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THE ECHO OF SAND
A novel of personal struggle between East and West

I rub the sand paper stubble on my cheeks. It’s not enough to make me look Arabic. The narghile is passed to me again. After another hit, a strong buzz moves through my body. The oud music pulses in my temples. I look up to the ceiling and search for answers among the smoke rings. For a moment, I forget who I am, unsure if I am the native son who returns home. Perhaps I am only a displaced person, a stranger, a guest, a passing visitor. Not wanting to be any of these things, I yearn to love every morsel of my new life. My lips press on the narghile. I inhale my culture, sucking it into my veins. I let it drift through my body like a wandering Arab.

SIMPLE GIFTS
New novel available in Paperback and KINDLE Store

Thirteen-year-old Leo Ampudia is convinced that he and everything he touches is going to die—including his twin sister who has bone cancer. Diagnosed with a ‘severe anxiety disorder caused by parents abandoning him to save a dying child,’ Leo is scared to come out of his closet and is angry at the world. Through a turn of events and unexpected friendships, he learns to find his courage and faith that heal a life marred by the tragedy of pain and suffering. Simple Gifts captures the simplicity in our complex lives and lets us learn that you can’t live until you’ve learned how to die.

THE ECHO OF SAND

Set in Beirut, Lebanon and New York City, THE ECHO OF SAND, is a story of exile and struggle to find a place called home. The time is 1983. The place is Beirut, Lebanon. The U.S. Marine barracks have just been blown up. A helicopter is waiting to whisk twin boys, Saleh and Samir Salam, away to the safety of America. Amid the chaos only Saleh is pushed into the helicopter leaving his brother, Samir, behind. Tormented by separation, the brothers find themselves living in different worlds with unfulfilled desires. After a sixteen year civil war, Saleh returns to Beirut to find that he is a stranger in his homeland. His journey throws a powerful light on the gap between himself and those he left behind. At the same time, his brother Samir leaves Beirut for New York to live a life found only in his dreams. It does not take Samir long to discover that America is not the land of celebrities and money, but he believes one of struggle and discrimination. THE ECHO OF SAND is a story that challenges the idea that home is defined by blood, land and family, and seeks through its characters to reveal how war displaces us and redefines for us what home really means.

THE TUNNEL
THE ECHO OF SAND
LIGHT FROM THE DISAPPEARING SUN
SIMPLE GIFTS
MILK AND COOKIES WITH THE PRESIDENT

SECOND PLACE, The Roanoke Review Fiction Contest Awards, March 2012
TOP FINALIST, Arthur Edelstein Prize, March 2012
SEMI-FINALIST: Ruth Hindman Foundation and University of Alabama Short Story Contest, April 2012
SEMI-FINALIST, Salem College International Literary Awards, April 2012
FELLOWSHIP, Summer Literary Seminars in Lithuania and Kenya, April 2012
WINNER, Mid-List Press First Series Award for the Novel, 2007
HONORABLE MENTION, Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Contest, December 2007
RUNNER-UP, San Diego Book Award, 2008
FINALIST, Ohio State University The Journal, October 2007
FINALIST, The Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards, 2007 and 2005. Published online July 2008, Sfwp.org
FINALIST, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, August 2008, Children's Picture Book
FINALIST, Cutthroat Magazine Rick DeMarinis Short Story Award, December 2007
Briar Cliff Review published the first chapter of LIGHT FROM THE DISAPPEARING SUN in spring 2008
WINNER, South West Writers Contest for Mainstream and Literary Novel, September 2005
SEMIFINALIST, Chautauqua Literary Journal Contest, January 2006
HONORABLE MENTION, New Millennium Writings Contest, 2006 - 2007
HONORABLE MENTION, New York Stories, 2005 Short Fiction Contest
Carve Magazine published "Separated," a short story based on THE ECHO OF SAND in March 2006

THE TUNNEL Excerpt to be published in Roanoke Review
SECOND PLACE, Roanoke Review Fiction Contest Awards
TOP FNALIST: Arthur Edelstein Prize
SEMI-FINALIST: Ruth Hindman Foundation and University of Alabama Short Story Contest
SEMI-FINALIST: Salem College International Literary Awards
FELLOWSHIP: Summer Literary Seminars in Lithuania and Kenya

The seeds of revolution are about to ripen in the Middle East, another katyusha has fallen, and God has sent Omar Hamdan a blessing. Now, Omar must do the unthinkable for his family’s survival.

In THE TUNNEL, a 100,000-word novel with rotating points of view, Omar is a doting father and faithful husband in a society full of chaos and conspiracy. To everyone else in Gaza, he is short and squat, but commands the respect of a much taller man. It also does not hurt that he owns a tunnel. With the land, air, and sea blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, Omar’s tunnel is secretly buried deep in-between the two countries making him a rich man. Motorbikes, Coca Cola, cement, TVs, and even goats are smuggled daily from Egypt to Gaza through his tunnel. Omar and his family are thrust into an immense struggle when his daughter, Hanan, is diagnosed with leukemia. In need of a bone marrow transplant, treatment is impossible in Gaza. Omar’s daughter and his family travel back and forth through his tunnel for treatment in Egypt. Politics, war, money, kidnapping, superstition, along with cancer are what the Hamdans must battle together. THE TUNNEL is a testament to the endurance of spirit and the way a family regains their hope in a region occupied by turmoil.