Author Archives: Jeanie

About Jeanie

I am President of Loiacono Literary Agency, LLC. I have been a literary agency for thirteen years and have over sixty clients and have sold over 200 books to date.

Announcing a book signing by Maryann Wakefield – compliments of author David Harrison!

Announcing a book signing by Maryann Wakefield

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow our friend, Maryann Wakefield, will be signing her new novel, A GENTLE SUN COMING, at Barnes & Noble in Springfield from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. The store is at the corner of Glenstone and Battlefield.

If you don’t know Maryann, here is a bit more about her. She had a long and successful career as an elementary teacher and principal. She also worked in administration for the Springfield Public Schools district and taught courses at Drury University. These days she has more time to spend with her other passion, writing fiction inspired by a lifetime of observations, experiences, dreams and what-ifs. Among her affiliations, she sits on the board of Writers Hall of Fame, an organization that recognizes outstanding writers and promotes student writing, including a scholarship program for college bound future writers.

If you’re out and about tomorrow, I hope you’ll drop by Maryann’s signing to meet her and maybe buy a copy of her book. She’ll be glad to sign it for you.

Newly released! Rancor by John House!

Newly released! Rancor by John House!

When Paul and Cindy’s father is framed and murdered, and his mother commits suicide, they are separated by the courts. Paul vows to find her somehow, someway, someday…and his parent’s senseless deaths must be avenged.

Amidst the turbulent late sixties backdrop of Vietnam, Paul uses his “talents” for God, country, and his rancor…

Paul Aston enters Vietnam as a nineteen-year-old with an 11 Bravo MOS to serve as an infantryman with an additional specialty of demolitions. His selection of demolitions as his secondary MOS is not by accident. Traumatic happenings to him and his family set his course in life from his pre-teen years on. Buried in his psyche simmers the desire to someday return to the town that literally destroyed his family…to seek revenge.

The path takes him through multiple foster homes, a juvenile detention center where he experiences physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and finally to the US Army which provides the first stability since the loss of his family. In addition, it offers valuable instructions in skills he needs.

Gaining friends, only to lose them in battle, heightens his obsession, and after leaving the army, he is ready to carry out his plans. Only one thing stands between him and the fulfillment of his lifelong dream; the unexpected love of a woman.

John House, MD, creates his novels from his vast and varied experiences in life. He is actively involved in family medicine. A native Georgian, John received his BS from North Georgia College, his MD from the Medical College of Georgia and completed further training at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia. House served four years in the US Army, including a tour in Vietnam. “I went to Vietnam to serve my country. I wore two hats, serving as Flight Surgeon for 2/20th Aerial Rocket Artillery and Division Artillery Surgeon for the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile).”

Prior to becoming a novelist, John published poetry and he also won prizes for short fiction. His first two novels So Shall You Reap and Choices were written with locations based in Northern and Coastal Georgia. His third novel Trail of Deceit (Limitless Publishing) is based on his knowledge and love of nature. All his creative works involve the richness of the Southern culture. His personal experiences give his novels, Rancor and Uncommon Bond, much authenticity and realism. Published by Argus Publishing  Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

 

 

 

Jim Garrison’s QL4 receives SUPER review from MWSA!

QL 4; by James Garrison

MWSA Review
This is the fictionalized story of the author’s year as a drafted MP in Vietnam during the war.  The story moves forward in a vaguely chronological pace, but the chapters focus on one individual at a time whose name is in the chapter title.  Everything that went wrong on bases throughout Vietnam is described as all happening at this small base, and the young MP observes hints of problems while being unsure who can be trusted among his superiors. He comes to realize that the illegal activities involve people in town and in the ranks of their counterparts in the South Vietnamese Army, and he questions the deaths of those who may have become aware of the problems.  His duties range from mind-numbing gate guard duties to patrols in town that can be dangerous to crowd-control during a riot.  Underlying the story of relationships during the Vietnam war are the cultural tensions between some Americans and the native Vietnamese as well as between black and white American soldiers and between the more and less educated soldiers.

While the extreme foul language is off-putting at first, the reader is drawn into the story as it develops.  The main character, SPF4 Bell, has completed one year of law school before being drafted.  Not only is he unhappy to be in Vietnam because he does not support the war, but the regular army members (referred to as lifers by Bell) are not impressed with college boys who do not know how to fight or police.  Bell and his fellow “new guys” have had only 8 weeks of training and arrive to find that they will learn their new duties “on the job” while patrolling with experienced army regulars who may or may not be trustworthy.  Some of these senior soldiers are biased against the native people, blacks, Jews, and the more educated.  Some are trigger happy – especially when drunk, which is frequently.  Bell becomes more and more curious and, of course, gets into more and more trouble while sometimes being surprised about the support he receives.
Reviewed by Nancy Kauffman, MWSA Reviewer

Author’s Synopsis:
PFC Justin Bell, a newly-minted U.S. Army MP, quickly discovers that there’s more than a war going on along QL 4, the main road from Saigon into the Mekong Delta. It’s old-fashioned crime and corruption. He doesn’t want to get involved, just serve out his time and go home, but life for an American MP in Vietnam in 1970 doesn’t work that way. QL 4 leads Bell deep into a swamp of deception, mayhem, and death that insinuates its way both into towns the MPs patrol each day and into the old French villa where they live.

ISBN/ASIN: ASIN: B07116M6GV
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 337

Jim Garrison 

Published by TouchPoint Press

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

Newly released! Lisa Reinhard’s mid-grade/YA novel, Unbreakable Will!

Twelve-year-old Will Handler leaves his Pittsburgh home in the midst of the Great Depression to hop the boxcars out to California. The friend he leaves with becomes disillusioned and homesick, and decides to head for home. Will becomes even more determined to continue on when he meets up with an old guy named Gus who befriends him, guiding him to his first hobo jungle by the side of the tracks. Gus and Will hop on the next train in the hopes of being hired by the carnival. Life in the carnival is good, until an accident involving Gus results in the death of another man and Will steps up to accept the blame in his place. He finds himself running from an angry mob, and is once again on the move, hopping boxcars out to California. He takes with him the nickname Unbreakable Will, given to him by Gus. What lies ahead? Will he ever see home again?

Unbreakable Will has the potential to be a great Accelerated Reader book. Written to target the midgrade audience but is just as entertaining for young adults, it gives important historical facts, geographical locations, and key political figures of that time. Children will go to their teachers asking if this really happened, and most of it really did.

Based on the true story of her father’s life, it is a moving tribute. Although she wanted to see it published before he died, it did not happen. Reinhard began working on this novel after discovering her father was dying of cancer. It is based on his true adventures of leaving Pittsburgh when he was twelve and heading for California. She interviewed her father, allowing him to tell his story, conducted extensive research into the Great Depression, read dozens of books, watched films of riding the rails and the construction of Hoover Dam, and of what life was like during that time, and listened to the music from that era, all of which shines through her words and makes you feel like you are right there. What a wonderful legacy to leave her sons!

Lisa Hussey Reinhard is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and Kansas City, Missouri.  She graduated magna cum laude from (SMU) Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and earned a Master’s in education from Texas A&M/Commerce.  She has been an elementary, middle school, and college teacher for over thirty years. She is the author of Unbreakable Will, Washed by a Beach (2017), and Psalms for the Single Mom (2017), all published by Argus Publishing.

Published by Argus Publishing  Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

John L. Flynn @ San Diego Comic Con, DragonCon, NY Comic Con, and Miami Book Fair!

Come out and meet John L. Flynn, author of Everything I Know About Life I Learned From James Bond, Future Prime: Top Ten Science Fiction Films (published by Library tales Publishing and co-authored with Bob Blackwood), Intimate Bondage (BelleBooks), Architects of Armageddon, Murder on Air Force One, and Terror at G-20 (2017), published by Argus Publishing.

For DragonCon, in tribute to Dr. Flynn’s Everything I Know about Life I Learned from James Bond, special events have been planned throughout the weekend specifically for James Bond fans. On Saturday morning, for the first time ever, there will be a contingent of James Bond fans in the DragonCon Parade wearing costumes from the Bond Movies. Not only is Dr. Flynn joining these eager cosplayers in the parade, but Trina Parks, who played Thumper in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), will ride in a yellow Mustang ahead of the cosplayers. (The relationship between the Ford Mustang and the early Bond films is a unique one, having appeared in no less than five movies.) On Saturday night, Trina Parks will be John’s guest for dinner, meeting other Bond fans in the Atlanta Hilton.