Yes, I’m still here.

I should probably be blogging more, given that my newest novel came out just last week, but I’ve been caught up in promotional tasks along with a major — although unexciting — backend project.

The print editions of many of my books are printed by a company called Lightning Source. There is some advantage to also having them printed by Createspace, an Amazon company. So I’ve been converting and updating the books for that purpose. It’s a task that requires detail work, and time, but I want to get it done as soon as I can so I won’t have to continue paying for a monthly subscription for the layout program I’ve been using.

Anyway!

What’s going on in the world of The Last Good Man?

Not enough, to be honest. The launch itself went well, and sales continued at a reasonable pace for the next few days, but have been dropping off alarmingly since then. I have a few small publicity ventures ongoing, and a few more in mind, but nothing major is on the horizon, so I’m concerned that sales will continue to lag. That’s what happened with The Red, despite the good reviews, so it’s starting to feel like “déjà vu all over again.”

On the positive side, y’all are fantastic! Reader reviews at both Amazon and Goodreads have been terrific! Thank you, and I’m so very pleased to know that so many of you have enjoyed The Last Good Man.

Of course, not everyone agrees. I did get a 1-star review at Amazon a few days ago, although the customer’s ire is directed at the price of the ebook’s kilobytes — one kilobyte being as good as another, I suppose — rather than at the story.

Two more online appearances since my last post:

Jeffrey A. Carver, author of The Chaos Chronicles along with many other novels, recently finished reading The Last Good Man and posted his thoughts on it. In short, his advice is, “Don’t miss this one.”

And over at Marie Brennan’s blog, I posted about the “Spark of Life” — that moment during the writing of The Last Good Man when the story felt as if it finally came alive. TL;DR — a technical change, likely of interest only to other writers, is what made the difference for me.

Onward.

Toby Neal is a friend of mine and a fellow Maui writer who has just published her first novel.

Blood Orchids is a police procedural set in sleepy Hilo town on the Big Island and featuring the intrepid cop, Lei Texeira. It’s the first in a series of four novels, with the next books scheduled to appear in 2012.

Blood Orchids is also a first for me–it’s the first book not my own which I helped produce. I did both the ebook creation and the interior layout for the print book as part of services offered through my company Mythic Island Press LLC.

Here’s the back cover description of Blood Orchids. The ebook is only $2.99 right now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Check it out!

Hawaii is palm trees, black sand and blue water—but for policewoman Lei Texeira, there’s a dark side to paradise.

Despite her obsession with the case and fear that she’s being stalked, Lei finds herself falling in love for the first time. Steaming volcanoes, black sand beaches and shrouded fern forests are the backdrop to Lei’s quest for answers—and the stalker is closer than she can imagine, as threads of the past tangle in her future.
Lei is determined to find the killer—but he knows where to find her first.