Awards, Press & Interests

As the Waters Rise

Can one man's vision save New York City from climate change? The year is 2375 AD. Forced underground in 2085 AD by a violent, powerful hurricane, New Yorkers have been living in their subway ever since. Malcolm “Manny” Stewart has reached the pinnacle of his career as Police Commissioner of the underground Colony. While most people don’t believe humans ever lived above ground, Manny knows better. He understands that climate change isn’t over. Staten Island has disappeared into the ocean. All around the subway tunnels, the ground is shifting and changing; cracked walls and broken pipes plague homeowners. But there is no plan for an evacuation, and no one seems to care. Desperate to prepare for the coming crisis, Manny begins to build shelters in what was once Central Park, above ground. Ridiculed on SoshMedia as a foolish eccentric indulging a peculiar whim, Manny is determined to use his own vast fortune to build shelters, but with no machines, progress is painfully slow. At home, Manny is besieged by problems. His relationship with his second wife is strained, and his adolescent son hates him. Raised by an abusive father, Manny’s past comes crashing down on him as he struggles to raise his own son. But Manny’s greatest legacy is not the building of shelters. It is something else entirely.

Never See the Sun Again

By the year 2350, New York City lies in ruins, utterly deserted, skyscrapers broken and open to the sky. Forced underground by a hugely powerful hurricane 300 years earlier, the 7,000 souls who sheltered in the subway system became the sole survivors of what was once a great city. Desperate and determined, New Yorkers pulled together, creating a sustainable, self-contained society in the 840 miles of subway platforms and tunnels which make up the City’s subway system. Safe beneath the surface, they are free from the devastating effects of global warming, but are forbidden to leave. Manny Stewart, son of the Chief of Police in the Colony, comes of age in a society which discourages questions about the outside world. Is it safe to return to the surface? No one knows, and the technology to record and analyze the environment has been lost. When Manny and his friends bribe a guard to open the door at Penn Station so they can watch the sun rise, they are astonished by what they see.

Starlight, Shadows and Tears

Manny Stewart is a happy man in this year 2366. He has survived a childhood with his cruel and abusive father, and has matured into a street-smart, ambitious NYPD detective with a talent for his work, and a background as a thief. Married to his childhood sweetheart, Manny has a young son, with another child coming soon. While it is illegal to leave the underground Colony of NY, Manny has been doing so regularly for many years. The family business dealing in black market goods from Philadelphia is a thriving illegal enterprise which has made the family fabulously wealthy. How long can the Colony continue underground, with its aging infrastructure? When a new threat surfaces, it becomes apparent that time is running out. Manny’s career with the NYPD begins to take off just when the Colony is desperately in need of leadership. But his personal life falls apart when a sudden and unforeseeable catastrophe blindsides him, rocking him to his core, and in that moment, everything changes. Starlight, Shadows and Tears is the second book in a three-part series, Starlight and Ashes Trilogy. The first book, Never See the Sun Again, was published in 2021. The third book will be published in 2025.