-2023 Quill Award winner-
Positive Outlook Novels
POSITIVE OUTLOOK NOVELS
Just what is a positive-outlook novel, anyway? While darkly dystopian novels, like Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, are enjoying a renaissance of sorts in this age of savage nationalism, the compelling plotlines and protagonists in Samuel O. Spooner’s novels champion the nexus of science and spirituality and foreshadow a much brighter future for mankind.
18-KARAT KARMA is a Zen mystery
When 21-year-old Johnny Sampson stumbles upon a gold ring buried in the moist sand along one of the myriad of trails in his favorite Southern California woodland park, it triggers a series of karmic cause-and-effect events that shatter the serenity of his idyllic Zen lifestyle. Eventually, it even threatens his very existence. Despite his intention to create good karma by locating the ring's owner to return the valuable band, he becomes innocently entangled in a web of sinister intrigue involving a macabre murder mystery, felony theft of a fortune in gold, and a savage sexual predator who jeopardizes Sampson’s second chance at lost love. As events unfold, the young Zen follower must use his considerable power of persuasion to effect the ethical epiphany of an unlikely female ally. Struggling to overcome a string of unintended consequences dubbed “the curse of the ring” by his lawyer, Johnny is confronted not only by a host of murderous evildoers, but also by a long-dormant tragic flaw in his own character—a failing that ultimately calls into question his commitment to nonviolence, his most cherished Buddhist principle.
THE CALFORNIA KIDS WHO SAVED COSMIC CIVILIZATION
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As darkness fall over Northern California, twelve-year-old science-nerd Jacky Spacer and his ten-year-old brother Chris watch a huge fireball flash to earth out beyond their father’s apple orchard. Despite Dad’s dire warning to stay at home, Jacky feels certain that someone or something is calling out to him from the crash site. This is the extraordinary story of the earth-shaking events that unfold after the boys sneak out to explore the site in the dead of night. Their mind-boggling discovery not only turns them into fugitives from a nosy local lawman, it also turns their world upside down. Eventually, it even reveals an explosive secret about the earth’s future so big that the kids must help save the planet.