All his life, Ishmael O’Donnell has wrestled with family dysfunction and being possessed by the spirit of his long-dead twin brother. With a military father who has always controlled him, Ishmael has only escaped corporal punishment through his mother’s intercession. Seeking purification from his past and freedom from the haunting spirit of his brother, Ishmael eventually makes his way to the seminary. In "The Call," author Derald Hamilton creates an unforgettable cast of quirky, humorous, unorthodox, and larger than life characters as Ishmael’s fellow seminarians. While some have received a legitimate call to the ministry, others are simply fulfilling a family legacy of being clergy. Surprised and shocked by such people and even more by the disillusioning church politics he encounters, Ishmael finds his three years in the seminary will lead him down a path to purification he never could have imagined.

"Francie's Followers," by author Jannet Ridener, revolves around a group of people that are each facing their own seemingly insurmountable dilemma. Sheriff James Weaver is suffering from a severe case of boredom mixed with a dose of midlife crisis. He’s tied down by the constraints of life and doesn’t even know it. Elaine just wants to be loved, and she’d prefer if that love came from her crush, Alex, who is too busy doting on his fiancée, Mia, to realize he doesn’t actually love her. Emmett is Alex’s new friend, and Elaine’s new crush. Each of these individuals are living messed up lives but things become even more chaotic when they find themselves unwittingly involved in a battle of wills between Theron and Eugenia, the king and queen of the fairies.

"Nickels" follows a biracial girl named "Little Miss So and So", from age 4-1/2 into adulthood. Told in a series of prose poems, Nickels' lyrical and inventive language conveys the dissociative states born of a world formed by persistent and brutal incest and homophobia.The dissociative states enable the child?s survival and, ultimately, the adult's healing. The story is both heartbreaking and triumphant. "Nickels" is the groundbreaking debut of Minneapolis-area author and artist Christine Stark.

Paloma Zubiondo lives the life of one of the beautiful people. In her beachfront Mediterranean home that overlooks the bay in Laguna Beach, she collects Spanish Colonial art, rare books, and plays the philanthropist. Her life is happy, safe, secure, disciplined. Like the proverbial ivory tower, her home is a fortress against the world’s evils. Then Paloma’s peaceful existence is shattered by a ringing phone that turns into a hysterical female voice; the woman sounds identical to the indigenous nanny who had raised Paloma in her native land of Ecuador. "Gathering the Indigo Maidens," by author Cecilia Velastegui, is an exceptionally well-written tale that keeps readers enticed from the first page.

"Hurrah's Nest," by author Barbara Kennedy,is a modern story of the profound and deadly effects of deception. It is novel of fast money, easy money, love, sex, betrayal, international scandal, embezzlement, and murder. These are the new go-go years, the eighties, and money is plentiful—custom-made designer clothes, champagne cocktails at Windows on the World, limousines lined up in front of the trendiest restaurants, and private clubs along Park Avenue. The WTC is a beacon and venue for money traders. The U.S. dollar is strong and cash, as always, is king. It is a decade of fast cars, fast markets, and fast talkers. And then the music stops.

Mrs. Priscilla Bird begins her teaching career believing “there is something good in every student.” But when she is confronted with disruptive students, out-of-control classrooms, and non-supportive school administrators and parents, she struggles to hold onto her teaching ideals. Fighting her students’ sense of entitlement and her colleagues’ misunderstanding of students’ often outrageous behavior, Mrs. Bird tries to focus on what is most important—preparing her students to enter the real world—and she is not afraid to go the extra mile to accomplish her goal. Mrs. Bird finds herself battling parents, other teachers, and the administration to help students who are often their own worst enemies. But she also has her allies, including Mr. Lloyd, the high school counselor, who manages to keep at least some students in school when their outside lives threaten to prevent their educations. From the English classroom to the principal’s office, and from the counselor’s desk to the teacher’s lounge, "Hell Hounds of High School," by author Patricia Marie Budd, offers a bird’s eye view of a high school, and it reveals what remains energizing and encouraging about the teaching profession despite students—and adults—who sometimes act like “hell hounds.”

"Hope[less]," C.O.B.’s first novel, tells a passionate story about two young musicians. Until their meeting, KJ believed in nothing except his saxophone and Lorraine only believed in the passing of time. After a tragic accident, the two young adults discover the worth of their love and the toll they are willing to pay to prove their love for one another. Running to escape their agony, the two teenagers are found by strangers who become their guardians in Philadelphia. Eventually finding a place to live in New York, they drift further apart through the passing years. Losing their family once again, KJ and Lorraine must find their way back home before losing each other.

In "Return to the Desert," author Jerry Burgener continues studying the spiritual lessons provided by his American Indian spirit guide, Tom, as he chronicles his incredible journey to understand life and relationships. Returning to Tom's mountain retreat, Jerry is expecting sympathy and understanding from Tom when he relays that his fiancee has cheated on him with an ex boyfriend. Instead, Tom calmly states, "Everything is perfect and as it should be." Jerry soon realizes he has to relearn many lessons Tom taught him on the very same mountaintop a year earlier and then must achieve a whole new level of understanding in order to find inner peace. As Jerry struggles with another failed relationship, Tom challenges him to find his place in the universe and uses past life regression to help him understand the connection between past lives and his current dilemmas.

Author Arthur Mills knows firsthand what it is to be bullied and how bullying can lead to suicide. Arthur’s older half-brothers as well as older neighborhood boys continually bullied and tortured his brother, Richard. While Richard did not fight back, he released his frustration by then beating and bullying Mills. Eventually, Richard could no longer deal with being an outcast and being bullied, so he hung himself at the age of twelve. Mills has spent his life mourning his brother, trying to cope with the horrible memories of bullying, and trying to understand how dysfunction resulted in the tragic events of his childhood. Because bullying has received more media attention in the last couple of years, Mills decided it was time to take his story public to raise awareness about bullying and suicide. While "The Empty Lot Next Door" includes Mills’ own true experience of a haunting by a ghost he knew as “Candle Face” during his childhood, many readers have found the bullying and suicide of Mills’ brother Richard to be the scariest part of the book.

"The Bridge Club" by author Patricia Sands is a moving tale of eight women whose lives intersect once a month initially to play the game of bridge. What began as one night turns into four decades that span the segments of a woman’s journey from youthful optimism to embracing the challenges and opportunities presented in life’s later years. From the wild days of the psychedelic ‘60’s to the sometimes still wild days in their sixties, the eight women of the tongue-in-cheek Bridge Club meet each month. They aren’t necessarily each other’s best friend, but their connection is unwavering. At the ‘group’ sixtieth birthday weekend, each woman is challenged to choose one particular time in those 40 years when the BC, as they call it, came to her rescue: a personal SOS, as it were.