Suicide by Jiu-Jitsu? Beloved MMA fighter Charles Volkenrath has turned up dead. The Los Angeles DA office is dragging its feet. Paisley Fuentes is hired to determine the reason for his death.

Paisley’s trail leads him through the Hollywood Hills, intimidating MMA gyms, corporate high-rises, and Death Valley. He must tussle with vegan crime bosses, nerd assassins, and—that’s right—AI Charles Manson. It’s a perplexing case, but he has help in his weirdo bodyguard, his gold prospector friend, hacker Tricky, and a borax miner called Unethical Ted. Can they stop an illegal music festival out in the desert before it starts a war?

It’s as much a whydunnit as it is a whodunnit in Crushed Trachea Blues. And Paisley would like to cash his check and get back to street tacos and tequila shots.

                OUT NOW

Welcome to Aswadistan, where the Internet is behind your eyes. Politicians and police have been rendered obsolete. So has your privacy.

It’s Arabian Nights meets The Matrix in this literary cyber-fable where the war over bandwidth and the sovereignty of the senses is about to explode.

Aswadistanis steer their magic carpets with neural networks. Identity-swap parties are in. GnosisNet, a software that will render politicians and police obsolete, is set to roll out. An expat psychonaut known as the Outernationalist is hired to design its neurotransmitter algorithms.

But he meets Najwa, the ex-sultan’s court storyteller. She filibusters his work with stories, anti-stories, and quantum stories—forcing him to rethink his alliance within the coming political upheaval. While chasing down her past, he learns that her storytelling engine is powered by the Black Light, a deadly by-product given off by GnosisNet’s elected stewards.

Once the head-hacking mafia gets to him, the Outernationalist must “go analog” while visiting illumination farms and long-lost cities in search of the tools needed to fight the war over bandwidth and help others reclaim the sovereignty of the senses. He struggles to shake Najwa’s hold on his reality—all while enduring bad salvia trips, head-cluttering pop-up ads, online litigation, and magic lamps full of utility fog.

ANGELS WITH ENGINE FAILURE is a literary cyber-fable full of esoteric philosophy and tales-within-tales. It’s Arabian Nights meets The Matrix. It is an indictment on the technology hellbent on eliminating our privacy, as much as it is a meditation on narrative and its power to subvert and inspire.

Out NOW in ebook and print! 

                       OUT NOW

MACKENZIE is not your everyday lady-of-the-night. She doesn’t use whips or chains. And she won’t be caught dead in leather. Do you know how badly leather sweats?

A gifted Muay Thai fighter coming off a devastating loss, she makes way more money doling out pain with the time-dilating aids of a six-sided chamber of flashing music and lights, blistering music, and a pair of night-vision goggles.

Things are looking up. She has 401(k) and medical. Redemption is within reach. Love, a possibility. But memories of a severe mother resurface. Binge-eating becomes her BFF. Ah, those pesky carbs.

Available NOW in print and ebook.

 

A loss prevention analyst gets involved with two very different women inside an apartment complex the size of a city. When his balancing act of discretion gives way, all hell breaks loose.

Ancient Greek thought gets implemented by the EU, and the old mythologies come along for the ride. Eumonymphactides tries to hook up with a relative. Not so fast.