Babymaking

 

Memoir

Date Published: December 11th, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

Making a baby is one of life’s most precious and natural acts. But sometimes, despite our deepest wishes and most sincere prayers, the body has other plans.

Vincentia Schroeter dreams of building a family of her own and expects an easy pregnancy. She imagines following in her mother’s footsteps, surrounded by the love of children. However, when complications mount, she must face the likelihood that her wish will never come true.

As her sisters bear children, and women all around her share their happy baby news, Vin grows more envious than ever. The frustration continues as hard truths test her patience and faith and medical professionals deliver devastating blows. The only thing she knows for sure is that she is determined to become a mother.

A story of one woman’s harrowing path through trauma and disillusionment, Babymaking is a heartfelt memoir of vulnerability, rupture, and repair. Vin’s journey reminds us that hope and unconditional love have the power to lead us to the place we were always meant to be.

About the Author

 

 Vincentia Schroeter grew up in a small town in central California as the fourth of twelve children. Intrigued by the many different personalities in her family, she knew by the age of sixteen that she wanted to be a counselor. She put herself through college and graduate school in order to pursue her dreams.

Vin is the author of the award-winning self-help book, Communication Breakthrough: How Using Brain Science and Listening to Body Cues Can Change Your Relationships (2018). She also co-authored a training manual on somatic psychotherapy that has been translated into three languages.

After a forty-year career as a psychotherapist listening to clients’ stories of pain and trauma, Vin felt drawn to share her own story. She now lives in San Diego with her husband Steve and enjoys pickleball, painting, and time with family, including her dog, Ren.

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The Brothers Brown, part 2

 

 

for the sake of family

Family Saga, Historical Fiction, Native American

Date Published: 12-01-2025

Based on a true story.

Set in the late 1890’s, The Brothers Brown - a family saga, Part 2 - For the Sake of Family is a sweeping frontier saga of love, guilt, and redemption - an unflinching portrait of a man’s descent into madness amid the unforgiving wilds of Indian Territory.

When Matt Brown boards a northbound train, he carries more than a pistol. He carries the weight of his brother’s death, a marriage strained to its breaking point, and a conscience at war with itself. A doctor’s brown vial of medicine offers fleeting relief but soon draws him into a darker world where pain and guilt blur into something far more dangerous.

His wife, Milla, proud and rooted in her Choctaw heritage, stands as both his anchor and his judge as the world around them shifts under the weight of change and loss.

From Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the wooded banks of Bokchito Creek, two families are bound by tragedy and love, vengeance and mercy. A celebration meant to heal ignites old resentments. A family gathering ends in bloodshed. And a winter dance turns deadly, forcing each to face the cost of survival, forgiveness, and the ties that bind them.

Steeped in the spirit of the Choctaw Nation and the rough mercy of the Old West, For the Sake of Family is a haunting tale of madness, murder, and the fragile hope that redemption can be found on the far side of ruin.

Excerpt

Closest to the flames was an old man with long, stringy hair. He wore a blue cotton pullover shirt, collarless and loose, with colorful ribbons sewn to the front and sleeves. The ribbons swayed with his motions as he chanted and stepped in place to the timing of the chant. He held two sticks about a foot and a half long with strands of beads tied to the ends and struck them together in time with the chant.

 With each step, the old man’s ankle rattles shook. The dried tails of rattlesnakes fastened to leather strips grew louder and faster as his steps grew heavier. Many of the men had rattles tied to their ankles as well, while the women’s moccasins tingled with strands of beads hanging from the fringe. 

 Matt watched in awe as the people danced. 

“Way-yak-un-way-yak-a,” the leader sang, striking the sticks in measured rhythm, one-and-a, two-and-a, one-and-a, two-and-a. On the twelfth beat, each pair of dancers turned to one another, their right foot kicked dirt inward as they voiced a loud, “woah.” 

Spellbound, Matt watched, mouthing the chant under his breath along with the dancers. Then his breath caught. Milla stepped into the firelight, dancing beside a woman he had never seen before. 

 He gasped aloud, never having seen his wife like this, dressed in full traditional attire, her body moving gracefully in the fire’s glow. For an instant, she seemed a stranger, and yet more truly herself than he had ever known. 

 She turned her head, eyes lifting toward the trees. Matt stumbled backward, ducking for cover. He had to get out of there. 

 He spun around and nearly collided with John. 

“Shhh.” John pressed a finger to his lips and grabbed Matt’s arm, guiding him quietly away from the gathering. 

 

About the Author

Raised on the beaches of South Texas, R.G. Stanford has always been drawn to stories that transcend time. That passion was ignited in 1976 with the discovery of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, and deepened with The Feast of All Saints just a few years later. Though historical fiction wasn’t an immediate calling, a personal journey into genealogy changed everything.

With no close relatives nearby, R.G. Stanford turned to online resources in search of extended family. That search became a twenty-year journey through genealogy websites, Federal Census records, the National Archives, and old newspapers. Along the way, R.G. Stanford uncovered incredible stories about her family and the people who once lived in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.

Compelled to record the truth of her family in the lore, sprinkled with imagination, R.G. Stanford is a history lover, a research buff, and a passionate genealogy enthusiast. She is also a mother, a grandmother, and a teller of stories, now living near Orlando.

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Pyres by Kev Harrison Genre: Dark Supernatural Horror

 

 

As the artworks - and charred bodies - mount up, 

can Angela and Becky find out what’s happening, and how to stop it?

Pyres

by Kev Harrison

Genre: Dark Supernatural Horror

"Horror’s Kev Harrison is on fire with his latest novel, Pyres, a blistering murder mystery with echoes of Dorian Grey that compels with its artistry as much as its political commentary. Set in the New Forest and conjuring ancient gods, Pyres is darkly revelatory. Definitely make this your next read."—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

Angela has been a spirit painter for years. Channelling the spirits as they commit memories to canvas through her: childhood pets, favourite holiday locations, and sprawling homesteads. But now, something has changed.

The paintings take a dark turn just as her sister, Becky, returns from Italy. People burnt alive, their smouldering remains a vivid, visceral stain on Angela’s canvasses. Already disturbed, her life is thrown into turmoil when a right wing TV news presenter is found incinerated in a facsimile of her new painting.

As the artworks - and charred bodies - mount up, can Angela and Becky find out what’s happening, and how to stop it?

From the Independent Press Award-winning author of Shadow of the Hidden, Pyres is a tense, taut novel of supernatural horror.

 

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There’s a bite in the air that I haven’t felt since … well, since the last time I was here. I pull the jacket round me and do the zip up halfway.

After unlatching the gate, I walk it back, fastening it in place with its rope to a hook on the old stone wall, then dash back to my car and park up.

The house seems at first to be in darkness, but then I catch the orange quiver of candlelight through the windows.

Angela must be painting. Just my luck.

I grab a holdall from the boot—the rest of my things can wait until the morning—and make for the front door. I knock. Wait. And, as expected, there’s no reply.

A glance up at the sky tells me this pause in the rain won’t last long, so I head around the back of the cottage, through the knee-high grass and wildflowers to the old wooden summer house. I lift the locking bar and let myself in.

Cobwebs stretch from corners, telling tales of a summer to forget. I swat them away, careful not to catch any spiders in the process, then make for the curtain at the back. Sweeping it aside, I find the painting—my sister’s first ‘with help’, as she likes to put it—and take it down. The front door key is, as always, nestled in the corner of the frame.

With the summer house locked up, I traipse back to the front door and carefully unlock it. I creep inside, leaving my bag under the coat rack, then lock the door with as much stealth as I can manage.

Now, all that’s left is to follow the wavering shadows from the candlelight, and the pungent fragrance of henbane, to Angela’s studio on the other side of the cottage. I think about using the torch on my phone, but fear the consequences if I wake her while she paints.

The walls are emblazoned with canvases from the hall through to the lounge. The styles are eclectic, so varied you could never say they prescribed to any specific theme. Such is the way of things in her line of artistic expression.

When I reach the glass panelled door to the studio, I pause before turning the handle, knowing as I do that what I’m about to witness will never not jar with me. I take a breath, hold it, and push.

The door glides silently open and she’s there, facing me, hands frantically swiping with the brush on the portrait canvas before her. She balances with poise on the high artist’s stool, despite the extravagant motions of her painting, despite the fact her eyes are rolled back, the bulging sclera pulsing, criss-crossed with angry-looking pink veins. The shadows, swaying in the candlelight, render the scene still more other worldly. Unsettling.

The decades-old futon in the corner looks so inviting, especially as I have no idea how long this could continue for. But curiosity tugs at me, even through the fog of my exhaustion. I always want to know what she’s painting, even if I’m not wholly convinced by the way she describes her methods.

Taking care not to get too close, I tiptoe around the edge of the studio and come to a stop behind her. Her brush hand continues to thrash one way and the other, while mine are drawn, without my permission, to my mouth.

On the canvas, there is a room. The utterly unremarkable magnolia walls and fireplace are not what has stolen my breath. That prize goes to what’s at the centre of the piece. A green, leather armchair, somehow, remains intact, as do one and a half of the legs ‘sitting’ on it, if you can call it that.

At the top of the worst affected of the two legs, the thigh is a bubbled, overcooked mound of flesh, from which a charred femur extends. The torso is missing, but for a blackened imprint melted into the fabric of the chair behind. Despite this, the right leg remains covered in a fragment of a pressed, grey trouser leg. Each foot remains encased in a perfectly preserved shoe.

I try to breathe. Try to remember the mechanism by which my lungs have been pulling in air for the length of my life to date. The extremities of my vision begin to darken, my balance slipping away, when I hear Angela’s voice.

“Not again.”

Originally from the UK, but now living in Lisbon, Portugal, Kev Harrison is the Independent Press Award-winning author of Shadow of the Hidden and his newest novel, Pyres, as well as the novellas, Below and The Balance. His short fiction has appeared in more than twenty venues and is collected in Paths Best Left Untrodden. When not crafting creepy tales, he can be found travelling and eating with his partner in crime, Ana, or singing bizarre songs to his three cat overlords.

 

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In Vitro

 

 

 

Women’s Fiction

Date Published: December 9, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

 

The Hippocratic Oath dictates, “First, do no harm,” but what if success demands it?

 

The calm and compassionate Dr. Joyce Porter is proud to work at McArthur Fertility Institute, where miracles happen every day. Couples determined to conceive flock to the clinic, drawn by its unmatched IVF success rate and glowing reputation.

But behind the clinic’s shining facade lies a disturbing secret. When another doctor mentions a peculiarity in the facility’s methods, Joyce investigates. What she discovers is worse than she could have imagined. Now, she must decide whether to confront the institute’s renowned director about his unscrupulous deeds or compromise her ethics by turning a blind eye. She knows staying silent could destroy people’s lives, but speaking out could destroy hers.

As the line between healing and harm blurs, Joyce must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect her patients, her integrity, and the future she still hopes to build.

 

About the Author

M.J. Kuhar worked in private practice as an OB-GYN for over a decade before shifting to a career in higher education, first as an assistant professor, then as a college dean, and finally as a vice president.

Her dedication to helping patients and students left her little time to write, but the idea for a novel stuck with her. Inspired by deeply moving stories of couples undergoing IVF, she developed her first novel, In Vitro.

Now retired, M.J. lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a spicy cat named Simon. She volunteers at a local elementary school, where she reads with kindergarteners to foster a love of books. Tai chi, crafting, and wine tasting are a few of her favorite hobbies.

 

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Unshrink Yourself

 

 

12 Mini-Shifts To Ditch Self-Doubt and Own Your Life

Self-Help

Date Published: December 9, 2025

STOP SHRINKING. START OWNING YOUR LIFE.

A no-nonsense, heart-driven guide to help you break free from self-doubt and live boldly.

If you’ve ever held back because you didn’t feel smart enough, ready enough, or worthy enough, this book is your turning point.

In Unshrink Yourself, bestselling author and leadership coach Thanh Nguyen shares twelve small-but-mighty mindset shifts that help you silence your inner critic, let go of perfectionism, and finally step into your power.

With raw honesty, heartfelt stories, and practical reflection exercises, Thanh guides you through the exact steps she used to rebuild her confidence—from a voiceless immigrant teenager to an engineering executive, bestselling author, professor, and speaker who leads with courage and heart.

Each mini-shift is a simple yet profound change in how you think, speak, and show up every day. From accepting compliments and discovering your core values to rewiring negative self-talk and celebrating small wins, these shifts compound to transform how you see yourself and what you believe is possible.

If you’re tired of shrinking, second-guessing, and settling for less than you deserve… it’s time to rise.

 

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Break free from self-sabotaging thoughts and limiting beliefs

• Replace fear with faith and self-criticism with compassion

• Speak up, stand tall, and own your worth

• Build confidence through consistent, courageous action

• Lead your life with authenticity, balance, and joy

 

You don’t need to be perfect—just present, brave, and willing to grow.

 

Because the world doesn’t need a smaller version of you.

It needs the real you—confident, courageous, and unapologetically alive.

 

It’s time to Unshrink Yourself.

 

Praise For Unshrink Yourself:

"If you've ever held yourself back, played small when you knew you had more to give, or wondered whether your voice really matters, this book is for you. It will remind you that the world doesn't need a smaller version of you; it needs the fullest, boldest, most authentic expression of you." —Jack Canfield. Co-creator, Chicken Soup for the Soul® series. New York Times Bestselling Author, The Success Principles™: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

 

"Unshrink Yourself helps readers grow into confident, values-driven leaders. Thanh Nguyen is a shining example of the Maxwell Leadership mission in action — to equip and empower others to lead with integrity, purpose, and passion. She embodies what it means to add value to people." —Chris Robinson. EVP of Maxwell Leadership Team. USA Today Bestselling Author, From Drift to Drive: A High Achiever's Guide To Breaking The Chains Of Complacency

 

"Unshrink Yourself fits right alongside works by Brené Brown and Mel Robbins... It reads like advice from a friend who's done the hard work and is willing to share the messy parts. Through personal stories, studies, and practical steps, Nguyen shows how confidence can grow from the inside out. The book's heart sits in its honesty. Nguyen's strength is how she keeps things simple. She skips the jargon and focuses on what actually works. Her voice feels lived in, not performative. The book balances storytelling with action steps that make readers pause and think, then actually do something about it." —Sam Wright, Book-Buy.

 

About the Author

 

 Thanh Nguyen is the co-founder of The Encourage Team and the bestselling author of Calm in Chaos: Mindfulness and Meditation for Busy Professionals. A certified leadership coach, keynote speaker, Professor in the Practice at Rice University, and longtime mindfulness practitioner, she is dedicated to helping individuals cultivate resilience, clarity, and courage through mindset mastery.

Originally from Vietnam, Thanh overcame financial hardship, language barriers, and personal adversity after immigrating to the United States as a teenager. With two master’s degrees—in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration—two U.S. patents, and more than twenty years of corporate leadership experience, she now channels her expertise into empowering others to live positively, lead courageously, and take inspired action toward their goals.

 

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The Paramount Code

  

Business, Self-Help, Non-Fiction

Date Published: December 8, 2025

What if the real code to success isn’t about working harder, but about mastering who you are when no one’s watching?

You’ve tried the scripts, the hustle, and the motivation videos. Yet something still feels missing, that spark of purpose, discipline, and integrity that separates the top 1% from everyone else. You’re not lazy; you’re just stuck in an old paradigm that no longer serves you.

The Paramount Code is not another motivational pep talk. It’s a complete system, a mindset-driven framework that rewires how you think, act, and lead. Rooted in the four timeless pillars of Integrity, Character, Honesty, and Professionalism. This book fuses the psychology of performance with proven field tactics from the real world of sales and leadership. The result? A clear, ethical, and repeatable code for excellence.

Imagine walking into every opportunity with calm confidence, knowing exactly how to handle objections, lead your team, and stay grounded under pressure. Imagine a workday fueled by focus and discipline, not chaos and burnout.

 

Inside the book, you will discover:

* The hidden “code” that silently determines your success or failure

* How to shift from old habits of self-sabotage to a growth-oriented mindset

* The real meaning of integrity and how it becomes your most powerful sales tool.

* The secrets to mastering canvassing, follow-ups, and closing with authenticity.

* How to lead and retain high-performing teams while avoiding the turnover trap.

* Practical checklists and behavioral maps that make success measurable.

* A field-tested paradigm for lasting motivation and mental toughness

 

Unlike theory-heavy business books, The Paramount Code is designed for action. Each chapter translates principles into simple, repeatable steps, making it feel like having a personal coach guiding you through change.

Think you’ve read all the success books before? Think again. This one doesn’t just inspire you, it equips you.

Success doesn’t wait and neither do the people who seize it. The rules are changing fast, and those who live by The Paramount Code are already rewriting the game.

If you’re serious about growth, this is your moment. Tomorrow, someone else will take the opportunity you hesitated on.

 

About the Author

 

 James Odell is a forty-seven-year-old author originally from Arlington, Texas, and he now resides in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He is a dedicated father to three daughters, a committed baseball enthusiast, and a passionate weightlifting hobbyist. He is currently studying at Liberty University with the goal of becoming a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor.

His writing journey began with "The Road to Hancock County," a book that required two years of steady effort and personal growth. His second book, titled "Stripped," arrived soon after and carried a message of honesty and resilience. His third release, "50 Shades of Faith," continued his development as an author with a voice rooted in purpose. His newest book, titled "The Paramount Code," stands as his most powerful work and reflects the lessons that shaped his life, his leadership, and his mission to help others rise above their circumstances.

James donates most of his book royalties to charity to help feed families in need. Countless individuals lose their lives daily to hunger-related illness, many of them children who suffer from preventable malnutrition. Every purchase of his books supports a mission built on compassion, service, and hope. His readers become part of a movement that reminds the world that generosity changes lives.

 

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