Featured Author Archive

I REBEL is the Sci-Fi/Superhero sequel to I NANO. They are aimed at young adults and adults alike. It follows a teen named Mazz as he deals with having a glitchy AI in his brain when everyone else’s works. Accidents follow him wherever he goes. It turns out his malfunctioning AI causes nano-bots to misbehave around him, which he learns are actually misfiring control over the nano-bots, giving him special powers.

I wrote I REBEL to connect with my kids because I have a glitchy brain caused by a chronic illness.

My latest book, Change from the Inside Out, was published in the fall of 2021. I wrote it to help people understand how change works, what’s hard about it, and how to move through it – either personally or organizationally – more easily and with less disruption. At our company, Proteus International, we’ve been helping leaders and organizations move through change for many years, and I wanted to make our approach available to more people.

Unspoken Word: Love Longing & Letting Go is a collection of 100 of my poems – the fourth in a series of poetry books I have written. It touches on the essence of what it takes to be a conscious human being – reflection, receptivity, wonder, longing, deep feeling, gratitude, love, humor, and the full enjoyment of the present moment. Here is what people have said about it:

The First 20 Amazon Reviews
Testimonials #1
Testimonials #2

Raindrop Falling (Fiction) is a story about a young man (T.A. Mann) who feels he has discovered the Kingdom of Heaven, hidden in plain sight. In his frustration to convince others, he embarks on a journey to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, only to find he is not alone. One only needs deep appreciation with a heart full of gratitude, and Eden appears before your very eyes. This book is his journal and his efforts to convince the reader of his epiphany.

My inspiration to write this story is a childhood dream, a story concept I have had for decades and never put pen to paper. The author of the book, T.A. Mann, is the character in the book written in a first-person narrative. This piece required me to put myself into my protagonist’s head, and the style resembles a conversation with a dear friend around a campfire. The reader becomes the silent voice in this setting. I hope you give it a read.

Several issues came together to inspire me to write Golden Boxty in the Frypan. I wanted to learn more about my Irish heritage, including how and why so many Irish immigrated to the United States. Additionally, current news reports of what was being learned about acts committed against children in some orphanages during the early 1900s motivated me to learn more, beyond what my mother had told me about her experiences in a Catholic orphanage during the 1930s. Since my mother and her siblings had all passed, I contacted my cousins. They freely shared photos, remembrances, and documents. Then, as family secrets were revealed, I was hooked. I couldn’t stop investigating. And now, even though this novel is complete, new questions keep popping into my mind, driving me to find out more.

The Silent Society was inspired by my connection to the natural world and the way I observed interacting with it (or not). I have a strong interest in human and environmental health and this book is an amalgamation of those two interests. Oddly, I finished the book in 2019 (a few months before COVID reached Australia), yet the central storyline is a pandemic (of sorts), with public health alertness featuring heavily.

Godmode started as one of many wild story ideas I often get. It was originally supposed to be a shyamalan type story with a twist ending that the hero was actually a character in a video game. My beta readers shredded the first draft and didn’t buy that premise at all. So I refocused and told a straightforward survival horror story set inside the headquarters of a corrupt biotech/pharmaceutical company.

My other book, The Hand You’re Dealt, started as me reflecting on some of the trials and tribulations I’ve had to endure while trying to find my footing after graduating college. It started as just the catharsis of writing about my experiences, but then the reflections turned into whole scenes and the scenes started connecting to each other, and the characters in those scenes started developing their own unique voices.

My latest book is called My Author Journey. I wrote it after being an author and freelance writer for four years. I talked with want-to-be writers and authors for years, who struggled. They had numerous questions about writing, publishing, marketing, or advertising their books. In my book, I share my why’s, for writing my first book, a memoir/biography about my parents and family. It is called My Angel My Hero. I tell all about my learning curve as a new author and discovering what worked best for me. And how quickly techniques and marketing change over time and how writing and publishing a book has changed over the years.

Trophy Girl, my debut novel, is historical fiction because it takes place in 1957. It’s inspired by my bio- and step-fathers’ car-racing careers. The setting is the Midwest dirt-track circuit the week leading up to the first grand national championship. Fun fact: My step father won that one, plus the one the following year and again in 1958.

I spent years of weekends in grandstands eating a lot of track dust. Sometimes we’d go to three races in three towns in one weekend. When I visited my bio father, I cheered him on in his sporty Deutsche-Bonnet, which he raced with the Sports Car Club of America (far less dust but harder to keep track of the cars). My memories of being a fan and a long shelf of scrapbooks took care of most of the research, but I still relied on subject-matter experts for the mechanical particulars.

For my first novel, Story of a Stolen Girl, my goal was to raise awareness of human trafficking in the United States. Most people mistakenly believe trafficking only happens in poor, underdeveloped countries by scummy-looking drug dealers. However, this is so untrue. Human trafficking happens in every country in the world and in every state in the United States. Doctors, lawyers, business people, hairstyling salon owners, mechanics, and folks from most any other profession you can think of as well as gangs and individual criminals commit this crime.

The stories of true-life survivors inspired me, so I wove their stories into Story of a Stolen Girl. Additionally, I had a burning desire to write a novel in which the women take charge when official channels fail. The heroes in this novel are female.

For my novels currently in the midst of the publishing process, Sticks in a Bundle was inspired by a woman who shared her life’s stories while riding on a rickety old bus between Zimbabwe and South Africa. My mother’s experiences as one of eight children abandoned with her three youngest brothers at a Catholic orphanage in Pueblo, Colorado, provided inspiration for Golden Boxty in the Frypan.

The Sun Sets in the West is about a man who sets out to fix the world as best he can with what he knows best. He attempts to avenge the love of his life and in the process improves the life of others around him. Jeff Thurman was born at a time when ideology hid a lot of ills in the world. A nuclear accident when no one knew there could be such a thing (at, least, not in the public citizenry’s view of the world). Also, many of the wrongs we know about today but are more aware of: Abuse, child trafficking, etc. But it also enlightens the readers about what is good and can be good in the world and brings hope for the future.

It is set in Southern California where I was born and grew up. I noticed most U.S. novels are written with East Coast / New England settings. Probably because most Publishing Agents only believe that East Coast writers and East Coast settings are worthy of consideration. I wanted a Western style with a unique perspective of what life was like starting with the Cold War era. I wanted to describe what I enjoyed about the area I grew up in and the things I experienced through Jeff.

Many writers write stories that involve pieces of their own lives. This was partly a therapeutic manuscript. While I only mildly experienced abuse in my life (I’ll explain in a minute), some around me experienced much more. I grew up in what I thought was an average American family. My Father was the anchor of the family. He was our emotional support and guide. My Mother: not so much. We lived a low-to-middle-income family existence as many others did.

I have been married and divorced twice. Both times by women who were abused by their fathers. Both could not bare children because their mothers were given DES (Diethylstilbestrol) to prevent miscarriages which resulted in female reproductive cancers. My second wife was also Bipolar, leading to the divorce as she would not do what was needed to try and correct the issue. The first one hid everything from me until the end, and we divorced after she was having an affair. I ended up later learning about more about abuse and the signs indicating it. My own mother and her family had been abused by her own father which resulted in her cold, unemotional demeanor. I started examining the various other families that I had grown up with in my neighborhood and found evidence of it, especially after my friends had grown and talked about it. It is reported that 1-in-4 women are abused in childhood. I suspect it is even higher.

Jeff is the synthesis of my hopes for the future. To avenge those who have been wronged. To bring about change slowly with the technology available today. To be hope for the hopeless.

Misty Dreams is a dual-timeline romance novel set partly in New York City and partly on a fictitious island in the Southeast. As a child, Clare is separated from her family in mysterious circumstances. When a tragic accident in a department store leaves her injured and without a memory, Richard, a student at the time, rushes to her aid. The abandoned girl stirs up a protective instinct in him, and a friendship develops between them. But when Clare’s absent family suddenly makes an appearance and whisks her away, that bond is abruptly severed. Seventeen years later, present-day Richard and Clare cross paths again, and the memory of Clare’s tragic childhood experience comes back to haunt her.

When people ask me what inspired me to write Misty Dreams, my answer is always: my characters. In my mid-twenties, I wrote a series of novellas set in a vacation resort in Florida. It was superficial, frivolous stuff, unfit for publication. But two of my characters stuck with me, Clare and Richard, and when years later I decided to try my hand at a full-length standalone novel, I knew I wanted to write a story just for them. The Southern setting is somewhat similar to that of my earlier series, while the idea for the plot sprang from a daytime TV show I was following, where sibling rivalry was at the core of all the drama that took place between two sisters with very different personalities. I’ve always loved romance novels with a lot of family drama, and that’s essentially the premise of the story.

My latest book, “The King’s Tower,” is a suspenseful Sci-Fi story about “Man’s inhumanity toward Man.” The story delves into some very existential questions of what people are willing to do to continue living. This book deals with some modern problems and scandals that stay on the fringes of societal norms. I have always been amazed how as human beings, we can devolve into very cold and brutal beings in order to conquer, or exploit people. After reading a story on the news about organ harvesting in other countries, it peaked my interest and researched who were the people financing this. The story evolved from that premise.

My latest, and also FIRST, book is called Famous Things. It’s essentially a collection of illustrated puns based on the names of famous people who have objects for last names – a visual guessing game of sorts. In fact, I hesitate to call it a book so much as it is more like “something amusing to look at while you’re killing time on the toilet.” Perhaps, I’m not giving it enough credit. But perhaps that’s mostly due to the fact that the inspiration for it came from a joke made around the grill with a close friend of mine. We had both previously worked with the excellent actor named Gil Bellows on our film Dead Draw, and as my friend was blowing on the coals to get them going on his grill, I said “If only we had a Gil Bellows!”. Boy, did I crack myself up (it doesn’t take much)! After that, though, I couldn’t stop thinking of other celebrities with objects for last names and started drawing illustrations of those “objects.” Pure profound brilliance, right? Not so much. Just a dumb joke – but one that still makes me smile and has ended up making me a few bucks. So I guess that’s something 🙂

Turn Enemies Into Allies: The Art of Peace in the Workplace was inspired by a series of five blog posts I wrote five years prior to the book being published. The posts offered tips and skills for managing conflict between co-workers, and is the primary content of Turn Enemies Into Allies.

I was inspired by the idea that the work I do with individuals and groups in conflict could (and should) be part of the manager’s skillset.

I’m an Aikido instructor, black belt, and founder of Portsmouth Aikido, in Portsmouth, NH. What differentiates the book is my application of Aikido principles to skills such as centering, curiosity, collaboration, and managing self in order to manage others. The illustrations by Adam Richardson also create a unique look.

As You Feel, So You Heal: A Write of Passage was inspired by the intersection of two of my greatest loves: being present to witness another’s golden moment of break-through, potent with realization and new growth and creating integrative ceremonies that reach into the deepest parts of ourselves. Like a traditional “rite of passage” this “write of passage” ushers the readers through a series of thresholds, helping them see things from different perspectives, so they might reveal more of their unique character. As You Feel, So You Heal encourages us to own all our emotions – to observe them, listen to them, nurture them, and address them in a way that helps them (and us) evolve, up-leveling our life’s path.

Fragments of Spirit: 60 Years: A Photographer’s Recollections of Taos Pueblo, the Region and its Arts began as a promise to self and colleagues to publish my photography as art, not as in previous books where I wrote and illustrated professional expertise and techniques. At the time I could not have imagined how far reaching that goal would be, even to creating a second career. Some ten years ago I realized, while organizing my professional archive, that I had a half-century of historic, intrinsically interesting, personal images and portraits of Taos people, the Pueblo itself, the region, and artists I’ve known. At the time I unearthed just one print, but the scope of possibilities came to mind as as a flood. Also over years, I’d collected writings about my experiences, my techniques, and my philosophy of arts. I had the makings of a formal monograph—and my artistic legacy!

The Spiritual Adventures of Russell the Dog is told by none other than Russell. It is a true adventure of the spiritual kind traversing various lifetimes of a special soul (Russell) who refused his life review in a previous incarnation as a man. The journey of his soul deeply reveals the possible reason from our numerous, frequent lifetimes here on the earth plane, which is evolution of the soul.

The second part of the book’s title is: A Blend of Truth, Fiction, and Inspiration from the Other Side. It wasn’t my intention to write a book, however, I believe anything is possible. The idea began one day about my dog Russell who had made his transition. My intuition, which is sourced from Spirit Guides, angels, or God, depending on your comfort level, kept at me with mental dialogs, tied to crisp memories of my own life, beginning in childhood, and extending to present day. I resisted because the idea was so much bigger than me or my writing abilities. Plus, I didn’t want to take on the huge project of writing a book.

I have decided I am a different type of author. How I feel about writing is expressed best by Richard Bach, author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions and many other books. Here’s how he describes the process:

“I do not enjoy writing at all. If I can turn my back on an idea, out there in the dark, if I can avoid opening the door to it, I won’t even reach for a pencil. But once in a while there’s a great dynamite-burst of flying glass and brick and splinters through the front wall and somebody stalks over the rubble, seizes me by the throat and gently says, “I will not let you go until you set me, in words, on paper.”

And that is what it takes for me to write. I must feel moved by inspiration to the point of not being able to ignore it.

My mother (Martha Driscoll) and I were co-writers (she died this past November). We created three picture books, Nosey’s Wild Ride on the Belle of Louisville, Sammy the Seahorse: Is He a Horse or is He a Fish? and Rosa’s Monarch Butterfly: The Magic of Metamorphosis. At their heart, all three books are an imaginary means for early readers to learn about something that is real – an historically significant steamboat, seahorses and monarch butterflies. My mother and I began working together on picture books around 2012. The idea seed for our latest book, Rosa’s Monarch Butterfly, came from a real-life experience that my mother had seventy years ago as an elementary school teacher. A little girl who was made fun of by her peers brought a monarch chrysalis to school. The teacher turned the moment into an opportunity for the girl and her classmates to get to know one another and to learn about the monarch life cycle. In real life, the teacher was the hero who intervened in the bullying and prompted the girl’s classmates to see her differently. For our story we shook things up. We wanted the girl to be the heroine, for it to be her voice that talked about monarchs and for the book to be a resource for readers to learn about monarchs. The inspiration engine for this particular story was the tremendous satisfaction my mother and I took from writing the first two books together. We both wanted to have that experience again, the act of creating something together from our imaginations.

Symbol & Synchronicity: Learning the Soul’s Language in Dreams and Waking Life is my latest book. The impulse to write the book, which at its heart is about working with dreams as guides on the spiritual path, came as a sort of “call” early in the pandemic lockdown. Over a year of writing, the journey was one of discovery and transformation. The book explores ancient dream traditions, scientific research into sleep and dreaming, cutting edge theories in quantum physics and consciousness, and wise spiritual traditions from different cultures. The book also includes a powerful and practical process for working with dreams that was triggered by an amazing dream I had while writing the book.

Fox Light, Magic Hidden in Plain Sight, was inspired by a comment made in a class I took with an elder member of my writing group way back in the 90s. She urged me to take the class, too. Sign me up, I said. By the way, what kind of class? Writing Your Memoirs, came the answer. Well, I wasn’t to the age of thinking of writing my memoirs, but the teacher was terrific. One woman in the class noted that in America, stories of “the olden days” weren’t valued. We have a history of charging ahead, even to the point of devaluing the wisdom of our older generations because of the false belief that whatever they did “back then” wasn’t productive or economically useful now. Times change. Keep up or get out of the way. All the wisdom, work ethics, problem solving, and experiences were dismissed. That led to a good class discussion about the value of passing down our stories, if only for our children and children’s children.

In the past, stories were passed down from generation to generation by the elders of the communities. The Storytellers were often the Uncles or Grandfathers, Aunts or Grandmothers. They told them over and over again to the little ones, making sure the history of the tribe was embedded deep in their hearts. Those stories became the foundation for future actions, decisions, moral stances, and pride. From oral histories came written accounts, even artwork to accompany the words. A commitment to the weaving of the community came through shared beliefs and an understanding of the earth, the plants and animals, the wind, spirit beings, and all humans.

Well, now years later, I was struck with the notion that recording experiences in my life didn’t have to be dull or outdated. I reflected on the “magical” incidences I’ve had, many of which can’t be explained with math or logic, and I started scribbling notes. One note lead to another, and the pages kept getting a little higher. Each story triggered another, until I realized I had the content for a book. Just for me, just for my children, but created with my professional approach to any job in my list.

Then, because I’m an illustrator, I felt creating drawings to augment the text was a combination of my skills. So, why not! They touched a deeper place in me – I think images do that – but I was surprised at how deep. A piece of me went way back, back to the days of being a little kid sitting at the kitchen table when we lived in North Dakota, and just drawing. I didn’t actually take an official art class until I went to college, but I was lost in bliss when I did art back then.

Fox Light is a collection of short stories based on my experiences of something magical happening in my life. I saw my beloved dog’s blue, ethereal spirit rise from her body. I’ve had Beings hike with me, transparent though they were. I’ve had a connection to the workings of the earth that have lifted me to a different plane. I believe we all have these magical moments, if we are willing to let go of our preconceived notions about how things work. Too often we say, “that can’t be” or “it’s just a figment of your imagination” and the magic that presented itself disappears. I hope my book helps people be more aware of the magical moments in their own lives and revel in their bigger world.

Home Hydroponics: Small-space DIY growing systems for the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, and bath” is my third book on hydroponic gardening. Most hydroponic gardens look like a maze of PVC pipes, including many hydroponic garden designs described in my previous books, but in my latest book I detail 14 different DIY hydroponic garden designs that heavily prioritize the aesthetics of the garden while maintaining their functionality.

The Captain’s Daughters was inspired by my childhood escapades with my best friend Robin. We always seemed to find ourselves in hot water for a silly prank we pulled! We were both astronomy and science-fiction fans and dreamed about living on a starship. The book combines our not-so-good behavior with our dream of outer-space travel.

I’ve always cooked meals and shared recipes, but as my social media accounts grew bigger and bigger, and as I started taking on more clients in the Health and Wellness industry, people just kept asking for my recipes. Anytime I would share a dish on, let’s say Instagram, I would get several comments and messages asking for the recipe. So I figured, why not create a book that I could sell to folks who want “in” on my cooking style, and provide one to my private clients too!?

It is titled How We Get From Here to There? It’s a rhyming book about transportation. It is written in a humor mode and I wanted it to be fun to read, yet an easy way to learn about transportation. It was inspired by my grandson’s love of big trucks. He was so excited when saw them while traveling and he likes books about big trucks.

I have been working as a licensed clinician for nearly ten years and seeing the ins and outs of neurodegenerative conditions, working with patients with Alzheimer’s, Dementia, speaking with family members of patients suffering from cognitive deterioration, I was often asked about preventable factors. I wanted to dive into if living a healthier lifestyle, our diet and nutrition could really outweigh genetic predisposition and make a significant difference for individuals with these conditions or at-risk with respect to brain health. Time and time again, I have found brain chemistry is absolutely changed by food, pollutants and lifestyle choices. This lead to my research deeper into neuro-nutrition and inspired me to write “Feeding Your Brain” for those wanting to take control of their brain health.

Man at 50 – A Journey of Crisis, Revelation and Survival is my Autobiography, my story of a life filled with fear, sexual identity questions and codependency. I lived a life of a child for the 1^st 50 years of my life. My life changed dramatically after I decided my life had to change and the time had come for me to step up to Manhood!

My latest book is the second in a children’s book series. The idea behind the series is to get children (and their parents) interested in geography and other cultures through the adventures of a loveable, yet imperfect dog. The books blend facts about the country featured in each installation presented alongside a fictional storyline with interesting cultural tidbits scattered throughout. I typically highlight things that are less known or something one might not find in typical tourist literature to offer a more unpredictable adventure and engage both adults and children. I have purposely chosen places off the beaten track in each country, not the most famous cities, as touristy places can often have more outside influence and may not truly reflect the local culture. I also include things which link one country to another (in the series) to highlight the fact that we, as humans, have more in common than one might think, no matter how different our cultures may seem.

This second book was inspired by my time in Uganda working for an NGO. Having never visited the African continent before, I had no expectations but was utter overwhelmed at how friendly, curious and lovely Ugandans are. Everywhere I went, I found a kinship with the local people and shared stories and time with people which has left a lasting impact. When I tell people that the Ugandans are the friendliest people I have ever met in my travels, it always surprises them – for preconceived notions really, not based on any actual experience. Some of their traditions, perhaps “ways of thinking” is a better way to express it, are ideas that are simple but profound at the same time and, in my opinion, worth sharing. I truly wanted to impart this experience, especially with young people, who have not been influenced by the world yet. I firmly believe if children are curious at a young age, this will follow them throughout life and hopefully lead to a desire to learn more about the world around them and form opinions based on facts and experience and not just hearsay.

I have been traveling and living abroad for almost 20 years now. I have heard so many notions adults have about different countries without having ever travelled themselves. I was a bit taken aback by this realization and decided I wanted to do my small part in making a positive change, starting with young people. Adults often get caught up in the practical differences about countries – the language, access to services, level of development – and forget that there are people and cultures with long and wonderful traditions which are overlooked in the process. Children don’t have these notions yet and are more likely to engage in a story they like and become curious about where it is in the world; my sincere hope is that they then read more. When I was a kid, I received a “pen-pal” through a service and that contact with the world outside mine was enough to plant the seed of curiosity within me. With the world changing, not always in the best ways, finding commonalities in our fellow man around the world is something we need now more than ever. Hopefully, Joaquin’s adventures will inspire kids to look outside of themselves and their own cultures and find the good in the world that exists outside their realities.

The Baby Monitor: A Novella of Family Horrors is about how everyday life drives you insane. The bills that won’t stop coming. The alarm clock you forget to turn off on the weekends. The flat tires. The broken washers. Sometimes it almost seems like there’s some evil force tormenting you.

In The Baby Monitor: A Novella of Family Horrors, you meet Richard and Lissa, two young parents who can’t sleep. Every night their infant son wakes them up screaming, crying, gripped by a terror he’s too young to name. But does he simply have nightmares? Is his nursery haunted? Or there is something even darker eating away at the sanity of this new family? It’s a book about secrets, sleeplessness and stress.