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The Prince
By: Nicolo Machiavelli
'The Prince' is splendid reading on several levels. First, one appreciates Machiavelli as a problem solver. For divided Italy the question had to be asked; what is the most practical and efficient means for a wise prince to consolidate his power and unify it? But one also appreciates Machiavelli as a person. A florentine intellectual banished to the countryside -- to him it must have been torture.
Once asked whether Machiavelli was a cynic, a realist, or a patriot, the answer revealed the belief that the correct answer is all three. Much of Machiavelli's advice contains an under current of cynicism and ruthlessness, and this has undoubtedly come to be the dominant portion of his reputation. One of the terms for devil, 'Old Nick' is derived from Machiavelli. When one speaks of destroying an enemy or performing a ruthless, sneaky act, that person is likely to be called 'machiavellian'. But Machiavelli's advice was as realistic as one could get in those times. This was an era when despots and mercenaries ruled by force and assasination. It was a time when popes fathered children and carved out little principalities for themselves. One was not going to remain in power, much less get ahead of one's enemies by being virtuous. It isn't that Machiavelli despised virtue so much as he realized how useless it was in the political context of the times. But in the end Machiavelli was also an idealist. He dreamed of a united Italy under a strong (and practical) prince. When he dedicated his treatise to Rodorigo Borgia, he did so in the hopes that he might be the man to perform such a task.
This book provides timeless practical advice for anyone who wishes to succeed in a hostile, divisive environment. It also illuminates the peculiar political circumstances of Renaissance Italy.

Sometimes you have to blow your own horn. I not only publish books but I write them.
These three books are not found on this web site but on Amazon - because I am
selling them for Kindle and in paperback and hardback format
to help provide income in my retirement.
Please support this site by buying my books.
And, if you like them, please give me a good written review.
Thanks!

Fancy
Eighty-two year old Frances Smith, known as Fancy, is suffering from senile dementia. She doesn’t know it; neither does her family. Ten of her younger years were consumed with her love for Carlos, a man who worked on her father’s farm. Their love blossomed and grew until one fateful day.

As an old woman, Fancy spends more and more time in her past, through both her dementia and her conscious remembrances of Carlos. She remembers how they loved to dance at fire halls and other dances. She constantly asks him when they will once again dance. His reply is always the same, “Soon my love.”

All the while her family tries to come to grips with her dementia.

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Centerville
Sheriff John Shambach is consumed with the tragedies happening, without rhyme or reason, in the nearby village of Centerville. While he tries to track down the murderer of little Betsy Smith, two teenagers, Jimmy Harris and Ben Snyder, who live in the village, are well on the way of discovering who this evil monster is. They discover who was responsible for the horrible events at the Firemen’s Carnival, where Betsy Smith was brutally murdered and another girl attacked and nearly raped. They piece together the clues to what actually happened to Patrick Marks and why his pants were on backwards. And why he was found down a well. Through this summer of horror they unearth the facts that the sheriff is unable find and they identify the serial killer in their midst. How does a small insular society cope with tragedy after tragedy in that hot summer? Twenty years pass and now Ben Snyder is a detective deputy sheriff in the same quiet central Pennsylvania area where he grew up. The peacefulness in Centerville is shattered by the murder of an elderly woman who is confined to a wheelchair. Ben finds it suspicious that the woman is found in the cellar with her wheelchair but the wheelchair is too wide to fit through the doorway. Not long after that a local Mennonite girl is brutally murdered and Ben struggles with the few clues to solve either case. A sudden revelation opens things up and leads him back to his own childhood and the horrible events of the summer of 1955.
This is an expanded second edition combining Watermelon Summer and Ben's Story into one volume. Material has been added, and some rewritten.
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Stories My Mother Never Told Me
Here is a collection of short stories your mother surely never told you. You will find genres from humor to horror to science fiction.

Meet Sam, the millionaire, he has almost everything. All he wants is a house of his own.

Then there is King Boots, by far the best mouser at a distant spaceport. There mousers are very important.

Take a walk through the woods and the fields, but be careful what you kick.

Murder is most rare in a distant galaxy, far, far away.

Discover what strange things happen during thunder storms. You may not like thunder so much after that.

Explore a cave in a little town in Pennsylvania.

Or meet your very distant cousin and learn what he asks of you.

You see, these are stories your mother never told you, but there’s a lot to enjoy and never a dull moment.
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