James Scott Bell Books in Order

This early poetry collection examines fatherhood, marriage, faith, and the author's objections to modern culture. Brief pieces mix humor, vivid imagery, and Christian reflection while addressing personal relationships alongside philosophical and social concerns.

A young attorney receives a long-rumored manuscript attributed to Sir Max Busby after publishing a letter criticizing evolutionary theory. The fictional confessions frame a satirical investigation of Darwinism's cultural influence and the people promoting it.

Widowed Los Angeles prosecutor Tracy Shepherd takes her first murder case, involving a Hollywood producer's gang-related death. Weak evidence, frightened witnesses, and anonymous threats make her question the prosecution while exposing dangers aimed at her personally.

Idealistic law clerk Rachel Ybarra helps prosecute a notorious Russian Mafia leader in what could be a career-making case. When the principal witness is killed, the struggle to establish the truth becomes a fight for survival.

Disgraced lawyer Jake Denney takes a childhood friend's apparently hopeless murder case while his own life unravels. Mounting evidence and corruption threaten both client and attorney, forcing Jake to confront failures extending far beyond the courtroom.

Lawyer Janice Ramsey's daughter is kidnapped for a biotech experiment intended to create emotionless superintelligence. Working with an unconventional bounty hunter, Janice searches for the child while confronting the ambitions driving a dangerous genetic research project.

Supreme Court justice Millicent Hollander embraces Christianity after personal loss and a brush with death. Her changed beliefs provoke political enemies when she becomes chief justice, turning a church-state case into a struggle over her survival.

Kit Shannon helps a society woman protect a troubling past while Ted Fox pursues aviation opportunities in New York. When Ted is arrested for treason, Kit's fight for justice becomes inseparable from their threatened future together.

Kit Shannon defends Mousy Malloy against an attempted-murder charge while investigating a boy's death beneath a trolley. Connections between the cases suggest corruption, bringing her into conflict with powerful people determined to suppress the truth.

On an ocean liner, Kit Shannon meets a woman afraid for her safety whose husband soon dies. Defending Wanda Boswell in a corrupt port city, Kit must investigate the murder while questioning her client's claims of innocence.

Mark Gillen's wife leaves him for a wealthy director and takes their young daughter. False accusations then prevent contact with the child, forcing Mark into a custody battle shaped by unequal resources and his Christian convictions.

This fiction-writing guide explains how plot and structure work together, with techniques for beginnings, middles, and endings. Diagrams, exercises, examples, and checklists help writers develop story ideas and repair common problems in their manuscripts.

Nebraska classmates Zee and Doyle pursue dreams of acting and law before World War I changes their lives. Reunited in Los Angeles after hardship and disillusionment, they face a murder accusation that threatens both their futures.

Defense attorney Lindy Field represents a thirteen-year-old boy who has killed children at a baseball game. With her client unable or unwilling to help, she confronts an ambitious prosecutor and forces intent on concealing the truth.

Pastor Ron Hamilton is accused of murdering a porn performer, and the evidence appears overwhelming. His wife Dallas searches for the truth amid public condemnation, while a secret from her own past threatens their already embattled family.

Attorney Sam Trask has rebuilt his marriage and faith when someone from his past begins threatening him. As the danger extends to his family, he questions whether the legal system can protect them without personal retaliation.

Lawyer Ty Buchanan grieves his fiancée's apparently accidental death until a stranger claims she was murdered afterward. Investigating a story the police reject sends him into Los Angeles's dangerous underworld and jeopardizes his career and life.

This guide takes writers through revising a first draft, examining plot, structure, character, theme, and voice. Self-editing methods, exercises, and a revision checklist provide tools for strengthening a manuscript before approaching agents or publishers.

Lawyer Steve Conroy accepts a lucrative criminal client while haunted by his brother's childhood kidnapping. Suspecting the man might be that missing brother, Steve pursues answers that could bring redemption or expose him to lethal consequences.

Ty Buchanan helps a mother contest an illegal hotel eviction linked to his former law firm. When she is killed, he moves beyond legal advocacy to investigate her death and protect her six-year-old daughter.

Liz Towne discovers diamonds beside a corpse and pursues wealth with increasingly dangerous determination. Suspecting wrongdoing, her sister-in-law Rocky enlists a troubled Gulf War veteran to track Liz through a world of deception and violence.

This guide applies a strategic approach to writing novels, covering ideas, character, plot, dialogue, and drafting. It also addresses self-doubt, expectations, rejection, queries, and submissions, connecting the craft of storytelling with the challenges of publishing.

Ty Buchanan's drunk-driving client dies, and the man's brother is charged with murder. Assisted by Sister Mary Veritas, Ty investigates evidence and family conflict while uncovering corruption that brings dangerous scrutiny from someone guarding their secrets.

This omnibus pairs two legal thrillers: a father's custody fight in 'Breach of Promise' and a pastor's murder accusation in 'Presumed Guilty.' Both stories follow families facing public judgment, personal uncertainty, and faith under pressure.

This writing guide examines how conflict and suspense shape characters, scenes, and plots. Examples from fiction and film accompany techniques for dialogue, viewpoint, subplots, backstory, and revision, helping writers sustain tension throughout a story.

James Scott Bell presents notes from Danny Simon's comedy-writing course, supplemented by an analysis of a television comedy Simon assigned. The booklet examines practical comic techniques and ways writers can introduce more humor into their work.

In 1955 Los Angeles, boxer Irish Jimmy Gallagher enters a private match hoping for needed cash. A mobster's attempt to fix the fight brings Jimmy into conflict with a crime boss, hired thugs, and Iron Hands.

Struggling comedian Pete Harvey bombs at a Los Angeles club and fears his career is finished. A stranger's extraordinary offer of money gives him another possibility, but accepting a deal that seems too generous carries unexpected danger.

Divorce attorney Andrew Chamberlain's successful life begins unraveling when a friend asks him to handle a separation. This novella and three accompanying suspense stories explore tempting offers, unexpected trouble, and people pushed toward dangerous choices.

Zombie defense lawyer Mallory Caine balances courtroom work with a hunger for brains. When someone begins killing the undead, she must investigate the threat while trying to recover the soul that could save her from damnation.

IT professional Cameron Cates appears to have a secure job, a loving fiancée, and financial promise. Attraction to a new colleague sends him toward dangerous decisions in a suspense novella collected alongside three additional short stories.

Collected articles and essays address the writing world, a writer's daily life, and fiction craft. Advice on action, opening pages, queries, and electronic publishing appears alongside material from Bell's working notebook and interviews with other authors.

After a nun is attacked, Sister Justicia Marie investigates despite objections from police and her Mother Superior. Confronting local criminals awakens a fierce vigilante impulse that threatens to redefine her understanding of the religious life.

This concise guide addresses dreaming, setting goals, and developing self-discipline. Bell presents methods involving visual motivation, problem-solving, and personal growth, drawing on his experience to examine how readers can turn ambitions into deliberate action.

This concise time-management guide presents twenty-one tools for organizing priorities and getting essential work done. It also examines obstacles, stress, and anxiety, connecting practical scheduling techniques with readers' business ambitions, family commitments, and personal goals.

A sheriff is killed and eaten in a lawyer's office, making zombie attorney Mallory Caine the prime suspect. While defending herself, she also handles a werewolf's family-law case amid escalating supernatural threats in Los Angeles.

Boxer Irish Jimmy Gallagher visits a carnival with his girlfriend Ruby, who wants him to quit fighting. Encountering a journeyman boxer taking on all challengers jolts Jimmy and threatens to disrupt the life they are building.

This guide treats self-publishing as a long-term business, covering marketing copy, discoverability, book design, and promotional campaigns. Bell outlines a publishing strategy intended to help writers develop continuing income from their own fiction and nonfiction.

Zombie lawyer Mallory Caine helps a terrified boy who says his mother wants to eat him. A threatened sacrifice, demonic forces, her father's court case, and a detective's suspicions make protecting her undead secret increasingly difficult.

Sister Justicia Marie's efforts to fight crime in Los Angeles put her at odds with her school superior, confessor, and a local criminal boss. Her determination to confront violent offenders leaves her surrounded by enemies on every side.

Returned military chaplain Chuck Samson struggles with trauma while caring for his autistic brother. When danger tied to his time in Afghanistan resurfaces, he must uncover the event he cannot remember before it destroys the life he is protecting.

James Scott Bell presents fiction techniques for strengthening openings, dialogue, exposition, viewpoint, and plot. Drawing partly on his writing essays and interviews with other authors, the guide connects practical craft decisions with the task of reaching readers.

In 1955 Los Angeles, boxer Jimmy Gallagher tries to reach a movie date with Ruby, who wants him to stop fighting. A wrongful arrest turns the trip into a series of troubles that threatens much more than their evening.

Sisters Justicia Marie and Xuan establish an order that combines a homeless shelter with martial-arts training. When a murder occurs on the shelter grounds, their unconventional efforts to protect Los Angeles draw a new and dangerous enemy.

A divorced father visits a park with his son Terry, where an encounter with a dog recalls an incident he regrets. Wanting to be a better parent than his own father, he faces an uncomfortable teaching opportunity.

This guide examines writing as both a creative practice and a business, comparing traditional and independent publishing. Bell covers productivity, goals, nonfiction subjects, multiple income streams, and habits intended to support a sustainable professional writing life.

Bell explains how dialogue creates tension, reveals character, and moves a story forward. Using examples from novels and screenplays, he offers exercises for improving a writer's ear and methods for identifying and correcting common problems in fictional conversations.

Boxer Jimmy Gallagher's visit to a Los Angeles laundry turns violent when a stranger starts a fight. Losing his bulldog Steve and landing in jail draw Jimmy into a Tong conflict that becomes a struggle to survive.

Bell proposes building a novel around its central moment of self-examination rather than beginning with its opening. The method links a character's earlier psychology, turning-point decision, and final transformation to help writers shape a more unified story.

Bell identifies recurring manuscript mistakes that weaken openings, dialogue, stakes, flashbacks, viewpoint, and scenes. The guide pairs each problem with a practical correction, then examines professional habits and fears that can also interfere with a writer's progress.

Former cage fighter Mike Romeo has found a quiet life in Los Angeles until a church explodes. Helping an injured woman search for her missing children makes him a target and forces him to confront danger again.

Bell organizes plot development around fourteen pivotal scenes that can guide an outline or help a writer discover what happens next. Each section explains a structural beat and offers ways to adapt it to different working methods.

This guide defines narrative voice and offers a method for developing it across an entire book. Bell examines emotion, rhythm, attitude, and imagery, using examples and exercises to help writers create distinctive styles suited to different genres.

Bell explains how short stories produce emotional impact within a limited space, illustrating his method with examples and complete stories. He also considers how short fiction can develop skills, attract readers, and support a longer writing career.

Bell combines fiction instruction with advice on sustaining a writing practice through fear, rejection, and creative blocks. The guide covers premises, character development, studying other novels, marketing, and time management as parts of a working writer's life.

Bell uses Robert Mitchum's films to discuss his understanding of masculine virtues, including duty, discipline, sacrifice, and honor. Examining admirable and destructive behavior onscreen, he offers the movies as starting points for teaching and discussing character.

Mike Romeo accepts undercover work for a California senatorial campaign and travels to San Francisco. Investigating an attack on a candidate draws him toward a political operative, while escalating violence threatens to end both the assignment and his life.

Deaths of famous people and those less widely known prompt James Scott Bell to reflect on mortality. These brief essays combine memoir, humor, and observations about writing, examining what individual lives suggest about living fully and facing their inevitable end.

Bell addresses the psychological habits that help writers produce consistently and cope with setbacks. He offers methods for setting goals, building commitment, sustaining creativity, and handling stress, burnout, envy, comparison, and expectations throughout a writing career.

A video of Sister Justicia Marie breaking a drug dealer's arm makes her famous and alarms the Los Angeles archdiocese. Pressure to abandon her methods collides with renewed crime and an attempt on her life.

Drawing on earlier pulp writers, Bell explores techniques for producing plot-driven fiction regularly. The guide covers plotting formulas, prose, genres, recurring characters, publishing, and marketing, and includes a brainstorming tool designed to generate new story ideas.

This guide helps writers prioritize a manageable set of marketing activities rather than chase every promotional trend. Bell discusses book presentation, pricing, email lists, and converting readers into returning fans while preserving time for the next manuscript.

Mike Romeo rescues a poisoned woman on a foggy beach, then searches for her when she disappears from the hospital. Her father's assignment leads him through Hollywood, the fight business, and a cult with increasingly dangerous connections.

Former prisoner Jonathan Curtis takes a car-restoration job that turns deadly, while aspiring actress Kris Boland questions a friend's murder arrest. Their paths intersect as they investigate a possible frame-up and face a killer determined to stop them.

In a future where digital technology can bring deceased actors back to the screen, a production involving John Wayne goes wrong. Producer Stan Hunsaker must contend with a version of the star unwilling to cooperate with the film.

Fifteen years after their young son vanished, Dylan and Erin Reeve receive a message claiming he is alive. Following the clues offers their last hope of finding him, but they cannot tell whether someone is exploiting their loss.

Sister Justicia Marie investigates the disappearance of the landmark Hollywood Cross, which has stood above Los Angeles for decades. Finding who stole it and why requires her to confront criminals who underestimate her determination and fighting skills.

A son who longs for his father's approval tries to give him a birthday present. The gesture takes an unexpected turn, shifting the occasion beyond the gift and toward the relationship he hopes to strengthen.

Using a superhero framework, Bell diagnoses common plot problems such as weak openings, stalled middles, implausibility, and ineffective endings. The guide offers practical repairs, plotting exercises, and advice on using beta readers to strengthen a manuscript.

Mike Romeo helps his friend Archie Jennison after a gruesome Hollywood murder becomes linked to him. Investigating the strange connection exposes concealed motives and reopens trouble from Romeo's own past, placing both men in increasing danger.

Bell examines the final act of a novel, explaining different endings, emotional reversals, twists, and the value of resonance. The guide offers brainstorming methods and ways to resolve loose threads while leaving readers satisfied with the story.

Call girl Keely Delmonico flees a hotel after finding her client dead, hoping to avoid police questions. Her escape draws her into a more dangerous situation when a killer pursues her through Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Lawyer Steve Conroy remains haunted by his brother's childhood abduction when a new client offers disturbing information. Investigating the criminal's connections gives Steve a chance to confront the past, but exposes him to secrets with deadly consequences.

After an emergency desert landing, Mike Romeo tries to check on a fellow passenger in Dillard, Nevada. Evasive hospital staff, a threatening local, and an obstructive sheriff suggest a hidden danger that turns his concern into a fight.

Bell explains how to create characters readers connect with, from protagonists and villains to supporting figures. He covers unpredictability, backstory, character arcs, recurring heroes, and exercises intended to make behavior and personality more vivid on the page.

Mike Romeo and lawyer Ira Rosen are hired after a teenager is arrested for selling drugs at an elite school. Investigating during Los Angeles's lockdown reveals hidden influences, while the boy's silence and threats against Romeo complicate the case.

Mike Romeo helps protect a girl rescued from sex trafficking, but her kidnapping sends him into Los Angeles’s hidden networks of exploitation. Powerful opponents and police warnings fail to deter his determination to find her before those forces silence him.

This collection follows Hollywood studio troubleshooter Bill Armbrewster in six pulp-style novelettes set in 1945. Protecting actors from scandal and criminal threats brings him up against swindlers, gangsters, and killers, while he also writes crime stories himself.

James Scott Bell offers 125 practical ways to strengthen fiction, from openings and secondary characters to dialogue, fight scenes, and revision. Material from his personal writing notebooks accompanies advice for making scenes clearer, livelier, and more engaging for readers.

A grieving mother asks Mike Romeo to investigate her college-aged son’s suicide. His search links an unusual spiritual center and a secretive town to California’s lithium industry, drawing opposition from enforcers, an energy magnate, and a hostile sheriff.

Working for attorney Ira Rosen, Mike Romeo investigates a homeless young man accused of murder. The case brings him to a reverend helping people on Los Angeles’s streets, where a deadly conspiracy threatens both the minister and Romeo himself.

James Scott Bell’s reflective essays roam through family memories, marriage, baseball, music, popular culture, and philosophical questions. Personal anecdotes and unexpected associations shape humorous pieces that connect ordinary experiences with broader reflections on the way people live and remember.

This collection gathers James Scott Bell’s short fiction, including suspenseful twists, emotionally focused tales, flash fiction, and stories about Los Angeles boxer Irish Jimmy Gallagher. Its varied forms combine crime, humor, and human dilemmas across both brief and longer narratives.

Mike Romeo intervenes in a fight outside a roadside diner and becomes caught in a lethal dispute. Poisoned cattle, ranching interests, political influence, and a technology billionaire complicate his search for whoever is directing the violence and deception.

Mike Romeo rescues a woman after her plane crashes into the Pacific, but she conceals her identity and disappears. Trying to find her again draws him into a dangerous network of money, murder, and betrayal that targets him next.