Bookable Space

Love being read to? Hosted by Yvonne Battle-Felton, this episode features Peter Marlton reading from Eternal Graffiti.About the author: Peter Marlton is the pseudonym for Pete MacDonald, who has discovered that writing fiction under another name can be psychologically and artistically liberating—it somehow skirts, without wholly avoiding, the imposter syndrome. Stories and essays published as Pete MacDonald have appeared in The New York Times, The Battered Suitcase (a novella), Inkwell Journal, Barrellhouse Magazine, and others. His original screenplay was a finalist in the Austin Screenwriting Competition. About the book: “I don’t know if this is a confession or a purge, a scream or a lullaby,” begins twenty-seven-year-old Owen Kilroy’s journal, in which he writes about the remarkable women—friends and lovers—who’ve come and gone and who have shaped his life, as well as the many varieties of heartbreak he’s experienced. Owen revisits himself as a seventeen-year-old guitar player, songwriter, and drug dealer in a small, fictional California desert town. He relives being arrested, violently, by half the town’s police force and sent to juvenile prison. He faces the pain of being disowned by his mother and having his father disappear. And he re-experiences inadvertently killing his girlfriend by providing her with drugs. After escaping from juvenile prison, ending up broke, desperate, and homeless in Venice Beach, he eventually meets Kiera, a nineteen-year-old Irish student at UCLA. She is the great love of his life, a love that he knows would cripple him if he were to lose her. Now, ten years later, Owen discovers that writing about her and all that came before isn’t enough. If he is to move on, he realizes he must go back to California and face his ghosts directly.

Like being read to? Hosted by Yvonne Battle-Felton, this episode of Bookable Space features Marisa Noelle reading from The Unraveling of Luna Forester.BIO: Marisa Noelle is the writer of middle grade & young adult novels in the genres of science-fiction, fantasy, horror & mental health including The Shadow Keepers, The Unadjusteds Trilogy (The Unadjusteds, The Rise of the Altereds, & The Reckoning), The Mermaid Chronicles – Secrets of the Deep & Quest for Atlantis, & The Unravelling of Luna Forester. She is a mentor for the Write Mentor program that helps aspiring MG & YA authors. About the book: MATTHEW HAS ALWAYS PROTECTED LUNA’S SECRET.NOW HE MUST PROTECT HER LIFE. When his best friend Luna is found catatonic after a devastating house fire, Matthew begins to fall apart. “Take care of them, Matthew.”“Always.”“Protect my secret.”“Of course.” That’s the promise he made to her only three nights ago. A solemn vow to protect their large found family of humans and supernatural creatures alike. Fated to love her for the rest of his life, and unwilling to break his solemn vow, Matthew knows the only person who can help Luna is her grandmother. Through the woods they must go, just like a fairytale. But the forest is filled with deadly peril: poisonous black moss, chimeras, and worst of all, members of their family who don't want them to continue. As they are picked off one by one, Matthew races to get Luna to safety, all the time doubting everything he thought was true. Can Matthew untangle the twisted threads of Luna’s secret before he himself unravels?

Hosted by Yvonne Battle-Felton, this episode of Bookable Space features Michele Sheldon with The Macaw of Doom.Michele is the author of the Missing Fur series, children’s books themed around endangered species and conservation. The second in the series The Macaw of Doom was published in May. Michele worked as a journalist for many years and also writes short stories, plays and short comedy films including The Beast of Romney Marsh and Skulduggery. About the book: The Macaw of Doom  Bernard's long-lost cousin Ytsan arrives out of the blue with a beautiful macaw called Duke and a very smart African Grey parrot named Jesse. However, is the cousin all he seems? Ytsan begins to turn Bernard against his best friend Larold and she embarks on a race against time to uncover the truth with the help of monkeys Emile, Zola and Titus, giant anteater Armando and his super-furred cat companion Loki. But is it too late? Will the Wildlife Hero of the Year be stripped of his title forever?The book follows The Mystery of the Missing Fur where Bernard rescues three rare Amazonian monkeys from a short-sighted trophy hunter, battles against a vain shampoo model/celebrity who tries to steal the monkeys for his own gain and finally solves what happened to his parents, both conservationists.