What I Write
I write science fiction and fantasy in the golden-age tradition — adventure stories with real heroes. Heroes who work hard and take risks to build a better future. Outsiders and contrarians who refuse to accept the dystopia they've inherited.
I identify with my characters. It turns out I'm a contrarian. I write against the current. Stories about people who deserve their dark fate are everywhere; those stories aren't for me. Fans of dystopian death-spirals and grimdark tragedies will recognize the settings of these stories and little more.
My stories are grimbright — dark worlds where tarnished heroes don't just make the best of a bad situation. They harness the darkness and fight. Win or lose, they refuse to accept defeat. They know they aren't perfect. But given the choice between stepping up and stepping off? They chose to shoulder their packs and climb. That willingness to do the work feels inherently heroic to me.
These aren't simple stories. They demand careful reading and reward it. A seemingly insignificant fact in chapter one might prove the clue to save the day. Blink and you'll miss it.
If you like stories about quick-witted heroes who earn every victory you've come to the right place. The settings are sprawling, with plenty of characters to love (and hate). The heroes are forever outgunned but rarely outmatched. And if brainpower can overcome firepower? They'll find a way.
Space Opera - The Freeman Universe
I have several science fiction series that share the same setting. Collectively they're referred to as "The Freeman Universe" because the stories revolve around a culture of space merchants that serve as "connective tissue" between diverse and sometimes dangerous cultures.
The setting has been described as "Marco Polo meets Shogun, in space." The stories are space opera, set six thousand years in the future, where the only aliens are other humans.
Humanity has fragmented and diverged. Bloody war raged when these isolated empires rediscovered one another. Now a fragile peace holds amongst the ruined stars. And a new power has risen. Commerce. Trade. War by other means. You might imagine there is friction. And you'd be right.
Grimbright Fantasy - The Fogbound Realm
I have one active fantasy series set in a world known as "The Fogbound Realm." The stories take place in this "hub of worlds" where ancient portal gateways from various unexplored realms intersect. Home to the Folk of legend and myth, the Realm is now adoptive home to the dispossessed; luckless souls running toward, or away from their fates.
The stories are grimbright fantasy, secondary world (not Earth), where magic is real and expensive. Humans live cheek-to-jowl with mythical creatures, demons, dragons, necromancers and the undead. Human magic is weak without the caustic fog shrouding their dank urban streets. Their cast-iron engines and clockwork inventions level the playing field. You might imagine the neighbors are not amused. And you'd be right.
Recommendations
If you don't want to have to choose from a list I have some recommendations— quick-start entry points into these worlds that seem to work for most readers.
Freeman Universe - Entry Point
The Freeman Universe is expansive and the cast of characters extensive—these stories are space operas, after all. Contract and Custom begins a series that is more intimate while inheriting the scope and density of a fully realized world.
Imagine a macro lens aimed at the foundational event of an age. Two people from vastly different cultures, thrust together by circumstances, aboard a luxury cruise starship, dragooned into service evacuating the planetary population of a ruined world. One knows the plague was an act of nature. The other is convinced the plague was simply the side effect of a botched assassination plot. And the plotters are still out there. Preparing to try again.
The world building and cast of characters are tightly constrained. The action is continuous and self-contained. The main character is an outsider, who has to figure out how the world works while solving a mystery and staying alive.
The events of the series happen decades before the events of the other two series. What happens in this series informs the future in ways that matter.
All that together makes me think Contract and Custom is the place for new readers to start.
Twenty thousand refugees flee a dying planet. Aboard the commandeered luxury cruise starship Princess of Islandia, a murder report sets off alarms. Collision imminent.
He thinks she's a femme fatale. She thinks he's a jackbooted government tool. They are mirror images of one another from vastly different cultures. And they're both wrong.
When a ruthless cabal of mass murderers aims its enforcers at Detective Danny Brass and Freeman Matchmaker Orla Lavelle they're left with only two choices.
Hang together or hang separately.
View full details
Fogbound Realm - Entry Points
This recommendation depends upon the type of reader you are. If you are a completist, like me, you'll want to start at the beginning, with Beneath the Hidden Gyre. It's a story about the adoptive parents of the series main character. It's almost a standalone, but it contains important information that future events reference.
I think of Beneath the Hidden Gyre like the novel Shards of Honor in the Miles Vorkosigan space operas by Lois McMaster Bujold. The series is about Miles, but the story begins with his parents.
Arriving at the scene of a sorcerous murder, Professor of Enchantment Eusebius Quille must enlist the help of the only woman he has ever loved. And the last person in the world he wants involved.
Detective Inspector Nadine Oortsgarten already has her suspect. A disreputable enchanter with a shadowy past—Professor of Enchantment Eusebius Quille.
View full details
For readers that want to jump right into the series Maddy Dune and the Baleful Lantern is the place to begin. Maddy is a half-hellhound foundling rescued from crypto-naturalist pirates by her unconventional parents. This first book in the Maddy series is a found family and coming of age story, where Maddy is forced to face her divided nature, discover her true loyalties, and ultimately save the world, if she doesn't manage to burn it down in the process.
I like this book a lot. The award-winning short story that spawned the series idea was my first professional sale.
The Department of Criminal Magic is clueless. Her adoptive parents are hopeless.
Maddy is on her own, her only allies a birdlike emissary created by the murderous kylochs of Ghula, and her adoptive father's fantastically clever clockwork cat.
Maddy must puzzle out the hidden truth about the enigmatic Spelling Bee trophy before it's too late. But first she must face an even more terrifying truth--and one she can't escape.
View full details
Still Can't Decide?
Then try Quite Possibly True on me. It's book 1.5 in the Freeman Universe series and a good example of my writing.