The Bargainer Series by Jan Sikes
Bargains struck out of desperation... In the Bargainer Series, flawed characters find hope through unorthodox life-changing agreements... Historical Fiction set in rural America in the 1940s takes the reader back in time for heart-wrenching drama, and unforgettable characters.
Jan Sikes
Historical Fiction
Fresh Ink Group
March 12, 2024
308 pages
A shocking proposal that changes everything. If he fails, he’ll lose it all.
World War II is over and he returns to Missouri to find his legacy in shambles and in jeopardy. A foreclosure notice from the bank doubles the threat. He appeals to the local banker for more time—a chance to rebuild, plant, and harvest crops and time to heal far away from the noise of bombs and gunfire.
Desperate to honor his father’s dying wish, Layken Martin vows to do whatever it takes to save the family farm.
The banker makes an alternative proposition—marry his unwanted daughter, Sara Beth, in exchange for a two-year extension. Out of options, money, and time, Layken agrees to the bargain.
Jan Sikes
Historical Fiction
Fresh Ink Group
October 22, 2024
279 pages
The year is 1948 and folks in the sawmill town of Crossett, Arkansas, work hard and play hard. Oliver Quinn does both. Oliver is the son of Irish immigrants who firmly believe in pursuing the American dream. His deepest desire is to play major league baseball. He only needs one chance to prove himself.
Rose Blaine is living in a nightmare where dreams don’t exist. She’s suffered for years at the hands of her violent moonshiner father and his partner. During a brutal attack, she must fight back or die. The aftermath is devastating.
Fueled by desperation, Rose strikes a life-changing bargain with Oliver. If he’ll take her and her brother to St. Louis, Missouri, she’ll introduce Oliver to her uncle, a baseball legend.
Jan Sikes is a member of the Author’s Marketing Guild, The Writer’s League of Texas, Story Empire, and the Paranormal Writer’s Guild. I am an avid fan of Texas music and grandmother of five beautiful souls. I reside in North Texas.
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Sandra Fox Murphy
Historical Fiction
Atmosphere Press
June 4, 2024
240 pages
In the early 1950s of the Panhandle town of Dalhart, Texas, the church stands firm amidst community and gossip. But one December Sunday, Curtye Lee Logan, a shapely young woman from Colorado, enters Victory Church on the arm of bull rider Willie Bob Preston and takes a seat in the second pew. Curtye Lee's arrival sparks gossip and draws the welcoming attention of ranch-wife Shelby Hauser and the pastor's wife, Jane Connor.
Shelby narrates the journey of these three women, revealing how they secretly gather to study mysticism, unbeknownst to Pastor Henry Connor. As Dalhart recovers from hardships and losses of the 1930s Dust Bowl, the shadows of those years harbor secrets and pain for long-time residents. Despite the challenges of life in west Texas and scandals of a small town, the friendship between Shelby, Jane, and Curtye Lee remains steadfast as the Fates weave their destinies in unexpected ways.
Sandra Fox Murphy, after retirement, started writing short stories, historical fiction, and poetry. She gathers tales and history of small-town Texas and published a trilogy of a girl’s 1847 journey to Texas—The Fidelia McCord Series. Her poetry has been published in The Ocotillo Review and other literary journals.
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The Genealogy Mystery Series by ML Condike
ML Condike
Genealogy Mystery
Harbor Lane Books, LLC
March 5, 2024
427 pages
Genealogist, RaeJean Hunter, is hired to identify human remains believed to be Mary Rogers, the woman who inspired Poe’s “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” Mary died in 1841. So who would interfere with her investigation? Using DNA from two New England families, historical data, modern genealogical techniques, and guidance from a mystical antique desk, RaeJean accepts the cold case despite many reasons to abandon it.
ML Condike
Genealogy Mystery
Harbor Lane Books, LLC
October 22, 2024
357 pages
An attorney hires genealogist RaeJean Hunter to locate the heir of a women she met a year ago. RaeJean has six months to locate the person, or her client loses a forty-million-dollar estate. While searching the deceased’s townhouse, RaeJean finds a doll with mystical qualities and books about perfume heiress, Dorothy Arnold who vanished in 1910. She suspects Dorothy connects to her case. She follows leads to Idaho and New Zealand amid challenges and life- threatening events.
Author, ML Condike began writing in Granbury, Texas and now pens her works from Big Pine Key, Florida. Still active in Texas, she’s the treasurer of Sisters in Crime North Dallas with stories in their anthologies. She wrote her novels while living in Texas and attending SMU’s Writers Path.
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Engines of Winter: A Sci-Fi Fantasy Retelling of The Nutcracker
E.M. Rensing
Science Fiction / Fantasy
November 11, 2024
Mech pilot Lieutenant Marie Stahlbaum wants to be out stalking the stars, taking the fight to the rat-like alien verrater that destroyed her homeworld. Serving now with the famed Colonel Drosselmeier, she thought she’d finally get that chance. Instead she’s stuck on guard duty, watching over a spoiled lord and his holiday merriment on the winter moon of Bavaria.
When an verrater invasion crashes the party on Christmas Eve, Marie finds herself on a terrible new front line. With only a malfunctioning mech, nicknamed the “Nutcracker”, and its former pilot on the radio, Marie sets off on a desperate hunt, pursuing the monstrous king of the verrater horde across the snowy wastes.
But the history between the verrater and Colonel Drosselmeier is darker, and deeper, than anyone could imagine. And if Marie can’t find a way to defeat the verrater king tonight, the whole of human space will fall.
E.M. Rensing is an Air Force veteran who crafts unique science fiction worlds you'll love to escape to.
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McFall & Hays
Romance / Rom-Com
Pumpjack Press
November 2023
325 pages
When Kassi lands a waitress job at the infamous Rose and Thorn restaurant, she thinks her luck may finally be changing, especially after meeting Clay—head chef and the most beautiful man she's ever seen. Their white-hot attraction is instant and undeniable. But after her marriage disaster, Kassi has sworn off relationships or even dating, maybe forever. So, what's a girl to do? Put him in a sexy screenplay, of course. Kassi is writing a movie script for a contest.
It's a long shot, an impossible shot, but it could be her ticket to Hollywood. She comes up with a new plot about a hot chef and a waitress falling madly in love (and bed). It doesn't take long before Kassi's imaginary relationship and reality collide in unpredictable ways, but as things steam up in the restaurant kitchen, not everyone may be able to stand the heat, including hunky Clay.
Clark Hays is the coauthor of many books, some award-winning, in multiple genres including horror, alt-history, science fiction and romance. He is also a poet. Clark was born in Texas, moved then to California, Alaska and Scotland, with his father, legendary wildcat driller Hubert Hays. Clark writes with Kathleen McFall.
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Myra McIlvain
Historical Fiction
Next Chapter
December 2023
412 pages
Susannah Mobley, expecting her slave lover’s baby, submits to an arranged marriage to Hezekiah James, who is headed to Texas to claim a Spanish land grant.
Caught in a series of lies about her pregnancy, as well as the beautiful ring woven from her red hair, Susannah embarks on the harsh trip, grieving for her lost love and determined to control her destiny.
On the wagon train journey, Hezekiah’s beliefs and strengths are tested by Native Americans and the strange Madstone. Soon, Susannah will have to decide if she can live with the consequences of her lies and open herself to the man who shows every form of contrition or if she will allow longing for the child to destroy her life.
Award-winning author Myra Hargrave McIlvain brings characters to life in her historical fiction set in 19th-century Texas. She believes history is the story of a people, and the people she knows best are Texans.
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Lethal Standoff
DiAnn Mills
Romantic Suspense
Tyndale House Publishers
September 2024
368 pages
Lethal Standoff delivers pulse-pounding romantic suspense in the heart of Texas. When a small-town standoff takes a deadly turn, Texas Ranger Carrington and private negotiator Levi are forced to team up despite their clashing styles. With lives hanging in the balance, the investigation reveals layers of conspiracy, betrayal, and buried secrets that threaten everyone involved. As danger escalates, both Carrington and Levi must confront their own fears and broken trust to uncover the truth—and save innocent lives.
Fans of DiAnn Mills’ signature blend of gripping suspense and tender romance will find a story filled with relentless tension, emotional depth, and characters struggling to reconcile justice and faith. Will love take root amidst the chaos, or will the case tear them apart forever?
Perfect for readers of romantic suspense, inspirational fiction, and anyone who loves stories where every second counts.
DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; the Inspirational Readers’ Choice, Golden Scroll, and Carol award contests. DiAnn speaks and teaches writing all over the country.
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Long Gone & Lost: True Fictions and Other Lies
Bobby Horecka
Literary Fiction
Madville Publishing
March 2020
218 pages
A first work of fiction from a longtime journalist, and as such blends a lot of lines between what truly happened and what’s just conjured, It was one of many books released that year that got slapped hard, having its debut at the same time that every door made a resounding thud heard round the world thanks to the ensuing pandemic. Still, somehow it managed a nod from the Texas Institute of Letters as a 2021 finalist for its Sergio Troncoso Best First Work of Fiction Award.
Wild Wind: Poems and Stories Inspired by the Songs of Robert Earl Keen
Anthology
Poetry / Story Collection
Madville Publishing
November 2024
This anthology of poems and short stories is an homage to Texas singer/song-writer Robert Earl Keen, who stands in the songwriter/storyteller tradition of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, John Prine, and Keen’s contemporaries Lyle Lovett and James McMurtry. The poems and short stories here are each inspired by Keen’s songs, some expansions of themes of Keen’s songs, others move in creative directions suggested by the characters in his work. Keen’s songs are impressive for their literary sensibility (he was an English major at Texas A&M University) and have influenced many songwriters as well as authors of fiction and poetry.
Bobby Horecka is an award-winning print journalist, and a writer of short fictions, prose and poetry. A fourth generation Texan, he lives with his wife, Jennifer, on their Lavaca County farm. Bobby serves as the editor of five Texas community weeklies, including the Hallettsville Tribune-Herald, Luling Newsboy & Signal, The Moulton Eagle, The Shiner Gazette, and Yoakum Herald-Times.
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Big Bend Country Mystery Series
JJ Rusz
Far West Texas is Chihuahuan desert, some of its acres flat as an anvil, others pushed up by mountains that reach almost to the Rio Grande. Its biggest county—Brewster—is bigger than Connecticut, but couldn’t scare up ten thousand people. Ranchers get by when drought doesn’t drain the water table. Astronomers come to study the darkest skies in the continental USA. Artists drift through, hoping to make sense of it all.
This is the setting for the Big Bend Country Mysteries, because crime happens everywhere and rugged land attracts interesting people, some of them even with a sense of humor.
J J RUSZ is the pen name of John J Ruszkiewicz, creator of the Big Bend Country Mysteries. He is now retired from the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught literature, rhetoric, and writing for 40 years. He spends most of his time now in Brewster County enjoying its dark skies.
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The Nine Lives of Tito d'Amelia
Ettore Farrattini Pojani
Historical Fiction / Italian Literature
Bayou City Press
October 11, 2024
326 pages
This is the first (and only) English-language version of the award-winning Italian novel, The Nine Lives of Tito d’Amelia. Nine Lives is a love story about a cat, a family, and an Italian town.
Mixing fiction with fact, Nine Lives tells the story of the town of Amelia, Italy, throughout the 32 centuries of its history. In fact, Amelia is considered the first organized city of central Italy, being four centuries older than Rome. The author uses the multiple lives of a cat named Tito as the way to span the centuries.
A changing cast of characters traces the Farrattini line through the centuries, with Tito joining up with a Farrattini in each generation. Using his feline wiles, Tito bends humans to his will, helping them through many challenges from drought to wars to lovelorn marriages to selfish politicization of joint crises.
Ettore Farrattini Pojani is the heir of the noble Italian Farrattini dynasty, whose family palazzo is in Amelia, Italy, north of Rome. A music expert and critic, Ettore has published extensively on music topics and currently is a collaborator on the website Broadwayworld.com.
A dedicated traveler, Ettore is fluent in French and English besides his native Italian.
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The Pinocchio Murder
Jo Cassie McRae
Cozy Mystery
May 2024
361 pages
In this second novel of the Kate Atherton Mystery series, the cozy Texas Hill Country town of Wheaton Creek is rocked when Kate’s best friend, Giselle Freeman, is brutally attacked in her home workshop, and then a stranger is murdered. Solving the murder will stretch Wheaton Creek’s resources to the limit, so Kate feels compelled to bring her formidable puzzle-solving skills to bear on who attacked Giselle. When her amateur sleuthing uncovers the possibility that a priceless necklace originally stolen in Sicily during WWII might be a link between the attack and the murder, things get complicated. Wheaton Creek’s fledgling, still under-staffed police force has its hands full as they attempt to solve the complex and engaging puzzle, making newly appointed police chief Diego Vela unusually open to input from Kate. Much as he hates to admit it, Vela knows Kate’s skills, developed as an agent for a shadow intelligence agency of the U.S. government, make her a valuable asset.
Jo Cassie McRae is a native Texan who lived on the edge of the Texas Hill Country for over 30 years. In addition to writing, McRae loves to read, garden, and cook, and, like the author’s main character, McRae’s bookshelves overflow with history books, biographies, historical fiction, and mystery novels.
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Reap the Wind
Joel Burcat
Action-Adventure / Thriller
Sunbury Press, Inc.
February 2024
244 pages
Reap the Wind is The Perfect Storm meets The Firm.
Reap the Wind is a high-octane action/adventure novel that follows three lawyers as they embark on a treacherous journey from Houston to Cincinnati during a catastrophic hurricane. Josh Goldberg is on a mission to be with his girlfriend for the birth of their child. Along the way, they face terrifying obstacles like tornadoes, hailstorms, and driving rain. But the real danger may come from within as they struggle to survive each other’s company. His two travel companions—his best friend, a drug-addicted lawyer, and his conniving boss who has her own agenda.
Joel Burcat is an award-winning author of three thrillers: Drink to Every Beast (illegal dumping of toxic waste), Amid Rage (coal mine permit battle), Strange Fire (fracking dispute). In Reap the Wind, three lawyers take a high-octane suicide trip from Houston to Cincinnati through a climate change induced hurricane.
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Shahrazad’s Gift
Gretchen McCullough
Short Stories
Cune Press
February 2024
198 pages
Shahrazad’s Gift is a collection of linked short stories set in contemporary Cairo—magical, absurd and humorous. These stories are told in the tradition of A Thousand and One Nights.
Gretchen McCullough is on the faculty at the American University in Cairo. Confessions of a Knight Errant: Drifters, Thieves and Ali Baba’s Treasure, a novel was published by Cune Press, Fall 2022. Shahrazad’s Gift, a collection of short stories was published February 2024 by the same press.
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Stealing Saints: A Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery
M.R. Dimond
Mystery
Rock Rose Press
December 2024
There’s nothing like an old-fashioned Christmas.
Young Texas attorney JD Thompson just wasn’t expecting one like in the Bible.
No hospital will admit his sister in premature labor. His friend Nick is homeless and jobless from recent injuries and old trauma. Neither has anyone to turn to but JD. Why can’t they have legal problems, like the rest of his quirky friends?
Still, he assembles an ad-hoc medical team of a veterinarian, a retired nurse, and a damaged EMT with a service dog. Can they save his sister and her baby? Can JD solve the mystery that threatens to destroy Nick and defend Nick’s service dog against the shelter full of cats JD lives with?
Join JD in his sixth zany adventure as he learns that sometimes it’s best to go home by another way. Buy Stealing Saints today to better appreciate your own holiday season.
After stints in orchestras, law firms, cat rescue, bookkeeping, and technical communication, M. R. Dimond returned to a childhood dream of writing fiction, which turned out to be about musicians, lawyers, veterinarians, accountants, and cats. Her Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series, set in her near-native Texas, currently contains six novels.
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Margaret Izard
Paranormal Romance
Wild Rose Press
Love’s power binds all, lasting forever. Emotions control the magic Fae stones. In the wrong hands, they could destroy realms.
Margaret Izard is the enchantress of historical fantasy and paranormal romance. With a background steeped in dance, theater, and performance, Margaret's journey from stage to page has been a captivating one. With each book she writes, Margaret invites readers on a journey through time and passion, leaving them spellbound until the last page.
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Sweet Jane
Joanne Kukanza Easley
Women’s Fiction
Red Boots Press
September 2022
269 pages
A drunken mother makes childhood ugly. Jane runs away at sixteen, determined to leave her fraught upbringing in the rearview. Vowing never to return, she hitchhikes to California, right on time for the Summer of Love. Seventeen years later, she looks good on paper: married, grad school, sober, but her carefully constructed life is crumbling. When Mama dies, Jane returns for the funeral, leaving her husband in the dark about her history. Seeing her childhood home and significant people from her youth catapults Jane back to the events that made her the woman she is. She faces down her past and the ghosts that shaped her family. A stunning discovery helps Jane see her problems through a new lens.
Joanne Kukanza Easley writes fiction about 20th Century women. Sweet Jane was named the adult fiction winner at the Texas Author Project. Just One Look, her second novel, was a May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick. I’ll Be Seeing You features characters from Sweet Jane.
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This Time Around
Kimberly Packard
Rom-Com
This Time Around
June 2024
321 pages
Josie Gardner’s life revolves around her amazing children and her career. But, when her husband threatens to take her kids in their divorce, and the business she’s put most of her passion, time and money into building is at risk of failing, a panic attack shatters her grip on reality… and the present.
Josie wakes up in her teenage bedroom, thirty years in the past. She’s forced to relive her emotionally devastating senior year of high school — the year she cut her father out of her life, caused one of her best friends to sever ties, and turned away the boy she loved.
Determined to get back to her children in her own time, Josie tries to fix the mistakes she made, in the hope that righting wrongs will send her back to the present. But when tempted by her high school crush Josie faces the real possibility of losing her future for good.
Kimberly Packard is an award-winning author of women’s fiction. When she isn’t writing, she can be found planning her next trip, asking her dog what’s in his mouth or curled up with a book. She resides in Texas with her husband Colby, a clever cat named Oliver and a precocious black lab named Tully.
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The Ways of Water: A Novel
Teresa H. Janssen
Historical Fiction
She Writes Press
November 2023
440 pages
As Josie Belle Gore, daughter of a train engineer and Texas seamstress, journeys with her itinerant family through the deserts and growing towns of the turn-of-the-century West and revolutionary Mexico, she learns that in her life, two things are constant: the preciousness of water and her role as the savior of her family.
When unforeseeable circumstances force her family to scatter, Josie begins an odyssey that takes her from New Mexico to Texas, Chihuahua, Arizona, and finally post-WWI California, suffering betrayal and survivor’s guilt—her life shaken by boom-and-bust, world war, raging pandemic, and the changes they bring.
With the help of compassionate friends and relatives, and no small amount of grit, Josie fashions an independent life; and like a river meeting the sea, with nowhere else to run, she must make peace with the past and good on her promise to the family she loves.
A descendant of Texas pioneers, Teresa H. Janssen’s debut historical novel, The Ways of Water, is inspired by family lore. It won the National Cowboy Museum’s Wrangler Award for Outstanding Western Novel of 2023, the Will Rogers Medallion, and other honors. Her prose has appeared in various anthologies and journals.
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Whiskers Abroad: Ashi and Audrey's Adventures in Japan
Carrie Lanell Carter
Illustrated by Stacy Vickers
Animal Fiction / Asian Travel Guide / Women's Adventure
Bayou City Press
September 19, 2022
170 pages
Whiskers Abroad is a lively travelogue featuring a trip to Japan shared by two main characters, Audrey and her cat Ashi, who alternate recounting their versions of events. During a twelve-day trip, the pair visit several cities. Adventures abound.
Audrey is still trying to find her place in the universe, while Ashi believes Audrey would sink beneath the waves were he not present to rescue her. Audrey’s daily horoscope offers tantalizing clues as to what’s in store for the pair.
Written by Carrie Carter and designed by Stacy Vickers, Whiskers Abroad is both an amusing travel story with unforgettable characters and a useful guide for tourists going to Japan. Lavishly designed, Whiskers Abroad will delight both your eyes and your sense of adventure.
Carrie Carter has a profound love for Japan, cats, sumo, dioramas, and eating unusual foods. Carrie has run multiple marathons, and as expected, Carrie and her husband Jim live with an adorable cat named Frenemy, who was unhappy at not being selected as the model for the book.
Carrie lives in Houston, TX and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, Carrie is working on her second book, a sequel to Whiskers Abroad, where Audrey and Ashi get themselves into even more interesting predicaments.
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The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos
Kelly Irvin
Women’s Fiction
Thomas Nelson Publishing
December 2023
399 pages
Two sisters work to heal childhood wounds and seek a new balance in life when one receives a diagnosis that sets the clock ticking.
Determined to save Sherri’s life, Kristen drops everything to guide her sister on the harrowing cancer treatment journey. When she’s unable to balance the strain of caring for her patients, being a wife and mother, and her frantic efforts to save her sister, Kristen’s life crumbles.
Unlike her sister, Sherri Reynolds has worked to cultivate balance in her life. Her children, her job as a teacher, and her faith keep her grounded—until her diagnosis sends her spiraling into the scary world of what-ifs. Sherri faces the realization that history may be about to repeat itself.
Together, the sisters reexamine their priorities, address the tender wounds of their childhood, and delve more deeply to discover what it means to live each day to its fullest.
Bestselling novelist Kelly Irvin is the author of more than 30 books, including woman’s fiction, romantic suspense, and Amish romances. An ovarian cancer survivor, Irvin writes award-winning, powerful stories about strong women.
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