Geri A. Imler

At the Broken Places

AT THE BROKEN PLACES is a work of historical fiction complete at 99K and revised under the guidance of author and editor Leah Konen. This dual POV novel about the wife and mistress of 1920s shaving cream magnate Frank Shields merges the feminist drive of By Any Other Name with the complexities of love, secrets, and betrayal in The Magnolia Palace.

Evelyn is a stage performer whose life of bruising, boozing, and emotionally empty relations changes when she sets her claws in the passionate and powerful Frank Shields. After weaving her way into the Shields’ household as both mistress and nursemaid, Evelyn’s hopes for security are dashed when their affair leads to her worst nightmare: an unwanted pregnancy.

Julia is a social climber determined to make a name for herself—and women as a whole—in the elite male-dominated world of horse breeding. Marrying wealthy Frank Shields, and bearing his children, is a means to that end. But when Frank’s indiscretion and live-in mistress threaten her social standing and hard-won achievements, her carefully curated life starts to crumble.

At first enemies, the women live parallel lives, separately struggling to manage the volatile magnate on whom they’ve hitched their futures. Traumatized by a suspicious miscarriage, Evelyn devotes herself to Julia’s children, distancing herself from Frank. Julia, empowered by sexual liaisons of her own, demands a divorce. But as war drives Frank deeper into his drunken demons, his hold on the women threatens to destroy both their lives, and they must form the most unlikely of alliances not just to escape his elitist world, but to survive.

Furballs & Demon Dust Bunnies

FURBALLS & DEMON DUST BUNNIES is a 54K contemporary middle grade adventure with soft sci-fi elements and loads of laughter. It is a blend of heartwarming and humorous as seen in Carlos Hernandez’s Sal & Gabi Break the Universe, the complicated emotions of family and friendship in Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, and the improbable made possible mischief of GREMLINS meets MINIONS.

Twelve-year-old Isaac Dearling is having a rough week: chores on a Saturday morning, a babysitting mishap with his toddler paint monster sister, and a fight with the school bully right in front of his first crush. All of this while dealing with his parents' recent divorce and two house situation. But nothing prepares him for the shock of discovering an unbelievable creature during his school suspension—a fluffy furball! As more of these loveable mysteries keep popping up, Isaac confides in his best friend and crush, who set off to figure out not only what they are, but how they got here in the first place.

In hilarious fashion, the kids stage a paint heist, break into a neighbor’s house, and confront his Dad’s new girlfriend in an attempt to solve and save the furballs. But when a fire at a laboratory ends up creating a very different creature—demon dust bunnies—the gang will need to step up their efforts to find an antidote to save something bigger—their town. With out-of-this-world characters, a bully that goes missing, and one very enthusiastic scientist, the odds of their plans going right are definitely microscopic!

Will O. and the Watch of Power

WILL O. AND THE WATCH OF POWER is a story about dealing with what’s outside of our control, be it death, magic, Nature, or friendships, in order to find your own power and reads like Rick Riordan and Shannon Messenger, with a dash of Scrumble, Hello Universe, and Aru Shah sprinkled in. It is NARNIA meets Marvel’s AVENGERS, but without sibling drama or space escapades. Completed at 74,000 words, it is a Middle Grade Magical Realism/Fantasy novel intended to be the first in a trilogy.

When powerful forces of magic and nature crash into Will Elwood’s life, he is sent on a wild adventure to solve a mystery from his past. But in doing so, the secrets of a watch and a willow tree might just be the keys to his future by bringing back what he lost long ago.

Will is a lonely twelve-year-old that has just moved back to where his father died in a fire. When he finds a familiar symbol carved into a willow tree that matches his deceased father’s necklace, he suddenly glimpses another world that he didn’t even know existed. After an owl informs Will that he has to find magical bijous, or gems, and put them into a special watch, before their powers ruin his world, he begins to question his identity, including why he is tasked to do this and whether his father actually died.

The stakes are amped up as he is sent on a wild scavenger hunt with his new quirky friends where each discovery brings with it a major catastrophe. Will realizes that he must now not only pass his math exams and deal with school bullies, but also save the community his father started years ago, and quite possibly, his father from this other world within the willow tree.

Unregrettable

After moving from the big city to her grandparent’s rural Indiana farm, thirteen-year-old Shannon thinks her life will forever be boring fields of soybeans and manure. That is, until she stumbles into a cemetery full of the dearly departed dying to tell her their regrets–including an uncle she never knew. Using the voices from beyond to guide her, as well as her new town friends, Shannon’s life takes a dramatic turn as she dissects the supposed accident that killed her uncle nineteen years ago.

As she digs deeper into the past, she’ll uncover a culture of toxic homophobia not only within her small town of Fishburne, but within her own family. When more questions than answers arise, and her grandpa suddenly dies from her investigation, Shannon will have to choose: bury what she’s learned and betray not only her friends but also her uncle's request from the beyond, or fight to change the outdated perception of what it means to love without regret.

UNREGRETTABLE is a 67,000-word upper middle grade contemporary mystery with paranormal touches. It combines the mystery and investigative prowess of From The Desk of Zoe Washington with the deeper themes of grief, friendship, and identity in King and the Dragonflies, all with a dash of small town feel from The Best At It to create a story about love, and ultimately, acceptance.