My interest in writing began as an elementary school teacher where I fell in love with children's picture books. They were amazingly vibrant, eccentric, and often just downright goofy, all of which attracted me. Today, along with my interest in children's literature, I'm also drawn to autobiographical fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir, of which I've published a dozen or so titles in the last decade. Although I offer several samples of my work below, the best way to view all of my entire bookshelf is to click HERE to visit my author page on Amazon.
|
| My latest book, scheduled for release in early fall, is titled Ichiro and the Great Mountain, and is the result of my undergraduate days studying the migration of Buddhism from India to Japan. Told in brief, repetitive episodes, the story follows a young, free-spirited boy through the stages of life as he searches for his true self, making this original literary folktale a story of becoming or, in the Buddhist tradition, a tale of self-realization and enlightenment.
|
| Winner of several independent publishing awards, Dog Eared: A Year's Romp Through the Self-Publishing World tells two stories: first, my year-long journey navigating the ins and outs of the self-publishing world, and, second, reflections on my life as a published author. Here's how Holly Brady, former director of the Stanford Publishing Course, describes Dog Eared: "A quirky, informative, and highly absorbing journey into the world of self-publshing, told by a master storyteller." Available in paperback and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| An American Book Festival's "Best Book" Award finalist and a Reader Views' Bronze Award Winner, Circles, Lines, and Squiggles: Astrology for the Curious-Minded is my deep dive into the mysterious world of astrology. Using my natal chart as a reference point, I try to solve the riddle of why an astrologer told me that I had all of the writer's destiny marks except one—contact with publishers. Available in paperback and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| Billy-Boy's just moved from a ranch in rural Texas to the Florida beaches and he's got to navigate a new location, a new set of friends, and this thing called surfing. He does so, but not without the ups and downs of pre-teen life. It's a coming-of-age story reflective of my own story growing up in Florida. A middle grade novel available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| In this work of historical fiction, I follow the Red Sox through the 1918 major league baseball season, a season dominated by the waning days of World War I, the 1918 flu epidemic, and the Red Sox's pitching phenom George Herman "Babe" Ruth. It's all captured by Andrew, a young Bostonian, who writes to his older brother who's serving overseas in the U.S. infantry. Winner of a Literary Classics book award for historical fiction. Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| Winner of both an SCBWI Spark Award and a Literary Classics "Best Books" Lumin Award for nonfiction, The Men Who Made the Yankees: The Odyssey of the World's Greatest Baseball Team from Baltimore to the Bronx tells the often overlooked history of the New York Yankees, from their arrival in upper Manhattan as the Hilltop Highlanders in 1903 to the their first World Series title in 1923. Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| In this work of memoir I explore my childhood experiences growing up in south Texas during the early 1960s. Unlike my previous books for children, this is not a book for young readers as I explore the darker side of growing up in a harsh environment. Although the work feels like a memoir, it reads like a novel given the spare, forward-moving narrative which is a perfect accompaniment to the time, place, and underlying family issues. Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Click HERE to order.
|
| In this slim, handsome volume I present three original folktales. While the first two stories ("The Girl and the Troll" and "Two Bags of Gold") offer traditional elements of a folk story—magic, daring, wonder, and amazement—the last story ("The Young Boy and the Old Man") is a meditation on the development of writing and the art of bookmaking. Parents, teachers, and caregivers will enjoy sharing this collection of stories with emerging readers and writers. Click HERE to order.
|
| The idea for Tangletalk came from Peter and Iona Opie's book on the playground jumprope rhymes of English children. One small section addressed "tangletalk," nonsense verse otherwise known as "topsy-turvies." I set my tale in Boston, with its lingering history of English colonialism, and just let the story fly, literally. Click HERE to order.
|
| Winner of the prestigous Christopher Award, How We Are Smart presents Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences through a multicultural lens. Intended for the upper elementary/middle school student, How We Are Smart offers the biographical sketches of a dozen people of color and the manner in which, according to Gardner, they are "smart." Teacher resoures included. Click HERE to order.
|
| A tongue-in-cheek look behind the scenes of a children's book author. Strange places. Bizarre circumstances. Intriguing people. Inexplicable coincidences. It's all here making this slim volume a quick and entertaining read. Click HERE to order.
|
And a reminder, if you want to see all of my published work, click HERE to go to my Amazon author page. Make sure the "all formats" button is selected and then scroll down the 3-4 pages listed. Click on a book of interest, then view a "print" version (hardcover or paperback, rather than ebook) to see descriptions, reviews, and awards for that book. You don't have to buy a book from Amazon, it's just the easiest way to see them all in one place. Enjoy!
|
|
|
