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NOTE:  All blurbs posted here are the work of the author and are taken directly from Amazon.  The RRBC team accepts no credit or critiques for these blurbs.

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*AUTHORS, BREAKFIELD & BURKEY:

To learn more about Rox & Charles and their other books, visit their RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“Caribbean Dream”

Xiamara and Judith work multiple jobs saving for university tuition for entry into the high paying tech jobs available everywhere. They have a sponsor for the fall semester at the university, less than a year away. They must pay to play.

Frustrated with their frugal hand-to-mouth existence, Xiamara finds a short cut believing it will work. She takes their savings and buys a boat, convinced it’s a sailboat in the rough.

Judith believes her partner’s either fleeced or stealing her funds like everyone else. She demands to either see the magic beans or go to Jack and the Beanstalk to get their money back. Xiamara must convince Judith to show her the viability of the project.

Judith reluctantly accepts the challenge and becomes the front person to hustle day tourists coming off the big cruise ships. Their business grows in fits and starts but some day tourists simply can’t help but like these two feisty girls working to earn their fall tuition. With a couple of lucky breaks things seem to be rolling their way and their dream is nearly in reach.

Jealous hostility from an unlikeable competitor presents a risk the girls hadn’t anticipated. They align with fallen competitors and save the best for last. Fortune might smile upon them when the storm clears.

“Fears, Tears, or Cheers”

Jo Wagner, JoW, the young Brazilian International supermodel, experiences a horrible flashback to her previous life in captivity. Although she thought the trauma buried and forgotten, it hits her like an unexpected sledgehammer.

Her outburst freezes the film crew, fellow models, and JJ, her heart’s desire, who get stunned by her emotional meltdown. Her career and future survival are at stake. She must come to terms with her past and create her empowered path forward.

Her adopted family unite to provide the safe framework for JoW overcome her emotional fears. JJ’s tender words of encouragement steel her nerves and catapult her to an inner solution.

JoW seeks help from her adoptive father Carlos for an unorthodox method to not only conquer the past, but jump to the next phase of life on her terms.

“Hidden Target”

Brayson is an excellent cyber security expert with a military and black ops background. The death of his first love causes him to lose focus and risk his team members. A friend lends him a secluded cabin to think, relax, and decide what he wants in life.

Marian, a former Air Force sniper, is hiding with a minimal digital footprint to avoid a love affair gone bad. She lives a modest existence with only a few friends.

Their paths collide at the shooting range where Brayson learns some valuable lessons during target practice.

Can these two strangers help each other to realize their best future? Or will they remain victims of their choices?

“Hot Chocolate”

Watch the family dynamics of a young couple as they embrace the yuletide. Petra and Jacob do a mash up of their cultural heritages during the festivities with their family.

Petra, raised in Europe, cherishes the older European traditions of candle lighted trees and real Swiss chocolate, piping hot with marshmallows and whipped cream.

Jacob, raised in New York City, loves having his family close and sampling piping hot chocolate. He is particularity fond of selecting perfect gifts.

John Wolfgang or JW his parents revel in each of his accomplishments and discoveries as he grows. They find it important to expose JW to the best of these winter wonderland activities of both worlds. Watching the delight in JW’s eyes creates great memories for everyone.

A part of their unabashed affection, they strive to get one another the perfect gift. This adds a layer of their personal teasing season that starts with the first display of St. Nicholas. Jacob smugly announces early this year he’s found the perfect gift. As a result, with all the events and activities, Petra stresses over the selecting the right present for Jacob.
The clock is ticking to their gift exchange.

“Destiny Dreamer”

Jamie started life as a carefree lad in Ireland, living in a farm family. When his brother Ian was born, he vowed to show him all the best things as a big brother. They became best friends from the time Jamie taught Ian to drive a tractor. Their bonding exercises as young men was rebuilding a motorcycle from a box of greasy old parts. They traveled to learn their destiny together.

Jamie met his love Frieda as he ventured into a new career in technology and their paths crossed on a bus. The relationship blossomed into a family. The future looked bright for the young lovers.

Jamie faces emotional highs and lows as he travels. His one consistency is the bus rides to discover his future. Where will his future lead him?

“Riddle Codes”

Brayson is determined to graduate at the top of his class in the exclusive master’s technology program from Warsaw University. Distractions are nowhere on his schedule. His talent, military brat upbringing, and drive to succeed will allow many doors to open to him with this degree.

Rafael, a fellow student, seems to have a different agenda for his life and education. His agenda may derail Brayson’s success.

Enter Gretchen beautiful, brilliant, and abrasive. This desirable woman has even less time for socializing than Brayson. Her drivers are to extract every morsel of information from her professors, regardless of the cost. Her bodyguards suggest there is more to Gretchen than just a pretty face.

Are these three destined to collide at some point and upset their end goals? Could their future become irrevocably altered by their search for answers? School is hard enough without adding emotional baggage.

“Nowhere But Up” 

Mathias and Halverson are trudging toward the Brazilian border to escape the Venezuelan secret police who want to kill them. Once they had first class service, which is now reduced to third-world transport and lifestyle. Escape holds the promise of shearing more sheep to line their pockets.

Unexpectedly their biggest nemesis, Genesis spots them before they cross the border. Her fury is unparalleled. She explodes their cover, her cover, and a firefight ensues. She is gravely wounded which Halvorson applauds, but Mathias finds an angle for leverage with her in tow. He will extract justice for her prior transgressions. Mathias owns Genesis.

They are confederates traveling to a new freebooter gig. The hierarchy is set with Mathias in charge. They are down but not out. Mathias will use his confederate team to get back on top. His methods are unorthodox yet highly effective.

“The Jewel” 

Haddy and Otto are so in love. They started their family only to learn Haddy could have no more children. Haddy adores her daughter and helps her grow but, over time, slides down the slope of depression.

Otto, refusing to lose the love of his heart, comes to an inflection point. He coaxes Haddy out for the evening to celebrate her birthday, the first time in four years. Using his charm and wit, he plans the evening to court her like before they married.

They both dressed up in their finery for the night of celebration. Their evening progresses better than he hoped when Haddy behaves carefree as she laughs and gests with him. Walking through the alley to the theatre, they are confronted by two no accounts looking to rob them and more.

Otto instantly shifts to the warrior to protect his bride in the blink of an eye. Can one man defeat two practiced thieves and protect his wife? Their destiny is about to change as silence descends into the alley.

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*RWISA AUTHOR, JOHN PODLASKI:

To learn more about John and his other books, visit his RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“2-27-70” 

I grew up in the city of Detroit and was taught that my heritage and strong family values were important. Every year, our birthdays were a cherished event within the family – especially when it was dad’s special day – we always celebrated his with great fanfare, a special family dinner and dessert.

However, on February 27, 1970, my dad’s birthday, that annual tradition was broken when I was forced into a situation beyond my control. I had to leave home and the family gave me an emotional send off, but the thought and possibility of my never returning devastated them.

This short story follows me on this one special day. Thousands of young men preceded me on this path, and tens of thousands never made it home. Find out where I was heading and why I had to go.

“Unwelcomed”

John Kowalski makes it home from the Vietnam War in one piece, and his battles are finally over. Or so he thought. Home for less than a week, John must defend his family from a pair of unwelcomed thugs hell-bent on revenge.

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*AUTHOR, JOY M. LILLEY:

To learn more about Joy and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“My Aunt Peggy”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

This story written by the protagonists niece is an insight to a lady with little education or hope of achievements and success in her life.However she bucked the trend and achieved much in life. Her family loved her dearly and cared about her right up to the last.She achieved more in becoming a constant winner of bowls tournaments a game she dearly loved.She also won the hearts and minds of many celebrities in the forties, when she worked at the famous Pinewood film studios in Britain. Many gave her their signed black and white photographs.Auntie Peggy was an engaging character to most and an adversary to a few.As you turn the pages you will be laughing and crying at some events of this intrepid lady’s life.

“Clouds”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

This story tells of a mother and daughter Judy, eight years old left to fend for themselves after father is killed in WW2.
Life was hard in those post war years and mother was forced into finding unsavoury ways for their survival.
They were living in Switzerland, a place Judy loved with the mountains and meadows allowing the freedom she and her mother craved.
The clouds theme runs throughout the story depicting the various moods of their journey to a better and safer life.

“Spy and Villain”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

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*RWISA AUTHOR, KAREN BLACK:

To learn more about Karen and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“Juan’s Path To Justice”

“Elusive Guardians”

“Vindictive Angel”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

“A Wish And His Demand”

“Life’s Highway to Love”

“Close Your Eyes And They’re Gone”

“Treacherous Love” 

“Mountain Justice”

“Long Stories Short”

“A Candle In The Darkness”

“The Hunted”

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*RWISA AUTHOR, LINNEA TANNER:

To learn more about Linnea and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

2021 ALPHA / OMEGA 90-DAY SHORT STORY WRITING CONTEST GRAND PRIZE WINNER!!!

“Two Faces of Janus”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

A brash young aristocrat, Lucius Antonius anticipates Emperor Augustus Caesar will support his lofty ambitions to serve as a praetor in the Roman justice system in 2 BC Rome. As the son of the distinguished politician and poet, Iullus Antonius, Lucius prays to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, to open the door for him to rise politically. But he is unaware of the political firestorm ready to erupt in the imperial family.

Augustus must confront evidence that his daughter, Julia, has behaved scandalously in public and that Iullus is her lover. The prospect that Julia might want to marry Iullus—the only surviving son of Marcus Antonius—threatens to redirect the glory from Augustus to his most hated rival beyond the grave. Caught in the political crossfire, Lucius must demonstrate his loyalty to Augustus by meeting all of his demands or face the destruction of his family’s legacy and possibly his own life. Will Lucius ultimately choose to betray and abandon his disgraced father?

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*RWISA AUTHOR, MAURA BETH BRENNAN:

NEW RELEASE

“The Last Glass”

“I know you’re clumsy, but don’t break them.” These were her father’s dying words to Amy, and they haunted her like a witch’s curse. Along with a small inheritance, he had left her three crystal glasses and the admonition that told her all she needed to know about his opinion of her – awkward, irresponsible, selfish, a disappointment, not like her mother at all. He never needed to say all the words to get his point across. She put the glasses in a cabinet and vowed to take care of them, but accidents happened, and now only one was left. Amy imagined the disapproving spirit of her father watching her. Could she ever be free?

NEW RELEASE

“The Fairy Garden”

When Sara was very young, her grandmother told her magical stories about garden fairies who lived in the tulips. If she could just catch sight of one of these elusive creatures, her grandmother told her, her wish would be granted. Soon after, Sara overheard her family discussing how she had been adopted, and how her birth mother was a young girl, barely into her teens. After recovering from her shock, Sara vows to find that young girl and get to know her. Surely, she would have more in common with her birth mother than with her dull, ordinary adoptive family. That was the wish she asked the garden fairies to grant. Years later, when she is ready for college, she finds a way to meet her birth mother. But all does not go as she planned.

“I’ll Be Right Back”

Warren’s young wife, Iris, walked into a blizzard and didn’t come back. His journey to find her took him halfway across the country, to truths he hadn’t been able to face. Because sometimes there is no way to find what you’re looking for. Sometimes all you can find is yourself. 

“Sahara Heat”

When ex-stripper Sahara marries the richest man in town, people expect trouble. Sahara just naturally attracts drama, and this time, she outdoes herself as the defendant in the most notorious trial the area has ever seen. But after the verdict is reached and everyone thinks the excitement is over, Sahara decides to stir things up again. This time, she’s going to tell the truth.

“Stardust”

Is there such a thing as fate? Can one event change everything? Maeve’s life was comfortable and predictable until one day when things didn’t go as planned. But, maybe it had been planned, by someone or something other than herself. Now, she had choices to make about how to go on. Would she rise to the challenge?

“The Ex Chronicles”

Angie thinks she has found the love of her life. All goes well until she starts getting phone calls from a sultry woman and realizes her man is cheating. She decides to take matters into her own hands and confront the two lovers. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

“Saint Harry”

Angie’s widowed Aunt Ida decides to embark on a career talking to the spirits, and use her powers to help her family and friends. Angie worries that something crazy might happen. And it does.

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*RWISA AUTHOR, NONNIE JULES:

To learn more about Nonnie and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“No Pedigree

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, Baylee never quite fit in…anywhere. She was taunted and teased because her clothes had no designer labels, and spit upon because her only pair of shoes had holes in the bottom. The butt of many jokes, she was excluded from all the parties, sneered at by the parents of her peers after school as she waited for the bus, watching them drive away in their fancy cars; assaulted in the most unthinkable fashion.

Having been born to a white father and a black native American mother didn’t make things any easier. In fact, that circumstance made her life ten times worse – until the day she made them all stand up, take notice and choke on their ugly words.

“Open, Shut”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

Darcy Lynn has a few problems: her sister, Lola, killed by a drunk driver, leaves her with an eerie message right before her death; her parents are atheists; her father drinks a little too much, and her brother, Bud, is just annoying. But, her most pressing issue is that things are mysteriously opening and closing around her and she hasn’t a clue as to why…or how.

In this short, you’re being introducing to a normal, everyday family, whose lives are altered, not once, but twice by unexpected and unusual circumstances.

If you came into this story only believing in things seen with your own two eyes, and things heard with your own two ears, you walk away with a new and refreshing added sense…the ability and the courage to change, based on where your heart leads you.  (More on Amazon)

“…And The Music Played” 

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

This book is the sequel and the final chapter in the love story between Giani and Christine. The first book, “IF ONLY THERE WAS MUSIC…The Poetry of Forbidden Love” (a co-authored project), was a love story told thru the eyes of two lovers…but written for the hearts of many.

Across oceans and thru many barriers, two hearts try to connect – but with the distance between them, will their love survive? And, with the forces-that-be against them coming in the form of murder plots and domestic abuse, the bigger question is…will they?

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*AUTHOR, PAMELA SCHLOESSER CANEPA:

2021 ALPHA / OMEGA 90-DAY SHORT STORY WRITING CONTEST – 1ST PLACE RUNNER UP!

“Crossroads Diner #205”

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*RWISA AUTHOR, PAT GARCIA:

To learn more about Pat and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

NEW RELEASE

“Late Bloomer”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

At forty-seven, Nadine Dorothy Lauren, lovingly called Na-Doo by her best girlfriends, is giving up on her lifelong dream of falling in love and having a house filled with kids. As a child psychologist, she loves the children in her care, but they don’t erase the gnawing ache within her. With her bodily clock ticking away, Na-Doo forces herself to accept what will not be and plans to take a drastic step that will change her life forever until Daniel Incogniti and his seven boys step into her life.

This delightful short story is a comical yet earnest tale of a woman who thought her life dream would never come true. 

2021 KCT ILA GRAND PRIZE WINNER!!!

“Turn The Light On”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

Would you ever accept a dinner invitation to meet a stranger who never spoke one word to you during your time together? Would you accept that you could not even sit at the same table with them? How about, you don’t even know their name and you continue this “game” for months?

Meet Della Cartwright. A superstar at what she does professionally, but when the tall, mysterious, Italian stranger, Alessio Terracina, enters her world, she begins to question her judgment and everything about her.

In this short story which takes place over the course of one day, this otherwise savvy businesswoman is led into making decisions that could jeopardize her professional life and maybe even cost her her freedom. But the greatest danger… just might be to her fragile heart.

“Let His Banner Over Me Be Love”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

It didn’t take Chance Mancini long to accept that she had allowed let herself to fall in love with Gavino Mancini, a man much younger than she. To make matters worse, after their marriage, he’d led her into a lifestyle that she did not know of, but she had come to love. He was her, Sir.

All was well and good until she found out she couldn’t give him a family, and insecurity about their relationship hunted her like a hound dog sniffing on a hunt.

Chance ran away, only to be terrorized every night in her sleep by her dreams.

Three years later, Gavino Mancini enters her life again to repossess what belongs to him––her heart and her body.

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*AUTHOR, SHIRLEY HARRIS-SLAUGHTER:

To learn more about Shirley and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“Joyce Winifred Harris-Burkes:  How I Remember My Mama!”

Mama could tell a joke. Next thing you know, you are rolling on the floor from one of them. She loved to play the lottery and was religious with it. If you fail to buy her tickets when she asks you, she will tell you that was the winning number … “If you had done what I asked you, I could have won.” It was classic!

She was just as passionate about her faith and could quote passages from the bible all day long, which she did. She was a good mother and made huge sacrifices for her children.

She was the woman who wanted to be an actress but never got the chance. She was the woman who worked at a naval air base in Alameda County, California, screwing riveters in wings of airplanes. They were called “Rosie the Riveter” in World War II.

She was the constant in our lives.

This is how I remember my mama!

“Ronald L. Powell:  Missing in Action”

My brother dropped out of school and joined the Marines around 1963. By the time our Mother found him (he enlisted without telling anyone) he had been through basic training and was preparing to go to war. He told her in a letter, “Mom, I don’t think I’m going to make it …”

This is a memoir of my brave brother, Ronald Louis Powell, who died under mysterious circumstances along with 57 of his comrades. Nothing was ever said or written about this tragedy.

This is my way of keeping his story alive and bringing some closure.

“Newspaper Chronicles”

Based on a true story.
The story follows the fictional account of one character, Leslie Louise Allen, working at a major newspaper in Downtown Detroit. From her perspective on race; interactions of colleagues; circulation wars; new hires; layoffs and romantic encounters, she takes us on a harrowing journey thru the 70s and 80s when Detroit was a two-newspaper town.

“A Citizen’s Group In Action: Saving A Train Station”

Around 1992, this study was pulled together for one specific purpose – to save the Michigan Central Depot, a train station in downtown Detroit. After it was boarded up in the 1980s, I agonized about what was happening to the building as it descended into neglect and decay; with no hope of it ever rising to its former glory. I needed to form a plan and a way to do it. Attending a university afforded me that opportunity. I always loved trains even though there was never a chance for me to experience the thrill of it all growing up. My mother was pregnant with me when she traveled from California, all the way to Detroit, to be with my dad’s family while he was stationed in Guam during World War II. So I always thought that I was touched in the womb. There was no other way to explain this love affair with trains.

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*RWISA AUTHOR, WANDA ADAMS FISCHER:

To learn more about Wanda and her other books, visit her RRB AUTHOR PAGE!

“The Genius and the KGB”

(Cover created by 4WillsPublishing)

In the late 1960s, the Soviet Union dubbed Aleksi Zhakarov a genius. They removed him from his parents and sent him for special education. He earned a doctorate by the time when most people graduate from college. However, he was never allowed out of protective custody to live a normal life. He always wondered what the rest of the world looked like. Thanks to a major conference in Munich, he meets other scientists, one of whom helps him escape from his KGB guards. He arrives at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, meets several other Soviet defectors, but remains convinced that the KGB is still after him. This story delves into his paranoia, what happens to him, and how it affects his MIT co-workers.

“Handprints”

After their husbands commit them to a state mental institution in Massachusetts, two women become friends. Were they–and the other women who filled the place–even mentally ill? Anne was eccentric, to be sure, and her Boston fireman husband decided it was more than he could bear. Edna loved to read and write poetry; her husband said she wasn’t “a good wife,” so he called the constable and had her taken away to the state mental hospital. She craved companionship and found Anne during her first night at the place. Edna called Anne “Anne of Green Gables”; she told everyone who’d listen that she was Edna St. Vincent Millay. This novella looks at the way they cope with spending the rest of their lives in a state mental institution with humor and Anne’s visitors from the outside world–and how they make a Christmas surprise visit to the site of the old mental hospital as spirits after their deaths.

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*RWISA AUTHOR, YVETTE CALLEIRO:

To learn more about Yvette and her other books, visit her RRBC AUTHOR PAGE!

“Escaping the Woods”

When ten-year old Isabella’s family moves to Mississippi in 1982, she is not thrilled about leaving her home in Miami. Her parents introduce her to their new friend’s daughter, Janine, and insist Isabella play with her. Reluctantly, she follows Janine to a nearby park. When Janine suggests they explore the woods, Isabella gives in despite her fears. One wrong turn leaves them deep in the forest with no way of knowing how to get out. As the sun begins to set, Isabella and Janine search for help, but will their search lead to their rescue, or will they find themselves in even more danger?

“The One Chosen”

Valerie is eager to learn the skills needed to become a Diasodz warrior, but when she meets her new trainer, all she can think about is him.

Nolan is a master trainer who has taught thousands of fledglings throughout his life. He has never had a relationship with a student nor does he plan to.

When Nolan and Valerie are thrust together on a routine mission, nothing goes as planned. If they want to survive, they will need to trust each other. But how do you trust someone who has rejected you? Nolan and Valerie must find a way or lose each other forever.

Note: This short story is related to the Chronicles of the Diasodz series. It takes place in the early 1600s and sets the stage for a major conflict in the series. It can be read alone, but if you enjoy it, I encourage you to read the series.

“Breathless”

What if the fairy tale kiss that always awakens the damsel in distress takes a sinister turn? What if prince charming’s kiss no longer produces a happily ever after?

Silena’s infatuation with William hits a speed bump when he rejects her. After all, she is just a maid, and he is a young, rich aristocrat in the 1920s. Why would he have any desire to waste his time with the help?

On one particularly lonely day, Silena calls upon her magic to transform into a sexy flapper for the night. Her dream to enjoy one night with William is finally in her grasp, but her magic comes with consequences that neither William nor Silena could ever imagine.