Happy 2016!

Wow, another year is upon us!  I've been a bit slack about updating this blog, but thought I'd stop in exactly one month since my last post for a brief update.  New for this year, I've taken the leap into audio books with the first of the Bachelor Series, Bachelor Number Five, now live as an audible version.  You can check out a sample on the book's Amazon page.  Just click on the link below the cover image.

It was a fun process, choosing a narrator and then going back and forth with comments on both sides as she brought the story to life.  I have to admit, it was a bit odd hearing a perfect stranger interpret my characters, but fun nonetheless.

Now I'm here in my native California, working on a brand new project.  Actually, I've got two going at once.  I'm part way through another bachelor book, called Bachelor Pad, but I'm also working on a historical novel as well.  Right now I'm concentrating on the historical one, though I'll probably end up skipping back and forth depending on my mood!

I hope everyone out there has had a nice start to the new year.  Happy Reading!

"Natalia: A Vigilante Thriller" now free!

Wow, I've been M.I.A. from this blog for a while!  I am still hard at work writing, currently spending a bit of time in the winter wonderland known as Mammoth Lakes, CA.  I've decided to put my suspense/thriller up on Amazon for free for the next few days.  This is the story of Natalia Nicolaeva, an innocent girl from Eastern Europe who is forced to go up against a brutal crime gang in Istanbul.  If you'd like to check it out, you can find it free for Kindle here: Natalia: A Vigilante Thriller.

I hope you like it, and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Bachelor Boxed Set now available

G'Day from the land down under!  After finishing the first four books in my Bachelor Series, I've spent the last few days formatting a boxed set which includes them all:

Anyone who is interested in reading the series so far can now download them all in one file, and save $6 in the process.  All told, this file came out to just under 1,000 pages.  Whew, that's a lot of pages!  I'm not sure I ever expected to write anything nearly this long, and I'm not done yet.  Right now I'm hard at work on the next novel in the series, Bachelor Pad.  This one should be done sometime in the spring, but we'll see.  Sometimes these things just take their time!

Writing in Oz

It's good to be back down under!  I've been here in Australia for about a week and a half now, visiting friends and now trying to settle in a little bit to write, surf and enjoy the ambiance of the place.  Today the surf was pretty small, so I didn't have to feel so bad when I saw this sign on the beach:

Well, it was going to be more of a writing day anyway.  You can't just mess around all the time, right?  These books won't write themselves!  So now I'm settled in to a nice cafe with a big mocha, trying to get a bit of work done.  Maybe time to turn my wifi off! :-)

Next Stop: Australia!

Well, the itinerant writer's tour is heading down under!  I'm off to Sydney in two more days.  When I was in high school I was an exchange student in Australia, in a smallish town in Queensland named Toowoomba.  Since that time, I visited Australia as often as I could to see old friends and travel.  Generally that meant once every five years or so.

Over the past ten years, however, as commodity prices soared, Australia got very expensive.  The economy is highly dependent on mineral resources, so their dollar went up, up, up.  Now, as commodity prices have crashed in the past six months, suddenly it's much more reasonable down there again.  So, after an 11 year hiatus, I'm headed back and can't wait to catch up with the friends I haven't seen in so long, and maybe have a few meat pies and Aussie beers, too.

Often when I'm leaving my home town of Laguna Beach and heading off to spend an extended period abroad, I feel a bit sad knowing that I won't be able to surf for a while.  This time, as I'll be taking a board along with me, I have none of those misgivings!

So off we go, to spend some time down under, catch up with people, surf, and of course, write.  What I end up working on next, and how long I'll stay down there,  I haven't entirely decided.  Sometimes it's nice to just go with the flow a little bit.  Or in my case, most times. :-)

Feels good to hit "publish!"

Phew, after what seemed like a lot longer than I expected, I finally got my latest version of the Bachelor Series up on Amazon.  Bachelor of Arts is now available for pre-sale!

This episode follows Samantha, who seems to have it all: a respected career as a celebrity lawyer, a handsome deputy D.A. boyfriend, a promising future... So why does one meeting with rebellious street artist Brent Cassady make her want to throw it all away?

Get it now if you want to save a few bucks!  This one will be reduced to $2.99 during pre-sale and will go up to $4.99 after its launch date on September 21st.

Good to be in Laguna Beach

As we move through these lazy days of summer, it's good to be spending some time back home in Laguna Beach, California!  Being here takes me back to my childhood, when I spent days on end lounging on these sands and swimming in the great blue Pacific with friends.

It's hard to beat this place in the summer, and I remind myself how lucky I am to call it home.  Now I've got to cut this short, as one of those childhood friends is on his way over to pick me up for a surf session!  I guess the writing will have to wait today. :-)

Update: Ok, back home after a nice surf session, with shoulder-high waves, glassy conditions and even a juvenile great white shark paying us a visit in the lineup.  They make regular appearances at this spot just south of San Onofre and I got a great view of his dorsal fin as he cruised on by.  Luckily he seemed to be minding his own business.  Now it's on to the writing for the day!