Books published by Blue Denim Press Inc

“Your dad has cancer.” Ten-year-old Sharon hears these words. Not from her parents. They lied. Set mainly in 1950s and 1960s Toronto, this  is Sharon’s story before and after Daddy’s dirty little secret surfaces. Before, she is Princess to her elderly father’s King. He protects her, a shy only child, from best friend, The Bully. Sharon also deals with a bullying nun at school. She distracts herself playing baseball and piano, riding the rails with Mom and railway timekeeper Daddy, and visiting eccentric Detroit and rural Ontario relatives. After learning the truth, Sharon withdraws from Daddy. At 13, she teaches Mom to play the piano. Then Daddy gets sick again, and again…and dies.Sharon A. Crawford’s memoir is a powerful, sometimes humorous, account of a young girl’s lessons learned from difficult teachers - bullying, betrayal, and cancer.

Fake News!!! Will Smallwood, a writer suffering from the dreaded "block" and from troubling childhood dreams, is sucked into a living nightmare when he becomes the fall guy for a gang spreading misinformation to hijack the upcoming Canadian Federal Election.Fleeing from the law, Will is forced to confront his personal demons: his suppressed and abused orphan-hood, his stalled career as a historical fiction writer, the death of his first love and the chronic liar, Jaqueline, and their child he carelessly gave up for adoption. Does he have a second chance to get things right when he attends a yoga retreat and meets promiscuous painter Divine Secrets (Dee), all-knowing Guru Swaminanda, the alcoholic Davises, and sinister Professor Darlington? Is the cross-dressing porn actor with the Twitter handle @abandonedchild97, who is following him with a camera, Will's long-lost son? From an idyllic lakefront retreat to a breathtaking series of dashes between Ottawa and Toronto pursued by mobsters and police, and with a trail of dead bodies in his wake, Will assembles the pieces of the puzzle while coming to the realization that his dysfunctional past and complicated present are connected, that the Guru's words about the circular nature of life are coming true, that people and events are entering his life for a reason, and that to open his mind and heart without cloaking them in fiction or fake news is his only way towards redemption.

A love triangle spanning the ages, sweeping across Egypt, Italy and Canada.

Surgeon Frank Lambert stationed at a United Nations health mission in civil war-ridden Yugoslavia, finds himself in the middle of the nightmare of ethnic cleansing.

"Sharing across the Arts" is the theme of Hill Spirits IV. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Spirit of the Hills Arts Association, its Writers' Group provides a new collection of great reading in poetry and prose for everyone.

Part memoir, part creative non-fiction, Fearless and Determined, takes you back to life in rural southern Ontario in the mid 1960s. Linda Hutsell Manning's memoir traverses the Kennedy assassination, the Beatles craze and smallpox shots.

Sri Lankan refugee, Sam Selvadurai, fleeing the genocide in his homeland, settles in Milltown, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario; he buys an old hamburger shop and turns it into a gourmet South Asian restaurant, while the town folk eye him with suspicion . The restaurant and most of Milltown are owned by the unscrupulous but charismatic Art Hamilton whose wife committed suicide, while his troubled teenage son, Andy, languishes in a young offenders' prison on the border of town after having emptied a shotgun in the schoolyard, killing two students.Frank Morgan, the town's mayor, is on the take, pushing an amendment through council to expand the local chemical plant - for the benefit of key investor Art Hamilton. Frank lusts after his assistant, Sue Miller, whose husband died at Art's plant and who has her own plan for revenge. Sue is forlornly attracted to the town's drunken lawyer and failed politician, Rick Jones.When Sam's teenage daughter, Sarojini, and Sue's son, Billy, fall in love, and Andy bursts out of prison, the town erupts in violence and disarray. The forces of racial prejudice, parental neglect, sexual harassment, teen pregnancy, and corporate greed meet in a perfect storm in Milltown. The body count mounts, and the town's inhabitants are forced to examine their own lives before casting the first stone.As the solitary lighthouse swivels and shines its light into the nooks and crannies of Milltown, Sam asks, "Is there evil here too?""Shane Joseph is fearless in having his characters suffer within incidents that a lesser writer would balk at. Milltown is a riveting novel." Ronald Mackay - author Fortunate Isle"Milltown takes the reader on a virtual merry-go-round of crooked industrialists, abusive politicians, unwanted pregnancies, psychopathic killers, drunken lawyers, Sri Lankan immigrants and inept mobsters" Ben Antao - author Money & Politics

Greed, desire, ambition, loss, illness, death, and the driving quest to find purpose in a meaningless world.-this literary collection tempts your palate with a multitude of themes and subjects, each more daring than the last.

The forty stories in this collection will yank the reader from rage to triumph, sorrow to joy, cruelty to compassion. The mundane becomes shocking, the ordinary becomes strange.

Native Born Son is J. David Ford's first-hand telling of his suspenseful exploits while growing up in the eastern arctic during the 1920s and 30s.

From the moment Dana Bowman sees the redheaded nun arguing with a man on Main St. and Bast Overture receives an email from Eli Foster asking him to find her birth parents, the twin PIs are thrust into a complex chain of events involving extortion, stalking, fire, vandalism, secret adoptions, a bank robbery, assault, and murders.

Life becomes a search to find our way home after unexpected storms knock us off course. This collection of 16 stories reflects that deep urge to return to where we feel at peace. The journey back becomes a rite of passage.

What Are You REALLY Hungry For? Could you be both overfed and undernourished? Do you look healthy on the outside but feel bankrupt on the inside? For a moment, forget about the scale...Instead, how are the quality of your sleep, your mood and your energy levels? And, what about your digestion...? NOURISH asks you to dig deeper into your health and wellness puzzle by helping you discover the answers to these essential health questions and more. Whether you need to lose excess body fat or you are naturally lean, NOURISH does not discriminate. The NOURISH program is rooted in a platform of self-care and nutrient rich, grocery store foods. Comprehensive and intensely personal, NOURISH teaches you how to find what you are really hungry for. Learn the NOURISH system and bring out the best of who you are to thrive lifelong. "In 6 weeks, I lost 14 pounds of fat and gained 11 pounds of muscle. I slept deeply, I woke rested, my anxious mind had substantially calmed itself, and I had energy all day long." - Pam Vorkapic "The improved energy and stamina that I feel today [at age 61] are a direct result of applying the principles of NOURISH, and I am very thankful." - Judd Gilks "I am in my fourth decade, committed to public health as a registered nurse. Cait's knowledgeable, practical and straightforward nutritional coaching has improved my overall health by leaps and bounds." - Virginia Marshall, RN

After a silence of twenty years, Jimmy receives an unexpected letter from his old friend and nemesis, George, inviting him on a trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Arriving in Lima, Jimmy finds the ailing George as mercurial as ever. They begin their odyssey, catching up on the intervening years, reliving periods when their lives had intersected, and revisiting the events that destroyed their relationship. Both men are haunted by the enigmatic Denise, the woman they had lured, loved and lost in Canada. Their conquest of Denise parallels the plunder of Peru by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, the topic of a novel that George is writing in an attempt at self-discovery. On the Inca Trail, George and Jimmy meet trekkers Ali and Bea who exhibit the duality of Denise: beauty and introspection. They team up, even share tents. But there are many treacherous turns along the Trail before the travelers arrive in the sacred city where George is forced to confront his personal demons and Jimmy is pushed to reverse the legacy of the conquistadors. In this novel, Shane Joseph explores the hunger for conquest that drives change, the bonds of friendship that sustain faith, and the power of love that transcends evil.

Tómas Harvey is an engineering student living on a small, impoverished island in Ecuador. He is conscripted into military service in the border war with Peru where he is convinced he will die a senseless death. His father, a renowned British travel writer, is accused of embezzling government funds and suddenly leaves the island. While searching for answers, Tómas embarks on a journey of discovery that may lead him closer to his father and to his biological mother who abandoned him at birth, and away from his home country for the first time in his life... The novel chronicles how duty shapes a family over generations, the struggle for self discovery, and how the abandonment of selfish obligations in favour of altruism can lead to a renewed faith in humanity, and ultimately, in ourselves.

Big egos struggle for survival and money as the United States of America gets down to universal health care. Thirty-four babies are murdered at a pre-eminent heart hospital. The investigation is on, but then the Undersecretary of State for Health dies at the same Boston hospital without anyone lifting a finger! Young surgeon, Peter Martins, and aspiring news anchor, Anne Maples, blow the case wide open while nobody in authority will listen. Bottom line: different crime - one you never expected!

Dana Bowman has misgivings about starting the home-based Attic Investigative Agency with her fraternal twin, Bast Overture. Especially when the agency's launch is preceded by a break and enter downstairs and a kidnapping at the Mini-Mall involving her son David's babysitter, Debbie Sangwell. Especially when David is kidnapped and Debbie is murdered during the agency's opening ceremonies. Further digging reveals more kidnappings, murders, fraud, and abortion. The twins' investigation also leads to run-ins with police detective Donald Fielding and CKNT TV reporter Charles Haas, the latter who has the "dirt" on Bast. A colourful cast of characters dot the pages, including Dana's ex-husband Ronald, Great Aunt Doris, Mini-Mall merchants Lois and Ray Chalmers, and various nosy neighbours. Hovering in the background is the mysterious "Him." Dana is pushed beyond blood ties in trying to avoid an emotional meltdown as a mother and focus on finding her son. The twin detectives discover that everything seems to be connected somehow. Which connection will lead them to David, and to Debbie's murderer? Will they be too late for David?

Shane Joseph revisits his favourite haunt: the in-between world of the immigrant, where the past is unresolved and the present is incomplete. His characters are damaged, trying to make sense out of their lives, often having to journey back in time and place to find answers. Bandu bilks tourists for a living; Jamie loses love and home to exile; Mark meets the woman claiming to be his daughter and is forced to face the ghosts of those he betrayed; Ralph hunts down his crippled uncle to learn the art of survival; Paul becomes a best-selling author after a life-altering event as a boy in a hill country tea estate; Rohit is propelled to international fame by his arms-dealing father who manipulates him from the grave; and Ben plunges towards the supreme sacrifice by leaving New York and returning to make a contribution of conscience in his war-torn home country. The men are spurred on by powerful women in their lives-mothers, daughters, sisters, teachers, lovers and wives-women who act at motivators, detractors and inspirers. Moving between Sri Lanka and North America, these seven stories deal with the various stages of the immigrant journey. There are no happy endings, just soul-enriching ones, as each protagonist seeks his destiny while gaining valuable insights along the way.

Murder, attempted murder, sexual abuse, kidnapping, missing persons, vengeance, revenge, suicide, gambling, explosions, vehicular mishaps, indignity to a dead body, even love occur in these thirteen stories. Like all life's happenings, they affect the characters-women, men and children-in their journey through life, sometimes damaging them, sometimes stalling them in limbo, but often forcing them to reach beyond the tripping point. And to get there, these quirky characters frequently do the absurd and the unthinkable, often with unexpected results. The detectives are frenetic, the villains are diabolic, the situations bounce from hilarious to macabre, and the pace is always unrelenting in this collection by a master crafter of the genre.

Martin James is a true Canadian. Born overseas, he is beset by trials and tribulations while growing up. Against the odds, he escapes from his violence-wracked homeland only to find everything he holds dear in North America jeopardized as he tries to keep his personal and professional life intact. A modern-day Ulysses, Martin faces the quintessential question of the displaced, "Where do I belong?" Set in Sri Lanka and Canada, this novel brings the dilemmas faced by many immigrants into sharp focus