From 2016 to 2017…
First of all, to all readers, thank you for reading! A love of books is one of the foundations of freedom; access to books is another. (Read Fahrenheit 451 for the proof.) If you’ve had occasion to read some of my works, a double thank you. I am honored and humbled that you’ve done so because I know you have many books to choose from. It’s a readers’ world! If you ever have questions for me, use the contact page—I’ll answer them to the best of my ability. For a quick summary, I can’t say 2016 was a resounding success, but there were more pluses than minuses, so I’m hopeful for 2017. Here’s a longer summary:
If it seems I’ve slowed down in 2016, you’ve missed some material, and a lot of it is free! I have three novels waiting in the wings off-stage left for 2017, but while we (my publishers and I) wait I’ve been busy with short stories and novellas, all free, either in my blog category “Steve’s Shorts” or as PDFs free for the asking. I’m currently working on a YA sci-fi mystery. I’ve also been busy with older books in my catalog.
Rogue Planet was the only new novel in 2016; it was published at the beginning of the year. But the second edition of The Midas Bomb was published about this time last year (2015). Both of these books have paper editions that sold like hotcakes at a recent holiday crafts show. The three novels waiting in the wings are Gaia and the Goliaths, Rembrandt’s Angel, and Oasis Redux. You can read the blurbs for the first two already published books on Amazon or Smashwords. Let me give you teasers for the last three.
The theme of Gaia and the Goliaths, #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” is the environment, clean energy, and eco-activists. The NYPD homicide detectives are tasked with finding the killer or killers of an environmental activist who is shot down on a city street shortly after a protest march. As sometimes happens in their cases, there’s a lot more to this one, with the number of persons of interest and victims increasing as the story proceeds. It also becomes international as several European countries come into the drama, adding twists and turns here and abroad. (Scheduled for early 2017 publication by Carrick Publishing.) A preview-excerpt can be found in Family Affairs.
The theme of Rembrandt’s Angel is the illegal trade in artworks and what it can finance. You first briefly met Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone in The Collector and her paramour Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden in Aristocrats and Assassins, both books in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” In this mystery/suspense/thriller novel, the two have their own adventures as they try to take down a gang of art thieves only to uncover a much wider conspiracy. Again this story becomes international as the two hop between Great Britain, Europe, and South America. In line with Esther’s character, there is a lot of tongue-and-cheek and British cougar romance as she bends the Yard’s rules a bit to reach her goals. (Scheduled for spring 2017 publication by Penmore Press.) There will be pre-publication material available on the Penmore Press website.
The post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel Oasis Redux is the story of how survivors in SoCal cope after a biological attack from abroad. The few survivors face water and food shortages, anarchy, and marauding gangs with cannibalistic tendencies, along with the tattered shreds of a government that wants to know why only certain people survived—so that it can retaliate without killing the survivors? Will the incomplete fulfillment of T. S. Eliot’s prophecy, “This is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper,” become complete? An excerpt from this novel appeared yesterday. (Tentative publication date is fall 2017.)
For the free short stories and novellas, I’ve written a lot of new ones and found a couple of really old ones that I spruced up a bit for your perusal. When I start to write a piece of fiction, I don’t know whether it will become a short story, novella, or novel. I tend to publish the latter, but funds are even running short for that. I might not spend much on producing a book (zero for the Penmore Press book mentioned above, of course, except for my time), but all my books have come to represent quite an investment. Bottom line: I can’t publish everything I’d like to publish (at the risk of appearing immodest, the crap-to-total output ratio has continued to go down over the years). As a partial solution to this conundrum, I’m offering stuff for free. See the list of PDFs free for the asking on the “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage and the “Steve’s Shorts” category of my blog. You’ll see that the free stuff in 2016 represents more than half of my 2016 output. Of course, you the reader can help me here—buy books from my catalog! My royalties are pumped into the production of more books.
Finally, for the old books in my catalog, we (Carrick Publishing and I) are in the process of adding my entire ebook catalog to Smashwords to take advantage of its vast distribution network (to retailers like Apple, B&N, Kobo, and many others). By the time you read this, Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder and Aristocrats and Assassins, #3 and 4 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” will probably have been added to Smashwords. In January, we’ll add #5 and 6 and, of course, #7, Gaia and the Goliaths, when it’s published. (One consequence: no ebook of mine is exclusive on Amazon anymore. If there are sales, they’ll be via Smashword coupons and announced in articles in this blog, because Amazon doesn’t permit discounts for non-exclusive ebooks.) I should point out that Smashwords also offers ebooks in .mobi (i.e. Kindle) format, so ALL readers can buy their ebooks there! Also, because recent events have shown me that many readers still prefer print, we’ll be adding print versions to Create Space too. Please have patience.
My association with Penmore Press is new. Rembrandt’s Angel is one of those stories that should have a lot of resonance abroad as well as here (of course, I can say that about many of my novels). I wanted to ensure that it would get a better distribution, not only online but in bookstores. Penmore Press stepped in to save the day. I’ve never exactly been 100% indie because of my wonderful association with Carrick Publishing, but Penmore Press is a small press in the traditional sense, so I’ll be one of those authors who do both. The people at Penmore seem top notch too, and they’re becoming great online friends. I’m looking forward to this new adventure in my writing life. My take: new adventures will keep me young! Mens sana in mens sano… (did I get that locative case right?).
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Family Affairs. This novel is all about family—Castilblanco’s nieces, adopted families, a terrorist’s family, and broken families. You also might think twice about taking an ocean cruise again. #6 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” will provide you enough mystery, suspense, and thrills to get you through the end of 2016 and all of 2017. Given the above, you might need some distraction.
May you have joyful holidays with family and friends and a prosperous new year! And happy reading in 2017 too.
