R.J. Hore

he / him

R.J. Hore is the author of 20 novels and novella collections available through two publishers. He writes in several genres, including fantasy, science fiction, alternate history, fantasy detective, paranormal, and even romance. He won first prize in 2006 for a national Canadian Authors Association short story contest for his romantic ghost story, “Midnight,” which was published in their anthology. His modern vampire tale “Chrysalis” was published in the Evolve anthology, launched at the 2010 World Horror Convention in Brighton, England. In 2010, he co-authored The Rotary Club of Winnipeg-100 Years of Service.

A member of the Canadian Authors’ Association and the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, he has served as a director on the CAA Executive. He was previously in charge of the judging for a national Canadian history book contest and chaired a Winnipeg writer’s workshop that in 2005 self-published the Pieces of Eight anthology, which included three of his selections. He currently reviews science fiction and fantasy genre novels and anthologies for an online magazine aimed primarily at libraries.

Hobbies include trying to keep on the good side of his wife, keeping track of his children and grandchildren, photography, and wrestling the blasted cat off the keyboard. In his diminishing spare time, he reminisces about the good old days of sailing on Lake Winnipeg and the occasions he got lost.

Awards

2006 - Canadian Authors Association short story contest

First place for the short story “Midnight”

Publications

alex in wanderland cover

Alex in Wanderland

alex in wanderland cover

Alex in Wanderland

Thrust into an alternate world, a married couple finds themselves as saviors of the land, with subtle hints of a slow and painful death as their ultimate reward. Alex and Alexis find themselves on a not-so typical quest to fulfill a ridiculous ancient prophecy. Their travelling companions: the priest, the protector, and the thief, are suspect, and everyone else seems out to stop them from reaching their ultimate goal.

Released: May 4, 2015

Publisher: BURST

dark candle

Dark Candle

dark candle

Dark Candle

A party at the home of a respectable socialite sets in motion a sequence of events which lead a group of reluctant companions on a quest for King Arthur’s tomb.

Martin Owen is a mild mannered accountant, ignored and disrespected, even by his own family. But an experiment in hypnotic regression wakens a mysterious long dormant spirit from the time of Arthur. Intrigued, the party’s guests are drawn in further slowly forming an impromptu team on the trail of buried Roman treasure and the forbidden secrets of Camelot.

Each interrogation of the sleeping spirit, leaves it encroaching further and further upon Martin’s life, until we are unsure who is controlling who. Meanwhile, the romances, ambitions, illicit affairs and secrets of each of the party members are exposed as the shadow from the past inexorably leads them to glory or doom.

Released: May 30, 2024

Publisher: Fossil Cove Publishing

expeditions to earth

Expeditions to Earth (Of Destiny’s Daughters Book 3)

expeditions to earth

Expeditions to Earth (Of Destiny’s Daughters Book 3)

Can Lucky Lucy convince Earth’s strong-arm government that joining with the aliens is the only way to save themselves?

Lucy Thorncroft finds herself hurtling back toward her home planet Earth, with a raucous shipload of old friends, and serious dangers, old and new, waiting to greet her.

Released: Sep 5, 2020

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

hammer across the stars

Hammer Across the Stars (Of Destiny’s Daughters Book 2)

hammer across the stars

Hammer Across the Stars (Of Destiny’s Daughters Book 2)

Lucky Lucy searches for adventure and maybe romance (?) across the vastness of space.

After leaving Earth to join the Rygeillian Navy and see the universe, Lucy Thorncroft finds herself hurtling from one adventure to another. Not much chance she’d ever settle down and miss out on spaceships, alien monsters, evil empires and exotic planets?

Released: Jul 13, 2020

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

knights bridge ecover

Knight’s Bridge

knights bridge ecover

Knight’s Bridge

A bloodied knight fleeing a lost cause rescues a woman escaping from the madness of a burning countryside and guides her and her daughters to temporary safety. An angry warlord is dispatched to seize a bridge but decides first to divert and ravage a small town. A young squire, following his master into his first battle, has numerous fears and uncertainties to overcome. Each have a story to tell and they all meet together in the clash around the Pax Regis, the King’s Peace, a magnificent stone bridge over the Matriarch, the Mother of Waters.

A tale of brutal warfare, adventure and romance, with the destiny of a kingdom at stake, the lives of the four main characters hang in the balance, yet the widow Eodithe of West Riverside still hopes for a normal life, for herself and her two young daughters, if they can survive.

Released: Mar 3, 2013

Publisher: BURST

destiny's daughters

Of Destiny’s Daughters

destiny's daughters

Of Destiny’s Daughters

Politics and uncommon sense collide when a spaceship suddenly appears over Ottawa, Canada.

When a gigantic damaged spaceship suddenly appears over Ottawa requesting assistance the world is thrown into confusion. Why are they really here? If they are having problems, what caused the damage?

Then there is the Thorncroft family:

Paul is feeling depressed and gets sucked up into a spaceship.

Lucile and her ex-military girlfriends are bored and looking for a fight, romance, or something to break up the monotony.

Their mother, Martha, is trying to hold the family together while she deals with her husband’s PTSD and alcoholism.

Everyone else is trying to discover the alien’s secrets and befriend them, or destroy them and anyone who has dealings with them.

Released: Jan 27, 2019

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

summer in paradise cover

Summer in Paradise

summer in paradise cover

Summer in Paradise

Only one road leads to paradise, and he found it.

University graduate James Witson needs a change of scene in order to get away from the English professor who ruined his life and the other painful memories James wants to forget. He randomly chooses a remote coastal village in which to find himself and write a great novel.

Paradise Cove is perched on the edge of the continent, a thin strip of civilization between the storm-tossed ocean and a thick, dark forest. Most of the locals appear friendly enough, although they hold a few odd beliefs such as little people in the forest and a White Lady who haunts the by-ways.

A remote village. Mysterious forests. What danger lies within?

Released: Jun 8, 2024

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

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Toltec Dawn: Book One of the Toltec Conquests, An Alternate History Adventure

toltec dawn gold cover

Toltec Dawn: Book One of the Toltec Conquests, An Alternate History Adventure

915 AD: The vast treasure fleet of China’s Tang Dynasty reaches the western shores of North America, encountering the emerging Toltec Nation
1115 AD: With advantages of steel and gunpowder acquired from China, the emerging Toltec Empire’s junk, Golden Jaguar, makes landfall on the coast of Ireland.
1215 AD: Amid wars, rebellion and plague the Toltec Empire has stretched across the Atlantic, conquering England and Ireland and setting its sights on the Continent beyond.

12:15 AD: Captain Mixcoatl, a hero of the Toltec Empire settles in with his wife at his new command at a fortress overlooking the provincial town of London.

Across the Irish Sea in Cashel, a local youth Fergus is apprenticed to the service of the God Tezcatlipoca.

On the road to nearby Saint Albans, Rowena, a young Saxon girl falls into the hands of a band of outlaws.

In a different history where a New World empire conquers the old, three lives as they struggle to survive turbulent times beset with wars between nations and conflicting religions.

Released: Sep 5, 2023

Publisher: Fossil Cove Publishing

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Toltec Khan: Book Two of the Toltec Conquests, an Alternate History Adventure

toletec khan red

Toltec Khan: Book Two of the Toltec Conquests, an Alternate History Adventure

THE SECOND CHAPTER IN THE SAGA OF A WORLD WHERE THE TOLTEC EMPIRE CONQUERED THE BRITISH ISLES

1215AD: The Toltec Empire rules the Isles, within it three lives struggle to survive turbulent times of war, plague and religious conflict. The Toltec Fortress overlooking London is under siege from a native revolt as Londoners try to overthrow their oppressors. Trapped within the Fortress, our three protagonists must endure their own trials.

Fergus, appointed Interrogator for the god Tezcatlipoca in England with the mandate to suppress or convert the native Christians, must find a way to work with the local priests of Tezcatlipoca and that god’s rival, Quetzalcoatl. He finds himself caught in a delicate balance as a go-between for the people trapped in the fortress, and the rebel forces surrounding them.

Captain Mixcoatl’s loyalty is torn as his best friend throws in with the desperate governor and his scheme to turn the Toltec province into an independent kingdom. Outnumbered and beset, Mixcoatl must once again look to the sly King of Gwynedd for assistance to raise a force to save England and the life of his pregnant wife.

Rowena, maid to Captain Mixcoatl’s wife, finds herself on the parapet with her mistress staring down at a rebel army, facing the final assault with a group of women and children.

The fate of the Island Colonies hangs in the balance, and our three protagonists are drawn ever closer, as forces clash over who will rule the overseas jewel of the Toltec Empire.

Released: Sep 5, 2023

Publisher: Fossil Cove Publishing

ToltecNoonBlueCover

Toltec Noon: Book Three of the Toltec Conquests, an Alternate History Adventure

ToltecNoonBlueCover

Toltec Noon: Book Three of the Toltec Conquests, an Alternate History Adventure

TOLTEC NOON, the final Book of the Toltec Conquests plays out, set in 1215AD, the Toltec Empire has conquered England and Ireland, and set its sights on Europe. Contending with revolts from within and without, as the expanding Empire struggles to rule their English provinces, with three protagonists struggling to survive.

Fergus continues to plot in the devious world of London politics. Taking matters into his own bloodied hands, he lets nothing stand in the way of becoming the high priest. But there are others as ruthless.

General Mixcoatl must lead an army into Scotland before he can assume the rank of governor of the province. But old debts and old passions return to plague him as a new and deadly crisis rises from across the ocean.

Rowena’s lover and the father to her unborn child has left for the wars across the Channel and she fears he will not return, or if he does, it will be impossible for him to wed her. Hunted by assassins, she must leave those she loves and once more strike out on her own.

Religious politics blaze hot, wars rage, and blood is shed as these three struggle for power and the ultimate good of the land.

Released: Sep 5, 2023

Publisher: Fossil Cove Publishing

we're not in kansas cover

We’re Not in Kansas

we're not in kansas cover

We’re Not in Kansas

A Sci Fi Adventure with a Soupcon of Romance

Archeologist and single mother Macy and her rebellious teenage daughter Tiffany are thrown together on a wild adventure across the world and into outer space.

Macy is obsessed with tracing the origins of a mysterious statue of the ancient Egyptian cat-goddess, Bastet, she’s got no time to look after a brat. Tiffany finds herself dumped by an absentee father, and would rather spend her time at the mall, rather than crawl through dusty ruins.

Feuding mother and daughter find themselves catapulted in a wild journey around the wall, encountering a grizzled Indiana Jones look-alike, a strange police inspector, a dangerous dictator, all leading them to a chamber containing an ancient spaceship which takes off with them to destinations unknown.

Set in the near future, We Aren’t in Kansas is a marriage of a thriller and speculative fiction, and a soupcon of romance.

Released: Sep 21, 2023

Publisher: Fossil Cove Publishing