Stream of Life

When a young boy living in India loses his father to an early heart attack, his world is thrown into disarray. Manoj, just barely old enough to understand what happened to his father, struggles through his early years as he tries to come to peace with a life without a father. Worse, his mother is seeing another man that he doesn’t approve of. When bad timing and carelessness combine to cause Manoj to see his mother and her lover in a compromising position, the now-teenage boy assaults his mother’s boyfriend without thinking.

With the psychological fallout from the trial burning in the background, readers journey through the formative years of Manoj’s life, examining the way karma and psychology tie together to form a web of experiences that make up a life. As Manoj grows and develops relationships with an ever-widening circle of family and friends, the small resonances that guide our stories are interrogated. And in Manoj’s never-ending quest for love and connection, the very idea of contentment comes into question.

In Stream of Life, all of us are connected, and the ways that we are connected are never as we imagine. With strong characterizations and a dose of humor, the author brings us closer to understanding the feeling of a life lived.

Stories From the Heart

Be it the sweetness of courtship, the fragility of flirtation or deep prevailing commitment, these are stories that bring a sigh and a smile as we glimpse love in all its iterations.

Set against the backdrop of Italy, whose very essence is romance, we spend time with a woman who flips the script on actors; a little boy and his beloved violin; a snowy-haired cupid and destined dance partners, all of whom are connected by the powerful theme of love.

Something Terrible About Love

Love can be ecstasy only to be lost. It can lift then desert. Love is forever one day, never the next, always forgiven, never forgotten. Love can act like a dream, react like a nightmare. Yet, in life’s long picture, love is everything. It is life lived, and life is worth living only for love, but there is always something terrible about love. Helen Baird loves her only child, Kristen, with her whole heart, yet Kristen is a runaway. Helen desperately tries to track Kristen down. When Helen’s initial attempts bungle, she asks local nun, Sister Maria Carmelite, called Carmie, a former runaway herself, for help. Carmie drives Helen into New York where the two ramp up the search for Kristen. Years have accumulated with no leads about Kristen’s whereabouts. Helen enters therapy in search of healing after the tormenting loss of her daughter. Guardedly, Helen allows her own life to unfold as her estranged brother, a boss with personal information, and her high school boyfriend all resurface.

sideman

This book is a work of fiction, based on real-life characters and the events that transpired during a halcyonic period of personal musical growth and enlightenment which occurred between 1981-1983 in Columbus, Ohio. Many of the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent, even though most of them are no longer alive, may their souls truly rest in peace. Some of the more recognizable names of musicians and bands that occur in the book were retained, solely to provide context and because the stories they are associated with are true. In short, this is a fictional work told in an anecdotal fashion. There was no need to sensationalize the accounts of the absurdities contained herein because of the desire of the author to make the work more digestible to any reader of sound mind.

Schizo

Eric Taylor is not normal. He knows it, his drug dealing best friend/roommate knows it, anyone who has talked to him for more than ten minutes knows it, and his hallucinations know it. All Eric wants to do is finish his book, but the writer’s block has taken over his life. He stopped having human interactions, he doesn’t leave his apartment, and showers have become a rare occurrence for him. On top of that, his hallucinations have been antagonizing him for not being able to write. Eric’s only hope comes from his best friend who decides to take Eric out and back to the world in hopes of finding some inspiration.

Sacred Life and Demons

Is life sacred, and to whom? If our lives are sacred to each of us, should we be in control of how we are to die? Or should questions of life and death be answered only by those who believe and interpret the Bible as the will of a supernatural creator god? Does the Bible confirm the existence of a god who loves, and would never harm, an innocent child? Did this god create our reproductive processes such that the most unique human DNA ends in abortion? Or, are spontaneous abortions just the result of sin? How do we define a person, and when does a unique human DNA become a person? Is elective abortion murder? Do demons really exist? This nation is in serious conflict over the answers to these questions.

Dr. Tom Tanner, an oncologist in a Mississippi town, becomes entangled in all these questions and in the mystery of a boy thought by some to be of supernatural birth. Perhaps the boy is a demon.

Run Johnny, Run

Just days after his unexpected dismissal as the head track and field coach at the University of Minnesota, Ralph Dexter found himself lost in thought in a quiet café in South Dakota. On his way to Texas to seek solace with his best friend, the head coach at the University of Texas in Austin, Ralph’s self-pity was interrupted by an astonishing sight.

Outside the café window, he watched in awe as a young Native American boy dashed with uncanny speed to rescue a girl in danger. The townspeople revered the boy for his heroics and compassion, but Ralph was transfixed by something else — the boy’s extraordinary running prowess. In his esteemed career, Ralph had witnessed some of the world’s most elite athletes, yet never someone with such natural talent.

In a twist of fate, a recently ousted track and field coach stumbles upon a prodigious talent. The question remains: Can Ralph harness this serendipitous encounter into an opportunity for both of them?

Rainbow Trail

One moment claimed her innocence forever…

Nineteen-year-old Kate Murphy’s world shattered the night her innocence was stolen in a back alley. Forced into exile with only a few supplies, a pinto mare, and a Winchester rifle, she found herself in unknown territory.

It wasn’t long before Kate realized she was doomed to a life of loneliness and shame as her hatred and bitterness grew.

Closer and closer to the edges of her own darkness and despair, Kate could never have guessed that grace and redemption would find her through a sudden storm and serendipitous meetings with a curious cowboy, a Navajo woman, and a baby who stole her heart.

Rainbow Trail is a powerful story of a young woman and a native culture in a restored nation as they navigate horrifying circumstances—proof that the human spirit will always find a way.

One beautiful trail led her to redemption.

Powder River, 1957

“The year my mother left us, my father found a dog along the highway just outside of Powder River.”

Thus opens the beginning of sixteen-year-old Matthew Christman’s account of his senior year. Reeling from his loss, Matthew struggles to make sense of the adult world into which he has been forced to enter prematurely. He faces other losses, foremost among them his innocence, as he tries to figure out the difference between being a man’s man, or a good man like his father.

The threat of death is ever present for Matthew as he learns the value of love and friendship in his journey to find his way in a world fraught with unpredictable challenges.

Please Remember What I Told You To Forget

Dr. Rhea Morgan, a prominent educator, scholar, and researcher, steps out of the train station in D.C. where she is meeting her research planning team in-person for the first time. To her surprise, she is greeted by the newly appointed grant director, Dr. David Howard, her long ago first love. Handsome as ever and standing tall with his blue-grey eyes unblinking, Rhea feels the daggers piercing her heart as old memories flood her brain. Sporting her ear-to-ear smile on what she calls her negotiations face, Rhea begins plotting a “new lie” to keep David from discovering a 30-year-old secret that would destroy the stability of her family as well as his.

While David is perplexed and angered by Rhea’s attitude and behavior, he becomes more determined to uncover the truth—why this poor, Black woman who had driven him, a rich, white man, to almost becoming an alcoholic and two steps away from putting a gun to his own head—had dropped off the face of the earth only to reappear 30 years later, with a new name and playing a totally different game.

Pierced Girls

Sheena wants nothing more than to leave her troubled childhood behind. With no money and nowhere to go after high school, it seems her future will be more of the same, despite her dreams of becoming a music teacher. Desiring connection, Sheena imagines visits from her supposed father, deceased rock star, Joey Ramone. With tragic optimism, Sheena confronts poverty, violence, and the desperate world of drug addicts with the hope that she and her mother can forge a loving relationship and overcome their addictions.

Owed to My Mother

Nadine has always excelled in her career and had just reached the next level of her success, which brought her to the company’s illustrious complex outside of San Francisco, CA; but as she begins to get settled into this new chapter of her life, she learns that her mother’s cancer is now stage 4 and she’s forced to make a choice between staying where she is or going to be with her mother.  She chooses her mother and the story that unfolds from there is filled with heartfelt humor, ridiculous sarcasm and examples of their forever love.
This book is historical fiction and based on a true story, and nothing exemplifies that fact better than the sacrifices made between this mother and her child.  Be sure to have your Kleenex handy when you read this book, because whether you laugh or cry, you’re going to need them.