Mord McGhee

Mord McGhee (birth date unknown) is an American fantasy, science fiction, horror, and literary author from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. currently working in Little River, South Carolina. He is best known for his cyberpunk series of novels about a privately paid special forces unit operating under a clandestine umbrella known as Eclipse. The team is ethnically and economically diverse, with roles supporting female empowerment and themes of social justice. His recent novels also include The Stroke of Oars (2023) and Old Flames and Heroes (2015) with contributions from the Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum, Loren Coleman. Mord has also served as an editor for various organizations such as Parsec Ink and Ariel Publishing, LLC, and has been a sitting Board Member of Rowayat.org.
==Writing Career==
===The Ghosts Series===
The Ghosts' series (aka Tales of Eclipse Volumes 1-3 and Stories of Eclipse) were written as science fiction in the subgenre of cyberpunk made famous by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. It is set in the future of the earth, in or around 2500 A.D. The events of the series take place both on and off earth proper, with a human-inhabited colony on the moon also used. In a dystopia mostly ruled by giant corporations, medically enhanced humans add bionic modifications to give themselves superpowers such impossible strength, speed, and even flight. Rigs is one of the humans modified. A corporate sponsor known only as The Company paid to equip her with deadly bionic weaponry and assault systems implanted inside her body. Other characters of the team Eclipse include Slicer, Black Waters, Weezer, Jocko, Omega, Blackjack, and Cherry Bomb.
The first book in the series is told backwards from the time when Rigs is arrested and detained by an unknown captor. Through first-person interviews it is revealed she was being held by none other than her employers and was set to be executed to keep her from revealing important secrets. Rigs is broken out of prison, and it sets into motion the events of the second novel. A third novel has not been published yet but its manuscript has been hinted by the author on social media that its plot turns ever4ything readers thought they knew of Eclipse upside-down. The novel won several awards, most notably Dan Poynter's Silver Science Fiction and was republished in second and third editions by independent publisher TSPress after originally self-publishing.
===Jack the Ripper===
McGhee's fictional novel Murder Red Ink is a mix of futuristic artificial intelligence dystopia as well as historical Victorian horror. It was his second novel by TSPress and protagonist's view shifts between timelines, three main characters- including Jack the Ripper- and alternate futures which bridge the gap between the 21st Century and the Ghosts series. This novel was named by Medium.com as a Top 500 All-time Thriller in 2015.
McGhee was invited to speak at Rippercon Baltimore 2016 but did not accept. Robert Andersen, a Casebook.org moderator and Jack the Ripper investigator, did provide a Foreword to a second edition of the novel.
===The Boy and the Blue Sun===
Old Flames and Heroes is a book about Oliver, a boy who tells his father and sister that he sees a blue sun in the sky alongside the yellow, natural sun. Oliver sees other paranormal and supernatural things, and often asks those around him if they, too, see them. No discussion takes place early on, but Oliver's father takes him on a road trip from Bentwood, a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, all the way to Lake Champlain at the Vermont/New York/ Canadian border. It is revealed that the boy's mother died of a brain tumor and the last thing she spoke of was a blue sun. The father and sun voyage is narrated by the boy's older sister, and the ending brings about more questions than resolution. There are direct ties between the Ghosts series and the Oliver timeline in the blue sun specifically. Loren Coleman provided a Foreword to the novel. The Buffalo News reported in an interview with the author that McGhee's experiences on the Old Niagara Highway changed the direction of his original plot.
===Short Stories===
Most of McGhee's published short stories are traditional literary in style and form while using a different narrative approach in almost every tale. Works since 2014 have appeared in competitive and university level literature regularly with recent examples being Quibble Lit, Alien Dimensions, Big Bend Literary, Barzakh(SUNY), Vermilion, Audience Askew, Wingless Dreamer, Ariel Chart, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Last Girl's Club (under pseudonym Laniar D. Romon), Creepy Magazine, Teach-Write Journal, eV0ke! and more. McGhee was also named an Honorable Mention of L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest in 2022 for the story 'Taming of the Shew' and has multiple stories published in the shared universe called Faewalk from Nat1, LLC. 
===Translations===
McGhee translated several classic novels into reading experiences "aimed at the sensibilities of the modern American reader." The series includes Dracula, The Lost World, The Invisible Man, and The Call of Cthulhu. The description of the project by publisher TSPress was to maintain the classical spirit while enhancing the modern adventure. "Women are empowered and gone are the negative bigotries past," says the introduction from the editor.
===Literary Theory===
In contrast to contemporary academic studies in literature, McGhee has put forward what has been called by fans and critics "Outlaw Traditionalism." Most notable quotes are "It's not dystopia to think history repeats itself" and "everyone needs a good *sskicking on their birthday." 
===Awards and Nominations===
Ghosts of San Francisco was named the Dan Poynter's Silver Science Fiction Award in 2014 for self-published novels.
Old Flames and Heroes was named a Silver Falchion Finalist in Best Fantasy Young Adult 14+ by Killer Nashville Literary and was nominated for an American Library Association's Newbery Medal
Ghosts of the Golden Triangle was named a Top Ten Adult Science Fiction novel by Preditors and Editors in 2016.
Short story Taming of the Shew was named an Honorable Mention by L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest Volume 39. 
Two unpublished manuscripts were Claymore Award Finalists in 2022, Ironblood. and The Seven Children of God
===Bibliography===
Ghosts of San Francisco: Tales of Eclipse Volume 1 (2014)
Murder Red Ink (2014)
Old Flames and Heroes (2015)
Ghosts of the Golden Triangle: Tales of Eclipse Volume 2 (2016)
Up From the Black: Free Fear and Guaranteed Marvel (2018)
Dracula Translated: For the Modern American Reader (2020)
The Lost World Translated: For the Modern American Reader (2021)
The Invisible Man Translated: For the Modern American Reader (2022)
A Christmas Carol Android: Stories of Eclipse (2022)
The Call of Cthulhu Translated: For the Modern American Reader (2023)
The Stroke of Oars (2023)
Mind Poker, a Chapbook (2023) 
Ghosts of the Girl: Tales of Eclipse Volume 3 (Forthcoming)
Anna's Odyssey (Forthcoming)
Ironblood (Forthcoming)
The Seven Children of God (Forthcoming)
Holy Water (Forthcoming)
===Related Sites===
Mord McGhee author Meta page
Mord McGhee official site
Category:American people
Category:Fantasy
Category:Science fiction
Category:Literature
Category:Author