Jeff writes. Sometimes he writes for a very long time and ends up with a book. Here are Jeff’s published novels. You don’t want to see his unpublished ones.
The Ustari Cycle
A darkly original urban fantasy series featuring a cadre of mages operating just under the radar of human society.
Magic uses blood—a lot of it. The more that’s used, the more powerful the effect, so mages find “volunteers” to fuel their spells. Lem, however, is different. Long ago he set up a rule that lets him sleep at night: never use anyone’s blood but your own.
WEBSITE | GOODREADS | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Books-a-Million | Powell’s
The Ruiner
Every Wedding Has a Ruiner.
Thomas Massery has always had a way…with the ladies, with a good bottle of booze, and with a sarcastic quip. Attending a wedding along with three ex-wives is bad enough. Being seated with them gets his dander up. When he sees the bride escaping her own reception, he decides to use his powers for evil…and not for the first time. Because this isn’t the first evening Thomas Massery has ruined for everyone.
Chum
Mary and Bickerman are the center of their circle of friends–but these friends are strangers as well as family to them. In the course of year, under the influence of a stressful wedding and a whole lot of alcohol, relationships and nerves are twisted and broken as the dynamics of the cozy-seeming group shift. Secrets are kept, emotions withheld, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well for anyone.
Told always in first person, but not the same person, and unfolding in double-helix chronology that provides a Rashomon-like narration, Chum is the story of love, liquor, and death. Rumor is it’s an unofficial sequel to Lifers and there might be some cross-over.
Web Site | Amazon | B&N | Powell’s
The Avery Cates Series
Avery Cates is a bad man.
Set in a near-future where the world has been “unified” under one government, Cates exists in a dangerous society dominated by the Haves, while the Have-Nots struggle simply to survive. Cates himself survives by hiring himself out as a Gunner — a paid assassin. In a world that is slowly spinning down to chaos, Cates has to use every bit of his considerable wit just to survive.
New Short Stories
Beginning in 2014, a new series of short works released as digital-only shorts, eventually to be collected into novels that will be available in print and digital.
WEBSITE | GOODREADS | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Books-a-Million | Indie Bound | Powell’s
Lifers
Written in 1997 and published in 2001. Three twentysomething guys who transitioned from collegiate underachieving to corporate bottom feeding sketch out a plan to make a grab for some dignity. By the time their master plan is all said and done, nothing has been solved, nothing is better, and nothing, really, has changed. And in the slightly fractured wisdom of the larcenous trio, this surprises none of them.
SHORT FICTION
The Night Will Echo Back at You in Another Chicago Magazine #34, 1998.
Glad & Big in Aberrations #34, 1995.
Sliders: Blood and Splendor by Acclaim Comics, 1996. Written with Jeof Vita.
I Don’t Even Trust Me in www.webdelsol.com, 1999.
The Amazing Martin Landawer in The Whirligig #3, 2001.
In This Slowly Rising City, So Bereft of Company in The Whirligig #5, 2002.
Time Will Forgive in The Portland Review, Summer 2001.
No Great Trick in The Drexel Online Journal, 2003.
Kiss Them for Me in Bare Bone #3, 2003.
Friend of the Devil in Lullabye Hearse #2, 2003.
The Defragmentation of Thomas Crane in The Urban Bizarre, 2004.
Dick for Eternity in The Urban Bizarre, 2004.
The Defragmentation of Thomas Crane was an Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 18th Edition
And All the Days Like It in The Portland Review Volume 51, Issue 1, Fall 2003.
The Unappeasable Host in Bare Bone #5, April 2004.
And I Don’t Know the People Who Will Feed Me in Twenty Four Hours #4, 2004.
The Script in Bare Bone #7, May 2005.
The Script has been named as an Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 19th Edition.
Ringing the Changes in Danger City, April 2005.
Ringing the Changes has been chosen to appear in The Best American Mystery Stories 2006, edited by Otto Penzler with guest Editor Scott Turow.
Watch the World Die in From the Asylum, April 2005.
Self-Inflicted, Glorified in From the Asylum, September 2005.
The Amazing Martin Landawer in Brutarian, Spring 2006.
No Stranger to Frustration in From the Asylum, July 2006.
And Still Insists He Sees the Ghosts in Bare Bone #9, December 2006.
Mr. Benders New House in Brutarian Quarterly, issue 48/49.
When the Man Comes Around in The Whirligigzine #1, December 2007.
closer in my heart to thee in GUD Magazine , issue 2, Spring 2008.
Drum Trial in Strange, Weird & Wonderful Magazine, Fall 2008.
Sift, Almost Invisible, Through in the Mystery Writer’s of America Anthology “Crimes by Moonlight”, edited by Charlaine Harris.
Sift, Almost Invisible, Through was an Honorable Mention in Best Horror of the Year Volume 3, edited by Ellen Datlow.
“A Meek and Thankful Heart” in Buzzy Magazine (June 2013)
“The Ruiner” (Novella), Damnation Books (August 2014)
“Three Cups of Tea” Hanzai Japan (October 2015)
“Howling on for More” Black Denim Lit (January 2016)
UPCOMING
“The Bonus Situation” Mech: Age of Steel (2016)
“Crossed Wires” (w/ Stephen Blackmoore) Urban Allies (2016)
ESSAYS
The First Time I Got Fired in Angry Thoreauan, 2001.
You’re Eating Yourself, You Don’t Believe It in Angry Thoreauan, 2001.
i am behind the times, but electric church is the first book in years i devoured in a day…can’t wait to whip through the other 4…i already have a pang of regret that i will soon be done with the last one. thanks
Is there any way you can get Orbit Books to re-release ‘The Terminal State’ and ‘The Final Evolution’ with artwork by Jae Lee? The transition from the original 3 novels’ covers [and size] to the trade paperback is quite jarring indeed.
Dang, I meant mass market. Should’ve fact checked before posting. Sorry ’bout that.
Hey Jake,
Sorry – I don’t think that’s ever going to happen! It was a marketing/business decision.
Jeff
Thanks for the Avery Cates short story. It was fun to see him again.
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
Picked up a second hand copy of Electric Church just for something to read at work on lunch breaks, BRILLIANT, read it in every spare minute I had, now ordered the other 4 from Amazon!!
Thanks, Jim – that’s great to hear! Let me know if the other 4 hold up for you!
Been looking for something to read for a while after enjoying Richard Morgans Altered carbon trilogy and came across reviews for The Electric Church. Well, I’ve read that, Digital Plague and a, now onto the Eternal Prison. Really enjoying the books, funny, violent, with a great anti hero for the central character. Hope the quality continues across all five novels. I think they are probably too black for movies, but maybe a TV series or graphic novel one day? Who would you have playing Avery?
Hey! Thanks for the compliments, hope #4 and #5 (and now the shorts I’m releasing) live up to 1-3.
The books are optioned, but not sure if anything is happening with them. I’ve always seen Jason Statham as Avery. What about you?
I first picked up The Electric Church when I stole it from my brother back in 2008. I remember being 11 and discovering the profanity; I was thrilled. Seven years later and I’m a cyberpunk/scifi nerd and the Avery Cates series is still my favourite book series, honestly. Avery is a heartthrob in the worst way (that quick slick tongue). I reread the series this year & I can’t stop trying to make people read it. Only one friend has listened. Most of them think I am mad. It’s probably true.
The world feels so vibrant (where there is little vibrancy) and right now I’m on The Terminal State again & the Poet is such a complement to Avery’s character. This series has had some of the best twists; I remember reading The Eternal Prison for the first time and my jaw literally dropped when You Know What happened. Love the concepts + themes of transhumanism explored. Ahh I just love this damn series so much. Avery is probably one of my favourite fictional characters pls dont kill him
And to echo a comment above: gotta admit, prefer the original covers before they were revamped with the penultimate book. But hey. You guys know what you’re doing.
Also: ‘Crank’ is one of my favourite films (feat. Jason Statham ofc) & I just realised that yeah, I could totally see him as Avery. Maybe a little mainstream for my tastes though.
Thank you for this joyful series. Bless.
I love they Avery Cates series and have all the book and the first three audiobooks. I wish there were audible versions of the others. I’d listen to them over and over.