The first in a series of meticulously researched World War II novels about hit-and-run raids against Hitler's war machine by British forces - under the command of a U.S. soldier - "Those Who Dare" is sure to appeal to avid military fiction fans. By May 1940, panzer divisions had decimated Belgium and reached Calais. Lieutenant John Randal of the U.S. 26th Cavalry Regiment volunteers his expertise to help slow their advance. What unfolds is a blend of military guerrilla tactics, suspense, humour, cultural and social commentary, and war buddy camaraderie - plus a little romance between the American GI and the widowed Lady Jane Seaborn. Along the way readers meet such colourful characters as Captain David Niven in MO-9 and Captain 'Geronimo Joe' McKoy with his Travelling Wild West Show and Shooting Emporium. The author - a decorated combat veteran - covers the details of war extensively, from the five points of contact of a parachute landing fall to descriptions of a British raider's A-5 flinging ferries before the first 12-gauge shell casing hits the floor. As the novel ends, Major Randal's men, fresh from Operation Tomcat in France, learn they will deploy via sea transport within 48 hours on their next mission. The second book, which is already written, tells that tale.

Spy by night, blogger by day, Zelda Alpizar becomes infected by a contagion known to civilians as guilt, forcing her to choose between following orders or intervening to save two watchmen. Their trance-like lethargy makes them the ideal storage drives for a detonation code. Decrypting it could have lethal side-effects. Though the most important thing Zelda will ever find, the boundary between good and evil is of little value in a place where the only legend reads Here There Be Monsters.

Security guards, harbingers of dawn, are they not warriors? Beneath the polyester Travis and Alex consist of flesh and blood. A predator stalks them, more implacable than skateboarders. Putting your tax dollars to work, the NSA discovers that human storage devices offer greater security than digital ones. Dead drives tell no tales. Like all their secrets it’s soon available to the highest bidder. When Zelda infiltrates a secret society lending this service to terrorists, she sees how the private sector can be almost as wicked and incompetent as the government.

They should have chosen a more secure password. “Mary Weatherworth” is also an adult actress beloved by security guards, and an urban legend reputed to appear in mirrors when summoned thrice. Busy lady. This ambiguity entwines discrepant parties in strange ways. Connected to them all by one degree of separation, the sausage link in a karmic chain, Maestoso the Dachshund waddles across this remorseless battlefield, observing the chaos, perhaps resolving it. Avoid eye contact. You don’t want him inside your head.

Set amid the entropy of the mortgage meltdown, Schrödinger's Dachshund prowls the shades of gray separating science from the paranormal, internet memes from philosophy, and unpleasant necessity from evil.

Jack Caufield never imagined that he would wake up one day and find a dead woman in his bed. That sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to guys like him. He was on his way to law school, but instead of fielding Socratic questions from law professors, he finds himself facing the third degree from a bunch of angry cops. Despite their efforts, they find nothing incriminating, and Jack is allowed to get on with his education and his life.

Over the next fifteen years, he becomes a modestly successful corporate lawyer, a well-paid but insignificant cog in the Wall Street machine. He’s resigned to playing a disappointing role in the system that he has come to disdain, until he learns that his encounter with that unlucky girl may not have been coincidental. Confronted with the possibility that the men who run the prestigious financial institution that he now represents may have been involved in a shocking conspiracy, his search for the truth is complicated by the knowledge that discovering it could cost him the career that he’s spent his life chasing.

Peripheral Involvement explores Jack’s struggle to reconcile the reality of his life against his expectations and to refine his understanding of success. Along the way, it looks at the absurdity of the modern-day financial industry, the current state of the American Dream, our propensity for self-deception… and baseball.

This is the story of Wilber Patorkin. At the tender age of one hundred and fifteen he's the oldest man alive in the United States of America. His body is failing him gloriously, his legs will barely carry him, his quivering lips and dentures turn his words into meaningless babble... and yet he has the clearest brain and the brightest eyes you'll ever come across. His steps may be tiny, but his story is epic. His words may be few, but his mind goes beyond your wildest imagination. Join Wilber on a most unlikely journey and be prepared - you just may discover yourself along the way.

Pastor Tim Lundstrom has two weeks to decide.

Soon he will preside over his daughter Gracie's wedding--a blessing he has long prayed for--but as the day approaches, he finds himself dreading its arrival.

Tim harbors a shameful secret: he has lost his faith. Revealing himself risks losing Gracie, his adored and only child; his baffling autistic grandson, Luke; his devout and kind-hearted wife; and the community he has nurtured at his small Texas church. But the price of silence is steep. Performing the ceremony as a nonbeliever will taint Gracie's wedding and bind him forever to the secret that isolates him from those he loves.

Also burdened by the truth is Josephine Wallis, an accomplished physician who has yet to confess her secret to her longtime boyfriend. Compounding her worries is the looming deadline of the wedding--will her intellectually disabled younger sister be ready to live on her own when Gracie and Luke move out of the apartment the three now share?

A poignant exploration of the boundaries of trust and the repercussions of secrets, A Mosaic of Grace captivates with its skillful weaving of the lives of the Lundstrom and Wallis families as they wrestle with uncertainty and stumble towards acceptance.

“Masterfully paints a grim landscape with believable detail and vivid characters.” BOOKPLEASURES.COM

Inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s account of a Soviet labor camp revolt in Gulag Archipelago, Volume III, the story of FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS follows political prisoners and security officials at a corrective labor camp in Kamas, Utah, where inmates seize control during the summer of 2024.

KAMAS, UTAH. 2024. America has become a totalitarian dystopia after the Unionist Party's rise to power. The American West contains vast Restricted Zones dotted with ghost towns, scattered military garrisons and corrective labor camps where the regime disposes of its real and suspected enemies. Kamas is one such camp.

On a frigid March night, a former businessman from Pittsburgh, Paul Wagner, arrives at a labor camp in Utah's Kamas Valley, a dozen miles east of the deserted resort town of Park City, which prisoners are dismantling as part of a massive recycling project.

When Wagner arrives, he is unaware that his eleven-year-old daughter, Claire, has set off to Utah to find him after becoming separated from her mother at the Philadelphia Airport. By an odd quirk of fate, Claire has traveled on the same train that carried her father into internal exile.

Only after Wagner has renounced all hope of survival, cast his lot with anti-regime hard-liners and joined them in an unprecedented and suicidal revolt does he discover that Claire has become a servant in the home of the camp's Deputy Warden. Wagner is torn between his devotion to family and loyalty to his fellow rebels until, on the eve of an armored assault intended to crush the revolt, he faces an agonizing choice between a hero's death and a coward's freedom.

In FORTY DAYS AT KAMAS, author Preston Fleming offers a stirring portrait of a man determined to survive under the bleakest of conditions and against formidable odds.

When novice climbers Trevor and Gaspar attempt Mount Silenus they discover that inspiration from a famous book makes a poor substitute for experience. Accuracy is important on mountains, especially one darkened by legends of a prehistoric sloth — the Abominable Unau — and the indigenous people who make sacrifices to it. As the text bears less and less resemblance to the terrain, squabbles over its interpretation become a battle of faith vs. reason. Those are best fought on flat surfaces.

Why does a man climb a mountain? To taste the distilled essence of life, to glimpse the clandestine maneuvers of his soul, and because he believes everything he reads. For two high school teachers who skipped their climbing classes, a masterpiece advocating spontaneity over skill proves irresistible. Unknown to them, the reclusive author honed his technique scaling barstools and brooding over the unjust fame of Nietzsche. He ignored eyewitness accounts of the Abominable Unau for stylistic reasons. Stories about wrathful apparitions infesting a labyrinth of caves didn’t make the cut either.

During a quixotic journey in the general direction of the summit, Trevor and Gaspar join a scientist investigating paranormal activity on one of the plateaus. The book fails to warn about traps set by the mountain people to protect the sacred site from desecration. When they fall into icy catacombs they must confront the source of the legends to survive. Inspired by a disastrous attempt on Denali.

FALLEN HERO is about a man who seems to spend his life building bridges. Bridges between his unknown origins and his aspirations in life. Once he finds a tenuous link to his biological father Chris Squires cannot help but follow its path. Despite his misgivings he seeks out his roots.

FALLEN HERO is also about a man who is trying to reconcile the realities of war, and life, with his disappointment over his lost inner hopes for the dad he needed to find.

Two boys about to become teenagers: Christopher, born just after the end of World War Two, grows up in the UK; Fritz, orphaned by a bomb dropped on his German home in that same terrible war, befriended by a US marine. When Christopher discovers he was adopted he seeks to find his biological father. Fritz never gets the chance to grow much older and is found dead in the back of General George Patton's Cadillac at the end of the war.

Chris Squires is a confused man, constantly seeking his hero father-figure. The British baby boomer is surprised to find he has a connection with Fritz. Chris discovers the link through Jimmy Lucas, a GI veteran, who he believes could be his father. But his surprise turns to horror when he learns that Jimmy was involved in the death of both Patton and the boy.
Did he kill General George Patton, one of the greatest Generals of the twentieth century?
Did he kill an orphaned German boy at the end of World War Two?
If the answer to any or all of these questions is Yes! how will Chris cope with the rest of his life?

A confrontation creates further tragedy for Chris, for Jimmy, and for Walt - the man who had saved Jimmy’s life! Chris panics and retreats back to Britain, trying to forget the incident he caused in San Francisco. Although appearing to lead a mundane and respectable life, for years he is tormented by guilt. He still hopes to find his hero, a guide to some kind of inner peace. And then Walt re-enters his life bringing with him a new bridge!



 

This Great Blockbuster Trilogy of the So What! Stories has it all - Humour, heartache and criminal thrills and spills!
In Book One we follow the career of teacher Robert Jeffrey through the antics of his pupils - in and out of the classroom.
In Book Two we find Molly Pearson, Robert's student teacher, attempting to create a wildlife and nature garden with the help of her Year 7 kids, against dramatic odds!
In Book Three the reader has to keep up with ex-pupil detective Shantra as he pursues the desperate criminals who caused trauma and tragedy to the school community.

In THE COACH HOUSE newlyweds Marie and Richard Marchetti have the perfect life together in a quiet neighborhood of Chicago. Or at least it seems until Marie discovers his involvement in a corrupt underworld that compels her to run for her life. Fate draws her to Atchison, Kansas which she erroneously believes is a safe refuge and perfect place to start over. But Marie quickly learns that she has never been out of Richard’s purview, and while his threatening attempts to win her back cause angst and confusion in her life, it’s the discovery of her real father and his heritage that affect Marie’s life more than Richard ever could.

DAUGHTERS takes up with Marie preparing for the first visit with her father and his family. She worries about whether she will be accepted by them, how her life is about to change, and what she will learn about her own identity. A great deal happens during Marie’s visit, and in her search for peace and truth in her life, she quickly learns that disparate lives can converge and interact in profound and surprising ways.

The Blithedale Animal Shelter has just ended its annual holiday sale for dogs, and miraculously all but a handful of them have been adopted. An unexpected, welcome surprise for the employees and volunteers, and great news for the lucky pups who found homes. But for the dogs that remain—a high-strung Lab puppy, a three-legged Chihuahua, a Golden Retriever, a hard-luck Pit Bull Terrier; and a smart, old dog, it will be a lonely and cold Christmas Eve. The dogs’ favorite shelter employee, Ginny Collins is cozying up their cages and giving them some love before the shelter closes for the holiday. The sun is setting, but a night to remember is about to begin.

Apart from Love contains two threads, volume I and II of Still Life with Memories, woven together (along with two new chapters) around the same events in 1980, when Ben returns to meet his father, Lenny, and his new wife, Anita. It is then that he discovers a family secret.
My Own Voice (volume I of Still Life with Memories):
Ten years ago, when she was seventeen, Anita started an affair with Lenny, in spite of knowing that he was a married man. Now married to him and carrying his child, she finds herself condemned to compete with Natasha’s shadow, the memory of her brilliance back in her prime, before she succumbed to early-onset Alzheimer’s. Despite Anita’s lack of education, her rough slang, and what happened to her in the past, Lenny tries to transform her. He wants her to become Natasha.
Faced with his compelling wish, and the way he writes her as a character in his book, how can Anita find a voice of her own? And when his estranged son, Ben, comes back and lives in the same small apartment, can she keep the balance between the two men, whose desire for her is marred by guilt and blame?
The White Piano (volume II of Still Life with Memories):
Coming back to his childhood home after years of absence, Ben is unprepared for the secret, which is now revealed to him: his mother, Natasha, who used to be a brilliant pianist, is losing herself to early-onset Alzheimer’s, which turns the way her mind works into a riddle. His father has remarried, and his new wife, Anita, looks remarkably similar to Natasha—only much younger. In this state of being isolated, being apart from love, how will Ben react when it is so tempting to resort to blame and guilt? “In our family, forgiveness is something you pray for, something you yearn to receive—but so seldom do you give it to others.” 
Behind his father's back, Ben and Anita find themselves increasingly drawn to each other. They take turns using an old tape recorder to express their most intimate thoughts, not realizing at first that their voices are being captured by him. These tapes, with his eloquent speech and her slang, reveal the story from two opposite viewpoints. 
What emerges in this family is a struggle, a desperate, daring struggle to find a path out of conflicts, out of isolation, from guilt to forgiveness.
What’s in a name:
The title Apart From Love comes from a phrase used in the story:
After a while I whispered, like, “Just say something to me. Anything.” And I thought, Any other word apart from Love, ‘cause that word is diluted, and no one knows what it really means, anyway.
Anita to Lenny
Why, why can’t you say nothing? Say any word—but that one, ‘cause you don’t really mean it. Nobody does. Say anything, apart from Love.
Anita to Ben
For my own sake I should have been much more careful. Now—even in her absence—I find myself in her hands, which feels strange to me. I am surrounded—and at the same time, isolated. I am alone. I am apart from Love.
Ben

Do you like historical fiction about the 20th century, especially when it is tinged with romance and wrapped in a family saga? Then this series, Still Life with Memories, is for you.

Every dog deserves a forever home, and after being mistreated and given up several times, Wrigley has finally found his. The good-natured, smart mutt now spends his days as the house dog at SunRidge Assisted Living, comforting and doting on forty-five seniors. Wrigley has free run of the place—going where he senses he’s needed—but his preferred spot is beside his favorite resident, Marjorie Thompson.

A big shift comes to SunRidge when a cranky curmudgeon named Walter Kepsen moves in across the hall from Marjorie. Having arrived reluctantly at the urging of his son, Walter can't stand Wrigley or anything else for that matter. But a dramatic event is about to occur that will shake SunRidge, and make the old man see the house dog in a very different light.

Told in Wrigley’s voice, All That Ails You is an endearing story about the power of a dog’s love, when we need it most.

Ten years ago, when she was seventeen, Anita started an affair with Lenny, in spite of knowing that he was a married man. Now married to him and carrying his child, she finds herself condemned to compete with Natasha’s shadow, the memory of her brilliance back in her prime, before she succumbed to early-onset Alzheimer’s. Despite Anita’s lack of education, her rough slang, and what happened to her in the past, Lenny tries to transform her. He wants her to become Natasha.

Faced with his compelling wish, and the way he writes her as a character in his book, how can Anita find a voice of her own? And when his estranged son, Ben, comes back and lives in the same small apartment, can she keep the balance between the two men, whose desire for her is marred by guilt and blame?

Alan Sorenson is a pawn in the corporate world hanging by his fingernails financially. A road warrior living out of a suitcase; he leaves the family he adores each Monday morning. Alan's descent begins as he is fired from his job due to circumstances of his own making. Instead of facing his dilemma, he goes to ridiculous lengths to hide his failures from the family he adores.

Alan's quest to secure a new job in time to avoid ruining Christmas for his wife and two young sons begins badly and quickly turns surreal. He finds a temporary solution in a local business run by a peculiar old couple. Coerced into playing Mall Santa to atone for his latest transgressions, Alan discovers that he is not the only one with secrets as he is pulled into their world. A serendipitous relationship with the odd little old man provides him with a solution to all of his troubles.

With scant resources and deteriorating sanity, he must choose between leaving the world that led him to his current situation and joining the old man in a confederacy of philanthropy. If he can learn to trust his heart and the old man, a wonderful new life is his for the taking. Despite his best efforts to sabotage his own recovery, a magical happy ending awaits.

The Suit expands the Christmas myth to finally provide an explanation for the mystery of how Santa Claus makes it to all of those homes in a single night. This heartfelt tale combines humor, suspense and just enough Christmas magic to create a world where anything is possible if we rely on our human instincts and quit trying to please all of the wrong people.

"A page turning novel that explores the source of happiness"

The Blurb: Escaping the unbearable memories of his past, Guy Bismarck has buried himself in office work. A twist of fate shakes up his world. Layers of delusion and placation crack, ending his long dormancy. Fame, wealth, love, and beauty, of a greatness and vastness that could never have seemed possible, blossom. Will this lead to the happiness that long eluded Guy, or will the reality he had long hid from come back to haunt him, putrefying his world and sending him permanently back into the ground?

Bound Before the Morrow is a psychological novel that will lead you on an adventure. Its chapters are action packed, its style will please literary critics, lovers of suspense, and those looking for a more realistic modern romance.
If you have ever suffered from anger hid from the past and wandered what would happen if all your wishes came true, than this book is for you.

Klim’s collection of contemporary short stories, spans the United States and literary conventions: a chef preparing a condemned man’s last meal, an abused boy who learns to survive from his dog, a man who witnesses his life spilled upside down, a girl passing through several challenging lives, an engineer pushed outside the blueprint of his life, a husband and wife who shed all to rediscover each other... “Told with the light, deft touch and well tuned dialogue that Klim's readers will be familiar with from his novels—a variety of characters and situations for every taste.” -Thomas E. Kennedy, author of In the Company of Angels

The tanker left Valdez Alaska with a full load of crude oil for what started as a routine trip down to Washington State, until it entered the Puget Sound and the oil mysteriously vanished without a trace. The next day the Alaska pipeline is suddenly empty and oil fields start to go dry. Panic grips the nation when transportation of basic necessities cannot reach the cities, and the only clue is a dollar size crystal found in the empty tanker.

Can Alex Cave, an ex-CIA operative, solve the mystery before it’s too late? Or will our dependency on oil cause us to suffer the consequences of . . . Dead Energy!

Imagine feeling like an outsider. Now imagine feeling like an outsider in your own family.

Evanston, Illinois. Lee Oliver Winekoop is born into extreme wealth, but despite his near genius IQ, he doesnʾt have the resourcefulness to realize any of its benefits. His motherʾs passive parenting style and frequent absences from their lakefront mansion leave him in the care of nannies as a child even when sheʾs home, making Lee feel unwanted and alone. Further undermining his self-worth is his fatherʾs inexplicable contempt toward him. If Lee only knew why his parents disliked him so, he would fix whatever it was he was doing wrong, and remove the invisible barrier that keeps him from fitting in.

Lee wants nothing more than to be like his two older brothers—successful at everything they do, sons who make their parents proud—even if it means buying into the familyʾs philosophy that money is the answer to oneʾs success in life.

In the thick of Leeʾs discontent, his motherʾs favorite uncle dies and leaves him a sizable inheritance—an inheritance with some bizarre strings attached. But as soon as he tries to start using it to mold an identity for himself, his world is turned upside-down when he learns shocking family secrets—causing him to rethink who he is and where heʾs going.

In these twelve stories, you’ll meet a remarkable cast of complex, quirky characters tangled up in the limits they’ve put on their lives. Driven by love or loneliness, like the man in the title, they’ve boxed themselves in. Frank Tavares tells their stories with humor and compassion. And while the themes may be familiar--crumbling marriages, feuding neighbors, sparring business partners, and the endless searching for what might have been--here they become fresh, unpredictable, and surprising. This exciting debut collection from a first-rate storyteller will haunt and fascinate you long after you finish reading.