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.
The Celestial War
shattered the Heavens; after millennia, the battle still rages.
On the most important day of Zahra’s career at the Gallery of Time Museum,
everything unravels. A mysterious package arrives from her estranged father,
and the Atar’zul, a relic that could secure her promotion goes missing. While
betrayal festers within the museum, a long lost love returns, throwing Zahra’s
world into chaos.
Kyden, a warrior angel and demon slayer, has guarded the spiritual realm for
centuries. When a famous archaeologist and forbidden artifact vanish, Kyden is
forced to protect a human, a job he vowed long ago to never do again.
Together, Zahra and Kyden must face rising demon threats and the cursed magic
of the Atar’zul. As darkness closes in, they join forces to defend both realms
and find that ending the battle beans trusting each other. Sacrifices must be
made—the cost of which might be their very souls.
Welcome to the battle for humanity's
future—a story of loyalty, temptation, and the fragile line between light and
shadow.
Cassie Sanchez is the award-winning author behind
the Darkness trilogy—a whirlwind of fast-paced fantasy romance
where danger dances with desire and magic always has a price. Based in the
enchanting Southwest, she lives with her husband and two crazy labs named
Bullet and Scout. When she’s not writing happily-ever-afters, she can be found
wielding a Pickleball paddle or cuddling with her nogs for an afternoon nap.
At the heart of Cassie’s stories are characters who
stumble, fall, and rise again—wrestling with forgiveness and searching for
redemption. Step into her world, where every story casts a spell and love
conquers all, even the shadows.
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.
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.
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.”
