So I have some autographed books to give-away. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, let me lay down a couple of quotes from Voltaire. (You know his real name was Francois-Marie Arouet, n'est-ce pas?) I think the quotes are fitting to remember at the present.

It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

Astute readers may note that Lucette repeats the latter statement in In Death Bedrenched. For better or worse, there is, amid all the action and adventure in Power to Hurt, a discussion that includes ideas from Locke, Montesquieu, and perhaps others I don't recall at the moment. If any of you have read that part of the book, I would welcome your thoughts about it.

And kudos to ShannonC for being the first to post a review on In Death Bedrenched.

Now, as to the matter of autographed loot:

Sometimes Amazon runs a discount on print copies. I suppose it's because some were ordered and Amazon printed multiple copies. Having extra copies which haven't immediately sold, big river reduces the price. The great thing about that is that I get the same royalty as if the books were sold at full price. So, I bought them myself at the discounted price, got the royalty to make the discount even better (so it's even more economical than buying author copies), and got free Prime shipping. So I now have 4 copies of Threading the Rude Eye to disperse as loot to loyal subscribers.

How am I going to do it? Well, I've got a couple links for free ebooks of In Death Bedrenched that anyone can get by clicking the link and agreeing to subscribe to my newsletter. But what about you who already subscribe? Well, you can still get the free ebook--and if you are a U.S. resident--sorry to my beloved fans from down under and elsewhere; I don't want to promise what may be cost prohibitive to deliver--you can also get a shot at winning an autographed copy of Threading the Rude Eye. It's simple. You get a friend to sign up for my newsletter (perhaps by forwarding them this issue containing the links to the free ebooks, and provide instructions for them to click one of the two links and agree to subscribe) and for every one of them that signs up, you get an entry into the give-away. Get ten friends to sign up and get ten entries. There are three things you need to know. 1) You must respond to this email and provide the email address(es) of your friend(s) who should be signing up (I won't use their email for any purpose unless they actually sign up for the newsletter), so I can credit their sign-ups as your entries. 2) If the friend who signs up is already a subscriber to my newsletter, they don't count for getting you entered into the drawing. 3) This give-away drawing ends on July 14 (Bastille Day), so you need to have responded with the email(s), and your friends need to have signed up by midnight July 14 Mountain Time. If you should be one of the 4 winners of the drawing, and you already have a paperback copy of Threading the Rude Eye, I'll gladly send you an autographed copy of one of my other books in paperback.

Also, those of you in the U.S. who responded to the brief questionnaire in my previous newsletter, you already have two bonus entries in the contest just for having responded.

Here are the links for the free ebooks for you and your friends.

In Death Bedrenched for free at Book Cave

In Death Bedrenched for free at StoryOrigin

OH - AND my print copies of In Death Bedrenched have arrived (3 weeks ahead of time) so I'll be getting them out to my Skirmish Team very soon. Here's proof I've received them:

You can also check out these other great free fantasy/history books which become available July 1.

Book Cave July Blowout - Free books in July

And Here's a promotion for free books on StoryOrigin --I created it myself, so please take a look and checkout some of great books/stories. The give-away theme is Fantasy and History. You'll find books that fit one or both categories--and there are only a few so you won't get lost in looking.

Speaking of the responses to my quick questionnaire- The responses inclined slightly toward option C (with B,C, and D getting votes). I'm reassured that I'm going in the right (or maybe write) direction with this blend of history and fantasy. Thank you!

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Honor Roll with special thanks to these subscribers:

Lois for her stunning review and heroic defense of The Shrinking Zone

Budd for reviews for a couple of my books, as well as his expression of how much he is enjoying reading the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire series.

Colleen for leaving ratings for several of my books on Amazon.

Rob for leaving a review of Threading the Rude Eye

Michael for leaving reviews of Threading the Rude Eye, and The Shrinking Zone

Mayra for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

JBudd for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

Gloria for a review of Threading the Rude Eye

ShannonC for a review of In Death Bedrenched

There are other reviews of my books, of course, but I don't know whether those reviews are also subscribers to this newsletter.

If you have posted a review anywhere for any of my books, let me know so that I can include you in the Honor Roll.