Here is a list of my current projects with a brief description of each. Each title is only a working title, and will probably not reflect the final title if they are published. Feel free to contact me with questions about any of them. 


If you enjoy my writing, please consider donating to my cause. All funds donated will go directly to promoting my writing and helping me produce more. Thank you very much for your support!




Under Contract: 

Wandaful: 
Status: Coming 2015
Premise: When 13-year-old Wanda buys a new paintbrush from a thrift store, she has no idea that it is actually a magic wand, one of only 12 left in the world. The wand is sought by a circle of dark wizards who possess the other 11 and need only the final wand to make their dark power complete. 

The Last Archangel, Book II
Status: Coming 2014
Premise: 
Xandir has been sent to earth as a mortal, but so has his evil brother, the new leader of the demons filling the earth. Meanwhile, the Fellowship of Nod with the fruit of the Tree of Death in hand are creating massive poisoned storms and sending them around the earth, bringing humankind to the brink of crisis.   

Xandir must lead his allies to confront both of these threats before there is nothing left of the world to save. 

The Canticle Kingdom II: The Frozen Globe
Status: Coming 2014
Premise:
In the sequel, we learn the fates of many characters after they leave "The Canticle Kingdom".  Several years have passed in our world, in the city of Berlin in under siege by the Soviet Union.  Johann and Brigitta have to find a way to enter the blockaded city in order to stop the Many-Named One from destroying their home.

The Last Archangel Book III: 
Status: Coming 2015
Premise: The series comes to a conclusion as the Prince of Darkness himself unleashes his vanguard on the world, drawing the people of earth to him to build a New Babylon in the center of the United States.  Xandir and his allies scramble to find a secret vault that might hold the key to turning the tide in the all-conclusive battle to come. 

The Canticle Kingdom Book III: 
Status: Coming 2015
Premise: Johann and his stranded friends search for a way back home, while Brigitta searches for a way to restore life to what was once a vibrant kingdom. All the while, the Many-Named One has accessed a secret prison in which all the worst criminals in creation are held, and is channeling their evil in a final bid to claim the Canticle Kingdom as his own


Looking for Submissions:

Lost in Translation

Learning a new language can be a daunting experience  As an LDS missionary, I learned this first hand as I tried to wrap my hand around German. Though I eventually succeeded  I made some pretty hilarious mistakes in the meantime. 

I'm looking for others who have funny experiences saying one thing and meaning another in a language they were learning, especially those who served as LDS missionaries. Email a short account of what happened, including: 

Your native language
The language you were learning
The phrase you said (and its translation)
The phrase you should have said (and its translation)
The circumstances of what happened and anything else you'd like to add. 

Send submissions to thecanticlekingdom@gmail.com

Silver Linings


All of us experience those moments when something simply does not make sense. The walls come crashing in around us, and it seems that there is no sunny side to look on. Out of these terrible experiences, however, can come unexpected results that make us realize that maybe the thing we first thought of as a trial was actually a blessing. 

The “Silver Linings” project, is an effort to collect true stories from ordinary people who have seen trials turn into blessings. The stories will be compiled into an anthology to help uplift and inspire others going through difficult times. 

I ask that each story be at least 500 words long and no longer than 5,000. The accounts should be family-friendly and appropriate for all audiences. Any photographs or other images that go along with the story are helpful. You must have permission to use the story and I will consider stories that have been published elsewhere. Stories can be submitted to thecanticlekingdom@gmail.com. Please write your contact information at the top of the email and paste the body of the story into the email. Also include “Silver Linings” in your subject line. 

There is currently no deadline on this project. I will collect entries until I have enough to put together a collection. By submitting a story, you allow me first time electronic and print rights to the story. Reprints are fine, as long as you own the rights to the story. You also agree to allow the work to be professionally edited for grammar, spelling and content. 

There is no monetary reimbursement for this project, though you will be allowed to write a short bio after your story that may include a link to your website/blog. 

Thank you for considering submitting and please pass the word along! I want to have stories from people from all over and of all walks of life.

Lost Tales from the Black Forest Anthology

Do you love Grimm's fairy tales? Their famous book came to be by traveling around collecting stories from other people. I'd like to do the same thing, and tell those fairy tales that the Grimm Brother's missed.

I'm looking for fairy tales and in this case, they can be in any time period. I want to have some traditionally set ones, but also some set in modern day. They need to bear some stylistic resemblance to the Grimms' tales--there is usually a moral, the bad guy usually gets punished, and there is more than a little dark humor. I do not want these to be a simple retelling of old fairy tales, but completely originally ones, incorporating some familiar elements.

Tales should be at least 1000 words, but no more than 10,000. No graphic violence, profanity or sexual situations, please.

Submit your tales to: thecanticlekingdom@gmail.com.

Novels:

The Hunger
Status: Submission
Premise: Kaval spends most of his day in the slums of Scarlatti City, trying to stay below the Commissar’s notice, and feeding his magical Hunger just enough to avoid turning into one of the hideously deformed creatures known as Mals. When a gilded invitation to a royal banquet arrives, he realizes that perhaps he doesn’t have to remain a wretch on the streets. At the banquet, he receives a strange present: a piece of magical Sustenance finer than any he has ever seen, like filet mignon for the magical palate. The banquet comes to a disastrous conclusion as he literally brings down the house with a burst of wild, vicious magic he can neither control nor understand.

The next thing Kaval knows, he’s strapped to the back of a huge mage beast, running for his life with a pair of strangers. They have kidnapped Kaval for his status as a Hyper Tolerant, a rare person who can consume any kind of magical Sustenance. No matter how powerful, no matter how dangerous. Only a Hyper Tolerant can cast a spell using the most powerful magical Sustenance in the world to usher in a prophesied golden age. If he doesn’t, warring clans will tear the land apart. 

Seeing the chance at a new life for himself, and to gain answers about his obscure past, Kaval agrees to help them. The problem with such powerful magic is that it is as likely to destroy or completely corrupt the one who dares to wield it, leading Kaval to a fate far worse than scavenging for food. 

Death Seer
Status: First Draft
Premise: After a high-school initiation turns into a near-death experience, Kumi finds that he's got a new relationship with death. When he looks around him, he can see how people are going to die: burn victims look burned, downing victims look drowned, a power that comes and goes with the waxing and waning of the moon. 

Kumi's secret does not stay hidden for long. When a United States senator receives credible death threats, a secret agency inside the government enlists Kumi's help to catch the killer. 

Elected
Status: First Draft
Premise: In a world where everything is voted on, from what the school serves for lunch to who gets to cross the street first, everyone is born with one vote. Desperate for money to fuel her addition, Jordan's mother sells her child's only vote, leaving her a Slash--the worst kind of second-class citizen. 
Despite her status, Jordan dreams of winning the class's yearly election where the student body elects someone to go to prom with a celebrity. When a strange group sets forward to help her win, she finds herself wondering if their interests go deeper than sending her to prom in style. 

Seek Ye First 
Status: Second Draft 
Premise: When Andy's father makes it big in business, he thinks his own life is made. On his 18th birthday, however, Andy's father reveals that Andy will have to come up with a way to prove himself worthy of his fortune before he sees a dime. 
At school, he enters a young entrepreneur's contest with his best friend Courtney, intent on beating out the competition and proving his responsibly to his father. When the competition escalates the competition into an all-out prank war, Andy must decide if he's willing to pay the price of victory. 

Starspire (Quarter-Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award)


The Lost Barge (LDS Fiction)
Status: Submission
Premise: As the Jaredites cross in their barges from the Old World to the New, one of their barges strays from the course and crashes on a tropical island. Separated from the rest of the survivors, Omer finds that his wife was not killed in the shipwreck, but taken hostage by the island's original inhabitants.  Though she has been taken as a wife of their leader, the rest of his people of set to be brutally sacrificed, and Omer has only days to save his people and figure out the incredible reason he was meant to come to this island in the first place. 



Paladin Pawn
Status: Coming November 2014
Premise:

High school is hard enough without being pelted by water balloons. It does not help getting you glasses smashed on a regular basis, or having insulting cartoons drawn about your name. Rich Witz has trouble enough just keeping his head above water.

Then the real trouble begins. After the mysterious disappearance of both his mother and grandmother, Rich discovers that his already missing father is a knight, in a family tasked to carry on an ancient struggle. The task now falls to Rich to carry on the family legacy, but, in fact, the job does not come with shining armor or even the modern equivalent of a valiant steed. To prove that he has what it takes, he will have to pass a series of tests against an elusive foe, also bent on proving his worth as a villain. All this, while keeping up on his history homework.