Monthly Archives: December 2021

2021 New Releases for SWW Authors #4

Posted on by

Linda Davis-Kyle, Mary A. Johnson PhD, Sharon Vander Meer, RJ The Story Guy (RJ Mirabal), Léonie Rosenstiel, and John L. Thompson represent the diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW) with books published in a variety of genres in 2021. Their new releases couldn’t fit in this year’s interview schedule, but look for interviews/updates for most of these authors in 2022.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2021 releases is included at the end of this post.

Getting Ready to Write: Reviewing English Grammar (March 2021) by Linda Davis-Kyle. This colorfully illustrated e-book shares a useful, but fun, way to help pre-teens, teens, and beyond teens review grammar, mechanics, and writing basics. It shows beginning writers nine facets of writing they can control to strengthen their courage to write. It also fosters a “Never give up attitude” to help wordsmiths stay on track. Getting Ready to Write is a treasure of supplemental ideas for educators, writing coaches, and homeschoolers to add to their own lesson plans. The activities and exercises will also be handy for parents, grandparents, adoptive parents, foster parents, and mentors who are tasked to teach.

Visit Linda on WritingNow.com and on Amazon.

Love and Asperger’s: Jim and Mary’s Excellent Adventure (Atmosphere Press, November 2021) by Mary A. Johnson PhD. What do you do when the man who courted you turns out to be different after marriage? When Jim began to behave strangely, Mary thought she had made a huge mistake. She had fallen in love and left all that was familiar in New Mexico, to marry and move to Oregon with this man she met online. One day, she had a surprising epiphany while doing laundry. How had she missed the obvious cause of his quirky behavior? In this memoir, readers experience the possible unraveling of the marriage ties. The future rests on Jim’s willingness to accept his diagnosis of Asperger’s. Come along on Jim and Mary’s adventures—some fun, some difficult, some comical, but all loving—as they eventually work together to engineer an excellent solution!

You’ll find Mary on her website at MaryAJohnsonPhD.com and on Amazon.

Tapestry: Tales, Essays, Poetry (November 2021), A Collection of Works by Northeastern New Mexico Writers, is edited by SWW member Sharon Vander Meer (who is also a contributor). Tapestry: Tales, Essays, Poetry showcases thirty-two writers and sixty-nine distinct works of poetry and prose, truly weaving a tapestry of life and creativity. There is no duplication, proving once again that the art of writing is as diverse as the people taking up a writing implement or sitting down at a computer, and turning on their imaginations. This first collection from Las Vegas Literary Salon lets us know there are many writers in our communities with stories to tell. We share their stories here with gratitude to those represented in these pages.

Tapestry is available on Amazon. For Sharon’s other releases, visit her Amazon author page.

Trixie: Round Brown Ball of Dog (November 2021) by RJ The Story Guy (aka RJ Mirabal). Trixie’s adventures continue as she learns to have more Dog Fun with her people and looks for new things to do. Then everything is put aside when the Brown Dog takes on an unexpected challenge. Sure, Trixie likes fun, sniffing, walking, running, and playing, but those have to take a back seat for a while. Trixie still can’t talk like you, but she can get across what she wants and how she feels when she grunts, whines, whistles, barks, growls, wags her tail and body while singing her Dog Opera. Fortunately, RJ The Story Guy has interpreted all this for your reading enjoyment. Big things to overcome, toys to chew and tug, new people to bring into her life, places to go, lots of exploring, and a new fantasy adventure await inside.

Visit RJ’s websites at TrixieTheBrownDog.com and RJMirabal.com. Trixie: Round Brown Ball of Dog is available on Amazon.

Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp (Calumet Editions, November 2021) by Léonie Rosenstiel. Léonie, whose mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, struggles with an implacable, court-appointed guardian against the backdrop of centuries-old family myths and miscommunication. Mama wants their story told, but the courts demand that secrecy enshroud all guardianship records—forever. After years of struggle and Kafkaesque frustration, and with the help of a brilliant, unconventional attorney, Léonie goes to war with the establishment in an attempt to help others find their way through the swamp of legal guardianship.

You’ll find all of Léonie’s books on her Amazon author page.

Monkey Wrench (Truck Stop Book 2, April 2021) by John L. Thompson. George Olsen’s life is one big lie. As a witness in a mob money embezzlement operation turned deadly, he lives within the WITSEC program and has had plenty of trouble adapting to life. Never look back. It’s one of the sacred rules within the WITSEC program. But when he hears an old flame has moved back to New Mexico, he takes a chance and returns to his old stomping grounds only to discover that decision could prove to be fatal. People are looking for the half-million in embezzled mob cash buried somewhere in Torrance County. The same money Olsen and his friend found years earlier, the same money people have died for, and the same money wanted by an army of killers who will stop at nothing to get it.

John L. Thompson also published a nonfiction book, It’s a Lonely World: An Indie Author’s Journey (Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them), in August 2021. Are you the new guy trying to learn this self-publishing gig? Have you tried to self-publish your book and wonder why it has failed to gather sales and reviews? You got a book script, but don’t know where to start? Do you feel like self-publishing will mark you as an amateur? You and thousands of other Indie-Authors are not alone. For decades, the stigma of the term “self-published” has meant bad book covers, bad interior formatting, and a bad story in general. Back in the old days, there were no viable services accessible to the self-publishing author. You were lucky if you knew a guy who knew another guy who was an editor. This is no longer the case.  Thousands of editors, artists, and promoters are out there in the land of the internet to help you. With Amazon publishing thousands of titles per week, there is no reason why you, the Indie-Author, should fail in launching your book with, at the least, moderate returns on your hard work.

Visit John’s Amazon author page for all his releases.

SWW Author Interviews: 2021 Releases

• Jeffrey Candelaria
TORO: The Naked Bull
• Marty Eberhardt
Death in a Desert Garden
• Melody Groves
When Outlaws Wore Badges
• Holly Harrison
Rites & Wrongs
• Robert Kidera
A LONG TIME TO DIE
• BR Kingsolver
Soul Harvest
• Marcia Meier
Face, A Memoir
• Victoria Murata
The Acolyte
• Barb Simmons
The War Within: A Wounded Warrior Romance
• Gina Troisi
The Angle of Flickering Light

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



2021 New Releases for SWW Authors #3

Posted on by

Valerie Baeza, Parris Afton Bonds, BR Kingsolver, François-Marie Patorni, and Judy Willmore are members of SouthWest Writers (SWW) with 2021 releases that couldn’t fit into this year’s interview schedule. Look for interviews or updates for most of these authors in 2022.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2021 releases is included at the end of this post.

Valerie Baeza’s Story of My Life (October 2021) is a gripping epistolary novel that possesses unforgettable characters and impassioned storylines. When the worst happens, how do you move on? Garence Leitner had it all: a meaningful career traveling the world as a writer and photographer, the quintessential cottage in Bourton-on-the-Water, England, and the love of his life, Sabina. Now, with each passing day, the memory of her suffocates him. Even new romantic love delivers misery. Garence has sold the cottage, and can barely stand to look at what were once their prized possessions. But one alluring leftover item does claim his attention: a piece of luggage containing all the letters he and Sabina exchanged. As the letters transport Garence back through five years of emotional highs and lows, he will move into the shadows of despair—where love, hope, and friendship also pervade. Can these letters be his saving grace? If Garence cannot find a reason to live without Sabina within three days, he will take his life.

You’ll find Valerie on her website at ValerieBaezaAuthor.com and on Amazon.

The Betrayers (Lagan Press, May 2021) is the fourth book in The Texicans series by Parris Afton Bonds. Love and hate combine to endanger the Paladíns and all they hold dear. A violent scuffle between Drake Paladín and Roger Clarendon results in a none-too-subtle message to the Paladíns: politics is dirty business. From hereon, the Paladíns suffer failures and sabotage across their many business ventures. Eventually, even the sprawling South Texas ranch the family fought for and won the right to at the Battle of San Jacinto is put in peril. Rallying together to save their ancestral home, the Paladíns put niceties and tolerance behind them. This is war. But the battle to exterminate the Clarendons brings Preston Paladín to pre-war Nazi Germany—and the disarming charms of Fabienne Allaman. But on whose side is she really? And dare he risk the fate of his entire family for the love of a resistance fighter with nothing to lose?

For all of her books, visit Parris on her Amazon author page.

BR Kingsolver’s newest novel, The Gambler Grimoire (August 2021), is the first book in the urban fantasy mystery series Wicklow College of Arcane Arts. When Savanna Robinson arrived at Wicklow College to assume her new teaching position, she was curious about the abrupt departure of her predecessor. Then she discovered he had been murdered. No one knew who killed him or why, but everyone had their theories and suspects. Even the police—arcane and mundane—didn’t seem eager to investigate. But Savanna discovered a possible connection with the murder of a broker of rare arcane books. Were there really spells that could change your luck? When her own life is threatened, and the murders begin to pile up, she knows she can’t leave the mystery unsolved.

Visit the author’s Amazon author page.

The Politician’s Breviary: a Companion to Leaders and Influencers and Those They Seek to Control (French Legacy Press, June 2021), by François-Marie Patorni, is the first translation into English of the seventeenth-century Breviarium politicorum. This nonfiction book draws inspiration from the legacy of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, King Louis XIV’s mentor and prime minister. The original 1684 Latin edition was attributed only to an anonymous author, and subsequent editions over the following decades captivated readers as had Machiavelli’s The Prince a hundred and fifty years earlier. Yet, the Breviary’s principles and maxims that unveil how to achieve and retain power are even more relevant to guide today’s leaders and politicians.

The Politician’s Breviary is available on Amazon.

Judy Willmore’s debut novel,The Menagerie: Passion, Power, and Poison in the Court of the Sun King, was released by Artemesia Publishing in June 2021. Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart had to have Louis, King of France, but his other mistresses stand in the way. Then she meets a  sorceress and Athénaïs gets her wish. But soon Louis hears tales of witchcraft and poison, a conspiracy spreading through his court—like the beasts in the Versailles menagerie, courtesans are clawing their way to his favor, and his bed. He orders Lieutenant General of Police Gabriel-Nicolas de la Reynie to investigate. Mysterious deaths mount while La Reynie presses on, hauling in witches, charlatans, and the nobility alike. Grimey fingers point to Athénaïs, the King’s mistress, with whispers of a black mass celebrated over her naked body. Then La Reynie discovers a plot to kill her.

You’ll find Judy on her website at JudyWillmoreAuthor.com and on Amazon.

Ramblings & Reflections: Winning Words of SouthWest Writers’ 2021 Contest

Ramblings & Reflections includes 54 winning entries from the SWW 2021 writing competition. Inside you’ll encounter aliens, foreign lands, post-apocalyptic environments, supernatural beings, paeans to nature, tributes to the lost, calls to action, wry humor, mysteries to ponder and histories to marvel at. The authors in this volume emote, exhort, evoke, inform, implore, explore, explain, entertain and exorcise. They have engaged in all the best pursuits, which—in the end—are really just one: to look within in order to see more fully without. We hope you, too, will be transported and transformed on the journeys they curate.

Ramblings & Reflections is available on Amazon. For a look at the anthology’s table of contents, go to this page. And visit the SWW Publications page for all of SWW’s releases.

SWW Author Interviews: 2021 Releases

• Jeffrey Candelaria
TORO: The Naked Bull
• Marty Eberhardt
Death in a Desert Garden
• Melody Groves
When Outlaws Wore Badges
• Holly Harrison
Rites & Wrongs
• Robert Kidera
A LONG TIME TO DIE
• BR Kingsolver
Soul Harvest
• Marcia Meier
Face, A Memoir
• Victoria Murata
The Acolyte
• Barb Simmons
The War Within: A Wounded Warrior Romance
• Gina Troisi
The Angle of Flickering Light

KLWagoner150_2KL Wagoner (writing as Cate Macabe) is the author of This New Mountain: a memoir of AJ Jackson, private investigator, repossessor, and grandmother. Kathy posts to a speculative fiction blog at klwagoner.com and writes about memoir at ThisNewMountain.com.



In Archive