There are many kinds of quiet. They speak of the quiet of the grave, but I’m of the opinion that it could be noisy as hell in there, it’s just the closest ears are on a dead guy. But it’s probably not too noisy. A quiet night where I live is relatively quiet. Relative to Times Square, for example. But if you sit on my deck and don’t make too much noise yourself you will quickly realize it’s anything but quiet out there. There are birds, mostly settling down for the night, but insect as well, and they tend to get the party going right about now. Car sounds with fair regularity, a jet overhead. Not quiet really.

In the same manner I haven’t really been quiet either. I’ve been fairly active of Facebook and Instagram, I’ve tweeted here and there, and have posted a poem or too.

But I haven’t really written anything here, and while I love writing this blog, when you hear crickets, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It isn’t indicative, (usually) of any significant problems. I am not, (generally) curled up in the fetal, shivering in the dark. Usually what it really means is that I’m deep into a novel.

In this case that’s doubly true. Craig A. Hart, whose name occasionally pops up within the confines of this forum, has come up with an idea for what will be our first co-written series that we’ll have written together from book one. (The three series on which we’ve collaborated we all started by one or the other of us, Serenity and SpyCo are Craig’s creation and Cleanup Crew is mine). We feel like we’re into something very good with it, and that’s all you’re getting outta me.

Now built into any co-authoring situation is a fair amount of downtime. Whenever one of us hands off to the other, the hander-offer is on vacation until he becomes the hander-onner, or whatever.

Here’s the thing though: I tend to do better in general when I write. And if I end up having too much time off that’s when I tend to revert to embryonic posturing. And so I’ve been working on something of my own as well. Again it’s very early in the process, so I can’t reveal too much right now. But I can tell you that it feels very special to me as it’s been coming together.

There have been some other reasons why I haven’t really dug in here of late. E2 Books recently released the fourth book in the Cleanup Crew series, The Demon of Denver, on May 26, and in anticipation of that we promoted the entire series, including the first book of the series, The Beauty of Bucharest. It was during that period of promotion that this book gave me the honor of my first ever #1 ranking.

So it gives me even more pleasure than is probably legal in some municipalities to let you know that an audiobook version of the little thriller that has been now read by more people than pretty much everything else I’ve written combined. And if you are a fan of the medium, you are definitely going to want to get this one.

Performed by the completely amazing Austenne Grey, (who, I am still convinced was somehow able to hear the voice of Nicole Porter that I have heard in my head while writing about her), I’ve had the privilege over the past week to proof the entire book, (finally earning my keep at Northern Lake Audio) and I can tell you without fear of reprisal, (because who reprises anymore?) that even if you haven’t yet joined the millions of satisfied audiobook lovers in this ever-growing entertainment medium, you will be happy you listened to this one.

Other News

I mentioned Northern Lake Audio earlier in this post, and want to go back to that subject and share this news.

So it may be a little quiet here, but things are hopping in the world of E2 Books, Northern Lake Audio, and in my corner of the world. You probably oughta stay tuned.