Category: Garrison Gage

Dead-Eyed Drifter in Audio, Brief Update

For readers who prefer to listen to my books in audio, good news: the third Karen Pantelli book, Dead-Eyed Drifter is now available for download at both Audible and iTunes.

A big thanks to Cathy Crosman, who did an excellent job narrating this book. While it’s never ideal changing narrators in the middle of a series, Cathy made the switch as seamless as possible (while bringing her own wonderful rendition life).

Just a quick update, since it’s been a few months. The ninth Garrison Gage book is currently with the copy editor, slated to be published in June. Be looking for an email from me (assuming you’ve signed up for my New Release Newsletter, which I hope you have!) By the way, my copy editor is the excellent Michael J. Totten, who is not only a prize-winning writer in his own right, but one of the very best editors at all levels one can get. I can’t recommend him enough. He’s getting in such high demand, however, that it might be difficult to hire him before too long!

I’ve been in a productive grove lately. Some of this stems from staying off-line until the evening most days, but a lot of it is just being more focused and efficient, channeling my energy into what yields me the best returns. I like to split my productive time 70/30 between the writing and cartooning, with the writing getting the bulk of my efforts, and I’ve been edging closer to that ideal. The Run of the House cartoon strip is a completely different ball of wax from my fiction, especially my crime fiction, but doing it provides me with a nice change of pace. One of my fans described the strip as “frequently funny, often profound, and sometimes just plain weird,” which I thought was the best summation of my quirky sense of humor I’d ever heard! And a good tagline!

If you want to try them out, please sign up at www.runofthehouse.net to get a free comic in your inbox every Monday. And if you enjoy them, consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers get a second (exclusive) comic in their inboxes every Wednesday.

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A Cold and Shallow Shore Available in Audio

Good news for fans of my Garrison Gage series who prefer audio books: A Cold and Shallow Shore is now available for digital download on both Audible and iTunes.

This one took a little longer to get produced, and for sad reasons, I’m afraid. The excellent narrator for the first seven books, Steven Roy Grimsley, passed away, and I flailed around for a bit until I decided what to do. The good news is that the new narrator, Jarrod Taylor, is awesome! It’s different, of course. Instead of trying to get a voice that was as similar to Grimsley as I could get, I opted instead for someone who had a strong interpretation even if it was different. I’m quite pleased with the result.

Speaking of Gage, I’m working on the ninth book now. Don’t have a date yet. Hopefully it won’t be too long.

Fall Update, Pictures of Mendocino

First, an update on the current book in progress, especially since many of my readers have asked: Yes, I’m working on the next Garrison Gage book. I hope to have it out this year. That’s pretty much all I can say about it at this point, since I’m always hesitant to talk about works in progress, but the book is coming.

In the meantime, I hope many of you are enjoying the third book in the Karen Pantelli series, Dead-Eyed Drifter, where Karen faces off against a serial killer. Some wicked twists and surprises in that one.

In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, we’re definitely transitioning to fall. Although we’ve just entered a rainy stretch, we had some wonderful late summer days lately, which is pretty common in September here, but the days are getting shorter, the nights cooler. The leaves are just starting to turn on many of the oaks, maples, and other trees. It’s one of my favorite times of the year.

Hard to believe summer’s almost gone. In early August, Heidi and I spent a fun week down in Mendocino, California, which is on the rugged and beautiful Highway 1, about a three hour drive north of San Francisco. We drove down from Oregon over two days, staying in the same Cape Sebastian area we stayed in last year. Here are some shots from the Oregon part of our trip.

  • Near Coos Bay
  • Bandon, Oregon
  • Cape Sebastian
  • Chetco Point (Brookings)
  • Brookings
  • Sunset view from our Airbnb in Cape Sebastian Area

While I’ve been down to the California Redwoods many times, this was mostly in the areas around Crescent City, so it was fun to finally drive through the Humboldt Redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants. The place we stayed in was just across Mendocino Bay and had a spectacular view of the city perched on its rocky coastline.

Why Mendocino? It started with Murder She Wrote, of all things. We’d been watching it occasionally in the evening, as something light and fun that wouldn’t engage our minds too much, and we wondered where the “Cabot Cove” episodes had been filmed. The answer was Mendocino, California, which, after admiring its beauty online, eventually led to our latest road trip. Some of the other highlights of the trip included visiting Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Fort Bragg, riding the Skunk Train, and of course exploring Mendocino. I’ll end this with some shots from the California part of our adventure.

  • Avenue of the Giants
  • Mendocino Bay
  • Mendocino, in the fog
  • Our Airbnb
  • From the deck
  • Jessica Fletcher’s house
  • Rosie at the Botanical Garden
  • The Skunk Train in Fort Bragg
  • Otter Point

Summer Update

That’s a shot of Mission Bay in San Diego, where Heidi and I spent a lovely five days a couple months ago. We went there partly to celebrate my fiftieth birthday (yikes!), but mostly because neither of us had spent more than a day there. San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, Coronado Island . . . We had a great time. It was also a nice break from weeks of gray and drizzle here in Oregon.

Not that it’s raining now! The weather has been spectacular as of late, which is pretty much the norm this time of year in the Willamette Valley. These are the months when I couldn’t even imagine living anywhere else. I once told a waiter in Istanbul (now there’s a way start to a sentence) that God created the Earth in six days, and on the seventh day . . .  he realized he hadn’t got it quite right, so he created Oregon. I was only partly joking. I love this place. I’m not the only one either. Here’s a shot of Rosie on a recent hike at Pheasant Creek Falls:

Is that the face of pure joy, or what?

The third Karen Pantelli book will soon be entering production, due out in six weeks or so, and the next Garrison Gage book (I’ve got about a third written) shouldn’t be too far behind. I’ve continued to publish two Run of the House comics a week via email and at www.runofthehouse.net. You can see one of the latest at the bottom of this post. If you’d like to subscribe, Mondays are free. Wednesdays are for paying subscribers, but the annual subscription is currently 50% off.

Astute readers will notice that the website has gotten a makeover. That took more time than I would have liked, but it was necessary. The old one was getting more vulnerable to cyberattacks (the age we live in, alas, even for small fry like me). I wanted a cleaner, simpler look, anyway, especially since I’ve even more fully embraced being an Internet Minimalist. Speaking of that, I’m still off social media. I don’t miss it. That’s not to say I won’t use it again at some point, but for right now, at least, I’m much happier without it in my life. We’ll see what the future brings. I still think the best use of my time is to channel it into my creative work.

And the best way to never miss one of my books, of course, remains my “New Release Newsletter.” I generally only email when I have something new out (there are no chatty posts like this one), so please do sign up. No spam and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Back before too long. Meanwhile, I’ll see you in the funny pages:

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