Author
Peter Schmotzer
UNPLANNED CONNECTIONS
After tragically losing his family, pilot Ron McQuillen is determined to end his life. But his plan is interrupted by Mike Schwartz, a mysterious stranger who desperately needs his help. Mike convinces Ron to give him a lift to a nearby airport.
Ron reluctantly agrees, not knowing that Mike will irrevocably change his life. For Mike shares a loss with Ron. But Mike’s burden includes Naomi, his sister-in-law who holds him responsible for the death of her sister - Mike’s wife.
As the two men fly from city to city, Ron finds his life taking unexpected twists and detours. His attempts to leave Mike behind result in his inadvertently helping strangers and doing good. But each time his wife appears in his dreams, he finds himself sharing Naomi’s driven desire for vengeance.
When he learns new details about his family’s accident, he is left with heart-wrenching choices. Will he exact revenge or have unplanned connections intervened, allowing him to heal and forgive?
WADING THROUGH STATIC
Mike Schwartz almost had it all.
Married to the stunning Helen, a luxury condo and a job that earned him more money than he knew what to do with. And with a baby on the way, life couldn’t have been more perfect.
But in one afternoon of chaos his world falls apart as his mentally unstable brother turns up at his condo and brutally murders his wife. Despite her frantic call to him for help Mike can’t get through the New York traffic fast enough and is powerless to save her.
Persuaded by his mother, Mike returns to his hometown of Canton, Ohio, where he finds the ghosts of the past ever ready to haunt his present.
With a complicated ex-girlfriend on the scene in Ohio, a new job offer from the enigmatic Sal and problems with a work rival back in NYC, Mike suddenly and unexpectedly discovers a shocking truth about his relationship with Helen.
Will it break him completely, or will he come back stronger than ever? Should the past be buried forever, or can Mike learn from the mistakes he has made?
For Book Clubs:
THE SHOEBOX LETTERS
While Sherrie undergoes open-heart surgery, her adult children learn the story of their parents' courtship after being directed to a shoebox of old letters.
The old letters segue into flashbacks taking them back to WWII, where they experience their parents' emotional journey.
Since their dad talked little about his combat experience, they never knew what he had to endure while in Europe. Neither did they know about Turn-table Tommy, the smooth-talking DJ who tried to woo Sherrie after she had broken up with her boyfriend. And Tommy wasn’t one to take no for an answer.
Only in the end does Sherrie find an old secret, a commonality, she unknowingly shares with her combat-medic ex-boyfriend. Could something that drove them apart also bring them back together?
It’s been said that all’s fair in love and war. In The Shoebox Letters, Dan and Sherrie fight battles on both sides of the ocean and within.
Only their hearts are at stake.