Showing results by author "Mark Whittington" in All Categories

December, 1975, Apollo 23 lifts off and Wendy Pendleton fulfills her dream of becoming the first woman on the moon. She and her crewmate Ray McPherson explore the lunar south-pole and its rich deposits of ice. But an act of sabotage may mean that the two astronauts who came to the moon in peace for all mankind may rest in peace on the lunar surface. Their only hope is a daring rescue mission using a commercial space shuttle outfitted for an emergency lunar voyage, Children of Apollo: The First Woman on the Moon Continues the story told in Children of Apollo: The Space Race Gambit and ...

President Richard Nixon’s space race continues as NASA launches more Apollo missions to the moon while preparing for even greater projects, including a space station, a lunar base, and eventually an expedition to Mars. While Wendy Pendleton trains for her upcoming Apollo 23 mission, political forces are conspiring that might end that dream before it can be fulfilled. The Soviets, with dawning awareness of how the United States is leaving them behind in space, begin to take drastic measures to slow the Americans down. The story of Children of Apollo: The Hard Road to the Stars began with ...

Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, departed from the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The last words he spoke, officially, were, “And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17." Decades later, despite the efforts of two American presidents, human beings have not returned to the moon. Why Earth’s nearest neighbor remains untouched by human footsteps after so long remains one of the vexing questions of modern times. Mark R. Whittington, the author of ...

Having survived World War II and returned to America, General George S. Patton is given a new assignment by President Harry Truman. He is to travel to the British Mandate of Palestine, where a bloody war is brewing between Jews and Arabs, and give his evaluation to the President. But Patton's tendency to exceed his orders may prove a problem for the United States government. Moreover, a dark secret from his past will threaten to derail his mission entirely. A stunning work of alternate history that places one of the 20th Century's greatest soldiers in the midst of the founding of the State ...

The moon has held a fascination with Americans ever since President John F. Kennedy threw down the gauntlet and challenged the Soviet Union to a race to land a man on Earth’s neatest neighbor and return him safely to the Earth. 60 years later, a different president of the United States, Donald Trump, proposed that Americans and astronauts from American allies return to the moon. Trump’s Artemis project, unlike previous attempts to return to the moon, looks like it actually may succeed. Why does American want to return to the moon? Is it science? Is it riches? Is it glory? Or, perhaps, ...

'Dark Sanction': a World War II story of espionage, magic, and vampires. The Contessa Gabriella Doria, a 450 year old vampire, worked as a spy for British Intelligence in World War II Venice. But she is threatened by a Nazi vampire hunter with occult powers. As Venice is overrun with SS killers, Gabriella fights to stay alive with the help of an ancient Celtic mage. "Reads like a collaboration between Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Ian Fleming."

In 1944, with the world convulsed with war, the Contessa Gabriella Doria haunts the piazzas and canals of Venice. Few people know that she is not only an agent for Britain’s MI6 but that she is also a 450 year old vampire. But one SS officer, Kurt Hesselman, knows and has vowed to destroy her, using the occult powers he was born with. Their battle will rage from Gabriella’s beloved Venice to occupied France, and hence to Great Britain on the eve of the largest sea borne invasion in history. The outcome of the war and the fate of the world will hang in the balance.

July, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 has triumphantly returned to Earth. In this alternate history thriller, President Richard Nixon puts into a motion a scheme to ramp up the space race to pressure the Soviets into making diplomatic and military concessions. Thus begins a story of high adventure on the final frontier and of low intrigue in the corridors of power back on Earth. It will prove to be the fulfillment of a dream for Wendy Pendleton to be the first woman to walk on the moon. It will be a nightmare for Cal Lauren, a political operative determined to stop the space race at all costs ...

The Last Moonwalker – In the near future, as human explorers prepare to take the first voyage to the Moon in decades, Charles Gerald, the last Apollo Moonwalker, lends his advice to the crew of the expedition as he wrestles with his own legacy. The First Woman on the Moon – Set in the same universe as Children of Apollo, Wendy Pendleton, who will fly on the mission of Apollo 23, remembers the cost of becoming the first woman on the Moon. Two Old Men – Two retired politicians, in the same universe as Children of Apollo, face a deadly disease a treatment for which was developed in space...

Having escaped the Nazi vampire hunter, SS officer Kurt Hesselman, the Contessa Gabriella Doria finds herself in neutral Switzerland and in the company of American spy master Allen Dulles. Dulles sends Gabriella on a mission that might cut short the war by a year. She is to infiltrate occupied France, contact Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and persuade him to change sides and fight on the side of the allies. But Gabriella will soon face peril from all sides, including from an enemy that she had thought dead and buried. A direct sequel to Gabriella’s first World War II adventure, Dark Sanction.

The great war against the Dark Magus was over. But Merien, a wizard who had played a key role in the final battle, still had nightmares about what he had experienced. Even during the day he found himself shaking with dread with no reason and sometimes even crying in the corner of the farm where he lived. Merien has warrior’s heart, a great wound of the mind and spirit. He must set forth in the company of his best friend, an elf warrior, to find a cure before it is too late.

The Last Moonwalker – In the near future, as human explorers prepare to take the first voyage to the Moon in decades, Charles Gerald, the last Apollo Moonwalker, lends his advice to the crew of the expedition as he wrestles with his own legacy. The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper - Colin Fraser was the first man to walk on Mars as commander of the Ares. But little did he know that his greatest adventure would take place after he returned to Earth from the Red Planet. With further voyages of interplanetary exploration curtailed due to budget cuts, Fraser joined a private company ...

In a 16th Century when men and women can work magic, a brave, high born English sea captain fights to save Lady Jane Grey, the nine days Queen of England, from the headsman's axe. But he will sail his stout ship and brave crew into more danger than he can possibly imagine, with every man's hand against him and his, and a 16 year old girl of whom the destiny of more than one kingdom may depend.

Colin Fraser was the first man to walk on Mars as commander of the Ares. But little did he know that his greatest adventure would take place after he returned to Earth from the Red Planet. With further voyages of interplanetary exploration curtailed due to budget cuts, Fraser joined a private company that proposed to capture an asteroid and mine it for its almost limitless wealth. The only catch was that he would have to commit the first act of space piracy in history by stealing his old ship and using it to divert the asteroid named Daedalus. Stealing the ship, diverting the asteroid, and ...