The little press that could…
So proud of these guys!!!
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!
J Kenton Pierce Tales of the Long Night, book one- A Kiss for Damocles
The blurb-
The enemy is dead. Their guns still aim.
The Mutual Prosperity invaded Hesperides Colony centuries ago–dropped asteroids on the oceans, triggered a volcanic winter, killed millions. The invaders eventually died fighting. Their orbital artillery AI, Damocles, did not. It has spent three hundred years killing anything that looks like a threat: radio signals, powered vehicles, anything that might let humanity rebuild fast enough to strike back.
Seventeen-year-old Shaifennen “Shai” Roehe grew up in a mineshaft, scrounging salvage from the ruins of a dead civilization. Then she finds a crashed military shuttle from the Long Night buried in a highland ravine. It’s the biggest salvage find in living memory–and it comes with secrets. Traitors from the original war. A murdered alien marine who died fighting for humanity’s future. And enough battlesteel and fabrication equipment to turn her struggling homestead into something that scares the right people.
From there, Shai has to navigate a volatile trade mission to the nearest town, untangle a conspiracy that runs generations deep, survive assassination attempts, and figure out why every faction on Hesperides–the Riders, the Archive, the alien Imps, the new Trade Association that smells a lot like the old tyranny with better hair–seems to already know about a project she has only just stumbled into.
Shai’s universe is one filled with fallen empires, implacable war machines, lost civilizations, hostile xenos, the occasional ancient unspeakable horror, and she’s going to bring the ruckus to every corner of it.
And Dave Freer with a boy’s standalone novel- Storm Dragon
The blurb-
Winner of the First Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction 2026
Skut Harkkson hates Highpoint Station. He hates the concrete dome, the expensive food, the mean kids who know his father’s farm is three hundred miles away and that he can’t go home. He misses Faraway — real land, real tides, real work — and every day locked inside the settlement’s walls makes him feel like something important is dying.
Then he finds the storm-dragon.
The creature is tiny, half-dead, and furious — and somehow it talks directly into his head. Not words, exactly. Feelings. Hungry. Cold. Trust. Skut names it Snarky, hides it in his shirt, and starts sneaking outside the settlement’s walls to feed it. Which is how he ends up fishing the forbidden lower jetties with Podge Greene — the new kid who survived a planetary invasion at age ten and isn’t afraid of much. The two of them, with Snarky riding Skut’s shoulder and diving for fish, start to build something that looks almost like a life worth living.
But Vann’s World has three moons, tides that kill without warning, and predators that make Earth’s wildlife look like house pets. And none of that matters when the real threat arrives: a Ghat slaver ship, landing under false papers, loaded with soldiers who have done this to entire planets before.
Now Skut, Podge, and Snarky are outside the walls in the dark, with a handful of adults, two flechette pistols, a forklift, and a storm-dragon who generates five hundred volts and is willing to use them. The settlement is locked down. The hostages are running out of time. The VIP ship is landing in the morning — straight into a trap.
What follows is a boys’ adventure in the oldest, best sense: two kids who actually know things figure out how to win against people who should be unbeatable. Vann’s World is alive and deadly and extraordinary, and Skut and Podge understand it in ways the invaders never will.
Storm-Dragon is a standalone novel — fast-moving, funny in the right places, and built on the principle that boys who read voraciously deserve stories that don’t condescend to them.
I can highly recommend both of them!
And kudos to Raconteur Press for taking up the mantle of publishing not only first time authors, but also for publishing books for boys!
They are all friends of mine, and I can tell you they are honest, upfront about EVERYTHING including how many books sell, and are willing to open their books to their authors! You don’t see that with most of the publishers today….
OBTW, they are NOT a vanity press, you, the author, only have to write the short story or book and submit it. If accepted, they do the rest of the work and you DO NOT pay anything to them!
Again, congratulations to J Kenton and Dave! Fantastic books, and well deserved praise!!!