I almost titled this newsletter “I fought the law (Murphy’s) and the law (Murphy’s) won.”
A couple of weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon, my son’s car broke down on his way to work. It was too late to tow it to a dealer, so we had it towed home, then had it towed to the dealer the following morning. We discovered the repairs would be quite expensive, and since the car was older and paid off, we decided it would be a good time to get our son a new car. Besides, he needed a reliable vehicle, and he could help pay for it!
Here’s where Murphy comes into play. We had just paid off my truck the previous month, and were looking forward to one less payment for a while to catch up on other bills. That’s how things like this normally go, right? Well, good ol’Murphy wasn’t done with me yet.
While driving around that weekend in my recently paid off truck…I noticed it was shifting really rough. I was planning on taking it in to get looked at over Christmas break, but it was getting a little too persistent to wait, so my wife took the day off to take it in. What we discovered had Murphy laughing all the way to the bank!
The truck I’d paid off the month before needed a new transmission! The cost of said transmission was an obscene amount, and of course any warranties we had were now expired! And to make things even worse, because of the upcoming holidays, parts availability, and personnel scheduling, I might not get my truck back until after the start of the year!
After much haggling, a bit of ranting, and maybe a smidge of good luck, we cut the cost of the repairs down to thirty percent of the original quote (though I’m still quite annoyed). We got the repairs completed before the holiday shutdowns, and I just received my truck back two days ago, and it’s functioning as it should.
Now I’m just hoping Murphy and his law stay far away from me for the foreseeable future!
Podcast Appearance!
Dealing with Murphy is never fun, but in the midst of all this trouble, I had a chance to appear on the Geek Off The Street Podcast again. During the episode we discuss a wide range of topics including what it feels like to complete a series (Mechhaven), my experience as a vendor at various shows, and several other topics.
My favorite part of the show is when we discuss my new series, The Willstone Legacy, in public for the first time. I’m still writing Book 1 and haven’t polished my pitch and descriptions yet, but it felt great to finally share this project with the world.
Marc and Trent have been supporters since day one, so please listen to their podcast, watch their YouTube videos, and support them any way you can.
Here are links to the episode:
Apple:
Spotify:
If you don’t have time to listen to the whole episode, check the Novel Notices below for a quick description of my new book!
Novel Notices
- Novel November Update: I completed Novel November! I wrote 50,154 words during the month. The goal was 50,000!
- As of the last newsletter, I was 35,000 words into Birthright. As of this morning I’m at 68,218, so I’ve added about 33,000 words over the last four weeks…not too bad!
- I’m part of the way through Act II and probably right around the halfway point of the story. I’m off the next two weeks and intend to have some downtime to relax and recharge, but I know I’ll sneak in a couple of really productive writing days as well. I’d love to start January working on Act III.
- As I mentioned above, I’m still working on the descriptions and pitch, but I think this nicely summarizes the story in Birthright, Book 1 of The Willstone Legacy:
Birthright follows Landros Willstone, a young man cursed to randomly teleport across the world every month—ripped away from whatever life he’s trying to build. When his best friend Eira—an apprentice EtherLord—creates an amulet that might buy him precious extra time between displacements, Landros finally has a chance to help others instead of just surviving. But getting involved in a conspiracy involving necromancy and corrupt EtherLords might cost him the only stability he’s ever known. It’s a story about surviving impossible odds, found family, and what it means to have a home when the world keeps tearing you away from everyone you love.
Let me know wha you think!
Here are my upcoming appearances:
- I’m always looking for other opportunities which I’ll post here as soon as I can confirm. I may be attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April. If I do, I’ll be sharing the booth with several other authors. We’re currently working out the details, so once I have anything solid to report I’ll let you know.
Featured Promotions
There’s still time left to check on these promotions!
AUDIOBOOKS Must listen Sci-Fi and Fantasy for December 2025
Featured Authors
by
Juan Carlos Toral
When the lights go out, the real war begins.
Veridia, 2038. The jewel of the Kaledon Republic. A utopia run by perfect algorithms. Until the silence falls.
Leo Reyes is a senior engineer at the heart of the Kaledon Techno-Corp. His job is to keep the lights on and the city safe. But when a massive, coordinated cyberattack shatters the city’s defenses, Leo finds himself locked in the “Hawk’s Nest”—a high-security bunker fighting a losing war.
As missiles rain down and the grid collapses, Leo realizes the terrifying truth: the enemy isn’t just at the gates. The enemy is in the room.
High above the chaos, in the glass prison of Arcadia Tower, Leo’s pregnant wife, Elena, faces a different kind of war. Trapped in a blackout-stricken skyscraper, she must navigate a labyrinth of darkness, panic, and ruthless intruders to save her unborn son.
The code has been broken. The betrayal is deep. And the Swan is watching.
In a world where connection is everything, isolation is a death sentence. Leo and Elena must fight through the static and the shadows to find each other, or watch their future burn.
SWANWAKE is a pulse-pounding techno-thriller about the fragility of our connected world, the horrors of modern warfare, and the enduring power of human resilience.
Can one woman’s desperate fight for her child change the course of a global conflict? What is the ultimate price of truth in a war fought with lies? And what extinction-level secret is hidden within the Swan Signature protocol?
The Desert Sequence: Puatera Online Bk 1-3
by
Dawn Chapman
From Book 1: Maddie is the NPC with attitude!
Plagued by old injuries that won’t heal, she’s enticed into accepting a deadly escort mission.
Of course, it’s to cross the damned desert… and in the middle of Tromoal breeding season, no less. But the lure of enough cash to fix herself up and help out a close friend, too…? That’s a siren’s song she can’t ignore.
Puatera Online is a harsh world, even for the people who have to live there.
Good thing Maddie is tougher than cured leather, because she may have just bitten off more than she can chew.
by
Richard J. Dowling
Can a humble Ad-Man from Knuckleville, USA, beat William Shakespeare and Marie Curie in a battle of minds?
Leap Hamilton is a can-do copywriter in 1959 who gets transported to the year 2119 by an AI known as Isaac.
Isaac needs a champion to help Humanity regain its former glory.
People, you see, have become too reliant on Isaac’s problem-solving abilities. Hence, future humans are as dumb as Toilet Golf.
So, Leap must compete against Shakespeare and Curie to solve an impossible task: help a race of aliens known as the Cruiskeen get to the next galaxy in time, or risk a brutal civil war.
Can Leap prove that he has what it takes? It’s not like he’ll be executed if he fails. . .
by
Farabi Shayor
When the quantum vault cracks open, nothing stays human.
Susan wakes inside a hostile quantum matrix, nerves sparking and reality bending around her. She fights her way out, only to be greeted by her mission commander, Sentinel, a quantum AI with a new assignment waiting. Her body is damaged and a silent war is already burning beneath the surface.
Drawn into the orbit of Andrew and Sentinel, Susan learns that the factions hunting them will stop at nothing to seize control of the multiverse. Her first task is brutal in its simplicity: recruit a series of high-value targets including Emma Herrmann, and uncover the truth behind the matrix that nearly erased her.
But when Sentinel abruptly shifts its priorities, Susan realizes her escape was only the opening move. Another universe might be spiraling towards catastrophic collapse and two people she has never met are about to become the centre of everything.
Until next time, have fun and read a lot of books!
Greg Sorber