Oas. A city in the middle of a great desert, yet blessed with an abundance of water. This water is coaxed out of the skies by the Gatherers, an ancient guild of pilots who use barely understood technology to seed the clouds. The rain they bring is collected in Oas' grand system of fountains and distributed throughout the city. When Oas' Caliph dies suddenly, a new Caliph is augured-a young and not very responsible Gatherer named Haran. Only a teenager, Haran finds himself thrust into a new world of court intrigue, politics, servants and betrayal. His Vizier thinks himself Caliph, and is willing to kill for the title. In the Caliph's almost forgotten harem, Haran meets and falls in love with Qeemah. Her love forces him to question his path in life-whether to continue on as a puppet of the Vizier or to return to the honorable life as a Gatherer? But when Oas' neighboring city, Entana, loses its only source of water, its Sultan demands that Oas surrender the Gatherers and their technology to him for Entana's use. War looms, and Haran is faced with the awesome responsibility of being Caliph not only in name, but in deed. Confronting the Sultan's army-and the skein of betrayal that brings it to Oas-Haran must decide if he is Gatherer or Caliph.or both.
John F.D. Taff is an author with more than 25 years experience in all sorts of writing...public relations, marketing, sales, journalism and creative. He's a published author with more than 50 short stories and seven novels in print. His writing tends to be categorized as "horror," though most of it has a weird, pulpy Twilight Zone vibe to it. He also writes fantasy, suspense and some science fiction.
His latest sales have been to Malicious Malpractices, Box of Delights, Schrodinger's Mouse, Morpheus Tales, Black Ink Horror, Short-Story.me, PseudoPod and Jack O'Spec. Over the years, four of his short stories have been awarded honorable mentions in Datlow & Windling's Year's Best Fantasy & Horror.
John is a fascinating human being (yes, he's writing this), with diverse interests in history (Ancient Egypt and the Civil War, particularly), spiritualism, the paranormal, cooking, movies, music and reading. He resides in a lovely house down by a river that likes to, every so often, overflow its banks and spread alarmingly over the countryside, sweeping aside mobile homes, swine and meth labs. He shares the house with his two wonderfully cute pugs, Sylvia and Sadie.
He has three fantastic kids whom he doesn't see as much as would like-Harry (or whatever his name is these days), Sam and Molly. They're great kids and he loves them very much. He also shares his life with his wonderful inamorata, Deborah, who puts up with a great deal from him.
P.S. The "F.D." in his name, while partially a remnant of his family's long-standing tradition of naming sons after presidents of the day, does not stand for "Franklin Delano" as some might guess. No, the "F" stands for "Fitzgerald," which my Irish Catholic parents bestowed on me 29 days after JFK was shot in Dallas. The "D" also has a Catholic connection. When I was confirmed, a charming little Catholic ritual that involves the conferment (me) to choose the name of a saint to take. Long story short. Already a horror fan. Omen movie was out. Damian. Yes, to the consternation of my parents, I chose Damian.
So, it's John Fitzgerald Damian Taff.
