Jaded city planner Townsend Meadows looks out across Evermore Valley
with the ghost of his dead friend by his side. “Do you ever
wonder,” Fen asks, “what this city will look like five hundred
years from now?”
Their city is teetering on the brink of collapse, and the mayor’s answer
is a gleaming new auto mall at the valley’s edge. For Townsend,
it’s the death of everything a city should be. Struggling to regain his
passion and forced to choose between compliance and conviction, he must risk
his career to fight for a more hopeful and verdant future.
From an
architect’s vision at the dawn of the twentieth century, to a
rancher’s dynasty scarred by violence and greed, to a city
founder’s hidden message of hope, this story about the rise, fall, and
reawakening of an American city reaches far beyond the present. A timely,
sweeping novel of memory, corruption, and resilience, Death and Life in the
City of Dreams asks, “What legacy will we choose to leave for our
children?”
About the Author
Nicholas Deitch is a writer, architect, and advocate for social justice whose
fiction explores the intersection of cities, history, and human resilience.
His passion for storytelling began when a colleague recognized the emotional
depth of his nonfiction work. Since then, he has honed his craft, publishing
short stories in Litro Magazine, Club Plum, and Santa Barbara Literary
Journal. His short story “Grace Eternal” won Best Fiction at the
Santa Barbara Writers Conference (2019).
Death and Life in the City of Dreams, his debut novel, is deeply influenced by
his experiences in nonprofit leadership and the design of inclusive
communities and urban places.
Originally from Los Angeles, he now lives in Ventura, California, with his
wife and creative partner Diana.
I Love It When We Read Together invites reading partners to create their
own special rituals with gentle prompts and endearing illustrations that
encourage kids to read along, spot animals, and spark lively conversations.
This book is perfect for building fluency and connection. Inspired by the
literacy challenges of the pandemic, early childhood educator Karolyn Wallace
crafts a cozy experience that helps families bring the joy of reading home.
About the Author
Karolyn Wallace is a seasoned educator with over twenty years of experience
teaching in elementary classrooms across public and private schools in
Maryland, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New York. Before that, she was a
broadcast journalist at local news affiliates in Los Angeles and Flint,
Michigan. She is currently part of the team at The Children’s Learning
Lab, where experienced educators connect with elementary students for online
learning. She divides her time between Michigan and California, enjoying the
company of her husband, children, and grandchildren.
A wry poetry collection that captures the jarring sink-or-swim leap into
adulthood. This book honors the limbo of exiting youth, a unique period where
responsibility suddenly smashes the youthful optimist, crushing it under the
crippling weight of adulthood. Twenty-somethings scatter across life's
spectrum with some jobless and couch-surfing, while others marry, become
parents, and buy a house. Everyone eventually finds themselves old enough to
fight in foreign wars but too young to rent a car. It's the fast, brutal shift
to an unguarded world, to bowling without bumpers. You've entered a chaotic
soup of competing ambitions and subterfuge, where one hand offers help while
the other conceals a knife. You're expected to be an adult without ever having
been one, like seeing the ocean from afar and suddenly wrestling its waves.
This book highlights the inevitable sense of crushing defeat and loss, but
reveals the importance of laughing anyway. After all, life is a game of
avoiding the consequences of your own actions. The Bric-a-Brac of Mickey Mack
will hand you a mirror and dare you to laugh at its reflection.
Excerpt
I sat across from him, he had a twisted distant gaze
while he wracked his mind and grappled with a foolish phrase
which was written on a note and shuffled in a mess of junk
atop a desk ensconced in filth, no doubt the man was drunk.
His name was Mickey Mack, both laser focused and aloof,
fenced in by Bric-a-Brac unpacked and stacked up to the roof.
A product of his times, so wise, yet dumber than a door.
A man of vast experience and yet he’s such a bore.
He’d traveled ’round the world and been to many foreign lands
to simply say he had, to sit and sulk, his only plans.
For “that’s what people do,” he’d say, “they travel to enjoy
the petty world and what it offers every girl and boy.”
Despite the fact that Mr. Mack had traveled far and wide
he would do what’s done at home and find a bar to sit inside.
And there, while many past him by, bemoaning life itself,
it tortured Mickey for he couldn’t help but see himself.
He realized now that time is gone, and that’s the way it is,
and he, while living other people’s lives, had wasted his.
And as a way, as best he could, expel the toxic bile,
he has compiled every groan and gripe within a file.
And written down, at last, now put together in a book
the crying whines of all he heard from all the trips he took.
A vapid, superficial twit, he sobered up somehow,
and Mickey Mack looked up at me behind a furrowed brow,
and as he squinted, leaning closer straining hard to see,
He was looking in a mirror, for the hopeless fool was me.
About the Author
Mickey Mack is a world-weary traveler and obsessive collector of
life’s absurd talismans and trinkets. After years of eavesdropping on
bar-stool confessions around the globe, he distills the Suffering Olympics of
modern adulthood into witty, rhythmic heroic couplets.
Family Saga / Fiction / Based on True Lived Experiences
Date Published: April 6, 2026
Publisher: Serapis Bey Publishing, Arizona, US www.parulagrawal.com
A story of human connection between twins, between lovers, between comrades in
war, set against the shadow of the evangelical religion and its judgments."
Based on a childhood of shadowy secrets surrounding her parents’
marriage and the rigid judgment of the Evangelical religion, the author
attempts to find her truth. A work of historical fiction and romance, it spans
the era of WWII and beyond, weaving the story of her father, mother and aunt
(her mother’s twin sister). The unexpected twists and turns mirror those
of our own lives, and readers can empathize and identify with the
characters’ humanity as they struggle with their flaws. The power of
religious judgement is explored along with the strength and resilience of
individuals challenged by the ethics of life. This is also a fascinating study
of the complexities of being twins. With the strongest of bonds that
overwhelms their very different personalities, their love for the same man
creates a gulf between them that threatens their entire adult relationship. It
is also a story of a man and how he navigates his own journey after love and
loss. When his WWII experience takes him to countries he has never dreamed of
seeing, and opens him to the excitement of new cultures, he finds new meaning.
At the same time, his bonds to his comrades in arms and their shared
experiences of battlefield traumas leaves him with emotional scars. A story of
secrets and the power of love, the themes of self-doubt and second chances are
embedded in the narrative, along with the acceptance of one’s actions
following painful choices.
A story of human connection between twins, lovers, comrades during World War
11, families, and generational trauma, set across the United States and Europe
and against the shadow of the Evangelical religion and its judgments. A family
saga of secrets, shadows, and unspoken enduring love, and its impact across
three generations, based on a true story of lived experience. A work of
romantic, historical fiction, The Man in the Middle; A Tale of Tangled Lives
is based on the true story of the author’s parents. It follows their
youth in the early 1900s in US, through the years of WWII in Europe, and
after, and their lives as friends, lovers, parents, and elderly individuals.
This is a story of love and its many forms. There are no heroes or demons,
only people dealing with their humanity. Or maybe there are heroes: Luke, as
he navigates his life honourably and responsibly, while harbouring feelings
for more than one woman; Anna as she comes to terms with her selfish impulses
and attempts to overcome them; Pierrette, who recognizes and accepts that she
cannot give Luke the life he wants, and that their love is not enough.
Karoline is perhaps the true heroine of the book. A victim of the religious
beliefs she is trapped by, she finds it impossible to love herself. Instead,
she spends her life feeling inferior to her sister and undeserving of
Luke’s love. At Luke’s passing, she finally receives the
confirmation of her worth and her place as the love of his life.
About the Author
"The author lives half-time in San Diego, CA, and half-time in a small village
in Southern France. This is her exploration of the unexplained secrets that
shadowed her childhood and the consequences that haunt all our choices."
“I wrote this book to come to terms with my past. I wanted to understand
the people who raised me, through the fictional characters of Karoline and
Luke, who represent my parents and my mother’s twin sister, Anna, who
represents my aunt. My childhood was full of love, but as I watched the
individuals around me, I sensed a drama that excluded me. I knew my father had
been in WWII and experienced Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and much more
during the four years he spent in Europe. The way he talked about the world he
had discovered there intrigued me and I knew there was more to tell, which he
never spoke about. My mother adored my father, but there was a tension in the
room when my aunt was present. A connection between my father and my aunt was
obvious despite their effort to hide it. Through the years, there were
inadvertent comments that hinted of a previous relationship between them, but
it wasn’t until the end of my father’s life that conversations
took place that enlightened me. I didn’t ask, but they each wanted to
tell their story, their truth about what happened. This book is my truth, my
experience in living with them and loving them. It is my attempt to honor them
by exploring their humanness and accepting that we are each a complex
entity.”
IN 1939, A DEADLY CONFRONTATION IN THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS shatters
young Albert Pingree's life and leaves him the keeper of a truth so staggering
it could tear apart mankind's understanding of itself. Sixty years later, his
granddaughter Mallory - a small-town veterinarian in rural New Hampshire,
inherits more than his fortune; she inherits his secret. When Albert is found
dead behind his remote British Columbia cabin, Mallory is drawn into a world
of deception, lost identity, and scientific obsession. Inside a locked candle
box, she uncovers a horrific relic - a severed hand too large to be human -
and a note that beckons her toward the impossible.
Mallory recruits Dr. George Avery, the world's leading field zoologist to help
her identify what she has found. At first, he is reluctant, unaware of the
magnitude of what she has brought to him. As the puzzle begins to take shape,
he is confronted by what the answers they find, reveal.
Exploring deeper, their growing affection ignites a sense of purpose, even as
they face the shadows of the past and the dangers of their pursuit. In the
haunting wilds of the Pacific Northwest, nature's grandeur and brutality are
ever-present. Tangled forests and untamed rivers, bears, wolves, and the
ancient reverence of Indigenous traditions surround them, blurring the lines
between myth and reality. Their quest becomes a journey not only to solve a
mystery, but to reconcile love, loneliness, and the immortal question of our
place in a world still ruled by secrets.
Maxim Langstaff is a Grammy-and Emmy-nominated writer, producer, and
author whose creative and editorial work has reached millions of people
worldwide. He is recognized for his innovative vision and exceptional
versatility and reach, crafting narratives that reflect powerful insight into
the natural world and our relationship to it.
His debut novel, SASQ’ET will be released on April 7, 2026.
Max holds an honorary doctorate from Connecticut College and a degree in
Anthropology. He is a member of The Writer’s Guild and past participant
at the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference. His editorial and creative writing
has been published by The New York Times, Philadelphia Enquirer, Gannett,
Wildlife Conservation Magazine, PBS, Disney, and the Wildlife Conservation
Society.
Max produced the multi-media Making of Sgt. Pepper with Sir George Martin,
featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Phil Collins.
He wrote and produced the most complete filmed history of the Beatles through
the eyes of Sir George who signed them, produced their work, and played on
many of their recordings. A part Max’s film became the award-winning PBS
series Soundbreaking.
Many of the greatest pop culture icons of the 20th century have collaborated
with Max on projects he has created, written, and produced including Herbie
Hancock, Brian Wilson, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, B.B. King, Tony Bennett,
Vince Gill, Burt Bacharach, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Michael Tilson
Thomas, Gordon Lightfoot, Smokey Robinson, Jack White, Dave Grohl, Run-DMC,
and Willie Nelson. A more complete listing of artists he has worked with can
be found at: www.maximlangstaff.com
Known for his work with John Denver, Max created and produced the acclaimed
television event, the Wildlife Concert, spawning the highest rated music
program in cable TV history upon broadcast, two multi-platinum CD sets, and
one of the best-selling music video programs ever released by SONY.
Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Max helped lead the largest
fundraising effort ($100mm) ever undertaken for wildlife conservation, seeding
the first integrated global conservation initiative to save endangered tigers.
On any given day you will likely find him on a wilderness river or mountain
trail. A three-time Boston Marathoner, he lives in North Carolina.
SASQ’ET is his first novel.
Sometimes wonder finds you when you least expect it.
Cece Belle is a high-functioning neurodivergent. She’s also a big
believer in destiny, but when her soulmate Robby dumps her mid-flight to
Israel, she instantly regrets ever telling him she’s on the spectrum.
Not one to dwell in misery, Cece sips some chamomile hibiscus tea to set
herself straight. And with meditation and spirituality on her side, she looks
to what’s next. Yet another blow hits when she is kicked out of her
rabbinical studies program for “strange behavior.”
Then, she meets Joel. With his quirky demeanor and ability to say all the
right things, he gives Cece the desire to begin a new relationship.
There’s only one main obstacle: Cece loves living in Los Angeles, and
Joel is a diehard New Yorker.
She marries him anyway, despite misgivings that extend beyond their geography.
After all, this is her carefully drawn plan—marriage, then kids, then
happily ever after. Sometimes though, the best-laid plans are better left in
dreamland where they can’t go awry.
Cece in Wonder Land is a twisty journey down a rabbit hole of unexpected
anxieties, disappointments, and more questions than answers. But where there
is hope, there is life, and maybe Cece can hang on for the next bit of wonder
bound to come her way.
About the Author
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bonnie S. Priever majored in communications
studies at UCLA before moving to Philadelphia. There, she attended the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, which prepared her for an assistant
directorship at the Israel Levin Senior Adult Center in Venice, California.
As a way to process emotions and stay connected to her spirituality, Bonnie
started writing about her experiences. In 2023, Newsweek published her
personal essay about the challenges of aging. Currently, she combines her
passion for writing and her love for live theater as a reviewer for CurtainUp,
an online theater magazine.
Bonnie loves to travel but always looks forward to coming home to LA. She has
one grown son and a backlog of great ideas. Based on a true story, Cece in
Wonder Land is her first novel.
The Earth is compromised and forbidden. The human Imperium
stretches throughout the galaxy. It terraforms planets with indigenous life,
destroying it. An organization fights against these terraforming projects, and
it is pronounced a terrorist organization by the government and the Imperator.
JO WARWICK, the heiress of Warwick Galactic Enterprises, is
on an archeological mission on the forbidden Earth. She contracts an unknown
disease, and her expedition leaves Earth. While in space, the disease kills
everyone on board but her, as she seems protected by an invisible shield.
Captain TOSHI HUNTER and his crew are activists fighting
against the terraformation projects, and after a failed attack on one of these
projects, they are pursued by the imperial ships. The chase goes on, but they
manage to escape.
And by chance, they discover the unmoving, silent ship of Jo
Warwick. They board it and see the massacre inside, but manage to save Jo.
Jo and Toshi begin
their adventure in uncovering the truth and the origin of this mysterious
disease that now threatens the galaxy, while being hunted by the imperial
troops.
What readers are
saying:
“…Prose that is gritty, direct, and sometimes a touch
awkward powers a voyage of grand proportions as a diverse cast, ancient aliens,
sensory worldbuilding, and space battles entertain with thrilling action. In
this quick read, Gurgu reveals the foolishness of humanity, moral dilemmas, the
folly of war, and the hope of second chances in a hearty science fiction
adventure.” _BookLife Review
“…Ultimately, The Cursed delivers the pleasures
of expansive science fiction: big stakes, bigger ideas, and heroes whose
personal journeys matter as much as the fate of the galaxy. Gurgu offers an
energetic, imagination-rich ride that will appeal to readers eager for
adventurous sci-fi drama—and leaves the door open for further exploration among
the stars.” —CANREADS BOOK REVIEW
“Overall, the author has a keen knack for mixing and
melding SF and the supernatural in all kinds of intriguing ways. Clear
allusions to vampirism would be too obvious; Gurgu opts instead for more
obscure archetypes: When was the last time one read about a wendigo in outer
space? A fast-paced and fun adventure beyond the stars.” - _Kirk’s Reviews
The archeology team was busy and noisy inside the Bats Cave. The huge
boulders blocking the entrance of the dry, large, very deep cave had not been a
real deterrent for Jo Warwick. Young, strong, and
beautiful, she was not used to rejection or defeat.
The cave was a
hidden gem discovered recently in the Carpathian Mountains on Earth. The entire
place seemed to be a treasure trove. And “discovered recently” meant after
the interdiction against stepping on Earth had been put in place. After the
interdiction and especially the defense mechanism had been put into place. But
that was not something to keep Jo’s family, the powerful Warwicks, away. Not
even the imperator could stop a Warwick if they put their mind to doing
something.
The co-op students
were giggling as they worked, sometimes louder than they thought they were.
With the help of electrical lamps they were collecting and cataloging ceramic
pieces, stone tools, animal remains. Next to them, real archeologists were
slowly carving into the floor after more remains. The cave was full to the brim
with signs of a very old civilization. A civilization that Jo hoped to prove
was part of the Vinca culture. The project of her life.
Professor Hannigan, a corpulent man of about sixty, was studying some cave paintings. He
tried not to expose them to too much light, or heat, or sweat, or anything else
for that matter. He was mumbling while studying. His custom, as Jo knew, adding
to the general noise in the confined space of the cave. It was becoming quite
claustrophobic.
Jo was in her
mid-twenties, athletic, newly graduated from the university, and already in
charge of her first dig. She knew how students could get, but that didn’t mean
she agreed with the practice and the indulgences.
She approached the
walls with paintings, or more accurately, pictographs. One of them in
particular had drawn her attention. The drawn figures were vaguely human. Most
had huge round eyes and concentric circular shapes on their bodies. That was
specific to the Vinca culture, to the fashion or aesthetics of their times.
That was why she could barely contain her enthusiasm, her joy—she was
ninety-nine percent sure she’d just made the discovery of her life.
The pictograph that
had drawn her attention was part of a group, representing small humanlike
figures interacting with huge masked beings in weird, ritualistic suits. In the
first panel in the group, the humans bowed to the masked figures, obviously
their deities. There were no written sources for the Vinca culture, so nothing
was known of their religion or mythology.
Jo got closer to the
drawings.
“Silence!” she
barked over the background noise in the cave. Everyone looked at her and shut
up. She was known for a frightful temper and no one wanted to enter into a
conflict with her.
“They’re just
students on their first practicum,” said Hannigan in a low voice only the two
of them could hear. He was like a grandfather to everyone on the team, always
ready to indulge them and spoil them.
“Not on my money,
they’re not,” said Jo. “They’re students in their first practice and one day
they could brag about the experience they got here. They could brag and get the
best paid gigs because of this.”
“Yes, but young
people…” Hannigan hesitated, looking at Jo. Then, probably realizing he was
talking to a young person, he gave up.
The best practice
was to ignore the old man and leave it be. She had to put up with all his
eccentricities because he was the best in the field and expert on this period
of time in Earth’s history. And he was easy to satisfy in terms of credits and
accolades. He valued money above all else.
So Jo returned to
the pictographs. She got closer to the next one. In it, a man with a wolf head
shot stars through some sort of weapon toward one of the masked figures. The
masked figure’s body was covered in symbols and shone a bright red.
In the next panel,
the masked figure had collapsed, probably dead. His body was still covered in
unknown symbols.
Jo returned to the
previous panel. The weapon looked like a bone, a real bone encrusted in stone.
The stars shooting from it had started to sparkle and fluctuate. What the…
Jo got even closer and tried to discern what could make it sparkle like that.
There didn’t seem to be anything on the stone base but the painting. She
extended her hand and held it above the sparks. No heat. She then touched the
bone embedded in the stone. Dry, porous bone. She walked her fingers over the
sparks and the shooting stars and then, a red spark passed from the stone to Jo’s
skin.
Where it touched the
skin a red impression, like a tattoo, spread on Jo’s skin. It had happened so
fast that Jo couldn’t do anything else but watch the whole thing with
curiosity. She lifted her camera to take a picture, but froze. The tattoo had
spread up her arm and down her other arm and she realized it was all over her
body, flickering on her skin. It felt like an electric shock. Jo shuddered and
collapsed.
Costi’s fiction has appeared in Canada, the US,
and Europe. He has sold 8 books and over 50 stories for which he has won 32
awards. He was three times a finalist for the Canadian Aurora Awards.
His latest sales include the anthologies Tesseracts 17, The Mammoth Book of
Dieselpunk, Dark Horizons, Street Magick, Water, and Alice Unbound.
His bestselling novel RecipeArium has won three awards (Kult, Nemira, and Vladimir Colin) and was a 2018
finalist for the Aurora Awards.
His novels, “Servitude”, “Green Corrosion”, “Pink Corrosion”, and
“Black Corrosion” were published in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. And his latest
novel “The Cursed” was launched on April 1st, 2026.
“Green Corrosion” has won four awards (Book Excellence, The Typesmith
Writers, The International Impact Book, and the Maincrest Media Award).
“Black Corrosion” has been an Amazon Bestseller for three weeks and is
a finalist for Canreads Awards 2026.
