"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."
—Muriel Rukeyser
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Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts

Story Merchant E-Book Deal

FREE January 27 - January 31! 


One by one, graduates of a highly selective medical school class at Georgetown are kidnapped. Meanwhile, around the globe, archeologists discover secrets to an ancient mystery, possibly older than history itself. Like the strands of DNA, the two storylines are linked, uniting in an explosive chase and attempted rescue – and a discovery central to the future of human evolution.

Follow Noah Scott, the only Georgetown physician to escape kidnapping, Annie Van Stuyvesant, an eccentric archeologist, and Sebastian Kane, one of the world’s wealthiest men, as they pursue the interlinked secrets and stand to answer the most important question this ancient mystery raises: What would you do to live forever?



PRAISE FOR DAVE DAVIS

Dave’s commentaries in the Hamilton Spectator have been regularly praised for their sensitivity, humor, and insight; they draw on Dave’s rich experiences as a family doctor, husband and father. His first novel, A Potter’s Tale, was recently named 2021's Independent Press Distinguished Favorite in Science Fiction. His second, The Last Immortal, is bound to attract readers interested in an intelligent, thought-provoking thriller. They’re both books in The Noah Series.

Story Merchant E-Book Deal: The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Resiliency and Imagination by Nicolas Bazan






An American neuroscientist becomes embroiled in an international mystery that explores the meaning of miracles.

While attending a scientific conference in Poland New Orleans neuroscientist, Dr. Alvaro Cruz, visits Auschwitz and faces the ghosts of his own harrowing escape from Argentina’s “Dirty War” of the 1970’s.

When he and his wife meet an American artist-priest just outside the entrance of the notorious concentration camp Alvaro is inexplicably drawn to this enigmatic man and his stories about the icon of Catholic Poland known as “The Black Madonna” and a religious vision he experienced as a young art student. After returning to Krakow Alvaro can’t get the comments and demeanor of young Father Stephen out of his mind.

When Alvaro’s colleague invites him to visit the Jasna Gora Monastery where the famed Black Madonna of CzÄ™stochowa is housed he jumps at the opportunity.

During his visit to the monastery an elderly woman becomes hysterical about the changed appearance of the Madonna, and suffers an epileptic seizure ; she insists this is not the real Black Madonna, confirming his own odd sensation that the painting was not authentic!

In his obsession with discovering the truth Alvaro begins to piece together fragments of the complex mystery surrounding the icon’s history. What his findings reveal, the real story of the Black Madonna and the people charged with protecting her, could never have been anticipated. What comes to light is a stunning revelation not only about the painting but also about human frailty and our mind’s ability to overcome it.

Like Bazan’s previous Alvaro Cruz novel, Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind, The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Imagination and Resiliency is a compelling narrative interplay of religion, science, culture, and art. Where scientific explanation ends and religious mystery begins lies the open synapse that connects human with divine.






FIVE STAR REVIEW: 

The Dark Madonna: A Fable of Resiliency and Imagination by Nicolas Bazan is absolutely mesmerizing with its intriguing blend of fact and fiction! With few pages, the tale of art forgery, greed, and religious beliefs and mysteries leads a scholar on a journey across continents and cultures that left me wanting more from this brilliant author.

Nicolas Bazan has written with a passionate pen, telling his story in the first person, deeply emotional and moving, almost like a pilgrimage of self-discovery and inner awakening as I was taken to ghostly remains of the German prison camps, where the determination to survive and the spirit of those who died there could be felt in the air. On visiting Poland, almost drawn by fate, our main character finds his scientific expertise put to good use when a sacred relic appears to be a clever forgery and a young religious man goes missing. Who is behind this great deception of the faith of the masses? Will the vandal be found? Will the relic be found? Were the reasons behind its theft truly evil or misguided? Can the answer to a religious mystery be found in science?

Wonderfully entertaining and well-written, this short novella feels like a much longer work with its attention to detail and deeply thought-out plot.

I highly recommend it!

Story Merchant E-Book Deal: Michael Abbadon's Thriller Snowblind!

FREE ON AMAZON 

SEPTEMBER 16 - SEPTEMBER 10!





Snowblind by Michael Abbadon




She skis sightless, a monster at her heels!

Eighteen-year-old Kris Carlson needs a second chance. Blinded years before in a freak accident, Kris is trying to restart her life by learning how to ski again—without eyesight. A new audible-radar technology makes this miracle possible.

When the initial trials prove promising, Kris heads off to the mountains for a weekend of skiing with the ski school director and her daughter. But the three women encounter a fierce winter storm and are forced to take refuge in a trapper’s cabin.

Kris soon discovers the trapper’s mauled corpse. It seems a plane has gone down in the storm, and there’s some kind of monstrous beast on the loose.
⁠

New From Story Merchant Books Leo Daughtry's Talmadge Farm

 



It's 1957, and tobacco is king. Wealthy landowner Gordon Talmadge enjoys the lavish lifestyle he inherited but doesn't like getting his hands dirty; he leaves that to the two sharecroppers - one white, one Black - who farm his tobacco but have bigger dreams for their own children. While Gordon takes no interest in the lives of his tenant farmers, a brutal attack between his son and the sharecropper children sets off a chain of events that leaves no one unscathed. Over the span of a decade, Gordon struggles to hold on to his family's legacy as the old order makes way for a New South.

TALMADGE FARM is a sweeping drama that follows three unforgettable families navigating the changing culture of North Carolina at a pivotal moment in history. A love letter to the American South, the novel is a story of resilience, hope, and family - both lost and found.

What They're Saying About Fred Willard's Down on Ponce



Down on Ponce, by Fred Willard 


The Ponce of the title is Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, and is, according to an Author's Note, "a haven for the homeless…

The Ponce of the title is Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, and is, according to an Author's Note, "a haven for the homeless, the lawless and the restless". Qualifying on all counts is retired marijuana smuggler Sam Fuller, who gets involved in the disintegrating operations of mob boss Billy "Dong" Chandler. Fuller is aware that Chandler has a huge cache of money hidden somewhere - if one were to go by his nickname, perhaps the front of his trousers might be the first place to look - and decides to round up a crowd of the usual suspects in order to steal it. The result is a highly engaging comedy-thriller which never lets up until the last frenetic page.

via Irish Times


Down on Ponce
Fred Willard

This is a real rollercoaster of a book - I couldn't put it down. It's easy to read, full of action, and there's no knowing where it's going next. The characters are unusual - to put it mildly - but totally believable. I was with them all the way with a smile on my face, even through the sometimes bloody violence. Not for the fainthearted, but it will certainly brighten a dreary day.

Excerpt:

As soon as we stopped, Bob jumped out and stripped off his clothes. Then he joined Charley at the tailgate and they slid out the stretcher. Bob lifted Lloyd forward and was holding him, getting ready to find him a comfortable spot to watch the action, when Charley unzipped the body bag.

The first thing Vogel saw was a huge naked man with a stocking on his head, but half his face obviously missing, standing in the red light holding another man with a stocking on his head with amputated legs.

He screamed in total primal terror, then fell silent.


If you like Elmore Leonard, you have to read Fred Willard‘s Down on Ponce. This is not Fred Willard, the actor, but another Fred Willard, a journalist from Atlanta. Down on Ponce is a caper story, with a lot of plot to go around, but the characters and the dialog are what put it on the list. Some of the funniest dialog I’ve read in years, and one character in particular, Charlie, an ex-con hearse driver who refers to himself as Death’s Representative in Atlanta and who likes to attend anti-abortion rallies for the entertainment quality is a true gem. My favorite of Charlie’s lines, “That was one of your better fetus flings, even if I had to do it myself.” The grim underbelly of Atlanta never looked so good. Down on Ponce is published by a small publisher, so you might have to work a bit to find it, but it’s worth it.

Story Merchant e-Book Deal #FREE April 22 - 26 Fred Willard's Down on Ponce




SAM FULLER, a man who lives on the edge of the law, is offered $50,000 to murder a man’s wife. Instead of committing the crime, he warns the wife and runs with the money. The next day Sam’s trailer is set afire and his friend JIMMY is killed; Sam knows he was the intended victim.⁠
⁠
Sam goes underground, hiding out in the Ponce de Leon section of downtown Atlanta. He befriends CHARLIE SHELNUT, a late 20s rockabilly undertaker, and several misfit street cons who trace Jimmy’s death to a Dixie Mob money-laundering scheme. Sam devises an elaborate plan to make the murderers pay, literally -- he’ll rip off their drug profits.⁠
⁠
Sam’s crew soon find themselves in the middle of a turf war between the Dixie mob and a disgraced ex-district attorney whose own drug abuse has pulled him into the money laundering trade. The climax of this riveting, often hilarious tale comes in an explosive confrontation as Sam and his crew exact final retribution for the killing of Sam’s friend.⁠




A former newspaper photographer Fred Willard is known as the master of "Cracker Noir," his books boil with smarmy characters and their bizarre antics. Down on Ponce is hard-boiled crime fiction, solidly in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson.

Story Merchant Books E-Book Deal Art Johnson's Marilyn My Marilyn Free January 29 - February 2!


 

Marilyn My Marilyn by Art Johnson 


Available on Amazon 


In Art Johnson’s last novel, he continues his style of combining historical fact with fiction to offer the reader a steady stream of drama, tension and humor. Marilyn, My Marilyn reveals fresh insight into the most iconic woman of modern times, not as a biography, but with a view of a nation which often buries the truth with its dead.

New From Story Merchant Books: The Last Immortal by Dave Davis

 

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON


One by one, graduates of a highly selective medical school class at Georgetown are kidnapped. Meanwhile, around the globe, archeologists discover secrets to an ancient mystery, possibly older than history itself. Like the strands of DNA, the two storylines are linked, uniting in an explosive chase and attempted rescue – and a discovery central to the future of human evolution.

Follow Noah Scott, the only Georgetown physician to escape kidnapping, Annie Van Stuyvesant, an eccentric archeologist, and Sebastian Kane, one of the world’s wealthiest men, as they pursue the interlinked secrets and stand to answer the most important question this ancient mystery raises: What would you do to live forever?


PRAISE FOR DAVE DAVIS

Dave’s commentaries in the Hamilton Spectator have been regularly praised for their sensitivity, humor, and insight; they draw on Dave’s rich experiences as a family doctor, husband and father. His first novel, A Potter’s Tale, was recently named 2021's Independent Press Distinguished Favorite in Science Fiction. His second, The Last Immortal, is bound to attract readers interested in an intelligent, thought-provoking thriller. They’re both books in The Noah Series.

New YA Book By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld in Bookstores and Amazon September 24th!

 Theo Rollins is starting eighth grade six inches taller, and his new height is making everyone expect more from him. Coach Mandrake wants to transform him from invisible science geek into star basketball player, even though Theo has little experience with the game. When Theo tries to hone his skills by playing pick-up ball in the park, kids are eager to include him at first; then they quickly see that he has no control of his gangly body. A girl named Rain even dubs him "Sasquatch." To make matters worse, all his time spent on training is starting to hurt his science club's chances of winning the "Aca-lympics," the school's trivia competition. Just when Theo thinks he can't handle any more pressure, he's accused of stealing. Can he find the real thief before he is kicked off the basketball and science club teams, or will his attempt at sleuthing be yet another air ball?

WILLIAM DIEHL’S FINAL BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE IN NOOK BOOK!


Seven Ways to Die [NOOK Book]



NOOK Book (eBook)
$4.99
BN.com price

Available on NOOK devices and apps


Need a NOOK? Explore Now


Overview

From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York’s Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl’s last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.

There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Cast Studies for the Novice M.E.

Micah Cody is a 30-something NYPD captain of homicide, who’s founded a special unit known as TAZ with city-wide license to take over any investigation at all, with special focus on serial killers. Now its ultimate challenge is on the loose in Manhattan, with ...
See more details below

More About This Book



Overview

From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York’s Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl’s last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.

There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Cast Studies for the Novice M.E.

Micah Cody is a 30-something NYPD captain of homicide, who’s founded a special unit known as TAZ with city-wide license to take over any investigation at all, with special focus on serial killers. Now its ultimate challenge is on the loose in Manhattan, with three victims already whose causes of death seem like intentional defiance of TAZ’s existence—and four to go in four deadly days leading up to Halloween. Chronicling it all with great amusement is the Capote-like award-winning crime writer Ward Hamilton who, egged on by his sexually voracious socialite bedmate, is determined to bring TAZ to its knees journalistically.

Captain Micah Cody's Nez Perce name is “Youngest Wolf” from his ability to communicate with the animals and read nature's signs. As all hell is breaking loose in Manhattan, the wolves in Central Park howl, the peregrine falcons shriek their warnings—and Micah is listening.

Seven Ways to Die is a non-stop, sexy read with Diehl doing to the end what he did best throughout his bestselling career.



Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940013453814
  • Publisher: AEI Books
  • Publication date: 11/18/2011
  • Format: eBook
  • File size: 375 KB
  • Items ship to U.S, APO/FPO and U.S. Protectorate addresses.

AEI Client Dennis Palumbo's New Daniel Rinaldi Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press Announces the Upcoming Release of Fever Dream by Dennis Palumbo:

Fever Dream will be available nationwide on November 1, 2011



Nearly a year after Daniel Rinaldi helped unravel a baffling murder, he finds himself drawn into another case. On a blistering summer day, a bank robbery goes horribly wrong, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages except one traumatized young woman, Treva Williams. The police urgently need information only Treva can provide and call on Rinaldi for help.

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter, Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice. He is the author of a mystery collection, From Crime to Crime. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery magazine, The Strand, and elsewhere. Dennis Palumbo is also the author of Mirror Image.

Visit Dennis Palumbo online at: www.dennispalumbo.com



"Intricate plotting and mind-boggling twists make Dennis Palumbo's
Fever Dream a memorable mystery. The character of psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi gives great heart to this story and elevates it to novelistic heights."

--John Lescroart, New York Times best-selling author of Damage

“Lovers of noir will enjoy Dan Rinaldi's fast-paced adventures. Rinaldi, an empathic therapist, is on call to the Pittsburgh police. He needs every ounce of his Golden Glove skills to survive the violent world of Pennsylvania politics.”

--Sara Paretsky, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, author of the V.I. Warshawski novels

"Fever Dream is another well-wrought puzzle for the likable Dr. Dan Rinaldi to unravel. Fans will be delighted."

--Thomas Perry, Edgar award-winning author of The Butcher’s Boy

“Dr. Daniel Rinaldi is back in a new non-stop thriller that finds the humane, quick-witted Pittsburgh psychologist (and former pugilist) searching for a link between a failed bank robbery, several brutal murders, a homicidal soldier of fortune, a small town ex-sheriff and a gubernatorial election. A fast, gripping read that offers that rare combination of dimensional characters and propulsive action.”

--Dick Lochte, award-winning mystery critic and author of Sleeping Dog

"Palumbo again delivers more great characters, a page-turning mystery and sizzling suspense. If you liked Mirror Image, you'll love Fever Dream."


---Bobby Moresco, Oscar-winning writer/producer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby



Story Merchant Client Royce Buckingham Makes a Two Book Deal with Macmillin Films


Deals: Week of 6/13/2011



Buckingham Goes In for Two at Macmillan Films

Royce Buckingham sold two books to Brendan Deneen at Thomas Dunne Books. Ken Atchity at Story Merchant brokered the world rights deal. In the first book, a thriller called A Week of Mondays, a Seattle bike messenger loses his job and forgets to make his last delivery, which causes more trouble than the beleaguered hero ever expected. The story originated with Deneen, and Macmillan Films is attached to the project. The second book, The Terminals, to which Macmillan Films, Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong are also attached, is a YA novel about a bunch of teenagers with life-threatening diseases who are recruited to complete dangerous missions by a government agency; Deneen called it "a Bourne Identity for the YA crowd."

Micheal J. Lee's Debut Fantasy novel available on Amazon

My Frankenstein retells the classic story by Mary Shelley as a dark romance with steampunk overtones.


PURCHASE NOW!





In a small village in early 19th Century young Eva is enthralled by the new young baron, Viktor Frankenstein. Viktor promises to transform the traditional little town into a beacon of science and gives the book loving Eva access to his fantastic library. Eva becomes his student and assists him in a secret experiment, though she is kept in the dark about its ultimate aim. Soon after that Viktor introduces Eva to his “cousin” Adam. Adam is horribly disfigured with stitches running across his face. Viktor claims he is mute and simpleminded, but Eva takes pity on him and sets out to teach him to speak.…

What follows is a combination of tragic romance and classic horror as Eva is pulled between Viktor, who grows jealous and takes murderous steps to ensure his secret, and Adam, who possess tremendous strength and rage yet deep inside is innocent and vulnerable.

AEI CLIENT PUBLISHES HIS FIRST NOVEL THE BOOK OF ADAM ON CREATESPACE!


"Nine months after I died, my daughter gave birth to me." On February 22, 1997, the world was shocked with the announcement that a lamb named Dolly had been born, the first mammal cloned from adult cells. The reaction was overwhelmingly one of fear and anger - an emotional response that had little to do with the generic-looking lamb serenely staring back at us from our television screens. Everyone realized that if we could do it with sheep, then eventually we'd be able to do it with a human being. The Book of Adam opens with the night of his birth, his mother cradling his small body as she ignores the protests outside her hospital window, determined to give the clone of her late father, the child she thought she'd never have, a normal and happy life. A wish made impossible by people both outside their hospital room and within it. Adam's autobiography encompasses more than a century of human experience, from the birth of his clone-father in the early 1970s and extending into the 2080s, his book exploring the social, religious, scientific, and highly personal ramifications of a time when it has become commonplace to have your genetic twin born after you've died. His intimate memoir draws us into this intriguing world through his unique perspective - the bigotry he faces as a youth, the haunting dreams of the man from whom he was cloned, and Adam-2's private battle for his soul. It's a battle fought within an intergenerational family drama in which, like the House of Atreus, the players seem fated to struggle with the sins of the father. In the end, it's a story of one man's fear of death.

About the Author

Robert M. Hopper grew up in San Diego, but has also enjoyed living in many cities in California as well as NYC and Prescott, Arizona. He received his BA in History from SDSU, and has had the pleasure of working as a small-town newspaper publisher, theatre reviewer, technical writer, and bookstore clerk. Rob is the founder of the National Youth Theatre of America and reviews theatre for nationalyouththeatre.com and sandiegoplaybill.com. But his first passion was the world of fiction. This is his debut novel. He thanks his family, friends, teachers, and the theatre world for all they've done for him. This one's for Grandpa. I love you and miss you. www.robhopper.com

GUEST POST: Dennis Palumbo, writer, therapist, blogger

"From Crime To Crime: Mind Boggling Tales of Mystery and Murder" (Tallfellow Press)


Envy: The Worst-kept Secret In Writing

Today I want to talk about envy. As I've found in my work with writers, it's probably the worst-kept secret in the writing life.

For those who are new to this blog, here's my one-line bio: Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (the film My Favorite Year; the TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, among others), I'm now a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in working with creative people.

But I also still write. My work has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, The Strand and elsewhere, and just last year a collection of my stories, From Crime to Crime, was published. My first mystery novel, Mirror Image, will be out in August from Poisoned Pen Press.

The point is, whatever creative concern you're struggling with, I guarantee I've been there, done that. I've been stymied by writers' block, grappled with procrastination and been brought low by rejection. As well as most other thorny issues writers deal with on a daily basis.

Take, as mentioned above, envy. I'm thinking about a patient of mine, a novelist, that I've been seeing for some months. Despite the gains he'd made in therapy, he felt his work was continually undermined by his envy of other writers.

He told me he had to stop reading his Author's Guild bulletin, as well as publishing websites, because seeing the deals being made by other writers angered and deflated him. He'd grown increasingly self-critical about his work habits--normally a source of pride and satisfaction--since hearing rumors about a best-selling author's penchant for "knocking out a new thriller" every six months. It had reached a point where learning of a friend's having lunch with a potential new agent could trigger a depression.

None of these feelings were unfamiliar to me. During my former career as a screenwriter, it seemed as though envy was the unspoken constant in almost every conversation with other writers. The dirty little secret of the writing life. And, as I said, the worst kept.

For some, of course, hearing of another's success can be a spur to greater efforts. For others, the result can be a crippling paralysis.

It took me a long time to understand, and to accept, that envy is a natural by-product of the achieving life. Throughout our childhood experiences in our families, and then our schools, and ultimately in the adult world, we strive to achieve in a matrix of others who strive to achieve--such that comparison is not only inevitable, but often the only standard by which to measure that achievement.

With time and maturity, we hopefully develop the self-awareness (and self-acceptance) to measure ourselves by more internal monitors; to enjoy the expression of our creative talents for their own sake.

But we also live in the real world and need the validation of that world. For a writer in a commercial marketplace, that means enduring intense competition and the almost daily spectacle of others enjoying extravagant rewards in fame and money, all while negotiating the often gut-wrenching peaks and valleys of one's own career.

In other words, that means living with envy.

The key to surviving envy, as is the case with all feelings, is to acknowledge it. By that, I'm not referring merely to the fact that you're envious, but also the meaning that you give to it.

For example, if a writer sees envy as a sign of some kind of moral weakness or character failing--a view possibly engendered and reinforced in childhood--the effect on his or her work can be quite debilitating.

Equally harmful is seeing your envy as a disparaging comment on your work, a confirmation of a lack of faith in your own writing. "If I let myself feel envy," one patient told me, "it means I don't believe in the possibility of my own success."

Another patient bravely insisted that "envy is counter-productive." So terrified of anything that might derail his firmly held belief in "positive thinking," the meaning he gave to envy--as well as any other "negative" emotion--was of an insidious obstacle on the tracks of his forward momentum.

Only by investigating what envy means to us can we risk acknowledging it. The plain fact is, it's just a feeling, like other feelings---which means it's simply information, data about what's going on inside of us.

If nothing else, envy informs us of how important our goals are. It reminds us of the reasons we undertook the creative life in the first place, and challenges us to commit once more to its rigors and rewards.

Moreover, in my own case, I find that I'm rarely troubled by envy if I'm writing well, if I'm truly engaged with my current project. When I'm fully "caught" by what I'm working on, intrusive thoughts about the creative and/or career triumphs of others usually don't enter my mind. Usually.

So the choice is yours. You can deny your envy, or use it to re-double your efforts. You can talk it to death among your friends (also a great procrastination ploy, by the way), or you can suffer in silence. Or, hopefully, you can accept it with humor and self-acknowledgment, and perhaps explore what its meaning is for you.

But one thing I know. For a writer, to coin a phrase, nothing's certain except death and taxes. And envy.

Then again, that's just my opinion. I'd love to hear yours.

How To Order "From Crime To Crime" by Dennis Palumbo

Buy it through Amazon.com, from the publisher, Tallfellow Press, and from fine bookstores everywhere.

Dennis Palumbo's Blog: http://dennispalumbo.blogspot.com/