Every Saturday ALLi will tell the world about our members' latest book launches, news, awards, freebies, workshops and updates on the writing life and take a look at the projects and businesses of our partner members.
E-BOOK and PRINT RELEASES
Joan Fallon
The Shining City
General readership; ebook and print
The first in a trilogy about life in 10th century Spain, The Shining City is the story of Omar, an artisan who falls in love with the wrong girl – the favourite concubine of the powerful caliph of al Andalus. The consequences of his actions have severe ramifications for his friends and family.
“The Shining City by Joan Fallon is a beautifully told story set in tenth-century Spain which focuses on a city in southern Spain that flourished for a brief time only: Madinat al Zahra. Built by the caliph, it becomes a rival to the capital, Cordoba. The book covers many aspects of the times: history, culture, religion and day-to-day life. Giving great attention to detail, Fallon depicts court etiquette with the same confidence as minor details, such as bakery and food preparation. I knew comparatively little about Spain under Muslim rule and found myself easily and entertainingly educated.
The characters are well chosen and developed, likeable and driven by their dreams and ambitions. The book is very well written, perfectly paced and atmospheric. It feels authentic, has a good story and a fascinating topic. A very enjoyable read. Historical Novels Society August 2014
Eden Sharp
The Breaks
The Breaks is the first in a series of thrillers featuring vigilante investigator and hacker, Angela McGlynn, and is set in present day San Francisco. The second book in the series, GET9, will be out this autumn.
If the law can’t touch you, justice will.
Angela McGlynn is concealing dark secrets: engaging in vigilante activism in an attempt to dismiss self-destructive thoughts. When she employs recently discharged veteran John Knox to aid her in the search for a missing girl, she soon comes to realise that war has left him broken.
Angela McGlynn would normally be described as ‘the female Jack Reacher’ or ‘the female Jack Ryan’. That’s selling her short…Tense, absorbing, intelligent and fulfilling. Rowena Hoseason – Murder, Mayhem & More
The forays into the dark web are fascinating – there’s literally another world out there that most of us know nothing about as we cling to a myth of cyber-security. Caroline Barfoot
Eden teaches fiction writing and publishing at Southampton Solent University, is an ALLi Ambassador, and is currently in the process of setting up the Southampton & Winchester Alliance of Independent Authors Meetup group. If you’re from the Hampshire, UK area she’d love to hear from you. @edensharp, [email protected]
Pauline B Jones
Dead Spaces
I’m pleased to announce the release of Dead Spaces, the third installment in my Big Uneasy series set in present day New Orleans.
A forensic surgeon in the New Orleans Coroner’s Office—and part of her dad’s Baker’s Dozen—Hannah Baker thought she knew where to dig, how and what to slice, and when to walk away.
But when her big brother gets her involved in the exhumation of a couple of old coffins, she realizes the past can’t be ignored.
Only New Orleans could produce a “Baked” gumbo of the mob, shadowy figures from the past, annoying figures from the present, murders, attempted murders, and a really cute detective who is technically off limits on account of he’s her big brother’s partner.
Good thing NOPD Detective Logan Ferris doesn’t know the meaning of “off limits,” cuz once more the Big Easy is getting mighty uneasy.
Anna Castle
Black & White & Dead All Over
What happens when the Internet service provider in a small town spies on his clients' cyber-lives and blackmails them for gifts and services?
Murder- that's what happens.
Penelope Trigg moves to Lost Hat, Texas to open a photography studio and find herself as an artist. Things are going great. She's got a few clients, some friends, even a hot new high-tech boyfriend. But when Penny submits some nude figure studies of him to a contest, she gets hit with a blackmail letter in her inbox.
“Do what I want or your lover's nudie pix get splattered across the Internet.” The timing couldn't be worse, so Penny is forced to submit to the blackmailer’s demands. Then people start dying and all the clues point to her. She has to rattle every skeleton in every closet in Lost Hat to keep herself out of jail and find the real killer.
Peggy Gaffney
Fashion Goes to the Dogs – A Kate Killoy Mystery
My romantic suspense novel, Fashion Goes to the Dogs, the first in a series of mysteries, is available on Kindle and through Ingram Spark on Nook, Kobo, Itunes, and others as an ebook and is also available through both Create Space and Ingram to bookstores and libraries in a print version.
In February, the kennel club show week in NYC is a special time for dog lovers. Kate Killoy is here for the first fashion show of her designs for dog fanciers and to exhibit her champion Samoyed.
When mistaken identity involving international intrigue threatens Kate’s life, Harry Foyle, a former math geek for the FBI, comes to her rescue. But
Harry finds going undercover to keep this sassy dog nut alive is an equation whose solution leads to the unexpected variable—love.'
The world of dog shows is one I know very well having spent all my adult life showing generations of Samoyeds. I have also spent twenty years creating knitting designs of purebred dogs on clothing for dog fanciers and have a line of knitting books and patterns that show these. Using what I know well allowed me to bring a richness to my characters and setting. I love that these fictional stories allow me to share this world I love with my readers.
I am working hard on the second book in the series.
Rosaline Riley
Clad in Armour of Radiant White
An engaging – and often humorous – novel about the joys and sorrows of growing up. It is September 1959 and two significant things happen to eleven year old Ellen McCann; she goes to the Convent school in the neighbouring town of Turneley where she meets Erica Latimer, and, back at home, she falls in love with Michael Chadwell.
During the months and years that follow, her school life and her home life continue along parallel tracks. Her friendship with Erica develops and intensifies, and she gets drawn into a series of Latimer family intrigues and revelations which – ultimately and unexpectedly – lead to tragedy.
‘A perceptive and well-expressed portrait of particular people . . . at a particular time.’ Rosaline Riley does ‘a superb job of presenting characters on the page’.
Available on Amazon. Paperback and Kindle.
Irving Munro
The End of Summer
It is 2005. In the backyard of a vacant home in Austin, Texas a woman is lying on a recliner by the pool. She is spectacularly beautiful. Her arm hangs lazily over the side of the recliner her hand touching a glass of wine that rests on the terracotta tile. It is like a picture from a magazine. She is dead.
It is now 2014 and the murder was never solved. Retired Scottish police detective Bill Ross is volunteering with the Travis County police and he is asked to assist in the investigation when the case is reopened.
Experience the highs and lows as the team investigates the case. The End of Summer is a fast paced crime thriller.
This first book in the Detective Bill Ross Crime Series was released mid-May to critical acclaim with starred reviews by early readers and the trades.
“I liked it so much I agreed to sell it” – UK Independent bookstore owner.
“Would make a great movie” – Tony from Thousand Oaks California.
“Unputdownable” – Linda for Scotland
Kristin Gleeson
Celtic Knot Series
As a newcomer, I would like to share my latest two books, both parts of the Celtic Knot Series. The first one, Along the Far Shores was published in 2014 and is about a 12th century Irishwoman, Aisling, who sets out on the legendary voyage to America of Prince Madog of Wales.
A terrible storm arises and she is tossed overboard by a resentful Welshman and washes up on the shores of the Gulf Coast. Caxna, a Tlingit trader and former shaman, finds her and reluctantly agrees to let her join him on a trading journey to the Mayan city of Xicallanca, and later Etowah (in modern day Georgia) in the hopes she might find Madog and her brother.
The second novel, Raven Brought the Light, features an Irish archaeology student, Bríd Ní Laoghaire who seizes the chance to be a last minute replacement on a dig in a remote Chinese desert and discovers a dangerous secret that links her to an ancient past and that of her team leader, Alaskan Indian John Sheldon.
How could she be connected to a people that lived 3500 years ago? Meanwhile, the Chinese officials’ hostility grows and unease among staff rises, all of which threaten to undermine the expedition and, eventually, John and Bríd’s lives.
Veronica Dale
Night Cruiser: Short Stories about Creepy, Amusing or Spiritual Encounters
My first book, Night Cruiser: Short Stories about Creepy, Amusing or Spiritual Encounters with the Shadow is now available in KDP, CreateSpace and Smashwords. Bodicia wrote a wonderful review of it on her blog A Woman's Wisdom and all other reviewers have given it 5 stars.
Two of the stories in Night Cruiser have received recognition from Writer's Digest and one has been published in a national magazine.
I'm currently in the process of getting the first book of a fantasy-romance series ready for publication. The book is Blood Seed, and the 4-book series is Coin of Rulve.
Mary D. Brooks
Awakenings
My fourth novel Awakenings which is part of the Intertwined Souls Series has been launched on Amazon.
Fourth novel of the Historical Lesbian Romance Intertwined Souls Series with Eva and Zoe Lambros – An emotional homecoming to Larissa tests their strength, courage and faith.
In Germany shocking secrets that have spanned generations are finally revealed. Extraordinary new abilities are awakened and risks are taken. It's more than a lesbian romance, it's a story of secrets, passion and intertwined destiny.
They get help from two formidable women–Zoe's Aunt, Dr. Stella Nikas-Lambros, an exuberant, zany character in her own right, and Theresa Mitsos, the quiet, gentle soul with extraordinary psychic powers.
In Germany they discover secrets that have spanned generations and shocking revelations about Eva's heritage. Their lives are once again altered in ways neither of them expected.
NEWS
Victoria Noe
Second Partnership Announced
Victoria Noe recently announced her second partnership. Sales of the fourth book in her series, Friend Grief and the Military: Band of Friends, will benefit Military Outreach USA. That non-profit organization works with faith communities and organizations around the United States to support military veterans.
This partnership is the second she's established. Sales of the second book in her series, Friend Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends, benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, which awards grants to organizations around the US involved in fighting the AIDS epidemic.
In both cases, 25% of the retail price of paperbacks and e-books is donated to the respective organizations.
Rohan Quine
Book Muse/Words with Jam
Literary fiction/magical realism/horror; print and ebook
At the review site Book Muse, each of whose intelligent book reviews is underscored with the grace note of a suggestion for specific tipples and snacks to accompany the reading in question, stylish international crime-queen JJ Marsh has published a piece on The Imagination Thief.
Many thanks to her for the sharp and generous receptivity of her review, as well as the perceptive fun of her comparisons – to Burroughs, Björk and sherbert dabs, among other enticing things.
Her review is also in the current issue of Words with Jam magazine, a sister publication with Book Muse.
Jean Burnett
Jean Burnett
ALLi writers- do you hate writing blurbs and back cover descriptions for your books? If you struggle with these I can help! In a former life I was an advertising copywriter. For a modest fee I can write these tiresome things for you.
Jean Burnett-historical novelist. will be appearing at the Sidmouth Literary Festival -‘Sun, Sea and Books' on June 20.
If you are a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors and you would like to showcase your work on our ALLi Showcase, please send it to [email protected] to reach me no later than the Thursday proceeding the Saturday you would like it published.
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