The Gambit

Terrorism for profit.

In The Gambit,terrorist events are "engineered" to spike global oil markets for personal profit and political and strategic goals.
The audacious manipulation of events soon spirals oil prices out of control, undermining economies and the reelection prospects of a U.S. president, co-opted by the actions of the conspiracy underway. A conspiracy led by a wealthy Saudi prince who has the goods on the occupant of the White House; a conspiracy operating under the cover of shadowy militant groups, seducing a Houston oilman to subjecting his own company to terrorist assault.
Tipped off by a mysterious Lebanese banker, the U.S. mounts a furious effort to thwart the operation. But, it becomes eerily apparent that the President's first priority is to terminate the banker at all costs. Hastings, the top American intelligence official, acting against orders, desperately attempts to keep the banker alive long enough to understand the full dimensions of the treachery underway, culminating in the truth about the Prince and President dumped upon an unsuspecting electorate in the closing days of the election.
The Gambit's wild ride through scheming oil traders, unstable markets, political blackmail, desperation and greed produces an uncomfortable premise: to what extent has the conspiracy already occurred?

Book Themes

• American Presidential Election Campaign
• Corruption in the White House
• Director, National Intelligence and the CIA
• Enron Debacle/Syriana
• Hezbollah
• Houston and Oil
• Iran and Oil
• Lebanon
• Media Manipulations
• Middle Eastern Terrorism
• Oil Markets and Terrorism
• Oil Price Conspiracy and Manipulation
• Oil Trading
• Saudi Arabia and Oil
• Saudi Royal Family
• U.S. Energy Policy

About Gary Nunnally
Gary Nunnally spent nearly thirty years in the global petroleum business, including many years as an oil trader. Experiences and encounters in the oil trading wars inspired The Gambit. He and his family presently live in Houston.

To visit the website, click on the link above to be redirected.
Gary's website was made by the designers at the Mill City Press. To find out more about how to get your own author website, view our publishing package at http://www.millcitypress.net/Book-Publishing-Services.cfm.

The Fourteenth Year

The Fourteenth Year is a memoir narrated by a young girl whose unrelenting strength somehow carries her through the throes of an extinguished childhood. Her story begins as she attempts to reclaim control of her life from the steamy grip of her biological father. As she describes the exhausting legal process, the
details of the past fourteen years unfold into the culminating showdown between a dad and a daughter.

For Kelly, life is dictated by a sexually and emotionally abusive father whose selfproclaimed deification demands subservience by all. No protection is offered by the emotionally detached mother, who does nothing to stop him. Their daughter must find a way to remain psychologically intact as the abuse worsens, to where
eventually leaving the house or even watching television had a sexual price tag. While looking for safety, she discovers the plague of immorality and mental illness that motivates the behavior of the people in her environment .

She survives the moments that need surviving, with glimmering pieces of hope, humor and memories that bring joy and a sense of direction to her troubled soul.
She must now take that control and make the life for herself she knows is possible.

About Kelly
Kelly Watt lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan with her husband and children. She works as a Registered Nurse and speaks at conferences and fund raising events on the topic of child abuse whenever possible. She is actively engaged in
raising awareness of the sensitive issue of child abuse.

To find out more about Kelly Watt, read some chapters online, or to buy her book, click on the link above. For more information about joining the ranks of authors published by Mill City Press, visit http://www.millcitypress.net/.

Wake of the Raven

Wake of the Raven is a story of the world's corruption, of forbidden desire and its awful consequences.

In 1951, Stuart seeks to repair his broken marriage, and heads back to England in pursuit of his faithless wife. He must first cross the South China Sea to Singapore, a minor step in the voyage. But when an accident burdens him with the care of a precocious girl, the journey becomes a nightmarish odyssey through storm, desire and death.

The mere hundred miles or so of sea is now an impassable barrier, confining him and his bitter thoughts to a narrow strip of sand and jungle, and he is reduced to an animal struggle for survival, with nothing but the girl and thoughts of the dead to help him.

Like all people, evil wars in him with good, fear with ambition, desire with conscience. But when the girl's greater problems arouse his sympathy, it seems that good will triumph, for he unselfishly promises his help.
The result is a disaster that strides towards him fully armed, with disgrace, murder and suicide clenched in its fists.

About Graham Worthington, the author of Wake of the Raven
Worthington wrote his first story when he was eleven in England. Then real life intervened, and for years he travelled the world, collecting true stories that were stranger than fiction. He now lives in London and Toronto.


Published by Mill City Press, Inc. January 10, 2007.
To buy this book, click on "Wake of the Raven" above to be redirected or visit http://www.amazon.com/.

Perpich Arts High School Students featured in the Star Tribune

Lit Kids: Mama Bird and the Electric Rabbit, a book recently published by Mill City Press, was featured Monday 25 June, 2007 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Lit Kids is a collection of original work written by 31 senior and junior high school students from the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, MN. The students received a grant from the Perpich Foundation and raised the rest of the publishing costs through bake sales and readings at the Walker Art Center.

Micawbers Books (2238 Carter Ave., St. Paul) will host a reading July 18th at 7:00 p.m. Lit Kids books are available for purchase at Magers and Quinn (3038 Hennepin Ave. S, Minneapolis).

To read the full article from the Star Tribune, click on the link above. Please visit http://www.millcitypress.net/ for more information on how to publish your book!

Author Tip No. Three: The ISBN

The intials ISBN stand for International Standard Book Number, a unique 10- or 13-digit number assigned to published books. Take a look at any book on your shelf. The ISBN is found near the barcode on the back cover. The numbers within the ISBN are grouped and separated by hyphens or spaces. These groups indicate the country of publishing, the publisher, and an item number specific to the title and edition of the book. ISBNs are an optional investment (in most countries) and even if purchased, do not have to be displayed on the cover. However, those numeric identifiers are useful in the book trade and essentially imperative if you want to sell your book to the public. Books without an ISBN and a listing in Books in Print (the official, comprehensive listing of books, publishers, and ISBNs) are far more difficult to order, distribute, and market. A book without an ISBN is equivalent to inexistence within the industry.

For further information about ISBNs, how to get one, and Books in Print, visit bowker.com or click on the link above. Another excellent resource can be found at http://www.isbn-international.org/index.html.

Self-Publishing Might Be for You If...

Did you know that some traditional publishing houses deduct money from their authors if their books don't sell? Self-publishing might be for you if want to avoid the risk of losing money on unsold books.

Publishing houses often offer retail bookstores a 100% refund on unsold books. Say you have published with a publishing house, and it has placed 150 of your books in a bookstore; if after some months there are a few books left on their shelves, they can return the books to the publisher for a full refund. Not only do they refund the bookstore the total monies paid for those books, they also deduct that total from your account. Also factor in that due to the full refund policy, the bookstore will have little or no incentive to push the sale your book!

Unique to many self-publishing companies, there is no loss of money for you the author because you have some options. As a self-published author you may sell your book through an online retailer which does not have to worry about unsold books sitting a shelf because it does not actually hold or distribute any books. In addition, you may choose to sell and distribute the books personally using website or blog and a tool like PayPal (used on eBay). Both of these options bypass the risk of having unsold books returned to you and/or losing the money you paid to have those books printed and sold.

At Mill City Press, we offer book distribution through Mill City Press or individual distribution, as well as availability through online retailers as part of a personal marketing plan. If you choose to have us fulfill your book orders, you simply pay to have a certain number of books printed, and we keep the books here until they are sold--no return of books to you and no money deducted from your account. Visit our website by clicking on the link above.

The Saturn Return

This book, The Saturn Return was published by Mill City Press and is featured on the video sharing site www.youtube.com.



Mark Levine has also written The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 48 Major Self-Publishing Companies – Analyzed, Ranked & Exposed (http://www.book-publishers-compared.com/) and I Will Faithfully Execute, a political thriller (listen to podcast at http://writingshow.com/?p=231), also published by Mill City Press.

To find out more about getting your book published, please visit www.millcitypress.net.

Great Book Cover Design

An eye-catching book cover can be crucial to the sale of your book. Think of how many times you have stood before two different items and weighed the factors influencing your purchase. At some point in your consumer-life, you have made a purchase at least partially affected by how a certain product looks. Now picture yourself browsing online and combatting the myriad pop-up advertisements and links to websites competing for your attention. Every once in a while you are actually tempted to follow the link to a page based on an attractive or intriguing image. A well-designed cover for your book will have the same compelling effect when a user is browsing on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble's website. The image of your book cover may arouse curiosity and cause the reader to find out more about the book.

Mill City Press has skilled and versatile graphic designers who will provide your work with a cover design or book jacket that will complement and draw readers into the text inside.

Here are a few stunning examples of book covers done by designers for Mill City Press:

If you are looking to publish your book, take advantage of Mill City Press' publishing package which gives you the author full rights and ownership over the book cover design and layout, including the digital files. Visit www.millcitypress.net or click on the link above to take you directly to our page describing that portion of our services.

A Contest for a Publishing Contract?

We are a self-publishing company and believe it is possible to make money and yes, even become a bestselling author by self-publishing your work. Just look at Richard Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. He started out by self-publishing and has been on the bestseller lists for 5 years running!

But, if your main aim of self-publishing is to attract a top literary agent, and in turn, a traditional publisher for your work, there is a site you should become familiar with. Gather, best described as a MySpace for grown-ups, is growing fast and declares to its users, "It's a place where you can contribute thought, art, commentary, or inspiration." Don't visit Gather expecting blasting music and girls in bikinis (although you may find some).

Gather is looking for you. Specifically, they are looking for you to write content, content that generates discussion. Based on the interest discussion, they will even share a small portion of their ad revenue in the form of GatherPointsTM. Could it get any better?

Yes, well, it can. The Gather First Chapters Writing Competition has just been announced. For novelists looking for their big break, winners receive the following:

• a publishing contract with Touchstone/Simon & Schuster

• a $5,000 cash prize from Gather.com

• promotion and distribution by Borders

Visit firstchapters.gather.com for more information on the contest, rules, and deadlines.

Terry Whalin and "The Writing Life"

If you are a writer (or even just a humble publishing employee), and chances are, if you are reading this, you fit the bill. You should know about Terry Whalin. A writer and editor by trade he knows both sides of the publishing equation: those who write and those who publish. His blog feed is full of informative, useful information for authors. As an editor reading hundreds of book proposals a year, he also has a good look at what it takes to get noticed above the rest. Easy, it's not, you'll find, for a writer with a good book to have editors take a second look.

Terry doesn't sugar coat it, but makes it apparent what hard work selling a book is in every post. Writing it might be the easiest thing you do. Promoting it (and any future books you may write) is a life-long activity.

Some newsletters I sign up for and rarely read. But Terry's The Writing Life blog and Right Writing website are like a course at NYU. Always worth the time and when used properly, a lot of hard work. But if you are looking for a good, general overview of all things author related, his sites are a must-read.