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Resurrection Men
Two men become friends in a graveyard in this moving novel of love, loss, and redemption.
Arthur Tor steals the dead for a living. As a resurrection man, he creeps around graveyards with his shovel, hoping to dig up corpses so he can sell them to the local medical college and pay his tuition there. He also holds a strange position in underground society. If someone is dying a slow, painful death, the family members come to Arthur and beg him to end their loved one’s pain. Arthur can never refuse, and he helps the dying painlessly cross the threshold in a process he calls the Black Rounds. Unfortunately, a local judge has gotten wind of Arthur’s activities and has sworn to send him to prison—or the hangman’s noose.
Jesse Fair has fled his corrupt family in Baltimore and landed in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he becomes the town gravedigger and undertaker, and he works hard to help grieving families through their pain with warmth and compassion. Some families make odd requests for their dearly departed, and Jesse discovers that the undertaker must often deal with the absurd side of death. But his venomous family is still searching for him. Relentlessly. And once they find him, Jesse will have to make a terrible choice.
When Jesse catches Arthur in the act of robbing a grave, the two of them form a strange friendship and even stranger partnership that digs deep into social taboos—and into their own souls.
In his first book since the critically acclaimed novel The Importance of Being Kevin, Steven Harper spins a heartfelt, uplifting story of suspense, life, and love against the backdrop of a Michigan town at the edge of the frontier.
The Importance of Being Kevin
The Importance of Being Kevin is in the stores. Kevin Devereaux’s life can’t get worse. He’s on probation. He’s stuck with an unemployed ex-convict dad. And he lives in a run-down trailer on the crappy east side of town. To keep his probation officer happy, Kevin joins a theater program for teenagers and falls hard for Peter Finn, the lead actor in the show―and the son of the town’s leading family. Despite their differences, Peter returns Kevin’s feelings, and for the first time, Kevin learns what it means to be in love. But Peter’s family won’t accept a gay son―let alone a boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks―and in their conservative town, they must keep the romance secret.
Still, they have the play, and they have each other, so they’ll get by― Until a brutal attack shatters Kevin’s life and puts Peter in danger of going to jail for murder.
Eight Mile and the City
I’M NOW AWARD-WINNER AUTHOR STEVEN HARPER PIZIKS
I’m thrilled! My short story “Eight Mile and the City” in the anthology When Worlds Collide (edited by Joshua Joshua B. Palmatier and Sam Butler) has won the WSFA award for short fiction.
I do love this story, a noir SF mystery set in near-future Detroit. You can find the anthology here.
I’ve written a number of short stories for the folks over at Zombies Need Brains, by the way. The latest is “Mortal Anger,” an odd little fantasy detective piece for the ZNB anthology Noir. The fair folk offer mortals little vacations to their realm, a place where all your wants and wishes are granted. The price? One of your good memories. The arrangement works, until a prince of the Fae comes to private detective Colton Smith with a problem. The payment he offers has the potential to destroy both the Fae and mortal realms.
un/Fair
When the doctor said my son Aran was autistic, my world turned upside-down. I spent years playing special games with him to help him understand the world better. But in the process, I learned to understand him. While I struggled to pull him into our world, he quietly pulled me into his. This book came out of that.
People always ask authors–including me–why I got a certain scene on the cover or why I didn’t put a particular character on the front. The truth is, authors almost never draw the book covers. We get a picture of it by email, and it’s always a surprise, like getting an early birthday present. Sometimes the present is a wool sweater you want to wad into a ball and stuff under the bed. Sometimes the present is a toy you didn’t know you wanted until you got it. The cover for un/FAIR was the latter. Ryan looks very much like I imagined him in my head, and the salamanders creeping down the top make it clear this isn’t a happy fairy book. The artist even snuck in a reference to the Fibonacci sequence! I loved getting this one.
It’s difficult enough to live in the neighborhood “freakazoid” house. It’s even more difficult when you’re autistic and neither your family nor best friend really understands you. So when Ryan November wakes up on his eleventh birthday with the unexpected ability to see the future, he braces himself for trouble. But even his newfound power doesn’t anticipate that the fair folk–undines, salamanders, gnomes, and sylphs–want him dead, dead, dead. Ryan races to defend himself and his family against unrelenting danger from the fairy realm so he can uncover the truth about his family history–and himself. Except as Ryan’s power grows, the more enticing the fairy realm becomes, forcing him to choose between order and chaos, power and family. And for an autistic boy, such choices are never cut and dry.
Danny
Danny Marina’s new step-father takes him to the laser tag stadium, the movies, the go-kart track. He and his mother now have a new house and more money. Then Danny finds the cameras–in the living room, his bedroom, the shower. Which leads him to uncover the secret web site, the one devoted to him and his step-brother Eric.
Danny’s Mom doesn’t believe him–doesn’t want to believe him. Faced with the unthinkable as his stepdad brings home strangers, Danny and Eric hop a bus for Florida. Frightened, and only with each other for support, they flee to Aquapura, a crappy, decrepit resort town. But the streets of Aquapura have dangers of their own. A grinning hotel owner named Lucian ropes the boys into a prostitution ring, pimping them out to traveling businessmen who flash enough cash. The work crushes Danny’s body and threatens to steal his soul.
As an escape, Danny fills his notebook with a strange and secret story. He spins the tale of Ganymede, a teenaged boy from ancient Greece. Zeus, the king of gods himself, snatches Ganymede up to Mount Olympus, where he is pulled into a web of intrigue and adventure that threatens the very gods.
As his life under Lucian’s thumb worsens, Danny escapes deeper into Ganymede’s fictional life. Except the more Danny writes about Ganymede, the more it becomes clear he’s writing about himself. And over time, Ganymede’s life crosses Danny’s in strange and impossible ways. Danny needs to use Ganymede’s strength to fight back and create a better life for himself and for Eric. But can a teenager use the power of a god?
Available Kindle from Amazon.
The Books of Blood and Iron
After I finished the Clockwork Empire books, I met with my editor over supper at World Fantasy for a council of war. She wanted more books from me and I wanted to write them, but we couldn’t agree on what those books should be. One after another, I proposed projects that failed to grab her.
In desperation, I dug through my memory and turned up a short story I’d written years ago called “Trollboy” about a teenager who was half human, half troll. I’d always wanted to write a full novel about him but never had the opportunity. I pitched Trollboy at my editor, and she took to him with enthusiasm. All right, then! I wrote Iron Axe, the first book, and even got to include a map–a first for me. I wrote the trilogy in two years.
A hopeless outcast must answer Death’s call and embark on an epic adventure….
Although Danr’s mother was human, his father was one of the hated Stane, a troll from the mountains. Now Danr has nothing to look forward to but a life of disapproval and mistrust, answering to “Trollboy” and condemned to hard labor on a farm.
Until, without warning, strange creatures come down from the mountains to attack the village. Spirits walk the land, terrifying the living. Trolls creep out from under the mountain, provoking war with the elves. And Death herself calls upon Danr to set things right.
At Death’s insistence, Danr heads out to find the Iron Axe, the weapon that sundered the continent a thousand years ago. Together with unlikely companions, Danr will brave fantastic and dangerous creatures to find a weapon that could save the world—or destroy it.
Iron Axe is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
IRON AXE
Ages ago, those who had the ability to change their shape lost it, leading to endless bloody battles for supremacy between the races—until one reluctant hero stepped forth to restore peace to the world.…
Even though Danr the half troll ended centuries of fighting, he still is not living the quiet life he longs for. Rumors have arisen that certain people are once again wielding the power of the shape. If Danr could learn to use it, he could become fully human and spend his life with his beloved, Aisa. But he is not the only one who craves the gift of changing form.…
Slavers have taken Danr’s friends captive, demanding the power of the shape as ransom. To obtain it, Danr must cross paths with the Fates, Death, and a giant wyrm that lives at the bottom of the ocean—before other, more dangerous parties uncover the secrets of shape changing.…
Blood Storm is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
BLOOD STORM
The author of Blood Storm and Iron Axe returns with the third Book of Blood and Iron—where Danr the half-troll must stop two vengeful queens from razing the world to the ground…
From their sacred Garden, the three fates control all life and maintain balance in the world. But one of the fates has been captured by the evil elf queen, placing the future of every being, including Death herself, in jeopardy. And only one hero can defeat the elf queen: Danr the half-troll.
In order to rescue the missing fate, Danr must first acquire the fabled Bone Sword. Normally Danr would expect his companions to help. However, they are currently in pursuit of a mysterious creature who seems both oddly familiar yet dangerously unknown. But one thing is certain for all of the adventurers: failure is not an option.
Bone War is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
BONE WAR
It started with the THX noise. It’s that weird swoopy noise they used to play at the beginning of movies. My son Aran is autistic, and the noise causes him active pain. (Autists often process physical sensations differently than neuro-typical people do.) As a result, I looked into the science of sound, and I learned how the square root of two rules music with an iron and irrational fist.
And then characters started forming. A teenaged boy with perfect pitch who lives on an airship which is attacked by pirates. A young woman who owns a mechanical cat and desperately wants to re-enter a society that snubbed her.
It came together. Dirigibles. Glass cutlasses. Automatons. Mad scientists. A world ravaged by plague and zombies. And behind it all, a single, impossible, irrational number.
The Clockwork Empire
In a Britannia of clockwork automatons and airships, Alice Michaels’s prospects are looking grim.
The Honorable Alice B. Michaels is in a life or death struggle for survival—socially speaking, that is. At twenty-one, her age, her unladylike interest in automatons, and the unfortunate deaths of most of her family from the plague have sealed her fate as a less than desirable marriage prospect.
But a series of strange occurrences are about to lead Alice in a direction quite beyond the pale. High above the earth on the American airship USS Juniper, Gavin Ennock lives for the wind and the sky and his fiddle. After privateers attack the Juniper, he is stranded on the dank, dirty, and merciless streets of London. When Alice’s estranged aunt leaves her a peculiar inheritance, she encounters Gavin under most unusual—even shocking—circumstances.
Then Alice’s inheritance attracts the attention of the Third Ward, a clandestine organization that seizes the inventions of mad geniuses the plague leaves behind—all for the good of the Empire. But even the Third Ward has secrets. And when Alice and Gavin discover them, a choice must be made between the world and the Empire, no matter the risk to all they hold dear.
THE DOOMSDAY VAULT
What’s it like to know you’re going insane? I found myself pondering this while I wrote The Impossible Cube. I also wanted to explore how different cultures might respond to clockwork technology-and to the clockwork plague. This spawned a great deal of research. Hours and hours of research. When I came across the Church of Our Lady and the statue of the Consolatrix Afflictorum in Belgium, I knew I had to use it. And who can resist a steampunk circus?
In 2005, I adopted two boys, then aged three and twelve, from Ukraine, and I lived in Kiev for a month in the process. In 2010, I returned to Ukraine with oldest son so he could reconnect with his birth family. I had no idea then that a close-in knowledge of the culture and language would come in useful for future storytelling.
I should point out that my editor did briefly consider putting an actual impossible cube on the cover of the book, but the thing really does twist the eye, and we decided it would be a bad idea to give readers a headache!
THE IMPOSSIBLE CUBE
In an age where fantastic inventions of steam and brass have elevated Britain and China into mighty empires, Alice Michaels faces a future of technological terrors…
Once, Gavin Ennock sailed the skies on airships and enchanted listeners with his fiddle music. Now, the clockwork plague consumes his intellect, enabling him to conceive and construct scientific wonders-while driving him quite mad. Distressed by her beloved’s unfortunate condition, Alice Michaels sought a cure rumored to be inside the Doomsday Vault-and brought the wrath of the British Empire down on them.
Declared enemies of the Crown, Alice and Gavin have little choice but to flee to China in search of a cure. Accompanying them is Dr. Clef, a mad genius driven to find the greatest and most destructive force the world has ever seen: The Impossible Cube. If Dr. Clef gets his hands on it, the entire universe will face extinction.
And Gavin holds the key to its recreation…
England fears clockworkers and China venerates them. Gavin wants to fly while Alice stays down-to-earth. Queen Victoria rules openly upon her throne while Dowager Empress Cixi rules behind hers. Quantum physics teaches us that certain particles are paired with an opposite, and when one turns, its partner matches the motion, no matter what distance separates them.
This book turned out to be all about opposites-how China views the world and technology differently from England, how differently Alice and Gavin view their relationship, how different rulers decide what is good and proper for the world. Everything has its foil, or maybe its partner.
THE DRAGON MEN
As China prepares to become the ultimate power in an era of extraordinary invention and horror, Alice Michaels’ fate lies inside the walls of the forbidden kingdom….
Gavin Ennock has everything a man could desire—except time. As the clockwork plague consumes his body and mind, it drives him increasingly mad and fractures his relationship with his fiancée, Alice, Lady Michaels. Their only hope is that the Dragon Men of China can cure him.
But a power-mad general has seized the Chinese throne in a determined offensive to conquer Asia, Britain—indeed, the entire world. He has closed the country’s borders to all foreigners. The former ruling dynasty, however, is scheming to return the rightful heir to power. Their designs will draw Gavin and Alice down a treacherous path strewn with intrigue and power struggles. One wrong step will seal Gavin’s fate…and determine the future of the world.
Never say never.
I finished The Dragon Men in a fever of deadline madness and turned it in under the gun, barely on time. I was burned out, and couldn’t think about writing for two months. I didn’t even update my blog. But like all authors, I eventually began to wonder what was next. I was dabbling with a couple of other projects and thinking about calling Anne, my editor, to see which one she might want. She certainly wouldn’t want steampunk. I’d already written three novels and two novellas in that genre, and that well was dry.
Then my agent called. She and Anne had had a little conversation. They had both adored The Dragon Men, and what Anne wanted more than anything else was more steampunk. Another Clockwork Empire book, to be specific.
“Uh . . . ” was all I could say.
It didn’t have to be about Gavin and Alice, Anne added. But something in the same world, something that explored how yet other cultures reacted to clockwork technology.
That last part relieved me. Gavin and Alice’s story comes to a logical conclusion in The Dragon Men, and I didn’t want to say, “But wait-there’s more!”
The trouble was, I had no ideas. Nothing! Even my subconscious, which is a much better writer than I am, came up empty. See, I hadn’t even considered doing more Clockwork Empire books, and certainly not so fast on the heels of The Dragon Men. Hell, The Impossible Cube hadn’t even hit the bookstores yet!
So I did what I always do in these cases-I went for a long walk to think about it. And when I came back, I knew a few things. First, it might be fun to explore Russia. Second, my main character was named Thaddeus Sharpe. And third, he hunted clockworkers for a living.
Out of this, The Havoc Machine was born.
THE HAVOC MACHINE
In a world riddled with the destruction of men and machines alike, Thaddeus Sharpe takes to the streets of St. Petersburg, geared toward the hunt of his life….
Thaddeus Sharpe’s life is dedicated to the hunting and killing of clockworkers. When a mysterious young woman named Sofiya Ekk approaches him with a proposition from a powerful employer, he cannot refuse. A man who calls himself Mr. Griffin seeks Thad’s help with mad clockwork scientist Lord Havoc, who has molded a dangerous machine. Mr. Griffin cares little if the evil Lord lives or dies; all he desires is Havoc’s invention.
Upon Thad’s arrival at Havoc’s laboratory, he is met with a chilling discovery. Havoc is not only concealing his precious machine; he has been using a young child by the name of Nikolai for cruel experiments. Locked into a clockwork web of intrigue, Thad must decipher the dangerous truth surrounding Nikolai and the chaos contraption before havoc reigns…
The Silent Empire
The chronology of the books goes Nightmare, Dreamer, Trickster, Offspring. However, I wrote them in the order Dreamer, Nightmare, Trickster, Offspring. You can read them in either order, really. I wrote each book to stand completely alone so people can read them in whatever order they find them.
It is through first contact with an alien species that humanity learns of the Dream. It is a plane of mental existence where people are able to communicate with one another by their thoughts alone — over distances of thousands of light-years. To ensure that future generations will have this ability, human genetic engineering produces newborns capable of finding and navigating the Dream.
They became known as the Silent.
Rust is just one planet among many in the Empire of Human Unity. It’s nothing special, nothing unusual . . . except for the fact that it is home to an unknown boy who may be the most powerful Silent ever born — a Silent with the ability to possess the bodies of others against their will. This mysterious child may be causing tremors within the Dream itself.
For now, only the Children of Irfan know about him. A monastic-like order of the Silent, the Children protect their members even as they barter their services with the governments and corporations that control known space. But power like that cannot be hidden, and soon every Silent in the universe will know about the boy — and every government will be willing to go to war to control him.
And if the Children of Irfan cannot find him first, the Dream itself may be shattered . . .
Dreamer is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
DREAMER
In the future, dreams keep the universe running. Dreamers, known as “Silent,” are able to look into other people’s dreams, communicate with other Silent across the galaxy, and speak to aliens. Silent construct dreams for themselves more vivid than reality.
But some dreams have become nightmares…
Kendi Weaver doesn’t know he’s Silent. Hijacked into slavery, he has resigned himself to a life of servitude. Then the discovery of his innate gift for dream communication changes everything. Suddenly Kendi is a very valuable commodity. He is rescued by the Children of Irfan–a society dedicated to freeing enslaved Silent–and taken to their planet, Bellerophon.
But Bellerophon is hardly a safe refuge. A brutal serial killer is murdering Silent in their telepathic dreams, and Kendi is soon embroiled in a world of madness and murder. To catch the killer, he must enter the victims’ dreams…
Nightmare is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
NIGHTMARE
The dream has been shattered, and the majority of Silent who telepathically communicated through it have been cast out by the event known as the Despair, unable to reenter. Now the remaining Silent still capable of linking to the Dream have become a valuable commodity to those in power seeking to keep the lines of galactic communication open…
In the midst of the Despair, Father Kendi Weaver and the crew of the Poltergeist have a limited window of opportunity to find the loved ones they have lost–including Kendi’s parents and siblings, who were sold into slavery more than fifteen years ago.
But just as Kendi closes in on the whereabouts of his brother and sister, they are taken by a mysterious group intent on using them for their own secret agenda…
Trickster is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
TRICKSTER
The lush and beautiful forest planet of Bellerophon is home to a cacophony of noises, but its resident psychics are known as the Silent. Previously they could travel to the Dream, a telepathic plane of existence where they could twist the laws of reality. But that time is over…
One madman’s lust for power tore the Dream asunder. Now only a handful of the Silent can enter it. Kendi Weaver is one of them.
As an election for the governorship of Bellerophon begins, Kendi is caught in the crossfire. Attempts on his life—and a rash of Silent kidnappings—point to a political enemy…or a personal one. Either way, the future of the Dream is at stake. And Kendi fears it may become a nightmare.
Offspring is also available as an audio book read by P.J. Ochlan.
OFFSPRING
Media Books
One day in early December, my agent called and asked if I was interested in writing a book based on an upcoming thriller starring John Cusack and Ray Liotta. I would get the screenplay in the mail, read it, and convert it into a book that would be released at the same time the movie came out. I was a little leery–I’d never done such a thing before. On the other hand, there was a first time for everything, and a number of elements were similar to elements in my first novel In the Company of Mind. So I expressed interest.
The deadline, it turned out, was three weeks.
Well. Okay then. I like a challenge. I spent the holidays chained to my computer and finished the book with three days to spare. Identity was my first media book, and I wrote a number of others afterward.
(Out of print)
Identity is a secret. Identity is a mystery. Identity is a killer.
In the middle of a raging storm, ten strangers find themselves stranded at a run-down desert motel, cut off from the outside world. The bleak refuge of the motel provides them safety from the elements, but not from the true danger. There is a killer among them.
With an almost inhuman savagery, the murderer strikes — and soon the dead outnumber the living. As blinding mistrust and mortal fear threaten to tear the survivors apart, one thing slowly becomes clear: they were all drawn to the motel by something. Not by fate or circumstance, but by shadowy forces beyond their imagination — forces that promise those who survive a destiny that may be worse than death….
IDENTITY
(Out of print but available on the Kindle at Amazon)
Throughout human history, mankind has turned its goals and dreams toward exploration. With wagon trains, ships, satellites and starships, humanity has chosen to seek out the new frontier, to explore new worlds, and to go where no human has gone before-even to the furthest reaches of the Delta Quadrant. There, Captain Janeway and the crew of the Starship Voyager™ have discovered many strange and wondrous civilizations…but few as alien as the Chiar.
An advanced and scientiÞc people who have made great strides with nanotechnology, the Chiar expanded internally rather than externally. Every inch of their planet is crawling with the tiniest bits and pieces of artiÞcial intelligence imaginable, working in concert as the new lifeblood of this mechanical world. The people themselves are inseparable from their nanites, which layer their skin and provide extra limbs or senses as required.
Caught up in a bitter civil conþict, some Chiar will try to take advantage of their meeting with the crew of Starship Voyager. They imagine that their homegrown nanites can harness the incredible power of the deadly Borg, and instead set in motion an experiment that goes devastatingly out of control.
THE NANOTECH WAR
In the aftermath of World War II, Lankester Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious, Byzantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was completed. Directly underneath the church, Merrin discovers a much more ancient crypt — and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil.
Madness descends on the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village — atrocities he’d hoped to never see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun….
I actually wrote this book twice. After I finished it, the movie producers decided to reshoot the entire movie with new actors and a new script. They wanted me to rewrite the book to match it. This took a great deal of negotiation, but we finally settled on a way to make it work.
THE EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING
Just an ordinary day in Grandview with customers at the Village Java looking for that perfect caffeine fix and lookylous being transformed into buyers by the eclectic assortment of antiques at Same As It Never Was. But there’s nothing ordinary about the blur of activity at Jack’s Dry Cleaning, where shirts are spinning on the racks and dresses are dancing without their owners.
A spirit has taken up residence in the store, and although Melinda Gordon usually can sort out what’s keeping a spirit from crossing over, this particular one is frustratingly uncommunicative. After a week of trying, the store owner is convinced that Melinda will never succeed.
Then self-acclaimed spiritual consultant Wendy King comes to town, guaranteeing success in moving spirits to the afterlife…for a fee. But Wendy’s methodology involves trapping and forcing spirits into the light. And she pays no heed when Melinda tells her that what she is doing is wrong and dangerous.
After a young couple inherits the old Ray mansion and asks for help selling the antiques that fill the house, Melinda pushes aside her concerns about Wendy. But the old house holds a terrible secret and a spirit that Melinda cannot budge. The frightened owners turn to Wendy King, who forces the spirit to cross over, despite Melinda’s pleadings. But Wendy’s actions release an evil, unyielding spirit, one who promises to release a flood of disease and terror on the town, starting with the people closest to the Ghost Whisperer.
THE GHOST WHISPERER: PLAGUE ROOM
(Out of print, but available used on Amazon)
A prophecy is fulfilled when Peter Attis is rescued from the Cylons in order to save humanity with “the plague of the tongue.” Or so it seems…
While harvesting algae for conversion into food, the beleaguered human/refugee fleet is discovered by a small group of Cylon raiders. A brief battle ends with the destruction of a Cylon heavy raider. A colonial issue escape pod found floating among the debris reveals two survivors inside: Singer Peter Attis . . . and his captor, a Cylon Number Eight.
Soon after Peter’s liberation, people begin babbling incoherently and dropping into comas. Unwittingly, Peter has been spreading a highly contagious, nerve-deteriorating Cylon biological weapon — and he just performed for half the fleet. As Dr. Gaius Baltar begins work on a cure, word starts to spread that a fanatical sect believes that Peter is the religious leader who will save humanity and that this virus is their path to salvation. They are willing to do anything to keep Baltar’s vaccine from being distributed.
While the fleet is in chaos, a larger Cylon force appears. A weakened humankind, now threatened on two fronts, may be unable to defend itself…
At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: UNITY
Romance
TRASH COURSE
I didn’t actually set out to write a romance. This was supposed to be an adventure novel. But my agent sent it to Harlequin, and that was that. For this book I did more research into hoarding than any human being ever should. Ever wonder if there really might be a treasure hidden in all that stuff?
Penny Drake is my mother’s name, by the way–or it was until she remarried at the age of 72. You truly never do know when you’ll find romance!
Terry Faye loves traveling the world while working as a private investigator. But this latest case is a doozy—and it’s right here in Ann Arbor.
Two elderly recluses, Howard and Lawrence Peale, have stopped communicating with the outside world, and Terry and her boss have been put on the case. The catch: the Peales are hoarders. A clean sweep isn’t going to be easy, even with cute photographer Zack Archer lending a hand.
The more digging Terry does in the Peale mansion, the more dirt she uncovers. And after she discovers two dead bodies, it’s going to take a lot more than just elbow grease and a nice guy sidekick to find out what’s happened…
Reference
WRITING THE PARANORMAL NOVEL
When Writer’s Digest Books contacted me and asked if I would write a how-to book for urban fantasy, I said, “Sure! How hard could it be?” Ho, ho, ho. The piles of paranormal novels turned my desk into a castle for months. Worse, I kept wanting to stop writing to reread my source material. The research never ends, folks.
This was my first work reviewed in The Magazine of Fantasy of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Charles de Lint gave it a glowing review. Charles de Lint! It still makes me squee just a little.
Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my!
Writing a paranormal novel takes more than casting an alluring vampire or arming your hero with a magic wand. It takes an original idea, believable characters, a compelling plot, and surprising twists, not to mention great writing.
This helpful guide gives you everything you need to successfully introduce supernatural elements into any story without shattering the believability of your fictional world or falling victim to common cliches.
You’ll learn how to:
Choose supernatural elements and decide what impact the supernatural will have on your fictional world
Create engaging and relatable characters from supernatural protagonists and antagonists to supporting players (both human and non-human)
Develop strong plots and complementary subplots
Write believable fight scenes and flashbacks
Create realistic dialogue
And much more
Complete with tips for researching your novel and strategies for getting published, Writing the Paranormal Novel gives you everything you need to craft a novel where even the most unusual twist is not only possible – it’s believable.
You can purchase this book at Amazon.
WRITING AS STEVEN PIZIKS
In the Company of Mind, Baen Books, 1998
Corporate Mentality, Baen Books, 1999
The Nanotech War (Star Trek: Voyager), Pocket Books, 2002
Identity (movie novelization), Pocket Books, 2002
The Exorcist: the Beginning (movie novelization), Pocket Books 2004
The Plague Room (The Ghost Whisperer), Pocket Books, December 2008
The Blacklist: The Beekeeper, Titan Books, 2016
WRITING AS STEVEN HARPER
The Importance of Being Kevin, (Dreamspinner Press), 2019
Danny, Book View Café, 2015
un/Fair, Book9 (Tantrum Books), 2016
The Doomsday Vault, ROC Books, 2011
The Impossible Cube, ROC Books, 2012
The Dragon Men, ROC Books, 2012
The Havoc Machine, ROC Books, 2013
Dreamer: a Novel of the Silent Empire, ROC Books, 2001
Nightmare: a Novel of the Silent Empire, ROC Books, 2002
Trickster: a Novel of the Silent Empire, ROC Books, 2003
Offispring: a Novel of the Silent Empire, ROC Books, 2004
The Books of Blood and Iron
Iron Axe, ROC Books, 2015
Blood Storm, ROC Books, 2015
Bone War, ROC Books, 2016
Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels
Dead Man on the Moon, Phobos Books, 2006
Unity: a Battlestar Galactica Novel, Tor Books, 2007
Reference Books
Writing the Paranormal Novel, Writers Digest Books, 2011
WRITING AS PENNY DRAKE
Trash Course, Carina Press (Harlequin), 2010.