Friends & Recommended Reads — Michael C. Sahd

Editor · Author

Laura Pruett

Laura is my editor and a friend. For years she spent more time fixing other people's manuscripts than writing her own—mine among them—before she started publishing work under her own name.

Just A Little Christmas B&E is a short holiday thriller she first released in pieces on Kindle Vella. Matt is no thief, but homelessness is close, and he's sitting outside an empty house with the promise of quick cash pulling at him.

A moment of weakness turns into a confrontation that puts his morals on the line. The whole thing runs under an hour, ends with a turn you may not see coming, and the Kindle edition includes the original Vella poll results so you can see how readers steered the story. She's also written children's picture books, and she has more stories waiting on the shelf. If you want a door into her work, or just to see what she's building next, start at her site.

Visit laurapruett.com

Erotic fantasy · Adult readers

Wynona Pearl

Wynona Pearl writes erotic fantasy for adult readers—stories where passion and magic sit in the same room. Gedra Gets A Gift is a holiday novella that stands on its own in the Gedra Gets A Man line. Gedra is racing to create the ultimate species and realizes she left out one piece: elves.

Christmas is coming, Santa is available, and she has to figure out how to convince him to sample what she's offering. It's playful, explicit, and not for kids. The novella first appeared on Kindle Vella before that program ended; the longer Gedra Gets A Man story is still a work in progress.

Merchandise from the Gedra books is also out there if that's your kind of thing. If you like fantasy with steam and a sense of humor, this is a clear place to sample her voice. Fair warning up front: these books are written for adults.

Amazon author page Gedra Gets A Gift Gedra merchandise

Cover of A Goth & Her Critters by Shannon Underwood

Coloring books · Cute & creepy

Shannon Underwood

Shannon Underwood makes coloring books where cute and creepy share the page. A Goth & Her Critters is full of ghosts, goblins, bats, cats, and other spooky friends set in haunted libraries, moonlit gardens, cozy graveyards, and little gothic hideaways.

The line art is bold and clean, printed one-sided so markers are less likely to bleed through, and it's meant for older kids, teens, and adults who like a gentle kind of spooky. A Goth and Her Gifts takes the same world into Christmas—big-eyed goth girls, bats, ghosts, and critters wrapped up with cocoa, candles, holly, and moonlight.

Same clean outlines, same single-sided pages. Each book runs about eighty-eight pages. Shannon talks about Victorian touches, whimsical fantasy, and worlds that lean more magical than frightening. If you want a coloring book that isn't ordinary holiday fare, or something Halloween-adjacent you can sit with for a while, these two are an easy place to start.

A Goth & Her Critters A Goth and Her Gifts

Fiction

J.R. Woods

J.R. Woods wrote Police Story, a long, gritty novel set in a city coming apart. There's a new leader, corruption everywhere, police for sale, and a city under siege.

Bradley Logan doesn't care about any of that. He just wants to find his cousin—and when he does, it's too late. Inside the fence, a former nurse and a child fight to survive in a camp.

An ex-soldier leads guerrillas trying to free people like them; under him, a man called Creep takes a ragtag group toward a family trapped in the city of Ashe. Elsewhere you've got a drug trafficker with his own army, a radio operator spreading propaganda while her doubts catch up with her, a religious cult purging the countryside, corrupt cops in working-class neighborhoods, and a paramilitary force guarding the wealthy. Right and wrong get thrown out as civilization tips. It's dirty and crowded with factions. If you want fiction that doesn't tidy up the mess, this is that kind of book.

Police Story on Amazon

Cover of Religion Versus The Rule Of Law by Murselle McMillan

Faith · Healing · Civic life

Murselle McMillan

Murselle McMillan writes about faith, healing, and what it means to live your beliefs as a citizen. Religion Versus The Rule Of Law is a short book that asks whether faith and the rule of law can coexist—and argues that they must. She draws on Scripture and American history, connecting the Garden of Eden to the U.S.

Constitution, weaving in personal stories and biblical insight, and inviting believers toward both spiritual renewal and civic responsibility. Who's Going to Monitor Me? comes from a different place: after open-heart surgery, she found a spiritual wound she hadn't expected, even though she thought her relationship with God was fine.

The book offers practical notes on what to expect after surgery, how to work with several doctors at once, fighting depression in recovery, and the idea that a spiritual wound isn't a sin problem. She includes stories from others facing their own traumas. Both books are short and direct. If those questions are on your mind, they're worth a look.

Religion Versus The Rule Of Law Who's Going to Monitor Me?