Word Count: 40000
Summary: An outcast necromancer and a half-demon clerk need to save the world from seashell zombies. No pressure. Everyone's always told Aspic that trouble can't help following him because of his heritage. Determined to put the lie to half-demon stereotypes, he's finally landed a good, quiet job as an herbalist's clerk where the owner trusts him to man the shop alone. What could go wrong selling coriander and thyme? When Geoffrey first enters the shop, Aspic finds the little man's eccentric appearance startling, then intriguing. Geoffrey explains, in stops and starts, that he is a theoretical necromancer researching replacements for blood magic. His current line of inquiry involves seashells—do they have any in stock? Aspic's co-workers warn him that Geoffrey is a walking disaster, but he finds himself more and more drawn to a necromancer concerned with ethical death magic. Aspic is with Geoffrey in his lab when he has his first success, but the results aren't at all what he was aiming for. Instead of raising the dead rabbit on his table, the ritual animates the seashell and rock spell components, which flee the lab and cause havoc. They soon discover that the spell-animated objects are "zombies" in that they can "infect" other inanimate things. An unorthodox necromancer and an exasperated shop clerk are going to need some unconventional help to find a working de-animation spell before the world is overrun by zombie seashells and stones gone mad. Geoffrey the Very Strange is part of the Magic Emporium series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This book contains theoretical necromancy, unexpected spell outcomes, some extraordinarily angry seashells, and a guaranteed HEA.
Word Count: 82500
Summary: A mysterious distress call draws the crew of courier ship Hermes to what appears to be an empty, drifting troop vessel--empty except for the blood and gore spattered corridors and a lone survivor locked in a holding cell. Drawn to the handsome, traumatized man, the crew’s comm officer, Isaac Ozawa, makes Turk his personal responsibility, offering him the kindness and warmth he needs after the horror he experienced. Isaac knows firsthand what it’s like to be different and an outcast, and this cements their bond. Once a promising pilot, Isaac was left with a damaged body when his brain didn't meld with the high-tech implant needed to fly fighter ships. Turk’s brain is no better. The result of a military experiment gone wrong, his natural abilities have been augmented to a dangerous degree. When an amoral, power-hungry admiral kidnaps Isaac and uses him to convince Turk to become the cataclysmic weapon he’s hungered for, it will take Turk’s strength, the ingenuity of the Hermes crew, the help of the enigmatic Drak’tar, and Isaac’s own stubborn will to save them.
Word Count: 95,100
Summary: Earth’s last known colony, Albion, is fighting an alien enemy. In the first of the Taking Shield serial, Shield Captain Bennet is dropped behind the lines to steal priceless intelligence. A dangerous job, and Bennet doesn’t need the distractions of changing relationships with his long-term partner, Joss, or with his father—and with Flynn, the new lover who will turn his world upside-down. He expects to risk his life. He expects the data will alter the course of the war. What he doesn’t expect is that it will change his life or that Flynn will be impossible to forget.
Word Count: 62,285
Summary: Inspired by the Edmund Fitzgerald's harrowing true story. This reimagining of tragic events is a gripping tale that delves into the depths of love, resilience, and the harsh realities that test the bonds of friendship. It’s an M/M romantic twist of fate tragedy that will leave you breathless with its emotional intensity. Ham and Echo, who have been inseparable since they were ten years old, share a bond that goes beyond friendship. When Ham is drafted into the army at nineteen, Echo, without hesitation, enlists as well, promising to have his back. Eleven years post-war, Echo is still haunted by what he has seen and done in Vietnam. Ham, now a family man with two sons, has managed to bury the past. But Echo, unable to escape the horrors of war, struggles to find his place in civilian life. Ham, recognizing his friend’s pain, takes it upon himself to guide Echo back to the light. He enrolls Echo in an anger management program and secures him a job on the ship he works on, the Gordon Lighton. As Echo’s feelings for Ham deepen, he dares to hope that Ham might feel the same. One stormy night aboard the Gordon Lighton, Echo stumbles upon a shocking secret-a human trafficking scheme operating right under their noses. As the weather worsens, the Gordon Lighton is subjected to the brutal onslaught of nature’s fury. The unthinkable question hangs palpably in the air. Will the Gordon Lighton weather the storm?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Tiernan Guaire was exiled from the Fae Realm a century and a half ago for his brother's murder. His soul torn in half, he lives by his vows - never to trust, never to love. And if he can only be whole by finding and loving the human with the other half of his soul? He's content to live broken and half-souled. Kevin Almstead's future, the career he's worked for as long as he can remember, has been taken away by a vote of the partners at his law firm. Chance brings him to Purgatory, the hottest all-male nightclub in Washington, D.C., to a meeting with a Fae, with long blond hair, ice-blue eyes, and a smile promising pleasures he's never dreamed of. But there's no such thing as chance. But Tiernan isn't the only one to find Kevin in Purgatory. The most ancient enemy of the Fae race sees in the handsome lawyer a way to destroy the world from which it, too, was exiled. And only the strength of a true SoulShare bond can keep it from what it seeks.
Word Count: 79,000
Summary: Left for dead behind enemy lines, prince Dominel seeks refuge in an abandoned stronghold of the slaughtered wizards. There he is recruited and trained by undead mages in the once forbidden magics so that he can close the doors into the world of man and halt the advance of the horde of monsters known as the storm. Can the strength of a lone wizard stand against a god of evil bent on ruling all the worlds of monsters and men. Will other races stand as friends or foes in Dominel’s quest? Can Dominel open himself to memories of his past lives without fracturing his sanity and becoming a worse threat than the monsters he seeks to halt? And what of the man who is prince, king and wizard? What space is left for him in a life of crushing duty and wondrous enchantment? For the answers read on
Word Count: 52900
Summary: Havesskadi has won the Rainbow Award for Best Asexual Debut Book (2018-2019), and second place in the Best Asexual Book (Asexual – Contemporary, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance & Romantic Comedy | 2018-2019) category. The red dragon is hunting her own. Up in the icy peaks of the northern mountains, Orsie Havesskadi spends his days hiding from her, but eventually he is found and his dragon magic stolen. Cursed to wander the lands as a mortal unless he recovers his magic before twenty-four rising crescents have passed, Orsie embarks on an arduous journey. Spurred by the whispers in his mind, his quest takes him to a castle hidden deep in a forest. Arkeva Flitz, a skilled garrison archer, discovers an abandoned castle in the woods. Trapped there, he spends his days with his two companions, one cruel, the other soothing. One day, a young man arrives at his gates, and soon they are confined by heavy snowfalls and in danger from what slumbers in the shadows of the castle.
Word Count: 93,900
Summary: Shield Captain Bennet is on Telnos, a unpleasant little planet inhabited by religious fanatics and unregistered miners running illegal solactinium mines. It’s about to be about to be overrun by the Maess. Bennet’s job is to get out as many civilians as he can, but the enemy arrives before the evacuation is complete. Caught in a vicious fire fight, Bennet is left behind, presumed dead. His family is grieving. Joss, his long-term partner, grieves with them; lost, unhappy, remorseful. First Lieutenant Flynn has no official ‘rights’ here. He isn’t family. He isn’t partner or lover. All he is, is broken.
Word Count: 81000
Summary: The Earth has gone silent. John Mark Ellis and the crew of the Sanson are sent to investigate. When they arrive, they find vast alien machines known as Clusters in orbit. Fearing the worst, they land and discover that the once overcrowded, polluted Earth has become a paradise of sorts. The problem is over half the population is dead or missing and the planet's leaders don't seem to care. As Ellis works to unravel the mystery, sudden gravitational shifts from the galaxy's center indicate something even worse is in the offing. Can Ellis save the galaxy from the heirs of the new Earth?
Word Count: 76000
Summary: Sometimes it’s harder to teach a young dog new tricks. That’s why werewolves embark on a Howling: a three-year rite of passage in which they’re sent to a group residence to wrestle with their wolfy instincts and assimilate into the Wider World. But Tanner Araya’s Howling is almost over, and he could be called back to his remote pack at any moment. His twenty-first birthday might be his last chance to act on his strongest instinct and finally kiss Chase Denney. Chase is RA at the Howling residence affectionately dubbed “the Doghouse,” and he takes his job seriously. So seriously that when he realized he was developing feelings for a resident, he forced himself to keep Tanner at a distance. But now that Tanner’s twenty-one, he’s not Chase’s charge any longer. They could be friends or—if Chase is lucky—something more. At least until they both return to their home packs for good, as tradition demands. It would take a miracle for them to get together—especially when the other Doghouse werewolves insist on “helping.” Warning: Many Frisbees are harmed in this story, forgiveness is not always easier than permission, and the five-second rule does not apply.
Word Count: 72000
Summary: For Evangeline “Evan” Miles, Honeycutt Academy is more than just a prestigious school of magic. It’s home. Before graduating, it was the first place they’d ever felt comfortable enough to be themself. Now, as a school librarian, it’s also where Evan might have finally found the promise of love - with Mimi, the bright and bubbly potions professor. But when Evan meets Hester, the half-sister they never knew they had, everything suddenly changes. Hester is being stalked by their murderous, vampiric father - an experience Evan remembers only too well. United, the two siblings agree that their days of running and hiding from their father are over - and it’s time to finally end his wretched existence. But to do so, they must turn to Svenja - a witch, a wolf-shifter, and the only creature they know powerful enough to take down their monstrous father. However, the paranormal private investigator is also Evan’s former lover - and as the hunt for their father draws them closer together, the flames of their romance begin to rekindle. Evan feels forced to choose between their chemistry with Svenja, and their commitment to Mimi - and that distracts them from a dangerous truth: That as Evan and Hester prepare to confront their centuries-old father, they’ve forgotten he’s also had decades to prepare for them. I Think of You Often is the first installment of the St. Acton series by Sienna Eggler - a small town sapphic PNR by an author praised for writing “engaging tales of emotions and struggles” and “sweet, realistic romance between two people figuring their way in life.”
Word Count: 91550
Summary: “IMMORTALITY BYTES: Digital Minds Don’t Get Hungry” by Daniel Lawrence Abrams won “Best Science Fiction: Cyberpunk” in the 7th Annual American Fiction Awards (2024), won “Best Humor/Satire” in the Story Trade Awards (a Reedsy "Best Writing Competition), and the book made the 3rd cut/shortlisted and is still in contention to win Chanticleer's Cygnus Award for Best Science Fiction (2025). Tagline: “Living forever... it's almost worth dying for.” Genre: Sci-Fi/Humor/Political Thriller The Hook: Strives to be a satirical, progressive antidote to Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED. One-line Story Pitch: “When an idealistic hacker’s ex-girlfriend nears inventing digital immortality, an indicted tycoon compels him to steal it.” Back Cover Blurb: “Yay, free money and a life of leisure! Except… only if you never have children. Sure, a cute little version of you (but not yet so screwed up) sounds fun. But with AI robots taking more jobs, who can reject that “bargain” hoping to afford kids someday? Stu Reigns does. He’s an idealistic AI programmer and part-time influencer. His demisexual ex-girlfriend, Roxy Zhang, nears perfecting electronic immortality. Add in billionaire banking rascals, and there’s no more certainty — not even “Death & Taxes.” An old-money Southerner is buying Roxy’s company. This infuriates a sick, rival oligarch — who is about to be rightfully convicted of epic fraud. To escape to this digital eternal life, he compels Stu to steal it. You’ll never guess all the twists, but maybe the reader peering over your shoulder will.” LINKS to accolades and 5-star reviews for "IMMORTALITY BYTES: Digital Minds Don't Get Hungry" by Daniel Lawrence Abrams : - https://www.americanbookfest.com/2024afapressrelease.html - https://2024.storytradeawards.com/ - https://www.chantireviews.com/2024/09/03/the-2024-cygnus-awards-semi-finalists-for-science-fiction/ - https://readerviewsarchives.wordpress.com/2024/09/02/immortality-bytes-abrams-2/ - https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/immortality-bytes - https://sanfranciscobookreview.com/product/immortality-bytes-digital-minds-dont-get-hungry/ BOOK TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/1005688225
Word Count: 99000
Summary: Gavin Booker, a school librarian at Cooper Road Elementary, Raleigh, Northern Carolina, leads an orderly, normal life. Work, jogging, friends from work, his son every other weekend. Gavin is also a secret. He is a hybrid, or part-fairy, and in the Columbian Empire, hybrids are under an automatic death sentence. Magic is illegal. So is loving another man, another capital crime. Fairies are locked away in ghettoes, magical beasts, such as gryphons, unicorns, and pegasi are kept in zoos. The others, the tree and water spirits, the talking beasts, fauns, and the rest, are in hiding. This is the world in which Gavin grew up. He survived, thanks to his mother. He can never forget he is different: ministers preach against people like him constantly; hating the other is a part of every school’s curriculum. But now, things are changing fast, and apparently, for the worst. Earthquakes, volcanoes, killer storms are all frequent occurrences. The medicine Gavin takes to suppress his body’s glowing, isn’t working. The spells cast by his doctor, a witch, are losing their power. If anyone finds out what Gavin is, he is dead. Under threat, the Empire always goes after its marginalized people. Can Gavin survive the coming catastrophe? Will he ever recover from losing the boys he loved? Can he find the fairy man who has haunted his dreams all his life before it is too late? Can his scarred heart ever heal?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: When a shifter and a human are bound by fate, neither man knows if their connection will be enough to save not only their growing love, but their lives. Shahin Halcón has been taught that if and when he meets his soul mate, he’ll know immediately. Always the rebel, he doesn’t believe it until the day he crosses paths with Cai, a full-human. Plagued by unsuccessful relationships and heartache, Cai Banes’s life is quiet and unexciting. When he meets young and wild Shahin, his life is turned upside down, and he's not sure he likes it. But neither can deny the powerful pull that draws them together. Old secrets and ancient myths about cross-species relationships plague their romance and threaten to put their happiness and life at risk. Will their love for each other be strong enough to survive?
Word Count: 40000
Summary: We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to take a side trip down two branching paths. First, we’ll follow Matt and Xander as they take a surprise honeymoon to Hawaii in The Honeymooners. It’s not all private beaches and swimming with the fish, though. Truths from Xander’s past are revealed that give Matt new insight into his mate. Just as they get comfortable, the unforeseen appearance of a new enemy cuts their trip short. Next, we slide over to find out what some mischievous foxes have been doing behind the scenes since they arrived in France. Akira and Koji set their sights on a pair of twin hunky dragons in 2+2=Love. It’s not easy being twin dragons when your other half has been in your head since conception. It’s certainly not easy finding love, but Halvar and Herleif have hope when a pair of foxes cyberstalk their way into their lives. Intermission contains two short stories that occur during the events at the end of First Strike and through Dragon's Hoard. While these stories do not fit into the overall story arc, some bits and pieces may find importance later on down the road. So take a break from the action and breathe in some light-hearted fun and romance. Dragon War Chronicles is a continuous series. It must be read in order.
Word Count: 50000
Summary: After the overwhelmingly successful premiere of Jungle Jitters, Jennifer, the leader of the Action Girls, is eager to make another jungle adventure movie, and she asks her regular scribe, J. Manfred Weichsel, to write it. His pitch? A three-hundred-mile-long giantess named Patty McGloop lies eternally on her back in the Mojave Desert, with a pubic hair region spanning seven miles from below her navel to between her thighs. Just as the Gargantua ray made Patty McGloop very big, it also enlarged the microscopic animals that live on her skin and hair. Wouldn’t it be fun to go exploring inside her pubic hair jungle in order to document all the interesting flora and fauna? The Action girls excitedly make all the preparations needed to shoot such a bizarre motion picture and take a helicopter to Patty McGloop’s navel, the gateway to her colossal realm. But when the girls become captive to a tribe of zealous lice, it’s up to Manfred to go on a daring mission into the bush to rescue them. About the author: Before he became America’s premier writer of subversive fiction, J. Manfred Weichsel cut his teeth in Hollywood, crafting screenplays for the notorious Action Girls, a trio of indie starlets whose on and off-screen antics captivated audiences throughout the 2010s. But while the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown may have seemed like a dream come true, insiders know that life with the Action Girls was anything but ordinary. Weichsel's days were a whirlwind of adrenaline and excess. Rumors of secret romances, bitter rivalries, and drunken nights on set only added fuel to the fiery saga of his Hollywood tenure. In this tell-all memoir, J. Manfred Weichsel dishes out the most salacious details on the making of their most notorious film, Into the Bush. Don't miss out on these behind-the-scenes revelations that will leave you laughing, gasping, and begging for more.
Word Count: 97000
Summary: Time is running out. After saving the world twice, Xander, Jameson and friends plunge headlong into a new crisis. The ithani―the aliens who broke the world―have reawakened from their hundred millennia-long slumber. When Xander and Jameson disappear in a flash, an already fractured world is thrown into chaos. The ithani plans, laid a hundred thousand years before, are finally coming to pass, and they threaten all life on Erro. Venin and Alix go on a desperate search for their missing and find more than they bargained for. And Quince, Robin and Jessa discover a secret as old as the skythane themselves. Will alien technology, unexpected help from the distant past, destiny and some good old-fashioned firepower be enough to defeat an enemy with the ability to split a world? The final battle of the epic science fiction adventure that began in Skythane will decide the fate of lander and skythane alike. And in the north, the ithani rise….
Word Count: 56000
Summary: This time, the universe puts the cat in catastrophe. Plucked from her home on Earth and ending up aboard a strange spaceship in an even stranger universe, Lem and the misfit crew of the Teapot have more than enough trouble on their hands… and then they receive an urgent last-minute call to save a race of cat-people from certain destruction. Stuck with a disaster-platypus of a project manager and an entire race of people seemingly determined to thwart their own rescue, the Teapot’s crew face the impossible job of herding cats and helping evacuate the planet before it’s blown to smithereens. Can Lem and the gang avert disaster and save this race of infuriating cat-people? Perfect for fans of wacky and imaginative sci-fi stories, this satirical space opera is a ridiculous adventure that will delight readers of John Scalzi’s take on Fuzzy Nation or TJ Berry’s Space Unicorn Blues.
Word Count: 41000
Summary: When the Action Girls, a trio of wannabe starlets from Hollywood, land a jungle adventure show, they think it’s their dream come true. But instead, they’re trafficked to the Congo for a sinister purpose. In the heart of Africa, a cult of mad scientists harbors a mad ambition: to create a new species of human-ape hybrid, mating human women with chimpanzees. But their experiments are failures, so they need to bring a steady supply of women to their jungle compound to keep their twisted fantasy alive. Will the Action Girls escape their bizarre and terrifying ordeal? Or will they fulfill the cult’s warped vision of humanity’s future to become broodmares birthing inhuman monsters? Find out in Jungle Jitters, a story not for the faint-hearted, the easily offended, or anyone who thinks human-ape hybrids are a good idea.
Word Count: 69478
Summary: The staff at AURA has had a busy summer. Between chronic understaffing, dealing with warring goblin factions and an unusual number of hazardous Events, everyone is overworked. Sinistrus the incubus, newly hired as an AURA medic, actually enjoys his busy new life of responsible employee and faithful lover to his gorgeous police sergeant, Ness the centaur. Life would be perfect, except for a niggling suspicion about a colleague. Everyone else seems to disagree, but Sin’s certain something’s not right with that pixie. Kellen, a pixie crossover, loves his job working in AURA medical, even if he is something of an outsider. His job and the friends he manages to make are happy spots in an otherwise dark and secretive life. As the rest of AURA tries to discover the root of the inexplicable rise in violence and large-scale Events, Kellen fights to preserve his own life and what dignity he has left. These two unlikely heroes must put their differences aside and navigate tragedy and ever-escalating disaster together in order to stop the sinister forces that hold Kellen in thrall.
