I beg the pardon of my book readers and fans on Goodreads who will see and read this piece about sports and wonder if I’ve lost my mind. On the contrary; while I haven’t been writing fiction lately—and more on that later this weekend, perhaps—this piece has stewed within me, and with a few extra hours of silence today, this is what my mind spat out.
And besides, without a true home for my sports ramblings any longer, this will have to do. Hey, George R.R. Martin talks about the Giants and the Jets on his page; I can do the same on mine.
***
On Wednesday, the New England Revolution bowed out of the MLS Cup Playoffs, its season sealed on another late-in-the-game goal. While it’s just one game, and the final one, at that, it was a microcosm of a season that should have been, a season that unraveled in the dog days of summer.
The fact of it is that it happened, but that it shouldn’t have. The Revs were sailing high, sitting second in the East as the Leagues Cup competition opened.
But then the bottom dropped out: Bruce Arena, hired when the bottom dropped out the last time in May 2019, placed on paid administrative leave for purported insensitive comments in the locker room. Richie Williams served in his stead—but then we learned a month or so later that he was the rat who went to MLS and reported Arena… and that meant a man who hadn’t coached in the head capacity in the American top flight had weaseled his friend out of a job. Arena resigned.
Soon after, Williams was “re-assigned” and Clint Peay, who had been the gaffer at Revs II in MLS Next Pro and another who hadn’t coached this high, took over for the rest of the season.
The rest of the season resumed on August 26, 11 games to go, and Williams had charge of the Revolution for the next four games, where New England had a win, two draws, and a loss, with seven points dropped in the latter stages of three games.
With seven games remaining and the second change made, the Revs held a “news conference” where nothing of substance went out, and Curt Onalfo made his “It’s time to get out there and play and stop talking about all the baloney. It’s noise. We’re going to focus on winning” speech… which apparently fell on deaf ears in the locker room, and was a running joke on the #NERevs hashtag on Twitter.
In those last seven regular season games, the Revolution won two, lost four, and drew one before the playoffs began. And the playoffs happened. The Revs went down a man early on Wednesday, and that 79th-minute dagger pretty much ended a season which started out so well, only to turn out like dog shit.
In short, the Revs got what they deserved. The fans, who deserve better than a team who shits the bed year in and year out, are rightly pissed.
And as the season ends, here are the things the Revolution need to do in order to set this team back on the Right Path.
Clean house
Revs fans may recall my time on the beat with BSJ and my own entity where I pleaded with management to clean house of the dead weight that had permeated this roster. And that has, for the most part, been done: there are, from my cursory look at the roster, only four players remaining from the Mike Burns Error.
But there are several people—four—who need to go, and yesterday would not be soon enough. Those four, of course, are Brian Bilello, Onalfo, Peay, and Williams.
Bilello and Onalfo’s press conference on September 13th was rather fucking comical. Bilello, of course, is the court jester of spin control in Foxborough, and his non-answers were just that. Typical for a football club who can’t be transparent, even though transparency was promised in 2014. Add in the fact that he was absent on Twitter, even his lame, “The result wasn’t what we wanted” tweets would have been appreciated, showing that the front office gave a shit. Onalfo’s aforementioned comment was meant to be serious, but it became a running joke with the most die-hard supporters of the club. Get rid of both of these two clowns.
To be fair to Peay, he did a great job and should continue to do a great job with the second team. But with the first team, he was pretty much set up to fail. He had no experience coaching at this level, and was clearly out of his depth, especially when it came to substitution strategy. Give him his thanks, and shuffle him back to the reserves.
For Williams, he truthfully ruined this team’s chances because, if what has been reported is true, he felt aggrieved by the lack of a job in 2024. Quietly ship him away and never speak his traitorous name again.
Hire a proven coach
We’ve seen what a proven, capable manager can do for this soccer team. Arena came in after Mike Lapper—and we wouldn’t say no to Mike coming back—buoyed the team in May/June 2019, and he righted the ship, leading the team to the Supporter’s Shield and breaking the club’s playoff-less drought.
Once the Revs have capable leadership in the front office—we’re certainly not going to get it from those two chuckleheads—the club needs to find a gaffer who can instill quick confidence. We thought we were getting that with Brad Friedel in 2018. That didn’t happen.
Finding someone with smart tactics who can properly manage the lads and sub personnel properly needs to be A1 on the agenda.
Apologize profusely to the fans
The entirety of 2023 was an utter shitshow with the Revs, from how it started—annnnnd stickerssssssssss—to how it finished. They’ve taken away the great membership perks. They stayed silent on Arena when they really needed to speak publicly and reassure the fans that they would bring in a quality replacement. That’s not how a Major League team operates. They don’t treat their fans with such utter disrespect.
This club has operated under the guise of—and I’ve written this before—that they have given us Division 1 soccer, we should be damn grateful, and not to question them. It’s an absolute travesty how they treat the fan base.
Just apologize. It’s horse shit that they haven’t, and empty platitudes don’t cut it.
Friday, November 10, 2023
My MLS team played like adverse shit in the second half of the year; they can do so much better
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Making a tough business decision in order to survive
Back in 2014, I wrote a blog post at the advent of Kindle Unlimited, the then-new program by Amazon. And I'll be honest: I was skeptical. I was skeptical about it. I didn't think it would work, but then again, it's Amazon. Bezos had struck gold with Kindle, and I must admit that lightning struck pretty hard with KU.
Suffice it to say, I balked. Even though I had trumpeted ebooks and Kindle in particular since 2010, I personally felt that I had no right to tell readers that they needed a Kindle or a Kindle app in order to read my books. Seriously, who was I to tell anyone who read ebooks how they should read them? I felt that if you had a Nook, a Kobo reader, or an iPad with Apple iBooks already downloaded, you had enough to read me.
How wrong I was!
Over the next few years, like Mark Coker had predicted, my sales and the sales of other authors not in KU started to slip, and slip hard. I went from 4,000-plus books sold in 2012 to 336 last year; shit, I only sold 193 in 2019. I really didn't understand it: I had all these new books, from Travel Agent to Scouring Agent and the Ricky Madison books, books with even better writing than books like Model Agent and Rogue Agent that sold really, really well, and I couldn't get a sniff of a sale, or reach the numbers that I once had before KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited entered the fray. Are readers by-passing my books because they aren't in KU? Quite
possible; I've never received a single piece of email telling me to get
into KU or else, though. But even though I had plenty of evidence to the contrary, I steadfastly -- read: stubbornly -- refused to go narrow... until as late as December 2020, when I considered putting Incoming Private Show into KU.
That refusal has come to an end.
As of this morning, I have started the process of de-listing all of my books on Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and all the small ebook sites. While I'm sure that Kobo, Nook, and iBooks will be instantaneous, it will take a while for Hoopla and OverDrive, etc, to de-list me and take me off their sites. Once that happens...
Once that happens, I can put all 30-something of my books and short stories into KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited.
As I've said before, I crave the success that my friends have. And when I look at the stats they post in certain Facebook groups, all from KU, and I see the amount of money they are making -- life-changing money -- and the amount of books they are pushing out the door, it makes me wonder why I can't get that.
But alas, I can get that. I can get that by succumbing to KU and finally embracing all it does for authors. My writing skills are superior to what they were. I'm doing everything right, and yet I feel that I'm losing because I'm not selling, because I'm not in KU. As a wide author, I'm not making enough to make fiction writing a full-time profession any longer, I'm not making enough from it to put food on the table, to pay my mortgage, to pay my bills; I've scaled back since 2017, and my hope is that I can make enough through my fiction by going narrow with KU to grow my audience and get back to a full-time status.
Time to do just that. Hopefully lightning will strike for me like it has so many others.
KU, here I come. See you there.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Looking ahead to 2021
Within the next two-plus days, the sands in 2020's hourglass will run out, an imaginary hand will twist its wrist and spin it, and the long year of 2021 will begin. For many, seeing New Year's Eve approach has to be a relief; 2020 has not been kind to them, and in the years to come they will flinch when anyone mentions the numbers associated with this horrid year in their presence.
For me, I count myself fortunate. Outside of brief scares, I have not been exposed to COVID. We thought my mom might have been exposed following a late summer outbreak here in my hometown, but she, luckily, turned up negative. Extended family members contracted it and have recovered.
And outside of my wife's stroke back in May and my heart condition rearing its ugly head on me over the last month or so, my family has come out unscathed. We are incredibly thankful for that, and our hearts ache for those who have lost loved ones.
In looking back, we were lucky. We listened to the experts and wore a mask from the middle of March on whenever we left the house. We social distanced, we washed our hands, we sanitized.
In short, we controlled what we could control.
And as I look ahead to next year, I have to continue that mindset. Control what I can control, don't sweat the small stuff. Insert whichever cliché you need, but those are two that I will utilize when it comes to my writing business in 2021.
What can I control?
My writing output, for instance. I'm not setting a word count goal, per se, like I've done in the past, but when I plan to have two books out in 2021 and one is practically already scheduled to come out in the summer, it means that the book I'm about to start writing needs to take priority during my daily writing time in order to have it ready for a near Christmas 2021 release. When 10 a.m. arrives, I need to be in my office typing away until 2 or 3 p.m. Not doing this will hamper that goal.
On the flip side, I have to remind myself not to get completely angry at myself should other things -- like one of my other writing lives, or an emergency -- pop up, and subsequently hampers the writing schedule. That falls under not sweating the small stuff; emergencies happen, and in my other writing job, things happen that take me away from the fiction. I just have to remind myself to get back to the writing as soon as humanly possible. And if that means getting a page done in the overnight, so be it, or promising myself to write more the next day in an effort to make up for it.
What else can I control? Improving my marketing skills. I've said it time and again: my marketing skills are positively dreadful, but I'm working to improve them. I've done quite a bit of reading over the last quarter, and my hope is to continue to tweak my marketing, and not relying on the same tired methods that haven't necessarily worked, or have tailed off in their effectiveness.
And one of those things, unfortunately, is to possibly look into Kindle Unlimited for the release of INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, at least at the start. I know that those who have bought my books on Nook, Kobo, and iBooks are shouting, "No!" at me, but I have to at least try it out and see if it works for me, with an incredibly well-written book. And honestly, if it doesn't, once the 90-day exclusivity period it up, I can easily take it out of KU and upload to the other markets.
Other things that I can control? My health, the maintenance on my new house and the various tools I need, and whether I'm wearing a mask.
What are the things I won't sweat about in 2021? Book sales -- I have no control over whether or not people buy my books -- the weather, the Revolution or Arsenal winning or losing, and whether or not people get vaccinated. I'm sure there will be other things that come up.
In short, I'm going into 2021 with a great deal of optimism for myself, my business, and the world at large.
I hope you're doing the same.
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Cover Reveal: INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, coming Summer 2021
The last couple of days, outside of Christmas, I've been hard at work on making INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW a much better book. Earlier in the week, I took many hours editing and polishing the novel up, bringing it up to fourth draft status.
And now, I have a cover for you, as well as what the book is all about:
When 20-year-old Alyssa Young is murdered at work, police in her hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts have little in the way of clues. And when Detective Ricky Madison discovers what she does for a living — she’s a cam girl, an Internet stripper — and that it’s difficult for anyone to know where she is working, it’s a head scratcher that he doesn’t think he can solve without help from her friends. Two are away, and one of her co-workers is useless.
But when one of her best friends, too, is murdered in the same violent fashion, Ricky wants to prevent a third death from hitting his streets.
A public plea for help gains him critical information, and it leads him to look into Alyssa’s past to find the unscrupulous person behind it.
Coming Summer 2021, INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW is the third book in the Ricky Madison series, behind THE LONG CRIMSON LINE and PERSUADED BY THE REFLECTIONS. Unlike the first two books, which are thrillers, IPS is more of an erotic police procedural. You know how much I like to push the envelope with Ricky Madison stories, and I push the sex levels in this one to the fullest.
I honestly cannot wait to show you the book. I hope you enjoy it.
Friday, December 18, 2020
While my website is down, consider this my bookstore
Every so often, I have a website glitch. When that happens, I move everything here. In short, I had an issue... and while the issue was sorted on the home page, it's not sorted everywhere else. So until then...
WELCOME, WELCOME ONE AND ALL!
Basically, I had tried to freshen up the site with the new covers to Obloeron, as well as for Turning Back The Clock and Galactic Treason (formerly A Galaxy At War), and any new links. With the glitch -- which was completely my fault -- that didn't happen.
And for the record... there are sooooo many new links. If you're on Amazon, this link here is the best link as it has all the Sean Sweeney books. You can also search for John Fitch V and D.L. Boyd to see my novels under those names. All told, there are 29 novels as of today, with the 30th novel, INCOMING PRIVATE SHOW, planned for a Summer 2021 release.
Also want to let those who use Kobo Plus know that all of my books are available on that platform and service.
So without further ado.......
***
My books are available in a wide-range of places. Whether it be for Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, etc., my work can be read on practically every e-reading device, and all of my titles are available in old fashioned ink and paper, trade paperback style.
Titles with an asterisk — * — are available in audiobook form. Trade paperbacks are found under the Amazon Kindle links.
THRILLERS
The Long Crimson Line: A Thriller (Ricky Madison 1)
In the city of Boston, women are dying in a heinous manner. The police are baffled. They have no clues, nor any leads. The public is frightened.
Enter Ricky Madison, florist—an ex-Worcester cop with an insubordinate streak.
Madison and his friend, Mary Ruggles, find the patterns the killer is using, until they discover the one thing that ties all the murders together—the killer may not be male, and that the killer is a devotee to one of the most sought-after killers in the history of the world.
WARNING: The graphic nature of this book is not intended for those under the age of majority where local laws apply.
Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords
Persuaded By The Reflections: A Thriller (Ricky Madison 2)
Det. Ricky Madison is back is this gritty, pulse-quickening sequel!
Now suffering from PTSD following the events of The Long Crimson Line, Ricky returns to Worcester, Mass., the city where he was once a police detective; he’s undergoing therapy in both solo and group settings, and in his first session, he meets a young lady struggling to cope with her love life’s tribulations–she’s a cutter, and he offers her his ear whenever she needs it.
When elements of past crimes he had investigated creep back into the present, Ricky is brought back into the fold of Worcester Police to help link the crimes together–even though the one in charge of the investigation isn’t thrilled about his presence.
Together, the two comb through the facts and similarities of the cases until Ricky discovers the one responsible for everything.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks
The Lone Bostonian
One hundred years in the future, after a world war and another economic downturn, the United States is in recovery. A Chinese company, Gong & Dinow, manufactures inexpensive tablet computers. Everyone has them.
Little does everyone know, those devices will lead to the destruction of the East Coast.
A man from Boston survives the carnage and rows to what was Washington D.C. in order to inform the president… and to begin the healing.
Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, iBooks
Redeemed
All he wanted was a second chance at life.
Duane Thompson’s incarceration following a crime-filled night on the streets of Boston lasted just a little over a decade and a half. When the Commonwealth paroled him, his second chance at life stalled. No one wanted him near their businesses.
Despite being dogged by the police officer that had initially collared him, Duane does get his second chance, helping the poor in a small Central Massachusetts city. But when a woman is hounded by the same cop, Duane comes face-to-face with his greatest challenge.
Yet unbeknownst to him, while all of this is going on an extremist government has begun reshaping Boston in its twisted image.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
The Jaclyn Johnson code name Snapshot series
Waiting at your fingertips is the full, nine-book JACLYN JOHNSON EXPERIENCE. From MODEL AGENT to SCOURING AGENT and everything in between, slide alongside Jaclyn — the CIA’s top counterterrorism agent — in her souped-up car as she battles terrorism from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to London and to Sydney.
Feel what Jaclyn feels the day she meets Tom Messingham. Her thoughts as she encounters Tasha Verkler. Her tete-a-tetes with Parkerhurst and Desmond Daly, better known as Salt. And go deep into her meetings with Alex Dupuis and President Eric Forrister.
And as an added bonus, several never-before-seen short stories that simply add to the mystique that is Jaclyn Johnson.
Amazon Kindle US, Amazon Kindle UK
Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks
Model Agent *
The human body consists of two-thirds water.
As concertgoers on a steamy day in Boston find out, water can kill as much as it gives life.
A terrorist attack at City Hall Plaza has the authorities perplexed. The government, in response, sends in a capable but young agent – an agent born from the ashes of terrorism itself – to handle it.
But as her partner dies and the terrorist strikes again, Jaclyn Johnson – code named Snapshot – finds herself in a situation she has trained a decade to face: She’s up against a man with enough money to finance a war against his competition. With a deadline in place to stop him – and with a car holding enough hidden tricks to evade capture – Snapshot infiltrates his hidden installation and finds out her target’s true end game, a secret that could have the world fighting over water.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
US trade paperback, UK trade paperback
Rogue Agent *
When the 2012 Summer Olympics opened in London, security was at a fever pitch. They said it was going to be the safest Olympic Games yet.
They were wrong.
Heightened security did not stop a terrorist attack on the final group stage match of the Olympic soccer tournament between the United States and the host Great Britain, played at the fabled Wembley Stadium, the home of British football. And when an agent of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, it sent both the United States and the United Kingdom into a heightened state of alert.
There is only one problem for the terrorist: Outbound Eurostar service to Paris and flights out of Heathrow have been shut down – but flights into London continue to come in.
At the request of the President of the United States, the CIA calls upon the one agent – Jaclyn Johnson, a.k.a. Snapshot – he can trust to seek out the killers of many American citizens and bring them to justice.
But what occurs in London during Snapshot’s mission leads to political maneuvering – and Jaclyn going against everything she knows.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
US trade paperback, UK trade paperback
Double Agent *
With an attack against the Las Vegas Monorail, CIA Director Alexandra Dupuis calls in the agent she counts on in dangerous situations – even though that agent feels betrayed by the very government she serves, the very country she protects – in order to protect American interests.
In Jaclyn Johnson’s latest adventure, Dupuis sends the secret agent into the path of a radical Christian terrorist, one whose designs for Sin City would spell disaster for not only the entire southwest, but for the country as a whole, too.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
US trade paperback, UK trade paperback
Promises Given, Promises Kept
Tom Messingham and Tasha, Jaclyn Johnson’s teenage ward, are safe and sound on the east coast following Jaclyn’s daring mission to Las Vegas, and it’s time for her to head west again—this time to break up the human trafficking ring that had ensnared Tasha a year prior. Yet as she arrives in Tasha’s hometown, Jaclyn has several obstacles—a town wiped from the map, plus a persnickety police chief with one foot in the grave—to overcome before she can keep her promise to her new friend.
Set between the novels DOUBLE AGENT and FEDERAL AGENT, Jaclyn Johnson squares off against an unknown pervert in another nail-biting thriller.
Federal Agent *
A failed execution in Atlanta has CIA director Alex Dupuis concerned. And with President Eric Forrister and Republican challenger Dick Bennett headed there for the final debate of the election cycle, she has every reason to be: she doesn’t want the escaped prisoner, a man with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, to disturb it.
She sends Jaclyn Johnson into action after three weeks’ convalescence with her orders: protect both the president and his former White House Chief of Staff so that harm doesn’t befall them.
But what Jaclyn doesn’t realize is that the candidates may not be the ones under fire after all and that the deranged Klansman has someone else in mind—someone who isn’t what he seems on the outside.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
LITERARY AGENT *
Jaclyn Johnson is back in an all-new, pulse-pounding adventure, and this time, the deck is stacked fully against her!
It’s the holidays, ex-FBI agent-turned-author Jack Henshaw has been kidnapped, and the secrets he holds has the government worried. Jaclyn—along with her British boy toy, Tom Messingham—are sent to Detroit, Henshaw’s hometown, on Christmas Eve to begin their investigation.
Things turn out not as they seem, and while an ex-member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police claims responsibility—as well as giving the Americans a list of outlandish demands—Jaclyn’s investigation grinds to a halt until she gets the break she needs.
It’s a break that could unravel national security as Jaclyn knows it.
Travel Agent
Jaclyn Johnson is back for her sixth full-length adventure, and this time the CIA’s blonde bombshell has her work cut out for her.
Jaclyn, British secret agent Tom Messingham, and Tasha are vacationing in Australia, but little does Jaclyn know that she is being set up to take the fall for an assassination in Sydney. The trio, together with an old friend, must find out who’s behind it before the true terrorist’s ultimate gambit comes to fruition—all while Jaclyn learns that not everything is all right in Washington, D.C.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Australia Kindle, Canada Kindle
Chemical Agent
The first trip home for Jaclyn Johnson was supposed to be a memorable one: Gone from Seattle for well over a decade, she was home to attend the unveiling of a statue for her father, killed on 9/11.
Instead, her trip turned into a memory she would rather forget.
Thrust into an awkward position following a tragic murder at their hotel, a murder she couldn’t stop, the CIA counterterrorism agent must do something of which she had never dreamed in this, her seventh full-length adventure: reconcile with her nearly-forgotten past, all while moving forward in life without one of her closest allies.
US Kindle/trade paperback, UK Kindle, Nook
Ticket Agent
Over the last few years, Jaclyn Johnson and Tom Messingham have turned into quite the terrorist-fighting tandem: the pair have worked together up close and personal, their bond strong.
But the job is about to affect their marriage: with the pair investigating attacks in the remote wilds of South Dakota to the military academy at West Point, the call comes in. Tom is to report to London immediately, as a business tycoon, Oliver Klozov, appears to have plotted to kill rival footballers–soccer players–in one of England’s top leagues. Klozov, the owner of the Southwest Aces FC, is allegedly behind the death of another club’s top-notch goal scorer, and he’s threatening more—for promotion to the top flight.
It is when Jaclyn discovers her cases and Tom’s case intertwine when she receives a chilling email—Tom’s life is in danger, and Klozov’s crosshairs are locked on him.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks
Scouring Agent
A well-timed string of attacks and events in Washington, D.C. has President Eric B. Forrister and the CIA scrambling for answers in the ninth Jaclyn Johnson thriller novel.
How well-timed are they? It just so happens the attacks occur as Jaclyn is out of the country, on her honeymoon in Wales.
With Tasha Verkler, Jaclyn’s ward and confidante, at the head of the investigation alongside Desmond Daly, a.k.a. Salt, the duo look to discover who’s behind these brazen attacks—the new Supreme Court Museum has been bombed, two Justices dead; the Senate Majority Leader killed by a sniper—until the unthinkable occurs: Jaclyn and Tom’s ride home from Heathrow is also bombed.
Do Jaclyn and Tom make it back to the United States, or does Tasha manage to solve it herself?
Amazon Kindle US, Amazon Kindle UK, Nook, Kobo, iBooks
Royal Switch
There was nothing to suggest that this baseball season would be any different than the last 20 seasons Harry Edelson had covered, even though Oklahoma City now had a Major League franchise to call its own. He covered the move of the team from Kansas City that winter and observed the new owner – a Russian billionaire – signing the best players he could, including the reigning National League MVP, Bill Revere.
Ancient rivals, observing the events from afar, note the new owner wants to upset the balance of power in the American League. But as the season progresses – even as early as Opening Day – Harry observes odd things happening in the Royals’ clubhouse. It comes to a head at the All-Star break, when Revere severely injures himself. He is carried off the field, and everyone thinks his season is over.
Not so: Revere recovers, but his form has changed. He slumps and eventually breaks out of it, yet the story written that night changes both his and Harry’s lives: Harry notices something different with Revere in the clubhouse and dutifully reports his findings. Soon, Harry’s running for his life – but that does not quench his desire for wanting to know exactly what’s going on in that clubhouse.
It all leads to a road trip like no other, which has Harry perfectly placed to write an expose that’s hard for any baseball fan to ignore.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
MYSTERIES
Cold Altar
A small-town cold case gets new life when a woman hands a 22-year-old private investigator his first assignment. Going with the notes his father used when he first investigated the case, Alex Bourque delves into the 31-year-old mystery: an 11-year-old boy, kidnapped without witnesses, abused and murdered. There is little evidence to go on except a white L on the boy’s chest as well as a black smudge on his forehead, but with the help of his girlfriend Lauryn, Alex makes do with what he has and tries to solve the case from scratch.
Yet there are people who don’t want him to find out what happened, and they’ll go to any lengths to stop Alex from discovering the truth.
A classic whodunit in the vein of the late Robert B. Parker, COLD ALTAR is the first book in the Small Town PI series.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
Voir Dire
PI Alex Bourque has jury duty. As he’s challenged by the prosecution during jury selection, the defense has a brilliant idea: Hire Alex to help defend an accused murderer.
Yet as Alex delves into the case, he discovers that the defense attorney has done a shoddy job in building the defense. He also discovers something’s not right with the defendant—especially something that could set the man free.
(Note to Nook users: Use Smashwords for your .epub file)
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Canada Kindle
Beach Blanket Bloodshed
A body washing behind Small Town PI Alex Bourque turns his and Lauryn’s Cape Cod vacation upside down in the newest installment of this first-person tale.
Unable to trust police, the dead man’s wife turns to Alex for answers surrounding her husband’s murder. And when the investigation leads him back to the Cape, he enlists the help of a sexy Provincetown police officer, who offers not only her usually-unused skills to him and his fiancée, but other things, too.
BEACH BLANKET BLOODSHED is a ripped-from-the-headlines tale that’ll quicken your pulse and steam up your reading glasses.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks
The Small Town P.I. Series bundle (only available in ebook)
Kindle US
Kindle UK
Nook
Kobo
iBooks
An Invitation to Drink… or to Die: A Murder Mystery Novella
96-year-old Benedict Morton thinks his family is trying to kill him, so he hires Connor Wood, P.I., to attend his birthday party and sniff out who would do the deed. But when Morton is murdered that night, Wood has to sort it all out with a cast of characters that are clearly antagonistic right from the off.
Was it eldest son James, the one who may or may not be the executor of Morton’s will? His sister Tracy, who has a vindictive streak a mile long? Their half-brother Peter, who has a short fuse? The bastard son Jared? The surly cook? The maid? The butler?
This classic whodunit shows everything isn’t as it seems, and it’s up to Wood to determine exactly who it was that killed the old man.
FANTASY
The Peg-Legged Privateer: A Tattered Sails Novel
Set sail for a world of pirates, magic, and high adventure…
Long in the service of the 12th Baron Wilton, the privateer known as Paulina has reached her limit. Between a township that doesn’t care for her, the Baron assuring her pledge that she’ll go down with her last ship, and his lascivious advances toward her newest paramour, Paulina plots to betray him.
She just needs a little help in the form of her all-women crew to do it.
Taking four ladies along with her, Paulina takes the Good Queen Bess for her maiden voyage through the Caribe, where mystical beings and scoundrels alike look to thwart her and send her to the Realm of the Locker.
But they don’t count on the steel and magical energies this quintet utilizes to stain the wine-colored waters an even darker shade.
Amazon Kindle US, Amazon Kindle UK
The Obloeron Saga
When one man puts aside a great destiny, it falls on another to pick it up.
This is the full, six-book Obloeron Saga bundle, which first appeared in 2009 under the author’s old pseudonym, John Fitch V. The first five fantasy novels were published before 2013, and now the series comes together with the previously unreleased third novel, Krampel’s Revenge.
In addition, there is previously unseen prose in the form of three short stories the author has weaved into the tale, and gives the full look at some previously unanswered questions from the original three novels.
Starting with the short story The Creation of Flad-rul, the SAGA tells of Krampel Paddymeyer’s journey from that of slave to bounty hunter, from bounty hunter to war hero. Then the original trilogy picks up with Krampel’s grandson, Grumpet, his heir, as well as continues the tale of Radamuck Rosar’s journey with these two great men. Add in a halfling with a warrior complex, a bit of love, and plenty of orcs, and you have a fantasy story set to stand the test of time.
The Saga includes:
The Creation of Flad-rul (short story/prologue)
The Rise of the Dark Falcon (prequel one)
The Shadow Looms (prequel two)
Krampel’s Revenge (prequel three, previously unreleased)
Krampel’s Flight to Kayiko (short story/interstitial)
The Quest for the Chalice (original one)
The Return to Lowbridge (original two)
The Fall of Myrindar (original three)
Grumpet’s First Day (short story/epilogue)
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Nook, Kobo
The individual novels are also available for sale.
YOUNG ADULT
Zombie Showdown
For a group of sophomores at Gardner High School, it turned out to be a class trip gone awry.
For 15-year-old twins Christian and Rachel Sanderski, it was the opportunity to tell the truth.
A zombie attack while the kids are on a ghost tour forces Christian to save a group of his friends. The events of the next day, though, lead to Chris and Rachel’s admission – they are the long lost descendants of a legendary gunman who once called Tombstone home. Their mother had forbidden them from saying a word about their genealogy in order to protect them.
With the admission, a weight has lifted from their shoulders and, with the help of their friends, Christian and Rachel battle the zombies in a late night brawl. But when the kids are told of the coming of The Three dead cowboys their ancestor had sent to Boot Hill Cemetery, they steel themselves for the fact that they may never return home.
Action and adventure, friends lost and friends found. And love, too…
ROMANCE
Scollay Love (by D.L. Boyd)
It is tough to lose the place where you met.
For uptown Boston Brahmin gal Charlene Phillips and downtown West End boy Joe Cafario, their starkly different lives come together in Scollay Square, Boston’s famed center, where they fall into a forbidden love amidst the tassels of the Old Howard and the aroma of slow-boiled hot dogs at Joe and Nemo. When their love is ended after Charlene’s final defiance of her parents, the two remain true to each other, despite their forced separation.
When Charlene returns and they reunite in the Square, the city of Boston is about to go through a major change—one that Joe is hell-bent in stopping.
US Kindle, UK Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks
Glorious Slip (by D.L. Boyd)
Nick Smith is a student of history, especially that of his state’s capital, Boston.
Little does he know that he is about to live it.
Jettisoned some two and a half centuries into the past, Nick discovers that he has landed in Colonial Boston. He marvels at finding the Shawmut Peninsula in the years before the Revolutionary War, and witnesses Bostonians’ palpable anger.
Working a farm and falling in love with a young lady three years his junior, Nick must avoid conflicts with his new brother-in-law, a Crown loyalist.
Ride along with Nick as he rubs elbows with early America’s greatest minds, all while concealing America’s destiny.
The classic John Fitch V novels
Turning Back The Clock
Greg Patterson just watched his beloved Boston Red Sox lose to the New York Yankees in the 2003 American League Championship Series when he gets a radical idea: Build a time machine to make sure that one of baseball history’s worst sales — the sale of Babe Ruth — never happens. But as he’s researching out that fateful event, he runs along another piece of information that he had never known.
It leads him to ask: What if the Black Sox Scandal never happened? Could the scandal that rocked the baseball world in the early 1920s and the sale of the Sultan of Swat be connected? And if it’s possible, can these two incidents be reversed in order to correct the failings of the Red Sox and end the recent domination of the Yankees?
Greg and his friend Brandon Roy build the time machine and immediately head back to 1919, where they meet Harry Frazee, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Charlie Comiskey, and the catalyst of the whole thing, Babe Ruth. Greg also falls in love in the past, making for an exciting conclusion to their time in 1919 Boston.
Galactic Treason
Captain Ryan Germayne, son of the legendary Jaxson “Hot Shot” Germayne, has been living up to his late father’s reputation. He is the best pilot the Galaxy of Free Systems “GFS” has. His equally talented first mate gunner, Joslyne, happens to also be his wife.
Some believe that the GFS has grown too large, too bureaucratic for the regular person across the galaxy. This small group of rebels is slowly, but steadily, growing in numbers. In time, their numbers grow by two more.
As Ryan rises in rank and power at lightning speed, he begins to change. Even personally executing former friends and comrades no longer seems to bother him. Joslyne soon wonders to what lengths her husband would go, how low he would sink, and how cold blooded he would become for his new beliefs. And can she continue to stand beside the man he is morphing into?
Friday, November 13, 2020
A New Freebie -- From My Fantasy Series
As most of you know, I consider myself an "Every Genre Author." It's true. I've touched upon pretty much every genre there is, achieving a great deal of success over the last decade as a thriller author.
But when I started writing back in 2003, I was *just* a fantasy author. I had loved reading Lord of the Rings -- my father, who would have turned 77 today, handed me The Hobbit when I was 11 -- and R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms novels, and I decided to start writing about this halfling called Yanos Kingsfoil. A friend of mine called him a halfling with a Conan complex, which tickled me. Over time and with more words on the screen of my old Gateway computer, the story became more about the dwarf king, Radamuck Rosar, and finally about Grumpet T. Paddymeyer. After about a year an a half, I discovered my backstory, which became a set of prequel novels.
Well, today marks a few things: Back in 2013, I had taken the series off the market. I wasn't pleased with the writing. It was amateurish, and I had grown past that stage. In fact, I felt rather embarrassed by it. I didn't want anyone to see it. But with maturity and introspection, I decided in the winter of 2014-15 to go back and re-write/salvage what I could from that six-book series, and even inserted some short stories in that world I had written in 2009 into the prose in order to beef them up. The renewed series came out in a box set on Nov. 2, 2015.
And I had resolved, at some point, to get all the books out as singles, in both ebook and paperback. This past week, I finally did that -- and the first book in the series, The Rise Of The Dark Falcon, is now free on Kindle and iBooks (here's the link from my newsletter; feel free to subscribe to it).
And here they are!
I'm so pleased to have this series back out in the wild as solo books again. It is my genuine hope that readers who like Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms, World of Warcraft, etc. dive into these books. Try The Rise Of The Dark Falcon for free, on me. If you like it, move on to The Shadow Looms. In all, it'll be $14.95 for the other five ebooks, which is a rather good price, if I do say so myself. The paperbacks are $9.95 each, all on the Amazon placements.
So that's that. My first series of novels from long ago, re-released, the writing refined and strengthened. I'm so happy that they are finally out -- I still have two more to load up to Nook, with their hacking now resolved -- for single consumption again.
Happy reading.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
A New Hope... with a new cover
After posting my update blog Monday, I decided to go forth and find a new cover image for Scollay Love, my first historical romance set in 1950s/1960s Boston, and the first book that I wrote under the D.L. Boyd pen name. I'll admit, the title is weak... but the old cover, it was weaker.
I had hoped that this cover would show two 1950s era teens -- late teens, early 20s -- in love. And at 99 cents, I had hoped the romance community would flock to it.
They didn't.
And so, with my revamped business plan, getting Scollay Love a new cover and getting it out in paperback was one of my priorities.
This is what I've come up with:
A more fun cover, if I do say so myself! It catches the eye, which is really what covers are supposed to do. And to remind you of what the book is about...
It is tough to lose the place where you met.
For uptown Boston
Brahmin gal Charlene Phillips and downtown West End boy Joe Cafario,
their starkly different lives come together in Scollay Square, Boston’s
famed center, where they fall into a forbidden love amidst the tassels
of the Old Howard and the aroma of slow-boiled hot dogs at Joe and Nemo.
When their love is ended after Charlene’s final defiance of her
parents, the two remain true to each other, despite their forced
separation.
When Charlene returns and they reunite in the Square,
the city of Boston is about to go through a major change—one that Joe
is hell-bent in stopping.
Hopefully the book -- which should be available in paperback in a few days -- will find its readership now.
And for 99 cents, it's an absolute bargain to see how I flex these new muscles.