Our August Newsletter
Dear friends,
The time has come for another monthly newsletter. It’s been both a sad and a busy time for us. Duane’s nephew, Joe Poncy, passed away recently at a much-too-young age, and we attended a memorial service for him in Walla Walla on the 17th. He was a sweet and earnest young man and will be truly missed. While there, we were able to catch up with Duane’s family and the realization that family, for us, is important and not to be neglected. Patty is retiring in September, and we hope to visit more with both families.
Duane has passed his fifty-percent goal on his new thriller / police procedural, The Verge. The Skyrmion ebook will be released officially on August 2nd. Please consider purchasing it, or if you already have it, giving it a review! Reviews are critical to authors, especially those of us who are trying to get off the ground. There is a new editorial review out by sci-fi author, David Agranoff, host of The Dickheads podcast, here.
Ghosts of Saint-Pierre has a tentative publish date now — October 20th. If you read no other books by us, this is the one you should read.
If you’ve read Skyrmion, please leave a review
One of the best and most crucial ways of supporting an author you enjoy is to leave a review. Not only is it encouraging for us as authors to see a review of our book, but it is the only way to effectively get noticed by readers. To even be listed on a marketing site like Bookbub, a book needs to have fifty reviews on Amazon. You don’t need to say much of anything at all, just a few words will do. “Enjoyed it,” or “Fantastic read,” or even “Could have been better.” No essays necessary.
If you’ve read Skyrmion, you can leave your Amazon review here, and/or a Goodreads review here. It is truly appreciated!
Minireviews: books we’ve been reading
A word about Duane’s reviews: I don’t give easy reviews, but I also try not to be too harsh. If the book is well-written and edited, I will generally give it at least 3 stars, even if it is not to my taste. If I’ve given a book 4 stars, it really liked it. To receive 5 stars, it must be exceptional and have a certain depth to it — I don’t give these lightly. (Click on the book link to Goodreads.)
4 stars. This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I found it a smart FBI thriller about a racially-based murder in a small Oregon timber town. —Duane.
5 stars. I loved this amazing book. Science v Magic on a far-flung world. —Duane
Five Stars. If you haven’t read anything by Liz Hand, you need to. I’ll get anything by her because I know it will be great. Dark and sinister. —Duane
Four stars. This is a great followup to Dark August. The plot gets a little unbelievable at times, but the characters are great. Murder mystery set in Ottawa. —Duane
Three and half stars. This mystery set in Nashville could have been better. Well written but implausible. And the whole twin thing has been way overdone. —Duane
Three stars. Cliched, sentiment muck. But it’s well written if you like that sort of thing. It was on sale for 99¢ so what can I say. —Duane
