June 2015

Your Guide to
Self-Publishing
DIY Audiobooks
Book Design Dos
and Donts
Reviews Roundup
41 New Titles Listed

KS

IND

UDIOBO
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O
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INDIE AUDIO

DIY Audiobooks
Just dont do it all yourself
By Ryan Joe

o you want to enliven your

self-published book with a
rousing audio edition? To
hear your work performed
is an exciting prospect, but,
before you get too deep into the weeds,
understand that creating, marketing,
and distributing an audiobook on
your own will require a considerable
commitment.
In other words: it can get really expensive really quickly, and the return on
investment isnt guaranteed because
audio editions can be difficult to sell. If
youre like most authors, you need serious support for every facetfrom narration through production, all the way to
marketing and distribution.
Its a big endeavor,
says Tyson Cornell, the
founder of the small press
Rare Bird Books and the
boutique marketing and
promotions shop Rare
Bird Lit. Cornells background in the music and
literary industries gives
him familiarity with the
worlds of publishing and Tyson Cornell
audio production. Its
more than setting up a mike and doing
a podcast, he says. People get into
their own heads really quickly. They
think: I dont need expertise, and if I
have someone helping me, Im getting
scammed.

Seek Out Services

There are many companies and individuals that offer some or all the
services needed to self-publish an
audiobook. Whatever you decide to
dowhether to let a single company

produce and distribute your audiobook

or to enlist the talent and expertise la
cartedepends on your needs, your
budget, and sometimes even the genre
of your book. Certainly the Audiobook
Creation Exchange (ACX), hosted by
Amazon-owned Audible, is the go-to
marketplace for finding talent to help
narrate, produce, and distribute selfpublished audiobooks.
Of course, the ACX site is the prevailing way for a self-published author to
hire a narrator, says Debra Deyan, cofounder of the Deyan Institute, a school
to train audiobook narrators, and head of
the production company Deyan Audio
Services.
ACX connects authors to three tremendous buying platforms:
Amazon, Audible, and Apples iTunes. And while its
true that ACX is still the goto for indie authors interested
in creating audiobooks, many
e-book publishers have developed audio production services. Heres a look at some
notable providers.
Deyan Audio Services
The name Deyan is legendary in audiobook circles. Deyan Audiowhich was
cofounded by Debra Deyan and her late
husband, Bob Deyanoffers complete
audiobook production at $400 per
finished hour (i.e., an hour of fully
produced audio) and offers over 1,000
actors.
For authors who simply need help
with editing and mastering, Deyan
Audio charges $100 per finished hour for
editing and $25 per finished hour for
mastering.

32 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

Dog Ear Publishing

Dog Ear is a small business, says Miles
Nelson, cofounder of the Indianapolisbased company. We take the approach
that were the high-end boutique guys.
The same can be said for the companys
audiobook production arm, which Nelson concedes is still a small part of Dog
Ears overall business. For $1,600, the
author can read her own work. Dog Ear
provides a recorder and direction over the
telephone. It also provides the editing
and mastering services in-house as well
as the ISBN and distribution services.
It gets a bit pricier if the author wants
to use one of the professional narrators
Dog Ear sources from the Indianapolis
area: the rate can be north of $4,600 depending on the length of the book.
EBookIt
EBookIts initial foray into audiobook
production simply meant running a book
through a text-to-speech offering. Clientsmostly nonfiction authorsliked
it. But the company changed its model
after founder Bo Bennett had his book
professionally narrated. Once we heard
that, we couldnt listen to the computergenerated ones, says company president
Ryan Levesque. We scrapped that and
went with the human narration.
The company now maintains a stable
of seven voice actors, whose prices range
between $150 and $350 per finished
hour. For a $149 services fee and 15% of
net sales, eBookIt manages the entire
project, which includes obtaining the
required ISBN, developing the actual
audiobook files, and creating an audiobook cover image from the e-book.
Because the final price varies based on
options the author chooses, eBookIt has
an online calculator to help authors figure out the services they want and the
associated costs in advance.

INDIE AUDIO
Infinity Publishers
When Arthur Gutch started at Infinity
Publishers, its AudioBrite arm did production work for large publishing houses
such as Hachette. Gutch, now the chairman, wanted to focus more on indie authors, and Infinity offers two services
catering to that smaller group. The first
is unabridged audio production through
Infinitys Spoken Books Publishing unit,
which releases both CDs and digital files
via Audible and iTunes.
The basic services include script preparation and contact with the narrator, plus
recording, editing, proofing, mastering,
publishing, and distribution. Depending
on word count, the cost can run $4,000
to $5,000 or more. Additional
services include abridgment
($599 per 10,000 words),
sending audio copies to reviewers ($25), and hour-long
phone consultations ($250).
For $649, Infinitys OneHour Audio option will
abridge a book, distilling it P.J. Ochlan
into an hour-long listening
experience. Its more attuned to nonfiction work, but, for shorter novels, it also
applies, Gutch says.

out, narrators on ACX double as audiobook producerswhich is why authors

need to assess production quality as well
as performance.
This leads to another important consideration: payment. That is,
deciding whether to offer a
royalty share or a flat per-finished-hour fee. And its up to
the narrator to decide whether
to accept. If your book is already out there in an e-book or
something, you should be able
to tell the narrator what your Robert Fass
sales are like, Heller says.
Not free downloads: sales. Is there profit potential for the narrator?
If sales arent greator if an
e-book hasnt been releasedit
might be difficult to convince a
professional narrator to agree on
a royalty-share model. Narrator
Jeffrey Kafer says there is no
solid cutoff: If the author is
selling a thousand a month on
Kindle, yup, Ill do a royalty
share. But is 500 a month a
good number? Probably. Two hundred?
It depends how much risk a narrator
wants to take. Other considerations,
Kafer says, are an authors social media
presence, promotion efforts, and prolifiFinding Your Narrator
cacy. New releases, after all, can spur
These high-touch services naturally
sales of the back catalogue.
arent for everybody. Many authors would
Of course, paying on a per-finishedprefer to handpick their own talent.
hour basis is a different story. Get a realACX remains the most comprehensive
tool for this, allowing authors to listen to
istic estimate of the total running time,
recorded samples of prospective narrators
veteran narrator Robert Fass says. Thats
and request auditions.
critical. Running time should be based
Choose the audition selecon word count because the varition from your book wisely,
ability of margins and font
narrator P.J. Ochlan says. For
sizes makes page count unreliinstance, it shouldnt be longer
able. It youve got 100,000
words, you can count on a 10than five to seven minutes or
hour finished audio product,
1,000 words. And it may be
Fass says, adding that it often
good to pick something that
takes a professional two hours
features dialogue between key
to create one finished hour.
characters, he adds. And if Johnny Heller
Another thing to keep in
your book requires special
mind is that theres a pricing floor for hirskills such as accents, make certain
ing members of SAG-AFTRA as readers.
theyre in the narrators wheelhouse.
The minimum rates are negotiable but
Additionally, as both Ochlan and awardtypically begin at $200 per finished hour,
winning narrator Johnny Heller point

according to a union
spokesperson, plus a 13%
contribution to the guilds
health and retirement fund. That said,
narrators are free to set their own, higher
rates, the spokesperson says.
Additionally, Kafer urges indie authors to relax and let the
professionals do their jobs.
One of the big things that authors do is they feel they need to
direct or micromanage, Kafer
says. Ive heard horror stories
where the narrator submits the
book and gets a spreadsheet of a
thousand things the author didnt like.
Thats the worst thing an author can do.
I understand this is your baby, but you
hired the narrator for a reason. You have
to let go of your baby and let the professional you hired do their job.

Ryan Joe is a writer and editor living in New

York.

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

33

BOOK DESIGN

Top Five Book Layout Mistakes

How indie authors can avoid book design pitfalls
BY JOEL FRIEDLANDER

ith more and more

authors taking the
production of their
books into their
own hands, more
and more of those books look... strange.
Thats not a good thing for either authors
or their readers.
Book design used to be a pretty arcane
branch of graphic design, pursued by a
handful of practitioners, many of whom
were employed by typesetters and publishing houses. Like many other specialties, only the insiders knew or cared
about the intricacies of long-form typography and all the small nuances that go
into creating beautiful books.
Along with editors, these professionals
made sure that the books they produced
conformed to long-established publishing industry standards. Thats important
when youre sending your book to store
or chain buyers, to media bookers, to reviewers, or to anyone who is used to looking at traditionally published books as
part of her job.
So, it really behooves authors who decide to become DIY publishers to educate
themselves as to how books are supposed
to look, how they are constructed, and
what book professionals expect to see. As
my father used to say, it doesnt cost any
more to print a book thats properly designed and laid out than it does to print
one thats a typographic train wreck, so
why not do it right the first time?
Lets take a look at the mistakes that
seem to occur most frequently when selfpublished authors decide to do their own
book formatting and how to save yourself
the embarrassment of making these mistakes in the first place:
1. Blank right-hand pages: Its very
common, especially in nonfiction books,
to have blank left-hand pages, and theres

nothing wrong with that. This occurs

naturally if your chapters always open on
right-hand pages. But if youve designed
your book to use a two-page spread as
your chapter opening (for instance, with
an illustration on the left-hand page and
text on the right-hand page), you run the
risk of having a blank right-hand page
immediately preceding the spread (since
theres no guarantee that the preceding
chapter will end on a right-hand page).
This is a no-no in book layout. We never
want to have a blank right-hand page. To
solve it, either adjust the typography, or
have quotations or artwork on hand that
will augment the message of your book,
and put those on the otherwise-blank
right-hand page.
2. Folios running rampant: We need
folios (thats what book designers call
page numbers) on most of the pages in
our book, but not all. Remember to turn
off page numbering for the title page, the
copyright page, any blank pages, any
display pages like part-openers, and
any advertising pages at the end of the
book.
3. Running heads misbehaving: This
seems to be a challenge for a lot of amateur
book formatters. If a page is blankand
there are usually going to be a number of
blank pages in your booktechnically its
not part of the text. After all, theres no text
on the page, is there? A blank page should
be just that: blank, with nothing on it at all.
By the same token, those display pages
mentioned above shouldnt have running
headstext at the top of the page that lists
title, author, chapter, etc.on them either.
Yet many books Ive seen from self-publishers show that the author just didnt know
that, or didnt know how to turn the running heads offand nothing looks worse to
me than a chapter-opening page with a running head on it.

34 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

4. Ragged composition: Heres another

oddity you may never have seen before. Of
course, there are books that can be typeset
in a rag-right style to good effect. (This
means the type is unjustified, so the righthand margin is uneven, unlike most
books, the margins of which are perfectly
squared away on both sides of the type
column.) Examples include art, architecture, poetry, photo books, and similar illustrated worksbut not memoirs, novels, histories, or other standard trade
books. Whatever the merit of rag-right
composition, these books arent a good
place for it. Stick with justified copy.
5. Odd-numbered pages on the left:
Okay, I saved the best for last. Or is that
the worst? Just think about this for a moment. When you open a book, the very
first page you see is p. 1. There is no
logical way that p. 1 can be on the left,
because then it wouldnt be the first
page. This is an ironclad rule in book
layout: all odd-numbered pages in your
book should be right-hand pages. Make
sure you get this right.
There are a lot of other ways your book
might inadvertently signal that youre a
design amateur, but these five errors,
once you know about them, are easy to
avoid. You want your book to stand out for
your great writing, thoughtful arguments,
or the tremendous value it brings to readers, not because it looks unprofessional.
Remember, if you want your book to
be taken seriously, its important that you
take book design and layout just as seriously. And, if this seems disturbingly
detailed, you can always hire a professional book designerand make sure
that everyone who holds a copy of your
book in their hands will recognize, consciously or unconsciously, that it has been
properly constructed, providing a comfortable experience for your readers.
Joel Friedlander is a book designer and author;
he blogs about book design, marketing, and the
future of the book at thebookdesigner.com.

SELFPUBLISHED LISTINGS

New Titles
from Self-Publishers
Booksellers, publishers, and agents are encouraged to look at the 41 self-published titles
listed below, with descriptions provided by their authors. If you are a self-published author
interested in listing titles in this section, please visit publishersweekly.com/pw-select for
more information.
FICTION
Deep Fried and Pickled: The Rachael
OBrien Chronicles, Book 1
Paisley Ray. Paisley Ray.
$2.99 e-book (415p), ASIN
B00AABHU70
Amazon, Audible
Rachael OBriens
freshman plans seem simple:
attend a Southern college and meet cute
guys. Unraveling an art fraud scheme
conflicts with Rachaels to-do list,
sending her on a misadventure.

Once We Were Friends

Bryan Mooney.
CreateSpace. $9.99 paper
(269p), ISBN 978-1-51153266-2
Amazon, BN.com
A writer looks back to
growing up in the Midwestgrowing up
with a serial killer. His best friend, and
then he had to track him down... It all
went back to the summer of 59. If only...

A Veil of Fog and Flames

Lori Hart Beninger. OnTrack Publishing.
$14.95 paper (363p), ISBN 978-09856897-3-5
Amazon, Apple iBooks,
BN.com, Copia, Kobo,
A book about two young
lives in San Francisco in
1851, their stories woven
into the fabric of a city that
forgesand breaksrules
as it pleases.

The Mother of Invention

Nina Miller. Wasteland
Press. $14.99 paper, ISBN
978-1-68111-028-8
Amazon, BN.com, Ingram
This novel explores
issues of friendship, loss,
aging, the risks of fracking, illness, marriage, and all set in a college community.

Pianist in a Bordello
Mike C. Erickson, illus. by
Katelyn Schirmer. TryRhyme Publications. $1.99
e-book (284p), ASIN
B00SC6RSAO
Amazon
This is the funny, satirical, story of a
man named after Richard Nixon whose
colorful life sucks him into politics.

Wai-nani:
Voice from Old Hawaii
Linda Ballou. Star Publish.
$19.95 paper, ISBN 9781-932993-88-2
Apple iBooks, Audible
Wai-nani transports you
into the wild heart of ancient Hawaii.

Not to Mention a Nice Life

Sean Murphy. Bright Moments Books.
$14.99 paper, (360p), ISBN 978-09898805-1-0
Amazon
A sardonic take on the
demands and dubious
spoils of our postmodern
rat race. Its a compelling,
comical look at what we
sacrifice in order to scaleor straddle
the corporate ladder.

Song of the Shaman

Annette Vendryes Leach. MindPress
Media. $13.95 paper (258p) ISBN 978-09894912-0-4
Amazon, Apple iBooks,
Audible, BN.com, Kobo,
A single mothers mystical son takes her from the
streets of New York City
to the shamans in the rain
forests of Central America to discover a
hidden past she never dreamed existed.

Treasures and Travails: An Anthology

Chuma Mbaeyi. Xlibris. $15.99 paper,
ISBN 978-1-5035-6861-7; $24.99 hardcover, ISBN 978-1-5035-6859-4
Amazon, BN.com
A collection of poems
exploring popular themes
of love, romance, hope,
despondency, conflict,
contradictions, and the
inspiration that comes
from nature.

POETRY

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

35

SELFPUBLISHED LISTINGS

MYSTERY/THRILLER
1884 No Boundaries: A Story of Espionage and International Intrigue
A.E. Wasserman. Archway
Publishing. $23.99 paper
(367p), ISBN 978-1-48081652-7
Amazon, BN.com,
Ingram
An Englishman and his
lovesick German friend are thrown into a
life-or-death pursuit of spies, killers, and
assassins.
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt:
A Jenna James Legal Thriller
Linda S. Prather. Linda S. Prather. 99
e-book (351p), ISBN 978-0-98591834-7
Amazon, Apple iBooks, BN.com,
Draft2Digital, Kobo,
Assistant DA Jenna
James took an oath to
uphold the law, administer
justice, deter crime, and
ensure the safety of the
community. Lies, deceit,
and murder tempt her to cross the lines.
A Book About a Film
Calen Sifferman. CreateSpace. $13.40
paper (268p), ISBN 978-1-5085-9593-9
Amazon, Baker & Taylor,
Ingram
A thriller about the
Cornfield People, a secret
society that knows the
meaning of life and what
comes after death.
Dead Money Run
J. Frank James. CreateSpace. $13.25
paper (302p), ISBN 978-1-4910-9379-5
Amazon
Lou Malloy meets a
young and beautiful PI,
Hilary Kelly, and together
they fight to keep their
freedom and $15 million
in mob money, and to find
those responsible for his
sisters death.

Missing Melissa
Alretha Thomas. Diverse Arts Collective.
$2.99 e-book, ASIN B00XKNBZQC;
$9.95 paper (312p), ISBN 978-0-69241610-5
Amazon
A young woman in
search of her missing twin
discovers the unimaginable.
Nightfall: A Chase Dagger Mystery
Lee Driver. Full Moon Publishing. $26
hardcover (308p), ISBN 978-0-98886836-6
Amazon, Ingram
The body count is rising.
Chase Dagger sees a connection to Paul Addison,
who wreaked havoc during
a full moon on a Friday the
13th. But Addison died in a fire. Or did
he?
OHenry: A Josh Ingram Novel
T.G. Brown. Thriller Reads. $2.99
e-book (432p), ISBN 978-1-92802900-7; $10.75 paper (432p),
ISBN 978-1-928029-01-4
Amazon
OHenry, a serial killer
who once plagued New York
City, has resurfaced. Josh
Ingram has no way of knowing that his
journey will put his closest of friends in
harms way.
The Oracle of Baal:
A Mick Chandra Mystery
(Mick Chandra Mysteries, Book 4)
Rebecca Yount. Rebecca Yount. $3.99
e-book (298p), ASIN B00JKT2YUQ
Amazon, BN.com
In the Oracle of Baal,
Scotland Yard Det. Insp.
Mick Chandra must
expose a self-help group as
a cult.

SF/FANTASY/HORROR
Assassins Wall
Amanda Dubin. Amanda Dubin. $4.99

36 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

e-book (288p), ISBN 9780-615-94865-2

Amazon, Apple iBooks,
BN.com, Google, Kobo
In a Paris train station,
Lexi Peters makes a startling discovery that sends
her on a life and death journey, bringing
together a group of people who all have a
secret.
Day of the Dragonking
(Book 1 of the Last American Wizard)
Terry Irving, illus. by Tom Joyce. Ronin
Robot Press. $13.99 paper, ISBN 978-09860873-4-9; $2.99 e-book (306p),
ASIN B00UZUAL9U
Amazon
Mystics release magic
into America. Steve
Rowanan unwilling
wizardis drafted to fight
them in a D.C. where the
Tarot lives, statues walk,
and elves sit in the Oval
Office
The Ghost Box: A Reagan Moon Novel
Mike Duran. Blue Crescent Press. $10.89
paper, ISBN 978-0-9909077-1-8; $3.99
e-book, ASIN B00PFV0QRG
Amazon
Hardboiled PI Reagan
Moon must stop a brilliant
occultist from opening a
dimensional portal in
downtown L.A.

ROMANCE/EROTICA
Forever Grace
Linda Poitevin. Michem Publishing.
$12.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-9919958-3-7
Amazon, Apple iBooks, BN.com, Book
Depository, Chapters/
Indigo, Kobo
Sean McKittricks
neighbor is hiding something. Seans cop instincts
kick in, but as he digs for
the truth, the line between
professional concern and personal interest
becomes blurred.

SELFPUBLISHED LISTINGS
If Tomorrow Never Comes
(Harper Falls, Book 2)
Mary J. Williams. Mary J. Williams.
$2.99 e-book (288p), ASIN
B00YISB98M
Amazon
Love has a way of
catching up with you. Dani
and Alex are getting a
second chance at their happily ever after. Now they
just have to be strong enough to take it.

INSPIRATIONAL
A Season of Miracles: Artful & Poetic
Devotions
Aliza McCracken. Aliza
McCracken & Associates/
Grace Publishing Group.
$29.95 paper, ISBN 9780-9667291-5-3
BN.com, Russos Books
In this delightful vignette of drawings
and poems, Aliza shares her faith in the
creative process, and her love for others.
Alizas gracious prose celebrates everyday
miracles!

NONFICTION
The Becoming Years 18 to 28: The Ten
Years It Takes to Get Over Being a Kid
George Wray AlphaGraphics. $24 paper
(332p), ISBN 978-0-990-3721-0-3
Thebecomingyears.com,
Amazon
This conversational book
is for keen and striving
young people between ages
18 and 28and for those
wandering and wondering.
Good Decisions Most of the Time:
Because Life Is Too Short Not to Eat
Chocolate
Danielle Brooks. Aviva
Publishing. $9.99 e-book
(418p), ISBN 978-1938686-62-7; $27.59
hardcover (418p), ISBN
978-1-938686-63-4
Amazon
Discover fun informative facts about
foods, enjoy over 40 delicious recipes, and

become empowered to self-govern more

effectively around food.

jogging. 53 illustrations.

Manners in Rwanda: Basic Knowledge on Rwandan Culture, Customs,

and Kinyarwanda Language
Joy Nzamwita Uwanziga. Inkwater Press.
$25.95 paper (368p), ISBN 978-162901-254-4
Amazon
This book is light in
tone, often humorous, and
includes everything you
will meet in terms of challenges and general wonderment when embarking on a surreal
journey to Rwanda.

Assume the Position: Memoirs of an

Obstetrician & Gynecologist
Richard Houck. CreateSpace. $7.99
e-book (413p), ISBN 9781-5076-6117-8
Amazon, Audible
The life story, education, training, and medical
and personal life of an
obstetrician and gynecologist are presented in vivid detail and
punctuated with lively patient vignettes.

The Simple Questions: Slice Open

Everyday Life
Jean Yeager. WestBow Press. $11.95
paper, ISBN 978-1-4908-7124-0
Th3simplequestions.com, Amazon, BN.
com, Kobo
Powerfully written and
creative, the 45 chapters or
slices in this book are
evocative, insightful,
poetic, crisp, whimsical,
and affirm the universal
human spirit.
Time Flies
Alexander Kaufman.
Intervale Publishing.
$17.99 paper (230p),
ISBN 978-0-692-38640-8
Timeflies-book.com,
Amazon, BN.com
A collection of short stories.
UFO Space Craft Identification Manual:
How to Contact a UFO Space Craft for
Information and Knowledge
David Campione, illus. by Joseph Campione. CreateSpace. $6.95 paper (96p),
ISBN 978-1-5055-6789-2
Amazon
How to contact friendly
UFO space craft and protect yourself while in vehicles, homes, boats, airplanes, or just walking or

BIO/AUTOBIO

Humans, Dogs, and Civilization

Elaine Ostrach Chaika, illus. by Janet
Croog. BookBaby. $15.95 paper (265p),
ISBN 978-1-63192-679-2
Amazon, Baker & Taylor, BN.com,
Ingram
Without dogs, there
would be no civilization.
This is also a memoir of my
life with dogs. Their
exploits prove or disprove
scientific findings.
Life, Love, and a Hijacking:
My Pan Am Memoir
Wendy Knecht. CreateSpace. $10.99
paper (208p), ISBN 978-1-5025-2349-5
Amazon BN.com
This book is an
insightful, hilarious, sometimes-seat-gripping look at
the adventures of an ebullient flight attendant, who
flew for the worlds most
iconic airline, Pan Am.
The Road Behind Me:
The Lie of Hannah
R.J. Cook, illus. by Glenn
Maida. iUniverse. $12.07
paper (128p), ISBN 978-14917-3291-5; $3.99
e-book (100p), ASIN
B00LHPXHQQ
Amazon, BN.com, Books A Million
A true story of lost love, a cross-country
journey, and a late-in-life epiphany, all
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

37

SELECT_THIRD0514_Layout 1 5/28/14 3:10 PM Page 1

SELF-PUBLISHED LISTINGS

PW Select provides
indie authors
promotional access
to reach and
influence the
gatekeepers of the
publishing industry.

AGENTS

LIBRARIANS

BOOK
BUYERS

PUBLISHERS

EDITORS

Enrollment into the PW Select program

provides indie authors the tools and
resources for a successful publishing
experience.
Benefits include:
Full-color Announcements listing
within PW Select and PW
6-month digital subscription to
PW Select and PW
Placement in PWs seasonal
database powered by Edelweiss
Free subscription to The PW Select
Report, a semimonthly e-newsletter
supporting indie authors.

Where you start after you

finish writing your book.
PublishersWeekly.com/PWSelect

Access These Great PW Partners

during the time of Nixon, Woodstock,

and Vietnam.
Southern Fried Fiction: How the
Insidious Onset of Depression
Derailed a Successful Mans Life
Stuart Hotchkiss. CreateSpace. $19.95
paper (304p), ISBN 978-15076-6580-0
Amazon
With plans to put a
bullet in his own brain,
former Time Inc. publishing chief Stuart Hotchkiss has an epiphany that turns his life
around.
Sugar Burn: The Not So Hot Side
of the Sweet Kitchen
Ryan Kurr. CreateSpace. $13.95 paper,
ISBN 978-1-5077-1041-8; $7.99
e-book, ASIN B00QOH8CJY
Amazon
After leaving a career in
the insurance industry and
then one in massage
therapy, Ryan Kurr decides
to follow his dream of
becoming a pastry chef.
A Woman in Love:
A Memoir of Sexual Development,
Spirituality, Loss, and Love
Elizabeth Stall. CreateSpace. $9.99 paper
(154p), ISBN 978-1-51198395-2
Amazon
This is the true story of a
womans sexual development, from her first kiss as
a child to her failed marriage and her experience of the beautiful
sex that comes from great love.

CHILDRENS/YA FICTION
Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar
Conspiracy
Paula Berinstein, illus. by
Anna Mogileva. The
Writing Show. $9.99 paper
(386p), ISBN 978-09860304-8-2
Amazon
38 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

When arch-villain Blixus Moriarty surfaces in the English Lake District,

Amanda Lester must face her greatest
fears and stop him from carrying out his
biggest conspiracy ever.
The Four Elements
and the Tablet of the
Ancients
Nick Lang. Bookpal.
$15.99 paper, ISBN 9781-74284-468-8
Amazon
Two stories woven into one adventure
that transcends time and culminates with
one ending and one beginning.
Night Rumbles
Nancy Janes. Rockrose Press. $12.99
paper (244p), ISBN 978-0-692-31407-4
Amazon
Nineteen-year-old Brad
wakes up in a strange town
filled with smoke and mist.
The sky glows as if on fire.
His memory is gone, but he
knows he doesnt belong here.
Polarity in Motion
Brenda Vicars. Red Adept Publishing.
$5.99 e-book (266p), ISBN 978-1940215-37-2
Redadeptpublishing.com,
Amazon
First her nude photo hits
the Internet. Then
everyone thinks shes lying
when she claims to have no
idea where the photo came from
everyone, that is, except Ethan.
Silverwood
Dietz Vollrath. Wicked Pig Publishing.
$11.99 paper (275p), ISBN 978-0-69244433-7
Amazon
Eleanor hunts through
an ancient library to crack a
secret code. But solving the
code leads to trouble, and
she races to hide what she
finds from an evil group
known as the Forgotten.

Reviews Roundup
This month, we reviewed 50 self-published titles submitted to BookLife, PWs website dedicated to indie authors. Among the highlights are two books that received
starred reviews: Matt McHughs Radioland and Thomas Claburns Oversight.

Fiction
All for You
Laura Florand. Laura Florand, $15.99 trade paper (300p)
ISBN 978-1-943168-00-2

Black Canyon
Jeremy Bates. Ghillinnein, $2.99 e-book (78p) ISBN 978-0-9937646-4-6

Budapest Romance
Rozsa Gaston. CreateSpace, $11.95 trade paper (266p)
ISBN 978-1-4801-4063-9

Claiming the Rebels Heart

Alison Stuart. Oportet, $3.99 e-book (224p) ISBN 978-1-31022-839-1

The Cooks
Charles Facas. Orsonami, $14.99 trade paper (258p) ISBN 978-0-9851919-9-3

Miseryland
Keiler Roberts. Keiler Roberts, $10 paper (142p) ISBN 978-1-5078-0475-9

Oversight
Thomas Claburn. Lot 49 Labs, $2.99 e-book (264p) ISBN 978-0-986-10160-1

Project Nephili
T.L. Farmer. Story Merchant, $15.95 trade paper (436p)
ISBN 978-0-990421-62-7

Radioland
Matt McHugh. Matt McHugh, $1 e-book (37p) ASIN B0063914DE

Red Sulphur: The Greatest Mystery in Alchemy

Robert Bosnak. Red Sulphur, $3.99 e-book (504p)
ISBN 978-0-9909321-0-9

Shades: The Gehenna Dilemma

Eric Dallaire. If Tales, $15.99 trade paper (330p) ISBN 978-0-9961811-0-5

Comfort: A Novel of the Reverse Underground Railroad

H.A. Maxson and Claudia H. Young. Parkhurst Brothers, $18 trade paper
(240p) ISBN 978-1-62491-044-9

Earths Imagined Corners

Tamara Linse. Willow Words, $14.95 trade paper (272p)
ISBN 978-0-9909533-1-9

Gene.sys: Magigate Returns

Bill Gourgey. Jacked Arts, $16.95 trade paper (409p)
ISBN 978-0-9894205-5-6

Griffith Stadium
Robert Ambros. Authorhouse, $19.50 trade paper (268p)
ISBN 978-1-4634-3839-5

Gwendolyns Sword
E.A. Haltom. CreateSpace, $13.99 trade paper (328p)
ISBN 978-1-5001-5501-8

The Magician
D.A. Pupa. WingSpan, $17.95 trade paper (326p) ISBN 978-1-595945-31-0

Meant to Be
Jessica James. Patriot Press, $16.99 trade paper (329)
ISBN 978-1-941020-02-9

The Merry-Go-Round
Donna Fasano. CreateSpace, $9.49 trade paper (236p) ISBN 978-14536-8801-4

Radioland

Matt McHugh. Matt Mchugh, $1 e-book (37p) ASIN B0063914DE

cHughs debut novella is an

inventive exploration of the
crossroads between near-future
gadgetry and the male midlife
crisis. Stephen, a hapless office drone,
is introduced to a strange device, a
brain radio, that allows the user to
experience different preset emotions.
He soon becomes obsessed (a recurring
theme), neglecting to help his wife sort out their teen sons
troubles at school. While Stephen explores the intensity of
an unchartered emotional landscape, his son spirals down
into a teenage wasteland. McHugh writes with clarity, and
the story itself is emotionally charged; there is depth to the
tale, gradually made apparent through the experiences
Stephen has with the brain radio and the misery of his
nuclear family crumbling around him. Despite occasional
bouts of excessive exposition, the story is buoyed by sharp
characterization and an interesting look at the possibilities
of brains connecting with machines. McHughs intriguing
work breaths fresh air into the popular SF themes of
thought privacy and the capabilities of new technologies.

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M

39

REVIEWS ROUNDUP
Short Bus Hero

Host of Memories

Shannon Giglio. Nightscape, $13.99 trade paper (250p)

ISBN 978-1-938644-21-4

Peter Rupert Lighte. Acausal, $15.95 (344p) ISBN 978-0-9912529-7-8

So Buttons
Jonathan Baylis et al. So Buttons Comics, $20 (184p) ISBN 978-0-98818779-5

Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran

Nina Ansary. Revela, $12.99 trade paper (268p) ISBN 978-0-9864064-1-6

The Someday File: Deuce Mora Series, Vol. 1

Kid Me Not: An Anthology by Child-Free Women of

the 60s, Now in Their 60s

Jean Heller. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade paper (362p)

ISBN 978-1-505880-33-5

Edited by Aralyn Hughes. Violet Crown, $12 trade paper (126p)

ISBN 978-1-938749-10-0

Spark Rising: The Progenitor Saga, Book 1

Life, Love, and a Hijacking: My Pan Am Memoir

Kate Corcino. Kate Corcino, $14.99 trade paper (380p)

ISBN 978-0-9907328-0-8

Wendy Sue Knecht. CreateSpace, $10.79 (208p) ISBN 978-1-5025-2349-5

Stairway of the Gods

Ryan Kurr. Amazon Digital, $7.99 e-book (230p) ASIN B00QOH8CJY

Vic Warren. Turning Heads, $3.99 e-book (290p) ISBN 978-0-615-62388-7

The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths

Harry Bingham. Sheep Street, $4.99 e-book (391p) ASIN B00Q6QOCQK

Sucker
Mark Lingane. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade paper (262p)
ISBN 978-1-5084-5598-1

Til Death Do Us Part

Annie Oortman. AKO, $11.99 trade paper (250p)
ISBN 978-0-9908700-0-5

Treadmill
Warren Adler. Stonehouse, $9.99 e-book (210p) ASIN B00NG1E7N6

The Witch of Napoli

Michael Schmicker. Palladino, $12.99 trade paper (342p)
ISBN 978-0-9909490-2-2

Without Consent
Virginia R. Degner. Strategic Book Group, $18.95 trade paper (330p)
ISBN 978-1-60976-400-5

Wytchfire
Michael Meyerhofer. Red Adept, $16.99 trade paper (360p)
ISBN 978-1-940215-28-0

Nonfiction
Crazy Dumplings
Amanda Roberts. Two Americans in China, $6.99 e-book (176p)
ASIN B00OVTRWKC

Dear Hannah: A Geeks Life in Self-Improvement

Philip Dhingra. Nuclear Elements, $14.99 trade paper (254p)
ISBN 978-1-5003-9224-6

Gimme Shelter:
A Damaged Pit Bull, an Angry Man, and How They
Saved Each Other
Louis Spirito. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade paper (236p)
ISBN 978-1-4823-3068-7
40 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

Sugar Burn
Number One Songs: The First Twenty Years
Larry Irons. Black Hills, $15.95 trade paper (218p) ISBN 978-0-9907-6360-4

Waiter to the Rich and Shameless

Paul Hartford. Hillhurst Literary, $3.99 e-book (270p) ASIN B00QXA0TX4

Your Dream Job: Use Dating Secrets to Get Hired and

Build a Career You Love
Dom Bokich. Bocksberg, $16.99 trade paper (218p)
ISBN 978-0-9887000-2-4

52 Ways to Get Unstuck:

Exercises to Break Through Writers Block
Chris Mandeville. Parker Hayden Media, $6.99 trade paper (231p)
ISBN 978-1-4975-8367-2

Childrens & YA
Hey Boy
Ben Strouse, illus. by Jennifer Phelan. Dog Ear Publishing, $18.95 (40p)
ISBN 978-1-4575-3342-6

Looking for Redfeather

Linda Collison. Fiction House, $9.95 paper (228p) ISBN 978-0-9893653-0-7

Moon Tears
M.M. Frische. Ten Story, $11.99 paper (258p) ISBN 978-0-9916348-1-1

Nap-a-Roo
Kristy Kurjan, illus. by Tyler Parker. KPO Creative LLC, $7.95 (16p)
ISBN 978-0-9860750-0-1

Time Sailors of Pizzolungo

Scott Abrams and Adam Blockton. Scott Abrams, $9.99 paper (256p)
ISBN 978-0-9905278-0-0

Unclaimed
Laurie Wetzel. Wise Ink, $14.95 paper (466p) ISBN 978-1-940014-24-1

Win the Rings

K.D. Van Brunt. Evernight Teen, $14.99 paper (366p)
ISBN 978-1-77130-763-5

Reviews
Fiction
All for You
Laura Florand. Laura Florand, $15.99 trade
paper (300p) ISBN 978-1-943168-00-2

Florand kicks off her Paris Hearts series,

spun off from her Amour et Chocolate
series, with a tasty tale of two friends
reunited after years apart. Joss abruptly
joined the French Foreign Legion, determined to build himself into a better
person. Heartbroken by his departure,
Clie spent the intervening time
becoming one of the citys best chocolatiers, taking control of her own destiny.
When Joss returns
five years later, all
the old feelings
come crashing
back. Hes determined to win her
back; shes wary of
being hurt again.
But in the end,
love may just win
out. Florand captures the essence of Paris and the tactile
sensation of the finest chocolate delights
in this captivating romance, but the story
itself is so full of passion and emotion that
it risks exhausting the reader. Clie and
Joss dont do anything subtly or halfheartedly, from arguing to lovemaking, leaving
little room for narrative downtime.
Nevertheless, readers will enjoy the sensuality of language and confectioneries, and
the emotional journey of the characters.

Black Canyon
Jeremy Bates. Ghillinnein, $2.99 e-book
(78p) ISBN 978-0-9937646-4-6

Discontented adolescent Brian, the narrator of this short, sharp shocker, admits
to parricide in the opening paragraphs,
and he has a few more startling surprises
to spring before hes through recalling his
familys ill-fated Colorado camping trip
in the fall of 1990. Things are already
tense between Brian and his bickering

parents when
Brians showboating dad
stumbles off a
cliff and seriously
injures himself.
While Brians
mom runs for
help, Brian
watches over his
dad, until the
delirious man tells Brian a secret that
makes the boy less inclined to save him.
The stage is set for other revelations that
put Brians behavior in grim context.
Bates (The Taste of Fear) writes persuasively from Brians adolescent point of
view, making the horror of his youthful
reminiscences that much more intense. A
coda shifting from the past to the present
comes across as something of a storytelling cheat, but it doesnt diminish the
power of this first-person tale.

Budapest Romance
Rozsa Gaston. CreateSpace, $11.95 trade
paper (266p) ISBN 978-1-4801-4063-9

The traditional healing properties and

beauty of the thermal spa baths still
enjoyed throughout Budapest are the true
stars of this thoughtful romance, which
focuses on emotional connection rather
than the physical
kind. Busy
American conference planner Kati
Dunai is in
Budapest to settle
her fathers estate
and mourn his
death. Though she
certainly notices
Jan Klassen, a
large and attractive Dutchmen with a
kind smile, she only offers him friendship,
in light of her fathers death and her short
stay in Europe. As Jan and Kati explore
Budapest and savor its baths, she slows
down his physical overtures in favor of
digging deeper into his psychology,

allowing Jan to open up about his own

challenges at home, such as raising his
disabled son. Gaston (Black Is Not a Color)
explores whether true love can cross
oceans; readers may be skeptical, as Kati
puts up one obstacle after another, but
they will cheer on Jans efforts to win her
over.

Claiming the Rebels Heart

Alison Stuart. Oportet, $3.99 e-book (224p)
ISBN 978-1-31022-839-1

Deliverance Felton is a crack shot as

well as a book-smart student of military
maneuvers. Her family is siding with
Parliament against the king in Englands
1643 civil war. Headstrong with her success at defending the family home in her
fathers absence, Deliverance bristles
when Capt. Luke
Collyer appears
on her doorstep,
ordered by her
father to help her
out. But the royalists are armed
with the massive
Thunderer
cannon, so
Deliverance
accepts Lukes garrison, and soon they are
in love, their furtive, romantic trysts a
pleasant distraction from ongoing attacks.
Enamored, Luke declares Deliverance his
equal, but shes actually considerably
better than that. He is stalled at captains
rank and loves wine, women, and gambling; Deliverance is whip-smart and running a castle like a CEO, even when that
means contending with treachery and
danger. Though Stuart falls short at times,
such as with her less than incisive character portrayals, her robust display of military and historical knowledge helps compensate.

The Cooks
Charles Facas. Orsonami, $14.99 trade paper
(258p) ISBN 978-0-9851919-9-3

Fracass charming debut introduces an

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REVIEWS
eclectic cast of characters
whose lives intersect at a
weekly cooking class in New
York City. The book takes place over a
single day, and the eight students in
renowned French chef John Sebastians
class, and John himself, are all at a crossroads. Struggling actress Dana showers at
least three times a
day and wonders if
shell ever land a
career-making
role. Tomcatting
real estate agent
Paulson frets over
his bowling game
and congratulates
himself for going
two whole days
without cheating on his boyfriend.
Financial analyst Lola obsessively counts
everything and puzzles over why she
keeps dreaming she has a penis. And John
is brought to his knees at the thought he
might actually be in love for the first time
in his life at 50 years oldor maybe not;
he just cant tell. Fracass wry, matter-offact writing style is a delight, and his
characterssurprisingly relatable, albeit
with a touch of the absurdare literary
amuse-bouches.

Comfort:
A Novel of the Reverse
Underground Railroad
H.A. Maxson and Claudia H. Young. Parkhurst
Brothers Publishers, $18 trade paper (240p)
ISBN 978-1-62491-044-9

Mention the Underground Railroad and

the first name that likely comes to mind is
Harriet Tubman, one of hundreds of tireless workers who,
by 1850, together
helped to liberate
nearly 100,000
slaves. Maxon and
Youngs book
describes itself as
a novel of the
reverse underground railroad,
describing the
kidnapping of free blacks and returning
them to slave states for sale to slave
owners. Comfort, a former slave, is living
as a seamstress in Delaware in 1816, only

to be sold into indentured servitude by her

husband, Cuff, in order to pay his gambling debts. Forced to leave her daughter
behind, Comfort harbors a fierce determination to regain the precious freedom shes
lost, and to eventually make her way back
to her child. Populated by tenacious and
finely nuanced characters, this novel presents a vivid picture of a dark time in
American history. Combining faith with
extreme human courage, Maxon and
Young offer the reader an extraordinary,
inspirational tale.

Earths Imagined Corners

Tamara Linse. Willow Words, $14.95 trade
paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-9909533-1-9

Set in the early factory cities of America

in the late 19th century, Linses novel tells
the story of the sweet but sheltered Sara
Moore, the daughter of a former
Confederate colonel turned grocery magnate. Without a son, Colonel Moore has
chosen his assistant manager, Chester, as
the heir apparent
to his grocery
operation, and
plans to marry
Sara to the man
whether she
wants to or not.
In desperate defiance, Sara flees
with a humble
laborer shes just
met and promised herself to. The young
couple go by train from Iowa to Kansas
City where they hope to start anew. The
couple faces great trials as Sara discovers
for the first time what life is like for those
not born into wealth and status, and her
new husband, James Youngblood, searches
in vain for gainful employment. The two
grow as they struggle to survive, and the
novels pace slows as it descends, turn by
turn, into dreariness, drudgery, and hopelessness, meeting each moment of opportunity with a despair that, while historically evocative and incredibly well
researched, can become overwhelmingly
gloomy. Still, this is an effective portrait of
hardscrabble life at the turn of the century.

Gene.sys: Magigate Returns

Bill Gourgey. Jacked Arts, $16.95 trade paper
(409p) ISBN 978-0-9894205-5-6

40b P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

Gourgey opens his intensely imagined

third futuristic Glide novel (after Nu
Logic: Rise of the Neos) with virologist Dr.
Janot poised to eradicate humankind with
the Gene.sys virus. Preparing for his created Nephilim
species to ascend
to power, Janot
transforms captive
teen Maddy into a
Nephilim, hoping
to provoke his
former associate
Dr. Magigate. The
benign, philosophical Magigate
and his adversary-turned-ally Samantha
Biggs join forces with a diversified array
of teens, knights, ruffians, reporters, and
cyber ghosts to face off against Janot and
his Neo supporters, with whom the
authorities are aligned. Gourgey conjures
up dazzlingly innovative concepts that
wickedly satirize online interactions and
offer mind-spinning visions of futuristic
technologies. He includes a nod to the
double-edged nature of scientific development, and the conclusion provides an
uneasy, sometimes unconvincing union of
techie arcana with conventional heroic
lore. The hyperimaginative tone of the
trilogy will enthrall readers willing to
risk foundering in strange seas of thought.

Griffith Stadium
Robert Ambros. Authorhouse, $19.50 trade
paper (268p) ISBN 978-1-4634-3839-5

Jack Haynes, the compelling, flawed

hero of this historical thriller set in 1939,
is working as a reporter in St. Louis when
he gets a call that his brother, Lou Harris,
was murdered in
Griffith Stadium,
the major-league
ballpark of
Washington, D.C.
Jack, who adopted
a new last name to
help conceal some
damaging secrets
about his past,
hadnt seen Lou
since their mother
died while waiting
in a soup line eight years earlier. At the
time, the destitute 19-year-old Jack,

REVIEWS
unable to figure out how he could care for
13-year-old Lou, gave up Lou to a foster
home. Jack drops everything to race to
D.C. to learn the truth, only to find that
the police believe Lou had been a
Communist and arent actively looking
for the killer. Determined to get justice
for his brother, Jack turns sleuth. Ambros
does a solid job of making Jacks occasionally amateurish efforts plausible. Fans of
Sarah R. Shabers WWII-era mysteries
(Louises Blunder, etc.) will enjoy this effort
with its darkly satisfying ending.

Gwendolyns Sword
E.A. Haltom. CreateSpace, trade paper (328p)
$13.99 ISBN 978-1-5001-5501-8

Haltoms debut novel weaves Arthurian

fantasy into the vivid reality of 1193
Cornwall and London. Gwendolyn de
Cardinham, whose husband is imprisoned
with King Richard, decides to learn sword
fighting so that
she can defend her
estate of
Penhallam. The
discovery that her
husbands ambitious brother is
allied with the
rebellious Prince
John leads
Gwendolyn to a
local prior, who claims that she is the
descendant of King Arthur and destined
to wield the fabled sword Caliburn. With
the assistance of her constable, William,
sworn to protect her since she was a child,
and the onetime mercenary Nigel,
Gwendolyn travels to London to pledge
her sword to the dowager queen Eleanor,
using her position as the supposed heir of
Arthur as bait for Johns rebels. The historical aspects are very well done, and
Gwendolyn and William sit comfortably
alongside well-known royals and
schemers. The fantastical elements are
more unexpected but do not distract from
the strength of the main characters. The
ending satisfies while setting up a sequel.

The Magician
D.A. Pupa. WingSpan, $17.95 trade paper
(326p) ISBN 978-1-595945-31-0

Pupa doesnt break new ground in this

serial-killer thriller, but does make effec-

tive use of flashbacks and alternating perspectives to create suspense. FBI agent
Frank Sorello was devastated by the loss of
his wife to the
serial killer known
as the Magician.
The murderer was
so named because
he began killing
in Harry
Houdinis hometown, on the date
of the legendary
escape artists
death. Now retired from the Bureau,
Frank becomes convinced that the
Magician is bestselling author Gary Jones,
whose latest book is a thinly veiled version of his actual crimes. Frank manages
to persuade the FBI director, a friend, to
take him seriously, and to allow him to
participate in the search for Jones.
Though Pupa fills in the tragic history
that led to the creation of the Magician,
who witnessed the murder of his parents
in Los Angeles in 1998 while only eight
years

Meant to Be
Jessica James. Patriot Press, $16.99 trade
paper (329) ISBN 978-1-941020-02-9

James uses the idyllic setting of Ocean

City, Mary., as a man and woman quickly
fall into a whirlwind romance. Rad meets
Lauren as he is jogging on the beach;
despite being brushed off, he meets her
again on the boardwalk, and she agrees to
go to the Ripley Museum with him. Their
romantic day on
the boardwalk
together turns
into a most memorable night as she
meets his friends
at a beach bash,
and their romance
continues until
almost dawn.
Neither Rad nor
Lauren disclose any information to the
other about their jobs or what paths led
them to Ocean City, and they go their separate ways. But not much later, through
circumstances related to their military
careers, they see each other again. In this
difficult new situation, however, both

Lauren and Rad need to set

aside their personal feelings
to complete their respective
assignments. Sweetly sentimental and
moving, Jamess novel is an endearing
page-turner offering a unique view of military life and the difficult choices faced by
those involved.

The Merry-Go-Round
Donna Fasano. CreateSpace, $9.49 trade
paper (236p) ISBN 978-1-4536-8801-4

Fasano (Following His Heart) plays it

safe in her aptly titled novel about lawyer
Lauren Flynns romantic crisis. With her
divorce from hunky charmer Greg finally
complete, Lauren is free to move on. At
least thats the
advice she gets
from her receptionist, Norma
Jean. Lauren isnt
so sure, especially
since the barn that
she received as
part of the divorce
settlement seems
to have strings
attached. The supposedly worthless piece
of property comes with a valuable vintage
merry-go-roundand since Greg has no
home or income, hes living there. Lauren
ignores all the sexual sparks that ignite
whenever Greg is around; the financial
catastrophe he caused obscures her
obvious love for him. Meanwhile, she follows Norma Jeans advice and begins
dating. Disaster ensues, of course. Like
the eponymous ride, Fasanos plot is
mildly entertaining, safe, and predictable.
Fans of cotton-candy characters might
enjoy this one, but others will wish that
barn housed an antique roller coaster
instead.

Miseryland
Keiler Roberts. Keiler Roberts, $10 paper
(142p) ISBN 978-1-5078-0475-9

Roberts shares her life as a mother

living with a young child just learning to
push boundaries in this collection of her
Ignatz Awardnominated Powdered Milk
minicomics. With this strong entry in the
autobiographical comic genre, Roberts is
unafraid to show herself looking bad, such
as when shes frustrated when her
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REVIEWS
daughter, Xia, calls her
only to find out its to say I
love you. In the comics best
pages, Roberts
and Xia
struggle with
toilet training
(That already
happened, Xia
beams when she
is warned to
keep her butt
out of the bowl),
and Xia abuses
her swearing privileges. The linework on
the characters is detailed while retaining a
sketchiness for backgrounds that makes
the figures feel raw, rather than polished.
The simple, direct art makes for an intimate, personal journey through Robertss
life as a mother and creator.

Oversight
Thomas Claburn. Lot 49 Labs, $2.99 e-book
(264p) ISBN 978-0-986-10160-1

This intense murder mystery is set in a

mid-21st-century world so saturated with
commercialism that everything is
licensed, silence costs money, and private
detectives are now
information speculators. San
Francisco spec
Sam Crane, still
mourning the
accidental death of
his wife and the
unending coma of
his 5-year-old
daughter, Fiona, is
called in to investigate the murder of a
prominent scientist, Dr. Xian Mako. The
only clue is a pair of antique galvanized
glasses on Dr. Makos body, and they soon
vanish. When Sam refuses to drop the
case, he becomes tangled in a vastly
bigger plot involving terrorists, a blindness-causing biological attack, and the
corporate mogul who puts Fiona into an
experimental coma-busting drug trial
all to the tune of a ceaseless media barrage
that makes life cheap and expensive all at
once. Claburns novel is all the more tense
and frightening for feeling only one step
away from today, a feeling relieved by
Sams old-fashioned cynicism mixed with

his willingness to do anything for his

daughter. His deep emotions make him
the most real and absorbing feature of this
vivid story about a virtual world overloaded with real danger.

Project Nephili
T.L. Farmer. Story Merchant, $15.95 trade
paper (436p) ISBN 978-0-990421-62-7

At the outset of Farmers fast-paced

thriller, Angie McDowells boss at the
Blytheville Express sends the dogged
reporter to investigate Blytheville
State, a Georgia
psychiatric hospital, after the
Department of
Health and
Human Services
threatens to close
the facility for
mismanagement,
a move that would put many locals out of
work. Angie soon learns that the hospital
zealously guards its secrets and that all
copies of a history written by a former
chaplain, who worked there for almost
three decades, have disappeared. The
rumors about what was going on at the
hospital include claims that Martin
Luther Kings assassination followed word
that he was about to push for a federal
probe into Blytheville State. Farmer consistently maintains the intrigue of the
opening sections and doles out teasers at
regular intervals, including references to
the mysterious Watchers and Angies
encounters with Sallie, a six-fingered
ghost.

Radioland
Matt McHugh. Matt Mchugh, $1 e-book (37p)
ASIN B0063914DE

McHughs debut novella is an inventive

exploration of the
crossroads
between nearfuture gadgetry
and the male
midlife crisis.
Stephen, a hapless
office drone, is
introduced to a
strange device, a
brain radio, which

40d P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

allows the user to experience different

preset emotions. He soon becomes
obsessed (a recurring theme), neglecting
to help his wife sort out their teen sons
troubles at school. While Stephen
explores the intensity of an unchartered
emotional landscape, his son spirals down
into a teenage wasteland. McHugh writes
with clarity, and the story itself is emotionally charged; there is depth to the tale,
gradually made apparent through the
experiences Stephen has with the brain
radio and the misery of his nuclear family
crumbling around him. Despite occasional bouts of excessive exposition, the
story is buoyed by sharp characterization
and an interesting look at the possibilities
of brains connecting with machines.
McHughs intriguing work breaths fresh
air into the popular SF themes of thought
privacy and the capabilities of new technologies.

Red Sulphur:
The Greatest Mystery in Alchemy
Robert Bosnak. Red Sulphur, $3.99 e-book
(504p) ISBN 978-0-9909321-0-9

Bosnak debuts with a high-stakes fantastical tale set largely in the Netherlands
during the late 17th century. Mundanus,
an Italian alchemist, sets out on a mission
to visit the venerated Dutch physician
Helvetius. He
brings with him
the famed
Philosophers
Stone, forcing
Helvetius to
reconsider his
skepticism of
alchemy.
Meanwhile,
Mundanus is
drawn to Helvetiuss wife, Marianne, who
is herself an alchemist, and to her ailing
niece, Clara. Mundanus and Marianne
begin to use an alchemical compound
called red sulphur in experiments, many
of which have life-altering effects. He also
hopes to prove himself a better physician
than Helvetius by curing Claras lingering
illness. Occasional modern colloquialisms
and phrasing hinder the flow, and the
atmosphere suffers as a result. However,
Bosnak excels at depicting human drama,
particularly the love triangle among

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Mundanus, Marianne, and Clara. Bosnaks
characters are three-dimensional, and the
interactions among them are often
thought provoking. The fantastical elements assist but never overshadow the
main story, and the characters emotional
entanglements are balanced by a complex
plot with a well-realized historical setting.

Shades: The Gehenna Dilemma

Eric Dallaire. If Tales, $15.99 trade paper
(330p) ISBN 978-0-9961811-0-5

This impressive debut deftly incorporates near-future technology into a suspense plot. In the year 2039, the dead are
pressed into service as shadeszombie
slave laborers working off their unpaid
debts. Jonah
Adams works as an
agent for the
Incorporeal
Revenue Service,
impounding delinquent corpses. His
girlfriend,
Vanessa, is a
lawyer who specializes in
Afterdeath Debt Reconciliation and
Remediation. When Vanessa disappears
along with the bioengineer who pioneered
shade technology, Jonah, abetted by his
indefatigable AI, Sasha, follows their trail
from Earth to the moon and into a web of
intrigues spun by a sinister corporate culture that has become desperately dependent on cheap shade labor. Dallaire
torques his tale with sinuous twists that
keep the reader guessing. His real
achievement, though, is his credible rendering of a world in which virtual reality
and avatar technology are so rampant that
its hard to tell whats real from what
isntmuch to the benefit of this craftily
plotted futuristic crime thriller.

Short Bus Hero

Shannon Giglio. Nightscape, $13.99 trade
paper (250p) ISBN 978-1-938644-21-4

Ally Forman, a young woman with

Down syndrome and a burnt-out guardian
angel, wins the lottery in this unusual
work from horror scribe Giglio (Revival
House). Twenty-four-year-old grocery
bagger Ally is obsessed with pro wres-

tling, so when she finds out shes won

$314 million she vows to bring her
favorite wrestler, the recently booted
Stryker Nash,
back into the ring.
Determined to use
her riches to
finally make her
own decisions,
Allywith the
help of a few whispered words from
her cynical spirit
guidefights for
independence from a family thats just as
determined to convince her she cant. And
as the choices Ally makes take hold, she
learns that being normal isnt exactly
what she thought it would be. In less sensitive hands, Allys story could have
devolved into something unsatisfying and
distasteful. But it never veers in that
direction. Instead, what Giglio has presented is a compassionately written and
uplifting tale of forgiveness and redemption.

So Buttons
Jonathan Baylis et al. So Buttons Comics, $20
(184p) ISBN 978-0-98818779-5

Like Harvey Pekar, the (well-deserved)

king of writing autobiographical comics
drawn by a spectrum of artistic collaborators, Bayliss self-spun tales (most beginning with the
wind-up So...)
are illustrated by
others but retain
his voice. In this
debut, Bayliss
storiesless dour
and cynical than
Pekarsamuse
with lifes simple
moments and
human banalities. Hes backed up by a
strong assortment of alt-comics artists
(Fred Hembeck, Noah Van Schiver, Rick
Parker, T.J. Kirsch, Paul Westover,
among them) on growing up a nerdy
Jewish New Yorker, his pop culture memories of his favorite movies (mostly in the
war, horror, and baseball genres), encounters with R. Crumb and Robert Redford,
and fond anecdotes of his parents.
Chapters on his work at Marvel and other

companies will appeal to the

mainstream comics fan. Most
effective (and affecting) is the
personal touch in stories about those close
to him: a beautiful extended piece (drawn
by Tim Ogline) about Bayliss uncles
memories of Vietnam and a series of short,
funny, romantic pieces about his wife,
NPRs Ophira Eisenberg. Bayliss life is
entertaining, and he relates it with charm
and poised cool.

The Someday File:

Deuce Mora Series, Vol. 1
Jean Heller. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade paper
(362p) ISBN 978-1-505880-33-5

Chicago reporter Deuce Mora, the

appealing narrator of Hellers well-crafted
and suspenseful series opener, is a columnist for the Chicago Journal, a paper facing
declining readership and revenues, and is
at odds with her editor, who wants her to
tone down her
treatment of
controversial
issues such as
gun control.
Meanwhile, a
sniper assassinates eight-term
Congressman
Charles Reading
in Las Vegas,
Nev. Just the evening before, Deuce met
with ex-con Vinnie Colangelo, a potential
human-interest story whose name had
been in her someday file of such leads.
Vinnie was drunk when she spoke to him
at his Cicero home, but Readings murder
makes her consider his warnings that
something big was going to happen in Las
Vegas in a new light. Before she can follow
up, however, Vinnie is murdered.
Motivated by guilt that her meeting precipitated Vinnies death, Deuce turns
sleuth. The story line is nicely twisty
without stretching probability.

Spark Rising:
The Progenitor Saga, Book 1
Kate Corcino. Kate Corcino, $14.99 trade
paper (380p) ISBN 978-0-9907328-0-8

Corcinos intriguing first novel posits a

near future where fossil fuels have run out.
Only those with magical Spark talent can
keep electricity flowing, and the governW W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y . C O M 40e

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ment is desperate to control
them. When Lena Gracey
was a child, her parents faked
her death to hide her from authorities
bent on taking girls with Spark talent. As
a young adult, she lives in an abandoned
gas station outside the city enclave. When
Alejandro Reyes, a
government agent
secretly helping
the Sparks, discovers her home,
he knows Lena is
one of the most
powerful Sparks
hes ever come
across, and he
hopes shell be the
key to the revolution hes been plotting
for decades. Balancing the demands of his
double identity makes it difficult for Alex
to convince Lena that he wants to keep her
safe, but when he brings her to a secret
school to train her talents, she realizes
theres more to Alex than she originally
had thought. As Lena learns to use her
powers, biding her time before getting
revenge against the council that destroyed
her family, she discovers a new cause:
saving other girls with Spark talent in a
world where even fellow revolutionaries
cant be trusted. Alex and Lenas slowburning, tension-fueled romance, and a
uniquely layered postapocalyptic world,
will have readers eagerly looking for the
next installment.

Stairway of the Gods

Vic Warren. Turning Heads, $3.99 e-book
(290p) ISBN 978-0-615-62388-7

In this suspenseful novel set in the

1980s, Warren neatly introduces his
engaging leads,
Paul Webster and
Joan Davis, by
opening with their
meeting on a
houseboat in San
Francisco and
their subsequent
courtship.
Twenty-five years
later, their lives
resemble something out of an action
movie, by which time many readers will
already have identified with Paul and

Joanie and will root for them to overcome

various daunting challenges. Paul has
finally abandoned advertising to do some
serious writing, while Joanies work takes
her to Manila to collect pieces for an exhibition of early Asian art. Her continued
professional success leads her to become a
museum director, but their relatively
mundane life together gets thrown for a
loop on a return trip to the Philippines.
After Paul barely survives an earthquake,
Joan stumbles on the riches that Japanese
general Tomoyuki Yamashita was
rumored to have concealed during WWII.
What follows requires some suspension of
disbelief, but the well-constructed characters compensate for some over-the-top
developments.

The Strange Death of

Fiona Griffiths
Harry Bingham. Sheep Street, $4.99 e-book
(391p) ASIN B00Q6QOCQK

A payroll-scam investigation drives

Binghams suspenseful third police
thriller featuring Welsh Det. Constable
Fiona Griffiths
(after 2013s Love
Story, with
Murders). The
police have
learned that a furniture superstore
has been tricked
into paying thousands of pounds to
two women who
didnt actually work for the business.
When Fiona tries to track down the
phantom workers, she finds that one, the
reclusive Hayley Morgan, has died under
suspicious circumstances: someone
drained Morgans bank account, and her
recluses phone and electricity were cut
off, leaving her to die. The inquiry into
the fraud case goes nowhere, until Fionas
bosses ask her to go undercover as a
cleaning woman as a way of getting at the
white-collar criminals running the
scheme. For Fiona, living as a different
person constitutes her second strange
death after her traumatic abandonment
as a child left her believing she was dead
for two years. Fans of plucky, independent
heroines will be pleased.

40f P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

Sucker
Mark Lingane. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade
paper (262p) ISBN 978-1-5084-5598-1

Lingane (Faraday) sets up a deadly contest between good and evil in a bleak
alternate-Earth setting thats soaked in
noir wryness. When PI Van H. Avram
takes on a missing-person case, the last
thing he expects is to find a dead body on
his doorstep. The corpse is only the first of
a series of encounters with skinny
blond things that
lead Van into an
apocalyptic nightmare of murder,
human sacrifice,
vampires, demons,
and deadly fireballs. A mysterious artifact is
missing, someones torching buildings,
Vans got some annoying holes in his
memory, and his only ally, Angelina, is a
vampire slayer with secrets of her own.
The breakneck pace balances Vans laconic
voice, pulling readers headlong into a
maelstrom of violence, magic, and
prophesy. Dark-fantasy fans will enjoy
this gritty supernatural mystery and its
memorable protagonist.

Til Death Us Do Part

Annie Oortman. AKO, $11.99 trade paper
(250p) ISBN 978-0-9908700-0-5

Oortmans debut is an improbable but

intriguing romantic thriller. Brianna van
Laere nearly died in an accident, and suspected it was actually her husbands
attempt to kill her. With the new name of
Vicky Golden, a
surgically altered
face, and a new job
as a mountain
guide, she believes
shes put her troubled past behind
heruntil her
husband reappears
in her new life.
Christiaan van
Laere is struggling
to save his familys business, and he believes
the geothermal project on Mount Shasta
will do that. But theres something familiar
about Vicky, a prickly young woman who

REVIEWS
strongly opposes the project. To his shock,
he begins to have feelings for her, feelings
he thought had died with his beloved wife.
Nothing is as it seems in this tale of twists.
Dangerous people think Brianna is dead
and theres no telling how theyll react if she
turns up alive. Though the premise is original, the villains motivations are quite farfetched. Still, Oortmans writing holds
enough promise to carry readers through to
the end.

Treadmill
Warren Adler. Stonehouse, $9.99 e-book
(210p) ASIN B00NG1E7N6

In this darkly humorous thriller from

Adler (Cult), it takes a little while for the
contours of the
tricky plot to
become apparent,
but the payoff is
well worth the
delay in gratification. Jack Cooper
has hit a rough
patch in his life.
His mother has
just died, his wife
has left him for another man, and hes lost
his advertising job. In his loneliness, he
buys two weeks worth of microwavable
meals and eats them without tasting them.
Jacks sole regular social outlet is a health
club in Bethesda, Md., frequented by
Mike Parrish, an acquaintance. Jack gets
used to working out at the same time as
Parrish and is disconcerted when he suddenly stops showing up at the gym. When
Jacks curiosity and unease at the change in
routine lead him to ask questions, strange
things begin happening that only stoke
his suspicions that Parrish is a victim of
foul play. Very few readers, if any, will
anticipate what the truth turns out to be.

The Witch of Napoli

Michael Schmicker. Palladino, $12.99 trade
paper (342p) ISBN 978-0-9909490-2-2

Schmicker bases this historical fiction

on the actual figure of late-19th-century
Italian spiritualist and medium Eusapia
Palladino, but fails to create a truly compelling tale. Newspaperman Tomaso
Labella narrates the tale of Alessandra
Poverelli, a famous Neapolitan medium
(and a stand-in for Palladino), with his

first photo of her, taken when he is still a

teen. Tomasos photo of Alessandra levitating a table allows her to become
Napless own
Cinderella,
leaving behind
Pigotti, her
thuggish manager for professor
Camillo
Lombardis, who
wants to study
her; Tomaso
remains her photographer and friend. Central to Camillos
study is a tour of the Continent, so that
other European men of science may test
her abilities. Alessandra performs generally well, at times even summoning the
spirit of Florentine friar Savonarola, but
she is continually challenged by skeptical
Englishman Nigel Huxley. The novel
hinges on the character of Alessandra and
her abilities, but she isnt compelling
enough, and the results of her tour are
never really in doubt due to the triumphant obituary at the beginning of the
novel. This story is only mildly diverting.

Without Consent
Virginia R. Degner. Strategic Book Group,
$18.95 trade paper (330p) ISBN 978-1-60976400-5

Those who prefer a strong romantic

plot line and frequent references to food
are most likely to enjoy Degners grim
thriller. The dramatic opening sets the
stakes for whats to follow. In Sonora,
Calif., Dr. Sarah Frazer is confronted by a
man she plans to report to the AMA for
unethical and
unprofessional
conduct. He
severs her spinal
cord before
dumping her to
die in a pool. The
news of this
tragedy devastates
Sarahs pregnant
daughter, Ariel,
who suffers another horrific loss within
the week, under circumstances that lead
her to fear that shell be the next to die. To
protect herself and her unborn child, Ariel
flees to her grandmothers home in

Scotland, where she falls in

love with an old friend who
has carried a torch for her for
years. The investigation into Sarahs death
and its connection with her medical work
takes a back seat for much of the book.
Readers should be prepared for the details
of seemingly every meal Ariel eats.

Wytchfire
Michael Meyerhofer. Red Adept, $16.99 trade
paper (360p) ISBN 978-1-940215-28-0
Poet Meyerhofer (Damnatio Memoriae)

somewhat unsuccessfully tries his hand at

fantasy in his fiction debut. The land of
Runn is a war-torn continent blending
traditional sword-and-sorcery elements
with those of the
more recently
popular grimdark
subgenre; prostitution, suicide,
and sexual assault
coexist with
ancient draconic
cults, magic
swords, and
prophecies of a
chosen savior.
Rowen, a failed candidate for knighthood,
accidentally crosses paths with a bloodthirsty army bent on using certain powerful individuals, called Dragonkin, to
conquer the known world. The resulting
conflict, though rooted in an intricate setting, relies far too heavily on clichs and
creative misspellings: orc becomes olg,
dwarf is dwarr, and so on. Meyerhofers
prose is serviceable, but unlike his awardwinning poetry, it brings nothing unique
or especially interesting to its genre. The
plot, which meanders and sometimes
appears to contradict itself, is in dire need
of editing. Though enthusiastic about his
subject matter, Meyerhofer unfortunately
comes up short when translating that
emotion into his work.

Nonfiction
The Crazy Dumplings
Amanda Roberts. Two Americans in China,
$6.99 e-book (176p) ASIN B00OVTRWKC

Robertss eclectic dumpling cookbook

covers a variety of fillings, from tradiW W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y . C O M 40g

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tional pork to tacos and
cheesecake. She is an
American expatriate who has
been living in China for four years; her
recipe attempt to respect local traditions
and the foods she has come to love while
recreating her comfort foods from home.
In this manner, she shows readers how she
can turn almost anything into a dumpling
filling and make a tasty meal for two. By
providing a single dumpling wrapper
recipe, she frees herself (and her readers)
to consider non-traditional fillings, as
well as a variety of sauces. Roberts makes
readers think about the versatility of
dumplings in a new way. However,
readers are bombarded with so many different recipes,
most of which are
requests from
Kickstarter
backers, that they
have no idea what
is worth making
and what is not;
and the recipes all
start to blend
together, especially with her overly succinct directions.
She provides good notes on metric conversions and some of her research around
dumplings, but there is very little of the
theory of what makes dumpling fillings
work (or not), so readers will likely feel a
little overwhelmed. Roberts covers a lot of
ground, but she does it without much
depth.

Dear Hannah:
A Geeks Life in Self-Improvement
Philip Dhingra. Nuclear Elements, $14.99
trade paper (254p) ISBN 978-1-5003-9224-6

App developer Dhingra is fluent in the

language of self-help texts, as his epistolary memoir of self-improvement shows.
At 14, he received a copy of Dale
Carnegies How to Win Friends and Influence
People from a classmate, and used it to
improve how he socialized and negotiated
early professional experiences. He concluded that if one book could do that,
more would be even better. The next 15
years were devoted to a repetitive and
somewhat self-destructive process: discovering a new self-improvement technique, relaying it to his friend Hannah

with enthusiasm,
and then feeling
his interest wane
and his frustration
with his work and
love life redouble.
After taking up
meditation and
sticking with it
for multiple years,
however, he
decided to write a book collecting his letters to Hannah, in hopes of helping other
self-help devotees. Reading about
Dhingras past self-improvement efforts
can be difficult, since his obsession with
self-analysis borders, as even he admits, on
the obsessive-compulsivehe has an
apparent need to put every aspect of his
life in a spreadsheet. While Dhingra presents some useful ideas about meditation
and mindfulness, the books tone comes
off as at once relentlessly self-analytical
and un-self-aware, making it unlikely to
appeal to readers seeking their own path
to self-improvement.

Gimme Shelter:
A Damaged Pit Bull,
an Angry Man, and
How They Saved Each Other
Louis Spirito. CreateSpace, $14.99 trade
paper (236p) ISBN 978-1-4823-3068-7

Spirito intersperses memories of his dysfunctional childhood with those of his

adult life, including recollections of the
love and companionship he received from
dogs, in this sweet memoir. The author
struggled with anger management until a
pit bull changed his life. When Spirito and
his wife began searching shelters, they
were hoping to find an Irish setter, like one
of their previous dogs. Instead, the couple
are surprised to find themselves falling for
a frightened,
scarred young pit
bull they name
Tanner. Without
realizing it,
Tanner teaches
Spirito to settle
down and enjoy
life for its simplicities rather than
looking for provocations that will

40h P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 5

elicit his ire. Spirito ends each chapter

with an informational section on topics
such as preventing dog aggression and
finding a dog trainer. Much of the information revolves around misconceptions
about pit bulls, and Spirito offers statistics
and advice about these much-maligned
dogs. Dog owners, especially those who
enjoy the companionship of shelter dogs,
will undoubtedly recognize the deep sense
of love and gratefulness that Tanner has for
his familya love that transfers to Spirito
in ways he didnt expect, but that make
him a better person. Photos.

Host of Memories
Peter Rupert Lighte. Acausal, $15.95 (344p)
ISBN 978-0-9912529-7-8

This collection of essays from Lighte, a

sinologist and founding chairman of J.P.
Morgan Chase Bank of China, takes
readers on a meandering journey through
the last 50 years of his life. He was raised
by a single mother in New York City, in a
strong Jewish community. He went on to
study China at Princeton, come to terms
with being a gay man, and travel the world
as a banker for J.P. Morgan Chase,
becoming one of their first experts on
China. He also
met Julian, the
man who would
become his husband, and they
adopted two
daughters from
China. Lightes
essays take readers
from Hong Kong
to London and
then to Princeton,
showing a thoughtful and well-traveled
life. Lightes essays will be only tangentially informative to readers who do not
know him personally. While his life
journey is interesting, it is difficult to
follow because his stories are not chronological; he leaves out key details that
might help readers make meaning of his
vignettes, and he doesnt really provide
effective context. So while the moments
themselves are lovely, finding the overall
arc that ties them together (and thus
encourages readers to care about Lighte
and his family) is extremely difficult.
Taken in small doses, readers will enjoy his

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voice, but they will ultimately not engage
with the various characters of the book.

Jewels of Allah:
The Untold Story of Women in Iran
Nina Ansary. Revela, $12.99 trade paper
(268p) ISBN 978-0-9864064-1-6

Ansary, an Iranian-born philanthropist

who now lives in Los Angeles, takes an
incisive, intellectually robust look at the
feminist movement in Iran. She presents
six common misconceptions about Iranian
women and then debunks each one with
straightforward analysis and scholarly
precision. Over the course of the book,
Ansary intertwines accounts of female
Persian trailblazersactivists, intellectuals, poets, and suffrage martyrswith
the intricate history of the womens movement in
Iran, which,
according to the
author, goes back
to ancient times.
Mostly Ansary
addresses presentday culture and
the misguided
notion that modern Iran lacks a vigorous
womens movement, pointing readers to
progressive grassroots efforts, a feminist
magazine, and numerous accomplished,
professional women advocating for womens rights. This is a riveting portrait of
the Iranian woman: her strength, resilience, suffering and hope.

Kid Me Not:
An Anthology by Child-Free Women
of the 60s, Now in Their 60s
Edited by Aralyn Hughes. Violet Crown, $12
trade paper (126p) ISBN 978-1-938749-10-0

Fifteen women in their 60s share personal reminiscences of their youth, praising
birth control, abortion access, and the support of activists who told them that they
had more options than babymaking and
secretarial work, and showing how life
without childreneither by choice or circumstanceworked out perfectly fine for
them. Alternating with joyful photo collages and cute lists of events, TV shows,
movies, and music from individual years in
the 60s, these narratives of sex, love, career,
family, and relationships together give a

warm impression of women whose paradigms were changing, whether they fought
for it and or just found themselves at the
forefront of new opportunities. Lovely pictures of the
writers as young
women and in the
present accompany each
vignette and
serve as a
delightful testament to aging
gracefully.
Younger feminists might find that compassion for the
struggles of their second-wave foremothers
is evoked by the words of well-spoken,
everyday women who look like their own
mothers and grandmothers. Their stories
are a reminder that our choices now do
carry us into the rest of our lives.

Life, Love, and a Hijacking:

My Pan Am Memoir
Wendy Sue Knecht. CreateSpace, $10.79
(208p) ISBN 978-1-5025-2349-5

Knechts delightful memoir introduces

readers to the exciting world of air travel.
She spent decades as a flight attendant for
Pan Am Airlines, getting to experience
the glamour of world travel and an older,
more luxurious way of getting places
(before budget airlines ascended and Pan
Am went bankrupt). Her years of travel
took her all over the world, led her to meet
many amazing people, and helped her
maintain close ties with family, friends,
and lovers, especially with her familys liberal use of her travel benefits. She exposes
this world to
readers in
delightful anecdotessome
funny, some heartbreakingand on
every page displays an infectious
lust for travel and
adventure. Knecht
draws readers in
with charm and makes them feel a part of
the Pan Am experience. Given the
present-day experience of flying coachclass, even readers too young to have flown
on Pan Am will feel nostalgic. She also

provides valuable advice on

packing, eating, and generally being a smart traveler, as
well as some recipes for some of Pan Ams
most popular in-flight meals.

Sugar Burn
Ryan Kurr. Amazon Digital, $7.99 e-book
(230p) ASIN B00QOH8CJY

In this erratic memoir, Kurr describes

life as a pastry chef, and tells stories of
nightmare kitchens in an abusive, underpaying industry. He also offers advice on
finding ones own work-life balance. Kurr
starts culinary school in his early 30s and
goes into a great deal of debt in the process. Upon graduation, he learns about the
world of staging (day-long interviews in
restaurants, when prospective employees
work for free); when he finally gets a job,
he describes the grueling hours, fast pace,
and incredibly low wages. While he is
working for one of
the best pastry
chefs in Chicago,
the abusive workplace finally gets
to him and he
quits; he then
drifts from job to
job, leaving when
hes had enough or
the restaurants
close. Kurr claims his intention is to tell
the truth about the industry and provide a
cautionary tale for those contemplating a
career in the restaurant business, but what
comes across is bitterness and exaggeration. While some readers seeking the dirt
on local Chicago restaurants might take
notice, his lack of narrative focus wont
hold their attention.

Number One Songs:

The First Twenty Years
Larry Irons. Black Hills, $15.95 trade paper
(218p) ISBN 978-0-9907-6360-4

Irons, a former radio disc jockey who

landed his first job in Reno in 1967,
decided to parlay his love of radio into a
long-form poem consisting of one
rhyming verse about each #1 song in the
U.S. from 1956 through 1975, occasionally including . interesting biographical
details about the artists. Readers will have
to really love music to tolerate Ironss
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epic. The rhymes are trite,
albeit sometimes whimsical,
and the whole piece would
have benefited from very serious editing,
particularly when Irons loses focus and
veers off on
autobiographical tangents.
Twenty years of
songs also isnt
a strong theme
to organize a
book around
and therefore
the collection
feels unwieldy.
Readers may want to skip this altogether
and go straight to Ironss source, The
Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, to learn
about the music itself.

Waiter to the Rich and Shameless

Paul Hartford. Hillhurst Literary, $3.99 e-book
(270p) ASIN B00QXA0TX4

Hartfords wildly uneven memoir is

intended to take readers behind the scenes
of Hollywood royalty. Hartford worked for
a decade at a famous Beverly Hills restaurant (which he calls the Cricket Room, but
seems most likely to be the Polo Lounge),
where he served dozens of celebrities, made
lots of money, partied like a rock star on his
own, and learned to appreciate the art of
service. He finally quits after the restaurant
is sold to a corporation that attempts to
homogenize the things that made the
Cricket Room unique, destroying the
atmosphere. Hartfords memoir combines a
touch of celebrity-sighting, a splash of personal debauchery,
and a whiff of selfreflection and
introspection
about the importance of service.
However, the personality Hartford
presents in his
writing style
comes across as
boorish and offensive. He attempts to straddle the personas
of starstruck nostalgia peddler and cynical
insider, and both land to poor effect. The
meandering narrative lacks a strong arc to
tie it together.

Your Dream Job:

Use Dating Secrets to Get Hired
and Build a Career You Love
Dom Bokich. Bocksberg, $16.99 trade paper
(218p) ISBN 978-0-9887000-2-4

Bokich might initially hook readers

with the tantalizing proposal that, by
buying his book, you can become better
at interviewing (from the job candidate
side, not the hiring side), but quite a few
are going to drop out before the end,
either because they dont need its advice
or because theyre put off by its dating
secrets framework. This is definitely a
book for an under-30 audience, the first
clue being pop-culture references that
include Anchorman 2 (one of the funniest
comedy sequels of all time) and How I
Met Your Mother. Readers who push on
will be rewarded by some useful suggestions, especially the 40 questions that
will help even the most uninspired writer
create a strong rsum. Unfortunately,
even the best material is likely be skipped
over when the
dating metaphor
is carried to creepy
extremes
(Seducing Your
Date, Getting
Intimate) or
when examples
begin with headlines like Lauren
the Hot
Marketing Intern. Bokich shares a
number of good responses to likely interview questions that bear studying, but
some of the supposedly real-life examples
he offers come across as very unlikely. The
Questions You Should Ask section
although helpfulis also very basic,
underscoring the impression that this is a
book for inexperienced job-hunters with a
high tolerance for inappropriate sexual
innuendo.

52 Ways to Get Unstuck:

Exercises to Break Through
Writers Block
Chris Mandeville. Parker Hayden Media,
$6.99 trade paper (231p) ISBN 978-1-49758367-2

Many a writer has dealt with frustration

that comes with writers block, a problem
that Mandevilles book, the first in a

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series, addresses head-on. According to

Mandeville, knowing the roots of ones
writers block is not the key. Instead, the
books five parts outline a number of pragmatic exercises designed to help writers
take immediate action. The first part, on
clearing the way to write, covers
making writing easier from day to day. It
includes advice like creative to-do lists
and using calendars for non-writing activities, informing family and friends of a
writing schedule and sticking to it, creating a writing space, and articulating
goals without overburdening yourself.
The remaining sections include The
Right Place at the
Write Time,
Character Juice,
Story
Mechanics, and
Mind Openers.
Mandeville also
makes it easy for
writers to randomize the order
in which exercises
are done, either with a pack of playing
cards, or simply by tackling one random
exercise a week over the course of a year.
Some of the exercises include Chat Up
Your Character, WWYCD? (What
Would Your Character Do?), Nick a
Name, and Ask a Writer. The variety
of the exercises, supplemented with
quotes from professional writers, ensures
that every writer will be able to gain in
some way from Mandevilles advice and
techniques.

Childrens & YA
Hey Boy
Ben Strouse, illus. by Jennifer Phelan. Dog Ear
Publishing, $18.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-45753342-6

In a pensive story driven by allegorical

intent, a boy brings home a stray dog,
only to have his parents tell him that he
isnt old enough to care for the animal.
The boy visits the dog at a shelter over
several years, assuring it that he is gaining
maturity: I made my own lunch yesterday, he says. So you wont be here
much longer. The years continue to pass
(I drove here, he tells the dog one day),

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and when the boy finally decides to take
the dog home, it has been adopted.
Although the dog
moved very
slowly now and
couldnt see very
well the two
reunite in a semblance of a happy
ending. Graceful
in their simplicity,
Phelans crisp digital illustrations
match the moody atmosphere of the story
with a pale palette spiked with orange elements (a ball, a field of flowers) that highlight the love between boy and dog. With
its melancholy tone and focus on the passage of time, Strouses story will remind
some readers of Shel Silversteins The
Giving Treelike that book, it can be read
as a portrait of either selflessness or selfishness. All ages.

Looking for Redfeather

Linda Collison. Fiction House, $9.95 paper
(228p) ISBN 978-0-9893653-0-7

Three teens embark on a soul-searching

road trip in this introspective coming-ofage story. Fifteen-year-old Ramie
Redfeather is looking for the musician
father after whom hes named. Chas
Sweeney, 17, is driving the classic Cadillac
he swiped from his grandmother, intent
on escaping his disastrous life. And
16-year-old Mae B. LaRoux is a singer
determined to make her name at a music
festival in Austin. Thrown together by
the vagaries of the road, they become fast
friends and traveling companions. As
their journey takes
them from one
city to another in
search of gas
money, adventure,
and the occasional
concert, they share
the truths and
pains of their
respective pasts.
Collison (StarCrossed) has a strong handle on characterization and atmosphere, though the
meandering plot suffers from the same
indecisive nature as the characters,
stalling right around the same time they

settle in for a psychedelic, mushroomfueled trip. A slightly removed tone and

some overly poetic language (They were
hobos waiting for an opportunity, a train
to hop, a star to fall) can be distracting,
but the story remains an engaging journey
of self-discovery. Ages 14up.

Moon Tears
M.M. Frische. Ten Story, $11.99 paper (258p)
ISBN 978-0-9916348-1-1

In a historical novel set over four years

and loosely inspired by real-life events,
Frische introduces a group of children
who have to work together if they want
their town to survive WWII. Fourteenyear-old Lucinda Lou Davis lives in the
(fictional) small town of Claret Lake in
northern California. When a census error
causes every man in town to be drafted,
the women of Claret Lake go to work in
nearby shipyards, and Lou and the other
kids are left behind to run the town.
The children grow up quickly as they face
forest fires, hunt and scavenge for food,
and watch the
skies for enemy
aircraft. Frische
ably describes the
hardships the children contend
with, and tension
runs high when
Lou has to negotiate medical
emergencies.
With frequent jumps in time, the novel
has a choppy, episodic quality, and readers
may find it hard to know what parts of the
story have been fictionalized versus drawn
from actual history. Still, they will get a
sense of the challenges that citizens of all
ages faced during WWII. Ages 12up.

Unclaimed
Laurie Wetzel. Wise Ink, $14.95 paper (466p)
ISBN 978-1-940014-24-1

Maddy Page has felt like an outcast ever

since she learned she was adopted. When
she meets MJ, Maddy feels normal for the
first time in a long time. But MJ isnt
exactly a regular guy: hes an angelic
Protector, charged with stopping
demonic and malevolent entities from
harming humans, and ever since MJ met
Maddy, he has been changing. He can now

feel pain and taste food, and

he finds that none of his abilities, such as the power to
erase memories, work on Maddy. Because
of these effects, Maddy is being targeted
by a demon who is closer than she thinks,
and her loved ones are caught in the crossfire. In this series opener, first-time author
Wetzel quickly immerses readers in the
supernatural conflict through
Maddy and MJs
alternating narration, and maintains a rapid pace
with multiple
kidnappings and
near-death experiences. Maddys
adoption-related
angst can feel extreme (three years after
learning she was adopted, she still
believes herself to be unloved, despite
ample evidence of a caring family) and
distract from an otherwise engaging plot.
Ages 12up.

Win the Rings

K.D. Van Brunt. Evernight Teen, $14.99 paper
(366p) ISBN 978-1-77130-763-5

In a solid debut, Van Brunt chronicles

the existence of a secret breed of shapeshifters who have, for the most part, been
co-opted by the American military as
weapons and spies. Sixteen-year-old Jace
Moray is one such conscript, a rebel who
has survived her years at Classified
Resources-Academy Delta by being
tougher and meaner than anyone else. Her
reward for loyal service: leading a team
dedicated to capturing rogue shifters like
Gray Price, who has been living off the
grid as a pickpocket and grafter, using his
powers to impersonate his targets and pillage their bank accounts. With Jace and
Gray engaged in a
high-stakes game
of cat and mouse, a
mysterious third
party complicates
matters for
everyone. Van
Brunts premise
offers readers
plenty to think
about, as the
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shifters change genders and
dip into their targets minds
for information. Not all of
the ideas introduced get the attention one
might expect (such as the American government stripping shifters of their rights,
simply because they exist), but Van Brunt
leaves room to explore this and other
topics in future books. Ages 12up.

Time Sailors of Pizzolungo

Scott Abrams and Adam Blockton. Scott
Abrams, $9.99 paper (256p) ISBN 978-09905278-0-0

Time-traveling kids terrorize the 15th

century after a mysterious ship catapults
them back to 1497 in an adventure that
plays fast and loose with history while
taking advantage of the eras rich tradition
of exploration and discovery. Even though
sixth-grader Guillermo Infante Jr. and his
friends are suddenly facing real-life
pirates and meeting famous explorers like
Vasco da Gama and Christopher
Columbus, Guillermo just wants to get
home to the small Sicilian town of
Pizzolungo. When he acquires a treasure
map, he sees an opportunity to dig up the
riches and help
solve his familys
financial woes.
With the wind at
his back and his
friends at his side,
Guillermo sails
the Grande
Infante across the
deadly seas in
search of fame and
fortune, with surprises at every turn.
First-time authors Abrams and Blockton
craft an entertaining tale, full of colorful
personalities, and if they take some liberties with historical representations and
gloss over logistics (the modern protagonists have no trouble communicating
with the people they meet in 1497, for
instance), its all in good fun. Ages 712.

Kurjan, which is built

around rhymes with a
long oo sound. Readers
learn that the kangaroo in
questionwho wears a
striped neckerchief and
carries a purple stuffed
animal in its pouch
lives in the zoo.../ In
Timbuktu.../ With a dog
named Lou and other animals. While the rhymes arent especially
imaginative, Parkers cheery and polished
digital cartoons show real talent, and the
book maintains a sense of fun (including a
Coo Coo Ka Choo dance break) from
start to finish. Up to age 3.

Nap-a-Roo
Kristy Kurjan, illus. by Tyler Parker. KPO
Creative LLC, $7.95 (16p) ISBN 978-0-98607500-1

Its time for a nap-a-roo,/ just like the

kangaroo, begins this nap-encouraging
board book from first-time author
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