Sunday, November 1, 2015

Been busy - and free chapters to new Mars book "The Giant - Olympus Mons" and "Kill Match" and "Gray Area 2 - DEAD BEFORE DAWN"


Hi, folks. Yes, I've been off the radar for many months. This will not happen again. I am renewing all efforts to finish several existing projects (Gray Area 2 and 3) as well as introducing two new science-fiction novels. The Giant - Olympus Mons is an adaptation to a screenplay which is already complete and in the beginning stages of being marketed accordingly to the major players in Hollywood.  You can read periodic chapters as I write them in a special section of this website on a weekly or bi-weekly basis until it is completed in 2016. The Giant revolves around a rescue mission on the highest volcano/mountain in our solar system, on Mars, called Olympus Mons. For those sci-fi geeks out there, you will see similarities to Andy Weir's "The Martian" - extensive research mixed with the story of several families trapped on a mountain 110,000 feet high. Olympus Mons, which you can google, is a monster of a hill over 3 times the height of Mt. Everest. Everest would nestle comfortably in the shadows of the Mons' foothills. I spent years researching Martian topography, vulcanism and astronautics. The story is simple:  Ben Teller runs Mars America, one of two outposts on Mars - the other being a facility under the auspices of the Army Corps of Engineers. The first few families of colonists arrive and in an attempted landing run into problems and crash in the caldera of Olympus Mons. A rescue mission must be initiated by Mars America, near the base of Olympus Mons. It's a ticking-clock adventure where the colonists must be rescued in a certain time period lest they perish. Ben Teller and his party must get to them ASAP or all is lost.

Kill Match is a science-fiction story slightly more dystopian in nature. In a near or distant future, Army and Navy now fight one another in a seemingly endless war perpetrated by a supreme being known as the Gunman. It is a war wherein the survivors of an ancient catastrophe, the descendants of Army, who survived in underground bunkers, and the descendants of Navy, those whose antecedents survived in submarines, now battle one another for territory and indistinct political ideologies. Men and women no longer enjoy normal sexual relations - rather, they are bred for military purposes - and bred like animals underground, then rendered amnesiac after any encounter, to ensure combat-ready hate and effectiveness. Things get complicated when a soldier from Navy - Elena - and a soldier from Army -  Landon - who meet on the field of battle and fall in love (illegally. This is Logan's Run meets The Hunger Games.

And for those patient few - chapters to my 2011 #1 Gray Area novel in hard-boiled crime - will also be posted on this blog periodically over the next few months to tease one and all.

Please, gang, when you read the chapters, chime in and let me know you went in for a read so that I can track those of you who are perusing.

I was in Argentina for the summer shooting my film, Tangoman, and I may have to return in a few months to complete filming. We shot some scenes here in Los Angeles with Oscar Nominee Eric Roberts and I'll post that new trailer shortly.

Much more news in coming blogs.

Thanks