Derek Jon Rudolph

In three short stories about African animals that take you from ancient times to the modern day, adults and children discover tales about friendship and other invaluable lessons that arrive with living life. When a lion lures a human away to protect his pride, he meets a crab, and their friendship changes everyone’s lives. On the banks of the Nile, the friendship of a hippo and a crane is tested when a class assignment changes the bird’s way of thinking. At Central Park Zoo, giraffe brothers must put their sibling squabbles aside to help a lost dog reunite with her owner.

On the planet of Entitya, on the rural and medieval island of Sinuatollion, where certain humans and certain animals have telepathic and empathetic bonds, 18-year-old Solange and her foster brother, Leviathan, a fire-breathing, water-swimming dragon, leave their hometown of Gemini to find their individual birth parents. Mesagan, Solange’s uncle who raised both girl and dragon side by side, gives them one clue: a bloodstained stone, which unbeknownst to the adopted siblings is part of an ancient magic sword called the Alicorn.

In book one of the Shooting Stars series, Catch a Falling Star, best-selling author Leah Downing introduces Lauren St. Germain, a federal investigator accused of assisting the Taliban in a homeland terrorist attack targeting her husband. Scandal, mystery, and one of Hollywood’s leading men refuse to let her fade from the public’s eye. Her relationship status? It’s complicated...and that’s not even the half of it.