In late 1944 a failed German actor, Max Kaspar, is forced to join an absurdly desperate secret mission in which he must impersonate an enemy American officer. So Max cooks up his own fanatical plan — he’ll use his false identity to escape tyranny and war and flee to the America he’d once abandoned.

Max the performer is hardly a soldier let alone a double-crossing commando, yet in the deadly Battle of the Bulge he has to fool battle-shocked American GIs as well as dodge discovery by his reckless German comrades. Belgium’s Ardennes forest becomes a snowbound hell and the magical America he’d loved is lost to him, replaced by a somber invading juggernaut. In the end, Max’s gambles will lead him to a grim but honest payoff.

Part WWII espionage thriller, part expatriate noir, The Losing Role is based on an actual German false flag operation that’s been made infamous in legend but in reality was a doomed farce. In all the tragic details and with some dark humor, this is the story of an aspiring talent who got in over his head and tried to break free.

Author Website

“Being a zombie, not so easy”. That could have been Dave Connor’s six word memoir.

“At first he couldn’t remember how he’d ended up in that shallow grave; he just knew it was hell to claw his way out, and that the taste of its dirt would remain in his mouth for the rest of his time on this earth”

Expect the unexpected in this existential resurrection thriller!

Carl Gussman died in 1997 and chose to freeze himself to be revived later when science could accomplish that task. The problem is that Carl had no one that survived him, so he lay forgotten and unwanted. In 2976 Carl was thawed out, but found freezer-burn had ruined his memories. In a future where Carl found himself useless, he did what no one expected- He disappeared … until now.

Future Useless is the story of Carl and his adventures in the far future and what he does to turn the universe’s views on their head.

A few adult words.

A hotshot, Martha’s Vineyard, Deputy D.A. becomes embroiled in a web of lies, murder, and puritan New England politics when he’s assigned to prosecute two modern day witches accused of ritual sacrifice.

J.T. Cummins is a thriller author and screenwriter. His fiction includes Cobblestones, Minus Four, The Jitters, and Weaker Sex (co-written with Douglas Nabors a producer of the Emmy winning TV series Monk). J.T. is also the screenwriter-director of the horror movie classic The Boneyard. A former Hollywood FX artist, J.T.’s work appears in The Thing, House, Strange Invaders, Enemy Mine, and many others. J.T.’s e-fiction is available for download at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Smashwords, or at http://www.jtcummins.com.

Reviews: 

With lean writing and cinematic style, J.T. Cummins has created a fast-moving, suspenseful story that makes compulsive reading, right up to its climactic finish.

—Debbi Mack, Author of Identity Crisis 

The characters are intriguing and keep you hooked as the various plot twists untwine. Cummins is a writer to watch and brings that visual, fast-paced ‘screenwriter’ feel to his fiction.

—Scott Nicholson, Author of The Skull Ring and The Red Church 

The plot and storyline were excellent. This was an entertaining mystery. The writing style was also very good with excellent descriptions. Overall: An entertaining, quick read.

—Red Adept, Amazon Review

As a certified CSI/Cold Case/crime drama nut, this novella was right up my alley. It was a fast, easy, and fun read. You simply must check it out. You will not regret it. It had me at ‘cord wood.’

—Kelley Sweet-Jensen, Reader

A teenage boy discovers more on Halloween than he bargained for. A child realizes his mother is a powerful witch. A hero comes to understand the truth of what lies within him. A hitman discovers he’s meant for more than breaking bones. Seven tales of terror fill the pages of this collection of short stories of the supernatural. Be prepared to have your spine chilled and your stomach churned. Not for the squeamish.

How chilling can a short book of short stories get? Evidently just this chilling. This is one scary book from an even scarier author – if the contents of this book are to be believed and I think they are. Don’t read these stories if you plan on sleeping soon after, but do intend on reading them.

– Holly Littlefingers, Smashwords.com

Is it really possible to change your life in fourteen days?

Fourteen Days Later was short listed for the Harry Bowling Prize 2008 and received a Highly Commended by the Yeovil Literary Prize 2008. It is a romantic comedy with a unique infusion of British and Turkish Cypriot culture. Written in a similar style to Marian Keyes, it is My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets P.S. I Love You.

When accident-prone Helen Grey finds a thong stuffed into the pocket of her boyfriend’s best work trousers, it’s time for her to move on. His excuse that he needed to dust the photocopier and just thought that it was a rag sounds like a lame excuse.

Helen’s life is propelled in an unexpected direction after her best friend, Ayshe, sets her a fourteen-day, life-changing challenge. Helen receives a task everyday which she must complete without question. The tasks are designed to build her confidence and boost her self-esteem but all they seem to do is push her closer to Ayshe’s brother, Kalem.

How will Kalem and Helen get together when she’s too foolish to realize that she loves him? How can he fall for her when he is too busy falling prey to her mishaps and too in love with his own perfect girlfriend? How will Kalem’s Turkish Cypriot family react when they find out?

Is it really possible to change your life in fourteen days?

“A very good read.” “Very enjoyable and fresh.” TRISHA ASHLEY

A true tale of Dissociative Identity Disorder (a form of multiple personality disorder).

Stacy Bewick is lost. Lost inside her head. Born to parents who abused her body, mind and soul, Stacy learned to survive through psychic connections to angelic spirit guides and by creating inner personalities.

By the time Stacy was two, the personality called “Marla” knew how to find food in the paper garbage sack in the kitchen. When she was four, the personality called “George” knew how to be strong enough to block the pain from Mommy’s forsythia whips and Daddy’s leather belt.

Stacy didn’t grow up in a remote village or primitive culture. Stacy grew up in a small town in New Jersey in the 1960s.

Sky Eyes is a personal journey into dissociative identity disorder. Though based on a true story, names, dates and identifying information have been changed. One of the main visible symptoms of DID is the lack of a single stable personality. Like post-traumatic stress disorder, DID is created as a result of trauma and extreme, prolonged abuse.

Stories like Sybil and The Three faces of Eve help readers connect with adults who suffer from DID. Sky Eyes is unique in that it describes each of her multiple personalities as it develops in a child. Step into Stacy’s world and discover what happens when society ignores abuse.

Rated “R”

Winner of the 2009 non-fiction Book of the Year award.

83,300 words

A serial killer lurks in the Northern California fog, and young women are disappearing. Sarah is 16, pretty and naive. Her beloved mother now dead, Sarah must run away from her hated aunt to search for the father she barely knows. Right into the serpent’s den. What she finds horrifies her. Is the strange boy she meets there the real killer? Is her father involved? Can she escape before it’s too late?

Hattie Locke has a gift: when she sings, the dead dig themselves from their graves to listen. As a death-siren, her life has always been this way.

Then the dead begin to show up in numbers far beyond expected. With each song she sings, they grow pushy and demanding, rushing the stage to reach her. Trapped in a place where her dreams of music become her nightmares, Hattie is left with nowhere to turn.

But then she meets a boy, who promises freedom from her curse.

Now Hattie wonders: is ridding herself of her voice worth losing the music she’s lived to create?

Quake: Echelon Press LLC, October 2009.

Voted Top Ten Young Adult Book for 2009 Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll!

Valentina Maltseva is the head of the Arts and Literature Section of a Communist Youth Newspaper in the old Soviet Union. When her boss and lover showed her a KGB directory of agents she had no idea her view of it would cause her to be blackmailed into a KGB project in Argentina by none other than Yuri Andropov himself.

Nothing seems to go right and Valentina’s curiosity plunges her deeper into the sordid and dangerous world of espionage and murder.

As the body count mounts and spies from 3 agencies chase her, Valentina wonders if she will survive.

A best seller (600,000 copies) in Russia and Israel! Made into a popular 4-part mini series!

Translated into colloquial English from the original Russian.

Rated PG

Destiny’s Forge Book 1 in the SF/vampire series Children of The Dragon by Theresa M. Moore, published by Antellus. Honor and duty, espionage and revenge, space adventure and vampire romance in the 23rd century. A stranger from another planet finds her fate changed by destiny in her quest to track down a war criminal from her world.

Based on a series of short stories created by the author from 1988 – 1995, the first book is a full novel of adventures of the series heroine against the backdrop of high adventure and space opera inspired by many of the TV series and films of the last century. “I was influenced by such classics as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, and films like Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Time Machine,” she said. “I wanted to craft an original adventure from elements  and themes familiar to readers, of good vs. evil, and came up with something which almost exceeded my expectations.”

The Children of The Dragon series is a chronicle of the Xosan, living vampires from the planet Antellus who were once human but were transformed by a dragon’s blood. They are stories of science fiction, fact and fantasy, myth and history, tragedy and triumph; linked together by the theme of the vampire as hero.

Destiny’s Forge Book 1 in the SF/vampire series Children of The Dragon by Theresa M. Moore, published by Antellus. Honor and duty, espionage and revenge, space adventure and vampire romance in the 23rd century. A stranger from another planet finds her fate changed by destiny in her quest to track down a war criminal from her world.

Based on a series of short stories created by the author from 1988 – 1995, the first book is a full novel of adventures of the series heroine against the backdrop of high adventure and space opera inspired by many of the TV series and films of the last century. “I was influenced by such classics as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, and films like Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Time Machine,” she said. “I wanted to craft an original adventure from elements  and themes familiar to readers, of good vs. evil, and came up with something which almost exceeded my expectations.”

The Children of The Dragon series is a chronicle of the Xosan, living vampires from the planet Antellus who were once human but were transformed by a dragon’s blood. They are stories of science fiction, fact and fantasy, myth and history, tragedy and triumph; linked together by the theme of the vampire as hero.

A clairvoyant teen who failed to save a drowning girl is called upon to protect his town from the evil that pulled her under.

When Jimmie Knight was ten years old, he foresaw other people’s suffering. He hesitated to act on a vision, and a girl drowned, leaving him devastated by guilt. Now, after seven years of dormancy, this local high school rock-star’s gift re-awakens, showing him a vision of the town’s children tortured by an evil force which lays beneath the surface of the pond where the girl died. Overwhelmed by his visions, Jimmie begins to alienate himself from his friends in a desperate attempt at redemption.

Ember Grace, the most popular girl in high school, is also Jimmie’s crush, and she struggles to hold together her own failing friendships as she tries to understand her own unique gifts. Cast from her circle by vindictive friends, she finds herself drawn to Jimmie, his music, and his visions. When strange and evil events plague the town, Jimmie realizes that time is running out and all will be lost if he repeats his failure to act.

You’ve taken these perfectly normal feelings and you’ve thrown them into a dark fantasy – finally a book with something truly dark but delicious in it. What I like the most is the way you’ve drawn me into the atmosphere, you managed to leave that heavy emptiness in my stomach as I approached the moment of drowning.

- Julia Siboney

Find more than 100 comments by fellow writers on HarperCollins Authonomy

Set in a near-future Chicago, QUEEN MAB COURTESY is part adventure, part mystery, part science, and all fun.

Tito, the main character, is a “Denver Dwarf”–victim of a birth defect caused by a biological terrorist attack while he was in the womb. It certainly didn’t affect his mind or his spirit, though.

He meets up with Charlie Sleazer,
a hot chestnut vendor who quotes Shakespeare and has a few interesting sidelines (like helping people out of jams). They are trying to unravel what happened to Tito’s father, who disappeared years ago. The C.O.P.S.–huge mechanical machines with biological ‘chips’ in control of their actions–seem to be engaged in a huge cover-up, adding to their already repressive nature as they try to protect people from everything including themselves.

Queen Mab Courtesy is a fast-paced novel that’s fun and easy to read, yet it makes the reader think about lots of things, not least of which is the value of being true to oneself and one’s family.

Rated PG for intense scenes.
80,000 words. 356 pages in Adobe version.

Heart of a hero. Mind of an absolute…

An implacable virus spreads across the kingdom of Aspermonde, transforming women into beautiful creatures called Mosaics and stealing their minds, souls, and voices. Mosaics are alien, eerie – and collectable.

Lieutenant Simon Cant collects Mosaics for the king. He is war-scarred and unpredictable, held steady only by his loyal sergeant, Hal.

Their latest acquisition, Augusta, is proving difficult: she hasn’t yet lost her mind and willpower to the virus.

Maybe it’s a miracle…and maybe it’s just a sackful of trouble for Simon.

All he wants is to get back to Skysend and hand Augusta – and the problem she represents – over to his king. Meanwhile, rebels want to rescue her, a covetous merchant wants to collect her, her sister wants to castrate Simon, and Augusta herself has designs of her own…

Bastard’s Grace by Wendy Palmer. Available at a discount directly from Winterbourne Publishing, or find it at Smashwords or your favourite online ebook retailer.

Heart of a hero. Mind of an absolute…

An implacable virus spreads across the kingdom of Aspermonde, transforming women into beautiful creatures called Mosaics and stealing their minds, souls, and voices. Mosaics are alien, eerie – and collectable.

Lieutenant Simon Cant collects Mosaics for the king. He is war-scarred and unpredictable, held steady only by his loyal sergeant, Hal.

Their latest acquisition, Augusta, is proving difficult: she hasn’t yet lost her mind and willpower to the virus.

Maybe it’s a miracle…and maybe it’s just a sackful of trouble for Simon.

All he wants is to get back to Skysend and hand Augusta – and the problem she represents – over to his king. Meanwhile, rebels want to rescue her, a covetous merchant wants to collect her, her sister wants to castrate Simon, and Augusta herself has designs of her own…

Bastard’s Grace by Wendy Palmer. Available at a discount directly from Winterbourne Publishing, or find it at Smashwords or your favourite online ebook retailer.