The Novel Fox SHORTS is pleased to announce the signing of M.C. Tuggle for his never-before-published novella, Aztec Midnight. Aztec Midnight is an exciting piece of short fiction, and we’re looking forward to introducing it to readers in Winter 2014.
About the Book:
When drug cartels begin vandalizing ancient Aztec sites throughout Mexico in search of the sacred obsidian knife of Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl, the Mexican government reaches out to the U.S. State Department for assistance. Dr. Jon Barrett, an archaeologist and pre-Columbian weapons expert, then journeys to Cuernavaca with his wife Susanna at the request of Eric Winwood, a high-ranking State Department official, to find and rescue the knife before the cartels can claim it. Locating the knife proves more challenging and dangerous than Dr. Barrett anticipated, and he and Susanna soon find themselves at the center of the cartels’ search. For Dr. Barrett and his wife to survive, he will be forced to apply his knowledge of ancient weapons in the face of an ancient power he never imagined.
About the Author:
M.C. Tuggle is a native North Carolinian whose ancestors arrived in the South in 1647. He majored in history and English, and completed his Master in English at Wake Forest University on a Wake Forest fellowship.
His interests in language and computers led him into a career in property and casualty underwriting, project management, and workflow design for several large insurance companies. In 1986, he completed the course of study for the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation, the insurance equivalent of a CPA. He taught CPCU for several years, and served as an accredited instructor of statistics for the North Carolina Department of Insurance from 1994 to 2000.
M.C. Tuggle's fantasy, science fiction, and literary stories have been featured in Kzine, Bewildering Stories, Mystic Signals, Fabula Argentea, and Fiction 365. He considers Ernest Hemingway, Mickey Spillane, Robert E. Howard, and Yukio Mishima as the authors who have most influenced him. In addition to fantasy, science fiction, and crime novels, his reading includes history, with emphasis on military history, and he has given presentations on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign to several historical societies.
An avid weightlifter, tennis player, collector of American Indian relics, and student of martial arts, he has been married to Julie Tuggle since 1982 and is the proud father of a daughter, Jessica.
