A new cover for CHASING FILTHY LUCRE

I uploaded a new cover for Chasing Filthy Lucre tonight. You can already see it at Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. Hopefully it will be up at Amazon soon.

I liked the old cover. A good friend made it for me, and it worked really well as a thumbnail, although my name was a little tough to read. Even though I liked the cover, it was time for a change. Sales of Chasing Filthy Lucre had trickled to a near stop. I'll sell a copy or two every month, but never more than that.

I know people are seeing the book. I track the traffic from these posts and from tweets. I know that people are clicking on the links to the book pages at all the sales sites. But they aren't buying the book. I don't know if it's the cover or the blurb that's not capturing their attention. Since I don't know which one is the problem, I'm going to change the cover first and see if we have any uptick in sales. Then, the blurb is being changed next.

I'll post the new blurb here and ask for feedback. Please be honest. That probably won't happen for a couple of days.

Here's the new cover. Hit me with any feedback you might have. I'm really happy with it, not that I want that to color your opinions.

Music and writing: Smack you in the face

When I was writing the first draft of Chasing Filthy Lucre, I did it while listening to a lot of trip hop music. It had the feel I needed to keep me moving forward, and I had this thought. What if I could create an original soundtrack that went along with the book? I even went as far as creating a track listing.

I asked my brother, who is a musician, if he'd like to try his hand at creating these songs. He was too busy to do it, and the project never got anywhere. But I'm still listening to trip hop while I write the follow-up books to Chasing Filthy Lucre.

I was going to write a paragraph or two here about the power of music, but it seems like something that doesn't need to be said. I think we've all experienced hearing a song and being taken back to some memory. So, yeah, music is powerful. It can invoke memories. But it can also invoke a feeling.

Someday I'd love to write something that feels like these songs. Kind of heavy, rough around the edges, bluesy, smack you in the face.

In my head I see shady characters with greasy hair and sideburns that come down their jaw line. Their clothes are a little too tight and a little dated. Their breath smells like coffee and cigarettes. They are always in the middle of some kind of scheme. They have experience with mugshots and know what it feels like to be handcuffed in the back seat of a squad car.

The White Stripes CANNON


The Black Keys HOWLIN' FOR YOU


The White Stripes BALL AND A BISCUIT


The Black Keys LONELY BOY

Price increases coming in September

Just a quick post to let everyone know that there are a few changes coming to the books I've published. Well, it's one chance, and it's to only two of the books. It's a price increase.

I've debated this for a while, and I've decided to pull the trigger and do it. What that means is that come the start of September the price for Chasing Filthy Lucre (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords) is going to go up to $2.99. And the price for Scouts (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords), my newest, will be going up to $1.99. That's a $1 increase for both titles. The price of Reunion  (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords) will remain unchanged,

I'm making this change for a couple reasons. One is to keep up with the market as it seems to be shifting. I have absolutely no statistical evidence to back up that claim, but I've noticed that novellas the length of Chasing Filthy Lucre are routinely being priced at $2.99 and often higher. Same thing with Scouts.

The second reason I'm doing this is to bring these books in line with a general ricing philosophy I'm adopting. Anything under 10,000 words is $0.99. Anything between 10,000 and 20,000 words is $1.99. Anything above 20,000 words starts at $2.99. Probably more info than you cared to know, but there it is.

Like I said, September prices go up. What's that mean for you? It means that if you've ever wanted to get a copy of one of those two books, you have a few days to save a couple bucks. In September they'll each cost you a buck more.

You can now get Scouts for your Nook

Took a few days, but Scouts is now available for Nook. Go and get your copy here. Lets sell dozens today and see if we can't get this thing to become a Nook bestseller.

Star Wars characters sing Call Me Maybe

This may be the perfect use of the Internet.

Scouts is available

I promised you that the second Jackson Cane story, Scouts, would be available today, and it is. You can get it at Smashwords and Amazon for now. It's still working its way through the process at Barnes and Noble, but it should be available there by the end of the day.

If you're one of the people who's grabbed a free copy of Reunion in the last few days, or you're one of the few people who've paid for a copy of Reunion in the months that it's been available, you're going to want to get a copy of Scouts. This story lets you get a much better look at Jackson Cane, and it sets up a bigger story that's going to be a lot of fun. I'm excited about it. You're going to like it. If you need to know more, here's the description that I'm using for now. This will probably change a bit.

When Jackson Cane spots a trio of twenty-somethings in a restaurant, his instincts tell him something's wrong. When he sees them later, he finds out he couldn't have been more right, and that's bad news for Jackson Cane and the rest of the Freak Police. This 13,000-word story is the second in the series of Jackson Cane adventures. 

So get a copy of Scouts at Smashwords here: Scouts

Or at Amazon here: Scouts

And, if you have a Nook. keep checking back here. I'll update this space when  link is available.

A new story up at A Twist of Noir

A quick note to let you all know that I have a story up at A Twist of Noir. It's called Like Candy, and it features a couple of characters I've been writing a while just not publishing. They are named Dirk Daring and Paisley Trinket, and they're thieves.

Since this was going to be the 693rd story posted at A Twist of Noir, the challenge was to write the story in 693 words. I found Like Candy on my hard drive, and with a little editing I made it fit the word count. It's much tighter now that it used to be, and I think it's better for the editing.

Anyway, go check it out. Leave a comment over there. Let me know what you think.

Get ready for the release of Scouts by getting Reunion for free

 We are a week away from the release of Scouts, the second Jackson Cane story. I know many of you are counting down the days.

Well, for those of you who aren't, don't let it be because you haven't read Reunion, the first Jackson Cane story. Right now, and until the end of July, you can get Reunion for free over at Smashwords.

In case you've missed it before, here's a bit about Reunion.

Jackson Cane is a cop. Well, sort of. Cane and his coworkers call themselves the Freak Police. They chase certain undesirables back to where they belong. Cane's the best of the bunch, but his latest case is going to bring him face to face with someone that he's not sure he wants to see again.

Sounds good, right? I really think it is. I love writing these characters. You're going to love reading them. And now you can try Reunion for free to see if I'm right. Besides, I know where this story's going. You're going to want to get in on this one early. There are three more stories coming after Scouts. You don't want to hear about how awesome Jackson Cane is and then have to play catch up. No, you're going to want to be the one telling everyone about this great stories you've found.

Take advantage, guys.

But it's not just Reunion that's being offered at a discount. You can also get Chasing Filthy Lucre for 99 cents. That's half off. You might want to snap that one up too.

She's here

It was a week ago today that we finally got to meet our beautiful little girl. Gina started to feel lousy on Sunday. We stayed home from church because there were signs that labor might be imminent. We did all the Fathers Day activities with each of our families that we had planned, but I was always keeping an eye on Gina.

We hadn't let anyone know that she was starting to see signs that we may be having this baby soon. But throughout the day we'd whisper to each other about things that were happening.

We went to bed on Sunday and I told Gina that I wasn't going to go in to work on Monday. She said, "No, you're going." Then about 11 p.m. Gina woke me saying she thought she was having contractions. She was. We timed them and waited. Once they got to be about 5 minutes apart we headed to the hospital. And a mere 19 hours later, we met her. Ellie was here.

Baby is great. Mom is great. Dad is tired and not ready to go back to work yet.

You're going to have to forgive me if the posts here are a little more baby focused for the next little bit.

Due date + ?

We've been waiting for baby for almost a week now. Actually, if we can make it a few more hours, our little girl will officially be one week late.

She's still moving like crazy. You can see and feel it, so we know she's in good spirits. She just seems a little shy.

I keep making the joke to people that for a girl who has a father who's an editor she doesn't seem to have very high regard for deadlines. That joke seems funnier to me than it is to everyone else. Doesn't keep me from making it though.

The doctor always told us that he wouldn't let Gina go more than a week past her due date, and he's not. Well, not by much anyway. We are scheduled for an induction at 5 a.m. on Tuesday if things don't happen naturally.

So that's where we are. Still on baby watch.