Stand and Face the Morning tells a robust, romantic story of the Musick and Lewis families of Colonial Virginia, who followed the migration down the Great Wagon Road into the backcountry of the Carolinas. The narrative follows them through the trials of hewing homesteads from the wilderness, wrestling with the choices of allegiance at the onset of the Revolutionary War, and struggling for survival as they are caught up in the bitter civil war which engulfs their homeland. The central figures are the patriarch Abram Musick and his wife Sarah, whose abiding love undergirds the family. Tormented eldest son Lewis carries within himself the wrongs and hurts he encounters. He joins brothers, cousins, and neighbors in the Patriot cause in his unholy quest for vengeance. Strong women characters walk beside their men and, through artistry and grace, produce families worthy of a new nation: Sarah’s daughters Terrell and Sally, neighbor Saro Tweddy whose husband travels with Daniel Boone into Kentucky, and Annie McKinney whose eyes look ever toward the western lands. In the end, the families remain strong and loyal to one another. “We are bound by ties of blood and by a love which will ne’er die. Together as family we sh’ll face with hope whate’er the morrow brings.” Reviews Adventure and romance, joy and loss fill these pages as Owens’ lively story carries us along the rough trails of these wilderness roads. Sit and enjoy. - Jim Minick, author of Finding a Clear Path, Burning Heaven, and Her Secret Song. The American Revolution tears apart a frontier community in this gripping historical novel. When Abram and Sarah Musick lead their clan—seven children with assorted servants, nephews and inlaws in tow—to White Oak Mountain on the western margins of North Carolina, they think they’ve found paradise. In this region of virgin timber and rich bottomland, nature showers its bounty on them even when it almost kills them. (“Well, I daresay the good thing is we sh’ll have a haunch of bear with our huckleberry dumplings tomorrow.” [sic]) Alas, the escalating quarrel between Britain and the colonies disrupts their bliss— in their corner of the South, the revolution becomes a savage civil war pitting Patriots against Tories, Indians against whites, coastal planters and merchants against backwoods farmers and neighbor against neighbor. Abram wants to sit out the storm, but his sons, led by the brooding, impetuous Lewis, rally to the Patriot cause. Life doesn’t stop just because there’s a war on—farmers have to fit in stints of militia service around the cycle of planting and harvesting—but it grows increasingly desperate as Patriot settlers face raids by loyalist irregulars and their Cherokee allies. After his sweetheart is murdered by Tory marauders, Lewis leads his guerrilla band on a brutal campaign of vengeance as Sarah agonizes over the hardening of her son’s heart. The author’s limpid prose, steeped in the pious, musical language of the era, brings this absorbing narrative to life with well-observed period detail that encompasses everything from log-cabin building techniques to Sarah’s herbal medicine. (Slippery-elm bark and fried onions, it seems, are great for gunshot wounds.) Owens brings readers the grit and trauma of the battlefield, but also the quieter rhythms of farming and trading, cooking and childcare—and hoping anxiously for loved ones to return from peril. The result is an indelible portrait of a family struggling to hold together as the world turns upside down. A richly textured tale that registers epic events on the most intimate scale. Kirkus Discoveries, Nielsen Business Media, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

A humorous and heartwarming bounce-to-the-beat underdog story about a young rapper whose rhymes help bring his community together, from America's favorite rapping teacher. As featured on Good Morning America! Eleven-year-old Simon Barnes dreams of becoming a world-famous rapper that everyone calls Notorious D.O.G. But for now, he's just a Chicago fifth grader who's small for his age and afraid to use his voice. Simon prefers to lay low at school and at home, even though he's constantly spitting rhymes in his head. But when his new teacher assigns the class an oral presentation on something that affects their community, Simon must face his fears. With some help from an unexpected ally and his neighborhood crew, will Simon gain the confidence to rap his way to an A and prove that one kid can make a difference in his 'hood? Dwayne Reed is a Chicago teacher, whose viral back-to-school music video "Welcome to the 4th Grade" took the internet by storm. His debut novel, Simon B. Rhymin' , inspires young readers everywhere to use their voice to create change within their communities. Read more about Simon and his crew in Simon B. Rhymin' Takes a Stand!

King of Fear can either be read as a full-length ebook or in three serialized ebook-only parts. This is part one of three. The blistering sequel to The Ascendant: An action-packed thriller starring a bond trader turned antihero. Unlikely patriot Garrett Reilly can identify threats against America from both inside and outside the nation’s borders. But now the whole world’s economy is at risk… Garrett Reilly sees what others do not: numbers, patterns, a nation on the brink of collapse. His unique talents saved countries from falling into a world war in The Ascendant. But it also made him a marked man―marked by terrorist groups; marked by the US Government. Now in Part One of Drew Chapman’s thrilling sequel The King of Fear, Garrett Reilly is desperately trying to put the events of the Ascendant behind him. But when the President of the Federal Reserve is assassinated, fingers point to Garrett. On the run from the government and following an ever-shifting trail of clues, Garrett soon realizes that he’s more than a target to the shadowy force hunting him. He’s their first step towards total economic collapse. Faced with a mounting international menace, cyber attacks and the fate of American security, Garrett makes the call. He must convince the most unlikely team of geniuses to join the fight again—before it’s too late. Drew Chapman’s critically acclaimed rogue hero is back in a series called a “wild ride through the headlines of our times” (Kirkus Reviews).

In this memoir, Anthony Candela, a self-described "all-around regular guy," traverses a lifetime of challenges. Some of these are accidents of birth, like his poor eyesight and slow trek to blindness, and some are of his own making, like choosing to compete as a scholar-athlete. Infused with lots of New Yorkana, a touch of California, and a few related historical references, this memoir conveys that in any environment, life does not always follow a prescribed course. Moreover, as humans, all of us are imperfect. This includes people with disabilities who are often thought of as transcendent beings, but who should also be regarded as "all-around regular guys." Just like the rest of the human race, they often strive imperfectly to get through life. In his descriptions, the author hopes that readers will understand a little more about the nuts and bolts of running and wrestling, not to mention skiing and scuba diving. The ups and downs of coping with life and progressive loss of eyesight and, by extraction, disability in general will be clearer. Readers will come away with a fuller appreciation of the ways people deal with challenges. In the end, we all have a choice whether to stand up or sit out. The story related in these pages will occasionally give you cause to chuckle or even shed tears of sadness or joy. Above all else, it will enlighten you about why things happen the way they do. Ultimately, this memoir increases our understanding of what it means to be truly human. Perhaps after reading it, we will be kinder and gentler to each other. Most important, perhaps we will take it a little easier on ourselves.