the one he gave at that moment scared me.

I watched Eccheli and Johnson as they entered my house. Saw how he noticed my Colt Python on the counter, pointed it out to Johnson, and how she nodded and pocketed it. I certainly hoped she was going to give that back; it had cost me a pretty penny.

As the two detectives cleared the house, again, flashing lights of an arriving squad car ricocheted off the back fence of the yard. I would probably be as popular in my neighborhood as a scorpion. At least there was no siren.

Mr. and Mrs. Detective returned to the front room. Eccheli leaned close to the glass, studying the handprint. Johnson stared out the glass at me and pointed at the door handle. When I shook my head, she pulled out her phone and called me. “How are the dogs?”

I shouted over the violence of growls and barks. “Ruffles has no injuries, but I can’t get Satan to hold still to check her!”

“Want me to call animal control to tranq her?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to do that to my dogs, but I didn’t foresee Satan letting me check her any time soon and that bloody handprint scared me. I nodded to the woman staring out at me, feeling somehow like a traitor.

 

 

About the Author

 

Wendy Koenig is a published author living in New Brunswick, Canada. Her first piece to be printed was a short children’s fiction, Jet’s Stormy Adventure, serialized in The Illinois Horse Network. She attended University of Iowa, honing her craft in their famed summer workshops and writing programs. Since that time, she has published and co-authored numerous books and has won several international awards.

 

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Posted in Cover Reveal, Giveaway, mystery, Spotlight, Texas on February 24, 2023

 

 

 

 

BRUTAL SEASON

 

The Seasons Mysteries Series #4

 

BY MARYANN MILLER

 

 

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

Police Procedural / Mystery

Publisher: MCM Enterprises

Coming April 10, 2023

 

 

Scroll down for Giveaway!

 

 

 

Eighteen-year-old Jamel Frederickson is shot and killed by a white, rookie Dallas police officer. His crime? Being black and mentally ill.

Following that unwarranted death, anger, and violence erupts on the streets, leading to the murders of two protestors who were marching around the downtown federal building.

Detectives Sarah Kingsly and Angel Johnson are thrust into the investigation of those murders, while desperately clinging to the threads of their partnership.

The shootings also raise questions about whether the alt-right white supremacists that invaded the city with their guns and inflammatory rhetoric are responsible.

Will more people get killed?

Is there more than one person out there with an agenda?

When a member of the team, Ryan O’Donnell, is shot while attempting to prevent looting, the tension in the city, and the department, ratchets up even higher. And it deeply affects Angel who’s been pretending she really isn’t falling for this white man.

Angel joins the protests to take a stand against racism in the city and within the department; an action that puts her job, her relationship with Ryan, and her fragile partnership with Sarah at risk.

For her part, Sarah comes to realize that she is not as enlightened as she thought she was, and both women just hope they can come through the personal and professional challenges and end up with something that resembles a true partnership.

While catching the killers in the process.

 

 

Now Available for Pre-Order!

 

 

Advance Praise

 

“In the compelling fourth installment of the Seasons Mystery series, Miller once again tackles difficult subjects in this absorbing, page-turning crime thriller.”–Carrie Rubin, author of Fatal Rounds, a Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize Finalist

 

 

 

 

Maryann Miller, an award-winning author, has been in love with storytelling since she was a child and used to scare her sister with stories of the monsters in the cellar.

When she grew up, she started her professional career as a journalist, writing newspaper columns, feature stories, and short fiction for regional and national publications. Her novels are primarily mysteries, with an occasional mainstream novel thrown into the mix.

Miller is the recipient of the Page Edwards Short Story Award for her story Maybe Someday and the New York Library Best Books for Teens Award for her nonfiction book, Coping with Weapons And Violence In School and On Your Streets. Her mystery, Doubletake, was honored as the Best Mystery by the Texas Association of Authors. She took first place in the short story and screenwriting competition at the Houston Writer’s Conference and was a semi-finalist at Sundance for her script “A Question of Honor.” She was also a semi-finalist in the Chesterfield Screenwriting Competition with the adaptation of Open Season, the first book in the Seasons Mystery Series.

When not writing, Miller loves to play on stage and play in her garden.  She lives in Texas with her dog and three cats. The cats rule.

 

 

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GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

 

 TWO WINNERS

 

FIRST: $50 Amazon gift card

 

+ signed copies of the first three books in the series.

 

SECOND: Signed copies of the first three books in the series.

 

(US only; ends midnight, CST, 3/2/23)

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

 

 

 

Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page

 

For direct links to each blog participating in this book blitz!

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Medical, nonfiction, Spotlight on January 28, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Today we see crime, abuse, alcoholism, drugs, anger, and anxiety everywhere. Jails and prisons are crammed on an industrial scale. Recovery centers are packed with patients. Extreme political and religious groups regularly trap more members. Too many schools are simply factories for dropouts. All of this is the result of unresolved trauma. Ultimately, the quality of our lives depends on our ability to successfully process our heartbreaks and catastrophes. By college age, 66% to 85% of all people have been impacted by at least one traumatic experience. COVID has arguably traumatized everyone.

In Post-Traumatic Thriving, we follow the journey from the depths of the initial shock to the pinnacle of ultimate healing and growth. This book interweaves advanced science with the stories of people who have not just survived, but used their trauma as the fuel to thrive:

• A devoted wife and mother, Debbie discovers that her husband―who died of suicide―led a double life
• Leo lost an eye and his hearing in two separate accidents
• When only 17, JC was convicted of murder and sent to San Quentin prison for life
• Ron, a gifted athlete whose dreams of Olympic glory were dashed • Susan, whose luxury home was demolished by a landslide
• John was living an idyllic island life when his daughter was killed by nuclear fallout
• Erica was a young Hungarian girl whose life was brutalized by the Nazis
• Tonya’s sister―her sweet, caring, innocent sister―was horrifically murdered
• Born with cerebral palsy, Geri fought bullies and rampant discrimination
• Joe longed for a relationship with his father, but the Mafia got to his father first
• And finally, a little boy who learned that only open-heart surgery would save him – He is Dr. Randall Bell, the author of this book These people not only faced their trauma but thrived in remarkable ways.

Post-Traumatic Thriving bridges the iconic work of Dr. Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief and the pioneering work of Dr. Richard G. Tedeschi and Dr. Lawrence G. Calhoun involving trauma and growth. This is the ideal companion book for therapists and patients alike. When trauma hits, your most significant decision will be to dive, survive, or thrive. If you choose to thrive, this book is for you. The principles have the power to change the world. If that doesn’t happen, at least they will change your world.

 

 

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Praise

 

Never has there been a more impactful book, at a more needed time than this one. Post-Traumatic Thriving offers the latest information on the science of trauma, how to overcome traumatic events, while offering real life stories of resilience from survivors. While we all experience trauma in one form or another, this book will teach you not only how to survive life, but how to thrive! – Marianne Pestana (Former Producer at PBS & Host of Moments with Marianne – iHeart Radio)  

Written with both frankness and compassion, Dr. Bell’s guide is simultaneously scientific and holistic, lending readers a path not only for getting through trauma, but also achieving their highest potential because of it. – Vicki Pepper (Radio Host & Reporter – KFRG-FM)

This book could not have come at a better time – offering a lifeline of hope to a world facing trauma. It is a must read. In this you’ll discover practical solutions and life-changing insight to not only help yourself, but others. – Eleisha Foon (Reporter – Radio New Zealand) 

 

 

About the Author

 

As a socio-economist, Dr. Randall Bell has consulted on more disasters on earth than anyone in history. Dr. Bell is widely considered the world’s top authority in the field of post-traumatic thriving. His clients include the Federal Government, State Governments, International Tribunals, major corporations and homeowners. Dr. Bell believes that “the problem is not the problem — the problem is how we react to the problem.”

Often called the “Master of Disaster,” he is squarely focused on authentic recovery and resilience. Dr. Bell’s research has been profiled on the Today Show, Good Morning America, every major television station, BBC Radio, Success Magazine, Forbes, Inc. Magazine and the international media.

 

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Posted in excerpt, fiction, humor, Spotlight, women on January 17, 2023

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

In an attempt to secure an unexpected inheritance—and hopefully find a few answers—two estranged sisters and their newly discovered brother embark on a comically surreal trip through the Deep South to retrace the life of the mother who abandoned them as infants.

On a Tuesday afternoon, sisters Jesse Chasen and Jennifer McMahon receive a phone call notifying them that their birth mother has died, leaving behind a significant inheritance. But in order to obtain it, they must follow a detailed road trip she designed for them to get to know her—and that includes finding a brother they never knew existed.

For the next week, this ill-assorted trio treks across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to meet their mother’s old friends, from circus performers to a juke joint owner, each of whom delivers a shocking vignette into the life of a young mother traumatized by loss and abuse. Along the way, these three siblings—Jesse, whose fiery exterior disguises a wounded, drifting musician stuck in a rut; Jennifer, whose carefully curated family life is threatened by her husband’s infidelity; and Jack, whose enigmatic Jackie, Oh! persona in the New Orleans drag queen scene helps him escape the nightmares of Afghanistan that haunt him at night—must confront their own demons (and at least one alligator). But in chasing the truth about their real mother, they may all just find their second chance.

This uproarious debut novel is a reminder that sometimes, the family you’d never have chosen may turn out to be exactly what you need.

 

 

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Praise

 

“This breezy, charming tale incisively shows a family’s bittersweet facets.” –Kirkus Reviews

A “feverish, entertaining novel” –Foreward Clarion Reviews

“In this rollicking family dramedy, debut author Rice sends three lovable siblings on a zany yet touching road trip… Rice’s sharp observations of society’s absurdity verge on the satirical… Fans of family drama, road trips, and non-stop laughs will love this cross-country adventure.” –BookLife

 

 

Excerpt

 

Jesse climbed three flights of stairs, then unlocked the front door and entered Kyle’s third-floor walk-up. His studio apartment was about as nice a place as his dingy office, except for a few touches here and there that made it seem like a woman had at least attempted to make it better than a frat boy’s dorm room, Chicago Bears bedspread notwithstanding.

Jesse darted around the apartment quickly, gathering her things and shoving her clothes and personal items into an old canvas duffel bag that she pulled down from a shelf in the closet. Once the duffel bag was full, she supplemented with a few plastic grocery bags that she pulled out of a broken kitchen drawer. Her thoughts as she raced around — ranging from anger at Kyle, to relief at being rid of him, to panic about where she could land next — bounced around in her head like a pinball machine. While snippets of her phone conversation replayed in her head on endless repeat mode.

Kyle’s puppy, in a dog cage in the corner, watched her curiously, head cocked to the side, wagging his tail as Jesse hurried about, mumbling to herself. He was a mixed-breed puppy that Kyle said he found sleeping in the bushes outside their building. Though Jesse was pretty sure that was code for “I stole him from a neighbor who was distracted doing laundry in the basement.”

Kyle had grandiose plans to train it and make money in the underground dogfighting scene in their neighborhood. But since Jesse thought the sweet little thing might actually be part Golden Retriever and part Beanie Baby, she figured the odds weren’t good for the success of that business plan in the face of disgruntled Pit Bulls and Rottweilers.

Right on cue after Jesse mumbled to herself, “What am I forgetting?… What am I forgetting?” the puppy gave a tiny little yelp.

“Ohhhh, sweetie,” she purred at him.

She stood in the middle of the room facing the cage, conflicted, the two of them locked in a staring battle. The puppy won.

“Okay, I don’t know where we’re going to live, but I’m not leaving you here with that fucker. He doesn’t deserve you. Come here, baby,” she said as she set her bags down, pulled him out of the cage, and kissed him squarely on his soft, furry, blonde head. Then she set him down on the floor and picked up the dog cage. She carried it across the room where she proceeded to turn it sideways and dump the dog shit out of the cage and onto the center of the bed.

“Who’s the shitty lay now, Kyle?” she said to no one in particular.

Jesse walked back to the corner, set the cage down, picked up her bags and the puppy, and grabbed her guitar case that was leaning against the wall next to the front door. Then she walked out of Kyle’s place for the very last time, stealing his dog as she went.

 

Tuesday Evening

 

Jesse’s forty-one-year-old sister, Jennifer McMahon, lived in the perfectly manicured, upper-middle-class neighborhood of Glenview, Illinois with her perfect doctor husband Sean. Their perfect children, Connor and Maggie, were both attending their dad’s alma mater, Northwestern University. Though they lived on campus, they were close enough to bring their laundry home every week.
Glenview was a Chicago suburb where the inner-city problems a mere few miles away were like a story you read in the newspaper about some other country, and about which you could safely exclaim, “Oh, my goodness, that’s just awful!” while you finished your kale/banana smoothie and delightfully flaky almond croissant.

Geography was merely one item in the growing list of fundamental differences between the sisters. The scant two years that separated them in age was the closest thing about them these days. After years of Jennifer coming to Jesse’s rescue under the banner of “Oh, she’s just free-spirited,” Jesse’s increasing trouble over the last few years in terms of holding down a job, maintaining a stable living situation, and the need to be constantly bailed out financially had put intensifying strain on the already challenging relationship.

Jesse pulled up to the curb in her 1999 Alpine Green Dodge Neon, the left side of her front bumper tied on with nylon rope, with her stolen dog and all her earthly possessions in tow. She turned off the engine and tried to quell her rising sense of inadequacy as she stared at Jennifer’s fairytale, Brady-Bunch-on-steroids house.

She took a deep breath, looked at the puppy that was sitting on the passenger seat next to her cell phone, and said, “I’ll be right back. Don’t make any long-distance calls.”

She walked up to the front door, took another fortifying breath, and rang the bell. Jennifer, in all her straitlaced glory, opened the door and stared at her younger sister for what seemed to Jesse like fifteen minutes, but in reality, was probably more like ten seconds. Jesse ended the standoff by getting right down to the more pressing business at hand.

“I assume you got the same call I got,” she said.

“I did,” answered Jennifer.

There was another awkward pause.

“You gonna invite me in, Jen? Or should I just break into your neighbor’s shed, grab a lawn chair, and make myself at home here on your porch?”

Jennifer wrinkled her nose, sniffed, and said, “You smell like vomit and dog poop.”

“Yeah?” Jesse countered, “Well, you smell like judgment and superiority.”

No comment from Jennifer. Here we go again, she thought to herself.

About the Author

 

Allyson Rice is a writer, an award-winning mixed media artist, and a producer with Atomic Focus Entertainment, currently splitting her time between Los Angeles, CA, and Rehoboth Beach, DE. She’s a graduate of Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Communication. After spending many years as an actress on stage and on television, she left acting and spent the next decade running yoga/meditation retreats, women’s retreats, and creativity retreats around the country. After that, she pivoted to focus once again on her own creative work. In addition to her writing and art, she’s also a photographer (her work was most recently chosen for an exhibition at the Soho Photo Gallery in NYC).

Some random bits of Allyson trivia: 1) She’s been skydiving, paragliding, bungee jumping, ziplining through a rainforest, and scuba diving with stingrays; 2) she has an extensive PEZ dispenser collection; 3) she played Connor Walsh on As the World Turns for seven years; 4) she’s been in the Oval Office at the White House after hours; 5) she’s related to the Hatfields of the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud; and 6) her comedic rap music video “Fine, I’ll Write My Own Damn Song” won numerous awards in the film festival circuit and can now be seen on YouTube https://youtu.be/7Xe3nuVDkC4.

Also available from Allyson Rice is her line of women’s coloring books (The Color of Joy, Dancing with Life, and Wonderland), and The Creative Prosperity PlayDeck, an inspirational card deck about unlocking and utilizing your creative energy in the world. She’s currently at work on her second novel and her fourth women’s coloring book. But she is most proud of being mom to musical artist @_zanetaylor.

 

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Posted in Cozy, Giveaway, Monday, mystery, Spotlight on January 16, 2023

 

 

 

 

Dial M for Meow (Bookshop Kitties Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st In Series
Setting – Green Meadow, Indiana
Gemma Halliday Publishing (January 10, 2023)
Number of Pages 153

 

Synopsis

 

When children’s book author, Christy Bailey, receives a call from her aunt Betty to help out at her bookshop, she drops everything to go. Christy packs up her two cats—Milton and Pearl, the stars of her children’s mystery books—and leaves busy Philadelphia for tiny Green Meadow, Indiana. The timing of the call is perfect, as Christy’s letch of an ex-boyfriend has just cleaned out her savings, leaving Christy with a pile of unpaid bills and a desire to start over. And what better place to do that than a charming small town in Middle America?

But when Christy reaches her aunt’s bookshop, instead of small town hospitality she finds a dead body! Even worse, her aunt is passed out in the corner, hands covered in blood. The dead woman is an old frenemy of her Aunt Betty, and while Christy knows her aunt is innocent, the local detective isn’t so sure. With Milton and Pearl prowling for clues, Christy is determined to find the real killer and clear her aunt’s name… before her story ends in tragedy!

 

 

 

Amazon

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Ruth J. Hartman spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people’s recliners. Not that the cats couldn’t get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else’s.

Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.

Ruth’s husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her despite her insistence all of her books have at least one cat in them.

 

 

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Giveaway

 

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Posted in Cozy, excerpt, Monday, mystery, romance, Spotlight on January 9, 2023

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

The little white house on Main Street in Buffalo Springs, Arkansas, is the only home Jackson Nelson has ever known. With college behind him and both his sisters back in town to look after their aging parents, Jackson knows now is the time to make his big move. All he’s ever wanted is to move to New York and lead the high-stakes life of a real estate investor. He’s determined to leave town right after Christmas and never look back.

Cindy Kline has never had a real home or a real Christmas. Abandoned by her father and raised by an unfit mother, Cindy thought she had finally found the family she always wanted when the man of her dreams asked her to marry him; but when his Navy SEAL helicopter went down in a fiery crash before their wedding, Cindy had nothing left to keep her in sunny California. Packing her meager belongings into her old, beat-up car, Cindy drives straight to Buffalo Springs and to the only real friend she’s ever had – Andi Nelson. With Christmas around the corner, Andi, Jackson, and the whole Nelson family convince Cindy to stay through the holidays even finding her a job that may turn out to be a real career.

Just when Cindy is beginning to get into the Christmas spirit, her life is once again up-ended – this time by a series of break-ins and the news that her dangerous father may be lurking nearby. Cindy has no idea that her father’s mysterious past will put her life in jeopardy, and Jackson has no idea that the bright lights of New York are but a flickering flame when it comes to the sparks of the heart.

 

 

 

 

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Excerpt

 

“And unto you a child is born!” The child actor belted out the play’s most robust line with all the enthusiasm he could muster.

It was all Cindy could do not to jump to her feet and applaud. She laughed and clapped along with the rest of the audience. When the play was over, she went with the Nelson family to the town drug store that boasted an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and soda fountain in the back of the store. The proprietor had kept the doors open late to welcome the theatergoers.

“What would you like?” Jackson asked as Cindy eyed the many choices written on the blackboard.

“There are too many to choose just one.”

Jackson laughed. “Andi is partial to anything with peanut butter, and Helena always goes for something super sweet and fruity like cherry or raspberry. Mama likes plain old chocolate.”

She looked at Jackson. “And what do you like, Jackson?”

She saw his expression falter for just a moment, and a curtain of pink danced across his features, reminiscent of the curtains that closed at the end of the show. He blinked and just as quickly as the odd look appeared, it disappeared, and he broke into a wide grin.

“I always go for a good, old-fashioned root beer float with vanilla ice cream.”

“Would you believe, I’ve never had a root beer float?”

The look he gave her was one of exaggerated shock. “What? That might be the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.” He clutched at his chest. “A shot to the heart.”

Cindy laughed, and Andi inserted herself between them to grab some extra napkins from the top of the ice cream display case.

“Is this guy bothering you?” she asked with a mock scowl.

Cindy shook her head. “Not at all. This has been one of the best nights of my life, and I’m going to top it off with my very first root beer float.”

Andi smiled. “I think that’s a great idea.”

On their turn, Jackson ordered for them both then reached for his wallet to pay, but Cindy put her hand on his arm.

“Jackson, no, I can’t let you do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can pay for my own ice cream. You all have been so generous already.”

“Sorry, Cindy, but my daddy would skin me alive if he heard that I allowed a female to pay for her own ice cream.”

She frowned and said in a firm voice, “Jackson, this isn’t a date. I can pay for my own ice cream.”

Again, she saw his face redden. “I never said it was a date, and you should accept an act of kindness when presented with one.”

The cashier cleared her throat, and Cindy realized they were holding up the line. Embarrassed for drawing attention, she said, “You’re right. Go ahead and pay, but I owe you.”

“That’s fair. On the next family outing, you can buy me ice cream.”

Cindy accepted her root beer float from the young girl behind the counter and took a sip. She didn’t know how to respond to Jackson. She wasn’t part of the ‘family’ and didn’t know if she’d be there for the next outing. Rather than agree, she concentrated on her float and sat quietly while listening to the rest of them banter about Christmas and New Year’s and the June wedding. She couldn’t help but wonder what she would be doing by then and where she would be.

As she ate, Cindy felt a peculiar tingling on the back of her neck. She looked around, peering up and down the streets. Other families hovered nearby, eating ice cream, and several couples walked along the sidewalk. It looked like everyone in town had come out to see the play. None of the other theater goers paid any attention to Cindy or the Nelsons, and Cindy had no reason to be paranoid, but she could not shake the eerie feeling that she was being watched.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Amy Schisler is a novelist, poet, children’s book author, spiritual writer, blogger, reader, and avid traveler with years of professional experience in all manner of writing-related endeavors. Whether she’s writing novels filled with faith and inspiration, books that children will love, or her weekly blog devoted to family life and faith, she loves connecting and resonating with her readers. Amy’s first novel, A Place to Call Home, a romantic suspense, debuted in 2014, and her much-loved Chincoteague Island Trilogy has won numerous literary awards.

Amy lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her husband, Ken, their daughters, Katie and Morgan (and sometimes their daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca and Anthony), and their dogs, Rosie and Luna. When she’s not writing, Amy can usually be found on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay or hiking in the Rocky Mountains, most often with a good book in her hand.

 

 

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Posted in Spotlight, Thriller on January 2, 2023

 

 

Synopsis

 

Los Angeles, 1962. Dr. Wiley McCoy has a successful medical practice, movie-star good looks, and a substance abuse problem. When a young woman dies on his operating table, his life and career are destroyed. Romulo DaVinci is a conniving Voodoo shaman with supernatural powers to resurrect the dead. The disgraced doctor and the medical adventurer are thrown together on a gonzo journey through the seminal events of the 1960’s including the JFK assassination, the Apollo moon landing, and the Manson killings. Along the way, they commandeer a U.S. nuclear submarine and encounter real-life characters from bonkers plutocrat Howard Hughes to ruthless Haitian leader Papa Doc Duvalier.

The Thresher Ghost is a carnival ride through a tumultuous decade—its music, its conspiracies, and its scandals—as McCoy and DaVinci cross oceans and medical boundaries in a duel between science and magic.

 

 

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About the Author

 

Spencer Compton was raised in New York City. He spent the summer of 1969 working as a bartender at London’s Chelsea Drugstore where he watched the Apollo moon landing alongside cheering patrons. After graduating from NYU Film School, he made independent feature films and music videos and was a screenwriter on the cult classic Cocaine Cowboys starring Andy Warhol and Jack Palance. He then went to law school and became a real estate attorney. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York.

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Posted in Satire, Spotlight on December 30, 2022

 

 

Synopsis

 

Her electrifying idea could change the world.

Lindsey Harper Crowe is trying desperately to do right by her family’s 100-year-old energy business, yet everyone says she’s wrong.

She’s despoiling the planet, according to her woke daughter, Missy, who has been protesting outside company headquarters. She’s ruining the iconic company, says her bitter ex-husband, Robbie, who desperately wants his old job back. She’s under investigation by the
FBI for price gouging, along with other fossil fuel-based companies in the U.S. Ruthless hedge fund manager Harold “Hacksaw Harry” Crenshaw says she should just give it all up and go back to her old life of shopping and day-drinking.

Undaunted but increasingly desperate, Lindsey resolves to fight back with the help of a jaded PR veteran, Marty McGarry. Together they conceive a high-risk scheme to forge a new identity for her and her business. Their gambit? Create a public demonstration of fusion energy, based on the process that powers the sun and the stars, by lighting the flame on the Statue of Liberty.
If it fails, she could lose it all. But if it succeeds, she could be hailed as America’s Green Goddess.

This amusing and insightful telling of the saga of Lindsey, the Crowe family, and their historic company takes satirical aim at upper-class guilt, trendy socialism, corporate cynicism, climate politics, and Washington corruption.

 

 

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About the Author

 

Jon Pepper is a novelist and consultant based in New York City.

His latest novel, Green Goddess, is the third in his Fossil Feuds series, centered on the wealthy Crowe family’s New York-based energy empire as it struggles to adapt to modern times. Intra-family warfare, executive rivalries, crosstown competitors, and climate activists threaten to bring it all down. The Crowe family’s battles are sometimes petty, sometimes mean, but they’re also lively, amusing, and deeply human.

A native of Michigan, Jon won numerous awards as a national writer and business columnist for The Detroit News. He subsequently became the president of a media firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and an executive for two Fortune 100 companies before starting his own strategic communications agency, Indelable, in New York.

The first book in the series, A Turn in Fortune, focuses on insecure company chairman Robbie Crowe’s jealous rage over press acclaim for his highly successful CEO Walker B. Hope. A showdown looms; Crowe Power is big, but it isn’t big enough for the both of them.

Heirs on Fire, released in 2020, follows Robbie Crowe’s fight for respect and recognition while dealing with an estranged wife, a manipulative mistress, a takeover threat, and a possible revolt in his storied family. The New York Post called it “a clever corporate satire.” Kirkus Reviews recommended “Heirs on Fire” and said it was “wickedly funny.”

Lindsey Harper Crowe, the first woman leader in the company’s long history, is under pressure from climate activists, a hedge fund manager, and a business rival in Green Goddess. She needs to either find or convincingly fake common cause with her critics, or she could lose the business. In recommending Green Goddess, Kirkus Reviews said the book was “a rollicking ride … as humorous as it is astute.”

Jon’s career as a journalist, executive, and entrepreneur gave him a front-row seat in the corner suites, estates, private jets, and first-class hotels where the business elite dwell. With an eye for human quirks and vanities, Jon captures the multiple dimensions of life in executive suites with entertaining accuracy.

“I’ve always loved good satires about the business elite and the various pressures that guide decision-making for better and for worse,” Jon says. “The goal of my books is to immerse readers in that world, make them laugh, and make them think.”

Jon and his wife Diane, who designed the covers of his books, reside in Manhattan.

 

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