The Waking Hours
“A haunting dystopian debut for fans of The Hunger Games and Station Eleven”
Ashlin has lived her whole life in the shadows, hidden by a mother who knew she was hunted. Now her mother is gone, murdered on the open road, and Ashlin is alone in a fallen country where small communities cling to survival in the ruins. But Ashlin carries a secret even she does not fully understand: an identity buried since birth.
When her path collides with Doc, a man tied to her past, Ashlin discovers the truth of a secret military program that once turned troubled teenagers into supernatural weapons of war. Its survivors are scattered and dangerous. And Bennett, the program’s founder, is hunting them all—and Ashlin. Now, she must face the truth of who she really is while losing herself to the forbidden love she shares with Doc.
The world has already ended once. In the waking hours of what remains, her choices could determine if it rises again, or falls forever.
The Grey Woods
BOOK I "THE GREY WOODS" in the Fantasy Series “In The Footsteps of Kings”: The Grey Woods is a meeting place between worlds, where souls go after they die, where they come before they are born. Here, Lady Atya of the Majae draws Fin Goldvale into this spiritual realm to witness past events that hold the key to his future. But Fin is caught between his cousin Madros’ present turmoil and his love for the enchanting Eamìn of the Majae. In order to ensure their very survival, Fin must navigate Lord Madros’ growing madness by understanding the deeds of this insufferable man’s past.
Madros is forced to send his beloved Eamìn to a remote city where his cousin Gareth is king. Fin is sent with her to protect her from the dark forces ever searching for her power, but more importantly, from Gareth himself. But Fin is accused of an affair with Eamìn, who has been forced to marry Gareth while in hiding, and he escapes to Madros’s city with the heartbreaking news that she is no longer safe there. But pulling her out of the hidden city will expose her again to the Lord of the Dream Realm, who Madros is ultimately protecting her from.
Madros must decide if leaving Eamìn in Gareth’s clutches is the lesser of two evils, or will the guilt of how she suffers in Gareth’s hands drive him to insanity and cause him to choose another option so deadly, in an attempt to rid both threats to her.
Time is an infinite loop, expanding, contracting and repeating again, and this tale weaves itself through a series of parallel events three years apart. In the end Fin finds himself standing between Madros and Eamìn, two people he’s sworn to love and protect with his life, and deciding which to serve.
The Red Battle
BOOK II “THE RED BATTLE” in the ‘Footsteps of Kings’ Fantasy Series: The Battle of Montrose, covers the missing year in Book 1, between Fin’s present world and Madros’s past, we’ll see the most pivotal events take place, further fleshing out the world and characters. To start, the tone will be darker and we’ll be delving into more dark and demonic influences while spending much more time with Eamìn the Majae, the epitome of compassion and light.
Now in hiding in Ardhailia, we’ll see just how Gareth works his charm and power to seduce Eamìn and bring her into his inner circle and trust. His motives, while selfish, become entangled with his true feelings for his supposed ‘niece’. But he is clever as a fox and knows in his heart that she is not who they say she is and the power she hides from him, becomes all he wishes for. His sister Ayliana, is Eamìn’s surrogate mother, who will do anything to keep the two apart, until Gareth will not tolerate her as an obstacle anymore.
While remaining in the past thread from book 1, book 2 will shift focus to Madros and the coming battle for Catharas as Dorú’s demons loom at the East Gate. The darkness that has barely touched book 1 will come crashing into the next part of the story with fury and the character’s desperate plight for survival, will crack wide open.
And of course we get to spend time with Fin, before his great coming of age in book 1, and see his world change from his lazy post as Gareth’s most trusted Lord in Ardhailia to his flight for his life after his escape from Ardhailia’s dungeons.
At the center of this book is the greatest and bloodiest battle ever fought in Calàdra’s history. With shocking losses, friendships forged and promises broken, the Battle of Montrose turns our tragic hero Madros from the recovering prisoner of war, to the unpredictable and ruthless man we meet in book 1.
Book 2 is the necessary story we need to go on in time, to learn the fates of Eamìn and Madros and to make sense of their darkening world. Will their true love that has spanned thousands of years be enough to defeat the darkness, or will they too be jaded by the sorrow of this world and succumb to grief and hardship.
The Black Fortress
BOOK III "THE BLACK FORTRESS" in the ‘Footsteps of Kings’ Fantasy Series: Book three continues in the present story after Fin escapes Ardhailia with Eamìn in book one. Madros discovers that Eamìn has been captured by Dorú’s demons and taken to his brother Rìghale in Brach. He infiltrates the city, disguised as a commoner and recruits the help of an old friend to rescue Eamìn. Rìghale, now deeply under Dorú’s influence, is slowly being taken as the Lord of the Dream Realm’s human host.
He holds Eamìn as bait in order to lure his brother in but Madros still manages to defeat his brother and free Eamìn from Dorú, or so he believes. Eamìn has been bewitched into a sleep state that traps her powerful soul in the Dream Realm, with Dorú. Even after bringing her to the safety of the Black Keep in Faladún, Madros is still cruelly parted from her as the comatose state persists. Once the spell is broken, after much effort and help from the Dorgi, there is still not an opportunity to rejoice, for Eamìn wakes without her memories of him.
Her mind has been wiped clean of what she is, who she is and everyone she loves. With Eamìn immobilized, Dorú’s dark spirit now seeks to possess Madros, his ultimate goal. Madros must decide if he should disclose everything to Eamìn, including his part in the fall of Ardhailia and the deaths of those she loves, or leave her ignorant to everything that has happened, protecting her from the threat of Dorú, and rebuilding a new life and future for her where they can finally be together.
Inheritance Costs (working title)
A historical fiction about the imagined grandson of President James Madison and the struggles through wealth, influence, expectation and family.
In the ruins of the post–Civil War South, blood ties cut deeper than bullets. John Madison, heir to a name steeped in power and secrets, discovers that the greatest battles are not fought on battlefields but within families. When love collides with betrayal, and duty clashes with freedom, John must decide whether to bear the weight of his inheritance—or destroy it before it destroys him.
What Inheritance Costs is a Southern Gothic Western about legacy, love, and the dark price of carrying a family name.