After her mother dies in a tragic accident, Anna cleans out her closet and finds a striking painting that she’d never seen before. She also finds a trove of letters from Stefan Terre, a name she’s never heard. < Back After the Barricades Jessica Stilling May 23, 2023 Today I talked to Jessica Stilling about her new novel After the Barricades (DX Varos, 2023). After her mother dies in a tragic accident, Anna cleans out her closet and finds a striking painting that she’d never seen before. She also finds a trove of letters from Stefan Terre, a name she’s never heard. She travels to Paris for work and also to learn more about her mother, Bethany, who studied at the Sorbonne in 1968. That was a year of student protests and labor strikes by students and workers demanding better pay, workplace safety, and a more equitable society. Bethany never told Anna about her affair with Stefan, a Romanian Jew who survived the Holocaust, became a painter, and was working as a waiter when she met him in Paris. Now it’s 2019, and Anna wants Stefan to tell her about how her mother once wanted to change the world. Jessica Stilling earned a BA from the New School and an MFA in Creative Writing from the City University of New York. Before she published After the Barricades, she published The Weary god of Ancient Travelers, Between Before and After, The Beekeeper’s Daughter (Bedazzled Ink Press), Betwixt and Between (IG Publishing), Nod, and the Hugo Award nominated young adult Pan Chronicles Series (D.X. Varos). Her short stories have appeared in The Warwick Review, The Hawaii Pacific Review and Wasifiri, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Writer Magazine, Ms. Magazine, and Tor.com. She has worked as an editor at The Global City Press and The Global City Review and has taught creative writing at both high school and university level. She has published young adult fantasy under the name J.M. Stephen, lives in southern Vermont, with her family, which includes a dog, a cat, and many chickens, whose squawking sounds exactly like a T-Rex if you listen closely enough. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Going back and forth in time, Evangeline (Evie) recalls the challenges of being raised on a lush island off the coast of California. Her mother has left Evie and her father, and her father raises Evie from the age of three.  < Back Creatures Crissy Van Meter June 30, 2020 Going back and forth in time, Evangeline (Evie) recalls the challenges of being raised on a lush island off the coast of California. Her mother has left Evie and her father, and her father raises Evie from the age of three.  He’s a jack-of-all-trades but survives by selling a specially grown variety of marijuana. And although he provides her with adventure and a deep love of the ocean, Evie’s father doesn’t show up as a consistent adult in her life. The book opens just before her wedding, when a storm is brewing, her fiancé is out at sea, and a dead whale beaches, which causes a pervading smell of decay across the island. Evie’s mostly absent mother suddenly shows up wanting to participate in the joy of her daughter’s wedding. In flashbacks and musings, Evie confronts her abandonment, guilt, anger and ultimately her love for all creatures - including her parents, her husband, her best friend, and her best friend’s child. With sporadic notes from Evie’s research on wales and sea life, this is a novel to savor while either gazing out to sea or imagining it. Crissy Van Meter is a writer based in Los Angeles. Creatures: A Novel (Algonquin Books) is her debut novel. She teaches creative writing at  The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founder of the literary project Five Quarterly and the managing editor for Nouvella Books. She serves on the board of directors for the literary non-profit Novelly.  Crissy loves going to Disneyland and has been an annual passholder since she was 5. She’s been to Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney World, and she plans to visit the remaining Disney parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

The Dependents (Back Bay Books, 2019) is a sensitive novel about love, parenthood, friendship, and finding contentment. < Back The Dependents Katharine Dion January 22, 2020 Gene is newly widowed and haunted by his memories. As he bumbles through long days, he questions his wife Maida’s sudden death, his daughter’s motives, and the enduring and meaningful friendship of best friends Ed and Gayle Donnelly. He tries to resurrect the good memories of the two couples raising children in a New Hampshire town and vacationing together every summer at a lake house owned by the Donnellys. He tried to come to terms about his relationship with his only daughter, Dary, who has chosen to raise a fatherless child, has made her home on the other side of the country, and who challenges Gene’s happy memories of everything that happened in their lives. She even challenges his view of her mother. Moving between Gene’s fraught current life and memories of his childhood, coming of age, courtship, marriage, and career, The Dependents (Back Bay Books, 2019) is a sensitive novel about love, parenthood, friendship, and finding contentment. Katharine Dion is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She is also a MacDowell Fellow and the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. In her early twenties, Dion founded a nonprofit organization called Peer Health Exchange that (still) trains college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools. And she has spent two summers living in a Zen monastery working as a cook. Dion’s introduction to Buddhism came from living several summers at Tassajara, a monastery in the Ventana Wilderness; she is lay ordained in the Soto Zen lineage and helps people meet the grief of ecological destruction as a Buddhist Ecochaplain . She was born in Oakland and lives in Emeryville, California. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Dive into the world of paranormal fiction with G. P. Gottlieb. Enjoy engaging paranormal fiction author interviews in each NBN Podcast episode. NBN Podcast Episodes Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb Paranormal Fiction May 12, 2026 Marriage to the Sea Sarah Stone Six years ago, Katya Zamarin’s mother was murdered by a stranger who also maimed her Aunt Julia. More recently, her father died of a heart attack. Listen to Episode Buy Book Aftertaste Daria Lavelle In Aftertaste (Simon & Schuster, 2025) Konstantin Duhovny’s father died when he was young, and his mother is too anguished to raise him, so he raises himself, but not very well. Listen to Episode Buy Book June 8, 2021 One Kind Favor Kevin McIlvoy (1953-2022) Based loosely on a tragic real-life incident in 2014, One Kind Favor (WTAW Press 2021) explores the consequences of the lynching of a young black man in rural North Carolina. Listen to Episode Buy Book June 28, 2022 Proof of Life Sheila Lowe Proof of Life (Write Choice Ink 2021) is the second book in author Sheila Lowe’s Beyond the Veil paranormal suspense series. Listen to Episode Buy Book Load More

Sherry Thomas: The Lady Sherlock Series < Back Sherry Thomas Author of The Lady Sherlock Series March 4, 2021 I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock Series. Thomas has published romance, fantasy and YA books, none of which interest me, but then I started reading about the antics of ‘Charlotte Holmes.’ Charlotte and her friend Mrs. Watson have apparently invented an imaginary brother named Sherlock so that she can use her brilliant powers of deduction to earn money in a Victorian society that doesn’t trust the opinions of women. The writing is descriptive, the conversations witty, the crimes interesting and the atmosphere compelling. Thomas’s has received lots of honors and is a bestselling author. She immigrated from China at age 13. She is also a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award. I hope she continues writing this charming series. Previous Next

Dive into thrilling and suspenseful tales with NBN Podcast Episodes. Enjoy thriller and suspense author interviews hosted by G. P. Gottlieb. NBN Podcast Episodes Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb Thriller and Suspense Aftertaste Daria Lavelle In Aftertaste (Simon & Schuster, 2025) Konstantin Duhovny’s father died when he was young, and his mother is too anguished to raise him, so he raises himself, but not very well. Listen to Episode Buy Book October 14, 2025 Violent Seed Mary Price Birk Lady Anne is in the Cotswolds with her 8-month-old son, there to restore a famous walled garden. The magnificent home has been hosting a television cooking special over the summer, and Anne’s husband, Lord Terrence Reid, is there to enjoy a “Summer of Chefs” week with his wife and baby son. Listen to Episode Buy Book April 29, 2025 Hall of Mirrors John Copenhaver Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime 2025) was selected as a New York Times Crime Novel of the Year. Listen to Episode Buy Book January 1, 2025 The Drowning Game Barbara Nickless Sisters Nadia and Cass are heirs to a company that builds yachts for the super wealthy, and both are excited about a commission that will introduce them to the huge Asian market. Listen to Episode Buy Book August 28, 2020 The Black Cage Jack Fredrickson In this well-written mystery, The Black Cage: A Milo Rigg Mystery (Severn House Publishers), it’s bitter winter in Chicago, and disgraced crime reporter Milo Rigg wakes up every night dreaming that his wife is calling to him from a black cage. Listen to Episode Buy Book April 24, 2020 Hour of the Assassin Matthew Quirk After a decade spent protecting public officials, Nick Averose has the unique ability to think like an assassin. Now he works as a red-teamer, who tests security systems to find vulnerabilities. His latest assignment, to assess the security of a former CIA director’s home, goes horribly wrong, and Nick gets entangled in a vicious crime that rocks Washington D.C. Listen to Episode Buy Book August 29, 2022 Iconoclast: A Sean McPherson Novel Laurie Buchanan Burdened by the pressing weight of survivor's guilt, Sean McPherson, an ex-cop, is desperate for redemption. Listen to Episode Buy Book Load More

In The Maverick, author Jennifer Valenti plugs into the current zeitgeist of young women who struggle to defy the casual sexism of men in power. Jane Valiante is elated when the hottest tech company in the world offers to fly her from Florida to New York for the job of her dreams. < Back The Maverick Jennifer Valenti December 1, 2020 In The Maverick (Broken Arrow Books, 2020), author Jennifer Valenti plugs into the current zeitgeist of young women who struggle to defy the casual sexism of men in power. Jane Valiante is elated when the hottest tech company in the world offers to fly her from Florida to New York for the job of her dreams. After a long day of interviews, Jane feels insecure about her chances, but then she receives an invitation to the holiday party from the CEO and Founder, Peter Wright. She happily accepts, and has a lovely, if perhaps overly boozy time. Unfortunately, Peter ends up in her hotel room, where he overpowers and rapes her. Then he leaves. Although she’s traumatized, she doesn’t let it stop her from accepting a position in Peter’s company. What is it going to take to propel Jane on a journey of self-discovery that will allow her to learn who she is and what she is capable of? Jennifer Valenti was born in New Hampshire, grew up in Florida, hailed from Boston, and is mostly a New Yorker. Moving around meant learning to adapt quickly, which came in handy as a single mother raising two amazing young men (and a dog with separation anxiety.) For every failure, she enjoyed equal success with careers in film and television, technology, and consulting, the latter two of which were against much of her will. She earned a BA and MBA, and is currently a senior executive in business consulting. When Jennifer is not working, writing, cooking, or baking, she is an avid world traveler, and has so far visited 110 countries. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It’s the summer of 1943 and an unexploded mortar shell kills 9-year-old Salvatore’s twin brothers. His faith is destroyed, and his family unravels, fueling fear that the Vassallo name is cursed. Salvatore and his sister, Nella, accept the help of a fascist Italian soldier, Vincenzo, who accompanies them to a new life in America. < Back How Fires End Marco Rafalà May 12, 2020 In a sad but loving tribute to his Sicilian-Italian heritage, Marco Rafala ’s debut novel How Fires End (Little A, 2019) centers on the haunting legacy of WWII on the people of a small Sicilian village. It’s the summer of 1943 and an unexploded mortar shell kills 9-year-old Salvatore’s twin brothers. His faith is destroyed, and his family unravels, fueling fear that the Vassallo name is cursed. Salvatore and his sister, Nella, accept the help of a fascist Italian soldier, Vincenzo, who accompanies them to a new life in America. But the three of them make the choice to keep their secrets hidden, and years later in America, Salvatore’s son, David, is swept up in the chaotic aftermath of their hidden pasts. This is a story about loyalty, family, and forgiveness. Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American, novelist, musician, and writer for award-winning tabletop role-playing games (e.g. The One Ring). He earned his MFA in fiction from The New School and is a co-curator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review and LitHub. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York. And when not working, reading or writing, Rafalà loves walking in the cemetery with his partner. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Sisters Nadia and Cass are heirs to a company that builds yachts for the super wealthy, and both are excited about a commission that will introduce them to the huge Asian market. < Back The Drowning Game Barbara Nickless January 1, 2025 Two sisters are heirs to a company that builds yachts for the super wealthy, and both are excited about a commission that will introduce them to the huge Asian market. Shortly after arriving in Singapore, Nadia learns that her sister, Cass has plummeted from a 40th floor balcony. Numb with grief, Nadia takes over Cass’s job of finishing a yacht for a high-level Chinese scientist whose work is important to the repressive Chinese government. In gripping prose, Nickless delves into yacht design, espionage, the world of high-stakes yachting, and China’s repressive regime. Figuring out why Cass died could tear the company apart and might get Nadia killed in this suspenseful intrigue-filled novel about family history, loyalty, and secrets. Barbara Nickless is the Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author of Play of Shadows , Dark of Night , and At First Light in the Dr. Evan Wilding series, as well as the Sydney Rose Parnell series, which includes Blood on the Tracks , a Suspense Magazine Best of 2016 selection and winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Dead Stop , winner of the Colorado Book Award and nominee for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Ambush ; and Gone to Darkness . In addition to her career as a technical writer and instructional designer, Barbara worked as a raptor rehabilitator, piano teacher and performer, and a sword fighter. She served as the Director of Education for the country’s largest public astronomical observatory. It was all great fun. But then a wildfire burned down her family’s home. For Barbara, losing everything also meant she had everything to gain. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Writer’s Digest and on Criminal Element, among other markets. She lives in Colorado, where she loves to cave, snowshoe, hike, and drink single malt Scotch―usually not at the same time. Connect with her at www.barbaranickless.com . Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

< Back Charred will be available on MAY 29th! G. P. Gottlieb May 29, 2026 Two dead bodies are found in the remains of a nearby fire. Alene Baron is dealing with frustrated employees, closed schools, and a homeless man who harasses customers outside the door of her café. Then, two dead bodies turn up in the burned remains of buildings owned by the husband of Alene’s best friend and pastry chef, Ruthie. Both bodies are wearing jackets that once belonged to Ruthie and crumbled in the pockets are the café’s distinctive wrappers. At the same time, Alene's uncle, a convicted felon, has resurfaced after disappearing for 22 years. It's all too much for the owner of t he Whipped and Sipped Café . Previous Next

The Genuine Stories is a linked collection centered around Genevieve “Genuine” Eriksson, a woman with an uncanny ability to heal people. Her gift begins to unfold at the age of eight despite the lingering disbelief of her parents. < Back The Genuine Stories Susan Smith Daniels May 1, 2019 The Genuine Stories is a linked collection centered around Genevieve “Genuine” Eriksson, a woman with an uncanny ability to heal people. Her gift begins to unfold at the age of eight despite the lingering disbelief of her parents. Though she grows up under the watchful eyes of her parents and the jealous protection of the Catholic Church, she strikes out on her own after healing, and falling in love with, Kevin Saunders, a man fifteen years her senior. In her own voice, and those of family, friends, and the healed, Genuine’s experiences peel back and expose the gritty aspects of power and privilege, the far-reaching limit of parental love, the perpetually oscillating balance in relationships, and the ineffable nature of grief. Susan Smith Daniels , author and freelance journalist, is the winner of the Fairfield University Book Prize for The Genuine Stories (New Rivers Press, 2018). Born and raised in Philadelphia, she moved to Iowa with her husband and family in 1981. Susan began her writing career as a columnist for Practical Horseman Magazine when her youngest daughter was attending horse shows. She is the author of the very popular The Horse Show Mom’s Survival Guide (The Lyons Press, 2005). An MFA graduate of Fairfield University, Daniels is currently a PhD student in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

[Equal] parts coming of age, epic travel tale, quest to find a mother who disappeared, and journey of personal discovery. < Back The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern Rita Zoey Chin October 12, 2022 The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern (Melville House 2022) by Rita Zoey Chin is equal parts coming of age, epic travel tale, quest to find a mother who disappeared, and journey of personal discovery. The story begins as Leah Fern is planning to commit suicide. She hears someone banging on her door, which is strange since she has no friends. The visitor is a lawyer who shares a box that sends Leah on the road following clues that she hopes will lead to the mother who abandoned her when she was six, 15 years before. North to Canada and west to the ocean, Leah consumes copious amounts of candy as she surmounts obstacles, learns how to navigate with a piece of magnetite, and recounts her happy carnival life, before her mother, the magician, disappeared. Rita Zoey Chin is the author of the widely praised memoir, Let the Tornado Come . She holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and is the recipient of a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, an Academy of American Poets Award, and a Bread Loaf scholarship. She has taught at Towson University and at Grub Street in Boston. Her work has appeared in Guernica , Tin House, and Marie Claire . Outside of writing, Zoey can often be found hiking with her dogs, making silver amulets in her metalsmithing studio, and concocting herbal brews in her kitchen. This is her first novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next