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Mark Ellis publishes thrilling third novel in DCI Frank Merlin series
#1 Amazon Historical Thriller Bestseller
Many Global Top Ten/Top 20 Amazon Thriller Rankings
An Amazon Top 15 Hot New Historical Mystery Release

LONDON, England – Growing up in Swansea, birthplace of famous poet Dylan Thomas (‘Do not go gentle into that good night’), Ellis always had literary ambitions. He also had a fascination for the Second World War, which cast a long shadow over his family. His father served in the wartime Navy and died a young man from illness acquired on service while his mother told him of her terrible experiences of Luftwaffe bombing. She told him of fun times too like her attendance at tea dances in wartime London with all around laughing scornfully at the bombs and doodlebugs. Her stories made him realise that ordinary life of course carried on during war and Ellis became interested in this facet of the Home Front. While the nation was engaged in its heroic endeavour, crime was one of the ‘ordinary’ things which flourished during the period. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife and the Blitz provided scope for widespread looting and other crimes. This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world. This is the world of DCI Frank Merlin.

Mark Ellis – Mark Ellis is a thriller writer and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He grew up in Swansea, under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the second world war. His father served in the wartime navy and his mother witnessed the bombardment of Swansea in 1941. Mark has always been fascinated by World War II and, in particular, the Home Front and the criminal activity which sprung up during wartime. He has written two previous DCI Frank Merlin novels, Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold and is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association. He divides his time between homes in London and Oxford.  Visit him at www.markellisauthor.com or on Twitter at @MarkEllis15

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About the book

It is early summer 1941. Hitler is looking East and secretly preparing his invasion of Russia, giving London a temporary reprieve from the Blitz. The UK continues to suffer  severe deprivations of wartime rationing and shortages. British forces have just been defeated in Crete in their first major direct confrontation with the Germans. Vichy France has just agreed to provide the Nazis with military bases in their colonies in Syria and Lebanon provoking the Allies to invade. The US remains outside the conflict and although President Roosevelt strongly favours Britain, he is hampered in his support by influential isolationists like Ford and Lindbergh.

Despite the rousing leadership of Churchill and the resilience of the people, Britain remains a dark and fraught place, with the possibility of invasion very real. Meanwhile across the Channel in France and other occupied countries, the Nazis are strengthening their tyrannical grip and beginning to round up Jews. It is against this grim background that DC Frank Merlin battles to do his duty.

Real life personalities like Churchill, De Gaulle, Petain, Ed Murrow and Laurence Olivier cameo in this wartime thriller. With France under the Nazi thumb and Britain with its back to the wall, Scotland Yard’s detective Merlin investigates a series of disturbing events – a young girl killed in a botched abortion, a French emigré shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat, and a mysterious letter written by a British officer, gunned down in Crete. Merlin and his team are plunged into a dark world of espionage, murder, love and betrayal.
“Merlin at War: A DCI Frank Merlin Novel”
Mark Ellis | October 12, 2017 | London Wall Publishing
Format ISBN-10: 0995566712 | Price: $17.99 Hard Cover
ASIN: B06ZYW8CFB | Price: $3.82 Kindle
Thriller

Praise for Merlin at War

“Traditional well-plotted whodunit with a protagonist you will believe in and a plot that’s fresh and satisfying. A real treat.” – Oxford Mail

“Superb entertainment” – Eurocrime

“Nostalgia, sex and intrigue all rolled into one – great!” – 50Connect

“An interesting character and era… I’d like to read more” – Shots Magazine

“A real treasure” – Yorkshire Gazette

“Masterly… compelling… one of the most attractive characters to emerge in recent detective-thriller fiction” – Andrew Roberts, bestselling historian

“Richly atmospheric… authentic… calls to mind Ken Follett, Alan Furst and PD James”
–Joseph Finder, New York Times Bestselling Thriller Writer

An Interview with Mark Ellis

One of the most captivating parts of the world of Frank Merlin is the historical detail; how did you decide to weave such notable events and characters into the books?
I want to create as authentic a WW2 London for Frank Merlin’s adventures as I can. Close attention to historical detail and accuracy is imperative. Before I start writing a new book I spend several weeks intensively researching the exact period in which the story is set. In the case of Merlin At War the period is May/June 1941. To help me, I have a large and growing collection of history books, biographies, diaries and novels relating to WW2, good local libraries and then of course there is the Internet, which is now a fantastic resource for a historical novelist – if I want to find out the weather on any particular wartime day, what was on the radio, which RAF squadrons were in the air and so on, I can do do so in minutes on my iPad.

I structure my books so that each chapter covers a specific day-June 5th 1941, June 6th 1941 etc. In my research I may be looking for particular details of the day but sometimes unsearched for facts jump out and demand incorporation into my story. People likewise. I do feature a number of historical figures in all of my books. Sometimes they are simply there to help set the historical background to Merlin’s investigations and sometimes they are linked to the plots. In Merlin At War, Churchill features for historical background, while the French leader De Gaulle has a part to play in the plot. In my first book, Princes Gate, Joseph Kennedy provides historical colour but also features in the story. Similarly, Stalin in my second book, Stalin’s Gold. Authenticity, of course, comes just as much from getting the smaller details of ordinary life correct as it does from accurately reflecting the historical developments in the war and the Churchills and Stalins of the world. A great variety of ordinary life features in my books. How people entertained and enjoyed themselves interests me greatly. I loved creating one scene in Merlin At War, where Merlin and his girlfriend go to see a variety show at the famous London Palladium, a theatre in which many of America’s greatest stars have appeared over the years. I was delighted to find an old theatre programme on the internet, which gave full details of a specific show on the night on which Merlin attends. The show starred the biggest English comedian of the time Max Miller, and also on the bill, as a very young woman, was Vera Lynn, later to become an icon of the war as the singer of ‘The White Cliffs of Dover.’ Vera Lynn is amazingly still with us at the age of 100, and I like to think of her reading the book and encountering her youthful self!

How much of an influence did your parents’ experience with the war have on your process for these books?
My parents were the people most responsible for generating my keen interest in WW2 and in particular wartime life on the UK Home Front. My father was a British Navy sailor during the war and was based for some time in East Africa. I listened, fascinated, as a boy to his stories of his service there and remember vividly some frightening carvings he’d brought back with him. Sadly, he died when I was only 7, from a wasting disease he’d caught while in the tropics. My mother survived him by 52 years and so I had a little more time to listen to her tales. In the early part of the war my hometown, Swansea, a major port and industrial centre, was bombed heavily by the Germans on many occasions. My mother, then a teenager, lived on a tall hill some miles outside the town and told tales of gathering with her family in the garden to watch in horror as the bombs fell and the flames rose in the sky.

She also gave me a better perspective on ordinary wartime life. A railway worker, she benefitted from free train passes. She used these regularly to travel up to London later in the war with her friends to enjoy the capital’s sights and night life. This she did despite the fact that London was under frequent attack from the deadly German flying bombs known as ‘doodlebugs’. My mother said she and her friends enjoyed themselves oblivious to the extreme danger. They went dancing at afternoon tea dances, or in the evenings at posher places and she had happy memories of encountering many handsome American officers on the dance floors. I realised, when she was talking of her memories like this, that while the nation was engaged in its epic struggle for survival, ordinary people went on trying to live normal lives as far as they could. The normal things of life, of course, include crime which in fact grew massively during the war. This makes the period a very good one in which to set a crime novel and I thank my parents for leading me to it.

What lessons from your successful business background have helped you as a writer?
After I left Cambridge University many moons ago, I practised for a while as a barrister before going into business, first working for other people and then eventually, in my late thirties, for myself. I set up a computer services company with a friend in a small office by the river in a suburb of London. Luckily we chose to be in the right business at the right time and it prospered. After ten years it was a multi-million pound operation with offices throughout Europe and a Nasdaq public listing in New York. It attracted the attention of the major US corporation NCR and we sold the company. Shortly after I began my writing career.

Some people think that a writing career is a million miles away from a career in business. However, there are aspects of my business career which serve me well in my new life. To build a large and successful business from scratch requires, among other things, tenacity, perseverance, imagination, logical thinking, and organisational and marketing skills. All of these are essential in varying degrees to the process of getting a book down on paper, seeing it published and then selling as many copies as possible. I am, in a way, still carrying on a business career but Frank Merlin is now the enterprise!

What advice do you wish you had received prior to diving into the world of writing historical fiction?
* Not to worry too much about achieving perfection on a first draft.
* To back up drafts on more than one file when editing on a computer.
* To try and exceed your target words every day. You can!

What thriller writers do you admire?
I think we are living in another ‘golden age’ of crime fiction not only in the English speaking world but in many other countries. A non-comprehensive list of writers currently writing whom I admire would include Michael Connelly, Don Winslow, Carl Hiaasen, Lee Child, Alan Furst, Nelson De Mille and in the UK, John Le Carré, William Boyd, CJ Sansom and Philip Kerr. In other countries I love Jo Nesbo, Boris Akunin and many more while of the writers no longer with us my favourites include Simenon, Greene, Buchan, Mankell and Ambler.

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Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

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A big-hearted novel about trust, belonging, and the struggles and joys of loving one another, by debut author Corabel Shofner

Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson’s life suddenly changes the day her mother’s boyfriend holds up a convenience store and her mother is wrongly jailed for assisting in the crime. Ruby Clyde and her pet pig, Bunny, hide out during the robbery, and then afterward, terrified and very much alone, they find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor’s home. Aunt Eleanor is an ornery, solitary nun who lives in a peach orchard on Paradise Ranch. Can Ruby Clyde and Aunt Eleanor heal old wounds, save Ruby Clyde’s mother, and bring the whole family back together again?

Corabel Shofner is a wife, mother, attorney, and author. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English literature and was on Law Review at Vanderbilt University School of Law. Her shorter work has appeared or is forthcoming in Willow Review, Word Riot, Habersham Review, Hawaii Review, Sou’wester, South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, and Xavier Review. ALMOST PARADISE is her first novel. Find her on Twitter @corabel, or online at corabelshofner.com

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About the Book

Advance praise for ALMOST PARADISE:

“It’s not often that a book gets everything so right … Shofner has taken all the established, important elements of a good middle-grade novel, given them a brisk shake, and served them up to readers in way that both entertains and enlightens.” -Booklist, starred review

“Rich in Southern flavor, loaded with biblical references and even a scattering of Dickens quotes: a rollicking read.“-Kirkus Reviews

“May all the Ruby Clydes of this world have an Aunt Eleanor to love them, and may all the Aunt Eleanors of this world have a Ruby Clyde to heal them.”
-Lois Sepahban, author of Paper Wishes

“What a joy to meet a spirited heroine like Ruby Clyde Henderson and to linger over Corabel Shofner’s glorious words.” -Augusta Scattergood, award-winning author of Glory Be

“ALMOST PARADISE is fresh, original, and unforgettable … It’s impossible to read without a smile on your face and, at times, a tear in your eye.”
-Dan Gemeinhart, author of Some Kind of Courage and The Honest Truth

“Reading this unique and unforgettable story about the power of love, trust, and healing isn’t almost paradise ­it absolutely is!“
-Abby Cooper, author of Sticks and Stones

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

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Millennial financial upstart Sten Morgan shares his secrets to career achievement in ‘The Seven Mindsets of Success’

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The millennial generation is often painted with a broad brush, stained with a lack of ambition and a drive for success, but at just 30 years old, one of the country’s youngest elite financial advisers, Sten Morgan, wants to change that mentality.

In his upcoming book, “The Seven Mindsets of Success” (Morgan James, July 4, 2017), Morgan goes behind the scenes of his own entrepreneurial achievements and explains how other young professionals can rise to the top.

Morgan has a unique perspective as a successful millennial who went from $40 in the bank to an upper-six-figure income in just three years after starting his own business. Tested in a real-world context, the mindsets espoused in “The Seven Mindsets of Success” guided Morgan’s rapid business development and can help other businesses achieve new heights.

Perfect for young professionals or seasoned veterans looking for a new spark, “The Seven Mindsets of Success” is a quick read that can transform business outlooks and jumpstart dream careers.

STEN MORGAN graduated from Linfield in Oregon with a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics. In college, he interned at Northwestern Mutual selling life insurance and quickly rose to the top 10 percent of the group. After college, Morgan applied for his dream job at an investment firm and was hired on the spot. A prodigious student of the financial industry, Morgan earned his investment licenses in record time. After a few years, he decided it was time to build his own financial practice, Legacy Investment Planning. “The Seven Mindsets of Success” is his first book. Learn more at www.stenmorgan.com.

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About the Book

“The Seven Mindsets of Success” explains how to:

• Create new daily habits that boost productivity and achieve results that lead to more money, happier clients and deeper personal fulfillment.
• Confidently put business techniques into action to resolve conflicts, improve time management, balance work and family and practice generosity.
• Work harder, longer and with more purpose.

An Interview with Sten Morgan

What makes “The Seven Mindsets of Success” different than other business self-help books?
“The Seven Mindsets of Success” aims to change the mindsets of individuals that will lead to lasting change versus changing habits alone.

What led you to share your experience in “The Seven Mindsets of Success?”
After achieving a high level success in my business, many would inquire about my path that I used to get there. From there, I decided to put my strategy into a book to help others achieve that same success.

Have you always been a success-driven person?
At a young age, a lot of family turmoil was about survival versus success. It wasn’t until my 20s that I saw the rapid success happening.

Have you found that these mindsets helped your personal life as well as your career?
Yes, I apply this mindsets to all areas of my life including spiritually, physically and emotionally.

What are some common mistakes that you see people making when trying to build a successful business? People tend to look for shortcuts instead of the hard work needed. Success comes from focused intentional effort.

How would you recommend recent college graduates approach their new careers in what can often be a frustrating job market?  I would tell them to get an idea of the direction that they would like to go and start studying the field they are targeting. It is key to be more equipped than the other applicants applying for that job.

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

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Designer Justin Dauer Turns Successful Guest Article Into New
Book Cultivating a Creative Culture

After receiving high praise on his guest article, “Resetting Agency Culture,” Justin Dauer took his method a step further and turned his procedure for how to create a positive work environment into a new book, Cultivating a Creative Culture (Lead Hand Books, Release Date TBD).

The belief behind this book is simple: a happy and well-supported employee is a fueled, charged, inspired creator. Quality of work is elevated, quality of life is strengthened, and the organization’s brand becomes organically championed by the very people it supports. This book outlines how to get there, from specifying what to do on a new employee’s first day, to how to manage egos and expectations, to how to create a level playing field for all. Focusing on the human beings behind the projects facilitates them doing their best work, which leads to a successful company.

Justin Dauer graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago at a time when the job title “Web Designer” was an ethereal mystery to our moms and dads. With Josef Müller-Brockmann and user advocacy claiming equal parts of his creative heart, he’s crafted digital experiences for clients like Sony, Chase, SRAM, IBM, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Through bloodshot tunnel vision, he’s drawn from those career experiences across agency side, client side, design studio, and pure tech to foster healthy, dynamic, supportive creative cultures. In his miniscule spare time he endlessly pursues side projects over a variety of media; pixel design, and the inherent constraints of the medium, has long been near and dear to his bit-based heart. He founded The Dead Pixel Society with some of the world’s best icon designers to carry on that tradition. His published written work has covered everything from usability in video games to the value of coffee toward inspiration. Justin lives in Chicago with his family. He can happily tell you where to get the best Old Fashioned or chain-stitched selvedge denim in the city.

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Cultivating a Creative Culture

We create human-centered interactions and experiences in our field. Empathetic purpose drives our every decision. Mobile First? In reality, it’s humans first. This same mentality, turned inward, forms the cornerstone of something amazing: a creative culture.

Designers and front-enders have a unique advantage in solving the cultural problems in business that are sucking the life out of us. Several, in fact. The principles discussed in this book derive from the perspectives and skillsets we already use daily: empathy, objectivity and, yes, ample creativity. Join Justin Dauer as he notes through examples, case studies, and human-centered tactics how we can all get there.

An Interview with Justin Dauer

How did you develop the strategies for Cultivating a Creative Culture? How have your own experiences in the workplace influenced your outlook on creative culture?
Quite simply, through human observation, dialogues, listening, and enacting. Some of the strategies are practical common sense (weekly creative inspiration meetings), while others required more trial-and-error (the inspiration camp program). For my part, both positive and negative experiences in the workplace over the course of my career equally helped shape my viewpoint on what a successful creative culture is.

What was the process of adapting your guest article, “Resetting Agency Culture” into a book like?
The original article was through the lens of an agency, which is a limiter toward the bigger picture of the subject matter, ultimately. The feedback I received on that piece was from people working in all forms of media: radio, television, print, online. They cited that the themes were equally applicable to their livelihoods; this was the catalyst for expanding upon the material into book form. Copious research, dialogues with peers, and interviews with thought leaders later, here we are.

What is the number one problem in workplace culture today? What is the best way to fix this problem?
Forgetting that the human beings behind the sites we design and products we produce are, well, human. We’re not simply names on a spreadsheet and our dedication is not determined by the last out the door at night. Humility, empathy, and an well of inspiration that never depletes ultimately augments quality of work, quality of life, and the business on whole.

Where did the idea for the pink bird come from?
My incredibly talented friend and illustrator, Bobby Price, has had this character in iterative form for years. His overall illustrative style aligned perfectly with the tone of the material, so I put the concept of the book before him, and we moved forward from there. I broadly wanted a genderless character to be in the chapter illustrations, and Bobby and I conceived the idea that this character would be demonstrating / interacting with the general theme of the respective chapter in kind. His hummingbird design – a chill, pensive, self-confident little bird – was the perfect fit.

How do you best indulge in and develop your own creativity?
Idle hands absolutely drive me bonkers. Though spare time is a precious commodity in having a toddler, I’m always sketching, designing a side project, reading about my craft, refining my skill set, or pushing myself into a medium I’m not immediately comfortable in. Sleep is the ultimate causality, but coffee is my solace.

What is the number one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
Creative cultures contribute to the resounding success of an organization and the work its team creates. They permeate the interactions at our office, the meetings we attend, and the manner in which we produce. It’s very much about being focused on the human beings behind the projects and facilitating them doing their best work; getting there represents a shift in thought as much as in procedure. The good news is we all can get there.

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/

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Award-Winning Author Catherine Finger’s Latest in Thriller Series Offers Genre-Defying Romance, Revenge, and Faith

Award-winning author Catherine Finger continues to shatter the limits of both suspense and faith genres with the explosive third installment of her Jo Oliver thriller series that promises “murder with a message,” Anchored by Death (Elk Lake Publishing, Inc., Paperback, $14.99, June 2017). She seamlessly blends the genres of thriller, romance, and faith together in her Jo Oliver Thriller series.

Like her heroine Police Chief Jo Oliver, DR. CATHERINE FINGER is committed to protect and serve. But instead of handcuffs and handguns, she uses her wit and wisdom as a high school superintendent and church and community volunteer in northern Illinois. Her second Jo Oliver thriller, Shattered by Death, was a finalist in the International Book Awards and National Indie Excellence Awards. Anchored by Death is the third novel in her Jo Oliver thriller series. Learn more at CatherineFinger.com.

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Anchored by Death

Anchored by Death follows Cleansed by Death and award-winning Shattered by Death in the Jo Oliver Thriller series, and brings non-stop action with a satisfying ending.

Praise for Anchored by Death

“Catherine Finger has done it again. In this next installment of the Jo Oliver Thriller, Anchored by Death, Ms. Finger paints a picture so vivid, so real, you won’t believe you’re not in the Midwest. The issues Jo Oliver muse face are raw and real, but not too much for a great God to overcome. Hang onto your seat and enjoy the read!”
— Toni Shiloh, author of Buying Love

“Author Catherine Finger is at her best in book 3 of the Jo Oliver thriller series. Murder, non-stop action, and a satisfying ending. Anchored by Death has all the twists and turns you’ve come to expect from this superb writer.”
— William Nikkel, Amazon bestselling author of the Jack Ferrell Adventure series

A conversation with Catherine Finger

What drives Jo Oliver?
Jo Oliver seeks to make sense of her rapidly changing life and to find a place in a world that has transformed around her. As she struggles through challenges, she experiences personal renewal and restoration. Embracing the loving community she has built in her life ultimately leads her to a vibrant life of faith and adventure.

You’ve created a tension between your characters and how they experience brokenness in this world. What conditions cause one to become better, and another to become embittered by similar circumstances?
We get to choose our response to our lives and to decide who and what will shape our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. My story presents exaggerated external realities that give my characters an opportunity to choose to become better, more loving people—or not.

What is your primary message conveyed in your story?
Renewal-restoration-redemption. It’s really the message of The Cross—with a few twists thrown in!

Josie seems to be faced with some overwhelming odds. Who is her main enemy and what is her primary struggle?
Part of Josie’s struggle is with herself. She has to grow enough to shed some distorted thinking that holds her back from becoming the woman she was uniquely created to be. The difficulty of the journey serves to strengthen her to be able to walk into the renewed version of herself as her personal transformation progresses. While her flesh and blood enemies include a serial killer, she also faces periods of intense spiritual warfare.

Who is going to really love this book? Is there a primary audience? Multiple audiences, why?
I think anyone who loves a good thriller with a spiritual kick will really love this book. My characters are gritty, imperfect, human beings grappling with the vagaries of life. I write with a soft spot for anyone who has faced loss and found beauty in the new growth left behind as the old grass withers away.

What new twists can fans expect from book three?
Hold onto your hats Jo Oliver fans—stuff happens in book three! Anchored by Death springs from my love of the outdoors in general and all-things Wisconsin. I kept referring to it as a ‘romp through Wisconsin’ to my friends as I was writing it and I hiked, biked, and kayaked every route along the way. I love, love, love the ending and the surprising addition of a bold new character—Lisa Bhatt. Writing this book was a sensory pleasure for me and I hope I’ve conveyed the richness of the Wisconsin landscape along with the complexities of the human heart.

Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers. 

Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

booksforward.com/about-us/ellen-whitfield/