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A sociopath managing an aged care facility: What could go wrong?

Precocious and pretty Maxine Gilbert is a clever and talented nine-year-old, adored by a doting father. She is also cruel, sadistic and without remorse, delighting in manipulating others and torturing small animals. When her mother is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, Maxine is disgusted, not just by her mother’s disability, but by the inconvenience it brings. Watching a nurse care for her mother, Maxine learns that nurses can hurt or heal. Maxine decides to be a nurse when she grows up.

Forty years on, after countless complaints against her nursing in various clinical care settings, Maxine scams a job as Managing Director of an aged care facility, Treetops, and the residents are in for a rough time.

Under Maxine’s management, physical and medical restraint of residents is encouraged, and neglect, poor hygiene, and restrictions of residents’ liberty, nourishment and medical support are exhorted. Frightened, depressed, and malnourished residents are left isolated, locked away, and laying in their own waste. They develop excruciating infections, suffer illness, and even die. Maxine faces rising antagonism from Treetops’ residents, and their friends and family. 

A new carer at Treetops, Seleena, who recently escaped an abusive marriage, cannot stay silent. Along with warning residents, and others, Seleena writes a letter of complaint. After finding a suspicious lump in her breast, could Maxine, who always hated illness and vulnerability in others, finally learn compassion? Or will she continue her ruthless ways?

Olivia Taylor Fashion Dreams

Olivia Taylor, a stylish and creative genius, has a serendipitous and life-changing opportunity while navigating the convoluted world of haute couture. The 35-year-old British designer embarks on a career in fashion, which she discovers, she is ‘tailormade’ for. The dream job versus ruthless reality. Glamour versus drama. And to escort her through the conflict and cutthroat competition on this roller coaster journey, she depends on the loyal support of her precious friends and loving dog, Duke.

Olivia is surprised and immediately curious when she stumbles across a miniature version of her namesake, a young orphan, nicknamed ‘Liv’. The little girl is captivating, with her lookalike features and natural charm. But something is about to turn her own world upside down in the realm of both work and romance. Olivia, through no design of her own, meets the handsome and mysterious Damien, which forces her to reconsider her notions of love. Will her whirlwind lifestyle even allow her to explore the possibility of a committed relationship? Only time and fate will tell.

Her innate spirituality and sensitivity, coupled with her uncompromising self-belief will stand her in good stead, in pursuing her true calling in life. Adhering to those strong instincts, Olivia is able to seamlessly shift gears along the path of destiny and arrive at the best decision she has ever made, regardless of the extent to which her project threatens to tie her up in knots…

One Chance

The story revolves round a girl named June, her everyday ups and downs, her romance and how tragedy changed her life forever. June, raised from a very young age by her grandparents, lived a sheltered life, abandoned by her mother, who had tried to make contact down through the years, only to be ignored by June’s grandmother, who had held a grudge from days gone by. Meeting Matt brought her such joy, the seas that brought them together would one day divide them. Exhilarating joy…only to end in tragedy. Why didn’t she grasp her opportunity with both hands? What was it that was holding her in this place?

One Mind Two Hearts

Life can take you to amazing places, it can take you to sad and lonely places, but love always brings you home. Follow your heart, your dreams, never dwell on failure and sadness. Your inner strength will guide you on the right path and you will never be alone.

One of Us

Police officer Ava’s world is turned upside down when she is forced to face her feelings for Kate at a school reunion. Simultaneously, one murder after another pulls her back home to assist in solving a case involving her team members.

Ava experiences an internal struggle as she attempts to rekindle a lifelong yearning for a relationship with Kate. Whilst her profession requires her attention as Forensic Psychologist to find a killer.

One gruesome murder after the other forces her to find the commonality, and the only link she can identify… is Kate.

Will she be able to win over the heart she thought was lost to her forever? Will her work bring the relationship to an end before it has even started? And will she survive long enough to even have a chance at love?

One Year on My Hundred

In the vibrancy of nature’s year, the author dances through fields of flowers in his wondrous relationship, ever-thinking to be married. Smiles and fast pace leave little time to pause and to just be. After the death of his father, he realises that the very things that make him so happy have become scars to his thoughts.

His mind’s comfort zone throughout is under the protective canopy of the trees. Every day, the changing skies affect his well-being, and by looking upwards, he wonders of the liberty of flying and what lies beyond. Maybe there is a heaven.

Set to the backdrop of Hazlemere and the Buckinghamshire landscape, the book allows the reader to realise the beauty of life; however, each person needs an angel, whether religious or not.

While in Barbados, he walks happily on beaches, yet the sands hold the sadness of the death.

Sewn through the pages are ribbons that are his show of emotion and pride.

This is a book where each poetic piece is complete in its own right but it needs to be read from page one to the end to appreciate how the common themes pass through.

Orvil: Trial and Error

Orvil sits alone in a diner to celebrate his 21^st birthday. He feels lonely and abandoned...his new girlfriend just dumped him and his mother recently died. He has no idea who his father is. He hates his first name, lives in a rundown trailer, had sacrificed his studies at City College to care for his ailing parent, and drives trucks just to scrape by. Totally lost since his mother’s death, his free time revolves around eating junk food and chugging beers in front of the tube. As he’s feeling sorry for himself, he perceives a gunman entering the diner and firing his AR-15 at everyone in sight. This experience forever changes Orvil’s life. Powerful and insightful, humourous and tragic, through trial and error, Orvil Smith’s story takes us on a tour of modern America from the rural to the urban, from the poor to the rich, and from the righteous to the corrupt.

Oteng's Poems: Files of Wisdom Dialogue

Oteng's Poems: Files of Wisdom Dialogue; a collection of poems penned in a vibrant notion of an intuitive poet in an intrinsic verse... Conspired to inspire every reader to find solace in all emotional moments and events - only poems can do.

These wise words of wisdom are a mirror to reflect and a chance to resonate to all the inner thoughts and feelings within, relating to general life ordeals and experiences as well as nature as a whole.

Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Cunningly, and little by little, Iago begins to undermine Othello’s faith in Desdemona’s fidelity whilst appearing to be reluctant to say anything at all…

“So, speak to me your feelings, the good as well as bad.”

“Oh my Lord,” replied Iago, “such an order makes me sad,

For although in acts of duty, in every way I’m bound,

As a man who’s free, I am not bound, to give my thinking sound.”

“Why, say my thoughts were vile and false…as thoughts can oft times be,

What if I were mistaken Sir, would you then take note of me?

Why then build a troubled mind, with what is vague…unsure?

It would not serve your interest so…do not press me, I implore.”

“My interest?” Othello asked, “What is it that you mean?” 

“I’ll explain Sir,” said Iago, “let me set for you…a scene.

Steal the purse of a man or woman, very little have they lost,

But, steal from them their good name…and they cannot count the cost.”

Ottilie Rose, A Collection of Poems

This book is many things but firstly it is heartfelt. It is about a father, a human observing life in every way it presents, through his personal struggles and the struggles of the world. The many big questions posed are underlined by the hope that the world can be a better place for his young daughter for whom this book is titled and all the children of the world and the future. Many books will be written about this world, its challenges, and its complexities. Ottilie Rose attempts to wade through all that through poetry such that through the artistic exploration of the human condition we might discover something more beautiful about us.

Our Future Selves

Imagine waking up inside someone else’s body, and in a different century. What would you do? How would the new world around you react to you? This is what happens all the time to Zak Emblin, an editor from 21^st century Birmingham, UK, and Sarah Templeman, a prison service doctor from twenty second century New Palm Springs, USA, who are ‘reincarnaters’, connected across time by a shared soul.

Imagine you are a bright, young scientist, Carmen Fry, who stumbles across the truth behind reincarnation. All you need is a subject to prove your theory to the world, but you can’t find one. Until one day, when you are chatting online, you find Zak, and are immediately attracted to him.

This is the story of three people, caught in a love triangle, sharing a secret that no-one else will believe, that when we die we form a connection with a future self, who shares our reincarnated soul. A connection so strong that sometimes we can become that future person and they can become us. We can swap bodies across time.

Our Lost Boy

A tragic secret, a broken family, a lost boy – who was Edward, and what happened to him?

Life for Jen and her family, including 11 year old, autistic son Ned, hasn’t always been easy, but things are improving. Ned is thriving in the right school, and getting the support he needs to navigate his way through an alien and sometimes frightening world.

But Jen is troubled by something from her past. She’s haunted by a nightmare that has disturbed her since childhood, and she’s increasingly uneasy about her relationship with her cold, distant parents - what are they hiding from her?

‘Our Lost Boy’ follows Jen’s search for the truth, taking her back to her childhood home in Yorkshire where shocking memories are reawakened.

Jen and her mother, Maureen, have been pulled apart by a tragic secret, but when the truth is out can they mend their broken relationship? Can Jen forgive Maureen, and can Maureen forgive herself?

And what about Ned - can the 21^st century offer him, and others like him, the future that Edward was denied?