Counting for Thunder

By Phillip Irwin Cooper

When struggling actor Phillip Stalworth breaks up with his girlfriend, he returns home to the Deep South to care for his ailing mother and unexpectedly falls for a local carpenter. Working through his past with his complicated family, some old high school chums, and the desperate characters who grace his hometown, Phillip ultimately finds his own voice as his mother is finally regaining hers.

Already an award-winning film, Counting for Thunder was inspired by writer Phillip Irwin Cooper’s personal experience and, like Augusten Burroughs, covers many of the universal themes of love, life, sex, and death with his own brand of gallows wit. Phillip’s three-year quest is a hero’s journey proving we truly can go home again to learn the lessons we should have mastered the first time around.

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Secrets in a Small Town

By Nicole Stiling

Small Town Romances
Children / Families
Women in Uniform
Enemies to Lovers Romance
Psychological Thriller
Bodyguard/Protection Romances
Police / Cops

Town manager Savannah Castillo has everything under control, just the way she likes it. But when she starts to receive unsolicited gifts and messages from a stranger, her life turns to chaos. Against her better judgment, Savannah accepts Deputy Chief Mackenzie Blake’s help in the investigation and is more than a little annoyed when Mackenzie suggests herself as a part-time, live-in bodyguard.

Savannah isn’t Mackenzie’s favorite person. She’s rude and entitled, and she always has to have the last word. Always. But when she and her daughter Eliana need help, protecting them becomes more than just a job. Mackenzie’s mission is to find the person harassing them before they cause real harm. Savannah’s fleeting and incredibly sexy smiles don’t make the task any easier, and there’s no time for distractions.

Not when someone waits in the shadows, watching and preparing to strike.

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Inheritors of Chaos

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 4
People of Color
Other Worlds
Space Opera

Naos has come to Calamity, and chaos has come with her. Cordelia had enough problems without teaming up with former enemies in order to defeat a mad goddess. And she doesn’t yet know that the Storm Lord has been resurrected in a new body. On the plains, the prophet Lydia is convinced that Fajir is the one chosen to stop a massive firestorm in the future, if only Fajir wasn’t so set on killing everyone around her.

With their murderous leader dead, hostilities have ceased among the drushka, but the long-living aliens are slow to adapt. The last thing they want is a drushkan king with powers none of them dreamed of before.

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The Do-Over

By Georgia Beers

Enemies to Lovers Romance

Fifteen years is a long time. Long enough to forget the past, forge ahead, and create a terrific life. Bella Hunt has done exactly that, complete with a successful career, a gaggle of close friends, and a home she loves. Life is good. 

Or it was, until her teenage nightmare and the bane of her high school existence shows up for Bella’s class on conflict resolution. Easton Evans, in all her pretty, blond, my-parents-are-surgeons glory, throws Bella into an existential tailspin as her unpleasant memories from her past come screeching back. Easton doesn’t even recognize Bella, and what’s worse, Easton is...different somehow. Softer, kinder. And still unfairly attractive. None of it computes in Bella’s head. She’s hated Easton for fifteen years, done her best to scrub the past away. But now here it is. The past. Sitting in her classroom and waiting for Bella to teach her how to resolve a conflict of the heart.

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A Wish Upon A Star

By Jeannie Levig

Children / Families
Homecoming
Friends to Lovers Romance
California
Disability
Animals 

Leslie Raymond spent the past two years wishing her life had taken a different turn. It’s time for a fresh start, a move across the country, and a new set of rules to help heal her heart—no straight women, no women with kids, and no commitment. But when she meets her new neighbors, the beautiful Erica and her special needs daughter, Siena, she struggles against the pull she immediately experiences.

Erica Cooper has learned to rely only on herself. She knows most people don’t stick around when the going gets tough. And when caring for a child with autism, the going can get tough fast. She is content with the quiet and emotionally safe life she’s constructed, but when they are befriended by their kind, playful, and—damn it—really hot new neighbor, the walls protecting her heart threaten to crumble.

So much for good intentions and firm resolutions—neither stand a chance when the stars align for love.

 

Praise from Lambda Literary Review: "Jeannie Levig has been putting out lesbian romances for a few years and is going from strength to strength with each book....A Wish Upon a Star is a perfect book if you’re looking for something a little different from the usual romance fare. While there’s plenty of chemistry between Leslie and Erica, there are no meet-cutes or perfect people to be found in it. Instead, Levig takes us on a journey of finding love that’s familial as well as romantic. If you haven’t read her before this would be an excellent place to start and fans of this author are sure to be pleased too."

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Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks

By 'Nathan Burgoine

Asexual/Aromantic
Disability
Young Adult
Magic
Time Travel
Non-Binary Gender

Being the kid abducted by crazy old Ms. Easton when he was four permanently set Cole’s status to freak. At seventeen, his exit plan is simple: make it through the last few weeks of high school with his grades up and his head down.

When he pushes through the front door of the school and finds himself eighty kilometers away holding the door of a museum he was just thinking about, Cole faces facts: he’s either crazier than old Ms. Easton, or he just teleported.

Now every door is an accident waiting to happen—especially when Cole thinks about Malik, who, it turns out, has a glass door on his shower. When he starts seeing the same creepy people over his shoulder, no matter how far he’s gone, crushes become the least of his worries. They want him to stop, and they'll go to any length to make it happen.

Cole is running out of luck, excuses, and places to hide.

Time for a new exit plan.

 

PRAISE for Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks:

"Burgoine (Of Echoes Born, 2018, etc.) has created a gay teen protagonist who is a bit goofy at times but who is comfortable in his own skin....Overall, a feel-good, contemporary read with strong LGBTQIAP rep and an unusual fantasy subplot." —Kirkus Reviews

"Burgoine uses science fiction elements to explore homosexuality, pansexuality, bisexuality, and gender nonconforming identity....Burgoine's immersive writing excels in the details, from the precise sensations Cole experiences at the onset of a teleport to the overwhelming intensity of his feelings for his friend Malik....VERDICT A definite purchase for any library collection." School Library Journal

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Gnarled Hollow

By Charlotte Greene

Amateur Sleuths
Close Quarters
Small Town Romances
Psychological Thriller
Ghosts

Unemployed English professor Emily Murray has been given a chance of a lifetime: to work and study inside Gnarled Hollow, the former estate of one of her favorite authors. She doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but by the end of her first day, she knows something is wrong. The house has a disturbing habit of changing dimensions—and not just physical ones. Rooms go missing, doors close on their own, and time has a strange tendency to disappear. Emily is joined by other scholars, among them the beautiful art historian, Juniper Friend. Together they begin to research the history of the house, refusing to abandon their work despite the appearance of a mysterious, frightening presence. Spurred on by their desire to uncover the mysteries of Gnarled Hollow and its ghostly inhabitant, they’re determined to uncover the truth, even if it means risking their own lives.

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Running Off Radar

By MB Austin

Military
A Maji Rios Novel | Book 2
People of Color
Federal Agents
Multicultural 

Covert operator Maji Rios's best friend was right: she was an idiot to break up with Professor Rose diStephano, even for the best reasons. When Rose offers her a week of R&R in Sitka, Alaska, she's ready to let Rose decide if a relationship is worth the danger. But her plans to win Rose back are interrupted when work intrudes, and duty calls Maji to help a SEAL team stop a Russian mobster from harvesting gold from the bottom of Sitka Sound. 

Rose knows Maji pushed her away to protect her. And she may forgive her, depending on how their week in Sitka goes. But when Maji is called into action on vacation, Rose realizes their love puts Maji in danger, too. Is that a choice she can live with?

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Saints+Sinners 2018

By Amie Evans and Others

Saints+Sinners

An anthology of short fiction featuring the finalist selections from the 2018 Saints+Sinners Literary Festival.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Stockyards Harlot by W. L. Hodge
  • Sand Angels by Jeremy Schnotala                                                            
  • Aloha, Ollie Bell by William “Chris” Smith                                                    
  • Frey and Gared by James Penha
  • Women and Children by Miranda Recht
  • Always Chasing the Serpent by Sarah Fonseca
  • The Widower by Vince Sgambati
  • Down Hawthorne Street by Mahin Ibrahim
  • When We Get Home by Dante Fuoco
  • Devoured by Andrew Schopp
  • Collecting Brass by Laura Steadham Smith                                                 
  • Mr. Darcy’s Pride by Jameson Currier
  • The Buried Bodies of Old Pompeii by J. Marshall Freeman
  • Old Friends by J. Michael Norris
  • Memorial at the Club New Orleans by Reed Vernon Waller 
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Children of the Healer

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 3
Space Opera
Other Worlds
People of Color

With the Storm Lord dead, Cordelia Ross and Simon Lazlo return to Gale, to normality, but when they find the populace poisoned by the drushka, it’s clear the aliens must be dealt with before life can be anything near normal. In the north, Patricia Dué takes control of Gale’s mine with Jonah, the servant she created in Dillon Tracey’s old body. She thinks controlling the humans’ only source of metal will bring her power, but her past won’t be banished so easily.

Amidst the chaos and conflict, a prophet predicts that true calamity is still to come, and the only way to stop it may be a murderous widow looking for revenge. As factions splinter and reconnect, the fate of Calamity lies uncertain, and even the prophets can’t see every ripple on the horizon.

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Arrival

By Gun Brooke

Exodus | Book Four
Space Opera
Military
Age Gap
Weddings
Other Worlds
Women in Uniform

The spaceship Pathfinder arrives at its destination, Gemocon, the new homeworld for the Oconodian/Gemosian people. Commander Pamas Seclan has spent the journey incognito amid the civilians. Traumatized by years of captivity, she is both apprehensive and eager to locate her now grownup children.

Darmiya Do Voy arrived at Gemocon with the advance fleet three years ago. Normally exuberant and positive, the brilliant scientist has burned out and lost her spark. Darmiya meets Pamas and their mutual attraction is intense. Pamas feels she is too old and damaged for Darmiya, but still can’t keep away. Darmiya is determined to persuade Pamas to give them a chance.

During Pathfinder’s massive landing procedures, President Tylio and her associates learn the hard way of the remaining terrorist cells. As the terrorists unscrupulously attempt to reach their objective, Darmiya fights to save Pamas who is toe-to-toe with her former captors.

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Strictly Need to Know

By MB Austin

A Maji Rios Novel | Book 1
Military
Multicultural 
People of Color
Bodyguard/Protection Romances
Federal Agents

When covert operator Maji Rios returns to her sleepy Long Island refuge after years of being anyone the Army needs her to be, all she wants is a quiet summer. Saving a gorgeous stranger from Russian mobsters on her first night home was not in her plans. Nor was waking up with her the next day, inside the notorious Benedetti family’s estate, already on the clock for her next mission.

One brush with danger can't scare Rose diStephano away from her last weeks with her favorite cousin, Angelo Benedetti. How hard could tagging along to Maji's martial arts camp be? Even if it means pretending that Maji is Angelo's girlfriend, rather than the woman she is falling in love with.

Maji will do whatever she must to complete her mission. Infiltrate enemy territory? Check. Protect civilians from blowback? Check. Keep Rose from getting too close? Ouch. 

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Time Will Tell

By M. Ullrich

Friends to Lovers Romance
Virgins/First Love
Time Travel

What would you do if you could go back in time and change your past? 

For Eva Caldwell that question is a no-brainer. After her parents were murdered while she was away at summer camp, Eva was placed into the custody of her abusive uncle and bullied in school. She’d gladly go back and change it all. When her uncle passes, Eva discovers he created a time machine. The problem with the once-hypothetical question becomes clear: changing the course of her past would mean giving up Casey McClellan, her best friend and the girl her heart has belonged to since she was twelve years old. 

Will Eva choose to save her parents’ lives or take a chance on the love of a lifetime?

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Where Love Leads

By Erin McKenzie

Friends to Lovers Romance
Second Chance at Love
Coming Out
Children / Families

Sarah O’Shaughnessy, a high school counselor, is very good at taking care of others. What she hasn’t mastered is how to take better care of herself. Four years after the death of her wife, Sarah’s life has settled into a safe, solitary rut. That is, until the arrival of a new student and her mom.
 
Lauren Emerson and her teen daughter, Kat, move back to Lauren’s hometown in Central New York, fleeing her unsupportive husband and Kat’s traumatic bullying experience. Lauren is determined to create a better life for them both. She soon discovers that the compassionate Ms. O’Shaughnessy is someone in whom she can confide.
 
The newly forged friendship between Sarah and Lauren provides support and encouragement, yet neither is prepared for the undeniable attraction that ignites between them. When the future looks like nothing they had planned, will they find the courage to go where love leads?

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Saints+Sinners 2017

By Paul Willis and Others

Saints+Sinners

An anthology of short fiction featuring the finalist selections from the 2017 Saints+Sinners Literary Festival.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Introduction by Michael Thomas Ford
  • Moonshine by Michael Chin
  • The Gay Restaurants of New York by William Moeck
  • The Gods Are Stacked Against Us by Sheila Morris
  • Jesus Year by Dale Corvino
  • Must Love Animals by Louis Flint Ceci
  • Temporary Adhesions by P.D. Walter
  • Leaves by James Penha
  • Curo The Filthmonger: A Tale of Art and Survival in the Cold Embrace of Outer Space by J. Marshall Freeman
  • Passing Through by John Morgan Wilson
  • Obituaries by Thomas Westerfield
  • The Fool by Ellis Anderson
  • Oni and Marie by Debra Curtis
  • Slaying the Dragon by W. C. Smith
  • Beauty Marks by David James Parr
  • Bear Food by Alise Wascom

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Widows of the Sun-Moon

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 2
Other Worlds
People of Color
Space Opera

Naos is bored. Alone in space, life should be idyllic. No more random thoughts intruding on her brain; no bodies clogging her senses. But what is there to do besides stare at the planet below and wonder what it would feel like to be Calamity’s only god?

War between the other gods shouldn’t be too hard to start. The Storm Lord has a bad temper, and after being abandoned by Simon Lazlo, source of immortality, he’s easy to provoke. And the Sun-Moon live closely with Calamity’s plains-dwelling people and their new neighbors, a pack of humans and aliens led by the intriguing ex-soldier Cordelia Ross. With a plague ravaging their numbers, it will be easy to set them at each other’s throats.

A little war, a bit of death, and the chance to be Calamity’s only deity? It’s a game to keep even the most fickle goddess entertained.

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Life in Death

By M. Ullrich

Reunion Romance
Second Chance at Love
Children / Families

Memories and scars are the signs of a life well lived, and more often than not our milestones are similar: love, a first home, marriage, and a child. The same goes for Marty and Suzanne Dempsey, but happy memories and years of a life built together weren't enough to help their relationship survive the terminal diagnosis of their only child, Abigail. Coping in their own ways, Marty and Suzanne drift apart and eventually divorce after one finds comfort in the arms of a stranger. The expected and devastating death of their daughter had seemingly severed any ties that remained between them, but an insightful letter from Abigail gives Marty the one thing that seemed so elusive before: Hope.

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Paladins of the Storm Lord

By Barbara Ann Wright

A Godfall Novel | Book 1
People of Color
Other Worlds
Space Opera

Surrounded by dead crewmates, marooned above an unknown planet, the bridge crew of the Atlas awakens from a crash with extraordinary mental abilities. When their most powerful member jettisons their passengers to the planet below, they have an unprecedented opportunity: they can become gods.

Two hundred years later, Lieutenant Cordelia Ross is a paladin serving the Storm Lord, her city’s patron deity. Her faith is absolute until her people are attacked by a native species, harmless creatures turned devious by an unknown hand. Cordelia tries to solve the mystery of their development before they kill anyone else, but the secrets surrounding them are too deep. As orders from the Storm Lord begin to value obedience over integrity, Cordelia wonders whose side her god is really on.

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