Twenty Seconds to Midnight

Each year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets the Doomsday Clock after consultation with its board of sponsors, which includes nine winners of the Nobel Prize. The clock is a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe brought about by man-made technologies.

On January 29, 2025, the Atomic Scientists shifted the clock’s hands to 89 seconds to midnight, citing the combined threats of climate change, nuclear war, and misuse of artificial intelligence.

Working at a point in the future, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Clare McGarrity has developed a formula making the Mojave Desert in Death Valley bloom. She has been tasked with trying to expand and refine her formula for use in the great Sahara Desert with the goal of helping feed the starving people of Africa and soon, the Middle East.

Unknown to her, the research assistant working beside her is a terrorist, ordered by his government to steal her formula.

Baby Birds Love the Blues

Did you see that flock that flew by?

Baby shorebirds saw a mysterious flock of birds one morning. The flock was louder, faster, better at formations and skimming along the water than they were. Who was that flock, and will the babies’ obsession interfere with learning the skills they need to survive?

When the truth is revealed, the mother birds are relieved, and the babies proudly practice their skills with confidence and restored self-esteem.

Eden's Money Magic

Step into the enchanting world of Moneyville, where financial wisdom isn’t just for adults. Join Eden, a clever and compassionate cat, as she teaches young minds the magic of money. From checking accounts to credit cards, saving for the future, and even retirement planning, Eden’s adventures are filled with fun, practical lessons designed to build smart financial habits early on. With every conversation, Eden guides the kids of Moneyville—and readers everywhere—on a journey toward financial independence, showing that mastering money can be as magical as it is empowering.

Thoughts Expressed Through the Written Word

This literary work is the product of my personal activity in the effort of lifelong self-expression. Self-expression can be accomplished through a number of manners, including all forms of art, music and performance. My form of expression is through the written word. As I experience the varied performance arts of others, I appreciate the message and communication of the artist and ultimately experience self-growth.  Some individuals are driven to self-identify and as Dale Carnegie stated, “Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.” I started writing when I was twelve years old.

This work expresses the intellectual, emotional, and personal growth I have experienced over a period of fifty-five years. As stated by Oprah Winfrey, “If we’re really committed to growth, we never stop discovering new dimensions of self and self-expression”. My two previous literary works, Grinnin’ Like a Jenny Eatin’ Saw Briars and Let Me Tell You a Story, published by Austin Macauley involve the communication of events and experiences in my life. As stated by Pearl S. Buck, “Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfilment”. For this reason, I have chosen to fulfil my literary work through the writing and publication of this book.

Summers at Elkhart Lake

Summer is the best time of year, especially when it means heading to Grandma and Grandpa’s house at Elkhart Lake. From the long car ride filled with snacks and laughter, to the fresh air and sparkling blue waters, every moment is an adventure.

Whether it’s playing with the golden retriever Abbey, racing through the water, or cheering on race cars at Road America, each day brings something new and exciting. With the love of family, the joy of new friends, and the thrill of racing, this story captures the heartwarming essence of summer, where every moment is filled with fun, laughter, and unforgettable memories.

Perfect for readers of all ages who cherish the simple joys of summer and family traditions.

The Insanity of Golf

The moment he was hit, Martin could never have imagined what the future would bring. No ordinary person could predict what happens next. How could this be real? He had everything anyone could possibly want.

Now, his life has changed in an instant. His girlfriend, the love of his life, has no idea what’s happening. He questions what this means for their relationship. What does he do now? Whatever happens next is anyone’s guess.

After his first golf match takes an unexpected turn, Martin faces a reality unlike anything he has ever known. How will he handle life after such a traumatic experience? Buckle up: the ride of his life is about to begin.

Read with caution. You are about to step into Martin’s world, where nothing is as it seems. Hopefully, everyone makes it out alive. And before you stroke out, just remember: this is a story about a golfer and his adventures on the links.

You’re going to have an experience of a lifetime, and ‘insanity’ will prevail. Trust me.

Growth, Modernity and the Nations of Wealth

Eric Humphrey and Dwight Semler present a new theory explaining the mysterious historical emergence of modern economic growth and its even more baffling offspring, modernity. Noticeable changes in material life began less than three centuries ago, but previous theoretical accounts have failed to explain their arrival. Thinkers assumed modern wealth and morality were the universal standard driving human history. They assumed modern rights and riches were natural and normal. In this way they thought of such things as ends rooted in human nature, rather than deriving them as consequences from a historical, nonmodern baseline. Misdirected, they set out to liberate the imprisoned modern homunculus who “caused modernity” through moral education and economic institutions. Modernity became an “awareness problem.” Yet this high-maintenance modern self and its ever-growing needs are a consequence of modern processes rather than their cause. Consequently, theorists of the modern world produced comically omnipotent notions of human agency. Marxists and developmental economists saw modernity as a moral or material self-realization project, requiring only a liberator or engineer. But when their God-of-Genesis model failed the facts, they overreacted and defaulted to its alter ego—humans were passive leaves in the wind of history. Modernity thus oscillates between a chosen destiny and a given fate. With modernity represented as a historical fate, all pretense of a grand theoretical view vanishes in thick description of one damn thing after another, and the historian’s rote chronology replaces any theoretical causality, as a specific description of a particular falling rock replaces a general theory of gravity.

Understanding the modern world and how it came to be, argue the authors, is less a matter of facts than of the foundational assumptions used to link facts together into robust and coherent theories. We must un-assume our modern selves and give poverty and illiberality their just historical due. With better and more scientifically consistent assumptions, they argue, the old facts of history can be seen in a new way. Then the solution to understanding the most puzzling and abnormal of human events, the modern world itself, turns out to be hiding in plain sight.

The Loura Lure – Book 3

Shamus Bergin and his Keeper comrades battle to rescue Caitlin Dunlevan from a force sent by Enilorac to assassinate her. She is the woman who has occupied Shamus’s dreams his whole life. The most powerful Angel-Human hybrid, she is the only descendant of the Sacred Order of Keepers who can wield the profound elemental magic necessary to bring forth the Angel. Unbeknownst to Shamus, he holds the key to unraveling the secrets required for Caitlin to fulfill the duty she was born to carry out.

With each passing day, the cause of the light and humanity’s risk of total annihilation draw closer. Enilorac’s army of darkness spreads across the Louran landscape of 20,000 years ago, seeking out the Angel and his Itavo Stone. Aided by horrific creatures dispatched to him from the demon realm, he is becoming an unstoppable force. If he can murder either the Wigget bearer or Caitlin Dunlevan while he seeks out his master’s prize, his path to victory will be assured, and the light of mankind will be eclipsed forever.

Shamus and Caitlin are the complete answer to how the people of Loura might survive. They must keep faith with each other and, in turn, rely on their comrades to protect them long enough for their respective destinies to come to fruition. Even when trusts will be challenged and faith will be broken, the Loura Lure must prevail.

If Only I Could See Him

It’s simple. The young girl wants to believe in God. She just needs one thing first: a quick peek at God.

Her mother knows it’s not simple. God prefers to remain unseen. How can the young girl find faith?

Therapized

Therapists are human too.

They cry in the shower, spiral at 2 a.m., and occasionally eat an entire bag of chips while rewatching the same comfort show—just like everyone else.

In Therapized, Anne Petraro—a licensed therapist, educator, and unapologetic dog mom—opens up not just as a professional, but as a person who’s lived through trauma, healing, and everything in between (with snacks in her pocket and dog hair on her clothes).

Part memoir, part guided journal, this book invites you into the real, raw, and sometimes ridiculous process of being human. Through deeply personal stories and powerful journaling prompts, Anne helps you stop striving to be “fixed” and start accepting what it means to be fully, beautifully, imperfectly real.

You’ll laugh, cry, maybe throw the book across the room—but most importantly, you’ll feel seen. Not as a diagnosis or a label, but as someone deeply worthy of healing and joy.

Written with heart, grit, and enough dog hair to knit a sweater, Therapized is for the over-thinkers, the people-pleasers, the trauma survivors, and the ones still trying to make sense of it all. You don’t need to have it all together to begin. You just need to show up.

Let Therapized be the place you finally do.

Oh No, Where Is Cat Soso’s Tail?

Soso is a cat with a problem: chronic boredom. Chasing birds, mice, and other critters holds no interest for him. But Soso has a solution: stealing socks. Soso loves pinching people’s socks, and he does so regularly. Soso is a serial sock thief. But theft comes with consequences, and poor kleptomaniac Soso soon finds that crime doesn’t pay.

Aimed at the preschool age group, this book introduces children to days of the week, colors, family members, animals and simple numeracy. There is an implicit message about actions and their consequences.

The Legend of Jane Coleman

This is a story of a stowaway girl on the passenger ship LYON, who was one of the colonists at Roanoke Island. It chronicles her life from ages fifteen to sixty-one, and it describes her hardships in both England and Virginia. The stories’ span of time is from 1587 to 1633.

The story is derived from the passenger list of the people that made up the third attempt at colonization of the New World. The passenger list had two people on it whose first names were either made illegible to historians or purposely omitted by John White, who was the governor of the expedition.

The two names were (blank) Coleman, listed as a woman passenger, and (blank) Marvis, listed as a child under the age of sixteen. Jane Colman was actually both persons who were written on that list.