The Musician’s Brain

“As in his earlier novel, The Players Brain, Love and Soccer, Antonio exercises his natural gift of translating hermetic neuroscientific concepts into colloquial language without belittling them for the sake of simplicity. Readers will be taken to the edge where fiction meets reality, pointing to the infinite possibilities now within our reach to give life back to legions of people who have lost all hope and, worse, their dignity. The Musician’s Brain is an ode to music, faith, and creativity.”

– Dr. Ricardo de Oliveira.

Maestro João Carlos Martins demonstrates resilience and a deep love for music throughout his more than 70-year career as a successful musician, sharing his journey of overcoming Musician’s Dystonia.

Young Vincent

Young Vincent offers a sweeping and intimate exploration of the life and loves of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, tracing her journey from a latchkey child to a defiant Vassar graduate and literary icon. In this compelling work, Hood masterfully blends fact with imagination to present a uniquely personal portrayal of Millay’s creative process, gritty personal struggles, extraordinary strokes of luck, and her complex bisexual romantic life. Drawing from first-hand interviews with her sister Norma, lover Catherine Filene Shouse, and other close friends, as well as the poet’s letters, journals, and poems, this book vividly captures the essence of Millay’s remarkable world.

Set against the backdrop of the early 20th century, Millay’s story resonates with the challenges of our own tenuous times. The forces that sought to stifle free expression, limit opportunities, and deny civil rights echo through history, allowing modern readers to better understand Millay’s transformative era of groundbreaking art and technology. Through her struggles to reconcile her bold nature with the rigid constraints of her society, Millay becomes a timeless companion, inspiring empathy and reflection in today’s rapidly changing world.

Full of Grace and Mischief

From the moment they meet at a Catholic summer camp in Savannah, Georgia, Mary Margaret and Theresa, polar opposites, become inseparable. Each summer, they embark on wild adventures, exploring waterways, pulling pranks, and challenging boys to daring contests. But one prank too many gets them banned from camp, and the nuns can’t shield them from the real world forever. As tragedy strikes, their friendship is forged in both joy and hardship.

The girls carry their bond to the beaches of Tybee and through the trials of a Catholic high school, where they face bullies, first romances, loss, and heartbreak. As their lives begin to diverge, Mary Margaret and Theresa struggle to hold onto the friendship that once seemed unbreakable. Can they find a way to salvage their connection as they enter the unpredictable world of adulthood?

The first in a generational trilogy, Full of Grace and Mischief vividly captures the coming-of-age experiences of two young women in the Deep South, celebrating their resilience and the enduring strength of friendship.

The Right Oath

What will you do for the person you care about most? How about what you’ll be willing to sacrifice to make amends? Gabriel Ern has committed himself to a troubled life all for the sake of one person. What it ultimately leads to is more tragedy than he has already experienced. He finds himself haunted by his own actions, all done with the best intentions, and is continuously haunted while awake with a girl named Raven he lives at home with. Gabriel wants to do what is right; he wants to feel he is doing the best he can. Instead, the sins he commits only pile up, and the only means of escape is through the truth, which would cost him dearly. For Gabriel, the question isn’t how far he will go, it’s now how much further in the hole he will bury himself in.

The Thin Liners

Don Cammond was a successful businessman and an excellent athlete who, as a result of pain caused by a sports injury, becomes trapped in OxyContin and alcohol addiction. He manages to regain his sobriety but loses everything and winds up living on the edge of society with what he calls ‘thin liners’. Thin liners are not criminals per se but are walking on the thin line between honesty and criminality. Despite his best intentions, as he lives with them, he is drawn further and further into their lifestyle. Finally, as with his sobriety, he must find a way out.

It's a Family Affair

Car doors ajar, cars half-parked in the street, traffic is blocked in both directions while sisters hug and greet each other. They hug like they haven’t seen each other in months – though it’s only been about a week or so since they last met. The purpose of this meeting is to determine when they will have the next meeting. In other words, they meet to talk about the next meeting – nothing ever gets accomplished. It’s a family affair, and this is what our family does.

Hearts of Men

Hearts of Men moves with calculated grit and fierce velocity, stopping for rest only when it seems safe. It is a tale of seven unassuming, ordinary young men from all over North America. They awaken separately, one by one, in a vast, uncharted green wilderness. Disoriented and confused, they gradually stumble upon each other within the woods, and through their common plight, quickly grow close. Armed with newfound friendships and relentless perseverance, the group must endure immense fatigue, extreme hunger, psychological torment, and the unforgiving elements if they are to survive and unravel the mystery of where they are and why. These men face unbelievable odds, as they travel the forest in search of freedom, truth, and justice.

When Darkness Reigned

A long time has passed since the ‘High Kingdom’ brazenly executed its campaign of genocide and ruthlessly slaughtered the majority of their people in the hope of finding a child with a secret.

Fortunately for those resourceful enough to survive under the dark reign, an underground network of interconnected factions have been plotting an uprising for some time and they have a secret of their own.

Walking in Somebody Else's Shoes

Almost everyone has worn shoes during their lifetime! It begins when we are small, and attempt to wear the larger shoes of our father, mother, sister, etc. We attach meaning to a person’s shoes, and who wears them. Shoes say a lot about us, including what we may do for an occupation or what we wear to get us through the day. This may include recreational activities, work, and specialized occupations such as floating in space! They may seem like a mundane subject at first glance, but shoes really do make the person. Children know this, and this book will not only show them different types of shoes in a simple-to-understand manner, but will also explain how it feels to 'walk in somebody else’s shoes.'

Two Arms and Ten Fingers

The fifth-century philosopher Plato was a beloved student of the great philosopher Socrates. In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato reasoned that one is presented with an incredibly distorted view of reality until released from deception by being placed in a clear-eyed position to see absolute truth.

As our lives unfold and present us with various issues requiring decisions, our character matters. Yet, sometimes people choose deceit rather than sound, principled reasoning, and the truth of their deception is never discovered.

In Two Arms and Ten Fingers, three well-respected professionals choose to create a distorted view of reality for their personal gain, only to experience the consequences of their actions. The truth, most times, has a strange habit of coming to light; however, “deceit can be beautiful – just depends on who benefits.”

In Two Arms and Ten Fingers, a doctor, a mortician, and a lawyer make life-changing decisions and share the consequences. Follow their journey from darkness to possible enlightenment.

The Salt Shack Dweller

Once the institutions of his world proved untrustworthy, a young veteran leaves college and seeks refuge in a shack beneath a condemned train bridge along the depleted and abused Salt River. Here, he encounters those society deems invisible: Natives, migrants, and discarded souls. A makeshift clan forms as curious individuals are drawn to this enigmatic figure and his humble dwelling. Among them are a compassionate female doctor, a questioning priest, a lonely flour mill guard, a seventeen-year-old girl yearning for freedom, and a disheartened judge. Even scorpions, black widows, and countless butterflies find their place. To the Salt Shack Dweller, this motley group becomes a true family.

The Player's Brain

This book challenges the very foundation of traditional medicine with a controversial and fascinating idea: using neurosurgical intervention and behavior modification to reintegrate sociopaths into modern society. Written in accessible language, it explores the groundbreaking work of Dr. Antônio De Salles, who pioneers this approach at the intersection of medicine, science, technology, and human interaction.

The book’s thought-provoking content makes it a must-read for students and academics across various disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities. It illuminates the complex medical, technical, and moral implications of this sensitive issue, encouraging readers to grapple with the ethical questions raised by this emerging field of study.

“The field of psychosurgery promises to change how we think about science and mental illness. Already, brain surgery is safe enough, and implants are sophisticated enough, for alteration of the brain to be accepted as mainstream therapy.”

– Hays and Berenbein.