It’s always amusing when certain authors’ antics prove how weird members of our group can be. I suppose I shouldn’t find those antics strange; after all, we work at our craft alone. This solitary confinement could make anyone become a weird recluse, conspiracy theorist, or paranoid suffering from agoraphobia. I have to leave the house and observe human beings once and a while to recalibrate at times (something that was less likely at the height of the Covid pandemic, of course). But I’d be incorrect to judge typical human behavior by observing how authors behave! That’s often stranger than fiction, considering what occurs in reality.

My first example is a serious one: Did Andrew Cuomo abuse his position to land that juicy book contract? His critics claim that. If aides gathered data and information about Covid and its management to put in his book, shouldn’t they be considered coauthors? That might satisfy those attacking his book, but it’s unlikely. And I think his alleged sin is more akin to what any celeb does by “authoring” a book using a ghostwriter without giving that person credit. Happens all the time. But maybe being governor of the great state of New York makes those antics worse?

On a lighter (and sexier?) note, consider the antics of author E. L. James and her “Fifty Shades” brand. Wine, lingerie, floggers, vibrators, handcuffs, etc. are being sold by Ms. James with her “Fifty Shades’ trademark. And here I thought even selling T-shirts at a book event was tacky!

Another author who’s displayed some interesting antics is James Patterson. His writing isn’t  nearly as sexy as Ms. James’s (although one can argue that both are formulaic), but this astute businessperson invented the literary assembly line that churns out novels for all age groups. He went beyond the frontier of authors’ antics by augmenting his stable of exploited coauthors to include old Bill Clinton! It would have been more interesting if that sexiest of all ex-presidents (Hillary might disagree) had teamed up with Ms. James to add some reality to her presentation of the man’s view in her new trilogy. That way James could avoid any charges of cultural appropriation. Of course, Mr. Patterson would have then missed all those chats about Bill’s many affairs. (Did he take notes?)

To wind this up, please don’t ask what my antics are or my secret life is about. You really wouldn’t be interested. My antics don’t have the shock value of those above. The spice in my life is mostly obtained from reading…or from the occasional forage for Indian food; that’s what’s public (the private is none of your damn business). I just want to keep on being a reclusive author, writing my novels and laughing at the antics of some of my fellow authors. There’s plenty of the latter to help keep me entertained.

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Comments are always welcome.

“The Last Humans”—a series about biowarfare and its consequences. In Book One, The Last Humans, Penny Castro, forensics diver for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, finds a body on a dive but a lethal pandemic when she surfaces. What follows is a struggle to survive, but she also finds love and hope. In Book Two, The Last Humans: A New Dawn, she and her new hubby are forcefully conscripted by a struggling US government to take revenge against the virus makers. The government wants the pair’s skills badly enough to kidnap their children. Both novels can be found wherever quality ebooks are sold. (But I don’t recommend Amazon, because they confused the two ebooks and won’t correct their error!)

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

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was a famous British mathematician known for creating the “Turing machine” concept and using it to prove the “halting problem” for these machines was undecidable, the Gödel’s theorem of computer science. Because of a fairly recent movie, he justifiably is now considered a national and world hero for breaking the Enigma code by extending the deciphering capabilities of the “Polish bombe,” a mechanical technique used against the Nazi U-boats’ damaging offense launched against freighters crossing the Atlantic during World War II. Like Oscar Wilde and many others, he was treated terribly by the British, basically forced to commit suicide. (The Brits didn’t decriminalize homosexuality until 2008 when what is now known as “Turing’s law” was passed.)

Ever since Turing, and maybe even before, coding has always been good employment for mathematicians or other people with mathematical skills. Of course, here I mean coding to be encryption and decryption of messages, not designing iPhone and Android apps! The goal is always to create unbreakable codes, and these techniques are used by many people, not just spies and the military. There are simple codes your kids can use (for parents reading this post, I’ve taken pity on you and won’t mention specifics), and more complex ones that need large primes. Most of the latter could be broken by a quantum computers.

Turing is also considered the father of artificial intelligence (the machine algorithm that bears his name is considered a test for that). Sci-fi stories seem to care more about AI systems, especially those used to guide starships and give robots more human characteristics. (Asimov, however, was too early to consider either one!) Few authors care about quantum encryption/decryption, and “quantum computers” have almost become a cliche like “FTL drives,” with few worrying about the nuts and bolts involved.

Consequently, the real purpose of this post is to emphasized that my new Esther Brookstone novel, Leonardo and the Quantum Code, is only partially about quantum encryption/decryption and certainly not sci-fi. It’s a mystery/thriller novel, like the pervious novels in the series, where coding algorithms are inspired by Da Vinci’s work in an unknown notebook of his. (It’s estimated that there are 50+ such novels.) An old mathematician friend of Esther’s, Donald Townes, is working on these algorithms, and someone wants to steal his results. There’s a trio of villains, in fact: Russian spies, American spies, and a strange man named Vladimir Kalinin, a Russian ex-pat.

Turing is briefly mentioned in the book; he’s also mentioned in Death on the Danube for his gayness and the Brits’ crime. He’s a tragic character, but Townes is too, for his wife has just been murdered. He begins to turn his life around by the end of the book, though, unlike Turing. While I wanted to show scientists are human beings and can exhibit the whole spectrum of human behavior, I rewrote the novel so that he doesn’t suffer as much as Turing.

In fact, the novel is a bit light-hearted at times, in keeping with the title. Saucy Esther, of course, helps keep it from taking itself too seriously, unlike Palettes, Patriots, and Prats, which is mostly serious. The theme of cyber security, is deadly serious, which is enough.

I’ve tried to strike a good balance between Moliere and Le Carre. The coppers aren’t quite “Keystone Cops”; and the spy-vs-spy antics aren’t as tongue-in-cheek as Mad Magazine’s or as noir as Le Carre’s Little Drummer Girl. The mystery-novel aspects aren’t as fluffy as a cozy’s or serious as a psychological thriller either.

I’m proud of this novel. It just might be my best so far. Above all, I think I managed to write another entertaining and educational book in the series. You’ll have to read it to see if you agree.

***

Comments are always welcome.

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” Esther takes you around merry olde England, Europe, the Middle East, and South America in her five-book series. Esther’s main characteristic is becoming obsessed with righting wrongs, from searching for a missing Rembrandt in the first book to risking her life to help a friend in the last. And this saucy ex-MI6 spy and ex-Scotland Yard inspector acts on those obsessions! Her novels can be found wherever quality ebooks are sold. (The last two are not on Amazon, though.)

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

He’s back! He’s a psycho; a power-hungry, greedy devil; and a bad-ass villain who sometimes manages to do some good. That more or less sums up his appearance in Leonardo and the Quantum Code, Book Five of the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series.

I needed a foil for both Janos Rakoczy, Hungarian assassin extraordinaire and the true villain in that tale; and Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 spy and ex-Scotland Yard inspector, who’s the saucy main character. And there he was, waiting in the wings, smiling like the Cheshire cat, who also alternates between visibility and invisibility. (Alice and her friends are even mentioned a few times in the novel because Esther’s second husband and close friends from her Oxford days are also featured; Alice’s stories started in Oxford!)

Kalinin’s appearance in this novel is logical: He’s at the beginning of my fictional timeline in The Midas Bomb and goes all the way to Soldiers of God, the bridge book between “The Clones & Mutants Trilogy” and “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” In fact, his actions have an influence on everything on that timeline even beyond Soldiers of God! He appears off and on in the various novels, this Cheshire cat, throughout the “Detectives Chen & Castilblanco” series and dominating the “Clones & Mutants Trilogy.” He even appears in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan and the novella “The Phantom Harvester” (available as a free PDF download—see my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page).

At the end of Gaia and the Goliaths (#7 in the detective series), you already saw some of his DIY skills, even though his constant companion, old Irish bombmaker Sean Cassidy, is often there to help. (He might have been unstoppable if he’d had more people like Sean; too many he hired failed him.) But we also learn more abut his hatred for the Russian leaders who made him flee his homeland, including Putin.

He shows some good human qualities in No Amber Waves of Grain (#3 in the “Clones & Mutants Trilogy”), and there are many glimpses of this in manty of the stories where he appears (I still love that rose scene at the end of The Midas Bomb). I’ve never appreciated cardboard-like two-dimensional characters in my reading—most human beings are complex—so I try to make my characters truly human in all my stories I write (ETs are an exception, of course). Because Kalinin appears so often in them, readers can see that in spades with him.

Kalinin is a survivor and self-made man. He’s suave, sophisticated, and very lethal .He’s the James Bond of villains. I hope you enjoy seeing him in action once again in Leonardo and the Quantum Code.

***

Comments are always welcome.

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” Binge-reading plus a treasure hunt: What’s not to like? Esther Brookstone takes you around merry olde England, Europe, the Middle East, and South America in her five-book series that also travels through three publishers. You start with saucy Esther, an ex-MI6 spy and Scotland Yard inspector, and her paramour Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent; you move on to their exciting honeymoon cruise on the Danube; and you then return to Esther’s home turf where the old married couple’s adventures continue. The two sleuths are 21^st-century versions of Christie’s Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Esther’s novels can be found wherever quality ebooks are sold. (Palettes, Patriots, and Prats and Leonardo and the Quantum Code are recent additions to this series, and the last two are not on Amazon.)

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

Happy Bastille Day to all my French readers! Vive la France!

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When I started polishing my stories at the beginning of the third millennia (that sounds better than turn of the century), thinking about publishing them, I already had computers to help me. The internet was still in its infancy, but word publishing software wasn’t (in fact, MS Word was probably better then because it wasn’t so bloated).

There are three types of editing: content, copy, and proofing. Copy editing is the last thing you do before formatting, mostly spelling and grammar checking (I’ll admit MS Word’s new “Editor” does a better job of that now, although it still doesn’t like my hard-boiled, minimalist style). Proofing is the first thing you do after formatting and before publication.

In this post, though, I’ll focus on how I content edit. My method requires word processing software, and always has. It will sound chaotic, but it’s entirely logical.

I content edit as I go. My first draft is my last before copy editing. But “as I go” might be a bit confusing to some people. I get a manuscript (MS) going good, leave it for a bit, and create snippets of prose I add to it the next day. I might cut out a paragraph or an entire chapter, putting them elsewhere in the MS, or sticking them in an auxiliary file for possible future use…maybe with changes, maybe not, and maybe even in another story!

Perhaps I should call this creative chaos organic growth in a large sense, and not content editing? Planting, weeding, transplanting, pruning, etc. Growing up in California’s Central Valley, I could have become a farmer who does exactly that. As a writer, I’m that farmer who’s tending to a different crop, growing novels.

This is not a linear process! Some readers might think I just sit down and write until I have a first draft. That’s not how I write. (I wonder if anyone writes that way.) I might even write the ending several times—nothing wrong with that because Beethoven did it with his Fifth Symphony—each of my endings requiring more content editing, and each one possibly done before the novel is finished.

While I often discuss storytelling in terms of bards of yore spinning their yarns beside some prehistoric campfires, I couldn’t do that. They were the better storytellers, I suppose, at least in using a completely linear process (although they often repeated the same stories again and again, I suspect, embellishing sometimes, which is content editing).

I find this writing technique effective and efficient, even though it might seem to other writers and readers to be chaotic. It allows me to return to a story days or weeks later, or keep two or more MSs going at the same time. How do I keep the stories straight? Simple. They’re there in the computer with all the related noted, patiently waiting for further additions…and content editing.

Now you know how I produce all those novels…and are probably thinking that it’s better to have the final polished product in hand!

***

Comments are always welcome.

“Esther Brookstone Art Detective.” Up for some binge-reading? Here’s a series that should delight all US and UK readers! It starts with ex-MI6 spy Esther Brookstone as an inspector in Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit. Her paramour and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden accompanies her on many adventures, eventually becoming Esther’s fourth husband. He tries to control her obsessive desire to fight crime and bring criminals to justice, keeping her focused and out of trouble, but she’s an active and headstrong woman. Wags in the yard have nicknamed Esther Miss Marple and Bastiann Hercule Poirot, but they’re 21^st century sleuths who are more than a match for today’s criminal elements. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold, including the new Book Five.

. Around the world and to the stars!

Come join the party! You know, those parties where the guests scoot around town to find clues and finally reach something worthwhile at the end. In this case, the treasure is five large gems (modesty aside), and the clues are a bit obscure.

I’m referring to the five novels in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Unlike the related “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series, all novels published by Carrick Publishing (#1 even has a paper version), the novels in Esther’s series have been published in three different ways, mostly because of circumstances beyond my control.

The first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, were published by Penmore Press; the third. Death on the Danube, by Carrick Publishing; and the last two, Palettes, Patriots, and Prats and Leonardo and the Quantum Code, by Draft2Digital (D2D). As far as the publishing history goes, the only commonality for all five books is that I’m their author!

I apologize. This treasure hunt won’t be easy for readers. Penmore and I parted ways on friendly terms; I suppose they had good business reasons for making the changes they made, and I certainly had mine for finally deciding I could do without them. Carrick Publishing has published many of my books and done a bang-up job doing it, but I was impatient to get my Covid backlog of manuscripts published, so I turned to D2D for the last two novels to avoid their queue. (Apologies are in order for Carrick Publishing too.)

The first three novels all have print versions; the last two don’t because (1) my attendance at live book events has diminished (where I “exhibit” print versions), and (2) I firmly believe that print versions’ days are numbered (the only publishers that are sustaining them are the Big Five, and only because they come out with print versions long before ebooks to make more money, which makes no sense because they charge almost as much for the ebooks!)

The last two novels aren’t on Amazon. I’ve explained in this blog why that’s so in several posts, and you can find part of that explanation on my website too, but I’m boycotting that retail giant for now. (There are also reasons beyond how they treat publishers and authors.)

In any case, there you have the treasure hunt, whether you believe the treasure is worthwhile or not. It’s not that difficult, though. Most online retailers sell all the ebooks. Exceptions are Amazon and Smashwords for the last two novels, but all can be found at iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc. Print versions are only available on Amazon and at your favorite local brick-and-mortar bookstore (if they don’t have them, ask for them); you’ll have to be satisfied with novels one through three, though. You could consider those novels a trilogy, I suppose, but you won’t know what happens to Esther and Bastiann beyond their honeymoon trip down the Danube!

While you might not think so, I really do consider these five novels my gems. They represent the pinnacle of my storytelling, in particular, the last novel, Leonardo and the Quantum Code, which combines all my genres in one novel in a way. (You’ll have to read it to see why.)

Like all my series, though, you can sample these gems in any order. While I refer to previous events in each successive novel (especially #5, which depends a lot on #3 and #4), I always provide a short explanation of each event so each novel can stand alone. (In all my series, I mention those previous events primarily as a reward for those readers who read the series in order. They’re not that necessary because everyone knows a series exists because an author is reusing some of his previous characters.)

However, rest assured, I never intended to create a treasure hunt for you to follow the adventures of Esther and Bastiann, only to create more stories about that Christie-like duo, Esther (Miss Marple) and Bastiann (Hercule Poirot), for your enjoyment. Again, I apologize.

***

Comments are always welcome.

Leonardo and the Quantum Code. Trouble again finds Esther Brookstone on her home turf. An old friend from her Oxford days is developing encoding and decoding algorithms that involve entangled quantum states and quantum computers, all motivated by some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ideas found in a newly discovered notebook of the artist. His project is financed by MI5, but both the Americans and Russians want his results…and so does a mysterious stranger. Cloak-and-dagger suspense abound in this fifth novel of the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Soon available wherever quality ebooks are sold (but not on Amazon).

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

I’m not a famous sci-fi author (some would argue I’m not even an author!), but I share at least one thing in common with the three most famous ones, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein. (Many so-called sci-fi addicts haven’t read their stories, though. They’re from my generation or earlier, but no more recent ones are as good…including me!) What do we have in common? They were all scientists, and so was I. Asimov was a biochemist, Clarke was…well, let’s just call him an applied physicist/engineer, and Heinlein was an astronomer; I once made my living as a physicist, working in R&D.

Clarke was the misfit in that famous trio because he had a few ETs in his stories, most notably in the Rama series; the other two didn’t, as far as I can remember (and I’ve read a lot of their books!). Asimov explained away his avoidance of ETs in the entire extended Foundation series (it goes far beyond that famous trilogy) by using his novel, The End of Eternity: the eternals of that story arranged everything so that humans would be alone…for all eternity! Heinlein just avoided ETs altogether without explanation, although he wrote about some very wild creatures out there among the stars sometimes.

Clarke almost avoided ETs in Rama, but he couldn’t resist bringing them in end at the end to prove God is an engineer. Other less famous sci-fi authors have avoided ETs too. I suspect they, and this might explain the big three’s hesitancy, realized that ETs are hard! Writing about them is difficult, in other words. I know that from personal experience.

(more…)

On my “Join the Conversation” web page, you will find a list of useful websites. I’ve debated with myself recently about including on that page some that I can’t recommended. For the moment, in lieu of doing that, I offer this post. I name only a few names, but only because there are generic organizations writers should avoid. (Consider this post an addendum to my little writing course “Writing Fiction,” which contains a lot of advice about this writing business and is available as a free PDF download—see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.) Here goes:

Literary agencies. Stay away from them. The very few helpful and open-minded agents who remain aren’t worth the risk of subjecting yourself to the bad ones who are only gatekeepers (who generally know nothing about writing!) to big publishing conglomerates (the Big Five, soon to be Four) that still exist in the twentieth century, if not the nineteenth. Most literary agents are like real estate agents and sales people—they’re scurrilous pariahs only interested in getting their commissions. I have yet to meet one or an agency that doesn’t fit this stereotype. I’m sure there are some. (I’m just unlucky, I guess.)

Traditional publishers. There are three strikes against them, so they’re out: First, they take the lion’s share of royalties even though you, the writer, do most of the work. Second, you no longer get many perks from them. You say, “They get my book into bookstores and help pay for marketing.” No and nada! Here’s the main problem besides the royalty issue: They’ve all started to use formatting software to cut costs. They say, “It’s still Ingram.” I say, “Sorry, I can use formatting software too—Draft2Digital, Smashwords, or Lightning Source.” The latter is basically what most traditional publishers now use, but you will find that all software formatting packages need more TLC than traditional publishers are willing to give them. It’s software, after all, without humans in the loop, unless you do it yourself, or pay an independent and trusted formatter to do it for you. And forget about Amazon! If you insist on getting a .mobi ebook file, both Draft2Digital and Smashwords’ formatting software can produce that.

(more…)

I’m referring to covers of others’ novels as well as my own. Note that no cover considered here is from the Big Five—most of theirs are terrible, looking like some kid did them with PowerPoint. Let me consider others’ first:

Scott Dyson’s Odd Man Out. Scott specializes in horror stories, short fiction so far, and mostly horror. I think he does his own covers. I love this one. (Stephen King might covet this cover…and wish he’d written this tale too.)

Saralyn Richard’s Murder in the One Percent. Saralyn’s novel is a mystery in the Christie tradition. Her detective here is even named Parrott, a take-off on Poirot. Great novel, great cover. The cover is from Jackson Cover Designs, by the way, once associated with Black Opal Books, but gone in the re-org of that small press. (They also did the cover of The Last Humans, first book in “The Last Humans” series.)

Stan Brown’s The Legacy. Like Scott with horror, Stan got me back into fantasy a bit (as opposed to sci-fi—or is this novel also a horror story?). Also like Scott, all Stan’s stories are good. So is this cover…again by Jackson Cover Designs.

Hugh Howey’s Wool. Here I’m referring to the original ebook “trilogy” edition, which seems to be unavailable now. Houghton Mifflin’s cover is one of those Big Five PowerPoint failures. I guess they made him remove the original ebook edition. Figures. Howey was once a self-published author who sold his soul to that Big Five devil. He originally published the three wooly parts separately, even though they were soap opera episodes and not stand-alones. (Something I hate as a reader. I waited for the bundle, which really amounts to just one novel, but the stitching-together still remained to annoy me.) Good cover on that original trilogy, though (sorry, I don’t know who was the cover artist).

And now for my own covers:

Survivors of the Chaos. The old Infinity trade paperback and ebook editions had a great cover, a scene straight out of the book and very sci-fi-ish, consisting of a space-suited figure on a moon of Saturn looking at the ringed gas giant. This novel now has a second edition contained in the ebook bundle of the complete “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy”; I just borrowed the cover from the last book for that (yeah, lazy me), also an excellent cover by Sara Carrick.

Soldiers of God. Again, the old Infinity trade paperback edition had a great cover showing a Juan Valdes-like fellow on his burro looking at a mushroom cloud in the distance. (Read the novel to find out why.) That novel also has a second ebook edition with a spiffy new cover I like a lot too, thanks to Sara Carrick.

Gaia and the Goliaths. This is another great Sara Carrick cover.  The world is burning, thanks to global warming and the fossil-fuel industry’s conglomerates. (In the book, Detective Castilblanco champions nuclear energy as the best alternative to fossil fuels.) Great cover by Sara Carrick, but a disturbing novel?

Leonardo and the Quantum Code. Let’s call this a “cover reveal.” I’ve used the same artist, Betti Bup, for all three of my Draft2Digital books published so far. They’re all good, but this new cover is the best. For those of you who follow my oeuvre (hopefully most of you who read this blog), you will know that this cover is for an ebook not yet published, but it soon will be. This cover seemed like ESP in action between me and the cover artist because it depicts a scene from the book I had just finished! (A preview of the story is found at the end of Palettes, Patriots, and Prats. The cover of that book, in my mind’s eye, at least. shows the mysterious road one main character, Bobbie MacDonald, must traverse as she escapes two thugs sent  to kill her.) I’m sure Betti Bup is a pseudonym—you can find her artwork at TheBookCoverDesigner.com).

Do covers make the book? No, but they add to it, and they are often better than any advertising an author or publisher might pay for. The Big Five haven’t learned that lesson yet, or they forgot it. In their arrogance, they stopped learning lessons, or applying lessons learned, two decades ago. I haven’t read any fiction published by the Big Five in a while. Why subject myself to formulaic stories…and terrible covers!

My list of covers tomorrow might differ from this one. Like a book’s content, appreciation of cover art is subjective—you never can tell what might turn readers off…or catch their eye. (Big Five covers generally make me say, “Ugh!”) Whether you like the cover or not, you should always “peek inside,” either at your favorite online retailer or with a visit to your friendly neighborhood bookstore.

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Comments are always welcome!

A, B. Carolan’s Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. One group of hominids survived to dominate Earth, but some of their descendants and those of the other groups are “out there.” What happens when their scientists return to the home planet? And which group does Kayla Jones belong to? Available at Smashwords and all their affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Gardners, etc.)…but not on Amazon.

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

…by the standards the publishing industry has for measuring failure: With all the novels I’ve written, not one has been a “bestseller,” whatever that means. That means I’m also a failure in the eyes of the editors of the NY Times “Book Review” section (most small press and self-published authors are failures using that metric). Guess what? Borrowing Rhett Butler’s phrase, I don’t give a damn!

There are many reasons for my attitude. Here’s one: I’ve had a lot of fun telling my stories since I started thinking about publishing them in late 2000. (Maybe not so much fun after finishing a manuscript—see the previous article—what comes after that is often painful for any author.) I do everything I possibly can to make these stories entertaining, exciting, and relevant. I think they’re as good as anything other authors produce. Maybe even better! As a very young man, I knew I could tell a story as good as anybody else’s, and I wanted to do just that. The problem was finding the time to do the writing.

Here’s the most important reason, though: I consider each story a success if it entertains, excites, or seems relevant to at least one reader. That’s a different metric the publishing industry ignores as well as many readers; The industry never considers this in its quest to make oodles of money exploiting authors. And, in that sense, a large percentage of my books are a success! Take that, you people hooked on “bestsellers” and the NY Times “Book Review”!

These two measures are really all any person needs to determine their success as an author, or even to call themselves an author. Many writers probably aren’t satisfied with them—especially if they’ve left their day-job to write—or they get discouraged and quit after the first book that doesn’t sell thousands of copies. Some of them might peruse my oeuvre and wonder if I’m a masochist (is that a more appropriate word than “failure” in my case?), because they don’t accept my two metrics as valid measures of success.

All the above brings me to my third reason to continue spinning my yarns: I had this burning desire to tell my own stories since I was a kid. I was an avid reader even then, reading far beyond my age as determined by an educational system that has always taught to the average. I knew I could tell stories as good as those I was reading, so that my goal was to do it. Life got in the way of achieving that goal; I had to choose other work that could support my family more easily than a writing career. There was a lot of competition even back then. And I didn’t have Dean Koontz’s wife backing me up—I wasn’t even married yet!

But that burning desire never died. When I could find the time to do it (busy jobs in academia and then R&D often took up my evenings as well as my days), I returned to satisfying that desire to write. I don’t pretend to be the only author with that bio—in fact, I have many author friends who have a similar one—but that bio goes a long ways to explain my output. (I often describe this by saying my muses are really banshees with Tasers who pressure me to tell my stories!)

So I didn’t begin publishing my stories as an ego trip or just because self-publishing is easy. In fact, when I started, it was either go the traditional route or use a vanity press. I found the latter option appalling, so I tried traditional. I thought an agent was required (I didn’t realize at first that small presses often don’t require them, using only an acquisitions editor instead), so, after 1000+ rejections, I tried some POD publishers (Xlibris and Infinity, which still exist); ebooks were just starting up at that time, but I experimented with them too when they came along.

The rest is history. I’m now a mongrel, both self- and traditionally published. Sure, there have been potholes in the road. I wrote about one not long ago involving Amazon (contributing to my decision to boycott them from now on)—in general, this online retailer thinks it’s the center of the publishing universe, if you believe their bots actually think. (No “help desk,” of course; or maybe those bots are just asleep.) Dumb bots, but maybe the people programming them are dumber?

I’ve also had more than my share of trolls as reviewers, and flagrant piracy, the latter to the point that I have no idea how many readers each book has had—how do you count those readers who have purchased or downloaded pirated ebooks? (Mark Coker of Smashwords pays no attention to book pirating; he even goes out of his way to encourage it, which is why I’m seriously considering boycotting Smashwords more too by using Draft2Digital!)

There are many other slings and arrows of misfortune in my writing life, but my reasons listed above still make it all worthwhile. I shall continue to publish my stories, one way or the other. Damn the torpedoes (and the NY Times)! Full speed ahead.

***

Comments are always welcome!

Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone, Book Four. After book three in this series, you might have thought that I’d leave it as a trilogy and send newlyweds Esther and Bastiann van Coevorden off to enjoy their golden years in peace. Ha! Not with my muses, who are really banshees with Tasers. This one starts with an innocent castle tour with a duke and duchess, but trouble soon finds the artist of a painting the crime-fighting duo observes there. Esther and Bastiann become embroiled yet again in fighting an international conspiracy. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (not on Amazon or Smashwords).

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

Any novel worth the name has a lot of words. Mine are generally between 65 and 85 kwords in length without counting front and back material. There’s always a chance that a few editing errors remain. Annoying reviewers focus on them, some even going so far as to state, “Look, another poorly edited self-published (or small press) book.” I resent such remarks because, in my case, I go through an extensive editing process.

I catch many copy-editing errors myself in reading or reviewing mode, even in those TV banners that go by so fast that the average viewer probably doesn’t notice. (For example, a recent ABC news item had one about “gama rays.” From some new sci-fi weapon?) I have an eagle’s eye for editing, but even an eagle misses his prey sometimes!

First, let me state that I often notice errors even in traditionally published books from the Big Five. No editing process is perfect. Of course, that’s no excuse for others’ or mine. We can complain that reviewers are probably more lenient with a Baldacci or Deaver book. (NY Times reviewers certainly are, and their favoritism goes to the extreme of never mentioning editing errors, bless their biased souls.) That’s like most things in this life: The rich and famous get a pass when they screw up, while us poor clods take the heat!

Second, I edit my books to hell! SOP: Two edits from me (again I’m referring to copy editing—I content edit as I go), one on screen and the other with the printed manuscript (a different look); a beta-read and edit from a pro to catch any remaining errors (even though I send this person a very clean manuscript), beta-reading to check for logical lapses and more copy editing for the errors my old eyes didn’t catch; and proof reading after formatting (that process can create errors not in the manuscript). For my traditionally published works, I have to suffer through the publisher’s editing “corrections,” many of those reducing to my preference for the NY Times style manual over the antiquated and incorrect Chicago one that orgs like ITW force publishers to follow and no author can afford. After all this, errors can still remain.

As a reader, I’m tolerant of editing errors…up to a point. I know a book is similar to computer code because I’ve written both (an ebook is computer code): There’s always another bug! (Even in Big Five books…and they steal a lot of royalties to pay for those staff editors!) But like computer code, editing errors are egregious only when they keep the code itself from doing its job (the reader isn’t clear what the author intends).

As a reviewer, I’m also tolerant, albeit a bit more demanding, especially about content editing, which no copy editor should be allowed to do! I content edit as I go and feel that’s more the author’s responsibility to make sure the story is logical and a faithful representation of his personal style. An editor might be asked to save a book, or be so bold to presume he can make it better (meaning make it look like he wrote it!), but authors should resist that. (I almost withdrew the manuscript of Son of Thunder because a brash editor insisted on “improving it”—he didn’t, but he didn’t completely ruin it, so I threw up my hands and said to myself, “Screw it!” because I already knew that small press and I would soon go through a divorce. (Their insistence on changes was just one of the final straws.)

As an author, I know I have to own all the editing errors that remain, even though someone else missed them, or even created them. That’s the fate of any working group leader getting the code ready for a software project. Well, almost. The formatting process for a book is now often done with software, which is more computer code, code that’s allowed to change other code! I refuse to share those errors, but knowing they exist, I grin and bear the proof-reading chore. (That aforementioned small press also irked me by changing to Ingram’s clunky formatting software, making that proofing hellish!) Errors in formatting code can create errors in the final product. Sometimes they can’t even be fixed! (Consider the margins in Son of Thunder and Death on the Danube, two different formatting engines.)

I’m posting this article so readers can understand what goes on behind the scenes after I finish a manuscript. It’s easy to publish a book nowadays, but the process can never be perfect. Think about that why you’re cursing and saying, “How could author X let that error get by?” X might be a beta-reader, editor, or formatting software, and not the author! My advice: Don’t dwell on the errors if you’re enjoying the storytelling.

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Comments are always welcome.

Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone, Book Four. After book three in this series, you might have thought that I’d leave it as a trilogy and send newlyweds Esther and Bastiann van Coevorden off to enjoy their golden years in peace. Ha! Not with my muses, who are really banshees with Tasers. This one starts with an innocent castle tour with a duke and duchess, but trouble soon finds the artist of a painting the crime-fighting duo observes there. Esther and Bastiann become embroiled yet again in fighting an international conspiracy. Available wherever quality ebooks are sold (not on Amazon or Smashwords).

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