With Envious Eyes Now Available on Amazon

You can order the Kindle version of With Envious Eyes here for Canada or here for the U.S., and the paperback version here for Canada and here for the U.S.  

The launch party for the book is scheduled for Sunday, June 9th in north London.  If you didn't receive the email invite for the party, contact me and I'll pass along the details.  Hope to see you there.

My New Book (Coming June 2019)

More Than Good Enough Now Available To Buy Online

My latest novel, More Than Good Enough, is now for sale on Amazon Canada (as well as in the U.S. and the United Kingdom) in your choice of Kindle or printed formats.  It's almost 500 pages long so the price is a bit higher than usual but it should keep you entertained for about twice as long as any of my other novels.

Happy reading!

More Details On My New Novel

There's now a book launch party for my 6th novel, More Than Good Enough, scheduled for Sunday, November 26th.  If you're interested in attending but haven't received an invitation, please let me know.

In the meantime, here's a brief description of the new book:

Weighing in at almost 500 pages, More Than Good Enough is by far the longest story I've ever told.  It follows the life of Miles Galloway, starting with his childhood summers at the family cottage and running all the way through the early days of his career as a journalist.  As he grows up, Miles struggles to understand why some people are never content, no matter how much they have, while others seem able to find joy in the most meager of existences.  He also comes face-to-face with some of the darkest aspects of humanity, and begins to question his own personal set of values.

The lovely cover above was designed and created by Mark Wagter, who did the same duties on Hour of the Wolf.

Coming in November: More Than Good Enough

More details to follow...

Celebrating A Decade Of Blogging (4 Days Late Edition)

We've just passed the 10th anniversary of this blog, started back in October 1st of 2006 in a burst of creativity by yours truly.  I was looking for an outlet for all the myriad thoughts going through my head at the time, and blogging struck exactly the right note for me back then.  It was the perfect precursor to writing books, though I didn't know it at the time.  Maintaining a blog, at a breakneck pace for the first few years and then much less frequently afterward, prepared me for the discipline I'd need as a novelist once I retired.

I do most of my blogging on Facebook nowadays, but I'll always appreciate what I learned here over the past 10 years.

Sixth Novel Update

It still takes me aback, momentarily, whenever I happen to land on the fact that I'm currently working on my sixth novel (and ninth book).  It doesn't seem possible, somehow, that I've managed to stick with that many writing projects over the past almost-decade.  And yet I have, with a lot of help from people like Vicki, my brother Rich, editor Ernesto and many others.

Which brings me back to novel # 6, now into its second chapter of writing.  Much to my delight, Tammy offered to act as the initial editor on this book last month.  Her workload is more reasonable at the new job with the Ontario Securities Commission, allowing her to commit to something as time-consuming as editing a book in her spare hours.  I know from past experience that she's an excellent editor, having gotten the benefit of her critical eye on No Brother of Mine, way back when.

For that reason, I was quite excited to receive her edits on Chapter 1 of the new book yesterday.  Vicki had read it already and offered some valuable feedback, but I knew Tammy's review of the material would go much deeper... and it did.  She spotted and excised dozens of redundant phrases, pointed out both the strongest and the weakest passages, and gave me reason to think I might actually be on the right path once again, for a first draft.

It's become increasingly clear to me that this is going to be my longest and most in-depth story to date, and I wouldn't be surprised if it weighs in at over 400 pages by the time I'm done.  (Chapter 1, for example, is a chunky 30 pages).  As always, I'm firmly convinced that this is going to be my best novel yet, as otherwise - what would be the point?

More updates later, as usual...

9th Anniversary Of This Here Blog

While it certainly doesn't get the traffic that it used to, Kimota94's Place is still up and operating, 9 long years after I started it with a post entitled Misadventures in Blogland back on Oct 1, 2006.  A lot sure has happened since then:

• I've enjoyed 7 years of retirement so far, and have never regretted getting out of the rat race at 45 for even a moment
• I've written 8 books, starting off with 3 non-fiction before moving into the much more satisfying task of novel-writing
• Vicki has joined me as a retiree after about 15 years of off-and-on contract work
• Tammy's graduated from Western (and the Ivey School of Business) with an HBA, become an accountant and even lived in Australia for almost 2 years
• We've been fortunate enough to get the best cat ever, as Jonesy joined our family a little over 3 years ago
• I've finally tired of being a comic collector, deciding last year to begin selling off and giving away some of the 30,000 comics I'd accumulated over the course of 40+ years
• I've managed to keep in touch with the work friends who meant the most to me from both of my last two jobs, even after 14 and 7 years, respectively
• Life has gone on, as it always tends to do

Anyway, I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to 'maintain' this blog, even at the reduced level I've sunk to lately, though it's already outlasted any reasonable prediction I might've made about its lifespan way back in October of 2006.  So that's something, anyway.

Hour Of The Wolf Has Arrived!

The books sat in Atlanta, Georgia for about 24 hours, and then I was hit with duty charges that I wasn't expecting, but none of that matters now: Hour of the Wolf copies are finally in the house!  I'm happy to report that I have books to sell at last, so if you're looking for one, please let me know.

Hour of the Wolf Is Almost Here!

Over the past several days, I've finished the print draft of Hour of the Wolf, ordered and received copies in the mail, checked them over and made a few minor changes, and then placed the big initial print order for the book.  I'm not sure how quickly they'll get here, though I'm cautiously optimistic that they may show up next week.  I'm using Amazon's CreateSpace print-on-demand service as my primary printer on this project for the first time, and so far each of my experiences with them has been very positive and quick.

As you can see from the left-side bar on this blog, I've added a couple of links to the new book.  It's all set up on CreateSpace and Lulu now, so anyone who'd rather get a copy through the mail can choose between those options and order it as of right now.  I'll also be putting a version up on the Kindle store, probably tomorrow, for those who like to read eBooks.

And of course, as soon as the printed copies show up on our doorstep, I'll be getting those into the hands of any interested parties.  Stay tuned.

Introducing My Fifth Novel: Hour Of The Wolf

(Cover image by Mark Wagter, markwagterphotography.com)

More details to follow in August...

2nd Draft Complete!

As expected, it took me less than 2 weeks to complete the 2nd draft of my 5th novel.  I'm often frustrated by how unpredictable my pace can be when I'm writing the initial draft, but at least the rest of the process always flows much more smoothly. 

The updated version of the book is now in the hands of Ernesto for edits and my brother for feedback and corrections on the stuff he helped with.  Meanwhile, I'll be doing additional minor edits of my own, as will Vicki, and then all of that will be incorporated into a 3rd draft.  It should only take about another 4 - 5 weeks before I can place a big order and actually have some copies to sell.

Things are progressing well now! 

Finally Finished The First Draft!

It's been a long time coming, but tonight I completed the initial draft of my fifth novel.  It's still fairly unpolished, and has sections that I need to discuss with my brother Richard yet, but the entire story is now down 'on paper' and complete.  I know everything that happens, all of the characters' fates, and what it all means.  Always a really good feeling!

Details, such as the title and back cover blurb, will be forthcoming over the summer.

No Brother Of Mine Now Available In Printed Form On Amazon.Com

After a few hours of work by me over the weekend, along with some generous time from Carl Pettypiece to slightly reformat the cover, No Brother of Mine is now available to be printed on demand via Amazon.com. It's priced at $9.99 US there, which should make it reasonable even if you're paying to have it shipped to Canada.  And since it's a regular Amazon item, you can always get free shipping if you order enough other stuff with it.

I've wanted to get my novels onto another print distribution channel for a while, and this is my first step in that direction.  I'll be putting at least Old Wounds and Leap of Faith, as well as any future novels, out there for sure. 

Sherlock Holmes As An Old Man

I'll be all over this particular interpretation of an aged Sherlock Holmes, as portrayed by Ian McKellen:



It looks awesome, based on the trailer!  Speaking as one Mr. Holmes to another, that is...

To Kill A Mockingbird Sequel (Sort Of) Coming In July

This story is really quite fascinating: Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, actually wrote a second novel back in the 50s but never attempted to get it published.  In fact, over all that time, she's remained a recluse and has never published anything else.  Now that old manuscript of hers, entitled Go Set a Watchman, has been rediscovered by Lee and she's shown it to enough trusted friends to believe that it's worth publication.  So it'll be released in July for all of us to enjoy, and apparently it features a grown up Scout (from Mockingbird).  How cool is that?

[Update later that same day:] Or maybe it's not so cool, after all.  Hmmm....

Novel Update

It's been a few months since I put anything on this blog about my fifth novel, though I've posted brief updates on Facebook over that stretch.  The current status is that I'm nearly done the 8th chapter, though that still leaves me a little shy of the midway point since the chapters are tending toward shorter-than-usual this time around for some reason.  It's been going well lately, in general, but I'm still finding it difficult to get into the right frame of mind for writing all too often.  At this point it's definitely looking like a Fall release rather than a Spring one, as there's no way I'll get it done in time for April or May.

I did find my cover photographer nice and early this time around, however, and he's mulling over possible approaches to take already.  Unfortunately I don't have a good, representative cover image in mind yet, making it more like Leap of Faith (where it was Dana Chapman who came up with the specific look of the cover) than any of the first three novels for which I knew what I wanted before engaging the artist.

So things are progressing on the project, just slowly.

How To Become A Writer

Neil Gaiman finally reveals the secret to it... (I've been going about it all wrong, it turns out!)

Another Book Update

Just to show that progress is continuing to happen: I finished my first cut of the third chapter on the new book today.  It needs some work but hopefully by the end of the week it'll be in good enough shape that I can move on to Chapter 4 next week.  For reasons beyond my understanding, the chapters this time around are turning out to be slightly shorter than they've typically been in the past.  I guess that means I'll either have more chapters in the fifth novel or it'll be somewhat lighter than its predecessors, if this trend continues.  You'd think I would know which, but then again you'd probably also think I was working from an outline on this project.

New Book Project Finally Has Some Steam Behind It

I started it over three months ago, and then completely stalled.  My fifth novel (and eighth book) just wasn't happening for me for awhile, but now it seems to be coming together.  I finished the first chapter, and then wrote the second chapter, all during the four days Vicki was visiting relatives in Baltimore last week.  Since then, Vicki and Tammy have reviewed the chapters and given me edits and feedback, both of which help to motivate me to keep writing.

So there's some cause for optimism that this latest writing project has finally started to take off.  I still expect it's likely going to be an autumn book release in 2015 rather than a spring one, but we'll see.