WORKS

We’re in the process of redigitizing a large inventory of work previously limited to physical editions. As this can only be done effectively while Rhys is back home from the tugboats and helping his wife wrangle the baby, this process takes a while. Some of the listed works are available on our Amazon store, with the rest to come.

MAD ROMANCE IN THE OUTLAW TIMBERLANDS, VOLUME 1

Despite his best efforts, the aging Thog Lüc Maius Benn finds himself beaten half to death and dragged to a mountain jail. A reprieve comes in the form of a diplomatic mission to the dangerous eastern Timberlands, where a long-lost love may be waiting. He’s joined by a runaway family of indentured servants and the handsome young strongman whose softspoken demeanor hides a problematic secret heritage. 

They blithely ride away together down the long trail, at the epicenter of cosmic change as the mechanisms of an entire continent tick down to an explosion of violence; potential allies, a warlord, gangland cultists and a murderous backdoor fixer march for the same destination– all with soldiers right behind them, and bloodshed on their minds. 

Thog Lüc’s little band of travelers find themselves under siege along with the strange Timberlands community. The heartbroken old criminal struggles to hide pain behind a scruffy demeanour, and balance his various new roles; emissary, protector, caravan guide, a lover and possibly more to the man who pines for him, and as an imperfect mentor for a young girl with an unforeseeable future as one of the great persons of her age.

All trails end in peace and love triumphant in this gallivanting fantasy road trip, where desperate people sweep through each other on the gametable of gods, spirits, and mystical giants with deep investments in the affairs of humankind.

A HaPpy mOPpeT pOsT-aPoCAlyPsE

“  Vangelo wasn’t trained. He had a natural talent for what the oldheads called surfing the wartide, and that kept him alive long enough to develop skill. That skill allowed him to thrive in the meat grinder he called home.

His daily routine varied. The desperate struggle for survival let up every now and again. Sometimes he got to seek out a place where the air was sweet, and relax. Sleep a little deeper. Eat a little slower. Lay on his back in gnarled moss, and watch the shining rainbow putridity of oily clouds float overhead all day. 

Then he’d have to kill again, for as long as it took.

He was too acclimated to slaughter to resent it, but found it too routine to enjoy. He never wanted to enjoy murder. A lot of other people did. Not Vangelo. Killing was a lot like an unpleasant bodily function– it was just something he had to do.

So it was always awkward to end up in a conversation like this, with a trained colleague who took pride in what Vangelo equated with taking a shit. “

BETTIE COE, AND COCO TOO: A MEMOIR

After decades of petulant silence, classical cartoon character Coco The Clown sets the record straight on his wild career in the floating city of Oceanburg, circa 1930-1939. The veteran entertainer’s ribaldly unvarnished personal experiences bring new light to historical power struggles, from infamous club wars, and escalating conflicts between the old neighborhood criminals and dockside powerbroker Markie Zola, to Coco’s own part in the legendary pirate activity of the age alongside the irrepressible Family Schlumpft. More than anything the memoir offers a fresh new perspective on the famous entertainer Bettie Coe, and her involvement in the planet’s full conversion from Black-And-White to its modern full palette color scheme. Wry, overtly hostile, and arrogant, this book is perfectly suited to anyone who wants to both laugh and feel angry.

APOCRYPHA NAVITAFABULA: Hauntings, Sea Monsters, and other “TRUE” NAUTICAL TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL AND WEIRD

Easy-reading maritime stories collected from one ‘Corky’ Gautreax and various anonymous old salts, ghostwritten by the Outer Freakwave team. 

HYPNOCEANICA

An intensely atmospheric anthology building up to the titular story. Starting with a reinvention of the werewolf myth, each tale explores human interactions with unknowable supernatural forces until the text itself fragments into a conceptual frenzy.

EAT AT THE RAINBOW VORTEX

The stack of new money in Jubilene’s pocket can’t buy her a destination. Halfway between interdimensional stops on a long ride to anywhere, she takes a job at a bizarre cosmic diner until her life decides to sort itself out. Nothing important happens in this episodic narrative which will feel very familiar to anyone who’s bickered their way through a restaurant shift; a short comedy trifle.

BIRDWATCHING IN A FANTASY WORLD

An illustrated encyclopedia of the species, habits, habitats, and migration patterns of Dimnonquan birds. Anciliary material for The Outlaw Timberlands.

PLAYS

•  Sun Dog Sky
• Drama. Full Length. Against their better judgment and with sympathetic support from their mother, three daughters attempt to bond with their selfish and eccentric father during a weekend visit to his isolated studio. One sister wants closure, the youngest wants reconciliation, and the third is only there upon request.
  • The Devolted
• Science Fiction, 30 Minutes. Nico and Nicky, are “biologically adjusted” debt workers with a problem; they discovered a body on-site. Or at least, a victim who turned into a body despite their attempts at providing first aid. Interrogated by their conductor and his jackbooted security officers in a lockdown room down the yawning gullet of the isolated facility where they work, these indentured laborers have few rights– and no advocates– to protect them. When more corpses pile up, the power goes out, suspicious noises echo outside the door, facility management goes radio silent and the security team turns paranoid, the workers dig deep to finesse a rapidly worsening situation in any way they can.
  • Beguiling Love Destroyed Us
• Drama. 30 Minutes. A group friendship between disparate collectors implodes after the discovery that their most beloved member swindled them for years. Hidden feuds crack into the open bitterly as everyone realizes that the only thing holding their most cherished bond together was based on deception, and all are torn between the conflicting desires to settle grievances and just move on with their lives. Unbeknownst to them, a more cunning manipulator remains in their ranks working towards unfinished business.
  • Cursed Dirt
• Drama. 30 Minutes. Two gravediggers interact with each other and a series of visitors as they dig out the resting place for a freshly hanged man. The corpse’s unforgivable crimes and legacy are indirectly sculpted out over the course of the play, leaving a very literal presence in his wake.
  • In The Alligator Well
• Fantastic Mystery. Full-length. A raggedly haruspex rolls into town in an rusted old beater truck to act as a consultant for a group of business owners with a problem. They all equally joint share ownership of a house built to disguise and protect an oracle. A deep, deep well in the basement filled with water hides a portal to the spirit world, lined with enchantments designed to draw through one and one spirit only when you go “fishing”. Different, and much more dangerous, spirits are starting to get fished into the well and one of them nearly escapes before being banished (“flushed”). Further, the actual spirit of the well has grown dishonest and seems to be scheming something. More and more unusual things are happening around town, as reality starts melting into visions, and ‘reality’ is no longer certain. The haruspex helps the owners determine whether the well is just in need of repairs, or if someone is deliberately messing with it. And if the latter, then who?
  • A Problem With Upside-Down Anything Is The Cherry Factor
• Surrealist Dark Comedy. Full-Length. A young visual artist joins an acting class in hopes of physically connecting with the action poses they regularly paint. This also inadvertently commits them to a bizarre ritual of malign purpose, while they realize that it’s seemingly impossible to go home. With any luck, the school’s structure itself (slowly revealed to be designed as some sort of mystic engine) could lead to escape if properly used and appropriated… And if the artist gets through the strange mannerist interactions with their instructor and fellow students without undue damage or psychological harm. Heavily inspired by After Hours and Malpertuis.
  • Waves Of Galactic Fire
• Comedic Drama. 30 Minutes. In throes of betrayal by his friends and the pastor he long idolized, a young churchgoer in Pascagoula Mississippi impulsively wanders into a pool hall and meets a group of towboaters halfway through a day-long drinking binge. 
  • Hey Baby
• Romance, Full-Length. The meek, bookish, and sweethearted owner of a local antiques store is swept off his feet by a vivacious ex-carnival strongwoman in 1960’s America. They chart a new course in their lives as the country changes radically around them, leave for California and– through an escalating series of drug-fueled circumstances– find themselves acting as beloved older business partners for a ragtag group of underground comic book producers. The following storm of chaos only serves to escalate their romantic bond, and two former outcasts find their happy place in a society which formerly had no idea where to put them.
  • No More Stupid Magic
• Comedy. 30 minutes. Five years ago, the Grand Cosmic Emmissary traveled across the Mystic Dimensions to transform a 13-year-old girl named Dell River into a magical girl bestowed with the power to defend Earth from the evil designs of Organization Brutalitariat Mega. Instead, it mistakenly selected a 39 year old bartender named Del Rivers. Three years ago, It made the same mistake again. Then again last year. Now It’s back, and Mr. Rivers isn’t playing ball. He doesn’t care if the planet is torched down to a two-inch piece of charcoal. He’s done, and only cares about adjusting to his new job as an oil field worker. Unfortunately the Grand Cosmic Bureaucracy doesn’t believe in the reallocation of resources, and won’t take no for an answer.
  • Did It Get Any Better?
• Comedic Romance. Full-length. An unambitious and happily banal young couple endure the stress of invasively well-meaning advice in this contemporary reimagining of Marty. After turning to a professional matchmaker, Lisa and Courtney are introduced to each other and find the perfect cozy partner with which to spend the greater part of their lives. All they want to do in the world is make rent in a better apartment, eat comfort food, get high and watch movies while bundled up in a blanket together. Their friends and families disagree. Sometimes you won’t change the world– you can only survive it.
  • Tinkling Drips Of Broken Glass
• Horror. Full-length. Winifred Ashlin tries to put her two children to bed after a long, nightmarish week. Her daughters retain fresh memories of bodies they found stashed in a nearby riverbank. With the police searching the countryside for a “mad killer” and Mr. Ashlin away fighting on the frontlines of World War One, Winifred is as overwhelmed as the girls. Unfortunately, the murderer is much more ominous than the mundanely human villain imagined by local law. It hides outside, watches the house, waits for the sun to bury itself under the hills, and seethes with fury at all the food stolen from its larder. Some part of Winifred senses the coming siege. She proves to be of greater cunning than her adversary expects. The question remains, however, as to how a defenseless family living fifty acres away from their nearest neighbor can survive until dawn.
  • Arlé Francoise Du Pindupin
• Fantasy. One Hour. A modern Féerie play that’s resolutely classical with a single modern contrivance; that the heroic love interest is a grouchy rat bastard who’s very annoyed by the fairy following him around and loudly espousing Virtue and Duty. The Ingenue is not in any way subversive. She is archetypal, and must be rescued repeatedly. The fairy saves her most of the time, as the lead is either too unmotivated or too irritated to do it properly. The play ends with the story resolved, the ingenue sent home and the lead free to go back to his ratbag ways, only for the Fairy to profess her admiration and respect for his rough nobility of character. By finally choosing to protect the ingenue’s interests, he reveals the secret goodness in his heart. The fairy promises never to abandon him, and assure that she will relentlessly improve him no matter how long it takes to get him to Heaven– much to his howling disapproval. The play ends with a joyous ending number in which everyone ignores anything he has to say.

POETRY

•   River Songs
• A collection of maritime poems written on working vessels over the years.
  • Earthbrine Radio
• An absolutely unfiltered cerebraquarium full of psychedelia, troubles, and folktales.
  • Hugs and Kisses, Orlanda Furiosa
• A heartwarming sequence about a pissed-off immortal woman running around and chopping people up with a sword.
  • That Magnificent Sharkie Rhoades
• Tightly personal poems steeped in dark memory, all revolving around the titular character and a supporting cast of phantoms.
  • Voyage Of The Wayfarer Soul
• New edition of a pretty and haunting work telling the story of a child spared from the doom of the world.