Mettle's Forge

by Charles D. Shell

Overview

Drill Sergeant Rachel Doss thought her army life and career was pretty exciting, but the excitement had barely begun. One of her soldiers—Mark Windle—turns out to have an extraordinary past involving a parallel dimension. After a freak accident, he draws thirteen Texan citizens—including Rachel—into an alien wilderness with no way home.

The thirteen refugees include Cindy, a teenage girl with an abusive past and her young sister Charlie; Jamal, a quiet nerd with a streak of genius, Dennis, an aging Vietnam vet and the environmentalist fanatic Martina.

The disparate group faces magical hazards, giant predators, hostile natives, and even a demon! Their biggest challenge, though, is to cooperate long enough to reach civilization—and somehow keep their humanity.

As they struggle to survive, everyone's secrets unfold and they discover that perhaps the group isn't as ordinary as they thought—and perhaps more than survival awaits them.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940044424999
Publisher:	Charles D. Shell
Publication date:	04/03/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	663 KB

About the Author

I'm a native of southwestern Virginia and still dwell nearby,perhaps deep within the limestone caves of the region.

I grew up a geek who loved science fiction, fantasy, comic books and role-playing games–pretty much the whole nerd gamut. I snagged an associate degree in Commercial Art at Virginia Western Community College before joining the Army.

I spent four years in the U.S. Army as a SIGINT Analyst (if you don't know what that is, it sounds a lot sexier than it really is.) I spent most of my time in uniform in Germany, during which I concluded that it wasn't the career for me. After which I attended the Joe Kubert School of Graphic Arts and Animation in Dover, NJ and graduated three years later. I had intended on seeking a job in the comic industry–until I got exposed to enough of it to rethink my intentions.

In the intervening years I subsisted on odd jobs and periodic freelance art work. At some point I decided to try to write. Much to my joy, I discovered I loved writing. I REALLY loved writing. During my free time in the last ten years I've written six novels and am halfway through the seventh. In-between the novels I've written fifteen short stories and have done a lot of fiction blogging.

After my second novel was thoroughly rejected by all the usual companies as well as countless short story rejections, my attention was grabbed by the exploding ebook market. So instead of continuing my cycle of publisher rejections, I decided to post my fifth novel, 'Fourfold' online. Since I
didn't have the financial wherewithal to hire a cover artist, I dusted off my art skills and painted it myself. I shall hopefully have my fourth novel 'Mettle's Forge' published–with another cover painted by me–within the next few weeks. I shall publish my second, third and sixth novels as soon as humanly possible.