FICTION: Poolside at their motel, the Fab Four fell into conversation with a snappy-dressing local named Bert the Shirt, who listened as the band worked out a harmony to the most beautiful song he’d ever heard--and wouldn’t hear again for over half a century. FACT: That night, the Beatles played an unannounced free concert in the motel bar. Everyone was welcome. Local musicians showed up with guitars and keyboards, and had the once-in-a-lifetime experience of jamming with the Beatles till 4 am. This legendary event has forever after been known to Key West locals as THE PARADISE GIG.FICTION: Next day, hung over and exhausted, the Beatles left for the airport, having somehow lost a stained and battered notebook that held a priceless stash of unrecorded songs. NOW CUT TO THE PRESENT: A beautiful woman is doing a yoga headstand on a Key West beach when she’s abducted by a pair of thugs. An aspiring young singer is offered a recording deal that seems a bit too good to be true. Bad things happen to a couple of one-hit wonders…And old Bert hears a new song that is hauntingly familiar, but that he can’t quite place.Could it possibly be the same song he’d heard at poolside so many years before? Could it be that all the present mayhem circles back through the decades to THE PARADISE GIG? Could the precious, even sacred, Beatles notebook possibly turn up after all these years? Could Bert be the hero who would rediscover that stash of unheard songs for music lovers everywhere—and save a young singer’s life in the process? With Nacho, his intrepid Chihuahua, at his side, and with no one but bumbling detective Pete Amsterdam for an ally, the undaunted Bert the Shirt sets out through the Florida haze to piece it all together, learning along the way how much the world has changed—and how much it has not. In equal parts suspenseful and nostalgic, funny and romantic, this time-bending caper celebrates the power of music and the many tricks of memory, the joys of youth and the comforts of age, and the free and funky spirit of Key West.

     Book 1 - No Safe Place When Randi, a world-class, middle-distance runner, literally runs into Matt on an Olympic National Park trail, she believes she's found someone who can help heal her heart. But she learns Matt has secrets that threaten both her heart and her life. Matt is a prodigal trying to come home from the far country, but how much is he willing to give to restore his honor? No Safe Place is a clean, action-filled, romantic-suspense story that races from the scenic beaches of the Olympic National Park to the beauty of Lake Chelan in Central Washington State, a story of courage, honor, faith, forgiveness, and love. Book 2 - No True Justice They forced Gemma Saint into witness protection, not to protect her, but to silence her. After testifying in a high-profile case, Gemma, a young intern at an influential media outlet, is forced into WITSEC by corrupt DOJ officials hoping to silence her. When Gemma’s testimony at a retrial threatens their elaborate conspiracy to control the upcoming presidential election. Gemma learns from her WITSEC Inspector her identity was compromised and someone in the DOJ has sent a team to kill her. Gemma seeks help from Lex James, a young investigative journalist and offers him the biggest story of his career. But Lex was recently given custody of his deceased sister’s four-year-old twins, Josh and Caleb. Sparks fly when Lex and Gemma meet, and the boys see their mother in her. But can she endanger this fragile family? Should she run away, sacrificing her life and the course of her beloved country? Lex has difficult choices, too. But the highly gifted boys, Josh and Caleb, have their own opinion about what should happen, and it is not wise to underestimate four-year-old boys with 200 IQs. No True Justice is a clean, high-action, romantic-suspense story set among the breathtaking canyons and rivers around Lake Billy Chinook in Eastern Oregon. Book 3 - No Turning Back When, Drew West, a young man much like her dead father, offers Beth Sanchez protection, will trusting him bring another massacre, one that takes her life too? How can a young cowboy from Central Oregon protect her from the vengeful leader of a Drug Cartel who wants her dead? Drew has reasons for wanting to protect Beth, reasons that run deep, all the way to his heart and even deeper yet, to his soul. No one in his charge will ever be hurt again, no matter the cost. But can he convince Beth of that or will she opt for witness protection? Set near Big Bend National Park and in Central Oregon, near the Deschutes River, No Turning Back is a clean, high-action, romantic-suspense story about love, courage, and the futility of human vengeance.

    

    

    Soon after, Abby and her mother find themselves out on the streets in the bitter cold. But the heartache has only begun, and each Christmas brings cruel twists of fate that change Abby's life forever. The factory job Abby thought would save her sends her running for her life. When she can run no more and collapses on the street, she is taken in by Lucas, a man she wants to trust but can't. She accepts the job he offers, buying time until she can escape. But freedom costs Abby many things, and her heart cannot stop thinking of Lucas. As Abby accepts her hopeless plight in life, Christmas approaches, a time of deep sadness for Abby. But an unexpected meeting brings hope to Abby, if only briefly. Can Abby find happiness amidst all the sorrow in her life? What has become of Lucas, the only man who showed kindness to her?

    And when she meets the debonair Langley Makepeace, her dream seems within reach. But the price of belonging in Langley's brittle, sophisticated world could be much higher than Cissy ever imagined. Torn between Langley and her gentle childhood sweetheart, Eddie Bennet, she is forced to gamble on her future chance of happiness, a decision that will change her life forever...From the author of A Girl in Wartime and A Soldier’s Girl

    She’s Black. He’s white. They’re sister and brother… but they’re not. Will they ever be?Eliza Coldbrook, proud and privileged graduate of all-Black Atlanta University, hasn’t seen her white half-brother since the end of Reconstruction. When Matt returns to Atlanta, she refuses a reunion. She now lives in a progressive and prosperous new South. She doesn’t want to be reminded of the past that she and Matt share.Her half-brother Matthew Kaltenbach hasn’t lived in Georgia since he was seven years old. But he has vivid memories of the past, and he has unfinished business with it. He wants to rebuild a relationship with the man who is his father as well as Eliza’s. And he wants to reconcile with the half-sister he loved when they were children, but who has become a stranger since.Amanda Gardiner, born a slave in Georgia, now lives in an Atlanta reborn after the Civil War. But she doesn’t share in the bounty that is the New South. As a washerwoman, she’s underpaid and badly treated by her white employers. Until she decides to say no, and all the washerwomen of Atlanta join her in a strike…When the Black washerwomen of Atlanta go on strike, Eliza and Matt, Black half-sister and white half-brother, are both swept into their cause. Will the strike let them heal the wounds of the past—and forgive each other?