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Author Spotlight

Bronte & Frank are running a Valentine’s Day Toy Drive to help provide plush toys to children affected by the flash floods in the Phillipines. Want to donate? You can help Bronte & Frank reach their 1,000 toy goal by Valentines day!

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JKS is representing some amazing new authors who are releasing books in 2012. We’re just getting started, but get your book list ready, cause we have some great suggestions for you!

AGS Johnson – The Sausage Maker’s Daughters (Fiction, Releases February 7^th, 2012): The sausage maker’s youngest daughter is heading for the fight of her battle-scarred life. It’s the era of the counterculture and Vietnam. But twenty-four-year-old Kip Czermanksi is nowhere near her home in California. She’s in a jail cell in her hometown in Wisconsin awaiting a court appearance in the mysterious death of her ex-lover, who happened to be her brother-in-law. Given her father is the small town’s leading citizen; Kip isn’t overly worried, at first. But the personal grudge the DA holds for all the Czermanskis is about to find a foil – Kip. What follows is a wild ride through Kip’s present predicament and her past. She’ll come to regret leaving her life in LA, regardless of the good reason for which she returned, when family dynamics and sibling rivalries, magnified by her counterculture attitudes and feminist beliefs, lay Kip’s life bare before the courtroom.  Distrusting her legal team, her rebellious history well known, things both personal and legal spiral out-of-control. It doesn’t look good for Kip Czermanski.

Rick Lenz - North of Hollywood (Non-fiction, Feb. 15th, 2012) Take a roller coaster ride through the life of a real Hollywood actor. Rick Lenz is an actor who has made it in New York and Hollywood. You have seen him countless times on TV and in the movies. He has been a popular leading man as well as a character actor, consistently avoiding repetition in the roles he chooses. Rick Lenz has played leads opposite some of entertainment’s biggest names, and has had recurring or guest starring roles on many of your favorite TV shows. Yet his book is more than just an ordinary Hollywood insider story. Lenz is a terrific writer with a wicked sense of humor. Also a gifted artist and widely produced playwright, Rick uses his extraordinary storytelling skills to take you into his personal experiences with actors and entertainers we normally only hear about through the rumor mills, and to reveal real-life experiences of heartbreak, suspense, discovery and joy. His memoir is fascinating. He doesn’t pull any punches. Along with plenty of showbiz anecdotes, he tells us about his marriages (especially his “final” one) and his journey from summer stock through New York, then to Hollywood. He offers us deep insights into an actor’s life and living in general. Feeling the shock waves of his stormy family background, including the emotional tremors of nearly losing his daughter who struggled for years with drugs, Rick Lenz is a real life husband and dad—and the absorbing reality of that shines through his words. Spending time with Rick Lenz is fun, enlightening and authentic. If this weren’t a true story it would make a mesmerizing fictional adventure. Bottom line: North of Hollywood is edgy, way out of the ordinary, and, as a bonus, funny.

Salahuddin Kahn’s Sikander (4^th Edition – February, 2012): It’s 1986. Seventeen-year-old Sikander, dreams of studying and living in America, but in a blind rage after a family quarrel, he leaves his Peshawar, Pakistan home. Encountering mujahideen warriors, he joins them in their fight against the occupying Soviets in neighboring Afghanistan. American assistance is stepped up with advanced weapons, like the Stinger missile, and the mujahideen begin prevailing against the Soviets. After just two years following Sikander s arrival, a Soviet withdrawal begins and Sikander returns as a war-wise hero, settling down to build a normal life in Pakistan. Discovering romance, Sikander, becomes a happily married successful entrepreneur in Pakistan, when he finds his life abruptly thrown into turmoil as he s caught up in aftermath of 9/11. He must draw on the lessons from his mujahideen past as he takes on a perilous journey reaching as far as America, changing his life forever. SIKANDER takes us from the pricey suburbs of Peshawar to the primitive war-torn landscape of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, to the placid serenity of Scotland, through the camps of Guantanamo, and finally, corporate America. It is a 21-year journey through freedom and captivity, love and loss, wealth and poverty, dignity and humiliation, and transgression and redemption. A rare glimpse of a non-radical mainstream Muslim s experience of the West, SIKANDER is a journey of growth and self-discovery, and will touch the humanity of its readers.

Chris Semal – Trial of Tears (February, 2012): Strange things can happen in Manhattan. My first novel, Trial of Tears, is a tough, funny, sexy and fast-paced story set in New York City. Think of ‘Pulp Fiction’ crossed with ‘This Is Spinal Tap’. Pete Watts is a former undercover narcotics cop who got way too close to his job. He now runs a music rehearsal studio in which all manner of eccentric musicians come through. His soon to be ex-girlfriend is a talented singer with a sleazy manager who is in the habit of giving his clients drug habits, occasionally overdosing them to move their recordings up the charts, with the full support of the shady entertainment company for whom he works. This universe of people is inexorably drawn into a war between two violent drug gangs, viewed through the perspective of the Napoleonic leader of one gang. He has recently signed on a strange, but beautiful ex-mercenary, who wears makeup in the form of multi-colored tears running down her face. These tears are, in fact, decals on which different poisons are concealed, hence the title. Some survive the Trial of Tears, some don’t. The story’s taut climax is set in a posh townhouse in which only the courageous will emerge unscathed.While it certainly has its share of humor, action and suspense, it is also a story of friendship and redemption, as well as being a love letter to New York City.

Margie Gelbwasser - Pieces of Us (YA/Fiction, releases March 8, 2012): Two families. Four teens. A summer full of secrets.  Every summer, hidden away in a lakeside community in upstate New York, four teens leave behind their old identities…and escape from their everyday lives.  Yet back in Philadelphia during the school year, Alex cannot suppress his anger at his father (who killed himself), his mother (whom he blames for it), and the girls who give it up too easily. His younger brother, Kyle, is angry too—at his abusive brother, and at their mother who doesn’t seem to care. Meanwhile, in suburban New Jersey, Katie plays the role of Miss Perfect while trying to forget the nightmare that changed her life. But Julie, her younger sister, sees Katie only as everything she’s not. And their mother will never let Julie forget it.  Up at the lake, they can be anything, anyone. Free. But then Katie’s secret gets out, forcing each of them to face reality—before it tears them to pieces.

Karyn Henley – Eye of the Sword (March, 2012): To prove himself worthy of a princess, Trevin must first defeat the terror of his past.  In Camrithia, a land of shadows and mystical secrets, Trevin lives to serve King Laetham. But his heart belongs to the princess, Melaia. When the king sends Trevin on a dangerous quest to find the missing comains, he must leave Melaia to the advances of a swaggering Dregmoorian prince.  Challenged to prove his worth, Trevin throws himself into his quest. Challenged to prove his love, Trevin undertakes a second mission—find the harps Melaia seeks in order to restore the stairway to heaven. Through fire caves, rogue winds, and murderous threats, Trevin remains steadfastly dedicated to his quest—even when he is falsely accused of a heinous crime. As Trevin’s time runs out, he realizes he must face the shame and horror of his own past and the terror-dream that has come to life. Will he have the courage to finish what he has started?

Emily Beaver – Slipping Reality: In a time of hardship and heartbreak, sometimes, reality just isn’t enough. Slipping Reality is the story of fourteen-year-old Katelyn Emerson, who, when faced with the glaring reality of her brother’s illness, rebels against the truth by slipping away into the depths of her own imagination. There, she finds the kind of support and comfort she feels she deserves. There, she does not have to feel so alone. And yet, as Katelyn’s grasp on reality begins to unravel, so too does the story of a girl who grew up too fast and fell apart too soon. Emily Beaver’s debut novel is a coming of age story that deals with the trials of young grief, insight, and growth where it’s least expected.

Ryan G. Kittleman – The Great Peace (April, 2012): The Great Peace is an absurdist satire that follows a group of radical young artists (and their discontents) as they violently overthrow the government of a dying American city and install a “dictatorship of the artistic proletariat”. The book explores themes of utopian versus dystopian thought, the role of the individual within collectivist movements, the social impact of deindustrialization and urban decay, and the effect that wealth and class have on the political system.

Megan Worthy – Bronte & Frank go to Beverly Hills (Spring, 2012): A charming children’s hardcover picture book about a girl and her bear on a fun-filled adventure in Beverly Hills. Features a cultural story with stunning illustrations, educational activities, stickers, maps, postcard, insider recommendations and a bonus CD.www.bronteandfrank.com.

 

Shannon Greenland – The Summer My Life Began (May, 2012): A fabulous romance with a very unexpected guy . . .The opportunity to explore her love of cooking . . .The freedom to be whoever she wants . . .This is what seventeen-year-old Em gets when she goes to spend a month at her aunt’s island resort. It’s a dream come true—and exactly the break Em needed from her strict family and their high expectations of her.

But when Em uncovers a long-buried secret about her family, everything changes. And suddenly, Em finds herself making some big choices about her future—choices she never dreamed she’d have the chance to make . . .

 

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JKSCommunications is a full-service literary publicity firm that represents some of the finest publishers, authors and books in the United States. Our team consists of professionals who specialize in media relations, new-model book tours, social networking, online visibility, book trailer production and website development specifically for the book publishing industry.