Books published by Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company

The Uh-Oh Squad describes the 1970s working environment of Terros, a Phoenix, Arizona drug abuse agency. Anecdotes provide insight into the lives of staff employed at the agency. The book also provides analysis of categories of drugs and explains the effects of different substances on some of the people who use them, including drugs available now on the street. Terros is still providing mental and medical care for people with substance abuse problems.

It was Spring of 1959 and the Chinese occupation of Tibet was in full swing. In the midst of all the turmoil and unease was Sudha Johorey, wife of the political officer in charge of the Indian Mission in Yatung, worried about the state of affairs for her beloved Tibet, the souring relationship between India and China and above all her friend, HH The Dalai Lama who was rumored to have left Lhasa for sanctuary in India. Thus begins the extraordinary journey of a young woman and her unlikely friendship with HH The Dailai Lama, her adventures as a diplomat's wife across India, Afghanistan, and the jungles of frontier states of her country and her unique and personal journey with the teachings of the Buddha. Toppled World is a moving personal account of the life of Sudha Johorey and a rare glimpse into the events that shaped India in the early years of independence as well as her own spiritual philosophy, as recounted to her dear friend Susan Murphy through stories and memories.

At the age of twelve, Eva Salomon becomes disillusioned about all the "isms" raging through her world. Crushed by her father's rigid Jewish orthodoxy and by the cruelties of a burgeoning Nazi regime, she renounces all belief systems, and even belief itself. Five years later, when she and her father leave Germany for Palestine, she's still a skeptic, yet hopeful about a fresh start in an unborn country. But her yearning for unfettered freedom soon puts her at odds with collective pressures in the new-old homeland. Eva finds love with a man who is anything but "kosher." Duncan Rees is a British constable in the Palestine Police Force. As a gentile, he's taboo even in the secular circles of a society forging its new nationalist identity. What's more, he represents the British Mandate government, a regime seen to increasingly impede Zionist dreams for a Jewish state in the contested country. And so the relationship hits obstacles right from the start.Set during complex upheaval of Palestine in the 1930s and '40s, Eva Salomon's War tells of the struggle to find a faith that doesn't blind, a love that doesn't lie and solid human truths in the midst of ideological ferment.

Jean and Red, librarians in San Francisco and life partners, have traveled the world but found their paradise in a lovely village in Mexico. Young and influenced by 1960s idealism, they decide to build a dream house there in their old age. When they retire in 1993 and begin building the house, they encounter a new Mexico filled with political corruption, police brutality and violence against women. A serial murderer is loose in the village, inspiring Red and Jean to attempt arming and defending the women of Mexico.This complex and exciting literary thriller brings many perspectives to the reader: the changing roles of men and women in Mexico, the violence of third-world men, the endemic political corruption of the wealthy ruling class and its hit men, the ancient Indian cosmos and its fiestas, the world of Mexican brujos and their magical powers. Moving from palaces of the wealthy to the huts of brujos to the most criminal haunts of Mexico today, the novel challenges the power of Red and Jean's feminism and first-world liberalism. For them, however, the effort is harrowing: can they save the village women? Will they even get out alive?

In T.K.'s third installment of poetry and prose, the author takes a philosophical look at life upon growing old. One can picture an old woman sitting on a stump or bale of hay, wearing a wry smile, chuckling over people and the silly things they do as in "You Can't Fix Stupid . . . I've Tried." T.K. is a little more reflective in "All You Can Own" and "Don't Look Back." The short story "Winston" relates the struggles of an orphan to survive on his own in the west, with a little help from a wise old cow hand.As with her previous two books, T.K.'s poetry doesn't follow any "rules," but are often stream of consciousness thoughts written down as they come to mind. In addition, her poems contain a kernel of truth in as much as the poems come from some place far away and long ago in her childhood.

By the time Patricia Taylor Wells arrived in Paris to study at the Sorbonne during the summer of 1968, the political unrest in May that almost collapsed the French government had been subdued. Or so she thought. On the 50th Anniversary of the May 1968 revolt, Patricia takes us on a tour of Paris during that summer of unrest and recounts how she adjusted to living in a foreign country for the first time, from staying in a dorm run by nuns to getting caught in the student-led resurgence on Bastille Day.

Temple novice Katia wants nothing more than to become a priest in the Temple of the Triple Gods. She tries hard to do the right thing, but she’s on her last chance to convince Elder Sevanya, the King’s Priest, that she can do the job. While she’s belatedly setting up the incense to prove she’s a competent acolyte, Katia overhears the king’s brother plotting to kill the king. She steals the Kingstone to protect it and to deliver it to the true heir with a message: the killer is after him too.Not knowing who to trust, Katia keeps her mission secret. Her theft of the precious stone puts a price on her head and she disguises herself as a boy to undertake the dangerous journey across sea and land to the true heir’s palace. Doing the right thing just got a lot harder. Will the Triple Gods forgive her?

Does saving a life always mean preserving it, or does it sometimes mean letting go? When Gail Gilmore’s beloved dog Chispa is diagnosed with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, her first instinct is to fight for Chispa’s life; to do everything possible to bring the symptoms of this neurologically debilitating condition under control.But treatments fail, and Chispa’s symptoms worsen. Faced with many emotionally complicated questions and difficult ethical decisions, Gail repeatedly visits the one place where she believes she might find the spiritual guidance and wisdom needed to make the best choice for Chispa—a tiny, extraordinary church in St. Johnsbury, Vermont called the Dog Chapel. Within the simple beauty of the chapel, its walls deeply layered with overlapping photographs and anonymous notes from thousands of previous visitors to dogs loved and lost, Gail seeks and eventually finds both answers and peace in the wise and loving words of the unknown people she comes to consider her tribe.A story of unconditional love and devotion, Dog Church is also a story of finding comfort in faith and the ways in which the emotional threads of love and grief can bind complete strangers together for brief moments in time in ways that are ultimately life-changing.

Marcy Thorpe is not exactly the kind of dog walker you want to give your house keys to. She's distracted, anxious, too curious, and has an attitude that always leads to trouble. But she's great with dogs and town elites hire her because, well, no one knows about her small transgressions. Her life is challenged by the responsibility of looking after her endearing, yet difficult, mentally-ill brother and non-coping mother. Marcy's life is turned upside down when she loses her client's corgi, and her favorite dog, Sam. The search for Sam explodes on social media and becomes a national obsession, inspiring Sam's owner to fantasize about fame and fortune while aggravating Marcy's already growing anxiety over unwelcome ignominious attention.Meanwhile, Sam takes time out to chat with the reader about his predicament, his plans to survive the "free market system" he has been forced into, and ideas concerning existentialism. Sam understands more than humans realize. This is of course why they can't find him.Desperation to bring Sam home leads to a dilemma for everyone involved. Marcy has to make a choice, and the town learns something about this young woman who cares for their dogs. And everyone learns about what does and doesn't make a "good" person.

Lorelei Bauer is a modern day woman with a penchant for Sylvia Plath, a woman struggling with the injustices of the fifties with her marriage, her role and status as a poet, her "job" as a mother, and her mental illness.Lorelei's own mother suffered from mental illness and when Lorelei learns of her mother's breakdown and illegal abortion, she goes on a quest to better understand her as a parent. Lorelei soon discovers her life is paralleling Plath's and she panics about her fate.During her quest, she meets up with an old friend of her mother's, Joanne, who gives her a secret, unpublished manuscript that her college friend, Sylvia Plath, sent her before her death. It is a continuation of the story of Esther Greenwood, Plath's protagonist from The Bell Jar. Lorelei learns many secrets from the Plath manuscript which both hurt her and makes her hopeful for her own future.

In the not-so-sacred Groves of Academe, where female colleagues can be less than supportive and male colleagues downright intimidating and even devious, Kathleen Davies felt intense pressure to prove herself as an English professor. But in the beautiful local cemetery, she found a truly sacred landscape that offered not only relief but inspiration. Once she was denied the professional success she had dreamed of, her interest in cemeteries became an obsession, and her photoshoots with her dog all over Ohio evolved into a spiritual quest that led to a surprising self-discovery.By turns meditative and lyrical, at times even hilarious, Sacred Groves traces a spiritual journey from anxiety and failure to self-acceptance. It is a book for anyone who has ever failed to prove themselves, only to discover something far more important than worldly achievement could ever give. It is a story of resilience, healing, and salvation and a celebration of the power of landscape to lift our spirits higher.

A multigenerational mystery set in the Pacific Northwest.Months after spying a bottle wedged into a fallen cottonwood snag in the Columbia River, Ernest pulls it from the river. The bottle's note connects Ernest, an old man living in a tiny Oregon town, to teenage Annie, and provokes a mysterious and sudden friendship between Ernest's daughter Amelia with Sarah, the daughter of the most recent resident of the home Annie once occupied.The two middle-aged women are keen to learn more about Annie and her secret, and in the process, they're forced to confront unfinished business with their mothers, intimate relationships, and regrets over life choices.

Before he becomes dinner for a stray cat, the orphaned chick Shadow gets rescued by the bird people of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin. When the little crane heals, it's time for him to return to the wild. So Shadow comes to live with the Joneses. Every year Sandhill cranes nest and feed in the marsh out back of their dairy farm. Told in the voice of a young daughter in the Jones family, this true story will appeal to children and adults interested in learning more about Sandhill cranes, the work of the International Crane foundation, and farm life in Wisconsin. Shadow is based on a real rescue bird from the International Crane Foundation.

After Irvana’s grandmother dies in their remote clifftop home, Irvana must travel to Koltarn. Alone in a strange city, Irvana finds employment at the palace, home of Lord Terenz, current overlord and bearer of the StarMark. Suddenly immersed in palace life, Irvana makes a friend in fellow-servant Rosann, and there is a spark between her and the lively Mikal, Terenz’s ward. But when Terenz discovers that Irvana has something he wants, her life is suddenly in danger.