FICTION

Adams, Lisa
Reign of the Holly King

Genre:
Historical Romance

Blurb/Logline  At the close of the War of the Roses, a time when marriage for love is a casualty of statecraft, Jasper Tudor, an English noble, and the irresistible Fleurie de Bretagne tempt fate by entrusting their destinies to true love, magic, and a dash of mystery to find their missing son, Gabriel.  As Gabriel grows to manhood and falls in love with Lady Isabel of Somerset, they witness the rise and fall of a king, battle the dark forces commanded by Sir Robert D’Arcy, and reveal a secret contained in a small, silver locket--a secret that will change their lives forever. 

*     *     *

Red Road Highway

Genre:
Mainstream/Contemporary
Romance
Occult
Ethnic

Blurb/Logline  Lakota Sioux, Michael Carries the Lance, takes his wife, Zinnia, on the road to follow Michael's medicine path when murder rears its ugly head, and Michael must face the dark souls of real people who are much more frightening than any malicious spirit ever could be.

*     *     *

House on the Road to Salisbury SOLD

Genre:
Historical Romance

Blurb/Logline  In a cynical world jaded and desensitized by mass media, the investigation and prosecution of a bone-crunching, grisly murder is merely a day at the office for Seattle prosecutor, Ariel Evans.  But something goes terribly wrong with the evidence, and Ariel, forensic scientist, David Iron Necklace, and detective Rene Lisojo must risk their careers to save an innocent man imprisoned for murder, a crime orchestrated by a group of individuals in the highest echelons of the City of Seattle administration.  The last thing Ariel expected to find was love.  As she acts on her longstanding attraction to Rene, the clock is ticking on solving the identities of the true killers before they gain the advantage and silence all three with the squeeze of a trigger. 

Adams, Walter S.
If the Shoe Fits

Genre:
Mystery
Detective

Blurb/Logline  When compulsory education goes amok, fear, bloodshed, romance, deceit, prejudice, and revenge dominate one man's life.  Chris Samuel stoically marks off each day spent teaching in the alternative school from hell, believing it will all be over in one short year.  Blinded by love, he's totally ensnared in a deathtrap and is the last to learn the harshest lesson survival can teach.  Now it's up to a local cop to stop the bloodbath Samuel's own naiveté helped to unleash, or Chris Samuels' world as he knows it will come crashing down around him.

*     *     *

The Greatest

Genre:
Detective
Action/Adventure
Thriller

Blurb/Logline  A young American child runs away from home to Mexico and emerges years later as the world’s greatest bullfighter, only to meet his fate, but not in the bullring. One of the countless women drawn to this ultimate hero of the corrida proves that the animals he constantly faced in the bullring can’t compare to an evil woman on a mission.

Now it’s up to two Monterrey cops to solve the mystery of who accomplished what hundreds of fierce bulls couldn’t. Can they solve the crime while preserving the reputation of the greatest matador ever? Unfortunately, the greatest bullfighter’s murderer isn’t done yet. As the detectives get closer to what really happened, they now are targeted for death. The Greatest explores the darkest sides of bullfighting, greed, and revenge as it catapults the reader to its lethal climax. Olé!

Alexander, Gregory
The Holy Mark

Genre:
Literary

Blurb/Logline Father Tony would never have become a priest but for his grandmother's interpretation of that peculiarly shaped birthmark on his head as a sign from God.  His New Orleans family had enough money to allow him to pursue his real interests; but when the archdiocese appointed him surrogate father to a home for wayward high school students, he discovered another--darker--passion: teenaged boys.  Now Tony's uncle and the Archbishop of New Orleans conspire against him.  But the priest is determined to survive, even if he has to conceal his identity and prowl the streets of the French Quarter by night in this shocking, tell-all pseudo-memoir of a pedophile priest caught between the cynicism of his own Southern upbringing and the political machinations of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Austin, Judas
Danshi

Genre:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  Abducted to serve as a test subject for a new, top secret branch of technology allowing for interstellar travel, Jerome Cuillon is sent to the world called Danshi.  Following his shuttle's crash, Jerome is written off for dead.  Only one thing keeps him going; a burning thirst for revenge on the agency that abandoned him there.  With the help of the native Shiiran, Jerome must try to find his way across Danshi to the touchdown point for the ship before it leaves and he is truly stranded on this alien world.  But one thing he is about to find out very soon; on Danshi, nothing is ever what it seems...

*     *     *

Kheshen

Genre:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  Jerome Cuillon is a semi-failed actor, recently back from the secret world of Danshi and looking forward to returning to his normal life.  Some hope.

Following a cryptic message from his one-time ally, Acheron, Jerome is manipulated into visiting the woman on her home turf, the subterranean area of Khéshênalong with his companion from Danshi, Christine Smith.  With Acheron is Jerome's old nemesis, Jon Vaughan, determined to destroy him once and for all. 

Any thoughts of further revenge are rapidly driven from Jerome's head as he struggles to come to terms with the harsh brutality of life in Khéshên.  With predators and hired knives at every turn, and every region in Khéshên on the verge of declaring war on the others, Jerome is going to need all the strength and ingenuity he can muster just to stay alive...

Boone, Mark E.
Raptor's Edge

Genre:
Fantasy/Adventure

Blurb/Logline An untamed precipice – suitable only for birds of prey – becomes the unlikely means for human redemption as rebellious, unsavory elements of The Sorcerer’s Council of Mongstrom devises a far-reaching conspiracy for domination and immortality in hopes of thwarting prophecy on Earth.

After evoking the heinous wrath of a crotchety old sorcerer, the Fledgling World of Men are faced with a calamitous future of enslavement and worse unless they can find the one person who heard the pronouncement of the curse, the one who knows how to remove it.

Left with a burgeoning mystery, very few clues, and little hope for the future, a hearty but reluctant band of four adventurers sets out into the unknown, searching desperately and facing daunting challenges and constant peril along the road to the nether region.  Little did they know, their quest was only the beginning….

*     *     *

Crossing Realms

Genre:
Fantasy/Adventure

Blurb/Logline  Now here’s a cast of characters: A disgruntled, former F.B.I agent turned cantankerous, scotch-swilling gumshoe, his deceased friend’s widow – a warrior monk, a Jewish boy – and the unlikeliest of pairings, an underworld demoness plagued with life-defining issues and a beleaguered, earthbound angel on the arduous path to heavenly redemption.

Bound as one, the misfits find themselves in a perilous struggle against nuances of good and evil to thwart Satan’s boldest, most ruthless plan yet to usurp the world of men in the 20th Century.
 

Burton, Shelley
Friend Fix

Genre:
Chick Lit
Woman's

Blurb/Logline  On the verge of an emotional breakdown, Annie Delaney seeks professional help.  Her search for inner peace and self-worth begins with the unveiling of a secret.  Annie has hidden from reality for more than two decades.  Now the man she once loved and trusted like a brother is dead--but so is her rapist.  While Annie searches for answers and a way to fill the emptiness, she is oblivious to the dangers ahead.  Hate explodes into the ultimate act of violence: someone had to die.

Childress, Tom
My Father's Day

Genre:
Mainstream/Contemporary

Blurb/Logline  When Bobby Langham is called home after his abusive alcoholic father falls into a coma, he realizes that his father can hear him.  Now, in the solitude of the sparse room, Bobby will make his father face up to the lifetime of hell he has forced upon the family.  But what neither man realizes is that Bud is dying.  As Bobby recounts the horrors of Bud’s abuse in heartbreaking detail, both men are slowly and completely transformed by a power much greater than themselves.

*     *     *

The Query

Genre:
Suspense
Psychological Drama

Blurb/Logline  Carlton Beezer has a humble dream - becoming a best-selling novelist his first time out.  There’s only one problem: he can’t get an agent to represent him.  Undeterred by summary rejections, Carlton begins to lose patience, and with each rejection, he sinks deeper into depression.  Soon, worsening events in Beezer’s personal and professional life turn depression to dysfunction, then to dementia, before the nightmare begins.  His calculated program of revenge is aimed at the literary agents who have emasculated him with their scathing rejections, but his victims include many others as his downward spiral of hate, addiction, fantasy, and paranoia leaves a devastating trail of horror and destruction in its wake.

*     *     *

Extreme Pets

Genre:
Sci-Fi
Suspense
Horror

Blurb/Logline  Extreme Pets, Portland’s most dynamic new pet store, is unwittingly introducing into society genetically mutated monsters along with its normal pet inventory.  Having leased the ideal storefront at a fraction of the going rate, Dale Bergen and his family are enjoying the best business of their careers, but with every sale, they advance the diabolical plan of Dr. Brice Strazek, one of the world’s foremost geneticists, and a certifiable madman.  As nature takes its course, and a string of unrelated setbacks push the doctor over the edge, inexplicable horrors and chaos unfold upon a totally unsuspecting populace.

*     *     *

Even My Enemies

Genre:
Mainstream
Contemporary
Multicultural
Regional

Blurb/Logline  Like every other public school in southern Alabama, Loxley Jr. High grapples with the demons of prejudice and racial discord.  Old hatreds and biases die hard, and people’s true hearts are revealed in the struggle.  But the ultimate answer to disharmony and hate is being unfurled by a group of first-graders known as “the crew.”  This interracial group has been steeped in racial animosity throughout their lives, yet a trio of tireless teachers works to teach them a new approach to generations of ingrained animosities.  Looking back over his life at the bedside of his childhood friend, Ted Chambliss recounts the horrors and glories of that crucial period in our nation’s history; and in his story of pure, innocent childhood relationships are sown the seeds of hope!

Coyle, Kevin
A Cool Dark Place

Genre:
Science Fiction

Blurb/Logline  A college student from the Moon can't get his girlfriend out of his mind -literally.  The fact that she is dead, the victim of a subway shooting, makes no difference.  While sitting in a courtroom awaiting the verdict in her murderer's trial, Christopher Darnell tells his story by talking to Selena in his head, a mental blog for the dead.

Crompton, Pam
The Derwen Bay Witch

Genre:
Chick Lit
Cozy Mystery

Blurb/Logline  Unaware that a more deadly danger awaits her, Bethan Davies flees from London to a guest house that she has just inherited in sleepy Derwen Bay.  Gwyn Thomas, the village police officer, is certain that Beth's aunt was murdered but is unable to prove it.  Although she is attracted to Gwyn, Beth's disdain for the police raises a wall between them.  They conduct separate investigations into Megan's death.  In the process, Beth is stalked, abducted, and thrown into a cave in the bay, where she is left for dead.  After she escapes, she learns how her aunt died.  Gwyn is shot by gangsters who are using the cave for a sophisticated forgery operation.  Only Beth's quick action manages to save his life and help bring the criminals to justice.

*     *     *

Scarborough Fair  SOLD

Genre:
Romance
Suspense

Blurb/Logline  Liz Reid is looking for love in all the wrong centuries, so when she discovers a way back in time, she poses as the niece of a wealthy ship builder in order to meet the handsome David Ridley.  To her dismay, she learns that she is promised in marriage to arrogant Lord Alex Mindon.  Afraid that the time portal could close, trapping her in the past, she is unaware that another time traveler has more deadly intentions. 

*     *     *

The Last Druid

Genre:
Historical

Blurb/Logline  In Roman-occupied Britain, during a time when the army is seeking out and persecuting Druids, the powerful Seisyllt claims Ninian as his novice because she has the Sight. Ninian learns that Seisyllt is doing all he can to weaken Roman power in Britain.  He vows that he will influence the future in his next reincarnation.  Because her Sight leads into the past, Ninian wonders how she can aid him, but when the answer comes, it is anything but what she expected.

DiPlacido, Susan
Trattoria SOLD

Genre:
Chick Lit
Romance
Humor

Blurb/Logline  What happens when a charming, out-of-work actor is tapped to wine, dine, and romance an attractive young woman, then ends up falling for her sister instead?  Val Antonucci, a pretty, vivacious, twenty-something restaurateur, is quickly growing jaded.  In a weird effort to strengthen her trusting side, her older brother and sister convince the new waiter at their trattoria, Danny Alvieri, to woo her.  But real sparks soon fly between Danny and Val's sister; the funny, quirky, and generous Lucy.

What starts innocently as a friendship between Lucy and Danny quickly explodes into undeniable attraction as they work side-by-side in the family-owned restaurant.  Adding heat to the stew is the fact that the trattoria is in financial trouble and ripe for picking by a local casino mogul.  As Lucy grows closer to Danny, the jealousy threatens to rip the family apart just as the business is facing utter collapse.  It's going to take every ingredient at their disposal to whip this family business back into a savory success.

*     *     *

24/7 (Zip File) SOLD 

Genre:
Women's

*     *     *

American Cool

Genre:
Chick Lit Anthology

Blurb/Logline  A young girl is forced to make a choice between her family and her future.  An aging singleton wrestles with the moral implications of diving into the plastic surgery pool.  A lonely gambler on a monster winning streak learns that money can't buy happiness.  A hotshot ballplayer has to deal with life when he realizes he's not as hot a shot as he thought.  These are a few of the restless characters searching and struggling to find their place in modern America in this outrageous collections of shorts.
 

Gwin, Julie
The Red Earth

Genre:
Women's
Feminist
Psychological Drama

Blurb/Logline  Pecan Mountain is a beautiful, secluded bastion of the South.  Sidney Weaver leaves New York, hoping to find peace in the small town, but is rejected by the people there, who disapprove of her.  Lonely, she wanders daily through the woods behind her home, where one day she finds a weeping woman, her face bloody and bruised.  Shocked, Sidney realizes the woman is Gwen Johnson, a classmate from high school, who is now married to a terrifying man.  As Sidney and Gwen become friends, Sidney becomes determined to help her escape from her husband.  She enlists the aid of the town sheriff, but he is unable to help, and Gwen is too afraid to run away.  She refuses to leave her husband, sure he will stop hurting her some day, until one terrible night, when her husband assaults her in such a horrifying way that she and Sidney finally take matters into their own hands.

Herda, D. J.
"Carlotta" Series
Bk. 1 - Bound for Carlotta

Genre:
Psychological Thriller
Alternative Adult
Erotic
 
Blurb/Logline When Dean Janus stumbles across an Internet promotion for a professional Domme, his curiosity is piqued.  By the time he decides to check it out, he is already ensnared in an ever-widening web of drugs, money laundering, BDSM, and murder.  Only the tenacious love of a woman nearly ten years younger can save him.  But is that love strong enough to go head-to-head with Mistress Carlotta?  And can Dean overcome the prejudices he has against his young, headstrong lover?  His very life may depend on it!

Bk. 2 - Carlotta’s Revenge

Genre:
Psychological Thriller
Alternative Adult
Erotic

Blurb/Logline  When Domme Mistress Carlotta escapes from prison, Dean Janus bears the brunt of her wrath.  Taken into bondage to a small adobe outside Ensenada, he is broken of his will and forced to do her bidding.  He returns to the states, where under orders from Carlotta he drugs and kidnaps his own fiancé, and returns with her to Carlotta's adobe, where she too is eventually turned into a devoted slave.  But when M.C. introduces a young peasant girl to become Lynn's charge, Dean turns the tables on the Domme and sets the stage for a supercharged ending. 

Bk. 3 - The Unbroken

Genre
Psychological Thriller
Alternative Adult
Erotica

Blurb/Logline  Mistress Carlotta is released from prison and rehabilitated from a life of depravity and sado-masochism.  In atonement for her sins, she agrees to help set up a home for abused submissives—men and women.  But the temptations prove too strong, and before long, Carlotta has fallen back into her evil ways with a hauntingly frightening twist.  She breaks, then sells her slaves to the underground, where they are forced into the alternative-sex trade or made to perform in alternative snuff flicks.  When Lynne turns up dead, Dean turns up the heat and presses authorities to take up the chase.  As the trail turns cold, he springs into action, enlisting the aid of Lynne’s younger sister—who turns out to be more than Carlotta can resist!

*     *     *

"Eastern Glow" Trilogy
Bk. 1 - Afghani Skies

Genre:
Suspense
Action
Contemporary Romance

Blurb/Logline  Paula is young, intelligent, and hauntingly beautiful--a woman of strong will and unbreakable spirit.  Restless and eager for adventure, she and her husband strike out for Afghanistan, where they have been enlisted to help rebuild the new democratic regime.  Paula wants a different life for the two of them: a renewed love for her husband and a renewed sense of well-being for herself.  But what she finds are turmoil and upheaval.  As the countryside around her erupts into guerrilla warfare, her devotion to her husband is challenged by his need for drugs until finally she meets a passionate Afghan rebel willing to help.  But his help proves futile, driving Paula further into desperation until her rebel companion steps in to save her from the forces of pending doom. 

Bk. 2 - Mistress of the East

Genre:
Suspense
Action-Adventure
Contemporary Romance

Blurb/Logline  This fascinating and frightening account of a young American woman and her Afghan-born husband takes on new and ominous overtones when Paula suddenly finds herself attacked in her home by two Iraqi thugs. When she learns that Shadar has disappeared on his way back to her from Hong Kong, she sets out to find him.  Along the way, she uncovers a sordid trail of human bondage, gun smuggling, and Al Qaeda terrorists.  All nearly ends in a deadly fire-fight with outlawed Islamic terrorists.  But what about Paula ... and will she really confront the Butcher of Baghdad about the whereabouts of Shadar?

Bk. 3 - Underground Opera

Genre:
Suspense
Action-Adventure
Contemporary Romance
 
Blurb/Logline  A cozy night at the opera turns deadly as Paula and Shadar stand by helplessly. Their investigation into the death of Shadar's closest friend soon leads them to Kabul, where Shadar is charged with the task of helping to set up the underground Iraqi Resistance Movement to ferret out and destroy opponents of Coalition Forces and the newly elected Iraqi Free Parliament.  From there, they wend their way to the Tigris, when Shadar suddenly disappears.  Fearing the worst, Paula tries desperately to contact the underground and finally manages to reach the head of the movement ... of the wrong underground! As the Republican Guard and the dreaded Iraqi secret police close in on her, she faces the dilemma of her life: should she flee ... or stay and fight against all odds to find Shadar?

*     *     *

"Hymie Stiehl" Series
Bk. 1 - Solid Stiehl SOLD

Genre:
Mystery
Suspense
Humor

Blurb/Logline  When Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that his friend, Jungle Jim Rivera of the Chicago White Sox, has disappeared, he knows he has to act fast.  Realizing that Rivera is still alive but in great danger, Stiehl and his young, rakish college-professor sidekick seek to locate him before the Mob does.  But when bodies begin turning up like "flies at a bad delicatessen," Stiehl calls upon the local D.A. and the members of the venerable Twelfth Precinct to step in to help solve the case ... and very nearly ends up a statistic, himself.  

Bk. 2 - Murder in the Court

Genre:
Mystery
Suspense
Humor
 
Blurb/Logline As Hymie Stiehl and sidekick D. J. Shanahan arrive in Trinidad, Colorado, to ensnare whoever sent Stiehl's close contractor friend to prison, Stiehl has a revelation.  He sets the kid up as a contractor to work underground.  But when the "kid" gets charged with passing bad checks, contractor fraud, and finally murder, things get ugly.  Stiehl goes underground while the kid bails out, and the two of them meet to uncover the worst in human society--from a dirty District Court Judge right on down to drug-pushing, drug-crazed local vice cops gone wild.  Things look bleak for D.J.'s upcoming trial when suddenly Stiehl has a revelation.  Halfway through the preliminary hearing to bind the kid over for murder one, Stiehl shows up with three Federal officers--and the kid gets a change of venue ... much to the chagrin of the judge.  When the judge goes to step down and the FBI clasps him in cuffs, he pulls a gun from beneath his robes and shoots his own bailiff in the head.  As the judge is hauled away, Stiehl reveals the real savior behind the scenes in an ending as touching as it is creative.

Bk. 3 - Stiehl Stalkings

Genre:
Mystery
Suspense
Humor
 
Blurb/Logline  A Caribbean cruise goes sour when a wealthy German industrialist turns up dead during an attempted robbery--murdered with his own gun.  The plot thickens when Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that the man's stepson had lost more than $20 thousand at the tables the night before.  The man's wife, too, stands to gain financially from her husband's death, although she voluntarily takes a polygraph test and passes with ease.  When links to a Belizean woman emerge, Hymie grows restless.  The deceased industrialist had been having an affair, and his wife found out.  What better peg to the murder than a spurned wife?  But when the wife's own son is killed, all eyes fall elsewhere, and it's up to Hymie to unravel the most bizarre and twisted tale of murder and chicanery ever. 

*     *     *

"Nick and Nora Cavender" Series
Bk. 1 - Backside Blues

Genre:
Cozy Mystery
 
Blurb/Logline  Nick and Nora Cavender set out to invest in a racehorse destined for the Kentucky Derby.  But when the horse’s jockey turns up dead—and his jockey friend, and the track steward, and the trainer—they know they're onto one helluva story.  Who will be next?  Nora very nearly finds out ... the hard way.  It isn't long before the society couple realize they're in for the crime of their lives.

----------

“This is the best racing mystery I’ve ever read.  It’s pure dynamite, a page-turner from the first to the last.  The relationship between the characters is supercharged.  And why wouldn't it be, with Nora Cavender, herself, the great granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett's even greater Thin Man, Nick Charles.  Highly recommended!” – Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate

Bk. 2 - Stakeout

Genre:
Cozy Mystery
 
Blurb/Logline  When one-time private eye Nicky Cavender and his reporter wife Nora take a busman's holiday skiing in Banff National Park, they soon find themselves searching for a missing Canadian heiress ... and her jewelry ... and her hotel room suite!  All vanished into thin air.

As hotel officials struggle to learn what happened to room 432, Nicky devises an ingenious plan for a reverse stakeout of the grottos outside Banff's hot springs to uncork the truth.  But before long, he discovers it is he who is being stalked in one of the most creative story lines ever.

Bk. 3 - Chameleon

Genre:
Cozy Mystery
 
Blurb/Logline  When Nora's Chicago Daily Tribune editor sends her to the U.K. to cover the Irish Darby, she soon learns that derby day is not without its inherent risks.  Within hours of landing, she finds herself the target of a mysterious stalker.  Nick lays plans and apprehends the stalker, who turns out to be anything but!  When Nora disappears, Nicky faces a blank slate for the first time in his life--why was she kidnapped?  Is she unharmed?  Where is she being held?  What clues can their new Welsh Corgi puppy provide?  And are the locals right when they claim that only the Irish moors hold the answer ... and the answer is death!

*     *     *

Dark Seeds: Hemingway Out of Havana

Genre:
Historical Fiction

Blurb/Logline  As Ernest Hemingway falls under J. Edgar Hoover scrutiny for defending Fidel Castro while the revolutionary leader stands poised on the outskirts of Havana, the author decides to take matters into his own hands.  Working out of the seedy Hotel Ambos Mundos, Hemingway maneuvers behind the scenes to help bring an end to the corrupt Batista regime.  On his third wife and fourth mistress--and well into a life of failing health and alcohol addiction--the author decides there might be one more story unfolding before him, one more novel to help seal his reputation in greatness.  But, as Hemingway welcomes the Cuban liberator into Havana, rumors from the Soviet Union and rumblings from the United States--pro-Batista to the bitter end--threaten the author's very reasons for living ... and very nearly threaten life, itself.

*     *     *

The Devil Within

Genre:
Literary
Action
Suspense
Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  When a man makes a pact with the devil, he does so not in exchange for untold wealth, health, love, or longevity, but in order to stimulate his mind (he loathes boredom and despises boring people).  The devil agrees to grant him superior intellect and the intelligence to survive in a hostile world, and soon the man heads up the most powerful terrorist network in history.  But he fails to anticipate his still human weaknesses and soon falls in lust bordering on love.  The only problem: the woman is a Central European Command (CEC) operative who has been assigned to paranormal investigations into terrorist links.  When she learns from her lover who he really is and where he gets his power—and, worse, that he knows who she really is--she sets out to do the only thing her conscience will allow her to do.  She must destroy him, even if it means making her own pact with the devil to do it!

*     *     *

Two Mules for McCandless

Genre:
Detective
Action-Suspense
Mystery

Blurb/Logline Harry Block is just an average P.I. except for one thing.  He craves adventure.  He gets just that and more in this true story of murder, lust, torture, and resolution.  When at last he uncovers the truth about the son of the California mobster who hired him to clear his son's name, he finds himself scrambling for his very life. 
 

A breathtaking tale made all the more exciting by the fact that it's based on a true story.  The action is non-stop, and the characters will live in your memory for a lifetime. 

"This is Dennis Hopper in Doublecrossed times ten, the scenes of Block being tortured in a Mexican jail are absolutely haunting.  It's a sure winner at the book stores, as well as at the box office." - Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate
 

*     *     *
 

Chi-Town Blues

Genre:
Anthology of Chicago-based Short Stories
 
Blurb/Logline  When author/editor D. J. Herda left Chicago, he took a big part of the city with him.  Now he has unleashed it in all its wild-and-wooly, sexually charged, hit-and-hit-harder glory.  These tales are hauntingly vivid, running the gamut from Crime and Punishment to Coming-of-Age in the Windy City.

*     *     *

The Secret Arroyo

Genre:
Western

Blurb/Logline  As an Army scout, Wade Hawkins learned his job well—he is the best tracker west of the Missouri.  It is a skill that comes in handy, for he’ll need all of his wiles to overtake the murderous flesh-traders who abducted his Choctaw wife from their home several days before.  As he closes in on her captors, he finds more than he bargained for: a troop of ruthless, bloodthirsty ex-rangers with plenty of fire power and 16 Indian women—captive squaws—on their hands.  But was Tantien one of them?

Hornak, Paul T.
Digger

Genre:
Mystery
Psychologocal Drama
Humor

Blurb/Logline  The police say Kara Cole lies dead with her husband at the bottom of a lake.  Her childhood enemy Dora La Duke insists otherwise. A victim of Kara's scheming, Dora sees murder and disappearance written all over the so-called tragic accident that killed the pair. Can this spunky small-town waitress scrape together enough evidence to prove a theory everybody else calls crazy?

*     *     *
 

An Unfortunate Face

Genre:
Action-Adventure
Suspense
Humor

Blurb/Logline  Vacationing retired major James Pennant is a dead-ringer for international troublemaker Milan Bilec.  Pressured by an ambitious embassy official, he must choose between duty to country and love of Bilec’s alluring fiancée in deadly spy games with even deadlier Mediterranean arms traffickers.

 

Jennex, Steve
The Old Spies Club

Genre:
Action/Adventure
Suspense
Mainstream/Contemporary

Blurb/Logline  When a private jet crashes in the mountainous wilds of Colombia's Los Katios Park, wheels are set in motion to reassemble a veteran team of CIA field agents to find the wreckage and one important passenger. Paired with feuding counterparts from the Drug Enforcement Agency, they must contend with the extreme terrain, rival paramilitary soldiers and volatile rain forest natives, all the while asking themselves Does the Old Spies Club still have what it takes to get the job done?

*     *     *

On Assignment

Genre:
Action/Adventure
Suspense
Mainstream/Contemporary

Blurb/Logline  It was supposed to be a dream job: a couple of weeks in the Caribbean, jiggling bikinis and pina coladas, looking for a news correspondent gone missing. But for private investigator Marty Kowlanko, what initially seemed like a paid vacation quickly spirals into a conspiracy of murder, corrupt politicians and sleazy big business. Out of his element, Marty has to pull things together before time runs out.

*     *     *

The King of Maicao

Genre:
Action/Adventure
Suspense
Mainstream/Contemporary

Blurb/Logline  Armed with little more than a Spanish-English dictionary, mining engineer Ben Murdock travels to the savanna of Colombia to restore the operations of his company’s flagging coal mine.  Plunged into a violent confrontation between corrupt government troops, left-wing rebels and desperate natives, Murdock finds refuge in the arms of a young woman--a free-spirited Colombian reactionary.  His back to the wall, he has to question his values and whether he can trust the motives of his new love.

Kaplan, Bruce
Seeds

Genre:
Horror
Thriller
Mystery

Blurb/Logline  A traumatized writer arrives in a peaceful seaside town for rest and recuperation.  Instead, he finds himself in a town gripped by unspeakable terror, corruption, and blackmail.  And a strange little boy may hold the key.

Kottke, Loretta
Trail of Vengeance

Genre:
Western
Action/Adventure

Blurb/Logline  The aftermath of a hanging—of the fifteen year old brother of a hired killer—is a wild and wicked tale of revenge and bloody retribution.  Charlie Cross vows vengeance on the posse that lynched his brother, who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Three would die before Cross himself meets his destiny at the hands of Hank Dawson.  Cross never figured the drifter would challenge him and risk his life to avenge a friend.  But he was wrong.

*     *     *

Shadow of the Rope

Genre:
Western
Action/Adventure

Blurb/Logline  Charlotte Beckford kneels in the dusty street, cradling the still body of the man she was to marry, hysterically screaming at his killer that she will make him pay.  He laughs at the threat.  After all, what can she do?  She's just a girl.  But Rayburn finds just how wrong he is when she sets out to bring him to justice...and watch him hang.

*     *     *

Murder Stalks the Mist

Genre:
Contemporary Mystery
Detective

Blurb/Logline  Sidney Langdon scoffed at the idea of a ghost prowling the grounds of Greenwood Estate—until it killed his client.  Now the ghost has an irate detective on its trail.  Where will it lead?  To the vengeful store clerk, the greedy grandson, or the controlling medium?  With Sid on its tail, this ghost is soon to be one sorry spirit!

*     *     *

Death Comes Calling

Genre:
Contemporary Mystery
Detective

Blurb/Logline  A murderer and a million dollars in missing jewels—that's all Sidney Langdon has to find.  And for the very man who may be responsible for them both!  Along the way, he uncovers a sordid trail of blackmail, adultery, and betrayal in his quest to bring home the goods. It’s a gem of a case, Sid's very first—but will it be his last?
 

"ldylngstkn"
Delightfully Delicious

Genre:
Anthology of Alternative Erotica
BDSM

Blurb/Logline  ldylngstkn effectively quells the notion that BDSM is anything less than what it truly is, a lifestyle about loving--in different, sometimes "strange," ways.  This anthology of a dozen different tales of erotica is deep, intense, intimate ... and delightfully delicious.

*     *     *
 

The Novice

Genre:
Erotica
BDSM (Maledom)

Blurb/Logline  Exquisitely trained slaves are few and far between.  Alex is an exquisitely trained slave.  Her Master has turned her from nothing into the most sought-after, graceful, and accomplished treasure imaginable.  She is his pride, his joy, his love.  She is his crowning glory.  And now she is alone.  But that is only the beginning of her jaded journey. 

Follow Alex, the most revered of Society Slaves, as she evolves into a deviant of regimentation, love, and lust beyond her wildest expectations.  Feel her servitude as she assumes new sexual roles, exciting new challenges, and devilishly delicious tortures every step of the way.  Join in her journey of depravity from one continent to the next, finally ending up at Holland’s notorious Master House of Delights where she prepares for her most erotic—and lust-filled—role ever. 

Lee, Lissa
Empress of Gold Mountain

Genre:
Historical Romance
Ethnic

Blurb/Logline  Madam Ah Toy, San Francisco’s first Chinese “lady of joy,” accumulated unprecedented wealth given her circumstances.  What if she had borne a daughter – would she have subjected the child to her same fate, with its attendant power as well as perils, or would she have challenged her daughter’s destiny at a time when the options were either to become servant... or a prostitute?  Lin, raised by a Reverend and his wife, sets out to find her birth mother against their wishes.  Along her journey, she is aided by an earnest cowpoke, an emotionally cruel benefactor, a clever cook, and the scheming Madam Ah Toy.  In being manipulated and learning to manipulate, she finds a way out of servitude and into great wealth, but learns what her ambition and stubbornness wreak.  Is Lin the Madam’s daughter?

*     *     *

Concubine of Gold Mountain

Genre:
Ethnic
Historical
Multicultural
Women's

Blurb/Logline  In the first novel of this series, Empress of Gold Mountain, we followed Lin on her journey from life as indentured Texas servant to exclusive San Francisco consort and finally powerful Los Angeles business owner.  In this combined sequel/prequel, Concubine of Gold Mountain, we meet her descendant, Lila, who is juggling career and relationships in the boundless post-feminist era; as well as her ancestor, Ah Ling, who is weighing equally opposing forces in a time when women had no choices.
 

Long, Laird
Clint Magnum, CA

Genre:
Black Comedy
Humor
Parody
Mystery

Blurb/Logline  “I’m a Chartered Accountant-in-training with a head full of numbers and fists full of dynamite.  I make the numbers crunch, and, baby, if they don’t, I become the biggest liability on the balance sheet of your life.” 

That’s Clint Magnum – CA wannabe, a hard-rock behemoth with a gung-ho attitude and a quick-draw calculator.  His life’s mission is to bring order to the capital markets and garner an accounting designation in the process; and swing low sweet chariot for those who stand in his way!  He sees accounting as neither an art nor a science, but rather a contact sport.  This is his brutal story.

*     *     *
 

Raw Meat

Genre:
Anthology of Short Fiction
Hard-Boiled Crime
Mystery
Adventure
 
Blurb/Logline  Raw Meat.  Twenty-three tales of murder, betrayal, lust, greed, and violence; hammered together with lean, mean, white-hot prose painted black with a cynical humor.  Hardboiled stories of the deadly ambitions and desperate dreams which boil in all of us -- just below the surface.  No quarter given -- none asked.”

Lurker, Jaclyn
Josephine

Genre:
Psychological Drama

Blurb/Logline  Does one heinous action define a life?  After murdering her uncle, Josephine Lockhart escapes prison and vigilantes, but no one can free her from the punishment she inflicted on herself.  One rash moment and one hateful decision sends her on a journey of redemption--a journey filled with a new identity, new people, and new loves.
 

McKeown, Edward
Was Once a Hero

Genre:
Science Fiction

Blurb/Logline  Reluctant privateer Robert Fenaday searches the stars for his lost love.  He’s joined by the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti Rainhell, whose cold perfection masks a dark past.  Both are blackmailed by government spymaster, Mandela, into a suicidal mission to a doomed planet.  Leading a team of scientists and soldiers, they must unravel the mystery of a planet’s death before an ancient force reaches out to destroy them.

*     *     *

Points of Departure

Genre:
Science Fiction

Blurb/Logline  Having survived the nightmare world of Enshar, Robert Fenaday abandons privateering and his quest for his lost wife to begin life anew with the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti Rainhell.  But spymaster Mandela has other plans for the pair: intrigue and murder on Shasti’s home planet of Olympia.  While fighting his way to Shasti, Fenaday must face her deadly creator and unravel an alien mystery that could destroy the Confederacy.

 

McQuillin, Mahlon B.

Sapiosaurus

 

Genre:
Science Fiction

Blurb/Logline  Deep under the ice of Antarctica lies a city, lost for millions of years, and now discovered by a research team.  It clearly can't be of human design.  Who built it?  Where were they from, and where did they go?  Sapiosaurus takes the reader on a journey of discovery and wonder as an ancient civilization is revealed.
 

Nielsen, Soren
Writing as Sean Warner
Circle of Wholes

Genre:
Contemporary Romance
Spiritual

Blurb/Logline  Amanda McGee faces two challenges in life.  First, she must reconcile how a stranger got invited to her dinner table and then into her heart.  At the same time, the family's small-town newspaper must decide how to report on a third miracle cure at the local hospital.  Love and miracles?  They happen every day.  Just ask Amanda.

*     *     *

Mackenzie's Universe

Genre:
Contemporary Romance

Blurb/Logline  Joe Mackenzie is living the good life near Houston.  He's doing exactly what he wants to do.  He's living exactly where he wants to live.  He credits his good fortune to an uncanny ability to get what he wants when he wants it ... whenever he wants it.  Now he wants to know how.

During his search for an answer, Mackenzie meets three women.  He's attracted to them all--Alexis, the owner of a weekly newspaper in the Texas hill country; Lorraine, a wealthy ranch owner who works at the newspaper for kicks while looking for a man; and Kate, the high-powered president of a Houston public relations firm.  As Mac works frantically to bring his life-long fantasy relationship to fruition, a life-threatening tumor in Alexis turns his world—and his fantasy--upside down.

*     *     *

Fort Mackenzie

Genre:
Action
Adventure
Romance

Blurb/Logline  Fort Mackenzie is a history buff’s dream, a new theme camp where adults indulge their childhood game of Cowboys and Indians.  When 18 men form a new cavalry troop on Christina Blocker’s ranch in West Texas and begin their training under Sgt. McTodd, they are destined to get more excitement than they bargained for.

A newspaper article about the camp leads a savage man bent on revenge to stalk the group.  As Christina’s heart is stirred by the affections of trooper Dan Cosentino, he leaves on a patrol that turns deadly before the cavalry can come to the rescue. 

*     *     *

Hotel Texas

Genre:
Romance
Erotica

Blurb/Logline  After an anonymous seduction in a Corpus Christi hotel, an architect is motivated to seek sensual encounters during his travels across Texas. But, instead, the three women he meets in some of the state’s best hotels teach him about trust, commitment and love.
 

O'Neill, Ian
Even Steven

Genre:
Crime
Thriller

Blurb/Logline  "Just give me five minutes alone with him."  If you want your five minutes alone, Michael Conroy is the man to see.  But, don’t expect him to do your dirty work.  He merely snatches the killers and turns them over to grieving loved ones to do with as they wish—for a price. 

Detective Andrew Foster is assigned to a murder case and catches a break - the victim survives.  Foster knows about the vigilante ring, and in his obsession to break it up, Mikey disappears.  Now it’s the stalker’s turn to face up to his own brand of terror: torture and death at the hands of a perfect stranger.

Picard, Joseph

Robbers

Genre:
Literary
Historical Fiction

Blurb/Logline  Dan Hatcher and Bear Maloney, Irish immigrants in the American Army, come back to New York City from their stint in the Mexican War with stolen money and a deed to land on a mountainside in Tennessee.  They convince their families, poor ghetto-dwellers, that they won it all in a poker game.  The families make an exodus through Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley to the mountains of eastern Tennessee, where they not only survive but prosper.  But the friendship between Hatcher and Maloney soon snags, and Dan thinks he might be going mad.  Jealousies, infidelities, and runaways mar their lives.  When Dan’s wife learns that their home is built upon a crime, their marriage flounders.  The Civil War erupts, turning eastern Tennessee into a wasteland of raiders and refugees.  The war claims the Hatchers’ sons, and most of the clan succumbs to death, despair, and madness.  A few survive, including Dan and Cora, who reconcile and rebuild their mountain home, which becomes a haven for war orphans and the starting point for future generations.

*     *     *

American Dreamers

Genre:
Humor
Political Satire

Blurb/Logline  When Al Carter, a precocious member of an Al Qaeda terrorist cell in New Jersey, decides to inform on his comrades and become an American, he turns to the one person he believes he can trust — his college literature professor, Frank Tully.  Ducking his real identity, Carter transforms himself into a Mexican-American used car salesman.  He meets Margot Burge, the voluptuous and unstable wife of a multi-millionaire, Hamilton Burge.  Margot wants to murder her husband and tries to enlist the assistance of Cardero (Carter).  Her plan backfires when, through a series of comic coincidences, Cardero and Hamilton Burge become fast friends.  Burge, an influential man and donor to the Republican Party, takes his brilliant Mexican-American protégé with him into his elitist circles where, among other noteworthy encounters, the former Al Qaeda member meets and advises President George W. Bush. 

As Cardero prepares to marry Hamilton Burge’s daughter, Margot convinces her husband that he is merely trying to win over the Burge fortune, and Burge has Cardero whacked.  The assassination is blamed on Mexican drug lords, and Cardero is honored as a decent Mexican who played by the rules.

Porretto, Francis
The Sledgehammer Concerto

Genre:
Literary
Psychological Drama
Suspense with Political and Occult Overtones

Blurb/Logline  Three siblings.  Children of the dark.  One was a mystic, a priest never ordained, who carried within him a mysterious power to heal the wounds of the soul and dispel the anguish of the dying.  One was a researcher, a genius tortured by her own desires, who strove to bring human desire itself to heel, and succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.  One was a writer, a visionary of freedom, whose depictions of honesty and moral courage in the face of overwhelming oppression brought him a worldwide following and a most unpleasant official notice.

Driven by the horrors of their past, they struggled for dignity and meaning in a world that showed them no welcome.  Determined to find love, they created a family out of patchwork, a gossamer web of acceptance and union that only titans could traverse.  They huddle together in a cabin in the New York woods.  And the door swings open.

*     *     * 

Chosen One
 

Genre:
Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  Born to working-class parents in the depressed heartland of New York, Louis Redmond proves to be a prodigy: brilliant, powerful, and great of soul. But tragedy dogs his steps. Misfortune deprives him of family and friends. Hardly has he time to recover from one hammer blow when the Fates blast him with another. Yet, he rises above it all, and in doing so, transforms the world around him.

Louis is not only a wunderkind of the intellect. He also is a trailblazer of the spirit and a natural leader of men. Armies would follow him into the mouth of Hell.

With such power comes great danger. But Louis is watched over by one who knows all the ways of Man: Malcolm Loughlin, immortal warrior and Brother of the Realm of Essences. Loughlin has trained the world's greatest generals for two millennia. His wisdom, enough to elevate the young champion to the throne of the world, is available to Louis... for a price.

It is a price even a Titan would struggle to meet.

*     *     * 

On Broken Wings

Genre:
Fantasy
Inspirational

Blurb/Logline  You're a young woman with no memory of her past. You've been held captive for ten years by a vicious motorcycle gang.  Its members gang-rape you every day, pump you full of drugs, and subject you to brutality to keep you in line.

One day, you escape, but only after killing the driver and maiming yourself.  You wake in a hospital with a face full of livid scars and a chest full of fear.  The Butchers' leader is obsessed with you, and he's no fool.  If you remain where you are, he'll find you.  And you'll wish you'd never been born.

Suddenly there's a promise of help.  But you don't even know the donor.  As time grows short, what will you do?  Will you choose the devil you know ... or the devil you don't?

Rootes, Robert
Lycanthrope

Genre:
Horror
Sci-Fi

Blurb/Logline  For Chris Walker, introverted teenager, life in rural New York is mundane until Courtney Harris moves in next door.  After Courtney returns from vacationing in the Adirondack Mountains, Chris discovers that her harrowing escape from an animal attack has left something behind.  Overcome with preternatural sense, Courtney understands the metamorphosis within her body will soon turn her into a werewolf.
 
The night of the full moon, Chris witnesses the transformation of Courtney into a werewolf, and he knows both their lives have changed forever.  When Courtney disappears without a trace, Chris follows his heart and instinct to rescue her from the people holding her prisoner.

Skins, Leo F.
Appreciating a Woman in Cool Sheets

Genre:
Humor
Romance
Literary
Psychological Drama
Confession

Blurb/Logline  After two years of college, a young manic-depressive comes to the unfortunate conclusion that only through suicide can he impact the world.  Before killing himself, however, he decides to drive across America to try to prove himself wrong.  Along the way he finds a world and a woman with enough good to cure his boredom, but it might not be enough to keep him alive.

Taylor, William "Wild Bill"
The Ghost Dance of Johnny Tango

Genre:
Literary
Historical
Psychological Drama

Blurb/Logline  An empire had best tread lightly when it comes to treating its war heroes, for the enemy it faces might not be the one from across the ocean but rather one from within his own family.  That's what Billy learns the hard way in this kaleidoscopic journey through life where he comes face-to-face with the Korean War, psychiatrist Major John D. Hepcat, General George Armstrong Custer, and his own demons in the form of the Ghost Dance of Johnny Tango.

Wright, Jennifer
Estos

Genre:
Horror
Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  Ray and Marianne are forced to embark on a quest with Edwin through a world where the thin veil of reality is slowly ripping away.  They search for Estos, a coveted entity spoken of only in hushed whispers.

The three travelers must learn to face their fears as they confront their inner demons and cross a barren desert filled with its own hidden evils.  If they reach Estos in time, the world may heal itself.  If they fail, all worlds will end.

Yngve, A. R.

Terra Hexa FOREIGN RIGHTS ONLY SOLD

Genre:

Young Adult
Fantasy

Blurb/Logline  Henna and Gala, two inseparable sisters, have grown up in a land where the sun never sets - literally. Together with their friends, they set out on an expedition to the end of the world. Many, many adventures later, the intrepid explorers find their goal - and discover that their home world is much larger than they ever imagined...

Hear This Book by the Author

Prologue, Part 1

Part 2
Part 3

 Reviews:

"...TERRA HEXA evolves into a brilliant adventure novel which entertains those who have become blasè.  One almost thinks of Jules Verne..." - Robert Andersson, in Swedish magazine Mitrania (www.mitrania.se)

"The book's protagonists, the sisters Henna and Gala, Uncle Ingo and the brothers Mick and Rydel, have names which sound un-Swedish, and one senses that the author wants to reach an international market.  It would not surprise me if he succeeds... It is thoroughly thrilling, without being too scary for sensitive young readers." - Lena Kjersén Edman, for Bibliotekstjänst (The Swedish Library Service, www.btj.se)

"The story is good and everything hangs together in a skillful way...a thrilling and good fantasy tale." - Hilda Ekstedt (13 years old), in the Swedish magazine ICA-KURIREN (www.icakuriren.se)

*Published in Sweden, Seeking U.S. Rights Sale