Alliance

What happens when humans discover that they are not alone in the vastness of the Universe?
Theodore Newsome’s space cadet training is abruptly cut short not far from completion. That is one of the first consequences. He is thrown in at the deep end along with three of his fellow space cadets. It is a deep end that could be bottomless.
Contact with aliens was not meant to be like this, especially as a threat to an alien race could soon become a threat to the human race.

Almost Down to Earth

In this fable for our times, feisty M’bali Hoyle has returned to the town of her youthful disgrace. 

Will tiny, isolated Quimbleton take her to its heart this time?
Two glamorous visitors drop into her world just as she meets ex-rock star Hayes.
Only M’bali sees the dark threat behind their glitzy facades.

How can she convince Hayes and the starstruck locals, a cast of rural eccentrics, that her intuition is right?

Can she draw them all more or less together when danger strikes?

With a dry wit, the narrator observes the foibles of human nature as the reader is launched into a twisting, turning adventure with the future of life on Earth at its core.

Alone Against the Ocean

This novel is a fictional story. The idea for it was in my mind for a long time during my night watches on the bridge when I sailed as an officer, chief mate and captain. The question was, if I remain alone on the vessel in the middle of the ocean, can I bring it alone to a safe landing? However, to be alone, something must have happened to all the other crew members. What if all this happened – not in the present when I have enough experience as a captain, but as a cadet on my first voyage – and not only did I have to solve technical problems but also survive after the vessel was attacked by pirates? Can somebody solve all these problems and more psychological ones that appear due to loneliness and disappointment when the vessel is not found by the maritime authorities? Will the main character Răzvan Mândrescu be able to solve all these problems and save his life, the vessel and its cargo? You can find out if he succeeded or not by reading the captivating story Alone Against the Ocean.

Also Known as Redemption

Gabby stole Calvin’s heart from the first moment that he saw her, without even speaking a word. He just knew. But he had no clue of how to truly become significant in her life. His antics left him out cold and out of a job. But now he is back. Now, he is ready. 

Meanwhile, Greta has married her man, is finally pregnant with their much anticipated first child and seemingly is on track to her happily ever after. Little does she know; devastation is lurking in the shadows. 

Me? Well, I think I am always okay. Sure, my superman is here. But I also know not to get too comfortable. My life has never been simple. But am I willing to fight for the best love I have ever known? And if I must fight for it, is it even worth it?

My girls and I, “The Three Gs”, continue to strive for our friendship, sisterhood, strength, independence and love. Yet each of us are facing a degree of difficulty that is exceedingly overwhelming.

Amanda – a Would-Be Killer

This tale is about the lives of three people who became friends at university and how their lives became a nightmare.

The beautiful Amanda was torn between Harry and Simon, but was she right to marry Harry when Simon took a job in Norway?

When Simon returned from Norway, he had a great idea and went into business with Harry, maintaining the services of a major hotel group.

One night, Harry was called out as the air conditioning in their client’s major hotel had failed and guests were complaining. On this visit, he saw Simon followed by Amanda coming out of a hotel suite. They were gone before he could get his wits together.

Harry finds out from the hotel’s night porter that this is a regular occurrence so he sets about investigating what is going on. He sets up surveillance cameras and is dismayed what he discovers about Amanda and Simon’s undercover relationship.

When Amanda is told how Simon has been using her, she sets out for revenge and her plan nearly works. At the same time Harry has found out how Simon came into money and set up a disreputable ‘Gentleman’s Club’ where they recruited women from abroad to satisfy their members.

What follows is quite dramatic.

An Adoration of Beauty

Darius Bukhari, lecturer of Renaissance Art at The Courtauld Institute of Fine Art in London, is left with a mystery after the visit of Judith St John James, who brings him letters from long ago concerning the disappearance of a painting by famed Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli.

Back in the 15th century, Botticelli creates a wondrous new painting in his artist’s studio in Florence. The painting, the first copy of The Birth of Venus, is overpainted, stolen and vanishes.

In London of the mid-Victorian era, two young men – Dr Thomas Fielding, physician to the elite, and Viscount Dearly, famed poet and forebear of Judith – set out for Italy to follow in the footsteps of the Romantic poets. They end up in a dingy Roman junk shop where they make an extraordinary discovery.

Following their return to London, Tom Fielding, chased by a criminal gang, is forced to leave England immediately, taking the painting with him. He travels through Central Africa with Dr David Livingstone and then once more the painting disappears.

Finally, Darius and Judith embark on a journey through Africa attempting to discover the final resting place of the missing painting.

An Age of War and Tea

2021 HFC Gold Medal Winner for Historical Fiction

An epic tale of intrigue, betrayal, and revenge, set in the turbulent era of sixteenth-century Japan. Sakichi is a provincial Samurai boy who reluctantly becomes ensnared in a conspiracy by a Shogun determined to reclaim his power. It is within this developing turmoil that events emerge to forever shape Sakichi’s life. With his life now shattered, Sakichi discovers that he is adopted, and his biological mother is a ruthless assassin, who is determined to prevent him from discovering the true identity of his father.

With such high stakes at play, Sakichi’s life is placed in grave danger. Rival factions compete with each other to assassinate him and his mother before he discovers the truth. Should the identity of Sakichi’s father become common knowledge it would not only threaten the rule of a powerful war lord but plunge the nation into greater turmoil and bloodshed.

Acclaim for An Age of War and Tea

“This book is one for the ages and ranks right up there with Shogun by James Clavell. For anyone who loves an immersive story, full of power struggles, life-changing secrets, and the full richness of the ancient exotic history of Japan, then this is must-read.” 

-HFC Awards/Book Reviews

An Agony of Flame and the Fury and the Mire

A two-part climax to The Last Vigil, An Agony of Flame and The Fury and the Mire, concludes the story of the fall of Constantinople. Here is an intense evocation, both of the gruelling eight-week siege itself and of the chaotic as well as terrifying aftermath.

In part three, Niccolo and Demetrius serve on the great Roman land walls, enduring bombardment and nocturnal hand-to-hand combat. Nestor-Iskander reappears, a deserter now from the Turkish camp. Niccolo is badly wounded, recovering in Theodora’s house in the suburb of Studion. Then comes the night of the final Ottoman assault when, after a valiant defence, treachery leads to massacre (including the death of Demetrius) and Niccolo finds himself among a scatter of survivors. 

Part four centres on Niccolo’s frantic attempts to find a way through a city, now being systematically sacked. Moreover, he must think of others. Demetrius might be dead but Nestor-Iskander has survived and demands refuge. Then there is Theodora locked up with the faithful in Hagia Sophia. Can Niccolo reach her before the marauding enemy? So, he travels deeper and deeper into his adopted city’s heart of darkness. Nestor finds protectors, loses, then regains them. Theodora is found then lost forever. Mehmet appears once more; Cinnamon never reappears. Finally, after the city has been overwhelmed and pacified, Niccolo sets sail westward across the Mediterranean, not home to Venice but to an Atlantic shore where a new age of exploration is about to dawn.  

An Alphabetical Menagerie

Are you baffled by the word "axolotl"? Do the words "unau" and "vicuña" mean nothing to you? If so, this book will enlighten you, and thanks to the illustrations, give you an idea of what they look like. It may also alert you, if you need alerting, to the threat to the existence of many species brought about by human activity.

The author wrote the verses originally to humour himself in the midst of the Covid pandemic, when he was obliged to self-isolate. Subsequently, he thought they might entertain his sister's grandchildren, or indeed anyone else's, especially if they (the verses, that is) were accompanied by illustrations. It is the author's hope, however, that the book will appeal to young and old alike. If the verses don't make you laugh or at least smile, the illustrations by Dave F. Smith should.

Oh, and by the way, just in case you don't know your alphabet, this book will provide you with ample opportunities to learn it.

An Element of Mystery

An Element of Mystery combines complex human emotions along with ghosts and mysteries of Egypt that come together in one compilation of stories and poetry.

An array of poems that delve into the mysteries of emotions – anger, depression, anxiety and loss – as well as what the stars can hold and the journey of a waterdrop, examining them in a unique style that will allow you to begin to understand some of the complex ideas around them.

Allow yourself to be transported to the wonders of Egypt in The Pharaoh’s Curse. Feel the terror of awakening on a ship that you have no recollection of getting onboard in Pressganged into the Navy. Finally, follow Henry as he collects the clues that will guide him to his lost fortune in The Mystery of the Red Diamond.

An Element of Mystery will help you question how you see the mysteries of Life.

An Enquiry into the Delight of Existence and the Sublime

In his debut collection of poetry, H. K. G. Lowery explores a journey incorporating all the natural anxieties and pains of living, leading to an understanding of real forgiveness and redemption.

From the first poem of the collection, An Ode to Father John Misty, he sets the scene touching on societal issues such as racism, homophobia, religion, addiction and consumerism. The darkness of such issues, as well as other emotional issues, are given light gradually when he journeys into the positive attributes of forgiveness, hope in the God, the wonderment of nature, self-acceptance and salvation. The collection begins to rotate towards the Sublime with A Requiem for St. Francis which holds a strong personal resonance from the time he visited Assisi in Italy.

Each poem commences with an epigraph which summarises each individual poem. The final poem sees all twelve epigraphs combine into a conclusion of the collection which results in a cathartic outpouring where the delight of existence is realised.

An Enquiry into the Delight of Existence and the Sublime is a personal journey, a rise from darkness to light, from despair to hope.

An Eternal Circle - Part 6

For 2,000 years the Ephesus gladiator cemetery has been more than simply a home to the bones of fallen warriors. Unbeknown to Tyra and her group, as they search for Alruna – the slave child and Drusilla's half-sister – merely standing on this hallowed ground beneath the ominous black marble obelisk with its sinister warning, has inadvertently set in motion the forces of destiny once again while the stars and planets in the night sky all point to an earthly event of cosmic proportions. When the next moon rises, the most celebrated gladiatrix and High Priestess to Minerva will throw off the restraining bonds of the afterlife and embark upon a desperate odyssey to find those she once loved in another time.

What does the future hold in store for a woman born twenty centuries ago and who, presumably, knows nothing of the modern world along with its unfamiliar peoples, customs and technology? Will her presence be accepted amid the hoped-for atmosphere of conciliation, fond memories and atonement? Or is it her fate to be spurned, rejected and turned away a second time, as her former lover regards her in the manner of a bizarre anomaly of the spirit world, impossible to exist in the first place and here on a mission of questionable motives?