There We Stood, Here We Stand


Book Description

In July of 1985, Thomas Porky McDonald arrived in Brooklyn to work for the New York City Transit Authority. For two decades, he surveyed the grounds, the air and the heartbeat of what he would come to consider his second home. More than anything though, he found the writer and poet within himself while navigating Brooklyn, and that translated into short stories, historical narratives and the poetry that defines the Irishman who showed up one day on the "G" train from nearby Queens. Dem Poems: The Brooklyn Collection is a celebration of McDonald's 20 years spent as a Brooklyn regular, where some of the most relevant pieces in the poet's arsenal were born. Beginning with a nod to the many fabled icons of the Borough, like the Brooklyn Bridge ("Steel Ropes"), Ebbets Field ("Bedford Interlude") and Coney Island ("Take a Message Back to Sundown"), as well as the area's landscape itself ("Just a Walk On Flatbush Avenue," "Trolley Tracks"), the volume then settles into more personal poems about those who first graced his life in Brooklyn. Pieces like "Notes On the Hallway Choir," "Sister Theresa" and "A Ride On the I.N.T." speak reverently of friendships shared and grown, while leading the reader toward the two most visceral sections in the collection. Retirees ("Waltz into the Night"), escapees ("Southbound") and others moving on ("Bittersweet Moments") form a joyous prelude to a number of more somber homecoming pieces, such as "Sonic Whispers," "One More" and "Where Pain Doth Cease." In the final pages of the book, Brooklyn baseball, which was the original muse for McDonald during his earliest days in Kings County, is lauded in both the past ("The Kids From the Old Neighborhood," "Dem, I and Eden," "The Sentry") and present ("At Brooklyn," "Eternity Day") forms. In October of 2005, McDonald was amongst a large contingent from NYC Transit that was banished from Brooklyn, to their new base in Lower Manhattan (though he w




Surviving The Evacuation, Book 17: There We Stood


Book Description

As one year ends, and our old world fades into memory, a new future is born. On a frozen archipelago, where it is too cold to farm, a few thousand survivors from across the Atlantic have found a refuge. The arduous process of turning a sanctuary into a home begins once more for these weary travellers who’ve been chased from Britain, from Ireland, from France and Denmark. But their work is not yet done. The missing Marines cannot be left behind. The French and Ukrainians cannot be abandoned. The cartel can never be forgotten. As soldiers once again become civilians, the dangers of malnutrition replace the everyday spectre of starvation. Potential mutiny supersedes being overrun by the undead. Boredom replaces fear. Slowly, they relax, allowing themselves to enjoy the simple pleasure of music and plays, of weddings and births, of life without the imminent prospect of death. But all is not what it seems in the snowy wastes surrounding their town. While Europe is a zombie-filled radioactive wasteland, there are other continents. Other oceans. Other survivors. Other communities, just like their own, who will fight to keep what they’ve the clawed from the grip of the apocalyptic nightmare. Set in Northern Europe, Eastern Canada, and the tumultuous seas between, as one year ends, and a new civilisation dawns.




There We Stood, Here We Stand


Book Description

In July of 1985, Thomas Porky McDonald arrived in Brooklyn to work for the New York City Transit Authority. For two decades, he surveyed the grounds, the air and the heartbeat of what he would come to consider his second home. More than anything though, he found the writer and poet within himself while navigating Brooklyn, and that translated into short stories, historical narratives and the poetry that defines the Irishman who showed up one day on the "G" train from nearby Queens. Dem Poems: The Brooklyn Collection is a celebration of McDonald's 20 years spent as a Brooklyn regular, where some of the most relevant pieces in the poet's arsenal were born. Beginning with a nod to the many fabled icons of the Borough, like the Brooklyn Bridge ("Steel Ropes"), Ebbets Field ("Bedford Interlude") and Coney Island ("Take a Message Back to Sundown"), as well as the area's landscape itself ("Just a Walk On Flatbush Avenue," "Trolley Tracks"), the volume then settles into more personal poems about those who first graced his life in Brooklyn. Pieces like "Notes On the Hallway Choir," "Sister Theresa" and "A Ride On the I.N.T." speak reverently of friendships shared and grown, while leading the reader toward the two most visceral sections in the collection. Retirees ("Waltz into the Night"), escapees ("Southbound") and others moving on ("Bittersweet Moments") form a joyous prelude to a number of more somber homecoming pieces, such as "Sonic Whispers," "One More" and "Where Pain Doth Cease." In the final pages of the book, Brooklyn baseball, which was the original muse for McDonald during his earliest days in Kings County, is lauded in both the past ("The Kids From the Old Neighborhood," "Dem, I and Eden," "The Sentry") and present ("At Brooklyn," "Eternity Day") forms. In October of 2005, McDonald was amongst a large contingent from NYC Transit that was banished from Brooklyn, to their new base in Lower Manhattan (though he w







The Trap


Book Description

The Trap is an Urban Fiction Crime Novel about a Notorious Drug Dealer and Murderer known as Face. Face is incarcerated and is telling his story to his Cellmate about how he survives in Prison and his life as a wealthy Drug Dealer prior to coming to Prison. Face explains it all while bagging up Marijuana brought to him by the Free Man. Face sells marijuana throughout the Prison.




The Fall and Rise of the Republic


Book Description

The story is about an ex-soldier who is called back to the Army for a project that does not involve military matters. Before the project ends, he is sent off to the fighting, returning injured, and loses his wife and finds companionship with another. As the project ends, politicians try to recruit the war hero to run for office. The reluctant war hero is dragged into the presidential race, which he does everything possible to lose, with it ending with a major constitutional crisis.




First Contact


Book Description

For the alien towani, Earth is a holy site where their Last Prophecy will be fulfilled. They will do anything to protect the planet. Protecting humanity is an optional extra. In 1888, fleeing starvation in Ireland, Sean found work as a guide to the Whitechapel slums for the publisher of grisly penny dreadfuls. Not even the most lurid of those tales was as outlandish as his encounter with visitors from another world. When they take him back to their home-world, first contact with a human will change their society forever. By 2020, there is a permanent, but secret, non-terrestrial presence on Earth. Negotiating our planet’s membership in the alien federation, and concealing its existence, is the responsibility of the UN. When the pandemic begins, Earth enters lockdown, and our solar system is quarantined. While technically not a prisoner, Serene is no more able to leave the tunnels below the alien embassy in Germany than any of her human cousins locked down above ground. Keeping busy with janitorial work, one day blurs into the next until she stumbles onto an alien smuggling ring. What begins as a hunt for a thief transporting sacred Earth artefacts off-world leads to a two-thousand-year-old mystery that threatens to bring war to the entire galaxy. By the summer of 2022, Harold Goodwin needs a holiday. As camping is all his bookseller’s salary can afford, he opts for a ramble through the countryside that inspired the novels he so loves. Whether by chance or prophecy, a poor choice of campsite thrusts him into the middle of an alien plot to make Earth the next proxy-battleground in a century-old war. Brawl of the Worlds is a light-hearted tale of intergalactic war and planet-shaping prophecies. As booksellers rise, and empires fall, the hidden history of the galaxy will be revealed. Based on real events.







Before the Deluge


Book Description

An illuminating look at what might have been, had mankind's worst moments never occurred, Before the Deluge is a book loaded with exciting twists that will fill your heart and imagination with possibilities. On the morning of September 11, 2001 life is stopped by a heavenly force that leaves every living soul in the United States in a frozen trance. A mystified writer, Christian, and two chosen angels, Donald and Elizabeth are sent by God on a journey back in time to 1776, when the United States was born as a nation. There the trio embarks upon a fantastic twenty-four hour journey back to the future, to the morning of Dec. 22, 2012. Along their way Christian and the angels visit horrific events throughout time and prevent them, thus striking them from history. Each change contributes to an unstoppable wave of peace that envelopes the whole world. Christian was chosen to write this wonderful story and tell it to all. So this is his story as he witnessed it. Let it carry you away to a beautiful place in your mind. It is the author's hope that the book's ending may lead to the beginning of a new way of looking at the world. About the Author: Thomas Colonna grew up in Valley Stream, Long Island and has owned and operated his own diesel repair center for the last 30 years. In his free time he enjoys singing, hiking, skiing and riding motorcycles. Before the Deluge is his first book. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/ThomasColonna