This is the story of Billy, a young boy during the Civil War who has to choose between right and wrong, good and bad, and life and death. Together he and his cousin, Stephen, get to experience what it's like to be involved with the war firsthand, but is it as glorious as it seems? As Billy struggles with his southern heritage, his character will be defined by the choices he makes. Amanda has a Bachelor's degree in Special Education and a Master's degree in Education. She taught public school for four years before deciding to become a stay at home mom. She enjoys reading, writing and spending time with her family. She currently resides outside of St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and their three children.

A poignant and personal account of the progressive ravages of Early-Onset Alzheimer's disease, not only on Billy's memory and quality of life, but also the relationship between a husband and a wife, as the disease steadily dissolved the partnership of marriage far too soon. The transition of Billy's fiery independence into that of a childlike dependent was consistent and confounding, and a stark contrast to the vibrant personality he had always embodied. The Monster of Alzheimer's grew fierce quickly, but with determination to fill the final chapter of their love story with moments of joy, they attempted to ignore the Monster for a small bit of time and live intentionally in each gifted moment together. With defiance against the Monster's inevitable conquest of Billy's beautiful mind, and a desire to fill that final chapter with sustaining memories, the conservative boundaries of a planned out future were forfeited and Billy's natural tendency to live life with wild abandon embraced. Uprooting a life of security built together in rural Montana and transplanting it on Oregon's serene central coast, ushered in one significant summer in which to search out adventure, reconnect with distant family members, and settle into a temporary bubble to share a precious season together. The Giver allowed a whirlwind of adventure and wild abandon before the Monster could no longer be ignored and The Taker threatened to step in. The depth of love and strength often realized only through battle, teamed with frustration and panic, became weapons in this heart-wrenching war and eventually led them back to Montana where the inevitable surrender took place on the battlefield of home. Early-Onset Alzheimer's without a genetic component itself is quite rare, but a twist in the last days of Billy's war revealed a possible and yet rarer diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy. And, although Alzheimer's disease has become a research priority and has been deemed an epidemic in many articles, awareness of the lack of support and compassion for those suffering with dementia left a bruised spirit in the wake of battles fought and lost. Perhaps Billy's story will inspire the courage necessary to face one day at a time for anyone searching for answers throughout the same dark tunnels, and help them to discover God's grace and presence where they would least expect it.

William Avery Bishop is recognized as the British EmpireÕs highest-scoring WWI ace, credited with 72 combat victories, third-ranking behind von Richthofen and RenŽ Fonck. He scored many of his successes on his own, prevailing only by dint of personal courage, daring and superior marksmanship. This remarkable manÕs story has been detailed in many books and articles, but renowned author Peter Kilduff is adamant that so far the full truth has not been told. Famed for his evenhanded, thorough, exhaustive and forensic research, Kilduff sets out to bring new light to missions and kills so far steeped in controversy. As so many of BishopÕs victories were achieved during solo combat, all will be examined and scrutinized, drawing on German, British and Canadian archival sources, BishopÕs private correspondence, and accounts by friends and foes. Such an approach provides as complete an account as possible which also serves as a valuable reference work containing many previously unpublished images.

Sports fans had much to occupy themselves with during the memorable summer of ’41, including New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio's record-setting consecutive games hit streak and Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams' dogged pursuit of batting .400. No sports story, however, loomed larger that summer than Joe Louis versus Billy Conn, the hard-hitting heavyweight champion, Detroit’s "Brown Bomber," battling the stylish and cocky "Pittsburgh Kid.” Considered one of the greatest matches in boxing history, the fight saw the underdog Conn well ahead on points until Louis knocked him out in the 13th round. Ed Gruver captures the high drama of that sultry night at the Polo Grounds, the brash confidence of the challenger from Pittsburgh, and the quiet dignity of the Black champion Louis, who personified “the memory of every injustice practiced upon his people and the memory of every triumph.”

Where in the world is Billy Battles? As Book Three of the Finding Billy Battles trilogy begins we know where Billy is. He is in Chicago with his wife, the former Baroness Katharina von Schreiber living a sedate and comfortable life after years of adventure and tragedy. That changes with a single telephone call that yanks Billy and Katharina back into a life of turmoil and peril. Persuaded by a powerful old friend to go undercover for the U.S. government the two find themselves in Mexico during the height of the violent 1910-1920 revolution. There they grapple with assorted German spies, Mexican revolutionaries, devious political operatives, and other miscreants. Caught in the middle of the 1914 American invasion of Veracruz, they must find a way out while keeping their real identities secret. After managing to extract themselves from danger, disaster strikes. It’s an ordeal Billy is all too familiar with and one that will send him plummeting into a painful abyss of despair and agony. Consequently, Billy vanishes leaving family and friends to wonder what happened to him. Where is he? Is he dead or alive? What provoked his disappearance? In Book Three of the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy, those questions are answered, and the mystery behind Billy’s disappearance is finally revealed.

Billy Battles is not in Kansas anymore! As Book 2 of the Finding Billy Battles trilogy opens, Billy is far from his Kansas roots—and his improbable journeys are just beginning. He is aboard an ocean liner sailing to the Mysterious East (Hong Kong, French Indochina, and the Philippines), among other places. The year is 1894 and aboard the S S China Billy meets a mysterious, dazzling, and possibly dangerous German Baroness, locked horns with malevolent agents of the German government, and battled ferocious Chinese and Malay pirates in the South China Sea. Later, he is inadvertently embroiled in the bloody anti-French insurgency in Indochina–which quite possibly makes him the first American combatant in a country that eventually will become Vietnam. Later, in the Philippines, he is thrust into the Spanish-American War and the anti-American insurgency that follows. But Billy’s troubles are just beginning. As the 19th century ends and the 20th century begins, he finds himself entangled with political opportunists, spies, revolutionaries and an assortment of malevolent and dubious characters of both sexes. How will Billy handle those people and the challenges they present?

When Billy Mitchell returned from WWI, he brought with him the deep-seated belief that air power had made navies obsolete. However, in the years following WWI, the U.S. Congress was far more interested in disarmament and isolationist policies than in funding national defense. For the military services this meant lean budgets and skeleton operating forces. Billy Mitchell’s War with the Navy recounts the intense political struggle between the Army and Navy air arms for the limited resources needed to define and establish the role of aviation within their respective services in the period between the two world wars. After Congress rejected the concept of a unified air service in 1920, Mitchell and his supporters turned on the Navy, seeking to substitute the Air Service as the nation's first line of defense. While Mitchell proved that aircraft could sink a battleship with the bombing of the Ostfriesland in 1921, he was unable to convince the General Staff of the Army, the General Board of the Navy, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, or Congress of the need for an independent air force. When Mitchell turned to the pen to discredit the Navy, he was convicted by his own words and actions in a court-martial that captivated the nation, and was forced to resign in 1925. Rather than ending the rivalry for air power, Mitchell’s resignation set the stage for the ongoing dispute between the two services in the years immediately before WWII. After Mitchell’s resignation, the rivalry for air power between the two services resurfaced when the Navy's plans to procure torpedo planes for the defense of Pearl Harbor and Coco Solo were brought to the attention of the Army. The book concludes with a description of the events surrounding the Air Corps' abysmal performance at Pearl Harbor and Midway followed by a critical assessment of how the development of aviation was pursued by the Army and the Navy after WWII.

By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, this intimate biography of the British comic is “a triumph of the will, an Angela’s Ashes with punch lines” (Publishers Weekly). One of the UK’s most beloved stand-up comedians, Billy Connolly is recognized around the world for his HBO comedy specials and roles in movies like The Boondock Saints and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. An inspiration to generations of British comedians, including such stars as Eddie Izzard, Billy is known simply as “The Big Yin” in his native Scotland. But his road to success was anything but easy. Abandoned by his mother in a Glasgow tenement, abused by his father and the cruel aunt who became his caretaker, he would seem to have little chance of survival let alone meteoric success. Billy, the revelatory, poignant, and wildly entertaining biography is written by the woman who knows him best—his wife. Pamela Stephenson, a clinical psychologist, takes us through the heartbreaking and hilarious life of this comic legend, providing an intimate window into what made him the man he is today.

Western Kansas 1860. Billy Battles is born on a remote homestead just off the storied Santa Fe Trail. More than one hundred years later a great-grandson inherits two trunks filled with Billy's personal effects. In those trunks are several secret journals that reveal an astonishing life of adventure and violence that until now was obscured by the haze of time and Billy's desire for secrecy. The journals tell of a man both haunted and hunted who, in a desperate search for peace and redemption, journeys far from the untamed American West to the Far East, South America, and Europe. In amazing detail they describe Billy's interaction with a wide assortment of men and women--some legendary, a few iniquitous, and many lost to history. They also recount his participation in such cataclysmic events as the Spanish-American War, turmoil in French Indochina, and violent revolutions in Mexico and South America. Complying with Billy's last request the great-grandson assembles the journals into a compelling trilogy that reveals a man often trapped and overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control, but who nevertheless manages to persevere for ten decades.