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 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 Tisperer

The Tisperer is a gripping Irish novel that follows the journey of a lone nationalist sniper who takes on the British Army during the turbulent times of the ‘dirty war’ in the Six Counties of Ireland. The story is set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement, which led to a violent conflagration that intensified after the shooting of thirteen unarmed protestors by members of the notorious Paratroop Regiment of the British Army in Derry.

At the heart of the book is the unwavering spirit of the Irish nationalist, who refuses to be subjugated by the British and instead fights back with everything they have. The central character of the book, Scran Donaghey, is working on the family farm when a foot patrol of British paratroopers shoots and kills his only brother, Scruff. This tragic event shatters Scran’s world, leaving him with post-traumatic stress disorder but determined to seek retribution.

Scran faces two formidable foes - the British Army and the harsh Irish winter - as he wages his war for justice. The novel explores the dark corners of the Irish psyche, revealing the deep-seated need to fight back against historical oppressors like the British. The Tisperer is a complex and emotionally charged story that blends elements of mysticism, humor, sadness, hope, hopelessness, and anger.

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.

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.

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!

Thrown Out of Eden

“Poetry is the soul’s melody; sometimes harmonious and flowing, other times stark and discordant, much like a symphony stepping out of time.”

Just as Thomas Paine’s words were essential to the American Revolution, so were the verses of luminaries such as Sophocles, Homer, and Tennyson, to Frost and Longfellow. With their profound insight, these poets captured the quintessential human truth, shaping it into timeless verse.

From ancient bards to modern-day wordsmiths, a poet’s voice must never be stilled. Silence seldom brings healing; it often breeds complacency and indifference.

My city, Dallas, stands testament to this, its heart still shadowed by the tragedy of 1963. Only through introspection, voiced through words, can we find reconciliation. As the victim of that fateful day once stated, “When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”

Poetry, like a clarion call, resonates across ages, cultures, and oceans, weaving tales of humanity, imagination, and commentary.

Some writers perfect punctuation, others master grammar, but when I wield words, I strike with the might of a sledgehammer!

Dive into this collection at your pace, let it stir thoughts, evoke reflection, and gift you moments of sheer poetic pleasure.

Tip the Cup of Guilt Madam

Tip the Cup of Guilt Madam is about a Nobel Laureate’s widow, Cheryl Boucher, and her struggle with depression following her husband’s death, and her eventful succumbing to dementia.

While in therapy to deal with her depression, she and her two daughters discover that Karl Boucher had a secret mistress and a daughter. This sends the family into a free fall, and they research who it may be. The story becomes more complicated when Cheryl finally learns she has early dementia. The widow tries to outskirt the family by not going into a care facility. A circus, an activist movement, and a trip to a Kentucky Derby are part of the widow’s plan to circumnavigate the inevitable.

As Cheryl eventually finds herself in a care facility, her path intersects with the chaplain of the Manor, sparking a profound love that defies societal expectations. Furthermore, Cheryl undergoes a profound religious experience, though many skeptics question the authenticity of her encounters. Some dismiss her religiosity as mere superstition, while others raise doubts about the validity of love blooming within a mind plagued by dementia.

Tip the Cup of Guilt Madam weaves a captivating tapestry of human emotions, exploring themes of loss, betrayal, resilience, and the transformative power of love. Join Cheryl on her extraordinary journey as she navigates the complex web of her past, confronts the challenges of her present, and seeks redemption in the face of doubt and uncertainty.

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.

Tony April in The Professor's Diary

On Sunday evening, February 15th, 1898, in Havana Harbor the 6,789-ton second class battleship USS Maine floated peacefully at anchor. One moment later a double explosion ripped her apart, sending her to the bottom along with 260 of her 355 men crew. Only 16 sailors escaped uninjured. Was it an act of war by Spain? Or a calculated “false flag” attack by the United States to provoke a war?

Fast forward to 1972. Private Investigator Tony April gets an enigmatic midnight call from wealthy and beautiful Barbara Anderson. Her explorer grandfather kept a diary that may hold the answer. Problem is, he’s buried along with his diary, on a remote jungle mountain in Ecuador. Now everyone wants in. The Rickover Investigation wants to publicize it. Barbara just wants to get her grandfather’s remains home. Sydney Street wants the Incan treasure map. And Tony suddenly wants to have a son. Can everyone get what they wish for?

Torn in Two: Valor of a U.S. Marine

An emotional ride through the eyes, heart and soul of one Afghan-American Marine’s journey in Afghanistan. Vengeance enticed by the world’s most infamous religious war fighters, the Taliban; one man turns to his extreme thoughts to conquer his own demons. During some of the most gruesome war times, he finds love deep within the shadows of war, only to come home and feel the true effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. An unimaginable roller coaster of a fast and risky life, he later yearns for the spy game. As we live in a time of terror, the unexpected is always around the corner.

Track of Time

Life as a passage. This anthology of poetry, Track of Time, contains 77 poems which explored themes of ephemerality and permanence.

It’s a book about time and its reflexes, cycles and seasons, as moods whose trajectory begins with the notion of “losing the track” but reaches “on time” at the end.

A work summarized by the verses of a brief and flying being: “if you spend your luck/ beholding a bee/ honey is always/ a symbol/ of the sweetest great/ little being”.

Poetry helps us remember, after all, that happiness is simple: “like a time/ where’n’ver”.