A WILD RIDE INTO THE UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES
OF A ROGUE GENETICS LAB TINKERING WITH THE LIFE CODE.
On a perfect morning for an ocean swim together, Cassie Wilder watched helplessly as her mother suffered a cardiac collapse in the water and drowned.
Police called it a tragic accident. But she knew better. Egged on by a dark, acerbic voice unleashed by the trauma, Cassie sets out to hunt down the powerful biotech executives who murdered her scientist mother.
Enter brother Peter. A former baseball prodigy. Divorced. Struggling to reconnect with his twelve-year-old son, Jack, and put his broken career and family tragedies behind him. Until a luxury yacht washes ashore on his beach—carrying a dead body and a gold yin-yang amulet belonging to his late mother.
When Peter uncovers her hidden diary, the pages don't just expose the corporate greed that cost Dr. Emma Wilder her life; they reveal a monstrous Al-driven genomics trial, the Genesys Project—where therapies unlock volatile 'ghost' genes—volunteers go missing—and Cassie has become one of its victims.
After Jack is taken as trade bait for the explosive journal, the ex-Big Leaguer faces a grave decision: Save many innocent lives entrapped in the rogue gene-editing project—or save the one that matters most.
Set against a backdrop of corrupt Big Sugar and unregulated genetics research, The Swamp House Diaries is a psychological, high-concept medical thriller that ups the stakes with every page.
Steven C. Vogel is an award-winning writer, editor, and creative director, whose commercial career spans thousands of assignments for major global brands, including IBM, Disney, Pratt & Whitney, and Dole Foods. Over the years, he has ghostwritten speeches for CEOs and politicians, interviewed hundreds of business figures worldwide, created national TV campaigns, and worked as a freelance journalist covering sports, finance, and health care.
His corporate career took off when an ad agency asked him to write an annual report for a major corporation “in that voice—your fiction voice. Tell a story…” That assignment earned him the first of a dozen South Florida ADDY Awards and proved that compelling storytelling belongs everywhere. Later awarded the Hemingway Award for short fiction, Steven pairs a copywriter's ear for dialogue and storytelling with a novelist’s eye for atmosphere and tension.
The Ghost Writer marks his debut in Florida noir, capturing both the sun-bleached facades and the darker undercurrents of the state he has called home for over five decades. When stepping away from crime fiction, he explores a coastal mystery and teen friendship in his upcoming YA sports/adventure series, beginning with Raising Sloop John B.
A University of Florida alumnus with a degree in English Literature, Steven grew up on the beaches of South Florida before relocating to Northeast Florida, outside Jacksonville, where he lives with his wife, Lorraine, and their two cats.
—Coming soon—
When a split-second decision
changes everything.
​​​Teenage friends take refuge on a remote island off the Florida coast after a storm capsizes their sailboat, only to discover they aren't alone—the uncharted coral cay is a yacht chop-shop and smuggling haven for modern-day pirates.
But when Jake and Luke Barlows’ damaged sailboat, the Sloop John B, drifts into their cove, the teens plot their escape. Their plan: A daring night raid on the pirates' camp. Steal the parts for repairs and refloat the sailboat—before being discovered.
It doesn't go exactly as planned.​
Scheduled publishing date:
Summer 2027
Raising Sloop John B launches a fast-paced YA sports mystery-adventure series, about the Barlow brothers and their teen friends getting in and out of mys-adventures.
Imagine the Hardy Boys, but with a serious upgrade: the series is more tech-savvy, the teens more athletically gifted, and together they must navigate more socially-relevant topics, not unlike Mike Lupica-style sports stories, such as Heat and Strike Zone.
These tightly-plotted novellas deliver brisk pacing, ideal for young readers, particularly boys, who are discovering reading and crave action-packed stories.