December was a month of travel, writing, and weather

• Still working on the firet  draft of my next novel about Desert Steve — slower than I wanted, but will still be able to finish in January.
• More Jeep off-road to explore some places in the mountains where scenes are located in my next novel.
• Attended three more L.A. Rams games. They won all three and made the playoffs. SoFi stadium is amazing!
• Christmas and New Year’s Eve was a joyous time with friends and family, a bit of pub crawling, and restaurant sampling. 
• with a storm offshore, the surge and unusually high tides brought flooding to some of the areas near me, a motor yacht that rocked constantly, and some amazing views from the beach.

I've written over  80,000 words in the first draft of my next novel, a historical fiction work set in the late 1882-1972 in the California desert (see below). January 
will include finishing the first draft,  more writing of the novel (finish the first draft!), working on a ghostwriting project, and three editing projects for other authors.

Scroll on down for my books, current novel in progress, sneak peaks, and book reviews.

Have a good month, dear readers. Make someone smile. Don’t judge others when you don’t know their story. "Be curious, not judgmental."

This is a sample of four short stories from Markus' two collections. 

Free or .99 from most retailers

Desert. Sun. Sand. And no roads or human settlements within 50 miles in any direction. The perfect place to found a town?

That's what Steve Ragsdale believed. So he and his wife bundled up their four kids in their 1915 Ford Model T, bought a local prospector’s shack and well, and built a fuel station (a 50-gallon drum), a repair garage, and café. He advertised “Free food on days the sun doesn't shine" and “No drunks, no dogs—we prefer dogs.” He was the mayor, sheriff, rockhound, author, naturalist, desert guide, and Santa Claus at Christmastime. He became one of the local “Desert Rats” and earned the moniker “Desert Steve.” Along the way, he became part of history: the construction of the first State and National highways, the invention of prepaid healthcare, General Patton and World War II, the largest iron mine in the United States, flying saucer sightings, and much more.

Based on a true story, this is the tale of a quirky, clever, and bold man who pursued a dream, wrote bad poetry, and found ways to survive when many would have perished or packed it in.