Lavonne Mack has left corporate America behind, but she is taking her experience as a marketing manager to another job she never thought she would have . . . at a hair salon. It will be one experience she will never forget. $0.99 on Kindle.
Lavonne on the Job: The Hair Salon
June 16, 2023 By
The Humbling and Other Poems
June 8, 2023 By
An “Editor’s Pick” in the June 20, 2022 issue of Publishers Weekly, this masterful, inspiring, and critically-acclaimed debut poetry collection features over 100 memorable poems on humility, hope, love, justice, peace, and more.
Fans of Robert’s poetry will be elated to find Obsidian with Sheens of Gold, Interior Kingdom, The Song of Walt Is Our Song, Amid the Jersey Turnpike Whales, Love’s Special Relativity, the Phoenix poems, and many other favorites are included here along with new writings.
Newcomers to Robert’s poetry soon discover his accessible poems span an ever-expanding array of interesting topics and unique styles, ensuring there is “something for everyone” to be found in his carefully crafted works.
As part of Robert’s ongoing efforts to promote accessibility in poetry, he has included a glossary of poetry terms, reading suggestions, three brief essays, an author biography, and more in his book.
You can follow Robert on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, AllPoetry, or his website (www.RobertJTiess.net) as he posts new poems, participates in poetry challenges, engages with fans and other authors, and promotes the awareness and appreciation of poetry. $2.99 on Kindle.
Dead Letters
May 26, 2023 By
“If you want to find me, search within these pages.”
Bestselling author Richard Debden is missing. The only clue: a copy of his unpublished final novel delivered to his ex-girlfriend, Amy. When Richard’s closest reunite for his memorial, Amy turns to his former best friend, to help unravel the mystery. Can they unlock the secrets of Dead Letters, or will more sinister forces get there first?
$3.76 on Kindle.
When You Get Older
May 23, 2023 By
They call it custody, a term used for prisoners, but maybe it’s all one and the same with these unjust systems we’re forced to live with, vindictive mothers we’re forced to accept. When You Get Older is an emotional story told through poems of a bright young uncle and his relationship with his older brother and niece. Due to his parents’ absence throughout his life, he’s always looked up to his older brother like a father figure–and his niece is more like a little sister to him. He wouldn’t change this family dynamic for anything. But it’s not meant to last, and fate tears their family apart. After a period of separation where he questions himself and life, will he be able to find a way to bring back the family he never had? Or is his niece destined to repeat the same kind of childhood as him? $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Juxtapositions from the Good Vibe Lounge
May 20, 2023 By
Set in Central New Jersey, the Good Vibe Trilogy is a coming-of-age story following the lives of two young people raised in diverse yet dysfunctional environments during the late 1970s. When their lives connect, it impacts the destinies of their friends and family over a forty-year span.
Volume One, The Paradise We Create, introduces Andrew ‘Drew’ Reubens. As a teen, he is a girl-crazy, self-involved kid at the center of a clique of performing arts geeks. One of the many females in his sphere is unfiltered and misunderstood Alyona ‘Yoyo’ Zalenkov, being raised in a rural cult environment with warped family values.
The result of their unlikely relationship is represented in the modern-day events of the story, as Andrew hosts a celebration at his Central Jersey establishment, The Good Vibe Lounge. When the younger generation of his family expresses a desire to understand more about their back story, Andrew pivots, between modern times and 1977, his climactic senior year of High School to weave the story of Drew and Yoyo… and a collection of characterful events and relationships along the way.
With the help of some of his oldest friends, Andrew takes a tour of the often comedic, sometimes tragic.. but all-so-typical journey of adolescents faced with the transition to life as adults in the real world.
The Good Vibe saga is a forty-year history of characters who navigate thru the wonders, challenges, and destiny of human interplay. Along the way, they take on these dynamics, with juxtaposed tales of adolescent frivolity, dysfunctional family, enduring friendship, the depth of romance and sensuous love, criminal behavior, deception, success, failure, the thrill of knowledge, personal progression, and… a good dose of recovering from regrets.
And ultimately seeking to balance ‘what might have been’ with everything happening at the place where reality meets up with all of it… for a reason. Free on Kindle.
Free: Atlanta Fish Fry
April 28, 2023 By
Life’s a Fish and then you Fry
Growing up as a kid in Louisiana, AJ Joiner’s all-time favorite thing was his grandmoh’s Fish Fry. Now that he’s all grown up in Atlanta, GA, AJ is working a job he doesn’t like and living in a neighborhood he doesn’t love – at first.
But when gentrification threatens to strip the community of its authentic charm, AJ hosts a Fish Fry to get to know his neighbors, and he begins to fall in love with each one, despite their eccentricities.
But this tight-knit community doesn’t have the money to fend off rich developers and determined city planners, helped by one of their own: Eddison Fisher.
So AJ decides to throw a second Fish Fry to raise some cash. Despite increasingly-serious issues with his health and his marriage, the event is a huge success.
But it’s still not enough.
Can AJ and his new friends throw a Fish Fry big enough to save their neighborhood?
Or will Eddison and his outsider allies destroy everything they love about their home? Free on Kindle.
Free: Semi Gloss
April 28, 2023 By
Waking up next to a dead girl is no brunch-time delight for Sammy, the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Enter Penny, a runaway with street smarts, and the two embark on a wild ride of healing, art, and friendship in this funny, fast-paced tale of redemption. Free on Kindle.
Free: The Death of a 10-Year-Old Boy
April 20, 2023 By
The Death of a 10-Year-Old Boy is a heartbreaking, once-in-a-generation novel about a man who takes his dying son on a hunt for a bear that’s killed two people.
The man wants the boy to see something in life beyond school and sports, beyond everything he’s ever known. Ultimately the book is about what’s left when we’re facing the end: what are we and what does it mean to be alive? Free on Kindle.
Free: The Final Frame
March 30, 2023 By
He sacrificed his family for ambition — but now they’re all he has left.
Cameron Parrish became Hollywood’s #1 action director by refusing to use AI-assist technology. Every film is a box office success, but neither fame nor fortune makes up for the fact that Cameron’s dying to make real cinema — an Oscar-worthy movie that will show the world he’s an auteur, not the clever hack that the critics make him out to be.
But mere hours after being greenlit for the film he knows he was born to shoot, director Cameron Parrish is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. There’s no treatment, and if he’s lucky, he might make it another year, but more likely, he’s got a few months left.
As word gets out about his illness, Cameron realizes he has no true friends. No real family either: his obsession with finding perfection behind the camera lens has long since alienated his ex-wife and his adult son.
Desperate to make his final days matter, he signs up for an experimental program that promises to help him discover the meaning of his life — and his death.
Accompanied by an artificial intelligence named Sofia, Cameron embarks on a bucket list journey — from the Maldives and Bhutan to Toledo and Morocco — designed to round out his unbalanced life and help him make peace with his impending death.
But what if it’s too late for Cameron to see the world through a new lens?
Eat, Pray, Love meets The Bucket List in this vibrant but poignant story exploring the possibility of second chances and the unexpected beauty of an imperfect life. Free on Kindle.
Men Without Hate
March 12, 2023 By
a searching and powerful account of the effects of war on three generations of men in the Raines family, beginning at the Battle of Gettysburg, and ending after the war in the Philippine’s during World War Two $5.99 on Kindle.
Xerxes: Sailing the Wings of Morning
February 14, 2023 By
Spies, forbidden romance, and Mideast intrigue converge in this novel of high seas adventure and cyber sabotage.
Two determined women and the men they love are caught in an international espionage manhunt. It begins with deceit and daring and ends with the dueling of three intelligence services culminating in a climactic offshore encounter. $4.99 on Kindle.
Do You Hear What I Sing
February 6, 2023 By
Once upon a time dinosaurs ruled the universe with loud, commanding voices. Now, humans rule the world with even louder cacophony. Today, I think, birds choose to speak softly to balance human clamor on this planet. In this book, the author hides behind these birds to amplify their voices, pride, meditations, thoughts, avowals and feelings to silence human noises. The speakers in each poem are these noble birds themselves: seagull, dove, hummingbird, nightingale, canary, woodpecker, cuckoo, vulture, mockingbird, flamingo, peacock, hawk, owl, oven bird, curlew, locust, Canada goose and the list goes on, for a total of 53 flying creatures. Every bird is asking the same question, “Do You Hear What I sing.” Can you hear them? This poetry book is for those who are tired of noises and longing to hear some true voices. $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Every Which Way But Home: Prequel to Mutt to Megastar series
January 22, 2023 By
Jolted from his cozy life on an ill-fated trip, Barney becomes a stray dog and is thrown into the unfamiliar world of the Dog Pound. Now he must use his wits and his ‘smarts’ to survive this hostile environment. Can he learn to use the system under the guidance of Charlie, an ancient scarred Blue Heeler who takes him under his paw? Or will it be “Bye, bye Cruel World” with Doc Soper’s needle? It’s the humorous, yet touching, prequel to Amazon Bestseller Reality Barks. Free on Kindle.
Nunn So Mighty
January 16, 2023 By
In the early sixties, a lonely young misfit struggles to solve the mystery behind his enigmatic Irish grandfather’s buried past. $0.99 on Kindle.
Free: Good News For Dead People
January 12, 2023 By
The second civil war has come to America, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding. Follow a psychopath fresh out of prison, a thyroid patient searching for pills, and a Senator’s shroom-obsessed son, among others, as they navigate the dangers of a bizarre world that is hostile to life itself. See war and collapse from perspectives never explored, from genesis to the bitter end. Free on Kindle.
The Bitter Beginnings: Revive
January 12, 2023 By
The Bitter Beginnings: Revive tells the story of newly divorced Aurora Marcs and disgruntled workaholic Titus Rucco — two adults whose stories, though starkly different, couldn’t be more drenched in the woes of everyday life.
What happens when these two unlike individuals inadvertently cross paths on the coastal shores of Malta? Will they let their differences get in the way of discovering new things about themselves and each other? Will their budding relationship prevail in the midst of life’s jarring realities?
The Bitter Beginnings: Revive is about fresh starts, new opportunities, and love. Join Aurora and Titus as they undertake navigating through life together, in the hopes that their bitter beginnings take a turn for the better. $2.99 on Kindle.
Victory of Brothers in Arms
January 12, 2023 By
Victory of Brothers in Arms: The Gripping Tale of the Battle of Agincourt is a creative historical retelling of 14th century England, during the reign of the late King Henry V. Told through the eyes of Will—a member of the intimate circle of the royal guards, created to be a secret squadron to help protect the current monarch on the throne.
Following the crowning of the new king, a long-planned plot to seize the French monarchy finally comes to fruition. It focuses on how the main protagonists prepare for war’s demands before going to fight and see it through to the end. This historical fiction portrays the intimate moments of budding romance and the relationship dynamics between the king and his close circle wedged between the monarchy’s political intricacies and discussions of war strategies.
Victory of Brothers in Arms: The Gripping Tale of the Battle of Agincourt will take you into a different time in history. $2.99 on Kindle.
Free: Sweet and Sour
December 24, 2022 By
Discover poems that tackle both the benefits and pitfalls of love and relationships. The first section focuses on being unattached and full of hope. The second is all about being in a relationship that’s full of love but also worry. The third looks at being single again after the collapse of a relationship. Free on Kindle.
Persephone’s Spring
December 23, 2022 By
Spring 2020, the Covid 19 virus declared its war to conquer every continent. This pandemic was a world-wide tragedy of historic proportions. I wrote one villanelle per day during the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place 3/16/2020 to 5/3/2020. This year, Persephone did not come back from the underworld, Spring Maiden did not bring spring to us. I searched all over for her; I ran and ran like Forrest Gump…
Yes, we suffered, we witnessed deaths and the picture of what death is like; we tried to grasp a prescient glimpse of our future, strived to go back to normal living, longed for healing and to make sense out of that calamitous catastrophe. These poems are Livingston’s diary to reflect the day-to-day headlines, dialogs, debates, feelings, pathos…it is a tiny, humble reaction to the ongoing debacles. An ancient form of villanelle was chosen to compose these poems to parallel the plaques over centuries of archaic human history.
$0.99 on Kindle.
Free: A Region of Reverie by D. T. Adams
December 23, 2022 By
Poems and other pieces of writing about the stunning Lake District. The first part is all about the area’s awe-inspiring beauty. The second looks at how the spectacular scenery can cause positive changes in people. The third discusses the impact relentless tourism is having on the place.
Free on Kindle.
Free: Wine Not?
December 23, 2022 By
Poems about getting drunk and enjoying a wild night out. Join the main character as he gives in to desire and has a night of drinking, fun and more. The following morning, he questions whether alcohol is beneficial or whether it’s becoming hazardous for him. Free on Kindle.
Moonstone Hero
December 21, 2022 By
When Andrew, an American medical student, decides to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with a group of international travelers, he’s looking forward to the adventure. But when the climb takes an unexpected turn, it forces the climbers to confront their deepest fears—and each other. $1.99 on Kindle.
The Phantom Glare of Day
December 21, 2022 By
In this trio of novellas, three game young ladies enter into dangerous liaisons that test each one’s limits and force them to confront the most heartrending issues facing society in the early twentieth century.
The Phantom Glare of Day tells of Sophie, a young lady who has lived a sheltered life and consequently has no idea how cruel public school bullying can be. When she meets Jarvis, a young man obsessed with avenging all those students who delight in his daily debasement, she resolves to intervene before tragedy unfolds. Mouvements Perpétuels tells of Cäcilia, a young lady shunned by her birth father. She longs for the approval of an older man, so when her ice-skating instructor attempts to take advantage of her, she cannot resist. Not a month later, she realizes that she is pregnant and must decide whether or not to get an abortion.
Passion Bearer tells of Manon, a young lady who falls in love with a beautiful actress after taking a post as a script girl for a film company—and is subsequently confronted with the pettiest kinds of homophobia.
Specific to their time yet unquestionably relevant for women today, The Phantom Glare of Day is a compelling interrogation of who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong. $0.99 on Kindle.
Calabritto
December 20, 2022 By
Calabritto is a novel about a mountain village in central Italy taking place in the early seventies and the eccentric characters that weave their stories in and around each other. Written in Tony Nesca’s classic free-flow, stream of consciousness, the prose itself mesmerizes and captivates, drawing the reader into a tragi-comedy that unfolds an intricate tapestry of human experience. $2.99 on Kindle.
Pearly Everlasting
December 13, 2022 By
“Awarded a Reader’s Favorite 5-Star Editorial Book Review Dec 2022!”
Pearly Everlasting tells the story of Salvia Fischetti, a painter tortured by guilt over her daughter’s death. Morgan Pochyrus is a biker poet consumed by guilt over secrets in his own past. The unlikely meeting of the pair — and their valiant attempts to save an infant facing a life-threatening illness — lead both characters toward healing in an unexpected way, in this gripping and beautifully written novel.
“Claudia Ricci’s riveting and sometimes explosive novel Pearly Everlasting…is a novel to be read for its compassion, mastery of woven narrative and character, and always relevant themes of commitment, love, and redemption.”
~Eugene K. Garber, Ph.D., author of seven books of award-winning fiction, including Metaphysical Tales, The Historian, and Maison Cristina
“With tactile and fast-paced prose, Pearly Everlasting, by Claudia Ricci, takes us through the chaos of grief and loss to eventual deliverance and shows us how chance events can turn into second chances.”
~Rebecca Burke, Washington, D.C. $2.99 on Kindle.
