Brendan Carroll
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Brendan Carroll spent his first fourteen years running free through the deep woods of the East Texas Pine Forests. During the early part of his life, he had the great fortune to live next door to his grandparents on a small family subsistence farm where he learned about nature, farming and story-telling from his grandfather. Throughout his childhood and early schooling, his first love was reading and after he learned to write, he found a new love... writing. Growing up in the late fifties and sixties, he watched the rock and roll and sexual revolution unfold all around him with a sense of something profoundly precious being thrown down by the onslaught of progress and plastic.
After high school, Brendan joined the Navy to see the world; unfortunately, the world he saw was confined to the Southeastern United States and his short but interesting military career carried him no further than Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. But his limitless curiosity about everything and anything took him straight from the Navy into college where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in teaching, graduating with honors, hoping to make a secure place for himself in Middle Class America. This dream did not play out as expected when he found himself employed as a Middle School Science teacher in a very small Texas town. Of his 140 or so students, he found only three actually interested in learning anything other than how to annoy each other, the faculty and still play football on Friday night in spite of failing grades. The former, they excelled in and the latter, they accomplished by convincing their parents that their failing grade was a completely the fault of the teacher. |
The Red Cross of Gold I: The Knight of Death
Epic Fantasy
Mark Ramsay, Chevalier du Morte, poor Knight of Solomon's Temple is getting on in age. After eight centuries, he still wishes for a simple life in the Scottish lowlands, but his latest assignment as Assassin for the Order of the Red Cross of Gold is not going to be simple. Quite the contrary. Traveling to America in search of a defector, Sir Ramsay runs afoul of Cecile Valentino, a woman hellbent on extracting the secret of immortality from the Order. The trouble is, the Knights of the ruling council are only semi-immortal, which means that they can be killed, at least temporarily, and then, like vampires arising from the grave, they return to the living world… normally in very foul moods. This unusual and normally advantageous talent works well for Cecile, but not so much for Mark as she uses it against him while trying to learn his secrets. Unfortunately, a temporary loss of memory also works against him long enough to cause even more trouble when he falls in love with one of his captors. Thereby committing cardinal sins and bringing on the wrath of his own Order. Sir Ramsay's fall from grace and Cecile's meddling sets in motion a series of events that stretches far into the future, even unto Armageddon and the coming of the New Age. |
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The Red Cross of Gold II: The King of Terrors
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Epic Fantasy
Mark Ramsay returns to America bent on marrying the girl he left behind, but things are not well on the home front. Two members of his ancient Order set themselves on a dangerous course to stop him at all costs, believing that the marriage will cause the dissolution of the Order. He puts his own life on the line when his beloved Brother weighs in on the competition for her hand. If the Knight of Death, alchemist/assassin, thought he had enough trouble in Texas the first time he went, he was terribly mistaken. Returning to Texas seven years later in an attempt to rekindle his relationship with Miss Meredith Sinclair, Mark Ramsay finds himself kidnapped, killed, black-mailed and then utterly betrayed when he only wanted to make a simple proposal. His prayer of a simple life will be shattered once and for all it seems. |
Tempo Rubato ~ Stolen Time
SciFi/Romance
Imagine the virtually unlimited resources of a private company rivaling Microsoft Corporation. Now add to that Albert Einstein's genius coupled with all the technology available in 1995. Now imagine the possibilities... quantum physics? Space engineering, Advanced weaponry? Time travel? Take your pick, anything is possible! Maria Elisse Mannheim is a professor of Musicology at a university in Vienna, specializing in the study of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his works, particularly his original manuscripts of which numerous forgeries abound. Derek Boswell is a New York City detective investigating the murder of a student under very unusual circumstances. The only clue he has to go on is a letter found in the victim's possession that could have been written by the murderer. Unfortunately, the letter is signed W.A. Mozart. Boswell contacts Miss Mannheim in an attempt to track down any known forgers that might also be worthy of investigation for possible charges in the student's death. As an authority on Mozart, she feels compelled to leave her job and travel to the United States for a first hand look at this particular forger. Elisse's investigation takes her to West Texas, where the victim formerly worked for a mysterious corporation before her death. The further Elisse digs into the company's business, the more apparent it becomes that not everything is quite as it seems and she suddenly finds her own life in peril. |
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The Hounds of Oblivion
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Horror
Constable Dillon has no idea why someone wanted to cook Myra's head in the dryer at the local laundry establishment, or why they didn't go ahead and throw in her arms and legs, rather than scattering them around the laundry? Clint Evans has no idea why he and his fiance are fascinated to the point of obsession with an old, mismatched suit of ancient armor found in an abandoned storage unit. When a string of ghastly murders strikes his small, East Texas town, he becomes the focus of an investigation wherein he even begins to suspect himself. Clint's friend, Constable Dillon, is determined to solve the macabre mystery by tapping into the mystical side of his Native American heritage before the FBI arrests him. Subsequently, both Clint and Dillon, along with their respective love interests, become embroiled in something wilder than any campfire tale ever told under the face of a full moon. |
Quadrille ~ A Dance for Four People
Historic Romance
Christian David Hunt, the illegitimate son of the Late Squire Hunt, is on his own in London in the mid-1750's, trying to make a go of life on the pitiful allowance his half-sister and brother-in-law allow him while his case sits in the courts waiting for a hearing. Even though his father raised him to be the next Squire of Huntington Downs, his brother-in-law has other plans for the estate. With only his bumbling man-servant, Thomas Boone Partridge, to help him, he cannot avoid getting into trouble right quickly in the city. His wandering eye for the ladies and his inability to budget his money lands him in the sticky web of a wealthy married woman who happens to be the wife of a baronet. Forced into her company by his desperate need of money enough to wait out the court's decision concerning his heredity, his situation becomes extremely complicated in short order. He inadvertently causes the death of a young man enamored of his landlady's daughter who has, unfortunately, set her cap on marrying David Hunt. Meanwhile back at the Hunt estate in the country, his neighbor and late father's best friend, Squire Summerlin forbids his daughter, Lydia, with whom David is madly in love from seeing him and sends her off to France. By the time Lydia can escape back to London where her beloved waits for her, he is embroiled in a juicily public affair with Lady Hornsworthy. Not only is his reputation completely ruined by his association with the 'good' Lady, the dead man's older brother has come to town seeking revenge with a mind to make David Hunt suffer as much as possible. Lady Hornsworthy arranges a fine marriage for the heartbroken Lydia with her father's consent to her well-heeled cousin, the portly, middle-aged Lord Barrington. Enter Lady Hornsworthy's beautiful, but precocious young niece, Lucinda who seems bent upon tormenting David to death while he tries desperately to stay alive long enough to straighten out his life. Lucinda, however, has a surprising motive for her puzzling behavior. The story has many twists and turns, humor, misadventures, and frustrating situations begging for resolution. It is written in honor of the English writer, Henry Fielding, author of the eighteenth century bawdy comedic novel "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" and as such is both a Bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) and a Picaresque novel (comedic romance). The themes are adult romance, but are rather more suggestive than erotic and suitable for YA readers. |
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The Knights of Christ I:. The Journey Begins
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Epic Fantasy
Christopher Stewart and Armand de Bleu are students in the most exclusive all-male school in the world. They are also serving as apprentices to two of the members of the Ruling Council of Twelve for the Order of the Red Cross of Gold. Christopher is completely devoted to his Master, Sir Ramsay, whereas Armand is much more loyal to the Order than his Master, Sir Argonne, who is cruel and heartless, but both apprentices are devoted to each other as friends and Brothers of the Order. Their world is turned up-side down when Christopher’s Master is sent to the United States on an assassins mission that goes wildly astray. When Christopher learns that his Master’s life is in danger, he enlists Armand to help him go AWOL to help Sir Ramsay. While this is happening, some of the other students are getting into trouble with one of the less scrupulous, older apprentices who has an agenda not quite in line with the Order’s traditions and expectations. Their boyish antics land them in a world of trouble, which could result in serious repercussions for all. Armand and Christopher are soon found in violation of the Rules of Order, and both are punished, but sometimes punishment is a true learning experience. Niether of them will ever be the same. |
