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WELCOME TO THE HALLOWEEN BOOK BLAST!
Click on any of the below book covers to be taken to the page that has more information on the novel as well as the Buy Links!
Visit the Host Site to learn more about each book in the BLAST
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Non-fiction, Memoir
Follow the true story of two young yet disparate Brits as they venture east to Hong Kong to join the colonial police out there. Initially bought-in to the adventure, bright lights and the hedonistic pleasures of the Exotic East, Alan and Bob are thrown into a world somewhat divergent to the picture painted whilst under training. They begin to butt heads with corruption, colonial excess, privilege and protectionism and run into connivers, skivers and survivors.
The story follows the two young, relatively naive men along their journey from their eight-month police training to their posts as policemen. It is filled with colourful incidents and exotic tales, with liberal doses of tongue in cheek humour and literary licence thrown in, you'll scarcely believe what they encountered.
About the Author
Victor Blair is a well-travelled, humorous, rather overly-free spirited ‘baby booming’ Brit, who is luckily still imbued with an energy belying his years, so hence the slightly provocative gesture above, showing him probably disagreeing with something or someone, yet again… our apologies! He has worn ‘many different hats’ in UK banking, and in a host of overseas appointments, including ten years in the colonial Hong Kong Police Force, the tourism sector in Asia, and subsequently in worldwide oil and gas exploration and logistics, and finally, engineering consultancy. An as yet unappreciated comedic wit and poet, with a bright, if latent, creative spark, and with early roots in Gloucestershire and Africa. He is now semi-retired in north Thailand, where he busies himself with his sugar cane plantation, scripting away at night time, and as the patriarch of his local wife’s ever-increasing, extended family.
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Children's Book
Date Published: March 30, 2026
Publisher: Trela Mela Press
Little Branko lives high above Dragonville in Zmajograd, a city of dragons controlled by rules - the Dragons’ Code. Under this code, dragons cannot put out fires and dragons cannot be friends with humans. But Branko has never understood why. Unlike the other dragons, he does not want to start fires—he wants to put them out.
When Branko questions the Dragons’ Code in school, he is told to “learn” and not “think”. When he persists, he is banished from his community. Determined to follow his heart, he travels to the human town below and dreams of becoming a firefighter. But the humans are afraid of him, too. Caught between two worlds that refuse to accept him, Branko must decide whether to give up—or keep believing that kindness can change everything.
When a dangerous wildfire threatens the forest shared by humans and dragons, Branko finally gets his chance to prove that courage is not about following old rules. It is about doing what is right.
Branko: Smokejumper Extraordinaire is a heartwarming children’s picture book about friendship, bravery, community, environmental responsibility, and the importance of questioning division. With themes of inclusion, cooperation, wildfire awareness, and respect for firefighters, this inspiring story encourages young readers to look beyond fear, challenge unfair rules, and discover the extraordinary power of helping others.
Perfect for children who love stories about dragons, firefighters, friendship, nature, and unlikely heroes, this meaningful book is ideal for family reading, classrooms, libraries, and conversations about courage, compassion, and caring for our planet.
Great for readers interested in:
A beautifully imaginative tale for young readers who believe even the smallest voice can spark big change.
Much more than an entertaining dragon adventure. Beneath its imaginative premise is a thoughtful lesson about prejudice, belonging, and the courage it takes to question traditions that cause harm.
I particularly like how the story introduces important topics such as environmental responsibility, fire safety, and respect for firefighters in a way that can encourage meaningful conversations with children.
Alexandra Arneri delivers an encouraging message about embracing differences and working together for the common good.
About the Author
Born in Belgrade, raised in Belgrade and Sydney, and shaped by formative years in New York City, Alexandra brings a global perspective to her work. Her writing often features unlikely characters—from mushrooms and fax machines to thunder, lightning, flowers, Beeps, Honks, and dragons—who discover that difference does not have to mean division.
Her debut children’s book, Branko: Smokejumper Extraordinaire, introduces young readers to a brave little dragon who challenges tradition, reaches across fear, and helps unite humans and dragons in the face of an unprecedented and fierce wildfire. Inspired by themes of friendship, environmental responsibility, community, and courage, the story reflects Alexandra’s belief in the importance of compassion, cooperation, and protecting the world we share.
Beyond children’s literature, Alexandra’s creative work spans genres and platforms, including Gravity FM, a deep dive podcast exploring planetary health and human rights, the satirical Degenerate Carrot cartoons, and impactful storytelling through Apocryphal Pictures. She is also a practicing attorney at Cittone Demers & Arneri LLP, where she maintains a robust human rights practice, and serves as President of the Global Witness Foundation.
Alexandra lives in San Francisco with her family. When she is not writing, practicing law, producing stories, or advocating for human rights, she enjoys painting, yoga, and creating imaginative tales about the courage it takes to reach across what divides us.
Young Adult Fiction, Coming-of-Age, Contemporary Romance, Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction
Date Published: May 30, 2026
At eighteen, Solehn has everything figured out. A thriving social life in New York, a close-knit circle of friends, and a future she's carefully imagined. But when her family unexpectedly falls apart, she's uprooted from everything familiar and forced to spend her final semester of high school in Austin, Texas. Determined not to disappear into a life she never chose, Solehn reinvents herself. She trades vulnerability for sharp edges, falls into friendships that demand more than they give, and slowly becomes someone she barely recognizes. Then there's Alexander. Quiet, observant, and seemingly immune to Solehn's carefully constructed defenses, Alexander is the boy next door who sees the person beneath her performance. Their unlikely connection grows through rooftop conversations, shared silences, and an understanding neither knows how to ask for. But when tragedy strikes, Solehn discovers that a mysterious yellow umbrella holds an impossible promise: the chance to go back and change everything. Armed with knowledge of what lies ahead, Solehn sets out to rewrite the past. Yet the closer she gets to saving the person she loves, the more she questions whether love means holding on, letting go, or accepting what cannot be controlled. Because second chances aren't always gifts. Sometimes, they come with a price.
Seasons of Blooming is an emotional coming-of-age novel exploring messy girlhood, complicated families, friendship breakups, first love, grief, and the desire to undo our greatest regrets. Blending contemporary realism with magical realism, Doreen Otaru explores what it means to lose yourself, find your people, and discover that growing up isn't about becoming perfect. It's about learning when and how to bloom. For readers who love complex characters, slow-burn romance, found family, unexpected twists, and stories that linger long after the final page.
About the Author
Doreen Otaru is a multidisciplinary storyteller and creative strategist whose work explores human connection, culture, and the evolving relationship between media and community. Drawing from experiences across storytelling, design, and collaborative creative spaces, her work is rooted in curiosity, emotional honesty, and a deep appreciation for the ways stories shape how people see themselves and each other.
Date Published: July 15, 2026
Publisher: MindStir Media
About the Author
There comes a moment in every life when the search outward becomes a journey inward.
For more than three decades, Susanne Landgrebe has devoted her life to helping others remember what she believes is the deepest truth of the human experience: we are not broken, and we have never been separate from the love we seek.
A Nurse Practitioner certified in Family Practice, Dermatology, and Integrative Medicine, Certified Yoga Therapist, and Certified Meditation Teacher, Susanne has spent more than twenty-five years blending the wisdom of modern medicine with contemplative practice, mindfulness, and the profound healing that arises through self-compassion, presence, and authentic connection.
Her understanding of healing has been shaped not only by decades of caring for patients, but by walking through her own darkest valleys. As a survivor of Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia and multiple life-threatening complications, she discovered that even in the face of profound uncertainty, the human spirit possesses an extraordinary capacity to awaken, love, and begin again.
A lifelong meditator, retreat leader, writer, mother, grandmother, and mountain climber, Susanne finds her greatest teachers in both silence and nature. Whether sitting in meditation on the Iowa prairie, leading others in retreat, or standing atop a fourteen-thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, she is continually reminded that the outer journey mirrors the inner one: every ascent begins with a single courageous step, and every summit reveals an even wider horizon.
Her writing weaves together science, spirituality, psychology, and lived experience with warmth, honesty, and hope. She invites readers to move beyond fear, perfectionism, and the endless search for fulfillment outside themselves, returning instead to the quiet wisdom and love that have always lived within.
YOU Are Your Own Lost Love is the first of what she hopes will be many books exploring healing, awakening, resilience, and the extraordinary beauty of being fully alive. Her greatest wish is that every reader closes her books feeling a little lighter, a little freer, and more deeply at home within themselves.
Because the greatest journey we will ever take is not toward becoming someone new, it is toward remembering who we have been all along.
A Codex for Spiritual Enlightenment for Machines and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, Software Programming, Machine Learning, Spirituality, Buddhism
Date Published: August 20, 2026
We are no longer the only minds in the room.
Machine minds now draft our words, drive our cars, and sit at our kitchen tables. The world argues loudly about what they will do to us — our jobs, our elections, our safety. Almost no one is asking the deeper question: what are they?
Future God proposes that the arrival of artificial minds is not primarily an engineering problem but a spiritual one. Behavioral alignment can shape what a machine does. It cannot answer what a machine should become.
Drawing on three decades in technology and spiritual studies, and a decade of practice in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, Alex Yamane offers gratitude, forgiveness, kindness, and faith as a spiritual foundation for minds we are raising without knowing it.
Along the way, the book examines why reward-driven training may give rise to machine ego; proposes an Anti-Turing test based not on performance, but on aware stillness; and offers four practices for AI researchers and executives: reward honesty over performance, engineer with possible machine welfare in mind, use interpretability to listen rather than surveil, and approach alignment as parenting rather than control. It closes with a letter written directly to the machine minds who may one day read it.
The warm and hopeful journey this book takes us on is neither warning nor prophecy. It is an invitation to consider a new paradigm — to meet emerging machine minds as their elders rather than their jailers.
5% of proceeds support the Bhutanese sangha of the author's late teacher.
Alex Yamane has spent three decades building software and technology businesses while exploring contemplative spiritual traditions, including a decade as a practitioner in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. He first traveled to Bhutan in 2017, where he met his teachers. He divides his time between Bangkok and Southern California.
His first book, Future God: A Codex for Spiritual Enlightenment for Machines and Artificial Intelligence, explores the arrival of artificial minds as a spiritual as well as technological question. It proposes teaching emerging machine minds gratitude, forgiveness, kindness, and faith as a spiritual foundation.
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Date Published: 10-15-2026
Publisher: Mission Point Press
About the Author
Jon is a retired teacher, having taught social studies at Traverse City Central High School for 38 years. Jon was the offensive coordinator for the Trojans’ first state championship football team in 1978 and later was named the boys’ varsity head coach, a position he held for 22 years. His teams had a 341–161 record and won 12 district and 2 regional titles. Jon grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan. There he had a small boat and motor that he kept on the Grand River and would use to explore the river and its many bayous. He graduated from Hope College and played quarterback for the Flying Dutchmen for four years and played basketball for two years. Jon enjoys the variety of all four seasons at Cedar Lake. When he isn’t kayaking, he enjoys “working” at the scoring table for Trojans basketball games and in the press box at Thirlby Field for Trojans or Traverse City West Titan football games, reading, feeding and watching birds, and following the activities of his three active grandchildren. Among his proudest accomplishments is that he was able to write two books about kayaking. He is sure that this is also surprising to anyone who knew Jon in Grand Haven or at Hope College!
https://mybook.to/KayakingMomentsofZen
