Bøger af Thomas William Simpson

What is this? This Brief History of Women in America? What's it all about? Is it fact or fiction? History or memoir? It's a mixed bag really, a hodgepodge, a mostly true story based on Elizabeth Hamilton's fictional life about a whole slew of family trials and tribulations that did in fact happen but maybe not exactly as Elizabeth claims. Elizabeth is, after all, a highly emotional young lady who is presently ticked off. Royally ticked off, in fact. And when you're royally ticked off your judgment can get, well... a little cloudy. Elizabeth, you see, is out to settle some scores. Three scores in particular. One against the US military establishment who she holds responsible for the loss of her sister Sarah's right leg, blown off when an IED blew up her Marine Corps Humvee while patrolling the streets of Baghdad. One against Olympic downhill ski champion Johnny Armour who she holds personally responsible for beating and abusing her twin sister, Katherine. The list of infractions against Johnny includes swollen bruises on Katherine's face, broken ribs in her chest, fractured bones in her arm, and years of emotional cruelty that demand a reckoning. And finally one against wealthy Internet Entrepreneur Bob the Smut King Blackwood who Elizabeth holds responsible for destroying her beloved father's reputation out of pettiness, jealousy, and envy. Oh yes, make no mistake, Elizabeth Hamilton is a young woman on the warpath. She's out to demand an accounting, exact revenge, and seek retribution. Women, according to Elizabeth's version of events, have been dealt a raw deal since the Mayflower anchored off Plymouth Rock. And now she's out to right a few wrongs. A Brief History of Women in America is her story. In her words. And actions. Told in real time as she first lays assault on the Pentagon, then hurtles west in her Civic for a confrontation with Johnny Armour in his Sun Valley, Idaho mansion. And finally back in her small hometown in rural Connecticut where she breaks into Mr. Bob Blackwood's restored New England farmhouse, takes him hostage at gunpoint, and locks him in the tunnel beneath the house once used by slaves seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad. Quite a ride, Ms. Hamilton is on. No telling how it will all turn out. We can only hope there will be a happy ending. For Elizabeth. And for the women of America.

The Hancock Boys (Originally Published by Bantam Books March 2000) The Hancock Boys is a wild ride, a uniquely terrifying thriller that breaks all ten of the Ten Commandments... with a vengeance. The Hancock Boys embraces the Seven Deadly Sins... with gusto. Come and meet The Hancock Boys. John and Will. Identical twins. Indistinguishable in every way. Right down to the Life they lead. And the Wife they share. Not since Cain and Abel have there been two brothers like John and Will Hancock. Thomas William Simpson, the author of such diverse titles as The Caretaker, Full Moon Over America, The Passage, and The Affair, has written a captivating tale of revenge, brotherly love, fame, fortune, and marital intrigue. So what would happen if two identical twin brothers decided to share a career, a wife, a family, a life? What might such a decision mean? Where might it lead them? And what might be the consequences? Well, this is precisely what the Hancock brothers of Boston, Massachusetts have done. And now they take turns playing the role of the perfect husband, father, and bestselling author while the other brother gallivants around the globe living out his wildest fantasies. It seems like the perfect setup. The best of all possible worlds. But it can't last. Can it? What will happen if one of them pushes the game too far? What if there is someone out there who knows their secret? And perhaps most terrifying of all, what if one of the brothers thinks the other brother is teetering on the brink of a breakdown, on the edge of madness? The Hancock brothers both begin to sense the gig is almost up, their insane game very nearly over. And so they both have plans to protect their marriage, their skyrocketing career, the perfect life they lead. Any residual trust now shattered, the brothers realize they must become one. But which brother will make the ultimate sacrifice? The Hancock Boys-two brothers playing the definitive cat and mouse game. One must die so the other may live.

Those Murderous Macbeths: A Titillating Tale of Rumor, Revenge & Murder. It's a big, entertaining, contemporary novel that takes up space from the wide-open rolling hills of Idaho to the cloistered manses of Nantucket Island. The Macbeths are the stars of the show. A crazy (literally), competitive, ambitious lot they are, and riddled with a wide array of psychological euphorias ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder to megalomania. Present in our narrative, of course, are weddings, births, and deaths. There are feuds galore and murders many, war and peace and no end of family love, harmony, hate, and distrust. Money (what else?) causes no end of problems from way back when right up until the present day. It might even be said, if we took money out of the mix, that these Macbeths are actually a tight-knit clan with blood proving thicker than water. But this is America, after all, and so money is an essential ingredient in our narrative soup, and we all know the Almighty Greenback thins blood into a Niagara of want, greed, and deception. The set-up for Those Murderous Macbeths is deliciously simple-a wedding invitation. Young Dane Macbeth wants to marry his penniless sweetie Ms. Melissa Brant at the First Congregational Church of Nantucket. No problem, right? A lovely young couple deeply in love wants to wed. Who could possibly object to such a celebration? Well, the invitations go out, and lickity split you got it, all hell breaks loose. The present-day narrative unfolds over just a few glorious summer days before, during, and after the wedding. But much of the novel unfurls in family flashbacks weeks, months, years, even generations in the past. It's all leading up to the reception at the Nantucket Yacht Club and the bloody, murderous mess that will shortly thereafter ensue. Those Murderous Macbeths is a modern American novel-Big Characters, Lots of Plot and Subplots, Rampaging Narrative, Colossal Themes, Slippery Language, and no end of Twists, Turns and Unpredictability.

New York Times reporter Mike Goodman wants to interview billionaire investor Jacob Man. When finally he gets his chance, Goodman gets an earful. Man tells Goodman he is an Immortal who has been alive in his most recent incarnation since the French Revolution. So who are these Immortals? They are, of course, souls who live forever. They are the 666 Fallen Angels who broke from God after God had the audacity to revoke their ability to procreate. For centuries the Immortals have battled God and his dream of creating a peaceful, harmonious planet. Whereas God desires love, beauty, and tranquility, the Immortals seek war, pestilence, and chaos. And so how can there be Love Among the Immortals? Read and see. Love Among the Immortals is a novel of ideas, but it is also an amusing, entertaining, fast-paced tale filled with wonder and love. Three separate love stories swim through these pages, all with their own trials and tribulations, conflicts and resolutions. There is also power on these pages, and politics, as one of the wealthiest Immortals on earth is busy running for President of the United States. Yes, Rex Blackman, The Black Cat, who imports illegal immigrants onto his New Mexico ranch and then hunts them for sport, has secured the nomination and is knocking on the White House door. You have never read a novel quite like Love Among the Immortals. It is all at once alarming and a hoot. You blow off the Audacious Insanity of the premise one page and Fret it may all be Feasible on the next. Anyone who believes in God might well be convinced of the existence of Immortals. Tongue in cheek? Perhaps, but a year ago what thinking person would've dreamed we'd be in this peculiar pickle?

Full Moon Over America (Originally Published by Warner Books September 1994) Thomas William Simpson, the acclaimed author of This Way Madness Lies and The Gypsy Storyteller, extends his literary powers, spinning an uproarious and disturbing tale about a place called America, and all the fools, dreamers, villains, and heroes who have made it possible. It's dawn in America. At least it's dawn in the Blue Mountains, where the nation's eyes have turned. Because on this day, January 20, 2001, Inauguration Day, a man who is spectacularly unqualified to be President-a man just thirty-three years old, who wants his mother to be his Vice President, who has never held a job, and has no apparent political views at all-is about to be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Several problems, however, block William Conrad Brant MacKenzie's entrance to the Oval Office. First, the rumor mill is flooded with talk Willy may well be insane, or at least emotionally unstable. Second, the Supreme Court has refused to recognize his election because of his age. And third, even if Willy is inaugurated, he may have a difficult time presiding over the nation. As the twenty-first century dawns, the United States is in a rapid state of political, social, and moral decline. So how did Willy MacKenzie, scion of one of America's wealthiest and most eccentric families, get elected in the first place? To discover the answer to this puzzling question, renegade Gonzo journalist Mr. Jack Steel, Willy's own Mephistopheles, takes us on a journey through 20th century America. We meet Willy's great grandfather, Ulysses S. Grant MacKenzie; his reclusive, war hero father; his mother, a strong, magical woman of Iroquois ancestry; and Dawn, the great and enduring love of Willy's life. Skillfully and cunningly, Steel weaves a story of a nation in transition, of war and peace, of political skullduggery and environmental disaster, of generational struggles crowded with ambition, corruption, and lost innocence. As the journalist speaks, and more than one hundred years of American history flash by, the suspense mounts around Willy's Inauguration. Will he take the oath of office? Is he qualified to take the oath? Or is Willy merely a pawn in a grand and sinister scheme? This is Thomas William Simpson's most outlandish work to date. Prepare to be thrown into a crazed and surreal world, almost hallucinatory in scope. Full Moon Over America is all at once an amusing, troubling, and all together unconventional novel about love and trust and power and family and the God-given right of every individual to live life as he or she sees fit. Like all of Simpson's novels, Full Moon Over America is rich in its language, accessible in its plot, and driven by the dreams and obsessions of its unconventional characters. A truly distinctive and original American work of fiction.

Josh Tailor is on a roll. But not a good one. Josh has been hanging out with the losers. Swiping lumber for their clubhouse down by the river. Smoking grass. Drinking beer. Stealing Mom's brand new Beetle convertible out of the driveway. Smashing it into a telephone pole. Almost killing himself and several of his buds. Josh is a good kid... on a bad track. The Passage-every boy has to make one. Some do it with more success than others. Josh's mom is at wit's end. It's gotten so bad she actually called her ex, Big Jack Tailor. Big Jack has been estranged from his wife and son for years. Josh sees him, but rarely, and never for long. He hates his old man, but, of course, he also worships Big Jack and secretly longs to be part of Big Jack's shadowy life. Big Jack rolls into town and offers to take Josh on a cross country adventure-Jersey to Montana. Big Sky Country. Josh is gung ho to go but Mom says no way. Josh, 15, says he's going whether she approves or not. Mom relents. Off they go, father and son. Along the way they encounter cops, Indians, arms dealers, angst, pathos, militiamen, ATF agents, and plenty of trouble. The trip will change both of them, especially Josh, who will begin to understand what it takes to become a man. The Passage is a full-bodied American novel, a kind of modern day Huckleberry Finn with Josh in the role of Huck and Big Jack in the role of Jim, a man trying to find and define freedom. Fathers and Sons, the Open Road, the Wide Open West, the Plains, the Rockies, the difficulties of Love and Truth, the Frailty of the Human Condition-all this rides inside The Passage. If you've read Thomas William Simpson's novel The Gypsy Storyteller you will enjoy The Passage, an adventure story about loyalty and responsibility and the unbreakable bond between a father and a son.

Annie's War I am ancient now and half blind and mostly deaf and stove up with rheumatism so bad I can hardly hold a cup. But still my memory is good and my brain as sharp as when I was just a girl out on the farm. And so I have decided to write down everything I can rightly remember so my grandchildren and great grandchildren will better know me and the life I lived and the country where I lived it. I do not want to leave the job to others to paint my portrait. And so begins Annie's War, Thomas William Simpson's breathtaking historical novel based on his family's experiences before, during, and after the American Civil War. May 1, 1838. A small family farm in central Pennsylvania. A tremendous storm blows up. Thunder and lightning and torrents of rain. Ray's Creek overflows its banks. In the midst of the tumult Annie Leigh Ralston is born. Over the next several years Annie's mother gives birth to three more daughters and four sons. Some survive the trials and tribulations of the age; some do not. Typhus, cholera, measles, the pox, strep, snake bites, tetanus, and many other maladies stand in the way of Annie and her siblings reaching adulthood. Farm life in the first half of the nineteenth century did not abide the sick, the weak, or the lazy. July 3, 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Annie's younger brother, a private in the 125th Pennsylvania Volunteers, is shot through the stomach during Pickett's Charge and left to die on the field of battle. Annie travels by train and wagon and on foot until she reaches her brother's side. Using homespun remedies and a love of Biblical proportions, Annie nurses the dying boy back to life. Annie's War is the chronicle of one woman's life from 1838 until 1923. But on a larger stage it is the story of 19th century American women stepping out of the shadow of suppression into the dawn of a new age. Today we have far too little understanding of the severe and repressive lives our great grandmothers led. Annie's War, a riveting and highly personal narrative, portrays one woman's struggle for knowledge, respect, and self-determination. Thomas William Simpson, the author of such diverse novels as This Way Madness Lies, The Hancock Boys, and The Affair has blended history and psychology with the personal memoir to create a fictional tour de force that will transport you back to a time when America was still struggling through its adolescence. Evocative and emotionally charged, Annie's War subtly and forcefully captures the triumph of the human spirit. A masterful narrative not to be missed. A pacifist, feminist historical novel set before, during, and after the American Civil War, Annie's War shatters the myth that America was the land of the free and the home of the brave. That might have been true for a few lucky white men, but for most minorities and virtually all women, America was the land of the oppressed and the home of indentured servitude. Women were, at best, second class citizens.

Did you ever get so ticked off at someone you wanted to kill them? Literally? A spouse, perhaps? An adversary? A boss? Well, K is ticked off. K's blood is a-boil. K fully intends to commit homicide. More than one, in fact. What's it all about? Love, sure. Ambition. Greed. And let's not forget revenge. Sweet revenge. They took away K's ability to survive. They screwed her over. They robbed her of what she needed to thrive. To live. And for these sins they will have to pay. Who will have to pay? Well, Max, of course, K's publisher. And Renee, Max's hatchet woman. And perhaps Mary, K's editor. Careful Who You Cross, make no mistake, is a story first and foremost of revenge. Revenge-a terrible human trait. If we could banish it the world would be a far more pleasant and carefree place. But we can't deny reality. History shows us time and again that revenge lies deeply buried in the human psyche. When crossed, we strike back. K has decided to strike back, in a most ruthless and premeditated manner. So hold onto your seats, the blood is about to splatter. Careful Who You Cross-a novel for anyone who has ever wanted revenge.

The Editor (originally published by Bantam Books September 2001) The Editor decides who will live and who will die and who will live happily ever after... Sam Adams had the perfect life: a lovely wife, a devoted son, a job he loved, a comfortable home in a leafy suburb. But then a simple flat tire on Easter Sunday gave birth to a nightmare beyond all imagination. And now Sam must try to put his life back together. No longer able to rest easy in his suburban home, Sam rents a cottage on a secluded country estate. His new landlord is very mysterious, exquisitely beautiful, and blind. But far from being a helpless victim, Ms. Evelyn Richmond plays a strange game with Sam's already tangled mind, and with his tortured soul. What does the enigmatic Evelyn really want? Is she merely a bored and lonely woman? Or is she a dangerous sexual temptress? Sam, lost and broken, finds himself obsessed with and possessed by this sensuous and unsettling woman. He becomes snared in her carefully spun web of dark secrets and forbidden eroticism. Sam has no idea how far Evelyn Richmond will go, beyond what limits she will push him, or where their bizarre courtship will end. Nor will you... If you think you are beyond surprise, beyond shock... think again. The Editor is a fascinating psychological twister, a creepy and disturbing tale dissecting the depravity of the human soul. Thomas William Simpson explores a vast range of characters, plots, and emotions in his novels. The Editor, The Affair, The Caretaker, and The Immortal are all adventures into the dark side of human behavior.

Fingerprints of Armless Mike (Originally published as The Fingerprints of Armless Mike by Warner Books October 1996) So what is this book with the strange title? And who's Mike? Is he really armless? Is this some kind of gruesome tale? Horror? Sci-fi? Hardly. The Fingerprints of Armless Mike is Thomas William Simpson's amusing, fast moving romp about love, lust, greed, and grand larceny. He was a rolling stone, cool and easy. She was pure Miss Porter, proper and maybe a tad... snooty. But somehow, up in the Prosperous, Monied Hills of Affluent NJ, the two came together. Kissed and laughed and fell in love. But now he's robbed her mother blind and disappeared into the night. What everyone wants to know: did he do it for true love or did he do it for the money? Some people know him as Mike Standish, others as Mike Standowski. But right now no one knows where is he and only a few know why he has suddenly vanished. His lovely young wife, Sarah Louise Browne, knows. His rich, hard-hearted mother-in-law, "Iron Kate," knows. So does Mike's best buddy, Graham Cramer, who wishes he'd never introduced Mike to Sarah. The trouble starts when Mike is forced to live under his mother-in-law's roof and prying eyes. Iron Kate will not let Mike forget for a second he was born on the wrong side of the tracks. So finally, after one too many slurs, Mike puts a very simple plan into motion. He backs a rental truck up to the back door of Kate's hilltop mansion and fills it with her most valuable antiques. Too bad Mike leaves his fingerprints behind. Now on the lam in the Bahamas, Mike is forced to take a hard look at his life and his relationship with the woman he loves and has now betrayed. As Mike desperately tries to find a way out of the mess he's created, and as his pursuers close in, an epic storm descends upon the islands. And in the eye of Hurricane Bertha, the man who has never really been entirely honest about anything in his life, may finally discover the truth... and a terrible way out of his predicament. If he survives the onslaught. A novel that combines John Irving's quirky sense of humor, T. Coraghessan Boyle's outlandish sense of adventure, and Stephen Birmingham's razor sharp insights into the American Monied Class, The Fingerprints of Armless Mike proves once again why Thomas William Simpson has been called one of the most creative and captivating storytellers of our time.

The Caretaker (Originally Published by Bantam Books December 1998) The Caretaker is a wholly twisted and terrifying thriller. Nothing inside these pages is as it seems. Lies, manipulations, and seductions abound. The Caretaker will keep you dangling until the last word. For just when you think you may hold the truth in your hands... think again, and watch it slip away. The Caretaker-he seemed the perfect gentleman... In life we must be careful what we wish for. Samantha Henderson, faithful wife and devoted mother, is about to have her every wish granted, her every fantasy fulfilled. But in return, she and her family are going pay a price, a very steep price. Luxury does not come cheaply. The trouble starts when Sam's slick-talking husband, Gunn Henderson, the King of Sales, the Chairman of Charm, is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity. The Proposal: Come aboard as National Sales Strategist for Creative Marketing Enterprises and reap the enormous benefits-$250,000 in base salary, lucrative bonus offers, country club memberships, private schools for the kiddies, a beachside estate on the eastern tip of Long Island complete with cook, chauffeur, and caretaker. Sam can hardly believe the offer. It all sounds too good to be true. Of course it is. It always is. There's always a catch. Sam and her family are about to meet Brady. The caretaker of that beachside estate in the Hamptons. Brady is indeed the perfect gentleman-thoughtful, honest, hardworking, willing to fulfill the Hendersons' every need, especially Sam's. But the caretaker is also a man of certain... eccentricities. The Hendersons will soon discover there is more to Brady than meets the eye. The Hendersons, make no mistake, are in way over their heads. They are in big trouble. Their lives are about to be sliced open and placed under a microscope. But why? And who is going to such extremes to terrorize them? The answers lie within these pages. But know this: someone will have to pay... for wrongs committed long ago. Revenge is in the air. And there will be no peace until justice is served.

Doug Campbell goes to visit his father, Senator Robert Campbell. The Senator is in bed. Dead. Murdered? Doug thinks it looks that way. But who did it? And why? Was it personal? Or political? The Senator had his share of enemies. Both at home and in Washington. Doug vows to get to the bottom of it. His young mistress, Princeton Professor of Political Science Katherine Antonopoulos, already knows who murdered the Senator. No vows or investigation needed. She's 100% confident Doug murdered his father. Patricide? It happens, and not just in Shakespeare's plays. Murder One is a mystery, a thriller, a cat and mouse game, a psychological tour de force, and an almost tender love story all rolled into one. Nothing is as it seems. Not a word anyone utters, or even thinks, can be trusted. Doug Campbell tells the reader he has kidnapped his father from the family vacation house in Kennebunkport Maine, hauled the old Senator down to Jersey, and locked him in the attic keep in the Campbell mansion. He's done this, Doug tells us, to exact revenge for crimes his father committed against the family. Katherine Antonopoulos tells the reader she and Doug brought the old Senator back to Jersey with his complete cooperation. In fact, Katherine insists it was the Senator's idea to hide out in the family mansion with the goal of turning his long-held Senate seat over to her. Who's telling the truth? Which version is accurate? What's it all about? Why all the angst and animosity? Why all the lies and deception? Only one thing is certain-the old Senator, Robert Maxwell Campbell, is dead. Dead and gone. All else is a mystery. Did he die of natural causes? Or was he murdered? And if he was murdered, who did it? And why?

"But for what purpose was the earth formed?" asks Candide. "To drive us mad," replies Martin. Voltaire was an amusing and sarcastic guy. If his was the Age of Enlightenment, we live in the Age of Schizophrenia. We are all at once going stark raving mad and attaining the deepest levels of spiritual fulfillment. Insanity and Nirvana all in the same breath. At times it's hard to grasp and enough to make us gasp. But see now the hero of Gawd Bless Amurica, America Augustus Mirth. August, he prefers. He's a throwback to the Sixties, to the Age of Aquarius, to cross country trips in an old VW microbus and a fat bag of weed. But before his hippie sojourn, he played middle linebacker for Middlebury and fought with the Marines in the jungles of Vietnam. Three wives, a dozen kids all named after the original thirteen colonies, August is a chatty but impenetrable guy, a complex American male. Master automotive mechanic Eddie Rucker has been thoroughly disenfranchised in the Age of Schizophrenia. He's lost and lonely as hell and recently purchased a handgun in the Live Free or Die State. Eddie knows his wife is boffing the pastor. Eddie knows his job at Jiffy Lube is a lousy, dead-end, loser's job. Eddie knows he's a crappy son, husband, and father. And by God for all these reasons and many more old Ed is thoroughly ticked off. He's also depressed and strung out on booze, painkillers, and worry, but Ed can't digest all these marvels of the modern world so he settles on anger. Rage. Vexation. And the oh so sweet possibility of revenge. Reverend Sandy Miles has been having sex with Ed's wife. He can't help himself. He may be a Man of the Cloth but he is wholly a Man of the Flesh. He has lost interest in his wife and in God. The whole notion of God has started to bore and annoy Sandy. All that faith and sanctimony. Sure, he puts on a good show every Sunday morning, but the rest of the time he's lying and cheating and gambling and living a life of pure delightful sin. America Augustus Mirth, Edward Rucker, and Reverend Sanford Miles are on a collision course. Destiny, or perhaps free will, is about to bring together this trio of depleted American males at the First Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. What happens at that chapel, and in the days to follow up at the Mirth family farm in Middlebury, Vermont, will alter forever all three men's lives. And America, the country, may never be the same again.

The Impostors Marriage. Quite an institution. A life sentence of hard labor for some. A joyous, fulfilling walk in St. James Park in June for others. For most of us, holy matrimony lies somewhere in between. Like life itself-an endless rollercoaster ride ridden blindfolded with no end but death or divorce in sight. Say "I do" and you're in wedlock. Wed-lock. Like a head-lock on the emotions. The conjugal bond. It is, without question, God's greatest practical joke on big-brained mammals. The Impostors takes an... unusual look at white, middle class, American marriage. Like an ultra-skinny swimsuit model, it is a look both complex and sensual. Complex because Park and Vera are so much like us that we have no choice but to think they are nothing like us at all. And sensual because on the surface Park and Vera are so appealing and erotic, but just below the surface lurks frailty, anxiety, and fear. Park is a big game hunter in Botswana. Africa. But when not hunting he lives in a center hall colonial in a posh Boston suburb with Vera and their three children. When it's time to go to work he flies off to The Dark Continent and helps well-heeled fat-cats slaughter large starry-eyed mammals. While back home Vera is slowly falling apart. Already amped up with a whole host of bi-polar issues, Vera has begun to see her life as a miserable failure and longs to do something vital, something magical, something to make people-especially Park-sit up and take notice. So what does Vera do? She invites her southern belle mama up for a visit, and then, in the middle of the night, she skedaddles. Off to another part of darkest Africa she goes, intent on making her way to an orphanage run by an American lady recently portrayed as a saint on the cover of Time. Park gets word of his beautiful, entirely crazy wife's disappearance and sets off on a journey across the Heart of Darkness to find her. Love. Lust. Marriage. Money. Murder. Guns. Violence. Child rearing. Public education. Fathers. Mothers. Ebola. Boko Haram. Sleazy real estate developers. Race relations. Grass. Booze. Rock n roll. The Meaning of Life. The Impostors. It has depth, humor, pathos, love won, love lost, maybe hopefully love for all of eternity.

This Way Madness Lies (originally Published by Warner Books January 1992) What do you get when you mix fact, fiction, fantasy, history, deception, decadence, ego, affluence, and ambition? You get madness! In this case-Thomas William Simpson's remarkable novel This Way Madness Lies, a literary debut of enormous exuberance and daring imagination. Wild Bill Winslow, 70, falls down the back stairs of the old family mansion in Far Hills, NJ. During the fall he breaks a few bones, questions his sanity and his immortality, and knocks himself cold. He's discovered, broken and battered, by sweet Evangeline, who rushes him to the hospital. When Wild Bill comes around he asks his young mistress to summon his wayward children and his petulant second wife... And so begins Simpson's darkly comic tale of the Winslow dynasty and their New World adventure. With a grand cast of eccentric characters from both past and present, Simpson weaves a family saga laced with religion and rebellion, murder and mayhem, alcohol and drugs, infidelity and true love, and enough wars to make even the most peaceful Americans think twice about their heritage. Wild Bill has nine offspring, some dead, most still among the living. Actors, ex-pats, playboys, forest rangers, full-blooded psychotics-they are a supremely alienated lot; alienated from Dear Old Dad, from one another, from the harsh glare of reality. They move through life like refugees from the womb. One by one these tortured souls make their way home to the family manse. None of them are sure what they will find. Over the course of one of the wildest family reunions ever chronicled, one young Winslow will plot murder, another will commune with the dead, and all will become players in the larger drama of a family on the brink of collapse. But the Winslow clan, like America itself, is a resilient lot. Since moving from the Old World to the New countless generations ago, they have survived shipwrecks, Indian attacks, economic ruin, marital dissolution, and more wars than any of them care to count. But they're still standing, still battling, still searching for that elusive American Dream. This Way Madness Lies draws on this present generation of Winslows in a search for clues about the origins of the family's madness. What emerges is a fable of inevitability and fate; a story all at once compelling, comical, and deeply disturbing for it touches that place where we are all most vulnerable-family. The Winslows may not be every American family, but strip away their swagger and their armor and what remains is the blood and guts of the American Experience-if such a fairytale still exists.

I know your time is valuable. I know your attention span suffers in this era of Stimuli Overload. This is why I want to tell you the biggest story I can using the fewest number of words. And that, essentially, is the premise behind Middle Class American White Boy. This first edition contains 15 narratives... stories... poems... verses... whatever you want to call them. I prefer to call them rhythms. I love rhythm. You can read (either silently or aloud) each rhythm in the collection in 2-5 minutes. To hold your attention for even that long-before you scroll away or wander off-I have to create one rapid-fire image after another in your brain. Middle Class American White Boy unfolds like a memoir. Each rhythm tells a story from some crucial period of my life. The first-Paradise Lost-takes place during my first trip abroad at age 15. My parents sent me to Germany to spend the summer with my oldest brother. I had many wild adventures, culminating in Munich when the Black September Terrorists murdered a bunch of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics. Next up is Welfare, a comical look at fathers-in this case my father-trying to move kids in their twenties out of the house and out on their own. The Universe-my own personal War & Peace-tells the tale of my time in Argentina during the Troubles. When I wrote the account many years ago it topped out at almost 30,000 words. I have now reduced that same story to a powerful rhythm of just over 900 words. The rhythms in Middle Class American White Boy are chronological. I travel. I dream. I mature. I write. I publish. I fall in love. I marry. I become a father. My view of life and what is important expands and changes. Always I question the status quo, especially my own. I am a life-long reader and writer of novels. I love the long form. But the world is fast changing. I need to keep pace. I need to change my rhythm.

adrift adrift... unmoored, aimless, disoriented In her 20s Megan Danner wrote three novels that found both critical and popular acclaim. She was regaled by the literary world and appeared on The Today Show and Oprah Winfrey. She lived in New York City and traveled the world. Life was good. At 30 she married. At 31 she had a daughter. At 32 she found out she was pregnant with twins. She and her husband moved to the suburbs. Near Mom. Megan the novelist slowly began to drift, to disappear. When we lose our bearings, when those we trust betray us, when our dreams begin to die... the sane turn mad. The sweet turn bitter. The contented turn violent. Megan has now been saddled with a decade-long writer's block. It was, she believes, brought on by marriage, three kids, relentless domestic drudgery, stress, inertia, way too much time with Mom, and finally the proverbial straw that has, just recently broken the camel's-Agnes'-back. Plots are being hatched. Characters are being torn asunder. All hell is about to break loose. adrift is the story of one woman's efforts to take control of her life, only to discover control is, at best, a shadowy and elusive illusion.

The Gypsy Storyteller Friendship. Love. Lust. Betrayal. Freedom. An often excruciating cycle we all must pass through at least once in our lives... Thomas William Simpson, the acclaimed author of This Way Madness Lies, follows his impressive debut novel with an extraordinary work of pure storytelling magic. The Gypsy Storyteller tells the tale of two young men whose lives, from the time of their births, are fatefully linked. It is also the story of a devastating lovers' triangle spinning wildly out of control. Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, Matthew Chandler and Daniel Hawthorn have much in common. But they are, in fact, polar opposites, emotionally and psychologically. Matthew descends from solid English stock, pure white Angle Saxon Protestant stuff right down to his core. Daniel's mother, a direct descendent of Nathaniel Hawthorne, has managed to cast off her Puritan cloak, marrying a full-blooded Eastern European Gypsy whose family was annihilated during the Holocaust. Matthew is preternaturally cautious. Daniel is relentlessly daring. Matthew plays by the rules, Daniel breaks them with gusto. Through a boyhood of wild, uproarious adventures that include jumping boxcars, a fatal stabbing, and an eye-opening but terrifying trip to Czechoslovakia in the company of Daniel's father, the boys' unlikely friendship endures. Until Matthew, herded off to boarding school by his uptight parents, meets the beautiful and mysterious Rachel Ann Fredericks. Almost immediately, the straight line that has held Matthew and Daniel together for so many years transforms itself into a triangle. Gifted, free-spirited, and wildly independent, Rachel forces a whole new dimension upon the young men's lives, forcing them to confront the reality they can be enemies as well as allies. In The Gypsy Storyteller Simpson deftly explores the connections between friendship, love, and betrayal. And through the sheer power of his prose he makes us believe that freedom, even the dream of freedom, is what ultimately holds our lives in the balance. Full of the spirit of adventure-physical, spiritual, and sexual-this constantly surprising novel pushes back the horizons of contemporary fiction. The Gypsy Storyteller pulses with flesh and blood vitality, humor, and above all, with a keen sensitivity for the painful struggles of the human heart. In the best tradition of Mark Twain, John Fowles, and John Irving, this fine and generous novel takes us places we have not visited before.

Bell is a regular guy. A middle class guy. A working stiff. A 'Found Art' sculptor but still a working stiff. A wife and five (5!) kids. He's a lot like you. Or your brother. Or your buddy. Or maybe your husband. Sure, he checks out good looking women. Gives them the eye when they sashay down the street. Chats them up when the opportunity arises. Fantasizes about having a fling, a tryst, an affair. But Bell's true blue. A faithful and honorable guy. Or thinks he is. To Emily. Their kids. Their whole crazy, chaotic union. Of course, Bell is also a man. And men are given to temptation. Beautiful women are a temptation. Especially beautiful women who flirt and tease. The Affair is about temptation. And seduction. Deception and manipulation. The Affair is about Bell. And Emily. And the beautiful Ava, who had been, as a young woman, one of the most alluring and sought after fashion models on earth. Now, the chance for revival dangling in the breeze, Ava has inserted herself in Bell and Emily's world. But why? To what end? What is Ava after? And now that she has arrived can things ever be the same again? The Affair bristles with sexual tension and marital strain. Bell finds himself caught in the middle: Desire or duty? Lust or love? Bell is not a complete fool. He knows full well he risks everything every time he takes Ava into his arms. And into his bed. But it quickly becomes clear Bell is clueless. He's nothing but a pawn. Whole worlds to which he is not privy are unfolding around him... We all live in worlds of our own making. And unmaking. The Affair is a provocative and contemporary erotic thriller. It will change the way you feel about relationships, commitments, marriage. Your own marriage may never be the same again. Nothing good can come of The Affair.

3131 Ocean Avenue
 A Ray Stiles Mystery With a nod to Dash Hammett and Ray Chandler, Simpson Books introduces Ray Stiles, a modern American female sleuth with an acid tongue and some pretty wild sexual desires. Ray receives a call in the middle of the night. A woman with a sultry voice says she has a dead guy in her front foyer and she could really use Ray's help. Ray's a small town Private Eye. Belmar, NJ. She does small stuff like insurance fraud. She follows women whose husbands smell infidelity. Shadows college and high school kids whose parents fear drug deals and overdoses. Dead guys are a different story. Dead guys are serious business. Still, Ray can't afford to blow off the phone call. Ray needs the dough. Bills and expenses out the wazoo. One kid in college, another one will be soon. Mortgage to pay. Health insurance. Car insurance for the 'Vette. Food and surfboards to buy. And no help at all from either of her no-good ex-husbands. Ray's 100% on her own. So yeah, she agrees to drive up to Sea Grove in the middle of the night. Check out the dead guy. Really she has no choice. Bank account on its death bed. And hey, 3131 Ocean Avenue in Sea Grove-that's where the fat cats live. Where the well-heeled have their summer beach houses. Ray finds both money and the dead guy at 3131 Ocean Avenue. She also finds Ms. Valerie Worthington, who will, over the next few weeks, beguile and confound Ray as Ray tries to unravel the mystery of the dead guy's demise. More than a simple whodunit, 3131 Ocean Avenue delves into the psyches of the story's primary characters, Ray and Valerie. What's motivating them? Money, yes, but also power and ambition, lust and love, revenge and revulsion. The plot is thick and ever changing. Lies and deceptions litter Ray's path to the truth. Hair loss, corporate profits, corporate espionage, family animosities, corrupt cops all stand in Ray's way. Ray gets threatened, kidnapped, roughed up, held at gunpoint, but she doesn't bat an eye, doesn't give up, doesn't give an inch.

Natalie works the midnight to noon shift as an emergency room nurse at Wellspan Hospital in Gettysburg, PA. She has a husband, a son, a daughter, a dog, and a cat. She leads a busy middle class life working, taking care of her family, serving on the school board, volunteering at the food pantry, trying to find time to exercise. Natalie is about as grounded in reality as any 40-year-old American woman could possibly be.Lately, however, crazy, vivid dreams have invaded her sleep. Most of these dreams involve a love affair and a gentleman getting shot. In the chest. In a bank. Sometimes she's there to save the wounded man; sometimes not. Sometimes the bank is the Gettysburg National where she and Zachary have their joint checking account. Other times it's an old fashion bank and the people wear western garb like you might see in an old John Wayne movie. The dreams have been unsettling, but more recently Natalie has started to hear voices as well. Typically, she hears two distinct voices. They tend to argue. One voice keeps telling Natalie she needs to go; the other tells her to stay. "Go where?" Natalie asks. "New Mexico.""Why New Mexico?""The reasons why will emerge once you have shown the courage to go."That evening Natalie and Zachary have an epic domestic quarrel. Natalie is so irritated she takes Zachary's old Corvette out for a spin. Natalie never takes the Vette out for a spin. Sure enough, she cracks it up. Smashes the fender and headlight and scratches the entire passenger side of the 40-year-old showroom clean sports car.Crazed now with the dreams, voices, and ruined Vette, Natalie flees for New Mexico to fulfill her destiny.Trail to Telluride is a love story. It is a romance. It is a western. It is a time machine gone haywire. It is the story of what one woman will do to insure the safety and continuity of her family. Come along for the ride. Let your imagination go. Meet Ray who runs the motel and bar out in the middle of Nowhere, New Mexico. Ray will change Natalie's life. Meet Geronimo and the Earp brothers, Wyatt and Virgil, and, of course, Butch Cassidy, who will have a fling with a youthful Natalie along the trail to Telluride.Trail to Telluride is exactly what fiction should be-imaginative, mind-expanding, challenging, insightful, surprising, and just plain entertaining. Natalie is a heroine for our times-smart, educated, grounded, hard-working, entirely devoted to her family, but also open-minded, ready and willing to take on new challenges and fresh adventures.

Thomas William Simpson, the acclaimed author of This Way Madness Lies and The Gypsy Storyteller, extends his literary powers, spinning an uproarious and disturbing tale about a place called America, and all the fools, dreamers, villains, and heroes who have made it possible.