Science Fiction and Paranormal Fantasy with a Noir Twist
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The Cinderella Blues
Jed Strait doesn’t normally babysit, but when the Private Investigator is offered the job of making sure a socialite stays out of trouble, he takes the gig–partly for the money, partly because it will help build his reputation as a stand-up guy. Of course, if he blows it, his reputation and his fledgling business will be in the gutter.
To ensure his success, Jed relies on some high tech help, but technology has a way of going wrong. And when it does, he has to scramble to keep himself and the heiress out of all the trouble she’s looking forward to getting into.
“The Cinderella Blues” is a stand-alone short story set in The Crossover Case Files universe, a set of Dieselpunk adventures that blend retro-futuristic science fiction with hard-boiled noir-style mystery. Get your copy for FREE by clicking here. This story is not available for sale online.
Echoes and Interference
A boy on a dangerous mission…
A father who would rather be anywhere else than where he and his son end up…
A man who finds a new way to mend his broken heart…
A group of robots learn what it means to be sentient…
And more…
Get your copy of Echoes and Interference for FREE by clicking here. This short story collection is not available for sale online.
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Most of my writing is informed by my interest in classic science fiction as well as Hollywood and Los Angeles culture, especially hard-boiled noir. You’ll find that my books fall into two broad categories: Echoes and Interference. Most recently, I have launched a Dieselpunk series, The Crossover Case Files.
Welcome to the world of Jed Strait, where jetpacks and airships are as common as dark streets, flying bullets, and femmes fatales. This Dieselpunk series is set in an alternate version of late 1940s Los Angeles where killers lurk in the shadows, where a wealthy ex-actor leads a cult of people who believe in alternate worlds, where an old inventor has infinite tricks up his sleeve, and where Jed Strait just wants to find a way to stop feeling like such a fish out of water in a world that won’t let him forget he doesn’t fit in.
In my Echoes novels, you’ll find hints of nostalgia–the world as it used to be, but with a twist. You’ll find a time-traveling hack science fiction writer, a reluctant demon slayer in old Hollywood, a lawyer for the undead, and a professor hoping to unravel the mystery of a lost science fiction writer while trying to heal from wounds that run deeper than he knows.
In my Interference novels, you’ll find that the future is just a bit dark. If the world is still around, it’s a world where technology is re-shaping our connections to one another and where corporations impact everything from our sense of self to our ability to sleep and dream. And then again, the world may not even survive as we know it, as you’ll discover when you delve into my post-apocalyptic novel to find out who survives and who doesn’t.
I was born near Montreal, Canada and grew up in Southern California.
I began writing while in college, publishing several pieces in college journals while working on my undergraduate degree at Cal Poly Pomona. After finishing my Master’s Degree in 1990, I focused more on teaching than writing for a few years, eventually completing my Ph.D. at UC Riverside in 2000. My dissertation was on Hollywood novelists of the 1920s and 1930s.
Since 1999, I have been part of the English Department at Fullerton College and turned again to writing a few years ago. I primarily write science fiction but continue to have a strong interest in early Hollywood and Los Angeles history and culture, and I often work those themes into my writing.
When not writing or grading papers, I spend time with my wife and daughter, work on my collection of old science fiction pulps and try to be better than a mediocre guitar player.
