Writing Focus
Energetic, intense and passionate sum up my key writing attributes. Although I started this career late in life, I am blessed with a gift that I take quite seriously. After spending my 40-year career as an engineer working on international automotive projects, and consulting, I retired and moved to Florida to play competitive softball and write. Any day that I write is better than the best day in my former career.
Timing is everything. When I sent my initial draft of my first business book to publisher Robert Reed in Oregon, he immediately responded: “You have humor and aliens in your business book – we need to talk!” He recognized an innate writing skill, which his firm and I have leveraged for 8 books to date.
I write in 5 genres – science fiction, romance, murder mystery, gothic-romance fantasy and business, and currently have 8 books published and 4 script/screenplays submitted:
Books
I have completed 4 books in my epic 5-book sci-fi series, Stargate Earth, an action-packed saga of an interstellar alliance battling evil temporal aliens to save earth from destruction and humanity from extinction. I combine hard science fact with plausible future reasoning and embrace the Tom Clancy quote: “The difference between science fiction and reality is that science fiction must make sense.”
Sharks in the City is based on the lifestyles and life stories of fascinating and successful San Francisco women and how they react to the Sharks, or men behaving badly. Based on actual events and real people, it is lively, playful, seductive… with a thriller element. Intense relationships. Real-life sex. Beach read.
Fatal Expressions involves the same characters and setting as in “Sharks,” but offers a riveting serial murder implicating the protagonist, an expressionism artist, in a dangerous life-or-death game. The first of several serial murders occurs in his studio. The victim is one of his models and he is the prime suspect,
Who Put Me in Charge? is a business book based on my 40 years in corporate America, and my consulting and coaching career that followed, and it was my first publication. Soon after publication, I completed a companion piece, a workbook, to serve as a guideline to implement tools from the book.
The Power of Reverse Mentoring is my 2nd business book. It is both a foundation piece and an implementation guideline with subject matter attention paid to mentoring – particularly reverse mentoring, involving my daughter and I in relevant, real-life business experiences. Authentic.
Screenplays
Fatal Expressions is a 140-page script/screenplay based on my novel and the characters in Sharks in the City. It has been submitted to several film festivals for film prospects.
Echoes Beyond Time is a 30-page science fiction screenplay which brings temporal aliens from deep into the future, back to the present day, to warn humanity about an extinction event that is their reckoning.
The Oracle of Fractured Time is a 40-page screenplay that involves mankind pursuing teleportation and time travel experimentation resulting in the fracture, or collapse, of timelines in our universe.
Witches Revenge is a 40-page screenplay based on my current 6-book gothic-romance fantasy, Memory of the Marked, and brings two time-traveling saviors back to eras of witchcraft tribunals to save the accused witches.
The
Throne of Heka is
a 35-page screenplay of divine magic and ancient Egypt witchcraft and heresy during
the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt’s only female pharaoh.
A man for all seasons
A former mentor used that phrase to describe me as a man who was very successful at many different types of activities – a warm and heart-felt compliment which I truly appreciate and hold dear.
My interests, hobbies and experiences include poetry writing, screenwriting, mentoring, public speaking, rigorous fitness regime, scuba diving, kayaking, water skiing, snow skiing, softball, SCCA racing, biking, cross-country driving trips, classic car ownership, local theater acting and reading.
Both reading and writing are lifelong experiences and books become the mirror of your soul. You only see in them what you already have inside you…you can enjoy, or you can share.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” ~ Fran Lebowitz.
Future writing projects
Memory of the Marked is my gateway into gothic-romance fantasy, bringing warriors from the future, via a shimmering rift, to save women falsely accused of witchcraft, traveling throughout many centuries.
The Reveal involves several alien research outliers dealing with newly found evidence, taking what scientists have called informed speculation regarding alien presence, and replacing it with irrefutable fact.
Sharks in Paradise is book 3 in my “Sharks Series.” It takes the characters from Sharks in the City and Fatal Expressions to Hawaii, for more murder, mayhem and magical sexual conflict.
Fifth Ascension, written in first person, creates a protagonist who goes back into several past life regressions and into forward life progressions, where his soul and consciousness survive and interact.
My Inspiration
I am blessed to have many family members and friends support my writing passion, and my daughter appears as the cover model for most of my books. But it all began with my father, who passed away long before I even began this journey. A practical man, his advice included some dingers: “Son, you don’t learn nothing from talking. Don’t worry about things you can’t control. Protect your reputation – it’s all you have. You only have one chance to make a good first impression.”
But what meant the most to me was our long talks regarding two issues. My high school educated father was convinced that aliens existed, and we had so many discussions about extraterrestrials that he became the quirky grandfather, Pete Stevenson, in my first science fiction novel, and became the aliens’ first contact. He also was fascinated by extreme weather, as his son, Mike, became in book one as well.
Miss you, Dad.