Life is hard for Ruby growing up in poverty on the wrong side of the mountain on her grandfather’s farm where literally the sun didn’t shine. The Appalachian setting isn’t her friend as she searches for an easy life at the “tippy-top” with contentment and security. Ruby makes a series of bad decisions, causing her life to tumble into an unexpected outcome.
Joseph knew that he always wanted to be a teacher. His family, one of the more prosperous on the mountain, surrounded him with love and support and encouraged him to find happiness with a family of his own.
Leon, a former farm hand on her grandfather’s farm, darts in and out of Ruby’s life on his way toward a life of crime.
The Four Winds meets Blind Tiger in this tale during Prohibition Era Appalachian Tennessee, set in the early 1900s, where setting and mountain community become other characters of the story. Based on a real-life tale of the author’s grandmother, the reader gets immersed in Ruby’s choices as she searches for worthiness and belonging. Was the adventure worth the risk of losing her family? Will Ruby ever find what she is looking for?
Kimberly Nixon is an emerging author of biographical fiction. She was blessed with a plethora of family stories, featuring strong, determined—and sometimes wild—characters. She wrestles these personalities into main characters in her works of fiction. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writing Association, Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Writer’s League of Texas. Kimberly lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Paul most of the year and travels for adventure when she can. This is Kimberly’s debut novel.
Title: A Moment After Dark Author: Janey Raye Stevens Genre: Paranormal Historical Suspense
She sees the future with a touch. A powerful gift in a time of war. The enemy wants her. The Allies need her.
Addie Brandt is cursed. When she touches someone, or an object that belongs to them, she sees their future, and it’s rarely good. Mocked and teased her whole life, Addie hides from the world in her family’s funeral home. But when her second sight shows her a horrific vision of an attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval base, the gruesome images are too intense to ignore, and she tries to raise the alarm. Will anyone listen?
Federal agent Jack Dunstan needs a miracle. He’s still reeling from the betrayal that nearly decimated his team of agents with paranormal powers, a vengeful Nazi spy with a terrifying ability of his own is out to destroy him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before America is drawn into the war raging around the world. Hearing rumors of Addie’s vision, he seeks her out, hoping she could be the miracle he’s looking for.
Addie’s not sure she trusts Jack Dunstan. He’s rude, cocky, and insists on calling her curse of second sight a “gift.” But if she wants to save lives and prevent a terrible disaster, she must put aside her fears and doubts and learn to embrace her ability.
With the US on the brink of war and an enemy agent hunting her for her power, Addie must learn to trust Dunstan—and herself—to stop an attack that could change the course of history forever.
Addie Brandt can see the future with a touch. She’s had a horrific vision of an attack on Pearl Harbor. After failing to warn the police, she goes to a diner where her friend Rosa works and meets Jack Dunstan, who claims to be an insurance salesman, but is really a federal agent who’s
Looking to recruit people with paranormal powers.
“Your last name is Brandt?” Dunstan said. “That’s German, isn’t it?”
Addie choked on a mouthful of minestrone. She remembered what Father had said about the growing animosity toward German Americans.
“It might be,” she said warily. “Though I fail to see why my name should interest you.”
“Because of that.” He stabbed a finger at his newspaper, and the headlines full of war news. “We’ll soon be in this war. People will have to choose a side. Are you one of those German nationalists who think Herr Hitler is the bee’s knees? Or are you red, white, and blue through and through?”
Maybe just red, as in seeing red. This man’s impertinent questions had gotten her dander up. “You certainly are curious, Mr. Dunstan.”
“I’m a curious fella, or so they say.” He flashed another boyish grin. “So, which side will you stand up for, Addie? Your ancestral people? Or will you help Uncle Sam win the fight that’s coming?”
She put down her spoon, fully annoyed now. “Why don’t you take me downtown, officer, where you can grill me properly?”
He laughed, a deep rumble, like a wave crashing into a cave. “Fair enough. I may be pushing too hard.”
She should ignore him. He was rude and strange. Yet, something about this back and forth with him seemed to…irritate her, yes, but also excite her. Engage her. She’d never had a conversation like this with a man before. The few times she’d spoken with a man close to her age, the subject was a corpse. Certainly no man had ever asked for her opinion, about anything.
“If I tell you where I stand, Mister Dunstan, do you promise to leave me alone?”
“Doubtful.”
Her lips twitched. “At least you’re honest. Well, then, speaking for my German side and my Irish side, and the American I’m proud to be, I don’t want us to fight at all. War means death and I hate death.”
“That seems ironic, coming from a woman who works in a funeral home. You’re surrounded by death every day.”
She blinked. “How do you know where I work?”
“You have a chatty friend.” He tipped his head toward the kitchen window. Rosa bent down, bottom thrust out, yelling through the opening at Sal. “She tells me you see things.”
Addie cringed. She’d told Rosa about the picture show that played in her head, but Rosa had never laughed or teased her about it. It stung to discover she’d been spreading gossip about her.
“I’m sure you’re mistaken,” Addie said.
“I’m sure I’m not. Rosa says you’ve seen her future. That you tried to save a boy’s life long ago. I know you tried to warn the police about something yesterday. Something bad. What was it, Addie? What did you tell them?”
Addie pushed the minestrone away, no longer hungry. And no longer amused. “Mr. Dunstan, just what line of insurance are you in?” she asked, nearly breathless.
He held out his hand. “Why don’t you find out?”
She looked at his palm, crisscrossed with so many lines a palm reader could be employed for months studying them. What did he want her to see? Was it worth the risk? The terrible images of the Pearl Harbor attack had haunted her for days. Why would she touch him and invite yet another horrific Sight?
“Addie, look at me,” he coaxed. She did, surprising herself. He held her in his gaze. “You can trust me.”
His voice rolled over her in a gentle wave. Trust, a heavy word. She’d never allowed herself to trust anyone. Least of all a man she barely knew. And yet… She couldn’t deny she felt drawn to him. Felt at ease looking into his golden-brown eyes. Should she take the risk?
Meet award-winning author Janet Raye Stevens – mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and teller of fun, adventurous, occasionally heartbreaking, and stealthily romantic tales.
Derringer Award nominee and winner of the Daphne du Maurier and RWA’s Golden Heart® awards, Janet writes mystery, time travel, WWII-set paranormal, and the occasional Christmas romance with humor, heart, and a dash of suspense. She lives in New England with her husband, who’s practically perfect in every way, and their two sons, both geniuses and good-looking to boot.
Title: She’s the One Who Won’t Behave Author: S.R. Cronin Series: The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters #6 Genre: Historical Fantasy
Gypsum, the sixth of seven sisters, has always been a rebel. Yet no one thought she would go so far as to join the reczavy, a group living in tents on the edge of the desert and known for their sexual promiscuity and playful ways.
But as the date of the Mongols’ return draws near, Ilarians of all types must work together if they are to have any hope of surviving. And the reczavy, for all of their odd ways, do have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Well, up their sleeves whenever they are bothering to wear clothes, that is.
Gypsum is touched when her oldest sister Ryalgar comes to call, and brings an olive branch with her. Ryalgar recognizes that the reczavy have as much to lose as anyone, and as much to contribute. Will Gypsum accept a key role in the plan to stop the invasion? Of course she will.
Unfortunately, her playmates don’t all feel the same sense of urgency. Many would rather simply enjoy the time they have left. A few claim to be allergic to long term planning. And some are too busy with their own poorly-timed plans to overthrow the government Ilari already has.
Good thing needlepoint is the one traditional skill at which Gypsum has always excelled. She will need to thread a fine needle in order to coax this recalcitrant group into becoming life-saving warriors of a very different kind.
Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had. She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.
All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.
