Trevelyan’s Wager

Trevelyan’s Wager

FOR SALE:

PERMANENCE

The trillion-dollar Elysium Corporation has perfected the science of genetically-induced immortality. Decay and death are no longer inevitable. For the right price, you can now enjoy eternal youth, and in great luxury. This is mankind’s ultimate achievement.

Trevelyan’s Wager proves an irresistible lure for an indelicate journalist, who suspects that people and permanence should never mix…

Praise for Trevelyan’s Wager

“All the more impressive considering that Trevelyan’s Wager is author David Bassano’s debut as a novelist, this deftly crafted and consistently compelling read is very highly recommended, especially for community library Science Fiction & Fantasy collections. For personal reading lists it should be noted that Trevelyan’s Wager is also available in a Kindle format ($9.99).”

—Midwest Book Review

“Trevelyan’s Wager is a beautifully written treatise on life and death and what is truly important, something we perhaps forget in the endless pursuit of the next iPhone. Well worth reading, it will hopefully make you think twice about your motivations in life…”

—Booklore

Interview with David Bassano on Speak Up Talk Radio

Read a short story by David Bassano in the Scarlet Leaf Review

About the Author

David Bassano is a History professor at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey. He holds a PhD in International, Global, and Comparative History, specializing in Human Rights. He is a human rights activist and a writer of academic, nonfiction, and literary works. Trevelyan’s Wager is his first novella. He divides his time between New Jersey classrooms, Manhattan jazz clubs, East Coast hiking trails, and a particular Zen temple in Brooklyn.

The Beard

To advance in a SoCal world of extreme wealth and

ruthless ambition, a Jersey boy uses guile to substitute

for a lack of connections

This Wednesday, March 30th, at 8:30 PM
Alan Swyer will be on KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles—or KPFK.org on the internet—
speaking about his new novel THE BEARD. Tune into Poets Cafe to hear Alan
interviewed by the one and only Billy Vera.

The Beard flourishes in a Santa Monica-based internet empire, where young interns grovel at the feet of multimillionaires in the hope of moving up the food chain. Our protagonist is Calvin, who comes to realize that his purpose is mainly as filler, with little chance of promotion, while competing against the sons and daughters of the wealthy and well-connected, unless he finds a way to become indispensable.

Alan Swyer has been writer, director, and/or producer on films ranging from HBO’s award- winning “Rebound” to “The Buddy Holly Story;” “Alfred Hitchcock;” and the award-winning “Spiritual Revolution.” Among his other work is “Beisbol,” Imagen Award winner for best feature-length documentary, “It’s More Expensive To Do Nothing,” and his newest “El Boxeo,” available now on Amazon Prime. In the world of music, among his productions is a collection of Ray Charles love songs, plus countless liner notes. His short stories have appeared in England, Ireland, Germany, India, and in several America publications. His novel The Beard will be published by Harvard Square Editions in April, 2016. He has been a faculty member at the American Film Institute and the University of Southern California, and has taught writing-directing workshops in France (l’Universite de l’Ete) and in Singapore. His film “Saint-Tropez” is slated for production next September in the town made famous by Brigitte Bardot. Listen to Director Alan Swyer talk about his film El Boxeo on Bad Culture Radio

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Beard

by Alan Swyer

Giveaway ends February 24, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Events

Monday evening April 4th

Book Soup in West Hollywood will host Alan Swyer
for a booksigning and reading

“Wow. Whatta ride! Alan Swyer has captured the ambition, the energy, the vibe of today’s Wannabees in a wildly colorful yarn that rings all too true.”

—Lawrence Turman, producer of “The Graduate”

“A wild, fascinating ride all around Los Angeles as Swyer, with a biting satirical touch, lifts the veil on those primarily adept at creating wealth for themselves and the soullessness that ensues. After reading this fast-paced gem of a novel, you may never visit a search engine again without wincing and wondering about the core values of those increasingly in control of the ways in which we communicate.”

—Harvey Araton, author of New York Times bestseller Driving Mr. Yogi

“The Beard is a comic novel about a working-class Jersey boy trying to find his identity in Los Angeles, even as the world seems to gang up against him. Swyer offers a contemporary reimagining of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment that highlights the glitz, folly, and hubris of the tech industry and its giants.”

—Steph Cha, Author of Follow Her Home

“Alan Swyer is one of my favorite contemporary writers, especially when it comes to music and Hollywood. The Beard contains some of one and a lot of the other, with the character and personality to complement both. Writing with the savvy of an insider, he nonetheless also has the sense of humor, irony, and cynicism about Hollywood that connects with Everyman.”

—Marian Leighton Levy, co-founder Rounder Records

“Alan Swyer, the eclectic documentarian, has produced not only an entertaining novel, but one that cleverly includes a guide to good food and playlists for great music.”

—Ricky Jay, magician, author, actor

“Swyer has woven a mischievous tale with as illuminating and biting a character study as ‘The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz’. Deftly told and magnificently structured story with remarkably memorable characters and riotous humor throughout.”

—Brin-Jonathan Butler, author of The Domino Diaries

Interviews with Alan Swyer

Book Circle

The Boxing Bar

Interview on WOR 710

Boxing Channel TV

Bad Culture Radio

Recent publications

The Record Biz

“Diversity”

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

Only in America

Family

Real People, Real Problems

Hugs

The Stud

Ambition

The Last Case

The Comic

Happy

Sideman

Films

The Buddy Holly Story

El Boxeo

Bay Watch

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

A Face in the Sky

A Face in the Sky

Who would’ve thought that doomsday could be so much fun? Though the characters in Greg Jenkins’s new novel A Face in the Sky may not always enjoy what happens, readers certainly will.

An apocalyptic tale with literary flair, A Face in the Sky delivers a leavening dose of dark, irreverent humor. Among the characters are a befuddled business professor, a retired (and roguish) major league baseball player, an adult film actress, and a playwright who aspires to being a terrorist. In unique ways, each of them must confront what may be the end of the world.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Face in the Sky

by Greg Jenkins

Giveaway ends April 25, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

“A Face in the Sky easily fits in with the best books I’ve read in the past few years. I strongly recommend it to you.”

–Mensa Bulletin

About the Author

Jenkins has written four books.  His first, Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation, is a study of the famed film director. Next came Night Game, a collection of short fiction, which was praised in the New York Times for its “vivid set of major characters (James Joyce and Mickey Mantle among them) and an even more memorable group of antagonists.” Then came the rollicking novel Code Green, which deals with the misadventures of a psychiatric nurse.

Apart from his books, Jenkins has contributed some 50 short stories to various literary journals such as Prairie Schooner, North Dakota Quarterly, Café Irreal, Red Rock Review, Tampa Review, Sou’wester, South Dakota Review, American Literary Review, and Prism International. He has also had five plays produced. His creative work has earned him numerous accolades, including three Individual Artist Awards from the State of Maryland. For the past two decades he has served as Professor of English at Garrett College. A member of American Mensa, he is married and lives in western Maryland.

The Road to Vermilion Lake

The Road to Vermilion Lake

by Vic Cavalli

“A weird beauty”—Edinburgh Review

“If, as Charles Taylor argued in A Secular Age, we have lived in a disenchanted world since the Reformation and the Enlightenment, Vic Cavalli invites us to consider that such a way of life is not necessary. We may unwittingly focus on the materiality and transience of the secular world alone, but it may be an unconscious choice that renders invisible a far richer, multifaceted form of existence; re-enchantment may be within reach, through art, literature, and spirituality. Ordinary lives can become extraordinary.

“The novel tells the story of one such ordinary life, that of Thomas Neal Tems, a blaster’s assistant and first-aid attendant who lives and works on a construction site beside a glorious, remote lake. The site is being developed by a Swiss company into an ecologically friendly village, and Thomas begins a romance with the talented and imaginative architect who designed the site, a devout Catholic. The world that the characters must navigate, however, is decidedly not a romantic one. It is marked by painful past experiences, dysfunctional families, tragic accidents, alcoholism, and drug overdoses, all of which seem to derive from an inability to reach beyond the superficiality of existence. And yet, this is a world of second chances, for those who desire to change their imaginative perspective, to seek a sense of depth and enchantment that is deeply embedded in the tangible world, particularly in the body and in the natural world, as well as in the creative world of contemplative thought.”

—Midwest Book Review, Sharon Alker, Professor of English, scholar of eighteenth-century and Romantic Literature

“Vic Cavalli takes us on a wild ride along The Road to Vermilion Lake. Set against a grand landscape, the novel explores the intersection of emotion and geography, reality and metaphysics. Can love rock your world at a seismic level? Cavalli expels all doubts.”

—Loranne Brown, author of The Handless Maiden

“At once steamily erotic and transcendently religious; both bursting with appetite and laced with self-denial.”

—Pacific Rim Review of Books

“That documentary and myth are in active tension defines the form and appeal of the novel. I especially liked the documentary dimension, the extended and precise detail–on native flora, engineering, geology, first aid protocols, pop music, sacred music, ballistics, and much more. All this against a story line of transcendent mystery.”

—Laurie Ricou, Professor Emeritus of Canadian Literature, University of British Columbia

“The greatest strength of this work lies in the author’s sure handling of the symbolic landscape. The novel works on at least two levels: a relatively conventional external plot involving the inevitable struggles of two lovers from drastically different backgrounds, and a highly suggestive internal movement, governed by a set of symbols linking the subjective and objective worlds. At times, this approaches an unsettling magic realism, in which Vermilion Lake and environs mirror the interior struggles and joys of the protagonists—for example, in the synchronicity between potentially destructive seismic activity and the development of the romance—creating a slightly eerie (but always intriguing) sense that the world in which these characters live and move and have their being decidedly transcends mere geologic data. This mirroring, combined with the suggestive binary patterning of characters and events, helps produce an elusive atmosphere that effectively reinforces the work’s spiritual convictions as these work themselves out in the plot.”

—Dr. Stephen Dunning, specialist in both Canadian and contemporary British literature.

About the Author

Born in Vancouver, B.C., Vic Cavalli has been teaching English at the university level since 1987, and Creative Writing at the university level since 2001. His fiction, poetry, photography, and visual art have been published in literary journals in Canada, the United States, England, and Australia. While teaching at Trinity Western University in the Fraser Valley he published his first novel, The Road to Vermilion Lake (NY: Harvard Square Editions, 2017). It’s a novel concerned with exploring the themes of generation and regeneration. His second novel, Then Pure Silence, is currently under consideration by several Canadian publishers.

Cavalli grew up in Vancouver B.C. surrounded by narratives of immigration and the Canadian wilderness, the arts and the trades. His childhood home was filled with music, art, and large house parties. Within this context, he and his father lived for the weekends and summer holidays when they would camp and fish in some of the most beautiful settings imaginable: the rivers and lakes of the Interior of British Columbia, and the Pacific ocean shoreline from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish, and off the eastern shore of Vancouver Island. After fronting some high school bands, Cavalli worked for seven years at manual labor jobs (such as operating machines and driving forklifts in factories, building steel fishing boats, and logging—setting chokers and falling trees). Eventually, an educated friend advised him to enrol in first-year College, adding, “Read some Russian novels.”

Anomie

Anomie

Anomie is a uniquely told story of Michael, an American Indian university professor and writer. After a series of tragic events, he seeks closure through myriad experiences, in order to bring balance to his world. Will he find himself in China?

“Readers who want a philosophical, accessible, and involving read that uses the character of a displaced American professor in China to explore these transition points will find in Anomie an exploration of the connections between individual and society, all wound up in the microcosm of one man’s life and bundled into a story that seems light, but quickly moves into the depths of darkness and out again.”

—Midwest Review, D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer

“Anomie is a book that draws you in from the first page. The author chooses to start the reader off in the middle of events and work semi-backwards to figure out what led Michael to China in the first place before moving into the present and the future. It’s a genius way to begin a book in which the main character is trying to find his way toward understanding who he is and what he wants out of life.”  

—Gabriel Reads

“MARQUETTE – A Manistique native has published his first novel, written a long way from home, but using some Upper Peninsula settings.”

—The Mining Journal

“A very unique story with an original plot.”

—Juniper Grove

“…there were things in the book that made me laugh, and I mean truly laugh out loud and people around me started looking me …”

—Books Are My Way of Living

“With strong clear prose Jeff Lockwood illuminates the state of moving between cultures, physically, emotionally, and romantically. It’s not that his character, Michael, has no connections, or no heritage. And yet, from the age of three, he has chosen to separate himself, to be an outsider even in the places, and with the people, he loves. Much of the book takes place in China, but it is really a story of homecoming, of a man who slowly comes to discover where he belongs, and just how important it is to know and embrace that.”

—Rachel Pollack, author of The Child Eater, A Novel, recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Award, among others

“Anomie is the compelling story of an American professor, who explores the maximum of humanity, while teaching in China. His introspection of personality, psychology, and intimacy serves as his spiritual sustenance and emotional outlet. The story is filled with a hint of hesitation, disappointment, and sentiment, which is by no means just personal lament, but a projection of the disillusionment of reality in the heart of the protagonist. The flow of lost happiness and bitter desire is intertwined in the sentences so wonderfully crafted by author Jeffrey Lockwood. Anomie is a confession of love for life, and of identity, in turbulent and mutable societies.”

—Cherish Liu, coauthor of Zi Liu Ji, a collection of bilingual poetry, Heilongjiang University Press, 2012.

“Within the pages of Anomie, author Jeffrey Lockwood contrives the life story of Michael, through his search for self-fulfillment and a sense of belonging. His journey leads him from the U.S. to Ukraine and China. His eyes study the people around him. Their pasts and futures intersect with his. But, these places bring him only restlessness and alienation, as one could assume from the novel’s title. Anomie is an ingeniously crafted, intriguing novel about one man’s search for his own sense of place, and the place where he belongs.”

—Angela Wang, M.A., scholar of English language,
literature, and culture

About the Author

Photo: Fan Dan Dan ©

Jeffrey Lockwood hails from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and is a member of the Chippewa tribe there. He is the author of In These Low Mountains (March Street Press), a chapbook of poems and short stories, and has several other published poems and short stories in print. Jeff has lived internationally for many years, as a soldier, Fulbright Scholar, Peace Corps volunteer, and teacher. Presently, he writes in Inner Mongolia. Anomie is his first novel.

Travelling Light

USA Best Book Award finalist, TRAVELLING LIGHT

by JL Morin, award-winning author of Sazzae

“This drama is captivating. It richly portrays the texture of today’s libertine Europe and the dehumanizing, violent traffic in women and girls as sex commodities.”

— AMBASSADOR MARK P. LAGON, Ph.D.
MSFS Chair for International Relations,
Georgetown University, and Former U.S.
Ambassador to Combat Trafficking in Persons

“Morin’s Mackenzie is a vivid and vivacious protagonist, judiciously aware of the power of her sexuality and fully in charge of it. The voice sparkles.”

— Don Tingle

“Full of laser-sharp wit and hilarity, J. L. Morin will capture your imagination with this exciting page-turner.”

— Beverly Jurenko, Mother, Wife, and
Award-Winning Entrepreneur

“The author admirably dramatizes this, using an intelligent everywoman, who sees the origins in the jealous and depersonalization of her own marriage.”

— Not Another Book Review

“It’s a bit of humor, chick lit, history, creative nonfiction and detective story rolled into one.”

— Judith Smith

27 Millions Slaves Travelling Light or Praying for Freedom?

With slavery set to overtake the drug trafficking industry, the novel TRAVELLING LIGHT could not be timelier. J. L. Morin, nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2011, uses her talents as a novelist to explore the contradictory reality of slavery flourishing in a tourist paradise . . . the Mediterranean island Styxos.

Mac, a naïve but driven archaeologist comes to live on Styxos with her husband and children and soon realizes that she has given up more than just a familiar way of life: She has lost the anchor of a civilization whose values she had taken for granted.

The price of paradise on Styxos is high. Mac’s husband soon reverts to the male stereotype of his homeland, and she is left adrift in an insular world of women, struggling to maintain her autonomy and a nurturing home for her children. The dreams of paradise Mac had entertained rapidly dissolve after the body of a sex slave is found in a hotel swimming pool during a highbrow investors’ gala. Using her archaeologist’s gift for unraveling ancient mystery, Mac begins an investigation that will take her to the deepest levels of myth and tradition, where international politics meets greed and corruption.

In TRAVELLING LIGHT, readers discover Styxos, the newest EU accession state, head over heels in modernization as investment pours in. Mac finds herself trapped on the lowest level of society, with her husband slipping away, unable to leave without her children. She befriends Farouk, a French businessman derailed from his ensuing marriage when he is implicated in the murder of the sex slave.

As Mac uncovers the harsh reality of sex trafficking on the island, her marriage comes to a crisis, and she must escape or fall victim to the trafficking ring. Her uncommon partnership with Farouk evolves from infatuation to a friendship more liberating than romance.

When J. L. Morin reveals the gates to hell on the fictitious island of Styxos, she also sheds a harsh light on the secret plight of victims sucked into the slave trade. With 27 million actual slaves worldwide in 2011, Morin’s fiction becomes all too real.

Many westerners assume we are progressing with freedom and equality. Not so, says Morin. The fact is, there are more slaves on earth today than at any time in human history and at least twice as many as there were at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that peaked at 80,000

About the Author

JL Morin grew up in inner-city Detroit. She proffered moral support while her parents sacrificed all to a failed system. Wondering what the Japanese were doing right, she decamped to Tokyo. Her debut Japan novel, Sazzae, won an eLit Gold Medal, and a Living Now Book Award. Her second novel, Travelling Light, was a USA Best Book Awards finalist, and her third, Trading Dreams, became ‘Occupy’s first bestselling novel’. Her climate fiction novel, Nature’s Confession, won first place in the Dante Rossetti Book Awards; a Readers’ Favorite Book Award; a LitPick 5-Star Review Award; and an excerpt received an Honorable Mention in the Eco-Fiction Story Contest, published in the Winds of Change anthology of eco-fiction. Her second cli-fi novel, Loveoid, is a Cygnus Sci-fi 1st place winner, among others.

Her cli-fi novels are on course syllabi at many universities. Ivy League professors have facilitated discussions with JL Morin’s writing, and it is discussed in textbooks, such as Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach, by Andrew Milner, ‎and J. R. Burgmann, 2020, published by Oxford University Press.

Her most recent work, Tuck-a-tuck Dragon, is a diverse rhyming children’s book illustrated by children throughout their childhood from the ages of 2–21.

JL Morin’s writing draws on a breadth of experience. She traded derivatives in New York while studying nights for her MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business; worked for the Federal Reserve Bank posted to the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center; presented the news as a TV broadcaster; and she is adjunct faculty at Boston University. Morin’s fiction has appeared in The Harvard Advocate and Harvard Yisei, and her articles and translations in The Huffington Post, Library Journal, The Detroit News, European Daily, Livonia Observer Eccentric Newspapers, The Harvard Crimson, and Agence France Presse while she worked in their Middle East Headquarters.

On Coventry

On Coventry traces the very real phenomenon of generational decline by mapping the economic corrosion of Cleveland, Ohio, upon the semi-charmed story of Eliot Hopkins who, on the tragic side of twenty-two, finds himself thoroughly disappointed with life when the foggy hue of a girl in a knee-length pea coat, its collar turned up against the swell of her ale-brown hair, appears before him. The story follows the ill-fated love between Eliot Hopkins and Alice Browne through the seemingly enchanted relationship of his now deceased mother and disabled father, and further back to the charmed life of his great-grandparents–immigrants who escaped Austria-Hungary at the outset of the First World War to find one another in a Minnesota mining camp before moving to Northeast Ohio. Schultz renders a discerning narrative of serendipitous relationships, cruel misfortune, and the entropy of American dreams. One that is a testament to the enduring optimism of every Clevelander who believes in tomorrow, next year, eventually, somewhen.

Praise for On Coventry

“The protagonist of Matt Schultz’s fine debut novel, On Coventry, is Eliot Hopkins, a deeply introspective, passionate young man “on the tragic side of twenty two,” haunted by his mother’s death, his own family’s troubled lineage, and wonder struck by new love. On Coventry is both a tender Bildungsroman and a sweet Valentine to that great, faded beauty of a city, Cleveland, told in a generous and muscular prose we haven’t seen since Raymond Carver ran off with all the adjectives.”

–George Bilgere, author of The Good Kiss

“Literary fiction with the ink of a gorgeously patterned history tattooed deep into its skin.”

–Amitava Kumar, author of Nobody Does the Right Thing

Matthew Schultz’s On Coventry is a love letter to a city, its history and its inhabitants. Each page resonates with the idea “that the story of our individual and collective histories still lives in each of us.” Each sentence pays moving and lyrical homage to the sense of possibility in every person and place, and every story.

–Dave Lucas, author of <Weather

About the Author

Matthew Schultz was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the Director of the Writing Center at Vassar College, where he also teaches courses in literary modernism, composition and rhetoric, and writing pedagogy. He is the author of Haunted Historiographies: The Rhetoric of Ideology in Postcolonial Irish Fiction and holds a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from John Carroll University and a Ph.D. in modern Irish literature from Saint Louis University.

Royalties from On Coventry are donated to the ACLU of Ohio.

Tricks Every Boy Can Do

Tricks Every Boy Can Do

by Paul Buchanan

Frankie and Alive, born on the eve of the Great Depression, are identical brothers—not twins, exactly; they’re the survivors of a set of triplets. Though they’re genetically indistinguishable, they’re different as oranges and avocados. Alvie, meek and thoughtful, frets every small decision and feels fairly certain his dead sister is haunting him. Frankie, brash and irrepressible, has a passion for bebop and five-card draw, and he isn’t above standing in for his brother when it suits him.

As the two boys grow into men, through deceptions, betrayals, and twists of fate, they bend each other’s destinies. But then they both fall for the same remarkable woman, Lydia—the one soul who sees them both for who they truly are. She’s also the woman who has to choose between them.

“Exceptional, consistently compelling, wryly funny while exploring issues of sibling rivalry, Tricks Every Boy Can Do is a riveting read from first page to last and will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to community and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. For personal reading lists it should be noted that “Tricks Every Boy Can Do” is also available in a Kindle format ($9.99).”

—Midwest Book Review, ‘Wisconsin Bookwatch’

“Tricks Every Boy Can Do offers a meditation on how family both molds and transforms us.”

—Foreword Reviews, 5-star review

“Tricks Every Boy Can Do falls solidly in the tradition of brother narratives, but it stands apart with its decency and humanity. “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” David writes in Psalm 133. For Buchanan’s Alvie and Frankie, it’s a hard-fought but true reality indeed.”

—Curator Magazine

“Read this once, and you’ll read it a second time. Then you’ll put it on the shelf and keep it along with the rest of your favorite books. This is an absolutely authentic portrait of an era and a portrayal of characters whose entangled lives become as hauntingly real as the people you know.”

—James P. Blaylock, award-winning author of The Rainy Season

“Buchanan pays intense attention to historical detail in this novel. He carefully paces the story to coincide with real-life events, such as Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the 1947 New York Yankees-Brooklyn Dodgers World Series.”

—Kirkus

“While it would be easy for a lesser writer to be nostalgic for a bygone era, Tricks Every Boy Can Do presents both the innocence and the insidiousness wrapped up in the era’s facade of politeness.”

—Hardly Karly

Read an excerpt at Silk Road

About the Author

Paul Buchanan is an award-winning professor of writing at Chapman University, and the author of more than twenty books, including the novels Snapshots and The Last Place I Want to Be. His work has appeared in dozens of literary journals and magazines, including Story Quarterly, History Magazine, Crime Magazine, The Humanist, Morkan’s Horse, and Cicada.

The Author

The Author

~or~

The Characters’ Short Living Story

by Facundo Raganato

Harvard Square Editions 2015

Pacific Book Awards – Best Philosophy

“Know Thyself And Thou shalt Know
all the Mysteries of the Universe and the Gods.”
-Temple of Apollo at Delphi

Follow the Timeless Mystical adventure of six Characters as they Alchemically face the Darkest perils of the Human psyche and Search for the Truth . . .

www.thecharactersshortlivingstory.com

Praise for The Author

“Facundo Raganato has written an interesting book about books. It’s a dramatization of the interplay not only between writers and readers, but also between the characters within the pages. Raganato’s The Author is similar to an abstract painting. Collective agreement is neither achievable nor sought. There is no right or wrong. There is only that individual reflection of what the art says to the viewer. If you like making your own decisions and you appreciate literature that provides answers which provoke even more thoughtful questions, then Raganato’s book just might be for you.”

– US Review of Books

“Never before have I read anything quite like Facundo Raganato’s The Author or The Characters’ Short Living Story. It is truly a work of literary genius. This is one book that you will want to read more than once to ensure that its universal truths are instilled in your mind – which as this reader sees it, is more important than the actual mechanics of the story that the author has created. We all have much to learn from Raganato’s work. If we could only put the lessons into practice, our world would be a much better place.”  

– Examiner, Martha Jette, newspaper and magazine writer/editor, Author

“The Author is an exceptional work crafted by a well-honed literary mind. In its two-fold purpose, Raganato has written a fluid character piece where strangers bonded by curiosity will question their existence, test their fears, and challenge obstacles, all in an effort to escape their unfamiliar surroundings. Clearly the work is heightened by its clever, creative format, and the overall unfolding quandary. While an author’s purpose is often implicit in any given story, Raganato directs us to look beyond the words, advising that therein lies the true meaning of literature. Here on a most unusual narrative path, readers will discover a rare, enlightening treasure.”

——Pacific Book Review
 
 

“Facundo Raganato’s book addresses the writing process from a very different point of view. The book itself is easy to read and allows for extensive philosophical speculation, which is a unique way to read a story. If that philosophical intrigue is the purpose for one’s reading a book, then The Author ~ or ~ The Characters’ Short Living Story is an exceptional choice. It is an enjoyable book to read.”

—Portland Book Reviews
 
 

“The Author works on many levels, stimulating the mind about writing and characters working together, but also what it means to be uncertain where the next step will lead. Facundo Raganato’s The Author or The Characters’ Short Living Story is a fun literary adventure. Reading what little description there is about the book, would-be readers may have some preconceived notions about what to expect from the book, but they will be well surprised as it is a unique work that may have likely not come across before.”

-Alex C. Telander, Manhattan Book Review
 
 

“Facundo Raganato’s surrealistic novel, The Author or The Characters Short Living Story, is a metaphysical exploration of the meaning of life, and the trappings of reality. The characters, inescapably drawn into the author’s trappings, seek the key to their escape, and even briefly, hold the truth of their existence in their hands. For the reader, The Author is a comic novel full of pratfalls, irony, and meta-humor. For the characters in The Author the story is a frustrating, and tragic adventure in the dark, a discovery of the self.”

—Scott Whitaker, The Broadkill Review

“Raganato’s clipped and unembellished writing style works for The Author as there is so much fantasy going on in the plot that there is no real need to get up the purple passion prose. It also means that Raganato avoids clubbing the reader over the head with meanings and ways of thought. The Author might be about God, Religion, Mass Manipulation, all of the above, none of the above. You, the reader, are free to fill in the blanks yourself. All good novels allow for a conversation between the text and the reader, and Facundo Raganato’s The Author is.”

—Hubert O’Hearn, San Diego Book Review
 
 

“I’ve read other books where the Author breaks the so called “Forth Wall,” but this is completely different. I never lost interest it’s so fresh and different I loved the concept behind it. It truly is Alice in Wonderland, the Twilight Zone and Poe all rolled into one. The Author Facundo Raganato has created something quite different here.”

—Dick Leonardo, Bookroom Reviews

“Raganato creates a visually frazzled world that translates into written word in an oddly coherent way . . . I thoroughly enjoyed Facundo Raganato’s The Author or The Characters’ Short Living Story, and would recommend it to any imaginative and contemplative soul in search for something new to read. It is a completely fresh written work, incomparable to anything I have ever read.”

—Litpick

“The Author ~or~ The Characters’ Short Living Story is a recommended pick for readers who want to follow along in a search for truth and wisdom . . . It is about knowing oneself and developing fully into one’s being . . . And there’s much, much more: couched in the guise of fiction, it may prove difficult to easily categorize, but one thing is certain: those on a similar life journey will find it compelling, reaching out from darkness with inspirational light.”

—Midwest Book Review

“This is not your typical fiction book; it is a piece of genius literature. The philosophical content of The Author, or The Characters’ Short Living Story is the treasure behind each character, and behind each scene. I could go on unveiling all the different things readers will wonder through these pages, but the truth is that in the end the big reveal will be different for each reader. I definitely recommend “The Author ~or~ The Characters’ Short Living Story” by Facundo Raganato as a thought provoking, genius five-star piece of literature for any reader who is not is not afraid to become part of the story and embark on the adventure and challenge The Author will present to them.”

—Susan Violante, Reader Views

“It is brilliant! . . . The Author had me on the first few pages and I found the entire book to be a truly inimitable literary experience. It is a study in human nature, with a bit of philosophy, spirituality, some theology, all in a wonderful mix of fiction. Their journey of discovery is not unlike the search for enlightenment. The book contains many undercurrents of the search for truth, mindfulness and being fully conscious of the present moment. I must repeat, a truly rare and distinctive presentation of a much written about topic. Highly Recommended.”

—Shirley A. Roe, Allbooks Review International

Haw

In a barbaric future, enough hope remains
for some to sacrifice everything

The gripping story of a father’s struggle to save his son
from a corrupt society in a pitiless, bleak, futuristic America

Mired in a corrupt, dangerous city that is on the verge of collapse, a father and son flee to a rural village, hoping to find refuge from their violent lives. What they find is not the haunted hippie environs of local legend, but a gritty farm community that thrives despite the threat of criminal invasions and the ominous presence of a nearby nuclear reactor.

A bioengineer, Lucas lends his expertise to the efforts of sustainability, while his son—a rising young photojournalist—falls in love with one of the sons of a folksy family whose charm lies in its ability to keep the community together, through music and love—until disaster shakes their fragile world.

Upcoming reading/signing at So & So Books in Raleigh, NC

Signing Aug. 8 at Page After Page Books in Elizabeth City, NC

Interview in Daily Advance (Eliabeth City NC), Aug. 6, 2015

Indy Week (Triangle alternative weekly) review, Aug. 19, 2015

Cleaver Magazine review (Aug. 11) by Michelle Fost

Praise for Haw

“Deliciously dark and compelling insights interspersed with moments of enlightenment and hope are the driving force of a novel that focuses on the course of survival and what is lost in that process. Very highly recommended: a powerful read that’s hard to put down!”

—Midwest Book Review

“The author set up the characters and kept me on the edge of my seat”

—LitPick, 5-Star Review

“Haw ventures into dystopiana with cli-fi aplomb. A novel worth savoring.”

—Dan Bloom, The Cli-Fi Report

“Sean Jackson has brought the reality and fears of the future into his debut novel. I would definitely recommend this novel to readers all over the world. One novel that crosses every barrier and leaves readers guessing. Overall, I rate it a five out of five stars.”

—Danielle Urban, Universal Creativity – 5 of 5 stars

Sean Jackson’s debut novel Haw has been praised by author Mitch Cullin (Tideland, A Slight Trick of the Mind) as a potentially seminal work in contemporary American fiction. Cullin celebrated Haw as “a sort of Brave New World for modern times, updated with Jackson’s expansive, unique vision of a world bordering on collapse, but not yet devoid of hope. The unique imagery and characters summoned in Haw is equal parts moving, funny, irreverent, timely, and verging on sheer brilliance. I relished every moment of it.”

Eco-fiction.com Interview with Sean Jackson

Author Bio

Sean Jackson has published numerous short stories in literary journals, from the U.S. to Canada and Australia. Haw is his debut novel. He was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He lives in Cary with his wife and two sons.

Faggot

Faggot: An Appalachian Tale

A true story of tragedy,

despair, and hope for the future after surviving

a childhood of bullying

A young adult tale by Frank E. Billingsley

Debut true story on homosexuality, religion, overpopulation, and a boy’s desire to fit into a society that has marked him as an outcast.

A teenager tries to make sense of his life. He has turned cold, withdrawn, and depressed. He is different, and everyone knows. He is gay, living in a town that does not understand him. He lives in a family that does not know how to support him. He is abused emotionally, physically, and sexually for years. No one cares. No one helps. Then on one dark rainy night, everything changes.

Share in this story that debates religion, overpopulation, the human condition, and lays the case for the greater acceptance of the LGBT community.

“As a young-adult-oriented memoir, Faggot has been 30 years in the making. As a teenager, Frank E. Billingsley couldn’t understand why he was constantly bullied. Depressed and humiliated, he finally manages to find inspiration through a personal revelation on a dark, rainy night. Under 100 pages, this ‘Appalachian tale’ is ultimately a story of hope. Harvard Square Editions (harvardsquareeditions.com).”

—Outsmart Magazine
 
“Well written, very inspirational, this book will keep you entertained for hours. I recommend it to the permanent library of all readers who appreciate a novel with a positive message of encouragement for those who feel different”

—Books and Movies

About the Author

Frank Billingsley, an Ohioan, who considers himself a child of the world, spends time between Europe and the United States. Frank holds a Doctorate in Leadership and Administration, a Masters in Management, a Masters in Human Ecology, and a Bachelors in Psychology. He has over 20 years of professional experience in social work, teaching, administration, and as a university professor.

Double Crossed

Double Crossed

The Imperium Impugned

by Brian Sloan

Nature spent millions of years sculpting her masterpiece, Praiano. This place awakens the senses: taste the lemon, the basil, and the wine; touch the smooth stones and the passionate people; smell the espresso, the jasmine, and the briny breeze; and see the chiseled Lattari Mountains that soar from the azure Tyrrhenian Sea–killer views.

But it’s the rumbling sounds of nearby Vesuvius which capture the attention at this time. It has been belching an overture to an eruption ever since some guy in Sudan found a rock he’s kept stashed in his pocket. This lone rock is provocative: it exposes the simplistic business plan of the most potent business ever branded, the business known by the name of Man.

Man’s existence is wholly financed by fascinating fear and uncanny control; vindictive and heartless, Man safeguards its trade secrets. Intrusive Alessio, Man’s essence, is on call, ready to execute its commands. When Alessio’s iPhone sings twinkle-twinkle-little-star, others will soon be weeping to a dirge, yet Man’s time wanes too. Not even Man trumps time.

Gerardo and Ciro, an easygoing pair from Praiano, have been best friends since their earliest memory, but this lifelong bond is put to a stern test after they rock Man’s boat one fateful night. This chance encounter triggers a series of circumstances promising to alter the course of countless lives in tiny Praiano and beyond this serpentine coastline. Aspiring heroes, Gio, the yacht owner, and Ang, the tourist neurosurgeon, take action to unshackle Gerardo and Ciro from Man’s invincible vow. Their unyielding intervention not only can resurrect Gerardo’s and Ciro’s friendship but also can unshackle us all!

Praise for Double Crossed

“Double-Crossed is the kind of stimulating novel that honors ten thousand years of human storytelling. Sloan’s work is chock-full of rich flavors, surprises and precious ideas. Readers will come away feeling more human and more alive.”

—Guy P. Harrison, author of Good Thinking: What You Need to Know to be Smarter, Safer, Wealthier, and Wiser

“Fascinating stories and characters in the spirit of love and respect. A page-turner with surprising twists. Brian Sloan has captured the essence of the amazing Amalfi Coast.”

—Eli Folkestadaas

“If you’re writing a ‘novel of ideas,’ you’d better not neglect the novel for the sake of the ideas. You have to do all the work you’d put into a novel of entertainment. You have to develop real characters. You have to have imagination and much narrative skill, because if the book does not make the reader feel the action is taking place in the real world, the ideas you’re trying to convey aren’t going to impact the real world the reader actually lives in. It has to be “novel” first, “ideas” second, for the ideas to make their maximum impact. Lucky for us, Brian Sloan managed to figure this out all by himself! You’re going to be forced to think, and you’re going to enjoy it!”

—Robert McNair Price, author, Deconstructing Jesus

Author bio

Brian Sloan’s debut novel, Double-Crossed: The Imperium Impugned, was born the morning after his deceased mother emerged in his dream and scolded, “Write your own damn book!” while he was vacationing in southern Italy. The depth of his sustained fervor for the Amalfi Coast united with the insistence of his creative stimulus produced a story spanning several continents and characters whose lives infuse the very pages they inhabit. Beyond the compelling aesthetic of the setting, Double-Crossed traverses the internal mechanics of the human mind as it traces the events that alter the lives of the two friends. No conventional precept or putative morality escapes scrutiny as the novel examines the cosmic wheel that encompasses not only Ciro and Gerardo but the greater sphere of human existence.