Book Authors’ Corner update

Titles have been added to the collage

By Moristotle

With apologies for months of neglecting our Book Authors’ Corner, we have updated its collage of covers (see below). We have included covers not only of a few recently published titles, but also of several not-yet-published books, with links to excerpts from them on the blog (if there are any):

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [10]

Click image for more of the saga

Chapter 10. Claude

Claude woke up up the next morning in a bed at the local cat house. His head hurt, his mouth was dry as a desert, and he had the shakes. He pulled the pisspot from under the bed and threw up.
    Somehow he got dressed, but when he checked his pants for money, there wasn’t any. He pulled off a sock and removed the two twenties, wondering why no one ever thought to take his socks off. He walked to the café on the corner and had breakfast. By the third cup of coffee, he was feeling better.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [45]

Pay Back

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Night was coming but the sun was still up as Charlie began watching for movement around the house. The guards were going in and out and the windows were still open to catch the evening breeze. At some point, they would lock down the house, and Charlie needed to get in before that happened.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [36]

Dead Pool

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie took a giant step over the body and into the shower and washed the blood off of himself, trying not to look at the mess that covered the bathroom floor, which had been a man but a few minutes ago. He stepped out and inched along the wall, finding it hard not to step in the pool of shiny red fluid. The gun was lying against the wall. He picked it up using the bath towel and taking care not to smear the blood.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [35]

Border Crossing

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie heard back from Agent Nowak later that night. Nowak and Morris would be coming to Nicaragua Friday afternoon, flying into Emerald Coast International Airport and then taking a D.E.A. helicopter on down to La Virgen, which was on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. Charlie was to call them upon his arrival.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [30]

Roll the Dice

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

At 5 p.m. Juan pulled up at Charlie’s house, and five minutes later they were on their way. As they drove toward town, Juan said, “You know it’s high tide and we’ll need to go in by boat, don’t you?”
    “Hell no, I hadn’t thought about it. Aren’t low and high tide the same time every day?”
    “Charlie, have you ever been around the ocean before?”

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [29]

The Break

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie was mad. He didn’t trust Howard and what really got him was that Margot didn’t trust his judgment and sided with Howard.
    Instead of going home, he turned toward town. He accelerated his little motorbike on the beach road. The buildings and palm trees raced past and became blurs as the small engine screamed from the strain. At that time of night no one else was on the streets as he flew past the closed shops.

Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [19]

Rufino Makes a Move

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Rufino had been awake for hours. The fear of being caught by the Taiwanese was becoming a handicap. It was filling his mind – his every wakening thought was about dying. Every sound and every person who looked too long in his direction became a danger to him. If he were Edgar he could go to the States, or if Paulo he could return to Nicaragua, but his home was Costa Rica, and he had no other place to go.

One of our authors’ books can now be borrowed from North Carolina public libraries

Brain Tangles, by Shirley Deane/Midyett

By Moristotle

One of our book authors has just had her book accepted by BiblioBoard for distribution through public libraries in the State of North Carolina, with possible distribution in a few weeks through public libraries in the rest of the United States (we will let you know).

Ed Rogers’s latest book is close to home

His books keep coming

By Moristotle

Prolific author Ed Rogers has published a new book: Tadpole Creek & Other Stories: Children of the Soil, stories of his growing up in rural Mississippi in the late fifties, stories of three young boys – two black and one white – and their coming of age. “It was a time,” Ed says, “that shaped me and my beliefs for the rest of my life.”

Same popular book, but with a new cover

Lots happening with its author

By Moristotle

Prolific author Shirley Skufca Hickman’s popular book Fall in Love with an Orange Tree or a Book, about a teenager whose immigrant parents are deported back to Mexico, has a new cover. Explains Shirley:

Outside the Box: A suggestion for publicizing a book (or anything?)

By Moristotle

One particular member of the Moristotle & Co. staff comes up with unusual ideas so frequently, I’ve become used to it and usually don’t get all that excited. But this morning he came up with one that utterly floored me – so much so it reminded me that we do have this recurring column called “Outside the Box,” and the last time we published one was a little over a year ago (March 10, 2017).
    Ed Rogers had just recently had a big thought outside the box, when he suggested that the blog might have a “writer’s corner” – for the blog’s book authors to network and help one another with publishing, publicizing, and selling. I dutifully created such a corner and plugged in most of the advice that I could think of, including many items of actual experience from Ed himself, and from, for example, Jim Rix, Randy Somers, and Shirley Skufca Hickman, all of whom have written at least one book, published them, and sold many copies.

Three Years Ago This Month: Are copies of JT: Another Mighty Midyett actually available yet?

Yes! In several formats

By Moristotle

[Interview originally published on March 4, 2015. We re-announce this today as a way of informing readers of a new feature of Moristotle & Co. – its Book Authors’ Corner, which is featured near the top of the sidebar. The corner’s purpose is to celebrate and promote books by Moristotle’s authors, who include members of the staff and others who have kindly allowed us to excerpt their work from time to time. Randy Somers, the author of JT, falls into the latter category, but as the article below reminds us, he has a close connection with a staff member.

You ask whether copies of JT: Another Mighty Midyett are actually available yet.

Fiction: Dancing at the Driftwood Hotel (#15)

A novella with some real characters

By Roger Owens

Horse Balls didn’t want anything to do with it. A Caesarean section done by a high school student? Even, he admitted, a very bright and talented high school student who knew his anatomy as well as he knew his Socrates? On a poor woman not even quite dead? Not that he didn’t know the procedure, but he was sure it was different in real life from in the manuals. People weren’t line drawings, they bled and screamed and died. Of that much he was sure; he’d seen it last night. So it took all the persuasion Louise had to make him do it. By this time Porcelain was barely breathing. She coughed out great clots of blood. Horace was certain she had broken ribs that had punctured her lungs, and there was nothing he could do about that. He came to a decision.

Fiction: Dancing at the Driftwood Hotel (#14)

A novella with some real characters

By Roger Owens

Louise jerked awake, snorting, a sharp pain stabbing into her neck. Florencia and the other girls lay all around her on the floor of the ample Quonset hut where they’d been “billeted.” The Waves, the Navy women’s corps, had set them up with a few blankets and pillows, and they had grabbed four or five hours of sleep. Oddly enough, it had been good for her, with the rain hammering on the curved metal roof, and she felt rested and sharp. A woman not much older than herself noticed her standing and waved her over for a cup of coffee. The storm had blown over in the night. Louise’s heels on the concrete expanse of floor woke the other girls, and by the time the sun lit the high windows they were all up and ready to go.

Fiction: Dancing at the Driftwood Hotel (#13)

A novella with some real characters

By Roger Owens

Louise Dedge stood with the dual rear wheels of the school bus behind her legs to help shield her from the blasting wind. She huddled between the buses with Jim and about a dozen Navy men and their girls, along with one civilian male and his girl: Horace Ball. Horace had astonished her by showing up at Excilencio and Healy’s bungalow, and he continued to surprise her now. He and his gorgeous Cubanita clung together as he calmed her with his fluent Spanish. He told her, Louise gathered, that they would stick with the Navy hombres because, after all, it was a sea storm and they of all people should know what to do. Horace spoke with confidence. The frightened girl nodded numbly, dripping wet and shaking in the cold wind, wanting to trust him. The white girls gathered while their men shouted in each other’s ears, trying to form a plan in the screaming gale. They ignored Horace’s lady until Louise grabbed her by the arms, pulled her into their group and hugged her close. The other girls hesitated for only one second, and then closed around her in a cooing mass, all arms and love, while she sobbed with fright. In the rain her tears poured unseen across Louise’s shoulder. Sand and seashells, tossed by the wind, battered the far side of the bus.

Fiction: Dancing at the Driftwood Hotel (#12)

A novella with some real characters

By Roger Owens

Louise Dedge was in heaven. The New Year’s Eve Ball was a huge success, in spite of the storm. Not just the students but their parents, the teachers, and even some grandparents were still swirling about the polished wood floor to the music of a band that were in no hurry to load up their instruments in a pouring rain. Mr. Thompson had come, hovering near the punch bowl everyone knew had tropical rum in it. And to top things off, Ernest Hemingway had given the dance a pass. Chalk one up for Captain Niko. Louise had danced the entire evening with Jim, already a graceful and accomplished footsman, without a single interruption. Quite a few other Navy fellows were there, but they all had their own sweethearts and were not interested in cutting in. And no high school boy would have dared risk his life by horning in on a military man’s date. The one man she had noticed other than James Donald Owens had been, of all people, Horace Ball, who danced with any girl he could coax onto the floor and turned out to be astonishingly good. When the music played, Horse Balls lost his stoop, his hesitant nature vanished, and he became smooth as ice cream, gliding across the hardwood floors wearing an outdated brown suit and vest like an actor from Hollywood.

Fiction: Unwanted President. Chapter 42

The Truth Can Kill You

By edRogers

Rubin called the club and asked if they had an opening for dinner. The more he thought about Jac threatening him, the madder he got. He told the club manager that Jac had said he was welcome to eat there anytime he wished, which was true. However, Rubin had never been in the club without Jac. They asked no questions of him, the brother of the President of the United States and friend of Jac Truborn, they just told him his table would be ready by seven-thirty.

Fiction: Boystown: The Return (a novel)

Chapter 4. Pepe Espada

By edRogers

[Chapter 3 of Ed Rogers’s new novel appeared here on May 30. It is available in its entirety as a Kindle book.]

Boystown: The Return (a novel)

Chapter 2. On the Hunt

By edRogers

[The foreword, prolog, and first chapter of Ed Rogers’s new novel appeared here last month. It is available in its entirety as a Kindle book.]