Novels, Plays, Memoir
NOVELS
Bronze Medal, Independent Publishers Book Awards
Finalist, Speculative Fiction, Colorado Gold Literary Award
Part 1: A Blade of Dubious Glory
Part 2: Beware the Sword of Mirth
When Verity falls through the floor of Ford’s Theatre and finds a smart-aleck, shape-shifting, telepathic sword named Jasper, she figures that’s as weird as her day will get. Wrong! Verity and Jasper (disguised as an old tin cup) are forced to flee Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1862, pursued by demons and assassins sent by the Honourable Merchantry, a corporation of sorcerers that secretly controls the world. It aims to possess the goofy blade and the magical stone that powers it, before the reluctant Verity can master her new powers and overthrow the Merchantry. Aided by a wacky collection of enchanted allies, including Roman Legionary rats and combat pelicans, Verity must find a way through the battling Union and Confederate armies while avoiding corrupt mages, hellish weaponry, and her own fears. She also has to cope with Jasper’s twisted sense of humor and the need to recharge his magic with favors no 12 year-old girl should do, like smoking corncob pipes. Full of sly references to Huckleberry Finn and other literary classics, BRIMSTONE AND LILY is the first book in the Legacy Stone series of tongue-in-cheek alternate-reality Civil War adventures.
Jasper’s Foul Tongue
Part 1: The Avenging Arm of Sarcasm
Part 2: How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tush
Book 2 of the wacky alternate-reality Legacy Stone series picks up where the award-winning BRIMSTONE AND LILY left off. 12 year-old tomboy Verity and her wisecracking, shape-shifting, magic sword Jasper have only a few days left to rescue her friend Eddie from the clutches of the evil Merchantry. Disguised, she must make her way through medieval Spain and ancient Greek Portugal, having to contend with musket-wielding Furies, cast-iron submarines, Muslim assassins, vicious windmills, mysterious sorcerers, the dreaded Dreamworms, and 10,000 zombie women led by Dionysus himself. Not to mention Jasper’s twisted sense of humor. Oh, and the usual poop monsters, of course. By journey’s end Verity will learn the stunning truth about her missing father and her own amazing lineage. Full of allusions to HUCK FINN, THE ODYSSEY, KING LEAR, and many other literary classics, JASPER’S FOUL TONGUE is suitable for ages 10 to adult.
Jasper’s Magick Corset
(revision due in April 2025)
Part 1: Convergin’ on the Ridiculous
Part 2: TBA
Book 3 of the Legacy Stone series sends Verity and Jasper to Napoleonic France and Elizabethan England. With only a week until time runs out for her friend Eddie, Verity must travel in a Steampunk balloon while fighting unkillable ogres, Teutonic terrorists, Papal avengers, airborne zombies, and the ever-present poop monsters. Assisting her are the ten year-old Grandmaster of the Equity, the eighty year-old Directeur of the Redeemers, a snooty basset hound, and a love-struck fire sprite named Scorch.
Jasper’s Sloppy Smooch
(arriving in 2 parts in 2026)
Audiobook link (read by the author)
Winner, Speculative Fiction, Colorado Gold Literary Award
A Steampunk extravaganza featuring a one-legged government agent and Zulu War veteran whose day job is Shakespearean actor in an alternate 1887 London. Partnered with literary legend Oscar Wilde and famed male impersonator Vesta Tilley, intrepid but haunted Montague Paragon faces Dr. Moreau’s beast-men, tiny Martian war machines, tentacled temptresses, gun-toting automatons, and peacock-garbed airship captains.
Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Historical Fiction.
March, 1605. When Jean Treville, ace spy for King Henri IV, is ambushed by mysterious assailants in the Spanish Netherlands, a young Gascon named Bertrand d’Artagnan comes from nowhere to rescue him. They disguise themselves to infiltrate the shadowy terrorist group that attacked Treville. The Manqué is an unholy alliance of radical Catholics and Protestants intending to upend the European balance of power through a spectacularly violent demonstration. If they are not stopped, an apocalyptic war will enflame Europe.
Treville and d’Artagnan must overcome silver-nosed assassins, gunpowder bombs, mass sword battles, and the spy in King Henri’s court who seems to always be a step ahead of them.
Rapiers & Rogues is an old-fashioned swashbuckler in the mold of Rafael Sabatini and Arturo Pérez-Reverte, full of exciting sword duels, royal intrigue, and witty banter.
Captain Treville, the commander of the famed Three Musketeers, was young once. So was d’Artagnan’s father. This is the action-packed story of how they met.
LGBTQ+, Autism content
Paris. June, 1924. An otherworldly horror threatens the Olympic Games. And only a grievously wounded, autistic, bisexual archeologist can stop it…if she can overcome her own demons first.
An alien gem named the Gaze of Zeus, able to magnify energy 1000-fold, has fallen into the hands of Mussolini’s ruthless Black Shirt science squad. Its commander, the murderous glass-handed Colonel Terremoto, intends to put it into a death ray and make Il Duce the master of the world.
Opposing him is Molpadia Aulis, gifted archeologist, linguist, and journalist. Barely recovered from the horrifying facial wound she suffered in the Great War, she must find the Fascist team, discover how they will use the Gaze, and prevent the deadliest of crimes.
Complicating things are Indian terrorists, the French police, and a suave Algerian assassin so alluring that Molly doesn’t know whether to kill her or kiss her. Molly’s allies are a renowned Egyptian explorer, a stubborn Sûreté detective, and her exasperating millionaire mother.
Most disturbing of all: the aliens want their jewel back…and they may be living Hindu gods.
From its beginning with a river of scorpions to the climactic showdown in the candlelit Paris catacombs, The Gaze of Zeus is a rousing historical science-fiction action-adventure.
MEMOIR
Finalist, Next Generation Indie Awards, Humor.
Finalist, Reader’s Choice Awards, Memoir.
The most hilarious heart transplant memoir you’ll read this year!
In late March 2019, high school English teacher and competitive runner Terry Kroenung rode a quick 10 miles on his bike. 10 days later he had an emergency heart transplant. Really. Imagine his surprise. This memoir recounts his experiences with near-fatal pacemaker implantations, defibrillation scorch marks, 7-hour cardiac ablations, surgical staples, and the up-and-down recovery process. Along the way are 6 pregnant nurses, Canadian axe throwers, alien face-huggers, playful chest zippers, demonic urinary catheters, and the most horrifying photo of a dead heart that even the doctors had ever seen.
To keep himself — and his shell-shocked wife, family, and friends — from dwelling on the life-or-death enormity of it all, he kept a diary of everything that happened, no matter how trivial or absurd. His snarky, pun-strewn, geeky commentary on events, as well as more dubiously-termed ‘wit’ that he added after the fact (essentially playing Mystery Science Theatre with himself), make up the book that you’re somehow still reading about.
Proceeds of this book will go to benefit Donor Alliance and their life-saving work increasing the supply of transplant organs.
DRAMATIC WORKS
Coolness and Courage is a one-act play which shows how a boy in trouble named Raheem learns to make the right decisions. Sentenced to community service in a nursing home, he meets a resident who tells him the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, the tough African-American fighting men who overcame prejudice, Native American warriors, and terrible living conditions to pacify the Old West. After learning how those heroes overcame adversity with honor, Raheem has the chance to do something similar when his former partners in crime make him an offer.
Designed to be set up and performed in one classroom period, with time left for discussion, Coolness and Courage has been successfully performed for schools, youth groups, and churches by young men who faced the same inner-city challenges Raheem has to confront in the play.
The haunting story of two Civil War soldiers–one a wounded Confederate sergeant, the other a young Yankee private–forced to share a barn after surviving the bloodiest single day of combat in American history, the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg). After indulging their hatred and trying to kill one another, they settle down to a tentative truce which ends up exposing their mutually wounded souls. A surprise revelation leads to compassion, redemption, and even love. This play will make the reader stop and think about how we treat each other, in peace as well as in war, and offers hope that the pain we inflict can always be mended.
From searing Holocaust knife fights to clowns hurling pies, Blood And Beauty offers a dozen unmatched opportunities for actresses to display their stage combat expertise. Filling a critical need in the theatrical canon, these short plays not only provide women with exciting, gripping, and frequently hilarious stage fights to perform, but also present severe acting challenges. “Dark Lady”: Shakespeare’s sonnets come to life. “Red Riding Hood Redux”: a fairy tale heroine with attitude.” “Death Song”: a young Amazon learns the horrible truth of her parentage. “Assail! Assail!”: the perils of shopping. “Thorns”: a prequel to Macbeth. “Surrender, Dorothy”: an all-female construction crew works out a few issues. “Strumpet Voluntary”: a true episode from the life of 17th century swordmistress La Maupin. “West”: an SS officer seeks redemption from a prisoner he once loved. “Ladies First”: a fight class awaits the arrival of the female Errol Flynn. “Boot Camp”: basic training with a silly twist. “Fair Warning”: a fine-arts auction where the bidding is literally cut-throat. “In Russet Mantle Clad”: two Napoleonic soldiers share a deadly secret.
Dashing swordplay! Heart-stopping romance! Intricate political intrigue! And all written by a 10-year-old girl?
This new play, based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic 1844 novel, tells the “real” story of how the tale came to be written, complete with crazy deleted scenes that wound up on the “cutting room floor”, so to speak. Although all of the famous moments that readers have enjoyed for over 150 years are here-the rousing duel with the Cardinal’s Guards, Milady’s evil schemes with Cardinal Richelieu to control the throne of France, the joyous picnic on the battlefield at La Rochelle-this new version also gives readers and actors scenes never shown before. As Dumas and his precocious niece Charlotte write the novel, episodes are tried and discarded. These include a Rockettes-style dance number featuring high-kicking Musketeers and the usually-timid Constance clashing-sword-in-hand-with four of the Cardinal’s Guards.
Suitable for production at all levels, from schools to professional theatres, this new take on The Three Musketeers is sure to please readers and audiences alike.