I caught the beginning of H.G. Well’s The Time Machine just before midnight last night and had to watch the entire movie. It was the 1960 version with Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux, one of my favorites. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were two of the best authors, the trailblazers of Science Fiction in science fiction. Think about it, with Well’s classics such as War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau and Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days, each mesmerized kids and adults alike. Every one of them has been transformed into movie classics just as the novels before them. Inspired to say the least, reading these marvelous novels and then watching them play out on the silver screen could have possibly inspired some of my writing and spun yarns. See if you agree.

 

Here are a few of my unpublished novels, you decide: 

 

The Perfect Spook House

 

In 1969 Eleven Eleventh Graders from Abbeville High will forever be impacted by the events of that Halloween night. An old deserted house of the Cedar Springs Road holds secrets to their past, present and future.  Nineteen years later the adult versions are drawn to that house one more time, this time for answers. Sometimes the past is best left in the past. Digging up old bones can harm you. Driven or possessed, they must see this through and they might like what resides in Pandora’s Box.

 

My Sasquatch trilogy (Foot, Another Foot and The Final Foot):

 

Foot

Indian lore becomes reality for a trapper turned wagon master when mountain man BN Carlson leads a handful of hopeful frontiersmen westward. Some aspiring to cash in on the gold rush, others leaving their past behind, the patrons of the small wagon train follow their dreams; their second mistake, trespassing into the northern woods, their first, trusting in their fellow man.

 

The Indians honor and protect the Northern Woods. The S’cwene’y’ti defends their territory. The price of admission can hold tragic consequences for those unfortunate souls trespassing into the sacred territory. Far worse circumstances await those brought unwillingly to the secret valley. 

 

No one knows this more than five unsuspecting mountain men seeking to strike it rich as loggers, and a small Indian rescue party attempting to impress their old chief. Get rich schemes in the northern woods bring death quicker than riches. Rescuers soon find themselves in need of rescue.

 

BN holds the key to their survival and only if he makes the right decisions. By self admission, he’s not cut out for this wagon master trade, struggles with the responsibility and discipline required to ensure safe passage for the patrons. 

 

Be warned. Stay away from the North Woods!

 

 

Another Foot

 

November 24, 1971, the beginning of one the largest manhunts and unsolved mysteries would forever haunt one man. His obsession would drive him to extremes. Over the next nine years the Pacific Northwest would become a hot bed of sightings and discoveries, leading to one defining moment, May 18, 1980. Others followed separate paths, those destined to cross. Myth and nature would define Mattie Reynolds career. Question, would she be willing to solve one mystery at the expense of exposing an even greater one. Obsessed, she had lived her life pursuing tales documented and defined by her ancestor and now she had proof or did she?

 

A chance encounter and those consumed by greed make for the perfect storm, lives drawn to one place, one time and only one way out. Stay away from the North Woods for the S’cwene’y’ti defends their territory. 

 

                                                       Final Foot

 

Twenty years should be long enough for Mattie Reynolds to distance herself from that defining moment in her life, but she can’t shake destiny and unanswered questions. She is drawn once again, like it or not, into a world that isn’t supposed to exist. Can she really handle the truth? Legend, Lore or Lie, greed has its own path, modern technology has a will and a way. Survival of the fittest has never been taken to this extreme. Sometimes there are no winners in the great North Woods.

 

The Lords Last Acres

 

Man has always pondered the ultimate fate of earth. It has forever been a mystery and somewhat of a dice roll as to what would ultimately bring an end to this world we occupy. Scholars, sooth Sayers, evangelist, scientist, politicians and the every day hard working man have all had their theories.

Would it be catapulted into another ice age from a renegade asteroid or giant undetected meteor’s impact? Could a nuclear holocaust spell the end with some small country or terrorist group accomplishing what Russia and the USA failed to do during the cold war? Could man simply destroy mother earth as a result of biological warfare unleashing a deadly virus or plague with no known cure or immunity?

Destruction of the ozone was supposed to slowly do us in, leading to global warming! Could man just simply deplete or pollute all of natures resources through recklessness and over population? Mother Nature could decide enough is enough and unleash volcanic eruptions, earth quakes and tidal waves of biblical proportions.

Let’s not leave out Hollywood’s version: conquest or extermination by a superior alien race!

Since the beginning of time man has predicted the end of the world and proposed all the scenarios. A simple belief: it will happen! Man may not know exactly when or exactly how, but mankind has forever forecast earth’s final destruction!    

Can earth survive the human race? Can man survive man? Rebirth of earth and a test of man’s sanity and ingenuity for survival begins here...but no one could have fathomed the human race would face potential extinction while earth continued to flourish.

In a tiny coastal community nestled in South Carolina a storm is brewing; a storm not visible on Doppler. An unsuspecting farm in the southern belt may hold the key to earth's future. Beach just minutes away and palms swaying in the glorious ocean fed breezes, a battle will soon be underway, but not against a known enemy, but a battle just the same. The farm's residences and visitors will be tested. A passing grade will ensure a chance for mankind. Every life is critical and instrumental to the success for survival. Unlikely heroes shall emerge as the faith of others is pushed to the limit. Love will bloom and human rage will be unleashed. The world will never be the same. And so the saga begins...

 

The Tenth Elemental

 

Jaybird McCracken’s home place is for sale. What greater place to have a summer home than in peaceful Maggie Valley, North Carolina, the perfect retreat from the South  Carolina Grand Strand. Doyle and Jill Vandergrift, son Travis, daughter Megan do just that, venture into a world where cell phone service is spotty with no distractions of a zillion television channels. It’s a perfect backdrop for Doyle’s magazine assignment, cozying up to local heritage. Perfection comes with a price and in the shadows of the b Blue Ridge Mountains is it known as Salvatore Perozzi but you can call him Jimmy, the last elemental.

 

Lou Who

 

Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease but there are worse fates than losing one’s mind. Ask Greenwood resident, Emma Lou Stetson. She is coping with a life no longer her own, and everything you think you know you might not. Sometimes you might attempt to find your way and instead find something else, one with deadly consequences. Wade Stetson loves Lou and will be there for her, for better or worse, until death do them part. How bad really defines worse and dead isn’t always dead. Doctor Kelly Garner works feverishly to assist a family in distress but sometimes the medical profession struggles for the answers too. Revenge is powerful medicine, especially when evil controls the reins.

Absent on Arrival

 

Many people ventured in the fall of Great Smokey Mountains to take in the seasonal changes and the leaves changing their colors. The resort was nestled in a secluded section of the Great Smoky Mountains, southwest of Hazel Creek. Ten floors, seven with rooms, would house around two hundred fifty people. The hotel staffed nearly fifty employees during peak seasons. One access road brought the visitors to the resort, guaranteeing a secluded stay. Amenities such as horseback riding, bicycling, and walking trails offered what most visitors cherished. It amounted to an all inclusive in the shadows of the mountains, a rare jewel for most.

Jay and Mira Myers have been looking forward to this, as have others, secluded and rustic, a perfect setting. Within minutes of checking in, dark secrets greet the travelers. The hotel isn’t what it seems and checking out isn’t an option. Literally, Jay and a handful of hopefuls face their darkest hour. Nightmares, are you kidding? What happened to good old fashion hospitality?  Welcome to the Big Blue Resort, we’ll leave the light off for you.

Last Stand on the Grand Strand

 

Chad Reynolds, kicking and screaming, gives into his wife’s wishes for a vacation of forced family fun along the shores of South Carolina. A marine biologist, physical oceanographer and marine chemist, one would think this would be a vacation hotspot for Chad, the Atlantic Ocean at his beck and call but a tourist trap doesn’t inspire his creative juices. Something stirs in the waters that might change his opinion and bring work to an otherwise not so pleasurable experience.

 

Being the son of an infamous Bigfoot hunter brings unwanted attention to the oceanographer. Mattie Reynolds never attempted to influence her son one way or the other, allowing him to choose his own path. He wanted nothing to do with the Great North Woods and chose the ocean instead as his passion. The fruit doesn’t always fall so far from the tree. Myths and monsters know no boundaries. An old and new nemesis will excavate bones he’d rather leave buried. Battling both could cost him his life and the lives of those pulled into his little drama. There will be no fun in the sun this time.