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Welcome to Rockford the Cat Books, an independent publishing project that includes work from indy authors, along with newly designed versions of public domain classics. Hopefully some surprises along the way too.

ANNOUNCEMENT: PIPER VAN WINKLE, A Sleepy Hollow Novel (YA/New Adult trade paperback and Kindle) by Donald Capone was published May 3, 2025 by Rockford the Cat Books and is available now!

Publisher’s Weekly said, “Fun spin on a classic tale, with ’90s flair… Thoughtful reflections pepper the narrative, bringing a welcome depth to the story’s lighter supernatural elements.” Read the full review here.

In this modernization of Rip Van Winkle, seventeen year-old Piper van der Berg is a modern-day Rip–except when she wakes after 25 yrs, she hasn’t aged a single day. Can she adjust to the strange world of 2021 and her sudden celebrity? Will the desperate Russian spy posing as her Chemistry teacher get his hands on her blood, which he believes is the key to the fountain of youth? Can the ghost of author Washington Irving (who is responsible for this whole mess in the first place) set things right?

With the aid of a Ouija board and a boy who is a medium, Pip and her new friends must race against time to contact the ghost of Irving and return her to 1996 before it’s too late.

Keywords: Seance, Washington Irving, ghost, Sleepy Hollow, time travel, parallel universe

It’s got:

An exciting, climactic chase scene up a mountain.

Ghosts (including Washington Irving & Edgar Allan Poe)

Evil Russians

Ouija boards

A seance in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

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Rockford the Cat Books has published our first poem! “Still We Must Rise” by Dr. Laurie Summer. Read it here: Still We Must Rise

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See and order our books here.

Read my eulogy for Rockford here.

rockfordthecatbooks[at]gmail.com