The first draft of the trilogy took two years to write. As I expanded the story to go beyond one family’s fight to survive, I made it a global conflict with an evolving bioterror threat that would change the world. Revisions took another year. Plans for an audiobook are in the works and soon I’ll reveal a new look for this trilogy.
For the next few days, the ebook for This Plague of Days will be on sale for just 99¢.
This Plague of Days has been my bestselling series for a long time. However, change is coming. It’s time to revamp the covers. We’re working on that so, in the meantime, I’m having a Goodbye TPOD sale. The first season will return to the regular price on September 3, 2019.
But did you know I have other books set at 99¢?
This collection of shorts explores various apocalyptic scenarios. All Empires Fall packs in a lot of fun at a low low price. If the end of the world fascinates you, pick this one up!
Besides apocalyptic epics like The Dimension War Series, AFTER Life and Robot Planet, I also love to write killer crime thrillers.
The cops always show up late so this short story collection mostly focuses on my specialty: Bad versus Evil. Villains, anti-heroes, complicated people who don’t understand their place in the world. That’s my sweet, sweet jam. It will be yours, too, and for just 99¢, you can get a cheap sample and lots of entertainment in Sometime Soon, Somewhere Close.
To grab your deals, the links to the right will take you to Amazon.com.
For just 24 more hours you can pick up three killer crime thrillers for only 99 cents (plus get a sneak peek of Resurrection, A Hit Man Novel). The train is leaving the station. Jump on and hold on tight!
That bit was about the deal was to benefit me, of course. Read below for something to benefit you in life (besides the three books packed with entertainment, I mean.)
After I read Blake Crouch’s Run, I decided I wanted to emulate that same fast pace. That inspiration led to Bigger Than Jesus, starring Jesus Diaz. Some writers outline and others discover the story as it goes along. With Bigger Than Jesus, I would paint my funny little Cuban hit man into a corner. I would head off to bed each night wondering how he would talk or fight his way out of trouble. That’s how I learned to trust the power of the hypnagogic state.
What’s the hypnagogic state?
Each night, my last thought before I went to sleep was a question: What will Jesus do next? In the morning, the answer always came to me. (The benzene ring was discovered the same way.)
As I described in detail in Do the Thing, I find that in that short period between sleep and full wakefulness, I hit peak creativity. That’s when the answers to plot problems (and other issues) arrive.
I’ve learned a lot from my writing life. One of those lessons was to trust the process more. I’m more relaxed in the face of chaos, more confident it will all work out right as long as we keep working at solving problems.
What’s the Hit Man Series about?
As a child, Jesus Diaz fled Cuba with his family. They didn’t make it out of the water. As soon as he got to Florida, he was kidnapped and held for years by monstrous people. First Jesus escaped to the streets, then into the military. Upon his return, he got mixed up with the Machine, New York’s Spanish mob. The story is told in an unusual way from an unusual POV but the attitude, jokes, and action remind me of old noir movies packed with witty dialogue.
In Bigger Than Jesus, his only goal is to get out of New York and the mob with his girlfriend, Lily Vasquez. (That and take some stolen money to finance his stab at a new life.) Vigilante author Claude Bouchard describes it as “Wickedly real and violently funny.”
In Higher Than Jesus, we find out about Diaz’s struggles with addiction as he does his best to save a woman from her demons and a very bad arms dealer. A lot of things explode in Chicago.
Jesus tries to go legit and work for a security firm specializing in protecting celebrities. Going legit doesn’t last long when he encounters a sex trafficking ring and has to confront pursuers both from the FBI and the Machine. Hollywood Jesus is full of twists as Jesus goes up against a bad guy who is even more deadly at the hit man game.
Resurrection can be read as a standalone
After a hiatus from this series, it was time to get Jesus back in the action. However, in Resurrection, A Hit Man Thriller, the story is told from the point of view of Lily Vasquez. The storytelling has the same quirky sense of humor of a Coen’s brothers’ movie (complete with plenty of movie references!).
After Lily escaped from New York’s Machine, she thought she was free to live how she wanted. In Resurrection, Big Denny De Molina has a long memory and he wants the money she stole. She’ll do anything to stay alive and Jesus Diaz will do anything to protect her. The action bounces from Europe to Miami and back to New York as the loop from Bigger Than Jesus is closed.
This is so strong because, of course, it pops. It’s also in keeping with the feel of the other covers in the series (only more so)!Resurrection, A Hit Man Thriller is the fourth novel in the series but can be read as a standalone.
In the first three books of the Hit Man Series, the suspense unfolds and the action speeds along from an unusual POV: second-person, present tense. There was a good reason for that. Jesus Diaz, my funny Cuban hit man, copes with his struggles by imagining he’s in a movie. Given his unusual and torturous childhood, it’s expected he’s a little wacky. In Resurrection, the story is told from Lily Vasquez’s point of view. She was Jesus’ girlfriend in Bigger Than Jesus. Hunted by the mob, she’s just as deadly as her ex and will do anything to stay alive and free.
The storytelling in Resurrection is perhaps more in line with what readers of the genre expect. However, it’s still packed with jokes, sexiness and clever action sequences. You’re going to love the movie in your head.
Special thanks go to Kit Foster of Literartydesign.com who came through with this surprise killer cover.It’s a great match for this killer crime thriller.
I’ve been working for a long time to build up to this moment. I love getting new books out into the world. It was a ton of hard work but I just hit publish on a short story collection, a box set, and a new thriller! Then, this morning, the car had to go to the shop, the drugstore informed me that something our insurance had covered no longer did and bam! There’s that nasty eye infection. HA! Crazy ups and downs, right? Ow, my eye hurts.
Still, it’s a good day. I’m at the coffee office waiting to hear from the garage, working away fairly happily and waiting for my doctor’s appointment this afternoon. I can complain, but not too much.
The new books, Rob. Tell us about the books!
Available now on Amazon in ebook and paperback.
My funny deadly hit man, Jesus Diaz, is back in Resurrection, A HIt Man Thriller!
In Bigger Than Jesus, his goal was to escape New York’s Spanish mob. His ex got out of the gangster life with two bags of stolen mob money. Now the Machine is after her. Hunted and cornered, the little Cuban hit man and the lovely Lily Vasquez will have to team up to survive. Lily is deadly, too. When trouble comes knocking, she asks herself, what would Jesus do?
Sometime Soon, Somewhere Close is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback. The ebook is only 99 cents!
Seven crimes, seven stories. This anthology (only 99 cents!) will keep you turning pages through the night. Each short story is set in a different place but each one hits hard, sometime soon, somewhere close. Discover the gripping story behind the missing fisherman in Nova Scotia. In Detroit, witness the aborted birth of a monster. In Ames, you’ll find a bullied boy’s inelegant solution to stop his pain. I love these shorts. Bonus, the anthology is not that short. There’s plenty of meat in this collection of new fiction to keep you reading through the night. Enjoy!
The fun of this series comes from the witty dialogue, hardboiled action and a whole heapin’ helpin’ of “How the heck is he going to get out of this one?” The storytelling is unusual and the plots are unpredictable.
For a limited time, the first three books in the Hit Man Series, are available in this e-box set for just 99 cents! I know many of my readers discovered my fiction because of my most popular series, This Plague of Days. I appreciate it, but I hope some zombie/vampire/human conflict fans will give my noir crime stories a chance, too. (You get all the action and all the fun of three suspenseful thrillers for less than a buck. In print, it would be over 700 pages!) So, if you don’t know Jesus, get Bigger Than Jesus, Higher Than Jesus and Hollywood Jesus all in one fun package.
BONUS: Not sure about taking on the roaring rapids in Resurrection? You’ll get a sneak peek at Resurrection, A Hit Man Thriller at the end of the box set.
I’m off to yet another doctor’s appointment now, but despite life’s speed bumps, I’m feeling great about these new books. You’re going to have a lot of fun with them. I had a great time writing them, especially the Nova Scotian dialogue in Sometime Soon, Somewhere Close. Some of us talk a little funny so…well, you’ll find out.
Happy reading!
~ I write suspenseful books in several genres. Just when you’re sure you know what’s about to happen, something else surprising will happen. I’m always on the hunt for super readers. Please sign up for updates here and if you dig my sling, please spread the happy word by reviewing the books on Amazon. Thanks!
As I write this, it’s July 1. I’m in a coffee shop. Some smooth jazz is going down easy in the background as my caffeine boost brings me up. And I’m grateful. It’s been a year since I left the day job that was killing me so I could devote all my time to writing books. And here’s the kicker: I probably couldn’t do this if I lived somewhere else. Canada supports the arts and, indirectly, my art.
Before anyone complains about taxes…
Due to 2018 being a weird year financially, I had to work out a payment plan to pay my taxes. However, I’m getting my money’s worth from my country. A year ago I had emergency eye surgery to save the vision in my left eye. This spring I got hit hard by pneumonia and, aside from the $8 for the taxi to the hospital, the ordeal cost me nothing. It would have been free if I’d had to call an ambulance. We take care of each other.That’s a good sign of a healthy society.
Unfortunately, many of my friends have to choose between medical care and paying the rent or buying food or paying off exorbitant student loans. They spend a lot of time scared. What if that’s not a bump? What if it’s a lump? When life-saving insulin costs so much, how much do they dare ration their medication? None of these friends are Canadian.
The Delusion
It’s a popular notion that starving artists make great art. It’s taken as a given that food insecurity is a motivator. No, please don’t try to craft a virtue out of cruelty. When you have to worry about the basics, all other endeavors suffer. Stress and suffering are not noble. Requiring stress and suffering of others doesn’t make anyone a hard-charging go-getter. When art happens in egregious conditions, it’s not because of the egregious conditions. That value bubbles up despite horrible circumstances.
Suffering is poison. The pushy tech-bro is anti-life. The outlier story of the rugged individualist who owes nothing to anyone is propaganda. It’s the lie that tells people who already have two jobs that they’ll be worthy of love and their families will be safe if only they’d work just a little harder. The mania of constant overwork does not serve humans. We are not robots but the propagandists would have people work like machines, at least until they can be replaced by machines.
Think you can live on your own and don’t need anybody else to succeed? Actually, we’re all in this together. Businesses need a healthy economy supported by people making a living wage and paying taxes. Think of yourself as a rugged individualist? When your retina tears spontaneously as mine did last year, are you going to perform the surgery with a mirror, a butter knife, and a welding kit? I don’t think so, Butch.
It’s not a little ironic that abrasive guru Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Fear kills growth.” Fear of disease, illness, and failure to care and provide for our loved ones kills more growth than any uncompromising motivational speech can overcome. We are all worthy of love, whether we’ve “earned” it or not. Suffering is poison, but so is the conviction that you can’t be seen until you’re rich and famous.I do work hard, but any success that may come my way will not rise from the pain of another.
Don’t wait until people are famous to love them.
There’s a common expression I despise: “So-and-so is doing well.” That’s code for, “So-and-so is making a lot of money.” Okay, good for them. But is so-and-so doing any good? Your worth isn’t all in your wallet.If that were true, late-stage capitalism would ensure only a handful of people are worthy of love and care.
Despite my frustrations, I’m not here to condemn anyone. I’m writing today to express my love for the benefits of living in Canada. It’s a stretch for me to pay my taxes this year in particular, but better that than saddled with a crippling medical debt that would bankrupt me if I lived elsewhere.
To paraphrase George Carlin, it makes sense to be glad to be Canadian. Pride overlooks the fact that my citizenship is an accident of birth. I was lucky enough to be born here. I didn’t earn my citizenship. That’s why I’m also glad to say that we take in many immigrants. People who work hard to get here and gain citizenship earn what I have the privilege of taking for granted.
Apologies
Canada is not perfect.Like any country, Canada has problems. Those frets need to be addressed but we’ve got a lot of love around hereto help fuel the solutions.As long as care and compassion are guiding principles, we surely can’t go too far wrong.
I am so grateful that our country is not seen as a great power full of threats. Instead, our reputation is that of a people who are so polite we apologize too much. Better to say sorry too often than not at all.
I’m a writer in Canada, feeling safe, sound and productive.
Yes, if you look closely you’ll see my autographed photo of Kevin Smith.
Please note: What follows is a post from my Facebook Fan Page. If you’ve read my books and dig what I do, you could join us for daily updates, peeks behind the curtain, excerpts from my work in progress and assorted fun bits of nonsense from Ex Parte Press.
I have revised 20,000 words of Bright Lights, Big Deal. I have 93,000 to go. I’ll probably end up cutting a lot of that down. For every book I write, I keep an ODDS file. In this file, I put all my deleted passages, the boring bits, the inappropriate bits and stuff that doesn’t work or serve the story.
I wrote Bright Lights, Big Deal a very long time ago, before This Plague of Days. It’s been interesting to see what I did then and how I’d do things differently now. The differences are fairly subtle most of the time. The later, genre stuff is more action-oriented. I’d say my main sin from back in the day is that my prose was too Canadian. By that I mean there was too much emphasis on character rather than plot movement. I like it when a lot of stuff is happening and character is revealed in reaction to the action.
Same thing happened with This Plague of Days. Originally, it was a plague novel but it was not a zombie novel. I wrote the first book with no zombie content. It was more about society falling apart and how the disaster affected one family. As I wrote and revised and wrote and revised, I added more action because (shrug and smile): too Canadian. (I wanted to write something commercial with the literary aspect in the background.)
There isn’t much Canlit I really like. I have a Robertson Davies reference in Amid Mortal Words. I liked Atwood’s Oryx and Crake but couldn’t get through The Handmaid’s Tale. The Canadian sci-fi I read was Spider Robinson, Robert J Sawyer, and William Gibson.
The writing I love is mostly from American writers: Heinlein, Truman Capote, Stephen King, and William Goldman. (I went through a Norman Mailer phase in university but got past it.)
Who are the authors you most admire? What books are on your must-read or must-read-again list?
My top ten list is:
1. The Color of Light by William Goldman. 2. The Stand by Stephen King. 3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (loved all the movies, too, but especially the version with Phillip Seymore Hoffman.) 4. Boys and Girls Together by William Goldman. 5. The Princess Bride (Goldman again for the win.) 6. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth. 7. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. 8. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (the only book that ever truly scared me) 9. The Tommyknockers by Stephen King (wild card choice a lot of fans wouldn’t put in their top ten but I loved it and learned a couple of writing tricks from it, too.) 10. Stephen King On Writing, more for the biography than the writing advice. I’ve read it once and listened to it twice.
I’m looking at favorite books I didn’t write, of course. Choosing favorites from my backlist is like asking me to choose a fave child.
