Novels
Deep in the Heart (click here to read the first three chapters)
DEEP IN THE HEART is a romance novel told from a male perspective and centered on the intertwined coming-of-age stories of a group of friends seeking their toeholds in life in Austin, Texas in 1978.
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DEEP IN THE HEART focuses on Dash, who has been too long a student, but who is feeling like he finally has life figured out when he meets Marlene, the beautiful daughter of a German duchess and a Texas oil man, who seems to open the door to his chosen career. Then his bicycle is stolen, he is evicted from his apartment, and his father cuts him off financially.
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Dash is determined to prove to his father that he can make his own way. With coaching from Wally, his childhood best friend with her own feelings for Dash, he works to get past Marlene’s cool reserve. He is distracted by Betty, an art student with whom he clicks intellectually, and by his brother Mick’s bullying. The stress of his parents’ impending divorce culminates in an outright brawl with his father after his father drunkenly gropes Betty in the restaurant where Dash works.
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Finally, Dash thinks he has gotten his life in order and won Marlene’s love – until he sees her at a café with Mick, which turns out to be the least of her deceits. He realizes Marlene is not who she seemed and that he must look elsewhere for love.
A Hot Country (in process)
Turner Mackey, a young American banker who is this close to getting fired because of a bad loan at his last post, is out of his depth trying to turn around the money-losing operations of an American bank in Libreville, Gabon. It might not even be possible, especially as the country slips into the violence and chaos of its first-ever democratic elections in 1990.
Worse, everyone in town assumes he works for the CIA, which draws the attention of French, American and Gabonese operatives scheming to ensnare him in their attempts to assassinate the President or his main political rival.
The whole thing would be much simpler if the lead French agent weren’t an ex-girlfriend with whom he has unfinished business. And if the lead American agent wasn’t a beautiful young woman from L.A. And if the lead Gabonese weren’t a tall, confident African girl with a smile like the tropical sun…