December Reading Deals

Check out these multi-author book promotions. You're sure to find something you like:

Kobo Plus Box Sets  |  Tales of Terror  |  Fantasy & Paranormal Series  |  Fierce Fantasy

Fantastic Fantasy  |  SF&F Series Sale  |  Exclusive SFF Deals  |  KU SciFi & Fantasy Reads

Epic SciFi & Fantasy  |  SciFi & Fantasy Sales  |  Dark Winter Books  |  Sword & Sorcery

SciFi & Fantasy Shorts  |  Cozy Season  |  Mystery & Suspense  |  Mysteries & Thrillers

Mysterious Reads  |  Endless Reads  |  Anything But Christmas Stories  |  Historical Fiction

New Releases  |  New Mysteries  |  SpecFic Finds  |  December Mysteries  |  Cozy Mysteries

Mayhem & Motives  |  KU SciFi & Fantasy  |  Post-Apocalyptic Reads  |  Urban Fantasy

Keep reading

Novel #25

Detective Vic Boyo returns in the sequel nobody asked for!

1932, New York City: When a good pal needs help rescuing his kid sister from a speakeasy run by a psychotic mobster, Boyo knows he's up to the challenge. What he doesn't know is by agreeing to lend a hand, he's placed a big red target on his back. The mobster in question is a dangerous predator who likes to play with his prey, and what follows is an unhinged cat-and-mouse game unlike anything Boyo has ever encountered. 

Only one thing stands between Vic Boyo and saving the day. Well, maybe a few things. But with a little luck and a whole lot of gumption, anything is possible—even for him.

Buy Direct  or  Pre-Order

I'm trying something new with this one. While the pre-order option is available for folks who like to buy their books via the regular sales channels and can wait until the December 16 release date, I'm also making it available right now for readers interested in buying direct. Order it today from my author storefront, get it today. No wait. Cool beans, right?

Book Review: Ender's Shadow

This year, I'm keeping track of what I read. Whether I enjoy the book or not, I'll post a blurb and brief review. Most will be speculative fiction in some form—genres I gravitate toward in my own writing. Today, it's the YA sci-fi spinoff Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card.

Bean's past was a battle just to survive. He first appeared on the streets of Rotterdam, a tiny child with a mind leagues beyond anyone else's. He knew he could not survive through strength; he used his tactical genius to gain acceptance into a children's gang, and then to help make that gang a template for success for all the others. He civilized them, and lived to grow older. Bean's desperate struggle to live, and his success, brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender...

When this book came out in 1999, I was reading my way through the Ender Quartet for the first time, and I really wasn't all that interested in plodding through a rehashing of Ender's Game from the POV of one of its most annoying characters. But I stumbled across Ender's Shadow last month while taking my students to our school library, and I figured enough time had passed. I was willing to give Bean a chance. And I'm glad I did. Sure, there's plenty of rehashing, but that's only a quarter of the book. The rest is Bean's riveting story, and I've got to give Card credit for making him an extremely likeable character. One star deducted for a few slog-sections, but overall an enjoyable and deeply moving read (with twenty years' distance from Ender's Quartet.) 4 out of 5 stars.

99CentNovember!

Coinciding with the quarterly Based Book Sale, I've lowered the prices on 14 of my books. Yep, you read that right. 14 books, only 99¢ each. How's that for a super sale? The first 7 are available wide and can be purchased directly from my author storefront, and the next 7 are Amazon exclusives. 

Click each cover for details:

For more great deals, check out the Based Book Sale:

Keep reading

First Draft Done

Mission accomplished: I managed to finish the first draft of the Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective sequel before the end of the year. Feeling pretty good about that. The last two chapters are still rough, but I'll polish them up next week. Then I'll give the whole manuscript a once or twice over before I start the formatting process. As long as all goes according to plan, a mid-December release date should be doable. Just in time for Christmas.

Stay tuned for the cover reveal, blurb, pre-order window via the usual retailers, and pre-release availability, which I'll be trying out on my author storefront. I'm planning to make the book available to buy direct (at a reduced price) a week before it releases wide. And unlike a traditional pre-order, where you have to wait until the official release date to get your copy, when you buy direct, you'll get it the same day you order it. Spiffy, right?

November Reading Deals

Check out these multi-author book promotions. You're sure to find something you like:

Western Fiction  |  Alien Contact & Space Opera  |  KU SciFi & Fantasy  |  Fantasy & SciFi Sale

KU Promo  |  Historical Suspense  |  Autumn Cozies  |  Kobo Plus Promo  |  The Apocalypse

SFF Deals  |  Fantasy MEGAsale  |  SFF Series Sale  |  SFF Book Bazaar  |  Cozy Murders

SciFi Audiobooks  |  American Apocalypse  |  Fierce Fantasy  |  Harvest Moon Mysteries

Cozy Mysteries  |  Mystery Cravings  |  Mystery / Thriller Book Fair  |  Sound of Stories

Collections, Anthologies, Box Sets  |  Historical Fiction Collection  |  YA SciFi Adventures

Dark Portals, Daring Deals  |  Terrifying Deals  |  Fantasy & Paranormal Sale  |  Romantasy

Dystopian Fic  |  KU SciFi & Fantasy  |  Thankful for Mysteries  |  Mayhem & Motives

Book Review: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

This year, I'm keeping track of what I read. Whether I enjoy the book or not, I'll post a blurb and brief review. Most will be speculative fiction in some form—genres I gravitate toward in my own writing. Today, it's the historical horror novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

This is my first encounter with Jones's work, and I've got to say, his wordsmithing is something special. I was impressed by the distinctive voices of his characters, and how well he adapted the writing style to fit different time periods; seriously, the prose was a joy to read. Even so, this is a bloody disgusting book filled with self-loathing, psychological torture, and revisionist history. Compelling? Heck yes, as long as you don't mind Interview with a Vampire in the Montana Territory or the shark-jumping at the end. (I'm looking at you, giant prairie dog.) 4 out of 5 stars for keeping me reading this long-winded tragedy, and for making me feel every single punch to the gut.

Writing Update

I'm halfway through my current work-in-progress, a sequel to Double Murders that I started drafting during the summer. That's right, Vic Boyo the doofus detective is back in action, just as confident and clueless as ever. Hard to believe it's been seven years since the first book came out. Guess I've had other trilogies to work on in the interim. But now it's time to give Boyo his due.

Like the first book, I'm using a manuscript I wrote back in high school as the framework and fleshing it out as I go. So far, the first 25 pages of the original novella have swelled to over 100 in the latest iteration. That ratio won't continue; otherwise, the final draft will be 400 pages. Book 1 is under 250, so that's the sweet spot I'm aiming for.

It's been fun bringing back characters while adding new ones, and Boyo's internal monologue is unlike any of my other protagonists'. Half Sam Spade, half Michael Scott. Hard-boiled screwball crime noir that doesn't take itself too seriously, but where the good guy always wins in the end. 

I was making pretty good progress on it—three chapters a week—before the school year started. Now I'm averaging about one chapter a week. But progress is progress, and if I can get the first draft done by end of year, I'll consider that a win.

Book Review: Small Favor

This year I'm keeping track of what I read. Whether I enjoy the book or not, I'll post a blurb and brief review. Most will be speculative fiction in some form—genres I gravitate toward in my own writing. Today, it's Book 10 in the Dresden Files: Small Favor by Jim Butcher.

An old debt puts Chicago wizard Harry Dresden in harm's way. Harry’s life finally seems to be calming down. The White Council’s war with the vampiric Red Court is easing up, no one’s tried to kill him lately, and his eager apprentice is starting to learn real magic. For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow. Mab, monarch of the Sidhe Winter Court, calls in an old favor from Harry. Just one small favor he can’t refuse...one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills—and loyalties—to their very limits. And everything was going so well for once...

I've never been a big fan of magical fantasy stories (except those written by Tolkien and Lewis), but I'm glad I took the advice of a fellow reader four years ago and gave this series a shot. Ten books in, and I'm enjoying it more than ever. Not great literature, but then pulp fiction doesn't pretend to be, and I don't think the snarky, wise-cracking Dresden would have it any other way. Small Favor is one of the best of the bunch, being an Avengers-like team-up of many characters we've gotten to know throughout the past nine books. One of whom is a Knight of the Cross, whose faith in the Almighty remains unshakable. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Butcher doesn't include a Christian character only to belittle him. Instead, this friendship provides Dresden an opportunity to wrestle with a reality bigger than himself, one that he doesn't fully understand. That gritty tension keeps me invested in these characters as Harry learns more about his developing abilities and the forces at play in the world around him. One star deducted for chronic word repetition / thesaurus neglect; otherwise, a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

Two New Collections

 

You'll notice something when you click on either one of those covers: a Buy Direct option. Secure checkout through PayPal with tech support (if needed) from BookFunnel. I'll be adding this feature to all of my novels as they drop out of Kindle Unlimited and become available wide again. If you'd like more of the purchase price to go to the author instead of a megacorporation, buy direct.

I've decided to take a different route with my covers. Instead of making those fun 3D box sets, I'm going with this triple flat-panel look. For one thing, as cool as the 3D covers are, they're false advertising. Because readers aren't getting an actual boxed set when they buy a collection of eBooks. And since I'm going wide, distributors like Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple don't allow the 3D boxes anyhow. So this way I'm keeping things consistent across all sales channels.