The Indie Express: November 2021

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Fiction Feature: Tales from the Liminal by @PostmodrnPilgrm #blogtour #bookreview #giveaway #fiction #literary #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

Literary Fiction

Date Published: 10-12-2021

Publisher: Deuxmers Publishing

In this collection of fifteen curious and delightful short stories by S. K. Kruse, you never know who you’re going to meet or where you’re going to end up. You can be certain, however, that whether you follow Schrödinger’s cat into the zeroth dimension, or hang out with Bigfoot on a public beach, or have drinks with a woman who’s seen Gertrude Stein in the condensation on her window, you’ll find yourself smack dab in the middle of some befuddling predicament of existence.

Using humor and horror, satire and allegory, fabulism and realism, Tales From the Liminal takes you for an extraordinary ride, submerging you in spaces where anything is possible, especially transformation.

Review

S.K. Kruse creates multiple complete stories to get lost in. She manages to infuse each character with not just life but wit, charm, and occasionally menace.

Full of so much more than I was expecting. Each story is a great read, but I did have my favorites.

About the Author

Sandra Kaye Kruse grew up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where she attended Catholic school for twelve years. She then moved to Madison to earn a degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and to launch her writing career. Her writing has appeared in The Onion and Reed Magazine, has been longlisted for the John Steinbeck Award for Fiction, and has won multiple awards in the National League of American Pen Women’s “Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition.” You can find more of her writing at: www.skkruse.com

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Monday, November 29, 2021

Memoir Feature: Clipped by @aalitowski #blogtour #bookreview #nonfiction #memoir #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBooktours @PublishingAcorn

Memoir

Date Published: November 4th 2021

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Clipped is a quirky memoir about a new mother whose desperation to get her baby to sleep catapulted her into becoming an inventor and a small business owner—just before the world fell apart in 2008.

As a full-time mother and entrepreneur, Adrienne Alitowski rolled out her invention, blankyclip®, to retailers across the country, including over thirty stores in the Buy Buy Baby national chain. LA Parent Expecting and Kids Today both made blankyclip a “Top Pick.” The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded her three utility patents and a trademark. All that fabulous glory aside, Adrienne also learned what it’s like to fly halfway around the world to a Chinese factory and to be pregnant, throwing up on the street just before an investor meeting. These experiences led her down a path to write this memoir about sticking to your vision and being open to finding gold in the muck.

REVIEW

First of all, this is a great cover that really depicts what you can expect from the book. It is definitely quirky and highlights a mother's life and all of the ups and downs. It really does convey the feel of the book to me.

But in addition to motherhood, this shows how a mother can be so much more.

Adrienne Alitowski shows us to not put ourselves in a box because of being a mom. If you have a dream, go after it.

A great and inspirational and motivational read.

About the Author

Adrienne Alitowski invented, patented, and manufactured blankyclip®, a stroller accessory. She sold blankyclips nationally in Buy Buy Baby as well as in many boutiques across the country and around the world. As an actress, she performed on Broadway and toured with the National Theatre of the Deaf. Her television credits include Will & Grace, Just Shoot Me!, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Beverly Hills, 90210, among others. She produced and co-wrote her one-woman show, Just Tell Them You’re From Scarsdale, which she performed in New York and Los Angeles. She created, produced, and performed in the celebrity benefit Glen Mary Glen Rose: Women Do Men, in Los Angeles, which raised funds for breast cancer research as well as awareness about the lack of diverse roles for women. She is the mother of two and lives in Los Angeles with her family. Clipped is her first book.

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Sci-Fi Feature: The Autopsy of Planet Earth by @BobEmery #blogtour #bookreview #scifi #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

Science Fiction

Date Published: 10-02-2021

Publisher: Indies United Publishing House

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Part One: When mankind is threatened by the arrival of an intelligent alien race claiming to have come in peace, Gabriel Ferro, Chief of Staff to U.S. President William Conrad, and Dr. Catherine Blake, become ensnared in not only a CIA/NSA conspiracy, but a world beyond their wildest imagination, a world beyond Earth, beyond the Milky Way. In an effort to learn why the aliens have come at all, together Gabriel and Dr. Blake venture to where no humans gone before.

Part Two: The sweeping saga continues as Gabriel Ferro and Dr. Catherine Blake prepare to travel to the alien’s planet to learn firsthand how the aliens successfully transformed their society to one that revels in peace harmony and balance. But the question remains… what are the alien’s true motives? Is it their intention to transmute mankind forever? Together, Gabriel and Dr. Blake venture beyond Earth, beyond the Milky Way to a world they could not have imagined in an effort to solve the mystery.

“The Autopsy of Planet Earth is a barnburner, a page-turner… it’s Robert Heinlein on speed—a concept around every corner, an event around every page.” Don Bacue International Features Syndicate

Review

I loved the descriptive way this book was written. It really submerges the reader into the world.

I felt that the plot was a good one, but the flow of it seemed a bit rushed at times. I found myself trying to keep up, as there was a lot of moving parts, but it was highly original.

This book was very vivid in the descriptions, the writing really jumped off the pages and into my mind.

About the Author

During his film and television career, Robert J. Emery, who writes novels under the pen name, R. J. Eastwood, has written, produced, and directed feature motion pictures, television documentaries, national television commercials, political campaigns, and industrial films. Some of the highlights of his career include the award-winning ninety-one-episode television series The Directors for Starz/Encore, the award-winning four-part mini-series, The Genocide Factor for PBS, the award-winning documentary For God & Country: A Marine Sniper's Story for MSNBC, and the award-winning motion picture, Swimming Upstream, for the Lifetime Television Network.

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Thursday, November 25, 2021

Paranormal Romance Feature: Claimed by @AlineHunter #promo #paranormalromance #releaseday #excerpt #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

The Wolf's Den, Book 4

Paranormal Romance

Date Published:11-26-2021

He's waited a lifetime for her.

Melody Walker has a dark history. It's only been three years since she was bitten by a rogue werewolf, and her husband was killed. Since she's unable to shift, she's tried to live as a human, desperate to hold on to what she knows. She's worried her best isn't good enough when an enormous man shows up at her doorstep and changes the game.

Gunner Newsom didn't expect to meet his mate when his pack took over the community at Rhodes, but he's grateful for the gift of her. She's everything he's ever wanted. Witty, resilient, and sexy as hell. There's just one thing that stands in his way. His female is fighting to protect her only child, a little girl who's in danger of being given to her paternal grandparents as she's human and her mother is a werewolf.

What belongs to him, he loves, cherishes, and keeps. Not only will he claim the mate he's been given, but he'll also protect the daughter he's accepted as his own. He'll kill anyone or anything that attempts to stand in his way.

Excerpt

He stared at her, wishing things were different between them. If she was a pure werewolf, she'd pick up what he was trying to throw down. She'd understand straight away. But that wasn't the case. She had to come to terms with what was currently flowing through her.

"I want you to think about that when you go to bed, Melody," he instructed quietly. "Think about how things would be if I were sleeping beside you instead of taking refuge on the couch. I want you to take in what you've learned about me the last few weeks. Remember every single thing I've done since I've come here."

He ripped his eyes from hers, severing that kind of contact, waging a war within himself. He had to push his bestial nature back to address her as a man and not the beast she thought him to be. He cleared his throat when was in complete control, striving for calm.

"Consider how things could be with me by your side. You don't have to be afraid. Not of me or anyone else. Take a minute and envision the life I can give you if you'll let me."

About the Author

Aline Hunter is a multi-published author who has written stories featured in horror magazines, zombie romance anthologies, and flash fiction contests. Her work has a dark undertone, which she credits to her love of old eighties horror films, tastes in music, and choices in reading, and has been described as “full of sensual promise,” “gritty and sexy” and “a breath of fresh air.”

Currently, she is penning projects within the urban fantasy, erotic and contemporary, and paranormal romance genres.

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Memoir Feature: Babe in the Woods by Yvonne Wakefield #blogtour #bookreview #memoir #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

Biography and Memoir, Adventure

Date Published: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Pepin Enterprises

At age eighteen, Yvonne set out to build a home from trees on 80 acres she bought on an Oregon mountainside. In 1975, log by log she creates a cabin and heals from an orphaned past, finding a new family in the forest, and with people in a valley named John Day.

Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait is the second in a three-book series. It chronicles a span in Yvonne's four decades long relationship with her log cabin and the people she meets in the valley. The book continues Yvonne's story of learning to live in the wilderness within and outside of herself. It is also a story of rogue bears, building a bear-proof log studio, a young artist's development, and the trials and triumph of finding oneself, alone in the backwoods.

Review

Wakefield relates in great detail and remarkable prose her life. With her we learn about her ups and downs, her hardships and her successes, but also the people she met along the way that shape her life.

Her honesty brings us into her life with the candor of a good friend along with the invaluable insights of her journey.

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Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Journal Feature: Become by @hpmueller242 #blogtour #bookreview #journal #selfhelp #giveaway #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

Self-Help Journal

Date Published: August 24, 2021

Publisher: Hunter Street Press

Goal setting is not the answer to all life’s complications and hardships. It is a process to define what you want your life to look like, to be. Goal setting allows you to reflect, to be conscious about your choices, and helps prioritize your time and attention. The beauty is you do not have to wait for New Year’s Eve to begin! You can start any day, anywhere, any time. Become is a 24-week inspirational, goal setting, journal, which reminds you of your awesomeness and helps you focus on the good things in your life.

Review

This is a journal that helps you get started.

It has prompts and ideas of what to write on.

From inspirational quotes and ideas for goal setting to lead you to map out your personal success to reflections, goals, and so much more.

This really is a great little journal.

About the Author

Hope Mueller leads a consulting firm, Hunter Street Press, and is studying for her mBA. Hope is passionate about making a difference and founded Hunter Street Charity (www.hunterstreetcharity.com) and the Mueller Family Scholarship. She is an author, motivational speaker, and coach. Hope splits her time between Northern Illinois and Nevada with her f=husband, four daughters, and delightful grandson.

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Business Feature: LEAD IN LIFE by @drlauramurillo #blogtour #bookreview #giveaway #nonfiction #business #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @BookWriting1

Succeed in the New Era of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Business / Leadership / Biography

Date Published: September 28, 2021

What do a single rose in a crystal vase, a box of tomatoes, a knitting needle, a basketball, and a tingling earlobe have in common? They are all signals to Dr. Laura Murillo to live life to the fullest every day. A high-energy, results-focused change agent in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space, her undeniable passion for life stands as the foundation for her personal and professional brand.

As President and CEO of the award-winning Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, she has the uncanny ability to see a situation, not for what it is, but for what it can be. In Lead in Life, People. Passion. Persistence: Succeed in the New Era of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Murillo guides readers through the incredible, sometimes devastating, and victorious experiences that comprise her success—from earning a doctorate while pregnant, parenting a toddler, managing a parent’s illness, and working full time, to hosting multiple TV and radio shows in English and Spanish concurrently, and being appointed to the Washington, DC Federal Reserve Board’s Community Advisory Council, and more.

She uses her lived experiences as the daughter of immigrants, a woman, an executive, a media producer and host to inform her perspectives and insights as an authority on DEI, guiding corporations, organizations, and institutions to adopt a genuine culture of DEI. In this new era of DEI, corporations must make a solid, lasting commitment to full representation, fairness, and inclusion of all voices in every decision, at every level of a corporation, all the time.

Lead in Life illustrates why everyone in a corporation has value and a voice that must be heard.

Review

How do you measure success? Are you a leader or do you want to learn aspects of what makes a great one?

This is a great read that really brings together many elements of business, management, and leadership. The underlying theme is leading in a way that ensures every one is represented equally and fairly.

Well written, easy to follow, full of many wonderful examples and lessons. Great read!

About the Author

Dr. Laura Murillo is the President and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Under her leadership, the Chamber has set unprecedented records in membership and revenue, becoming one of the most influential Chambers in the nation, a clear testament to her exceptional leadership. The youngest of nine children, Laura Murillo was born to Mexican immigrant parents and was raised in Houston’s East End/Magnolia, where she began working at age ten at her family’s restaurant. She is the proud mother of Marisa and Mia, both graduates of St. John’s School in River Oaks. Marisa earned a mechanical engineering degree from Columbia University, in New York City, and is an astrophysics researcher. Mia is a sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington DC and maintains highest honors.

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Monday, November 22, 2021

YA Fantasy: The Watcher and the Friend by @RJBarron57 #blogtour #bookreview #yafantasy #fantasy #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours

YA Fantasy adventure

Date Published: June 11th 2021

Publisher: Burton and Mayers

Thomas Trelawney thinks he will never get over the death of his sister Grace. When he is plunged into the parallel world of eighteenth century Yngerlande and tasked with saving their tolerant, diverse world from a brutal takeover, using powers he never knew he possessed, he can start to forget and move on. But who is the secretive, hooded girl who arrives to help him, leaving a trail of stars and mystery in her wake?

Fans of Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and Orphans of the Tide will love this exciting, fast-paced adventure story with its echoes of Narnia and a passage to another, strangely familiar, world.

Review

This storyline had lots of action and a fast-moving plot along with wonderfully crafted characters that draw you in.

I liked that it really encompasses so many different aspects of the Fantasy genre. There was adventure and mystery laced throughout as well, which I enjoyed.

Lovers of Fantasy books NEED to read this. It's action-packed and fast-moving. You won't want to put it down. So much fun!

About the Author

Rob, 64, was an English teacher in London for over thirty years, and now, when he’s not writing, he trains new English teachers. Originally from Teesside, he became familiar with Runswick Bay, the North Yorkshire Moors and the city of York, first as a child, and then as a student. His love of the history and geography of these locations can be seen on every page of “The Watcher and the Friend”, his first book for children.

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Romance Feature: Hometown by Wendy Rich Stetson #promo #onsale #giveaway #sweetromance #romance #rabtbooktours @RABTBookTours @StetsonRiches

Book 1 in The Hearts of the Ridge Series

Sweet Romance

Date Published: August 11, 2021

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

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When Tessa's big-city plans take the A Train to disaster, she lands in her sleepy hometown, smack in the middle of the most unlikely love triangle ever to hit Pennsylvania's Amish Country.

Hot-shot Dr. Richard Bruce is bound to Green Ridge by loyalty that runs deep. Deeper still is Jonas Rishel's tie to the land and his family's Amish community. Behind the wheel of a 1979 camper van, Tessa idles at a fork in the road. Will she cruise the superhighway to the future? Or take a slow trot to the past and a mysterious society she never dreamed she'd glimpse from the inside?

Excerpt

The girl entwined her fingers in her skirt and tugged the fabric tight. “Your hair is the same color as my cat, and she’s the best cat in the world.” In [w1] a heartbeat, she fled and buried her face in the man’s lap.

“My goodness. What a compliment. Thank you.” She fumbled with the clasp of her wallet, discovering only then she smooshed her thumb deep into the whoopie pie.

The elfin child giggled and bounced on bare toes.

Standing, the man swept her into his arms and smiled down at Tessa. “Rebecca has not seen many women with ginger hair.”

Ginger hair. For years, she was tormented by boneheaded boys shouting, “Carrot Top” and “Flame.” No one ever called her mane ginger. Beneath his candid gaze, her curls heated like embers, warming her from top to toe. Who was this man?

The girl wriggled, knocking askew his straw hat.

He tossed her under one arm like a sack of flour and righted it, loosening a tawny curl that escaped the wide brim and fell over one brow. His gaze passed over Tessa’s face.

Her unruly hair and short shorts tweaked at her consciousness. What did the Amish call outsiders? English? She was definitely dressed like an English woman. And not one from a Jane Austen novel.

He deposited the giggling girl right-side up on the floor and approached the table. “I’ve rarely seen hair that color myself. Like a copper penny.”

She stared at the mangled whoopie pie and blushed even deeper. For a brief moment, she felt his gaze trail down her body like a caress. Or did she?

About the Author

Wendy Rich Stetson is a New York City girl who still considers the Central Pennsylvania countryside to be her home. She grew up road tripping in a 1979 VW camper van, and she keeps a running list of favorite roadside attractions from coast to coast. Now an author of sweet, small-town romance, Wendy is no stranger to storytelling. She’s a Broadway and television actress, an audiobook narrator, and a mom who likes nothing more than collaborating on children’s books with her teenage artist daughter. Wendy lives in Upper Manhattan with her family of three and rambunctious Maine Coon kitty. Follow Wendy’s journey at www.wendyrichstetson.com

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