Summer of Fun

Joey is an average boy from the suburbs who just wants to seize the day. From water fights to fireflies, Joey doesn’t fail to make the first day of summer last. What’s unique about this particular summer is that Joey meets the love of his life. When you think about yourself meeting fate, you wonder when, who, where, and how. Joey is 11 and never thought his whole life would change on this one day. His family, Jason, Mom, and Dad are just along for the ride. With summer starting and more than half of the families on the block going on vacation, Joey Andrews and his brother are exhilarated to soak up as much from the summer air, 4th of July celebrations, and family time.

This is the best time of the year to be outside. If you were 11 and had the whole summer ahead you, what would you do?

Sun-Kissed Mountains of Home

Heiress Miranda Howarth-Dunn longs for the things money can’t buy. Orphaned and raised by servants, Miranda seeks comfort and companionship at a riding academy. Inspired by her friend whose disabled brother wished to ride, Miranda envisions creating an equine therapeutic program that gives patients and their families opportunities to ride together. All she needs is a genuine cattle ranch to make her dreams come true.

Ethan Baldwin, a fourth-generation of throw-back cowboys, values doing things the old way. He finds his family ranch and land of his ancestors, under constant threat. The unpredictable nature of the cattle industry tests the financial stability of all the ranches surrounding the small community of Rambletap Springs, MO, including the Baldwin’s ranch, Alma Soñada. Though it could secure the finances, the last thing Ethan wants is for his parents to bring tourists to the ranch for some riding program.

Sun-Kissed Mountains of Home brings together two adversaries who, despite their opposite goals and different backgrounds, find mutual understanding as they work together around horses. Learning to communicate using animals as an example, Miranda and Ethan travel on parallel paths seeking a way to bridge the gap created by their differences. Forced into a dangerous situation, they rely on their spiritual connections to the energies around them to cope. Can the ghosts of legends and lore with whom Miranda and Ethan feel a connection be their common ground? Will they discover they might be kindred spirits after all?

Sustained by Love Through the Wars

I hate war. War kills. War maims. War orphans. And it leaves a deep scar not only on the land, but also in the hearts of those who are affected by the war. I am one of those who carry a deep emotional wound to this day, more than sixty years later.

During WWII under Japan, my father was imprisoned because he was a Christian minister, who refused to bow down to the picture of the Japanese emperor. My elder brother volunteered to join the Japanese military in the hope of having his father released from the prison. He left home as a vibrant 15-year-old boy and returned home as a worn-out, injured, 18-year-old man; he died a year later. He was my best friend. During the Korean War, North Koreans took my father away. He never returned.

Sustained by Love through the Wars is a story of love, sacrifice, faith and suffering all wrapped in one package. The heroine in the story is my mother. Mother prayed without ceasing. Through her unceasing prayers, she was able to walk through the dark tunnel of trials and tribulations and lead us onward with love and grace, and absolute faith in God.

Swan’s War

After Swan Samson’s oldest brother, Isaac, is murdered, Swan, a twenty-year-old Georgian, goes to war to find his brother’s killer and exact the revenge required by his notions of duty and honor. Swan’s War is the story of Swan’s internal struggle, in which the suffering of war and the slavery of revenge transform him completely. Swan easily convinces his two younger brothers to go to war with him. However, his twin brother, Jacob, is not as easily swayed. Jacob is in love with a slave girl and has no interest in fighting for the Confederacy. He also disdains Swan’s judgments about duty and honor.

Nevertheless, Swan persuades his twin brother to join the war and search for Isaac’s murderer by appealing to Jacob’s close relationship with their slain brother. Jacob will search for Isaac’s killer, while Swan seeks glory and revenge to repair his sullied reputation, which was compromised when he accidentally killed his best friend at the age of thirteen. During the war, Swan watches his younger brothers die, loses his fiancée, suffers grievous wounds, endures a year in a POW camp, and pursues, fights, and kills the man he thought had murdered his brother – only to find out that the real killer is someone he had known his whole life.

While Swan’s War is set during the Civil War and written by a historian, it is not really about that conflict. Rather, it is a character-driven story of the protagonist’s war within himself. The story includes strong female and enslaved characters, as well as family disputes. The protagonist and several of the main characters are based on the author’s ancestors.

Sweet Debris

Discover the poignant journey of one man’s passage through solitude and emotional isolation. On the surface, he appears ordinary, blending into the streetscape. Yet, within him lies a profound empathy for the overlooked fragments of life: the homeless, abandoned houses, desolate railroad sidings, and forgotten freight tracks. These elements, along with the haunting memories of a bygone era, shape his existence. His childhood whispers to him, filled with voices now lost to the earth, offering wisdom and counsel. Through it all, he persists with a quiet determination, moving forward despite the weight of the past.

SweetSpot: Now and Then

Spring 1999, California.

Call it middle-age madness or a midlife crisis, but SweetSpot: Now and Then chronicles one pivotal year in the life of Darlene Robinson, a woman grappling with hot flashes and the weight of being raised as a God-fearing good girl. She followed the rules… until she couldn’t anymore.

Just days before leaving for her first writers’ conference, Darlene makes a bold declaration to the man she married as a teenager: she wants out. Concerned for her mental health, she can no longer pretend to be the dutiful wife of a man who seems indifferent to her presence. Little did she know that the conference, her mother’s sudden illness, and meeting Clive Charles would all play a part in reshaping her life.

Back then, Darlene chronicled her transformative year shortly after living through it. Now, with time and experience, her "other self" offers a new perspective, adding depth to the story as only time can.

Call it what you will, but shifting one’s life in midlife is a journey many face, and Darlene believes SweetSpot: Now and Then will resonate deeply with readers.

Switch-Hitter

Switch-Hitter is the story of an ambidextrous female tennis player who plays the game with two forehands but quits after the untimely death of her father, a baseball switch-hitter who was her only coach. Enticed back into the game, she joins forces with an older Bahamian tennis coach who ends up moving in with her family. It is a feel-good American story about the obstacles encountered on the way to the top of the sport. In spite of issues including teenage pregnancy, racism, and geopolitical turmoil, will Sheila, our switch-hitter, fulfil her dream of being the first ambidextrous tennis player to win a major championship?

Sword Against Steel - 1

Sword Against Steel – 1: Black Cloaks follows Arathrone, a boy who feels out of place in a hidden village until adventure unexpectedly comes knocking. Drawn into the outside world, Arathrone is trained as a warrior for many years under the tutelage of sage men, elves, and wizards alike, to reveal the skills of magic, swordsmanship, and even dark tales of the secrets of the past… And of course there is a bit of time for laughter too. But most importantly, they teach him how to survive as an outcast in a land raging in a very mysterious war. Alongside newfound companions, they must fight for their homeland while they are imperiled by threats revealing themselves after long being in secret.

Synchronicity

Fractured Identities offers an unflinching look into the complexities of desire, identity, and survival within a Hungarian Jewish family during the crucible of the Second World War. Brace yourself for a harrowing psychosexual journey that confronts the limits of the human psyche and morality.

At the story’s center is an uncle – a Jungian psychiatrist – whose career is stifled under the oppressive Nazi regime. Bereft of his practice, he grapples with the dissolution of his professional identity. Opposite him is his wife, a once-successful actress and singer. Constrained by her Jewish heritage, she challenges both her own and her husband’s sexual boundaries as a form of escape from the confinements of religious and societal norms.

Their niece, prodigiously gifted and strikingly beautiful, is raised by her aristocratic, war-hero grandfather. Throughout the war, she faces a relentless assault on her body and mind. Her identity oscillates violently, from a vulnerable Jewish girl to a fierce supporter of Nazi ideology, even as her capacity for scientific innovation and acts of heroism grow. Yet she, too, cannot evade the war’s corrosive ethical compromises.

Tales For The Trivial

Life is hard, even on good days. We all know and accept this as a fact. But as we go through this journey and look around us, we tend to focus on the major obstacles in the way and ignore the tiny, trivial things. Even the most basic decisions we take for granted have deeper connotations than we realize in the moment. From trying to find the right shirt to wear to the gym as a male who is not built like a college athlete to dating as a single father and trying to do it in a way that does not damage the relationship you have with your wonderful children, the most basic things in life deserve to have some importance tied to them. By delving into this collection of thoughts and observations, you not only help me to feel like I have contributed something noteworthy to an otherwise simple life so far, but hopefully it can also remind you that you are not alone in the everyday thoughts you have as you navigate your own little worlds.

Tamara’s Gift

Tamara’s Gift, the enthralling sequel to Kennedy’s Ghosts, unfolds six decades later, tracing the extraordinary journey of a baby girl left at an orphanage doorstep, humorously claimed by the matron to be delivered by a ‘stork.’ This whimsical tale harbors a grain of truth as this enigmatic girl blossoms into a formidable force of modern times, spearheading a revolutionary paradigm of A.I. interfacing technology and beyond. But who is she? Possessing an intellect that’s off the charts and a mysterious celestial connection, could she be a harbinger of more global unrest or the key to long-awaited peace?

As the saga unfolds, weaving in characters and descendants from the first book, it challenges our notions of humanity’s place in the cosmic tapestry. From America to China and back, Tamara’s odyssey unfolds towards a sinister, yet enigmatic climax, seemingly guided by higher beings striving to steer humanity away from a precipice of annihilation. The uncovering of her genetic lineage unsettles the geopolitical balance, igniting a tussle between the forces of darkness and light.

Tanta: A Girl Who Did Not Have Friends

In the enchanting Tunda Kingdom, a young girl named Tanta has it all: dazzling beauty, prodigious talents, and the potential to shine like a star. Yet behind her lovely facade, loneliness eats away at her heart. Misery casts its long shadow, obscuring her light. Tanta despairs as she watches others, though plainer than her, enjoy the laughter and love of true friends.

But everything changes when a mysterious figure, Mr. Wisdom, takes Tanta under his wing. With his guidance, Tanta unlocks the secret to banishing her bitterness and finding authentic happiness. As she opens her heart and forms genuine connections with the people around her, Tanta undergoes a breathtaking transformation.

Tanta discovers that in this magical kingdom, happiness is a two-way street: to receive it, one must first learn to give. Join Tanta on an unforgettable journey as she soars from gloom to glory, lighting up her world like never before.