Orange Blossom Publishing, A Florida Publisher

Welcome to Our Literary Grove

We are a small press located in Central Florida that publishes adult and children's books. Our focus is on stories about love, wellness, and humor, with a concentration on the female audience. Take a look at our books below.

We are deeply passionate about stories. We want to fall in love with unforgettable characters and intriguing places. We want to laugh, cry, and gasp at the unexpected. We want a story to stay with us after the reading is long finished.

We also offer a variety of services from editing to speaking events to ad design.

Upcoming Releases

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Alborada (Dawn):
A Cross-Cultural Memoir in Poetry

May 3, 2023

In Alborada (Dawn): A Cross-Cultural Memoir in Poetry, Nylda Dieppa sketches the formative and transformative experiences of her lifetime—from childhood on the
island of Puerto Rico through maturity in the continental United States—as paralleled by the sun’s passage through the times of the day. This enhanced, newly retitled
edition of Dieppa’s award-winning Alborada: A Poetic Memoir Across Cultures adds fourteen new and ten revised poems to inspire the joys of spiritual and emotional
healing.

From the dawning innocence of a girl’s first crush alongside the rise of a young woman’s longing to belong and be loved, Dieppa shines daylight on the anguish and
delights of both growing up and parenting at every age. Her lyrical and narrative poems highlight the shadows cast by culture shock, and they reveal the encroaching
darkness of sorrow and betrayal as the sun sets on a thirty-eight-year marriage. Yet Alborada also illuminates the wonder of deliverance from midnight’s despair to the
hope and wholeness of a new day’s dawn.

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The Thomasite

May 30, 2023

Amid the Philippine-American War in 1901, a young teacher from Iowa, Eleanor Karsten, sails on the US Army Transport Thomas to America’s new territory, the Philippine Islands. In response to President McKinley's call to help implement the policy of “benevolent assimilation of Filipinos,” she joins more than 500 US educators (the ‘Thomasites’) to teach Filipino children and build a secular public school system as an alternative to the Catholic educational institutions established by Spanish colonial rule.

A stopover in the Hawaiian Islands and a brief residency in Manila, where the Thomasites await deployment to their designated school areas, awaken Eleanor to disturbing implications of America's expansionist policy. She eagerly welcomes her assignment to Magayon, home to the majestic, perfectly cone-shaped Mayon Volcano. When she arrives there, however, various challenges—including malaria, a cholera epidemic, insurrection, and racial and religious prejudice—test her resolve to fulfill her mission.

Her loyalties are likewise tested when she unwittingly becomes romantically entangled with a Spanish-Filipino plantation owner and his peasant foreman. Worse, Eleanor worries one of them could be the local leader of the insurrection, thus setting her at odds with the commanding officer of the US infantry stationed in town. Worst, she clashes with the parish priest.

As Eleanor witnesses the ramifications of the U.S. occupation of the Philippine Islands, she finds herself the student rather than the teacher. Caught between, on the one hand, her compassion for her students and Filipinos and, on the other, her patriotic duty to her country; her devotion to her vocation and her increasingly undeniable feelings for one of the men competing for her love; and the scorching battle between ideology and reality—Eleanor struggles to balance treading on a tightrope of volatile, interwoven interests and carve a path forward.

Would Eleanor survive the forces tearing her and her mission apart, including the people she’s come to love as her own? To whom would she finally entrust her heart? And what legacy would she and her fellow Thomasites leave for generations of Filipinos?

News-Worthy

Song of the Chimney Sweep Wins a Florida Book Award

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Song of the Chimney Sweep by Tamatha Cain won a silver Florida Book Award in the category of Popular Fiction.

Love is a song played on repeat…

A cryptic blog post leads cold case podcasters Melody and Dorian on a twisty journey back in time to uncover the mysterious story of a forgotten missing woman.

In 1969 near the Florida/Georgia Line, idealistic young Betty Langdon and fast-rising R&B singer Dominicus Owens begin an irresistible but dangerous interracial romance that ends under mysterious, heartbreaking circumstances. Betty is forced to return to her rural home to care for her manipulative mother, while Dominicus goes on to mega-stardom with his band The Downtown Sound. She follows his skyrocketing career from behind the front desk of a dying highway motel--until one day decades later, she disappears.

Now, a popular true crime podcast produced by college friends Melody Hinterson and Dorian Santos takes on the cold case of a missing local woman. The duo’s carefully-balanced workplace dynamic is weirdly off-kilter lately, but they can't take their eyes off the investigation as the intriguing new story suddenly boosts the show into the national spotlight. When the investigation uncovers the missing woman's diaries full of family secrets and the local legend of a fortune hidden in an old chimney somewhere in town, the truth behind the podcast's mystery becomes personal, and Melody must make life-changing choices before the final episode airs.

But who owns the rights to a secret?

Woven Wins a Book Fest Award

Woven by Stephania Thompson won a bronze award from The BookFest in the category of New Adult Fiction.

Bound by a devastating secret, childhood friends David, Josh, and Kate take on home renovation as a means of healing from a dark, shared past.

Their only promise? Friendship first—no hookups.

Only several months after moving into their Baltimore fixer, the aptly nicknamed Canton Catastrophe, walls are crumbling, sparks are flying, and promises are getting ignored.

Josh, a paramedic, is plagued with panic attacks, haunted by the past, and sharing a room with David, who he is definitely not attracted to. And then there's Kate. She's having a job crisis, popping pills, and pretending she doesn’t notice how distant the boys have grown. And David? The eternally calm, blue-eyed beauty’s health is deteriorating and he’s mysteriously blacking out.

But when they learn someone may have discovered their darkest secret and is now stalking them--and blackmailing Josh's father, a conservative media personality with secrets of his own, renovation and relationship woes take a back seat. Suddenly, their past is unraveling, and the shocking truths unearthed will have them questioning everything from family ties and friendships to love, loss, and the lengths they’re willing to go for each other.

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Pling's Party Awarded Children's Book of the Year

In the 2021 Royal Palm Literary Awards, presented by the Florida Writers Association, our picture book Pling's Party was awarded Gold in the Published Picture Book category. It was also given the highest honor for children's books, Children's Book of the Year.

Pling's Party previously won a Story Monster's award and received a five star seal from Reader's Favorite. It is our most-awarded book!

What happens when an exuberant exclamation point keeps taking over a story? Things get pretty interesting...

Pling is an exclamation point--he adds excitement to stories. He has one rule to follow: he can only appear twice in the story. As the tale of three goats unfolds, Pling has trouble staying out of the story until he's needed. Things get a bit out of hand and hilarity ensues.

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Mass Wins RPLA Gold for Young Adult Fiction

WINNER OF THE 2021 GOLD AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN THE ROYAL PALM LITERARY AWARDS.

Sixteen-year-old Stevie Albie is a religious person, but nothing prepares her for meeting Mary. Like the Mary, mother of Jesus. Just as Stevie becomes convinced she has a special connection with God, doctors discover a brain tumor in her frontal lobe they claim is causing the hallucinations.

Her parents insist on removing the tumor as quickly as possible, but Stevie isn’t so sure. Feeling special for the first time in her life, she runs away to a religious cult that’s convinced her visions are their salvation and vow to protect her. But as time goes on she suspects they have their own agenda. Torn on who to trust, Stevie wonders if she'll have to choose: her visions or her future?

*There are two versions of this novel. The original version contains profanity and a reference to sex. The clean version is profanity-free and the sex reference has been removed.

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Book Trailers

Award-Winning Books

Our Involvement in the Literary Community

Our Founder

Previously an elementary teacher, Arielle Haughee (Hoy) is a five-time RPLA-winning author and the owner of Orange Blossom Publishing. She is an editor, speaker, and coach. She is the author of The Complete Revision Workbook for Writers, the children’s books Grumbler, Joyride, Pling’s Party, and Sixth Sunday, the editor of the How I Met My Other anthology series, and the creator of the Focus Journal line of journals. She was also honored with the President’s Award from the Florida Writers Association in 2020.

She has a serious reading addiction, fantasy romance her absolute favorite, and loves nothing more than good conversation paired with a good wine. She is surrounded by males at home—a husband, two sons, and an energetic dog—and tries to integrate as much purple and flowers in the house as possible.