After the tragic death of their mother, Jake, 14, became the protector and avenger of his brother, Levi, 12. The boys lived on a fruit orchard in Naches, WA with their father, Eli, and grandfather, John, and their second dad, Ron Porter, a cowboy and hunter’s guide. Their grandmother was the only female figure in the male dominated Gunderson family as the boys’ housekeeper and caregiver.

As a youngster, Jake won state trap and skeet competitions against men old enough to be his father. His quiet, intense manner turned into deadly rage when bullies at school harassed his brother and when a male hippie made a pass at Levi in Van’s Bar and Grill. Levi was not a hunter like the other men in his family. Rather he was a scientist, an environmentalist and a medical student.

Jake’s job as a Marine sniper on Hill 55 in South Vietnam was to eliminate Viet Cong troop leaders. Sgt. Champagne, a Cajun sniper from South Louisiana, assigned Jake to assassinate a VC terrorist, called Drazion Rouge, the Red Dragon, so named because of his blazing red hair, a legacy from his red headed American father and prostitute Vietnamese mother. After four years of being a killing machine in Vietnam, Jake tried to heal when he returned to the family farm.

Following their father’s dramatic death, the brothers decided to go on a memorial hike in the South Cascade Mountains. As a hunter’s guide, Jake looked forward to having his survival skills tested. He didn’t count on his brother’s injury and a blood thirsty cougar who stalked the men, their two dogs and their mule.

Only an intervention from their second dad, Ron Porter, their grandfather and a U.S. Army Huey, called Golden Eagle, could the men be saved from their guaranteed peril in the wilds of the Northwestern wilderness.

Angel Solomon had been experiencing painful physical symptoms since she was twelve years old: migraine headaches, stomach aches, trouble breathing, flushing, flu-like symptoms. The doctors  refused to test her with a   MRI or CT scan. Instead, they told her mother that Angel was faking her illnesses and needed to see a counselor.

In spite of her occasional chronic pain, Angel became a singing and acting star in high school and college. Groupies followed her in between classes and townspeople asked her for her autograph.

Since the mainstream doctors ignored Angel’s mysterious symptoms, she turned to a shaman, who led her into a mythological world of counseling. A naturalpathic healer administered a drug program that involved overdoses of antibiotics, hormones and antifungals, which damaged Angel’s immune system. A near-death pontoon ride on the Colorado River and an auto accident further added to Angel’s medical crises.

Finally, Angel’s breathlessness alarmed doctors. Heart failure, carcinoid cancer tumors on her liver and A.R.D.S. left the doctors scratching their heads and saying “we’ll just have to wait and see” when Angel was still in serious condition after her open heart surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Only a MIRACLE could save Angel.

The Solomon family lived in the ICU waiting room for six weeks with other families who never   gave up Hope that God would save their critically ill family members even when the doctors predicted the worst. In THE WAITING ROOM you will meet Heart Man, The Sheik, Triangle Woman, Zoo Man, Mrs. Baptiste, Puzzle Man, Marlboro Man and Grandma, Senora Yanez, the P.R.A.Y. Group and R.E.I. Man. The denizens of the intensive care waiting room became one family, who helped each other endure the trauma of their loved ones standing at Heaven’s Gate.

TROUBADOUR, is a biography about Larry La Riviere, whose melodic voice brought him out of a life of poverty to reach the impossible dream of becoming a song writer, performing and recording artist. The book describes Larry’s life on Johnston Island destroying weapons of mass destruction. In 2002, Larry married Susan Marionneaux, a college professor who also wrote for a local newspaper. Together, they have co-written and recorded Cajun and zydeco songs in Louisiana.

Special features of TROUBADOUR include:

* A CD WITH 18 SONGS: Island songs, Cajun songs
* LYRICS FOR EACH SONG are inside the book
* CAJUN RECIPES
* DESCRIPTION OF RECORDING SESSIONS

$25.00 (includes shipping and handling)
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