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Herda, D. J. / Two Mules for McCandless - Harry Block is just an average P.I. except for one thing.  He craves adventure.  He gets just that and more in this true story of murder, lust, torture, and resolution.  When at last he uncovers the truth about the son of the California mobster who hired him to clear his son's name, he finds himself scrambling for his very life.

This is a fast-paced, breathtaking tale made all the more exciting by the fact that it's based on a true story. The action is non-stop, and the characters will live in your memory for a lifetime.

Pre-Publication Review: This is Dennis Hopper in Doublecrossed times ten, the scenes of Block being tortured in a Mexican jail are absolutely haunting.  It's a sure winner at the book stores, as well as at the box office." - Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate
 

Harper, Glynn Compton / A Perfect Peace - A Perfect Peace is the story of gay men at war, both a shooting war and the war for dignity in a homophobic society.  It is set in Britain and France in WWII.  The book's gay protagonist, Bobby Joe Keyes, is a handsome 19-year-old from rural East Texas.  When he meets another soldier, Tony James, while training for the Normandy Invasion, the two fall in love.  James is wounded and the two are separated.  In the struggle to be reunited, conflict with a hostile fellow soldier and the war draws Keyes into a series of lies, deceptions and sexual misadventures.  After the D-Day invasion, Keyes too is wounded in battle but finally finds his lover once again.

Herda, D. J. / Chi-Town Blues - A collection of Chicago-based short stories with a bluesy twist.  A pre-publication review calls it "gutsy and spirited, believable and fun.  Herda is a master of every genre ... a modern-day O'Henry and perhaps the best all-around writer since Upton Sinclair."  Another calls the tales "uproarious and poignant, they strike like lightning and kick like a mule; I haven't enjoyed reading short stories like these since Donald Barthleme at his best."  Just as Hemingway with his beloved Paris, Herda returns to the Windy City whenever he can...and out pops another marvelous story (or two or three) about the author's favorite City by the Shore and the remarkable denizens inhabiting it.  From the swankest Lake Shore Drive penthouse to the lowest Maxwell Street dive, they're all here.  All the drama, all the fun, all the characters, all the life and love and lore that go into making up one of the gutsiest cities on the face of the earth--captured, finally, by a true master storyteller. 

     1/ The Fisherman
     2/ The Tenants
     3/ The Union
     4/ The Great Duplicity Affair
     5/ Double Jeopardy

Places Where I've Done Time, Too - Author D. J. Herda has traveled the world several times over, first as a professional syndicated travel writer and then as a working photojournalist.  Here he assembles the most poignant, touching, uproarious, and human of all of the stories he has amassed from the different places where he’s done time. 

For Cats Sake and Other Bizarre Tales from Beyond the Grave - Touching, humorous, ethereal, and uplifting tales about all kinds and manner of animals the author has known intimately through his life by the writer whom Don Bacue calls “the best short-story teller working today.” 

Babel - From the master teller of short stories, here are the best mystery and suspense tales with just a touch of the supernatural thrown in for good measure.

Gwin, Julie / The Red Earth - Sidney Weaver moves to a new town and finds two surprises there—a new boyfriend, the town’s sheriff, and Gwen, a friend who had run away from home years before.  Gwen is married to a terrifying man whom the sheriff has hated since childhood, and Sidney becomes determined to help Gwen escape him.  Gwen is too afraid to leave until one terrible night, when her husband and his friends assault her in such a horrifying way that she finally takes matters into her own hands and murders him.  Sidney helps her cover up the crime, but her boyfriend is responsible for finding the killer.  He struggles, knowing that he shouldn’t allow his hatred of the man or his love for Sidney to keep him from enforcing the law, but also feeling that justice has been done.

Herda, D. J. / Two Mules for McCandless - Harry Block is just an average P. I. except for one thing.  He craves adventure.  And he gets that and more in this true-to-life story of murder, lust, torture, and resolution. When at last he uncovers the truth about the son of the California mobster who hired him to clear his son's name, he finds himself running for his life.

Pre-Publication Review: This is a breathtaking tale made all the more exciting by the fact that it's based on a true story.  The action is non-stop, and the characters will live in your memory for a lifetime.  This is Dennis Hopper's Doublecrossed times ten.  The scenes of Block being tortured in a Mexican jail are haunting.  It's a sure-fire winner at the book stores, as well as at the box office." - Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate.

Detective Novels  on Which the Author
Is Also Working

The Sweat of Her Brow- This hard-boiled she-male undercover cop has a roving eye and a serious attitude ... and a hard time staying one jump ahead of the law.

Herda, D. J. / Bound for Carlotta - When Dean Janus stumbles across an Internet promotion for a professional Domme, his curiosity is piqued. By the time he decides to check it out, he is already ensnared in an ever-widening web of drugs, money laundering, BDSM, and murder.  Only the tenacious love of a woman nearly ten years younger can save him.  But is that love strong enough to go head-to-head with Mistress Carlotta?  And can Dean overcome the prejudices he has against his young, headstrong lover?  His very life may depend upon it!

Goodwin, Timothy / Garden's Tears - The Le’igro is dying… The miraculous and enchanted Garden of Life that has seen to the vitality of the surrounding lands for generations has been poisoned.  Now the people of Calidashiri face sickness and death.  The weather soon threatens crops and life, and the dead rise, even as darkness falls.  Cities crumble under the onslaught of sorcerers, dragons, and devils.

The only possibility of salvation for the Le’igro lies in the one that breathed life into her at the beginning of time.  Once a god of goodness and beauty, now after thousands of years he has become embittered with the way of the gods; he resides as a lord of chaos in an underworld known as Infer’nos; a realm of flames, shadows, and demons.  In order to save the Le’igro, an Elite Task Force of humans, Li’reigh, Elves—fighters and mages, must journey into the realm of Infer'nos to offer an appeal--against all hope, and somehow retrieve the tears from the Lord of Darkness…

Williams, Lonna Lisa / Selah of the Summit - A slave girl escapes the influence of The Craft in the hot valley and journeys to the Summit, finding adventure, romance, and the beauty of nature along the way.  Includes the first few chapters plus photos.

Herda, D. J. / Dark Seeds: Hemingway Out of Havana - Hemingway says goodbye to his second wife at the Finca Vigia as she leaves him to cover the war in Europe.  She is giving up on the marriage because of his drinking and philandering. 

Fourteen years later, the writer is depressed, a shadow of the man he was during the war.  Now he faces his own war.  With Castro marching on Havana and Batista on the run, Hemingway learns that Hoover is closing in on him—out to settle a score that goes back to the author’s WWII sub-hunting days.  When Hemingway welcomes the new Cuban liberator to power, he gets word that Hoover is furious and plans to brand the writer a subversive. 

Hemingway's mounting paranoia and his fear of being labeled anti-American frighten him into undertaking the overthrow of the infant Castro regime.  As intrigue and betrayal line the streets of Havana, the author finally implements his very own plan--a plan deviously spawned in Washington, D.C., and placed in the author's increasingly delusional mind by Hoover, himself--one that backfires on both Hemingway and Hoover and nearly leads to war.

Historical Novels on Which the Author
Is Also Working

Sweet Nothings from No One - As the Roaring Twenties come to an end, a new age of enlightenment greets the world.  Leading the charge is Dorothy Parker in her endless search for love, sex, respect, and notoriety.  From her steamy back-room sexcapades with some of Hollywood’s hottest stars to her political barnstorming for the acquittal of Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti and her death among the ashes of antiquity, her story unfolds with all of the delicate satire of a five-pound mallet.

Goodwin, Timothy / Darkness Within - You are about to embark on a journey…a horrifying trip into a nightmare realm, filled with monsters, enchantments, and a force beyond anything ever imagined before…an expedition into the heart of horror, a journey into… Darkness!
 

Armstead, Joseph / Nocturnes and Neon, a Novel of the Vampiric [ISBN: 0595201733, Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated].  Myth. Nightmare. Impossibility. Evolution. VAMPIRE. Nocturnes and Neon is a fast-paced supernatural suspense thriller unmasking the secret war between immortals and vampires.  Enter a seductive world of danger, mystery and mayhem on an adventure into the nightworld of the vampiric Moon-Chosen. Immortal vampire hunter Montogomery Quinn, called "The Adversary", fights a secretive war in the shadows to prevent the vampires from perfecting a drug that allows them to walk in the daylight, undistinguishable from their human prey!

Herda, D. J. / Season of Dreams - The story of a young, vulnerable girl who leaves the nest to forge her own life and, along the way, falls victim to a wide web of underworld vice, corruption, drugs, and murder. 

Herda, D. J. / Crazy as a Loon: The Death and Life of Hymie Stiehl - When Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that his friend, Jungle Jim Alavera of the Chicago White Sox, has disappeared, he knows he has to act fast. Realizing that Alavera is still alive but in great danger, Stiehl and his young, rakish college-professor sidekick seek to locate him before the Mob does. But when bodies begin turning up like dead flies at a bad delicatessen, Stiehl calls upon the local D.A. and the members of the venerable Twelfth Precinct to step in to help solve the case ... and very nearly ends up a statistic, himself.

Herda, D. J. / Murder in the Court - As Hymie Stiehl and sidekick D. J. Tartanian arrive in Trinidad, Colorado, to ensnare whoever sent Stiehl's close contractor friend to prison, Stiehl has a revelation.  "I'll set you up as a contractor!"  But when the "kid" gets charged with passing bad checks, contractor fraud, and murder, things get ugly.  Stiehl goes underground while the kid bails out, and the two of them meet to uncover the worst in human society--from a dirty District Court Judge right on down to the local cops on the beat.  Things look bleak for D.J.'s upcoming trial when suddenly Stiehl develops a plan.  Halfway through the preliminary hearing to bind the kid over for prosecution, Stiehl shows up with three Federal officers--and the kid gets a change of venue ... much to the chagrin of the judge.  When the judge goes to step down and the FBI clasps him in cuffs, all hell breaks out as the judge is hauled away kicking and screaming, and Stiehl reveals the real savior behind the scenes.

Herda, D. J. / Stiehl Stalkings - A Caribbean cruise goes sour when a wealthy German industrialist turns up dead during an attempted robbery--murdered with his own gun.  The plot thickens when Yiddish Bulldog Hymie Stiehl learns that the man's stepson had lost more than $20 thousand at the tables the night before.  The man's wife, too, stands to gain financially from her husband's death, although she voluntarily takes a polygraph test and passes with ease.  When links to a Belizean woman emerge, Hymie grows restless.  The deceased industrialist had been having an affair, and his wife found out.  What better peg to the murder than a spurned wife?  But when the wife's own son is killed, all eyes fall elsewhere, and it's up to Hymie to unravel the most bizarre and twisted tale of murder and chicanery ever.

Herda, D. J. / Murder by Default - Ronald Deus has an ax to grind.  In fact, he has several.  The sharpest is reserved for his beloved mother—the only person standing between Deus and a fortune in family stocks and bonds.  But when he takes aim at committing the perfect crime, little does he realize that it’s he, himself, who is standing in his own crosshairs.

Herda, D. J. / Backside Blues - Nick and Nora Cavender set out to invest in a racehorse destined for the Kentucky Derby.  But when the horse’s jockey turns up dead—and his jockey friend, and the track steward, and the trainer—they know they're onto one helluva story.  Who will be next?  Nora very nearly finds out ... the hard way.  It isn't long before the society couple realize they're in for the crime of their lives.

from the first to the last.  The relationship between the characters is supercharged.  And why wouldn't it be, with Nora Cavender herself the great granddaughter of the even greater Dashiell Hammett detective, Nick Charles.  Highly recommended!” – Don Bacue, Editor-in-Chief, International Features Syndicate

Kottke, L. J. / The Mystery of the Nourdon Blue - Andrew Weberley is obsessed with the legend of the fabulous Nourdon Blue, a giant sapphire of uncommon color and depth mined in the fabled Kashmir region of India.  Undaunted by stories of its deadly curse and dismissing any doubt of the stone’s very existence, he is determined to possess it, and the search leads him and his pursuers into the steamy jungles of Guatemala.  After months without word, Weberley’s daughter hires Sidney Langdon to find her father, and Sid is soon awash in stolen antiquities, his own search for the legendary gem, and an unrequited love that claims yet another victim of the Nourdon Blue.

Kottke, L. J. / Murder Stalks the Mist - Sidney Langdon scoffed at the idea of a ghost prowling the grounds of Greenwood estate—until it killed his client.  Now the ghost has an irate detective on its trail.  Where will it lead?  To the vengeful store clerk, the greedy grandson, or the controlling medium? With Sid on its tail, this ghost is soon to be one sorry spirit!

Kottke, L. J. / Death Comes Calling - A murderer and a million dollars in missing jewels—that's all Sidney Langdon has to find.  Along with the very man who may be responsible for them both!  Along the way, he uncovers a sordid trail of blackmail, adultery, and betrayal in his quest to bring home the goods.  It’s a gem of a case, Sid's very first—but will it be his last?

Marking, B. Thomas / Amendment XXIX - Though Mr. T. J. Carroll, the main character, has been very successful by any common measure, he is haunted by a sense that there is something more on his celestial "To Do" list.  When fortune requires the new Voice of Independence Party  (V.I.P.) to seek a replacement for their presidential candidate, Carroll heads the list.  The pitch is irresistible.

“Sir, we’re going to make you the same offer ol’ George Washington got back around 1776.  What we’re asking is that you drop everything else you’re doing and take on the uphill fight of your life; leading a       rag-tag bunch of zealots that are pushing a radical new idea against well-healed professionals who want to keep things just the way they are. 

"Helluva deal, ain’t it?” 

Washington's political elite will stop at nothing to suppress the dangerous new idea being pushed by the V.I.P. -- Citizens voting directly on issues, their decisions binding on the government?   Unthinkable.  However, neither ripe tomatoes nor rocket-propelled grenades will deter Carroll and his valiant crusaders from realizing their vision for a new America.  

Williams, Lonna Lisa / Like a Tree Planted - Miranda, a teenager from the 22nd Century where cities are enclosed by domes, journeys back in time to meet her environmentalist great-grandmother and try to bring trees back to the future.  Includes the first few chapters plus photos.

Allen, Bobbie J. / Beyond the Law - Who is selectively murdering a number of men who have engaged in acts of violence toward their spouses?

Herda, D. J. / Afghani Skies - Paula is young, intelligent, and hauntingly beautiful--a woman of strong will and unbreakable spirit.  Restless and eager for adventure, she and her husband strike out for Afghanistan, where they have been enlisted to help rebuild the new democratic regime.  Paula wants a different life for the two of them: a renewed love for her husband and a renewed sense of well-being for herself.  But what she finds are turmoil and upheaval.  As the countryside around her erupts into guerrilla warfare, her devotion to her husband is challenged by his need for drugs until finally she meets a passionate Afghan rebel willing to help.  But his help proves futile, driving Paula further into desperation until her rebel companion steps in to save her from the forces of pending doom. 

 Herda, D. J. / Mistress of the East - This fascinating and frightening account of a young American woman and her Afghan-born husband takes on new and ominous overtones when Paula suddenly finds herself attacked in her American home by two Iraqi thugs. When she learns that Shadar has disappeared on his way back to her from Hong Kong, she sets out to find him. Along the way, she uncovers a sordid trail of human bondage, gun smuggling, and Al Qaeda terrorists. All nearly ends in a deadly fire-fight with Islamic terrorists. But what about Paula ... and where is Shadar?

Herda, D. J. / Underground Opera - A cozy night at the opera turns deadly as Paula and Shadar stand by helplessly. Their investigation into the death of Shadar's closest friend soon leads them to Kabul, where Shadar is charged with the task of helping to set up the underground Iraqi Resistance Movement to ferret out and destroy opponents of Coalition Forces and the newly elected Iraqi Free Parliament.  From there, they wend their way to the Tigris, when Shadar suddenly disappears.  Fearing the worst, Paula tries desperately to contact the underground and finally manages to reach the head of the movement ... of the wrong underground! As the Republican Guard and the dreaded Iraqi secret police close in on her, she faces the dilemma of her life: should she flee ... or stay and fight against all odds to find Shadar?

Herda, D. J. / Bound for Carlotta - When Dean Janus stumbles across an Internet promotion for a professional Domme, his curiosity is piqued.  By the time he decides to check it out, he is already ensnared in an ever-widening web of drugs, money laundering, BDSM, and murder.  Only the tenacious love of a woman nearly ten years younger can save him.  But is that love strong enough to go head-to-head with Mistress Carlotta?  And can Dean overcome the prejudice he has against his young, headstrong lover?  His very life may depend on it!

Herda, D. J. / Carlotta's Revenge - When Domme Mistress Carlotta escapes from prison, Dean Janus bears the brunt of her revenge.  Taken into bondage to a small adobe outside Ensenada, he is broken of his will and forced to do her bidding.  He returns to the states, drugs and kidnaps his own fiance, and returns with her to Carlotta's adobe, where she too is eventually turned into a devoted slave.  But when M.C. introduces a young peasant girl to become Lynn's charge, Dean turns the tables on the Domme and sets the stage for a supercharged ending.

Thriller Novels on Which the Author
Is Also Working

Lonely at the Bottom  - The tell-all story of a married Catholic priest out to avenge his wife's murder; but just how deeply into the archdiocese hierarchy will he have to dig and what shocking discoveries will he make along the way?

Herda, D. J. / The Secret Arroyo - As an Army scout, Wade Hawkins learned his job well—he is the best tracker west of the Missouri.  It is a skill that comes in handy, for he’ll need all of his wiles to overtake the murderous flesh-traders who abducted his Choctaw wife from their home several days before.  As he closes in on her captors, he finds more than he bargained for: a troop of ruthless, bloodthirsty ex-rangers with plenty of fire power and 16 Indian women—captive squaws—on their hands.  But was Tantien one of them?

Trail of Vengeance  - A lawman from Montana takes off his badge to avenge the murder of his wife and four children and ends up on the wrong end of a Confederate lynching party. 

Showdown at Stinking Springs - A shiftless Colorado con man uses his wits to steal a fortune from the territory's most notorious gunman and, while he's at it, sets his sights on the guy's gal for good measure.  

Kottke, L. J. / Trail of Vengeance - The aftermath of a hanging—of the fifteen year old brother of a hired killer—is a wild and wicked tale of revenge and bloody retribution.  Charlie Cross vows vengeance on the posse that lynched his brother, who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Three will die before Cross himself meets his destiny at the hands of Hank Dawson.  Cross figures the drifter will never challenge him and risk his life to avenge a friend.  But Cross is wrong.

Kottke, L. J. / Shadow of the Rope - Charlotte Beckford kneels in the dusty street, cradling the still body of the man she was to marry, hysterically screaming at his killer that she will make him pay. He laughs at the threat. After all, what can she do? She's just a girl. But Rayburn finds just how wrong he is when she sets out to bring him to justice...and see him hang.
 

ldylngstkn / When Hate Groups Are Permitted To Apply the Community Standard of Values - Some thoughts on hate groups, community standards, and eroding personal freedom. 

ldylngstkn / Religion, Literature, and Mythology - Some thoughts on their misuse in the furtherance of individual ideologies. 

Hargrove, Garrett / Whiskey Bottles and Pizza Boxes--The College Guy's Guide to Dorm-Room Decorating - It's all here, four years of college without the four years of hangovers.  Learn how your overall dorm-room decorating scheme depends upon a TV in the bathroom and some pizza boxes on the wall.  Uncover just why it is that no party is a party without Everclear flowing from the tap.  And accept the fact that Animal House is your new Pledge of Allegiance.  Bitchin'! 

Scherer, Kathleen, and Bodoh, Eileen / Gratitude Works: Open Your Heart to Love - Filled with snippets of life from the mundane to the delightful, Gratitude Works is a collection of stanzas that express thankfulness for life and gratitude for many things we take for granted.

Hart, Anne / Deadly Rejection - The day after Christmas Nineteen-Ninety-Three started out as a cooler than normal day in Marathon Florida, the heart of the Florida Keys.  The land of Paradise.  The temperatures in the Keys were at least twenty degrees cooler than they had been in the beginning of December.

Many people spent the day relaxing after their big family holiday, eating leftovers and watching football games or holiday movies, while others walked, shopped and enjoyed their day reminiscing about holidays past and present.

A call to the Marathon Police station had the small number of officers working that day stunned and scrambling for answers to a call they never expected to get in their small family oriented community.  A call that defied all reason.  A call that would have them all banging their heads, looking for answers.  That call would stun the community of Marathon and cause fear and discontent to the residents and snowbirds who wintered there.

A crime of passion, a random killing or did someone decide it was her time to die?

A small town, a young woman, a mother, a daughter, a brutal murder, many questions, few answers, and all they want to know is ... why.

Hart, Anne / Baby Merchant - Big Man No Heart…. Dr. Turner stared at the dead man lying on the hard, cold examination table.  He wondered aloud why this large man was left to die in an attic.  He wondered if the man was murdered or had committed suicide.  He already knew that the man had been shot in his right temple.  The dead man had a full head of wavy gray hair.  The hair on the right side of his head was matted with blood.  He had deep crystal blue eyes surrounded by clear, visible crows feet. 

The dead man appeared to be in his late 50s.  The tan lines on his arms gave the appearance that he wore short-sleeved shirts.  His palms were soft and milky white, giving the suggestion that he was not a man who did physical hard work with his hands.  His fingernails were short and neatly manicured.  Dr. Turner noticed a slight bluish tint around the nail beds.  Looking at the dead man, Dr. Turner found it hard to believe he sold his children to make a living.

Williams, Lonna Lisa / Crossing the Chemo Room - The true story of Lonna Lisa Williams, who fought a rare type of breast cancer.  Journey with her, her family, and her friends as they encounter treatment, anxiety attacks, fear, recovery, and joy of life after cancer--all while learning to reach out to others who also face a life-changing event.  Includes first few chapters plus photos.

Harmon, Christopher / Mary Shelley's American Nightmare - Teenage spitfire Mary Shelley and her beloved man servant Adamly visit Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and expect to see the Utopia they have read about in the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.  Instead they are shocked at the cruelty and brutality of slavery.  Later, they become captive to mad scientist Victor Franklin (the illegitimate son of Ben Franklin).  Victor decapitates Adamly in order to combine his intellectual powers with the power of lightning to create an artificial man: the monster.  The idea backfires, though, when Mary and Adamly turn the tables on the teacher, giving him a lesson he'll never forget about trying to play God.  Shelley returns to Europe and goes on to pen her cult-horror classic based upon her unforgettable experience. 

Hargrove, Garrett / Tainted Love - Will and James were best friends and roommates in college.  In one fell swoop, James flunks out of school, loses his girlfriend, and loses his best friend.  When he learns that Will and his girlfriend are dating behind his back, he snaps.  Only one thing can save him: he's got to find Will ... This intriguing story tests the depths of friendship, love, and rage in one singularly suspenseful tale. 

Hargrove, Garrett / Vigilante - What do you do when you’ve lost it all?  When widower Landon’s daughter is taken in the night from his home and the police fail to find her, he takes it upon himself to locate the one thing left in his life that matters.  As sanity drifts further away, Landon transforms into a masked man stalking the night, searching for her.  In the process, he becomes a hero and a fugitive as he takes on the dark and all those who lurk there in search of his daughter.  Somewhere beyond reason, beyond the law, beyond sanity… he will find her.