Steven-Elliot Altman

Imagine never touching another human being... Robert Luxley has a biological problem he does not understand and cannot control: one touch from his bare skin and you're paralyzed for fifteen minutes. Lonely and isolated, he's turned his "special trick" into a lucrative career as a hired killer. He thinks he's one of a kind-until one day he's confronted by a young girl named Cassandra, who tells him he's not alone. She has it too, and the two of them are not the only ones. Carriers can render anyone they touch blind, deaf, or otherwise senseless, in seconds. Fearing discovery, Luxley follows Cassandra through a dark underground network of "Deprivers" in a desperate hunt for her missing brother Nicholas, taken hostage by a radical group of carriers with a terrifying agenda. Luxley doesn't know who to trust, or who is safe to touch, but he needs to learn Cassandra's secrets fast." A book that gets under your skin and on your nerves. The science is impressive; the fiction is haunting. It has a lot on its mind; and it will touch you."- Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks"Deprivers is the ultimate paranoia thriller-emphasis on the word thriller. Fans of everything from The Hot Zone to The X-Files take note, THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY "- Rockne S. O'Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, Farscape, Defiance and Cult"Deprivers will take you to a terrifying and disturbing tomorrow and make you feel like you live there."- David Brin, Scientist and science fiction author, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus Awards

Imagine never touching another human being... Robert Luxley has a biological problem he does not understand and cannot control: one touch from his bare skin and you're paralyzed for fifteen minutes. Lonely and isolated, he's turned his "special trick" into a lucrative career as a hired killer. He thinks he's one of a kind-until one day he's confronted by a young girl named Cassandra, who tells him he's not alone. She has it too, and the two of them are not the only ones. Carriers can render anyone they touch blind, deaf, or otherwise senseless, in seconds. Fearing discovery, Luxley follows Cassandra through a dark underground network of "Deprivers" in a desperate hunt for her missing brother Nicholas, taken hostage by a radical group of carriers with a terrifying agenda. Luxley doesn't know who to trust, or who is safe to touch, but he needs to learn Cassandra's secrets fast." A book that gets under your skin and on your nerves. The science is impressive; the fiction is haunting. It has a lot on its mind; and it will touch you."- Mark Frost, co-creator of Twin Peaks"Deprivers is the ultimate paranoia thriller-emphasis on the word thriller. Fans of everything from The Hot Zone to The X-Files take note, THIS BOOK IS GOING TO BLOW YOU AWAY "- Rockne S. O'Bannon, creator of Alien Nation, Farscape, Defiance and Cult"Deprivers will take you to a terrifying and disturbing tomorrow and make you feel like you live there."- David Brin, Scientist and science fiction author, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell and Locus Awards

How to control the bloodlust? How to find inner peace as the living dead? The Way of the Wooden Stake. One man rises in a SoHo alleyway to find his lover dead and his own body terribly transformed... He strains to overcome his murderous instincts through zen meditation and blood deprivation. He is reclaimed by The Ministry, an underground society waging war with the undead. Again and again he will find his will tested, and his thirst tempted, by the killers who demand his allegiance ... and the zen masters who will burn him down at his first missed step... He must walk a tightrope between the living and the dead ... to master himself and his hunger. And the way of the wooden stake... The 25th Anniversary Revised Author Edition of LA Times bestselling author Steven-Elliot Altman's controversial Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires. Foreword by New York Times bestseller Nancy Holder, author of Angel, Smallville, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels.

How to control the bloodlust? How to find inner peace as the living dead? The Way of the Wooden Stake. One man rises in a SoHo alleyway to find his lover dead and his own body terribly transformed... He strains to overcome his murderous instincts through zen meditation and blood deprivation. He is reclaimed by The Ministry, an underground society waging war with the undead. Again and again he will find his will tested, and his thirst tempted, by the killers who demand his allegiance ... and the zen masters who will burn him down at his first missed step... He must walk a tightrope between the living and the dead ... to master himself and his hunger. And the way of the wooden stake... The 25th Anniversary Revised Author Edition of LA Times bestselling author Steven-Elliot Altman's controversial Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires. Foreword by New York Times bestseller Nancy Holder, author of Angel, Smallville, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels.

"Altman (Deprivers) combines the divine and the profane in this erotically charged urban fantasy."-Publishers WeeklyImagine Leaving Las Vegas meets City of Angels and American Gods, and you can imagine the power of Severed Wings. Brandon Jones, a handsome, hopeful young actor, stands on the verge of fame and fortune-when a car accident shatters his life, bringing his career to a screeching halt. Isolating himself, he cuts off his friends and family, turns to booze for companionship, and withdraws to a small apartment on Sunset Boulevard. Now, the only people he interacts with are a drag queen and a student working her way through college as an escort. Brandon has nothing to live for...until a startlingly beautiful young couple moves in across the hall. Spying through the peephole in his door, he grows increasingly obsessed with his new neighbors-and the parade of damaged strangers who visit them at all hours. Then something seemingly impossible happens that convinces him that this mysterious couple can help restore all he lost. Brandon insinuates himself into their lives, and finds himself on a journey from despair into hope-as an ancient secret from the dawn of time draws him head to head with a terrifying foe, bent on destroying everything he's now come to love. Once again, Steven-Elliot Altman dares to place his readers in the company of an embittered anti-hero, in the same manner that inspired Paul Goat Allen of The Barnes & Noble Review to call his bestselling novel, Deprivers, "One of those rare novels that will haunt the reader's subconscious for a long time." The author has produced a timeless work that tempts our greater demons and provokes our higher angels. "An erotic and lyrical fantasy thriller, aptly set in the city of lost angels." - Poppy Z. Brite, author of LOST SOULS and EXQUISITE CORPSE"In Severed Wings, Altman delivers a thrilling roller-coaster ride, plunging us headlong into dark territories fraught with unexpected pivots and twists."-Stephen Susco, screenwriter of The Grudge "Steve Altman's SEVERED WINGS is a tour de force of the Weird. Eat of the fruit and take a truly mesmerizing trip through a glass darkly. I did, and I can't wait to do it again."-Nancy Holder, New York Times bestselling author (The Wicked Saga, with Debbie Viguie)" an] ethereal story about the damage of the past and the hope for a better personal future."-Booklist "This dark, alluring story will appeal to urban fantasy fans."-Publishers Weekly"Severed Wings will make you believe in angels and demons and everything in between, at least until you turn the last page."-Kaye Lynn Booth, Writing to be Read"An erotic and lyrical fantasy thriller, aptly set in the city of lost angels."- Poppy Z. Brite, author of LOST SOULS and EXQUISITE CORPSE "In Severed Wings, Altman delivers a thrilling roller-coaster ride, plunging us headlong into dark territories fraught with unexpected pivots and twists."- Stephen Susco, screenwriter of The Grudge"Steve Altman's SEVERED WINGS is a tour de force of the Weird. Eat of the fruit and take a truly mesmerizing trip through a glass darkly. I did, and I can't wait to do it again."- Nancy Holder, NYT Bestselling Author (The Wicked Saga, written with Debbie Viguie)"Very nicely written with a simple, straightforward plot that is actually more complex by implication than it seems."-Don D'Ammassa, Critical Mass Reviews

From the bestselling author of Deprivers, Steven-Elliot Altman's Severed Wings is a romantic, urban fantasy thriller. A haunting take on the mythos of angels living among us. Fans of American Gods to Twilight will devour it. Steve also wrote the popular videogames 9Dragons, Pearl's Peril, Ancient Aliens, Project Blue Book and Terminator: Dark Fate.

In the spirit of Blade Runnerand Brave New World comes aterrifying postmodern vision... By the year 2156, stem cell therapy has triumphed overaging and disease, extending the human lifespan indefinitely. But only for those who have achieved Conscientious CitizenStatus. To combat overpopulation, the U. S. has sealed herborders, instituted compulsory contraception, and made technology-assisted suicide readily available. Yet in a world wherethe old can remain vital forever, America's youth have littlehope of prosperityJason Haggerty is an investigator for the governmentagency responsible for dispensing personal handheld devicesthat record a citizen's final moments. When three teens stagean illegal public suicide, Haggerty suspects their deaths mayhave been murders. Now he must uncover proof and preventa nationwide epidemic of copycat suicides. Trouble is, for the first time in history, an entire generation might justdecide they're better off dead." I've always considered Steven-Elliot Altman one of themost provocative voices in modern fiction, and KILLSWITCH, his collaboration with Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse, once againconfirms this conviction." -Stephen Susco, screenwriter ofThe Grudge"In the tradition of Philip K. Dick, Altman and DeKelb-Rittenhouse keep the action coming even as they measurethe psychosocial toll of tomorrow's technology." -WinstonEngle, Editor & Publisher, Thrilling Wonder Stories