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Like to read? Enjoy 4 outstanding books (all autographed) from award-winning author Ken McAlpine including his latest novel Junture and three others - Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization, Together We Jump and West is Eden: Reflections on this gift called Life.

About Juncture

The silky brush was erotic, like hands everywhere, the multiple lovers she had never had, and then it was not. The first stinging jolt surprised her…

A godly nun, the victim of untold puncturings in Palau’s Jellyfish Lake. A honeymoon couple, their kayaks overturned by orcas off Vancouver Island: in the green deeps the whales drive the girl through the water with a force that finally breaks her back; her groom dies in a bloody burst. Nighttime in the Sea of Cortez: an underwater photographer dragged into the deeps by swarming Humboldt squid; fixing to his hands, his mask, powerful suction cups wresting, the squid flashing iridescent rainbow colors, communicating in a way heretofore unseen.

In the oceans creatures are stirring, a fast-rising tide of seemingly random shocking events not random at all.

Cedar Mahoney, golden-hued dive boat operator, is athletic, sensual, independent and facing the heartbreak of letting go of her only child, about to leave the island of Palau for a better future with his father in Chicago. But sixteen-year-old Justin -- graceful swimmer and strangely attuned to the sea – just might decide the future. Strange events on and under Palau’s sapphire blue waters enfold a cast of characters. Crusty Santy, fuel dock despot with two gears, complaint and nosiness. Able, a detective too wise for a small island. And Marty Haruo, local pilot, possessed of a gentleman’s elegance and a boyish charm; Cedar’s best friend, and then her lover. All are drawn together by a series of strange unfoldings that upend their world, and, quite suddenly, the world far beyond.

For something lives beneath Palau’s waters; something ancient and wise; something capable of a lover’s tingling touch and calculated storms of terrible violence. Something that has observed this world for epochs and now, at this fateful crossroad, is forced to act. Mother, son and primordial creature are about to connect, and mankind’s future balances on the outcome.

Fiction? Yes - and no. The oceans really are changing. And we are truly at a Juncture.

About Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization

Author Ken McAlpine stands in his front yard one night in Ventura, California, trying to see the stars. His view is diminished by light pollution, making it hard to see much of anything in the sky. Our fast-paced, technologically advanced society, he concludes, is not conducive to stargazing or soul-searching. Taking a page from Thoreau's Walden, he decides to get away from the clamor of everyday life, journeying alone through California's Channel Islands National Park. There, he imagines, he might be able to "breathe slowly and think clearly, to examine how we live and what we live for."

In between his week-long solo trips through these pristine islands, McAlpine reaches out to try to better understand his fellow man: he eats lunch with the homeless in Beverly Hills, sits in the desert with a 98-year-old Benedictine monk, and befriends a sidewalk celebrity impersonator in Hollywood. What he discovers about himself and the world we live in will inspire anyone who wishes they had the time to slow down and notice the wonders of nature and humanity.

About Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore

No Longer the Forgotten Season

Just after Labor Day, Ken McAlpine said good-bye to his family and began a drive up the East Coast, from Florida to Maine, on a one-man quest to capture the elusive “forgotten season” of beach towns shuttered until the return of warm weather. Off-Season is a moving portrait that brings to life the magic of the sea and shore in winter, the charm of beach towns emptied of summer crowds, and the warmth and eccentricities of year-round coastal residents who revel in small-town spirit.

McAlpine skipped the more popular destinations like Nags Head, Virginia Beach, Cape May, and the Hamptons, opting to visit lesser known locales like Sharpes, Florida; Tangier Island, Virginia; and Montauk, New York. There he found people who celebrated the departure of the tourists with the cautious hope they’d return next summer. He encountered fishermen struggling to make a living, a former playboy lifeguard now ministering to the elderly and ill, a marine policeman both reviled and respected, a lone kayaker paddling away his grief, a couple fighting to save the world’s coral reefs, divers searching for everything from false teeth to dead bodies in dark waters, and deserted snow-covered beaches more beautiful than anyone could describe.

More than a travelogue—and a whole new breed of beach read—Off-Season is a stroll off the beaten path and a look at the people and places in our country that keep the spirit of community alive.

About Together We Jump

My life changed on a train heading into Boston. I was eighteen. I had moved to Boston to study at the American Banking Institute. Like my father, I was methodical. I also had a head for figures, enough to provide a partial scholarship. The remaining loans made it hard to sleep.On this January morning, a snowy dawn unveiled a sump gray world, the hypnotic clack and sway of the train fractured by the screech and hiss of stops. Row homes flicked past like sooty playing cards, identical yards, ringed by chain-link fence, piled high with rusted sleds and bicycles. In 1940, Boston’s suburbs were filled with Catholics. Winters were long. The need to stay warm kept the schools and churches full.

I stood watching the snow, flakes of startling whiteness that wheeled in the air as if fighting to stay off the shabby landscape. I didn’t see Abby board the train. In those days, I was obsessively shy. When I wasn’t staring at the snow, I fixed my eyes on the book in my hand...

About Rise of the Mooncusser

Upon the wild shores a matchless evil walks, so it begins. This is the precursor to his book Fog.

About West is Eden

Home is where the heart is, and my heart rests here in Ventura County. No matter where your home is, we all share certain experiences-- love, loss, parenthood, the passing of time marked by a simple walk around the neighborhood.

Timeless matters that join us all. Which is why I hope you enjoy this little book of essays, whether you live here or an ocean (or two) away. They touch on life here and they also address topics that connect us all. For me, West IS Eden.

I love my Ventura home and my life here. I hope these stories remind you of why you love the place you call home and this gift called life.

About Ken McAlpine

Ken McAlpine’s magazine articles have earned three Lowell Thomas awards, travel writing's top award. More important to him, assignments from magazines ranging from National Geographic Traveler to Sunset have provided him unbridled opportunity for play; from diving with white sharks, to running the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, to sparring with the world shoot fighting champion (you cannot learn a martial art in a week).

Ken is also the author of several books. His first book “Off Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore” was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. His subsequent books are “Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization” and the novels “Fog” and “Together We Jump”. “Fog”, an eerie maritime mystery that unfolds on the wreck-strewn coast of Cape Cod in 1882, was described by a reviewer as “one of the most intelligent, richly detailed, deeply felt and evocative novels I’ve read”. His recently released novel “Together We Jump” was praised by the Los Angeles Review as “a poetic roller coaster ride through the mind and soul, rendered with eerily realistic plot and dialogue”.

Most important, Ken lives in Ventura with his beautiful wife Kathy and their two sons. He likes to stand in his yard at night looking at the stars, but he does not like to spend any time during the day doing yard work.

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