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New Book Release: “Fruit of the Devil” by Mary Flodin

We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the immediate availability of Fruit of the Devil by Mary Flodin.

Ms. Aurora Bourne would do anything to protect her students from harm … even if that means going up against the most powerful corporation on the planet.

While getting her fourth grade classroom ready for Fall, Aurora begins to feel sick, and it’s more than back-to-school blues. Outside her windows next to the playground, strawberry fields have just been fumigated and pesticides are drifting into the classrooms, causing serious health issues for children and adults. When the teenage sister of a migrant student goes missing from the strawberry fields, it becomes clear that pesticide poisoning isn’t the only thing threatening the children’s safety, and Aurora begins to understand why farmworkers call strawberries Fruta del Diablo — the Fruit of the Devil.

Aurora starts asking questions and gets caught in a web of gangs, drugs, trafficking, and high-level corporate crime. When a Catholic priest comes to her aid, she falls in love with him, complicating her life further. She has no idea he’s actually an ancient nature god out of Pacific Coast indigenous legends.

Fruit of the Devil is available in hardcover, trade paperback, and digital editions. Signed editions are also available.

Nancy Wood: What is my measure of success as an author?

Wow, that’s a challenging question, and one with many answers that have shifted over time.

When I first started writing, my goal was to publish commercial fiction. I started writing decades before I published anything, working on novels and short stories. Thankfully, they never saw the light of day! I attended workshops and conferences, and joined writers’ groups. I wanted to learn about the business of publishing, as well as how to improve my fiction writing skills. I read and read and read. When attending a workshop in 2006, I came up with the idea for mystery, using the themes in the book I’d been working on (families, adoption, relationships).

With this kernel of an idea, I felt that I’d surpassed a hurdle. I thought I had something that people might actually want to read! A character and a compelling social topic. Most importantly, my idea was within my grasp as a writer. I felt I could be successful.

I went to work, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter. It took years. When I had my first draft, I felt successful. When I received comments from early readers and my writing coach, I felt like I was on the right track. And, when Due Date was accepted by a publisher and published in 2012, I felt like I’d reached my goals.

But my goals for success then shifted. I decided that if at least one person I didn’t know read my book, I’d consider that a success. (Of course, it would be all the better if they liked it.) After that happened, I decided that if ten or twenty people I didn’t know read it, I’d consider that a success. And now, almost seven years after the first edition of Due Date was published, I feel like the book has been a success. I have a lovely number of happy readers on Amazon and Goodreads. I can’t help but get a lift when I think of that.

Now, my measure of success is a bit different. Naturally, I want readers to discover the Shelby McDougall series and enjoy the books. But I also want readers to think about the cultural and social issues I raise in the books. I hope that the issues are so compelling that it will get readers thinking — enough so that readers will spread the word and talk about these issues with their friends, in their book clubs, on Goodreads and Amazon, and over dinner and cups of coffee.

Who knows though? By the time the third book in the series is available, my measure of success may have shifted yet again! At that point, I’ll have to check back in!

New Book Release: “The Stork” by Nancy Wood

We are extremely pleased to be able to deliver for immediate availability The Stork (A Shelby McDougall Mystery) by Nancy Wood.

Shelby McDougall’s past is behind her. Almost.

It’s been five and a half years since Shelby put her infant twins up for adoption, and she’s finally on track. Back in Santa Cruz, California, she’s sharing an apartment with her brother, Dexter, and in her second year of criminal justice studies. She’s landed her dream job as an intern to local P.I. Kathleen Bennett. And her stone-cold love life is heating up.

Then a late-night phone call puts Shelby’s perfectly ordered life into a tailspin.

One of the twins has been kidnapped, snatched from home in the middle of the night. There are no witnesses — no clues, no trails to follow. After meeting the family, Shelby knows something is off. The adoptive parents tell her the children don’t sleep, they eat constantly, and their IQs are off the charts. Against her better judgment, Shelby agrees to help.

By the time she realizes she’s up against something powerful, something evil, it’s almost too late. As Shelby fights for her life, and that of the kidnapped child, she discovers shocking truths about herself and the children.

The Stork is available in hardcover, trade paperback, and digital editions. Signed editions are also available.

New Book Release: “Goddess Chosen (Book One of the Goddess Rising Trilogy)” by Jay Hartlove

We are thrilled to announce the immediate availability of Goddess Chosen (Book One of the Goddess Rising Trilogy) by Jay Hartlove.

The man who would beat the devil isn’t a hero, but a ruthless madman.

Running from his dark past, former Duvalier hit man Charles Redmond is forced to take sides in a battle that has been raging since Exodus: between a power-mad magician named Silas Alverado and Sammael, the Demon Prince of Liars.

When Charles’ beloved Voodou is threatened with extinction, he must wager his life between pure evil and the man who could destroy the world.

Charles’ psychiatrist, Sanantha Mauwad, steps into this maelstrom of nightmares, violence and insanity to help Charles find his strength. She tries to save Charles’ mind, but can she save his soul?

Goddess Chosen (Book One of the Goddess Rising Trilogy) is available in hardcover, trade paperback, and digital editions. Signed editions are also available.

New Audio Edition Release: “The Iron and The Loom” by Flavia Idà

We are very pleased to announce the immediate availability of the audio edition of The Iron and The Loom by Flavia Idà.

How many times, she wondered, had she woven together cloth that his sword had then torn apart along with the flesh underneath?

The year is 1136, the place Tropèa, a walled sea town in Southern Italy during the Norman domination.

Kallyna d’Àrgira, a master of the arts of the loom who can turn the world into silk thread, is pledged in marriage by her father to Raimo Trani, a man she hates. After a sudden tragedy leaves her at Raimo’s mercy, into her life comes Dàlibor d’Hancourt, the Norman knight sent by King Roger of Hauteville to be the new governor of Tropèa, a man who, like her, is burdened by a life he did not choose.

Their opposite stations — Kallyna the daughter of a fisherman, Dàlibor the son of a foreign lord — pit them at first against each other. When Kallyna’s talent attracts the unwelcome attention of the heir to Roger’s throne, who can destroy them both, the common threat will draw them together, with a bond that defies all distinctions, into the time of iron that saw the founding of the greatest kingdom in Italy.

Narrated by Laura Gallagher, the audio edition of The Iron and The Loom is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.