Jessie's Coffee Shop

Time often slows and frequently even stops in the small town of Cottage Park, Iowa. In fact, time is best measured not by the hands of a clock but by the innings of a baseball game. Praying and playing baseball are two of the town's primary activities. Actually, they are one in the same in a town where baseball is a religion. Still, time does eventually flow on. Much like the Des Moines River just outside Cottage Park, time leads to the site of the 1974 Iowa high school baseball tournament. Cottage Park's Holy Trinity High School has never won the Finals, as they are known. The team's three elderly coaches vow to at last anoint themselves Finals champions before they retire in their final season. For the players, the road to the Finals is a confirmation by fire--a rite of passage before they must face adulthood looming before them. Fathers, sons, and the holy ghosts of baseball join together in the quest for the Finals. Along this journey, young and old alike ultimately learn you must sacrifice before you can gain and sometimes you must lose before you can win.
https://www.facebook.com/baseballisareligion/

Known for its lavish hotels and casinos, beautiful showgirls and sumptuous buffets, Las Vegas is home to an abundance of wedding chapels. Follow Rosemary, the wedding organizer, and Buster, her dachshund with a nose for matrimony, as they guide you through the fictional stories of The Chapel of Eternal Love. Witness a Harley-riding love affair and a May-December romance. Meet a widow and widower who encounter each other at a cemetery and an Iraqi veteran and his anti-war activist bride. Walk down the aisle with two lost souls who find hope and a couple with differing religious backgrounds finding faith. Share the poignant, moving and occasionally humorous tales of the young and old, first-time sweethearts and long-lost loves. Discover the joys, sorrows and journeys that led each of them to The Chapel of Eternal Love.

Nate is caught between two dangerously hot vampires who can compel people to do whatever they want and a ruthless necromancer who wants Nate for all the wrong reasons—and that’s only the start of his problems.

Escort Nate prides himself on two things: his ability to please his clients and his normality – living in the monster capital of the world, ordinary is rare. Hunter, a darkly charming vampire with more charisma than is good for him, decides Nate is just what he needs. Nate’s sympathetic nature and skill in the bedroom are put to the ultimate test. But Hunter wants Nate for someone else – his brother, Ben. Nate is immediately attracted by the control with which Ben holds his sensitive nature in force. Too afraid of becoming a monster to allow himself to feel, Ben struggles to resist Nate’s generosity of emotion. As a vindictive necromancer makes Ben his target of revenge, Nate discovers that making people feel good doesn’t compare to making Ben feel. As Nate’s normal world crumbles around him, and he desperately searches for a way to save Ben, Nate is unable to escape becoming the necromancer’s latest victim.

But Nate’s death is only the beginning. Coming back to life in the bathroom of Gunn, a Department Seven officer who hates the vampire family that Ben and Hunter belong to, Nate doesn’t know who to trust or even what he is. As the necromancer’s trap pulls tighter around himself and Ben, Nate is forced to let go of normal and embrace powers he doesn’t fully understand. In defiance of Ben’s vampire sire and hunted by Department Seven, Nate and Ben finally learn to trust and rely on each other. But when the necromancer succeeds in capturing Ben, Nate alone can come to his rescue.

Barnabus’s nephew is behaving oddly.
Calling upon Doctor Humphrey for assistance has not been particularly helpful, because the good doctor’s diagnosis of demonic possession is clearly preposterous. Even the demon currently ensconced on the front room couch agrees it’s preposterous. But then, how else to explain the portal to another world through which his nephew and Humphrey have just now disappeared? Barnabus knows their only chance of rescue is for Barnabus J. Wildebear himself to step up and go through that portal. Thus begins an existential romp across space and time, trampling on Barnabus’ assumptions about causality, freewill, identity, good and evil. Can Barnabus save his nephew—and incidentally, all of humanity?


Joe Mahoney works full-time for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he’s helped make many radio shows over the years, including Writers and Company, Quirks and Quarks, and Q. He’s produced documentaries on science fiction for The Arts Tonight and The Current. He produced Six Impossible Things, a compilation of short fantastical fiction, curated by Nalo Hopkinson, for Between the Covers, and wrote and produced Faster Than Light, hosted by Robert J. Sawyer, for Sunday Showcase. He spent a decade making radio plays, working on productions such as The Merchant of Venice, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Afghanada, with some of the finest actors, directors and writers in Canada. He Five Rivers Publishing ISBN 9781988274256 Trade Paperback, 6 x 9 412 pages $34.99 eISBN 9781988274263 $5.99 engineered and story-edited Steve the First, a post-apocalyptic science fiction radio play mini-series, and its sequel, Steve the Second, which won a silver Mark Time Award. He produced and directed the pilot of Canadia: 2056, and story-edited all subsequent episodes. He is responsible for all the funniest bits. In 2007, Joe left production to join the CBC management team. These days he’s Director of Production Support. Joe’s short fiction has been published in Canada, Australia and Greece. He’s been nominated twice for an Aurora Award, one of Canada’s top awards for science fiction and fantasy, for his work on CBC Radio. Joe lives in Whitby with his wife and two daughters, and their golden retriever and Siberian forest cat.

Welcome to The Coffee Shop, on the menu today, we have an extended conversation about writing. A panel of five writers gathered around our favorite table addressed “Whats Really Wise in Conventional Writing Wisdom,” with advice gleaned from years of experience writing and marketing their work. Many of their lessons apply to new writers and multi-book authors alike.

Joining us are:

- Emily Carpenter (http://emilycarpenterauthor.com/), Amazon best-selling author of three
suspense novels: BURYING THE HONEYSUCKLE GIRLS, THE WEIGHT OF LIES
and the upcoming EVERY SINGLE SECRET, which is coming out May 1, 2018.

- Ellie Jordan (http://elliedecker.com/), writer and actress, who has developed screenplaysand appears in numerous films and TV shows, including THE WALKING DEAD.

- JD Jordan (http://www.o-jd.com/), the author of the sci-fi Western CALAMITY, which
he is now developing for television in collaboration with a production company.

- Chris Negron (https://chrisnegron.com/), whose short fiction has appeared in a dozen
online and print literary publications; his first middle grade novel is currently on
submission with publishers.

- George Weinstein (http://www.georgeweinstein.com/), who is making his second
appearance in the Coffee Shop. He’s the author of five novels that span a variety of
genres, the latest being the mystery novel AFTERMATH, which we discussed in 2017.
He also is the former president of the Atlanta Writers Club (http://atlantawritersclub.org/)
and runs the twice-yearly Atlanta Writers Conference
(https://atlantawritersconference.com/about/).

Nick Reese wakes from a 3-year coma to find the world he once knew is gone. An ancient virus has infected two-thirds of the world's population, turning humans into either incredibly intelligent super-humans or large and indestructible animalistic creatures. For the survivors there is no government, no antidote, and no safety.

With the help of a beautiful hematologist named Faith and a man they call the Commander, Nick must survive long enough to discover the origin of the virus and learn how his blood could hold the key to a cure. But he has to do it while being hunted by the infected. And failure means the extinction of the human race.

What starts as a search for a decorative Buddha statuette leads one woman on a spiritual journey that will change everything
.
Marla lives the good life in Los Angeles—house, pool, her own business helping Cupid find love for LA’s most discriminating singles. Her handsome and ardent hubby Adolfo performs at an exclusive steak house in Beverly Hills. He tends to scoff at Marla’s green juice, vegan diet, yoga, and daily affirmations and can be a teensy bit of a control freak.

A discarded Buddha statuette that Adolfo suddenly can’t live without sends Marla searching through New Age boutiques along with her skeptical friend Julie. They are soon schooled by a charismatic “Goddess,” delving ever deeper into self-realization, conversations with angels, pendulums, candle “Magick,” Reiki, crystal healing, and more. Attend a Hindu Bajan? Sure. Orgasmic Meditation? (Wait, what…?) Maybe not that one.
Growing in her spirituality, yet exceedingly frustrated with some of her persnickety clientele—aging men who see themselves as Dorian Grays, worthy of exquisite young women—Marla’s world is shifting. She achieves certifications as an energy healer and encourages Julie to sample the concoction Julie calls “green gunk” and other healthy practices to help her conquer an addiction to unavailable men. Marla deepens her communication with the Beyond while Adolfo, always so practical, asks, “Have you lost your mind? Are you hearing voices? Angels aren’t real, come on!” Matters grow worse when certain psychics warn of “dangerous low-vibrational entities” and rabidly disagree with each other.
Her alternating universes give Marla spiritual whiplash, yet she discovers the LITE way to balance the human carnival with a transformational spiritual journey.
For more information about Marla you can visit her website: https://marlamartenson.com/

To save his family-and the free world-Red Harmon is back in the line of fire . . .

A sinister enemy is stalking elite military operator Red Harmon and his loved ones. Turning the hunter into his prey, Red uncovers a plot that spans nations and draws him into the remote snow-covered ravines of North Korea. His objective: penetrate the darkest prisons of this mysterious nation to restore national security-and save all he holds dear.

Caught in the danger . . .

Red's not the only one who's been living with secrets. His wife Lori is a lot more than the typical suburban soccer mom she appears to be, and she's stumbled onto something massive. The future of world peace depends on them-and on an enemy soldier with a powerful personal agenda. If Red's mission fails, the balance of superpowers may never recover . . .

Lee St. John confesses, “In my defense, I was left unsupervised.” She may not show restraint but you have to give her credit, at least she knows herself.

A mayhem confessor, St. John’s SHE’S A KEEPER! series is a tell-all about mothers, husbands, boyfriends, children, friends, jobs, families, students, acquaintances, and HERSELF! No one is off-limits.

Lee finds her mementos of high-jinx in her closet, attic, basement, and her former classroom. These keepsakes explode into stories she shouldn’t tell, but does. A rogue Southern Belle, she was brought up to behave better but she just can’t help herself. Bless her heart.

Females in her generation will understand when she shares and reminisces about these reminders found in
SHE’S A KEEPER! ~ Confessions from a Southern Girl’s Closet
SHE’S A KEEPER! ~ Anecdotes from a Southern Girl’s Attic
SHE’S A KEEPER! ~Bombshells from a Southern Girl’s Basement
SHE’S A KEEPER! ~ Compositions from a Southern Girl’s Classroom
- This book is written by teachers, for teachers, about teachers from elementary to college about the true but naughty stories from the classroom.


How many people do you know who have been kissed by a President of the United States? And what about playing golf with a Master’s Champion golfer where she, oh my stars, told him what’s what to his face. Why wasn’t she fired from teaching when she disclosed that she cussed, showed nudity, and demonstrated a lewd gesture to her students?

St. John’s humorous storytelling is entertaining as all get-out. It’s wicked, deliciously scandalous, and sometimes shocking. But Lee also shares stories that will melt your heart. And like a cold drink of lemonade that is tart and sweet, Lee was raised with class but will show you her Southern sass. Why not join her for a glass?