Official Website of Douglas Lumsden
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Douglas Lumsden
My parents raised me right. Any mistakes I made were my own. Hopefully, I learned from them.
I earned a doctorate in medieval European history at the University of California Santa Barbara. Go Gauchos! I taught world history at a couple of colleges before settling into a private college prep high school in Monterey. After I retired, I began to write an urban fantasy series featuring hardboiled private eye Alexander Southerland as he cruises through the mean streets of Yerba City and interacts with trolls, femme fatales, shape-shifters, witches, and corrupt city officials.
I am happily married to my wife, Rita. The two of us can be found most days pounding the pavement in our running shoes. Rita listens to all of my ideas and reads all of my work. Her advice is beyond value. In return, I make her tea. It's a pretty sweet deal. We have two cats named Cinderella and Prince, and both are happy to stay indoors. They demand that we tell them how pretty they are.
My Blog: Under the Fedora
"I've never understood fantasy books that treated magic as something that had to be hidden. It strikes me that if magic were real, and using it was a skill developed by people with talent, magic users would be accepted in the same way as musicians, athletes, and mathematicians." When I wrote that post on Twitter, I got a lot of thoughtful and intelligent responses. I addressed those responses in my latest blog: Why Would Magic Be Hidden?
Addie
May 12, 2024
A short story published in It Takes a Village: An Optimistic Anthology, Speculating about the Meaning of Care
A young woman embarks on a mandatory community service project among the unsheltered and finds more than she bargained for in this cautionary tale of horror/fantasy by the riverside.
Click here for more information and purchasing outlets:
It Takes a Village: An Optimistic Anthology
A Hatful of Sin
October 26, 2023
A short story published in Apocalypse Confidential
A casual encounter at a park leads to unexpected--and deadly--consequences!
WARNING: This story contains descriptions of violence and rape, and a bizarre religious interpretation that some may find offensive.
Check it out for FREE here:
Hatful of Sin at Apocalypse Confidential
A Troll Walks into a Bar: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
When a troll speaks--listen up!
Hardboiled P.I. Alexander Southerland just wants to enjoy a quiet drink when a 500-pound troll walks into the bar. Next thing he knows, Southerland is navigating his way through rogue cops, a gang war, beautiful nymphs from the ocean depths, a were-rat, the mayor's corrupt fixer, the sleaziest (and cleverest) gnome in Yerba City, and creatures right out of legend. At the center of it all is a mysterious locked box. Can Southerland discover its explosive secret--and survive long enough to pay his rent on time?
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A Witch Steps into My Office: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
January 20, 2023
She killed him with a curse--but he hasn't died yet!
Alex Southerland plunges into the dark world of witchcraft and finds himself pitted against forces beyond his imagination, including a hummingbird-headed god who wants to eat his heart and a giant shadowy dog who drags him to the borders of the land of the dead! The stakes couldn't be higher: failure to find the mysterious puppet-master controlling his client could result in the end of all life on earth!
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A Hag Rises from the Abyss: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
The Stuff that Nightmares Are Made of!
Years ago, while serving in the Borderland, Alexander Southerland watched helplessly as his friend was terrorized and murdered by the Sihuanaba, a mysterious avenging spirit known as the Woman in White. Now an established private investigator in the teeming metropolis of Yerba City, Southerland finds himself on a collision course with this specter from his past. As the detective tries to solve the riddle of a beautiful nightclub singer’s death, Southerland finds himself battling corruption, temptation, betrayal—and deadly horrors from his own nightmares!
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A Night Owl Slips into a Diner: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
He’s up to his eyeballs in hot water, and he thinks he’s taking a bubble bath!
A routine case of industrial espionage pitches hardboiled P.I. Alexander Southerland headlong into a maelstrom of shadowy political intrigue and deadly supernatural mayhem! A guilt-ridden and disconsolate Southerland roams the mean streets and dark alleys of Yerba City seeking to uncover a secret so stunning—so staggering—that just knowing it could unravel the bonds that keep the social order from dissolving into chaos!
Purchase at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The Demon's Dagger: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novella
A standalone spinoff from the Alexander Southerland, P.I. series.
Crawford the were-rat checks into a shady hotel and promptly stumbles over a dead man. A mysterious troll is obsessed with finding the dagger that killed him—a dagger possessed by a demon! The demon denies that he is a demon and is obsessed with regaining his freedom. Meanwhile, the hotel’s night clerk is obsessed with the hooker on the third floor. Crawford has checked in, but, when obsessions collide, will he be able to check out?
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A Nymph Returns to the Sea: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
Murder in the Eye of the Storm!
Coming off a heartbreaking whirlwind relationship, a despondent Alexander Southerland returns to the streets of Yerba City when he hears that an old acquaintance is a person of interest in the murder of an unregistered adaro nymph. Southerland's uncontrollable curiosity finds him mingling with street gangs, secretive priestesses, rogue cops who aren't what they seem, an adaro resistance movement, ghosts of the mind and body, and powerful spirits from the islands of the southern seas. Can our intrepid P.I. solve the secret of the Eye of Taufa'tahi before a record-shattering storm pulls Yerba City into the sea?
Purchase at:
Amazon US
The Blood Moon Feeds on My Dreams: A Noir Urban Fantasy Novel
To sleep—perchance to die!
Alexander Southerland is hired to discover how a teenaged boy is disappearing at night without passing through any doors or windows. Next thing Southerland knows, he’s shackled to an altar while a hungry spirit prepares to sacrifice him to “the toothless one who brings nothing but good.” Southerland soon finds himself negotiating a minefield of dream-hopping supernatural spirits, howler monkeys, a homicidal client, a shotgun-wielding spinster, and a whistling demon. As the murdered and mutilated bodies pile up, Southerland faces a hard choice: kill the creature who has become his friend—or become the Blood Moon’s next victim!
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A Specter Raps on My Windowpane
TAP, TAP, BOOM!
Alexander Southerland knew Cindy Shipper for only the briefest of days, but his memory of the alluring femme fatale has haunted his dreams ever since. Now Cindy’s literal ghost has come rapping on his bedroom window, seeking the reasons behind her brutal demise. The mystery of Cindy’s death seems obvious to Southerland, but the working-class P.I. quickly learns a valuable lesson: when it comes to sudden death, nothing is ever simple. To find the answers he seeks, Southerland must penetrate the veil of a deadly conspiracy—before Cindy’s cold, grim specter spirits him away to the land of the dead!
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