ROCKING HORSE WEST Paul Dueweke Contemporary Southwestern Drama: a twentieth century cowboy in the southern New Mexico highlands fights failing health to honor a promise to his dead wife. Rocking Horse Ranch has been our family home for over a hundred years. My rancher boy died and my other boy is tied tight to his big city life. My wife, Betty, is dead, 15 years now. So why have I spent those 15 years building her dream house? Rocking Horse West, we call it. The answer is guilt. Just plain guilt. And I'm broken down with arthritis and a bad heart and emphysema. But I've got to finish West by Christmas. That's when I'm giving it to Betty. (Cover art: Marilyn King Dueweke)

Excerpt from ROCKING HORSE WEST

Review of ROCKING HORSE WEST -

• "This is a tale of the West you won't find in movies or read in books. It is a tale of an old man, an old horse, a memory, and a house. Rocking Horse West is a house being constructed in New Mexico by a cowboy who recalls happier days as he works. There are symbols in this book the reader will recognize as forewarning of things to come, yet the reader will be surprised as the story unwinds. This is a story of generations, of changes in a way of life, of changes in a family so like our own. Many of these experiences will be familiar to the reader. This story is written in an easy-going style like having the character talking to you. I enjoyed how it touched some of my own memories. It comes recommended from this reviewer."
  . . . Anne K. Edwards, eBook Reviews Weekly, author of DEATH COMES KNOCKING
  
  

  To read the entire novel, ROCKING HORSE WEST, please e-mail editor at fictionQ.com

  
  
  
  

  
  
  PRIONA
  Paul Dueweke
  Southwestern Drama: Love, poetry, and racial awakening in a New Mexico Indian pueblo
  

  PRIONA is a story of love and racial awakening set in the Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico in 1959. Priona wants to be the philosopher-poet of the Native Americans and runs away to New York. Ben meets her on a train and is confounded by his feelings for this beautiful dark-skinned girl from a culture he never even knew existed. Priona teaches Ben that Indians need acceptance from Anglos to survive in their hybrid Indian-Anglo world. But at the pueblo, Ben is the one struggling for acceptance. The Jemez customs, language, philosophies, and their subtle racial arrogance come alive in Priona's poems, in the widening gap between them, and in the long distance running contest Ben is drawn into with Priona's brother. Dueweke integrates the Pueblo Indian culture into every twist of this challenging story. (Cover art: Marilyn King Dueweke)
  
  
  

  Excerpt from PRIONA

  Reviews of PRIONA -

  • 5 STARS - "Priona is an excellent, beautifully written literary novel about the illusions and innocence of youth and the raw, violent reality of two conflicting cultures. This isn't the kind of fast-pace, entertaining book you'll read and then toss aside and easily forget. Filled with thoughtful dialogue and symbolism, it is a book that will linger in your mind for days after you have read it. The well-crafted poetic language, the vivid descriptions and sensuous images will transport you to a harsh, yet strangely lovely desert world of adobe homes, rust-colored mountains and burning blue skies."
    . . . Mayra Calvani, Ebook Reviews, author of DARK HUNGER
    
    

  • "Dueweke's writing is crisp, sharp and full of imagery. Interwoven within the stories are some of Priona's poems which add a full rich flavor to the text."
    . . . J. Anthony Scott, Muse's Kiss Reviews

  To read the entire novel, PRIONA, please e-mail editor at fictionQ.com

  
  
  
  

  
  LAMB OF GOD
  Paul Dueweke
  Historical Mainstream Drama: Guilt, murder, and Old Testament zeal grip three children in World War II Detroit
  

  Purchase Lamb of God in hardcover for $22

  This World War II suspense drama explores how Michael Tether, age 12, copes with the guilt of being too weak to save his twin from murder by one of his parents. What's worse-he sees himself as not just a witness, but as an instrument of the murderer. He remains deeply traumatized by that death and the loss of his sister long into adulthood. Those losses shape Michael's life as he searches for redemption and forgiveness. Michael’s mother designated him to be the “general in her struggle against Satan.” He failed her, but her favoritism of Michael isolates him from his brother and sister. He relives their last, wonderful summer together in stories that confess his love for his siblings.

  Lamb of God spans a half century from The Depression to Michael's rescue on a Michigan farm after World War II, then finally to the dawn of healing of this ill-fated family. Dueweke reveals the racial tension and vigor of a city reaching its finest hour as “The Arsenal of Democracy.” He blends Michael's war and the great war around him into a seamless struggle to survive. (Cover art: Laura Rae Hagan)

  Excerpt from LAMB OF GOD

  Praises for LAMB OF GOD -

  • “Set in Detroit during World War II, Lamb of God captures the inner turmoil of a family plagued by violence and religious zeal. Dueweke’s crisp style lends the tale a sense of immediacy. Scenes spring off the page, engaging readers. His pen gives the theme both freshness and originality. Ultimately, Lamb of God describes ordinary children caught in extraordinary circumstances. These are characters the reader comes to care deeply for, in a tale that cannot help but touch the soul. Very highly recommended.”
    . . . Cindy Penn, Senior Editor, Midwest Book Reviews
    
    

  • "The talented author has caught the flavor of the war years of WWII when Mike Tether was growing up in Detroit. Children suffer for the sins of their parents as you will find in the pages of this book. This is not a story to be taken lightly. It goes to the heart of wrongs committed against children and will strike a familiar note with many readers. It will make you want to weep. This author has a gift for capturing the emotions of a moment in time, saving them for our posterity. I look forward to the next book from this author and recommend it as a very interesting and absorbing read. You will not want to quit reading until you reach the end."
    . . . Anne K. Edwards, eBook Reviews Weekly, author of DEATH COMES KNOCKING
    
    

  • "It was a very moving story. Childhood is something we all deal with all our lives and you have dealt with Mike's demons well. The scene with Joe hit me like a sock with a rock in it. It was true, every word of it. It was understated, not at all overwritten or melodramatic, and that increases its power. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that you can write.
            "The ending was right. They are hard, but you've gotten it just right. The circle closes as they confront their mother together.
            "Also, I greatly enjoyed the story of the father in the postcrash stock market world. Very detailed and very real. Reading it I thought of Dos Pasos and his style of blending present and past. You move from reality to memory with effortless aplomb. Seamless. Very moving stuff. I think you've got yourself a hell of a story here."
    . . .David W. St.John, Executive Editor, Elderberry Press

  Purchase Lamb of God in hardcover for $22

  
  
  

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  fictionQ is adding two new authors:

  GRANDMA’S MIRROR
  Ben Snippet
  A boy has a very special relationship with his remarkable grandmother.
  
  PASSAGES
  Tulea Montońos
  Two cultures merge as a young woman seeks a career outside her pueblo.
  
  Look for these two books in hardcover from fictionQ soon.
  

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  MY LIFE AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN Paul Dueweke Humorous Memoir: A memoir for readers who find memoirs disagreeable and reality tedious Benedict is a middle-class boy in the 50s who does mostly ordinary things, but with sometimes extraordinary consequences. For example, spilling coffee is not so terrible -- unless you spill it on your history teacher at a Jesuit high school who happens to be a retired four-star admiral and chooses to make you an example to the class of his remarkable view of the difference between politicians and military men. The book is mostly humorous, but even a should-have-been life is touched by sadness and moving characters -- like Junior, who delivers newspapers until his World War II injuries disable him, and Ben's dad, who makes an unplanned career change after a disastrous day on his bulldozer. (Cover art: James Dueweke, Paul Dueweke, and Raymond Dueweke, aka Dad. Photographer: Virginia Dueweke, aka Mom)

  Excerpt from MY LIFE AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

  Review of MY LIFE AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

  • HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- "MY LIFE time warps into the essence of surviving as a baby boomer. The Catholic version of 'American Graffiti'. Readers will follow the life and times of Benedict S. Snippet which takes nearly a half century to unfold. The story is based on the people Ben meets and the lessons he learns during his journey through puberty to adulthood.
            "Author Paul Dueweke excellently portrays the pains and awkward experiences of an adolescent boy growing, changing, and becoming a man. He shows us what it's like to go to an all-boys Catholic high school. Father Hunter Hammer bullies the boys while brandishing a meterstick he calls 'Sebastian.' And, 'Jug' is the name of the Jesuit’s institutionalized disciplinary system. 'Jug,' Ben says, 'is not a place or time-it's a culture.'
            "MY LIFE is a very enjoyable read with a mixture of great humorous writing, poignant scenes, and even tear jerkers. I really enjoyed the book and feel it is suitable for any reader, especially baby boomers who want to walk down their own memory lane with Ben. I recommend MY LIFE and give it my stamp of approval without any reservations.”
    . . . Susan J. Shelley, Word Wrap, Midwest Book Reviews
    
    

  To read all seventeen of the stories in MY LIFE AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, please e-mail editor at fictionQ.com

  
  
  
  

  
  
  THE MEDIA REPUBLIC
  Paul Dueweke
  Speculative Fiction/Hard Sci-Fi: Politics and old-time ambition yield to neural network computer evolution
  

  It’s election year 2048. Campaigns and politicians are not like they used to be. Baseball sluggers and porn queens on game shows - that's the new American politics. TV networks have merged with political parties to run "quality" candidates. A new Government superagency, Committee for Political Equality, COPE, is making sure everybody plays by the rules, and using state-of-the-art computer and robotic technology to enforce those rules. They call it a disciplined democracy. But computer evolution has outstripped society’s literacy, and has even bypassed COPE itself. A Nobel physicist discovers a whole level of technology-driven fraud that even the media party moguls don’t suspect, and he ends up on a computer's hit list. Adapting his own technology, he defeats robotic assassins sent to protect the electorate from such “anarchists” as him. But the ultimate question he confronts is - does anyone care? (Cover art: Paul Dueweke)

  Excerpt from THE MEDIA REPUBLIC

  Review of THE MEDIA REPUBLIC -

  • 5 STARS - "It is not often I read something this well written. What a mix of farce, satire, techno-thriller, SF, romance, social commentary. And all good. You are at your best when into the technology. That you do as well as anyone in print. You either know exactly what you are talking about, both the actual technology and the processes within the organization, or you are the best damned bluffer I've ever read. The flashbacks to the school science fair touched me. I have been a science teacher who has advised his students to use the scientific method and then had a student with a pretty display of pills win when judged by a community of morons. I know the scene, man and you got it right. Great!"
    . . . David St.John, executive editor of Elderberry Press