Snow!

Like much of the country, we've had a lot of snow the last couple weeks, which has played havoc on roads. It sure is pretty, though. We got about eight inches of light fluffy snow yesterday on top of a half-inch of ice that was persisting from last weekend in temperatures well below freezing. To say that North Carolina is not used to this kind of weather is a profound understatement - my street hasn't been plowed or treated and likely won't ever be. We can rely on our latitude and the Gulf Stream to melt it away soon, though.

A smarter author would have used the snowy time and the cancellation of lots of my schedule to write more, but mostly I finished up Ghosts of Yōtei. I can't recommend this game or its predecessor highly enough. Great storytelling, fun gameplay, and a lot of rich characterizations. It's so neat when a game pays attention to the story in addition to the graphics and action. Here I am facing down Lord Saito, the man who murdered my family years ago. He's a schmuck, to be sure.

My books are now easy to order for libraries!

At the end of last year, Amazon relaxed their exclusivity requirement for books in their Kindle Unlimited program, allowing them to be purchased as ebooks in libraries. That came after years of banning the ebooks from being accessible anywhere else. My paperbacks are in some libraries around the country, but I usually get about 60-70% of my book revenue and readership from the KU program, so I wasn't ready to give that up to get my ebooks in libraries. Now, though, I don't have to!

If you're a library user, then good for you! Libraries are awesome. If you'd like to request one of my books be accessible in your own library, the library should be able to get you a copy. I'm using a service (Draft2Digital) that makes my books available to eight different library vendors, so whichever one your library uses, they should be able to get the books. And once you're done reading, the book will be available for others to enjoy.

Writing update

My most active project, the romantic comedy Best, is finished up and through the proofreading phase thanks to my long-time editor Tami. Sarah has completed her final edits, and I'm a couple hours' work away from finishing mine. Our next step, in a few weeks, will be to share the book with Sarah's agent to see if she's interested in trying to sell it, and we'll take it from there based on what she says. I'm really excited to share this one with you. I had a blast writing it and working with Sarah, and I love the characters.

I also had an idea for a comedic play, a format I've never tried to write in. I did write a full-length movie screenplay many years ago, a silly sci-fi superhero thing called Miocene Man, but I've (wisely) never shared that with too many people. In the last few years, though, I've auditioned and gotten parts in several plays in a local community theater, all of them comedies, which got me excited about plays. I've written about 2500 words in the new play, and the Internet tells me that scripts tend to be about 10,000 words per 60 minutes of performance, so I'd say I'm somewhere between 20-25% done with a first draft. It's a fun stretch to try to write this way - very dialogue heavy, but I like writing dialogue. Managing characters on a stage is harder than in a scene in a novel, because you have to think about how many people really should be on stage and how to arrange them and have them interact. My background in improv comedy (20 years as of January this year) is helping with the dialogue, for sure.

Once I finish Best, up and maybe do some more with the play, I'll be back to novel writing after my holiday (and Ghosts of Yōtei) break. I have four active projects I'll likely choose from, although I'll have to see what inspires me most. It could be something entirely new!

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 Frontier Vengeance by Michael Cardwell. This is a new book in Cardwell's Coogan series, where Coogan is an Afghanistan vet starting over in Montana after coming back from the war. In this story, one of Coogan's friends is murdered, and he takes on an off-the-books investigation to figure out how, why, and who. These sound like great books, almost like they're dying to be made into a gritty TV series, and the series has 6,000 ratings on Amazon with an average around 4.5. Definitely worth checking out.

Next, I have a free sample of Chase Harlem by Elise Burke Brown. This is a murder mystery with a former FBI agent turned detective working the streets of New Orleans. It looks delightful, and you can try it out for free.

Next, I have Aurora Protocol: Ashes to Aurora by Jennifer Bloom. This is a free novella about a future threatened climate change and societal collapse, and a family that is trying, across decades, to care for humanity and set things right.

Finally, I have a twelve sci-fi and fantasy audiobooks for you to explore. Lots of variety here! If you read with your ears, check it out!

Thanks

Thanks so much for being part of my newsletter. If you're a library user, please request that your library carry my books! I'd love to see them available in more places.

I hope you and your friends and family are staying safe and warm!

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave