“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”—Tom Clancy.

Said in another way, a novel should hold up a mirror to the real world, showing its negatives as well as its positives. Fascism is still part of our reality, maybe more so now than ever before. Shouldn’t it be considered in our fiction?

I know many readers, especially those who read mystery and thriller novels, don’t like to see politics or political violence in fiction beyond the good-vs.-bad trivial plots. They just want the simple “Perils of Pauline”-like stories about stereotypical villains being defeated by stereotypical two-dimensional, superhuman-like good gals and good guys. Some people mature beyond Marvel Comics-like characters, but many don’t. Writers pandering to the latter readers include famous names like Baldacci, Child, Connelly, and Patterson here in the US as well as James, Penny, and Rankin in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. The last is a tradition that started with Holmes vs. Moriarty, and it has been embraced by every major book publisher of mystery and thriller fiction since then.

Those famous authors and many less famous ones willingly accept those publishers’ constraints; I don’t. If politics and political violence aren’t in a mystery/thriller novel, it’s really nothing more than a fantasy akin to a Harry Potter book! Such books are divorced from reality and violate Clancy’s dictum as well as my version of it. Politics and political violence are a part of real human experience. To avoid them is to write pablum divorced from reality (in contrast to politicians who utter it).

That’s why I include them in my fiction. And I won’t parse my words by using soft, euphemistic terms like autocracy or totalitarianism in place of fascism. You cannot sugarcoat or make light of the evil fascism has caused in the world and continues to cause. There are few themes as important as this one. It makes dystopian books like Darkness at Noon and 1984 and post-apocalyptic ones like Ape and Essence and Not This August famous classics. (Haven’t read them? Shame on you!)

Thanks to greedy authors like Baldacci et al and their money-grubbing publishers, we seem to have lost that realism in fiction as they pander to the masses by writing and publishing unrealistic pablum. I’ve done my best to break the chains of that constraint. I will not pander to readers’ preferences for unrealistic fiction. Among many reasons for being a self-published author, perhaps that’s the most important one.

Like any background material for a novel, one has to do their homework to handle properly the politics and political violence associated with fascism. I have endeavored to do this. (I read a lot more nonfiction than fiction if the measure is reading time spent, and I’m a voracious reader.) One has to get it right, especially when they include real-world figures. (They also make the fiction more relevant!)

Do I make a big deal of this in my prose? Themes are secondary to plot in my stories as I weave them in and around the plot in a seamless fashion. They hopefully enhance the plot as they make it more realistic and more human. Fascism and its consequences are no exceptions. Yes, it’s evil, but we have to deal with it if the human race is to survive. What better goal for the good gals and guys of my novels to achieve than to do their small part to assure fascism’s defeat in our world?

There are plenty of stories to be found in the politics and political violence of our past, present, and future. The battles of real life shouldn’t be ignored in our fiction. If readers don’t like to read about them, maybe they’re part of the problem?

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will be considered spam.)

Celtic Chronicles. Esther’s many adventures in fighting for justice for innocent victims end with this ninth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. The book starts with Esther and Bastiann at an archaeological dig in Scotland where a young student is murdered. It becomes more complex as ex-Russian and ex-Chinese oligarchs appear on the scene, as well as the arch-villain Vladimir Kalinin, the Russian ex-pat bent on revenge against Putin and his cronies. The 21^st-century versions of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot + Police Scotland detectives + MI5 agents = entertaining adventures for all armchair sleuths and fans of spy fiction. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon). Same for previous novels in the series. except for Defanging the Red Dragon and Intolerance, complete novels that are free PDF downloads available at my website (see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

There are hard-bounds, often lacking art because they have flyers, which are also often lacking art; trade paperbacks; and those small airport paperbacks—the latter two often with tasteless covers as well. Many older readers prefer them; younger generations (and book pirates?) prefer ebooks or audiobooks (are they pirated?), if younger generations read at all (they’re distracted by social media, computer games, and streaming video). Besides the negatives already hinted at, and being objective, there are more negatives for books in print than for ebooks (I have no experience with audiobooks, either as a reader or writer).

First, print books are expensive to make and therefore expensive for the buyer. An ebook is just a computer file, whether read on a laptop, ereader, or smart phone. A print book, no matter its format, costs more to produce, materials-wise, so the Big Five publishing conglomerates use that as an excuse to stick it to readers (and give writers fewer royalties?). It’s difficult to find a hardbound or trade paperback published by them for less than $20. They publish the paper versions first because that’s where they can scam the reading public more easily, so the ebook versions hit the market later (same for airport paperbacks that are the least expensive of the print versions).

Second, print books in any form are bad for the environment. Is sacrificing Mother Nature’s lungs, Earth’s forests, worth satisfying your preference for print? You might say, “It’s just one book.” Well no, if you’re an avid reader like I am, it’s many. And add up the numbers for a big print run from a Big Five publisher. (Celeb and scandal exposes are the worst!) You might also say, “I just borrow my print books from the library.” Okay, but there are still a lot of libraries! And they tend to feature the more popular books, even buying several copies of them, exacerbating the destruction to our forests.

Third, and something readers often don’t think about, is that print books take up space. You might read each one once or twice, and then they sit on your shelves, weighing them down. Or you give them away in a school’s book sale, say, a good deed to be sure, but what is done with those after they’re sold? Eventually, they all end up in landfills and certainly not replacing the forests that were destroyed to produce them! You don’t want an ebook, you can delete the file. Done. No sagging bookshelves, no more filling landfills, and no killing of forests.

When I started publishing, ebooks didn’t exist. (Amazing, right?) I chose two of those old POD (Print-on-Demand) firms because they didn’t make huge runs and only printed a book when it was sold. My ecological proclivities weren’t all that happy with the situation, but I lived with my crimes because I didn’t expect to sell that many books (and I didn’t!). But when ebooks appeared, I preferred them, as both a reader and writer. All my old POD books eventually had ebook second editions, and I preferred to publish only ebooks from then on.

There are some glaring exceptions, all due to my experimenting with traditional publishing: The first three novels in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series have print versions, for example, the first two because they were published by Penmore Press, a traditional small press, and the third by Carrick Publishing to complete a trilogy. Other novels in that series only have ebook versions, though. The first novel in “The Last Humans” series, published by Black Opal Books, has a print version; the second only has an ebook version because that publisher and I parted our ways. (That also happened with Penmore, but for different reasons.) I’ve published a few other print versions as well with Carrick Publishing, but most of my oeuvre is in ebook format.

I believe print books deserve to die. Their negatives far outweigh their positives. But they will probably continue to live on as long as traditional publishers do. But maybe the latter should also go the way of the dinosaurs?

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will be considered spam.)

Last chance! This June’s 99-cent sale on Smashwords ends soon. Purchase the entire “Clones and Mutants” trilogy for $0.99 per book: In Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Waves of Grain, arch-villain Vladimir Kalinin is at his scheming best as the clones and good mutant first work against him and then with him. These “evergreen” sci-fi thrillers offer readers many hours of reading entertainment for just $3!

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

[Note from Steve: The reader may consider this part two of the article “Brits don’t like me…”.]

While the British royals are far from being main characters in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, the mere fact that the series is partially set in the UK implies that mentioning them from time to time is hard to avoid. And while I’ll repeat here that I wish old Queen Elizabeth well on her Platinum Jubilee (she’s now the longest reigning British monarch), but even the most ardent fan of British royalty must wonder what the future will bring because she’s at a frail age. Prince Charlie won’t be nearly as long on the throne—he’s turning seventy-four, after all!

To put things in perspective, though, that royal family is just as troubled and dysfunctional as any other family. And the Royal Mum hasn’t done too well raising her kids either. (Charlie is an ex-philanderer and Andrew an ex-pervert. One never hears much about Anne or Edward.) No one knows how grandson Willie will turn out either when he ascends the throne.

Europe in general and the UK in particular, together with the Commonwealth countries, just can’t shake off their traditional remnants of royalty. Most have managed to create stable democracies despite their royals, though. In fact, their parliamentary systems are inherently more stable than presidential ones for the simple reason that the PM is chosen by the party in power in the main legislative body. Few parliamentary systems have made the mistakes the US’s founding fathers made in creating the US Senate and Electoral College. The UK’s House of Lords is basically just a powerless debating society, a gentlemen’s club for useless British toffs.

So, why do European countries, nearly all with a parliamentary system, tolerate their foppish royals? Because they’re addicted to the pomp and circumstance (strike up Elgar’s famous pieces, maestro), something a PM and Parliament can’t provide. I suppose the only bad thing about all that P and C is that taxpayers’ money is spent on it and on providing those foppish royals an easy, pampered life!

Let’s face it, Americans: Most European countries have a lot more history than many other nations, including ours, so their traditional P and Q has a long history as well. The Brits are more addicted to it than most, so I suspect they will keep plodding along, feeding their addiction and tolerating the royal parasites.

There’s a group in the UK, though, promoting the idea that Queen Elizabeth should be that country’s last monarch. (Maybe Esther Brookstone—see below—is a member of that group? She votes Labour, you know.) I don’t believe that will occur there or elsewhere in Europe—the addiction is just too strong. Making the tradition of royal characters in our fiction will continue as well, so authors should include them when they indeed be useful characters.

Tom Clancy included Prince Charlie in Patriot Games; I mention him in several “Brookstone” novels as well. I put other European royals in some novels too, most obviously in Aristocrats and Assassins from the “Chen and Castilblanco” series (Esther’s Bastiann has a cameo in that novel, by the way). In general, royals are secondary characters in my prose, but they add some realism to the European novels. And, to paraphrase Clancy, fiction to be successful has to seem real, so we probably should keep them around in our fiction when appropriate.

***

Comments are always welcome. (But please follow the rules on my “Join the  Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment goes to the spam folder!)

The “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. While Esther and hubby Bastiann have taken a well-deserved retirement, readers can still read about their adventures in the nine novels of the series. Many take place in the UK, of course, because it’s Esther’s home patch, but she also travels to Ireland, Scotland, and even to Peru, Norway, and Turkey as the series progresses. You don’t have to work as hard as the old girl, though. You can enjoy all the mystery, thrills, and suspense from your favorite reading chair, maybe while sipping tea and enjoying some scones? Or with a frosty gin and tonic this summer? Good times await you in any case. Jump into the series anywhere—each novel can stand alone—or start with the first novel, Rembrandt’s Angel, where Esther is obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

I see more and more online retailers correctly sort novels into their respective series. B&N, for example, correctly grouped together all published versions of the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” novels. (Two are free PDFs—see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page—so no one could blame them for their omission.) Kudos to B&N!

I’ve observed that B&N is on the march. Under new management maybe? Their book barns are aging well, and people still flock to them as well as other mom & pop bookstores, as well as visiting other online retailers, giving Amazon the well-deserved finger. That’s fine with me. I only buy from Amazon when the book isn’t available anywhere else. (Unfortunately many self-published authors and small presses think that Amazon is the place to be. It isn’t.)

I’ve also boycotted Amazon for my newer publications as a writer. While the “Esther Brookstone” series’ first two novels were traditionally published (by Penmore Press), implying I had no control over where they’re sold, and the first novel in “The Last Humans” series was too (by Black Opal Books, now in its death throes) was too, the remaining novels in those series were self-published but not on Amazon (um, maybe Death on the Danube appeared there—I can’t remember). In any case, the published versions of the “Esther Brookstone” originating from various publishers must have made it difficult for B&N to group them…and they came through with flying colors without any intervention from yours truly! They also grouped together the two “Last Humans” novels, a test that Amazon’s bots (or big-bot Bezos?) completely flunked!

I’m happy to see online dealers grouping series’ novels together. That’s convenient for readers, and it’s logical in book marketing as well because readers like to read series in order, or at least know a book is part of a series. I doubt that brick and mortar bookstores, even B&N’s, manage that well. That might be mostly due to shelf-space limitations, and they’d certainly do better than Amazon, but I rarely see an entire series displayed. The last time I saw that was with the Harry Potter fantasy novels.

But everyone in the retail book business is far ahead of PR and marketing services! They either don’t know how to do it, or they just greedily want to maximize their profits, but they offer no marketing plans for series! Nada. Nil. Zilch. (I can name a few examples of famous offenders, if you’re an author and want to avoid them for that reason.) My series are either marketed online by retailers like B&N or via my own efforts at the end of my blog posts. That’s why I’m boycotting all PR and marketing services as well until they wise up. Until they offer such services, I’ll just have to consider them behind the times and useless for any author with one or more series!

***

Comments are always welcome. (But please follow the rules on my “Join the  Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment goes to the spam folder!)

The “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. While Esther and hubby Bastiann have taken a well-deserved retirement, readers can still read about their adventures in the nine novels of the series. Many take place in the UK, of course, because it’s Esther’s home patch, but she also travels to Ireland, Scotland, and even to Peru, Norway, and Turkey as the series progresses. You don’t have to work as hard as the old girl, though. You can enjoy all the mystery, thrills, and suspense from your favorite reading chair, maybe while sipping tea and enjoying some scones? Or with a frosty gin and tonic this summer? Good times await you in any case. Jump into the series anywhere—each novel can stand alone—or start with the first novel, Rembrandt’s Angel, where Esther is obsessed with recovering a painting stolen by the Nazis in World War II.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

It all started with a British review of Rembrandt’s Angel that torched that novel: I thought the British reviewer’s critique could be summed up by the following: How dare I, a Yankee author, write a crime story set in the UK? I took that as sour grapes—the novel had good reviews here in the States, so that critique certainly wasn’t about quality. The reviewer just hated the idea that someone could write about a British character mucking around in a British setting (Esther Brookstone travels a lot outside Britain too). Okay, maybe it wasn’t fanatically anti-American or rabid British patriotism either, just another sniveling troll (one finds a few among reviewers, especially on Amazon and Goodreads, which, for practical purposes, are the same thing) who can’t write a damn thing but loves to criticize those who can.

But I imagine that the snarky critiques will continue with later novels in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series (there are nine now) because I’ve dared to “kill” Queen Elizabeth! I’ll try here to head some of that criticism off by pointing out that Esther’s adventures are in the near future, not sci-fi by any means, but futuristic enough that the Queen, now 96, is unlikely to still be among the living. I salute her and wish her well during her platinum jubilee year, but I suspect that someone else will soon be on the throne.

The question is: Will she be replaced by Charlie or Willy? Will Charlie abdicate in favor of his son? I assumed he wouldn’t when I wrote the novels. He seemed like an upstanding fellow in Clancy’s Patriot Games, albeit a bit helpless if not spoiled, but that was before Diana’s demise and Camilla’s taking her place. That alone might mean he’s just another self-centered royal who’d want at least a few years of kingly fame before soon also handing the crown over to Willy (he’ll be turning seventy-four, after all!). (In Celtic Chronicles, Charlie has his eyes on a Russian oligarch’s yacht! Nothing wrong with that, I suppose—they’re nice little boats!)

I have no idea why Brits think they have a monopoly on mystery stories. America’s tradition is at least as long as Britain’s! (Edgar Allan Poe was writing them long before Agatha Christie! That’s acknowledged by the Edgar Awards.) Plenty of other American authors have written good ones (see the list in the Sleuthing, British-style series of short fiction), even ones set in merry olde England like mine. (And the whole hard-boiled movement started here before P.D James!) Actually, as I stated, Esther’s adventures take her all over the world, from Peru in Rembrandt’s Angel to Turkey in Son of Thunder, with even a sojourn in NYC at the end of Intolerance and the beginning of The Klimt Connection. I didn’t see any American reviewers complaining about her trips to America! She’s lot more the globetrotter than Miss Marple and a sprier woman to boot, a true twenty-first century sleuth grounded in the twentieth (she was an MI6 spy in East Berlin during the Cold War).

PMs (Prime Ministers) and MPs (Members of Parliament) don’t fare well in Esther’s series—what would that disgruntled reviewer say about that?—a lot worse than Queen Lizzy, that’s for sure. An MP is the major villain in Palettes, Patriots, and Prats, and an MP who becomes PM has questionable ethics in the last few novels. Of course, a real-life PM indirectly accepted campaign contributions from a Russian oligarch—the oligarch’s son-in-law was that PM’s campaign chairman (I shall not name names, but that PM with the haystack haircut is known to have had lavish parties even when such events were banned during Covid). The old Queen was never embroiled in such scandals (one son, that friend of Epstein’s, did that in spades), but her and Phillip’s treatment of Diana was highly questionable if one is to believe a (made-for-TV?) movie about the events surrounding Diana’s death (old Phillip didn’t come off well in that one either).

Besides being American, I have enough Irish in me to wonder why any sensible, modern nation would tolerate any royalty, but I suppose reducing royalty to a powerless pomp-and-circumstance role in a democracy is more acceptable than the alternative (why we had our revolution). I certainly enjoyed old Lizzy’s disdain for a certain US ex-president who probably still has royal aspirations, to say the least. One has to wonder if she ever approved of any fascist monsters this world has produced. Britain certainly showed its democratic credentials during World War II by standing up to Hitler while the US delayed its entry into the war. That existential war against fascism might have otherwise ended a lot earlier, one way or the other.

It’s sad to think the Brits don’t like me. Perhaps it’s my Irish surname (O’Moore, to be complete)? Or maybe just because I’m a Yank? I like them, and they all fascinate me. They share traditions passed down from Angles, Britons, Celts, Normans, Saxons, and Vikings and have given us some of the best writers and poets in the world. I’d be stupid to overlook that or deny it.

In any case, I hope the Brits won’t hold any grudges with respect to Esther’s series. The rational ones among them will hopefully recognize that old Liz inevitably will leave this mortal coil and that democracy, not royalty, is far more important to the world right now. What lies ahead for the future of the royal family is unknown and might bring surprises that are stranger than fiction.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules listed on the “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

Celtic Chronicles. Novel #9 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series is special: It’s the last novel in the series, and what a series it’s been with Esther and Bastiann taking us all over the UK and Europe and even to the Third World, from Peru to Turkey. (Yes, like Russia, the latter is Third World—nothing wrong with that; it’s just a fact.) In this novel, Esther and Bastiann volunteer to work at an archaeological dig near their modest castle outside Edinburgh. A student also working there is murdered. Police Scotland finds a Russian oligarch’s number on the lad’s call-list. That Russian is on his yacht anchored off the Scottish coast. As the investigation continues, everything becomes more complex, other characters come into play, and the intrigue and suspense increase. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on the grand Bezos bot’s Amazon). Enjoy!

Note: The above novel and others are distributed by Draft2Digital that supposedly merged with Smashwords March 1 (even before, they more or less distributed to the same online retailers). Supposedly these D2D novels will appear listed on Smashwords. I see no evidence of this. Progress is often akin to a snail trying to climb up a greased window pane.

On pubprogressive.com yesterday: “Common-Sense Gun Control.”

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Who needs it? Yearning for it is narcissism, of course, or even worse (Facebook is full of people who yearn for it). I suppose some people wanted (or even still want?) to be Johnny Depp. I’ll admit I would but only because he owns a nice island in the Bahamas. (Oprah does too, so there’s no gender bias on my part like maybe what might have occurred at the Heard-Depp trial—now those are two narcissists, but aren’t all Hollywood actors?) But having so much money that I can buy my own private island might bring me problems I don’t need—most people don’t need those kind of problems!

I’m certainly better known for my storytelling than I ever was as a scientist, but that’s not saying much. New Jersey’s own Harlan Coben might remember me—we exchanged a few emails long ago when he still answered them—but any old mare or stallion in the Big Five’s stables has no idea who I am. I respect and admire a lot more scientists than authors, though, than I do Hollywood stars, politicians, and yes, and many authors, primarily because I can understand why the former are famous but not the latter. (Of course, some of the latter are infamous and not famous.)

Fame often isn’t acquired because of skills or so-called “great works”; it comes to many because someone in the background has a vested interest in making someone famous and then controlling them. That certainly happens in both DC and Hollywood (sometimes they’re the same thing—consider old Commie-chaser Reagan who never was a great actor until he ran for president). I suppose that’s better than the incompetent moron who goes looking for fame (like Trump—the “f&^%ing moron” description is SecState Tillerson’s, not mine).

In the world of artists and scientists, though, there are a few heroes who aren’t narcissistic and could care less about being famous (or rich). They just go about doing their thing. I  believe my hero Isaac Asimov was in that group. So were Gandehi and Mother Theresa. Maybe their unassuming modesty instead of blatant narcissism is why they’re famous! (I wonder how old Isaac would feel about comparing him with the other two?)

These are a lot of words, so I will come to the point: Authors who write to become famous shouldn’t be writing. Period. We should all strive our damnedest to tell the best stories we can given our own artistic skills, inspirations, and motivations. The Big Five have made all the old mares and stallions in their stables famous because that suits them—their basic motivation (and maybe their authors?) is to sell books. They only care about good storytelling—any kind of storytelling really—if it helps them to sell books. In other words, their authors are relegated to the role of prostitutes who must keep the johns happy so that their pimps, the Big Five bureaucrats, can make a living.

I know that’s harsh, but these days I feel it’s necessary to be brutally honest. Anyone who tells me how I must write, how I must appeal to the market, and other asinine suggestions can go to hell! I’ll promise to continue to tell my stories as honestly and professionally as possible, but I will not try to satisfy everyone, especially editors, agents, and critics who have their hands in the Big Five’s pockets. Every author should declare his independence from traditional publishing’s oppressive tactics . Thank God self-publishing allows that. ‘Nough said!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules listed on the “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will go to spam.)

Celtic Chronicles. Novel #9 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series is special: It’s the last novel in the series, and what a series it’s been with Esther and Bastiann taking us all over the UK and Europe and even to the Third World, from Peru to Turkey. (Yes, like Russia, the latter is Third World—nothing wrong with that; it’s just a fact.) In this novel, Esther and Bastiann volunteer to work at an archaeological dig near their modest castle outside Edinburgh. A student also working there is murdered. Police Scotland finds a Russian oligarch’s number on the lad’s call-list. That Russian is on his yacht anchored off the Scottish coast. As the investigation continues, everything becomes more complex, other characters come into play, and the intrigue and suspense increase. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on the grand Bezos bot’s Amazon). Enjoy!

On pubprogressive.com tomorrow: “Common-sense Gun Control.”

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Not mine but Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden’s! Celtic Chronicles, #9 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, will be the last novel in that series.

In the beginning (somewhere in 2015, if not earlier), I began to write Rembrandt’s Angel on a whim without any intentions of giving Esther a series. I had this niggling idea for many years after reading Agatha Christie’s novels as a kid, really a question: Why didn’t she ever put Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot together to solve a crime? Esther and Bastiann became my twenty-first versions of those famous sleuths, Esther a bit more spry and worldly than Miss Marple and Bastiann identifiable with Poirot only because he looks like David Suchet, the actor who played Poirot so well. I also wanted to try traditional publishing again. I was in an experimental frame of mind (that occurs often enough now—see the previous post). Penmore Press liked my idea enough to publish the first novel in the series.

Still in that experimental mood, I decided I wanted to write about the mysterious St. John the Divine. He was the longest-lived of the disciples, but little is known about him after the Resurrection. As it turned out, Son of Thunder, #2 in the series (also published by Penmore), betters Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code in the sense of eliminating his awful conspiracy theories and getting the history right. (I suppose some would call Brown’s novel a negative influence then, but I was already far into the novel-writing mode by the time I saw the movie, which made me read his novel…because usually the novel is better that the movie! With the book, I was able to create my own image of the main character; Tom Hanks didn’t do it for me!)

In Death on the Danube, #3 in the series, my thoughts turned again to Christie’s novels, and I decided to write something like Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express: Bastiann, channeling Poirot, but helped by Esther aka Miss Marple, runs an investigation on a riverboat (its ports of call on the Danube are what we experienced on a real cruise, notes about that serving as background material). To bring it into the twenty-first century (the riverboat actually does that as well), Putin’s SVR assassins make their first appearance in the series. They pester Esther and Bastiann in many of the remaining novels!

I’ll have to admit that all those remaining novels were also experimental. Even Death on the Danube was that as I bid farewell to Penmore Press and returned to self-publishing, using Carrick Publishing for the book and Draft2Digital for #4, #5, #8, and #9. I was now writing those novels, still mystery/thriller stories, even more in the style of British mysteries and crime stories, a tradition initiated by Dame Agatha, but still including thriller aspects that she never would dare to include.

I give away Defanging the Red Dragon and Intolerance, #6 and #7 respectively, as free PDFs (see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page to see how to download them). Beyond the freebie aspect, the first was an experiment because it’s a crossover novel between another series and Esther’s; the second is one because Esther participates in three different cases that are described well by the title. I decided to give them away, thinking the series was drawing to a close, but Esther and Bastiann still had enough in them for The Klimt Connection and Celtic Chronicles, #8 and #9, respectively, which are published and not free.

Yet Esther and Bastiann deserved to retire! I’ve put them through the wringer in nine novels. They were more than ready to pass the baton to new characters, new sleuths with their own gritty stories to tell, ones that Agatha might enjoy reading to catch up on twenty-first century concerns in the UK and the world.

There were several characters anxiously awaiting their chance to receive those batons from those tired sleuths, but I picked DI Steve Morgan. He played a major role in #8, and he has the right pedigree—ex-Scotland Yard DI, an independent thinker, and a man with little patience for police bureaucracy. This young and tough copper is probably good for a new series (the preview of the first novel is found in Celtic Chronicles), but in order not to jinx things, I don’t want to continue to subtitle Legacy of Evil, that first book, “DI Steve Morgan, Book One.”

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will be labeled as spam and not appear.)

The “Clones and Mutants” Trilogy. While all my titles, including those above, are reasonably priced, you might not want to miss this June’s 99-cent sale on Smashwords! All novels in this trilogy are on sale: In Full Medical (VJ53C), you’ll meet the clones; in Evil Agenda (UD66S), a nubile mutant is added to the mix; and in No Amber Waves of Grain (UV43P), the arch-villain from the first two books teams up with a clone and mutant to thwart another villain and mutant’s plan to destroy the West. All these are “evergreen,” i.e. as suspenseful and entertaining as the day I finished their manuscripts. The sale price $0.99 should appear when you peruse each book’s page on Smashwords, but you can use the indicated coupon codes if they don’t. Enjoy!

At pubprogressive.com yesterday: “Again?” (my plea for common-sense gun control).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

After publishing a new novel (or maybe in this case two, The Klimt Connection and Celtic Chronicles, #8 and #9, respectively, in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series), I often pause, take a breather for a few days (in this case, it’s like running two marathons!), and think about future plans. Is it time for a reset? I always ask myself. Sometimes the answer is “yes,” and that’s when I write something I believe is entirely different, even experimental, like The Secret Lab or A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse (or even Rembrandt’s Angel).

But with some self-analysis, I realized this time that even with that YA sci-fi mystery (reedited and rewritten by A. B. Carolan) and that sci-fi rom-com, thriller elements still dominate my novel writing. I might call those “Esther Brookstone” novels mysteries (Agatha Christie in a way motivated that first book in that series) and the other two sci-fi novels, thriller elements are ubiquitous in all of them. They’re evident in the “Clones & Mutants” and “Chaos Chronicles” trilogies as well. Why is this?

More self-analysis leads me to a partial answer: H. Rider Haggard! I read a lot as a lad, Dame Agatha for mysteries and Asimov for sci-fi (although his Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are also mysteries) just two “classic” authors who influenced me, but I can’t forget Haggard. I wonder if he influenced J. K. Rowling as well. By her own admission, Hagrid’s name—that burly giant tippler and surely the most interesting character in the Harry Potter series—came from the old English word for a bad night that tipplers often willingly have, and I suspect the modern English word haggard originates with that old English one hagrid. So, maybe she also used that name to recognize another English author’s contribution to thriller literature? (In Haggard’s day, not that distant from mine as an early reader, those novels were called “adventure stories, not thrillers.)

In any case, when I’ve reread some of H. Rider’s novels (most recently, King Solomon’s Mines) and enjoyed his famous character Alan Quatermain yet again (whom I identify more with Sean Connery now than James Bond), it’s clear that his novels are what we call thrillers today. Sure, H. Rider’s works mirror his times—they’re racist, elitist, and very British (but so are Christie’s!)—yet their thriller aspects entertained me as a young reader who imagined myself in adventures “around the world and to the stars.”

Of course, it might just be that all my novels are just evidence of my belief that storytelling should focus on the stories and ignore genre classifications. I’ll revisit these musings after the next novel, I’m sure!

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment will be labeled as spam and not appear.)

The “Clones and Mutants” Trilogy. While all my titles, including those above, are reasonably priced, you might not want to miss this June’s 99-cent sale on Smashwords! All novels in this trilogy are on sale: In Full Medical (VJ53C), you’ll meet the clones; in Evil Agenda (UD66S), a nubile mutant is added to the mix; and in No Amber Waves of Grain (UV43P), the arch-villain from the first two books teams up with a clone and mutant to thwart another villain and mutant’s plan to destroy the West. All these are “evergreen,” i.e. as suspenseful and entertaining as the day I finished their manuscripts. The sale price $0.99 should appear when you peruse each book’s page on Smashwords, but you can use the indicated coupon codes if they don’t. Enjoy!

At pubprogressive.com tomorrow: “Again?” (my plea for common-sense gun control).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Congress recently held hearings on UFOs, and the Pentagon informed the politicians about the authenticity of two videos (in the Director of Naval Intelligence’s testimony, to be specific). Are UFOs a national security concern? Are ETs real?

In Sing a Zamba Galactica, #2 in the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” two ET civilizations meet, one ours (when Humans are out there living in space, they’re obviously ETs) and another stranger one. This begins a strange collaboration between two intelligences, Humans and Rangers (the reason for the latter’s name is part of the fun); in other words, that was Humans discovering friendly ETs. In the same novel, Humans meet a group of nasty, unfriendly ones. Out of the chaos (not “the Chaos” of the first novel, Survivors of the Chaos), ITUIP is born—the Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets, something akin to an EU in the cosmos).

Isaac Asimov, one of my sci-fi-author heroes, didn’t put ETs in his Foundation trilogy; I have them in my trilogy, and in many other stories, from the novella “Escape from Earth” (available as a free PDF download—see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page for this and other free fiction samples) and other short fiction works (the Dr. Carlos stories and Rogue Planet continue the ITUIP saga) to other novels like A. B. Carolan’s The Secret of the Urns and Mind Games and my More than Human: The Mensa Contagion.

While we’re also ETs in a sense of Sing a Zamba Galactica, our ancestors are the ETs in A. B. Carolan’s Origins. (Maybe Asimov would like that?) Humans from the stars returning to Earth is a common theme in the sci-fi literature—I first saw that theme in Chad Oliver’s Winds of Time. The original Battlestar Galactica TV series had that theme as well. (It was short on special effects but much better than the second version.) I used it in “Escape from Earth,” and A.B. used it in Origins. The later novel, though, takes the concept of Battlestar Galactica and adds to it the recently discovered Denisovans, a primitive offshoot of Homo sapiens’ evolutionary tree. The “real” ETs in that novel become only a mechanism for carrying Denisovans to the stars, something like poachers capturing animals in the wild for zoos.

Whether ETs or UFOs are real or not (I’m inclined to believe the former rather than the latter, unless certain foundations of physics become meaningless), they will continue to capture readers’ imaginations and motivate sci-fi storytellers.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comments will go to the spam folder.)

Celtic Chronicles. This ninth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Esther and Bastiann volunteer to work at an archaeological dig near their modest castle outside Edinburgh. A student also working there is murdered. Police Scotland finds a Russian oligarch’s number on the lad’s call-list. That Russian is on his yacht anchored off the Scottish coast. As the investigation continues, everything becomes more complex, other characters come into play, and the intrigue and suspense increase. Published 5/23 by Draft2Digital, this ebook will soon be available wherever quality ebooks are sold (just not on Amazon). Note that #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads (see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page for those novels and other free fiction).

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

Let’s consider The Last Humans: A New Dawn, #2 in “The Last Humans” series. Or #1 in that same series, or #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” series. All the openings tell readers there are some thrills to be had. I then go on using back stories and flashbacks to continue the plots, often alternating between these story elements and dialogue and character development that normally will entertain at least a few readers.

This isn’t “traditional storytelling,” by which I mean that ancient oral tradition associated with members of the tribe gathered around campfires in prehistoric times listening to a storyteller. As much as modern storytelling owes to this oral tradition, the written word, especially in more recent fiction after Gutenberg cast into print form, is much more complex. I’m amused when reviewers complain about my novels’ complexity and ask myself, “Are they stuck in medieval times?” Of course, they might think simplicity is what’s needed—many readers love cozy mysteries and bodice rippers, for example, that are just parodies of the human condition with cardboard cutouts for characters. I generally ignore reviews of my books, though, except for promo purposes (excerpts from them). Reviewers are entitled to their opinions, of course, but reading preferences are so subjective that I know I can’t please everyone.

The opening is sometimes called “the hook,” a bit insulting to readers because they’re being compared to fish. Hmm, are books just bait then? All three novels I mentioned above open with action. Other novels might open with psychological stress, using the internal dialogue of a main character. The purpose is the same: Get the reader interested. That’s necessary at the beginning of the novel-writing marathon.

Even with psychological stress, back story (e.g. why the character is stressed) or flashbacks (a quick remembering of the stressful situation) can be used with character description to construct a solid opening. Authors must grab the readers’ attentions, but they also must also explain why it’s important to do so.

I probably do better when opening with action than I do describing a person’s stress. That might seem to be a contradiction to the complexity I desire, but personal thoughts might lead to meandering, which is deadly at the start of the literary marathon. In Celtic Chronicles, I start with Bastiann’s thoughts about Esther’s plans for them to volunteer to help at an archaeological dig. Banter accompanied those thoughts, though, something akin to action, and I kept things simple.

In other words, an author can combine the two, mixing thoughts with action. The fundamental goal is to begin with something that’s happening. The why can come later when the reader needs a breather, unless it’s not that complicated. Critics often say a story is like a rollercoaster ride (an overused description to the extent that it has become a cliché), but that’s what an author wants to achieve—the ups and downs of his marathon race (more like the Boston course than the NYC one) that the readers can run with him. At the beginning of the race, though, the author might want to put the reader at the top of the rollercoaster so the downhill thrill comes right away. Future uphill climbs are then akin to back story and flashbacks.

***

Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules found on my “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comments will go to the spam folder.)

Celtic Chronicles. This ninth novel in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Esther and Bastiann volunteer to work at an archaeological dig near their modest castle outside Edinburgh. A student also working there is murdered. Police Scotland finds a Russian oligarch’s number on the lad’s call-list. That Russian is on his yacht anchored off the Scottish coast. As the investigation continues, everything becomes more complex, other characters come into play, and the intrigue and suspense increase. Published 5/23 by Draft2Digital, this ebook will soon be available wherever quality ebooks are sold (just not on Amazon). Note that #6 and #7 are free PDF downloads (see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page for those novels and other free fiction).

On pubprogressive.com tomorrow: “Why we might need a civil war…”.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!