Free Book This Month - The Third Door
Writing Updates and Two Book Reviews
Free September 21st-25th - The Third Door
My short story, The Third Door, is free for the next few days, and I would love for everyone to have a copy. Meant to be a hybrid of office comedies like Better Off Ted and Office Space mixed with a bit of The Twilight Zone, The Third Door is a short complete story that will give you a sample of my writing style.
If you like The Third Door, you’ll probably enjoy my office conspiracy theory story, The Agency - DDD Inc. The Agency is currently only available on Kindle Vella in the US, but keep your eye out for future updates regarding its worldwide release.
Book Review - The Fireballer by Mark Stevens
After being on my TBR for almost a year, I finally got around to reading this book. I was expecting a traditional baseball tale, of the type I used to enjoy reading, but haven’t read in several years. What I was surprised by was the depth of character development and growth of the main character as he deals with issues much larger than sports.
Frank Ryder is the hottest rookie in baseball, with a cannon arm and pinpoint control that makes him unstoppable. Everyone wants a piece of him, but he is always careful and reserved with what he says, especially related to his past. That’s because his defining event in life isn’t his talent, but a horrible accident that happened when he was a child that haunts him to this day.
Some appreciation of baseball is necessary to understand the ends and outs of this story, but baseball is more of the context then the story itself. Instead, we journey alongside Frank as he learns to deal with ghosts both real and imagined in his search for peace and forgiveness.
The ending isn’t as surprising as the author might have hoped, but it is satisfying and I appreciated the growth of Frank as he doesn’t ignore the past, but seeks it out and confronts it. This journey is portrayed well and in a very realistic way. What he has to do isn’t easy, but it is achievable. It’s a good message for readers as we deal with our own trauma, grief and shame. I recommend The Fireballer for both baseball fans and those who love a good story about human trauma and forgiveness.
Writing Update
I’m almost done with my Spiritual Autobiography, Getting There From Here. I’ve been writing it on Kindle Vella and hope to publish it as an eBook after another round of editing. No definite release date, but November seems like a likely landing place. I decided to write this when several of my readers had questions about my religion/faith and I wanted to think through the major spiritual events of my life as I wrote it out. It was an interesting process and I’m glad I engaged with it.
The third book of The Force of Magic trilogy is still on track for a December release. The working title is The Power of Destiny, but I’m not married to that yet. Feel free to comment feedback. Perin and Trace suffered a surprising setback at the end of The Frailty of Hope and there are even more twists set to happen before the series reaches its conclusion. As always, US readers can get a preview on Kindle Vella here.
The Agency - DDD Inc. is still going and recent episodes have seen an interesting twist with AI integration. Multiple parties are now trying to work with Kerry Chase to get him to sabotage the Agency, but they seem unwilling to work together. This story was written for Kindle Vella, with short episodes and a long serial format. If there is interest, I would love to bring it out in eBook format when its done. Let me know in the comments.
The next two projects are ideas and sketch board drawings at this point. The first is a historical fiction novel that revolves around my great grandfather’s immigration to America to settle onto the plains as a pioneer. I’ve been gathering info for this for several years and I’m about ready to start writing.
The second is bit of a strange idea that is part blog, part serial story. The mainstream media seems to be failing us and I’m considering writing short topical posts on Kindle Vella that discusses the issues of the way that is grounded on the facts and not the spin of the particular distributor. We’ll see if this comes together.
Book Review - Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
I’ve read several books by this author, but this series was always on the back burner and could never seem to get off the TBR pile. That changed this month and I’m already on Book Two. Stephen R. Lawhead has a knack for taking known historical tales and fables and producing a new world that resembles the old, but always brings something new to the environment.
If you come into this book expecting a traditional tale of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, you’ll be greatly disappointed. Instead, the author blends elements we know with a Gaelic culture and historical political intrigue. Many of the most prominent events of the tale are featured here, but none of them come about in the way you might expect.
I enjoyed the author’s world building and writing style and found this to be one of the better reboots of a familiar story I’ve read in recent years. If you try it out with an open mind, I think you’ll feel the same way.
