Long before I ever sat down at a computer, I wanted to be a writer. The very first thing I remember writing was something I called "Queen for a Day", about a little girl who gets spirited off by the leprechauns to be their queen for a single day. In other words, your typical lonely-kid-type escapism.

In school, I was constantly writing stories in notebooks I'd carry around with me along with my actual schoolwork; it made for fun ways to pretend to look busy taking notes in class when I was actually writing. I wrote fanfic featuring 'Indiana Jones, Jr.' in middle school--complete with a painstakingly drawn title page in a suitably Jones-esque font, equally painstakingly colored in with marker. I followed the examples of my favorite authors at the time and drew out little maps of the fantasy lands I created.

None of my work older than late-high-school era survives to this day (and be glad it doesn't; when you're 12, your writing does tend to, well, suck), but this part of my web page is the home of what writing I actually want to share with the world. Because I still want to be a writer. And now I'm trying to give it a serious shot.

writing now

Faerie Blood (urban fantasy, currently under consideration at Baen Books)

Kendis Thompson of Seattle thinks she's as normal as the next computer geek, and up till now, she's been right. But her world is about to turn on its ear, for she is the daughter of a Seelie Court mage and her mortal husband--and her faerie blood is awakening. Suddenly the city she's known all her life is transforming before her eyes. Trolls haunt the bike trails. Fairies and goblins run loose in the streets. An old woman who is not what she seems and a young wanderer running from his past stand ready to defend Seattle--and Kendis--from magical assault. She will need those allies, for the fey power rising within her is calling her own kin to the Emerald City to find her. And kill her.

The Dove, the Rook, and the Hawk (fantasy trilogy, first book complete and in third draft edits)

An assassin liberates an enslaved half-elven healer whose power saves his life, and a knight of a holy order sworn to wipe out elven magic must pursue them both. But as the knight discovers his own elf blood, he is cast out of his order and must turn to the very fugitives he's hunted to stay alive, regain the honor of his station, and learn the ancient truth behind his faith. With the aid of elven rebels seeking to free their scattered people from human domination, the trio unites to overcome the demons out of each of their pasts--and ultimately, the corruption at the heart of the Church that seeks to destroy them all.

Queen of Souls (urban fantasy)

Death has brought Korinne Marlowe home again, but her grandmother's passing can't explain the stranger who vanishes before her very eyes or the ghosts who begin to haunt her everywhere she turns. With the spirits come visions of faraway places and other times, fragments of memory that could not possibly be her own, and Kori is certain she's going mad. Then she learns that the spirits and memories swarming her are real--and so are the misshapen creatures who begin to stalk her when the sun goes down. Soon she discovers that even her own mother is not what she seems, for Delia Marlowe harbors an ancient secret she will do anything to protect. And she will stop at nothing to keep her daughter away from Aidon Semmes, the man who holds the key to Kori's true nature, the man who calls her by another name: Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

Child of Ocean, Child of Stars (science fiction)

Searching through the galaxy for habitable worlds, humanity has opened negotiations with the telepathic, shapeshifting Nereans to settle the land masses of their mostly aquatic world. Kaiulani Millais, a young telepath raised in the Terran settlement on Nereus, has spent her childhood protected by a mysterious, unseen presence in the waters near her home. Now, after training her mental gifts offworld, she returns to join the corps of diplomats, scientists, and telepaths like herself establishing ties with the Nerean species--and to learn whether her childhood guardian truly exists. Her discovery of the feral hunter Benja sends shockwaves through her colleagues, family, and friends, and Kai must call upon every talent she possesses to measure the scope of his own unique gifts and determine if he is friend or foe. But as she delves into the truth of Benja's past, she makes a far more dangerous discovery: that his identity is a secret that can rip the fragile, forming alliance between the peoples on Nereus apart.

written before

Old Short Stories

Some short pieces that are among the prose that survives from my school days. Go easy on 'em, folks, I wrote them in high school.