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. 

Vet-Onation

Specialist Lauren Mayer is an Army Broadcast Journalist who sets out on a life-changing adventure upon joining the military. Against her better judgment, she falls for a Navy sailor named Davin Hendrix. Davin’s Navy obligations and Lauren’s impending deployment to the war-torn country of Iraq soon separate them. Devoted to each other, Lauren and Davin struggle through a long-distance relationship, which falters at times. This uncertainty, along with the psychological impact of a Military Sexual Trauma, pushes Lauren into the arms of a comrade. Lauren soon has a number of secrets to keep from Davin as they attempt to restore their relationship. She struggles to adjust to many aspects of her life post-deployment. When Davin selects an assignment in proximity to Lauren’s assaulter, she follows—out of love—despite her mental turmoil and fear. The result is a self-inflicted implosion of her life. Her military service, her assault, and her tumultuous relationship with the love of her life are all tests of her fortitude and will to overcome.

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.

Ukrainian Rhapsody

The past of a heartless mail bride is as mysterious as the ethnic life of ‘gutzuls’ in Western Ukraine. Castaway to the distant shores of the Atlantic, trapped in the illusory realm of desire, unable to cope with harsh reality, about to plunge into the abyss of East River, she is facing a fundamental question: will she have a chance to redeem herself? Her last chance of redemption has a hefty price – a broken heart, and it is too tempting not to take it.

Two to Nothing

Arthur Dale is a grownup, a high school English teacher. He tries to meet his students halfway, let them run with their ideas, and then also offer them other ways to look at stories or poems. He sees his students holding back, trying to be cool as they pass through the days in his classroom, but he knows that out in the world they are lively, spirited, and they look around to find others to run with, to engage in their schemes, to push against the limits. Arthur worries -- does he muster his courage and join them in their rebellions, or keep his cool and stay in school? This is an important moment for him. Does he take a chance and run with the pack? Or stay back on the sidelines. Can he do both? What would happen then?

Two Kinds of Color

Two Kinds of Color is story of a mother’s love and sacrifice for her four racially divided children. Two of them are black, two are white. Their mother, Freddie Walker, has not only movie star beauty, sensuality, and sexuality, she has the kind of intelligence which white-collar Wall Street can only dream of. Sidetracked from realizing her dream of gaining a fortune playing with stocks and bonds, she moves to the notorious South Side of Chicago, where she and her children are raised and abused by a brutal and vain gambler, pimp, Jimmy Tate. When the unthinkable happens the only one she can turn to is her best friend, a black woman, Ruby Johnson. Will her children, turned adults, hate their mother and Ruby, or realize there is no greater love than that of two mothers?

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.

Tipping Point

When the governor of New Jersey, Melissa Harding, appears to win a close race for the White House, the incumbent president, desperate to hold on to power, tries every tactic to stay in office. As inauguration day comes closer, both sides battle it out in the courts. The incumbent president has ordered troops to the border of Iran, risking a bloody and pointless conflict. The death of a supreme court justice means the balance of the court is also at stake. With democracy itself at a tipping point, the country’s future depends on people willing to risk their careers to uphold the rule of law.

Those Who Live

Two cousins, Chinle Davis and Mae Godwin, are determined to find the truth about why six female infants spanning three family generations died shortly after birth. Their plan to interview family members about these deaths is fruitful, the details, alarming.

As the interviews proceed, Chinle, injured at five when someone pushed her on her bike down a deep, steep, rocky ravine, begins to have memories of the accident that left her with an inturned right foot, a leg with little feeling, and a spastic gait due to neurological damage. The mystery of who pushed Chinle gradually becomes more central than the mysteries of the six infants. The relationship between Chinle and Mae becomes tenser and more layered as each woman’s romantic life becomes more complex, Chinle establishing a bond with Cody and Mae, losing her bond with her long-time boyfriend, Bernie.

What will each woman discover about herself as mysteries between them unfold?

The Year that Didn't Exist

Walter’s freshman year at a top Engineering School wasn’t what he had hoped for. Academic success was a given but wasn’t college supposed to be about freedom, drugs and wild sex? This was 1969 after all. But as Walter laments “freshman year was just OK, I somehow missed out on that sex thing.”

Walter was hoping sophomore year will be his MVP season. Regrettably it wasn’t, it was a nothing, in fact it was The Year that Didn’t Exist. The story opens with Walter’s big mistake: securing off-campus housing with two roommates he finds intolerable. One chapter details his accidental meeting, and getting stoned with Jane and Tom H. They, activist-celebrities, on their way to a Vietnam protest rally at the Tute, Tom being the keynote speaker.

Several chapters are devoted to his introduction and obsession with recreational drugs, pot, hashish, LSD and Ludes. How he meets his first girlfriend, the result of a bet, as to who would score better on a biology test, is thoroughly, but not graphically detailed. And finally, the only real highlight of his meaningless year, teaming up with drug buddy Strappa and winning a collegiate bowling championship, provides a humorous ending to the saga. The Year that Didn’t Exist should strike chords that ring true in almost everyone and hopefully transport the reader back to their college days, days perhaps simpler and likely filled with unbound optimism.

The Story of Words

The Story of Words intricately weaves the tale of Nathaniel Brand’s journey - intellectual, spiritual, and geographical. A deep dive into his life reveals a poignant discovery: the woman he believed was his soulmate, Stephanie Haller, is in reality a stranger. His PhD dissertation challenges decades of literary criticism but fails to bring him professional recognition. Nathaniel’s spiritual exploration, fuelled by marijuana and acid-rock from the 60s, results in seventy-five ‘messages from the beyond’, which he hopes will revolutionize society but are instead seen as negative by his peers. His quest, marked by trials and introspection, takes readers on a transformative path, hinting at an unexpected resolution that reshapes his understanding of life. This novel offers a unique glimpse into the complexities of pursuing dreams and truths.

The Sisters Graves

In the gripping pages of The Sisters Graves, a shocking murder rocks the tranquil property of Coo Blackstone. The victim, a beautiful woman, is discovered in a grotesque state, sending shockwaves through the community. All eyes turn to Angus, her lover and Coo’s own brother, as a prime suspect in this heinous crime.

However, as the layers of the victim’s life are peeled back, it becomes evident that she was not innocent. In fact, she led a covert existence, manipulating and blackmailing the townspeople. The list of disgruntled individuals with motives to see her silenced grows longer, each unaware of the others’ entanglements with the captivating but treacherous country girl. Money, sex, and revenge emerge as the compelling motives that entwine the dead woman and the town’s residents, leaving a web of secrets and a trail of potential killers.

Determined to defend her brother’s honor, Coo takes it upon herself to unravel the perplexing clues that emerge during her investigation. Yet, the more she digs, the more bewildering and uncertain the truth becomes. Clues begin to implicate not just Angus, but several other individuals, leaving Coo at a loss, torn between her loyalty to her family and her relentless pursuit of justice.

As the local Sheriff, Clyde Buck, steps into the investigation, tensions rise. With the victim found on Coo’s property, suspicion falls upon her, straining their relationship. Clyde is committed to solving the crime, but his growing feelings for Coo make it increasingly challenging to separate personal desires from the demands of upholding the law. Even if the unthinkable truth implicates Angus or even Coo herself, Clyde must navigate the treacherous waters of love and justice to bring the murderer to light.