As many of you know, I also write mystery and suspense books under the name Jack Nolte.  Well, after far too long a wait, I finally have exciting news to share:  The next Garrison Gage book is now available — A DESPERATE PLACE FOR DYING. As of this moment, it’s only available as an ebook, but the paperback should be out in early April.  Special thanks to all the people who helped bring this book into being, from my wife, who always serves as my trusted first reader, to the copy editor who helped me weed out as many typos as possible.

I really enjoyed writing this one and hope readers find it fun as well.  I’ve also appreciated all of your wonderful emails.  And if you want to help?  Well, spread the word any way you can!  Facebook, Twitter, random graffiti . . . Oh, and most importantly, if you enjoy the book and have a few minutes, please consider posting a review online at Amazon, B&N, or wherever you bought it.  Even if just the people who emailed me did this, it could really make a difference.  Most readers don’t realize how much those reviews help, and only a tiny, tiny fraction of readers ever do it.

More information is below, including where you can currently buy it.

A DESPERATE PLACE FOR DYING

by Jack Nolte

An old flame.  A killer on the loose.  A crazy cult on the rise.

Nearly a year has passed since Garrison Gage became the reluctant guardian of a troubled teenage girl, but neither fatherhood nor the the intervening months has improved his mood. His right knee is still mostly worthless. He still prefers to drink his bourbon alone. And even with a certain blonde bombshell a persistent part of his life, he still can’t be bothered to buy a cell phone. Or any phone, for that matter. Why? Then somebody might call him.

But grumpy as Gage can be, he still finds that life on the Oregon Coast has settled into a comfortable if not happy routine — until the man who murdered his wife shows up in town.

That’s just for starters. A desperate plea from an old flame — his first love, in fact — soon entangles Gage in a high profile case involving a famous and brazenly outspoken lecturer on evolution and atheism, a crazy fundamentalist cult that uses all means necessary to silence its critics, and a brutal local murder of a far more personal nature.

Before the mystery can be unraveled, Gage’s abilities and beliefs will be put to the ultimate test. And the man who claims he doesn’t need anyone will discover he may just lose everything.

Available in Ebook Format Now:

Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

Paperback:

Coming soon

For those of you who prefer reading books the old fashioned way, The Care and Feeding of Rubber Chickens: A Novel is now available in trade paperback.  The printed book also includes something the ebook doesn’t — excerpts from The Care and Feeding of Rubber Chickens:  A Manual. Here’s a shot of the cover flat (click it for a larger image):

It’s a handsome book and I’m quite proud of it.  Right now you can only buy it from Amazon.com, but it should be available at other online retailers in the next few weeks.  The ebook is already available everywhere.

Writing has been going well lately, though making sure I spend my time on the most productive things has been increasingly challenging.  Since I both work with traditional publishers (like Simon and Schuster, who will be publishing Wooden Bones in a couple of months), and help run Flying Raven Press, I’m busier than ever.

Battling a bit of a cold doesn’t help, but that comes with the territory of having two kids in school.  Teaching the “Indie Publishing” workshop a couple weeks ago was a lot of fun.  Not only did I get to hang out with old friends and meet new ones, I also got to pay it forward a bit.  (Since I really can’t pay back all the people who have helped me over the years with my writing, the best thing I can do is help other writers any way I can.)  The modern publishing world is dramatically different than it was even three years ago, and the skill set that a writer needs to survive and thrive in the coming years is also different.  Writing blurbs, cover design, understanding how to promote and how not to — these are vital skills.   At one point, I summed up everything we talked about all weekend by saying that there were three primary ways you could sell better and make more money as a writer working today:

1. Produce more products.
2. Produce better products.
3. Sell in more places.
   

That’s it.  That’s the key.  It means being prolific (I have little doubt that the prolific writers of today will be the ones doing the best in five or ten years) but also mastering the storyteller’s art.  It means not only writing better books, but learning how to craft catchy blurbs and design snazzy book covers — if you decide to combine traditional publishing with indie publishing, which is exactly what the smart writers are doing now.  (Self-publishing, though it got something of a dirty reputation recently, has always been the most common way for writers to reach their audience.  Charles Dickens, Ben Franklin, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the list goes on and on. )  It means making sure your books are available in as many places as possible and in as many formats as possible — paperback, ebook, audio, etc. It also means — and this is probably the hardest part — making sure you’re spending your time wisely.  This is one of the reasons I’ve given up all social media, why I attend few writing workshops or conferences, and why I seldom blog.  Usually these things don’t pass what I’ve taken to calling the W.I.B.B.O.W. test, an ugly acronym which is short for Would I Be Better Off Writing?  And for me, writing means fiction writing, since that’s the guiding passion of my life.

I have nothing against writers who enjoy conferences, Facebook, blogging, or Twitter.  It’s just, for me, I mostly prefer to spend that time writing fiction.  It’s nice that I now live in a publishing era where the smartest business decision for a fiction writer, at least in my opinion, is to do exactly that.  We’ll see if time proves me right.

This is neat, and worth checking out: Edward Kinsella, the illustrator behind the cover of my book, WOODEN BONES, posted a behind-the-scene glimpse of how he came up with the design. He also had some kind words to say about the book — thanks Edward!  I can happily say I feel the same about his illustration, which really captured the spirit of the book. 

We’re still six months from publication, but there’s already a bit of buzz brewing about it, so we’re all hopeful it sells well.  In fact, some of the early sales news has been so encouraging that I’ve already started sketching out a sequel.  Now I just need Tim Burton to call and say he’d like to turn it into a movie and life will be about perfect.

The hardcover is already available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Powells. Pre-order it today to make sure you get a first edition.   At just over $10, it’s quite a bargain.

More about the book can be found on this page.

Also, remember that I have a website dedicated to just my books for younger readers at www.rymadoon.com.  Since I write books that aren’t appropriate for kids, too, I’m trying to make it easier for people to know which ones are targeted at a younger audience.

Yep, that’s the title, and it’s certainly one of my crazier ones.  If memory serves, I made a joke years ago saying that was going to be the name of my next book – and then realized that, actually, I kind of liked it if I could find the right book to go with it.  So I jotted it down and forgot about it until I thought of this first line:  “My dad owns a rubber chicken factory.”

With that, I was off and running, and the result is a strange combination of wacky and poignant as I tell the story of Trevor Livingston and his thousand-mile quest to tell the girl of his dreams how he really feels about her.  And of course, nothing goes quite as expected.  More about the book below.  (It’s available as an ebook now, with the paperback to follow in a few months.)

If you liked The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys or President Jock, Vice President Geek, you’ll probably like this one.  It has a very similar tone and feel.  It’s aimed at young adults in the 16-18 range, but I think adult readers might like it even more.

And this is also completes, at least for the short term, what I consider my contemporary YA trilogy.  By contemporary, I mean there’s no fantasy, aliens, or any of that crazy stuff that happens in a lot of my fiction — just modern day teens struggling with modern day issues.  I happen to have a pretty broad taste when it comes to both reading and writing, but for now at least, I’ve said what I want to say on this front and I’m turning my attention to other books for a while. 

What will those books be?  Ah, to answer that question would be to spoil the fun, wouldn’t it?  And of course I don’t always know myself.  Sometimes all I have to go on is a strange title . . .

The Care and Feeding of Rubber Chickens:  A Novel

by Scott William Carter

Seventeen-year-old Trevor can’t catch a break. Just when he finds out that Janna, the girl of his dreams, is finally available, his mom tells him he’s being shipped off to a boarding school because of his awful grades. A desperate call to his dad, who owns a rubber chicken factory in Las Vegas, gets him nowhere. His father is more interested in enlisting Trevor’s aid writing what he sees as the perfect gag gift – a how-to manual about rubber chickens. That’s Trevor’s life for you. Everyone around him is totally and utterly insane.

But there’s still Janna. He’s had a crush on her since sixth grade. Can he get himself to say the words to her that he’s been rehearsing for years? He finally musters the courage to visit her house and find out.

That’s when everything goes crazy.

*****

Grade 10 Up – “My dad owns a rubber chicken factory.” With this zany first line, readers are launched on a surprisingly poignant coming-of-age journey. Part buddy story, part road trip adventure, and part ruminations on the difference between love and infatuation, Carter offers up a vivid portrait of a young man – Trevor Livingston – who blunders into a thousand-mile quest to tell the girl of his dreams how he really feels about her. Although the book is appropriate for more mature young adult readers, adults may find even greater enjoyment in Trevor’s distinctive voice and abundant references to popular culture – Star Trek and The Princess Bride, for example, are favorite targets. Fans of Carter’s award-winning first novel, The Last Great Getaway of the Water Balloon Boys, are certain to find this heartfelt look at the angst and insanity of modern adolescence an equally riveting read.

Electronic Edition:
Amazon | B&N | Smashwords   

Paperback Edition:
Coming soon.

Flying Raven Press has just released the audio book version of  Lincoln and the Dragon, a short novel of just under 100 pages at print length.  It’s now available at Amazon.com, Audible.com, and iTunes.com.  Listening time is just under two hours.  Special thanks to Gary L Willprecht for his excellent narration.  Here’s more about the book:

The fateful first of January. That’s how Abraham Lincoln described New Year’s Day in 1841, the day he temporarily broke off his engagement with Mary Todd.

Although this fact is well known among historians, what is not known is what else happened that day – when a deranged, dimension-hopping descendant of a Confederate general attempted to assassinate Lincoln long before he became the 16th President of the United States.

When the madman’s plan goes awry, Lincoln finds himself stranded in the land of Howander, a world populated by brave knights, drafty castles, and a princess terribly scarred by a one-eyed dragon who’s promised to return for her on her upcoming birthday. As he finds himself falling for the princess, Lincoln must make a choice: stay and fight the dragon, or heed the call of his dark dreams, which offer him tantalizing glimpses of his native country’s future – a country which may need a hero even more than this one.

Well, the holidays came and went with the usual fanfare.  Lots of food, lots of gift wrapping, lots of good times.  And it’s raining a lot again here in the Willamette Valley.  Rainy and cold in January — no shock.  All the traditions continue.

I’m co-teaching a workshop in “indie publishing” with Dean Wesley Smith next month in Lincoln City, Oregon: “The Indie Writer’s Tool Kit: How to Sell Better and Make More Money,” February 25-28, basically from 7 p.m. on Friday until noon on Tuesday.  My own publishing company, Flying Raven Press, has added a nice secondary income to my life, and I know Dean is doing fantastically well with his own WMG Publishing.  Although I have no plans to abandon working with traditional publishing (Wooden Bones is coming out from Simon and Schuster this August), the opportunities to go direct to readers, and skip the middlemen, are incredible for writers today.  It’s given me tons of options I didn’t have two years ago.

Contact Dean if you’re interested in attending.

This is essentially a “level 2″ for those who attended the Think Like a Publisher Workshop last year, or for people who already have the basics of publishing an ebook and POD and want help taking it to the next level.  Should be a lot of fun.  The full workshop description is below, and Dean also has a very good post about why we tweaked the title — and the writer vs. author mindset in general.

Preparing for this workshop has also clarified my thinking about how best to spend my time as a writer and a publisher.  It’s also lead me to what other people might find are some surprising conclusions.  I no longer have a Facebook or Twitter account, for example.  And I no longer feel a need to blog regularly (in fact, I think doing so can actually be counterproductive).  Though I think it’s more important than ever to maintain an informative and accurate website.  It’s amazing how many author websites fail that simple test.

I’ll be talking about all that and more next month.  There are lots of things a writer can do to sell better and make more money.

~|~

The Indie Writer’s Tool Kit: How to Sell Better and Make More Money

For writers who attended the Think Like a Publisher Workshop, or people who aready know the basics of publishing an ebook or POD, here’s a workshop to help you take your publishing enterprise to the next level. Learn the basics of writing effective book descriptions, techniques to make your covers look professional, how to use the Internet to promote (and how not to), and how to get your print books into independent bookstores. Audio books, author bios, loss leaders, pricing effectively, boosting productivity, website tools — all this and more is packed into four
intense days of learning. Includes in depth discussions about the current
state of publishing and the exciting opportunities that exist for writers.  Contact Dean Wesley Smith for more information.

Took the family on a fun weekend trip to Seattle by Amtrak.  This is the view from my train window.

My science fiction story with a rather long title, “The Android Who Became a Human Who Became an Android,” has been reprinted in the Russian magazine, Esli, which roughly translates as “If” in English.  It was originally published in Analog in September 2010.

I got my contributor copy in the mail over the weekend, mailed all the way from Moscow, and it’s a sweet looking magazine.   First time I’ve been printed in Russian, as far as I know.  Only problem?  I can’t read a word of it.  They even translated my name!  The only way I was able to tell which story was mine was the copyright notice at the end of the story, which was in English.  Another weird moment in being a writer.

By the way, you can now buy this story individually to read in electronic format at Amazon, B&N, or, at Smashwords.com.  It’s a longish tale, nearly short novel length, so it’s a good deal for only 99 cents.  Here’s the blurb and the cover:

~ | ~

The Android Who Became a Human Who Became an Android
by Scott William Carter

It ain’t easy being a private investigator in a galaxy that spans thousand of worlds – especially when you make the mistake of putting your heart on the line. When an old flame of Dexter Duff’s shows up out of the blue, claiming her rich husband is missing, Duff has mixed feelings about getting involved. She’s willing to pay top dollar, though, and like usual, Duff is broke. The case turns even stranger when it turns out her husband, who was once an android, became a human for her sake through a costly and risky procedure – and then went back to being an android when she seemed happier with him the way he was before. Then he vanished without a trace.

Readers of this story may want to check out “The Bear Who Sang Opera,” another story featuring Dexter Duff, as well as other stories set in Carter’s Unity Worlds universe.

Available Now in Electronic Format:  Amazon | B&N | Smashwords

The scene:  Dinner.  My five-year-old, as usual, is complaining about what we’re feeding him.

Me:  I’m tired of the whining.  Someone made you a nice dinner, so the least you can do is eat it.  If you don’t, maybe I’ll write a book about you.  I’ll call it Calvin the Little Engine Who Couldn’t.  What do you think about that?

Calvin:  If you do that, if you do that – I’ll – I’ll take the napkins and throw them at your face.

Me:  Yeah, but I can get that book published and have it appear in every school library in America.  Millions of kids will know who you are.  So you shouldn’t try to one-up me.  I’ve got the advantage.

Calvin (thinking about it):  Then I’ll spank your bottom ten times.

Good news and bad news.  The good news is that it looks like you can now pre-order my fantasy, Wooden Bones, from Amazon.  It’s published by the same folks who brought you my first novel, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, and it’s aimed at 9-12 year-olds.  (Of course, I’m hoping adults will enjoy it just as much as kids – think Neil Gaiman’s Coraline,which is similar in tone and feel.)  The pitch line?  Becoming a real boy was just the beginning . . . It’s the untold story of Pinocchio, who, after he becomes a real boy, discovers he has the power to bring puppets to life himself. 

The bad news is that publication date is not until August 7, 2012, so you’ll have a bit of a wait.  There’s no description of the book up yet either; that will follow before too long. 

I can, however, now safely post the cover here, since the publisher has posted it on Amazon and elsewhere.  I’m very happy with it.  It really captures the right mood for the story.