Coming Soon
Pending Publications
Mar y Sol: Sea and Sun
Mar y Sol
This book is a sequel to CANDY, in which Santiago’s sister Candy is killed by the Reyes Cartel in a bloody battle in New Mexico. Santiago returns to his home in Portland, Oregon where he sinks into a pit of drunken self-hatred, self-recrimination, and self-pity. In a drunken episode he beats a man to near death outside a bar in East Portland. Three men come into the bar to avenge the beating. Santiago surprises them and beats them down. The men are small players in the same cartel that killed his sister. The cartel boss, Armando Reyes, figures out who Santiago is and seeks vengeance. Several cartel members are killed as Santiago fights for his life. Adding to the drama, the Reyes Cartel is in a highly profitable partnership with the Irish mob.
After several bloody battles, Santiago escapes and follows the coastal highway from Portland to Oceanside, California where he decides to take the war to Armando in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez. To blend in, he joins up a group of bikers and rides to a Motorcycle Rally taking place there. In a fortuitous encounter at an outdoor mercado, Santiago meets and joins forces with a young woman, Marisol. Armando is responsible for Marisol’s parent’s murder and her abduction. Armando groomed her and has sexually exploited her for years, and then, strangely falls in love with her and tells her she is going to have his children. All she has dreamt about is doing to him what he did to her and to her parents.
Marisol and Santiago’s need for vengeance unites them. Marisol spontaneously sneaks and hides Santiago inside the heavily fortified seaside mansion. They wait for the opportune moment and fight their way through armed security guards and kill Armando. They use Armando’s secret tunnel to the sea believing they have escaped. They emerge unto the beach and are met with ferocious gunfire. Both are critically shot and melt into the beach bathed by the Sea and warmed by the Sun, Mar y Sol.
Malevolence
Malevolence
Three innocent eleven-year-old girls, Centola from Syria, Esperanza from Mexico, Pe’severans from Syria, are being hunted by blood curdling creatures. The evil chasing the three girls manifest as earthly creatures indicative of the evil that is devastating the girls’ homeland. Centola is hunted by Black Wolves indicative of the pack of terrorists hunting in Syria. Esperanza is being hunted by a Black Dragon indicative of the scourge of drugs burning through Mexico. Pe’severans is being hunted by Ravens indicative of the hurricanes pummeling Haiti and their aftermath. The contrast between light and dark is profound.
The three eleven-year-old girls are being drawn to each other. The need to unite manifests itself and grows the closer they get to each other. Though they are thousands of miles apart, a spirit whispers to them at night strengthening them, enlightening them, and protecting them. To survive, it is imperative that they understand the evil seeking to consume their innocence and the good flowing from them. They are compelled to make the dangerous trek to the United States seeking shelter and unification. Each of their journeys is unique. They travel as migrants from their homelands and are exposed to the trials and tribulations all migrants face, symbolic of the trials and tribulations all humans face.
Horror aficionados will experience the lives of these girls, and it will expand their understanding and empathy for humanity. The book explores the multicultural aspect of our belief systems. It explores the essence of what it is to be human. Their fight and flight responses will engage the human emotions we all share.
Currently Being Written
Shimmer
Shimmer
There’s a shimmer in the night. John Martin is gliding past all of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated analytics. He knows that the cameras, satellites, social media sites, business applications, and all of the innocuous digital attachments have made it impossible to be anonymous, except maybe him, and he suspects, a few others affiliated with the powerful institution, his former employer, Southwest Research and Development (SRD). SRD is at the forefront of the new frontier. SRD is secretly developing a serum that will make it possible to merge digital neural networks and the human genome. The serum will release millions of microscopic nanobots into the bloodstream. The nanobots will learn, adapt, and merge with the human synaptic network. They are so close!
John was a member of a highly recruited, highly compensated team of America’s best biologists and Artificial Intelligence developers until the day he was cast out. For several months, a strange feeling had been incubating within him. Finally, it dawned on him! The migrants SRD claimed to be sponsoring were being used as guinea pigs. The migrants would arrive in inconspicuous vans and were dropped off at a secluded dock. He never saw any of them leave. He did notice large containers leaving at night. Were those the corpses of the migrants that were promised citizenship and jobs if they participated!
John Martin decided he had to elevate the issue. He met with his boss, Mr. McVie, who told him to do his job and mind his own business. John was not satisfied with the response and suspected that he was in on it. He convinced himself to elevate the issue to the CEO, Mr. Michael DeLeon. Mr. DeLeon promised that a full investigation would take place and any negative findings would be addressed. John was ecstatic. His life’s work was safe. A few days
later he was thrown out like a bag of trash. He drove home to find another man at home with his wife and his bags waiting on the front porch. His devotion to his job had cost him everything.
He had secretly worked on the serum stealing findings from the integration team and was confident he had made the necessary modifications. He cautiously began injecting it and low and behold… it worked! He became connected to the digital world encompassing and surrounding the earth. The only problem was that his emotions were part of every interaction, every plug in. He became obsessed with the destruction of SRD.
Let the annihilation begin!
Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider
Arturo starts to worry when Jimmy doesn’t come back. He knows the house and the neighborhood. Not a place you want to be if you don’t belong there. The Westside of Española is known for the violence that spews out from there. The leader of the West Side Locos lives in the house. They are one of the most dangerous gangs in Northern New Mexico.
“What’s taking Jimmy so long?”
Arturo gets out of the car and stretches, trying to yawn the rough night away. He starts pacing, walking back and forth. Then he hears yelling coming from inside the house. He runs inside to make sure that Jimmy is okay. He enters the house and finds himself in the middle of a full-blown fight. Jimmy is on the floor being kicked by a man twice his age and twice his size. Without thinking, Arturo pounces and knocks him down. He reaches down and helps Jimmy to his feet.
“Come on bro, we have to get out of here!”
As they head towards the door Arturo feels a punch, then another, then another, and then he feels warm blood flowing down his back as the knife repeatedly breaks through the flesh. Arturo melts into the ground. He hears voices echoing but can’t make out what they are saying, only that they are highly agitated voices. Arturo feels separated from his flesh. He continues to hear voices but they are fading. He feels hands underneath him and he is lifted up off the ground.
“Come on bro, this dude is dying. We have to get him out of here!”
Arturo feels his body moving as a warmth starts washing over him. He is thrown into the back seat of a car and feels as it drives away. He dreams he’s at sea on a Naval Vessel. As a Marine, he trained on Amphibious Vehicles landing on storming beaches. It feels like that now. He feels the ocean waves and the thrill of landing on the beach. He feels as the car comes to a sudden stop. Someone is grabbing him by the arms. He hears a slamming door, then feels the thump as his body slams on concrete.
“We can’t just leave him there! We have to take him inside; he’ll die if we leave him there!”
“Shut up bitch and get into the car!” Arturo hears the sound of gravel under the tires. He lays there looking at a neon sign as it dances in the night. His body gets colder until it’s ice cold. His spirit rises and he is floating next to a sign. The last thing he sees is the bright neon sign with the big red letters.