Book Review Snake in the Grass

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snakeTitle: Snake in the Grass: Hero’s Sword Vol. 4

Author: M.E. Sutton

Genre: Middle Grade, Adventure, Fantasy

Things are getting interesting at Tanner Middle School. The only official candidate for student council president is Jaycee’s nemesis, Trina Poppelman. Plus there’s a new girl in school. At first glance, she looks like she’d fit right in with the cheerleaders, but Jaycee senses something different about her.

Things are getting interesting in Mallory, too. Lady Starla is expecting an Imperial envoy to discuss new taxes. She plans to oppose the measure and asks Lyla to stand by her side in a show of support. However, when the envoy goes missing, the situation becomes a lot more serious than a proposed tax increase.

In this fourth installment of the Hero’s Sword series, Lyla and Roger hit the road to find a missing envoy before Starla pays the ultimate price for his disappearance. Along the way, Jaycee learns that winning isn’t always the end-game result.

Waaah! I love the premise of this book. So Jaycee, the main character, often jumps into a video game and helps the people of this fantasy world survive assaults and political struggles. Basically, every kid’s dream. The kingdom is named Mallory, and it has so many fun characters, like Lady Startla, Lyla, Roger. Kids will the fantasy setting, the dialogue, the fun quirks of all the characters, and the adventure that ties all of them together. The book also teaches some good values to children without sounding preachy. It’s the fourth book in a series, but I had no trouble following along.

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Release Party Tarthian Empire Companion

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About the Book

Tarthian Empire CompanionTitle: Tarthian Empire Companion

Author: Kayelle Allen

Genre: Non-Fiction, Science Fiction

For the writer of science fiction, and the writer who wants to create a science fiction series, this volume teaches you how to build believable worlds, track details of your story, organize your writing, and lay out your story bible. Novice or experienced, you will pick up tricks and tips here. The Companion reveals the worldbuilding magic that makes Kayelle Allen’s Tarthian Empire tick. This EPIC eBook Award winning writer shares 10k years of future history, offers peeks at scene and character creation, lays out a quick tour of the Empire, and dishes up a surfeit of secrets for fans, all in one illustrated volume. Provides organizational tips, links to marketing sites, groups supporting writers, science fiction groups, and more. Material from the author’s 90+ page website is included. Original art by Jamin Allen and Kayelle Allen.

Author Bio

Kayelle Allen is a best-selling, multi-published, award-winning author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr. She makes a promise to every reader: “I will immerse you in an exciting tale and provide unexpected action in settings so real you’ll swear you’ve been there.” Kayelle is the founder of Marketing for Romance Writers, and the owner of The Author’s Secret, a support company for writers.

Links

About the book http://kayelleallen.mobi/companion/tarthian-empire-companion/

Amazon http://bit.ly/companion-az

Smashwords http://bit.ly/companion-sm

Goodreads http://bit.ly/1DtIrOR

Coming soon in print

Giveaway

Download the free “Top Stops” edition of the Companion and visit the most popular sites in the Tarthian Empire. Illustrated, 24 pp http://bit.ly/1DtJ1fm

Cover Reveal Party Two Princes: The Biker and The Billionaire

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About the Book

Title: TWO PRINCES: The Biker and The Billionaire

Author: Victoria Danann

Genre: Contemporary Romance

TWO PRINCES: The Biker and The Billionaire

Sons of Sanctuary MC, Book 1 

Two brothers, one a player, one a playboy, are on a collision course with destiny and a woman who thought she won a prize when she was allowed a look inside the Sons of Sanctuary MC.

Brigid Roan is a graduate student at the University of Texas. She had no trouble getting her thesis approved, but finding a Hill Country motorcycle club willing to give her access to their lifestyle was looking impossible. Then she got a lead. A friend of a friend had a cousin with family ties to The Sons of Sanctuary.

What Brigid wanted was information to prove a proposition. The last thing she had in mind was falling for one of the members of the club. Especially since she was a feminist academic out to prove that motorcycle clubs are organized according to the same structure as primitive tribal society.

Brash Fornight was standing in line at the H.E.B. Market when his world tipped on its axis. While waiting his turn to check out, his gaze had wandered to the magazine display and settled on the new issue of “NOW”. The image on the cover, although GQ’d up in an insanely urbane way, was… him.

After reading the article, Brash threw some stuff in a duffle and left his only home, a room at The Sons of Sanctuary clubhouse, with a vague explanation about needing a couple of days away. He left his truck at the Austin airport and caught a plane for New York, on a mission to find a mysterious guy walking around with his face.

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Book Excerpt:

“Sir?” Brash Fornight gradually became aware that someone behind him in the grocery checkout line was trying to get his attention. “Sir?” He refocused and glanced behind him. The woman leaning on a cart overflowing with chip bags and cookie boxes nodded toward the cashier indicating that it was his turn to move forward. Brash looked her in the eye and had to give her props. Most people wouldn’t have the balls to try to herd a guy wearing Sons of Sanctuary MC leather.

The club employed a woman who cooked and did grocery shopping several times a week as part of her job description, but Brash didn’t like to explain his relentless craving for peanuts and he liked being teased about it even less. He didn’t know whether it was the Vitamin B or the fat or just because he liked the taste, but he couldn’t imagine going a day without them.

That’s how he came to be standing statue still In the grocery checkout line, being prompted by some woman with more nerve than sense. While he was waiting, his eyes drifted over the magazine display and settled on the cover of “NOW”, on the Most Eligible Bachelor edition no less. The debonair figure staring back was wearing Brash’s own face and body. He looked different with short hair and a four thousand dollar suit with the shirt fashionably open at the neckline, but the similarity was inescapable.

On impulse he grabbed the magazine and tossed it onto the conveyor belt with his week’s stash of peanuts.

He stuffed the bags into the saddlebags of his bike and roared toward home, nervously tapping his fingers on handlebars at red lights, riding on shoulders to keep from slowing down. He was anxious to get to the privacy of his own room and read about Branach St. Germaine.

Two beers, one jar of peanuts, and one “NOW” article later, Brash was sitting on the edge of his bed looking at the wall, seeing nothing but his own heavy thoughts. He pulled out his phone, looked up a website, and waited on hold for ten minutes to hear the time of the next flight from Austin to New York.

There was a flight to Newark in a little over three hours. He looked at his watch and calculated the time it would take to drive from Dripping Springs at that time of day. As he booked the flight, he stood up, walked to the small closet, grabbed a duffel bag, and began shoving stuff into it. Ten minutes later, he closed his door and locked it, threw the duffel over his shoulder, and headed straight for the office downstairs. He dropped the duffel on the hallway floor beside the closed door and knocked.

“Yeah?” Brash looked inside, glad that his dad was by himself, and stepped in. “What’s up?”

“I’m takin’ personal time, Pop. Gonna be gone for a couple of days.”

“What the hell is ‘personal time’?”

The gruffness made Brash smile. “It means I’m not gonna be here if you call and I’m not tellin’ you why.”

The Sons of Sanctuary President looked up at Brash, over the top of his readers, and narrowed his eyes. “You got a secret?”

“Everybody’s got secrets.”

Brandon Fornight studied his son for a minute. “True enough. Is it the kind of secret that could affect this club?”

Brash shook his head. “Don’t see how.”

“Well, then. See you… When did you say you’d be back?”

“I didn’t.”

“Bein’ purposefully vague, are you?”

Brash grinned. “That’s why they call it personal time. But I expect to be back Friday.”

“You gonna have your phone with you?” When Brash nodded, Bran looked back down at his ledger in a deliberately dismissive gesture. “Well, get outta here then.”

Brash parked his bike in the airplane hangar. The structure had already been on the property when the club had bought it and turned it into a compound twenty years earlier. They used part of it for vehicle maintenance and repair and part for parking.

Some of the guys who were working looked over and shot curious glances his way when Brash threw his duffel into his pickup and started it up, but it wasn’t their way to ask questions. The Sons figured that if somebody wanted you to know something, they’d tell you.

Brash took a cab to a midtown hotel, wondering all the way why human beings would choose to live in such a place. As he slid his credit card across the hotel counter to the agent on duty, he glanced at the name, Brandon Fornight. It seemed unlikely that it was a coincidence that that the mysterious look-alike’s first name began with the same four letters. He ordered room service and pulled out his laptop.

Getting intel on the guy didn’t take advanced ops. Within an hour Brash knew where Brannach St. Germaine worked, what kind of car he drove, what kind of women he dated, who his tailor was, and where he liked to dine. There was no shortage of photos online, but the one that grabbed his attention wasn’t one of the many with starlets or debutantes on his arm. It was the one taken with his arm around his mother as they were arriving together for some red carpet fundraiser. Brash had an almost irresistible compulsion to reach up and touch her face on the screen in front of him.

The knock on the door signaled that room service had arrived. It cost a fortune, but looked and tasted like shit. So he closed the computer and went out for a walk to clear his head and find something edible.

~~

Also look for A Season in Gemini, Sons of Sanctuary MC series, Intro – in the Summer Fire anthology, available everywhere.

Promo Post Witches, Voids and Other Sanity Suckers

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About the Book

Witches, Voids, and Other Sanity Suckers2Title: Witches, Voids and Other Sanity Suckers

Author: Kara Thorpe

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Alpha of the only Shifter pack in Houston, Rick Haskell has his hands full.  When the Mage of New Orleans calls for a favor – a favor that pays $400,000 – Rick can’t refuse.  Even if that favor means adopting the Mage’s daughter into his ragtag pack.  Az Vardan is beautiful, smart, and takes frequent vacations from sanity.  Before Rick can learn how to handle the blonde kiss-and-run firecracker, wolfsbane appears in the local coven’s garden, witches mysteriously die in police custody, and a rash of centaur murders rocks Houston’s Paranormal Community.  Az’s knowledge of magic may be all that saves Rick’s pack when a new, powerful threat moves in to take over his city.

First person, present tense

Warning: language, violence, and irreverence (and Oxford commas)

Author Bio

Kara Thorpe started writing as a distraction in French class and never stopped (don’t ask her to conjugate many verbs). Born and raised under the South Texas sun, she spends her days navigating Houston traffic and the exciting world of production planning. Nights are for creating character-driven romances and wrangling a stubborn Siamese. Look for Chai’s cameo in each story.

Links

Twitter: @karahelen

Blog: http://hmadness.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/karahelen

Promo Post Unbreakable

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About the Book

frontONLY_LTitle: Unbreakable

Author: Emma Scott

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Romantic Suspense

Alex Gardener has her life planned out, down to the smallest detail. She has a skyrocketing career as a litigation attorney, a close group of socialite friends, and is engaged to one of the most successful businessmen in Beverly Hills. Everything is just as she wants it: comfortable, predictable, secure…if lacking passion. Fire.

Cory Bishop is a struggling working man, trying to make ends meet while fighting to keep custody his young daughter. He knows that working hard is the only way to achieve his goals, but lately it seems everything he wants hangs just out of reach.

The bank robbery changes everything.

Alex and Cory spend three harrowing days as hostages locked in a bank with fifty frightened people and six criminals who grow more desperate–and dangerous–by the hour. Alex and Cory find comfort and safety with each other and reveal their deepest hopes and fears and secrets, unknowingly building a bond forged out of desperation and fear, one that they can’t break, even once outside the bank’s walls.

Their lives are turned upside down, irrevocably altered, and they seek to move on and put the robbery–and each other–behind them.

But some bonds, once forged, cannot be broken.

Author Bio

me ringEmma Scott lives and works in the California Bay Area with her patient husband and two feisty little girls.

Links

 http://emmascottblog.blogspot.com/

http://on.fb.me/1LHCVJn

https://twitter.com/EmmaS_writes

Giveaway

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Book Review and Giveaway After Her

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After HerTitle: After Her

Author: Amber Kay

Genre: New Adult Suspense

Rating: A

Cassandra Tate wasn’t prepared for Vivian Lynch.

When Vivian offers to make Cassandra the sole beneficiary of her will, Cassandra’s only concern is what she’ll have to do (for this peculiar stranger) in return.

Nineteen-year-old Cassandra knows nothing about the seedy underbelly of the Orange Country high life. Born and bred within the most wholesome little city of Montana, Cassie escaped this stale monotony to California with nothing, but a few bucks in her pocket. This, she thought, was supposed to christen the start of a new life away from the emotional prison created by her helicopter mess of a mother.

As a college sophomore slaving for meager tips waitressing, Cassandra isn’t in the position to turn down easy money. At the rate she going, she’ll be up to her ass in debt until she’s sixty. Her skinflint boss isn’t willing to budge on a pay raise and there is no magic button to make bill collectors go away. When the contentious relationship with her estranged mother leaves her broke, she is forced to decide how desperate she truly is.

Vivian is planning her own funeral. Her days as “society’s queen” are numbered, leaving her to prepare for the inevitable the only way she knows how—closing bank accounts, arranging life insurance policies and assigning beneficiaries. She doesn’t have time to fall apart over “a silly little thing like cancer.” But this eccentric, aging socialite does not intend to die, not without tying up some loose ends first.

Cassandra’s life is at an impasse. Vivian’s life is coming to an end.

Vivian’s “generous” offer (of financial stability) to Cassandra comes with some strings attached. If Cassandra will agree to replace Vivian after the funeral, Cassandra will become an instant heiress worth billions. It’s an indecent proposal many college students would take without hesitation, but it’s not enough to simply step into the shoes of this enigmatic socialite. Cassandra must also marry Vivian’s husband.

It sounds simple enough…until Cassandra discovers that Vivian’s husband is a convicted murderer.

This book reminded me a little of Revenge – you’ve got Cassandra, who’s just an ordinary girl, and then you’ve got Vivian, who is this powerful, wealthy socialite. They’re just so different, and yet Vivian chooses Cassandra to take over her legacy after she passes away. It’s bound to go wrong somehow, with people from such different social backgrounds, especially when Vivian also wants Cassandra to marry her husband. Intrigue, mystery and suspense reign in this delightful read. I kept on cheering for Cassandra – she’s a lovely person, and she deserves happiness.

Giveaway

The author is giving away three free copies of the eBook of “After Her”. You can participate by leaving a comment to this post.

Release Day Party The One Path

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About The Book

24102197Title: The One Path

Author: Larry S. Gerovac

Genre: Fantasy

Lucifer asked the Gypsies, “What is the punishment for killing a Dark Warrior?” There was absolute silence. All the Gypsies were in fear for their lives. They did not want to draw the attention of this powerful demon.

Jal, seeing an opportunity for himself yelled, “Life for life.” Lucifer watched as Rayus tried to warn his dad by tugging on his arm.

That evil grin appeared on Lucifer’s face once again as he said, “Jal, was that you?”

Seizing his opportunity he said, “Yes, my Lord Lucifer.”

In this second book of the God Chronicle trilogy, Thomas, God’s Last Prophet, realizes that the only way to beat Lucifer, and prevent Armageddon is by stopping the birth of the Antichrist. In his efforts to find Lucifer, Thomas gets bonked on the head by the Pope using a religious artifact, gets beat up by Gypsies, and almost killed by demons. Eventually, Thomas teams up with a stuttering genius that is possessed by a fallen angel. The unlikely threesome seems to click on all cylinders as they work together and chase Lucifer through Europe. Will collaborating with a fallen angel prove to be a bad choice?

Author Bio

Larry S. GerovacLarry was born and raised in the Midwest. He is a first generation American, U.S. Navy Veteran, ex-Air Traffic Controller, and a retired nuclear worker. He loves science, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His goal is to entertain readers for many years with some truly out of this world stories.

Links

http://www.larrygerovac.tateauthor.com
http://www.pinterest.com/larrygerovac
http://www.twitter.com/larrygerovac
http://www.facebook/larrygerovac

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24102197-the-one-path?from_search=true

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Author Interview Junior Inquisitor Tour

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Author Interview

Q:How long have you been writing?

On this series I started the first one about ten years ago. I’m not sure if I will ever use it, it is a kind of Origins story. But once I wrote it I was kinda hooked, I realized there were many many more stories about Sebastian that needed to get out. I wasn’t in a hurry, and I took my time, hence the slow pace. Since then I am almost finished with my fourth novel in the series. It’s funny I wrote my first book long before I’d ever heard of any of the other authors that write along similar lines. The first time I read Larry Correia, Junior Inquisitor was with my editor. I wish I’d read him earlier, his creation of a useful silver bullet is better than mine.


Q:What was the most challenging part about writing “Junior Inquisitor”?

There was quite a bit of research I had to do on Providence, it’s been a long time since I’ve been there. And lest anyone think I hate Providence, I do not. I just needed a decent sized town for creatures of madness and mayhem to run around in. I could have picked Worcester, New Bedford, even Hartford. I went with Providence. I also spent time learning about the different orders of monks, so that part of the story would be authentic. On weapons I had a lot less research to do since I’ve used weapons ever since high school and quite a bit through out my twenty-eight years in the military. I’ve been over to Iraq twice, Afghanistan, three times for the military, and spent about a year in Afghanistan working for a private security firm. Every bit of equipment the Inquisitors use I have experience with, the same with their tactics, which made it easy to describe but boring to read. Most of the time when there is a fight people focus on what is right in-front of them. To give a story any kind of continuity and avoid “Well if you remember Bob,” or “”Tell me again what happened when the Ogre attacked,” dialogue I had to expand Brother Sebastian’s peripheral awareness. At the same time I didn’t want to descend into omnipotence, so it was a balancing act.


Q:What is your favorite part of being an author?

When you know you’ve got that scene just right.


Q:Is this book part of a series? If so, will there be more books in the series?

Yes I have written three already. Junior Inquisitor is the first. The Soulless Monk is next and the The Witch’s Lair. Soulless Monk is with my editor and will probably be released later in the year.


Q: Do you have any works in progress you’re working on?

I am writing, in my mind number four, but it’s still a work in progress. Pen to paper, metaphorically speaking, will be a few more weeks at least.

About The Book

coverjuniorinquisitorTitle: Junior Inquisitor

Author: Lincoln Farish

Genre: Dark Urban Fiction / Horror

Brother Sebastian is halfway up a mountain in Vermont, hell-bent on interrogating an old woman in ashack, when he gets the order to abandon his quest for personal vengeance. He has to find a missing Inquisitor, or, more likely, his remains. He’s reluctant, to say the least. Not only will he have to stop chasing the best potential lead he’s had in years, this job—his first solo mission—will mean setting foot in the grubby black hole of Providence, Rhode Island. And, somehow, it only gets worse…

If he’d known he would end up ass deep in witches, werewolves, and ogres, and that this mission would jeopardize not only his sanity but also his immortal soul, he never would’ve answered the damn phone.

Author Bio

Called an adventurer and quite possibly insane, Lincoln has traveled to many continents and countries on his own and at his country’s behest to determine from whence the darkness comes. Despite persistent rumors, Lincoln maintains that he had nothing to do with the tiger, was not involved in illicit wiener dog races, and has never used his knowledge of genetics to create a better life form.

Links

Twitter: @LincolnFarish

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lincoln.farish.7

Giveaway

Win a paperback copy of “Junior Inquisitor”!

Go here for the giveaway.

Release Party Lioness of Kell

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About The Book

lioness_ebookTitle: Lioness of Kell

Author: Paul E. Horsman

Genre: Fantasy

The lioness Maud is at eighteen already a black powerhouse of brawn. When she is ordered to fetch a young thief from a pirate town, she thinks it an easy task. Until she and Jurgis the thief find themselves running for their lives.

Young warlock Basil sees his life threatened by a summons from the Warlockry Council, to prove his beauty. He knows his lame foot will betray him and escapes on the first ship out of town. On board he meets Yarwan, a handsome midshipman, who awakens feelings he never knew existed.

When the four young people meet, Basil learns of a spell that could repair his foot. Only the spell’s creator, the infamous Black Warlock, disappeared nearly a century ago. As the four decide to go looking for him, they start on a path leading to an old war and unsolved mysteries that will change their world. Or kill them.

 

Author Bio

author2Paul E. Horsman (1952) is a Dutch and International Fantasy Author. Born in the sleepy garden village of Bussum, The Netherlands, he now lives in Roosendaal, a town on the Dutch/Belgian border.

He has been a soldier, salesman, scoutmaster and from 1995 a teacher of Dutch As A Second Language to refugees from all over the globe.

Since 2012, he is a full-time writer of epic light fantasy adventures for both Y.A. and over. His works have been both trade published in The Netherlands, and self-published internationally.

His available titles are:

* The Shadow of the Revenaunt (Rhidauna, Zihaen, Ordelanden) trilogy

* The Shardheld Saga (Shardfall, Runemaster, Shardheld) series

* Lioness of Kell (standalone)

Links

website: http://www.paulhorsman-author.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-E.-Horsman/e/B00CA32KFI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6888029.Paul_E_Horsman

Book Excerpt from The Purple Heart Detective Agency

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Book Excerpt

If anything, Penny looked younger than he had in Iraq. His physique was shocking. His arms seems on the verge of bursting through his shirt. And despite his bulked up chest, his waist was narrow and cinched with a western belt buckle. In Iraq, Penny’s face had always been a bit round, but now all of his baby fat was gone. Now in its place, all I saw was a hard man. Penny, I could tell, was now a professional warrior– by attitude, by lifestyle, and by training. Penny was now a mercenary. Anyone who didn’t think twice about screwing with him was making a huge mistake.

About The Book

PHDA - Cover Front OnlyTitle: The Purple Heart Detective Agency

Author: Rock Neelly

Genre: Comedy / Mystery

“What do wounded warriors do when they return from war missing a leg or two? These tough guys start The Purple Heart Detective Agency. Using battle-tested skills, laughing all the way, when others have turned their backs, these sleuths solve mysteries. Rock Neelly’s novel is easy to pick-up, hard to put down.”

– Robert Beattie, author of Nightmare in Wichita: Hunt for the BTK Strangler

“Rock Neelly hands the reader well-defined, believable characters, caught up in a deft blend of old-school detective noir and modern technology.” 

– Brian Dobbins, author of The Witch’s Cartel and Corryville

The sudden disappearance of a magician isn’t usually cause for alarm, but it’s a different story when the disappearance isn’t part of the act.

Clay and Roddy are two war veterans – both amputees – trying to rebuild their shattered lives through their struggling Purple Heart Detective Agency. Then the beautiful Angela Thayer enters the picture, asking for their help in finding her missing friend and employer, Trevor Baker – stage name, Merlyn the Magician. The high profile case promises to jumpstart their careers…until the search leads to betrayal, intrigue and mind control. And then the murders begin…

A hard-boiled detective story of murder and mayhem, a war story of pathos and survival, an action story of intrigue and violence, a love story of abandon and betrayal, a stick in the eye of the entertainment industry, wry social commentary on how America treats its veterans of war, but mostly a rousing tale of brotherhood in war and beyond.

And of course, a foul-mouthed monkey named Jerry.

Website: https://purpleheartdet.wordpress.com/

Author Bio

LoResRockRock Neelly is a Professor of Communications and English in the Cincinnati area. He has written numerous articles in magazines, journals, and books over his career. In his storied career, Rock has been a newspaper man, a sales manager, a contributing editor, and a bad guitarist in a garage band. The grandson of cattle ranchers, Rock grew up on the high plains of Kansas shooting baskets and pheasant. He currently teaches film, literature, and writing at a community college in Northern Kentucky. He lives with his wife and family in Liberty Township, OH.

The Purple Heart Detective Agency is his first novel.