After a long hiatus, I have returned to this little corner of the cyberworld with a pared-down list of projects:

Shades of Gunmetal
-Once known as Long Time Dead but eventually renamed after discovering that, somehow, there's a movie with that name, Shades is arguably my pride and joy as a writer, with innumerable hours of work put into its construction since 2009. It started as a collaborative project, but I've since struck out on my own; as they say, a concept piece requires a little madness, and madness is best achieved with a single mind. Presently, Shades is slated for six installments, as follows:

Dangerous Game: "2006. A lot has changed since the man who used to be Frank Castle cut his bloody swathe through Howard Saint's criminal enterprise. After being run to ground by an overwhelming coalition of crime syndicates in New York, he faces an altogether different enemy on the streets of Los Angeles: Jigsaw." Predominantly Punisher/Saw crossover, but the world heavily features Sons of Anarchy and The Darkness, with in-universe ties to everything from X-Files and Person of Interest to Black Hawk Down and House of Cards. For those who remember it from the old days: Frank/Amanda, still. Spoiler alert, it may end tragically- doesn't it always, for those two?

Kitchen: A more-or-less direct sequel to Dangerous Game that merges our many divergent Punisher timelines together by presenting a rogues' gallery of familiar villains from Barracuda to Billy Russoti to the Kingpin, and introduces a new nemesis a long time coming: Jackie Estacado, bearer of the Darkness.

Dead Man's Hand: The first foray into the larger Marvel universe pits Frank- and a new set of allies- against both the corrupt Xavier Institute and the extremist Brotherhood of Mutants. A ghost from Los Angeles returns seeking answers, but may not find them in light of the Chitauri invasion. Answers the question of how the street-level heroes and vigilantes of the city fought to repel Loki's incursion.

The Vampire War: Strange circumstances make for strange bedfellows as the Dead Man's Hand join forces with Blade and his Nightstalkers... among other, more unexpected allies. Things start getting huge. Rest assured, every vampire mythos you can think of makes some appearance in this piece. Even that one. If you know me, you know what will happen.

Heart of Darkness: Casualties suffered in the Second Battle for New York lead Frank into a descent through an ancient, arcane hellscape. Good thing he has a guide. Establishes the cosmology of this particular universe, and starts making a little more sense out of the supernatural crap that seemed, up until this point, shoehorned into an otherwise-grounded setting.

Serpent And the Saber: HYDRA makes their move against the newly-minted SHIELD Director of Asymmetric Warfare. Frank takes a hands-on approach to crushing them. The series finale throws most of the rules out the window, trading a little of its tone for a lot of Army of Two-style mayhem. Crosses everything over, from Captain America to Watch Dogs. I assure you that Frank and Steve will wage a two-man beatdown on someone.

Deniable Operations
-As with any story, small pieces tend to get lost as the great wheels keep turning. Deniable Operations is something of a "director's cut" collection of Shades drabbles, alternate endings, and little sections of the universe that got overlooked in the interest of the core narrative but deserve a moment in the limelight all the same.

The Death Gods
-Something of a spinoff from Shades, The Death Gods follows Mike "Blackjack" King, my erstwhile Author Avatar idealized, from Iraq to Portland to New York. The Shades-compliant version of Mike, Scarlet, and Ava's backstory.

Red
-Something of a love letter to both the franchise that spawned her and the one and only fictional girl to steal this withered old bastard's heart: Amanda Young. People tend to think of her in simplistic terms: a maniac, a martyr, a killer. No one ever asks how she got there. I think she deserves a chance to say her piece. Saw with a little dabbling of Sons of Anarchy for good measure.

Fates Untied
-Non Shades-compliant piece following Mike King once again, this time in his own ordeal with Jigsaw. This is a reboot of Ties That Bind, the collaborative piece with my former co-writer that begat Mike as a character.

The Blackguard Campaign
-Blackguard is a fun little shtick meant to follow SoG: Serpent in which Saber Team are yanked from the Shades 'verse and thrown into whatever the hell suits me that particular day. Some vignettes may be connected, some may not. I'll start by telling you this: "Day One" is Starship Troopers. "Day Two" is Resident Evil.

Eight
-"Mark Hoffman has escaped. No one knows this- that is, until people start going missing. Amidst the terror, a copycat emerges, determined to lure the bastard apprentice back into the light." Rather than change what is, Eight seeks to address what could be in the Saw 'verse, continuing the series from where its last installment left off... roughly.

Chasing Ghosts
-A foray into one of my other favorite fictional settings, Ghosts tells the story of the investigative team sent to study the wreckage of SSV Normandy. It's Mass Effect with only a handful of familiar faces, and none in particularly important roles.