Parisian Phoenix Publishing

This weekend, as we open the summer season and take a moment to remember those who have given their lives in service to the United States, Parisian Phoenix will be doing what we do: selling books.

I suppose it could be said that “doing what we do” is mentoring and supporting writers and visual fine artists, but to do that, we need to sell books.

This weekend:

Tomorrow: Barnes & Noble ‘Blood in the Stacks’

Angel Ackerman (yes, that’s me) will be celebrating the launch of the fourth volume in the Fashion and Fiends horror series– Horror with a Woman’s Touch– as part of Blood in the Stacks, a collection of Lehigh Valley Horror Authors signing books at the Barnes and Noble in Bethlehem Township Southmont Shopping Center. The event is billed to start at 1 and last until 5, but the store has asked us to start arriving at the store around 11 a.m.

The fourth volume of the Fashion and Fiends series, ROAD TRIP, follows chef Jules Zweigenbaum and his siblings, Benji and Minette, as they travel from Africa to Paris to New York to Chicago searching for fashion designer Étienne d’Amille, who, until this novel, had always served as a central character for the series.

In this volume, Étienne gives more of a cameo than filling a central role as the story focuses on Jules as the viewpoint character. And only Jules. For readers of the origin story prequel novelette Not the Quiet French Kid, the sibling relationships will feel familiar as Road Trip picks up a decade later and has similar threads– one more of the Zweigenbaum children discovering the family curse, a hereditary and genetic chimera condition that causes seizures and lycanthropy (otherwise known as werewolf-ism).

Barnes and Noble has purchased ALL FOUR of the Fashion and Fiends novels so if you have not read them all, here is your chance to pick up missing volumes or discover the story that appeals most to you.

1. Manipulations: A 400-year-old fire mage stalks fashion designer Étienne d’Amille’s protégé, supermodel Adelaide Pitney.
2. Courting Apparitions: A magick-fueled ghost story where lovers, exes and inseparable life partners Étienne and Basilie must explore grief, depression, love, sex and relationships–all while saving the deceased’s soul.
3. Recovery: A supernatural adventure into exotic locations in Djibouti that occurs when the French military takes an interest in Étienne’s past via his combat surgeon sister-in-law Jacqueline Saint-Ébène.
4. And now Road Trip: When Étienne disappears, can three siblings on a road trip bring him home before the danger he unleashed destroys them all and maybe the world?

Flemington Local Author Showcase

Then, on Sunday, Joseph Swarctz, creator of the Echo City Capers series and illustrator, and I will head to the Flemington (N.J.) Summer Book Festival, organized by used bookstore Act 2 Books.