SR Staley Signs 2-book Deal with SYP Publishing

Here is the essential text:

St Nic Inc is an update to the myth of Santa Claus with a twist involving a rogue agent working for the Drug Enforcement Agency, a twenty-something MIT trained engineer, and a washed out winter explorer looking for redemption. While contemporary in setting, the novel is a technology-oriented action-adventure novel that Staley says may well convince readers that Santa Clause does indeed exist.

“I was inspired to write St Nic Inc when my children were young,” says Staley. “I asked myself, what if Santa Claus was real? What if Santa Clause was not fantasy, with flying reindeer and a sleigh, or even a person. What if Santa Claus was a concept or an idea, or a vast secret organization
capable of delivering millions of gifts and toys to adults and children across the globe? What would it look like? How would it work? The story and characters in St. Nic Inc explore this tension between idea and reality in unexpected and challenging ways.”

The second book is the sequel to the The Pirate of Panther Bay, an action adventure featuring a female pirate captain and ex-slave prowling the waters of the Caribbean in the late 18^th century. Tortuga Bay is slated for publication in 2015. Readers (www.pantherbay.com)
have called The Pirate of Panther Bay, “a great adventure romance,” “an engaging swashbuckler,” and “a fun and exciting adventure book that the whole family can enjoy reading.”Reviewers say that novel is “a grand high seas adventure any teen would love; many adults as well” and a book “that remains true to the real world of pirates and Spain’s desire to reign over the New World.”

John Lehman, founder of the literary magazine Rosebud, writes Staley puts “plenty of zip into the action sequences” while exploring “some interesting pyschological implications about control in male-female relationships.” Tim Bete, director of the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop at the University of Dayton says The Pirate of
Panther Bay will forever change the way you think about buccaneers.”

Tortuga Bay continues Isabella’s saga as the Spanish viceroy continues his quest to purge the Caribbean of her presence. In the midst of high-seas battles and swashbuckling escapes, Isabella
confronts the true meaning of a prophecy told by her mother and finds herself immersed in a budding revolution and slave revolt in western Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti).

Both books are part of Southern Yellow Pine Publishing’s expansion into fiction. Known for its investment in Tallahassee and Big Bend history, including books such as The Leon County Heritage Book, a history of the turpentine industry, and, most recently, the history of the Tallahassee fire department as told through the biography of the “Dean of the Fire Service,” William Earl Levy, Sr., SYP Pub began publishing fiction in 2013 with the release of Saundra
Kelley’s Danger in Blackwater Swamp.

“We love working with new
and aspiring authors,” says SYP Pub owner Terri Gerrell.  “We believe SR Staley’s eclectic characters
and stories will broaden our fiction audience, and we look forward to working
with him to further develop a regional and national readership for his work.”