Tag: science fiction

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Read Banned Books

As my beta readers review my latest manuscript, I’m preparing for my next book launch. Some marketing gurus say authors should start promoting their books at least a year in advance, or the at the moment of conception, whichever comes earliest. That sounds like an exhausting marathon for both of us, but I’m cranking up the hype machine. In the meantime, there’s plenty of books to read while you eagerly await my next masterpiece. Right? Right?

There are many variables with these endeavors.

When I launched Endemic in October 2021, Amazon sabotaged me. Despite multiple calls to customer support, they wouldn’t allow me to run ads. It was obtuse, but my story about how people change and how they don’t was hidden from view. Oh, yeah, and the backdrop was New York, fallen to a pandemic. No doubt, the AI bots at Amazon suffocated my baby because of the title. They thought my sci-fi content could some misleading or controversial statement about the real world. It was fiction, not misleading, and possibly controversial to some pearl-clutchers.

Happily, Endemic went on to win the prestigious North Street Book Prize in genre fiction, a Literary Titan Award, and first place in science fiction at both the New York Book Festival and the Hollywood Book Festival. Vindication!

https://books2read.com/u/mVPPy5

Eventually, Amazon lifted the ban, but the experience left me bitter, gun shy, and feeling a deeper sympathy for authors of banned books everywhere. I’m assuming that, because my heroine in Endemic is asexual, the book would get banned if the censors were paying attention. (Looking forward to that! I’d be in good company.)

Given the state of the world, it’s significant that some of the censors’ favorite targets make political points. I’m with Stephen King on this: If they don’t want you to read it, add it to your reading list. Throughout history, the book banners have never been the good guys. Some examples of banned books I’ve read that I consider essential are:

  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  • The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

This is not a comprehensive list, but if you haven’t read any of the above, I recommend you fill that gap. Or even read this one:

Ovid Fairweather is a neurodivergent book editor in New York when a deadly plague sweeps the United States. Bullied by her father, haunted by her dead therapist, and hunted by marauders, Ovid must find courage amid the chaos to become the person she was always meant to be.

She was a nail., She will become a hammer.

CLICK HERE TO BUY ENDEMIC
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The Neurodivergent Book Editor Wins


I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I can finally announce that Endemic has won first place in genre fiction from the North Street Book Awards. They say my story about a neurodivergent book editor overcoming childhood trauma in the viral apocalypse is a “fresh twist“ in apocalyptic fiction.

http://mybook.to/TheEndemicExperience

In addition to a cash prize and various goodies, I received a nifty T-shirt and a certificate.)


This is Endemic’s fourth win. It previously received a Literary Titan Award and first place at both the Hollywood Book Festival and the New York Book Festival.

One of the (possibly dubious?) benefits is a critique of the book via the judges. Note the huge difference in tone between the ominous word “critique” and the glorious word “review.”

For the most part, the critique is delighted and delightful. I had to giggle at one piece of commentary wherein a judge suggested she would have enjoyed Endemic even more if it were a completely different book. Also, in my estimation, the suggestion of a different cover would have hurt the novel. But these are niggles. Reading between the lines, it’s easy to appreciate how different readers will see a narrative through their particular lens . Obviously, they loved Endemic overall.

Congratulations to all the winners! You’ll find them all listed here.

You can buy Endemic in hardcover, paperback, and ebook here.

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My Christmas Book Suggestion


In Endemic, the protagonist is Ovid Fairweather, a neurotic book editor who becomes an urban farmer in the viral apocalypse. Guided by her dead therapist, she has to deal with the many dangers other survivors pose, but deep down, this is about how we change and how we don’t.

Endemic has won the Literary Titan Award and earned first place at the New York Book Festival and the Hollywood Book Festival.

Bulletin! This is just in!

“We are excited to inform you the following title is included in the Prime Reading program on Amazon.ca from 1-Dec-2022 to 1-Jun-2023.” ~ Amazon

Endemic is live on Amazon!

So Endemic is in PR now! They said it would be three months, but apparently, this goes all the way to June! In case you’re wondering, the internet goblins can define the situation for us: “Prime Reading is a benefit for Amazon Prime members that makes over a thousand eBooks available for borrowing, at no extra cost. You can keep up to ten eBooks at a time and there are no due dates.“

Whether you’re in Prime or not, you can still read the ebook, paperback, or hardcover,
May I humbly (or not so humbly) suggest the hardcover would make an excellent Christmas gift? Sure, I can!

Some readers have asked me what the power and the curse is in the subtitle to Endemic. It’s the same element: memory. Our experiences make us who we become. Our memories burn us and forge us.

Thank you, and have a great binge-read.

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Endemic Wins the Literary Titan Book Award

Literary Titan reviewed Endemic very favorably recently. Now it’s won their Silver Award.

From their website:: The Literary Titan Silver Award is bestowed on books that expertly deliver complex and thought-provoking concepts. The ease with which ideas are conveyed is a reflection of the author’s talent in exercising fluent, powerful, and appropriate language.

After just winning its category (Science Fiction) at the New York Book Festival, this is a nice boost for Endemic. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s the story of a bookish and withdrawn woman finding her way through New York’s viral apocalypse. Haunted by her past and guided by her dead therapist, Ovid Fairweather must rise against her enemies. She was a nail. She will be a hammer.

Find it on your Amazon store here. Enjoy!

Endemic is live on Amazon!
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Why Endemic Went Viral

First off, many thanks for all the congratulations that flooded in for Endemic winning its category at the New York Book Festival. I treasured every note and email. I also discovered how often my posts and tweets are utterly ignored. Folks I hadn’t heard from in years popped up to say hi! That was nice. This is also your friendly reminder that I’m a scintillating delight all the time, not just when I win a literary award. (wink!)

Second, I have a fresh interview about Endemic over at Literary Titan. It’s about the demands of writing relatable apocalyptic fiction in the middle of a pandemic. There I was in my blanket fort, masked up and hypervigilant, washing groceries, and as paranoid as a squirrel on cocaine. What to do? What to do? Write the drama and trauma, of course!

An actual viral apocalypse was on like Donkey Kong. Bodies were filling freezer trucks outside my local hospital. In hindsight, it might have been cheerier to try a different genre. Sweet romance might have been easier to sell when readers were looking for a cheerier escape. However, the themes of Endemic run deep. Although I wrote a fictionalized bio of my criminal exploits in New York (Brooklyn in the Mean Time), it is Endemic that claims the prize of being my most personal book.

I wrote Endemic because I had to.

Read the full interview here: https://literarytitan.com/2022/07/31/the-real-demands-of-the-end-of-the-world/

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Endemic wins at the New York Book Festival!

Endemic is live on Amazon!

Thank you New York Book Festival Judges!


Thanks goes out to Gari Strawn of strawnediting.com. She is my Editrix Supreme, and she always makes me better. Thanks to Pete, my friend who got me book doctoring work that financed the budget for applying for awards. Thanks also to 100covers for their work in putting together the graphics package for this novel.

For anyone who doubted, I have to say I feel exonerated and wonderful. Coming first in Science Fiction/Horror is a big deal to me. This is my ninth writing award, but since Endemic is an apocalyptic tale set in NYC, it feels extra special. I guess I got it right!

Frankly, I’ve felt that Endemic has been underrated, so maybe this award will help the book find more readers. That’s what happened with my bestseller, when This Plague of Days, so I’m hopeful. There’s a lot of hoping in this business, so this is a nice lift!

Endemic is available as an ebook, hardcover, and paperback.

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Guess which apocalypse will kill you

There is an apocalypse coming no one talks about. Try to guess which end of the world scenario I’m not writing about before you get to the end of this post. My books will help you with the process of elimination.

  • Endemic (coming soon) is a nerdy and neurotic person combatting sociopaths while trying to survive a viral apocalypse.
  • Citizen Second Class is about poverty and starvation amid a climate catastrophe and greed.
  • AFTER Life is about artificial intelligence weaponizing medical technology to take over the world.
  • This Plague of Days is a zombie apocalypse (and other species evolving to take over the world).
  • The Night Man is about PTSD, societal failure, family drama, war, poverty, and regret.
  • Wallflower is a time travel novel about second chances after a lot of bad decisions.
  • The Dimension War Series is a coming-of-age story amid a war story.
  • Amid Mortal Words is about the loss of control and taking chances on a better future.
  • Brooklyn in the Mean Time is about vengeance, absolution, and redemption.
  • Robot Planet is about technological revolution and failure versus the human spirit.
  • The Hit Man Series is about violence, vengeance, and escape amid a broken America.
  • All Empires Fall is an anthology of five end-of-the-world stories and the common denominator is dealing with other people while everything falls apart.

Have you guessed the missing apocalypse yet?

Climate wars are a big deal, but I touched on that in Citizen Second Class. We could talk about the Misinformation War or new civil war scenarios, but Endemic has that covered. I dealt with extinction by killer asteroid in All Empires Fall. If you guessed the nuclear threat, Amid Mortal Words has that, too. You might have guessed the looming threat of antibiotic resistance. But, no, I’m thinking of something utterly devastating to the future of humanity. It’s close and almost no one ever talks about even beginning to deal with this extinction-level event.

The apocalypse that haunts me is this: In 60 years, Earth will have insufficient viable topsoil to grow 95% of all crops.

Read that last sentence again and ponder its significance. My kids will be alive for this. Coffee, bananas, and almonds will disappear first. Then everything else.

Sixty years and we aren’t dealing with the threat. There are no massive contingency plans. Unless helpful aliens are waiting to swoop in, no one is coming to rescue us. We’ll probably run out of soil before we run out of usable water, but it feels like it’s all a race to the end, doesn’t it?

So…call me Mr. Sunshine and read my books now, while you still can.

COMING THIS MONTH!

What happens when a pandemic never ends? Find out in Endemic.

Neurotic and nerdy, former book editor Ovid Fairweather is trapped in New York as everything falls apart.

All her life, she’s been a nail. To survive the viral apocalypse, she’ll have to become a hammer.