First up, Cedar Sanderson has just published her long awaited 2nd book in the Tanager series- Tanager’s Flight  

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

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The blurb-

Captain Jem Raznick of the Tanager dreams of nothing more than sailing the stars with his crew—a family forged in the vacuum of space. When a mysterious pirate threat looms, what seems like a routine trading run spirals into a cosmic adventure!

Family isn’t just blood—it’s the bond that holds the galaxy together.

Every time the enigmatic Jade Star enters their orbit, routine turns upside down. Jem must outwit the treachery that lurks in the shadows of space to keep his crew alive. Prepare for a journey between planets where loyalty, betrayal, and survival are the only constants. Join Captain Raznick as he navigates through danger, deceit, and the deep, dark unknown!

Next up is Raconteur Press with another anthology-

The blurb-

Drinks! Since humanity first began, we have been experimenting with beverages beyond simple water. Fermenting fruit, milk from various mammals, mashing berries…and later experimenting with getting desired effects by mixing things together in different ways; potions concocted to evoke certain feelings, heal an ailment, erase memories, or inspire strong emotions. Across many cultures & oceans we find different myths of fountains of youth, elixirs of life, amrita, blessed mead, holy ale, love potions, sanctified wines, & potent poisons.

Come! Drink from a cup of stories varied! Dare to follow these epic quests, potions with unintended consequences, ales holy, wine deadly, and toast…to adventure!

Tell me, friend, will you drink?

And last and least…LOL One of my readers, TOS, reminded me we’d done an anthology about California exiting the USA. Well, guess what’s in the MSM right now? Yep, California talking about seceding… So, a flashback to 2017- Calexit, the anthology

Rather than the blurb, I’d offer the review from fellow author Joseph F. Collins

We’ve all heard of “Brexit” where Great Britain voted to leave the EU. That stirred up some debate in California about them possibly seceding from the Union. The recent events in Catalonia attempting to do the same from Spain with the resulting brutal government crackdown makes this book even more timely when I purchased it and rapidly read through it. (You might have not heard anything about Catalonia in the MSM but need to look for your news in other places!) My own personal interest comes from studying the “Basque Conflict” terrorism which started in 1959.

What would happen if California left the USA so they could follow their own agenda which in many cases is completely different from the rest of us? Based on the stories in this book it wouldn’t be very pretty of which I agree. California as a state is already on the brink of financial collapse for a number of reasons which aren’t relevant here. For me it might be a nice place to visit (certain sections) but not a place where I would live for as they say “All the tea in China.” Sorry I’ll put up with sometimes brutal Midwestern winters and often changing weather to stay out of a state where I would be taxed almost to death to support policies which make no sense to me at all.

Of interest the stories could also postulate a horrific future for us as a country and we had continued upon some of our past paths. Except there would probably be an armed civil war as a result tearing the country completely apart.

So let’s say California left the Union? There are a lot of military bases in the state. What would happen to them? There are also a number of people like police, fire and EMS who regularly put their lives on the line for strangers. What would a state look like if they left? How about the malcontents who make living interesting wherever you go? What would they do? Those questions and many thought provoking others are answered in this book.

The beginning is approached from several different angles and the end is interesting but still leaving a lot of room to explore in hopefully future volumes.

I sensed the deft guiding hand of the editor in many of the stories without the heaviness of someone who edits for a living. The stories are interesting and told from perspectives that informed me of things I really didn’t know before like how to fix the brakes on a 737 without a massive information dump often seen as written by inexperienced writers.

Of the dozen books I’ve read this week, this one was the most thought provoking and interesting often taking me away from my own writing as I eagerly read each story to the end.

Highly recommended!

I can recommend all of them highly! 🙂