http://awesomegang.com

Where Awesome Book Readers Meet Awesome Writers

1. LOVE THUG (a.k.a. Can’t I Do Anything Wrong?) - Daniel Berenson knows kids. He is a long time educator (30 years in the middle grades in North Carolina and one year in England as Fulbright Exchange Teacher). He also knows writing. He is the founder and ruling knucklehead at FREAKY DUDE BOOKS, a website that provides "litterature, videoz, and mooschief" to "kids, teenagers, and maturity-challenged adults." He writes humor (STORIES GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU SICK and LOVE THUG), Moose Joke Books, literary novels (FIREBUG), and poetry (coming in fall 2013). He also has a ranting, raving, and blogging middle schooler named Dr. Crankenfuss who lives in his head.
   
2. Slave Empire III – The Shrike by TC Southwell - T. C. Southwell was born in Sri Lanka and moved to the Seychelles when she was a baby. She spent her formative years exploring the islands – mostly alone. Naturally, her imagination flourished and she developed a keen love of other worlds. The family travelled through Europe and Africa and, after the death of her father, settled in South Africa. T. C. Southwell has written over thirty novels, ranging from fantasy and science fiction to romance and adventure, as well as five screenplays. Her hobbies include motorcycling, horse riding and art, and she is now a full-time writer.
   
3. The Broken World Book One – Children of Another God by TC Southwell - T. C. Southwell was born in Sri Lanka and moved to the Seychelles when she was a baby. She spent her formative years exploring the islands – mostly alone. Naturally, her imagination flourished and she developed a keen love of other worlds. The family travelled through Europe and Africa and, after the death of her father, settled in South Africa. T. C. Southwell has written over thirty novels, ranging from fantasy and science fiction to romance and adventure, as well as five screenplays. Her hobbies include motorcycling, horse riding and art, and she is now a full-time writer.
   
4. Kentucky Moon - Wes McCloud is a fiction novel writer hailing from Central Ohio who is hell-bent on getting his paperback ramblings to the eyes and minds of the general public. Quiet and reserved he loves the outdoors nearly as much as he loves spinning tails of horror, action, and adventure…almost always with a dash of supernatural spice thrown in the mix. He currently has 3 books released – “Kamakazo” A terrifying tale about six men hunting down a flesh-eating whitetail deer in the hills of West Virginia. “Catahoula” A story of a dog named Jasper and his adventure through a haunted swamp in Louisiana. And “Kentucky Moon” A book about two brothers and their hunting dogs tracking down an evil entity that lives in the dark forests of Kentucky. He is currently toiling away at his 4th novel entitled “Gemini” A horror/ action story about an old world book called the Gemini and how it entangles a soothsaying girl and an ancient demon and his vengeful liege. Aside from the aforementioned titles, over 10 more books are still set in his mind, waiting to be released to the
   
5. Hindsight - Owen Banner just wants to tell a good story with a bit of truth in it. He's travelled the world over, living in Jamaica, the Czech Republic, and Thailand. Drawing from these travels, he writes vivid thrillers, sizzling with action and quick dialogue--but thrillers that never lose their focus on the complex humanity of their characters. It's the people, after all, that matter.
   
6. Early Out - Jesse was born in the United States and raised in Canada. Jesse drifted through various occupations. Farm worker, mill worker, landscaper, door to door sales, gravedigger, masseur, dice dealer, process server, day labor, phone room, baker, janitor, security guard, and many other mostly dead end jobs. Jesse spent over nine years in LasVegas working for the casinos. From the age of 13 until the age of 48 was a 35 year odyssey of drug and alcohol use, abuse, and addiction. Jesse has been clean and sober for over nine years now. Jesse lives in New Westminster, BC.
   
7. A Ghost To Watch Over Me - I’ve always loved writing and produced my first ‘publication’ - with pencil drawn illustrations - aged five, so my parents told me. I vaguely recall what I produced, but not my age at the time. Years afterwards the theme continued when I embarked on a career in journalism, working on local papers around the London area, and then moving on to write and edit publications for a number of large corporates, initially as an employee and later as a freelance. Another strong interest in my life has also been acting. I was torn initially between writing or pursuing acting as a career. The writing won, but interspersed between the years I also became involved in amateur dramatics, and then embarked on becoming an extra in TV and films – one of them Star Wars (The Phantom Menace) – as well as taking supporting roles in some independent films. My other long held ambition in life was to write a novel, and for the last couple of years I have dedicated a lot of time pursuing this goal, having now produced two: Dark Secrets Cottage and A Ghost To Watch Over Me. Also a short story compilation, The Twist of Devils. They are paranormal thriller/suspense stories, the supernatural being a genre I particularly enjoy. You only get one life – so you have to fill it with lots of things to do! I live in Buckinghamshire, UK with my wonderful wife, Jenny.
   
8. Mating Dance-Rituals for Singles Who Weren’t Born Yesterday - Maria Grazia Swan was born in Italy, but this rolling stone has definitely gathered no moss. She lived in Belgium, France, Germany, in beautiful California where she raised her family, and is currently at home in Phoenix, Arizona—but stay tuned for weekly updates of Where in the World is Maria Grazia Swan? She won her first literary award at the age of fourteen while living in Belgium. Once in the U.S. and after years of concentrating on family, she tackled real estate. These days her time is devoted to her deepest passions: writing and helping people find happiness.
   
9. Taming the Vampire - Chloe Hart spends a lot of time lying awake at night, thinking about vampires, demon hunters, and things that lurk in the darkness. During the day she writes about them. You can email her at authorChloeHart@gmail.com.
   
10. Remember Everything You Want and Manage the Rest - Helmut Sachs is the author of Remember Everything you Want and Manage the Rest. For the last several years, he has been teaching creative and critical thinking and information literacy at colleges and in workshops. He is also the primary blogger at remembereverything.org. Helmut spent many years managing and implementing projects for large enterprises in Europe and Asia, and has extensive experience in information management and professional training.
    
11. Sundered - Shannon Mayer lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, dog, cats, horse, and cows. When not writing she spends her time staring at immense amounts of rain, herding old people (similar to herding cats) and attempting to stay out of trouble. Especially that last is difficult for her. To learn more about Shannon and her books, go to www.shannonmayer.com
    
12. Ice Dancing - Catherine Czerkawska is a Scottish based novelist and playwright. She has written many plays for the stage and for BBC Radio and has published eight novels, historical and contemporary. Her short stories, reviews and features have been published in magazines and anthologies too numerous to mention. Catherine has taught creative writing and spent four years as Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of the West of Scotland. She is currently serving on the committee of the Society of Authors in Scotland. She blogs regularly at http://wordarts.blogspot.com and contributes a monthly post to Authors Electric at http://authorselectric.blogspot.com
    
13. Fast Animals by Jenny Lillystone - Jenny Lillystone taught math for 31 years. She has created the new series of fun while learning children's books. Much to the dismay of some, each book contains a little math. She has a new website funwhilelearning.com which includes videos, puzzles and book info.
    
14. Green Smoothie Magic – 132+ Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes That Trim And Slim - Gabrielle Raiz is an author, a keen foodie and health-loving educator who perhaps surprisingly started her working life as a dentist. She has a knack for making things practical and understandable and has a flexible approach to her food and her yoga. Gabrielle has published 2 top selling books "Green Smoothie Magic" and "132+ Delicious Salads, Dressings and Dips". All of her recipes are fuss-free adaptable recipes which most importantly use easy to find ingredients that anyone can make. Some embody beautiful simplicity of 1 or 2 ingredients while others are marvellously complex, but never hard to make!
    
15. 85 Things MOM! All About Loving You - Curiosity may have killed that feline fur ball, but she or him learned a lot before exiting number nine. I too have been curious, wondering why we, I or they acted this way, looked or did it that way or were otherwise human. But curiosity is such a casual word, and the truth is my desire to know was almost desperate. There were times in life that I felt angry when there was no one around, unhappy when life was just fine, times I had trouble with relationships for seemingly no reason, times I felt sad when…well, you get the idea. That desperate curiosity, along with forty years of inner work, has lead to some interesting answers and some surprising books. Also, I love talking with those courageous people who are going for a positive change, and I live to see that eye-widening moment of understanding. Besides curious, I am also a writer who began with a column in the San Jose Mercury News, nationally syndicated. My current project is this 8-book series, “Things That Make Life Better.” So from the central coast of the North American west, I submit these curious jottings of curiosity to be browsed by those who will hopefully find them as entertaining as they do just plain helpful.
    
16. Timecaster Supersymmetry - JA Konrath is the author of eight novels in the Jack Daniels thriller series. They do not have to be read in chronological order to be enjoyed, but for those who want to know it is: Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken, and Stirred. Jack also appears in the novels Shot of Tequila, Flee, Spree, Three, Timecaster Supersymmetry, Banana Hammock, and Serial Killers Uncut, as well as the short story collection Jack Daniels Stories, and the novellas Floaters and Burners. He has sold over a million ebooks.
    
17. With a Kiss - Stephanie Fowers is a starving artist who loves being a starving artist. She loves to read and write anything romantic--historical, fantasy, contemporary--you name it. Stephanie enjoys telling her story through many different mediums; including screenwriting, musicals, novels, poems, and songs. Her dreams are to visit Scotland, dance on a Bollywood set, and write a miniseries for BBC.
    
18. How To Cook Healthy In A Hurry: Volumes 1 and 2 - Helen Cassidy Page is a renowned food writer, cooking teacher and has published two cookbooks with Stanford University Cardiologist, John Schroeder, M.D. She has been published in Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Mens Fitness, Self and other magazines.
    
19. Consequence - Crime/Thriller author Eli Yance is a pseudonym of a best selling Comedy/Horror writer. His first novel "Consequence" and his second novel "House 23" are available exclusively from Amazon. You can get in touch with the author via CompulsionBooks.com or his Twitter account @AuthorEliYance.
    
20. The Button Legacy - Ginger Marcinkowski's debut novel, RUN, RIVER CURRENTS, was published in August 2012 and was a 2012 semi-finalist in the ACFW Genesis Awards. The novel's short sequel, THE BUTTON LEGACY, was published in June 2013. Ginger has been a public speaker and visiting lecturer for many years. She has been a professional reader for the James Jones First Novel Award ($10,000 prize), and is currently a judge for the East-West Writer's Contest and a reader for the ACFW First Impressions award.
    
21. Alternate Endings - Lesann Berry divides her time between anthropological interests and field research focused primarily on the American west. Inspired by geologic features in empty landscapes, the ancient art and prehistory of those settings usually feature in her work. She says her stories offer paranormal or romantic elements because life is boring without spooky stuff and warm bodies. Crossing genre lines, she pens both contemporary and historical mysteries, romantic suspense, and even a little horror.