Thursday, November 8, 2012

Ten Novels I’d Like to Co-Write with James Patterson


Original fiction by Alden Eagle

Back to Baghdad
Buzz Townsend is Chicago’s top detective. Despite losing a leg to an IED while on tour with the Special Forces in Iraq, he’s every criminal’s worst nightmare--and every patriotic lady’s dream.

But then, a call comes in that changes everything. The brutal murder of a Belgian embassy employee in Iraq leads to a call from the top--the very top. The President wants the best on the case, and the best is Buzz Townsend.

Townsend’s life is turned upside down as details of the Belgian embassy worker’s death become chillingly familiar. Townsend has to revisit the land he thought he left behind. He’s got to go back--back to Baghdad.

Flammable
Dash Mulligan is a proud Boston firefighter, and Mr. October in the annual firemen’s calendar. Beloved by his comrades, named Boston’s top bachelor two years in a row--Mulligan is truly living the dream.

But Mulligan’s dream turns into a nightmare as everything he knows is taken from him. A series of suspicious fires puts Boston on edge, and the number one suspect--is Dash Mulligan.

Mulligan must seek help the only place he can--with the Sisters of Holy Redemption, caretakers of the orphanage that raised him from birth. With the sisters help, he must stop the real criminal, before the secretive arsonist succeeds in burning down the final target--the highly flammable fuel storage facility beneath the orphanage. 

Toxic
Chemist Christy Spartan is a top investigator for the CIA. Her work takes her to all the dangerous hotspots, investigating the weapons programs of maniacal dictators. And that’s just the way she likes it.

Spartan takes a much-needed vacation for her honeymoon with NFL pro and jeans model Dirk Nash. But before they can settle into fun in the sun in Rio, a call comes in from the CIA about radiation of a type only previously detected in deep space--and Nash is captured by vicious drug dealers. 

With no choice but to take on both the deadly radiation and her husband’s disappearance, Spartan starts to see strange parallels between her investigations. Rio, space radiation, narcotics traffickers--all during Rio’s famed Carnival--it’s a mix that just might prove toxic. 

Zero G
Thanks to a recommendation from the President, Buzz Townsend trades in the mean streets of Chicago for NASA, where he becomes the nation’s top aeronautics investigator. 

It’s a cushy job--a gift for years of service--but this gift becomes a pandora’s box when an experimental space vehicle called Codename Zeus vanishes after leaving earth’s atmosphere. Townsend must enter the accelerated training program, because the clues are all in outer space.

Or are they? Forensic evidence connects the disappearance to mysterious radiation in Rio and a string of deadly arson fires in Boston. Only Townsend understands the gravity of the situation, but in order to put the pieces together, he’s going to have to leave earth’s gravity behind.

Starfire
Dash Mulligan is the world’s only celebrity firefighter, thanks to his work stopping Boston’s deadly arsonist. He’s on leave from the department, serving as lead advisor on the Hollywood adaptation of his own heroism. His biggest problem? Finding an actor who can match his own rugged good looks. 

But Mulligan’s time in tinseltown is cut short when copycat fires appear in Boston, Chicago, Rio, and on an experimental spacecraft. Mulligan’s foe couldn’t be back, could he? And who could possess the resources to start a fire--in space?

Dash Mulligan must leave earth to catch a deadly arsonist, stop an outer-space drug cartel, and protect the Sisters of Holy Mercy’s new space orphanage. If Dash Mulligan hopes to see earth again, he’s going to have to put out a star fire.

Supernova
Christy Spartan and Dirk Nash finally finish their honeymoon--in space. Thanks to her work hunting drug dealers in Rio and investigating extraterrestrial radiation, the President invites the celebrity couple on board his new space cruiser, NASA 1

It’s a dream vacation, but the dream turns into a nightmare when the President starts acting mysteriously. When the pilot is discovered dead, the President’s paranoia reaches a fever pitch, and he threatens to use a top secret radiation weapon--aimed at New York City. 

Only a last-ditch rendezvous with Codename Zeus--an experimental space vehicle returning from an unexplained trip around the solar system--can prevent the worst-ever attack on American soil--perpetrated by America’s  President. Spartan is used to working in hotspots, but this time, she’s right in the middle of a supernova.

Final Countdown
Buzz Townsend must take on a new job--President of the United States--when President Freeman succumbs to a dangerous space virus. Townsend dreamed of the job as a child, but now his dream has turned into a nightmare. If he can’t thwart the interplanetary bio-terrorists and their space radiation weapon, there won’t be an America left to be President of when he touches down--if he touches down.

Meanwhile, Earth’s top firefighter Dash Mulligan must start some fires of his own. Mulligan has to lead an army of the only group available to him in earth’s orbit--the plucky space orphans looked after by the Sisters of Holy Mercy. Can he fulfill his duty without being distracted by the beautiful young nun, Sister Maria Barcelona?

And Christy Spartan, still reeling from the effects of radiation poisoning, must protect Townsend and Mulligan from a dose of space radiation--a dose certainly fatal if not treated. In order to cure it, Spartan must find the weapon’s original source--and all clues point far, far from earth. Will she solve the mystery in time, or will this be the final countdown?

Sunday, November 4, 2012

welcome to the complainist!

the complainist is named after the first domain name that I both enjoyed and found available for purchase. I expect this is how most things are named. (Special note for parents: Consider purchasing YourNewBaby'sLikelyName.com before signing that birth certificate. If it's already taken, you can just pick a new name.)

As we get started, all recordings will be of my own stories. I'm a complainist, but also an optimist, so I hope to feature the work of other writers in the future, both so that I don't have to record a new story for every episode, and because I'd like to bring the podcast up to a half-hour a week or so, which is a lot for one person.