Publisher:‎ The Wild Rose Press

Which is stronger–the courage to right a wrong, or the fear of revenge?

High school junior Paulie Passero considers himself a social misfit. He is sixteen years old and has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date. He thinks he’s a poor excuse for the average male…until he experiences something far worse. Paulie witnesses an unspeakable act by a member of the football team under the bleachers one afternoon. The star linebacker threatens him with physical harm if he tells anyone what he has seen. Paulie is at a crossroads. Should he protect a girl’s reputation? Or defer to the oversize bully intimidating him? Dating has suddenly taken a back seat to this new dilemma.

Also by John V. Madormo

Publisher:‎ The Wild Rose Press

If you’re a fan of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” you’ll want to read…”The Summer of Guinevere.”

The story of a shy, misunderstood teen who has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date, and who longs for a lasting relationship.

It was the summer of 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been cut down by a sniper’s bullet. Senator Bobby Kennedy, on the campaign trail in California, had been assassinated. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago had left a black eye on the city. And 16-year-old Paulie Passero was oblivious to it all.

In a coming-of-age story, an underachieving high school junior, who has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date, is about to experience The Summer of Guinevere. When his father learns that his mother, the woman who disowned him years earlier, is lying on her deathbed, he decides to return to rural Leroy, Pennsylvania after more than two decades, to say goodbye. He takes Paulie along to meet the grandmother he has never known.

Paulie is unprepared for and unaccustomed to Smalltown USA. He busies himself with mundane activities until he notices a girl riding in the back of a pickup truck one day. He is immediately enamored with her. When the two finally meet, she wants nothing to do with him, but Paulie is determined to win her over. In what soon becomes the first meaningful relationship of his life, Paulie learns that this is a troubled girl with a shameful past who yearns to escape the clutches of an abusive father.

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Chapter 1

Mickey grabbed me by the shoulders. “Paulie Passero, I want the truth,” he said.

“Will you please stop? I’ve been telling you the truth. I don’t know what else I can say to make you believe me.”

“I want you to admit you made up this Andie Walker business. Come clean, buddy. You’ll feel better getting it off your chest. This is your best friend talking.”

I laughed and plopped down on the bed. This was just another typical day for me and my best bud, Mickey Hannigan. I’d lost count how many times we had had these kinds of conversations in my room. Neither of us could believe the other guy could actually get a date with a real girl. We weren’t what you would call experienced.

We were entering our junior year of high school with the hopes of erasing a bleak—no, make that pathetic—history with the opposite sex. Mickey had gone on two dates in his whole life. One of them you couldn’t count since it was with his cousin. And the other was a disaster. He ended up puking on his date following a spin on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Kiddieland. So, I guess I could see why he didn’t want to believe I had a date with Andie Walker. I’d be catching up to him, and he didn’t want to hear that.

“Eat your heart out, Mick,” I said.

“All right, how about if I just show up at the tennis courts tomorrow and see for myself? How’d you like that?” He smirked.

I shrugged. “I could care less.” I knew that would make him crazy.

“Give me a break. You don’t care if I’m there? Really?”

“Just do whatever you want.” I got up off the bed. “I can’t believe you think I made this whole thing up. You think I’d lie just to impress you.”

Mickey’s sneer soon melted into a smile. “You had me going there for a minute, partner. I almost believed this whole thing.”

I stomped my foot. “Damn it, Mick. Come with me tomorrow. You’ll see. But then make some excuse why you have to leave. I don’t need anyone critiquing my moves.”

He nodded. “It’s a deal.” He glanced at his watch. “Hey, I gotta get out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow. What time are you supposedly meeting her?”

I shook my head. The Mick killed me. “Noon.”

“Perfect. I’ll get here about eleven. The buses don’t run as often on the weekends. We’ll need the extra time.”

“Fine. Eleven it is.”

He winked. He was toying with me now. “I’ll let myself out.”

“You do that.” I waited at the top of the stairs until I heard the front door close. Then I fell back onto my bed and put my hands behind my head. I couldn’t stop thinking of Andie. This was going to be great. I was actually going to be spending some one-on-one time with the girl of my dreams. And if I played my cards right, this could be the first of many.

I thought back to how all of this had come about. It all started with Guennie. If it hadn’t been for her, I would never have had the courage to talk to Andie. Let me back up. Guennie—Guinevere Thompson—was what you might call my summer fling. All that came about when my dad asked me to accompany him to Leroy, Pennsylvania to visit his dying mother. This was the same woman who hadn’t spoken word one to him for the last twenty years. You see, she disowned him when he moved from Leroy to Chicago after he and my mom got married. When he learned my grandmother had only days to live, he decided to return to his boyhood home to say goodbye. He asked me to come along to help with the six-hundred-mile drive.

While there I met the most amazing girl. She was gorgeous. And she taught me how to act around girls. We even hugged and kissed. It was heaven—until Grandma died, and it was time to head home. For a while there I was trying to figure out a way to get back to Leroy to visit her, but when she wrote a letter telling me she was going to a dance with a boy she met at school, I knew it was time to move on. It took me a few days to get over her. But the minute I saw Andie—Andrea Walker—in the hallway at school one day, I started to forget about Guennie.

My first reaction was to do nothing. I knew I’d never build up the courage to actually talk to her. That was how it had been for two years. I’d see her. I’d stare at her. I’d follow her home—not in a creepy stalker kind of way—more like an inquisitive way. I’d watch her from a distance on the tennis courts. I even sat across from her at lunch but never managed to start up a conversation. So, when I saw her in the hallway the other day, I never expected anything to happen. But something did happen. I began to think about the time I had spent with Guennie and how we had talked endlessly when we were together. All at once, I realized I could do this. I could actually talk to girls.

And that was just what I did. We made small talk for a couple of minutes. Then I told her how I had watched her play tennis a few times. I think she was flattered I was a fan. I explained I had always wanted to learn the sport but I was kind of a klutz. That was when she made this amazing offer to meet me on the tennis courts on Saturday at noon after practice to give me a few pointers.

As I lay in bed, I kept going over what I’d say to her when we met up tomorrow. I guessed I could comment on how she looked at practice. Talk about the weather a little bit. No, that was lame. Maybe I just needed to rely on my ad-libbing abilities and go with that. Even though that strategy had failed me a million times before. But this was a new me. I could talk to girls, right? Sure. I had done it with Guennie. So, before long, I hoped, I’d be talking to Andie the same way.

Then I started thinking about how I could turn one casual meeting into a string of meaningful dates. I would have to see how tomorrow went before I planned my next move. Then again, I wondered if I should try to schedule another time together. Should I ask her if she wanted to get something to eat? Yeah, that was an idea. I hopped off my bed and grabbed my wallet off the dresser. Seventeen dollars. That was plenty for lunch. Okay, now I had a plan. I thought I could do this—as long as the Mick got lost after seeing what he came for, and realizing it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.

I jumped off the bed, changed into pajamas, washed up and brushed my teeth. I laid out a clean T-shirt, socks, underwear, and a pair of jeans. I wondered if I should shower in the morning. The last thing I wanted to do was turn her off with an attack of B.O. Before long I drifted off. This was going to be so sweet. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.

About the Author

John Madormo, a Chicago area screenwriter, author, and college professor, has created a body of work that has attracted the attention of motion picture producers and publishers. John has sold a family comedy screenplay to a Los Angeles production company, is the author of a mystery series with a major New York publisher, and was recently named the Grand Prize winner of a national writing competition.

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Fantistic Fiction

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Teens, Young Adult, and all mature readers

Date Published: November 19, 2020

Publisher: Mindstir Media

Trouble is coming…coming by land…coming by sea. Coming for you…and coming for me.

What would you do if you had just prepared a perfect margarita and turned to leave your kitchen only to find a menacing assassin blocking the doorway and his stated intent was to kill you right now?

This is the situation Matt Flannery is confronted with on an otherwise typical Saturday afternoon at his bungalow on Anna Maria Island, Florida.

Who is this mountain of a man? Why is he here? What does he want? And…why me?

This day and this incident begin an unexpected, epic journey for Matt that will not only change his life, but the lives of his friends, family, and possibly…all that live on Planet Earth.

This journey of discovery will take Matt to many destinations in search of answers to his questions. Questions raised many years earlier by his explorer grandfather, James “Irish” Flannery, who Matt idolized. Sailing aboard his beloved charter fishing vessel, the Nice Catch, Matt sets out with his girlfriend Kelli, fellow seeker Lucien, and close friend Jake in search of solutions to the perplexing problems and fresh dangers that continually present themselves. The action moves in a frantic and tightening spiral that always threatens to be the undoing of our intrepid crew.

Come meet the ever-evolving cast of characters who play a part in this thrilling story and discover, along with Matt, what the real story behind the story is.

Are you ready to board the Nice Catch and take part in this stirring saga? Just keep telling yourself that “it is only a story…isn’t it?”

“LARRY HAMILTON KEEPS THE INTENSITY DIALED UP IN CRITICAL MASS, THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS ATLANTIS LEGACY SERIES. WITH ALL THE ELEMENTS EVERY GOOD THRILLER NEEDS LIKE SECRETS TO UNRAVEL, DOUBLE-CROSSES, MURKY GOVERNMENT TYPES, AND PLENTY OF FIREWORKS, HE LEAVES YOU VERY FEW SPOTS TO CATCH YOUR BREATH. COURAGE AND LOYALTY FACE-OFF AGAINST GREED AND POWER REACHING A CLIMAX THAT WILL LEAVE YOU ON YOUR OWN SEARCH FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT.”

J.J. HEBERT,

#1 AMAZON BESTSELLING AUTHOR

About the Author

I’m insane! Just kidding again. Forgive me…

I have been a voracious reader since my earliest childhood. Words and books became a window to the wider world for me as I grew up in poverty in the hills of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky. So I traveled the world in the county library which was free and held unlimited mystery and exotic locations for me to sample. I used to climb the nearby hills and look to the other side in the hopes of seeing a harbor or great city. As a result, I have always loved words. Unlike video, books were interactive and required me to create the pictures the writer was trying to paint. So, I became accustomed to doing so. As I grew into adulthood, I felt the itch to try to create something meaningful with words. But, I had no formal training or encouragement to do so and I also had jobs, businesses, and families to take care of. So writing stayed on the backburner. But as I reached my 50’s, the urge to write began to resurface and I had more time and means to do so. That is why I began writing. So why write these books about these subjects?

I have always had a strong interest in the things we don’t fully understand or know as human beings…yet. Every time our scientists make a great physics discovery for example, it seems to bring into question everything they thought they knew. And they start over in their quest for true understanding. I actually love it when that happens. The mysterious unknown feeds our sense of wonder and gives us more windmills to tilt at. Humans love it. It’s what drives us and fuels us. The urge to know and see what is over that next hill. The Atlantis Legacy Series incorporates all of this. Ancient histories of this planet that are still slowly coming to light. The question of Who are We? and Why are we Here? are fundamental to everyone. New things are being unearthed, so to speak, every day. Both on the planet and off the planet. By Book 3 of this series, we will be examining all of these great unknowns and what mankind would do if our origin and place in the universe is not exactly what we have been told it is. Ultimately, I want to take the reader on this search for discovery in a fun, adventurous way but also address these great mysteries that are becoming more apparent with each new discovery. I guess I wrote these books for myself and trust they find like-minded readers who will share this thrilling ride with me. It is my life’s dream.

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