Fall’s New Fiction – Books for 2017

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AmReading, books, Fall, fiction, new releases, reading

BQB Publishing is proud to announce its fall fiction lineup. Don’t miss any of these…

Broken Slate by John A. Daly

Thirty years ago, Sean Coleman’s father abandoned his family in the Colorado mountain town of Winston, and was never heard from again. The reason for his disappearance was always a mystery, but a lifetime of blaming himself put Sean on a rough, dark path that took him years to return from.

Now content in his life, Sean receives unexpected word that his father has finally reemerged, on the other side of the country in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. . .as a murder victim.

At the wishes of his sister, Sean flies out to retrieve his body, and hopefully find answers to why his father left, and the life he went on to lead. What he discovers is a second family, a web of deception, and a brutal killer who’s still on the loose. . .and isn’t finished killing.

Release Date: October 1, 2017

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Crisanta Knight: Inherent Fate by Geanna Culbertson

I had learned a lot in the last couple of days. I’d figured out how to defeat a fairytale villain with a Toyota 4Runner, how to surf on furniture (à la Aladdin and his magic carpet), and how to confront my wicked step-grandmother. But these bizarre lessons were only just the beginning.

If I was to overcome the obstacles in my path, I had plenty of learning left to do—about myself, and about my enemies. Between Nadia the queen of villains, and the leader of the Fairy Godmothers, I was in for a lot of trouble in this final phase of our quest to alter our fates. Separated from our friends, Daniel and I had to work together to traverse the kingdom of Alderon and evade the antagonists who were trying to destroy us. Moreover, we had to do it while figuring out whether or not we could truly be friends. Not an easy sell when I was prophesized to put an end to his girlfriend. Can you say awkward?

With our mission drawing to a close, my significance to Nadia, my relationship with Natalie Poole, and my magical power were about to be revealed. But among these great truths, little did I know I was on the verge of discovering a strength that would be infinitely more powerful—one that had been inside me all along . . .

Release Date: September 1, 2017

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Daddy, I Want to Know God by Vanessa Fortenberry

Daddy, how well does God know me? Does He love me all the time? Will God ever leave me? In this rhyming story, children’s probing questions show their desire to learn more about God and His love for them. Compassionate and loving responses from their dads help to lead the children in growing a strong Godly faith.
This story depicts the spiritual leadership of fathers as they teach their children about a caring, unfailing, and capable God.

Release Date: October 1, 2017

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The Leftover by Brooke Williams

Megan Malone is the ultimate homebody. When her sister talks her into going on The Leftover, a local version of the TV show Survivor, she isn’t sure she’ll make it past the first vote. Cane Trevino is nursing a broken heart by joining the show as a medic. With time away from his regular job and a dozen contestants to distract him, he hopes he can finally get over the woman he thought was “the one.”

As the contests ramp up, Megan faces her shortfalls as well as the bullies that hit the beach alongside her while harboring a crush on the show’s medic. How far will Megan get on the show? Will Cane get over his broken heart? Join a host of characters for contests filled with laughs, blind sides around every corner, and the ultimate showmance. Who will be The Leftover?

Release Date: September 1, 2017

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Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence by Daniel A. Liut

Duncan, a young college student, receives an extraordinary call. Hesitant, he accepts and is immediately immersed in a crisis and a universe, known by many as Reality. . .
The new environment has mysterious connections to Earth and to his personal life. Duncan starts a journey in the stellar navy of the race that made contact with him. During his deep-space assignments and visits to trans-universal worlds, his heart is tried and his views are challenged. Duncan receives enigmatic signs with a powerful restoring message. However, he is haunted by doubts, struggles with alien love, and is eventually exposed to darkness. Yet he possesses a hidden power, a pervasive gift. Only by accepting it will he find his purpose in Reality, the strength of love, and the key to freedom.

Release Date: September 1, 2017

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Seeking the Shore by Donna Gentry

As the summer of 1934 fades away, Julianna McAllister has every reason to believe she’s widowed from her new husband and the great love of her life, Jace McAllister. She had been a rogue wave when they first met, resisting a life where her wealthy family’s expectations weighted her down like heavy sand. The worst weight was a fiance’ named Leyton, who was driven by strong currents of greed.

Like a tide that carried her to a better land, Jace helped her navigate away from that fate—until a staggering secret from his past collided with Leyton’s determination to reclaim and possess her in hopes of controlling her family’s wealth. The devastating outcome now finds Julianna forced to return to the world she had escaped, only now accompanied by grief as she accepts Leyton’s triumph.

But does she really accept it? She predicts he’ll one day fall and plans to patiently ride out the waves—until one she never anticipated crashes in, forcing her to reconsider how she charts her existence with a man whose name rhymes with Satan.

All she wants is a safe and solid shore on which to freely build a new and peaceful life, but two more unexpected waves are ahead, one with the power to destroy and one with the power to restore.

Uninterrupted, waves always head for the shore to which they’re destined. When these two waves meet and rise up, only one can overtake the other.

Release Date: October 1, 2017

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All books by BQB and WriteLife Publishing are available on Amazon, B&N, or can be ordered from your favorite local bookstore.

Crafts and Historical Fiction

Tags

Crafts, library, Tech Toys, Wood Carving

This weekend I attended two very different events. The first was a gathering of Northern Colorado Woodcarvers. The second was a tech-toy open house at our local library.

At the first, wood carvers gathered to show their crafts, sell tools, talk techniques, wood qualities and sell their art. The attendees were mainly senior citizens. Many worked on projects right at their tables and were more than willing to tell us about their craft. There was even a soap station where kids could try their hand carving a cowboy boot or a fish out of a bar of Ivory. My kids have never smelled so clean!

The second event was filled with preschoolers using iPads to program robotic toys to dance, play music, shoot catapults and roll through obstacle courses. Without even knowing how to read, kids could figure out the pictograph-style instructions and build their inventions.

Both events were impressive in their own right, but the second did make me worry about the crafts we could lose in the future. Is there a need for woodcarving? Or crocheting? Or glass blowing? Can machines be programmed to create the same products? Is this what children of the future will do? Or will there still be weekend and after-dinner hours where crafters gather to knit or paint together?

And what of the conversations that take place between fathers and sons or mothers and daughters as crafts are passed on?

One of the reasons I love reading historical fiction is that it transports me to a time where life is different. Whether I’m reading about WWII, the Great Depression, or a wagon train on its way to Oregon, everything from food preparation to clothing to crafts is accomplished in a less technological way than what we do now.

Here are a few historical fiction novels that will truly take readers to a different time period:

In Watching the Water by Donna Gentry Morton, book 1 of the Heart Tide series, Julianna Sheffield is a rogue wave, one that doesn’t want to land on the shore it seems destined for.

It’s 1934 and the currents pushing her include an unscrupulous father determined to keep the family solvent during the Great Depression, a mother suffocated by the bubble of high society, and a greedy fiance’ named Leyton, who is proving why his name rhymes with Satan. Julianna longs to chart a different course. She wants to help the widows, farmers, and polio victims her family forced into the bread lines. She wants to exchange teacups for drinking milk from the jug. And she dreams of a man named Jace McAllister, another rogue wave who wants to love her but fights the seas bringing them together.

Jace also has a heart for those who are Depression-weary, but his method of helping includes retribution. His reasons are his own, but connected to Julianna’s family. For this seemingly doomed couple, moving forward brings on storms of rage, moral dilemmas, and difficult personal growth. Their love could be the kind that is impossible to live out. . .or the kind from which legends are born. The outcome of their journey depends on how carefully they navigate the waters.

“Seeking the Shore,” the second and final book in this series will release in Spring 2017.

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A Buss From Lafayette by Dorothea Jensen: Fourteen-year-old Clara Hargraves lives on a farm in Hopkinton, a small New Hampshire town, during the 19th century. She has a couple of big problems. First of all, she has a stepmother, Priscilla, who used to be her spinster schoolteacher aunt. Clara, still grieving her mother, resents that her late mother’s older sister has not only married her father but is about to have a baby. To make matters worse, “Prissy Priscilla” keeps trying to make the rambunctious, clever, and witty Clara act like a proper young lady. Secondly, Clara has red hair, making her a target for teasing by a handsome older boy, Dickon Weeks, and by her pretty seventeen-year-old Dread Cousin Hetty. Clara, however, has a secret plan she hopes will change this.

During the last week of June, 1825, Clara’s town is abuzz because the famous General Lafayette is about to visit their state during his farewell tour of America. In those eventful seven days, Clara learns a lot about her family, Hetty, Dickon, and herself. In addition, she hears many stories from her family, neighbors, veterans, and from Lafayette himself. Through these tales, she comes to understand the huge and vital role the French aristocrat played in America’s Revolutionary War. She also comes to see that her problems might not be quite so terrible after all.

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The Children’s Train – Escape on the KinderTransport by Jana Zinser: The Jewish children of Germany are frightened, and their parents are too. Hitler’s men have just broken their store windows, stolen and destroyed their belongings, and arrested many Jewish fathers and brothers. When England arranges to take the children out of Germany by train, the Kindertransport is organized. The train filled with Jewish children escaping the Nazis chugs over the border into Holland, where they are ferried across the English Channel to England and to freedom.

But for Peter, the shy violin player, his sister Becca, and his friends Stephen and Hans, life in England holds challenges as well. Peter’s friend Eva, who did not get a seat on the Kindertransport, is left to the evil plans of Hitler. Peter, working his musician’s hands raw at a farm in Coventry, wonders if they should have stayed and fought back instead of escaping.

That night the Coventry farm is bombed. The Nazis have reached England. Peter has nothing left. He decides it’s time to stand and fight Hitler. Peter returns to Germany to join the Jewish underground resistance, search for the mother and sister he left behind in Berlin, and rescue his childhood friend Eva.

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All books by BQB and WriteLife Publishing are available on Amazon, B&N or can be ordered from your local bookstore.

Spring Releases: New Fiction Titles

Tags

Dorothea Jenses, Gary F. Jones, Geanna Culbertson, Marla K. Benjamin, new releases, reading, Spring Books

Um, in Colorado we still have snow, but apparently on the calendar and in other parts of the country it is spring. I see tulip and crocus pictures on Facebook, so it must be true, right!

This winter, four BQB authors have been busy growing fiction. They have sowed their words, edited their weeds, picked their harvest covers and are now ready to share them with readers. BQB is proud to announce these new novels – all with spring release dates!

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A Buss from Lafayette by Dorothea Jensen

Fourteen-year-old Clara Hargraves lives on a farm in Hopkinton, a small New Hampshire town, during the 19th century. She has a couple of big problems. First of all, she has a stepmother, Priscilla, who used to be her spinster schoolteacher aunt. Clara, still grieving her mother, resents that her late mother’s older sister has not only married her father but is about to have a baby. To make matters worse, “Prissy Priscilla” keeps trying to make the rambunctious, clever, and witty Clara act like a proper young lady. Secondly, Clara has red hair, making her a target for teasing by a handsome older boy, Dickon Weeks, and by her pretty seventeen-year-old Dread Cousin Hetty. Clara, however, has a secret plan she hopes will change this.

During the last week of June, 1825, Clara’s town is abuzz because the famous General Lafayette is about to visit their state during his farewell tour of America. In those eventful seven days, Clara learns a lot about her family, Hetty, Dickon, and herself. In addition, she hears many stories from her family, neighbors, veterans, and from Lafayette himself. Through these tales, she comes to understand the huge and vital role the French aristocrat played in America’s Revolutionary War. She also comes to see that her problems might not be quite so terrible after all.

Releases April 22, 2016 – Available for Pre-Order now!

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A Light in the Dark by Marla K. Benjamin

One couple begins a Monday much like any other, but an arbitrary moment quickly sends them on a course of turmoil and uncertainty. Dez Parker, a former professional football star, and his fiancé, Sabrina, a divorced tax lawyer, have spent two years carefully carving out their future together. But nothing is ever guaranteed.

When Sabrina disappears from her office parking lot, a city-wide search is launched. The case goes cold from the beginning and the only way for Dez to cope is to retreat into memories, relying heavily on his best friend, Alex, while he waits for a miracle.

Three days later, Sabrina is found and in the days the months that follow, she and Dez attempt to navigate through a new normal of sleepless nights, mood swings, and relationship missteps.

A uniquely crafted love story, layered with doubt and determination, A Light in the Dark is a daring and willful account of one couple’s struggle to regain a future amid the fallout of three fateful days in October. This is a story about life after survival.

Releases May 24, 2016 – Available for Pre-Order now!

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A Jerk, A Jihad and A Virus by Gary F. Jones

Veterinary virologist Jason Mitchell can’t keep his mouth shut, can’t lie convincingly, and can’t follow orders. He’s an unlikely candidate to help the CIA locate and destroy a deadly hybrid virus stolen from Jason’s lab at the University of Minnesota. From Washington to Djibouti, From Minneapolis to Yemen, Marines cringe, Senators turn livid, and CIA agents shudder as Jason struggles to prevent the virus from becoming a biological weapon in the hands of jihadists.

Jason and Ann Hartman, veterinarians, lovers, and graduate students, conduct a study of BCV in calves, a common virus that causes diarrhea in cattle. A recently arrived Chinese student accidentally exposes the calves to the SARS virus, a close relative of BCV. The calves and the Chinese student develop a severe and puzzling pneumonia. The Center for Disease Control isolates a hybrid BCV-SARS virus from the Chinese student and the calves. The FBI is notified of the new and dangerous virus.

Ahmed, more con man than graduate student, discovers samples of Jason’s that contain the virus. He steals them and flees to Yemen where he pretends to be a devout Muslim to get funding from a jihadist group. The jihadists believe the virus will be valuable as a biological weapon and as bait to lure the CIA into military action that will kill innocent civilians and increase hatred of the US. Jason and an unconventional CIA agent redefine “thinking outside the box” as they con Ahmed, dodge bullets, and thwart the jihadists.

Releases May 3, 2016 – Available for Pre-Order now!

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Crisanta Knight: Protagonist Bound by Geanna Culbertson

I was going to be a great protagonist. At least that’s what my mom, Cinderella, kept telling me. I, however, had my doubts.

Unlike most main characters at Lady Agnue’s School for Princesses & Other Female Protagonists, I was opinionated, bold, and headstrong. Moreover, for a princess, I had a lot of issues. I’m talking vicious nightmares about people I’ve never met, a total stalker prince, and a Fairy Godmother for an enemy.

But I digress. Because here’s the thing about living in an enchanted realm of fairytale characters, crazy junk you never planned on happens all the time. One minute you could be practicing fainting exercises in Damsels in Distress class, sword fighting in a field, or flying on a Pegasus, and the next, BAM! Your book has begun and you’re saddled with a prophecy that changes everything.

I still don’t know if I will be a great protagonist one day. But I do know one thing about my fate, for certain. Despite what The Author and the antagonists have in store for me, whatever it costs . . . I’ll be the one taking charge of my own story.

Releases May 10, 2016 – Available for Pre-Order now!

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*** All books by BQB and WriteLife Publishing are available on Amazon, B&N or can be ordered by your favorite local bookstore. ***