Showing results by publisher "Black Rose Writing" in Literary Fiction

Hertell Daggett isn't what he used to be—he'd once been married, he'd once been a physicist, and he'd once been shot in the head. The doctors got the bullet out, but a few tiny specks of copper stayed behind, floating inside his brain, connecting parts that aren't connected in the rest of us, filaments of species memory going back to the beginning of time.

Jason Cashman has reached the goal he spent the last twenty years seeking: raising a million dollars for charity. But instead of feeling content, he now feels empty. What comes next? When he meets Alexandra Lopez—a determined ten-year-old girl facing deportation and uncertainty—he is inspired by his old friend, Murray McBride, to help her fulfill five wishes before she must leave.

Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven't left behind the dangers that caused them to flee.

When Mar Meyer's husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures - as long as she can keep things casual. With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next.

Thirtysomething Leigh Fortune never thought she’d make it this far. Emerging from the ashes of a traumatic childhood, she’s managed to plant her flag on Terra Normal. But under the surface she’s unsure—of herself, of her fiancée, of everything. A letter informing her of her estranged mother’s death tips her from uncertainty into emotional upheaval and sends her on a journey that will take her from the dunes of Cape Cod to Las Vegas and back.

Stephen Detals played professional baseball before flaming out in whiskey-fueled catastrophe. His father and grandfather killed themselves on their 39th birthdays. Stephen is 38. He battles alcoholism, abandonment, suicidal tendencies, and lethal family history to survive his impending birthday. This novel chronicles the final eight days before Stephen Detals' 39th birthday. His relapse into addiction forces Stephen back to the Neches River and the Piney Woods of Southeast Texas.

When twenty-six-year-old Zarah returns home in 2002, desperate to reconcile with the family she abandoned, their first night together revives memories of events that led to her abandonment and their hopes fizzle.

At a hot springs retreat in Montana, whiskey-swigging Maude, the nearly eighty-year-old chef, longs for the glory days when the retreat hosted martini-sipping celebrities instead of long-haired hippies who refuse to wear deodorant. Brooke, feisty, adventurous, and a bit reckless, proposes a reunion at the retreat with her best friends to get away from the chaos of her life with teenagers and the emotional aftermath of her postponed wedding.

The Otis, an inconsequential river—not the Hudson—flows through Wattsville, a small city a few hours north, but a universe away from the real City, capital C. You might think the everyday people who live here, in this land of scarce opportunity, are also inconsequential. Until you meet them.

Therapy might get her closer to feeling happy, but surviving 50 minutes of psychological interrogation is hard without obsessing about raspberry donuts or wondering why the couch, carpet, and wall color in her shrink's office are all the same shade of kill-me-now-beige, and why every decision she makes is wrong.

The green house is more than a greenhouse. Seven flowers, seven colors, seven meanings, and one 37-year-old secret - the green house is the keeper of it all. Its creator, Girard Remington, is a fragile elderly man whose life was shattered by a tragedy nearly four decades ago. And when tragedy strikes again - this time to his beloved wife, Miriam - he struggles to cope.

McBride is an aging Boston private eye. Sylvia is his threatening and seductive partner. Gray hires them to find his brother before his brother finds him. The only clue is an unsourced photo of the twin in the stands at a Bruins game — or is it Gray himself? Increasingly convinced their client is either insane or playing a double game — or both — McBride and Sylvia chase dead-ends across Boston, New York, and hockey — and when Gray's doppelganger finally turns up (with the equally colorful name of Brown), Gray vanishes.

In Broken Pieces of God David B. Seaburn returns to the domestic arena to explore the complex and extraordinary lives of an ordinary American couple, Eddy and Gayle Kimes. Eddy, a supervisor for a cable company, loses his job. Gayle, a tax accountant, is recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Unemployment, failed chemotherapy, and no insurance bring them to life’s precipice. Desperate, Eddy turns to a statue of Jesus, seeking a miracle, while Gayle dives deeper into a scheme she has been concocting for twenty-five years.

In Heaven, there is a gated community for those who end their lives by choice. This is a complete surprise to 43-year old Hope, who ends her life one morning on the banks of the Fox River in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Hope has always dealt with deep sadness. From childhood on, she visited therapists, doctors, alternative medicine practitioners, Reiki artists, etc., to no avail. In Heaven, God reassures her that he knows what caused the sadness, but he won't reveal it yet.

Duke Boleslav, brother to Wenceslas, reveals to his young son his own life's dreadful tale, and why this boy must dedicate his life to his father's salvation. Pagan priests vie with one another and with the growing power of Christianity. Prague is a trading center with an important slave market, a thriving iron industry, and is a crossroads of far-reaching trade routes. It is growing in wealth, yet threatened by jealous enemies and forces, both external and within its borders.

As Parul grows older, she becomes increasingly unhappy and resentful with her lot in life. Mohini struggles with their relationship as well, never sure whether to treat Parul as a sister or a servant. When Parul has a passionate, secret affair with Rahim, a radical Muslim, the careful order the Sens have maintained is thrown into chaos.

Claire and Gary, college sweethearts, married for decades were at an impasse. They had been together forever, and started taking each other for granted. When faced with problems they would normally tackle together, they turned elsewhere and struggled to find their way home. Gary finds his biological family, Claire struggles with identity issues, and their son is forced to become an adult.

Charley Byrne isn't really living. At age 29, she hunkers down in her apartment above the bookstore she manages, afraid of a 7-year curse. Then quirky activist Xander Wallace lures her out of social exile with the prospect of friendship and romance. Charley joins Xanders circle of friends diverse in their heritage, race, gender and sexual orientation. She thrives, even leaving her comfort zone to join protests in a city struggling with social justice ills.

Hildy Halverson, a genius in math and science, is pushed by her parents to step into a male-dominated field and change the world for women. But Hildy, enamored of the scientific force of the human body, and her own body's ability to create and sustain life, decides to go against contemporary expectations. She marries young and raises a houseful of kids. Hildy wants her children to choose their own life paths. As each child is born, she tells them, "You can be whatever you want to be, and whatever you want to be will be great."

Decker Brown is a proud young Virginian, Boston-educated, with plans to manufacture fireworks and raise a family. He loves Paula Crane, the daughter of a Virginia flour mill owner. When the country is divided by Civil War, their loyalty to each other is put to the ultimate test. Decker believes in the Republic's promise of liberty. Paula can't imagine taking up arms against her friends and neighbors.