Moe Shalabi
The Prince of Little Palestine by Moe Shalabi
Adam Husayni is going home. Ten years ago, his fundamentalist father found him with another man and nearly killed him, sending him fleeing the Virginia suburb of Little Palestine where he was raised. Now, following the news of his father’s death, Adam returns to reclaim his inheritance and possibly even his place in the tumultuous and traditional Palestinian-American community. But his father’s will comes with a catch: to inherit his fortune, he must not only marry a woman but one of his Uncle Saleh’s choosing. Adam finds himself broke, helpless and defeated. But when he begins to unravel the truth, which materializes in the form of letters, photographs, and tales sent to him by a mysterious figure, he uncovers a conspiracy spearheaded by his very own uncle. Something sinister is brewing in Little Palestine and someone is trying to warn him of an impending doom that could tear the community apart. With the help of his cousin Farrah, and the clues he acquires, Adam discovers that he is at the center of a rebellion simmering amid Little Palestine for years, within the Husayni family, and without. Uncle Saleh, the catalyst who is driving this rebellion, wants an Islamic awakening that threatens the nearby Jewish neighbors so as to distract his people, including his nephew, from fulfilling his plan to become the new ruler of Little Palestine. Only Adam can stop him. But uncle Saleh is hiding a dangerous secret…and it could destroy Adam.
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Alastair Luft
Jihadi Bride by Alastair Luft
Erik Petersson is a rising star on the High Risk Traveller Task Force, an organization that prevents radicalized individuals from joining extremist groups. Disciplined and dedicated, cracks appear in Erik’s carefully controlled world when his daughter, Arielle, leaves university to join the Islamic Caliphate, a brutal terrorist regime in Syria. Erik rallies a desperate effort to stop her, but when he fails and is subsequently removed from the task force in a bid to compartmentalize the investigation, he resolves to bring her back, whatever the cost.
Driven by a secret she can’t outrun, Arielle’s dream of a more purposeful life is confronted with the brutal reality of life in the Caliphate. When she attracts the attention of Abu Noor al-Kanadi, a converted American soldier bent on punishing his birth country for its actions in the Middle East, Arielle must choose whether to sacrifice her ideals to survive or risk a frantic bid to escape. Torn between rival agendas, father and daughter must choose between family or country, love or fear.
I currently serve as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and have spent the majority of the past twelve years in counter-terrorism. JIHADI BRIDE is my second novel and it will appeal to fans of Ausma Zehanat Khan’s Esa Khattak series, and also to those who enjoyed AN ISOLATED INCIDENT by Soniah Kamal. The literary equivalent of TAKEN meets THE TERRORIST, JIHADI BRIDE delves into family relationships, extremism, and a search for meaningfulness that spans societal and geopolitical borders.
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Clare Vaterlaus Bird
The Cost of Silence by Clare Vaterlaus Bird
“Moments like this define who you become. The full weight of Allen’s unwanted body on top of me. My vocal chords paralyzed with fear. Every move of his body pushed me closer to a vow of silence. No one would believe me. A star football player raping a nobody sounds so far from the truth. How could I convince the police, my mom, or friends? As I lie mute and numb on the ground, I decide the only solution would be to take things into my own hands. This would never happen to anyone else. Tonight, would be the beginning of the end – not for me, but for Allen.”
Recovering from the scariest night of her life, Charlotte spends the next few months of her junior year playing golf, binging Gilmore Girls, and plotting a fool-proof plan to murder her rapist. Everything seems to be falling into place until her younger sister starts dating Allen. Charlotte knows Allen is a ticking time bomb and she is racing against the clock before he hurts the person closest to her, will she choose to protect her or follow through with her plan?
The “Cost of Silence” is a cautionary tale of remaining silent, where boundaries of right and wrong are tested, and bonds of sisterly love are formed and broken. Shame and fear are now the catalyst in Charlotte’s life, how long can Allen keep her silent?
This YA Contemporary Fiction Novel discusses society’s biggest secret, rape and its repercussions.
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Mary Jo Talbot
Watching Wilhemina by Mary Jo Talbot
Wilhemina O’Meara lives for science class, rock guitar riffs and spying on the boy that sits across from her in 1st period. But when Wilhemina is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes her overprotective mother insists on homeschooling her. Wilhemina tries convincing her mother to let her go to school while secretly praying for a cure. When neither happens, Wilhemina’s only hope for going to school may be a discipline-challenged dog named Daisy, who has an innate ability to alert when Wilhemina’s blood sugar drops or rises-if her mother agrees. However, Wilhemina isn’t keen on taking Daisy to school, because she wants to keep her diabetes a secret and having a dog at school would be like wearing a flashing sign. But it’s her only hope, until the principal says Daisy must be a trained service dog to be allowed in school. With her family short on funds, Wilhemina takes on training Daisy over the summer with the help of her twin brother, while desperately bargaining with God for another option. Training Daisy proves to be a challenge and with no other alternatives, Wilhemina must decide if attending school is worth exposing her secret.
Watching Wilhemina is a middle grade fiction novel that explores the clash of living with a chronic disease and the desire to live a normal life based on my experiences as a diabetes educator and school nurse. I am the recipient of a McClatchy Newspaper President’s award and a SC Press Association award for science writing.
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Emma Burns
Landslide by Emma Burns
The summer after high school graduation has ended and all of Annamarie’s friends have gone off to college, leaving her staring down a bleak future in her tiny Maine ski town, driving Appalachian Trail hikers to and from town and living under the thumb of her paranoid Mama. When Annamarie decides to take control of her life at last, she finds the daredevil snowboarder father she had always been told was dead. Unraveling the mystery of her family’s past opens up a whole world to Annamarie and leads her to make choices about her future that change her and her family forever.
LANDSLIDE is a 81,000 word young adult novel set in contemporary rural Maine, where the past is everywhere and the modern world sits uncomfortably nearby, where backwoods backpackers walk through town like ghosts and wealthy outsiders swoop in to ski and party, both groups tended by locals who are barely scraping by. The tensions between these groups drive this novel, as does the moment when every young person must decide which of the many worlds to choose.
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Anna Downes
All The Stars Are Gone by Anna Downes
When aspiring actress Emily finds herself auditioning for the role of a piece of cheese, she realises how much her life sucks. She’s jobless, penniless, essentially homeless and a massive disappointment to her adoptive parents. Oh, and she’s a magnet for sexual harassment. In short, things couldn’t get worse.
Enter Scott Denny, a multi-millionaire who seems to offer all the answers to Emily’s problems. But Scott has his own problems, much darker and more terrible than Emily can imagine.
When Emily accepts a job working at Scott’s remote estate in France, she finds herself living at close quarters with Scott, his wife and their six-year-old daughter. As her relationship with each family member grows and her feelings towards them become more complicated, Emily falls down a rabbit-hole of wealth and extravagance and cuts ties with her former life. But soon she has questions. Why do the Dennys live such an isolated life? What is the mysterious illness from which Scott’s daughter is suffering? And what has Scott done that makes him drink and cry and harm himself?
Emily is about to uncover a devastating secret and soon she must make a choice. Will she destroy her own happiness to protect the people she has come to love?
ALL THE STARS ARE GONE is Liane Moriarty meets THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. A literary/commercial fiction novel of 85,000 words, the story is based on my experiences working as a housekeeper on a French estate in 2009 and 2010.
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Heather Ryder
The Cyber Trials by Heather Ryder
“Give a man a mask, and he will show you his true self” – Oscar Wilde
It’s been two months since Alicia Farrell’s body was found dumped in the woods and Elaine Thompson isn’t sure the town of Patriot, Indiana will ever recover. Grief has given in to anger as the FBI task force tracking the Midwest Strangler remains empty handed and the case grows cold. Then Elaine gets a call from her best friend’s lawyer. Tristan has just become the primary suspect in the investigation and Elaine is his only alibi.
Except none of that makes sense. Tristan lives in Texas, and he and Elaine have never physically met.
Brought together in their early teens by a love of online video games, Elaine and Tristan have spent the last fifteen years sharing their lives virtually. Now, they have to convince the world of their friendship or Elaine’s testimony won’t hold weight. But as the trial unfolds and the evidence against him starts to stack up, Elaine begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Caught between an overzealous prosecution desperate for a conviction, a town out for blood, and her loyalty to Tristan, Elaine struggles to separate fact from fiction. The State says she was either willingly blind or naïve, but Elaine’s can’t believe the story is that black and white. To reach the truth, she must dig into painful memories she had long since hidden away, but what she finds may shatter their friendship forever.
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Daniel T. Moore
Godsblood: Book one of the Shatter Spire Symphony by Daniel T. Moore
The gods are dead. Change is coming on wings, heralded by three women:
The girl of fire and sunshine will become the ache in the heart of the world; will weep a trail of tears which burst into blooms of flame for a sister that could not be saved; will hunt through the streets of a shadowed city for a father and a brother, to save one and kill the other; will stand on a grave marked with no stone and look out on a world of her own making. But she is young yet.
The surgeon of Artisan’s Alley, whose criminal enterprise is built for the triumph of the poor over the tyranny of the rich; who breaks the knees of nobles unable to meet the terms of their loans, and turns over the profits to the sick and the poor; who, for love, will find herself elsewhere entirely.
The gunslinger is the restless daughter of a man murdered by his best friend. A woman out of love with her life, out of love with her man, and on a collision course with those who put her father in an early grave.
GODSBLOOD is a 140 000+ word PG-13 story that won’t stand still. It’s an epic sci-fantasy about three young black women ages nine, twenty-seven and thirty-four.
Vote for your favorite pitch. The pitch that receives the most votes will be named Fan Favorite, and the author will receive a free one-hour consult with us (worth $250).
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The Book Doctors Present at Kauai Writers Conference
The dramatic coastline of Tunnels Beach offers outsanding views of the iconic Mt. Makana (Bali Hai).
Aloha! The Book Doctors are headed to Hawaii.
Pack your swimsuits and manuscripts and join us at the Kauai Writers Conference, November 5 – 11, where we’ll be presenting with a cavalcade of world-class writers, agents and editors. Do yourself and your book a favor and come to the Garden Island, where bestselling and award-winning writers will help you get your manuscript ready for the world; where top agents and publishers (not the typical young and inexperienced publishing folks who normally show up at these conferences) will be ready and waiting to hear your pitch; where four-day master classes on how to build a platform (with us!) and how to turn life into art (with mega bestselling authors Christina Baker Kline and Kristin Hannah and Alice Hoffman), among many others, will be served up with mai tais with little umbrellas in them.
Because this is such a rare and wonderful opportunity, we asked if our readers could receive a 10% discount. And the kind folks at the Kauai Writers Conference have said YES! The code is bookdr789. Enter it on the checkout page.
We hope you’ll move fast because they are almost out of rooms at the hotel (great conferences sell out super fast). The conference hotel is the place to be. While you can stay anywhere on the island, the conference hotel is where you may run into the agent or editor of your dreams one night in the Tiki Lounge! This is how careers get made.
Featured Authors
In addition to yours truly, Kauai Writers Conference has a lineup of rockstar authors, agents, and publishing insiders.
- Sara Gruen
- Kristin Hannah
- Alice Hoffman
- Christina Baker Kline
- Jane Smiley
- Garth Stein
- Scott Turow
- And more!
Where It’s Located
Kauai, the oldest of the Hawaiian islands, has waterfalls, rainforests, rare habitats, sculpted cliffs, and more beaches than the other islands. The conference is held at an exquisite resort nestled in a cove, a perfect spot for novice surfers.
What It Includes
- Four days of master classes (November 5 – 8)
- A three-day conference (November 9 – 11)
- Talks by beloved authors
- Intimate small group discussions
- Individual sessions with literary agents
- Group and individual consultations with leading experts on alternatives to traditional publishing
- An immersive Hawaiian experience
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- Kumu Sabra Kauka and her halau have opened the Kauai Writers Conference each year with traditional pule, chant, and hula.
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- Four generations of the Punua family have conducted Kauai’s best-loved luau for over sixty years. They offer their performance and classic imu-prepared dishes on the first night of the conference.
Who Should Attend
Any writer looking to get successfully published will benefit immensely from coming to this conference. And frankly, any human will benefit immensely from coming to Hawaii. Whether it’s in-depth writing instruction with some of the best authors and teachers in the world, or learning about the publishing business from industry insiders, or actually meeting an agent who could take you on as a client, the Kauai Writers Conference will be a boon for writers at all stages in their careers.
The conference sheds light on the ever-changing landscape of the modern book business. Traditional publishing, self-publishing, hybrid models: the faculty roster boasts experts who’ll help you realize what’s right for you and how to achieve your dreams.
See you in Kauai! Aloha.
Check out our upcoming events for Pitchapaloozas, conferences, and more.
Networking for Authors
So many writers, unpublished to bestselling, are networking-phobic. They didn’t become writers to schmooze, mingle, and hobnob. If this is you, and you want to NOT get published, and NOT find readers, by all means, continue to ignore this seemingly heinous but totally essential part of the publishing business. Lucky for you, dear friends and writers, we have a new Book Doctors video to help you stop being allergic to promoting and marketing.
When David first comes up with a book idea, he writes a pitch. He starts memorizing that pitch, and whenever anyone asks him what he’s up to, he says, “I’m writing a book.” Now, he’s not one of those people who gets right in your face and goes, “I’ll tell you about my book!” No, someone has to ask what the book is about. Then he has one minute to answer what his book is about. One minute. That’s his pitch. Networking makes you understand what a pitch is and how to make it better.
Why networking is important
While you’re at a party, talking about your book is important because you never know who people know. It turns out, your cousin’s best friend from college is now an editor at Simon & Schuster. Who knew? Talking about your book, while difficult for many people, is essential to getting this book out into the world. Networking could get your name in the subject line of an email to an agent, which will put you at the top of the slush pile. There’s no way to make these connections without opening your mouth.
Writers’ objections to networking
People are shy about their work, nervous about sharing it. They’re afraid. It’s time to confront those fears.
“I’m afraid someone will steal my idea.”
No one is going to steal your idea. Arielle has been working as an agent for twenty-five years, and she’s never seen that happen.
“I don’t want to brag.”
You don’t have to brag to tell someone about your book idea. Talking about your book is part of your job as a writer.
Perfecting your pitch and asking questions
Networking allows you to practice and refine your pitch. You’ll notice as you talk about your book that people might glaze over at certain points. Those are the parts you should cut. You’ll notice when they perk up and when they’re excited, parts you’ll want to accentuate.
Networking is also about being interested in others and asking them questions. Try questions like these the next time you’re at a party or a conference:
- What are you working on?
- What’s your book about?
- Oh, you work at ______, what do you do there? How did you get started?
What if you’re shy?
If you’re nervous about one-on-one, face-to-face networking, turn your attention to social media. You can share where you are in your writing process so others can get involved with the making of your book. Ask other authors about their books. Friend or follow other writers or people in the industry on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. See what they’re talking about and how they’re talking about it.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a book about dogs, and you see all these editors and agents who post about their dogs. That’s important information to know as you network and query your book.
David’s networking story
When David wrote his first book, he didn’t know anyone in the publishing business so he asked everyone he knew if they’d read his book. Turns out, his former commercial acting agent knew someone. She said, “Oh, my goddaughter is a literary agent. Would you mind if I gave her your book?” Well, it turns out that literary agent was Arielle. Not only did David get an agent out of networking, he got a wife.
Read author Kate Forest’s advice for writers, including her thoughts on networking. Need a little more help with networking? We’re here to provide coaching, support, and marketing advice.