Here is Your Awesomegang Newsletter
Published: Tue, 08/19/14
http://awesomegang.com
Where Awesome Book Readers Meet Awesome Writers
- The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration By Ralph L. Angelo Jr.
About The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration By Ralph L. Angelo Jr.:In the year 2089 Mark Johnson and the crew of the star cruiser Cagliostro broke the light speed barrier and mankind was introduced into a much more dangerous universe filled with mysterious foes and a deadly conspiracy.
Now two years later the war against the diabolical Agalum race continues with the Cagliostro at the forefront. After a terrible and nearly deadly battle in space the Cagliostro must make an emergency landing on an unknown world where they will discover dangerous new enemies as well as a surprising new threat by the Agalum alliance. Alone and unable to communicate with the Earth, Mark Johnson and the crew of the Cagliostro must discover a way to survive and defeat an entire world allied against them!
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Ralph L. Angelo Jr has written various books in the Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Sci-Fi and New Pulp genre’s as well as a non-fiction motorcycle instructional manual. His books include ‘Help! They’re All Out to Get Me! The Motorcyclists Guide to Surviving the Everyday World.’, ‘Redemption of the Sorcerer, the Crystalon Saga, Book One.’ ‘The Cagliostro Chronicles’ ‘Torahg the Warrior, Sword of Vengeance’ and the recently released ‘My Enemy, Myself, The Crystalon Saga, Book Two’. The just released ‘The Cagliostro Chronicles 2: Conflagration’ and by a super-hero novel entitled ‘Hyperforce’. Ralph also has various short stories in the works for different anthologies for Pro Se as well as several other publishers, as well as the soon to be released “Tales of Torahg the Warrior, Vol. 1’ by Pro Se Publications.Ralph lives with his family in Suburban Long Island, NY. Ralph is an avid motorcyclist, skier, guitar player and martial artist.
Information on all of Ralph’s books can be found at http://RLAngeloJr.com
The Cagliostro Chronicles II: Conflagration By Ralph L. Angelo Jr. is a post from Awesome Gang
- Drive, Ride, Repeat: The Mostly-True Account of a Cross-Country Car and Bicycle Adventure by Al Macy
About Drive, Ride, Repeat: The Mostly-True Account of a Cross-Country Car and Bicycle Adventure by Al Macy:This book is wildly funny. I lost track of how many times I laughed out loud. – Kathleen, Amazon Reviewer
Author Al Macy is a character and a tightwad with a unique sense of humor. He and his wife squirreled away enough money to retire early, do interesting things, and take unusual trips. As he puts it:
“Every day I wake up with nothing to do, and by the end of the day, I’ve only gotten half of it done.”
During his working life, Macy was a neuroscientist, computer game programmer, jazz trombonist, chef, CEO, piano player, clam digger, and technical writer.
The book is a journal of a car/bicycle/camping trip from California to St. Louis and back, but Macy promises that “if it starts sounding like one of your brother-in-law’s boring slide shows, I will stop this book, and we’ll turn around and go home. I mean it.”
Interspersed with the journal chapters, you’ll find thought-provoking life tips, stories from the past, and descriptions of Al’s wacky inventions. You’ll hear poignant anecdotes about what happened when doctors discovered a golf-ball-sized tumor in his wife’s brain and how everything they owned burned.
Here’s an example of one of those chapters:
Chapter 47 – Puking in a Thunderstorm
Here’s a mishap that illustrates the saying “You’re on an adventure when you wish you were home wishing you were on an adventure.”
In 1982, Lena and I were visiting her folks in Sweden, and we went on a ryggsäcksfotvandringtur. To speak Swedish, all you do is take a bunch of English words, screw around with them, and squeeze them together. For example, in the big word in the last sentence, the only real foreign part is “rygg” which refers to one’s back. Other than that it’s just “Back – sack – foot – wandering – tour,” meaning “wandering around on foot with a pack on your back,” or “backpacking.”
Apparently we have 1,019,729.6 words in English (.6 really?). In Swedish, the total depends on how you count them. Is “ryggsäcksfotvandringtur” one word, or just five words stuck together? Most Swedish dictionaries have around a half-million entries, but if you count words that are Velcroed together, it has many more.
Speaking of Velcro, it was discovered when Georges de Mestral went for a fotvandringstur, and noticed the burrs that stuck to his pants. The word “Velcro” was added to our dictionary in the year nineteen something-or-other. I’ve learned that the phrase “Velcro forehead” refers to the overly dramatic gesture of tilting your head back and holding the back of your wrist against your forehead (”Oh, woe is me!”). Can you tell that I’m worried that this chapter is too short, and I am desperately looking for stuff to add?
So anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, Lena and I were on a shortbackpackingtripinthemountainsofsweden. On our route to the more desolate sections, we passed houses that had sod growing on the roof. And when I say sod, I don’t mean the neat, well-mowed stuff you buy at the nursery. I mean long messy grass, other small plants, cuckoo birds, and gophers. And these weren’t museum displays put up for tourists, people were really living in these things. It’s where we get the saying “People who live in sod houses should throw stones, but no stones from the roof, please.”
This was a great place to foot wander, but when we were the farthest from the car, Lena got sick (really sick), and both Lena and the heavens opened up at the same time. It gave me a case of Velcro forehead, and my main memory of that trip is of continually taking tiny plastic snack bags of vomit out and dumping them in the streams of water surrounding the tent.
Luckily Lena’s Scandinavian constitution won out over the bugs, and the next morning she was all better and ready to drag me home, out of the wilderness. So, we had a generalgoodtimedespitethepukingadventure.
If that kind of humor appeals to you, you need to buy this book. And if you’re still on the fence, please use the Look Inside feature or download a free sample to your Kindle.
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Al Macy’s story begins millions of years ago in a cave in Eastern Siberia. Wait. What? I don’t have space for that much detail? Now you tell me! So much for the story about the saber-toothed tiger that was a little too friendly.When Macy was a kid, he could never decide what he wanted to be when he grew up. OK, let me interrupt a second. I’ll let you in on a secret about author biographies: Most of them are written by the authors themselves. They just use the third person to make it sound like they have some kind of highfalutin public relations team. Unless they are, like, Stephen King or Ernest Hemingway, in which case they actually do have a public relations team. That’s especially true for Hemingway, since he’s dead.
So, just to let you know, while reading this bio, that when it reads “Al Macy did this” and “Macy did that,” [whispering...] it’s really just me saying that I did this or that. OK?
Where was I? Oh, yeah, Al Macy (wink, wink) couldn’t decide what to do with his life. He was pretty good at music, but he was better at science and math, so he started studying engineering at Cornell. But then he changed his mind, and finished his degree in physiological psychology. After a PhD in neuroscience at University of Michigan, and a post-doc at UC Berkeley, he changed his mind again, and started writing educational computer games for a living.
OK, this is getting boring for me now — I mean for Al Macy now. I’ll skip ahead, and tell you that Macy retired in his early fifties, and switched back to having music as his main hobby. He played jazz trombone and jazz piano in local venues, and, as he puts it, “Worked hard to get bettter before anyone noticed how bad I was.”
Recently, he started writing books. His goal is to write many books in totally incompatible genres to insure there will never be any carryover success from one of his bestsellers to another. Thus, his first book helps people play the piano, the second book is a story about a bicycle trip, his third book will help people format books, and his fourth will be a science fiction thriller. Get the idea?
And that’s all you need know all about Al Macy! Isn’t he a great guy? Now, about that saber-toothed tiger…
Drive, Ride, Repeat: The Mostly-True Account of a Cross-Country Car and Bicycle Adventure by Al Macy is a post from Awesome Gang
- A Ghost To Watch Over Me
About A Ghost To Watch Over Me:
A frightening encounter with a ghost in his home, transforms the everyday life of Gary Belmont into a battle for survival with powerful, secretive forces that he never knew existed. The tension grows when he discovers his late grandmother’s amazing past, and the perils she once faced as a young woman.
Now, from beyond the grave, her story exerts a mysterious influence on events, as Gary battles overwhelming odds.
Gradually the shocking truth of betrayal, hidden danger to the public and corruption at the highest level are revealed.
Still carrying the sadness of a failed marriage, Gary faces the dangers with the help of a new woman in his life. But their chance of happiness together becomes increasingly threatened by the presence of sudden and violent death.
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Goodreads Profile PageAuthor Bio:
I worked as a journalist for 30 years and later pursued a career in acting with roles on stage, as a walk-on artist for TV and featured parts in Independent films. I’ve always loved writing and have also scripted audio dramas for CD as well as short film screenplays. My favourite genres in reading are an eclectic mix of historical dramas, thrillers, supernatural and mysteries.My writing style is generally mystery/thriller, interwoven with supernatural events, which doesn’t necessarily tie the stories to one specific genre. I think of it like creating new recipes, incorporating ‘tastes’ from a variety of cuisines and hopefully adding an interesting new zest.
I live in Buckinghamshire, UK with my wonderful wife Jenny.
A Ghost To Watch Over Me is a post from Awesome Gang
- The Punishing Game
On the Dark Side, things aren’t always what they appear to be.
That’s the way it looks to private eye Frank Boff when his friend, boxer Danny Cullen, gets caught in the middle of a drive-by shooting between two Brooklyn street gangs, the Bloods and the Jamaican Posse. A bullet grazes Cullen’s head as he hurls himself to the ground with his trainer, Ryan McAlary. A second trainer, Nino Biaggi, isn’t so lucky. He takes three to the head and is dead before he hits concrete.
The cops say Cullen and the two trainers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when Boff hears about it, he isn’t buying it. No way. No how. He thinks the drive-by was staged, that Cullen was the target of a well-planned assassination attempt.
So Boff hops a plane from his home in Vegas and flies to New York, where Cullen is in training for a big fight at the famed Madison Square Garden. The private eye launches an investigation into the shooting, and when he turns up evidence that the drive-by was indeed faked, an angry Cullen once again joins forces with Boff.
Their investigation will take them into a dangerous shadow world where powerful people are playing a game of high-stakes poker in order to pull off a multi-million dollar scam. When Boff is nearly gunned down in another assassination attempt, he and Cullen are now dead set on not only stopping the scam but punishing the people involved in a way that’s more just than justice.
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Buy the Book On Amazon.Author Bio:
I’m a former sportswriter/columnist for The Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey with 19 years experience covering the Yankees, Knicks, Mets, Giants, and many other sports. The only sportswriting I do now is boxing features for HBO’s boxing website.The rest of the time I spend writing my Frank Boff Mystery Series, of which four books have been published and are available on Amazon.com in both Kindle version and trade paperback: “The Hurting Game,” “The Punishing Game,” “The Killer Sex Game,” and “The Payback Game.” I am currently finishing up a first draft for a fifth book, tentatively titled “The Death Dealing Game.”
Boff is unlike most private eyes you’ve ever encountered in fiction. He lives in two worlds. One is with his wife and two kids in a nice suburban house where he barbecues on his deck, watches sitcoms with his wife, and dotes over his children. His other world is dark and sinister. After a legendary career in the DEA, Boff is now an investigator specializing in help defense lawyers represent high profile indicted felons, many of which he has gotten acquitted. As a result, he has “friends” and sources on what he calls the Dark Side: mobster, murderers, drug dealers, and snitches. He uses these sources to help track down killers in cold cases. As Jochem Vandersteen said of Boff on his popular website for hardboiled private eyes, “Sons of Spade,” “I dare you to find a writer that gives you a detective as funny and original as Frank Boff.”
On a personal level, after spending most of my life in the New York City area, I now live in an upstate countrified village just nine miles from Woodstock. My house is surrounded by woods. From my writing desk, I can see out my windows squirrels, chipmunks, deer, and various types of birds. I even have a relatively rare black squirrel who visits occasionally.
I like to cook, exercise daily, watch NFL and NBA games, read mysteries, and am a lifelong fanatical fan of movies.
The Punishing Game is a post from Awesome Gang
- Gilded Lily
After catching her fiancé Jack in bed with her sister the day before her wedding, New York socialite Lily Baron escapes to Rio, her honeymoon destination—alone. There, Marcelo, the dark and sexy hotel masseur, releases a heated passion Lily had never experienced with Jack. When Lily meets handsome and powerful Brazillionaire Gustavo de Lima, she can hardly resist him. There’s just one problem. He’s married. In this uber-sensual city, will Lily’s reluctance to be with a married man, in light of her own fiancé’s betrayal, give way to her burning desire for Gustavo?
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
Buy the Book On Amazon.
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Goodreads Profile PageAuthor Bio:
Vivian Winslow was born and raised in Southern California. Before becoming a writer, she made a career out of moving around the world every couple of years thanks to her husband’s job. She currently lives in New York City with her husband and two elementary school age children, and is grateful to finally have a place to call home for more than two years. New York is the perfect city to indulge her love of shopping, the arts and especially food. If she’s not at home writing or running around the city with her kids, you’ll most likely find her indulging in pizza on the Lower East Side or having a cocktail at her favorite bar in Alphabet City. That said, she’s still a California girl at heart and would gladly trade in her heels for a pair of flip-flops to catch a sunset on the beach.Gilded Lily is a post from Awesome Gang
- Trick Play by Jessica Kelly
About Trick Play by Jessica Kelly:Rebecca Stone is smart and driven. She has dreamed of being a sports reporter for her entire life, and now that she has landed her very first job at a TV station in tiny Curtinville, Texas, her dream is starting to become a reality.
The only problem? Curtinville may be small in size, but it’s home to plenty of big secrets.
It doesn’t take long for Rebecca to figure out that money, power, and greed are the names of the game here. Everything that the beloved Curtinville Cats do on the football field is overshadowed by the dirty deals that are going on behind the scenes. The Cats aren’t the only ones who are good at drawing up trick plays. Some of the biggest names in town play dirty tricks every single day.
Rebecca arrives in Curtinville believing that hard work is the key to earning respect and building a successful career. She’s so serious about her work that she refuses to give in to her feelings for the steamy ex-quarterback — even though he has her squarely in his sights. But as she soon learns, doing the right thing doesn’t always pay off. In fact, in Curtinville, it can be the easiest way to land in some serious hot water.
How far will Curtinville’s elite go to keep their secrets hidden?
How many consequences will Rebecca suffer for exposing the truth?
Will all of those trick plays crush her dreams forever?
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Author. Dreamer. Entrepreneur.That’s how Jessica Kelly describes herself. Just like the main character in her first book, Trick Play, Jessica believes that hard work is the key to success. Luckily, though, creating new characters and new plot twists doesn’t feel like work to her! Jessica has always had a passion for writing, and she has dreamed of becoming a successful author for more years than she can count.
So what about the “Entrepreneur” part?
That proves just how serious Jessica is about turning her dream into reality. Her goal isn’t to write a book or two in her spare time. Instead, she’s focused on building a successful writing career from the ground up. She’s not content to JUST have a dream. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it come true.
Jessica began living the dream the moment she started writing Trick Play. When she’s not dreaming up new story ideas, this native Floridian can be found spending quality time with friends and family, soaking up the sun on the beach, and — of course — reading.
Jessica loves hearing from her readers.
Trick Play by Jessica Kelly is a post from Awesome Gang
- Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott
About Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott:Brooklyn Prescott (if that’s even her real name) is the new girl at The Rosewood Academy for Academic Excellence, now that she’s moved back to the States after two years living in London.
Rosewood, a boarding school for children of the rich and famous and known for its celebutantes, is missing just one element important to any junior’s education: boys. But luckily for Brooklyn and the rest of the Rosewood girls, there’s a boys’ boarding school, The Westwood Academy, just a few miles away.
On her very first day Brooklyn meets Will, a gorgeous and flirty boy on campus to help with move in. But is he who she thinks he is? And what about Brady, the cute stable boy? Or Jared, the former child actor with his grown-up good looks, who can always make her laugh? As Brooklyn settles in at Rosewood, she’s faced with new friends, new challenges and new opportunities to make herself into the girl she always wanted to be. Whoever that might be.
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Katrina Abbott fondly remembers adolescence: the jangling nerves, the tumble of emotions, and the seemingly endless stream of cute boys! She’s a hopeful romantic who loves writing about strong girls navigating through those complicated teen years. Katrina lives in California with her husband, kids, and cats. She has a real weakness for cupcakes. And chocolate.Taking the Reins by Katrina Abbott is a post from Awesome Gang
- Until There Was You
From the USA Today bestselling author of Because of You comes an all-new contemporary eBook romance. He plays by the rules, she’s not afraid to break them. Now these two strong-willed Army captains will prove that opposites attract . . .
A by-the-book captain with a West Point background, Captain Evan Loehr refuses to mix business with pleasure–except for an unguarded instance years ago when he succumbed to the deep sensuality of redheaded beauty Claire Montoya. From that moment on, though, Evan has been at odds with her, through two deployments to Iraq and back again. But when he is asked to train a team prepping for combat alongside Claire, battle-worn Evan is in for the fight of his life.
Strong, gutsy, and loyal, Captain Claire Montoya has worked hard to earn the rank on her chest. In Evan, Claire sees a rigid officer who puts the rules before everything else–including his people. When the mission forces them together, Claire soon discovers that there is more to Evan than meets the eye. He’s more than the rank on his chest; he’s a man with dark secrets and deep longings. For all their differences, Evan and Claire share two crucial passions: their country and each other.
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USA Today Bestselling author Jessica Scott is a career army officer, mother of two daughters, three cats and three dogs, wife to a career NCO and wrangler of all things stuffed and fluffy. She is a terrible cook and even worse housekeeper, but she’s a pretty good shot with her assigned weapon and someone liked some of the stuff she wrote. Somehow, her children are pretty well adjusted and her husband still loves her, despite burned water and a messy house.She’s also written for the New York Times At War Blog, PBS Point of View Regarding War, and IAVA. She deployed to Iraq in 2009 as part of OIF/New Dawn and has had the honor of serving as a company commander at Fort Hood, Texas twice.
Most recently, she’s been featured as one of Esquire Magazine’s Americans of the Year for 2012. Learn More at http://www.jessicascott.net
Until There Was You is a post from Awesome Gang
- All Roads Lead Home by Diane Greenwood Muir
About All Roads Lead Home by Diane Greenwood Muir:Polly Giller returned to Iowa from Boston to start a new life, not that her old one was all that bad. With her inheritance, she purchased an old school building in Bellingwood and is in the middle of renovating it when the bones of two bodies are pulled out of a ceiling.
The whole town knows who those bones belong to, but when she also finds crates and crates of items from the sixties through the early nineties in the old root cellar, they wonder if the two things are connected.
A welcoming committee shows up at Polly’s front door and these women soon become her fast friends. Fortunately, the leader of the group is married to the Sheriff and he is there to make sure mysteries are solved and everyone stays safe, but when Polly’s old boyfriend from Boston shows up, that becomes a little more difficult.
The women might be a little older than Polly, but she finds out they might be even more wild than the friends she had when living back east. Lydia Merritt, the Sheriff’s wife, is a woman filled with love and passion. Beryl Watson is an artist and more than a little flamboyant. Andy Saner wants to organize and label the world, but loves with a great big heart and Sylvie Donovan, with her two young sons is trying to make it as a single mother.
The men in Polly’s world are just as interesting. Henry Sturtz is the carpenter and contractor in charge of construction and might have a little crush on his boss, while Doug Randall and Billy Endicott are her Jedi Knights in Shining Armor.
Polly’s immediate family might be gone, but her new family offers a great deal of love, fun and entertainment.
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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I grew up in small town Iowa and after moving to a much larger city, returned to our family cabin in the woods in order to finish a Master’s Degree and do a little writing. What I found was that people are different in rural America. I knew it before, but didn’t realize to what extent that was true. They have everything going for them, plus they know what it is to live in a community where you can leave your doors unlocked during the day, let your children walk to school by themselves, have people show up to help simply because they are your neighbors and they pay attention to each other.The Bellingwood series pours out of me with stories from my childhood and youth filling the pages as the characters come alive in my mind. These characters are amalgamations of people I’ve known my entire life … good people with great stories.
There are a lot of great people in this world and it doesn’t take that much to find them if you just open your eyes and your heart. Bellingwood reminds us of that fact.
All Roads Lead Home by Diane Greenwood Muir is a post from Awesome Gang
- The Summer of Crossing Lines
About The Summer of Crossing Lines:When her protective older brother disappears, sixteen-year-old Melody loses control of her orderly life. Her stuttering flares up, her parents are shrouded in a grief-induced fog, and she clings to the last shreds of her confidence.
The only lead to her brother’s disappearance is a 30-second call from his cell phone to Rex, the leader of a crime ring. Frustrated by a slow investigation with too many obstacles, and desperate to mend her broken family, Melody crosses the line from wallflower to amateur spy. She infiltrates Rex’s group and is partnered with Drew, a handsome pickpocket whose kindness doesn’t fit her perception of a criminal. He doesn’t need to steal her heart—she hands it to him.
With each law Melody breaks, details of her brother’s secret life emerge until she’s on the cusp of finding him. But at what point does truth justify the crime?
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
Visit the Author’s Website.
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Goodreads Profile PageAuthor Bio:
Julie Musil writes from her rural home in Southern California, where she lives with her husband and three sons. She’s an obsessive reader who loves stories that grab the heart and won’t let go. Her YA novels The Summer of Crossing Lines and The Boy Who Loved Fire are available now. For more information, or to stop by and say Hi, please visit Julie on her blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook.The Summer of Crossing Lines is a post from Awesome Gang
- The Privateersman
In this classic historical fiction novel, first published in 2013, Dorset lad Tom Andrews escapes the hangman’s noose only to find himself shanghaied onto a Caribbean-bound privateering ship, before he and crewmate Joseph, flee to America carrying illicit booty. They prosper in the vile corruptness of New York – a town destined to be on the losing side in the Revolutionary War. Betrayed and forced to return to England, they seek riches in the early industrial boom. Tom relishes wealth, but also secretly yearns for love and social acceptance. His hopes rise on meeting the beautiful daughter of an impoverished aristocrat.
Book Two in the series is discounted.
Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
Buy the Book On Amazon.Author Bio:
About Andrew Wareham:I graduated from university in 1968 with a degree in Politics, Economics and Economic History, taught Economics and Economic History for ten years, including a spell in Papua New Guinea, got bored and returned to PNG as a trainer and operational police officer. I remained there with my family, still keeping up my interest in Economic History – including Australasia – then worked contracts in the Middle East until my wife’s ill-health and eventual death meant setting up a family base in the UK. History, and collecting Victorian glass, my sole hobbies, apart from looking after three St Bernards.
Published in late 2013, The Privateersman was my first published novel. Since then I have written several more books in this series with more planned for publication. The Duty and Destiny Series of books were written earlier, but because of the big interest in the, ‘A Poor Man at the Gate Series,’ my publisher urged me to revise the series for publication. As long as people continue to read my books, I will continue to write about history – a subject close to my heart.
The Privateersman is a post from Awesome Gang




