11November2025
Books
Earth is threatened by humankind. A long time ago, in an effort to help protect her creation, Mother Nature created the Ohana, a worldwide league of shapeshifters, to restore and maintain the natural balance. During particularly troublesome times, she deployed her ultimate defense, a delicate yet powerful golden butterfly, to change the odds in nature's favor. Blooming is the first book in the trilogy about Jason Mendez, a seventeen-year-old living a normal teenage life in a small town in the American Midwest. One day, Jason's world is turned upside down when he realizes the dream he had the night before was in fact reality and that he was flying through a nearby meadow. Jason is the Golden One, called upon to avert a major crisis threatening Earth. With no golden butterfly sighted since the final days of World War II, will Jason be able to walk in his predecessors' shoes? Will he be able to replicate their historic achievements and save the planet from all but certain disaster? And what exactly is threatening Mother Nature to call upon the Golden One? The Golden One is an exciting new fantasy trilogy dealing with urgent topics affecting humanity today.
Jonathan's Legacy returns to the roots of the Jonathan Trilogy: the love for those weakest amongst us, children, particularly the undesired ones, street kids who find new homes and love, just as Jonathan and Dan once had, in their youth. We follow the Jackson family, founded by Jonathan and Dan, as they grapple with the loss of their family patriarch. Parker and Cody set out to start a patchwork family of their own, while Marc comes to terms with his loss. And who is Kim Hwan? This is the third and final book in this accidental trilogy, a book written out of the desperate search for answers, to bring hope where there was only despair, and to find much-needed closure. Anything but a happily ever after is unimaginable.
Spanish Bay is a feel-good novel about two young men who, despite having the odds stacked against them, never give up, always see the silver lining, work hard, and are committed to their families, come what may. Chris, a native Texan who recently moved to Carmel, rescues Neil, a wheelchair user, from bullies. Neither questions the love that develops between them, although their life together is not without challenges. When Chris’s parents die in a car accident, their young love faces the ultimate test. Will they be able to cope with the additional responsibility of raising Chris’s baby brother Frank, who has cerebral palsy and also uses a wheelchair? Spanish Bay is about love, overcoming obstacles, and finding happiness, wherever you are.
Martin is eighty-four years old, a Korean War veteran, living quietly in a retirement home in upstate New York. His days are ruled by the routine of the staff, but in his thoughts and dreams, Martin often returns to the Seoul of his youth, and the lost true love of his life. Two close friends urge him to travel back to search for his love. What awaits Martin in Korea, more than six decades after he left the country on a troop transport back to the U.S.? Returning to the Land of the Morning Calm is a story of friendship, love and family, in all its many shapes, across time, generations and cultures.
Raphael doesn't believe in a higher power, or in anything, for that matter. After the death of his son, his life shattered, Raphael regrets that he didn't lie about some perfect paradise, and he pushes away everything that once mattered to him - his lover, his job, his reputation as a top architect. Then he meets Brian, a homeless, maybe hopeless kid, a street kid. When he disappears, Raphael realizes that he cannot fail another person, and he launches a full-out search. What he finds both breaks his heart and begins to heal it. The price of saving Brian is high, maybe too high. But Raphael is no stranger to sacrifice, and he'll risk everything to save Brian and reunite with the man Raphael now loves. The question is - how? Like the architecture of the opera house Raphael designs, the steps to regaining his life will depend not just on careful planning, but faith, hope, and maybe just the magic of love.
When journalist Hunter MacIntyre is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, he realizes that his life is about to change, not to mention that he's been handed a certain death sentence. Alzheimer's is a disease affecting the patient's loved ones as much, if not more, than the patient themselves. In Hunter's case, that's his partner Ethan and their five-year-old daughter Amy. How will they react to, and deal with, Hunter's changing behavior, his memory lapses, and the consequences for their everyday lives? Disease is a story of Alzheimer's, seen through the eyes of one affected family.
Imagine… …being locked inside your own body, unable to move at will, unable to speak your mind. Born prematurely and with complications at birth, twenty-three-year-old Matthew Walker is neurologically injured and diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. Unable to speak or voluntarily move his limbs, Matt depends on around-the-clock care and has never said a word—most people, including his mother, assume he never will. Then one day, Timmy, a new assistant to Matt’s care team, is sitting at the breakfast table with Matt when he notices a couple of regular taps from Matt’s right big toe. Has Matt finally found a way to break out of his involuntary prison? Matt–More Than Words is the story of a life without that which most of us take for granted: the ability to communicate. It is a story of suffering, abuse, loneliness, family, friendship, love, hope, and—finally—a green light, a future. "It is certainly daunting to walk in Matt’s shoes. You might not know anyone or ever have met anyone who has difficulty communicating to the extent that Matt has. But…these people exist. "I am very pleased to see that a book like this one has been written, highlighting the situation of someone who has been unlucky to suffer such great difficulties with his body." —Eva Holmqvist, Sahlgrenska University Hospital
In a remote mountain village in Norway, Haakon dreams of traveling the world—seeking adventure, seeing magnificent places, and finding love. His very first trip to London with friends from university holds great promise, but soon tragedy strikes. Still young and grieving the loss of his beloved, Haakon isn’t ready to give up on his dream. When a wealthy Englishman offers him the chance to join a journey around the world, he accepts—daring to believe his dream is finally coming true… but at what cost? *The Fallen Angels of Karnataka* is a novel filled with adventure, life’s hard-earned lessons, loss, despicable evil—and ultimately, love and redemption.
Preparing to evacuate from an approaching hurricane, Haakon Chitragar stumbles upon the diary of his first love, Michel, who died from AIDS in his arms in November of 1986. Diary in hands, Haakon embarks on a journey back in time, to learn about Michel’s life, his difficult and painful path to accepting his true self, despite pressure from family, church, and society. Michel–Fallen Angel of Paris is the story of one young man, one of countless victims of a pandemic still claiming lives every day, almost forty years after his death on a park bench in Paris. It’s also a story about the most unlikely of friendships, connections across time and space, acceptance, redemption, and learning to love and to be loved for who you are. [Michel–Fallen Angel of Paris is based on a character from The Fallen Angels of Karnataka. While both stories are intertwined, Michel can be read as a stand-alone novel.]
This is the story of Nilas and how he navigates life, trying to reconcile being gay as well as being Sami. Set over several decades, we follow Nilas and his Swedish husband Casper, as they build a life amid the shallows of bigotry, discrimination, and the onset of the AIDS crisis. Last Winter's Snow portrays recent LGBT history from a Swedish perspective, from the days when being gay was considered a 'mental disorder' to today's modern anti-discrimination legislation and the move toward equality. It's also the story of one couple and the ups and downs of everyday life in the face of changing rules and attitudes toward them and their relationship. Last, not least, it's a book that celebrates the rich history and culture of the Sami and their land, Sápmi, as well as their ongoing struggle to achieve recognition and win back the right to self-determination over lands they've lived on for thousands of years. Last Winter's Snow is Hans M Hirschi's first novel set almost entirely in Sweden, but it is the second time (after Fallen Angels of Karnataka) he takes his readers on a journey into the mountainous regions of Scandinavia in one of his acclaimed novels.
"Shorts - Stories from Beneath the Rainbow" is a collection of LGBTQ-themed short stories. In happy or dire circumstances, this collection offers glimpses into contemporary LGBTQ life from many different angles and perspectives, and from diverse cultures - a beggar trying to survive, the mother of a drug addict, a groom on his wedding day, a gay family running from impending war, a refugee above the Arctic circle, a bullied kid, a gay man witnessing a crime, a rushed middle-aged man, a banker in love, a lesbian mom in Las Vegas, a public servant getting ready for her intern, an Alzheimer patient in Bombay, a cop in Los Angeles, a doctor in Atlanta, a man celebrating Christmas on his own, a ruthless killer, a survivor of a WWII concentration camp - all different, yet alike in their humanity. "Shorts - Stories from Beneath the Rainbow" is a kaleidoscope, a colorful sample of the rainbow in its true form: life. 
