Elmer & Leonard
Top 3 Finalist, Adult Fiction The Word: A Storytelling Sanctuary
Finalist, Carol Houck-Smith Fiction Fellowship
O Brother Where Art Thou x True Blood x Sinners
When a lonely, young Native American widower, Leonard Lusk, encounters a blues playing prodigy with a 160-year old secret, the result is a modern odyssey across the American South-and a journey that will force Leonard to reconcile what love truly means.
Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Upmarket/Book Club Fiction
In the Place Where Frank James is Buried, Just North of Here
Big Moose Novel Prize, Semifinalist
Salvage This World x Night of the Living Rez x There, There
When retired rock star Brian Moyer returns to the small town in Alabama where he grew up, his only thought is that it might be a shot at redemption for his troubled, adopted teenage daughter Cheetah and a chance for him to reconcile some of his own demons, including his troubled relationship with his childhood friend Red Baxter. He doesn’t bargain on the fact that Cheetah’s path will soon interact with Billy Ray Kemp, a local boy who is a member of the Echota Cherokee tribe but who is as damaged as Cheetah, with a record nearly as long as his seventeen years. When Billy Ray and Cheetah conspire to run away together to the annual Poarch Creek Indian powwow, a tragic chain of events leads to a night of reckoning for all.
Magical Realism, Dark Fantasy, Upmarket/Book Club Fiction
The Kids of Crossroads
Wednesday x Witchcraft For Wayward Girls
It is 1979 and 15-year-old Lucinda Berry doesn’t ask for much. As a student who has found herself at the local alternative school for “Specials” she mostly just wants to save her widowed father from a life of destruction and to return to the Native circle where she spent her formative years before her mother’s death. Plagued by the visions she’s had since childhood, Lucinda discovers she possesses the ability to intercept the spirit and secular worlds and to interact with both her past and future lives. A midnight visit from Charles Edward, the “creepy vampire kid” of Crossroads, soon sets Lucinda on a path of self-discovery. Through her obsession with music and her late night marathon sessions listening to WMSL, she discovers a portal that allows her to interact with the dead and to travel through her past and future lives. Determined to save her friends from what she perceives as their doomed future lives, Lucinda sets out on what she believes is a mission to ensure everyone’s “happily ever after”-only to realize that altering the course of a life can exact a heavy price on her own.
Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Young Adult Historical Fantasy. Upmarket/Book Club
Ghost Band
Daisy Jones and the Six x Field of Dreams
For 70’s rock band S’aint Augustine, life couldn’t get much sweeter-or higher. That is, until a fatal plane crash takes out most of its members on their way to what was promised to be their career defining concert. The members who survive the initial crash are doomed to a slow and painful death across decades of guilt and suffering. Now, after having languished for nearly fifty years in Purgatory as punishment from Saint Augustine (who didn’t have a sense of humor about his name being appropriated) and after years of helpless standing by as they’ve watched their loved ones’ lives spiral out of control, their name and legacy appropriated by greedy music moguls and their music watered down by inferior tribute bands, the members of S’aint Augustine realize they must put aside their festered wounds, their long standing animosities, and break out of Purgatory so they can deliver the long promised final concert to their fans. But the “putting aside” part is easier said than done. As the clock ticks down to curtain time, the biggest challenge for S’aint Augustine may not be whether a ghost band can return from the dead and still kick ass, but whether they can kick ass without managing to kill each other-all over again.
Horror Comedy, Dark Fantasy, Book Club
A River Diverted: The Essence of a Life
In a Day’s Work x Dear Editor x Love Letters to the Dead
As the thirtieth year death anniversary of River Phoenix draws near, a middle-aged PhD student decides to undertake the completion of a verse novel based on Phoenix’s short, turbulent and ultimately tragic life as her seminar project. But Cassie soon finds herself obsessed with uncovering what she perceives as the truth about Phoenix’s death. As the project begins to consume her life, she realizes it is a journey compelling her to reevaluate everything-not just what it means to die, but also what it means to be born. And to live. At once both love letter to Generation X and an indictment of celebrity culture, A River Diverted is a novel that chronicles the joys and seismic shocks of self-discovery.
Verse Novel, Poetry, Memoir
