My Novel, Seven Stones Available (Sort Of)

My new novel, Seven Stones, is now available for pre-order for Kindle. So what’s it all about and why should you care? Because I’ve made a very conscious decision to bring you action from the get go while providing a portrait of life a century ago. The story begins a year before the start of World War I, touching upon many of the events and people of the day. It will take you to a Louisiana plantation where the owner still believes he has the right to own his workers, not only in life but also in death. The main character, Doug Slattery, encounters séances and acquaintances of Harry Houdini. Sister ships Mauretania and Lusitania cross The Atlantic with speed and in style, while The Trans Siberian Railway brings prisoners East to populate a bleak and ungiving land, where Joseph Stalin sits in exile. The South Pole has just been reached, and in the process, evidence is found in The Antarctic of a time when all the continents were united in a single Urcontinent. Physician Max Planck and novelist Jack London are using science to reinterpret the world in which they live. And through it all, the status quo is being threatened by those who would hurl bombs in order to advance their agenda. The old world is dying. What will survive, and what will come from the ashes? And what happens when mankind plays with powers beyond its reckoning?

Seven Stones: An Introduction

Here then is a brief introduction of my forthcoming book, which I think I shall name Seven Stones:

The year is 1913.
     An aspiring magician, Douglas Slattery, comes across an advertisement for rare illusions for sale. He meets an older magician, known only by his stage name Ashavan, who is giving away his old secrets and props for services rendered. There is a certain jewel in the possession of a spiritualist in Chicago which Doug is sent to retrieve in return for the secret of the Bullet Catch trick. Later, there is a jewel that has found its way from Australia via Houdini. Then there is the one in Louisiana owned by a landowner who believes he can possess his laborers not only in life but also in death. With each jewel, the reward becomes greater, but the price payed by Douglas Slattery becomes greater.
     He learns there are seven jewels in all, one for each of the seven continents. They are parts of what was once a single jewel, the jewel of the continent Pangea. Both Ashavan and Doug learn that assembling the jewels leads to greater understanding, while also giving greater power to the stones that remain apart. Together they are a power for unity, separately they’re a source of evil. But assembling all of them into their original shape will bring about the recreation of Pangea.
     Would the re-emergence of a single continent be possible? Would it be preferable? Unfortunately, there’s not much time left to think about it. They’ve already unwittingly set the pieces in motion. As the individual jewels seem to want to unite, the power of the remaining pieces grows, as does the desire for them by those who would use them for evil.