Finestories

The Adventures of Private Eye Matt Steele
Matt is hired by a rich man to deal with a blackmailer

Mark O'Toole and Molly Andrews are enrolled in a very special culinary school. There is lots of cooking going on in the kitchen and not all of it deals with food.

Imperium (2)
The Carthaginians are marching to destroy Rome and it is up to Ky, a test pilot from the future thrown into an alternate past, to keep the once mighty Roman Empire from being destroyed. As Ky gathers Roman and Caledonian forces together to form a new Britannic Empire to defend against the Carthaginian host, he must also struggle to contend with a malfunctioning AI implanted in his brain that is slowly gaining sentience. Thankfully, Ky is not alone.
Added Chapter 10

Country Roads (2)
Music, Baseball and Bullies. Charlie's life is busier than ever as he continues to put down roots in his community, making friends and enemies, and explore who he wants to be. Charlie decides to follow the two things he always loved when he was a kid, music and baseball. Joining the school team and forming his first band both pull him in different directions, adding to the pressures he already faced with school, bullies, making friends, and trying to become his own man.
Added Chapter 27

Night sounds: a remembrance of things long past.

A story in the The Regiment Universe
A group of young men and women join the regiment. They start out as individuals but become a team and then part of the family.
Added Chapters 7,8

A Rivers Region Story
A retired soldier's farm is attacked. When his weapon is damaged the 11 year-old son is told to take is almost 2 year-old sister and escape out the hidden exit after promising to care for his sister until she can care for herself. Their parents are killed while they travel down the tunnel, so he sets off the final defences as the enemy moves in, and kills more of the attackers. He's faithful to his promise as they live through 'interesting times' while his sister learns to care for herself.
Added Chapter 9 (final)

In which Hopalong does his Best to Top his Infamous Werewolf Story… Likely, it’s just another story with a moral. But, me? I don’t get it.

I'm in the midst of doing several things which I've mentioned to you all before. I'm currently adding some new scenes to book 1 and 2 and making some slight revisions to make the story even better. I' ... more

I'm damn near speechless at the wave of kind words and compliments that "Accidental Family" has received. The downloads, the scores, the feedback, and... to the delight of my wife, the family bean-cou ... more

A man scarred by injustice, a lost love, and wounds of combat, finds himself volunteered as a foster father, a protector, and a combatant in a lethal struggle against a past bully and a vengeful cartel lord.
Added Chapters 20-22 (final)

Today I begin posting a new story. This is a story in the Regiment series. As I usually do, I'll post 2 or 3 chapters a week. Comments are always welcome.

A youth makes a promise, and then fights the bureaucrats and killers to keep it. It takes many years, but he's lives is life as he was trained and is faithful to his promise. 98,000 words over 9 chapters if action. Also available on Bookapy https://bookapy.com/s/539/keeping-a-promise

March 2018 Aliens invade Earth, "Ground Zero" is near the Barranca del Cobre (the Copper Canyon) in western Chihuahua state of Mexico. "Any sufficiently advanced technology may be indistinguishable from magic." Government officials in Mexico, the USA, and elsewhere are focused upon other "more important" matters. This is a story of those who witnessed these events; while most other people didn't take these events seriously, if they paid any attention at all.
Added Chapter 27

A story in the A Thousand Years of Peace! Universe
This is Book V of A Thousand of Peace! It is about the Watcher Division that protects Earth. How it goes from an afterthought to the hero in saving Earth from a Radiated insect. One of mankind's misstates trying to play at God.
Added Chapters 23,24 (final)

A man hits rock bottom and then gets super lucky, his luck always runs at the extremes.
Added Chapter 183

It's easy to forget what you wanted out of life once you get caught up in the rat race. The things we wanted when young get forgotten while competing to out do the neighbors. At some point, you just become lost. Does it have to be that way? Not necessarily!
Added Chapter 38 (final)

A whole bunch of updates across most of my stories going up today fixing grammar and spelling errors. They're queued up and should be processed through later today at some point. Thanks to everyone whose sent me corrections.

I've been away dealing with day job stuff, and just got back to find I somehow had chapter 15 loaded up as chapter 17 when it posted, making the wrong chapter go up. I've submitted the corrected chapter, although this can sometimes take a few hours to process.

Space is huge and governments control as much of the space around and between their systems as they can, but there are still a very small parts of space not claimed by any government. Very few people are born on the ships travelling between the stars, and even fewer are born in the unclaimed areas of space, but that one thousandth of one percent who are so born are called Space Born and have some very odd citizenship rights and duties.
Added Chapter 07 (final)

Anyone who has purchased a copy prior to today at 9 pm PDT, I've uploaded a corrected version of the three formats (ePub, Kindle, and PDF). There was a doubling of Chapter 19; nothing was left out, bu ... more

Somehow the postings got confused; chapter one had the content of chapter two; and chapter two was correct, so it was a repeat of chapter one. A kind reader emailed me to point out the error; I've s ... more

Accidental Family is in the queue for posting. The first four files include the "First Beginnings," a historical introduction to the discovery and extraordinary roots of the Yankee Girl mine, her pros ... more

It looks like there was an issue with this weeks upload. I'm cueing up a replacement for it now.

Here is an account of Skarth’s adventures in and around the town of Saltmarsh as he explores his newly-found freedom and establishes his place in the town and the world. A telling of a D&D campaign. This follows on from the story “Skarth”, I recommend reading that first.
Added Chapter 12

John Taylor (8)
An old love's husband and a team from the defense contractor Northbridge have been taken hostage in Somalia and the company is refusing to pay the ransom. Instead, a rescue mission is planned and Taylor is suspicious of the real motivations behind the rescue and the men picked to attempt it. With help from his old flame, Taylor gets a spot on the rescue team, where he must face hostile warlords and an even more hostile allies, all while finding out what Northbridge is hiding.
Added Chapter 16 (final)

Book 2 of the Imperium Series will start posting on April 22nd. As always, information on pre-orders can be found on my author site tstarnes.com

Alana is an intelligent, hardworking woman who has always been sure of one thing: As long as you work hard and do the right thing, only good things will come to you. But, right before college graduation, people are starting to attack each other in the streets. Suddenly, what she's always known as right and wrong isn't so black and white anymore. The world is changing, and Alana must decide if she can change with it, or if she'll be just another ghost wandering the streets.

Melinda is a highly driven executive of a major aerospace company. Life was perfect until she tangled with the Donaldson family - a group of the most arrogant and difficult people she had ever met. After that, life gets a little strange.
Added Chapter 11 (final)

The last chapters of The Sword of Jupiter posted up today. The next book, called The Trumpets of Mars, is very nearly finished being written and just has to go through final proofreading. You should s ... more

Imperium (1)
An Uncertain Future in a New Past. During the test flight of a prototype faster-than-light craft, Lt. Commander Ky is flung into the ancient past that never existed. Rome has fallen, defeated by the mighty Carthaginian Empire. Hounded by the Carthaginians bent on conquering the known world, Rome is on the verge of destruction. Stranded and alone, except for a tactical AI implanted in his head, Ky has lost everything and must find a way to live in a world different than anything he's ever known.
Added Chapters 37,38

A man is taken then returned. He's not the same or is he? Now with a lot of questions he leaves earth to search for the only other one like himself, so far.
Added Chapter 33 (final)

A man with a past, not tied to anyone makes a startling discovery that changes his life and his perceptions of it.
Added Chapter 80

On a dark night in Los Angeles, the mutilated body of a homeless man is found in an alley. Happy Harry, along with other Druids, shows up to investigate. A huge hole is about to open in the universe.
Added Chapters 3,4 (final)

Dante is an artist, or at least he was an artist until his girlfriend left him for his best friend. For two years he has been unable to create anything. Then one day, a young man gives him a commission to create a statue. It's not just any statue, it's a statue of Happy Harry.
Added Chapter 5 (final)

In a grim future, the Loggin Folk have always scraped by. Now hunted by a terrible foe, they flee into the mountains that they know better than anyone else. They have no modern weapons, no transport, little food. They’re down to eating tree bark for most meals but still managing to move the tribe. No worries, the Loggin Folk have never been totally out of food. They have their PickaNick basket. There’s food in it.

The old 'Dare you to lick that frozen mailbox' prank.

So, yeah, I'm back to being transcendental. But y'all believe anything.

For every beautiful person there is an ugly one. Shadow is ugly, real ugly. Men flinch, women scream, and children have nightmares after meeting him. Happy Harry doesn't believe that ugly is necessarily a life sentence to loneliness.
Added Chapter 4 (final)

I know it has been a while, and for that I apologize. I have gotten a bit better, but probably will not ever get back to where I was. For those not following, I was in a car accident a few years back ... more