My lost novels…
I’ve written a few novels you might not know exist, so I’m calling them the “lost novels.” How did they get lost? The primary reason was Covid. I’m always writing new fiction, more so during the pandemic—short stories, novellas, and novels—and the manuscripts of the novels started piling up, forming a log jam I had to undo. Consequently, they’re all self-published (the most efficient way to publish!), so I’d like to remind all readers of this blog that they exist.
First, there is The Last Humans: A New Dawn. Not only was the publication of that novel delayed, Amazon’s bots lost it (see the explanation on the “Books & Short Stories” web page—I’ve also discussed the problem in other blog posts). It’s the sequel to The Last Humans, of course. I used Draft2Digital (D2D) to publish it, and it’s available (ebook format only) at all that aggregator’s affiliated retailers, including Amazon (although it’s hard to find there (again see the aforementioned web page).
The next two lost novels were also published using D2D, but, after the previously described attack of the Amazon bots, I didn’t trust Amazon (authors can pick the D2D affiliates they want to use). The ebooks Palettes, Patriots, and Prats and Leonardo and the Quantum Code, #4 and #5 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, can be purchased online most everywhere else, but not from Amazon. (You might have missed Death on the Danube, #3 in the series, as well. That does have a print version, and it’s available on Amazon and at most online retailers.)
Now we come to the interesting part: The next two “Esther Brookstone” novels will be really lost if you aren’t paying attention. In the middle of December, 2021, I offered Defanging the Red Dragon, #6 in the series (technically, it’s also #8 in the “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” series) as a free PDF download, a holiday gift for my readers. The subtitle is “A Brookstone-Castilblanco Holiday Adventure” because it takes place during the holidays. Otherwise, it’s yet another crime novel in the series.
“Esther Brookstone” #7 is so lost that it isn’t even available yet! When the manuscript for Intolerance is ready, I’ll also turn it into a free PDF download. Watch for it!
Neither #6 nor #7 have spiffy covers, by the way. The Last Humans: A New Dawn and #4 and #5 in the “Esther Brookstone” series do. The reason to skimp on the covers for #6 and #7 is simple: If they had spiffy covers, I’d have to charge something! (That’s the major reason I charge $0.99 for the collection Sleuthing, British Style. I started giving away short fiction a while ago, but that collection was a test run for D2D.) I believe covers on PDFs are like those cover pages for faxes—they’re something you might as well skip when you print the document. (You don’t know what a fax is? Lucky you, missing all that screeching when you mistakenly dial a fax number! Faxes were quite useful before cellphones, though.)
You can get your copy of Defanging the Red Dragon easily enough. Just go to my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page, peruse the list of free downloads, and click on the title. Voila! That’s what you’ll have to do for Intolerance too. Keep checking that list. (Okay, I can’t claim that these two novels are completely free. You’ll have to expend some energy to make that click!)
I think I’ll update this article and repost it every January. I don’t want my novels to ever feel lost again!
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Defanging the Red Dragon. The sleuths Chen, Brookstone, Cadstilblanco, and van Coevorden are all together in one novel! In this sixth book in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, they have to try to stop a Chinese spy ring that’s out to steal military secrets, but a few other cases become a distraction for the quartet: Finding the gang member who attacked Castilblanco’s daughter in NYC and combatting Asian hate in England, for example. You can download this novel for free—see the end of the article above. Intolerance, #7 in the “Esther Brookstone” series, will be available soon!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
