Action Adventure - Karen Badger for the book Over the Crescent Moon
Synopsis: Makaya Kapule and Spencer Bennet are from vastly different backgrounds...Makaya from Hawaii and Spencer from Vermont. They met and fell in love as members of the National Fencing Team. On hiatus from their grueling training schedule, Makaya and Spencer fly to Hawaii to attend her sister's traditional Hawai'ian wedding, at which, Spencer meets Makaya's family for the first time. While there, Makaya's brother takes them water skiing, and an over-confident Spencer finds herself in danger when she fails to anticipate the raging fury of ocean whitecaps. She wakes up some time later to find herself alone on a deserted beach and with her world about to be turned upside down.
Publisher: Badger Bliss Books
Young Adult - Iza Moreau for the book Tank Baby
Synopsis: For the first 7 years of her life, Elodie Fontaine was part of an ultra-secret psychology experiment in China. Now, at 17, she is trying to put that behind her and simply be a normal Florida teenager. She plays on her high school tennis team, is a nerd-in-good-standing in the Math and Science Club, and has come to terms with the fact that she is interested in girls rather than boys.
Publisher: Black Bay Books
Bio: Iza Moreau is a Golden Crown Finalist and a 2-time Next Generation Indie Award finalist for her Small Town series of mysteries. She lives in the southern United States, where she rides dressage at the fourth level and shoots target archery using both recurves and horsebows. She counts Sarah Waters, Maggie Estep, and the Bronte sisters--Acton, Currer, and Ellis--among her literary influences.
Bio: Iza Moreau is a Golden Crown Finalist and a 2-time Next Generation Indie Award finalist for her Small Town series of mysteries. She lives in the southern United States, where she rides dressage at the fourth level and shoots target archery using both recurves and horsebows. She counts Sarah Waters, Maggie Estep, and the Bronte sisters--Acton, Currer, and Ellis--among her literary influences.
Drama - K. Aten for the book Burn it Down
Synopsis: Ash Hayes was failed by the system at the tender age of sixteen and suffered an addiction. As a result she lives her life weighed down by the guilt of her past. To atone for childhood misdeeds, Ash trained as a paramedic after high school and eventually became a firefighter with the Detroit fire department, along with her childhood best friend Derek. Friend, confidant, brother, he has been her light in an otherwise dark life. When tragedy strikes on the job, injury and forced leave from the department are the least of her concerns. Suffering from even more guilt and depression after the loss of her two closest friends Ash is set adrift in a sea of pain.
When Mia Thomas buys the house next door, Ash finds friendship in the most unlikely of places. It’s Mia’s nature to help and to heal. Many would say she has a knack for finding the broken ones and leading them into the light. But Ash’s secret still lives deep inside her. Before the firefighter can even think of a future, she has to amend her past. Like the phoenix of legend, Ash has to burn her fears to the ground before she can be reborn.
When Mia Thomas buys the house next door, Ash finds friendship in the most unlikely of places. It’s Mia’s nature to help and to heal. Many would say she has a knack for finding the broken ones and leading them into the light. But Ash’s secret still lives deep inside her. Before the firefighter can even think of a future, she has to amend her past. Like the phoenix of legend, Ash has to burn her fears to the ground before she can be reborn.
Publisher: Regal Crest Enterprises
Bio: Award winning author and Michigan native, Kelly Aten brings heroines to life in a variety of blended LGBTQ fiction genres. She specializes in speculative fiction, focusing on extra-ordinary women who are as flawed as they are compelling. She's not afraid of pain or adversity, but loves a happy ending. Kelly's goal with each new novel is to make people #Think, #Feel, and #Discuss.
Bio: Award winning author and Michigan native, Kelly Aten brings heroines to life in a variety of blended LGBTQ fiction genres. She specializes in speculative fiction, focusing on extra-ordinary women who are as flawed as they are compelling. She's not afraid of pain or adversity, but loves a happy ending. Kelly's goal with each new novel is to make people #Think, #Feel, and #Discuss.
Erotica - Madeleine Taylor for the book The Good Girl
Synopsis: I’m a good girl. I work hard, look like your average girl, do everything in moderation, and I certainly don’t make a habit of going into strangers' hotel rooms dressed in sexy lingerie and killer heels. That is, until I meet her.
When a mysterious woman buys me a drink at a hotel bar in New York, I never expect her to impact my life the way she does. From the moment she lays eyes on me there’s little point fighting my desires because she seems to know them better than I do...
When a mysterious woman buys me a drink at a hotel bar in New York, I never expect her to impact my life the way she does. From the moment she lays eyes on me there’s little point fighting my desires because she seems to know them better than I do...
Publisher: Lise Gold Books
Fantasy - Alison Naomi Holt for the book Duchess Rampant
Synopsis: Blending the lyrical and mystical with pulse-pounding action Epic fantasy featuring strong women characters
Aurelia "Bree" Makena, the Duchess of Danforth, waits on a beach near Port Emnal in front of her three thousand troops. As the waves lap against the hooves of her battle mare, Lioth, Bree watches the enemy ships deploying more warriors against her than she'd ever thought possible.
Victory may prove an insurmountable task.
But wrestling victory from defeat is only the beginning. The real attack is one that if successful will defeat her Anacafrian king more surely than an arrow driven through his heart.
You are invited to enter Ar’rothi, a world as vividly realized as Narnia or Middle Earth, a world where animal spirits guide humans towards enlightenment, and in which an orphaned girl and a warrior duchess must join forces against an evil that threatens everything they have learned to love.
Aurelia "Bree" Makena, the Duchess of Danforth, waits on a beach near Port Emnal in front of her three thousand troops. As the waves lap against the hooves of her battle mare, Lioth, Bree watches the enemy ships deploying more warriors against her than she'd ever thought possible.
Victory may prove an insurmountable task.
But wrestling victory from defeat is only the beginning. The real attack is one that if successful will defeat her Anacafrian king more surely than an arrow driven through his heart.
You are invited to enter Ar’rothi, a world as vividly realized as Narnia or Middle Earth, a world where animal spirits guide humans towards enlightenment, and in which an orphaned girl and a warrior duchess must join forces against an evil that threatens everything they have learned to love.
Publisher: Denabi Publishing
Bio: Alison Naomi Holt is devoted to giving her readers strong female characters who go about life with zest and abandon. Whether they solve mysteries or fight epic fantasy battles, they all have one trait in common; they are people you'd love to call friend. Known for being a strong woman herself, Alison has worn many hats and as a result, writes in several genres. From twenty years as a cop to being an avid horsewoman and an avid reader of fantasy fiction, She writes what she knows. Alison has a bizarre sense of humor, a realistic look at life, and an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest. She loves all horses and hounds and some humans...
Bio: Alison Naomi Holt is devoted to giving her readers strong female characters who go about life with zest and abandon. Whether they solve mysteries or fight epic fantasy battles, they all have one trait in common; they are people you'd love to call friend. Known for being a strong woman herself, Alison has worn many hats and as a result, writes in several genres. From twenty years as a cop to being an avid horsewoman and an avid reader of fantasy fiction, She writes what she knows. Alison has a bizarre sense of humor, a realistic look at life, and an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest. She loves all horses and hounds and some humans...
Fiction - Jane Alden for the book Jobyna's Blues
Synopsis: Jobyna’s Blues is a multi-generational love story, set in post-WWI American South and flashing forward to the mid-1960’s in New York City and London.
In 1924, Jobyna, the Empress of the Blues, and Lily, a dancer in her chorus line, fall in love as they travel in a custom train car and play to adoring crowds in theaters from Nashville to New Orleans to Mobile. Life is both exciting and dangerous in the young country, only sixty years past the Civil War.
Looking forward to the mid-1960’s, Jobie Greene, a folk singer in Greenwich Village, meets the charismatic English pop star, Deedee. They struggle to manage their long-distance relationship and their careers against a backdrop of social change.
The connections between the love stories and the women’s challenges and triumphs, as they echo through time, keep us surprised and challenged and rooting for their happy endings.
In 1924, Jobyna, the Empress of the Blues, and Lily, a dancer in her chorus line, fall in love as they travel in a custom train car and play to adoring crowds in theaters from Nashville to New Orleans to Mobile. Life is both exciting and dangerous in the young country, only sixty years past the Civil War.
Looking forward to the mid-1960’s, Jobie Greene, a folk singer in Greenwich Village, meets the charismatic English pop star, Deedee. They struggle to manage their long-distance relationship and their careers against a backdrop of social change.
The connections between the love stories and the women’s challenges and triumphs, as they echo through time, keep us surprised and challenged and rooting for their happy endings.
Publisher: Desert Palm Press
Bio: Jane Alden was born and raised in a small Mississippi River Delta community in Arkansas. Everyone in town knew everyone else, their parents, and their grandparents before them.
After graduating from the University of Arkansas, she moved to California and taught 7th grade English in a small central valley citrus-farming community. When she was recruited on the phone at U of A, she looked up Porterville, California, on the map, and it was only about an inch and a half north of Los Angeles, but it turned out the culture was closer to Arkansas or Oklahoma than to the bright lights and big city she craved.
After two years teaching, she moved to Los Angeles, began a career in health care management. After many lucky circumstances and thanks to wonderful mentors, she became a hospital administrator and then an executive coach, working with successful executives who want to be better leaders.
Jane and her partner live in a small town just east of Los Angeles. Their chocolate lab, Delilah, is the captain of the domestic ship.
She tends to fall in love with her characters and hopes you will too
Bio: Jane Alden was born and raised in a small Mississippi River Delta community in Arkansas. Everyone in town knew everyone else, their parents, and their grandparents before them.
After graduating from the University of Arkansas, she moved to California and taught 7th grade English in a small central valley citrus-farming community. When she was recruited on the phone at U of A, she looked up Porterville, California, on the map, and it was only about an inch and a half north of Los Angeles, but it turned out the culture was closer to Arkansas or Oklahoma than to the bright lights and big city she craved.
After two years teaching, she moved to Los Angeles, began a career in health care management. After many lucky circumstances and thanks to wonderful mentors, she became a hospital administrator and then an executive coach, working with successful executives who want to be better leaders.
Jane and her partner live in a small town just east of Los Angeles. Their chocolate lab, Delilah, is the captain of the domestic ship.
She tends to fall in love with her characters and hopes you will too
Historical - Karen Badger for the book Over the Crescent Moon
Synopsis: Makaya Kapule and Spencer Bennet are from vastly different backgrounds...Makaya from Hawaii and Spencer from Vermont. They met and fell in love as members of the National Fencing Team. On hiatus from their grueling training schedule, Makaya and Spencer fly to Hawaii to attend her sister's traditional Hawai'ian wedding, at which, Spencer meets Makaya's family for the first time. While there, Makaya's brother takes them water skiing, and an over-confident Spencer finds herself in danger when she fails to anticipate the raging fury of ocean whitecaps. She wakes up some time later to find herself alone on a deserted beach and with her world about to be turned upside down.
Publisher: Badger Bliss Books
Mystery - Anne Hagan for the book City Steel Confidential
Synopsis: Clients hide things from their lawyers all the time. Pam Wilson makes it an art form.
Pam’s been on the run from the law for years and she was getting away with it. The statute of limitations ran out on most of her crimes. For her spouse Charlotte? Not so much. Though they were aging, they looked forward to enjoying their golden years and, hopefully, forgetting about the past.
Life got complicated when Charlotte became gravely ill, their daughter got pregnant with the child of a married man…a married man someone took shots at from a rare motorcycle Pam happens to own. When the man was shot again and killed in his office at Pitt a couple of weeks later, the police found all signs pointing to Pam.
Rochelle ‘Ro’ Rabinowitz, a second-generation Pittsburgh lawyer, and her little firm take on Pam’s case pro-bono. Ro thinks it’s a slam dunk for the defense and hands the case off to her new associate and – she hopes – her future partner in the firm, Dominique, to get her feet wet in a courtroom. Clients are never completely honest with their lawyers and Ro and Dominque soon learn this one is no exception.
Pam’s been on the run from the law for years and she was getting away with it. The statute of limitations ran out on most of her crimes. For her spouse Charlotte? Not so much. Though they were aging, they looked forward to enjoying their golden years and, hopefully, forgetting about the past.
Life got complicated when Charlotte became gravely ill, their daughter got pregnant with the child of a married man…a married man someone took shots at from a rare motorcycle Pam happens to own. When the man was shot again and killed in his office at Pitt a couple of weeks later, the police found all signs pointing to Pam.
Rochelle ‘Ro’ Rabinowitz, a second-generation Pittsburgh lawyer, and her little firm take on Pam’s case pro-bono. Ro thinks it’s a slam dunk for the defense and hands the case off to her new associate and – she hopes – her future partner in the firm, Dominique, to get her feet wet in a courtroom. Clients are never completely honest with their lawyers and Ro and Dominque soon learn this one is no exception.
Publisher: Jug Run Press LLC
Bio: Anne Hagan works part-time by day and writes by night. She and her wife live in a tiny town that's even smaller than the Morelville of her fiction novels and they wouldn't have it any other way. Anne's wife grew up there and has always considered it home. Though it's an ultra-conservative rural community, they're surrounded there by family, longtime friends and many other wonderful people with open hearts and minds. They enjoy spending time with Anne's son, with their nieces and nephews and doing many of the things you've read about in her books or that will be 'fictitiously' incorporated into future Morelville Mysteries and Cozies series books. If you've read about a hobby or a sport in either series, they probably enjoy doing it themselves or someone very close to them does.
Bio: Anne Hagan works part-time by day and writes by night. She and her wife live in a tiny town that's even smaller than the Morelville of her fiction novels and they wouldn't have it any other way. Anne's wife grew up there and has always considered it home. Though it's an ultra-conservative rural community, they're surrounded there by family, longtime friends and many other wonderful people with open hearts and minds. They enjoy spending time with Anne's son, with their nieces and nephews and doing many of the things you've read about in her books or that will be 'fictitiously' incorporated into future Morelville Mysteries and Cozies series books. If you've read about a hobby or a sport in either series, they probably enjoy doing it themselves or someone very close to them does.
New Author - McGee Mathews for the book Moving Violations
Synopsis: When interim police chief Molly Gorman pulls Amy over, more than the antics on the motorcycle catch her eye. She discovers Amy Gilbert spends her days repairing cars in her family garage and is intrigued. The only holdup? Amy occupies her nights playing softball and drinking with her wild best friend, who offers incredibly bad advice about love. After several run-ins with a certain drunken mechanic, Molly wonders if Amy is really worth the trouble. When Amy disappears, she has to put her mixed emotions aside to work the case.
Publisher: Self
Bio: McGee Mathews is the author of women loving women romance. For her contemporary works, she is drawn to blue-collar gals with sass.
She is coping with the social distancing by writing and social media. For writing, she is working on three (really four) books at once, because ...squirrel! Her wife encouraged her to begin studying a video series on beekeeping to see if she can become a beekeeper, rather than the bee starter as in the past. Four years of starting hives, four years of swarming bees.
Bio: McGee Mathews is the author of women loving women romance. For her contemporary works, she is drawn to blue-collar gals with sass.
She is coping with the social distancing by writing and social media. For writing, she is working on three (really four) books at once, because ...squirrel! Her wife encouraged her to begin studying a video series on beekeeping to see if she can become a beekeeper, rather than the bee starter as in the past. Four years of starting hives, four years of swarming bees.
Romance – Annette Mori for the book A Window to Love
Synopsis: Two life events, two paths colliding, two souls destined to meet. Mandie Carter lives an uninspired life. No passion, no romance, and just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, life throws her a curve ball. Desperate to shake things up, she stumbles on an ad for skydiving in the newspaper. Could diving out of a plane be what it takes to jumpstart her life? Gail Forrester is barely hanging on. Buried under mountains of debt, only her much in demand architectural designs keep her afloat. Working around the clock to satisfy her hungry clients, she can’t seem to catch up. That is, until she is brought to a painful halt by a bus. Now, they must find a way forward together through what life and destiny has in store for them. Only then can they hope to step into that window to love.
Publisher: Affinity Rainbow Publications
Bio: Annette is an award-winning author, published by Affinity Rainbow Publications, who lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her wife and their five furry kids. With eleven published novels and one Goldie Award for her fourth novel, Locked Inside, she finally feels like a real author. Annette is as much a reader as a writer and always looking for the next lesfic novel to cue up. She came up with the One Fan at a Time tagline because it rolled off the tongue much better than One Reader at a Time. After pondering who she was at her core, it was all about connecting to each reader on a personal level. She would be the first to admit she doesn't do well with the masses. If someone picks up her book and it touches them she believes she has achieved what she wants with her writing by reaching each reader. It is who she is at her core.
Bio: Annette is an award-winning author, published by Affinity Rainbow Publications, who lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her wife and their five furry kids. With eleven published novels and one Goldie Award for her fourth novel, Locked Inside, she finally feels like a real author. Annette is as much a reader as a writer and always looking for the next lesfic novel to cue up. She came up with the One Fan at a Time tagline because it rolled off the tongue much better than One Reader at a Time. After pondering who she was at her core, it was all about connecting to each reader on a personal level. She would be the first to admit she doesn't do well with the masses. If someone picks up her book and it touches them she believes she has achieved what she wants with her writing by reaching each reader. It is who she is at her core.
Science Fiction - Rachel Ford for the book Black Flag: Safe Passage
Synopsis: Kay Ellis designed the perfect bank for an intergalactic crime syndicate, the Conglomerate. Now the Conglomerate has a bounty on her head. Privateer Captain Maggie Landon is planning a hit on the Conglomerate’s high security bank. But the system is unbeatable – to everyone but its designer.
In order to escape a Conglomerate hitman, Kay needs someone with a ship, and willing to go toe-to-toe with the Conglomerate. To get her gold, Maggie needs Kay, and her knowledge of the bank. Kay agrees to assist for a share of the loot, and passage to Union territory. Along the way, she and Maggie find their attraction to one another complicates their straightforward business relationship.
They successfully pull off the heist. But when a crewmember betrays them for a larger share of the loot, they almost lose everything – and discover that the real treasure was what they had all the time in each other, and in their crew.
In order to escape a Conglomerate hitman, Kay needs someone with a ship, and willing to go toe-to-toe with the Conglomerate. To get her gold, Maggie needs Kay, and her knowledge of the bank. Kay agrees to assist for a share of the loot, and passage to Union territory. Along the way, she and Maggie find their attraction to one another complicates their straightforward business relationship.
They successfully pull off the heist. But when a crewmember betrays them for a larger share of the loot, they almost lose everything – and discover that the real treasure was what they had all the time in each other, and in their crew.
Publisher: Self
Bio: Rachel Ford is a software engineer by day, and a writer most of the rest of the time. She is a Trekkie, a video-gamer, and a dog parent, owned by a Great Pyrenees named Elim Garak and a mutt of many kinds named Fox (for the inspired reason that he looks like a fox).
Bio: Rachel Ford is a software engineer by day, and a writer most of the rest of the time. She is a Trekkie, a video-gamer, and a dog parent, owned by a Great Pyrenees named Elim Garak and a mutt of many kinds named Fox (for the inspired reason that he looks like a fox).
Cover - Elle Hyden for the book Lost & Found:
A Mystic Meteor Tale
A Mystic Meteor Tale
Two lost souls are on a collision course. One searching for a life partner while the other mourns the loss of hers.
Selina is at a crossroads. No job, no home to call her own, and no partner. She has to turn her life around, but in which direction? Returning to her Native American roots, she seeks mystical aid from the spirit world, to find the life she hungers for.
Rea has been able to find a measure of solace after her wife’s death but longs for the crack in her heart to heal. Sighting a falling star, she sends her wish out into the universe, where it's heard by the most unlikely allies.
Selina and Rea’s paths crossed many times in the past, but they’d never connected. Now they are being inescapably drawn together by fate, desire, and a touch of the mystical. Will love and trust prevail over loss and fear, so they can have their shot at being found forever?
Join them on their souls’ journey through the Lost & Found.
Selina is at a crossroads. No job, no home to call her own, and no partner. She has to turn her life around, but in which direction? Returning to her Native American roots, she seeks mystical aid from the spirit world, to find the life she hungers for.
Rea has been able to find a measure of solace after her wife’s death but longs for the crack in her heart to heal. Sighting a falling star, she sends her wish out into the universe, where it's heard by the most unlikely allies.
Selina and Rea’s paths crossed many times in the past, but they’d never connected. Now they are being inescapably drawn together by fate, desire, and a touch of the mystical. Will love and trust prevail over loss and fear, so they can have their shot at being found forever?
Join them on their souls’ journey through the Lost & Found.
Publisher: Self
Bio: Elle Hyden embarked on a new phase of her life in 2015 when she retired, allowing her to indulge in her favorite pastime, reading. Inspired by the other authors' stories and using what her mother had called, an overactive imagination, she decided to write a few of her own.
She has already begun work on the next book in this series.
She has already begun work on the next book in this series.
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