The Return is now available on Kindle, Kobo, and GooglePlay

 I am pleased to announce my latest book The Return is now available on Kindle, Kobo, and GooglePlay.  And soon on iBooks, Nook, and other retailers as well!  

It is the third installment of the Red Warp series.  Red and James discover someone is tampering with warps and that could only Trisia.  Tampering with forces she can't possibly understand, can they stop her before she unleashes death and destruction for the entire world?

The Age Of The Fool

For months now I have been wondering what to put here.  I had a few ideas, then other writing projects took a hold, and I didn’t follow through.  Then with Covid-19 there is plenty to write about, but so is the whole world.  What could I add to the beyond massive pile of commentaries?

After reading an article at CNN today about young people throwing coronavirus “parties” and giving a reward to the first person that gets infected, I had my topic.  I have seen many off-the-wall crazy things in the past few months but this is something that should be out of FICTION not FACT.  It is sick and the most irresponsible action I have seen in a long time, if ever.

Add to that the lacking aspects in our government leadership.  It isn’t only in the USA but many countries have failed in either dissemination of information to the public, protection in general, or going overboard.
This whole thing feels like so many Science Fiction stories.  The sad thing is we got a lot right, except for the foolish leadership.  But then again, we did, or at least some authors did.  Most of said stories I have read, the fool is someone releasing the virus, not realizing it is there or what it will actually do.  Or some mad man releasing it for some crazy religious reason.

Back to the lack of leadership, I am not going to name specific names, as most people can point them out with ease.  But there ARE good people in our government, and was personally helped by some of them.  They are not all bad, but the problem is the bad apples stick out like sore thumbs and make the entire bag look rotten, which is not the case.

I will mention one specific failure though: No gym’s or similar facilities may open in New York state.  Now keep in mind they have reached phase four of reopening, which is the LAST one, yet gym’s and other businesses are not on the list.  Hence, not allowed to open.  Therefore gym’s have been effectively outlawed for the foreseeable future.  Considering there has been NOTHING said from the government about this, I doubt it is a simple oversight.  If it was, I suspect a phase 5 would have been announced by now.  Or some kind of information given to those businesses as to when they can open.  The main failure here is not telling them one way or the other.  What is the big secret?

And talking about secrets, this whole Covid-19 aspect feels like they are not telling us the whole situation.  If you check the mortality rates, Covid-19 is about the same as a regular flu.  It may be a little more contagious, but why shut down everything and kill the economy?  Like I said, it feels like they are not telling us something.  The whole reaction vs facts just don’t add up.

Now, I am NOT saying Covid-19 is not dangerous and something that doesn’t need attention.  Nor am I being dismissive of those that have died from it.  But to shut down the whole world over it?  It just seems a bit extreme.  Wear masks, gloves, be careful, and do a lot of cleaning.  But then we see people that are NOT doing these recommendations, and perhaps that is the reason for the shutdown.  The common person wouldn’t do it otherwise?  If that is the case, this world is in an even more precarious position than I thought if people in general are this foolish.

It sure feels like the Age Of The Fool is upon us, and I have to wonder if we will survive it.  And if people don’t wise up, I don’t see how we will.

This Just In From The North Pole...

This image has just arrived from the North Pole (my elf contact couldn't smuggle it out any sooner).

Hmmmm.  It looks like the SH9000 is looking over Santa's list.  Here's hoping you weren't on the Naughty side.

Merry Christmas!

All of my books are now on sale for .99 at Kindle, Kobo, and Nook until January 4th!  Also, if you aren't on my mailing list, be sure to join.  A little surprise is coming in a few days.

The Tor (free) Book Of the Month club selection: The Only Harmless Great Thing

This month's Tor Book of the month club selection is THE ONLY HARMLESS GREAT THING by Brooke Bolander.  Not the kind of book I usually read, but I think I will anyway. You can grab it at ebookclub.tor.com for free until Jan 19th.

 From the back:
The Only Harmless Great Thing is a heart-wrenching alternative history by Brooke Bolander that imagines an intersection between the Radium Girls and noble, sentient elephants.
In the early years of the 20th century, a group of female factory workers in Newark, New Jersey slowly died of radiation poisoning. Around the same time, an Indian elephant was deliberately put to death by electricity in Coney Island.
These are the facts.
Now these two tragedies are intertwined in a dark alternate history of rage, radioactivity, and injustice crying out to be righted. Prepare yourself for a wrenching journey that crosses eras, chronicling histories of cruelty both grand and petty in search of meaning and justice.



Some bookstores call it a novelette and I agree as it is only 96 pages.  But certainly long enough to have some serious meat in it.  I know of both events in history quite well.  The Radium Girls were factory workers that painted dials on wrist watches with Radium (a radioactive material), to them glow in the dark.  Heck, they were TOLD to use their mouth to get the fine tip needed to paint the numbers on the dials.  At the time this was the only way to get the numbers to glow in the dark.  Why no one thought this was dangerous is beyond me.  I guess they figured it was not enough to be toxic.  Although the owners and scientists wore lead protection and tongs when working with the stuff.  Perhaps the exposure wearing one of these wrist watches would have been very low (not low enough for me that is for sure), making hundreds a day and pointing the brush with your mouth to do the job increases the exposure a million times.

As for the elephant, I know of another odd execution which was done by a crane and hung the elephant in question.  People for many miles showed up to see this execution.  It also boggles my mind why so many people would want to come to see such a gruesome display.  Of course we have horror movies that pale by comparison, but they are fake.  This was going to see an actual elephant killed.  Granted, she killed her trainer and she couldn't be trusted again (although he was unqualified to be a trainer in the first place making his death questionable and may not have been all her fault).  However, they hung her to "put on a show".  Putting her down is one thing and I agree it was probably necessary, but the method is inhuman.  It caused her great suffering as it didn't work well and the crane even had difficulty lifting the elephant.  Why they thought this was a good idea boggles the mind.

Aqua Notes: A Writer's Best Friend

A Writer's Best Friend!

Writers get ideas at oddest times.  We will stare at a sentence wondering where to take our characters and not sure of the next step.  Sometimes we will work on this for days, when all suddenly lightning strikes and we know what to do.

That moment is often when we least expect it.  For me, it happens most often in the shower.  And I am not the only one.  J. Michael Straczynski talks about having the same situation when he was creating Babylon 5.  In that interview he mentions having two ideas: one of a epic space story and a smaller one consisting of a few people on a space station.  He had the moment of epiphany in the shower when he realized they were one and the same.  He got out of the shower, wrote everything down, and didn't use his computer because he was dripping wet.

I've had more instances like this than I can count.  But I discovered one big help a few years ago: Aqua notes.  For years I had a pad of paper near the shower which always became a mess when I used it.  To the point I rarely bothered.  I tried to keep the ideas in my head until I got out and dressed.  As you can imagine, a lot of great ideas went down the drain with that method!

Aqua notes is a waterproof pad of paper and a pencil.  Both have suction cups to mount in your shower.  I prefer a space pen (which can even write underwater) to the pencil, but they include one and works well (provided the tip doesn't break).

It is such a simple idea but really works for those writers with epiphany moments while under a warm cascade of water.  While I had thought of getting a waterproof case for my Android tablet, this is a safer alternative and is always hanging in the shower ready for my next great idea.

If you are tired of letting great ideas go down the drain, get Aqua Notes and put a stop to that today!  It also makes a great Christmas gift for the writer in your family.  Or just someone who gets great ideas at the oddest times!

Heart Of The Machine Print Edition Releases October 26th, E-book Edition Raffle, And More!

Well I have more news, a raffle, and another free Tor book to talk about.

First, Heart Of The Machine is coming out on paperback on October 26th (although the pre-order doesn't appear yet, they assure me it will soon!).  In honor of this I am raffling off 4 copies of the ebook edition.  Click here to enter.

Did you know there is a great free service to get autographs from your favorite authors? It is called Authorgraph! It is pretty slick, you simply find the book you want on their site and request an Authorgraph. The request is forwarded to the author of the book and they do the autograph and you get links to download it as a PDF which works with most e-readers. You can find my books here.

Also, Tor has another free book on their book of the month club. This time it is Victor Lavalle's The Ballad Of Black Tom. This title is a mix of sorcery in the jazz age with the feeling of Lovecraft. It is FREE until October 12th. Click here to grab your copy.

And finally, starting on the 15th Heart Of The Machine goes on sale for just .99!  If you haven't got your copy then you don't want to miss this!  Just be sure to grab it before the 28th when it goes back up to full price.

News, Italian Fever Paperback Release, and FREE Tor e-book

I know it is has been so quiet around here that I bet even the crickets are wondering if they went deaf.  Well life decided to whack me around like a tennis ball.  Part of that included being challenged on my copyright and locking off my account.  After a LOT of hair pulling, teeth grating, time, and emails they listened, apologized for their mistake and all is well.  But it was stressful to say the least.

But now for the good news: my book Italian Fever is finally coming out on paperback on September 28th and is available for pre-order at B&N, Amazon, and other retailers.  In honor of this, all e-book editions are now on SALE for 99 cents!  If you have been wanting to grab a copy now is the time!  But be sure to grab them before the 28th when they go back to full price!

In other news, Tor has another free book on their book of the month club.  This time it is Charlie Jane Anders' All The Birds In The Sky.  It a magical/fantasy about An ancient society of witches and a hipster technological start up go to war in order to prevent the world from tearing itself apart.  It is FREE until September 21st.  Click here to grab your copy.

I am working on getting back on track with new releases.  I have another book almost done, and several short stories.  Stay tuned. :)