Five Stars for Scavengers from Pages & Paws!

 

Why ‘Scavengers’ Left Us Breathless (3 of 3)

July 19, 2026 by Eowyn Leave a comment

The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart (3 of 3)

By Doralynn Kennedy (Indie author, 2025)

Genre: Fiction/Gothic Romance

Pages (print): 530

Via: Author request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.

“The only thing they didn’t account for was you and me falling love.”

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we’re diving into the third and final book in The Rum Runer Trilogy today. It’s called Scavengers. To get up to speed, see our reviews of Book One, Cliff House here, and Book Two, Rum Runners, here.

“How many years had he fought to master the sea, only to build something more dangerous along its edge? He had raised Cliff House with his own ambition, poured into it barrels, bribes, blood, sweat, and secrets.”

Case Pharmaceuticals sent master spy Caroline Oliver to get the goods on Edward Kelly, mysterious owner of a sprawling dark mansion squatting on cliffs overlooking the coast of Maine. But Caroline and Edward have formed their own alliance, escaping the avaricious clutches of Cliff House for a cottage in the quiet fishing town of nearby Clifton.

“But Caroline felt the weight in each step: every move forward was a step deeper into a game with rules written by enemies who would never play fair.”

Circling like sharks with blood in the water, Case will stop at nothing to gain access to and control of Cliff House. One swallows secrets and real estate. The other swallows souls.

“Always give your enemy more paper than powder. Paper stalls. Powder kills.”

Caroline and Edward are soon neck-deep in a high stakes game of chess with not just Cliff House, but also a cold-blooded band of avaricious cutthroats headed by the ruthless Marcus Veyron. This guy gives pit vipers a bad name. He uses other people’s lives as steppingstones and corporate cannon fodder.

But in a game “where the board bleeds,” Caroline and Edward have weapons not seen…

Caroline and Edward don disguises and take on new personas in an effort to stop both the house with a taste for blood and the voracious Case vultures determined to snap up the decaying mansion – and Edward’s secrets in the process. And while Edward has survived many brushes with death, he’s not sure Caroline can survive another war with it in this epic page-turner.

“Edward didn’t just survive. He endured, and he fought with a patience born of a century.”

Meanwhile, Edward’s thoughts return to Ruth (see Rum Runners review) and the promises he failed to keep. He will not make the same mistake with Caroline, who is also being hunted by a pack of Case’s hyena-like goons.

“Fear is cheaper than bribery, and more reliable than loyalty.”

This book has more plot twists than Snake Alley, especially as the story steams toward a shattering crescendo.

“Some lies we carry willingly because the truth would drown people we love.”

Together with the two other books in The Rum Runner Trilogy, Cliff House (Book One) and Rum Runners, (Book Two), Scavengers rings down the curtain on an ambitious, three‑part masterpiece. The trilogy is a colossal odyssey — three parts, one unforgettable saga. But these novels are much more. They’re deeper. Older. Wiser. With echoes of another Ruth. A distant Ruth. From Moab. (You’ll recognize her if you know what to look for.)

“When deliverance comes, it may be at our hands, but it will be God who commands it.”

The writing? Well. Glad you asked. The writing paints in lightning, not pastels. Sentences crackle like live wires. The words don’t just tell the story—they grab you by the collar and pull you in. Think intense as a thunderstorm on a Friday night — unpredictable, relentless, and somehow still beautiful.

There’s a lot of fire in this third book. Fires in Caroline and Edward’s cottage in Clifton. Fires to ward off chill. Fires to light dark corners. Popping fires that collapse into ash. Fires burn in the story itself, sputtering and smoking just under the surface. Call it “foreshadowing.”

There’s also a cup with three drops. A choice. For Mary. Keep this safe. For better. For worse. “Together, then. Until the last piece falls.”

Each of the three books in The Rum Runner trilogy can be read as a stand-alone. If this book consisted of just Cliff House or just Rum Runners, that would be enough. But we recommend reading all three novels in succession, as intended and designed. The tail is tucked in neatly at the end, which is the mark of a true professional.

Finally, it’s been awhile since a book moved us a much as this trilogy.  Every page is a heartbeat, every chapter a pulse. It’s an emotional journey that you don’t just read, you live. Indeed, the story doesn’t unfold, it envelopes you like a fine mist. Or a second skin. It wraps you in a sensory experience that refuses to let go. It left us breathless.

I’d grab a copy now ‘fize you.

Our Rating: 5.0

Doralynn: Wow. I'm not just breathless from this review, I'm in tears! Thank you dear Dynamic Duo. 

Thanks Again to the Pages & Paws Duo!

High Spirits & Higher Stakes: A Prohibition-Era Page-Turner (2 of 3)

July 18, 2026 by Eowyn Leave a comment

The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart (2 of 3)

By Doralynn Kennedy (Indie author, 2025)

Genre: Fiction/Gothic Romance

Pages (print): 530

Via: Author request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.

We’re picking up where we left off yesterday with a review of the second book in the three-novel collection, The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart. Here’s our review of Book One: Cliff House. (Kimber: I’d check that out, Toots. It’ll give ya some important back story.)

So, Mom and I? We figured we’d just dip a toe into Book One. Like, test the narrative waters. Then get to Book Two when we can. Cuz, our TBR pile looks kinda like Mount Rushmore these days. Or maybe the state of Alaska.

Just shows you what we know.

After finishing Book One, Cliff House, we were itchin’ to dive into Book Two, Rum Runners. Like, Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200. So, we did. The next day.

Yep, we thoroughly enjoyed Cliff House. But guess what, Cookie? Book Two, Rum Runners, is even better. I’ll let Mom ‘splain. Ya might want to buckle up.

He’s caught between the two things he loves most – the empire he’s built and the woman he loves. John Stewart is being pulled in opposite directions that he can’t reconcile in this sweeping gothic romance set on the New England Coast.

“Not all houses are for the living.”

John Stewart is an enigmatic kinda guy. Taciturn. Passionate. Mysterious. We kept seeing Jay Gatsby. Or maybe Edmond Dantes. And a little of James Clavell’s Dirk Struan of Tai-pan. A dash of Rhett Butler. And Stewart’s main squeeze in Book Two, nurse Ruth Wilson? We kept seeing Dickens’s Esther Summerson of Bleak House.

Well. Rum Runners opens 100 years before Book One. An exhausted nurse peers into a tempestuous sea in the midst of a raging storm, searching for any hint of shipwreck survivors. Survival is something Ruth Wilson knows well. Half her town is gone due to a deadly flu epidemic, including her family and most of her friends and neighbors. But in the raging storm she finds another survivor: Captain John Stewart.

“Revenge makes widows where it should only claim enemies.”

Once he’s healthy again, Stewart contacts Ruth and asks her to come to his Connecticut estate, Marshwood Manor, to care for his diabetic mother. Once there, Ruth meets the kindly and steady Dr. Michael Best (echoes of another Dickensian character, Tom Pinch of Martin Chuzzlewit.). Together, Ruth and the doctor oversee the Stewart matriarch’s care. The doctor asks for Ruth’s hand in marriage. She is touched by his kindness and quiet, unfettered steadiness. Ruth is also unsettled by “men with rifles in the roses” at Marshwood Manor. And what’s up with the little girl who isn’t really there?

“Ruth found herself suspended between the two: the quiet ward of Dr. Best, where one might count a lifetime in the faithful return of spring blossoms; and the reckless blaze of John Stewart, where one might live a single year and yet feel it outweighed all others.”

Ruth chooses to join John Stewart at the new house he’s building on a cliff in Maine. And “The promise she gave a dying woman was a chain that pulled tighter the more he disappeared.” Can Ruth keep her promises to John’s dying mother without losing her own soul?

“She thought she wanted glitter. What she really wanted was grace.”

Book Two explains how and why John Stewart got into rum running. And the origins of Cliff House, which is really two houses. Cliff House above is all show. Chandeliers. Polished wood. A band and a ballroom. Cliff House below is hidden doors. Narrow, slick staircases. Deliveries at odd hours. Shadows. And while Cliff House remains a formidable character in Book Two, it’s not as central as it was in Book One. So, make sure you read both, okay?

The tone of Rum Runners differs a bit from Cliff House. The former is more cerebral. There’s plenty of action in Rum Runners. For example, after a duel to the death over smuggling supremacy, Stewart’s criminal empire grows. It spreads from Main to Chicago, “from coast to coast: bribes paid, rivals buried, men bought for loyalty or silence.”  

We loved how the author weaves echoes of Book One throughout Book Two: A woman in pink. Mercy with a mouth like a trap. A cup with three drops. A flask and water from a cavern pool. One, two, three. One, two, three.

“Memory is an animal that will not be tamed.”

As in Cliff House, superb writing and skillful storytelling are the watchwords for Rum Runners. The author’s metaphors remain as sharp as a chisel carving stone. Her similes sparkle like embers in the dark. The narrative makes readers feel like we’re tip-toeing into a shadowy world of secrets where faint whispers curl through cracks in the walls and floorboards are full of breaths held too long.

The story races forward with the precision of a seasoned conductor, keeping the beat tight and the tension high. It’s a brisk, expertly paced journey where every word is a deliberate choice, every scene a calculated advance.

And… we’re not through yet! Be sure to keep an eye out for our review of Book Three: Scavengers. Coming TOMORROW!

Our Rating: 4.5

Doralynn: You know I'll be there!! And I'm counting the hours! 

Thank You to Kristine and Kimber - the master reviewers of Pages & Paws

Here is their review! 

How ‘The Rum Runner’ Caught Us On a Cliff (1 of 3)

July 17, 2026 by Eowyn Leave a comment

The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart

By Doralynn Kennedy (Indie author, 2025)

Genre: Fiction/Gothic Romance

Pages (print): 530

Via: Author request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.

“Mercy with a mouth like a trap.”

Kimber: Okay, Mom. I give up. What’s a “gothic romance”?

Mom:  “Gothic romance” combines dark, suspenseful settings with intense, often forbidden love, blending horror, mystery, and passion. It’s often characterized by moody, atmospheric settings. Crumbling mansions. Haunted castles. Foggy forests. They shape the story’s tension, drama, and intrigue.

Kimber: You mean like a nice, thick juicy Porterhouse steak sizzling on the grill?

Mom. Sighs. Something like that.

Well, friends. We don’t usually gravitate toward “gothic romance.” But when we received a review request from author Doralynn Kennedy for her latest book, The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart, we accepted it on the strength of her prior work. A formidable author and prodigious writing talent, Kennedy has published in multiple genres, including romantic suspense, Gothic romance, Christian fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books. We’ve reviewed a couple over the years, including Thirteen Miracles and The Mystery of the Fox Down Dog and Other Stories. Enjoyed them.

So even though we’re not really big “gothic romance” fans, we decided to take a chance on The Rum Runner and Book One: Cliff House. It’s the first book in a three-novel omnibus collection. We’ll get to the other books later. But were we ever surprised with Cliff House. Here’s the skinny:

When the past refuses to stay buried and an external hurricane mirrors an inner storm, love becomes a dangerous game of shadows and secrets in this deliciously moody and atmospheric read set in Maine.

The Plot

Caroline came to steal his secrets. But he stole her heart.

When Case Pharmaceuticals’ investigator Caroline Oliver arrives at a decaying mansion on the Maine coast as a hurricane closes in, she expects corporate secrets tied to rumors of immortal life. Instead, she finds a house that’s alive – and a man who should not exist.

Edward Kelly, rumored to be a long-dead Prohibition-era smuggler Captain John Stewart, is now a billionaire businessman of impossible age. Haunted by a century-old curse, he’s spent decades hiding from a past that refuses to stay buried. A hundred years earlier, a private nurse named Ruth Wilson stepped into his world of passion, smugglers, and secrets, and fell in love with a man the sea refused  to drown. Now the past and present collide.

Because some storms do not end with the water. Some follow a man ashore and wait for him in the dark...

The Rum Runner is a masterful, highly readable blend of spooky haunted house with a mind of its own, supernatural mystery, and a generational curse tied to Prohibition-era rum runner and Cliff House owner Captain John Stewart, aka: Edward Kelly. The historical context is – duh – rum running – and smuggling during the 1920s. This includes speakeasies, murder, mayhem, and one super creepy house help duo, Mr. and Mrs. Yardley.

It may be the first book we’ve read where a house is a main character. Like, sentient. Hungry. Jealous. And if Cliff House is a trap, what does that make Edward? Is he really flesh and blood or… something else?

The Rum Runner grabbed us in Chapter 1. Didn’t let go until the final page. As noted above, we’ve enjoyed Kennedy’s prior novels. But The Rum Runner is a whole new level of excellence and expertise. It’s Kennedy’s best work yet. And thoroughly un-putdownable. Like this:

Superb writing and masterful storytelling propel a plot that hits you with relentless momentum. The plot-punching narrative and dynamic characters combined with breathless pacing pour out a story that’s as smooth as a rum-soaked sunset. It’s also as creepy and compelling as the water-soaked beams and stones of Cliff House. The story creates a subtle but distinct line of rising tension and intrigue as we follow Caroline in and out of the rhythms of the house and the stories within while the “creep-out factor” soars into the stratosphere.

Haunting, mysterious and exceedingly eerie, The Rum Runner would make a great movie. (What’s Vincent Price or his progeny up to these days? Hmmm…) “We sail!”

Again, kindly note that this omnibus collection includes three novels. It’s a heavy lift, clocking in at over 500 pages. Book One, Cliff House, clocks in at 174 pages.

Cloaked in a shroud of secrets that echo through the story like ghosts of yesteryear, this exceptional gothic romance caught us on a cliff, haunting our thoughts long after we turned the last page.

We loved it! You will, too!

Our Rating: 4.0

Join us TOMORROW for our review of Book Two: Rum Runners. And don’t forget the Porterhouse! “Cut loose!”

Doralynn: I will definitely be there! Thanks youz guys!  

The Last Claim of Poverty Gulch

I had planned in my twenties and thirties to write a fiction book about the history of Cripple Creek. During that time, I read every history book I could find about Cripple Creek and Bob Womack, starting with Money Mountain: The Story of Cripple Creek Gold by Marshall Sprague. That is the book that tells one of my favorite stories: “The Man Who Picks up Rocks Running.”

Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was a fanatic geologist. As the story goes, Native Americans encountered Hayden out in the wild. Instead of reaching for a weapon, Hayden simply ran, eagerly bending down to look at formations and stuffing interesting fossils, minerals, and rocks in his pockets. The Indians decided he was crazy and headed in the opposite direction. I can just imagine the expressions on their faces and the glances they exchanged. Hayden’s dedication to his profession saved his life and gave him an unforgettable nickname. In many Native American cultures at that time, individuals who behaved in such an unhinged manner were believed to be under the direct protection of the Great Spirit. Deciding that this man who ran around, obsessively collecting useless rocks, was completely insane, they chose to leave him the heck alone.

But my favorite stories of all were the ones about Bob Womack, the man who discovered gold in Cripple Creek and died a pauper. When I was growing up, my family would take visiting relatives from Illinois and Kentucky to Cripple Creek to visit Poverty Gulch where Bob Womack’s shack had been. My maternal grandmother was a distant cousin of Bob Womack, so that was a popular destination for our visitors. That was long before gambling.

In my thirties, I worked in Cripple Creek as a blackjack dealer and pit boss. The first casino I worked in was Womack’s Casino, named after Bob. I dealt the first hand of blackjack there on opening night. To have my family’s history woven into the very dirt of Cripple Creek, and to have dealt the first hand of blackjack at a casino bearing Bob’s name, felt like a beautiful poetic legacy to me. This short story is just a last-wish sort of thing. I never did write that book. It refused all of my attempts. So, I’ll honor the memory of Bob Womack, and my beloved maternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Womack, with a story about the colorful, larger-than-life character known by many as “Crazy Bob.” 

 

The Last Claim of Poverty Gulch

The wind off Pikes Peak didn’t just blow; it carved. It cut through the pine needles, rattled the aspens, and whistled through the chinks of the log cabin in Poverty Gulch where Robert Miller Womack sat, staring at his boots.

To the high-collared folks down in Colorado Springs, Bob was a legend in a fringed buckskin jacket. They knew him as the wild-eyed guide who could lead a greenhorn right to a grizzly’s den, or as the copper-haired rider who, on a whiskey-soaked Saturday, might spur his pony and ride it straight up the creaking wooden stairs of a brothel just to hear the girls shriek. For a wager, he’d bend low from a saddle at a full gallop and snatch a bad bottle of whiskey off the dirt with nothing but his teeth. Those nights usually ended with him in the local jail, too drunk to care.

But behind the stunts was a man who had spent a lifetime looking down.

For decades, Bob had panned the cold, clear creeks, tracing them like veins from the foothills of the Springs all the way up to their high, hidden source in the crater of an ancient volcano. His father, Sam, who was a staunch Confederate sympathizer and a chronic hypochondriac, had dragged the family west to escape the Union draft. Old Sam was terrified of the war, but Bob had ended up fighting a different kind of battle in the high country. A battle against the mountain, and against his own mind.

Now, he was just tired. He’d spent years telling anyone who would listen that there was gold in Cripple Creek. They’d laughed at him. They called his valley "Cripple Creek" because the cattle kept breaking their legs in the marshy ground, and they called Bob a lunatic. Eventually, if you hear a lie enough times, you start to believe it. Bob had stopped believing in the gold. He’d stopped believing in himself.

The fire in his small cast-iron stove crackled, throwing orange light across the dirt floor. Opposite him sat Winfield Scott Stratton.

Stratton was a carpenter, a man of cold measurements and quiet, agonizing precision. He didn’t ride horses up staircases. He looked at Bob with a quiet, assessing gaze, his eyes darting to a heavy, greyish chunk of rock sitting on Bob’s cluttered pine table.

“I’m done, Winfield,” Bob said, his voice flat, drained of the old fire. “The Gold King is my last hole and it’s a dead one. It’s just more dirt and disappointment. I’ve chased it from the Springs to here, and all it’s given me is a bad back and a reputation as a fool. But if you really want it, it’s yours. I need the money for my sick father and spinster sister.”

Bob sighed, standing up from his creaking chair. “Let me go check on the horses before the snow rolls in. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

The moment the heavy wooden cabin door clicked shut behind Bob, Stratton moved with feverish speed.

He snatched the chunk of grey ore from the table. Stepping quickly to the cast-iron stove, he pressed the flat side of the rock directly onto the red-hot iron lid.

Seconds stretched. The cabin filled with the sharp, chemical tang of roasting sulfur. And then, like sweat breaking on a fevered forehead, tiny, brilliant beads of yellow metal began to bubble and boil out of the dark stone. It was pure, glittering gold, sweating under the heat.

Stratton’s breath caught. His heart hammered against his ribs. He quickly scraped the telluride ore off the stove, pocketed it, and used his sleeve to wipe away any trace of the yellow sweat from the iron lid. By the time the door latched open and Bob stamped back inside, blowing on his cold hands, Stratton was back in his chair, his face a mask of polite indifference.

“So,” Stratton said, his voice steady, though his pulse was racing. “You really think it’s a dry hole?”

“Dryer than a sermon in August,” Bob muttered, sitting back down. “If you want it, it’s yours. Money is tight and hands are out.”

Stratton sighed, playing the part of a man doing a foolish favor. “Tell you what, Bob. I’ve got five hundred dollars. I'll take the claim off your hands.”

To Bob, five hundred dollars was real. It was warm blankets. It was survival. He couldn't believe his luck, amazed that some carpenter was willing to pay real money for a useless pile of dirt.

“Five hundred,” Bob said, a spark of the old salesman returning to his eyes. “And I want two pigs. For the winter. And a bottle of whiskey, Winfield. A bad one, if that’s all you’ve got. The kind that burns on the way down so I know I’m still alive.”

“Done,” Stratton said quickly, almost too quickly, reaching into his pocket to count out the greenbacks before Bob could change his mind.

A week later, the mountain fractured.

Word had spread through the high country like wildfire. Stratton had gone back up to the claim, dug deep, and struck a vein so thick and pure it defied imagination. He was pulling fortunes out of the very dirt Bob had abandoned. Overnight, the quiet carpenter had become Cripple Creek’s first true millionaire, and the rush was officially on. The mountain was crawling with men possessed by the fever.

Down at the bustling, smoke-filled train station, the air was thick with coal dust and the manic energy of arriving prospectors, investors, and speculators.

Bob sat on a wooden bench on the platform, a quiet island in the middle of the roaring stream. He had his bottle of cheap, raw whiskey tucked into his coat, and his two pigs were safely penned back at his cabin.

An old-timer, a fellow prospector who had spent decades sharing the cold mud of the gulches with Bob, shuffled over and sat down beside him on the bench. The old-timer looked out at the crowds, then shook his head, looking at Bob with a mix of disbelief and pity.

“Bob,” the old-timer said, leaning in. “Did you hear the news? Stratton... he’s pulling gold out of your old claim by the bucketful. He’s a millionaire, Bob. He’s rich beyond belief. Don’t it just make you sick? Don’t you regret selling it to him for a pittance?”

Bob took a slow, quiet pull from his bottle of bad whiskey. He felt the familiar, sharp burn down his throat, reassuring him that he was alive, warm, and entirely free. He looked past the bustling crowds of desperate men, and out toward the jagged peaks where Stratton was now chained to his new empire.

Bob let out a soft, tired chuckle and shook his head.

“My father’s laid up with his latest heart attack. But what would I have done with all that wealth, Henry? Squander it, that’s what. But not Stratton.” Bob passed the bottle, a genuine, gentle smile touching his lips. “I pity him. I truly pity him, and all the trouble that wealth is going to bring him. Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

Cancer, dying, emotions

I am getting worse. The stress on my body is affecting my emotions as well. I have had two emotional outbursts that I wish had never happened. I understand it is normal with someone with advanced cancer and kidney disease, but maybe that's just an excuse. I long for the fruit of the Spirit - not the rot of cancer. 

The nausea and vomiting are getting worse. Right now, that is the hardest part for me. I rarely cry, but I have been crying on and off since last night. It was another night of all night vomiting, and I'm tired. I would like to make it to autumn. It's my favorite time of year. In February, when I was diagnosed with gynecological cancer that had spread to my peritoneum, and was causing malignant ascites, the prognosis was less that six months. I'm almost there. 

I have asked my niece, Kaytee, to monitor my blog and maintain my books. I left the copyright of my writings to my son, but my son and niece are executors of my will. My niece will post my obituary at my blogs, but I do not want my son or my niece to worry about the expenses of death - a funeral, an expensive obituary. I want to be cremated and for my family and friends to gather when it's convenient for all of them to remember me. I think I might be able to hang on until September, but I doubt I'll see another Thanksgiving. 

I apologize to the people who have been on the receiving end of my temper recently, and I hope that they will take the fact that I am sick and dying into consideration and not judge me too harshly. 

My brilliant niece has started making trailers

Kaytee (my brilliant niece) has made several short video trailers for my book The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart. The first two trailers are at the bottom of this post.

The audiobook is finished. Here is the link at Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/1evs6YvZVDBqIRVpqBCXw7

I will post more links for audiobooks soon. 

In the meantime, I've included two trailers below, and here's the tiktok link where you can see all of them.

https://www.tiktok.com/@dlkennedy7

The digital and print books can be found at linktree.

https://linktr.ee/DLkennedy7

I had a new book cover, which is the second one below, but it wasn't performing well. So I returned to my original cover, but I increased the brightness so the house above my name was more visible.   

Here are the individual links where you can find the book: 
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FX3G6VNJ

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-rum-runner-the-legend-of-captain-john-stewart/id6756026426

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-rum-runner-doralynn-kennedy/1148722108;jsessionid=69BEFAE5120157C95B123850F0821009.prodny_store02-atgap06?ean=2940167807822

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-rum-runner-the-legend-of-captain-john-stewart-doralynn-kennedy/24aa8f10a12711e6?ean=9798224314492&next=t&digital=t

https://www.everand.com/book/959834755/The-Rum-Runner-The-Legend-of-Captain-John-Stewart

https://fable.co/book/x-9798224314492

https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/19262035

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-rum-runner-the-legend-of-captain-john-stewart?sId=b47c1025-aee9-40d0-8d8d-f2236aa7b2e5&ssId=S4P7Em12EibgLfvmjJnmw

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1914524

https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1077633249

https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798224314492_9798224314492_10020/the-rum-runner-the-legend-of-captain-john-stewart

  

 

 

 

 

Hospice or Palliative?

 

A Personal Update

I have not been well for quite some time, largely due to ongoing chronic kidney disease. In February, however, I received a diagnosis that is even more serious. I have cancer that began in the endometrium and has spread to my ovaries and into the peritoneum. There is also caking on the omentum and malignant ascites that requires frequent paracentesis. The doctors have given a prognosis of less than six months.

I was given a choice between hospice care and palliative care. After careful consideration, I chose palliative care.

I went through hospice with both of my parents, so I understand firsthand what that experience is like for families. Because of that experience, I do not want to place that burden on my own family. Under hospice care, emergency treatment such as calling 911 or going to the ER is generally not an option. I prefer to keep that freedom if something urgent happens.

I also believe it will be better for me to die in a hospital setting, surrounded by nurses and doctors who know what to do. Asking family members to serve as caregivers at home during the final stages of life can be extremely difficult. I know what it is like to sit beside someone you love while they are dying and feel helpless to ease their suffering. It is a heavy responsibility, and I do not want my loved ones to have to carry that weight.

I have also decided not to pursue chemotherapy or radiation. At this stage, those treatments would not meaningfully change the outcome, and they would likely take away the quality of life I still have. Right now, I want to use the time that remains as well as I can.

One of the things I hope to finish is the audiobook version of The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart. I am currently producing it through ElevenLabs. The first thirty chapters are complete, and my goal is to finish the remaining seven and then do a final review before publishing it through InAudio and Spotify.

The print and ebook editions are already available through Amazon and Draft2Digital. There is also an audiobook version on Amazon, but that version uses a single narrator voice that I was never fully satisfied with. With ElevenLabs, I have been able to create different voices for different characters, which should make for a better listening experience.

As a Christian, I am at peace with this diagnosis. I am not afraid. My faith sustains me, and I trust God with whatever lies ahead.

I am sharing this now because there will likely come a point in the near future when I will no longer be able to respond to comments here, on YouTube, or elsewhere online.

My affairs are in order, and I am grateful that I have been able to take care of those things. I have left in my will that I wish to be cremated, and I do not want a funeral. I also do not want them to post an obituary. Those things are expensive, and I do not want to place any additional financial burdens on my family. My family and friends will decide on a time and place in the future where they can celebrate my life, but that's up to them. 

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has read my books, left a comment, or offered encouragement over the years. I truly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Cliff House - The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart

I discovered some issues in Cliff House and corrected them. I originally said the first and seconds books in the trilogy, Cliff House and Rum Runners, were standalone reads. I no longer believe that. They should be read in order, and all three should be read, or the emotional impact is lost. You can buy each one separately, or you can buy The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart. It is a three-volume edition. It is more cost effective to purchase the trilogy in one volume rather than in three.  

When I originally wrote Cliff House in 2012, it was the first book I wrote of the trilogy. I immediately wrote the opening draft of the prequel, Rum Runners. I have not made many changes to it; however, I completely rewrote Cliff House after one of Harlequin’s former editors, Denise Zaza, showed interest in working with me on the story in 2013. She was not interested in a prequel, but I felt it was essential. That short association did take Cliff House in a different direction. She wanted me to pattern my hero after Christian Grey. I did change Edward into a billionaire businessman, and that changed the entire story. She questioned the differences I was making due to that change, and I questioned her Christian Grey suggestion. I decided to take all of my writing in a new direction at that time, and Cliff House and Rum Runners sat on the shelf for thirteen years. 

Although I appreciate the kindness of Denise Zaza and my editor, Laura Kelly, at The Wild Rose Press, I decided after 2013 that I would no longer seek traditional publishing. I prefer to maintain control over what I write.   
 
I will continue to offer the Cliff House Trilogy, but the three-volume edition will be offered as well. Here is the description I will use at Amazon for The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart: 

A century-old curse. 

A house that hungers. 
A love that refuses to fade. 

When investigator, Caroline Oliver, braves an approaching hurricane to infiltrate a decaying estate on the rocky Maine coast, she expects secrets. She doesn’t expect Edward Kelly. 

Rumored to be over a hundred years old. 
Beautiful. 
Haunted. 
And hiding a past the world was never meant to know. 

A century earlier, Captain John Stewart, rum runner and fierce protector of the woman he loved, survived a storm no man should live through. The ocean gave him life, but not mercy. The miracle he carried ashore built his fortune, took his soul, and awakened something dark within the walls of the mansion he named Cliff House. 

Now the house is alive. 
Lonely. 
Vengeful. 
And it remembers every scream. 

Caroline’s arrival stirs long-buried echoes: a love sacrificed in the name of righteousness, a house corrupted by sin, and a destiny waiting to be fulfilled. 

To survive, she and Edward must face: 

A power born in forbidden waters. 

A house possessed by the sins of its past. 

A legacy of love stretching across generations. 

And a final choice between mortality and eternity. 

Because some storms never truly end…
they wait. 

And some loves are not lost… 
they return when the world needs them most. 

For readers of Outlander, and sweeping gothic romances with a sacred heart: a three-book saga of tragedy, healing, and a love strong enough to defeat death itself.  

The Cliff House Trilogy in one powerful volume.  

And here is my new back cover blurb for the book:  

The house remembers. The sea refuses to drown. And love endures beyond death.

When a hurricane threatens the Maine coast, corporate investigator, Caroline Oliver, seizes her chance to enter the crumbling Cliff House, a remote mansion rumored to be haunted, cursed, and owned by a man who should be long dead. 

Edward Kelly has fought these walls for a century, hiding the truth of what he became the night a storm claimed his crew and delivered him into immortality. Cliff House knows the secrets of the man the sea refused to drown. Cliff House has fed on them, hoarded them, refused to forgive them. And, now, Cliff House has learned to kill. 

Caroline arrives determined to uncover a corporate mystery. She finds instead a man who has carried one heartbreak across time, and a house hungry for the living. But storms never stay buried. Love never dies quietly. And the past has come home to collect.  

A sweeping gothic saga of forbidden love, sacred sacrifice, and redemption stronger than death. 

Here is the new cover: 

 

Note: This is the first book I have written that used AI for anything. Amazon asks the following question. Did you use AI tools in creating texts, images, and/or translations in your book? I finally decided to choose "Some sections, with extensive editing" in the text section. However, I was not sure if it was referring to AI doing extensive editing or me doing extensive editing. I did the extensive editing. I think that selection came closest to being accurate. However, if it was referring to AI doing the editing, then I should change the answer. I alone did the editing. AI did not even help with "limited editing." Amazon asked which tool(s) did I use. I answered "Search Assist, ChatGPT, and Grok." 

Search Assist and Grok helped a little with proofreading, but ChatGPT was more reliable with that task. If I was unclear about grammar, I would plug a section of text into ChatGPT and ask if it had any grammatical errors. ChatGPT would either tell me everything was good or not. I had also asked Grok and ChatGPT to look for any continuity or logic issues. They didn't find any true continuity issues. However, I had several major continuity and logic issues that I needed to fix. Unfortunately, I didn't discover them until after I published initially. I made the mistake of accepting the conclusions of Grok and ChatGPT. I had rushed to publish because Microsoft stopped updating Windows 10 in October of 2025, and I did not have a computer that was compatible with Windows 11 at that time. I was concerned I would not be able to afford one. I did not want to use that computer after that date, and I was worried the book would not get published because of that. Even though I had not been diagnosed with terminal cancer at that time, I suspected I had it. Brain fog, cancer, and self-imposed deadlines don't go well together. As a result, I published material that was not yet ready. Those issues have all been addressed now. 

Next, Amazon also asked about images. My answer was one or a few AI-generated images, with extensive editing. However, I was not sure if it was asking if AI did the editing or me. I am the one who did the extensive editing. I used a ChatGPT created cover, but I had to do extensive editing on it at Canva. I did not use any Canva elements. It also asked about translations, and the answer to that was "none." Lastly, the final cover for The Rum Runner: The Legend of Captain John Stewart is below. 

 

Grandpa Hare and the Great Pie Robbery

Grandpa Hare is old. He is bowlegged. He is slightly arthritic. But, oh my, he is spry. He is also full of clever ideas. Or so he thinks.

When his birthday rolls around, Grandma Hare starts baking her famous carrot pies. The only problem? They’re known as the worst pies in Bunchberry Hollow!

Each birthday, with a twitch of his whiskers and help from his three playful grandsons, Grandpa hatches plans to make those awful carrot pies vanish before anyone has to eat them.

Full of woodland charm and gentle humor, Grandpa Hare and the Great Pie Robbery is a heartwarming tale about family, mischief, and the lessons that come with growing older and wiser.

Perfect for readers ages 4 - 8 and fans of Beatrix Potter, this story reminds us all that a good heart, and a little honesty, are the best recipes of all.

Available at Amazon as a paperback book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVWTDM5H

 

The Last Book of the Cliff House Trilogy is Live

In the tradition of the great Gothic romances, the Cliff House Trilogy is a haunting story of secrets, temptation, and survival where passion wars with peril and the past refuses to stay buried. For fans of Daphne du Maurier, Victoria Holt, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Sarah Waters, and Susan Hill, Cliff House is a sweeping Gothic tale of secrets, survival, and forbidden desire, where every door hides a choice and every choice comes with a cost.

Book One - Cliff House: 

Some houses hold secrets.
This one keeps them alive. 
Espionage brought her to Cliff House.
Now the secret she came to discover won't let her go.

Caroline never meant to stay. Edward Kelly never meant to care. Yet the longer she remains, the more the house breathes around her. Watching. Waiting. Deciding. Caroline soon discovers that Cliff House is more than a home. It is a presence, a predator, and perhaps a prison.

Book Two - Rum Runners:
A prequel

Ruth Wilson came to heal the living. 
The coast gave her a man the sea refused to drown.

1921. Prohibition has turned the New England coast into a hunting ground. Smugglers slip across black water, lawmen lie in wait, and those caught in between risk everything.

When Ruth Wilson takes work as a private nurse in a house perched above the sea, she expects convalescence and quiet. Instead, she finds herself entangled in Captain John Stewart’s dangerous world of rum running, secrets, and shadows. Trust is as scarce as daylight, yet the pull between them is undeniable.

But every tide carries betrayal. As violence rises with the waves, Ruth must decide whether she is willing to risk not just her future, but her heart, in a house where every window looks out on danger and ghosts rise up in the mist. 

Rum Runners, the second book in the Cliff House Trilogy, is a story of forbidden love, whispered deals, and the cost of survival, when loyalty and conscience collides with desire.

 

 

 

Book Three - Scavengers:

They came seeking secrets. 
Instead, they became prey. 

On a storm-torn coast stands a house with a reputation as dark as the cliffs beneath it. Some say it's haunted. Others whisper it hides a secret worth killing for.

Into this shadowed world step Edward Kelly and Caroline Oliver, bound together by fate and pursued by enemies who will stop at nothing. The closer they draw to the house, the more they discover that survival demands more than courage, it demands sacrifice.

Scavengers is a Gothic suspense novel of hunted lives, hidden truths, and the perilous cost of secrets too long kept.

Book One and Two are standalone novels. Book Three must be read last.