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Summary: In 2048 BCE, the ancient Egyptian ruler Mentuhotep II of the Upper Kingdom of Mizraim campaigns to overtake the Lower Kingdom and become Supreme Pharaoh of all Egypt. At the same time, the last few Bor-ak survivors of the destroyed Red Planet, which the Egyptians called Horus, were coming for one last fly-by of the Blue Planet, before heading out of the solar system, searching for new worlds to inhabit. Mentuhotep saw the arrival of the Eye of Horus as a sign that the gods favoured his campaign and implored the Bor-ak to destroy his enemies. Meanwhile, his beautiful daughter Princess Iset has fallen for humble soldier Achillas and Mentuhotep plans to thwart the undesirable union. Would the Bor-ak side with Mentuhotep in his military campaign and efforts to dissuade Princess Iset?
Word Count: 84000
Summary: Edmund is heir to the throne of Thalassa and a wielder of Water magic. Devoted to his kingdom and his duty to it, Edmund can do nothing but acquiesce to an arranged marriage with the queen of a neighboring kingdom. The marriage and the child it is required to produce will seal an alliance between Thalassa and Aither that is vital to Thalassa’s safety, and far more important than Edmund’s personal misgivings. Arden is the younger brother of Aither’s queen and a wielder of Air magic. Raised in the politics of the court to support his sister’s rule, he understands the alliance is important to Aither, even as he worries about his sister marrying someone she’s never met. When Edmund arrives in Aither to prepare for the wedding, Arden is tasked with helping him settle in at court. As they spend more time together, Edmund and Arden develop a close friendship, then stronger feelings, but with Edmund’s wedding approaching, they must hide their feelings, even from themselves. When someone tries to assassinate the queen, Edmund is blamed, and Arden rescues him before he can be executed for a crime he didn’t commit. To prevent a war between their kingdoms and protect them from a dangerous enemy, Edmund and Arden will have to discover who wants to pit Aither and Thalassa against each other and mend relations between the two kingdoms as they evade those searching for them—all while finding a way to be together.
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Summary: Welcome to the last of the great flying Cities! It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past. Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between. Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it. Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat as he navigates his feelings for his newest client, the handsome golem Alejandro?
Word Count: 67000
Summary: When Heavy Metal Meets Serious Magic, Get Ready for Some Monstrous Consequences. Lottie Ferro lives her life by order and rules, but on stage it’s nothing but chaos. While leading goth metal band The Furies on their first tour of the year, Lottie uses her band’s witchy theme to hide her magic in plain sight. As Lottie struggles to keep their manager, Trenton from sabotaging their careers, she starts to suspect she isn’t the only one who’s hiding something. Trenton discovers her secret and offers her an ultimatum: perform a ritual for him or get shut out of the industry forever. Lottie has no choice but to tell her bandmates the truth. Together, they agree to find a way to give him what he wants. When the ritual goes wrong, it opens the door to bigger dangers than any of them are prepared for. From author N.J. Ember and USAT Bestselling Author Amir Lane comes a story of music, magic, and mayhem.
Word Count: 86611
Summary: Prince Edmund of Thalassa and Prince Arden of Aither are eagerly anticipating their upcoming wedding, but the danger to their kingdom hasn’t lessened. They have a plan, but they won’t be able to carry it out alone: they need a strong wielder of each Element, whom they can trust implicitly, to carry out the magic. Rhys is a commoner and wielder of Earth magic. He and his sister have made a living from the use of their magic for years and have become highly respected in scholarly circles, though he prefers a more simple life with his plants. When a message from Prince Arden reaches them asking for their help, they don’t hesitate. They stop only to request that Gaz, a strong Fire wielder and the man Rhys has long been enamored of, accompany them on the journey to Thalassa’s royal palace. What no one knows is that Gaz was once known as Prince Gareth of Thalassa and is Edmund’s younger brother, long believed dead. He fled his home after his Fire Affinity made itself known and put him in danger, and he had no intention of ever going back. But he can’t keep himself from going to his brother’s aid, despite the risk of discovery and of the weight of his secrets potentially crushing his fledgling relationship with Rhys. Working against time, they must find a way to come together in a magical working the likes of which none of them has ever imagined, or their homelands will surely burn.
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Summary: A Scotland Yard Inspector hunts something more dangerous than werewolves through the gaslit streets of London. Royston Jones, unacknowledged bastard of a high-born family, is determined to track the killer before more young women fall to his knife. But his investigation puts him in the way of a lord who is a clandestine werewolf and the man’s fiancée , a woman alchemist with attitude and a secret of her own. Will they destroy Royston to protect their covert identities, or will they join with him to hunt the hunter?
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Summary: James Spencer is hardly the typical troubled youth who ends up at Whisperwood School for Boys. Instead of hating the strict schedules and tight oversight by staff, James blossoms, quickly making friends, indulging in his love of writing, and contemplating the merits of sneaking love poems to the elusive and aloof William Esher. The rumours about William’s sexuality and opium reliance are prime gossip material amongst the third years…rumours that only further pique James' curiosity to uncover what William is really like beneath all that emotional armor. And, when the normally collected William stumbles in one night, shaken and ranting of ghosts, James is the only one who believes him. James himself has heard the nails dragging down his bedroom door and the sobs echoing in the halls at night. He knows others have, too, even if no one will admit it. The staff refuses to entertain such ridiculous tales, and punishment awaits anyone who brings it up. Their fervent denial and the disappearance of students only furthers James’ determination to find out what secrets Whisperwood is hiding...especially if it prevents William and himself from becoming the next victims.
Word Count: 88700
Summary: Kat Wallace is on a mission. After escaping tortuous enslavement, she sets her sights on ending the human trafficking that has flourished in 24th century Earth. Adopted by the leader of the pirate nation of Bosch, Kat Wallace is determined to prove herself as a member of the Bosch Pirate Force and use her skills to avenge her enslavement and free other thralls. But unexpected love and a test of loyalty threaten to rob her of what she wants most: a home.
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Summary: When young paleontologist, Ryan Thompson, finds a new species of mosasaur in Cretaceous seaway sediments, he is thrilled. The discovery should jumpstart his career. Joy quickly turns to fear when he touches an artifact buried among the sea reptile’s ribs. Suddenly, he must fight a mental takeover by an alien intelligence committed to transforming the Earth into a refuge for her own race. As Ryan and his girlfriend, Skeets, attempt to thwart alien plans to colonize Earth begun in the deep past, even this crisis becomes trivial. The uneasy symbiosis of Ryan and the alien, Siu, generates a new entity with the power to transform the entire universe.
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Summary: I sat up and focused on now, where magic was undoubtedly happening. Rowena must battle both past and present to achieve the future she craves. A WAYWARD WIND is the final volume in TALES OF ARDONNA: WOODSPELL SERIES, a fairy tale for adults.
Word Count: 56000
Summary: New Hopeland was built to be the centre of the technological age, but like everywhere else, it has its dark side. Assassins, drug dealers and crooked businessmen form a vital part of the city’s make-up, and sometimes, the police are in too deep themselves to be effective. But hey, there are always other options …
For P.I. Cassie Tam, business has been slow. So, when she’s hired to investigate the death of a local VR addict named Eddie Redwood, she thinks it’ll be easy money. All she has to do is prove to the deceased’s sister Lori that the local P.D. were right to call it an accidental overdose. The more she digs though, the more things don’t seem to sit right, and soon, Cassie finds herself knee deep in a murder investigation. But that’s just the start of her problems.
When the case forces Cassie to make contact with her drug dealing ex-girlfriend, Charlie Goldman, she’s left with a whole lot of long buried personal issues to deal with. Then there’s her client. Lori Redwood is a Tech Shifter, someone who uses a metal exoskeleton to roleplay as an animal. Cassie isn’t one to judge, but the Tech Shifting community has always left her a bit nervous. That wouldn’t be a problem if Lori wasn’t fast becoming the first person that she’s been genuinely attracted to since splitting with Charlie. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the police wanting her to back off the case.
Easy money, huh? Yeah, right.
Honorable Mention: Rainbow Awards 2017 - Lesbian Sci-Fi Category
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Summary: Seven stories of the gap year for the Children of Amargosa between Storming Amargosa and Suicide Run: Tishla must decide if Hanar can accommodate a group of socially inept sentient turtles. JT Austin has a ghost. Eric Yuwono must deal with his former enemies, who are now refugees on Amargosa. Davra Andraste tries to save a group of mean girls in space. Connor Duffy hacks the Boston sewer system. Ellie Nardino ponders her future, which might include terraforming. Mitsuko Yamato confronts squid people
Word Count: 73,151
Summary: Time travel. For mages, it violates their number one rule: what the Mother has written, let no one unwrite. The Mother writes the destinies of the creatures on the world of Karishian. If her writings were undone, it is feared that Creation itself could be undone. The dark mage Morgorth takes this rule to heart, but there are others who do not. Morgorth is about to claim a stone of power when it is stolen from him by a female mage he hasn't seen in decades. As they struggle for the stone, she activates it, and Morgorth is unwillingly plunged into another time and another place. It isn't long before he realizes what time he's found himself in and there are a few familiar faces. Most notable is a much younger version of Aishe. His mate. Living with a tribe who will be massacred, caring for a young lad who will become his mate, and fighting a battle against a mage who can travel from past to future at a whim—Morgorth's life has never been easy but now he must contend with the will of the Mother. Unable to change the future and the tragedies of Aishe's life, he must decide what his role in his mate's past will be, and ask himself one vital question: how does one defeat time?
Word Count: 80,0-00
Summary: MIKE CHRISTOPHER RETURNS TO EARTH TO BATTLE AN OLD NEMESIS! Mike Christopher, an artificial Human spurned and abused by much of Earth society, left Earth to become a Galactic explorer. Now, 25 years later, he returns to battle the Jenregar, an alien enemy he's fought before. But the key to defeating the alien threat also presents a soul-crushing moral dilemma!
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Summary: Step through a portal in time - and steal a piece of history! Iria and Madge, witches extraordinaire, have summoned Joshua Norton I, self-declared Emperor of the United States, back from the nineteenth century to help them save the city of San Francisco from a demon of greed. Mammon, their infernal adversary, is running a real estate scam to end all real estate scams, and he's got his own helping hand from the city's past: Etta Place, famous in her day as the accomplice of Butch Cassidy and partner of the Sundance Kid. As Norton dodges mafia foot soldiers alongside another of San Francisco's larger-than-life figures from yesteryear on the fog-shrouded streets of Chinatown long ago, Iria and Madge find themselves face to face with Mammon and Etta in modern day - and trapped in very different timelines. It'll take all their ingenuity, bravery, and prowess to fix time itself, steal the prize, and get these three heroes back together!
Word Count: 50655
Summary: ‘Old actors never die’ shouldn’t be literally true. Carrington Loveless III, skim-blood vampire and senior officer of Philly’s paranormal police department, has long suspected that someone’s targeting his squad. The increasingly bizarre and dangerous entities invading their city can’t be a coincidence. So when a walking corpse spouting Oscar Wilde attacks one of his officers, Carrington’s determined to uncover the evil mind behind it all. As a rare books librarian, Erasmus Graham thought he understood some of the stranger things in life. Sharing a life with Carrington has shown him he didn’t know the half of it. They’ve survived attack books and deadly dust bunnies together and got through mostly unscathed. Now his world and his vampire’s appear ready to collide again. Books are missing from the Rare Book collection—old tomes of magic containing dangerous summonings and necromancy. He’s certain whoever has been stalking the Seventy-Seventh is composing their end game. It’s going to take a consolidated effort from paranormal police, librarians and some not-quite-authorized civilians to head off the impending catastrophe.
Word Count: 184000
Summary:
An unexpected romance. A space-heist gone wrong. A galactic catastrophe in the making.
At the furthest reaches of the known galaxy, cyber-thief Rowland Hale’s biggest score turns into a fight for his life. Beaten but not broken, ex-navy captain Toar Grithrawrscion can save that life, but only by risking his own. With a toothy foe hell-bent on domination, can these two unlikely heroes come together and not only save the galaxy, but each other? Their destiny is in their hands, but only if they keep their hands to themselves. A high-adventure space epic with a touch of charming romance, Allure of Oartheca tells the story of two men from different worlds who must face battles both from without and from deep within – an Allure that whispers promises of rapture and destruction, that dares not be risked, and cannot be refused. If our heroes give up, they fail. If they give in, they fail too – and the fate of the universe rests in the balance.
Word Count: 52000
Summary: Has kidnapping Zeus ruined Dargon and Alpha's chance at love? The sole survivor on a science vessel adrift in deep space, Zeus was adopted by the Emperor and Empress of the Mar'Sani, though he is both human and blind, and seen by many as unfit to join the royal family. Though they were able to repair his vision, Zeus does not trust his eyes, and the nobles of his parents' court refuse to ever trust a frail and treacherous human. Dargon Kal-Turak, along with his symbiote and lover, Alpha, command one of the most dangerous ships in the stars. After narrowly escaping a trap, they dock in a space port to make repairs but find that the Psionics hunting them are closing in fast. In desperation they kidnap the port's master mechanic, unaware that the man they've brought on board is more than he seems and will bring far more upheaval to their ship, their lives, and the stars than any of them could have imagined. **Alpha Trine is a 52k sci-fi romance. It was re-edited July 2018 and some concepts were expanded upon. Neither the plot nor characters were changed.
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Summary: Sometimes your deepest desire can become your worst nightmare. Gigi, Ellen, Lilly… three women so desperate to change their lives that they turn to the mysterious Dr. Kite, who offers them an implant that can control their mind. Will Gigi find her true love? Can Ellen’s miraculous, sudden weight loss bring her romance and self-respect? Can Lilly put her bitter divorce behind her? They’re willing to risk it all to find the happiness they’ve always searched for.
Word Count: 70,034
Summary: Every story has more than one point of view. As the mate to the dark mage Morgorth, Aishe has learned a lot about magick, love, and himself. He tries to find a home with Morgorth, to be accepted into his world; to survive in a world full of magick, treachery, and deception. But all the while he struggles to keep a secret about his past and their intertwined destinies. Despite all the obstacles thrown at both of them, Aishe is determined to stay by Morgorth’s side, no matter what the future brings—even if that future turns dark with death should Morgorth embrace his grim destiny. But when Morgorth leaves with his mentor to collect another stone of power, Aishe is left behind. It is then a surprise attack comes and Aishe, determined to protect and defend his new home, decides to take the invaders on by himself. It might prove too much for him to handle...especially when he learns the one who leads the invaders is a mage. This book allows us a glimpse inside the mind of Lord Morgorth’s better half, a dialen named Aishe: his motivations, his personal sorrows, and his struggle to find a place to call home.
