Ellie Tupper
Iron and Lace by Ellie Tupper
In 1890s San Francisco, a spirited young Irish housemaid and an Imperial Chinese agent join forces to bring down a ruthless tycoon.
Feisty Norah Hourigan has taken a position as housemaid in the home of Hector Gaffney, businessman and railroad magnate, whom she suspects of being involved in the disappearance of Norah’s brother Aengus. With her Mam’s ancestral skills of knotting magic, Norah creates lacy textiles that can soothe or sicken, reveal secrets, or protect a man’s life.
Meanwhile, in Canton, China, merchant seaman Stephen Rollison rescues a Pinkerton investigator from a Chinese gang with the aid of Zhou Feiming, an agent of the Imperial Court who is pursuing the same criminals. Someone is shipping hopeful Chinese immigrants to America, then selling them as slaves and prostitutes—including Zhou’s own brother and his crippled wife.
Norah’s, and Stephen and Zhou’s, separate searches converge in San Francisco’s bustling, mysterious Chinatown and find their common focus on Hector Gaffney. Opium smuggling, a massive railroad swindle, Gaffney’s unhappy wife and son, kidnapping and white slavery tangle in a terrifying knot that not even Norah’s spells may be able to unravel.
Iron and Lace is a YA novel of history and magic, with glimpses into Victorian household management, life in the Chinese railroad labor camps, and the dangerous secrets of underground San Francisco. My stories have been published in Mindflights, Every Day Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and Esther Friesner’s Witch Way to the Mall?
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Victoria Beck
Cookie Rookie by Victoria Beck
Middle Grade Novel
With more at stake than a gold Medal and against her mother’s wishes, 12-year-old Eloise Hansen risks everything to enter a Baking Competition. Her Mother is baffled and annoyed by her baking obsession and wonders why her daughter isn’t more like her. When her Mother makes plans for a fancy weekend getaway for Eloise to meet her new boyfriend, on the same day as the Competition, Eloise must find a way to sneak out of the festivities and keep her nerves together to bake her trademark championship Cranberry Cutie.
With the help of her savvy best friend she concocts a plan that will get her out of the nightmare starring her as the darling, dutiful daughter and propel her backstage with twelve grown up Finalists.
One of the Contestants has swapped recipes and ingredients with Eloise – hoping the rookie will crumble and he’ll emerge victorious. He hadn’t counted on the power of her Dad’s lucky red socks and Eloise’ new-found strength as a capital B Baker. In front of the entire 7th Grade, her Mother and the city of Santa Barbara, Eloise pits her baking know-how and the classic goodness of a straight-up chocolate chip cookie against the experience and determination of the best Bakers in California.
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H.M. Shander
Audrina’s Moments by H.M. Shander
Audrina may be a witch to her co-workers, but at home she’s somebody’s hero. Since her mother’s death a few months back, she’s become her twenty-two-year old brother’s legal guardian. Michael suffers from muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy, and while her home suited her, it’s not for someone with disabilities. With his comfort in mind, she sets out to hire the perfect person to make the required changes.
Chad is the well-researched carpenter for hire. Rugged yet endearing, he agrees to rebuild the deck on one condition–that Audrina help. As the renovations get underway, Chad charms Audrina by having Michael assist, slowly winning her over by treating Michael like a real person. She relishes in these moments with Chad and finds her hardened heart softening.
As many magical moments as Audrina shares with Chad, beyond the renovations, she knows it’ll never work out. Her heart and energy belong to Michael and his well-being, and despite what Chad thinks is best for her, there’s really no time for frolicking. The more he pushes her to live a little, the harder she fights against him. When Michael’s health rapidly declines, she shuts out everyone; Chad included.
However, it forces her to see the depth of her loneliness. Maybe Chad really was the perfect person to make the changes… in her. Is it too late to tell him? Or did she push him away forever?
Audrina’s Moments is a 67,000 word contemporary romance novel set in my hometown of Edmonton, AB.
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Mike Drew
Casey’s Star by Mike Drew
Casey was certain she found exactly what she was looking for when she arrived on her star so long ago. Time has passed though, and she begins feeling that maybe this isn’t where she truly belongs. As Casey’s star begins to dim, she’s given the chance to see and travel through the galaxy, peer into amazing new worlds and, potentially, a new place to call home.
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Lucy Hallowell
The Library of Unspoken Things by Lucy Hallowell
Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Fairfax has spent the past two months listening to her conservative father give campaign speeches. While he spewed rhetoric about “traditional values” and “the good old days,” she planned a very different kind of speech: coming out to the roommate she’s been in love with since freshman year.
The night before she’s due to return to Holmes Academy for senior year, Charlotte finds solace in her favorite queer novel, psyching herself up to come out to her roommate. But when her father interrupts and realizes what she’s reading-and what it means about Charlotte herself-he forbids her from coming out. Ever. If she does, he’ll send her away, somewhere far enough that she can’t hurt his campaign for senate. Or see her roommate again.
Afraid to lose her best friend, Charlotte agrees to stay in the closet. But when all the queer books disappear from the school library-including the one her father caught her reading-Charlotte refuses to remain a silent prop any longer. With the help of her roommate, who Charlotte is half-convinced might be flirting with her, Charlotte launches an underground library. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll find the courage to put her true self on the shelves, too.
THE LIBRARY OF UNSPOKEN THINGS is a complete YA novel at 78,000 words. It’s MOXIE with a lesbian romance at its heart.
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Tara Liem
Alliance by Tara Liem
Leo can remember a time when his world was a little more accepting. Now he knows that he’ll be shot if he admits who he’s in love with.
As the intergalactic alliances that have held strong all his life fall apart, Leo knows that he needs to do something drastic. Will fighting a war bring the galaxies back together, or will it push the even farther apart? And as the ammunition rains on base 211, Leo understands that the war for the galaxy isn’t the only thing he’s fighting for. He is fighting for the right to love who he loves.
There are only a few things that could shake up Leo’s world past what’s already happened, and he’s been playing the waiting game for too long. He needs to take his future into his own hands and change the track of history. He needs to show the galaxies that being gay is not the same as being a failure.
*note: I am only 12 years old.
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J. Jackson Pomeroy
The Weight of a Woman by J. Jackson Pomeroy
A professor’s chronic dieting to get into her latest pair of designer jeans shreds her self-image as a fervent feminist. The temptation of a taboo relationship with a hot new graduate student and her usual one-too-many drinks not only add to her angst, they put her job on the line – and a lot more besides. If she doesn’t soon connect all her bad choices with the damage of a past sexual assault, her very well-being is at stake.
Set on a rural university campus where the experimental sex community begins to draw its first breath, my story blurs the lines of fiction and cultural criticism – a dark-humored, PhD-wielding Bridget Jones romping around in the Hunger essays of Roxane Gay.
Originally from the UK, I came to the U.S. to earn my PhD. I am researcher at Wellesley College and the recipient of a writing award, which will appear in an international anthology of fiction this spring. I have been teaching women’s studies/fiction since 1998, and I am also published in my field. Having had both professional and personal experience with eating disorders and sexual assault, I believe I am uniquely qualified to write a survivor narrative.
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Angie Romines
And The Floods Came Up by Angie Romines
A fearsome flood is about to bear down on Cutler County, and no one sees it coming—no one except seventeen-year-old Cheyenne. She can feel the waters rising in her bones. Life in Eastern Kentucky has been unkind to Cheyenne. Her boyfriend comes home from his shift at the coal mine drunk and angry as sin. Her only friend is ditching their hometown and the middle-aged Bible Camp clown she married in high school. Her daddy’s been gone since before she had memories, and her drug-addict mama went missing months ago.
But Cheyenne’s mother did her one favor before she disappeared—she warned Cheyenne to get the hell out of Cutler County before the gift took hold. Her mama knew better than anyone that place, with its kudzu-covered mountains and ancient indigenous bloodlines amalgamating, could drag a person to the bottom and never release them.
Told from multiple points-of-view, AND THE FLOODS CAME UP blends the subtle, setting-based magical realism of Alice Hoffman’s RED GARDEN with the “Hillbilly Gothic” style of Don Pollock and the gritty, braided narratives of Laura McHugh’s THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD.
I have an MFA in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University where I also teach English to wide-eyed freshmen. Excerpts from AND THE FLOODS CAME UP have been published or are forthcoming in The Bangalore Review, Silver Pen, and Bookends Review. Other work of mine has been published in Blinders Literary Journal, The Bind, 1888 Center, and elsewhere.
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Melissa Bennight
The Bronze Mirror by Melissa Bennight
Now he’s a demon with horns, fangs, red skin, and a red hot temper to match, and it’s only thanks to the sacred jewel given to him by a Buddhist priest that Ryu is able to appear human and resume his normal life.
If you can call fighting demons in your free time normal.
As Ryu learns to live with his curse he finds himself facing off against a variety of creatures he had thought existed only in folktales, including cucumber loving kappa, fierce tengu, and beguiling snow women. Their master, Ka-an, is after the mirror, and the Buddhist priest who has taken Ryu under his wing believes that Ka-an wants it for nefarious reasons. But when Ryu discovers Ka-an’s true identity and purpose he wonders what side he really belongs on, and if his curse will ever be broken.
THE BRONZE MIRROR is a 46,000 word middle grade fantasy heavily influenced by Japanese folklore and religion.
I lived in Japan for four years. Originally hailing from Idaho, my husband and I moved to Nagoya, Japan three years ago. Prior to living in Nagoya we lived in the rural prefecture of Shimane, an area famous for being the place of origin of many Japanese gods and monsters.
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Hannah Carmona Dias
Nitza and the Chupacabra by Hannah Carmona Dias
The monster of Nitza’s nightmares is on the loose, but outrunning it may not be an option!
After Dad returns home from Iraq, eleven-year-old Army brat Nitza is forced to go on a daddy-daughter RV trip to re-bond with her father.What they don’t know is that a ghostly woman in white has sent Chupacabra on an ancient, secret mission. Yet, when strange events such as dead goats, frightening howls, and a missing child occur, Nitza begins to suspect that the bloodsucking beast may be on their path. If her suspicions are correct all hope of bonding with Dad may be lost as they will become Chupacabra’s next meal.
NITZA AND THE CHUPACABRA is a completed 37,000-word middle grade, spooky contemporary. Told from the duo point of view of both the monster and Nitza, it is the first in a planned series. As a Hispanic-American and Army brat this own voices manuscript combines Hispanic folklore with a present-day setting. Comparable tiles include SUMMER OF THE MARIPOSAS by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and THE JUMBIES by Tracey Baptiste.
I am the author of BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, STRONG LITTLE ME (Eifrig Publishing/Fall 2018), a member of SCBWI, and owner of Collective Art School of Tennessee. When I am not writing, I am vlogging on my youtube channel or posting way too many gifs on Twitter.
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