People and Peppers, A Romance

Gossipy, intimate, and provocative, and set in Trinidad and New York City, People and Peppers, A Romance gives a diverting peek into the nuances of a Caribbean island’s callaloo of inter-racial and multicultural social mores. James’s main characters are complex, motivated, and fun to know. Tall and handsome, the main protagonist, Vivion K Pinheiro, is the bastard of a half-Portuguese, half Afro-Haitian woman, and an attractive New Yorker with carrot-colored hair who danced beautifully. Accomplished as well, Vivion has earned national prestige as a scholar and athlete. As a young man trying to realize dreams, he can be selfish yet thoughtful, deceptive yet generous—no real villain, just a callow fella getting over by pulling the tricky strings of privilege and personal charm.
 

An important factor in his dream actualization is Vivion’s doting, wealthy mother to whom he confessed an ambition to construct an ecologically sensitive, self-sufficient house on countryside property she bought for him. He imagines the finished structure to be surrounded by a pepper farm that grows Moruga Red Scorpion peppers—the hottest on the planet.
 

A significant stubbing-stone to his ambitions though, is a habit of dodging difficulties—when the goings get tough, Vivion’s gone. How he deals with this failing is only one serving of this fine novel. Of other satisfying portions is the influence of the women in his life. In earlier novels, James’s female characters have been admirable stalwarts and he doesn’t disappoint here. Andaluza, the mother, is an indulgent one. Nikki, the lover, is a strong other. This empathetic novel superbly speaks to women’s compassion and tolerances in the name of love. So let’s live with Vivion as he discovers and submits to the sublime effects of romantic love and father issues.
 
 

“An unforgettable tale.”

—Midwest Book Review, Elizabeth Nunez, Ph.D.

 
  
 

“Peoples and Peppers, A Romance, draws on complex interactions between diverse peoples, men and women, from Dominican Republic, Trinidad, New York, and Japan. Kelvin Christopher James captures their intimacies and compromises with fluent, accurate, and tasty expression in an ecology of people and pepper varieties in the field, and with sweet language, they linger on the reader’s mental palate.”

 —Dr. Brader Brathwaite

Praise for Kelvin’s Jumping Ship and Other Stories:
 
“A warm and gifted raconteur.”

—New York Times

“Incantatory . . . the finest novel to come out of the Caribbean
experience since V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas.”

—Washington Post

About the Author

Kelvin Christopher James has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in Fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature. He is the critically-acclaimed author of five novels: Secrets, a Novel (Villard & Vintage & KDP Indie), Fling with a Demon Lover (HarperCollins & KDP Indie), The Sorcerer’s Drum, Web of Freedom, Mooch, the Meek (KDP Indies), and short story collections Jumping Ship and other stories (Villard & KDP Indie), City Lives, Crazy Loves, Backcountry Tales (KDP Indies).

Leaving Kent State

Leaving Kent State

by Sabrina Fedel

Moombeam Gold medalist; Mother’s Choice Award Gold medalist; LitPick 5-Star Review Award winner; Finalist in the 2018 Literary Classics Book Awards

A young adult novel revealing the modern relevance of the first school shooting in the US, at Kent State University in 1970, by the National Guard

On May 4, 1970, the campus of Kent State University became the final turning point in Americans’ tolerance for the Vietnam War, as National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed student protestors, killing four and wounding nine. It was one of the first true school shootings in our nation’s history. A new young adult novel, Leaving Kent State (Harvard Square Editions), by debut author Sabrina Fedel, brings to life America’s political and social turmoil as it ushered in the new decade of the 1970s. Throughout the harsh winter of 1969-1970, Kent, Ohio, became a microcosm of the growing unrest that threatened the very nature of democracy.

Told from the viewpoint of seventeen-year-old Rachel Morelli, Leaving Kent State explores themes of the day that are strikingly similar to our own: terrorism, war, racial injustice, and gender inequality. As Rachel struggles to convince her dad that she should go to Pratt University in New York to pursue her dream of becoming an artist, Kent slips ever further off of its axis, in step with the growing discord across the nation. Caught between her love for her next door neighbor, Evan, a boy who has just returned from Vietnam, and her desire to escape Kent, Rachel must navigate a changing world to pursue her dreams.

“While our nation has largely forgotten what happened on May 4, 1970,” says the author, “it was a defining moment for the way in which Americans consider involvement in war. While popular sentiment initially blamed the students for the massacre, it became clear in the years immediately following that something had gone terribly wrong in our democracy for American troops to have opened fire on unarmed college students. In our own protest laden present, the shootings at Kent State remain a valuable lesson in the escalation of force during peaceful citizen protests.”

Praise for Leaving Kent State

“This story of an important and shocking moment in United States history is a solid addition to libraries and has a wide appeal.”

—School Library Journal

“A love story that engagingly merges themes of art and anger.”

—Kirkus

“The historical elements were intertwined with a love story, one so classic and swoon-worthy that you can’t help but become invested.”

—LitPick 5-Star Review

“The writing here is strong, with evocative prose that gives us a great sense of time and place.”

—Book Pipeline

“The simmering love of Rachel, a budding artist, for Evan, a maimed Vietnam vet, explodes beneath the thunderclouds of political tumult and student rebellion. You savor every sentence, but, knowing where it’s heading, you can’t turn the pages fast enough. Kent State is a spot-on historical drama and one visceral, thrilling debut!”

—Tony Abbott, award winning author of Firegirl

“A poignant and gripping tale of a young girl’s love for a Vietnam Vet played out against state-side resistance to an immoral war. The ensuing violence on a college campus is conveyed with stunning historical accuracy.”

—Pat Lowery Collins, acclaimed author of The Fattening Hut

“LEAVING KENT STATE does what excellent historical fiction is supposed to do–it breathes life into an era. Through the eyes of its young protagonist, this well-researched novel recreates the tensions in Kent, Ohio, during the Vietnam War years and the tragedy that resulted. Readers will love Sabrina Fedel’s masterfully drawn characters, her compelling plot, and her rich prose. This is the debut novel of a sensitive and accomplished writer.”

—Patricia Harrison Easton, author of the Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice Award winning Davey’s Blue-Eyed Frog

About the Author

Sabrina Fedel’s fiction and poetry has appeared in online and print journals. In addition to winning LitPick 5-Star Review Award for her debut novel Leaving Kent State, she is a 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee, as well as a 2016 nominee for a storySouth Million Writers Award and a Sundress Publications Best of the Net ’16 Award. Sabrina holds her MFA in Creative Writing, with a concentration in Writing for Young People, from Lesley University in Cambridge. You can often find her on twitter @writeawhile, or follow her blog at www.sabrinafedel.com, and she loves pictures so Instagram is a favorite hangout. She writes from Pittsburgh, where she lives in a small house with lots of people and animals, some of whom think she’s funny.

All at Once

All at Once

Alisa Clements

Desperate to escape the tedium of small island life, Florian finds himself drawn to Zar, not realizing how thoroughly her unconventional spirit will challenge his beliefs. The arrival of Emily relieves some of the tension that exists between the two, but hidden agendas provide new sources of conflict as the three characters discover each other and themselves. Elsewhere in the space-time continuum, Jo, an American in Brazil, stumbles upon an anarchist theater group studying the Outernet, a plane of paranormal consciousness that functions as a global communications system. As her latent psychic talents emerge, Jo is drawn into a high-stakes battle to escape the constriction of the ego and overthrow a totalitarian consortium. All at Once constructs an Escher-like world of illusion and exquisite detail, where lost identities surface in unexpected places. The novel invites the reader to new heights of awareness by leading them nowhere and everywhere at once, blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality.

Read an excerpt of All at Once.

Praise for All at Once

“All at Once is a bit like the syncretic cults that enter its plot. Past and present, feminine and masculine, mysticism and modernity intermingle and recompose under a thickening menace. The story is constructed through the fragmentary perceptions of the characters, some of which are able to access a reality that subsumes our own. Sound is always present, infusing the settings…. Alisa Clements is a specialist in the dissection of vibrations. An enthusiastic explorer of the psychoacoustic terrain and fan of the music of ordinary sounds, she has studied, composed, performed and taught experimental and electronic music, first as teaching assistant and manager of the Harvard Electronic Music Studio under the direction of Ivan Tcherepnin, then as instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art, giving classes in electronic music, installations, and the polygamous marriage of sound, movement, and image.”

—Afrikadaa, p. 268 POLITICS OF SOUND

“The boundaries of human imagination are explored in Alisa Clements’s intelligent fantasy novel ALL AT ONCE. Clements presents two romantic triangles, centuries apart, whose participants all share psychic abilities beyond the norm. Much of this beautifully written novel centers on the story of Josephine, a scholar researching native religious practices in a more or less modern-day Brazil, and her encounters with a group of people, rebels against the government, who seem to have harnessed their psychic powers in a manner that promises great things for humanity but threatens the power structure. How Clements connects the dots between the two fraught relationships is just one of the rewards of this clever and entertaining book.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Love triangles, international adventure, psychic awareness, evil plans for world domination. All at Once will not let you put it down! A beautifully rendered novel.”

—Faulkner Fox, author, Dispatches from a Not-So-Perfect Life

About the Author

Alisa Clements is the author of All at Once, a novel that invites readers to new heights of awareness by leading them nowhere and everywhere at once. The Midwest Review praised Clements’ exploration of “the boundaries of the imagination,” and indeed, the boundaries between fiction and reality blur when her protagonists attempt to ‘logon’ to the far-out ‘Outernet’ for a meeting of the minds. You can read an excerpt of the novel here.

Clements decided at age seven that she would be a writer when she grew up, but this vocation was eclipsed in college by the exploration of other media, primarily electronic music. As a student at Harvard University, she became a teaching assistant in the electronic music studio and stayed on after graduation, later taking the role of studio manager.

She then entered the Studio for Interrelated Media program at the Massachusetts College of Art to pursue her interests in experimental music, performance, and film. Upon receiving her MFA degree, she became an instructor at the college, teaching classes in electronic sound composition. Her experience in this field―as a performer, composer, and teacher―enters into All at Once in the guise of arcane facts about the effects of audio stimuli on human consciousness.

After a journey that has spanned several professions and countries, including thirteen years spent in Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, Alisa now lives in the Sirius intentional community in the woods of Western Massachusetts.

Rocked in Time

Rocked in Time

The Resistance Trilogy, Volume III

A forthcoming novel by Charles Degelman

Rocked in Time, completes the award-winning author’s Resistance Trilogy, three novels set in the rebellion, love, and chaos of the 60’s resistance movement.
 

Rocked in Time slips behind the scenes of a blasphemous theater company hell-bent on toppling America’s Vietnam-era establishment with punch lines, pratfalls, and comic rebellion. Along the way, the protagonist pursues a love for the stage and a passion for resistance amid the tear-gassed campuses and burning cities of a nation at war with itself.
 
 
 
 

Praise for Rocked in Time
 

“We’ve heard about the generation that changed the politics and culture of the 1960s. But how did that rebellion change those who made it happen? Rocked in Time delivers that tale from a unique theatrical perspective.”

—Tony Kahn, writer, producer, PBS, NPR

“Rocked in Time offers an openhearted, often humorous look at the collective power of the theater while a war raged, racism ruled, and the women’s rights movement was still around the corner.”

—Laura Kern, writer and editor for the New York Times, Film Comment, and Rolling Stone magazine

“Rocked in Time offers a great read, beautifully written, and more important, holds true to the flavor and feel of lives lived on the edge, surviving through constant effort and recalibration. Degelman calls out our frailties, indulgences, and errors — including decades of efforts to root out our own ingrained sexism — without denigrating the courage and commitment of men and women whose quest for truth and justice continued forward, utopian anarchists who never forgot how to laugh.”

—Peter Coyote, actor, writer, Zen Buddhist priest

“I absolutely loved this book! I was attracted by the cover and description and really enjoyed the adventure. After reading it, I went to the author’s website and saw this is the third book in a trilogy! The good news is I did not need to read the other two books first to understand and follow the plot of Rocked in Time. I will go back and read the other two books because I really liked Degelman’s writing style. This book is really a rollicking adventure through the 1960’s as seen through the perspective of a member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Throughout there are cameos from Shirley Clarke (a filmmaker I really admire), Bread and Puppet theater, Black Panthers, Hell’s Angels, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Diggers. There are also references to Commedia Dell’ Arte, and Bertolt Brecht. This book felt autobiographical but it is fiction (though influenced by writer’s formative years). I highly recommend this incredible and enjoyable read.”

—Ann M.’s NetGalley Reviews

About the Author

Charles Degelman, is an award-winning author, performer, and producer living in Los Angeles. His recent novel, A Bowl Full of Nails, set in the counterculture of the 1970s, collected a Bronze Medal from the 2015 Independent Publishers Book Awards and was a finalist in the Bellwether Competition, sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. His novel Gates of Eden, set during the anti-war movement of the 1960s, won an Independent Publishers book award, and his first screenplay, “FIFTY-SECOND STREET”, garnered an award from the Diane Thomas Competition, sponsored by UCLA and Dreamworks. His first novel, A Bowl Full of Nails, was a finalist in the Bellwether Competition, sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. He is on the Faculty of California State University where he teaches writing in the Television, Film, and Media Studies/Communications Studies program. He lives in Los Angeles with his companion on the road of life and four cats.

Handbook for Literary Analysis Vol 1

The Handbook for Literary Analysis:

How to Evaluate Prose Fiction, Drama, and Poetry  

James P. Stobaugh

Dr. Stobaugh teaches AP ENGLISH LITERATURE online, worth 3-6 hours of college credit, using this book as his textbook. AP credit is important for elite college admission.

This handbook reclaims the metaphor, rhetoric, and literary analysis. It takes a high view of the reader, the critic, and the student. All three are invited to think critically and to discuss thoroughly the great literary works of all civilizations. Systematically, this Handbook defines, explains, and illustrates a wide range of significant literary terms in fiction, drama, and poetry.

Along the way, readers explore copious, inspired examples, including biblical examples. Finally, readers read real literary analytical essays by American high school students.  If readers learn how to do literary analysis well, they will be better able to create and to share vital truths with future generations. (Also see book II)

Order

Handbook for Literary Analysis Book I: How to Evaluate Prose Fiction, Drama, and Poetry

by James P. Stobaugh
Release date: April 18, 2013
Genre: Text book; Literary analysis
Price: Softcover $39.99 ISBN: 978-0-9833216-7-5
Hardback $49.99 ISBN: 978-1-9418618-0-6

Order

“Dr. Stobaugh’s Handbook of Literary Criticism is an outstanding resource for educators and the students.  Over the past several decades, the influence of literature produced by Christians has significantly declined.  From my perspective as a Christian culture influencer, I  believe we must reverse that trend.  We need more effective authors who are producing world class literature framed in the Christian worldview.  I see Dr. Stobaugh’s handbook to be essential to reverse that trend.  I highly recommend it.”

—Ray Traylor, Homeschool Dad, Author, True Riches; & Besetting Sin
 
 
 
 

“This book is appropriate for junior high students through adults. You can work through the book sequentially or selectively, depending upon your need. The book reads like a literature text with plentiful use of literary excerpts, including many from Scripture, as examples. It also should help familiarize readers with some great literary works. There are no questions or assignments as you would find in a course. Instead, it is expected that the reader will be using it for self-directed education. Parents might assign particular sections for the student lacking self-direction, then follow up with a discussion regarding what they have read.”

—Cathy Duffy, Homeschool Review Guru

About the Author

Jim and Karen Stobaugh have four home educated adult children. They are deeply committed to the new emerging homeschool leadership community.  Jim was a Merrill Fellow at Harvard University and holds a B.A. cum laude from Vanderbilt, an M.A. from Rutgers University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An experienced teacher, he is a recognized leader in homeschooling and has published several books for students and teachers. Jim is also a Presbyterian pastor. He pastors Covenant Presbyterian Church near his home. He lives near Hollsopple, Pennsylvania, and travels widely to speak at conventions about literature, teaching, and education.

Handbook for Literary Analysis Vol 2

The Handbook for Literary Analysis:

How to Evaluate Prose Fiction, Drama, and Poetry  

James P. Stobaugh

Dr. Stobaugh teaches AP ENGLISH LITERATURE online, worth 3-6 hours of college credit, using this book as his textbook. AP credit is important for elite college admission.

This handbook reclaims the metaphor, rhetoric, and literary analysis. It takes a high view of the reader, the critic, and the student. All three are invited to think critically and to discuss thoroughly the great literary works of all civilizations. Systematically, this Handbook defines, explains, and illustrates a wide range of significant literary terms in fiction, drama, and poetry.

Along the way, readers explore copious, inspired examples, including biblical examples. Finally, readers read real literary analytical essays by American high school students.  If readers learn how to do literary analysis well, they will be better able to create and to share vital truths with future generations. (Also see book I)

Order

Handbook for Literary Analysis Book II: How to Evaluate Prose Fiction, Drama, and Poetry

by James P. Stobaugh
Release date: May 8, 2013
Genre: Text book; Literary analysis
Price: $39.99 Softcover ISBN: 978-0983321682
$49.99 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1941861813

Order

“Dr. Stobaugh’s Handbook of Literary Criticism is an outstanding resource for educators and the students.  Over the past several decades, the influence of literature produced by Christians has significantly declined.  From my perspective as a Christian culture influencer, I  believe we must reverse that trend.  We need more effective authors who are producing world class literature framed in the Christian worldview.  I see Dr. Stobaugh’s handbook to be essential to reverse that trend.  I highly recommend it.”

—Ray Traylor, Homeschool Dad, Author, True Riches; & Besetting Sin
 
 
 
 

“This book is appropriate for junior high students through adults. You can work through the book sequentially or selectively, depending upon your need. The book reads like a literature text with plentiful use of literary excerpts, including many from Scripture, as examples. It also should help familiarize readers with some great literary works. There are no questions or assignments as you would find in a course. Instead, it is expected that the reader will be using it for self-directed education. Parents might assign particular sections for the student lacking self-direction, then follow up with a discussion regarding what they have read.”

—Cathy Duffy, Homeschool Review Guru

About the Author

Jim and Karen Stobaugh have four home educated adult children. They are deeply committed to the new emerging homeschool leadership community.  Jim was a Merrill Fellow at Harvard University and holds a B.A. cum laude from Vanderbilt, an M.A. from Rutgers University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An experienced teacher, he is a recognized leader in homeschooling and has published several books for students and teachers. Jim is also a Presbyterian pastor. He pastors Covenant Presbyterian Church near his home. He lives near Hollsopple, Pennsylvania, and travels widely to speak at conventions about literature, teaching, and education.

Dark Lady of Hollywood

“O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful”  . . .

Shakespeare wrote that—not about Dark Lady of Hollywood. But the tale of a dying TV comedy executive’s desperate (and murderous) search for a soul mate akin to Shakespeare’s mysterious Dark Lady of the Sonnets was a Finalist in the prestigious William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition. Here’s the buzz on the final cut:

Booklist praised Dark Lady’s humor: “A finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition, Haithman’s hilariously funny novel gives readers a bird’s–eye view of the Hollywood machine and its players. With witty, fast-paced dialogue and characters readers will cheer for, this debut is a deeply satisfying story of love, loss, and acceptance.”

Foreword Reviews also gave the suspense novel a thumbs up:

“It takes a special kind of talent to simultaneously skewer Hollywood and Shakespeare while writing a thought-provoking novel, and Dark Lady of Hollywood proves Diane Haithman has this genius.”

—Foreword Reviews

“It’s a wildly witty and intensely readable tale, told from the perspectives of two different characters — a male, 36-year-old TV comedy exec who has been diagnosed with cancer, and a younger, biracial woman who works for the preening diva who hosts ‘America’s most popular daytime talk show’ “

—LA Observed

Ray Richmond says of Diane, “. . . her book is at once hilarious, sly, cynical, sublimely entertaining and spectacular, crafted with an irreverent flair and an insider’s self-assurance. You absolutely need to purchase a copy — or, as Haithman says, ‘If you buy two copies, it’s twice as funny.’ ”

—Burbank Leader

“Deadly guilty pleasure”

—Broadway World Los Angeles

“…a satire of a place the author knows very well. As an arts and entertainment journalist, LA Times staffer and Southern California journalism professor, Haithman shows her love and hate of the town which now has an unknowing international film loving community….plenty of silicone jokes and funny comments about the town…”

—San Francisco Book Review

Look Inside

Hear the beginning:

Buy the book

“Diane Haithman has a unique comic voice that’s as effortlessly breezy as it is astute and acute in its observation of human foibles — and, in the case of Dark Lady of Hollywood, that means humans navigating the unforgiving parallel universe that is show business.  Her writing sparkles like diamonds and cuts like them too.”

—Mitchell Levin, senior story analyst, DreamWorks SKG

“Diane Haithman’s Dark Lady of Hollywood brings a surprising flare for sharp-paced comedy and piercing Shakespearean insight to the slings and arrows of an unsuspecting TV executive’s encounter with a fate as  fickle as a TV show’s audience rating.”

—Ben Donenberg, Artistic Director, Los Angeles Shakespeare Center

Dark Lady of Hollywood is a gem.  It’s one of the rare books about Hollywood that gets it right. The style is breezy, even when the author explores the deep yearning of the human heart.  I especially like the voice of the Dark Lady. It’s unique, her insights are perceptive, and when she gets going she shatters expectations.

—Loraine Despres, novelist/screenwriter, The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc, “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of Dallas

It takes one to know one, and veteran entertainment journalist Diane Haithman delves into the world of Hollywood the way only an insider can. But this pitch-perfect L.A. story turns highbrow when Shakespeare gets involved!  A must-read for anyone who loves to hate bad TV — or whose dusty college copy of Shakespeare still has a place on the shelf.

—Cari Lynn, author, The Whistleblower, Madame

Diane Haithman was an Arts Staff Writer for the Los Angeles Times until October, 2009 and is a major contributor to Deadline Hollywood industry website and its print publication, AwardsLine. She recently joined the adjunct faculty of University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism, teaching Feature Writing.

For Their Own Good

For Their Own Good

Bradette Michel

 Nineteenth century women are committed to an insane asylum for reasons that have nothing to do with their sanity

When New York physician, Adam Fletcher takes the position of medical doctor at the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane in 1857, he quickly realizes the asylum is not a place of healing. His compassion for the women under his care, and his shock at the perversity of their treatment propel him into actions no one could have predicted. Inspired by true events, For Their Own Good reveals the murky, often terrifying world of nineteenth century insane asylums. Touted as havens for patients receiving innovative treatments, the hospitals confined society’s powerless, whether insane or not.

Events

Bradette Michel will be presenting a literary workshop, part of the Coral Springs Festival of the Arts, at 11:30 am, Thursday, March 17. The program will be located at the Coral Springs Center for Performing Arts, Room A & B, 2855 Coral Springs Drive, Coral Springs, FL. For more information about the workshops and the other authors go to http://www.csfoa.com/literary-program.html

Bradette Michel will discuss her debut novel, For Their Own Good at the Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave., Jacksonville, IL 62650 on September 10 at 7 p.m.

Book signing on September 11, 5 – 7 pm at Our Town Books, 64 East Central Park Plaza, Jacksonville, IL 62650.

Quincy Public Library on Saturday, September 12, 2-3 p.m.

Discussion at Quincy Books, 3:30-5:30 pm, 3382 Quincy Mall, Quincy, IL 62301

Michel will discuss manuscript critiquing with the Quincy Writers Guild on Monday, September 14, 6:30 pm at John Wood Community College.

Bradette Michel will discuss her debut novel, For Their Own Good at the Sunrise Dan Pearl Public Library 10500 W. Oakland Park Blvd, Sunrise, FL 33351 on Tuesday, September 29, 6-7 p.m.

Main Library, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301on Tuesday, October 13, 6-7 p.m.

Reviews

“In the end what is presented isn’t your usual one-dimensional portrait of abuse, but a social commentary that uses the asylum environment to pinpoint attitudes, beliefs, and rationales behind mental illness treatments and socially acceptable behaviors: a powerful survey that brings physician and patient perspectives to life and leads Adam on a journey into strange worlds. Gripping and heart-wrenching, For Their Own Good is a pick for any who want both a social and psychological observational piece about asylum life and women’s subjugation.”

—D. Donovan, Senior Book Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Like most excellent historical fiction, Michel’s novel uses real events of the times as a backdrop for understanding the struggles that her characters present. The chilling words of the physician who forces his treatment on powerless women is juxtaposed with their often heartbreaking responses. Michel’s compassionate telling of women’s stories made me want to reach out and pull her characters into a world where their voices could be heard and their power restored.”

—Maxine Harris, PhD, Author, Women of the Asylum

“The brilliant presentation of a fictionalized true epoch in the history of American ‘therapeutic’ intervention holds our attention from first page to last.  As a physician, woman, and lover of great stories, I highly recommend For Their Own Good.”

—R. S. Lipkind, M.D.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

For Their Own Good

by Bradette Michel

Giveaway ends March 17, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

About the Author

Like most of her characters, Bradette Michel grew up in a small town in the Midwest. She loves to read and write stories about people who overcome forces that try to control them, probably because she has a bit of an authority problem.

Bradette flirted with writing fiction for years, creating a rogue short story now and then while trying to make a living. She didn’t realize it at the time, but as a counselor, teacher, and trainer she was learning a lot about human behavior, which she now connects with her dark imagination to create plots and characters. Oh, yes, her degrees in psychology and human development counseling help too.

Her decision to tell stories unbound by the truth has resulted in the upcoming publication of her debut novel, For Their Own Good, which won second in the Florida Writers Association’s 2013 Royal Palm Literary Awards historical fiction category. Her short story, The Last Ride, was published in FWA’s 2012 Short Story Collection #4—My Wheels. She won second place in FWA’s 2012 Royal Palm Literary Awards novella category for Solitary. A published non-fiction author of Supervising Young Offenders, she has authored several online courses.

Bradette and her husband Mike live in south Florida.

A Duplicate Daughter

A Duplicate Daughter

By Randy Nelson

Twelve years after a botched kidnapping, young Mía Muñoz gets returned to a life of wealth and privilege in California. It’s the right name. But it’s the wrong girl.

High in the Sierra Madre mountains of northern Mexico, impoverished Amedeo Munoz rescues an anonymous baby girl during a 1936 earthquake, insisting that she is his daughter. Twelve years later, when young Maria is ‘rescued’ again, this time by detective Gerald Manley, a more glamorous lie takes hold.–What happens when the princess and the pauper are the same person?

Mia, as she is known, adapts well to her new life, never doubting the narrative that has absorbed her…until she has to choose between two worlds.
 
 
 

Praise for A Duplicate Daughter

“I stayed up way too late last night finishing this gorgeous novel – one of the most beautifully written stories I’ve read in a while … the kind that really envelops and transports the reader.”

—Towles Kintz, Proximity Magazine

About the Author

Randy Nelson is a multiple-award-winning writer whose work has appeared in numerous national and international publications. His short story collection, The Imaginary Lives of Mechanical Men won the Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that “Nelson is expert at crafting scenes of desperation resolved, zealotry succumbed to and disaffection upended—all while refusing to repeat instance, image or idea,” and Publishers Weekly praised Nelson’s collection “Running the gamut from weird to outright creepy, these thirteen stories shed sympathetic light on the unseemly, the ungainly and the unrefined.”

Nelson’s individual stories have also been recognized in Pushcart Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and as a Carson McCullers Award winner in Story. With his wife Susan he lives in Davidson, NC, where he is the Virginia Lasater Irvin Professor of English at Davidson College.

Love’s Affliction

Love’s Affliction

Nautilus Award winner

Reviewers Choice Award winner

Indie Fab Book of the Year Finalist

Joseph Fafa of Nigeria has high hopes when he begins his premed studies at a North Carolina College. But his love for the beautiful and talented daughter of a prestigious Southern family threatens to destroy his dreams of becoming a doctor. Will he escape the power of an irate father and hold onto his youthful love, a flare of illumination sparked amidst the clash between two cultures?

Love’s Affliction braves the limits of romantic love, overcoming barriers, and pondering how the dreams of our youth can temper and deepen our foundations.

Praise for Love’s Affliction

“An exceptionally well crafted work, Love’s Affliction is an engaging and extraordinary multi-cultural novel that documents author Fidelis O. Mkparu as a talented, first class storyteller. Love’s Affliction is very highly recommended for personal reading lists and would prove to be a valued addition to community library Contemporary Fiction collections.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Loves Affliction is a poignant and emotional story of young love as it transforms from friendship to forbidden love, despite the cultural and racial barriers dictated by society.”

—Laurie Bedigian, Detroit Daytime Talkshow Examiner

“The magnetism between the lovers is immediate and strong. Mkparu does a stellar job not only developing their individual personas, but then also incorporating them within an intense need-based relationship. Mkparu underpins a constant theme of racism amid alternating scenes largely between Joseph and Wendy, but also covering other aspects of Joseph’s life as well. One striking aspect is the cultural differences between the lovers. For example, Joseph understands bigotry from a religious standpoint, because he has lived through civil war (between Muslims and Christians), plus has lost loved ones in the process. That said, Joseph has a totally different perception of the phrase “Campus Crusade,” compared to what Wendy acknowledges as a Christian revival service. A must-read, Love’s Affliction is an exceptionally gripping and poignant story. While intense throughout, there is resolution – and not quite what one may expect!”

—San Francisco Book Review

“The brilliance of Mkparu’s novel is in its exploration of our humanity and the frailty of even the brightest of us. He tantalizes the reader all the way, teasing and tossing both wisdom and seduction with ease. It’s destined to be a landmark in the African migrant literature…. A reader will never look at an African migrant again and not wonder what he or she has gone through. It will leave the reader with greater sympathy for the African migrant long after he or she has put down this book. For the migrant reading it, he or she will find reasons to cheer for Mkparu has brought his or her story home. If you love great country music, you will love this book.”

—Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo, Sahara Reporters

“…the novel casts an eloquent and shameful spotlight on Southern attitudes toward interracial involvement.”

—Foreword Reviews

“Love’s Affliction is a must-read book. It is part of a growing African migrant literature produced in the United States and dealing with important themes such as student-life abroad, love, romance, and cross-racial or cross-cultural encounters. The writing is very alluring and compelling, revealing the sophisticated nature of a new type of African literature from the United States.”

—Babacar M’Baye, PhD, Kent State University, author of
The Trickster Comes West

“Finally, a love story that touches the hearts of not just Africans, but all people who have traveled to a foreign land, in search of a better life.”

—Ngo Okafor, Actor, Model, Writer

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Love’s Affliction

by Fidelis O. Mkparu

Giveaway ends December 14, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

About the Author

Fidelis O. Mkparu was born in Onitsha, Nigeria. He was a recipient of Reader’s Digest Scholarship. A Harvard-trained cardiologist, he has published peer-reviewed scientific papers and review articles in major journals, and written articles for lay people on medical issues. He was inducted into Paul Dudley White Honor Society by Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he was a Spaulding fellow. He lives in Canton, Ohio.

Upper West Side Story

Upper West Side Story

Race tensions ignite after a shocking and tragic event: During a school field trip, Zach, who is white & Jewish, and his best friend, Cyrus, who is black, are horsing around when, in a freak accident, Cyrus falls down a flight of stairs.

Meet Bettina Grosjean, a professor of Women’s History, and her husband, a high-ranking environmental policymaker in the New York City mayor’s office. Once a pair of student radicals, they are now raising their two brainy children on New York’s Upper West Side.

Upper West Side Story is the tale of fierce parental love tested in a startling eruption of racial hostility and political chicanery within the very community they have long loved and helped to build. Despite the deep love and affection they have for each other, their domestic life is suddenly thrown into crisis by a shocking and tragic event: During a school field trip, their son Max and his best friend, Cyrus, are horsing around when, in a freak accident, Cyrus falls down a flight of stairs.

The fact that Cyrus is black, that his mother is Bettina’s closest friend, that jealousy, suspicion and resentment have long been simmering in the community, and that there are powerful political forces at work as well—all conspire to reveal an ugly underbelly of the community the Grosjeans have worked so hard to fashion into a model of an enlightened, multiracial world.

Upper West Side Story is also the story of a remarkable multi-racial friendship, a love of two women united by their ideals and their devotion to their children, then divided by events that spiral out of control.

“Pashman knows how to write. She structures the novel as alternating first-person voices – Bettina’s and that of her son, whose journal she has come across after his ordeal has ended. The story, which is presented with sensitivity and suspense, is a disturbing tale of tribal behavior due to race.”

—NPR review of Upper West Side Story
 
 
 
 
“It’s hard to find a novel so candid in its portrayals; so hard-hitting in its examples, and so realistic.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Author Susan Pashman has clearly thought a lot about race, especially in terms of schools and parenting. In January, she started a Kids & Race blog where she posts on these issues. Writing a nuanced novel about a family in crisis allows her to delve more deeply into the complexity of reality vs. theory and imagine what’s happening out of the public eye when an event that you’re used to reading about in the news hits home.”

—Bay State Reader’s Advisory

Out of a ragout of race, political shenanigans, motherly love, cross-racial friendship and social envy, Susan Pashman has produced an engrossing, highly readable, and disturbing novel,

—27east
 

“Susan Pashman’s book does what Sue Miller’s The Good Mother did for an earlier era. It exposes the tensions beneath polite, contented liberal society and how they can explode when something goes wrong. Well observed and heartbreaking.”

—Hanna Rosin, DoubleX Founding Editor at Slate

“This is an excellent book, a very emotional one. The title is perfect as it refers to a classic story that was made into a Broadway success, but with a different twist. The book cover is brilliant!”

—Library of Clean Reads

“The literary mechanics of Upper West Side are smooth and understated. What I mean by this is that I think they afford the story center stage, which is just where it needs to be in this case. The question of race is far from settled in this country. We can watch the evening news on any day for stories of racial tension. If you haven’t thought about race in a while, you will think about it after reading this book.”

—Back Porchervations

“What if The Bonfire of the Vanities was set in the present time and told from a woman’s perspective? Upper West Side Story gives you an irresistible answer.”

—Lara Vapnyar, author of Memoirs of a Muse

“In this powerful novel, Susan Pashman picks up the most delicate–but most pressing–subject in our national discourse and sets it down in the surround of a heart-rending tale of parental love and tender friendship. Everything is here: domestic disruption, generational divides, urban and academic politics, and, most courageously of all, racial resentment and distrust. Pashman knows her way through it all and handles it with intelligence and lovely writing.”

—Joann Miller, former Editorial Director, Basic Books

“I loved how Bettina and Stephen come together to fight this charge. I really liked how both mothers where there for their kids too.”

—Bronder Book Reviews

“Susan Pashman handles a tough and vital subject with unusual daring and sensitivity. Upper West Side Story is a gripping novel.”

—Hilma Wolitzer, best-selling author of An Available Man

“New York neighborhoods, New York parenthood, race . . . Susan Pashman’s powerful story of a fracturing family in a fractured city is fraught with understanding.”

—Peter Behrens, award-winning author of The Law of Dreams

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Upper West Side Story

by Susan Pashman

Giveaway ends February 15, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

About the Author

Susan Pashman is a philosophy professor and former attorney. While in law school, she served a year in the New York City Council President’s office; some of what she learned there has found its way into this story. But most of this book derives from her experience of raising two boys on her own in Brooklyn. Many of her sons’ childhood exploits, and the hopes and fears she had for them, became the heart of this novel. She resides in Sag Harbor, New York, with her husband, Jack Weinstein.

Past Events

December 5. Saturday from 10am to 2pm. Barnes and Noble, book signing with several local authors. B&N Charleston, 1812 Sam Rittenberg Blvd. Charleston, SC

December 12, Saturday, 11am-1pm The Bookshop, Reading & Signing, 6018 North 16th Street, Phoenix, AZ

December 15, Tuesday, 1pm-3pm Barnes & Noble, 72840 Highway 111, Signing Palm Desert, CA

Invictus

Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist

The Landmark Prize for Fiction finalist (under the working title, Intensia)

Goethe Award Shortlist

Invictus, by L.L. Holt

A timely novel on how the young musician overcame prejudice to become an international phenomenon as the entire world celebrates the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth

The year was 1770, the place, Bonn, Germany. A drunken father took his first look at his baby’s dark complexion and lost his temper. The mother insisted the child was his. This was the beginning of a youth filled with anxiety, prejudice, and uncertainty for young Luis. We know him as Beethoven.

Descriptions by neighbors and friends often begin, “He was black,” meaning darker than others, and therefore subject to discrimination in the German north. Was Beethoven black in contemporary terms? There is little doubt that the child, perhaps with Moorish roots, who grew up under the thumb of a domineering, alcoholic father, did not look like other members of his family, nor even his community. We may never know why.

Invictus, a new novel by L.L. Holt published by Harvard Square Editions, takes Beethoven’s otherness as a point of departure as it explores the child’s journey from birth to a series of setbacks in his 16^th year. But the obstacles and catastrophes that the resilient child navigates are not the final word: we know how this story will end.

Invictus is woven through with several other themes rooted in the revolutionary age in which the boy lived. This was an age in which European scientists were exploring the notion of race and reason. While young Beethoven (known as “Luis” in this story) was growing up, a scientific experiment was taking place in Kassel, less than 200 miles away, in which Africans were kept without their permission and subjected to tests. Most eventually died in the cold northern climate. Yet, at the same time, there were other scientists who asserted that race as we think of it did not exist, and that truly, as Beethoven was to declare through Schiller’s Ode to Joy late in his life, “All men are brothers.”

Another theme is the rise and fall of the Illuminati, which originated in Germany and spread north. Beethoven’s childhood teacher, Christian Neefe (NAY fuh), was the head of the local Illuminati chapter, soon to be outlawed, with death a penalty for membership. Many believe the great composer was a Mason and Illuminati member, a position this book upholds and explores in scenes filled with intrigue and adventure.

Luis falls in love, gains a champion, and is sent to Vienna to expand his gifts in this fictionalized view of his early life seldom previously explored, but must return to parochial Bonn when his mother, the only person who truly loved him, is on the brink of death. She dies, his sister dies, his father sinks further into alcoholism. Yet, something stirs within his heart. And from the other side of history, we know his dreams have not been in vain.

Praise for Invictus

“This book is spot on to the contemporary issues of today’s world. A blend of historic fact and fiction, Invictus tackles many of the big issues of our time: bigotry, bullying, and prejudice. The Beethoven we thought we knew is a pale shadow of the genius he became. Adversity helped ignite his extraordinary gifts, inspiring each of us to reach beyond obstacles to embrace our dreams. I loved this book and its message for today of courage, determination, perseverance, and hope.”

—Don Browne, Executive VP NBC Network News, ret., President of NBC’s Telemundo Network, ret.

“An absorbing novel about the young Beethoven and the circumstances that shaped his musical career. Especially interesting because it takes seriously the implications of 18th century racism and rumors about African ancestry in Beethoven’s family.”

—K.M. Reeds, historian of biology and medicine

“L.L. Holt captures an exciting time in history when revolution was in the air, and an intense debate about race and equality raged in universities, salons, and secret societies. Well-written and engaging.”

—Lina Genovesi, Ph.D., J.D.

“In Invictus, Holt makes precise references to Joseph Bologne, aka Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whose life as an 18th century Black composer and swordsman in Western Europe is an important reminder that sometimes you have to excel in many different fields in order to survive. And still, the accomplishments can and will speak for themselves decades, centuries after the fact.”

—Le Chevalier de Saint Georges Facebook page administrator

“Invictus embodies the spirit of the Age of Revolution in this tale of a young boy breaking free from obstacles of poverty and prejudice.”

—Kairy Koshoeva, concert pianist

About The Black Spaniard by L.L. Holt:

In her wonderful new novel, L.L. Holt captures the dynamic magic of Beethoven and his music.  She is able to recreate the original sounds of Beethoven’s fingers on the piano as well as the nature of the characters who surrounded him in his climb to fame as one of the most original composers.

“This novel reimagines the surprising backstory behind Beethoven’s early years, bringing its scenes to life as only fiction can. The result makes for intriguing reading.”

—Winifred Hughes, author of The Maniac in the Cellar: Sensation Novels of the 1860’s

“Beethoven is a unique character and this book captures that quality. Great reading and informative background offer an experience that is both entertaining and educational. Ms. Holt deserves great accolades for this excellent novel on a highly engaging perspective of musical history.”

–Dr. David Ryback, author of Beethoven in Love

Top customer reviews from Amazon.com:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable for readers of all ages!

“A fresh, entertaining view of Beethoven for young readers and adults alike. Told in semifictional style, it focus largely on his early triumphs in his twenties as the champion piano virtuoso of Vienna’s music scene. The ‘black Spaniard’ refers to Beethoven himself for his dark complexion and black hair. He’s called “Luis” instead of the German “Ludwig,” and he’s fairly likeable, his famous tantrums are toned down. We follow him through the onset of his tragic deafness and the composing of his heroic Third Symphony. In this story, the black Spaniard is the real hero.”

–musiclady

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping tale of arrogance, dissolution, and redemption

“A gripping tale that turns the tables on our expectations about Beethoven. What, if as so many believe, he was Black? What if he was a revolutionary in the Illuminati and Freemasonry? What if the Immortal Beloved was someone we never expected? The novel blends factual information with flights of imagination and fancy to present a compelling portrait of the composer during a dozen years in which he first arrived in Vienna and learned he was losing his hearing at an alarming rate. An inspiring story for all who seek to overcome prejudice and oppression and never to surrender their ideals.” 

–Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth the read and comes from a great small press

“Holt’s book envisions the life of Beethoven in a way that I couldn’t have imagined myself. Definitely worth the read and comes from a great small press.”

–lilmisseditor

More Novels by L.L. Holt:

The Black Spaniard (2016)

Written as Simone Marnier:

White Tiger, Green Dragon (2000)

Black Tortoise, Red Raven (2006)

Tigre Blanco, Dragón Verde (2007)

About the Author

L.L. Holt is a Humanities professor and author of the international prize-winning novel, Invictus, about Beethoven’s overcoming discrimination to enter the world stage, and The Black Spaniard, a novel about music (Unsolicited Press, 2016). She has a doctorate in Arts and Letters from Drew University and reviews classical music for Fanfare Magazine, Bachtrack, Concertonet, and Broad Street Review, and her articles have appeared in New York Classical Review. Following a successful career in communications, she is devoting herself to writing about the inspiring power of music as well as the common ground shared by eastern and western spiritual traditions. Holt lives in New Jersey.