The Things He Lost There

Vietnam. The word still resonates with powerful emotions: death, lost souls, devastation – both human and material – shattered men, and a country equally broken and horribly divided.

Into this turbulent backdrop steps Jack Houston, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina. Thrust into the heart of the conflict, Jack’s journey encapsulates the grim realities of the Vietnam War and the crucial role of the surface Navy. After fierce combat in places like Phu Quoc, Rach Gia, and Hue during the Tet Offensive, Jack’s ship, the highly-decorated Black River, faces a new challenge. A new commanding officer, Cork, takes over, driving – what the crew calls ‘corkscrewing’ – the ship into both operational and morale disasters.

This narrative explores the impact of Captain Cork’s leadership on Jack and the crew, filled with moments of profound sadness and unexpected hilarity. The climax comes with the Black River, now under Jack’s command, confronting six Chinese gunboats in the Taiwan Straits: a hopelessly mismatched battle, given the ship’s unsuitability for naval combat. The survival of Jack and his ship hangs in the balance as they navigate this deadly encounter.

Parallel to the war story is Jack’s poignant love affair with Melanie Lawton, a spirited graduate student back in Carolina. Through her perspective, we witness the defining events of 1968 and 1969: antiwar demonstrations, the chaotic 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, Woodstock, drug culture, and political assassinations. One devastating decision made in the midst of war shatters Jack and Melanie’s relationship, leaving Jack to question if he can ever reclaim what he lost in Vietnam – his love, his peace, his future.

The Three Americans

It is 1917. Janet Defoe never planned for the day German biplanes would appear and blow her world away. With her French home in shambles and only a derringer for protection, she finds her way across the war-torn town. She meets a band of tattered French survivors and together they form a plan for escape. Before they can reach their rendezvous point, they are overtaken by German guards. With blood on her hands, Janet sets out on her own. She doesn’t know what lies around the corner, perhaps death perhaps another chance at life.

Meanwhile, three Americans named Douglas, Teddy, and Burke, fresh from the trenches, pursue the Germans across the scorched French landscape. They have one goal and that is to kill the enemy. When they are overcome and taken prisoner, they take the matter of their rescue into their own hands. Ultimately, Douglas and Teddy make away with German guard uniforms and return with rifles to retrieve their companion. Upon their escape, they run into a French youth who was drafted by the German army named Jeannot. Together they patrol the town in search of food, ammunition, and shelter against the German presence.

Bianca, a French girl who has lost everything to the Germans, soon finds her way into the lives of the four soldiers… and young Teddy’s heart. With their band complete, the only thing for the five of them to do is survive the occupation. Days pass, perhaps weeks. Jeannot reveals a shocking secret to the others. Planes appear in the sky, but they are not German planes. The liberation of Beau Chateau is at hand. Janet and the three Americans hit the streets in their “grays” and clear a path for the allies with their rifles and grenades. The war for them is about to be over.

The Timeless Love of Billy B for Scheherazade

Balthazar dreams of the perfect woman, one he can summon or dismiss at will on his computer screen. But as time passes, he becomes ensnared in his own creation, consumed by an obsession with this non-existent figure. As Balthazar spirals downward, losing everything from his identity to the use of his body, reduced to just his mind and the fingers tapping at the keyboard, she, in contrast, rises. She transforms into a modern-day Scheherazade, learning to command her prince.

Baltha B was unaware,
No more sits he upon the chair.
The relics of his body’s ruin,
Are the one last bastion
Of his undoing.
Death beckons when the hands they clap,
To say, ‘Enough! Your time is up’

The Truth Is in the Words

The Truth Is in the Words holds within its pages two novellas, Noula’s Prayer & The House That Called Me Home. The House that Called Me Home begins with a dream, a haunting dream that comes true in steps to reveal the power of prayer, the patience of love and the healing from life controlling shame. It’s a story that touches your heart and maybe even your own story.  It shows you that you’re never too old to find out that you have been loved all along. That is what Celine finds out when her dreams come to an end in reality.

Noula’s Prayer takes you on a journey through many lives which all end up in the same church. When God asks Noula for one prayer and one prayer only, she searches her heart and examines her life, she then seeks guidance in God’s Word. Noula finally prays her one prayer. Will God answer..?

The Two Sides of Yourself

If you find yourself as a main character in any of these stories, you are only human.

If you don’t, you are in denial.

This intriguing and powerful collection of prose reflects on the many complex facets of the human experience. The diverse narratives, perspectives, and characters in the stories touch on a number of experiences and emotions that everyone will relate to at one point or another in their lives, which is what makes the stories so captivating.

From family to love to loss to religion, the stories are sure to draw readers in and allow them to truly contemplate about what it means to be human, and the many shared experiences and emotions we have that make us so.

The Virulence

This action-packed thriller follows retired intelligence officer Jason Stouter in his mission for peace in the Middle East as he confronts his old nemesis, Kahlil Zufar. As the Middle East conflict reaches its climax, Jason finds himself in the midst of a secret group of genetic engineers who have developed a highly selective virus. Their goal is to blackmail Israel and Arab nations into agreeing to peace. However, Jason soon discovers that his nemesis has hijacked the virus for his own nefarious purposes, putting the entire mission at risk.

With the help of his friend in the FBI and two seductive but dangerous women, Jason embarks on a dangerous journey across the Florida Keys, Jackson Hole, Boston, Israel, and Jordan to stop the virus from spreading and to ensure that peace prevails. As he unravels the mystery behind Zufar’s ultimate vision, Jason must use all his skills to thwart the deadly plan and protect innocent lives.

The Well of the Golden Heart

The world is in trouble: the curtain of meaninglessness has engulfed it, and people live a life of dullness and suffering.

Isabella is a young princess who doesn’t fit in with her royal family. Her cruel mother throws her in the dungeon and declares that the princess has been sent to finishing school – indefinitely. Isabella starts digging her way out and finds a well. She dives in, and deep in the water she finds a half of a golden heart that fills her with energy and life: the antidote to the illness consuming the world. She sets on a quest to find the other half of the golden heart, and with the help of friends in the forest she gets close to her goal – when trouble hits. A wizard entraps her and aims to steal the golden heart for himself. He makes her forget who she is and keeps her in his castle engaged to marry him.

Will the owner of the other half of the golden heart succeed in waking up the princess from her stupor on time? Will the united golden heart liberate the world from the curtain of meaninglessness, or will the wizard succeed at keeping the populace entrapped?

The Well of the Golden Heart is a tale of self-discovery, finding true love and the perils that are found along the way.

The Witch and The Wiseman

This novel unfolds in the homeland of the Haisla people during the 1940s, where a disturbing mystery begins to unfold. Without explanation, children of the Haisla community start to vanish, plunging the people into fear and confusion. In response to their plight, the R.C.M.P. in Victoria, B.C. dispatches an officer to Haisla territory for investigation. Accompanying him are a tracking dog and a formidable fighting dog. However, this mission takes a tragic turn when they are later found deceased in the forests surrounding Haisla land.

The narrative then follows my grandfather, known in English as James Clarkson and in our native tongue as Uhbadee, and my son, William. Together, they unravel the chilling truth: a witch has been abducting the Haisla children. Through courage and determination, my son and grandfather locate where the children are being held. Leading a group of brave men, they embark on a daring rescue mission to save the children and confront the malevolent force threatening their community.

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.

Those Amazing Mafia Wives

It was in the 1950s that mafia boss, Don Amato Rizoso, determined it was time to enter the lucrative human trafficking business. Five dedicated Rizoso mafia wives stepped up to work tirelessly for one desperate purpose: to rescue innocent girls their cutthroat husbands were trafficking in for modern day sale.

While, operating in a netherworld teeming with greed and corruption, the wives officially opened business after their daring rescue of multiple sex slaves from a mafia-owned opium den. As they adjusted to their life of vigilante justice, they faced near rescue misses, they helped set-up a daring underground railroad, and they took down the notorious Cocaine Queen. Amidst betrayal, mass slaughter, forbidden love, and a son whose secret threatened his life, they learned that fighting for what they believed in was anything but easy. Nevertheless, those amazing mafia wives worked doggedly to take down a family empire built on the bodies of children – even if it meant their own lives.

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?

Thought Prints

“Birthed in a month, on a day, somewhere in time. Somewhere in history.

Somewhere in my past, I didn’t exist… But I was to be.”

“When I look back in time, exploring my mind, I realize I didn’t glance…

But I was to see…”

– from “A Letter to Myself.”

With intensity and emotion, Thought Prints reels the reader in instantly! Anyone who has the pleasure of reading this compilation of poems will surely find magic. A collection of poetry with a story to tell!