Second Wave

It is difficult growing up in the shadow of heroes revered throughout the galaxy. But Khorii became a hero in her own right as she fought to save the universe from a mysterious, deadly plague that not even the healing powers of the Linyaari could stop. Now, confined with the rest of the survivors on Paloduro, it seems as if Khorii and her friends may be able to stem the tide of death and disease. However, ominous signs indicate that the epidemic is only beginning, as old enemies reemerge and a shocking family secret is revealed. With the aid of her android “brother,” Khorii must foil the deadly pestilence before a covert mission to cripple the entire star system is catastrophically complete.

Acorna’s Quest

“I must find my own kind!”

Found as an infant drifting in space, Acorna, the Unicorn Girl, has become a young woman. She still has her tiny, translucent horn, and her “funny” feet and hands. And, she still has her miraculous ability to make plants grow and heal human sickness.

But Acorna has strange dreams of a gentle folk who mind-speak by touching horns. With her “Uncle” Calum, one of the three grizzled asteroid prospectors who rescued, protected, and raised her, she sets off to find her people. No sooner does she leave than a mysterious craft appears, piloted by the Linyaari, a gentle race with telepathic powers.

The Linyaari are roaming the galaxy, spreading the alarm about the deadly Khleev–And searching for a beloved little girl they had given up for lost, long ago…

Until Morning Comes (Volumes 1-3)

The bestselling Carlie Simmons Zombie-Apocalypse Series is now available as a boxed set with all three action-packed volumes.

If you enjoy strong female protagonists and heart-pumping action then check out the entire series. Approximately 530 pages total.

Here’s what readers are saying:

“Thrilling story set with familiar characters that engrosses you up to the end, leaving you wanting more!”

“Thanks for the incredible ride! Well written, furious and thrilling twists!”

“Very compelling, edge of your seat, heart pounding and actually gasping with fear! I feel if a writer can do that, they have most certainly one to follow. I loved the strong, bad added female character, definitely someone I’d want to have my back!!”

Until Morning Comes, Volume 1
Secret Service Agent Carlie Simmons began her day surrounded by trusted colleagues in an inter-agency shooting competition in Tucson. It ended with a staggering body count as the world around her unraveled from a deadly virus. With her mission to extract the President’s daughter from the University of Arizona gone awry, she must choose between her sworn duties and her moral obligations to others as the city is overtaken by roving packs of flesh-eating mutants. If she and her small group are to survive the night and find a way out of the ravaged city, she will have to summon all of her training, mental prowess, and tactical abilities.

In Too Deep, Volume 2
After narrowly escaping from the undead hordes in Tucson with the president’s daughter and her small band of survivors, Secret Service Agent Carlie Simmons is finally headed to safety in New Mexico. As new information emerges on the global pandemic, she and her team of operators have to leave their secure military facility to track down the origins of the virus before more people die. Crossing the country and international waters while plagued by the growing menace of flesh-eating zombies, Carlie finds herself in a race against time on a mission that exposes a secret experiment borne from the Cold War. But the greatest danger may not come from the emerging legions of putrescent creatures as tension within her group threatens to undermine her leadership.

The Way Back, Volume 3
Carlie, along with Shane, Jared, and the rest of her eclectic group endure a nightmarish struggle to survive in the Caribbean on a grueling trek that will test their fortitude, battling zombies and hostile bands of humans along the way. Eliza Huntington, the president’s daughter, has her own harrowing journey to make after Air Force One goes down in Idaho and she is forced to adapt in ways she never imagined. Eventually the fates of both parties intertwine in an explosive battle where tactics and firepower may not be enough to defeat the unspeakable horrors that await them.
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The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.
The problem is, it’s stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows–a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.
Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that’s all too possible.

A Town Called Potato

It’s a lighthearted murder mystery … with space aliens!

Gabriel Lake is a not so hard-boiled computer guy who finds himself swept up into a web of interstellar crime when he is recruited into the Galactic Detective Agency, led by the brilliant Oren Vilkas. Can a mere Earthling track a killer across the stars before more lives are lost? Can he negotiate his way around other worlds and understand the ways of extra-terrestrial cultures? Can he even figure out how to use a bathroom designed for aliens? And can he uncover the mystery of A Town Called Potato?

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
Q. How did you come up with the title A Town Called Potato?
A. I didn’t. It was a random thing one of my grandsons said at eight years old one day while we were playing. I often keep track of funny things my grandkids say, but this one really stuck with me. I kept thinking about that town and why it might be called Potato. I already knew I wanted to write a comedy sci-fi story, and the title just seemed to fit. The book evolved from that, and I named the protagonist after my grandson.

Q. What authors inspired you in writing A Town Called Potato?
A. Given that the story is a mash-up of comedy sci-fi and detective fiction, authors from each of those genres inspired me. In detective fiction, I love Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books. In fact, it isn’t too hard to see that Oren Vilkas is a homage to Nero Wolfe. And it was Rex Stout, along with Sue Grafton and Arthur Conan Doyle, who inspired me to write the book in first person. Of course when you think of comedic sci-fi, Douglas Adams is the king, and I have tried to capture a fraction of his sense of imaginative. Terry Pratchett is another comedic writer who has always inspired me with his brilliance. And I have to mention P. G. Wodehouse the OG of character-driven comedy novels.

Q. Did you find it difficult to mash up so many genres?
A. I did at first. I kept veering off just into comedy or just into detective noir. So it needed a few passes through the text to make sure I got all the boxes ticked and to get into the swing of things. I wanted Gabriel Lake to be so infused with detective fiction that his inner monologue just naturally takes on the cadences of film noir. The trick was to make that comedic and not just cheap parody. I think I found the balance by making Gabriel self-effacing in describing his fish-out-of-water adventures in space and in bringing everyone else in on the joke as well. By the end I found it easier to find Gabe’s voice, and as I got into the sequel, The Maltese Salmon, it started feeling more and more like home.

Q. Where did you get the idea for the chrono engine?
A. Every sci-fi novel that deals with interstellar travel has to deal with how to cross the mind-boggling vast expanses of space. You can devise some kind of faster-than-light travel (warp drive, hyperspace, etc.), or hypothesize traversable wormholes, or imagine a constant acceleration drive that achieves some significant fraction of light-speed, or have generation/sleeper ships. But I was shooting for comedy sci-fi. I knew I needed some preposterous tongue-in-cheek technology, something Douglas Adams might come up with. So I thought for a long time about “What Would Doug Do?” My answer with the chrono engine weaves together a wee bit of hard science (the fact that the universe used to be mush smaller) with the most outrageous hand-waving technobabble that I could come up with. I hope it makes you chuckle.
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