Books with author William K. Durr

In the 1930s, some 6,000 Finnish Americans traveled to Karelia, a province in northwestern Russia, hoping to leave the Depression behind and to establish a workers’ paradise. Based on these true events, The Darkest Evening chronicles the story of Jake Maki, whose father, caught up in the socialist fervor washing over their Finnish mining community in Minnesota, moves their family to the Soviet Union. Instead of finding the utopia they were promised, Jake and his family encounter only disappointment and hardship. When Stalin’s secret police begin targeting Americans for arrest, his worst fears are confirmed, and Jake leads his family on a daring midwinter escape attempt on cross-country skis, fleeing toward the Finnish border.

According to thirteen-year-old Ben Ward’s father, lumberjacks look forward to two things: mealtime and springtime. In the winter of 1898, Ben leaves school for a job as a cook’s assistant to his father at the Blackwater Logging Camp. As Ben spends long hours peeling potatoes and frying flapjacks, he dreams of working in the woods with the other men, felling trees, driving a team, and skidding timber. While enduring a long, cold winter in a camp filled with outlandish characters, as well as an orphan boy named Nevers, Ben comes to understand himself and his family’s past. Peppered throughout with heart and humor—and including a glossary and afterword with facts about logging—Blackwater Ben paints a vivid picture of the north woods of Minnesota at the end of the nineteenth century.

A boy, walking through life, realizes through a particular set of circumstances that he has an ability to create that transcends many of the divisions he has learned. Join this wide eyed character on his journey as he begins creating his own future. His awareness and commitment to opening his heart to the vibrations of the universe bring this story full circle. You may find yourself standing on the first step of your life awaiting you to discover your own power of creation.

My daddy works in heaven. He has a very important job to do. When Mommy told me that Daddy got a call to go to work in heaven, I was sad. I'm so happy my daddy is so important; he got to go work in heaven so he could watch over me and my family. He said not to be sad or lonely as he is smiling on me and watching me grow into a very fine young man. "My son," my daddy says, "where you walk I will be by your side; where you sleep I will watch over; and I will always be watching over you my son with love and peace."

Thirteen-year-old Ben works at Blackwater Logging Camp as cook’s helper to his Pa. Long days of flipping pancakes and peeling potatoes with his ornery Pa make Ben long to be out in the woods with the lumberjacks. Felling logs, sawing trees, driving a team through the snowy woods . . . that’s what Ben wants to be doing.But the long cold winter in a camp filled with outlandish characters teaches Ben a lot about himself. Especially when an orphan boy called Nevers arrives in camp. When Nevers signs on to work with Pa, Ben makes a friend and a rival, too.

Jonny, along with his Siamese cat, Mister E, discovers a magical icon on his Nexus 7 tablet, an icon that when opened, allows them to time travel into the future. The Atlanta they arrive in is nothing like the one they left. It is a city made of glass because hundreds of years of drought have caused all growing things to die. All oil is gone so there are no plastic products. All mining has been depleted so there is no metal. Only sand is left out of which glass is produced and used for houses, furniture, toys, and flying cars. Mister E, strangely, has been transformed by time travel into a huge cat the size of a lion and can speak. Jonny and Mister E rescue Cindi, a young girl running from her mean stepfather. Adventure after adventure follow as the three of them try to escape mutated outlanders, her angry father, and the hated pet police before making a lifesaving time jump to ....

This compilation of four children's fantasy books (also sold individually) follows Jonny, an eight year old boy of enormous curiosity as he downloads a free App onto his Nexus 7 tablet (Book One). Though mystified by its all-black icon, he clicks on it, and is addressed by name and told to gather up his Siamese cat, Mister E, climb into the animal's huge litter box, and get ready for the ride of his life. At first, Jonny resists then his curiosity makes him follow the mysterious instructions. Moments later, he and his cat, awaken four hundred years in the future where they rescue, Cindi, a young girl who is being sent to jail for owning a pet. After many harrowing adventures, they time travel (Book Two) to a pirate ship in the year 1481 where they are forced to assist on a raid against an unsuspecting town on the Island of Tortuga. Escaping, after a shipwreck and isolation on a deserted island, they time travel to a tiny, water starved planet in the Orion cluster two thousand years in the future (Book Three). This series of four books closes with a time jump back home to Atlanta in 2013 and concluding with another fantastic voyage to the planet Daedeleus in the Andromeda constellation 7000 years into the future and 900 light years from Earth (Book Four). Always confronting beings who are threatened by their unexpected arrival, they explore the universe, helping those in need, aiding the oppressed, and attempting to right the wrongs they encounter. Laced with humor and farsighted imagination, this series of children's fantasy books are well suited for the inquisitive minds of school aged readers.

Jonny, his Siamese cat, Mister E, and Cindi, a young girl they had befriended on a previous trip to the future, wake up after a time jump from the Orion cluster and the year 3999. Dazed and frightened from such a huge jump in time and space, they wander down city streets which look to Jonny like his neighborhood in 2013 just where he wanted to go. Happily reunited with his mother, she and Jonny teach Cindi about Christmas which had been discarded in her civilization four hundred years in the future. They go Christmas shopping, buy a tree which makes her cry at seeing a living thing cut down, and go to a Christmas pageant at church. After opening presents, they go out on their new bike and scooter. Cindi falls and gets hurt. A man comes from his house and helps. His name is Zirnat, the Fourteenth. He tells them he is the inventor of the magical icon and had secretly given it to Jonny because he was too old to travel any more in space. At his request, Jonny, Cindi, and Mister E take a time jump to Zirnat's home planet in the Andromeda cluster where they meet his sister on her wedding day. Discovered as forbidden time travelers, they are helped by his sister to escape, recover the magic litter box, and time travel to ....

Jonny, his Siamese cat, Mister E, and their young friend, Cindi, wake up from a time travel jump on a space ship bound for the planet Ilo in the Orion cluster. It is the year 3999. They are discovered by the pilot, EG 7714, who is happy to have them as company but terrified of what his superiors will do when stowaways are found on his ship. Traveling at speeds beyond comprehension, it takes only weeks to span 900 light years from Earth to Ilo. Arrested as aliens, they are tried and convicted, narrowly escape, and have many harrowing adventures trying to get back to where they had hidden the magical litter box needed for a return to Earth. Will Jonny's Nexus 7 tablet and the magic litter box work from such an unfathomable distance and 2000 years in the future to get them back home to Atlanta in 2013?

A boy, walking through life, realizes through a particular set of circumstances that he has an ability to create that transcends many of the divisions he has learned. Join this wide eyed character on his journey as he begins creating his own future. His awareness and commitment to opening his heart to the vibrations of the universe bring this story full circle. You may find yourself standing on the first step of your life awaiting you to discover your own power of creation.