Latest posts filed under 'News'
E.F.T. A Noir Thriller
I’ve launched a new (old) crime novel in ebook and POD paperback on Amazon and Kobo platforms,, the latter including Smashwords. The title is E.F.T., a book that was bobbled by an agent – though it was not her fault – back around the turn of the century.
Trigger warning: it deals with aberrant psychology and sexual assault, so readers who are triggered by such material should stay away.
Here’s the blurb:
It’s the late 20th century, the dawn of the computer age. A serial rapist is targeting senior women executives in Vancouver’s major banks and corporations. Oddball Detective Sergeant Harry Lukovitch and his female partner, Detective Constable Mack Sinclair, are hunting the attacker.
Their search will lead them into the unknown territory of the emerging internet, where E.F.T. – the electronic transfer of funds – is dealt with at only the highest levels of the corporate and banking sectors.
And it will lead Harry into a strange love affair with Dory Lucas, a woman who may or may not have been a victim of the deviant criminal, and then into a deep maelstrom of aberrant psychology he is ill-equipped to deal with, ending in a desperate flight to save Dory from a monster.
Links:
Kindle Ebook US$4.00: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0822ZQFC5/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon POD paperback US$9.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/192788019X/ref=sr_1_1
Kobo ebook (epub) CAD$5.31: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/e-f-t
New (old) novel coming
The past couple of days, I’ve been preparing to post a new (though also old) ebook to Amazon and Kobo. The title is E.F.T. and it’s what authors call a “trunk book,” which usually denotes an early effort that was not good enough to be published. But that’s not the case with this crime novel.It was good enough to land me a New York agent with a solid reputation.
Unfortunately, before she could really get any traction with placing the title, a close family member was grievously injured in a car crash, and lingered on the cusp of eternity for months afterward. My agent, understandably, dropped everything to stay by the hospital bedside until the loved one was out of danger and recovering.
After a few weeks, I thought it best to look for another agent, since there was no knowing when she would return to the business, if ever. That is when I discovered that, if an agent has “gone out” with a book, however briefly, and failed to place it, no other agent will be interested in handling it.
So E.F.T. went into the trunk and stayed there. Besides, by then I was getting offers to write SF and fantasy, so my original ambition to be a crime writer went on hold. And by the time I was in a position to reconsider placing it, the technology at the heart of the story — E.F.T. stands for Electronic Funds Transfer, which was abstruse when I wrote it — had become commonplace.
If you read it, you’ll have to think of it as almost a historical novel, a tale from that foreign country that is the past, where they do things differently there. But you’ll see that it also fits into that recurring motif of mine: a story about an outlier who doesn’t quite fit his environment. That’s Harry Lukovitch, a detective sergeant with the Vancouver Police Department, and an oddball.
It will be live on Amazon and Kobo in a day or so, and I’ll post the blurb and some links.
Radio interview to promote What the Wind Brings
Preparatory to the release of What the Wind Brings, my big historical novel with magical realism, in paperback and ebook editions on December 15, my publisher has engaged a publicist to draw attention to me and the book. As a consequence, I’ve been getting lined up for radio interviews wherever someone has a time slot to fill.
The most recent has been with Britain’s Southside Broadcasting during a live drive-time (UK time, that is) program that has now been archived at https://southsidebroadcasting.podbean.com/e/dental-history-blind-dates-matthew-hughes-elles-bailey-sarah-huntley-abi-lemay-and-robin-pierce/
I come on just after Paul McCartney sings, at about 24:50. It’s about a twelve-minute interview, starting off with chatter about speechwriting and housesitting, two of the things I’m known for, and then we get into plugging the book and the launch – which will be at Academie Duello, on West Hastings Street in Vancouver, sometime in the afternoon of December 15. There will also be demonstrations of swordfighting styles and techniques, by people who actually know what they’re doing.
Click on the link and listen in.
Official launch of What the Wind Brings
The official launch of What the Wind Brings, my historical novel/magical realism/magnum opus is scheduled for October 27th at the Wylde Wood Collective, on the upper level of the River Market, 810 Quayside Dr, New Westminster, BC. We’ll start at 6 p.m. and wrap up by 8.
Signed hardcovers will be available (the trade paperback and ebook edition will come before Christmas). I plan to talk about the long genesis of the book (more than forty years) and why I wrote it the way I did. I will then read from the text and answer any questions.
Get em while they’re hot
A reminder: the hardcover limited edition of What the Wind Brings will be on sale at a 20 per cent discount — C$39.95 in Canadian dollars — for another ten days. On September 1, the price goes up to the regular C$49.95.
Here’s where to go to pre-order: http://pulpliterature.com/product/what-the-wind-brings-hardcover/
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