A QUICK AND DEADLY START
The tornado season is off to a quick and deadly start this year. Devastating storms hammered parts of mid-America over the past couple of days. And although there’s a bit of a lull today, already another significant threat looms for tomorrow. The Storm Prediction Center warns that numerous fast-moving supercell storms as well as a…
Read MoreWHAT DOES AN AUTHOR DO BETWEEN BOOKS?
So what does an author do between books? Well, to be blunt, there is no such thing as “between” books. “Among” books maybe, or “all done” with books perhaps, but no “between.” At the moment, I’m still dealing with Eyewall; plotting strategy for the release of ______ (yes, sad to report, there’s still no official…
Read MoreDON’T FORGET TO TAKE THE DOG FOR A WALK
Is the fact that Eyewall has moved into the second round of judging for the Best First Novel competition in the International Thrillers Writers organization a big deal? I don’t know. Remember, I’ve been a published novelist for less than a year. I’m a rookie in the business. This is all new to me. So…
Read MoreIS BOOK PUBLISHING BROKEN?
Book Publishing is Broken. That was the title of a weekly “marketing tip” I received recently via email. The essence of the tip, it turned out, wasn’t so much that publishing is broken as that its current business model is broken and a new one is in the throes of being born. For example, with…
Read MoreSTAND BACK, MY HEAD MAY EXPLODE
Before I became a published novelist, authors who had broken trail ahead of me warned that I, as a writer of fiction, would probably always have three books in my head: the one most recently published, the one currently being written, and the one after that. I didn’t quite believe that, or at least thought…
Read MoreEYEWALL, MARSHALL SEESE AND THE REST OF THE STORY
I’m more than pleased that Marshall Seese, the very popular and now-retired coanchor of “Your Weather Today” on The Weather Channel, will be the narrator for the audio version of Eyewall. Marshall is known for his smooth, on-air delivery and has been a voice-over talent for a number of TV productions. He was also the…
Read MoreON THE ROAD
A little over a week ago I took a brief trip to do a couple of book signings for Eyewall. Now unless you’ve written a blockbuster novel or have an instantly recognizable name, you aren’t going to have people flocking to your book signings. I don’t have people flocking to my book signings. I do…
Read MorePacific Glory
I suppose this is an appropriate date–Pearl Harbor Day–to tell you about a novel, Pacific Glory, I read recently that really struck a chord with me. Typically, I’m a thriller-mystery-suspense kind of guy, but I guess I was ready for a change of pace. So I picked up a book that promoted itself as “a…
Read MoreUPON FURTHER REVIEW…
I’ve often bemoaned the fact that it took me so darned long, ten years, to get my first novel published after I began seriously writing fiction. I understand there’s a learning curve involved and that almost all novelists have to follow the arc of that curve to learn the craft. But ten years? Perhaps–and there’s…
Read MoreYOUR EBOOK IS HOW MUCH!?
I was doing a little chest beating last week, talking to my brother on the phone and telling him about Eyewall’s success on Amazon.com as the “Kindle Daily Deal.” On October 11, the Seattle-based retail giant dropped the price of Eyewall’s eBook edition to 99¢ for the day. And faster than you could shout “Fire…
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