Meet author Rob Smales on March 31 at Authors’ Night by the Sea event taking place at the Red Hook Brewery located in Portsmouth, NH. The event starts at 5 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m.
Smales will be signing copies of Echoes of Darkness, Triplicity, and Insanity Tales II at the Books & Boos Press table. 
Farmer’s Daughter Press is proud to announce they’ll be releasing My Mom, MS, and a Sixth-Grade Mess by Stacey Longo in mid-January. The book tells the tale of Patrick Holder, who first appeared in the children’s book My Mom Has MS (2015, Farmer’s Daughter Press), now in middle school. Patrick has problems: he has an English project due and he hasn’t read the book yet; he and his best friend like the same girl; he suspects he might have a unibrow. Oh yeah—and his mom has multiple sclerosis.
The book’s cover art and interior images were also illustrated by Longo, and the subject matter is personal. “My friend Renee was diagnosed with MS in 2008, and the way she and her family rallied to make the best of her situation was amazing.” The protagonist of the books—Patrick Holder—is based on Renee’s youngest son, and many members of her family make appearances in the latest book.
Written to help kids deal with their parent’s MS diagnosis, a portion of every sale of this book is donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
This past October the authors in Tricks and Treats spent time in a number of different places promoting the book. The different places were Bank Square Books, The Book Club Bookstore & More, the Bentley Memorial Library and the Fat Orange Cat Brew Co.
Authors Stacey Longo, Kristi Petersen Schnoover, and Melissa Crandall at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT.
Authors Dan Foley, John Valeri, G. Elmer Munson, and Stacey Longo with The Book Club owner Cynde Acanto standing behind the authors.
Author John Valeri reading from Tricks & Treats at Bank Square Books.
Authors Dan Foley, Melissa Crandall, John Valeri, Ryanne Strong a.k.a. Terry George, Stacey Longo, and Kristi Petersen Schoonover.
Authors John Valeri, Melissa Crandall, Ryanne Strong a.k.a. Terry George, and Stacey Longo at the Bentley Memorial Library in Bolton, CT.
Author G. Elmer Munson.
Author Kristi Petersen Schoonover.
Author Ryanne Strong a.k.a. Terry George.
Author Stacey Longo.
Authors Stacey Longo, John Valeri, and Melissa Crandall at The Fat Orange Cat Brew Co.
Norwich resident Terry George will make her debut as a children’s book author with Sasha & Jake, released October 4 from Farmer’s Daughter Press.
George, a former resident of Willimantic, wrote and illustrated the book. Her artwork and writing has been included in the Ledyard, Connecticut Bill Library’s Exquisite Project as well as in themed art shows at the Gallery at the Wauregan in Norwich. Two of her short stories, written under the pen name Ryanne Strong, have been published in the anthology Tricks and Treats: a Collection of Spooky Stories by Connecticut Authors. When she’s not writing, Terry sculpts home décor and jewelry from polymer clay for her company, Cinnamon Bunny.
Terry George.
Sasha & Jake is the tale of Sasha, an Arctic fox befriended by a polar bear named Jake. The other animals of the tundra are afraid of Jake, simply because he has sharp claws and big teeth. Sasha must decide for herself if Jake’s appearance as a scary bear or his kindness and generosity are what’s most important. “We jumped at the chance to publish this book,” said Farmer’s Daughter Press editor Stacey Harris. “The story is charming, the illustrations are adorable, and in the end, it sends a positive message to kids to not judge others by their appearance.”
Sasha & Jake is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and select retail outlets. You can purchase the paperback here and the e-book here.
Reviewers may receive a copy by contacting Harris at sandlediting@gmail.com.
Some of Connecticut’s most talented literary minds are featured in a new anthology from Books & Boos Press. 
Tricks and Treats: A Collection of Spooky Stories by Connecticut Authors showcases scary stories from famous past Nutmeggers Mark Twain, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John G. C. Brainard. Contemporary Connecticut authors include Stacey Longo, Melissa Crandall, G. Elmer Munson, Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Dan Foley, John Valeri, and Ryanne Strong.
The collection was edited by Longo, who pursued the project “to celebrate our state’s rich literary heritage, and to pay homage to New England’s ghostly history.” Each story comfortably fits in the genre of dark fiction. “Readers may be surprised to find that Twain, Stowe, and Perkins, for example, had ghost stories among their past published tales,” said Longo. The collection will be released on September 1 “just in time for the change in season.”
A trailer for the book can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/GkaGyqts8oE. The anthology will be available to order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold.
On June 17, author Dan Foley appeared at the Book Club Bookstore and More in East Windsor to read and sign his new book, Abandoned.
Author Dan Foley.
On June 18 through 19, author Stacey Longo was signing her books at Northeast Comic Con at the Shriner’s Auditorium in Wilmington, MA.
Author Stacey Longo.
Longo also spent time talking about writing and publishing at a YMCA day camp.
Retired nuclear engineer-turned-horror writer Dan Foley’s latest book, Abandoned, tells the tale of a Connecticut man with abandonment issues. “Foley uses horror and humor to tell this story of a disturbed serial killer,” said managing editor Stacey Harris, whose small publishing house, Books & Boos Press, released the novel on May 28. Set in the fictional town of Mettabasset, the Connecticut landscape serves as the backdrop for the novel.
Foley has lived in Manchester for over 30 years. The main character in Abandoned, James Sutton, “needed to be in a location where his job would take him to several states in a matter of hours,” Foley says. “The town of Mettabasset appears in many of my works … I’ve lived all over the country, and chose Connecticut as my home. My books always pay homage to Connecticut in one way or another.”
Abandoned is not for the squeamish. The main character is, at heart, a psychopath, on a mission to make sure nobody—and nothing—is ever abandoned again. He begins to amass a collection of items that James feels were neglected by people … all of which require formaldehyde to preserve.
Abandoned is available in trade paperback and ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and select retail outlets. Foley will be celebrating the book’s release with a launch party at The Book Club bookstore in Broad Brook, CT on Friday, June 17, from 5:00 –6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
To get you ready for Dan Foley’s upcoming release, Abandoned, Books & Boos Press is pleased to share some of the advance praise that has been coming in:
“Dan Foley knows the hard truth: that the darkest of monsters reside within the human heart. Abandoned is just plain scary—the kind of horror that’s made all the more terrifying because it could be true.” ~ Charles R. Rutledge, co-author of Blind Shadows and Congregations of the Dead
“A deliciously macabre dark comedy that serves as a reminder of just how close we all can be to the brink of insanity.” ~ Peter N. Dudar, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of A Requiem For Dead Flies and Where Spiders Fear to Spin (Read Peter’s full review here!)
“If the measure of a man is his mind, Dan Foley inhabits a world of horrors that is otherwise unoccupied. Abandoned grabs you from the very beginning and doesn’t let go. This one will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.” ~ John Valeri, Hartford Books Examiner
“. . . an inventive and sympathetic exploration of the extreme effects of rejection and isolation. Although there are hints of Fowles’ The Collector as well as Lindsay’s Dexter, this book is all Dan Foley. Abandoned is an exciting portrait of a man struggling to reconcile his cravings for belonging with his urges for bloody retribution. It shows . . . that Foley clearly has heart—maybe several of them—in jars on his desk.” ~ Bracken MacLeod, author of Mountain Home and Stranded
And check out the Abandoned book trailer!
Books & Boos Press is proud to reveal the cover of Dan Foley’s new book, Abandoned, which will debut in June. The artist for this fabulous cover is Lynne Hansen, of Lynne Hansen Design.
Lynne Hansen has over twelve years of marketing and promotions experience, including graphic design, and she specializes in creating book covers that tell a story. She’s created covers for books by New York Times bestselling authors like Christopher Golden, Rick Hautala, and Thomas E. Sniegoski, as well as other staples of the genre, including James A. Moore, Owl Goingback, John R. Little, Peter Atkins, and many more.
“Lynne’s experience, creativity, and delightful sense of humor made her the perfect artist to work on this cover,” said Managing Editor Stacey Harris. “She was my top choice for this project, and we’re thrilled to have her on board.”
You can find out more about Lynne’s work at www.LynneHansenDesign.com.
You can meet Foley on Saturday, April 30, at The Book Club, a bookstore in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor. He will be reading and signing copies of his current books. The bookstore is located at 100 Main Street.
Farmer’s Daughter Press, our children’s book imprint of Books & Boos Press, is pleased to announce that we will be releasing Sasha & Jake, written and illustrated by Terry George, later this year.
Sasha & Jake is a fun, quirky tale about the unlikely friendship between an arctic fox and a polar bear. “We’re so lucky to have Terry on board,” said managing editor Stacey Harris. “The story she wrote is both engaging and enjoyable, and holds an important lesson within the words. And her illustrations are adorable and funny. This is going to be a great book for kids.”
Terry has established herself as a Connecticut artist, being featured in the Ledyard Bill Library’s Exquisite Project this year. She sells some of her polymer clay creations on Amazon under her company name, Cinnamon Bunny. She is also an aspiring writer, and will have two short stories written under her pseudonym Ryann Strong in Tricks and Treats: A Collection of Spooky Stories by Connecticut Authors, due out this fall.
Sasha & Jake is scheduled to be published in late 2016.
Books and Boos Press 