The Verneece Chronicles


Book Description

One of the great fears of man is that a new Black Death will appear and, because antibiotics are becoming useless, no one will be able to stop it. Another such fear is that someone will create such a plague and use it as a weapon, with newer more virulent versions of that plague appearing until the conditions of the perpetrators are met. The Verneece Fever is such a weapon This is the story of a possible future such happening and why perpetrators might do such a thing. Every society spawn in its own time, an aristocracy that seeks to cement its place in the outworking's of that system. It is a common thing among that aristocracy that the members truly believe for some reason - birth, strength, race, or some special merit - that they are the natural holders of their station, and that any attempt to deny that assigned position is a negation of what is fore ordained. It is fiction. We hope it never comes about, yet we know that it could.







Hope Is A Faraway Place


Book Description

Life is rarely what we want it to be, that is something we can know for a certainty. Sometimes it takes twists and turns that drag us into places that we never thought we would see. So it was for Dewey, James and their mother, Belinda. This is the story of a few people put to tests that made them doubt that there was ever any hope in their future. However, the funny thing about a future is that it has so many curves, mountains and valleys in it that we cannot truly see what really is there; and Hope can be a faraway place. We see, instead, sometimes what seems to be close up and hopeless. Can a simple photo of two people playing change lives? Why, for instance, does one of Dewey's grandfathers want to kill his mother, while the other only wants to ruin her life? Why does a Federal Judge intervene in a set of lives three thousand miles away? Why does the mere existence of Belinda, Dewey and James threaten the structure of a county government that they have left far behind?




The Sartoff Menace


Book Description

The peaceful and backwater world of Blauwelt finds that there is no safety in being peaceful and backwater. The Sartoff, a group of militarily aggressive peoples who escaped from Mankind's mother world, Earth, centuries before is now encamped on one of Blauwelt's continents and setting up a base for the conquering of the whole planet. Blauwelt, a planet with the smallest of Defense Forces which in reality is almost just a planetary police force, has no way to stop the invasion or the conquering of their world. For that reason, it falls to the von Hauptman family, Drs. Shelley and Philip von Hauptman and their kids, Trinka and Jase, to find the way to destroy the enemy and convince them that Blauwelt is not for conquest. This is their story.







Napa Valley Chronicles


Book Description

In 1905, Napa's mayor, J.A. Fuller, announced, "Napa for half a century has been slumbering in a Rip Van Winkle sleep but she has awakened at last." Back then, fifteen cents bought coffee and a donut at the Depot and Sawyer's Tannery made soft leather baseball gloves. In this collection, local author Lauren Coodley reimagines the unvarnished country life of historic Napa Valley through the stories of notables like postmaster Ernest Kincaid, "Napa Register" reporter Phyllis King, firefighter historian Rita Bordwell and Brewster's owners Rachel and Larry Friedman. Trace the region's lasting legacy, from the time when a horse and buggy purchased Browns Valley to the days when art galleries replaced blue-collar businesses and the California grape took center stage from Sunsweet prunes.




The After Death Chronicles


Book Description

This is a book about ordinary people—plumbers, artists and accountants, bakers and beauticians, teachers and lawyers—who have been able to receive communication from loved ones who have died. Included here are accounts from over 80 people across the country who have had contact with the dead through the diaphanous veil that separates them from the living. The book begins with the story of Annie’s deceased daughter speaking to her in the early morning hours. The communication was so transformative that she began to share her experience. Much to her surprise, she discovered that after-death communication is much more common than is normally assumed, and she began to connect with other folks across the country who had similar experiences. Each of the ten chapters is organized around a specific kind of after-death communication. Included here are chapters on dreams, verbatim conversations, and synchronicity through nature and various other physical manifestations, descriptions of the results of these occurrences, and advice on how to open up to after-death communication. This book inspires in the reader reassurance, courage, healing, and a sense of wonder. From the author: “The time is ripe for people to recognize the blessing of how frequently our dead beloveds return . . . to confirm the reality that consciousness continues beyond the grave and to remind us that there is much more to death than the physical cessation of breath and pulse. It is time to break the silence, time to stop keeping these powerful healing experiences to ourselves. It is time to allow the experiences themselves, and the positive effect they have on the living.”




Miami's Richmond Heights


Book Description

Richmond Heights, a community in southwest Miami, Florida, was founded in 1949 by Capt. Frank Crawford Martin for African American World War II veterans. Captain Martin, also a veteran, thought this community would be a good business venture, but for this white man in the late 1940s it turned into a tool for social change leading all the way to the White House. Miami's Richmond Heights chronicles the beginnings of the original residents who were World War II veterans, including Tuskegee Airmen, as well as Fortune 500 presidents, doctors, university professors, and many other professionals. It explores the vision for the community, how it translated to residents, and to Pres. Harry Truman's involvement.







The Poisoned City


Book Description

When the people of Flint, Michigan, turned on their faucets in April 2014, the water pouring out was poisoned with lead and other toxins. Through a series of disastrous decisions, the state government had switched the city’s water supply to a source that corroded Flint’s aging lead pipes. Complaints about the foul-smelling water were dismissed: the residents of Flint, mostly poor and African American, were not seen as credible, even in matters of their own lives. It took eighteen months of activism by city residents and a band of dogged outsiders to force the state to admit that the water was poisonous. By that time, twelve people had died and Flint’s children had suffered irreparable harm. The long battle for accountability and a humane response to this man-made disaster has only just begun. In the first full account of this American tragedy, Anna Clark's The Poisoned City recounts the gripping story of Flint’s poisoned water through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town, but could also be about any American city, all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure and the erosion of democratic decision making. Places like Flint are set up to fail—and for the people who live and work in them, the consequences can be fatal.