In & Out of Folsom
Novel, 321 pages, ISBN:

Excerpt from Chapter 22: Downriver
‍

..Now I get it. We’ve got a head start, and for the first time, I allow myself to consider the possibility that we just might actually get away with it. I lean my head out the window and watch the corn fields fly by in an ecstatic blur, the hot wind in my face blasting into me a reminder that I'm now on the outside. It’s then that it hits me: freedom is not a definition. Freedom is a feeling. It’s not some minimum set of allowed choices or some defined area within which you’re permitted to operate. It’s a feeling. Freedom is a feeling. It’s the exhilaration that rushes into the wake of an unburdening. It’s not experienced by those who know they’re free because they live in a free country. It’s not experienced by those who depend upon others to remove their chains, at a time and place of the other’s choosing and under other-dictated circumstances and rules. Now I realize why I couldn’t accept their offer of release. I would have missed out on my real freedom, the kind that’s known only to those who have freed themselves...

From the Remains of the Melting Pot
Novel, 324 pages, ISBN

‍
“Yeah, you stay the hell away from his sister,” added Jerrod, in what had to be the biggest fuckup in a long line of fuckups he’d been stringing together all day. James didn’t respond, hoping it might somehow slide by unnoticed, but that was unlikely. There was no one to blame but himself, of course, since he knew from the start that Jerrod was unreliable, but he’d been left with no other options. He didn’t run in the kind of circles that would offer him choices for a job like this, or that could follow through on threats like the one he’d just made, for that matter.
“We’re going to leave now, so if you thought we were going to cut you, now is the time to relax. But if there’s a next time, it won’t be me and it’ll get ugly, that’s for sure. So you both think about that, for the good of the baby, right?”
He felt bad about mentioning the baby at all, but this was his one chance to scare the guy off, and after all, it was his sister’s safety he was trying to protect here. Fortunately, Jerrod kept his mouth shut and they both turned and walked toward the still wide-open front door. Aside from that one glaring mistake, James thought it had gone about as well as he could have expected and was looking forward to debriefing his sister at her place later in the day. As he crossed the threshold of the doorway and stepped into the brilliant sunshine, he could never have imagined that this reunion would be years away.

ForeverChild
347 pages, ISBN:979-8-218-13094-7

Three-hundred years into the future, and the world has changed. Among a chosen few, life expectancy is now hundreds of years; these are the forever children, and science has found a way to keep them in a nearly endless childhood. Secure in their giant hives, they have left the outsiders, who must live natural lives, to fend for themselves.This is the story of Kianno and Seelin, two children who find themselves trading places in this strange new world, one leading the life of a forever child and the other growing up in the anarchy of the outside world. Their lives come together again in surprising and unexpected ways, as they both become involved in a fierce struggle between the two worlds.
‍

‍"...The special value of ForeverChild lies in its strong character developments, its juxtaposition of bigger life questions that affect the entire social structure, and the action embedded into Kianno and Seelin's lives and choices. Lavine creates enough detail and insights to produce an especially thought-provoking story of a future world teetering on both destruction and rebirth..."    
                                           Midwest Book Review
‍

"...Mark Lavine has created a fast paced story that is well thought-out and well told. His vision of the future is fascinating, and definitely an original idea. It is actually quite thought-provoking in many ways, showing aspects of our present world and its values from a whole new perspective...All in all, an excellent, well-written story that had me hooked from the very first page..."                                             SFF World