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Jade Byner has endured the abuse for a long time. The seventeen-year-old is not as innocent as she would like others to believe, but she may have good reason to fear for her life. Her intricate escape plan seems to be flawless. By nightfall she should be in a distant city starting a new life with her beloved Josh. Bad, luck, bad people, and bad weather sabotage Jade''s plan. Unexpected lethal winter temperatures numb her mind and diminish her ability to reason. Early the next morning she and Josh are near death in a large deserted park. Their only hope for survival lies with three elderly actors stranded in the same park after a late performance of a Christmas play.The frail old men face insurmountable obstacles caused by their own individual demons and the vicious weather. Their combined ingenuity and strength may not be enough to save themselves and the two young strangers from the deadly forces of nature.

This is a different kind of life story. My husband and I married right after college, and when he was diagnosed with cancer, I eventually found it hard to know what to say or do to chase the clouds away. With mortality staring me in the face, I realized there were things I wanted to share about us and the family before it was too late. So I dived into writing about what stood out in memory. Things that defined us. Things that defined me. The ultimate result was "Plato and Potato Chips."

Shaman''s Dream : the Modoc War is a literary non-fiction account of the 1873 standoff between besieged Modoc Indians and the United States Army on the California/Oregon border. The book -- a kaleidoscope of ''vested interests'' -- draws together eye-witness accounts by settlers, military and governmental records, reports, diaries, letters, press releases, telegrams -- in a narrative that is a multi-cultural evocation of one of the last of the ''Indian Wars.'' A new, over-zealous Superintendent of Indians for Oregon precipitated the ''war'' in an ill-advised attempt to corral a group of Modocs and return them to the Klamath reservation. Loss of life and the burning of the camp at Lost River was repaid by Modocs escaping to a stronghold in the lava beds, where they were besieged for months, and where they were persuaded the ''Ghost Dance'' would save them. The standoff between the native Americans and the United States army eventually ended, but not until peace commissioners were wounded and murdered. The Army trial of the accused ended with hangings and the exile of the tribe, subsequently to Oklahoma. President U. S. Grant''s ''Peace Policy'' whereby Christian ministers were employed to oversee the reservations died in the aftermath of these events. But most deeply wounded of all -- and more lastingly in this, some would say, inadvertently religious war -- were the shamans.

Everyone had an agenda and it just seemed like coincidence-and of little consequence-that they happened to end up in the small town of Cedar Falls nestled at the base of Bakers Mountain, deep in the ancient Taconic Mountain range. Completely involved, even obsessed, with their own pursuits, it was hardly surprising the visitors would be unaware of older agendas both within the dying town and up in the forests and ridges of the mountain looming above.There was the discontented novelist fleeing his job and his family, hoping to regain his mojo with a young girlfriend and a new book; a mother in search of her long-estranged daughter, but finding first an unlikely romance with the proprietor who loved his failing bowling establishment like a child-at least when he wasn''t making plans to burn it down for the insurance; a soap opera queen who thought she was stopping by for a simple PR gig for the PETA folks when the town was plagued by thousands of bats in search of a new home. Instead found herself revisiting Gretchen Foley, the frightened disturbed child she had been before emerging as the famous Amber Steele.There were the two Native American friends who came to climb the mountain in search of the fabled quartz Spirit Stones of their Mohican ancestors, the young man who wanted to retrace the steps of his grandfather who once lived along the river that flowed through town. But instead he would come to grief and need to be carried down the mountain by the mysterious and seemingly ageless Boudine sisters who had led secluded lives high on the mountain as long as anyone could remember. Few knew where these strange women had their cabin, but the dying Randle Marsh did, and it was said that he visited the sisters often; was he trying to live on endlessly as dark rumors suggested the sisters did? The rustic Wayne Funt knew where they lived too, but he would leave them strictly alone until he and his dog Duke played a major role in the mayhem that broke out during the raging Christmas snowstorm that buried the town and the mountain.This collision of clashing agendas was presided over by a sheriff who did the best he could to navigate a safe landing for as many as he could who shared the wild ride on this memorable, often frightening year. And if the result could often be laced with humor and absurdity, it was always tempered-sometimes tragically-with what has always been true: sometimes, deep in the heart of the New England mountains, there are things going on, things both lighter than air and darker than starless night.

The Hubble telescope captures stunning new images of our universe....Rovers comb the surface of Mars....NASA discovers an approaching asteroid threatening the Earth....As never before in history, today''s society is on a quest to learn more about our place in the universe. Technological advances have allowed us to make great strides in deepening our understanding of the universe around us and our unique position in it. Drawing from his astrophysics background and work in space communications, the author of "Not By Chance!" explores a number of strange cosmic "coincidences" which enable our existence on this small terrestrial ball. Written in a popular and engaging manner, this book explores the position of our planet, the inclination of the Earth''s axis, our proximity to the Moon and its size, along with a host of other factors which all point to the existence of a wise and powerful designer of the universe. This caring architect has clearly invested a great deal of effort in ensuring our survival on the planet we inhabit. There are just too many coincidences to be explained away as occurring only by chance.It is hoped that the material presented will compel the reader to ponder these inevitable questions: Who is the designer? Why does he have such a great concern for us? How does he reveal himself to humankind?With these and similar fundamental questions about the meaning of life and our existence, we''ll enter the final portion of the book. In it we shall try to discover the identity of the creator of the universe. Are science and faith mutually exclusive, or are they perhaps complementary?"Not By Chance!" offers a provocative read for those seeking answers about their place in the universe. Drawing on scientific and biblical evidence, it contextualizes readers'' lives in the grand scheme of things and compels them to take control of their eternal destiny.

New Book Addresses Crippling Nature of Irrational Belief in the 21st CenturyChristian Volz''s Six Ethics takes both a philosophical and a pragmatic approach to addressing the dangers posed by irrational belief, and proposes a framework for creating a legal and social environment where rationality and spirituality might be reconciled.In the 21st century, as international business continues to expand and the Internet and other means of global communications, as well as immigration, continue to bring people from different cultures and groups into contact, individuals need to be prepared to live side-by-side with others who have very different belief systems as well as be self-aware of the sources and principles of their own beliefs. Six Ethics: A Rights-Based Approach to Establishing an Objective Common Morality is the result of author Christian Volz''s quest to understand the nature of belief and the relationship of beliefs and ethics in the face of 21st century issues.Volz explains that the late nineteenth century intellectual revolution known as modernism is characterized by the maturing of the concepts of human rights, civil liberties, personal freedoms and, most especially, the constituents of essential human dignity. This new, modern approach has defined these concepts based on science and the cumulative history of human ethics guided by reason and compassion, and has largely enshrined them in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights."I believe," Volz says, "that there is a dangerous underestimation of the peril posed to the world''s democratic societies and institutions by religious radicals and fundamentalists, of all stripes, who believe that they retain the moral authority to selectively edit these evolved concepts of human rights and dignity. Many conservative people of faith continue to reject science and reason as the basis whereby we measure, evaluate, and make decisions about the material world and the temporal relations among human beings, with potentially disastrous consequences for the future of our planet. If we are to effectively counter these religious, authoritarian-conservative movements, it is helpful to understand how we got to where we are."Citing numerous contemporary and historical sourcesΓÇöfrom Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins to John Locke and Alexis de TocquevilleΓÇöSix Ethics addresses a broad range of topics, interrelated by their essential relationship to human dignity and rights. These include: the origins and development of ethical, religious and scientific thought; how otherwise rational people can be so easily seduced to embrace irrational beliefs and the societal consequences when they do so; and why anyone believes anything. In doing so, he touches on many fields of study, including a consideration of genetic, psychological, sociological and political influences upon how people think within the context of a group.Six Ethics proposes what Volz refers to as Rational Progressivism as a framework within which societies might advance toward genuine equality and true freedom of conscience for a diverse population.