Excerpts & Short Stories
Table of Contents:
» The Walker Papers
» The Negotiator Trilogy
» The Inheritors’ Cycle
» The Worldwalker Duology
» The Strongbox Chronicles
» Anthologies
» Short Stories & Online Offerings
» Tales from Gryphon Beach
» Essays & Non-Fiction
» Example Synopsis
The Walker Papers
URBAN SHAMAN
Book One of the Walker Papers
Seattle police mechanic Joanne Walker has no use for the mystical, but it has a use for her. When a near-death experience awakens shamanic magic within her, she finds herself up against old Celtic gods and a murderer whose magic is greater than her own…
Read the first chapter
Bonus short story: “Magic Hath An Element“, the first chapters of URBAN SHAMAN seen from beloved sidekick Gary Muldoon’s point of view!
WINTER MOON
anthology including “Banshee Cries”
Book 1.5 of the Walker Papers
Ritual murders under a full moon lead reluctant shaman Joanne Walker to a harbinger of death…and the realization that if she doesn’t learn to use her magic, the next death may be her own…
Read the first chapter
THUNDERBIRD FALLS
Book Two of the Walker Papers
Joanne’s spirit guide has disappeared and she’s accidentally unleashed demons on Seattle. It’s not the best time to realize she should have long since learned more about her powers…
Read the first chapter
COYOTE DREAMS
Book Three of the Walker Papers
Half of Seattle’s fallen under mystical influence and can’t wake up. Joanne Walker has stepped up her magical studies, but it may not be enough to save her friends…
Read the first chapter
Bonus short story: “Rabbit Tricks” : Joanne Walker finally gives Ashley Hampton the police station tour she was promised–and Brer Rabbit tags along.
WALKING DEAD
Book Four of the Walker Papers
The undead have just crashed Joanne Walker’s Halloween party, and she has to figure out how to break the spell that lets ghosts and zombies roam the earth. Unfortunately, there’s no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead…
Read the first chapter
DEMON HUNTS
Book Five of the Walker Papers
Joanne Walker started the year mostly dead, and she’s ending it trying not to be consumed by evil–literally. She’s no match for a cannibalistic demon that can only be tracked in the Lower World, and her on-the-job training could prove fatal to the people she’s sworn to protect…
Read the first chapter
SPIRIT DANCES
Book Six of the Walker Papers
A mystical murder puts Joanne Walker way out of her jurisdiction, and an ordinary one has pushed her to the edge. Cop or shaman? The choice isn’t easy, but it’s one she just might have to make…
Read the first chapter
Bonus short story: “Forgotten But By A Few“, a Gary short story set the same weekend as SPIRIT DANCES!
RAVEN CALLS
Book Seven of the Walker Papers
Being bitten by a werewolf is the least of Joanne Walker’s problems. Her personal life in turmoil, her job as a cop over, she’s been called to Ireland by the magic within her, and though Joanne’s skills have grown by leaps and bounds, Ireland’s magic is old and very powerful…
Read an excerpt »
The Negotiator Trilogy
HEART OF STONE
Book One of the Negotiator Trilogy
New York City defense lawyer Margrit Knight has finally met the perfect man…only he’s a gargoyle, and wanted for murder. Caught in the strange world of the Old Races, Margrit finds herself in a race against the sunrise to clear Alban’s name and keep them both alive…
Read the first chapter
HOUSE OF CARDS
Book Two of the Negotiator Trilogy
Margrit is summoned to negotiate a peace treaty amongst rival factions in the Old Races, but even as she does so, her own mortal world threatens to fall apart. Caught between a ruthless vampire mobster, a dragonlord who won’t take no for an answer, a group of subversive selkies, she finds herself alone–because the gargoyle who brought her into their world won’t return her calls…
Read the first chapter
HANDS OF FLAME
Book Three of the Negotiator Trilogy
War has erupted among the five Old Races. Torn between conflicting loyalties as the battle seeps into the human world, Margrit soon realizes the only way out is through the fire…
Read the first chapter
Bonus short story: “Five Card Draw“, a story of the Old Races and Daisani’s assistant Vanessa Grey
The Inheritors’ Cycle
THE QUEEN’S BASTARD
Book One of the Inheritors’ Cycle
In a world where religion has ripped apart the old order, Belinda Primrose is the queen’s secret weapon. Cunning and alluring, Belinda can seduce at will and kill if she must–but her spying takes on a new twist when her witchlight appears…
Read the first chapter
THE PRETENDER’S CROWN
Book Two of the Inheritors’ Cycle
Belinda Primrose is no longer anyone’s pawn. Lured by the sensual dark magic of Dmitri, envoy to a neighboring throne, yet still drawn to the witchlord embrace of her former lover, Javier, Belinda has entered a realm where power and control go to those who can master and manipulate their fiercest desires. For the witchpower depends on the skill its wielder holds…
Read the first chapter
The Worldwalker Duology
TRUTHSEEKER
Book One of the Worldwalker Duology
Gifted with an uncanny intuition, Lara Jansen nonetheless thinks there is nothing particularly special about her until Dafydd ap Caerwyn reveals himself as a prince of Faerie and names Lara a truthseeker, a person with the rare talent of being able to tell truth from falsehood. Caught between bitterly opposed Faerie forces and Dafydd’s secrets, which are as perilous as he is irresistible, Lara finds that her abilities are increasing in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. With the fate of two worlds at stake and a malevolent entity wielding the darkest of magic, Lara and Dafydd will risk everything on a love that may be their salvation—or the most treacherous illusion of all….
Read the first chapter
WAYFINDER
Book Two of the Worldwalker Duology
Once a tailor in Boston, Lara Jansen has crossed from Earth to the Barrow-lands, a Faerie world embroiled in a bloody civil war. Armed with an enchanted and malevolent staff which seeks to bend her to its dark will, and thrust into a deadly realm where it’s hard to distinguish friend from foe, Lara is sure of one thing: her love for Dafydd ap Caerwyn, the Faerie prince who brought her to the Barrow-lands. But Dafydd is missing and his home is closer than ever to a final conflagration. Lara has no other choice: she must harness the staff’s magic and her own truthseeking talents, blazing a path to a long-forgotten truth that will save the Barrow-lands…or destroy them forever.
Read the first chapter
The Strongbox Chronicles
THE CARDINAL RULE
Book One of the Strongbox Chronicles
Alisha MacAleer has dedicated her life to serving her country as an agent of the CIA. Now as her allies begin to show their true colors, she’s reminded of the first law of spying: trust no one but yourself.
Read the first chapter
THE FIREBIRD DECEPTION
Book Two of the Strongbox Chronicles
The legendary Sicarii will do anything to get their hands on the artificial intelligence war drone called the Firebird. Betrayed on all sides by her comrades, covert agent Alisha MacAleer’s worst and only choice for allies is the man who once broke her heart…by shooting her in the back.
Read the first chapter
THE PHOENIX LAW
Book Three of the Strongbox Chronicles
Alisha MacAleer has walked away from the spy game…but the game won’t let her go. When the Sicarii come after Alisha’s family, she resolves to end this dance once and for all….
Read the first chapter
Anthologies
» WINTER MOON : featuring “Banshee Cries”, a Walker Papers novella
» A FANTASY MEDLEY : featuring “From Russia, With Love”, a story of the Old Races
» THE PHANTOM QUEEN AWAKES: featuring “Cairn Dancer”, a story of the Morrigan (February 2010)
» DRAGON’S LURE : featuring “Perchance to Dream”, a story of the Old Races (April 2010)
» RUNNING WITH THE PACK : featuring “Blended”, a story of Regency-era werewolves (May 2010)
Short Stories & Online Offerings
» HIGHLANDER: IMMORTAL BELOVED : An archaeologist’s claim to have found Atlantis brings five thousand years of memories and missed chances back to Methos’ doorstep.
» Them Shoes : A re-telling of “The Red Shoes”
» Glasslands : Prequel to an unwritten science fiction saga
» Salt Water Stains the Sand : an Old Races story of the djinn Malik and “the first time he lost”
» Five Card Draw : A story of the Old Races (renamed, used to be “New York Hold ‘em”).
» Magic Hath An Element : the first chapters of URBAN SHAMAN seen from beloved sidekick Gary Muldoon’s point of view!
» Rabbit Tricks : Joanne Walker finally gives Ashley Hampton the police station tour she was promised–and Brer Rabbit tags along.
» Forgotten But By A Few : a Gary short story set the same weekend as SPIRIT DANCES.
» A Compendium of Kitlings : Originally written for Speculation Press’s Mrs. O’Leary’s Boardinghouse anthology, which never happened. The premise of the anthology was that in turn-of-the-century Chicago, Mrs. O’Leary discovered that aliens (the sort from outer space) tended to pay their boarding fees more promptly than human boarders, and also in gold. This, then, is a story of one of Mrs. O’Leary’s boarders…
» Previously, on Take A Chance… : A prequel to TAKE A CHANCE, and also an audition script for any artist who’d like to try their hand at Chance.
Tales from Gryphon Beach
A collection of short stories for children
» Para-Chan And The Butterfly
» A Day Of Darkness And Light
» The Glitter Faerie
» The Smallest Giant
» The Day the Pirate Attacked
Essays & Non-Fiction Writing
» Essay: The Discipline of Writing
» Essay: Shamanism
Example Synopsis
Please note this does contain spoilers for THE CARDINAL RULE.
» Example Synopsis: THE CARDINAL RULE