Title: The Choices Author: Alan L Moss Genre: Thriller
Sixty-six million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid crashed into the Yucatan peninsula. Its heat and dust killed the dinosaurs and most other species on the planet.
Based on newly generated NASA measurements and a unique theory, a Ph.D. geology student concludes the Chicxulub asteroid created a fortune in hidden diamonds. When she discovers her business partner and financier is of questionable character, she escapes to Canada to plan an expedition to mine the stones.
Gary Levin arrives in the same Canadian village to mourn the loss of his wife, senselessly murdered during a white supremacist shooting. He soon finds a wounded golden retriever and a flash drive of unknown origin.
Puzzled by information on the flash drive, Levin learns the data could guide mining the fortune in diamonds from Mexico’s Yucatan cenotes (underground water channels). Although there is danger diving/mining the waters and evidence of opposition plotting their demise, the lure of the diamonds and the opulence they represent are too much to resist.
Levin and his companions crisscross the globe in a race to obtain the diamonds before the spurned financier and an approaching hurricane can disrupt their efforts.
When the plane landed, only Don knew the location of the treasure. This was to help insulate the rest of the team. Before they exited the terminal, a customs officer appeared.
He was a large man with a thin brown mustache. He approached Don.
“Okay, my compadre, what are you smuggling into the territory this time?” Don smiled.
“Sorry to disappoint, but muddy clothes and wet camping equipment from Mexican jungles are all I can offer you.”
“I expect you to hide more exotic fare than that,” the official replied.
“Well, feel free to have at it,” Don said.
The man went through the group’s luggage. Finding nothing, he turned to the scuba gear.
“Is there any way I can get into these tanks?” he asked Don.
“I guess you’d have to break them open,” Don replied. “I’ve been smuggling oxygen into the territory for many years. The problem is,as soon as you open a tank, the contents rush into the atmosphere and disappear.”
“I get the point,” the inspector replied. “Did you have a nice flight?”
“You know, nothing is better than returning to our island.”
Alan L. Moss is a unique and emerging voice in the thriller genre. His novels spin sophisticated tales of conspiracy, love, sex, and subterfuge.
In his latest work, The Samoa Seduction, two strong willed individuals are haunted by their love for one another while manipulated by a deadly conspiracy.
Alan’s writing draws upon Ph. D. research capabilities and many years in Washington, D.C. as a federal Chief Economist, Congressional Fellow, and Adjunct Instructor at the University of Virginia’s Northern Virginia Center. In 2002 he put his government career aside and moved to the Jersey Shore to pursue his writing.
He has penned six published books, four novels and two nonfiction works. After years of politics and bureaucracy, Alan has found the freedom of writing fiction an intoxicating and satisfying calling.
Distinguishing features of Alan’s novels are involvement with significant national and international issues and spectacular locations. His new novel, The Samoa Seduction (October 2015 by A-Argus Books/W & B Publishers) is an eye opening thriller that combines the action of a drug company conspiracy, industry efforts to suppress wages, and government corruption with murder and a steamy affair. Settings include Samoa’s lush scenery, the Central Canterbury Plains of New Zealand’s south island, a resort on Hawaii’s Molokai Island, the TranzAlpine Railroad, and tuna fishing vessels on the Tasman Sea.
Alan’s previous work on The Insidious Deception Saga chronicles how a pre-med student and brilliant college professor become entangled in conspiracies hatched by al Qaeda and a ruthless CEO. The two resulting novels include:Insidious Deception (Whiskey Creek Press 2013), and the sequel, Surviving the Endgame (Whiskey Creek Press 2014), in which a presidential election becomes a deadly contest between the international conspirators and those seeking their destruction. Rob Taylor, the series’ protagonist, finds the love of his life and struggles to protect her from the conspiracy’s violent tentacles.
Turning to Alan’s nonfiction work, in May 2008 Praeger Publishing released Selling-Out America’s Democracy. The book shows how special interests, through their lobbyists and the U.S. system of campaign financing, have denied a majority of the American population the policies they seek and have led the nation into a period of decline. The book includes telling interviews of Washington insiders and a four-part plan to restore the U.S. democracy. Copies are available at www.amazon.com and other web book sites.
Alan is a member of the Authors Guild, International Thriller Writers, and the American Political Science Association.
For more information about Alan and his writing, see www.alanlmoss.com.
Title: Bad Dream Author: Giana Darling Genre: Contemporary Romance
Bianca is trying to survive in the small Texas town. Her only goal–to keep her younger brother healthy. Everything changes when Tiernan shows up at her mother’s door in a suit and tattoos.
His dark world is all-consuming, but she doesn’t want his money. Or his secrets.
Until her mother dies.
Then she has no choice but to turn to the only person who can help.
Giana Darling is an USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Top 40 Amazon Best Selling Canadian romance writer who specializes in the taboo and angsty side of love and romance. She currently lives in beautiful British Columbia where she spends time riding on the back of her man’s bike, baking pies, and reading snuggled up with her Golden Retriever puppy, Romeo.
He’s a sexy left winger for the NHL’s newest expansion team, the Atlanta Siege, and he’s a player in every sense of the word.
Callan Murphy’s on a mission: get his teammate laid.
A night out at Atlanta’s hottest nightclub is all he’ll need to find the perfect woman to blow his goalie’s … mind. But when he catches a glimpse of a dark-haired beauty standing across the dance floor, winging for his friend is the last thing on his mind.
She’s perfect, all right. Perfect for him. Now he just has to convince her of that, something he never expects to be such a challenge.
She’s a mysterious bombshell who’s about to teach him what it’s like to play in the big leagues of the heart.
Roxy Wagner’s on a mission: get her best friend laid.
When they head out to ladies’ night in search of Mr. Right Now, it doesn’t take her long to spot the two tall, dark, and stud-lies watching them from across the club. One look at the bearded hottie with the seductive heat in his eyes tells her she’s about to go up against a real player.
She should know … it takes one to know one. And she’s not interested in playing for keeps.
It starts with a night out winging for friends. How it all ends will depend on whether Callan can find a way to tame Roxy’s wild heart.
What should have been a fifteen-minute drive took Roxy ten. Callan felt like he needed those extra five minutes to find the strength to stand since he was sure his knees were going to give out on him, but he climbed out of her car at the first listing since Roxy got out and stared at him until he did.
“I really had hoped I’d go back in time if I ever went that fast,” he mused as they walked up to the brick townhome bearing a lockbox on the front door.
She gave him the side-eye as she entered a code into the lockbox. “You drive an Audi and you’ve never opened her up?”
“Well, no.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” He sought the right words and went with, “I’m normal.”
“Sounds rather boring to me.”
“Maybe, but if my agent heard I was in a car with someone who drives like you, he’d drop dead of a heart attack.”
Her lips twitched with humor. “Well, we’re here now. Let’s focus on the listing.”
“Okay.”
She motioned towards the door handle. “While it’s a little unconventional, I believe the potential homeowner should be the one to open the front door and go inside first. That first feeling you get when you step into a new place is one of the most important things to consider when homebuying.”
He nodded and opened the door. He paid attention to his first impression as he stepped inside and paused in the foyer. Then he got distracted when Roxy followed him in and brushed against him, making him itch to touch her.
“First thoughts?” she asked.
He stuck his hands in his pockets so he didn’t give into his urge. “It’s very white.”
The two-story foyer was open and airy. To the right was a grand dining room with a crystal chandelier. To the left was what appeared to be a formal living room. Ahead was a hall leading towards what he thought was the kitchen and family room.
Every single wall was white.
“Paint is an inexpensive update,” she said. “But it tells me something that you noticed the white walls first rather than the layout or these beautiful hardwood floors. Let’s go ahead and do a walk-through anyway. It will help us narrow down what you like and don’t like in a property.”
“Works for me.”
They completed their tour of the townhouse, where he decided he liked the hardwood floors, the custom built-ins in the study and family room, the crown molding throughout the home, and the fact that it backed up to the Chattahoochee National Forest. He didn’t like the lack of character, the layout, or the outdated bathrooms.
They went through the remaining listings just like that. Much as Roxy suspected, none of them were quite what he wanted.
Strangely, although he hadn’t been planning on buying a new home until a few days ago, he found himself getting into the spirit of it. Roxy made it interesting, her death-defying driving aside. He found himself asking for her opinion more than once and taking it into account, something he wouldn’t typically do with someone he didn’t know all that well. He tried telling himself that it was because she was his real estate agent, but deep inside, he knew that wasn’t true.
Somehow, some way, this woman he had met all of seven weeks ago had come to matter to him.
A lot.
When they returned to his condo’s parking garage, she stopped her car in front of the door leading into the complex rather than parking.
“I don’t suppose you’d be interested in coming up for a drink?” he asked.
“As much as I’d like that, I can’t.”
“Ah. Busy night ahead?”
“Not really. The thing is, if I go up to your condo, we’re going to have sex. I can’t get distracted by sex right now no matter how much I might want that.”
His disappointment eased into pleasure. Apparently, he hadn’t made as bad a first impression with her as he’d feared.
Good to know.
“Guess I can’t argue with that,” he said. “How about a goodbye kiss?”
She shook her head and waved him out of the car. “Stop trying to get me to break my no-sex pact.”
He paused with his hand on the door’s handle. “What’s that now?”
“Tell you what,” she said, leaning over him, pulling the handle, and shoving the door open. “You never ask about that again and I’ll call you for some phone sex at some point this week.”
Raine Thomas is a multiple award-winning author of bestselling romance. Known for character-driven stories that inspire the imagination, Raine has signed with multiple award-winning producer Chase Chenowith of Back Fence Productions to bring her popular Daughters of Saraqael trilogy to the big screen. She’s a proud indie author who is living the dream.
Raine is a hopeless romantic with a background in the fields of mental health and wedding planning…two areas that intersect far more than one would think. Her years working with children and young adults with emotional and behavioral challenges inspired her to create protagonists who overcome their own conflicts. When she isn’t writing or glued to e-mail or social networking sites, Raine can usually be found vacationing with her husband and daughter on one of Florida’s beautiful beaches or crossing the border to visit with her Canadian friends and relatives.
