PROMO: Bloodroot

 

 

Historical Fiction

Date Published: 08-01-1021

Publisher: BQB Publishing

England, 1609. Matthew did not trust his friend, Richard’s stories of Paradise in the Jamestown settlement, but nothing could have equipped him for the privation and terror that awaited him in this savage land.

Once ashore in the fledgling settlement, Matthew experiences the unimaginable beauty of this pristine land and learns the meaning of hope, but it all turns into a nightmare as gold mania infests the community and Indians become an increasing threat. The nightmare only gets worse as the harsh winter brings on “the starving time” and all the grizzly horrors of a desperate and dying community that come with it.

Driven to the depths of despair by the guilt of his sins against Richard and his lust for that man’s wife, Matthew seeks death, but instead finds hope in the most unexpected of places, with the Powatan Indians.

In this compelling and extensively researched historical novel, the reader is transported into a little-known time in early America where he is asked to explore the real meanings of loyalty, faith, and freedom.

About The Author

A retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA, Daniel V. Meier, Jr. has always had a passion for writing. During his college years, he studied History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) and American Literature at The University of Maryland Graduate School. In 1980 he published an action/thriller with Leisure Books under the pen name of Vince Daniels.

He also worked briefly for the Washington Business Journal as a journalist and has been a contributing writer/editor for several aviation magazines. In addition to, Bloodroot, he is the author of the award-winning historical novel, The Dung Beetles of Liberia that was released in September 2019 and the highly acclaimed literary novel, No Birds Sing Here in April 2021.

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PROMO: The Voices at the End of the Road

 

Ghosts of the Big Thicket, Book Three

Southern Gothic, Mystery, Paranormal Women’s Fiction

Published: July 2021

Publisher: Zimbell House Publishing

The Whitfield Estate is hidden deep in the Big Thicket outside of Soda, Texas. This reclusive family brood amassed their oil and timber fortune over four generations, and now that it’s been done, they have become painfully aware of how isolated and broken they are as a family.

Tessa Nettles, fresh from college, is hired as the estate manager. But her main role is to help the youngest Whitfield, Caroline, have a more normal life. She has been cloistered away at Whitfield for the whole of her first fourteen years. Now, her oldest brother, Grayson, wants to make a happier life for her than he and his brother, Travis, had.

But first, what will he do about the strange lights that fall from the sky over the Trinity River, and their connection with the mysterious voices at the end of the road, the voices of entities that have secretly been Caroline’s only friends her whole life? But are these ghostly entities dangerous? And will they want Tessa gone from Whitfield?

Will Old Gullah Woman and Preacher Man be allowed to stay on in the rundown river cabin, stirring up the waters and calling down the mysterious lights? Or will the Whitfield matriarch run them off, even after their Gullah potions kept her husband alive two years longer than the doctors could have?

And will Tessa bring harmony to the estate, or set off a competition between the brothers that has the potential to destroy the Whitfields completely?

Other books in the Ghosts of the Big Thicket Southern Gothic Mystery Series Include:

The House on Camp Ruby Road

Ghosts of the Big Thicket, Book One

The Girls of Cemetery Road

Ghosts of the Big Thicket, Book Two

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About The Author

Twyla Ellis is a descendent of pioneers who came to Texas in the 1840s, while Texas was still a Republic. She grew up roaming the dense pine forests in the Big Thicket around Livingston, Texas at the homes of her grandmother, great-aunts and uncles, and cousins. Her family was one of the founding families of Livingston, and her great-great-great-grandfather was the first city treasurer in the eighteen-forties. She fell in love with the haunting feel of the Thicket, its sounds, and sights, and smells. Her goal is to make people aware of the mystique of this novel part of Texas.

She holds a degree from Howard Payne University and had taught English and Music, and has been a member of NEA, TSTA, and TETA. She was a statewide officer and conference speaker with TETA (Texas English Teachers Association). She has run her own children’s party and event planning business, Parties by Twyla, as well as Remembrances Antiques and Gifts in the Houston area. She is certified in computer graphic design and free-lances in her spare time.

Nothing makes her happier than road trips with her family to interesting old Texas towns. She loves church, antiquing, fossil hunting with her husband and sons (they hunt, she writes), Big Bend, the Alamo (don’t all Texans?), exploring deserted buildings with a camera, and especially, the Big Thicket of deep East Texas.

If she had to give you a one-sentence bio of herself, she would probably say, “That obnoxiously joyful, hug-driven, southern relative that you’d like to hide in the attic, just might be me.”

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Blog Tour: Exhale

 

Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant

Medical Non Fiction

Date Published: 05-11-2021

Publisher: Post Hill Press

 

Exhale is the riveting memoir of a top transplant doctor who rode the emotional rollercoaster of saving and losing lives—until it was time to step back and reassess his own life.

 

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

 

June 2016

Palo Alto, California

I“am writing to let you know that I’ll be leaving Stanford effective July 1.”

Send. No, not yet.

I studied the email again, reading and rereading what I had written in the middle of the previous night.

Sitting in my office at Stanford University on a bright Northern California morning, the sun was all the way up, and I would have given anything to be outside enjoying the beautiful morning. Maybe hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains or riding my bike up the Pacific Coast Highway. But instead I was stuck inside, trying desperately to get an email out of my outbox.

I needed to pause for a moment, to decide for sure that this was what I wanted to do after all these years, all this effort, all the careful crafting of my career. I looked around at the photos on my desk—of my father and mother on their wedding day, my wife Jackie when we were first dating, and the baptism of my younger daughter, Ava. I looked at the poem my older daughter, Hannah, had written in Kindergarten about what it meant to have me as her dad.

I turned back to the computer screen, framed by the brilliant blue sky outside the window behind my desk. I will miss looking outside at the beauty that surrounded me on this campus, but not what surrounded me every day inside this building.  I took a slow sip from my stainless steel travel mug, inhaling the deep, sweet aroma of coffee and chicory.

“My decision to leave was difficult. I think our team has accomplished a great deal in the ten plus years I have been here. During my decade as Medical Director of the Lung Transplant program, I partnered with many of you to turn around a struggling program and increased the volume of transplants performed while achieving excellent outcomes.”

 Teamwork sprinkled in with self-congratulations. Excellent.  I rubbed my eyes that were dry and red from too little sleep and too much screen time. Okay, send it.

Not yet. I can’t. I want the words to be exactly right. Only one chance to get it the way I want it—to communicate my message to the people I worked with, both those who were in my corner and those who weren’t.

“By their very nature, decisions of this sort are multifaceted and are never about one single thing.”

No, this decision is about many things: frustration, burnout, disillusionment.

All passenger emotions—the unwelcome byproducts of leading one of the largest transplant programs in the country. For a bit longer than I should have. Longer than those close to me wanted me to.

I glanced at a picture of my family on the front step of our house, Jackie laughing at the camera, Ava in my lap, my arm tightly around Hannah.

Back to the screen. Focus, David.

“I am proud of what we accomplished together and hope from the deepest part of my heart that the important work that we do here will continue successfully.

Everyone needs a new challenge from time to time, and I am very excited to enter this new phase of my life and to the experiences that lie ahead for my family and me.”

Was I excited?  Mostly I am excited to get the hell out of here. It has been my crowning professional achievement, true enough. But the price was too high, the physical and emotional debt too costly. It was time for the pilot to eject himself.

But if I’m honest, I have no idea what lies ahead for me.

I read it again from the top. It struck the right tone—not snarky, not apologetic, but gracious, forward-looking. An optimistic turn of the face to a new dawn and toward the warmth of the sun.

Okay, send it then.

Not yet.

“Thank you for your hard work over the years. Our efforts at providing excellence on behalf of the very sick people who count on us have always been paramount. Nothing should get in the way of this vital mission.”

Nothing  should  get in the way, but plenty  did . Sometimes other people got in the way—sometimes I got in the way of myself, tripping over my own flaws.

 Send.

The ground below came up fast to meet me, and my only thought right then was , Will the parachute open?

 

David Weill is the former Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and the Lung Transplant Program at Stanford. He is currently the Principal of Weill Consulting Group, which focuses on improving the delivery of transplant care.

Dr. Weill’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Salon, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, STAT, and the Washington Post. He also has been interviewed on CNN and by the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal.

He lives with his wife and two daughters in New Orleans.

 

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PROMO: Drōmfrangil

 

 

YA Fantasy

Date Published: 08-10-2021

Publisher: Cinnabar Moth

Though he doesn’t know it, Marcus Talent is special. Unfortunately for Marcus, he discovers this unexpectedly when he wakes up in an unfamiliar forest, has his prosthetic arm eaten by a horrifying monster, and then wakes up in his own bed, terrified and bleeding.

Marcus’s dad, Deacon, has answers. He heals Marcus’s new injuries, promising to answer all of Marcus’s questions about what happened the next day after school. But when Marcus gets home, he finds his dad missing and a ransom note appears out of a screaming hole in the sky. The only demand: travel again to get him back.

Helped by his human friends, Marcus sets out to find his dad in a world filled with creatures he couldn’t have imagined. Some of them are friendly. Some of them want to murder him. Or each other. They’re not picky. And everyone seems to know of his famous father, who has been hiding a lot more than an entire other world.

About the Author

Cynthia McDonald is the author of Life is a Terminal Illness and Drōmfrangil (Autumn 2021 from Cinnabar Moth Publishing) as well as a childhood memoir, two American history books, and the “I See Your Hearts” blog.

Cynthia was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1972. She spent her early adulthood raising two sons with her husband and then, after returning to college, enjoyed a fulfilling career as a Respiratory Therapist and a Respiratory Supervisor. This included several years of volunteer work on the Wisconsin state respiratory board, which concluded with a term as the President of the board.

She started writing in her forties, after the diagnosis of a low-grade cancerous brain tumor forced her to stop working outside of her home. Cynthia has also lived with disability throughout her adult life, as advancing degenerative disk disease and multiple surgeries have caused her to live with chronic pain and made it difficult for her to remain involved in activities outside of her home.

She and her husband recently moved to Oregon to be closer to her oldest son and his family, including her beloved grandson, whose toddler years are adding a lot of delight to her life! Her two German Shorthairs are also a big part of her family, as dogs always have been.

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PROMO: Make Me Stay

 

 

Make Me Series, Book Three

Contemporary Romance

Date Published: July 30, 2021

Publisher: Renrut Publishing

Believe in second chances.

After his heart was broken by his first love, Kamden Stone avoided romantic entanglements. He lives in the moment, taking partners who understand his desires and know things will end after one encounter. He's comfortable with the life he's carved out for himself, refusing to need anyone or anything until a young woman he can't stop thinking about changes the game.

Everly Mason moved to escape toxic family ties. All she wants is a fresh start and a new life. The house left to her is the perfect place to fall, isolated and in the middle of nowhere, providing plenty of work to keep her occupied. She's on the right path, taking things one day at a time, when she's introduced to a mysterious man she can't stop thinking about.

Despite everything, Kamden and Everly can't deny their chemistry. When they agree to a trial period, curious to see where things will go between them, they discover they need each other in a way they never thought possible. When the time comes, they'll have to accept what they want and need. To be together, they both have to find a reason to make them stay.

Excerpt

"How old are you, Everly?"

Relief coursed through her. Was that the problem? She did look young for her age. She'd been told she'd appreciate that later in life. Did he think she was too young for him? If that was the issue, she could ease his concern. She was definitely of legal age.

"Twenty-two. I'll be twenty-three in March."

"I'm thirty-four." He made it sound like a bad thing.

She figured as much, although he could shave a couple of years and pass himself off as a younger man if he wanted to. "So?"

The response surprised him. "That doesn't bother you?"

The men she'd dated had been in their early twenties, and they hadn't left behind good impressions. Both had wanted to go to parties, hang out with their friends, and play video games. They were also complete slobs who lived off their parents, worked part-time jobs, and were lazy as hell. The only time they spent alone with her involved sex that, most of the time, didn't do anything for her. It was the reason she'd broken up with both of them within a year.

"No," she answered firmly, meaning it, "it doesn't."

He took that in, clutching the steering wheel. "It should bother you, darlin'."

It was the second time he'd called her that, meaning he had to have some kind of interest in her. For some reason, he didn't want to let things happen as they should, keeping himself distant and apart. She didn't know why, but she wasn't going to let him dodge her anymore.

"Don't tell me what should and shouldn't bother me. I'm a big girl, and I can make up my own mind. If that's the problem, I can tell you the age difference doesn't matter to me. It's just a number."

"You also don't know anything about me."

That much was true, but she wanted to. "Then tell me all about you."

His gaze darted to her, his fingers gripping the wheel tighter. "I'm not sure I should."

"You don't sprout fur and howl at the moon once a month, do you? Or go around drinking people's blood? If not, I think I'm good." Her attempt at humor worked. She could see him trying not to grin. "I don't frighten easily."

"I don't do that, but I can be beastly on occasion."

About the Author

Aline Hunter has written stories featured in horror magazines, zombie romance anthologies, and flash fiction contests. Her work has a dark undertone, which she credits to her love of old horror films, tastes in music, and choices in reading, and has been described as “full of sensual promise,” “gritty and sexy,” and “a breath of fresh air.”

You can visit her online at www.alinehunter.com

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PROMO: Hazelhearth Hires Heroes

 

 

Fantasy Adventure/Fantasy Humor

Release Date: 7/29/2021

Welcome to Hazelhearth: our picturesque city is nestled in a tranquil corner of the empire. Fitness lovers enjoy vigorous nature walks in the surrounding forest (don’t forget your sword!) Foodies savor rich, robust walnut-based cuisine. Or visit the gnome quarter for a walk on the wild side! Local mines and orchards beckon with plentiful employment opportunities, while workers sleep safe knowing that stout city walls keep mythic monsters at bay. A select few may even be chosen for exciting quest opportunities.

The onslaught of subterranean hordes? Oh, that’s happening miles away. And the elves have it completely under control.

Inquire today at the Hazelhearth board of tourism, employment, and heroics!

How could Sam and Lee say no? Lee is bored to tears as a telegrapher. His only excitement in life is the revolutionary new board game he’s creating. And of course constant disruptions at work by Sam, whose high voltage experiments wreak havoc with nearby electric systems. These two best buddies… colleagues... acquaintances are ready to escape from 19th century America into a more exciting world!

About the Author

DH Willison is a reader, writer, game enthusiast and developer, engineer, and history buff. He has lived around the world, absorbing history, culture, and food. Actually, he has eaten the food. It has been verified that he is a complex, multicellular life form. Fascinated by nature, technology, and history, and especially anything that can put all three of these together, he has an annoying habit of dragging his wife to the most unromantic destinations imaginable, including outdoor museums, authentic castle dungeons, the holds of tall ships, and even the tunnels of the Maginot Line.

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PROMO: Red Rock Romance

 

 

Cat White Eagle and the Search for the Lost Tribe

Erotic Romance

Release Date: July 27, 2021

Publisher:‎ Totally Bound Publishing

Cocheta ‘Cat’ White Eagle is a Native American archaeology grad student on a mission to prove the existence of her ancestral Lost Tribe. A vision tells her it’s somewhere high in the treacherous mountains of Sedona. The only problem is she’s afraid of heights! Trying to conquer her fear through pole dancing—of course—she attracts the attention of a bad boy Brit. He’s exciting, brilliant and sexy but totally off-limits. He’s her new professor, a hound, and if he recognizes her as the girl behind the mask of ‘The Contessa’, her career will be over before it begins.

Colin Tucker is a drop-dead-gorgeous Londoner who is rocketing to the top of his field. Alas, the sandy-haired, blue-eyed wunderkind has a weakness for sexy women—including the French Ambassador’s daughter, no less. Banished to the Colonies, he finds himself torn between the exotic stripper and his brilliant student. After being put to a sexy test, he gives his heart to Cat, his student. He pledges to help her in her search, they join forces and live hap—

But wait! Smugglers, deception and danger… Oh my! Colin breaks up with Cat to keep her safe, gets arrested for stealing artifacts and helps the thieves trying to thwart her quest.

Is that really how to win the girl?

About The Author

Jane Colt began writing romances to deal with the stress of a ‘day job’ that’s mainly about examining the various ways people treat one another badly. An incurable romantic, her stories give her hope that we really can live happily ever after—even if only in our imaginations. She writes erotic romances because, having been raised in a morally rigid home, she wants to encourage in her readers a healthier, ‘sex positive’ outlook. She especially wants her heroines to be as sexy and passionate as they desire. You can count on the fact that her couples end up in love and having great sex! … OK, maybe they have the sex first!

Her stories aim to be light-hearted, fun, upbeat—and sexy! No dark, brooding, broken, tortured guys who need fixing. Just great, handsome, smart, sexy, ‘real men’ whose only weakness is being unable to resist the women she pairs them with. Think Lifetime or Hallmark movies plus hot sex!

She’s lived on both coasts of the U.S., recently leaving the beaches of Los Angeles to return home to the glorious autumn foliage of western Massachusetts. Married, she and her spouse are happy to be the devoted servants of two adorable cats. She loves traveling. Favorite cities: San Francisco, Boston, Venice, London, London, London!

By the way, anyone who knows her would be shocked to learn she writes erotic romances. “Jane Colt” is a pen name. So, shhhhhh.

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PROMO: Untamed

 

 

A Beautiful Nightmare Story

Dark Fantasy Romance

Date Published: July 27, 2021

Undeniably Female. Unquestionably Feral. Unquenchably Famished.

It’s been twenty years since Chartreuse Grenoble witnessed not only the burning of her sister at the stake for claims of witchcraft but the great all-consuming fire of New Orleans. When the enigmatic, pure blood Altrinion-Vampire, Dalcour Marchand rescues her from fleeing her family’s doomed state, she has no idea she is nothing more than a bartering tool for his wretched brother, Decaux.

But she has other plans. She has no desire to be used or controlled.

Forging her own dark alliances, Chartreuse defies not only the will of men but the supernatural balance itself in her blood-thirsty quest to avenge what matters most.

Herself.

*Warning- This book contains mature material not suitable for readers under 18 years old. Topics such as rape, abuse, prostitution, racism, and misogyny are vividly depicted in this book and may trigger sensitivities of some readers.*

About the Author

Known for her Amazon Best Selling Short Story, With Hearts Like Fire and the series starter, Beautiful Nightmare (Book One), L.C. Son is happy wife of more than twenty years and loving mom of three. Lover of paranormal romance and all things sci-fi!

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