Showing results by author "A.J. Craft" in All Categories

When two sharp-tongued sisters get called for jury duty, small-town justice doesn’t stand a chance. Eighty-seven year old Betty and her level-headed sister Barb expected a quiet week at the courthouse — some sandwiches, a little gossip, maybe a nap or two between testimonies. What they didn’t expect was murder. When a defendant drops dead mid-trial and the evidence starts pointing closer to home, Betty and Barb find themselves tangled in a web of deceit that stretches from the courthouse steps to the heart of Bayview itself. Between secret affairs, missing files, and one suspiciously ...

Welcome to Starke, Florida—a town sweet on sugar and sour on secrets. Clara Bloom thought life as a small-town coffee shop owner would be simple: pour lattes, bake coffee cake, and gossip with her best friend Daisy. But when sabotage rocks the annual strawberry bake-off, Clara finds herself neck-deep in poisoned pies, stolen recipes, and more suspects than sprinkles on a cupcake. What starts as a search for a saboteur spirals into a web of lies, embezzlement, and dangerous secrets stretching far beyond the kitchen. From pearl-clutching socialites to clipboard-wielding inspectors, everyone...

Strawberry Festival season in Starke, Florida should be all about sweet desserts and small-town charm—unless you’re Clara Bloom. Clara juggles fostering dogs for Bradford County Animal Services with baking strawberry tarts that could win blue ribbons—or burn down her kitchen. But when a string of bizarre “accidents” strike the shelter—missing paperwork, tampered locks, and runaway animals—suspicion lands squarely on her doorstep. As the Strawberry Festival kicks off, chaos erupts in the middle of the tart contest when shelter dogs are set loose in front of half the county. ...

The Teacher Side Hustle Email Newsletter Marketing Blueprint Book One in The Teacher Side Hustle Series Let’s be honest—teaching doesn’t exactly fund your dream life. (Unless your dream is surviving on caffeine and dry-erase fumes.) If you’re a teacher with a side hustle and a glimmer of hope that your talent might actually make you money, you’re in the right place. This is not another boring marketing book filled with jargon, fluff, or acronyms that make you feel like you missed a meeting. This is a smart, sarcastic, and occasionally cynical guide to building an email newsletter ...

Forty-Something Fat Ass is not your average self-help book. Oh no, this one comes with stretch marks, a side of sarcasm, and a strong whiff of Ben-Gay. Told from the brutally honest, wildly funny, and slightly jaded perspective of a woman navigating the battlefield of midlife thighs-first, this book is your new best friend in paperback form. Whether you’re mourning the loss of your metabolism, avoiding mirrors like they owe you money, or wondering how your upper arms turned into bat wings overnight—this book sees you. It is you. And it’s here to remind you (in between burps and belly ...

An excerpt: As someone who regularly dumps all food groups into the same bowl usually containing a goulash of store-bought breaded chicken nuggets, microwavable sweet peas, alfredo sauce from aisle eleven, Dollar General cream cheese, butter and fried onions, I am probably the last person you want to ask about fine dining. At least by all good society’s standards (It’s kinda good, actually.) It’s no secret that I’m a middle-aged, divorced, obese pale woman hanging on to her mental faculties by their last strand with still no idea what I want to do with my life aside from traveling ...

Betty & Barb: Casino Murder A Cozy Mystery Full of Sass, Suspicion, and Slot Machine Shenanigans Meet Betty (87, practically blind, definitely dangerous) and Barb (80, perpetually broke but weirdly lucky), two sharp-tongued sisters from Ohio with a talent for solving crimes and starting them. These senior sleuths just wanted a relaxing afternoon at their favorite casino—cheap cocktails, penny slots, and maybe a marshmallow or two roasted over a Bath & Body Works candle. But when Tony "The Count" Marconi slumps over at the poker table—dead as a doornail and twice as cold—the feisty duo...

In the small, rusty dusty town of Starke, Florida, election season is the most cutthroat time of the year. A time when normal, “salt-of-the-Earth” citizens who are usually friendly, kind, and helpful turn on each other. It’s a game of hurling insults at the opposing political party. It’s a social media frenzy of keyboard warriors mixed with lambasting their opponents’ campaigns. Only when election season is over does the community resume its pleasing cozy country persona. It’s like Steel Magnolias meets The Walking Dead. But this year, the stakes have never been higher. When the...

There's been a murder....And Stella Rae Needs Your Help! Ready to read a cozy mystery that's filled with intrigue and deception that draws you in and challenges you to see if you can figure out the puzzle before the true killer is revealed? Hold on to your strawberry shortcake, baby! And get ready for.... STRAWBERRY PIE MYSTERY Stella Rae Walker lives in the dusty, rusty, sleepy town of Starke, Florida passing her days as the dessert shop owner of "Stella's Sweets." When tourist Harold Feldman drops dead in the middle of the road right in front of her shop, Stella is caught up in figuring ...

Fearless or feral? Liberating or life-threatening? The wild side of life takes many forms. It seeps through the cracks of our world in the form of stray cats, tenacious weeds, oppressive relationships, and haunting memories. These 14 stories by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers explore the wildness that lives inside all of us—and what happens when we let it out.

Headline formulas that stop scrolling and get attention! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sigma Female Boss is a group for Alpha and Sigma female personality types who want to throat-punch snoozy content creation and instead stand out and get attention using creative writing and personality-based writing techniques that instantly hook and keep attention of your dream audience through fun storytelling and ick-free selling. This is not like any copy/content creation ...

The Corner Scribblers is a small writer's support group in the Chattanooga area comprised of writers, authors, and storytellers from a wide range of skills and backgrounds. We come together once a month to discuss our current projects, recent accomplishments and to share what we have each learned about the craft. Within this cover, you will find a collection of holiday-themed flash fiction stories and poetry, displaying a small sample of those combined skills.

Barbarians, dragons, mermaids, and wizards abound in this eccletic collection of fantasy from Chattanooga's own, The Corner Scribbler's. Forward and "An Oath's Other Edge" - a Shijuren universe short story - by guest author, Rob Howell.

A quirky collection of flash fiction based in the realm of post-apocolyptic fiction with forward by Daniel Humphreys. From the Pollenocalypse to zombies, you're sure to feel right at home with the end of the world.

Welcome to the Universe of Weirdos. We bring you a variety of subjects, with a comedic twist. Also featuring Wrestling with Criminals, strange stories, FAQ episodes, and a whole galaxy full of wackiness.Come for the stories, stay for the laughs, and explore this odd existence with us.

Teaching isn’t just about lesson plans, grading papers, and managing classroom chaos—it’s also about developing Olympic-level bladder control. If you’ve ever found yourself shifting uncomfortably at the front of the room, counting down the seconds until the next bell, this book is for you. I Need To Pee...But I Can't Leave My Class Unsupervised is a hilarious yet brutally honest look at one of teaching’s greatest challenges: never being able to use the restroom when you actually need to. From the first cup of coffee in the morning (a terrible mistake) to the desperate lunchtime ...

This book teaches you how to plan content that actually gets sales. Packed with journal prompts and worksheets, it absolutely creates superior content than the tired, mediocre content you're used to seeing all over the internet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sigma Female Boss is a group for Alpha and Sigma female personality types who want to throat-punch snoozy content creation and instead stand out and get attention using creative writing and personality-based ...

Need a content planner that prioritizes great content to attract and draw in your dream audience? This is it!

Read this book if you can't stand yourself. Read this book if you avoid mirrors. Read this book if you want to lose your weight but need permission to like yourself as you are. Read this book if you have failed more than you've succeeded or even tried. Read this book if you want validation that your fluffy pain of armor was well earned and is now no longer needed. Do NOT read this book if you have zero sense of humor, are easily offended or need a safe space to whine about your feelings. We're all big girls here, we can laugh at ourselves and heal at the same time.

Don’t Lick the Desk… And Other Teaching Absurdities Teaching: the noble profession where you shape young minds, inspire future leaders… and beg children not to eat the classroom furniture. If you’ve ever spent ten minutes explaining why glue sticks aren’t chapstick, dodged a flying shoe mid-lesson, or questioned your life choices after hearing “Miss, I think I swallowed my pencil”—this book is for you. Packed with laugh-out-loud stories, absurd encounters, and the unfiltered chaos of the classroom, Don’t Lick the Desk is a survival guide for the teachers on the frontlines....