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The Stories We Keep: A Novel of Motherhood, Mental Health & Hope

by Shawna Holly

Jenna Cartwright has run away from her family in a desperate bid to save—or end—her life. Driven to despair by debilitating depression, loneliness, and anxiety, Jenna makes a panic-driven decision to leave her husband and young children behind. Upon fleeing to her hometown of Asher, Alabama, Jenna searches for help from the generations of women she loves most. As they share their long-held stories, Jenna struggles to untangle her own thoughts and emotions, while also grappling with the imp... more

Dear Ella

by Rebekah Santoro

Twenty-two year old Midwesterner Lizzie Armstrong is lost and searching for direction after graduating college and being thrust into adult life. Her only solace from anxiety and frustration is her best friend Ella Chen. When Ella is tragically killed in a terrible accident, Lizzie searches for a way forward by channeling her best friend and spontaneously moving to Colorado to complete a bucket list the two of them dream up just before Ella's death. Along the way, Lizzie writes letters to Ella... more

Coffee Time

by Susanna Elliott-Newth

The essence of a good writer is to find that ‘writer’s moment’ – that little piece of observable idiosyncratic behaviour where humour lives. How Susanna loves to discover those eccentricities in people’s characters that she can frame on her artist’s canvas. Humour is found in the ordinary, the everyday, the awkward and the sublimely ridiculous events that grace our faces. When faced with the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 Susanna’s pen had hardly time to rest between scenarios, furiously recordi... more

Chemistry, Nine Stories

by Tony Tedeschi

The Girl Who Tried to Change History

by Melissa Kaplan

The Girl Who Tried to Change History is a story featuring a time-traveling heroine who gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to participate in a complex experiment to alter the history of the twentieth century. Vivienne Riley is a stressed-out graduate student about to earn her doctorate in European history, with a focus on the Second World War, when she is approached by a mysterious man to join what she refers to as the “Experiment”—an effort by the world’s top scientists to erase... more

The Skye in June

by June Ahern

The MacDonalds emigrate from Scotland after a family tragedy but cannot escape the youngest child's strange insights that threaten to expose her mother's secret past in the Scottish Highlands. The youngest child's fate is sealed the day she is born when her mother defies her husband by not giving their new daughter a saint's name as is their tradition. This doesn't keep the father's dominance over his four daughters from creating often hilarious tactics to divert his wrath as they come of age du... more

Once Upon a Cloud

by Salene Hill

Once Upon a Cloud is a collection of poetry. Each line brings a colorful and creative thought for everyday living, comical satire, and giving back to our beautiful world. The book will make you laugh, cry, and wish that you were in the event. I wrote the collection to remember my father, sister, grandmother, and aunt. Many people will inspire your life over a period of time.

The Love That Haunts Us

by Laurie Berkshire

Most of us have a love from our past that haunts us. First love, unrequited love, forbidden love, star-crossed love, lost love, old love. Chronicling how the lives of two generations of three early twentieth-century Chicago families become intertwined, characters captivate and as the story unfolds, The Love That Haunts makes certain that the reader will not forget. Emilia Brauer, pregnant at sixteen and sent away from the only home she has ever known leaves behind her beloved Liam, give... more

13 by 11: short stories of life in diverse places and spaces

by Jay Allchin

An anthology spanning genres and places: 13 short stories by 11 award-winning and up-and-coming authors “A uniformly powerful collection where each piece shines.” – D. Donovan, senior reviewer Midwest Book Review In part ONE, we encounter life both within and outside of the earthly realm. Stories by Vincent Czyz and Derek McFadden ask us to consider the ties that bind and define us in our earthly existence, with tragic, yet hopeful, tales of loss and love. In part TWO, we visit characte... more

Zynab: The Inspirational Journey of an Afghan Girl Guided by Rumi's Wisdom

by Farid mostamand

This powerful, inspiring book tells the story of an ambitious Afghan girl who seeks to fulfill her promise to her mother, fight for the right to education, and empower girls. Zynab lives in a small village in Afghanistan where education is deemed unnecessary for girls and even frowned upon. But Zaynab's family and life are very different from those of other girls in her village. Her father is a teacher who began teaching her Rumi's poetry when she was only five. One poem, in particular, inspire... more

Kamaka, Kahuna at the Crossroads of Ancient Hawaii

by J. E. Cherry

From the first page of J. E. Cherry’s novel, the reader is enfolded in the fascinating history and unspoiled beauty of ancient Hawaii. This forms the backdrop of a compelling work—which feels more real than fiction. Here is a story truly worthy of its extraordinary main character, the Kahuna Kamaka. As we follow his development from young apprentice canoe builder to masterful healer, teacher and spiritual adept, the rich sights and sounds of his island home of Kauai fill our senses. The pre... more

Teeth & Crumpets: A Florilegium

by Joel Shoemaker

"...brimming with punchlines..." - Kirkus Reviews Florilegium: "a collection of literary extracts; an anthology." There are twenty-eight teeth in the adult human mouth, absent wisdom teeth. In this collection, there are twenty-eight stories. Similarly, absent any wisdom. All, at least vaguely, toothy.

CHEST OF SILVER BURROWS

by Francis Xavier

Set in a time of turbulent ruling forces, Master Smollet and his private crew led by an experienced seaman embark on an hazardous journey to recover a lost ancient treasure in order to protect it from falling into the wrong hands. Will they succeed in their grandeur or succumb to the horrific powers beyond their control which threatens their goal

River of Mercy

by Paula Scott

When she returns to her hometown, Maggie O’Leary’s secrets are right where she left them. There’s a car in the river with a body inside. An old flame wants her back. And her teenage son, Lane, wishes he could make it all go away. Lane joins the high school football team as an escape only to discover the head coach, Matthew Shear, could be his uncle. And the life they left unraveling back in San Francisco was his mother’s attempt to conceal his real father&rsq... more

Steel Butterflies

by ELIZABETH B. SPLAINE

Deadly secrets & destructive, unintended consequences are unearthed in this coming-of-(s)age story of an unlikely friendship between a teenage girl and a former WWII spy. Some truths are best left unspoken.

True Feel

by Ted Bernal Guevara

TRUE FEEL is a buckled sidewalk on which paraplegic Marion Rafino wheels through. He is casing a lurid killing in Texas, and the main suspect is exotic dancer Credence, his love interest. In the beginning, Marion claims: "I am a reporter for a major newspaper, capable of doing practically anything in my life. When I stumble upon a person whose face resembles a photo tucked in our murder file, the first thing I do is make my affection valid...and my investigation relentless." Credence upon ... more

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