J.B. Manning

Small Business Celebrates Big—
Buy Three, Get One Free!

Encircle Publications is a small, independent publisher with big dreams of bringing you a large selection of must-read books, so we’re celebrating with a Sale—Buy Three, Get One Free!

It’s simple: go to encirclepub.com and purchase at least 3 paperbacks at the regular price*. Then send us your (1) Order Number and (2) the name of your Free Paperback selection via Messenger or email us at [email protected], and we’ll add it to your order, free of charge.

Choose from Mysteries, Thrillers, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Satire, Westerns, Poetry Collections, and More!

Featuring:
📖 Mike Befeler
📖 Cynthia Brackett-Vincent,
📖 John Breneman
📖 Shelley Burbank,
📖 Richard Cass
📖 Erin Castaldi
📖 Dane Cobain
📖 Matt Cost-Author
📖 Sharon L. Dean
📖 Catherine Dilts
📖 Kate Flora
📖 David Gardner
📖 Phyllis Gobbell
📖 Bruna Gomes
📖 D. E. Green
📖 George Guida
📖 Vaughn C. Hardacker
📖 Christopher Hawke
📖 Joe Kilgore
📖 J. K. Knauss
📖 Leonard Kress
📖 Al Lamanda
📖 Paul Lindholdt
📖 Scott Lipanovich
📖 Nylah Lyman
📖 BJ Magnani
📖 J.B. Manning
📖 S. Lee Manning
📖 Sarah Beth Martin
📖 Alison L. McLennan
📖 Mark J. Mitchell
📖 Tom Murphy
📖 D-L Nelson
📖 Muriel Nelson
📖 Anne Britting Oleson
📖 Kenneth Pobo
📖 Edward J. Rielly
📖 Harry F. Rey
📖 Russell Rowland
📖 Jay Ruud,
📖 Tom Schmidt
📖 Lois Schmitt
📖 Clemens Carl Schoenebeck
📖 CB Shanahan
📖 William Snyder Jr.
📖 Kevin St. Jarre
📖 Jadena Felina Stevens
📖 Karen Hanson Stuyck
📖 John Surowieki
📖 Teresa Sutton
📖 Thea Sutton
📖 A. J. Thibault
📖 Georgia Tiffany
📖 Lara Tupper,
📖 Ana Vidosavljevic
📖 C. M. Wendelboe
📖 Julie Weston
📖 Leslie Wheeler
📖 James C Work
📖 And more!

*Sale applies to paperback editions only, and does not include hardcover editions or CYNTHIA’S WORKSHOP POETRY CLASS. Sale ends at midnight on Monday, 11/27/2023.

Congratulations again to J.B. Manning for his win at Killer Nashville last weekend: his debut novel, RICHTER THE MIGHTY, won the Silver Falchion Award for Best Action Comedy!

From the Killer Nashville website:
Since 2008, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards have recognized the best stories from the previous year told through various media utilizing the elements of mystery, thriller, and/or suspense in multiple genres. Judges are professional writers, book reviewers, librarians, academics, and—in specialized cases—specific industry peers. The focus is on quality, not popularity.

You can get your copy of this award-winning, rip-roaring, humorous political thriller directly from Encircle Publications at https://encirclepub.com/product/richter-the-mighty/ and wherever you find your favorite books!

(Find more handy links in the comments...)

“Vermont-based author Manning exhibits a well-honed sense of the absurd in a silly but humorously absorbing debut.… Manning lays the head-spinningly satirical groundwork for all of these eerily familiar antics with the ease of a seasoned comedian.… This is a brilliantly conceived parody. A sprawling, cleverly imagined spoof of political culture and the miscreants it spawns.”
—Kirkus Reviews on RICHTER THE MIGHTY

Story in The News & Citizen about Richter The Mighty winning a Silver Falchion Award for Best Comic Novel of 2022!

Vermont author wins award for comic novel Vermont author J.B. Manning has won a Silver Falchion Award for “Richter The Mighty,” which was judged Best Comic Novel of 2022 at the recent Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference.

Very grateful to Encircle Publications for accepting and believing in Richter The Mighty!

Congratulations again to J.B. Manning for his win at Killer Nashville last weekend: his debut novel, RICHTER THE MIGHTY, won the Silver Falchion Award for Best Action Comedy!

From the Killer Nashville website:
Since 2008, the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards have recognized the best stories from the previous year told through various media utilizing the elements of mystery, thriller, and/or suspense in multiple genres. Judges are professional writers, book reviewers, librarians, academics, and—in specialized cases—specific industry peers. The focus is on quality, not popularity.

You can get your copy of this award-winning, rip-roaring, humorous political thriller directly from Encircle Publications at https://encirclepub.com/product/richter-the-mighty/ and wherever you find your favorite books!

(Find more handy links in the comments...)

“Vermont-based author Manning exhibits a well-honed sense of the absurd in a silly but humorously absorbing debut.… Manning lays the head-spinningly satirical groundwork for all of these eerily familiar antics with the ease of a seasoned comedian.… This is a brilliantly conceived parody. A sprawling, cleverly imagined spoof of political culture and the miscreants it spawns.”
—Kirkus Reviews on RICHTER THE MIGHTY

Winner of the Silver Falchion Award for Best Comedy at Killer Nashville! I am gobsmacked!

President Richter: un-indicted! But a worse fate?

Richter The Mighty Cody and her little brother Billy are on the run, hunted by the most powerful man in the world: their father-President Wilhelm Hickory Richter. A bloated septuagenarian from Jacksonville with erectile dysfunction and a young, contemptuous, cat-collecting wife, President Richter is facing financia...

Excited to learn that Richter The Mighty has been named as a finalist in two categories for Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Award: Best Action/Adventure and Best Comedy! https://www.amazon.com/Richter-Mighty-J-B-Manning/dp/1645994325

Congratulations to S. Lee Manning, whose gripping thriller Bloody Soil is a finalist in the Action/Adventure category! (That's my lovely wife! We're going to have to fight it out!) https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Soil-Kolya-Petrov-Thriller/dp/164599404X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RKRC0WWWSL2U&keywords=Bloody+Soil&qid=1690058963&s=books&sprefix=bloody+soil%2Cstripbooks%2C126&sr=1-1

Great review from Teresa J. Sopp on Amazon! "If you like, Carl, Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey, you will love this book. It is a rollicking, hilarious, send up of recent historical events, which will leave your side aching from laughing so much. Manning has done a great job of spoofing and puncturing the pompous, self important personae dotting are political and cultural landscape. Throw in some side plots involving great French locales, and transport, the reader from the Okefenokee swamp to Paris. This book is way too much fun to read. Spread the word."

Richter The Mighty Cody and her little brother Billy are on the run, hunted by the most powerful man in the world: their father-President Wilhelm Hickory Richter. A bloated septuagenarian from Jacksonville with erectile dysfunction and a young, contemptuous, cat-collecting wife, President Richter is facing financia...

Happy New Book Day, Kevin St.Jarre!

"Cinematic, timeless, and well-executed, Absence of Grace will stick with you long after reading the final page.”
— Bruce Robert Coffin, award-winning author of the Detective Byron Mysteries

“Part Jacob's Ladder, part Dan Brown's Inferno, St. Jarre's Absence of Grace is a dizzying, full-tilt ride into the origins of evil and those who pull the strings behind it. I couldn't put it down.”
—Katherine Silva, award-winning author of The Wild Dark

“A whirlwind of an adventure story constructed with horror, metaphysical, and religious/spiritual elements, both familiar and obscure, to dark and delicious effect.… A bit X-FILES. A bit Stephen King. Incredibly readable and at the same time intellectually satisfying…”
—Shelley Burbank

ABSENCE OF GRACE by Kevin St. Jarre is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook—get yours today!

“In 1945, Council picked out an older novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that had never achieved popular success. It sold just 120 copies the previous year, and another 33 in 1945 before going out of print. The 155,000 copies of The Great Gatsby that they shipped out to the troops dwarfed all its previous print runs combined. Buoyed by that exposure, it would go on to become one of the great publishing successes of the 20th century.”

Publishers Gave Away 122,951,031 Books During World War II And, in the process, they created a nation of readers.

Thank you to Matt Cost for the five-star review of Richter the Mighty on Goodreads!
"If Carl Hiaasen and Andy Borowitz were to have a baby, out would pop President Wilhelm Hickory Richter, who is anything but mighty, and in fact, might be quite the opposite. He is a corpulent buffoon of corruption who barrels through life as the most powerful man in the world with utter disregard to anybody but himself, chewing his way through a myriad of cheeseburgers, alcohol, and co***ne while playing patsy to his Russian counterparts. The heroes are his two children who he is trying to silence through having them murdered as they race to stay alive to expose the gluttony that is Richter. Manning has created a madcap and rollicking yarn of nonstop action, laughs, and cringe worthy moments that will keep you churning through the pages like he does cheeseburgers."
Encircle Publications

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Daydream Believer Are you or were you a maladaptive daydreamer? I was. Only I didn't know that's what I was. Most of my life as a child, a teenager, and as a college student, I spent daydreaming. Not just the...

Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont Books Seven Days writers can't possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable...

"A corrupt, murderous president dispatches Russian hit men to stop his own children from uncovering a terrible secret, all while trying to track down a stolen fortune. President Wilhelm "Hick" Richter's reign is threatened when his daughter and her younger brother discover he murdered his first wife. As Richter plots with foreign agents to secure his reelection and stave off financial ruin, the country roils in tumult in J.B. Manning's political farce.

"It's a madcap debut novel for the Elmore resident. A former attorney and college professor in New Jersey and New York City, Manning has published poetry in the New Yorker, but his tale of a bloated, morally bankrupt president and his beyond-dysfunctional family marks his first foray into fiction — one that seems to mirror recent events in American history. As he spins the tale of President Richter, with settings ranging from Florida to Washington, D.C., to Paris, Manning takes an absurdist look at modern politics and all the fantastically ridiculous characters who inhabit such a world."

Page 32: Short Takes on Five Vermont Books Seven Days writers can't possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable...

Bloody Soil: A Kolya Petrov Thriller Bloody Soil: A Kolya Petrov Thriller

Unlike some presidents, Richter was never "indicated"...https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rages-grand-jury-indictment-election-interference-1234706657/

RICHTER THE MIGHTY | Kirkus Reviews A satirical skewering of the machinations of a despicable fictional American president.

"In some ways, it may be a conceit of the profession that so many lawyers seem to harbor dreams of writing fiction. Lawyers are smart (or at least smart enough to pass the bar), they’re verbal, they deal in conflict – the central element of any story -- and writing is a key part of their job."

You're a lawyer, but are you a writer? International lawyer Gary Born made his mark as an author years ago, penning a three-volume, 4,250 page treatise on arbitration that’s regularly cited by high courts around the world.

Richter The Mighty Cody and her little brother Billy are on the run, hunted by the most powerful man in the world: their father-President Wilhelm Hickory Richter. A bloated septuagenarian from Jacksonville with erectile dysfunction and a young, contemptuous, cat-collecting wife, President Richter is facing financia...

“Mr. Clarke said that chatbot-generated fiction could raise ethical and legal questions, if it ever passed literary muster. He said he did not want to pay ‘for the work the algorithm did’ on stories generated by someone who had entered prompts into an algorithm.
“‘Who owns that, technically?’ Mr. Clarke said. ‘Right now, we’re still in the early days of this technology, and there are a lot of unanswered questions.”’

Science Fiction Magazines Battle a Flood of Chatbot-Generated Stories While the deluge has become a nuisance, the stories are easy to spot. The writing is “bad in spectacular ways,” one editor said.

Sandy and I discussed Bloody Soil and Richter The Mighty—and life as “A Killing Couple”—at the Story and Song Bookstore Bistro in Fernandina Beach FL, with Teresa J. (Teri) Sopp as the expert moderator! Great questions from a great audience! Encircle Publications Story & Song Bookstore Bistro

Some great books!

WINNER OF THE GREAT MAPLE SYRUP GIVEAWAY
The December maple syrup giveaway has ended. The rules for being eligible for the big drawing (or for the smaller prizes) required either posting a review or answering two questions AND being a subscriber to my newsletter. Martha Haynes, Teri Sopp, Reed Bunzel, Kay Kendall, and Matt Cost posted reviews and will receive a book of maple syrup recipes from Vermont maple syrup producers. Only one person, Doug Levandowski, answered the two questions posed on my website and posted a review, so he will receive a taster bottle of Vermont maple syrup AND the recipe book.
All of the above were entered into the drawing for the gallon of maple syrup, which was verified by an independent auditor (my husband Jim). And the winner (drum roll please) - Teri Sopp. Congrats.

Looking forward to this event at Midtown Reader in Tallahassee on February 16!

A Killing Couple w/ S. Lee Manning & J.B. Manning | Midtown Reader

Did you get a pile of Encircle Publications’ books this year? We hope so, but if your answer is no, it's not too late to stock up on some of the best new fiction available today!

Encircle's books are available through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon online and from your favorite local bookseller.

Here is a small sampling of the wide variety of fantastic fiction Encircle has to offer... to browse all of our titles, visit encirclepub.com today!

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From our hearts to yours,
wishing you comfort and joy
and extra reading time
this holiday season and
all through the year!

Sending you all our best,
Cynthia, Eddie, Chris, and Deirdre
— aka Encircle Publications 🌟

With Mike Befeler, John Breneman, Shelley Burbank, Richard Cass, Dane Cobain, Matt Cost-Author, Sharon L. Dean, Catherine Dilts, Kate Flora, David Gardner, Phyllis Gobbell, Bruna Gomes, George Guida, Vaughn C. Hardacker, Christopher Hawke, Joe Kilgore, Jessica Knauss, Al Lamanda, Scott Lipanovich, BJ Magnani, J.B. Manning, S. Lee Manning, Sarah Beth Martin, Alison L. McLennan, Tom Murphy, D-L Nelson, Anne Britting Oleson, Harry F. Rey, Jay Ruud, Lois Schmitt, CB Shanahan, Kevin St. Jarre, Karen Hanson Stuyck, Joanne Sundell, Thea Sutton, A. J. Thibault, Lara Tupper, Ana Vidosavljevic, Curt Wendelboe, Julie Weston, Chris Wheatley, Leslie Wheeler, and James C Work.