Spirit of Christmas Shines through in Uplifting, Small-Town Romance
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Build a crackling fire, pour a cup of cocoa and immerse yourself in the holiday spirit with Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy, a heartwarming, small-town romance from Hallmark Publishing author Janice Lynn.
Set in the charming little town of Pine Hill, Kentucky, Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy introduces readers to quilt shop owner Sophie Davis and former Marine Cole Aaron, whose lives intersect at Pine Hill’s Christmas festivities.
The story begins when Sophie finds Cole’s journal among a box of books that had been donated to her church. She can’t help but peruse the personal entries, finding herself drawn to the stranger on the pages. As the daughter of a veteran and a seamstress who sews Quilts of Valor, she feels a deep connection to the former soldier who wrote the emotional entries, and she longs to heal his heart.
As a former Marine, Cole battled to find peace after returning to civilian life, and his journal was the conduit toward a truce with his past. Always needing to protect others, Cole now fights fires and is embracing his new life in Pine Hill. When Sophie shows up at the fire hall with his journal, he fears digging up the demons from his past and tells her to trash it.
Their paths continue to intertwine, with both Sophie and Cole volunteering for their commu-nity. But it’s hard for Cole to let down his guard, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. After all he’s been through in the past, can he find faith in a more hopeful future — one touched by joy?
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy is the perfect small-town Christmas romance to warm readers’ hearts during the holiday season. It is the sequel to Janice’s first story, Wrapped Up in Christmas, and can also stand alone.
Janice Lynn is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. She strives to write characters who evoke strong emotions and make readers want to go along on their journeys.
Her first sweet romance, Wrapped Up in Christmas, was a bestseller on Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Amazon (hit No. 13 overall in paid fiction in Kindle) and ibooks (hit number No. 1 paid ebook fiction); was Hallmark Publishing’s first release to hit the USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal’s bestseller lists; and was a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best Award. Janice also writes contemporary Medical Romances for Harlequin, and her books have won numerous awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill for Best Short contemporary Romance and for Best First Book, Romantic Times Magazine’s American Title, and the Holt Medallion Award of Merit.
Janice lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming, their seven kids, her vivid imagination, an adorable Maltese named Halo who’s the true princess of the house and a bunch of unnamed dust bunnies who took up permanent residence after Janice started her writing career. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, an exercise queen, a military mama and a member of and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Just kidding on the exercise queen.
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy Publisher: Hallmark Publishing ISBN-10: 1952210038 ISBN-13: 978-1952210037 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com
Trish Stevens Joy Berkley Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Betrayal, Infidelity Lead to Murder in Crimes and Passion
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Elizabeth Knoebel expected her appointment that night to provide another juicy entry in her private diary, aptly entitled Sexual Rites. But a shadowy figure, watching from the edge of her property, has other plans. Instead of an evening of pleasure, Elizabeth is confronted by someone who wants to put an end to her destructive behavior — and succeeds.
Crimes and Passion is the gripping mystery-thriller from Jeffrey S. Stephens, effortlessly weaving suspense and sensuality with psychological undercurrents.
Elizabeth’s murder investigation is turned over to Lieutenant Robbie Whyte, a former New York City cop now serving on the force in affluent Fairfield County, Connecticut. Whyte understands that the appearances of the privileged gentry are often far removed from reality, and this certainly proves to be true in the case of Elizabeth Knoebel, who Whyte discovers was under the care of psychotherapist Dr. Randi Conway.
When Whyte finds Elizabeth’s diary, Sexual Rites, he uncovers explicit details of her erotic adventures with various men, many of whom may have been the husbands of the women in her therapy group. Elizabeth was a predator bent on seducing and, in some instances, humiliating these men, obsessed with a perverse mission that Whyte believes led to her murder.
The secrets of Crimes and Passion are peeled away one layer at a time as readers meet an assortment of Dr. Conway’s patients — one of whom may have been Elizabeth’s killer. With Dr. Conway unwilling to betray her patients’ confidences, Whyte’s investigation gets complicated, putting the therapist herself in more danger as Whyte gets closer to the truth, and to the doctor herself.
With a pacing that mirrors Whyte’s frantic search for the truth, Crimes and Passion keeps readers guessing as each revelation unfolds. And along the way, readers are shown glimpses into the dynamics that cause marriages to succeed, to fail or sometimes, to end in tragedy.
Author Jeffrey S. Stephens lives in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is also the author of the Jordan Sandor espionage thrillers, beginning with Targets of Deception and, most recently, Rogue Mission. Crimes and Passion is the first in a planned series featuring Lieutenant Robbie Whyte.
Impractical Jokers Star Survives Shark Attack at New Virtual Theme Park
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James “Murr” Murray, one of the stars of TV’s Impractical Jokers, told his social media followers in a new post that he recently visited Sea Monster Cove, a spectacular, five-star aquarium-themed resort as a guest of friend and fellow bestselling author Steve Alten, when things “got out of hand.” “I was in the Devonian Aquarium watching a 10-foot prehistoric shark circle by when this massive 30-foot Dunkleosteus comes out of nowhere and rips the thing in half! Thank God the tank wasn’t made out of double-paned glass like the one in JAWS 3D.” The incident was recorded and posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1vbrZNyoK8.
Visitors can expect the unexpected at www.SeaMonsterCove.com, a revolutionary new multimedia entertainment concept. The site will serve as the central hub for several prehistoric shark and sea creature ventures, including a remote learning platform and museum, and will soon add a video game where members piloting submersibles can track and capture apex marine predators inhabiting a 380-million-year-old prehistoric aquifer located 2.1 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean. The website will feature an original episodic TV series called Where Sea Monsters Roam, written by Steve Alten, the website’s creator. If you saw the blockbuster movie, The MEG, starring Jason Statham, then you may be familiar with the author’s work. Of his soon-to-be 20 published thrillers, eight are part of his best-selling MEG series and three more are from a Loch Ness trilogy (Alten is currently working on book 3, The LOCH: Heaven’s Lake which can only be purchased by pre-ordering signed hardbacks at www.SteveAlten.com). The LOCH movie as well as MEG 2: The TRENCH are expected to go into production in 2021. All of the action and virtual visits at SeaMonsterCove.com take place on Maug, a remote (and very real) island in the Western Pacific. Maug’s volcano erupted 5 million years ago; today all that remains are three uninhabited islets that had been the volcano’s rim and a flooded magma chamber that serves as its lagoon. Why place a virtual island resort here? That’s where Alten’s research and storytelling take over. Eight years ago, French marine biologist Dr. Maxime Rostand discovered superheated mineral water rising up through Maug’s lagoon. Through a series of events, including an emergency C-section which saved two pups of a deceased pregnant prehistoric Mako shark, Rostand discovers the source of the hot mineral water to be a primordial aquifer located 2 miles beneath the sea floor — its inhabitants dating back 380 million years.
Having established the backstory about how these toothy creatures managed to escape extinction (the “home videos” of the two surviving pups growing up is MUST-SEE), it’s time to meet and interact with the critters. Imagine the greatest aquarium-themed park ever conceived, holding the most terrifying prehistoric sharks and sea monsters that ever lived. It’s not hard to do. At Sea Monster Cove, the special effects are motion picture-worthy, and the wildlife doesn’t just swim around in benign circles; in fact, they seem quite aware that you are watching them, and they clearly do not like it, especially when you enter their domain to do a little “cage diving.” In each of these heart-pounding, 360-degree experiences, the user controls the viewing angle, attempting to track the attacks as they happen (there are day and night versions available). The action is nonstop and the creatures so real that it is easy to lose yourself in a two-hour reprieve from reality.
The adventure is retold and advanced in Alten’s original TV series, Where Sea Monsters Roam, the episodes of which will be posted at SeaMonsterCove.com. Most unique: what happens in the series also happens during your aquarium visits. As an example, if Snowflake, the park’s 63-foot, 25-ton prehistoric albino Mako drags a crane into her tank in the opening episode, don’t be surprised to see it lying on the bottom of her tank in your next visit!
One of the most popular features may just turn out to be CELEBRITY CAMEOS — the first one featuring James “Murr” Murray. The Impractical Jokers star’s new novel, DON’T MOVE (Blackstone Publishing), co-written by Darren Wearmouth, recently made its debut.
Steve Alten, the founder and director of the nonprofit Adopt-an-Author teen reading program, considered by many educators to be the most effective tool to get reluctant readers to read, said DON’T MOVE will be added to the AAA program. “It’s a fun, action-packed read; teens will definitely love it.” For more on the program, go to www.AdoptAnAuthor.com.
Identity of Al Capone’s Boss Unearthed When Young Man Stumbles Upon Well-Kept Family Secret
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Joseph never suspected that he was the descendant of a Mob boss. And not just any Mob boss. Al Capone’s boss, Johnny Torrio, to be exact.
Joseph is just an average kid from an Italian middle-class family — one in which high morals and family values are instilled at every opportunity. But as he ages into his teens, he becomes inexplicably drawn to lives of the rich and famous. Fueled by a viewing of The Godfather, Joseph’s fascination with the Mob and the American Dream is ignited. Is wealth the barometer for success or the root of all evil? In his search for the truth about his great-uncle, Joseph discovers that the thin blue line between good and evil often becomes blurred.
The Poison of Money from Joe Torrence takes readers, for the first time ever, behind the scenes and into the personal life of real-life Chicago Mob boss Johnny Torrio, the most obscure figure in the history of the Mafia. But this is no conventional Mafia tale.
Instead, Torrence uses the protagonist, young Joseph, to paint a thought-provoking picture of the internal struggle many of us face between the pursuit of riches and what we’ve been taught all our lives about the evil and venom of money.
When Joseph stumbles upon a long-hidden newspaper clipping headlined “The Mafia at War” in his father’s nightstand, he uncovers a shocking reality: His great-uncle was one of the most powerful men of the 20th century, Chicago Crime Boss, Johnny Torrio. He was also Al Capone’s mentor. This life-altering revelation spurs Joseph’s quest to learn the unvarnished truth about his family.
Joseph’s search for answers unlocks the door to let you inside the Torrio family. Johnny Torrio’s only blood sister, Marietta Torrio, a woman of virtue, is finally introduced to the world. Separated as toddlers, the road to the reunion of these two siblings from two completely different worlds is rocky to say the least. Does Torrio’s “occupation” bestow unimaginable curses upon the family? Who is blocking this reunion?
Joseph’s fact-finding mission becomes an epic family journey that spans decades and crosses continents. There will be eye-opening revelations when he rattles the family tree, but for him, there is no turning back.
Author Joe Torrence is an accomplished businessman who some may say inherited the business acumen and street savvy of his great-uncle, Johnny Torrio. Except that there is one major difference between the two men. The author took the straight road, as he also inherited and readily embraced the morals, honesty and integrity of his grandmother, Marietta Torrio, Johnny Torrio’s only blood sister. Coincidentally, the author, like Torrio, prefers to remain in the shadows … at least for now.
For more information, please visit www.thepoisonofmoney.com.
The Poison of Money Publisher: American European Entertainment Inc. Release Date: October 6, 2020 ISBN-10: 1777095603 ISBN-13: 978-1777095604 Available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Indigo
Trish Stevens Dana Cook Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Sweet Holiday Romance Will Have Readers Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy
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When quilt shop owner Sophie Davis sorts through a box of books that had been donated to her church, she’s surprised to find a former marine’s journal. Sophie can’t help but peruse the entries, finding herself drawn to the stranger on the pages. As the daughter of a veteran and a seamstress who sews Quilts of Valor, she feels a deep connection to the former soldier who wrote the emotional entries, and she longs to heal his heart.
The man who wrote the journal, former Marine Cole Aaron, battled to find peace after returning to civilian life, and his journal was the conduit toward a truce with his past. Always needing to protect others, Cole now fights fires and is embracing his new life in Pine Hill, Kentucky. When Sophie shows up at the fire hall with his journal, he fears digging up the demons from his past and tells her to trash it.
Their paths continue to intertwine, with both Sophie and Cole volunteering for their community. But it’s hard for Cole to let down his guard, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. After all he’s been through in the past, can he find faith in a more hopeful future — one touched by joy?
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy is the latest sweet romance from Hallmark Publishing author Janice Lynn. A sequel to her first story, Wrapped Up in Christmas, her new installment can also stand alone and is the perfect small-town Christmas romance to warm readers’ hearts during the holiday season.
Janice Lynn is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author. She strives to write characters who evoke strong emotions and make readers want to go along on their journeys.
Her first sweet romance, Wrapped Up in Christmas, was a bestseller on Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Amazon (hit #13 overall in paid fiction in Kindle) and ibooks (hit number #1 paid ebook fiction); was Hallmark Publishing’s first release to hit the USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal’s bestseller lists; and was a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best Award. Janice also writes contemporary Medical Romances for Harlequin, and her books have won numerous awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill for Best Short contemporary Romance and for Best First Book, Romantic Times Magazine’s American Title, and the Holt Medallion Award of Merit.
Janice lives in Tennessee with her Prince Charming, their seven kids, her vivid imagination, an adorable Maltese named Halo who’s the true princess of the house and a bunch of unnamed dust bunnies who took up permanent residence after Janice started her writing career. In addition to writing romance, Janice is a nurse practitioner, a quilter, an exercise queen, a military mama and a member of and an avid supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Just kidding on the exercise queen.
Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy Publisher: Hallmark Publishing Release Date: October 27, 2020 ISBN-10: 1952210038 ISBN-13: 978-1952210037 Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com
Trish Stevens Karen Anderson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Urban Blight and Struggle for Power Fuel Tale of Political Tug-of-War
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Democratic President Bob Jordan and Republican House Speaker Mitchell Lawrence have known each other for years and share the philosophy that collaboration between the parties is the best way to govern. Their view, however, isn’t as popular as they’d hoped.
After 50 years of failed governmental attempts to improve failed inner-cities, Jordan and Lawrence choose a private development as the mechanism to institute change.
The project, dubbed A Hand Up, has an ambitious vision: transform the inner-cities that are beset with urban blight into safe, vital municipalities with great schools, thriving businesses and other options for recreation. In other words, give people a reason to want to be there.
Recreating a “new” city from the ashes of urban squalor, however, requires the cooperation of and support from government and the loss of power and control is more than current leaders are willing to abide.
Money and power are vested in the status quo. Politicians from both parties, big companies, unions, and the media thrive in this environment. Changes in approach threaten their power and they must do all they can to stop them. Out of this need for the status quo a plot to assassinate begins to grow.
While first and foremost a novel written to entertain, A Hand Up from Martin Laurent resonates with real-world problems that plague big-city projects and the political divide that prevents progress. Laurent’s narrative compellingly underscores the critical need for government entities to collaborate on even the most fundamental challenges. Perhaps a novel that supports neither (or both) sides of the political divide offers the best chance for building bridges.
Author Martin Laurent worked for General Motors for 32 years. With an educational background in mechanical engineering and business. Practical experience in facilities engineering, industrial relations and corporate strategic planning, and manufacturing management, Laurent’s expertise in change management lends authenticity to A Hand Up, in which he skillfully describes a common sense process for inner-city improvement.
Since his retirement, he consulted for a time before deciding to simply concentrate on life in Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife of over 50 years, Keren. The couple has travelled extensively.
Laurent has also served on the board of the Santa Fe Recovery Center since 2008. When he began, the center was a 23-bed residential treatment facility that provided a 30-day recovery program. Today, the center has expanded its capacity by five times and offers a wider array of services. The center has been recognized by the State of New Mexico for its excellence. Additional expansions are planned.
Laurent is also the author of The Third Bounce and Pray for Rain, a series that centers on these same two politicians and their wives.
For more information, please visit www.martylaurent.com.
A Hand Up Publisher: Lithe Excel Release Date: August 3, 2020 ISBN-13: 978-1-944293-51-2 Available from Amazon.com and www.martylaurent.com
Trish Stevens Maria Jenson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
Theology and Politics Collide in Reality-Inspired Cold War Thriller
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When Pope John Paul I died of an apparent heart attack in September 1978—just 33 days after his election—the United States and the Soviet Union went on high alert.
The United States could loosen communism’s stranglehold on Eastern Europe if a non-Italian successor is chosen to lead the Catholic Church. Conversely, the Soviets are determined to keep an Italian in the papacy. A dangerous competition ensues as the two countries aim to further their own interests while limiting those of the other party. CIA and KGB agents infiltrate the Vatican as Cold War tensions mount amid the backdrop of a hastily arranged conclave to elect a successor.
Meanwhile, back in the states, army officer Carter Caldwell is sent to persuade American cardinals to wield their influence in the conclave. He meets beautiful CIA analyst Katherine O’Connor. Carter can’t get her out of his mind, although plenty of problems demand his attention.
Before the conclave is over, the Sistine Chapel will be bugged, a spy in the Vatican’s kitchen will be murdered, and CIA and KGB operatives will exchange gunfire. As the most important figure in the Catholic world is finally chosen, one question remains: Will he survive long enough to become pope?
Conclave from Tom Davis weaves an in-depth thriller where Catholic theology and Cold War politics collide. The result is a gripping, fictionalized retelling of what might have happened as these real-world events unfolded.
Was the election of non-Italian Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II in October 1978 somehow orchestrated through the US’s covert influence on the papal conclave? Today, his election is viewed as a turning point in the Cold War—just 13 years later, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Warsaw Pact disintegrated.
Author Tom Davis is a retired army officer and corporate executive. After graduating from West Point, he had numerous assignments and experiences in the army, including commanding an artillery battalion in Operation Desert Storm, being a key advisor to a Secretary of the Army and several Army Chiefs of Staff, and serving as an Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at West Point, where he taught International Relations, Political Science, Economics and Middle Eastern Affairs. He served a brief tour in the Department of State as part of the Palestinian Autonomy negotiating team, where he heard a story that inspired Conclave.
After retiring from the army, Davis had a successful career with General Dynamics Corpora-tion. He has written numerous articles and editorials for major newspapers on a wide range of topics, and has published major studies on federal budgeting and the management of the nation’s national security programs. His previous book, 40 Kilometers Into Lebanon, analyzes the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He holds degrees from the US Military Academy at West Point and Harvard University. He retired from General Dynamics in 2013, and is currently the Forrestal-Richardson Industry Chair at Defense Acquisition University and an adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School.
Conclave has captured the attention of an independent film company based in Germany and has been converted into a screenplay for future development into a six-episode mini-series.
Conclave Publisher: CreateSpace ISBN-10: 1534706615 ISBN-13: 978-1534706613 Available from Amazon.com and www.tomdavisauthor.com
Trish Stevens Anna Jones Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
