“THERE’S A BODY IN THE COMPOST.”
Gael is relaxing after working at a winery in Chile when he sees a tennis shoe sticking of some year-old grape skins in the compost pile. It turns out Eder, a Peruvian migrant who worked the previous year’s vintage, did not steal money and disappear as supposed.
Instead, he got pressed with the grapes and made into wine.
Concerned, Gael cannot resist investigating as he continues to work “peak vintage” in this small, isolated, quirky community, where each of the cast of 20 has a motive and the means.
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© 2024; 292 pages
Paperback, e-book, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
ONE AFTERNOON IN APRIL…
a Black Woman, Asian Man, and White Older Woman collide on a hiking trail. Battle lines get drawn, alliances form and shift, and a comedic tug-of-war ensues between conflicting cultures and cravings.
GENIE
searches for a deeper experience in life than her CEO-track career provide, but is hung up by her dependence on metaphysics.
MAX
yearns for and adventurous life in the Peace Corps, but can’t see leaving his immigrant Vietnamese parents behind.
AMY
wants her dead husband back.
***
© 2021; 264 pages
Paperback, e-book, audiobook, and hardcover available at Amazon. E=book also available at these stores.
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“I HAD AN ABSOLUTE BLAST WITH THE BOOK.…If you love dark comedy satirical novels, ‘One Afternoon in April’ is the book for you.” – Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
“IRONIC AND HUMOROUS…Author Pete KJ has struck a deep nerve in three very disparate and interesting characters.” – Grant Leishman for Readers’ Favorite
“HEARTFELT AND REALISTIC…will make readers smile knowingly between their chuckles.” – K.C. Finn
A murderer returns to Africa, seeking atonement for killing an innocent.
Now that Carlos has emptied out his life, his past torments him. He can’t go forward until he goes back—to Ghana—to own up to crimes he committed as a young man.
A woman escapes poverty in Africa, but is trapped in a life supporting those she left behind.
Liz left Ghana and is now a successful career woman in the USA. Freed from the daily oppression of scarcity, she remains under the vice-grip power of her hoarding mother and needy siblings.
Their lives cross…
and each are drawn back to the Black Volta River, to relive harrowing events that transformed them.
The River knows their secrets, but can it transform their lives again?
Deeply embroidered, utterly believable, the rich tapestry of Ghana—and its startling evolution over three decades—serve as the backdrop for this powerful story about race, love, patriarchy, and personal identity.
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© 2019; 453 pages
Paperback, e-book, audiobook, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
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“A warm, vibrant story steeped in African culture and society–one which lingers in the mind long after the reading. Readers interested in literary psychological explorations of African cultural roots will find Black Volta as compelling for its social inspections and atmospheric descriptions of the country as it is an absorbing story of two very different individuals who dare to go backwards in time; there to rediscover their roots and wings.” – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Denver is known the world over as the gateway to Colorado’s magnificent Rocky Mountains.
Four national forests, a national grassland, scores of regional and city parks and preserves, and Rocky Mountain National Park offer hundreds of hiking and walking trails—all within one to three hours of downtown Denver. Base Camp Denver offers you 101 of the best of these great hiking destinations to choose from. Take a day to explore an alpine meadow, walk to a waterfall, hike through a forest, or stroll suburban parklands. Enjoy a spectacular day of spring wildflowers or fall foliage, and still be home by dinnertime. Scramble to the top of a mountain to enjoy a sunrise and still make it to work by eight. With Pete KJ as your guide and Denver as your base camp, the splendor of Colorado’s Front Range is yours to enjoy one day—or even just a few hours—at a time.
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© 2019; 365 pages
Available at Amazon.
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“Base Camp Denver is a priceless resource for anyone looking to hit Colorado’s trails.”—Mitch Kline, Coloradaist.com
Where do we want to go?
That’s what Nia and I asked ourselves as she worked her way through elementary school. We tacked a big laminated map of the world up in our front room, and kept dry erase markers and a footstool handy. Over the years we went through many iterations.
And then we went out and did it. Of course our plans kept on changing, as did we.
Join us as we set out from our home in Colorado and voyage to Forida, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Easter Island, Hawaii, Iceland, Paris, Rome, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangkok, and Ghana. Photos included!
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© 2016; 603 pages
Paperback, e-book, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
FINALIST, 2015 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS
Personal mistakes. Shared redemption.
Troy and Vincent began life together on the Maple Leaf Elementary School playground. It’s Seattle, the 1970s. Vincent is a white student from the neighborhood, while Troy is one of a few African American students bussed in as part of a desegregation program. Vincent quickly admires Troy and befriends him. They share childhood moments such as kickball games, discussions of first crushes, and after-school fishing trips—before their racist environment separates them.
As the decades go by, their lives take very different directions. Vincent finishes his time at Maple Leaf, then goes on to high school, college, an internship in London, and—for a time—a successful marriage and career. Troy, on the other hand, begins to suffer as soon as he’s transferred to an elementary school in his own disadvantaged neighborhood. He becomes addicted to drugs in his teen years and cycles deeper and deeper into a life of violence and incarceration.
Interwoven throughout the two men’s narratives are stories of Vincent’s aunt, Shirley, and of a compassionate woman named Dolores Moffat, who struggles to find a meaningful place for herself in the world.
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© 2014; 427 pages
Paperback, e-book, audiobook, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
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“KJ’s novel follows two men across six decades—and across America’s racial divide…He fully immerses readers in the characters’ memories, as well as their healing processes.” –Kirkus
“Captures the times and also moves past those times, giving the reader a strong sense of pain and possibility.” –Victoria Hanley, author of The Healer’s Keep
“Featuring a diverse cast of well-written characters, The Maple Leaf provides a thought-provoking look at recent history through the lens of a changing friendship.” -Indie Reader
FINALIST, NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS, TRAVEL GUIDE/MEMOIR
For fourth grade, Pete and Baraka decided to homeschool…except they didn’t stay home.
Thirteen months later, father and son completed their circumnavigation of the globe. Along the way they learned many great lessons about the world, themselves, and each other.
Join them as they set out from home in Puerto Rico and voyage through Florida, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, London, Denmark, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, India, the Philippines, China, Japan, and Nortwest America. Photos included!
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© 2014; 574 pages
Paperback, e-book, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
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“Adventure never gets old!”– Toni Burton
“Engaging, funny, thoughtful.”– Cynthia Burns
“Thanks, Pete and Baraka, for providing us with such a great adventure. So many things I never knew.”- Vic Webbeking
“Fun for the readers, because we get to know so many things about the beautiful, unexplored, mesmerizing world around us.”- Preena Rajoria
HOW MUCH IS “NOTHING” WORTH?
Is it worth four 50-pesewa coins from Ghana? Jude received the coins as a child. Now an adult, he has made it to Singapore as a candidate for a prestigious PhD. He fervently believes academia can save him from his past growing up in Africa, a past of poverty and pain. But far from saving him, his new life seems to be leading him deeper and deeper into conflict. Across the world in Chile, Noemi struggles with depression and loss, and finds redemption through healing other people. Despite her newfound power and purpose, she lives on the edge of an invisible precipice. Against all odds, an uncanny connection forms between these two unlikely friends and changes the course of both their lives. And the coins prove that “nothing” might not be what it seems!
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© 2012; 395 pages
Paperback, e-book, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book also available at these stores.
A trans taco waitress.
A man painted in silver.
A Haitian priest.
An old lady who dances.
What’s their connection in the streets of Mexico City?
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© 2012; 151 pages
Paperback, audiobook, and hardcover available at Amazon. E-book available at these stores.
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“A mixed jam of fruity characters … through their stories, the city comes alive.” – Hilary Shepherd, author of Albi