http://awesomegang.com

Where Awesome Book Readers Meet Awesome Writers

1. The Running Experiment: A Weekly Walk Away From the Sofa - Raised mostly in rural Iowa, Kristann Monaghan is an Army Brat who has finally settled in the mountain town of Flagstaff, AZ. A graduate from Cottey College and Northern Arizona University, she is currently working as a pediatric ICU nurse. Kristann decided to start chronicling her journey to help all the other Fat Girls out there. Kristann mostly identifies with the villains/villainesses in a fairy tale. She is not like those fairytale Princesses. She does not have sunshine and song coming out of her butt and she don’t need anyone to save her. She prefers to lurk in the shadows and cause mayhem. Kristann lives with her cat, Daisy May AKA The Ninja Kitten and has a secret stash of original Skittles for the apocalypse.
   
2. Juices for Cyclists - Lars Andersen is a sports author, nutritional researcher and fitness enthusiast. In his spare time he participates in competitive running, swimming and cycling events and enjoys hiking with his two border collies.
   
3. Drop and Give Me 100! The Illustrated No-Nonsense How-To Guide to Reaching 100 Push-Ups and Building the Body of Your Dreams - Born and raised on the West Coast, Grant Michaels has been a private trainer to competitive bodybuilders and strength athletes for more than three decades and has seen countless fitness fads come and go.
   
4. Secrets of Choosing The Right Franchise: Your Guide To Researching, Selecting And Buying The Franchise Of Your Dreams - Jim Hansen has been in the franchising world for over 42 years. He has a unique perspective in that he has been on the franchisor side, the franchisee side and been the CEO of the world’s largest franchisee association working to protect the rights of franchisee and better the world of franchising. He has been a successful independent business owner, franchise, international speaker, and an expert in marketing. He has served on numerous committees working to enhance the franchising system. Hansen started with the Subway brand in 1971 when there were only 12 restaurants. He was hired by Subway founder Fred Deluca and helped write the initial operation manuals and create the franchise training program for the brand. He was an integral part of building the Subway brand awareness. In 2004, he was the CEO and Chairman of the board of the Subway Advertising Fund Trust where he oversaw an annual budget of $540,000.000. Hansen now has now turned his efforts into our aging population and has become a Master License holder in the Seniors Helping Seniors brand. Seniors Helping Seniors has a very stringent selection process and has a very low rate of accepting prospective franchise partner. Hansen realized that many people who would not qualify for Seniors Helping Seniors yet still want to fulfill the dream of owning a franchise business and could benefit from the years of experience he has had. Hansen offers consulting to individuals seeking to find the right fit in the franchising world as well.
   
5. Go for it - Matthew Martino born 27 October 1992 is a British Entrepreneur, Film Producer and Author. Educated at Shenfield High School in Brentwood , Martino has always held a passion for writing - He has always focused on educational writing and research. His first book Lets Fly which was published by DM Aviation was well received by pilots and aviation enthusiasts around the world. During his early years Martino showed all the qualities required to maintain proven success. Martino has lived in Brentwood ,United Kingdom for seven years before which he lived in his hometown of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
   
6. Fanged Princess - Elisabeth Wheatley is a teenager of the Texas Hill Country. When she’s not daydreaming of elves, vampires, or hot guys in armor, she is reading copious amounts of fantasy, playing with her little brothers, studying mythology, and training and showing her Jack Russell Terrier, Schnay.
   
7. British Monsters Vol. 1 - As a twelve year old, I borrowed a book from the library that I thought was a vampire novel. It turned out to be the true story of British "vampire" serial killer, John Haigh (amazing the things they'll let a 12 year old check out!). Nonetheless, I was fascinated, and even though the librarian wouldn't let me take out any other books on the subject, I became a true crime junkie, burning my way through True Detective magazines by the dozen. Forty years later, I feel as though I've investigated more cases of murder than most homicide detectives, studied more serial killers than your average profiler, and spent more time than a conference full of psychologists trying to understand what every true crime buff really wants to know; Why do they do it?
   
8. Ennara and the Fallen Druid - Angela Myron is the author of the middle grade fantasy series Ennara and a stack of technical manuals on everything from nonlinear editing to data encryption. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their twins.
   
9. Mr Right and Mr Wrong - Grigory (a.k.a Grisha) Ryzhakov grew up in the Russian Far East, bathing in the icy waters of Seas of Okhotsk and Japan and playing hide-and-seek in the snowdrifts that carpeted his native town of Korsakov.
   
10. Star Power Astrology: Red Carpet Guide to Living a Totally Fabulous Life - Astrologer, speaker, life coach, employee counselor, and author Suzan Hayden has worked with astrology for over 23 years. Born in Chicago, Suzan's began her career as a classical singer, studying and performing in London and Austria. However, an astrology reading in Ireland changed the course of her life. After the reading, she studied astrology for three years and then became an astrologer herself, in hopes of bringing clarity and insight to her clients and making the world a better place.
    
11. Shallow Creek - Alistair is an electrical engineer by day, a celtic rock drummer by night, and a writer when he should be sleeping. He's a founding member of www.the4threalm.com, a group of like-minded writers creating, publishing, and marketing their works together. Look for more of their stories on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, and wherever else you find your books.
    
12. Another Night in Paris (One Night in Paris) - With a quick movement, Charles moved Josie from a sitting position on his lap, so that she was spread across his knees. He continued to caress her buttocks. Again he slipped his fingers inside her knickers and into her hot, wet hole. At the same time, he lifted her skirt and pulled down her lacy panties, revealing her bum cheeks. As he fingered her deeply, he gave her a gentle slap on her bottom. Josie was shocked and then even more surprised at her body’s reaction. Sensing her pleasure, Charles slapped her buttocks a bit harder and Josie groaned, unable to control her reaction to his firm hands.
    
13. Torrid Seas: The Complete Journey - Joy Cooper loves her husband Rod. She hopes their anniversary cruise to Hawaii will be a new beginning for them. Before her suitcases are unpacked, someone unleashes a campaign of terror against her. Anonymous threats, cryptic messages in her cabin, and an attempt on her life force Joy to look at the one person who might want her dead; the one person she trusted with her life.
    
14. These 10 Frugal Living Tips has changed my financial life and it will yours - Shabbir Hazari is an Author, Geek, Scientist, Naturalist, Passionate, and Adventurous.
    
15. Some Things Are Sweeter Than God by Robert Trainor - Over the past seven years (since I retired at the age of 60), I've written five novels, all of which you can find in the Kindle Store. What I am attempting to do in my books, besides writing entertaining and original plots, is to present themes and dilemmas that are thought provoking and don't have any easy, simplistic answers. I do my very best to fairly present both sides of an issue--such as having a negative character express my own personal views, while a more positive character will express intelligent opposition to those views. All of this occurs, of course, in relation to the plots that are contained in the books, which are intended to mirror or illustrate the underlying philosophy. For instance, in The Road Map to the Universe, the protagonist feels that because the universe is so enormous, our lives here on earth are meaningless and that we all suffer from taking ourselves far too seriously. Do humans really have any significance, or is that just a self-serving illusion of the ego? And then, when the plot is resolved, one realizes that many of the incidents that occurred during the book were essentially mirages created by ego-driven motivations. There! I've just given you an important clue to solving the murder mystery that is at the center of this book. I spend a great deal of time revising my novels. After finishing the first draft, I go through the book about ten times--first page to last page. Each journey through the book is slow and painstaking--no more than ten or fifteen pages a day. Sometimes, one or two pages will take a whole day. From my experience, the kind of errors that pop up on some of the later readings can be rather surprising, if not downright alarming! I particularly look for inaccurate punctuation, repetitive sentence structure, and inaccurate or repetitive vocabulary; however, you will not need a dictionary to read my books. I also do not permit unclear sentences to stand--I can't imagine that any reader will want to read a sentence twice because I couldn't find a way to explain myself. I also spent numerous hours formatting these novels so that they would convert to Kindle. As you probably all know, it isn't just a matter of hitting the upload button, and all I can say is that these books (after doing this, that, and the other thing) looked great on the Kindle Previewer, so I'm hopeful that they converted properly. My thanks to Charles Spender and his $0.99 book, Formatting of Kindle Books, which was quite helpful.
    
16. Billionaire Games Boxed Set - Sandra is an award-winning author of romance. She has eclectic tastes, penning tales in a variety of genres such as paranormal (mostly time travel and reincarnation), contemporary and suspense. She lives in the U.S. (west coast) with her husband, two kids, four dogs and one very temperamental feline. Sandra's books often push the envelope and step outside the boundaries of conventional romance. For more info on Sandra's books, visit her website at www.sandrawrites.com.
    
17. My Life, a Four Letter Word: Confessions of a Counter Culture Diva - A performer since 1970, mentored by the legendary Divine, I debuted as a dancing pumpkin in a drag version of Cinderella with the infamous gender-bending Cockettes, and guest-starred in cabarets with the magical Angels of Light. I wrote and performed with the comedy troupe White Trash Boom Boom, a girl’s group who wowed the boys in the San Francisco gay bars, and performed the same shows for women behind bars in California state prisons. In 1977 I was nominated for ‘Best Performer’ by Bay Area Credits Association for Broken Dishes, a musical I co-wrote with Amber Waves. In 1978 I was Artistic Director for S.P.A.R.C., a non-profit public art center in Venice, and received critical acclaim for the lead role in a musical I wrote, The Last Dance of The Couch Potatoes, produced by S.P.A.R.C. and in 1988 at The Powerhouse Theatre and The Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles. Grace Happens, a screenplay based on my Memoir was semi-finalist at the Austin Screenwriting Competition. As a member of A.P.L.A.’s Writing Project I wrote Gay Widow, a collection of AIDS survivor stories. The Shirt from that collection was published in Witness, an A.P.L.A. magazine. Today I live in Venice Beach and continue to write and act in TV commercials and film, while promoting my grown daughter Viva's singing career. I write and perform with Queer Wise, an LGBT senior writer’s collective, and I can be seen story-telling at The Moth and other spoken word venues around town.
    
18. Perilous Panacea by Ronald Klueh - By training I am a research scientist (PhD in Metallurgy and Materials Science, Carnegie Mellon University), and I rely on my scientific knowledge and experience to write contemporary techno-thriller fiction of the type made famous by Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy. For many years, I worked as a research metallurgist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Tennessee. In that capacity, I published over 220 scientific and technical papers and a book. In that work I developed and used knowledge of nuclear science and metallurgy of the type important in Perilous Panacea. I had always wanted to write for a more general office. When I was choosing a career, I applied and was accepted for the Journalism School at Indiana University and the Engineering School at Purdue University. I chose the latter. My writing for a non-scientific audience began with free-lance articles to make science understandable for the layman. Articles of mine appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, New Science, etc. Eventually I turned to fiction, and it was natural for me to use my scientific knowledge in that endeavor. I strive to make the science involved in my fiction understandable to the layman without interrupting the flow of the action. In the end, however, it is the interaction of the characters with the technology and each other that determines the success of a novel. More details on Perilous Panacea and me are available on my website, including how it took 30 years to get the book published.
    
19. Wise Man – The Colonization of South Carolina Through the Eyes of a Beloved Old Father by James Freeman - I am originally from a very small, rural mountain community in Western North Carolina. This area, in the Great Smokey Mountains near Pisgah National Forest, is rife with Native American culture, legends of supernatural phenomena, and what my paternal grandfather used to refer to as "bear tales". Both sides of my family tree have been traced back to ancestors living in or around this part of the country prior to the American Revolutionary War. I have traveled quite a bit throughout my life and explored many different career fields including aircraft maintenance, film and television production, and professional musician. A lot of my writing background has been for television, although nothing that I would regard as particularly significant. Wise Man is my first published novella.