The One That Got Away
When George Tate’s private charter crashes northeast of the Bahamas, he finds himself adrift with a woman half his age whom he’s only just met. George knows nothing about surviving at sea, but it bothers him little because he’s not sure he wants to live. He turns the reigns of his days over to Axel, a former marine running from a dishonorable discharge, traveling with her guitar, a case of Johnnie Walker, and a mysterious canvas bag. As Axel’s scotch and persistent probing break down George’s defenses, he tells her what’s driven him to the edge of the world, and with her guidance, discovers what he needs to be okay.
Copyright Dec, 2024: Fiction-Drama, 162 pages, paperback
The Judge Was a Jew
Kriss Kringle is a racist. And, yes, this story is about that Kringle family. The Kriss in question is Santa’s twenty-five-year-old son, a deadbeat covering the state of Florida for The North Pole, Inc. When Kriss is found guilty of gun charges in a case the judge calls a hate crime, he’s sentenced to four years at Meadowridge, a prison where inmates self-segregate based on race. It should be Kriss’s kind of place, but after aligning with a white supremacy gang for protection, he learns the hard way that skin color is not what divides us.
Copyright Dec, 2024: Fiction-Comedy, 152 pages, paperback
A Twisted Living
Lucy Harrison thinks ageism in America is a real problem, and she’s tired of the armchair activists getting all the attention on social media. Desperate to do something that actually matters, when her estranged mother dies and wills her a condo inside the Lakeview Village, a luxury senior living community in Central Florida, she uproots her young family and moves them in. Her husband, Chris, can’t believe this is what his life has become—Who their age lives in assisted living?—but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, not since losing his job. Inside Lakeview’s gates, something sinister is afoot, but Lucy and Chris ignore their observations, blinded by their respective vices. Lucy falls deeper into her online persona, obsessing over her growing influence, and Chris goes off the deep end in his own way, headfirst into the vodka he’s stashing all over the place. Meanwhile, their daughter has attracted the attention of Lakeview’s most elite residents.
Copyright July 2024: Fiction-Comedy/Horror, 312 pages, hardcover
A San Francisco Story
Russell Dawkins is moving to San Francisco. He’s never been further than Denver, but his new job and girlfriend Scarlett are pulling him west. Cut off from support from their disapproving families, the broke couple scrapes together enough money to rent an apartment in a multi-unit Victorian in the historic Haight-Ashbury. As Russell and Scarlett meet their neighbors and grow accustomed to a new way of living, their relationship is stressed as their worldviews shift. Told POV from the perspectives of ten characters whose lives intersect, A San Francisco Story is a time machine back to your early twenties that will make you nostalgic for the cringe-worthy period of new adulthood when all of life’s doors were still open.
Copyright July 2021: Fiction-Drama/New-Adult, 440 pages, hardcover
Another San Francisco Story
Two years have passed, and Russell has advanced at the Telephone Company, but his big salary comes at the cost of managing his best friend. Without the skills to talk about what ails him, he buries his feelings, coping with drugs and an ill-thought-through love affair. As Russell’s life circles the toilet, his beloved San Francisco descends into darkness. A teenage girl has gone missing, a technology mogul with an outsized ego has built a dating app using the “Like Button,” and a twisted owner of a nursing home is prescribing residents into oblivion, trapping souls inside bodies, ensuring money keeps pouring in from the state. Everything’s connected, and one person can save it all, but they have no idea they hold the key.
Copyright March 2023: Fiction-Drama/New-Adult, 362 pages, hardcover
Zachary Ashbury 