Books Release || Jan 30, 2016 || Ghostly Romance & A Family Saga Thriller


The Way Unforeseen

The Ghostly Way #0.5

by Jill Bisker

A tragic tale of unrequited love, a broken heart, and the lost dreams of another era. Teoline, Quentin and Soren were introduced in the novel Finding the Way Back. The Way Unforeseen tells the story of how they came to know and love each other, and details the terrible events leading up to their final redemption and fulfillment.

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Enjoy a short excerpt from the book…..

Chapter One

Her heart was full of exhilaration. She wasn’t sure whether it was just being with Quentin, or if it was also knowing that she was doing something that her parents wouldn’t find socially acceptable that made it so. They met and sat by the lake while they talked of everything and nothing. They laughed watching the ducks chase the little pieces of bread they tossed. She felt as if there was no one else in the world who understood her like this man. Even after such a short acquaintance, they seemed to agree about everything.

The weeks flew by, and each day she spent anxiously waiting for the next time she could sneak out to be with Quentin. She found herself looking for his bright blue nineteen-forty Chevy whenever she was out on the street.

The joy she’d once felt in her work at the library took on a feeling of drudgery while watching the hands of the clock move toward their appointed assignations. Quentin would stop at the back door to the building and she would try to steal away, unannounced. She would jump into the passenger seat and Quentin would shoot off. As the first snows started to fly, he announced that he was being assigned to another territory. They were sitting in his car with the windows down after eating at a café in the next town over, and she didn’t know what to do or say. She’d known something was wrong when he’d been quiet during dinner.

“So, where do you go next?” Teoline asked, folding and unfolding a match book she’d picked up as a memento of another time they were able to be together.

“Iowa,” he answered, his eyes trained out the front windshield. “After that, it’s on to Illinois.”

“Oh,” she said softly. There was a lump in her throat and tears began forming behind her eyes. She willed them not to fall. Inside the car it was quiet except for other vehicles passing outside. She looked at the cream colored leather seat with its rips and tears, the dirty dashboard, and the worn carpet. This dingy interior had become a comfortable sort of home while they were together. After a few more minutes, Quentin started the car and put it in reverse. Neither of them spoke another word until they were a block from her parents’ house.

“Do you think you can get out tomorrow night? I’d like to be with you one last time before moving on.” His voice seemed stretched, and she wondered if his words were creating as much pain for him as for her.


Tears for the Departed

Swann Saga – Book Two

by J. Troy Seate

Renee Swann’s innocence was shattered in the Altinoma Valley, but she and her family survived. She believes she’s endured the most horrific circumstances imaginable, but she’s wrong. Now, nine years later, with a busy life and a good job in New York, Renee feels a growing uneasiness as the horrors of her past give way to a chilling new nightmare…and there’s nowhere to hide. Can she survive the horror that took root long ago once more, or will this ultimate exploitation and degradation destroy her?

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Enjoy a short excerpt from the book…..

 

Chapter One

“She’s gone!”

“Who’s gone?” Renee Swann asked, holding the phone with one hand and a small square of buttered toast with the other.

“Mattie Lawrence,” Renee’s assistant gushed excitedly. “Her super said she just packed a bag and told him she wouldn’t be back!”

“Damn,” Renee said under her breath. “Okay, Kate. We’ll find someone else. Check with the usual agencies and I’ll talk to Valor.”

Renee placed her phone back on its cradle. She remembered her dad saying similar words to her mother…a lifetime ago.

“Jennifer’s gone,” he had said.

The chilling comparison made the hair on her neck stand at attention. An invisible finger turned to that page of her life. Her thoughts drifted back almost a decade to Altinoma, when, at thirteen, she had been in the clutches of the Andrews. Unpleasant memories welled in the back of her skull, just a thought away from surfacing and taking center stage. “Not today,” she told herself. “I’ve got too much to do.”

Renee returned to her bedroom and pulled down on the fitted sheet that popped off the corner of the bed on restless nights. Then, she opened the bedroom louvers and closed the sliding glass door; the rituals of the morning, the things that anchored her to the reality that wanted to slip away during her night dreams. Images from the past crowded back into her mind as vivid as if they had happened the day before, visiting her parents’ grave, hiding in a hole in the ground with Donnie Andrews, visualizing the boogieman Doc Vickers said lived in the woods, and the moment she realized Donnie’s parents, Doc and Viola all lied to her, used her for their own purposes.

People long dead, wandering about in her head. “Demons be gone,” Renee said as she warmed to her first sip of cinnamon-laced coffee and forced her thoughts back to her present life. Mattie taking off surprised her. Although young and impressionable, she showed potential. She could only wonder if Mattie went home, somewhere in the Midwest or moved in with some guy she met in the business. Sometimes girls came back to give modeling another shot, but not usually.

“I’m here to stay. That’s for sure,” Renee said as she admired her New Jersey condo. The early morning sun slanted across soft contemporary furniture she picked out a piece at a time. Her place was a symbol of how far she’d come from the Altinoma Valley. Her career and independent lifestyle were her proudest achievements.

Books Release || October 24, 2015 || Haunted Houses & Fantasy Romance


The Way Forward

The Ghostly Way #2

by Jill Bisker

Will Laney’s gift to communicate with ghosts lead her to help or hinder the restless souls who haunt her?

After Laney MacKenzie learned she could communicate with spirits, life became much more challenging. It was one thing when it was her grandmother who came to her, but now it seemed as though every random ghost felt the need to seek her out—and she has no interest in figuring out how to move them on. She has enough troubles of her own—her ghosthunter boyfriend Emmett is pressuring her to develop her so called gift, her ex-husband keeps creeping back into her life for unknown purposes, and she has a fledging new business. She’s near to calling it quits on both her gift and Emmett when she learns about a little boy who’s experiencing a ghostly visitor. She can’t say no to a child in trouble, and his attractive architect father has a way of being persuasive.

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"No Place Like Home" by Mysti ParkerNo Place Like Home

Tallenmere Unleashed – Book Four

by Mysti Parker

In Port Valor, it’s dangerous to be different. Especially for sixteen-year-old Mirabelle Hearton, whose psychic abilities could put her entire family in danger. To protect them, she left the city and her childhood sweetheart, Lysander Devlin, behind to live a life of servitude in Leogard’s Temple. Ten years later, someone discovered her mind-bending talents and forced her to send an innocent woman into exile.

As punishment for her crimes, she must return to Port Valor to seek out a dangerous mercenary called The Tyger. He’s already threatened the lives of her family and is rumored to have killed countless others for the right price.

Mirabelle’s time is running out. She has two months to bring the Tyger to justice or succumb to an excruciating death from an irreversible curse. As frightening as her mission is, facing Lysander again may be the greatest challenge of her life.

Despite their difficult reunion, she and Lysander must band together to face an evil force that could sap the very souls from everyone they love. Mirabelle must also make a choice—catch The Tyger and redeem her sins, or give into feelings long buried and risk losing everything.

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EBOOK ~ $4.99
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New Years Giveaway Extravaganza!

2015NYGSorry for the email that went out early. Funny thing about time is that there’s an AM and a PM! Turns out I’d set the post to go live at 9 AM instead of PM!

Regardless, our subscribers who saw that oops this morning know what’s coming – our Melange New Years Giveaway Extravaganza!

I am so excited for this. We’ve done giveaways in the past here and there, but nothing like this. We’ve got ebooks, we’ve got ARC’s, we’ve got autographed print books AND one lucky winner will walk away with a brand spankin’ new Kindle Fire HD6 AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card to stock it full of books! How awesome is that? Even if you already have an e-reader, you know what great gifts they make.

Instead of posting all of the giveaway sign up forms here on the blog, I’ve opted to list them on the Melange website to avoid the wonky formatting that sometimes happens with the blog posts.

To enter, go HERE: https://melange-books.com/2015NYGiveaway.html
And for the blog comments entries, come back and leave a post here!

NOTE: There are a LOT of giveaways on that link above! Please let the page fully load all of the giveaways before entering. Click the link, go check your Facebook or Twitter, then check back!

A “Within Reach” Interview with Jill Bisker + Giveaway

The talented Jody Vitek took some time out of her busy writing schedule to interview fellow talented author Jill Bisker about her shot story “Within Reach.”


 

Within Reach is a very moving and touching story about Emma and the relationship she has with her mother who is suffering with dementia. When Emma finds a special box her father carved with a seashell from her childhood inside, something happens and questions arise that she wants to ask her mother. Questions go unasked and when a small agate replaces the shell, she questions her own sanity.

Within Reach is a short, fast, fulfilling story I recommend everyone reads. The ending will have you looking within yourself.

JODY: I’d like to say hello to everyone and thank you for joining us. Jill, can you share a little about yourself? Where you live? Are you married? Do you have children?

JILL: I live in Stillwater, Minnesota.  I am just celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary with my wonderful husband, George.  I have a 21 year old son named Nathan and a 13 year old cat named Senora.

JODY: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

JILL: Yes, but it is only in the last few years that I was able to believe in myself enough to allow anyone else to read my stories.

JODY: When did you start writing?

JILL: I remember writing stories as soon as I was old enough to write.  I would staple pieces of paper together and make story books.  My mother used to tease me that I couldn’t finish a story because I was so intent on writing the dedication page.  It made me laugh a little to write the dedication page to her.

JODY: You write many different genres and I wondered if you write multiple stories at one time, within these multiple genres, at different times of the hour, day, week, month or when the mood strikes? How do you decide what to work on?

JILL: I have a lot of stories in production at a time.  I am outlining, writing and editing all at the same time.  I have many projects in various stages of completion.  My husband edits my work and helps with story continuity.  Outlining can take some time but when I am ready to write then I write 6 – 8 hours a day until a story is done.  I decide on a word count that I have to get to, usually 1500 – 2000, and I work until I get there.  As far as what to write, I find a story will often ‘demand’ to be told, whether that’s what I had planned or not.  It also helps me to rotate amongst different projects because after a first draft, it’s good to step away from it for a while so that I can return to it with fresh eyes at a later date.  So I typically have a few stories percolating in my mind, am actively writing one, and have one or two in a holding pattern waiting for the next revision.

JODY: You acknowledge your mother, Marlys, in the acknowledgments. Will you share how close to home this story is to you and your mother? If at all.

JILL: I wrote this story when I was helping my mother through the last stages of chronic illness, dementia and leukemia.  I simplified elements in the story just to keep the flow moving.   Some of the elements in the story are things that really happened.  All of the feelings and emotions are genuine.  In our family’s real story – I come from a Yours, Mine and Ours family – my father is living and I have many siblings, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.  We were all deeply affected by my mother’s struggle with dementia.  A portion of the proceeds from this story will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association www.alz.org.

JODY: Was it difficult to write at times?

JILL: It was actually cathartic to write.  I could focus my feelings into the piece, and it gave me a way to express those feelings and share my experience with others.

JODY: What are you working on now?

JILL: I will be starting edits on my paranormal novel that is coming out in June. (NOTE: “Finding The Way Back” was released from Melange on June 19, 2014.)  I just finished a first draft of the next story in the series and I am on the second draft of a fantasy novel.  I am outlining 3 other stories as well.

JODY: Where do you see your writing career in five years?

JILL:  I hope to continue to be able to bring new stories to life.  Who wouldn’t love a movie deal?  😉 Honestly, as long as I’m able touch others with my writing in some way, I will feel successful.

JODY: My own writer’s curiosity has to ask a few questions: Are you plotter or pantser or both? Organized working area or a mess? Do you have a designated work area? Critique group and/or beta readers?

JILL: I am a firm believer in plotting.  I have many different ways that I outline.  Each story seems to come to me in a different way.  I ask my characters a lot of questions before I even start writing so I know them very well.  I know how they act and what motivates them as well as where I want them to go in the story – how I want them to evolve.  I am very organized, I can’t work in upheaval very well.  I have a vintage vanity I use as a desk and a vintage table in the room to work on outlines.  I don’t let anyone read anything until it’s finished and then I have beta readers.  I tried critique groups but it hasn’t worked for me.  I have found that I have to write in a way that’s true to who I am and what I believe in, and if it’s good enough then hopefully it will find an audience.


 

 About Jill Bisker

Jill Bisker lives in Stillwater, MN with her husband and a calico cat named Senora. She believes in empowering women to be strong enough to protect themselves, while still soft enough to be loving and compassionate. Her work includes paranormal mystery and traditional high fantasy, as well as contemporary and humorous fantasy and an everyday living blog. Her novella Within Reach is her first publication with Melange. Once a dedicated stay at home Mom, Jill now writes full-time.

Website: www.jillbisker.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjillbisker
Blog: http://www.unaccompaniedjaunt.blogspot.com
Melange:  https://melange-books.com/authors/jillbisker/index.html


About Jody Vitek

Born and raised in Minnesota, Jody has remained close to home living with her husband of twenty plus years, three children and a cat named Holly. Growing up, she enjoyed reading V.C. Andrews’ the Dollanganger series, starting with Flowers in the Attic, S.E. Hinton, and Stephen King to name a few.

She has traveled throughout the United States, to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. Between watching soccer games, scrapbooking and being the COO of the Vitek household, she writes contemporary romances.

Visit and contact Jody at: www.jodyvitek.com
And on Melange: https://melange-books.com/authors/jodyvitek/index.html


GIVEAWAY

Want to get your hands on a FREE e-book copy of “Within Reach”? Simply leave a comment below and you’re entered to win!

A winner will be chosen on or soon after June 30, 2014.

Book Releases || June 18, 2014

Melange Books Releases June 19, 2014Today’s book releases will give you a little bit of everything to choose from. We have so many releases I won’t waste your time up with an intro and we’ll get right to it.


 

Seeking Sir Gwain

by Shari Dare

Keith Fletcher and Ian Brice are both on a mission to find the missing Gwain McGowan. Their quest takes them to the hut of the old hag, Tabitha. Even though many years separate the two of them coming to her to seek Gwain, they are both sent to the same place and time, Minter, WI 2008.

Emily Cranston and her roommate, Julie Langdon, are both older women who have given up on ever having sex again. When they find two interesting postings in a dating column of the paper, they decide it’s time to take a chance and see if they can find love.


 

Finding The Way Back

by Jill Bisker

Finding the Way Back is the story of Laney, a recently divorced woman who agrees to help her mother fix up her dead grandfather’s house. From the first night when she hears ghostly music to later physical attacks that seem targeted only at her, she soon discovers that a spirit in the house may have plans of its own. For her own well-being, she needs to find answers as the danger escalates and she learns to trust herself and others. With the help of her cousin Connie, an attractive ghosthunter named Emmett, and several other eccentric characters, Laney uncovers the dark secret of the house and a new path for her future.


 

Murder in Her Dreams

Murder In The Shadows #1

by Nell DuVall

Cassie Blake lives with guilt because she failed to heed her dreams and a young girl died. Now, a year later a handsome man and a vicious feral rabbit haunt her dreams. She has no idea of the man’s identity. At first she dismisses the dream as ridiculous, that is, until she discovers the man is real.


 

Gunman

A Tucson Kid Western #4

by Richard Dawes

The Tucson Kid escapes Mexico ahead of a gang of outlaws bent on revenge. He rides west into New Mexico and finds himself in the middle of a range war between a brutal rancher and a beautiful widow. As Tucson takes a stand in favor of the widow, he is caught in the cross-fire between the rancher’s hired killers and the Mexican bandits who have finally caught up with him.


 

Tales From a Broad

by Jeannine Henvey

If you enjoy new twists on old classics, then Tales From A Broad is a comedic adventure of one woman’s quest to find herself, but the spotlight focuses on her older chaperone, instead.

Forty-two and feeling not-so-fabulous, Lucy Banks allows her older sister to talk her into accompanying her twenty-four-year-old niece on a trip around Europe. In the past year she has lost her fiancé, her job and her fertility. Embracing her role as spinster aunt seems to be Lucy’s only option, until she embarks on a romantic adventure through London, Amsterdam, Munich, Paris and Florence. Will a room with a view and a handsome stranger be enough to open her heart and mind to new experiences? Tales From A Broad promises to draw readers into a light-hearted tale of emotional development, self-discovery and love.


 

A Father’s Love

by Sherry Derr-Wille

When Jenny found herself pregnant at the age of fifteen she thought her life was over, but with supportive parents, she was able to get her education. With her future secure at the hospital on the reservation where she grew up, love was the last thing she wanted in her life.

Brand knew he was going to be practicing in a rural hospital. What he didn’t realize that Jenny, the beautiful Native American girl who entered his life would become so special to him he would become a doctor at the Lac du Flambeau reservation in Northern Wisconsin to be close to her.


 

When It Rains

FLIPSPACE #6

by John Steiner

Only 42 light-years away, the exo-solar planet, Henry Draper 40307G, has yet to be visited by humanity. That changes, when the Mockingbird arrives with an astronomical survey team. Deploying probes and deep space telescopes, the science team stumbles upon intelligent aliens on sixth planet. Colonel Rama orders the crew onto alert. Captain O’Connell and his Seti team, clash with ISO scientists while studying the surface life. The crew is shocked again, when a derelict spacecraft is found in a Lagrangian Point beyond the planet’s moon. How many S.E.T.I. encounters they face is uncertain.


Second Act

by Rhonda Strehlow

When CASSIE BURNS’ husband dies her children think she should move into a condo and act like a grandmother. Instead she plans her first solo trip to a resort in Eagle River, Wisconsin.

In a chance encounter she meets mysterious Kurt Troy whose touch makes her “buzz” with excitement and Will Harley who introduces her to the beauty and wonders of farming.

Cassie begins a dual existence of soul-affirming work with Will’s caring family interspersed with spontaneous, intense romantic encounters with Kurt.

When Will’s ex-wife returns, Cassie reluctantly decides to head back to her safe and predictable future. On the way home, she unexpectedly encounters Kurt who invites her to move in with him and she impulsively agrees.

Their time alone is intensely sexual but the reality of living in booze, sex and drug culture intrudes on their haven. Before a big awards presentation, in an effort to erase the affects of time, Cassie becomes fanatical about vanity surgeries, exercise, pills, and bulimia until she overdoses two days before the big night and ends up in the hospital.

As she recovers, how does Cassie choose to play out her Second Act?


Everman and Uriel

by C. A. Withey

In a land of dreams made real, one man causes two worlds to clash, leading to the inevitable destruction of both. It’s up to Caleb Everman to right the wrongs of the dream’s creators, dodging dream-eating mechanical abominations and guardian aspects of the Dreamscape Nexus, while also stealing his love from the written pages of a different land.


 

An Interview with Author Walt Trizna + Giveaway

Jill Bisker, author of “Within Reach” and the upcoming “Finding the Way Back” stopped by to have a chat with fellow Melange author, Walt Trizna, author of “New Moon Rising” and the new sci-fi novella “Elmo’s Sojourn.”

First, a little about “Elmo’s Sojourn.”

Elmo, a retired scientist, travels through a wormhole to the planet Roth where he helps combat an alien invasion which is menacing the planet.

JILL: Please tell me a little about yourself – Where you come from? What led you to writing?

WALT: I was born and raised in Newark, NJ, but since then lived in the Midwest, LA, Miami and now in Pennsylvania.

I’ve always been an avid reader, feel naked if there is not a book close by.  I began writing poetry in college and pursued that for about thirty years while I pursued a career in science. About 14 years ago I began writing fiction.

 

JILL: What books and authors influenced your career?

WALT: I’ve read a great deal of science fiction by Arthur C. Clark, Asimov, Ray Bradbury among a host of others.

For horror I’ve read H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King and Algernon Blackwood.

 

JILL: Your story, Elmo’s Sojourn, is a space jumping sci-fi story.  Do you write other genres?

WALT: I also write horror and the occasional poem.

 

JILL: How did you come up with the premise of your story?

WALT: I belong to a writers group, The Wordwrights, and one of the members writes children’s books.  She told us she had to write a story beginning with someone yelling that they have a problem.  Couple that with a Far Side cartoon where a wife is looking from a door down into a cellar.  In the cellar is her husband with the head of a fly.  She’s yelling, “Lunch.  Are you still a fly?”

With that in mind I had intended to write a story, Cellar Science, but enjoyed the story so much that I continued and the result was the novella, Elmo’s Sojourn.

 

JILL: Your time machine seemed very well thought out – is it based on something in theoretical science.

WALT: The time machine is a product of my imagination.

While I was in college, there was a guy in the dorm who built a tesla coil.  You could pull something like a quarter million volts to your finger, but since the amperage was low, you survived.  I had to get that thing into a story.

 

JILL: How do you personally relate to your main character in your story?

WALT: I was a scientist for 34 years, but a biologist not a physicist.  I love science and the opportunity it gives you to discover something new, when all the parts of a puzzle suddenly come together.  I share the wonder Elmo has for science.

 

JILL: How challenging was it to build your alien landscapes and creatures?

WALT: I have a very active imagination so it was really quite easy.  But the creatures changed along the way.  The first creature that comes through Elmo’s machine was going to be the dominant creature on Roth, but of course that changed.  Then Valmid was going to be a sinister being and that changed.  Since I needed some conflict, Gylex came into being and I could just picture what it looked like.

 

JILL: What theme do you want to convey to your readers?

WALT: I think, as with most science fiction, I want to create adventure and the wonder of the unknown.

 

JILL: This would make a great series – have you considered writing the next adventure?

WALT: Glad you asked this one, it’s already written.  Elmo’s Invention is a prequel to Elmo’s Sojourn.  In Elmo’s Invention, Elmo is working at Los Alamos and here sets out to build a time machine using an old iron lung, but things do not go as planned.

This novella is longer than Elmo’s Sojourn and still needs a lot of editing, and then out it goes.  I’m sure there will be other stories fermenting in my brain, but they have yet come to the surface.

 

JILL: What are you working on now?

WALT: Currently, I’m doing a great deal of editing.  I have two novels written but are in need of a rewrite.

The Beast Awaits is the most complete.  It deals with a monster created through stem cell research.  It escapes into the Everglades and its destruction leads to enhanced global warming.  How’s that for ‘hot button’ issues?

Sweet Depression is a novel which is a cross between the work of James Patterson and Robin Cook, a very sinister thriller set in a pharmaceutical company.

 

JILL: In your point of view, what is the most difficult part of the writing life?

WALT: Imagining story ideas I find to be the easiest part.  The writing can be difficult and the editing is, I find, even more difficult.  But the part of writing I find the most difficult is trying to get the work published.  I agonize over writing query letters.

 

JILL: Do you outline your stories before you sit down to write?

WALT: For short stories, I mull over the plot before I put pen to paper.  I write all my first drafts by hand.  So when I begin writing the story, it’s already fully formed in my mind.

For novels I use an outline but keep it fluid.  In a steno pad, for each novel, I form an outline to include scenes and dialog when the characters start talking.

 

JILL: What plans do you have for your writing going into the future?

WALT: If I can publish Sweet Depression I have plans to write at least one sequel.

I’ve also published a short story, Martian Rebirth, which I want to develop into a novel.

And of course, my brain keeps on cranking out short story ideas.

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 About Walt Trizna:

Walt Trizna, a scientist for thirty-four years, is now a full-time writer of horror and science fiction. He has published more than twenty stories, both online and in print. Walt lives in West Chester, PA with his wife, Joni.

Find Walt at Melange: https://melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/index.html
Blog:
http://www.walttriznastories.wordpress.com

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

About Jill Bisker:

Jill Bisker lives in Stillwater, MN with her husband and a calico cat named Senora. She believes in empowering women to be strong enough to protect themselves, while still soft enough to be loving and compassionate. Her work includes paranormal mystery and traditional high fantasy, as well as contemporary and humorous fantasy and an everyday living blog. Her novella Within Reach is her first publication with Melange. Once a dedicated stay at home Mom, Jill now writes full-time.

Website: www.jillbisker.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjillbisker
Blog: http://www.unaccompaniedjaunt.blogspot.com

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GIVEAWAY:

Leave a comment below and enter to win a free ebook copy of “Elmo’s Sojourn.”

Winner will be chosen on March 10, 2014.

Book Releases || February 24, 2014

Today I’m happy to announce four new books!

Before we get into that though, for anyone who tried to enter the contest last week for John Steiner’s new Sci-Fi book, FLIPSPACE: Flight of the Mockingbird, I apologize that the comments for the blog were not working and all comments will need to be re-entered in order to be counted. I welcome you to enter again here. We have extended the giveaway through March 4th so hurry over to John’s interview and enter now!

In other news, Fire and Ice, our Young Adult/New Adult book line finally has it’s own blog! We’ve got really great releases this week that I’m so excited to share with you so I beg of you to please visit the new blog and subscribe to get updates! We’ve got mermaids, we’ve got horses, we’ve got time travel and we’ve got a teen girl dealing with bullies! Visit the blog here: www.fireandiceya.com/blog

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2014-02-23~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"Second Best" by Charmaine Pauls

Second Best by Charmaine Pauls

The first time that Molly sees Malcolm is in Oudtshoorn, South Africa in 1978, when he jumps from the back of an army truck to challenge her through the school yard fence. Little did she know then, when she boldly gave him the middle finger, how their lives would become intertwined.

Surviving the secret horrors of an industrial school, juvenile delinquent Molly van Aswegen grows into a tough and troubled woman who has sworn never to love anyone enough to be vulnerable. When Malcolm McLeod, rebel journalist and soldier, comes home from the Angolan border war to save Molly from her institution, he starts fighting a different war altogether—the battle for both of their souls.

Molly’s fight for survival and Malcolm’s moral struggle will expose them as anti-conformists, at risk of being branded and outcast from society during a politically turbulent time when South Africa is in the midst of a twenty-three year long war.

Second Best is a tender story about the scars of the human soul, and the road that leads to healing.

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FLIPSPACE: Branching Out by John SteinerFLIPSPACE: Branching Out by John Steiner

The ISS Mockingbird is ordered to Kepler 22 to check up on a research outpost set up by the Astraeus. Colonel Ramachandra and her crew discover on the planet, Kepler 22B a form of life that doesn’t need ships to travel through space. Also present is a base established by Remote Space Conglomerated Industries. Their operations put profit before the concerns of the indigenous life. An unauthorized distress call originates from the RSCI base. Colonel Rama must risk breaching their air defenses to comply with international conventions and save lives.

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"Within Reach" by Jill BiskerWithin Reach by Jill Bisker

Within Reach is the contemporary fiction story of Emma, a woman coming to terms with her mother’s increasing dementia and the everyday challenges associated with it. While serving as caregiver for her mother, she inexplicably finds herself ‘re-living’ specific events from her past, including times spent with her parents when she was a child. She soon wonders if her own sanity is slipping as she struggles to understand what is happening to her. If she can unlock the meaning of the visions from her past, she might be able to face the uncertainty of her future. Her mother must have the key—if only she can reach her.

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"Outlaw's Secrets" by Sherry Derr-WilleOutlaw’s Secrets by Sherry Derr-Wille

For Clay Martin his parents’ past is something he knows nothing about. He’s hoping a summer spent with his Uncle Gary in Missouri will shed some light on it. Amy Baines has a secret too, but doesn’t know it until Clay comes to town and helps her delve into her forgotten past. By the time they realize their friendship could lead to more, Clay has gone back to San Francisco and Amy is coming to grips with her St. Louis family. Can they bridge the miles and find love?