Orange County Works Wide Ranging : A horror novel and a spate of nonfiction works, ranging from gambling addiction to the county’s evolution since World War II, are in release.

A horror novel and a handful of nonfiction books by Orange County authors have been released in recent weeks, ranging from gambling addiction and the evolution of Orange County since World War II to heart disease and an illustrated history of Anaheim.

“Deadly Odds: The Compulsion to Gamble” (Edgehill Publications; $9.95) by Ken Estes of Laguna Niguel provides an overview of compulsive gambling in the United States, capturing what one expert calls “the adrenaline highs and the destructive emotional lows” of a pervasive national addiction.

“There’s very little literature on compulsive gambling, certainly not in the popular or mass sector. It’s mostly been doctors writing to doctors,” says Estes, director of communications for the National Assn. of Addiction Treatment Providers in Irvine.

(Estes also wrote Billy and Sybil Carter’s “Billy: Billy Carter’s Reflections on His Struggle with Fame, Alcoholism and Cancer,” which was published by Edgehill last year.)

Estes says “Deadly Odds” does not attempt to explore all aspects of the problem that researchers believe affects about 7 million Americans, a million of which are 18 and younger.

The book is primarily the story of Mike Brubaker, a recovering Long Beach gambler, and other recovering gamblers who shared their stories with Estes.

Estes describes Brubaker, who is now an addictions counselor at an outpatient clinic in Costa Mesa, as “kind of the typical, ordinary gambler who gambled from paycheck to paycheck. He was primarily a card player and horse player. He’d gamble on horses until he could get to Vegas.

“I think most people associate compulsive gamblers with monumental losses, up in the tens of thousands. Here was a guy who couldn’t afford to lose 300 or 400 bucks, let alone a couple of thousand. There’s more of him running around than the Pete Roses of the world who get in trouble.

“They’re the people you see in these card rooms. They don’t have any fun. They’re playing to feed their compulsion really.”

In “Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II” (University of California Press), three UC Irvine professors explore the economic, cultural and political developments in Orange County over the past five decades.

It is a time, they say, in which the county has evolved into a new kind of social formation that is neither a city nor a traditional suburb: a sprawling, fragmented “urban village” that foreshadows the future of metropolitan development throughout this country and others.

The book was edited by Rob Kling, professor of information and computer science, and history professors Mark Poster and Spencer Olin.

All three contributed chapters to the book, which includes essays on designing the model community, focusing on neighborhoods created by the Irvine Co.; the information labor force; changing consumer habits, and class and cultural conflicts.

Orange County writer John Westcott last week presented copies of his new illustrated Anaheim history book to members of the Anaheim City Council.

In chronicling the development of the one-time German wine colony, “Anaheim: City of Dreams” (Windsor Publications; $25.95) blends Westcott’s text with more than 100 black and white and color illustrations.

Laura Cordova Molmud, a Los Angeles-based photo researcher and editor, compiled the book’s collection of historical photographs and drawings; Cynthia Simone, an El Toro writer, wrote the “Partner’s in Progress” chapter that profiles businesses and organizations that helped finance the book project, which was produced in cooperation with the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.

Westcott, a staff writer for the Orange County Register, writes in his introduction: “The story of Anaheim . . . demonstrates a fact too often forgotten in Southern California, that the region has a long and fascinating history, filled with heroes and villains and unexpected twists and turns. And Anaheim’s story is as rich and fascinating--and instructive--as that of any city in Southern California.

Herbert N. Budnick, a Palos Verdes psychotherapist who primarily works with heart disease patients and their families, has written a book with Scott Hays, a Corona del Mar free-lance writer, that answers many of the most common questions among heart-disease patients and their families:

* Why am I angry?

* Will I ever be the same?

* Can my mental state affect my physical state?

“Heart to Heart: A Guide to the Psychological Aspects of Heart Disease” (Health Press; $22.95) offers useful and easily applied psychological information about heart disease. Budnick, whose father and sister died of cardiovascular disease, has spent the past 12 years conducting his “Living With Heart Disease” lecture series and counseling programs.

“It’s really the only book on the market that deals with the emotional dynamics of heart disease, and it’s written in a format that’s very easy to comprehend,” says Hays, adding that the book is “also good for doctors and nurses who have to deal with heart-disease patients.”

Fullerton writer Bentley Little’s second horror novel, “The Mailman,” has just been released as an Onyx paperback original.

According to Little, his new book “concerns a mailman who takes control of a small northern Arizona town through manipulation of the mail. Bills are lost, letters rerouted and feuds begin. The social fabric of the town begins to unravel as the mailman consolidates his power.”

“The Revelation,” Little’s first horror novel, was published in hardcover by St. Martin’s Press last year and is in contention for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel.

Last month, St. Martin’s published the paperback version of “The Revelation,” which Little wrote as his master’s project at Cal State Fullerton.

Little, who works days as a technical writer for the city of Costa Mesa and writes his fiction nights and weekends, recently sold his third novel, “Evil Deeds,” a thriller, to New American Library.

Since 1984, Little has written more than 40 short stories, which have appeared in horror and men’s magazines.

“A lot of those paid for my education,” says Little, who had one of his stories included in the recent paperback anthology, “Borderlands.”