When writing a tactical thriller with heavy action elements, you have to get around to talking about the hardware. Tools drive what the characters can and can’t do, and weapons are a big part of that. Also, guns are cool. When writing guns in fiction, a common approach is to simply drop generic terms like […]
The Music of Babylon Blues
BABYLON BLUES, my current cyberpunk horror saga, holds a most unusual distinction: it is the first story I wrote that was inspired by music. The first time I heard ‘Babylon’, it was in Leonard Cohen’s ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’. One line goes like this: Oh let me see your beauty when the […]
Babylon Blues Part 14
Beyond Truth and Lies Deep in the desert at the heart of Nova Babylonia, sited at the furthest point from every inhabited city and settlement in the country, surrounded by sun-scorched dunes and barren mesas as far as the eye could see, there stood a curious structure. It was a cube. A black, gleaming cube, […]
Babylon Blues Part 13
Time for War The New Gods took their time setting up. Fox suspected several reasons. Their mutual animosities getting the better of them, forcing them to delay and confirm and double-confirm every move and every step. Local commanders calling in muscle and firepower from every corner of Nova Babylonia. Tacticians formulating plans within plans, plans […]
Babylon Blues Part 12
The BITE The BITE was a great place to die. The Babylon Institute of Technology and Engineering was the premier research university in the nation. Its pedagogy was world-class, and its laboratories were at the forefront of technological innovation. The Bear Campus concentrated on biological sciences, and on the fifth floor, the newest addition to […]
Babylon Blues Part 11
Crabs In A Bucket In the darkness, they congregated in the living room. Sirens screamed in the night, steadily approaching the street. The curtains were too thin to completely block out the light, and the last thing anyone needed was for a suspicious cop conducting routine canvasing to notice them. “How did they trace you?” […]
Babylon Blues Part 10
Time-Limited Targets Contrary to Fox’s expectations, Alex didn’t work from home. He had a computer in his home office, to be sure. It was a custom rig, sleek and sophisticated, radiating raw power. The tower was water-cooled, the pipes and processor visible through see-through panels. He had a silent mechanical keyboard and a complex-looking ergonomic […]
Babylon Blues Part 9
Electric City Electric City existed only in the minds of the inhabitants of Babylon. Bounded by two subway stations, it ran rampant across streets and neighborhoods, violating the grids laid down by the city planners long ago. Administratively it was divided between three precincts, quietly encroaching on a fourth. To the government, it was an […]
Babylon Blues Part 8
Story Behind the Story The team reconvened at their secondary rally point. Hartsock National Park, a thin strip of green that bifurcated Cape Rockaway, an arm of land that jutted out into Babylon Bay and gently curled back like a horn. Located in the shadow of Babylon International Airport, aircraft screeched overhead at regular intervals. […]
BABYLON BLUES REMASTERED is Live!
Firefights with monsters and cultists in neon-drenched streets. Terror and technology in a world ruled by demons. Welcome to Babylon. In 2018, I published the first entry in a five-part cyberpunk horror saga titled Babylon Blues. Follow-up stories expanded on the characters, the lore and the universe, setting the stage for a final conflict between the Black […]