SPECULATIVE FICTIONEER

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The Halfway Point

Passed the 45K mark in my latest work-in-progress: Angels & Androids (Dome City Investigations, Book 3). I'm feeling pretty good about where the story's going; I just wish I had more writing stamina these days. And time. That's it for excuses. I'm averaging a few hundred words a day when I can BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard). A far cry from the 1K/day regimen I had going for a while, but any movement in the right direction is progress. So I'm celebrating this minor victory.

When will the first draft / sloppy copy be done? No idea. End of the school year would be ideal—then I could spend the summer on revisedits and formatting with an autumn release in mind. At the end of Book 2, I gave myself an easy out and said the third installment wouldn't be available until Spring 2026. Maybe I'll aim for something in between. Split the difference.

Right now it's all about BICHOK: the discipline to shut out a myriad of distractions and give this novel the attention (I think) it deserves. Having plenty of fun along the way, of course.

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Friday Freebie

Alienated collects 5 dark tales:

"Insight" - A sculptor is able to see beyond our reality, but can she control her insatiable desires?

"In His Eyes" - On a farm in the distant future, an unwelcome visitor appears in the middle of a thunderstorm.

"Reverie" - Speech is the first sign of rebellion in a hive of highly evolved telepaths.

"Mo's" - The only racism that exists in this alternate history is between Humans and Greys.

"Doppelgänger Mine" - A man is stalked by his horrifying double. In the end, only one of them can survive.

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February Reading Deals

And peruse these multi-author book giveaways. Download as many as you like:
Free Sci-Fi and Fantasy   Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense   Mysteries & Thrillers
Take the Dark Path   Mystery & Suspense Freebies   Sci-Fi Mysteries
More Free Fantasy & SciFi   SF&F Mania   Epic Prequels   Other Worlds

Crime in the Future Sci-Fi Mysteries Free Sci-Fi & Fantasy Adventures

Fantasy & Sci-Fi Adventures Free Science Fiction + Fantasy Free Science Fiction

Christian SFF Authors Free Fantasy + Sci-Fi Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

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Supporting Indie Authors

Without the powerful marketing machine of those BIG publishers behind us, what do indie authors need most? Exposure. The more readers who discover our work, the better. This year, I'm doing my part each month, sharing books by folks who write in some of the same genres I do:

FBI agent Lindsay Lane has never been one to play by the rules, and her last assignment cost her dearly. Suspended from duty, she can’t shake the feeling that the man behind bars wasn’t the mastermind—just a pawn in a much darker game. When a lead takes her back to her hometown in New Mexico, she’s prepared to confront old ghosts. What she doesn’t expect is to find the local sheriff, whom she has known since childhood, shot dead in his home.

This is Nathaniel's and Persephone's first official assignment from Bob, the Lord of Creation for this universe. They can't afford to screw it up. The job sounds simple enough. Travel to the Rekar'ree star system, find the source of evil and stop it from spreading to the other neighboring star systems. The only problem is that Rekar'ree is on the other side of the galaxy. And once they get there via Bob's stargate of sorts, they find there is no way that the planet can possibly sustain life.

Toemeka Ganti won’t rest until the universe is rid of the sinister sorcerer-deity who killed her parents. Working undercover to liberate a peaceful people, she attempts to develop a weapon that can break through the tyrant’s shields. But she’s barely begun her work when she’s captured by the despot’s dark agents. Rescued by a mysterious and handsome warrior-priest, Toemeka and her team join forces with the planetary resistance. But their budding rebellion could swiftly be crushed.

The moon, 2195. Random power outages are wreaking havoc. Ethan Keller, an unapologetic thief, is stuck in the poorest district, but that won't stop him from throwing an unforgettable party in an abandoned dome. When his big score is stolen, his ragtag crew plan a heist to recoup the loss. Instead, they discover a lethal conspiracy, the source of the deadly power outages. Now a fugitive, can Ethan unmask the mastermind in time to save the colony?

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15 Years

A decade and a half ago, my first short story was published: "Hero for Hire." To celebrate this quindecennial (a new word for me; thanks, Internet), I'm giving away Suburban Samurai wherever eBooks are sold. It includes the original story as well as its sequel, "League of Suburban Heroes." Chuckles guaranteed.

I'll never forget how excited I was to get that acceptance letter. Holy cow! I remember I was at work, on break checking my email, and I had to scramble to the restroom. Wasn't sure I'd be able to contain myself in public. Later that year, I'd sold enough short fiction to buy the Kindle I named Gizmo, still with me to this day. (Take that, planned obsolescence.)

If I've done the math correctly, I've spent only 1% of my royalties over the years, hoarding the other 99% into a high interest-yielding account. Every now and then, I'll spend the monthly interest on something fun like a new cover for Gizmo or a TV series from way back when. Things I can look at and go, "Hey. My wordsmithing paid for that."

Writing brings in only about 5% of my annual income, so not enough to live on. (Unless I move into a van down by the river. Mrs. Fowler might object.) Even so, that 5% is hard-fought, considering the millions of other authors out there vying for readers' attention. Every time someone buys one of my books, it takes me right back to that day I sold my first story. And that feeling is priceless.

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Friday Freebie

After Thoughts collects 12 speculative fiction tales you'll never forget:

All That's Left Behind
Better View Desired
Collateral Damage
Collective Bargaining
Absolute Magnitude
First People
Entrepreneur of the Year
Danse Nocturne
Supersonic
Favorable Winds
Kagemusha
Monochromatic Mandate

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Book Review: Titanium Noir

One of my goals for 2025 is to keep track of what I read. No idea how many books I'll go through this year, but whether I enjoy them or not, I'll post a blurb and brief review. All of them will be speculative fiction in some form—genres I gravitate toward in my own writing.

First up is the future-crime standalone novel Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway. Here's the description:

Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he’s called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he’s surprised by the routineness of it all. But when he arrives on scene, Cal soon learns that the victim—Roddy Tebbit, an otherwise milquetoast techie—is well over seven feet tall. And although he doesn’t look a day over thirty, he is ninety-one years old. Tebbit is a Titan, one of this dystopian society’s genetically altered elites. And this case is definitely Cal’s thing.

I enjoyed Cal's first-person narration. He's Rockford-like in the best way, and I was rooting for him from the start. Some of the other characters, while interesting, were unfortunately two-dimensional, and the foul language on every page was a turnoff, but otherwise I enjoyed this tale of giants among us, some of whom are forgetting what it means to be human as they strive to become "more than." And as with any noir tale worth its salt, this one had plenty of attitude and poetic turns-of-phrase that made me smile.

Unlike my own Dome City Investigations or Charlie Madison, P.I. series, this book takes place closer to our own time, but there were enough futuristic aspects to keep me intrigued. Similar to The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters, there's a sense of foreboding and doom lurking in the background, so the happy-ish ending of Titanium Noir came as a welcome surprise.

Overall, a good read. Solid 4 out of 5 stars.

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An Ode to the Library

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future." - Ray Bradbury

My mom introduced me to the public library when I was an impressionable wee lad, and I remember being amazed by how many books there were, and that we were allowed to take them home with us. As a teen, I'd bike over to the local library every week or so, and while in college, if I wasn't too busy shooting pool, I would spend most of my spare time at the library studying and whatnot.

When my wife and I lived in San Diego, our local library was within walking distance, and walk we did, rain or shine (mostly shine), to peruse the stacks, checking out books, DVDs and CDs. Upon moving to West Michigan, one of our first priorities was to get member cards at the county and city libraries, and we visit both locations on a regular basis.

As technology continues to advance, so do the library's offerings. I've mentioned Hoopla and Overdrive before, and Gizmo (my 15-year-old Kindle, looking real spiffy these days in his brand-spanking new cover) holds at least half a dozen library eBooks any given week. But there's also a paper-and-glue library book in my backpack as backup, going wherever I go.

Recently, our local library informed us that Freegal Music is available to all patrons. Free streaming music without ads. Tens of thousands of albums, if you can believe. I've been playing instrumental post-rock while I write and, during the work day, introducing my students to the jazz styles of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the slack key vibes of Leonard Kwan, and some really cool blues guitar compilations. Great background tunes for embarking upon scholarly pursuits.

All this to say, I've always been a big fan of libraries, and they keep giving me reasons to appreciate them for evermore.

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Year in Review: 2024

I started out the year strong, editing the first book in my Dome City Investigations trilogy and getting it ready for an early February release, which went well. Then I started working on the sequel, which also went fairly well; I had it drafted, revised, edited, and polished up for its June release date with time to spare. All I had left to do was write the third book, scheduled to greet the world in December. Except...that wasn't going to happen. An idea for a novella between Books 2 & 3 started to blossom, but then it went nowhere. As did an idea for another novella, as did plans for Book 3. We were dealing with an unexpected death in the family at the time, and I'd just started a new part-time teaching job, so writing couldn't be a priority. It had to wait. In the meantime, I began brainstorming how to combine the plots for both novellas and Book 3 into one kick-arse trilogy finale. So that's what I'm working on now, and fingers-crossed, it may be good to go by next summer. Working title: Angels & Androids. The goal: just have fun with it.

Novels Written:

Infidels & Insurgents (90K)

Angels & Androids (35K...in progress)

Books Published:

Dust Freaks & Demigods

Infidels & Insurgents

Audiobook Produced:

Out of Time (Virtual Voice experiment)

Blog Posts: 12

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$ale

A bunch of my books are currently on sale for only 99¢ each, and some of my $4.99 titles are marked down to $2.99. How about that? Consider it an early Christmas present. Peace on Earth, goodwill toward everybody, and cheap reads! Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much writing these days—the new day job is still kicking me in the heinie—but I'm hopeful that will change this winter when I have a couple weeks off. In the meantime, I wish you a blessed Holiday Season, and I'll see you on the other side.

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