Blind Date

How many of the 6% of marriages that last 50 years began with a blind date? In this powerful and moving memoir, the author shares their own journey of love and adventure that began in Denver and ended in Montana. From a childhood hand injury to finding stability in marriage, the author takes readers on an emotive and thrilling ride that includes skydiving and seizing a sense of adventure. Through even the most difficult episodes, the author’s assured writing style and honesty make this story one that readers will relate to and resonate with. The memoir also includes the wife’s own reflections, adding a charming and unique dimension to their shared memories. This is a story of enduring love and the incredible journey of a life well-lived.

Born A Bastard - Swim Upstream

Dive deep into a saga that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, spanning a century from the 1850s to 1950s. This tale, inspired by true events, unravels the intricate tapestry of a family I was adopted into – a lineage rife with hedonism, deceit, and dark desires.

Each character in this sprawling family epic is a study in contrasts: driven by their insatiable passions, they navigate a world laden with amorality, neuroses, and intense eroticism. Their stories are a testament to the tumultuous times they lived in, filled with ambition and treachery.

In 1946, amidst the serene backdrop of a Hawaiian beach house, a Tsunami loomed, threatening to engulf all in its path. Entrusted to the wrath of nature at the tender age of four, the intention was clear: my demise amidst the surging waters and the house’s obliteration. Yet, fate had other plans. My survival is just one of the many riveting episodes from a past riddled with enigmas.

Venture into a world of intriguing personalities living through history’s defining moments. A tale of resilience, lust, and the lengths to which people go to satisfy their own agendas. Embark on this compelling journey, and uncover the depths of human nature and the indomitable spirit of survival.

Boy Refugee

Boy Refugee: A Memoir from a Long-Forgotten War is the story of a young refugee boy in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The story chronicles his escape from war-ravaged Bangladesh to the relative safety of a barbed-wired internment camp in the foothills of the Himalayas, his day-to-day life as a civilian prisoner of war, and his thousand-mile, two-year-long journey back to Pakistan.

Brain Shift

Today, after 39 years of working for the military and other large organizations, I find myself living a very different life. A long underlying interest in mountaineering, together with my shamanic path has led me to become an outdoor school instructor, a mentor for young men, and most importantly, a shamanic healer. My private healing practice serves those circling in uncertainty, pain, or distress. Seemingly, every time I get comfortable using my gifts, a new spirit helper comes in, a new object with greater power is gifted to me, or something else more profound and more challenging appears. It’s been 30 years since I became aware of my first gift from the spirit world in the sweat lodge. The helpful spirits, using me to do the work, bring my clients healing, wisdom, and peace.

Breaking the Chains of Bondage

Thirty-four years ago, Charles Smith was incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (or ‘Injustice,’ as he would say) with two life sentences. Now, he shares with us the harrowing and horrific experience of life in a Texas prison. Breaking the Chains of Bondage is his personal memoir that guides us through the fields and down the halls of everyday life, torture, and trauma in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison system. It is a read you won’t soon forget.

Despite facing numerous hardships and challenges during his 30+ years of incarceration, Charles persevered and achieved a master’s degree in psychology from UT-Clear Lake in Houston, earning widespread respect as a motivational speaker. He shares his passion for justice for all and his love for Esther and humanity at large. Breaking the Chains of Bondage is a riveting story of courage, resilience, and love. Open it up—take a walk inside.

Broken Kola-Nuts on Our Grandmother's Grave

Kheper’s inheritance cannot slip between his fingers. Grandma’s voice carries us through the family’s origins, retracing both the physical and spiritual realms. 

The Ikin (kola nuts) are ancient divining tools that connect the family to their ancestors. They enable the ancestors to live through the family. 

The art of storytelling, as perfected by Grandma, is alive and well. How can the broken kola nuts be put back together? 

This tale brings forth the first step of this great and wonderful journey. 

Brothers

The world struggles to find peace. Two old guys discovered the answer. Fifty years after they fought in Vietnam, they worked it out. They grew up together and went to the same schools, yet they had never met. They served in the army together, were both shot down in helicopters, and lost some of their best friends in combat, but they had to wait to meet. The answer was not in combat, military training, or book learning. They were tough soldiers who were trained to kill. Ray was a helicopter pilot flying some of the army’s most advanced killing machines. Bruce was an airborne ranger who deployed the army’s artillery with precision. They did their jobs well. Ray and Bruce needed to find an answer to the world’s struggle. They did. See if you agree.

Bubblegum, Bad Food, Bad Doctors

This collection of almost completely true short stories spans six decades. Humor is the main ingredient, spiced up with a spirit of adventure, action and high-risk behavior often bordering on disaster.

First, the stories delve into author Ross C. Dumoulin’s childhood experiences, firmly entrenched in 1960s mentality and culture. You will read about way too much bubblegum and Ross’s kid-jobs as Paladin and Zorro. And you will learn why he put greasy sausages in his pocket. There is also a confrontation with an evil killer plant and its nasty consequences.

Later, the stories move on to family life and moments of panic, such as the day 85,000 L of water tried to make its way into Ross’s basement. We also have a tale of transporting a full can of paint inside his new car. What could possibly go wrong with that?

As Ross slides into his 60s, he experiences a series of medical misadventures. You will learn about little gems of highly dubious advice from his doctor and find out why he was labelled as “borderline normal.”

The last three stories are of the heart-warming variety, as they relate the author’s volunteer work with children and his efforts in making their lives better. These stories celebrate children, their desire to play and laugh, their joie-de-vivre and resilience.

So, if you need a laughter-break from what the world has been going through over the last few years, if you want to escape into a funhouse of thrills and spills, then read on!

Buddy Dunker

Join Donald as he returns to his hometown of Bryan, Texas and reflects on the memories of his childhood. From riding bikes and racing barefoot on the streets to the sound of his mother's sweet voice calling him in for dinner, the memories flood back as he sets foot in his childhood home. But one memory stands out above the rest: the trash-talking clown named Buddy Dunker. Follow Donald as he recounts the wild and unforgettable journey of how a homeless hobo became a legend and how it all began with a chance encounter at a local dog pound.

Bullied and Blind

Often, life throws us some unexpected curveballs. For some people, the challenges and obstacles we face are so intense that they can make or break us. This book is a journey that takes the reader face-to-face with the challenges of being bullied in more ways than you may expect. Life can really beat us up by throwing us punches and jabs that are near-unrecoverable.

It is when we are knocked down to the ground that we learn the most about ourselves. If you feel like life is bullying you from all directions, and you are running out of answers or places to turn, then this book is for you. If you’ve ever felt hopeless with no place to hide, then this book is for you too. The author is about to take you upon two parallel journeys into the abyss and back. Lessons are learned as the unimaginable becomes reality. The author’s survival of the two traumatic experiences is enlightening and inspirational. Fasten your seatbelt as you take a rollercoaster ride that will have you self-reflecting on every page. It’s time to be inspired as you’ve never been inspired before.

Bustle

This story is about a young black man, who grew up in Compton California, who overcame the tragedy of being shot, not once but twice. And then all the difficulties that came after, all while surviving the relentless 70s, before the age of 18 years old.

What makes my book different than any other book out there? The only difference is that it’s my story. I’m no different than you or anybody else out there, we all have a story to tell, a purpose in life. After reading my book, I hope that you will be encouraged to tell your story and fulfill your purpose. That being said, my book is raw it’s not sugar-coated, it’s not watered-down, it tells the true story of how my life was. It talks about; Joy and pain, happiness and sadness, sex, drugs and abstinence, love and hate, courage and fear, strength and weakness, being honest and dishonest, being helpless and overcoming obstacles, having faith and doubt, loss and gain, laughter and sorrow. It’s not too long and it’s not too short, it gets right to point.

Can Love and Talents Survive Opposite Political and Economic Environments?

Can Love and Talents Survive Opposite Political and Economic Environments?

This author believes that it is important to narrate how he has been affected by living under opposing political and economic systems.

This book shows how the command economy differs from the market economy through the example of a highly qualified Cuban economist and scholar who has lived for decades in developing and developed market economy and command economy countries.

Another very important and interesting aspect of this book is that it establishes the talents of this man’s two big loves’ –– his mother and his second wife –– as important and influential contributors in developing his behavior in the politico-socio-economic environment in which his life has so far taken place.

This book is divided into four sections: CHAPTER I contains an analytic summary of chaotic situations in Cuba and the United States, in which he had personally participated. CHAPTER II is a comparison of the political, social, and economic advantages and disadvantages existing between the market and the command economies, and the social democracy according to his international scholarly and personal experience, in developing and developed countries, especially during the last half of the twentieth and the first two decades of the twenty-first centuries. CHAPTER III explains in depth what is meant by each one of this author’s seven talents: reading and writing, pedagogy, tenacity, learning foreign languages, traveling around the world, singing, and being empathetic. CHAPTER IV explains how these talents are related to those of the two women who had considerably influenced the performance of his life.