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David Rehak has written three novels, "Love and Madness", "A Young Girl's Crimes", "Crippled Dreams", and a book of Poetry titled: "Poems from My Bleeding Heart".

In addition, his writing has appeared in various journals, anthologies, magazines and newspapers, like "Omen of a Better Age", "The Claremont Review", "KPPT", and "Mind's Eye".

From The Publisher

A lot of us want to see the good guy win. We want him to find love even if he's a hunchback. We need books about romance between real people. Real people are fat, bald, handicapped, have a nose that's too big, a butt that's too flat, or some other defect.

People want to believe they will be loved and it makes them feel good inside when the hero gets the girl or vice versa, even if he is blind, or deaf, or in a wheel chair.

We at JMB are tired of stories about perfect people who have tons of money, and not one defect on their body. Whether the world is ready for it or not, we are bringing out books targeted to the other people. The real people.

Just My Best, Inc is an independent press whose focus lies in publishing some of the best in quality fiction from both new and established voices.

David Rehak is one of our new authors. We know there are many other would-be authors out there too who deserve a chance. Therefore, we have begun to offer self-publishing service options through our subsidiary press Aarbooks and we plan to start publishing titles under that imprint in 2005. We are a small company but growing. Readers are encouraged to peruse our list of enjoyable titles and pick a book that suits them. Read a good book and support a deserving author.

Our head offices are located in Ohio.

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Crippled Dreams

War is raging throughout France. Rose is in late pregnancy and alone at the family chateau, her husband having been sent off to fight. Enemy soldiers come upon her and see her as an easy target; they rape and beat her and leave her for dead. And there in her agony, she gives birth to a boy, Alexandre. But the child will not be like other children. Warped and deformed by the kicks and punches she had suffered at the hands of her rapists, he is born with crippled legs. His doting religious mother tries to alleviate his despair as he grows older, but he is a physical and spiritual wreck, and he takes his frustrations out on his mother and God. His healthy younger brother Gustave grows up to be everything that Alex wants to be but cannot due to the limitations of his condition. They hate each other. Alex falls madly in love with his brother's lover, but will she return his feelings? Can she too overlook his crippled condition and be serious about him? This deeply moving story is one young broken man's search for physical and spiritual healing through the power of love.

Note: This is one of those special reads that does more than entertain, it enlightens the reader about the most profound questions about being human.

Reviews

Intriguing, Unpredictable Tale

February 1, 2005
Reviewer: L. A. Johnson (Nebraska USA)

David Rehak's books are never a clone of the familiar genre fiction we find on shelves these days. His writing style is reminscent of the 19th century and very European in flavor. Rehak's work is different, his topics off center just enough to add a sense of intriguing unpredictablity into the read. This third book by David Rehak, while a different subject, clearly reflects his unique voice as writer.

The setting of Crippled Dreams is rural France in the 1870s. The Prussians have swept through the bucolic countryside, raping and destroying as they go. Rose Petit is one of their helpless victims. Eight months pregnant, with her husband fighting away from home, she's set upon by four Prussian
soldiers bent on claiming Rose and her farm as spoils of war. When Rose defies them, they beat her mercilessly and leave her for dead. Her first born son is physically damaged from the beating and born paralyzed in both legs.

Rose loves her crippled son, Alexandre, and lavishes him with mother love from birth. Even when her husband Paul returns from war and a second son, Gustave, is born, Alexandre receives the lion's share of her love and attention. Through such loving attentions, Rose hopes her crippled son's soul will be made fine, if not his ruined body.

As Alexandre ages, his bitterness and hopeless rage increase incrementally. He silently observes the world around him, filled with healthy, happy people with unimpaired bodies, and curses a God who picks and chooses who He blesses. He blasphemes God at every opportunity and refuses to believe
Rose's assurances of a loving Heavenly Father. His feelings of resentment come to full flower when Gustave starts courting Marie-Anne Godard. Marie-Anne is a beauty, with billows of dark hair and flashing eyes that reveal a captivating spirit.

Alexandre dreams of finding true love with his brother's fiancee but accepts her loyal friendship as a poor substitue. When Gustave discovers that Alexandre and Marie-Anne have become close friends, his temper sets off a situation that ends in horrible tragedy. In the aftermath, nothing can be done to lessen Alexandre's despair. Only God's grace and mercy can heal a crippled body, mind, and spirit, but can a loving God reach Alexandre?

David Rehak takes common situations and transforms them to uncommon through his use of words and his development of interesting characters. If you are tired of the same old genre fiction, check out Crippled Dreams.

I Enjoyed It!

Laurel Johnson
Midwest Book Review
July 29, 2005

Reviewer: David Coward, (author and translator) - See all my reviews
I enjoyed Crippled Dreams. Rehak is certainly not afraid of the big themes. I liked the start and the build-up. The author is taking things slower, and allowing for more development and more reflection, which I think is good. He uses short, brightly-lit scenes, all very pointed and purposeful, so that a kind of impressionistic mosaic emerges which charts the growth of Alexandre's feeling of rejection, resentment and jealousy, which are at the heart of his bitterness and his loss of humanity. The same technique is most effective in communicating the growth of his love and ultimately his death and salvation. I also liked the intense, ominous, brooding effect the short scenes create. In the same way, the style, understated at important points, creates a mood of other-worldly fatality which is finally dispersed by the luminous way the ending is handled.

Just one thing. I know the author uses broad brush strokes here, for the brevity and intensity of his story-telling technique depend on the kind of stipple effect I liked so much. Even so, I thought the character of Gustave could have been established a little more fully. I felt that his vengeful violent act upon Marie-Anne, while not out of character, was a bit unexpected.

I will confess that I am more on the side of scientific positivism than of the after life. But this did not affect my enjoyment of Rehak's imagination. I can't imagine he hasn't got something on the go. He is well placed to write a story about life in the present-day Czech Republic. I'm sure there'd be an English-speaking public which would be interested in knowing what is going on there now that the horrors of the 20th century are receding. I do hope he goes on with his writing!

Did Lizzie Axe For It?

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To read the first chapter of this book click on the book image.

Nonfiction-True Crime

 

Crippled Dreams

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To read the first chapter of this book click on the book image.

Historic Drama

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Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It?

The Borden murders took place in Fall River. What is Fall River? It's an industrial city in southeastern Massachusetts, a port on Mount Hope Bay, at the mouth of the Taunton River. The city has numerous historical buildings and it's where many tourists come to see the famous battleship USS Massachusetts from World War 2.

In 1656 the community was established by settlers hailing from Plymouth Colony. In 1811, the first cotton mill was established, and in time the city became well-known for its textile mills, which brought it prosperity well into the 1920's. It was these mills in large part that had made Lizzie Borden's father a rich man by 1892.

The ancient Indian name for the area is Quequechan, which means "falling water."

I've been a careful and thoughtful scholar and enthusiast of the Borden case for quite a number of years now. This book is the product of about eight years of work (four years of study, two years of research, and two more years of writing and revision). I became hooked on Lizzie ever since 1996 when I saw the A&E television biography on her.

Lizzie was the most average, unremarkable woman, and the most extraordinary, remarkable criminal or criminal suspect. Before she was accused of murder, she was a tiny grain of sand, an absolute nobody who no one took much notice of and who would have vanished from the world's memory like a candlelight. But after she was accused of murder, she became an unforgettable symbol and legend, an absolute somebody.

What I find most interesting is the height of passionate feeling and passionate disagreement that she brings out in people, every kind of person. In fact, during the trial of Lizzie Borden, according to the New York Times it was estimated that about nineteen hundred marriages ended in divorce because of the intense difference of opinion between husbands and wives that it created concerning Lizzie's innocence or guilt. The divide between those who believe she did the crime and those who don't sometimes runs very deep.

There are also those who are still undecided, sitting on the fence, so to speak. These people are impressed by evidence that points either way, and find themselves unable to commit to a strong and sure stance.

Did Lizzie Borden take an "axe?" Who's right and who's wrong? That, my friends, we do not know for a hundred percent certain. In fact, so many years have passed with this mystery still unsolved. But, as this book will reveal, there are certain probabilities in this case that should not be suppressed or ignored; there are certain probabilities that deserve scholarly consideration. Theories and ideas should be put on the table and each and every individual should be allowed to make his or her mind up about what they believe.

There is still a rich harvest out there of new and rare facts and theory about the Lizzie case that awaits to be reaped. This book is an attempt to bring in some of that harvest.

Reviews

A Must-have for your Lizzie Borden Library

August 11, 2005
Reviewer: Steve (Fall River < MA)

I pre-ordered and finally got this book yesterday morning and just finished it tonight! If the Leonard Rebello book is the most complete bibliographical collection of all things Lizzie Bordenia, this new book on Lizzie by crime author David Rehak has the most tantelizing reliable new information on Lizzie, as well as old information covered in a new way and overlooked information which other Lizzie Borden authors didn't cover in their books.

The information is meticulously well-researched and well-documented with references and sources. Facts and theories are all clearly labelled, unlike the Victoria Lincoln book which is so full of conjectures or Spiering which is full of myth. The truth about the Arnold Brown book is also exposed. What I like most is that the author doesn't take sides, he shows very strong arguments for why Lizzie can be either guilty OR innocent. I was strongly convinced by his reasonings either way.

There are also many wonderful little (and big) discoveries in this book that really bowled me over. Numerous rare and never-before-seen new photos too. I also love some of the artwork, like Lizzie in her bra and undies - too funny! A must-have for any Lizzie Borden crime buff or enthusiast!!

AN ENLIGHTENING BOOK FOR BOTH PRO AND CON LIZZIE FOLLOWERS

July 30, 2005
Reviewer: Betty Dravis "BDravisland@CS.com, author of The Toonies Invade Silicon Valley" (San Jose, CA)

I had the privilege of editing this book for this fine author, David Rehak. This is his first nonfiction book, and he appears to have done extensive research. Rehak also wrote some original poems and humorous skits exclusively for this book.

I learned new things about Lizzie Borden that I don't think have been brought to light before. And the previously unpublished photos add greatly to the content, as does the art work by the publisher.

Even if you're not into "Bordenia," which I'm not, you will be intrigued by this book.

Since Rehak writes about taboo subjects in his fictitious works, this work seemed natural for his unique skills.

I highly recommend it.