(The Deal was optioned by TNT!) The mysterious Lee Cutter and his Carnival of Wonders hold a secret darker than any of the citizens of 1930's Junction City, Kansas can imagine. When Mr. Cutter shows up to town early one morning promising an end to the dust storms that have decimated the town's crops and stricken many of the children with the brown plague, young Matthew Porter is spellbound. His little brother Luke is deathly ill from breathing the dust-laden air. Plus, it would be amazing to hear the sound of the rain on his tin roof again. But at what cost? In this chilling short story about sacrifice and the cost of happiness, Matthew will come face to face with the terrifying secret Mr. Cutter's Carnival holds and learn the heart-wrenching truth about what it means to make a deal with the Devil. Excerpt: The man leaned down and fetched a matchbook out of the black boot that rested on the bench. There was no dust there, either - not even on the bottom. He stood up and brought one of the matches to the tip of the cigar. I never saw him strike it, but it fired just the same. He held it to the cigar and puffed on it several times until the end looked like the inside of a coal stove. "Lot of 'em 'round here?" he asked again, shaking the match and exhaling the thick smoke into the air above my head. "Yes, sir. All over. They eat what's left of the crops, even the roots. My pa says that's the real plague." "Does he now?" The man looked amused. "He says we won't ne'er grow a crop again until God sees fit. No rain either." He turned his head and scanned the street like he was looking for someone. "You ever see God here in Junction City?" I looked up at him, squinting, but didn't know how to answer. I'd never seen God anywhere. "My name's Lee," he said, holding out his hand. "Lee Cutter. What's yours?"

2016 WATTY AWARD WINNER - HQ LOVE THE TERM SHEET is a fast-paced technothriller about entrepreneurship, startups, encryption, and the delicate balance between national security and individual privacy. Its complex characters explore thought-provoking questions about the role of technology in an ever-changing society. Step into the high-stakes game played by today's technology innovators, who push the envelope and risk it all. Get ready, this thrilling book gives you a taste of what startups are really like. _____________________________________________________ David Alexander, a young programmer in Portland, Oregon, loathed his job. Computer programming had always come naturally, but being an employee never suited him. So he tried entrepreneurship instead. After making a series of embarrassing blunders, David finally hit on a startup idea that stuck: encrypted chat. Sure there were alternatives, but as Edward Snowden has shown us, most of them (willingly or unwillingly) have backdoors for spies and bad guys. A new approach made David's app one of the most secure options out there, which caught the attention of many people, including Shawn Douglas from the Secret Service. Shawn Douglas worked with eight different presidents, preventing twenty assassination attempts, forty-three terrorist plots and two bullets. When he was promoted to a desk job overseeing and organizing travel, he picked up on a cryptic email thread that hinted at a threat to the President's life. In a race to unravel the conspiracy, Shawn and David both have to make some difficult decisions. Will Shawn stop the terrorists in time? Will David be able to navigate his startup out of a crisis and keep his entrepreneurial dream alive? Or will fate deal them both a crushing hand? Read the book to find out.

A 22 year old psychopath draws us into a world of chaos, cynicism and callous murder. When you believe that your actions are insignificant in regards to the universe, there's nothing stopping you from taking whatever you want. The line between genius and insane is very thin, but only you can judge which side this narcissistic narrator speaks from.

****NOTE: This novel is completed ... Enjoy!***** Working as a journalist at a small weekly paper in rural Idaho, Cal Murphy begins losing his big city dreams of writing for a metro paper before his passion is reignited after three high school star athletes are found dead in a 24-hour period. As he and fellow photographer Kelly Mendoza attempt to make sense of bizarre circumstances that led to the teens' deaths, Cal makes a chilling discovery, uncovering a vast conspiracy that grows darker with every twist and turn. With a mastermind determined to silence Cal and Kelly for good, the young reporters ultimately must decide if their lives are worth the risk to reveal the truth.