Day: December 14, 2023

A Tony Harrington Novel #6

by Joseph LeValley

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

 

Winter is frigid, but fear is just as numbing, and death is the coldest of all.

 

Fantasy / Mythology / Folklore

Date Published: September 13, 2023

 

 

For as long as Win can remember, she has seen things that no one else can see, horrific hallucinations that feel nearly real. After a decades-long parade of visions, Win rarely questions her condition. When the hallucinations arrive, she simply braces herself and waits for them to pass. Every other aspect of Win’s life is perfectly ordinary and vaguely disappointing: a mind-numbing job, mounting debt, and a lackluster social life.

It all changes for Win in a moment, when a tragic vision brings her face to face with a stranger who claims Win is more than an ordinary woman, mired in the ordinary world. Her visions, more than terrifying fantasies, reveal truths that only she can see, truths that others would do anything to control. Win’s arcane ability endangers her as much as it empowers her, and she finds herself hunted by a mysterious force. Her only option is to leave the life she knows and seek out who she is.

With more questions than answers, Win enters a world where fairy tales and folklore hide in the lives of everyday people. She must learn to live in the space between otherworldly dangers and mundane reality. Win must decide which monsters can be trusted, how she will pay her bills, and what she must learn about herself to combat an unseen enemy, an enemy whose ambition threatens the very fabric of reality.

Irreverent and comically dark, Out of the Way Things offers a fantastic world, filled with mythic beings concealed in the shadows of the ordinary. Kendall McNutt brings readers into a hyper realistic fantasy that asks us to consider the possibility that all stories are true and that nothing is impossible.

 

About the Author

Kendall McNutt is a story enthusiast from way back. She has been authoring stories since she could hold a pen. She loves stories in all forms, and takes every opportunity to jump into them wherever they occur, in whatever capacity is available.

Kendall lives in the Pacific Northwest, known for breathtaking landscapes and Seasonal Affective Disorder. When she is not consumed by a story or toiling away in the public education system, she can be found adventuring with friends and family, or snuggling cats. Her cats. Not all cats. Certainly not strange cats.

 

Contact Link

Website

 

Purchase Link

Amazon

by Kathy Biehl

 

Memoir / Humor

Date Published: 11-28-2023

Publisher: 9th House

 

At the end of the 20th century, while mainstream media popularized an expensively dressed version of modern adult life, a rawer, and definitely weirder, reality was playing out off-screen. Columnist and zinester Kathy Biehl chronicled that from a singular and heavily trafficked intersection – collision point, some might say – of young professionals, performing and outsider artists, Unitarians, gays and lesbians, metaphysicians, traveling statues, and people who defied categorizing, many of whom wanted to sleep together, and some of whom actually did.

This essay collection, a followup to Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales, romps through antics, sagas, and questionable behavior that Biehl witnessed, experienced and, at times, instigated. With eyebrow firmly arched, she snapshots sexual tension, ambivalence, and confusion; perils of fan mail and professional caroling; Groucho impersonators, snooping repairmen, and divine manifestations; ludicrous journeys, backstage dramas, and driveway parties; close-ups with a strange, frightening disease; her own, accidental attainment of goddesshood; and other mystery-marvels of life on the bridge to the millennium.All of it really happened. Nobody could make this stuff up.

Excerpt

Burning Desire

 

This is not a longstanding, conscious goal. I had to see a couple actually doing it before I formulated this desire. I was sitting at a booth in a ridiculously goofy Hawaiian restaurant, a worthy successor to the tradition of the long-departed Trader Vic’s. (That place had a cachet so powerful that a group of Irish musicians kept a flower-shirted vigil there every night of its last week in business, as if to store up mock Polynesian ambiance against a dreary future of non-accessorized drinking.)

The Hawaiian newcomer offered an ideal setting for lounging about on the receiving end of a garish exotic drink with an equally garish paper parasol. The bar was an island adrift in a mural of sea gulls, clouds, and foamy tide, against which Don Ho sang away with a happy children’s chorus. Beneath its stockpile of Mylar-tipped swizzle sticks and totem-faced ceramic mugs sat a couple who’d opted for the most adventuresome entry on the specialty drink menu. Their straws connected them to a wide-rimmed bowl, big enough to require two hands for carrying, that contained the alcoholic equivalent of the kitchen sink. At the center lept flames.

“I want a man who’ll drink fire with me,” I said to my companion, who is used to such out-of-the-blue revelations. The thought didn’t surprise him; he’s heard something about wanting to shoot fire off my fingertips. He responded enthusiastically, and not out of reciprocal interest or even friendly solidarity. He wouldn’t mind a man who would drink fire with him, either.

The line keeps returning. Days later I think, “I want a man who’ll drink fire with me.” I suspect the thought may contain deep meaning. A Theory immediately begins taking shape.

It resurfaces during a phone conversation with my accountant. I mention the Hawaiian bar excursion. “I want a man who’ll drink fire with me,” I tell him, and he roars with laughter, not entirely as a result of the tension from impending IRS deadlines. As I defend the statement it rises to the level of a Fundamental Truth of my existence.

The concept has now taken on nearly every critical characteristic of the elusive target of my quest. It has fast become my personal Grail.

The image transcends the mere act of sticking a straw in a flame-kissed beverage. It reveals an entire personality. It shows me a complex blend of bravado and flamboyance that makes light of itself, of calculated risk-taking coupled with recklessness and humor, of élan and adventure expressed with panache.

He is a natural showman, skilled in the grand gesture, attentive to appearances without attaching excessive important to them for their own sake. For that reason he doesn’t take himself too seriously. People can start and think all they want he he enjoys himself; what matter are the opinions of people who’ve lost the ability to play?

He’s spontaneous and prone to cast off responsibility in ways that endanger no one. However modest his normal habits, my fire drinker is reckless enough to ingest liquids in colors not found in nature, to throw caution to the wind.

But I detect profound depths, too. Drinking fire demonstrates that he is willing to jump into an experience, even if it’s potentially dangerous. Even if he risks getting scorched. The act places him within flirting range of the flame as well as of me, and who’s to say which could be more threatening?

The risk doesn’t daunt him, though. He saunters up to the flame without hesitation. His sharp, agile mind and natural intuition tell him exactly where to place the straw to keep from getting hurt. And, most importantly, he shares the experience with me. We sit straw to straw, on equal terms, growing tipsy from the same source, and, when the last drop is drained, holding our straws over the flame and watching the heat shrivel them into a misshapen residue that will perplex the bartender.

Granted, this metaphor leaves out a few things, like not smoking and not hunting for sport, speaking a foreign language, and being equally comfortable in jeans or a tuxedo. All of those were on a list of a hundred-plus characteristics I actually wrote out a few years ago. (Don’t worry; I can’t find it now.) Perhaps it is my previous inability to formulate this desire succinctly that has posed the impediment to attaining Relationship. Naming is a step to claiming, they say.

So here goes: I want a man who’ll drink fire with me. You can laugh all you like. Everyone who hears it does. It’s a silly idea. And that’s why it’s so appealing.

It makes me laugh, too. And I’ll still be laughing when you see a flaming bowl between a pair of self-possessed characters engrossed in mirth and each other. Look with a woman with a raised eyebrow and a mysterious smile. That’ll be me.

About the Author

Since childhood Kathy Biehl has scribbled down observations of human behavior and attempted to make sense of it. She gave up writing fiction long ago. Her first anthology, Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales, was shortlisted for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize. Her writing has also won awards from the Association of Food Journalists, Houston Press Club, and Texas Bar Journal. She is a former columnist and associate editor of the Houston Press. She is also the publisher, Editrix, and primary voice of the social commentary zine Ladies’ Fetish & Taboo Society Compendium of Anthropology, which existed in print from 1988-1998 and continues online in companion blogs.

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter: @kathybiehl

Blog

Goodreads

Instagram: @kabiehl

Threads: @kabiehl

Medium

 

Purchase Links

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Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

by Olivia von Holt

 

Embracing Confidence In Your Career

 

Nonfiction, Job Hunting, Careers

Date Published: December 1, 2023

 

 

“The Reward of Risk: Embracing Confidence In Your Career” is an essential guide for young professionals embarking on their career paths. It serves as both a source of inspiration and a practical blueprint for building a meaningful and successful career in today’s fast-paced economy. This book blends experienced insights with youthful energy, offering strategies for creating a standout personal brand, effective networking, and forging strong professional relationships.

Highlighting the importance of volunteer work, the book shows how it can enhance personal and professional growth, improve resumes, and develop leadership skills. It presents real-life stories where risk-taking and hard work lead to significant career achievements, providing practical advice on negotiation, overcoming setbacks, and initiating new ventures.

The guide also delves into social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility, emphasizing the importance of making a social impact while achieving business goals. It stresses the role of skills development, networking, mentorship, and how these elements contribute to job satisfaction and career advancement.

Internships, volunteering, and community engagement are portrayed as transformative experiences that shape professional identities and prepare individuals for global career challenges. The book also covers fundraising and social impact initiatives, teaching lessons in creativity and strategic thinking.

Overall, “The Reward of Risk” is more than just a book; it’s a mentor and motivator, encouraging readers to embrace confidence, view challenges as opportunities, and see risks as potential rewards. It’s a comprehensive companion for anyone ready to take their place in the professional world.

 About the Author 

Olivia von Holt is an accomplished businesswoman and entrepreneur focusing on personal development and mentorship of young professionals. Her distinctive fusion of European and American cultural perspectives has profoundly impacted Olivia’s professional trajectory. She has extensive experience in various industries in multiple business sector.

In addition to being recognized on the prestigious “30 under 30” list, Olivia received the Woman-Owned Business Award. Her extraordinary leadership and entrepreneurial character are reflected in these honors.

While not her initial intention, Olivia accidentally entered the realm of authorship. As a mentee inspired her to document her knowledge. She startet to think “Who is mentoring whom now?”

Her writing focuses on inspiration to an emerging group of professionals share advice she wishes she had gotten earlier in her career. Olivia’s journey is a testament to the power of experience, mentorship, and the courage to embrace new paths.

 

Contact Link

Website

 

Purchase Link

Amazon