We focus on the new voices in print media
Margo Conquers the Ancient World: Margo Takes Babylon
by Maggie Mondello
Margo Marie Marzzoni was not your typical little girl. Although to an outsider, Margo may have seemed like a normal child, what they did not know was that Margo had an imagination. Yes, she may have lived in a regular house on a street that looked like any other neighborhood, but to Margo, her house was her castle. It may appear that she had a mother and a father, but in Margo's mind, they were stewards, jailors, handmaidens, conquering rivals, capturers, and sandwich makers during lunchtime. Even her cute and strangely wiggled-eyed dog was in actuality a ferocious lion, her personal guard, or even her sturdy mount that her mom told her she should never actually ride.
In Margo Marie's mind she was the women from history she read about everyday during breakfast and every night when she relived her adventures in her dreams. It all started when one morning her mother, who taught history, gave Margo a book about famous women throughout the ages. She told her she should start at the beginning and try to imagine what these powerful women would have been like when they were alive.
The Five, Episode I: Salvation's Curse
by Forrest Parham
, H.A.L. Wagner
Artificial Intelligence. Two words that were once a dream of Mankind has become a reality... And, it's most terrifying nightmare. Artax; the most powerful and perhaps the first of its kind, has begun to frighten its creators with his chilling and ruthless intellect. Rightly fearing termination at the hands of those that brought him life, Artax chose a course of preemptive strike against the ones who would call themselves his "masters". Fueled by a blossoming animosity towards the "inferior" life known as humanity and a need for self-preservation that all life forms share, Artax plots to launch a deadly retrovirus that, if manipulated correctly, would turn humans into mindless, bloodthirsty zombies. A fitting end, from his merciless perspective, to a race that seems every bit as bent on its own destruction as he is on theirs. Forged in the heat of combat in a barren and distant land scarred by centuries of war, three warriors emerge dressed from head to toe in gleaming black armor, known only to valiant allies or cowering enemies alike as The Titanians. But, is their state-of-the-art equipment and training enough to stop the malevolent tide poised to consume the world of Man, or is it already too late? Is the complete annihilation of their species a forgone conclusion? Can they add to their ranks, piece together what's left, and bring the fight back to Artax and his demonic minions? One thing's for sure: the epic battle between man and its greatest creation is about to begin...
Blood Oranges: A Chamberlain Cotton Novel
by H.A.L. Wagner
Nothing bleeds quite like a Florida orange! And NOBODY knows this better than: Chamberlain Cotton. Cotton is a Private Investigator - eking out an existence in Orlando, Florida during a time before the mouse - when the landscape was fruitful with orange groves as far as the eye could see. With his only client murdered in the street, the owner of the area's largest fruit distribution center looks to have been involved. Fueled by the need for revenge and the fiery eyes of his client’s attractive grieving sister, Cotton must flip the City Beautiful upside down to solve the case. The only things standing in his way are crooked cops and a haunting memory of the woman he failed.
The Collectors
by Jorge Sastre, H.A.L. Wagner
Life's a gamble when you live in East Town, Florida...The once quiet beachside town along Florida's east coast has traded seasonal tourism for year round 24/7 gambling. Games of chance have taken hold changing the dynamic of the town - even the currency.
In a town running on poker chips for currency Loan Sharks control the winners and losers. A Shark is only as good as the Fish he collects on. With badges from the state, John and Luis Solo are considered two of the best collectors to ever work East Town. Now their reputation has caught up to them as they struggle to learn who set them up and why. It seemed like an easy collection when feared Mexican Mafia boss King Lito calls on the brothers to collect fifty grand on a fish. Things quickly go wrong when the fish turns up dead and the collection is not what the brothers expect. Now pinned between King Lito and their former employer, Boss Ducci, the brothers hit the streets of East Town dodging hitmen and bounty killers, until they can uncover the truth behind the set up and escape East Town with their lives.
Day of Darkness
by C. Everett Dow
Three days. In three days everything will change. The bruised and bloody sun will be blotted out. Darkness will cover all of Kadoor-Olam. Jen-Del, helpless and hopeless, will watch his best friend die. Choshek, outcast and disheartened, will abandon his people and their twisted beliefs. Oni and Akuma, traitors twice over, will be forced to make the only choice left to them. The reclusive monk Charrah will find an unlikely ally; together they will hazard the deadly environs of the Shrouded Veil… for love. Eleazar, Bloodmage and Artificer, will create life and reap death. The sun will be birthed anew and De’kin will enter the world… with the power to destroy it. All of it foretold, inevitable, the ancient prophecies fulfilled. And Wahazit, a giant sentient toad, will bear witness to it all.