LA LUZ
LA LUZ
Publication Date: November 2021
A poetic and colorful TRUE coming-of-age story. An impressionistic young surfer on the verge of adulthood is forced to abandon his glorious, sensory-rich Hawaiian paradise for a life-altering and challenging existence in the heart of the American Southwest. The instant he stops off the bus, he's immersed in an enchanting land with a culturally rich history, breath-taking vistas, heart-wrenching music and unforgettable souls. Lifelong friendships are forged, and he learns that love is more powerful than any wave he encountered at Waimea Bay. It's the late 1960's in the historic village of La Luz, gateway to Tularosa and Alamogordo, where neighbors wage war over water rights, homes are built of clay and mud, and dogs fall asleep in the middle of the street: a place where a haole surfer boy can fall in love with a beautiful Mexican-American girl who will change his life forever.
Third installment in the "Jewel Legacy" series.
PRINCIPAL KEEPER
Publication Date: January 2020
There hadn’t been a principal keeper at Seward Lighthouse in nearly 100 years. Daniel took the job on the desolate island off the coast of New England to escape a painful past. Isolated, devoid of human contact, he planned to start over, re-center his life and write his memoirs. However, former residents of the lighthouse had other ideas. Daniel discovered he’d never be alone until he unraveled the mystery of the restless souls who never left the island.
My Haole Brother
Publication Date: Spring 2019
Book three of the American Nomad Series
MY HAOLE BROTHER is the story of Jewel's beloved brother and his transformative years at Maui's famed Lahainaluna boarding school. The story is told through the eyes of Abe Kelekolio. Abe lives alone in a cottage on the beach. Kai, his neighbor's granddaughter, brings Abe a letter from the Mainland. A stranger named Jewel wants to meet with him and discuss the HAOLE. It's the subject Abe never wants to revisit. At one time the HAOLE was nothing, less than nothing, and then he was everything. Abe meets with Jewel and the story of his life and relationship with the HAOLE unravels. MY HAOLE BROTHER is inspired by the true story of the first four-year HAOLE boarder graduate of LAHAINALUNA High School. Racial unrest and a war in Southeast Asia are tearing the country apart, and the assassinations of King and Kennedy threaten the moral fabric of a nation. In this disruptive time of the 1960's, a white boy checks into a dormitory at a boarding school where racial prejudice and violence directed at HAOLES has existed for a hundred and thirty-five years. Against incredible odds, the HAOLE survived, found his family and rose above his physical scars. Abe recounts the remarkable story of the HAOLE'S history-making life.
Songs for the Soul
Publication Date: July 2017
Book two of the Brooklyn Bishop Series
It began with three women, bound by a goal to find and destroy four men. Beautiful Momi was the spirit of the Hawaiian Islands who kept the Maui plantation home a sanctuary for the enigmatic and deadly, Brooklyn Bishop, who they called ‘Luna’, the leader. Five years ago, their mission accomplished, and to protect her friends, Luna leapt from a cliff into an angry ocean. Better that she died, she’d decided, so that the people she loved did not suffer for her sins. But sins never die. They rise like north shore swells before thundering down onto the innocent. The elusive Madame B., a computer genius, steps from the shadows to deal with the consequences of Luna’s carnage. The journey begins when Momi offers up a traditional Island prayer to the heavens, a ‘Song for the Soul’ in honor of her beloved, only to trigger a chain of events that lead to the highest pinnacle of political power, murder and mystery. A cell phone buzzes on an isolated beach in Australia, a familiar voice answers and the person is pulled out of hiding. Old friends and enemies come together once more to solve a senseless murder in a raw and violent way.
SONGS FOR THE SOUL will take the reader on a journey from the shores of Hawaii to the halls of the nation’s Capital. Political intrigue and a quest for revenge converge in a final, explosive confrontation.
American Nomad
Publication Date: January 2013
Book one of the American Nomad Series
The late 1950s defined America for a post-war generation. Tract housing devoured farmland, and rock and roll music divided the generations. Disneyland, transistor radios, automobiles and televisions molded a new American culture, and highways like Route 66 transformed the country into a nomadic society.
Jewel’s family was moving too, from one military duty station in the Azores to another on the shores of Waikiki, but they had to traverse the American continent to get there. Loaded into the family’s new Chevy Nomad station wagon, they began their three-week journey across an undulating tapestry of quirky relatives, motor hotels, blossoming gas stations, chrome-plated diners, national parks, and the turbulent emotions swirling around their family.
Writing in his Big Chief tablet, Jewel documents their coast-to-coast trip, not realizing he's changing faster than the landscape rushing past his window. Along the way, he’ll discover a father with god-like strength and authority, who spared no rods and captained the Nomad like a disciplined soldier, and a porcelain mother who threatens to shatter at the slightest bump in the road. Older brother Charlie is a compass to be admired and revered, but never followed. Deep in the soil of his family, Jewel finds his roots and learns to appreciate cousins in ways he’s never imagined. He'll forge rules about life, love and family values at a time when it mattered most.
Now, introspective about the journey, Jewel reflects on the outcome of the events and people who were part of the AMERICAN NOMAD. Where did the road ultimately lead everyone? Did they survive into the future, or did fires of their own making consume them, and has time given Jewel greater understanding about the events of that single month in the summer of 1957?
AMERICAN NOMAD has delightful humor, haunting images of sadness and powerful expressions of love.
Island Jewel
Publication Date: December 2013
Book two of the American Nomad Series
Jewel and his family board the 1950's luxury liner Lurline for the continuation of their journey to Territorial Hawaii and island living; first at Hickam Air Force Base on the banks of Pearl Harbor, then into the suburb of Pearl City before moving to the lush sugar cane fields of Aiea Heights. Jewel learns to surf Waianae and Barber's Point, roams the bustling streets of Waikiki and struggles when his beloved brother moves to a boarding school on another island.
The Weight of Gravity
Publication Date: April 2013
It all begins when Max Rosen comes home to Cottonwood. Years ago he couldn’t escape the provincial world of his hometown fast enough, but time and fame as an award-winning novelist taught him that he left behind his one true inspiration, and her name is Erika Morgan.
Cottonwood is where Erika’s life began and where she's certain it will end. In time, convinced that Max would never return, she put aside her love for him and married into a prominent local family with old money.
With his career stalled and haunted by 'what ifs', Max is pulled by emotional gravity back to the one person who inspired his love of writing. Does Cottonwood really hold keys to unlocking his sadness, or is he living out a fantasy from one of his fictional romances?
Given a second chance to follow your heart, can you make the right choice, or are you bound to accept what fate has provided for your life?
Photoplasm - A Haunting
Publication Date: August 2013
A photojournalist takes a picture of a stately Victorian home and captures the image of an attractive, turn-of-the-century young minister who begins to haunt every picture she snaps anywhere in the world. Caitlin Meyers' nightmare threatens her sanity. She's compelled to unravel the mystery of why the apparition of the holy man is obsessed with following her. Her journey exposes a centuries-old murder mystery and the evil souls that will not rest until more lives are lost or the ghosts are finally put to rest.
Luna
Publication Date: July 2014
Book one of the Brooklyn Bishop Series
Brooklyn Bishop is on a mission. She's a successful businesswoman living an idyllic life with a beautiful Polynesian in a plantation home nestled against the rainforest on Maui's north coast. But she's compelled to find four men who committed a horrible crime. Her journey will be dangerous. Complicating Brooklyn's life is an ambitious writer who is determined to find her and unravel the mystery behind her obsession. LUNA is a story filled with the raw beauty, sights and sounds of exotic Island locations. This novel is as sexually provocative as FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and has a female protagonist as dynamic as THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. A must read!
WARNING: Explicit sexual content. Intended for mature, adult readers.
Theatre Arts: Fundamental Theory and Practice
Textbook Publication Date: 2011 (Edition 2)
Major additions to the first edition. Still an easy to read, comprehensive textbook for both majors and non-majors. Focus expands on the basics of the discipline, offering a solid understanding of the history, theory, and application of the art of theatre. The major theme of how the different aspects of theatre arts are applicable to anyone's life, regardless of educational and professional aspirations continues in this second edition. An expanded glossary and index enhances this updated edition.
Theatre Arts covers the following in a logical approach:
- the history, context, and physical structures required of theatre
- the collaborative effort of the individual artists involved in theatre
- the specifics of production and performance
Also available from the publisher, KendallHunt, by clicking on the cover photo to the left. Or from Amazon using the link below.