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Welcome to the Late-June edition of MWPA's Ex Libris Maine.
This edition offers new books by Maine authors in the categories of Fiction, Crime Fiction, Speculative Fiction,Poetry, Children's and Young Adult/Young Readers.
For more information on any title below, simply click on the book's cover.
In most small towns, the private is also public. This is the case for Dalton, Maine, a tiny town in Aroostook County. Set in 1990, The Road to Dalton is told through multiple perspectives of some of the community's most beloved residents—the doctor, the librarian, the rookie cop, the new, young mother. When one of Dalton’s own makes an unthinkable decision, the town is left reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors and remind us that no one is exactly who you think they are. The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict, love, and the endurance that comes from living.
First-time hit-woman Silk Rhenko makes a rookie mistake, and, as a result, the bodies start piling up in the city. To help resolve the sudden murder spree, Detective Basil Keene recruits two fellow detectives and the unlikely Eileen Mack—an underaged, pink-haired bartender at Sully's Tap. As Keene gets closer to the truth, which includes money laundering in Vacationland and international human trafficking, the novice hatchet woman grows more dangerous. Will Keene catch up with Silk and her demented employer, Fyodor Umarov? Or will the Russian criminals escape under the veil of a violent storm at sea? Keene and his colleagues battle against time, weather, and evil in this crime thriller set in Maine.
One touch and it’s over. Sarlona trained too long to spend the rest of her life captive and drained. But to the lorkai—monsters who feed on magical energy and can control mortals with a caress—her extraordinary power makes her the perfect prey. There’s no escaping a magic-dampening chamber. Even if there were, she’d still have to evade that guardsman with the hungry stare and spell-sucking sword. Benton knows he's been given a good deal—he shoves his enchanted blade where he’s told, and he never has to return to the gallows. It's a good deal, that is, until the lorkai drag home a young woman whose eyes are just as dangerous as her magic. If one of her spells doesn’t kill him, her smile might. The alternative is surviving as he always has—at someone else’s expense.
Illusion: Without a Trace
Jack Snell
Independently Published
The star Xefolus slowly dropped below the massive Dome, casting a shadow stretching for miles along the crusted, dusty surface. Inside, lay powdery human remains.The Dome held over a million humans cocooned in captivity. The Artificial Homo Trophic, known as AHT, had removed all major DNA fragments, leaving the prisoners with no response to stimuli, condemning them to face obliteration or miraculous salvation. Meanwhile, the Afta Council Brain remained at work, searching for something to revive the population as Xefolus slowly expanded. Time was running out. They desperately needed to correct their missing DNA and find a planet to make their own. Then, the unthinkable happened. A probe found a match which could develop on a lonely planet called Earth, circling a modest star named Daricloss. The thought of sequencing with a primitive Sapien was unthinkable, but it was their only chance. The call went out to all dormant captives, but only one could respond.
Learning to See
Edward J. Rielly
Brooks Books
Edward J. Rielly’s Learning to See, co-winner of the Brooks Books 2023 High/Coo Chapbook Competition, includes fifty haiku which have appeared in a variety of literary magazines. These poems are separated into five segments, each segment adopting the perspective from a particular aspect of the poet’s life. The first segment is a look at Rielly’s early years, spent on the family farm. The second set of poems, while at times harkening backward, reflects a broader vision of his lived experiences. In the third segment, Rielly focuses especially on his relationship with his wife. The COVID pandemic elicits the fourth set of haiku, and the fifth reveals a poet whose gaze is shifting more consistently beyond himself. It is the poet’s hope that in experiencing these poems, readers will “see” much that he has seen, and will find enjoyment in the shared view.
Self-Portrait as Homestead focuses on family and heritage, specifically the Franco-American culture the poet experienced growing up in Waterville, Maine. “Homestead,” a motif suggested by street addresses, such as “12 Gold Street” and “2 Moor Street," also becomes “household,” a woman’s place, as in “Route 201, Fairfield,” and “Wife as Beekeeper: 1955.” In this sense, the collection alludes to the confinement by role, home, and religion of the women characters, as well as their pushing against those constraints. Real people, mother, grandmother, father, and a chorus of girl cousins, inhabit these poems. The main character, a girl/woman, mother/grandmother, carries on, as Leslie Ullman says, reclaiming “the flare of self-ness that has been tamped in women over many generations.”
Everyone knows about Santa Claus and the North Pole. But did you know there was a time, long, long ago, when Santa had no elves to help him in his workshop? After delivering toys around the world, Santa Claus lands his sleigh in the Great North Woods. When the animals see him yawn, Squirrel asks why he is so tired. Santa says that more and more children write to him every year. One day he may not have enough magic to make all the toys in time. Squirrel quivers with an idea. Can animals help? Will they need Sleigh Magic?
Lily doesn’t believe in making wishes. Not anymore. Not since Anders died. Wishes can’t fix the terrible thing that happened. Wishing won’t change how it feels. But Lily does believe in the impossible. She has a secret so extraordinary, so magical, no one would believe it’s true. No one except Anders, of course. Nothing about this summer is turning out how Lily would have wished. But wishes, like seasons, can change. Praise for Wishing Season: “This achingly sad but also hopeful story set on a small Maine island poses questions about the power of our connections—to other people, to animals, and to the world around and beyond” —Horn Book, starred review. “Deeply moving” —Kirkus, starred review. “Empathetic” —PW, starred review. “Stack Wishing Season next to Bridge to Terabithia. Rissi paints a picture and sings a song with a tremendous, unforgettable voice. As emotionally healing as it is ultimately joyful” —Rita Williams-Garcia.
Chris Stinson never knew his father, who was killed in Vietnam. But when Chris learns a family secret was lost with his father, he becomes determined to discover what this secret is and why it was so important to their family. Through it all, Chris finds his best thinking happens sitting on the big rock by the marsh, where his father and the generations before him also sat to think through problems.
SUBMISSIONS If you are a current Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance member, and you would like to announce your new book in ExLibris Maine, click HERE. If you are not a member, click HERE to learn more about our member benefits.
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