I first began writing short stories and then ventured into novels. Within everyday life, work, play, school, art, or travel, there are countless stories waiting to be told. I simply help them find a voice. (See the “About” section for more details) -Charles
most recent work:
Madylan of Manhattan: Amazing Adventures
madylan of manhattan: amazing adventures (Short stories)
Madylan of Manhattan, Amazing Adventures, is a collection of short stories that capture the joy, vitality, and mystery of a range of escapades, as experienced by young Madylan, resident of Manhattan, New York City. The tales take place in and around New York City, Virginia, Kennebunkport, Maine, and South Korea.
Join young Madylan in these fanciful tales as she ponders what might dwell in a parallel underground New York, embarks on wild adventures as a self-proclaimed ‘evil’ princess during a Manhattan day outing, relates the scary tale of banned pizza in New York, follows the zany antics of a lost toy helped by a chatty Easter Bunny scout in Virginia, visits with summer residents of coastal Maine caught up in an ageless conflict between merfolk and pirates, and falls in with a dreamscape mystery of a daring young traveler coping with all manner of cryptic characters, good, bad, and indifferent, in the far away land of historic Korea. Madylan of Manhattan, Amazing Adventures, is a set of rollicking tales for all ages.
Hues of Seoul: Mystery and Suspense in Today’s Korea
Paperback & Ebook (link)
hue of seoul: mystery and suspense in today’s korea (Short Stories)
Hues of Seoul: Mystery and Suspense in Today’s Korea is a series of evocative short stories linked together by a running tale of a life and death battle of wits between a malcontent, hermit-like native of central Seoul and an accidental visitor lured into a terror-laced den of no return on the deceptively tranquil slopes of Mount Namsan at the heart of the Korean peninsula. Like some horrific alley cat toying with its helpless prey, the denizen of old Korea lives to tease, destroy, and devour, while lamenting the demise of the old ways. Like a Korea-based Tales of the Arabian Nights, the trapped visitor, using his gift of gab, strives to delay the hermit’s murderous intent by weaving tales of those very fading traditions and dying myths that the hermit longs for.
The visitor reveals to his deadly host war’s tragic remnants feeding on the fringes of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ); hikes an eerie trail on Mount Bukhansan with a young Kpop star (with a bow to inspiration from Lee Ji-eun (IU, Uaena), and others) searching for redemption; dines in old Hongdae with an unlikely pair confronting stark reminders of a bygone era; watches Incheon’s fading fishing culture besieged by dark forces collecting souls like unpaid taxes; haunts timeworn Insa-dong alleys to witness an artist’s spirited rebirth; shadows a confused young man pursuing a troubled lover by the Han River’s dark waters; fights ancient evil with a Korean-American cleric in the Korean diaspora enclave of New York City’s vanishing Koreatown; and, finally, eavesdrops on a mournful tale of tragic loss on Jeju Island’s misty, rocky shores.
Join the two chance foes as the demented hermit’s menacing threats drive the visitor to spin timeless tales of the Korean peninsula. Who will triumph? Who will perish? Will the guardian slopes of Seoul’s Mount Namsan protect one over the other? Read on…
The God Song: An Artificial Intelligence Awakening Over Appalachia Way (2019/2023)
Ebook & Paperback (link)
Previous Works:
The God Song: An Artificial Intelligence awakening over Appalachia way (A Novel)
The God Song, a novel, explores a clash of cultures between comfortable tradition and mystifying new science, fueling questions about the role of more expansive machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in music, art, faith, and life. Nestled in the embracing mountains of Southwest Virginia’s Appalachia, one of the birthplaces of old-time and country music, an innocent child of tragedy dances her sorrows away to a new music, birthed out of the gleaming glass and steel of Silicon Valley’s relentless innovation, while diverse, ecstatic celebrants from all walks of life lose themselves in the child’s new music, carrying them to new heights of individual and collective zeal, as technology unapologetically pushes its limits.
Follow fringe elements attempting to lure the child and her new music out of the mountains and into the harsh light of faith-based business. Watch cyber pirates try to steal the child’s new music, and anything else they can vacuum up. Track shady news hounds as they sniff out wild stories, without troubling with the truth. Slip, for a moment, into the deranged mind of a shadowy zealot with a psychotic urge to return to a world that never existed outside of an addled mind. Glimpse inside organized religions as they strive to understand the origins, purpose, and ultimate impact of artificial intelligence on belief itself, regardless of faith. Into this mix, accompany anxious young tech creators as they struggle to fully understand and better harness the science they have unleashed behind the new music.
Join the dancing child and her protective mountain enclave as The God Song examines the multilayered intersection of music, faith, family loyalty, tradition, greed, and technology, and the impact of artificial intelligence as it drives the emergence of a distinctly different music revolution.
(2023 2nd Edition, new subtitle. Original subtitle: Artificial Intelligence Meets American Appalachia.)
Dark Sings A Distant Herald is is the first novel in the Distant Herald series. Set in the not too distant future of the English Midlands, the story explores how youth, unable to accept an eroding British identity, defy their new leadership and head off on a journey of discovery and adventure. (2014)
Dark Sings a Distant Herald: A Christmas Story on Holding Back the British Twilight (A Novel, C. Talmadge Mitchell)
Britain, a number of years in the future, some time after Brexit, is on the verge of the sunset of empire feared since the chaos of the post-WWII years, to include within the very borders of the home isles. Disillusioned, politicians have allowed the English Midlands to be absorbed into an experimental opportunity zone with increasingly repressive, separate regulations and practices that gradually erode the relationship between the zone and Britain at large.
John, a former zone prodigy, and Elsa, a brilliant stepchild of the zone elite, lead a small group to challenge the status quo and strike out on a journey to regain lost traditions. Joined by close friends Henry, Tom, and Arman (until an incident takes Arman on a detour), they are pursued by zealous zone enforcers, threatened by ethereal and dangerous characters, captured by lost souls, and forced to endure obstacles of uncertainty, adversity, betrayal, and disappointment.
Dash with the group across the wintry English countryside in search of a secret celebration as they attempt to evade zone henchmen, with surprise help from a range of characters; Sam, son of the zone’s founders; Emma and her elite team of River Welland Guards; Giorgos, an amicable Greek transporter and smuggler; Naomi and Bogart, siblings in a colony of artsy dissenters; a Persian innkeeper and, Elika, his violinist daughter; holy men from various faiths; an anachronistic ferryman; latter-day assassins who slip in and out of the zone like ghosts; and other accidental allies.
Move with the group through the powerful imagery and poetic tragedy of the Great ‘Oundle Run, the sinister dissolution of the independent schools, the unending agony of an angelic farm girl longing to be with her lost love, the madness of an old Mercian aristocrat who holds onto the past, the lunacy of a school frozen in time, the hints of ghosts from other eras, and a number of other adventures and encounters.
Step through the wicket gate and let the storyteller in this first book of the Distant Herald series take you on a fast-paced journey in search of lost traditions, misplaced identity, new friendships, and alternatives to the gathering twilight in the green and pleasant land. (2014)
ISBN: 9781483530123(ebook)
ISBN: 9781503090668(paperback)
Beach Time: Tales from Several Shores (2005)
Beach Time: Tales from Several Shores (Short Stories)
Beach Time is a powerful collection of stories weaving a tapestry of the shore as a place of reflection, a sanctuary for addressing life's challenges and opportunities, and as a point of departure for life's many journeys. Whether finding romance among the canals and lanes of magical Venice, facing life, death, and ghosts along the Carolina coasts, honeymooning in the south of Portugal, or solving mysteries in the Greek isles (Crete, Spinalonga), the stories will hold your interest across the miles and years. Additional tales speak to youth's desire to find direction in life, whether in the beach towns of Florida, at a Buddhist shine on Cheju (Jeju) Island, Korea, or along the North Shore of Oahu. Darker tales reveal how outcasts prey upon the young or confused in the chaos of the beach. Beach Time can be read straight through, engaging the themes linking the stories, or each story can be cherished individually as you travel to multiple shores in the US, Asia, and Europe-to be entertained by whimsical tales that both amuse and provoke deep thought about life's relationship with that in-between space where the land meets the sea and the sky. (2005)
ASIN: B006U9DJHQ(ebook)
ISBN: 978-0595339273(paperback)
Hues of Tokyo: Tales of Today's Japan
Hues of Tokyo: Tales of Today's Japan (Short Stories)
Hues of Tokyo is a haunting collection of short stories with a backdrop of one of the world's most interesting cities. As you travel with visitors and natives through the streets of Tokyo, you will puzzle through the surreal encounter of a first time visitor to Tokyo, join a salary man who is looking for life beyond the company, or hold your breath as a young girl tries to find a way out of a traumatic abuse cycle. Additional tales speak to lost love, the blindness of greed and redemption of fair play, and the loss of an old friend to modern encroachment. Several provocative stories look to Japan's history for inspiration in today's fast-paced society. Hues of Tokyo can be read straight through, as a whole work with interlocking themes, or each story can be cherished individually as you enter the world of a complex city of intrigue and history. However you approach the network of stories, you will be entertained by whimsical tales that both amuse and provoke deep thought about the relationships among past, present, and future-in Tokyo, and beyond. (2003)
ASIN: B006SSKDDC(ebook)
ISBN: 978-0595289905(paperback)
GALLERY:
Photos from Appalachia and beyond, relevant to The God Song: An Artificial Intelligence Awakening Over Appalachia Way:
Distant Herald Series Related Photos
Historic locales (England and Germany) that are inspirational on a number of levels.
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