WHAT THE YEARS REMEMBER
Growing up in New York’s Hudson Valley, fraternal twins Amber and Jade were always different. Amber, somewhat shy and affable, is a happy, well-liked child. Jade, often angry, laments from an early age that others have what she covets. As the girls grow up, Jade’s jealousy escalates. Dangerously so.
At sixteen, enraged by their classmate Michael’s affection for Amber, Jade lures her sister to an abandoned lot, shoves her onto concrete, and leaves her for dead. Knowing Jade would try again, her parents agree to fake her death. Amber moves to New York City with her father, and Jade moves with her mother to Los Angeles.
Twenty-three years have passed. Amber is alive, happily married to Michael, with a son, and living in New York City under her new name. Jade, still living in California, has been cavalierly committing crimes. After a robbery attempt on a woman in Beverly Hills ends in her death, Jade flees to New York. Amber, quickly learning that her sister is nearby and a bigger threat than ever, goes on the offensive to stop Jade before she can decimate the lives of everyone Amber holds dear. But uncertainty, altered paths, and unexpected revelations can change everything.
What the Years Remember on Amazon
TWICE A BROKEN BREATH
Although Liam Tallamore can’t remember the first fourteen years of his life, he’s built a happy life with his wife, Carly, and their two children in suburban New Jersey … until one Friday afternoon when everything changes.
While cashing his paycheck, he’s told his bank accounts have been emptied. Once at home, he learns Carly has left him for her first love—one he never knew existed. Most devastating of all, she’s taken their eight-year-old daughter, Rayelle, and is preparing to leave the country. As if things couldn’t get worse, he has no idea where their twenty-year-old son is or why he’s been unreachable for the past two months.
With total distrust in law enforcement and no clues to guide him, Liam hops on a train to New York City, Carly’s hometown. Through the next twenty-four hours, Liam goes on a wild, unforgiving, frantic search through rain-soaked Manhattan, experiencing the brightest and the darkest humanity has to offer. This is the story of a man who refuses to quit, determined to find “a needle in a haystack,” and who, in searching for the children he loves, doesn’t yet realize he’s searching for himself as well.
Twice a Broken Breath on Amazon
ALL THAT WAS TAKEN
All That Was Taken is a contemporary fiction novel that delves deeply into love, loss, and healing but comes with a suspenseful twist.
For eight years, John Hennessey has lived in near-solitude on Catalina Island. He keeps his world small, for every precious thing in his life has been taken from him. But when his peaceful existence is threatened, he buys a cottage farther up the California coast in the sleepy town of Teal Beach.
There he meets Sunny Harrison, owner of the Teal Beach Sundial Inn where he stays until his cottage is ready for move in. The connection between them is magical, though both are surviving painful pasts and are afraid to trust … especially as an undercurrent of darkness dwells in their midst.
In no time at all, their quiet lives explode. Sunny receives ominous phone calls while John grapples with his own unsettling communications. Their bond strengthens as dangerous enemies threaten.
New guests at the hotel appear to have ulterior motives, and with each passing day, more and more feels eerily out of place. As tensions escalate and the enemy comes into focus, John and Sunny know they face grave danger from people with no conscience. Yet, they have no idea what diabolical plans lie in wait for them.
All That Was Taken on Amazon
THE WAITING HOUSE:
A Novel in Stories
Once an opulent hotel for lovers of the Hollywood lifestyle, today the imposing building survives, somewhere, as an apartment house for those who wait. Not all know what they’re waiting for, but the residents live in flawed concert with those of undetermined existence, among relics of the past, as they wait for answers, for lost loved ones, and for purpose.
While the stories feature different characters, many of whom are recurring, each tale couples with its own unique reality … and is narrated by Conrad, the “grand master.” There is an overall story arc: part literary fiction, part Twilight Zone … both with a healthy dose of dark humor.
If you step inside, you’ll meet Ava Elisabeth, now in her 80s. After 40 years in Paris, she has returned. But why? Darah, the owner, is tormented by the sudden reappearance of her estranged mother, Millicent.
Kenny finds a way to overcome the despair of his missing wife. Fiona lives in the shadow of her once-famous, movie-star mother. Former Santa, Alejandro, punishes himself with solitude and sadness. A disturbed woman, Carolyn, waits for her TV prince to come. And Lee is tortured by random people who slide down walls near his fourth-floor apartment. Under the same roof, each soul has a different story … but all live in The Waiting House.
The Waiting House on Amazon.com
THE SUM OF OUR SORROWS
In an idyllic suburb in Northern California, tragedy strikes the Sheppard family when Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is killed in a car accident. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car with her mother and survives without physical injury but remains deeply scarred on the inside.
Dalton tells Lily, his eldest daughter, that she must sacrifice long-awaited college plans and put her life on hold to take care of her sisters. Lily is torn between her devotion to family and an increasing need to find her place in the world — but how can she leave, knowing her family may crumble? Will her presence eventually cause more problems than it resolves?
The Sum of our Sorrows reveals how the aftermath of a family tragedy can precipitate sorrows never imagined. It is a tale of grief, hope, healing, coming-of-age, friendship, and survival. It is also a love story of two broken souls living through pain in search of better days and the renewal of one’s spirit.
The Sum of our Sorrows on Amazon.com
LOVE, LOOK AWAY
At twenty-nine, Sage Gordon has had it with love. The owner of Sage Earth Gifts, a metaphysical gift shop in the old-money town of Swansea, New York, Sage is content to run her quirky store and enjoy her dog, Rufus, and her two cats, Finlay and Babaloo.
She is convinced love isn’t for her. As a child, her best friend, Jimmy Cole, the boy she thought she’d marry someday, disappeared in the middle of the night with his family and was never heard from again. Haunted by the loss, she was wary about love as she moved into adulthood, never really connecting with the men she dated, clinging to the hope that Jimmy would return.
When she’s set up with Caleb Dunlap, a gorgeous marketing executive in New York City, Sage struggles to let go of the past, but she does. Happily, she finds herself engaged … then … not so much. If only Caleb had betrayed her before she sent out the save-the-date cards.
When an obnoxious customer causes Sage’s neurotic assistant, Margie, to quit on the spot, Sage finds a friend in Godiva Jones, a woman she hires on the same spot. Godiva, twenty years older than Sage, brings much-needed friendship and wisdom. Having recently broken up with the love of her life, Freddie, Godiva also relates to the pain of heartbreak. She is disturbed, however, when Sage professes that she wants love to look away from her … forever.
In no time at all, life takes another turn for Sage when an old friend (and long-time admirer), Adam Canoga, shows up at Sage Earth Gifts to let her know that he’s opening a new men’s clothing store in town. Discovering she is no longer engaged, he asks her out, but with regret, she tells Adam that she has no interest in dating. Sage’s resolve to do without love becomes an even greater challenge when an Australian visitor, Benton Bradley, walks into Sage Earth Gifts and impresses Sage with his warmth and Aussie humor. Despite her best efforts to keep love at arm’s length, she finds herself developing relationships with both Adam and Benton, two completely different, yet wonderful, men. But Sage is stubborn, still haunted by her past, and finds herself wholly unsure of what to do.
Love, Look Away on Amazon.com
HOTEL OBSCURE: A Collection of Short Stories
In a run-down neighborhood in an unnamed city, people live and die in “the Obscure.”
Whether anyone remembers the real name of the derelict establishment is a mystery. In this six-story building, most who occupy the rooms are long-term residents, though some stay for as little as an hour.
The patronage is an eclectic group: musicians, writers, addicts, hookers, lonely people, poor people, rich people, once-well-off people, and those who have reason to hide from their former lives or to escape the demands of a disapproving and punishing society.
As shabby as the Obscure is, as long as its walls keep out the wind and the rain, it remains a shelter, a hideaway, and a home for the many bewildered souls.
Hotel Obscure is a collection of seventeen short stories that all take place in or around the “the Obscure.” While the stories stand alone, they are to be read in order. Some characters appear in multiple stories, and sometimes, a story will continue in an unexpected way.
The Obscure is life. It is death. In the blink of an eye, it may appear supernatural. It is a place we all visit … whether metaphorically or physically, at least once in our time on Earth.
Hotel Obscure on Amazon
BARRIE HILL REUNION
Eight people. One weekend. Eight lives forever changed.
In the mid-1960s, at an elite college in the quaint town of Barrie Hill, Connecticut, a group of literary-minded students met regularly off-campus at the Vanessa Grand Hotel. Often late into the night, they would discuss the day’s news, analyze literature, philosophize, trade barbs, and socialize.
Twenty years after graduation, in 1986, the group’s founder, Clare Dreyser, organizes a weekend reunion. Seven former Barrie Hillers and one guest get together, eager to re-create an extraordinary time in their lives and reunite with old friends.
From the outset, and baffling the group, Leah Brent displays a brash, condescending attitude for nearly everyone and everything. To the chagrin of actor Bart Younger, Leah immediately lays out the unwelcome mat for his wife, Aimee. No one, not even Leah’s husband, Colin, is immune to her wrath, but Leah is relentless in her bizarre and cruel quest to bring down her primary target: Clare.
As the reunion progresses, the Barrie Hillers strive to enjoy their time together as they become enmeshed in personal dramas, struggle with matters of ethics, and weather escalating uncertainties that threaten to destroy their lives. By Saturday night, the second day of the reunion, karma makes a surprising and shocking visit. As the Barrie Hillers’ time together draws to an end, each is changed forever.
Barrie Hill Reunion on Amazon
THE DESERT SERIES
It all began in a dying desert town when the past came back to join the present.
The Desert Series, a YA paranormal trilogy, takes place over a span of six years in a town called Mystekal in the Southern California desert.
The story unfolds in Book 1, Mystical High, when sudden paranormal activity at Mystekal High and around the town, makes its presence known. The two main characters, Jessie and Jinxsy, high school juniors, are best friends. As each girl struggles with her own family problems, seemingly random and bizarre incidents occur that complicate everything. Eventually, after a string of shocking events expose explosive secrets, the answers to decades-long mysteries are revealed.
Book 2, Desert Star, features River Dalworth, who makes his debut in Mystical High as Jessie’s younger brother. River is brilliant, funny, and a talented artist. Now a senior at Mystekal High, as the book opens, River steps in to defend a new student, Larsen Davis, who is being bullied by two other seniors for being gay. Larsen is grateful to River and confides in him that the biggest bully is the one at home—his mother.
Eventually, Larsen accepts a job with River’s mother, Arielle, who is in charge of renovating The Desert Theater. Larsen soon learns that the theater, abandoned for 40 years, is not without its secrets. Opening night at the Desert Theater sets the stage for a crime, never-imagined reunions, long-awaited explanations, and otherworldly miracles.
In Book 3, Drawn Apart, one of the main characters is Avalon Martelli, a student from Jersey City who was introduced in Desert Star. Avalon’s entire family now lives in Mystekal. Her best friend, whom she met at the beginning of the 11th grade, is Stephanie Lambert. Aside from having a home state in common, each girl possesses a talent for art and the heartbreak of a broken family. Avalon has the gift of sight, where the future is sometimes revealed in her paintings, while Stephanie’s drawings are all about forever love. As Stephanie, a self-described poetry geek and hopeless romantic, talks about past lives and eternal happiness, Avalon tries to deny she’s in love with her best guy friend, River.
Now seniors, the two friends are only weeks away from graduation when Stephanie is rendered unconscious and unresponsive after a car accident. As she lies comatose in the hospital, Stephanie’s mom and friends pray for a miracle while Avalon, who hears Stephanie telepathically, begs her to wake up so that she can meet her soul mate.
CONTENT WARNING: Mild sexual content and non-gratuitous profanity. Recommended age: 14+
DRAWN APART
When Avalon Martelli and Stephanie Lambert meet at the start of their junior year at Mystekal High, they form an instant connection. Stephanie is from South Jersey and Avalon from North Jersey, and they both feel out of place in the Southern California desert.
Aside from having a home state in common, they each possess a talent for art and the heartbreak of a broken family. Avalon has the gift of sight, where the future is sometimes revealed in her paintings, while Stephanie’s drawings are all about forever love. As Stephanie, a self-described poetry geek and hopeless romantic, talks about past lives and eternal happiness, Avalon denies she’s in love with her best guy friend, River Dalworth, who is attending art school in Los Angeles.
Only weeks before graduation, Stephanie is in a car accident and falls into a coma. Devastated, Avalon believes it is all her fault. The night before, she had painted Stephanie with her head against the steering wheel—and hadn’t told her. She confides this to River, who has come home to be with her, but he can’t convince her she’s not to blame. Avalon loudly proclaims to the universe that she no longer wants her gift, but River warns her she may receive another one in its place.
Avalon and her family, along with Stephanie’s mother, pray for a miracle. River tries to console her, but she finds his presence difficult, knowing he has someone else who “just might be the one.” Trying to push her own pain and disappointment aside, Avalon keeps vigil for her best friend, hoping that Stephanie will wake up and have her greatest wish fulfilled— the meeting of her soul mate.
Drawn Apart on Amazon.com
DESERT STAR
Larsen Davis isn’t afraid to stand up to those who bully him, but in a two-against-one situation at Mystekal High, it’s never easy. When classmate River Dalworth witnesses the abuse and intervenes, the two seniors become good friends. Larsen explains that he’s fighting another battle at home: his own mother, Raylene, bullies him for being gay.
When Larsen meets River’s mother, Arielle, and learns she is overseeing the renovation of the Desert Theater, he shares his dream for a career on stage. Soon, Arielle offers Larsen a job as her assistant, but Raylene is dead set against the idea of her son doing what she considers “gay work.” After Raylene gets a new boyfriend, Reggie, the bad situation at home worsens and Larsen has no choice but to leave.
Now working at the Desert Theater, Larsen feels the unearthly presence of someone in the long-abandoned theater. Meanwhile, as the theater nears completion, a talent show is scheduled for opening night. As it becomes more evident that the theater may have a ghost, it also comes to light that someone may be sabotaging the renovation and the show. Is the ghost real or just the handiwork of someone with a grudge?
Opening night at the Desert Theater sets the stage for a crime, never-imagined reunions, long-awaited explanations, and otherworldly miracles.
CONTENT WARNING: Mild sexual content and non-gratuitous profanity. Recommended age: 14+
Desert Star on Amazon.com
MYSTICAL HIGH
In Mystekal, a small, dying town in the Southern California desert, only 75 students attend the old, sometimes creepy high school dubbed “Mystical High,” where strange things have been known to happen. Jessie Dalworth and Jinxsy Patterson are juniors and lifelong best friends. At home, Jessie deals with the pain of an absentee mother who has abandoned the family for the lure of Hollywood; Jinxsy contends with a 17th “birthday present” she never wanted or expected.
Meanwhile, at school, the unexplained activity begins to escalate when Jinxsy keeps seeing a long-haired guy in the hallway checking her out. Jessie can’t see him, but her younger brother, River, can.
Then, in English class, a stapler mysteriously flies off teacher Eve Carrow’s desk, hitting a student in the face who has just mouthed off to her. The beloved teacher is in the unenviable position of having her brute of a father as principal, so she hates sending any student to his office. As Principal Ernest Carrow begins to terrorize Eve and others more openly, something or someone unseen decides that it’s payback time.
School is getting stranger, and Jinxsy and Jessie are faced with mind-boggling changes in their home lives that complicate everything. When a string of shocking events expose explosive secrets, decades-long mysteries are finally revealed.
CONTENT WARNING: Mild sexual content and non-gratuitous profanity. Recommended age: 14+
Winner, 2014 eFestival of Books: Best Young Adult
Mystical High on Amazon.com
MOLLY HACKER IS TOO PICKY!
At thirty-two, newspaper reporter Molly Hacker vows to never attend another wedding until she has had her own. And that’s a problem because Molly’s younger sister, Hannah, is going to be married in one year. Armed with snark, wit, and fabulous good looks, “Picky Molly” embarks on a quest to find Mr. Right in her hometown.
Things get complicated fast. In no time at all, Molly has four “men of interest” and the memories of a lost love to send her overanalytic, befuddled mind into serious overdrive. Determined not to let her “helpful” girlfriends help her right out of another relationship, Molly tries to keep mum on the state of her love life. Her BFF male coworker, Randy, becomes her closest confidant as he stumbles over romantic issues with his new Mr. Right, Kyle. Meanwhile, Molly’s gal pals aren’t too happy about being left out of the loop.
Tweaking Molly’s last nerve is the town’s most visible socialite, Naomi Hall-Benchley, who, for self-serving reasons, is hell-bent on setting up “Picky Molly Hacker” and she doesn’t care who she has to manipulate or hurt to do it. Just how far will she go?
Molly Hacker Is Too Picky!” takes the reader on a yearlong romp through Molly’s mind and a joyride through her life. Her dating life, town secrets, a group of quirky, crazy characters, and Naomi’s machinations collide head-on at a holiday gala that will change the social landscape of Swansea forever. As the New Year rolls in, Molly gets earth-shattering news. Can she go on? Will life ever return to abnormal again?
Molly Hacker Is Too Picky! on Amazon.com
SQUALOR, NEW MEXICO
Darla McKendrick is nine when she first hears her mother and her aunt Didi secretly discussing their younger sister, Rebecca, speculating about her life in squalor. From the moment Darla asks to know more about her mysterious aunt, she is offered nothing but half-truths, distortions, and evasions. As Darla grows into her teen years, her life is oddly yet profoundly affected by this woman she has never known. She can’t help but notice that Rebecca seems to exist only in dark corners of conversations and that no one ever wants to talk about her-with Darla. SQUALOR, NEW MEXICO is a coming-of-age story shrouded in family mystery. As the plot takes twists and turns, secrets are revealed not only to Darla but to the “secret keepers” as well. Darla learns that families are only as strong as the truths they hold and as weak as the secrets they keep.
Squalor, New Mexico on Amazon.com
CROOKED MOON
Crooked Moon, first and foremost, is a human drama, an emotional journey into the lives of two women and those closest to them. As children, Frankie Cavalese and Callie Mason were the very best of friends, growing up together behind opposite walls of a row home in a blue-collar neighborhood of Philadelphia called Rainytown. The friendship they shared was special – the kind that storybook heroines had – and neither ever considered the possibility of it not lasting forever. But after high school, life interfered and circumstances separated them as they each went on to live in drastically different worlds. Twenty-three years later, one hot unsettled summer, their lives come crashing back together when Callie, who has led a life of privilege, returns to Rainytown and finds her old friend still living in her childhood home, unmarried, and caring for her angry dying mother, Ruby. Frankie is faded. Her signature tenacity is threadbare as she routinely implores her playboy brother, Paulie, to help ease the burden of being their mother’s sole caregiver. As the two women reconnect, Frankie tries to forgive Callie for abandoning the friendship, while Callie wrestles with the guilt of having disappeared. To complicate the fragile reunion, Callie’s marriage to her husband, Jackson, is suddenly at risk, further muddled by the affections of (and attraction to) Paulie. Tensions and passions explode in the sweltering heat, and amid pain and tragedy, each woman not only ends up with a life-altering secret regarding the other, but the burning question of what to do with it.
Crooked Moon on Amazon.com
All books are available in both Kindle and paperback editions. All eight titles are free to read on Kindle Unlimited.