Author Spotlight: Amber Polo

Today we feature Amber Polo and her fantasy/paranormal novel Released. Amber has had a lifelong love affair with books, libraries and dogs. A fascination with lost ancient libraries and curiosity about why werewolves outnumbered dog-shifters in literature inspired her new cozy urban fantasy series The Shapeshifters' Library, filled with librarian dog-shifters. Released is the first volume, Retrieved is the second and Recovered will be coming soon.

To help writers and stressed readers reduce stress, her book Relaxing the Writer: Guidebook to the Writers' High offers suggestions and simple exercises.

She is also proud to be included in speculative fiction publisher Dagan Books’ anthology Bibliotheca Fantastica. “Egyptian Holiday” is a prequel to The Shapeshifters’ Library series and proves Cleopatra was a dog-shifter.

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What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?

Fantasy allows us all to dream. Speculative fiction gives writers the opportunity to say anything they choose in a genre that entertains while it makes readers think.

Why do you write in this genre?

Speculative fiction is the most freeing of all genres. It you don’t fit you make up your own sub-genre. It’s an area that is able to change faster than any other.

How did you come up with the idea for Released?

Noticing how popular werewolf stories had become, I wondered why dogs, who are so admirable, seem to be ignored. At the same time I was looking for a way to write about libraries in a way that would make them as much fun as they are. And Tah Dah!

What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

Now that I’ve said this genre is freeing, I’ll talk about the problems my genre-bending caused. When I first finished the book, I called it urban fantasy. Sure it had enough romance and a HEA to be called a paranormal romance, but it was urban fantasy set in a small town in Ohio. But the more I tried to interest publishers in the book, the more I realized many defined urban fantasy as having a kick-ass heroine. My book was not dark, violent, and lacked kinky sex. Not that my characters don’t have their big problems, or sexual tension, but the tone is light with comic relief to lighten it even more.

Next I started calling it “light urban fantasy” but that didn’t seem right either. So then a reader tired of page after page of violence and leather, called it a “cozy fantasy”.

According to Wikipedia, “cozy mysteries,” also called simply "cozies," are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously. Strangely, there are many cat lover cozies.

My book has a lot of dogs and (WARNING TO CAT LOVERS) some humorous comments at the expense of cat lovers. As for profanity, my characters use oaths such as “What in Dewey’s name is going on?” and "Thank Melville!” The word “bitch” is used because there are a lot of dogs and werewolves in in the story.

What are you working on now?

Book 3 of The Shapeshifters’ Library series, Recovered. My librarian dog-shifters race across the country to the Southwest in search of the lost books of ancient libraries. I’m having so much fun finding the fantasy along the way.

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About Released

Love dogs? Love books? Love libraries? Hate book-burning werewolves?

Welcome to the Shipsfeather, Ohio, where an ancient race of dog-shifters struggle, under an ordinary public library, to save the knowledge of the world from book-burning werewolves.

For years a curse has imprisoned the dog-shifters in the basement of the Shipsfeather Library—where they have made the best of things with a gym, a spa, a Starbarks, and, of course, their wildly successful internet company, Zoogle—but now, thanks to librarian Liberty Cutter and her zany staff, they may actually have a chance to break free. If only they can convince Liberty to believe in magic…

“…an enthralling story full of mysteries, magic, and shifters. No stone is left unturned, as all will be revealed on the journey through this mind tingling, heartfelt, and soul warming story! Easy flowing, and well written “Released” has the reader anxiously turning every page in anticipation of the next. This is such a wonderful read, it will be a great series to follow!” Melody Prat, InD’Tale Magazine.

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

You can connect with Amber Polo at her website, Facebook and Twitter.

Book Feature: A Human Element by Donna Galanti

One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next. Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite–her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ deaths the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a mad man, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together. But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his and she has two choices–redeem him or kill him.

“Galanti’s debut is a thrilling ride full of believable characters, a terrifying villain, an epic battle for survival, and a love worth killing for. A page-turner filled with fascinating twists and turns!” - Marie Lamba, author of What I Meant and Drawn

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Donna Galanti the author of the paranormal suspense novel A Human Element (Echelon Press). She is a member of International Thriller Writers, SCBWI, and Horror Writers Association. She’s lived from England as a child to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. If she couldn’t write she would bike, hike, and kayak every day. Donna lives with her family in an old farmhouse in PA with lots of nooks, fireplaces, and stinkbugs but sadly no ghosts. You can connect with her at her website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: Empyreal Fate by Rachel Hunter

Filled to the brim with forbidden love, an ancient evil, and a nation in disrepair, Empyreal Fate is a tale of riveting bravery and mortal corruption.

The land of Llathala lingers on the brink of war between men and elves, a dark history surrounding each race. Stirred by tensions of the land, a shadow of the past reemerges, taking precedence in reality and consuming the very soul of mans’ mortal weakness. Darrion, the son of a poor laborer, is ensnared in a hostile world, forced to choose between loyalty to his king or the counsel of the elves. Yet Fate has other plans in store, tying his course to Amarya, an elven royalblood of mysterious quality and unsurpassable beauty. But this forbidden connection incites betrayal from members of their own kin, marking them as traitors to the crown. In a land torn asunder, only Fate’s decree can allow such love to coexist with an ancient enmity.

Behold: A Llathalan Annal: Empyreal Fate – Part One

"This is one of those novels about destinies, magic, prophesies, betrayal, forbidden love, feuding siblings, and mystery.... We see a Robin Hood style dystopian society doomed to reach its boiling point.... It's like Romeo and Juliet meets Lord of the Rings." - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Born in 1993, Rachel Hunter has always been fascinated with words and the intricate way in which they combine. Since a child, she has been an avid writer, winding vibrant tales and elaborate stanzas on folded bits of paper.

As an author and pre-nursing student, she aspires to illuminate the creative spark of eager readers and incite intrigue by exploring new worlds and creating vast empires of her own. Empyreal Fate is only the first in her Llathalan Annal series. Indeed, it is only the beginning.

You can connect with Rachel via Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: Conner by Miranda Stork

Erin is a young psychologist, with no time for anything but her work, and unable to remember anything about her past. She leads an uneventful life, but a lonely one, in which she secretly wishes for a soulmate.

Conner is an unusual patient who approaches her, thrusting her into a strange world of darkness that runs beneath our own. He believes himself to be a creature of legend-a werewolf. But he also draws Erin with a roguish charm, and an irresisitible feeling that seems to bind them together.

Conner desperately tries to save her from an unknown evil that persues her with a relentless passion that crosses centuries, an evil that once took her very soul away, somewhere in Erin's lost memories.

As she becomes more entwined in a series of events that will remind her of who she really is, will she make it away from the oncoming darkness unscathed?

"You have to read until the very end, you are hooked, sucked in, begging for more." - Amazon Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Miranda Stork was born in Guisborough, North Yorkshire in 1987 and has lived in various places around Britain, including Newcastle and Glasgow.
Her writing is inspired by various writers, including the vivid characters of Charles Dickens, the imagination of Stephen King, and the gothic imagery of Anne Rice.

Her love of horror began at an early age, when she was only three or four. She could read proficiently at the age of three and devoured fairy-stories but always had a bent towards the darker stories, such as the Brothers Grimm's tales. Red Riding Hood was always a firm favourite, although she always felt sorry for the wolf, despite him having tried to eat everyone!

You can connect with her at her blog and via Facebook or Twitter.