2023 Author Showcase
Congratulations to all my talented indie authors
2023 was another year of great self-publishing success for my authors and myself. I’m so grateful for all of the brilliant authors who have trusted me with their books this year.
If you’re looking for holiday reads, birthday/Christmas pressies or ‘just because’ gifts, look no further. Check out my authors’ books – in paperback and Kindle formats from Amazon – and several are currently free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Click here to find out more about Kindle Unlimited.
Kelsang Pawo – A Perfect Harvest
‘Extraordinary stories of an ordinary man in extraordinary situations!’
Kelsang Pawo was a lively, hard-working young East End boy who loved ‘The Arsenal’ and grew up during some of Britain’s most challenging times. His uncles rubbed shoulders with the infamous Kray twins, and his quiet father kept his thoughts to himself, except on Saturdays when he stood on his soapbox at Speakers’ Corner. Understandably, life could have steered him down a path of struggle and poverty. But from an early age, he knew a wonderful life was waiting just around the corner.
Thanks to his loving, supportive mum, wonderful grandpop, and Mr Wilson – the teacher who made a vast impact on his life – he gleaned enough self-belief and confidence to decide on his own path, one in complete contrast to anything he (and his family and friends) had ever known. After leaving his roots to sail the seas, Pawo got a taste for a life far away from London. He enjoyed many adventures, made lifelong friends (including such well-known names as Princess Diana, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Goldie Hawn, Jack Nicholson, and Dustin Hoffman) and, despite his young age, vowed to find indomitable happiness.
Join Pawo on his spiritual quest as he travels from London to Bhutan and meets his mentors and some of the kindest people, monks and nuns on the planet. From a simple message from a whale to being arrested in Lourenco Marques because he was outraged by inequality and a random meeting with a mysterious baroness, there is so much more to this one-of-a-kind memoir than you could ever imagine.
A. M. Bauld – Mozart’s Sister
‘A stunning portrait of an 18th-century bluestocking who was obliged by her time to conform to societal expectations.’
The heroine of this novel is Nannerl Mozart, the forgotten sister of a genius. As a child she had played for the royal courts of Europe with her brother, yet in adolescence, she was left at home in Salzburg with her mother while her father and Mozart lived in Italy.
The father is not portrayed as an ogre, more a parent dedicated to enshrining and marketing his son’s talent. The consequences are explored with perception and sympathy for each member and for Nannerl, in particular, as an eighteenth-century female of considerable musical gifts.
In 1770 Mozart wrote to his sister from Rome to praise her composition, urging her to send more. None of her music survives and A. M. Bauld has included one of her own songs in homage.
The novel follows Nannerl Mozarts’s life through marriage, children, widowhood and death in conversations with her nephew Franz Xaver, Mozart’s younger son. Interwoven is a fictional account of what may have happened to Mozart’s body. It is a story with subplots ingeniously constructed from the few known facts.
Trevor Rai – How to Deal with University the ‘Special’ Way
WARNING: This isn’t your usual ‘off to uni’ memoir. It’s 1987! You’re a disabled British Indian from an old coal-mining town in the Midlands. You’ve accepted an offer from the University of York (not Oxford or Cambridge, much to your father’s disappointment). But never mind, he’ll soon come around.
The film ‘Educating Rita’ is your only reference point for uni life, and you have no clue what to expect. Thankfully, you realise pretty quickly that this is THE once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you’ve been waiting for. This is YOUR time to totally reinvent yourself and become a legend. Student life is calling. SEX, DRUGS and, of course, THE SMITHS!
You’re about to spend the best three years of your life creating memories and friendships that will last forever. This funny, smutty and brutally honest book is for anyone with a disability who is pursuing higher education. It’s also a walk down memory lane for those who want to know what university life was really like in the ’80s for a motley crew of happy-go-lucky students from working-class backgrounds.
Adam Joseph – The Arcannen Chronicles: Magicom
A dangerous clash between two opposing forces. A tenacious mage determined to be the best. A fearless leader who will fight ’til his last breath.
August Silvershield is a dead man walking. He and his group (Ashes) have dedicated their lives to opposing the Magicom tyranny and how they control, sell and distribute magic. And Magicom are hell-bent on his capture. Pink, August’s sister, is a recently qualified mage and practitioner of the four elements of magic. Strong-willed, talented and independent, she’s determined to make a name for herself at Wing (the institution that trains and assigns its mages to contracts throughout the Island of Blake) without her brother’s help.
But the siblings’ worlds inextricably collide when Pink’s first contract leads her and her Wing friends directly to Magicom and unimaginable danger.
Can Pink and August defend their friends and themselves while trying to eradicate everything Magicom stand for? Or will the dangerous quest prove too much, given the blurred boundaries between their friends and enemies?
Katie Stoddart – The Magic of Focus
Escape the clutches of the busy and rushing white rabbit and enter the jungle! Let’s uncover the magic of focus – your ability to master focus in its three forms:
Short-Term Focus: how to direct your focus on current activities and be in flow. Learn the tools to remove distractions, stop being busy, and make a habit of super-focus.
Long-Term Focus: gain clarity on your direction and your zone of genius. Find your vision and the best strategies for optimising your energy.
Selective Focus: manage your thoughts and emotions to find peace in the present moment. Step into stoicism, eudaemonia, and full consciousness. Through this trek in the jungle, you will meet the Focus Bee, the tea party, the chess master… and learn why mastering focus is the greatest asset to leading an intentional and fulfilling life.
Focus is within your power. You can train it and master it! Leap into the boundless and wonder, Connect with the magic, Katie
A. D. Landor – Angel Rising
Book 2 in the Ambassador Azshael series!
‘Excellent fantasy novel!’
The war between the Angels of Judgment and the Vampiric Succae – a race of honour-bound demons – ended in a fragile peace accord but the forces of disorder and misrule still lurk in the shadows.
ANGEL. SOLDIER. ASSASSIN. DIPLOMAT. TRUTH SEEKER.
Following an unprecedented day of mysterious protest by the Bonded – the former gods and heroes of judged worlds, a young Angel from a sect of conscientious objectors lies dead, slain by a rare Succae weapon and a piece of the Archangel Prince Anael’s ceremonial regalia is missing, presumed stolen.
Outcast Angel Azshael soon finds himself embroiled in a search for answers that takes him from the towers of the White Citadel to the roosts of the Low-Nin in the vampire warrens on the moon of Scarpe and down to the former Succae capital on the dying planet Cerule.
As evidence mounts that the two crimes are connected and that the missing ceremonial staff, the White Rood, could have devastating powers, Azshael and the Succae Serrate Lytta and themselves caught up in the middle of the machinations of a sect of Angel Watchers, an Angel of Death and the deadly plans of a mad god intent on seizing power and ruling both races.
Can Azsh and Lytta find answers in time or is this the start of a new dark era on both sides of the Tether?
Dr M. E. Awan – Pirate Patch is the Hero of His Own Eye Treatment
Book 2 in the series.
Filipo becomes the hero of his own eye treatment.
Filipo likes playing games and football. One day, when he was seen at the eye department, he found that he needs to wear an eye patch for his lazy eye and he also has a squint.
His best friends, especially Rose, help Filipo with his treatment journey, and finally, he becomes Pirate Patch, “The Hero of the Seas.”
Paul Eastney – Matter of Fire
It is said that spirits visit only a few, a very few. But when they come, there is nowhere to hide.
Abren Medloe is just an ordinary bloke, doing an ordinary job. But when his tools are stolen and he sets out to recover them, he discovers something very weird. It turns out he has some sort of gift. He can see things other people cannot. Well, just one thing actually, but that is more than enough to twist his life upside down. He finds himself on the run, having to leave behind his job, his home, and his friends. And he is not even sure if the thing pursuing him is benevolent, devious or just plain evil.
Taygret Egring is living a quiet, happy life until a revolution convulses her country and foreign powers send their armies to restore the old order. But that is the least of her worries. After wreaking drastic revenge for a horrible crime, she too is forced to flee and lose everything. But at least she has a new friend, even if it is a bizarre visitor from another world.
Taygret and Abren are two very different people, from two different countries, but what they have in common is drawing them together. Spirits are leading them, guiding them, but to what end?
Are these beautiful, enigmatic beings as wholesome as they seem? Or are they malevolent manipulators determined to use humans like puppets for their own mysterious purposes?
And will Abren and Taygret survive the turmoil they have been caught up in?
Discover their fate in this fantasy novel set in a time of upheaval, where the unthinkable is lurking in the shadows.
Jasbant Rai Khutan – How to Rob a Bank With One Leg
‘A thought-provoking journey of resilience and crime!’
Your body may be broken and your mind scarred, but your life doesn’t have to be.
If you’re disabled and need a job, look no further than this brilliant, raw, honest and hard-hitting glimmer of hope on your career path.
Written by someone who’s been there, done that, and got the promotions, this book will instil you with confidence, inspiration and motivation to always strive for the job and life you deserve, regardless of your disability or ethnicity.
British-Indian author Jasbant Rai Khutan was born into working-class poverty in the 1960s. Determined to use this lesson and provide his family with a more comfortable life, Jasbant has written the book he wishes he could have read after leaving uni when he had no clue what to do for the rest of his working life.
Packed with golden nuggets of hard-earned advice (three-plus decades’ worth!), plenty of humour, reality checks and a few films, secrets and book recommendations, you’ll get so much out of this book you’ll never look at your job in the same light again! You CAN smash through that glass ceiling and get the job of your dreams!
Mario Panayi – Book 13: Luck – A Poetry Collection
Book 13 – Luck is an exciting, thought-provoking and entertaining photo and poetry collection by Mario Panayi.
‘Unlucky for some’, people often say. But this hasn’t put Mario off or the other 13 guest poets who share their talent for poetry and observations of luck and life in this colourful book.
Join these 14 talented poets and lose yourself in the fascinating world of superstition and the real meaning of luck. You’ll encounter way more than you bargained for, including a scorned ex-wife, a scorpion and a frog, luck and her sisters, a visit to the Holy Land and back to the era of Olympian Gods, all while enjoying a custard-covered doughnut!
A. M. Bauld – The Lodgers
‘Addictive, dark, unconventional; everything a compelling black comedy needs. A murder mystery like no other.’
Harassed, self-absorbed penny pinchers Mum (Daphne) and Dad (Henry) try to make do by taking in student lodgers. Along with their three hapless children (one trapped in infinite babyhood), they inhabit a world where nothing is quite as it seems. Smatterings of menace and absurdity sabotage any glimpses of normality.
When the grandmother disappears and the police open an investigation, their fractured lives turn sinister. Has Granny merely seized an opportunity to flee? Or is there a more ominous explanation for her disappearance?
With two murders… an unexpected pregnancy… a bizarre French holiday… and a plethora of peculiar lodgers, what happens to this odd but strangely endearing family, teases expectation and takes you by surprise.
Mario Panayi – Everything butt the Kitchen Sink: A Poetry Collection
A tongue-in-cheek collection of over 125 poems!
Mario Panayi takes an observant, fun and insightful glimpse into many items we have in and around the home, and has categorised each item with a personality trait of different types of friends.
From bed sheets to dishwashers and picture frames to spiders, (and of course, THE KITCHEN SINK), you’ll never look at your house contents (or your friends) in the same light again!
Raphael Wilkins & Emma Rowell – Voices of Barnard Castle: Vol One
A collection of poems, stories and memoirs by members of the Barnard Castle Writers Group in County Durham, edited by Raphael Wilkins and Emma Rowell.
Featured in this issue: Emma Rowell, Ally Hammock, Margaret Asquith, Linda Bird, Valerie Bucknall, Virginia Harrison, Jo Long, Raphael Wilkins
In their poems, stories and memoirs, the authors reflect on their rich and often poignant life experiences against the backdrop of the stunning scenery and wildlife of Upper Teesdale. With frankness and finely crafted language, they explore emotional and spiritual journeys, as well as telling entertaining stories. Anyone who has lived, loved, yearned, questioned, and felt close to nature will find resonance in these pages.
Mario Panayi – Clothes and Friends: A Poetry Collection
Have you looked in your wardrobe lately? Or do you get dressed without really thinking about what you’re wearing? Then this poetry book is for you!
Clothes and Friends: A Poetry Collection is a light-hearted, kaleidoscope collection of 125 poems that will make you think about what’s in your wardrobe in way more detail than usual.
Packed with colour, humour and astute observations, Mario Panayi takes poetry lovers on a light-hearted journey through verse. From basketball caps and G-strings to loincloths and Y-fronts, it’s time to sit down, relax and have some fun while you discover what your clothes say about you (and your friends).
Once you finish reading the book, you might keep wearing the clothes you always wear. You could decide a change is in order. And you may even start to look at your friends and colleagues (and their style choices) in a completely new light.
This is Mario Panayi’s 15th book. You can find all of his others (including his fantastic Bitesize Series) by clicking on his author name.
J M Shorney – Dangerous Lovers
‘This feels like a very honest account. A real rollercoaster of a life of a young woman from a small town in the 1960s. A real eye opener!’
A 60s/70s memoir that will stay with you forever. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s was tough at times, especially as a woman.
In her moving, heartbreaking, entertaining and unforgettable memoir, J. M. Shorney shares stories and events from her life as she tried to gain her independence and overcome the challenges she faced. Working as a female butcher in an all-male environment came with its own problems at a time when women were classed as second-class citizens and sex objects. But this didn’t stop J. M. Shorney from succeeding, and neither did the constant sexual abuse from her balding, sad, 50-something-year-old boss.
When the author became pregnant at 19, she was single, and although the baby’s father (and domineering grandfather) tried to pressure her into marrying, she declined. She had the loving support of her parents and knew she would work even harder to provide for her baby. Even when a local, childless, wealthy woman offered her £1,000 to hand over her baby, she refused. Sadly, the woman and the author’s boss (who believed women with children should stay at home) made all kinds of threats when the baby’s birth drew close.
But that was not all. You see, good-looking men drew her like magnets. One, a young Hungarian boy, left a huge mark on her life. She couldn’t see past his looks, and despite him being violent and jealous, spending time in Borstal and later becoming a hardened criminal, he was like a drug to the author. There are so many stories to tell, too … from almost running away with a young man the night before his wedding to coming-of-age sexual adventures in Brighton (at Devil’s Dyke) and, of course, the night she met her beloved Mike, whom she later married.
S J Clarke – Ringside Gamble
‘This is a “must read book” for anyone interested in Thai Boxing.’
Immerse yourself in the thrilling debut novel by acclaimed author S. J. Clarke.
Nong, a young Muay Thai boxer, faces the ultimate challenge of realising his dream to compete at Lumpinee, the renowned boxing arena in Bangkok. Set against a backdrop of treacherous friends, temptation, and the harsh reality of poverty, this gripping tale unfolds with a blend of magic and brutal realism, portraying acts of kindness, courage, pain, and bravery that define the world of Muay Thai.
Ringside Gamble has garnered accolades for its authentic depiction of the underworld of Muay Thai and the resilience required to be a fighter. This action-packed novel takes readers on an uplifting journey that lingers long after the final bell rings.
Declan Henry – The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
‘This is a splendid introduction to the essentials of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam.’
In this book, Declan Henry provides a succinct account of the beliefs of Lahori Ahmadiyya Muslims and highlights the enduring hatred and persecution they face in Pakistan (and other parts of the world).
Containing a short biography of the group’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, this meticulously researched literary work also offers glimpses into how the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement – although small in number – live their lives with great dignity, strength and determination while believing passionately in their truth.
Julie Evans – A Baptism of Fire (Book 5 – Cornish Crime Series)
‘I literally couldn’t put it down, read cover to cover in a day.’
At fourteen, Kit Retallick sets fire to the family farm, killing his mother, stepfather and seventeen-year-old sister. Or so the jury decided. Fifteen years later, he returns home to Cornwall, committed to proving his innocence, and hires lawyer Eden Gray to help him.
Eden is unnerved by the disfiguring scars marring the young man’s face and the storming chaos in his head. She is sceptical, knowing it will be an uphill battle, but finds discrepancies in the evidence deserving further investigation. She’s prepared to ruffle official feathers and risk friendship, but what she’s not prepared for is two new murders committed on the night of his return.
If not for the tenacious efforts of her investigator, Ross Trenear, an ex-policeman with a lot to prove, she would throw in the towel. As he picks away at the scab of deceit, he finds plenty of suspects along with prejudice and denial in the tight-lipped rural community. He convinces Eden to stick with the case and they uncover the truth.
Can Eden help Kit escape his history and find justice or is he beyond saving?
Congratulations, fellow indie authors! It’s been such a pleasure working with you all. Thank you so much for letting me be part of your author journey.
If you’d like help to self-publish your novel, please get in touch.
Michelle Emerson
Self-Publishing Services for Fiction Writers
