FICTION

Trespassers (Novel)

Holden has spent an entire year alone, working from home, avoiding human contact and eking out a sad existence built on escapist pleasures. His purgatory is interrupted by a strange visitor who gives him a strange gift: each night, he must relive the past 24 hours through the eyes of a person he saw that day.

First, he experiences life as Lark, a short-tempered young woman who goes trespassing for sport and illicitly audits college classes. Next, he becomes Reza, a brilliant fraud haunted by conflicting memories. With his interest in the outside world reignited, Holden seeks out Lark and Reza and they agree to help him explore his gift.

The trio falls down a rabbit hole of conspiracy and corruption, landing in Los Angeles’ magical underworld, where they are recruited by an opulent and ruthless syndicate. But Reza’s new employers are the people who ruined his former life, and he seeks revenge from within their ranks. Meanwhile, Lark awakens an earth-shattering power that plays a role in a prophesied ritual. And when Holden discovers his insidious visitor has manipulated events to suit an even darker purpose, he must determine where his loyalties lie and use his gift to avert a cataclysm.

About
A contemporary fantasy epic about seclusion, new perspectives, and supernatural criminal syndicates. I think it would resonate even more today than when I first wrote it, but for now, all my attention is focused on AMAGIA. A lot of the seeds for AMAGIA, including the magic system was first conceived in TRESPASSERS.

The Harrowing (Novel)

To the living, it seems like happenstance killed Jack Hoyle. But after waking in the strange netherworld of Chthonia, where memories are currency and the architecture changes like the weather, he learns his death was anything but accidental.

A ruthless psychopomp named Graves arranged Jack’s demise to recruit him into a ghostly tournament known as The Harrowing. Judged by a being that dwarfs deities, champions compete for the ultimate prize: returning to life. The rules are arcane, the arenas defy logic,  and the roster consists of the most dangerous souls culled from countless worlds. But Graves knows something others don’t: Jack is uniquely qualified to bend the rules.

Aided by a mysterious spirit, a deceased goddess, and the ghost of his former house cat, Jack must undergo traumatizing training, navigate the afterlife, and slay opponents both hellish and honorable—without losing his soul in the process.

About
Everybody starts somewhere, and for me, that was THE HARROWING. It was a blast to write, and one day I hope to return to the project to adapt it to a graphic novel script. 

Short Stories

Sympathy
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a devil walks into a bar, damned to do cosmic community service.

Ahematolazaria
A young artist contends with an unenviable condition. Many of the concepts in TRESPASSERS and AMAGIA are foreshadowed in this short.