Synopsis From glittering ballrooms to verdant mountains to poverty-stricken slums, A Delicate Marriage takes the reader on a vivid tour of Puerto Rico forty years after becoming a U.S. colony, a time of great change and political turmoil on the island. Isabela, a wealthy woman, sacrifices her artistic aspirations to marry Marco, […]
Category: fiction
Synopsis Elements thirty-two through sixty-three on the periodic table are used in this unique collection, a follow-up companion to the first volume, “Periodic Stories”. Will Ken and his girlfriend’s son ever get along? Why is krypton so important to Duke and his brother and their friends? Will Mr. Jordan, a young high […]
Synopsis In the summer of 1914, 16-year-old Evan Sinclair leaves home to join the Great War for Civilization. Little does he know that, despite the war raging in Europe, the true source of conflict will emerge in Ottoman Palestine, since it’s from Jerusalem where the German Kaiser dreams to rule as Holy […]
Synopsis Long Island, New York, just after World War II, when the country was great for some and not so great for others, home to the Smith family: Philip, a racist Nassau County detective with a secret; his mentally ill wife, Eunice, speeding around the house looking for her coffee can of […]
Excerpt – Periodic Stories by Jim Bates #shortstories #fiction
November 27, 2023
Synopsis The first thirty-one elements of the periodic table are each used in the thirty-one stories in this unique collection. Will Warren always be lonely? Why does Lonny’s grandfather like balloons so much? How come Derek’s new fishing rod is so important to him? Why is Paul excited to learn how to […]
Excerpt – Resilience by Jim Bates #shortstories #family #fiction
November 25, 2023
Synopsis “Reading the 27 stories in Resilience, the collection of short stories by Jim Bates is like listening to one heartfelt tune after another being sung by 27 singers and never hearing an off-note. This is writing at its finest, where fiction is so well hidden in the life-affirming stories – a […]
Synopsis For fifty years, Ebar, an alien from planet Rykos, has lived in human form on Earth as Kyle Johnson. When Ebar gets into a fight at the sewage treatment plant where he works, he is put into jail. A jailer overhears Ebar trying to contact his home planet and tells the […]
Synopsis Sunny, Arianna and Molly are having three very different but equally terrible Christmases. Sunny is a newlywed with two new stepkids who want nothing to do with her; Arianna is newly divorced and hates having to send her daughter off to spend the holiday with her dad; for […]
Synopsis When the Gimmelmans lose all their money in the 1987 Stock Market Crash, Barry Gimmelman takes his family in their vacation RV for a wild ride through America that leads to them becoming the most notorious bank robbers of the era. Middle child Aaron watches as his family goes from a […]
Excerpt – Rag Lady by Susie Black #women #fiction #newrelease
November 14, 2023
Synopsis Recent college graduate Holly Schlivnik dreams of being a writer, but fate has other plans. A family crisis throws her into an improbable situation and her life will never be the same. Determined to make her own luck when things don’t happen the way she plans, the irrepressible young woman takes […]