Category Archives: Character-driven

The Accidental Series #1: The Accidental Wife

The Accidental Series #1

by CJ Fosdick

TheSelf-determined Jessica Brewster is wary of any emotional relationship, after being betrayed in a bet. When the beloved grandmother who raised her dies, she inherits a mysterious teacup which when rubbed transports her back to 1886 in Old Fort Laramie, switching places with her look-alike great-great-grandmother—wife to her ancestor’s magnetic first husband and mother to his charming nine-year-old daughter. Can she pull off the charade and find a way back, or will conscience and her twenty-first century “slips” expose her identity? As true love—and a gypsy—derail her plans, her ancestor’s brother shows up with his own dark secret. Is her future in the past? Her decision could save her life...and her legacy.

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About the Author

CJ was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wis. but has lived longer in Rochester, MN where her writing career escalated from locally- and nationally-published award-winning stories, articles, and anthologies to her first novel--The Accidental Wife. Though she has lived on a woodsy 12-acre hilltop deer haven for decades, she has ventured down on rare occasions to climb a waterfall in Jamaica, float in the Dead Sea, kiss the Blarney Stone, and train wild mustangs, several dogs, cats, children and one patient husband.

An Occasionally Grim Fairy Tale

Desiderata

by Ann M. Noser

AnPrince Bane Baronne has baby fever. He's in search of a wife with the proper mystical bloodline to bear him the heir of prophecy. Anna Leon is chosen, but Bane only pretends to be Prince Charming. When Anna questions his intentions, she vanishes from the castle.

Convinced she's to blame for her younger sister's disappearance, Maria Leon is coerced into the royal marriage instead. She's older, wiser, and should know better—but Bane always gets what he wants. And he's not above using trickery or treachery to do so.

Maria attempts to salvage what she can of a "happily ever after" by working hard to be the best mother and wife. Until the day she learns that every woman who has married into the Baronne line disappears soon after they've produced an heir.

And she's next in line.

Publisher

Published by: Fantasy Works Publishing

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About the Author

My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living into a day instead of the usual 24. I’ve chosen a life filled with animals. I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination.

Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task. I work out plot holes during runs. Instead of meditating, I type madly during yoga stretches. I find inspiration in everyday things: a beautiful smile, a heartbreaking song, or a newspaper article on a political theory. For example, a long drive in the dark listening to an NPR program on the SMILEY FACE MURDERS theory made me ask so many questions that I wrote HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS to answer them to my satisfaction.

I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real life with the half-written stories in my head. Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.

The Good Guy List

by Russ Vanderboom

TheThe Good Guy List is a simple loving gift bestowed upon twin brothers to help them embrace a world bent upon keeping them from those they love most. The Good Guy List is key to the brothers' survival in the quest for justice, peace and redemption as they come of age during the challenging '60s. David and Patrick Joyce want nothing more than to live together as family. With their mother deep in depression after the untimely death of their father, not even the kind and loving intercession by their village of aunts, uncles, neighbors, and friends from their church can keep both twins at home on the farm.

While David remains in North Freedom dairying and building a hugely successful business in Holstein genetics, Patrick becomes an exile from his Wisconsin home, living first with relatives along the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana, and then following opportunities to play football for the University of Colorado Buffaloes and later studying in Europe.

The brothers cross paths as they come of age and travel the world, each finding love, and both learning the bitter emptiness of loss. Justice and salvation eludes them, however, until they embrace a redeeming gift shared among their greater family, a simple prayer called The Good Guy List.

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About the Author

Russ Vanderboom is native to Wisconsin. He was a Marine in 1970. After serving with the military, he pursued a career in agricultural journalism in Wisconsin before returning to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to earn a master’s degree in dairy science and a doctorate in endocrinology and reproductive physiology.

Molecular aspects of endocrinology swept him away; his passion for estrogen-regulated mammary gland development in mammals evolved into a keen, driving interest in the pathology of breast cancer in humans. Medical science became the focus of his second career. He combined his interests in science and journalism as the medical science writer for research at the Cleveland Clinic, and then as the senior science writer at the American Association for Cancer Research in Philadelphia.

He currently supports clinical research and studies telomeres in the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, Minnesota. He is married and has two children. The Good Guy List is his first novel.

Upside Down Kingdom

by Jody Brown

UpsideAmy Ashe had arrived in Washington, D.C. straight from college in 2000, responsible, mild-mannered, and wry-humored. Two years later, she left her writing position at an influential lobby firm, and just walked out, mid-shift, on her trendy restaurant job in Dupont Circle.

During those two years, her ideals betrayed her. Strangers embraced her. And the city itself threatened to break her spirit even as it encouraged her to stretch her wings. These, all, have delivered her to this moment. This is the story of how she found the readiness to leave it all behind.

Publisher

Published by: Xlibris

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About the Author

Jody Brown has lived, written, and waited tables in South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Along the way, she has written obituaries for a newspaper, edited trade publications for lobbyists, and added numbers for a financial planner, all while serving fine dining, catering, fast food, and every step in between. Her experiences “serving the masses” have culminated into this, her first published novel.

Jody Brown has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fiction and Poetry Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently lives in Rochester, Minnesota.