I wrote another book!

Twelve years ago or so, when I began my first science fiction story, I started out with an angsty teenager running away from home to see what the Galaxy had to offer. 

Eight years later, I finally published the book—and it didn’t include that disgruntled young man. He led me to a story, and the story ended up better without him. 

But I still wanted to write his story. Not the angsty teenager part—that fell away rather quickly when I began writing—but the story of a young man who leaves his home, his family, and his Faith, and encounters that Faith again in the place he least expects it. That was a story I wanted to write. 

And I still wanted it to be a space opera, because space opera is fun and it lets you explore all kinds of ideas without worrying about whether they’re scientifically or historically accurate, but only if they’re psychologically accurate, if they match our understanding of human nature. 

That left me with religious space opera: an unusual genre, but one that I love. Because space opera lets you think about all the things that could change, and all the things that won’t as well. Good is still good and evil is still evil no matter what star we are orbiting. 

And so, after nearly four years of writing, rewriting, and rewriting some more, I am excited to finally announce the release of my second book, Worth Dying For. 

With a doubt-ridden protagonist and Communists, Objectivists, pirates, and bureaucrats all equally convinced that they are right, there’s a lot more to this book than a band of plucky Catholics resisting the evil empire. 

Book Description

Mark, a talented young mechanic, lives on a garbage world where richer planets dump their trash, and he hates everything about it. 

One day a stranger offers him a job that will get him off his planet and pay more than Mark ever dreamed of making. 

There’s a catch, of course: he’ll be working for an interplanetary corporation that implants its own tech into the brains of its employees. It’s a deal with the devil—the actual devil, according to his parents. But maybe it’s worth it anyway—Mark needs the money to help his sister. 

One thing leads to another, and soon Mark and his new friend Evan will have to decide what—if anything—is worth dying for.

Worth Dying For is available on Amazon here.