Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for this newsletter, which you're already getting) or here from Smashwords. It's also on Apple Books, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Please, enjoy with my compliments.

A cover for Kenai

I've got the cover back from the designer for Kenai, and I couldn't be happier. She took the great art from Kara Dahlheimer (see more of her work here and here) and added her text and design. Here's how it turned out:

Olivia also made me some 3D renderings, which look really cool:

Here's an intro to the story:

Jess Amiko is a former space marine with a checkered past. She's trying to pull the pieces of her life back together and stay out of trouble. For once. She takes on a contract to work security at a dig site on a remote recently-discovered world. With only a handful of researchers and workers on Kenai, with a Patrol vessel watching overhead, and with the residents of Kenai tens of thousands of years dead and gone, everything should be smooth sailing.

Turns out, you should never say that out loud. Or think it. Or count on it.

Dammit.

And here's a quote I like from an early chapter, a flashback to a time earlier in Jess' career:

And now Kenzi was dead. I knew that was true. And in the abstract, I knew that my heart was on fire, inside, so much that I might well be dying myself. I would become utterly devastated, shattered in ways that would never come back together. I knew this. But I couldn’t feel it. The combat stims were keeping me from that reality. All I had was just a buzz of something not right, something that occasionally stirred to hint at the horror behind the chemical curtain.

I'm doing my last run-through and edit of the book now following helpful feedback from my early readers. It's a complicated story, so it will probably take me a few weeks to get it all into the shape I want, but I hope to have it ready for release some time in March.

Change to mailing list service

Because of a change in pricing at MailChimp, I have moved my mailing list service from them to SendFox. This is the first email I'm trying with the new service, and I hope this is getting to you OK and looks all right. Please let me know if you notice any issues or problems.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month. There ended up being a lot of them this time, of many different genres!

First, I have Shadow Informant by Edita Petrick. This is a very well-reviewed thriller about a Chicago cop on the hunt for a serial killer at the same time as her life is falling apart.

Next, I have a sample from Planet Amazon: The Rebirth by Crystal Dawn (totally cool author name, btw). A woman finds a portal from Earth to Atlantis, a new world where adventure, danger, and two hunky guys await.

Next, I have Melody of Dragons by Erynn Lehtonen and Derrick Ward. This tells the story of a group of adventurers trying to recover a stolen dragon egg from a group called the Dragonslayers (which suggests they are also anti-egg). This is in the GameLit genre, a popular recent style meaning the story is told in the style of a game.

Next, I have Children of Alpheios by Diana Fedorak. This has a great sci-fi premise - a woman living in a remote colony, one where genetic engineering is common, has a child with a unique DNA anomaly. Those in power want to exploit her child, so she goes on the run, assisted by a gruff pilot, as politics and rebellion create turmoil and danger.

Next, I have The Hunger by Michael Young. This has a great cover - swirling red cloak, cool axe, floating city. Great stuff. It tells the story of a world where all are cursed - dependent on a magical substance to avoid a tortured death. A scholar tries to find a way out of the curse, but he's rewarded by an assassination attempt and has to go on the run to continue his work.

Finally, I have a big group giveaway of epic and high fantasy stories. 28 books, all of them full stories (no samples or excerpts).

Thanks

Thanks so much for signing up for my newsletter. I'm excited to share Kenai with you soon. Jess Amiko's story is one I really enjoyed writing, and I hope you'll enjoy her adventures (and of course, my trademark dad-joke chapter titles). More on Kenai in my next newsletter.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave