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It has been nearly three years since my last blog?
Color me hugely embarrassed. I recall several years ago checking out a very well-known British author's website, and noting how out-of-date it was. How did he let that happen? Well, now I know. Too many projects and I just gave no thought to my website. I apologize. Unfortunately, knowing how I get caught up in my novel writing and various other projects, I can't guarantee to be more up-to-date with future blogs. Current projects include three completed novels I need to find publishers for, plus a dozen new novels in various stages of completion, most about half-done. I heard by way of a writer friend that a friend of hers son wondered when I would complete the sequel to Captain Dreade. I noted at the end of that story the sequel was half completed. And it is, somewhere, I just can't find it. Now I have to go back through all my old computers. I just reread that pirate tale, and it deserves to have its sequel completed. To anyone waiting on that, I apologize again. In looking for that unfinished manuscript, I came across my sequel to Philip Marrow, Jr., which is also half completed. It also deserves to be completed. I guess I better conclude this blog post and get started. There's a lot to be done November brings with it the AUTHORAMA event at the Salem Oregon Public Library's main branch, which I plan to attend. I will have a selection of my published novels available and also happy to autograph any of my books. This event will occur on Saturday, November 12th.
I had hoped to have copies of the soon to be released sequel to SPIDER WARS, but SPIDER WARS II may not reach publication until 2017. "Life is uncertain," my grandfather used to say, and with the occupiers of the Malheur wildlife refuge getting off after being tried for their armed occupation, his sentiment is reinforced. Much has happened since my last post. My Hotmail account was frozen because I failed to update my password. Consequently, many things tied to that email account were neglected and I ended up losing my author's Internet Domain. (now reacquired) That resulted in my website disappearing for months without my knowledge. Getting things back up and running correctly has not been as easy as I wished, but we seem to be live again. My push to complete several coloring books has taken a backseat to completing more of my novels. Two of My Jamison Pond novels are about ready to submit for publication, and I'm still seeking a suitable Press for my Rubicon Prince mystery. The latter is slightly reminiscent of the Longmire mystery series (Not one of my creations) set in Wyoming. Happy reading, and enjoy the coming Holiday Season. How Time Does Fly, Sometimes. Or, as my grandfather so often said, "Life is uncertain." The Ides of March has slipped past, and I even missed the April Fools milestone to add this newest blog. So much has happened since my January blog.
The primary occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge have been arrested. They were on my mind in the previous blog. I'm now seeking a publisher for my exotic cruise mystery story, which has been completed and edited. I've slowed down on my spy novel and also shifted focus away from finishing my second and third Jamison Pond sequels (that occur in Portland Oregon) to completing books two and three in the Spider Wars series. Book one of Spider Wars (SW) began on the Oregon coast, but soon shot off into outer space. It's available in both paperback and Kindle editions. Book two of SW remains located in outer space where the protagonist, Mark, is abducted a second time, except by some truly nasty aliens. In the third SW story, Mark returns to the Oregon coast at the behest of his children. It's complicated, as one of my practicum students used to say, because he and they appear to be the same age. They have all returned to Mark's home planet to hopefully counter the ongoing alien threat. The series of coloring books I'm working on are also coming along nicely. In the last few sunny days it feels like Spring has sprung here in the Pacific Northwest, even though Reno, NV, and Buffalo NY have had major snow storms. Still, for my small home orchard, I've had to resort to hand pollination since the bees appear in short supply. Last year, some of the trees had almost no fruit set, so with the beautiful weather I've resorted to "helping" mother nature. I guess I'll call that good for today. Hope you are having a great Spring! Gene (EA). There are many new projects for 2016. I'm probably the most excited about the series of coloring books I'm working on. I'll hopefully remember to include at least one of the covers that is nearly completed in this blog entry. I won't repeat what I've already put on the opening page of this website here, but simply add to it. I can't say which of my new coloring books I'm the most excited about. In some ways, perhaps it's the KNIGHTS COLORING BOOK. But that enthusiasm isn't simply from the content. No, I'm also excited because this may lead to my getting a booth at the local Shrewsbury Faire Medieval event this coming Autumn. I'm not committing to that yet, since I have so many new projects started for this year and I'm not certain I'll be able to spare the time. I think I have planned about a dozen coloring books for release this year, half of which I'm already working on. I'll keep you updated through my blog. Other projects this year? Yes, there are several. I have a Middle Grade series of novels that begins with Jamison Pond: The Spy Who Came Down with a Cold. The first book is finished, the second is at least 90% done, and the third is begun. I want to have that latter one at least completed in rough draft form before I seek a publisher for this series. There are also two new novels I'm working on for an older reading audience. One is a spy novel, and the other is a mystery set on the high seas. I love both of these and I hope I can complete them and get them published this year, as well. Finally, I'm also working on a few non-fiction books, three primarily, and I'll give updates as those come nearer to completion. Now you know why I'm not committing myself to a booth at the Renaissance faire that is months away. And, on a personal note, I'll comment briefly (OK, this turns out not to be so brief) on the political situation near Burns, Oregon. It has been in the news lately, and since the occupation leader is named Bundy, I suppose there are folks who are wondering if I'm related to that gentleman. I am not. My guess is that he is descended from what my grandfather used to call the "South Carolina Bundys." He refereed to our line as the "New York Bundys," although they also had a Mayflower line by marriage: Priscilla Prentise, perhaps. I think she married John Bundy who was indentured to Elder William Brewster. (See one of my Thanksgiving stories for more about that. I'm guessing it is on the Navigation Bar under MORE STORIES, but I'm not sure.) Anyway, my grandfather was Kingsley D. Bundy who resided all the years I knew him in Portland, Oregon. [An aside: I made his home on Knight St. be the home of my main character in the Jamison Pond novel mentioned above, heh, heh, heh.] Grampa was the expert on Bundy geneology while he was still alive. As a youth, however, Grampa went to Eastern Oregon by covered wagon (the back of the photo I have of the wagon only lists the horses' names not whose seated in the wagon) and lived on the family homestead in Harney County, not too far (in Eastern Oregon terms) from Burns. My Great Uncle Jay Bundy (Grampa's younger brother who died at the age of 98, I believe) and several of his siblings were Eastern Oregon cowboys. I have a trunk full of Grampa's records, but most have apparently disappeared, (there were many boxes full, aside from the trunk and no one seems to know what became of them) so we don't have his and other family memoirs that he had collected, which is sad. But I digress. It really is such a small world. Grampa used to say that mathematically if you could trace everybody's family lineage back a couple of hundred years, everybody is related to everybody else, (although there were not quite so many billions of people then) so I guess I have to amend my earlier statement to say I am not directly related to the two Bundys who are part of an occupation force on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in the same vicinity where my forefathers homesteaded. The truth is, we're all related to them if you want to go back far enough. Likewise, my relatives aren't directly related to the most infamous person to share our last name. Ted was raised in Tacoma after being adopted by a Bundy who was no direct relation to us. I know this because according to my grandfather, Ted's mother came to visit him while researching the Bundy line she had married into. She has passed away, now, and those records also are missing along with key correspondence from one of the Bundys who was in the JFK cabinet (William or McGeorge, I think). I'm pretty sure I covered that in some previous blog. And just for the record, we aren't related at all to Al Bundy from the TV show Married With Children. I wish I was typing this as a joke, but some folks seem not to understand that television characters are not real people. Okay, that's more than enough for now. Stay tuned for updates on this year's publishing completions.  On April 24th, I was Interviewed on television about my recently published tenth book The Not-Witch for the program AWESOME AUTHORS produced by Mr. Coyne of CCTV in Salem, Oregon. Thank you so much for that opportunity!
SHHHH! I’m not supposed to tell anyone—but I didn’t actually promise—and I have another deadline coming up, so I’m squeaking in this post. However, if this blog suddenly disappears, you’ll know what happened. It means SWP found out, and I’m in hot water. Plus, I’m still on jury duty, which I thought was over because I served on a jury already, but apparently they have more trials than usual and have run through the entire pool of prospective jurors. Bummer. I say that not because I don’t want to serve, but because I went ahead and committed to some important upcoming events. First, I may have a TV interview coming up this month for The Not-Witch (or not—it’s complicated, more on that later, if I fit in another blog entry this month), and I’ve been invited to a former practicum student’s doctoral celebration get-together, (She’s going to be a PsyD, and a good one, hooray!). I’ve gladly accepted that invitation, so I need to call the county courthouse today and try and get those 2 dates blacked out for jury duty. Like I said, “It’s complicated.” So what is the Shhhh all about? The Not-Witch is live on Kindle, but the hush-hush part is, please don’t get it yet. There was some foul-up, and the navigation between chapters doesn’t work right. The low introductory price will be extended when the new version comes online, so don't let that sway you. Hopefully, the SWP (Singing Winds Press) editor is getting all of that straightened out. I discovered the navigation problem when I downloaded The Not-Witch to my Kindle. The history of SWP with eBooks is likewise complicated. The first four books they published (two were mine : ) they paid to have formatted to be on Kindle. When I say they, I was also involved in that process. I was disappointed at the outcome, but Joe was incensed, and that was pretty much the end of eBooks at SWP. Then Joe bowed out, and our new editor, Noelle (not to be confused with my daughter, Noël), said eBooks are a priority for her—along with clearing out the publishing backlog of paperbacks. Anyway, the formatting in this just-released Kindle eBook is wonderful compared to those earlier efforts, except, of course, for the navigation aspect—you know, jumping from the Table of Contents to say Chapter 7. So, why do we bother? That was Joe’s big question. Noelle says probably over half of all eBook sales are Kindle, and close to another quarter are on the Nook, and maybe a final quarter are Apple iBooks. Those are just rough estimates. Nobody really knows because the actual figures don’t get released. So, Noelle wants us to publish on all three, as well as Kobo. Even though Kobo’s market share is only like 5% of eBook sales, and the total of all eBooks is somewhere around 40% of eBook and non-eBook sales. The figures one encounters depend on the source, I guess. The traditional book industry has more conservative estimates than the eBook publishers about eBook sales. But both sides probably fudge a little. “So, why Kobo?” I asked. “Seems like a lot of work for what may be only 2 or 3 percent of combined eBook and non eBook sales.” And she responded, “Because they supported the small bookstores—the little independents, and helped them turn things around. Even the big retail chains were dropping like flies until Kobo came along.” Does this mean I’m gong to have to get a Kobo reader now? Stay tuned, but don’t hold your breath. The other impeding deadline I mentioned up in the first paragraph of this now mini-tome of a blog entry regards two new books about to come out. Werewolf Vampire Witch (a YA paranormal fantasy) may actually publish this month (April). And then there is the MG thriller, Jamison Pond: The Spy who Came Down with a Cold. I’ve finished writing both, although there is still some rewriting to do on the second one. The bigger issue is that Noelle wants me to get the sequels to Jamison Pond ready so she can publish them this summer/fall. (She’s got to be dreaming, right?) The second one, Jamison Pond: The Spy Who Dumped Me, is 90% completed, but I’m less than halfway done with the third and we haven’t even named it yet. But, as my mom always says, “It will all work out.” Until next time, EAB  I thought The Not-Witch would be published in early March, but in the end, it managed to squeak in just before the month closed. If you are interested in having a copy, they are currently available at Amazon. Simply click on the cover illustration above and you will redirect to the correct page at Amazon. If you like the book, I'll appreciate it if you leave a review there.
This is a modern fantasy in the tradition of Roald Dahl—at least, that is what one of my critique group members thinks. I'll let you decide. It is basically a Middle Grade novel that begins in Independence, Oregon, but ends in the fictional towns of Yumhill and Kiddington, where a magic show is presented to students in two schools of the Yumhill Kiddington School District. I'm smiling as I write this, since they are such thinly disguised pseudonyms, I mean place names. So, what's next? I hesitate to put this out there with my track record of missing deadlines, but my novel titled Werewolf Vampire Witch may actually appear as early as April of this year. It is either an Urban Fantasy, or maybe it is a Paranormal. these genres morph so quickly I don't even try to keep track. I simply write what I like, knowing it will undoubtedly fit in somewhere. Just look at the title and decide for yourself.  Authorama is a free event sponsored by the Salem, Oregon public library. The screenshot above is of their webpage and the City of Salem website address is visible, plus the date of the event below their banner. September 20th is barely a week away. It is the third annual presentation of this type in Salem. I'm going to be there along with a slew of other fine authors, and we'd love to see you, so if that is convenient, and you are so inlined, come on over!
The Main Library is located at 585 Liberty St. SE, and the authors will be on the main floor from 1-4 PM. But don't just stop and see them. If at all possible, also visit the A&B Auditoriums downstairs where Heidi Schulz is holding the pirate themed book launching party for her debut novel Hook's Revenge. This is a Disney/Hyperion release, and I believe there are already movie rights assigned, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, Here is a chance to meet Heidi and get an autographed copy of her new novel. Oh, I almost forgot, I plan to have copies of my newest published novel Dark-Dreams Girl, which is a prequel (this means even though DDG is published after The Pigeon Catcher, its story takes place before The Pigeon Catcher.) If you haven't already read TPC, I highly recommend you finish it first. There will be some special deals going for this event on the 20th, so come check things out. There will be a good savings if you buy both these books, together, and also if you purchase Country Cousin in the Wild Woods, and its sequel, Wild Horse Girl. (Even a pretty good value if you only purchase one at a time. Plus, they'll be autographed, if you want.) [Wow...I've posted blogs for two months in a row!] EAB Okay, it has been a looong time since I posted a blog. I have to face it, I'm a novelist, not a blogger. One would assume the two would go hand in hand, since they both involve writing, but apparently not. It has been so long, in fact, since my last blog that how you work things to design this website have changed. A good example is that when I tried to upload the cover image of Wild Horse Girl, it was cut off at the top and bottom. Oh well, if you want to see the whole thing, go to the Welcome page. Wild Horse Girl is a sequel to Country Cousin in the Wild Woods. Originally, the first book in the series was titled simply: Country Cousin. However, when I did a web search, I discovered someone had already used that title. It turns out that book titles are not copyrighted with the book, so there can be a whole bunch of completely different volumes with the same name. I first found that out when I looked up the book title A Certain Slant of Light. Several different novels shared that title, which can be confusing. To make things easier, I have activated the cover image over on the Welcome Page so it is linked to the Amazon page where Wild Horse Girl is listed on their website. When I first went to Amazon and searched for this new title, other similar titles showed up and I had to scroll down a long list to find Wild Horse Girl because it is newly published. Other retailers will eventually have this title for sale as well. Okay, you are going to assume my faculties are not up to par, since now there is a complete cover showing in this blog. Well, I clicked on the Advanced setting, and it turns out it was set on a rectangular crop, and I simply chose no crop. Now, I'm thinking I should add the original cropped image so you can see I didn't make all this up, or worse, hallucinate it. Okay, now they are both there. Only 47 kb., so not too high resolution, but passable. I was going to put an update here about Dark-Dreams Girl, which is a prequel to The Pigeon Catcher, but it should be out in only a month or so, causing me to procrastinate for the moment about adding it here. Let's just call it good with Wild Horse Girl for this blog. : ) EAB
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