Hanííbááz Rising

“Everything teenagers do seems silly when you have a family and a mortgage,” Jen said, “but to us, it’s life or death.”

Aaron has been in love with Jen for eight years. The problem is, he lives on the Navajo Reservation, which means nobody believes he has a future. She’s a popular preppy-turned-alternative girl being courted by several universities, hanging with her boyfriend, and living up the nineties. But when a werewolf disrupts a teenage bonfire, Aaron and Jen bond, and because of that bond, Aaron’s best friend, Mike, is bitten by the wolf.

A beautiful drifter will come to town and promise to prepare Mike for what is coming in four weeks. Jen and Aaron will get closer, much to the dismay of Mike, her boyfriend, and her entire social circle. The two of them must race against the moon to find a cure as innocent people are brutally slaughtered. They will have to face social persecution, Right Said Fred, an amateur werewolf hunter, curfews, a violent ex-boyfriend, and finals. With the help of a witch who calls herself a “goth,” and by “surfing” this thing called the “Information Superhighway,” the cure is within sight, but will they be able to use it in time?

And what if the wolves don’t want to be human again? What if they’re willing to kill to keep that from happening?

Welcome to Gallup.

The Eyes Have It

Carrie Lockhart is a young teacher in rural Australia, yearning for a fresh start after her beloved father dies suddenly. When at her most vulnerable, she finds herself caught up in a seedy and violent coercive-control relationship. When her sense of self-worth has all but crumbled, a mentor helps her find a way out.

Carrie escapes to a small rural community in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It is a beautiful, peaceful setting, where she has the soothing presence of her horse and dog. It is here that Carrie finally begins to overcome the trauma of her previous life. Will she ever trust another man with her heart?

Carrie’s story is at times brutal and confronting. Share the heartbreak, the pain, and the elation, as she takes on the courageous journey to rebuild her life.

The Shout of the Phoenix

The Shout of the Phoenix is the dramatic unraveling suspense story of Angel, a bisexual man who from the initial frame, dies. Before his death, he was a sexual addict who had it all, fame, power, lovers, prestige, and the expectation of a massive inheritance. After his death, and upon being given a second chance at life he ultimately loses it all, falls from grace, and encounters powerful opponents and adverse difficulties that ultimately force him to undergo an internal as well as an external spiritual journey that takes place in New York, India, Africa, and Greece.

Along the way and as a result of his tragic accident and traumatic HIV diagnosis, he fails to remember a very key piece of this intricate puzzle, whose answers lie in a mysterious book that slowly unravels a big reveal for a story that goes back and forward between the present, past and future. Mixed with the search for his true love, posing philosophical questions with the surrounding beautiful scenarios, and in conjunction with his best friend Kathleen’s similar fate, everything comes full circle in the poetic finale.

The Way It Ought to Be

The Way It Ought to Be is based on the idea that life does not always happen the way we want it to and that the only things that are important are the relationships we experience along the way – those we can’t get away from, those we want but can’t have, and the one we hold with ourselves.

Winifred Simone is in love with the life she had as a young girl and with the people from that life: her lone, childhood friend, Casey, and her ever-present mother, Maggie. Winifred and Casey spend their days in the small, rural town of Hickory in 1940s Pennsylvania; free to roam the nearby woods and isolating themselves from the rest of the world. But what seems idyllic to Winifred was anything but for Casey, a boy who always felt unloved and unlovable, despite Winifred’s boundless adoration.

Neither one could perceive the events that take away their innocent outlook and, without a word, Casey leaves Hickory, shattering their bond. This propels Winifred on a six-year search to find her friend and love far beyond the comfort of her hometown. As the story moves from the canopied safety of the Pennsylvania woods to the exposed rawness of the California desert, Winifred continually relies on the wrong people in an attempt to find the life she is convinced she is supposed to have.

That is, until she meets two very different families, the Hixsons and the Quinns. With their help, she learns to accept and be grateful for the life she is actually living.

Redemption in the Majella Mountains

Ken’s grandfather always inspired him, as a child, to respect and love the outdoors and to find in nature the introspection and refuge to allow every person to solve any of life’s vicissitudes. Recalling his grandfather’s philosophy, the author carries the reader through the mesmerizing beauty of the Majella mountains in the Abruzzi region of Central Italy. There Ken has the protagonist first find refuge, and ultimately, find redemption from the helter-skelter corporate life he left behind. These two existences, ambition and introspection, clash and confront each other so that the reader sees the unforgiving life of ambition lived by a grizzled corporate veteran pit itself against the newly-found introspective existence of a young man whose soul is forced to reawaken and leave behind the societal ladder to success in favor of the more simple, but much more satisfying, life of ethics and morality.

The Panacea of Life

A tale of triumph that paradoxically spirals into sorrow, bewilderment, and desolation – not because of the accomplishments, but due to the invaluable losses endured in the chase of a misguided belief that success guarantees joy. Amidst a backdrop of a neglected history, forsaken love, and a fractured spirit, a fortuitous meeting occurs with a family and vineyard that have strayed from their roots. By a stroke of serendipity, their paths intertwine, navigating through a poignant tragedy towards a rediscovery of what is truly precious.

Windwhistle Bone

Richard Trainor's Windwhistle Bone is a novel of time and place as we follow the protagonist, Ram Le Doir, on a journey tracing his rise as a celebrated poet and reporter, which comes to a tragic conclusion as he is unlocking a series of dangerous stories that nearly costs him his life, and destroys his marriage and career. Ram's fall and eventual redemption concern the double murder of his wife, actress Vera Dubeck, and her lover. Trainor's prose was cited by the late Luther Nichols, Doubleday's former West Coast Bureau Chief, as "reminiscent of Faulkner (the Snopes-like nature of the Le Doirs), Thomas Wolfe, J. P. Dunleavy (the scapegrace of Ram), Dylan Thomas, and Bukowski. There's a great California feel to your novel which is one of the finest first novels I have ever read." Nichols gave testimony for Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books during the obscenity trial held over Allen Ginsburg's poem, Howl, in 1960.

When the Stars Aligned

On a fate-laced evening at 7:30 pm, the three cornerstone figures in Malita’s life found her crossing their minds, yet none were present to shield her from Bruce’s malevolent grasp. Amidst grappling with the void left by her father’s absence, Malita’s world plunges into a deeper abyss when a supposed guardian from her family cruelly betrays her trust. This grave violation leaves her wrestling with shame, betrayal, and a tenuous relationship with her mother, all while battling against the engulfing tides of self-pity.

But Malita, with a spirit unyielding, musters the bravery to face the harsh truth of her fractured family and rejects the dark labels it threatens to affix on her. Embarking on a piecemeal journey, she strives to restore the shards of her destiny. In her quest for healing, the realms of forgiveness and purpose unfold before her, offering a glimpse of hope amidst despair. Malita chooses not merely to exist in the shadows of her past, but to seize the full essence of life’s offerings, demonstrating a resilient pursuit of healing and reclaiming her rightful place in the world. When the Stars Aligned isn’t just a narrative of survival, but a profound testament to the indomitable spirit of recovery and self-redemption.

Welcome to Welby Island: The Reunion

In the first book of the Welcome to Welby Island sequel, Leanne, Devon, Amber, Rosalie, and Leonard arrived on Welby Island as five strangers struggling with the tangled vines that had wrapped around them and landed them on the island. They knew they needed to find a way to break free from whatever it was holding them back from the one thing none of them could seem to find…happiness. What they didn’t know was that spending time on a deserted island, holed up in a shack, would not only find a way to detangle the vines through helping one another, but they would also leave the island not just as friends, but as family.

Welcome to Welby Island: The Reunion continues the journey with Leanne, Devon, Amber, Rosalie and Leonard. There will be bumps in the road, this time in a rented camper, an unexpected surprise, and a heart wrenching moment of loss.

The bond between these five is one of love and friendship, a bond so strong that nothing can break it, not even their past.

Welcome to Welby Island

Welcome to Welby Island is a story that revolves around five troubled people from Los Angeles who come from different walks of life but will soon be traveling down the same path to enlightenment. That is, if they can survive twelve weeks on Welby Island at the hands of world renowned life coaches Micah and Blair Claine.

When they arrive via seaplane to the uninhabited island off the coast of Washington State, they are none too happy. After a fifteen-minute walk up the beach and through the woods, they emerge to the sight of a rundown cabin that in no way resembles the large sprawling beach house from the Claine Enlightenment Retreat brochure.

It doesn’t take long for the life coaching gurus to realize that these feisty five are not buying what they are selling.
Knowing that they are each carrying burdens that are clinging to them like seaweed, the five guests of Welby Island have to figure out how to get along and survive twelve weeks in a shack on a deserted island.

Welcome to Welby Island is a witty, sassy, humorous and emotional journey that will take you along on the road to enlightenment. 

Undertow

Red grows up in the rarefied world of a privileged Manhattan childhood: a world of uniformed doormen, private schools, and elegant townhouses. This is also the world of the 1960s, when societal conflicts are disrupting previously accepted patterns of American life.

As author John F. Reinus reveals through richly detailed observation, there’s a powerful current beneath the surface, and the presumed advantages of his birthright come at a heavy cost, one that is amplified by the sorrow of an unacknowledged love.

The author weaves a tapestry of minute details, as seen in Red’s journey from childhood to adulthood, inviting us to compare what’s on the surface of our own lives to the hidden forces that shape us.

Tomorrow, Again

If you took a blank calendar and looked at it month by month, would each month hold a special, life-changing anniversary?

Could you fill the calendar with events which have shaped you and stood out, or would it be filled with blanks?

Do you seek a life where you create more meaningful moments which can become important anniversaries as you look back?

Are you spending your life in pursuit of something worthy, or are you drifting around from day to day as time passes by?

These philosophical questions are the guiding principle behind a series of events framed over 11 days in a searing Midwestern summer fixated on devotion to the dying, accumulation of others’ possessions, searching for purpose, and hoping for escape. On nights racked by storms accompanied by the strumming hymns of insects, through days burned by the sun and wind, and on a day the color of whales, events unfold to confront each character with the truth of their life and the path their calendar has set them on, with the last day ending in moments of crucial realizations and hope.