Science Fiction and Fantasy
THE WOLF OF URGENCY
Book 1 of “The Helivran Chronicles”
When Centurion Matthew Heraclius arrives on distant Helivran, the Human colonists there have found they are not alone. The force that terraformed Helivran with life from Earth's inter-glacial period has also brought the genetically-engineered human/wolf chimera known as the Vulps. The colony's leader wants Matt to kill them all to get control of an eons-old alien archaeological site of awesome power.
But Matt is a changeling, a soldier secretly sent by the Human Empress to protect the colony from its true enemies. After a life-changing encounter with the species the Vulps worship as their god, he leads a coup and takes over to avert a war. Human and Vulp societies then resort to a time-tested custom to cement the fragile peace, a marriage alliance of their two leaders. But there's a surprise: they're both male.
As he tries to unravel the mystery of Helivran, Matt finds new purpose and a sense of family, and what starts out as a political alliance with his partner becomes a friendship and then a profound love.
And when a mysterious danger arises from the distant machinations of the Human Republic's new Empress, the two men effect a desperate alliance of their tribes to keep the peace of the new world.
COMING IN 2026
Intrigue
ODDITIES OF VIENNA
1814. After decades of carnage, Napoleon has finally been defeated, and the aristocracy of Europe is heading to Vienna for a month-long peace conference. Instead, it will become eight months of love-making and intrigue set against the backdrop of the greatest party of all time, ever, anywhere: The Congress of Vienna.
Into this world steps peasant-born Stefan Tanzer. Schooled by the witch in the local woods, he can divine the rune-bones, break codes, pick locks, and has already been a spy against Napoleon. Now, he becomes the personal courier of the legendary diplomat Talleyrand. Increasingly indispensable, an unlikely friendship grows.
Away from the glamorous parties, Stefan explores Vienna’s underworld with Talleyrand’s rascal godson, including the risqué Salon for Libertines. He befriends the Ditch-Nymphs, a guild of prostitutes, the Oddities, a club of eccentric scholars and scientists, and the Warm Brothers, who just may have the world’s first gay bar.
But the Congress, beneath its veneer of chivalry, is careening toward war. When the secret police learn of an assassination plot, Stefan starts to investigate the one word that may hold the key: ‘Medusa’. When he finally understands it, he must summon the aid of Vienna’s outcasts in a race to prevent a mass-murder and save the one he loves.
COMING IN 2026
History
THE REICH BEFORE
GERMANY FROM THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE AGE OF BISMARCK, 1789-1890
Germany at the end of the 18th century was a loose commonwealth of hundreds of states that stretched from the North Sea to Hungary, from Denmark to Italy. A hundred years later, it was a single colossus astride the heart of Europe.
"The Reich Before" tells the in-depth tale of the staggering transformation of Germany from a feudal empire into a late-coming world power whose rise destabilized all of Europe.
From Napoleon to Bismarck, "The Reich Before" traces the evolution and meaning of the word Reich before National Socialism changed its connotations forever.
Chapters discuss the impact of the French Revolution, the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the career of Bismarck, the history and role of Jews in Germany, the rise of modern racism in the colonial era, the neglected personality of Emperor William I, and the epoch-making Franco-Prussian War.
Overflowing with unique anecdotes, maps, and energetic narrative, "The Reich Before" seeks to close a gap in your history shelf with a compelling and unified narrative of epic scale: the creation of modern Germany.
Meaning of Life Stuff
TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, TREE OF LIFE
A 21st CENTURY INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE FOR THE MODERN READER
Why do we suffer? What does it mean to love? How are spirit, death and life intermingled? What is Heaven? Who is Christ, and what does he ask of us? How literally is the Bible to be taken, and when? Must one believe in a literal 6-day creation or else be a ‘bad’ Christian? What is theosis, and is it your destiny?
Spanning the history of the cosmos from its inception to its consummation, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life walks modern readers through the Bible, beginning with a history of how the Book came to be. This comprehensive account leaps from myth into archaeology and then documented history, spanning centuries and culminating in an encounter with the authentic Christ.
Using tools ranging from cultural anthropology and geology to archaeology and hermeneutics, Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life is at once faithful and skeptical, traditionalist and very modern, drawing the essential lessons out of the Biblical narrative to assemble the vast arc that ends at the neighborhood church on the corner today. Tree of Knowledge, Tree of Life seeks to define the chasm between the depths of the unknown and the limits of human understanding.
THE LIFE, DEATH, AND TIMES OF THE VIRGIN MARY
A MEMOIR OF MARYAM THE THEOTOKOS
In a 1st century Roman city, an exiled old woman on her deathbed is visited by a mysterious stranger.
A secret academic project is sending time-travelers into the past to plumb the secrets of history. But a mysterious shield prevents visitors from seeing and learning the truth about the most dangerous and polarizing event in history… the life, ministry, and death of Christ. Now, a traveler has located his mother, living in an obscure slum in Ephesus and revered by her son’s followers as theotokos…God-Bearer.
As she prepares for her final parting, Maryam tells him the story of her life, and the secrets of her son’s. From her unusual childhood weaving tapestry in the Jerusalem Temple to her forbidden friendship with a Roman soldier, from her unconventional marriage and her world-changing son, to her final years in foreign exile, "The Life, Death and Times of the Virgin Mary” takes you behind the woman in the Gospels to explore the trials and triumphs of the most mysterious and revered woman of all time...
Mary.