A complete fantasy book. Technically ... a weird western. Gunslingers, hex witches, dogmen, minotaur, trains that run further than you can imagine ... Mikeos Jones is a gunslinger, faster than thinking, part of the gunlaw, a man who can seldom afford the luxury of looking past the end of any given day. Jenna Crossard is a hex-witch, but her ambitions are larger than spells and charms - the need to understand the world consumes her. They say the gunlaw keeps men safe from the endless horror of the sect, but to Jenna it's a cage and she wants out. If that means breaking open the world and killing a few gods ... so be it.

Canúden and Lianna return to Gallel to face a life of loss, as Lianna prepares for her wedding with Kel Emick. Minara seeks the Ball of Lights, which she needs to bring Tavaris from the void to the earth. She will do anything to anyone in order to find it. She will also do anything to prevent Lianna from wedding Emick.

The difference between writing fiction and writing poetry is simple. Fiction is created, but poetry is found. Now I am no poet, but this book is a book of spiritual thoughts, some in the form of poetry, some in writen creatively, but all of it is dedicated to God. Hope you enjoy it.

A baby? On a battlefield? Marcus is a clerk in the Imperial army. When he finds an abandoned baby on a battlefield, he has no idea what to do with her. His best friend is no help; he thinks Marcus is a sucker for taking the kid in. The slave who ends up babysitting the child is no better; she thinks Marcus has ulterior motives - bad ones. Not only that, but two mysterious female assassins appear on the scene. Whether they intend to harm the baby or protect her, Marcus isn't sure. It doesn't help that the assassins have magical cloaks that allow them to turn into birds at any time. Marcus and his friends soon find themselves caught up in things they doesn't understand: the child has some connection to an ancient prophecy, one that could have implications for fate of the Empire itself.

************************************************************************************** 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.

Lauren heads to Louisiana to attend to her grandmother's 'estate' ... she had never met her and in fact, none of her relatives had even known she had still been alive all of those years ... as Lauren unravels her grandmother's past, she begins to understand her own life ...

Aurelia, a Noble Roman woman, had heard of the savage British tribes, their mystic Celtic ways, and the battles the Roman army was fighting against them on their shores. The battles her soon-to-be Husband, Quintus Acquilla, was fighting in the name of the Eagle. But she could not have predicted that, when she crossed the ocean to be with him and fulfil the marriage contract between their families, she would be captured by a Barbarian War Lord and made to be his War Prize...

** Go and read Books I and II first, please! ^_^ ** They are presented as a combined book, back over in my profile page. Book III provides some needed background to the Nephilim. It also ties things up nicely for the three friends. A book of endings. It is presented in 3 parts. I hope you guys like it. Thank you all so much again! :-)

This book is FOURTH in a series + a FIRST DRAFT. It may not make sense without having read the rest of the series. This is being posted as part of the First Draft Fridays run by Carradee, a.k.a. Misti Wolanski. Thus, this version is rough and may or may not bear significant differences from the final version that ends up published. --- DRAFT BLURB: Tully "Tuelzi" Brylee has spent decades in the shadows, first doing her father's bidding, then later doing her own after obeying her father resulted in the deaths of the few people she dared hold dear. Those responsible are powerful and untouchable without careful maneuvering, which has taken her decades to prepare. Now one of her targets has assassinated her high king, giving her the perfect opportunity to strike... Except she's fallen in love with the assassin's brother-in-law. Between that and a few hours of weakness, she might've undone plans years in the making. She wants justice, not vengeance, and that might now be impossible. She won't give up, because to give up is to surrender to her desire to die. But she might just have to break her heart again to succeed. --- Book one, "A Fistful of Fire", and book two, "A Fistful of Earth", are both available here on Wattpad. They are also are available for sale. Book three, "A Fistful of Water", is available here on Wattpad in first draft form, and the final version is in the middle of being posted.

(TimeFront: Book 2) On a cool evening in late October, William Anderson leaves a small apartment with thoughts of his 10th wedding anniversary. As he crosses the street, a car strikes him, sending his body flying into a storefront window. He dies to the symphony of nearby church bells. Moments later, William opens his eyes to a sunny bedroom in a life that is not his own. His wife is a stranger. He has a daughter, though has never been a father. The only person who seems to know anything is his best friend, David, but even he is not who he seems.