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.
AUTHOR MEMBERS
Rosaline Riley
Jane, slowly recovering from the shock of her husband Neil’s sudden death three months ago, is looking forward to a weekend visit from Fran – her friend and the mother-in-law of her daughter, Lucy.
But almost before the weekend gets under way, Fran goes missing – a seemingly inexplicable happening which throws Jane’s life and those of their inter-related families into turmoil again. In the months following this traumatic weekend, as one guilty secret after another comes to light, she is forced to re-assess both her marriage and her relationship with Fran.
The End of the Road is a novel about family relationships, friendship, betrayal and deception. The wise, we are told, forgive but do not forget. But is forgiveness ever possible when some things are impossible to forget?
Ben Adams
Six Months to Get a Life
My debut novel, Six Months to Get a Life, is now available to pre-order on Amazon.
Graham Hope had it all – a wife, two perfect children, a detached house in the suburbs and a huge TV. Until today. He now has an ex-wife, lives in his parents’ spare room and gets the kids and the dog at weekends. He might be lost and lonely, but Graham is not a victim.
Six months from today he will be forty-three. He vows to sort this mess out by his birthday. He gives himself six months to get a life. Will Graham play a meaningful role in his boys’ lives? Will his mates take him under their wing? Will he move out of his childhood home? More importantly, will he ever have sex again? For Graham, failure is not an option.
Sarah Ettritch
Faith or Madness
Churchgoer Roberta Wilcox’s life would be wonderful, if not for the recurring dream in which she’s fighting for her life. Then she’s fired from her job, and life takes a turn for the weird. She catches frightening glimpses of the future, encounters a beggar she’s not sure exists, and a man in her dream keeps urging her to find something called the Deiform Fellowship.
Roberta becomes convinced that God is trying to communicate with her, but those close to her see a woman obsessed with a dream and a life spiralling out of control. As Roberta follows the clues in her dream, she can’t help but wonder whether her determination to unravel its meaning is rooted in faith, or madness.
S. S. Dudley
Elf Hills
I published two books recently, Elf Hills, a middle-grade fantasy-adventure novel and first book in a series, and Butterfly Wish, a chapter book for lower grades. It, too, is the first in a series.
Elf Hills is my debut novel. It is a fantasy adventure for middle-grade and young-adult audiences. I started it wanting to write a novel that I could share with my daughter who, while she likes to listen to novels at night, is rather sensitive to dark/violent content.
I wanted something fun, adventurous, magical, and in a language/vocabulary that, while still challenging for her, was recognizable, too. It is the beginning of a bit of a saga, with book two, Fairy Trees, coming in 2015.
Bea Schirmer
Match Games: A Lukas Novak Investigation
A secret conspiracy. A corrupt soul. A psychopath returned from the grave.
And the Beautiful Game, fanatically followed by millions, all over the world.
On the surface Match Games aims to be a ’Nordic Noir’-style, hard-hitting, real life, dark and gritty mystery thriller, set in Northern England.
Beyond the surface it describes the struggle of one man against virtually every evil today's society has come to accept as the norm, where the bully wins every time because the masses are so dumbed down by the dilution of culture and so called freedom of the press that true values are in danger of being lost forever.
Rohan Quine
The Platinum Raven
“indieberlin”, Berlin-based but written mostly in English, has kindly featured a slice of my novella The Platinum Raven.
This is Scorpio’s experience of working as a transgender prostitute on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, aquiver and alone again and hurting with the rawness of a squirt of flesh and nerves among the concrete and steel and the plastic and the gasoline that threatened and addicted him:
Yes, there’s something for all the family, in The Platinum Raven.
For more of my little Scorpio, there are further snippets from the novella, both as text and as recently-added video, at
In this tale, Scorpio is a dancer in a nightclub tower of shadow, up there in the Hajar Mountains beyond the desert sands of Dubai. In the same or other lives, he also happens to be the character named Scorpio in Apricot Eyes, as well as being the character named Angel Deon in Hallucination in Hong Kong and in the novel The Imagination Thief and (in a different way) in The Host in the Attic. Here are some reviews and interviews relating to The Platinum Raven.
Joan Fallon-Cook
The House on the Beach
I was inspired to write this novel after interviewing a number of Spanish women for my book Daughters of Spain. The things they told me about life after the Spanish Civil War was rich material for a novel.
This is the story of Rocio and Inma, two girls who first meet as children and despite coming from very different social backgrounds become close friends.
We follow the lives of these two girls from childhood to maturity, as they share happiness, fears, disappointments, broken hearts and betrayals.
But when Inma too becomes pregnant, things take a more sinister turn and her subsequent actions have a devastating affect on Rocio and her husband.
This social drama of two women trying to take control of their lives, despite living under a harsh dictatorship, offers a glimpse of what life was like in an authoritarian State, with an ever watchful Catholic Church and the close strictures of society.
Lee Strauss
Run Run Run
Run Run Run is the first part of a three part episode – Gingerbread Man – in the romantic suspense series, A Nursery Rhyme Suspense by Amazon best-selling author Lee Strauss.
Episode release dates:
1) Run Run Run – December 31
2) As Fast As You Can – January 7
3) You Can't Catch Me – January 14
Fringe meets Castle in this New Adult Sci-fi Mystery Suspense.
College girl meets boy online. A killer targets girls like her. She's next on the list.
The boy wants to save her. She thinks it's him. It's worse than they both think.
Wendy Jones
Killer’s Countdown
My first book, Killer’s Countdown, came out in November 2014. This is a murder mystery set in Dundee, Scotland. It is the first in the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries and I am planning the second one to be published in July, 2015 with the third to follow in November, 2015.
Dead Women. A Ruthless Killer. A Detective with something to prove.
Newly promoted DI Shona McKenzie struggles to cope with her new job, the respect of her colleagues, and the need to solve the hardest case of her life.
Will she succeed?
Events
Linda Fisler
Arts Chats with Linda Fisler
Joanna Penn
Arts Chats with Linda Fisler is issuing a challenge for 2015 and Linda will be interviewing UK’s author and writing business adviser Joanna Penn (the Creative Penn) to help you get started writing! The Challenge? Write a book (art book, coffee table book of your art, etc) or at least start a journal!
Now is the time! Start a journal if you have not started one. Turn that journal into a book. All those lessons learned and discoveries you have made along your artful journey can be shared and enjoyed by other artists, family and friends. Joanna and Linda will help you get started!
Joanna Penn and Linda will be discussing their journey which includes leaving very successful careers in the corporate world to becoming the artists they are today. Joanna will provide inspiration and advice on starting a journal, how to journal each day, and how to build networks of individuals to help you along the way. Become the creative entrepreneur you always wanted to be!
Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers on the edge, as well as non-fiction for authors. She is also a professional speaker and entrepreneur, voted as one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.
Here's the link to register for the talk--our first international talk as Joanna will be joining us from the UK.
The talk is Free and will be available on demand within 24-48 hours after that live chat.
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 Wednesday proceeding the Saturday you would like it published.
