News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #179…
A bit late…. That’s me for this month. I have two excuses. One is preparing our house for COVID-19, something that now seems like a day-to-day affair. We’ve changed our habits. Most people will have to do so. I’ll be brief with my recommendations: Be smart, be responsible, be safe, and follow the guidelines and rules. Remember, even if your reaction to the virus is minimal, you can still infect others where their reactions won’t be minimal—stay at home and, if you must go out, stay away from groups larger than ten people…and maintain your distance. I don’t have to work too hard to follow this advice—I do most of my reading and writing at home. But beating this virus will be a community effort.
My second reason is a bit mundane compared to the first: February was a short month, even though I had one extra day. That meant I’ve been in catch-up mode for a while with my story writing (see below). At least I remembered Valentine’s Day! What about you? Does the month of February present any special problems for your work or activity schedule? Or are you just worried about getting through March? “It was shot to hell anyway with the corona virus,” you say. Do you want to read that at least February is bookended by two 31-day months? The second quarter of the business cycle is just the opposite with April and June being the bookends (although the virus means no normal business cycle is possible now).
Calendars and clocks. While the Gregorian calendar is an improvement on the Julian one, that leap year and leap day added to February are still needed. To put it into astrophysical and mathematical language, the problem is to fit an integer multiple of complete spins into the orbital period of the Earth. Think about it. It isn’t a trivial problem. In fact, it’s generally an impossible one to solve, because a planet’s rotation period has very little relation to its orbit around the Sun. GPS clocks have to add seconds every so often too (yes, there’s a clock associated with your GPS system).
Too much information? Here’s another tidbit: Boston and Cape Cod and farther down-east should all be in a different time zone because Daylight Savings Time, determined by government fiat, really doesn’t work for them. Adding that extra time at the beginning and end just makes it worse. Mother Nature just does her thing, though, and perhaps laughs at our obsessions about telling time.
The Last Humans sequel. I can’t remember if I announced that the sequel to The Last Humans is now under contract with Black Opal Books. Hoorah! Thanks, Black Opal. While you’re waiting, try the first book if you haven’t read it—warning: it’s about a pandemic, but the contagion is a bioweapon that’s designed by humans. (My other pandemic book is More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, but the virus is a gift from ETs.) Maybe it’s not surprising that I won’t be promoting this book or its sequel for a while, but the sequel is more your usual thriller, if thrillers can be called ordinary. In a sense, sci-fi novels often offer warnings that we (i.e. human beings) often don’t usually heed.
Rom-com time travel anyone? And, speaking of sci-fi, my time-travel story is with beta-readers now. It contains political and social satire, and a bit of nostalgia, but it could also be called a romantic comedy—rom-com, for short. More on this fun read as the publication date nears.
Next book in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. And for mystery/thriller fans—in particular, avid readers of Brit-style mysteries like me—I’m finishing the first draft of the sequel to Son of Thunder, i.e. it will be the third book in the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series. Writing it has been difficult—Son of Thunder is a tough act to follow.
More to come? I’ll be lucky to publish all these novels this year—manuscript to publication always takes time, a lot more than most readers realize, and who knows what more-than-normal delays I’ll face in the future? But my muses (they’re banshees with Tasers) know I have lots of story ideas percolating. So stay tuned.
Short fiction. There are new short stories archived in my blog posts. Perhaps some of you have downloaded the short fiction collections and novellas in the list of free PDFs also found on my website. All free entertainment for readers. And you can freely circulate them too, as long as you respect the copyright.
Smashwords sale. This month I offered just one book to my email newsletter subscribers (the companion to this one, although the subscribers get the news a bit earlier), Soldiers of God. It’s a sci-fi thriller that’s a bridge between the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” An FBi agent and a priest set out to thwart a fanatical religious group’s plans for attacks in the nation’s capital.
Again, only email newsletter subscribers have access to the Smashwords coupon codes for ebooks I offer in these sales. Subscribe to my email newsletter to get them. Don’t have a Smashwords account? It’s free, and that’s the only place you will find sales of my ebooks. You’ll also have access to many other exciting ebooks by many other authors.
Multiple thanks. First, thank you for being a reader. You’re participating in one of the earliest, grandest, and most significant human traditions. Second, thank you for reading some of my books. I always say that if each book entertains at least one reader, that book is a success. Third, thank you for reading this newsletter. Maybe it’s not the best or only way to chat with you, but it’s a way for this nerdy author to maintain a conversation.
Have a great March…and hopefully an early spring! Stay healthy, and help others do the same.
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Comments are always welcome!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
