15 Books Published by Bare Bones Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Daniel "Dan" Bluford is the Director of Polar City Single Organism Research Lab Facilities. A business he helped to create. The world’s leading architect of sustainable, ecologically conscious products for energy, manufacturing, water treatment, waste management, and environmental clean-up equipment. A company whose mission statement read in part, "Better environment through industry."

Unable to stay awake on his drive home after work, the loving husband and father stopped for coffee at a familiar coffee shop. The place was empty, aside from a lone barista. A young woman with a sacred Maori chin tattoo and an infectious smile.

Dan decides to stay and drink some of his pick-me-up before heading back on the road. He has a seat and sends a text message to his wife to inform her of his intentions. Toni responds that she understands, adorned with hearts and kisses emoji. Shortly afterward, Dan awakens in a strange hospital room on a distant planet, where he is informed that he is part of an exchange student program between his world and theirs.

From “Case 121” and “Silver Anniversary” to “Coma,” “The Last Serious Man,” and “Fogbound,” Long Journey Home takes the reader on distinctive, eclectic, winding journeys through the astonishing complexities of devotion, relationships, longing, lust, and love with a dash of detective mysteries tossed in for additional spice.

The Cavanaugh Investigation Agency registered its most profitable year to date. Earnings generated by putting in a lot of overtime. C. J. Cavanaugh’s PI partner, Renita Harris, is on a well-deserved six weeks’ vacation. Not a problem. C. J. is anticipating an easy going six weeks. Insurance fraud and background checks make up the majority of their investigations. Work that is more monotonous than dangerous. Unlike his DEA deep cover days.

An unfortunate combination of personal absences and a flu epidemic had crippled the local DEA of field operatives. His good friend Portland DEA Director Patrick O’Malley asks C. J. for help. C. J. is glad to lend a hand. A DEA surveillance operation on a drug distribution hot spot is where C. J. is assigned. What C. J. witnesses during his shift forces him to go nose-to-nose against a decorated Portland Narc and Oregon’s drug czar.

The FBI have uncovered a national dark organization called Firestorm that specializes in arson. The FBI have been unable to infiltrate Firestorm. His friend and local FBI Director ask a special favor of him. He wants to enlist C. J. in an undercover operation that could open the door to Firestorm. C. J. agrees to help. With practically zero inside knowledge on Firestorm, C. J. has no idea if the operation will go south in a hurry.

So much for a relaxing six weeks.

The haiku emerged in Japanese literature during the 17th century. A poetic arrangement consisting of 17 syllables composed of three corresponding lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. The original art form focused on the natural world. A number of the haiku in this collection stray from that tradition. Addressing a wide variety of subjects while maintaining at their core a desired emotional response. While I endeavored to write a haiku a day for 366 consecutive days my efforts were in vain. A haiku, like every artistic creation, will come in its time as did each in this collection. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy A Leap Year of Haiku.

Who are we? Why are we? What are we? Essential, mindful questions most humans explore on their limited expedition through this magical, choppy life. Sandbox is a poetry collection that dips a long, crooked ladle into the cool wellspring of restless curiosities surrounding some of those disquieting queries. The topics vary, as do we: love, passion, purpose, life, death, humanity, nature, faith, and more. Our aches and pains, joys, and jubilations are exposed and celebrated here. It has been said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” Sandbox is a thought-provoking lyrical tour of one person’s interpretations of how we inhabit this earth when the soul is laid bare along that journey.

Mortal Thoughts is a culmination of decades of intimate conversations the two have shared. The topics range from love to hate, hope and despair. There is social commentary, introspection, nature, observations, and more. Some of the poems may come at you in a whisper. Others scream in your face. Most of his poetry requests a brief audience to share a fascinating insight or revelation. Michael hopes you will enjoy reading the poems in Mortal Thoughts as much as he enjoyed writing them.

Before the supermarket boom, corner markets dominated neighborhoods where most people did their grocery shopping. These corner markets sold all of your staples. They were hospitable and served as a junction to exchange ideas, beliefs, and gossip in much the same way as barbershops and beauty salons still do today. The Family Stone is set in the memory of these institutions long gone from most American economic landscapes.

It is the year following the long, hot summer in America. Abraham and Winona Stone are the proud owners of Willie’s Market, a modest corner grocery store in a working-class urban community. The Civil Rights movement is at full throttle. The fight for social equality does not halt personal drama. Intriguing neighborhood sagas of life, death, love, heartbreak, betrayal, hope, faith, and redemption play out against the fiery backdrop of civil unrest.

UFOs and God is not single-themed but a medley of characters kayaking their way through the erratic channels of life. Some of these stories are sharp-edged and made to cut you emotionally to the quick. Others are inviting, like a warm cozy room on a bitterly cold day. A couple—it is hoped—will make you laugh.

In “Wake Up,” a man decides each morning whether he is to live or die, while “The Virgin Bank Robber” is an unorthodox love story about a modern Robin Hood couple who are captured by the law. “UFOs and God” is the story of a beloved believer in UFOs and aliens who maintains her beliefs right up until the end, while “War,” tells the story of two brave soldiers, one black and one white, who find themselves trapped in the same foxhole during World War II. “Job Search” explores a young person’s search for more than a job but a meaningful career. “The Zany World of Al, Nitro, Dynamite & Their Dog Blaze” is a twisted parody of our obsession with violence and destruction as forms of entertainment. After being financially devastated by the 2008 economic crash, Mason Hammer makes a bold decision to live out a long-held dream in “Echoes.”

From farm to urban, from World War II to the Digital Age, the places and times, people and events in UFOs and God spotlight the tender underbelly of the human condition in all its glory and despair on these varying stages of fiction.

Alice and Don Harriman are the owners of Blue Sun, the largest residential real estate and construction service in the Pacific Northwest. When a house cleaner stumbles upon two masked men holding Don Harriman at gunpoint in his own bedroom, she is able to flee the scene before being captured. Outside, neighbors from this quiet, affluent, suburban neighborhood respond to her screams for help. They patiently listen as she frantically tells her harrowing tale. Two of the neighbors bravely venture inside the Harriman house to investigate. They find nothing, no men, no body, and no sign of a struggle. The police investigation supports their findings. There is no physical evidence to substantiate the house cleaner’s claim. It is only later, when Don Harriman’s beaten body is found floating in the Willamette River, that the house cleaner is believed.

Homicide Detective Destini Pendleton is assigned the Harriman case. During her preliminary investigation, she discovers the victim contacted C. J. on the day he was abducted. C. J. admits to having received a peculiar text message around that time. The problem is, he doesn’t know Don Harriman and has no idea what the text message means. C. J.’s curiosity is piqued by this mystery and the opportunity to capture a murderer. He offers his services pro bono to Destini to help solve the crime. Due to an extra-heavy caseload, Detective Pendleton categorically accepts his offer provided C. J. keeps her fully informed and operates within the boundaries of the law. Aside from a few inconsequential discrepancies from the last portion of their agreement, C. J. manages to maintain his side of the bargain.

For the Cavanaugh investigation team, what began as a couple of minor events sets off a shockwave of discoveries that lead to intrigue, narcotics trafficking, violence and murder.

Clinton Windell is brutally murdered in his Southwest Hills mansion and robbed of twenty million dollars in uncut gems. An anonymous client hires ex-DEA agent turned private investigator, C. J. Cavanaugh and his junior partner, Renita Harris, to root out the Windell murderers. There’s only one catch. C. J. and his partner must not reveal to anyone they are working on the case. To complicate matters further, C. J. and Renita must deceive Cavanaugh’s long-time lover and dogged Homicide Detective, Destini Pendleton, who is assigned to head the high-profile investigation.

To maintain normal appearances, C. J. and Renita arrange to do a standard insurance inquiry on Genevieve Windell, the primary benefactor of her late husband. When Mrs. Windell turns out to be a prime suspect in her husband’s murder, C. J. and Renita find themselves boxed in. Between the killers, Detective Pendleton, the insurance company, and their omnipotent and ominous mystery client, C. J. has to utilize all of his cunning and training to keep him and his partner out of prison or the morgue long enough to capture the killers.

Kylie Preston is out for a night of fun with The Liberated Wives Club, a group of close friends who have not only survived divorce but also thrived in its wake. Kylie encounters an alluring stranger who charms her into going home with him. The next day, Kylie Preston’s body is discovered in a stolen car, dissected and preserved in ice chests and wrapped in brown butcher’s paper secured with cellophane tape and twine. When Portland Homicide finds themselves at a dead end, Carl Wheaton, a dear friend and colleague of the deceased Vice-President of Acquisitions for Lunsford Insurance implores C. J. Cavanaugh to investigate on behalf of his employer. Despite his misgivings about becoming involved in another murder case, C. J. cannot say no to his friend.

As C. J. delves into the background of the murder victim in search of motives, he is disturbed by what he uncovers. Kylie Preston chaired a culture of unethical insurance practices that constructed many of the rungs on her ladder to success. Were Carl Wheaton and Lunsford Insurance aware of Kylie’s corrupt practice of short-changing insurance claimants? If so, were they complicit in any way, or did they chose to look the other way? The answers could shatter the high regard C. J. held for their number one client and irreparably damage their hospitable relationship.

During Cavanaugh’s murder investigation, more victims turn up mutilated in precisely the same manner as Kylie Preston. The press dubs the deranged killer "The Butcher." C. J. places his ethical and personal concerns regarding Carl Wheaton and Lunsford Insurance on the back burner to maintain his focus on apprehending a serial murderer. Each gruesome discovery intensifies the race to capture The Butcher before he strikes again.

Emancipation is a compelling compilation of stories focusing on a broad cross-section of individuals. Gratey Johnson is a PTSD war veteran whose combat hell has left him a shattered and demented man struggling to corral his demons. Gratey is also the universal fulcrum around which all other stories pivot. Parents, grandparents, children, lovers, executives, thieves, cops, educators, and drug dealers all have their unique tales to share. Their narratives of virtue, mischief, faith, immorality, morality, commitment, and perseverance bridge generational gaps and make whole a humane patchwork in an otherwise ambiguous life-scape. In a society where quick labels and categories are selective means of branding one’s character, the individual suffocates. These stories embrace our differences, allowing them space to breathe. As we step through this journey of ordinary and extraordinary circumstances, perhaps the lesson learned from these snapshots is that we possess more common threads that bind than differences that divide.

Love & Sensuality are not synonyms any more than marriage and Love. While one may be motivated by the other, they can and do exist on separate planes. Love is magnetic, stimulating, powerful, and consuming. It is a natural spring for family, dear friends, and spouses. Love can be boundless as humanity or refined to our tiny circle of life. There is no right or wrong with Love. The heart does not discriminate in that manner.

Sensuality is seductive, charming, witty, hypnotic, and playful—the softer sister of carnal lust. The heart does not have to be in play for Sensuality. She enjoys the game and controls the sport. A kiss, a touch, a look, or a glance are a few of the gifts she possesses to tease your erotic appetite. Words can also join the dance as she weaves her titillating web that may or may not lead to romance.

Sensuality is the lure, while Love is the hook. One likes to play. The other takes charge. The writings in Love & Sensuality explore Sensuality and adoration in its classic and ethereal forms.

Stow your inhibitions for a brief hour or two, relax, savor the music, and enjoy the dance.

Abraham and Winona Stone are owners of a corner grocery store in a small urban community known as East Liberty, a safe but not so restful place. Amongst their friends and neighbors personal battles are being waged. They include: Theresa Peoples, a beautician during the week and nude dancer on weekends, whose only desire is to raise her teenage son and be accepted as part of the community. Jessie Wilkerson, a mysterious, easygoing, self-appointed neighborhood philosopher searching for a place to finally call home. The Widow Powell, a long time community fixture clinging hard to the past. Reverend Embry Wilshire, a man determined to redeem lost souls, his own being the most challenging. Virginia Lovejoy, a beautiful, seductive, shrewd woman of questionable virtues, devoted to stealing Abe Stone from his wife. Wallace Hickman, a steel mill worker, devout family man and one of Abe’s closest friends, whose only sin is he works too much. Darius X, a young Muslim seeking his own truths while obsessed with helping his brethren remove their societal shackles.