This is a story about starting over, something many women have thought about but fewer attempt. After all, when you are living in a grand house in Santa Rosa, California, have two young daughters, many friends and all the accoutrements of wealth, how many people would throw all that away to escape from an abusive husband who will not grant you a divorce? And how do you explain this to your children, particularly when you have to go into hiding, are close to penniless, can afford nothing more expensive than quarters in the Oasis, a seedy motor court in a disreputable part of Tucson? And how does one deal with a child's anger over this fall from what she considered to be grace? It's a story told in the voices of five women: There is Leslie, starting over, and her daughters 11 year-old-Sam (Samantha) and her older sister Audrey; Dee, the 400 pound Jesus-loving manager of the Oasis; Eden, a topless dancer neighbor who befriends Leslie and her bi-racial daughter Chablee who tries to teach Audrey the ropes. All of these women do what they must to get by, all prove to be survivors, and each has a distinct voice. This unlikely cast of very real characters manages to form their own family unit and rise, supportively, from individual isolation after severing ties with their painful pasts, by putting one foot in front of the other as they rebuild their collective lives.

A Garden of Aloes

Literature & Fiction

G. Davies Jandrey

United States

The Permanent Press

Set in Tucson, Arizona, A Small Saving Grace, is a tale of suspense with wry sensibilities, offbeat characters and just enough menace to make the reader wince and say, "No, don't go there." Life is in turmoil, yet against the odds, Andy, and those who love her, make slow, but steady progress. All the while, Andy's attacker is stalking the entire household, searching for the right opportunity to kill his only living witness before she regains her ability to communicate. A Small Saving Grace is full of suspense, but at its heart, this is a story of love, resilience, perseverance and healing.

A Small Saving Grace

Cortero Publishing

Cold, Colder, Coldest

Genre Fiction

Abby Bannister, the CEO and founder Gimps Serving Gimps, is being interviewed for a spot on the local news. A major gimp herself, she is a champion for the rights and independence of all people faced with physical, mental and emotional challenges. Once aired, the interview draws the attention of three people. The first is her best friend, a gay gimp looking for love in all the wrong places. The second is Abby's long-lost cousin, Fey. Homeless, she has an ax to grind and sees Abby as the perfect grindstone. The third is a self-declared angel of mercy who believes Abby is in need of his special services. As Abby whizzes around Tucson, Arizona in her supped-up electric wheelchair, she is oblivious to the grave danger she is in.

Deep Breathing

It's Tucson, it's summer, and it is stinking hot.\nSturdy, stalwart Detective Marie Stransky has returned to work after the birth of her fifth baby, another girl, to find that "he's back." 
Called to Santa Rita Park, a gathering place for the homeless and addicted, Marie studies the strangled body of a young woman. The cigarette burn on her right wrist pegs her as a victim of a stalker that has already killed two homeless women. Then there is the young Mexican woman found shot in a wash. Homicide department head, Lieutenant Carl Lindgrin, a man Marie loves to hate, dismisses the murder as gang related, but the tattoo of a unicorn on the girl's shoulder visible in the autopsy photo gives Marie pause. What self-respecting gangbanger has a tattoo of a unicorn? And the bodies pile up.\nThe Law of Unintended Consequences is filled with Gayle Jandrey's usual humor, dark and otherwise, typical array of quirky characters. All are woven through this tight, suspenseful police procedural-come-domestic melodrama like threads of bright yarn, that when pulled together make a whole cloth.

The Law of Unintended Consequences