[ORIGINAL DRAFT SAMPLE] She is twenty-nine when the FBI comes for her, but Catherine Themis was only seventeen, grieving and naive and angry, the first time she wiped someone else's blood from her fingers and felt the snake rise in her chest. She was seventeen when she stepped into the dark and never looked back. ***** By day, Catherine Themis is an unassuming civilian administrator for the Dedwich Police Department, but by night, she is a notorious vigilante known as The Hangman. Struggling with her violent urges and the psychological cost of her actions, Catherine becomes the target of an obsessive serial killer and a relentless FBI agent, and as the hunt for the Hangman intensifies, Catherine must decide which life she wishes to live and what she values more: vengeance or her fading humanity? A psychological thriller in the vein of MINDHUNTER and HANNIBAL, SERPENT HEART is a deep-dive into the life and history of a conflicted vigilante forced to confront her inner demons and evade a national manhunt. Catherine questions the efficacy of her own convictions as the FBI closes in and a vindictive murderer puts her family, love, and identity in jeopardy. With everything on the line and time running out, who will Catherine Themis become? --- [[AVAILABLE ON AMAZON]] [[REMOVED 24 DEC 2021]] [[2019 Watty Winner - Mystery & Thriller]]

[ORIGINAL DRAFT SAMPLE] Given a new chance at life, Sara Gaspard returns to Verweald and must decide how the Sin of Pride fits in with her daily routine. Before they have a chance to settle, a strange box arrives at Sara's doorstep and tears them from the Terrestrian realm. The box throws both mortal and Sin into a world - and conflict - neither has ever seen before. Dragon blood is spilled. A king rises from exile and ignites a war. Magic enthralls, fire lights the night, and kingdoms balance upon the edge of destruction. Sara and Darius' search for a way home becomes far more perilous than expected. The Sundered Vale awaits. __________________________ Sequel to Bereft: Foretold

Darius escaped Envy's reckoning with his life, but lost much in the process. Mortal and vulnerable, he seeks a new reason for his continued existence, and may have found it lurking below the mage city of Itheria. The Sins and their immutable control are broken. The streets are bloodied by Wrath's wayward children. Magic clashes. A winged harridan descends. The King Below threatens Terrestria with destruction. Darius's quest to find redemption will lead him into the void itself, where the former Sin of Pride will be forced to decide just what he is willing to sacrifice for a world he has long ignored and the blue-eyed woman he failed to save. __________________________ Sequel to Bereft: Demise. [ORIGINAL DRAFT ONLY]

Sara and Pride escaped Verweald's dangerous streets, but their quest to kill the Sin of Envy has just begun. In search of a way to end the immortal creature's life, Pride and the dying woman find refuge in the manor of Crow's End, where the residents harbor deadly, secretive histories, and the walls breathe with the memories of a madman as old as time. As their time draws short, Pride must manage an impossible feat no other Sin has accomplished before while Sara tries to survive the madness of Crow's End and come to grips with her own limited mortality. ---------------------------------- [[SEQUEL TO BEREFT]] [[ORIGINAL DRAFT]] [[ Highest Rank: #3 in Fantasy ]] [[Winner of the 2017 Fiction Awards (Best Fantasy Story)]] [[Winner of the 2017 Cryptic Awards (Best Dark Fantasy)]]

Sara Gaspard swore she'd do anything to find those responsible for her sister's death, but teaming up with the Sin of Pride is more than she bargained for. ***** Desperate and dying, Sara Gaspard promises her soul to the Sin of Pride if he'll find the madmen responsible for ruining her life, but they soon discover her wish is more complicated than expected. Together, Sara and Pride delve into a twisted world of insidious plots, occult fanaticism, and paranormal disaster as they search for answers and struggle to survive. As the danger in the city of Verweald rises, Sara and Pride must find the cult before the newest threat haunting the city's bloody streets claims them both. [[Book 1, the Bereft Series]] [[Writer's Debut Watty Award Winner]] [[Readers Choice Award]] [[Original Draft]]