Darla

In Cat on a Black Moon, television anchorwoman Garner Olsen found herself ensnared in a deadly game when deranged ex-flower child Darla Dare targeted her. Darla’s vendetta was sparked when Garner’s husband, a federal prosecutor, moved to take Darla’s lover, Carlo, to trial for drug trafficking. After enduring stalking, kidnapping, and murder, Garner vowed to bring down the woman who shattered her life.

Now, in the thrilling sequel, Darla – an escaped felon with nothing to lose – leaves a trail of death across two states. But when she steals a truck, she unwittingly picks up an unexpected passenger: an 11-year-old runaway. Will the boy become her next victim, her accomplice, or the key to her downfall?

Darwin's Progress

What would a future traveler discover in an America that has taken its money-based society to the extreme? Michael Brown, our hero from the first book of the trilogy, is now 35 and sets out to explore this new world. In America, he encounters ‘pecuniocracy,’ a system where the rationality of money governs all aspects of life: contract marriages, commercial families, custody battles with financial stakes, and other bizarre phenomena stemming from the belief that money is the cornerstone of humanity and society. Through a series of thrilling adventures and unexpected twists, Michael must navigate and ultimately escape from this dystopian future America.

“A monumentally amazing story…”

– Ellen Balthazor, University of Wisconsin.

Deadly Assumption

When a young man witnesses the rescue of a woman’s body from the ocean, he is shocked to recognize the tattoo on her shoulder as belonging to his prospective fiancé, Sarah. Traumatized, he flees the scene, unaware of the ensuing homicide investigation into the suspicious drowning and its findings.

Having arranged his business schedule hoping for a reconciliation following their disagreement in England, he had planned on proposing to Sarah during her visit to Vancouver Island. Devastated by her loss, he relocates to Germany, committing to a life without his soulmate. Struggling with grief, he is persistently tormented by the circumstances of her death and how her body came to be floating off Vancouver, more than 100 miles from her intended destination. Homesickness eventually drives him back to England, where he learns the shocking truth about the homicide investigation and the twist of fate that forever changes his chosen path.

As the story unfolds, it reveals the dramatic impact the deceased woman had on those whose lives she touched, particularly the man suspected of murdering her. The characters are tightly intertwined in this generational, multicultural saga of suspected homicide, enduring love, emotional trauma, and the fight to recapture those closest to the heart. With its roots set in England, Deadly Assumption is a tale rich in history, encompassing Canada, Germany, and France, and spanning the period from the years prior to World War II into the 1980s.

Detective Ray Shields and the Mountain of Trial

Ray Shields isn’t your average private eye. He’s a little more like your traditional gumshoe than most, and in his line of work, being dedicated to the job is a good thing. Laura is his secretary and, as far as Ray is concerned, she is the best one he’s ever had. She’s never late to work, she keeps his affairs in order, and most importantly, she always has the coffee brewing. Then there’s Eddie, Ray’s partner. He’s a dedicated alcoholic with a troubled past, but he doesn’t let that affect his work. Together, the trio make up the Ray Shields Detective Agency, and the only thing separating the R.S.D.A. from the competition is a rusty chain-link fence.

But everything is about to change…

One day, after receiving a mysterious envelope in the mail, Ray, Laura, and Eddie find themselves thrust into the heart of an ancient prophecy that places them all in danger and unravels a secret about Laura that’s long been hidden.

Together, the R.S.D.A., with the help of a few made friends along the way, will face a myriad of mythical monsters, hunt for a magical relic powerful enough to stop a maddened cultist, and traverse the arid Atacama Desert to fight an ancient evil. Saving the world is all in a day’s work for the Ray Shields Detective Agency.

Developing Practical Wisdom

Many people recognize wisdom as an important ideal, but the subject is rarely studied in public education or widely understood outside academia. Drawing from historical and contemporary research in psychology, philosophy, and education, Developing Practical Wisdom describes, in language accessible to any thoughtful reader, how people can intentionally learn to become wiser. The narrative provides a comprehensive set of pedagogical tools, including theories and practices, for developing deeply coherent perspectives on the world and the people in it. It explains how to cultivate coherent thinking and apply moral principles in daily life.

Don Harris Oben: In Search of a Future

This book chronicles the captivating journey of Don, who as a young boy used to listen with rapt attention to the fascinating stories his father told about his travels in colonial Nigeria. These tales invoke in little Don a burning desire to one day undertake his own voyage of discovery, to broaden his horizons beyond the familiar.

So Don sets out into the unknown at the tender age of 14, quickly realizing that expanding one’s worldview is no one-time event. Rather, it is a lifelong process full of twists, turns, and unexpected revelations about places, peoples, and even himself. As Don navigates a complex and often bewildering world, we walk alongside him through monumental challenges, missed opportunities and connections made.

With a wife and five third-culture kids in tow, Don’s pursuit to continually push boundaries and search for a brighter future proves as epic and demanding as that of history’s great exploratory figures. His tireless voyage makes us reflect on what it means to have an inquisitive mind, confront hardship, and leave behind footprints that point others to higher horizons long after we are gone.

Dream the Green

Every night five brightly colored sheep called Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink help Ruby fall asleep.

But tonight, it seems Green is in trouble, and it is Ruby’s turn to help them this time. Green is fading away, and only Ruby has the key to saving Green!

The sheep and with the help of hidden forces reveal to Ruby the secret and everything she needs to save Green.

DreamHoppers

DreamHoppers is a fantasy adventure novel about four young teens, a cat, an elephant, and a blue boy who they meet one mystifying night in a fanciful dream. Each night the dream evolves and changes.

As time goes on, the confused teenagers come to believe that the purpose of the dream, if there is a purpose, is to take charge of the youngest, a boy who calls himself Prince Raj. They promise to help him escape his dream castle prison. Alex, the skeptic, finds the confusing world of dragons, and elephants, and blue boys, and talking cats, proof of his skepticism of the supernatural. The dream is nothing more than a product of his imagination.

Events prove him wrong, however, when he meets Leila Bhati, one of his dream companions at a library in real life. Alex and Leila begin to realize that their dangerous nightly dream won’t end until they somehow manage to convey the sickly Prince Raj to his lost father in the White Palace. But most importantly they pledge to protect Raj from mysterious flying assassins who chase them aggressively across a magical landscape. But why?

Alex wonders why a group of beastly dream assassins want to hurt and kill an innocent young child of ten. The DreamHoppers plan to find out.

Dresden: Portrait of a City

The world knows Dresden as the victim of vicious Allied bombing at the end of World War II that destroyed its famed Baroque architecture. But Dresden is more than this stereotype implies. This portrait explores the highs and lows of Dresden’s individual experiences. It captures the visions of the princes who created the Baroque city. It displays the talents of the individuals who turned a princely residence into a modern industrial hub. It traces the city’s historically conflicted relationship with its Jewish community. And it reveals how the city’s identification with the arts was often at odds with its economic, social, and political realities. This background led Dresden to act as spearhead of the peaceful revolution that re-united Germany in 1990. The multiple facets of Dresden’s past inspire its current vitality and energize its response to contemporary challenges.

Dropped Calls

Dropped Calls will ring like a lost phone and have you scrambling to pick up the call. Should water, food, and even the air we breathe become threatened? Providence assembles at the bugler’s call. When democracy is under threat from our collective complacency, these words shall find meaning in the screaming echoes of two centuries past “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.

In this work of fiction, the resonance of truth should challenge the reader’s sagacity so that each person becomes the keystone to the solution. Just like Siddhartha, to read it once is a revelation, and immersed deep in its pages, understanding and enlightenment may develop.

Perhaps some of the people and places in this book are familiar to you. Imagine the events that unfold happening to your loved ones, in your backyard, or on your watch. Prudence necessitates reading Dropped Calls as an act of prevention and a pathway to compassion.

Economic Myths and Economic Realities

The world’s ten richest countries have about 60 times the income per capita of the bottom ten. Nobel Prize-winning economists have acknowledged their ignorance regarding the sources of economic growth. This explains why, despite considerable financial assistance, the gap between poorer and richer countries has grown year after year, both globally and within countries like the USA and Europe.

Using straightforward statistical diagrams, this book explains approximately 90% of the variance in income among countries or states. First, it empirically demonstrates what does not work – the myths – from reindustrialization to Keynesianism. Then, it examines the real drivers of growth by evaluating whole countries (public, social and private sectors combined, including the non-working population) as companies, assessing their business administration across areas like marketing, work culture, strategy and operations. After all, numerous multinationals are larger than countries.

The lessons are twofold: First, nothing is more pointless than perfecting the irrelevant. Second, there are no underdeveloped countries, only undermanaged ones (P. Drucker). The wealthiest countries are, overall, the best-run companies.

Eight Fought to Live

1988: 82,362 gay and bisexual men had AIDS.

1989: 100,000 gay and bisexual men had AIDS.

1990: 307,000 gay and bisexual men had AIDS.

These are the two years Dr. Rosiello led an AIDS therapy group at Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. Within two years each man in her group passed away from AIDS complications. One of these men was Vito Russo, an AIDS activist and historian.

This is the story of eight gay men living with advanced AIDS and one inexperienced fresh out of training psychoanalyst. Each man’s intimate story is peppered with Dr. Rosiello’s anxiety and her growing awareness regarding the importance of emotional authenticity in psychotherapy. The group members had no spare moments for Dr. Rosiello to use her newly learned psychoanalytic techniques. There was only time to be real.

Early on these group members pledged to not die. They pledged emotional support for the life of the group. This pledge held true for over a year. Blood brothers in their fight to live.