"Bears on the Road to Damascus" presents a mad hodgepodge of the real and the fantastic, a literary buffet designed to please several palates.

In this collection of short stories and essays, often macabre and always touching, strange tales of terror, love, absurdity, violence, loss, and conviction await. Just when things may seem a bit bleak, charming folk tales emerge to inspire and delight. The title story tracks a convoluted murder mystery in the beach town of Santa Roma, a strange place where the ocean hints at favors-but makes no promises.

This collection contains a first-person account of occupying a campus administration building in protest along with hilarious, satirical news articles; a long-lost script of Sarah Palin's Alaska; and a heartfelt essay examining our place in history, and the path forward.

With a little something for everyone, "Bears on the Road to Damascus" is an indescribable and peculiar adventure into pure imagination.

Patrick Rooney's debut novel is an explosive coming of age story for the Millennial generation, those who watched Saddam fall and New Orleans drown when they weren't old enough to drive, but not too young to think. Sixteen-year old Joe King struggles to maintain his first sexual relationship, but is driven to question injustices in his personal life and the increasingly violent world outside.

"Trust Fall" is both a heartfelt story of first love and a philosophical search for identity, set in the heart of the California Central Valley. The rural beauty cannot blunt the sheer weirdness of high school life, a labyrinth of social politics, sneaky sex, church youth groups and marching bands that Joe must navigate. Hilarious, intelligent, and ultimately deeply moving, "Trust Fall" is a tribute to love, free thinkers, and music-and all the sorrows that accompany them.

Policymakers, civic leaders, and scholars have increasingly focused their attention over the last decade-and-a-half on the importance of voluntary participation in civil society. From George H. W. Bush's Thousand Points of Light to Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps to George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives, it is undeniable that communities are looking to increase their levels of charity and voluntarism in the provision of public goods and services. What mobilizes giving and volunteering? What are the characteristics of communities that are engaged, and those that are not? What can policymakers and nonprofit managers do to change the current landscape in places with low levels of participation? These are the questions this edited collection addresses. It is the first book specifically dedicated to community giving and volunteering efforts with a best practices element. Published in cooperation with the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University.

Praise for America's Health Care Crisis Solved

"All Presidential candidates--as well as everyone else--must read this insightful book. Rooney and Perrin brilliantly show how the health care crisis can be positively solved in a way that will give the best of all worlds--more health care at less cost."
--Steve Forbes, Chairman & CEO, Forbes

"Pat Rooney is the man who came up with the concept of Health Savings Accounts as a way to cut medical costs, give power to medical consumers, and provide health coverage to rich and poor alike without either bankrupting the nation, ruining the best health care available anywhere in the world, or forcing providers and patients alike to dance to the tune of bureaucrats with little empathy for either. This book analyzes the health care 'crisis' so much on the lips of politicians these days and provides a solution that reasonable people should ponder as they work their way through the overheated and often wrong-headed solutions advanced by leading politicians of both parties."
--David A. Keene, Chairman, The American Conservative Union

"Rooney and Perrin have changed the course of health care in the United States, and they did it by bringing Americans the best tax break in the code: tax-free deposits, tax-free withdrawals, and tax-free interest--in the form of Health Savings Accounts. Anyone who is going to be involved in the second great health care debate (the first being HillaryCare) should read this very readable book."
--Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform

"J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin know that much of what we call the health care 'crisis' would go away if we transferred direct control over the flowof health care dollars from big institutions to individuals and families. How? Enact a refundable health care tax credit for every American; introduce medical savings accounts into Medicare; and make health care prices, especially in hospitals, transparent. An excellent, hands-on guide for consumers and voters, this book comes just in time for the 2008 Presidential elections."
--Edwin J. Feulner, PhD, President, The Heritage Foundation

"Bears on the Road to Damascus" presents a mad hodgepodge of the real and the fantastic, a literary buffet designed to please several palates.

In this collection of short stories and essays, often macabre and always touching, strange tales of terror, love, absurdity, violence, loss, and conviction await. Just when things may seem a bit bleak, charming folk tales emerge to inspire and delight. The title story tracks a convoluted murder mystery in the beach town of Santa Roma, a strange place where the ocean hints at favors-but makes no promises.

This collection contains a first-person account of occupying a campus administration building in protest along with hilarious, satirical news articles; a long-lost script of Sarah Palin's Alaska; and a heartfelt essay examining our place in history, and the path forward.

With a little something for everyone, "Bears on the Road to Damascus" is an indescribable and peculiar adventure into pure imagination.

Patrick Rooney's debut novel is an explosive coming of age story for the Millennial generation, those who watched Saddam fall and New Orleans drown when they weren't old enough to drive, but not too young to think. Sixteen-year old Joe King struggles to maintain his first sexual relationship, but is driven to question injustices in his personal life and the increasingly violent world outside.

"Trust Fall" is both a heartfelt story of first love and a philosophical search for identity, set in the heart of the California Central Valley. The rural beauty cannot blunt the sheer weirdness of high school life, a labyrinth of social politics, sneaky sex, church youth groups and marching bands that Joe must navigate. Hilarious, intelligent, and ultimately deeply moving, "Trust Fall" is a tribute to love, free thinkers, and music-and all the sorrows that accompany them.