The Big Bang, Volume One of the Lonesome George Chronicles which will be published by Liberty Island Media on January 20, 2015.

In August of 2008, a series of internal attacks stagger the nation, unleashing a domino of assaults from enemies foreign and domestic.  In the shattered remains of our country, citizens find themselves tested in the crucible.  From the last elected President of the United States, on the run in a country no longer his own, to the movie star hunting desperately for his lost daughter, to ordinary men and women struggling to survive under the boot of the invaders, The Big Bang weaves together the stories of the people of a new America in a history of events that have not yet taken place.

 

By The Hands of Men, Book One: The Old World  First book in the By the Hands of Men Trilogy, four novels that will span from the trenches of France in World War One to the rolling hills of the Central California coast during the Great Depression.

Lieutenant Robert Fitzgerald has managed to retain his sanity, his humanity, and his honor during the hell of WWI’s trench warfare. Charlotte Braninov fled the shifting storm of the impending Russian Revolution for the less-threatening world of field camp medicine, serving as a nurse in the most hopeless of fronts. Their friendship creates a sanctuary both could cling to in the most desperate of times. Historical fiction about life, loss, and love, By the Hands of Men explores the power that lies within each of us to harm – or to heal – all those we touch.

 

Here are some works by my wife, Alisa, and my son, Cameron, respectively.

Gonalls by Alisa Griffis.

“Gonalls” is about a 12 year old kid who finds a mysterious, cuddly little mammal in the underbrush near his Colorado home. Ian Roach (who hates getting teased and sometimes bullied about his last name) has always wanted a dog – and this sweet little animal is the next best thing.  The problem is – he doesn’t know what it IS. The animal appears harmless enough – so he takes it home and begs his mom to let him keep it. When she relents, Ian’s adventures with Max (short for Mystery Animal Extraordinaire) begin.

The Greenshores by Cameron Griffis (coming soon)

“The Greenshores” is the debut novel from first-time author Cameron Griffis. Set in the fictional land of Aves, this book is the first part of an epic saga that will span a terrible war in which neither side is pure good or evil.

Underlake by Kia Heavey

Underlake  is a most unexpected delight by Ms. Heavey. While it is clearly a novel for Young Adults, I, as a bitter misanthrope of over 50, found it very compelling and even moving, which is a real testament to the strength of Kia’s writing and the story itself. I don’t want to get hung up on the plot, because a lot of the joy of the novel is in the discovery of the story and characters, but I found them very real: funny, fallible, human beings that I wanted to know more about. One of Ms. Heavey’s gifts as a writer is the way she can slip in subtly disquieting events until the reader finds themselves in a place and story they did not expect. In short, this was a really good book that transcends the genre and deserves to be widely read.  (Ms. Heavey is also a very fine graphics artist, who did the cover for my novel “By the Hands of Men”)