our authors
Alphabetical (A-F)
ROBIN ACTON
The author has enjoyed a journalism career spanning three decades that took her from crime scenes and courtrooms in western Pennsylvania to the marbled halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. A recipient of over 100 awards from state and regional professional journalism organizations for her work in investigative projects, general news, features, business, health, and education writing, Robin received such prestigious awards as the 1995 Public Service Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation for an investigative series on the courts; News Writer of the Year in 2001 and 2008 by the Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association; five Golden Quill Awards and more than a dozen additional Golden Quill nominations from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. She received four Matrix awards from the Association for Women in Communications in Pennsylvania, including numerous honors in the Pennsylvania Keystone Press Association, the Society for Professional Journalists, and the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors competitions.
EMPTY BOXES (Mystery) - While investigating the shocking murder of a prominent funeral director, crack Pittsburgh crime reporter Rita Locke discovers that the victim has been burying empty coffins. As she peels back the layers of this puzzling development, she uncovers secrets that embroil her in a sinister plot of international proportions. As her dogged investigation exposes troubling facts involving the victim and his ties to an offshore medical school, Rita soon discovers she is in a fight for survival as forces bent on silencing her as her trail of clues leads her from her native state to the Caribbean where she entangled in a web of deception and murder. It’s only after she ends up in a box herself that she finally discovers the truth—but will it ever come to light?
Contact - Dean Krystek
MICHAEL AMEDEO
A high school dropout, Michael later earned his BA at the University of Illinois and an MA at the University of Chicago. His pre-fiction work was in creative marketing, journalism, and public relations. He earned awards for copywriting at the Chicago area’s Stevens and Tate agency. In journalism, he reviewed film and theatre as a freelancer for Chicago’s New City newspaper and wrote film feature stories as a freelancer for the Chicago Sun-Times, including articles on film noir and on the movies of noir icon Robert Mitchum. His background in noir inspired the Matt Moulton series.
MATT MOULTON MYSTERY SERIES #1 PAST TENSE (Level Best Books, February 2024) The author’s salute to the hard-boiled detectives of the 40’s and 50’s . Matt Moulton, PI escapes San Francisco after a tragic ending to a case, to settle in LA where he becomes embroiled in murder, corruption, and betrayal that expose the glitter capital’s sinister underbelly. It’s pure “black & white” noir reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler
Contact - Dean Krystek
RABIA ASHRAF
Rabia Ashraf graduated summa cum laude from Kean University with a BA in writing and a minor in biology. In the midst of the pandemic, she opted to take a gap year. Aspiring to be a writer and author from a young age, she, with the help of mentor and writer Bill Mesce, Jr., focused on building her writing portfolio. Previously published in Hamline Lit. Link, The Silent World in Her Vase, and Beyond Words, she hopes to use her writing to shed light on controversial issues and give a voice to other POC. Before her gap year, Rabia spent her time working as a writing coach and a peer tutor where she helped others strengthen their writing skills and home in on their true potential. She currently lives in New Jersey.
MY MEHNDI COVERED SCARS (Short Story Collection) - A collection of related short stories and a smattering of poetry which results in an engaging, often bittersweet portrait of a young woman torn between old and new, acceptance and ostracization, youth and elders.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
DR. YAEL BALDWIN, PH.D.
Dr. Baldwin is a clinical psychologist, author, professor of psychology, and coach, specializing in mutual care. Holding a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, she has studied how humans turn suffering into flourishing for decades. Following careers in dance and film, Dr. Baldwin began providing and researching different mental health treatment options from psychoanalysis to 12-steps and has been a professor of psychology for twenty years. She has lectured at such prestigious institutions as The University of Toronto, Boston College, Emory University, Fordham University, St. Louis University, The Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and London’s Freud Museum, on the topic of suffering and treatment.
MUTUAL CARE: BREAKING FREE FROM THE SELF-CARE TRAP TOGETHER (Mind, Body, Spirit) - Dr. Baldwin proposes mutual care is the missing ingredient we need, now. She discusses each aspect of mutual care, both in theory and in practice, how to understand it, and how to do it. If you have ever asked yourself after a day of working hard, giving to others, and providing yourself ample self-care, why do I still feel depleted or sad? You will find your answer here. It’s for anyone who wishes to be better seen and heard and wants others to feel truly seen and heard in return; for anyone who yearns to learn more skills to be a caring and cared for person in a mutual manner.
Contact - Dean Krystek
MARGHERITA BASSI
Margherita is an Italian-American writer, tri-lingual storyteller, and journalism MA student at École du Journalisme de Nice, France. In 2020 she won the Boston College McCarthy Award for best collection of creative writing, and shortly after graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English. She then had a brief stint at a start-up company, but ultimately returned to her life-long passion for writing. Between working on her next novel and studying for her journalism classes, Margherita is also a freelance travel writer and editor, with work appearing in publications such as Go World Travel, Go Nomad, and Borgen Magazine.
SHADOW DANCING (YA Contemporary) - When college freshman Cara Day starts to see human shadows move independently from their owners, she thinks she’s hallucinating. But when these visions help her prevent two freak accidents on campus, she stops blaming the raspberry vodka and starts to consider the impossible: shadows have foresight, and only she can see, and understand, their warning.
Contact - Dean Krystek
ESTER BLOOM
Ester Bloom is an award-winning writer who currently serves as the Deputy Manager Editor of the money website Grow (CNBC + Acorns). Formerly, she was a Senior Editor at CNBC Make It, an editor at The Billfold (an Awl network site), a Contributing Editor at the Barnes & Noble blog, and a Contributing Writer for The Atlantic. Her awards include the Lois Morrell Poetry Prize and the Dogwood Literary Creative Nonfiction Prize. One of her essays was the Creative Nonfiction Magazine Editor’s Top Pick for the True Crime issue, 2012; another was recognized in the “Notable” section of The Best American Essays 2015. Her work has appeared in Slate, Salon, Creative Nonfiction magazine, New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, Flavorwire, Quartz, the Daily Dot, and the Toast, for which she wrote the advice column Aunt Acid. She has been interviewed on MSNBC, MTV.com, HuffPost Live, WPIX 11 Morning News, the Geraldo Rivera Show, Bitch Magazine’s Popaganda podcast, Vice’s The Business of Life, and Slate’s United States of Debt.
A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME (Speculative Fiction) - Upmarket, speculative fiction which appeals to serious readers of the genre, who would find a place for Ester Bloom on the same shelf as Emily St. John Mandel, Naomi Alderman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Leckie, and Connie Willis. Film/TV rights currently unavailable.
Contact - Dean Krystek
KATHERINE BRYANT
As the mother of a non-binary gay child, the author became increasingly interested in LGBTQ history, and in particular, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and The Institute of Sexual Science in Berlin. Tillie, Ruth, James, and Ernesto came to life as she studied the Nazi destruction of The Institute of Sexual Science and their burning of all of Dr. Hirschfeld’s research on the LGBTQ community members of Berlin and the surrounding areas. This is her debut novel.
GIVE MY LOVE TO BERLIN (Historical fiction/LGBTQ) - In 1927, Berlin is the gay capital of the world. Ruth, a performer at one of the nightclubs in the city, and her girlfriend, Tillie, are enjoying the freedom of the Weimer Republic. As the ’20s come to a close, Tillie’s father, a prominent lawyer, becomes more entrenched with the Nazi Party. As his secretary, Tillie meets prominent figures in the Nazi Party, including Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring, and soon discovers there is much more at stake than just her gay relationship with Ruth, who is also Jewish.
In the early 1990s, a young woman named Thea while dealing with the onset of her beloved grandmother’s dementia, discovers secrets hidden away that her grandmother never intended for her to uncover.
Alternating between Tillie’s perspective during the waning days of the Weimar Republic and Thea’s perspective in the ’90s as her grandmother’s secret history is revealed, the novel follows the lives of two gay couples—Tillie and Ruth, and their best friends, James and Ernesto—trying to navigate falling in love, thriving in their gay community, and coming to terms with the danger they are in just by being who they are. Fans of The Alice Network (Kate Quinn) and The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah) will find Give My Love to Berlin an intense and emotional experience that not only captures the epic panorama of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany but illuminates a part of history seldom seen: the war on the LGBTQ community.
Contact - Mira Perrizo
MICHAEL CAHLIN
Michael started his career as a newspaper reporter but contributed to developing a vast array of software whose DNA can be found in today’s desktop publishers, word processors, spell checkers, file managers, backup programs, and system utilities. He co-created The Official XTree MS-DOS & Hard Disk Companion, one of the blueprints for the successful “Dummies” Series. He has contributed articles to Basketball Weekly, Family Circle, PC World, Tom’s Guide and The Writer. His fiction appears in Mystery Weekly, Black Cat’s Mystery Megapack, and Down & Out Mystery Magazine. Michael has a Master of Education from Pepperdine University, is a member of The League of Vermont Writers, and currently working on his next book.
WICKED PROBLEMS (Historical Thriller) - Based on true events. The narrative is ingeniously woven around the US Government’s Operation Paperclip where the US, in the waning months of WWII, smuggled Nazi scientists into the US to continue their work in various scientific programs. Hidden in plain sight in towns and cities across the country, their deadly pasts were kept secret. Cahlin’s novel explores this hidden world, where those who worked for the displaced Nazis were unaware of their employer’s onerous past, and the deadly consequences when one person discovers the truth about the man for whom she works and decides to expose him.
Contact - Dean Krystek
EDEN CAMPBELL
Eden Campbell is a published freelance writer and poet out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work can be found in Romper, Severance Mag, Full Mood Mag, and through Cardigan Press. As an awkward middle-schooler she found her escape within the pages of romance novels and dreamed of writing in the genre ever since. When the keyboard grows dusty and her nose isn’t crammed in a book, she’s probably on social media where she finally feels at home among the creative crowd. Proudly autistic and ADHD, she loves to pen stories highlighting the neurodivergent experience alongside the healing power of self-acceptance and belonging.
DRAWN TOGETHER (Romance-Comedy) - Sweet as pie kinder teacher Amelia depends on her rich, stuffy parents to fund her nonprofit, but when she reconnects with her bad boy tattoo-covered childhood crush Jack, her parents make her choose: her dreams or the man of her dreams. It’s a childhood friends-to-lovers adult romcom featuring dyslexia representation.
Contact: Macey Howell
ALAN DEETH
Alan Deeth is a British/American dual citizen who currently lives with his wife in Oregon. He has worked as an editor in the tech industry for more than a decade, and he holds a BA in English from Whitworth University. When he is not writing, he’s often gaming (with a particular love of RPGs) or composing with his remote prog-rock band.
LIGHT BEYOND OUR REACH (Fantasy) - A diverse, multi-POV fantasy set in a fictionalized world where vitrite fuels nations in unique ways—and its global scarcity prompts a fight for every crystal.
Contact: Sydney Queen DeTellis
RACHEL DuBRUELER
Rachel DuBrueler has been spellbound by the macabre since childhood, when her wonderfully unconventional parents indulged her with as many age-inappropriate scary movies as she could get her hands on, fueling a permanent fascination with all things creepy, namely the storytelling she loves today. Rachel proudly earned four degrees from West Virginia University, her home state’s flagship institution, and considers herself a perpetual student even though she stopped paying Mensa dues years ago. She lives just outside of Richmond, VA, with her husband, twin stepsons, and adopted Doberman Pinschers, and while her days are spent in corporate strategy and finance, her late nights and weekends are spoken for by the twisty psychological thrillers she can’t keep herself from writing.
THE TANGLED WEBS WE WEAVE (Psychological Thriller) - The women’s reckoning you’ve been waiting for, The Cutters & the Salters is not your mother’s domestic suspense novel, as it pushes the boundaries of everything from race and sexuality to social status and loyalty in relationships, and you should ask yourself: when you’ve got secrets of your own to keep, how far would you be willing to go to find the truth?
SKELETONS FOR FURNITURE (Psychological Thriller) - The author lets loose an intriguing, disturbing narrative that serves up both sizzle and steak, weaving an insidious tale of paranoia wrapped in fear and resentment, of what happens when hysteria guides good intentions straight into the gutter, as three neighboring families wage wars with themselves and each other. Suspicion, meet obsession.
Contact - Mira Perrizo
JAHA DUKUREH
Jaha Dukureh is a Gambian women's rights activist. She was subjected to female genital mutilation in The Gambia when she was a little more than a week old. She was forcibly married at the age of 15, then again at 17. Jaha is the founder and executive director of Safe Hands for Girls, an organization working to end FGM, and was the lead campaigner in The Guardian's End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign. She has since gotten FGM banned in the Gambia and is working to have it banned in all of Africa. Safe Hands for Girls has since expanded its work to ban other practices, such as child marriages. In April 2016, Jaha was named on the 2016 Time 100 List. In February of 2018, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Since then she has won the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal and become a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for Africa. Accidental Pictures and The Guardian released a feature film about Jaha's life. Jaha is currently campaigning to be the Vice President and the President-in-Waiting of The Gambia and divides her time between New York and the Gambia.
I WILL SCREAM TO THE WORLD (Debuts Spring 2025 Kensington Publishing) - An unflinching account of Dukureh’s fight against Female Genital Mutilation and child marriage and her unceasing efforts to lift women and children out of poverty, it is also a deeply personal exploration of Jaha’s past. The author boldly discusses her three marriages, two of which were arranged for her when she was a child, her experience with FGM, her fight to end the practice in the Gambia, her career as an activist, the struggles, hurdles, and racism she has faced as a black woman in the development field, her venturing into the political field and so much more. Honest and gripping, necessary and vital, I Will Scream to the World is the full, human story of a girl and a woman who became a leader.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
ERIK EDSTROM
Erik Edstrom enlisted in the Army after watching the Twin Towers fall and received an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point, where he became the youngest person to ever pass officer selection for US Special Forces. In Afghanistan, Edstrom led combat missions in Kandahar and a Presidential Escort to President Obama. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star and winner of the 2012 Best Ranger Competition Rippetoe Trophy. He later attended the University of Oxford, completing dual degrees in environmental change and management.
UN-AMERICAN - A SOLDIER’S RECKONING OF OUR LONGEST WAR (Bloomsbury, May 2020) - A captivating and thought-provoking memoir detailing an infantry officer’s extraordinary experiences as a platoon leader in the Afghanistan war.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
KRISTY ENSOR
Kristy Ensor is an award-winning writer weaving stories of hope with threads of Southern charm. Known as the “Back Road Diva” due to her love of traveling off the beaten path, she aspires to offer hope, comfort, and encouragement through her writing and in everyday life. Prior to embarking on her writing career, she worked with children and adults with autism and other learning differences for many years. Kristy co-wrote the devotional Hope is... (Bold Vision Books, 2022) regularly contributes to Lifeway’s Journey magazine, and also writes articles, essays, and devotions for other publications. Kristy lives in Tennessee with her husband. You can find her online (@thebackroaddiva) where she shares about life, local travel experiences, inspiration, and Monday Motivations
ALL KINDS OF KIND
The author draws from her experience in special education to create a picture book about how children can show kindness to children with autism, disability, or learning differences. The book is a wonderful classroom tool to assist teachers and administrators in developing classroom instruction that creates a healthy, inclusive experience for children with disabilities and children who interact with peers with special needs.
Contact - Macey Howell
CHARLES B. FANCHER
Charles B. Fancher is a former journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Detroit Free-Press and a former senior executive at Knight-Ridder's Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. and at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has also been a Howard University faculty member and an adjunct instructor at Temple University. Charles is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Journalists at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He began his career as a local TV news reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and as an ABC-TV publicist in New York.
RED CLAY (Debuts 2025 Blackstone Publishing) - A multigenerational saga that follows the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins. With a vivid sense of place and a cast of memorable characters, Fancher draws upon personal family history to weave a riveting tale of love, betrayal, and redemption, set against a backdrop of societal change and racial animus that reverberates in contemporary America.
Contact - Chip Rice
SUMMER FEAKER
Summer Feaker was drawn to the morbid and unknown for as long as she can remember. Her gothic horror trilogy, Haven Manor (D&T Publishing), was written after a haunted road trip with her sister. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and enjoys traveling to local libraries and indie bookstores for readings and interviews about her writing experience. Before Summer dedicated her time to writing, she worked in marketing, banking, housing, and sales. She enjoys exploring known haunted locations and launching full paranormal investigations with her sister. When not on the road or writing, she enjoys spending time with her three children and husband at their home in rural Iowa.
GHOSTS OF GREENROSE (Psychological Thriller/Horror) - A chilling tale in which woman is haunted by spirits drawn to her trauma and family dysfunction, leading to a frightful fight for her mental health.
Contact - Sydney Queen DeTellis
SHARON FEINSTEIN
Sharon Feinstein has had a successful 25-year career in journalism, across a wide spectrum of subjects. Latterly in showbiz, interviewing top actors, sportsmen and women, politicians, musicians, and chefs: Freddie Mercury, Angelina Jolie, Rod Stewart, Leonardo di Caprio, Beckham. She freelanced for national newspapers and luxury magazines, such as The Sunday Times, Mail, Mirror, and Private Edition. She also wrote to imbue people with a deeper concern for animals, embarking on campaigns to rescue them from captivity and raise money for shelters. She then moved to Venice to write this book. She studied the history, art, and social fabric of Venice and learned Italian. She lives in London. Visit her website at www.sharonfeinstein.com.
BEHIND THE MIRROR (Crime/Intrigue) - The drowning death of five-year-old Contessa Renier in 1789 sparked a savage vendetta that has lasted over two centuries. Fast forward to 2010, and the most current victim is Zeus, the beloved dog of Contessa Candiano, callously tossed into a canal to drown. Enter Suzannah Barclay and Julian Dias, who have come to Venice with hope. They’ve never met, and their two stories run parallel: Suzannah’s involvement with the countess and her niece, Julian’s life after leaving his family, until slowly they entwine.
For years, Julian’s been immersed in tracking the complex fraud of a Frenchman named Bisset. A man of interest for Scotland Yard and Interpol, who are keen to obtain Julian’s file on the case. The file is also being hunted by a group of Russian oligarchs, who launder their dirty money through Bisset’s investments. Julian, no longer the hunter, becomes the hunted. He hides out in a secluded villa—belonging to the noble wife of his friend and ex-colleague, Malcolm Hale—on the island of Sant’Erasmo, a dreamy landscape in the Venetian lagoon. On the island, the threads of Suzannah and Julian’s stories are stitched together. Suzannah discovers the priceless Bellini painting, missing since 1993. An explosive event that could finally end the vendetta.
In the tradition of Carson McCullers and Graham Greene, Behind the Mirror starts and ends with Venice, its shifting light and dark forces, a mirrored world of twisting streets and canals, background of love, death, and intrigue.
Contact - Mira Perrizo
L. A. FLEMING
First as a newspaper reporter and now in public relations and marketing, L. A. Fleming has spent many years as a professional writer. Previously invited to the Iowa Writers Workshop, she holds a master’s degree in creative writing, has ghostwritten numerous articles, and her prize-winning poetry has been published in a variety of academic journals and anthologies.
DOWN AT THE RADIO CAFE (Historical Fiction) - In this compelling glimpse into one of America’s lesser known examples of systemic racism, a conflicted white teen being groomed by the klan finds his life entwined with a Black man risking all to infiltrate the evil empire.
HAILEY FOGLIO
Midwest native Hailey Foglio holds an MFA in creative writing from WVU and her stories reflect an unfiltered authenticity for surviving the hard, dark, weird parts of adolescence. A finalist for Cream City Review’s 2021 summer prize in fiction, Hailey’s work has appeared in Little Patuxent Review, The Opiate, The Bangalore Review, and elsewhere. She is also a member of the Clip Art Clique collective and a regular contributor to Martha Stewart Mixtapes.
BEAM ME UP (YA Contemporary) - A teen girl’s fixation on the possibility of alien life becomes a treacherous search for what it means to be human in the face of crippling uncertainty. An inventive and powerful examination of bipolar disorder.
THE STRAITJACKET ESCAPE (YA Contemporary) - Inspired by the life and times of Harry Houdini, this compelling debut explores mental health themes in a mysterious web of tattered relationships, confused love, and the escapes we all attempt in an effort to survive them.
Contact - Chip Rice
BRIAN J. CANO
Brian J. Cano has been exploring the unknown since childhood. He now has nearly two decades of experience as a paranormal researcher. Brian began his television career as an investigator on SCARED! before being cast as tech specialist on SyFy’s Haunted Collector. He is currently a featured analyst for Trvl Channel’s Paranormal Caught on Camera, with guest appearances on History Channel’s The Curse of Oak Island and The UnXplained. A respected member of the paranormal field, Brian’s primary goal is to empirically support claims of paranormal activity while maintaining his skeptical edge. When not delighting fans on-screen, he can be found sharing his wit and wisdom at prominent events and universities worldwide. He also hosts his own events, at home and abroad, and Brian’s trailblazing “History of the Paranormal” interactive exhibit is currently making its inaugural tour at unique historical locations across the US.
GRAINS OF SAND (Roswell Press, February 2022) - From his early years as a pioneer in paranormal television to his frightening encounters on the sets of major networks, Brian’s collection of accessible tales provides an entertaining yet thoughtful account of his most life-changing experiences and the existential lessons they hold for us all. * Winner of a 2022 SUNNY Award.
Contact - Chip Rice