Tom Gnagey

For adults and young adults 15 and older. David is a super-bright, loveable, always helpful and compassionate 17-year-old. Everybody in his small town loves him. He pretty well runs the show in his high school. This story covers one week or so of his junior year during which there is a date to the Winter Dance, a band concert, church choir practice, sports, classes, interaction with his family - the usual things in a teen boy's life. The more meaningful story, however, deals with David's struggle to make sense of life - to find some purpose for living and fend off his reoccurring depression. He has lots of meaningful conversations with his best friend. They are different - polar opposites - in almost every way, and yet they share one important trait - the overriding desire to figure things out: why is there hate, how can greedy people just ignore the pain and suffering in the world, are there universally agreed upon standards of right and wrong, good and evil? Their very serious search is woven in among their rather normal teenage lives - the fun, the accomplishments, the associations, the good times and the bad. In the end, for David, he comes to believe that are all his options are bad.

Josh, a humor columnist for a city daily newspaper and his fianc , Sally, become involved in the investigation of a series of assassinations that come to be called The Rooftop Murders. Well known citizens with obvious shady pasts, but who have never been convicted, become the victims. The same rifle is used in each case. The only clue is a 30/30 casing left behind at each crime scene - each one bares a message for the city. The authorities are baffled. Josh and Sally are up to the task.

This book includes twelve stories, which proclaim the power of love. Helping others feel good is often the most powerful demonstration of love one has available, Love, its demonstration, and its sharing, come in many forms, many shapes, and many sizes. It is frequently unexpected. Sometimes, if one is not prone to look for it, it will be missed. What a terrible loss for all parties The short stories in this volume are what the author calls 'Feel Good' pieces. They may tend toward the Pollyanna. They may seem somewhat predictable. They may even come off as sappy. In the end the author hopes each story leaves the reader feeling good. Traditionally, the period of the winter holidays is a Season of Love - a time we reflect on how the world is better because of the power of love. Included are eight holiday stories - originally the author's Holiday Cards from the past several years. The other four stories also fulfill the mission of defining and illustrating love. Many include children paired with old folks - a natural setting for love to blossom.

Now to an outsider, they may just seem to be part of one more fanciful folk tale, but to those of us who grew up in the Ozark Mountains The Little People are as real as you and I. Each about as tall as a grape hyacinth, they are an altruistic clan, peaceful and loving by nature, who prefer the simple, uncomplicated, candle lit life of days gone by. They go about practicing their magic in order to bring a happier life for the mortals who live nearby. Though seldom seen, their presence is often felt by those who believe. The books are written for grown-ups who still cherish the magic of days gone by. Book Four: Twiggs and Cinnamon. With marriage come all the problems and delights that accompany the early days of every marriage. They find love, adventure, challenges and risks. In the end, Twiggs is summoned before a special session of the Council of Elders - not usually a good thing The books are best read in order since the story continues.

For 9 to 14 year old: Three boys, 11, 12, and 13 find themselves forced together with a crew of seasoned hands on a three masted sailing ship in 1790, the golden age of piracy. Following the tale of lavish buried treasure, they fight pirates and the turbulent seas from England across the Atlantic to reach the southern, sandy shores of the uncivilized Bahama Islands in the Caribbean. Unexpectedly, they find there is a ship of ruthless cutthroats determined to beat them to the treasure - by whatever means are necessary. Good guys. Bad guys. Danger at every turn.

Rabbles: unconventional, common people, often looked down uponThree exhausted teen boys form an odd alliance as they work their way north from southern Arkansas, away from the horrendous battles of the Civil War. Zachary, a wounded 17 year old Confederate soldier, is the rich son of a powerful plantation owner. Benny, also wounded, a Soldier from the Union Army, comes from a poor farm family in northern Illinois. Amos, is a runaway, teen slave boy wearing the only possession he has in the world - a pair of ragged, cotton pants cut off above the knees. The white boys are trying to avoid the firing squad for desertion from their respective armies. Amos would suffer a terrible fate at the hands of his owner if caught. Initially leery, untrusting and fearful of one another, they slowly form a bond and become a team working themselves north through Arkansas and up the Mississippi River to Illinois. They face constant danger from both armies, the bands of men dedicated to catch and return or resell runaway slaves, and the ravages of backwoods, nature. Along the way they listen to each other and they hear themselves. By the time they approached their destination, they had become very different young men - more mature, showing far more tolerance for and appreciation of differences, and feeling more focused on what was important in life. Among the recognized good reads in young adult fiction, Civil War historical fiction this novel comes loaded with more than a smattering of action adventure.

Adults and Young Adults: Ricky was fifteen and wheelchair bound. He had difficulty remembering a moment in his life when he hadn't been terrified. Vague, shadowy, strangers, apparently wanting to do him harm were always just out of reach. His psychiatrist said it was all in his head. He had to believe it was real - allowing any other interpretation established him as insane. Mostly with the aid of the cook and butler, he set out to prove his belief was correct. His wealthy, distant, though loving adopted father, seemed to be siding with the doctor. Pages from Ricky's diary are interspersed with the story. Danger, excitement, terror and dread provide the canvas on which this portrait of a bright, creative, struggling young man must play out.

The Author presents a tried and true formula for what he describes as Deep Down Forever Happiness. He suggests that one, basic change in a person's approach to living is all it takes to make the difference - forever. He goes on to provide and demonstrate seven corollary secrets that help define and implement the main formula. Fun, entertainment, pleasure, and the like, although held as important parts of life, are shown to never be the sources of true, Deep Down Forever Happiness. The book demonstrates quite convincingly that the acquisition of stuff, money, power, prestige, and fame can never be a source of thorough-going, permanent, happiness. The author's suggestion: First create happiness within yourself and then decide what 'extra' trappings you may want in your life. Some rich folds are truly Happy, but NOT because they are rich. The book is sprinkled with wonderful examples and illustrations, mostly drawn from the author's lifetime of helping others. This is clearly intended to be a concise, to-the-point, how-to manual and as such, it provides step by step instructions rather than the hard to pin down generalizations and platitudes so often found in books on the topic. The proof of the pudding, here, is not page after page of reverences and supporting studies, but rather the single, indisputable fact that it works - forever The reader is taught how to find mental directives that are guiding his or her life down paths toward unhappiness and how to relatively easily replace them with those that allow and promote forever happiness. In the end, the reader will understand exactly what the author has learned about happiness from his life-long, personal, experiences, and from working as a clinical psychologist with thousands of less than forever happy people of all ages. Then, it becomes your decision whether or not to implement his suggestions in your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Kip, a fourteen year old boy, is having some significant personal problems. His parents have sent him to see a well-known psychotherapist, Dr. Thomas. The interaction and gradual growth toward a solution is presented in a series of six scenes - therapy sessions - formatted as a play in order to maintain the powerful interchange between the two characters. Kip's problems are severe by any measure and his dislike of the therapeutic process is obvious. They forge an interesting and beneficial - if combative - relationship. Insightful, emotional, forceful. The book includes both the play and a novel of the same story.

Book Three: 10 to 14 year olds. The books are best read in order since the story continues.] Jericho and Red Eagle encounter the 'ghost' of a Pirate who, according to the lore, hid his considerable treasure, just north of Red Bend some 55 years before. They work to find the treasure, which was spread out over 12 hiding places. They get captured several times (they are a nosey pair of 12 year olds). Cal spends time with them as they try to avoid the insane great, great grandson of the old pirate, the Golden Dutchman. There is lot of excitement and many fascinating discussions about things important to young people their ages.

THE BOYS OF FREEDOM ISLAND: For 10 to 14 year old readers] During the early 1870's, recently orphaned brothers, 12 and 13, are pursued by the authorities when the older one escapes from a cruel apprentice master. They make their way south to the coast of North Carolina where they take up the cause of recently freed slaves who they find are being kidnapped and sold in the markets of the Caribbean Islands. They find safety and freedom on a tiny, isolated, uninhabited island in one of the coastal sounds. They are joined by the son of one of the captured men, and the three of them work together to find and free him. There is excitement at every turn as they must elude both the authorities and fight back against the wicked slavers who are bent on "sendin' thar scrawny hides ta the bottom a the sea".

Chip, an upbeat, 121/2 year old runaway, befriends an interesting assortment of unhappy residents in a rural retirement home. Three crises confront them: should they contact the authorities about the homeless, unsupervised child; how can they handle the imminent foreclosure on the home; and Chip going missing in the midst of a terrible blizzard. Some will read it as an upbeat winter holiday story. Others will see it as a study of relationships in which everybody grows and benefits. Either way it presents a heartwarming story of life's contrasts: youth with age, happiness with despair, tragedy with triumph.

Peter Alexander - a kind, soft spoken, bookstore manager and writer - awakens to realize the week just past has been erased from his memory. A blackmail note suggests that he was videotaped killing someone. During the following ten days he records in a journal his thoughts and emotional reactions as he plays cat and mouse with the note writer - an anonymous vigilante clearly bent on killing him. The story presents the struggle, questions, terror, and even humor that arise within his mind as he searches for answers while, in his words, "I am moving closer and closer to that point of no return where one silently slips seamlessly from sanity into madness." Additional notes arrive, left in places where no one else should be able to have access - his locked desk drawer, his locked attach case, others. The relationship with his shadowy adversary begins at arm's length but gradually grows to a point where he has obviously been inside Peter's apartment while he was out, and eventually over night while he was asleep. His terror builds. Primarily, it is just Peter Alexander, in a first person diary, as he struggles to reshape the darkness that hides his terribly frightening and fully elusive secret. And, oh yes, there is Cat, white whiskered and jet black that for some unfathomable reason becomes a reassuring presence in Peter's life while at the cabin.

Three homeless boys (12, 13 and 14), distant relatives, but unknown to each other, inherit an abandoned Ghost Town - Clay Flats - in Colorado. It was left over from the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1854. They must live there, alone, for a year to claim it. Some bad guys apparently don't want that to happen. The story first tracks each of the boys from where they live to the 'Flats'. None have an easy journey. Once together they must find ways of accommodating three very different personalities as they learn to live together and search for the incredible secret of Clay Flats. Action, treasure and lots of good conversation.

This volume contains four stories featuring teenagers (13 to 17). In SEEKING JOHNNY DOE, a boy, who has never known who his parents were, bravely sets out to learn about them with the help of his best friend forever - Bernadette. In THE ELM TREE PACT a group of self-proclaimed misfits - boys and girls - decide it is time to end their miserable lives. Lots of good conversation. In A PAIR OF KINGS, a runaway teen boy meets a reclusive old man. They learn that they share a very special bond as they work together to clear themselves of separate murder charges. They must rely on the boy's internet and computer skills because they can't show themselves. The fourth story, Justin and the Janitor, presents a strange relationship between a troubled teenage boy and the janitor at his new high school. It examines love and hate, kindness and revenge.

Ages 10 to 14: Twelve year old twin boys were separated at birth. One was raised as a Cherokee and the other a white boy. In 1870, Kansas, they discover each other while on separate journeys to Red Bend hoping to discover who they were. They soon accept that they are twin brothers, begin having dangerous and exciting adventures together, and find the blending of their backgrounds makes for a remarkable life together. (This story uses the same setting, ten years earlier, than the six book series, The Doc and Johnny Old West Mysteries.) In Book Two, Impostors, the boys find themselves up against a gang of men who are trying to stir up trouble between the residents of Kansas and the peaceful Indians who live there. They get caught in a waterfall, captured by the head bad guy, almost lose a good friend to a snake bite, and meet a new friend there age from the Arapaho Tribe who is trying to get medical help for his grandmother. Lots of conversations about prejudice and mixed race children. If they are lucky, they just may survive to star in book three of the series (smile ).

10 to 14 year old readers: (Best read in order) The boys decide it would be good if they visited the places where each of them grew up - The Cherokee Reservation in the Indian Territory, and south western Missouri where Jericho lived. After visiting The Happiness Place in south central Kansas, they accompany their friend, Rising Sun to his Arapaho Reservation where they have to save a youngster from a deep hole in the ground. The move on to Red Eagle's reservation where they meet up with horse thieves. As they move north across southern Missouri they manage a mine rescue, save boy who has fallen and is freezing in an ice house, and survive a terrible blizzard while transporting the first boy to live at the Happiness Place. Lots of close calls and excitement.

Thomas Trent - single, mid-thirties, crime photographer - and his wheelchair bound, independent-minded, 15 year old sidekick and computer whizz, Dante, find themselves entangled in mystery after mystery. Lieutenant Miller reluctantly gives them wide leeway. They maintain a stream of humorous, playful, banter. Thoughtfully exciting, city-based stories support a mutually beneficial, partnership.

For 9 to 15 year olds: An older man, Jonas, built and lives on a 30 foot, two masted, sail boat on which he sails the Caribbean Sea. On one outing he discovers a recently orphaned stowaway - 11 year old Carlos. The boy has information about a treasure left to him by his Great Grandfather - an old-time pirate - stashed on one of the islands in the Bahamas. The boy has a secret code they have to decipher in order to locate it. The two of them accept the challenge and undertake the search; one problem - so does Fidel, an evil modern-day pirate who also came by the information. They struggle to stay just one step ahead of him as he chases them south, in and around the Bahama Islands.

Brothers, ages 13 and 17, find their father has been the leader of a mob. When he and their mother are killed by an opposing gang, the boys are forced to run away from the city to avoid the same end. Aliases, plus a fully stocked van had been prepared by their father in case of just such an emergency. They start out toward nowhere in the middle of the night and continue through a ten day adventure, eluding bad guys who are determined to do them in, federal agents who want them for questioning which would blow their cover, and two other, unidentified antagonists. Never having been close to each other, they have to grow to know and appreciate each other and define their new relationship. Lots of excitement, a smattering of romance, and lots of meaningful conversation. A novel for 12 to 18 in 62,000 words.