Mark T Sneed

Lathan Alexander is a bright, thoughtful and funny kid who finds himself spending the end of the school year and most of his last pre-teen summer in a new neighborhood with the Beck's trying to fit in. Lathan is book smart but has had little experience outside his reading. The Beck's, led by his mother's brother and cousin, attempt to help Lathan learn the ropes of life on the new block. In the new neighborhood Lathan is tested and challenged over friendships, loyalties and sports. Lathan Alexander has a lot to learn. Yet, during the last week of summer as a pre-teen Lathan Alexander puts all of the lessons he has learned to good use as he and the friends play their unique version of the game of hide and seek for the last time.

Was it Jules's fault he was nearly six-foot-tall and two hundred pounds of dark chocolate and unafraid to walk down the most dangerous streets in Chicago? He never looked for trouble. He couldn't help being big. That was genetics. Unlucky in love and destined to wile away his life just working and hanging out with his friends it was sheer luck and his best friend, Max, who took him to a pop-up club on Lower Wacker Drive to get over a girl. At the club, Jules meets and falls for a streetwise stunner named Bethany. Little does Jules know the chance meeting will lead to a series of events which will test him and make him question the need for love and his desire to guard his heart. In Nothing Simple or Easy Jules tries to figure out many things in the rough and tumble of Chicago's near Northside as he criss crosses gangland territories, struggles with love versus lust as well as trust and openness, but the most important lesson he hopes to learn is why is love never simple or easy?

The world as we know it is in ruins. The rich and powerful have gone into space. Those that live in the shambles of what was once the Bay Area find themselves behind two twenty-foot walls. In the walled city there are rumors of monsters roaming in the dead zones. Inside of the walled city the seven lines that make up the Remains work to make their community perfect. There is little to no crime in the Remains. Annually, there is a no holds barred life and death televised contest for the residents needed bloodlust. Ralphie Reynolds, 15, learns that he likes a girl and he and his friends sign up for the challenge. Ralphie prepares for the upcoming battle. Many will watch contestants battle while one boy comes to grips with his new crush at a very awkward time, indeed.