Christopher H. Jansmann's Blog, page 3

That Went By Fast

There have been a number of times in my life when the proverbial dream came true; while nothing can truly match the day my wife agreed to marry me, getting a chance to sit behind a microphone on a panel at the Tucson Festival of Books is a close second. I know it sounds a bit like hyperbole, but for me, as a independent author with a profile so low you kind of have to dig slightly underground to see it, having a chance to crawl out into the sunlight and meet with readers (and fans! I actually have fans!) is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

Okay, so maybe my profile is a bit higher than that — my stats do show that a fair number of people know who I am these days, and a significant portion of them eagerly preorder my novels the moment they appear online. I’ve watched with ever growing awe at how those numbers continue to climb, a hint (I fervently believe) that I’m on the right track with what I’ve been doing. Making an appearance at an event like the Tucson Festival of Books kind of validates that even more, especially this year when people were truly seeking me out.

A fan! And a huge thanks for stopping by. (Photo courtesy of S. Le)

Did I mention I have fans? I’m still processing that.

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts about how I applied for this year, and then what it was like getting the email that I’d been selected for a panel; I knew going into Saturday that the day would be jam packed, but I also took great pains to try and soak in the moment(s) as they happened. The day wound up being unseasonably chilly and heavily overcast; sprinkles of rain caused my friend and I to dash across the University of Arizona’s mall to get to the Indie Author Tent before the books I’d brought to sell could get damaged. True to form, the rain stopped the moment we slipped beneath the canvas, but it took pretty much the rest of the morning for the sun to finally break through the clouds and begin to warm things up.

Traffic was pretty brisk during my time in the tent, driven in part by an amazing feature the Arizona Daily Star published about me. The Festival has been increasing the visibility of Independent Authors nearly from its inception, and I was extremely flattered they asked me to participate in the interview. Bill Finley is an institution in our small town, and I was a bit star struck when we sat down at the UA’s Poetry Center for our chat. He was immensely kind and extremely patient with this very anxious author; Bill also did the impossible and made me sound far better in print than I’m sure I did in person. (Thanks, Bill!)

Bill even made me look good in photos! (Photo: Bill Finley)

I met so many wonderful readers Saturday, but I am especially horrified that I forgot the name of one who has faithfully sought me out each year I’ve been at the Festival. Chalk it up to my nervousness about the panel I was about to do, but I also promise to greet them properly next year.

WOW! An actual line for our session! (Photo courtesy of K. Bartos)

My schedule was pretty tight, but the amazing volunteers that manage the Indie Author Experience were ready for the challenge and had me at the Author’s Lounge right on time; not long after, I met my fellow panelists G.K. “Gene” Jurrens and Nancy Nau Silverman, then got down to business talking about Vengeance. Our moderator was Jo Perry, an incredible mystery author in her own right and the perfect person to tease answers out of writers used to hiding the truth. She had some tough questions about Sean as a character and Windeport as a location, then took time to delve into why I’d chosen to write my stories in first person; that generated a spirited discussion with Gene, who does all of his work in third person. We agreed to disagree on that particular topic, but I’ve also come away from the experience knowing I made two new friends in the world of mystery writing.

Nancy Nau Sullivan (left) chats with me before the panel began.

To my absolute delight, the panel was very well attended; my only regret is that with such a short amount of time — about fifty-five minutes — we had very little opportunity for the audience to ask any questions. We did get two good ones though right at the end, and then, just like that, it was over; well, almost. Nancy, Gene and I were given the chance to sell/sign books for anyone who attended the session, allowing the three of us to continue to get to know each other for the balance of the afternoon. And then it was over; as the day finally began to wane, my friend and I schlepped the books I had left back to our car and then decided a cocktail to celebrate the successes of the day was in order.

The afterglow of the experience extended to Sunday, and, frankly, will probably last for a few weeks. Still, a tiny part of my brain has already begun sorting through the novels I have in the pipeline, trying to decide which one will be the submission for next year. There are number to choose from, so it won’t be an easy decision. Luckily I still have a few months before the application opens for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books.

Keep your fingers crossed — hopefully I’ll see you all again in person next year.

Podcast: Solitude

I’m off to the Tucson Festival of Books as this entry posts; look for my recap of the adventure next week. If you’re there, I hope you swing by my booth or my presentation session and say hello!

In the meantime, the latest episode of my podcast also dropped today. This one features my best friend and I discussing all of the interesting threads and character development that is part of Solitude, the most recent entry in the Sean Colbeth Investigates series. We have a lot of fun doing these episodes, but I must apologize for how slowly we’re releasing them. One of these days, I’ll figure out how clone myself so I can get more stuff done.

Time in a Fictional Universe

I had to set aside my re-read of Vengeance for my upcoming appearance at the Tucson Festival of Books so I could complete the final edit on Masks — the next Vasily Korsokovach Investigates novel due out in April. Oddly, I’ve never found it too difficult to shift between my main characters; when I first started out writing Sean and Vas, I worried horribly that I’d be unable to recapture their unique voices after any time away from writing them. I even went as far as to pen several books back-to-back in the early stages of each series just to prevent that from happening; as it turns out, I’ve never needed more than a few pages to get my sea legs back for either of these two detectives. I suppose part of the fun for me as a writer is knowing when a particular reaction feels authentic — when it does, it’s proof I’ve plugged completely into whatever zeitgeist is driving my character.

Silenced picks up within a few weeks of Masks, which makes it rather handy for me to be pouring over it just now. One of the threads that will see some additional development is the ongoing storyline of Vasily’s wedding, continuing a “b” storyline that began back in Requiem. While I’ve long known that Alex and Vas would ultimately tie the knot, the exact timing of their nuptials has been somewhat in flux; it became even murkier when Sean unexpectedly stepped into the mess in Vengeance, offering to help Alex plan a humdinger of a surprise ceremony at Disney World. I added more fuel to that fire in Masks — I can’t tell you exactly how, since it would spoil the whole thing — but that, in turn, pushed the date again. All I will say is that both Alex and Vas are keeping secrets from each other — secrets that get them into a spectacularly wonderful screwball mess worthy of an episode from I Love Lucy.

But back to the date for the wedding: despite the Windeport Universe being a fictional world, it does move forward in time, albeit at a somewhat irregular pace. For the most part, my novels tend to take place fairly close to each other, moving the calendar just a fraction with each new tale. In book time, I’m slightly more than two years out from the events that took place in Blindsided; Masks takes place at Halloween, just a bit beyond the first anniversary of Vasily’s second return to California. Silenced is just after Thanksgiving weekend, allowing me to possibly coast into a story that will take place in January that I’ve long wanted to tell, one where the entire gang will be back together to solve another case — just not in Maine. Or California, for that matter.

At least, that’s the plan.

The only wildcard at this point is whether I want to sneak a Sean story into that tiny window; while I haven’t completely ruled it out, I’ve already written into Silenced the reason why that might not be possible. As I’ve said many times in the past, though, these characters tend to have a mind of their own; it’s entirely possible he’ll surprise me and land a Christmas-themed murder just in time for the holidays.

Heaven help me if that’s the case.

One More Thing Before You Go

Just a quick reminder that my appearance at the Tucson Festival of Books is now in less than a week! If you are in Tucson Saturday, March 15, please stop by and see me at the Indie Author Pavilion (10-12:30ish), or attend the panel I’ll be on at 1pm. I’d love to see you there!

TFOB 2025 Panel Info

Garden Rails

Forgive me for adding a bit of a timeline cleanser.

I’m not sure about you, but as we wrap up the second month of 2025, I feel a bit like it has been far, far longer than that. The spring semester at the university is always more of a sprint to the finish line, what with Graduation in May; this year in particular, I am rather swamped with projects that are all due in the next few weeks. (And that doesn’t count the words I’m trying to get in on Silenced, or the planning for other novels that will be written this year.)

Needing something of a break, I talked my wife into visiting the Tucson Botanical Gardens recently. While not the most ideal time of year to swing through, plant-wise, I knew that one portion of the garden would be perfect no matter what. Please enjoy these shots I took of the Great Garden Express, an expertly designed garden railroad that looks far better than anything I’ll ever be able to do in my own backyard.

Next Up: Vasily

Now that I’ve completed work on Reflection in the Shadows, I’ve retuned my attention to the next novel in the Vasily Korsokovach Investigates series. Tentatively titled Silenced, it literally begins just as Vas returns to California after making an unexpected trip back to Maine for Thanksgiving. Since at the time of my writing this entry Belie had yet to be published, I’m going to tactfully ignore the reasons behind that sudden trip other than to say Sean Colbeth was extremely appreciative of his best friend’s efforts.

Instead, let’s talk a bit about this strange case Vasily picks up nearly as soon as he walks out of LAX. I’m not entirely certain where the idea for this particular story came from; often, I’ll run across a news article or some other tidbit in life that my writer brain will seize upon and then spin into something nefarious, but in this case, I think it was far simpler than that. My brother and I occasionally commute into Tucson together when our schedules happen to align, and as part of that, on the days when he drives, it’s often easier for him to drop me off at the streetcar stop that’s closest to his office instead of fighting the downtown traffic to get to campus. I love the streetcar anyway, as it’s a gentle little cruise past all of the scenic landmarks our little city has to offer.

I’ve ridden it so often over the years that I’ve watched as Tucson has slowly changed along the route; the downtown area that was once a wasteland of empty office space is now a vibrant corridor brimming with mixed-use scenarios including a number of massive high-rise housing complexes. Unsurprisingly, most of those buildings house students attending the UA, but there are growing pockets of year round residents — especially close to the stop where I catch the streetcar. The large empty dirt lot that used to be parking has nearly disappeared there, replaced by multiple condo complexes that cater to seniors or first-time homeowners.

One of the last parts of that dirt parking lot sprouted a chain link fence last fall, the first sign that the final building was about to begin construction. It wasn’t long before the piles of lumber appeared, and then the massive excavation to put in the footings; each time I went by on the streetcar, I tried to figure out what was new, or guess what part of the project would take place next. The sheer amount of construction materials that were piled high next to the site boggled my mind, though, and despite the months that went by, never seemed to really get all that depleted. My logical brain understood that only meant what was being used was likely getting replaced in short order, but visually, it seemed at odds with the building that was rising out of nothing.

On one particular morning, construction traffic forced the streetcar to pause far longer than normal on the street running parallel to the new building; I had an extended amount of time to take in the miniature lumber yard, and for the first time noticed the tiny little shack hanging out in the far corner. As I squinted at it, I began to weave a backstory for the building — and the person who must have been occupying it. Though not ideal in size, I figured it had to be the office for the construction supervisor and then wondered a bit at the sort of hell it had to be to keep such a project on time (and, presumably, on budget). Eying the stacks of lumber surrounding the small shack, I thought about the Operations class I’d taken in college, and the challenges of tracking such disparate pieces of inventory as they moved through the construction pipeline. Did they use barcodes? RFID tags? Maybe the construction workers had tablets that allowed them to sign off on each item they used that day, allowing their supervisor to do some sort of just-in-time thing at scale.

Looking back at the shell of the building, I was struck by stories I’d heard of how construction took place in larger cities like New York or Boston — and the amount of, shall we say, horse trading that took place to get such projects done. Of how shady real estate firms often worked with even shadier financing that had truly deadly terms with respect to nonpayment. My eyes went back to the lumber and as my brain began to do the math, the initial kernel of the story that has become Silenced was born.

I won’t say much more other than to add that this story gave me a chance to dive a bit more into the world of investigative journalism; a good friend at the office who once worked in that field has kindly acted as a resource for me, patiently answering just about every strange question I’ve asked. Both Vas and I were looking for an intriguing challenge that would showcase his impressive abilities, and I think I’ve crafted something completely different than any of his previous adventures. Throw in some additional development of Alex’s own story, mix in Sean’s wildly messed up personal life and sprinkle in some visits to the pool in Rosie’s solarium and we’ve got another wonderful addition to the series in the works.

More details to follow, including updates as I progress on this latest book.

Just a reminder: I’ll be at the 2025 Tucson Festival of Books on March 15. If you’ll be in town, swing by my booth at the Independent Author Pavilion from 10a-1p, or sit in on my panel at 1pm at the Student Union. Complete details are on the TFOB website.

TFOB Panel Appearance

An excellent bit of news appeared in my inbox in late January.

Long time readers know that I’m a huge fan of the Tucson Festival of Books; almost from the year it started, I’ve blocked my calendar and spent a delightful weekend soaking up the amazing experience of hearing authors speak about their latest works, often in very intimate classroom-type settings that lend themselves to thoughtful conversations with the audience. From the first time I attended as a reader, I fostered the dream of being invited to participate as an author — a dream that came true three years ago when I did my first TFOB as part of the Independent Author Experience. I loved every second of my time at the booth and feel exceptionally lucky to have scored two more invites since then.

So it was a rather giddy moment when I found out that I’d been selected as a presenting author for the 2025 edition of the Festival. I had to read the email several times just to let the notion sink in; when it did, I barely restrained myself from running out into the street, shrieking to anyone that happened to be passing by that it had finally happened. Okay, full disclosure: no one happened to be around when the email came in, so I might have hugged my dog. Repeatedly. The poor guy didn’t what hit him, honestly, but true to form, he wagged his tail and gave me a big ol’ sloppy dog kiss that told me he understood the significance of the moment.

The only downside to this is — and I’m reluctant to even characterize it in those terms — is that we’ll be discussing my Sean Colbeth book, Vengeance, a book that I wrote in 2023 and published in early 2024. I’ve written two more novels in that series since finishing work on Vengeance; while I’ve by necessity gone back and scanned relevant portions of that book while working on future ones in the series, it’s actually been a while since I’ve read the entire story front to back. Having attended these things as a reader, I know the sorts of questions that are likely to come from both the moderator and the audience, so I’ve blocked out some time to hide in a corner and re-read the novel. It’s a wonderful excuse to spend a lazy weekend on the couch enjoying a good story with a never-ending pot of coffee. (And no, I won’t cheat by listening to my podcast.)

If you happen to be in Tucson on Saturday, March 15th, please consider stopping into our session. I’m one of three Indie Mystery Authors that will be on the Meet Your Next Favorite Author panel; it starts at 1:00pm and will be in the Student Union Tucson Room (third floor). I’ll still be selling/signing copies of Vengeance prior to the session at the Indie Author Pavilion — my slot there is from 10 to 1 — though if you miss me there, I am told there will be a second signing opportunity after the panel inside the UA Campus Store tent. It’ll be a busy Saturday, but one that I am truly looking forward to.

Will you be there? Let me know!

Trusting Your Instincts

There’s a song in the animated movie Pocahontas titled Just Around the Riverbend; besides being an amazing tune that will stick with you for the rest of your life once you hear it, the underlying message of trying to choose between two options is one that never fails to resonate with anyone who’s heard it. Most of our choices as adults are always done in this weird, blind manner; we’re never gifted with enough foresight to make a truly informed decision, so we are generally forced to trust our instincts — for better, or, unfortunately, for worse.

I’ve been thinking about that for a bit now, specifically that sense that if we only had just the right sort information just when we needed it, we’d always make the right choice each and every time. Whole disciplines have sprung up around this principle, things like data science and business analytics and this crazy rise in the popularity of predictive AI. Taken as a whole, they feel like the answer to this desire for having more at our fingertips, and yet I just can’t shake the sense that none of it is actually helping.

In some ways, my characters are in this sort of Petri dish experiment for this concept, for (in theory) as the author I know everything that’s going to happen to them; their entire path through a given plot is for all intents and purposes completely predetermined before they utter their first sentence. And yet, even with all that planning on my part, somehow they always seem to wander away from the yellow brick road; shadows hidden in the ferns along the route call out to them and draw them into side stories and unusual character moments that ultimately embellish the universe in which they exist.

How does this happen?

The author pondering how his characters grew so complex

I’ve thought about that quite a bit, too. My original answer some time ago was that Sean, Vasily and the entire cast of characters have always felt real to me, actual people that I (in a real sense ) have deep, meaningful conversations with. They often act with an agency completely locked down characters wouldn’t have; make decisions I probably would have vetoes had I kept myself locked tightly into the original narrative arc I’d planned.

It took me years to allow this to happen, for despite what my own instincts were telling me, formal training had always overridden them. Setting those preconceptions aside finally opened the door to simply seeing what might appear from my fingers flying over the keyboard — and then following along as it continued to grow, creatively. Sometimes the results aren’t great, but that tends to be the exception now; I’ve also learned that I can’t force it, either. The world has to appear in its own way, and on its own schedule; when I’m completely tapped into it, time is meaningless. When I’m not, no amount of prodding will make my recalcitrant characters appear. Giving myself grace to accept those periods will appear has also been a longterm exercise in personal growth — as well as providing the recognition that every now and then, I have to set aside the stories and do something completely different. Shifting gears and working on another hobby often unlocks something in my brain and shakes loose the answer to a plot problem, or provides a completely new story that will get added to the list of ones to yet be written.

So here’s to listening to yourself — and to trusting the results.

Back on the Rails

One of the joys I had in writing Vengeance was sneaking in my lifelong love of model railroading. I’ve mentioned in earlier posts about the wonderful memories I have of working in the basement beside my father, laying track and then watching the small trains work their way around the cozy little universe we’d created for them. While we never actually completed any of those layouts — my father seems to this day predisposed to endlessly tinker with his plans — just the very act of puttering around provided a quiet satisfaction that made the wider world just a little bit more bearable.

While writing has always offered me a bit of an escape from the pressures of my day job, I find it best to augment that effort with an endless supply of science-fiction based plastic model kits, a fleet of LEGOs and, for many years, my own small layout. We don’t have basements here in Arizona, so my options for creating a miniature empire are limited to the space I have available; since taking over the garage was out, my very amenable wife originally allowed me to set up shop in a corner of our master bedroom, and there I began to build a small n-scale layout from a kit I found at a local hobby store.

Scenic Ridge v1

It progressed quite far — the photo above shows when I was working on the mountains, with the hint of the track I had laid through them. I managed to get the track completed, wired and functional, and had gotten to the stage of doing the scenery — and there I faltered. Part of it was my desire not to subject my wife to the extremely smelly aspects of that part of the process; between the paint and glue and the other amazing material required to pull off the illusion of life, it could really only be done when the weather was cool enough to have the windows open for ventilation. Otherwise, we’d both be on the couch until the fumes completely dissipated.

The other part was the sudden appearance of a water leak in that side of the bedroom; we have a flat roof on our home, and if we’re not careful, the scuppers can become clogged with leaves or other items. When that happens, the water backs up and then tries to find another way out — which, in this case, happened to be the wall of our bedroom. Repairing the problem forced me to move the layout, which underscored how it wasn’t exactly in the right spot to begin with. Ultimately, I broke down the framework and then sold what I had done so far on the layout, though I did keep the trains, track and other items I had collected for use on it. For in the back of my head, I always assumed I’d try the project again.

Spending time with my father this past May working on his current layout cemented the notion that I wanted back into the hobby, so I whispered my desire to Santa Claus; working in tandem with my wife, he came through for me this Christmas with the latest iteration of the same kit I’d started nearly twenty years earlier.

The same kit I started originally — it hadn’t changed at all, save for being far more expensive…

I was rather amazed the kit was still available, though not so much at how much more expensive it was this time around. Still, having everything in a single kit definitely makes the basic part pretty straightforward, especially since I really don’t have the space or tools to do any true woodworking. Since I kept all of the buildings and scenery from the first kit, I’m actually slightly ahead, though all of that still needs to be built. I also have a better plan for the track; I use Kato’s Unitrack, an extremely flexible plug-and-play option that keeps people like me from having to do any sort of messy electrical work. My father is a whiz at that kind of thing; me? Well, let’s just say there’s a reason I went into Computer Science and not Electrical Engineering.

An Art Deco bridge I started to build years ago about where it will be on the v2 version of the layout.

If you’ll forgive me, I plan on posting every now and again about this project as I work through it over the coming months. I’m not sure it will be as detailed as the layout I featured in Vengeance, but there is a part of me that is thinking about making the small city portion of this layout look a bit like the main drag of Windeport — or at least the way I picture it in my brain. As this is more of a mountainous layout, sneaking in the ocean might be a bit hard, but then again, I can perhaps hint at it a bit in one corner. Maybe a long pier? One that hosts a small tacky tourist restaurant with views of the harbor?

You never know.

Multitasking

Some time ago now I decided to try my hand at a version of an urban fantasy, one that would combine the elements of my traditional mystery genre with a touch of magic. As excited as I was when I started writing Reflection in the Shadows, as I got deeper into the story, the fear that I wasn’t doing justice to either genre — mystery or fantasy — started to weigh heavily on me. Ultimately, it got to the point where I wound up setting aside the manuscript despite being just a hare past halfway completed.

I’ve never done that before, actually, and the moment I moved on to another story I immediately remembered all of the advice I’d heard over the years from other authors; to a one, they generally recommend pushing through the first draft of whatever idea you have just to see it to the end. It’s solid advice, for in a sense it forces you to face the decisions you made, plot-wise; it also provides you with a framework that could be further refined, especially if the bones of the idea are good (but the execution itself wasn’t).

Six months after I dropped the idea, I went back and re-read what I had… and discovered I really liked it, despite what I’d been feeling at the time. Unfortunately the timing was pretty bad, for I’d just begun work on another Vasily novel and didn’t want to loose the thread I had going on that story — so Reflection took another back seat. That lasted until this past fall; as I’ve recounted elsewhere, Belie took far, far longer to write than I’d planned and, mentally, I needed to put my two favorite detectives aside for a bit and work on something new. Reflection got another look — and while I still liked the nearly 50k I’d already written, part of me wanted to restart it from a slightly different angle.

I’ve always liked the idea of writing from the first-person perspective, and much of my angst over the initial manuscript was my choice to do it in third-person; it had been a practical decision, though, for I wanted to bounce back and forth between the two main leads in that story — Kate Oliver and Tenoch Vasquez. I’m not able to do that in the Sean/Vasily series, so it was tantalizing to be able to see this universe from two different angles at the same time. As I hit the 50k mark, though, I got a serious case of cold feet, leading to my desire to start over.

I did that and managed to get several chapters of the new format done before finding that, for this story, it just didn’t work. The dynamics between Kate and Tenoch drive much of the plot, so only “hearing” half of the story made it less dynamic. (There are reasons for this that I can’t get into without spoiling the story… at least, not yet.) So it was back to the original story — but the false start robbed me of precious time, putting me even further behind in terms of getting content completed for publication in 2025.

It didn’t help that the idea for my next Vasily novel had been percolating for a few months by mid-November; as I crested over the two-thirds mark in Reflection, my writer brain was itching to begin to tell the story that wouldn’t leave me alone. In what seems to have turned out to be a truly horrible idea, I decided to write Silenced side-by-side with Reflection, reasoning that when I was tired of one narrative I’d be able to reinvigorate myself by working on the other.

Now here we are in January and I’m scrambling still to get both of these stories buttoned up so I can tackle my planned April project; I truly should have known better, for dividing my attention like this has more or less slowed work across the board. Sanity kicked in a week or so ago, allowing me the grace to focus on getting one of them done so I can do then do the same for the other; I suppose it would have been easier had I decided to write a crossover Sean/Vasily story, for at least then the set of characters would have been the same (if not the voices). There is such a jarring difference between the world Kate and Tenoch live that bouncing between them and Sean/Vasily takes a fair amount of recalibration on my part. So far, at least, I’ve not accidentally had Vasily casting a magical spell, nor has Kate shown up at the Rancho Linda Police Department — but then again, I’ve not done a full edit on either of these stories yet, either.

As I wrap up Reflection, I’ve decided I like this new universe enough that there will be more novels in that series — depending, of course, on how it’s received. I’ve tried to walk a fine line between what I think of as “realistic” magic versus what you might find in a full-on fantasy story; using the framework of a police procedural helped to keep it grounded, but honestly, it wound up being a true delight to introduce a key magical spell just when the hero needed it. (Full disclosure: normal deductive reasoning solves the murder in Reflection; it felt like cheating to allow any magical shortcuts.)

The process was instructive, for sure, though. Never again will I try to write more than a single narrative at once — at least, not until I’m retired and have more time to devote to my writing.

TFOB 2025

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that one of my most cherished dreams is to attend the annual Tucson Festival of Books as a published author. That dream came true for me in 2023 when I was selected for a spot in the Indie Author Experience Pavilion; I had the time of my life meeting and mingling with fellow writers and fans, and though I didn’t sell a more than a handful of hardcovers, simply being there on the University of Arizona mall was worth the many long hours at the keyboard.

Getting in each year is a competitive application process, so I wasn’t all that surprised when I didn’t score a spot in 2024; somewhat unexpectedly, though, I was invited at the last minute when another out-of-town author was unable to attend. They often say the second time around isn’t as good as the first, but I would definitely beg to differ; I met a whole new crop of authors, and the fans were even more remarkable — including a number of folks I’d met the prior year who were thrilled to see me there again.

I of course immediately decided to try for a spot in the 2025 edition, and applied as soon as the process opened. The rules are pretty specific, including only being able to submit a single book, one that has to be published by the time the festival takes place in March (and is no more than two years old). My particular publishing schedule makes that a bit of an intriguing problem, for that limited me to Mirage, Vengeance or Solitude; it was a hard choice, but I wound up submitting Vengeance and then crossed my fingers.

As you’ve probably come to suspect, to my great pleasure I was selected to attend this year!

The tentative schedule lists me in the Indie Author Pavilion Saturday, March 10 from 10am – 1pm; as we get closer, I’ll update my website with any changes. As with past appearances, I’ll have a special limited edition of Vengeance on hand for purchase/signing; these are unique copies celebrating my attendance at the festival and had a very, very limited run. I may also have a few leftovers of other novels from prior sessions available too — but more than anything, I’m excited for the chance to once again see readers in person.

If you’ll be in the Tucson area on March 10, please stop by and see me!