Books
The following are descriptions/introductions of/to books or short stories of our family. Please leave any suggestions as to what I can do to make them better in Chat. Thank you.
Book I Second Chances” brings MarieAnne and Steve together. We’re introduced to Silvia, and Bill and Maggie. We get to know them as they know each other. Along the way we encounter fraud, theft, and great music. Buy Now
Note: Though MarieAnne was always intended to be an eBook, I’ve added a paperback version for those expressing a preference. Buy Now
Book II New Beginnings completes our family – well, almost. We meet Paolo, Bob and Carol, Addy, Nina, and George. Arson raises its ugly head. Looks like we may get into retail food preparation business and rescue a town in the process. Two essential elements join our family – one is a car and the other a jukebox. Check out our Facebook page for pictures. I could place them here, but that would spoil the surprise. Buy Now Buy Now
Book III You’re the One deals with trust, respect, and forgiveness. Bella comes home, and home gets a new look. We have a great 4th of July. Steve has a new job and MarieAnne gets her studio. Buy Now Buy Now
Book IV Love Never Ends. Midway gets help. George hosts a dance and we go to the Humbolt County Fair. MarieAnne catches her first fish, and we explore memories. How to deal with them, and create pleasant replacements. Buy Now Buy Now
Book V Friends and Family is the continued exploration of the non-traditional family. Steve has a birthday. We go to a beach party, and we meet Farmer John. Yes, he really exists. Midway gets more help.Buy Now Buy Now
Book VI The Power of Love deals with homelessness, bitterness, and resolution. George becomes one of the family. Oh, and we have a great Halloween. Buy Now Buy Now
Book VII in Caritas the family grapples with homelessness. It starts with a fire destroying a community kitchen. From there, we do what we can to get ready for winter – emergency shelters. As always, we get help. Good people doing what has to be done. It’s not all doom and gloom. There may be a prom and maybe a wedding. I think you will enjoy the journey. You may even learn something. Welcome aboard.Buy Now Buy Now
Book VIII Hope. This is the eighth book in the MarieAnne serial. In it, I explore hope – a wish for a better life. Hope has been an overriding theme of the MarieAnne serial from the beginning. Here we deal with homeless families living in their cars – kids in cars. We resurrect an old school destined for demolition, convert classrooms to apartments and provide a way out of homelessness. Buy Now Buy Now
Midway introduces John Elliott, insurance investigator. We follow him in pursuit of Joan. At just over 21,000 words, it’s a novella. I expect to tie the ending to a scene or two in Book VI of MarieAnne. It’s a good story. Fun to write. Should be fun to read. Iit apologize for the price of the eBook. That’s Amazon’s minimum price. Maybe, in the future, I can make it part of a promotion. Buy Now Buy Now
Billy – Book Ezra I is about a fractured family put right by the love of and for a five-year-old boy. Feedback has been good. One beta reader couldn’t put it down. The cover now does the story justice. It’s a feel-good story about the power of love. It’s a good family with Grand, Ken, Molly, Flora, John, Sid, Nancy, and Suzy and Billy. I’ve added Questions (Ken & Molly backstory) to Billy to provide context.
Billy – Book II Molly takes us to Billy’s first Thanksgiving. Along the way, we confront old fears, tackle new ones, and watch our boy grow. We witness the transformative power of familial love, on both child and parent.
Billy – Book III Dad. We’re moving outside of our family. Billy and Suzy have a new friend – Larry. Larry has Asperger’s. Not bad, but enough to make him different. We made it past Thanksgiving, now we hurtle toward Christmas. We bring Molly home, learn how to make gingerbread houses, and find an angel. It should be fun.
Billly – Book IV Sally. In Book IV, we broaden our focus to shift from the kids to the “City Slickers’ – Ken and Molly, Sid and Nancy. We will make New Year’s about them and the world they left behind. We will give Dad more to do. As always, John will be there to help. In Book IV, we explore change. How to face it, accept it, understand it.
Questions is a 18,000 word short story and screenplay. It grew out of curiosity – could a few questions lead to love? I made this the backstory for Ken and Molly – how they met. It’s a prequel, of sorts, to Billy – Book I. I think it works, let me know. Buy Now Buy Now
The Reluctant Spy will follow the experiences of John Henry and Melody Fuller. Don’t want to give away more than the series title reveals. I am taking a nontraditional tack — no guns, no sex, no flawed personalities. John and Melody aren’t perfect, but they are smart and a good team. I want to explore a Platonic relationship between an older man and a younger woman. Roccinate is their first adventure. You’ll like it, you’ll like them. They’re good people.
In Russian Reins, we send Melody and John to Europe. We’re in search of a witness to an incident in the Moscow Ritz-Carlton. This could bring down an administration and change the course of American history. I think you’ll like this. It was fun to write. With the stroke of a pen, or tap of a key, worlds change. Buy Now Buy Now
Reluctant Spy explores the platonic relationship of young and old—Melody and John. It is a relationship built on trust and mutual respect. In Abyss, we’ll build on the teamwork of Sam, Carl, George, John, and Melody with the addition of Sally.
Abyss will be written in almost real-time. We start with the Bahrain pipeline explosion, add the recent disclosures of a massive breach at NSA. Where we end will be anybody’s guess. You’ll know when the final line is written, and it hits the streets.Buy Now Buy Now
In Hacked, our intrepid band takes on the ransomware hackers. We get a little help from MI6 and the BND (German CIA). Help we need because this is a world no one really knows, even the hackers. So, join John, Melody, Carl, Nancy, Harold, and Christian as they save the world from economic terrorists.
June grew out of a contest on writing.com. Not sure how I came up with Benny, but June is a composite of two women I’ve met while in Salt Lake. One was the victim of familial sex abuse. She is a cutter. She sliced herself with razor blades, or whatever was handy to ease her pain. She is doing well under therapy, but the pain is never far away. She has a husband who understands and cares. She may be okay.The other, I knew only briefly, had/has a drug problem. She has been in and out of treatment. She is degreed yet makes her living by prostitution. She knows what she has to do but can’t break free of her addiction. I have no idea how her life might turn out.Both are smart, attractive, and shouldn’t be suffering the way they were/are. June is an attempt to show the difficulty the addict faces after they are ready to face life again, after they’ve left treatment. Buy Now Buy Now
The Hit is pure speculation based on current events. It arose from questions ‘what if’ and ‘how would you do it’. Our present circumstances (June 2020) are the most disturbing of any in my memory. Even Vietnam and Nixon pale compared to what is happening to our country. This is not political satire, nor a recipe for action. The Hit is just the musings of a concerned citizen witnessing the corruption brought by too much money advancing an undemocratic philosophy.Steve, Gabe, Sally, Tony, and Stu are good people trying to do their jobs. Jobs they don’t always like but are committed to do the best they can. On the other side are those who think the end justifies the means, regardless of who gets hurt or what is destroyed. The Hit is not about good vs. evil; it is about good people working together to advance the common good. It is about what America should be about. Buy Now Buy Now
Smitty is an examination of friendship. It begins with a mysterious fatal accident and ends with… It’s a nice little real-life mystery. The accident did happen. My solution is conjecture. Wasn’t intended to be a series but Jack, Linda, Meg, Fred, Molly, and Susan make a good family. You will like meeting them. Curious to see what happens to Molly and Suzy. If you know horses and ranch life, I’d like to have you for a resource (SME) – fact checking of sorts. Let me know if you’re interested. Buy Now Buy Now
BREED Book I Sagan starts our saga. It is 1880s, Utah/Idaho/Montana. The world in flux. Change is coming. Our hero is half-Mormon, half-Shoshoni. A foot in each world, home in neither. This is a story of self-discovery. By helping others, he is helping himself. We have a fugitive Sergeant, an orphan boy, a greedy railroad, a needy tribe, and somebody tries to kill our hero.
Will greed triumph? Who shot Dohosan? What comes next? Will John find Sagan? Where is Rut? Buy NowBuy Now
BREED Book II Rut is another episode in the life of John Henry MacAlister. An old friend is in trouble. We know where to look for Rut, or do we? Yes, there is a woman. Jane enters John’s life—for how long? Sandy gets a gun. One man dies, so a tribe may live. The railroad has yet to pay for their attempted theft. We have gold. We now have the means; will we have enough time?
Will the law be on our side, or theirs? Is there room for Jane in John’s life? Buy NowBuy Now
BREED Book III Sandy. The goal is to explore three cultures—Mormon, Shoshoni, and Western as the frontier closes. That and to let you know John. In Sandy, the railroad wants John’s help. They will give him a private car and a special train to get it. What they won’t give him is why they want his help.
Do they need his help, or do they want him out of the way so they may…? We don’t know what they want, or what they will do to get it. Buy NowBuy Now
BREED Book IV Jane. Things calm down until they don’t. There’s a lawless strip of land next to the Ute Reservation. A poorly crafted bill and a greedy rancher stole it from the Utes. On it is a mineral called Uintaite. The rancher wants John to set things right. John doesn’t want to. Things with the Commerce Commission may heat up. Rabbit could be in trouble. As you may have guessed, Jane plays an important role in this stage of John’s life. Sandy takes a giant stride to manhood.
And there is blood. Blood as in blood sisters, and blood uncles and aunts. There is talk of plays, poems, and music. Our family is coming together. Buy Now Buy Now
