McMaster Writes, a popular feature in the Times alumni magazine, has been moved shopparajumpers to a new home on the Daily News. Check out the latest group of alumni authors below: 

Matthew Burns ’10 recently published his first work, UNREALigious: A Critical Examination of Religious Foundations. It is an introduction and overview of the failures and limitations of prominent arguments for religious belief. The EBook is available on Amazon.

Jeff Colgan ’99 published a new book in April titled Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War on Cambridge University Press. Drawing from case studies involving Iraq, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, shopparajumpers Colgan’s work offers new insights into oil politics, global peace and international conflict.

Diana Cucuz ’05 & ’06 contributed a chapter to a non-fiction book, Modern Print Activism in the United States, edited by Rachel Schreiber and published in April, 2013. Cucuz’s chapter is titled, “Containment Culture: the Cold War in the Ladies’ Home Journal, 1946-1959.”

Marcel Faulkner ’02 penned the novel The Summer of the Tigers under the pseudonym Marcellus Durrell. The book was published in 2012. Faulkner currently works as a librarian in Hamilton, and is writing a new novel set in ancient Greece during the Persian Wars.

Melanie Greene ’08 released a book entitled Nasrullah: Forgotten Patriarch of the American Thoroughbred. Nasrullah arrived in Kentucky in 1950, and was the first horse to lead both the American and English sire lists, while also spawning a legendary line of thoroughbred descendants.

John Kneale ’65 has written a second book about the Canadian Foreign Service. Volcano Rising – An Ambassador’s Diary describes the three-year period the author was head of post in Ecuador when the country suffered erupting volcanoes, indigenous uprisings, economic collapse and a military coup. There was also a kidnapping of Canadian pipeline workers in the Amazon.

Jennifer Newton ’91 published a forensic mystery novel titled, Dead, Without a Stone to Tell It under the pen name Jen J. Danna. When a human bone is found on a lonely stretch of coastline, a determined homicide detective and a reluctant scientist risk their lives as they join forces to bring a serial killer to justice.

Simon Miller ’96 co-wrote Oracle Business Intelligence Applications: Deliver Value Through Rapid Implementations, which provides detailed functional and technical information about a pre-built Data Warehouse solution offered by Miller’s employer. He has accumulated more than 15 years experience with Business Intelligence and Analytics since graduating, and this book reflects the natural evolution of the industry over this period.

Vanessa Ricci-Thode ’04 released her first novel in June, a tale of fantasy, adventure and whimsy titled Dragon Whisperer, published on Iguana Books. A self-described “geek” with a lifelong love of literature, Ricci-Thode is a graduate from the Faculty of Humanities.

Paul Roche ’70 recently wrote a collection of short stories titled Twisted Shorts: High School Revisited. The book was e-published through Smashwords, and self-published in paper format.

Derek Schuurman ’03 published Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology in May, 2013. The book is a philosophical and theological reflection about computer technology, how we shape it and how it shapes us, and what it means to live as a faithful Christian in a digital world.

Claire Wilkshire ’90 published her first novel, Maxine, in March. Centred around aspiring novelist Maxine Carter, the book is set one year after the events of 9-11, and focuses on how we go through life with the knowledge that a catastrophic event can happen at any time. Wilkshire is a freelance writer, editor, teacher and translator based in St. John’s, Newfoundland.