Michael Stephen Daigle's Blog, page 19
December 18, 2021
New Nagler news: A GAME CALLED DEAD now an audiobook
I am celebrating the release of the Audiobook version of A GAME CALLED DEAD, the second book in the four-book, award-winning Frank Nagler Mystery series.
Thanks to IMZADI PUBLISHING for expanding the offerings of the Nagler series and to DANE PETERSEN for a fabulous reading.
Dane read THE RED HAND, the prequel to the Nagler series. In that book Ironton N.J. Detective Frank Nagler was in his early 20s and dealing with the illness of his wife Martha, and a serial killer, his first big case.
A GAME CALLED DEAD takes place twenty years later than The Red Hand, and Dane deftly has aged Nagler, whose voice now reflects the weariness that has settled on his soul.
A GAME CALLED DEAD also reintroduces some favorite characters from the first book in the series, The Swamps of Jersey: Nagler’s companion, Lauren Fox, and reporter Jimmy Dawson.
Nagler’s friend from The Red Hand, Leonard, the blind bookstore owner, also returns.
New to the series, and who has become a favorite, is Sgt. Maria Ramirez, a non-nonsense compassionate cop who steers Nagler back to the center at times.
A GAME CALLED DEAD is about the terror campaign of an Internet terrorist who turned a video game into a real-life killing spree. It seems that no one at the local state college or in Ironton itself is safe from the terrorist.
It is a thrilling tale revenge, murder and intrigue.
Sample comments:
“The character development was rich enough to make Detective Nagler come to life and made it easy to buy in to the storyline of two college girls in New Jersey being murdered in their dorm. The writer incorporates abundant detail in a way that enriches the plot without burdening the reader. As Nagler works the case, there are some unpredictable conflicts and ironies. As Nagler wondered if he could trust the college administrator, the reader begins to see broader possibilities involving suspects and motives. The book is well written and the more I read, the more engaging it became.”
“Think Dashiell Hammett meets twitter.”
Find Dane Petersen’s reading of A GAME CALLED DEAD here:
Audiobook version of THE RED HAND and THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY can be found here:
December 16, 2021
G: You make the world better by being
Greet the day with a song,
Your face in the mirror with a smile
Run off your blues
It’s not about winning; you make the world better by being.
There is silence for those missing,
Your heart carries them for you.
Hear them laugh and sing,
feel them take your hand in comfort
and kiss your cheek,
trade their wisdom for tears.
They want you to thrive
They want you to love
They want you to be.
Lose that argument with your sorrow; deserve yourself.
Emptiness is space that needs filling;
Make room for yourself.
Cheer the endless good,
Wrap yourself in hope
And know that your life brings light and love.
Shine.
December 10, 2021
Nagler 6: Title, ‘Nagler’s Secret’
There’s a lot going on Frank Nagler World.
A new audiobook, a new mystery (2022), and story ideas for Book 6.
So, start here:
While casting about for a framework for the next Frank Nagler mystery I read a news story from Boston about a man being released from jail after 20 years because the police had fabricated evidence and staged its discovery.
Seemed like a good place to start.
I already know that a character from book three, THE WEIGHT OF LIVING, will return with a fascinating story to tell.
The return was foretold in the coda to book five, DRAGONY RISING.
Oh, wait – Getting ahead of myself.
Sorry to tease.
DRAGONY RISING is expected to be published in 2022. Look for details.
In the meantime, while planning for the next book in the series, I asked how that old cold case might affect Ironton N.J. Detective Frank Nagler and his reputation as a stalwart cop and protector of his home town.
What if there was something unknown in his past?
So, there’s the title of Nagler 6: “NAGLER’S SECRET.”
Closer at hand, upcoming is the release of the Audiobook version of A GAME CALLED DEAD,” read by Dane Petersen.
That will be the third audio version of the series,
Lee Alan read the SWAMPS OF JERSEY and Dane read THE RED HAND.
Information on the audiobooks and all other versions of the Frank Nagler Mysteries – ebooks and paperbacks – can be found here:
Amazon.com: Michael Stephen Daigle: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
And here:
December 8, 2021
Words are like water
Words are like water.
Some so light floating on wavetops to be missed.
Some emerge from the depths, rise like frightening, toothy beasts
A surprise to those who haul them to the surface;
others not so surprising, but known and hidden,
tracked by sonar, recalled, regretted.
Even more rise from the edge of darkness, beyond the rays of light and imagination,
The carcasses of dreams which sank to places we’d rather not fish.
I am seeking.
Find me there, sunken, enwrapped by some grassy hold, weighted words unsaid.
I left a trail, a river of promises like bubbled breath surface bound, one last hope.
Cast a line.
I rise.
November 16, 2021
Nagler 5: Who are the traitors?
A deep, generational conspiracy runs through the first four Frank Nagler Mysteries.
In the upcoming DRAGONY RISING, the conspiracy is full-blown and growing.
Can it be stopped? Who are the traitors?
“Bill Weston was nervous. This was not going according to plan.
It was only nine a.m. and he had sweated through his good dress shirt and suit. The ceremony was scheduled for noon. The streets were filled. Good I told my family to stay home.
The meeting the night before when the transfer of power had been planned went so badly the council only managed to appoint him as acting mayor. Article 256-2006 never was raised for a vote. McSalley said not to worry because as acting mayor Weston could declare by emergency decree that the article was in effect.
The small council room last night had vibrated with the loud anger of the crowd, Weston thought as he sat in the mayor’s seat at the center of the dais alone in the council chambers. A day later he could still feel the rage. The shouting had started before the meeting was called to order and he could not stop it. This was the seat he had wanted all that time; craved it, lusted for it and the power that Article 256-2006 bestowed on him – On him, him alone. He would choose his successor, purge the disloyal, exercise the absolute authority to make of Ironton what he wanted, no longer Bill Weston, faceless accountant, party loyalist, but Bill Weston deal maker, Bill Weston king maker.
Bill Weston, king.
It was all he had ever wanted.
But the crowd last night would not shut up. They roared at him. He pounded the gavel and they roared more loudly. The signs! Kill the Dragony. Fight for Ironton. And the chants: “No more Dragons! No more Dragons!”
Weston tried to clear to room, ordered the police to clear the room, but the crowd filled every seat and the aisles, and were god knows how many deep in the hallways; surrounded he was. Trapped. The police did not respond. They were ordered to respond and they stood against the wall, hands folded at their waists glaring at him. Didn’t Dixon hand pick them? Our guys, our cops? Clear the room, damn it. As acting mayor I order you to clear the room. They turned their backs; some officers even walked away – to cheers!
Now sitting alone, the rising sounds of a gathering crowd in the streets outside city hall penetrated the walls, pushed aside the silence. Weston cursed that video that popped up on the Internet. They called me traitor. “Kill the traitor,” they yelled. “Traitor.” “Traitor.” “Traitor.”
It was that fucking video. There was McSalley practically anointing me ruler of Ironton. My baby daughter asked me what it meant. But my teen-age son sat across the table this morning with those dark threatening eyes.
Weston sat back in the wide, thick chair, closed his eyes, and took several deep, settling breaths.
“Fuck ‘em all,” he said. “The brotherhood is with me. It will be rough at the start, but they will adjust. They have no choice. This is a new day. The Dragony rising.”
He smiled against the sounds of chaos rising outside the chamber’s thick windows.”
To see how Detective Frank Nagler had prepared to battle the Dragony conspiracy, dive into the other four Frank Nagler Mysteries: THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY; A GAME CALLED DEAD; THE WEIGHT OF LIVING; and THE RED HAND.
Coming December: The audiobook version of A GAME CALLED DEAD, read by Dane Petersen.
Find the Frank Nagler mysteries at:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weight-of-living-michael-stephen-daigle/1126280404
November 8, 2021
Gone solar
I have to admit watching the power meter run backwards is fascinating.
Yup. Went solar.
I’d liked to say that we were the pioneers in our neighborhood, the first to install a roof-based solar system.
We’re not even the first on our street, more like the third.
As far as I can tell on my morning walks with Lily the dog, there are nine or ten units in the neighborhood. One is at least five years old, and the others more recent.
After reporting this summer for the Lake Hopatcong News Lake Hopatcong News – Your Source for Lake News on homeowners in the Lake Hopatcong area who were installing solar, starting with homeowners installing the Tesla roof system, I began to investigate online the pros/cons, company histories, costs, incentives, etc., of making the switch.
That reporting showed that since 2019, more than 150,000 NJ homes and businesses have switched to solar. The head of our installation crew said they are putting up six systems a week.
Beforewarned: Solar companies have a hot product and they will find you with incredible speed.
So, be prepared.
Read your electric bill, visit the NJ Bureau of Public Utilities website for information on the laws, incentives and tax breaks for NJ homeowners — https://www.bpu.state.nj.us/ — visit clean energy websites for overviews and even, talk to your neighbors who installed a solar system.
This is a replacement cost.
You already buy electric power and will be doing for as long as you own a home.
With solar you are changing the source and the system.
And, yes, you can watch your meter spin backwards because you are still connected to the grid.
That’s how you sell back to the power company the excess electricity your solar unit generates. That’s part of the deal, and for a single homeowner helps reduce the overall cost of the solar installation.
The cost?
It’s like buying a new car, but you have 25 years to pay for it. And there is a 26 percent federal tax break, and state incentives, and this is for a product you are already buying and will be buying ad infinitum. Long term, it lowers your cost.
Not all homes are situated for solar. Too many trees or the angle of the lot and other considerations.
My lot faces basically north and south and the large roof expanse is tree free. The 28 panels face both north and south.
We took down one dying tree that was doomed anyway because it’s middle and upper branches were landing on both my roof and the neighbor’s.
How much energy is produced?
Well, extrapolating from a small sample…a very small sample…three days worth— the system generated between two and three times the amount of electricity used in October.
All of this is situational.
While the house faces north and south, this time of the year the sun rises off due south about 20 degrees east, and sets about 30 degrees west off due north.
It is also on a low-angle trajectory across the sky never rising above the tree line, so the sunlight hitting the roof is filtered through leaves.
That will continue until late December until after the solstice when the days lengthen and the angles increase.
This is the future. The technology is improving, investment is flowing into the solar and green energy business sector, construction practices are making such systems more practical and zoning and building codes will catch up.
Electric vehicles? Ask yourself how soon after Detroit began rolling out thousands of cars a year, did it take for roads and gas stations to follow?
This is that moment all over again.
.
November 4, 2021
Nagler 5: Article 256 changes everything
One of the questions raised in the fifth Frank Nagler Mystery, DRAGONY RISING, is how a conspiracy can result in the takeover of a government.
This is how: Quietly, with patience, both in the dark and in plain sight.
With this: “Article 256-2006: An ordinance to reform the duties of the city council of Ironton, New Jersey.”
Coming soon: DRAGONY RISING.
In Dragony Rising, Nagler digs deep into his family’s history to gain insight into a shady organization that is threatening the city.
The connections he finds are deeply personal and shocking.
Who is the Dragony?
A clue:
“People think revolutions take place on the streets, are loud, violent things. Crowds with torches and bricks and flags threatening overthrow. That is theater. Revolution are ideas, formed and refined in meetings like this, in meetings your ancestors held a century or more ago to take power back from the new folks who wanted it. Your ancestors stood up and said, no. No to the pollution of their lives. No to the slippery degradation of their beliefs. So they rose up and took back the purity of their lives.”
The leader held up one hand to silence the murmured approval. “Society and its creation, government, at times rot. Such is that time. But society is a pile of rocks strapped together with the dreams of believers like you all. It is time to seek out the dreams that have putrefied. Pull out the loose rock, weaken its hold on the faulty structure. Pull one and it leans, makes a hole; pull another and it shivers, another, and it falls. Find your rock, that weak crumbling rock, brothers and sisters, and pull.”
Be afraid, be very afraid.
To see how Detective Frank Nagler had prepared to battle the Dragony conspiracy, dive into the other four Frank Nagler Mysteries: THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY; A GAME CALLED DEAD; THE WEIGHT OF LIVING; and THE RED HAND.
Coming December: The audiobook version of A GAME CALLED DEAD, read by Dane Peterson.
Find the Frank Nagler mysteries at:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weight-of-living-michael-stephen-daigle/1126280404
October 30, 2021
Review: SOUL SEEK, Zackie Series book 4: Fun, spooky, wildly entertaining
Writing suspense stories in the single dimension of this world is hard enough.
That is what makes the effort by New Jersey author Reyna Favis remarkable and such fun: Her Zackie stories about a Psychopomp in the form of a Plott hound and her human and ghostly companions take place in two dimensions with spirits and human engaged in crime solving.
Full disclosure: I am a mystery writer (just in one dimension) and a member with Reyna in the Phillipsburg (NJ) writers group. I have heard parts of this story.
In the fourth book in the Zackie series, Soul Seek, American ghost hunter Fia and her entourage are lodged in a manor house in the Scottish Highlands.
A cold draft leaking from the wall sends Fia down a dark passage to find a dead baby and the spirit of a fiddler James MacPherson.
The death of the child activates Fia and her human crew to find the cause of the child’s death.
The fun part of these stories is that their role not just crime solving but soul solving: Fia and Cam and the others, with Zackie, are determined to soothe the worries of the dead who have not passed to the afterlife so they can pass on with Zackie’s help.
The spirits in these books are not haunting presences but humans lost in a void They had human lives and now have spirit lives that are played out with insight, at times sympathy, and others, scorn, but at all times with a brute honesty.
The tangle in this involving tale is the sudden alliance between MacPherson and Hannah, the dead, protective and jealous wife of Lucas Tremaine, a producer of a ghost chasing reality TV show, and Fia’s love interest.
Hannah is the kind of spirit who in full pique drains the batteries of the humans’ vehicles.
The interplay between the humans and the dead in Soul Seek is delicious, at time hilarious and drives the story forward.
Two scenes to ponder.
In one, Hannah, MacPherson and baby Lorna are in the hallways of the manor filling the house with screaming and yelling. Cam orders all concerned to be quiet as Zackie calms the dead child, telling them all to stop shouting or they will wake the baby.
Think about that a moment.
The other scene takes place at the crossroads that has played a prominent part in a previous story.
This scene shows Favis at her orchestrating best.
The TV production crew is terrorized as something unseen smashes their vehicles.
That unseen presence is Sigurd the Mighty, back in this world to terrorize. Along with him is Modwen, his daughter, angry with Sigurd because she was sacrificed at the time of his death to provide him companionship.
The bickering between the two is as modern as any teen-age daughter/father dispute.
Add Hannah to the mix, talking to both the humans and the dead, and then the humans talking among themselves and conversing with the dead and the scene is as fascinating, engaging, horrifying and fun – and as well conceived and written as anything else you might read today.
This story will haunt you in delightful way.
October 26, 2021
Time’s now to fix what’s broken
If all goes to plan, an 8-year-old in Sparta, N.J. today might be able to take one of their newly adult (over 18) drives through a finally uncluttered intersection at Routes 15 and 80 by 2032.
That’s when, according to state transportation plans, the work to unspaghetti the collection of confusing and overused ramps and turns that connect the main road from Northwest NJ and the Lake Hopatcong region to the interstate highway might be completed.
A decade to complete the work, but in truth they have been planning and talking about the repairs for thirty years, during which the population of the lake region grew from a few thousand a century ago to a couple hundred thousand today.
The construction plan shows how complicated the work to redesign the intersection actually is, and more important how the lack of consistent transportation funding has left Americans across the country stuck in traffic at similar intersections.
reIn New Jersey where I live and have been a newspaper reporter for three decades, there are dozens of Route15/80 intersections that need to be fixed. And rail lines and tunnels and broken local streets and parks and trails…you get the idea.
And it’s not just roads and bridges.
There are people living in the woods in tents, or in major cities in tent cities that generate disgust but little action toward solutions because we somehow expect people down on their luck to be more perfect than we are.
Senior citizens and children go hungry every day.
Workers take lunch at soup kitchens because they are not paid enough to survive.
Families delay needed medical care because they can’t afford it and struggle to find care givers for their children while thewy work.
And the list goes on.
I have many friends in the social service and non-profit community who daily push the rock up hill to provide services for the unserved.
And as important and sometimes heroic as those efforts are, they will be pushing that rock uphill forever.
Guess what?
It’s time to fix the broken stuff.
Time to spend the money because in the American economic system money can be generated at the drop of a hat.
Time to turn empty buildings into housing and job centers.
Time to modernize our transportation system. It’s a 100 years old and collapsing while we watch.
Time to feed the hungry and offer care to the sick that does not make them choose between paying the rent or getting treatment.
Time to clean up the rivers and lakes. And stop the junk from flowing to them.
Time to unpollute the land left behind when industries moved on and left their mess for someone else to clean.
Time to stop pretending that we have all the time in the world to fix things.
Time to stop complaining when someone else offers a plan.
And time to face the question: What would be worse: passing on to our grandchildren financial debt (FYI, the $1.75 trillion the feds want to borrow for 10 years is a fraction of the estimated US gross national product for that time estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at about $360 trillion) that would be recouped, or a broken world?
Time to stop talking, prevaricating, blaming, accusing, puffing ourselves up with self-importance.
Time to listen.
Time to act.
Because some of us won’t be here to use that new Route15/80 intersection.
But that 8-year-old from Sparta will be.
If it gets done in time.
Enough is enough: Fix the broken stuff and see what happens.
October 22, 2021
Nagler 5 ‘Dragony Rising’ accepted for publication
“We are excited to accept your latest work.”
The words any author wants to read.
So. THANK YOU Imzadi Publishing for accepting for publication the fifth Frank Nagler Mystery, Dragony Rising.
Look for details about the release date.
It’s been two years since book four, THE RED HAND, was released.
The series has won multiple awards.
Kirkus Reviews called Frank Nagler, “One of modern fiction’s expertly drawn detectives.”
What’s Dragony Rising about?
It was no mistake that the mining history of my fictional town, Ironton. N.J. was prominent.
In his own way, Detective Frank Nagler is a miner.
He has been mining his own heart and soul as he solves crimes.
In Dragony Rising, Nagler digs deep into his family’s history to gain insight into a shady organization that is threatening the city.
The connections he finds are deeply personal and shocking.
Who is the Dragony?
A clue:
“People think revolutions take place on the streets, are loud, violent things. Crowds with torches and bricks and flags threatening overthrow. That is theater. Revolution are ideas, formed and refined in meetings like this, in meetings your ancestors held a century or more ago to take power back from the new folks who wanted it. Your ancestors stood up and said, no. No to the pollution of their lives. No to the slippery degradation of their beliefs. So they rose up and took back the purity of their lives.”
The leader held up one hand to silence the murmured approval. “Society and its creation, government, at times rot. Such is that time. But society is a pile of rocks strapped together with the dreams of believers like you all. It is time to seek out the dreams that have putrefied. Pull out the loose rock, weaken its hold on the faulty structure. Pull one and it leans, makes a hole; pull another and it shivers, another, and it falls. Find your rock, that weak crumbling rock, brothers and sisters, and pull.”
The Frank Nagler Mysteries are:
“The Swamps of Jersey”
“A Game Called Dead” was named a Runner-Up in the Shelf Unbound 2016 Best Indie Book contest.
“The Weight of Living” was awarded First Place for mysteries in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Award contest;
Named A Notable 100 Book, Shelf Unbound 2018 Indie Book Awards;
Named a Distinguished Favorite, 2018 Independent Press Awards.
Named a Distinguished Favorite in the 2018 Big NYC Book Contest.
Named a Finalist in the 2019 Book Excellence Awards.
Named A Gold Star Award winner in the 2020 Elite Choice Book Awards
Named a Book Award Winner in 2021 by Maincraft Media Fiction Book Awards
“The Red Hand” was named a Distinguished Favorite in the 2019 Big NYC Book Contest
Named Second Place winner for mysteries in the 2019 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards
Named a Notable 100 Book in the 2019 Shelf Unbound Indie Book Awards
Named a Distinguished Favorite in the 2020 Independent Press Awards
A Nominee in the 2020 TopShelf Book Awards
Named A Gold Star Award winner in the 2020 Elite Choice Book Awards
Available at:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-weight-of-living-michael-stephen-daigle/1126280404
I am also thrilled and gratified to say that an audio version of my Frank Nagler Mystery, A GAME CALLED DEAD is in production. The work is expected to be completed by December.
Great thanks to Imzadi Publishing for arranging this reading. And thanks to Dane Peterson for taking on the project.
Dane previously created the audIo version of THE RED HAND, the fourth Frank Nagler Mystery.
And thanks to Lee Alan., who recorded the first book in the series, THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY
The link to the audiobook version of THE RED HAND:
Link to the audiobook version of THE SWAMPS OF JERSEY:
