My Books

Salima Falls

Literary Fiction Novel (2017)

Sunlight Parted

Literary Fiction Novel (2015)

Distant Lands of Solitude

Poetry & Photography Collection (2006)

If you would like to have your quote on the website, please read Salima Falls and then send me a contact message with your information and the quote. I will choose the one I think fits the best for the book and website from all those received, and then post it on here. I will let you know.
– To Be Determined

“Sunlight Parted is an amazing love story without being sappy or too saccharin, it draws the reader in with high emotional stakes and an incredibly interesting take on life and death. I found it so meaningful, I got teary at the end! Books don’t usually affect me so directly, but this packs a heck of an emotional punch. Bravo!”
– Cara Lockwood (USA Today best-selling author of 10 books, professional editor)

“These photographs and verses are a welcoming chance and reminder to slow down and appreciate the small things that give meaning and purpose to life. Whether it is a drop of water collecting on a fallen leaf, or a couplet capturing the complexities of beauty, this book definitely gives us all something to enjoy and reflect on.”
– Karl Mayer (Book collector & avid reader)

Info & Details

Page Count	320 Pages
Word Count	88,987 Words
Chapters	42 Chapters
Publisher	Ingram Spark

Story Synopsis

After witnessing a tragedy that sends his life spiraling into darkness, Winston becomes obsessed with finding the man responsible for it all. On the one-year anniversary of that fateful day, in the midst of an anger-fueled search, he stumbles upon a quaint and surreal little town outside the city, called Salima Falls. This town becomes the setting for his slow climb out of despair and his attempt to escape the past that burdens him. However, when the truth about the day that changed his life a year earlier is finally revealed to him, his entire reality is forced into question. Will he be able to forgive? Will he finally find a light to break through the darkness of his heart? Will he know what is real? Will he believe in the things that the universe has shown him?

Writing Excerpt

Winston stared ahead and felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. He didn’t need to see the path to know it was there. He idled forward and eased the car off the road, through the tee and into the grass. When his bumper was only fifteen feet or so from the corn, he slowed to a stop and held his foot on the brake. He stared ahead of him at the wall of green and listened to Carter’s words replaying over and over in his head. “The universe will get you where you are supposed to be… You just have to believe…”

He felt the engine rumble as he held his foot on the brake and revved it up. The sound reverberated in his ears and the sun gleamed in his eye. You just have to believe… He closed his eyes and pictured Emma, sitting on her porch waiting for him. I believe. He didn’t know if she hated him or missed him, or even thought of him. He didn’t know if he could find her again, but he didn’t care. I believe. He had to try. He had to go to Salima Falls. I believe. He had to look into those eyes again…

He opened his eyes and stared one more time at the corn in front of him.

“I believe,” he said. Then he closed his eyes and slammed his foot on the gas.

Info & Details

Page Count	197 Pages
Word Count	61,385 Words
Chapters	21 Chapters
Publisher	Ingram Spark

Story Synopsis

Seth wakes up alone on a dark and supernatural beach. With no clothing and no memory of how he arrived, he looks around to find the beach deserted except for an ominous looking beach house. Unable to escape, and fighting his fears, he enters in search of answers.

Inside, he is mysteriously swept on an unknown, yet wonderful, glimpse of his future, where he meets and falls in Love with a girl named Sovannah.

As more and more glimpses of Sovannah unravel, Seth ventures further and further into his future, only to wake again and again in front of the ever-changing beach house.

Struggling to grasp the meaning of this strange new world, and fighting his increasing anger and lack of answers, Seth is desperate to learn the meaning of his situation and the life with Sovannah that is perpetually pulled away from him by some unseen force… before he runs out of time.

Writing Excerpt

He stood there, staring at the beach house in total silence, motionless, lost in the horrible idea that maybe this wasn’t a dream at all. That this was his reality, a reality he could never wake up from. Fittingly, the words to one of his favorite poems that he ever wrote crossed his mind. “Maybe I have walked these very shores before, but never as it now had seemed. And maybe life and death are simply doors, among the many hallways I have dreamed.”

His eyes were focused on the beach house. He took a step towards it but stopped. I… I can’t go in… He was torn between desire and fear. He knew what going back inside could mean. Another wonderful, yet fleeting glimpse of a life with Sovannah. Another day in the perfect Eden of her existence. Another dip in the sublime sea of their life together.

But it could also mean something else. Another pain-filled departure. Another torturous, yet futile struggle to hold onto the dream. Another startling and defeating return to this desolate place. Another undetermined period of time that would be lost to him forever. A gaping hole in his mind. A forgotten piece of himself.

Info & Details

Page Count	136 Pages
Sections	11 Sections
ISBN-13	9781425963767
Publisher	Authorhouse
Publication Date	11/28/06

Sample Poems

To see a sampling of the photos, please go to the photography page.

I Wish

I wish I had control
To take advantage of the days
To find the ocean of my soul
And ride a thousand different waves

I wish I had the valor
To release from this embrace
And put the words that I empower
In the actions that I chase

I wish I had the wisdom
Not to fear the things I learn
And for once to find the courage
Not to run from what I yearn

1/6/05

Of Dreams

Be this light the light of dreams
And none that shall compare
Ever fell among the beams
Or spoke unto the air

Be this day the day of dreams
And those yet to arrive
In silence or in faded screams
On this day will derive

Be this night the night of dreams
And all that passed before
Fall into forgotten seams
On far forsaken shores

Be this girl the girl of dreams
And time shall cease to be
Night and day and all extremes
Will halt at Love’s decree

1/31/05

Delusions Of Death

I found myself upon the sacred sands
Of time, and wondered how it came to be
That perfect was the world where I stand
And polished was the surface like the sea

No marks were left by all who trod before
No outline of a foot in sand depressed
So wondered I, perhaps a separate shore
Was waiting there for each of us in rest

And only when we perish do we find
That life and death are more than we suspect
And though apart, the two are intertwined
And we are just the place where they connect

And maybe time was crafted so ideal
To leave no mark of any man who dies
And living, just like dying, so surreal
That one is just the other in disguise

And maybe I have walked these very shores
Before, but never as it now had seemed
And maybe life and death are simply doors
Among the many hallways I have dreamed

3/01/03

Sample Quotes

“And now my greatest fear is to forget
Or even worse, to never even know
The wonders that are waiting for me yet
The places that my heart has yet to go”

“To leave it all for all untold
Or stay behind and make believe
That every dream I ever dreamt
Was never meant to be achieved”

“Staying ever close, no distant star
Has loneliness enough or distance far
To keep your presence hid, or memory
From dwelling inside everything I see”