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Grendels

Read here or on Substack.

As the sole guardian of her autistic younger brother Adam, Michelle Shank decides to move him to Rexburg, ID to join a special school for neurodivergent savants, upending their lives in unexpected and terrifying ways. When they arrive at the McJames school, Michelle is tasked by her editor to investigate a local murder, which quickly leads her to two astonishing discoveries: Adam’s school is somehow connected to the sinister activities at the nearby genetic engineering research laboratory, and her brother with his classmates are much more than they seem.

Violence erupts as the murder investigation converges on the lab, revealing the existence of the grendels, genetically engineered supersoldiers, as well as the emergence of the groupmind of Homo iunctus, the collective intelligence formed by the merged talents of the autistic savants of Adam’s school.

Michelle’s fight to protect her brother collides with the grendel’s struggle for freedom and the plans of the groupmind for the next stage in human evolution, in a story of family, love, self-determination, and the destiny of humanity.

Synderesis

The sequel to Grendels picks almost two decades later, telling the story of Michelle Shank and her daughter Bina living life on the run, pursued by murderous zealots seeking to exterminate anyone associated with the groupmind, Homo iunctus, the emergent superintelligence Michelle’s brother Adam is a member of. Danae is a grendel, the escaped genetically engineered supersoldiers equally feared and persecuted. Bina and Danae share a desire to break free of the restrictions imposed on them by their family obligations and the prejudice and hatred of the outside world. Together, they set off on a journey, unwitting pawns in a larger conflict set in motion to force a final violent confrontation between their loved ones and those seeking to stop the transformation of human destiny.

Set in world recovering from nuclear conflict, ongoing instability, and chaotic international conflicts, Synderesis portrays a mother and daughter attempting to navigate the powerful changes unleashed on a world teetering on the brink of catastrophe.

Your Angry Pediatrician

Salty takes on all things pediatric and medical. Come for the facts, stay for the cursing.

Time Bomber (Boissevain Books, 2014)

A blend of historical fiction, real history, and science fiction, Time Bomber tells the story of brilliant Dutch mathematician Willem van Stockum, a University of Maryland professor whose doctoral thesis demonstrated the first proof that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity allows for the possibility of time travel. He became a bomber pilot and died over Normandy during D-Day. How would the world have changed if he survived?