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A Cinematographer's Conscience

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This novelette is a prequel to THE HOLOVID HERO. 

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When Galactic Entertainment sends Ian MacIntyre (“Mac”) and his wife, Rose, to record a documentary on Mugsing III, a rural planet at the edge of the galaxy, Mac worries about its dangerous political climate. The planet is ruled by the Mugsing Agricultural Company (“MACO”), a ruthless corporation that oppresses native workers. 

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Their specific assignment: record war footage between MACO and a growing rebellion and get an interview with an insurgency leader. The job goes sideways when the revolutionaries take Mac and Rose prisoner, thinking they are MACO spies. During transport to a rebel base, MACO ambushes the vehicle. When a rebel is wounded during the attack, Mac weighs a decision that may end his marriage. 

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THE CINEMATOGRAPHER'S CONSCIENCE won a gold medal for unpublished novelette in the 2023 Royal Palm Literary Awards sponsored by the Florida Writers Association.

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https://dl.bookfunnel.com/jjvr2sfarv

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The Holovid Hero 

 

Is it true that every person is a hero not yet realized? Or do they only exist in holograms?

 

Cinematographer Ian “Mac” MacIntyre needs to revive a sinking career. His new job involves directing and recording a reality show, The Adventures of Captain Charisma. The episodes will portray his actor’s exploits as he visits the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

 

When the producer sends Captain Charisma to smash a dangerous alien bug aboard a space station and milk the ratings, Mac sweats over his own safety and his actor’s peril. As a paunchy, balding guy approaching middle age, Mac isn’t built for heroics. However, the producer insists on exciting footage.

 

The show’s rating success is thrown into question when Mac’s ex-wife, Rose, appears as a director for a rival show. Despite power failing on the damaged station, Mac must put his actor (and himself) into the monster’s path to create unforgettable scenes and to prove he is a better director than Rose. A wrong step and he might lose a ratings war and his reality show. Worse, he and his actor could end up as bug food.

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THE HOLOVID HERO is a humorous science fiction story of 106,000 words. I like to think of it as a mashup  between "Tropic Thunder" and "Aliens." It won second place in the category of unpublished science fiction novels at the 2018 Royal Palm Literary Awards sponsored by the Florida Writers Association.

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​https://dl.bookfunnel.com/jjvr2sfarv

 

 

The Bootlegger Broadcast

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Cinematographer Ian “Mac” MacIntyre and his holovid actors are broke and desperate. They need an exciting backdrop for their new holo-adventure, Green Charisma. 

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When a mysterious message offers employment off planet, Mac and his actors take the job. Specifically, a charity group needs smugglers to deliver medicine to the tortoise-like Clodhopper people. However, getting the medicine to the Clodhopper planet means avoiding three obstacles: local authorities who would arrest them for transporting illegal drugs, bloodthirsty pirates intent on stealing their cargo, and persecution by the hare-like Polavians that occupy Clodhopper as a foreign force. 

Mac’s plans for the perfect bootlegger broadcast go awry when they are caught during their smuggling operation. If Mac doesn’t come up with a new plan fast, the Clodhoppers are going to succumb to disease, and he and his actors are going to die in prison.

 

THE BOOTLEGGER BROADCAST is the sequel to THE HOLOVID HERO. It is approximately 100,000 words. It won the gold medal in the category of unpublished science fiction novels at the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Awards sponsored by the Florida Writers Association. 

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The Reality Rescue

 

The Green Charisma reality adventure series has enjoyed ratings success. To raise a larger audience, Ian “Mac” MacIntyre and his actors attend a fan convention.

 

When the Chromium Confederation, a group of fanatical robots, attacks the convention, they take a child and her robot chaperone hostage. As fate would have it, that kid happens to be the niece of one of the show’s actors. The Green Charisma crew gives chase, back to the captors’ lair on a foreign moon. After a setback, Mac and his actors learn that kidnapping the kid’s robot chaperone is tied into plans for a military conquest of a neighboring planet.

 

Rescuing the hostages means Mac must put himself and his actors into the middle of a war zone. Navigating battlefields will test all of Mac’s skills as a leader. A mistake will kill Mac, his actors, and the hostages.

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THE REALITY RESCUE is a sequel to THE BOOTLEGGER BROADCAST.

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All three books in the GREEN CHARISMA series and the prequel will be available sometime during the summer of 2024. 

 

 

Less than Honorable - 300,000 words on a dusty shelf

 

When guilt bends his mind and causes the Skill to surface, Truman suddenly finds himself thrust into a new world training to become a practitioner – the newest member of the First Division’s Special Operations Unit known as “The Freak Squad.” Both revered and feared, the Freak Squad carries out the orders of the ambitious commander of the First Division. And now Truman finds himself embroiled in his commander's plots and schemes to influence the politics of the Town of Fifty Horns, where magician guilds -- the Kinetics and Telepaths -- maintain a stranglehold on power.

 

LESS THAN HONORABLE is an epic gunpowder fantasy.  It is still a work in progress as I transform it from one large work into three separate novels.