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The Dawning: 31,000 BC

by Richard W. Wise

The Dawning tells an age-old story of deadly struggle, the heart-rending tale of young love-its aspirations, pain, disappointments and eventual triumph. Ejil and Lada, son and daughter of a Cro-Magnon tribe (on the verge of adulthood) have begun to explore their maturing feelings when an encounter with a clan of Neanderthal hunters tears their Ice Age world apart. Lada is lost and Ejil finds himself embarked on a desperate odyssey to find the mother tribe. The Neanderthals, a pale skinned ... more

HEARTBREAK EPIPHANIES AND JUSTIFIED LUST

by JOHN KRUXHAMMER

This novel is about stubborn ideals against grim realities as traumatic relationships also impact troubled identities, causing erratic behavior, desperate imagination, and temporary insanity. One young man suffers from a terrible obsession with his attractive therapist in Los Angeles. Another one struggles in Buffalo from a tumultuous marriage, with lots of beer, loud music, and zany humor along his many travels too. As years pass their narratives parallel and then intersect, for a conflicting c... more

Ellis River

by Nicki Ehrlich

The Civil War scattered her family and now, along with her beloved horse, a young woman must travel across a war-torn country to collect what’s left of her life. The only home she’s every known is destroyed as the last of the family’s horses are requisitioned. But one headstrong mare returns. Disguised as a boy, for safety and comfort, Ellis Cady rides off to find her twin brother. Though war refuses to fade, Ellis stumbles upon an unlikely group of rescuers who teach her family is more than blo... more

Escape Artists

by Dede Newman

A short story about a colorful cast of characters that breaks into an art museum, and the redemption and transformation they experience afterward. Laced with spirituality and humor.

Illyrian Fugue

by Scott Krieger

Illyrian Fugue is a literary novel set long ago and far away, but it's about here and now. Set in Napoleonic Europe, 1805-1813, Illyrian Fugue is a tale told in fragments by an unreliable narrator tumbling through a dissociative episode. This novel is achingly beautiful, with 15 years spent weaving it together and researching source materials to capture the innocence of the times, before Darwin when the nature of things was still up for grabs. Themes include war, heroism, politics, madness, iden... more

Before Dawn

by Laura F. Murphy

Feisty New Yorker, Max, falls for her mysterious coworker, Tommy, who is fourteen years her senior. Wanting to please him and meet his beauty standards she conflictingly conceals her natural hair from him and avoids tanning so her skin doesn’t get too dark. Max tightly holds onto their forbidden romance while trying to figure out who she is and her place in a world she doesn’t always fit in. Too caught up with her feelings she becomes oblivious to the consequences of her actions. As tragedy st... more

The Secret Life of Sunflowers

by Marta Molnar

When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where sh... more

Not to Touch the Earth

by Felix Little

Karana and Nia wash up on the beach of a foreign and uninhabited land. After spending years adrift at sea, the young couple look to rebuild the life they chaotically fled. Not long after exploring their new home, a dangerous and mysterious pack of wolves stalks them. As a seemingly blissful new environment grows increasingly hostile, their new enemy forces the couple to reflect upon the events that led them to abandon their home. Once Karana learns Nia is pregnant, his memories and fear consp... more

The Sweet Second Life of Darrell Kincaid

by Catherine Robertson

Book 1 in the Imperfect Lives series Cast adrift after the unexpected death of her husband, romance novelist Darrell Kincaid decides to leave behind her old life and start another as far away as possible, free from constant reminders of her lost ‘happy ever after’. She lands in London, and to stave off loneliness becomes a regular at her local Italian café, along with three others who Darrell secretly nicknames. There’s intimidating, private Big Man, New Age Miss Flaky, and the handsome, ... more

My Canvas Bag

by Lucs Kinkaid

Mark’s parents drink too much and often forget him. He struggles to deal with the harsh reality of his family life. Mark escapes the chaos of his home by spending time alone in nearby woods. He has hidden a canvas bag close to his house. It contains items necessary for staying in the woods.

Mark gets older and can’t control his anger. He makes some bad decisions. Mark then works hard to overcome his mistakes. He refuses to give up on himself.

After di... more

Knock on the Soul

by kuldeep sharma

He trampled the thorny path and sailed his family to a rosy future but lost his soul somewhere along the way. Nambardaar, a self-made billionaire, uses his power and money to control whoever or whatever comes in his way. He owns thousands of acres of farmland and several businesses but wants more for his future generations. To fulfill his aspirations, he decides to place his older brother into politics and endorses his farm worker Gangu for the presidency of his village. His plan goes exactly t... more

Tholly

by Kuldeep Sharma

Tholly, a 100-page coming-of-age novella set in the 80s of India, shows the decisive influence of unfortunate circumstances on Tholly, when the fourteen-year-old boy takes his father to the city’s government hospital for treatment. He gets through the hardships of life and witnesses greed, corruption, pain, poverty, negligence, social disparity, and communal differences. Money is the only thing that can save me from all of these, the son of a humble farmer realizes. I was born poor, but I won't... more

Visions of Johanna

by Peter Sarno

Johanna, an artist, and Matt, a music critic, couldn't be more different, but by a simple twist of fate, she plucks him from a crowd at a Dylan concert. What follows is a heady and intense relationship buffeted by the usual suspects that gently rocked the '80s. Matt's lessons in art—as well as life—at the hands of Johanna, drive the novel into pockets of feminism and quiet revolution. All of this is tempered by deeply held traumatic secrets.

A meditation on art a... more

Hold Up the Head of Holofernes

by Carol Bonomo Albright

Hold Up the Head of Holofernes, the debut novel by Carol Bonomo Albright, is a riveting story of three women who experienced similar horrific assaults on their bodies, and one who wants to help victims like them through legislative means. Taking place in three different eras, each of the women taps into her power to heal herself through her own ingenuity and creativity. Historical figure Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi, lived in the 1600s in Rome. Her paintings of women displayed the... more

Jaded Choyce

by SHAYNUH SLOANE

Chloe Choyce is a 30-year-old urban professional who has a plan to start a better life for her and her family, starting with her career. As she transitions from one agency to another, her journey to reach her professional goals begins. With ambition and hopes to make a change at a new organization, she carries hope and passion for her new government career. Things come to a head when Chloe realizes that her work environment is not what it seems to be. As she learns along the way, challenges a... more

Screenwriter

by Rafael Lima

Living large in Los Angeles a screenwriter chews his way up the Hollywood food chain. Punching out his latest film he begins an involuntary downward spiral into depression and delusion. As he tries to out-run his demons with Xanax and a lap-top, his relentless quest for purity leads him through the soul-less world of the major studios, finally bringing him to a reckoning point where he is forced to acknowledge loss and possibly recover his better instincts.

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