A Sudden Outbreak of Magic
Kelley Strickland and her twin brother Jeroan get caught up in a centuries-old battle between a power-hungry Sorcerer who wants to rid the world of what he calls “renegade” magic-users and a good Sorcerer whose health and mind are failing him.
Only Kelley’s new way of channeling and using magic will save her adopted city, her brother, and her new, magically infected friends.
Read an excerpt from A Sudden Outbreak of Magic, and find out where you can purchase this book in ebook and trade paperback format.
And watch for book two and three in the series coming soon!
Family, Pack
Tommy Roling does everything humanly possible to raise his infant daughter Corinne the right way.
But when you’re half a year out of high school, you’re flat broke, and you have to deal with losing control of yourself every full moon — well, being a perfect dad becomes quite a struggle.
And after a stranger shows up slashed to death the day after Tommy’s most recent full-moon run, his fragile world starts to break apart.
Read an excerpt from Family, Pack, and find out where you can purchase this book in ebook and trade paperback format.
The Prodigal Sons
Three generations of Koopmans live under the same roof of a farm house twenty miles from the center of Holy Cross, Iowa. If they all survive this rainy growing season, it will truly be a miracle.
Another novel about a family in the Midwest, except this one deals with a civil war between the two sons on the family farm, set during a rain-soaked growing season.
Read an excerpt from The Prodigal Sons, and find out where you can purchase this book in ebook and trade paperback format.
The All Nations Team
An aging coach tries to keep his mixed-race baseball team alive — literally! — in the years before World War I.
In his first season as head coach of the All Nations team, former slave George Grunion must contend with racist crowds, flagging team morale, his own loneliness, and even the ghost of the previous head coach. His players are now the only family he has left, ever since his wife left him three decades ago.
And if George can’t hold the All Nations together, he loses more than his job and his team. He’ll miss his chance to fulfill the prophecy made by his prescient centerfielder Mack — that George will be reunited with his estranged family before the 1918 season ends. If George doesn’t score this final run, he loses everything.
Read an excerpt from The All Nations Team, and find out where you can purchase this book in ebook and trade paperback format.
A Gathering of Doorways (January 2009)
What would you do if your child was lost, and—even though you’d never admit this to anyone—it was all your fault? How would you react? Would you be a hero or a coward? And just how would you get your innocent child out of this situation of yours?
My protagonist Gil must face these questions on a hot summer day, when his son Noah wanders off on their organic farm. In his dreams as well as his waking moments, Gil has been involved with some shady beings who lurk in the old-growth forest that borders his land, and now he’s convinced his son is in there, lost. Both father and son embark on a quest of his own, and the countryside will never be the same again.
Read an excerpt from an opening chapter of A Gathering of Doorways, and check out some amateurish photos I took of the rural setting, about sixteen miles outside Chapel Hill (and everywhere else).
A Gathering of Doorways came out from Wildside Books in January 2009.
The Wannoshay Cycle (January 2008)
This novel takes place not too many years from now, and it tells the story of what happens when aliens arrive and try to integrate into society, and how humans react to these sudden changes. The book takes place in a world where terrorism has spread to America in the form of repeated bombings and violent attacks. Adding to the chaos and paranoia, three dozen alien ships crash-land in the middle of a blizzard, landing in the Midwest of America and Canada.
This novel was published as a hardcover by Five Star Books in January 2008, and it was reprinted in paperback format by the Merry Blacksmith Press in June 2010.
I wrote the first two stories featuring the Wannoshay aliens way back at Clarion in 1996, and finished up the novel version in 2003. Yes, these things do take some time… In the years between, I polished up almost half a dozen stories about the alien Wannoshay and published them in places such as Strange Horizons, Writers of the Future, and Interzone. There’s even a prequel story that appeared in the anthology Heroes in Training.
Feel free to check out the main page for The Wannoshay Cycle, which includes an excerpt from the opening chapter as well as some other goodies, like artwork and more.
Heart’s Revenge (May 2006)
Although categorized as paranormal romance, this novel is more of a ghost story and mystery with some romantic elements. However, it does have Blackbeard’s headless ghost in it, and scenes of haunted shipwrecks and wild ponies running on the beaches of Ocracoke Island.
This novel was a fun change of pace for me, as I dabbled in the world of romance mixed with action and ghosts. I started it in November of 2002 and finished it up in the spring of 2003, with many rounds of revising to follow. The book was published in May 2006 from Five Star Books.
Read an excerpt from the first chapter of Heart’s Revenge, by Julia C. Porter. And don’t forget to check out Julia’s blog! Even fake people need to blog, you know…
