Author: Paul E. Hayes

I'm a writer. I write a lot. I edit even more. It's not a hobby. It's not something I dabble in. It's compulsory. It's as involuntary as breathing. Unlike breathing, which comes naturally, writing and editing requires work, thousands of hours. It's my life's work, and I'd like to share it with people who love to indulge in stories, imagination, and discovering something about themselves in the books they read. I'm a photographer. I take pictures. I spend many hours editing them, not because I want to make people look their artificial best--which is easy with brushes and healing tools--but because I want them to see themselves the way I see them: candid, unique, worthy, and inspiring. I'm a pharmacist and I apply that knowledge and skill in the Information Technology and Patient Safety and Quality Departments of a health system in Mid-Michigan. I want to help, heal, and prevent harm and disease in my community. I do this because I believe compassion is the quality that transforms being human into being humane. I'm in a loving relationship with my husband, who sheds light into all the darkest corners of who I am and helps me appreciate and temper my strengths and weaknesses. It is by his steadfast love that I march forward into this bold way of living as an artist. I'm an adoptive father. As a gay man who comes from a large, loving family, procreating wasn't easily within grasp, but opening a place in my life for a family wasn't an option; it was a requirement. Raising a son has been the single most rewarding goal in my life. Of all the people I've met, befriended, or loved, my son taught me more about myself and life than anyone. It is his presence and the hard realities of parenting that matured me as a writer and as a humane person. Perhaps you will see these traits in my writing, characters, plots, and themes. I do.

Seeking an Agent for A REAP OF BONES

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an Adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

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Two hundred years after the Great Persecution of sorcery, the hypocritical Grand Council hires Akila the mercenary to retrieve Tad, an orphaned boy rumored to speak with the dead, to solve the murder of a council member and her family. Fearing Tad’s lawful execution after fulfilling the council’s request, Akila vows to save his life at the expense of hers.

First, Akila must free Tad from a witch and his forest prison, and then protect him not only from political factions but from mystical forces reaching from beyond the Nether, drawn by the boy’s necromancy. Only by understanding his chilling power and evading silver-tongued men and women will Tad discover what life, death, and freedom truly are.

Will Akila make the ultimate sacrifice to secure his future?

Seeking an Agent for THE WIGHT OF RUSHEN BARROW

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an Adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

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Detective Peter Doyle settled on the sleepy Isle of Nonn to get away from a life of renown and tragedy, but when two identical deaths without apparent foul play occur exactly one month apart, the local constable seeks Peter’s talent for solving difficult crimes.

His search for truth delivers him to the edge of a hidden world, one he stepped into as a child at the expense of his right leg. There, he draws allies both mystical and mundane, but his search triggers echoes of a buried past that will come looking for him if those echoes are heard.

Time will run out for Peter if he doesn’t unravel twisted triangles of obsession, control, and unrequited love with tragic consequences. He must choose between allowing justice to prevail or seeking vengeance to end the horrors of the past and present once and for all.

Seeking an Agent for LITTLE RUNE

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an adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES

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Elizabeth comes from nothing. She has nothing to lose and everything to gain. When opportunity bursts into her ramshackle home, she sets one foot forward into a world of magic where women are forbidden to tread.

She bides her time, plays by the rules, and hopes to prove herself and earn the rights given freely to boys and men. When a star falls from the sky, she seizes the moment to change her life.

Now, Elizabeth must protect her vision for a new, compassionate magic from those who would wield it to annihilate, but how can she do that without using the destructive runes she has been taught?

If she waits to be invited into places of privilege, she will wait forever, while an empire swallows her homeland.

Seeking an Agent for THE SMELTING OF SILVER

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an Adult Fantasy by PAUL E. HAYES.

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For centuries, the Registry protected the people of the baronies from the beastly wretches, anomalies of nature born with horns, smudges, or cranial ridges, but when Argent’s horns emerge as an adult, he questions everything he has been taught.

After the Registry abducts his young horned cousin, Petra, he must inevitably save her, sacrifice his secret in doing so, and forever change the culture of prejudice against wretches like them.

Join Argent as he learns the truth about silver magic, the Registry of Pregnancy and Births, and himself on a journey that explores the self-loathing mind, heart, and soul of a man.

Current Projects – The Smelting of Silver

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Title:               The Smelting of Silver

Genre:             Adult Fantasy, Allegory

Logline:           On a quest to save an abducted girl, a fugitive man exposes the institution who took her, collapses the prejudice of an entire society, and reconciles his self-loathing.

Short Pitch:     When a village girl is captured for being a horned wretch, a man, who has been hiding his own horns, defies the regulators, exposes their lies, and saves her from the savage wilderness where wretches are discarded.

Long Pitch:     For centuries, the Registry protected the people of the baronies from the beastly wretches, anomalies of nature born with horns, smudges, or cranial ridges, but when Argent’s horns emerge as an adult, he questions everything he has been taught.

After the Registry abducts his young horned cousin, Petra, he must inevitably save her, sacrifice his secret in doing so, and forever change the culture of prejudice against wretches like them.

Join Argent as he learns the truth about silver magic, the Registry of Pregnancy and Births, and himself on a journey that explores the self-loathing mind, heart, and soul of a man.

Target:            Adult Readers of Fantasy, Epic/High Fantasy, and Fairy Tales, LGBTQ+