Both Draft2Digital and Smashwords offer authors the opportunity of “going wide,” i.e. distributing their ebooks to many online retailers in the US and worldwide, and even library and lending services. Why use them? It’s simple: the more retail places an ebook appears, the more chances there are that a reader will purchase it! When you consider B&N has a network of brick-and-mortar stores and Kobo in turn distributes ebooks via its deal with Walmart, there are multiplier effects going on too. Also, many libraries now offer ebooks to their borrowers, and several online services lend them out too. An author’s principal motivation should be to increase readership, and these two aggregators, which allow an author to go wide, offer that opportunity.

I decided quite a while ago that being exclusive on Amazon was a stupid choice for exactly the reasons mentioned above and this hard fact: Amazon thinks it’s the only book retailer and distributes to no one! Apple, B&N, Kobo, and many others sell many ebooks, and readers use those lending services too, including their public libraries. Amazon, by ignoring these other sales outlets, does no favor for authors. They still live in the 20^th century; authors, if only for the competitive state of this business now, must come into the 21^st.

Almost all of my ebooks are available on Smashwords and are therefore available in many places. In fact, I don’t sell many ebooks on Amazon anymore! However, due mostly to circumstances beyond my control (see last week’s article “Orphans”), I decided to try out a new book aggregator for me, Draft2Digital. I’d heard its software was easier than Smashwords’s meatgrinder (an MSWord file is input to software, and out pops various ebook files), so I thought it would at least offer a backup to Smashwords.

The scientist in me made me experiment with a short story collection. I usually give away my short fiction now (see the free PDFs listed on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page), but Sleuthing, British-Style, a collection of three murder cases, allowed me to test D2D’s services. That test was successful after a few snafus corresponding to hurdles Amazon has erected (they use “quality control” as an excuse to erect them because they like to exploit authors maximally by forcing them to be exclusive). That behind me, I was ready to try a full novel.

The Last Humans: A New Dawn is the sequel to The Last Humans; the first book was traditionally published by Black Opal Books, and the second I self-published using Draft2Digital (some of the sequel’s publishing story is contained in last week’s article). With what I learned in my experiment, I was able to publish the sequel without a hitch. Moreover, I was pleased with the result.

How do these two aggregating services compare once authors have published their ebooks? It’s impossible to say precisely because I can’t publish the same ebook twice; I’m forced to compare apples and oranges. Upfront costs are about the same (editing and cover art). Death on the Danube, my last ebook published via Smashwords, is about the same length, though. (I paid for its formatting, so I won’t consider that cost—that’s one way to avoid their meatgrinder.) Book-launch marketing costs are the same too. So cost-wise, it’s six of one and a half-dozen of the other.

There’s a lot of overlap between the two lists of retailers each aggregating service distributes to (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc.) as well as lending services, so there’s no reason to suspect that sales numbers would be very different. And, with Smashwords, I have to distribute to Amazon separately via their KDP; D2D did that for me. Of course, Smashwords and D2D take their part of the royalties—the latter’s seems a bit more, but again comparisons are difficult—and this bleed-off is nothing like the percentage of royalties a traditional publisher takes.

My conclusion: Both D2D and Smashwords offer an easy way for authors to go wide, so they really have no excuse: If you’re an author, you should do exactly that and forget about exclusivity with Amazon. You’ll reach a lot more readers that way! Period.

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Comments are always welcome.

The Last Humans: A New Dawn. In The Last Humans, Penny Castro survived the biowarfare apocalypse and created a family. In this new novel, her post-apocalyptic idyll on their citrus ranch is interrupted by the US government’s plan to stop another attack…and get some revenge. Penny and husband Alex, along with others, are drafted to carry out the plan—in their case, forced to do so by the government’s kidnapping of their young children. But the enemy has surprises awaiting them when a submarine delivers them to that foreign shore. Available wherever fine ebooks are sold.

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

I still believe that small presses are a good choice for authors who want to publish their books traditionally—they at least offer some TLC none of the Big Five can provide (or is it the Big Four now with Simon & Schuster merging with Penguin Random House?). But many of them have become little more than POD outfits, due to economic hardships, so that old advantage of getting books in bookstores has all but disappeared (bookstores require books to be returnable, and POD books are not). Even the use of Ingram (rare now) doesn’t guarantee that as Ingram puts minimum run limits on the industry. Many small presses don’t require agents, not a bad thing per se considering how little agents do for authors, but publication delays are still a problem if an author wants to publish in a timely fashion.

Most small presses live on the edge. I call it the supermarket model because their net profits are determined by small per-item margins. If their catalog is small and/or genre-limited, they will have problems. If it’s too large, they still can because they can’t manage a big catalog well. Like grocery stores, small-press shelves have to be stocked just right to survive. In any case, very few small presses offer marketing help due to this business model, which hurts them more than their authors because they take the lion’s share of the royalties, a ubiquitous error because seventy-five percent of nothing is still nothing! (The Big Five publishing conglomerates have these problems too, of course.)

Traditional publishers offer less and less for the same share of royalties (authors generally receive between ten and twenty percent). With the possible addition of agency fees, it’s no wonder many authors turn more and more to some form of self-publishing, although most aren’t 100% DIY (paying for editing, formatting, and cover art is recommended). This was my case, so I tried traditional publishing because at least a small press usually pays for those upfront costs—their authors don’t have to pay for everything.

Unfortunately that “living on the edge” small presses do can lead to book orphans. This was the case for my Death on the Danube and The Last Humans: A New Dawn. The small press that published the first two books in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series would only continue with the third if I paid the upfront costs. The one that published The Last Humans never completed its contractual obligations for the sequel, primarily because of a reorg. Both books were orphaned. I self-published them, the second just last week and the first a few months ago.

Hindsight is often twenty-twenty they say, but I can no longer recommend traditional publishing to any author. The chances for bad experiences are just too great.

But what of that TLC I mentioned? In other words, won’t self-published authors miss out on some coddling that they’ll never receive if they self-publish or traditionally publish with a huge publishing conglomerate? Yes they will. I still value friendships made during my small-press adventures—relationships with editors, cover artists, and, above all, authors also published by them; these are all considered valuable experiences. But one has to move on—butting one’s head against a stone wall doesn’t help anyone’s storytelling!

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Comments are always welcome.

The Last Humans: A New Dawn. In the first book in this series, Penny Castro survived the biowarfare apocalypse and created a family. In this sequel, her post-apocalyptic idyll on their citrus ranch is interrupted by the US government’s plan to stop another attack…and get some revenge. Penny and husband Alex, along with others, are drafted to carry out the plan—in their case, forced to do so by the government’s kidnapping of their young children. But the enemy has surprises awaiting them when a submarine delivers them to that foreign shore. Available wherever fine ebooks are sold.

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

I’ve always loved short fiction. I read many collections and anthologies as a kid and still do as an adult, and I subscribed to some well known periodicals or picked them off the racks when I could. When I became a full-time writer, and even before, it was natural that I’d think of publishing in ‘zines and anthologies and making my own short fiction collections.

First problem: It’s not worth my time to submit a story to a ‘zine. Remember the Cancer Stick man from the X-Files? That’s most authors trying to publish short fiction. The ‘zines are little fiefdoms run by editors with a stable of authors they favor—the race is rigged in their favor. And the editors are often autocratic people with closed minds who control their fiefdoms with an iron hand and have no idea what constitutes a good story. Moreover, even if you consider that paranoia on my part (it’s not when the evidence I’ve obtained over the years confirms it, of course), it takes as long to get a short story or novella published as it does a novel. This was true of the classic ‘zines (some still exist) and it has become true for most online ‘zines that have appeared. They’re all cliquish, and it’s hard for new authors to break into the clique. I don’t have time to waste on such things.

Second problem: It’s not worth the money. Publishing has evolved to the point where most writers find it impossible to make a living writing their stories (that’s true of most creative art nowadays), and doing it writing short fiction is even worse. Pennies per word means selling a short story means chump change that doesn’t even qualify as minimum wage when measured by the hour.

Given these two problems, I now prefer to give away my short fiction. When I start a story, I rarely know whether it will become a short story, novella, or novel. The first two I generally give away nowadays. There’s the unusual event where I’m invited to participate in an anthology; I’m inclined to do that for free, especially when it’s a good cause (Howling at the Moon is an example). That requires some time, but it introduces me to different readers and hopefully adds to the anthology’s success. But I’ve stopped publishing my own short fiction collections (Sleuthing, British-Style is a recent exception, but it was an homage to British-style mysteries that helped me get through the COVID pandemic and served as an experiment to test an alternative to self-publishing, Draft2Digital). They just don’t sell well in general.

Because some of my stories will entertain readers—reading snacks, if you will, to pass the time—I have included most of them as posts in this blog. When I get around to it, I gather some up and make PDFs I give away fro free ( see the list on my “Free Stuff & Contests” web page). I have no idea if any of this free fiction is popular, but giving it away allows me to have an outlet for material that doesn’t quite make it to novel status. (Some short fiction turns into novels eventually, and novellas are just short novels.)

A sports analogy might be applicable: Writing a novel is like running a marathon, a novella is a mid-distance race, and a short story is a sprint. Writing short fiction can be used to train up to writing the novel, where endurance is required. But the analogy isn’t quite appropriate for me because I don’t know what my story will become because I content edit as I go, and sometimes there’s no more content. Pacing is required for the novel (which one reason NaNoWriMo is a useless exercise in futility) as well as short fiction—that doesn’t mean counting words; it means finishing stretches of prose in a logical manner—it’s more a decision to know when to stop when your story’s limits are reached.

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Comments are always welcome.

The Last Humans: A New Dawn. This long-delayed sequel to The Last Humans is coming soon! Penny Castro survived the biowarfare apocalypse and created a family. Her post-apocalyptic idyll on their citrus ranch is interrupted by the US government’s plan to stop another attack…and get some revenge. Penny and husband Alex, along with others, are drafted to carry out the plan—in their case, forced to do so by the government’s kidnapping of their young children. But the enemy has surprises awaiting them when a submarine delivers them to that foreign shore. This thriller novel will be available wherever fine ebooks are sold…except Smashwords. Look for it. Ir’a an ideal holiday gift for the thriller reader in your family (maybe that’s you!).

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

I’m not one who feels compelled to go to Starbucks for my sugary fix of a dipsy-doodle-whatever latte. First, I hate Starbucks—anything there tastes like I imagine burnt cow pucks might taste (all the sugar is to hide that taste). Second, I make great coffee, thank you—pure Colombian, flavorful, mellow, and satisfying. And third, I need my coffee to start my writing day, but I’m not going to dress up to appear at Starbucks along with bleary eyed addicts who shouldn’t even be driving because they’re half-asleep; and I won’t go there in my PJs either, as some are wont to do.

I sometimes have coffee at night too, especially when we have friends over for dinner (rare nowadays)—coffee after a good meal seems to stimulate conversation. But at night, I usually choose between tea or whiskey. I developed this habit once I was back in the USA; tea and whiskey in Colombia were too expensive (I’m not sure that’s still true), and there was certainly plenty of good Colombian coffee available down there! Yet tea and whiskey might just be in my genes. I’m only half-Irish by descent, but both drinks are civilized companions for a good PBS mystery or nature show or reading, which I mostly do. (Tea is appropriate for binge-reading British-style mysteries, for example, and I think Brits occasionally imbibe Irish whiskey more than they do Guinness). My preferred whiskey is Jameson—Irish whiskey, of course, that thrice-distilled elixir without the smoky burn of the twice-distilled Scottish aged in dirty old barrels (that reminds me of Starbucks’ coffee!), or the biting blast of once-distilled raw bourbon.

All of this is done in moderation, more so as I age. Too much coffee, and I can become as angry as any evangelical Trump supporter; too much tea, and my bladder becomes hyperactive; and too much whiskey will haunt me in the morning, requiring more coffee! The Goldilocks Principle applies here too: Just the right amount of each one is needed to file off the rough edges of life.

What are you choices? If you’re a reader, what accompanies your page-turning (or Kindle page flip)? If you’re a writer, do you need any liquid inspiration?

And now to end on perhaps a sad note (although some readers will jump up and down with joy): I’m going to dedicate a bit more time to writing, publishing, and promoting my stories. While this journalistic exercise of posting three blog articles per week is also writing (I’ve always felt it’s a good exercise for anyone who wants to be a minimalist writer who makes her or his point succinctly), everyone must realize that it takes an immense amount of time. In fact, I don’t know how writers with a full-time day job can do it, along with social media and other required writing that intrudes on storytelling. I could only do it by neglecting my storytelling.

So…as of November 1, I will post only one article per week. I’ve already ended my op-ed series (again, some will jump for joy), because next week some people will be voting (many already have). This blog pales in importance to the democratic duty we all share in voting for our chosen candidates. There’s nothing more important for a healthy democracy. Our leaders represent our will (although many of them avoid that), and that will can only be expressed by voting.

Of course, this blog also might have some entertainment value for my readers. I will keep that in mind as I reduce the number of posts and strive to make them more entertaining, but they’ll be focused on reading, writing, and the publishing business.

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Comments are always welcome!

Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she begins to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles between hominins bent on conquest of their world. Coming as soon as possible from A.B. Carolan!

And to tide you over until this new novel is published, please try A.B.’s other three YA novels, now on sale through December 31, 2020 at Smashwords. These three YA sci-fi mysteries, Secret Lab, The Secret of the Urns, and Mind Games will take you from the near to the far future, all set in my sci-fi universe mapped out in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” and other stories. They will provide many hours of reading pleasure for young adult readers and those adult readers who are young at heart.

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

The US is a huge country, and that tends to make Americans a bit insular and more concerned about what’s happening in their own country. This spinning orb in space that’s our home is much bigger, of course, so others’ successes and problems are really ours too. As all avid readers know, those who travel hither and yon in their reading, the world’s more connected every day.

That connection isn’t necessarily physical—the internet extends it to the far corners of the globe—but my auspicious meetup with Alsandair Breandan Carolan at Blarney Castle was (see the pic on my website’s bio page). While my wife was busy kissing that famous stone there, A.B. and I had a chin wag about literature for young adults, often simply called YA (he hastened to point out that it’s also for adults who are young at heart!). We found we shared a common motivation: To write stories young adults can relate to, tales with smart, young women and men who have exciting adventures that help them enter the strange world of adults.

I convinced A.B. that there’s also a need to focus on young women. I’d too often heard, “Young girls can’t do math and science,” or worse, “Young girls should only aspire to find a husband and have children.” I’m sorry, but for me both sound like something a Taliban fanatic might say. Men put down women all the time here and elsewhere, of course, not just in Afghanistan, but such an attitude isn’t helpful when there are so many scientific and technical—and yes, cultural—problems that need solving. Or maybe such statements (made by women as well as men, mind you) come from people who ignore the world’s problems?

That’s segue to another topic of discussion A.B. and I had. We want to write YA stories that treat serious themes. Most of my books do that, and A.B. agreed that paying attention to them could only make the tale more meaningful. As little Greta Thunberg is showing (she’s considered an enemy by Mr. Trump), idealistic, young adults can make a huge difference! If we can make more activists like her (boys should sign up too!), our stories can help the world. So Shashibala Garcia (The Secret Lab), Asako Kobayashi (The Secret of the Urns), and Della Dos Toros (Mind Games) aren’t only smart, young women, they battle against tremendous odds to do extraordinary things. Kayla Jones in the “Denisovan Trilogy” is cut from the same cloth. (The first book Origins is finished—Lord knows when A.B. will get it published—and the second is a work-in-progress.)

So…where is A.B. now? He was already a bit of a shy recluse like many authors, but, like me, has become even more reclusive with the pandemic going on, spending a lot of time reading and writing there across the pond in Donegal, Ireland. Eire isn’t immune to COVID, of course, and Europe is experiencing a surge just like the US is as I write this article. Now people in Donegal have even more reason to think A.B. is a leprechaun, believing he’s just hiding somewhere and guarding a pot of gold he doesn’t have. But, as he’s listening to the music of that famous Irish bard and harpist, Turlough O’Carolan (A.B. thinks they might be related), he’s churning out new manuscripts containing stories for young adult and those adults who are young at heart.

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Comments are always welcome.

Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she begins to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles between hominins bent on conquest of their world. Coming as soon as possible from A.B. Carolan!

And to tide you over until this new novel is published, please try A.B.’s other three YA novels, now on sale at 50% off through December 31, 2020 at Smashwords. These three YA sci-fi mysteries, Secret Lab, The Secret of the Urns, and Mind Games will take you from the near to the far future, all set in my sci-fi universe mapped out in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” and other stories. They will provide many hours of reading pleasure for young adult readers and those adult readers who are young at heart.

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

I’m generally pessimistic and compensate for that personal flaw in my writing. I’d generally be depressed now if it weren’t for reading and writing. Politics depress me—every day there’s another abuse of power, usually orchestrated by Trump or one of his minions, and that tells me the slide into fascism continues. People depress me—I’ve lost faith in human beings, especially those fools who don’t recognize that Trump and the #GoodOlePiranhas are destroying everything good in America. Religion depresses me—maybe I’m just naïve, but right-wing Jews, Protestants, and Catholics might as well be the Devil’s servants, they’re so immoral and ready to take away other people’s rights.

Of course, COVID-19 is what depresses me most. Absent this pandemic, the haters, bigots, racists, and faux-spiritual leaders would crawl back under their slimy rocks, taking their leaders with them, to let the good in humanity shine brightly once again. The pandemic is akin to Pandora’s box, unleashing evils upon the world.

As I stated, reading and writing save me. Network TV, excepting PBS, has been reduced to reality and game shows, news reduced to sound bites, the first reminding me of how Trump treats governing and the second about human stupidity. We don’t have streaming video at home (everything there seems horribly in bad taste) nor a video game box (talk about mind-numbing plot lines!). But there are many books to read. There are whole series of Brit-style mysteries, for example (I’m now learning a bit of Cumbrian dialect reading one), and, during the last few months, I’ve been able to read a book per day at times (picking up a lot of other British slang in the process).

Writing? I only published two new books this year (they’re 50% off right now for my email newsletter subscribers), so you might think I’m slowing down. The key word here is “published.” I cut ties with my two small-press publishers for reasons I prefer not to dwell on here (it takes someone like Trump and his manic followers to make me burn bridges!), so I’ve been spinning around a bit on the publishing end. One MS left over from Penmore Press, Death on the Danube (#3 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series), has been released by Carrick Publishing (thanks Donna!), and they also published the sci-fi rom-com, A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. I have another orphan left over from Black Opal Books, the sequel to The Last Humans, and a pile of new MSs more or less ready to go. So I’m not slowing down in the writing! I just haven’t published that much.

Yes, reading and writing have been two excellent psychs who have kept my depression at bay! What do you do to get through these COVID days? Cheer up. This hellish year 2020 will soon be over!

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Comments are always welcome!

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

I haven’t written a new Chen and Castilblanco mystery/crime/thriller novel for years (the last, Gaia and the Goliaths, was published in 2017). The detectives were still alive and kicking in the last novel, Chen and husband Eric Kumala with a new baby and Castilblanco and wife Pam Stuart with two adopted children. Was that an appropriate way to end the series? I thought it might be a positive way to do that, a life-goes-on message where Dao-Ming Chen mellows out as a new mom and Rollie Castilblanco does his part to hold his family together, something very important to Hispanics (the two adopted kids are relatives).

In the novella “The Phantom Harvester” (a free download—see the web page “Free Stuff & Contests”), the reader can discover whether Castilblanco’s children follow the old detective into law enforcement careers. And in The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan, Castilblanco had more than just a cameo as he helps DHS agent Ashley Scott with her problems. He also has a few cameos in the first three books of the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, including its recent addition, Death on the Danube, and Chen will have one in #4 (untitled as yet, although a preview is contained at the end of Death on the Danube).

Not long ago in these pages, I wrote about how an author must realize when a series should end. I can understand why some, even famous writers, can’t help themselves. (Baldacci, Child, Connelly, Deaver, Gerritsen, and others come to mind; Grafton was the worst; and Patterson just started writing everything else, including writing children’s books, all bad, abandoning Alex Cross. Oh, and let’s not forget that Pendergast series! Of course, the fault might not lie with these authors. Their publishers, the greedy bastards, prod the old mares and stallions in their stables, failing to realize that their prodding nearly guarantees formulaic stories from them.)

I wanted to avoid forcing another Chen and Castilblanco novel. My stories are often theme-based; many of the Chen and Castilblanco novels have more than one important them weaving through and around the plot. As much as I love Brit-style mysteries, their themes, if any exist, aren’t earth-shaking, especially when they border on cozies. Again, as much as I like Brit-style mysteries for my COVID reading, my mystery/crime/thriller stories are more complex—I don’t do simple! I want readers to think about those themes. I don’t see literature as escapism from the problems in the world.

I get that readers become attached to principal characters in a series—that’s the biggest reason why series exist! But authors fall into that trap too. If I never write another Chen and Castilblanco novel, they will still live on, maybe acquiring a bit of immortality I cannot have. That’s both sad and uplifting. Of course, in a thousand years, no one will care about any of today’s authors or their characters!

Maybe I’ll bring Chen and Castilblanco back. Until I do, you can binge-read the entire series of seven books. They’re evergreen in the sense that they’re as fresh as the day I published them, treating those important themes and filling them with twists and turns that might leave you head spinning. If these were the only books I’d written, I’d still be completely satisfied with my oeuvre. Happy reading!

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Comments are always welcome!

Binge on the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” Series. The cases these two NYPD homicide detectives start with in the Big Apple but often take on national and international ramifications. In The Midas Bomb, they face a conspiracy involving a Wall Street swindler and terrorism. In Angels Need Not Apply, the murder of an FBI agent’s son leads to battles with a cartel, militia, and al Qaeda. In Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, Castilblanco’s attempts toward proving Chen innocent of murder leads to a group intent on overthrowing the US government, all financed by the illegal gun trade. Aristocrats and Assassins finds Castilblanco and his wife on vacation in Europe, his idyllic time there destroyed by yet another terrorist who’s kidnapping members of Europe’s royal families. The Collector has the two detectives fighting human traffickers where some of their victims are forced to work in porn and snuff videos, all financed by stolen artworks. In Family Affairs, Castilblanco’s own family is threatened, but both he and Chen are on their way to becoming parents. And Gaia and the Goliaths explores environmental issues and how fossil fuel companies, including Russia’s, will do anything to preserve their hegemony. All these novels are available wherever quality ebooks are sold.

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

This isn’t a travel blog, but I thought you, my readers, might enjoy a bit of distraction from the 2020 election’s bitter partisan battles by seeing descriptions of the Danube river ports featured in Death on the Danube, my new novel. Of course, you can read about how my main characters Esther Brookstone ad Bastiann van Coevorden react to them in the book, but this will give you a preview of what to expect…and maybe help plan your own riverboat tour?

I used several references to make these descriptions, too many to list here. Like an honest high school student writing a report, they were only used in spirit, rewritten but sticking to the facts, as I edited them in such a way to fit into the narrative in the story. (If you’re a high school teacher—I respect you all, especially now—you can use your software to check me.) Some focus on the sites, others on the history (particularly the one for Budapest). Enjoy.

Vilshofen, the largest town in Germany’s Passau district, has a history going back to at least the year 776, with twelfth-century documents showing its current name. With flooding from the river a constant problem, they began to construct dams in 1957. A new bridge was finished in 2002, and Vilshofen became a popular port for passengers beginning or ending their riverboat cruises on the Danube. Today visitors are attracted to the town not only for its old world charm, but also as being an excellent place for art, museum, and festival lovers.

Passau is a town in lower Bavaria near Germany’s border with Austria; it’s also known as the “City of Three Rivers” because the Danube is joined there by the Inn from the south and the Ils from the north. It was once an ancient Roman colony, but today it’s the last stop before Linz for riverboats cruising downriver.

Linz is the capital of Upper Austria and where the Traun flows into the Danube. It’s the third-largest city in Austria and the center for Austrian steel and chemical production. It’s in the country’s north-central region, approximately nineteen miles south of the Czech Republic’s border, and it spans the Danube. Long before it became one of Hitler’s “Führer Cities” and the proposed site for his new art museum (he spent nine years of his childhood there), Mozart spent a productive four days there composing the famous Symphony in C Major, now named to honor the city.

The Danube valley between the towns of Melk and Krems in lower Austria is called the Wachau. The river flows north-northeast from Melk to Dürnstein, curving southeast and then east past the city of Krems. In the Wachau, the town of Spitz lies on the Danube’s western bank and the town of Melk on its eastern bank. The whole valley is known for its vineyards and other agricultural products, particularly apricots.

Vienna isn’t typically Austrian; it’s as cosmopolitan as London and Paris. It’s the capital of Austria and its largest city, containing nearly one third of the country’s population. It has the sixth-largest population within city limits among EU cities. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world. Today, it’s the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin, and is still a cultural center reflecting its rich history as the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where many composers and artists became famous…and where modern psychoanalysis began with Freud.

Bratislava is Slovakia’s capital. It is one of Europe’s smaller capitals but still the country’s largest city. Bratislava occupies both banks of the Danube and the left bank of the Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two countries. The languages of the Czech Republic and Slovakia are similar, and many citizens in one country have relatives in the other.

Even under Soviet rule, Budapest always leaned toward the West. It is the capital and most populous city of Hungary, as well as the ninth-largest city in the EU by population within city limits. Its eclectic mix of past glories and future promises often seem at odds.  Evidence of the bloody 1956 revolution still remains. The revolt started as a student protest, which attracted thousands as they marched through the city’s center and to the Parliament building overlooking the Danube, attracting more protesters by using a van with loudspeakers. A student delegation tried to broadcast demands and was detained. When the delegation’s release was demanded by protesters outside, they were fired upon from within the building by the Federal Police. One student died and was wrapped in a flag and held above the crowd. As news of protests and fighting spread, disorder and violence gripped the capital…until Soviet soldiers and tanks moved in to stop it…but they only added to it over several days.

Esther visited other places that aren’t Danube ports-of-call; they’re on side tours taken when your riverboat docks at these ports. And you will have to take a side tour to read the novel to experience them through their eyes…or sign up for a riverboat tour in the future!

[Description of figures, from top to bottom: #1 is Passau; #2 is the Lake District near Linz; #3 is the Wachau Valley; #4 is Schonbrunn Castle in Vienna; #5 is Bratislava; and #6 is the Parliament Building in Budapest. All photos copyright, Steven M. Moore.]

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Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

They can drive any author nuts. How can an author tell that someone’s comment to a blog post is spam? First, that someone doesn’t follow the rules. Here are mine (these also appear on my “Join the Conversation” web page):

No post with foul language or pornographic innuendos is accepted. I try to keep this website PG-13. Please help me in this effort.  For example, your marketing posts about porn, sex toys, and ED drugs WILL be eliminated!

I also try to keep this blog commercial free. Help me in this effort. No marketing posts are accepted. Don’t try to disguise them either. My spam filter will recognize the keywords used by marketers; if it doesn’t, I will. In particular, posts about SEO, WordPress plug-ins, and other annoying illusions to general website improvements aren’t accepted. I’m sure there are many creative gurus out there, but I already have trusted consultants.

Please refrain from making comments in languages other than English. That’s unfair to readers who don’t know your language and hinders continued discussion if a thread is started. I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. I know a few languages, but I’m no polyglot. Let’s all use English so everyone can understand the comment thread. (Even though I’m a writer, I won’t hold incorrect spelling or grammar against you—all there are interested in your ideas.) Posts in other languages than English will be eliminated—sorry. Please comment on just the particular post; and please, no generalities about how great this blog is or how you’re going to recommend it to everyone.That wastes everyone’s time, including mine. You can start your post with a simple “I agree” or “I disagree” or something similar (even just a “Hi Steve” tells me you’re not spamming the Universe—I don’t test to see if you’re a robot), but readers (and me!) will want to know why you do either one. Zero information comments will ALWAYS be eliminated. I really don’t need any gratuitous pats on the back other than your reading this blog, but I welcome comments that contribute to the conversation.

Please also note that some comments are held by WordPress software, so if yours doesn’t appear immediately and is acceptable as part of the conversation, I will fix the problem. Also, your first comment on this blog has to be approved by me. From then on, you might sail through, unless WP flashes the red light and calls the cops (with my spam filter) or I catch you breaking one of the above rules. That first approved comment isn’t a low hurdle, though.

Please don’t think you have to agree with me. Discussion threads are generally enlightening, and I respect other people’s opinions. Keep the discussion to the topic in the blog post, though.

Follow these rules if you want to join the conversation. Doing so will make the blog a pleasant experience for every reader.

There are other reasons your comment will be censored too. Recent comments in Chinese or Russian immediately sent up red flags, especially now during the buildup to the US election. In general, if the commenter has a different name from her or his email address, I’m suspicious. And I don’t do proxies anymore—now they’re invariably spam, so they’re verboten.

Be forewarned: I have to approve every new comment! Once you’re a trusted commenter, you’re golden. That’s for my readers’ benefit: They don’t have to go through that “Are you a robot?” nonsense.

Happy commenting! And thank you for your understanding.

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Comments are always welcome.

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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

Cruises…. It’s human nature: When we can’t have something, we want it. That’s even more understandable now. Many don’t consider riverboat cruises, though. They prefer to cruise on floating cities, eating and partying, take perilous tenders to shore for their tours, and then do it all over again as soon as they can. They might see some sights, visit crowded beaches, and see lush vegetation and some strange animals, but they’re basically locked up 90% of the time in a crowded college dorm within a big city, a dorm full of many rowdies (you’ll meet a lot of Trumpsters, I’m sure), seeing only wide expanses of ocean—nothing peaceful, educational, or enlightening about that.

Riverboat cruises are different, thank God. Instead of a floating city, you’re in a floating village where you have a chance to establish friendships with kindred souls desiring those peaceful, educational, and enlightening experiences “far from the madding crowd.” You do not feel like you’re in Times Square on New Year’s Eve either. You can relax on the top deck of your riverboat, or on the prow or formal lounge, while looking at wonderful vistas on the river’s shore along with quaint, old towns.

Is it any wonder that Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden, principal characters in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, decide to spend their honeymoon on a riverboat? They choose to cruise the beautiful Danube from Vishofen, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. (Several pictures sprinkled around this post correspond to that trip.)

My new book, Death on the Danube, is the third book in that series. (You can watch a trailer here.) The title alone leads you right into the story: A mysterious stranger is killed, and Bastiann takes charge of the murder investigation. He’s an Interpol agent, and the Danube is international waters. Of course, his new bride, Esther, helps him.

They manage not to skimp on the romance, though. Their riverboat docks at various ports on the Danube, and on the shore tour buses await them, ready to take them on unforgettable side trips to venues full of history going back to times before Columbus. And, along with their fellow passengers, they still manage to feast and party. For the first, they taste dishes from the surrounding countryside, along with local wines; for the second, singers and dancers onboard or at tour sites immerse them in local culture.

I’ve mentioned that Bastiann is an Interpol agent. Esther has an interesting history too. During the Cold War, she was an MI6 spy in East Berlin. Later she became a Scotland Yard inspector working in the Art and Antiques division. Now she’s retired and has her own gallery in London. In the first two novels, Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder, she first becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt stolen by the Nazis in World War II, and then in finding St. John’s tomb. In this new novel, she just wants to enjoy her honeymoon with Bastiann, but the murder investigation interrupts that.

Maybe you think I’m looking for a job writing ad copy for a riverboat cruise company? No, I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for riverboat cruises in the only way I know how. You can experience one of these wonderful cruises right from your armchair as you read my new novel. Esther and Bastiann will welcome you aboard! Fair warning, though: Esther or Bastiann might come around and interrogate you as a person of interest in the investigation. Good sailing!

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Comments are always welcome!

Death on the Danube. At the end of Son of Thunder, #2 in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series, ex-MI6 agent and ex-Scotland Yard inspector Esther Brookstone and Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden finally say their I-do’s. At the beginning of this new novel, #3 in the series, they embark on their honeymoon cruise down the romantic Danube. When a strange passenger who is traveling alone is murdered, Bastiann takes over the investigation because the river was declared international waters in the Treaty of Paris. Who really is this gaunt victim? And who on the list of passengers and crewmembers is the assassin? Mystery, thrills, suspense, and romance await readers who join them in their journey. You can’t take this trip now because of COVID, but you can join them in spirit. Available in ebook and print format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Walmart, etc.) and affiliated library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardner, etc.). Click to see the book trailer.

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