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Up Up In A Way: A Psychodrama With Superheroes (World of the Resident Book 1) by Blair McLean

Have you ever wished for someone to save the world from its politicians? In 1993, New York City, Nigel Nakagawa, Japanese cult follower and reluctant superhero, and Karissa Lacey, INS Agent and former child vigilante could be the heroes for you. Just maybe…

When universes collide, and Nigel and Karissa find themselves on the same beach during the Golden Venture disaster, an illegal human smuggling operation gone awry, the unlikely duo find they must work together to bring justice to the person responsible.

Tangling with inner demons, organized crime and the xenophobic New York mayor, whom they believe is behind the smuggling, Nigel and Karissa discover that apathy, exploitation and anti-immigrant sentiments do not respond to heroic intervention in the ways they hoped. Faced with these implacable forces, they must ask themselves: do they truly want to live the lives of heroes?

Interview with the Author:

Q – So, what makes Up Up In A Way stand apart from other superhero books?

A – I think there are a few things that make this book special. I wanted to create something that could help me better understand superheroes in the context of our modern times. I was curious about how a superhero might fare when confronted with the likes of Donald Trump or Rob Ford and some of the crime in our world, such as human smuggling. Things that would be really hard for a superhero to fix.

Q – This doesn’t sound like a straightforward genre piece. Care to comment?

A – You’re right, in fact it’s in the title. Only ‘in a way’ is it a superhero story. As a kid, I was fascinated with superheroes and had a collection of several thousand Daredevil, Wolverine and Spider-man comics. But as I grew up, I realized I wanted to better understand what it would really be like to be a superhero. That’s where my flawed characters come in – real people who have reluctant and/or extreme reactions at the prospect of becoming vigilantes.

Q – Your hope is that the book will help readers understand modern issues, but the story is set in 1993. What’s up with that?

A – I think the past has a lot to teach us about the present, which is why I used a historical event as the inciting incident. The landing of the Golden Venture ship, containing 286 illegal Chinese immigrants off Queens would have given Trump apoplexy, and certainly throws my protagonists into crisis. This event is expertly detailed in a wonderful book called “The Snakehead” by Patrick Radden Keefe, which I used as inspiration. Also Pre-9/11 New York City seemed the perfect time and setting for me to start to trouble the Superhero genre.

Q – What can readers expect from you going forward?

A – I’m working hard on a sequel to Up Up In A Way, set in Madrid in 2003. Along with a returning Karissa and Nigel, it will feature a new female superheroine, fresh off her military tour in Afghanistan. And she just might topple the Spanish government.

If you’re itching to read more from me, you can find Residents, a free eBook of short stories at blairmclean.com. The stories are set in the same universe as Up Up In A Way. They imagine what it would have been like if Mayan warriors had superpowers in the 1500s, and conceive of a dystopian future in which repulsive, humanoid creatures continually climb the skyscrapers to which humans are now confined.

Thanks for reading!

This is a captivating novel set in the 1970s. It features themes relevant to the political climate of the present day. The History Teacher by Susan Bacon is well researched and informative.

The History Teacher by Susan Bacon

“Susan Bacon’s THE HISTORY TEACHER is a rare thriller . . . scrupulously researched, cagily and compellingly plotted and eminently credible. . . . thought-provoking as both history and fiction. And oh yeah, a pleasure to read, written, sentence by sentence, with the eye of a shrewd observer and the ear of a writer who knows language is music.”
— BRUCE WEBER, journalist and author of Life Is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW IS TRUE?

During the blizzard of 1978, a woman is discovered face down at the edge of her Delaware estate, a boxer, half-dead, by her side. Nearby, in a deep ravine, a CIA officer lies buried under two feet of snow. Their secret meeting—sabotaged.

Download this historical fiction by Susan Bacon while it’s free today on Amazon.

When Emma Quinn gets a call in her Manhattan apartment—your grandmother, out walking her dog, found dead in the snow—she has no reason to suspect foul play. A history professor at Columbia and the sole heir to the Quinn fortune, she heads down to Delaware, where her grandmother’s death has triggered a series of unsettling events—a break-in at the estate, an unexpected visit from the CIA and the discovery of a disturbing collection of news clippings in an upstairs study—about hijackings, bombings and acts of terror. Back in Manhattan, Emma is being followed by a mysterious stranger. Her distress grows when she meets a well-known historian, a Scotsman, and Sovietologist named Angus McLearan, who accuses her late grandfather of wrongdoing during the 1930s and ‘40s.

Be sure to leave a review on Amazon for the History Teacher by Susan Bacon. It’s the best way to help an Indie author.

Determined to clear her grandfather’s name and to understand her grandmother’s fate, Emma forms an uneasy alliance with McLearan. Together, they head deeper into an intrigue that harks back to the beginnings of the Cold War and the early days of the intelligence community. As Emma’s research and the CIA’s investigation into the death of their agent begin to intersect, she no longer knows who or what to believe. And it soon becomes apparent that this isn’t just about something that happened in the 1940s. It’s about an operation that is still in play in 1978, one that puts Emma—and the broader world—at risk. When a discovery leads her to her family’s remote Adirondack cabin, the stranger follows. There, Emma is forced to confront the truth—about her family and about history as we know it.

Praise for The History Teacher by Susan Bacon

“Starting with a baffling double murder in a snowstorm in Delaware . . . THE HISTORY TEACHER rushes the reader through a perilous intersection of chateau country wealth, the academic world in Manhattan and Cold War intrigue . . . an excellent, well-crafted debut novel.”
— CURTIS WILKIE, journalist and author of The Fall of the House of Zeus

“THE HISTORY TEACHER is . . . a lively, classic page-turner—full of spying, murder, and double-dealing. Emma Quinn and her grandmother Margaret are 20th-century heroines who would have to wait for a 21st-century writer as skilled and clever as Bacon . . . to imagine their brave and savvy pursuit of the truth.”
—EMILY YELLIN, journalist and author of Our Mothers’ War

The Wilde Brothers Book 9 has nineteen reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 4.2 stars. Be sure to download it now while it’s on sale.

The Holiday Bride (The Wilde Brothers Book 9) by Lorhainne Eckhart

All Trinity Cooper Wilde wanted was a quiet Christmas alone with her baby, a baby no one knows about but her twin sister, Dawn.

Dawn has warned Trinity that she needs to come clean and tell everyone about the baby, including the father, Garrett Franke, their former neighbor, whom Trinity has hated since tenth grade—with the exception of one night last year, a mistake.

Her family is starting to wonder why she hasn’t come home to visit in over six months, and Trinity knows time is running out. She plans to tell everyone, but she gets happily stuck in an unexpected snowstorm in her tiny cabin, located outside a small Idaho town.

Deputy Garrett Franke still can’t get Trinity out of his mind, especially considering he works side by side with her dad, Sheriff Logan Wilde. When Dawn unexpectedly pulls him aside one day, he allows her to convince him to drive out to a remote cabin in the middle of a snowstorm to check on her sister, whom no one has heard from since the storm hit.

That’s the thing about snowstorms: You never know who’ll show up at your door, and a baby isn’t the kind of secret that can stay that way for long.

Be sure to leave a review for The Wilde Brothers Book 9. It’s the best way to help spread the word and help an indie author.

Download this religious eBook by Joe Sykes while it’s free today on Amazon.

The Truth about Eckankar by Joe Sykes

Investigation into the dark practices of the Eckankar cult.

About the author, Joe Sykes:
Joe Sykes is a Christian who was formerly a member of the Eckankar religious cult now headquarted in Minneapolis. Joe experienced a bruising exit from the cult when its leadership attempted to use thought control techniques to take control of his mind, and turn him into a compliant slave. Looking back on that time, Joe probes new truths out of the secret depths of the Eckankar psyche and charts its history of plagiarism, mass deception, quasi-Christian makeover to boost sales, and its continuing persecution of anyone it considers non-compliant.

Future books coming out about Eckankar include Survivors of the Eckankar cult and the True History of Paul Twitchell.

Download “ZODIAC SIGNS: Characteristics in Relationships, Love, and Career” while it’s free today on Amazon.

Zodiac Signs: Characteristics in Relationships, Love, and Career by Smilena Kirilova

WHY THEY DO THE THINGS THEY DO?

This useful handbook is packed with copious insights on personal relationships and emotional needs that motivate an individual. In addition to revealing the planets’ influence on partnerships, health, and career, you will obtain a closer look at the inner life of each zodiac sign.

In the following sections, along with discovering your talents based on your date of birth and inspiring ideas on how to attain personal fulfillment, you will welcome four short stories with valuable lessons about seeking acceptance, life appreciation, and underlying motivation.

INCLUDED INSIDE:
• What do you need to manifest your goals faster
• What to do when people and situations are not right for you
• What is your sign and its traits, according to Vedic astrology
• What is the difference between Western and Vedic astrology
• What happens when the energy centers of your body are out of balance

Buy “ZODIAC SIGNS: Characteristics in Relationships, Love, and Career” as a part of your lifelong journey of self-discovery.

About the author of Zodiac Signs: Characteristics in Relationships, Love, and Career, Smilena Kirilova:

Smilena Kirilova is an ordinary person who believes in everyday magic. She is passionate about astrology, likes working on creative projects, and admires unique jewelry. Smilena was born on 24 September 1975 in Bulgaria. Her beloved family lives in Toronto, Canada, since 2005. Smilena trusts that good manners make good memories, and bad manners make goodbyes.

Be sure to download “ZODIAC SIGNS: Characteristics in Relationships, Love, and Career” while it’s free today on Amazon.