Summer of 1957 . . .
Handsome Yale grad Colm Moran wants to be a film producer. But his father has another idea: go dip his toe into the business world at a small company in rural California that makes bathing suits for women with problem figures. So Colm heads west and hilarity ensues.
Published August, 2014, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com and also for Kindle ($2.99). Read a free preview.
Handsome Yale grad Colm Moran wants to be a film producer. But his father has another idea: go dip his toe into the business world at a small company in rural California that makes bathing suits for women with problem figures. So Colm heads west and hilarity ensues.
Published August, 2014, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com and also for Kindle ($2.99). Read a free preview.
Investigate the mystery of a forgotten author
Suburban Cleveland housewife Helen Spall has three difficult kids and a tax-attorney husband who’s inclined to be brutally frank about her shortcomings. Then she inherits a rundown house in a blue-collar town on the shores of Lake Erie, and her life begins to blossom. She investigates a once-popular, now forgotten novelist and her mysterious connections to Helen’s family.
Published March, 2014. Available for Amazon Kindle ($2.99). Read a free preview.
Suburban Cleveland housewife Helen Spall has three difficult kids and a tax-attorney husband who’s inclined to be brutally frank about her shortcomings. Then she inherits a rundown house in a blue-collar town on the shores of Lake Erie, and her life begins to blossom. She investigates a once-popular, now forgotten novelist and her mysterious connections to Helen’s family.
Published March, 2014. Available for Amazon Kindle ($2.99). Read a free preview.
Exiled to Stockton. And things get worse.
Plain, overweight and friendless, 16-year-old Brenda Blatt is sent by her parents to a bleak school for troubled girls. Despised by her new roommates and scorned by the headmistress, Brenda suddenly finds her life turning around when she is befriended by the prettiest girl in the school.
Published March, 2014. Available for Amazon Kindle ($2.99). Free preview.
Plain, overweight and friendless, 16-year-old Brenda Blatt is sent by her parents to a bleak school for troubled girls. Despised by her new roommates and scorned by the headmistress, Brenda suddenly finds her life turning around when she is befriended by the prettiest girl in the school.
Published March, 2014. Available for Amazon Kindle ($2.99). Free preview.
Two novels in one book
Contains the full text of
Helen of Pepper Pike and
Brenda the Great (see above).
Published March, 2014. Trade paper.
Available from Amazon.com.
Website copyright 2026 by Aivia Press.
Contains the full text of
Helen of Pepper Pike and
Brenda the Great (see above).
Published March, 2014. Trade paper.
Available from Amazon.com.
Website copyright 2026 by Aivia Press.
Down and out in poetry land . . .
This dark comic tale has it all: drinking, smoking, adultery, murder, suicide, cats, donuts, and lots of zany poetry. The man in charge is R. Daniel Nixon (first name Richard), a tall, bald poet who can't seem to get a break: not from life or from the women he pursues.
Published April, 2017, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($2.99).
This dark comic tale has it all: drinking, smoking, adultery, murder, suicide, cats, donuts, and lots of zany poetry. The man in charge is R. Daniel Nixon (first name Richard), a tall, bald poet who can't seem to get a break: not from life or from the women he pursues.
Published April, 2017, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($2.99).
A summer 1949 roadtrip begins . . .
The Cold War is heating up, TV is catching on, workers are striking, and the Army is looking for draftees. In Ohio recent high-school grad Wilder S. Flint hits the road in pursuit of a mystery salesman who promises miracles by the dozen.
Published August, 2016, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($2.99).
Read a free preview.
The Cold War is heating up, TV is catching on, workers are striking, and the Army is looking for draftees. In Ohio recent high-school grad Wilder S. Flint hits the road in pursuit of a mystery salesman who promises miracles by the dozen.
Published August, 2016, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($2.99).
Read a free preview.
Read all 7 Nick
Twisp II comic novels
Twisp II comic novels
Sample previews of all of C.D. Payne's novels are available at Amazon.com.
Join the tumultuous, ever-burgeoning Twisp clan as they face the bumps and pitfalls of life in Los Angeles. Romance blooms, enemies plot revenge, elephants rampage, and blazes ignite as the Twisps prove again that life and love can be a hilarious challenge.
Readers new to the Twisp saga can dive in at Book 8 or Book 1. As always, familiarity with the previous novels is not required.
Trade paper, Available from Amazon.com.
Book 8 Book 9. Book 10. Book 11
Book 12 Book 13 and the newest: Book 14
Also for Kindle ($2.99).
Readers new to the Twisp saga can dive in at Book 8 or Book 1. As always, familiarity with the previous novels is not required.
Trade paper, Available from Amazon.com.
Book 8 Book 9. Book 10. Book 11
Book 12 Book 13 and the newest: Book 14
Also for Kindle ($2.99).
Double click to edit
Double click to edit
Meet Reno's famous "dancing
bodyguard"
A gun-toting army vet dodges angry husbands
as he gains fame as 1950s Reno’s “dancing
bodyguard.” This handsome “Champagne
Charlie” offers a full range of services for lonely
women in town for a divorce.
Published June, 2023, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
A fun look back to the zany 1950s
This new collection brings you five stories and two novellas--all set in the 1950s. These seven deranged tales explore such untimely and important topics as: Scooter Lust. Gas wars. Monumental knavery. Over-sexed surveyors. Future Fire Bugs of America. Sweethearts with tricks up their sleeves. Revenge Cleveland-style, and more!
Published February, 2024, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
This new collection brings you five stories and two novellas--all set in the 1950s. These seven deranged tales explore such untimely and important topics as: Scooter Lust. Gas wars. Monumental knavery. Over-sexed surveyors. Future Fire Bugs of America. Sweethearts with tricks up their sleeves. Revenge Cleveland-style, and more!
Published February, 2024, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
New 'musical' novel set in 1955
Birchfield, Ohio native Boyd Lomax is hired to
drive a bus for an all-girl band in 1955. A sudden
emergency reveals that young Boyd has more
talents than anyone supposed.
Published August, 2024, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
Also available as an audiobook.
Double clJust published:
Double click to edit
How many doors open wide
when you're this handsome?
Birchfield, Ohio native Ray Corber moves
pianos all by himself in San Francisco in 1959.
Then this blue-eyed Adonis is recruited to star
in a new play titled “The Handsomest Man in
the World.”
Published April, 2025, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle
($3.99).
Also available as an audiobook.
Published April, 2026, trade paper
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
Also available as an audiobook.
Available from Amazon.com. And also for Kindle ($3.99).
Also available as an audiobook.
How to win wealth and fame
without really trying
In the summer of 1953, 25-year-old Hugh Dashmore has girlfriend trouble and a stressful job striping Ohio's highways. Then a visitor from England shows up and complicates Hugh's life with a whole new set of challenges. Suddenly, he has news reporters in his face. Strangers are sending him both money and hate mail. Women he's never met want desperately to marry him. He’s up to his eyeballs in debt. Can young Hugh cope?
without really trying
In the summer of 1953, 25-year-old Hugh Dashmore has girlfriend trouble and a stressful job striping Ohio's highways. Then a visitor from England shows up and complicates Hugh's life with a whole new set of challenges. Suddenly, he has news reporters in his face. Strangers are sending him both money and hate mail. Women he's never met want desperately to marry him. He’s up to his eyeballs in debt. Can young Hugh cope?