Living the Dream

Ever since Caroline was a teenager, she had dreamed of going to Nashville and becoming a famous singer/songwriter. When a talent scout ad draws her attention, she gets out some of the songs she’s written and thinks, ‘why not now? I’ll call and go to the audition.’

After friends she trusted ran off with some of her precious sheet music and a horrifying audition experience, her confidence was destroyed. But then her best friend Maryanne believes in her and gives her the courage she needs to go on. She sends a couple of songs to several recording studios but gets no response. Finally, she receives a call from Mr. Callahan at Capital Records asking her to come to Nashville. She and Maryanne leave on their journey for Nashville only to meet with tragedy along the way.

Caroline dates but it’s not on her priority list. There’s always been the one person she has secretly loved, but he belonged to someone else. Through it all, she never gives up her thirst for stardom and will always feel she paid the ultimate price to pursue her dream.

Life's Soiled Red Earth

A harrowing and heart-breaking story of a five-year-old girl abandoned by her family in the midst of Apartheid South Africa. Marlene Neuman is removed from her hometown, below the slopes of Table Mountain, Cape Town, to a missionary, hundreds of miles away, at the northern border of South Africa. In the harsh unknown surroundings, she must fend off abuse from those she recognized as her own and bend to the rules of a Catholic orphanage. Her journey to adulthood is filled with twists and turns, as fate carves the pathway further away from stability and peace.

She experiences the devastation caused by the government’s segregation rules in every aspect of her life and in the bonds she forms with those around her. Like many other South Africans of that time, she eventually finds herself drawn into the struggle against the unjust laws of her country. She finds and loses loved ones, until she must take refuge, when the brutal South African security forces hunt her. As they begin to close in on her and the man she realises she loves, is it too late?

Life Is More Than Lollipops and Sour Grapes

This is a story about love, strength, and the importance of family. Emily, the wife, travels solo on a pilgrimage to Israel, fulfilling one of her lifetime dreams. Due to health reasons, her husband, Peter, could not join her. Along her journey, Emily shares her trip with her husband. A few days before her Israel tour comes to an end, Emily’s husband dies, leaving his widow in a foreign country alone and shaken.

Through her travels, Emily learns she is never alone. God steps in providing comfort, support, protection, and companionship in Peter’s absence. Although the uncharted waters of widowhood are unpredictable, the reader is given insight from a fellow widow on overcoming grief and finding renewed purpose, confirming God has a plan for your life.

When an unexpected event such as death descends, the horizon grows intensely dark. But through time and chance, the dust settles, the horizon clears, the air purifies, and we learn we have what it takes to survive and succeed.

The book is an easy read and should provide needed comfort, especially to members of a very large and ever-growing group; fellow widow and widowers and many others facing life alone.

Iowa to Lisbon, a Love Story

Two people who fell in love unexpectedly and living worlds apart. Both grew up facing different, but similar challenges with their families. A chance meeting at popular fitness facility would lead to more meetings. Friends at first, and neither wanting to let the other know they had stronger feelings than friendship.

Distance would eventually separate them, but the love they had would bring them together. Time and distance would take a toll on them, but their love never wavered.

House Ravenin - The Folded Path

The world is always changing, each step uncertain as the old ways and the new collide in a struggle for supremacy. Yet even the most well-paced paths sometimes turn in odd directions, the rumble of discontent along the western border leading to bloody clashes against the advancing world slowly encroaching upon the once open wilds.

As Crissone lies in flames and the tenuous peace between elven and human people threatens to collapse, the slaves taken in from the attack and sold to the estates are not what they seem to be.

It is here beneath the roof of House Ravenin that the lives of all hang in the balance, the arcing destinies of singular lives quietly merging together to decide the fate of an unsuspecting people. Each has their own part to play out, the Folded Path watchful upon all who grace its stones.

As poisonous secrets are revealed and true natures rise to the surface, careful hands begin to unravel a deadly mystery in hopes of staving off a greater, more sinister threat.

Her Name Is Blue

Florencia-Blue is an introverted dreamer, a believer in the power of love yet skeptically guarded against its reality. She’s crafted a life comfortably hidden beneath the veil of her beloved books and manuscripts, convinced that true happiness dwells only within their pages. Enter James Murray: sweet, albeit grumpily so, with a heart encased in metaphorical stone, having long forsaken the notion of love. Until, that is, a shy New Yorker with a captivating dimpled chin gently unravels his defenses, weaving the concept of love into a tangible tapestry they both begin to cherish. Their bond forms from the roots of friendship, slowly unfurling into something profound, stirring emotions neither was prepared to confront. Yet, as time marches on, they find themselves inevitably drawn into the embrace of something they once dared not acknowledge. She is Jamie’s Sassenach, and he, Florencia’s long-anticipated Ginger lad, a testament to the unexpected paths love carves, leading them towards a shared destiny they never anticipated but ultimately cannot deny.

Happenstance

Happenstance follows the ins and outs of young adults who make decisions that determine the fates of their hearts, at that moment in time.  
Lori returns home after one year of college, certain that age no longer presents an obstacle to pursuing Branson, the older gentleman she met the previous summer. Unexpected circumstances and moral roadblocks taint the possibilities and expose Lori's own immaturity, both spiritually and emotionally. Unable to find her definition of the perfect man, Lori moves her focus from guys to her career before entering into another relationship, complicated by its own set of challenges.
All seems lost until a chance encounter introduces her to the girl that holds the key to her happiness.

Escape from Hell

Anne’s mother is in an abusive marriage, and it is up to Anne to get her out, before she is killed. Anne gets her mother to safety, but they both realize, until her mother’s abuser is brought to justice, they can never be free. While getting supplies, Anne bumps into a stranger who captures her attention as no one else ever had. This chance meeting starts a chain of events that ends with a never to be forgotten businessman’s gala.

El Club de los Suicidas

La vida nunca es fácil. Es una lección que varios jóvenes aprenden al decidir e intentar tomarse su vida. Por medio de un acto insólito, estos jóvenes logran ver que la vida trae consigo muchas cosas, tal como personas que no solo se encuentran en su misma situación o similar, sino que también les abre los ojos y los ayuda a ver lo hermosa y variada que es la vida.

Earlier Fires

Earlier Fires chronicles the personal evolution of Adrian, a promising student, over 20 years as he leaves his prestigious New Jersey prep school to make his name in the competitive legal world of NYC’s corporate law firms. As a disillusioned 17-year-old, Adrian recognizes the entrapment of perpetuating his privileged socioeconomic status.

He excels academically but struggles to envision a purposeful future, feeling fate-bound to graduate high school and college before climbing the well-worn ladder of material success. Adrian grapples with whether meaningful relationships can endure in a culture consumed by globalized commercialization.

In his quest for purpose, he connects with Dominic, a like-minded rebel, and rekindles a childhood friendship with Delilah when she serendipitously re-enters his life.

Will Adrian break free from expectations to chart his own definition of achievement? Can these kindred spirits sustain bonds despite diverging destinies? Or will the cycle of reproducing class status subsume Adrian as its unwitting heir?

Dildo-Gate II

The Jenga puzzle continues. The story of our traveler, Andrea, her deep sense of place intertwined with thematic adventures and political tensions set in the backdrop of Eastern Europe.

Her cell phone begins to chime as soon as she returns to the mainland, and she texts back.

She agrees to a new trip. Nina wants her return and close friends Misty and Lori will join. Resuming her primping routine, she readies her look. Her and Nina plan out all the trip details.

Emboldened from her last visit, she packs new gifts. And Ahmed has softened his anger; she places her claddagh ring back on her hand.

Her plans go sideways as she is pressed for money, jealousies collide and the unwelcome Irina returns.

Dildo-Gate

Andrea’s cell phone has been chirping incessantly for weeks. A precarious request to search for women’s toys of pleasure co-mingles lustful desires juxtaposed in a patriarchal world. She completes her indulgent primping routine and is ready to board her plane. Her immoral cargo is discreetly packed when she is detained by US border agents at the gate.

Waiting for her toy drop on the other side of the world is the local patron who detours from the agreed delivery plan. The pressure builds on meeting Irena, a local cosmetic manager who is making regular midnight rendezvous from a high mountain village. On Andrea’s arrival, he insists they meet. Unsatisfied with the turn of events, Andrea senses things are amiss and laments over their first passionate encounters years earlier, retaliates to fill all her erotic needs by combatting norms.

The Patron’s confidant and beautiful business partner Nina undermines her patron, raising increasing havoc. She is a youthful entrepreneur in a patriarchal world also seeking pleasure, power and wants control over the toy cargo and partners with Andrea to get rid of Irena.