A wounded musician shipped home from WWII finds his mother has died and his old Brooklyn neighborhood obliterated by a housing project. Always poor, he now wants to succeed as a jazz musician but he also wants money. He thinks the only path open to him is to rejoin his prewar friends and become a thief. One of those buddies, now a cop, makes the decision easy.

I BARGAINED WITH THE BRATVA--

MY BROTHER'S LIFE FOR MY OWN.



They offered me a deal: thirty nights for my brother's life.

Thirty nights...with him. Nikolai Novikov.

The charming but dangerous loanshark.



He's deceptively smooth. Sinfully handsome.

Addictive, even.



But it's only an illusion.



I vow to give him nothing more than I promised,

Yet he sees right through me.



When it comes to my heart, all bets are off...

And winner takes all.

In a quiet Sydney suburb, soon-to-be-married Sonny Day sets off on his bike to catch the train to work. He never makes it to the station. After his fiancée Chrys reports him missing, DI India Hargreaves launches a low-key investigation.

Weeks later, a man’s body is found, mutilated and buried, on a nearby building site, but it’s not Sonny, and with no solid leads, both investigations stall…until a letter arrives from Sonny, claiming he’s met someone else.

Chrys insists Sonny wrote it under duress. She convinces India to investigate further, beginning with the photograph that came with the letter and ending in Scotland and the discovery of more mysterious deaths. But two questions remain unanswered.

Whose body was buried on the building site? And where is Sonny Day?

Resilience, Grace and the Art of Showing Up  is an adventurous and uplifting book, sharing an astounding story of empowerment, driven by one woman’s determination to rise above the abuse and traumas that had impacted her. 



Through opening her mind to life and new possibilities of perceiving, rather than staying stuck in the pain, she discovered many insights on how to rebuild her self-esteem and live her deepest dreams.



This is an inspiring story of courage and determination about overcoming so many obstacles and traumas to finally creating a life full of love and fulfillment, where the seemingly impossible became possible.



Through gleaning life wisdoms from the cultures she encountered in her travels around the world and her observations of Nature Luannah made the shift from victim to victor. 



She enlightens the reader to explore the Power of Nature as a resource of wisdom and truth, as ally and healer, awakening us to our own innate resilience and capacity to re-create ourselves.



This book has the power & potential to change lives in beautiful and enriching ways. 

Review

Luannah Victoria Arana has penned a Heroine's Journey of adventures, trauma and profound healing. May all find this book deeply inspiring in their personal journey to wholeness." -Mare Cromwell, Author The Great Mother Bible & Messages From Mother Earth

"Resilience Grace and the Art of Showing Up is a courageous memoir and a source of hope that a wonderous life is possible on the other side of trauma and pain. It is a beautiful tale of overcoming trauma and stepping into an empowered version of yourself."-Maryse Cardin, Author Speaking to Yourself with Love: Transform Your Self Talk

"Luannah is an inspiring person, as is her story of the many layers of learning, healing and transformation she has experienced that she shares here. Resilience, Grace and the Art of Showing Upis a powerful message of encouragement to those who are on a path of personal growth." -Mahmud Nestman, Counsellor M.Ed, RCC, HT

"Resilience Grace and the Art of Showing Up is an expression of faith, fortitude and forgiveness. Luannah shares her experiences and adventures in life overcoming trauma. An honest and at times heart wrenching depiction of her tenacity and courage to reach the life lessons to become her true self. A truly gifted human has evolved who now enriches and empowers others through her energy and resurgence." -Andrea Davis, Author Survival Was Only The Beginning

" A Compelling Manuscript, full of emotional and physical abuse that has been overcome by a young woman's fortitude and willingness to learn from her experience. The author's adventures were amazing and powerful; readers will deeply admire her spirited attempts to come to an understanding about what-and why -things were happening to her. And they will root for her to overcome (which she did)."- Bill Worth, Editor

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A nation divided, a family torn apart, a love threatened, a dream of freedom...

Will Crump and his family want education, peace, and a better life. Set in Kentucky in 1859, their world comes apart as the Civil War destroys peace, family, and prospects. His two sisters, Albinia and Julia, awaken to the horrors of slavery, and work with the Underground Railroad. Albinia helps Luther, a slave from the Clay plantation, escape north into Ohio, beginning a complete change of life. Will risks his life, his love with Jenny, and estrangement from his family as they support the Union, and he fights with the Confederacy and John Hunt Morgan. https://www.dropbox.com/preview/WRITING/CoffeePot/BookoftheYearFinalist.png?context=search&role=personal" target="_self">https://www.dropbox.com/preview/WRITING/CoffeePot/BookoftheYearFinalist.png?context=search&role=personal" style="float:left; height:404px; width:404px" />

This dip into the magical years of 1960 and onwards in Paris and London with my friend Cyclops is an attempt to recapture, with as much detail as possible, those early bohemian Paris days, days highly favorable to creativity and those London days of economic abundance that allowed enterprising people to develop their individual talents. For Cy, those years broke the rule that working class men did not go into book dealing or open their own businesses. For me, with little cash and no family help, I managed to open a boutique, establish the first textile designs studio in London, and later in Paris, to become a fashion forecaster to the world's top fashion houses and printers. My memoir, Technicolor Dreamin' - In her own fashion, was published in 2018.

Born illegitimate in north east England in 1944, John Fahey was sent to his father's parents in western Ireland. John's parents later married and brought back to England when he was nine, he was continually beaten and battered by his father, who called him a bastard, throughout his teenage years. Surviving on his memories of Ireland, his trust in his Catholic faith, the help of kind people and relatives, and his love of chemistry, John went through major crises, feeling lost and alone in 1960s England and Scotland, he took on challenges, fought back against despair, and struggled with his sexual identity under legal intolerance. But determined to find a better life he went to university and finally to America.

This is a story of surviving against the odds.

The year is 2202, and the recently widowed Captain James Heron is appointed to stand by his next command, the starship NECS , while she is being built. He and his team soon discover that they are battling the Consortium, a shadowy corporate group that seeks to steal the specs for the ship’s new super weapon. The Consortium hires the Pantheon, a mysterious espionage agency, to do their dirty work as they lay plans to take down the Fleet and gain supreme power on an intergalactic scale. When Pantheon Agent Bast and her team kidnap Felicity Rowanberg, a Fleet agent and friend of the Captain, this clash of titans becomes personal. Bast is an expert in bio-disguise and evades several traps as Fleet Security close in. The Captain honors his oath to the Fleet and his growing love for Felicity, and takes decisive action to thwart the Pantheon and protect Felicity at all cost. When you read the explosive final pages of , you will be on the precipice of where Captain Heron’s story picks up in , when he comes face to face with his twelve times great uncle Harry, who lands on the deck of the in the year 2204 straight from a wooden wall sailing ship amid a sea battle with the French in 1804.

How many times did you feel that you are not living the life you were designed to live? How many times you got frustrated when you saw others following their calling and reaching their place of destiny?  

How many times have you lost your patience and trust in God and so forfeited your blessing? How many times you got caught in a cozy comfort zone and lost sight of the important things?

Life was never meant to be a daily survival routine.

You were not designed for an ordinary, frustration-filled life. You were created to thrive.

"Awaken Your Destiny" is a Christian, biblically rooted book meant to unlock your potential and set you out on the journey to your destiny.

Winner of 20 national book awards, SHOT DOWN is set within the framework of World War II in Europe and recounts the dramatic experiences of each member of a ten man B-17 bomber crew after their plane, piloted by the author's father, was knocked out of the sky by German fighters over the French/Belgium border on February 8,1944.

Some men died. Some were captured and became prisoners of war.  Some men evaded capture and were missing in action for months before making it back to England. Their individual stories and those of the courageous Belgian people who risked their lives to help them are all different and are all remarkable. 

Doug leaned slightly to the side and touched the knob to click on the radio. Scratchy sounds. He slowed the vehicle for a moment to adjust the stations knob. Nothing but interference. So much for AM. FM would be better. He flicked the selection knob.

But before he could tune in a station, he heard a knock on his car window.

What?

A knocking sound.

But where? He was going fifty-five.

Rear window. Back seat window. Something striking under the vehicle.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

To his right. The passenger window.

No one was riding with him, so who could be knocking on that window?

Again. Three loud knocks.

Look and see. Turn your head slightly to the right to see.

No. He could not. He froze.

Turn and look!

No. The chills erupted through his system like a flooding of ice water. Nerves electrified.

It was as if he had just been struck by lightning from somewhere beyond his viewing range.

Bam. Bam. Bam. From the edge of his vision, the corner of his right eye, he saw what looked like a shadow of a human being with glowing red eyes. But at this speed?

-

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This is a timely, heart-wrenching, beautiful true story. There are messages within this book's pages of hard-heartedness, forgiveness and redemption. This is a first-person account of an almost volcanic hatred so fierce it engulfed father and son for more than three decades. It's also about Who led them to a Higher Place with streams of Living Water to douse the fires of revenge. A Place where fathers and sons may find forgiveness and reconciliation.