Preeminent biologist, Philippe Krause, only wants to share his discovery with the world, but the world has forced him to become a
killer. The day he looked up from a microscope knowing DNA had revealed the secret to genetic immortality, he began plans for
announcing the discovery and his desire for all humanity to have it at no cost. No future generation would ever know old age or
disease.
His naivete lasts ten minutes. The moment he makes such an announcement a veil of secrecy will descend so black light cannot
escape. The government that controls mankind’s DNA, controls the world. They will move mountains to possess the technology.
But Philippe will not be denied his dream and so begins thirty years of preparation. He will de-fang the world’s major powers
from moving against him by destroying their clandestine strike forces. The stage is set. For the first time in history, the most
powerful humans ever to exist are about to appear: four genetically altered assassins.
Preview opening pages
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As part of an advance marketing campaign, I would like to offer those who either will or have purchased any one
of my novels the opportunity to obtain the eFile version of 'The Sixth Ape' at no charge.
Simply email me a picture of your eReader displaying the Copyright page of either 'They Cried Wolf', 'United States of Africa' or
'The Huntsman', showing the ISBN and ASIN numbers. In return, I will send you an attached copy of 'The Sixth Ape'. If you buy or
have bought all three I will include the eFile version of 'Seraphim'. Also at no charge.
Along with a stunned nation, Diego Constance gapes at the newscast. A frantic evacuation escalates as a virulent contagion
dissolves Midwesterners by the tens of thousands. It confirms the staggering betrayal he’s uncovered. His boss, the President of
the United States, is responsible. Masked by an engineered calamity, the President has maneuvered a panicked congress into granting
him dictatorial powers. A psychopath has slipped past the American electorate.
Despite legal constraints, Diego remains the Commander in Chief’s weapon of choice against national security threats. Killing
however makes for a lonely life and Diego longs for an end to his solitary existence. But first his scarred soul must once more
descend into a violent darkness.
A despot grips freedom’s throat. With each passing hour the stranglehold tightens. Whatever the cost, tyranny cannot stand. Diego
steels himself. The bloodlust swells. He will confront the most powerful, the most guarded man on earth. Diego’s cunning, hardened
by a brutal lifetime, guarantees nothing.
What no one knows, not even the President…the Executive Assassin is a werewolf.
Lauren Danielle Carson’s hours old Presidency has just crashed and burned. A classified report details what many have long conjectured.
During her first term, a unified Africa will surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower. Her legacy will be the President on whose watch America joined history’s also-rans.
Desperate to reverse a decades-long decline, committees, panels, experts, meetings, storm sessions fill her days and nights. Every effort to forestall the inevitable reaches a dead end. Slowly, inexorably, options diminish. When one remains, she faces the horrific, the unthinkable.
Fate has intertwined two mirrored lives. She is white. He is black. She leads a nation. He conquered a continent. Her story is the present, his lies in the past. He begins as a brutal warlord and ends up beloved and cheered. She begins beloved and cheered and ends up a despised
outcast. She will destroy his achievements and in the act, destroy herself.
Millennia ago, Sorkens desperate to escape the Milky Way’s savagery, settled into our nondescript, out-of-the-way star group. Unaware of Earth, a shockwave spreads across their planet when humanity ignites its first wormhole. Led by a brutal crime lord, vicious warfare erupts among factions determined to control mankind’s gateway to the stars. All are oblivious to what an electro-magnetic beacon blaring across the galaxy implies.
Panicked, the Sorken Council meets to re-authorize a long-forbidden technology. Through their own wormhole, they send a Warrior Priestess. Before galactic wolves track the scent, she must destroy the device and everyone possessed of its knowledge.
Fate however, has its own designs. The Huntsman too seeks the device.
No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's remote Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yíncándí is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.
Seraphim, Mujahedeen-like madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. Continuing slaughter has placed Middle East Christians on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican must place their hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.
But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord.
This is a story that continues the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as told through the eyes of Little Red's
daughter, Crimson Ryder. She struggles to understand why a wolf plagues her family such that beginning with the great-grandmother,
her grandmother and mother have succumbed to the same horror. The adventure begins for answers to save herself but more
importantly, her future daughter. This is not a children's fable.
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On large screens, clicking any image will display a larger version. Click again to close it. The left and right arrows will cycle
through the pictures carousel style. Clicking the book icon will open the full, scrollable novelette (13 chapters plus a prologue)
with imagery. For greater reading convenience, clicking the arrow icon will permit downloading the entire PDF (1.5mb) novelette
in zip format to the download folder your browser is configured for. And, oh yeah. At no charge.
Simone Stanton never imagined capping a brilliant career with promotion to admiral would bring such heartache and
grief. Solona Stanton, rejecting her family's military traditions, disappears into a hellish pit of anguish and despair. One wants
to end the pain. The other sinks deeper into its agony.
But something has entered the Milky Way's outer boundaries and Earth rallies its defenses. It forms an Expeditionary Force to
investigate and needs a Stanton to lead it. Mother and daughter must conquer the demons plaguing their psyches if they are to have
any hope of conquering the demons awaiting them.
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On large screens, clicking any image will display a larger version. Click again to close it. The left and right
arrows will cycle through the pictures carousel style. Clicking the book icon will open the full, scrollable novelette (15 chapters
plus a prologue and epilogue) with imagery. For greater reading convenience, clicking the down arrow icon will permit downloading the
entire PDF (2.26mb) novelette in zip format to the download folder your browser is configured for. And, as before, at no charge.
Some Flash Fiction
The Track
A cold gust blew the rose off her tombstone. Blew them off the other two, the smaller ones. Laying in the snow, they seemed redder. Like blood. My hand came out its
glove to wipe my nose. Cold made it run. The kind of cold that blasted down from the mountain. Three days ago it had run and hadn't reminded me of anything. Hadn't warned
me either. Not out among the pines chopping kindling.
My axe chunked into that wood. Chunk, chunk. The sound echoed off the trees broken only by snorts the cold forced my nose to make. I paused and turned, stopped and stared.
My hand tightened, felt the wood's grain along the haft. Four paw marks marred the snow. A wolf's. The tracks shone in the cold sun. Huge, still. Cold as the air.
I followed them. Why will haunt my eternity. I will stand before the Lord, head bowed. Hear His damnation. I followed them, unaware of now's end.
The track became a puzzle I refused to understand. It dared me to. Four paw marks became two. Ice stabbed my heart and froze my soul. They had turned. Back toward
the cabin. I ran and plowed, plowed and ran. Screamed and warned. Only the door, banged by the wind against the wood house, answered.
A laugh, cold, distant, mocked me. I stood, framed by the doorway. Inside, eternity had arrived. Blood, scattered like rose petals, had already frozen. Pieces. Broken, strewn.
Nothing moved.
The Trail
I never had trouble finding her. She always left a trail. Inside the door, shoes lay where she had kicked them off. Ear rings, necklaces on the table by the sofa. The recliner
didn't escape. Dropped scarves, hurled sweaters, thrown tops. Often I'd pick them off the floor where she just let them fall. She'd greet me at the trail's end, arms outstretched,
her expression a mix of impatience and relief, annoyance and joy. It spoke without a word. "What took you so long?"
Light adored her face. Made it glow and gleam. Emerald eyes that penetrated through me, sparkled and danced. When she laughed, angels smiled. Sometimes dainty crumbs led to the
bedroom. Skirt, nylons, panties, bra. I never thought of her as my mate or my partner. She was my wizard. Oh, how her caress enchanted me. A look could bewitch me. We never made
love. We made magic. Her body melted against mine. Her limbs and hands became unbreakable bonds. Her tongue pierced my soul. Heat that ignited flames never burned or charred.
Around me the room, the world, the universe... vanished.
I can still feel her two arms entwined around mine. They tightened when the doctor entered, x-rays in hand.
I come home now. The key hesitates, slow to turn. I'd give my life to see her shoes, her jewelry, her clothes. Anything to pick up. One more time.
and Illustrated Flash Fiction
The Heiress
Despite continuing chores and duties, an uncustomary hush blanketed the castle. Not because the much beloved Queen
Regnant lay dying. Her age and frailty had made that long expected. But of late, the Heiress, her daughter, had acquired behaviors
deemed...unnatural.
Nightly sounds swelled and echoed throughout halls and corridors, doing nothing to quell the rising alarm. Chambermaids, minstrels,
clerks, grooms, and even Knights exchanged nods and glances, whispers and looks at the cacophany emanating from the Princess' room.
Howls, grunts, moans, barks. And screams. Screams that continued long into the nights. They spoke of dark arts, depraved acts, and
no one felt safe.
Tension mounted when a group of Lords arrived to inquire after the Queen. Princess Noshara entered the throne room with four
impossibly handsome men no one had ever seen before or knew. Restrained gasps arose when the courtiers saw the Princess' eyes had
changed to a hue insinuating debauchery and devilry.
She suffered the Lords no courtesies, refused to answer their questions, then, with a wave of her hand, dismissed them. Thereafter
began the nightly forays she and her male retinue pursued. They returned through the castle's little used entrance deep within its
bowels. Grooms collecting their horses spoke of the men's blood-stained lips and still dripping mouths.
A fortnight passed into a glorious morning witnessing the castle's staff falling to their knees and singing in praise. The Queen
emerged from her room hail and hearty, fit and young. Vibrant and smiling. All rushed to kiss her hand and pronounce their undying
love. Indeed, the much beloved Queen was loved by none greater than the daughter who had bequeathed her mother youth by sacrificing
her soul.
Paradise
This is Gabriella posing before the Gate to Paradise. More on her in a moment.
Paradise is not how you imagine it. No clouds or wispy contrails. No people in long, shapeless robes floating about, gazing upwards,
singing in chorus, playing harps. In fact, if you ask an angel if they can play the harp, they just laugh.
Paradise looks very much like here: towns, cities, roads, trees, houses, apartments, stores, neighborhoods. You have good neighbors
and not so good neighbors. It's just that nothing bad ever happens there.
No one needs to drive. In Paradise you can be anywhere you want in an instant. But often just for fun people conjure up all kinds of
cars and head out for a spin. As you can imagine, they drive at breakneck speeds. Horrific pileups happen all the time. But everybody
walks away laughing. As I said, nothing bad happens in Paradise.
Which brings us to Gabriella, who is the daughter of the Archangel Gabriel, guardian of the gates to Paradise. Wait a minute, you
say. Archangels have children? Are they having sex? Yeah and they are, but that's another story.
So what do you do with eternity before you and nothing bad ever happens? Well, the latest craze is dressing up and pretending to be
badasses. Hold on now. You mean the people in Paradise are spending their time cosplaying?! Yup. Like Gabriella here. She doesn't
normally dress like this. But in her case, it's not much of a pretense. She really is a badass, as many a knucklehead who tried to
sneak into Paradise has found out the hard way.
What does the Big Guy think of all this? He loves it! After all, besides Lucifer, He's the ultimate badass. And the Seraphim along
with the Cherubs are hard at it trying to get Him to dress the part.
How do I know all this? Well, as you might have already guessed, that's another story 😊