One day in early December, my agent called and asked if I was interested in writing a book based on an upcoming thriller starring John Cusack and Ray Liotta. I would get the screenplay in the mail, read it, and convert it into a book that would be released at the same time the movie came out. I was a little leery–I’d never done such a thing before. On the other hand, there was a first time for everything, and a number of elements were similar to elements in my first novel In the Company of Mind. So I expressed interest.

The deadline, it turned out, was three weeks.

Well.  Okay then.  I like a challenge.  I spent the holidays chained to my computer and finished the book with three days to spare.  Identity was my first media book, and I wrote a number of others afterward. 

IDENTITY

(Out of print)

Identity is a secret. Identity is a mystery. Identity is a killer.

In the middle of a raging storm, ten strangers find themselves stranded at a run-down desert motel, cut off from the outside world. The bleak refuge of the motel provides them safety from the elements, but not from the true danger. There is a killer among them.

With an almost inhuman savagery, the murderer strikes — and soon the dead outnumber the living. As blinding mistrust and mortal fear threaten to tear the survivors apart, one thing slowly becomes clear: they were all drawn to the motel by something. Not by fate or circumstance, but by shadowy forces beyond their imagination — forces that promise those who survive a destiny that may be worse than death….

THE NANOTECH WAR

(Out of print but available on the Kindle at Amazon)

Throughout human history, mankind has turned its goals and dreams toward exploration. With wagon trains, ships, satellites and starships, humanity has chosen to seek out the new frontier, to explore new worlds, and to go where no human has gone before-even to the furthest reaches of the Delta Quadrant. There, Captain Janeway and the crew of the Starship Voyager™ have discovered many strange and wondrous civilizations…but few as alien as the Chiar.
An advanced and scientiÞc people who have made great strides with nanotechnology, the Chiar expanded internally rather than externally. Every inch of their planet is crawling with the tiniest bits and pieces of artiÞcial intelligence imaginable, working in concert as the new lifeblood of this mechanical world. The people themselves are inseparable from their nanites, which layer their skin and provide extra limbs or senses as required.
Caught up in a bitter civil conþict, some Chiar will try to take advantage of their meeting with the crew of Starship Voyager. They imagine that their homegrown nanites can harness the incredible power of the deadly Borg, and instead set in motion an experiment that goes devastatingly out of control.

THE EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING

I actually wrote this book twice. After I finished it, the movie producers decided to reshoot the entire movie with new actors and a new script. They wanted me to rewrite the book to match it. This took a great deal of negotiation, but we finally settled on a way to make it work.

In the aftermath of World War II, Lankester Merrin finds himself in the remote Turkana region of Kenya. Haunted by memories of the war, he has taken a sabbatical from the priesthood and journeyed far from his native Holland. He has come to lead the archaeological excavation of a mysterious, Byzantine church, buried in pristine condition as if on the day it was completed. Directly underneath the church, Merrin discovers a much more ancient crypt — and finds himself face-to-face with unspeakable Evil.

Madness descends on the local villagers and the contingent of British soldiers sent to guard the excavation. Merrin watches helplessly as the atrocities of war are repeated against another innocent village — atrocities he’d hoped to never see again. The blood of innocents flows freely on the East African plain, but the horror has only just begun….

THE GHOST WHISPERER: PLAGUE ROOM

Just an ordinary day in Grandview with customers at the Village Java looking for that perfect caffeine fix and lookylous being transformed into buyers by the eclectic assortment of antiques at Same As It Never Was. But there’s nothing ordinary about the blur of activity at Jack’s Dry Cleaning, where shirts are spinning on the racks and dresses are dancing without their owners.

A spirit has taken up residence in the store, and although Melinda Gordon usually can sort out what’s keeping a spirit from crossing over, this particular one is frustratingly uncommunicative. After a week of trying, the store owner is convinced that Melinda will never succeed.

Then self-acclaimed spiritual consultant Wendy King comes to town, guaranteeing success in moving spirits to the afterlife…for a fee. But Wendy’s methodology involves trapping and forcing spirits into the light. And she pays no heed when Melinda tells her that what she is doing is wrong and dangerous.

After a young couple inherits the old Ray mansion and asks for help selling the antiques that fill the house, Melinda pushes aside her concerns about Wendy. But the old house holds a terrible secret and a spirit that Melinda cannot budge. The frightened owners turn to Wendy King, who forces the spirit to cross over, despite Melinda’s pleadings. But Wendy’s actions release an evil, unyielding spirit, one who promises to release a flood of disease and terror on the town, starting with the people closest to the Ghost Whisperer.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: UNITY

(Out of print, but available on the Kindle at Amazon)

A prophecy is fulfilled when Peter Attis is rescued from the Cylons in order to save humanity with “the plague of the tongue.” Or so it seems…

While harvesting algae for conversion into food, the beleaguered human/refugee fleet is discovered by a small group of Cylon raiders. A brief battle ends with the destruction of a Cylon heavy raider. A colonial issue escape pod found floating among the debris reveals two survivors inside: Singer Peter Attis . . . and his captor, a Cylon Number Eight.

Soon after Peter’s liberation, people begin babbling incoherently and dropping into comas. Unwittingly, Peter has been spreading a highly contagious, nerve-deteriorating Cylon biological weapon — and he just performed for half the fleet. As Dr. Gaius Baltar begins work on a cure, word starts to spread that a fanatical sect believes that Peter is the religious leader who will save humanity and that this virus is their path to salvation. They are willing to do anything to keep Baltar’s vaccine from being distributed.

While the fleet is in chaos, a larger Cylon force appears. A weakened humankind, now threatened on two fronts, may be unable to defend itself…

At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.