BookSpeak Network

What if you came home and found your husband dead in his favorite chair? Rebecca Daniels takes us through her experiences in this memoir, That Day and What Came After: Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six Short Years. Daniels tells of meeting her husband, Harold "Skip" Stoughton III later in their lives, how their friendship and relationship developed, and especially the support...

Is it possible to know someone from only the words they have left behind?  In this fascinating account, Rebecca Titchner pieces together the life of a sister she never knew through two decades of detailed journals the woman left behind. This adoption memoir touches on Titchner being given up at birth, the sister who walked away from the family, only to be murdered at the hands of her partner in Ne...

The American Revolution has brought us the tale of Molly Pitcher, a woman who took her husband's place in battle and manned the ramrod of a cannon. Based on the historical record, Pitcher is a more fictionalized character, but women did serve in battle. Author J.M. West provides a similar account of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania woman, who, based on the historical record best matched that descri...

Sensitivity, or being "A Sensitive" is a difficult prospect. Rev. Dr. Laura Palmer examines the tools and techniques offered by historical figures in her book, Celebrating Sensitives: What Can We Learn From Historic Sensitive Persons About Being an Empowered Empath. By examining diverse historical characters, Palmer shows how these individuals became the people known to world history. In...

The saying, "There are no words," often comes to mind at the time of the unthinkable, including the sudden death of a child. Elizabeth Brady, however, notes there are words, in this collection of essays, Oil for Your Lantern: Sharing Light After the Death of a Child on the Scriptoria Press imprint of Sunbury Press Books. Brady lost her young son Mack on New Year's Eve 2012. Speaking...

More than 150-thousand interments and entombments have taken place at Calvary Cemetery in Pittsburgh. The 200-acre site dates back to the mid-19th century and was officially established by the Pittsburgh Diocese of the Catholic Church in 1886. Of the many, the lives and graves of some of these, the famous, the unknown, and the infamous, stand out. Edward Bonner grew up in Hazelwood, Pennsylvania....

While numerous films, TV shows, and books have been written about Vietnam, J. Richard Watkins offers a personal tale of his military experience, and how this shaped his life, in "Vietnam, No Regrets -- One Soldier's Tour of Duty."  Watkins pulls no punches in this interview with Sunbury Press Founder Lawrence Knorr. He discusses growing up in Brockton, Massachusetts, and how his dec...

Brook Lenker recalls his boyhood years in Central Pennsylvania for "The Arbiters," his second novel and debut on the Milford House imprint. Set in the 1970s, Reily Watters and his gang of teenage compadres prefer their time outdoors to being in school or sports practice. Their favorite spot is the near-sacred Mannequin Creek, where years of hiking and fishing are coupled with growing up...

In her second release for the Ars Metaphysica imprint of Sunbury Press Books, Pattie Fields discusses how you can navigate personal crises and challenges and find your way forward. “Freedom Now: Transform Your Life Experiences into Miraculous Moments” offers teachings provided through Fields’ spirit guide, Neshea, about the transformation of the present moment into power. Topics in the book includ...

What was life really like for most Americans in centuries past. T. N. Pollio brings to life the diaries, letters and personal memorabilia to paint that picture, in “Voices from Early America.”  The writings and notes of our ancestors does not always portray what we think the early decades of the US was like. From these, we find that while our forebears lived in a different time with often more dif...

Humanity is on the verge of a consciousness transformation. Author L.E. Maroski believes a change is required in the language we use. Through models, meditations, and the observations of deep thinkers, Maroski combines her background in philosophy, psychology, and science with the spiritual to present a possible vision. "Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language: Expressing the Unity and Complexit...

The life of Andrew Paige Turner and his partner have ended, but Paige soon realizes his journey has only begun. In Steven R. James' debut novel, "A Soul's Final Journey: Everyone Calls Me Paige," the reader is taken back through a life Paige must view once more. The setting is a small college in Maine during the 1980s. We meet the usual suspects of campus life, Paige's roo...

Sometimes losing your children is the only way to save them... It is 2039, and Joan Bennett's sheltered world as a wife and mother has fallen apart. Her husband and sister have died of a mysterious illness, and Joan herself is infected. On the run from government hitmen, Joan must take her five children on a desperate road trip to reach Canada. As she travels, Joan and her kids must battle nu...

A collection of short works make up the Brown Posey release, "A Book of Plays," and highlights the talents of the Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania, also known as PAPA. Incorporated in 2008 and led by the late Marjorie Bicknell, the group provided a space for playwrights to read their works, and gain feedback and insights. Brown Posey Press Show host Tory Gates discusses the alliance...

The romanticized history of Old West desperados Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid cannot be examined without including the woman who figured prominently in their histories, Etta Place.  Author Douglas Brode examines a brief two-and-one-half weeks in the life of Butch, Sundance, and Etta--their trip to New York City, as they leave the West behind for a new life in South America. Brode reimagines f...

Author Robert John Andrews brings the 18th-century Susquehanna Valley to life in this Catamount Press novella, A Susquehanna Tale. This period of early American history is hard, where the rifle, tomahawk, and knife rule. It is a time of hope and loss, land-hungry settlers and the Iroquois; here, two men, frontier scout Alexander Tennant and pioneer Colonel William Montgomery discuss the stories of...

Horror author Stephen Paul Sayers comes to Hellbender Books with a new tale of suspense in The Carousel Man. Haunted by nightmares and visions, a desperate man returns to their source: a childhood carousel ride. There, he uncovers a shocking truth—and a long-forgotten promise that he is condemned to fulfill. Sayers is the author of the bestselling Caretakers horror trilogy, A Taker of Morrows, The...

"We are vessels...and sometimes we have to empty them."For years, Jhana has traveled the country as a National Public Radio reporter, looking for the stories of interesting people to tell. Now she has returned to her hometown of Sorel, to empty her vessel and tell listeners her own tale. As she navigates a hometown that has changed but still retains much of what it once was, Jhana reunit...

Elbridge Corvallis finds himself in an unenviable position. About to start his professional hockey career, "Elby" is called home to Lowland, Pennsylvania, due to his mother's death. A car accident then keeps him home, and Elby has to somehow heal, and figure out how to get out of a gritty, dying steel town. Elby must also contend with his father's slide into madness, a pervy la...

Arcane Assassin: Path of Annihilation is the first of the Raven Naelo series, now available on the Hellbender Books imprint of Sunbury Press. The daughter of an elven king and human mother, Raven is a would-be rogue seeking to follow her father's path and become a realm guardian. After proving her worth against a gang of half-orcs, her father sends Raven to a training camp, where she meets fe...

R. Kane Maurer brings his love of fantasy and adventure tales to a trilogy of his own design, The Forbidden Powers. After agreeing to explore a local cave, Jonny is thrust into another world of magic, trolls, dragons, and legendary heroes only read about. Jonny quickly finds this is all too real and must learn to not only save himself but to defend the world he knows from a sinister force who seek...

The Deceived Ones is a tale of displacement, a stranger in a strange land, music, and a tale most familiar to fans of a certain bard. In her debut novel, Judith Krummeck brings real places, war, music, and identity to life. Vira is a talented, but introverted Ukrainian woman who is forced to flee her homeland as Russia invades. She lands in Baltimore with help from the Uniting for Ukraine program,...

The Pittsburgh Pirates were the doormat of the National League for much of the 1950s but began to turn things around late in the decade. Through changes in the front office and management, the Bucs had their first winning season in a decade in 1958 but slipped to fourth place the following year. 1960: When the Pittsburgh Pirates Had Them All the Way is the story of that magical run, from spring tr...

Massachusetts was one of the states on the front line when it came to the Abolitionist Movement, but it also served as an early hub for the slave trade in New England. In his new book on Local History Press, Slavery and Abolitionism on Cape Cod, Dr. Michael Pregot looks into how both the pro and anti-slavery factions took hold. To understand the shift away from slavery, Dr. Pregot looks into the f...

Justin Moore, the protagonist of Dennis Clausen's works, The Accountant's Apprentice and The Return of the Fifth Horseman is back with Apocalypse in Our Time. In Justin's time as the director of a homeless shelter, he's seen an awful lot. The latest residents of the shelter include Young Angelina, an artistic savant with an obsession with Shakespeare's plays and the painti...