Journeys Down a Long Dark Road
Standalone stories set in a shared world.
Just past the Philadelphia city limits there are a cluster of neighborhoods no one on the outside pays much attention to. It's a nice place to live, with ballfields and takeout joints around every corner. The people who've raised their families for generations in the rowhomes and brick houses teach their kids to work hard and keep out of trouble.
But some people aren't interested in staying out of trouble. There are fortunes to be made in the backstreets and shady barrooms, if you can stay alive long enough to get your hands on it. Many restless souls from this forgotten place have struck out from the safe path and traveled down a long, dark road.
Standalone stories set in a shared world.
Just past the Philadelphia city limits there are a cluster of neighborhoods no one on the outside pays much attention to. It's a nice place to live, with ballfields and takeout joints around every corner. The people who've raised their families for generations in the rowhomes and brick houses teach their kids to work hard and keep out of trouble.
But some people aren't interested in staying out of trouble. There are fortunes to be made in the backstreets and shady barrooms, if you can stay alive long enough to get your hands on it. Many restless souls from this forgotten place have struck out from the safe path and traveled down a long, dark road.
Chronology
Lost in Wildwood
The Devil's Run
The Dead Pond
Tina and the Big Bad Wolf
The Tarleton Way
Jocelyn's War (Simultaneous to The Tarleton Way)
Lost in Wildwood
The Devil's Run
The Dead Pond
Tina and the Big Bad Wolf
The Tarleton Way
Jocelyn's War (Simultaneous to The Tarleton Way)
Lost in Wildwood A Novel AVAILABLE ON AMAZON Joshua Keogh just robbed your home. The locked front door slowed him about as long as it will take you to read this paragraph. Your jewelry, silverware, small antiques, and the loose cash you were sure would be safe in the last page of the phone book on the floor of the pantry all fit snugly in his backpack. Right now, Joshua is trudging along the street two blocks from your house, appearing for all the world like a twenty-something suburbanite out for a jog. Now you are like everyone else in Joshua's life. He's passed you by, taking what he needs, without revealing any more than he needs to. His family, his business partners, even his precious few friends don't really know him. Joshua thought he was smart enough and tough enough to live this way forever, but then he met Julia. This kind, pretty but unassuming girl is bringing up feelings that Joshua thought were just for other people. Unfortunately, Julia's love for her long-time boyfriend is a far stronger obstacle than your front door was. If it's any consolation to your violated home, Joshua's troubles have only just begun. Nick, his childhood friend, has a different kind of job all lined up, an armed robbery that promises a richer reward than anything Joshua has ever done. When the plan goes wrong, Joshua is left fighting for his life just as he is learning to truly live for this first time. BUY NOW! ! ! Cover by Karri Klawiter. |

The Devil's Run
A Short Novel
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON- PART OF THE TINA AND THE BIG BAD WOLF COLLECTION
Gaetan was one of the kids that neighborhood parents warned their children to stay away from. He and his friends hung out in the woods by the little creek that cut through town, the one they called the Devil's Run. Away from prying eyes, they had the fun that only bad boys can know.
But Gaetan isn't a kid anymore. He's a veteran of a hundred shady deals, a gangster with skills you only learn from years on the streets. He should be off somewhere enjoying his easy money, but instead he's back in the old neighborhood. Of all the dark secrets in Gaetan's past, the one that may destroy him is the one that began when four friends went into the woods for some fun.
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(Photo Courtesy of Darla Hueske)
CCLC
A Short Novel
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON- PART OF THE TINA AND THE BIG BAD WOLF COLLECTION
Gaetan was one of the kids that neighborhood parents warned their children to stay away from. He and his friends hung out in the woods by the little creek that cut through town, the one they called the Devil's Run. Away from prying eyes, they had the fun that only bad boys can know.
But Gaetan isn't a kid anymore. He's a veteran of a hundred shady deals, a gangster with skills you only learn from years on the streets. He should be off somewhere enjoying his easy money, but instead he's back in the old neighborhood. Of all the dark secrets in Gaetan's past, the one that may destroy him is the one that began when four friends went into the woods for some fun.
BUY NOW! ! !
(Photo Courtesy of Darla Hueske)
CCLC
The Dead Pond
A Short Novel AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON- PART OF THE TINA AND THE BIG BAD WOLF COLLECTION A Sunny Day at the Beach Can Hide Dark Secrets Sunshine Sam's was the hottest joint on the Jersey Shore. The rich and powerful partied side by side with bus drivers and soda jerks, all of them moving to the outlaw music called “rock and roll.” While future legends blasted away on stage, every kind of delight was at hand on the dance floor for a few dollars or just the right kind of smile. To Marty, a poor kid from a farm town, Sunshine Sam's was more than just a playground. It was the only school he would ever need. Then one day, Sunshine Sam's closed it's doors. Nobody knew why. The most lucrative nightclub on the East Coast just folded up with not one breath of warning. Fifty years later, Marty has returned to the Jersey Shore. Now an old man, he is the only one left who knows the secrets of Sunshine Sam's. The spilled blood and broken dreams follow him around like ghosts. Gorgeous women. Jealous boyfriends. Mafia bosses. The skinny kid survived them all, and today is the day Marty tells the story. BUY NOW! ! ! Cover by Karri Klawiter |

Tina and the Big Bad Wolf
A Short Story
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON
Being a stripper didn't bother Tina. A job was a job, but when she realized she could make even more money by becoming a bookie on the side, she jumped at the chance. If she won, she got the money. If she lost, the customers would collect their winnings in the form of lap dances, which still left Tina with cash in hand. The scheme was perfect.
Except when the marks stopped paying. A five foot twenty-something woman in a g-string just wasn't intimidating enough to make the customers cough up the cash. So Tina turned to a gangster friend, who assigned one of his enforcers to help her out. This arrangement would have suited her, if not for the fact that the enforcer turns out to be Joshua, her ex-boyfriend, who resents her stripping job and doesn't respect her new bid for independence.
In one night, Tina and Joshua will try to collect on her debts without driving one another crazy. As complications mount, Tina makes two revelations. Her new business is not going to be the easy money she hoped, and she did not know her ex-lover as well as she thought.
Before they are done, Tina and Joshua will come to a confrontation that will change both their lives forever.
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Cover by Keri Knutson
A Short Story
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON
Being a stripper didn't bother Tina. A job was a job, but when she realized she could make even more money by becoming a bookie on the side, she jumped at the chance. If she won, she got the money. If she lost, the customers would collect their winnings in the form of lap dances, which still left Tina with cash in hand. The scheme was perfect.
Except when the marks stopped paying. A five foot twenty-something woman in a g-string just wasn't intimidating enough to make the customers cough up the cash. So Tina turned to a gangster friend, who assigned one of his enforcers to help her out. This arrangement would have suited her, if not for the fact that the enforcer turns out to be Joshua, her ex-boyfriend, who resents her stripping job and doesn't respect her new bid for independence.
In one night, Tina and Joshua will try to collect on her debts without driving one another crazy. As complications mount, Tina makes two revelations. Her new business is not going to be the easy money she hoped, and she did not know her ex-lover as well as she thought.
Before they are done, Tina and Joshua will come to a confrontation that will change both their lives forever.
BUY NOW! ! !
Cover by Keri Knutson
The Tarleton Way
A Short Story AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON AMAZON- PART OF THE TINA AND THE BIG BAD WOLF COLLECTION Alexander enjoys a tranquil retirement. He tends his garden, chats about his grandchildren, and watches the seasons change in the small forest outside his back door. That peace is incinerated when Alexander notices some strange occurrences. Odd people are going in and out of the park at all hours, driving big trucks and acting in ways Alexander doesn't understand. The disturbance is intolerable! To Alexander, the woods and the creek and the old swim club down the path are more than just something pleasant to look at through the window. They are the scene of his favorite memories, when his young family had their happiest days. They are also, Alexander hopes, a gift to the future of Tarleton, his struggling hometown. Action is called for. Alexander contacts everyone he can think of, especially people in authority. He thought nothing could cool his zeal for this new mission, until one day when Bobby knocks on his door. Once a kid from the neighborhood, Bobby has returned from an absence of almost forty years. Now a grown, even weathered man, Bobby assures Alexander that everything is fine. It's all being done “the Tarleton way,” under the code of conduct which Alexander and the old folks taught the kids when they were young. But Alexander is right to worry. In fact, the old man is about to learn that the park, and the past, contain more than he could ever guess. BUY NOW! ! ! Cover by Keri Knutson |

Jocelyn's War
A Novel
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
There’s a war in the streets. The vicious Ghost Knights biker gang, suddenly flush with cash and guns, is challenging the Mob for control of the city. No one is safe as bodies fall and houses go up in flames.
Danny Rinker is a young Mob soldier, but he’s keeping his distance from the fighting. Encouraged by Jocelyn, his new girlfriend, Danny spends his days in the local bar he finally owns after years of struggling. While his friends are out making names for themselves, Danny finds in the velvety touch of Jocelyn’s lips all the action he’ll ever need.
From a chance encounter, Danny learns a secret that goes to the heart of the Ghost Knights’ newfound power. If he can unravel a twenty-year-old mystery, Danny will be the one who takes the bikers down once and for all.
But Jocelyn is not all she appears. She knows things about this war that her lover can’t even imagine. Danny is about to discover that Jocelyn is a warrior, and even if it breaks her heart, she will carry on her fight to the end.
Approximately 150,000 words.
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Read the First Chapter.
Cover by Karri Klawiter
A Novel
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
There’s a war in the streets. The vicious Ghost Knights biker gang, suddenly flush with cash and guns, is challenging the Mob for control of the city. No one is safe as bodies fall and houses go up in flames.
Danny Rinker is a young Mob soldier, but he’s keeping his distance from the fighting. Encouraged by Jocelyn, his new girlfriend, Danny spends his days in the local bar he finally owns after years of struggling. While his friends are out making names for themselves, Danny finds in the velvety touch of Jocelyn’s lips all the action he’ll ever need.
From a chance encounter, Danny learns a secret that goes to the heart of the Ghost Knights’ newfound power. If he can unravel a twenty-year-old mystery, Danny will be the one who takes the bikers down once and for all.
But Jocelyn is not all she appears. She knows things about this war that her lover can’t even imagine. Danny is about to discover that Jocelyn is a warrior, and even if it breaks her heart, she will carry on her fight to the end.
Approximately 150,000 words.
BUY NOW! ! !
Read the First Chapter.
Cover by Karri Klawiter