Published: March 2021
Publisher: Luminare Press
Welcome to our 1980’s Dickens Christmas stories!
Two sweet vintage romances set in the New England town of Dickens where small town charm is on full, holiday display...
Memoir
Date Published: 06-04-2021
Publisher: Equal Age
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Date Published: 5/29/21
Publisher: Blue Fortune Enterprises, LLC
Three friends, one life-changing summer.
Vana, the math prodigy with a voice that is 85% Sarah Vaughan, 10% Billie Holiday, and 5% Aretha Franklin and an attitude to match. Desperate to leave her chaotic family and become the independent woman of her imagination, she lands a summer job on an aging Greek cruise ship as a member of the house band.
Marko, who failed his university entrance exams, is on the trail of bouzouki god Markos Vamvakaris, in hopes of claiming his own artistic identity.
Stepan, agronomist, accordionist, occasional mystic, has spent the last ten years hopelessly, secretly in love with his only friend...
Biography/Memoir
Date Published: January 1, 2021
Karen Baker had the perfect life. She had a dashing husband, two beautiful daughters, and two incredible parents who set her up with firm financial foundations. At least, that was how it looked on the outside.
Beneath the surface, Karen’s marriage was in turmoil. To make matters worse, a series of seemingly freak accidents and medical diagnoses put her through trial after trial. Through it all, she took care of everyone around her. Her determination and grit were such that, when her final diagnosis came, a friend said something startling: “Karen, you’re the perfect person to get cancer. Because you’re going to beat it and use the experience to help others.”
Now Karen shares her remarkable story—how she cared for three generations of her family through illness and tragedy, and the lessons she learned along the way. She includes practical tips for financial well-being during life’s storms—and the final and most powerful lesson of all.
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Would you survive?
On a fateful day in
October 1875, Nathan Olason steps foot onto the soil of a new foreign country
called Canada. With natural sand beaches and breathtaking sunsets, it has been
nicknamed paradise. Except it proves to be anything but.
With storm surges,
emerging governments, racism and dwindling food supplies, Nathan and his family
struggle to stay alive in this foreign wilderness. With the help of a beautiful
Cree woman named Anwa, they learn to fish and hunt, surviving against all the
odds.
Then just when they
think they have prevailed, tragedy strikes an ominous blow, a smallpox epidemic
that decimates villages, quarantines the town of Gimli, but most of all
threatens to claim what he holds dear the most.
Would you survive?
Be one of the last men
standing. Follow Nath on a heroic journey of immigration, manhood, immense love,
resilience and perseverance beyond anything we know.
my review...
When I read Book 2 in this series (The Strong Within Us), I
said that if Book 1 in the series was as good as Book 2, that Book 1 should be
read. Well, I did just that and it was as good as Book 2. It was a really,
really, good book. I do not give 5-star ratings lightly and yet, this is a 5
star book. A good story, well-written, with meaning, and characters that come
alive.
The story itself, though in a different setting, is the beginning
of Nathan leaving Iceland to travel to the new land and claim his piece of
land. It is a true family saga. This book has its share of romance that had me
blushing somewhat as well as hard, difficult times that had me tearing up. In
my review of Book 2 I said that J.A. Boulet seemed to be able to paint a
picture of the land and its surroundings as well as her characters. People you
come to know well, and you begin to care about. That’s the best way I know to
describe this book. It touches you and sometimes you wish it would never end.
But sometimes I wanted it to end exactly as I wanted it to. You’ll have to read
it to find out what I mean:)
This series is titled “The Olason Chronicles”. Book 3 has just been published. While I didn’t read the first two in order, I am sure each book can stand on its own. But...might as well start with Book 1 and move through all of these beautiful stories.
Date Published: September 16, 2020
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Angelica Delfino takes a special interest in the lives of her three nieces, whom she affectionately calls the daughters of her heart. Sensing that each woman is harboring a troubling, possibly even toxic secret, Angelica decides to share her secrets—secrets she had planned to take to the grave. Spellbound, the nieces listen as Angelica travels back six decades to reveal an incredulous tale of forbidden love, tragic loss, and reinvention. It is the classic immigrant story upended: an Italian widow’s transformative journey amid the most unlikely of circumstances.
Inspired by Angelica’s example, the younger women share their “First World” problems and, in the process, set themselves free.
But one heartbreaking secret remains untold...
***Free ebook of No More Secrets – thru June 10th***
The Lost and Found Pets Mysteries, Book #1
Cozy Mystery
Date Published: December 1, 2016
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Susanne M. Dutton will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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read an excerpt...
Holmes speaks, Watson answers:
I said, “We were that obvious?”
“I’m afraid so,” Holmes said. “In fact, when I have time, I will publish a monograph on what I will call ‘body language.’ Today’s performance will serve as a prime example. I watched you usher this Frenchman across the cottage—your hesitation, your caution lest you cause him the least pain, was evident. Your care was exactly as you would grant a lifelong patient going through a complicated procedure. You watched his every backward step, lest he trip. I noted the commiserating tilt of your head—and the lines of concern on your brow. Without a single word, you managed to signal your sympathy. To sum up, between the gun and the man you pointed it at, I detected at least a hundred yards worth of high-grade Watsonian scruple.
Holmes glared down at the top of Joubert’s head. “No doubt the entire Punch and Judy was your conception, Pierre, but you could not hide your concern for Watson, how you sought to assure him that it was all for a worthy purpose. Indeed, I saw you shudder and sweat, but you were in no fear for your life—in no dread of John Watson, at least. I submit to you both, that what I have witnessed just now was more a dance than an arrest.”
about Susanne Dutton...
Nowadays, having outlived her mortgage and her professional counseling life, she aims herself at her desk most days; where she tangles with whatever story she can’t get out of her head. Those stories tend to seat readers within pinching distance of her characters, who, like most of us, slide at times from real life to fantasy and back. A man with Alzheimer’s sets out alone for his childhood home. A girl realizes she’s happier throwing away her meals than eating them. A woman burgles her neighbors in order to stay in the neighborhood.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Susanne grew up in the SF Bay Area, has two grown children, and lives with her husband in an old Philadelphia house, built of the stones dug from the ground where it sits.
Blog https://www.inside221b.com
Facebook https://www.facebook/noguessing (Improbable Holmes)
Publisher bookstore link to book:
Date Published: 06-08-2021
Immortal Trickster, Luke, is starting a fresh life in a new-to-him seventeen-year-old body. With yet another lifespan stretched out in front of him, he’s questioning what purpose his endless compulsion to play tricks serves.
Agnar, a Thor look-alike claiming to be his adoptive brother from the planet Asperian, appears to declare Luke has been away from home too long. One problem. Luke doesn’t remember Agnar or living on another planet...
Suspense
Date Published: Jun 1, 2021
Publisher: Épouvantail Books, LLC
In the jungles of coastal Mexico, twelve-year-old Kazu Danser is on the run, his bloody past haunting and attempting to be his ruination. Hot on his heals is journalist Carson Staines, a deadly madman full of blood thirst and greed, determined to first chronicle Kazu’s criminal life – and then end it. Staines must nail him down, dead or alive; the boy being worth a huge payoff...
Non-fiction / Business / Leadership / Diversity and Inclusion
Date Published: 25th May 2021
Hephzi Pemberton’s first nonfiction, business book The Diversity Playbook provides an empowering and uplifting experience. It contains proven expertise, factual examples and practical tools to transform your business and leadership approach with inclusion and innovation as a central shared goal and priority...
Date Published: March 11, 2021
Publisher: Giverny Books
A young WWI veteran searches for his French Impressionist father through encounters with Claude Monet and some of that movement’s key figures.
Excerpt
Oscar Bonhomme’s palms sweated as he crept from the warm kitchen filled with the spice-laden aroma of frying sausage mixed with the smell of aromatic, dark coffee into Monet’s yellow dining room.
He’d used what little money he had to purchase new work clothes for his first day on the job. He twisted his still-stiff brown woolen cap between his sweating fingers as he glanced at his reflection in the picture glass to see if his pale skin betrayed his months in the military hospital. Did his slight frame and frail stature look well enough for rigorous gardening work? No one would believe he was once tanned, muscular, and robust. Did his prematurely greying hair and the red circles around his eyes reveal the trials he had endured at the front? Although thirty-four, he felt and looked much older.
Oscar summoned his courage pulled from somewhere deep inside himself as he had done when climbing out of the trenches and facing the enemy. “Bonjour, Monsieur Monet.”
No movement. The newspaper Monet held did not lower. The first salvo had fallen short.
He fired off another. “Bonjour, Monsieur Monet.”
Still no response. Second salvo, off-target.
Perhaps Monet was hard of hearing. Oscar added more powder and fired the third shot as he shouted, “Bonjour, Monsieur Monet.”
The paper lowered to reveal piercing black eyes and a long white beard stained yellow with nicotine. Monet resembled the newspaper photos Oscar had seen of him—short, stocky, and with an intense gaze that seemed to miss nothing around him. His hands with translucent skin and heavily veined looked muscular and tanned, as befitted a painter who worked mostly outdoors.
Monet stared at Oscar as if trying to remember who was this invader of his dining room and disturber of his early morning coffee. He wore an English herringbone wool suit buttoned at the neck, with just an inch of white ruffled shirt cuffs showing at the sleeves.
At last, he spoke. “Who are you?”
He sounded irritated.
Oscar drew in his breath and squared his shoulders to make himself look the part before responding with, “I’m your new gardener, Monsieur.”
Monet frowned. “I don’t remember you. Who hired you? Why should I hire a gardener in the middle of the winter?”
Oscar stammered as he gathered enough breath to reply. “You… You did, Monsieur. Yesterday. At least, that’s what I was told.”
He gripped his newspaper tighter, shook his head, and frowned. “So, what are you doing in here? This isn’t the garden.”
“Madame Blanche asked me to meet you here before dawn to carry your paintings for you.”
“Humph!”
And with that, Monet raised the paper again, which left Oscar standing in the doorway, not knowing whether to stay or go.
Oscar stood twisting and untwisting his cap and wondering. Will he dismiss me, fall asleep, or will we start our day together? Could this cranky old man be his father? Probably not. But he might know him.
Since it was his first day on this new job, he remained to see what would happen next.
After one, two, three, four, five minutes with no response, he looked around the room. Yellow was the theme color. Even the chairs and light fixtures were Provence yellow, as his mother called it. Monet seemed obsessed with the color yellow and eating by the looks of the dining room with its multiple sets of dishes and an abundance of silverware.
The odd prints that hung on the walls disturbed him. They were most unusual and not yellow. He saw dozens of them depicting an assortment of Japanese people in native costumes through scenes of Japan. They reminded him of photos his Japanese friends in San Francisco had shown him. The prints featured plants and animals that he didn’t recognize.
Oscar scratched his head and thought, why would one of the world’s most famous Impressionist painters have these Japanese prints on his walls instead of his art or that of his colleagues?
Lying in the hospital, he had dreamed of what he would do when he was released. He never imagined he would work in one of the most famous gardens in France. This job was the start of his new life; he was excited and frightened to be here.
Curiosity was getting the better of him as he walked around the long table, examining the prints. Each one seemed more colorful and stranger than the one before, and someone had labeled every one with the artist’s name. He made a note to ask Monsieur Monet about the prints. They must have been significant to him if they were hanging in his dining room. Undoubtedly, he would have dictated the decoration of this space, the essential room for entertaining.
Finally, Monet’s hand emerged to crush out his cigarette in his overflowing ashtray. He lowered his paper, rose from his chair, and shuffled to the door.
“Are you coming?” he threw over his shoulder.
Caught off-guard while still staring at the prints, Oscar felt he was a puppy following its master and hurried through the door after him, down the steps to the garden, past the cart, and into the darkened studio.
“Put these in the cart and follow me.”
About The Author
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Date Published: Jun 7, 2021
Publisher: SE
Words on Paper From the depths of tragedy it might well be that anything is possible. A moving story based on a real life tragedy where the struggle to survive saps almost every last ounce of energy; a tragedy that divides even further people who otherwise might never have met. However aside from all the pain it might well be that anything is possible. It is easy to forget that in life sometimes two minuses make a plus. Emma and Will have nothing in common other than a mutual tragedy and a pain they share from a different perspective. Anything is possible but the fates are fickle and their lives are on hold. Whilst they try to cope Will’s best friend Ben and his girlfriend Karen have been invited to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, a chance for Will to join them and break free, at the same time as Emma’s job takes her two hundred miles in the opposite direction. Not the remotest chance of any sort of relationship…but who knows; anything is possible. There is a rocky road that can lead from tragedy to happiness...
It seems like everyone’s talking about Bitcoin these days. Still, a lot of people just don’t get it. Or they assume Bitcoin is just for tech-savvy millennial guys or rich investors like Elon Musk.
As for women, many of us didn't get a great financial education. Some of us shy away from conversations about money and investing especially if it has to do with the crazy world of cryptocurrencies.
What to do? Start with this brand new short, fun, and easy read,"Smart Bitches Buy Bitcoin: A Simple Guide for Women Who Want to Learn the Truth About Bitcoin and Control Their Financial Future.”The book is designed to help women understand the current financial situation, why Bitcoin could be the life raft they need, and how to get started investing in it. Don’t leave your economic future to chance just because it seems scary or confusing and this is the perfect book to get you started.
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Widowed Vivi leaves California for a new start back east landing in a college town near her old friend Vikram, now the local ‘spiritual’ leader and disappointing lover. But the two have old business which leads them to uncovering the ghosts they conjured long before and the ones that are haunting them now. Vivi reclaims her life, -- with the help of a couple different dimensions-- saying hi to the ghosts who choose to hang around, and growing a new garden and a new life.
Paranormal (Vampires)
Date Published: June 21, 2021
Publisher: ZB Publications
Issaquah, Washington, USA
1951
My name is Norma Mae Rollins. I’m fourteen and an illegal vampire. I miss my mom, but new ghoulish appetites force me to remain with my creator...
