ABOUT THE BOOK: Blood and Stone (Stone Soldiers #3)

About the Book is a new feature on Stone Soldiers where the author shares some background, easter eggs and other hopefully interesting information about the book...

BLOOD AND STONE (Stone Soldiers #3)

The shapeshifting giant Tezcahtlip is free in the modern world, eating the hearts of victims to steal their form, their memories and their power. 

After losing his brother in a battle with the American military, the giant flees to Mexico, taking up residence in the Yucatan where he poses as the Mayan god Kukulcan in an effort to gather followers and sacrifices. 

The men and women of Detachment 1039 will need help from an unlikely source before they head south to combat the monster. But can a vampire imprisoned at Alcatraz really be a help, or a hindrance?

This was it, the one where I hit my stride and figured out how I wanted the series to go. And it was the first appearance of what has become my favorite character--Laura Olson, the saucy vampire who I fear my subconscious based on Alex Kingston's amazing portrayal on the BBC's River Song. 

Interestingly, back when I first wrote Mythical as a screenplay, I had wanted to do a story about Super Vampires vs Super Soldiers. I switched to Super shapeshifters instead, feeling there was too much sparkling undead magic on the market. But by November 2012, I was unleashing my own version of the undead, and going for a very Heroes-like villain: A heart-eating shapeshifter intent on becoming godlike by stealing the powers of as many parahumans as possible.

As planning went on, I knew I needed to add some more characters. I had only three stone soldiers at that point: Jimmy, Victor and the resurrected Alpha Stone Soldier, Daniel Smith. Instead of another recruit, I decided to go back to my original idea from the 1980s of an elite team of supersoldiers fighting covert battles around the world. Enter Chadwick Phillips, electrokinetic.

Blood and Stone is all about rebirth. I'm not sure I planned it that way, but it's a recurring theme... Tezcahtlip, surviving the events of Book 2 is reborn into the sum total of he and his dead brother, having consumed the frozen heart of Ketzkahtel. Realizing that America isn't a good place to start his new empire, Tezcahtlip flees south, intent on rebuilding a slave population by posing as the blood god Kukulcan. First though, he needed a pick me up.

Way back in X-Ponent, I had incorporated a super prison for the parahumans of Mark Kenslir's universe. Now that I had made the  original Stone Soldier a supernatural being, I decided that would still work, as many a ghost and vampire story claimed that neither could cross running water. An island prison sounded pretty cool. 

Enter the alternate reality universe of Mythical, where Alcatraz is a maximum security holding place for those caught practicing the black arts or using their psychic abilities for evil end up. But how do you keep such a population in check? Marvel Comics had neutralizers and mutant cures, but I needed something fresher. 

Laura Olson.

There have to be vampires in the Mythical universe. You can't have supernatural and not have the undead. So a vampire kept under lock and key, providing empathic surveillance on her brethren in exchange for life seemed pretty interesting. Throw in that she keeps the prison population in check by feeding on them... I liked it. Very Gitmo. 

And poor Mark Kenslir, who wanted nothing to do with the overly-fresh Pam Keegan is forced to reunite with his old flame, the overly-amorous, red-headed vampire M.D. Giving me a chance to this time mock the sexed-up nature of vampire fiction today. 

Of course, as the series has progressed, we've seen Laura Olson get her act together and become a bit more restrained. Possibly from having a classier source of sustenance...

BEHIND THE SCENES

Why a red head? Well, we already had a brunette (Josie) and a blonde (Pam). Why not go Charlie's Angels and throw in a redhead for good measure. Clearly the last thing Mark Kenslir wants is to have to be around three women in the field. Even if one is sort of his granddaughter, it's still got to be disconcerting for an early-20th Century soldier...

As always, the names of the deceased were rough to come by for this one. Thankfully, I know a lot of people, and enjoyed using their names for the victims of this tale. From a prison guard to a modified bomber's pilot, I put aside the phone book I normally use to randomly pick names and had some fun creating parodies of those I know. 

And remember that plot I had wanted to do before, with super-vampires? Well, it wasn't just Laura Olson I decided on. I liked the idea of Tezcahtlip being able to create his own undead Army, but eating a vampire's heart. 

Why Mexico? Many a culture has believed eating the heart of your enemy gives you their strength. But Mexico had multiple cultures that built pyramids for the slaughter of innocents. In a reap-what-you-sow kind of way, I thought it only fitting a creature who actually does steal your memories, powers and lifeforce by consuming your heart would want to head there. Originally, I had wanted to unleash Tezcahtlip on the cartels, but in the end the outline was getting too big, and I left the full gruesome details of the shapeshifter's reign of terror up to the reader's imagination. 

As a fitting end to a trilogy, Book 3 ended with Mark Kenslir's death, again, and a hint of another impending birth. That was originally so I could put this series aside and return to it much later. Alas, the ideas for more installments wouldn't stop and in 2013, I had to continue the Dark War with more Stone adventures. I guess that means leaving this trilogy open-ended was a good idea after all...

Interestingly, I hadn't planned on how to kill Tezcahtlip on this one. I was eager to start writing, and abandoned my outlining a little early. It was only sheer, dumb luck that I came up with the idea of electrocuting the would-be-deity. Had I chose for Chad Phillips to possess a different power, I'm not sure the ending would have turned out... 

I also took a few pages from The Destroyer for this one, parodying real-world celebrities and laying the groundwork for villains I could bring back years from now. 

NEXT UP: 

SHADES OF WAR (Stone Soldiers #4)

ABOUT THE BOOK: Brothers in Stone (Stone Soldiers #2)

About the Book is a new feature on Stone Soldiers where the author shares some background, easter eggs and other hopefully interesting information about the book...

BROTHERS IN STONE (Stone Soldiers #2)

Colonel Mark Kenslir, a cold warrior cursed to live forever, is rebuilding his team of stone soldiers after a campaign to stop a rampaging shapeshifter in the American southwest. But word soon arrives that someone, or something, is again on the loose, ripping out and consuming human hearts to steal the memories and forms of civilians.

Kenslir enlists the help of one brave teen and an FBI postcognitive empath to track down the new killer--only to discover there are now two prehistoric shapeshifters loose in the modern world.

Falling back to their headquarters to regroup and replenish their numbers, the Detachment soon find themselves under assault from the ravenous shapeshifters--who are intent on pillaging the military's greatest supernatural treasures.

Can a new generation of stone soldiers and a girl struggling to understand her new cryokinetic abilities turn the tide of battle, or will Colonel Kenslir die at the hands of a shapeshifter again?

Just a few short months after Mythical's debut, the story of the Stone Soldiers continued, in the form of Brothers in Stone, a story about a new generation of men turned into living stone soldiers. But of course, if you are going to resurrect one of the good guys killed in book 1, you have to bring back a bad guy, or two...

Like many of the titles in the Stone Soldiers series, Brothers in Stone follows a pattern of almost satirical similarities to more series war stories. Brothers in Arms is both the title to a popular series of war-based First-Person shoot video games and a militaryish term for the bond between soldiers who have fought together. In the case of Book 2, it served a wonderful double meaning, describing both Jimmy Kane's induction into the ranks of Stone, as well as the pre-historic villain Ketzkahtel's own brother, Tezcahtlip, who has also been bound in a stone sarcophagus for millennia. 

Where Mythical followed a theme of past meets present, Brothers is more related to "United We Stand", showing the importance of team work as teens Jimmy and Josie are joined by FBI agent Pam Keegan and her charge, Victor Hornbeck, a psychic who sees visions of the past when he touches physical objects. 

BEHIND THE SCENES

Unlike Mythical, Brothers was intended as a novel from the get-go. That meant much better story-telling, in a longer format. It also meant I got to re-tell Book 1, basically redoing my earlier work from a slightly different angle, then adding on to it. 

A fan of Lance Henricksen's amazing X-Files spin-off, Millenium, I definitely wanted to work in a postcognitive empath. I also liked the contrast... a man who relies on touch being turned to living stone, where his sense of touch would be greatly diminished. 

And instead of going the full-artner route, I liked the way NBC's Heroes did it, pairing human with parahuman. Very similar to Asimov's I Robot series with a human and android cop paired up. 

As for Agent Keegan... originally, I saw her as a rival for Josie Winters. An older version of the girl with a definite Lucy Lawless vibe going on. But the more I thought about it, I liked that idea of contrast. Afterall, Stone Soldiers is the ultimate in contrast, with good vs evil in every book. Keegan would be no different. 

Short, blonde, older, and clearly of loose morals, Pam Keegan was a James Bond-type agent who would be better off in a 1970s novel or The Destroyer series. I greatly enjoyed writing the character, laughing at my own parody of that particular kind of femme fatale. Alas, nearly a dozen books later, I question the decision. Pam isn't very family-friendly, nor does she fit in well with the overall theme of the series. As such, she's taken a very big back seat to most action, serving as a Liason with the FBI that barely appears in many of the stories. 

Victor on the other hand, wasn't so much of a contrast. He was basically an older version of Jimmy, but with powers. Of course, both young men get turned to living stone, becoming Brothers in Stone, but Victor ended up being a lot of fun to write, and I decided to keep him as a regular in the series. Having a detective who doesn't search for clues but rather sees them in visions, makes solving mysteries a lot easier. Which is great, as I prefer to write action. 

EASTER EGGS

Cryokinesis seemed like the perfect power for Josie Winters after her injection with Nephilim DNA. Unlike Drew Barrymore's Firestarter character, Josie Winters is reserved, almost cold-personality individual, and having the ability to freeze an enemy in their tracks really appealed to me. And this was before Elsa and her little sister became the next big Disney animated stars...

And of course, there were the first inklings of something inhuman in Argo Tower. An Artificial Intelligence I had planned from the start but didn't want to throw in right away...

Finally, I have to mention Medusa. If you're a follower of mythology, you know Perseus used Medusa's reflection to turn her head to stone, then cut it off. It still possessed the power to petrify, but it was stone. How then did the U.S. Military remove one eye to create the stone soldiers? Book 2 showed us, with a glimpse of the flesh-and-blood Medusa after her rebirth in the Fountain of Youth. Makes you wonder how many times that scenario has played out...

NEXT UP:

BLOOD AND STONE (Stone Soldiers #3)

ABOUT THE BOOK: Mythical (Stone Soldiers #1)

About the Book is a new feature on Stone Soldiers where the author shares some background, easter eggs and other hopefully interesting information about the book...

MYTHICAL (Stone Soldiers #1)

Colonel Mark Kenslir is the last of the Cold War supersoldiers--and he's just come back from the dead.

Sent to Arizona to hunt a heart-devouring shapeshifter, Colonel Kenslir and his team of supernatural-smashing soldiers thought it was just another mission. But instead of stopping the monster's murderous rampage, the Colonel and his team became the latest victims in a trail of carnage blazed across the Southwest.

Suffering from partial amnesia, with no weapons and no support, Kenslir must rely on two reluctant teens to help him remember his past, complete his final mission and avenge his men.

Debuting on Kindle June 5, 2012, Mythical is the one that started it all. The first in the Stone Solders series, this shortish novel was the culmination of more than twenty years of writing and submitting. 

It all started back in 1986, when I was reading The Destroyer and Doc Savage and Mack Bolan. I wanted to write Men's Adventure. Of course, I didn't think I could score a job on any of those illustrious titles, so I set out to create my own over-the-top Men's Adventure stories. Looking at what was out there, I decided that one area that hadn't been covered was superheroes. Or rather, secret agents living in a super hero world, dealing with Soviets, Psychics and Supers. 

Over the next few years, Agent Antaean (a Greek adjective for possessing super-human strength I found randomly flipping through the dictionary), a sort of synthetic-organic cyborg that was part Six Million Dollar Man, part Wolverine and part Mack Bolan had three thrilling adventures--written in long hand pencil. 

There was "Night of the Bear" a tale of Soviet espionage in America, with a wereBear and a telepath coming to America, hunting down werewolves.

There was "Shades of Gray" and "Secretly in her Majesty Service", 007-reminiscent thrillers about a secret order of druids that had been controlling England and the Colonies until the American Revolution. 

None of them were probably any good. I mean, I was a teenager and while well-read really hadn't latched on to what makes Men's Adventure or Pulp work. After several years of feeding the New York Slushpiles, I gave up and shelved my literary dreams and joined the USAF...

Being stationed overseas, I had a lot of free time, and in 1990, decided to give writing another try. I polished off my old notes and decided to go green and recycle my old character, Mark Kenslir, Agent Antaean. In "X-Ponent", the enigmatic, Terminator-like killing machine goes after an organization of American Terrorists bent on plunging the country into a race war between Homo- and Xeno-sapiens. It was perhaps a little too close to the mark on what Marvel was leading up to and despite me working on it all the way up to 1997 and self-publishing on an old Tripod page (complete with paypal tip button) it never really saw much light of day.

In 2012, I learned about Amazon Studios, and decided to give screenwriting a shot. Young Adult seemed a popular trend, so I decided to engineer a trope-filled story of superaction, and once again recycled Mark Kenslir, this time as a mysterious man who represented the old ways, opassing the torch of 20th Century adventure on to a new generation. 

Only it didn't work out that way. When I was done with the script, I realized all the changes I'd made--influenced by the CW's Supernatural--might just have a place as a novel. I learned about Kindle Direct Publishing, and voila! Mythical was born...

So what is Mythical? (Or Heart of Stone as I once called it briefly). Is it YA? Pulp? A little bit of both?

I fully intended the book to be YA when I wrote it, but clearly my Men's Adventure and Pulp roots came out. Also, and much to my surprise, the story set itself up for a sequel, thansk to a hastily-added epilogue. 

PAST MEETS PRESENT

The recurring theme of Mythical is past meets present. A past, antediluvian (pre-Flood) monster is awakened in the modern era, fighting heroes of mythical proportions. Super shapeshifter versus super soldier, with two teens caught in the middle. 

Past meets present is also in the amnesia trope I used to introduce readers to a supernatural world where monsters and magic exist, but cling to the shadows, just out of the mass public's view. All throughout the tale, Mark Kenslir must recover his memories of the past few decades of his nearly-immortal life, remembering his mission and his dead team, and exacting revenge.\

Finally, past meets present in that Mark Kenslir, is the ultimate throwback to a bygone Pulp era. An overly manly-man, with super human strength, Conan-proportions and the ability to kill nearly anything. He's Christian, quiet, reserved and does things the old way. He's a marked contrast to the modern teen couple of Josie and Jimmy, who have no powers, no idea what's going on in the shadows, but who are every bit as determined to stop evil. Josie is the modern femme fatale, a tough-as-nails girl who can hold her own, while Jimmy is a slight, nerdish type who doesn't appear to be a threat to anyone. They are completely the modern-type of heroes and were originally seen as student who would go out and fight battles alone, with only rare appearances by their immortal teacher.

EASTER EGGS

Did you realize Mythical takes place in an alternate reality? When you think about it, most fiction does. Most fiction depicts events that never happened. But Mythical goes one further--magic remains. Unlike many modern fiction shows set in the "real world" it's pretty clear magic is much more rampant in the Mythical universe. That's reinforced with a little what-if, Man in the High Castle-type alternate history. 

The biggest clue in that department lies in Presidential succession. George Bush Sr. won his second term in the Mythical 'verse. John F. Kennedy's assassination was averted thanks to precognitive psychics. John Edwards won the 2008 Presidential elections, as Hilary Clinton was just the First Lady to a one-term Bill Clinton, never achieving the fame and importance of her real-world counterpart. 

There's also military equipment in Mythical without full real-world counterparts. Like the Sir Hugo Drax versions of the U.S. Spaceshuttle--Moonrakers--from Ian Fleming's books-turned-movies, Mark Kenslir has alternate reality variants of real-world aircraft to fly around in, from the MA-12 Raven to the MB-1R Lancer. The Raven is based on the CIA's A-12, a hypersonic plane that eventually became the SR-71 Blackbird. A single-pilot craft, the A-12s conducted recon flights while the SR-71s were being built, then went on to be used by NASA for high-altitude research before being retired... in our world. In Mythical's world, four of the planes were adapted to an entirely new military role, aimed at precision strikes anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. 

NEXT TIME: 

About the Book: Brothers in Stone (Stone Soldiers #2)

Newest Release: INFERNAL MACHINE

Continuing in the series of prequel short stories revealing Detachment 1039's history comes the latest Shadow Detachment tale:

Super hacker Oswald Emerson has decoded a hidden message emanating from the deepest bowels of the Earth: a plea for help, transmitted in every language known to man and several lost or forgotten for ages. Alerting his government superiors, Oswald and his twin technical wizard sister join a mission to uncover the origin of the ages-old call for aid, only to learn it did not come from anything that was ever human. Aided by a super soldier capable of penetrating even a pre-historic subterranean stronghold hidden beneath the streets of Sydney, Australia, the Emersons will pit their psychically-enhanced computer skills to the test when they do digital battle with a supernatural super computer built by demons and powered by the souls of the damned. 

Available now, exclusively on Kindle

SATAN'S SERVERS--New on Kindle, Friday the 13th!

This Friday the 13th, Murder goes on-line in the next installment in the Shadow Detachment short story prequel series:

SATAN'S SERVERS

1997--the world prepares for the twenty-first century, sharing information and joining together in virtual reality. But the growing world wide web doesn't just bring the chance to share information and conduct electronic commerce. Murder has gone on-line--digital blood sacrifice, taking the lives of victims from a hidden corner of the globe. When America's Artificial Intelligence network uncovers the dark plot, the time for a cyber response is over. Lethal force is called for and Detachment 1039 takes to the field, tracking down the supernatural perpetrators and wreaking a terrible vengeance on the forces of darkness.

COMING EXCLUSIVELY TO KINDLE, November 13th.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Stone Soldiers salutes fellow veterans everywhere, this very important holiday.

What is Veteran's Day? It's a day we celebrate those of us who have sacrificed to guarantee the freedoms and liberties all Americans enjoy. 

Some veterans chose to put their lives on the line for freedom, some were drafted. Whether by choice or compelled in times of need, Veterans didn't have the same liberties and freedoms of the civilian populace they protected. Their sacrifices and suffering enabled America and many others to remain free. 

This holiday, if you choose to celebrate your freedoms by reading, please consider the following three military short fiction choices, exclusively on Kindle, free today only. 

DARK INVADERS

An American Supersoldier comes face-to-face with Extraterrestrials in 1957--but are these strange visitors really from another planet, or somewhere much darker?

SPELLBREAKER

Supernatural espionage on the Dark Continent in 1968, as a Knight Templar and an American Supersoldier seek to topple a Voodoo Warlord. 

 BLOOD TRAITOR

What's a 1970s girl to do when she's unwillingly turned into one of the Undead? Join the Army and lead the hunt against her own kind!

First in Series Free!

Want to try out a new series? 

Not only is Book 1 in Stone Soldiers, Mythical, free on Kindle, there are a number of other series with free first books. 

Visit http://pattyjansen.com/promo/ for more details!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

As a special thank you to all the Stone Soldiers readers, enjoy the first three Shadow Detachment prequel short stories for free, TODAY on Kindle!

DARK INVADERS

Supernatural subterfuge abounds in 1954 when Captain Mark Kenslir is tasked with making first contact with America's strangest visitors!

SPELLBREAKER

It's supernatural espionage on the Dark Continent when British Agent John Ash is sent to investigate the disappearance of expatriates in Africa in 1968 and encounters a living legend: The Spellbreaker.

BLOOD TRAITOR

What's a seventies girl to do when she finds herself turned into one of the undead? She joins the Army and leads a team of super soldiers on the hunt for her own kind!

SHADOW DETACHMENT

Introducing a new Stone Soldiers prequel series, SHADOW DETACHMENT...

Before Detachment 1039 successfully began petrifying soldiers for supernatural combat against the forces of darkness, they waged a Cold, Dark War around the world for decades. Super soldiers, psychics and scientists worked together to keep evil at bay. 

Starting in August 2015, readers can now see a glimpse into the past, reading the stories of pre-Stone warfare as a flesh-and-blood Detachment 1039 works to save the world, again and again from its origins in the late 1940s, up through the creation of the first Stone Soldier in the early 2000s. Monthly tales of paranormal mayhem, exclusively on Kindle. 

   

Check out these short story tales of supernatural warfare for $.99, or keep a sharp eye out for Kindle Select Free Days!

Newest Release: Dark Invaders

Now on Kindle:

When not one but two flying saucers land at a remote American airbase in 1954, the United States Government gets two very different offers of assistance from the great beyond. Hesitant to believe the stories of the two species offering their friendship, the military sends in a young Army Officer to investigate. Captain Mark Kenslir soon learns that the strange visitors aren't from as far away as they claim and that what they are really after is nothing short than conquering the Earth. 

NOTE: This title is regularly $.99 on Kindle. But TRICK OR TREAT, you can get it free on October 30 and 31st, 2015, along with BLOOD TRAITOR. 

Free Today on Kindle: SPELLBREAKER

Free through October 1, 2015, only on Kindle

A Stone Soldiers prequel short story...

Agent John Ash is about to meet an American Secret Weapon: the Spellbreaker. A shadowy figure able to resist detection even by the greatest British magic, the Spellbreaker is a whispered legend in the halls of power in England, rumored to be more fiction than fact. But when one of Her Majesty's Templars is sent to Africa to find out what is happening to British citizens, Ash learns the Spellbreaker is real, and more terrifying than anyone ever imagined. 

Can a Knight of the Crown, sworn to defend Britain from the darkest magics of the 20th Century work side-by-side with a monstrous, unstoppable super-soldier long enough to unravel a savage mystery on the Dark Continent, or will a showdown between supposed allies spark the end of American-British cooperation?

Sneak Preview: Red Magik

The Stone Soldiers prequels keep on rolling out...

The Soviet Union, 1957. The Cold War is just heating up as Earth's two nuclear superpowers jockey for position superiority. As one group of Russian scientists race to beat America into space, another works feverishly in the remote frontier of Siberia to unlock the secrets of the supernatural world. A young U.S. Army Captain will have to penetrate the borders of the Socialist Republic to uncover exactly how far America's deadliest rival is prepared to go to rule the world and then try to stop them.



Coming soon, exclusively to Kindle...

BLOOD TRAITOR

Just in time for the Blood Moon, the next short story from the Stone Soldiers universe...

In 1974, Laura Olson had only one thing on her mind: completing her medical residency and becoming a saver of lives--a Doctor. All that changed when she was murdered and resurrected by a long-haired Mid-Western vampire. Awakening as one of the undead, Laura finds herself pressed into the service of the U.S. Military, hunting her own kind. From a quiet campus to the rocky mountains of Morocco, Olson will learn to embrace her new lifestyle and help wipe an ancient evil from the face of the earth!

Available now, ONLY ON KINDLE

In Memory of Warren Murphy

WARREN MURPHY

(September 13, 1933-September 4, 2015)

It is with great sorrow that I mourn the passing of one of my literary heroes, Warren Murphy. Best known for his co-creation of the incredible "The Destroyer" series, Mr. Murphy has joined his former writing partner, the late Richard Sapir, in that mystery that lies beyond this mortal coil.

A New York Times best selling author, chess grandmaster, and father of many, Mr. Murphy and his co-creation were my inspiration to start writing decades ago. I was fortunate enough to attend a fan birthday celebration in 2014, finally meeting Mr. Murphy in person. 

Like the heroes he wrote about, Warren Murphy was a larger than life character. A friendly man who seemed humble about his accomplishments but who made time for his fans all the same. He leaves behind sons and daughters, some of whom I was fortunate enough to meet. Judging by those children, and by his writing offline as well as between the covers, I have no doubt that Mr. Murphy was a kindred spirit and one our modern world, so in need of role models and heroes, will surely be the worse for without.

I salute Mr. Murphy for his accomplishments and character and am glad to have had the opportunity to have met him. My deepest sympathies and strongest prayers go to those he has left behind, and I look forward to meeting him once more when I too make that eventual trip to Heaven.

God bless, Warren Murphy and his family and friends, and may we all learn to be a little better by following his example. 

Looking for something fun to do this weekend?

If you live in the Louisville, KY metropolitan area, and are looking for some free entertainment, come on out to the Oldham County Comic Con 2015--a well-organized show, now in it's second year, hosted by the Oldham County Public Library. 

As part of the celebration, Stone Soldiers will be handing out buttons and bookmarks and offering 20 unique, limited-run, print editions of SPELLBREAKER, the newest Stone Soldiers print prequel, featuring Mark Kenslir battling supernatural evil during the Cold War. This is your chance to buy a limited, numbered edition of a short story from the Stone Soldiers universe, while the very limited supply lasts*. 

*Spellbreaker will appear again in 2016 in a printed Anthology and continues to be available in digital format, exclusively on Kindle. 

Coming Soon! BLOOD TRAITOR

Continuing in a line of Stone Soldiers prequel short stories, a tale of blood, betrayal and a beautiful redhead out to reap revenge on the monsters that took away her humanity!

Long before Doctor Laura Olson joined the Stone Soldiers and joined the war on evil, she was a medical student, working hard on learning how to save lives. That all changed one fateful night in 1974 when the would-be doctor was murdered on the eve of her medical residency by a vampire on the run. Resurrected as one of the undead, Olson was given a choice: fight or die. Choosing the former, the young vampire sets out on a whirlwind mission of vengeance, helping an immortal super-soldier track down vampires world wide before she gives in to her new thirst for blood!

Coming exclusively to Kindle, September 2015!

Coming Soon: SATAN'S SERVERS!

Continuing a series of prequel short stories from the life and career of Spellbreaker and Super-soldier Mark Kenslir comes SATAN'S SERVERS, a tale of supernatural cyber crime set in 1999!

1997--America's secret Artificial Intelligence network, MAX, has discovered something impossible: someone is using the new Internet to murder innocents around the world by manipulating connected computer systems. But definitively defeating a faceless hacker is beyond the stationary super-computer's abilities, so he summons some parahuman help: Detachment 1039, America's answer to the forces of darkness waging an unending war on mankind. Can a super soldier track down the source of those orchestrating onerous, online orgies of death, or will the World Wide Web prove too much for immortal warrior Mark Kenslir?

Coming exclusively to Kindle, September 2015!

SHADOW RAIDERS Update

Sadly, Shadow Raiders, a new, Stone Soldiers-spin off series, is delayed. Again. In its place, look for a series of four new short stories in the coming months. 





SPELLBREAKER--a tale of 1960s dark espionage set in Africa, pitting an American super-soldier, a Knight Templar and a Voodoo Warlord against one another in a three-way conflict of supernatural proportions.

SATAN'S SERVERS--When America's top-secret A.I. discovers a modern cult using the new Internet to slaughter innocents around the world in 1999, it's time to call in the troops--the monster-slaying troops of Detachment 1039.

BLOOD TRAITOR--After being turned into a vampire the night before starting her medical residency, a 1970s college student embarks on the adventure of a lifetime--hunting the undead as part of a team of secret super-soldiers. 

X-PONENT--When a band of costumed parahumans begin a campaign of domestic terrorism in the mid 1990s, the military unleashes their greatest super soldier to hunt them down and eliminate each and every one--even if it means killing America's greatest hero, the Sentinel of Liberty. 


Look for these shorts, one per month, from August through November, revealing more of the origins of the Stone Soldiers and the world they live in. Exclusively on Kindle!


Look for Shadow Raiders Fall 2015, and Winters' Fury (Stone Soldiers #12) Winter 2015-16.

For more information about the Stone Soldiers, visit 

STONESOLDIERS.INFO

Watch out for the SPELLBREAKER!

Coming soon, a 1960s tale of magical espionage and supernatural warfare on the dark continent:

Africa, 1968. An English Knight of the Crown is sent to Ghana to investigate the disappearance of British citizens in the former colony. But Agent John Ash gets more than he bargained for when the Templar crosses paths with a living legend. A murmured whisper in the halls of power, the Spellbreaker is a terrifying force of destruction and mayhem working for America. Can a Templar sworn to eradicate magic wherever it threatens the United Kingdom or its peoples work alongside this frightening, supernatural killer to stop a Voodoo Warlord creating an army of undying soldiers, or are England and the United States about to have a falling out?

Now available, exclusively on Kindle!

July 2015 Update...

It's been a busy year for the Stone Soldiers series...

In addition to making print versions of books 10 and 11 (soon available via Amazon) and Elemental Warfare, a spin off series, Shadow Raiders is in the works.

The Stone Soldiers have also been represented at some Louisville-area conventions, including the Derby City Comic Con, as wel as the upcoming Oldham County Comic Con. 

And of course, there's the new podcast, Weirdology 101 that introduces listeners to some of the myths and legends, ancient and modern, often used in the series. 

What's next for 2015?

Next up will be Shadow Raiders. 

Then there'll be a series of shorter-length, short story/novellas:

Blood Traitor a re-telling of Laura Olson's vampiric origins and her first missions in the 1970s, guiding Mark Kenslir and Detachment 1039 to vampire targets around the world...

X-Ponent, previously glimpsed in flashbacks in Book 4, Shades of War, is getting a novella-length release, putting the flashbacks in sequential order and filling in some of the gaps. 

Spellbreaker is a Cold War-era tale of a younger Mark Kenslir and Chad Phillips as the combat the supernatural Red Menace of the 1960s

Night of the Bear will be a story of the two Soviet supernatural operatives who suddenly find themselves free agents after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. 

And we'll round out 2015 with Winter's Fury book 12 in the Stone Soldiers' series and Perdition's Shadow, book 2 in the Shadow Raiders series, that finds Detachment 1039 traveling to an alternate reality earth ruled by a Dragon and populated by human slaves from different eras of history. 

Looking beyond these titles, you can expect a few more Stone Soldiers  novels in 2016...

Hyde and Sheik

Island of the Damned

The Blue Death

Do No Evil

Plus maybe a few other short stories and maybe another 1 or 2 Shadow Raiders. 

So, while things have been slowing down, fear not, the men, women and monsters of Detachment 1039 will continue to stomp evil wherever they can find it...

The Shadow Raiders are coming...

One month away from the release of an all-new adventure in the Stone Soldiers universe.

Detachment 1039 has a new mission: taking the fight to the enemy--even if it means traveling to a parallel universe.

A new team. A new mission. A new world. 

Coming to Kindle, July 2015.

For a sneak preview of Chapters 1-7, Click here.

Weirdology 101

Stone Soldiers is proud to sponsor a brand-new podcast, beginning May 18, 2015!

WEIRDOLOGY101 is a weekly discussion on the Paranormal, the Supernatural and all things in between. Listen to discussions about the strange, the weeks Weirdlines from around the world, Fringe Fiction recommendations and even take a spin on the Wheel of Weird where the lesser known cryptids and myths will be chosen at random and discussed. 

A father-daughter endeavor, Weirdology101 features two very different perspectives on the weird, from a 47 year old father who writes Supernatural Thrillers, and a 15 year old fangirl daughter who can't seem to peel herself away from the internet.

Tune in every Monday for a new episode of family-friendly fun and learn a little bit about the strange and unusual!

CLASSES START MAY 18, 2015!

A plethora of errors...

For those not familiar with the Error Contest at Stone Soldiers, it works like this: report an error, typo, misspelling, etc in a novel, get a free digital copy of another novel in the series.

Normally, there aren't that many errors to be found. Alas, for Book 11, One Dark Step, it's a veritable JACKPOT of errors. A new spellchecker program was used on this one.... a spellcheck that didn't point out grammatical errors. And I rushed the book to publish. Fortunately, a reader has sent in the dozens of errors and it's now being fixed. However, if you can type the sentence as it appears in your copy, you can still win a free digital version of another Stone Soldiers story--so long as you're the first to report it (not counting that aforementioned reader who hit the motherload).

Book of Stone: General Zou Zheng Duan

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

A Rogue Chinese General, and commander of the Lanzhou District, Zuo was a student in the Temple of Perfection as a child, but was expelled for his aggressive, warlike demeanor. Zou entered the People’s Army and rose through the ranks, never forgetting his lessons in the Temple. Through political maneuvering, Zou became the District Commander for Lanzhou District, where he knew the Lost City of Shamballa to be located. 


In 2013, Zuo launched a secret raid of Shamballa, uncovering its wonders and a Ring Portal into the heart of the Forbidden City and the vault of magical artifacts beneath it. Stealing the artifacts, Zuo used them to try and trigger a war between the US and People’s Republic, hoping that in the aftermath, he could install himself as the First Emperor of the World, and restore China to what he felt was its rightful place. (SS08: Terrorcota).

Zou's plans fell apart however when Detachment 1039 responded, eliminating his forces in Colorado and pursuing him back to Shamballa, where he was killed.

Book of Stone: Ymir

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

Ymir, also known as Aurgelmir, Brimir, or Bláinn, is a being from Norse mythology--the ancestor of all Jötnar. Mentioned in the Poetic Edda, he is described as a primeval being who was born from venom that dripped from the icy rivers Élivágar and lived in the grassless void of Ginnungagap. Ymir is credited with creating the Norse gods themselves:  Odin, Vili, and Vé. He is also claimed to have created the Earth, the oceans, the clouds, the heavens, and  the middle realm in which mankind lives, Midgard. In addition, one stanza relates that the dwarfs were given life by the gods from Ymir's flesh and blood (or the Earth and sea).

Ymir was purportedly betrayed by his offspring--the brothers Odin, Vili, and Vé, who conspired to kill him.


More modern legends of Ymir depict him as the father of the Frost Giants--those terrible monsters fought by Odin and the Aesir. Whatever origins, if Ymir had survived to the modern era, he would surely be one of the most dangerous opponents yet for Detachment 1039.

Book of Stone: XAH-1X Eclipse helicopter

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

The XAH-1X experimental attack helicopter was more a testing platform for advanced concept helicopter systems than an actual pre-prototype aircraft. Consisting of several modified, surplus Supercobra AH-1J dual-engine attack helos, the program began at Groom Lake Air Force Base.

Initially, the helos were fitted with an experimental, sustained EMP system designed to blind or damage enemy electronics to prevent detection of non-Stealth aircraft. The system was dubbed the Eclipse--a name given to the test platform helicopters to distinguish them from standard Supercobras. While the jamming systems proved effective it was decded that a Stealth aircraft like the F-117 or RAH-66 would be better suited, allowing for surgical strikes of hostile installations, rather than the unfocused, electronics-damaging XAH-1X.

Chosen for its dual engines--required for the heavy generators required for EMP bursts, the Eclipse helos saw new life in the late 1980s as test plarforms for experimental plasma-shell anti-armor guns. 

By 1995, the Eclipse program had been discontinued and the remaining aircraft were consigned to storage at Groom Lake. However, when the costumed parahuman Sentinel began a series of terrorist attacks an emergency refit of one Eclipse gunship was ordered, the plasma-filled projectiles its vulcan cannon could fire believed to be capable of injuring the Sentinel. The helicopter was successful in injuring Sentinel and driving him out of U.S. airspace. (SS04: Shades of War). 

It is presumed any Eclipse helicopters have been returned to storage at Groom Lake.

Book of Stone: Brock West

For April, Stone Soldiers.info is celebrating the A to Z Blog Challenge with daily letter-themed entries. A separate page with a list of all these entries, plus Character Profiles and Book Synopses will appear on the right hand side of the page in coming weeks, detailing the people, places and things of the Stone Soldiers universe.

Following the successful integration of four US Navy SEALs into the Medusa Program and Detachment 1039. Colonel Mark Kenslir began searching the ranks of the military for more candidates to join the unit's ongoing battle against the forces of darkness. In 2014, he selected an elderly Sergeant Major from the Army's Airborne Ranger community: Brock West.

A career NCO, West had the skills, training and demeanor to join the team--and no familial connections to give up as required by becoming a petrified soldier. 

West served successfully in the Detachment in 2014, dying in combat during action in Colorado (SS08: Terrorcota), then successfully resurrecting before his final death in Los Angeles (SS09: Pale Horseman)

West served his country two lifetimes, both as a soldier and a supersoldier and now joins the ranks of those killed by the Fallen enemies of mankind.