From his first week as a professional journalist, when he unwittingly ignited a national controversy involving the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former Arizona Republic and Associated Press reporter John Nemo's writing has led him into sometimes strange and always entertaining episodes. Whether stalking FBI fugitive and St. Paul soccer mom Sara Jane Olson or comparing Plinko to the meaning of life, Nemo's 47 essays encapsulate the life experiences of an up-and-coming writer yearning to do what God created him for - storytelling.

A story of fathers, sons and baseball, along with the eternal choice every man must one day face ... The crowd of 45,000 rises as one, chanting his name. Veteran pitcher Cody King takes the mound for Game Seven of the World Series, unaware these nine innings will mark the end of his troubled existence. With each pressure-packed pitch, King confronts a past - from being abandoned by his teenage mother to keeping his wife's love from fading away - filled with tragedy and talent. And before he flings his final fastball into the cool autumn air, King, a fatherless son who grew up to become one of the game's greatest pitchers, will have to face the one true father he's never known.

Some family secrets are best left buried. But when 17-year-old Sal Polongetti begins questioning why his grandfather never speaks of-or to-a brother he hasn't seen for more than 70 years, events are set in motion that will fracture a proud Italian family forever. Sal's curiosity about why Mario and Dario Polongetti, once inseparable brothers but now bitter-and silent-enemies for more than seven decades, ends up propelling the teenager back in time to 1926. And the Roaring Twenties in gangster-friendly St. Paul, Minnesota, are not the friendliest place for a first-time "jumper" to land. But the dark family secret Sal begins to uncover while tracking down the teenage versions of Mario and Dario will leave him-and his family-in far more perilous territory. Based on true events, Jumper is equal parts sci-f i and family saga, shaking the foundations of a family bent on keeping its darkest day hidden from the one boy who now finds himself at the center of it all.

Haunted by the loss of his father, David Miller steps onto a golf course in the middle of Iowa unaware his life is about to change forever. Because what happens on that sleepy Midwestern course is the unveiling of a God-given ability to hit a golf ball that few athletes have ever possessed. And as he begins falling in love with the game that at one time had separated him from his father, something far more important begins stirring deep inside Miller's soul, something that offers to change his life - and thousands more - forever.