Category: Fiction

New Book Published: THE GHOST WHO SAID GOODBYE

I mentioned this book was coming in my last post (and I informed my mailing list a few days ago*), but I’m pleased to announce that The Ghost Who Said Goodbye is now available in both print and ebook.  A sharp-witted private investigator who has a hard time telling the living apart from the dead? Check. A serial killer with a paranormal twist that only our hero can stop? Check. Elvis as a hot dog vendor? Yep, it’s all here. If you enjoyed Ghost Detective, I’m hoping you like this one, too.  More information about the book below.  (There are a few retailers, like iBooks, that will be available soon.)

*If you haven’t signed up for my mailing list, you can do so here. There will be some contests coming up soon, some free giveaways for my fans, so it’s worth a couple seconds of your time. And I only email a few times a year.

ghostgoodbye_cover031315The Ghost Who Said Goodbye
A Myron Vale Investigation

Ebook:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

Paperback:
Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

Genre: Fiction | Mystery

Even the dead can die . . . the second in the riveting series about the private investigator who bridges both sides of the great divide.

Charles Manson. Ted Bundy. Jeffrey Dahmer. Known for their cunning and savagery. In the late eighties, another infamous serial killer sent seventeen innocent people to early graves. Then, suddenly, the murders in the panicked city of Portland, Oregon, stopped–and the Goodbye Killer got away.

Myron Vale remembers it well. Long before a fateful bullet cursed him with the ability to see ghosts, he was the young son of the city’s most esteemed detective. The case changed Hank Vale, haunting him with a single glimpse of the killer’s otherworldly face. He was never the same man again. Or the same father.

Now a new victim points to the Goodbye Killer’s return. And when the most powerful forces on the other side of the great divide approach Myron desperate for help, he uncovers a terrifying truth. It’s not just the living who should fear for their immortal souls … even the dead can die.

What They’re Saying About the Series

“The Sixth Sense meets Spenser For Hire in Scott William Carter’s magnificent Ghost Detective.”– Michael J. Totten, author of Taken

“Scott is one of those rare writers who can and does cross genres, and do it well. You never know what kind of story you’ll get from him, but you do know that it’ll be good.” – Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Hugo award-winning author of The Disappeared

“A sultry blonde walks into a detective’s office. Big deal, seen it a million times, right? Wrong! THE GHOST DETECTIVE ranks as one of the most ingenious departures from the norm I’ve seen in a long time … I’ve always enjoyed Scott William Carter’s work, but THE GHOST DETECTIVE takes my admiration to a whole new level. I loved this book. ” – David H. Hendrickson, author of Cracking the Ice

“There is fantastic character development, snappy dialogue, and an interesting, intelligent plotline that kept me guessing up to the last page.”  –  Cheryl Stout, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer

“Ghost Detective has it all — suspense, humor, compelling characters, and a depth of emotion that kept me turning the pages into the wee hours of the morning.” – Leslie Claire Walker, author of Skin and Bone

“It’s very rare that find a novel that’s funny and sarcastic and poignant and scary, all at the same time. In GHOST DETECTIVE, Scott William Carter pulls all four off with amazing aplomb … A gripping, wonderful read – and I definitely look forward to the next Myron Vale novel. Highly recommended.” –  Kathryn Cunningham, Amazon Top 500 Reviewer

“Don’t let the title trick you into false assumptions; Ghost Detective is an outstanding book, one that uses its paranormal premise not as a way into scares or even romance, but instead uses it to explore ideas about loss, death, and our pasts. It’s really well-crafted stuff, and I’m excited to see that Carter plans more books in this series; after this one, I’m eager to see what comes next for Myron.”  –  Josh Mauthe,  The Library Police Podcast

“Scott William Carter takes aim at smooth genre blend and scores a bulls-eye … Fantastic read.” – Nathan E. Meyer, author Aldwyn’s Academy

FREE for a limited time: THE GRAY AND GUILTY SEA

guiltyseaA dead girl on the beach. A private investigator haunted by his wife’s death. Get THE GRAY AND GUILTY SEA for FREE for a limited time.

Set on the moody Oregon coast, The Gray and Guilty Sea is FREE as an ebook for a limited time from all of your favorite retailers.  Readers have called the book, the first in the Garrison Gage mystery series, “irresistible,” “unputdownable,” and a “fascinating character study.”

Want to find out why?  Now’s your chance.

Download the ebook for FREE:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

“Carter’s writing is on target.” – Publishers Weekly

  

A curmudgeon. An iconoclast. A loner. That’s how people describe Garrison Gage, and that’s when they’re being charitable.

After his wife’s brutal murder in New York, and Gage himself is beaten nearly to death, the crippled private investigator retreats three thousand miles to the quaint coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon. He spends the next five years in a convalescent stupor, content to bide his time filling out crossword puzzles and trying to forget that his wife’s death is his fault. But all that changes when he discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach, and his conscience draws him back into his old occupation – forcing him to confront the demons of his own guilt before he can hope to solve the girl’s murder.

Author’s Note:  A newly revised and reformatted edition of The Gray and Guilty Sea was published in June 2014.

  

If you get hooked on the grumpy Garrison Gage like many other readers, there are two more books in the series:

  The-Lovely-Wicked-Rain---Ebook-Cover-final

A New Edition of The Dinosaur Diaries (and Some Thoughts About WIBBOW)

dinosaurdiaries2_ebookcoverMy first short story collection, The Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time, has been republished by Flying Raven Press  (links to retailers below).  This is my own publishing company, of course, which gave me an opportunity to package the book in the way I really wanted it, with a snazzy new cover and everything.  The eighteen stories originally appeared in places like Asimov’s, Analog, Ellery Queen, and Weird Tales, among others. I have nothing against the fine folks who published the book originally back in 2010, but it was just time to make a change. 

I never liked the original cover much, and I also didn’t like that in the print edition they tried to squeeze 80,000 words into under 200 pages. It made the book seem quite thin, and even if the number of words is the same, it can give a potential reader the sense that the book is not worth the money if they happen to pick it up.  This print edition stretched it out to around 250 pages.  The original ebook was also four years old, so I took the opportunity to reformat it with some of the better tools available today.

From a business perspective, this was probably not the wisest use of my time. Yes, I’ll see a higher royalty, but honestly, if I was interested primarily in what was in the best interest of my bank account, the time spent re-publishing this book should have been spent working on new material.

From a writing perspective, however, it feels great.

Here’s how I see it.  I know there are writers who can approach writing purely from a business perspective, but that doesn’t work for me.  A few years ago, when Dean Wesley Smith and I were co-teaching some “Indie Publishing” workshops to help writers get started in this arena (this was way back in the cave man days of indie publishing, you know, circa 2011), I coined an ugly acronym as a test writers could use whether some non-writing related task was worth their time:  WIBBOW.

Which stands for Would I Be Better Off Writing?

Lo and behold, this ugly acronym actually caught on and I see mentions of it around the Internet, often by people I’ve never met.  The idea was that as indie publishing gained popularity, there were even more tempting ways to spend your time other than writing new material that could make you feel productive but, when playing the long game, might not be the best choice.

However, the thing about WIBBOW is that it is entirely subjective. It’s up to each writer to decide whether something is worth doing when measured against spending that time writing.  For me, re-publishing The Dinosaur Diaries passed the test, because I also operate by another motto:  Write for yourself, publish for the shelf.  What I mean is that no matter what happens with my writing career, I want to feel good about my choices.  I want to feel like I wrote what resonated with me (hoping it does for others) rather than writing what I think resonates with others (and hoping it will for me). And when I publish something, I want to be able to look at it on the shelf (even if that’s metaphorically, online) and feel that the book’s presentation is giving it the best chance to find an audience—and even if it fails it that regard, that I’ll always be proud of it when I look at it.

I’m proud of this book.  I hope my readers will feel the same.

* * *

dinosaurdiaries2_ebookcoverThe Dinosaur Diaries and Other Tales Across Space and Time

More About the Book

Available Now:

Ebook:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo 

Paperback:
Amazon  | B&N

 

New Book Published: THE LOVELY WICKED RAIN

It’s been far too long, but The Lovely Wicked Rain, the third in my Garrison Gage mystery series, is finally out in the world.  It was a lot of fun to spend a little time with Gage again, and I’m hoping my readers agree.  A little more information about the book is below.  These are standalone mysteries, so you don’t necessarily need to read the first two before reading this one, but they are books heavy on character, with an extended cast that return from book to book, so if you want to start from the first book, check out the Garrison Gage page on this site for more information.

 

The-Lovely-Wicked-Rain---Ebook-Cover-finalEbook:
Amazon | B&N |Kobo | iBooks

Paperback:
Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

(More links to retailers coming soon.)

Genre: Fiction | Mystery

A troubled young man.
A murder that shocks the town.
Buried secrets exposed to the world.

*****

They find him on the beach, shooting bullets into the sand. 

His name? Jeremiah Cooper, the son of the bullheaded high school football coach. Slight of build, soft of voice, he’s got all kinds of torment lurking behind his eyes. But despite Garrison Gage’s best efforts, he can’t pull the kid out of his shell. Then someone turns up dead at the local community college, and Jeremiah’s fragile world shatters.

Add a crisis in Gage’s good friend’s life, an ongoing feud with his adopted daughter about her life choices, and a hauntingly beautiful FBI agent with secrets of her own, and it’s a lot more drama than a half-retired private investigator with a bum knee wanted. Whatever happened to quiet rainy nights sipping bourbon, watching the sun sink beneath the waves on the Oregon coast, and trying to think of a ten-letter word that means grumpy and glad about it?

But before Gage can even write the word curmudgeon, he’s pulled deeper into Jeremiah’s world–a world of sex, secrets, and a sadistic evil that preys on human weakness.

Read the First Chapter Online.

The Garrison Gage Mysteries (in chronological order):

  • The Gray and Guilty Sea
  • A Desperate Place for Dying
  • The Lovely Wicked Rain