Tag Archives: Literary Fiction

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | March 1, 2021 · 5:00 am

No Birds Sing Here Blitz

Literary Fiction

Date Published: March 1, 2021

Publisher: Boutique of Quality Books

In this indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time, two young pseudo-intellectuals, Beckman and Malany, set out on an odyssey to define the artistic life, and in doing so, unleash a barrage of humorous, unintended consequences. NO BIRDS SING HERE is a multi-layered novel about a Post-Modernist America in which characters are struggling to survive in an increasingly chaotic world.

Excerpt

Beckman thought that this would be an excellent metaphor for his first novel, just the thing he had been looking for. Often during that month, the screaming cats got to him. The very first notes would send him raging to the window to fling it open and shout down, “Quiet!” The cats hardly glanced up. It was apparent that they were somewhere outside of his control.

About The Author

A retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA, Daniel V. Meier, Jr. has always had a passion for writing. During his college years, he studied History at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington (UNCW) and American Literature at The University of Maryland Graduate School. In 1980 he published an action/thriller with Leisure Books under the pen name of Vince Daniels.

He also worked for the Washington Business Journal as a journalist and has been a contributing writer/editor for several aviation magazines. In addition to, No Birds Sing Here, he is the author of the award-winning historical novel, The Dung Beetles of Liberia that was released in September 2019 by BQB Publishing.

Dan and his wife live in Owings, Maryland, about twenty miles south of Annapolis and when he’s not writing, they spend their summers sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | January 16, 2021 · 5:00 am

Cuttle Blitz

Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction

Published: September 2020

Publisher: Bleau Press

Nora Novak knows cuttlefish.

Actually, Nora knows a lot of species. She can name every shark, whale, eel, and Ohioian turtle (among others).

She’s not as committed with humans.

But she’s only been in her lab for a little over a decade. How much could she have missed?

As she’s wrapping up her postdoc, Nora’s carefully-balanced ecosystem is in crisis. Her maze-navigating cuttlefish are retiring. Polyester shorts are no longer “in.” Somewhere along the line, she forgot to learn how to date.

So she does what any self-actualizing biologist in her early thirties would. Nora Novak embraces the #FOMO.

Praise for Cuttle:

“Insanely good” -Literary Titan

“You won’t want to miss a single sentence.” -Independent Book Review

“Cuttle glows with interest and graceful writing.” -Foreword Reviews

“Hilariously astute…brimming with heart” -Indies Today

“Quirky and clever…perfectly in tune” -Reader’s Favorite

“Poetic, captivating…a romance steeped in a vibrant personality’s introspective genius.” -Midwest Book Review

“Britain’s writing is both assured and full of heart…a rollicking fun read.” -The Praries

About The Author

Chelsea Britain loves critters of all kinds. She hopes to meet a representative of each of the living shark species one day…but some of them aren’t very cooperative, and she can’t really swim. Cuttle is her first novel. Visit her at chelseabritainauthor.com.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | January 13, 2021 · 5:00 am

Loving Modigliani Blitz

The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne

Paranormal Ghost and Love Story

Historical Paranormal Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy Fiction, Literary Fiction

Published: December 2020

Publisher: Serving House Books

A ghost story, love story, and a search for a missing masterpiece.

PARIS 1920 Dying just 48 hours after her husband, Jeanne Hebuterne–wife and muse of the celebrated painter Amedeo Modigliani and an artist in her own right — haunts their shared studio, watching as her legacy is erased. Decades later, a young art history student travels across Europe to rescue Jeanne’s work from obscurity. A ghost story, a love story, and a search for a missing masterpiece.

Loving Modigliani is a genre-bending novel, blending elements of fantasy, historical fiction, gothic, mystery, and suspense.

Praise for Loving Modigliani:

“LOVING MODIGLIANI is a haunting, genre-bending novel that kept me turning pages late into the night” –Gigi Pandian, author of The Alchemist’s Illusion

“Part ghost story, part murder mystery, part treasure hunt, Linda Lappin’s Loving Modigliani is a haunting, genre-bending novel that kept me turning the pages long into the night.” – Best-selling mystery novelist Gigi Pandian

Other Books by Linda Lappin:

Signatures in Stone

2014 Overall Winner DAPHNE DU MAURIER AWARD for excellence in Mystery Writing, also Winner in the Historical Mystery section of the Du Maurier Awards, from Romance Writers of America.

Seeking inspiration in the timeless Italian landscape, four unlikely misfits find their destinies entangled in the meanders of the mysterious sculpture garden of Bomarzo, peopled with freaks and monsters. Daphne, a writer with a hashish habit, Clive, American gigolo and aspiring artist, Nigel, an English aristocrat down at the heels, and Finestone, a fly by night art historian come together in a decrepit villa looked after by two Italian servants who are not what they seem. To find their heart’s desire, all the characters must descend into the depths of hell, but not everyone will make it out alive. In the hideous sculptures of Bomarzo, Daphne must face up the hidden sides of herself while solving the mystery of murder for which she is unjustly accused. She will discover that her own journey to hell has already been written sculpted by an unknown genius centuries ago in these signatures in stone.

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The Soul of Place

In this engaging creative writing workbook, Linda Lappin, novelist, poet, and travel writer, presents a series of insightful exercises to help writers of all genres — (literary travel writing, memoir, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) discover imagery and inspiration in the places they love.

Lappin departs from the classical concept of the Genius Loci, the indwelling spirit residing in every landscape, house, city, or forest, to argue that by entering into contact with the unique energy and identity of a place, writers can access an inexhaustible source of creative power. The Soul of Place provides instruction on how to evoke that power.

The writing exercises are drawn from many fields such as architecture, painting, cuisine, literature and literary criticism, geography and deep maps, Jungian psychology, fairy tales, mythology,metaphysics,theater and performance art, all of which offer surprising perspectives on our writing and may help us uncover raw materials for fiction, essays, and poetry hidden in our environment.

An essential resource book for the writer’s library, this book is ideal for creative writing courses, with stimulating exercises adaptable to all genres. For writers or travelers about to set out on a trip abroad, The Soul of Place is the perfect road trip companion, attuning our senses to a deeper awareness of place.

“Insightful exercises help creative writers of all levels attune themselves to the power of place.” Amy Alippo, National Geographic Traveler

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About The Author

Prize-winning novelist Linda Lappin is the author of four novels: The Etruscan (Wynkin de Worde, 2004), Katherine’s Wish (Wordcraft , 2008), Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery (Pleasureboat Studio, 2013), and The Soul of Place (Travelers Tales, 2015). Signatures in Stone won the Daphne DuMaurier Award for best mystery of 2013. The Soul of Place won the gold medal in the Nautilus Awards in the Creativity category.

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Tagged as Fantasy Fiction, Historical Paranormal Fiction, Linda Lappin, Literary Fiction, Loving Modigliani, Magical Realism, Paranormal Ghost and Love Story

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | December 22, 2020 · 5:00 am

The Lev Effect Blitz

Literary Fiction

Date Published: November 2020

Publisher: KinurPub

Full of warmth, humor, and the celebration of the extraordinary in the ordinary, The Lev Effect appeals to the faithful of all religions and iconoclasts alike.

When the Bolton Jewish Community converts a disused retirement home to a boarding school and hires a Russian refugee to direct it and the retirees as staff, the small town of Bolton, Pennsylvania celebrates the change. But when the director admits a Palestinian boy, schedules Palestine National Day and a fundraiser for a Catholic homeless shelter, the family that endowed the retirement home fifty years earlier sues to regain their trust fund. This action sets in motion a series of events that results in the notion that the school director might be Jesus Christ himself. But is he? The Lev Effect, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed novel Lost and Found, is a modern-day imagining of the second coming of Christ to a small Jewish community.

About the Author

Of Sheldon Greene’s six novels, five draw strongly upon his experience with and knowledge of the Jewish faith. Ranging from fact-based history to flights of imagination, he uses his novels to explore such subjects as Jews in the American Revolution, Jewish influence on pre-Colombian culture, the Israeli War of Independence, and the impact of the Holocaust on creativity. Greene was appointed Warden of Insurance of the State of Ohio at age 23. A public interest lawyer, he pursued seminal issues such as the United States’ flawed health delivery system, the impact of illegal immigration on the economy, renewable energy, and public land policies decades before they achieved national attention. He was a participant in the first Obama national policy team for both immigration and energy. He was one of the founders of the New Israel Fund and helped formulate its unique structure, drawing on his experience as General Counsel of California Rural Legal Assistance. He is an executive in a wind energy development company and has been actively engaged in renewable energy for over 25 years. He advocates the formulation of a God concept derived from the life process, stripped of anachronistic anthropomorphic characteristics. He has developed personal guidelines for a balanced, seamless life with spiritual, intellectual, social, and creative dimensions. Learn more about Sheldon Greene and his work at www.sheldongreene.com

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | December 11, 2020 · 5:00 am

Someday Everything Will All Make Sense Blitz

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Someday Everything Will All Make Sense cover

Literary Fiction

Published: February 2019

Publisher: Adelaide Books

Someday Everything Will All Make Sense follows Luther van der Loon, an eccentric professor of early music, as he navigates the stages of grief after his mother chokes on a wonton. Luther institutes a personal injury suit against the takeout whose “sloppy methods” he blames for his mother’s death. Slowly, and with the help of his girlfriend, Cecilia, he struggles toward resolution. Luther finds redemption in music as he plans the annual symposium for his early music colleagues.

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Praise for Someday Everything Will All Make Sense:

“LaHines’ tale paints a robust picture of a suffering neuroticstuck in his sorrow, her protagonist recalling a Laurence Sterne character. . .. An admirable addition to that venerable category [of] novels to find humor in loss.”- Kirkus Reviews

“It’s rare to find a character like Luther van der Loon who makes such a rich and lasting impression–so vividly wounded, exuberant in characterization. Luther embodies the anxious, angst-ridden neurotic we are afraid we will become, or maybe who we aspire to be. In his grief over his mother’s accidental choking vis-à-vis death, his obsession with what is the point of life is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious. I could read this novel a hundred times and never tire of it.” – Amy E. Wallen, author of When We Were Ghouls

“An original and very funny novel about a man’s obsessive longing and guilt after his mother accidentally chokes on wonton soup. We follow the endearing protagonist through a period of morning, cleverly interwoven with musical theory and an attempt to sue the Chinese take-out restaurant, all brought to a hilarious finale with a last symposium on medieval music.” – Sheila Kohler, author of numerous award-winning novels

About the Author

Carol LaHines is the author of Someday Everything Will All Make Sense, a finalist for the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel and an American Fiction Award (Adelaide Books, New York City, 2019). Her fiction has appeared in many literary journals including Fence, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Denver Quarterly, Cimarron Review, The Literary Review, The Laurel Review, North Dakota Quarterly, South Dakota Review, The South Carolina Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Sycamore Review, Permafrost, redivider, Literary Orphans, and Literal Latte. She is the recipient of the Lamar York Prize for Fiction. Her short stories and novellas have also been finalists for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books, the David Nathan Meyerson fiction prize, the New Letters short story award, and the Disquiet Literary Prize, among others. She is a graduate of New York University, Gallatin Division, and of St. John’s University School of Law.

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