Explaining the death of a loved one to small children can be a perplexing, daunting, and emotionally overwhelming task...and there's simply not much help available in print for those who face it. Children who are in the midst of the hurt and emotional distress need to work their way through the grief process...but they need to do it on a child's level. The passing of loved ones is met with various emotions depending upon the end-of-life beliefs of family and friends. A child is surrounded by multiple emotions and simply needs comfort, not doctrine. A gentle touch and well-chosen words can be a solace and a balm for their heart, mind, and spirit. They need tender words and pleasant memories...the rest they can deal with as they grow to maturity...and that's what Where Did Grandpa Go? offers. A touching story in rhyming, poetic form for children in distress over the death of a loved one.

The country music superstar shares what the guitar has meant to him as a means of finding his own voice, who inspired his love of music, and memorable stories about the great guitar players he has encountered over the years.

Seventeen-year-old Gwen is preparing to audition for New York City’s top music schools when her grandfather mysteriously disappears, leaving Gwen only a phone message telling her not to worry. But there’s nothing more stressful than practicing for her auditions, not knowing where her grandfather is, and being forced to lie about his whereabouts when her insistent great-uncle demands an audience with him. Then Gwen meets Robert, also in town for music auditions, and the two pair up to brave the city without supervision. As auditions approach and her great-uncle becomes more aggressive, Gwen and Robert make a startling discovery. Suddenly Gwen’s hopes are turned upside down, and she and Robert are united in ways neither of them could have foretold. . . .

Can a person inherit the wickedness of an evil parent? Are we forever shackled to our father’s sins? No one should know the answer to this better than nineteen-year-old Katherine Paddington. She finally sees an end to her own misery when her Uncle Ben is jailed for the murder of his brother. But, lurking in the coal mine shadows is none other than Ben Paddington’s very own son, Benny Bauguess. After searching unsuccessfully for her son’s daddy for twenty years, Trudy sees the mugshot of her old boyfriend on a news broadcast. Only, Ben is in the state penitentiary in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Trudy has not seen him since Benny’s conception. Benny and Trudy begin the six-hundred-mile journey from Folly Beach to Wheeling to confront the scoundrel who left Trudy to raise her son on her own. But what does Benny really want? His father’s love . . . or revenge on him and his wealthy family? In this sequel to In the Coal Mine Shadows, Katherine knows she must start a new life after her Grandmother Mame and Grandfather Clint pass away, but will the coal mine shadows of her past control her future away from the hills of West Virginia? Will Katherine succeed in making a new life for herself in North Carolina, away from the lies and deceit of her forefathers? Or, will the sins of yesteryear haunt her and her cousin Benny forever?

Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop. Against his grandfather’s dying wish, Finn has resurrected Toy Shop, adding new characters, and the strip is more popular than ever, bringing in fan letters, merchandising deals, and talk of TV specials. Finn has even started dating again. When a terrorist attack decimates Atlanta, killing half a million souls, Finn begins blurting things in a strange voice beyond his control. The voice says things only his grandfather could know. Countless other residents of Atlanta are suffering a similar bizarre affliction. Is it mass hysteria, or have the dead returned to possess the living? Finn soon realizes he has a hitcher within his skin... his grandfather. And Grandpa isn’t terribly happy about the changes Finn has been making to Toy Shop. Together with a pair of possessed friends, an aging rock star, and a waitress, Finn races against time to find a way to send the dead back to Deadland... or die trying!

The name Samuel E. Turner, which Ive used for this book, belongsin realityto my maternal grandfather, but given the fact that he was laid to rest over fifty years ago, I doubt that hed much mind my borrowing it. After four previous books that were historical in nature, I decided that it was time to broaden my interests and have-a-go at fiction-writing (even though L.A. Cops is partially based on actual events and places in the Southwest). I am a product of the greater Los Angeles area, and prior to moving to northern California in the late 60s, I had worked in a bank in downtown L.A., spent several years as a cryptographer and historian (with the Air Force), graduated from a state university in the region, and was a secondary teacher in public schools in and around Los Angeles, then in Northern California for two more decades after relocating in the Sacramento area. Even though my wifeof 57 years--and I attended the same high school, we didnt meet until some years later. She and I are the parents of three great persons, and grandparents of four. Since retiring from the classroom in the early 90s, Ive spent time on the area waterways as a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, then when this became too strenuous, Ive devoted much of my free time to research and writinggenerally about Southern California and its residents.