Historical Humor

Written as an adventure tale, Nicole Burton’s novel Adamson's 1969 is a frolic through the year 1969 as seen through the eyes of a guileless young Englishman, Adamson Henry. Like the characters in the movies Forrest Gump and Zelig, Adamson finds himself caught up in 1969's major historic moments including the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Woodstock, and the massive anti-war protests. Welcome to Adamson's 1969.

it's 1972. A TV network under congressional pressure hires a group of young singer-songwriters to create educational cartoons. Holed up in a studio with unlimited pot, acid, and sex, the young artists and their self-serving mentor seem to have found an artistic utopia. But when jealousy and betrayal replace grammar and multiplication as the musicians’ focus, they struggle to pull their project together before it tears them apart.

Impossibly beautiful, disarmingly witty, and completely self-absorbed: Meet Lady Susan Vernon, both the heart and the thorn of Love & Friendship. Recently widowed, with a daughter who's coming of age as quickly as their funds are dwindling, Lady Susan makes it her mission to find them wealthy husbands - and fast.

In the depths of the Sixties and The Days Of Rage, a young newsman, accompanied by his pregnant wife and orphaned teenage brother, creates a paradise of sorts in a sprawling Venice Beach community of apartments, populated by students, artists, budding scientists and engineers, lifeguards, poets, and bikers with a few junkies thrown in for good measure. The inhabitants come to call the place "Pepperland", after the Beatles movie, Yellow Submarine.

RITA Award winner Melody Carlson's sassy tale highlights the healing influence of family, friends, faith - and unexpected love - on a 31-year-old single gal who's down but not out. The day she dons her Valentino boots, Cassidy's life starts spinning out of control. Her boss fires her, her boyfriend dumps her, and someone steals her identity. And binging on chocolate doesn't help.

It seems that the FDR writer is back wanting more Fe-As-Ko stories from cowpoke Royal Leckner. This time it's 1897, Royal and E.M. have been married about four years. And so have Leviticus and Lou(ella) Perrault, owners of the Four Arrows ranch. Royal is still foreman of the ranch and caretaker of its owner. As he reminds us, Leviticus and Lou(ella) Perrault are "short a hat size," but "nice and honest, which is better than smart and fox-like any day." It's time to take the cattle to Portland for the annual sale, and Royal is bringing Leviticus along to teach him how "to sign on the dotted line."

In The Royalscope Fe-As-Ko, Northwest cattle rancher Royal Leckner finds himself in the middle of another fe-as-ko, this time in 1915 Hollywood. Dreams of stardom for her daughter, Elsie, and for herself entice Royal's wife, E.M., to buy a silent film company. She quickly renames it Royalscope Productions in order to convince her fuming husband it's a gift.

So there was all that: the ordinary twill of life; the ho-hum sturm und drang of the workplace: the ubiquitous absurdities, the annoying co-workers, the bloody deadlines and even bloodier bottom lines; the bland, eternal, Sisyphean, absolute, unrelenting, surreal certainty of the day-in-and-day-out of it all. Life as a slice of white bread, moistened with spit and rolled into a messy glob, a doughy ball that couldn't make the slightest dent in the iron gates of life. But then, suddenly, on August 27, 2002, all that changed. Suddenly, Rae-Jean's uneventful life began to leaven and swell with hypotheticals.

Russia, 1945: For Petka, a rambunctious 12-year-old boy with dreams too big for his tiny village, the prospect of invasion is dangerously thrilling. He watches the Red Army troops march off to engage the enemy, and wages his own war - against boredom, bullies, and his lot in life as a bastard in a backwoods world. Secretly raising a wolf in his grandmother’s goat barn, happily raising hell with the local troops, stowing away in a shipment of bootleg booze destined for the combat zone, and defying death by the noose, Petka eagerly takes all he can from life.

Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is still surrounded by the literature she loves, but now it's because she's the owner of Flyleaf Books in a sleepy college town in Upstate New York. Every day she watches her novels fly off the shelves along with dozens of unauthorized sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations. Jane may be undead, but her books have taken on a life of their own.

It's 1942, and war is raging in Europe and in the Pacific. The Japanese army is on Australia's doorstep, and the small coastal Queensland town of Maryborough is on full war footing. What they are not prepared for is the arrival in the town of a troupe of incompetent actors whose unjustifiably self-confident leader, William Power, is determined to bring his daring production of Titus Andronicus to the barbarians of rural Australia. Unfortunately for the Power Players, the only gift William Power has is a capacity for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Failed Shakespearean actor and would-be private detective William Power returns to Melbourne in this wry sequel that re-creates the tension and fear of wartime Australia. Bloodied and broken but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling under war-rationing and full of cocky American soldiers and lands squarely in the bosom of his childhood home in Carlton, now dominated by his sister-in-law, the odious Darlene.

In 1985, The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering had its inaugural conference in Elko, Nevada. David was there to help put on a show, but when your cast keeps losing members, it's hard to know how the show can go on.

In the fall of 2020, COVID-19 continues to kill. Most blame China and it seems war is inevitable. America is about to pick a president to lead the country through the conflict with China. You must choose the president to lead through War 19! This is a two book political thriller series, one if Biden wins and one if Trumps wins reelection. One book is sure to thrill you and one book will make you want to burn it! Full of suspense, mystery, political satire, and humor, this "Biden Wins" version of historical fiction answers the questions you have been dying to know!

Austin Davenport is back as he travels back in time to battle his timeless nemeses for honor and glory. Well, sort of. When Austin is embarrassed by baby-faced villain Randy Warblemacher in front of the whole school, he decides to drop the gauntlet! And the upcoming Medieval Renaissance Fair is the perfect place for an epic showdown.

David joins therapy client Bennett, a volatile but goodhearted author, at a mystery writers conference in Las Vegas, where attendees dress up as famous detectives and participate in an innocent whodunit game. So far, so sleuthy. But all is not what it seems—Bennett’s girlfriend has disappeared, and David is tasked with finding her. And he’s not the only one on her tail. The conference cosplay takes a less than cozy turn when a series of dramatic deaths wipes out some of the most famous detectives in mystery history.

Big Son is a spirit of the times - the times being 1837. Behind his broad shoulders, shiny hair, and church-organ laugh, Big Son practically made Ohio City all by himself. The feats of this proto-superhero have earned him wonder and whiskey, but very little in the way of fortune. And without money, Big cannot become an honest husband to his beloved Cloe (who may or may not want to be his honest wife).

What if I told you that the biggest heist in history was one that never made the newspapers, was never seen on TV, and has never even been mentioned in any history book? And I’m talking about 40 billion dollars stolen. Sounds pretty unlikely, don’t you think? What if I told you that this robbery was pulled off by a bunch of over-the-hill 70-year-olds: a WW I vet who paid his dues in the trenches of Europe, a small-time crook who paid his in regular installments behind bars, a hotheaded Irishman who thought dues were don’ts, and a giant gorilla who, well, he’s a gorilla.

Cobble is a Neanderthal with itchy feet and the mind of an engineer, unlike anyone else in his old-fashioned tribe. Making Man follows his journey as he leaves the village of Boardom behind, taking him through mountains, underground animal lairs, and into new landscapes. As with all good prehistoric comedies there is a mysterious pendant and a healthy dose of talking insects.

Sergeant Dan Miller wanted to be a flying ace, but the air force grounded him for poor vision. To make matters worse, when the myopic Miller travels home to Minneapolis on furlough, he finds the local “feather merchants” - aka civilians - breaking all the wartime rules. They’re guzzling black-market gas, hoarding rationed food, and listening to suspiciously expensive radios. But the most troubling news of all arrives when Sergeant Dan’s main squeeze, the voluptuous Estherlee McCracken, declares that she wants nothing to do with a pencil-pushing GI.