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Angel With Steel Wings – Blitz

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Women of Courage Series
Historical Romance / Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Elk Lake Publishing
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DESPITE THE DANGER
At a time when most people in American have never flown in an airplane, spunky Mandy McCabe test-pilots repaired war planes as part of the Women Air Force Service Pilots. If the Army Air Corp shuts down the WASP program, she must return to life in her hard-scrabble home and face her past.
DESPITE THE OPPOSITION
Army Air Corp Major Harvey Applegate lost his WASP wife test-piloting planes and doesn’t want any more women killed on his watch. He fights to close the WASP program. Women aren’t designed to fight wars. Men fight to protect women freedom, and the American way of life.
DESPITE THE RAGING WAR
This World War II romance shows Steel Magnolias meeting Band of Brothers. Can Mandy escape from her past? Can a man burdened with memories of death agree to added danger for the new woman in his life? Will their new love survive the test of opposing desires and the pain and separation of war?
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Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
“She’s late! Where is she?” Insides churning like pistons, Major Harvey Applegate stared hard at the tiny blonde standing in front of him, her hands clenched behind her back.
Her chin trembled. She looked so young he wanted to pat her on the back and send her to the hangar for a hot chocolate, but majors didn’t do that. So he gritted his teeth. He was supposed to show respect for the WASPs invading his air base. That was asking a lot. They were young and unpredictable. Men fought wars to protect American women. Men died in wars. Not women. He restrained his impulse to pound the metal side of the wet hangar and slapped his thigh with his cap instead. 
“I can’t lose another WASP on my watch. Not two in as many days.” He plowed his hand through his short, dripping hair, frowned, and reminded himself not to get his underwear wrapped around an axle.
“She’s only half an hour late, sir.” Doreen’s lower lip quivered. 
“Didn’t that pilot get the word this morning?” Harvey wrung his cap. He wouldn’t take his temper out on this innocent blonde. 
“No, sir. Corporal Jones ran up to tell me we were grounded twenty minutes after she was in the air.”
Above the wail of the wind, Harvey picked up the faint lilting song of a Merlin engine running slightly rough. He gazed toward the windsock blowing straight out and pivoted toward the landing strip. A P-51 came in fast and low, circled the field, made a perfect three-point landing, and taxied to a halt.
He snapped his cap onto his head. He didn’t have many men who could land in a crosswind that well. Even he would have had trouble. Boots splashing water, he dashed across the tarmac and reached the craft before the propeller stopped spinning. The canopy of the single-seater flew open. A slight figure, clad in a man’s too-large flight suit, climbed out onto the rain-slick wing. He stretched up his arms and grabbed her waist to lower her to the ground. Even with the weight of her boots, flight jacket, and gear, this one felt light in his arms.
The pilot glanced at his insignia. If she’d actually been military, she’d have had to salute. But she wasn’t, and she didn’t. The minute her feet touched ground, the slender woman pulled off her goggles and gazed up at him. Wide blue eyes circled with goggle marks.
Another starry-eyed angel. Harvey swallowed hard. His chest hurt. She looked so vulnerable.  He scowled, picturing that slender nose smashed and those winsome lips closed forever. He couldn’t face seeing another woman killed. He wanted these women off his air base. Wanted no more sleep lost over these young ladies. Wanted no more sending them into danger. Wanted no more funerals that tore him apart. He slapped the cowl of the plane so hard she jumped. No more charred women in downed planes. Trista took on a man’s job, and look how that turned out. Agony pierced his chest. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the memory.
“I’ll see you grounded!” Harvey thundered. “You were due back half an hour ago. Can’t you women obey rules?”   
Ruby lips rounded into an O of surprise. Her sapphire eyes widened. Her dark brows arched. “What?”
“Women pilots!” He slammed his fist into his palm. “I’ll shut down this program.”
Her brows furrowed. Her chin poked out. Her hands flew to her hips. She looked ready to jump all over him. As long as she was alive and safe, he didn’t care. He could handle her. “You head-in-the-clouds dreamers think you’re on your own private missions. This base is no place for a woman!”
“You men have such a high opinion of yourselves. Women could fly in combat, but you keep us home.” Flames tinted her wet cheeks. “You won’t admit our country desperately needs us to fly these planes.” She stressed each word passionately.
Harvey could tell she wanted to say more, but she clamped her lips. He glared.
She glowered back.
Tough if she thought he had an inflated opinion of himself. Better that than for her to guess he had a soft spot for these female pilots. “I don’t want any more dead women.”
She cringed. Her face crumpled.
Why hadn’t he kept his trap shut? Even on a base this big, she probably knew the missing WASP pilot. But he’d wanted to scare her into obeying the rules. Obedience gave the women pilots some semblance of safety.
She recovered from her first reaction and blazed. “Connie’s alive. I know it. And rumor patrol says it’s just a couple of you big shots who want to shut us down. Most fellas like us testing repaired planes and towing targets. They want to be free to fly combat.”
He shrugged. She was right. And he couldn’t dredge up a comeback. 
She stomped stiff-legged toward the open hangar door, parachute bumping her backside, rain blurring his view. 
“Feisty pilot, you’re the kind gets yourself killed,” he yelled just as she reached the hangar door. 
About the Author

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Anne Greene lives in the quaint antiquing town of McKinney, Texas, a few miles north of Dallas. Her husband is a retired Colonel, Army Special Forces. Her little brown and white Shih Tzu, Lily Valentine, shares her writing space, curled at her feet.
Besides her first love, writing, she enjoys family, friends, travel, reading, and way too many other things to mention. Life is good. Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.”
Anne’s an award-winning author of twenty-three books. She loves writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer, and about gutsy heroines. She hopes her stories transport you to awesome new worlds and touch your heart.
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Luris: Memories of Dreams – Blitz

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YA Fantasy
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: January 2016
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Luris: Memories of Dreams is a full-color manga which follows the unfortunate life story of M—, a young adult suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Due to amnesia induced by the PTSD, M— cannot remember many details from her past. What remains in her memory are fragments of dreams that must be traversed in order to piece together the reality that traumatized her. Though often strange and ambiguous, her dreams hold the keys that will empower her to face and overcome the terrible events of her past and the deepest fears of her inner self.
Luris: Memories of Dreams is suitable for teens and older.
About the Author

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Rune Marie Nielsen is an author and artist who seeks to provide a glimpse of divine eternity in her work through creative storytelling, unconventional angles, and occasional humor.

 

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Retrieve – Blitz

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YA action adventure
Date Published: 26 December 2018
Publisher: Double Edged Sword Publishing
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What if the job you took to stay alive might be what kills you?
Kade knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it’s like to lose everything and everyone around him.
His job in a Stormer Unit guarantees not just his survival in the decimated country of Azetaria, but his sister Meg’s. Even if it means facing the Numachi warriors baying for his blood, he’ll do what it takes to keep her safe.
Hadley is alone and surviving the only way she knows how. By hiding where predators won’t find her and scavenging enough just to keep her alive.
When desperation drives Hadley to search for her missing brother, she mistakenly accepts the offer of recruitment into the Stormer’s camp, only to be partnered with Kade and sent as a scout into Numachi territory.
The intimidating young Stormer may just know where her brother has gone. But can they stay alive long enough to find him?
 
Excerpt
Kade’s footsteps were heavy as he approached and stared down at her. “This isn’t going to work. You need to be wearing something lighter, or we’ll never make it to Lazen.”
Hadley tried for a weak shrug but could barely muster the energy. “What do you suggest?”
Kade raised an eyebrow, and a deep frown appeared on his face as he considered her.  He continued to stare at her as she sat, legs sprawled out on the ground. “The best I can come up with is cutting your clothing.”
His eyes narrowed as he searched the length of her. A bolt of alarm jostled her into thinking. “How much are you cutting off?”
Kade dipped his chin, his voice low as he spoke. “Enough, so you don’t keep fainting, enough, so you still pass for a boy.”
He reached for a knife and wore the slightest of smiles as he unsheathed it. “Let’s hope you have hairy legs then eh?”
Hadley’s lips split into a smile before she remembered she was annoyed with him for being so smug.
About the Author

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Sarah Addison-Fox is a New Zealand-born misfit who writes action-packed fantasy with a smattering of punch-ups, mega amounts of romance and a dash of family values. She has an astonishing amount of nail polish, has all her creative writing credentials shoved in a drawer somewhere, and has a husband who, after 28 years, can still make her blush. When she’s not working on her multiple YA fantasy romance series’ she can be found binge watching Mission Impossible movies, drinking lager and eating curry.
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Christmas in Prague – Blitz

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Psychological Romance
Date Published: November 24, 2018
Publisher: Foolishness Press
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Christmas in Prague is the story of Joseph, a divorced American twenty-something living as an expat in Prague. He’s obsessed with Karina, a Czech waitress-turned-supermodel. She’s freshly back from a trip to Italy with her English teacher, and she’s ready to give Joseph the attention for which he’s been longing. Will his Christmas wish come true?
 
Excerpt
After soup, we have Buck’s vánočka, sweet bread with apricots and raisins that have been soaked in hot brandy for days. I am not a huge fan, but I have a taste to prove that I am game. Next comes the fried carp with bramborovy salat. As the dishes are being served, Avi tells a story, an earlier expat Christmas at Beth’s apartment, the one that Kamil took after she left.
“I walk in and there she is, Beth, on her knees. Dressed in a white plastic apron, dishwashing gloves and lab goggles. The dish washing gloves were purple. On the floor were a rubber mallet, various rusting knives with wooden handles, and a pair of yellow gardening shears laid out on newspaper. There was blood all over. She was digging out guts, clipping off fins and the tail. Bits of guts and fish and blood were everywhere. Splattered all over the white tile. It looks like a massacre. She stuffed the offal in a plastic bag. It said Kotva on it. She stood up – bag in one hand, carp head in the other. She slipped in the blood on the floor and caught herself. The head kept mouthing, looking down. Beth looked at me, my mouth hanging open. She said, ‘What?’ I told her I would help her clean up. It was hilarious.” The potato salad is very tasty, but the carp is pungent. It is cooked to perfection, there’s nothing that could have been done better, but it is just a dark and smelly fish. No getting around it. I eat a couple of bites, wash it down with beer and move on. Whew.
Brad speaks up. “Barbora, can you ask your babička why carp for Christmas? I know it is a tradition, but why?” Barbora smiles and leans toward her grandmother, translating.
Barbora answers, “She says it is for good luck. You know in Slovakia and Poland they have the same tradition. Buy a carp at the Christmas Market, and it becomes a family pet for a few days, living in the bathtub. Some people ask the fish monger to cut the filets right there on Old Town Square, but the real way to do it is to bring it home and butcher it yourself.”
About the Author

Rick Pryll is an award-winning author and poet. His book, “The Chimera of Prague” was selected as the winner of the 2018 New York Book Festival for Romance. A graduate of MIT, Rick wrote a novella as the thesis for his Mechanical Engineering degree. Having grown up in Western New York State, Rick and his wife, ArtPop Charlotte 2018 artist Holly Spruck, live in Charlotte.  They have two children, two cats and a dog.
First published to the web in 1994, his hyperfiction short story “LIES” has garnered praise from the Wall Street Journal, SHIFT magazine, and several other publications in print and online.  It is cited in more than seven books, has been translated into Spanish and Chinese.
From 1996 to 2002 Rick lived in Prague, in the Czech Republic.  While there he published two books including Displaced (Foolishness Press, 1998) and Wallow (Foolishness Press, 1999).  His stories and poems have been featured on the pages of THINK and OPTIMISM.
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Metal Mouth – Blitz

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YA Magical Realism
Date Published: 12/1/2018
Publisher: JME Books
 
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Mahlorie hates her braces. And who cares what she looks like anyway? Her parents sure do. Dad, a traveling magician, and Mom, a famous erotica author, constantly harp on the importance of appearance. Her best friend Shai is the epitome of pop-culture, crushing on every boy with a cute smile. But when Mal has a near-death experience and can suddenly hear a boy’s voice in her head, life takes a turn for the weird. He can hear her too. How did her braces become transmitters? And who is this boy she just might be falling in love with? For fans of “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Everything, Everything.”
This magical coming-of-age tale of mystery and self-discovery, and love and friendship makes the impossible become all too real…

 
Excerpt
Mom and Dad finally agree to disagree. They get along much better when there’s a lot of land between them. It’s ironic because both of my parents make their living by an illusion that they sell to the public while in private, they’re totally different people. Dad, with a sleight of hand, can make you see only what he wants you to see.
“It’s all about presentation, turtledove, how you look and where you look. Get the crowd to believe what you want them to believe. See? The magic is how well you sell it. Your pitch. Your package. In this world, people will believe the truth is whatever you show them it is. Appearance is everything.”
Mom, on the other hand, creates these perfect worlds in opposition of the one in which she lives, tied up neatly in the end through the power of love. Her appearance is her ticket. How she looks affects how fans perceive her. Once, Mom actually paid a team of marketers to determine which color pant suit she should wear. By her outfit change, she sold 5,000 books and landed a guest spot on The Today Show.
“Appearance is everything, lambkin. You won’t be successful as a woman without purposed wardrobe, hair, and make-up. People don’t really care about who you are until they see that you fit the mold. Understand? You can be whoever you want to be so long as you make it believable.”
This, by the way, is the only reason I got these stupid braces. It’s also the reason why I hate short dresses and glittery barrettes. It isn’t that I don’t want to be popular like Shai. What if I can’t? What if no matter how well I sleight my hand or how often I change my clothes, I never find my place? That failure scares me more than not fitting in. So, what do I do? I manipulate my personality, tweak my appearance, and blend.
Where does that leave me?
Somewhere in my dad’s deck of cards or my mom’s perfectly constructed novel where I blend into a false reality and play the role I’m supposed to play. “Appearance is everything.”
“Appearance is nothing,” the voice in my head contradicts, only this time, I’m not certain the voice is mine.
About the Author

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JAIMIE ENGLE is the author of dark thrillers for teens where magic turns ordinary into extraordinary. She weaves history, magic, and lore into her books, which take readers on wondrous adventures, though her passion is talking to kids about writing and social issues because words have power. She loves coffee, cosplay, and making Wick Books® candles inspired by scents from her novels and for other indie authors so readers can Experience the Story! She lives in Florida with her awesome husband, hilarious children, and the world’s best dog. Learn more at thewriteengle.com, where Jaimie is always working on her next book.
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