String Too Short to Tie

Told with humor and affection, String Too Short to Tie tells the story of the powerful ties of land and family. The author, called Dalinda in this memoir, rumbles down the dusty Texas road where she grew up, struggling with ambivalence toward proud family and friends who stayed while she left. Life has changed since the bustling time of the ’50s and ’70s when Buddy Holly was a sensation down the road in Lubbock and her rural town of Tumbleweed bustled with energy, plentiful water, and her beloved farm families prospered. What will she and her classmates have in common as they work to plan their 50^th class reunion? How will they feel about the Midwestern teacher she became versus the Texas farm girl they knew? How will she ever work with her headstrong sister to figure out how to honor their family farm?

Laugh and cry as Dalinda works to resolve conflicting values over land, entitlement and lifestyle, unearthing small nuggets of delight and redemption that come when each of us tumble back home and remember a time when we were all “raised with guilt and red Jell-O.”

Stripping

Embark on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance in Stripping - Taking Off Everything to Love What’s Underneath. Join me as I guide you through my personal odyssey from Point A to Z, a path marked by challenges, revelations, and triumphs. As a woman who embraces her unique identity, I invite you to delve into my world and understand the essence of who I am.

Stripping away layers isn’t just an act; it’s an art form of embracing one’s true self. This book is more than a story; it’s a manifesto on the power of self-love and the liberation that comes with it. Once you learn the art of stripping away external expectations and societal norms, you’ll find a profound freedom and an unreturnable transformation.

Discover the beauty beneath the surface, and learn to love the unadorned, authentic you. ‘Stripping’ isn’t just about removing what’s on the outside; it’s about revealing and cherishing what lies underneath.

Strong Boys

When you think of the word strong, what comes to mind? Big muscles, athletic, tough, and brave? Being strong can mean many things! In this playful book, boys can learn many ways to build strength and confidence. Being a strong boy is about developing strong character, trying new things, and being unique. Strong Boys celebrates the many ways to train your body and brain to be dynamic, fun, and strong. The biggest muscle you have is your courage!

Submission

This is a story about a marriage breakdown and the difficulties facing primarily women in protecting themselves and in collecting support payments under the Ontario justice system.

This is a story about justice delayed, justice denied, and how the justice system failed to level the playing field.

Every day a woman is demoralized in not being able to collect on support orders.

Every day in Canada a woman is subjected to ongoing abuse with her partner with minimal assistance through the legal system.

This story is typical of a woman’s plight going through a legal system where the parties have lost faith and face the dilemma of giving up or taking the law into their own hands.

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?

Sunset Silhouettes

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

round up its warmth and retracts the lights to feed another

in degrees it recedes, slipping in, out, and about

the flaming orangey clouds half-dipped in the horizon

a dazzling hopelessness courts the night

The sun will close its books on a day like any other

but can it account for the slumped lone silhouette

faceless beauty that hovers in its foreground

matching its sadness with the splendid sunset

a dazzling hopelessness encamps the soul

the final charm of a dying day.

Sunset Silhouettes is Linda Adede Ongola’s debut poetry anthology which features a hundred poems written mostly in free verse and of the confessional genre. It covers themes of mental health, theodicy, love, betrayal, and corruption among other social concerns.

Supernaturalis Mortem

In the year A.D. 390, magic is both omnipresent and feared in newly Christian Rome. In an effort to revive their faith, three witches cast a curse on local leaders of the Empire’s new religion, subjecting them to demonic hauntings, possessions, and eventual death. Will the Iracundus family be able to survive the witches’ curse? Can the witches succeed in their quest for revenge?

Medea has always cherished her witch heritage, despite her family’s mistreatment of her. When her mother and grandmother decide to take action against the town’s mistreatment of them and their fellow believers, Medea initially supports their cause. However, when they unveil their plan for vengeance, Medea begins to question the morality of their actions.

As Medea attempts to convince her family to see reason and find a way to satisfy their desire for justice without resorting to revenge, she must navigate a difficult path that will affect not only herself but also her family, enemies, and the entire town.

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.