Showing results by narrator "Patrick C" in All Categories

A trilogy telling a story of love and loyalty, betrothal and betrayal, triumph and tragedy; novels that chart one man's attempts to rise above the legacy of a traumatic childhood.

In the tenth year of the Change, the survivors in western Oregon live in a world without technology. Michael Havel’s Bearkillers hold the lands west of Salem in peace and order. To the east, the Clan Mackenzie flourishes under the leadership of Juniper Mackenzie, bard and High Priestess. Together, they have held Norman Arminger - the warlord of Portland - at bay. With his dark fantasies of a neofeudal empire, Arminger rules much of the Pacific Northwest, spreading fear with his knights, castles, and holy inquisition.

Rudi Mackenzie has been abducted by the forces of the Portland Protective Association, whose forces have pushed the Bearkillers and Mackenzie’s to the edge of defeat. Will aid arrive in time or will Mike Havel and his family be defeated by Norman Arminger and his mad grab for power? What of the secret plan now afoot between the Mackenzie’s and the forces at Mount Angel? Will the Abbot Dmwoski and his forces be able to break the siege of their monastery in time to come to the aid of Lady Juniper and her Witch Army?

Growing up in a Russia plagued by homophobia, Maxym wrestles with his conflicting emotions toward Muslims and his own suppressed homosexuality. Alongside his innate psychopathic tendencies and an unsettling fascination with killing, his exceptional marksmanship skills make him a coveted asset. Trained to be an unrelenting assassin, he walks a precarious tightrope, embodying a paradoxical blend of tender affections and unwavering loyalty to the nation that nurtured him—an enigmatic figure in the tapestry of contemporary Russia.

Perched on a windswept cliff, Neptune’s Rest is an old seaside hotel where silence carries weight and the past refuses to stay buried. When historian Arthur Finch arrives to catalog the property, he expects routine archival work. Instead, he finds a building that listens, residents who avoid certain questions, and records that don’t quite agree with themselves. As Arthur documents the hotel’s rhythms—its guests, its tides, its long-vanished proprietor—he begins to notice small inconsistencies. Missing details. Revised entries. Truths softened into something more convenient.

Life in Stories is a deeply human collection of fiction, lyrics, and novel excerpts that traces the arc of life—moving through youth and age, humor and tragedy, love and loss. From the beaches of Rio to the soccer fields of New Jersey, from the Roman conquest at Alesia to the American West of the 18th century, these stories explore athletes chasing vanished glory, lovers trying to find their way back to each other, ordinary people facing extraordinary moral choices, and moments of quiet reflection that define who we become.

The theft of a whetstone from a Welsh museum and the murder of a curate during a grave robbery seem, at first, like random crimes. But the troubling deeds are linked by a precarious thread. An unusual collection of rare and scattered British antiquities has become a target — and the relics' value lies in something much more dangerous than money....

Hijackers ditch an airliner into the remote Canadian wilderness, and 17-year-old Kyle Reynolds, along with the rest of St. Mark's award-winning jazz band, somehow, survives the crash. Kyle escapes into the wild with Misty, the girl of his daydreams, only to find out the hijackers will stop at nothing to find her.

Some people have to be force-fed maturity - particularly teenagers stranded helplessly on remote Canadian Islands. Join Patrick Marks, a towering icon of wimp-i-tude, in this hilarious short tale about maturing experiences with bears, mosquitoes the size of large poodles, Pot-Licker the cat, and near-death experiences with outhouses.

Lou Prophet loves to keep beautiful women company. But when the invitation comes from Miss Louisa Bonaventure, the Vengeance Queen, he finds himself intimate with hot lead instead of her warm female form. Louisa’s got him riding the brutal Mexican frontier chasing outlaws led by Tony Lazzaro, a notorious thief whose deadly weapon, Sugar Delphi, is a blind and blood-hungry pistolera.

A beautiful woman, a powerful Mexican rancher, and an exotic new breed of cattle come to John Slaughter’s San Bernardino Valley ranch, along with the prospect of making a small fortune. While Slaughter’s men are out keeping the peace in Tombstone, an act of betrayal turns up the heat under his own roof, and a killer is stalking Slaughter’s wealthy Mexican guest. Indians suddenly savagely attack Slaughter’s ranch, but it is only the first shot in a bigger, blazing Arizona bloodbath.