Non Traditional Published
The Pandora Syndrome
The Pandora Syndrome is a fact-based science fiction novel that follows a group of researchers from team conception to the discovery of an extremophile life form to the accidental release of the bacteria in a city outside of San Francisco. Through the skill of first responders, fire fighters, law enforcement and other agencies, a pandemic was prevented saving perhaps thousands of lives.
James Taylor is a veteran of the United States Navy and a trained state certified fire fighter with training in first responder and EMS/EMT and draws on this training and the research skills gained from four published English Renaissance biographies to present a fact-based science fiction on “What could happen.” The Pandora Syndrome presents a very real possible situation including the serious results of a deadly bacteria public exposure.
Checkmate
A retired college professor and his son sit down to play a game of chess. The sequence of moves they made are a key that opened a gateway allowing an ancient Egyptian war goddess Menhit, from the reign of Ramses XI, into their time to form a new dynasty, this time on the campus of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
During the time of the pharaohs, two meteorites fell (gifts from the gods) into the land of Egypt. Because one of them fell during the day, they called it a sun stone and because the other fell during the night, they called it a moon stone. The origin of the meteors is not known, but each stone contains powers unknown to modern science. The Egyptians broke the sun stone into four pieces and sent them into the cardinal four directions. The story follows a team of researchers who attempt to track down the location of three sun stones (one was seized by a high priest after the gateway was opened) which is the only way to close the gateway by completing the sequence of moves of the chess game. Military and civilian law enforcement soon realize that their weapons are ineffectual against Menhit and her large army as she slowly expands her new dynasty sometimes leaving a trail of death and devastation behind.
The names of the ancient Egyptians, places and time periods are from ancient history, but the story will certainly change the way we think of the game called chess.
Copyright 2018 James D. Taylor Jr.
Roxanna's Diaries
Roxanna's Diaries share tales never told before about the special and perhaps magical love two woman can share with each other. These are fresh and do not follow old over used formulas.
The Red and Blue. A Civil War story never told.
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The Red and Blue
This story is of a 17 year old girl growing up on a farm coming of age as rumors of discontent are heard as the Southern states disagree with the anti-slavery proclamations of newly elected President Abraham Lincoln and the lines of division begin to form as states separate from the Union. Her family is pro-Northern. A frightened 18-year-old run-away half black slave girl arrives at their house and captivates her young and innocent heart developing into a very deep relationship.
Before the battle of Ball’s Bluff on 20 October 1861, her younger brother runs off to join the Confederate army. On the day of the battle, a division of Confederate troops camp near their home near Leesburg Virginia. They rape and brutally murder her mother and kill her father and hang the young woman who captivated her heart while she is on a picnic to say good bye to a young man after her heart.
In late October 1861, Henrietta cuts her hair when she realizes that she can pass as a man then joins the Union army because she felt if the Union army had adequate size force at Ball’s Bluff, the brutal death of her parents and the woman who won her heart would have been prevented.
Henry Walker finds herself in some of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War fighting sometimes hand-to-hand to survive. Her gallantry and bravery rewards her with a commissioned officer rank and in a later fierce battle her position is over run and captured by Confederate soldiers and captured. She is held in the brutal Libby Prison (Satan’s Latrine) in Richmond Virginia, to face a new set of hardships never imagined.
Her true identity is discovered by a slightly older Native American Ojibwa woman who helps her to escape then flee to Leesburg through miles of enemy held lines. A deep, everlasting bond and love quickly develops between them. They become Mr. And Mrs. Henry L. Walker as she is reassigned to the new offices of JAG army to follow her father’s desire to have a son as an attorney also.
The story concludes with her passing the bar and with many very successful investments her father had in place, spends the remainder of her life with Mrs. Walker all the while concealing her sex.
Sin in the Forbidden City
Sin in the Forbidden City
Poor born into the Lower East side of Manhattan, Morgan learns how to fight to survive among the rats, murders and thieves on the streets earning a position in the Brooklyn ship yards as a caulker and earning respect quickly, then to join the Union navy at the age of 14 to serve four years defending the Eastern Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico from Confederates including several hard fought battles. While on patrol during the last year of the war, Morgan and closest friend check on a small sinking ship, to discover something that provided the path to a secure future.
Captain Morgan purchased a three masted ship with a small boiler and set out on the same oceans as the great explorers of antiquity. Captain Morgan Ryan thwarted a vicious attack by a Japanese Imperial navy ship and the recovery of only two survivors of the sunken Chinese junk ship that would change Captain Morgan Ryan’s entire life.
As a result of a miscalculation and a sudden violent typhoon blowing north while they were in the Philippine Sea, forced them to run aground on a deserted tropical uncharted island for a month. During that time, Captain Morgan and the two survivors merge Eastern and Western beliefs in a unique way.
The Emperor of China has been assassinated and one of Captain Morgan Ryan’s passengers is the heir to the throne, and fell in love with.
Captain Morgan Ryan was 16 when she made a decision regarding the discovery of a large cache of Confederate gold bars leading her to the discovery of Chinese treasure through life threatening situations evoking human basic primal instincts of kill or be killed while in battle, to the breathtaking Chinese landscapes and rich architectural buildings often a 1000 years to 2000 years old. All the while successfully keeping her sex known to all but three at the time of the American Civil War, then to marry two of China’s great treasures.
Sin in the Forbidden City is based on Chinese Song Dynasty folk tales regarding the ancient belief of the almost magical relationships only shared between women. That experience is viewed through the journals Morgan kept through most of her life, including family accounts and through decades of persuasion, the completion of a book about this truly remarkable, strong, yet very passionate and sharing woman and those she shared it with.
“I feel privileged and honored to have spent so many wonderfully rich and vibrant years with the only person to win my heart and soul for eternity,”
The author of Sin in the Forbidden City was quoted after her first draft was completed in 1919.
“We cried for hours after reading the first assembled book, So many happy, yet sad memories.”
Emperoress Wang, Chan Juan and Dr. Zhang, Chao Xing Li, PhD.
Cinna Cassia, Queen of the Britons
Cinna, Queen of the Britons. c. 397-431.
In the year 1494, a monk discovered an obscure hand written manuscript recording certain events from the life of 13 year old Cinna Cassia, Queen of the Briton from Briton’s post-Roman era while organizing manuscripts in the archives in Canterbury England. The monk was so impressed with the little information he reviewed of this woman that he dedicated all his available time to reviewing manuscripts, documents, and folk songs. The monk visited archives in France, England, Scotland, and Italy furthering his appreciation of her.
When Rome pulled out of England about 410 A.D., the vacuum that created encouraged invasions from countries who prized the island, mainly the Anglo-Saxon. Several tragic events made Cinna stand up and refuse to be ruled by anyone other than by themselves. Her vision came together as the numerous kingdoms at the time united under the United Kingdom of Briton and Cinna was elected queen soon after the birth of a son conceived through a brutal rape by a Roman soldier. Cinna formed and trained armies and provided them with up-to-date weapons to repel any attacker. Her leadership and management skills allowed London to grow after she decided the city was strategically located giving the country a capital and central form of government.
Cinna understood the importance of treating the wounded as soon as possible on battlefields and utilized what we now call doctors to reduce the deaths of her trained soldiers. The monk found several references that Cinna married a woman Lily and a single mention that she formed an educational system for anyone who wanted it and the first schools were appeared. Children, adults, and soldiers received an education to be passed on.
The monk published the book about her in 1518, but found there was no interest in a woman from England’s early history with scholars or historians. But the king noticed and the monk was prosecuted because a book supporting same sex relationship violated all religious doctrine and he was burned at the stake in front of three thousand people. A common form of religious punishment during the Reformation period of King Henry VIII’s rule. The king ordered all known copies to be destroyed.
In 1909, a librarian discovered a single moldy water-stained copy that had fallen behind a stack of books in a Paris library. The librarian returned the book to its proper location and the book remained forgotten about until a modern scholar discovered it and wrote her story in the pages you are about to read.
This fictional story would most certainly fit into the vast void of early post-Roman English history when same sex relationships were regarded much differently than now because of certain religious powers altered those beliefs.
