High Ground
This is my oldest surviving book. It was a political thriller written in 1995. I started work on it in Okotoks, AB and finished it in Terrace, BC. After it was rejected by a few publishers, I gave up and let it rot for a few decades until I found it on a computer. It had been written in Microsoft Works and was inaccessible until my son, Jonathan Ross, rescued it from digital hell. Since it was written at a time when cell phones weren’t much of a thing, updating it for a modern setting (in 2018 approximately) was a bit dicey. Still, this book—about a neo-Nazi / evangelical extremist alliance—proved regrettably prescient.
Hell Queen
Hell Queen started life as part of an older book of interconnected stories published as Chaembyr Musick. Hell Queen was originally titled The Goddess and passed through a few phases before becoming Hell Queen. The concept of Hell Queen was based on the Persephone legend. Persephone aka Kore (Cora) lived half the year in Hell and the rest on Earth. So I imagined Cora in several earthly incarnations with no memory of her other self, yet always awakening to the truth of her divine nature.
Softly Launching
This was my first published collection of short stories. It contains one of my best efforts: Love With Subtitles. It was also my first book to be printed. Holding it in that bookstore was an indescribably delicious feeling.
Splatter of Fact
To date, this has been my most popular book with readers. It’s based on fairly dodgy metaphysics and it’s kinda fun, but it’s also really stupid. I wrote it pretty fast and the result felt good. The story was more entertaining than anything I’d written before.
Lost in the Amazon
Here’s a book that was written because of the title. Why? Simple. I wrote a long short story in Grade Four with this title. My teacher loved it. Read the entire thing aloud to our class. She even got me tested to determine if I was “gifted”. (I wasn’t.) Nevertheless, that teacher’s encouragement set me on a course that changed my life. This book—a collection of short stories—was written to honour her memory. (Thank you, Miss Pargelen.)
Kitsch & Moonshine
The title of this book came from a text exchange with my friend, Dyane Irvine. I envisioned star-crossed lovers: a shady art appraiser and a wild hillbilly girl. Writing this one was pure fun.
Dead4U
After retiring from gainful employment at the zipper factory, this became my first project. It’s written somewhat closer to a pulp-style story with lots of graphic violence and gratuitous sex. In other words, it’s a fun read.
Harlot’s Honeymoon
I wanted to write a classic romance with bickering lovers and lots of plot turns. Instead, I ended up writing this. It’s a romcom with the occasional bang and whimper.
Terror Takes Two
The premise was simple. Two bored thrill-seekers decide to tell scary stories around a campfire. Problem: they need someone to judge their story contest. So they kidnap an older man and younger woman from the campsite next to them. Fun and frolicking ensue . . .
Beautiful Strangers
Convoluted tale of scientists, spies, mind-control and total weirdness. Not your traditional page-turner. Imagine falling down a rabbit hole—if the hole was in the rabbit’s head but the rabbit didn’t know it was dead so it kept talking. Yeah. See what I mean?
Heroes Need Not Apply
Decided to try my hand at urban fantasy and this is what happened. Happy accident or total crap? Let me know what you think.
Half Empty
Wrote this one sometime between 1997-2002 back in Terrace, BC. Didn’t take that long to write—just can’t remember when the actual writing occurred. RE the title: I’m sick of people claiming to belong to the “half-full” or “half-empty” camp. I say someone drank from my glass when I wasn’t looking. There you go. Another critical social issue resolved without even trying. And I REALLY wasn’t trying.