Previews of Forthcoming Books

from WRT 462, "The Book: From Writing to Publishing, Spring 2009"

 

 

Served by Kristen Andreoli

Thirty-two year old Kim Jones has spent most of her adult life selling clothes she can't afford to buy herself. With the holiday season fast approaching, Kim's counting down the last few months before she qualifies for a sixty-percent pension and lifetime discount, courtesy of Lord & Taylor. But fifteen years is a long time to behave, and Kim starts acting out just in time for the fervor of yet another retail Christmas. Suffering a retail breakdown, Kim starts leaving work on the time clock, stealing merchandise, having sex on the roof. Kim breaks every rule. But when she's confronted by management and faced with the loss of her job, her subservient shop-girl habits come flooding back. Will Kim back down or walk away?

 

 

Down City: Falling by Joseph Benedict

For a detective who never sleeps, every nightmare is a reality. Doug Ulric has seen years of murder and police corruption in a city that seems to devour itself. He is driven to continue the day's cases by night, but when one of his suspects transforms into a literal demon, Doug must adapt to a new evil. The body of a student is found tortured and killed every day, but racing to save them could cost Doug parts of his life he thought were lost years ago: his career, his sanity, his humanity.

 

Friendship by Janelle Chambers

Loren has always been the girl who has lived to please, scrutinizing every moment to find its meaning. Ava has always been the girl with the world at her feet, never analyzing a moment in her life. What happens when two very different friends precariously fall in love with the same man?

 

The Stargazers, by Thomas Jacob

Three young men form a band and are caught up in the tumultuous protests and occupation of Columbia University during the Vietnam War. Peter, the band organizer is an optimistic yet unmotivated artist trapped in a routine he escapes by fabricating his own reality. Chase is a self-sufficient hippie outraged by his schoolÕs capitalist agenda. Miles a good-natured, na•ve student struggles with the conditioned nature of his identity. The three young men find solace in each other as their struggles to maintain artistic and individual integrity collide with events that will alter their lives forever.

 

Diva, by Chelsea Wolf

A coming-of-age memoir about the rise and fall of a young diva trapped in suburbia. Here eight-year-old Chelsea purposely lets her dress fall off during ÒThe Sound of MusicÓ and runs around her living room table, screaming prayers, while her cousin is wedged in a storm drain. In each of these stories, Wolf learns valuable lessons such as: the importance of a good Òmom-agerÓ and that if you take your clothes off, people will like you. Once she hits high school, Chelsea forgets these lessons and temporarily loses her inner-diva. Does she ever get her back?

 

Hearts or Tails by Kristin Weinkauf

Swimming around the same circle for 21 years has stunted StellaÕs growth as a mermaid. After escaping her captors she discovers the world is more complicated than she thought. Stella has the unpredictability of a cat, the poison of a jellyfish and the torso of a woman. Vengeful lover, hunted predator and awkward soul, Stella is a monster ready to break all the rules, including falling in love with a merman. What will happen when she dives into a merperson pod gives communal living a try?

 

The Room without an Elephant by Kevin McNulty-DeNunzio

"The Room without an Elephant" is the story of a Vietnamese-American farmer, Donald ÒDungÓ Grainger, and his financial and moral ruin during the Vietnam War. Years later, Dung develops a close relationship with an Asian elephant while working as a cage cleaner at the Kansas City Zoo. After Dung's death, his son Ted travels to Vietnam looking for elephants and discovers the truth of his father's guilt and the  elephant that has always been in the room.

 

Young Folks and the Old Folks by Jake Kara

This collection of short stories chronicles unlikely savants and deep thinkers struggling with love, identity, and existence, told in various voices. A comical voice similar to Woody Allen tells about a child prodigy who conscientiously objects to standing for the pledge. A reserved, tense narrator in a style reminiscent of J.D. Salinger tells about an old, bitter couple spending the day berating one another. Both the young folks and the old folks struggle with the issues that make them human.

 

The Advent of the Undead and Other Short Stories by Charles O'Donnell

Chuck finds himself in the middle of an apocalyptic disease outbreak, the victims of which are rising from the dead. Chuck and his two unlikely partners will have to navigate their way to a rumored safe point somewhere north along the train tracks they hike. The story follows the impacts that prolonged stress situations have on the human mind as Chuck and other characters find themselves at the mercy of a flesh-starved werewolf, an army of dolls, a haunted bedroom, and what happens when the sun clicks off permanently.

 

Eve's Counsel by Amanda Bloom

Thomas Buckley has been in the presence of the dead from the moment of his birth. As a young man, he finds himself on the outskirts of many lives rather than in his own, until he meets his wife, Amelia. She gives him the strength and contentment to carry on in the funeral business. When his parents die in a tragic accident, Thomas inherits the family funeral home and the ability to talk to the dead. Over time, pull him away from the living world. As Thomas' work consumes him, a cold distance grows between he and Amelia. When his life falls apart before his eyes, Thomas follows a ghost whose body he's buried on a quest through the after-death world called "The Rivers" in hopes of retrieving the life and family he once felt was promised to him.

 

The Song Writer by Philip Bowles

What inspires a song? This is the story of Michael Jeffries, a young science-fiction writer recruited by his musician friend to pen the lyrics to his hit songs. Follow MichaelÕs growth from reluctance to success as he writes the words to what will become hit songs. What does your favorite song mean to you? Can a simple set of words make an impact on one life? Find out the difference a rhyme and a melody can have as MichaelÕs fans share moments of their own lives.