I've completed my first novel, "Coordinates For Murder", and I am working on the sequel, which is yet to be titled. Below are links to the details of each one. If you like what you've read, links to purchase a copy - print or ebook - are over on the right.
Coordinates For Murder
Escaping the high-stress world of Minneapolis-St. Paul, good friends Sammy Larson and John Whitfield have their usual summer plans: camping and geocaching. GPS units in hand, they hike towards a newly placed geocache. Each cache provides a new set of coordinates to the next cache, leading them deeper and deeper into 1.5 million acres of forest. Sammy and John become separated, and they each have an encounter with a sadistic monster named The Woodsman. One of them escapes, but can he live long enough to rescue his friend and get help?
Below is the first chapter of the book. Enjoy!
“You know, you
could get lost and wind up dead way up there in the sticks,” said
Carlos.
Sammy threw a
glance over to Carlos, who was working his way up the sidewalk on his
knees, unrolling the sod. An immigrant from Mexico, he had been
working with Sammy for at least three years. Sammy could tell that
Carlos was chuckling to himself; he always made himself laugh.
“Only if I were a
stupid gringo. Or if I had you as a guide,” Sammy retorted.
Carlos just
continued working, shaking his head in amusement. Sammy and Carlos
had always gotten along well, and this was just the latest in their
usual back-and-forth banter. Sammy also liked to use Carlos's
Hispanic lingo from time to time, just to rile him up.
“It's amazing any
work gets done between you two yapping and carrying on like that,”
Brian piped up from across the parking lot.
Sammy finished
cutting out a notch in the sod for the concrete cylinder that would
soon hold a light pole, then stood and pointed his sod knife toward
Brian. “Yeah, like you do any actual work out here. You know I
could beat you sod laying with an arm behind my back, rookie.”
Brian finished
cutting a small hole for a sprinkler head, then turned and looked at
Sammy. He couldn't help but start to laugh. Tony, working just down
from Brian, whispered loudly to Brian: “Don't do it, man, don't do
it.”
“What?” Brian
asked Tony loudly. “Don't do it? Man, he's not that good.”
Tony looked up from
his work, a small grin on his face. He knew just what to say to get
him going. “I just don't want to see you goin' home to your
girlfriend cryin' and whinin' that you got beat, that's all.”
Carlos and Sammy
started laughing as Brian got a big smile on his face, hanging his
head in mock defeat. Then Brian looked back at Sammy, still smiling.
“Need your lackeys to defend you, eh? I bet you wouldn't even be
halfway done when I finish.”
“How much?”
Sammy asked.
“What?”
“How much?”
“Dude, you
wouldn't win.” Brian got up and walked to the pallet with rolls of
sod, grabbed one and carried it back to where he'd been working.
Sammy watched him work. He was a good kid; cocky, but a good kid.
He'd be a senior in high school this fall, playing wide receiver on
the varsity football team. He had a girlfriend, but that didn't stop
other girls from trying, and who could blame them – he had the good
looks that Sammy had always wanted. Not that Sammy wasn't good
looking, but his genetics just didn't provide him with the Roman
god-like looks that some others had. His olive complexion was even
darker working out in sun like he did (mahogany, he liked to tell
women), and he was fit and toned. But his face wasn't anything to
write home about, and the fact that his mother couldn't afford braces
for his teeth meant that his smile was perpetually crooked. Cute to
some women, however.
“Are you done
fooling around? What's the bet?” Sammy asked again.
“I don't want to
take your money; it wouldn't be fair.”
Carlos and Tony
looked at Brian, then to Sammy. They could read Sammy's face, and
they knew what was coming. What they didn't yet know was just how
close Brian would come.
Sammy walked over
to the pallet with the sod rolls, and pulled a wad of bills from his
front pocket. He proceeded to lay out three twenty dollar bills. As
if by magic, Troy and Kelly, who were working on a retaining wall
along the back side of the property, materialized and hovered by the
sod, eager looks on their faces. “Sixty says you can't do it.”
All eyes turned to
the rookie. He kept working, pretending that he wasn't the subject
of the statement. He let the silence continue.
“Fine, a Benji
then.” Sammy added two more bills.
“Whoa, dude!”
exclaimed Kelly. “If you don't do it, I will just for a shot at
that pot.”
Brian finished up
his sod roll and walked nonchalantly over to the group. He stood
facing Sammy, watching, evaluating. Finally, he reached into his
back pocket for his wallet, excavating bills to double the pot.
Kelly ran off to grab Hugh, who was running the four-wheeler prepping
another area for sod the next day. Carlos swept up the cash and
folded it into the breast pocket on his dingy t-shirt for
safekeeping.
“So where are we
gonna do this?” asked Brian, looking from Sammy to Carlos.
Carlos pointed to
two small islands in the parking lot that still needed to have sod
fit into them. “Use those.”
“You're really
only going to use one arm against me?” Brian asked Sammy.
“Yup.”
Kelly and Hugh
returned and sat down on a nearby sidewalk, grateful for the break.
Carlos positioned himself between the islands and his co-workers and
laid out the simple rules: whoever finished laying the sod completely
on their island first would be the winner. Sammy could only use one
arm for the competition, and he chose his right arm. With a quick
countdown, they were off.
Everyone got into
the competition, shouting encouragement as well as insults. Sammy
got to his island with the sod and rolled it down his arm with a
quick motion, holding onto the end with his hand. The sod ended
perfectly in the corner, and he easily maneuvered it into position
then took off for the pallet for his next roll.
Brian also easily
placed his first roll, keeping pace with Sammy. They each returned
with their second rolls and flung them out into position. Sammy
chose to put his in a place where cutting wasn't necessary, but Brian
landed his on a sprinkler head and had to cut that out to fit. In
that short time, Sammy managed to pick his third roll and return,
flinging it out into another corner, though this would need trimming.
Ignoring the
necessary cutting for the time being, Sammy again raced back to the
pallet, as did Brian, who was now one full roll behind their crew
leader. Brian stuck to his plan, cutting this third roll to
accommodate the concrete light pole base. Sammy again chose to roll
out this fourth roll and ignore the needed trimming.
Allowing himself a
quick glance, Brian began to sweat even more looking at Sammy's
progress. He was losing to a guy using just one arm! His girlfriend
was going to kill him – that money was going to pay for a really
nice dinner that they were taking her parents to that weekend.
Sammy returned with
his fifth and final sod roll, sweat pouring off of him. He dropped
the sod on the only patch of dirt left, then drew his sod knife and
began to work on cutting out the corner for the concrete light pole
base on his island. Brian finish up his cuts and ran to get his
fourth roll of sod.
Along the far
sidewalk, a small crowd had gathered, curious about the shouting and
activity. Sammy had made cuts for the two sprinkler heads, trimmed
excess away from the concrete edges where sod was hanging off, and
was at his last roll. Brian had quickly placed his fourth roll,
pleased that he could lay it clean and grab his last roll. He might
be able to win yet.
Sammy quickly
unrolled part of the sod and yanked one end into position. With the
experience of thousands of sod cuts, he instantly judged where to
make his last incision. Brian had returned to his island and
proceeded to place his last piece. He knew he could do it, just one
more cut to go.
“Done!” shouted
Sammy.
Brian finished his
cut, fit the edge into the sod puzzle and jumped clear of his island.
Everyone came over to inspect their work, to make sure that neither
of them cut any corners or placed their rolls in a sloppy manner.
Kelly shook his
head in amazement. “Sammy wins again!”
Brian sauntered
over to Sammy's island, knowing that he'd been beaten, but wanting to
see his work just the same.
“Shit,” Sammy
said, “I thought this would be the time that I lost, bro! Nice
job.”
Brian got a sly
grin on his face, not fully believing that he could have lost to
someone using only one arm. Those sod rolls weren't too light,
either. He couldn't take his eyes off of the newly laid grass. “I-I
just can't believe that I couldn't take you. I mean, you were only
using one arm. What the hell?”
Carlos walked over
and bestowed the two hundred dollars to Sammy. “Winner, and still
champion!”
Sammy flipped
through the bills, then separated out his five bills and shoved them
in his pocket. He grabbed Brian's hand and slapped the remaining
money into his palm. “I know you were going to use that to take
your girlfriend and her parents out to dinner this weekend. You
drove me hard, man. You deserve it.” Brian looked down at his
hand in disbelief.
He slapped Brian on
the shoulder and offered a crooked smile. Everyone went back to
their work, and Sammy headed to his truck. If he wasn't careful, one
of these times he would actually lose the bet.
Back at his truck,
he grabbed the clipboard off of the passenger seat and started
flipping through the landscape layout designs. If the weather held,
they might actually be able to finish up this job tomorrow, which
would put them a full day ahead of schedule, and a good chunk of
change of additional profit into the company with labor savings.
Sammy pulled his
smart phone out of the cup holder and called up the local TV station
website. On their radar feed, he could see that showers were heading
their way, and would probably be there in time to ruin much of
tomorrow's progress.
“Shit, not what I
needed,” he grumbled. Looking out at his crew he yelled: “Carlos!
We got problems.”
Coordinates Sequel
The Woodsman is back! But what happened to Sammy and John? How does Carlos fit into the puzzle? The story only grows more intense and strange as you take a ride with the bizarre.
Coming Soon!
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