Books & Awards

CRISPR Evolution

A sci-fi novel

Brilliant geneticist Howard Wake has one life-defining dream: to advance human evolution, starting with his own kids. Under the radar of agencies that have outlawed all but the tamest science, he builds a tool designed to probe the darkest crypts in the human genome for buried treasure. But rousing ancient DNA from its age-old slumber is a risky undertaking. To create his children safely, Howard needs to enlist Jacqueline Witt, who has engineered a secret of her own. Before he can convince his friend and colleague to help him, Howard is forced to disappear into the science underground. Deciding that it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, he takes everything he needs with him.

Eight years later, Howard’s kids are helping him run a garage lab in Massachusetts—but federal agents are only a step behind, the twins’ sleeping DNA is beginning to stir, and Jacqueline has tracked down the man who stole what she values most ... and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.

CRISPR Evolution was a first-place winner in the PNWA literary contest and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award and Grand Prize, the Foreword INDIES Awards, the Indies Today Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Readers' Favorite Awards, and the Page Turner Awards. Fans of Paolo Bacigalupi, Michael Crichton, and Octavia Butler will love this tale of genetic roguery in a world where free inquiry has become a rare and dangerous commodity.

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Green-Eyed Monster

Short fiction published in The Best American Mystery and Suspense series 2021

George Rybek is the first to admit that he envies his wife, whose scientific brilliance has kept his sinking career afloat. But George is tired of laboring in the cage of Martina's success—and even more tired of the iron-clad rules she imposes on him. One fateful night, he decides to break a rule or two ...

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Green-Eyed Monster, first published in WILD: Uncivilized Tales by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, 2020 anthology

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Praise for Green-Eyed Monster

A master class in thriller craft

It's a thrilling story with twists that never seems 'twisty.' The author, in deft short strokes, lays out a multilayered conspiracy of malignant co-dependency between high-functioning but highly brittle scientists whose runaway egos have conveniently let them forget that they can’t control their own universes. Let alone the power dynamics in their corrosive marriage.

We already know who kills who; this is no whodunit. The pleasure comes in learning the how and the why, and the most delicious part is how deadly disaster could have — maybe — been averted had either been willing to step out of the stew of their own bubbling resentments for even a millisecond and see a better way through the Gordian knot that binds their fates together. All of this is done in darkly smooth prose with a darkly satisfying sense of an author in complete and confident command.

Jim Thomsen, freelance editor & blogger

Publications

Structures, Merlyn’s Pen, Volume 8, Issue 3
The West Wall, Antimuse, August 2005
The Death of Santa Claus, Eureka Literary Magazine, Fall 2005
Variations on an Old Theme, The Marlboro Review, accepted in March 2006
It Always Comes Home, Nth Zine, July 2006
Taste Climax, MudRock: Stories & Tales, Fall 2006
The Ghost in the Library, Nth Zine, November-December 2009
Green-Eyed Monster, WILD: Uncivilized Tales by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, 2020 anthology
Green-Eyed Monster, reprinted in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021

Awards

Mindsphere

Finalist, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest
2nd place winner, Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror, 2011 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

The Shape of a Kiss

1st place winner, Mainstream Adult Fiction, 2013 Sandy Writing Contest
QuarterFinalist, General Fiction, 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest
Finalist, Mainstream, 2014 Colorado Gold Contest
2nd place winner, Mainstream/Literary/Historical Fiction, 2015 Zebulon Contest
Finalist, Romance/Women’s Fiction, 2015 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

Complicated Maneuvers

Finalist, Short Story, 2014 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

Variations on an Old Theme

1st place winner, Adult Short Topics, 2015 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

Alien Cloaking Devices

Finalist, Short Story, 2017 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

CRISPR Evolution

3rd place winner, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, 2018 Colorado Gold Contest
Shortlister, 2019 Cygnus Awards
Semi-finalist, 2020 Cygnus Awards
1st place winner, Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal, 2020 Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest
Finalist, 2021 Page Turner Awards
Finalist, 2022 Indies Today Awards
Finalist, 2022 Foreword INDIES Awards
Finalist, 17th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
Finalist, 2023 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award
Shortlisted, 2023 Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize
Honorable Mention, 2023 Eric Hoffer Awards, Sci-Fi/Fantasy category
Finalist, 2023 Readers' Favorite Awards