Chicago-style politics is front and center. When a sitting president has his roots in this sullied political heritage, it makes for news and leads to speculation.

NOT BLACK AND WHITE is a fictional account of many of the events that led to the meteoric rise of a local charismatic street politician to become America's first African-American President, and the downfall and imprisonment of two consecutive governors of the State of Illinois, along with several of their most trusted advisors and cohorts.

This story puts the reader inside the campaign offices and smoke-filled back rooms where political deals are made. It depicts the rise and fall of a Syrian immigrant who made millions by pretending he had billions, while charming his way into the highest halls of wealth and power. The perspective of a local attorney/businessman who found himself in a front row seat to politics-as-usual in The City That Works is reflected throughout the story.

The cast of characters may appear familiar to anyone who ever read a headline or watched cable news and talk shows across the country. In 1994, a freak traffic accident occurred, killing a family of six young children when their van burst into flames after being struck by a semi-trailer truck driven by a man unqualified to drive such a vehicle. The truck driver, a victim himself, had bribed an employee of the Illinois secretary of state's office in order to procure his commercial driver's license. The tragic accident and resulting exposé of corruption and scandal that followed changed forever the course of American History.

Inspired by true events, NOT BLACK AND WHITE leaves it to the reader to interpret fact from fiction.

After David Summers enlists with the Confederate cavalry, his delusion of chivalry is soon crushed when he witnesses the horrors of battle. Shot by a Union picket, he winds up at a stranger’s farm. Four girls compassionately nurse him back to health. David learns his comrades have deserted him in Pennsylvania following the Battle of Gettysburg, but his dilemma becomes much worse. He falls in love with the older sister, Anna, who entices him with a proposition. To his dismay, he must make a decision. Should he stay and help Anna with her underhanded plan, or return to the army and risk capture?

Silent Heroes is an action-packed, skillfully told, emotional and gripping Vietnam War story by retired U. S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Rick Greenberg, who served in an elite Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. Greenberg joined the Corps right out of high school because he always wanted to be a Marine. Little did he know what it would ultimately cost him to even approach earning such a title. After boot camp, “Greeny,” as he was later known by his Recon team buddies, attended radio communication school in San Diego, CA. As a radio operator, upon arrival in Vietnam, Greenberg was both surprised and troubled when he was arbitrarily assigned to the First Recon Battalion, generally considered to be an elite unit, and normally manned by volunteers. He soon learns he must adapt quickly, or risk going home in a body bag! The battle scenes Greenberg masterfully draws in Silent Heroes are both realistic and gripping. They can easily send cold chills down the spines of combat veterans, and dispel any false notions or glorified myths held by non-combatants. A GREAT read that tells it like it was regarding the brave warriors who fought, and some who died, in the Vietnam war!

Juliana is a romance that takes place in 1941. Alice "Al"Huffman comes from the potato fields of Long Island with her beau, her best girlfriend and her girlfriend's beau to make it on the Broadway stage only to find she has no talent. On the kids' first day in New York City, they meet Maxwell P. Hartwell III, a failed nightclub owner, Broadway producer, and possible con man who, according to Al, looks a little like Clark Gable. He invites them to a nightclub where Al hears Juliana, the glamorous, perpetually-on-the-brink-of stardom nightclub singer, sing for the first time.  She thinks Juliana's voice sounds like, "warm milk slipping down the whole of my body."
 
Through Max and Juliana Al is increasingly pulled into a secret gay underworld of men who wear hula skirts and women who smoke cigars, while her childhood friends continue in their "normal" lives.  Al glides easily between the two worlds until these worlds begin to collide.

Winner of the 2017 outstanding historical book of the year, The IAN Awards
Silver Medallist, the 2017 Readers’ Favourite Awards
The 2017 Finalist, Indie Excellence Awards.

The multi-award-winning author of The Guardian of Secrets, Dark Shadows, and The Errant Flock presents the Multi Award Winning, Swearing Allegiance: The Carmody Saga.

“A rich, eloquent story of love and betrayal set during the First World War”

An Irish Easter uprising lays waste to Dublin and fractures a British Empire struggling to supply men and arms to defeat Germany.

In Dublin’s ruins, the affluent and celebrated Carmody family are not only forced to confront the rebellion’s devastating effects on their personal lives but also the terrible secrets and lies uncovered in the midst of grief.

Forced to abandon their home in the Irish capital for London, each family member must strive to survive poverty, the horrors of war, and personal bouts with excessive pride and passion – but loyalty to family proves to be the most difficult cross to bear.

Danny, the youngest, is an Irish Republican rebel who risks everything to fight for an independent Ireland.

Patrick, a surgeon, swears allegiance to Britain and joins His Majesty’s Royal Navy, which is engaged in tense battles to control the seas.

Jenny, self-entitled and strong willed sees her wedding plans and grand ambitions disintegrate. With a fiancé incarcerated in a rebel prison camp and no prospects of her own, she faces a dismal life in one of London’s munitions factories – until a personal, cataclysmic event changes her life and perception of love forever.

“It is good to read such an enthralling account of the period with well-drawn characters to genuinely care about – this is a real page turner.”

This story is dedicated to all the victims of sexual slavery in German concentration camps, who had to endure inhumane suffering under the Nazi regime. For many years after the atrocities had been committed, both sides – the abusers and the abused – still vehemently denied certain aspects of the Holocaust, and even the victims refused to admit the ugly truth about their incarceration, some out of fear, some out of shame, until several women decided to break an unofficial oath of silence, and brought their stories to life. This book is based on one of those stories. Emilia is a young Jewish woman, whose life slowly turns into a nightmare as she finds herself facing a dreadful choice: to secure her family’s very existence by offering herself to one of the men who had put her behind the walls with barbed wire, or perish together with the least fortunate ones. Only, the Krakow ghetto and her very first abuser pale in comparison to what is yet to come, as she’s being sent to a place that soon will turn into her own personal hell and that will scar her for life…

The book some critics are calling "THE IRISH LES MISERABLES'.
And others (Ireland On Sunday) ) "On as grand a scale as Flanagan's THE YEAR OF THE FRENCH"

• Beautifully written, meticulously researched, immensely enjoyable and, by turns, heartbreaking and uplifting. --Sunday Independent.

"Written with feeling and humour, and the meticulous research illuminates the scene without ever intruding upon it". - SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

• "A very fine achievement." -- SUNDAY PRESS

"Smith writes fluidly, and the society he depicts is intriguingly complex." - Kirkus Reviews
"A stunning novel and a joy to read" Helen Hollick, Managing Editor - Historical Novel Society (Editor's Choice)
 
The first recorded Europeans to cross the Mississippi River reached the western shore on June 18, 1541. Hernando De Soto and his army of three hundred and fifty conquistadors spent the next year and a half conquering the nations in the fertile flood plains of eastern Arkansas.
 
Three surviving sixteenth-century journals written during the expedition detailed a complex array of twelve different nations. Each had separate beliefs,languages, and interconnected villages with capital towns comparable in size to European cities of the time. Through these densely populated sites, the Spanish carried a host of deadly old-world diseases, a powerful new religion, and war.
 
No other Europeans ventured into this land until French explorers arrived one hundred and thirty years later. They found nothing of the people or the towns that the Spanish had so vividly described. For those lost nations, the only hope that their stories, their last remaining essence will ever be heard again lies with one unlikely Storykeeper.
 
~~~
Editorial Reviews of Storykeeper,winner of Best Indie Book Award 2013

"A saga of revenge, bribery, political bargaining, death and disease, it's a novel that's surprisingly succinct for its subject, rich in its detail, and highly recommended for historical fiction readers who want so much more than a casual pursuit." D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer - Midwest Book Review
 
"In alternating chapters, three narratives unwind: the conquest Taninto witnesses, the flight Nanza endures, and the remembrances Manaha struggles to share. In the process, the history of a nearly forgotten people is imagined, or reimagined. . . . A glimpse into a culture until now kept solely in the prison of the past." - Kirkus Reviews
 
"It takes a master artist to create a picture of such perfect detail that it looks like a photograph. Smith paints this amazing picture with words, and indeed is himself a storykeeper. To translate a culture that is unfamiliar with such accuracy and poetry is a great achievement." Helen Hollick, Managing Editor - Historical Novel Society (Editor's Choice)
 
"Mr. Smith has written a fantastic tale from the Native American point of view about the conquest of the New World by Hernando De Soto. He has done impeccable research . . . made that period in our history come alive for me. I learned much more about the conquest of the New World and life around the Mississippi River that now makes me want to read even more." Dawn Edwards - The Kindle Book Review 

"Storykeeper, is a tender, poignant, powerful story of a people's strength, endurance and history. Smith not only turned his research of those days of Hernando De Soto in the 1500's into a story that honors the Indians that lived through it, but created a lesson on the importance of storytelling." Tammy Snyder - Arkansas Book Reviewer

Winner of the International Book Award contest Readers' Favorite in the Historical Fiction category (2016)

This is a story of Annalise Meissner, a young German Jew with long time ago falsified papers, living a carefree life in pre-war Berlin. A talented ballerina, she comes from a wealthy family and at first doesn’t want to concern herself with the changes her country starts undergoing under the new Nazi regime. However, when the oppressions against the Jewish population begin, she realizes that she can’t be a silent bystander and swears to help her people in any way possible.
She falls in love and gets married to her father's longtime friend, Standartenführer Heinrich Friedmann, who even though he works for SD – the Reich Secret Service – seems to share her views, and soon Annalise learns why. Her new husband turns out to be a counterintelligence agent working for the US government, and together they start a dangerous game against the sinister Gestapo, trying to save as many lives as they can and not to compromise themselves.
But it's not only the persecuted people Annalise wants to save; she meets the leader of the Austrian SS Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner who everyone seems to fear, but for some reason Annalise isn't intimidated by the Chief of the Austrian Gestapo and doesn't believe the rumors about his brutality. Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner isn't hiding the fact that he would love to get this beautiful girl as his mistress, but Annalise, despite the mutual attraction, stays faithful to her beloved husband. However, the risky game she’s playing will soon change everything…

"Ellie Midwood’s historical novel, The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer's Wife, is a fast-paced and utterly enthralling novel that chronicles the years leading up to World War II through the eyes of a young ballerina, Annalise Meissner. This novel is meticulously researched, and Annalise’s story is so compelling that I became totally engrossed in her life and experiences. Midwood is a master at blending fact and fiction in such a way that I was often tempted to revisit my history books to see which characters were historical personages and which were not. Her writing is seamless and inspired, and I soon forgot that an author was actually the creative force behind Annalise’s words. I was quite pleased to discover that Midwood plans a sequel to this story, Gruppenfuhrer’s Mistress. The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer's Wife is highly recommended." - J.Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Other books in the series:

Book two: "The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenfuhrer's Mistress"

Book three: "The Girl from Berlin: War Criminal's Widow"

The Multi Award Winning, Bestseller, The Errant Flock, a historical epic of greed, betrayal, and murder, set during the Spanish Inquisition.

Silver Medalist, Readers' Favorite International Awards 2016
Silver Medalist, Outstanding Book of The Year, Europe, Across All Genres, The 2016 IPPY Awards
A top 100 Book, 2015, Shelf Unbound

Valencia, Spain, 1491
The ambitions of four men collide in a deadly game of intrigue.

David Sanz, a young militiaman, is forced to carry out a heinous crime, and he becomes an unwitting pawn in a tense battle for power.

Luis Peráto, the duke of Sagrat, sacrifices his own people to cover up dark secrets that could see him burnt at the stake for treason.

Sergio Garcia, Sagrat’s lord treasurer, is a cruel and unscrupulous man, willing to eliminate anyone who opposes his rise to power.

The inquisitor, Gaspar de Amo, zealously punishes heretics for their sins against Rome and her Holy Office. But bringing the Inquisition to the town of Sagrat proves more challenging than he or the church could ever have envisaged.

In the midst of chaos, the people of Sagrat, terrorized by a series of murders, face an even greater danger with the arrival of the Inquisition and the unimaginable horrors it brings.

More titles by this author

Multi award winning, The Guardian of Secrets
The Mercy Carver Series:
Award winning Dark Shadows, Book 1
Bestseller, Blood Moon, Book 2
Swearing Allegiance: The Carmody Saga 1
The Scattered Flock


Editorial Reviews
********************

Readers’ Favorite, Five Stars

Wow! That's the first word that popped into my mind after I finished reading The Errant Flock, the newest book by author Jana Petken. In an absolute thrill ride of a piece of grand historical fiction, the story follows four unique men in Spain in 1491. David Sanz, a young Converso knight, the Duke of Sagrat, Luis Perato, the Lord Treasurer, Sergio Garcia and the Inquisitor, Gaspar De Amo who are attempting to survive the Inquisition.

The Errant Flock was a fantastic book. Absolutely fantastic. I am a fan of historical fiction in general, but this book stands out even among my very favorites. Author Jana Petken is an extremely talented author who has done an amazing job at describing scenes so clearly that the reader will absolutely feel in the moment, even if the moment occurred more that 500 years ago. Her character development skills are second to none, and the four principals of the story truly seem like real people. Jana Petken has quite obviously done her research into the Inquisition, and this comes through quite plainly throughout the book. Any reader who enjoys historical fiction, action or just a good book will love The Errant Flock. In fact, the only piece of advice I have for any potential reader is to be sure that you have time set aside to read this book, because you absolutely will not want to set it down once you start it, it's just that good.

About the author

Jana Petken is Scottish and resides in Spain. She writes full time, but in her spare time, she translates at a Spanish hospital.

Jana's first work of fiction, The Guardian of Secrets earned her multi awards and critical acclaim as a gritty, historical author, willing to take risks.