June Reading Deals
Check out these multi-author book promotions. You're sure to find something you like:
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Summer Plans
With the end of the school year fast approaching, it's time to look up from my gradebook and see what's ahead. I've got a few releases lined up for this summer—the Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective collection, as well as the reissued Spirits of the Earth audiobooks—but other than that, I won't have a series to continue or conclude. So what will I be doing when I'm not working on projects around the house, trying to stay in shape, or reading under our maple tree in the backyard?
Well, I've got twenty-five pages of notes for a new book I'd like to write. Assuming I'll eventually recover from my current burnout, I might start drafting it next month. Here's what I have so far: a post-apocalyptic western combining elements and characters from my novel BackTracker with my short stories "Live by the Ten, Die by the Gun," "Soulless in His Sight," "Sins of the Father," and "Like Clockwork." But without requiring the reader to be familiar with any of those tales.
That's right, a standalone novel (with the potential for sequels, as always) that takes place 200 years after the events of BackTracker in the Wild, Wild Wastes. Starring Boaz MacIntyre from "Live by the Ten," a grizzled middle-aged sheriff hard-wired to enforce the Ten Commandments, plus a few characters from BackTracker (who are somehow still alive two centuries later), as well as Boy from "Soulless" and the strange automaton from "Clockwork."
In a lawless, unforgiving world, one man dares to stand for what's right. Some call him crazy. Others: the Last LawKeeper. Or something like that. We'll see how it goes.
Standard eBooks
When I received word that Amazon would no longer be supporting Gizmo, my 16-year-old Kindle, my first thought was, "What support?" It's not like the device has ever received a software update of any kind (unlike my Chromebook, which seems to have one every other day). The only "support" I can think of was the ability to send eBooks wirelessly to Gizmo and the ability to borrow eBooks from the public library. Alas and alack, no more.
But Amazon was real nice about it. They offered me a discount on my purchase of a NEW Kindle as well as a gift card to put toward buying a few new books. And if all the millions of unsupported Kindle owners decide to take them up on their offer, they'll make millions in the process. It's almost like Amazon suddenly realized, "Uh-oh... We made those old Kindles too well. They won't be going kaput anytime soon. Time for Plan B."
No thanks! Gizmo still works great, and I have no desire to replace it. So what if I can't purchase new eBooks from Amazon? I rarely did that anyway. And so what if I can't borrow eBooks from the library anymore? I've got 70 classics on Gizmo that I haven't even read yet (including War and Peace; that one should keep me busy for a while). Furthermore, I can keep side-loading eBook files onto my old, unsupported Kindle via a USB cable. Good thing there are so many alternatives to Amazon out there.
On the topic of classic books, I've recently discovered a great site with quality offerings: Standard Ebooks. They're a "volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost. Standard Ebooks takes ebooks from sources like Project Gutenberg, formats and typesets them using a carefully designed and professional-grade style manual, fully proofreads and corrects them, and then builds them to create a new edition that takes advantage of state-of-the-art ereader and browser technology."
How cool is that? I've started reading a collection of Conan the Barbarian stories by Robert E. Howard, and I can confirm that the formatting is much more pleasing to the eye than most of the atrocities I've downloaded for free in the past. All this to say, I'm glad Gizmo and I still have a future together—until it decides on its own to go kaput at some point.
Friday Freebie
Join Captain Bartholomew Quasar and the crew of the Effervescent Magnitude in this hilarious collection of short stories as they confront bands of nefarious space pirates, cantankerous bandits, exotic aliens, devious powers of persuasion, mysterious ghosts from the past, deep space identity crises, a runaway hyperspeed train, an insidious computer virus, and a villain with the fastest thumbs in the quadrant.
*Includes the action-packed prequel novella The Bounty Hunters from Arachnxx Three
Audio Re-Release
The meek have not inherited the earth.
The world isn't how they left it. When the bunker airlocks release them after twenty years in hibernation, the survivors find a silent, barren landscape outside. But they are not alone. There is a presence here, alive in the dust—spirits of the earth, benevolent and malicious as they interact with the human remnant.
Milton is haunted by a violent past he's unable to escape, despite the superhuman speed the spirits give him. Not interested in bearing the next generation, Daiyna is determined to destroy the flesh-eating mutants lurking in the dark, pierced by her night-vision. Luther is a man of conviction who believes the Creator has offered humankind a second chance, yet he's uncertain they deserve it—and he's perplexed by the talons that flex out of his fingers. Willard is a brilliant engineer-turned-soldier who refuses to leave his bunker, afraid of becoming infected and willing to destroy any obstacle in his way.
As their lives collide, the mysteries of this strange new world start unraveling, culminating in the ultimate life-or-death decision one survivor will make for them all.
Release Day
Third time's the charm?
With Detective Vic Boyo, anything's possible.
1933, New York City: Prohibition may be over, but that doesn't mean things have cooled down any for our intrepid hero—even when a massive blizzard strikes the Big Apple hard. Good thing Boyo's always got his trusty heater.
When an old flame shows up on his doorstep seeking help, Boyo promises to do everything in his power to protect her. Problem is, she's not telling him the whole story, and before Boyo knows it, he's caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between powerful political and underworld forces who aren't playing pattycake. No, they're playing for keepsies.
Now Available:
100% Human
My writing has always been human-generated (by me). No AI used at all. Not for any stage of the process: brainstorming, outlining, researching, or editing. Not to make my writing flow better (that much should be obvious). Not to write myself out of corners I've written myself into. Not to write taglines or synopses or blurbs. None of that.
But I've used AI-generated cover art on a dozen of my books over the past few years. Until last week, that is, when I gave them a major overhaul with human-generated images instead.
Why'd I make the change? Because I want to be able to say that my work is 100% human. I'm not a big fan of AI, particularly not the deluge of AI-generated books currently crowding the marketplace, and I want my work to stand apart. I don't want my books to have the same style of cover art as AI slop. Plain and simple.
Now when I look for suitable artwork on sites that offer free, commercial-use images, I filter the search to exclude anything generated by artificial intelligence. Sure, the pickings are slimmer. And yeah, I have to work a little harder to make the images fit the themes I'm going for (thankful for Canva). But overall, I'm pleased with the results.
We'll see if readers notice. From what I've heard, thousands of unsuspecting types have been burned by soulless AI garbage. Hopefully they'll be able to tell at first glance that my stuff is about as diametrically opposed to that as you can get.
Novel #26
With Detective Vic Boyo, anything's possible.
1933, New York City: Prohibition may be over, but that doesn't mean things have cooled down any for our intrepid hero—even when a massive blizzard strikes the Big Apple hard. Good thing Boyo's always got his trusty heater. When an old flame shows up on his doorstep seeking help, Boyo promises to do everything in his power to protect her. Problem is, she's not telling him the whole story, and before Boyo knows it, he's caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between powerful political and underworld forces who aren't playing pattycake. No, they're playing for keepsies.
Eight years ago, when I released the first Vic Boyo novel Double Murders Are Twice As Bad, I thought it was going to be the only Vic Boyo novel. Well, the joke was on me. Because last year I took a look at a novella I wrote during the olden days of my misspent youth, and I decided to flesh it out into something novel-length. Thus, Less Than Meets The Eye was born. That's right: the sequel nobody asked for. And since it left a couple plot points up in the air with regard to Boyo's personal life, of course I had to write the threequel. So that's what I did, and a fun time was had by all.
While the official release date isn't until May 5, you can grab a copy of the eBook today at my Payhip store. I would say chuckles guaranteed or your money back, but I have no idea how the logistics of that would work. So if you laugh, then laugh out loud. And maybe a few somebodies within earshot will desire a copy of Witless Protection for themselves.
2nd Editions
It's re-release day, and that means every novel in my Spirits of the Earth trilogy and Captain Quasar Chronicles has officially been unshackled from its former publisher + Kindle Unlimited and is now available everywhere books are sold. Click each cover for a direct link to my Payhip store as well as links to Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and Kobo:
It's tough to pick favorites among all the stuff I've written, but these are definitely at the top, right up there with AGROTHARN, Charlie Madison, and the rest. I wrote Spirits of the Earth over the span of 10 years, so that trilogy is pretty special to me. And, come to think of it, the first Quasar short story was published a decade prior to the trilogy's release. So these characters were living in my head for quite a while!
Home Stretch
The 50K mark went flying by this past week, which makes my current work-in-progress officially a (short) novel. If I had to guess, I'd say it's maybe 10K away from the finish line. And I'm planning to complete the first draft over the next week because...Spring Break!
With a May release looming on the horizon, now's as good a time as any to share the cover art and blurb with you. So here they are, in all their glory. No pre-order option yet, but if you subscribe to my newsletter, you'll be the first to know when Vic Boyo's Book 3 is released into the wild.
With Detective Vic Boyo, anything's possible.
1933, New York City: Prohibition may be over, but that doesn't mean things have cooled down any for our intrepid hero—even when a massive blizzard strikes the Big Apple hard. Good thing Boyo's always got his trusty heater. When an old flame shows up on his doorstep seeking help, Boyo promises to do everything in his power to protect her. Problem is, she's not telling him the whole story, and before Boyo knows it, he's caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between powerful political and underworld forces who aren't playing pattycake. No, they're playing for keepsies.