Tag Archives: espionage

Oh Yeah, I Forgot To Mention…

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It suddenly occurred to me … I haven’t mentioned my awards in this blog yet. Oops! Well, as it happens …

…Blood Game won two silver medals at BookFest! It finished second in the categories:

Best Thriller/Espionage and Best Mystery/Espionage.

And in true spy fashion, I sneakily forgot to say anything this for about a month. Guess I’ve had a lot on my mind. Blood Game is also up for other awards, but I won’t know those results until the Fall. What I’m really hoping for is a nomination for Best Book at the GPI (Global Poker Index) awards in February, but that might be a longshot.

Meanwhile, I’ve been getting some good feedback. A handful of the folks who’ve read Crying Call early have told me they liked it and considered it better than Blood Game. Not surprising — most writers improve as they go, especially from the first book to the second.

Some of them liked the secret, sort-of-experimental thing I did near the end of Crying Call, while some didn’t quite get it. I don’t want to say exactly what it is here and spoil the surprise. I’ll just say that there are a few spots in Crying Call where I deliberately change the voice of the narrator, and for some people it provokes the strong emotions I want, while other readers seem unfazed by it. To each his own, I guess.

That’s all for now. I’m jamming away at the first draft of Drawing Dead, about 25% of the way. The explosive opening gambit is written, and in another chapter or so the main action of the book will kick off. It’s always more fun writing the action bits.

Cover Reveal

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I started October bursting out of the writing gates, so to speak, and laid down the first four chapters of the first draft of Drawing Dead (Book 3). And then I got sidetracked … but in a good way.

A lot of my time has gone into sprucing up my website: https://jeffe.boats , and it’s almost done now. Information about the first two books is up, including a look at the cover, and I’ve also put up Spotify playlists — soundtracks for both of the books, as well as some shorter playlists specific to main characters. It’s been a looong time since I’ve DJ’ed for anyone. Pop in and have a listen!

The financial and purchase type stuff isn’t quite done yet, but I’ve got time. Blood Game (Book 1) officially releases worldwide on February 4th. I’d like to have the website completely functional in time for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the Cyber Week or whatever it’s called these days. I might need a little help from a friend or two, but it looks like I’ll get there.

But right this moment, I’m eagerly awaiting today’s mail, because my proof copies will be delivered today. For those living in blissful ignorance of the mechanisms of the publishing industry … “proof copies” are the first test-prints of a book, just to make sure they roll off the presses without errors or glitches. At the bottom of this post, I reveal the cover officially!

And my next chore will be sending out ARCs, or “advanced reader copies.” A few of these go to friends and family, but most of them go to “advanced readers” whom I’m hoping will not only enjoy the book, but leave me good reviews in all the appropriate places that will help me boost my online ratings, pre-sale numbers, website rankings, and blah blah blah boring publishing housekeeping jargon.

Amidst all this, I’m really looking forward to get back to writing soon. I’m a little envious of authors who sign with publishers and have all the above logistics taken care of for them. Must be nice to be able to “just write.”

But you know … most of the logistics aren’t difficult, just time consuming. And from what I hear, it’s getting easier all the time. Profit margins per book are much higher too, when you don’t have to hire people to do things you can do yourself, so it’s worth having some of my time consumed. The only thing that really worries me is publicity. I just hope I’m not shouting an empty forest. Doesn’t matter how good your stories are if no one hears about them.

But enough bellyaching … here’s the official cover of BLOOD GAME …