Meet Joe Nobody . . . and pray he never meets you. He's average height, with an average build, and average looks - an instantly forgettable face in the crowd. Joe also happens to be a hit man, quite possibly one of the best in the world. He's so good, in fact, that most of his work life has settled into a comfortable routine, where everything goes according to plan, and nothing at all is surprising anymore. He's been just about everywhere, and he's seen it all. But Joe hasn't seen everything. Not yet . . . **WARNING** - This work contains several curse words and some extremely violent themes and situations throughout. I mean, the main character is a hit man . . . there's your first sign. You've been warned. **ADDITIONAL WARNING** - This is soooooooo first-draft-ish, so any problems you see logistically, thematically, or grammatically are all the fault of a combination of absinthe and overzealous fingers. And please, for god's sake, if you see something glaringly wrong, tell me about it! :)

"His mother's screams remained etched in his mind. He promised himself that night he would never again stand by as people he cared for suffered, and he would one day kill Volcseck. He intended to keep those promises." Falcon Hyatt has a problem. For reasons unknown to him he can wield all the elements, not only basics like fire and water, but also those more advanced, like space and poison. And now the chaos element, the same one his parents' killer Shal-Volcseck wields, has awakened within him, with catastrophic results. To complicate matters, the Suteckh Empire has declared war on the capital cities of Va'siel. Now he must venture out into the world with his friends Lao, Faith, and Aya on a mission to stop the Suteckh from taking over Va'siel, and find his parents killer, as all the while he struggles to suppress his newfound abilities. In his quest Falcon is forced to question what he's really fighting for, where his loyalties lie, and his own character. Is he truly a good person, or an even more dangerous menace than the dreaded Shal-Volcseck? Element Wielder is the story of faith, love, and a young man's struggle to continue on his quest, when surrendering to his emotions and giving up is so much easier.

Lord of the Rings meets Knights of the Roundtable in this epic new saga from bestselling author Matthew Wolf. When legends come to life the world trembles from a single name. Ronin. Once-heroes from a different age, they wield elemental powers... wind, water, fire, stone, forest, sun, moon, flesh, and metal. At the same time, a young man discovers his best friend with a sword in her stomach, and dark wings sprouting from her back. Guards rush onto the scene, accuse him of the act, and he is forced to flee. In a new world without his memories, Gray must find his way amid legends and darkness, as he wrestles with an elemental power inside himself. A power all too similar to the infamous Ronin...

Lavander knows she's not normal; she can move things with her mind, she can make a pencil her weapon, she can even turn a person inside out if they tempt her, but in spite all of that, she still manages to live a normal life until a day changed her life. Two men on tuxedos found her and tried to kill her, she manages to escape but she knows there are more out there. At 18, she is given a task, a task to bring the Purple Children together; a group of ten extraordinary teens who are the sons and daughters of the elder knights and bring them back to their mother planet. It might be simple but a prophecy is foretold, five of the Purple Children will die and the other five will return home to rule their planet. Every second reeks of danger. Can she ever be safe? [Book 2 (Coated with Valour) now on progress)]

In the year 2600, the world faces constant threats of invasion from supernatural groups of werewolves, vampires and mermen. Nations build cities within fortified walls in their desperate effort to save the human race from extinction. But after reaching near collapse, the governments finally arrive at an ultimate solution: build an army of teenagers bionically enhanced with the power and abilities of their enemies. Every year, the Council of Nations picks 100 young people from the list of able-bodied prospects submitted by all member nations. Called "Randoms", these teenagers, who are taken deliberately from their families, are put into vigorous trainings to determine the supernatural group they're going to be part of. They are then placed under a transitional stage where they undergo genetic recoding, a process which might be fatal for most of them. Those who survive, undergo the last phase of their training and are sent straight to the battles to fight.

The young emperor Vengelis Epsilon narrowly escapes the reckoning of his empire at the hands of strange machines known as Felixes. The Felixes are identical in every respect to the godlike men of Vengelis's world save for their mechanical blue eyes. Feared to be indestructible, the wanton holocaust of the Felix appears inescapable. His family murdered and his empire maimed under a shadow of destruction, Vengelis pursues the pained final words of his dying mentor, and sets course for a remote and unchartered world-our world. You can read Anthem's Fall in full at http://amzn.com/B00M7NPD28 for only .99 cents for a limited time.

Perses Phillip Alexander has always known there was something different about him. Setting aside his family’s nomadic way of life and unclear stories of their past, the only thing he has had to fear most in his life was himself. Along with haunting dreams which provide him key's to a destination "out of this world" comes a hallow sense that something inside of him is missing and has been since the day he was born. Secrets revealed and the world placed onto his shoulders, the once, semi-normal boy realizes that he has been the key to the adventure he has sought since he was a boy and that no one is who they seem. A continuation of The P. P. A. Project to, Perses sets out to find his sister, save the world and battle a darkness far worse than he or his family could have ever imagined.

Hey readers! Do you think that your school, college, or job is the worst place in the world? Well, think again! Here's your wake-up call. Welcome to P.H.O.B.I.A.S., a "home" for children that surpass human normalcy. Gen M1, one of the oldest "students" in the program will show you the life of a paranormal. Follow her as she faces the many challenges of being a teenager, paranormal, and a prisoner.

Arcturus is just an orphaned stableboy, when he discovers he has the ability to summon demons from another world. As the first commoner to have this skill, he is sent to Vocans Military Academy, where the lost arts of summoning, spellcraft and demonology are taught to the noble children of the Hominum Empire. With no one but his demon Sacharissa to help him, Arcturus must survive the gruelling challenges of the Academy, whilst navigating the political fallout that his discovery set in motion. ************************************************************************************ This is the first part of THE OUTCAST, prequel to THE NOVICE, but you don't need to read them in any particular order. You can buy THE NOVICE now in all good bookstores and online, including Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo and Nook. THE OUTCAST will be available in the same places in May, 2018.

************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.