Jake's tale is based on the true story of a baby bird who accidentally fell into the care of female prisoners in a small Virginia town. His companionship provided them with direct contact to Nature herself where there was none other. He brought with him a message of hope: There is no separation. Birds of a feather flock together. Even when we ache at the anguish and grief of loving from a distance, love knows no bounds. It reaches everyone, even those otherwise disregarded. It is the do-or-die moments that make us or break us. Jake the Jail Bird comforts those who have experienced loss and motivates those who have taken a fall. It poses the question--How will you bounce back? Will you use your voice to activate the song that is your signature? Will you choose to support those who are knocked down and provide care to them from a distance? Will you be like Jake, who acknowledges the light in everyone, ignores his inner saboteur and soars to greater heights?

"Tragedy of a doctor, one-eighth negro, who returns to Virginia with his white wife and daughter." Cf. Hanna, A. Mirror for the nation

A history of the 1885 "Squirrel Cage" rotary cell jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and information about some of the colorful prisoners housed there over the years and their crimes.

Widowed, pregnant, and penniless, Marilee returns home to Cross Roads, New Mexico, only to find that her father has been dead for six months and that her mother hasn't been sober since. But Marilee's determined to make a good life for herself and her baby. Her first order of business: fix up the family's Wayside 66 Motor Court, now rundown and overrun by outlaws. It's dangerous with bootlegger Jeb Pierce around; he'd taken charge of the place and wants nothing to change. When his actions become frightening, Marilee finds an unexpected ally in another resident. Hank Sloan was a hell raiser for years but is now making something of himself. Together he and Marilee will face danger in the fight for their newfound dreams.

Five unique short fiction stories of adventures in the old west. Break from today's politics and move back a hundred years during a commute or lunch. Experience a life threatening gunfight at sundown twisting in a surprising conclusion. Jim Kern turned away from Curley, then spun around saying, " Missed your chance Curley; you coulda shot me in the back!" Army Scout Jay Morris, woke up with a gun in his face hearing a screaming woman say, " You're not the man I married! Who the hell are you ?" the beginning of trouble? Then Jake's "Will you marry me?" Answer, "Of all the idiotic and lame brained people I've ever met Mister you are the worst. You don't just roll off a rock pile and propose to some girl you've never met!" And the stage hold up, " Damnit! You hard of hearin? I said, I need a woman! One of them girls in there." The Jakala story, Jeanie screamed, " Oh God! Joe look here!" and with shaking hands, a one ounce gold Ferdinand. All enjoyable reads even for me the author.

Shaped by the unique stories of my time in federal custody, the JailBird Diet takes the reader into the world of incarceration that challenges the mind, body, and spirit at every turn. Out of the “shock and awful” of prison’s daily rituals comes a radical life change: the cleansing regimens, “superfoods,” and feeding disciplines I used to confront this new world and achieve radical weight loss. JailBird defines the tools of my diet journey that drove my 100 pound weight loss and shaped a new me. Based on the food and activity logs I kept in my daily prison journal, the JailBird Diet also provides a week-by-week story of the journey from my first day of surrender to the last days when the pandemic and solitary confinement threatened to leave me just pounds from my weight goal. In so doing, it provides the tools to replicate this kind of weight loss in the free world.