Summer Writing Plans

As per usual, I've got a few plates in the air this summer, writing-wise. Now that the school year is over (my 19th as a teacher, and holy tipping cow was it a doozy), I can focus on various projects in between catching up on my reading, mountain biking, surfing, traveling, and binge-watching. 

May's StoryADay challenge went well, and now my wife and I each have 31 tales to polish up and start submitting to publishers. We'll probably work on a few while we're unplugged (no WiFi, no TV) at our lake retreat in the backwoods of Maine: Camp Fowler. It'll be tough to tear ourselves away from all the swimming and kayaking and staring at the beauty of God's creation, but we should be able to carve out some time for story revisions.

My novel The Gifted Ones, sequel to The Suprahuman Secret, needs one last round of edits before it'll be ready for publication. The cover art is just about done (stay tuned for a sneak peek), but I still need to write the blurb. While summarizing has never been my forte, I know it'll be easier once I've gone through the manuscript one more time. 

I've also got a Captain Quasar novella in the works that may turn out to be a novel, not to mention a new idea that came to me in a very Kafkaesque/Lovecraftian dream. It may take place in the same world as my novel Madame Antic's Hotel Grotesque, or it could stand alone. Working title: Staring into the Abyss. So far it's the weirdest thing I've ever written, and yeah, that's saying a lot.

My agent is continuing to send BackTracker to various publishers, and now Those Who Wait is also out making the rounds. I can't wait to add both of them to my list of published books -- patience, precious. I've got plenty to keep me busy in the interim, and believe it or not, I'm still enjoying this journey to become the best writer I can be. One step at a time, ever forward.

The Defective Detective: Now Available in Audio

Two murders. One detective. Half a brain. 

New York City, 1931: Detective Vic Boyo may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but that doesn't stop him from solving cases as only he can. With a little luck and a whole lot of gumption, Boyo sets out to find the murderer of a local cop. Problem is, Boyo's more interested in a gorgeous femme fatale accused of killing her husband. She's destined for the electric chair, but Boyo's got a hunch she might be innocent. And nobody gets in the way of Boyo's hunches, not even Vic Boyo himself.

Amazon     Audible     iTunes

Smoke and Holograms: Charlie Madison, P.I. Returns

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Future noir P.I. Charlie Madison returns in a sordid case of spontaneous human combustion, now available everywhere eBooks are sold:

A life ended in flames

A detective sorting through the ashes

Charlie Madison saw plenty of bloodshed during the war, but he's never seen a billionaire burst into flames in his office. Until now. Searching for answers, Madison uncovers more than he bargained for: a bizarre mystery of human combustion that's smoking with jealousy, revenge, and murder. Add a pair of cops on his tail who are more interested in putting him out of business than seeking justice. It's just another action-packed day for the Charlie Madison Detective Agency. Now accepting . . . unusual clients.

31 Days, 31 Stories

I've spent most of my spare time on novel edits this year, and things are moving right along, but I miss those bursts of creativity that inspired the weird, Twilight Zoneish flash fiction I used to write regularly. I haven't worked on a single short story for far too long, and now I've definitely got the itch.

So I'm devoting the month of May to the StoryADay challenge. I've known about it for years but never thought I'd have the time or energy to try it. I probably still don't, but ready or not, I'll be setting a timer for 30 minutes every night, and I can't wait to see what sort of surreal stories I end up with.

Unlike Write1Sub1, the StoryADay goal isn't to craft a publishable piece as fast as possible but rather to write a complete story each day with a beginning, middle, and end. Something between 100-500 words will be my target range, and whether or not I'm happy with it, I'll set each one aside to be fleshed out later this summer. Some days, I may end up with more of an outline than a cohesive story, but that's okay as long as I'm writing something new every day.

How the heck will I find inspiration for 31 new stories? Good question. I've decided to use some of my haiku as starters. I went through Maikro and picked 31 of my favorites, and I'll be turning each of them into flash-sized tales — something I've wanted to attempt for a while.

Will I eventually submit these stories for publication? Share them with subscribers? Leave them to gather digital dust? We'll see. For now, it's all about giving myself a creative boost, and the best part will be having my wife by my side as we both write stories every night. You're welcome to join us!

Bounty Hunters Beware: New Audiobook Now Available

In this prequel novella, Captain Quasar and the crew of the Effervescent Magnitude are on their maiden voyage — and on the run from bounty hunters eager to collect a reward on the captain's head. Just when Quasar thinks he's escaped them, his ship is stranded in the middle of a heated civil war in an unknown corner of the galaxy. Quasar must rely on his wits, his charm, and his resilient crew in order to survive the ordeal that follows, culminating in an epic space battle where sworn enemies must join forces to repel an even greater threat.

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Sprechen sie Future Noir?

The final special edition of Visionarium ("Das Magazin für Horror, Mystery, Bizarro, Urban Fantasy, Dark Fiction, Steampunk, Noir, SF und New Weird") was released today, and if you happen to read or speak German, then this Austrian spec-fic publication is for you.

Visionarium Presents: Malice, Stories of Crime features a dozen sordid tales, including a translation of my novelette Girl of Great Price. I can't understand a word of it in Deutsch, but still, it's very cool knowing a new audience will get to enjoy this Charlie Madison case file in their own language.

And on the off-chance you haven't read Girl of Great Price in English yet, the eBook is currently free wherever books are e-sold. So what are you waiting for? Download your copy today.

New Release & My Kindle Scout Experience

Two murders. One detective. Half a brain. 

1931, New York City: Detective Vic Boyo may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but that doesn't stop him from solving cases as only he can. With a little luck and a whole lot of gumption, Boyo sets out to find the murderer of a local cop.

Problem is, Boyo's more interested in a gorgeous femme fatale accused of killing her husband. She's destined for the electric chair, but Boyo's got a hunch she might be innocent. And nobody gets in the way of Boyo's hunches, not even Vic Boyo himself.

  

Thanks for all the pageviews, likes, retweets, and nominations during my Kindle Scout campaign. It was an interesting experience. I went into it with no delusions that Vic Boyo would be selected. After being rejected by more than 100 agents and publishers who seemed to think there's no market for screwball detective novels, ol' Vic was fighting an uphill battle. But Kindle Scout campaigns are a free way to increase visibility for new releases, and I'm all about free when it comes to promoting my work. At the end of the 30-day campaign, close to two thousand readers had checked out my novel, and as soon as I received word that it wasn't selected, I had it ready for purchase on Amazon. The Kindle Scout folks then notified everyone who'd nominated it that Vic Boyo was now available.

It'll be in the Kindle Unlimited program until June, at which point I'll distribute it via the other usual suspects: iBooks, Kobo, Nook, etc. The paperback turned out great, and it's available from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The audiobook is currently in production, and it should be available in early June. I've got a couple dozen reviewers lined up, and I'm curious to see what they think of Boyo's shenanigans.

It was eye-opening lurking around the KindleBoards during my campaign and reading about authors spending hundreds of dollars on advertising, racking up thousands upon thousands of pageviews, only to be rejected by the Kindle Scout review team in the end. Vic Boyo may have never stood a chance, but now hundreds of potential readers know his name, and if they're curious, they can find out just how much of a doofus he really is.

"The Last Human Child" @ Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Dahlia loved Brawnstone as much as she hated him.

He protected her. Provided for her. Cared for her like she was a glass flower. But it was her fault all those people had died.

Creatures. Whatever they were. Like Brawnstone, they were difficult to classify. Spliced, the humans called them. One had the shaggy golden face of a lion and the body of a large muscular man. Arsalean was his name, chief among the Elders.

Now as dead as the rest of them, thanks to her.

Brawnstone had taken her from her own people. Tasked with her capture and delivery to his masters, he had broken into the human compound like it was made of chalk. Smashed right through the wall, a stone monster breaking through reinforced concrete. Chunks of the stuff hit the floor, and dust enshrouded his features as he stomped toward her cot.

He had taken her away in her nightgown, tucking her under the enormous trench coat he wore, shielding her from the toxic rain.

It had not been a rescue.   

> Read "The Last Human Child" in the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies

And if you'd like to catch up on the Dahlia & Brawnstone tales that preceded this one, check out Dahlia and the Ronin, available wherever eBooks are sold:

 Amazon     Barnes & Noble     iBooks     Kobo

Dahlia, the last human child, has been summoned to a banquet in her honor by the Elders of the great Council. Her escort, Brawnstone the trollgre, must carry her through the dangerous ruins of a human city, deep into the abandoned warehouse district where the feast is to be held. No one knows this little girl's dark secret — not even young Dahlia herself.

Starfaring Chuckles: New Audiobook Now Available

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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 hyper-speed train, an insidious computer virus, and a villain with the fastest thumbs in the quadrant — all narrated by the vocally talented E. M. Carberry.

An In-Depth Review of The Suprahuman Secret

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"Previously released as four separate novellas, The Suprahuman Secret by author Milo James Fowler details the case files of Private Detective Charlie Madison in one convenient tome. Although the main action takes place in a future world where automatons known as mandroids are deployed to fight wars, and most everyone has a handy LinkCom either implanted or mobile, there is still a hint of the classic noir that harkens back to Bogey’s Sam Spade movies. 

"Charlie Madison is probably the last remaining Private Detective in his Russian-controlled corner of the world. (Isn’t it amazing that after everything and with all human advancements, organized crime still manages to survive?) After the “great diaspora,” the Eastern Conglomerate has pretty much taken major portions of the world. With immigrants and refugees flooding into the Unified States, the area sees a fundamental change is its ethnic make-up with the Russians owning the landscape and the Asians relegated to hastily constructed slums and settlements in the outskirts of major urban areas. With the various nations of the planet competing for supremacy, all manner of shady dealing is tolerated if the means justifies the ends. 

"Reading through this series, I found myself transported to a world that was part Terminator and part Maltese Falcon. Charlie is the classic gumshoe living out of his office with Wanda as his femme fatale assistant and loyal confidant. It is very easy to picture Charlie with a classic fedora reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart, and I do believe I caught a smidgen of a Casablanca reference a time or two as well. Wanda, as his Girl Friday, is the typical blonde bombshell, but underneath that pretty exterior is a smart gal with an aptitude for navigating the current tech that their world is saturated with. 

"Charlie’s world is the acid rain-ridden ruin of a California town in a post-war world where nations fight for dominance, organized crime is alive and well, and if you are Anglo you do not want to be caught in Little Tokyo after dark. Fowler’s balancing of the old and new serves this series well, with the old not seeming outdated and the new not feeling too futuristic. Having read all four books in the space of a few days, I did notice a little bit of repetition with certain descriptions; however, keeping in mind that these were previously separate releases over several years, this did not bother me. Rather it served to reinforce the world where the action takes place. Also, while all novellas work together to tell a larger story, they also work as stand-alone offerings. Fowler is currently working on the fifth and final installment in this series called The Gifted Ones, and I for one will be waiting to catch up with Charlie again for another Case Closed. 

"If you are a fan of noir, science fiction, dystopian or fantasy, you may want to give The Suprahuman Secret a read. You will not be disappointed!"

- Jennly Reads