Olivia begins her life facing the challenge of a physical disability, and at age 12, finds her life dramatically changed after the death of her mother in the late 1950s. Having been sheltered by the closeness of a large extended family, she and her 11-year-old brother Lenny suddenly find themselves with an uncertain future living with their self-centered father, as their older brother Benjy goes off to join the army. The frustrated children shuttle between Brooklyn and the family's upstate home in Liberty, New York, while Olivia struggles to balance her complicated life as a teenager with adult responsibilities. Strong family ties and the house that bonds her with fifteen close cousins, strengthen Olivia's fortitude to deal with the trials she encounters on the road ahead. With the backdrop of America's growing pains in the 1950s and 60s, Olivia relives her life from a young girl's perspective, through post-war economic growth, fear of nuclear war, ramifications of the McCarthy Era, the civil rights movement, the assassination of a president and the Vietnam War. School days, girlfriends, boyfriends and the birth of rock and roll, enrich her story of hardships, tragedy, and extraordinary childhood experiences. Road to Sunrise takes us traveling from the busy streets of Brooklyn, NY to the tranquil Catskill Mountains in an emotionally charged journey from idyllic early childhood, through turbulent adolescence and teen years, to the hopes and dreams of a young woman.

December 21, 2012 According to Mayan legend, the human age is scheduled to end today. That's what the Belizean tour guide tells Michelle's family as they paddle canoes out of the solstice sun and deep into the mysterious, dark cave system. The Earth trembles. The cave crumbles. Michelle is thrown back in time, away from everything she knows and everyone she loves, into an ancient world of palace politics, bloody warfare, and human sacrifice. Men Ch'o, second son of the ruler of a small Mayan city-state, has always stood in the shadow of his elder brother, but the unexpected arrival of the goddess Ix Chel in human form will shift the fulcrum of power and upset the balance of his heart. The unlikely intersection of their lives just might change everything.

Gordon Ryder has the blues. It's 1969, the worst year of Gordon's life so far. He has no friends, and when his father deserts the family, Gordon is left alone with his overly controlling mother. Gordon's only solace is running, which leads to an encounter in the forest preserve that could change everything. Myra Roth, a hippie leader at Gordon's high school, invites him into her inner circle. Gordon must decide: should he enter Myra's world of war protests, drugs, and free love? Gordon Ryder's Blues tells the story of a teenager coming of age in the turbulent Sixties, a story written to entertain young adults curious about that time, baby boomers eager to reminisce, and everyone in between.

The Christmas season in mid-19th century Bavaria is brought to life in the THE GLASS MINSTREL, a new, original historical novel from acclaimed author Hayden Thorne. Two fathers, Abelard Bauer and Andreas Schifffer, are brought together through the tragic deaths of their eldest sons. Bauer, a brilliant toymaker, fashions glass Christmas ornaments and his latest creation is a minstrel with a secret molded into its features. When Schiffer sees Bauer's minstrel ornament in the toy shop, he realizes that Bauer is struggling to keep his son's memory alive through his craft. At first he tries to fault him for this, but then recognizes that he, too, is seeking solace and healing by reading his son's diary, a journal that reveals, in both painful as well as beautiful detail, the true nature of his relationship with the artisan's son. In addition to the story of the two fathers, a third character is central to the plot: fifteen-year-old Jakob Diederich. The young man is burdened with his own secret; he develops an obsession with a traveling Englishman who stays at the inn where Jakob works. The lives of all three men intersect during the holiday as Schiffer tries to focus on his family in the present; Bauer struggles to reconcile his past and Jakob copes with an uncertain future. The lyrical prose and rich period detail will keep the reader engrossed from the very first page in this tale of redemption, hope, and haunting, but timeless, themes.