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by Michael J. Vaughn
A painful break-up/break-down chases high-tech marketing wiz Sandy
Lowiltry from her Silicon Valley home. She comes to rest on the Oregon
Coast, where she seeks solace in the opera-themed sanctuary of the
Hotel Bel Canto and the arms of a handsome eccentric who spends his
days combing the beach for sea glass.
Sandy soon learns what the
tourist ladies already know - it's easy to fall for Frosted Glass Man.
Besides great sex and alarmingly intricate campsite cuisine, Frosty
offers do-it-yourself mythologies that would melt even the coldest
heart. But will it be enough to quiet the whisper of ambition, the
voice inside Sandy's head that chides her for settling? Will she really
leave behind Silicon Valley for love in such a strange package?
Critical Reviews:
"A breezy, richly-textured romp through the inner circuitry of a postmodern heroine."
– Christina Waters, PhD, Metro Newspapers (San Jose)
"…a most unlikely tale of discovery and passion. …a shimmering fable, as delicate and whimsical as a handful of glass."
– Debra Bokur, Many Mountains Moving literary journal
by Marty Gallanter
A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS is a spiritual novel inspired by an
ancient Jewish legend that relates how God, throughout all of history,
has placed among us thirty-six righteous people... three dozen human
beings, each of whom "knows the divine will." Should humanity ever seek
to know the will of God, there are always thirty-six among us to help
us learn.
Suzanne Rosewell is a Wall Street lawyer, the youngest
female partner in the history of her prestigious firm. She's a strong,
driven woman with the will to succeed and a head start on her chosen
path. She knows what she wants and is willing to do whatever is
necessary to achieve her goals... until she meets Elias Garner, the
enigmatic black Jazz musician, who carries an ancient golden trumpet
and represents the even more furtive "Chairman" (whom we learn is "the
head of the most powerful corporation on earth").
Elias wants
Suzanne to set aside her career and take on the task of finding "five
missing righteous people." Through a series of mystical happenings and
strange coincidences, all of which seem to involve Elias, Suzanne
decides to accept the quest, starting an odd journey that takes her
from New York City, to the Black Hills of South Dakota, to a holy
Native American shrine, and back to New York again.
Suzanne is
not without opposition. Elizabeth Luckholt, a woman described by Elias
as his "opposite" in the great unnamed corporation, is determined to
stop Suzanne.
Elizabeth sits at the left hand of the Chairman and has a
vested interest in seeing Suzanne's search fail. And Elizabeth has the
power to muster considerable resources in pursuit of this goal. All of
this is set against a deadline for success set by the Chairman himself.
Without 36 names on the list, it appears that the world itself cannot
exist beyond the sunrise.
Critical Reviews:
A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS is an extraordinary read by a fabulously talented author. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
– Bev Haynes, Running River Reader, February 2000.
Gallanter
does a wonderful job taking the basic good vs. evil plot and giving it
the complexity to resonate with today's audience.
– Jan Kozlowski, Inscriptions
by Michael J. Vaughn
Fifty-year-old Bill Harness is on a strange but
seemingly benign journey, rambling across the country in an old Pontiac and anonymously
leaving large checks with promising young opera singers. His fuel, however, is sorrow, and it isn’t
until he arrives on a small island outside of Seattle and befriends Gabriella Compton, a
phenomenally talented soprano, that he is able to address the three great
tragedies of his vocally gifted family.
Critical Reviews:
Michael Vaughn has composed a literary opera that combines love,
tragedy and music into a memorable tale of talent and artistry.
– BookPage, Review by Gregory Harris, December 2000
“Michael J. Vaughn has turned out
a beautiful, lyrical novel. I was caught
up in the narrative within three sentences and was held spellbound by the story
until the end. It is as captivating as a
well-performed La Boheme, as tragic and triumphant as Tosca.”
– Ani Harrison, Tacoma Reporter
“By turns rousing, lyrical and intoxicating, Gabriella’s Voice is the work of a
virtuoso.”
– Calder Lowe, The Montserrat Review
“Vaughn performs the… task of invoking sounds from the
silence of words on paper. Arias whirl
from the pages… a treat for the ear as well as the mind.”
– Gregory Harris, BookPage
by Jacqueline Druga-Marchetti
To divert attention from its priesthood pedophilia scandals, the
Vatican allows Doctor Marcus Leon to extract DNA from blood trapped in
the Shroud of Turin. Dr. Leon then ignites a firestorm of controversy
by announcing his plan to clone the image upon the Shroud – that of the
man known by history as Jesus of Nazareth.
The experiment is a
success and the masses turn to embrace the clone as the encapsulation
of Christ, failing to recognize that science can replicate the body but
cannot touch the soul.
Devoid of this essential spirit, the
clone is nothing more than a directionless vessel in need of a captain
– a position quickly assumed by the Anti-Christ, whose strength grows
as the geographically fragmented gatherings of "non-believers" are
killed.
Can Dr. Leon marshal the forces in time to save the world? Can the Anti-Christ be stopped?
Critical Reviews:
Rick Mohr for the Midwest Book Review: The Second Coming of Jesus is a hot topic in
the media…. [with] a plethora of… theologians and psychics… telling us… [that]
any second now the clouds will part, and Christ will appear… in… his Heavenly
Glory. Or maybe not. Maybe, as theorized in the incredible novel The Shroud by
Jacqueline Druga-Marchetti, the Second Coming will take place in a laboratory
and the only Angels will be scientists in lab coats.
…
This is a powerful book, written by a master of storytelling. The characters
that inhabit the world created by Ms. Druga-Marchetti are as real as anyone I
actually know. Her pacing makes for a true page-turner of the highest level,
making this a book that is next to impossible to set down. …
From the eye-catching cover… to the last period on the
last page, this book held me captive as few ever have. I found out this is the
first in… an ongoing series, [and] I will be there for each and every one. This
has… the potential to be… as big as the Left Behind series, and if there is any
justice in the book buying community, it will be. This is a story that you
can't just read; it won't let you – it makes you feel and think, and how much
more can you ask for? Buy this book; it's that simple.
by Jacqueline Druga-Marchetti
Led by Michael the Archangel, Dr. Leon must now build an army to defeat
his greatest achievement and biggest mistake. Eternal damnation awaits
him and the rest of humanity if his army fails.
by William Schmalfeldt
With the Vice President's recent death and President DeWitt's health
worsening by the day, the precarious balance of power between the
Democratic President and a Republican-controlled Congress has moved to
the right. Albert Wantner, the politically shrewd Speaker of the House,
will ascend to the Presidency if the ill and elderly President dies
before a new "veep" is appointed. For this reason, Wantner plans to
delay Congressional approval of any candidate, and the President
realizes that he must choose a person so politically pure that the
public will clamor for his confirmation and punish Wantner for any
delay.
Enter Roberto Huerta, a disillusioned first-term, Democtratic
congressman from Texas, who recently became American's newest celebrity
by rescuing a woman from an assault by Washington street thugs. After
some soul searching, Huerta accepts the President's offer, and a bitter
- but ultimately successful - bid for Congressional approval takes
place. Soon after Huerta is sworn in, the President drops a bombshell
in a speech to a joint session of Congress, leaving a frightened and
somewhat astonished Huerta struggling to establish a Capra-esque
executive branch that is truly directed ..".by the people...."
by Dr. Lisa Rene Reynolds
For the first time ever, we are able to glimpse behind the cloak of
clergy privilege, to finally hear from the priests themselves on the
pedophilia scandals that have rocked the hierarchy of the Catholic
Church. Renowned family therapist and counselor Lisa R. Reynolds, PhD,
poses the questions we’ve all wanted to ask but were scared to - topics
ranging from isolation and loneliness to masturbation and sexuality.
With an introduction by best-selling author and priest Andrew Greeley,
this book discusses the reality of daily life in the priesthood and
presents an even-handed collection of the personal thoughts and
reflections of practicing priests.
Critical Reviews:
A one-of-a-kind...treasure trove of clerical reflections.
– Father Patrick Bascio, PhD
[A] remarkably candid snapshot of ordinary priests coping with post-scandal suspicions....
– Father Lawrence Boadt, C.S.P.
[A]n important contribution to understanding the priesthood at this troubled time
– Father Andrew Greeley, PhD
by Michael J. Vaughn
Tommy Folgett's life is littered with disappointments: a broken
marriage, alcoholism, and squandered artistic talent. But he did create
one hell of a softball team. Under Tommy's tutelage, this hodge-podge
of characters has lived out ten years of victories and defeats, joys
and squabbles, on Friday nights at the Double River softball complex.
They have, in fact, become a family.
When a broken relationship
sends Tommy back to the bottle, the self-abuse spills over to his
housemate and shortstop, Honus. Tommy's envy of Honus's writing career,
and the campaign of subtle sabotage that follows, threatens to destroy
his one great achievement: the legendary Barons.
by Michael J. Vaughn
Shawn Turk flees his bible-thumping hometown girlfriend only to fall
for a Christian girl named after his new city. But this girl is
different - she writes her own rules, and her beliefs don't preclude
adventurous sex and agnostic boyfriends. So why is Shawn walking across
the Tacoma Narrows Bridge at midnight, holding a copy of The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe? And who was that possessed creature at his door
that evening, trying to pull a foxhole conversion?
by Michael Kelleher
In the late sixties, a serial killer calling himself the Zodiac
terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area, committing brutal, random
attacks, and bragging about them in letters to the San Francisco
Chronicle.
In Santa Rosa, fifty miles to the north, investigators
Manny Bruin and Mick Millian were asked to tail potential suspect Byron
Avion, an odd, portly man admittedly obsessed with the Zodiac. He had
other eccentricities as well, not the least of which was his large
collection of cardboard boxes, carefully stacked and tied shut with
white nylon rope.
But peculiar habits do not a criminal make –
that is, not until the bodies of young female hitchhikers began
appearing in ditches, tied up with white nylon rope. That and a dozen
other connections convinced Bruin and Millian that Avion was the
Highway 101 Murderer, a Zodiac-style killer who prowled the Santa Rosa
area.
Despite the connections, a decade-long investigation was
unable to connect Avion to the crimes, or connect Zodiac to the
northern murders. Bruin and Millian eventually became so frustrated
that they dubbed Avion "Suspect Zero," and hoped for something to break
the case open. When that break finally came, it re-wrote the book on
homicide investigations and forever changed the direction of each man’s
life.
by Michael Kelleher
These are terrible times for Lieutenant Chris
Spell, once acclaimed as San Francisco's
premier homicide investigator. At the heart of his beat, the City's chaotic
Mission District, women are being systematically murdered, their bodies
mutilated and dumped on neighborhood doorsteps. Spell is unable to stop the
carnage.
Understaffed, desperate, and beleaguered by the
press, the Lieutenant quickly assembles a rag-tag task force to take on the
investigation. He recruits the station's forensic psychologist, borrows an old
friend and fellow investigator from a neighboring District, and convinces a
young, inexperienced beat-cop to join his team. But the killings continue.
Cryptic threats are issued to the press and to
Spell's task force. Then, in a stunning act of mayhem, the killer kidnaps the
youngest member of the team, a woman with an uncanny resemblance to the half
dozen victims he's already claimed.
Out of options and out of time, Spell formulates
a plan to get her back and bring the killer down, but the plan might require
the life of a second team member. Worse, Spell's prey has already made a last,
shocking plan of his own - one his pursuers hadn't considered.
In a final confrontation, orchestrated by the serial
killer himself, Spell's world collapses when he learns the killer's motivation
and realizes the answers were within his grasp from the very beginning.
by Lionel Rolfe
Devastated that his wife and writing partner of 25 years left him on
the eve of the new millennium, Lionel Rolfe set pen to paper in an
attempt to make sense of the dance between men and women. But, as he
began writing, a deeper understanding took hold – the Grim Reaper
stopped by. And not just once, but again and again. The deaths of Carl
Kessler, the unrepentant Stalinist and trade union organizer, and
Nieson Himmel, a close friend and veteran nighttime police reporter for
the Los Angeles Times, hit him hard. But it was the death of Rolfe's
uncle, the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, that turned his life upside
down. In the end, the emotional ordeal was a blessing in disguise.
After all, without it, the world would not have DEATH AND REDEMPTION IN
LONDON & L.A. – an engrossing tale of one man’s search for
redemption in the only place it has ever been found… within the soul.
Come along with the author as he strives to deal with a life half-lived
and dreams perpetually deferred. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. But most of
all, you’ll see the world through the eyes of a man truly in touch with
his sensibilities; a man who’ll change your worldview forever.
Critical Reviews:
Publisher’s Weekly: Journalist,
bohemian and left-wing thinker Rolfe (Fat Man on the Left;InSearch of Literary L.A.,etc.) offers his musings during 1999 against the
vastly different cultural settings of London and
Los Angeles. He
begins with his earliest memories of his famous uncle, the distinguished
violinist Yehudi Menuhin (especially his interpretation of Beethoven's Kreutzer
Sonata). After attending the high-profile memorial service given his uncle at Westminster
Abbey in June 1999, Rolfe experiences a series of deaths, or separations and
endings, that form the thread with which he ties together, albeit loosely, the
disparate elements of his autobiographical tale. First his good friend Nieson,
a police beat reporter, dies a few days after Menuhin, followed by the death of
Rolfe's ex-roommate Carl, whom Rolfe portrays in sharp, unforgiving contrast to
Nieson. Then Rolfe's wife leaves him. Rolfe goes on to describe his bizarre
(nonsexual) encounters with three different L.A. women (a street person, a lesbian and an
artist). And then there are Marianne, with whom he breaks his "two-year
hiatus of celibacy," and Lilly, who teaches Rolfe "that the immutable
things in the new Millennium will remain unchanged." (In other words,
there will always be a violinist somewhere playing the Kreutzer Sonata.) There
are lyric moments in this book that are poignant and insightful....
by Gabrielle Elise
This book contains a collection of short stories and fantasies for both
men and women to either enjoy separately or together. I hope that you
enjoy reading them as much as I did writing them.
by Gabrielle Elise
TEMPTATION is a collection of short stories about sex, sex and more
sex. The body is such a wild and exciting place, and sex is our
opportunity to explore it. These stories will take you to a place
you've always fantasized of going... or, if you are really lucky,
remind you of a place you've already been.
by: Timothy Gager
This collection of short takes features a gaggle of dysfunctional
characters with a penchant for booze, sex and drugs. A competent
wordsmith, Gager has afforded us an unrelenting look at the seamy side
of city life. We stare in fascination at these characters as we would a
particularly repulsive lifeform that might appear when we turn over a
large rock.
by Fr. Patrick Bascio
Mary Nichols, a beautiful young FBI agent, begins to have flashbacks to
an event from her childhood. The flashbacks intensify after visiting
her uncle's newly purchased home, the site of a murder 25 years ago.
Privately, she begins to investigate. The local priest, Father Leo,
becomes her primary suspect. Her flashbacks continue, each one bringing
her closer to the killer's identity. But, all the while, unknown to
Mary, the prominent psychiatrist from whom she's sought help, has been
seeing many of the community's prominent members as patients, including
Father Leo. Treachery, deceit and the pain of memories suppressed by
sheer will drive this tumultuous murder mystery. Who's the guilty one?
The banks of the famous Charles River holds the answer. But will Mary
find it before he finds her?
by John Ouellet
Edgar Rittenauer, a floundering, unemployed laborer is cajoled by his
younger brother into joining the Michigan Militia, a ragtag group
assembled under the command of Pete Adler, a wealthy, charismatic real
estate developer and all-around extremist.
Looking for
thoughtful political dialogue, Edgar is instead introduced to the
mindless banter of conspiracy radicals, the tactical buffoonery of
has-been weekend warriors, and the sadistic Sergeant Avery Stone.
Amidst the testosterone madness Edgar meets and falls for First
Sergeant Pam Trombley, a petite, fiery gal with whom he stumbles onto
Operation Trenton ─ a clandestine, multi-state militia endeavor plotted
to awaken America to its post 9/11 threats.
When Brigade
Commander Adler learns of their discovery, Sergeant Stone is sent to
silence the pair. Pam falls victim, but Edgar escapes, desperate to
find the operation’s order before the militia’s dark forces strike.
