Octo Sapiens     Author: John Andrew Karr Release Date: December 2023 Description:   This is a speculative paranormal mystery from author John Andrew Karr.   Paranormal investigator Lars Kelsen is recruited again by a murder victim's ghost and discovers a town of hybrid beings--half human and half octopus--as well as a new murder weapon in the form of a gargantuan octopus.   Octo Sapiens are hybrid beings living in only a few coastal towns of the American seaboard. Though half-human and half-octopus, they are not monsters. The massive guardian summoned from the lost city of Atlantis...

      Counterblow Clemency     Author: Naomi Shibles Release Date: December 2023 Description:   Counterblow Clemency is a young adult science fiction story from Naomi Shibles.   Promo City is blazing with advertising pollution, but all sixteen-year-old Bjorn Bear cares about is having fun, until the city’s deadliest assassins attack him. With his motley gang of friends by his side, Bjorn must evade a crime boss with a vendetta, overcome genetically-engineered mini hippos, and race against time to discover and stop whoever is out to get him—all while facing the possibility that the only family he’s ever known...

      Blurring The Lines (Again)     Author: Brad Center Release Date: December 2023 Description:   Blurring the Lines is a collection of stories that twist and re-shape reality - a reality that is not quite ours but exists in the land of "What If". Here you'll find a mix of speculative fiction and horror blended together in the cauldron of imagination.  These stories may lead you to some dark places, but don’t worry we will make the journey together and we will see what’s on the other side.

      Passions Uncovered: Los Jefes Del Mundo     Author: Carmalisa Ford Release Date: December 2023 Description:   Passions Uncovered: Los Jefes Del Mundo is a romance mystery from author Carmalisa Ford.   This book continues the story of The Love He's Always Wanted first. Vince has a serious obsession with Bianca's best friend. The more he hangs out with Destiny, the more his feelings for her come to a head. Plus, he learns Destiny is keeping a secret from Bianca. One that will shock his best friend. What is it that secret, you ask? Will Vince ever...

FANTASY  

      Hastings Street: Boulevard of Blues     Author: Theo Czuk Release Date: December 2023 Description:   The ’20s are roaring. Jazz is igniting the speakeasies. Prohibition is spawning gangs and the industrial revolution is aflame with union wars! America is caught between the forces of progression and digression. And the neighborhood of The Black Bottom was ground zero for Detroit’s contribution to this mêlée.   It all comes to an apex as our hero, Kaleb Kierka, digs himself out of the amnesia of a violent beating. And the more he digs, the more he uncovers his personal unsavory history....

      Ironblood     Author: Mord McGhee Release Date: November 2023 Description:   IRONBLOOD is a historical saga exploring the raw and complicated story of America’s industrial legacy, which gives voice to humanity’s worst fears yet displays our greatest hopes. A story told through the eyes of characters from various cultures and countries after the American Civil War, pitted against one another amidst the rise of steelmaking empires.   Pearl, a recently freed slaves formerly living on the run. Earl, who falls in love with her at first sight. Hans, a recent immigrant from Germany, with a murderous...

      Beneath the Hazel Crown     Author: Anna Kirkup Release Date: November 2023 Description:   ‘She wouldn’t let her friends turn into murderers. Wouldn’t let them do what she had done.’   The comfort of returning to her human home is only temporary for 17 year old Elara Anderson. With barely enough time to come to terms with her new reality, a summons from Forneus has her catapulted back into the witchy world of Felicia. A grand tour to display the new ‘darling’ of the Council means gowns and jewellery galore… and a kidnapping.   Twisted corruption...

a) Don’t use dead language - Toni Morrison     b) Use concrete imagery when you write about large, abstract themes - Wislawa Szymborska     c) Work stories out in your head when you can’t write - Alice Munro     d) Read and draw on wide influences but don’t cram your work with others’ ideas - Wole Soyinka     e) Make people believe in your story first and foremost - Gabriel Garcia Marquez     f) Don’t focus on the end goal excessively as you write - John Steinbeck     g) Make sure you write regularly...

  Characters are the heartbeat of almost every story. They generally have two different purposes in a narrative: to be human enough for your readers or audience to identify with them and to contribute to the meaning or message intended by the author. Coming up with characters is as simple as looking to our subject matter and asking ourselves who might be expected to be involved. But that only creates the expected characters -predictable and uninteresting. Making these characters intriguing, unusual, and memorable is a different task altogether.     Look at the subject matter and see what characters could...