Editing

All titles are listed chronologically, with the latest titles on top. Several titles I’ve edited for Evolved Publishing. Each I think has the distinct flavor of how I edit manuscripts, though they are very different reads. Each is also part of a series, so be on the lookout for more books by the same authors.

Orphans are snagged from their beds and used in the Warden’s dark experiments. Those who seek asylum in the forest must survive the dangers of the night, when the forest trees uproot and roam free.

Fifteen-year-old Kole, with the help of his mentor, Russé, has adapted. He’s learned to tame the rampant trees and protect the orphans. But when one of the Warden’s mutated creatures discovers the camp and sets it aflame, Kole’s life is upturned and the refugees’ haven is lost.

Kole must convince the others to make a stand to save themselves—and all their people—from the anguish of becoming the next subjects of brutal experiments. Yet what chance does a rag-tag band of refugees have against the malevolent power and magic of the Warden and his vile creations?

Six months after the devastating end of her last case, police clairvoyant, as Zoë Delante sifts through the remains of her life, she gets an unexpected call. But the naga Seth Northman brings only ill-tidings: he has been apprehended in the murder of her father and needs her help.

Barely moments after Ella Kepler regains her memories and agrees to join Operation Whitewash in the pursuit of justice, her plans are once again thwarted by the vengeful Chron. The mind-reading Grifter, holding Kara and Ethan hostage, has exactly the leverage he needs to squeeze information out of Ella.

Assuming Ella and her friends escape unscathed, her battle has only just begun, for good can only win if every whitewashed lie is exposed–and not all revelations are bearable.

Some truths are ugly, some histories are better left unknown, and some secrets have the power to destroy.

When a CIA agent is murdered at the idyllic seaside resort of Sandy Point, Martin and Claire are despatched to investigate. They uncover a plot with international implications and go from one end of the country to the other to stop those responsible. Fast cars, planes and helicopters aid them in their race against time to avert this threat to world peace.

For Curtis Walker, being chief of security on Dark Landing means fighting boredom and feigning integrity. Caught in a quagmire he created, his greater struggle now is survival. That’s an ambitious goal since he can’t tell his friends from his enemies, and the evil alien blackmailing him can assume any form. Forced to team up with his reluctant assistant, the station’s irksome new chief of administration, and the runaway son of an heiress, Curtis discovers that only one of them is who they claim to be. Old comrades rush to his aid but rescue offers no guarantee of survival.In Mass Primary, book two of the Dark Landing Series, the characters you loved in Transmuted return to play a deadly, and sometimes humorous, game of “Who’s Rescuing Who?” Morals and motives are tested, and loyalties shift with each new plot revelation.Babylon 5 meets Firefly: Like book one, Transmuted, book two, Mass Primary, of the space adventure series Dark Landing, is jam-packed with action, humor, and romance.

Duncan Cochrane quit politics to escape the sins of his past, but two years later, he’s pulled back in to protect his imprisoned son, and a death row inmate who just might be innocent.

To do so, he must find new sources of power and new ways to inspire the voters who turned on him.

After months of working with the MTA in search of her captured best friend, Ella Kepler stumbles upon a secret that predates everything she understood about Kara’s kidnapping–including her own past. Armed with a truth that could either destroy or save lives, Ella works alongside a group of metahumans determined to battle injustice and bring every lie to an end. As Ella’s involvement thickens, she’s forced to realize that lies have consequences, enemies wear two faces, and even memories can’t be trusted.

When five people die from tainted pain medication, Governor Duncan Cochrane must lead the investigation. The clues quickly point to sabotage, threatening all the citizens of Chicago.

Meanwhile, his son’s drunken confession leaks to a journalist with an agenda. To protect his reputation and his family, Duncan keeps the boy by his side, yet he also needs to campaign for reelection.

Can he manage all three without sacrificing his family or his office?

A taut mystery blending politics with murder, They Tell Me You Are Brutal marks the third book in the “Duncan Cochrane” series by David Hagerty.

For centuries, a covert organization of metahumans called the Academy has protected unaware civilians from the Grifters, creatures whose humanity is as deformed as their craggy faces. I’d spent eighteen years ignorant of either group, and of their endless war. Then the Grifters found me.

The Academy whisked me away to safety, and we waited for the danger to pass. Only it didn’t. The Grifters, too stupid to know or too cruel to care that I’d left, kidnapped my best friend instead.

It won’t take them long to figure out their mistake, but I’m not going to give them the opportunity. Finding Kara means grueling training at the Academy—a sequestered hub of classified operations, psychic powers, and fighting creatures that should only exist in nightmares. We have the weapons, the technology, the brains. The Academists are strong, but Grifters are stronger. They can’t even feel pain. But we can, and Grifters are the perfect outlet for releasing that pain.

The Trace is the first book in the young adult trilogy “Whitewashed,” following Ella Kepler, a nascent metahuman whose strength and speed is matched only by the enemies set against her.

Here’s one I edited independently, which went on to be picked up by Kindle Scout.

Dark Landing hums, a cocoon of harmony in the cold vacuum of space. The only excitement occurs at the Saturday night poker games. That’s the way Drew Cutter likes it. Chief of Security in charge of the farthest trading post from any planet, Earth or alien—and wrestling with an overwhelming fear of space—he’s living his dream. When Letty Taleen arrives on the station, Drew thinks he’s met the consummate bluffer, but learns Dark Landing and the Alliance may be threatened by an alien race whose technology has outlived its biology.

Head of the largest conglomerate in the known universe, Letty Taleen receives a message from her father, missing for several weeks, ordering her to travel to Dark Landing. Within days of her arrival, the station sustains an airlock explosion, an inexplicable security breach, and a grisly murder.

Babylon 5 meets Firefly: Transmuted, book one of the Dark Landing series, is a space mystery/adventure, jam-packed with action, humor, and romance.

Here is another title I edited independently.

spirit

Veterinarian Kaly Aiton is agile in her professional life. But when it comes to her personal life, she seems unable to pull off the same competency. Her clumsy nature made her used to awkward encounters and embarrassing situations, but nothing in her thirty-something years prepared her for Henry. His gorgeous smile and graceful manner has Kaly believing her luck has turned around… until the day Henry disappears, leaving her with his beloved dog Mortimer. A seemingly random break-in is only the beginning of Kaly’s troubles, and she senses Henry is involved. As she struggles to figure out the burglars’ objective, she discovers she isn’t the only one searching for the illusive Henry. Someone else is hunting him and they appear willing to do anything, including getting rid of the competition—her. Will Kaly be able to find him first and get the answers she’s looking for, or will her maladroit tendencies trip her up one last time?

Two years have passed since the murder of Duncan Cochrane’s daughter. As governor, he now holds the power to punish all criminals, yet he cannot prosecute her killer without destroying his political career.

Then two new threats emerge: a sniper begins targeting people in Chicago’s most notorious housing project, Cabrini Green; and a blackmailer plans to reveal his ruinous family secret.

To protect his own family and those he governs, he moves into the tenements and begins parallel manhunts for both enemies. Along the way, he faces menacing gangs, a mysterious layman, indifferent police, and self-serving politicians, all of whom impede his investigations.

They Tell Me You Are Crooked is the second in a trio of novels detailing Duncan’s rise to prominence and the personal cost of his public ambitions.

spirit

Martin and Claire, still believing their nemesis, Wanda Jean, is dead and buried in Broome, are sent to Warrnambool to investigate a savage and despicable murder. Before they have time to collect their thoughts, more murders occur—each more bizarre than the last. The latest killings, so reminiscent of their former enemy’s handy work, have the ASIO agents on edge, wondering if their belief of Wanda Jean’s demise is accurate. Or could it be that someone has constructed this web of intrigue to draw them out?

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It is 1978. Duncan Cochrane, a successful businessman, has abandoned his company to run for governor of Illinois. Six weeks before election day, his adult daughter, Lindsay, is strangled in her bed. As the police investigation follows a series of false leads, Duncan uses his grief to woo voters and his growing political clout to search for the killer.

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Who is murdering babies in the Baltimore/D.C. area? For Zoë Delante, police clairvoyant, things gets personal when her one-year-old niece ends up missing. Someone is using magick to control and kidnap people, and they keep finding strange scales at all the crime scenes. Armed with stronger magick and new allies, everyone’s favorite Wiccan races to unravel this mystery. But will it be enough?

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Billie MacAvoy is part Dexter, part Tony Soprano, part Kerry Matheson… but all CIA operative, a member of the seldom discussed Clandestine Ops that few know of, and even fewer believe exists. When one of her assets goes missing, Billie sets out on a path even darker than Clan Ops, one full of unexpected twists and turns. It isn’t enough to maintain a cover. In the world of clan ops, there is just one rule: Kill or Be Killed.