UPCOMING WORKS
Borders & Barriers (2025)
Dietrich Mickler is a hero to his family.
He is also a man running out of time.
In 1987, following President Ronald Reagan's speech demanding that Russian General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall, Dietrich and his wife, Nanetta, construct a harrowing plan to take their children and cross the infamous Inner German Border, in an effort to escape communist East Germany.
After their treacherous and successful attempt, what the Micklers left behind in Germany continues to haunt each of them thirty-seven years later, as U.S. citizens.
Now diagnosed with a progressive and deadly disease, Dietrich knows he will soon follow his recently departed Nanetta in death, and that he will leave behind the four most important people in his life: a bitter son, an "overly religious" daughter, and both of his grandchildren.
What Dietrich doesn't realize is, that before he dies, he will be faced with a decision that will affect his and his family's lives in a far greater way than crossing that infamous East-German border. But can he and his family conquer just one more set of life-threatening barriers?
Old Jeep (2026)
​ For one man, life can easily be summed up with two simple words: money and influence.
For another, life is a sum of its missing parts—friends and a wife whose lives were cut too short.
The paths of these men will cross, and one will present the other with what sounds like a simple question—a question that will ultimately change both of their lives forever: "Are you the one?"
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Old Jeep is a WWII novel about the pain-filled memories of one man—Gaylord "Jeep" Patterson—who, in the aftermath of his experiences in Europe, fought desperately to bury and forget each and every one of them. He succeeded ... until one fateful day in 2010, when he lost the love of his life—his war bride, Bella.
​ Compelled by years of Bella's encouragement to remember the friends he lost during the war, he spends the waning years of his life trying to fulfill her desire. Now, Gaylord must quickly identify the specific person who is to hear the emotional, first-time telling of his friends' stories before he, too, dies.
A Year Behind (2027)
Two couples—best friends—who go caving—spelunking—endure a terrifying underground experience and discover that they've been shoved backward in time exactly one year. They quickly learn that their situation will not just be a matter of watching themselves replay the past 365 days.
No, it couldn't be as simple as all that.
Faced with witnessing all four of their doppelgangers play out what has already happened, they soon come face to face with the stark reality of who they really were as people, both in public and behind closed doors.
Each of the four has some explaining to do as secrets are revealed.
Their past decisions and behaviors, though, cannot be easily undone.
Or can they?
Questions develop:
• What will happen if any of them decide to intentionally interrupt the lives of their past selves?
• What kind of impact will manipulating their pasts have on all eight of them?
• If those re-experiencing their lives don't do anything to keep their past selves from reaching the end of the year, will they, too, be sent back in time?
• Is it possible that they have already been through all of this before?
• Are they destined to go through all of this again?
• What if, in order to prevent that possibility from occurring, they force their former selves to make different life decisions? But wouldn't that cause their present selves to cease their own existence?
Four very different individuals have one year to figure out the answers to these questions. Yet one question—pondered in the mind of one of the four—may cause all of the other questions to become irrelevant: What will happen if one of them decides to "fix things" by murder?