There are some wonderful writers out there who deserve to be read but aren’t published by the publishing houses. While I hope to add to the list, these four that I start with are all friends of mine who I found out after we became friends were also writers. I have read some of their books and found them to be as good or better than many you find on bookstore shelves. So take a look at them.

Dan Ginsberg is a Denver writer. We became friends when we were both teachers at a Denver high school and spent many mornings before classes started discussing our creative projects. Time I ostensibly used to prepare for my classes. Anyway, Dan’s muse for most of his writing, was his admiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels. Back then he worked mostly on screenplays but later turned to writing novels. His latest is a police series called The Banty Conners Trilogy. His protagonist is a delightfully quirky and unique female police detective, and the books are flat out hard to put down.

Norbert Jacobs is a retired police officer and has myriad stories of his time on the force. Some are hilarious, and some are harrowing. His life in general is quite interesting as his family immigrated to the United States from Belgium in the 1950s. As a nine-year old who spoke no English he had to adjust, adapt, and assimilate into the strange new world of Texas that was like another planet. He is a great story teller and finally put some of them on paper in his first book, an autobiography titled Sojourner. His second book is a compilation of stories depicting police on the job. Some are his experiences, and some are the experiences of various friends and colleagues that served with him on the force. The book is titled What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? Both are great reading mixing the laughter and serious business of life.

Another favorite is Clabe Taylor, a nom de plume, who writes fantastically funny, satirical, ironic spy thrillers with an underlying seriousness to them. His spy books are very loosely based on his experience in the “business.” He is no one-trick pony, however, and because of his fluency in other languages his interests and subjects range far and wide. That said, the two books I have read thus far are in the spy thriller genre. On the Lam and Mako are two rollicking good reads that will keep you laughing and at the same time wondering about how the U.S. intelligence services really operate. Read his books!

D. Kenton Mellott writes some humorous and thought-provoking Sci-Fi novels combining the temporal and the metaphysical worlds. He blends raging hormones with electromagnetic powers to take you on a whirlwind adventure that just might leave you questioning reality. It’s Carlos Castaneda on steroids…or electromagnetic impulses; I’m not sure which. Don’t be fooled, there’s some real thought and philosophy behind Mellott’s writing which adds depth and dimension to the story telling. So sit back and enjoy Exophobe and its sequel, Exophobic.