My Published Fiction Works
The disappearance of a friend and millions of Francs worth of wine interrupts David’s buying trip in France when he pauses to comfort and assist his friend’s wife, Catherine.
Their lives are threatened, the intensifying circumstances draw them closer together, and they uncover their buried traumas, insecurities and longings. This is a tale of mounting tensions, realisations and passions, woven through a gripping crime thriller on the Burgundy canals and in the French wine business of the 1980s.
“A compelling read which pulls us inside the French wine trade of thirty, forty and fifty years ago to experience a gripping crime thriller and a sweet romance.”
“Great insights. I learned so much about wine through this story.”
Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Lorne and Catherine face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime’s infiltration of the fine dining scene.
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Their longstanding friendship deepens when they meet again seven months after she was widowed by murder. While they help each other work through their traumatic pasts, their passion and intimacy increase, and they’re unaware of the mounting danger until it’s almost too late. Their scramble to track down who is trying to kill them leads into the darker corners of the Internet, through a world of perversion and extreme body modification.
“This book so enchanted me I found it impossible to stop reading.”
“I loved the superb balance between the sweet romance and
the grotty world of their pursuers. Masterfully done.”
Now available on Amazon as both print and ebook.
Click here or on the cover image for more information.
Early in World War One, a young Canadian soldier is wounded and trapped behind German lines. He uses quick thinking and ingenuity to evade capture, then deeper into enemy territory, he meets a young woman who recently lost her father and brothers to the war. She takes him home to meet her mother, hoping he can help them escape back to their family roots in Switzerland. As they flee over the mountains, love blossoms and stirs old traumas. He's torn between following his heart and honouring his sworn duty.
This is a war story, but instead of being mired in blood and guts, it examines deeper issues of the human condition.
The envelope images on the cover of Posted As Missing are taken from my personal collection, and they inspired this story. I did some Photoshop manipulation to alter the soldier's name, initials and regimental number. He was posted as missing in April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres, a battle famous for the first use of chlorine gas in warfare and for John McCrae's penning of In Flanders Fields, the poem which was the origin of the poppy as the symbol of remembrance.
Now available on Amazon as both print and ebook.
Click here or on the cover image for more information.
My Fiction Works in Progress
Missing — During their escape, David had seen possibilities of sabotage and ways to assist with the war. Torn by his love for Maria, he struggles with his need to return to the fighting. His honour finally wins, and he conceives a sabotage plan that convinces the Army to use him to run covert operations into Germany from Switzerland.
This second volume of the series ends as David leaves Maria in Switzerland to head to England for training.​
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Throughout this series of novels, the storylines are all woven closely with actual historical events and people. Although this is a piece of fiction, most of the geography and history in it are real. Many of the details and adventures in the Schwarzwald are based on my experiences there half a century later while serving with NATO in the 1960s. I began my research on this series of novels while sharing drinks with Ypres veterans in the Officers' Mess of the British Columbia Regiment shortly after I retired in 1981.​
Back in Action — Volume three of the story follows David's training, his return to Switzerland and to Maria and to the beginning of his sabotage and espionage missions.​
Watching Fritz — Volume four of the story follows David's espionage missions into the industrial heartland of Germany as he juggles greater responsibilities and a love for Maria, which has matured.​
Colonel Berry – This is the fifth volume of my award-winning Wattpad Featured Story, 'Posted As Missing', an intense adventure/romance set in the turmoil of World War One Europe.
I've grown tired of blood-and-guts war stories, so I've written this series to examine deeper issues. David left the battlefields in the first chapter of the first volume of this story, and to this point, he has not returned to them. He has found far more effective ways to fight the German war machine.
Valentine's Dinner? — Two reclusive people meet in a charity soup kitchen in a down-and-out area of London, and their mutual attraction tempts them to follow their hearts. Both know that breaking out of their social shells risks revisiting buried traumas, but it might relieve their loneliness.
Valerie has been celibate since she was drugged and raped, and she now concentrates on three things - running her corporate empire, maintaining a low profile and guiding her inquisitive daughter through puberty.
Lorne is still grieving a fiancée who died years before, but when he meets Valerie, his dormant desires awaken. With little information beyond her first name, he takes a bold step and invites her to Valentine's Day dinner.
Their relationship escalates with blinding speed and all the comforts of a billionaire lifestyle, but the bliss is interrupted by a smear campaign on social media. Valerie's rapist is out of prison and looking for revenge. She wants to crawl back into her shell, but Lorne's love and acceptance continue drawing her out.
Though dark aspects are threaded through the story's background, the overbearing theme is a lighthearted and feel-good romance.
The Delfe Treasure — Aldrick is obsessed with finding his grandfather's treasure. More than half a century and seventeen voyages have failed to locate his ships after they wrecked in Windward Passage, deeply laden with pirate plunder and homeward-bound from the Caribbean in 1679.
Elizabeth, the firstborn of Baron Leigh, was raised in Warwickshire, about as far from the sea as is possible in Britain. Recently betrothed to Aldrick, she doesn't want him to sail out of her life.
First Place Winner in Round One and Shortlisted in the Open Novella Contest 2019 and now expanded into a full-length novel.
Zeelandia — Camille disguises herself to gain a position as the captain's cabin boy aboard a ship bound for the Caribbean in 1676. She soon discovers her natural urges, and her feelings must be expressed as a young boy looking at a father figure, not as a smitten young lady of eighteen.
The first portion of this novel was named Round One Winner in the 2020 Open Novella Contest, and it was selected for the Shortlist. It has now been expanded to a full-length novel, which is complete and was selected as a Wattpad Editor's Choice and as a 2022 Ambys winner.
This is the first part of the three-volume Zeelandia Saga.
Zeelandia Port Royal – With nothing left for her in England, Camille had disguised herself to become the captain's cabin boy in a ship bound for the Caribbean in 1676. This is the sequel to the award-winning first volume of her story.
Zeeland – A bastard by birth and orphaned at twelve, Charles has learnt to fend for himself in 1660s London. Homeless, he seeks shelter for the night in some canvas aboard a barge on the Thames. In the morning, he tumbles awake when the sail is hoisted, and the captain presses him to work as they move away from the wharf. Trapped, he sees no option but to follow orders.
Captain Bryson likes his sharp mind and eagerness, and he offers him a job aboard with food and shelter. Charles wonders how he'll be able to repay this kindness, and he strives to do his best, lest he be set ashore, again homeless.
Charles drives himself to learn, gain experience, and remain in the captain's favour as their adventure grows far beyond the barge, but his insecurity continues surfacing. What will it take to give him the confidence his natural abilities deserve?
Written for ONC 2021, this story was selected for the Shortlist, and after the contest, I expanded it into a full-length novel. It serves as a standalone prequel to the Wattpad-featured and Ambys winner, Zeelandia.
Hot Potato – Gigi, an aromantic bi, doesn't know what she wants most - a husband, a lover, or her own restaurant. She has just lost her prestigious chef position and kicked out her latest fling, who threatens revenge. With her meagre savings, all three possibilities seem remote at the moment.
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A holding company acquires a failing restaurant chain, strips its name, and assigns the 'hot potato' to Duncan, a business consultant, to determine whether to rescue or liquidate it. The pressure of success weighs on his shoulders when he decides to attempt a turnaround, knowing failure means loss of jobs.
Gigi is among those he hires to replace staff who had abandoned the 'sinking ship'. Attracted initially by her resumé, he is captivated by her beauty and spirit. Mutual interests become increasingly personal the closer they work, and maintaining professional façades falters. Gigi sees him as another gorgeous hunk to seduce, and she flirts, but Duncan, convinced since his teens that he's asexual, is confused by his frequent and obvious arousal.
His plan of tying the success of the restaurants to the bigger goal of winning Gigi's aromantic heart is endangered when her deranged, stalking ex posts explicit videos of her on the web, threatening to smear her reputation and ruin her career. Can the fledgling relationship survive this and save the restaurants?
The One – An asexual man and a divorcee seeking love are forced together by extreme circumstances.
Logan owns a wine importing company, and he's given up on finding a companion. When not travelling the world tasting and selecting, he sails to find peace and relaxation.
After a messy divorce, Karina lives aboard a boat, crafting romance novels with happily-ever-after endings, hoping to find her own. In blinding rain, she hits a log and begins sinking.
Red Flag – Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Kate and Lorne face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.
Kate is a novelist and a dining columnist. Lorne is a lawyer, a prominent wine writer and an incognito restaurant reviewer who, since his teens, has believed he's asexual.
Playmates when they were toddlers and friends ever since, they are now thrown together by increasingly dangerous circumstances as the Mob targets them. The intensity and closeness trigger Lorne's deeply buried sexuality and Kate's long-suppressed desires. Will they be able to set their passions aside and focus on evading and entrapping the Mob?
Nunce – Love and retaliation conspire to foil a billionaire land developer's attempt to bulldoze a family business.
Heather Clayburn owns Nuance, a thriving upscale restaurant in a nineteenth-century house in Vancouver's West End. Her family has lived above the restaurant for generations, but after her divorce, only she and her twelve-year-old daughter, Sage, remain. As Downtown spreads westward, massive office and condo towers threaten the last of the houses, and she is determined to preserve the family legacy.
Strathaven Land Development owns the adjacent vacant lot, leasing it to the restaurant for client parking, and they recently bought the 1950s apartment building on the other side of the house. When Strathaven's owner tells Heather about an old verbal purchase agreement, she refutes its validity. He forces his son, Sinclair, to coerce her into selling.
Sinclair becomes a regular diner at Nuance, catching Heather's eye, and while looking for ways to do his father's dirty deeds, he is increasingly attracted to her. Unaware of his motives, she moves him to the top of her dream hunk list.
Spilt Wine – The disappearance of a friend and millions of Francs worth of wine interrupts David's buying trip in France when he pauses to assist and comfort his friend's wife, Catherine. Their lives are threatened, the intensifying circumstances draw them closer together, and they uncover their buried traumas, insecurities and longings.
This is a tale of mounting tensions, realisations and passions woven through a gripping crime thriller set on the Burgundy canals and in the French wine business of the 1980s.
Although this is a work of fiction, most of the locations, adventures and characters are real or based on reality. David's behaviour and interactions are influenced by his autism, alexithymia and asexuality, which were much less understood when this story is set, and I write these from my own experience.
The reminiscences, stories and timeline follow events from my own life, though sometimes they're slightly juggled to fit the crafting of this novel. Fortunately, the crimes and the criminals are fictional, and any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.
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This is a completely rewritten version of the published story. Among many other things, I changed the PoV from limited third to first person.
Bait & Hook – On his doctor's recommendation, Alex signs up to an online dating site and creates a profile as Xander. His searches find nobody of interest, and he's about to dismiss it as a bad idea when Roxy posts a message to him.
Rosario is an investigator for the dating site, and the tone and content of Xander's profile cause her to red-flag him as a financial predator. She creates a wealthy widow profile as Roxy to initiate contact and honey-trap him.
Surprised by how well her interests fit with his, Alex responds. Their messages become longer and more complex, and after a few days, he invites her to dinner. Not long into their first date, he suspects he's being catfished, but hungry and intrigued by Roxy, he decides to play along with her and enjoy the evening.
The story is presented in first-person PoV, alternating chapter by chapter
THOR – When Marissa's poodle, Thor, is snatched, the police can do nothing, so she goes to a private investigator. Their initial encounter leaves her shaken and wondering whether it's time to review her decision to avoid men.
Graham gave up on women after a series of disastrous relationships, but something about Marissa stirs him. Dog? Oh, yes, there's a dognapping to solve. Written for ONC 2024 in response to the prompt: Sometimes words speak louder than actions.
This story was named a Winner in both Round One and Round Two.