Kill Order Set for Release in 2019

My latest novel (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas) is due for release in late 2019; I hesitate to give the date because release dates notoriously change for me. The latest title is Kill Order. Don’t worry. There is no major body count in this novel, and I’m always sensitive about violence in what I write. I think the title will make more sense when you read the story. And I’m eager for you to. What’s this one about? Here is the back cover teaser. Kill Order When he sleeps, the past his mind erased comes alive … Grammy Award-winning pianist Landon Jeffers is at the height of his career when doctors discover a malignant brain tumor and give him only a few years to live. Desperate, he turns to a so-called miracle worker and agrees to the insertion of a medicinal brain implant. He feels better than he has in…

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What Henry James Taught Me about Writing Suspense

What Henry James Taught Me about Writing Suspense

If you’ve read any works by Henry James, American-born British author (1843-1916), great suspense probably isn’t the first thought that leaps to your mind. Consider the all-important first sentence of his famous novella The Turn of the Screw. The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. That’s sixty-two words in the first sentence alone. By today’s standards, such writing is “wordy” at best and “frankly hard to read” at worst. But writing styles come and go just like the bell-bottoms of the seventies, and during James’s day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Perhaps the economical writing so popular today…

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Book Review: Ends of the Earth by Tim Downs

Book Review: Ends of the Earth by Tim Downs

Book Summary Nick Polchak must stop a terrorist from causing a global ecological nightmare. Two beautiful women from Nick’s past are competing for his heart. He’s not sure which impending disaster makes him more nervous. When forensic entomologist Nick Polchak is called to the scene of a murder on a small organic farm in North Carolina he is astonished to find that the victim’s estranged wife is an old friend, a woman he once worked with, a woman he once had feelings for. When she asks Nick to investigate her husband’s drug-related murder, Nick seeks the assistance of Alena Savard, the reclusive dog trainer known to the people of northern Virginia as the Witch of Endor.Alena jumps at the chance to renew her relationship with Nick, but when she arrives in North Carolina she discovers that she’s not the only woman who has her eye on the Bug Man. Soon Nick…

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Fatal Illusions for Kindle only $1.99 this week!

Fatal Illusions for Kindle only $1.99 this week!

My publisher, Kregel Publications, is holding a special sale this week. Fatal Illusions is only $1.99 this week for Kindle and select e-readers. If you haven’t read my first novel, a real labor of love, here’s your best chance! If you purchase a copy, write a comment below to tell me so, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free e-copy of my second novel, the sequel, The Tenth Plague. Other Formats:  Google Play (can be used for Nook)

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