KEEPER OF SORROWS--DEBUT SEPTEMBER 2024

On a planet stripped of wind, entire ecosystems lie in ashes, leaving humans to the mercy of the sole surviving bee species on a remote isle. Whoever wins the competition to rule the bees, rules the world.

When her sister Lenita wins the bid to become Keeper, Naokah’s jealousy razes their relationship. The induction ceremony is looming, and Naokah is faced with regret. Willing to atone at any cost, she arrives on the gloomy Isle of Bees. But Lenita is gone.

To find her, Naokah will not only have to compete against ruthless envoys, but face her debilitating fear of bees. As she braves the eerie fortress with sprawling wings of hives, malice stalks her in the darkness and visions untether her from reality. But when the envoys start disappearing and dying, it’s a race against her fraying sanity to confront the reigning Keeper – who’s guarding the darkest secret of all.

KEEPER OF SORROWS, out September 2024

Growing up, Rachel wanted to be Sir William Wallace, James Horner, or Stephen King.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Army doesn’t issue claymore swords, and she’s painfully tone deaf (just ask her bagpipe instructor, who tries not to wince as she plays), so that left writing—a campaign that would wage on for a quarter century, leaving Rachel bruised, bloody, and downright defeated.

She’s been a soldier, maid, door-to-door bookseller, Fikes Family Farm field hand–thanks Pops!–leasing agent, baker, journalist, pageant queen/director, wiper of butt sweat (tanning salon), seller of overpriced lingerie at Victoria’s Secret, and dejected Wal-Mart cashier. All of which she either strategically retreated or succumbed to her injuries.

Eventually, with skin thicker than chain mail, a shield of resolve, and the reckless, indefatigable hope of a warrior poet, Rachel finally fought her way into publishing. *lobs claymore sword she found on eBay; Horner’s Braveheart theme amplifies

After quite the adventure, Rachel takes refuge in a hobbit hole in Austin, Texas, squirreling away all the coffee, whisky, and plants she can get her paws on, and teaching ESL to the most amazing students in the world. But since teaching and writing don’t pay the bills, she often sells her body to clinical trials. In fact, one of her books was written in one such research facility, where she was a lab rat for thirty-three glorious days. The side effects weren’t too terrible either. She just wears long skirts now to hide her tail.

https://rachelfikes.com/

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TO THE MOON ALLISON

This LIVE podcast brings you interviews with trending authors in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, and Romance. If that sounds like an odd combination, blame the host. A red shirt in a browncoat, Allison Martine (“A.M.”) Hubbard was busy writing speculative fiction when she tripped and fell in the hot tub. Now, she writes award-winning romance, too. This master of bad analogies, mixed metaphors, and poorly translated Latin, (which she vaguely recalls from her years as an attorney), has a penchant for bourbon, wonderfully weird books, and throwing tropes out the window.

afictionalhubbard.com

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