Portfolio Category: AUDIOBOOK

Witchy Tales by Amanda M. Lee

Witchy Tales by Amanda M Lee

Witchy Tales: A Wicked Witches of the Midwest Fairy Tale (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Fantasy Book 1) by Amanda M Lee, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date: October 18, 2016

Look out Hemlock Cove, Aunt Tillie is on a rampage. What else is new, right?

She’s determined to move her wine business to the next level, and she needs 24 hours of peace and quiet to do it. There’s only one thing standing in her way. Well, make that a whole family of obstacles, and one ticked-off FBI agent.

When cousins Bay, Clove and Thistle vow to stop their great-aunt’s wine endeavor in its tracks, Aunt Tillie is forced to come up with a unique solution. In order to keep her great-nieces out of her hair, she curses them into a book of fairy tales. Of course, because it’s Aunt Tillie, these aren’t normal fairy tales. They’re the fairy tales she created – with a little inspiration from the classics.

Now Bay, Clove and Thistle have to work their way through a labyrinth of stories they haven’t heard since they were kids – and they have to take Landon, Marcus and Sam along for the ride.

Will Bay get eaten by bears? Will Thistle kiss a frog? Will Sam climb Clove’s hair to rescue her from a tower? And, better yet, will Landon turn himself into a prince and slip a glass slipper on Bay’s foot? Each task becomes harder as the story progresses, and as the tales darken, things start to become dangerous.

Can the Winchester witches survive Aunt Tillie’s twisted mind? Or will they be lost in a book forever?

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Note: Witchy Tales is set between Witch Me Like and Life’s a Witch.

Amanda M. Lee writes the Avery Shaw, Aisling Grimlock, Wicked Witches of the Midwest and Covenant College series.

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Amanda M Lee Biography:

When I was a kid, I was torn between whether or not I was going to grow up and be the Incredible Hulk or Wonder Woman. I flirted with being a Jedi Knight for awhile, but I wasn’t up for the intense travel associated with the gig. In my teens, I settled on being a writer — although I had no idea the effort that would entail.
Not only am I a writer now, but I’m a writer in several different mediums. I’m a longtime newspaper reporter, an avid reader and a voracious science fiction fanatic. Like me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmandaMLee . Follow me on Twitter at @yodaoneforme. Sign up for my mailing list (no spam allowed — only for viable updates) at http://eepurl.com/Y6bkf.

November 2, 2016
Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the Twenty-First Century

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/280592394″] Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the Twenty-First Century by Candi K. Cann, Sociology & Death, University of Kentucky Press, Redwood Audiobooks, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date: September 13, 2016

For millennia, the rituals of death and remembrance have been fixed by time and location, but in the twenty-first century, grieving has become a virtual phenomenon. Today, the dead live on through social media profiles, memorial websites, and saved voicemails that can be accessed at any time. This dramatic cultural shift has made the physical presence of death secondary to the psychological experience of mourning.

Virtual Afterlives investigates emerging popular bereavement traditions. Author Candi K. Cann examines new forms of grieving and evaluates how religion and the funeral industry have both contributed to mourning rituals despite their limited ability to remedy grief. As grieving traditions and locations shift, people are discovering new ways to memorialize their loved ones. Bodiless and spontaneous memorials like those at the sites of the shootings in Aurora and Newtown and the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as roadside memorials, car decals, and tattoos are contributing to a new bereavement language that crosses national boundaries and culture-specific perceptions of death.

Examining mourning practices in the United States in comparison to the broader background of practices in Asia and Latin America, Virtual Afterlives seeks to resituate death as a part of life and mourning as a unifying process that helps to create identities and narratives for communities. As technology changes the ways in which we experience death, this engaging study explores the culture of bereavement and the ways in which it, too, is being significantly transformed.

The author examines four primary categories of popular memorialization, in an order that reflects the gradually disappearing body: (1) Bodiless memorials (2) Tattoo memorials, (3) Car-decal and T-shirt memorials, and (4) Internet and social network memorials.
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Candi K. Cann received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in the Study of Religion and is interested in the way in which the dead are remembered and memorialized by the living. She studies religious memorialization (martyrs) and popular forms of contemporary memorialization such as tattoo memorials and car decal memorials. She is an avid reader, traveler, and lover of poetry, but her passions are spending time with her family, friends and living well.
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“With sensitivity and insight, Cann deftly charts a change in American mourning practices related to changing Western views of death as a privatized, bodiless experience. She brilliantly explains the rise of roadside memorials, car decals, and body tattoos as recent manifestations of first, a public seeking to mourn in a society that emphasizes life and hides death, and second, the removal of the body from the experience of death.”

―Simon Bronner, Distinguished University Professor of American Studies and Folklore and director of the American Studies doctoral program at Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg

“Cann argues that the way we grieve and memorialize the dead has shifted in recent years. She carefully takes the reader on a journey that reveals the metamorphosis of memorialization and ways of grieving that are more private today, yet at the same time are brought out into the public sphere in creative ways via cyberspace, tattoos, t-shirts, bodiless memorials, and automobile decals.”

―George Dickinson, professor of sociology at the College of Charleston and author of Understanding Dying, Death and Bereavement

August 11, 2016
Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian American

Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian American by Susan Williams, Nonfiction History, Redwood Audiobooks, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date: July 2016

Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts offers a delightfully flavorful tour of dining in America during the second half of the 19th century.

Historian Susan Williams investigates the manners and morals of that era by looking at its eating customs and cooking methods. As she reveals, genteel dining became an increasingly important means of achieving social stability during a period when Americans were facing significant changes on a variety of fronts – social, cultural, intellectual, technological, and demographic.

Focusing on the rapidly expanding middle class, Williams not only examines mealtime rituals, but she looks at the material culture of Victorian dining: the furniture, the furnishings, and the growing array of accouterments – from asparagus tongs to sardine servers and lace doilies – that supported genteel expectations for tableside behavior. She also explores changing ideas about meals – how they fit into the daily schedule and what kinds of food and drink came to characterize specific meals and menus. The result is at once an informative look at life in Victorian America, and a sumptuous celebration of a key moment in the country’s culinary experience.

“This lively and informative volume gives a good general picture of the eating patterns of the middle and upper classes in late 19th-century America. With its many choice quotations and entertaining anecdotes, this well-written book should appeal to a wide audience. Highly recommended.” (Library Journal)

August 11, 2016
Introductory self-help books by Jane Aniston

Introductory self-help books by Jane Aniston

Short, overview books laid out clearly and simply. These are introductory books recommended for people who want more information on these topics but are unlikely to listen to an eight-hour book. These books are between forty-five minutes and one hour.

“Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: A Practical Guide to CBT for Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Addictions & Other Psychological Conditions” by Jane Aniston, Nonfiction Motivation, Eddington Publishing, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date: May 18 2016

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an empowering form of psychotherapy where patients identify negative thoughts and harmful behavioral patterns, and then learn how to respond positively to their problems, ultimately breaking free from the vicious cycle that is causing their suffering without the need for medication or other drugs.
These techniques are applicable to a whole host of psychological disorders, including but not limited to anxiety, clinical depression, sleep disorders, sexual disorders, phobias, alcoholism, eating disorders, substance abuse and dependency, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and schizophrenia.

“Positive Thinking: Overcome Negativity & Become a Happier, More Positive Person” by Jane Aniston, Nonfiction Motivation,Eddington Publishing, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date:July 9 2016

Research shows that our outlook on life has a massive impact on not only our happiness, but also our personal and professional success, our health, our relationships, and even our life expectancy! Negativity, on the other hand, is toxic and is the cause of so much pain, worry, wasted time, and missed opportunity in so many people’s lives.

“Narcissist: How to Beat the Narcissist!: Understanding Narcissism & Narcissistic Personality Disorder” by Jane Aniston, Nonfiction Motivation, Eddington Publishing, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Release Date: June 29 2016

• The origins and causes of narcissism
• The 9 traits of a narcissist
• Narcissism vs. Narcissistic personality disorder
• The differences between covert and overt narcissism
• The narcissist’s drug and their greatest fear
• How to spot the narcissist
• Dealing with or getting away from the narcissist

August 11, 2016
Mass Influence – The Habits of the Highly Influential by Teresa de Grosbois

Mass Influence – the habits of the highly influential by Teresa de Grosbois with Karen Rowe, Business and Money, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Audiobook Release May 2016

Mass Influence – the habits of the highly influential by Teresa de Grosbois
With Karen Rowe, Writer & International Speaker
Featuring insights shared by Randy Gage, Dr. John Demartini and Shawne Duperon

The rule book has changed. You attend a business networking event and meet Jack. You buy him coffee to foster a relationship. Point scored. Jack has the potential to be your new customer and even leads you to new business. Feeling pretty good, you go to another function. You’re impressed with the influential speaker at the event. She walks off stage to a lineup of people who want to meet her. You figure, what the heck? I’ll invite her for a coffee, too. Wrong. Quite honestly, you could be pushing away an influential connection without knowing it. Influence is a skill. Growing your business while creating influential connections is a game. It has its own set of rules, habits and etiquette that, when followed, will change the landscape of how you do business, deeply increasing your bottom-line. The challenge is most in business are unfamiliar with the game of growing influence. You’re in the right place. Influence expert Teresa de Grosbois takes you on a journey that unveils the key habits for success that are encompassed by the most influential people across the globe. She shows you the top mistakes to avoid when connecting with the influential and how to ultimately join their ranks. Pick up a copy of Mass Influence and learn the new rules of the game.

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Review
If you want to be influential, if you want to make a real difference lean into this book. It s an insider’s guide on what creates influence and how you can deeply influence those you lead. – –Randy Gage, Author of the New York Times bestseller, Risky Is the New Safe

A profoundly insightful book that will transform the level of the playing field and game you are presently living. If you desire to make a massive difference and become highly influential in the world, this is certainly the book to read. – –Dr John Demartini, International best-selling author of The Values Factor

What Covey is to highly effective people, Teresa de Grosbois is to highly influential people. As one who intuitively understands what makes truly influential people tick, de Grosbois offers practical insights and authentic strategies for anyone to become more influential in their niche and beyond. A moden-day How to Win Friends and Influence People, this book is not to be missed! – –Joel Comm, New York Times Best-Selling Author, Twitter Power
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About the Author

Teresa de Grosbois is an international speaker and 4X Bestselling author hailing from Calgary, Canada. As an expert on influence, Teresa teaches courses around the globe on how to become an authority in your field and how to create word of mouth epidemics around your work. Teresa is the founder and chair of the Evolutionary Business Council, an international community of emerging thought leaders who focus on teaching the principles of success and prosperity. Karen Rowe is an author and writing coach and book expert from Tampa Florida. Karen has ghostwritten books for some of the most fascinating people in the world including a gold-medal Olympian, entrepreneurs with online empires and some of the top self-help leaders in the industry.

April 21, 2016
Cupcakes, Bats, and Scare-dy Cats by Pamela DuMond

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Cupcakes, Bats, and Scare-dy Cats by Pamela DuMond, Book #6 in the pet-friendly Annie Graceland Cozy Mystery Series, Audiobook Release Date April 2016

Annie Graceland has a pinch of PSYCHIC ABILITY… it turns out her CAT, Theodore, does too!
Annie’s dog sitting for her new neighbor, but her creepy apartment manager, Anthony Spiggottini, accuses her of violating the “No Dogs Allowed” lease, and threatens to evict her. She’s at a Halloween party when Anthony busts into her place, and literally lets the dog and cat out! She’d gladly have killed him, but someone beats her to it. Now Annie’s desperately searching for her lost cat while dealing with Anthony’s ghost who refuses to accept he’s dead.

It’s a good thing she doesn’t know that Theodore her cat, Mozart the dog, and Bloody Mary, (the spirit cat they conjured), are running loose on Venice streets, sniffing out Anthony’s murder suspects!

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PRAISE for the ANNIE GRACELAND CUPCAKES BOOKS:

“The animals win this one.” – Jeanie Jackson, A. Reviewer

“One part Ghost Whisperer, two parts Stephanie Plum, shake and stir and you have Annie Graceland!” – Dakota Cassidy, USA Today Bestselling author of The Accidentals

“A funny mystery… that’s a double treat if you ask me!” – Marcia Wallace, Emmy Award Winning Actress, The Simpsons

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Pamela DuMond writes stories with heart, romance, some tears and always giggles.

New Adult:

Part-time Princess (Ladies-in-Waiting, #1) Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy

-> ROYALLY WED: A Romantic Comedy (Ladies-in-Waiting, #2) comes out in 2016! <-

The Story of You and Me (Driven, #1).

YA:

The Messenger (Mortal Beloved, #1) a romantic time-travel thriller. [optioned for film/TV]
The Assassin (Mortal Beloved, #2)

The Seeker (Mortal Beloved, #3) to be published summer, 2015.

Romantic, comedic mysteries featuring Annie Graceland — a psychic, female amateur sleuth:

Cupcakes, Lies, and Dead Guys
Cupcakes, Sales, and Cocktails – A Novella
Cupcakes, Pies, and Hot Guys
Cupcakes, Paws, and Bad Santa Claus – A Novella
Annie Graceland Cupcakes Mysteries: Boxed Set
Cupcakes, Diaries, and Rotten Inquiries

Non-Fiction Health and Beauty: Staying Young

April 21, 2016
Mother of Demons by Maynard Sims

Mother of Demons: A Department 18 Novel by Maynard Sims, Horror, Samhain Publishing, Audio Realms Publishing, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle, Audiobook Release December 2015

The hunt is on!

Alice Logan has gone missing, and Harry Bailey and Department 18 have been called to help find her. The main suspect is Anton Markos, a satanic cult leader who has a predilection for young women like Alice. Members of Markos’s cult start turning up dead—shredded by what seems to be a wild animal. Is there a madman within the cult? Or is it something far more horrible?

Can Department 18 discover the impossible truth and end the spree of murder, insanity and carnage? Or will they become the prey?

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Book 5 in The Department 18 series. Department 18 is a powerful but secret government unit that investigates the supernatural.
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About Maynard Sims:

Len Maynard & Mick Sims are the authors of supernatural thriller novels, Shelter, Demon Eyes, Nightmare City, and Stronghold, and Stillwater, the Department 18 books, Black Cathedral, Night Souls, The Eighth Witch, and A Plague Of Echoes, and the crime thrillers Dark Of The Sun, Let Death Begin, Through The Sad Heart, and Falling Apart At The Edges. Two erotic romance novels, under a pseudonym have been published by Siren.

August 4th, 2015 is the release date for Department 18 book 5, Mother Of Demons, from Samhain. A Bahamas trilogy of adventure novels – Touching The Sun, Calling Down The Lightning, and Raging Against The Storm, has been completed. A new crime series, featuring DCI Jack Callum, has been started, and the first novel written, Three Monkeys. Current work in progress includes the second Jack Callum novel, a new standalone crime thriller, a new supernatural novel, and further romances.

They have written screenplays. One, based on the first two Department 18 books, won the 2013 British Horror Film Festival Award for Best New Screenplay.

Numerous stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Collections include, Shadows At Midnight, 1979 and 1999 (revised and enlarged), Echoes Of Darkness, 2000, Incantations, 2002, two retrospective collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, both 2002, Falling Into Heaven 2004, The Odd Ghosts, 2011, and Flame And Other Enigmatic Tales, and A Haunting Of Ghosts, both 2012. 2016 will see their tenth collection of ghost stories and strange tales – The Dead Are Dancing Down Our Walls – which will include all their recent new stories, many of them unpublished.

Novellas, The Hidden Language Of Demons, The Seminar, and His Other Son have been published in 2002, 2003, and 2013 respectively. All their stories and novellas have been reprinted in eight uniform volumes through The Maynard Sims Library in 2014. 2015 will see a new novella from Samhain, Convalescence, a new romance from Siren, and The Curse Of The Mummy from Hersham.

They worked as editors on the nine volumes of Darkness Rising anthologies. They co-edited and published F20 with The British Fantasy Society. As editors/publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They have written essays. They still do commissioned editing projects, most recently Dead Water, and they are working on an anthology as editors for the ITW.

July 10, 2015
Out of Tune edited by Jonathan Maberry

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Out of Tune edited by Jonathan Maberry.

A collection of ballads written by Christopher Golden, Jack Ketchum, Kelley Armstrong, Lisa Morton, Simon R. Green, Nancy Holder, Seanan McGuire, David Liss, Del Howison, Gary Braunbeck, Gregory Frost, Jeff Strand, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jeff J. Mariotte & Marsheila Rockwell. Edited by Jonathan Maberry. Commentary by Nancy Keim Comley

Anthologies, JournalStone, Audio Realms Publishing, Narrated by Lesley Ann Fogle and Peter Bishop, Audiobook Release Date: October 2015

Out of Tune is calling.

A song half-heard. The murmur of a voice singing in the dark. There it is again … a few words set to an old melody filled with mystery, heartbreak and horror.

Out of Tune gathers a collection of original dark fantasy tales inspired by folk ballads. Here you’ll find stories of strange creatures and strangers humans, treachery and love, murder and monsters.

Out of Tune brings together some of today’s most talented writers and sets them loose in that swirling darkness at the edge of town. NY Times bestselling author and editor Jonathan Maberry unleashes his own brand of dark forces with a line-up of bestsellers and award winners. Kelley Armstrong, Jack Ketchum, Simon R. Green, Seanan McGuire, Christopher Golden, David Liss, Gregory Frost, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jeff Strand, Lisa Morton, Jeff J. Mariotte & Marsheila Rockwell, Nancy Holder, Del Howison, and Gary Braunbeck. With commentary on each source ballad by folklorist Nancy Keim-Comley.

Now get ready to dance to the music of the night.

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Bios from The Contributors section of Out of Tune:

CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the award-winning, bestselling author of such novels as The Myth Hunters, Wildwood Road, The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood, Of Saints and Shadows, and (with Tim Lebbon) The Map of Moments. He has also written books for teens and young adults, including Poison Ink, Soulless, and the thriller series Body of Evidence, honored by the New York Public Library and chosen as one of YALSA’s Best Books for Young Readers. Upcoming teen novels include a new series of hardcover YA fantasy novels co-authored with Tim Lebbon and entitled The Secret Journeys of Jack London. A lifelong fan of the “team-up,” Golden frequently collaborates with other writers on books, comics, and scripts. In addition to his recent work with Tim Lebbon, he co-wrote the lavishly illustrated novel Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire with Mike Mignola. With Thomas E. Sniegoski, he is the co-author of multiple novels, as well as comic book miniseries such as Talent and The Sisterhood, both currently in development as feature films. With Amber Benson, Golden co- created the online animated series Ghosts of Albion and co- wrote the book series of the same name. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead and British Invasion, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson) and a network television pilot. The author is also known for his many media tie-in works, including novels, comics, and video games, in the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, Angel, and X-Men, among others. www.christophergolden.com

DAVID LISS is the author of eight novels, most recently The Day of Atonement. His previous bestselling books include The Coffee Trader and The Ethical Assassin, both of which are being developed as films, and A Conspiracy of Paper, which is now being developed for television. Liss is the author of numerous comics, including Mystery Men, Sherlock Holmes: Moriarty Lives and Angelica Tomorrow. www.davidliss.com

DEL HOWISON Along with his wife Sue, Del owns Dark Delicacies, “America’s Home of Horror.” He is a Bram Stoker Award winning editor and multi-nominee as well as having been nominated for a Shirley Jackson and the Black Quill awards. His short story “The Lost Herd” was retitled to Sacrifice and released as the premiere episode of the horror television series Fear Itself on NBC.

GARY BRAUNBECK is the prolific author of 25 books, as well as nearly 250 short stories. He is a multiple Bram Stoker Award winner and as won the International Horror Guild Award. He is a past-president of the Horror Writers Association. His fiction has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian and German. www.garybraunbeck.com

GREGORY FROST is a writer of dark fantasy, SF, Young Adult, and historical thriller fiction. He has been a finalist for every major fantasy genre award. His latest novel-length work is the YA-crossover “Shadowbridge” duology; voted “one of the four best fantasy novels of the year” by the ALA. His historical thriller, Fitcher’s Brides, was a Best Novel finalist for both World Fantasy and International Horror Guild Awards. Other Frost short stories appear in Ellen Datlow’s Supernatural Noir anthology, and in V-Wars, edited by Jonathan Maberry. He directs the fiction writing program at Swarthmore College. He is the co-founder of the Liars Club. www.gregoryfrost.com

JACK KETCHUM is an American author. He is the recipient of four Bram Stoker Awards and three further nominations. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, including The Girl Next Door and Red. www.jackketchum.net

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer for Marvel, Dark Horse and IDW. His novels include Code Zero, Rot & Ruin, Fall Of Night, Ghost Road Blues, Patient Zero, The Wolfman, and many others. Nonfiction books include Ultimate Jujutsu, The Cryptopedia, Zombie Csu, and others. Several of Jonathan’s novels are in development for movies or TV including V-Wars, Extinction Machine, Rot & Ruin and Dead of Night He’s the editor/co-author of V-Wars, a vampire-themed anthology, and is editing a series of all original X-Files anthologies. He was a featured expert on The History Channel special Zombies: A Living History. Since 1978, he’s sold more than 1200 magazine feature articles, 3000 columns, two plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. His comics include V-Wars, Rot & Ruin, Captain America: Hail Hydra, Bad Blood, Marvel Zombies Return and Marvel Universe Vs The Avengers. He lives in Del Mar, California with his wife, Sara Jo and their dog, Rosie. www.jonathanmaberry.com

JEFFREY J. MARIOTTE is the award-winning author of more than fifty novels, including supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet, and others. He also writes comic books, including the long-running horror/ Western comic book series Desperadoes and original graphic novel Zombie Cop. With writing partner Marsheila Rockwell, he has published short fiction and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller. He lives in southeastern Arizona. www.jeffmariotte.com

JEFF STRAND is the four-time Bram Stoker Award nominated author of such books as Pressure, Dweller, A Bad Day For Voodoo, and Wolf Hunt. He lives in Tampa, Florida, and because he cares about your ears, he lets others do the singing where folk ballads are concerned.

KEITH R.A. DeCANDIDO is the international, best-selling, award-winning author of more than 50 novels as well as dozens of short stories, novellas, comic books, and blog entries. His many works of fiction in media universes such as Star Trek, Supernatural, World of Warcraft, Doctor Who, Spider-Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, Leverage, and more won him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers in 2009. Recent and upcoming work ranges from the Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution to the acclaimed “Precinct” series of fantasy police procedurals (Dragon Precinct, Unicorn Precinct, Goblin Precinct, Gryphon Precinct and Tales from Dragon Precinct) to the Star Trek coffee table book The Klingon Art of War to the short story collection Ragnarok & Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet (which features the protagonist of “Fish Out of Water”). He has also contributed to the anthologies Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, More Tales of Zorro, Stargate: Far Horizons, V-Wars Volumes 1 & 3, and The X-Files: The Truth is Out There, and he’s also a regular blogger for Tor.com, doing a twice-weekly rewatch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. www.DeCandido.net

KELLEY ARMSTRONG is a #1 New York Times bestseller. She has published eighteen fantasy novels to date, set in the world of the Women of the Otherworld and the Darkest Powers series, also two crime novels in 2007 and 2009. www.kelleyarmstrong.com

LISA MORTON is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, award-winning prose writer, and Halloween expert whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” Her most recent releases include the novella By Insanity of Reason (co-authored with John R. Little) and the novel Zombie Apocalypse: Washington Deceased. She lives in North Hollywood, and can be found online at www.lisamorton.com.

MARSHEILA (MARCY) ROCKWELL is the author of The Shard Axe series, the only official novels that tie into the popular MMORPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online. She has two collections out now (Tales of Sand and Sorcery and Bridges of Longing and Other Strange Passageways), and is currently hard at work on the second book in a trilogy based on Neil Gaiman’s Lady Justice comic books. “John Barleycorn Must Die” is her second published collaboration with writing partner Jeffrey J. Mariotte. The first, “A Soul in the Hand,” can be found in the Neverland’s Library anthology from Ragnarok Publications. www.marsheilarockwell.com

NANCY HOLDER is a New York Times bestselling author (the dark fantasy series Wicked) who has written over seventy novels, and two hundred short stories, essays, and articles, many of which have appeared in “Best of” anthologies. She has received five Bram Stoker awards and a Scribe award for her supernatural fiction, as well as a Pioneer award from Romantic Times for her young adult fiction. She also received a Special Sales Award from amazon.com. She is well known for her work on such fantasy properties as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, MTV Teen Wolf, Saving Grace, Hellboy, Hulk, Highlander, and many others. She has written two retold fairy tales for Simon and Schuster’s Once Upon a Time series, and a nursery rhyme retelling (“The Lion and the Unicorn”) for Month 9 Books. Many of her MFA students have explored dark fantasy retellings in their third semester projects. She will be the Author Guest of Honor at the 2014 World Horror Convention. www.nancyholder.com

SEANAN McGUIRE is the New York Times Bestselling fantasy author of the October Daye series, and the InCryptid series, both published by DAW Books. She won the John W. Campbell Award in 2010, and was the first person to be nominated for the Hugo Awards five times in a single year. Seanan majored in folklore and mythology at the University of California Berkeley (go Bears!), and periodically vanishes into haunted corn mazes for days at a time. She lives in Northern California, where she writes stuff. She also writes as Mira Grant, author of the Newsflesh series, and talks about horrible things at the dinner table. www.seananmcguire.com

SIMON GREEN was born in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England (where he still resides), in 1955. He has obtained an M.A. in Modern English and American Literature from Leicester University and he also studied history and has a combined Humanities degree. His writing career started in 1973, when he was a student in London. His first actual sale was a story titled “Manslayer,” back in 1976, but it didn’t appear till much later; Awake, Awake…. was his first sale to a professional editor in 1979. Furthermore, he sold some six or seven stories to semi-pro magazines before that market disappeared practically overnight. After years of publishers’ rejection letters, he sold an incredible seven novels in 1988, just two days after he started working at Bilbo’s bookshop in Bath (this after three and a half years of being unemployed!). This was followed in 1989 by two more, and a commission to write the bestselling novelization of the Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which has sold more than 370,000 copies. www.simonrgreen.co.uk

NANCY KEIM COMLEY has a degree in English and a Master’s in Folklore from Western Kentucky University. She has written about and been published on diverse topics such as the death, burial and funerary rites of an African American community and a storyteller in Tennessee.

June 19, 2015
The Ambitious Woman by Esther Spina

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Excerpt from “The Ambitious Woman: What It Takes And Why You Want To Be One” by Esther Spina

The Ambitious Woman by Esther Spina

Nonfiction, Motivation & Inspiration, Next Century Publishing, Audiobook Release Date: Summer 2015.

The Ambitious Woman illustrates how ambitious women embody characteristics such as inspiration, empowerment, and motivation to help others accomplish their goals, and create win-win relationships in all areas of life. When you think of the word ‘ambitious’, what comes to mind? Power hungry? Getting ahead no matter what it takes? Someone who runs over others to accomplish their goals? While many people may have a negative view of what it means to be ambitious, author, motivational speaker and women’s movement leader, Esther Spina, is not one of them. In fact, in The Ambitious Woman, Esther shows that Ambitious Women are found in all walks of life – the famous and the not-so-famous. They embody characteristics such as inspiration, empowerment and motivation to help people accomplish their goals. Ambitious Women can be humble and loyal; they are disciplined and have a never-give-up attitude. Real and genuine ambitious people care about others; they are not self-centered. They are “ambitious” about seeing others succeed, and creating win-win relationships in all areas of life. Using profiles of people such as Diana Nyad and Barbara Walters, The Ambitious Woman offers contemporary illustrations of people who have lived ambitious lives and what we can learn from them. The book also profiles ambitious people who are close to the author, people who live with passion, confidence and consistency in their everyday lives. Women from all walks of life will find ambitious characteristics to strive for, ones that will improve their lives, their relationships, and who they are deep down. When you become an Ambitious Woman, you, too, can help others change their lives!

Esther Spina began her professional career by becoming the first female order desk clerk for General Electric/Hotpoint. During the 90s, she became an independent, direct sales representative, and was awarded the Senior Representative and Top Producer ten years in a row. In 2006, Esther joined Ambit Energy as a marketing consultant, where her work ethic and distinguished sales strategies earned her numerous accolades, including Top 10 money earner seven years in a row, and Millionaire Club member four years in a row. Since 2008, Esther has concentrated on developing her network, Ambitious Women, and has hosted annual conferences. Married to Frank, they have four grown children and five healthy grandchildren.

June 8, 2015