The insouciant
would-be
screenwriter...
...blissfully
unaware of his
mediocrity.

EXT. MY EPIC SCREENPLAYS - NIGHT
Behold my epic screenplays! Writing them was possibly the dumbest waste of time ever. Having said that, it was a fun hobby and a stupid dream. We all need those, right?

Hover over the titles to see the first page, save yourself a click.

INT. SHORT SCRIPTS - DAY
Also witness the staggering non-talent apparent in these gems, and despair. Scribbled for various fun-only contests.

Infestation
Vampire Hunter Action
A detective teams up with a trigger-happy special agent to track down a bunch of deadly kids with vampire DNA, escapees from a military experiment gone wrong, who plan to resurrect their master vampire sire and turn the human race into convenience food.
synopsis | treatment

The Moonship
Sci-Fi
Two prison officers and 13 of the most dangerous criminals in the Solar System are trapped aboard a transport ship bound for the Moon, together with an alien horror with a taste for human flesh.
synopsis

Freezing Point
Horror-Thriller
A young detective seeking redemption falls for the irresistable wife of a murderer whose body lies frozen in a cryogenic vault, triggering a series of bizarre deaths that suggest love and obsession never die.
synopsis

Dark Visitor
Sci-Fi Thriller
A hardboiled city cop investigates a series of horrific murders that bring him face to face with a head-collecting psycho killer from another world! He must race to recover his girlfriend's stolen head before the alien repairs its flying saucer and leaves Earth forever.
synopsis

Highway Robbery
Thriller
A hapless office drone is plunged into a nightmare scenario of murder and violence after he meets a pair of dangerous thugs who will stop at nothing to locate a missing truck.
synopsis

Legend of the Golden Pagoda
Action
A charismatic master thief and his crew find themselves trapped in a deadly labyrinth where they must battle human assassins and inhuman creatures from Chinese legend.
synopsis

Worst Of The Worst
Comedy
After his best mate is beaten up by yobs, an underachieving overweight loser lies his way into a local karate contest to seek revenge.
synopsis

The Lot
Action
A present day biker gang twist on the King Arthur story. The arrival of a deadly warrior named Lance upsets the balance of power between two gangs, good and evil, fighting for control of a mystical ghetto.
synopsis

Dead Line
Noir Thriller
A hard-hitting private dick becomes a walking target when he stumbles into a blackmail scheme involving a beautiful socialite he can't resist, and her ruthless Mob-connected politician fiancé.
synopsis

Secret Agent: British Intelligence. EYES ONLY
Action/Comedy Spoof
Secret Agent Biff Thrash of British Intelligence takes on Nazi clones, dwarf assassins and evil vampires. When the fit hits the shan and the world's about to blow up, send for secret agent Biff Thrash! This man is dangerous!
synopsis

MARS
Sci-Fi
A robotics expert is sent to Mars to investigate the mysterious deaths of several Martian colonists who may have been killed by a robot... which is just impossible, their Asimovs prevent them from harming humans.

Higher Than Usual
Horror
A desperate father races to protect his young family as the crazed inhabitants of their town turn insane and go on a killing rampage.
synopsis
Open heart surgery mode.

Lake Pensive
Horror
A desperate father must protect his young family from an unknown horror preying upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of a remote lakeside retreat.
synopsis
Rewrite mode.

Taste Of Evil
Horror
A special Mob enforcer of Afro-Caribbean descent finds himself up against supernatural forces when he investigates ritualistic voodoo killings in New Jersey.
synopsis
Rewrite mode.

Lone Justice
Western
A young store clerk becomes a lone avenger after a gang of bank robbers murder his father, with the help of an old Indian medicine man and a mysterious mask and six-shooter that could have mystical powers.
synopsis

Adjustments
Sci-Fi
Earth's first interstellar war ends in victory but the handful of soldiers who make it back home are executed. The sole survivor, a half-human killing machine, fights to stay alive while seeking the truth.
synopsis

How Much Do You Love Me?
Noir Thriller
A young drifter wrongly accused of murder goes on the run with a beautiful older woman but suspects she isn't everything she claims to be.
synopsis

Chopsticks
Crime Caper
The misadventures of a sassy hooker and an inept wiseguy who both run foul of Chinese Triads and the Mob when a truckload of white dust goes missing.
synopsis
Awaiting surgery.

The Mystery At Castle MacCarragh
Period Horror
In 1890 professional ghost hunters and a young spiritualist journey to a haunted Scottish castle to exorcize a malevolent spirit but encounter far more than they bargained for.
synopsis

Trapped In The Dark
Thriller
An unpopular female exec finds herself trapped in her office building late at night, stalked by a brutal figure able to anticipate her every move.
synopsis
Awaiting surgery.

Price Of Love
Action
A mercenary leader's mission to hunt a rogue CIA agent in Central America is compromised when the woman he thought he'd lost forever turns up alive in the hands of his arch enemy.
synopsis
Open heart surgery mode.

The Switch
Thriller
A U.S. intelligence agency recruits an American student to temporarily impersonate a Russian officer, not knowing that the dangerous Russian is involved in a deadly conspiracy against the West.
synopsis

Gunboat Diplomacy
Sci-Fi
An ambitious Earth diplomat's attempt to end a space war with a hostile alien race turns into a bloody fight to the death aboard a derelict spaceship, winner takes all.
Previous title: RISKS
synopsis

Running Deep
Rom-Com
A frustrasted romance author who daydreams himself into cheap gangster novels must become the hero and save the girl of his dreams from a ruthless entrepreneur who wants to stop her exposing his scam.
synopsis
Rewrite mode.

Night Surfer
Action
A female U.S. Navy officer reluctantly joins forces with a Chinese agent to stop a renegade stealth attack boat on a crazed revenge mission from targeting Mainland China with nukes.
synopsis
Rewrite mode.

Partings
Sci-Fi
The desperate survivors of a ship lost in hyperspace find themselves haunted by the ghosts of their dead crewmates, who have their own sinister agenda.
synopsis

Blood & Ice
Adventure
In 1900 a secret U.S. expedition is sent to the North Pole to search for missing explorers, and discovers creatures and a lost civilization from before the last Ice Age.
synopsis

Ambush At Apache Pass
Western
An ex-Civil War soldier and the inhabitants of an Arizona border town fight for their lives when Apaches go on the warpath after a crooked rancher kidnaps an Indian girl.
synopsis
The lost script!
Always backup your data!!

Dragonskin
Adventure
Roman Britain, 97 A.D.  A ruthless general seeks the skin of a magical creature to crush the Welsh Druids' power, but a native tracker and a sympathetic Roman centurion seek to thwart his plans.
synopsis

   

These enduring works of art were all registered once upon a time, I dunno what the status is now, probably expired. Meh.



 

 

 

 

Synopses


Dead Line

Tough P.I. Johnny Kruger takes pictures for a living, catching cheating husbands and wives in flagrante delicto. He plays it straight, no blackmail or extortion, just evidence for divorce cases. Maybe something drives him to expose the cheaters. Maybe he doesn't like to talk about it.
 
When socialite Lily Chapel tells Johnny she's being blackmailed but won't divulge details or proof, he gives her back her retainer fee and walks away, which suits her pushy fiancé, City Hall big shot Beauregard Avondale, just fine. But curiosity, or something else, drives Johnny to check out Lily's claim, taking him into a seedy world of skin photography and desperate women who'll do anything to keep their names out of the newspapers. When the bodies start piling up blame falls on Johnny. Nobody believes him and everybody wants him in jail -- Avondale, the Assistant D.A., even his cop brother-in-law. But Johnny keeps plugging away until he discovers the shocking truth behind Lily Chapel's story, and what a tangled web sex-hungry people weave when they think no one is looking.
 
"Dead Line" is 95 pages.  Noir Thriller.
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Highway Robbery

Help desk drone GEORGE ANDERSON's life is turned upside down when he's contacted by former school bully SANDY MCDONALD, who "asks" George to translate a German computer manual. George is captivated by McDonald's companion MARTINE, and agrees to go with them. But there is no manual, there's just GUNTHER, a scared German who's been kidnapped and tortured in an abandoned tenement building. McDonald wants George to find out where Gunther has hidden something, but George has difficulty understanding Gunther's terrified babbling, and the interrogation ends abruptly when McDonald's psycho sidekick BIG SHUG blows Gunther's brains out. George needs a drink to calm his frazzled nerves and pops into the first pub he finds, but in walks Martine. George is suspicious, but Martine's as scared and as shocked as he is. After Martine has a mini-breakdown in George's flat, things go an unexpected route and they end up in bed. George's emotions see-saw between growing feelings for Martine and guilt over Gunther's murder, but for reasons of his own George doesn't go to the police. Next day, George is contacted by a sinister German who has kidnapped Martine, and demands George meets with him. When George arrives, three German bully boys beat him up and threaten to shoot Martine unless George reveals the location of a truck, but George flatly denies knowing anything; the confused Germans let them go and drive off. Working alone, George tracks down Gunther's foreign girlfriend on a dangerous housing estate and recovers Gunther's missing truck keys -- George got some information out of Gunther before he died after all. But when a teen hoodie gang wrecks George's car and chases him, he has to call Martine to rescue him. A meal receipt in Gunther's bag directs George and Martine to an all-night service motorway station where they find the truck. Martine delays George -- "bewitches" might be a better word -- until McDonald and Big Shug show up out of the blue and take the truck, which is full of top-range video games machines. George realizes he's been suckered by Martine, that it's all been an act. Disappointed, he can only watch Martine leave with McDonald. But the three Germans, who have been shadowing George, race after the truck. In the days that follow George tries to find Martine, but he never does.

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The Mystery At Castle MacCarragh

A brooding pile of cold stone, Castle MacCarragh lies empty for decades until the young and innovative Sir Hillary Maitland inherits the long-dormant title of Lord MacCarragh.  Maitland plans to upgrade the castle and revitalize the estate to attract hunting and fishing parties, but when frightened workers leave and refuse to return to the castle he invites veteran ghost hunter Professor Henry Carruthers to investigate.

Carruthers duly arrives with his young wife Abigail and new scientific instruments based on the exciting electrical discoveries of Mr. Thomas Edison.  Carruthers claims he can not only detect the presence of supernatural spirits—he can also destroy them by means of electrical current discharge.

To the Carruthers' surprise Maitland also invites Kate Lyle, a psychic medium who experiences visual and aural phenomenon as soon as she arrives on the estate.  During the bloody Jacobite Uprising the castle's tolling bell called Clan MacCarragh to battle against the Redcoat army.  When the bell rings again and the ghosts of the doomed clan march through the mist Kate tries to convince Maitland and his guests to leave the castle forever.  But the malevolent spirits within have other ideas.  The members of the expedition soon find themselves fighting for their lives and their sanity.

"The Mystery At Castle MacCarragh" is 100 pages, completed.  Horror.

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Worst Of The Worst

I'm working on it, don't get your knickers in a twist.

"Worst Of The Worst" is 110 pages, completed.  Brit Comedy. With a bit of romance thrown in for luck.

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Price Of Love

Mercenary leader PATRICK HOOLIHAN plies his bloody trade in the dangerous jungles and mountains of Central America.  On a mission involving the extraction of Red Cross personnel from a war zone, Hoolihan is double-crossed and shot by ruthless mercenary commander TAYLOR.  He eventually recovers from his wounds but he's haunted by the memory of Nurse HAZEL MURPHY who died in the treacherous ambush that almost cost Hoolihan his life.

When Hoolihan accepts a contract to terminate a rogue CIA employee turned drug lord, he discovers the target's chief of security is Taylor, the man who left him for dead.  And when his target throws a party for his Cartel bosses, the smiling party hostess is none other than Nurse Murphy, alive and well.  Hoolihan's small band of elite mercenaries answer his summons and agree to fight for their own reasons.  For some it's the money, for some it's loyalty; for others it's because they can never escape from their past.  For Hoolihan it's to settle old scores and win back Murphy's love.

"Price Of Love" is 110 pages, completed.  Action/Thriller.

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Freezing Point

After accidentally shooting an innocent girl during a botched arrest, detective CARLOS SMITH is transferred to another precinct where his new partner worries whether reluctant-to-shoot Smith will freeze when confronted with the next dangerous situation.

Things become complicated when a clever businessman (PIERCE) murders the guy who was sleeping with his wife, then escapes justice in a unique way — he takes poison and books himself into a cryogenic clinic, where his body will lie frozen for hundreds of years!  When Pierce wakes up in the future, everyone will have forgotten about the murder and he'll be a rich man.  But right now, Pierce's attractive wife causes Smith all kinds of problems; the rising voltage that crackles between them nearly causes fatal distraction when more people turn up dead.

Insert an angry crime boss looking to recover the millions Pierce stole to finance his deep freeze escape; Pierce's enraged priest brother who literally curses his sibling for committing unpardonable sins; the return of the killer who caused Smith to shoot the innocent girl; plus the unexpected reappearance of a man who's supposed to be dead... and you've reached FREEZING POINT.

"Freezing Point" is 110 pages, completed.  Thriller with Horror elements.

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Infestation

After his partner is killed in bizarre circumstances, bewildered detective Pete Falconi is recruited by a secret government agency and paired with supercool agent Donna Maverick, a walking ad for Guns & Ammo magazine.  Together they scour the city's darkest places in pursuit of vampire children, outwardly young but inwardly possessed by a centuries-old evil.

At first it's just a deadly game of hide and seek and shoot to kill, but when the scale of the infestation is realized Falconi must race against the clock to rescue Donna and stop the children of the damned from attaining their goals — releasing their evil ancestor from captivity, and producing a viral strain that will reduce the human race to dumb cattle, the perfect food supply for a terrifying new breed of vampire.

...At the risk of giving too much away, none of the vampire brats are killed!  This screenplay is child safe.

"Infestation" is 110 pages.  Action/Thriller/Horror.

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Dark Visitor

When bodies start turning up in the morgue with neat holes drilled in the back of their skulls and their brains missing, Detective JERRY DONNER knows something's not quite right.

Donner rescues his attractive neighbor from her abusive boyfriend and throws the guy out, marking the beginning of what could be a beautiful friendship (with the neighbor).  But then the boyfriend turns up in the morgue, minus his brain... and not only did he check into the morgue BEFORE Donner threw him out of his neighbor's apartment, but the guy seemingly returns from the dead to beat the crap out of Donner, who very nearly becomes a victim himself.  Things just aren't adding up, and Donner's efforts to solve the mystery are hindered by a spunky reporter who smells a big story and will do everything she can to get it.

When the "boyfriend" returns later to perform a fatal cranial bypass on Donner's neighbor, it becomes a tad personal.  More bodies turn up dead but then show up alive again, and Donner and the intrepid reporter slowly come to accept the impossible, that they're dealing with a loony tune from out of town... 'way out of town... and he can assume the appearance of his dead victims.  When Donner finally tracks him down, the boastful alien psycho tells him he's found an ideal killing ground: Earth.  But when Donner wounds him and causes his human camouflage to slip, the alien decides to bug out aboard his UFO — there are plenty of other cities with millions of potential victims.  Donner however causes a systems overload that transforms the UFO and its murderous pilot into a dazzling fireworks display.  The menace is over... this time.  (Which is probably a cue for "Dark Visitor II: Brain Drain.")

"Dark Visitor" is 110 pages, completed.  Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller.

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Secret Agent: British Intelligence - EYES ONLY

Secret Agent Biff Thrash of British Intelligence is attacked within his own headquarters by foreign assassins, but fends the blighters off using his unarmed combat skills. An indication that his many enemies haven't forgotten about him and seek revenge.
Head of British Intelligence "X" gives Thrash an assignment — find and question the daughter of genius laser satellite designer Mansfield Blotsky, who has slipped away from his Special Branch minders and gone missing. Thrash sets off for Blotsky's house in the country. But before Thrash can even ring the doorbell, the beautiful Miranda Blotsky points a shotgun at him. He introduces himself as a Special Branch officer and asks if there's any chance of a cup of tea, which convinces her he's not an impostor.
Despite her frosty nature — she's a scientist! — Miranda finds herself attracted to Thrash and craves physical contact, but before they can embarrass themselves Killovian agents arrive, kicking open the front door and smashing their way in through a window. Thrash fights the blighters off but their leader grabs Miranda and threatens to kill her unless Thrash surrenders. While talking to the leader, Thrash instructs Miranda to activate a code in his phone that causes a hidden blade to spring out. Miranda stabs the Killovian in the thigh and he stands frozen, the blade contained nerve poison.
They flee the house in case more Killovians come but Thrash didn't bank on a psychopathic midget leaping on his back and strangling him. Thrash gains the upper hand and kills the midget. Miranda is shocked but Thrash is able to show her the midget is a Nazi assassin, one of a batch of deadly killers created by Nazi scientists near the end of WWII as part of a desperate terrorweapon program.
As they speed away from the house they are pursued by a huge black sedan that's equipped with machine-guns. Thrash fakes an explosive crash that lures the Killovian gunmen in, and deals with them. But a second Nazi midget gets the drop on Thrash, and shoots him!
Thrash awakens in a strange facility that's decorated with huge Nazi banners and populated by goose-stepping guards. He's been captured by actual Nazis and taken to a private island in the English Channel, which contains a base crammed full of big missiles that are being prepared for launch. The Nazis — who are led by an insane Hitler clone, advised by an ancient vampire with his own sinister reasons for wanting the world destroyed — plan to rain nuclear death upon every major city on the planet. They will rise to take control of the apocalyptic wasteland and its survivors.
Only one man can stop them, and that man is Biff Thrash.
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The Moonship

The Moonship collects prisoners from colonies and mining bases throughout the Solar System and transports them to the Maximum Security Facility on Earth's Moon, from which there is no escape.

Prison Transport Service Officers MITCH DUNBAR and KARYN MAINE pick up a real sweet bunch of psychos from a mining base on Venus whose list of heinous crimes is enough to make anyone gag. One of the prisoners is crazy enough to hide a Venusian MAGGOT, a notoriously carnivorous creature, inside his body. After the Moonship launches, the prisoner suffers a hideous death as the maggot chews its way to freedom. The creature gets into the ship's ventilation system and attacks other prisoners in their cells. Every time it eats, it gets bigger! And hungrier!

Prisoner MILES SORDELL, ex-soldier turned hijacker, suffers nightmares involving the loss of his special forces team who were eaten alive by Venusian "sharks" (adult maggots) during a botched mining colonist rescue mission. As casualties mount up Sordell becomes more and more reluctant to face his nightmares, but has no choice. Tension mounts as the Venusian shark survives every attempt to kill it, and the cunning prisoners overpower the crew to gain control of the ship.

"The Moonship" is 110 pages, a Sci-Fi/Horror thriller. ALIEN meets JAWS meets CON AIR!

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Running Deep

To his readers, romance writer MARION BRIDGEPORT is a smiling blonde woman who pens smoldering bodice-ripper novels — but Marion's really a painfully shy man who dreams of writing gritty gangster novels instead.  (His daytime fantasies revolve around his being a 1930s nightclub owner surrounded by beautiful women who can't resist his charms — the opposite of real life.) His agent LEONARD announces that Marion's latest romance novel has been nominated for the prestigious Valentino Awards and insists it's time for Marion to reveal himself to his army of fans, an act that will guarantee record-breaking sales.  But the thought of having to speak in public brings back painful memories for Marion, whose childhood speech impediment threatens to make a comeback.  He flees his apartment and moves in with his reprobate cousin KEVIN who's always on the lookout for a scam.  Kevin's more than happy to receive his richer cousin — and charges Marion high rent for the privilege of staying in his ghetto dump apartment.

Marion rescues Kevin's attractive neighbor CHANTELLE from a pair of muggers and actually finds himself able to speak to her without swallowing his own tongue.  He learns the neighborhood is being bought up by entrepreneur MILES PRESTON who intends to bulldoze the area and attract foreign investors; Chantelle's trying to organize local protest but Preston is buying people off.  When Chantelle is kidnapped by local gang members working for Preston, Marion sets off to rescue her, unwillingly assisted by Kevin.  Adopting the persona of his cool nightclub owner alter ego, Marion convinces the gang he represents a Mafia-like organization that's moving into the area.  The gang swallows his bluff and directs him to Preston's HQ.  Marion tries the same bluff with Preston but Preston isn't prepared to halt his plans for anyone, and tells his henchmen to kill Marion and Chantelle.  But Marion fights his way out and hands Chantelle on to Kevin, before he goes back in to confront Preston and completely screws his teleconference deal with his foreign investors.  Chantelle and Kevin are nowhere to be found; Marion suspects his no-good cousin has made a move on Chantelle.  Angry and disappointed, Marion attends the awards ceremony and astounds Leonard and everyone by outing himself.  Later, back at his apartment, Marion receives a visitor — it's Chantelle, mad at Kevin because his junkpile car broke down and stranded them miles from any phone.  She doesn't want Marion because of some dumb gangster persona he puts on — she wants him for himself.

"Running Deep" is 110 pages.  Comedy romance in the Eddie Murphy vein.

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Lake Pensive

Businessman KYLE NORTH takes his wife and two kids on vacation to his aunt's peaceful lakeside cabin home.  There's immediate friction with the local Sheriff and a Park Ranger, both of whom have reason to dislike Kyle and wish him ill, but this is gradually overshadowed by a series of mysterious events that culminate in the disappearance of other visitors to the area.  When a neighboring cabin is smashed to pieces and his kids go missing, Kyle has to track down whatever creature is moving through the woods leaving behind a shiny silver trail... and the ghastly half-digested remains of its hapless victims.

"Lake Pensive" is 110 pages.  Horror.

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Adjustments

A driver is shot to death by snipers as he speeds toward a military base; a pilot steals a helicopter and is blown out of the sky as he flies over a restricted Army missile range. Their unexplained deaths form a puzzling teaser that takes us into the main story...

JOE BLESKOE visits a bar for a drink. All he wants is to feel normal again, just for a moment... but he's shunned by customers, who are frightened of him. Maybe it's his haunting SILVER EYES which mark him as an ADJUSTED SOLDIER, loaded with captured alien cyborg hardware. Cops and bounty-hunting vigilantes come after Bleskoe — but he takes them out in the blink of an eye. Frightened cop KATE TYLER knows she should shoot Bleskoe, or at least try to arrest him... but instead she accompanies him as he drives out of town. Bleskoe has returned from "Out There" — his unit was sent to an ALIEN PLANET to battle a hostile, dangerous species. Kate's brother is also an Adjusted soldier, she doesn't believe he's dead and suspects the authorities are withholding vital information. Bleskoe confirms this — someone at this end closed down the Jumpgate Array, stranding 60,000 Adjusted soldiers on the alien planet after they won victory for Earth. Only Bleskoe's ship made it back before the Array was shut off. Bleskoe suspects he's the only member of his unit still alive — and he could be right, because the sinister MAJOR LASSITER, commander of Hunter Force, is hot on Bleskoe's trail, pursuing him with the inhuman relentlessness of a Terminator.

Bleskoe is plagued with nightmare visions of his unit being machine-gunned in the water by helicopters after their ship splashed down, and of the desperate kamikaze attack by Adjusted soldiers on the alien homeworld. Kate suggests Bleskoe turns himself in but he refuses, his objective is to make people start asking what happened to the missing soldiers. Bleskoe single-handedly attacks a military base, inflicting heavy damage. Kate, horrified by Bleskoe's capacity for violence, suggests Bleskoe comes with her to a local TV station, she'll help him present his case, live on air. Bleskoe is unconvinced but goes along. Lassiter is one short step behind them.

White House adviser CHARLIE HOUSEMAN learns that GENERAL O'HARA, who created the Adjusted soldiers using captured alien technology, shut down the Jumpgate Array. O'Hara believes the Adjusted soldiers are too dangerous to be allowed to rejoin society but Houseman isn't convinced, he pursues Bleskoe and Kate and witnesses Bleskoe's moving testimony as it gets broadcast and taken up by TV and radio stations across the country and internationally. Houseman orders the military to stand down until a full investigation is made but this doesn't stop Lassiter, who takes Bleskoe on in a bloody final confrontation — just as the Adjusted soldiers, who have the smarts to build their own Jumpgate Array, return to Earth. O'Hara is arrested and Houseman directs Kate to drive the wounded, war-weary Bleskoe to the secret lab that created the Adjusted soldiers, so he can take the first steps toward having his humanity restored.

"Adjustments" is 110 pages, completed.  Sci-Fi/Action.

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A Dark Renaissance

The dastardly Conté Di Castellano takes control of the City Council and imposes a strict and unjust Curfew upon the 15C Renaissance city of Florenz.  Young political rebels Niccolo De Aqua and Poggio De Medici, whose fathers paid the ultimate price for opposing the Conté, hire the legendary swordmaster Pietro Sforza to come to Florenz and kill the Conté's guard captain, the infinitely dangerous Capitano Giovanni, their first step in ridding Florenz of tyranny.  But the Conté learns of their plan and arranges for Sforza to be shot and killed almost as soon as he arrives.  Niccolo and Poggio realize their days are numbered.  Once the Conté's beautiful daughter Isabella is married to the ancient Granduc of Genoa, thus sealing an alliance with the Conté, their arch-enemy will swat Niccolo and Poggio like insects.  The friends have no choice but to risk everything in a desperate attempt to assassinate the Conté, knowing that failure means a slow and unpleasant fate at the hands of the brutal Sergenté Figlio, who is renowned for beating his prisoners to death...

Unbeknownst to Niccolo and Poggio, and in parallel to their adventure, Capitano Giovanni follows his own agenda as he pursues the Shadow, the faceless fiend who not only murders Florenz's prostitutes but also rips them to pieces and steals their body parts.  Giovanni's rigid imposition of the Curfew isn't enough to stop young girls from being lured out into the streets at night to be foully murdered.  The horrific trail leads to the bizarre discovery that the local doctor is involved in reanimation experiments authorized by the Conté himself... experiments that force Niccolo and Poggio to question the origin of Sergenté Figlio, who shows traits that remind Niccolo uncomfortably of his late friend Luciano de Castellano, the Conté's son.  After a blazing confrontation in the doctor's cellar laboratory Nicollo and Giovanni join forces to pursue Sergenté Figlio — who is finally revealed to be the Shadow! — and resolve events in a literally explosive climax.

"A Dark Renaissance" is 110 pages, completed.  An historical costume adventure with equal elements of action, thriller, horror and romance!

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The Kaiserine's Champion

High Sazburg, capital of the Prussian Empire, circa 1750.  Otto Thenck, sinister head of the Ministry of State Security, recruits a condemned prisoner (MANFRED) to fight as his champion in the Arena, a bloodthirsty annual contest where maiming and death are all part of the game.  Knowing that his chances of survival are slim, Manfred only agrees to avoid the hangman's noose.  But Thenck gives Manfred an experimental elixir that restores lost memories that were taken from him during an attack by a female vampyre.  Thenck explains that vampyres inject the "Vampyre's Gift" into their victims' bloodstreams, preparing the victim for the profound physical changes that come about if the victim dies.  The Vampyre's Gift still pulses in Manfred's bloodstream, lending him superhuman strength and reactions.  If he will cooperate, Thenck will give him a counter-elixir that will make him human again.  If not... he will eventually become vampyre, losing his humanity forever.

The beautiful and enigmatic Prussian Empress — the Kaiserine — privately informs Manfred that the real reason he's in the Arena contest is to stop an arch-vampyre assassin who's been sent to kill her.  But they have no way of knowing who the vampyre is, therefore Manfred must slaughter every opponent he meets!  Forced to drink blood to repair the terrible injuries he sustains during the contest, Manfred grows to hate both himself and Thenck, whose twisted political plots grow to threaten Manfred and the Kaiserine herself.  Manfred defeats the deadly vampyre assassin, although the encounter nearly kills him.  Upon recovering, thanks to the regenerative powers of the Vampyre's Gift, Manfred is thrust toward a fatal showdown with Thenck who wishes bloody revenge.  Manfred earns the Kaiserine's gratitude for saving her life and is declared the Kaiserine's Champion, an honor that ensures lasting fame and wealth... and very possibly the hand of the Kaiserine herself.

"The Kaiserine's Champion" is 95 pages, completed.  A memorable swashbuckling adventure blended with historical costume drama, and filled to the brim with equal elements of action, thriller, horror and romance!

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The Switch

Veteran Cold War spymaster ALEX ROGERS is infuriated when Washington orders his covert agency to shut down.  He has one last chance to show just how valuable his team is.  Rogers suspects that top Russian diplomat KAMAKOV, in charge of the latest arms reduction talks in Moscow, is up to no good.  He hatches a plan to kidnap Kamakov's aide, MAJOR BORIN, for interrogation.  The plan's a simple one, they just need someone to impersonate Borin for a couple of hours while they pump him full of drugs...

American exchange student RICK PRESTON is hastily recruited because of his resemblance to Borin.  Rogers' ex-wife JANICE is put in charge of his training.  Rick only has one day to become Borin, but with the beautiful, sophisticated Janice as his mentor he's more than willing to try.  What no one knows is that Kamakov and Borin are involved in a conspiracy to detonate a nuclear device inside the Kremlin that will wipe out Russia's government.  Kamakov plans to become the new leader of a stronger, more aggressive Soviet Union.

But just as Rogers' team kidnaps Borin and substitutes Rick, a special Russian internal security unit that has been investigating Kamakov makes its move—and believes Rick is Borin.  Rogers becomes a casualty during an exchange of fire, leaving Janice to risk everything to get Rick back alive—a task that becomes nigh impossible when the real Borin escapes and proceeds with Kamakov's plan to detonate the warhead and change the course of history.

You thought the Cold War was over.  Think again.

"The Switch" is 110 pages, completed.  Thriller.

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Higher Than Usual

Deadly road rage incidents, random acts of assault and murder, violent mob behavior — all are symptoms of an inexplicable madness that grips the city and turns normal people into psychopaths.

Office drone "Mac" Macauley finds himself having to deal with the spreading madness as friends and work colleagues become more and more unstable, then explode in a frenzy of killing, with rampaging groups tearing other groups apart.  Worried for his family's safety, Macauley brings his daughter and son — and his hostile ex-wife, Lauren — back to his apartment so he can protect them as best he can. But they become infected with the madness and he has to pursue them across the increasingly dangerous city, while all kinds of crazy people try to kill him.  Howling mobs defend their streets to the death, attacking strangers on sight.  Exit roads are blocked by burning vehicles, there's no way out of the city...

Macauley rescues mayor's press secretary Nancy Delorean after her lover is torn to pieces by the mob.  Together they try to figure out what the hell is happening.  They find Bennett, a retired ex-Army sniper who also seems unaffected by the madness and contributes his own theory.  Nancy might be inclined to trust Bennett more if he didn't keep his wife's dead body in the freezer!  Unable to hold back any longer, Macauley braves the ultimate danger — he enters his former home to search for his children.  Things wouldn't be so bad if his foaming-mad mother-in-law wasn't determined to bash his brains out with a table leg.  The situation might almost be funny if his kids' lives weren't at risk.  Meanwhile, Nancy and Bennett have their own problems to deal with as Bennett's house is attacked by more crazies and they undergo a terrifying siege.

Macauley's desperate quest is counterpointed by a race against time to counteract the madness before it spreads outside the city limits.  The authorities send biological warfare teams to try to discover what caused this situation.  If they fail to isolate the cause and develop a cure, a B-2 stealth bomber will wipe out the insane population with a neutron bomb.  The clock's ticking, and the bio teams come under attack by the mob...  In the final chaotic scenes Mac's ex-wife plays a pivotal role in stopping the madness, which is revealed as being anything but a biological weapon.

"Higher Than Usual" is 96 pages.  Horror with Sci-Fi elements.

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Gunboat Diplomacy

Earth and the alien "Arj" communicated peacefully for all of three months before war broke out over the insignificant volumes of space that lie between the two civilizations. AMBASSADOR SVENSON achieves a temporary truce and has the chance to end the senseless war. But when Svenson meets the Arj ambassador aboard the derelict warship chosen as a neutral meeting location, his plans are threatened by the unexpected presence of COLONEL BRETT FALKLAN, a diehard professional soldier who doesn't trust the Arj as far as he can throw 'em.

However, when the Arj propose an easy solution it isn't Falklan who turns out to be the problem. The Arj suggest a arena-like fight to the death between champions, winner takes all. Knowing that the Arj keep their word and will withdraw if they lose, Svenson agrees, thinking each side will choose their champions and pick a venue. But the Arj have something more direct and immediate in mind. Svenson finds himself caught up in a deadly battle that might well result in his own death since the Arj regard him as part of the human opposition. Things are looking bad for Earth, but Svenson — and the Arj — reckoned without Falklan, the soldier who doesn't know how to surrender. Then again, the Arj might keep their word, but they don't always play strictly by the rules.

"Gunboat Diplomacy" is 100 pages, completed.  Sci-Fi/Action/Horror.

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The Lot

Pursued by a gang of vengeful killer motorcyclists, LANCE finds himself taking refuge in The Lot, a dark ghetto that seems to exist by its own set of rules.  Inside The Lot two gangs battle for control, the first led by DRED whose witch-like ally ANNA has an unhealthy affinity for blackest magic and human sacrifice, the second led by TURO who seems inclined to fight a cleaner war.  At first Lance fights for Dred, but his sense of chivalry and his unwillingness to accept what Dred represents forces him to change sides.  Despite the losses inflicted upon his gang by Lance, Turo's willing to give Lance the chance to prove himself.  But there's a complication in the form of VERA, Turo's lady, beautiful and alluring.  The doomed love triangle signals the beginning of an all-out battle for possession of The Lot, which might well result in its total destruction.

"The Lot" is 110 pages.  Action/Fantasy.

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Blood & Ice

The turn of the 20th Century sees a race between nations to discover the North Pole.  A U.S expedition enters with an apparent advantage, the diary kept by a failed German expedition.  But as the team advances further toward their goal it becomes obvious to young student DOUGLAS ALLENBY that PROFESSOR FRANKLIN isn't just interested in reaching the Pole.  The diary leads them into ice tunnels where they encounter primitive cavemen and savage beasts left over from the last Ice Age.  They descend to the bottom of a vast chasm where the remains of an ancient city lie half-buried in the ice.  It's here that Franklin's true intentions are revealed — the resurrection of a dark power that possesses his own daughter and threatens to plunge the world into a new ice age, where mankind will serve a new master.

"Blood & Ice" is 100 pages.  Horror/Adventure.

Fun fact, when I wrote this, I never knew anything about the doomed Franklin Expedition.

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Dragonskin

The 1st Century A.D.  Roman-occupied Britain.  General ROMULUS plots to murder his rival, Flavius, the Emperor's favorite.  He coerces a Welsh tracker CAEDMOR to lead him to the mountain lair of dragons so he can obtain a dragon's skin, which is a sacred symbol of the Welsh people and thus will diminish the power of the rebel Druids.  Romulus stops at nothing including the murder of Centurion AURELUS and his men whose deaths he blames on the Druids.  Caedmor slays a dragon in exchange for his own life and the life of a Welsh girl, HYWEA.  But Romulus' plan to present the Emperor with an invulnerable suit of armor made from dragon scales has a deadly flaw which Caedmor exploits.

"Dragonskin" is 100 pages.  Historical Adventure.

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Chopsticks

A lot of people put a lot of money into a deal that brings a truckload of heroin into town — but someone pulls a doublecross and the truck vanishes, prompting the investors to demand their money back, or else.

Marianne's a happy-go-lucky hooker who'd like to take up another, less hazardous vocation; George is a bodyguard looking to find a new employer since his last boss got shot 312 times, an underworld record.  They come from different backgrounds but find themselves with the same problem when Marianne accidentally strangles a visiting Chinese Tong kingpin, and George more or less accidentally shoots four Tong gunmen.

The Chinese want them dead, which is understandable, but George can't figure why the Mob wants them dead too.  He and Marianne flee for their lives leaving a trail of bodies that attract all kinds of sharks intent upon a feeding frenzy — and a share of what's in the damn truck.

"Chopsticks" is 105 pages.  Dark Comedy.

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Night Surfer

A disasterous confrontation between a US Navy warship and Chinese patrol boats in the East China Sea leaves ADMIRAL LACEY in a coma and his daughter LT. JANE LACEY determined to discover what happened out there.  Arriving at Manila, Lt. Lacey accepts an assignment to an Antarctic survey vessel — which turns out to be a disguise for the Navy's newest asset, a ship that's capable of altering its configuration to become a fast attack boat and is controlled by an AI supercomputer that will make human crew obsolete.  Computer geek Lacey is tasked to check out the AI during the long voyage from Manila to Honolulu, which is a final "shakedown" cruise for the ship before she becomes operational.  But it's not long before she realizes COMMANDER HAL WILLIAMSON and his X.O. have taken a wrong turn and are heading up through the Taiwan Strait.  They insist everything's OK but Lacey checks the computer and discovers the ship's Baby Tomahawk missiles are provisionally locked on Shanghai and Beijing.  But there are further shocks in store for her.  The AI appears to possess the personality of her former mentor PROFESSOR MILES FAWCETT who supposedly died before he completed his life's work, the merging of human mind and electronic intelligence.  And, the mysterious visitor who was brought aboard under strict security just before the ship sailed is none other than her comatose father, hooked up to brain-scan instruments Lacey remembers seeing before — in Fawcett's highly experimental laboratory.

In parallel, Chinese intelligence officer CHEN LUI who was involved in the confrontation between the US Navy warship and the Chinese patrol boats, and suffered injury and loss of rank as a result, has taken it upon himself to monitor US ship movements in the region.  He notes the departure of the "survey vessel" from Manila and is alerted when it mysteriously vanishes.

Williamson becomes suspicious of Lacey and orders her confined to her cabin but she uses a link to the AI to free herself.  As the ship commences an unsanctioned attack run on the Chinese Mainland, Lacey battles to shut down the weapon systems.  She receives unexpected help from Lui, who comes aboard the hard way via a low-level plane drop, breaking a leg and an arm in the process.  Lui learns to trust Lacey when she aborts an attack on Chinese patrol boats.  Together they play a deadly game of hide and seek with the ship's crew while Lacey tries to get into the AI core and prevent two major cities from being incinerated.  Lacey learns that her father illegally commanded his warship to enter Chinese waters to rescue a covert intelligence team. His damaged ship escaped but later sank in international waters with heavy loss of life; Williamson and his crew are survivors of the debacle, loyal to their Admiral and looking for revenge.  Lacey receives further unexpected help from Fawcett's ghost in the machine, who squares off against the bizarre electronic presence of Lacey's own comatose father whose missile launch codes are critical to the attack. But in the end it's up to Lacey to fail or succeed, as Night Surfer speeds northward and finally comes within missile range of Beijing.

"Night Surfer" is 110 pages.  Action/Thriller.

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Legend of the Golden Pagoda

When modern-day thief Adam "The Human Fly" Greff and his tech-geek cousin Rick are caught breaking into multimillionaire businessman Sir Roger Tremayne's penthouse apartment, Tremayne threatens to have them unless they perform a robbery for him. Greff has to quickly figure a way to break into The Golden Pagoda, a baroque and mysterious structure owned by ruthless Chinese crime boss Han Sung, and steal a fortune in gold bullion before it's shipped out of the country to Tong bosses in Hong Kong.

Necessity forces Greff to seek help from his ex-wife Suzi Wu, the best alarm system penetration expert in the business and one hell of a lap dancer. Suzi refuses at first and warns them against going up against Han Sung, but after Greff and Rick are attacked in Chinatown by a shadowy figure that leaps rooftops and can only be stopped by silver, she signs up. The reason Suzi said goodbye to Greff was because she was recruited by a secret cadre of demon hunters. Demons have been appearing in the city in greater numbers are responsible for many deaths. Suzi has been trying to discover their origin.

When they enter The Golden Pagoda along with Tremayne's mercenary henchmen they discover it's no ordinary building, and its lethal guardians are anything but human. As casualties pile up the question isn't whether Greff and his team will get away with the gold, it's whether they'll survive to see the dawn.

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Trapped In The Dark

When the company she works for faces a merger with a ruthless Japanese corporation, market analyst and modern bachelorette playgirl FARRAH HENDERSON is asked by her boss to work through the night to secretly monitor Far Eastern trading activity to guard against a treacherous takeover.  Farrah agrees, and together with her horny chauvanist co-worker GEORGI, who will monitor the European markets, she settles down for a night of boredom in the otherwise empty office.

But Georgi's odd disappearance is followed by a computer network and phone system failure, and Farrah's cellphone goes missing from her office, denying her communication with the outside world.  Then a power dip blacks out the entire building except for emergency lights, and Farrah finds herself playing hide and seek in the dark with a mysterious prowling figure. She's unable to get out of the building, or explain the blood trails that lead down into the maintenance basement where a roaring furnace burns 24/7.

When Farrah finally finds a way to call for help she finds that her so-called friends are pretty thin on the ground, and those who do respond might not be as friendly as she thought.

"Trapped In The Dark" is 103 pages, completed.  Horror/Thriller.

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Taste Of Evil

After his chauffeur father dies in the service of New Jersey crime boss Don Vazzini, Louis Rolande is adopted into the Vazzini crime family despite being an outsider... and Black.  Years later the tragic death of Don Vazzini's daughter Maria is blamed on Louis who must flee for his life.  In NYC he finds a mentor in special Mob enforcer Frankie Rizzo, a scholarly hitman who introduces Louis to what's commonly called black magic... the mystic arts... voodoo.

When Rizzo is killed while investigating unusual goings-on in New Jersey, Louis follows his trail to the Vazzini house.  The Vazzinis are at war with powerful Haitian gangs and Don Vazzini's son Marco, Louis's boyhood friend, is missing.  Louis joins in the search and his abilities lead him to Marco who's dead, his heart torn out by a mysterious figure who's immune to bullets and escapes apparently unharmed.

The Haitian gangs attempt to recruit Louis who realizes he's a pawn in a war that's been brewing for decades.  He could walk away but mystical forces have been summoned and darkest evil will rise unless he takes action, not just for himself but for those he loves, whom he thought loved him in return.

"Taste Of Evil" is 100 pages, completed.  Thriller/Horror.

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Ambush At Apache Pass

Texas Ranger Tom Hannay stirs up a passel of trouble when he shoots and kills Earl Ryan and his vicious cronies who were engaged in torturing a captured Apache warrior and Apache girl.  Hannay frees the Apaches and lets Cal, the no-good younger brother of his ex-fiance Rita, live. Upon learning of the incident from Cal, rancher Quinn Ryan, Earl's formidable older brother, swears revenge on Hannay.  With Cal's help Ryan kidnaps the sister of hotblood Apache leader Paza, which triggers a bloody uprising.

In town, professional gamblers Cash Potter and Belle Cubbins arrange a poker game with big-time player Deuce Willcott but it's only a cover, they have their sights set on a payroll lying in the Wells Fargo office safe.  Their scheme is interrupted when the Apaches attack in force. During the desperate fighting Hannay recognizes Potter's shooting style, the gambler rode with a notorious militia unit during the Civil War that committed atrocities against civilians.  When Hannay confronts him Potter admits being there but denies killing.  Hannay promises Potter will hang but they agree to a temporary truce.  With Ryan's help Cal spirits Rita out of town for her own safety, and Hannay rides after them.  Potter abandons his plans and takes the lead in defending the town when Belle is wounded.

During the knock-'em-down, drag-em-out fight at Ryan's ranch Cal defies Ryan and saves the Apache girl's life.  Hannay rides back to town with Rita but they're caught by Apaches.  Paza orders their deaths but Cal arrives with Paza's sister who tells her brother it was Hannay who saved them from certain death at Earl Ryan's hands.  The Apaches ride back to their reservation, but a final arrow flies out of their dust and kills Cal.  Reunited, Hannay and Rita return to town to be greeted by numerous survivors including Potter and Belle.  Hannay insists he and Potter shoot it out.  The gambler wins, and leaves Hannay dying in Rita's arms while he rides out of town with Belle.

"Ambush At Apache Pass" is a completed, 100-page Western Adventure.

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How Much Do You Love Me?

Kenny, a young drifter, stops for gas and is arrested after Amy, the gas station owner's retarded daughter, accuses him of exposing himself.  The County Sheriff, Quinn, and his Deputy, Travis, refuse to listen to Kenny's protests.  They throw him in jail, rip him off for 70 bucks "bail money" then let him go.  After baking in the hot sun waiting for a bus that doesn't come, Kenny gets a ride back to the gas station from Jessica, a cool beauty who happens to be passing by.  But Kenny's car is gone and Amy and her father are dead, apparently shot in a hold-up.  Kenny wants to report it to the cops but Jessica says they won't believe him, and whisks him off to the local motel where she fabricates an alibi for Kenny, and then seduces him, not that he's objecting.

Jessica drives into picturesque foothills.  She stops to buy supplies and they go into the quiet woods for a romantic picnic.  There they meet a couple of teenage girls who stop briefly to ask for directions.  After making love to Jessica, Kenny awakens to find her gone.  A short distance up the road he finds the two girls, shot dead.  He takes their car and backtracks to the store where Jessica bought supplies, only to find cops taking out bodies.  Suspecting that Jessica is a psycho nutjob he flees, but is chased by a mysterious car that runs him off the road before disappearing.  Kenny's still shaking when Sheriff Quinn overtakes and arrests him, again refusing to listen to his protests.  But instead of taking him back to town Quinn drives Kenny to a remote clifftop spot.  Kenny realizes Quinn's going to shoot him in cold blood.  A shot rings out... and Quinn topples over the cliff.  Jessica recognized Quinn's car and followed them here.  Kenny doesn't have any choice but to go with her, and listens to her emotional outburst while he eyes her gun.  She tells him she saw Quinn's car and didn't want him to find her so she took an old trail through the woods and circled around.

The mysterious car dogs their trail, Jessica tries to pull ahead but whoever's driving is a maniac.  Finally they're forced off the road and crash.  The maniac driver is Travis who pulls them out of their car at gunpoint.  Jessica pleads with Travis to let Kenny go, when Travis threatens to shoot them both she insists Kenny was only a bit of fun, she knew Travis was watching from outside the motel room and put on a show.  Travis is suspicious; if Kenny means nothing to her, why did she just shoot her own husband, the Sheriff?  Jessica spits venom, hating Quinn for screwing the retard bitch.  Travis says he's made sure there aren't any witnesses to Jessica's stupid attempt to run away; now that Quinn's dead she won't have to run anywhere, they can be together and everyone will put the blame on Kenny.  He tells Kenny he'll give him a sporting chance.  Kenny takes to his heels.  Just as Travis is about to shoot him in the back Jessica decks the deputy with a tire iron.  Kenny stops Jessica from shooting Travis and they drive out of there.

They drive for a while, happy to be together, but soon find themselves heading toward a police road block.  Kenny groans, he should have bust Travis's radio.  He tells Jessica to tell the cops he kidnapped her but Jessica says she won't go back, she's had it with being treated like a dog by trash like Quinn and Travis.  Before Kenny can ask what she plans to do she whacks him in the head with the tire iron and pushes him out the car.  He watches from the roadside, half-conscious, as Jessica rams the roadblock and the police riddle her car with bullets.  Gas spills across the road and the cops don't dare get too close.  Kenny sees the flash of a lighter inside, then Jessica's car blows up.  The cops are all over Kenny and beat him to a bloody pulp.  He couldn't care less.

Kenny finishes telling his story to detectives.  He's returned to his cell to await their decision.  The detectives agree, it's a hell of a story, but it fits.

Kenny walks along the highway, baking in the hot sun, trying to hitch a ride.  When a pretty girl stops for him he thanks her politely and refuses her offer.  He has no regrets when she drives away.

"How Much Do You Love Me?" is 103 pages, completed.  Noir Thriller.

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Partings

Deep Space Supply Vessel Questor completes its six-month mission to deliver vital food supplies to distant human colonies.  The ship's crew look forward to returning to Earth.  But as Questor accelerates in preparation for the jump into hyperspace, magnetic anomalies warn that something may be wrong.  His crew overrides Commander Joshua Naylor's misgivings and insist they jump as planned.  Questor makes the jump—and slams into the side of a gigantic alien vessel, a Worldship ten thousand miles long and with a population of millions, drifting in hyperspace without power.

The crew takes stock of the situation.  Technician Gabrielle Ackermann, Naylor's lover, and "human computer" Anna Richter are trapped in the nose section which is buried inside the Worldship's hull.  Naylor and the other two crewmen, Loadmaster Vanda Cambridge and Engineer Mac Maclaine, work to free them, directed by radio transmissions from Gabrielle and Anna. But when they finally cut open the buckled airlock hatches they discover Questor's protective force fields failed on impact.  The nose section is wrecked and the two bodies inside... are dead.

Anna continues to speak to them via the ship's communications system, while Gabrielle appears in ghost-like form to speak with Naylor, who begins to doubt his sanity.  Communicating with the dead results in severe headaches for the living.  Maclaine reasons that hyperspace is holding onto their energy emissions, that Gabrielle and Anna are echoes thrown back at Questor.  No one knows for sure whether they're still technically "alive" or whether they're simply energy patterns that will loop until they eventually dissipate.  On a more practical note Maclaine tells Naylor they can't jump back out of hyperspace, Questor is damaged and needs replacement components.  It's possible these components may be found inside the Worldship...

Entering the Worldship, Naylor is assaulted by a withering barrage of nightmare alien thoughts and bizarre memories.  He barely makes it out again.  Cambridge sedates him to dull the effects.  Naylor returns to the Worldship whose sheer vastness staggers him, and whose ghosts pass through him as if he isn't there.  He finds the remains of uncountable millions of beings whose large, frail skulls were crushed like eggshells when a shock wave swept through the Worldship.  Maclaine figures it out... the Worldship's internal force fields disappeared when the alien ship lost power... and the massive kinetic energy from Questor's impact is responsible for the deaths of everyone aboard.  Guilt overwhelms Naylor who collapses as the alien ghosts appear to surround him and accuse him of genocide.

Naylor awakens when Gabrielle's voice calls him back.  The alien ghosts are gone.  He finds the Worldship's hyperjump drive but the components are built on such a massive scale they're useless.  A smaller shuttle-type vehicle provides greater hope, Maclaine joins Naylor and together they disassemble the shuttle's drive.  Cambridge refuses to enter the Worldship and stays aboard Questor.  Gabrielle and Anna, or their ghosts, seem to watch with interest while Naylor and Maclaine adopt alien technology to Questor's needs.  Maclaine jury-rigs a mechanism to charge the ship's capacitors so they can make the hyperjump to Earth.  They only have to wait for sufficient power to build up and they'll be free.

Gabrielle visits Naylor and tells him Anna believes Questor's leaving hyperspace might disrupt the energy patterns that allow them to exist. She tries to convince him not to go, Naylor says he'll talk it over with Maclaine and Cambridge.  Their answers don't surprise him—they're leaving aboard Questor as soon as they have enough power.  When Maclaine sees a ghostly image of Anna on a viewscreen apparently listening them he turns off communications, together with every other non-essential system.  The capacitors continue to charge.  Cambridge tells Naylor that Anna came to her in her dreams and told her Questor won't make it, the the alien components are unreliable.  Naylor tries to reassure her but Cambridge shows signs of stress.  He asks Maclaine if he had the same experience, Maclaine refuses to say but is even more determined to carry their plan through.

Naylor is worn down by Gabrielle's repeated visits and pleas to stay with her.  Anna's presence seems to be everywhere and Maclaine reports a series of inexplicable, niggly problems.  Sabotage?  As the moment they will leave hyperspace draws closer, Naylor and Maclaine have to constantly monitor the drive and navigation systems.  Without warning, Cambridge leaves Questor and goes aboard the Worldship—they don't have time to go after her and they can't abort.  Naylor orders her to return but Cambridge says the ghosts invited her, and have promised she can stay with them forever.  Gabrielle's final plea, which threatens to explode Naylor's skull, and Anna's last-ditch attack on Questor's systems, prompt Naylor to order Maclaine to detonate the series of explosive charges they covertly set around the "neck" between the nose section and the main body.  Questor falls away from the Worldship and Gabrielle's pitiful cry fades as the capacitors discharge their accumulated energy and throw Questor out of hyperspace.

Months pass before a salvage ship approaches the Worldship.  Naylor and Maclaine scan the alien vessel but fail to detect any irregular energy patterns.  The ghosts, if they ever existed, are gone.  They enter the Worldship.  Naylor sets out for the computer control system and Maclaine heads for the hyperdrive—both will net them rich pickings.  Naylor almost jumps out of his suit when a voice whispers to him.  He calls Gabrielle's name, hoping—it's Maclaine, his voice distorted by static.  A viewscreen activates.  Nothing's visible, just snow.  Maybe.

"Partings" is 105 pages, completed.  Science Fiction/Psychological Horror.

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Lone Justice

Hapless young store clerk Hank Pike's father and his best friend Sheriff Billy Hawthorne are gunned down by ruthless bank robbers. Hank sets out after the culprits, the Gatling Gang — and unfortunately catches up with them at an old abandoned mine working! The gang tortures Hank and leaves him for dead.

Hank ought to die, but an old Indian medicine man somehow drags him back from the edge of death and nurses him back to health. Hank wants to pursue the Gatling Gang and exact vengeance but the medicine man takes him in another direction and shows Hank the bleached bone remains of a man who apparently wore a mask and carried a silver six-shooter. The medicine man doesn't speak English but tells Hank, through a mix of sign and pictures, that there was someone here before him. Hank reluctantly puts on the mask at the medicine man's urging, and picks up the gun. The result is astonishing, before the bank robbery the Sheriff had been showing Hank how to shoot but he was the worst shot ever. The mask and gun transform Hank into a deadly shot who never misses.

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"Lone Justice" is a completed WIP 96-page Western Adventure.

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