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A Midnight Clear: A Dog’s Christmas
$3.99 – $9.99A black Lab dog, Max, is abandoned as a puppy and adopted by a landscaper. They live in a ranch house across from a golf course where they and neighbors take their dogs on walks. Max befriends other dogs until their masters show prejudice. Max and his best dog pal leave in a winter snow storm and meet an Hispanic couple with the wife about to give birth on Christmas Eve. Max and his friend find them shelter in an allegory of The Nativity and all ends well with the dogs’ masters finding them and restoring the centuries-old pact between man and dog.
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An Affair with Hollywood
$3.99 – $9.99An Affair with Hollywood are stories of a bodyguard and limo driver working during the height of male chauvinism in Hollywood during the historic 1980s. His personal relationships with clients, and his interactions with wishful young actresses, presented him with a medium into the party scene… and what was truly going on with this sexually charged era. Throughout these stories, he dives headfirst into exploring the Hollywood scene and the mindsets involved during the peak of the casting couch, favor making, and drug usage.
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Cowboys and Samurai: Myths and Realities
$3.99 – $13.99Myths exist in every society. They can be used for positive purposes, such as solidifying national identity, ensuring political stability and promoting national pride. On the other hand, they can be used for nefarious purposes, such as justifying expansionism at the expense of other nations. When we examine the myths surrounding the cowboys and the samurai, we learn how the myths originated and how they evolved over the years. Comparing the myths with realities, we learn about the conditions and the circumstances involved and we gain an understanding of what the real cowboy and samurai were really like. When you hear the names John Wayne and Roy Rogers, what image of the cowboy do you have? What image of the samurai do you take away when you read the book Shogun or see the movie or the TV series of the same title? These questions are poised and discussed in this book. The book ends with a discussion of the roles played by the cowboy and samurai myths in contemporary America and Japan.
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Dashell and Caroline
$3.99 – $16.99“For Caroline, a woman whose identity is a mystery, nothing is certain – except the love she and Dashell share. Now that crucial missing documents have been found, she has the answer to one of her biggest questions: her real name. With that information in hand, she and Dashell can now begin to plan their wedding and her future as Lady Lonsdale.
Dashell and his youngest brother Maxwell travel up to Yorkshire to find out what they can, and what they do discover greatly saddens them.
Another search commenced by Dashell’s aunt, Lady Smythe, has uncovered one more surprise for Caroline – a blood relative. It’s a shocking revelation for both Caroline and her new family member, who thought he had no relatives. Once the man recovers from his surprise, he shares information that may hold the key to the truth. As answers emerge it seems that every mystery of Caroline’s past will be revealed. But within the joy of discovery lies the heartbreaking story of how one person cruelly deceived Caroline’s mother. Isobel.
Will the truth set them free – or will the lovers find themselves ensnared in a bigger mystery than they imagined?” -
DINGS
$3.99 – $19.99DINGS tells of a mother’s struggle to support her son in the midst of a mysterious condition. Conner’s school believes that he is not ready for promotion into the third grade. His teacher recommends that he repeat the second grade. Conner’s dad is on a combat tour in 2006-7 Iraq; the adults in the boy’s life assume that stress and anxiety about his father serving in a combat theater have interfered with his school achievement. Meanwhile, Sandra is embittered; she is forced to deal with her son’s problem alone.
A psychologist identifies Conner’s anxieties and works to alleviate the child’s stress. But, the boy’s actual condition eludes the adults. He has unrecognized blank outs-his friends think that he acts “weird” sometimes.
Sandra’s husband returns from war, but all is not well. He has changed. She recognizes PTSD symptoms-Sam drinks more, snaps at the family and he has bad dreams-yet, he denies that anything is wrong. Sandra’s emotional stresses mount. She sees that her husband is incapable of emotionally supporting her as they struggle to understand their son’s difficulties; she is uncertain that she can keep her family together.
One night, Conner gets a high fever and he has a convulsion. At the local E.R., he has a brain CT scan and he gets a spinal tap. The doctor suggests to the parents that epilepsy is a possible cause of the convulsion. He refers Conner to a neurologist. Sandra interprets the mere mention of epilepsy as a personal affront. How could her son have such a stigmatizing and debilitating disease? He has never had any seizures before.
All of their lives change when they meet the neurologist. When epilepsy is diagnosed, Conner’s mother is devastated. She questions if her child can be considered normal now-could he ever really lead a normal life?
The reader will accompany this family as they travel their fascinating joint clinical and emotional journey to help their son. Sixty million people worldwide, including three million Americans, are afflicted with epilepsy.
DINGS is fascinating and educational reading for anyone, and especially those touched directly or indirectly by this condition.
For the readers’ convenience, a practical glossary of epilepsy terms and medical information is appended at the end of the book.
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Dreams That Never Were
$3.99 – $11.99On June 5, 1968 Senator Robert F. Kennedy, then a candidate for President, is mortally wounded by assassin Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Among the innocent bystanders who were also shot that night is a young idealistic reporter from San Francisco, Alex Hurley. The tragic incident changes his life as he’s swept up in the turbulent events of 1968. Alex is conflicted about the Vietnam War after spending six months there as a reporter. The war costs him his first marriage and threatens to tear his family apart. However, he meets a woman who’s love restores his hope and together they forge a new life set against the backdrop of the war, the civil rights struggle and political upheaval in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alex Hurley’s story is part political thriller and partly a romance in “Dreams That Never Were,” the latest historical fiction novel by award winning author Greg Messel. The title comes from a famous quote of Robert F. Kennedy’s “Some men see things as they are and say, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and say, ‘Why not?'”
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Edgar: Companion to “Want To Go West Lady”
$3.99 – $13.99A good tale about the spoiled son of a Virginia planter his loss pf innocence as a Confederate soldier and his return home to find the love of his childhood grown to womanhood convinces him that the west holds his future.
Tom Glass- Author of: Stenoshe/The Allegheny West
Edgar, by Ben Steinlage is another gripping story about the one of the characters in his first novel “Want to Go West Lady.” This story is about Ida Duncan’s first husband. As in the first novel it begins prior to the Civil War and into the Reconstruction. In this novel you get a better feeling of what it was like fighting in the war. Then the chaos and the loss of dignity as the southern people try to get their lives together again. In this battle for their lives their salvation was the love shared by the couple, children and friends. Along with the war the reader is taken on their journey to a new life out west.
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Going Home Again
$3.99 – $10.99Louise did it! She left home and was excited to find out what “real freedom” felt like. No more rules from Daddy. No more trying to be the picture perfect daughter without an opinion. No more competition for attention and validation. No more of this, or that. Louise had finally left home, and she was determined to enjoy her new found freedom.
But for a girl that had never made her own decisions, never managed money, lived under the rules of her over baring and over protective father, and no experience with men nor ever even dated, Louise finds out the hard way that leaving home wasn’t what she thought it would be.
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Janine: Tale of an Abandoned Wife and Mother
$3.99 – $15.99Janine is left homeless and penniless when her husband deserts her. She is left to explain all his thefts and misdeeds as she loses her friends and status. All the while, she must protect her children as she builds a new life. When Janine discovers a way to recover some of her money, she resorts to wits and stealth. Many women are caught unawares by the deeds of their spouses. Not everyone is as eventually fortunate or brave as Janine.
Mark Eric Johansen is a retired bus mechanic. He began seriously writing when he had time to devote to retelling the events he had heard and seen. He is working on a chronicle of forty years in a diverse, racist, bewildering work environment. Mark and his wife have always lived in the Chicagoland area.
Janine is Mark’s first completed fiction piece.
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Journey to Gettysburg
$13.99Journey to Gettysburg is a dramatic replay of the events leading up to the most important battle of the Civil War. It is seen through the eyes of a Quaker boy who is first, a bystander and observer. Then, he is drawn into the conflict and becomes a participant in Pickett’s Charge, the climax of the three-day conflict. Matt Mason is a 15-year-old boy who was raised on an isolated farm in rural North Carolina. With the untimely death of his mother, it becomes necessary for him to nd his father who is fighting for the Army of Northern Virginia. Much of the story is involved with the trek of the young man through war-torn Virginia in search of the Southern Army which is on the way to Gettysburg and the climactic battle that proves to be the turning point of the war. During the trip to north, Matt matures from a boy to a young man in what becomes a “coming of age” story. e experiences on the trek, the challenges he faces day to day as he searches for his father, and the friendships he develops make the book memorable and hard to put down once the story begins. at is especially true in the developing relationship with the beautiful Ami-Ruth who provides a new dimension to his life as the conflict surrounding them threatens to consume them both.
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Ron’s Ramblings: Characters, Critters and Us Cantankerous Rednecks
$5.99 – $19.99Big Sky Country is one of the many nicknames for the state of Montana, the place the author calls home. While Montana is a diverse state in people and in geography, north-eastern Montana is characterized by soft rolling hills and sharp coulees; scrub grass, sage brush and wild flowers cover the prairie lands and tall cottonwood, ash and willow trees shade the waterways, all outlined against skies a magnificent shade of blue which make this countryside unforgettable and unique. The people that have and still do call this place home are just as unforgettable and unique as the skies.
This is a collection of stories and tales, mostly centered around the rural area of north-eastern Montana; some are from the authors own experience, including family and local history, as well as stories of wildlife, hunting and farming, and some belong to others who have been kind enough to share their own histories and recollections.
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The Bruz
$3.99 – $10.99Aiden “Fierce” Chance is the Bruz. His life as a fraternity adviser at a small southern HBCU is turned upside down by a hazing incident, quickly turning him from an academic golden boy to a campus pariah. Aiden is constantly redeemed by his friendship bonds within the fraternity, but his final redemption threatens to stretch his fraternal ties to the limit. The question is, will they break?
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The House on Becket Lane
$3.99 – $14.99Lord Dashell Lonsdale is considered one of the most eligible bachelors in London, but few-even Lord Lonsdale himself-know that despite appearances, his family fortune is not as secure as he believes. When a chance encounter with an unknown lady on the street shakes his seemingly stable world, the young lord has no idea how to react. She collapses at his feet, a frightened child in her arms. She is whisked away before he can even learn her name. She is Caroline, the younger of two daughters of a family that carries a burden of secrets as well. All they know is that their mother’s tongue is silenced not by pride but by fear-and she took her secret to her grave. Now Caroline lives in a house with only her stepfather to guide her. Lord Lonsdale exploits his station to learn of her identity and where she lives. His arrival triggers an angry quarrel between Caroline and her stepfather. Horrified to have caused such tension within her family, he departs with the promise to return the next day. But duty calls him away before he can keep his promise. He learns that, thanks to the gambling debts of his brother, his family is on the brink of financial ruin. He has no choice but to turn his attention to restoring the family’s fortune and honor. Now Caroline has her own secret to share-and what she must tell him may end their love before it can begin.
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The Road from Money: A Journey to Find Why? Part 1 (1925 – 1937)
$3.99 – $16.95The Road from Money, A Journey to Find Why (Part 1), 1925-1937, takes you on a journey to the small town of Money, Mississippi; just after the turn of the 20th century. It is the story of Estella Reynolds, a young Negro girl, growing up in America’s deep South. You follow her life as she faces racism, segregation, exploitation, brutality and poverty. You watch as she finds the joy of family life, battles to get a good education, finds her first love and above all tries to figure out why things are the way they are.
You enter a time after World War I and before the start of World War II. A time when automobiles were new, and planes had just taken to the sky. The story is set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the Great Dust Bowl, a flood, Prohibition; and a time when Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were President. The story also highlights the strengths of a people and many of America’s weaknesses.
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The Road from Money: The Journey Continues Part 2 (1937 – 1955)
$3.99 – $16.99The Road from Money, the Journey Continues (Part 2) 1937 – 1955, Estella arrives in Chicago from Money, Mississippi, during the Great Migration north for millions of African Americans. She leaves behind the Jim Crow South and the cotton fields to the promise of a better life in the north. Seeing the vast difference between a big city and a small rural town, Estella finds it both exciting and challenging. With her family’s help, she settles in to find new friends, romance, and employment during World War II. She soon realizes that racism is not just in the South; it exists everywhere. Like thousands before her migrating north, her strength of character and perseverance paves the way for her success and enduring spirit. Set in the backdrop of Chicago’s Bronzeville community, the Harlem of Chicago, the reader will feel the beat of the city’s nightclubs on South Park Avenue, the sound of church choirs, the dangers of a big city, and the emotions of a nation at war. Estella experiences a new world with the coming of the television age and the beginning of the civil rights movement. She and her family find love, discrimination, and opportunities. They live and work together to overcome the obstacles placed before them.
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The Road from Money: The Journey Continues PART 3 (1956 – 1968)
$3.99 – $16.99The Road from Money, The Journey Continuous, part 3. Join Estella as she continues her path to success during the joyous and turbulent times of the 1950’s and ’60s; including the Korean and Vietnam War, the beginning of the space age, ongoing civil rights demonstrations, and assignations of key civil rights and political leaders. All set in the background of Chicago’s Bronzeville and Hyde Park neighborhoods. Watch Estella as she accumulates several apartment buildings, and experience the music, movies, culture and racial dynamics of the era.
