Author Jakob Gentry
Jakob “Jake” Gentry is a U.S. Air Force veteran, world traveler, and national security professional with a uniquely diverse background. After graduating high school, he served over four years as an avionics maintenance technician, with assignments in Mississippi, California, and the Netherlands. Following his military service, Jake spent years in Silicon Valley’s electronics industry before transitioning into film and television in 1996, where he earned eligibility for the Screen Actors Guild and worked alongside stars such as Robin Williams and Don Johnson.
In 2005, Jake shifted his focus to national defense and security, taking on assignments that included three years in Kuwait and one year in Baghdad, Iraq. A California native who has visited over 30 countries, he brings global insight and real-world experience to his writing. He continues to work in national security and currently resides in Oakdale, California—his “secure, undisclosed location.”
Remember Me When September Comes by Jakob Gentry is a gripping wartime thriller set during Operation Iraqi Freedom and a 2024 American Fiction Awards Finalist in the Adventure: War & Military category.
When U.S. government employee Jason Hendley returns to Baghdad from a brief R&R trip to Dubai, he learns his friend and co-worker, Scott Sandoval, has been murdered. As Jason begins to unravel the truth behind the killing, the story unfolds in a fast-paced narrative that explores the dangers of wartime service, the complexity of loyalty, and the lasting power of friendship forged under fire.
Told with authenticity and emotional depth, this 150-page novel offers a raw look into life in Baghdad during wartime and one man’s search for answers in the face of personal loss.
Author William Hellman
Born in Great Falls, Montana in 1958, William ‘Bill’ Hellman is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL with a distinguished 24-year military career. Throughout his service, he developed deep expertise in maritime operations, becoming a recognized authority in the field.
A true adventurer, Bill has completed over 1,500 skydives, including more than 200 as an air-to-air cameraman, and holds over 1,200 flight hours as an instrument-rated private pilot. As a diver, he has logged more than 5,000 hours underwater, operating advanced military wet submersibles in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
Since 2000, Bill has traveled to over 38 countries, training Special Forces units in support of international maritime operations. He continues to be an avid sailor and explorer, blending real-world experience with a passion for storytelling in his work as an author.
Navy pilot Rawley West is pulled into a covert CIA mission that plunges her into a deadly hunt for a missing nuclear device. As global threats escalate, Rawley uncovers long-buried family secrets and reconnects with a lost love, all while confronting self-doubt and entrenched gender bias. In this high-stakes thriller, survival demands more than skill—it requires courage, conviction, and the will to defy expectations.
Author Eric Griggs Aune
Born and raised in Southern California, the author served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Proteus before pursuing a career in healthcare, eventually earning a degree in Radiologic Technology. He spent many years working in Radiology, CT, and Nuclear Medicine before transitioning into the IT side of the medical field, where he works today. Outside of his professional life, he has been active in Scouting, outdoor adventure, martial arts, and other enriching hobbies that reflect his love for learning and exploration.
A lifelong reader, his passion for storytelling began early but was paused when traditional publishing felt out of reach. Years later, the rise of online platforms reignited that dream. In 2007, he published his first story on a fiction-sharing website and was immediately encouraged by positive reader feedback from around the world. Since then, he has written and shared twenty stories online, including The Ripple Effect, and continues to engage directly with his readers, answering every message he receives.
The Ripple Effect – 2024 American Legacy Book Award Finalist and 2024 American Fiction Book Award Finalist – is a gripping survival story that asks: what happens when the modern world’s technology is wiped out in an instant?
Set in a Los Angeles suburb, the novel follows a group of neighbors forced to band together after a sudden collapse of all electrical and digital systems. As society begins to unravel, the group must confront danger, uncertainty, and the harsh reality of survival. Led by Brian Dailey and his father Richard, they embark on a journey toward a safer refuge—one that may lie far from civilization, but not from its consequences. With echoes of both dystopian fiction and real-world fragility, The Ripple Effect explores what it truly means to rebuild in the face of collapse.
Author Mark O Piggott
His first novel, Forever Avalon, was published in 2009, followed by his second novel, The Dark Tides, in 2014. The Outlander War: Book Three of the Forever Avalon series was released in 2020. Additionally, Forever Avalon was made into an audiobook, narrated by voice artist Traci Odom. In 2021, he published the start of a new steampunk fantasy series with The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart and made into an audiobook, narrated by Melissa Barnes.
At the end of 2021, Mark signed with Curious Corvid Publishing as one of their new authors for this small, independent publisher. His fantasy novella, The River of Souls, in collaboration with poet Ashley Valitutto, was published in 2022, and in 2023, the steampunk historical fiction Corsair and the Sky Pirates launched along with the sequel to The Last Magus, Dragonfire and Steel.
Corsair and the Sky Pirates starts with a chance meeting between Nikola Tesla and Jules Verne catapulted the world into a new kind of power. Using meteor fragments from a comet named Uriel, they created a world powered not by combustion but by steam. The incredible inventions that followed launched the world into an industrial revolution ahead of its time… a steampunk revolution.
While Tesla’s inventions were designed to ease people’s day-to-day burdens, Thomas Edison’s ERP Corporation used their power and influence to ensure people paid for their modern miracles.
One man brought hope to the people as he pursued Tesla’s dream of invention for the everyday person. His exploits were legendary, his crew infamous, and his airship a vision of the future . . . Corsair and the Sky Pirates!
Author CS Harris
In his early childhood, C.S. Harris embarked on his creative odyssey, armed with a box of crayons, a penchant for painting, and a quirky typewriter. Today, he shares his Maine abode with his wife and a mischievous gang of cats who think they’re the true authors of the household. While he savors Maine’s charm, he dreams of chasing the sun—to a locale where sunscreen is a daily essential—all in the name of art and adventure.
Reunion of the Three is the first book in the Ring of Worlds fantasy series, launching an epic quest where our heroes save not only their world but realms beyond. Every twist and cliffhanger ties into an unforgettable, sequential adventure. These novels feature a diverse cast of characters of different ethnicities, faiths, and orientations. These are not standalone novels and must be read in order.
Three lovers torn apart. A world under threat. The countdown begins. Forced apart by their immense power, Alexander Eldred, Imara Inanna, and Sirenī Adamma reunite after fifty years to confront a necromancer threatening the Ring of Worlds. With Alex’s limitless memory for spells, Imara’s reality-bending voice, and Sirenī’s fatal beauty, they are a formidable trio.
As the dark influence spreads, they must dodge their own government and race against time to prevent disaster. Can their reunited powers save the Ring of Worlds, or is it too late? Dive into Reunion of the Three, a gripping saga of magic, danger, vampires, lichs, and a desperate fight against time.
Author Michael D Strickland
Michael Strickland was born in Mayport Florida. Michael lives in Jacksonville and has written several novels, the first of which is The Crippled Pelican, followed by a second novel, “The Red Cotton Fields”, an epic Civil War novel some 700+ pages long followed by the second book in the planned four book series, “FIELDS OF GOLD AND SORROW” and “ANGRY SKY”. The final book in the series, “The Red Cotton Fields Last Sundown” is now live on Amazon. “The Calling” is available on Amazon. “ALONG CAME A MARINE” will be published soon.
The Red Cotton Fields is a story written in the tradition of great historical epics. The story begins on a Georgia plantation in the year 1850, ending on the gold fields of Australia in the year 1884. This is a story surrounding three southern families (the plantation owners, the plantation overseer’s family and a Negro slave family) leading up to and including the Civil War. Readers will experience the demise of a southern plantation and follow two of the plantation’s previous occupants (Bart Royal, the white overseer’s son, and Reiner Washington, an escaped slave as they rise to become two of the richest men in the world. Also, The Red Cotton Fields is a classic love story between the plantation owner’s daughter, Holly Ballaster, and the overseer’s son, Bart Royal. The Red Cotton Fields is destined to become a classic. Read it and you will understand why. Book 2 ‘Fields of Gold and Sorrow’ was published in the spring of 2015. Book 3 “Angry Sky” was published late summer 2020. Book 4 The Red Cotton Fields Last Sundown was published May 30 2023
Three lovers torn apart. A world under threat. The countdown begins. Forced apart by their immense power, Alexander Eldred, Imara Inanna, and Sirenī Adamma reunite after fifty years to confront a necromancer threatening the Ring of Worlds. With Alex’s limitless memory for spells, Imara’s reality-bending voice, and Sirenī’s fatal beauty, they are a formidable trio.
As the dark influence spreads, they must dodge their own government and race against time to prevent disaster. Can their reunited powers save the Ring of Worlds, or is it too late? Dive into Reunion of the Three, a gripping saga of magic, danger, vampires, lichs, and a desperate fight against time.
Author Abe Sulfaro
Abe Sulfaro (1970-2014), Detroit rock musician, author and poet, was doing final edits on his novel “The Antiheroes: Treatise of a Lost Soul” when he died. The novel is a dark look at the gritty underbelly of the infamous urban wasteland that was Detroit during the 1990s and into the new millennium. It is a deep dive into Gothic subculture and includes stream of consciousness self-talk by the protagonist Fade. Abe takes the reader into the desperate streetscapes of Detroit, making you wonder whether some of the happenings were true or fiction. His writing has been compared to the works of Leonard Cohen, John Lennon and Jack Kerouac. Following Abe’s death, his “other” writings were discovered in the loft where he lived over a bar he owned. Those writings include poems, song lyrics and quotes have been compiled and published as “Memoirs de Nocturne: An Anthology.” A family friend, Dr. Ted Fazzari, wrote of Abe that he “left us behind with wailing guitars and the long song of sorrow.” He also left us with great gifts in his music and his writing.
An excerpt from Abe’s work The Antiheroes: Treatise of a Lost Soul….
We hurriedly walk across an empty, weed-filled lot to approach the house from the back. There’s very little light. Most street lights don’t work here. It’s perfect. I can only imagine how we would look to an incidental observer tonight, this gang of painted up, crazy looking freaks, and we are truly all of that. The living dead have come to call. White painted faces like death masks, all dressed in black as we stride across the overgrown lot in a neighborhood of abandoned and boarded up ramshackle houses, like a scene from a war torn country or the movie set of some vile, cheap, B-horror flick. We are a nightmare from Halloween come to life. Anyone encountering this spectacle would turn and run the other way…
Author James E. Smith
James Smith is a writer and author of the new novel; 1989: What Happens When A Killer Returns For Revenge. He is married with two daughters and they all currently reside in Georgia. He grew up in a small town in Georgia and developed love from creative writing at a young age. After graduating high school, he joined the US Army, where he spent twenty – years. During his time in the military he went on multiple deployments and received two Bronze Stars, as well as countless other awards and decorations. While serving his love for writing never diminished. Upon his retirement he decided to achieve his lifelong dream of writing his first what will be many novels to come. His goal in writing this novel is to create a great story, introducing them to characters they can love, hate, and sometimes both.
1989: What Happens When a Killer Returns for Revenge is set in the quiet town of Monroe, Georgia, the Penny Murderer once instilled fear through a reign of terror, leaving behind cryptic notes bearing the haunting words “A penny for your thoughts.” Detective Mike Allen and his team managed to capture Samuel Johnson, a man they believed to be responsible for the twelve gruesome murders. However, Johnson’s persistent claims of innocence, coupled with his suspicious death shortly after his conviction, cast doubt on the true nature of the case.
Nearly three decades later, the nightmare returns. Two murders occur on the same night, bearing the unmistakable calling card of the Penny Murders. One victim shares a connection to the old case, while the other is Marcus Jones, Sergeant Allen’s partner and friend. Sergeant Allen is now forced to work with a partner who questions his every move and challenges the integrity of the original trial. They are now in a race against time to catch this killer before they kill again.
Author Joseph DeSantis
Joe DeSantis is the author of Three Points Shy.
“Three Points Shy” is the season-long journey of one of the greatest high school basketball teams in the history of Seminole County, Florida.
Coached by skilled tactician and savvy motivator Bill Payne, and led by seniors Bruce McCray, Reggie Butler, David Thomas, Keith Whitney, and Glenn Stambaugh, the Fighting Seminoles of Sanford, FL., would punctuate their record-breaking season with a 1979-80 run at Florida’s Class 4A State Basketball Championship.
Their journey would be filled with a combination of dominating wins, last-second heroics, mid-season heartache, and final stretch redemption.
Along the way, there would be holiday tournament championship trophies and three incredible showdowns with the one team that stood in their way of making it to the Lakeland Civic Center’s Final Four—Daytona Beach Mainland.
Rarely were two high school teams who played in the same conference ranked among the state’s top 5 in Florida’s High School Prep Polls. And each of the three meetings between Seminole and Daytona Beach Mainland would provide for a roller coaster ride of emotions, soul-crushing shortcomings, and ultimately a decisive measure of Sanford High’s heart and mettle as a basketball team.
Author Marcus L. Smith
Marcus L. Smith is the author of A Hidden Village of African Giants.
In an attempt to regain high standards in the field of wilderness photography, Makena and her colleague embark on an incredible adventure set in African seas in search of a mythical island shrouded in mystery and located hundreds of miles off the coast of Somalia.
After hiring a seaworthy captain to ferry them, they along with a small crew travel on the open ocean for days until the ship is battered by an unforeseen storm.
Surviving the sinking ship only to be marooned on the shadowy island, they make a surprising discovery of a village hidden deep within the island that is occupied with a community of African giants.
The story is filled with ambition, courage, surprises and loss for the ultimate contest of recognition.
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