Read the new interview with Daniella Rushton on the NFB Media Page

Upcoming Releases

City Hall Secrets by Dennis Adams

The Medicine Show by Marshall Seddon

The Badge by Will Caudill

New Releases

The Panther Tales Book 2 
The Queen and the Powerful Pendant
by Daniella Rushton

The Necklace of Belief

‘Hannah’s quest continues as she battles the dark underworld of The Watchers, with an imaginary Queen and her powerful pendant of a panther. In this, the sequel of The Panther Tales trilogy.’

‘All she needs to do, is to believe in herself, and a panther called Parky.’

THE BEST GIRLS IN THE WORLD: A History of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester in the Missions of Central Alabama, 1940-2020

In September, 1940, five Sisters of St. Joseph left Rochester, NY and traveled by train to Selma, Alabama. Their mission was to partner with the priests of the Society of St. Edmund from Colchester, Vermont, to care for the Black Catholics of central Alabama.

Meeting curious stares, threats from the Ku Klux Klan, and denigration from some of the white populace, the Sisters went about visiting the homes of poor Black residents and, eventually, with the backing of the Edmundites and Catholics in the Rochester area, they built a school, a hospital, a training program for nurses, and a strong bond with the Black community.
The events of March 7, 1965, known in American civil rights history as “Bloody Sunday” involved the Sisters of Selma in ways they could never have imagined, as they became embroiled in the battle for civil rights, tending to the wounds of those marchers who tried to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge to make their petition for equality heard.

The journey of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester from spectators to participants in the struggle for equal rights, their partnering with the Black community and churches, their involvement with grassroots organizations in the South, and heartfelt relationship with the people of Selma and beyond has continued for over eighty years.

This book documents that journey using archival material, interviews, and historical records and tells a hitherto unknown story of the involvement of religious women in Central Alabama.

Lower West Side Story
by Jack Foran

Early on the morning of the first day of the new year and new decade 1960, Father Vincent L. Belle, a popular young assistant pastor at the solidly Italian Holy Cross parish on the lower west side of Buffalo was shot dead as he set out to take Communion to shut-ins on the Catholic Church holy day. It remains to this day an unsolved murder.

A few weeks before the incident, a crudely lettered sign in pidgin Italian was posted anonymously in the back of the church accusing one of the priests—apparently Father Belle—of unspecified wrongdoing. The church pastor later said he had talked to Father Belle about the accusation and was convinced there was nothing to it

The sign turned out to be the work of an illiterate old man who was said to have conceived animosity toward Father Belle because he imagined the priest was interfering in his—the old man’s—illicit endeavor to woo a married woman parishioner and mother of eight. The old man was said to have imagined Father Belle was having an affair with the woman. Based on the somewhat bizarre blend of accounts and allegations, the old man was formally accused of the homicide.

Lower West Side Story recounts an intellectual adventure personal quest investigation of a cold case murder that amid persistent factors of enigma and stonewall ultimately veers off in a new direction—or directions—to discover more cogent answers to more pertinent questions about this more than half a century old unsolved crime.

Saving Buffalo Baseball
The 1956 Buffalo Bisons
by Howard Henry Jr. 

BUFFALO WAS LOSING BASEBALL!
It was 1955 and the Detroit Tigers, the major league owners of the Triple A Buffalo Bisons, were pulling out of the city. Would the Bisons go, too? Not if a group of determined local baseball men, a ball club of veteran ballplayers and a city of committed fans had anything to say about it.

“Saving Buffalo Baseball: The 1956 Season” takes the reader into the on-field and off-field struggles of a new phenomenon in the Queen City—community owned professional baseball, following the team on a month by month, game by game saga from September 1955 to the hard-scrabble conclusion of the 1956 baseball year. Experience the doubts and disappointments and day to day heroics of what dedicated men (and some women) could achieve if only they stayed true to the cause. Starting from nothing, within three years’ time the Buffalo Bisons became the top drawing ball club in all of minor league baseball and with a valuation of more than half a million dollars!

Thanks to detailed (and sometimes conflicting) newspaper reporting and to the gracious involvement of several ballplayers from that team who discussed the 1956 season with the author, the reader will find inning by inning accounts of each of the 151 games played, plus the off-field efforts to simply keep nine healthy men on the field, pay their salaries and see the season through to the end. Simple box scores accompany each game. An internet link allows access to the full box score for each contest. In the book are the names of 233 Buffalonians and their families, plus 68 community groups, all of whom supported the club during this critical campaign.

Additionally, 18 local lads, Buffalo area ballplayers who dreamed to be Bisons or who played for other professional ball clubs during 1956 are highlighted. Perhaps your family or someone you knew made the newspapers that year; their name is in this book.

“What Happened to Our Heroes” gives brief descriptions of the post-1956 and post-baseball careers of the front office personnel and players, professional and amateur, all of whom strove valiantly Saving Buffalo Baseball.

The Way I went Last Friday

HOW A TEENAGED SCHOOLGIRL REIGNED TERROR OVER THE CITY OF BUFFALO IN THE SUMMER OF 1961

by Patrick Sawers

“We are dealing with a woman maniac,” the mayor declared, urging parents to keep a tight watch over their young ones until the deranged killer could be captured and brought to justice.

It was the summer of 1961, and the city of Buffalo, New York, was cast into a panic when the dead body of a missing boy is found floating in the lake at Delaware Park, a huge, rustic oasis set right in the midst of a thriving urban metropolis. Three-year-old Andrew Ashley had gone missing two days earlier, snatched right out of his own front yard and right in the wake of two previous (although ultimately unsuccessful) area kidnappings. From those would-be victims police had obtained a working description of the culprit – a middle-aged woman, roughly “as old as mommy, but not as old as grandma.” The story would take on another shocking dimension, though, when their "woman maniac" turned out to be something even more chilling - a damaged and maladjusted fifteen-year-old schoolgirl.

This is the story of Chyrel Jolls, a young girl from a broken home and a dysfunctional background, whose yielding to her darkest impulses would shatter a young family and send shockwaves through a typically-calm and family-oriented part of the city. This is also the story of the frenzied police investigation that ensued, and of due process in a court system left struggling to find some precedent to adjudicate the case correctly. It is also a snapshot of post-World War II America, from its looser notions of what constitutes child supervision to its vastly different approach to mental health and institutionalization.

The Lost Cove
by Marshall Seddon

From the Acclaimed author of The Sleeper Street Gang and The Shadow of Forever: A Norse Saga Comes an Exciting new Thriller The Lost Cove

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When a body washes up on the beach of a small town, a chain of events is touched off that draws a young reporter named Drew Andrews into a tangled web of intrigue, environmental malfeasance, local politics, and murder. As the events cascade towards a climax, patrons of a small tavern hidden deep in the mangroves find themselves caught up in conjecture and conspiracy theories that eventually affect them directly. It’s a refurbished fishing camp called The Lost Cove.

RJ, Farrah and Me: A Young Man’s Gay Odyssey from the Inside Out
by Jack Hilovsky

1976… Ford was ruling… the Bicentennial was blaring… Farrah Fawcett was flying and two Ohio boys were cavorting.

Jack is an only child growing up in Cleveland and by the time he is seven, he knows he’s different. The one constant in his young life is friendship and when Jack meets RJ the two find solace and discovery in one another. From their mutual obsession for Charlie’s Angel and pin-up girl Farrah Fawcett to exploring their sexuality one humid, summer night, they embark on a journey that forces Jack to grapple with his strict Catholic upbringing and an emerging, yet conflicted awareness that he is gay.

Set against the backdrop of the disco dance era, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, sun-kissed lifeguards, high school musicals and college fraternity hijinks, Jack’s pursuit of anything-but-gay personas leads to humor and heartache with people who help and thwart him.

Ever resilient, he navigates an uncertain future on the path to self-discovery in his quest for a happy, Technicolor ending.

17 Italian Greats in Sports and Italian Insights
by Al Bruno

Al Bruno is a teacher and writer and has been reporting on sports events and personalities since his college reporting days at Canisius College in the late 1970s. His passion and insights in sports is fueled by his experiences as a published sportswriter, high school coach, and football player.

17 Italian Greats in Sports and Italian Insights (2022) by Al Bruno is an Italian sports and culture publication, an anthology, presenting 42 of his best Italian sports stories and Italian cultural insights about early Italian immigration issues, great first-generation, Italian Americans, images, traditions (St. Anthony’s Day Festival in Buffalo and winemaking), and lessons (good and painful), and the unexpected succumbing of Buffalo’s Italian icon and ambassador, Joey Giambra, to covid-19.

Al Bruno’s insights reveal Italian events and cultural experiences he lived and observed along the way as a first-generation, Italian American and the only child of Italian immigrants (from Pratola Peligna from the Abruzzi region of Italy), perilously arriving at Ellis Island, alone and startled; they survived, making Buffalo, New York, their permanent home for the past 64 years.

Importantly, it primarily focuses on the inspiring insights and successes of 17 Italian sporting greats by traveling through a time tunnel, remembering and honoring Italian sports heroes from the 1940s to the present day.

Pride, Prejudice and Painting
by Jessica DiPalma

A curator at one of New York City’s finest art museums, Bennet Reynolds spends her days under the oppressive rule of a miserable boss and most of what little free time she has trying to avoid the matchmaking schemes of her meddling and overbearing mother. At least at work, Bennet has always been able to find comfort among her beloved paintings. All that changes when she is assigned the task of putting together the exhibition of a monumental art collection gifted to the museum by the demanding socialite Vivian Winthrop who insists her nephew, Luke Dawlton, help oversee the project.

One of the city’s leading businessmen, Luke, is as arrogant as he is handsome. Forced to work together, Bennet begins to see him in a new light. Could there be more to Luke than what she first thought? And what about the charming stranger, Jeremy Burlow, who has suddenly come into her life? Just as things seem more complicated than ever, a series of events develop that threaten her career and her family. Bennet must decide just who to trust and whether she has the courage to listen to her heart and follow her dreams.

Set in Manhattan’s demanding art world, this modern twist on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel about first impressions and second chances.