Books published by Milford House Press

His father warned him not to do it. Neil Stephenson can control the weather—but should he? He is already a rising star TV meteorologist in Baltimore. During a snowstorm that isn’t producing as much snow as predicted, Neil discovers his gift: he can make the snow increase or decrease and make it start or stop raining.The latest science shows that extreme weather has increased in frequency and severity due to climate change. Being able to prevent some of those disasters sounds great, but… weakening one hurricane in the Atlantic could strengthen a typhoon in the Pacific. Preventing floods in one country might lead to drought next door (“They stole our rain!”).Neil is torn between preventing disasters that save the insurance industry billions and saving lives from drought in Africa. The most famous actress in Hollywood seduces him so he will do the latter. The military and organized crime want to use him, too. He becomes a national hero to many. On the other hand, lawsuits, criminal charges, and even death threats follow his actions.The Weathermaker is a “cli-fi” genre-bending thriller, with the action aspects of Twister. It shows the tragic aspects of climate change The Day After Tomorrow and “the cure is worse than the disease” (Snowpiercer). There is also evidence that controlling nature can lead to disaster (Jurassic Park). The added bonus is that the author is a meteorologist, and the science is accurate. Plus, 40 years on TV has given him lots of “inside TV news” stories.

Set in the fast and furious world of women’s professional roller derby, Tough Girl in the Jam is a novel about sports, strength, and sacrifice. Nina is the lead Jammer on the Philly Freedoms. Her team is practicing for a championship bout. Her new girlfriend, Rachel, is her biggest fan. As Nina and Rachel move toward a deeper commitment and start to contemplate the shape of their lives together, Nina’s estranged father falls ill. Nina’s mother pressures Nina to donate a kidney to save him. Rachel knows that agreeing will end Nina’s derby career, and will alter their lives and plans. Each woman grapples with what it means to commit herself to a life with the other, and how their upbringings and families-of-origin impact their actions and expectations in the present. A life-threatening crisis for Nina’s father on the day of the Freedoms’ championship bout forces Nina to make the toughest play of her life. Knowing the possible consequences for herself, her father, and Rachel, she must choose the course she will take into the future. Like life itself, Tough Girl in the Jam is sometimes comic, sometimes serious, but always surprising.

Four couples—Stefan and Anna, Cyril and Adriana, Jan and Katarina, and Emil and Edita—fled their European homes, desperate to escape the poverty, war, and tyranny of kings and emperors. Seeking a better life, they embarked for America, relocating to coal towns in eastern Pennsylvania. But in these company-owned towns, dreams faded. They lived in squalor, faced discrimination and endured danger in the mines. In the summer of 1897, unrest erupted among miners in the coal towns and spread to their villages.Growing activism among Slavic and other immigrant groups, with their call to join the United Mine Workers of America, compelled them to react. Anna feared for her family but understood the need for the strike. Stefan, still haunted by images of a war that never left him, was cautious, worried the consequences would be too dire. Adriana and Cyril, angry at the working and living conditions in Lattimer, were ready to shut down the mine, no matter the methods. Jan and Katarina were forced to make a painful decision. Emil, with wife Edita and a young family to support, joined the union and was among the strikers who marched to Lattimer on September 10, 1897.On that fateful day, the local sheriff and his deputies met the oncoming protesters, confronting and then murdering nineteen and wounding thirty-nine more. Emil survived and agreed to be a witness at the trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. The Road to Lattimer chronicles their stories.

Veteran newspaper reporter Sean Flynn never imagined that a routine story about a fatal car crash would expose a dark secret about the highest reaches of Pennsylvania state government. But when an anonymous tip and a thick sheaf of documents reveal that elected leaders are prone to put their own interests above those of the public, it’s up to Flynn to use all the skills of his profession to shake the truth loose.With the help of a grizzled Harrisburg cop named Marty Herman and the mysterious beauty Lena Bergstrom, Flynn follows the story from the streets of Pennsylvania’s capital city, to the leafy Philadelphia suburbs and, finally, to the humid shores of Florida, where all is revealed in an explosion of shattered secrets and a hail of gunfire. Neither the corridors of power nor Sean Flynn will ever be the same again. Ordinary Angels is the first episode in the continuing adventures of Sean Flynn. A second novel, Death is Bipartisan, is on the way. Look for it soon.

Beth Gardner knows what she wants. As she approaches her thirtieth birthday, her life has progressed like the to-do list stuck to her refrigerator. Fulfilling job? Check. Condo in a trendy Atlanta neighborhood? Check. Supportive friends and a cat to cuddle? Check and check. Safe distance from her childhood in Tennessee? Big check. But something is still missing.When she meets the charming Mark Berger out dancing one night, it’s love at first tango. Adventurous and athletic, Mark encourages her to venture out of her carefully constructed life and begin a new life with him in southwest Florida. “Slow down,” her friends advise. “What’s the hurry?” her therapist asks. “Why not?” Beth responds. “Why not happiness for a change?”But will open-water diving, night lobster hunts, and off-shore sailing offer smooth waters for the couple? Or will the dangers and secrets of the deep pull them under? Determined to make this relationship work, Beth is about to find out.Full of adventure and reflection, Summer Squall explores how the correct course in life isn’t always a straight line.

Eden Waits is based on the true story of Michigan's utopian experiment. In 1893, financial panic imperils the settlement homesteaded by Abraham and Elizabeth Byers. Abraham, a preacher and self-proclaimed man of the people, rails against greed and corruption and launches Hiawatha Colony, a product-sharing community designed to support its members through self-sufficiency. But can this cooperative community withstand internal strife, the harsh wilds of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the antagonism of the outside world? When discord rocks the community, Abraham must choose between dissolving the colony and compromising the ideals that elevated him to its patriarch. Although numerous utopian communities were formed in the United States in the nineteenth century, there are few accounts of the day-to-day life and challenges faced by them. Abraham and Elizabeth were in their advanced years when they homesteaded acreage in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. What drove them to risk so much to build a community of kin and like-minded idealists? This carefully researched historical novel explores the struggle between ideals and practicality and the collision of political and religious realms. The events bear surprising parallels to today's climate of polarization, questions about leadership, and concerns over corporate power.

The fate of North America and maybe the world is at stake. It is June 30, 1777. A young scout of the Continental army watches the arrival of British general John Burgoyne and his invasion force of 8,000 men. Seventeen-year old Roland McCaffrey is a new soldier but already a skilled woodsman and crack rifleman. Burgoyne's plan is to cut the American colonies in two and crush the new rebellion. His army includes some of the best trained units in Europe. To stop them, the rebels must bring together inexperienced soldiers, militia and Daniel Morgan's riflemen.In the action that follows, Roland travels with his sergeant, the powerful and dangerous Caleb O'Connor. To his surprise, Roland becomes a skilled sniper. He is not sure how to feel about his talent for killing, but the young man becomes an important part of the rebel force. The fighting rages from the Canadian border to a place called Saratoga. There, in the Battles of Saratoga, under the command of the famed American general Benedict Arnold, Roland will play his part in the fights called "the turning points of the American Revolution."

Conspiracy, intrigue, deceit, and murder in the holiest of sanctuaries result from man's ultimate fall - thou shall not covet.THE VATICAN'S VAULT is based on religious and historical events that portray the fierce enmity within the Catholic Church emanating from the challenge of modernity versus tradition. The novel traces an early nineteenth-century secret Italian document, The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, that maps out a generational blueprint to overthrow the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. The story takes place during the final phase of this conspiracy at a time when the Church is most vulnerable following the deadly sins of child molestation, the redefining of family and marriage, and the attempt to overthrow theological rigidity and conservatism. New York Medical Examiner and detective, Dr. Jeffrey Moss, fresh from solving The Mystery of the Milton Manuscript (Urim, 2014), leads the investigation of a young priest murdered at 452 Madison Avenue, the official residence of the Archbishop of New York. At autopsy, the examination reveals three gold pieces ingeniously hidden, two, of which, were designed for Pope Clement VII by Benvenuto Cellini, the great Italian Renaissance artist, and the third, a diadem originating from the earliest days of the Israelites in Egypt. Together with the brilliant archeologist, Daniella Teller, the duo delve into ancient biblical texts, Jewish and Christian history, the deepest secrets of the Masonic Brotherhood, and the internal strife within today's Vatican to pursue the murderer. The plot turns to terror, including the attempted murder of the Pope himself, as Jeff and Daniella probe the secrets of The Vatican's Vault that uncovers a conspiracy to destroy the Church and its Papacy.

Pasha Stern, a successful accountant with an uncanny talent for forensics uncovers a multi-million-dollar international crime during a routine corporate audit. Trained in computer programming, Pasha uses her creative skills to identify errors in the minutia of spreadsheet data glossed over by Teken, Inc.'s previous auditors.Shocking discoveries bring her face to face with a disparate cast of suspects and prompts a working relationship with the FBI. Newly-minted temporary Special Agent Pasha Stern steps into the world of terrorists, extremists, and traitors. She is forced to confront her ex-hippie disdain for all things violent when her survival is at stake and she must decide to use a gun or die debating the pros and cons. After a lifetime of rejecting her Jewish lineage, she must now decide how much she will risk helping Israel.Although Pasha is smart, she's also naïve. At a mere 5'3", Pasha is mentally and physically tough as nails. But her naïveté makes us laugh and her ability to love deeply breaks our hearts all at the same time.Young at heart, single and prone to mixing business with pleasure Pasha creates danger she's not prepared for. Although savvy in all matters of finance, men are her Achilles heel, and Pasha's easily swayed by attractive men with power.This story takes the reader on a roller coaster ride up and down the west coast of California, across the globe to Israel and back again where she discovers her taste for the thrill of the chase.

First Century AD Britain is a fragmented land of warring Celtic tribes, ripe for invasion by the juggernaut of imperial Rome. Knowing this, a young warrior, soon-to-be-legendary, Prince Caratacus, must unite the southern tribes if they are to survive. This is an enemy more cunning and powerful then either he or Britain has ever faced.Standing by him is his wife, Rhian, a warrior princess who takes no prisoners. She is the first woman he has truly loved. With her support and that of other allies, Caratacus must outsmart a traitorous brother who is determined to take the throne, aided by a conniving Roman diplomat and a tribal king in the pockets of the Romans.Caratacus must save his country not only from the pending Roman onslaught but from his own peoples' treachery.Or else die trying.

The Golden Age of Moorish Spain was during the 10th century, a time when the benevolent Syrian Arab Caliphs ruled Iberia from Córdoba, the site of the iconic Great Mosque and home to the Royal Library, one of the largest collections of ancient books ever assembled. 10th century Córdoba was the richest, most populous, and most cultured city in the western world. Under the tolerant Muslim Caliphs, the pinnacle of convivencia was attained, that unique period of Spanish history when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in relative harmony and peace. Multicultural Córdoba was an enlightened city that treasured its books, celebrated art and literature, advanced science and medicine, and its myriad accomplishments were envied by both the west and the east alike.Shadows in the Shining City is a prequel to Emeralds of the Alhambra, and the second book in the Anthems of al-Andalus Series. Shadows tells the story of the forbidden love between Rayhana Abi Amir, a Muslim princess of the Royal Court, and Zafir Saffar, a freed slave. Young love blossoms in 10th century Madinat al-Zahra, the Shining City, the Caliph's magnificent Royal Palace located just outside of Córdoba. Their love story is set against the backdrop of the epic rise to power of Rayhana's ruthless father, a man history will come to both celebrate and revile for the role he plays in dooming the bright future of Moorish Spain.

How could we forget? We live in a world being torn apart by religious tensions and fanaticism, yet we managed to forget that for hundreds of years Christians, Muslims and Jews lived together in peace, sharing languages and customs, embracing a level of tolerance and mutual respect unheard of today. Working together, these three peoples spawned one of the great intellectual and cultural flowerings of history. When and where? Medieval Spain. Our aching world desperately needs to recall this forgotten fact, these rich possibilities.Emeralds of the Alhambra, a historical novel, reawakens this remarkable era via the relationship between William Chandon, a wounded Christian knight brought to the Sultan's court in Granada, and the strong-willed Layla al-Khatib, who is on a quest to become the first female Sufi Muslim mystic in a male-dominated society. As Chandon's influence at court grows, he becomes trapped between his forbidden love for Layla, his Christian heritage, the demands of chivalry, and political expediency. Chandon must make a choice between love and honor, peace and war, life and death, a choice which ultimately will seal Granada's fate as the last surviving stronghold of Muslim Spain.Emeralds is set in the resplendent Alhambra Palace in Granada during the Castilian Civil War (1367-1369), a time when, improbably, Muslims took up their swords to fight alongside Christians.Emeralds of the Alhambra is the first book in the trilogy Anthems of al-Andalus.

This breathtaking historical novel of action and suspense is set in the year 71 A.D. amid the exotic and vibrant streets of Ancient Rome. Macha, the strong-willed daughter of a legendary Celtic British king and wife of the Roman tribune, Titus, is the only one who can prove her husband innocent of treason, solve the murders of two slaves who possessed information that could have exonerated Titus, and ultimately save the life of the Roman Emperor Vespasian.Vivacious and iron-willed, Macha undertakes a dangerous journey and fight for her life to evade assassins through the city's treacherous back alleys, notorious bathhouses, and the awe-inspiring palaces of the Roman elite. With time running out to save her husband and the emperor from certain death, Macha can count on only two allies, the esteemed Senator Bassus-a family friend-and her faithful slave, a resolute and clever Moorish woman, Shafer.Arrayed against Macha and Titus are the wealthy and wicked Pollia, once scorned as a bride by Titus, and Falco, a military tribune and womanizer, who offers to be Macha's protector once Titus is condemned and executed. Join Macha in her quest to exonerate her husband...and discover the real threat against the Emperor...

Every murder has a story. Every story begins at home.Tampa newscaster Tori Younger is saddened to learn her childhood friend, Brooke Martin, hung herself from the old water tower in their hometown. Tori hasn't spoken to Brooke in years and doesn't feel comfortable returning to attend the services. Then cryptic text messages from Brooke's cellphone change her mind.Attending the funeral, Tori confronts a past that still haunts her and questions the text messages haunting her now. Her investigation leads to a fact she suspected all along: her old friend didn't commit suicide but was murdered. There's no shortage of suspects either: Brooke's angry husband who instigated a fight the night she died; Brooke's high school principal who denies rumors they were having an affair; and a town sheriff who shares a stormy past with Tori and is blocking her investigation at every turn. The only witness appears to be Brooke's five-year-old daughter who hasn't spoken since the tragedy and continually draws the same graphic picture of the night her mother's body was discovered hanging from that old water tower.Tori knows one of them has Brooke's cellphone and is texting her from it. Others are convinced it's Brooke reaching out from the Great Beyond. Either way, someone from her past is playing a deadly game of Hangman.

Leah is a smart and sensitive 15-year-old girl who loves Taylor Swift, binge-watching reality TV and just wants to get through the rest of junior high without any trouble. At least that was the plan, until she is pushed too far by a bully at school and ends up arrested for assault and battery.Deemed a juvenile offender, Leah is sentenced to an unusual form of rehabilitation: a Shakespeare workshop where she has to memorize scenes with other teen offenders and perform on a big stage for an audience. There are lots of rules to follow; she can't check her phone during class and she definitely can't date anyone else in the program. Leah hates that she was punished for defending herself-her bully deserved it, after all. But most of all, she hates that her bully made her snap. Still, she throws herself into the program anyway, not wanting to disappoint her parents even more than she already has.Ostracized by her classmates and abandoned by her only friend, Leah finds comfort and solidarity with the other juvenile offenders in the program, whom she relates to more than she expected. Leah even encounters something she's never experienced before-love. But when a new friend throws her under the bus, Leah is forced to confront her choices and stop blaming her bullies, or else risk losing the opportunity she's been given to make a new life for herself.

Terrorists killed his parents. Now, Muslim-American spy Sami Lakhani works in the dark corners of intelligence to kill the terrorists, but he's got a bigger problem. Sami is gay. His job and his identity keep him bouncing between a sense of patriotism and the shame of feeling part of a dangerous machine.Life in the shadows is still better than reckoning with family and the secrets Sami does not want to confront, until he is assigned to stop a terrorist attack which forces him back into the orbit of one person he knows he cannot trust, his own grandfather.Sami's dream team of outcasts, from the buzzcut world of intelligence, uncover links no one wants exposed, including the White House. But before they can stop the plot designed to strike at America's cultural flashpoints, they are ordered to shut down their investigation.Sami's sense of duty and pride in his identity finally coalesce in one mission, but to save lives he will have to defy his orders, confront his grandfather, and take on nefarious elements of the government that he serves.From the mind of J.A. Walsh, former intelligence officer, Purpose of Evasion is a political thriller full of real spy tradecraft.

45-69 ADMarcellus, a Spanish Centurion in the Roman Army, is unsafely ensconced in tumultuous and murderous Rome, a city that can claim its victims in an instant and give its chosen ones glory at a moment's notice. After confronting his nemesis and former commander, Anicius Pedius Gallus, in the boisterous Roman forum, Marcellus escapes yet another close call with a "Roman ally," and races home to the object of his desire--Eleyne, a feisty, British-Celtic princess. And one that is none too happy about being a royal hostage. But love counters betrayal in this harsh city, and the two are married against a backdrop of mysterious treacheries and secrecies. Even as the two start a family and Marcellus advances through the ranks, the evil Gallus seems to lurk in the shadows around every corner.As a resident of Rome, Marcellus is no stranger to chaos, but when he's thrust into the role of commander of the Watch's Seventh Cohort and must lead a ragtag group of men to quell a bloody riot numbering in the hundreds of thousands, can he do the job? And when a new emperor takes hold of the reins, siding with scoundrels and slaughterers, can Marcellus save everyone he holds dear or will he be left alone with blood on his hands?From the birth of Christianity to the backstabbings in the Senate, to lives of the slaves and commoners, to the behind-the-scenes of the worlds of the Roman emperors, The Peacekeeper will bring the duplicitous, colorful, and raw streets of Rome to brilliant life, and will leave you breathless until the final page.

The opening of the Kansas Territory to settlement in 1854 created the most violent place in America: "Bleeding Kansas" the newspapers of the day called it. Proslavery Missourians called Border Ruffians attacked settlers who demanded that the Territory enter the Union as a Free State: knifings, the burning of barns and houses, shootings, and guerilla raids became commonplace. Ezra Middleton, a newspaper reporter and arrival from slave-holding Missouri, finds himself at the center of the conflict, crossing paths with violent abolitionist John Brown; James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok, Union sharpshooter and spy; William Quantrill, Confederate guerilla, who massacred 200 unarmed and boys and burned Lawrence to the ground; and William (Buffalo Bill) Cody, Pony Express rider, Indian fighter, and Union trooper; and the bitter rivals for power, Charles Robinson and U.S. Senator James Lane. Middleton's war ends when, at the Battle of Westport, the citizen-soldiers of the Kansas militia and the Union cavalry turn back a desperate Confederate invasion and end the Civil War in the West. Over time, Middleton changes as persons and events transform him from indifferent observer, to Free-State advocate, to staunch abolitionist, and finally to militiaman, as he and his compatriots struggle to preserve the Union and build on the Kansas prairie a just and peaceful society.