City Before Sunrise out now!

Hey, you. Yeah, you. My second murder mystery with Amber Cove Publishing is out now. I know, I know, you want to know why the series is called “Tupper Jones Mysteries” when the protagonist is Caroline Collins. Really, it’s because I’m a bit of a trickster. You picked up on the fact that I do stuff like naming the FBI agents after pregnancy terms, right? You dig the puns, right? Well, City Before Sunrise has the same level of snark and excitement as Score of Silence. Like more even. I guess I should say something like “Now with 17% more snarky banter!” I took a customer behavior course while getting my undergraduate degree in human behavior, and I know that that statement is meaningless. What isn’t meaningless is that gasp, there’s another dead body. (Do I really need to use “dead” as a qualifier? I mean if it’s a body, then it’s obviously dead, otherwise, it would be a person.) Some of you emailed me and said that the blood in the opening chapters of Score of Silence was too much. Okay, maybe it was. City Before Sunrise has 63% less blood. Like the description says, the team’s back together, and ready to get their man. For fans of Kimberly and/or Tiffany, they have bigger roles in City Before Sunrise. Flat-face, er, I mean Agent Braxton returns with 5% less vein-bulging, red-faced anger. So, get the book. Get two or three so you can give them to your friends. Oh, and just so you know, the rough draft of book three is finished, so expect another Tupper Jones Mysteries book March 2020. (It’s a pattern!) P.S. I could use some reviews on both titles, so you know, please…

Caroline Collins just can’t catch a break.

When an old friend comes calling, Caroline finds herself embroiled in a case involving clandestine meetings, bank robberies, a shady import-export business, and the murder of an FBI agent. And where this fearless female sleuth goes, Tupper Jones is sure to follow–only this time, following could mean a long walk off a short pier into Lake Michigan.

Hot on the heels of the events in SCORE OF SILENCE, CITY BEFORE SUNRISE explodes with action, danger, and a touch of snark. The band is back together and Team Collins won’t stop until false allegations against their friend are laid to rest and the Chicago mob is in need of a new boss.

City Before Sunrise
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q131CHX/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43471669/

Score of Silence:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4F7ZD3/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39405579/

Release Party This Saturday!

The Verde Valley Comic Expo coincides with the release of my second murder mystery this year. City Before Sunrise is scheduled to release on March 26th, but you can get your copy early at the Verde Valley Comic Expo on March 23rd! Entry is only $5 ($3 if you bring two non-perishable food items). I’ll be there from 10am until the event closes at 5pm. Last year, I skipped the afterparty with Tales of the Con, but plan on tagging along this year. I’ll also have a Bards and Sages swag bag that the Cottonwood library will be raffling off to support their summer reading campaign. VVCE regulars, Tales of the Con, Everybody’s Hometown Geek, & Arizona Ghostbusters will be there too.

Here’s the description for City Before Sunrise:
Private Investigator Caroline Collins just can’t catch a break.
When an old friend comes calling, Caroline finds herself embroiled in a case involving clandestine meetings, bank robberies, a shady import-export business, and the murder of an FBI agent. And where this fearless female sleuth goes, Tupper Jones is sure to follow—only this time, following could mean a long walk off a short pier into Lake Michigan.
Hot on the heels of the events in SCORE OF SILENCE, CITY BEFORE SUNRISE explodes with action, danger, and a touch of snark. The band is back together and Team Collins won’t stop until false allegations against their friend are laid to rest and the Chicago mob is in need of a new boss.

But wait, there’s more! My daughter and teen artist, Alyssa, will be at VVCE2019 with me. She’ll have framed artwork for sale for only $15. She’s gotta buy lunch from the Copper State Pizza truck, so stop in and buy some of her artwork. For those of you on the south side of Mingus Mountain, she’ll also be at the Teen Art Showcase on Friday the 22nd at the Prescott Valley Library from 6pm – 8pm. The showcase will be her first public appearance ever, so stop on by to either event and say hello.

Here are some links:
VVCE2019 website
VVCE2019 facebook
Cottonwood Public Library
Prescott Valley Public Library
City Before Sunrise Amazon page
Amber Cove Publishing
Bards and Sages Publishing
Tales of the Con podcast
Everybody’s Hometown Geek
Arizona Ghostbusters

Anthony’s Blue Crayon is out now!

Guess what came out yesterday? Yep, Erika’s third children’s book, featuring illustrations by Alex Rudolph. Also, just in time for Christmas, the hardcover trio is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Wal*Mart (next week). We’ll have a digital version out on the first Tuesday in January, just in time for the recent Christmas tablet purchases. You should be able to pre-order next week.

Aubrey’s Beautiful Crown:
Amazon

Alyssa’s Blank Canvas:
Amazon

Anthony’s Blue Crayon:
Amazon

The Complete ABC Trio (hardcover):
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Wal*Mart

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Be sure to head over to the children’s book page for more links and art and stuff.

Limited Time Sale

Hey everybody! I’m participating in this awesome sale that runs today through cyber monday. A bunch of us indie & hybrid authors are making our story collections 99-cents. There are a ton of great books for very little cost.

My book in the collection is an electronic version of the print-only Five by Five. It contains the following novellas: Sundered Rock, Warmache, Brass Automaton, Body Rentals & Forlorn Hope. Each of these are available as a stand-alone digital product at $2.99 each. The paperback collection is about the same price – $14.99.

So pick up my digital collection at $14.00 off, and while you’re al it, get some more by the talented authors participating.

Here is the promotion page: http://promo.thrillsandmystery.com/

See you at CoKoCon!

CoKoCon is a traditional science fiction/fantasy con in Phoenix, AZ which will be held over the Labor Day weekend in 2018. We’ll be at the Doubletree by Hilton Phoenix North at 10220 N Metro Parkway E, Phoenix, AZ 85051.

Regulars of the blog already know that I’ve been a fan of Harry Turtledove for several decades. I’m totally excited to be on an alternate history panel Saturday with my literary hero. There will be a limited amount of my novels and collections on hand – sold by Duncan’s Books and More. Copies of all my current novels (Champion Standing, Days Until Home, Score of Silence, Sixteen Sunsets & War of the Worlds: Retaliation) should be available, plus the discontinued story collection, Warmache and Other Stories. I’ll be signing books Saturday at 4pm, and Sunday at 1pm. I’ll be on the Alternate History panel with Harry Saturday at 12:30 (H. Paul Honsinger & Sue Martin as well), and a Space Opera panel at 6:30pm with author friend, David Van Dyke. (H. Paul Honsinger & T. L. Smith will be there too!) I’ll probably be heading back up north around 3pm on Sunday.

Sundered Rock now available

Hello, all! My latest short story is live on Amazon. It’s a 7000-word prequel to Days Until Home. It’s LGBT, and I wanted it out for Pride Month. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, then it’s free. Here’s the description of Sundered Rock:

The only way Adelaide can provide for her family is by doing what she does best: keep a ship’s engine running in the black of space. Sapphire would rather starve together than be separated from her soulmate.

When Adelaide takes a job on the long haul space freighter Sundered Rock against Sapphire’s wishes, can their family survive the separation, or will everything that matters to Sapphire and Adelaide be torn asunder?

Sounds cool, right? It’s enrolled in the StoryTellerUK2018 contest, so getting the word out would be wonderful. You can pick up a paperback of it, but at $9.99, it’s not really a good deal. After the StoryTellerUK2018 contest is over, I’m going to have it in a short story collection like Warmache. Warmache and other storieswill be priced at $14.99, and will include all my novellas and shorts published under my pen name, M. A. Gardner, including the first Brass Automaton, and Nala’s Story.

I’ve decided that once I move through my current supply of novellas, I’m going to stop bringing paperback versions to shows and events. $9.99 is a lot for a 140-page paperback, and if I combine them into a collection, then I’ll sell them for $14.99. So, Payson Book Festival and Fandomania will be the last opportunities to get the old paperbacks.

So, starting in September, Sundered Rock and other storieswill include Body Rentals, Forlorn Hope,Escape, and Paradox. I’m still deciding on if I’m going to keep producing multi-language editions like Escape. I may only have those available in the UK and Europe.

2018 Phoenix Comic Fest

I’ve been slacking a little bit lately. There’s an Italian translation of Warmache that needs review and approval along with English audiobooks for Brass Automaton and Days Until Home. I’ll definitely have all those projects completed and ready for sale for my appearances at the Payson Book Festival and Fandomania July 21^st and 28^th.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know the reason for my slacking: I’ll be at Phoenix Comic Fest (formerly Phoenix Comicon) for Memorial Day weekend! I’ll be with Florida-based celebrity bookstore Bard’s Tower in the lower level exhibitor’s hall just inside the doors to hall six at booth 1566/1568. Here are the other great authors that I’ll be sharing the booth with:

Jody Lynn Nye
Mercedes Lackey
L.E. Modesitt
Melinda Snodgrass
Larry Dixon
Alan Dean Foster
D.J. Butler
Brian Lee Durfee
Christopher Husberg
Kevin Ikenberry
Amity Green
Kuta Marler

 

I’ll be doing a panel on writing accurate military in scifi called “Marching Orders.” It’ll be at 1:30PM on Friday in the north building, room 126C next to the food court and stairwell. Fellow veteran and booth dweller Kevin Ikenberry will be with me on that panel, along with Sylvain Neuvel, John Scalzi, and Melinda Snodgrass.

Like last year, I’ll be at the “Drinks with Authors” event in the North Ballroom Friday at 8pm. This is a Phoenix Comic Fest “Signature Event,” so the entry fee is $10, only adults 18+ will be admitted, and the event supports Kids Need To Read. The photo here is from the 2017 event.

Other than those events, I should pretty much be at the Bard’s Tower booth. I’ll be playing in a couple Magic: the Gathering tournaments on Friday and Saturday. Depending on how well I play, I could be gone a few hours then, plus, I gotta get Peter Clines to sign my hardcovers and visit a few other authors here and there. It’ll be a fun respite from the daily grind, and I’m super stoked to be there.

Asian Spec Fiction Sale

Hey, everyone! I’m participating in an Asian speculative fiction promotion this weekend. There are over thirty asian books available for only 99 cents, including my own wuxia novel, Champion Standing. JC Kang put the promotion together, and you can check out the other 99 cent stories here: http://jckang.info/index.php/promo/ Be sure to support all these wonderful authors. There are Asian fiction works for all tastes, so make with the clickity click.

Nominate my friends on Kindle Scout!

I’ve already tweeted about this, but it deserves its own blog post. Since I was being lazy yesterday, and playing Runescape instead of reviewing one of the books I’ve read over the last month or so, it’s time for me to get off my duff and write something. After all, a blog needs content right? After I send my ships out on missions… No, right now!

Geez, I’m so bossy! (Meg agrees.) Who’s this Meg? Why does her opinion about the degree of my bossiness matter? These are all great questions. (No one is asking these questions, you just want to pad your word count. Get on with the post, man!) Okay, okay, fine.

Meg Mac Donald is a writer friend of mine from around Flint, Michigan. She’s a classy lady who has written a noblebright fantasy series, and the first book is campaigning for a publishing contract from Kindle Press. Hey, I heard you sigh, and saw you roll your eyes. It’s not a big deal for you to spend two and a half minutes for you to log in with the Amazon account that I know you already have, and click on the nominate button. Besides, you’ll get to see the awesome watercolor cover thing I did for her. The name of the story is Wolf’s Oath, and you’ll get a free copy of it at publication if you nominate and it’s selected.

Well, more like four minutes, because you’re also going to nominate my other writer friend’s book on Kindle Scout too. He goes by L. Fergus, but we call him Linn. It works out pretty well, since that’s his first name. Linn hails from the state of Florida, and he has drafted about 27 books about an anti-heroine fallen angel named Kita. I could actually count the stories by just counting the covers I’ve designed for Linn, but I’m in a hurry to crank this blog post out before heading to work. I’ll just cut-and-paste the last line of the preceding paragraph: The name of the story is Rebirth, and you’ll get a free copy of it at publication if you nominate and it’s selected.

If you really feel like dedicating some more time and nominating another book, then I’ve got another campaign going on as well. It’s the next Sixteen Sunsets story, and features cover art by comic book artist extraordinaire, Joel Cotejar. I’m not sure if Joel knows or not, but I’ve got him down for the art for book three in January or Febuary. Anyway, many of you have already read the rough draft here on the blog. I had to password-protect all the posts to comply with Kindle Scout rules. Anyway, if you have an open nomination, add me to the list. Otherwise make sure you nominate Linn and Meg. I’m not worried if they get nominations and I don’t. I just want to see my friends succeed. Oh, Moonrise is the name of my book on Kindle Scout.

Linn and Meg are on Facebook, but since I don’t do the book of faces, I can’t post on their walls or whatever. So I’m relying on you all to share Meg’s and Linn’s campaigns on Facebook, twitter, and all the other things.

Days Until Home releases 07/04/2017!

Hey, everyone! Less than twelve hours until the official release of Days Until Home. I co-wrote it as a web serial with David Kristoph and Greg Dragon last year. Please let your peeps know that it’s available on social media, and all that jazz. It’s available as an ebook, 5×8 paperback, and 6×9 hardcover.

On a routine mining mission in the asteroid belt, the crew of the Kerwood is mired in their personal concerns: finishing quickly, getting home, and earning a fair share of the profits. That is, until the ship experiences catastrophic failure on the return journey.

Now they must put aside their petty worries if they’re to have any hope of getting home alive. Will the crew find a way to set a course for Earth with their payload, or will they discover the disaster was orchestrated by someone who doesn’t want them to return home at all?

Get it on Amazon:
Kindle eBook
5×8 paperback
6×9 hardcover

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David:
Amazon
Twitter
blog

Greg:
Amazon
Twitter
blog

Mark:
Amazon
Twitter
blog