The Emperor is dying ... and needs his secret to die with him. The time is the late 1980s. The setting is contemporary Japan and its colonies. A devastating earthquake has decimated the Japanese heartland, threatening to to shake out secrets the Empire would rather leave under mossy rocks or flooded rice paddies. While writing a story on shoddy construction practices linked to political corruption that magnified the earthquake destruction, journalist Shinzo Tokugawa rescues a group of Korean construction laborers from the aftermath. In the course of publishing his story and protecting his source, Shinzo learns something that threatens the very legitimacy of the Japanese Emperor and the vast extended Empire he rules over. With the help of a couple of Japanese twin sisters, the husband of the American Ambassador to Japan, the Korean labourers he rescued, and the Japanese mafia, Shinzo battles the assembled forces of the Japanese socio-political elite. These include not only the presumptive Prime Minister-to-be Minoru Sasagawa, but also the country’s version of the Gestapo, or Kempetai ; the dogged Inspector Asano of the Special Higher Police, or Tokkō; and the combined naval, air and land forces of the world’s pre-eminent military power.

“Do what is right because it is right; and leave it alone.” That’s the credo two very different “Traitor Brothers“ live by. Brothers by thought and deed, they put people before politics when it makes life better for the average person. The Traitor Brothers is a near-historical suspense thriller with dollops of politics, sociology, diplomacy, organized crime, and intercultural friendship. ------------ Similar in family background and education, from different cultures but the same generation, working at comparable levels for their respective governments, one born in Soviet Russia, the other in Imperialist Japan, two iconoclasts dedicate their lives to improving life in their countries and not just following orders or improving their personal positions. They come together at the United Nations in New York in the 1950s, later again in Far Eastern Siberia, and finally in Japan in the early 1990s as the Soviet coup d’etat against Mikhail Gorbachev threatens to undo their efforts to improve lives in both their countries. Recent political events from around the world have shown us what happens to Foreign Service Officers, public servants and patriots when they act with integrity and dedication towards the best interests of their fellow citizens instead of their putative “superiors.” Russia has once again thrust itself onto our collective consciousnesses and it is informative for people to see how we got here and the kind of people we need to get us out!

People's lives can change by the smallest of circumstances, turning left at an intersection instead of right, sitting beside an unknown person in a crowded lecture hall, filling in at work for a colleague while they go on vacation. My life changed when in my last semester of Graduate study, I saw an ad posted by the Japanese government to come work in the Land of the Rising Sun. The idea was that I'd have a bit of an adventure, make some money, and take the time to consider whether I wanted to get a Doctorate degree or not. Three decades years later, I was still doing it, finding a fertile niche working in post-secondary institutions and as a trainer for Oil and Gas operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. As the Japanese proverb goes, I'd already eaten the poison, so I might as well lick the plate. I've lived under absolute monarchies, constitutional monarchies, a number of "Presidents-for-Life," civil wars, foreign military occupations and outright terrorist dictatorships. Along the way, I've played Duck, Duck, Goose with Japanese elementary school students; become a bit of a media celebrity for no earthly reason other than the accident of my birthplace; witnessed the aftermath of a crucifixion in Yemen; seriously thought I was about to be kidnapped for ransom; had three colleagues shot dead a football field away from where I was standing; was within spitting distance of where modern drone warfare was born, and commuted to work in an armoured convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers, wearing full body armour and accompanied by up to a half dozen armed private security members. So it began playing Duck, Duck, Goose and progressed to trying to avoid the terrorism, revolutions and uprisings.

A small band of friends inhabiting the margins of Vancouver society go about their lives, helping each other cope with the trials that come with living in a city that doesn't seem have much room for them. Book 2 has the group combing the city for the indigenous niece of one of their band. She has run away from her northern community to the city, where not one but two serial killers prey on young indigenous women. --------------- Go had made a mistake. She knew that now. She couldn't figure out the city, what people were doing, how they lived. Was what they were doing called living? For the first time since leaving Q'umk'uts, doubts were creeping in. Whole layers that were missing. It was like trying to listen to a Canucks hockey game through the static on the radio being broadcast 700 kilometres and three mountain ranges away. Life had let her run like a Chinook salmon for seventeen years, playing her, tiring her out, before it jerked the line tight and set the hook. It seemed that everyone else had come into the world with a set of instructions but her. She felt like she was wearing moose-gut snowshoes and everyone else had ballet slippers on. She had no idea what to do here; she felt like a hotheaded Katniss Everdeen in a Hunger Games book she had read and discarded in grade school. As the bus made its way through Vancouver's streets, she took every STOP sign on the street as advice to go home.

Mired in a pit of depression so deep that he doubts he'll ever pull himself out, Matt Hoveling finds himself pushed up against the farthest edge of the North American continent possible, where a group of marginalised Vancouverites take him in as one of their own as they work to improve their own lives and the city around them. (345 pages) ------------- "What is wrong with you people?" Naz demanded to know. "How the hell did you win the Cold War? Cops like that are like shark's teeth. Break one off and another will just grow in its place. Stop acting like Rocky and Bullwinkle. Let Natasha - Where is my Boris? Why don't I have a Boris? - do the thinking for you. The solution is simple; you have a disappeared woman you want back. This Jewish Effie. You have a bad cop you want disappeared. The so-called Detective Dick. The answer is simple. Switch them. Disappear the cop, bring back Effie. Paint the town black." "What do you mean, 'Paint the town black?'" "Simple. I'm from Kazakhstan. Bad men have been making people disappear into Kazakhstan since Alexander Nevsky and his grandson, Ivan Kalita - 'little moneybags' -- bribed the Mongols' Golden Horde to leave Moscow alone and focus on rape, pillage and beheadings in Kazakhstan. "Ivan the Terrible, Vasily the Dark, Stalin: they all sent their problems to disappear and die in Kazakhstan. There's only one solution when shits like your cop stain society so badly they can't be erased. You can never make it pure and white again. But that doesn't mean you can't do anything to start over. All you have to do is start from the other direction. Paint the whole thing black. You can paint over black just as well as you can paint over white."

Welcome to the rich and flavorful world of Ukrainian cuisine! Ukraine, a country steeped in history and culture, boasts a culinary tradition that reflects the diverse landscapes and bountiful harvests of its vast territory. Its culinary traditions reflect its rich tapestry of influences over the centuries, reflecting the country's geographical location, climate, and historical interactions with multiple cultures. A collection of delectable and delicious recipes for the Ukrainian table, from Traditional to Soups and Stews to Main Courses to Fish and Seafood to Side Dishes and Salads to Breads to Pastries and Sweets to Beverages and Holiday Dishes.

The Emperor is dying ... and needs his secret to die with him. (PAX) POX NIPPONICA is an alternate history novel set in a 1980s' Japan. The world is a very different place than the one we know. At the same time it is dealing with the Great Depression, the U.S.A. has been decimated by a devastating coronavirus that leaves it a shell of itself. Nazi Germany, the U.S.S.R. and a much-reduced Anglo-America are embroiled in a decades-long war of attrition that began as World War II. All of Asia is left for the Japanese Empire to do with it what it wills. It is ascendant, the dominant nation of the age, the single dominant economic, military and political power. The Empire is smugger in its role than a soy sauce salesman at a sushi festival. The novel begins with a devastating earthquake that threatens to shake out some secrets the Empire would rather leave under mossy rocks or flooded rice paddies. While writing a story on shoddy construction practices linked to political corruption that magnified the earthquake destruction, journalist Shinzo Tokugawa rescues a group of Korean construction labourers from xenophobic Japanese villagers who think the earthquake and collapse of school buildings is their fault. In the course of publishing his story and protecting his source, Shinzo learns something that threatens the very legitimacy of the Japanese Emperor and the vast extended Empire he rules over. With the help of a couple of Japanese twin sisters, the husband of the American Ambassador to Japan, the Korean labourers he rescued, and the Japanese mafia, Shinzo battles the assembled forces of the Japanese socio-political elite. These include not only the presumptive Prime Minister-to-be Minoru Sasagawa, but also the country's version of the Gestapo, or Kempetai; the dogged Inspector Asano of the Special Higher Police, or Tokkō; and the combined naval, air and land forces of the world's pre-eminent military power.