These are stories I have written about my life experiences throughout the years. I hope you enjoy them! They are written with my 6 children and countless family relatives in mind.

Have you ever wondered what a writer’s childhood was like? Well, wonder no longer. These stories are about my childhood. I began writing when I was twenty-one in the year 1971 and have since seen not only the world change dramatically but the publishing world as well. When I published my first novel, a horror yarn titled Evil Stalks the Night in 1984 with Leisure mass market paperbacks, I was a loyal worker bee of the big publishing houses with a stingy boiler contract and a whopping 4 percent of the royalties…now thirty-two years later I am self-publishing and am finally making a living at my craft for the first time in forty-five years of writing; with 24 novels, 2 novellas and many short stories to my name. Three of the four short stories in this collection were the VERY FIRST stories I ever had published and they were printed in my local newspaper between 1977 and 1979 after the one titled Michael, a tale about my youngest brother who was murdered in 1971, won their short story contest over two hundred other submissions. I illustrated all the stories for the newspaper then and have included those original drawings in this book. The fourth short story was just recently written and is a composite of some of my childhood Christmases. All four are loosely based on my childhood in the 1950’s and 1960’s. After my musician/singer/songwriter brother Jim passed away last year from cancer I felt the intense need to revive these old stories and memories and put them out there for all to read as a tribute to him and my family. These are my stories, my childhood and some of my fondest memories.

A true story of recovery & triumph The power of the mind can debilitate the strongest person, don't let your negative thoughts hinder your future. This mesmerizing story includes: How Ray battled to survive as a child Overcoming child abuse Battling school bullies How addiction started Overcoming suicide attempts Moving past depression & panic attacks Beating depersonalization His tainted relationship with his mother How he became sober after 18-years Trying to move past his mother & grandmother's demise

You will likely feel a connection to the unique, humorous, and heartfelt stories in this memoir. Take a bite of Memoirs of a Knish, your palette will be asking for more.

Rose tells how it was for her growing up on a farm in Western Kentucky in the twenties and thirties and how she had to relocate to a more peaceful environment at the age of seventeen. She records her early life with a dysfunctional mother who was not willing to let go of her when she reached the age to be free of parental control. How, at an early age she meets a young soldier in the Army Air Corps assigned to the Officer Candidate School in Miami Beach, Florida and falls in love with him. She chronicles what life was like as the spouse of a career soldier and the many places they called home in the United States and abroad during his career.

The main character, Ann, is born into poverty in 1947. It shows how her family controls her and keeps her in poverty through their attitudes regarding gender inequality, immigrants, and minorities. We learn from her how to break this cycle to get out of poverty. She grows up in Brooklyn with a single mother and an absentee father and tells the story through her memories. You hear about the three generations of women who were chained to poverty because of ignorance, attitude, low self-esteem, gender inequality and dependence, under the control of men. Then you will see how our main character starts to believe she needs to break free. You live with her through adolescence, where she does something she regrets for the rest of her life. Then on to young adulthood where she, unbelievably, goes to college and breaks out of the attitudes of poverty and makes it on her own. She learns to see things in a new light and starts to question her old world teachings and the meaning of right and wrong. You see her married, divorced, remarried, and then in old age. It teaches us how one can reeducate oneself out of a poverty attitude and into the middle-class.

Find Lasting Freedom from Past Emotional Pain If you wait long enough, difficult and traumatic experiences from your past will go away on their own...right? Except they won't. Time doesn't heal all wounds. Instead, we hoard our hurts. We rehash our sorrows and wonder how they could have been prevented. This keeps us from making brand-new memories and embracing the richer life we crave. Now is the time for setting healthy boundaries with the past. Allison Bottke will help you... tame the triggers that stir painful memories by replacing negative thoughts with biblical hope identify lingering communication issues so you can release them and grow in your relationships take six simple S.A.N.I.T.Y. steps to find peace in the midst of emotional chaos Don't let the past dictate your present feelings. Follow this achievable advice and discover the freedom your captive heart desperately needs.

The autobiography of John Hitchcock is a true life story that will make you laugh and it will make you cry. All readers will find comfort in the acceptance and easiness to relate to his stories. The stories of adventure, danger, deliverance, and the unseen hand of God in John's life will keep you engaged. John stutters, yet every time he prays, preaches or sings he is totally fluent. He is an example that miracles do happen. The pages will become addictive and it will be almost impossible to put the book down. You will read stories about the wildlife in Africa that almost killed him to the eerie acquaintances with spirits and ghosts that are sure to make the hair on your neck stand up. Readers will cry as they turn each page as they become John's friend and feel his pain as they discover his heartaches and setbacks, but will smile as they learn that all things happen for a reason. Read the story of a classic romance that will give others hope in the low times of their lives. There is a story for everyone, from young to aged, I dare you to enter John's world and quickly become a friend of his literature" - Charlene Hitchcock, daughter. www.johnhitchcockministries.blogspot.com evangelfires@gmail.com.

In Nightmares and Memories, Amelia Rivera, a sixteen-year-old with the power to turn objects into air, moves to Fate, Texas, in hopes of hiding from the agents of a secret society. When her father is shot by the agents, she has to put her trust in a group of teens that may or may not be spies for the secret society. Nightmares and Memories is the first book in a seven-book series. In Amelia's attempt to unravel the mysteries surrounding her powers and her past, she stumbles into the dark world of modern-day slavery and other global conspiracies.