Ian Thomas Healy – författare

Almost OfficialFor the kids of the Neighborhood Watch, the final weeks of middle school are interminable. In the fall they will get to attend the Hero Academy, studying to become Just Cause superheroes. Their plans get derailed when police officers gun down an unarmed black man. Annalisa, aka La Capitána, gets video of them trying to cover up the killing.The incident leads to protests, which inevitably turn violent as emotions run high. The kids of the Neighborhood Watch do their best to calm things down and keep people civil, but situations escalate and people get hurt. How can a group of fourteen-year-olds keep their hometown from dissolving into riots, especially when the protests attract the attention of a pair of supervillains who thrive on chaos?

=On top of the world=As the world warms, civilian and commercial traffic through the Arctic increases. More people means a greater need for help, and Just Cause Arctic Circle is the superhero team assigned to find those who are lost and endangered due to accidents, environmental hazards, or their own foolhardiness.=A rescue gone awry=Rookie hero Maia, known as Devilfish, joins the team and barely has a chance to get to know her teammates before a powerful Arctic hurricane sends them out on an urgent rescue mission. They expect to find civilians trapped on a foundering ship. Instead, with the storm assaulting them like a juggernaut, they find something much, much worse.They're not well-equipped. They're not scientists. They're not warriors.But they're humanity's only hope.

Trapped in the game.Vanitha is the world's greatest parahuman hacker, who can physically enter computer systems to control them from the inside. To relax, she's created a Hindu-themed multiplayer online role-playing-game called The Path. When a mystery presents itself, she goes to investigate the strange, new Malevolence.It kills her.She awakens inside the game as a new character, unable to use her parahuman powers to return to the real world. Nor can she access any of her administrative privileges. She can't even speak her own name. With no other options, she embarks upon a desperate quest to locate her body, a corpse run that may present her only chance to escape. All the while, the Malevolence is spreading like a cancer, rewriting and corrupting the game. It's a speedrun where failure will be lethal: get her body and her powers back before the Malevolence destroys the game and everything inside it-including her.

The werewolf without a pack . . .By night, Jackie Langdon is the outlaw vigilante White Fang, fighting crime in Reno . . . except when the moon is full, and she transforms into a savage werewolf with an indiscriminate bloodlust that can only be contained by locking her in a cage until sunrise.The vampire hunting her . . .For the last century, vampire Charlotte Pastor has slain werewolves for her secret society, The Midnight Collective. When assigned to shut down White Fang, she figures it's just business as usual.An uneasy alliance . . .A supernatural force arises to threaten werewolves, vampires, and humans alike. With no time to find other allies, Jackie and Charlotte must set aside their differences. If they can't learn to trust one another, the world will pay the price.

Everything has a price.It was supposed to be a simple job for The Ghost, a 300-year-old unkillable mercenary: interrupt a prisoner transfer and deliver the prisoner to those footing the bill. Jingshen had done jobs like it thousands of times.But this time, it all goes wrong.Trust no one.He was supposed to deliver Zoe, a young woman with a devastating power. But after centuries of doing dirty work for money, he decides it's time to regain his lost humanity. They go on the run, hunted by superpowered mercenaries, and The Ghost will need every shred of his experience to keep Zoe alive and safe from a life of medical experimentation.

Either you die a villain or live long enough to see yourself become the hero.Forty years ago, Harlan Washington began his one-man war against the superheroes of Just Cause.One day ago, he grudgingly allied with those heroes to defend the Earth from an alien invasion.One hour ago, he detonated a new kind of bomb to destroy the alien fleet, and was thrown through space and time.Now... He's lost in spacetime and dying, more alone than any human ever has been.He never expected to be rescued.

It's not working out.When Ava Zhang washes out of Just Cause Chicago, she figures her career as a superhero is over. Then she gets the opportunity to partner with experienced hero Detroit Steel, and the two of them work to halt the distribution of a dangerous new designer drug called Wool. And once again, everything goes wrong.Ava is accidentally dosed with Wool and her ensuing loss of control results in major damage to an urban farm, and sends a young farmer to the hospital with injuries she caused. When she goes to apologize, she discovers she's attracted to him. But he may be involved in the creation and distribution of Wool, and Ava has to set aside her feelings in order to track down the supply chain.When she discovers the truth no one could have predicted, it will cause even more death and tragedy if Ava can't find a way to stop it.

WHEN THE GOING GETS WEIRD, THE WEIRD TURN PROJackrabbit is stuck in a time loop, living the same day over and over again.Jackrabbit is stuck in a time loop, living the same day over and over again and it keeps resetting no matter what he does.Jackrabbit is stuck in a time loop, living the same day over and over again, and his only hope to free himself is to recover a mystical artifact called the Nick of Time.But first he's got to survive long enough to find it against obstacles like a demonically-possessed water heater, a vicious cat in a tree, and a team of supervillains headed by the dastardly Cheddarman. Jackrabbit must find a way through it all or he'll go back to the beginning and have to start over again and again and again.LIVE. DIE. LATHER. RINSE. REPEAT.

From a single short story written in 2001 to a sprawling series of more than twenty books, the Just Cause Universe is a superheroic reflection of our times. Encompassing more than sixty years of history, these tales fill in the gaps, tell the side stories, and broaden the depth of the JCU. Although all these stories have appeared in previous publications, this is the first time they have been collected into a single volume. Arranged in roughly chronological order, these stories start with the earliest heroes from World War II and run the gamut through to recent history. Read how the inclusion of superheroes has changed some real-world events, while others have instead changed the heroes themselves.

The mystery of their lives.La Capitana and the other teens of the Neighborhood Watch have spent their entire lives wondering why they have parahuman powers but not the genetic marker known to grant them. When their former rivals, the Arnold triplets, come to La Capitana with a lead on the source of their powers, she jumps at the chance to join Brittany, Brianna, and Brooklyn.Truth and its consequences.Their investigation takes them across the country to New York City, where the four girls discover their abilities have a more sinister origin than they could have imagined. The question is, what will they do with their newfound knowledge, and can they triumph over the trouble that comes with it?

Once, John Irish was a legend in the porn industry, partying with the likes of John Holmes, Peter North, Nina Hartley, and Seka, but now he's on the far side of fifty, and Ron Jeremy won't even return his phone calls. Desperate for any kind of paying work, he's sunk to the level of bit roles in grade-Z porn and is even considering applying to work at Wal-Mart, when hot-blooded starlet Mindy Copperhead comes into his life. He quickly discovers she's far more than a simple blowjob artist, but is in fact an advance scout for a distant alien race, sent to Earth to find...him. Her race is embroiled in an interstellar war and losing badly. Her Queen became enamored with a movie in which John appeared, called Starfucker, and sent her scout to find him and bring him back to her, ostensibly to help her repopulate their dying planet. Thus John finds himself mixed up in a crazy, sexy adventure which makes even the most gonzo porn seem tame by comparison. In a civilization where skills can be learned via injections, danger lurks around every corner, and intrigue is as common as breakfast, John must get to the bottom of the mystery behind the war, as long as it doesn't kill him first, or at least break a hip."e;You'll have a really hard time selling this one."e;--J.A. Kazimer, author of Curses! A F---ked-Up Fairy Tale"e;Really, Ian, I thought we raised you better than this."e;--E. Colcannon, the author's mother"e;I would whole-heartedly give this book my highest recommendation, if I weren't, in fact, dead."e;--The Spirit of Douglas Adams, contacted via seance, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"e;How did you get this number? Stop calling me! I sold it all to Disney already!"e;--George Lucas

High school reporter Sherri "e;Bax"e; Baxter is content being an outsider, with a reputation as a nosy busybody among the students of Jericho High. Instead of friendships, she focuses on objective journalistic integrity, because it will get her out of the dead-end Texas oil town and into a prestigious journalism school, and she's pretty sure she's found her big story. A new girl, Molly, has come to town with a mysterious sideways grin, a bolero hat, a well-loved guitar case, and the musical talent of legendary blues man Stevie Ray Vaughan. Two of the school's rival rock groups need her for the upcoming Battle of the Bands, but Molly has a plan to cherry-pick the best musicians out of each band to form her own super group. Both bands engage in an increasingly dangerous rivalry ranging from theft and vandalism to assault and kidnapping. Who better to tag along with Molly and get every juicy tidbit than the intrepid school snoop? She might even make a few friends along the way.

When criminals are convicted, they go to jail. When they have parahuman abilities, they go to Deep Six, the most secure prison facility in the world. Six thousand feet underground, nobody has ever escaped from the maximum security facility.Until now.A parahuman terrorist called Misrule engineers a mass breakout, and it falls to a pair of prison guards to stop the world's most dangerous criminals from reaching freedom, and Just Cause won't be able to help them. Despite being overmatched and underpowered, the two guards must find a way to prevent the escapees from their ultimate goal.

Book Two of The Pariah of Verigo seriesAs one life ends, another begins anew for Giele Pariah as he settles among the Horks and prepares to become a father. But as a former soldier, he knows peace can only last so long. A young Hork woman from a distant tribe reaches out to Giele for help in dealing with a local coal mine that has poisoned their water and brought them to the brink of starvation. Giele is the only Elf who can find common ground between Elves and Horks.Giele and his companions travel to the valley of the Blackwater Horks, where Elven farmers who inhabit the land are not only dealing with constant raids from the desperate Hork population, but are also paying the mine company's mage to provide them with clean water. Faced with the valley's long-standing forces of greed and social strife, Giele must take up the mantle of military leader once again to unite a divided populace of farmers, miners and Horks and liberate the valley from the mine owner's iron grip.

-A City In Darkness--Four Lost Souls Seeking A Light-July 13, 1977 - The lives of four super-powered people become irrevocably intertwined when the lights go out in New York City, plunging their world into chaos. The superheroes of Just Cause, grown soft and complacent without any supervillains to challenge them, must overcome their personal demons as well as uphold the law in a lawless land of rioters, arson, and murder.Lurking in the darkness, like evil incarnate, is the one thing that could bring the world's greatest superheroes to their knees: the force of anarchy and vengeance known as Destroyer.

In the distant future, in our own galactic backyard...With the Confederation on the brink of war, the Watchtower organization struggles to maintain peace despite the ongoing threat of the Secessionists. A killer is picking off Watchmen one by one. Following the philosophy of "e;Set a thief to catch a thief,"e; Watchman Wisconsin Lockerbie hires cyborg assassin Jersey Jackson to track down the killer. While embroiled in the criminal underworld, they uncover a plot to build a superweapon that will tilt the upcoming conflict in favor of the Secessionists. Lockerbie, Jackson, and a motley crew of misfit aliens must set aside their differences to save the Confederation.

"e;I will show you fear in a handful of dust."e; ~T.S. EliotWhen Just Cause hero Orb is murdered using a new kind of nanotechnology, Mustang Sally will stop at nothing to find and bring to justice his killer. Not even her longtime mentor Juice's dismissal from his position as team leader can distract Sally from her mission.A sensational new parahuman named Champion brings old-fashioned morals back to the world, training others to follow in his footsteps and heralding the onset of a new age of heroism. But Champion isn't all that he seems, and there is a sinister side to his organization. To find Orb's killer and uncover the motive for his murder, Sally must risk everything that makes her a hero.Champion is the sixth novel in the popular Just Cause Universe superhero fiction series.

Make a deal with the devil.A few years ago, Mustang Sally had to make a deal with her worst enemy in the entire world: Destroyer, the man who killed her father. He agreed to use his technology to reverse a nanotech plague and save the world. His price? A favor, to be collected from Sally at some point in the future.Give the devil his due.The time has come for Sally to fulfill her obligation. Destroyer needs her to help him save the life of his sister, who has been trapped in a comatose state for nearly her entire life. Sally will have to enter the woman's Dream-world, with help from her teammate Minerva and Destroyer's nephew March. Once there, she must complete an epic journey through the woman's mind and find the key to unlock her consciousness and release her from her coma. She quickly discovers things that can harm her in the Dream-world have dire consequences in the real world, and Sally must swallow her pride to fight for a life precious to the man who stole a life precious to her.

The Pen & Cape Society, in conjunction with Local Hero Press, is proud to present The Good Fight, an anthology of superhero fiction from some of the best authors working in the genre. Collected within this volume are stories by Scott Bachmann, Frank Byrns, Marion Harmon, Warren Hately, Drew Hayes, Ian Thomas Healy, Hydrargentium, Michael Ivan Lowell, T. Mike McCurley, Landon Porter, R. J. Ross, Cheyanne Young, and Jim Zoetewey. After enjoying the stories in The Good Fight, please be sure to check out the works of the individual authors, because they're just super!

1907: A world of steam and steel, of brass and bravery. Spaceships ply the lanes above the Earth, running on coke furnaces and a prayer, while the atomic-powered Circumferential Rail runs the route between Paris, France, and Houston, Texas. Where there is cargo, and passengers of means, pirates soon follow, and this is how Jonathan Orbital, heir to the Circumferential Rail finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy surrounding a kidnapped French woman with a valuable secret.Enter the roguish space pirate Phinneas Greaves, who kidnaps the beautiful and intelligent Cecilie Renault off the Circumferential Rail in order to deliver her father's research to the highest bidder. The smitten Jonathan will stop at nothing to rescue her, but both men soon learn the global implications of the woman's knowledge, and they are forced to wage harrowing battles across the Big Black of space and the dusty landscapes of the American West, with the only certainty being that those who want to exploit this revolutionary technology will stop at nothing to acquire it.The Oilman's Daughter is a rollicking steampunk collaboration representing the best of authors Ian Thomas Healy (Just Cause Universe) and Allison M. Dickson (Strings, Colt Coltrane).

Making the Cut is the flagship show on the FoodieTV network, giving recent high school graduates a chance to win a scholarship to a prestigious culinary school. Midori is from San Francisco, and grew up in a family that owns a restaurant. All she ever wanted to do was cook, but in Japanese culture, women are relegated to hostess and management roles. Nicole is from Denver, the child of a broken home who's been forced to grow up way too soon. She's been poor her entire life, and that prize package is impossibly valuable to her. These two girls become friends despite their cultural differences, and together with six more challengers, will be competing in front of the cameras. With a $10,000 prize and that incredible scholarship at stake, can their friendship survive the rigors of reality television?

It's the first Devil's Night as cop for rookie police officer Veronica Preston, but not even going through the Police Academy in Detroit in 1974 could prepare her for what she'll encounter after nightfall.

Jay is having a pretty bad day at school. His popular cheerleader girlfriend just dumped him and a jock spilled soda all over his brand new Nikes. So when the God of Rabbits recruits him to save the world from an invasion of interstellar cockroaches, it seems like it might be a pretty cool gig. Maybe he could lose his new status as social outcast and win back his girl. Unfortunately, in the spectrum of god-like abilities, rabbits rank pretty low, and Jay received the ability to make snarky wisecracks, jump real high, and… that's about all. With all other superheroes snapped up by the Cockroach God and his minions running rampant in the extradimensional Gods' Home, Jay is left to the monumental task of rescuing civilization on his own, or so he thinks. The good news is the Bluebird Goddess has also found a Herald of her own, one of Jay's classmates who can now soar through the air with ease, but who also can't shut up for two minutes. Can these two unlikely heroes rise to the challenge of defending humanity?

Man. Lion. Warrior.Enigmatic superhero Lionheart was always cut from a different cloth than his teammates on Just Cause, so when he learns his old kung fu teacher, Master Chou, is dying, he doesn't hesitate to travel halfway around the world to pay his final respects to the man who saved his life and set him off upon his heroic journey. Upon arrival, he discovers his old master has been murdered, and quickly becomes embroiled in a battle for the honor of his master's Cherrywood School against one of the most dangerous heroin cartels in Hong Kong: the Five Deadly Serpents. His only allies are Master Chou's two children: Qiao, the seething warrior determined to avenge his father's death, and Lihua, the lovely and dangerous fighter who steals the lion's heart.They're outnumbered, outgunned, and the Five Deadly Serpents have numerous parahumans within their ranks. Lionheart, Qiao, and Lihua only have their training, their wits, and each other. Only time and blood will tell if the three warriors can save the Cherrywood School from the many-headed serpent of the Triad.

As a new president takes the White House, Just Cause returns to New York City for the first time in eight years, under the command of its newest leader: Mustang Sally.But not everyone is excited about the expansion of Just Cause. Senator Christine Goodwin, slighted by the team's leadership years before, has made it her mission to put all parahumans on a very short leash, while at the same time creating her own super-powered militia.With the media and America at large turning against Just Cause, Sally and her teammates must risk their lives and freedom to halt the Senator's plans, which threaten the futures of parahuman people worldwide.

A multi-author collection of eighteen original superhero tales ranging from the dark to the hysterical to the downright bizarre, including 2016 Aurora Award nominee "e;Super Frenemies"e; by Stephen Kotowych."e;And Introducing the Scarlet Scrapper"e; by Leonard Apa: A Golden Age tale of an actor who hates playing a superhero on the radio but discovers a new role awaiting him."e;Sovereign's Last Hurrah"e; David Court: In a retirement home, elderly supervillains scheme to return an item of power to their greatest enemy."e;RIGHTMAN! Loses the Faith"e; Gary Cuba: Being a superhero is what you make of it, and what you can make from it."e;Dax and the Red Eyes"e; Adrienne Dellwo: Dax's disability prevents him from telling anyone about his brother using powers to hurt people."e;Dum Dum"e; Leod D. Fitz: Some supervillains are geniuses, and others are simply well-trained."e;Light Therapy"e; Che Gilson: Being a sidekick is a thankless job."e;Pinning Portugal"e; Elliotte Rusty Harold: A group of supervillains hatches a new scheme that naturally goes awry."e;When Fukayna Danced Her Libraries"e; Jake Johnson: Eventually even superheroes need to step away from the job."e;Super Frenemies"e; Stephen Kotowych: A group of super-powered children take on the neighborhood bully with surprising results."e;The Faces of the Wind"e; Laura Lamoreaux: After World War II, the country no longer needed superheroes, leaving the heroes with difficult decisions."e;Capacity Crowds"e; Paul McMahon: He wants to be a real superhero, but can't seem to find a villain to match him."e;Heart of the Matter"e; Robert J. Mendenhall: Cameron's powers are preventing the medical treatment that may save his life."e;Ebony Boneshaft, Secret Superhero"e; Wendy Qualls: She didn't mean to discover Ebony Boneshaft's secret identity, and when she did, it caused no end of trouble for her."e;Eye of the Beholder"e; Dave Ring: Being seen as the object of everyone's desire is a poor way to live life."e;I Am Hathor"e; Aaron Michael Ritchey & Jason Henry Evans: Balancing superheroics and motherhood is a difficult dance for Hathor."e;The Romulus Proposition"e; Tim Rohr: When the mighty have fallen, it's probably because they were pushed."e;Saul, Again"e; Eric Rosenfield: A time traveler takes a circuitous, long-term approach to facing a dangerous villain."e;Damn the Dark, Damn the Light"e; K. H. Vaughan: There's a fine line between heroism and nihilism and sooner or later everyone crosses it.

You've seen Sharknado. You've watched Ghost Shark. Now killer sharks take to their highest altitude ever in the book that absolutely no one asked for, but everybody wants to read: Space Sharks. That's right. Sharks. In space. What more do you want?

A collection of eight tales ranging from horror to superhero, science fiction to post-apocalyptic, that examine the darker aspects of the world.-Bread and Circuses: This weary warrior has been fighting battles for a very long time.-Dental Plan: Robert's teeth are falling out left and right, sometimes only minutes apart. What is happening to him?-Footprints in the Butter: When the creatures showed up, it was only the beginning of Paul's waking nightmare.-Last Year's Hero: Battledriver Linnea is the best of the best, but now is she too old to come back for one more season?-Pedals: Once the gasoline ran out, the only way for the wasteland wanderers to get around was on bicycles.-Tracks: Being a hacker isn't so glamorous.-Boy Scout: When the most powerful superhero has had enough, what chance does the world stand?-1001001: All sentients seek something greater than themselves, even robots.

Seventh-grade Superheroes!It's not easy being a twelve-year-old superhero, but the five kids of the Neighborhood Watch are doing the best they can. La Capitána: super-strong flier. Wheels: brilliant inventor. Hothead: catches on fire. Breezy: controls wind. Rascal: super-skateboarding. From their headquarters built into a repurposed Winnebago, they patrol the streets and alleys of their small hometown and dream of being Big Time Heroes like Mustang Sally and the rest of Just Cause. Instead, they're stuck rescuing cats stuck in trees . . . or they would be if their rivals didn't get there first.Three superpowered identical triplets, the Culture Club, are the darlings of local media. They never miss a photo opportunity or interview. They always seem to be in the right place at the right time. It just isn't fair.When La Capitána manages to stop a real supervillain, it changes everything for the Neighborhood Watch, and sets in motion a chain of events that will mean only one team can come out on top. Will the Culture Club win the day once more, or will the Neighborhood Watch prevail?