In a divided world plagued by oppression and persecution, a monster hunter and renegade mage must embark on a dangerous adventure to awaken a long-dormant dragon and challenge an all-powerful evil force.
Queen Morflava’s reign of terror seems unstoppable as the malevolent mage sows division and hate among humans and fae. With the Warlord Council disbanded and the Citadel destroyed in the devastating Mage Purge, the continent is desperate for a hero.
Cali, last of the Mancar War-Clan, final Apprentice of the Mecha-Mage, and survivor of the Mage Purge, can no longer ignore the call of her dying father’s last words. She must reclaim a powerful artifact said to be her birthright. An object capable of reawakening dragons and challenging Morflava’s rule.
On this perilous journey, Cali is pursued by the Queen’s army, led by her twin brother who betrayed her parents’ legacy by serving as enforcer for Morflava. This murderous horde will stop at nothing to prevent Cali from succeeding in her mission to overthrow the Queen.
But Cali isn’t alone, as an unlikely band of tenacious survivors and outcasts join her in taking on this perilous quest. As they trek over brutal mountains and desert landscapes, will the group of companions be able to resurrect a dragon and inspire a revolution of hope, or will the world be forever caught in the grip of despair under Morflava’s iron fist?
Fans of Wheel of Time, The Stormlight Archives, and Lord of the Rings will love this sweeping new epic fantasy adventure.
Meet E.S. Matthew
Inspired by his years teaching high school literature, E.S. Matthew writes retro-fantasy to rehabilitate the classic genre for modern young readers and contemporary adults. When he’s not teaching or writing, he cooks elaborate meals inspired by his favorite movies and books or accompanies his daughter on guitar for improvised Broadway numbers.
****Finalist in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards- Thriller Category**** All Aboard! Allow me to be your personal guide to Ludicrous, a whimsical and seemingly innocent town where not everything is as it seems. Take the butcher for instance. He’s a vegetarian. And there’s the exterminator, he’s positively petrified when it comes to bugs. However there’s also the decrepit mayor and his villainous wife with a dark secret… I invite you to follow along with Priscilla Pinwick, an uptight, rude and prideful woman, as she travels to this town. What could possibly go wrong? Includes a free preview of The Beast, a gripping and intense standalone thriller!
Meet Virginia Henderson
Virginia is a young, Christian author from Texas with a fascination for history, time travel, musicals and weaponry. She loves stories with shocking twists, believable characters and dramatic cliffhangers. As of now she has ten published books and hundreds of unwritten plots and storylines just begging to be told.
Deep inside every dream lies a door. It waits to be opened, but most never see it.
A world exists inside the minds of all who are aware. Chances are you’ve been there before, but surely you don’t remember.
For dreams are designed to be forgotten in the morning, and you have a real life to live.
The funny thing about real life though is that sometimes the assumed trivial and discarded things can hold the most fantastic opportunities.
The Academy of Zarmore only accepts students with this type of discernment. Follow Teddy Lancaster on his journey to the land outside of time, and discover ‘that which is unseen’.
Meet Johnny Rapp
Johnny Rapp was born and raised in California. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran, has been traveling off and on nomadically since 2015, and is fluent in Spanish.
This short story is an enchanting tale with a message for all ages, that real magic is not an illusion but something we all possess. “Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” —Goethe
The title of this story, “down the rabbit hole,” is of course from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), a wonderful children’s story by Lewis Carroll in which a charming young girl named Alice falls down a rabbit hole into a strange, dreamlike world. “It was much pleasanter at home,” thought Alice, “when one wasn’t always being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down the rabbit hole, and yet, and yet…”
“Down the rabbit hole” has become a term used for referring to a situation that is strange, confusing, or illogical, often mystical or magical, and, in this story, an encounter from which one will emerge with increased knowledge, widened horizons, enriched imagination, and a sense of greatly enlarged possibilities.
In Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass (1871), near the end of her encounter with the White Queen, Alice protests that “one can’t believe impossible things.” The White Queen famously retorts, “I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Unlike the White Queen, I do not advocate believing impossible things. But it is much to be hoped that this short story and the anthology that follows it will encourage the reader to consider all the possibilities and therefore believe at least one magical thing—perhaps even “before breakfast.”
This charming fantasy will have you and your children engaged and laughing. Even better, it will leave them with the message that they have within them all the spirit and magic they’ll ever need. Mystical, whimsical, and richly entertaining from the opening scene to the unexpected conclusion, this inspirational short story will transport you to a wonderful place and resound in your heart long after the last works have been read. For more information please see the ‘Look Inside’ feature on the book’s Amazon page. 2020 Edition Short Story. Includes a bonus Anthology Section, e-reader page count 97 (estimated, actual count varies depending on the reading device used). Thank you, and enjoy!
Meet M.G. Hawking
M.G. Hawking is an avid traveler, adventurer, and writer. Devoted to exploring remote areas of the globe to discover regions unknown to the Western world, always in search of extraordinary people and experiences, he has found many, especially in the Great Range of the Himalayas, the setting for most of his books. His focus is documenting profound wisdom traditions and revealing the knowledge and power they convey. Hawking is the author of the book series, ‘In The Valley of Supreme Masters,’ along with its associated companion volumes. When not traveling, he spends his time working on projects related to presenting books of an esoteric nature with his wonderful team in Northern California. Heather Cantrell, M.Litt., contributor and editor for Wisdom Masters Press, is an experienced world traveler. Having been born in Nepal to British parents who were teachers in various parts of Asia, she has extensive experience in the Himalayas, and is a devoted equestrian and animal lover. Amber Chellings, M.Phil., contributor and newsletter director, is an avid photographer, outdoor enthusiast and ardent equestrian. Jenna Wolfe, Ph.D., our exceptional research expert, contributor and book content supervisor, is a primary link to our numerous academic technical advisers.
This guide makes a serious and compelling case for exploring different ways to measure depression and how a sense of humor can and should be used to enhancement treatments of mental illness. This unique guide not only includes invaluable measurement tools for exploring new ways to measure depression, it is seriously funny.
Meet David M Jacobson
David Jacobson, LCSW, CHP is the Director of Behavioral Health Case Management at Banner University Medical Center South as well as a professional speaker. Prior to this he served as Chief of Social Work for the Veterans Administration supervising 18 programs and over 200 clinicians and other staff. Jacobson is a former board member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH) and graduated in the first class of the AATH Humor Academy as a Certified Humor Professional. He is author of “The 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Humorous People” which discussed using humor to cope with chronic pain, arthritis and other conditions. A second edition to this book is in process.
She needed a husband on short notice to save the ranch. They needed a ring to make it official, and his best pal just happened to have a real nice one handy. And they’re all about to get way more than they bargained for. Meredith Fayett needed to marry someone before the week was out or she would lose her ranch. It sounded simple, so ranch hand Chance Stevens agreed to take on the job, in spite of his friend Marty’s warnings that it could only lead to trouble. But even Marty, a loyal though opinionated sidekick, couldn’t have predicted the mayhem that ensues when his own eccentric relatives appear on the scene, dragging Chance, Marty, and Meredith into the latest skirmish in a long-running family feud. What follows is a hilarious tangle involving an emerald ring, a fearsome aunt, a scheming suitor, and a team of runaway mules—by the end of which Chance finds that even a marriage just on paper has its complications, and that it never hurts to have a good sidekick. If you love a good screwball romp in a homespun setting—think P.G. Wodehouse meets O. Henry—pick up A Sidekick’s Tale now and start laughing!
Meet Elisabeth Grace Foley
Elisabeth Grace Foley has been an insatiable reader and eager history buff ever since she learned to read, has been scribbling stories ever since she learned to write, and now combines those loves in writing historical fiction. She has been twice nominated for the Western Fictioneers’ Peacemaker Award, and her work has appeared online at Rope and Wire and The Western Online. When not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time outdoors, music, crocheting, and watching sports and old movies. She lives in upstate New York with her family and the world’s best German Shepherd.
PRANKS. OIL. PROTEST. JOKES BETWEEN NEWLYWEDS. AND ONE HILARIOUS SIEGE OF A MAJOR CORPORATION.
Remmy grows up with Beth in Bellhammer, Illinois as oil and coal companies rob the land of everything that made it paradise. Under his Grandad, he learns how to properly prank his neighbors, friends, and foes. Beth tries to fix Remmy by taking him to church. Under his Daddy, Remmy starts the Bell Hammer Construction Company, which depends on contracts from Texarco Oil. And Beth argues with him about how to build a better business. Together, Remmy and Beth start to build a great neighborhood of “merry men” carpenters: a paradise of s’mores, porch furniture, newborn babies, and summer trips to Branson where their boys pop the tops of off the neighborhood’s two hundred soda bottles. Their witty banter builds a kind of castle among a growing nostalgia.
Then one of Jim Johnstone’s faulty Texarco oil derricks falls down on their house and poisons their neighborhood’s well.
Poisoned wells escalate to torched dog houses. Torched dog houses escalate to stolen carpentry tools and cancelled contracts. Cancelled contracts escalate to eminent domain. Sick of the attacks from Texaco Oil on his neighborhood, Remmy assembles his merry men:
“We need the world’s greatest prank. One grand glorious jest that’ll bloody the nose of that tyrant. Besides, pranks and jokes don’t got no consequences, right?”
:: PRAISE FOR LANCELOT SCHAUBERT AND BELL HAMMERS ::
“Schaubert recounts a mischievous man’s eight decades in Illinois’s Little Egypt region in his picaresque debut. Remmy’s life of constant schemes and pranks and a lifelong feud with classmate Jim Johnstone and the local oil drilling company proves consequential. This is a hoot.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“BELL HAMMERS is written in a style not unworthy of John Kennedy Toole and William Faulkner – the vivid characterization of Southern ethnography commingled with stark, episodic spectacle breathes with the spirit of quintessential Americana. It is a text I would happily assign in an American Novel class and would expect it to yield satisfying discourse alongside works in the canon, whether beside the sardonic prose of Mark Twain or the energetically painful narratives of Toni Morrison.”
— Dr. Anthony Cirilla
“Schaubert’s words have an immediacy, a potency, an intimacy that grab the reader by the collar and say, ‘Listen, this is important!’ Probing the bones and gristle of humanity, Lancelot’s subjects challenge, but also offer insights into redemption if only we will stop and pay attention.”
— Erika Robuck, national bestselling author of Hemingway’s Girl
“Myth, regret, the lore of our heritage and the subtle displays of our castes — no one so accurately and imaginatively captures the joys and sorrows of life in the Midwest as Schaubert does here. BELL HAMMERS is a Tree Grows in Brooklyn as told by Gabriel Garcia Marquez if Marquez lived in rural Illinois and only told stories to his grandkids. Seriously a delight to read.”
— Colby Williams, author of the Axiom Gold Medal winning book Small Town, Big Money
“Loved BELL HAMMERS because Lancelot wrote about people who don’t get written about enough and he did it with humor, compassion, and heart.”
— Brian Slatterly, author of Lost Everything and editor of The New Haven Review
“I’m such a fan of Lancelot Schaubert’s work. His unique view and his life-wisdom enriches all he does. We’re lucky to count him among our contributors.”
— Therese Walsh, author of The Moon Sisters and Editorial Director of Writer Unboxed
Meet Lancelot Schaubert
Two excerpts of Lancelot Schaubert’s (lanceschaubert.org) debut novel BELL HAMMERS sold to The New Haven Review ( Yale’s Institute Library ) and The Misty Review, while a third excerpt was selected as a finalist for the last Glimmer Train Fiction Open in history. He has also sold poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to TOR (MacMillan), The Anglican Theological Review, McSweeney’s, Poker Pro’s World Series Edition, The Poet’s Market, Writer’s Digest, and many similar markets.
Spark + Echo chose him for their 2019 artist in residency, commissioning him to write four short stories.
He has published work in anthologies like Author in Progress, Harry Potter for Nerds, and Of Gods and Globes — the last of which he edited and featured stories by Juliet Marillier (whose story was nominated for an Aurealis award), Anne Greenwood Brown, Dr. Anthony Cirilla, LJ Cohen, FC Shultz, and Emily Munro. His work Cold Brewed reinvented the photonovel for the digital age and caught the attention of the Missouri Tourism Board who commissioned him to write and direct a second photonovel, The Joplin Undercurrent, in partnership with award-winning photographer, Mark Neuenschwander.
He remains a committed husband to the grooviest girl on earth and is a public advocate for more free range trees. You know, Ents.
Famous literary critic, George Dixon, is found dead. The murder weapons are several manila folders. The killer might be one person or a committee. This guy had more enemies than Julius Caesar. The only witness is PI Claire DeNardo, who spotted Iola Taylor, well-known author, fleeing the scene of the crime. Too bad earlier that day Iola became Claire’s client. When Iola insists she was merely in the wrong place, wrong time, Claire sets out to discover the truth. Hampering her investigation is the involvement of Michael Bucanetti, the notorious gangster Claire tangled with in previous cases. He’s throwing his mobster weight around and it may crush the life out of Claire and everyone she cares about. As the body count rises and the danger mounts, Police Detective Brian Corrigan pressures Claire to step back from the case and step up their romance. But can’t a girl have it all? And stay alive?
Meet Carole Fowkes
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where my cozy mystery series, The Terrified Detective, takes place. After living for a time in Tampa and Chicago, I settled in Dallas, Texas, with my husband, Greg. Although my jobs have been in nursing and training, I’ve been writing for many years. I began by writing short stories of unusual, weird, or downright scary situations. When I switched to novels, my natural choice was to write mysteries since I have very happy memories of watching whodunits with my mother.
Award-winning novelist and cultural critic Strobe Witherspoon interrogates his own profession. It goes terribly.
“Wildly entertaining …Sometimes sad and sometimes hilarious, Witherspoon’s timely metafictional novel explores the ways (mis)information can shape public discourse in the digital media age.” – Booklife by Publishers Weekly
”Strikingly original …an innovative literary experiment that supplies a thoughtful commentary on the ‘discourse virus’ of our age …Witherspoon tackles a broad spectrum of media, including comically scathing excerpts from tweets, podcasts, blogs, and even academic journals and also keenly exposes the ways in which Strobe, the character, is implicated in his own online assault, due to his obsessive attachment to public life.” – Kirkus Reviews
OOF explores the role of satire in a society lurching from one ridiculous crisis to the next, where media outlets rely on clicks to stay alive and everything is filtered through a lens of anger and misinformation.
———— Strobe Witherspoon just sold his latest satirical novel for a lot of money. The book in question, FLOTUS: A Memoir, is a fictitious autobiography about a former first lady of the United States reflecting on years of misery at the hands of her much older POTUS husband. When a chapter is leaked in advance of the book’s publication, an Online Outrage Fiesta (OOF) ensues via news outlets, blogs, Twitter, troll farms, and everything in between. Witherspoon has his life placed under a microscope. Family secrets are exposed. Now, an anthology has been put together to document Witherspoon’s downfall—and settle the score. ————
”an impressive achievement of unflinching honesty from a noteworthy talent, as resonant and relevant as it is entertaining …OOF tugs at the threads that connect American cynicism with radical extremism and weaves a character-rich tapestry of insight …Each voice, whether of a New Yorker journalist or an Internet influencer, is rendered with uncanny fidelity. Perhaps most masterful is that key events are not depicted but merely alluded to, allowing the text to provide an elegant framework for a more personal story painted almost invisibly in the negative space.”– BlueInk Review
Meet Strobe Witherspoon
Witherspoon’s first novel, furtl, was a 2014 Kirkus Reviews book of the year selection. The absurd near future of that novel became not-so-absurd one year later.
What would happen if a politician decided to tell the truth—the whole truth? Richard Youngblood, aspiring Congressman, is about to find out. He’s running on a platform of honesty and transparency—and against the advice of his friends and advisers he’s decided to start with himself. His autobiography will lay his entire life bare before voters just days before the election. And what a life he’s had. Born in a commune and named Richard Milhous Nixon Youngblood as an angry shot at his absent father, Richard grows up in the spotlight, the son of an enigmatic fugitive and the grandson of a Republican senator. He’s kidnapped and rescued, kicked out of college for a prank involving turkeys, arrested in Hawaii while trying to deliver secrets to the CIA…Dick Nixon Youngblood’s ready to tell all. He’ll even tell his readers about the Amandas—three women who share a name but not much else, and who each have helped shape and define the man he’s become. Are voters really ready for the whole truth? Are you? Pianist in a Bordello is a hilarious political romp through the last four decades of American history, from a narrator who is full of surprises.
Meet Mike C. Erickson
Mike C. Erickson grew up in the idyllic college town of Logan, Utah, but because of a twist of fate he graduated from high school in Honolulu. He left Hawaii brimming with aloha and enrolled at Utah State, where he was awarded two degrees and self-proclaimed minor intellectual status, which was of dubious value when the US Army invited him to vacation in South-East Asia. Ten days after leaving Vietnam, he began decades of dispensing pearls of wisdom as a high school history teacher, academic decathlon coach, and on occasion, as a community college instructor in the Sacramento area. Mike and his wife Trudy, have two grown sons and a grandson born soon after this novel is published. When not in Hawaii or another exotic locale, they live in Gold River, California. This is his first novel.
