Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called "Devil Boy" or Sam "Hell" by his classmates; "God's will" is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother's devout faith, his father's practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.

Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born with red pupils, he was called "Devil Boy" or Sam "Hell" by his classmates; "God's will" is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother's devout faith, his father's practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends. Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God's idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design--especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he'd always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open--bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.

Welcome to the world of Cockney rhyming slang, where what is said means something completely different than how it sounds. Originally, it was a coded language created by criminals for deceiving undercover police officers during Victorian times. Common phrases like septic tank, holy water, brown bread, tomfoolery and mince pies don’t mean what you think they mean. Others, like Barnaby Rudge, gypsy’s kiss, smash and grab, butcher’s hook, kick and prance and bubble and squeak paint a picture. There are stories to be written about these phrases and in Trouble & Strife, the coded and colorful phrases of Cockney rhyming slang became the inspiration for eleven killer crimes stories from writers on both sides of the pond. A few choice words include: Babbling Brook is a talkative inmate at the state penitentiary. A hairdresser has to pay his dues for a crime that took place at Barnet Fair. And you never want to meet a Lady from Bristol. You don’t have to understand rhyming slang to enjoy this book. You just have to enjoy a damn good story. To see what the authors have come up with you'll have to turn the page and have a butcher’s. Edited by Simon Wood with stories by Steve Brewer, Susanna Calkins, Colin Campbell, Angel Luis Colón, Robert Dugoni, Paul Finch, Catriona McPherson, Travis Richardson, Johnny Shaw, Jay Stringer, and Sam Wiebe.

"A fearless and sensitive coming-of-age story. I loved it." --Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Last Green Valley. Bestselling author Robert Dugoni returns with an emotionally arresting follow-up to The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer--Vincent's last taste of innocence and first taste of real life--dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one's own destiny.

Robert DeVinck spent 57 years searching for the answers to Life’s most important questions - in all the “obvious” places. He travelled the world over, thinking that he would find God by going to church, Love by getting married, Truth by going to college, and Purpose by having a steady job. What he discovered, instead, is that most of Life’s essential truths are seldom, if ever, to be found “out there.” Only when he began his transformational work of addiction recovery was he able to find most of those crucial answers – in the last place he ever thought to look – deep within himself. By finally “dying” to his False Self (the persona he wished to portray to the world), DeVinck was free to begin his spiritual journey, his Ascension Within, to rediscover the pure, uncorrupted soul he was at birth. Only within that sacred inner sanctum was he able to reconnect to the Indwelling Spirit of God, the Divine spark he shared with all of humanity. In his follow-up book to The Pono Principle, the author presents the most profound spiritual, philosophical, and psychological truth of the ages: the universe is within you. When we recognize that we are all stardust, that we share the same cosmic DNA, we can then understand that the universe resides within each of us. Only then will we discover our oneness with creation - and with our Creator.