Torch Light

Status: at publisher, in editing stage. Out in early 2021

Firefighter Sam Carver’s life is in ruins. He fell off a fire truck during a collision. He resorted to drugs to handle the pain and became addicted. His wife left him. He gambles. He always has some special deal going on. He cheats his friends. It is only when the bell rings that Sam is a hero.

An alien from a flame world flees to Earth. She sees Sam performing bravely at a fire and decides he is the person to help her. To please him she takes the form of his favorite supermodel who’s poster hangs in his locker.

Sam is at his best when fighting desperately. Her pursuers take the form of anything she fears. Sam has to overcome giant pit-bull, musclebound mobsters, and finally, a seven foot version of himself.

Will Sam save his alien companion? In doing so will he find his own redemption?

Bugs

Young Adult Fantasy

Status: In process of submitting to publishers and agents.

In 1968, Avery Melvin is 12 years old. His best friends are his dad and the bugs he collects. When his father doesn’t come home one night, Avery sets off on a quest to find him. He is opposed by powerful forces in his town that tell him he should just shut up and accept what he is told. Avery preservers and discovers a plot by alien birds to conquer the planet by means of hypnotic milkshakes. Avery finds friends in an extra-terrestrial bug who pretends to be a superhero and the first Black girl to attend his middle school. Nothing is as it seems in this story of bugs against birds. Avery treats those that he meets by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, or even their species or what planet they come from. Can Avery stay true to himself, find his dad, and save the world?

Miracles

Status: Second draft, out late 2021

Three early teens flee human trafficking by taking a train across Florida.

Dark Spirit

Status: first draft complete

Young Adult horror/fantasy. Story centers around a Dybbuk, which in Jewish tradition is a spirit who is not at rest. This dybbuk haunts a Middle America high school and singles out the one Jewish student, Fern Ruben, as his target.