Author
Peter Schmotzer
UNPLANNED CONNECTIONS
For Book Clubs:
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.
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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?
THE SHOEBOX LETTERS
(Temporary cover)
While Sherrie undergoes open-heart surgery, her adult children are led to a shoebox filled with old letters—letters that reveal the love story they never fully knew.
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Through these intimate pages, the past unfolds in vivid flashbacks to World War II, tracing their parents’ emotional journey across continents and decades. Their father, Dan, had rarely spoken of his time in Europe, leaving his children unaware of the hardships he endured as a combat medic. They also discover Turn-table Tommy, a charming but poisonous radio DJ who pursued Sherrie after she ended her relationship with Dan—and who refused to accept rejection.
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As the letters surface long-buried truths, Sherrie uncovers a secret she unknowingly shared with her former beau, a bond that once tore them apart. In the fragile space between memory and survival, she must confront whether the very thing that divided them could now offer a second chance.
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Set against the backdrop of war and home-front longing, The Shoebox Letters is a story of love tested by distance, secrets, and time—where the fiercest battles are fought within the heart.