The blurb for the first novel I ever wrote begins: “The phone rings and the offer is made ….” It’s a call out of the blue, and it’s meant to be menacing. This morning I received my own call from the blue, and it was anything but. The same publisher that launched Harry Potter and Fifty Shades of Grey in the Czech Republic is interested in translating my thrillers. Good morning indeed!
The launch of Pushing Brilliance seems to be tipping the scales, scales that I’ve been leaning on with everything I’ve got for over a decade now. But the most exciting part of this portion of the never-ending journey is all the support I’ve been getting of late from my fans, and particularly my beta readers. I’m feeling truly blessed, and I wanted to use this moment to say Thank You, or as they say in the Czech Republic, DÄ›kuji
My latest novel, Pushing Brilliance, is an upcoming selection of the ClubSport Book Club. This month, the honor went to Andy Weir, author of The Martian. What a fantastic presentation Andy gave! (I'm sure he's had a lot of practice.)
For me, the most striking part of the morning was how little the fame and fortune seem to have affected Andy. He's still a modest science nerd who brought his proud father John along, and spoke of his celebrity encounters the way I expect you or I would if we were so fortunate.
Here's a video of the talk, taken on my iPhone, so you can enjoy it for yourselves.
Those of you who read BETRAYAL will appreciate this picture from the galley on my latest flight. That's a liquor-bottle carrying case suspended on the airplane's emergency exit.
This is the configuration Southwest Airline's latest aircraft -- which is a particularly gratifying coincidence as those aircraft play a starring role in my latest novel, PUSHING BRILLIANCE.
Those of you who haven't read BETRAYAL, what are you waiting for?
In a move as surprising to England's voters as Donald Trump dropping out of the presidential election would be to America's, Boris Johnson announced today that he would not seek election as Prime Minister.
Why? Good question.
In CHASING IVAN, published earlier this year, I explore exactly that topic. In Ivan, it's the London mayoral race that's at stake -- something Boris Johnson actually won. I'm not saying Boris's reason is similar to that of my fictional character, but one has to wonder.
An inquisitive reader posted this question on Goodreads: What made you decide to write Coercion, Betrayal, and Flash? I thought the answer was worth sharing.
I love a good thriller more than just about anything else in life, so I wanted to create my own. And I wanted to use my stories to answer interesting questions—questions I felt qualified to answer based on my background.