I've written nine complete novels and am in the process of working on several more(even though three of my "completed" works will need work before being truly finished). Five are now available, with Akeldama out in May 2017, Salvation Day out in November 2017, Wrongful Death released in August 2018, Schism recently released in July 2020, and Homecoming released in March 2021.
Below is what I've done and where we stand on each. Please check back regularly, as this list will change. And once these are published, the titles below will be linked over to Amazon.
Akeldama(Released May 18, 2017) - One of the things I hate most about today in the world of books is that we have no real monsters anymore. All our vampires are touchy-feely romantic types designed to make the girls swoon. Even zombies are now being made to be less monsters than misunderstood heroes. I'm sorry, but I want my monsters to be the creatures of nightmares they were intended to be. The only time a monster should sparkle is after being set on fire by the human hero. This is the foundation for Akeldama.
Seth Gendrickson has worked for the Catholic Church's Order of Mount Sion since his first encounter with a vampire during seminary years ago. Finally working his way up to the rank of Hunter, Seth's first assignment is to investigate a spike in vampire activity in Kansas, an area previously quiet. The area between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River had been a kind of neutral zone for the two main vampire factions - The Assembly of Cairo and Los Muertos. The Assembly hails from Europe, and although few in numbers, is the older of the sects and far more powerful. Los Muertos saw opportunity in the New World, so they established themselves in the Americas and began to multiply. They are young, aggressive, and passionate.
And they're moving east.
Seth is under orders to figure out what's going on before an all out vampire civil war brings knowledge of vampire existence into the open and causes societal panic, something the Church is keen to avoid. During his mission, Seth captures a vampire and interrogates it, but he soon finds that the movement east is less an invasion and more an influx of refugees fleeing a greater threat. Something is hunting the vampires out west, something more terrifying than the risk of conflict. Seth tracks this threat from California to Japan and across Europe to discover the heart of a conspiracy that stretches back 2,000 years and threatens the future of the world.
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Salvation Day(Released November 2, 2017) - I think we've all had questions about faith. Terrible events in our lives have caused us to question whether a loving God could really do such things. Asking these questions during a rough time in my life led to Salvation Day.
Mike Faulkner wants to kill God. No, he doesn't want to convince less people to believe; he wants to confront the deity Himself and watch Him die.
After he lost his baby girl to a childhood illness, his wife, consumed by grief, committed suicide. Through a series of (seemingly) random events, he comes to know that his wife's soul has been sent to Hell for this violation. However, Mike is a theoretical mathematician whose equations show the potential for a new form of energy that can affect the bonds of reality. In the midst of this discovery, he's approached by a demon from Hell's ruling council with an offer of immortality in exchange for creating a new weapon to storm the gates of Heaven and confront the Almighty. The demons promise to free his wife and give him absolute power for his efforts. And all it will take is destruction on an unimaginable scale, as well as the discarding of conscience in order to satiate anger. After all, what's the harm in annihilating Heaven if that means the cruel will of God can be overcome and real justice established?
Salvation Day is a paranormal thriller that takes us from Mike's grief to his temptation to his corruption to his redemption, stopping at every emotional place in between. Mike's journey is for everyone who has ever had questions of faith, the meaning of existence, and a longing to know why life sometimes seems unbearable. How would each of us react to being given the power to create our own version of paradise, and would we truly understand the repercussions of that desire?
UPDATE: SALVATION DAY IS AN INDIEREADER AWARD WINNER AS OF JUNE 2, 2018!
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Wrongful Death(Released August 8, 2018) - I've read lots of horror and ghost stories over the years, and I've always wondered at the motivations of the ghost. Was he or she acting this way just because of an innate evil, or was there more to it? So I thought that a novel written from the point of view of the ghost would be an interesting take.
Christian Gettis, a high school senior with dreams of attending college, swerved off the road and into a lightpost. In the seconds before his death, Christian gets the fleeting image of a young blonde woman in a black car speeding off. He then meets his spiritual guide into the Afterlife, a hazy figure named Alexander who never quite comes into focus. Alexander tells Christian that the violence of his death threw his spirit out of balance, and that balance must be corrected before he can move into the Great Beyond. And the only way to correct that balance is to avenge himself on the person who caused his death.
Unsure how to do this, Christian starts exploring his new abilities and quickly finds the woman in question. He begins tormenting her and causing all manner of havoc. Brief visits to the friends and family he lost in life help maintain his level of motivation, but things start to not add up, and he begins to wonder if he's haunting the wrong person. If that's the case, Christian needs to find out why...
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Schism(Released July 27, 2020) - Our political climate is highly polarized. A stray comment can lead to the loss of a friendship or being blackballed at a job. Each side seems to think the other is motivated not out of love of country and different opinions, but out of pure evil. We don't discuss issues any longer - we screech at each other. One wonders how long the lid can be kept on until the whole thing blows. Schism was created out of this red/blue dynamic, and I don't know that the long term consequences of how we feel would be good for any of us.
The novel starts off with an extremist environmental group setting fire to a ski lodge in northern Idaho. This group sees this place as an unwelcome incursion of mankind into nature, so it must be destroyed. Unfortunately, they don't know that there's a family inside overseeing the final stages of construction, and the fire kills a father, mother, son, and daughter.
However, one member of the family isn't present - the couple's oldest son is a Staff Sergeant in the US Army and is currently deployed. When he gets word of what happened, he plans out revenge Similar to Gavrilo Princip and the outbreak of World War One, this is the spark that ignites the explosion.
As this person takes vengeance, he becomes the focal point of a political firestorm when all sides maneuver into dangerous territory. Conservatives laud him as a hero, while liberals condemn him as a criminal vigilante. When the Democratic President orders his arrest by the National Guard, the Republican governor refuses to comply, so the President federalizes the National Guard of a neighboring state. This leads to a pitched battle at the border and leads to an outbreak of violence that pitts neighbonr against neighbor, rural against urban, and red against blue. And all the while, an ambitious Army officer stationed far away from the conflict bides his time and waits for an opportunity...
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Homecoming(Released March 1, 2021) - I dreamed up the entire backstory to this one before writing it. Set nearly 6,000 years in the future, it follows the story of humanity's return to Earth after being driven off by a genocidal race that seeks out and destroys technology different from its own. The journey starts out as an idealistic crusade but turns into a check on everything the survivors thought they knew. It seems their ancestors weren't as innocent as they'd been led to believe.
Below is what I've done and where we stand on each. Please check back regularly, as this list will change. And once these are published, the titles below will be linked over to Amazon.
Akeldama(Released May 18, 2017) - One of the things I hate most about today in the world of books is that we have no real monsters anymore. All our vampires are touchy-feely romantic types designed to make the girls swoon. Even zombies are now being made to be less monsters than misunderstood heroes. I'm sorry, but I want my monsters to be the creatures of nightmares they were intended to be. The only time a monster should sparkle is after being set on fire by the human hero. This is the foundation for Akeldama.
Seth Gendrickson has worked for the Catholic Church's Order of Mount Sion since his first encounter with a vampire during seminary years ago. Finally working his way up to the rank of Hunter, Seth's first assignment is to investigate a spike in vampire activity in Kansas, an area previously quiet. The area between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River had been a kind of neutral zone for the two main vampire factions - The Assembly of Cairo and Los Muertos. The Assembly hails from Europe, and although few in numbers, is the older of the sects and far more powerful. Los Muertos saw opportunity in the New World, so they established themselves in the Americas and began to multiply. They are young, aggressive, and passionate.
And they're moving east.
Seth is under orders to figure out what's going on before an all out vampire civil war brings knowledge of vampire existence into the open and causes societal panic, something the Church is keen to avoid. During his mission, Seth captures a vampire and interrogates it, but he soon finds that the movement east is less an invasion and more an influx of refugees fleeing a greater threat. Something is hunting the vampires out west, something more terrifying than the risk of conflict. Seth tracks this threat from California to Japan and across Europe to discover the heart of a conspiracy that stretches back 2,000 years and threatens the future of the world.
Salvation Day(Released November 2, 2017) - I think we've all had questions about faith. Terrible events in our lives have caused us to question whether a loving God could really do such things. Asking these questions during a rough time in my life led to Salvation Day.
Mike Faulkner wants to kill God. No, he doesn't want to convince less people to believe; he wants to confront the deity Himself and watch Him die.
After he lost his baby girl to a childhood illness, his wife, consumed by grief, committed suicide. Through a series of (seemingly) random events, he comes to know that his wife's soul has been sent to Hell for this violation. However, Mike is a theoretical mathematician whose equations show the potential for a new form of energy that can affect the bonds of reality. In the midst of this discovery, he's approached by a demon from Hell's ruling council with an offer of immortality in exchange for creating a new weapon to storm the gates of Heaven and confront the Almighty. The demons promise to free his wife and give him absolute power for his efforts. And all it will take is destruction on an unimaginable scale, as well as the discarding of conscience in order to satiate anger. After all, what's the harm in annihilating Heaven if that means the cruel will of God can be overcome and real justice established?
Salvation Day is a paranormal thriller that takes us from Mike's grief to his temptation to his corruption to his redemption, stopping at every emotional place in between. Mike's journey is for everyone who has ever had questions of faith, the meaning of existence, and a longing to know why life sometimes seems unbearable. How would each of us react to being given the power to create our own version of paradise, and would we truly understand the repercussions of that desire?
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Wrongful Death(Released August 8, 2018) - I've read lots of horror and ghost stories over the years, and I've always wondered at the motivations of the ghost. Was he or she acting this way just because of an innate evil, or was there more to it? So I thought that a novel written from the point of view of the ghost would be an interesting take.
Christian Gettis, a high school senior with dreams of attending college, swerved off the road and into a lightpost. In the seconds before his death, Christian gets the fleeting image of a young blonde woman in a black car speeding off. He then meets his spiritual guide into the Afterlife, a hazy figure named Alexander who never quite comes into focus. Alexander tells Christian that the violence of his death threw his spirit out of balance, and that balance must be corrected before he can move into the Great Beyond. And the only way to correct that balance is to avenge himself on the person who caused his death.
Unsure how to do this, Christian starts exploring his new abilities and quickly finds the woman in question. He begins tormenting her and causing all manner of havoc. Brief visits to the friends and family he lost in life help maintain his level of motivation, but things start to not add up, and he begins to wonder if he's haunting the wrong person. If that's the case, Christian needs to find out why...
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Schism(Released July 27, 2020) - Our political climate is highly polarized. A stray comment can lead to the loss of a friendship or being blackballed at a job. Each side seems to think the other is motivated not out of love of country and different opinions, but out of pure evil. We don't discuss issues any longer - we screech at each other. One wonders how long the lid can be kept on until the whole thing blows. Schism was created out of this red/blue dynamic, and I don't know that the long term consequences of how we feel would be good for any of us.
The novel starts off with an extremist environmental group setting fire to a ski lodge in northern Idaho. This group sees this place as an unwelcome incursion of mankind into nature, so it must be destroyed. Unfortunately, they don't know that there's a family inside overseeing the final stages of construction, and the fire kills a father, mother, son, and daughter.
However, one member of the family isn't present - the couple's oldest son is a Staff Sergeant in the US Army and is currently deployed. When he gets word of what happened, he plans out revenge Similar to Gavrilo Princip and the outbreak of World War One, this is the spark that ignites the explosion.
As this person takes vengeance, he becomes the focal point of a political firestorm when all sides maneuver into dangerous territory. Conservatives laud him as a hero, while liberals condemn him as a criminal vigilante. When the Democratic President orders his arrest by the National Guard, the Republican governor refuses to comply, so the President federalizes the National Guard of a neighboring state. This leads to a pitched battle at the border and leads to an outbreak of violence that pitts neighbonr against neighbor, rural against urban, and red against blue. And all the while, an ambitious Army officer stationed far away from the conflict bides his time and waits for an opportunity...
Buy the paperback here. Buy the ebook for Kindle here.
Homecoming(Released March 1, 2021) - I dreamed up the entire backstory to this one before writing it. Set nearly 6,000 years in the future, it follows the story of humanity's return to Earth after being driven off by a genocidal race that seeks out and destroys technology different from its own. The journey starts out as an idealistic crusade but turns into a check on everything the survivors thought they knew. It seems their ancestors weren't as innocent as they'd been led to believe.
Written in journal format, it's told from the point of view of a historian traveling with the re-conquest fleet. The marauders that took Earth are the most obvious challenge, but are they the biggest? Some humans left behind managed to survive, as did others who escaped and didn't follow their friends to the same world. There's also another alien race that stands in the way - they were once feared but time has finally given us an edge. Will we use that edge in arrogance or in the search for justice?
Canidae - This one is a sequel to Akeldama. I tried to figure out how chaotic things would be in the aftermath of a struggle as epic as the one in the first novel, and this was the result. Although done, Canidae is a bit too broad in its scope at the moment, and it will require a partial rewrite before release.
The war against the vampires is over. Seth Gendrickson, the man who played the key role in removing the undead curse, has been put in charge by the Vatican of reintegrating his former enemies into society. It's a difficult task, made more so by the stubborn nature of those who used to be immortal.
However, an ancient adversary has returned and is bent on vengeance against its now weakened foe. The pattern of attacks appears random, but Seth suspects there is more going on than simple revenge.
(Novel complete but in need of editing and rewrites. Scheduled to be released sometime in 2025, although that could end up delayed due to edits).
Short Story Collection - I've written numerous short stories in my time. I've entered a few into various writing contests, and I've been gratified when a few of them have been recognized. I've long since decided that I'm going to put together a short story collection of between 25 and 30 stories for release. I can add to this collection over time without having to worry about concentrating on a specific novel. In other words, I can take a break from a current work to write a short story totally unrelated to my main project at the time.
A lot of these stories are taken from my other works. No, not just sub-sections of novels, but stories from within the worlds I've already created. I've found that it's much easier to write a short story about a world with which I'm already familiar. Each story will have a brief description up front talking about the context of the story to follow.
(Work in progress. About 40% complete with stories. Unknown publication date)
Onyx - I began this novel in January of 2014 after playing around with the idea for several years. It is by far one of the strangest stories I've yet worked on. It follows an arrogant scientist who invents a time travel machine. Convinced he will be able to tap power in the future for his return trip home, he fails to account for the possibility that society may not be what he thought it would be when he left. Finding himself trapped, he begins to encounter strange events - the slaughtering of groups greater than three, a field of stars that lays deep inside a valley and is observable only at a distance but seems to be meaningful, and a group of phantoms that shows up to annihilate any rebuilding of civilization. He gets the feeling that these phantoms know him, but he knows not how. What he does know is that figuring them out is the key to getting home.
(First draft complete, but this one will need a reworked second draft. The story spun out of control and may be too bizarre to publish in current form. Unknown publishing date...if ever).
Fight Or Flight - This story follows a young man named David Morton, the founding father of the society found in Homecoming. Caught in the middle of an extraterrestrial attack, this 22 year old kid starts a 73 year journey by trying to save his family from the onslaught. In one tragic moment, though, everything changes. His actions, or lack thereof, in the face of the enemy haunt him for the rest of his life and provide the driving force behind his building a global resistance network. Eventually, humanity wages an all out counterattack that appears successful...only to find that the enemy is stronger than first thought. The decisions David makes next affect the future of mankind, and indeed the universe as a whole.
(First draft complete. Requires editing and revision, but should be out sometime in 2026 after major rewrites).
After Armageddon - This one will get me burnt at the stake. I thought Salvation Day was potential heresy, but this one...wow.
We take for granted that God wins the Battle of Armageddon. After all, the Bible outlines it, and even movies like The Devil's Advocate acknowledge that Satan is destined to lose. However, winners write the history books, and making yourself seem inevitable can be powerful propaganda. So I started wondering what the world would be like if Satan won the Battle of Armageddon. Does he have a plan to rule, or is destruction of God his sole goal? What would humanity be like? What would the world be like? Would Earth be Hell? Would Hell still be necessary? And what about Heaven? And would Satan be immune from politics from his underlings? All of these things came together for a truly dystopian novel that presses the boundaries of sacrilege.
(First draft complete. Needs some reworking. Unknown release date).
The war against the vampires is over. Seth Gendrickson, the man who played the key role in removing the undead curse, has been put in charge by the Vatican of reintegrating his former enemies into society. It's a difficult task, made more so by the stubborn nature of those who used to be immortal.
However, an ancient adversary has returned and is bent on vengeance against its now weakened foe. The pattern of attacks appears random, but Seth suspects there is more going on than simple revenge.
(Novel complete but in need of editing and rewrites. Scheduled to be released sometime in 2025, although that could end up delayed due to edits).
Short Story Collection - I've written numerous short stories in my time. I've entered a few into various writing contests, and I've been gratified when a few of them have been recognized. I've long since decided that I'm going to put together a short story collection of between 25 and 30 stories for release. I can add to this collection over time without having to worry about concentrating on a specific novel. In other words, I can take a break from a current work to write a short story totally unrelated to my main project at the time.
A lot of these stories are taken from my other works. No, not just sub-sections of novels, but stories from within the worlds I've already created. I've found that it's much easier to write a short story about a world with which I'm already familiar. Each story will have a brief description up front talking about the context of the story to follow.
(Work in progress. About 40% complete with stories. Unknown publication date)
Onyx - I began this novel in January of 2014 after playing around with the idea for several years. It is by far one of the strangest stories I've yet worked on. It follows an arrogant scientist who invents a time travel machine. Convinced he will be able to tap power in the future for his return trip home, he fails to account for the possibility that society may not be what he thought it would be when he left. Finding himself trapped, he begins to encounter strange events - the slaughtering of groups greater than three, a field of stars that lays deep inside a valley and is observable only at a distance but seems to be meaningful, and a group of phantoms that shows up to annihilate any rebuilding of civilization. He gets the feeling that these phantoms know him, but he knows not how. What he does know is that figuring them out is the key to getting home.
(First draft complete, but this one will need a reworked second draft. The story spun out of control and may be too bizarre to publish in current form. Unknown publishing date...if ever).
Fight Or Flight - This story follows a young man named David Morton, the founding father of the society found in Homecoming. Caught in the middle of an extraterrestrial attack, this 22 year old kid starts a 73 year journey by trying to save his family from the onslaught. In one tragic moment, though, everything changes. His actions, or lack thereof, in the face of the enemy haunt him for the rest of his life and provide the driving force behind his building a global resistance network. Eventually, humanity wages an all out counterattack that appears successful...only to find that the enemy is stronger than first thought. The decisions David makes next affect the future of mankind, and indeed the universe as a whole.
(First draft complete. Requires editing and revision, but should be out sometime in 2026 after major rewrites).
After Armageddon - This one will get me burnt at the stake. I thought Salvation Day was potential heresy, but this one...wow.
We take for granted that God wins the Battle of Armageddon. After all, the Bible outlines it, and even movies like The Devil's Advocate acknowledge that Satan is destined to lose. However, winners write the history books, and making yourself seem inevitable can be powerful propaganda. So I started wondering what the world would be like if Satan won the Battle of Armageddon. Does he have a plan to rule, or is destruction of God his sole goal? What would humanity be like? What would the world be like? Would Earth be Hell? Would Hell still be necessary? And what about Heaven? And would Satan be immune from politics from his underlings? All of these things came together for a truly dystopian novel that presses the boundaries of sacrilege.
(First draft complete. Needs some reworking. Unknown release date).
