Books

Titles published by Hane Lake Press

Lake Front: At The Edge of Nature and Nostalgia

By Amanda McCallister

Lake Front: At the Edge of Nature and Nostalgia is a quiet journey through Winter Haven’s Chain of Lakes, where water, land, and memory intersect. Blending stark black-and-white photography with poetic reflections, the book explores how these freshwater landscapes shape the people who live beside them and how they hold onto history even as they change.

From ancient cypress trees rising from dark water to open horizons where sky and lake merge, Lake Front captures a Florida that is lived-in rather than idealized. These images reflect places marked by time, use, and resilience, spaces where nature and community have grown together for generations.

Interwoven with the photography and prose are recipes tied to lake life and old Florida tables, the foods people bring to porches, cookouts, fish fries, holidays, and family gatherings. The result is part visual memoir, part place-based storytelling, and part community cookbook, a portrait of a region told through what it looks like, what it remembers, and what it feeds its people.

More than a photographic record, Lake Front invites readers to slow down and notice what endures, quiet rituals, familiar shorelines, and the flavors that carry a lifetime of stories.

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Where The Florida Things Live

Story by Alice Absolutely

Illustrations by Kostar

When Wiley is told he's "just another Florida Thing," he puts on his panther suit and disappears into a world that's wild, weird, and wonderfully his own.

Where the Florida Things Live is a vividly illustrated journey through the swamps, skies, and shorelines of the Sunshine State. Bursting with color, rhythm, and mischief, this book introduces readers to a menagerie of unforgettable Florida creatures-each with a story to tell and a stake in the place they call home. From bull gators to blue herons, Wiley meets the locals on their own turf...and discovers that wild places aren't just for running wild-they're worth protecting too.

Created by Florida-based artist and author Alice Absolutely, with illustrations by beloved St. Pete artist Kostar, this picture book blends Florida's untamed beauty with bold, offbeat artwork that pulls readers in: children will be captivated by the playful language and characters, while grown-ups will recognize a deeper message woven between the reeds. Florida's magic is fragile-and worth fighting for.

Packed with personality, the book also includes a conservation resource page to help families take real-world action to support native wildlife. The creatures are real. Their homes are real. And so is the danger they face.

With its punk-eco heart, swampy soul, and fearless voice, Where the Florida Things Live is a wild love letter to a state like no other-and an invitation for every reader to fall under its spell.

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Clown Paint and Gator Bait

By Amanda McCallister and Hiroshi

Set against the heat-bleached streets and shadowed backwaters of Florida, Clown Paint and Gator Bait is a dark psychological thriller that blurs the line between devotion and danger. What begins as a brief, intoxicating encounter between two strangers becomes something far more unsettling when distance fails to sever the bond and the man she leaves behind refuses to let her go.

As Courtney builds a life shaped by ambition, fear, and hard-won independence, a pattern emerges. Cities change, headlines follow, and violence seems to orbit her path. Slowly and horrifyingly, she realizes that love may not have been the most dangerous thing she encountered and that being known carries a devastating cost. Told through intimate perspectives and anchored in a distinctly Floridian gothic atmosphere, the novel explores obsession, power, and the moment a hunted woman decides to turn the tables.

Clown Paint and Gator Bait is adult horror with erotic intensity and disturbing themes. Desire curdles into control and survival demands transformation in this dark love story rife with moral ambiguity and slow-burn terror.

Available in 2026.

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Florida Field Guide Volume 1

By Alice Absolutely

Florida Field Guide, Volume One is a visual tribute to the wild heart of the Sunshine State. Featuring 109 meticulously rendered species, this inaugural volume blends fine art and natural history into a timeless fine art unlike any other. Each animal is presented in Alice Absolutely’s digital draft form as it exists before being transformed into her signature carved-paint style, layered, etched, and refined, evoking the precision of vintage scientific illustration while carrying the emotional weight of contemporary conservation.

Rooted in reverence for Florida’s fragile ecosystems, the Field Guide documents both iconic and often overlooked species with quiet dignity. From coastal waters to upland scrub, each image stands alone, free of background and distraction, inviting close observation and reflection. The collection serves not only as an artistic catalog, but as a visual record of a landscape under pressure, honoring what still exists and what deserves protection.

Published by Hane Lake Press, Florida Field Guide, Volume One is the first installment in an ambitious, long-term project dedicated to preserving Florida’s natural legacy through art. Designed for collectors, nature lovers, educators, and conservation-minded readers, this volume is both a keepsake and a call to attention, a reminder that what we choose to notice, we choose to protect.

Available December 2026.

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The Reasons For The Seasons

By Ron Bell

The Reasons For The Seasons is a visually rich exploration of the Winter Solstice as a shared human moment, told through painted iconography drawn from a wide range of spiritual traditions, mythologies, and belief systems. Created by Florida-based artist Ron Bell, the book presents more than twenty gods, goddesses, and mythic figures associated with seasonal cycles, light, renewal, and transformation.

Developed through a deeply personal spiritual journey, the work reflects Bell’s return to an inclusive understanding of faith that honors curiosity, reverence, and connection across cultures. Each figure is rendered in a traditional iconographic style using natural, earth-based materials, emphasizing ritual, craftsmanship, and intentional process.

Rooted in Bell’s Florida studio practice, The Reasons For The Seasons is both contemplative and celebratory, serving as a tribute to spiritual diversity and the enduring human impulse to find meaning in the turning of the year.

Available November 2026.