Category: Death of Secrets

Regular readers may have heard by now, I have a new novel getting ready to come out. It’s called The Prophet Conspiracy. It’s a terrorism thriller set in Israel. To learn more about it, click here.

Would you like to read it for free?

I’m looking for volunteers to be beta readers for the new book. Beta readers are a huge help to me in the following ways:

1) Your feedback: I like to hear when you feel like a character does something unbelievable, or when a scene just doesn’t work, or any other criticisms you may have. These make a huge difference to me, and to the eventual success of the book.

2) Publicly posting honest reviews on Amazon.com. Reviews make a huge difference to customers considering whether to buy a book. Having many reviews gives the reader way more information from which to judge whether or not they want this book. Almost nothing my friends and regular readers can do will make as much of a difference in the sales of the book as leaving a review. If I can launch the book with 20 reviews, that’s a major, major step towards success. (Honest reviews means, post your real opinion. Don’t feel under any obligation to give positive reviews if that’s not what you believe.)

If you’re willing to do those two things, I will give you a free electronic copy of The Prophet Conspiracy to read before it comes out, along with helpful hints about how to put that electronic copy on your Kindle or iPad. You can read it at your leisure and, when the novel launches (most likely sometime in October) I will let you know to go online and leave an honest review.

If you want to be a beta reader, sign up below!

Many of my friends and readers have heard by now, I have a new novel nearly done. After extensive surveying, A/B Split testing, and prayer, I decided to call it The Prophet Conspiracy.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

Siobhan McLane comes to the Middle East to live out her dream: work on an archaeological dig in the Holy Land. But when she uncovers a mysterious inscription in an ancient ruin, suddenly terrorists want her dead. Running for her life with a disgraced government agent as her only ally, Siobhan will have to confront the truth about herself while discovering proof that peace in the Middle East hinges on a thousand-year-old lie.

I intend to have it out by the end of summer, God willing. Watch for a cover reveal in about a week!

Fiona Quinn, author of the novel Weakest Lynx, is also the author of the truly wonderful Thrill Writing blog, which I read regularly. It’s a compendium of factual interviews with experts in areas that a writer of thrillers may need to know for his or her books.

As a fan of her blog and follower of hers on twitter, I saw the publicly-posted encouragement to vote for her novel Weakest Lynx in the Kindle Scout program. This action I undertook with alacrity, because her blog provides such great research I figured the resulting novel had to be good. As often happens with the Kindle Scout program (remember this, when I ask you to vote for my books!) I later received a coupon from Amazon to get Ms. Quinn’s book half-off, after it was successful in the Kindle Scout program.

Armed with a 50% discount and a fresh out of the box replacement Kindle, I settled in to read a book that was a bit outside my personal comfort zone, but was also a master class in the art of suspense.

I found myself looking away from the Kindle, afraid to know what happened next. I found myself trying to peek at the Kindle out the corner of my eye, so I could find out what happened next but be in a good position to look away again if it was too scary. But most of all, I found myself pulled back to the story constantly because the author succeeded in creating a villain who I really wanted to see get his just desserts.

One should know upfront, this novel contains elements I don’t usually read. There was a fair amount of describing our heroine’s state of undress, and I don’t usually read about psychic stuff unless it comes in a spiritual context that I completely trust. But the sympathetic nature of the heroine, the villain who richly deserved a bad fate, and the suspense about how those two interacted covered over all that.

I recommend Weakest Lynx, but read it in the daytime!

The Prophecy of the Seventh Elizabeth is a sweeping work of fantasy/soft sci fi from a Christian worldview by Jarrod L. Edge.  If parents want a book to give their kids that reflects solid values and points toward the Lord, they will be well-served by this.

Prophecy of the Seventh Elizabeth comes in two books, and I’ve read them both. This is my review.

There is a massive world-building project at work here. The story sweeps from an ancient scribe at the bedside of a dying apostle to a modern world under threat of demonic alien invasion. From the FBI agents to the superheroes to the journalists, the author invests in every character.

Honestly, I feel like getting to know this fictional universe now is an investment in books to come. In the first book, the writing wasn’t really there yet. In the second book, the author’s skills had grown substantially. I have confidence that, in books to come, the crafting of the stories will become even more impressive.

This is an explicitly Christian book, which is half of why I like it. The good guys pray, they read the Bible, and they walk out what it means to follow Jesus. That’s what makes it such a great book for parents to give their children, or maybe even read with them.

Overall, Jarrod Edge has done a good job of creating a fantasy universe in which you can lose yourself while remaining secure that you won’t have to encounter language and scenes that might take you out of the story.

Here are the results of the title survey. One of the top three will become the title of my forthcoming novel. A huge “Thank You!” to everyone who took the survey. Your thoughts will be super helpful.

The next step is a split test. I’ll use each of the top three titles in a rotating series of facebook ads, and see which one garners the highest click-through rate. The top one will (probably) be chosen as the title!

Want to be the first to learn what the title is? Sign up here to get an e-mail.

As many readers and friends know, I’ve been working on a new novel for the past two months. I’m just shy of 40,000 words so far, with probably 15-20,000 left to write.

Will you help me choose a title? Click here to vote for which title you like best!

I hope to be launching this novel by around the end of August. I’ll keep you posted on the release date.

Your help with a title will really move the novel forward.

I’m about halfway through with my Israel thriller. It’s about an innocent American tourist who accidentally makes a shocking discovery that could upend the delicate balance of peace in the Middle East. It features a former Shin Bet agent who turned tour guide when he got fired for being too aggressive about pursuing a terrorist, an operative from the military wing of Hamas, and more.

I really hope to have it out by the end of the summer. I hope you’re all going to love it.

Be the very first to hear when it comes out. Sign up for e-mail updates. Subscribers even get a chance to read every e-book I write for free. So what are you waiting for?

It’s easy for me to share my opinion about other writers’ work when it’s good.

LA Sniper by Steve Gannon is a detective story set in Los Angeles. It could even be called a police procedural because the details about how the LAPD works are so thorough.

I had never heard of Steve Gannon before, and I voted for this book in the Kindle Scout program because Amazon sent me an e-mail offering me half-off a book if I voted. I publish with KDP, so I am well-aware that many superb writers (Not me, the rest of them) work through Amazon to publish. Even so, the stereotype about books published through Amazon made me wonder just what I would be getting when I read LA Sniper.

What a delightful surprise. Absolutely top-notch writing, which just goes to show that stereotypes serve no one well.

The book is a little off my beaten track for two reasons. For one thing, the conclusion struggles between hope and depression. There is a very emotional ending and a message of hope, but to get there the author passes through some spiritually dark-as-night places, and I was a bit uncomfortable with that.

Second reason: There’s a gratuitous sex scene which, as far as I can tell, has no bearing on the plot.

Those caveats aside, there’s one more particular reason to give LA Sniper a read:

Gannon gets the guns right.

About 99% of action novels clearly demonstrate that the author has never so much as seen a gun that wasn’t in a movie. They’ve got revolvers with safeties, they’ve got people racking the slide back and forth just because it sounds scary, and on and on. It causes me to gnash my teeth.

I have no idea whether Mr. Gannon is a gun guy but if he’s not, he clearly did the research necessary to write like one. Exceptional detail, all of it correct.

Check out LA Sniper by Steve Gannon. If you like guns and good writing, you’ll be glad you did.