Frank Smythe, Jr. faces day one of retirement from his job of thirty-five years. He must now adjust to being Home Together with his wife Mavis who enjoys a personal renewal from the success of her recently established business after life as a traditional wife and mother. Frank Smythe, Jr. faces day one of retirement from his job of thirty-five years. He must now adjust to being Home Together with his wife Mavis who enjoys a personal renewal from the success of her recently established business after life as a traditional wife and mother. You will meet Frank and Mavis and their friends and family through the medium of their very intimate diaries. We learn they are real people, experiencing pleasure, passions and pain as they cope with each other but also problems typical of their age cohort such as aging parents and Alzheimer's, offspring struggling through single parenthood, same sex relationships and the life changing illness of a treasured grand daughter. On a very personal level we observe Frank's reaction to an inability to 'get it up' and 'keep it up' and what happens when both Frank and Mavis find attractions outside their marriage. The story builds to a climax where their hard won but fragile coalition almost crumbles, but not quite. Two people who have raised a family and lived together for so long have invariably built a few bridges between their separate souls. Those invisible bridges can and do carry the load. Sixty in 2005. That will be the age of the first-born Baby Boomers now on the precipice of retirement. It is estimated there are 78 million North Americans aged 40-60. Being 'home together' will be a brand new experience for thousands of retirees. Never in their relationship have they had to spend so much time together. Before they could escape to work or looking after the kids. Now? No excuses. When they once swore for better or for worse the vows didn't include twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Electronic banking, computer technology and sophisticated accounting practices form the basis for this modern-day financial thriller. Andrew Dalton is a rising star at a prestigious accounting firm where, as a forensic accountant, his role is to uncover anomolies in corporate financial transactions. But this normally mundane task suddenly takes on a different tone when he discovers uncanilly similar discrepancies in the books of two different companies. Driven to take action, Andrew initiates a perilous investigation that takes him from San Francisco to Boston, Amsterdam to Bermuda. Along the way, he encounters a string of characters including an alluring but dangerous ex-KGB agent, a brilliant computer hack and a greedy megalomaniac, who will stop at nothing to thwart his efforts. Andrew enlists the aid of his ex-girlfriend Dana, and together they work to expose a clever scheme that threatens the global economy - and could destroy their lives in the process.

Suspense-filled and action-packed, Debit Fund will keep you intrigued until the final page!

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From mountain caves in Pakistan, Osama schemes to rally the Islamic world in cataclysmic jihad. He plans to kill a million occupants on densely populated Mauritius, a quiet island paradise in the Indian Ocean. His weapons? War gases from stocks in Central Asia; germs; conventional explosives. This varied arsenal to be coordinated in a massive terroristic strike.

At Huntsville, Alabama, NASA engineer Lance Shepard develops a unique diving helmet based on his study of hammerhead sharks. Forces in the federal government coerce him to make his technology available to U.S. Navy SEALS. As accidents in the Indian Ocean inadvertently begin revealing the outlines of Osama's plans, the SEALs get involved.

The presence of dangerous pathogens draws attention from the Centers for Disease Controls. Enter Amy Matsumoto, a capable CDC microbiologist who loves working in the field and has had experience in Islamic countries. Dangerous weapons are being stockpiled in readiness for hell to break loose. Only the terrorists know what's being planned, but individuals selected for martyrdom see only their part in the program. No one knows the full story. No one can comprehend what's being planned. Not the CIA. Not the US Navy.

On Mauritius, Nicolette Lamoreux, a Franco-Indian hotelier, is trying to expand her modest hotel empire and operate her drug business at the same time. Her bartender stumbles on the building arsenalÑand dies. The grand vision for the impending calamity comes from Osama, and he takes instructions directly from God. Only...sometimes the communication is confusing. And sometimes, it appears that God might change direction after the train is on the track.

Osama takes direction from Allah. Lance draws support from Tennyson. Amy looks to a dead Japanese microbiologist for inspiration. Niki gets help from bhang. On unsuspecting Mauritius, waves are lapping gently at the beaches.

Walt Roberts, newly-appointed professor of Central Asian Studies, is about to embark on another trip to China, but this time, the focus will be on not only the Silk Road but also include the eastern portion of the web of trading routes. What will he, Tara, his girlfriend, and his group of six students encounter along the way? The Ten Thousand Things is the story of their journey.

Walt's mismatched group of amateur intelligence gatherers added a tiny fragment to the accumulating evidence of Chinese capabilities. His experience barely touches on this field which, increasingly, is in the daily news. But why say more?

The author, Brooks Tenney, a former engineer with Chance Vought Aircraft, GE, and Xerox, was Project Engineer for the Tektite Program (NASA, US Navy, Dept. of Interior). After designing an undersea habitat, he lived underwater for two weeks with an international team; later receiving the Navy's Meritourious Public Service Citation. Today he writes for a newspaper in upstate New York. His two recent novels are Killing Mauritius, describing fundamentalist terrorism, and New Silk Road, dealing with Central Asia's drug traffic.

Walt Roberts, newly-appointed professor of Central Asian Studies, is about to embark on another trip to China, but this time, the focus will be on not only the Silk Road but also include the eastern portion of the web of trading routes. What will he, Tara, his girlfriend, and his group of six students encounter along the way? The Ten Thousand Things is the story of their journey.

Walt's mismatched group of amateur intelligence gatherers added a tiny fragment to the accumulating evidence of Chinese capabilities. His experience barely touches on this field which, increasingly, is in the daily news. But why say more?

The author, Brooks Tenney, a former engineer with Chance Vought Aircraft, GE, and Xerox, was Project Engineer for the Tektite Program (NASA, US Navy, Dept. of Interior). After designing an undersea habitat, he lived underwater for two weeks with an international team; later receiving the Navy's Meritourious Public Service Citation. Today he writes for a newspaper in upstate New York. His two recent novels are Killing Mauritius, describing fundamentalist terrorism, and New Silk Road, dealing with Central Asia's drug traffic.

The ancient Silk Road - a web of trade routes - once linked Imperial China with the west; Rome and beyond. Today Toyota and Mitsubishi trucks carry heroin and weapons instead of silk. Across Central Asia multiple players pursue diverse objectives. Sociopathic Russian Mafia chief Arkady wants to recreate the lifestyle of Mongol chieftains. Val, his subordinate, wishes to create a drug network operating with the efficiency of UPS or FedEx. American college professor Walt, a trans-tibial amputee from fighting in Afghanistan, wants to excel in the field of Central Asian studies. His wife, Flo, wants to be married to a man with both original legs. Tara, Walt's graduate student, wants to seduce him and, if possible, make him love her. Mira, a Romanian whore, wants to be wanted. In Turkmenistan, President for Life, Saparmurat Niyazov, wants to become a legend and has written a book he hopes will rival the Qur'an, Bible or Mein Kampf. Central Asian Silk Road countries sit astride vast reserves of oil and gas. Every industrialized nation wants access to pipelines or shipping routes. Chinese oilman Wu wants a pipeline survey. Several U.S. agencies want to stop or disrupt the flow of heroin and opium. They'd like to learn how to intercept drugs in route. Landlocked Central Asian nations - former satellites of the USSR - have residual stocks of conventional weapons and WMD. Old routes that once carried silk, porcelain, religion, culture and language by camel, now transport drugs, weapons, slaves and smuggled goods - by truck and train. Walt, the academic, is persuaded to lead a team of bogus colleagues into Central Asia to uncover drug routes constructed by Russian Mafioso, who employ American business methods and Indian computer expertise. Welcome to the New Silk Road! Vast; and unpredictable!

In the failed East African state of Somalia, piracy has become a dominant factor in the economy. Bordering one of the world's busiest waterways—with steady traffic coming and going through the Suez Canal—Somalia's north shore, once famed as the “Incense Coast,” provides a dependable parade of suitable victims. Maritime nations have powerful naval contingents in the region; but, lacking legal justification for preemptive action, they are paralyzed and ineffective.

News media are hungry for stories and photographs of pirates, and Jitka Malecek, a freelance photographer with prior experience in East Africa, has a plan for obtaining them. Somalia acts as a magnet for her, drawing the aggressive young photographer inexorably into the action.

Commander Vance Morrisette of the U.S. Navy, a former SEAL, has worked in the region before. Morrisette is given a covert assignment to join a civilian security firm, providing protection against piracy. These contractors are constrained to employ nonlethal techniques against heavily armed pirates who have no such restrictions. Chafing under rules of engagement that handcuff law-abiding nations, Morrisette contemplates more violent alternatives. When Jitka Malecek disappears into lawless Somalia, he must take matters into his own hands and track her down before her time and luck run out.

In the failed East African state of Somalia, piracy has become a dominant factor in the economy. Bordering one of the world's busiest waterways—with steady traffic coming and going through the Suez Canal—Somalia's north shore, once famed as the “Incense Coast,” provides a dependable parade of suitable victims. Maritime nations have powerful naval contingents in the region; but, lacking legal justification for preemptive action, they are paralyzed and ineffective.

News media are hungry for stories and photographs of pirates, and Jitka Malecek, a freelance photographer with prior experience in East Africa, has a plan for obtaining them. Somalia acts as a magnet for her, drawing the aggressive young photographer inexorably into the action.

Commander Vance Morrisette of the U.S. Navy, a former SEAL, has worked in the region before. Morrisette is given a covert assignment to join a civilian security firm, providing protection against piracy. These contractors are constrained to employ nonlethal techniques against heavily armed pirates who have no such restrictions. Chafing under rules of engagement that handcuff law-abiding nations, Morrisette contemplates more violent alternatives. When Jitka Malecek disappears into lawless Somalia, he must take matters into his own hands and track her down before her time and luck run out.

A collection of short stories, intertwined with a few poetic bits, mainly with a psychological edge, the author being more interested in the mind-set of the characters than on "who-done-it", the author's main influences being Chekhov, Edgar Allan Poe and Guy De Maupassant.

This book is about a young detective and his cases that he is working on. Cases such as a missing person, a theft of expensive computer items, getting rid of a ghost, helping a man with a lost memory that had been beaten up, robbed, and put in a freight car unconscious and recovering smuggled diamonds.

His lady friend was hinting of marriage and the detective was always on guard.

They frequented a Chinese restaurant that pleased them. The owner, Chow Lee, was very accommodating.

The fortune cookies they got always had a hint to help solve the case the detective was working on.

Haunted Truth is a tragic and suspenseful story that explores the fragile boundaries between the living and the dead, telling the story of Annabelle, a seemingly average girl fated for an extraordinary purpose.

The story begins with Annabelle's seemingly common life circumstances: as a teenage girl, she feels that her parents do not spend enough time with her and that her sister Elizabeth dislikes her. The two girls spend very little time together, particularly as Elizabeth is absent for long periods and comes home only to sit at their computer for hours. This commonplace existence does not last long: on Annabelle's birthday, her parents and sister are killed in a tragic accident. Annabelle is left alone in their large Victorian house with only her adult friends, the Savages, to keep her company - that is, until Elizabeth comes to visit her one night and tells her that Annabelle must carry on Elizabeth's "chosen" task of helping ghosts to reach the afterlife by resolving the conflicts that keep them on earth.

With her large inheritance and home, Annabelle attempts to accommodate Joshua, a ghost who needs to figure out why he and his family died, in order to be at rest. Developing a close friendship, Annabelle and Joshua begin to uncover shocking secrets that affect both of them; it is Annabelle's parents' firm that brought about Joshua's death, as well as their own. With time running out and the firm hot on their trail, Annabelle realizes that she is fighting a cosmic battle of good and evil. However, at Joshua's family estate, Annabelle realizes the crucial clue that allows Annabelle to send Joshua and her parents to the afterlife.

Wilderness of Strangers is set in North America in 1975 and is the story of Beverly Dunbar, a 17-year-old girl from the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, of whom circumstances conspire to make a witness to the historical event that has become known as the 'Incident at Oglala' in which two FBI agents and an Indian man were killed in a tragic shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The Highlander, James Stewart, of Stevenson's story stands perhaps as an historical antecedent to the fate of Leonard Peltier who remains in prison today convicted for the murder of the two agents at Pine Ridge.

Beverly Dunbar's life is changed forever when she must come to terms with issues arising from the politics of domination, the notions of resistance, cultural identity, trust and friendship as she flees from the authorities in the company of Louis Leclair, an American Indian Movement activist; a friend and yet possible killer.

Scripture is the basis for this happy family story targeted for 5 to 10 year olds. The lifelike illustrations portray the ancient journey to Jerusalem compared with the present-day celebration of Palm Sunday. This story is good supplementary material for a religious education curriculum.

A Russian-born scientist working for a pharmacological laboratory in Montreal discovers, on his own time, a new molecule which he is sure represents a cure for cancer. As an employee of the laboratory he is not in a position to exploit his discovery for himself. Before he finds a way to do so he is murdered in cold blood by gunshot one night in the parking lot after leaving his office. Who murdered him and who eventually ends up owning the secret formula makes interesting and provocative reading. Will there be even more murders to protect the secret?

William (Billy) Barker is dying from terminal cancer of the jaw. Lying on his death bed he recalls his life, his family in March, Cambridgeshire, England, and his life as a canal man. Billy marries a widow with three children, who cheats on him. A daughter, Emma Eliza is born. The building of the railways fazes out the canal business, and Billy leaves home for New York.

There he works on the building of railroads until the start of the California gold rush. Waiting for the chuck wagon to feed them Billy starts chewing tobacco. While seeking passage to San Francisco Billy meets John Butson, a young Cornish adventurer who becomes a lifelong friend. At San Francisco these two team up with Joseph Hernandes, a Mexican gold miner who has a donkey. The Mexican teaches them to pan for gold. They travel inland and eventually find gold.

Billy takes a trip back to England, and finds that both his wife and his mother have died, and his only child, Emma, is living in a poor house. Billy returns to California and works for some time with John Butson in a hard rock gold mine near West Point, California. When the gold runs out Billy and John leave for Fraser's River in British Columbia. Eventually they reach Lillooet, where they stake claims with other miners on Canada Bar.

Unfortunately political interference stops them from mining, and Billy's partners desert him. Billy travels to Williams Creek, in the Cariboo, where he stakes claims on the lower end of the creek. While other miners are finding lots of gold, Billy's claims are disappointing. Ned Stout, who has claims on a branch of Williams Creek, persuades Billy to stake below the canyon on Williams Creek. At that time, regulations were such that miners were not allowed to have more than one claim on a creek, so Billy had to give up his first claim.

As it happened that claim, when it came in, proved to be the richest on the creek. Billy and his partners dug two shafts below the canyon, and almost ran out of money before fabulous amounts of gold were reached. Fortunately Billy was able to get a loan from Judge Begbie, which enabled him and his partners to reach pay dirt. Billy is a fabulously rich man, and while spending the winter in Victoria he meets and marries an English woman, Elizabeth Collyer.

Sadly Eliza only lives for two years, and Billy returns to mining in several areas of the Cariboo, including the Horsefly valley. Billy loses his fortune in random lending, and unprofitable business dealings. He ends up in the Old Man's Home in Victoria, where he dies in 1894.

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