BookLife - Resources and tools for book publishers and writers

Vivid

by Jana Jones

Vivid is an unconventional coming-of-age story that poses the question: Who are you when your back is against the wall? When a series of unusual ailments befall Sheri’s children, she realizes she must push past self-doubts and fear to awaken the power within. Sheri connects with a group of concerned parents, led by a larger-than-life widowed mother of four, to take on unethical medical researchers and casually indifferent politicians. Inspired by actual events, Vivid is a story that illu... more

Past, Present, future: Stories that Haunt

by Ian Prattis

These tales operate at three levels. First, the characters are all of “US.” Their stories are the One Human Story of struggling to live in this world. Dig deeper, and you’ll find the rich metaphor pointing toward truths about the way our species has evolved and why our permanent dominance of the Earth is a fiction that will not stand up to any real scrutiny. At their root, Dr. Ian Prattis has pointed out that “reality” is not action-over-time but it is simultanei... more

Jeremy Full of Grace

by Greta Cribbs

In a dying world, one boy offers a glimmer of hope.

Eight years after a plague killed most of the world’s population, leaving the survivors barren, midwife Leslie travels the countryside in search of some sign that humanity may still have a future. She never expected that sign to take the form of Jeremy, a seventeen-year-old Catholic boy who claims to have been impregnated following what he believes was a visitation from the Virgin Mary.

Leslie, an ... more

Angel of Aleppo

by Jon Cocks

In Angel of Aleppo, Anoush, a beautiful Armenian girl, sees her mother shot and is evicted from her Anatolian village in 1915. She helps many survive, as she endures the Death Marches to Aleppo and the Mesopotamian desert. She becomes known as the Angel of Aleppo, finds true love, but suffers many losses. Over the years, the pain of war does not go away and by the Armenian Genocide’s 50th anniversary, Anoush is widowed and alone. But this day brings her something she never expected.

The Printer and The Strumpet

by Larry Brill

A conservative English-born newspaperman and a fiery American prostitute join forces to publish stories of British military abuse and government scandals in 1773 Boston. The story is a satire of how today's media might cover the period from the Boston Tea Party to the battle of Lexington.

For the Love of Many

by Vivian Dunn

Two young Broadway chorus girls fall in love in the man's world of show business in 1924.

Love in a Time of Hate: New Orleans During Reconstruction

by Matthew Cost

“A Voodoo ritual?” Emmett stared dumbly at her. A young man from Maine fights for social equality in New Orleans after the Civil War while pursuing a murderer of prostitutes, becoming enmeshed in voodoo, and falling in love. “Education is the tool that makes us all equal, whether we are Black, white, Indian, woman, or man,” Manon said. Much like Louisiana’s famous gumbo, Love in A Time of Hate, is a spicy dish of varied ingredients. The main theme is the struggle for social equality between t... more

Terror of the Dog People

by Marcus Stratford

A bold exploration in style and self-analysis. An unraveling, thematically disconcerting novella in three parts. Experimentally written in dramatic form, lyrical narrative, and stream-of-consciousness flashbacks, all circled around one conversation between two broken lovers at a diner. Lives are encapsulated and characters painted over cold eggs and hot coffee. Stratford explores themes of narcissism, hallucinatory OCD, and human stubbornness, concocting a post-modern portrait of two beings conf... more

Ernestine

by Kate Reynolds

Ernestine is the tale of a small-time bunco artist turned nun. In 1527, Sister Ernestine arrives reluctantly in Inquisition-shackled Spain carrying guilt and a document that can change the European balance of power. Her plans to repent are interrupted when she discovers that she's been tracked to Spain by a French spy who covets the document she carries. Ernestine must decide whether to risk her life trying to fulfill a promise or stay and face her fears in the abbey that has offered her succor ... more

What the Bird Sees in Flight: Collected Stories of a New Zealand Farming Family

by Joseph R. Goodall

Set among the rolling green hills of New Zealand's verdant Waikato District, this episodic collection of short stories opens a window into the life of a twentieth century dairy farming family. Nuanced and thought-provoking, the accessible tales highlight the emotions, disagreements and aspirations dwelling just below the surface in each member of the Hester clan. 'What the Bird Sees in Flight' offers a creative perspective on the complexity of family relationships and the desire for belonging we... more

M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction)

by David Smith

Life and fiction blur hilariously as new POTUS Donald Dump’s trade war with China escalates. Will it end with both leaders in a cage fight or… ARMAGEDDON!

The Universe in 3/4 Time: A Novel of Old Europe

by Leona Francombe

When a mysterious World War II piano appears on a Brussels street one winter’s night, no one could have imagined the events it would set in motion—least of all Audrey Nightingale, the pianist who comes across it. The instrument, of finest rosewood, bears the name of an obscure Czech manufacturer, and inside it, someone carved a Pythagorean symbol. Audrey convinces two musician friends to help her make sense of this portentous discovery. At the heart of their quest is an extraordinary man: Kon... more

Everything Turns Invisible

by Gerry Hadden

Milo Prieto’s odd life begins with an equally odd twist: being adopted at birth by asylum-seeking Cuban musicians and growing up in an experimental housing project in the North Bronx. He’s white, his parents black, but he fits in even as he sticks out. He even shows early promise on the drums of his father. But an accident spells the end of everything. By 17 he finds himself abandoned and incarcerated. He wants nothing more than to die. To disappear. To become as invisible as he feels. And then ... more

Sleeping Presidents

by John Phillips

Sleeping Presidents takes us inside the minds and dreams of the 45 men who have served the nation as President of the United States. This work of historical fiction was inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem, The Dreamers. Using the artist’s distinctive paintings and original prose, each chapter is devoted to a former president and features artwork not previously exhibited. Sleeping Presidents  explores the gulf between what we allow to be seen publicly and what we may be desperate to conceal, even ... more

Not My Type: Stories

by Autumn Siders

From a ghost of the American Revolution to a struggling writer full of grief, Not My Type is full of eclectic stories that bring to light the pain and the beauty of life.

The Old Cape Blood Ruby

by Barbara Eppich Struna

In 1898, the Portland Gale tore across Provincetown on Cape Cod’s coast. Walter Ellis, a descendant of legendary Maria Hallett, loses his ship and fishing livelihood. Forced to leave his family behind, he seeks gold in Alaska but never returns. Present-day Nancy Caldwell travels to Alaska to visit family. She discovers an old letter destined for Provincetown but never sent. Back home on Cape Cod, a 1780s house, a hidden ‘pigeon’s blood’ ruby ring, and a past nemesis complicate Nancy’s search for... more

Discover Books

General Fiction (including literary and historical)