Writing Update

I've passed the 20K mark on my current work-in-progress, a post-apocalyptic western featuring an Old Testament city of refuge. It's a place where people who commit involuntary manslaughter can be safe from retribution, but it's also a haven for outcasts of all stripes. I'm enjoying the characters and the world-building, and I'm grateful for those twenty-five pages of notes I scribbled down way back in May. My past self was really thinking ahead. Thank you, past self.

Considering how burnt-out I was at the end of the school year, I wasn't sure I'd be able to commit to a new project this summer. Part of me considered taking a couple months off on the writing front. But I'm glad I stuck with it, drafting maybe two hundred words a day at first, then graduating to five or six hundred, then more than five or six hundred. It all adds up eventually. This week, I've managed to average a little over a thousand a day, and that feels pretty darn good.

My last two books were on the shorter side, around 50K-60K, but I can already tell this one will probably be over 100K when complete. We'll see if it grows or shrinks at that point, during edits and revisions. My Spirits of the Earth novels and BackTracker are between 120K and 150K, and the pacing of this WiP feels like it's in the same ballpark. (But what do I know? I'm just the one writing the dang thing.) For now, I'm thinking it will be a big standalone book, but that could change as well, depending on sales. Maybe it'll be Book 1 in a new series...

Recently I realized that 16 of my novels are written in first-person, and 10 are in third-person. The last two or three trilogies I've worked on have been first-person narratives. So it's kind of refreshing to take a break from that and go back to third-person. Four protagonists so far, each with their own unique perspective, and a narrative that's bigger than all of them combined. It was an adjustment at first, but I'm in the groove now, and I appreciate being able to tell the story through more than one pair of eyes.

Horses by Jesse Welles

All my flannel's made in Bangladesh 

All my T-shirts in Vietnam 

There are places that we quietly ignore 

There are places that we go and bomb 

You know I thought an awful lot about Jesus 

Even more about Lao Tzu 

They say that the way of the Tao is to do nothing 

Then what the hell am I supposed to do? 

You know the harder you think, the deeper you sink 

The tighter you grip, the more that you slip 

So I'm singing this song about loving 

All the people that you've come to hate 

It's true what they say, I'm gonna die someday 

Why am I holding on to all this weight? 

You know, I really thought that there'd be power 

In thinking half of y'all was just born fools 

Thought I was gathering oats for my horses 

I was getting by whipping my mules 

There's a book I read I don't remember 

There's a place I've been I'd never seen 

There's a note that I wrote that went up in smoke 

There's some songs I don't ever sing 

All the stars in the sky are burning 

Mostly burning unbeknownst to me 

I wish I would've paid more attention 

To the bigger things I didn't see 

You know the harder you think, the deeper you sink 

The tighter your grip, the more that you slip 

So I'm singing this song about loving 

All the people that you've come to hate 

It's true what they say, I'm gonna die someday 

Why am I holding on to all this weight? 

You know I really thought that there'd be power 

In thinking half of y'all was just born fools 

Thought I was gathering oats for my horses 

I was getting by whipping my mules 

I got some bricks so thick that they don't make sense 

In the walls up in my mind 

But life is pretty short and the road's got forks 

So I take them down while I got time 

You know the harder you think, the deeper you sink 

The tighter your grip, the further you slip 

So I'm singing this song about loving 

All the people that you've come to hate 

It's true what they say, I'm gonna die someday 

Why am I holding on to all this weight? 

You know I really thought that there'd be power 

In thinking half of y'all was just born fools 

Thought I was gathering oats for my horses 

I was getting by whipping my mules

Horses lyrics © 2025 Welles Music

Friday Freebie

If you enjoy murder mysteries with unexpected twists, a quirky amateur sleuth, and situational comedy, then check out this first installment in the Inspector Broekstein trilogy. He's an inspector, just not the type you'd expect...

"Witty characters, snappy dialogue, and comical situations abound...I dare anyone to figure out the surprise ending before it comes." 

- Fred Schloemer

"A marvelous romp that made me laugh at times and had me on the edge of my seat at others." 

- Christine Rains

"What would you say if I told you I believed...that in the heart of every man and woman alive, there lies the potential for ultimate evil?" So begins a mystery of murder, jealousy, and revenge, as old friendships are tested and new alliances form. 

When a wealthy heir invites half a dozen acquaintances to his recently inherited estate, all hell breaks loose, and it will be up to the eccentric, lovelorn Inspector Willem Broekstein to find out whodunit. But of course all is not as it seems, and Broekstein will need his wits about him if he's to keep from losing his head—or his heart—along the way.

Free eBook

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July Reading Deals

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

Summer SciFi Reads  |  Kobo Plus  |  Fierce Fantasy  |  Dystopian Fiction  |  Epic SciFi

SF&F Deals  |  Fantasy Books  |  Dark Secrets  |  Cozy Mysteries  |  Mystery Sale

Crime Thrillers  |  Mayhem & Motives  |  Summer Reading  |  Horror Sale  |  Dark Reads

Collections  |  Sound of Stories  |  Explore the Past  |  Outstanding Fiction  |  Mysteries

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Audio Re-Release #2

The audio version of my novel Tomorrow's Children is now available (again) wherever audiobooks are sold. Steve Campbell did a great job bringing this story to life, so if you haven't heard it already, be sure to check it out:

Amazon     Apple     Audible

The future is in their hands. 

The post-apocalyptic world is bigger than the remnant imagined. Across the ocean, the domed cities of Eurasia have survived the nuclear holocaust that ravaged the rest of the planet. But only the survivors from the North American Wastes can give the sterile Eurasians what they need most in order to continue existing as a society: children. 

Sergeant James Bishop, United World Marine, leads his team across the desert wasteland in order to make first contact with survivors in Eden, who are rumored to have a lab full of viable embryos. Meanwhile Cain, a coastal warlord dedicated to repopulating the planet, follows the will of Gaia, a malicious spirit of the earth with no love for humankind. Margo, telepathic geneticist responsible for designing the next generation, struggles to balance the will of a selfish dictator with what's best for humanity. And Tucker, an invisible man on a mission, carries precious cargo across the Wastes in an effort to rally a group of survivors into action against Eden. 

As their lives intersect, agendas collide and tensions reach a breaking point. Twenty unborn children in incubation chambers hang in the balance—along with the fate of the world.

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Vic Boyo, Three in One

Collected in a single volume for the first time: all three novels in the Vic Boyo, Doofus Detective trilogy, now available wherever eBooks are sold. If you're a fan of old-school hard-boiled noir with plenty of action, adventure, and screwball comedy along the way, give these campy crime thrillers a chance. 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.

Includes Double Murders Are Twice As Bad, Less Than Meets The Eye, and Witless Protection. Even some chuckles, to boot.

Get your copy today

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

Meet Captain Quasar, a cross between James T. Kirk and Dudley Do-Right—except in Quasar's case, things seldom ever go right... 

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

Free eBook

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Audio Re-Release

In case you missed it the first time around (six years ago), the audio version of my novel After the Sky is now available (again) wherever audiobooks are sold. When the rights reverted, my former publisher pulled it from retailers as part of our agreement; but the producer was amiable to the idea of a re-release, so here we are. Steve Campbell did an incredible job bringing this story to life. If you haven't heard it already, be sure to check it out:

Amazon     Apple     Audible

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.