Thrillers and Science Fiction
by Debra E. Blaine, MD
NEW RELEASE: The Meraki Effect

Russell thought they’d found a perfect refuge when they fled the apocalypse on Earth. But planet Meraki hides a sinister secret that may strip him of his mind and consign his soul to oblivion.
Not much usually rattles Russell Vaderman, but suddenly, the peace of their perfect hamlet is shattered. A young girl chases her cat and vanishes, a native Meraki is murdered by an angry colonist, and their best minds are stumped by bizarre storms, malfunctioning operating systems, and structural changes in the basic neurochemistry of some settlers.
As leader of the community, it’s Russell’s job to keep everyone safe, and he’s going to have to find a way to parlay with 2 hostile species.
But Meraki holds an even more ominous secret, the mammoth energy force that lives within the Mountain. When Russell goes to face him, he realizes he is risking the total erasure of his mind and all that makes him who he is. But it is imperative that he unravel its mystery before it erupts and consumes them all.
If he survives, will he still be human?
The Meraki Effect is a metaphysical colonization science fiction thriller.
Order now to grab your ticket to planet Meraki and join this gripping adventure of survival and metamorphosis.
Undue Influences, Beyond the Pillars of Salt, and The Meraki Effect comprise the series: Sanctuary Seekers.
However, as an unordered series, each book can be read as a standalone novel.



Winner of the NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Award for Political Thrillers, 2021
Winner of the NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards for Dystopian Fiction, 2022
Distinguished Favorite of the New York City Big Book Awards, 2019
He knew he was “different.” He never guessed he was so gifted the NSA would want him dead.
When his nephew shows up covered in blood and remembering nothing, Russell is yanked into a world of treachery and imperial deceit.
Both astonished and terrified, he discovers he sustained a brain mutation in childhood that has given him extraordinary mental abilities. Abilities which are only just now surfacing.
Seismic upheavals have turned Earth into a barren wasteland. The government is now an autocracy that thrives on cruelty. And the one who holds the key to survival may die before she can share it. Can Russell manage an escape for his fugitives before their sanctuary is annihilated?
For 12 years, Russell has kept his brilliant refugees secluded from the brutal dictatorship that now rules the United States. And until now, the violent planetary eruptions and seismic storms have not…
Dr. Tobi Lister suspects her patients are being murdered.
And it looks like her medical director is meddling with her patients’ electronic charts.
Tobi tries to tell herself she’s imagining things, but she’s more frightened by the day. And when the man who deserted her decades ago reaches out from the other side of the world, desperately trying to warn her of—something—she totally blows him off…