It's Been A Business Doing Pleasure With You


Book Description

IT'S BEEN A BUSINESS DOING PLEASURE WITH YOU is my autobiography of being a high profile gay escort, from early military upbringing and its clashes with my young gay identity, to tales of leaving home under threat of shotgun. Going out into the world I made my way to find a niche of survival, only to discover soon afterwards that I had something far harder to survive, a virus called HIV. With the lost lives of friends, lovers, and dogs, I met many in my Hollywood movie like life, famous and not so famous. In my pursuit of happiness I often found myself as shaman to many souls, some lost. Sometimes sex was the last thing required, instead many needed to be held or touched, and to be reassured of their humanity. This was not lost to me, I embraced it, as kindness was healing. Rounding out my years in the oldest profession are some bits of wisdom, folly, and finally closure with my father after years of distance with his gay son.




Ripples


Book Description

The title was inspired by the ripples on a pond and the metaphor of certain events having a rippling effect throughout my life. The poetry has been inspired by many events I have experienced during my journey as a Christian, as God as Sovereign has guided by His grace.




The New Messiah


Book Description

The New Messiah is a novel of personal discovery set in the 1970's. Neal Shelley is an idealistic poet who falls in love with a woman he meets while hitchhiking across America during the Bicentennial summer of 1976. But despite the storybook beginning, the love affair soon fades and Neal is left disillusioned and searching for answers in his life. In his disheartened state, he conceives a utopian plan to launch a new messiah movement which he hopes will end his and everyone else's unhappiness. He enlists his charismatic friend, Andrew Moore, to pose as a modern-day savior. They begin their mission with a sermon on the Venice Boardwalk. The initial sermon succeeds brilliantly but then Neal's plan takes an unexpected turn as Andrew starts to truly believe he is the Chosen One. Inspired by actual events, The New Messiah shows how American youth culture in the mid-1970's-characterized by a quest for higher consciousness; pre-AIDS sexual promiscuity; recreational drug use; pop mysticism; irreverent humor; and cynicism and alienation in the post-Watergate "malaise" era-was the soil out of which a messiah movement could grow. One of the most striking features of The New Messiah is its play-like format. The story is told through the conversations of the characters. The authenticity of the dialogue in the party scenes, street scenes, and intimate one-on-one scenes will no doubt be appreciated by readers who lived through that time period. College-age readers today may also find much to identify with in the novel's depiction of 70's youth culture.




Onansburg, Iowa


Book Description

Onansburg, Iowa begins in the thick haze of unexpected grief: After Sonny Dawson’s wife Polly dies suddenly, he finds himself going through the motions of the funeral rites. Perhaps there’s a kind of comfort in what feels like a pre-written script of the mourning rituals Sonny is asked to perform as the whole town of Onansburg gathers for Polly’s death. But after the funeral, Sonny is left without a way to navigate the full loss of the shared life he worked so hard to build with his wife. In Polly’s absence, Sonny is confronted with revelations about who he is as he attempts to move forward with his new reality. He must now also contend with the underlying tension that has always strained his relationship with Polly’s family. The story takes place within the span of a week but weaves together the shared secrets, histories, and trauma of his family across multiple generations. As Sonny wades through the annals of his mind—guided by insights from friends and nemeses alike—he discovers the shocking memories responsible for shaping the way he is today. Poignant, painful, and honest, Onansburg, Iowa reads like a subtle, sprawling epic of small-town America, establishing the town itself as one of the most crucial characters. Author Peggy Lammers has created a vividly written novel filled with relevant sociological and psychological insights that will challenge readers to look deeply and with more empathy at the people around them. This book will appeal to those who love literary fiction and enjoy discussing themes that shake our beliefs yet keep us grounded.




Dixie Rising


Book Description

Vivid reportage about why the South is increasingly dominating American life in public and private.




From Sand to Sea and Distant Shores


Book Description

With incredible clarity and in vivid detail, this 10-year Navy veteran, explains and involves you in the action of the times ... the Cold War in the Pacific Ocean during the mid to late 1950’s from Boot Camp and basic training, to service aboard a U.S. Navy Destroyer: the USS Theodore Edson Chandler (DD-717). Enjoy liberty ashore in Foreign ports in this first book of his trilogy; From Sand to Sea and Distant Shores. Be his shipmate as you: • Endure tear gas, an oil fire and nearly getting drowned during Basic Training. • Become one of the crew of a five-inch gun turret, when a buddy loader drops a live projectile while firing. • Experience A ONE IN A MILLION HAPPENING! the in-your-face terror of a full-blown typhoon that threatens to capsize your ship as a shipmate gets washed overboard ... Then back onboard again! • Learn everything a destroyer does from Gunnery and sub-chasing to stopping weapons-smuggling in the Formosa Strait. • Enjoy exchanges of American life styles and customs, as you live and eat with shipmates from New York to Tennessee. • Almost panic, when not only officers from your ship, but the Captain too; decide to throw you overboard at night into the black-as-ink waters of Subic Bay, P.I. and you can’t SWIM! You won’t have to have been or be, a sailor nor even in the Navy to read and understand this book! Explanations, foot notes and “Backgrounds” will make it clear for you to move through without stumbling (if you can catch your breath!)




Deadly Deterrent


Book Description

Detective Weeks of the Vancouver Metro Police has just found out one of her informants has been murdered—a rotten smelling opportunist by the name of Hooper. And then her partner, who had a long and unsavoury relationship with the man, is murdered too. Then two more cops in quick succession, followed by even more. As the city’s police officers begin to look over their shoulders in fear, the gangs grow bolder, operating with less fear of reprisal and more lethal efficiency. The architect behind these killings is an unknown entity with methods unusual for the area, a man who seems to be motivated equally by cold cash and hot-blooded revenge. As the gangs mount an all-out-war on the police, Detective Weeks works desperately to track down this brazen killer, an individual who’s a ghost...from her past. Deadly Deterrent is an exciting urban thriller with a cast of unique and interesting characters that asks the question: What could happen if organized crime became truly organized?




Mister Right


Book Description

Known as the terrific trio and inseparable college roommates, Freddy Forest, Jack Scratch and Ermine Tuft ducked graduation ceremonies at the University of Midland so they could set off without delay to romance the universe. After all, what's an education for?




The Cocaine Diet


Book Description

You can run, you can hide, but you can never leave your past behind. “Steven A. Finly’s final novel of The Hipsters Trilogy —“The Cocaine Diet”— is one hell of a thrill ride back into the 1980s and a true page turner.” -- Pamela Jaye Smith, award-winning writer Story: It’s been eleven years since Detroit Municipal Police Detective Gil Nelson first infiltrated the city’s underground drug syndicates, and he’s had enough. Now retired from the force, Detective Nelson has become a successful novelist, writing about the mind-bending crimes he once solved. However, when a narcotics dealer washes ashore on a California beach along with millions of dollars of cocaine, Nelson’s newly laid-back lifestyle is put on hold. Called back into the force, Nelson takes on the case, and when he uncovers the dead man on the beach was declared "deceased" five years ago, he quickly realizes this is no ordinary investigation. After all, you can’t die twice. Or can you?




Muddle Earth


Book Description

ANNOUNCING THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE THAT IS THE TALK OF THE GALAXY! MEET: The Cryogenic resurrectee Rinpoche Gibbs. He's not surprised to awaken in the twenty-fourth century, cured of cancer. He is, however, very surprised by everything else... The incredibly beautiful Nixy Anangaranga-Jones, who may or may not be haunted by ghosts, but to whom the unexpected always happens... The Yelignese Chief Bureaucrat - the Esteemed Thingitude in charge of restoring Earth who can't quite grasp what human history is all about... Spotch from the planet Trigon, whose trip to Earth really did cost an arm and a leg... The amazing Cardinal Numbernine and Her Wiliness Pope Joan II - religion may be gone, but the church will endure forever... The adolescent Sherlock Holmes and his Biker Street Irregulars...