Against All Odds

Liza’s journey in life continues through the eyes of the modern-day writer Ellie Fuller, and this second book of the series follows her return to America with her husband, Patrick, and children but no sooner are they on their way when disaster strikes and Liza’s life is threatened when she is considered a ‘Jonah’ by some members of the crew.

Many adventures occur on her journey but finally she reaches her beloved town of Benson. There are still highs and lows in her life and when she experiences a powerful vision of the future, she risks her marriage, her family and her freedom by acting on what she has seen.

Ellie Fuller also experiences that vision but she has yet to interpret its meaning, although she knows that what Liza saw and acted upon was so important that the risks that she took were justified.

Ellie also realises that Lord Jamie Edgeworth had played an important part in Liza’s life but the current Lord Edgeworth was being particularly uncooperative, as he expressed that he had no desire to delve into the past of someone whom he did not wish to consider as ever having had anything to do with his family. Ellie and her brother, Eddy, knew that they would have to face the wrath of Lord Edgeworth in order to get to the truth.

As the story continues, both Ellie and Eddy are captivated by Liza’s enthusiasm and they look forward to experiencing the next chapter of her life.

Forgotten America

Sensational work of literature. Eminent of its time. While turning each page, readers go on a riveting journey of the self. Every chapter is an adventure with characters that readers cannot help but to develop a paradoxical relationship with. A heartfelt piece the author created to shed light on how easily we forget that others’ problems may be our own problems.

One Week in 1952

The story is set in June 1952 and describes one week of action between Tom, 8 years old, and his Aunt Siobhan, 18 years old, who looks after him while his parents are forced to leave home. An unexpected event enables them to holiday in Kent, where exciting adventures befall them both. Throughout the book there is a surprising comparison between the way of life in the 1950s, much of it based on historical fact, and that of the modern-day world.

Pirate's Lair

Epic adventure on the high seas!

A young British aristocrat abandons his life of wealth and privilege in exchange for vengeance!

Michael d’ Argentan’s world is turned upside down when he learns about the brutal death of his beloved parents at the hands of the infamous Barbary Pirates! With a burning and passionate desire to avenge them he sets off on a desperate quest to search them out.

Along the way he joins the Bandaliers who are at war with the Barbaries. Honor, life and even love are at stake in his daring journey. A master swordsman, from one fight to another, nothing will stop him from fulfilling his mission.

The Barbary Pirates...the world’s most feared pirates of all time...UNTIL NOW!

The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer: Part One

The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer is my account of a secret that my bampy said must never be told except in time of dire emergency. Now is the time. I grew up in South East Wales in Penmaen near Oakdale in the Sirhowy Valley. Oakdale is a model village and it holds the most incredible secret that was wiped from the memory of all but a selected few. I am the latest of those few but now the secret must be revealed to maintain the integrity of a secret magical outpost named Abercwmzoo deep in the heart of the Sirhowy Valley from further development by Caerphilly County Borough Council. The story revolves around the amazing exploits of a very special young man who was born in Tuchola, Poland, on the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1900. He was born Tomas Tomaschevski, a farm boy who had a dream. In 1914, World War One broke out and he left the family farm to make his fortune in Moscow but fate took him to St Petersburg and involvement in the Russian Revolution. He fled to Wales in fear of his and his sweetheart’s lives with the help of some heroic characters and makes his home in Oakdale where he assumes the name of Thomas. This is the first part of his awesome life in Poland and Russia up to his arrival in Wales. Please enjoy it and help save Abercwmzoo and preserve the beauty of the Sirhowy Valley.

The Boy from Kalimpong

This story is about a boy who grew up in Kalimpong at an approximate distance on a straight line as the crow flies 100 miles (162 kms) towards southeast of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, amongst the Rong folks, Lepchas the autochthones, ‘Ronkup’, ‘Ronkum’, or ‘Rong’ people. Lepcha people designated as UN ancient tribe, native to the region; and their land ‘Mayel-Lyang’ once bordered further into Tibet, eastern Nepal, western Bhutan and as far south as Siliguri and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and some parts of Duars than it does today.

Kalimpong part of Lepcha culture was the ridge where Mary and Nigel played happily with unabated joy until his sister, Mary Maung Taung Lai’s early, untimely death and Nigel Kenchinz Lai’s journey to America because of the impact of the 1960 Sino-Indian border war. Many Chinese Indians were stranded, declared stateless, homeless and their inability to get jobs in India caused them to move abroad. Nigel was fortunate to receive four scholarships, four from American universities and one from Canada.

Some parts of the story are true and some portions of this book have been developed that closely parallel the real events experienced by the author. The author and his sister were fascinated with the dragon ‘Thunder and Lightning’, where clouds burst into flashing lightning followed by a big thunder storm every monsoon season. Mr. Karamkurung was their common thread for connection.

Chris Ahoy was born in Kalimpong in 1939. He started at St. Joseph Convent, Kalimpong all girls’ school, co-educational school at Dr. Graham’s Homes, Victoria Boys’ School, Kurseong, St. Xavier’s College Calcutta (Kolkata), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and University of California, Berkeley, California (UCB), where he received the coveted Regent’s Fellowship Award to complete his masters’ degree in nine months. Chris is a US citizen, served as Assistant Director and Campus Architect at UCB, Statewide Director for Systemwide of Higher Education in Alaska, Assistant Vice President Business and Finance and Director of Facilities Planning and Management at University of Nebraska central offices and finally Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning and Management at Iowa State University. Before retiring in 2010, his organization received the coveted State of Iowa, Iowa Recognition Performance Excellence (IRPE) 2009 Gold Award (State Baldrige Award). After retirement he continues to mentor and provide consulting in ‘Creating World-Class Organization’.

The Despair of Life

Abdul was born into a privileged family with the opportunity to live a prosperous and successful life. After the untimely death of his mother, he is forced to live with his uncle in the capital city to pursue his studies. He joins politics to fight a dictatorial military regime, motivated by his father's assassination. He is wrongly arrested, tortured and jailed. With the help of his family, Abdul manages to escape from jail and seizes the first opportunity to get out of the country. With the hope of finding a better life in Europe, he embarks on a perilous journey past eagle-eyed border control police officers, through desert, jungle, and sea. When he finally enters Europe, he discovers that it is not quite the idyll he had envisaged. The Despair of Life is a story rich in culture, steeped in political turmoil and obsessed with survival. Amadou Sidibe provides intriguing insights into the lives and journeys of those who risk their lives every day in search of the European dream.

The Sand's Final Serenade

The ways of the old world are dying. Cowboys, pirates and many other ways of making a living are slowly being phased out in favour of progress as the last edges of the varied, violent and often bizarre world of Terralong are being explored as the world grapples with itself in deciding how to progress.

On the tail end of the 19th century, the world is changing with technology seeping through every crevice of this world. However, the majority of its inhabitants remain stubborn in clinging to nostalgia and tradition.

Meanwhile, others try to change around them. Among them is a marshal on a final push to conquer all of Terralong, a soldier seeking revenge and an optimistic tribesman determined to unite his people before facing annihilation in the ways of his ancestors.

Everyone within this brave new world now faces their own personal quests as they try to embrace the world of change about to be presented to them. But will they succeed before the world leaves them behind?

For nothing stops The Sand’s Final Serenade.

The Southerly Curse (Before the Poet's Trap)

Adam Southerly, a young man who only realises the extent of his father's depravity after his parents are killed in a coaching accident, always knew his father was a tyrant, but did not realise the extent of his evil. With the help of his loyal manservant, Martin, Adam spends several years trying to right all the wrongs of his father, but the task becomes overwhelming. Adam is only a man and one man can only do so much. There are so many people waiting for him to fail, calling him the spawn of the Devil. He takes a wrong turn himself and finds he has reason to doubt his own sanity. Finally, he lets down the very people he wanted to protect but as he tells Martin, sometimes the people you least expect let you down.

The Wolves of the Radfan

War is not a pleasant business. People die, cut to ribbons by bullets, limbs blown off by mines and roadside bombs. Not just the soldiers, but the non-combatants: young women, the elderly and children. 1963 to 1967 saw Britain fighting in a hostile and arid country, trying to stem the expansion of communism in the Middle East. On the ground, the ordinary soldiers, infantry, gunners, engineers and armoured regiments did what the British soldier always does – getting on with the job come hell or high water! Bomber’s story is written from real-life experience. Although Bomber, the main character, is fictitious, he is based on a combination of many soldiers. Many of the events took place as described but with the storyteller’s licence when melting them together. The Wolves of the Radfan, the largest tribe that straddled the then-border between North and South Yemen, started the war and the British soldiers put paid to the Wolves in 1964, but then came the push by the communists from North Yemen and it was then the contest started in all the brutality that war produces. Many acts of great courage have not been mentioned in the book, especially in the period from 1963 to the end of 1964, perhaps someone else will write about that. Fact and fiction, fiction or fact? This is a story of a normal British infantryman who faced combat and it was nothing like he had ever imagined.

Unusual and Unquestionable Service

Having survived near disaster at the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro, Fin Ross continues his adventures with the Horse Artillery as the army advances into Spain, having to overcome the rugged mountain landscape, as well as an army of deserters. Heading for the battle of Vitoria, Fin works with his trusted friend Thomo to bring the guns to their allotted position against the advancing enemy and has to come to terms with his respected captain being falsely arrested whilst yet again facing the man who hates him more than any other…

Breaking the Flood

In Breaking the Flood, the first of four novels about the fall of Constantinople, Niccolo Gritti, a nineteen year-old scion of an aristocratic merchant dynasty in mid-15th century Venice, recounts his upbringing, his family’s impoverishment and his decision to take ship in a trading fleet to the eastern Mediterranean. Ambushed by corsairs, Niccolo is pressed as a galley slave. Soon, a fellow oarsman identifies himself as Demetrius Angelos, member of a distinguished military family in Constantinople. Demetrius is desperate to return there, threatened as his city is by the bellicose ruler of the Ottomans, Mehmet II. Eventually, the two young men escape the corsairs’ clutches and Niccolo decides to throw in his lot with Demetrius, journeying with him to the decayed Byzantine capital. At once, Bildungsroman and quest narrative, Breaking the Flood is both vivid and haunting, recreating a forgotten world with cinematic and at times hallucinatory clarity.