At the beginning of this year I made some...predictions...about what I would accomplish this year (we all know I don't make resolutions). One of them was to make an effort to partially transition into traditional, mainstream publishing. I say "partially" because my fiction covers so many genres that I cannot possibly publish all of it under my own name using the traditional methods. Publishers, understandably, want to brand their authors with a simple, clearly understandable label -- mystery, horror, techno-thriller, fantasy, whatever -- and once branded, it is damnably hard for said authors to branch out without using a pseudonym. I am proud of my name, and proud of the work I do under it, and would prefer to avoid nom de plumes except under very specific, necessary circumstances. But at any rate, and without getting into details, I'm doing what I set out to do: I haven't succeeded, but important steps have been taken and good progress has been made. Whether the deal will be sealed is another matter entirely: you don't spend twelve and a half years slogging away in Hollywood and count any chickens -- and I mean any chickens -- before they hatch.

I mention this because I'm not sure if I've ever actually sat down and discussed, with the few thousand people who read this regularly, everything that I have published to date, mostly through the microimprint One Nine Books, directly to Amazon. I am not talking about short stories I've had published in print magazines. Nor am I talking about the short stories I've made available for purchase on Amazon. Longer forms only.

So, here goes:

NOVELS

CAGE LIFE (Cage Life Series #1). This is my first novel, the story of a New York-based MMA fighter who slugs the wrong guy in a barroom brawl and ends up owing the local Mafia his physical services as a means of paying his "debt." As a former parole officer with a background in martial arts, I was able to bring a lot of personal experience, knowledge and research into this novel that made both the criminal sequences and the fight scenes pass the tests thrown at them by, well, the actual criminals, cops and fighters who actually read it. This novel is like Film Noir minus most of the moral ambiguity, and there's a love story in there, too, as my hero, Mick, struggles with temptations of the criminal life and the violence it brings, and tries to find his way back to "normal" life. CAGE LIFE was Zealot Script Magazine's "Book of the Year" in 2016 and won the Best Indie Book Award.

KNUCKLE DOWN (Cage Life Series #2). The second book in the CAGE LIFE series finds Mick returning to New York to investigate threats made against the life of his ex-girlfriend...who is now engaged to his worst enemy. Battling with his feelings for her as he delves back into the underworld he escaped, he's also embroiled in an old-school fighting tournament with a million-dollar prize. The first book was a crime thriller; this one combines thrills with a mystery which Mick must solve if he wants to save the life of his estranged beloved, and delves into the dark intersection between big business and transnational crime. KNUCKLE DOWN won the Best Indie Book Award in 2019 and was a Writer's Digest Honorable Mention.

SINNER'S CROSS (Sinner's Cross Series #1). I've studied the Second World War since I was a small boy. I have a degree in history. I've read hundreds of books on the subject (in English and German), interviewed WW2 veterans, obtained boxes' worth of original documents, the Nuremberg Trials documents, etc., etc. SINNER'S CROSS is a WW2 novel told from both the American and the German points of view, describing their lives as they fight for a worthless crossroads on the Belgian-German border during the final months of 1944. It is not a story about strategy or technology. It is a study of human beings under the most extreme psychological and physical pressures men can experience. It is a deliberate, systematic attempt to avoid cliche, propaganda, and the sort of nationalistic feelings and "greatest generation" hero worship that abound in most stories of this type. Nobody has ever told me this was an easy book to read: the violence is relentless and extreme, and I play no favorites with the characters. But SINNER'S CROSS is a hit with critics. It has won the Book Excellence Award, the Literary Titan Gold Medal, the Best Indie Book Award, and the Reader's Favorite Gold Medal, among other accolades.

THE VERY DEAD OF WINTER (Sinner's Cross Series #2). This novel picks up where SINNER'S CROSS left off; it follows the surviving characters from the Battle of the Huertgen Forest into the opening stage of the Battle of the Bulge, i.e. the Ardennes Campaign of 1944 - 1945. It retains the split perspective of Americans and Germans, but like its predecessor, intersects and weaves the fates of these men closely together in a kind of violent 6-Degrees-of-Separation-meets-the-Butterfly Effect. It also highlights a part of the famous campaign which is little known -- the Battle of the Snow Eifel, an American catastrophe. THE VERY DEAD OF WINTER has won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, the Literary Titan Gold Medal, Book Excellence Award Finalist, and is a Reader's Favorite Five Star.

COLLECTIONS

DEVILS YOU KNOW. This is a collection of thirteen short stories I wrote over a 26 year period, covering subjects as diverse as grief, the devil, Nazism, gangterism, the Civil War, dystopia, and so on; but the unifying theme is horror. A few were previously published in literary magazines, but most were purpose-built for the collection, which -- as the name implies -- explores some of the darker aspects of human motivation and existence. There is some humor, too, though it tends toward the midnight black variety. If you by some chance have an interest as to how a writer's style develops over a quarter of a century at the keys, this is also for you.

COMING SOON

EXILES: A TALE FROM THE CHRONICLES OF MAGNUS (Magnus Chronicles II). My novella DEUS EX (see below) explored the idea of a dictator's downfall and attempt to escape from justice while proving -- to himself -- that he had been right all along. In writing the novella, I developed not only the world he occupied, but within my mind, the one he had destroyed in order to take power. In EXILES I explored this barely hinted-at world at length in full novel form, through the eyes of two protagonists at odds with the aspiring Tyrant. I have never had so much fun writing a book as this one, or written it as easily or in such a short time. This is part alternative history, part adventure, and part thriller. While reading DEUS EX might make the experience more enjoyable, it is not necessary, as I am not telling the story of Magnus in order, and indeed, the first entry in the series is actually its end. So spoilers are impossible. This novel will be released either later this year or early in 2024.

NOVELLAS

NOSFERATU. A non-supernatural horror story set in WW2 on the Eastern Front, it chronicles the experiences of a courageous, principled, but morally blind German officer who, after being wounded in battle, discovers the sinister origins of the means used to save his life. Winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award.

SHADOWS AND GLORY. Another WW2 tale from the German perspective, it is the story of a naive, brainwashed young boy who idolizes his U-boat commander father, only to discover his hero has ideological feet of clay.

SEELENMORD. A nonmagical fantasy set in an ancient land, SEELENMORD tells of the arrival into a peaceful, pagan village of a mysterious stranger preaching a sinister new religion.

THE NUMBERS GAME. Yet another WW2 tale, from the British perspective and told in the black comic style of Evelyn Waugh and Derek Robinson, it is the story of a Hurricane pilot in the Battle of Britain whose passion for numbers, statistics and probabilities leads him to the inescapable conclusion that he can predict the exact moment of his death. A Pinnacle Book Achivement Award winner.

DEUS EX. Magnus Antonius Magnus once ruled a quarter of the Earth and was worshiped by millions as a god; now he is fleeing the ruins of his capital as his enemies close in from all sides. What went wrong? Can he escape justice? And if he does, has he learned anything from his downfall? (Alternative history)

WOLF WEATHER. A dark fantasy set in the wastes of the frozen north, finds the hero the sole survivor of an isolated fort, beset on all sides by werewolves whose plan for him is far worse than death. An exploration of what happens when wild savagery collides with iron discipline.

And that, friends and neighbors, is my catalog as of today, 10/18/23. There is, of course, more coming: if I do one thing correctly (an arguable assertion) it is get the ideas in my head onto paper. Feel free to explore all of them (save EXILES) via the links below.