Indie Reads Aloud: A Storytelling Podcast

About The Author: Jamie M Samland is a fantasy author based in Canton, MI, USA. He is passionate about creating vivid worlds and compelling characters that transport readers to new realms of imagination. Drawing inspiration from his love of storytelling, Jamie spends his free time playing board games, roleplaying with friends, and indulging in other hobbies like martial arts and home repair. When he is not writing, Jamie is often found lost in thought, dreaming up new and exciting stories to share with readers alongside his husband and their cats.
Book Title: Grave Mistakes
Genre: Dark Fantasy Comedy
Book Synopsis:  Joined by her loyal and hilariously eccentric knight protectorate, Lord Sebastian, they embark on a madcap journey across the bottomless Crack and through the eerie Deadvale, racing against time to reach Gabriela's home. There, her mysterious mother, Queen Venica Marwol, reluctantly agrees to lead them in a desperate quest to resurrect Brynmor. But secrets from the queen's enigmatic past begin to unravel, and as Gabriela's magic teeters on the brink of failure, an unexpected connection forms between her and Brynmor, or so she thinks.
 
Their mission is far from straightforward, as they find themselves pursued by the determined Eleanor Lane, a disillusioned magic researcher, and the no-nonsense Commander Valoria Ravell. These formidable women, sent by Duke Highgate, Brynmor's uncle, will stop at nothing to thwart the resurrection and retrieve Brynmor's body.

"Grave Mistakes" is a riotous tale filled with black humor and heartwarming human moments. Follow Gabriela as she discovers her true identity and realizes her formidable powers in a world where the dead refuse to rest. Will she succeed in resurrecting Brynmor, or will her journey through this twisted realm end in grave mistakes of epic proportions?

About The Author: Kathleen is a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus living in New York City after college, she lived in the Lone Star State continuously for fifty years. Since then, Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit, but a heck of a lot of miss. There was a time when she thought she would happily die in Austin, Texas. But circumstances and weather—especially weather—changed that. Now she spends most of the year on Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains. When she gets homesick, she and her husband listen to Willie Nelson. Soon, they are dancing the two-step, imagining they are at their favorite honky-tonk in Tokio, Texas, where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who wouldn’t miss that?
Kathleen writes the awarding-winning mysteries: The Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series set in the 1950s and The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, which was updated and released by Lyons Press in November of 2020. She also writes the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series; as well as a biography of ornithologist Robert Porter Allen, The Man Who Saved The Whooping Crane.  Her books are published through Amacara Press, in Kansas.
On her blog, you can also find her Five-Minute Writing Tips and Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town. Kathleen also coaches writers and edits manuscripts.
Book Title: Murder at The Driskill
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book Synopsis:  It's 1953 and reporter Sydney Lockhart and her partner/boyfriend, PI Ralph Dixon, are hobnobbing at a swanky party at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas. Before Sydney finishes her first martini, a gunshot sounds, and future gubernatorial candidate, Leland Tatum, is found dead in the Yellow Rose Suite down the hall. With wit and humor, Sydney finds herself embroiled in another hotel murder.
Sydney and Dixon have just opened their new detective agency when a high-profile case walks through the door. The sleuthing couple are hired by a campaign manager to discover what possible opposition research could ruin his gubernatorial candidate's chances to win. But before they can begin their investigation the candidate is murdered in a room next to the Yellow Rose Suite in the famous Driskill Hotel.

LISTENER ADVISORY: MATURE SITUATIONS
About The Author: Jamie M Samland is a fantasy author based in Canton, MI, USA. He is passionate about creating vivid worlds and compelling characters that transport readers to new realms of imagination. Drawing inspiration from his love of storytelling, Jamie spends his free time playing board games, roleplaying with friends, and indulging in other hobbies like martial arts and home repair. When he is not writing, Jamie is often found lost in thought, dreaming up new and exciting stories to share with readers alongside his husband and their cats.
Book Title: Arcanym
Genre: LGBTQ Fantasy
Book Synopsis:  Elvan, eldest of House Galmoth is content to stay in and always eager to jump into character. Some day, he will find a facade that suits him, one that meets his mother's expectations of him. He's spent the last two years playing investigator, raking through ledgers to clear his mother's name while ignoring his family business and noble House crumbling around him. When the last servant quits, Elvan is forced back into the world and must choose between continuing his fruitless investigation and saving his home from the collectors.
On his last lead, he meets Drace, a lonely shopkeeper who sweeps him away on a flight from the royal inquisitors - the same men that arrested Elvan's mother.
They dive deep into the kingdom of Spheris, shrouded by the smog of rising industry, lit by the flicker of gas lamps. Where the magic users must practice their art in secret, away from the eyes of the crown.
After discovering their intertwined pasts, Elvan and Drace forge forward, uncovering the plot that led to his mother's exile, but who can they go to when the guilty ones are at the highest level of power?
Can they dodge the inquisitors and questionable motivations of Elvan's sister, the Duchess, long enough to bring the crown to justice? Or will they fall to the same fate as Elvan's mother?
Elvan will have to prepare for his greatest role yet: Himself.

About The Author: Kathleen is a Texas gal. Except for an eighteen-month hiatus living in New York City after college, she lived in the Lone Star State continuously for fifty years. Since then, Texas has been hit and miss—a little hit, but a heck of a lot of miss. There was a time when she thought she would happily die in Austin, Texas. But circumstances and weather—especially weather—changed that. Now she spends most of the year on Fidalgo Island in Washington State with a view of the bay and the mountains. When she gets homesick, she and her husband listen to Willie Nelson. Soon, they are dancing the two-step, imagining they are at their favorite honky-tonk in Tokio, Texas, where the mayor is believed to be a dog. Who wouldn’t miss that?
Kathleen writes the awarding-winning mysteries: The Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series set in the 1950s and The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book, which was updated and released by Lyons Press in November of 2020. She also writes the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series; as well as a biography of ornithologist Robert Porter Allen, The Man Who Saved The Whooping Crane.
On her blog, you can also find her Five-Minute Writing Tips and Growing Up Catholic in a Small Texas Town. Kathleen also coaches writers and edits manuscripts.
Book Title: Murder at The Galvez
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Book Synopsis: Eighteen years after discovering the murdered body of her grandfather in the foyer of the historic Galvez Hotel, reporter Sydney Lockhart returns to Galveston, Texas to cover a story. Instead, she finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery.
Something fishy is going on in Galveston, Texas, and Sydney is smack dab in the middle of it when she checks into the historic Galvez Hotel, a place that stirs her most uncomfortable memories. She’s there to cover the controversial Pelican Island Development Project conference, but soon after her arrival, the conference is canceled, the keynote speaker is missing, and a body turns up in the truck of Sydney’s car. Next, Sydney’s hauled to the police station for questioning.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, just a few blocks from the hotel at her parents’ home, people are gathering, sparks are flying, another controversial event is in the planning, one that just might rival the Great Storm of 1900.
Sydney is helped and obstructed by her cousins, Ruth and Marcela, and Dixon, her beloved partner-in-solving-crime. But ultimately it’s up to Sydney, armed with wit and bravado (and Dixon’s .45), who must discover who killed the man in the trunk and why her father’s new friend is floating face-down in a fish tank with a bullet in his head. Her father’s odd behavior and the anonymous threatening notes delivered to her hotel room lead Sydney to suspect that her grandfather’s unsolved murder and the present murders might be connected.