Reviewing Indie Authors One Book at a Time

Archive for the ‘Spotlight Author’ Category

#SpotlightSaturday – Letting Go

Author: Maria Thompson Corley

Even though she lives hundreds of miles away, when Langston, who dreams of being a chef, meets Cecile, a Juilliard-trained pianist, he is sure that his history of being a sidekick, instead of a love interest, is finally over. Their connection is real and full of potential for a deeper bond, but the obstacles between them turn out to be greater than distance. Can these busy, complicated people be ready for each other at the same time? Does it even matter? Before they can answer these questions, each must do battle with the ultimate demon—fear.

Told in a witty combination of standard prose, letters, emails, and diary entries, LETTING GO, in the tradition of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s AMERICANAH, is a long-distance love story that also examines race, religion, and the difficult choices we make following our passions. From the Great White North to the streets of New York City to the beaches of Bermuda, LETTING GO is a journey of longing, betrayal, self-discovery and hope you will never forget.

About the Author

Maria Thompson Corley is a Canadian pianist (MM, DMA, The Juilliard School) of Jamaican and Bermudian descent, with experience as a college professor, private piano instructor, composer, arranger and voice actor. She has contributed to Broad Street Review since 2008, and also blogs for Huffington Post. Her first novel, Choices, was published by Kensington. A poem about her son, “Malcolm,” which she presented at the 2016 National Autism Conference, is featured periodically on the Scriggler All Stars Twitter page. “Drop Your Mask” was awarded second place in New York Literary Magazine’s love poetry category and appeared in that publication’s AWAKE anthology in December, 2016.

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Category:

Romance, Spotlight Author

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#SpotlightWednesday – Tempus

Author: M.N. Payne
Series: Tempus Saga Book 1

To most, Tempus only exists in children’s stories, but to Cara Vair, it’s her destiny.

Cara knows where her future lies, the Citadel, where the elite of her society live. All she has to do is make it through the Proving and because of a unique characteristic, she has no fear of accomplishing her goal. So she thought. Her solitary childhood hadn’t prepared her for the real world or for Alaric Chambers.

Realizing survival means she must fight, Cara tries to force those away who wish to help her. That is until she finds there are some things she can never escape. Death, love, and Tempus.

About the Author

M.N. Payne graduated from Ashford University and lives with her husband, whom she met while in the military, and her two children in Charleston SC. Tempus, inspired by the author’s love for technology, is Payne’s first published novel.

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Category:

dystopia, Science Fiction, Speculative, Spotlight Author

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#SpotlightThursday – Transcendence

Author: Benjamin Wilkins
Publisher: Wilson Boulevard Press
Series: Chronicles from the Long Apocalypse: Book One

About the Book

Berserkers can be anyone. Your mother. Daughter. That cute barista at Starbucks. You could even be one yourself, and not know it – until you wake up covered in blood, surrounded by the bodies of your victims.

Humanity is self-destructing and the monsters hiding within us are now tearing their way out. Emmett Kessler must escape the prison cell he’s been left to die in. His daughters, Jennifer and Bobby-Leigh, must escape the wrath of a merciless soldier, after Jennifer berserks out and rips apart the battle-hardened man’s son.

Transcendence is the first installment of The Chronicles of the Long Apocalypse. If you like dark visions of the future and girls who kickass, this incredible post-apocalyptic thriller will rip your heart out, and leave you begging for more.

Find a safe place. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. The world has been ending for a while now, but it still has a long way to go.

About the Author

Benjamin Wilkins worked in the film and television industry in Los Angeles for over a decade and even managed to write, direct, and produce a little no-budget indie feature film entitled Pretty Dead, hailed by Dread Central as “The movie Paranormal Activity should have been: Intelligent, unique and completely enthralling.” Then he had a kid and more or less turned his back on the Hollywood scene. He now works with the David Lynch MFA Film Program at the Maharishi University of Management and writes and lives in Fairfield, Iowa, with his wife, son, and their two pugs.

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Not Rated, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Spotlight Author

#SpotlightTuesday – Lost Coast Rocket

Author: Joel Horn
Publisher: Independent
Series: Mare Tranquillitatis – Book 1

About the Book

Rockets are in Ken’s DNA. At an early age, he develops a friendship with Akira, a boy who shares his passion for astronautics. While both are child prodigies, Akira does well in private school but Ken rebels against structured education. The unlikely duo draws together a small group of rocketeers, meeting in the shop behind Ken’s house.

A tragic event at eight years of age haunts Ken through his growing-up years and shapes his destiny. As fate would have it, the girl at the center of the traumatic experience joins Ken’s rocket club, unaware of their shared history. Will Ken tell Dawn that he is the boy she seeks?

As the group reaches their teen years, their rocket designs start pushing legal boundaries, culminating in an event that puts them in the crosshairs of an FBI investigator. To protect his friends and seek refuge from his past, Ken devises an escape plan that confounds the authorities and the world.

About the Author

Barely five years old when his family moved from southern California to the wilderness, Joel Horn and his two brothers grew up in the rugged Trinity Alps, learning how to do the numerous and varied tasks necessary for survival while carving out a life in the remote paradise they dubbed the Flat. Living this self-reliant life and tutored by the best of teachers, their dad, and hands-on experience, they achieved a level of self-sufficiency rarely seen in modern times.

Joel is a veteran with three deployments during his 20 years as a UH-1 and UH-60 crew chief in the California National Guard. In addition to writing, Joel is also an artist and jeweler and works from home in the family businesses, Horn’s Jewelry and Rock Climbing Jewelry. Joel continues to live on the Flat today, with his wife of two-plus decades and his brothers close by.

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Category:

Not Rated, Science Fiction, Spotlight Author

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#SpotlightFriday – Icon-Violet

Author: Simon Fay
Publisher: Independent

About the Book

At the far reaches of space, Violet has been betrayed by Yellow and left to certain death. Once, they shared a common pool of memories. Now, Yellow has destroyed their bond. Defeated in the brutal confrontation, Violet makes a vow of tracking down its fugitive twin, and so starts a journey to solve the puzzle of why the rift between them happened, whereupon questions of fate will force them to confront mistakes that continue to haunt them both… Icon-Violet, a THRILLING new science fiction mystery from Simon Fay.

About the Author

Simon Fay was born in Dublin. He is the author of numerous books and short stories including BULK, a demented tragic comedy of enormous proportions, and People in Season, a prize-winning literary novel in his native Ireland.

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Category:

Mystery, Not Rated, Science Fiction, space opera, Spotlight Author, Thriller

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#SpotlightWednesday – Wayfarers Highway

Author: Peter Petrack
Publisher: Wayfarer Partnership LLC

About the Book

A camper travels the back roads of America, but it is not what it seems. Pursued by powerful forces: a mastermind, a maniac, and a terrorist, its crew wonders if they’ll ever reach Journey’s end.

When Eloise Corwin – a longtime patient in her desert hometown’s infirmary – finds a wounded young traveler sharing her sick room; she insists that he tell her about his adventures. The young man, Orson Gregory, tells her how he found and stole a glowing gemstone, hidden for decades beneath the government-built factory beside his family farm. He tells her how he’s been chased ever since – by mercenaries, by terrorists, and by other, stranger enemies. He tells her how he threw in his lot with a real adventurer, a mythology professor, an innkeeper, and a duo of hired guns on a cross-country journey to clear his name and return home – something he’s currently failing to do. To reach safety, the motley travelers will first have to deal with each other, evade the foes that follow their every move, and tangle with other forces both strange and powerful, their fellow travelers on the Wayfarers Highway.

About the Author

In addition to writing the Wayfarers Highway novels, Peter Petrack is also a composer and performing trombonist. In recent years, he has found growing success as a writer of Jazz, as well as Orchestral, Choral, and Band Works. Between these two artistic businesses, Peter has frequently been forced to write in the third person. He lives in Pennsylvania, where he is constantly surrounded by pieces of paper.

Review

“An intriguing and wildly entertaining novel. It mixes the fantastical and the everyday, which in effect makes the fantasy elements more realistic, and even plausible. Thoughtfully written and conceived, it’s the rare novel that manages to have feet in two genres – fantasy and literary fiction – while being successful at both. Plainly, you won’t read another book like Wayfarers Highway.” Self-Publishing Review

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Category:

Not Rated, Spotlight Author, Thriller

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#SpotlightMonday – Poet of the Wrong Generation

Author: Lonnie Ostrow
Publisher: Harmony River Press

About the Book

One of those rare novels that grabs you by the heartstrings and doesn’t let go until the very last page.

Johnny Elias is a fictional rock star for the ages. His story of how he came to be inspired to write his songs is both heartbreaking and inspirational. Megan Price is the girl whose betrayal caused Johnny to pen the music that quickly becomes the soundtrack of a generation of music fans hungry for songwriting substance during the early 1990s.

Katherine Price is Megan’s talented and cunning mother. She will stop at nothing to get her way, no matter who might be standing in her path. This is a quintessential New York 1990s nostalgia trip. It’s also an open love letter to the singer-songwriter greats of yesteryear. But best of all, it’s a timeless love story of two tortured souls seeking redemption and lasting harmony.

Touching and original, this story will break your heart, uplift your soul and leave you shouting for an encore. The ultimate rock & roll love story.

About the Author

Lonnie Ostrow has been an innovator, storyteller, promoter and celebrity-insider for more than two decades. Since 2001, he has been the publicity/marketing director & researcher for the iconic best-selling novelist Barbara T. Bradford. He also served as an editorial and marketing consultant for a collection of first-time authors through The Editorial Department. Previously, Mr. Ostrow worked as a PR executive, promoting an assortment of first-time celebrity authors including Ray Manzarek of The Doors. From 1995 – 2001, he was widely credited with inventing the “living celebrity postal phenomenon.” In all, he has worked with more than 40 legendary personalities from Bob Dylan to the Bee Gees, Sylvester Stallone to Jackie Chan, creating high-profile media events to celebrate their postal recognition by an assortment of foreign nations.

With Poet of the Wrong Generation, Mr. Ostrow hopes to combine all my unique experiences to bring readers a novel of love and betrayal, music and fanfare, downfall and redemption – a fable of stardom’s rewards, set in New York City during the 1990s.

Reviews

“If you’ve ever been inspired by a love song; if a songwriter’s words have ever spoken directly to you; if you’ve ever felt so overcome with emotion watching your favorite singer/band bringing their words to life, then THIS story is for you. Lonnie Ostrow has spectacularly, truthfully, intensely and vividly captured the heart and soul of a musician with his beautiful words and stunning writing.”
–TotallyBooked Blog

“POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION is an astonishing and profound story; a unique look at one man’s climb to the top; a story of forbidden love between two people whose lives will be destroyed by resentment, the hunger for power, and a need to control. Lonnie Ostrow’s POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION is a masterpiece of literary fiction for today’s generation and the next. Make POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION your next go-to read and enjoy!”
–The Reading Cafe

“If you want a book complete with twists and turns; If you want a book with star-crossed lovers; If you want a book that tugs at your heartstrings in every way, pick up Poet of the Wrong Generation. I highly recommend this pleasure of a book.”
– Angela Kay’s Book Reviews

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Category:

Adult Comtemporary, Not Rated, Romance, Spotlight Author

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