The Home of Fiction Author Ray Mark Dane
I write speculative fiction with a focus on the paranormal, mysteries, horror, and historical fiction. Usually there is a true historical tale lurking in the background as inspiration.
My current project is the Gray Ellis Series, with five novels planned—each novel is a standalone historical tale set in England, in the early 1700’s.
Another project nearing completion is the epic tale of a ghost ship Octavius, which will be published early 2025.
Below you will find a list of my published works, and up-coming novels–click the button to be taken directly to that books Amazon page.
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Author Ray Mark Dane has taken a short story by American author, the late Evan S. Connell, and applied an historical background to the tale, taking the reader on a voyage of discovery with the crew of the Octavius.
Voyaging over the oceans during a tumultuous times—where hostilities existed between the British, Dutch, and Spanish—the Octavius has to avoid ongoing battles between Royal Navy squadrons, and the Spanish Armada, as well as the dangers posed by the Dutch protecting their interests around the South China Seas. Then there are those marauding pirates from many nations, to outrun or outgun.
To ensure the historical background is correct, to a point, the Octavius sails to Formosa; China in 1761 was restricted to foreign trade. In the year 1761, the island of Formosa—today’s Taiwan—had recently been taken back from the Dutch, by the ‘King Pirate’ Koxinga on behalf of the Chinese Emperor—in the story, with some poetic licence by the author, the British are merely acting as stewards of the island, protecting it from the Dutch, and also to seek favour with both Koxinga, and the Emperor of China; formidable allies in the region.
After the few passengers disembark at Formosa, the Captain and officers of the Octavius make ready their plans to return to London, via the Northern Passage; taking the east to west route over the Canada’s. It is here the story evolves into a more paranormal tale filled with adventure, romance, intrigue, and terror …
Be assured, this is an epic story that will have you captivated, aghast, laughing, sighing, and crying; for this I offer no apology.
There are many questions left unanswered:
Did the Octavius really manage to find, and pass through the Northern Passage from east to west?
Was the female, found frozen onboard the Octavius, truly Lady Georgia Clarence, the wife of Sir James Clarence?
Sir James, being the King’s Diplomat, and spy, had searched for his Lady for years. Even ordering the Royal Navy to stop and search any vessel they came across in the South China and Philippine Sea’s; almost causing an outbreak of war with both China and Japan, in the process.
Why did the Captain of the whaler conceal the fact, he had found a lone survivor onboard the Octavius? The only living soul who could reveal where the ship had been for the thirteen-years, she had been missing? Where was the Octavius in all that time, and how did the boy survive the frozen wastes for so long?
To find out the answers to these questions, get your copy of the epic novel by Ray Mark Dane:
THE FATE OF THE OCTAVIUS will be available via Amazon, in 2025.
The book has been dedicated to the memory of the late Evan S. Connell, by the author.
En 1748 un barco zarpa de Inglaterra con destino a Portugal. El Capitán James C. Brogan trae a bordo a su nueva esposa Josephine. Para la tripulación, llevar a una mujer a bordo significaba mala suerte para todos ellos. El mundo se entera de que el barco ha naufragado en las infames arenas de Goodwin. Todas las manos perdidas.
En 1898, una viuda reciente, Phillipa Ainsley, entra en una librería y descubre un viejo Diario. Obligada a comprarlo, se lo lleva a casa. Mientras se sumerge en el baño, es transportada en el tiempo y se encuentra reviviendo los últimos momentos como Josephine en el barco siniestrado, cayendo en los brazos de su verdadero amor, el Capitán James C. Brogan. En el momento del impacto, ella es arrojada de vuelta a su propio tiempo. Después de enterarse de cómo el barco reaparece cada cincuenta años como un barco fantasma, viaja a Kent. En esta costa histórica, el corazón de Phillipa se debate entre un nuevo amor y su capitán Brogan.
El Diario del Capitán Brogan ya está disponible en una edición en español a través de Amazon!
Second novel in the series, GRAY ELLIS : HUNMANBY is now available via Amazon!
It is 1702, Parish Constable Gray Ellis is called to assist Sir Alistair Wharton. There is a mysterious case of sheep rustling in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The rustlers are elusive, well organised and have thus far managed to evade capture.
Ellis meets several characters on the road—some wish to relieve him of his horse and boots, others have a warning for the weary traveller. In East Riding, Ellis finds no evidence for gangs rustling livestock—after sunset, most are too fearful to venture out onto the Wolds.
Garth Oberon Albemarle, the heir to the Albemarle fortune, asks Ellis to investigate a coven of witches. It is soon apparent that Albemarle is seeking to remove any competition to his dark arts.
Ellis discovers many historical mysteries, that only present him with more questions.
Are the eerie lights flying around Flamborough Head, related to missing people?
Is there really a creature wandering Starr Carr in the moonlight, and does it have anything to do, with missing sheep?
Then there is the question of the little people …
First in a series, the novel GRAY ELLIS : LA VENGANZA is available via Amazon!
It began in 1605. A Spanish galleon named, La Venganza wrecks on the rocks. There was one man standing between the wreckers and a tun of silver—a prisoner of the Holy Inquisition.
Justice of the Peace, Sir Alistair Wharton of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions Court, summons renowned criminal investigator, Parish Constable Gray Ellis, requesting that Ellis travel to end of the country at the bequest of Sir Henry Mackleby—a former Magistrate, now retired.
Ellis is asked to investigate the unexplained deaths of four prominent and wealthy businessmen, in a village called The Lizard.
Brent Jarvis, a former ship’s surgeon in the King’s Navy, has a theory: he believes the men literally died of fright.
Ellis investigates, and discovers the deaths are hereditary.
The inhabitants of The Lizard are living under a curse.
The novel NIGHT WYLDE is now available via Amazon
Lake Superior, 1899
The schooner Night Wylde loses her battle with The Witch of November.
There is nobody left to hear the chime of her last bell.
Lake Superior, 1905
The steam tug S.T. Sargoss is in distress out on the lake climbing thirty-five-foot seas .
Coastguard’s at Sault Ste Marie has recorded winds of up to sixty-miles per hour.
Steam tug S.T. Sargoss is on Lake Superior, climbing thirty-five foot seas.
After a signal is seen the Portage Lifeboat heads out to search for a casualty
After 12-hours fighting high seas in thick fog, the lifeboatmen resign
themselves to their fate … to be included in the Witches toll.
Then, they hear a ships bell …
The novel FOR LOVE & DEMONS is available via Amazon.
For Love & Demons
Detective Chief Inspector Harry Kearns, of Thames Valley Police, is working a case involving missing children. They are going missing from parks around the city … in broad daylight.
There are no witnesses. There are no clues.
There were no bodies to be found … until now!
Kearns realises he is fighting against the clock …
In desperation, he turns to Professor Frank Chrysler of Cambridge University. Chrysler is detained elsewhere and recommends his protégé, Victoria Claiborne.
Claiborne is nearing the end of her tenure at Trinity College, having gained a PhD focused on psychology and behaviour, in relation to criminal insanity—with prestigious institutes and corporations from around the world, seeking to employ her.
Claiborne agrees to help. Together with Kearns, she investigates the mysterious events.
After applying the latest in behavioural analysis techniques to the case, Claiborne advises Kearns he has not one, but two psychopaths to contend with.
Both are stealing children, but for considerably different purposes.
Both are influenced by the phases of the moon.
The next novel in the Gray Ellis Series, Hunmanby is now available via Amazon.
It is 1702, and Parish Constable Gray Ellis investigates a case of rustling in the East Riding of Yorkshire; someone is stealing sheep, and there are mysterious cases of mutilated livestock.
He arrives in Yorkshire to support local Constable Trey Saxon … until Saxon inexplicably goes missing.
It is soon evident that he is only one of many, to mysteriously vanish. Time is running out.
Ellis has reluctantly left his new wife alone in a strange town, with a new baby.
Beyond missing people, locals report fresh sightings of a creature that has historically been seen wandering the wilderness of Starr Carr; it is apparently, half-man and half-dog.
Ellis is willing to accept sightings of a dog-man, and even tales of witches and warlocks.
But he has an issue accepting that cows can fall from the sky.
Then, there are the small folk …
The novelette The Journal of Captain Brogan is now available via Amazon.
The Journal of Captain Brogan
In 1748 a ship leaves England bound for Portugal. Captain James C. Brogan brings aboard his new wife Josephine.
For the crew, bringing a female on board spelled bad luck for them all. The world then learns the ship has been wrecked on the infamous Goodwin Sands. All hands lost.
Forward to 1898 and a recent widow, Phillipa Ainsley enters a bookshop and discovers an old Journal. Compelled to buy it, she takes it home.
While soaking in the bath, she is transported back in time and finds herself re-living the final moments as Josephine upon the stricken ship where she falls into the arms of her true love, Captain James C. Brogan.
At the moment of impact she is cast back to her own time.
After learning how the ship reappears every fifty-years as a ghost ship, she travels to Kent.
On this historical coast Phillipa’s heart is torn between a new love and her Captain Brogan.
The novel PORTAL is now available via Amazon!
Portal
Former U.S. Ranger Craig Sauber, an avid outdoorsman and owner of a survival school, ventures into a National Park seeking a long-forgotten trail.
Information from an old cartographers map indicates the elusive trail may lead to an ancient cave. Sauber finds the trail, and the cave, but soon realises he is not in the world he knows
In this strange realm he will need all of his skills and training to survive.
With unlikely allies, and a secret revealed, he must once more enter the fray.
Sauber must face a terrifying ordeal before he can make his way home.
He agrees to put his life on the line so that some may live, and others may be free.
What happens next becomes a bloody fight for survival.
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Upcoming Novels
You can read more about my upcoming novels on my Portfolio page …
