Yes, you've found it, the secret literary gate where all my works are available for review. Get a cup of tea. Click about. See if there is anything that makes you smile (or better yet, makes $$$ signs flash into your eyes with associated cash-register noises). I can be reached HERE or at the contact link provided. Click on the titles below to see the opening chapter.

Lets talk.

Indigo-

Indigo, where Watership Down meets Top Gun.

This is a tale of crows. As moody as vampires, as scrappy as goths, they are natural anti-heroes and Tuft, the avian protagonist of my story, is no exception. Soaring across the central Florida sky, we follow his life as he joins a roosting flock, seeking his place in its literal pecking order. While he grubs out a living off the discarded offerings of tallpinks, he forms a shadow of our human hopes, sorrows and frustrations. We see him fail at love, chafe against life’s frustrations, and scrabble for recognition and place in his geschwader. We share his fear of falcons and owls and the mysterious West Nile Virus. And in the end, we’ll fly with him against a double threat; the rise of a new crow order to the south and the world-ending maelstrom we knew as Hurricane Charlie.

Early ReTyrement-

(Available on Amazon)

Can a modern programmer make it in the ancient world?

Computer Programmer Mason Trellis thought he had problems with corporate nepotism. When an experimental laser punches him 2400 years counterclockwise to the ancient port of Tyre, he discovers greater problems (namely ignorance of metallurgy, chemistry, explosives, history, or even the date of a convenient eclipse). Now laboring in a wineshop, he’ll have to think hard and fast to come up with a way out of slavery and into wealth, power and the arms of the lovely daughter of a high Persian official, all before the war between Greece and Persia destroys this eastern Mediterranean city.

Praise for Mason Trellis, hero of Early Retirement-

Frank Tanner (Comtec Manager): Mason was an exemplary programmer. I felt bad about him not getting that promotion, but that was no reason to vanish without two week’s notice, leaving his lunch trash in the laser test room. That’s only common courtesy in a modern corporation.

Aziru (Wineshop Proprioter, Mason’s owner): I purchased Mazon’s slave contract, needing him only to distribute wine and bread to my patrons. But the ideas he brought, the changes! The city of Tyre will never be the same!

Alexander the Great (Macedonian General): I shall kill that whoreson! I shall take his throat within my hands and…!

(Rear Cover Presentation)

(Plot Synopsis - SPOILERS!)

Wenamon-

Ancient Egyptian scrolls are often viewed as the dusty boasts of long-dead kings. The one detailing the story of Wenamon proves otherwise. Discovered in Egypt in 1891, it told the true tale of a pompous priest of the New Kingdom (1100BC or so) who journeyed to Syria to secure valuable hardwoods. With thefts, piracies, sex, storms and shipwrecks, it read more like an adventure novel than a trip report. All through it, Wenamon bargained, wheedled, huffed, and wept his way from one mishap to the next.

I have fleshed his sad but true tale of human foibles into a complete novel, Wenamon. It follows the priest’s tale as he journeys through ancient Egypt, Syria, and Cyprus, detailing his petty triumphs and staggering failures. As the true scroll ends at a moment of absolute crisis for the poor priest (his ship and cargo lost, and his neck bent before an executioner’s blade), I have been able to complete his journey with a satisfactory conclusion. I would like to share this work with you if you are interested.

Fire and Bronze-

(Title currently held by J. Boylston & Co)

 She was a princess in Tyre eight centuries before Christ. She defied her brother the king, marrying the high priest and setting temple and throne on a collision course. The Nobility rebelled at her urging, plunging the Phoenician crown city into bloody civil war. In the end, her husband would fall before the king’s own blade. She would be forced to exchange her husband’s vast wealth for a tenuous promise of life.

But she was a woman of wits and guile. Onboard the ship fetching the fortune home, she threw the riches overboard, pointing out that with this action the sailors now shared the king’s ire. They defected with her, a ragged band of seamen and exiled nobles. Fleeing west, they settled on a forsaken shore in North Africa. Here she established her city. Carthage was born.

This is the story of Elisha, a historical character of legend. It is a texture of the classic foundation myths attributed to her, from stealing away eighty Cypriot temple women to using a single oxhide to claim her city's land. It is a mixture of the known and conjectured, rich in atmosphere and detail. Actual Phoenician words are sprinkled through the text, capturing the essence of the Mediterranean world of 814 B.C.