While many of us grew up in a home with siblings and two loving parents, there are those, particularly in todays society, who grow up in single-parent homes. Charlie is a young boy being raised in a single-parent home who has questions about why his father does not live with him. His mother lovingly does the best she can to put his mind at ease by showing him he has an entire family that cares about him. My Friend Tommy Has a Daddy and a Mommy explains to children in an entertainingly poetic format that they are loved by both parents although there may only be one parent present in the home. I read the book to my grandsons and they asked me to read it again. They thought it was a happy story and I think so too. The book is still on my coffee table and my grandson, due to come in the door any minute, will go straight to the book and ask me to read it to him. We love it. Thank you for putting such an important message into such sweet words. Candida Whitaker Brown
No one knows where he came from. No one knows what he wants. No one dares ask about his strange physical abnormalities. For a quiet suburban neighborhood, things are about to change. And it starts with a knock at the door. Follow his rules. Don't call the police. Listen to his lessons. That's what Jack and his family were told. Held captive in their own house, they must face a growing storm of mental and physical trauma as they try to just stay alive. But even if Jack can survive the horror of his childhood, will his tormentor ever leave him alone? And who is he really? Who is Tommy Taffy?
Stanley Ely says that when the fiftieth or so person confronted him with a skeptical, "You mean you're Jewish, and you're from Texas?" he decided to do more than smile and say, "Yes." The result is this funny, caustic, and nostalgic tale in the tradition of popular regionally and ethnically focused memoirs. Around the beginning of this century, Ely's parents (as young children) and grandparents immigrated to Galveston, fleeing oppression as Jews in Russia and Romania. Their arrival sets Ely's memoir in motion. Combining the stories of the author's grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends and including an abundance of family photos, the book continues until today, as Ely faces his own senior years living in New York. Though the book is not a typical "coming out" story, the reader also learns of Ely's gradual and at times reluctant acceptance of himself as a gay man. The story of Ely's family and their friends reflects the impressive growth of Dallas and its Jewish population in the first half of this century. As he narrates the building of new lives in Texas, Ely also portrays the integration of a minority segment of Jewish immigrants in America outside the great cities of the North. Of himself, the author tells of growing up in Dallas within the security of an intensely Jewish society. Then he prepares for the moment of his first departure for college in the North, and he thinks of his mother's arrival from Russia as a girl of eight. Of his own first significant step away from Texas, he says his mother "probably knew--and later I also realized--that that was the eventual crossing of an ocean for me." By now, Ely has lived in Manhattan for four decades. Yet he finds himself telling friends, "I'm going home for Passover" as he prepares for another annual trip to Texas. Once there, he takes a fresh look and concludes that Texas Jews are different from those elsewhere: they have dual citizenship, in Judaism and in Texas.
A mysterious woman comes out of the wheat fields late one night to complicate the life of Chief Ranger Aldo Springer, recently banished to Fort Pawnee National Historical Site in central Kansas. She demands asylum and backs up her demand by threatening to jump from the highest point in the historical site—a crow’s nest halfway up the hundred-foot mast of the fort’s flag pole. Against his judgment, Springer conceals her from the security forces of the state hospital, from which she escaped, and risks everything he cherishes to pursue a murderer along a cold trail. “In this well-conceived and vivid manuscript, the charming Aldo Springer, Chief Park Ranger at Fort Pawnee National Historic Site in Kansas, is in the awkward position of providing cover for Amanda Lowenthal, a 28-year-old escapee from the Pawnee State Hospital for the criminally insane, who murdered her family when she was fourteen. This is a genuinely successful piece of storytelling and character development. It’s humorous and well-paced and structures plausible scenes of intensity and moments of tenderness.” —Publisher’s Weekly “Steve Sherwood's finely crafted No Asylum is about escape. Those who escape justice need to be imprisoned. Those in prisons, most often of their own making, need to escape. Aldo Springer, a National Park Service ranger, divorced, banished from his beloved Rocky Mountains to the Fort Pawnee National Historic site in Kansas, and loathed by his superintendent, lives without much hope. Serving time in this purgatory, a particularly hot summer in Kansas, he learns to act on his instincts, broaden his heart, take chances, and escape to the small slice of heaven he can create from truth, trust, and love.” —Thomas Fox Averill
Shape shifter Drake Martin has a problem. FBI agent Kady Hartley loves him. Both of him. She doesn't know that he and her pet, the eight pound Yorkshire terrier she named Precious, were one and the same. Kady's latest assignment further complicates the situation. Drake walks a tightrope between lover and beloved pet. During the adventure to New Orleans, he has her back, her heart, and her lap.
She was the one who got away. Slipped right through my fingers. My crush, my muse, my wife. When she asked for a divorce, I had no choice but to let her go, but my heart would never comply. Not even after the shocking revelation that rocked me to my core. I’ll never stop loving her, but I don’t know if I can ever forgive her. Seeing her again brings memories crashing to the surface, feelings I’d rather stay buried. Now I’m torn between the love we shared and the hate I’m desperate to feel for her. It would make everything so much easier. What happens when lightning strikes twice? I have no idea. But, we’re about to find out.
Does one's upbringing affect how their behavior can tilt one way or the other? Can one be traumatized by a part of their life to take the path of good or evil? This novel entails the story of how one can be led into either direction. Wyatt Wonder is the masked avenger, dubbed as the ski mask vigilante by his adversaries, who found his way into fighting the evils of his neighborhood by accident. The big test comes when he goes against the mob boss, Vince Bizarro, and his array of henchmen of Quickie, Concrete, Hands, and Silencer. It's an uphill battle when Bizarro is aided by two corrupt cops. To help Wyatt in his cause is Vivien Clark, the lost girl whose raw temperament can be seen as offensive by many. Both are at the crossroads of their life, with one losing his only known relative and the other trying to find affection and security.
I have decided to tell the story of my life. I intend to include information about my parents and my brother, and as I recall various events, I will include stories about other relatives and friends as well. We were an especially close family and our lives always revolved around one another. I believe this closeness was fostered by the love my parents had for each other, and they passed this love to each of us. In addition, Tommy and I were highly respected and encouraged by Mom and Dad all through their lives. They loved to take credit for all we achieved, as well they should have. We always did the best we could. But they gave us the chance and the backing we needed. Especially because Tommy and I were deeply loved by our parents, we gained confidence and assurance. We knew where we stood from the beginning. And we could always count on Mom and Dad for anything we needed. In addition, my parents deeply loved their families. They passed on this love to us through their close relationships with their brothers, sisters, cousins, and relatives in Italy and Romania, as well as their many friends. Family came first all through our lives. There may have been disagreements, but they were only occasional and the closeness returned. We were always thrilled to receive letters from the relatives overseas and the letters were read word for word to each other. I always felt part of the larger family, even though I did not understand the language. My mother interpreted for us, so we knew what was said and what the news was. Since my brother Tommy died so suddenly on November 14, 2003, I have felt a loss so deep I sometimes feel I can barely continue. The hurt never goes away. I want to share the reasons for my closeness to Tommy so our family and friends can better understand. For me, Tommy represented everything in life: my upbringing, my parents, and nearly all the things I experienced up to the present time. He was the one single family member to talk to who understood all of me. I never thought of life without Tommy. It has been a terrible blow, and of course I realize this is true for our family and friends, also. Further, since I have begun to think out what I want to write, I have expanded my goal to include additional stories and descriptions of our family, which will explain and bridge the generations of individuals who made up our lives. Perhaps other cousins and their children, and other friends, too, will be interested in my story. I hope to include pictures, letters, and other materials, which will be a history of our family to leave as my legacy to nieces and nephew and their children and to others. Even now, it is possible that only three great-grandchildren will remember my mother, their great-Grandma, GG. She loved them dearly, and I hope to leave them some wonderful memories and important information they can pass on to their children. I think they need to know where they came from down through our European roots and what our family was like. Otherwise, I am afraid all would be lost. Who will be left to tell our story? There are very few relatives left even now who remember. So, I have decided to try to tell this larger story in addition to describing my life. There are other persons who know some of my life's history, also, and as time permits, I will talk to them to add or correct information namely, Auntie Nina, Mom's sister, or her children; Jennie Ray, my first cousin and friend; and Octavia Lina Hirschmann, Mom's first cousin. Or Octavia's children, Carol Borthwaite (Colorado) or Fred Hirschmann (Alaska). In addition, my sister-in-law, Joann, will be of help as needed to give information about Tommy. Joann will have her story to tell also. As time passes, there are fewer and fewer people to ask about our history, and I hope to be as accurate as possible. Most everyone I have talked to about this project has been supportive. Several have even said that they too would like to leave some history for their families.
