An evening of book-related improv

I had a really great time at my one-of-a-kind mystery book improv show at The Idiot Box, the comedy club where I've been performing for the past 20 years. There was a great audience, and we did a lot of fun and funny improv related to my stories, including a set based on an excerpt from Kenai, which was a blast (I had the audience pick a page, and they happened to pick a part that was really confusing!). We finished up with a Q&A with me about my writing process that was great, with some terrific questions from the audience. Here's a picture of some of the audience picking up the free books that came with their ticket purchases after the show. My wife Christina is straightening the Got Trouble stack there on the right by the window.

Writing update

I've been most focused recently on a first editing pass on the romance novel I'm working on with my friend and co-author Sarah Estow. The book, called Best, is the story of two professors at a liberal arts college who uncover something fishy going on. They got off to a bad start years ago and don't like each other much, but as they work through the mystery, they begin to warm to each other a little (though not without some fireworks and complications). We're about halfway through the first editing run, cleaning up some shaky bits, capitalizing stuff, adding em dashes and such, and polishing Mark and Flora's stories into something that (we hope) really sings, or at least provides some laughs and some heart. After this first run, we'll probably be close to ready to share it with some early readers, and then we'll see where that gets us.

In other writing news, it's November again, and I always try to do a lot of writing in November, usually daily. Many of my novels have come from these efforts - in fact, I wrote the whole first draft of Got Trouble in one November a while back. Here are some past November adventures:

In 2024, I started what would become Unwelcome Matt, so that's another one I owe to November, although it went a little slower than some of the others. This year, I'm working on a fifth Inquisitors' Guild book, and I'm about 17,000 words in as I start November. There's a chance that with daily work I could get a draft done, or most of a draft, by the beginning of December, so I'll work towards that. The main character here is a young clerk who's survived a magical mishap, so it's a bit of a departure from the Inspectors and Provisional Inspectors who headed up the earlier Frosthelm books. I'm excited to see where the story takes me.

Running out of time for The Expanding Universe 11

Just a reminder - the sci-fi anthology I've got a story in, The Expanding Universe vol. 11, will only be available to buy as an ebook until December 13, at which point it will unpublish and only be available in paperback. If you buy the ebook before then, you get it forever, of course - it doesn't vanish. There are some great stories in there (plus mine! :-) ), so I hope you'll have a look. It's free for Kindle Unlimited readers, and only $4.99 for 600 pages of sci fi otherwise.

An upcoming interview

I'm taking part in an event over on ReadIndieFantasy.com called A Month of Rain and Reads. I'll have an interview up on November 7th, and there will also be a series of giveaways (including my books), and I'll have a review of another author's indie fantasy story there too. It should be a fun month of activities with a ton of authors.

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 Stone and Sky by Z.S. Diamanti, a popular epic fantasy novel about griffin riders in a struggle against wyvern-riding orcs. This is the first in a trilogy.

Next, I have another Something and Something book, Cursed and Chosen by Rowan Ashborne (great fantasy author name, by the way). This is a YA epic fantasy novel about a mystic killer and a healer forced to work together against the designs of an evil empire. If I told you one of the characters was named Draven, would you know whether he was the cursed or the chosen? :-)

Next, I have Wilderness Five by Craig Walton. This is a hard sci-fi space opera story that reviewers have compared to 2001, Planet of the Apes, and Jurassic Park. A mysterious new technology allows evolution to proceed rapidly, allowing rapid terraforming of worlds, but (as you might guess) it gets very much out of hand.

Finally, I have The Refuge by Jen Porter. This is a free Christian dystopian sci-fi novella, where holy warriors fight in the jungle against raiders and mutated predators.

Thanks!

Thanks so much for being part of my newsletter community. I really appreciate having you here. If you have any suggestions for project, or any questions about my books, please hit reply and let me know your thoughts. I love hearing from readers.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave