Crows’ Gambit

Phil Andrade figures he has it pretty-well dialed in.  Good job.  Sweet little town with all the right amenities.  He bikes, hikes, and gardens.  He listens to jazz.  It’s all good.

Sure, his closest friends are a couple of crows, but even that’s okay.  After all, Phil isn’t much of a people person.  Acquaintances are fine; the rest is baggage.  Just ask his ex-girlfriend.

But Phil’s uncomplicated existence is about to unravel.  First, a problem client stiffs him for a quarter’s-worth of pay.  Twenty-four hours later, he’s living in his van.  Even as he scrambles to pull his life back together, prospects for full-time employment recede.

Meanwhile, Phil finds himself drawn into a series of mysteries:  a powerful old woman demonstrates an unsettling amount of knowledge regarding Phil’s situation.  Life takes a dark turn when the town is shocked by a brutal crime.  And then there are the rats…

Edge Station

A Story from the Edge of Human Space

His career crushed by corporate politics, Emmett Teninger has fled the inner worlds. After going through intensive training and buying a new set of augmentations, Emmet has managed to redefine himself as a scout ship pilot. Better yet, he’s snagged a position at Edge Station Four, an outpost at the edge of human space. Now he just wants to keep his head down and fly under the radar.

When Emmet’s survey team discovers a region with high concentrations of valuable resources, the staff at ES4 is excited and pleased.  When the scouts encounter an advanced alien civilization in an exceptionally rich star system, everyone is thrilled.  First contacts are rare; successful first contacts are unprecedented.

But news of the discovery filters back to corporate headquarters and triggers a new round of executive infighting. The situation escalates until conflict threatens to engulf the region.  Fed up with humanity’s behavior, the advanced AIs threaten to withdraw from human space and leave humans to their own devices.

The Locust Queen’s Feast

Book One in the Story of the Place Between Worlds.

All the worlds touch the Great Hub, the Place Between Worlds. Each world is one among multitudes. Our earth is but a mote in the infinity of infinities that stretches from the Great Abyss to to the Realms of Chaos.

In fortunate worlds, the tears of the dreaming gods suffuse everything. With the tears come magic and art. Other worlds are not so lucky. As connections with the Great Hub wither, magic fades, and with it, life.

Eddie is a good guy, an ordinary young man with a bit of an attitude. Aloof, cynical, he’s been coasting along ever since high school. On his twenty-first birthday, he’s mugged, robbed, and left stranded in an anonymous, rust belt town. What starts out as a bummer of epic proportions soon becomes the adventure of a lifetime.

A Fragment of Nothing

Book Two in the Story of the Place Between Worlds

The Locust Queen is dead, but she did not die easily. Worse, she held fast to her rage and madness to the very end. Now probability storms crash against the ramparts of Chaos and threaten all the worlds of the Great Hub.

The elder gods stir in their fitful slumber. An Abbot from the Valley of the Chthonae joins forces with a Sidhe-human huntress to seek help

Marooned deep within Chaos, Iris Abellona struggles to survive. Her lover, Joe Tabs, is pursued relentlessly by the Creature of Negation. And Reed Woodruff invites his friends to visit his native world, but the trip goes badly awry.

A Lullaby for the Gods

Book Three in the Story of the Place Between Worlds

In the catacombs beneath the Mansion of the Chthonae, the elder gods dream, lulled into unending slumber by the magic of the Chant. As the gods dream, they weep, and their tears drench the mist-shrouded landscape of the Place Between Worlds, the Great Hub. Like the spokes of an infinite wheel, every world within the Realm of Form touches the Great Hub, and in all those worlds, the tears of the sleeping gods nourish magic.

Now, for the first time since the elder gods clawed their way from the depths of Chaos, the Chant falters. One of the elders grows restive, disturbing the sleep of all. If the elder gods awaken, the worlds of the Great Hub will fall.

To save the Realm of Form, Reed Woodruff and his friends must restore the Chant. But everywhere they turn, discord within the Valley of the Chthonae hampers their efforts. With each setback, their chances of success dwindle.

And as the elder gods lurch toward wakefulness, ever-stronger probability storms roar past the ramparts of Chaos.