John Serge Hubchenko

I have lived in Key West permanently since 1976. My first book starts here, in the island city in the ‘70s. The title is ‘Key West at the Water’s Edge.

‘Water’s Edge' is a book in three parts. The characters and the mood change drastically from Part One to Part Three, and Part Two bridges these changes in a gradual increase in intensity.

At the start of the book and throughout Part One, the key actors are introduced, and relationships develop. Their lifestyle is free and easy, and they make their way in their world by the best means possible at any given point in time.

Part Two brings evil omens and wraiths from the past personified in one of the main character’s nemesis. The interlopers infiltrate the peaceful lives of our heroes, and an atmosphere of foreboding and suspicion pervades. The dire situation precipitates a ghastly event as part two closes.

Part Three attempts to settle the score in a sea chase.

My second book, ‘Sierra Gold,’ is a tale of gold, larceny, and lust in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A young couple, a man who becomes enthralled with finding gold, and his wife, who seeks to rein in that proclivity. The featured characters are a couple of greenhorns from the east and their new friends and foes in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The villains are a band of bandits held together by an iron-willed leader and three subordinates who remain in the group as a means to plunder and survive despite internal animosities. The friends are an old miner, a couple who run a country mercantile, a sheriff out of his jurisdiction, and a lady wrangler. The protagonist is a wandering native ‘American’ whose heritage is that of multiple tribes.

The following five books I wrote are a series of science fiction novels, a significant departure from the previous genre of action/adventure. They are fast reads that are way out there, six thousand years into the future. The first episode is eleven parsecs distant from the Earth, which has succumbed to immolation when the sun becomes a red giant.

A lone traveler named Oscar solo piloting a giant spaceship searches for human colonies after the diaspora from Earth. After several futile years, he discovers a solar system with two colonies on different planets within the star system that are in conflict. Both colonies are unaware of an internal threat to the system itself. The subsequent episodes feature further discoveries of colonized planets, abandoned attempts, and disasters from failed excursions—the growing list of characters finds new life forms. The final entry in the series compiles all five books with minor changes and is titled ‘The Spacebus Chronicles.’

‘Anne’s Caribbean Café’ is a spoof on the strengths and frailties of the people on a fictitious island in the Caribbean. The forgotten Caribbean island where the story is told is nearly inaccessible due to a mud-filled harbor. Although the island does not exist, at least not as the one depicted in this book, many of the features, animals, and plants seen in the book are common in parts of the Caribbean. ‘Anne’s Caribbean Café’ is a farce, and Anne is the heroine.

The book is a satire about the stories of the people on this little-known and less fortunate island. The cast is multinational; the characters are stereotyped. They are amplified clichés of the people they represent. The content is not politically correct, and I have attempted to maintain consistency in that regard. Could the preposterous events in the story actually happen? I seriously doubt it.

Books by John Sergé Hubchenko

Key West at the Water’s Edge

Sierra Gold

Anne’s Caribbean Café

The Spacebus Chronicles component novels:

Spacebus I – Diaspora

Spacebus II – The Final Days

Spacebus III – Horizons

Spacebus IV – Unintended Consequences

Spacebus V - Homecoming

The Spacebus Chronicles - a compilation of the novellas of the series