Spotlight: Sitting on a Rock by Gary L. Brinderson

Genre: Poetry

Affirmation, kindness, love, and self awareness are the touchstones of Gary Brinderson's poetry Collection Sitting On A Rock. In a deceptively simple, Zen-like style, Sitting on a Rock offers wise counsel, teaching us--just as he taught his students--that all of life's answers can be found within. We only need to go and sit on a rock, and listen to our hearts.

Excerpt

Loss

Can you invite the imposter to dinner?

Will you accept loss as part of the journey and let go?

Will you cherish the memories

or become victim?

Will you stand tall and strong

or shrivel back

and miss the opportunity

to embrace the renewal and birth of something new? Will you be an example of growing

or be a martyr?

Only the opportunity to experience it

will write the ending.

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About the Author

Gary L. Brinderson is the Chairman of Brinderson Holdings, with investments in institutional, industrial, multifamily real estate, software, transportation, and equities. Mr. Brinderson graduated summa cum laude with an MBA from Pepperdine University. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management

Program and an alumnus of Harvard Graduate School of Business. He chairs Leadership Fellows at the University of California, Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, and is past chair of the same program at HEC in Paris and NYU.

Spotlight: Lost In Thought by Deborah Serra

"Not everything is meant to know, Ilana. Some things need their mystery to survive."

Ilana has an enviable job at the opera house, a committed relationship, and a cozy Greenwich Village apartment, but the questions inside of her are growing insistent. Is it due to her scientist boyfriend's research on how people make their decisions, or is she suffering suppressed grief from the death of her adoptive mother? She becomes curious about who she would be if she'd grown up in her birth home. Is she truly who she thinks she is? Has she ever freely chosen anything at all? When Ilana learns that her birth mom owns a pub upstate, well, what harm could there be in furtively dropping by for a drink? To see, just to see. What begins as curiosity about her choices evolves into a traumatic shift in her world. She loses control of her life. And then, chaos.

Lost in Thought is a novel about unconscious decision-making and the illusion of free will.

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About the Author

DEBORAH SERRA is a recipient of the Hawthornden Literary Fellowship, a semifinalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Award, and nominated for the O. Henry Prize. She has been published in literary magazines and is an editor with the ethics and short story magazine, After Dinner Conversation. Serra is the author of the thriller, Primal, and the humorous travel memoir, 2 Broads Abroad. She has written numerous TV films and episodes, including two years as a staff writer. She has worked for Showtime, CBS, NBC, Sony, Fox, and Lifetime, and is a member of WGA, DG, and PEN USA.

Spotlight: When I Found You by Samantha Lind

I was content with being a bachelor, never planned on settling down. Why would I, when every woman in my life, starting with my own mother, always walked out and never looked back.

I liked my strict Army life—all I needed after my deployment was a vacation and time with my dad.

Then it all changed…

One beautiful songwriter.

One chance meeting.

One last first kiss.

One smile.

Her smile.

That was all it took to captivate me and send my world spinning on its axis. After that, I knew I’d never be the same.

*Previously published as Until Her Smile*

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Meet Samantha Lind

Samantha Lind is a USA TODAY Bestselling contemporary romance author. When she’s not dreaming up new stories, she can often be found with her family, traveling, reading, watching her boys on the ice, or watching her favorite professional hockey team (Go Knights Go!), and listening to country music.  She can be contacted by email or found on Facebook. 

Keep up with Samantha Lind and subscribe to her newsletter: http://bit.ly/FDSLNL

To learn more about Samantha Lind & her books, visit here!

Connect with Samantha Lind: samantha@samanthalind.com

Spotlight: Pity Present by Whitney Dineen

Release Date: October 24

AVAILABLE IN KINDLE UNLIMITED

Molly

I haven’t been interested in dating since my ex dumped me for a new girl at his law office. Since then, I’ve thrown myself into my work as a hotel gift shop designer. While being single isn’t what I expected, there’s truth to that old saying, “Once bitten, twice shy.” And the bite of a cheater stays with you.

Christmas can be a particularly vulnerable time, which is why I accepted a job right before the holidays. I had no idea the lodge that hired me was also hosting a singles' event. Imagine my surprise when they had a last-minute cancellation and asked me if I wanted to join them.

Blake

When I left LA for my dream job in Chicago, I never dreamed by first assignment would be spending two weeks in Elk Lake, Wisconsin, covering the Midwestern Matchmaker’s new venture to set up Chicagoland singles. I’m a sports journalist for Pete's sake, not some airheaded twit who writes about the lovelorn.

Unfortunately, the job I transferred for isn’t open yet, so here I am. In Wisconsin. Living my worst nightmare. There is no way anybody is going to find love at this thing. No way.

So, imagine my surprise when the most awkward woman in the world trips over me …

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Meet Whitney Dineen

USA Today Bestselling author Whitney Dineen is a rock star in her own head. While delusional about her singing abilities, there’s been a plethora of validation that she’s a fairly decent author (AMAZING!!!). After winning many writing awards and selling nearly a kabillion books (math may not be her forte, either), she’s decided to let the voices in her head say whatever they want (sorry, Mom). She also won a fourth-place ribbon in a fifth-grade swim meet in backstroke. So, there’s that.

Whitney loves to hang with her kids (a.k.a. dazzle them with her amazing 80's dance moves, serenading them to Bohemian Rhapsody, and binge watch Ted Lasso ), bake stuff, eat stuff, and write books for people who "get" her. She thinks french fries are the perfect food and Mrs. Roper is her spirit animal.

To find out about Whitney Dineen’s upcoming releases and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter here

For more information on Whitney Dineen and her books visit: https://www.whitneydineen.com/

Connect with Whitney Dineen: https://www.whitneydineen.com/

Spotlight: Don’t Let Me Keep You by Kathie Giorgio

Publisher: Black Rose Publishing (October 3, 2024)

Motherhood is a symphony, from the first movement, through crescendo after crescendo, to the finale.

Hildy Halverson, a genius in math and science, is pushed by her parents to step into a male-dominated field and change the world for women. But Hildy, enamored of the scientific force of the human body, and her own body’s ability to create and sustain life, decides to go against contemporary expectations. She marries young and raises a houseful of kids.

Hildy wants her children to choose their own life paths. As each child is born, she tells them, “You can be whatever you want to be, and whatever you want to be will be great.” Despite her efforts to not influence her children, Hildy does so, often in unexpected ways. Each child is introduced in that first private moment between Hildy and her new baby. This is followed by a chapter revealing that child’s life, years later. Woven throughout is an underlying grief over the death of the sixth baby soon after birth. That grief is more pervasive than any of them expect.

In this ambitious novel, the struggles and joys, fatigue and exhilaration of motherhood, are captured in the full panorama of family life. Hildy lovingly raises her children, then lets them go, finding herself along the way.

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About the Author

Kathie Giorgio is the author of a total of fifteen books: eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize, and her work has also been incorporated into many visual art and musical events. Kathie is the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio.

She lives with her husband, mystery writer Michael Giorgio, and their daughter Olivia, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Three of her adult children, Christopher, Andy, and Olivia, live close by, along with her solo granddaughter, Maya Mae. One adult child has wandered off to Louisiana and lives among the mathematicians and alligators.

You can follow the author at:

Website: http://www.kathiegiorgio.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathiegiorgioauthor/

X/Twitter: @KathieGiorgio

Instagram: @kathiegio1

Spotlight: Wanderer of the Wastes by Kit Karlsson

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Kol Mendona, one of the last humans on the magical continent of Alon, is desperate to escape his dying underground compound. When Alessi, a fierce dragon slayer with silver eyes, arrives, Kol sees a way out. As they journey together through the deadly wastes, an unexpected bond forms between them – one fueled by passion and dangerous magic.

But as Kol’s strange new powers awaken, their bond becomes increasingly unstable. Something within him is changing in ways he doesn’t fully understand, and if Alessi ever discovers the truth, Kol may lose more than her affections…

Excerpt

“If you take me with you, I’ll do anything,” he said. To buy Astor some time. To get out of there.

She opened the door and pushed him out, preparing to close it again, but he put his foot in it.

“Anything?” she asked.

“Anything.”

“That’s a dangerous word when there are fates worse than death.” She tilted her head again to the side, an amused look on her face. “You’re a strange man, Kol.” She slammed the door, and he was alone in the darkness.

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About the Author

Kit enjoyed writing as a child and rediscovered her passion during the COVID-19 lockdown. She has a degree in finance and recently graduated from law school, where she was the administrative editor of an academic publication. When she’s not writing, you can find her running barefoot, taming stray cats, or listening to paranormal podcasts.

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