One Great Reason to Buy a Book this Winter

  The early Kindle release of my new novel Jury Rig is now available from Amazon.  If you're interested, just follow this link to purchase the book for only $4.48.  That’s over 60% off the cover price.  The Kindle edition can also be downloaded for iPhone and Android.  If you are enrolled in Amazon Prime, you can borrow the book for free.  All around, it's a pretty good deal, and in addition to all of this, you're going to love the book.  You can read the summaries that go along with the book, but I'll add a little more personal detail here.
  I once read a wonderful story about Dostoyevsky that goes something like this:  In a letter to Ivan Turgenev, Dostoyevsky began to describe a book he was just beginning to write.  He had in mind to write a story about the most pure man that had ever lived.  Someone like Christ.  He accomplished this by penning The Idiot, which is great, because that sounds like the punchline to a joke.  But I was intrigued by the idea that Dostoyevsky would begin one of his five great novels in such a way.  So when I had finished a novel a few years ago, I asked myself what I would like to write next.  I'm not sure why, but an idea crept into my head.  I wanted to write a book about a criminal who didn't want to pay for his crimes, but he wanted society to forgive him for his crimes.  That sounded pretty odd, so I sat down for six months or so, in between the actual chaos of life, and I crafted what turned out to be a very entertaining book on this subject.  (I can say it is entertaining due to the always positive response I hear from anyone who's read it.)  There was actually a pretty serious hurricane that interrupted the work I put into this.  Which, as you'll find out if you read the book, is quite apropos.
  So now the book has been through the difficult process of editing, polishing, polishing it more, with even more polishing after that.  My family is a little sick of it, and all I can say is thanks to each of them for all of their help and ideas and opinions.  And after all of this time, Jury Rig is now available for all to see and enjoy.
  I could be lazy and simply tell you that Jury Rig is just a Mystery.  Or I could say the same thing by switching out the word mystery and replacing it with Thriller.  Or even Courtroom Drama.  I could actually say Pirate Adventure story, and I wouldn't be lying.  It's all of those things, and yet really it's a comedy, too.  I'd like to tell you why pirates take over a boat full of whining, bickering, and generally unpleasant people.  But if I did, you might later wish I hadn't so that you could enjoy the book much more with less foreknowledge.
  There's plenty for everyone in this mixed up adventure.  About the only things I left out was vampires and zombies, which is good, since the world at large has got to be getting tired of those guys.
  Jury Rig is not yet available for purchase at online bookstores.  However, you can actually buy this book early.  The print version is now available from CreateSpace.  Just click here.  For a limited time, you can purchase it with a 20% discount using this code: CLWN677V.
In February, the print edition will be available at Amazon, and you will be able to buy it in brick and mortar stores, though you'll likely have to ask for it. 
  I hope you enjoy the book, and that you let me know what you thought of it when you've finished it.

One Reason I've Been Remiss in Writing Posts

Lately I've been remiss in getting posts up on this blog.  I have a few good reasons for this; here is one of the more pronounced reasons: 

The New Look

  I have been extremely busy editing and preparing a manuscript for publication.  My novel, Jury Rig, will soon be out, and I've been polishing it as well as working on the design of the book, including the art work.  This takes a great amount of time, since no matter how many times I seem to proofread a manuscript of 79,000 words, I can open it right back up and find a mistake without the slightest effort.  It makes me doubt my eyesight (which is certainly worse than it was ten years ago) and my brain (which should be in better shape than ten years ago solely because I'm older, and supposedly wiser.)
  One of the bigger time consumers has been a design overhaul.  The original novel had a different title, design theme and artwork.  The art department came up with a new idea just one week ago, and much time was spent bringing this idea to life.  I received fantastic help from my talented daughter Kathryn during this redesign.
  Once the print book design was done, I then had to prepare the book for Kindle, which has been an adventure since the method is new to me.  I'm getting better at it, and it should take less time the next time around.  As a bit of a perfectionist, I can now say I'm well acquainted with saving, converting, saving, uploading, rendering, saving, converting, checking, saving, searching the web for help, waiting, drinking coffee...
  Jury Rig is a comedic novel, somewhere in the neighborhood of a mystery/courtroom drama/action thriller: think Agatha Christie meets Donald Westlake.  That's not boasting, as if I've cleverly created a highly complex story that fits all of those genres.  Rather, it is an attempt to describe the odd story line that eventually develops in the book.  Hopefully, readers will find it entertaining, with plenty of chances to laugh and even a few chances to stop and think about a thing or two.  
  The Kindle edition will be available this Friday (the 27th), and the print edition is scheduled to be available on Feb. 1st.  I hope everyone who is kind enough to take the time to read it will be thoroughly satisfied.  You can visit Rocket Fire Books to learn more about it.