Giveaways!

I have gotten a few cool giveaways scheduled for the end of this year into early next year. Mark your calendars if you want to grab free books of mine from Amazon! Here's the schedule:

Free December 16-20 (i.e. now!)

Daros is free right now.

Here's a quick description to whet your appetite:

A broken-down freighter arrives at a dusty mining world. Brecca Vereen's father reveals their smuggled cargo - a mysterious artifact.

A hostile fleet darkens the sky. Brecca jumps into an escape pod and drops to the war-torn surface.

In the invading fleet, a rebel waits to strike against her leaders. Will she survive long enough to succeed?

This book was a semifinalist in the first SPSFC competition five years ago. It's available in audio as well.

Free December 19-23

What Grows From the Dead is free for five days starting on Friday.

This is a contemporary mystery, and it's my most-rated book on Amazon and Goodreads. There's an audiobook available for this one as well. Here's a brief description:

Morris Drummond thinks he's at rock bottom. His career in ruins, his mom dead, his family fractured. But he's about to learn what rock bottom actually looks like. A secret his mom buried comes to light, one that could send him to prison or to the hereafter. Blood and treachery from long ago rise to the surface, and Morris is stuck in the middle.

Free from January 9-13

The Woeling Lass is free for five days in January.

This is the fourth book in my Inquisitors' Guild series, and it's among my highest rated. It was a semifinalist in the SPFBO a few years back. Don't worry if you haven't read the others in the series - each book is a stand-alone mystery with a different narrator, so you can read them in any order. Here's a quick teaser:

An assassin leaves Gueran Declais near death and his family decimated. As he is whisked to safety, Urret Milton, an apprentice with the Inquisitors' Guild starts to pull together the clues. A conspiracy surfaces, threatening the city itself, and Gueran and Urret face murder, intrigue, and a mysterious ghost that may not be just a legend.

Writing update

I had a productive November and December, making a lot of progress on my new science fiction novel set in the same far-future universe as Daros and Kenai. I'm up to nearly 53,000 words on that one and well into a space adventure full of intrigue, mutiny, and betrayal.

I've also been very hard at work on revisions to Best, the mystery-slash-romance novel I've been co-writing with Sarah Estow. We've been through three rounds of revisions now, and that's given us confidence to start sending it out to some early readers for feedback. My wife Christina read near-daily installments during our first draft, but she's going to read the revised book again for her usual greatly useful editing process, and we're shipping it out (today!) to about six other friends and relatives to give us some feedback. I really love the book, and I think the two-voice approach (we alternated chapters) is a lot of fun. We don't yet know what avenue we'll pursue for publication (via an agent or indie), but we hope to get the book out to the public some time in 2026.

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:

First, I have The Skeleton Faerie by A.P. Mobley, which looks like an alternate future post-apocalyptic fairytale horror thriller, with maybe a few more genres thrown in for good measure. This is a brand new release, having come out in November, so if that sounds like your kind of story, have a look!

Next, I have a chance to get a free review copy of Chronicles of Maradoum, Volume 8, by Ross Hughes. This high-fantasy anthology of stories will release later this year, but Ross is offering free pre-release review copies for people who want to review.

Finally, I have a big set of 43 fantasy books and series, all free to download. My Traitors Unseen is in there. There is a wide variety of fantasy genres in there, so there's sure to be something fun.

Thanks

Thanks so much for signing up for my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming books! I love hearing from people. If you've read one of my books and wouldn't mind leaving a review anywhere (Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, LibraryThing) I'd really appreciate it! Each review helps me reach more readers. 

I hope you and your friends and family are having a safe and rewarding end to the year!

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave