The Bookstore
The Screenplay Series
Our first published novel was “Oxygen Wars,” an idea that first took form as a screenplay by Melton Cartes and Daniel Merritt, available in paperback, e-book, and wonderfully narrated by Elliott Life on Audible. We’re now publishing a series of original screenplays we’ve developed.
This series retains the screenplay formatting and is published as paperback and e-book editions. Our newest releases are the original screenplays for Oxygen Wars, the basis for the novel, and Control Home. #Science-fiction, #Screenplays, #Motion-Picture
Control Home —
A bounty hunter on the trail of an organ scam artist comes to realize that he may have found the man who has his original hands.
He just wanted his hands back…
In an alternate present day where human body parts are commodities, survival depends on credit limits and current medicals. For Maltex Faloon, a disgraced pool champion, time has run out. His “welfare hands”—a cheap mismatch he was forced to take after a lost wager—are degenerating into gnarled, useless flesh. Unable to afford enough T-Butoxilina to dull the excruciating pain, or buy a new pair, Maltex is desperate. His life depends on the next case he takes as a donor fraud bounty hunter.
His latest assignment: track down a charismatic con man who has sold the same body parts—balls to eyeballs—to multiple pitiful buyers. Maltex is pulled into the brutal, underground economy and the orbit of Flexibee Bold, a stunning woman with a voice box ravaged by “Latent Degeneracy,” who may be his only link to the fraudster. As the truth about the suspect—and Flexibee’s own connection—unravels, Maltex finds himself with a decision to make.
Control Home is a dive into a chilling world where the cost of a new body is measured in betrayal, violence, and the loss of what makes you human. Maltex must confront a chance at a new beginning. In a city where everything is for sale, the ultimate question is: What would you sacrifice for a new set of hands?
Control Home is an original science fiction screenplay by Daniel Merritt and Melton Cartes that was a Semifinalist in the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriting Conference in 1999.
Oxygen Wars —
the Novel and the Original Screenplay
Oxygen Wars — After surviving serious damage, a clone soldier finds himself outside of the war he’s fighting and is left to rediscover his humanity and learn what’s really behind the war.
After surviving serious damage, a clone soldier finds himself outside of the war he’s fighting and is left to rediscover his humanity and learn what’s really behind the war.
Reviews of Oxygen Wars
| “Awesome book!!! “If you are a science fiction fan or not this is a must read! Makes you really think about what we take for granted! It’s a great read and it took me on a wonderful journey! Loved it!” — Naida Medeiros | “Sharply written and deeply felt. “I really liked this! A quick read that knows how to savor while sprinting (and speckled with classic sci-fi and Americana references), Oxygen Wars gives form and personality to an elemental landscape that affronts and absorbs the characters and their actions toward self-determination.” — Jada W. |
| “This is a daringly inventive dystopian vision of a future era of complete planetary colonizations, organized by (surprise!) corporations rather than states. Amid wars that are systemic and endless, one soldier finds himself partly disconnected from the program, and the novel follows his gradual realization of what has happened, as well as his discoveries, here and there, of fragments of pre-corporatized humanity within himself. Allegorically, it’s a powerful warning of the forces released by the convergence of capitalism, militarism, and data-driven systems of control. It also reminds us, in nicely nuanced ways, that the hunger for freedom is not extinguishable.” — David Robbins | “Captivating dystopian novel, makes you feel like you are there! “The author, Melton Cartes, has a gift of writing which makes you forget that you are reading a novel and feel like you are there, you are on the colony, you are part of the action. I was so gripped that I barely put the book down, and chowed through it in just three days (which is very unlike me).” — Salman Naqvi |
| “Melton Cartes’ Oxygen Wars has all the earmarks of a classic. Mr. Cartes has been able to combine the human emotions of wonder and the search for peace with the all too prevalent human lust for war in a way that can be understood by every generation. Though Oxygen Wars is set in a time that is centuries in our future, then as now, war rages on. And although Cartes’ warriors are genetically created, the soul of man is with them. This is a sleeper that will wake your heart and imagination. It is a must read for science fiction buffs and also those of us who enjoy reading of the triumph of the human spirit.” — Jeanne M. Evans | “Angus 7873 begins simply as another soldier in another war in another place. The author does a masterful job in transforming this human clone soldier into a quite believable character. I read few science fiction books because I often get lost in the details of the numerous gadgets, plot twists and similar matters that are possible with that genre. Oxygen Wars, however, has a crisp plot, few characters and was a good three sitting read for me.” — D. R. Smith |
| “…the strength of this book is in the themes the author has selected. Specifically, rather than going with the typical good v. evil plotline so common in science fiction, the author chose to explore something much deeper: are we objective thinkers or merely doing as we’re told; do we live to work or work to live; the power of questioning society to assert our personal freedom. Although there’s plenty of combat and action in the book, it’s these solid themes that the average person will relate to.” — M. Rozmarin |
