An Epic Story
thatWhen we talk about crafting an "epic" narrative, we’re delving into something that transcends mere grand-scale events or towering stakes. Achieving a truly epic tale requires a deeper, more personal investment in the storytelling process, beyond just a flair for...
Kelly Simmerman
Meet Kelly Simmerman, a passionate bookworm turned prolific writer, whose literary journey began in a quaint independent bookstore in Santa Fe, NM. Kelly's love for reading evolved into a flourishing writing career, marked by over 100 articles in various magazines,...
Deep Connections
When it comes to storytelling, characters are often the most important aspect of a story. Conflict is an essential component of any narrative, but it's important to make sure that the conflict goes beyond just disagreement or fighting. To truly make your conflict...
Backstory Basics
As a writer, you've likely heard many warnings about how to handle backstory in your writing. However, it's important to also focus on the positive aspects of incorporating backstory effectively. By doing so, you can create a compelling and engaging story that...
Avoiding Point of View Errors in Writing
Point of view is a crucial aspect of writing that helps to define the narrative voice and shape the reader's experience. A consistent and effective point of view can immerse the reader in the story and create a sense of intimacy with the characters. However, point of...
The Distinction between Romance Stories and Love Stories
When it comes to fiction, the terms "romance story" and "love story" are often considered interchange, but they are not necessarily the same thing. While both genres center on relationships and emotions, there are key differences between the two that are important to...
Enhancing Antagonist Development
When it comes to storytelling, the villain, or antagonist, is a crucial component that drives the conflict and creates tension. Traditionally, villains are portrayed as evil, with their sole purpose being to hinder the protagonist's journey. However, this limited...
The Importance of Character Reactions in Storytelling
When it comes to writing a story, the big action scenes often receive a lot of attention. Characters are making decisions, taking actions, and experiencing consequences. These moments are filled with conflict, tension, and high stakes, which are all crucial elements...
Balancing Urgency and Logic: Navigating Short Timelines in Storytelling
In the world of storytelling, the use of a "ticking clock" can add a sense of urgency and keep readers engaged. However, short timelines can also lead to illogical subplots. For example, if a story involves the protagonist defeating an evil emperor within two hours...
Reader Engagement
Maintaining reader engagement in your book: how can you accomplish this feat? This is a challenge we face every time we start typing. The issue becomes more pressing as our books grow in length. Personally, as a reader, I adore lengthy novels. But let me clarify: I...
Davey Cobb
Davey Cobb is a writer of fantasy, horror, and all things weird. Hailing from Manchester, England, he draws inspiration from everyday madness and mundanity.
Andy Vaughan
Andy Vaughan worked in marketing for 30 years, during which time he wrote about many subjects from corporate video scripts, to children book synopses, to the dangers of stress corrosion cracking in plumbing valves. He edited a village magazine but had to give it up...
Chicago Rage
Free Love, Drugs, and Riots A time in US history. A time of turmoil. And a time of unrest. A five-part memoir as seen through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Ron trying to earn enough money to continue his exploration of the emerging Counterculture, just after the...
Ronald Schulz
RONALD SCHULZ was born in the nineteen-fifties in Chicago. He dropped out to explore the Sixties radical counterculture before hitchhiking across Europe and Africa on a roundabout Buddhist pilgrimage to Nepal. Now a semi-retired hobo, and a new author writing his...
Vermin
A dying boyA rebellious girlHistory poised to repeat itself Left for dead at the side of the road in an outlawed town, Nicholas is rescued by a human girl. Plagued by fevered dreams and a lethal illness, Nicholas doesn’t know what to make of her kindness. If she knew...
Thomas Cannon
Thomas Cannon was raised on a small dairy farm near Spencer, Wisconsin. While drawn to the honest work of farming, he followed a passion for writing and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point. In August 2021, he...
Shattered
When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.-Eckhart Tolle Mikey Haskell thought he figured it out. After six months on the road, realization that his best friend, Alaine, was his soul mate. But memories of the painful breakup with his...
The Goodman Curse
Sergeant Greg Goodman is only good at one thing – his job. He couldn’t even die properly. Now, his first case back from medical leave places him firmly in the crosshairs of the biggest investigation of his life – his family. If he’s not careful, his ass won’t be the...
Not A Hope In Hel
Five years ago, Davis Mareth took a job on the night shift at the Winterbourne Home. Five years ago, he fell in love with a dead girl and learned he was destined for a higher purpose than he could ever have imagined. Five years ago, Davis was given the most incredible...
Ardin Patterson
Ardin Patterson is a Canadian voice actress with Noble Caplan Abrams, and an author with a passion for storytelling. She is a Trent University Grad, who spent her years there geeking out over Shakespeare, hanging with her friends at the Trend, and going to bookstores...
China Girl
China Girl by Douglas Owen Young women around the world keep disappearing. Tasked with an impossible-to-solve investigation with only the heel of a shoe and three drops of blood, Detective Roberts must work with a reluctant Interpol officer to get a break. The streets...
The Impossible Last Request
The Impossible Last Request On the fifth anniversary of her brother’s death, Sarah uncovers his impossible last request – a challenge to defy all odds… Sarah Hopkins thought she had her life under control. It took five years to figure it all out, but the night she...
Black Friday Sale!
The Black Friday Flash Sale is here! For a limited time only, selected ebooks are marked down to $0.99 on Amazon! That's right! Get an amazing read for a low price from November 27th to 30th, only on Amazon. Pick from one of our fantastic publications and be amazed at...
The Snow Leopard’s Crown
Ash must fight his inner demons to overcome an addiction. But as he cleans up his life, his family is accused of stealing the Snow Leopard's crown. And the thief is his sister. Together with his long-time friend, Ash must recover the crown for the Snow Leopard, the...
The Girl Behind The Glass
A few crazy nights of bar hopping The ashes of a long lost friend And Mike still has to go to work the next day! Legal clerk Mike comes to a realization that his life of sex, drugs, and rock n roll are coming to an end. His job is just a paycheck, and the endless...
Vice Ride
Five Days with the Enemy Amber leaves a college scholarship when she discovers her father keeping secrets. But, instead of facing long-standing family issues, she rolls the dice on Josh and agrees to help her ex- with a crazy scheme. Josh has five days to “keep his...
Sloan – Sloan Book One
What do an illicit deal an ex-wife a gala for the rich and an assassin lover all have in common? Usually not much, but Sloan will weave magic from it all. The once-idyllic resort town of Riders Bay is no match for a walking tempest. When a beautiful grifter arrives...
Unbound III – Goodbye earth
In this Episode of Unbound, we explore saying Goodbye Earth, a way to leave our world behind. Talented authors from around the world make you think about how people say goodbye to our world or just life in general. Our authors explore leaving the mortal coil to...
Mouse – The Elmnas Chronicles Book One
Mouse wakes not knowing who or where she is. Only the searing pain of the number 146 being burned on her arm with a white-hot branding iron. A slave in Misty Summit's Manufacturing Facility, she is alone until the discovery of a terrible truth launches her on a...
Final Year
Graduation can be killer… Beth pushes beyond her comfort zone to prove a sociology thesis. She turns a chance meeting with a known player into a personal experiment on first impressions. Weaving herself into casual meetings with the guy reinforces her assumptions…...
Wisdom From The Fuzzy Blue Chair – Volume I
Life, The Universe, and Isobel is a story of a remarkable child. S.A. Baker knew his daughter was different when she entered this world. Little did he realize the truth of that thought. And through the years he kept track of the wisdom uttered through her lips, no...
The Family – Broken World Book Two
Steve is just an ordinary guy living in a broken world. The girl of his dreams, Mindy, was kidnapped by a biker gang called The Family. Their leader, Pa, believes Steve is the reason for all their hardship and wants to have him killed. But the world is full of...
I, Animal
Q: When trusting your baser instincts threatens to strip your hold on sanity, who do you turn to? A: A turkey in the woods. A primal force awakens in Tommy after learning of his mother’s impending death. She’s all right, not in the hospital on life support or...
Broken Star
Hope, a city of separate societies. A lone dark elf toils as a cryptographer copying scrolls and books. He left his heritage behind at a young age to seek fortune and adventure, only to settle down after losing all but one of his companions. But when young women in...
Faun Song
S. A. Baker delivers a new offering in the world of Winterbourne. Isobel is just a simple girl living a simple life, until the call of Seonagh’s woods just outside the creepy Winterbourne cemetery. She does not know why she is called there, but even her father, Ezra,...
The Hordes – Broken World Book One
Steve is just an ordinary guy living in a rural town north of Toronto. And when the world goes to shit, everyone looks to him for help. Heck, he even gets a girlfriend out of it. But survival in a broken world can be tough when everyone wants to have what you have....
Unbound I: Lost Friends
This is our first ecliptic collection of short stories with the underlying theme of Lost Friends. The Unbound Anthology series published by Science Fiction and Fantasy Publications started with over 100 submissions. Over time we laser sliced that down to 27 and asked...
Familiar Scents
From the Byzantine world of city politics to drag show night clubs and feuds among secretive groups of people gifted with unusual and frightening abilities. Familiar Scents takes us on a journey into a hidden world filled with clues scattered about a maze of violence,...
Unbound II: Changed Worlds
The Unbound Anthologies are a collection of short themed stories perfect for your reading pleasure. Every year we open a call to authors around the world challenging them to create never before created works of fiction, pick the best ones, and bundle them together for...
The Clone
Everyone wants the clone created. The scientist, to advance her theories. The Russian gangster, for supposedly he is the one being cloned. The Russian gangster’s sons, for they know the real reason. The scientist’s husband, for he wants her to be happy. But what is...
Michael Saad
Michael Saad was born in Michel, British Columbia and grew up in Sparwood, B.C. He is currently a teacher at Coalhurst High School in Coalhurst, Alberta. He is the author of several short stories and historical articles. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines...
All The Devils Are Here
At the age of 10, Mom gave me a puff of weed and Dad started cooking meth in the basement. Mom was always high. I thought all families were like that. But when the local gang broke into our home threatening everyone’s life, I knew something was wrong with my family....
Realizing River City
* Winner of Second Place-Nonfiction Book of the Year Award from the Independent Author Network (IAN) * Winner of "Outstanding Memoir" category from IAN * Finalist in the "First Book, Nonfiction" category from IAN At times, life can feel like a challenging feat of...
Muffled Scream I – Corner of the Eye
We took over 200 submissions, shook them together, pulled out the best 7, and bundled them together in the first of the Muffled Scream Anthologies. But we didn't stop there. One of the creepiest stories came to light and grew on us, so we added it as a bonus at the...
The Steam Room Diaries
A defrocked priest meets the angel of his darker nature, as well as the better one, in the confines of a dreary steam room filled with sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. In this new genre of God Noir – the sacred darkness in which God hides in plain sight where least...
Winterbourne
All Davis wanted was a job. So when Winterbourne Home advertised a position for an evening personal care worker, he jumped at the chance. Little did he know that another, higher-profile position waited for him; that is if the homicidal director of the home did not...
Escaping the Caves
No one really knows how it ended. All that is certain is somehow, somewhere, someone fucked up. Big time. Now it is up to us, those unfortunate enough to be born at the edge of these god-forsaken caves, to prevent what is left of the world from being overrun by the...
Inside My Mind
Inside My Mind is the definitive collection of his short stories and flash fiction compiled in one anthology. Each volume covers different time periods in the writing career of Douglas Owen. Volume I, covers the very first flash fiction stories he created as well as...
Emilio Iasiello
Emilio Iasiello is the author of the short story collection Why People Do What They Do, and a nonfiction book, Chasing the Green. He has published poetry in several university and literary journals and written the screenplays for several independent feature films and...
Nick Kurch
Nicholas Kurch is a writer of various genres, both fiction and non-fiction. He has written for publications such as ClutchPoints and The Manifold Magazine. He is currently working on the follow-up to his debut book, SLOANE, launched 2019. Raised in Hawaii, he attended...
Kaylena Radcliff
Kaylena Radcliff is a magazine editor, pastor's wife, mother, and indefatigable world builder. As such, she subsists almost entirely on coffee and prayer. A voracious reader and prolific writer from an early age, Kaylena was deeply influenced by the likes of C.S....
M.J. Moores
Imagine procrastination and stubborn perseverance getting together and procreating – that would be what M.J. faces when she looks in the mirror every day. Her stubborn mind-set has gotten her into trouble more often than she'd care to admit. The best example being...
Kevin Del Principe
KEVIN DEL PRINCIPE is a writer and film director. I Animal, via Tumbleweed Books, is Del Principe's first novel. The son of a snowplow truck driver and a school nurse, Kevin grew up outside of Buffalo, New York. Later, he worked in Los Angeles and taught screenwriting...
Kim Kerr
Kim Kerr is a primary school teacher in Melbourne Australia who has always enjoyed a great love of fantasy and historical ction. He lives with his wife and son in the hills on the city’s fringe on a small plot of land with chickens, a few sheep, and his two dogs. His...
T. S. Kay
T.S. Kay is the author of several short stories and Familiar Scents, his first novel in the Gifted World. He grew up an avid reader and almost lived in bookstores, and libraries. He has a doctorate in psychology, as well as a certificate in military education. Dogs...
Johan Thompson
Johan Thompson is a writer by night and manages a law firm by day. He lives with his wife, two boys and two dogs in Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying creative writing, screenwriting and watching every science fiction film created, he decided to draw on his...
Melisa Grunow
Melissa's essays have been nominated for the 2017 Best of the Net Anthology and the 2014 Pushcart Prize. Her work has been listed as a notable essay in The Best American Essays in 2016, 2018 and 2019. She is a four-time recipient of the Detroit Working Writers...
Cameron Miller
Cameron Miller has been writing professionally for decades as a preacher, pastor, retreat and conference leader, and an adjunct professor of religion. Recently he traded that work to dance full time along the imaginative border between fiction, poetry, and spiritual...
S.A. Baker
S.A. Baker is a healthcare worker and recovering professional musician who spent eleven years touring around North America and despite popular opinion, he really does know how to smile. From early on, he excelled at telling stories and won several local writing awards...
Kristin Talgø
Kristin Talgø is a Norwegian science fiction and fantasy writer. For as long as she can remember, she has loved to read and write stories. She wrote her first story at the age of seven, continued through her teens, but didn’t start taking it seriously until she was...
Douglas Owen
Writer, author, editor, and publisher. Douglas Owen started his writing career in the late '80s with training manuals. After several years and a number of "internally" published works, he turned his eye to creative writing early in 2o12. Doug's specializes in Science...
The Spear Series
In a world not unlike our own, the Realm is protected by men and women known as Spears. For years the Spears have acted as protectors of the people, enforcing the King's justice, and punishing those who would violate the peace. Children, orphaned at birth, are taken...