Books

A moonshining hermit

A budding reporter

A $25 million misdirection

The mob, undercover agents, and secret payloads make Broken Inn a dangerous place for a fresh reporter, a newspaper photographer, and a moonshining hermit.

Hailey witnesses a murder at the enigmatic Broken Inn, but when she learns that the hotel manager and her editor are pals, she investigates on her own. When a corrupt guard finds her snooping, she flees into a box canyon, where she is saved by a gin-brewing recluse named Relic. She reports the murder to a deputy, but for some reason, no arrests are made... She enlists help from Ash, the newspaper’s photographer, but they must flee for their lives into the back country with Relic and a four-legged stray with a nose for trouble. They discover mysterious metal drums hidden deep in an abandoned uranium mine, but can’t tell what’s inside. And just when they’re most desperate for help, they learn that not everyone is who they seem…

Can they uncover the secrets of Broken Inn, dodge the syndicate, and prevent an environmental disaster?

Buck Hole Hollow

Adley

Adley was a fiercely independent woman who liked to do things on her own terms. Davis was three years out of a bad marriage, where he found out his wife never really loved him. Neither of them was looking for a relationship. Davis fought his feelings for Adley with every chance he got, but doing that messed with his head worse than anything else. And, he had a business to run.

Davis

Davis had the cutest Appalachian accent to go along with smoldering good looks. It looked like you could swim in his deep blue eyes until they turned lighter with ice crystals around them -- usually when his ex-wife showed up.

Davis bought the property next to Adley's and they met while she was clearing the property lines. Neither wanted a relationship, but their hearts said otherwise.

This book is my parting gift, so to speak, to “voiceless” animals and future generations. It comprehensively reviews our gross mistreatment of animals across spheres - stray and pet companion animals, animals on factory farms, and wildlife. It is a small book with a short message: prevent animal cruelty.

But it also carries a more ominous lesson for younger and future generations. The immense suffering we inflict on animals results not only in an "incalculably great impoverishment of the human spirit," as Einstein put it but also a more catastrophic loss in the "free" ecosystem services we take for granted. The vision of a more prosperous future is illusory because it will backfire sooner than we think.

It is time to re-evaluate our lives and act – for animals, the planet, and us. I can only hope this book will help in some small measure. 

Sitting in Kansas Café, Judy Vernon witnesses a man have a heart attack. With his final breath, Frank Farrington gives her the look of someone wanting her to do something, but knowing he has no right to ask.
His presence lingers in the café, sitting across the table from Judy, and his pleading eyes appear in her mind when she is away from the café. Judy, a freelance journalist, is driven by Frank to investigate his life as she attempts to answer two questions:
Who was he?
What does he want from me?
As she learns about Frank, she becomes entwined in his life, being adopted by his family, accepting responsibility for his alcoholic former partner Billy, and befriending Frank’s morally dubious ex-wife, Miriam.
Her life is further complicated when bisexual loner Judy falls in love with both forensic accountant and businessman Myron Myerson and Frank’s brother’s wife, Alison Farrington.
Perhaps the most important question for Judy is whether doing what Frank wants her to do will enable her to return to her stable, carefully crafted routine life, or if her unlikely friendship with the deceased Frank has changed her life forever?

In an alternate universe, Earth was invaded by a race of aliens from a planet called Nykarus and the result was a war that lasted five years, until a distress signal was sent out two years after the war started and intercepted by an old enemy of the Ny’Karin race.
The Kygourins fought side by side with humans to defeat the invaders, sending them back to the Pledius star system. However, many humans were stored in cryo-chambers on board the Ny’Karin motherships. When the Ny’Karins arrived on their home world, they distributed the Humans they had to habitable planets to the nearby solar systems; their funereal fate sealed to serve as slaves. Unlike many humans that were scattered throughout the system, Chandra an Enforcer (a cyborg soldier) was not meant to be a part of the culling, through a strange twist of fate, she was taken to one of Eurleau’s moons, Dyna and auctioned off to a Madam of an elite brothel. Adara takes her to the city Mu and Chandra undergoes a transformation, enabling her to serve as a high-class prostitute. Several years pass and Soran, Emperor of Nykarus, has tracked down Chandra. He pays Adara Sunn a visit, demanding that she hands Chandra over to him. She reluctantly agrees however, a clandestine meeting with a bounty hunter named Xenos, has swayed her decision and she sells Chandra to him. Xenos and Chandra leave Southern Atlan and her Life at the brothel ends but her quest to find the truth about herself, begins. The implant in her head is just the beginning. Her journey will take her to lands she has never seen before and dangers she must face along the way.

Incident at Cross Point is a crossover Fantasy/Romance novel with a real-world, relatable story to tell. I had researched Irish Fae mythology online, as well as Wabanaki mythology, lore, and ceremonial procedures. Here is what some of my Beta readers have said about this story:

I LOVED the blending of Gaelic and native myths. I felt the relationships were real and believable. I am usually not a huge fan of the romance genre because they can seem very fake, and this was not. All in all it’s a really great cross-genre fantasy romance and I’d love to read more like it. As soon as you have print copies I’d love to buy a signed one.

Dawn Weast: Copy Editor/Author /Beta Reader

I need a signed copy of Incident at Cross Point. I love it. The story is fabulous. The fae characters are fantastical but you somehow bring them down to earth and tie them into their own indigenous roots and to the traditions of indigenous Europeans and Native Americans. Very challenging, but you are making it happen. I'm quite impressed with your work.

I so love the way you spin a tale!

Aliyah Keuthen: Journalist/Activist/Beta Reader

Wasn't sure about the genre, but once I started I couldn't put it down. An amazing melding of fantasy and romance. J has another winner here.

Tim Clark, retired USAF

Sárán, Elder Prince of the Fae:

Wounded in battle with Daighre, an Elven sorcerer mounted on a dragon-like beast, Sárán is ripped from the world of Tir na nÓg. He wakes in a world where battles are fought with machines and iron, that deadly substance, is everywhere. His survival depends on remaining undiscovered in the Maine woods by the world at large until he can find a way home.

Mariel, a Native American of Penobscot and Passamaquoddy descent:

She was a Marine who left the reservation and her tribal lore and traditions to serve in Iraq. Her tour was ended by a car bomb that nearly killed her and left her with a severe case of PTSD. She has retreated with her service dog, Jughead, to the cabin in the Maine wilderness, left to her by her grandfather, to escape memories and all that triggers her debilitating symptoms.

“Wild Bill” Carson:

Mariel’s neighbor is an eccentric alien hunter who occupies the only other camp on Douglas Pond and believes he’s on the trail of a genuine out-of-space alien.

Sárán’s inexplicable arrival at Cross Point, a location the Abenaki tribes believe is a sacred spiritual crossing point, launches Mariel’s existence into a tailspin. She must cope with an alien being who has abilities that seem magical and invasive. To her surprise, she learns he speaks Gaelic through experimenting with a translation program on her electronics. Through that technology, Sárán quickly learns to speak English. Together they try to determine how Sárán arrived at Cross Point and how he may return to his home. Bill’s nosiness and obsession with Mariel’s unexpected guest complicate their efforts to keep his presence from being discovered.

Sárán believes his only hope of returning home lies in a Native American ceremony to summon Gluskabe, a Penobscot and Passamaquoddy legend who travels between Earth and the eternal realms. Mariel has doubts, having pretty much abandoned her tribal beliefs, but she calls upon an old friend, Harlan Greenlaw, who is a Penobscot professor of anthropology as well as a medicine man, for his assistance. It is a race between success with the ceremony and Bill exposing Sárán’s presence to the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations at the Pentagon and to the rest of the world.

A heart-wrenching and yet a heartwarming story of a young Sāmoan-Scottish girl and how she endured and survived 60 years of abuse. She shares her story and hopes more women and children will be spared from mental and physical abuse.

"Women Telling Our Story - Baring our Soul from Behind the Wall " is a compilation of stories told by incarcerated women as they begin the process of healing. These women could be any one of us except they lost their way mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. The telling of their experiences is helping them to reclaim their life, their self esteem. Between 1980 and 2020, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 475%, rising from a total of 26,326 in 1980 to 152,854 in 2020. Many women in prison have experienced physical or sexual trauma at the hands of men. The past 20 years the war on drugs has also caused significant rise in the number of women incarcerated and their access to adequate drug treatment. These are powerful stories about survival and overcoming the trauma that's intended to destroy so many girls and women.

In his 7th book, Stewart delivers an exegesis on Buddhism, using The Dhammapada (“Path to Eternal Truth”), which are the verbatim words or declarations of Gautama Siddhartha Buddha himself. Any doctrine other than this and the books of his rules (codes of conduct) have been defiled and should be shunned for this reason.

She scuttled the CCP's biowarfare plans. When they catch her, she will pay.
Dr. Meiling Chen is a brilliant young virologist with a groundbreaking discovery that could change the face of biowarfare. But when she discovers the Chinese Communist Party's plans to misuse her work, she knows she must act - even if it means risking her own life. On the run from CCP agents, she must find her way to America while staying one step ahead of her pursuers.
Ryan Adams, a meteorologist and well-known blogger in Bend, Oregon, is desperate for reliable information on China's bioweapons program. But when Meiling's path crosses his, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly game of cat and mouse. With the CCP agents in hot pursuit, Meiling and Ryan must find a way to keep the truth and their lives from slipping away.
Facing the Darkness is a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you enjoyed the suspense of Robin Cook's medical thrillers, like Outbreak, you'll love Facing the Darkness. Buy now before the price changes!
Note: H. L. Wegley's thrillers are gripping but never contain gross, graphic, or gratuitous content.

In this Volume Three of the Contemporary Shamanic Journeys series, the author takes the readers on the roads of North, Central and South America, exploring pre-Columbian civilizations, Indigenous traditional teachings and other ancient cultures, with the ancestral legacy their histories left us with. The Seven Fire Prophecy, the return of the White Buffalo, the mending of the Sacred Hoop, the reunion of the Condor and Eagle, the emergence of the Rainbow warriors and manifestations of other Native prophecies were witnessed and experienced first hand by the author, who renders a personal account of related milestone events. Various medicine teachers, shamanic practitioners, Elders and Wisdom Keepers met along the way have blessed the narrator with guidance and precious gems of spiritualist science shared in this series. 

 Apart from adventures, expeditions, gatherings, ceremonies and encounters, these memoirs provide geographical knowledge and historical insights, as well as reflections on the development of modern society via colonialism, admiralty law, secret societies, social engineering and the globalist agenda. Human relationships, whether positive or negative, remain among our experiences offering the greatest challenges and teachings along our life path. Everyone we met is a part of our life and should be acknowledged. Honoring the contributions of our peers, whether teachers, friends or foes, helps us to assimilate the lessons we are meant to learn. Thus, no biography would be complete without personal anecdotes. The greater perspective aims at healing and long term spiritual evolution for our souls. May this collection of true life stories sharing some of the knowledge they provided be inspirational, educational and entertaining for the readers. Best blessings to all...

Jane Phoenix teaches a parapsychology class at a local college while she moonlights as a paranormal investigator/Hunter. She is a part of a secret organization of hunters that the Church recruits to investigate and hunt down paranormal/supernatural phenomenon. She has dealt with ghosts, werewolves, vampires, witches, and cryptids but her next case will take her and her colleague, Mary Kate, into an unknown, sickly yellow labyrinth of hundreds of miles of segmented empty rooms and hallways with trapdoors, ominous creatures and walls that move making it hard to find a way out. They will be hunted by eldritch style monsters that prey upon unsuspecting travelers within the incohesive inauspicious maze. Fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, the stink of old dirty, moist carpet and the threat of becoming prey to the unknown, will change Jane and Mary Kate in ways they never thought possible. Their Faith and Courage will guide them through as they search for the bishop’s grandniece, Talia. Will they make it out together or fall victim to the Backrooms.

Imagine becoming legally blind while working at becoming a renowned architectural designer. You have an 18.4% mortgage on a building you’ve just started renovating; rent is due for your office; and employees must be paid. What would you do? Or picture yourself with kidney disease which requires a transplant. Then, at the age of 30, you are diagnosed with heart disease requiring two medicated stents. How would you cope? And, after all that, what if you fought osteomyelitis with IV antibiotics for 20 years but finally had to have your leg amputated? Would you have the strength to survive?

These are a few of the amazing questions resolved in John Robert Wiltgen’s compelling memoir The Candy in My Pocket. He battled many debilitating complications of type 1 diabetes (T1D) while creating a prestigious design firm with projects across America, Canada, Mexico-even Africa.

With unwavering honesty, Wiltgen chronicles the immense challenges he faced in his relentless struggle against this silent killer. But The Candy in My Pocket is not solely about conquering diabetes, it is also about the author’s determination to preserve his identity and keep close those he held dear. This captivating narrative reveals Wiltgen's relentless pursuit of a life of purpose while remaining optimistic amidst overwhelming adversity.

As an award-winning international designer commissioned by celebrities, world leaders, and other luminaries his memoir includes larger-than life tales that are extremely entertaining. It includes exciting celebrity cameos with stars such as Jane Seymour, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie, Sean and Robyn Wright Penn, Steve Harvey, John Cusack, the former Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria (who is now President of that country) and Jesus.

Wiltgen's compassion, wisdom and an irreverent sense of humor will inspire individuals of all beliefs and backgrounds to embrace optimism even in the darkest of times. By sharing the lesser-known consequences of diabetes, Wiltgen also endeavors to raise awareness about this deadly disease.

Wiltgen's narrative intertwines moments of adventure, laughter, and even fear, whisking readers away from their own lives and immersing them in a world brimming with hope and possibility.

Great leadership always matters. Yet, there is a noticeable mismatch between what employees want and what leaders deliver. It’s what drives the current state of the workforce. Best-selling author Kevin Wayne Johnson addresses a myriad of challenges and solutions for aspiring and current leaders to narrow this gap. The result is that leaders will know better, do better, and ultimately, lead better. They are servant leaders.

Leadership is a spiritual gift from God (Romans 12:6-8). His Word reminds us that “Every good and perfect gift is from above… (James 1:17). “ Unfortunately, it’s a gift that, from time to time, is misused and abused by some in positions of power and authority. When this happens, leaders at all levels, across multiple venues, cause those who they are entrusted to lead to walk away. People don’t leave organizations. They leave because of poor leadership (people).

English backpacker on trial for murder in Australia. Newspapers exclaim: “Evil temptress -killed her lover- fed his body to crocodiles!” Susan refuses to tell what happened on that fateful day. Who is the man she killed – a man with no history? Is he a man whose story is too awful to ever be told? Desolate, Susan plans her escape: to end it forever. Will the truth be revealed before it’s too late?

Jimmy Crikey is the bullied alien born on Earth who became an orphan but chose to stay among his new friends in the magical lands of RoomBelow. His close friend Jade approaches the end of her apprenticeship with Matilda as a witch. There are several challenges to complete before she can graduate as a fully qualified member of the sister’s Coven. Matilda is head of the four guardian witches of Earth’s realms but has been called to move to a higher level. Who will be appointed as her successor?

Jimmy is told not to help Jade directly. She must succeed in the trials using only her skills.

When collapsing roofs threaten the cave world of Lithnia, both Jimmy and Jade’s skills are needed to save Lithnia from the giant, rock-chewing beatles who originated in Egypt as scarabs.

The Sky Islands have been caught in tornado winds and a whirlwind. It is tearing the islands apart. Matilda instructs Jade to go to their aid. Jimmy is forbidden from interfering, but he does help Jade to carry out her plan to save the Islanders. Can the youngest witch overcome the danger?

Madam Coptra, who rules the Sky Islands and has given birth to The Weatherman’s, aka Lord Oron’s, son, Helios, must be introduced to the Coven of sister witches.

The dreaded Giant Scarabs return to their destructive chewing of rocks, threatening the very structure of Roombelow, far away from Lithnia.

Jimmy and Jade trace the beatles resting place to a floating island in the Arctic seas, where the Centaurians, a race from planet Xe in the Alpha Centauri system, are seeking diamonites from Lithnia to protect their planet from gamma rays being emitted by one of their suns. To save their world, they would risk destroying Earth. Jimmy employs XRU, his talkative starship’s navigator, to help the aliens find a material to shield Xe from the deadly rays.

Can Jimmy and Jade save the Centaurian’s world and Earth even as Matilda prepares for her next world of Witchcraft? 

The story begins in the 1960's and is set mainly in Ireland and the United States, twins, alike in some ways and very different in others.  One twin due to a very unhappy and negative childhood departs clandestinely at 16 for wherever life takes him.  He arrives in the United States and survives as best he can, however he can, until fate - and having crossed one too many dangerous people - he is forced to return to Ireland.  Murder ensues, but who is the murderer and who is the victim, that is the dilemma.  John Roche a taciturn and far too casual and disrespectful detective for the preference of his superiors has to be borne because he is just so good at what he does ... catching murderers.  He ends up involved and working with the State Security Forces and between them they solve the mystery and make Dublin a slightly less dangerous place - at least for some people.

Steve Watkins' 2019 book, "The 'Plenty' Book: The Answer to the Question 'What Can I do to Make This a Better World?'" is a revolutionary guide that is as insightful as it is empowering. Its combination of pragmatic advice, empathetic narrative, and inspiring themes make it a must-read for anyone wondering how they can contribute to a more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable world.

Watkins' prose is fluid and engaging, making complex issues approachable for a wide variety of readers. He guides us through global problems with the finesse of a seasoned educator and the compassion of a true humanitarian, making the weight of the world feel less like a burden and more like a call to action.

The book is grounded in real-world examples and case studies that make the often abstract concept of 'making a difference' both tangible and achievable. Watkins strikes a balance between theoretical frameworks and practical actions, all while emphasizing the power and responsibility of the individual.

Perhaps one of the most commendable aspects of this book is its universality. Watkins recognizes that readers come from diverse backgrounds and circumstances. He doesn't prescribe one-size-fits-all solutions, but rather presents a toolkit of ideas and strategies for making a positive impact.

"The 'Plenty' Book" inspires hope without sugarcoating the issues at hand. It acknowledges the gravity of the challenges we face, yet persistently underlines the potential for change that resides within each of us. Watkins does not just ask us to imagine a better world, he empowers us with the means and motivation to help create it.

In conclusion, "The 'Plenty' Book" is an essential read for anyone asking the question, "What can I do to make this a better world?" Watkins eloquently combines the ethos of a philosopher, the insight of a psychologist, and the practicality of a field worker to provide a comprehensive guide to personal and global betterment. It is an enriching, engaging, and enlightening read that challenges us to step up and take action. It is a resounding call for optimism and action that is desperately needed in our times.