Blog Archives
Changing the Narrative
Stairwell to Silence follows a former Navy SEAL turned PI who is investigating the death of a brilliant law student who, while ruled an unfortunate accident, quickly turns into a conspiracy and murder case. How did you decide what to reveal, and when, to keep that shifting tension alive?
I did every reveal strategically. I attempted to write in a way that each chapter ended almost with a cliffhanger, which encourages the reader to want to “see what comes next.” I had some pivotal plot twists, and I made sure not to divulge too early as they may compromise the ending. Even the ending was a twist, not to give anything away, but it makes the reader ask himself, “What really happened to Bella?” This was my first trial of a neo noir thriller, so the ending needed to be that way – essentially ambiguous. The reveals were placed strategically to keep the reader engaged, changing the narrative to keep the reader guessing what comes next.
Klade’s investigation feels like a descent rather than a straight path. What does each layer of the investigation reveal—not just about the case, but about Klade himself?
Each layer revealed how thorough Klade is in his work. It tells the reader how dedicated he is not only to taking on a challenge, but indeed to getting to the truth. That the investigation felt like a descent rather than a straightforward path, well, that was an attempt to make the stairwell a metaphor for what may have happened to Bella, with her going “downwards,” and also that the deeper down that stairwell that Klade went, the more he discovered that what happened was not exactly a cut and dry accidental death as the powers that be would have them believe.
The novel explores how wealth and influence shape outcomes. What interested you about that intersection of class and justice?
I see that scenario every day. Money and connections often times dictate what the narrative is, whether this is right or wrong. Interesting fact is that this is not my first novel with that concept, as my very first novel, Sovereign Deception, explored something similar.
What do you hope lingers with readers after the final page—the mystery, the mood, or the moral questions?
The moral questions would be the main thing I would hope to linger on. I also would realize that a picture might not necessarily tell the whole truth.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Bella Gaines was brilliant, driven, and hiding more than anyone knew. When she’s found dead at the bottom of her townhouse stairwell, the police call it an accident—a drunken misstep with tragic consequences. The case is closed.
John Klade knows better.
A former Navy SEAL turned private investigator, Klade is no stranger to official lies. Reluctantly hired by Bella’s estranged mother, he begins pulling at loose threads—and discovers a life split cleanly in two. Law student by day. Exotic dancer by night. Somewhere between the shadows, Bella uncovered something powerful men were willing to kill to protect.
As Klade descends into a labyrinth of corruption involving an upscale strip club, a prestigious law firm, and whispers of classified military contracts, the line between justice and survival blurs. Evidence vanishes. Allies lie. And the deeper Klade digs, the more his own past begins to echo back at him.
In a city where truth is bought, sold, and buried, the stairwell where Bella died may not be the end—but the entrance.
Because some falls aren’t accidents.
And some silences are earned in blood.
Excellent for fans of gritty, atmospheric crime thrillers.
Fear of the Unknown
Big Lies follows an astronomer whose discovery of an asteroid careening toward our planet reveals an even more devastating crisis here on Earth. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
I previously worked with several government agencies, and during that time, I witnessed events that unfolded quite differently from how they were presented to the public. Information was sometimes deliberately distorted or framed in misleading ways. It was shocking at first, and it stayed with me.
I began to think about telling a story from the perspective of someone who firmly believes in science and facts—someone grounded in reality—who is suddenly forced to confront hidden layers of the world that most people never see. I explored the idea of what an ordinary person, armed only with general public knowledge, would do if they were pushed to uncover the truth behind events often dismissed as conspiracy theories—but which, in this story, turn out to be real.
From there, I gathered various conspiracy concepts and shaped a narrative around them. Big Lies was born from that central question: What if it were all true? And what if the protagonist experienced it firsthand?
What role does fear play in shaping both institutions and individuals in the story?
Fear—especially fear of the unknown—plays a central role in both individual behavior and institutional control. One of the most unsettling forms of fear is the loss of trust in the systems and people we rely on most.
Big Lies explores what happens when those institutions—ones that shape our lives and promise stability—are revealed to be built on manipulation or hidden agendas. When the structures we depend on begin to fracture, it forces individuals to question everything they thought was certain.
To me, the most terrifying realization is not external danger, but the possibility that the life we trust is built on layers of half-truths and lies. That psychological shift is at the core of the story.
Were there particular books or films that influenced your approach to this story?
The X-Files and the Deus Ex series were major influences, especially in their use of conspiracy theories and hidden truths. I was fascinated by them as a teenager—the sense of uncovering secrets and confronting deeper fears left a lasting impression on me.
However, those stories typically follow trained professionals—agents or operatives—who have the tools, authority, and support to investigate the unknown. They can act, defend themselves, and call for backup.
With Big Lies, I wanted to remove that safety net. I placed an ordinary civilian at the center of the story—someone without special training, resources, or protection. Thomas Jeffries is not an FBI agent like Fox Mulder or Dana Scully, nor a cyber-enhanced operative like J.C. Denton or Adam Jensen. He is simply a scientist caught in something far beyond his control.
That vulnerability was important to me. He must navigate events as they unfold, relying only on his intelligence, moral compass, and determination.
Can we look forward to more work from you soon? What are you currently working on?
Yes, I’m currently working on several books simultaneously. My next major release is a cosmic science fiction horror novel titled Ghost Planet, which I’ve been developing for the past seven years. I’m aiming to release it within the next few months.
In addition, I have three other titles in development.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Inside the secretive halls of elite councils and engineered media narratives, Jeffries is tasked with engineering a cosmic escape for the elite while preserving the illusion of safety for an oblivious world. As he uncovers the truth about ancient bloodlines, synthetic political leaders, and pre-selected survivors, he’s also charged with finding a new home off-world for a civilization that may never know the sky is falling. With everything at stake, Jeffries must weigh the exodus of the few against the future of the many.
Big Lies is a dark, gripping thriller about the cost of knowledge in a world built on deception. Perfect for fans of Deus Ex (elite conspiracy), Altered Carbon (privileged immortality), and Don’t Look Up (satirical apocalypse), this is a chilling ride through the machinery of control—where truth is a weapon, and survival is a privilege reserved for the chosen—unless one man can rewrite the rules.
Fracture
I found Fracture gripping in the way a good geopolitical thriller ought to be, but what stayed with me most was how steadily it turns a technical crisis into a moral one. It begins with a covert maritime operation, the death of Aslı Green, and a single concealed piece of evidence, then widens into a tense struggle involving Russian covert action, NATO politics, British parliamentary theater, and the strange, chilling power of modern systems warfare. What I admired was the book’s refusal to let any of that remain abstract. The plot keeps expanding, yet it remains anchored to human consequences: grief, obligation, loyalty, and the slow corrosion that comes from seeing too much and acting anyway. By the end, the novel has become something darker than a procedural or a policy thriller. It becomes a story about what happens when a man who still believes in structure realizes he may have to step outside it to answer a killing.
I enjoyed the emotional undertow running beneath all the steel, code, and doctrine. Aslı’s death landed hard for me because the book makes her feel vivid before it takes her away, and that loss becomes the wound the whole story keeps circling. I kept thinking about the image of her sending that coded message just before she’s struck, and later about Katya at Heathrow, stunned by the news and forced to keep moving anyway. Those moments give the novel its pulse. I also found the recurring motifs of hidden objects, invisible systems, and “insurance” especially effective: the fountain pen, the locker, the ghost signals, the data hidden inside procedural noise. The book suggests that the modern battlefield is made of things you can’t quite see until they’ve already ruined lives.
I liked the writing a great deal, especially its clipped confidence and its instinct for pressure. The prose is clean, taut, and often unexpectedly elegant, with a real gift for making rooms, screens, command centers, and city streets feel charged with consequence. There are passages here that genuinely hum. Simms’s “weaponized boredom” in committee is both funny and sharp, and the aerial and maritime sequences have an excellent sense of scale and controlled panic. In the middle stretch, a few explanatory sections feel more like impeccably written briefings than fully dramatized scenes, and some secondary figures can read more as functions of the operation than as fully rounded people. Still, even that struck me as a measured flaw rather than a serious weakness, because the book’s central idea is precisely that institutions shape the people inside them, and the style is often serving that very theme.
Fracture gave me the satisfaction I want from a high-level thriller, but it also left me with something knottier and better: the sense that every strategic victory in this world carries a private cost, and that the line between justice and contamination is never clean once crossed. I’d recommend it to readers who like espionage fiction, military and geopolitical thrillers, and novels that care as much about systems and power as they do about conscience. I finished it feeling that the real fracture in the title isn’t only geopolitical. It’s the break inside a person who learns exactly what the world requires and hates himself a little for being able to meet it.
ISBN : 979-8994158531
Moral Perspectives
A Haunting Connection is a multi-point-of-view paranormal fantasy centered around a woman with a unique gift struggling to trust those around her and a man who questions his own powers. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
In the third grade, I was electrocuted. The hair dyer fell into the tub, and my mom had to revive me. Ever since, I’ve been fascinated by the paranormal and stories about life, death, and the energy that lingers. I love visiting old or historic places, and sometimes I get visions or ideas about what actually happened there. After I read the history, I’m often chilled by how similar my ideas and vision were to actual events.
The inspiration for The Ascension Series came after I delivered a package to a mysterious house on Cougar Mountain in Bellevue, WA. My scanner kept glitching when I went there, and my imagination created a story as to why. The house seemed to push me to start writing.
The other thing that inspired this book was Korean dramas. I watch them with my daughter and found myself sketching one out about an American in Korea caught in a complicated emotional situation. That concept worked perfectly for Brandon’s storyline.
Brandon acts as a kind of moral counterweight to Leah. How did you develop the contrast between their paths?
Brandon and Leah’s contrast really came from my travels. When I lived in Japan, I saw how people orient themselves around family, community, and the greater good. In Thailand, life seemed to be more about survival. People were more willing to take risks. In the U.S., our values create tension around personal desire and social expectations. We see these differences not only in cultures, but in age groups.
Leah is young and discovering her powers. She wants to help people, but that help comes in the form of manipulation. Over time, she finds herself justifying her actions for the greater good.
Brandon is a detective. He’s seen addiction and the misuse of power. So when he’s introduced to Yoona and given the chance to learn, he questions everything.
That contrast allowed me to explore the temptation of power and the discipline required to resist it. Their paths highlight perspective, life experience, and emotional maturity.
The multi-POV structure gives readers access to very different moral perspectives. What challenges did you face in balancing those viewpoints?
The biggest challenge was fully inhabiting each character—history, motivations, personal goals, and moral perspectives. I needed their actions to feel authentic to who they were, not a device to move the plot forward.
Another challenge was working with powerful characters. Yoona had to take actions that at times could be judged as morally wrong. But she sees the full picture and knows that in order to achieve necessary outcomes, she must bend her morality. That’s tricky when she is supposed to hold the moral high ground. But it works because Brandon, being skeptical, questions her, and in doing so, we explore the gray areas of morality.
When I traveled overseas, I saw knockoff brands everywhere, sold openly. In the U.S., doing the same thing could get you sued. But in Thailand, selling these items is a way to put food on the table. That raises questions: how do we judge what’s right or wrong when necessity forces choices we might otherwise reject? That tension is at the heart of A Haunting Connection.
Another major challenge I had was the cost. What is the cost for each character? For Leah, it’s her father’s trust, her best friend’s loyalty, and her own ability to choose. Power pulls, and each time she uses it, she loses the ability to resist.
Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 3 of The Ascension Series? Where will it take readers?
A Haunting Redemption opens with the same 1945 Nagasaki scene that started the first two books, but this time from Yoona’s perspective. Readers finally see the full story behind the pivotal moment that shaped the present.
From there, the story picks up where book two left off, with the long-anticipated disturbance Choi and Yoona have been talking about since book one. This event affects every character, altering lives and the world around them.
Then we race toward the confrontation between Ruth and Yoona. Who ends up redeeming themselves along the way, and how does that redemption change the world forever?
Leah Davenport survived the supernatural nightmare of A Haunting Deception,
but her struggles have only begun.
From Washington to Seoul, leaders and manipulators see her as the key to
shaping the world’s future. For Leah carries a rare gift: the ability to step inside
minds, to bend thoughts and feelings as if they were her own. And with every
use of her gift, she walks the path that destroyed those before her.
Caught between rivals, Leah must decide who to trust and how far she’s willing
to go to keep her freedom.
Meanwhile, Brandon Spencer trains with a shaman in Korea who promises similar
power, yet he begins to question whether such power is a gift, or a curse that
corrupts everyone who wields it.
Power has a price, and that price devours everything you love.
Big Lies
Stephen Wayne’s Big Lies is a science fiction thriller that starts with a clean, high-stakes hook: astronomer Thomas Jeffries discovers a massive asteroid on a collision course with Earth, only to find that the real crisis is not just the object in space but the hidden machinery of power on Earth. From there, the novel opens into a conspiracy-driven story about elites, manufactured reality, and the moral cost of survival, before landing in a final stretch that reframes the threat itself and turns the focus back to human choice, family, and freedom.
Wayne doesn’t ease into his ideas. He throws them on the table and lets them spark. That choice gives the novel an aggressive, sometimes feverish energy that fits the thriller side of the genre well. I felt that especially in the early scenes with Bailey and the false front of political power, where the dialogue is less about realism in the narrow sense and more about stripping varnish off institutions until only appetite and control are left. That directness can feel heavy-handed, but I also think that is part of the point. This book is not trying to whisper. It wants to make you sit with ugly possibilities and ask how much of modern life is performance.
I was more interested than I expected to be in the author’s choices around Jeffries himself. He is surrounded by grotesque power, yet the emotional center keeps circling back to his wife Carol, his daughter Amanda, and the question of what decency looks like when the system around you is rotten. That gave the novel a steadier heartbeat than I first thought it would have. Some of the conspiracy material is extreme by design, and readers will probably either go with that wavelength or resist it hard. I found the book strongest when it stopped trying to top itself and simply let people talk, doubt, and choose. The late turn with the asteroid works because it shifts the story from doom to perspective. It is a neat science fiction move, but also a human one. Small error, huge consequences.
I’d recommend Big Lies most to readers who enjoy conspiracy-tinged science fiction thrillers, apocalyptic suspense, and stories that push hard on questions of media, power, and manufactured truth. Readers who like their thrillers provocative, talky, and morally sharp will likely find plenty to chew on here. For that audience, this book absolutely has an audience, and I can see it sticking in their head long after the last page.
Pages: 188 | ASIN : B0G3XGPBDN
Unique Challenges
Enemy at the Helm follows the aftermath of coordinated attacks on U.S. harbors that leave investigators scrambling to determine who is responsible. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
My wife and I were departing port on a cruise ship when I saw a Defender-class U.S. Coast Guard vessel off our rear flank mirroring our heading and speed. When I casually mentioned I knew why he was there—and how to defeat it, she looked at me like I had two heads. Once I quickly fleshed out a hypothetical story, she suggested I should write it. So it was all her idea, actually!
Did you find anything in your research for this book that surprised you?
The physical dimensions of the channels and canals are publicly available and are really quite small. When you have a large ship like the ones that are commonly used today, it can easily cause a blockage of all transit. I’ve been to the Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal, and I can confirm that any long-term blockage would be disastrous. We’ve seen what happens with temporary blockages in Baltimore Harbor, the Panama Canal, and the Suez Canal. With today’s Iranian war already disrupting global economies, I hope the Yemenis don’t read this and get any ideas!
When writing characters who work inside high-pressure investigative environments, how do you make sure their personal reactions still come through?
I’m a trauma surgeon. I’ve been threatened and have had to subdue people. I also do a lot of tactical and combatives training and have practiced many of the maneuvers I described in the novel. In fact, I’m currently training for SWAT team qualification. Even though we train for and have experience in stressful situations so that muscle memory kicks in, we are still always thinking of the lives we are responsible for. Every situation has its own unique challenges. Adapting to something you haven’t seen before creates its own stress. So, it’s a matter of recalling and recording those feelings.
Can you give us a glimpse inside the next book in this thriller series?
Sure! Pursuit and Pain delves into the backstory of the people behind the original attacks, set among a backdrop of ongoing nationwide trials and tribulations and leadership challenges caused by the global trade shutdown. Favorite characters return, and new ones emerge in the international search for the ultimate mastermind.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
AMAZON BESTSELLER
The United States is in crisis.
All the major US ports have been rendered inoperable by the simultaneous sinking of large vessels in their choke points, thus halting the bulk of global trade. At first, the president thinks he has been given a gift. He always thought the United States got the raw end of the deal in international trade because of the spineless behavior of his predecessors. But with the resulting shortages of everything, he soon realizes that people in extreme situations behave irrationally, and he struggles to stay afloat himself.
Tom Jensen, a young hippie devoted more to surfing than to working, is improbably caught in the middle, drawn to fight back against the unseen forces driving the global disaster. Joining his FBI agent uncle and others working to uncover the terrorist plot, he gets an international adventure he never saw coming.
Enemy at the Helm is the provocative and engaging first installment of a new thriller series full of terrorist activity, conspiracies, and the military operations and other, less-expected efforts to stop them. This fast-paced story will keep you turning the pages and leave you eagerly anticipating the next episode in the series.
Enemy at the Helm
Enemy at the Helm is a geopolitical techno-thriller with a strong military and law-enforcement spine. It kicks off with coordinated April 15 attacks that sink or cripple ships in major U.S. harbors and effectively jam the country’s maritime supply lines, pushing the government into crisis-mode while investigators scramble to figure out whether this was domestic, foreign, or both. From there, the story fans out into a fast-moving hunt across agencies and borders, following people like FBI agent Sam Jensen and NYPD investigator Chuck Haggard as the case keeps widening, getting uglier, and feeling less like a single plot and more like a whole machine.
I really liked how the book leans into the nuts and bolts. The meetings, the handoffs, the “here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t,” the way one small clue can become the thread everybody yanks on. Author Mark Dickson clearly likes the procedural side, and when it works, it really works. You can feel the gears turning. The downside is that sometimes the story pauses to explain the gears while they’re turning. Still, in this genre, that grounded detail is part of the appeal. It made the threat feel tangible.
I also appreciated the author’s choice to keep widening the lens. The book moves through multiple points of view, and that creates a kind of controlled overwhelm that matches the scenario. One minute you’re with people trying to solve the puzzle, the next you’re watching the fallout hit families in relatable ways. When the action tightens, it can get surprisingly vivid, like the late chase and capture where Tom ends up literally grabbing the bad guy in the mud and the dark. And then, right after, the story slows down in a hospital room with monitors beeping and a teammate on a ventilator, which hit me harder than I expected. That contrast felt earned. Not poetic. Just real.
By the end, the book lands where a good thriller should: you get payoff, but you also get the sense that this problem is bigger than one arrest. The capture leads into a clear “next phase,” with leadership pushing the main characters toward a longer fight, not a neat bow. I’d recommend Enemy at the Helm most to readers who like fast stakes, modern security fears, and procedural realism. If you enjoy military thrillers, agency-and-operations stories, and the kind of techno-thriller that makes you glance at a port and think, “Yeah… that’s a soft spot,” you’ll probably tear through this one.
Pages: 220 | ISBN : 978-1632997319
Change Is Inevitable
A Real Collusion follows a mid-level ad guy who looks back on his best friend’s wild rise and fall as a grassroots political candidate that took on America’s two-party system. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve been frustrated and angry about the US government’s dysfunction and the broken two-party system for a long time. Leading into the 2000 election, I consulted with the Committee For A Unified Independent Party on their fundraising and also wrote a song called “Bush And Gore Suck.” My band, Channeling Owen, played at a rally in NY for John Haglin, a third-party Presidential candidate. Somewhere along the way, I guess I started wondering what it might take for a third-party candidate to really get traction, and it occurred to me that it might need to be a mistake or an accident…..
The novel suggests that systemic change is incredibly difficult. How did you balance storytelling with the book’s more exposé-like elements?
That’s kind of my thing. I get excited about fighting injustice, and if there’s any truth to the pen being mightier than the sword, perhaps it can make a difference. In my previous book, The Organ Broker, I painstakingly explained how the organ donation system in the US is broken, what I believe caused it, and what I think the remedies could be. Rather than provide an academic paper on that (although I did write a magazine article for Everyday Health), I explained it through the eyes and experiences of a character named New York Jack. In A Real Collusion, I have tried to explain and dissect the dysfunction in our government through the eyes and experiences of two regular guys who almost take down the system.
How did your background influence the authenticity of the media and political scenes?
In 2005, I launched a natural soda brand, which I ran as CEO for six years. I also briefly ran a social-mobile technology company, and learned a bit about marketing and, in particular, digital marketing. I suppose that informed the scenes at the marketing agency but frankly, in my mind I think I imagined the look of it to be akin to the boardrooms I worked in when I first started my career on Wall St. The political scenes—as well as the discussion, policy statements, etc.—were born out of my genuine and passionate interest in political reform and the things I learned when doing some work for an independent political organization twenty-five years ago. Shit, I’m glad you asked. I thought I had just made it all up!
Do you see A Real Collusion as a warning, a mirror, or a conversation starter?
I think it is all of those things. I actually love what your Editor and Reviewer said about the book, making him feel, “Sad, angry, but also weirdly hopeful.” That is exactly how I feel. Like so many Americans, I feel angry about the broken system, the way politicians are self-serving and also choose party over country. I feel sad, and even exhausted, when it seems to never change. Yet, I do think that not only can things change, but that change is inevitable. The problem with change, or long-term evolution, is that it sometimes moves too slowly to be seen easily, or to benefit an individual within his or her own lifetime. I try to think about the timeline being humanity’s, and not my personal one of 80 or 90 years, and I continue to hope that things will get better and we will end up with a system of true and free democracy, with a government whose genuine goal is to serve the interests of the collective citizenry.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | TikTok | Instagram | Amazon
From the author of the bestselling novel, The Organ Broker, (hailed by Lee Child, New York Times # 1 bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series as, “Exciting and thought-provoking–the perfect package”) comes, A Real Collusion, a stunning political thriller and expose.
A Real Collusion is a David Vs. Goliath(s) story about a man who accidentally becomes the leader of an independent political movement that nearly takes down the two-party system in America, while exposing a conspiracy that affects the results of the 2016 election. It explores universal and deeply human themes of loss, and the tension between justice and power. In the opening sentence the narrator points out that, “Ordinary people often do extraordinary things.” The characters in the book do, and the action is driven by the fantastic events of a unique political satire. It is also the heartfelt story of regular people struggling with lost love, alienation and nearly universal disaffection who find strength in enduring loyalty and friendship
This is the story of John Campbell (a regular guy from the lower east side of Manhattan) as recounted by his friend Skip Winters. Skip becomes John’s campaign manager and later, a congressman in his own right. He narrates the stunning-but-plausible story of how John Campbell and The American Coalition race to popularity, raising over a hundred million dollars from grassroots contributors—and become a threat to the political duopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties. The book sprinkles in references to real events from recent history, and real political leaders including Trump, John McCain, and more. This imbues the novel with a sense of realism, albeit one of an alternate reality. Skip discovers a deep-seated conspiracy within our political system whose leaders orchestrate a murder, destroy his friend and tip the scales of the election. The novel turns out to be Skip’s exposé of the secret collaboration between the two major political parties in our country—a cooperation to protect the duopoly that is, in part, real.
