Stories, Poems, and Secrets Beneath the Waterfall

Some call the Army Residence Community an “old soldiers’ home on steroids.” It is an unusual residence for veterans, spouses, and civil servants, some arriving here before they can draw social security. Most residents are active, referring to themselves as “inmates” (those who live in the Highrise) or “street people” (those living in Legacy cottages, or Lakeside homes). For the most part, they willingly revealed their secrets as did Count Rostov, “The Gentleman in Moscow,” living in The Metropol. Resident writers may have altered names and embellished some stories, creating a mixture of fact and fiction, but in truth ‘life is how we tell it.’ This is not a daily diary of events at a retirement home, as penned by Hendrik Groen in The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen. Groen spoke of “weak tea and potted geraniums, exasperated by the indignities of aging…” and did not inspire this collection of stories.

These are stories of people who lived a life of service. There are more stories to be told by retirees and centenarians living among us, waiting to be discovered if only we listen.

Shoes to Kill

Shoes to Kill is about the case of a media mogul found murdered at the home of one of the nation’s leading college basketball coaches during a nationally televised game. It plays on the State’s and South’s obsession with college sports, particularly basketball and football.The protagonist, Detective Hatchell Breeze, seeking retribution for a previously botched and forgotten case involving the university football team, enthusiastically takes on the investigation and an inevitable confrontation with the powerful players of the state university once again.This leads him to prostitution, illegal drugs, errant boosters, big business, university stonewalling, and the prominent men and women of college sports. As he tries to connect the two cases, he is reminded of his own bitter history with the university, forever embedded in his mind as his own life spins out of control.

Barb Wire Bible

Morgan Maguire ranched with her family along the highline between Montana and Canada. She worked with her father providing guide services for hunters and also assisted the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue as a tracker to apprehend criminals and return the lost to their loved ones. This cowgirl spent many years learning to cope with the Irish legacy of ‘second sight’ with the help of her mentor Charlie Many Dreams, a Blackfeet medicine man. Her peaceful world was torn apart when the drug dealer she was tracking shot her longtime friend, who was riding for the Blackfeet Tribal Police. Swearing to find this killer, her quest brings her into the steel and cement canyons of New York to obtain justice. A place as alien as the moon to her.

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!

The Loura Lure

Dr. Shamus Bergin lands a coveted position of Staff Psychologist in the Secure Treatment Unit of a mental hospital right out of school. He is soon vexed by an amnesiac patient who defies clinical diagnosis and whom every other doctor has written off. Inconsistencies about the man’s origins intersect with Shamus’s own doubts that the patient even belongs in an institution.

As his own investigation continues to be met with redacted files and evasion from governmental agencies, the doctor-patient relationship suddenly undergoes a radical shift. The patient discloses that he has time travelled from a forgotten Age of Loura to seek help from modern day members of The Sacred Order of Keepers to find the last living angel. Only the angel can turn the tide in the ultimate struggle between good and evil in this deliberately erased timeline 20,000 years in the past. With his parents tragically lost in a boating accident a decade earlier, Shamus must turn to his one true friend, Dr. John Browse, to make sense of the voices within which are calling him to action.

With career and grip on sanity at stake, Shamus must decide whether he has succumbed to the delusions of a sick mind or whether he should take a leap of faith and help the man achieve his mission.

Rewind Ranch

What price would you pay to reclaim the vigor and allure of youth? Four spirited Southern seniors are about to find out. Tempted by the promise of Rewind Ranch, a paradise nestled in Hawaii’s enchanting Hana hills, they embark on a journey that promises unlimited cosmetic enhancements, captivating company, and indulgent escapades.

As the ladies dive into a world of luxury, laughter, and liaisons, they soon discover that the ranch offers more than just superficial pleasures. Beneath the veneer of hedonistic delights, a darker secret lurks. As doubts creep in and stakes rise, they realize their dream vacation might be a trap they need to escape to ensure their very survival.

Join these fearless women on a roller-coaster of suspense and camaraderie, where beauty is more than skin deep, and friendship is the ultimate savior.

Death in the Tower

Isabel de Clare has grown up far from the intrigues of court life, but at 16, she is more than ready to leave behind a life in the countryside and finally begin to live. William Marshal is a seasoned knight who has seen enough of the word to be tired of it, and is now Henry II’s right-hand man in England. When a man is poisoned at the Tower of London, Henry is certain he was the one meant to die and tasks William with the job of unveiling the murdered. Richard, earl of Pembroke, is summoned to Henry’s side and arrives in London with his daughter, Isabel, his son Gilbert, and his niece, Alys. The de Clares and William are thrown together in the course of investigation, and the attraction between the Isabel and William is instantaneous. As sparks between them fly, bodies continue to fall. Will they be able to unmask the killer without ruining their chance at a life together?

Whistling Cay

Vivian and Rich Somners’ Caribbean vacation turns into the ultimate fantasy when they discover a fortune of gold doubloons spread off the beach of an outer island called Whistling Cay. For Vivian, this sweetest of dreams morphs into a nightmare when the next day Rich and the gold vanish. Is his disappearance a result of a kidnapping, or is it an act of selfish abandonment? She’s certain of the former, but not so are the police, the press, and nearly all the populace of the Virgin Islands. Vivian soon faces a seemingly endless chain reaction of ordeals, though she remains obsessed with saving a beloved husband she alone refuses to fear.

Twenty Seconds to Midnight

Each year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets the Doomsday Clock after consultation with its board of sponsors, which includes nine winners of the Nobel Prize. The clock is a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe brought about by man-made technologies.

On January 29, 2025, the Atomic Scientists shifted the clock’s hands to 89 seconds to midnight, citing the combined threats of climate change, nuclear war, and misuse of artificial intelligence.

Working at a point in the future, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Clare McGarrity has developed a formula making the Mojave Desert in Death Valley bloom. She has been tasked with trying to expand and refine her formula for use in the great Sahara Desert with the goal of helping feed the starving people of Africa and soon, the Middle East.

Unknown to her, the research assistant working beside her is a terrorist, ordered by his government to steal her formula.

The Loura Lure – Book 3

Shamus Bergin and his Keeper comrades battle to rescue Caitlin Dunlevan from a force sent by Enilorac to assassinate her. She is the woman who has occupied Shamus’s dreams his whole life. The most powerful Angel-Human hybrid, she is the only descendant of the Sacred Order of Keepers who can wield the profound elemental magic necessary to bring forth the Angel. Unbeknownst to Shamus, he holds the key to unraveling the secrets required for Caitlin to fulfill the duty she was born to carry out.

With each passing day, the cause of the light and humanity’s risk of total annihilation draw closer. Enilorac’s army of darkness spreads across the Louran landscape of 20,000 years ago, seeking out the Angel and his Itavo Stone. Aided by horrific creatures dispatched to him from the demon realm, he is becoming an unstoppable force. If he can murder either the Wigget bearer or Caitlin Dunlevan while he seeks out his master’s prize, his path to victory will be assured, and the light of mankind will be eclipsed forever.

Shamus and Caitlin are the complete answer to how the people of Loura might survive. They must keep faith with each other and, in turn, rely on their comrades to protect them long enough for their respective destinies to come to fruition. Even when trusts will be challenged and faith will be broken, the Loura Lure must prevail.

The Legend of Jane Coleman

This is a story of a stowaway girl on the passenger ship LYON, who was one of the colonists at Roanoke Island. It chronicles her life from ages fifteen to sixty-one, and it describes her hardships in both England and Virginia. The stories’ span of time is from 1587 to 1633.

The story is derived from the passenger list of the people that made up the third attempt at colonization of the New World. The passenger list had two people on it whose first names were either made illegible to historians or purposely omitted by John White, who was the governor of the expedition.

The two names were (blank) Coleman, listed as a woman passenger, and (blank) Marvis, listed as a child under the age of sixteen. Jane Colman was actually both persons who were written on that list.

What It Means to Burn

Sasha expects another humid summer filled with family hikes and sleepovers with her best friend Leah – a comforting recapitulation of many past summers, save for her new job. Yet in the weeks before senior year, both romance and bloodshed blaze trails through Sasha’s life with unprecedented intensity. One false step could endanger those she holds most dear or even spell her own demise.

As Sasha navigates love and loss, she finds the stakes higher than ever amidst the languid days of a familiar season suddenly turned treacherous. Long-held assumptions about her sleepy hometown fade away as quickly as innocence slips through her fingers. Survival means learning hard lessons about trust and betrayal before summer’s end – but not everyone will live to see the cooler days of autumn.