Emperor Justinian has sent Belisarius to Britannia to do what no one has ever done—conquer the Picts. The army that gathers at Hadrian's Wall includes an airship legion. One of those airships and its sagittarii, who fight as archers in the sky and as soldiers on the ground, are commanded by Cillian. His concerns about the campaign, his airship, and his destiny are about to be overtaken by a hidden past revealed. To reach the Picts, Belisarius's army must cross over the ruins of another wal...

James Butler and George Macdonald are on opposite sides of the War of 1812 and a family division that goes back to the War of Independence. James serves General Sir Isaac Brock and George serves General William Harrison. General Brock's army is stretched between General Harrison's and General Dearborn's. Before the summer campaigns start both sides must deal with what the spring of 1813 brings.

Despite the trauma of battles that haunt him and an estranged family he struggles to accept, James Butler tries to do what is right, find love, and make his own way in the world. By saving one life, James takes history down a different path from ours. By following his premonitions, he will shape the events of this war, the lives of millions, and the map of a continent as the winter edges into 1813.

Stung by his defeats at Dara and Satala last year, King Cavad sends an army to conquer Gothic Armenia. Emperor Justinian sends a Roman Army to help the Goths stop the Persians. Dux Bouzes is left behind with a small force to shield Roman Armenia from a possible, but unlikely Persian invasion. He has a few legions and a 'war flock' of airships. In that war flock is Cillian. With only a year's experience on airships he has a lot to learn about them and about being a tent group commander. Wha...

A dozen years ago, as the war in Sierra Leone was ending and their Small Girl Unit destroyed, Angel-of-Death and No-Mercy escaped from the rebels who had forced them to fight and commit atrocities. These former child-soldiers became Angel and Mercy, young women with careers, but without histories or families. Their hidden past and hopeful future begin to unravel when they are called upon to help contain the Ebola outbreak. As the Ebola Crisis deepens, Angel and Mercy will confront other th...

Justinian's Torch follows Cillian in his third summer in Caledonia at the northern end of Britannia with the army of Belisarius. Two years earlier, Emperor Justinian sent Belisarius to conquer the Caledonii [Picts], something no Roman had ever done. But as the army approached Caledonia, the Erunai [Irish] of Dalriada—an Eruain colony on Caledonia's west coast—attacked both the Caledonii and Romans. In response, the Romans and Caledonii allied and have pushed the Dalriadae back into their h...

Empire's Victory is the third book of the Roman Sky series that follows Cillian, a young Roman with Gael-Goth roots, as he rises up the ranks of an airborne legion in a sixth century Roman Empire that has airships. Cillian now commands an airship, its crew, and the soldier-archers it carries. After two years of battling Persians in the east, the legion is sent west and stops at Constantinople for inspections and refits. While there, Cillian is to be celebrated by Emperor Justinian for savi...

The Stittsville Creative Writing Group is a program of the Ottawa Public Library. The group meets every Thursday at the Stittsville branch for approximately an hour to read pieces they have written.We are: poets, scholars, rogue scholars, authors, and audacious amateurs taking their first steps into group sharing and into the published world. There are those who mostly listen rather than write, those who write prolifically but only share with the group and published writers.These are our s...

In 1755, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake and the resulting tsunamis, and by fire. Perhaps 90,000 people died and 85% of buildings were shattered, including the Royal Ribeiro Palace, home to the archives of all Portuguese exploration in and around the East Indies, including the voyages of Vasco da Gama. All records were lost. Did the Portuguese send voyages of exploration, secretly, across the treaty line of Tordesillas, that divided the Spanish...

‘There is a seamlessness about these poems; the stitching doesn’t show. Egan brings the full range of poetic techniques to his work, but they are largely invisible in the context of the whole. There were many times I had to pause while reading…often mid-poem, sometimes to reflect on how they related to my own experiences, sometimes to simply go back and relive the lucidity of the last few lines. These are poems which make us want to linger.’ – Garth Madsen

John Egan is a Sydney poet who also lives on the south coast of NSW. He was a high school teacher of English for twenty-two years and Second Master of Bankstown Grammar School for nine years. Later he taught English as a Foreign Language and University Preparation courses at the University of NSW, Wollongong University College and Newcastle University, as well as English and Business Communication at JDW Business College. He retired in 2013. His first chapbook was published by the Melbourn...

'John Egan's poems are finely crafted, revealing a deep perception of his surroundings and resonating with a richness of experience. He is an eloquent word-weaver, and he writes with a sensitivity that draws the reader into a world that is at times evocative, nostalgic, humorous and beautiful. John's poetry is a pleasure to read, and an enjoyable foray in to contemporary Australian literature.' - Vicki Harrold 'John Egan is an eloquent poet. His walks through the city's streets take him to...