Joan's Story

Looking around at her family, Joan sighed happily. Yes, she was truly blessed. For everything she had ever hoped for was right here in this room. Her family and her daughters, all happy and content, all the grandchildren growing up fast and making their own way in the world and her precious Ed by her side. Life was truly good. Today would be a memory she would never forget.

Roll on ten years and life for Joan has changed considerably. She has indeed lost all memory of that perfect day and many other happy memories. This story follows Joan through the heart-breaking suffering of dementia. Her family becomes more and more alarmed by her actions and tries to cope with the situation as sensitively as they can. However, dementia is a cruel and wicked disease which changes the whole dynamic of Joan’s life. Just what does the future hold for them all? Will Joan ever remember some of the good times again?

John Stone

When it came time to choose a career, John Stone wanted to follow his passion of adventure and the great outdoors. After a stint in military college, Stone becomes a member of an elite Army scouts division. This led to numerous deployments, one in particular being a six-month mission to Pakistan to locate Bin Laden, post 9/11. During a trip to Europe, when terrorism was rampant, Stone found himself in the middle of an attack on a US Consulate. With his team, Stone tracked the attackers and their financial supporters to Brussels, Zurich, Jeddah and Karachi. An extensive search for the perpetrators to bring them to justice or extermination culminated with a drone strike on a terrorist camp located in Afghanistan.

Joint Enterprise

On a winter’s night, in a grubby alleyway, in a northern town, Josh, a 17-year-old A Level student, is found stabbed to death.

The police investigation soon focuses on the four people who were in the alleyway with him that night – Josh’s girlfriend, Naomi and three members of a local gang, involved in drugs and violence.

The three gang members are charged but the police start to look more closely at Naomi. New evidence emerges which seems to point to Naomi.

Could Naomi be complicit with the gang? Is she a victim or a suspect? Or are the police looking in the wrong place? Soon her lawyers become Naomi’s only hope of a life beyond this nightmare.

An emotional exploration of the impact of a murder on family and friends combined with the roller coaster ride of twists and turns which make for a high-profile criminal investigation and trial.

Joseph’s Career

Joseph is young and wealthy, with no need to work. One day, on a whim, he decides he needs to get a job. Choosing a city building at random, he gets in a lift and ends up in an employment agency called ‘White World’ where, through his own foolishness, he gets the job he did not want. Joseph’s subsequent travels take him through four surreal worlds, each representing different aspects of capitalism and raising questions about the nature of self-determination and agency in money-driven societies. Joseph’s career takes him through the white anthill of the worker, to the darkness of ruthless desert, to a grey film studio complex of fear and finally to the Farm. The protagonist starts out as a selfish fool. However, his experiences change him into a complex man who is looking for his true self.

Journey to a New Life

This is a story about the long and traumatic journey of two hard working Irish families at the time of the great famine and potato blight in Ireland in the mid nineteenth century when the country was governed from London and the poor were suffering greatly from starvation and disease.

The Doyle and the Gill families both became victims of the arrogant and ignorant son of the local landlord and magistrate and were forced to leave the land of their birth.

In different ways they suffered on the first sea leg of their respective journeys to the port of Liverpool in England where they became united.

They decided that their eventual destination was Canada and to achieve that dream they had to earn enough money by working for an extended period in Liverpool and industrial Lancashire.

Finally, they travelled by sailing ship to Canada. How would they fare? Would their dream eventually come true?

Journey to the Centre of Ourselves

Journey to the Centre of Ourselves is a path into discovering who we really are. It speaks the stories of fantasy and real life. It encourages us to live for the now, laugh in the moment and love whoever we desire. Life’s too short for anything else. It has assisted me in walking through my past to discover who I was, the present to stay the course and the future to reassure myself that living my dreams is a star to always reach for. No matter what they are, I encourage the readers of this book to do the same. Create, walk and cherish your own path of dreams. Know that your head and heart work together to make sure your life shines as brightly as the dreams you follow. It may take more courage, strength and preservation than maybe anything has before but, as cliché as this sounds, I’m a small-town girl with a big dream and I’m getting to live it. As long as your heart is in everything you want, never be afraid to dream. One more thing to you riveted readers out there; no matter how alone or in the dark you may feel, there is always light. That light always stays, never diminishes and provides all of us with the inner strength we need.

Journey's Bend

A poignant collection of short stories with a vivid mix of relatable characters confronting a bend in the road. The lucid prose, rich in imagery, illuminates people’s unyielding courage in challenging times.

Dealing with bereavement, displacement and renewal, the creative tales twist and turn through the vagaries of life. In the opening story, Gran absconding from a care home makes her escape in a red Reliant Robin, an epochal vehicle from her courtship days. Courageously, in ‘Wind Horse’, Maggie harnesses her wild emotions and canters on to fresh green meadows.

Using varied settings and compelling voices of all ages, Journey’s Bend celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. Tinged with humour, the touching stories will resonate with a wide range of readers scrambling through change.

Judith

A young girl wearing a coat two sizes too large and carrying two plastic carrier bags tucks her hair into the hood and with a huge smile walks into that stormy night.

A rookie agent discovers the brutally murdered body of a prominent senior politician in a sex den flat in a slum area of Soho. When he walks into that same stormy night he carries the blood-soaked body of a paedophile, memories that will haunt him for years and guilt of being the first stage of a cover-up to save the dead man’s reputation.

That young girl and that rookie agent were tied together by that night. He needed answers and as he moved up the ladder of authority he used his position to seek those answers using justice of law. She wanted the law of justice. Justice for the victims against those who are so sure they are beyond the law.

Their paths were destined to meet, and only one of them can claim a victory – but which one?

Jupiter

The story of Isaac Marcu Moritz and the great affliction of his childhood caused by a lightning bolt launched by Jupiter, god of the sky, the father of gods and men, and the patron of Rome. 

The bolt kills his aged mentor whose knowledge of history and languages is transferred to the traumatised mind of the boy. He is plagued throughout his life by visions and torment of Rome’s ancient rulers and gods.

Growing up on the family farm his skill in the capture of flies by hand learned by watching his grandmother’s action while at the packing table leads to success in rural land sales and a posting in a university entomology research program of hand-fly-capture. He establishes Snap-Zap-Solutions with the aim of eradicating the pestilence to improve the human condition.

Will he ever understand himself enough to empathise or forever live in abeyance wondering who or what is really driving his life?

Just in Time

Enhanced Holographic Imaging.

He has finally done it, Alexie Davidov has finally cracked the code to time itself. Enhanced Holographic Imaging, or E.H.I, will allow humanity to view anytime or event in human history.

What should be a crowning achievement for humanity soon becomes a personal hell for Alexie and his daughter, Nickola, as they find themselves running out of time attempting to stay alive. Meanwhile, they are continuously pursued by those who are willing to kill to keep their secrets lost to time.

Just Outside This Room

This book of poems was partially written while I was quarantined courtesy of the Covid-19 pandemic in Henan Province, China.
A stay that was prolonged to seven and a half months.
The myth and mystery of human experience evoked by being alone, finding myself on the edge of no return. The vulnerability, sudden solitude, struggles in a lifetime, consolidated in meditations, poems and reflections.
Most of the poems are spiritual in context, some just free thoughts.
My nephew’s take on this book of poetry was: ‘If you thought through the poems, then I will read them.’
I am very thankful and humble for this unexpected and unique opportunity, a journey of lifetime.
I am also looking forward to sharing this adventure in mind and spirit with you.
Michael Hovi

Justifiable Killings

Derek Hardy, a reserved man living in a Manhattan apartment, has long been haunted by memories of relentless bullying from his past. These scars have manifested as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and haunting nightmares. To cope, Derek has relied on meditation and visualization techniques, often imagining the bullies meeting grim fates.

However, when these coping mechanisms falter, Derek’s suppressed emotions threaten to overwhelm him. Succumbing to his darkest impulses, he embarks on a chilling spree, exacting revenge on those who tormented him, starting with his boss, Desmond Buckley.

This tale delves into the profound effects of trauma and the dangerous consequences of emotions left unchecked, illustrating how even the most unassuming individual can be pushed to the brink.