SPECULATIVE FICTIONEER

Even after working in education for 26 years, summer break has yet to lose its thrill. I didn't get into teaching for the summers, but they're a great motivator to keep me in the field for another twenty years or so. I've worked on a lot of projects around the house the past few summers, but this year I decided to buckle down and pretend I'm a full-time writer. So far, that's meant spending a week wrapping up the first draft of Angels & Androids and devoting the last two weeks to revisediting. I made a habit of tightening up the manuscript as I went along over the past year, so the final round of edits really wasn't too arduous. I cut a couple thousand words and added another thousand, so it ended up being about 91K. A little longer than the other two installments in this trilogy, but not by much. And, as promised, the ending is a satisfying one.

Writing two trilogies in the same world with many of the same characters is something I haven't done before, so it's a mixed bag to say goodbye. On the one hand, I'm relieved I was able to pull it off, I'm pleased with how everything turned out, and I'm ready to move on. But I'd still like to stick around for a while and see what happens next. Probably because I've been invested in these decades-spanning tales for so long, I can't help feeling like they're part of me. What a journey!

Next up: formatting the eBook, the paperback, and the box set. Time to put on my publisher hat.

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Novel #24

It took me a while, but I finally managed to cross the finish line: 92K of futuristic action and adventure, mixed with some mystery and mayhem along the way. Readers who enjoyed the first two installments of Dome City Investigations can look forward to more riveting character development, thrills, and chills, while those who've also read Spirits of the Earth will get a kick out of the extended cameos. I did my best to wrap up this trilogy in a satisfying way without sacrificing any of the payoffs, and I'm pleased with how it all turned out. The cover and blurb are good to go, so after a few rounds of edits (130 pages down, 215 remaining), it'll be ready for an August 5 release.

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Friday Freebie

A woman stalked by her double. A detective in over his head. In a city where the cops are on a mobster’s payroll, private investigator Charlie Madison stands in the gap. When a wealthy young socialite asks him to help her catch a threatening stalker, he takes the case. But things aren’t what they seem, and Madison has to act fast before he’s framed for murder.

A life ended in flames. A detective sorting through the ashes. Private eye 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.

An honest cop impaled through the chest. A detective fighting his way to the truth. Private eye Charlie Madison saw his share of murder and mayhem during the war. But he's never seen anything like this on home soil. The culprit can't be human. A mandroid, then? Cyborg? Madison's investigation takes him deep into the underground world of extreme fighting—duels to the death, showcased beneath the city's biggest casino. Along the way, he discovers a new steroid quietly coming out of Little Tokyo. If rumors are true, it can turn a man into a killing machine. Before vengeful police can find and execute the murderer, another officer is found slain. With rogue yakuza, the Russian mob, and Federal agents in the mix, Madison must put the pieces of this violent mystery together before the city loses another good cop. Problem is, the killer may be one of his own clients.

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Book Review: The Silmarillion

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 Silmarillion by legendary fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien:

Three Silmarils were jewels created by Fëanor, most gifted of the Elves. Within them was imprisoned the Light of the Two Trees of Valinor before the Trees themselves were destroyed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. Thereafter, the unsullied Light of Valinor lived on only in the Silmarils, but they were seized by Morgoth and set in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. This is the ancient drama that took place long before The Lord of the Rings, events in which Elrond, Galadriel, and Sauron took part.

I've been meaning to read this one for a while now. I tried a couple decades ago, but I couldn't get through the first chapter. Expecting the engaging narrative style of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I was obviously disappointed by Tolkien's history text—or Bible, if you will. Because that's what this is: the origin story of J.R.R. Tolkien's world. It's grim and dark at times, but the final chapter, tying everything from The Silmarillion to LOTR, was the best part. Reading about the characters I know and love (Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, and the halflings) was enough to bring a tear to my eye. After so much darkness, I appreciated this much-needed light at the end of the tunnel. 4.5 stars out of 5.

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The Interdimensionals Trilogy Continues...

Now Available:

Anthony Reynolds and Sephora Ashton escaped from Madame Antic's sky city, and now they must navigate a new life in the dangerous ruins of London. Nothing is as it was in the technologically advanced Victorian city with no name. Here tribes of survivors hunt and gather in the dark of night, keeping vigilant watch during daylight hours. Mutant animals with poisonous fangs roam the outskirts, and, according to legend, mole people live underground. But if they exist and have managed to hide from Antic all these years, then they might hold the answers Anthony seeks.

No one can tell him where he came from, or who he was before Madame Antic kidnapped him to play a role in her elaborate stage play. No one even knows what year it is. But when Anthony and Sephora are driven underground by gunmen wearing gruesome masks, they find themselves in a surreal subterranean refuge complete with its own lavish hotel and casino. There they meet the man responsible for it all, a man who claims to have answers, a man with a penchant for gambling with human lives: the enigmatic Monsieur Moule.

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8K to Go

I'm up to 82,000 words in my current novel, Angels & Androids, and I'm closing in on the home stretch. Whenever I write a trilogy, I always try to make the final installment a real hoot and a half. I figure if readers have stuck with me for three books, there should be a major payoff for them at the end. There are few things I hate more as a reader than to get to the last book in a series only to find that the author has lost steam. Or lost interest. Or both. That's why I aim for a grand finale. A satisfying finish. And while it dumps a load of self-imposed pressure onto my shoulders, it's usually worth it in the end.

I had ideas for a couple of novellas in this series, which were going to be Mutants & Madmen and Zombies & Zealots, but I decided to cram everything into one action-packed novel instead. And so far, it's made for a very rewarding (and complicated) drafting experience. It's also been one of my more time-consuming projects to date. Usually, I can crank out a first draft in about four months. By the time I wrap this one up, it'll have been in the works for an entire year.

But I have to give myself some grace here. After four years of subbing, I'm teaching part-time now, which has required a readjustment to lesson-planning, grading, and attending meetings like old times. So my head space is a bit more crowded these days. Meanwhile, things with the in-laws aren't getting any easier. Dementia is a real monster; it takes your loved ones a piece at a time and leaves you feeling like a failure. Because no matter what you do, you can't make things right. You can only bring comfort and care, whether or not your efforts are remembered five minutes later.

Keep on keepin' on. Never give up, never surrender!

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Cover Reveal

The second book in my Interdimensionals trilogy isn't scheduled to greet the masses until June 3 (pre-orders are available), but here's a sneak peek at the cover art and current iteration of the blurb:

I enjoyed exploring the "real world" in this one and giving our heroes room to discover more about themselves, each other, and the harsh truths hidden from them in Madame Antic's. Monsieur Moule was a complicated character to write, straddling the line between villain and something else, and expanding the story required looking at a few characters from the first book in a new light. I hope readers are captivated by this leg of the journey, building up to one heck of a finale in July.

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Book Review: Big Time

What if time could be taken from us—the minutes, the hours, the years of our lives, extracted like organs taken for transplant? Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the FDA, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure. Against orders and against common sense, Grace sets out to bring the girl to safety, and finds herself risking her job, her future, and her life on whether she can find the missing girl before a violent mercenary does.

I've been a fan of Winters ever since his Last Policeman trilogy. Underground Airlines was a winner, and Bed Bugs (recycled recently as The Bonus Room) was engrossing, but some of his other novels have just been disappointing. Great premise and solid execution, yet the characters were too mundane to hold my interest. The same issue plagues Big Time, unfortunately. The idea of stolen time is fascinating, but very little of the novel addresses the science fiction of it. The rest is a paint-by-the-numbers thriller that reads like an after school special with stock characters you've seen on any number of prime time TV shows from a decade ago. 3 out of 5 stars.

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Re-Release Day is Here

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In an alternate Victorian era replete with aerovehicles, automatons, and other electrik wonders, factory worker Anthony Reynolds seeks to improve his station in life for the sake of his young bride-to-be. Against his better judgment, he joins Richard, a gregarious coworker with social connections, for a night on the town after their late shift. Richard leads them deep into the city’s underworld to a brothel of sorts specializing in the illegal art of mutilation where willing victims are skinned, broken, and mangled without lasting damage due to a special drug that returns them to their original state. Horrified, Anthony wants to leave at once—but that's when Constables raid the establishment.

While attempting to flee the scene, Anthony encounters a giant monstrosity of a man who infects him with an unknown substance. Anthony is instantly disfigured, and when the authorities capture him, he is unable to identify himself, let alone speak. What follows is a mind-bending adventure of mistaken identity, multiple realities, and paranoia as he fights to reclaim a simple life he never truly appreciated but now wants more than anything. When he discovers the shocking truth of his world and Madame Antic's disturbing role in it, nothing will ever be the same again.

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