All I wanted to do is to publish this book. But I had other books plans before that one. After many years of preparations, testing, trial and error, waiting and burning excitement, Cruel Summer launch day is here, and the eBook is available at Amazon marketplaces! Cruel Summer is a gripping, unexpected, strong, and emotional YA cross-genre story about an abused teenage boy and a poet in New Manhattan, Michael Daniels, who only wants to skate and enter skateboarding contests, and the loyalty of friendship that stands as the shield between those with power and his freedom. Michael's skateboarding friends, Alien and Victor, are his only hope when things go wrong and mysteries and secrets start to unfold, threatening to turn their society into an authoritarian dystopia. Because when there is no hope left, friendship is what remains. All he wants to do is skate. By they have other plans for him. Cruel Summer has elements of family and social issues, extreme sports, conspiracy, murder, mystery, teen romance as a subplot, and even sci-fi and dystopia as a touch of alternative history. It carries a strong message of friendship. Although the main protagonists are three friends, skateboarders from New York City at the end of the millennium, Cruel Summer is not just a novel about extreme sports. It is a deep story of a family and sexual abuse, and the exploitation of power by those who have the means to use it over the individuals and the population in general. Having a strong human rights and environmental message, it will also appeal to those who love reading these books. Originally published as Okrutno ljeto in Croatian in 2014, Cruel Summer is still a hot topic today. Please click on the links below to get your copy where you can also leave your honest review. Thank you for that! Amazon.com Amazon Australia Amazon Canada Amazon UK Goodreads BookBub Cruel Summer is enrolled in KDP Select, where you can read it for free. Through most of March, it will be at the discounted price of $0.99 before it goes up to its regular place. A perfect time to download your eBook! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08X6JZKRM Thank you all who helped me bring this book to life. There are too many of you to mention you here, but you have my eternal thanks in the Acknowledgements in the book. If you are a representative of the media, please click here for the press release. https://www.bernardjan.com/cruel-summer-press Cruel Summer and I are available for reviews, book tours, interviews. Cover design by Dean Cole. BJ Follow me on Twitter. Source: https://www.bernardjan.com/post/cruel-summer-ebook-launch-day-on-amazon

All rivers carry their secrets, but not every river keeps its secret forever. January River is at a 67% late summer discount on Amazon! Friday, September 18, 2020, 8:00 AM PDT through Friday, September 25, 2020, 12:00 AM PDT When one of their friends goes missing, everything comes crashing down for the small group of childhood friends in the small town of Greenfield. Ethan takes it hard. Not even his brother Will and their dog can console him. Then life bares its teeth again, scarring Ethan with another tragic event. He loses his dog, his only consolation. As soon as he gets the chance, Will leaves Greenfield and Ethan follows a few years later. They start a new life, far from the ghosts of their childhood and the river that gives and takes life. While Will discovers his love for the open seas and spends his best years aboard various ships, Ethan stays in New York City. There he finds his one true love and builds a career as a bestselling author. But how long will Ethan's happiness last as doubts creep back into him and shatter his reality? And will his reconciliation with the past come at too great a price? You can download my novel about five friends, one dog and one river carrying a secret for only $.99 bargain price on Amazon! Please spread the word about this promo week discount, and also check out my two other books A World Without Color and Look for Me Under the Rainbow. Thanks! BJ Acclaim for January River “Bernard is a writer who can evoke deep emotions with his excellent writing. He uses the perfect wordings and well-chosen metaphors to paint a scene and give us a look into his characters' deepest feelings.” —Koen Van den Eeckhout, Belgian information designer, reader, and Goodreads book reviewer “I will tell you upfront, this is no easy book to devour due to the tenacity of the story to impact you. Some will live. Some will not. But the author does all the right things to make you feel the emotions of the characters throughout the novel.” —James J. Cudney, author of Watching Glass Shatter, Hiding Cracked Glass, Father Figure, and Braxton Campus Mysteries series “It's one of those books that come along occasionally that makes you want to read it non-stop until you get to the end.” —Píaras Ó Cíonnaoíth, poet and author of books for both children and adults and reviewer for Emerald Book Reviews Original post: https://www.bernardjan.com/post/january-river-bargain-price

Today, I read a small introduction to a webinar I am taking through Friesen Press and it told me that I am an Authorpreneur. The term is very unique to me and it made me feel like my life long writing career has become just that, a legitimized career. I have been an Entrepreneur since the age of four with my first lemonade stand out side my parents house. I've always known I was a business minded person and today my writing career has really solidified it's position in my life. I am so overjoyed because the job part finally feels real and to be so open to the world is such an amazing and overwhelming feeling. I am humbled by this new experience. This is truly an amazing moment. In the next post, I'll have some examples of my work for You. My exciting novel "Viktor, Into the Light" will be coming out in the summer of 2020 and my Thanks goes to Friesen Press for making this lifelong dream come true. Viktor, called an "epic" good versus evil story by Friesen Press excites me to tell you about it. He's sexy and moral. He discovers a few things about his family and longs for one of his own. Look for it in the Friesen Press bookstore or eBooks and give a copy to your staff, friends, mother, sister, or your aunties. Viktor is a satisfying read for anyone 14+. Well, I'll post some examples of my work for you now. See you in the next post. Julie Ann