I thought I should let you know what my intent is over the next several years – probably longer for my writing projects. I think some of you might take an interest in these working titles and briefs. My crystal ball says this is my future until they pry my cold, dead fingers off my keyboard.
Book Projects
The Dean Spalding Series
Long Journey Home
This is your basic journey/thriller story with a touch of YA coming of age wrapped around an espionage plot. Twenty-eight-year-old Dean Spalding never thought he’d really be a spy. He is bumming around Europe like thousands of other youth. On leave from the Munich U.S. consulate, he is hiking the El Camino de Santiago del Norte on a pilgrimage across the barren but beautiful Basque country of Spain. Dean is forcefully recruited by the CIA and his adventure morphs into a surprising and uncertain trail through the deep and opaque world of the Cold War. Where stones have ears, walls eyes, phones infested and tentative friendships are the norm.
The Long Journey Home - A War Time Pilgrimage is a 105,500-word commercial fiction.
This story is character driven with romance and conflict – interpersonal, man versus nature, man versus beast, and man/woman versus man/woman. Dean Spalding with his friend Jack Conroy begin their journey with a raucous trip to Daytona Beach, Florida in September. Hurricane David foiled their rowdy trip and the boys flee back to St. Simons Is. Georgia in 1979. But Hurricane David is not done with them yet.
This a tale about love and relationships. Jealousy and class envy; islanders’ verses mainlanders. Factory workers and strippers verses philanthropic landed gentry. The storm serves as a catalyst to propel the plot.
After spending a year in Europe, Dean finds himself back on his home town island. Believing he is returning to the quiet life of a student he becomes embroiled in the twists and turns of the conflict between islanders and mainlanders. A fast paced plot with some unique characters, the reader will fall in love and loath others in the cast.\
The High Water Mark is a 99,740-word commercial fiction. It is the second in the Dean Spalding series.
The High Water Mark
The Return of the Eagle
The government comes calling again and again Dean Spalding finds himself back in Europe during the budding years of the Reagan Administration. A Cold War thriller that bounces back and forth between Europe and America. Currently under development, this commercial fiction stands at 9,400 words.
A companion to the other Cold Wat thrillers. Again in Europe, Dean Spalding is on a hunt for a Notorious Soviet spy and assassin. By far the darker of all the Spalding series. This physiological thriller explores the deep black world of the east-west struggle as the Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. Currently under development, this commercial fiction stands as a five-page summary. This will be the Last of the Dean Spalding Cold War series.
This is a (so far standalone) story that spans nearly a century. In 1858 the talk of war was everywhere, by 1861 the buildup completed. Then the first salvo fired at a Federal Fort far out in Charleston Harbor. In 1871 the Franco-Prussian War was in full swing, foreshadowing things to come for Europe. After June 26, 1876, Indian Campaigns escalated in earnest. The wounded United States had recently quashed Johnny Rebs Southern intentions and was ramping up to finally control the Savage Natives, noble as they were. Then the turmoil leading up to and during the Great War began to peak. Two men, Georgian - Wiley Chandler Howard and German - Otto von Klaus witnessed this tumultuous nine-decade history, with the help of a very odd Irishman. This is their story.
This commercial fiction currently stands at 51,854 words.
Dark and Mysterious War
The Last Man Standing
Still tweaking this page. Give the red pen a rest for a while. Thanks! But send me critique just the same. You will catch things I don't.