Who wants a free eBook? I know it's you!

Starting on Friday, my collection of super-short stories will be FREE on Kindle for 5 days. It all ends on Tuesday, so warm up your screens and click over to Amazon to get "31 Improbable Adventures" for the low, low price of Free!

As my new "best practices" rule, I'm making the Kindle version of my books FREE when you buy the print edition. Why should you have to buy the same book twice? You shouldn't! Plus, the print editions are more expensive, so I'd like to give you a great big "thank you" for getting that glossy goodness into your hands.

Claimed

Captain Reese Rogers (aka Captain Awesome) and the crew of the Stargoose made planetfall just after noon, local. No sooner had the landing skids touched dirt than Rogers flew from the cockpit and pounded the button to open the hatch.

Right before he bolted, he whirled about. “Where's Doctor Feenk?” he demanded.

His pilot, Jemma Dee, rolled her eyes at him. “Locked in his quarters, per the captain's orders.”

“A-hem!”

“Per Captain Awesome's orders,” she corrected with a scowl.

He shot her a pair of thumbs-ups and grabbed the ship's flag. Last planet, Doctor Feenk had run a scan of the atmo then dipped his toe in the dirt out of sheer spite. This time, Rogers was going to claim the planet if it was the last thing he did. He slid down the ladder and waved to Pip the Robot to make sure he was being filmed.

With the flag (his own logo, naturally) grasped boldly in his outstretched hand, he announced, “I, Captain Awesome—oh, for crying out loud!”

Right at the big moment, a couple of joy-riders went speeding by on a hovercraft, tossing beer cans out the window. Rogers dragged the flag behind himself as he climbed the ladder and ordered immediate lift-off.

That was the fifth time this week. It was getting harder and harder to claim jack in this galaxy.

Namecalling

“Who cares what they called you?” said Steve as he turned their dinner on the spit over the open fire.

Julie threw her hands in the air, exasperated. “I'm just saying, what if we called them a bunch of flatheads or something?”

“And I'm just saying it doesn't matter, Honey.” The aroma of sizzling meat filled the night air. A good meal usually perked her right up, but not this time. Julie was absolutely inconsolable and on the verge of tears.

“They'll put it in all the books, Steve! Is that what you want?”

Dinner wasn't going to cut it. He'd have to do that thing he hated most of all: be emotional. He reached over and tickled his wife's bare foot. She tried not to smile, but he could see it was working. “See? I don't think they're that big at all. Now, you want some of this flathead or do I have to eat the whole thing?”

Julie laughed at the joke and moved to sit closer to her husband and stroke his fur. Steve was right. Her feet weren't that big. And the humans really did have stupid, flat heads. But they were so tasty!

I'm super psyched to let you know that writing is done on Book 2, entitled "Darkness Falls." I'm in the middle of editing at the moment and expect to have a proof copy in my hands maybe next week.

Until that time, I wanted to give you all a sneak peek from the new book. If you'd rather not know anything about what's inside, look away. For the rest of you, click the READ MORE link and enjoy!

You've no idea how close I was to writing "Release Date" on that topic, but I so hate to commit.

Writing on the next "Dorothy" book is going just grand. I'm on chapter 35 now. For comparison, the last book was in its final act at this point and ended within10 chapters. I may wrap things up within the next 5.

So, that means that I SHOULD have the new book proofed and published in the month of July. (yay)