Embark on an epic fantasy adventure with reimagined divine beings in this alternate telling of one of humanity’s famed creation stories.
Adonai and Helel are equal and co-existing on their realm of Alegion. Together, they utilize a planetary dominion in the effort to grow an instinctual need to create and learn about their evolving powers. That is until an unforeseen clash of wills over how to govern humankind on Eden commences; and the one who remained on Alegion, is not the being we were led to believe…
Now banished to Eden, the only way to ending this conflict is for the fallen one to lure the other onto Eden where a death blow can be administered.
A methodical go-for-the-jugular war ravages the plane of humanity. Notable landscapes are explored, resurrected, and manipulated. New and familiar historical characters, along with pivotal scenes throughout civilization – remixed in this introspective, violent, self-aware, and potentially plausible, biblical-like saga.
Joe Belcastro is a prolific writer living in Tampa, Florida. His career escapades began in journalism covering the film industry and local nightlife scene. Joe’s lust for the escapism of cinematic storytelling led to him becoming a syndicated film critic. And while he was content navigating the hustle of print/digital media, another passion came calling in the form of sports-entertainment.
Leaving journalism life, Joe found himself behind the camera as Head Writer & Producer for WWE television programming. Hunkering down in writers’ rooms and traveling all over the world executing storylines in major arenas, the dream job had arrived. Until something else was then awakening inside of him…
Surprisingly, he made the difficult decision to leave a place he loved based on a premise he always desired to explore. That premise birthed the story in DOMINATURE. He toyed with writing a movie script, but the temptation of tackling a novel could not be denied.
In the end, Joe yearns to be locked in a studio writing/performing with his former rock bands. He also hopes to one day start a charitable foundation. But for the time being, he’s committing to this realm of novels and hopes to settle down as a proud author.
Welcome to my stop on the Prince of MidWest tour. This vampy tale is by Abigail Linhardt and is available July 15th! Read on for details and a chance to win a fantastic giveaway!
The author will be hosting a live-stream event on publication day so be sure to check that out!
Prince of MidWest
by Abigail Linhardt
Expected Publication Date: July 15th, 2022
Genre: Low Magic/ Alternate History/Steampunk
Cecil is a vampire desperate to find a way to redeem his soul so he can finally rest in peace. He’s told the way to redemption is to save the American Empire by finding the prince and putting him on the throne. The only problem? That prince was murdered eight years ago. Upon mentioning the dead prince to the royal court, Cecil is swiftly accused of being a spy and sentenced to an underground prison.
Ezekiel, a prisoner of the Château d’Oubli, has been merely surviving through the torturous politics of the prison. When an over-fashionable vampire appears amongst the tunnels and mines with a plan to find the dead prince, escape, and put that prince on the throne, Ezekiel sees his chance and volunteers to help Cecil escape the underground bastille.
Eager to get above ground and get back to his redemption, Cecil reluctantly joins forces with the sleazy Ezekiel. Together, with a team of convicts, and using mysterious earth magic found in the mines, they plot a breakout like none before them. No one has ever escaped the Château d’Oubli. Even if they did, revenge is a prison that follows its captives.
Abi has been a writer all her life, but is a mentor at heart. When she is not writing, you can find her slaying enemies online or hunting for the next bohemian adventure. She has published works of fiction, poetry, academia, and even won awards for her short stories in science fiction and horror.
Abi is also a proud mom of two…ferrets! She live streams on Twitch where you can enjoy her terrible gaming skills and join the live discussion. She works part-time as a freelance ghostwriter, editor, and audiobook narrator, hoping to one day make these passions her full-time job. She currently resides in Kansas.
She is one of nine children–all who share the creative spark.
“It isn’t just about women in long skirts finally voting!”
It isn’t just about women in long skirts finally voting. The racists and the rich know that, and the politicians worry.
Mercy Martin has an inside view as the battle for woman suffrage nears a climax, but she encounters many puzzles.
So many women and Southern states oppose votes for women.
So many people are afraid it would bring on free love, abandonment of family, economic catastrophe, or communism.
So many suffragists are willing to abandon black women voters.
From an innocent teen to a young adult, Mercy has a central role in the campaign. She advances from confinement in a suffragist jail cell to the national campaign for the suffrage amendment. She campaigns around Tennessee, ending at the capitol for the explosive climax in the last state that might ratify the amendment and grant the vote to women.
Why should something so clearly right be so hard, and why were some bitter compromises made? Mercy is right in the middle, relied on by key players. Along the way, she acquires a husband, a baby, and better parents than she was born with.
This is an intimate view via alternative historical fiction, as accurate as it can be and as thoughtful and moving as it must be. In this first novella of a series, Mercy jumps into the campaign for woman suffrage and prepares for a vital role in the coming decades. She’ll continue on into the wider civil rights struggle growing out of woman suffrage.
Anita and I have taken a circuit northwest from Knoxville and back around to the northeast. We’re canvassing as many legislators and their key supporters as we can track down. Finding them is the tricky part. Sometimes we go as far as the road goes and finish the journey to an isolated farmstead on foot, with our dresses trailing in the dust. We’ve been drenched by rainstorms, chased by watchdogs, and even had to change a flat tire, which isn’t that easy in a long dress, but we find our men.
Some seem to be avoiding us, like Representative Cletus Jacobs. He keeps barely visible off in his woodlot. We mark him as a “no.” Senator Phil Gridley graciously, really graciously, says we are communists betraying our gender, our state, and the country. Fortunately, the next two are warm and positive. However, Sen. Billy Broadus says he is nervous the women’s vote will support that anti-American League of Nations. He seems mollified when we point out it would first have to go through a vote in the U.S. Senate, where it is sure to fail.
“Anita,” I ask, back in the car, “why is there such a fear of communism here?”
“Well, with the recent Russian Revolution and the widespread unrest in European countries after the war, people are nervous, especially people with property. You may not realize that Communism seemed on the verge of sweeping across Europe after the war, with uprisings all over. I guess women are considered softies who might vote communists in or go easy on them. Maybe they’re especially sensitive in the South on the loss of property since their human property, slaves, were ‘taken’ at the end of the Civil War.”
“I guess big business is hyping the fear for their own purposes, against labor unions.”
“You’ve got it, Honey! That started before the Russian Revolution, as a way to smear and foil labor unions.”
“I don’t guess we could ever reach people so concerned about communism, however they got concerned!”
“ ’Not bloody likely,’ to use a term Alice Paul picked up from a friend over from England. (The shocking phrase was uttered by Eliza Dolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s new hit play, Pygmalion. Alice loves throwing it out.)”
Driving east from Livingston, on a dim overcast day, we have a scare. Three white-robed riders and horses are moving into position as if to stand astride the road and block our path. Behind us, we see three more horsemen trotting out of a grove we had just passed and following us. We look at each other and gulp. It doesn’t look good, even if their robes look rather shabby. A lonely road doesn’t seem ideal for a twilight chat with six mounted Klansmen. Luckily, they hadn’t reckoned how fast our Blue Knight moves or how well Anita can handle it. Just as the ones in front are getting into position, Anita swerves far over onto the left edge of the road and races onward. The nearest horse nervously dances back, then rears and throws his rider as we roar around them.
“I thought the Klan was dead,” I say.
“Apparently, that Birth of a Nation propaganda film of a few years back is reviving them. Next, they’ll burn a cross.”
“Well, they’re eating your dust. Great driving!”
“I hope we’ve seen the last of them. How’d they know where we were?”
I think and respond, “Was Senator Broadus actually less friendly than he seemed?”
“I wondered why he spent so long in idle chatter before he let us go,” offers Anita.
About the Author:
David McCracken became a political activist when the Supreme Court ruled against school segregation. Fellow students joined him in urging the school board in Winchester, KY, to integrate immediately. He campaigned for a Democratic governor and joined the ACLU before he graduated from the University of Kentucky. After debating at U.K., he got a degree in economics and a job with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
When his daughters approached school age, he became increasingly concerned with how he wanted them schooled. Researching that, he decided teaching was what he really wanted to do. He got a master’s degree in elementary education at Murray State University. He taught for several years, until the fact that his girls qualified for reduced-price lunches based on his salary got to him. Ronald Reagan’s anti-government policies prevented him from returning to government work, so he took programming courses and shifted careers again. Programming was like being paid to solve puzzles all day, but teaching eventually drew him back until retirement.
For many years of this time, he was working intermittently at a novel that became Fly Twice Backward: Fresh Starts in Times of Troubles. This concerned his waking on his twelfth birthday, trying to figure out what had happened, following his new opportunities, and ultimately outliving an evil president resembling Donald Trump. After thirty-six years, David finally published it as an interactive alt-history Kindle novel. He soon started Far Beyond Woman Suffrage: The Prices of the Vote, an alt-history novelette dealing with the campaign for woman suffrage. He finished this piece in just ten months. At 81, he is bold(?) enough to plan this as the first of a six-volume set dealing with the far-reaching results and implications of woman suffrage. His completed novels and another in the works are presented for discussion on a new website, DoFancifulFlights.com David now lives with his third wife, stepdaughter, and step-grandson near Winchester, VA. He has a son from his second marriage, six grandchildren, and two stepchildren. And a funny black dog with four white feet.
