Grandiose

I grew up in Stockton, California.
Went to college at UC Santa Cruz
Lived in Europe for more than 15 years, France, Germany.

I've written novels:
Mojave Winds, Second Edition >>
A beautiful, Persian classical dancer finds love in the least expected place, the Mojave Desert.
Sheila has it all: a fabulous dancing career, working the grand Las Vegas theme hotels. One thing is missing: romance, love, and passion. But when she meets Kris Klug under unusual circumstances, she's drawn to a man who sweeps her off her feet literally and figuratively.
She discovers how her connection to Klug is the real deal. So many high-class men wanted her only as a trophy wife. Klug takes Sheila behind the illusions and gets down and dirty into gritty survival.
Sheila discovers an authentic and strong side of her. Klug might guide her to safety, but she learns how to gain his heart. Is his desperate past something she can help to heal? Or will the their dangerous predicament consume them?

A Sufi's Ghost, Second Edition >>
Carmen commits a capital crime. She disobeys her husband. Worse yet, she leaves her husband's house alone. Worse yet, she took one of his many Mercedes to meet a man. She's been in a disastrous marriage since the wedding day, almost five years ago. Stuck in Saudi Arabia, she is on the run to get out. Born in Persia, raised in Paris, she thirsts for freedom ever since her mother arranged the marriage to a Saudi prince. Bright, well-educated, elegant, she wants more than a cloistered life in the desert. Larry Larson left the CIA only a couple months ago, so disenchanted about how his service as a case officer ruined his private life. His wife left him. Now he returns to Saudi Arabia to hunt down al-Qaeda lieutenants for the reward money. Big money can help ease the pain and fix his messed up life, and help him to regain his losses. When his main source of information, Prince Nabir, is assassinated, he's desperate and needs a break. He meets Carmen, who takes him on a wild ride through the desert, following the ghost of a prominent Sufi.

A collection of 11 short stories:
Californians and Other Cowboys >>
Sample summaries of some of the stories ]]
In Two Birds of Paradise, we learn that Todd's wife left him after he lost a leg and returned from Iraq. He meets someone at the Los Angeles Hilton who has a lot in common with him. She knows how to ease his worries and make the time fly.

In Stay Frosty, we are surprised to see that Kris Klug has returned to the readers who first met him in the novel, Mojave Winds, where he seemed to have won the battle. In Stay Frosty, we find that he has not won the war. His wife, Sheila, witnesses the kidnapping of her best friend and fellow dancer. As Klug quickly takes action to search and rescue Sheila's friend, he runs up against a group of bikers, who make a living by bartering women for drugs from Mexico to sell in California. This short story, Stay Frosty dovetails into the sequel novel, Mexican Trade.

In The Iraqi Woman, we discover the Bedouin, a young Iraqi woman locked up alone in a house. Her wealthy husband made an exception to local customs by allowing her to remain alive after the Bedouin kidnapped her. She became a tainted woman, touched by the Bedouin.

From his rooftop lookout, Lutter watches her bathe every afternoon. Francois Lutter is working his network in the war torn Iraq, trading in contraband, weapons, unloading cash from convoys, drugs.... With his binoculars, he watches for the convoys and admires the young woman bathing and the tattoos the Bedouin gave her. He just has to talk with her even though that may cost him his life.

Mexican Trade >>
A novel, sequel to Mojave Winds. Available soon.