CREATIVE WRITING
As a creative writer, I have authored five books in addition to The Wanderer and the Wolves, collaborating with developmental editors and copyeditors to develop plot lines, characters, and pacing, as well as producing book cover art, promotional book trailers, and marketing materials to attract audiences and increase readership.
In The Shieldmaid and the Cross, the sequel to The Wanderer and the Wolves, the Jutish warrior-woman, Cwenhild, tells the story of her life and those of her infamous father, the High King Vortigern, her mother, Rówan Brighthair, the valkyrie; her uncles, the celebrated chieftains, Hengst and Horsa; and her mortal enemy, Uthr Pendragon.
I am currently editing The Shieldmaid and the Cross before submitting it to a developmental editor. I hope to have it published in 2027.
The Shieldmaid and the Cross
Wæs-hāl!
I am Cwenhild: Battle Woman.
I am poison-dealer. King’s-daughter. Bonesetter. Bonebreaker.
More than all, I am warrior. A woman amongst men.
My story began long before this.
It began with a man, whose eyes were set higher than a paper miter.
It began with three others, who lived for the blood-fight.
And a fifth. This one was a woman. No one knew what she lived for.
This is their story. And mine. A tale of six lives, bound up together.
This is our Dragon-Saga.
Cwenhild has known who she is from birth. She is destined to be a great warrior, like her uncle, Hengst, and a bear-shirt, like her cousin, Eosa.
Yet, Cwenhild wants more. She wants to be the greatest Jutish chieftain who ever lived. And, born of the god-line of Wóden, the berserker-madman-warrior, she has the mettle to make it happen.
But, as Cwenhild’s valkyrie mother warns, obtaining one’s desires does not always lead to happiness...
The Adder and the Asp is the sequel to The Wanderer and the Wolves. Here, Queen Guinevere’s forgotten half-sister, Rapha, tells the tale of her early life: a childhood of shocking neglect, illegitimacy, manipulation, and abuse, that led to the formation of a formidable — and disturbing — young woman. A young woman who will one day be the bride of the Once and Future King… and bring about the ruin of Camelot.
While the writing of this novel is complete, The Adder and the Asp is still in the developmental editing stage. I hope to have it published in 2028.
The Adder and the Asp
I was no longer little Rapha, hiding in the shadows. I had lost all desire to hide. What good had it ever done me? All it had afforded was disparagement, violation, and shame.
No, henceforth, I would ensure that I was seen. And not for the timid mouse I had been. I would adopt a new insignia. One that reflected my true nature…
Rapha is the unwanted daughter of a ruthless king, both cruel and foolish. She dreams of one day being a great lady like her legitimate half-sister, Anavere.
But for now, she is only a bastard child: unnoticed, unloved, and shunted aside. Like her name, Rapha, “Dark Daughter,” her dreams are dark.
But Rapha is determined to shine. One day, she will stand in the light, and all will see her. She just needs the right person — the right man — to help her rise…
The Haunting of Honeysuckle Hall is a ghost story… and a murder mystery. It is the first in a series of three novels about a young architect, Frankie, who lives in a succession of haunted houses: in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and finally, Paris. The series examines the themes of murder, reincarnation, ghosts and other supernatural entities, and the enduring bonds of love and family.
The Haunting of Honeysuckle Hall is currently in copyediting and will be published just before Halloween of 2026.
The Haunting of Honeysuckle Hall
I wonder if houses are ever haunted by the ghosts of their former selves…
I knew it when I moved in. I just didn’t want to admit it.
There were too many signs. Noises. Creakings. Doors ajar. Breezes where there wasn’t any wind. Stillness, where there should have been movement.
Then, there were the silences. Like something was waiting for me to answer a question I hadn’t asked. A tense restraint. A persistent pause. An–almost–holding of breath.
Something... or someone... was waiting for me to acknowledge them.
It was the last thing I wanted to do. The last thing, except for one.
I never wanted to move into a haunted house.
Frankie has just moved into her dream home: a rundown yet elegant mansion in Westwood, California. She can’t wait to renovate its original wood floors and antique banisters.
But something isn’t quite right. Odd noises pervade the house: creaking doors, voices in the halls, and an old gramophone that plays by itself. Strange things begin to happen: blood flows from the faucets, the garage wall is graffitied, and a full-blown dinner party erupts in the parlor. Worse, Frankie begins having nightmares about a ghost, a murder, and… a past life?
Upon researching the history of her new home, Frankie discovers a horrific murder that happened thirty years ago… right in her front yard. But thirty years is not that long, and the murderer was never caught.
Is Frankie’s house haunted by the ghost of a murder victim, or are these strange hauntings the work of a living murderer, still on the loose… and fixated on Frankie?
The Fleur de Lis Mysteries is my third series of three historical fiction/murder mystery novels. The first book, tentatively titled Conspiracy de Rais, which I’m currently writing, is about the conspiracy to assassinate Gilles de Rais, one of Joan of Arc’s captains.
It is narrated by Gilles, his daughter, Marie... and one other, “dark horse” narrator.
I am aiming for a publication date in 2028.
Conspiracy de Rais
Jhesus Maria.
I know what you did. Though I am nine years in the grave, I know it. I have seen it, for, have they not shown it me?
You plotted. You schemed. You stole his freedom, his life, and his reputation.
But you could not take his faith, for faith comes from within. Though not in battle, he died bravely, sacrificing himself to spare his friends.
Yet the taint of evil with which you besmirched him–sorcerer, sodomite, rapist, murderer, monster–remains.
I come to remove that stain.
Gilles de Rais. Born of four illustrious family lines, he fought beside Joan of Arc, escorted King Charles VII to his glorious coronation at Rheims, and produced commemorative pageants evoking the triumphs of the Maid of Orleans.
Yet, his name is synonymous with sodomy, torture, and child murder, and he has gone down in history as the infamous model for Bluebeard.
But was he any of these things?
Or was his execution really a cover-up for a shocking conspiracy to defraud Baron de Rais of his fabulous fortune, his good name… and his life?
This is Gilles’ story as seen through his eyes, those of his only child, Marie… and one other, “dark horse” narrator.
What happens when Michael Darling, of Peter Pan fame, wakes up in a World War I hospital with his repressed memories intact?
Why, he becomes a treasure hunter, of course!
And what does he find?
Not Neverland… Everland.
I am currently researching, structuring, and beginning to write Everland. The work is moving fast, so I hope to have it published within the next few years.
Everland
The island had been drifting in and out of the transom of my mind ever since I could remember. Just to the right of consciousness, one might say.
Once I awoke in St. George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London, the island was there, in full, living color, breathing its myriad of sights and scents and sounds into my mind. I could smell the detritus on the jungle floor, feel it crunching beneath my feet as I walked, and hear the parrots caw-cawing overhead. Vines swayed as I walked through the press, damp hair clinging to my forehead, arm outstretched to push the climbers from my path.
The place had come alive. Perhaps, it had always been there, biding, waiting for me to awaken to its presence.
Now, it was here. And I knew it for itself. Its lush, leafy, sultry, dark green self.
It was the darkland of dreams, the otherworld of the soul, the fairyland of the Freudian psyche.
It was the Everland.
Michael Nicholas Darling is all grown up. Unfortunately, one of the deficits of being at last truly a “grown-up” is suffering the perils of war. Michael joins the RAF at eighteen, only to become lost in the Great War.
Upon waking in an army hospital, he discovers that long-repressed memories of a strange jungle island have reawakened along with him.
What is this place? Has he ever really visited it? Or is it just a figment of a once-fine imagination, now disrupted by war?
Michael’s quest to discover his long-lost “island of the mind“ will take him from London to Ireland to the Americas: once the home of pirates, natives, animals both weird and wild, and a tribe of beings little-known to the outside world… and only to those who remain young of heart.