Tag Archives: FICTION

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | February 6, 2025 · 5:00 am

Mama Dallas and Augie Blitz

Crime, True Story, Mob, Immigration, Biopic, Italian American,
Fiction

Mama Dallas and Augie is an epic novel that brings to life the Italian
American experience, centering on New York’s first
“Godmother,” Concetta. Her journey begins in Italy and leads to
New York’s notorious Five Points, where she fiercely protects
vulnerable young prostitutes. After tragedy strikes and she believes her
son, Augie, is dead, Concetta dedicates her life to her family and the
struggling poor in the Italian sector slums of New York.

But Augie survives, posing as an American spy and diving into a dangerous
underworld that spans from New York to France and Turkey, eventually
becoming embroiled in the infamous pre-WWII “French Connection”
drug trade. His charm and cunning keep him one step ahead of both mobsters
and law enforcement as he navigates in the shadows that intersect with
powerful OSS agents and German operatives, leading to his capture and
imprisonment in Dachau only to return to America to bring justice to his
family name.

Based on a true story, Mama Dallas and Augie spans decades of love,
betrayal, espionage, and war—an unforgettable saga of loyalty,
resilience, and family bonds.

About the Authors

Jody Fasanella grew up in the theater world in New York. As a veteran stage
performer, she has appeared in numerous film and television productions,
including The Moving Picture Co. 1914, Good Grief, Tight, Vartan LLP, Steel,
The Others, Profiler, and L.A. Law.

On stage, she played the lead, Tessie, in John Morgan Evans’ comedy
Daughters. According to the Los Angeles Times, “…the cast gives
heartfelt performances during the passages of tender
reflections.”

Jody has since turned her talents to writing and producing and is dedicated
to sharing the true story of her great-grandmother, “Mama
Dallas,” and her uncle, “Augie,” as standalone features or
mini-series with Little Studio Films.

Sandi Jerome, a UCLA Advanced Screenwriting graduate, is an accomplished
screenwriter and novelist. Her animated sci-fi script is in production, and
she recently sold her tech company to pursue writing full-time. With over 20
scripts recognized as finalists in Nicholls, Page, Final Draft, and Austin
Film, her work shines across genres.

Her young adult novels, Kira and Henry (a 2024 Kindle Book Review
Semifinalist) and Wilma Wallaby: Genius Girl Detective, are in development.
Sandi also wrote the feature adaptation of Hijacked, based on the true story
of Flight 705.

A Cherokee Nation member and 2023 Native American Media Alliance Fellowship
winner, Sandi is married to an Italian and enjoys her love for pizza.

Contact Links

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A Just Revenge Virtual Book Tour

Fiction

Date Published: August 26, 2024

Publisher: MindStir Media

Sean Roberts loved farming and his girlfriend. After they broke up she
disappeared into San Francisco’s drug filled hippie environment of the
1960s. Her parents were frantic and no one in their small-town seemed able
to help them find their daughter. They reached out to Sean and he agreed to
search for their lost daughter.

His search forced Sean to assume his nom de plume, George Wescot and enter
a world of extreme wealth and of people who only cared about their own
pleasures and not the pain it caused other people. George uses his skills
learned from hunting, fighting and evasion to penetrate this sadistic
society. Subsequently, he pursued across the United States, India, and
Europe. Finally, Sean stopped running from the Brothers, and started hunting
those people who caused his ex-girlfriend’s and her family’s pain from
injuries she sustained.

EXCERPT

“Justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live,” Jewish Publication

Society 1917. According to Hebrew scholars, “justice this is truth.”

Those Hebrew scholars also believed “Justice is approved by God and to

deny it one must face the consequences.” Revenge for a just cause is morally

acceptable. Revenge for a just cause is therefore morally acceptable

in God’s eyes. In 1625 Francis Bacon wrote, “the most tolerable type of

revenge concerns those wrongs which no law can remedy.”

The two boys sat on the hard reddish oak plank floor surrounded by

dark paneled walls, smoking a joint. San Francisco’s late May noon sun

warmed their room. They were bored. One casually said, as if discussing

a meaningless subject, “Let’s take her, she’ll make a great fuckin’ prize.”

His partner’s alabaster skin glistened as his snake eyes became slits. He

snapped, “Ya, we’ll do it,” and took another hit. With those few words,

she disappeared. Her fantasy ended and her nightmare began.

About the Author

I have been a writer all my life. I wasn’t very good partly because I’m
dyslexic and partly because of my dyslexia I was a terrible reader. But I
love to write and therefore wrote often. I wrote many stories. One was
published in a magazine. Before the pandemic I started writing my first
novel,”Farm Tough”, and self published it. The book got good
reviews from readers but wasn’t promoted. Shortly thereafter, I started to
write “A Just Revenge” partly about my time at Yuba College, Chico
State College, Los Angeles and finally Europe. I found that I write best
when I write about something I know, about something I’ve done or about
something I feel.

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RABT PROMO Materials: Untethered Virtual Book Tour

Growing Up Girl, Book I

Fiction

Date Published: September 10, 2024

In Growing Up Girl: Book One, a young Bernadette Aller floats through her
life – job to job, lover to lover, place to place. She is an untethered
spirit trying to find her way in a world that’s not been too kind.

Now, as she barrels toward her seventies, she wants to tell her story, not
because it’s hers alone, but because it’s a surprisingly common story. It’s
a story much of which happens behind doors that display the word
unspeakable. Bernadette hires Scully Trippe to ghost write, translating
Bernadette’s personal experience into the third person, in what might (or
might not) be a misguided attempt to extend the story’s reach.

The time frame is malleable, with the storytelling moving back and forth
through several stages of Bernadette’s life.

In this first book of the Growing Up Girl trilogy, BernadetteWorld is
populated with Patience, her housekeeper; Maddie, a former lover and now a
ghost; and Lucinda, a time traveler who drops in and out.

It’s a quirky group.

Cover artist is Matt Smith. The image of the five-year-old on the cover is
Matt’s mother whom he never met. In his own words, “Although I have no
memory of her, I treasure the stories of Lynn’s strength, stubbornness, and
ferocious loyalty. My hope is to bring her from the muted mysterious shadows
into the light with love.”

EXCERPT

From Bernadette’s first encounter with a pre-teen child, Lucinda

By this time Bernadette wanted only one thing—to decide for certain

what these clouds were doing. They were scudding, that was certain; the

rest was obfuscation. She’d have been shocked if she were to learn she’d got

it all wrong.

Lucinda helped her expand her thinking.

“Uncertainty,” she repeated with increasing confidence, although she

could read Bernadette’s longing for its opposite. “Heisenberg. They call it

the new science. But there’s no way it’s new. More than a hundred years

old, quantum.”

About the Author

Caroline Fairless is a writer and a ceramic sculptor. She is a retreat
facilitator with a focus on the interdependence and connectedness of every
being, visible or not. She served several congregations as an ordained
pastor for twenty-five years, publishing several books during that time. Now
in her retirement, Caroline is writing fiction and learning new art
forms.

Over the past twenty years, Caroline and her partner Jim have been
fortunate to stitch back together three land parcels that once were one. One
of them borders on one of New Hampshire’s many small ponds. The other
two border a marsh that hosts otters, beaver, herons, turtles, geese, ducks,
and an occasional loon passing through.

In the New Hampshire summers, Caroline gardens and walks the dogs she and
Jim have rescued. New Hampshire winters will find her at her computer, still
walking dogs, and camping in front of the wood stove.

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Tagged as Caroline Fairless, FICTION, Untethered

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | January 15, 2025 · 5:00 am

Zip Line Virtual Book Tour

Fiction

Date Published: 06-07-2022

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

If Gail knew Uncle Perkins’ stories were true, she wouldn’t have taken her
friends up that mountain.

The plan was simple. Hike, camp, and ride the zipline back down the
mountain. But Uncle Perkins’ stories are true, and the horrors are real. Now
the simple plan is the only plan they have to get off that mountain or
disappear, remaining there forever.

Zipline is an immediately gripping, fast-paced, unique story that will keep
you entertained until the last sentence.

EXCERPT

Gail stood by the door, watching her beloved Uncle Perkins lie there in bed with an oxygen mask on. She glanced around the VA hallway, seeing it busy with activity this Thursday morning before taking a second peek. She pulled away from the door, wrapping her hair into a ponytail and resting over her left shoulder. She glanced again around the door frame, watching him rest before pulling back and taking several deep breaths.

“You okay?” Danny asked, walking up behind her. Grabbing her shoulders, he leaned in beside her, taking a peep for himself before pulling back, giving her a reassuring hug.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, squaring her shoulders and composing herself. “C’mon Gail, let’s get it over with before I chicken out.” He gave a reassuring nudge to her hesitancy. As she entered, her uncle smiled under the oxygen mask.

“I was wondering how long you were going to stand out there,” he whispered. “The training never really goes away.” Gail moved closer to his bedside and kissed his liver-spotted forehead.

“Uncle, how are you today?” She asked, pulling up a seat beside him. He weakly grabbed the remote, hitting the button that angled the bed up. Seeing Danny come in, he shook his head.

“How are you, sir?” Danny asked, moving to stand alongside Gail.

“My body wants to give out, but I won’t let it,” He said with a determined look on his face. “Okay,” the elder smiled, recognizing Gail’s best friend. “Oh no, if you’re back, this can’t be good. It was a bad idea to talk to you about it when my mind wasn’t right,” he snarked at Danny before looking at them with a united front. “What are you two up to?” Gail looked back uneasily towards Danny, who nodded twice, motioning her to tell him.

“Well, Uncle, we’re going,” Gail said. “Time to put those bad dreams your stories have given me over the years to rest.

I know they’re not true and just made-up fables to scare me.”

“I agree, sir,” Danny said. “Though, I must admit those were some doozies of tall tales you told me under heavy sedatives.” He began to laugh but stopped as a male nurse came in the room.

“Excuse me,” the middle-aged nurse said holding a clipboard and wearing sky-blue scrubs, “we’ll be by with your daily medications in a moment.” He stood before the foot of the bed. “Are you feeling any discomfort right now?” Uncle Perkins shook his head. “Okay, just be a moment or two,” he said before exiting the room and disappearing into the busy corridor. Perkins returned his focus on them, first eyeing Danny, then his niece.

“Gail, please reconsider what you’re about to do,” he said, reaching for her hand. She quickly grabbed his shaky hand, placing it by his side.

“No, Uncle,” Gail said, cocking her head to one side. “You told me some whoppers over the years that still make me sleep with the lights on, but no more. Now it’s time to move on. I just graduated from college; I have an HR job lined up, and I start in two weeks.” The elder inhaled deeply before letting out a slight sigh, then he nodded.

“Okay, and go with my blessings, but stay at the bottom by the playground,” he said as he pointed at her with trembling fingers, “it should be safe there.” His hand drifted to his side. “Yeah, you’ll be safe there.” He paused. “Don’t go up that mountain.” he said, shaking his head. “Promise me.” He looked up at them more insistently. “I said promise me.”

Gail and Danny glanced at each other before looking back at the elder and giving a slight nod. “We promise,” they said in unison, with Danny crossing his fingers behind his back.

About the Author

Michael received a creative writing certificate from the University of West
Virginia in the late 90s. He’s been running a successful writer’s group
called For The Love Of Words for almost two decades. When he has time, he
teaches in the local library Story 101 – How to create a story. He has won
in every category over a five-year period in a state-funded wordsmith
competition in Poetry, Essay, Short Story, and One-Act Play.

Contact Link

Website

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Tagged as FICTION, P Anthony Michael, Zip Line

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | January 3, 2025 · 5:00 am