New books for the wishlist

 Codex redux asked.

Well, I’m alive so far. So proof of life, check.

As for new books … I’ve got about 45 of them. Ish. I think.

I started the insanity that is my publishing life in 2012 with It Was Only On Stun!

The following is a bit of a chart of “if you were reading things in publication order” ...

We’d start with...

It Was Only On Stun!
(Convention Killings Book 1)

If you weren’t here when this one came out, It was Only on Stun! introduces the professional security specialist Sean A.P. Ryan being dumped head first into an SFF convention.

He is hip deep in nerds, genocidal madmen, terrorists, IRA gunmen, and a cartel that has a grudge with him.

So it acts as a nice prologue to the Pius Trilogy … which is currently out of print. We’ll get back to that. Someday.

Set to Kill:
A Sean A.P. Ryan novel
(Convention Killings) (Volume 2)

This is the return of Sean AP Ryan, after he appears in Pius, and it’s more of a postscript to Pius than it is a sequel to Stun!

This time, Sean ends up in the political end of the SFF spectrum, hip deep in lunatics, armed authors, all set in the city of Atlanta for WyvernCon.

No relation to DragonCon, which takes place in Atlanta. Heh heh heh.

Anyway…

And this is the companion piece. Sort of.

Sad Puppies Bite Back:
A Parody

Long.... long story. It’s insane comedy. If you don’t know what the title references, you’re probably better off without trying this one.

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And with mustn’t forget my solution to dystopias ... with gun fire.

The Last Survivors

This one is particularly interesting, because it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever written. In fact, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read. I don’t like dystopia. I think they’re boring, filled with the exact same cliche.

Winterborn and UnSub -- the Dragon Award nominated work -- are set in a San Francisco that ... sadly, looks much like San Francisco of today, only a little worse. Add a spy of unstable temperament, a flaky assassin, and an unstoppable serial killer, and a collection of mercenaries who are increasingly enamored of the almighty dollar.

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And, of course, the series everyone likes...

Love at First Bite

Take everything from Dracula about vampires.

Add philosophy and microbiology to explain how vampires work.

Add faith, redemption, a love story, Vatican ninjas, and lots of gunfire.

Shake well.

The first book is possibly my more published novel... because it’s been killed by one publisher, resurrected in self publishing, then republished by a second publisher.

Oy.

Now the only request I have is that you don’t judge these books by their covers. The instructions the publisher gave the artist was male and female leads, the woman is a redhead, and it has to be in the Urban Fantasy genre.

Frankly, the only way to get the covers that I want and that I have in my head requires … a cover artist who is way, way out of my price range. I can do another post about cover design later on.

Honor at Stake

My first Dragon Award nominated work. For best horror, as it says on the cover.

Kick ass vampire.

A romance that works.

Three-dimensional characters, even among the side characters.

And then there are Vatican ninjas.

One is a heartless, bloodthirsty killer. The other is a vampire.

College freshman, Amanda Colt knows few people and wants to know fewer still. She enjoys fencing and prefers facing a challenge every once in a while. She is beautiful, smart, and possibly the most interesting person on campus.

Then she finds tall, intense Marco Catalano in her fencing class. With a mind like a computer and manners of a medieval knight, he scares most people - but not Amanda. They both have secrets, for they are both monsters.

As they draw closer, they must find the line between how much they can trust each other, and how much they can care for each other. Each carries a secret that can destroy the other. But they must come to grips with their personal drama soon because a darkness rises around them. Bodies keep turning up all over New York, and an army of vampires closes in on all sides.

They have only one hope - each other.

Demons are Forever

Obviously, the sequel to Honor at Stake.

Take everything from book one... add in a demon that just won’t die.

After saving Brooklyn from a nest of vampires, Amanda Colt and Marco Catalano are a little banged up. He’s been given a job offer to deal with vampires in San Francisco, and it’s a tempting offer - it would get him away from Amanda, his feelings for her, and get her away from the darkness inside him. When a death in the family compels Marco to move to the West Coast, they’re both left to fend for themselves.

Then the creature known only as Mister Day leaves their world in tatters, and they must once more join forces against the darkness. Only Day is no vampire, but a creature beyond their experience. It will take the combined might of Marco, Amanda, and all of their allies just to slow it down. They have no weapons that can kill him. They have no way to imprison him. To even fight him is death.

But they have to try - or face the end of everything they love.

Live and Let Bite

Book three of the vampire series.

And the 2017 Dragon Award Nominee for best horror.

A 2017 Dragon Award Nominee for Best Horror Novel!

Marco is spiraling out of control.

He knows it. His team knows it. Everyone around him can see that he’s just a bomb waiting to explode.

The only woman who can bring him back from the edge is also the woman who lit his fuse. Ever since the demon Asmodeus tried to murder Marco, Amanda Colt has been hunting down every lead to find the true evil behind the attack. Her investigation uncovers a vampire assassin that Amanda has faced once before - and she lost. Stronger than anything they’ve face before, the assassin isn’t alone. As Marco flirts with self-destruction and the armies of Hell prepare to descend, they must come together to stop a thousand-year-old assassin that has never failed.

Even worse, they must finally face up to their feelings for each other!

After this, the grand finale in book 4

Good to the Last Drop

The final war begins.

Merle Kraft, Marco Catalano and Amanda Colt have battled against the mythical Council, a supernatural conspiracy that monsters fear. This war has brought them up against vampires, minions, and demons from Hell.. Along the way, they have accumulated allies among the police, the military, the mafia, college students, lowly street gangs, and even other vampires. Marco and Amanda have overcome their biggest terror - their passion for each other.

But now, they face the final threat, one that is the culmination of every threat before them. This creature from Hell has powers beyond anything they’ve ever seen before, and has allies of his own: including SpecOps minions, an army of vampires, and packs of werewolves.

And that was before Marco got bitten.

And there are some short stories set in the universe.

Bad Date: A Love at First Bite story

One is a bloodthirsty monster. The other’s a serial killer.

This is going to get messy.

Blood Stained Cliffs of Dover: a Love at First Bite short story

In World War II, the allied invasion of the continent hinges on keeping one secret absolutely secure. No one must find out, or all hope is lost.

Tonight, German spy Konrad Achterberg is about to discover what that secret is.

He’s also about to find out that the Nazis aren’t the scariest predators in the night.

Because something in the dark is colder than the dark.

And it is hungry.

Storming Area 51

You can probably take a guess exactly when this one was released. I think this set a land-speed record in terms of getting this out between the announcement of the Area 51 “storming” and the actual event.

My short story in this collection was Area 51 is Not Enough, and it follows Amanda and Marco after the quartet is over.

And, of course, since I’m going in order of publication, (something to break up the extra-long series) my other nonfiction work.

For All Their Wars are Merry:
An Examination of Irish Rebel Songs

“For all Their Wars Are Merry” is an examination of the uses and implications of songs in Irish terrorist organizations such as the IRA and all of their various and sundry splinter factions. Basically, it will examine why the Irish have these songs as such a widespread phenomenon, and what the songs tell us about these Irish terrorists.

From songs like “My Little Armalite” to “Come out Ye Black and Tans,” one gets the feeling that the IRA doesn’t quite take their British opponents as seriously as one would think, given the amount of bombs and firepower the IRA and all of its mutations has thrown at them in their fight to have Northern Ireland united with the Republic of Ireland, or at least independent of the United Kingdom.

Along the way, it will cover why the Irish terrorists have such songs, why they apologize for their atrocities, how Catholic they thing they are. It will trace these traditions going back back to the days of the Druidic Bards-Irish poets-of the early Celts some three thousand years ago, up to and including the poet Patrick Pearse in the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin.

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Moving right along from that, we go to my current series.

Saint Tommy NYPD

The Series.

Thomas Nolan has a new found talent for smelling evil... And bilocation. Powers associated with Saints. His family isn’t surprised. After all, Tommy attends every church function. He tries to reform every criminal he arrests. He is a good man.

But when the legions of Hell discover Nolan, he becomes a target for a possessed serial killer, a cult, a Warlock, Jihadi X-Men, sex trafficking succubi, a Lovecraftian Bond Villain, and a Kaiju demon.

And those are just the beginnings of the horrors that seek to destroy him.

But all of them are about to learn that “good” doesn’t mean “harmless.”

And Tommy Nolan is going to send them all back to Hell, or die trying.

… As of this minute, books 1-8 are published, books 9-12 are turned in to the publisher and edited. We’re in the home stretch of the series.

Hell Spawn

My name is Officer Thomas Nolan, and I am a saint.

I can smell evil. I show mercy to the lesser criminals - the desperate. Even those I’ve put behind bars seem to like me. But now there’s a serial killer bringing darkness beyond imagination to my city. I can smell his stench a mile away. But how can I prove it?

How do you do forensics on a killer possessed by a demon?

Death Cult

All saints are dead.
Detective Tommy Nolan is no stranger to bizarre events. After all, he’s a New York cop. And after the demon, he thought he’d seen it all.

When home invaders threaten his family, he was prepared to take it as a risk of the job. When it turns out the intruders were covered in the mark of the demon, he knew the trouble was just beginning.

Now, it’s a race against time as the cult who raised the demon take their revenge. They know that Tommy is not yet a saint.

Because all saints are dead.

Infernal Affairs

Detective Tommy Nolan is having a bad day.

First, the celebrant was murdered during mass. Then the SWAT team knocked down his door trying to kill him.

With the million dollar bounty on his head, every gunman and demonic monster is coming out of the pit to collect it.

Tommy has to discover who’s out to make him a martyr before he becomes a saint for real.

Lupus Dei

Tommy Nolan cannot catch a break.

This short story, set between the novels, is Tommy on a new assignment. But before he can begin, a coven of witches have targeted him as their latest sacrifice. Naked and alone in the woods, Tommy is hunted. All he has to work with is his wits, his fists, and his gifts from God… making him the deadliest game.

City of Shadows

London is alive with the sound of shadows.

When Tommy Nolan was sent abroad to avoid being made a saint too soon, he thought he’d be a glorified tourist. But when an impossible prehistoric artifact the Vatican is looking at is stolen from the British Museum, they do the first thing that comes to mind -- they call the cops.

But Tommy is soon convinced that the artifact is more than it seems. The crime scene looks like a war zone. The owners of the stolen merchandise eye him with suspicion. His new partner has a shady, mysterious past. The police are ready to arrest him. The city itself seems primed to explode.

Worst of all, the darkness itself is closing in on Tommy, the city, and everyone who lives there.

But Tommy isn’t one to curse the darkness. The darkness curses him.

Crusader

He might be on his last crusade.

Still working abroad, Detective Tommy Nolan has a hot tip that leads him to Germany. Women and children are disappearing from Catholic Bavaria. The local police have their hands tied. Tommy is the last hope for answers.

Yet again, Tommy is in over his head. What starts as a sex trafficking ring turns into a terrorist conspiracy to unleash Hell on Europe. To stop it, Tommy must fight Nazi vampires, terrorists, and a swarm of succubi who want him as their next meal. Tommy has always crusaded for justice. But now he might be on his last crusade.

Deus Vult

God wills it. A Saint must find a way.

All Tommy Nolan wants is some peace to enjoy his family. He’s been to hell and back, and now he needs a break.

But evil doesn’t need to take a breather, and now the Vatican is back on his doorstep asking for help.

A nearby monastery has been desecrated and the exorcist monks murdered in the most brutal ways imaginable. A legion of demons is gathering for something big, and Tommy’s the saint they need to help.

An old enemy is the ally he needs, but can Tommy trust him? Can they track down all of the demons in time?

And what does the Necronomicon have to do with it all?

Coven

Detective Thomas Nolan has finally returned home. In typical police fashion, he is welcomed home with a murder case and gunfire.

After one arrest goes spectacularly wrong, Tommy is assigned another case and another dead body.

But everything goes wrong from the start of the case. The deceased is a member of a nearby military base, and no one wants to answer his questions. A local bodega gives him mind-splitting headaches.

To make matters worse — Tommy no longer has his charisms.

Worst of all, someone is after his children.

Hussar

Lt. Tommy Nolan has enjoyed a relatively quiet life for the past three years. His promotion has taken him away from the streets and away from the line of fire.

But when a training camp for terrorists threatens his city, he’s dragged back into the sulfur. Creatures of the damned are rising, and he’s the only man who can stop them.

Destiny

Lightbringer

Dark Web

Blue Saint

Supernatural Streets

Supernatural Streets brings together 14 Urban Fantasy authors to explore mysteries with a touch of Magic. The collection includes stories of psychic FBI agents, werewolf detectives, monster hunters, and an ordinary cop just trying to survive when the ritual daggers come out.

Technically, this is not, strictly speaking, a Saint Tommy. The last line of that description is my short story. The short story, called They Burn Witches, Don’t They? features Thomas Nolan’s partner, Alex Packard. He’s not a saint. He has no powers. But he’s going to have to figure out how he’s going to survive and stop these witches before they become invincible.

Finally, we have reached my collection of Self-published stories.

Clerical Error

This is slightly different than a lot of my books… okay, it’s insanely atypical of my novels

To start with, my co-author is my father.

… What, you didn’t think I was born with the name Declan Finn, did you?

Anyway, my father was there, at the time the events took place.

This is more of a cozy than anything else. A historical novel with a murder thrown in for fun.

Also, my wife did the cover. So be sure to compliment it.

James is a college philosophy professor with too much time on his hands. When an old classmate asks for a favor, he drops in with little notion of what’s ready for him.

The year is 1976, during the dark times – for both the Catholic Church and New York City.

James’ college classmate is Father Gus Sadowski, the pastor of Saints Gabriel, Columcille, and Rocco church in the middle of Bed-Sty, where the drive by criminals are on one side of the parish, and the mob is on the other. Father Gus is all alone to run the parish, and needs help – because the live-in priest in the attic, Father Timothy A. Lessner, is worse than useless.

When Lessner takes a tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night, the casual favor has turned into a nightmare.

Can James solve the mystery of who killed Lessner before he finds himself the main suspect?

Too Secret Service

Wayne Williams is a Secret Service agent sentenced to the outer darkness because his family pissed off the wrong president.

Catherine Miller is a CIA assassin who specializes in becoming anyone.

When terrorists threaten to nuke every spot on the President’s world tour, they are both called in to handle the threat.

To stop World War Three, they must travel from Ireland to Rome to Israel. They will have to face terrorist gunmen, professional assassins and nuclear suicide bombers... and perhaps even a threat from within.

But first, they must survive each other.

My first serial novel, originally in three parts. Why three parts? Because this thing was freaking HUGE.

The Omnibus edition is now available, but only in paperback. Why? Don’t ask me, ask Amazon.

Sorry if you prefer e-books. But those you can get in the links below

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Dances with Werewolves

Secret Service Agent Wayne Williams is dead. But he has to keep busy somehow.

When a coven of witches reports a threat to the President of the United States, it’s the sort of threat that must be investigated. But it sounds like a vacation for Wayne.

CIA Assassin Catherine Miler is on a mission to kill “Baron Samedi,” a Haitian Prime Minister sacrificing American Tourists, with a sideline in drug dealing.

Author Matthew Kovach is looking for his own version of Derry, Maine.

All three are about to find themselves embroiled in San Francisco pagans, want to be vampires, pharmaceutical zombies, and New Orleans.

And all three have to survive their consultants on this case -- the Kraft Brothers.

For this one, the Omnibus is both electronic and paperback. Why this and not Too Secret Service? Don’t ask me, ask Amazon. I swear they’re getting worse at this.

If, for some reason, you prefer electronic books that are in two parts, you can buy them below. But I think it’s cheaper to just buy the omnibus outright, really…

Part 1

part 2

Honeymoon from Hell

White Ops

On Tiber’s Edge

Anthologies

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Short stories

Well, this will be odd, considering that many of these are from out of print sources. So some of these are here for my edification. Don’t worry, I’ll try to track them for you.

Astounding Frontiers #1:
Give us 10 minutes and we will give you a world

This one SHOULD be out of print. It’s from a press that no longer exists. Which means the remaining copies might be collectors items at this point.

This story hasn’t been rereleased yet. Give me time.

Arresting Merlin

Now, at one point, there was an anthology of the Tales of the Once and Future King. It had a poorly edited frame tale, and had a lot of selections that I’ve heard mixed reviews over. No, I never got a chance to read it, and the reviews talked me out of trying.

However, the people who left reviews liked my short story, Arresting Merlin.

When the ten year old tried to murder New York City’s Mayor with a wrought-iron flamingo, Officer Tinney figured that this was just another day of weird. When the perp insisted that he was two thousand years old, it was another flavor to the stew of strange that came with the job.

But when the runes start exploding and the forces of darkness invade the station, Tinney is going to have to make a choice. He will either have to jump down the rabbit hole or be dragged down, screaming.

Lyonesse, Volume 1(Out of print)
The short story I published here was Zombie Jamboree, where a consultant who is prepared for everything gets to put his contingency plans to the test.

The Pirate King

Somali pirate Abdi Barre considers himself the Emir of the sea. So when a superliner crosses his path, he wants it.

And this pirate is going to get everything that’s coming to him.

Mad Dog Moon

Once upon a time, there was another defunct anthology called MAGA 2020 and Beyond. The anthology is dead, but the short story is not.

Let’s just say that I took the nickname of General Mattis a little too literally.

Oy