Böcker av Steven Paul Leiva

In a 1980s America different from our own, both familiar and not, Congress passed and President Henshaw signed the Birth Cessation Act. Once it became law, no one would be allowed to have a child for 25 years, any woman under 24 weeks pregnant was required to have an immediate abortion, and all men were called up to report for a vasectomy. "Conscious regulation of human numbers must be achieved." Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich wrote in his 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb. By the early 80s, the government had statistical projections that population growth was outpacing the available resources needed for all in America to live a comfortable and secure life. A situation that would inevitably lead to the chaos and violence of extreme civil unrest. Most Americans, liking comfort and security, supported the government's action. Most, but not all. And those who didn't-including a world-famous female billionaire entrepreneur/inventor/film producer; a TV salesman from Queens; a well-to-do Manhattan college radical; an unwed mother in Los Angeles who protests most horribly; America's premier pundit-columnist; and a young man who talks to his dead brother-became loud enough to start a fresh new controversy in America. This is a portrait of that controversy.

What those in the know in Hollywood really know is that if they need a dark deed done, if they need a sticky personal or professional problem "fixed," they can call upon the mysterious and dangerous Fixxer. With wit and aplomb, he works the fruitful fields of Hollywood, fixing the sins and correcting the stupidities of the denizens therein. In Blood is Pretty, he comes to the rescue of "the most beautiful woman I have ever seen" to extricate her from the grip of the soul-sucking sexual desires of a producer born in slime and takes on the task of buying off with money and muscle a film geek who won't cooperate with a director of minuscule talent who simply wants to claim "V" -- the geek's Holy Grail of a film treatment -- as his own. When the film geek is discovered dismembered, the Fixxer is compelled to know why and finds worlds of evil, both real and virtual, centering around a computer program called Veritas, which has the potential of making its owner the wealthiest and most powerful human on Earth. With the aid of Roee, his friend, companion, and cook who can kill quickly and silently in several different ways; the Captain, officially with the Los Angeles Police Department, unofficially with The Fixxer; Petey, extraordinarily brilliant and comically strange; and "the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," The Fixxer goes forth to do battle.

Khadambi Kinyanjui, a 6-foot-five-Kenyan who grew up in London, is from a wealthy family. Joe Smith, quite a bit shorter, is a red-headed orphan who grew up with his Aunt Liz in a hole in the California desert. Both are brilliant scientists. One is a neurobiologist, the other an astronomer, who first meet in 2049 under the Tommy Trojan statue at the University of Southern California. They become the best of friends but a very odd couple. And yet, their brotherhood is more robust than most actual brothers. Then tragedy strikes the pair. Death is near for one of them. What can fend it off? Can the mind, the self, be uploaded to some digital realm? Can one become more than a human and far less than an animal? Or will the fix be something unexpected and mysterious? Can this human survive? Can humanity? Can friendship?PRAISE FOR STEVEN PAUL LEIVA"Steven Leiva not only promises but delivers. Bravo!" - Ray Bradbury"The author's true strength is in storytelling." - Ricky L. Brown, Amazing Stories Magazine"Leiva has such a vivid imagination." - Stuart Nulman, Montreal Times"Leiva is witty and engaging, stylistically striking." - Areyon Jolivette, The Daily Californian"Steven Paul Leiva is a master wordsmith able to take on any genre or blend them." - Jean Rabe, USA Today Bestselling Author."Leiva's immense gifts for mystery and suspense are matched only by his wry biting wit." - Paul Provenza; author of ¡Satiristas!

NAMED A "FAVORITE BOOK OF 2021" BY THE MONTREAL TIMES!Adolphus is a happy, self-satisfied, middle-aged bachelor. A history professor, he has several lovely friends with benefits, including the bright and witty Peggy Bradford. His future utterly changes when Lavinia Carson, a wealthy man's radiant and beautiful young wife, walks into Adolphus's class. He discovers that Lavinia's husband Eugene was the bully who had terrorized his high school years and left lasting scars. And who, no less the bully now, soon declares that he loves Adolphus! Thus begins a very odd love story. Adolphus. Lavinia. Eugene. Peggy. Who loves who? Love rejected. Love ignored. Love found. And cuttlefish pizza! Steven Leiva not only promises but delivers. Bravo!" -- Ray Bradbury, Author of "The Laurel & Hardy Love Affair."