The Road Behind Me

It's been said a man falls in love an average of three times in his life. If that's an accurate assessment, it stands to reason two of those three must end in heartbreak. Author RjCook had the misfortune of experiencing two of his three heartaches before the age of twenty - both within the same year separated by only a few months. The Road behind Me narrates his story of lost love, a tale of a journey, and a late-in-life epiphany all predicated on a single deception that he lived with for the better part of forty years. This memoir tells how, from the summer of 1974 to the summer of 1975, he traveled from New Jersey to California to escape the pain of a broken heart, only to discover that distance did nothing to diminish his memories. A true story of the author's failed attempt to create a new life for himself, The Road behind Me shares the adventures he encountered almost a continent away from home. It's a story of growing up and falling in love in suburban New Jersey; of losing love and seeking refuge in the land of milk, honey, and Disney; and of returning home a defeated and forlorn road warrior-all during the time of peace and love, Woodstock, Nixon, and Vietnam.

I don't even know who I am anymore. Josephine... My birth name. The one my parents gave me and the one they can have. It makes me no difference. Joss... That's what my friends call me. I like it. It means they know me. Sort of. Blue J... My stage name. It hides me when I need it to. Bird... That's what he calls me. And he's the only one. He gave me a new name. One that was branded on my skin our first night together, placed there by his lips. The night that was supposed to be our first and our last. Because if he sees the me hiding behind the fake name, will he even want me? Cain She slipped out, right through my fingers. But that won't work for me. Her voice made an impression, her touch left its mark. And when I find her, I'll make sure she remembers the way it felt. But how can a girl who hides herself, living her life in a convent and afraid to face the world, ever fall for a man who kills people for a living? Can the death row prison guard and the girl struggling to break free come together? Or will their differences keep them from finding their forever? Behind Me is a contemporary romance with adult language and sexual content and is intended for an audience 18 and over.

"A compulsive page-turner with a shocking twist--get ready to stay up all night!" --Sara Shepard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars "This conversation-starting page-turner is...Fatal Attraction meets Big Little Lies." --Kirkus Reviews Gabe and Elyse have never met. But they both have something to hide. Quiet, shy Elyse can't believe it when she's cast as the lead in her Portland high school's production of Romeo and Juliet. Her best friend, Brynn, is usually the star, and Elyse isn't sure she's up to the task. But when someone at rehearsals starts to catch her eye--someone she knows she absolutely shouldn't be with--she can't help but be pulled into the spotlight. Austin native Gabe is contemplating the unthinkable--breaking up with Sasha, his headstrong, popular girlfriend. She's not going to let him slip through her fingers, though, and when rumors start to circulate around school, he knows she has the power to change his life forever. Gabe and Elyse both make the mistake of falling for the wrong person, and falling hard. Told in parallel narratives, this twisty, shocking story shows how one bad choice can lead to a spiral of unforeseen consequences that not everyone will survive.

"Veterinarian Brady imbues this page-turner with authentic details about a vet and the critters she treats." —Kirkus Review Dr. Kate Turner, DVM, is seven months into her one-year contract to cover for a Hudson Valley vet taking a year-long world cruise. She's getting used to the hospital and house-call workload but not to the sometimes dangerous, if not deadly, critters—animal and human—she meets. Eighty-something-year-old Gloria LaGuardia has been installed at an assisted living center by her niece. They bump into Kate at the Oak Falls annual Halloween street bash. And while Gloria's conversation indicates some mental confusion—she asks a couple dressed as rabbits if they are real or not—she's still sharp. And she says, "Someone evil is here. I saw him." Saw who? Will this chance meeting draw Kate into the path of Carl Wolf, a notorious fugitive twenty-one years on the FBI's Most Wanted List? Is Wolf hiding in plain sight in or around Oak Falls? When Gloria, once an artist endowed with a sharp eye, is murdered, Kate doesn't know what to think. But author Tucker Weinstein approaches her at Gloria's funeral and indicates he believes the old woman. Further, he's devoting a chapter in his book to Carl Wolf. The FBI doesn't appear interested. Gloria's family just wants to move on. But publicity-hungry Tucker mentions Kate in a newspaper interview that goes viral. She's overloaded with new clients like Billy, a Nubian stud goat living penned up with alpaca, llamas, and more goats on a local farm producing milk, wool, and cheese, and a grumpy Chihuahua dressed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Yet she senses someone is now following her. An undercover FBI agent? Carl Wolf on the prowl? Determined not to be a victim, Kate digs deep into the arson/murder Wolf committed long ago. Are the clues to unmasking him hidden in the past, or closer than she thinks?

This is what I see exaggerated. That is why this is fiction! With me a new twist of the conscious. We think but never speak about the sensitive side. Place in metaphors and statements, presenting reality and a bonus of fiction. Welcome to my sighting, vision, and exaggeration of what could be true. Become my eyes, as you focus on the words. Now can you see what I see? Twisting scenes, transferring thoughts to an emotion, touching the unseen, holding hands with fear, realizing it's truth to an open opinion. This is why I felt compelled to tell the story. A plan from deep within set a sail for my new adventures of what I see, and what I think I see, and to learn the difference. Taught speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, so I wrote it instead. These rules were never clarified outside the main ingredients. So telling the story this way makes it easier for my conscience, releasing a poison that was slowly trying to kill a humble soul. Sins and unwanted memories can be at peace, through the conclusion of a fictional story. Or is it? My gift of a fictional horror with an inspirational meaning. Read my exaggeration, and form your opinion of a book called "Can You See What I See?" I'm not a big fan of gambling, but I bet a pocket full of coins that this book is different, heads or tails. P.S. Remember three is a charm. Two more will follow.

The gripping true story of bomb disposal work that won Ivison a George Medal - and started a living nightmare... When two of his colleagues are killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, young bomb disposal officer Kevin Ivison is called in to defuse a second even deadlier bomb just a hundred yards from the bodies of his friends. To make things worse, the entire area is under fire from snipers, and a crowd of angry Iraqis have begun to hurl petrol bombs... With little chance of living through this impossible task, Kevin leaves final messages for his loved ones and sets out alone towards the bomb that he is sure will be the last thing he sees. In this gut-wrenching and terrifying true story of heroism and survival, Kevin Ivison explains why he chose to be a bomb disposal expert in the first place, how he found the courage to face his death, and the unendurable stress that has given him nightmares ever since.

This meticulously edited George Orwell collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Novels: Burmese Days A Clergyman's Daughter Keep the Aspidistra Flying Coming Up for Air Animal Farm 1984 Poetry: Awake! Young Men of England Kitchener Our Hearts Are Married, But We Are Too Young The Pagan Poem from Burma The Lesser Evil Romance Summer-like for an Instant The Italian Soldier Shook My Hand... Reflections on War and Society: Spilling the Spanish Beans Not Counting Niggers Prophecies of Fascism Wells, Hitler and the World State Looking Back on the Spanish War Who Are the War Criminals? Future of a Ruined Germany Revenge is Sour You and the Atomic Bomb Notes on Nationalism Catastrophic Gradualism Freedom of the Park How the Poor Die In Front of Your Nose Thoughts on England: Democracy in the British Army The Lion and the Unicorn Antisemitism in Britain In Defence of English Cooking Decline of the English Murder Politics and the English Language Views on Literature, Art & Famous Men: In Defence of the Novel Notes on the Way Charles Dickens Charles Reade Inside The Whale Literature and Totalitarianism The Art of Donald Mcgill Rudyard Kipling W. B. Yeats Mark Twain—the Licensed Jester Raffles and Miss Blandish Arthur Koestler Notes on Salvador Dali Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool Writers and Leviathan Reflections on Gandhi... Book Reviews: Mein Kampf The Totalitarian Enemy by Franz Borkenau... Miscellaneous Writings: A Farthing Newspaper The Spike Boys' Weeklies and Frank Richards's Reply Poetry and the Microphone The Sporting Spirit... Autobiographical Works: A Hanging Down and Out in Paris and London Bookshop Memories Shooting an Elephant The Road to Wigan Pier Homage to Catalonia Marrakech Why I Write...