Starting with DEAD BEEF, and expanding with Pink Ballerina, Decisive Moment and Active Shooter, the Our Cyber World series explores a complex world as conveyed through the different points of view and voices each story’s leading characters offer. Rather than applying a straight sequel-prequel chronological story structure, this series follows a paralellequel approach. That means each story will feature a different protagonist, with appearances from characters from other stories in the series.

Some readers ask whether I recommend a preferred order. Each Our Cyber World story stands on its own, and though it references events or elements from other stories in the series, you may read them in any order you prefer. If you’re looking for a good jumping in point, I recommend starting with either DEAD BEEF or Decisive Moment, then branching on from there.

To date I have released four stories in this series, with Beisbol Libre coming out toward the end of this year and Ghost Writer also in development. Below I include brief descriptions of each installment. Please feel free to leave a comment or question on this page, and I’ll be glad to chime in with some sort of response.

DEAD BEEF: The company Cyberwarfare pioneer, Martin Spencer, founded wasn’t supposed to fire him. Spencer knows too much and can do far too much damage to U.S. national security. Years ago Spencer led a failed attack against Iranian computer systems that stranded his Cyber weapon payload behind enemy lines. U.S. officials fear the Iranians reverse-engineered Spencer’s creation and suspect Iranian operatives will now seek his help to turn his creation into a terrorist weapon.

Pink Ballerina:
Who is that woman in the pink ballerina outfit? And why can’t Andre Esperanza’s once photographic memory recall her identity? Andre must answer these questions after he photographs her drawing pirouettes on wet sand. The burst of 51 photos he shoots reignite painful, missing memories of a life he thought he’d left behind. They also bring US and foreign operatives calling, and Andre must decide whether to cooperate or to protect a woman he should know but can’t remember. Reluctantly, Andre will have to face how this Pink Ballerina fits into his defunct career in electronic surveillance and how she ties in with his achievements and failures, which to him pretty much look the same.

Active Shooter:
In this prequel to Pink Ballerina we meet Andre Esperanza shortly after he thwarted a terrorist attack on Los Angeles International Airport. The short-lived fame that follows leads him to a network interview with Bridget Suarez and to a business relationship with art dealer Lucia Fuentes. During this brief period, he will have to fight to keep his past buried, his nascent career as a photographer going, and his search for beauty in art and nature alive.

Decisive Moment:
Fine-art photographer Roger Morris should not have taken a paparazzo job to fill in for his loser brother. He shouldn’t have used his military training to pick a perfect sniper’s perch from which to aim his telephoto lens at movie star Vivian Matisse and her Mexican cartel boyfriend, and he shouldn’t have photographed them murdering her movie producer. Now Roger must decide whether to turn the photos over to the police or sell them to the highest bidder so he can pay off his brother’s violent bookie. Through what follows Roger will struggle to hold on to his new life as an artist, suspecting that as he runs out of options, the only way out traces along the barrel of his sniper rifle.

In the works…

Beisbol Libre:
Cuban baseball star, Camilo Ornedo was about to defect to the U.S. when his pitching arm gave out. That ended his career in Cuba and extinguished any chances he had to score a big major league contract. Bitter and disillusioned, Camilo meets Elena Catalón, a CIA agent who seduces and recruits him to work for her. As his romance with her grows, Camilo watches his younger brother become a star pitcher. When his brother tells him he wants to defect, Camilo sets out to work a deal with Elena that will entangle them in a plot to compromise and infiltrate Cuban computer networks.
Scheduled for release, Fall-Winter 2014