COMMUTERS

NEW RELEASE!

 Authored by Patrick S. Lafferty

Nothing's free. Especially success. Everyone has to pay the price some time. For Mitchell Treadwell, that time is now.
Mitchell is president of an international conglomerate. He has a gorgeous house in the affluent suburbs, a loving wife and kids who adore him. Then one day his son goes missing, snatched off a street corner that's been the location of several recent abductions. Mitchell has a pretty good idea who's responsible, but by revealing what he knows to the police, he may inadvertently put everything he has in jeopardy. Now, Mitchell must hunt down his son's abductor and save his boy's life, all while keeping the police at arm's length.
Commuters is a neo-noir thriller that explores how a good man, motivated by his love for and devotion to his family, can do unconscionable things while dealing with the internal strife his actions create.

About the author:
After a quarter century in the advertising industry, including twenty years writing award-winning copy for a number of agencies in and around Milwaukee, Patrick S. Lafferty is embarking upon a whole new career. He took his love for craft beer, developed a business plan, secured financing, and is now the proud proprietor of a craft beer store in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He still dabbles as a copywriter on a freelance basis but spends what little free time he has writing short stories, screenplays, and novels.
Outside of work, Patrick is the founding member of the Tosa Writers' Group, a long-time member of the Milwaukee Writers Workshop, and author of the heretical religious thriller ANNO DOMINA.

Montpelier Tomorrow book trailer v1 HD1

MONTPELIER TOMORROW

New Release!

Authored by Marylee MacDonald
Edition: First

Mid-life mom, Colleen Gallagher would do anything to protect her children from harm. When her daughter's husband falls ill with ALS, Colleen rolls up her sleeves and moves in, juggling the multiple roles of grandma, cook, and caregiver, only to discover that even her superhuman efforts can't fix what's wrong.

About the author:
Marylee MacDonald's fiction has won the Barry Hannah Prize, the ALR Fiction Award, the Ron Rash Award, the Matt Clark Prize, and two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships. Her work has appeared in the American Literary Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Blue Moon Literary & Art Review, Briar Cliff Review, Broad River Review, Folio, North Atlantic Review, Raven Chronicles, Reunion, Ruminate, StoryQuarterly, Yalobusha Review, and others. She lives in Tempe, AZ.

Crocodile Mothers Eat Their Young

Authored by Avi Morris
Edition: First

When teacher Roberta Allen, walked into her middle school principal's office, she encountered sisters Valentina and Selena Diaz, who were to be removed from their mother's home once again by the Department of Families. The girls, after suffering years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their mother and sexual abuse by their mother's male friends, are soon to be placed in the care of newly approved foster parents, Roberta and Hal Allen. The Allens' must learn how to cope with the state bureaucracy even as Valentina, the younger sister, bonds with her new "Mom" and "Dad." This is her story of persistence, love and survival as she bravely confronts the people who had brought harm to her in the past.

About the author:
Avi Morris holds a B.A. from University of Connecticut and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law. After many years as a federal attorney and then as a business consultant, Mr. Morris fulfilled a dream to write fiction. Crocodile Mothers Eat Their Young is his first published novel. He and his wife, a teacher, have hosted several foster children in addition to raising three children of their own. The family resides in Connecticut.

Conversations Among Ruins

Authored by Matthew Peters

Conversations Among Ruins is a portrait of a descent into madness, and the potential of finding salvation there.
While in detox, Daniel Stavros, a young professor, meets and falls in love with the cryptic Mimi Dexter. But Mimi has secrets ... and, strangely, a tattoo identical to the pendant Daniel's mother gave him right before she died.Drawn together by broken pasts, they pursue a twisted, tempestuous romance. When it ends, a deteriorating Stavros seeks refuge at a mountain cabin where a series of surreal experiences bring him face to face with something he's avoided all his life: himself.Miles away, Mimi's actions run oddly parallel to Daniel's.
Will either be redeemed, or will both careen toward self-destruction?

 About the author:
Dual diagnosed* from an early age, Matthew Peters dropped out of high school at sixteen. He went on to obtain an A.A., a B.A. from Vassar College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He has taught various courses in a variety of disciplines throughout North Carolina.
He is committed to increasing the awareness and understanding of the dual-diagnosed. Conversations Among Ruins is his first novel.
His second novel, The Brothers' Keepers, is available on Amazon.com.

*The term "dual diagnosed" refers to someone who suffers from a mood disorder (e.g., depression) and chemical dependency.

Out of Crystal Ice

Book 1 of Ice King: The Last Messiah

 

Authored by P.J. Wetzel

The year is 635,039 A.D.
The primitive Homo sapiens 'bowlheads' are just a bad memory. Their remnants have split into six species, only one of which chooses to call themselves human.
Like the wolf and the eagle, these new humans have learned to live sustainably with the planet.
But trouble is brewing. The rival species are advancing, hell-bent on eradicating the last of the humans.
Adam Windreath Gale is a young Scavenger from a village lost deep in the glaciers of the new ice age. He has the gift of speaking with the Spirits, but he despises it. Only his handicapped sister Lissa can
help him control the chaotic voices that threaten to drive him insane.
The Gods have chosen Adam to become the ultimate messiah. His task: deliver humanity from certain extinction and usher in the eternal order. But how? Adam has no leadership ability, no training ....

About the author:
P.J. Wetzel was born in central Wisconsin on a windy Friday but grew up in the east, on White Clay Creek near the infamous Delaware Wedge. This is where his love of nature blossomed - special emphasis on the wild caprices of the weather. He chose Penn State for an undergraduate schooling in Meteorology then Colorado State for graduate studies. The Colorado Rockies became his home. He purchased mountaintop land with a 100 mile view and built a home on it with his bare hands while living in a $75 tar paper shack.
But the call of the east never faded. On graduating he moved to Maryland where he spent 25 years working for NASA developing computer models that would help decipher the complex interplay of the earth with its weather and climate. There he built a second home with his bare hands and raised a family.
P.J. Wetzel has been writing fiction and poetry since he was a child. His poetry and first novel have both won awards. Today he calls coastal North Carolina home and he divides his time between the serious pursuit of hiking (He hiked the entire Appalachian Trail twice in 2012) and the equally serious pursuit of writing a six-volume epic Fantasy/Sci-Fi tale entitled 'Ice King: The Last Messiah.'
You can catch him blogging about hiking, writing and nature at www.pjwetzel.com

A Survivor's Tale

NEW RELEASE!

Authored by Dave Hoing

By the mid-twenty-first century time travel had become possible via energy "umbilicals" that tie one
era to another. However, due to social factors and over-specialization, science begins a slow decline,
and, by 2148, technology is at a standstill and there are only a handful of people left who know how to operate the time chambers.
Against a backdrop of regressing civilization, a new and terrible disease arises with a nearly one hundred percent mortality rate. Medicines developed to treat the disease have only made it more virulent. When brilliant but troublesome biologist Janis FitzHaven notices a connection between the current plague and the Black Death of the fourteenth century, she and her lover, Stone, abscond with one of London's few remaining time chambers. Janis claims the answer lies in medieval England. But is she really looking for a cure, or does she have something else in mind?
And does it matter? The idealistic Stone has rescued a peasant girl from degradation and death, an act of altruism that could render Janis's plans moot ... and have devastating repercussions for the entire future of humanity.
A Survivor's Tale is a small book about big choices. About confronting the evil consequences of a force that is not evil. About love, and a hope that survives the end of the world.

 About the author:
Dave Hoing is the co-author, with Roger Hileman, of the historical novel Hammon Falls and a collection of short fantasy stories, Voices of Arra. He also has a solo collection of short fiction called Tales of Earth. All three books were published by All Things That Matter Press.
In real life, his tenure as a Library Associate at the University of Northern Iowa can be measured on a geologic time scale. He lives in Waterloo, Iowa, with his wife Joni, his mother-in-law Dorothy, a Toto-like dog named Doodle, and a cat he calls, well, Cat. His adult stepchildren Jon and Jovan have emigrated to the fantasy land known as California.
In his other life, Dave is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America who pokes his fingers into a lot of creative pies. In addition to writing, he dabbles in composing, drawing, painting, and sculpting. Music is his first love, but he concedes that he's better at stringing words together than notes, so there are times he must tear himself away from one kind of keyboard to work at another.
Dave's website can be found at www.hoingandhileman.net.