John Payne: 39 books

It’s known as the Cataclysm—an event responsible for arresting most electronic technology. Its impact was global and few countermeasures existed. Civilization was nearly brought to its knees. At least for a while. We found ways of getting by. Humanity connected with its past while auguring new...

They stalk our myths and hunt our past—dragons—humankind’s greatest and oldest foe. Good, bad, legendary and deadly. Dare you enter the dragon’s lair? Thirteen tales of dragons, their friends and their foes. # Table of Contents "The Crown and the Dragon" by John...

How can such a horrendous act of violence take place in a mental health hospital where all patients are closely monitored. Four patients and two nurses are tagged as persons of interest in the murder. The CIA and FBI are investigating because of a possible al-Oaeda cell operating in the hospital or...

The biblical marriage pact has remained consistent in its interpretation since the beginning of mankind. That is to say "what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Mark 10-9. The separation component has often become commonplace, human nature being what it is. Lust,...

Cancer treatment is at hand. A San Francisco lawyer owns a falcon, a wealthy womanizer from Chicago owns a python and a gay man from Paris owns a bulldog. All three are in the terminal stage of melanoma and are warehoused waiting to die. But, their pets are in rare form, keeping them alive. They learn...

Fictional account of a couple managing an apartment building in downtown San Francisco and the many challenges presented by both the owner of the complex and the interesting residents. Each chapter presents a descriptive scenario and sometimes strange interchange between the main characters in the book. Did the Zodiac killer of the late 60's really live here?

The primary setting of this book focuses on an independently owned private investigation business in Chicago. Rod meets up with an old Army buddy on a cruise out of Galveston, Texas and also an interesting school teacher. Bradley Simmons operates the agency. Rod conducts some initial surveillance...

Stage Three: Rod Richards Returns contains three books in the my fictional Three and Out Trilogy. The first book is The Saga of A San Francisco Apartment Manager which embodies humor on a true-life, fiction platform. The book highlights the interpersonal relationships of the diverse and interesting...

Jamie Richards is reunited with his old friend, Denis Sweeny, former Navy SEAL and chief protagonist. Jamie has lived a terrible life of risk-taking, sinfulness, and disregard for acceptable human behavior. Nothing could ever stop him. But in the end, justice was served. ISIS is everywhere, spreading...

Race and racism have played a divisive and defining role throughout much of America's history. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and Ku Klux Klan terrorism have inflicted deep psychic wounds, social disparities, and economic disadvantages that have diminished the promise of equal rights and opportunities...

Unicorns, with their single ivory horn, are elusive and magical creatures of myth. Yet even more elusive are the purple unicorns. First sighted at the Superstars Writing Seminar, their legend has grown year after year until it could only be contained in this anthology. Nineteen storytellers,...

Psychotic killers, devious ghosts, alien monsters, howling storms, undead creatures, and other dark forces haunt the highways and the truckers who drive them in these 18 chilling tales. A ghostly voice on a trucker’s CB radio knows more about his life than it should… Two drivers find their cargo...