Get ready to fight to the death. You might even have to fight beyond death.
AFTER was constructed to save us. When the medical biotech is weaponized, AFTER becomes an agent of warfare. Infected humans transform into rampaging killers. No one is safe.
Task Force Officer Daniel Harmon has one job: Stop the epidemic before it escapes a military research lab. As the body count rises, he’ll discover a dark conspiracy that will change our fate forever.
They will call this Apocalypse. We call it Revolution. On which side will you fall?
From the author of This Plague of Days comes a fresh zombie trilogy about technology gone horribly awry. It will feel too real.
Everybody’s best writing advice was, “Never kill a dog in your story.” Then along came John Wick, and even that tried-and-true nugget was thrown out the window. To tremendous success, I might add. This reinforces (for the umptimillionth time) that William Goldman was right. “Nobody knows anything.”
Solid writing advice was passed on to me from a film producer:
“If it plays, it plays.”
Some things will work, and some things won’t. When it comes to fiction, often we don’t find out what works best until it’s tested in the marketplace. InThe Night Man, truth be told, I killed off some dogs, but I hedged my bets. I saved a couple who became integral to the story.
But what’s the story?
In The Night Man, Easy Jack is a wounded veteran with a bum knee and a bad dad. When he returns home to Orion, Michigan, he plans to go back to training guard dogs. Unfortunately, he discovers the town has a long memory of his past deeds and his high school sweetheart is in deep trouble. Worse, dirty cops pull him into a billionaire’s bomb plot.
But how do you make the hard turn acceptable to animal lovers?
I love dogs. I get the aversion, but I did a few things in this thriller to make the conflict more palatable.
It’s not gratuitous. I don’t care for gore, so the worst stuff happens out of the hero’s (and the reader’s) view.
It makes sense for the plot. I didn’t throw it in there for shock value alone.
This loss ups the stakes and steels the protagonist’s spine.
There is revenge and redemption to be had following the hero’s loss.
Two treasured dogs survive and are an ongoing presence through the thriller’s twists and turns.
So, you love dogs. I love dogs. Trust me, you’re in good hands when you decide to try The Night Man.
The bad guys have money, power, and a jet packed with explosives. To make his stand, our hero is armed with quick wit and a Smith and Wesson. Easy Jack also has a loyal German Shepherd named Sophie by his side. To combat the shady side of small-town America, this wounded Army Ranger will have to enter the darkness he hoped to leave behind.
From the author of the Hit Man Series comes a killer thriller.The Night Man won first prize in the genre category at the Hollywood Book Festival!
“You’re guaranteed a mighty fine read.” ~ Claude Bouchard, USA Today Bestselling author of the Vigilante Series.
Easy Jack isn’t a bad guy, but to survive, he will have to act like one.
Returning home after serving his country, Ernest “Easy” Jack hoped his family’s reputation had been forgotten. No such luck in Lake Orion. Small towns have long memories. Grudges run deep. Worse, his high school sweetheart is trapped in an abusive marriage. Family bonds, love, and loyalty will be tested when a sociopathic billionaire and a dirty cop conspire to use Easy in a deadly bomb plot.
Vengeance is Hers is set in the fictional town of Poeticule Bay, Maine, a community inspired by the author’s Nova Scotia upbringing. The story begins with a morally satisfying act of revenge, but as Molly grows into adulthood and pursues a life in academia, her motivations become more complex and unsettling. This is a noir-tinged character study that spans more than a decade, exploring adult themes and emotional loss. A late twist surprised me, yet it felt exactly right. I read this as a beta reader but received no compensation other than the pleasure of engaging with a smart, gripping novel. I highly recommend it.
(Thank you to ARC reader extraordinaire, Russell! I certainly appreciate it!)
The ways we live depend so much on how we feel. I’ve had a massive life change recently, and it’s boosted my writing career, too. I’m sleeping better. I’m also up very early in the morning, eager to start the day. I used to need a crowbar to pry myself out from under those cozy covers. Now, I’m up and at ’em. A healthier Rob is a more productive and happier Rob. This allows me to serve my readers better, too.
What changed?
A couple of months ago, I joined a program called LifestyleRx. It’s sponsored by the Canadian government to improve citizens’ health. It’s geared to people with diabetes and pre-diabetes, though the strategies apply to just about everyone.
It cuts way down on sugar, but they don’t push any one diet. You don’t have to do keto or become a vegan. It’s just sane, science-backed tactics. You’re encouraged to eat healthier, move more, de-stress from the distress, and live a better quality of life. Their mantra is, “Better, not perfect.”
When I took my medical training, the goals were, “Add years to your life and life to your years.” I’m finally doing it, and this feels very sustainable.
For those interested in trying it out, a few more details:
You get extensive, free blood tests (and you take waist, BP, and weight measurements).
Consultation with a physician (who shares the test results with your GP).
Weekly group calls with other patients like you. The doctor and a dietitian are on the call to provide information and guide the discussion.
The option for one-on-one counseling with a dietitian. (This costs, but is often covered by insurance)
A community that shares the journey, plus plenty of healthy recipes and general support.
Weekly accountability (which is crucial for me).
An education program with videos and printouts.
I’m getting a lot out of LifeStyleRx. Besides losing weight, getting stronger, and feeling better, the biggest change is my level of energy. That translates to more creative energy.
If you can’t do LifeStyleRx, there are plenty of other ways to do something similar. I encourage you to do so. It feels wonderful to get out of bed every day with a feeling of purpose and the newfound ability to achieve that purpose.
Forgiveness versus Vengeance is one of the central themes of my next vigilante justice thriller. From Luigi Mangione’s actions to burning Teslas, this is a timely topic. Many turn away from these highly publicized acts of violence with little more than a shrug. There are good reasons for this. In the battle between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, fear wins. Fear is the emotion poorly hidden beneath anger. It’s a neurological response, and schadenfreude is baked into our brain’s wiring.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” ~ Yoda
Yoda is quotable. It’s a good line (and you heard the Yoda voice, right?) However, I think he’s got it backward (which fits his typical grammar). Fear is a protective mechanism. Wariness of dangers increases our odds of survival. Frustration and fear lead to anger and resistance. The Jedi weren’t a bunch of pacifists. Hence, all the cool lightsaber duels. Those Jedi knights were down and out for quite a while but rose again to fight the Empire. I agree, don’t succumb to evil, but don’t be a chump, either.
For Mere Mortals, Forgiveness Isn’t So Easy.
Sixty-seven percent of people surveyed say they believe in forgiveness. Sounds good and upright, doesn’t it? Dig deeper. Fifty-six percent admit they don’t practice that virtue. I don’t blame them. Most would agree that forgiveness is healthy for the person doing the forgiving. However, no one instructs us how to forgive and forget. Instead., we get guilt-ridden platitudes that deny our humanity and our reality.
To err is human, to forgive divine, but we’re no angels.
I have an excellent memory, so how am I to forget? Frontal lobotomy? And if I forgive you your trespasses, do either of us learn anything? By refusing to forgive, I deny the offender the opportunity to trespass against me again. Sounds to me like carrying grudges is a safer course.
I asked my psychologist if she believes in forgive and forget. (When I say “My psychologist,” I refer to She Who Must Be Obeyed, AKA my wife.) She holds a doctorate in psychology and is the most sane person I know. That’s why I was so surprised when she did not hesitate to answer, “No.”
She acknowledges that forgiveness is difficult. In many cases, it’s an unreasonable expectation set by out-of-touch purists. The good doctor offered hope, though. She suggested, “Maybe the best you can do is to get to a place and time where you just don’t care anymore.”
“Or,” I countered, “write a massive hit thriller that’s packed with clever revenge fantasies to plague your real-life enemies!”
She’s going to start charging me for these sessions, isn’t she?
The writing workshop in Toronto is coming up in a couple of weeks. I am preparing to pitch literary agents for Vengeance Is Hers. Four agents I would consider partnering with are at the workshop. I have three others in mind, as well. Part of the prep work is to have the partial ready for their review. I have a sample ready.
Hot tip:
If you are pitching to agents or just want to give away a sample of your work for a book fair, a signing, or some other such trial by fire, get a QR code. I do have a presentation package for agents, but I won’t be lugging around a manuscript like some early 19th century peasant. I’m a modern ink-stained wretch. Instead, I’ll just give the QR code to link to the partial. If they want more, I’ve provided an email for further inquiries.
What’s New?
I have added menus to this website. Above, you’ll find links to my bio and what reviewers say about my work. The pitch and partial for Vengeance Is Hers is found under For Literary Agents. Of course, if you aren’t a literary agent but want a sneak peek of a badass story about a young woman on a righteous quest for revenge, enjoy a taste of vengeance!
One of the strangest turns in the news came this week when an alarming and easily predicted future became mundane history. Trump posted, “Long live the King.” That wasn’t surprising. However, some of his cult members backed him by celebrating. “Trump is king!” Many of these same folks post 1776 in their social media bios. Knuckleheaded knuckledraggers may know their country’s history. It seems they’ve abandoned the values they claimed they most cherished. Monarchy is back, baby! Get used to it!
Reminds one of the so-called evangelicals who, last year, decided to let go the gentler teachings of Christ. Jesus was “too woke” for our troubled times, apparently. They still call themselves Christian, just meaner and in a roid rage, I guess.
What feeds this nonsense? Bias.
There are many types of cognitive bias that affect us. There is hindsight bias, loss aversion bias, the gambler’s fallacy, and the beastly Dunning-Kruger effect. The D-K effect plus confirmation bias is a lethal combination, dangerous to civilization.Those are the better-known afflictions. I have a couple of favorites that may not be on your radar:
Survivor Bias
Survivor bias goes like this: “We live in a land of opportunity! I make a lot of money, so why can’t everybody else?”
This bias plays into the myth of the self-made individual. It ignores a plethora of historical, systemic, and personal variables. This bias turns the principle of fair financial compensation into a cruel game of keep-away. When interviewed, successful people often extol the virtue of hard work. Only a few self-aware ones say, “I worked hard, but I got incredibly lucky! I made it, but I’m not altogether sure how, but I know I’m an outlier.” It’s much more tempting to believe “I built X and now own a couple of yachts because I’m a genius.”
Lots of people work hard and are never adequately compensated. If success were so easily replicable, more people would attain it. For instance, if you’re a nepobaby who won the genetic lottery, the path to stardom is paved with pillows. Nobody who catches those breaks talks about that. When asked the secret to their success, I’ve heard actors say, “I know my lines and I show up on time.” Learning a script can be difficult, but showing up on time? You mean like every other employee on the planet? That’s blind privilege talking, you handsome dunce. That’s survivor bias.
Survivor bias doesn’t come up first as one of the more lethal societal ills, but it is dangerous. It feeds a delusion that’s used as a cudgel on the oppressed and unfortunate. If the poor deserve to be poor, you only care if you’re poor. Not much room for kindness and mercy there, huh? Survivor bias makes its believer a terrible person and everyone else worse off.
Normalcy Bias
An author friend messaged me to ask, since I write apocalyptic novels, does our current political situation feel like I’m living in one of my books? I’ve written about the many ways empires fall. My back catalog includes zombies, vampires, AI domination, killer robots, alien invasion, meteors, climate crises, disease, nuclear conflagration, mass poverty, and famine. Lots of fun to explore in fiction, right? What’s unfolding now, though? I couldn’t write it because so much of it sounds outlandish, too dumb, and replete with hissy fits. Nuclear stockpile inspectors and warhead assembly experts getting fired en masse sounds too silly, doesn’t it?That happened. Then somebody said, “Oopsy! Get them back! Where are their email addresses? What do you mean you deleted their email addresses?”
The doomsday clock is now 89 seconds to midnight. The world is teetering toward all your worst nightmares. Still, we carry on, believing that cooler heads will prevail. That, my friends, is normalcy bias.
The courts decided they couldn’t allow a presidential candidate to go to jail for even one day for his crimes. He should have been confined for contempt and endangering officers of the court, at the very least. Didn’t happen. Couldn’t happen. That was normalcy bias at its dark and dirty work. You’ve always been told no one is above the law. Obviously not so.
The objection always comes to changing circumstances: “X can’t happen because it’s never happened before. It would be unprecedented!”
This is a recurring theme in my fiction (and my answer to this complaint):
Everything is unprecedented until it’s not.
Normalcy bias keeps you dangerously comfortable. It assures you that the health insurance you have relied on will always be there for you. Why? Because it always has been. To lose it would be unprecedented! (See above.)
Normalcy bias kept endangered people from fleeing Germany before World War II broke out. Normalcy bias assures people that all their investments are safe until the stock market collapses. Normalcy bias made Canadians, Mexicans, and all NATO allies feel that the United States government would be their friend. The news reveals the truth: People have friends. Governments have interests.
Human behavior, mental illness, and neurobiology are interests I try to monetize by writing novels with flawed characters. Sometimes, they suffer mental health issues like mine (anxiety, for one instance). Other times, they use their knowledge to manipulate others. It’s fun in fiction. When cognitive biases dominate our media intake and the political sphere, ignorant people transform into monsters and innocent people suffer and die. Our biases make us more vulnerable to personal and systemic failure. Ignorance can be cured easily, but stupid is much more complicated.
Biases kill.
(On the other hand, when I meet with literary agents in April, I’ll pull from my bag of tricks in the pitch meetings to sell my next book, but that’s another post. Villainous laughter: Mwah-ha-ha-ha!) In the meantime, have you read All Empires Fall yet?
