And I Wanted To Be A Boat Bum

Let me introduce myself. My name is Gore Lyle. I'm a six-foot-two-inch, two-hundred-pound (of mostly muscle) ex-Green Beret, ex-cop, undercover SPUTF (Special Police Undercover Terrorism Force) agent. I also am independently wealthy thanks to a mob chief. Did I mention the mob would probably like to take me out? I say probably because I don't talk to them about that subject. When I interact with the mob, it usually involves a gun and little talk. This all sounds cut-and-dried, but life is never cut-and-dried. I always carry bad memories of Green Beret missions that went wrong where a lot of killing was involved. I was a different brutal person back then. Then, I found God. However, that old Gore is always there in the background like a bad dream. And yet, working in a dangerous occupation, that bad Gore comes in handy, at times, but must be kept in check most of the time. Only crying out to God and my weird sense of humor helps. What a quandary, for a Christian-You can only cover so much up with humor. Welcome to my life.

This is not a story about someone who grew up around boats and made a miraculous voyage across open oceans. (Think Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebie, Ballentine 1991.) Actually this is a story about an older burned out, Hollywood cab driver with no experience who didnt get into boating till he was forty five. This is the story of a dream realized and the learning experience it became.

The story of a young couple with no prior sailing experience who set out to circle the world. Four years later they return as circumnavigators. An inspiring look at what it takes to achieve the dream of sailing around the world, and proof that it can be done.

Be introduced to a new anti-hero. Meade Breeze lives on the far outskirts of society with no visible means of support. He survives on his wits and a meager income derived from selling home-grown dope to suburban housewives and home-brewed rum to bums in the park. He's also on the run from his past misdeeds. He fears it will all catch up with him someday, so he stays on the move aboard his classic trawler. Explore the Gulf Coast Islands, Florida Keys, and the Bahamas with Breeze, but keep one eye over your shoulder. His mission to return his dead wife's ashes to their special place seems hopeless. He's going nowhere fast until a chance encounter with a lover from his past changes his luck . . . or does it?

Sent to Bermuda by his superiors on a spiritual retreat, Brother Bartholomew of Cape Cod's Faith Abbey stumbles into the dark side of the sunny island where he is pulled into an investigation of drugs, dirty money, and murder. Even cloistered monks can burn out from stress. So when Brother Bartholomew repeatedly snaps at a novice, his superiors at Faith Abbey on Cape Cod send him to Bermuda on a spiritual retreat. The island is particularly peaceful at summer's end, but beyond the veneer of pretty pink architecture, happy tourists on scooters, and yachting culture, there is a darker side. The inter-island drug trade is thriving-and the young, willing participants in the business are being murdered. Father Bartholomew, along with his childhood friend and occasional sleuthing partner Police Chief Dan Burke-who is on the island for a rare vacation-team up with local authorities to investigate the crimes. But will they be able to uncover the clever smuggler hiding among the super-rich yachting crowd that gathers yearly for the Gold Cup?

Phoenix Holloway knows she's in trouble when she wakes up on the Captain's Girl, a 40 foot ketch, with no land in sight. But her troubles are just beginning because the arrival of Andrew McMillan, a likely pirate if ever saw one, means big trouble. Mac will get her back to land but will she still be in one piece? Because the thing about pirates? You can lose your heart with just a kiss. - 48010 words.