Home, Sweet Home!

I can hardly believe I haven't updated my blog in seven months, I'm really slacking off!  They certainly have been eventful months, bouncing from Budapest to southern France and Corsica, and ultimately back home to California where I'm writing this on a warm October day in Orange County.

My home town is Riverside, California, just outside Los Angeles, but I haven't actually lived there since I was eighteen years old. In fact, I rarely make it out there at all anymore, ever since my parents pulled up stakes and moved to closer to the coast in 1990. But last week, I had a good excuse to head over to my old stomping grounds.

A friend I hadn't seen in thirty years was in town, so I drove out and spent the day checking out my old high school and parts of the city.  It hadn't changed all that much.  Downtown there is the Riverside Mission Inn, which is an institution, and we enjoyed wandering around inside and checking it out.

If I ever end up needing to book a hotel in this city, I'll certainly stay here! After two months here in California, though, I head out tomorrow to return to my other home of Budapest, where I look forward to settling back in and catching up with friends.

On the writing side of things, I'm putting the finishing touches on Rome in Ruins and should have it out on schedule later this month. I'm excited to get it out there, I think this one is a fun story. It follows Nathan as he takes a job in Rome on the security detail for a famous Italian actress.  What could go wrong? Well, if you're Nathan Grant, plenty.  Three more weeks and the book will be out there in the world!

That's it for now, but take care and happy reading!

Spring in Budapest

Hi all, I think I'm overdue for an update here, but I'm back in Budapest, my second home.  I've lived here part time for fifteen years now (?!) and every spring I mark the change of the seasons by walking up to check out this almond tree overlooking the lovely Liberty Bridge across the Danube.

After a nice extended visit to California, it's good to be back here again, settling in to get some writing done. I'm planning to crank out the rest of Rome in Ruins (Nathan Grant Book 5) over the next few months.  In the meantime, it's my birthday today, so I'm busy answering messages from friends and family. It's a nice distraction, no doubt.

In other book news, I just signed on my narrator to do an audio book version of London on Fire, so audiophiles can expect that in late June.  I've also been working with translators on German versions of several titles, and I've signed with a Turkish publishing company for Turkish versions. So, lots going on.

I hope wherever you are in the world, you're enjoying your own change of seasons as well.

Happy New Year from So Cal!

Happy New Year to all, wherever you are. As for me, I find myself starting 2024 in my home of Southern California, spending the holidays and a little more with friends and family.

We've had some big waves here this past week (San Clemente Pier above) and as a lifelong surfer, I had to get out in it. Being a little out of shape for it after so much time in Europe, I took a beating, but it was still fun! Now that the holidays are winding down, and the waves as well, it's time to get back to writing, so I thought I'd give an update on how things are progressing.

First off, I'm making good progress on Nathan Grant book five, which also has a cover design now that I'm excited about:

I'm planning to have this book finished and released by sometime in the spring. When I have the rough draft completed, I'll put the book up for pre-sale on Amazon and keep you posted here and through my newsletter.

One thing that has slowed me down a little bit with this one is that the plot involves a movie that is being shot in Rome, and when I started thinking about ideas for the movie plot within the book plot, I came up with a script idea that I really liked. It ends up, I decided to write the script and shop it around, so I'm working on that as well as the novel at the same time. Both are coming along nicely, though.

Otherwise for 2024, I plan to have Nathan Grant book six out later in the year.  I'm still having fun with this series and want to keep going with it as long as I can, with no end currently in sight. 

That's about it for now. I'll be here in So Cal for most of this month, then head back to Budapest at some point. All in all, I'm hoping for the best this year, as we all tend to do. I wish you and yours all the best in 2024!

Monday in Montenegro

Hi all and greetings from Montenegro, where I'm chilling out in the little seaside village of Budva for the month of September.  After a summer spent in Budapest, I was craving some time by the sea, so I opted to check out a place I've never been and ended up here.

It's definitely a relaxing place to be spending some time.  The tourist season is winding down, though there are plenty of visitors still around.  I'm working during the days, exploring the area a bit and swimming in the Adriatic.

So far, I managed to format London on Fire for paperback and got that one out on Amazon, and now I'm hard at work on the fifth book in the Nathan Grant series, tentatively titled Rome in Ruins.  I'm just getting started, but so far so good!  I think this will be a fun one, knock on wood.

That's it from this part of the world, I hope you're enjoying September, wherever this month finds you.

Summer winding down here...

Hi all, I'm here in my usual haunts of Budapest, Hungary, taking in the last of the summer.  I came here for the first time in 2009 to work on some writing for a few months and the place grew on me, so now I spend about half of my time here.

Currently, summer is shifting toward autumn, but you wouldn't know it from the weather, which is hot, in the mid to upper 90s F or 30s C.  Last weekend was the big national holiday here, St. Stephen's Day, which meant a huge fireworks display along the river.  It's always a spectacle.

As for writing, I was relieved to launch my latest Nathan Grant thriller on the same day, London on Fire, where Nathan is chasing members of a mysterious terrorist organization across England and Scotland.  It feels good to have released that one out into the wild to see what people think of it.  So far the reaction had been great, knock on wood.

In the meantime, I'm already sketching out the story for the next book in the series, which is tentatively titled Rome in Ruins.  I still have a long way to go, but hope to have it out by the end of February.  I'll keep you posted.

Otherwise, I hope you're enjoying the waning days of the season wherever you are in the world, summer or winter.  That's it for now, catch you later!

Cover Reveal for "London on Fire"

My designer, Damonza.com, finalized the cover for my latest Nathan Grant thriller, London on Fire, and I think it looks great!  This book will come out on August 20th, but you can check out the Amazon page now to see the description and pre-order a copy if you'd like.

I'm pretty happy with how this cover turned out, with the designer managing to keep the theme going from one to the next in the series. Now I just need to finish writing the book, but I'm past the halfway point and barrelling ahead! If all goes according to plan, this fourth book in the series will be out before you know it!

Old and New in Budapest

 Hello from Budapest on a lovely spring day.  I'm here settled in for another spell, working on my latest Nathan Grant novel, "London on Fire."  I started coming here to Budapest all the way back in 2009 and have spent part of each year here ever since.  I find that it's a great place to write, with tons of atmospheric cafes and libraries to settle in and get my work done.

The first year I arrived, fourteen years ago now, I took a bunch of photos of some of the more run down sights in the city, but a lot of those places have been fixed up in the meantime.  As a result, I decided to make it a project to go around and take photos in the same places for a before and after view.  Here they are, I hope you enjoy them!