Grace Without Grace

Susan was born and raised a Southern California girl but is grateful to have lived on the Oregon coast and in the Rocky Mountains of northern Utah. She’s now enjoying living with her husband in the incomparable beauty of the Redwood forest, nestled against the rugged coast of Northern California.
Susan raised a tribe of children, making ends meet as a registered nurse and lactation consultant, and now her tribe members have tribes of their own and she doesn’t get to see enough of them. She loves to travel and is thrilled with a good movie or a great book, but writing is her passion. She writes almost anything, especially epic fantasy and romance.

Susan would love to hear your comments. Please review her book at your favorite retailer or at Goodreads. Take a peek at her website, susantietjen.blogspot.com, and/ or drop her a note at:
stietjen.author@gmail.com.

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Grace has given up on romance, on almost everything, since Rick Fleming betrayed her faith in him five years ago. Given her constant struggle with bad luck (her friend Murphy), being insanely accident prone, and having been the target of endless ridicule growing up, she has no reason to trust anyone.
Rick made some mistakes as a boy, and as a young man, his worst was hurting Grace Evans. His heart still belongs to her, even if she doesn’t know it. Unfortunately, in the last confrontation between them, she demanded he never speak to her again.
Now, Grace’s best friend (and Rick’s sister) Hannah has invited her to a ten-day summer work-vacation to babysit Hannah’s teen cousins. A palatial cabin, a patio boat on the lake, and all the comforts of the rich and famous at their fingertips? A vacation made in heaven.
At least until they arrive and Grace finds Rick there. And neither can leave. Rick’s car is in pieces in the garage, and Grace forgot her driver’s license at home.
How will Grace survive it? Can she find a way to forgive? Can Rick learn to take
responsibility for his past mistakes? And even if they succeed, what will they do when Rick’s most recent wantabe girlfriend shows up on their doorstep, determined to make Rick hers?

And now for the Cover

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SET TO RELEASE ON SEPTEMBER 6TH!

Preorder Available Now on Amazon!

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Now You See Her

Coming of Age Romance, Coming of Age Fiction

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Sequel to Fire in the Bones, Mark Harris’s Now You See Her—about nothing less than living with our dreams and the iconoclasm of reality—is an unmitigated joy to read. Once again he enchants readers with a poignant and charming coming-of-age yarn about the power of the stories we tell ourselves.

Hungry for permanent love and a hope that doesn’t disappoint, the precocious protagonist searches for signs while navigating early 1970s America, culling insights from sermons and songs, from comic books to classical movies. With a fertile mind and incredible imagination, he scans the cultural landscape for role models of masculinity and virtue: from Columbo to John Dean, from Wolfman Jack to Bob Newhart, reminding readers in the process of an earlier time Harris is so adept at resurrecting. Negotiating the deep mysteries of young love and the opposite sex, Luke’s riveting pilgrimage and fascinating psychological journey ultimately tells the tale of the beauty of reciprocity and the power of unconditional love. Growing up, like waking up, reminds us of the infinite value of what’s real and the courage it takes to risk vulnerability to experience it to the full.

Other books by Mark R. Harris

Fire in the Bones

Publisher: DigiTerra Publishing

Spanning the years 1964-1972, Fire in the Bones follows Luke, an American boy plagued by panic and loneliness growing up in a nominally religious middle class family. He looks for security and companionship wherever he can, first through daydreams, including a relationship with an imaginary friend named Bob, and then on to sixties pop culture, via TV icon Batman and pop music sensations the Beatles. As Luke comes to pattern his identity after the Beatles and others, he creates a fantasy world for himself that keeps the panic and loneliness at bay. But when Lonnie walks into his life, he enters a new reality where a flesh-and-blood female offers him tangible security-but at a price Luke may not be willing to pay.

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About the Author

Mark R. Harris was born in Kentucky, moved to New Jersey as a small boy, and met his wife in Pennsylvania.  He holds a Ph.D. in English and currently teaches English in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lives with his wife Beth and three children. His articles on literature have appeared in Studies in Short Fiction; poems have appeared in Nantahala Review and Euphony; and his first novel, Fire in the Bones, was published in 2015.

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The Missing Fairy Princess

The Missing Fairy Princess by Walter Salvadore Pereira

~ Book Tour~

11th to 17th August

About the Book:

“The Missing Fairy Princess” is the story of a 16-year-old fairy princess pitted against a powerful witch. The witch has stolen a potent new mantra developed by a colleague, ruthlessly snuffing out a brilliantly innovative mind.  She then hatches an elaborate plot to frame an adversary for her misdeed.  Her intention is to exact sweet revenge from her foe and at the same time, get away with the theft.  The victim, caught in her vicious web, is doomed to disgrace and a life sentence on a harsh penal colony. Meanwhile, the witch learns from her crystal ball, about an imminent threat from a fairy princess wearing a pink tiara.  To ward off that threat she kidnaps the fairy princess, wipes her memory clean and then turns her into a two-year-old girl.  

Unfortunately for the culprit, she has goofed up by kidnapping the wrong fairy princess, Merlyn, instead of Ashlyn, her twin.  The mistake turns out to be the undoing of the witch because Ashlyn proves to be her nemesis.  The brilliant fairy princess exposes the cobweb of misleading evidence fabricated by the witch, ultimately unmasking her.

If you love mystery, whodunit, with a dash of magical realism and sci-fi, this book is for you.

Book Links:

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Hi, I am Walter Salvadore Pereira.

I read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe in early teens and discovered for the first time that the written words stirred up emotions within you as much as the actual events one witnessed occurring around.  That book was followed by “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas.  Those two books of entirely different genres had a profound impact on me and set on my journey as an avid book lover.  At the same time, they did ignite an urge within me to emulate their authors.  But then family responsibilities were thrust upon me and the author faded into the background.

More than six decades later, leading a quiet retired life, the passion for writing came to the fore.  My first attempt at writing was a historical fiction, inspired by the Indian classics Ramayan and Mahabharat.  It was an epic comprising of over 100,000 words.  During the writing process, I went through every conceivable phase the author undergoes; writer’s block, frustration, despair, uncertainty.  I even reached the stage where I thought about abandoning the project altogether.  But the thought of the slog over those countless hours wouldn’t let me accept defeat and I persisted through tenacity and sheer will power.  I read it over and over, and again; chopped out entire sections and re-wrote until the outcome was to my satisfaction.  It took me over six years to complete that book, titled “Bheem – The Saga of Madhavpur” and finally, it was published during February this year on KDP Select.

In between, I published a fast-paced adventure sci-fi story titled “This Nightmare is for Real”.

I had been toying with the idea of a fairy tale for the last few years on account of it being the favourite topic of my granddaughter during her younger days.  The result is the current book, “The Missing Fairy Princess”.

I have made a foray in a totally different genre altogether for my next one – the cross-border terrorism faced by India – titled “The Carnivore has a Heart”.  It will be published through KDP Select within the next few days. 

About the Author:

After spending over 25 years in the Middle East, the author, aged 75, now leads a retired life.  He lives with his wife and son in Thane, near Mumbai. He has been passionate about writing from his early days.  His first book was a fast-paced sci-fi novel titled “This Nightmare is for Real”, was self-published. That was followed by a historical fiction titled “Bheem – The Sage of Madhavpur”, again a self-publication.  A third book, a fairy tale titled “The Missing Fairy Princess” which was published on Kindle Select during the first week of June 2019, while a fourth on the oft-discussed topic of cross-border terrorism titled “The Carnivore has a Heart” is slated for publication shortly thereafter again on Kindle Select.

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Death by C*ck

Fetish Alley, Book 2

M/M Romantic Suspense

Date Published: June 2019

Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group

CRIMES OF PASSION

Somehow, after solving one particularly squirrelly case, Clay Mortimer and Tate Williams of M&W Investigations have been deemed experts in all things Fetish Alley. Tate’s taken an undercover assignment for the London police, and solves it with his usual flair. When a brutal and particularly sensitive murder send the shop owners and patrons of Fetish Alley up in arms, once again the police department calls upon Tate and Clay to take the lead in solving the grisly crime. Meanwhile their lives are being redefined in ways neither of them expected, and even though change can be scary, these brave men make certain that love guides them on every road they travel.

Other Books in the Fetish Alley Series:

For Fox Sake

Fetish Alley, Book 1

Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group

Published: February 2019

The Places You’ll Go And The Things That You’ll See

Former SAS soldier, Clay Mortimer, the M in M&W Investigations, had thought he’d seen it all. But when his ex calls and asks for a favour Clay is intrigued, and then a bit surprised. He and his partner, Tate Williams, have a robust and imaginative sex life, but the things they see and learn in Fetish Alley take their understanding of human behaviour to the next level. Tate’s take is part kid in a candy store fascination, part shocked. At the end of the day, all good detective work requires an open mind and the skill to ferret out the truth. Still, the layers of deceit and avarice they encounter are more than par for the course, particularly from people who are not keen about outsiders to the world of Fetish Alley.

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About the Author 

The ‘Official’ stuff

Susan writes steamy, sexy, and fun contemporary romance stories, some suspenseful, some gritty and dark, and she hopes, always entertaining. She’s also Editor-in-Chief at Divine Magazine, an online LGBTQ e-zine, and a member of The Society of Authors, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, and the Authors Guild in the U.S.

Susan is also an award-winning screenplay writer, with scripts based on two of her own published works. Sight Unseen has garnered no less than five awards to date, and her TV pilot, Reel Life, based on her debut novel, Cassandra by Starlight, was also a winner at the Oaxaca Film Fest.

The ‘Unofficial’ stuff

Susan loves going to the theatre, live music concerts (especially if it’s her man-crush Adam Lambert), walks in the countryside, a good G and T, lazing away afternoons reading a good book, and watching re-runs of Silent Witness.

Her chequered past includes stories like being mistaken for a prostitute in the city of Johannesburg, being chased by a rhino on a dusty Kenyan road, getting kicked out of a youth club for being a bad influence (she encouraged free thinking), and having an aunt who was engaged to Cliff Richard.

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Star Child

Fantasy Adventure

Date Published: August 8, 2019

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On her world, they call her star struck, but why do the stars beckon her so …

On a mining outpost in the Inner Worlds, a young woman dreams of the stars. When she falls in with a motley crew of bounty hunters seeking to avenge an injustice, Novi believes her dreams have come true. But her journey has just begun.

Led by the only man to bring the mightiest army in the sector to its knees, the crew is engaged in a wily cat and mouse game with the powerful Guild Coalition. With her new shipmates, Novi dodges space outlaws and greedy corporations, mingles with Synths and settlers, jumps the Star Portal Labyrinth and discovers a mysterious legacy bequeathed by the Gods. But each exhilarating adventure raises terrifying questions about her. Can Novi find the answers she seeks before time runs out for her?

Author's Note: This fantasy adventure in the style of a swashbuckling space western is set on far away exotic worlds. Adventure, intrigue and action abound in this tale of a feisty young heroine embarking on the quest of a lifetime.

Excerpt

The murmur of voices heralded her approach. Forewarned, Novi was careful to crouch silently behind the hatch cover.

“We’ve searched Ventini’s cargo” the leader announced, down in the chamber. “Where’s the box?”

Novi’s heart gave a lurch. Could they be searching for Zufon Ventini’s intricately carved box, she wondered. The one with the energy waves that affected her so powerfully. Back in the duct, she was subject to its pernicious effects again. A night’s rest away from it had not dimmed the potency of whatever lay hidden in the strongbox.

In the Rec Chamber, Kidani looked confused by the leader’s question. But Novi sensed the pilot come to the same realization as her.

The leader addressed Kali, his demeanor subtly menacing. “No more games” he warned. “Where’s the strongbox?”

The pilot said nothing and Kidani rushed into speech. “We don’t know anything about a strongbox. Cap’n didn’t tell us about it.”

“I’m the chef and he’s the pilot” she reiterated, pointing at the RimWorlder. “We do our jobs, but we don’t know much about Cap’n’s affairs.”

“With you, I believe it” the leader agreed suavely. “But I know who your Captain is — the hero of the Five Year War. That tells me this RimWorlder here was one of his Renegades. He knows more than he’s telling us.”

The leader seems to know a lot about this Cruiser and the Captain. Who is he?

Kidani opened her mouth to respond but the leader ignored her to signal the man with the flasher. The henchman stepped forward to hold the weapon flush against Kali’s head.

Kidani made a small movement before checking herself.

Novi watched anxiously from behind the panel as the leader asked Kali. “One last time, RimWorlder. Where’s Ventini’s strongbox?”

Kali said nothing, the dark eyes glowering at the leader.

The slinger with the flasher raised it to hit the pilot but the leader stopped him with a raised hand, to direct him to Kidani instead.

Novi watched with her heart in her mouth as the man strode to the flame-haired girl to point his flasher at her, while the leader unstrapped his to hold it on Kali.

“The box or she dies” he said calmly to the RimWorlder.

In the eery blue glow of the emergency lights, Novi could see the terror on Kidani’s face, though the girl stayed still and mute.

“I don’t know where the box is, but occasionally, Cap’n hides certain valuables in the duct” Kali responded, subtly raising his voice. He hoped the stowaway would get the message. The duct was no longer safe for her to hide in.

“The maintenance duct?” the leader inquired.

The pilot nodded once, sharply.

Shyte. I must get out — they’ll be in the duct soon.

The leader reached for his Hailer. “Seto, check out the maintenance duct. There should be an access from the Bay.”

An alarmed Novi scrambled hastily, making for her old hiding place in the passage by the unoccupied chamber. Not a moment too soon, for she could hear voices cursing in the access passage from the Space Bay as the thugs poured into the duct.

About the Author

An avid reader all her life, only recently has Petra allowed her own imagination to run riot. She loves to travel and reads everything she can get her hands on. Her idea of a good read is one where the story and characters linger, long after the book has been set aside. She strives to write fantasy with vivid characters and elements of adventure, mystery and romance juxtaposed together, since those are the tales she has enjoyed the most over the years. To share the stories swirling in her imagination is a labor of love and a lifelong dream come true for Petra.

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The Face of the Seal

Historical Suspense

Publisher: Windchime Press

Date Published: 8/8/2019

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When Gerel Garnier, Paris’ up-and-coming jewelry designer, is commissioned by Britain’s famous art patron William Blackwell IV to create a replica of the 19th Century Qing Dynasty Empress Seal, she believes that her artist’s dream is finally coming true. Blackwell’s name and fortune could catapult her to the status of crème de la crème in the world of couture art design. Little does she know that the dream job will lure her into a web of treachery, deceit and murder.

While attending the unveiling of the original Empress Seal at the Forbidden City, Gerel stumbles on a startling secret about her family roots, and she is a woman on a mission ever since. From the Forbidden City back to Paris, she careens from dark secrets to illuminating revelation as the truth of her lineage emerges. An enlightening epiphany hits her: She Gerel Garnier, is the heir of the face of the Empress Seal–a rare gemstone that has witnessed centuries of love, hatred, faith and bloodshed.

Now the face of the seal has fallen unexpectedly into her hands. What is she going to do with the gemstone that seems to be a curse to whoever possesses it yet still hunted by the dark forces of the world?

Prologue

Southern China, 1858

. . . The ancient gong at the market square began to toll, crashing wave after wave of metallic reverberation into villages and rice patties miles away. In the center of the town square, Father Bernard, in a dingy burlap robe, knelt on the dirt ground. The Pearl River—the river that had sustained the lives of the villagers and their rice patties for thousands of years—stretched ahead of him like a shining tapestry. Behind him, a headsman stood vigilantly, a three-foot-long sword hanging on his hip. 

As villagers and peasants streamed into the town square, they were ordered to stand in a semi-circle facing the kneeling priest. When the last echo of the gong died, the local viceroy, in a long white robe and a blue satin sleeveless surcoat, addressed the crowd. He unfurled a silk scroll containing the Emperor’s imperial order:

The Emperor is willing to forgive Father Bernard’s crime of preaching Christianity in unauthorized territories and regions of the Imperial Qing Dynasty. Father Bernard is also accused of seducing and violating women in our village. If he is willing to confess these crimes and speak the names of the women he has seduced, the Emperor is prepared to absolve him completely and make him a free man. Otherwise, Father Bernard will be sentenced to death by beheading.   

Having delivered the royal order, the viceroy rolled up the scroll and turned to face Father Bernard. “This is your final chance. Confess and save yourself,” he said, inching closer to the kneeling priest. “Look at the crowd behind me, just tell me which women you’ve seduced and you’re a free man.”

“I didn’t seduce anybody. I only spread the Word of God and His Love and that’s not a crime,” Father Bernard declared, his voice thin but firm.

“All right, take a good look around then, because you’re a dead man.” The viceroy shook his head, made a gesture to the headsman, and stepped away.

Father Bernard’s sunken eyes scanned the crowd—men and women, old and young, most of them sobbing quietly. Many of them he knew well. A few men shouted, “You western devil, you must die!” They stepped forward and spat on him.

The priest remained motionless, only his eyes searched the crowd, urgently. The shadow of the headsman creeped up behind him.

The crowd grew agitated. The men who spat on him sneered and cackled with anticipation, they couldn’t wait to see his head roll and blood splash. Subdued sobbing gave way to praying. Women shielded their children’s eyes.

Then he saw her, pushing through the crowd toward him. Don’t come closer, don’t come closer. Yet time seemed to have slowed down. She continued to press her way toward him. Stop, please stop! He almost cried out.

Suddenly, she seemed to have heard him. She stopped, standing frozen at the forefront of the crowd a few yards away from him. He could see tears brimming in her eyes, her pale face glistening with tears. Her lips, devoid of their natural pink rose color, quavered.

He gazed at her ravenously, taking her in before darkness could devour him forever. His eyes came to rest on a stone nestled in the deep hollow of her throat—it looked like a speck of blood.

“Sarnai,” he whispered.

The last sound he heard in this world was the hissing of a sword. A flash of white light crossed him. He was eternally embraced by darkness.

About the Author

Jennifer Cumiskey was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. She immigrated to the United States in 1986. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English literature and an MBA in finance. After a career in corporate finance and management consulting, she now writes full-time as an indie author. Her writings often explores the theme of clash of civilizations and illuminates the tenderness of the human heart by shining a light on its darkest corners. She resides with her husband Paul in Vienna, Virginia. She can be reached at www.windchimepress.com

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Kicking Financial Ass

Personal Finance

Release Date: August 6, 2019

Why wait until 65 to retire when you can start doing what you really want when you are in the prime of your life? Whether your dream is to start your own business, volunteer, or work less, Chris Dumont provides a blueprint to early retirement and the best advice on the stock market to gain control of your finances today.

After reading this book:

• You will learn how Chris went from being over $50,000 in debt to being debt-free, owning multiples properties, and a six-figure stock portfolio within four years.

• You will be more financially secure. Chris shows you how to pay off all your debts. Once you are debt-free, you can hit your savings goals.

• You will create a budget using an easy-to use-system, with savings and expenses automatically deducted.

• You will not spend hours managing your money. Once you set things up, managing your money will be so simple that you only focus on it once a month.

You will also learn:

• Being happier with less by spending on what makes you happy.

• How much money you need to retire. (Hint: It’s not as much as you think!)

• Car advice on whether you should lease, own, or buy.

• Negotiating salaries and raises and incorporate side hustles to increase your income.

• Common investing mistakes to avoid and easy-to-understand index funds with ETFs.

• Tax-advantaged accounts you should use and why for both Americans and Canadians.

• Real estate advice and whether you should rent or own.

• And much more!

Everything he shows you is…

SET – AND – FORGET

You are covered by your emergency fund when you need it, from accidents to losing your job.

Start using the concepts he teaches in this book and retire in comfort in as few as 10 years.

Once retired, learn how to stay active and accomplish what you have always wanted.

What are you waiting for? Take control of your future today and start kicking financial ass!

Excerpt

Many people say that money does buy happiness, and they would be right. Statistically speaking, household income is strongly related to both emotional well-being and a person’s evaluation of their own quality of life—up to a point. Past that, however, there are diminishing returns between dollars earned and happiness. Multiple studies show that after making $75,000 to $80,000 per year, the difference in the emotional well-being an extra dollar makes in reducing negative emotions becomes less and less. The difference between earning $20,000 and $40,000 is huge and life-changing. The difference between earning $120,000 and $140,000 means your car might have nicer seats. The difference between making $1,000,000 and $1,020,000 is a rounding error. You require a certain amount of financial security before you can move onto your other needs and move up the hierarchy.

After over a decade of studies, University of Illinois psychologist and researcher Dr. Edward Diener, who specializes in what makes people happy, concluded that money can add pleasure to people’s lives, but it does not bring the true happiness that comes with self-respect, accomplishment, and satisfaction. Diener’s conclusions are supported by Richard Layard, British labor economist at the London School of Economics, who writes, “Despite our huge increase in affluence, people in the West have grown no happier in the past fifty years.” We keep striving for more and more things, living in the most prosperous historical period of all time, and yet, we are not getting happier. 

About the Author

Chris Dumont is the founder of MoneySensei.com, a personal finance hub that helps people become debt-free.

For nearly a decade, he has worked in finance learning both inside and outside the classroom the fundamentals of personal finance. Chris holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Ontario and a Bachelor of Commerce from the Alberta School of Business with a major in Finance. He completed his CFA designation in 2016.

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