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The Tale of Tito's Tail

Wendy Butler

2017 Illustration Award
76 Pages
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2017 Illustration Award
From a young pinky, Tito has been allowed to play and have no responsibility. As he matures, he gains chores and begins to develop a role throughout the village. All the while, the Boom Rockers have regular adventures that he must attend because that is where his allegiance resides. He hides the balancing act of a pack leader amongst his friends and acquiring new tasks from a more mature end within the village. His inner conflict of how to become the young buck every villager expects of him becomes increasingly taxing because he's not sure how accepting his clan will be to his new demeanor. After all, his friends have followed in his shadow without him ever realizing, but one at a time, they begin to have their own spotlight. Can Mr. Adagio help to make sense of it all? When the leader of the village, Uncle Guido, decides to throw a project at Tito, it's a great deal of stress that Tito manages to pull off, but not without the help of his friends. The clan once known as the Boom Rockers slowly molds into a sharp-dressed mafia of problem solvers for the village. Tito learns the definition of true friends when the size of the village more than doubled in size overnight. While exploring into the great unknown of Genoa, Italy, little does he know he will also expose the reasoning behind the shortage of cheese throughout his village. He never meets a stranger, but now, he's forced to.

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The Old Man And The King

Joe Corso

2017 Finalist
Kindle Edition
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2017 Finalist

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Clemenceau's Daughters

Rocky Porch Moore

2017 Honorable Mention
184 Pages
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2017 Honorable Mention
The Ballards live in the shadow of July Mountain. They are one step shy of overcoming the taint of poverty dogging the family since the Great Depression. During the excess of the modern 1980s, the Tennessee Valley still harbors a passing respect for the unexplainable and superstition. Roots cling to family trees like tendrils that tangle and tear to claim, not just birthrights, but bloodrights. Folks tend to die around Little Debbie Ballard. She struggles to make sense of a world where the unspoken past and prejudice collide, where truth is no longer as simple as Daddy's word, and cruel intentions transcend generations. Debbie must face the insidious legacy that haunts the women of her family, one by one. How does a family escape a past that refuses to die?

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Age of Order

Julian North

2017 Bronze Medal
414 Pages
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2017 Bronze Medal
“Readers will be transfixed by this novel” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Daniela Machados can run. She’s the track star of Bronx City and an ace student, but that isn’t enough for a nope like her to get out of the barrio.

The Orderist movement has spawned a society that rewards those who supposedly possess “merit,” which includes America’s wealthiest. Manhattan has become the capital of the forty-nine Orderist-led states, while California suffers under an economic embargo. Cities such as Manhattan have become cocoons where the so called “highborn” enjoy the pleasures of farm-grown food and private parks, while their outwardly perfect children are protected by floating nanny-like drones that follow them everywhere.

Daniela has grown up fighting for the chance to attend college beyond the desperation of Bronx City. The chance to attend the elite Tuck School—a place where even the highborn struggle to obtain a spot—is too great an opportunity to ignore. But what do the richies really want from her?

Daniela is thrust into a world very different than the one she expected, a place where both treachery and honor are camouflaged behind beautiful faces. Intrigue and peril soon engulf her, and Daniela learns those at society’s apex will stop at nothing to preserve their so-called order, but their enemies are no less ruthless. Betrayal is everywhere, but it is a girl from Bronx City who holds the future in her hands. Daniela may have a chance to change the world, if it does not change her first.

Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as the novel to revitalize the dystopian genre, Age of Order has the atmosphere of Blade Runner, the intrigue of Orphan Black and the emotional struggle of Slum Dog Millionaire. Grab it.

"[T]he engaging characters, suspenseful storyline and expert world building will keep readers entertained and spellbound." --RT Book Reviews

2016 Lyra Award Winner - Best Young Adult Novel
2017 Los Angeles Book Festival - Best Science Fiction Novel

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Intoxic (Alison Hayes Book 1)

Angie Gallion

2017 Bronze Medal
262 Pages
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2017 Bronze Medal

During this worst of times, Alison Hayes must discover her strength and determination and a powerful drive to do something better.

When Alison Hayes walks into her storm-darkened trailer the afternoon of her 16th birthday, she has no idea it will be the beginning of a year like no other: Her mother loses her job again, the most stable man they've ever had in their lives is looking for the nearest exit, and her best friend is dating the prom queen. She can't remember the last time anything good had happened to her. If the rails still passed through town, she would definitely be on the wrong side, always looking across the tracks to everyone else who has it so much better than she.

Dirt. Trash. The words have followed her through her life in her tattered, rust-stained jeans. She longs to understand her mother--lost and broken, driven by her addictions and by her losses--and to reconcile that reality with the memory of who her mother was before. In the chaos of their one-acre in the world, Alison strives for sanity, forging a path through the wreckage into the light.

She is alone and must learn to stand alone, or she will be swept by the same undercurrents of self-defeat that took her mother so many years ago.

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Cliff Walking

Stephen Russell Payne

2017 Bronze Medal
408 Pages
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2017 Bronze Medal
Set on the rocky and at times unforgiving coast of Maine, Stephen Russell Payne’s emotionally powerful debut novel, Cliff Walking, shares a poignant tale of loss and love that weaves together the lives of three desperate people who struggle mightily to find a way to save each other.

Kate Johnson is a recovering addict from California, married to a cunning, cruel man named Leland Johnson. When she gathers the strength to escape her hellish life, she leaves with her bright, artistic twelve-year-old son, Stringer, crossing Canada as stowaways on a freight train. They eventually find their way to Winter’s Cove, a provincial town on the coast of Maine.

Francis Monroe is a famous Maine seascape artist whose wife died windsurfing on the bay in front of their bungalow the year before, after losing her battle with breast cancer. Emotionally paralyzed since her death, Francis has been haunted both by her loss and his subsequent inability to paint.

When Stringer appears at Francis’s bungalow, the meeting triggers events that dramatically alter the course of their lives. Thrust into a life-threatening altercation, Stringer is forced to take action, and ends up facing felony charges. As Stringer and his loved ones do battle with the local sheriff and the politically aspiring state’s attorney, the citizens of Winter’s Cove have to navigate their own deep-seated prejudices, their beliefs about family and community, and the painful necessity to reexamine justice in their town.

An intimate, probing novel that mines the healing power of hope that can grow out of shared desperation, Cliff Walking is a captivating love story that carries readers on an intense, thought-provoking journey. Both fast-paced and complex, this novel is nearly impossible to put down.

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Olympia

Olympus Book 1
Kris Kramer

2017 Silver Medal
498 Pages
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2017 Silver Medal
Winner - 2017 TxAuthors Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy and 2017 Shelf Media Notable 100

In the late 21st century, economic and religious upheavals led to widespread unrest, and then to a devastating world war. As cities began to disappear from the map, salvation came from the most unlikely of sources - the gods of Olympus, Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Ares, all recently returned to earth to save humanity from itself. Stunned nations quickly became ardent supporters, following the Greek gods in their pursuit of a new way of life, a rebuilt society in which old borders and beliefs no longer exist. A society they called Olympia.

Nearly five hundred years later, Anthony Kensom lives in the nation of Athens with his aunt and his domineering grandmother. The early loss of his parents, and his struggles since have made him an outcast, and angry at the gods who have let him suffer. An incident at school leads him into the Athenian Army, where outcasts thrive, and Anthony finds his true calling as a commander and strategist. Thrust through the ranks by skill and by fortune, he leads the soldiers of Athens into the glorified bloodsport they now call war.

But his new glory is short lived. Anti-Olympia rebels known as Faithless seek to undermine him for their own purposes, using his past in an attempt to turn him against the gods. Olympia is a cage, they protest, and the more Anthony fights against their message, the more he begins to see the chains that keep him shackled.

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When The Dragon Roars

The Starks Trilogy Book 2
Nesly Clerge

2017 Silver Medal
352 Pages
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2017 Silver Medal
"When the Dragon Roars is an absolutely riveting read, full ofsurprising twists and turns and brilliant writing. The chapters areshort; the dialogue realistic; the characters believable and the plotgripping."
--Viga Boland, Readers' Favorite

"With tight, crisp prose and realistic dialogue, the author keepsthe pace of his tome moving at highway speed. His characters are finelyetched both physically and emotionally. Clerge knows the story he wantsto tell, and he tells it in a way that is both involving andentertaining."
--Joe Kilgore, Pacific Book Review

"Brimming with twists, turns, and non-stop drama, When The DragonRoars by Nesly Clerge is a thriller ideal for any fan of prison-noir."
--Veronica Alvarado, Bestseller's World

Secrets and lies force their way to the surface in Nesly Clerge'snewest novel of deception, crime, and buried history. Frederick Starksthought he'd already lost as much as one man could: A beautiful family,the luxurious life wealth provides, success, admiration--all strippedfrom him in one moment of madness that resulted in a fifteen-yearsentence in a maximum security prison. Certain that life has gotten asbad as it can get, Starks contrives a way to rise to the top of theinmate hierarchy. But his assumption is wrong. Amid stunningrevelations, betrayals, and violence, Starks faces one challenge afteranother, until a life-altering event forces him into the most brutalconfrontation of all: the truth about himself.

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When The Serpent Bites

Nesly Clerge

2017 Gold Medal
406 Pages
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2017 Gold Medal
**INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER – GOLD MEDAL**
2017 Best general fiction – Readers’ Favorite

"Downright Amazing." ―Bobbie Grob, Readers' Favorite
"A fascinating read." ―John Murray, Pacific book review
"A plethora of twisted and suspenseful events." ―San Francisco Book Review
"An arresting prison tale about penance.” ―Kirkus Reviews


Frederick Starks has it all—a gorgeous wife who was his high school sweetheart, three beautiful children, a mansion and cars others envy, millions in the bank, respected in his community, admired by his employees, loved and respected by loyal friends. He revels in the hard-earned power and control he’s acquired. As the saying goes, “All that glitters is not gold,” which Starks discovers when gut-wrenching betrayal by his wife sends him over the edge and into a maximum security prison. There, Starks is a new “fish,” stripped of nearly everything he’s always relied on. In that place, where inmates and guards have their own rules and codes of conduct, Starks is forced to face the darker side of life, and his own darker side, especially when the betrayals, both inside and outside the prison, don’t stop. He must choose which path to follow when the line between right and wrong becomes blurred: one that leads to getting out of the physical and emotional hellhole he finds himself in or one that keeps him alive.

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An Absence of Faith

David W. Gordon

2016 Finalist
280 Pages
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2016 Finalist
A young woman is viciously murdered in Queens. The killer has left every indication that this will be the first in a long reign of terror. Detective Kate Manning is hunting the elusive butcher while desperately trying to decipher his message. Following the trail of blood, Kate will be pushed to her limits, as she is drawn into an age old battle that challenges what it means to have faith in God and in man.