Walking for Words, Take 2

If you go into the archives for my blog to September 23, 2015, you’ll find a post called “Walking for Words.”  In it, I described how much of what goes into my books – the plots and their twists, the dialogues, and the back story – comes to me during my daily walks.  These walks can be anything from coffee strolls on St. Louis city streets, to hikes on the state park trails in Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky, to outings in several of our national treasures, such as the Pacific Crest Trail, the American Discovery Trail, or the Appalachian Trail.  And being the nerd I am, I even cited the number of steps on my Fitbit, which now total 12,259,448 in a little over 2.5 years.

But following the traditional literary advice to show, rather than tell (which is somewhat counter-intuitive when you are working with words), I give you a picture of my hiking boots after a recent trip to Hawn State Park, south of St. Louis.  About 5 miles into an 8+ mile hike, the sole of one boot separated from the upper – I swear it looked fine before the walk!  But before you blame poor quality or workmanship, let me say, these boots are probably something like 20 years old, with several thousand miles on them.  I was just checking them out for an upcoming hike in Colorado.  I guess I’ll need a backup plan?

So, with this many miles accumulating in the preparation of book 3, I’ll have to make it at least a best seller.  What do you think – ten steps for each book sold would be, what, 120,000 books.  That’ll do.

Happy Writing,
BmP

Now Available Free on Kindle Unlimited

As the vast majority of my sales have been Amazon anyway, I decided to hand over all the marketing of these two books for the next 90 days.

 

Half A Mind:  A dark, scientific thriller, direct from the pages of today’s medical research

https://www.amazon.com/Half-Mind-Sleuth-Book-ebook/dp/B015784A8M

Mind in the Clouds:  A suspenseful whodunit...where not all the suspects are human. 

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Clouds-Sleuth-Book-ebook/dp/B01BYRX220/

Cover Reveal – Retroscape of a Future Mind

I have been remiss in revealing the cover for my next book, Retroscape of a Future Mind, and at the same time, showcasing the artistic talents of my daughter, Courtney.  (Be thankful that I’m not creating my own covers!).

I’ve actually had this cover for some time, and even have it displayed as a link to its book page on this blog, but none of that information goes out to my email distribution or on my feeds to Google+, Amazon, or Goodreads.  So for the rest of my reading audience, the cover and my working synopsis for the next volume in the Mind Sleuth Series.

Happy writing,

BmP

 

Looking back from 2065, the dystopian futurists were exactly right...and completely wrong

In 2065 St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Sam “Doc” Price’s life-long friend, Rick Johnston, is found dead.  But nothing about his death makes sense to Doc.  And when the authorities decline to investigate, due to the lack of evidence of foul play, he starts to recreate a landscape of their past lives, a retroscape, looking for watersheds that might explain such a needlessly violent and lonely death in a world where such actions are unimaginable.  As he reconstructions their friendship in his mind, Doc recounts a threatened pandemic that killed almost no one, but nonetheless, left the world permanently disfigured.  He recalls when humans started turning to robots for acceptance, companionship, and yes, even love.  He remembers the constant push and pull of technology, making human lives more convenient, easier, but perhaps, not better.  And in the end, Doc discovers a single phrase, uttered only twice, that leads to the realization that now, 100 years after their initial predictions, the dystopian futurists had been exactly right...and completely wrong.

What project(s) are you working on at the present time? - Interview for Laurel Heidtman, Author and Book Reviewer

I’m currently working on the third book in the Mind Sleuth Series.

The first two books are what I would call science thrillers.  That’s science thriller, rather than science fiction thriller.  To me anyway, science fiction involves futuristic technology that may or may not have roots in actual science.  A science thriller, on the other hand, weaves a fictional account of what might occur given current technology and research.  I like both genres, but sometimes I find it difficult to become emotionally invested in science fiction when the story seems to have the same likelihood as flying pigs.  Neither of my first two books requires improbable or even significant extensions in science to occur.  That’s what makes them creepy to many readers.  We already know enough to make some really bad things happen.

My current project, Retroscape of a Future Mind, is – as you might guess – more futuristic, as it takes a look back from the year 2065.  The technology it depicts in that timeframe, however, still has its roots in current research.  It is basically a look at one possible path in the evolution of our world where technology has had a much more insidious influence on humanity than we might hope.  Yes, in the future, we learn even more ways to make bad things happen.

See the full interview at: http://www.laurelheidtman.com/interview6.html

And check out the rest of her website:  http://www.laurelheidtman.com/