In a world where sorcerers are hunted to extinction…
One girl defies a cruel empire.
Slave girl Tori Burodai never wanted to be the Gallows Girl. She never wanted to be looked to as a savior or a revolutionary. But then again, she never knew she was one of the last living Watchers.
Long ago, the sacred order of sorcerers was a force for justice in the world. Now, their magic survives only in myth.
That is, until Tori reveals incredible magic power in a desperate attempt to save the boy she loves from a cruel fate.
This act of sorcerous rebellion changes Tori’s future forever. Her defiance sparks the makings of a magic revolution that promises to restore the world to its former glory, under the guidance of a new army of sorcerers, the Shadow Watch.
But the ruler of Tori’s world has his own dark plans for magic, and he will stop at nothing to end this revolution and bend the Watchers to his will.
Even if it means pitting brother against brother. Friend against friend. And Tori against the boy she loves.
All must choose. But no matter the choice. The world will never be the same. For there can be no magic without monsters.
If you love exhilarating worlds, epic revolutions, and morally complex characters, then you will instantly love this sweeping teen fantasy series that readers/listeners are comparing to Mistborn and Throne of Glass.
S.A. Klopfenstein grew up on a steady dose of Tolkien and Star Wars. As a child, he wrote his first story about a sleepwalking killer who was executed by lethal injection. He lives in the American West with his wife and their dog, Iorek Byrnison. He can be found exploring the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, or daring the halls of the high school where he teaches English and mythology.
STUMBLING TOWARD GOD traces a woman’s spiritual search with an unusual twist – from an “atheist who prays” to unorthodox membership in two contrasting churches: Unitarian and Episcopal. In the second edition of her forthright memoir, McGee shares new adventures on her spiritual quest, culminating in personal encounters with a God of love. An honest, satisfying read for anyone questioning or seeking a spiritual path. First Place for Nonfiction Book in the PNWA Literary Competition. Includes Reading Group Guide.
Margaret D. McGee writes books about being alive in the cosmos, paying attention, and making connections. Her parents were both preacher’s kids, and her father pursued a successful career in public education. These two themes—applied faith and applied intellect—returned in her middle years when she joined the Episcopal parish and Unitarian Universalist fellowship in her small town. She says, “Going back and forth, week on, week off, between the “prayer-book” Episcopalians and the free-thinking
Unitarians provided an essential bridge in my spiritual path—a bridge that led me to a new place.” McGee has had a varied career, including a time at the Microsoft Corporation, where she was employed as a master writer. She now lives in the Olympic Peninsula with her husband, David. In addition to Stumbling Toward God, her books include Sacred Attention and Haiku – The Sacred Art, both published by Skylight Paths Publishing. Her liturgical prayers and skits have been used by faith communities across the United States, and can be found at her website, InTheCourtyard.com.
Trouble Has Million Dollar Gams is a collection of comedic short stories as seen from the sepia toned view of Detective Joseph Quincy Kingly.
Do you crave SUSPENSE
Do you seek ACTION
Do you love a MYSTERY
Do you long for ROMANCE
Do you yearn for VIOLENCE
Do you have a lust for GORE
Or…
Do you just want to LAUGH?
Detective Joseph Quincy Kingly brings it all in shovels.
Except for the gore. And there’s not much romance. Some mystery. A little violence here and there. The suspense is the time between picking up this book and reading it. So………………………………………….don’t let the suspense continue.
Rory Joe Heynemann was born and raised in Western Australia. After studying Creative Writing at Curtin University, Rory moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland, where he resides in Surfers Paradise.
No matter which way we turn today, trends like pollution, climate change, and the 4th Industrial Revolution are impacting the ecosystems that you and I live in.
The thrust of the book is to bring awareness to major global trends that we are facing and to give suggestions on how to adapt and prepare for them.
Topics covered include mental health, physical health, employment and lifestyle, social impact, and emergency readiness.
There is an emphasis on mentoring our youth who are especially impacted by both the anxiety that these trends raise and their direct impacts.
Ecological anxiety is a serious issue and can lead to a variety of physical and mental health issues including depression and a general feeling of hopelessness. It can also drive us to a behavior that is not in our best interest: doing nothing. The problems that our planet is facing are real. They are impacting us right now and will only get more extreme as time goes on. By not acting now to safeguard yourself, you will only make the situation worse for you and your loved ones.
Now is the time to decide how far you are willing to go to set yourself up for success and to reduce the impact the trends will have on you and your family.
Key lines from recent reviews
It’s a top recommendation for social issues, environmental issues, and psychology or self-help readers alike and is a much needed offering of hope at a critical time in human and planetary history. – Diane Donovan – Midwest Book Review
Contrary to the highly urgent, often alarmist messages being bandied about at large, Mr. Kroes offers his readers an incredibly reasonable look at our current and evolving ecological state of being, perhaps centering on climate change, but including all the important peripheral elements of current and upcoming societal change…Reader’s Favorite – 5 Star Review
This book is written in a way that emphasizes current trends and states of mind, including climate change. This book is put together in a fashion that is easy to read and understand. I look forward to reading more by this author. This book is a definite recommendation. – Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews
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About the Author
Ken Kroes is the author of the Percipience Eco-Fiction Series and the non-fiction books, Feasible Planet and Feasible Living. He is passionate about our relationship with our planet and applies his diverse background which includes agriculture, mechanical engineering, and information systems into his writing. Born in Calgary, Canada he has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and has had the pleasure of living in many locations in North America and has traveled extensively.
Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba by raft twenty years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, and hopes to reconnect with Victor, his best friend from college—and, unbeknownst to Sharon, he also hopes to discover what has become of two ex-girlfriends, Elsa and Rosita.
Juan is surprised to learn that Victor has become Victoria and runs a popular drag show at the local hot spot Café Arabia. Elsa has married a wealthy foreigner, and Rosita, still single, works at the Havana cemetery. When one of these women turns up dead, it will cost Padrino, a Santería priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he expects to untangle the group’s lies and hunt down the killer.
After leaving his wife in the hotel, Juan decides to visit the Havana cemetery, where his father is buried. He hasn’t been there in a long time and feels lost.
The Colón Cemetery’s main entrance was a Romanesque triple arch. Juan had to tiptoe around a string of Santería offerings: flowers, rotten bananas, eggs with names written on them, coins, an ear of corn and even a dead chicken with a red ribbon tied around its feet, feathers strewn all over. He shook his head. The deities his grandmother worshipped had always struck him as suspicious. After being taught at school that religion was “the opium of the people” and after his early attempts to communicate with the spirit of his dead mother had failed, he had rejected Abuela’s attempts to induct him in any kind of Santería ceremonies. But she had kept harping at him. “If you visit the cemetery, always leave an offering by the gate,” she used to say. “A plum, a black hen, a piece of chocolate pudding . . . anything to show respect to the Queen of Bones. You don’t want Oyá angry with you.” Absurdly, he thought he should have brought something, just in case. But he waved the idea away with a sweep of his hand.
He stood among the elaborate tombs and statues of angels, engulfed by an ocean of marble, blistering white in the sunlight. Though he had vague memories of visiting his mother’s grave when he was a child—his paternal grandfather had been buried in the Chinese cemetery—he didn’t remember where it was. But he knew it was called “the Lasalle mausoleum”—it had belonged to his mother’s parents, who had died before he was born. He thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.
An old man was going around selling gladiolus, marigolds and roses. Juan asked him about the Lasalle mausoleum, and though the flower vendor didn’t know where it was, he was able to direct Juan to the information office.
“Someone will help you there,” he said. “Was it a recent burial, the one you’re looking for?”
“No, my dad passed away seventeen years ago.”
“That’s fresh, man!” The vendor cackled. “Foreigners come here all the time asking for loved ones who died sixty or seventy years ago. I have the sorry job of telling them that those graves probably belong to someone else now.”
“I’m not a foreigner.”
“Fine. Just ask them to let you consult the registros book. The information office is left of the main entrance; you can’t miss it.”
Juan thanked the vendor and walked off. At the information office, a young man dressed in all black—black-blue jeans, a Grateful Dead T-shirt and an unmarked baseball cap—offered Juan the services of an English-speaking guide. “The admission fee is five CUCs, Señor. You can pay here. We also have a horse and carriage tour—”
“I’m not a tourist!” Juan blurted out, fed up with the constant confusion. “I just want to see my father’s grave.”
“Sorry. Just go to registros. Here, let me show you on the map.”
Following Grateful Dead’s instructions, Juan passed by the imposing Central Chapel and turned toward the northeastern quadrant. He walked quickly by a succession of mausoleums, iron grilles and glass windows—some intact, others broken—but didn’t stop until he saw a small gray building. A faded sign on the door read registros. The door was half-open. He went in without knocking and found himself in a windowless room. There were two large wooden benches with a Formica table in the middle. A picture of Fidel Castro watched him from the wall. Juan had forgotten how ubiquitous El Comandante had always been in Cuba.
A faded blue curtain acted as partition between the main office and another area from which Juan could hear the murmur of voices. When he approached, he was hit by the scent of withered flowers. It wasn’t a horrible smell—not rotten exactly, but reminiscent of decay. He fought the desire to run as fast as possible from the pungent aroma of death.
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Photo by Delio Regueral
Author Bio
Teresa Dovalpage was born in Havana and now lives in Hobbs, where she is a Spanish and ESL professor at New Mexico Junior College. She has published ten novels and three collections of short stories.
Her first culinary mystery Death Comes in through the Kitchen (Soho Crime, 2018) is set in Havana and features Padrino, a santero-detective. It is loaded with authentic Cuban recipes like arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and caldosa (a yummy stew). Her second mystery, Queen of Bones, was also published by Soho Crime in November 2019 and includes elements of Santería and, again, food—clearly, the author loves to eat! Both novels are rich in details about life in the island, the kind only an insider can provide.
They are the first two books of Soho Crime’s Havana Mystery series. Upcoming are Death of a Telenovela Star (June 2020) and Death under the Perseids.
She also wrote A Girl like Che Guevara (Soho Press, 2004) and Habanera, a Portrait of a Cuban Family (Floricanto Press, 2010).
In her native Spanish she has authored six novels, among them Muerte de un murciano en La Habana (Death of a Murcian in Havana, Anagrama, 2006, a runner-up for the Herralde Award in Spain) and El difunto Fidel (The Late Fidel, Renacimiento, 2011, which won the Rincon de la Victoria Award in Spain in 2009).
Once in a while she delves into theater. Her plays La Hija de La Llorona and Hasta que el mortgage nos separe (published in Teatro Latino, 2019) has been staged by Aguijón Theater in Chicago.
This blog serves the purpose of helping all of those who likes to write to get technical information as well as, having a safe harbor to discuss ideas.
A Prodigal’s Return, 2nd ed.
The Various Cases of a Mediocre Detective
Nesie's Place 