Magda by the River

Angela Young’s novel, Magda by the River centers on the captivating journey of Magdalene, known affectionately as Magda. Feeling suffocated by the monotony of her small village life, weary of battling societal expectations, and yearning for acceptance, Magda longs for change. Her life takes an exciting turn when she joins a traveling troupe of performers, where she forges deep friendships that open her eyes to the possibilities and ‘more’ she has been seeking.

However, the most significant journey in Magda’s life is the introspective one. It’s a path that leads her to a profound understanding of her identity and self-acceptance, making Magda by the River not just a story of adventure, but also a tale of personal discovery and growth.

Legends of Cydrisia

The dark titan, Cephius, and five of his six children, the demon princess of Shivar have been sealed in their fiery realm by the gods of the realm. This leaves the gods weak, too weak to continue the fight against the darkness. So they retreat into the heavens to the celestial palace where they will recover.

Mankind must continue the fight against prince Gregormere, the soul eater, and his dark legions, but with the retreat of their gods, many lose hope. The races retreat and hide, all but one. They will stay and fight to death. They will revolt against the darkness like a pillar of light in the storm. They will be led by a man, a warrior, who will be named the champion of the son god valor. He will unite the races of mankind and show the seed that will bring about the end of the soul eater’s reign. An end to the darkness seeking to devour the realm.

John Henry's Wonderful Marvelous Magical Marshmallows

Penelope Sweetwater Prissily, a beehive-wearing, tantrum-throwing brat, is on a mission to become the ‘Meanest Girl in The World.’ Also known as Petroleum due to her excessive use of hair gel, Penelope, along with her panicky, moth ball-scented mother, Hattie Prissily, is determined to achieve fame and fortune by crafting an illusion of success.

However, their plans are disrupted when a mischievous, street-performing, broom-selling ghost moves into the neighborhood, captivating audiences with unbelievable magical tricks using a mysterious satchel of marshmallows. The ghost’s presence threatens to expose Penelope and Hattie as ordinary and unremarkable, a fate they dread even more than a shortage of hair gel. Determined to uncover the secrets of the ghost’s magical powers, Penelope and her friends, the Cinders, embark on a daring mission to steal the ghost’s bag of marshmallows and follow him into an abandoned train station.

What ensues is a hilarious and thrilling adventure, as the forces of good and evil engage in a climactic battle over the grandeur of dreams and the enchanting power of marshmallows.

Irrevocable Acts

After spending a day at the Oregon zoo with 5-year old Gracie, Anna Sanders reaches a decision: she will risk anything and everything to give her daughter and her granddaughter the chance of a livable future.

But first she has to come to terms with her past. She reaches out to two childhood friends who she was in college with: Mac, a hard-drinking, pot-smoking professor of physics and climatology in Wisconsin, and Danny, an introverted college dropout working as a landscaper in Arizona. She asks to set up a meeting with them, and while both men fear such a reunion will wake the sleeping dragons of their collective history, old loyalties, and old fears, propel them forward.

In a desert house in Four Corners, New Mexico, the three come together for the first time in nineteen years. There, they reconnect, open old wounds and reveal deep secrets that shaped their pasts and will transform their futures in ways none of them could have imagined.

Full Moon Witch

In a world unlike any other, a young girl’s journey begins as she unravels the truth about her existence. Plunged into a reality she never imagined, she discovers her family’s enchanting lineage and embraces the existence of a magical realm hidden from her eyes.

Amidst this newfound knowledge, she forms profound connections with kindred spirits who guide her along a path filled with love, heartache, and self-discovery. As she strives to find her rightful place, she confronts the ultimate question: will she conquer the challenges of this extraordinary world or succumb to its demands?

With unwavering determination, she embarks on a relentless quest to safeguard her loved ones from an imminent threat that looms ominously close. Yet, as her powers emerge, uncharted and unprecedented, she unearths the haunting secrets of her family’s past, realizing the profound link between her origins and the destiny that awaits.

In a mesmerizing tale of intertwining past and future, she must summon the resilience to protect the very essence of her home. Will she unearth the strength necessary to embrace her extraordinary heritage and defend all that she holds dear?

Enderchild

A girl from a small town with no family, no real home, not even a last name. Seventeen-year-old Arith thinks she’s about as ordinary as you can get. The only things she has to worry about are having enough money to pay her rent, and not getting fired from her job that’s quickly sliding sideways. But with a gypsy’s warning and the appearance of a mysterious stranger, Arith’s life is suddenly anything but ordinary. Everything she thought she knew about herself is turned upside down, when she is forced to flee her hometown in the dead of night and embark on a dangerous journey through the unknown, all while being hunted by creatures that want her dead.

An evil is rising that threatens to destroy her world, and Arith is a bigger part of it than she could ever have imagined. Gripping and expertly paced, with a cast of lovable characters, Enderchild is a book that will have readers turning pages in anticipation until the very end.

Dropped Calls

Dropped Calls will ring like a lost phone and have you scrambling to pick up the call. Should water, food, and even the air we breathe become threatened? Providence assembles at the bugler’s call. When democracy is under threat from our collective complacency, these words shall find meaning in the screaming echoes of two centuries past “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.

In this work of fiction, the resonance of truth should challenge the reader’s sagacity so that each person becomes the keystone to the solution. Just like Siddhartha, to read it once is a revelation, and immersed deep in its pages, understanding and enlightenment may develop.

Perhaps some of the people and places in this book are familiar to you. Imagine the events that unfold happening to your loved ones, in your backyard, or on your watch. Prudence necessitates reading Dropped Calls as an act of prevention and a pathway to compassion.

Darkness Without Limits

Darkness Without Limits is a poetic, haunting and unforgettable novel about a boy’s upbringing in a small rural village from the age of ten until he is twenty. He lives a life in constant fear, of other people, of not having any future and of a darkness inside him that makes his world increasingly unreal.

After high school, the boy spends a restless summer with a group of outsiders that challenges his worldview and sanity. The novel follows his slow descent into darkness and his attempt to fight the evil inside him. Peter Legård writes with great insight into the world of children and youth and with the feeling that there are no ‘ordinary people’.

Despite the dark themes, this novel ultimately concerns our shared humanity and that there is always hope.

Dark Dragon

Against nearly impossible odds, Sigrun managed to lead the fairies of the Northwoods off the battlefield victoriously, and the villagers eagerly welcome peaceful times. They easily sink back into their old routines, but Sigrun cannot. Darkness creeps around her and without reason, she becomes increasingly edgy and violent. Afraid of herself, and what she might do to anyone around her, she isolates herself and refuses to see even her closest friends. She is plagued by intense visions of a foreboding cave within a treacherous mountain range, and it becomes clear a force is pulling her there.

Without a word, she disappears from the village in search of this cave. The journey is not without its challenges. The very land that she is treading on is evil and working against her in ways she could have never imagined. Even though everything she faces pushes her back – she knows she must continue.

It does not take long before Jae and Khalon realize Sigrun has fled the village. Knowing she has not been herself; they immediately depart after her. Facing hardships of their own they begin to wonder whether they will find her in time, or if she wants to be found at all. Evil snakes its way around her, lying to her and manipulating her, and leaches the power of the dragon for itself. All the while Sigrun is pushed further into a dark abyss. The Sigrun that they know, and love, may be lost to them forever.

Dancing Bears

America is at a crossroads, and it may take a street-smart misfit to sort it all out. In this hilarious political satire, vignettes burlesquing the absurd and grotesque contortions of male chauvinism alternate with postmodern Lady Godivas parading alluringly and dreaming of retirement.

Exponents of sexism and exploitation confront each other and slap each other’s resting bitch-faces. Exotic dancers in a strip club speak their minds. Tales of a wayward wienermobile, perils of aging and youthful blunders, spilling the beans, leaving gossipy stink scattered like broken winds.

Tragicomic pratfalls of American ideals in an age of authoritarianism and rampant materialism take center stage, and a man who dreams of wearing a grizzly bear costume to go berserk in gives us the bird. The vixen narrator, lil Vireo, can tell no lies. She sees all and wears no disguise.

A romp through life’s Strip-Club of pretenders and deniers fooling themselves while slapped in the rump. Politician dudes using parade costumes as messages, and strippers taking off symbolic garb redolent with our times—revealing our naked carnival of phantasmagorical human desires and fears.

Curse of the Jackal

Set in barbaric times, a young fisherman lives in peace on an island surrounded by warfare. At age 16, Elgin becomes a man but is soon faced with the brutality of ancient living. Innocence is swept away by violence, forcing two lovers to face life without each other. Surrounded by warring invaders, Elgin’s people must learn to fight or die.

Annon, the ascetic, is a disciplined spiritual seeker whose fate is intertwined with greater powers. Two lives are forced to experience the full range of human emotions and to rise above their circumstances. Shipwrecks, battles, and a spell-bound jackal navigate around a timeless love story between Elgin and Corina.

Elgin, with help from his wise teacher, must face his own demons while conquering his arch enemy.

Ben of Nigglewood

Ben Nigglewood is a homeless man who is fed up with his predicament in the care facility. The care in this place leaves much to be desired. Along comes Gretta Wollenzeider who is sympathetic to his cause and starts to take action. She arranges an interview with Mr. Dicton of the housing authorities to discuss plans to check the facility. As she is mobilizing her plans, Ben passes away. Gretta is distraught, and angry, and decides to visit him in heaven. A heated discussion ensues between agitated Gretta and peaceful Ben. Along the way, there are angels, Niggy, the demon, Ben’s mother, and the truckers of Bacnauld’s Bar. There is lots of action. Finally, Gretta and Ben’s mother touch base with one another and they make plans to improve Ben’s former care facility.