Our second Fall 2018 Season has promised big changes and a lot of growth! Today, we are pleased to announce FOUR brand new acquisition announcements to our growing list of titles!
Make sure you've subscribed to your newsletter and told all your bookish friends! You won't want to miss out on the magic coming from The Parliament House in 2019 / 2020!
Morgan Shamy
Morgan is a freelance writer and editor, and an active member of SCBWI. She took first place in an online HarperCollins contest out of 30,000 entries. She danced with a professional ballet company for over seven years, and has danced on prestigious stages like soloing at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where she performed various title roles. She has taught thousands of girls in her fifteen years of teaching, where her students have received full-ride scholarships to schools like School of American Ballet, the Harid Conservatory, Kirov Academy of Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet to name a few. Along with writing, she is also an accomplished concert pianist. She was the first girl in Utah to receive the 75 pt. Gold Cup in the Utah Federation of Music in piano solo/concerto competition. She currently lives with her X-Games gold medalist husband and four young children in the cold mountains of Alaska.
Climbing the Chandelier
When Megan Van Helsburg gets kicked off the U.S.A. Climbing Team, she has no choice but to return home and leave her climbing career behind. With no coach, no money, and no prospects, she joins the corps de ballet determined to improve her strength and agility.
But the ballet theater is in dire straits. Not only do a series of murders break loose, but the ballerinas are becoming deathly thin and brain-dead. As Megan investigates, she meets Dross, a tortured young man who lives beneath the depths of the theater. Megan falls hard and fast for Dross, who becomes her mentor, but something is off about him.
It isn’t until the company announces they’re doing Giselle for the fall performance that Megan realizes the parallels between the haunted ghost story and the lives around her. And she could be next. Megan must find a way to not only save her climbing career, but stop the murders and dying girls before she succumbs and becomes a ghost herself.
Ray O'Meara
Born and raised in New Jersey, Ray O’Meara developed a fondness for the written word at an early age, when his mother would read him Golden Books. (The Little Red Hen and The Happy Man and
His Dump Truck remain his favorites.) It was in high school, though, when he realized the true importance of literature, and that the classics that had always seemed escapes from reality were just as instructional as his childhood favorites. He learned to love Dickens by reading David Copperfield, and saw that Dickens reflected life as it is: sad, joyous, frantic, and filled with too many oddball characters, many of whom have purposes in our lives that are not always revealed right away.
After attending Monmouth University in Long Branch, New Jersey, for his bachelor’s degree and Seton Hall University for his master’s, Ray remained in the academic field, tutoring writing and teaching
composition, research, and literature courses at Monmouth as well as at a local community college, Brookdale. During his time at these schools, he participated in conferences including several hosted by
the Northeast Modern Language Association, presenting on pop culture icons like Batman and Walter White, often drawing parallels between these characters and those of classic literature. This melding of two worlds can hopefully be seen in Ray’s own writing, as it certainly helped to shape it.
Currently, Ray is preparing for his wedding to his fiancée Kristen, whom he has been with for just over two years. They live at the Jersey Shore and enjoy traveling, attending concerts, hosting
Christmas parties, and cooking together. Most of all, they enjoy experiencing whatever bits of culture—pop, high, or otherwise—come their way, from Broadway shows to beer festivals. And of
course, they rarely turn down a happy hour. After all, there’s no better time or place to find characters.
The Devil You Know
The Devil You Know introduces William Kendrick, a high school senior whose life is disrupted when he begins to experience terrifying visions of a childhood that he can’t remember. Taken from his home by a stranger named Brandt, Will discovers that his visions are the result of “the demonic strain,” a genetic aberration that gives individuals amazing power. It is this power that will pit him against occultist Desmond Duquesne – the man who allegedly murdered Will’s birth parents. The prophesied clash between Will and Duquesne is inevitable, but when Will falls for his enemy’s daughter Daphne, he must make a choice between honoring his love for Daphne and letting her father get away with murder once again.
Set primarily in contemporary Boston, The Devil You Know follows Will as he contends with secret societies, grotesque assassins, and a centuries-old prophecy. Although the events of the plot are largely set in motion by fantastic circumstances, the main characters remain grounded and relatable, with both Will and Daphne overcoming obstacles that not only save the day but also help them discover their own identities.
Clayton Snyder
Clayton Snyder lives in North Dakota with his wife, two dogs, and a
cat. He is the author of The Balance series, as well as the upcoming
Godsfall and The Infernal Machine. In addition, he's had several short stories published, the most recent in Helios Quarterly. In his day job, he works as a systems admin, and in his off time, he games, tries to play guitar, and sometimes paints. When he's not doing those things, he maintains a passion for humanitarian causes, involving himself in local charity works including fundraising for cancer research and animal rescue.
Infernal Machine
Arthur White lived a quiet life, tending the dead in a quiet cemetery. One night, while walking the paths, he meets a mysterious stranger who goes only by ‘Mr. Black’. In a few short hours, the stranger turns the groundskeeper’s life upside down, burdening Arthur with an immortal clockwork heart.
Over the course of years, Arthur works as Mr. Black’s henchman and live-in companion, doing the things that Mr. Black cannot dirty his hands with. The death of a mutual friend and the discovery of Lucifer’s cast-off heart catalyze them into action, sending them on a global chase to steal the heart and open the door to death. Along the way, Arthur struggles with the evils he’s committed, the dreams of loss that plague him, and a desperate loneliness that may be cured by the appearance of a mysterious new companion – Ava. But before they can get to know one another, they must confront a cult out to steal the heart for their own ends.
Before it’s over, Arthur, Ava, and Mr. Black must confront who they are and what they’ve done. Whatever remains from the ash may be their only hope.
Wren Handman
Wren Handman is a novelist, fiction writer, and screenwriter. She has published short storiesboth in print and online, including in the anthologies Voice From the Planet (Harvard Square Editions) and Anthology of Dreams (Onyx Path). She writes a wide range of fiction, from true-to-life novels for teenagers with reading difficulties (Last Cut, Lorimer Ltd) to fantasy romances (Command the Tides, Omnific Publishing). Wren was the lead writer for The Switch, a TV comedy, and has worked as a script editor on many projects. Wren graduated with Honors from the University of Victoria with a bachelor of fine arts in creative writing. Her focus was on drama, and over the course of her degree she studied playwriting, screenwriting, fiction, and journalism. Her postgraduate studies were through a highly selective joint degree program in Theatre and Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, a program into which only two students are accepted each year.
Wren now works full-time as a freelancer writer. Working with Trembling Void Studios, she has developed several series, served as script editor on features, and completed three feature scripts. She also works for Axiom Zen, a tech start-up in Vancouver, where she
writes newsletters and blog articles about virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. For CryptoKitties she writes blogs and newsletters about emerging blockchain technology (and also adorable cartoon cats). She currently teaches at Vancouver Premier College in the English department.
In Restless Dreams
In Restless Dreams is a fresh take on traditional fairy stories. Sylvia is a normal girl with huge, normal problems – her mother’s attempted suicide, how to adjust to life on the Upper East Side, trying to make friends in a rich prep school. She thinks that’s more than she can handle, but she tests the limits of her endurance when she learns that she is the long awaited Phantasmer, a human who can change the fabric of Fairy simply by believing in a new story. Sylvia’s life is thrown off course as two warring Courts, the Seelie and Unseelie, both attempt to co-opt her gift to fight the other Court (all of which she has to deal with while trying not to get kicked out of school for fighting). And it doesn’t help matters that the fairies begging for her help are both attractive young men – with their own agendas.
Look for these titles as well as other upcoming Parliament titles on Goodreads, and wherever independently-published books are sold!