Publications
The Box Salesman focuses on a recent college graduate named Evan Billings, who is an aspiring songwriter.
The Box Salesman
Driving Through Shaker Heights
Driving through Shaker Heights is the story of Sean Stevens, an average high school student living in an eastern suburb of Cleveland. Despite his lack of direction and disinterest in college, he acquiesces to his father’s wish and enrolls in a small university in southern Ohio. While there, he pursues both a career connected to his lifelong love of automobiles and Deborah, a fiercely independent, tough-minded, and beautiful girl from his hometown. After a rocky start, Sean’s relationship with Deborah stabilizes until events force them to make choices that irrevocably impact their future. Driving through Shaker Heights is a vivid and sometimes fantastical tale of how decisions and attitudes of one youth can impact the lives of many.
Call Me Cecilia
Call Me Cecilia is story about a high school ladies’ man who messes with the wrong girl. In the course of courting his new conquest at a party, Cecil accidentally falls on top of her in a drunken state. In an angry response, the girl, Beth, uses her special powers and puts a spell on Cecil, effectively sending him into a parallel world where he has to be a female for a full year. Over the course of that period, Cecil, now called Cecilia, gradually transforms from the boy he was into the girl he is to become. He must adjust to the many male and female differences and make sense of who he is while living out his female life. Over the course of time, Cecilia endures the horrible pain of a breakup and losing a lifelong friend. At the end of the spell, Cecilia must then decide whether to remain a girl or go back to being the boy he was before his transformation.
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The House Of Remember When
The House of Remember When focuses on a middle-aged man, Neil Moreland, who is dealing with a broken marriage, a boring job, and an estranged father suffering from dementia. Written in first-person narrative, the story weaves significant life events into his present-day problems as Neil attempts to put his life and family back together. From the beginning, Neil is drawn to an old abandoned home that turns out to be a time portal that allows him to go back in time to relive past moments in his life. With the help of a guide, Dobie, he chooses events that had a significant negative or positive impact on his life and personality. Unlike with a theoretical time machine, Neil is not able to change his actions or the outcome of the previous event, but he is able to review the experience and see it from a new perspective. In the process, Neil is better able to deal with the death of a significant loved one and to ll the emptiness in his life. Learning that faith and trust are critical to any relationship, Neil takes one last trip back in time to his wedding day to review his vows to his wife, Rachel.
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The Point of Life
Set in the early 1980s, The Point of Life is the story of a young man from a small town in Kansas named Endicott “Endy” Mason. After being raised in a small farming community, a teenage Endy moves with his family to the big city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Feeling insecure about his upbringing, Endy develops goals for his life that include rising high in the corporate ranks and making a lot of money.
While on the high school baseball team, Endy pitches a no-hitter, and this helps him gain popularity in his class along with the attention of a teammate’s wealthy father who offers to assist him in gaining a scholarship to a notable college program. Endy’s newfound popularity also earns him the affection of Stephanie Plum, the prettiest girl in the school. The relationship goes well at first, but when Stephanie goes off to college, Endy betrays a good friend and cheats on her, effectively killing his first real relationship.
Vowing to be a better person, Endy strikes up an unlikely friendship with a fellow college teammate named Dez, who is Black. The two become very close over the years, but a tragedy ends their friendship at a pivotal time in Endy’s life. He is about to get married to a very wealthy girl named Layla whose family is not too keen on Endy’s good friend being his best man. With Endy’s business career in full bloom, he faces other issues that lead him to reevaluate his goals and aspirations. From working for bad managers to being asked to follow unethical decisions, Endy learns valuable lessons about what really matters and in the process influences others around him to see life from a different perspective.
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The Manner of Friends
“The Manner of Friends” is the story of a young boy who transfers into a Quaker School in Wilmington, Delaware when he is in his early teens. The young man is faced with adjusting to a new way of life at his new school (Wilmington Friends) as he finds his way in sports and with other students (especially one girl that he meets at a dance class). Based loosely on a true account, the main character faces many of the trials and tribulations associated with his teenage years and college. It is also a tribute to his real-life football coach and many of the excellent teachers who paved his way to a successful life.
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The Legacy of Father John
The “Legacy of Father John” is a remarkable true story about a great man who just happened to be my father. Born in Houston, Texas in 1933, John Sanders went on to become a prominent minister in the Episcopal church and an important leader during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. From his writings to being rector of a transitioning parish in Houston’s third ward, he helped improve the state of race relations during a controversial period in the South.
Throughout his career, my father advocated for the gay community and gender equality. He never shied away from voicing his opinion on controversial topics within the church and in his life. This may have hampered his career, but he refused to bow to popular opinion. He led fearlessly by example and departed this world in 2019 having left his mark on the church and the people and communities he touched. In addition, he managed to help turn his three rowdy sons into responsible men and was an adoring husband to my mother, Frances.
The book is also the story of my family and our many relocations to a wide variety of diverse cities. His legacy lives on in these places and the lives of his children. While my brothers contributed to this narrative, I felt it was my responsibility to ensure his legacy was recorded and ultimately remembered. His is a story that needed to be told.
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Eli's Present
ELI’S PRESENT is the story about a trouble middle-aged man who prays for a second chance at life. Upon waking up the next morning, Eli finds himself back in college, but with the wisdom and memories that he had from his previous life. He vows to make the most of this opportunity by making better decisions and correcting many of his past wrongs.
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