New Idea

I made it up over 52,000 words in my DEMON sequel. I’ve e-mailed the agent that asked for a full look at DEMON twice now, because it had been over two months since I sent the manuscript. She never acknowledged receiving it, so I was getting worried. She’s not answering at all, so that situation is unresolved.

Since my finished manuscripts are piling up, I’ve decided to try a different deal. RJ Parker, Author of the true crime series I mentioned when he reviewed my books, has agreed to try a joint enterprise with me. He’s going to handle all marketing on self-publishing my novel HARDCASE, the first person POV book I’ve queried over fifty agents on. It’s a good one, and I think it could be a big seller, but I’m not a marketeer. RJ has proven he knows the marketing end. We’re going to split everything down the middle on profits from the sales. I’m pretty fed up with mainstream publishing. RJ loved reading HARDCASE, and so did his friend who will be doing the cover for it, William Cook. I think it’s time to try something new. If it’s a success, I will certainly let everyone know. Here’s one of the blurbs for HARDCASE.

A young teen boy in Leavittsburg, Ohio grew up mean. He ran away from his alcoholic father at the age of fourteen. An old man in Texas takes an interest in him, helping the runaway get a new identity. The boy becomes John Harding. He joins the Marine Corps with his new identity, looking for a chance to get an education and start over. While in special ops overseas, he’s recruited by a CIA agent who sees something in Harding besides his knack for languages and combat skill. Denny Strobert knows he’s found a killer. HARDCASE begins in a back alley warehouse in East Oakland, CA, where Harding fights for money, and to keep his skills honed, coupled with the fact he likes it. Harding does odd jobs with the only guy he trusts implicitly, his handler and manager, Tommy Sands. They bodyguard, escort tourists around the Bay Area, and do bail bond, skip trace work for a lawyer named Tess Connagher.

Two events throw Harding’s seamy life in the shadows out into the light. Strobert is ordered to enlist Tess Connagher’s law firm to act as an intermediary with Harding in order to protect an outspoken Afghani woman whose family Harding protected long ago. The woman’s father requested him, and the state department realizes they’ll be off the hook if anything happens to Samira Karim while under Harding’s care. Secondly, Harding fights a particularly brutal fight with a Russian mob backed fighter named Van Rankin who hates Harding. They’d had words. The YouTube video of Harding’s subsequent beat-down of Rankin goes viral along with many of his prior fights. When Rankin’s Russian mobster backer, Alexi Fiialkov pushes for a rematch on the UFC circuit, CIA Agent Strobert sees infinite possibilities since the United Arab Emirates has part ownership in the UFC. Some matches would be taking place in Dubai, where the CIA knows targets of opportunity show up from time to time.

Tess Connagher, both fascinated and repulsed by Harding, cannot stay away from him. She rapidly finds out Harding is not some East Oakland leg-breaker, and being around him can be very dangerous, whether you’re his friend or his enemy. She makes a couple of serious errors in judgment - Tess thinks she can control Harding, and she uses him to help Lora, her older sister.