Upcoming Books

The Bear Flag

by Cecelia Holland

Release Date: March 18, 2021

The year is 1846, and war is brewing between the United States and Mexico. Under the pretext of a scientific research expedition, Lt. John C. Fremont arrives in Sutter’s Fort with Kit Carson, famous Indian Scout, and a few men. Also arriving in Sutter’s Fort is Cat Reilly, who has been widowed on the long trip west and is now in desperate circumstances. She becomes romantically involved with a Russian count as well as in Fremont and Carson’s political scheming and maneuvers. Soon, she is plunged into a political maelstrom as Fremont sets up a California Republic and later brings California into the union.

A Matter of Security

by Bjorn Hasseler

Release Date: March 25, 2021

Edgar Neustatter leads a group of men from the same village who were captured in a battle during the Thirty Years War, and incorporated into Wallenstein’s army. When Wallenstein is then defeated by Gustavus Adolphus and his American allies at the Battle of the Alte Veste, they just want go home. But once they arrive home, Neustatter and his men rebel against the oppressions of the local nobleman. The intervening years have changed them.

Taking their families with them, they return to the freedom of Grantville. Medics, blacksmiths, and day laborers can all find work. But the city from the future counts cowboys and detectives among its heroes—and still needs them.

It’s a matter of security—a subject they are very familiar with. So, Neustatter, Astrid Schäubin, and others from the village create NESS: Neustatter European Security Services. Thereafter, they must deal with mercenaries, schools, religious conflicts, and the day-to-day challenges of living in a boom town while taking security jobs for a variety of clients. Does NESS have the training, firepower, and mindset to survive?

The Melody of Memory

by Cheryl Brin

Release Date: April 1, 2021

For centuries the colonists of Tyra suffered unexplained cycles of collapse and dark ages. Now, just as civilization seems to be clawing its way back, is that curse repeating, yet again?

Aya Voss is perennially unlucky. Caught as a child on the wrong side of the border, she grows up separated from homeland and family, always the outsider, isolated and tormented. Drafted out of school to help manufacture weapons for use against her own people, Aya struggles to survive and to rejoin those she left behind, as devastating war and plague and madness tear away all she knows.

Amid the tragic cycles on this world, people retained one consistent technology—tying unpleasant memories to a melody, then stashing them safely away in a box. At times a blessing, memory boxes long ago became tools of repression, hobbling humanity’s ability to learn from mistakes.

Might Aya’s new generation be the one to break this cycle at last and forge destiny anew?       

The Melody of Memory is a coming-of-age story, as Aya manages to join—and then help lead—a revolution. A revolution of courage and purpose, to see past her own pain and Tyra’s. To help heal a wounded world.