Postcards From Across the Pond

“It’s my webpage and I’ll pimp if I want to.”

The Exodus Connection is done. It is finished, it is on Amazon, and I have never had so much trouble with a book. So, please make me feel better by going out and buying one—no. several—right now.

In the final iteration, I had them add a gun, then lighten it so you could actually see it

I started that book in August of 2024. That’s over a year and eight months ago, and that is an inexcusable waste of time, energy, and angst, especially for the pay-off. It’s only seventy-five thousand words, and the plot is what I call a shotgun plot, meaning it simply goes forward, from A to B to C to get to D. I suppose you could call it lean, or action-packed, but publishers look upon subplots as value for money, as well as another few thousand words.

Now that I’ve totally put you off the book, allow me to say it is a rollicking plot with lots of action and very little hanging about. (I just started JK Galbraith’s latest tome—only 900 pages this time, so not quite as much hanging about as her previous 1,200 pager) so the action is fast-paced.

I often joked about it being a mash-up of 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Guns of Navarone, but that is essentially what it is. For the bookish, there is a homage to both 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale in the first chapter, and the rest is Guns of Navarone-ish, at least what I recall of the movie I saw many years ago.

I know I have complained about this book in several recent blogs (seven, in case you’re interested) and have been congratulating myself on having finished it at the beginning of this year, but all the edits and proofing and beta reading took weeks, and I just put it up on Amazon this morning. So, now it is finally, fully, one hundred precent completed, and I couldn’t be happier. The cover is, eh, okay, the story has grown on me, and having it behind me has provided the impetus (and the time) to revamp my website to include my books (really, what was I thinking?)

All that remains now is to get the book into the hands of some readers. It’s not about the money; it’s about the story. As I have previously opined, “A story isn’t a story until someone has read it,” so I’ll be visiting the “Take a Book, Leave a Book” locations around town (you’d be surprised how many there are) and leave a copy in each. I also have my sister, who is a fan, and a few friends I can foist it onto.

The plan had been to jump into my next adventure, which I hope to make into a series, but then something came along, and then something else came along, and now my wife has abandoned me to go hike the Northumberland Trail with her ultra-fit mates, and I’m taking the opportunity to get some household projects accomplished while she’s away.

I’m sure I’ll blog about that soon.