Spotlight: The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

A hard science-fiction novel featuring an assassin-for-hire, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer, this fast-paced thriller is perfect for fans of Arrival

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil. 

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as "Baba," it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Excerpt

Warri, Nigeria

Tope

Here’s the thing about killing people: I don’t like it, but I’m good at it. 

That’s why I’m perched on a dusty rooftop, ensconced in an electromagnetic reflection bubble, patiently waiting to kill Rever end Doctor Clement Osagie.

  It’s hot and the air is heavy with humidity. [Thirty- one- point- four degrees Celsius and ninety- four percent,] Ori, the augmented intelligence system embedded in my brain, tells me in a soft, neural whisper. The noon sun beams down relentlessly through blue gaps in the clouds. Puffy and white and grey- edged, they are swollen, pregnant with [a sixty- three percent probability of] precipitation. Sleek black police drones drift lazily like metal birds, specks against the clouds. Bloody spies are all over the damn country now thanks to the government subcontracting surveillance to foreign companies that use their proprietary, predictive algorithms to monitor the feeds re motely, and flag high- probability crime scenarios to local authorities for action. They think it’s clever and cost efficient. Well, perhaps it is, but they still haven’t seen me yet and they never will. 

I’ve already been here for . . . [two hours and sixteen minutes,] my rifle barrel in line with the high- arched window above the main door of the cream- colored building that serves as the headquarters of Modern Christ Ministries Church. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait much longer. I ignore the sweat that is running down my shaved head, dripping off my chin onto my elbows, wicking my wool jump suit. The sickly- sweet odor of dry sweat is starting to bloom. My skin is sticky and itches in places, but I don’t scratch. That will only make it worse. Besides, I’ve been in much worse positions in much worse conditions. What I really want is to get this over with and be gone before the downpour begins. I don’t like rain. Especially the kind we’ve been getting recently: infrequent but heavy. The kind that triggers floods of semi- biblical proportions— washing away whole villages like they are nothing but stains on the fabric of the world.

“Every living soul! Every living soul praise the Lord!” Pastor Osagie declares from inside the church. His voice is high- pitched and loud, and it carries well, becoming an electronic screech by the time it reaches me, distorted by the EM bubble— my mobile Faraday cage. He is a heavyset man, relatively tall. Well above the average for Nigerian men which is . . . [a hundred and seventy- three centimeters.] That voice, though. It’s incongruous with his appearance and personality. Reminds me of the first time I heard recordings of Mike Tyson. I’d watched holo- records of his boxing matches during my training, and he’d been such a terrifying man in his prime, but even then, he’d sounded like a whiny child.

Pastor Clement leaps into the air. He’s surprisingly agile for his age and lifestyle. He runs up from his place on the church floor to the podium, repeating his words over and over again. The choir echoes him in a call and response that inspires the seated and primed congregation to their feet in chant and dance. 

Bloody hell. 

They’ve ruined my shot. 

I grip the rifle pad tighter and adjust the focus of my scope. Tilting my head back a few centimeters to angle slightly up and to my right, I create a new path for my bullet. One that avoids the risen sheep but pierces the shepherd. The new path cuts below the rounded upper arc of the window of the new and expansive church building. Ori projects the expected trajectory as a bright yellow augmented reality line, confirms the unobstructed route for my bullet. Now I just need him to stop moving. But he keeps bouncing around and shouting. He is wearing an obscenely shiny grey suit that looks like it was sewn from polished silver with a blood- red dress shirt, sleeves tethered to each other with gold cufflinks that gleam when they catch the fluorescent light. His ridiculous, permed hair, diamond- encrusted watch and gold chain complete the look he is apparently going for. It matches his expensive fleet of vehicles parked along a wide dirt road beside the church and minded by several hefty- looking bodyguards in all black suits and knock- off designer sunglasses. Aviators. They always wear aviators. Not sure why. Don’t the members of his congregation ever question why a “man of God” needs so many gold accessories, four different types of Mercedes, a private jet, and bodyguards who used to be Niger- delta militants until the final, extended collapse of the global petroleum economy had made kidnapping ex pats and vandalizing pipelines unprofitable? Don’t they read their own Bible and what it says about rich men, heaven, camels, and the eye of a needle? I guess not. Most of the congregation seem completely ensorcelled by Clement and his promises. They dance, sing, and pray with tears running down their faces, their bodies twisting and contorting at his urging.

Watching all this, it would be so easy to believe that he has a special connection to both God and his congregation. They are synchronized, responding to his directions like a hive mind. Easy to believe, indeed. The world is a complex place full of confusion and uncertainty, Nigeria especially so. They find meaning in his simple message, his confident, charlatan charms. They want to believe in him, in their divine connection. It gives them something to tether themselves to. A sense of being part of something grander. Foolish, but understandable. We all need someone or something to anchor ourselves to. Pity they have chosen a sinking ship. One that never had any destination anyway.

Pastor Clement is nothing but a very good con artist, willing to take advantage of people’s faith and desperation. He is having affairs with several members of the church, including Enajite, the choir mistress who is standing in the front row wearing a blonde Brazilian weave she should not be able to afford and a tight white shirt that seems mildly unchristian. I collected evidence of their lurid sexual encounters along with the details of his money laundering activities for the same people who now want him dead because he’s become greedy. Very greedy.

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About the Author

Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. Author of the critically acclaimed Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon which was named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post. He has hopped around the planet quite a bit but right now lives in Australia. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, the Caine Prize, and has won the Sidewise award for alternate history. Talabi's work has also been translated into 7 languages. His fiction has appeared in Asimov's, F&SF, Clarkesworld, and is collected in the books Incomplete Solutions (2019, Luna Press) and Convergence Problems (2024, DAW Books)

Spotlight: Legally Blind by Cathy Donald

The man she's defending killed her father. Now he's accused of another murder, and she believes he might be innocent.

For defense attorney Chelsea Turner, the past comes crashing back when she discovers that her newest client, Joel Radebe, is the man responsible for the bombing that killed her father when she was a child.

Joel was convicted, imprisoned, and eventually granted amnesty. But decades later, he's facing a new murder charge, and Chelsea finds herself in an impossible position: defending the man who caused her family's greatest loss.

Helping Joel could mean betraying her father's memory. As the investigation unfolds, she begins to question whether the man she may never forgive is actually innocent of this latest crime.

Set in South Africa, Cathy Donald's Legally Blind combines courtroom suspense and murder mystery with a deeply personal struggle between justice, revenge, and forgiveness. As Chelsea searches for the truth, she must confront the painful divide between what her heart wants and what she believes is right.

Could you fight for someone you may never be able to forgive?

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About the Author

Cathy Donald is a South African novelist and former medical doctor. After qualifying in medicine in 1984, she practiced in both rural communities and urban private practice, most recently running a women's health practice in Somerset West.

Alongside her medical career, she wrote scripts, music, and lyrics for amateur dramatic productions, particularly for schools and youth groups. She has since published multiple novels, many of them set in South Africa and centered on family, resilience, and the moral choices that shape people's lives.

Her novel The Silence of the Shadows received the Jury Prize at the Milan International Literary Awards in 2022.

Learn more at www.cathydonald.co.za

Spotlight: A Hidden Fate by Carol Efron

Genre: Women’s Fiction

A poignant novel of love under fire about a woman who must find the courage to face an uncertain future and an impossible choice.

Baltimore, 1986. Julia and Matt are newlyweds, in love and eager to begin graduate school. Julia longs to leave behind haunting memories of her mother’s devastating decline in Maryland, but she unexpectedly learns the truth her father has hidden: Her mother died of a fatal genetic illness. Julia now faces a 50 percent chance of inheriting the same fate, and every child she longs to have will carry the same risk.

When an unplanned pregnancy rocks their careful plans, Julia and Matt face agonizing uncertainty and impossible choices. Desires and convictions pull them toward starkly different paths, each possibly leading to misery.

As the couple struggles to protect the fragile, fierce love that first bound them together, they face the cost of secrets and the ache of betrayal—but they also discover the hope of forgiveness.

Excerpt

A whiff of garlic and a smoky odor Julia couldn’t place enticed her as she and Matt entered a favorite Chinese restaurant the night before their much-debated move from Manhattan. She inhaled deeply. Would there be a Szechuan restaurant half as good in Baltimore

Probably not, she thought, and tried to push away a swarm of negative feelings about Maryland.

The hostess seated them at a narrow table. When Matt rested his calf against Julia’s, she appreciated the warmth of the love he conveyed in this familiar gesture. They’d dined here frequently when they started dating. She let herself feel nostalgic about meeting each other in a freshman astronomy class, stealing kisses in the NYU library, visiting iconic New York sites as they were falling in love. She wouldn’t have chosen to move from the Village if Matt didn’t believe reasonably that they needed to settle in Baltimore to further his career. But she adored him; she’d follow him where he had to go if it didn’t ruin her chance to become a historian.

“Just one more push on the packing and we’ll finish well before midnight,” he said after they placed their order. 

The meal turned out to be even more delicious than usual. They ate quickly. When they requested the check, the waitress asked if they’d like fortune cookies.

“Skip them,” Matt said. “We don’t have time.”

“Oh, but they’re fresh today,” the waitress said. “And maybe you’ll get good tidings.”

“Do you believe the fortunes?” Julia asked. They’d often chatted with this invariably upbeat waitress and Julia was curious about her views.

The woman shrugged. “No, but a fortune can be an opportunity to reflect on where we want to go. Perhaps especially useful since you’re newly married.”

“Good point,” Julia said. “Besides, I feel like something sweet.” She nudged Matt under the table as the waitress bustled off. “I know you don’t have any patience for superstition, but would you want to know your future? If you could?”

“Learning his future didn’t work out so well for Oedipus.”

She laughed. “You’re awfully literary tonight. Has something rubbed off on you from helping me pack all my novels?”

“Come on, I’m far more than a stodgy physicist.”

“I know you are, so stop teasing. I’d like an answer.” Maybe it was the weight of the move bearing down on her, but Julia’s question wasn’t casual. Given her mother’s fate, sometimes she worried about her own health. She lacked the almost reflex optimism she’d observed in most of her friends, none of whom had lost a parent in their childhood.

“Okay,” he said, “seriously, being a scientist, I like predicting things. But as to knowing my own fate . . . I’m not sure. How ’bout you?”

“It depends on the answers. I’d be thrilled to shed my concerns about getting my mother’s mental illness.”

He reached for her hand. “Oh Jule, her doctors said her psy-chosis was due to multiple sclerosis. And the articles you found in the library confirmed what your own doctor told you: that there isn’t much chance you’ll get MS.”

“I know, but—”

The waitress returned with the cookies. “I’ll miss seeing you,” she said. “I wish you all the best.”

They wished her the same. Matt cracked one cookie open and pulled out the slip. “Embrace uncertainty—it’s where the magic begins,” he read. “I’m not sold on that.”

“It might be good advice,” Julia said. “Perhaps.”

She took a cookie and extracted her fortune: “Seek not the future but the wisdom to shape it.” She handed him the slip. “Wise since I can’t know what life will bring.”

He glanced at it. “Agreed. I hope you enjoyed your cookies. But we should leave.” He smiled. “The movers might actually show up on time.”

“At the crack of dawn? Dream on. Still, we better be ready.” When they stood, Matt drew her to him and kissed her. She delighted in the softness of his lips and the tang of the ginger on his breath.

“We’re headed for a great year,” he said, kissing her again. Here he was, ridiculing fortune-telling but doing it himself.

Julia smiled to herself at his contradictions. She had to acknowledge her own: feeling apprehensive about moving to Baltimore yet eager to get there to start the first chap-ter of their married life.

She straightened her spine. “Let’s go,” she said. They stepped out into the bright lights and quirky sights of the West Village.

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About the Author 

Carol earned her MD from Johns Hopkins, served on the faculty at Stanford and John Hopkins, and built a thriving private practice in Silicon Valley. Working on the front lines of genetic testing, she felt an urgent need to write this book, and she would love to talk to you about how these real-world experiences inspired her debut novel, along with the broader implications of genetic testing.

Website * Substack * Facebook * X * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads

Spotlight: Baby Steps by Chelsea Frank

When Girl, Interrupted meets Girls.

Darkly funny, provocative, and emotionally raw, Baby Steps is a debut novel about what happens when the coping mechanism that once helped you survive becomes the very thing preventing you from living. It’s also a story of unexpected pregnancy, eating disorder recovery, queer love, and chosen family. 

Avery Ash has spent years controlling her body, her appetite, and her relationships. Then she gets pregnant. A sharp, self-aware queer Jewish law student, Avery knows immediately that she wants to keep the baby. But when her eating disorder puts both her health and the pregnancy at risk, she enters residential treatment convinced she can outsmart recovery—doing just enough to protect the baby without surrendering the behaviors that have made her feel safe for years.

Instead, Avery finds herself thrown into a chaotic community of women and nonbinary patients whose friendships, rivalries, romances, secrets, and dark humor begin dismantling the carefully controlled life she’s built. As her pregnancy progresses and her body becomes increasingly impossible to manage, Avery must confront what her eating disorder has cost her, and whether she’s willing to give up control for the terrifying possibility of intimacy, motherhood, and a life she actually wants.

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About the Author

Writer Chelsea Frank was born and bullied in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of Baby Steps, a darkly funny debut novel about eating disorder recovery, unexpected pregnancy, queer love, and the messy ways we try to control our lives. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, Food & Wine, Business Insider, InStyle, Air Mail, Uproxx, and Brides, among others. She has also written for film and television and hosted the travel podcast Globe Thotting with Chelsea Frank. 

Chelsea is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at the University of San Francisco and lives in San Francisco with her dog, Bowie.

Spotlight: Sweet Harmony by Ellie Noor

(A Blue Spruce Hills Novella)

Publication date: October 22nd 2026

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance, Women’s Fiction

Who knew placing second in national baking competition would flood your inbox with opportunities?

Not Clara Whitman.

A third-generation baker, Clara knows that businesses like hers are entrusted, not merely handed over. But with options beyond Blue Spruce Hills suddenly in the mix alongside a looming rent increase, she’s at a crossroads. She can afford to keep the bakery going, but not while pursuing something new. 

In a small town where beloved establishments are slowly disappearing, however, even the idea of leaving feels traitorous.

When an up-and-coming violinist comes to town to settle the estate of his estranged grandfather and sell the music shop, he is both a distraction and a reminder that sometimes the real challenge in life is deciding how much of it you’re willing to change. 

Sweet Harmony is a spirited celebration of a woman who believes every problem has a solution—set against a backdrop of small-town loyalties, beloved holiday traditions, and the romance that sneaks up on her.

Excerpt

“Thanks for coming, Rye. I know this is early for you.”

“This is important.” Riley bites into the gingerbread and lets out a blissful sigh. “Mmm... just the right amount of spice.” 

She cradles the mug in both hands, inhaling deeply. 

I know that look, and instinctively brace for whatever she’s going to say. 

“You won’t forget me when you make it big, will you? If I have to keep sharing you, I’m afraid there won’t be anything left just for me.”

Her fear comes out the way it always does—half joke, half confession—and I respond the way I always do. 

With humor. 

Not because I want to minimize her feelings. She has good reason to feel the way she does. But if I take her words too seriously, we’ll spill over into territory that neither one of us can handle at six o’clock in the morning. Not when we have something important planned five minutes from now.

So I stick my tongue out instead. 

“Judging by the way my Instagram numbers jumped overnight, that might just be a possibility.” I wait a beat, then tone it down a notch just to be on the safe side. “Joking aside, it’s wild, considering I came in second.”

“I think America is affronted on your behalf.”

I almost snort. “Maybe they’re sympathy likes. Anyway, the winner deserved it.”

“Only you would be genuinely glad for someone else winning when we both know you needed that first place prize money for a refurb and the rent increase. What a wagon that Mrs. Wallace is, serving a rent increase to the bakery and the bookstore and who knows how many other businesses.” 

Wagon. This time I snort for real. “You are so Irish, you know that?”

Riley gives me a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry you came in second. You deserved to win.”

“It’s okay. Someone on the show told me that contestants who come in second are often more popular than the winners and, you know what, they might be right because... ” I pull my cell phone out of my apron. “My inbox has been blowing up.”

“Oh..?”

“Listen to this. A cruise line wants me for a holiday residency next year. Live baking demonstrations while influencers sip champagne.  Can you imagine?”

Riley starts picking at her sweater. “On a ship like… on the open seas?”

“No, ‘fraidy cat. They operate on the Hudson, the Mississippi, and other rivers. But that’s not all.” I scroll through more emails. “There’s a seasonal TV show, an invitation to teach at a new culinary institute and, wait for it, an offer to consult on a script for a Hallmark show about a baker. I haven’t even looked at the rest, and there are a dozen more since I last che—”

“Clara.” Riley’s mug lands on the table with a soft thud. “These are big-time offers.”

I don’t even try to stop myself from pulling a face.

“I know right?”

“It’s not surprising, though. You were definitely the fan favorite, and that smile of yours at the end...”

“Crying on national TV wouldn’t have fit my brand.” I laugh softly as I bite into my own gingerbread slice. A personal victory, considering half the town showed up at the community center to watch the finale last night. “Besides, I was genuinely happy for the winner.”

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Sweet Harmony Blitz

Spotlight: Believe in Us by J.H. Croix

A deeply betrayed heroine starting over. A brooding small-town Alaska firefighter, and two guarded hearts. 

When I discovered my ex was cheating with my best friend, it felt like I lost everything in a day. Months later, I packed up the broken pieces of my life and fled to Willow Brook, taking a job at the remote Heartfire Falls Resort. I came to the Alaskan wilderness for a fresh start. 

When Lincoln Silver walks into my office, I take in his tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed presence and tell my pulse to chill out. The Silver family owns the resort, so technically I work for Lincoln. Minor detail.

He's a rugged hotshot firefighter whose family owns the resort, and he carries his own grief. He’s the kind of man who never fails to show up and never fails to protect.

We are both haunted by our pasts, bumping into each other in the dark hours of the night when sleep refuses to come. When he catches me spiraling over the betrayal I left behind, he protects me. I swore I'd never want anything from anyone again, but as our shared midnights turn into a burning attraction, this devoted hero is determined to prove that some risks are worth it.

Perfect for readers who love slow burn romance with forced proximity tension, deeply emotional hurt/comfort, and a love story set against the rugged beauty of the Alaskan wilderness. 

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Meet J.H. Croix

USA Today Bestselling Author J. H. Croix lives in a small town in Maine with her husband and two spoiled dogs. She writes swoony contemporary romance with sassy women and alpha men who aren't afraid to show some emotion. Her love for quirky small-towns and the characters that inhabit them shines through in her writing. When she’s not writing, you can find her cooking, counting the turtles in her backyard pond, and running with her dogs, which is when her best plotting happens. 

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