Books published by Aventine Press

"Denis Julien's first biographer in 1933 called him the "Mysterious D. Julien" because so little was known about him. He was surmised to have been a fur trapper along the Green and Colorado Rivers in the 1830s and not much more than that was known. Modern-day river runners know him from carved inscriptions along those rivers, but little else. This book, however, corrects that, presenting not only the first full-length story of the life of Denis Julien, but also his participation in the fur trade, not only in the American Southwest, but in the Mississippi-Missouri River region as well."--

"This is a collection of true stories about the characters and personalities of the folks I met, worked with and fought with while in the Marine Corps from the mid-1960's to the early-1980's. There were good guys and villains, heroes and heels. The Best of the Best served right alongside the Worst of the Worst. Read about the challenges of boot camp, advanced infantry training and general military subjects school; the loneliness, heartache and horror of service in Viet-Nam and the subsequent nightmares that haunt the sleep of veterans for decades after returning to the real world; surviving the administrative sabotage practiced in the junior enlisted ranks; the politics and intricacies of getting along in the senior enlisted ranks; the frustrations and satisfactions of leadership at the platoon level; the willing praise from senior officers who gladly gave credit where credit was due; and the character assassination attempts and backstabbing methods of senior officers who were almost psychotically jealous of junior officers who possessed superior talents and abilities. This was real life in the Marine Corps, raw, open and unadorned, back in the good old days when survival meant simply that, sometimes, the good guys didn't win, didn't get the girl and didn't ride off into the sunset. And, despite all the excitement, adventure and romance, not all stories had a happy ending."--

As a barefoot six-year old boy, Luben Walchef stomped mud into bricks that were used by his father and grandfather to build the humble house in rural Bulgaria where his family lived. For generations upon generations, the Walchefs had been farmers on the same plot of land. And then Luben came along. And he wasn't ten years old before he knew he wanted something else. Something different. Something more. When a poor Bugarian farm boy from a family in which no one had ever gone to high school dreams of becoming a physician, seeing the world, moving to America and making a fortune for himself, he can only be dreaming, right? Right?

The year is 1921. The Great War is over, the Jazz Age has begun, and Lilly Harrison's husband has fled to New Orleans, leaving her to face the dangerous bootleggers and narcotics dealers of Tampa. With the help of her best friend and her courtly and kind father, Lilly begins to rebuild her life, but she has a a decision to make-and an enormous price to pay.