"Toes of Apollo" is an exciting nautical adventure dramatizing the best and the worst about the U.S. Coast Guard. It's the "Caine Mutiny" on steroids Lt. (jg) Tom Stierwell, a twenty-two year old office falls in love with the beautiful daughter of Captain Kearse, an out-of-control commanding officer on the Coast Guard's "Albatrosss," a unique mystery ship operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, six-thousand miles from the USA. The location is on land and ashore in tumultuous Greece where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood, where religion and greed are a deadly reality on an island of Muslim minarets and the rebuilt castle of Christian crusaders.

It happened in KEY WEST: The greatest love story since THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

"Swicegood casts a powerful light upon this compelling tale...a fascinating journey of an obviously brilliant mind to the limits of sanity. The manuscript kept me spellbound."

Charles "Sonny" McCoy

Five time Mayor of Key West

"A wonderful job of telling a horror-love story based upon an actual event...I read it in one sitting - couldn't put it down."

Rev. Elder Troy Perry, Founder

Metropolitan Community Church

"Well written...one of the most macabre events in Key West's annals."

Norman Artman, former Editor-Publisher

The Key West Citizen

"Tom Swicegood has given new insight into the strange love of Count von Cosel for Elena Hoyos...exciting and lively...kind and gentle...as the Count would have told it."

Tom Hambright, Monroe County Historian

Max Yaeger is a Hollywood taxi driver who has fun interacting with all kinds of exciting people: cops, horny starlets, strange Christian Jews, aircraft executives, motion picture stars and others. He is also an alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in years and will do nearly anything to protect his sobriety.

Max grew up in Westlake Crossing, Ohio, next door to a Negro whorehouse where he saw a policeman commit murder and the terrified boy runs for his life. In other adventures Max tells of his first drink, his first sexual encounter, bootlegging in the Army, love, marriage, and becoming addicted to alcohol. He hits skid row in New York and eventually is faced with a decision - quit drinking or die.

Alcoholics Anonymous comes to Max's rescue but after his friend Marie dies and Blondy the Swede fires him from his cab driving job, we stay at close range. Max is ready to fall off the wagon - about to take his first drink in 19 years.

"Anyone who knows anyone surely knows a homosexual...the truth is, if you're not told you probably will never know. Still, would you have them injured? Our society is desperately in need of justice for everyone...That's what this book is all about "

"Dangers and conflict are faced by police officers everywhere. In a huge metropolis those threats are multiplied. Law enforcement must depend upon dedicated men and women bravely working together to keep each other safe. Or so one might expect."

"Sergeant O'Leary and the L.A.P.D. tells a different story."

"This is the truth authorities in the City of Angels did not want printed. It is the story of a Los Angeles police officer who battled internal harassment and threats to his life yet refused to be run out of the L.A.P.D.Why was Sergeant O'Leary faced with such problems? Because other police officers thought he was gay."

""I better never have to work with a queer. If I do, I'll wait until some night when there's a burglary call and we're in a dark building," states a Los Angeles patrolman. "My .45 will accidentally take care of him. One shot to the head. No more fag. No more problem. This will be a better world.""

"Such threats are not idle. Homophobic officers provide drama and suspense. Uncontrolled cops in Rampart Division beat Hispanics and blacks. There are gunfights in 77th and a storm at Venice Beach. Yet, parts of O'Leary's story are genuinely funny. Here are tales of a deer shot and killed in the bloody back seat of a speeding patrol vehicle, of a too generously endowed academy recruit, of cops playing chicken with squad cars in Beverly Hills after midnight, and married men in blue looking for easy dates. It's all entertaining."

As a beautiful, young, well-to-do young woman sits upon her family's beach on the shore of a secluded island in the Florida Keys, a man clad in little more than the ancient ocean salt emerges from the waves. Gunther Prien is a young German officer stationed on a cruise ship, and Eola Pinder is little more than putty in his hands. Their encounter leads to the birth of a son, Thomas Luther, who is destined for a life of adventure as he desperately seeks the love of a father throughout some of the worst events Key West and the world have ever seen.

Tom's life shapes up to be one adventure after another. He experiences an unlikely rescue as his room goes up in flames around his crib-flames that may have been started by the man Tom believes is his father. He's held hostage during a bank robbery and is nearly swept overboard from the deck of a freighter off Cape Hattaras during a major hurricane. Finally, in the midst of World War II, he finds himself carried away in a German submarine-in the hands of the enemy-by a man who turns out to be his father.

In this rich historical novel, an unlikely cast of characters struggles to find the strength to survive not only some of the most horrible tragedies in Florida's history, but some of the most difficult lessons individuals can learn in a lifetime.

Dangers and conflict are faced by police officers everywhere. In a huge metropolis those threats are multiplied. Law enforcement must depend upon dedicated men and women bravely working together to keep each other safe. Or so one might expect. Sergeant O'Leary and the L.A.P.D. tells a different story. This is the truth authorities in the City of Angels did not want printed. It is the story of a Los Angeles police officer who battled internal harassment and threats to his life yet refused to be run out of the L.A.P.D.Why was Sergeant O'Leary faced with such problems? Because other police officers thought he was gay. I better never have to work with a queer. If I do, I'll wait until some night when there's a burglary call and we're in a dark building, states a Los Angeles patrolman. My .45 will accidentally take care of him. One shot to the head. No more fag. No more problem. This will be a better world. Such threats are not idle. Homophobic officers provide drama and suspense. Uncontrolled cops in Rampart Division beat Hispanics and blacks. There are gunfights in 77th and a storm at Venice Beach. Yet, parts of O'Leary's story are genuinely funny. Here are tales of a deer shot and killed in the bloody back seat of a speeding patrol vehicle, of a too generously endowed academy recruit, of cops playing chicken with squad cars in Beverly Hills after midnight, and married men in blue looking for easy dates. It's all entertaining.

"Toes of Apollo" is an exciting nautical adventure dramatizing the best and the worst about the U.S. Coast Guard. It's the "Caine Mutiny" on steroids Lt. (jg) Tom Stierwell, a twenty-two year old office falls in love with the beautiful daughter of Captain Kearse, an out-of-control commanding officer on the Coast Guard's "Albatrosss," a unique mystery ship operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, six-thousand miles from the USA. The location is on land and ashore in tumultuous Greece where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood, where religion and greed are a deadly reality on an island of Muslim minarets and the rebuilt castle of Christian crusaders.

As a beautiful, young, well-to-do young woman sits upon her family's beach on the shore of a secluded island in the Florida Keys, a man clad in little more than the ancient ocean salt emerges from the waves. Gunther Prien is a young German officer stationed on a cruise ship, and Eola Pinder is little more than putty in his hands. Their encounter leads to the birth of a son, Thomas Luther, who is destined for a life of adventure as he desperately seeks the love of a father throughout some of the worst events Key West and the world have ever seen.

Tom's life shapes up to be one adventure after another. He experiences an unlikely rescue as his room goes up in flames around his crib-flames that may have been started by the man Tom believes is his father. He's held hostage during a bank robbery and is nearly swept overboard from the deck of a freighter off Cape Hattaras during a major hurricane. Finally, in the midst of World War II, he finds himself carried away in a German submarine-in the hands of the enemy-by a man who turns out to be his father.

In this rich historical novel, an unlikely cast of characters struggles to find the strength to survive not only some of the most horrible tragedies in Florida's history, but some of the most difficult lessons individuals can learn in a lifetime.

Max Yaeger is a Hollywood taxi driver who has fun interacting with all kinds of exciting people: cops, horny starlets, strange Christian Jews, aircraft executives, motion picture stars and others. He is also an alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in years and will do nearly anything to protect his sobriety.

Max grew up in Westlake Crossing, Ohio, next door to a Negro whorehouse where he saw a policeman commit murder and the terrified boy runs for his life. In other adventures Max tells of his first drink, his first sexual encounter, bootlegging in the Army, love, marriage, and becoming addicted to alcohol. He hits skid row in New York and eventually is faced with a decision - quit drinking or die.

Alcoholics Anonymous comes to Max's rescue but after his friend Marie dies and Blondy the Swede fires him from his cab driving job, we stay at close range. Max is ready to fall off the wagon - about to take his first drink in 19 years.

It happened in KEY WEST: The greatest love story since THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

"Swicegood casts a powerful light upon this compelling tale...a fascinating journey of an obviously brilliant mind to the limits of sanity. The manuscript kept me spellbound."

Charles "Sonny" McCoy

Five time Mayor of Key West

"A wonderful job of telling a horror-love story based upon an actual event...I read it in one sitting - couldn't put it down."

Rev. Elder Troy Perry, Founder

Metropolitan Community Church

"Well written...one of the most macabre events in Key West's annals."

Norman Artman, former Editor-Publisher

The Key West Citizen

"Tom Swicegood has given new insight into the strange love of Count von Cosel for Elena Hoyos...exciting and lively...kind and gentle...as the Count would have told it."

Tom Hambright, Monroe County Historian

"Anyone who knows anyone surely knows a homosexual...the truth is, if you're not told you probably will never know. Still, would you have them injured? Our society is desperately in need of justice for everyone...That's what this book is all about "