is life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has led were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.

Gerald Everett Jones won six book awards in 2020, seven in 2021, and six in 2022:

2022 - Independent Press Award (IPA) Distinguished Favorite in General Fiction and Reader's Choice 5 Star in Fiction for "Harry Harambee's Kenyan Sundowner." National Association of Book Entrepreneurs (NABE) Pinnacle Best in Mystery and TheBookFest Spring Third Place in Mystery Murder & Crime for "Preacher Raises the Dead." TheBookFest Spring Honorable Mention in Literary Fiction for "Clifford's Spiral." International Review of Books Gold in Fiction for "My Inflatable Friend."

2021 - NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite in General Fiction, NABE Pinnacle Best in Literary Fiction, Florida Authors and Publishers Association (FAPA) President's Award Bronze, Royal Dragonfly Honorable Mention in Literary Fiction, Shelf Unbound Best Indies Top Shelf 100 in Fiction, Book Publicists of Southern California IRWIN Best in Literary Fiction for "Harry Harambee's Kenyan Sundowner." NABE Pinnacle Best in Mystery for "Preacher Finds a Corpse."

Solomea Krushelnytska, was hailed as the world's leading dramatic soprano during the Golden Age of opera at the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1872 into the family of a Ukrainian Catholic priest and his wife with eight children in a small village in Western Ukraine, she studied opera first in Lviv, and later in Milan, Vienna, and Paris. She battled to rise to fame and to perform with opera legends like Giacomo Puccini, Arturo Toscanini, and Enrico Caruso until she reached superstardom.