One hundred and eighty-three years after biological warfare eradicated all but a trace of mankind, Beth Gooding graduates from basic training as a Cultural Anthropologist with a Linguist subcategory. For intermediate training, she is sent to Hope, a remote outpost near Old Boston. She is assigned to Professor David James and required to learn Old Persian, a language she considers useless in a society recovering from near extinction. Despite their age difference, romance develops as Beth and Dr. James endure austere lives typical of the early 1800’s frontier. Dr. James eventually introduces Beth to a three-million-year-old shard found by his father—an object that could not be duplicated with modern technology. In attempt to uncover the shard’s origin, David and Beth set out to explore the radioactive Kill Zone in Old World Syria. Through constant struggle to survive and many brushes with death, they come to realize life without the other wouldn’t be living at all. On returning to civilization, they reveal the shard led them further back in time than they could have imagined—and provides potential to move human kind further into the future than anyone dared dream.5.0 out of 5 starsLove and deep meaning in the storyAugust 26, 2017Format: Paperback|Verified PurchaseThis is an incredible novel with a profound message. About 200 years after biological warfare devastates mankind, population rebuilding and exploration lead to a discovery almost beyond imagination. There are no zombies; however, you'll find excitement, love, and deep meaning in the story.5.0 out of 5 starsA sci-fi adventure mixed with coming of age romanceJuly 13, 2016Format: PaperbackAftermath Horizon is a book that transcends to all ages. I would call this book a close match something like Twilight. If you never gave Twilight a chance either you should have. Books like this aren't chained to any specific genre. It's not just sci-fi, it's not just romance, it's all of the above. The way the author makes such a strong connection with his characters allows the reader to make that connection as well. You don't have to be a young teenaged girl to be able to connect with the main character Beth as she carves her path in life after a massive biological war that makes the Earth uninhabitable. You don't have to like sci-fi thrillers to become enveloped in this story that crosses through several generations. You will be hooked from the first chapter guaranteed.5.0 out of 5 starsJuly 13, 2016Format: PaperbackWhat a privilege to read this book!! It was one of the best, adventurous books I have read in a long time. I didn't want to put it down, I wanted to see what was going to happen at each turn. I can't wait to read it again!! Wonderfully written!!
Oh, Heavens, Miss Havana! – Paranormal Comedy by Solstice Publishing. Advice columnist by day, assassin by night, Miss Havana’s spirit wrongly considers itself the Angel of Death, but is brought to task by God.Oh, Heavens, Miss Havana! Blurb: Having performed a single selfless act, Miss Havana finds herself on probation in heaven. After many missteps, she discovers she still retains the powers she had as The Queen of Darkness, and realizes she’s on probation as much to keep her from joining forces with her daughter, The Princess of Darkness, as anything else. The Brazilian, a large black man with a dreadlocks beard who waxes regularly, is her “guide”, but she ignores his advice until he’s taken off her case. Guideless and in a foreign environment, she consorts with evil spirits from her former realm, especially Waldo, a shadow creature so named because he’s so hard to find. She acquires a copy of “The Angels Guide to Earth”, comes to believe she is the Angel of Death, and returns to the surface as an advice columnist and assassin. She wreaks havoc before God intervenes for a final showdown...which, as it turns out, isn’t as final as most would hope.
"Ordinary People; Extraordinary Lives" chronicles the struggles of Harold Whittington and his brother, Otto, from birth through the Great Depression and on to WW II. Otto joined the Army and subsequently endured the surrender of Bataan and the Bataan Death March. During Otto’s 3.5 years as a Japanese POW, he was a slave conscript for building roads in the Philippines. Few POWs survived that duty. Later, after a harrowing trip from the Philippines to Japan on a “Death Ship,” Otto was a slave in the Japanese steel mills. Somehow Otto survived two near beheadings, beriberi, malnutrition, malaria, and torture—and twice the steel mills where he labored were targeted for nuclear destruction. Otto could hear the B-29 circling overhead; only the weather spared him. While Otto struggled through severe torture and sickness, Harold joined the Navy and searched for Otto throughout the Pacific theater whenever his supply ship put into port. After the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Otto escaped the POW camp and made his way to a small POW collection point outside Manila. His exit from Japan was also remarkable because the aircraft just ahead of his exploded about 100 feet off the end of the runway. Harold subsequently located his brother in Manila, although, after years of torture, Otto did not recognize him. Harold and Otto returned to the USA after the war. Otto became an attorney and Harold became a professor of sociology at Temple Junior College. The incredible lives of these men, fraught with daunting labor, terror, and pain, serves as a poignant example of why they, and others like them, are called “The Greatest Generation.”
Lucifer’s afterlife is a nightmare of deception until he kills Miss Havana. God intervenes and sends her spirit to inhabit a six-year-old Cuban child, who matures into a flawed but beautiful high school teacher. With Miss Havana leaning to the “good side,” Lucifer sends the Princess of Darkness, Lilith, to haunt Lily, one of Miss Havana’s students. Lilith rains comical torment on Miss Havana. Natural enemies, Lilith and Miss Havana ratchet up the level of destructiveness as they discover more of their underworld power…until murder becomes an option. Despite dips into horror and tragedy, the novel is a hilarious romp through heaven and hell. God helps Miss Havana, frustrating Lucifer and Lilith enough to char the pages. Miss Havana’s journey toward happiness is fraught with peril, but she finds inner faith, love, and strength along the way.
The Endol, an engineered race, have evolved over trillions of years. On Earth they’re known as Judges. They appear human but can commune mind-to-mind. They use their gifts for good, but young Judge Daniel lives a hedonistic life that draws an ancient enemy, the Iblis. He is exiled to Alaska until the Iblis find and murder his parents. After the funeral, a humbled Daniel vows to complete his father’s lifelong research—a quest to prove the Bible describes the first Judge on Earth. Clues left for Daniel lead to discovery of a futuristic room near the Dead Sea … and a huge starship buried beneath the Negev desert. The starship takes the Judges to multiple Universes as they attempt to determine if they exist as thoughts of a higher power and if infinity is bounded.
Ten billion ancient Endol flee their dying sun in sixty-four fleets of gigantic starships. For 5.6 trillion years they scatter outward, spreading intelligent life to thousands of Universes. As the population flees they are enslaved by a reasoning glyph known as Marid. Marid heads a fanatical technological religion called The Covenant. Over trillions of years he becomes the all-powerful God of all known Universes. He has indentured his people, and war between Eve and Marid becomes inevitable. Eve’s husband is tortured to death during battles with Marid, and ten billion Endol remain imprisoned on outbound ships. Eve vows to defeat Marid wherever he exists or die trying. Permeated by love, deceit, and subterfuge, this novel presents new views of space and imaginative technology. It is a delight for Sci-Fi readers of all ages.
This novel postulates the origin of oil, suggests reasons for terrorism, offers a solution to the energy crisis, and presents the inevitable outcome of rampant hatred. It is the first novel of a four novel series that includes Extinction, Aftermath Horizon, Beyond the Horizon, and Infinity Quest.
Extinction Blurb: Dr. Marcy Whites overcomes enormous genetic engineering obstacles to resurrect a prehistoric bacterium (V5) capable of creating renewable oil. On the other side of the world, people die by the millions when genetically-engineered beta-hemolytic streptococcus (BHS), a pathogen developed for bio-terrorism, is released by accident in Mecca. Carried by fanatical Ambulatory Infectious Agents seeking martyrdom, the flesh-eating disease spreads like wildfire with a 100% kill rate. Out of desperation, countries agree to sanitize the infectious outer perimeter of the kill zone with nuclear weapons. Dr. Whites joins a government team attempting to adapt V5 as a BHS antidote. Their deadline passes, and Operation Sanitize releases mankind’s most powerful weapons against its smallest enemy. Nuclear detonations temporarily halt expansion of the kill zone, but Dr. Whites continues antidote refinement knowing BHS-laden dust will someday settle to the surface.
The Training Bra After Miss Havana is reincarnated into the body of an 11-year-old girl, daughter Lilith and hubby Lucifer are determined to steer her onto hell’s wide and wicked path … while also plotting against each other.
The Training Bra Blurb: Starting as an innocent young girl, Miss Havana creeps toward the evil side of life before being murdered at age eighteen. In death she reconnects with the supreme ruler of hell and is given an assignment that will lead to the enslavement of mankind. Driven by ambition, Miss Havana plots the devil’s overthrow while expanding her knowledge of her former kingdom, especially relative to the horsemen of the apocalypse. She eventually regains her throne but is double-crossed by the conniving Lucifer who introduces her to spiritual death; however, God intervenes for most unexpected reasons.
If a deepfake pornographic video can happen to Taylor Swift, then it can happen to anyone. It happened to 13-year-old Katy Philips … and then she died. Not knowing about the deepfake video, Katy’s family believed mean Facebook posts led to her suicide. However, Bob, Bobbie, and Gina—Katy’s closest friends—could not accept that. They searched her social media accounts until they found an obscure URL reference to a Pornhub video staring ‘Katy,’ an Artificial Intelligence deepfake creation. But who made the video, why was it created, and why was there a copy on the dark web? While seeking answers Katy’s friends enlist the help of Mr. Deutch, a local computer repairman and retired NSA operative. They also involved Mr. Harris, a lawyer and Gina’s longtime family friend. With Mr. Deutch’s help, the kids uncover eight suspicious local deaths they believe might be related to Katy’s passing. They ask Mr. Harris to obtain police reports for all eight deaths—a request flagged by an FBI AI search algorithm. Suspicions over similar patterns of death lead to FBI, NSA, and CIA involvement in a series of discoveries that cast doubt on how Katy died. Was she murdered? Was her death part of a national plot … or an international plot? As the kids and Mr. Deutch peel back each layer of a deeply complicated plot that could impact world stability and the U.S. national defense, the kids are targeted for assassination. Kidnapped and tortured, they make their peace with God as authorities at all levels race to find them. Even if the kids can be saved, are the investigations they began and the threats they uncovered so pervasive they cannot be overcome?
What is it about one person that draws another? How does a chance meeting end in a lasting bond? I spent eighty-one years coming to conclusions concerning those questions, and I believe I found some answers.
I am a widower now, but I lived a full and rewarding life. I have no regrets; however, had I known at the beginning what I know now, my life would have been vastly different. So let me take you through the sordid details, major event by major event, and you can decide on your own if my conclusions are right or wrong.
I know my children and grandchildren will read this text someday. They all hold me in high regard now, and maybe this story will cause them to judge me less favorably. Perhaps so, but my life story is what it is. I cannot change the past, but I know every step I took in life led me to the point I am now.
It was a good life. It was a life filled with hard work, some disappointments, a few romantic entanglements, and some exciting times. I remember the women who passed through my life most of all—they are all important and they all taught me something about love. I believe Aristotle Onassis was right when he said, “If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.”
So here it is, the unfiltered truth of my life as I remember it...and the conclusions I can offer after considerable heartache, toil, and joy.
What are memories? How are they stored? Can a computer interact with them? These questions and more are addressed by DARPA scientists as they attempt to create an implantable computer-human interface (CHI) with the brain. Test subjects James, Sherry, Jerry, and Cheryl fake results out of fear the government might use the true results to subjugate all people. They are subsequently fired and the program is canceled, but they have the wherewithal to continue development on their own. They create an inheritable biological CHI that can connect to computers and exchange memories and experiences between people. The CHI leads to deep and unbreakable bonds of love because people have nothing to hide. Love is addictive, the DNA is dominant, and massive changes to society follow as the modifications spread exponentially. A more loving world blossoms; however, even changes made with good intentions can have unintended consequences. Fearing a population based on love cannot survive, James and Sherry’s grandson resurrects their original research … and develops additional DNA changes that lead to stronger, faster, and smarter humans. But can dominant humans coexist with weaker ones, and can a world based on love survive without war?
Miss Havana’s public persona was far from the truth because, in her capacity as substitute teacher, the small community where she lived knew her as the breathtakingly beautiful young woman who demanded every student learn, but in her private life, ostensibly caring for aging parents in Chicago, she raced through the lives of powerful men, leaving a wake of destruction…and a deep desire for revenge. Little did she realize her conflicted life would end in a chaotic death at an early age, and to an eternal conflict with the devil. Clever and witty, the reader will not guess the conclusion of this novel until the final paragraph.
A Brief History of Sin: Miss Havana experiences horrific nightmares as she tries to overcome her dark history. Grasping for redemption she commits an unforgivable sin that lands her in hell … where she kills Lucifer and the Princess of Darkness and takes control of the underworld once again.A Brief History of Sin Blurb: Unable to sleep, Miss Havana sees a psychiatrist to help explain frightening nightmares. From Adam and Eve to the present, she has brought sin and suffering into the world. She has recently made peace with God, but that peace came at the expense of her ex-mate, Lucifer. Always seeking revenge, Lucifer decides to kill her. After prolonged conflict, Lucifer and Miss Havana end up back in hell … where Miss Havana murders both Lucifer and Lilith and takes control of the underworld. Now on the Throne of Judgment, she accepts an understudy named Nick, her spirit grandson, and trains him in the evil ways of the devil. Nick endures many lessons from the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Angel of Death, Hell’s Rule Book, and a shadow creature named Waldo, but he is as caviler about being in hell as was Lucifer. Nick steals “Mr. Fixit,” a spirit killer dagger and, after murdering Miss Havana with it, becomes the undisputed King of Darkness. However, God intervenes and returns her spirit to purgatory, where her heart’s desire is finally fulfilled.