STAND-ALONE NOVELS
Angel In Elmira — Historical Fiction of the Civil War. Based on a true story of a northern Lady and her family as they rescue a pair of Rebel soldiers from a New York Prison Camp only to find the unexpected and very strange connection between them. This play is a fictionalization of actual occurrences during the Civil War. Stacy and the O’Neill family were real people, although the names have been changed. An attempt has been made to be historically correct as to dates and occurrences. However, some characters are composites of several people or pure artistic licensee.
I gratefully acknowledge the confidence and assistance of our good friend, Keith Renstrom, who brought this story to James G. Lambert and myself and asked us to put it in musical theatre form, The Angel and the Rebel. Which we did. This musical is adapted into the expanded story of Angel in Emira. My hope is that it will match Keith’s and Jim’s expectations as well as an expanded Historical Fiction.(nearly finished)
DUE some time in 2021
Amcanico — A Retrospective of the Future Stories of the Children of the Apocalypse. This cautionary tale of the children of the future who live in squalor, degradation, depravity and uncertainty in single-child families, while their parents work too hard and die too young, leaving their children alone — all to support a government and its bureaucrats who claim authority and power for themselves — will startle and even enrage its readers.
What once was The United States of America, Canada and Mexico, is now a society where children are forced to marry and conceive ONE child at age 15 and then are conscripted into factory and mine work at 16 until they die — usually in their 30s or 40s. Unless they are capable of remaining in the ‘graphs trade. These children, our most precious resource, are used and abused by all but their parents in horrific ways because society can no longer look out for them due to the corruption — and the money to be made from it.
Clothesless children roam the lands, unwanted, unloved, unattached, due to the deaths of their parents; used by practically all who encounter them for their own perverted purposes. Few there are who can or will risk their lives to protect these innocents. Some children are headed to The District to get into the money of the ‘graph business of the richer east. Pictures are worth big bucks and it is all sponsored by the Bureaucrats. The ‘graphs of children are taken and the children are paid well, but left to fend for themselves after being all but used up after they are too old at 16 or 17. Other children are captured, or abducted, on their way to the east, by the corrupt Cops and other Vigilantes, and turned over to the government, for a bounty, who then forces them to work to make clothing for the rich in the other places of squalor and corruption of the land: Prisons; places of ‘security’ for the homeless children of Amcanico.
But some of the children and some of the adults are attempting to do something about the cataclysmic situation. There is a way out. There are Bards — storytellers who roam the countryside, the deserts of Amcanico — telling stories around a campfire or enacting them on a stage. These Bards are highly organized and have compatriots back in The District, who will publish these stories into a book for the generations of the past to read; for these compatriots have found a way to travel back in time; to get these stories to the generation best able to combat this apocalypse before it begins: US!
DUE in Late or early 2021
THE NIGHT SHIFT —
A novel of changes
by C. Michael Perry
That shift when the moon is full; that shift of thought when the blood stops flowing and a new creature is born; that six to eight hour shift that all teenagers have to work, at some time or other, at some burger place, or grocery store or movie theatre. The Night Shift explores all the shifts that are incorporated into our lives — or into our non-lives, in this particular case. The living un-dead can be a source of great fear, great mystery and great misunderstanding. And great stories.
Trenton, our 113 year old teenager is struggling with the shifts in his non-life. Human friends, the lack of a significant other, the strange feelings and sensations that plague him as he finally settles in to ‘existing’ among humans in Chicago. Then someone appears who seems to be everything he has ever wanted — BUT…
Trenton Woolsey is a vampire — possessing a secret that he is totally unaware of — who chooses to work the night shift at a burger joint turning raw, bloody meat into cooked meat, and make friends with humans.
The Valkyrie and The Watchers are two radically and fundamentally different covens of Vampires. But they both want only one thing: Trenton Woolsey.
The Valkyrie need him to reinforce their war against The Watchers — the Human Lovers. The Valkyrie are dedicated to the subjugation of Humans as a food source, their salvation in their elevation to Vampiredom, and the eradication of those who love and protect Humans. And The Watchers not only need Trenton, but cannot continue existing without him, because of his special, secret and manifest destiny. All of this is unknown to Trenton himself. While Human wars may come and go, the war of the Vampires has never been quelled, and seems, only now, to be truly escalating.
This is a novel in process. The idea came to me and, as ideas do, they keep running until you can catch up with them! Pray for either fast legs OR good track shoes! (this is a tough one — but I’ll get it)
DUE by late 2021
SWEETWATER SALVATION
What if the Angels among us were more familiar to us than we had supposed them to be?
The story of Daniel Morgan, young man of 14, who struggled as a part of a Willie/Martin handcart company. His conversion to the gospel, and his travels and travails to Rocky Ridge are chronicled in this tale of faith and adventure.
This story is a fiction — a fantasy — based on the trials and experiences of the Willie/Martin Handcart companies. Most members of the Willie/Martin Handcart Companies came from England; some were from Denmark. Some began their migration in Denmark or Liverpool but others joined the trek at various points along the way: New York City; Iowa City; Florence, Nebraska. The family of the Morgans is a fiction, but the events surrounding them are real
Daniel Morgan, our central figure, was born in Wales, raised in Liverpool, then converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (along with his entire family) at the age of 12 in 1853, by James G. Willie himself. In 1856 he and his family voyaged across the Atlantic on the good ship Charles Thornton to New York City to begin their long trek to Zion. By train and steamship, then train again, followed by a wagon company across Iowa and finally by handcart, they struggled to their goal. This story is a fiction — a fantasy — based on the history and events of the trials and experiences of the Willie Handcart Company in 1856. At the same time it deals with the conversion of a fictional family and their oldest son. Where they came from. What they left behind. What they hoped to gain! We follow the the Morgan family from its beginning in Wales. We witness Daniel learn and grow; succeed and fail; hope and dream; experience love and loss. The joys, sorrows and adventures of the sea voyage, the trials of the train trips, the hopes held crossing Iowa and Nebraska, and the heartbreak of Wyoming are all painted into a vivid portrait of words and feelings. Do we pass through this life on our own? Do we live this life successfully simply because there are always angels among us? Or are some people, like Daniel Morgan, just a little closer to the angels than the rest of us?
(I find that a lot of factual historical data is missing between Council Bluffs and Wyoming. I’ll have to dig it up. OR be brave and make it up.)
IN PROCESS
A New Stand-alone Sci-Fi
POD CITY OF PALAK III — the alternative title to this is “Paradise …Interrupted“. It tells the tale of a youth, seeming alone on a planet, in a garden of trees. All his needs are met, his life is one delightful adventure after another, constantly absorbing his environment, learning, growing in spirit but not in body — until the day a stranger arrives.
IN PROCESS
Additional Novels in the CHILDREN OF THE ORB series:
BOOK 10-Daniel Light and the Golden Sceptre of Aydriel — Where does courage truly lie? The King of the Golden Mountain is found to be a threat to the Light and all it stands for. His Darkness has captured three of the Princess of the Realm of Caladon. This is the story of the third generation of Realmic heroes who step forward on thequest to rescure the princesses of Caladon: Aydriel, a Prince of Zanadon; Fandomir, The Captain of the Guards of Caladon; and Aralad, champion Archer and Huntsman of Panador. Aydriel give aid to a Gnome of the woods where the other three will not and the Gnome gives aid to the Quest of the three in the form of information and the solution of three riddles that they will be presented. For it is discovered that Hopmeer, the gnome, has escaped his imprisonment as a servant to the Dark King of the Golden Mountain. All goes well until the third princess cannot be rescued. An old enemy surfaces and the young men are threatened with utter destruction unless they can call upon some magical powers that none of them seem to possess.
BOOK 11-Daniel Light and the Dark Prince of Zanadon — What is our true nature? Where does action lead when reason flies away on the wings of doubt? There is resentment growing in the Realms of the Crystal Orb, now in it’s fourth generation since the Miracle of Mirador’s victory over the Dark. This resentment is against the Light, specifically at why some are born to magic and enchantment and why some are not. A former creature of the Dark, turned by Daniel and Miraden long ago, has risen to rule in Zanadon through his marriage to its heir. His allegiance is challenged and he finds himself, after decades of service to the Light, questioning his own choices. Then the Dark, long patient and waiting for just such a chance, pounces and Nightbane reverts to the killing creature he once was. Kingdoms are decimated by his rampages and people are frightened. They call upon Daniel and his Circle of Light; whose cause Nightbane used to serve willingly. The chase ensues, the confrontation is reached and the final outcome is in great doubt as the two former friends, Nightbane and Daniel, meet in battle.
BOOK 12-Daniel Light and the Contest of the Kings — Do our origins determine what we do and whom we become? When heritage, the lineage of blood, is lost, to whom can a Kingdom turn? Having lost most of the heirs to many of its kingdoms, The Realms of the Crystal Orb, under the leadership of Daniel, The Miracle of Mirador, devise a way to replace the royal blood that was lost. A contest. A youth of familiar heritage, Altare, being a descendant of Daniel’s best friend, Elias, is found living in isolation. His sister, Morgare, seduced him and they bore a child, Moralt. He has been in hiding for the shame and anger of it all. But Daniel convinces him to compete. He has a birthright. Something to live up to. Lethlan, a discontented youth, torn from his family by the rampage of Nightbane, becomes a competitor, also. A unique friendship and bond develops between Altare and Lethlan, and they become almost like brothers. Even after Altare wins the competition and is made King in Mirador. The Gwynna enters the picture. Altare is in love. So is Lethlan. And the Darkness is aware of how it can influence and win the war: kidnap Lethlan and put a Changeling, or Doppelganger in his place.
BOOK 13-Daniel Light and the Tryst in Tyme — Fidelity. Love. Friendship. Are they every what they have always seemed to be?
Is faithfulness, or even Faith, of value to us? The new Lethlan seduces Gwynna, now the wife of Altare. They are discovered and exiled, where they die. Altare marries again, to Elayne. He is killed in battle by his bastard son, Moralt. Elayne, orders the execution of Moralt and Morgare as Altare’s forces have won the battle. As Elayne cries over the loss of her husband, the real Lethlan returns, They marry. Elias, now embittered over the loss of his descendant, steals all the treasures of the Realms and hides them by altering the course of a river, then burying it in a splendid magic-made underground cavern, then returning the river to its course. Daniel confronts him and their friendship and brotherhood is tried and tested, until Elias vows to defeat Daniel and the Light.
BOOK 14-Daniel Light and the Lord of Renewal — Light and Dark. How different are they when they have the same beginnings?
Where did it all begin? Where does it all end? This is the final battle and the story of what leads up to it. The Realms have been divided into camps, behind Daniel, the High King of the Realms and behind Elias, the King of the Outer Reaches. Former friends are now enemies. Realm against Realm, Brother versus brother, and outside influences, long felt but seldom seen, try to shift the tide as the Miracle of Mirador and his former best friend and brother, compete to destroy what the other now stands for. The Dark sits and watches and intervenes only to influence the outcome against Daniel and the Light. The scales are weighing heavily against the Light. Elias seems near victory when the Miracle of Mirador… Well, that would be giving it away wouldn’t it? Or would it?
BOOK 15-Daniel Light and the Histories of the Orb — A Companion Book — The rest of the story. A storybook containing [among other titles:] Miraden and the War of the Enchanters, The Birth of the Kings of the Crystal Orb, The Skwatwaela, Castal — The Boy Who Could Talk To The Sea, The Family and the Rostok, William of Waterside, The People of the Plains, Axengard: First Dwarf, Salah Tas: Land of the Elves, Dal and the Rise of the Dark)
These stories are from various times through the history of the Realms of the Crystal Orb. Some fill out the stories that have already been told, providing background and detailing characters or incidents not told so far in the Chronicles of the Realms. Others present new characters and peoples to our view and round out the stories we have come to know.
MORE FROM THE KEEPERS OF TIME SERIES
Book 2- WEMBLEY TEWKES AND THE TIME BANDIT (underway)
Book 3- WEMBLEY TEWKES AND THE MASTER OF TIME
Book4 – WEMBLEY TEWKES AND THE JOURNAL OF AMBROSIUS GRYFFUDD
