Behind the Scenes is a combination of updates on future books as well as the author’s messages.
Somewhere around the middle of 2019, depending on the comments I receive from my editor, I’ll publish four books. They’re titled: The Patriarch, The Scion, The Payback, and The Artifact.
Why so many? The reason has to do with how I wrote these novels. I started with The Payback, which is the third novel in the Matt Moretti-Han Li series. It took me about 6 months to write that manuscript, which is how publishers refer to an author’s text that has not yet been published. Completed about a year ago, the manuscript resolved a lot of issues that were left hanging in The Abductions. Also, in it the reader will experience the president’s super-secret organization, Nemesis, in action. I had every intention of sending this to the editor, but wanted to put one more coat of polish on the prose, which usually takes me two to three weeks. However, those good intentions got sidetracked when I started writing a manuscript centered on Mauro Bruno. The urge to do that had been festering in my mind as I wrote The Archivist and The Abductions. The Chief Inspector from Venice was too good a character to let slip away after just one novel, so I decided to build a series around him and set him afloat next to the Matt Moretti series. So, one day I sat at my computer and started typing… and typing … and typing. Six months later I had The Patriarch, which allowed me to show a side and depth to Bruno that I couldn’t put in The Archivist, or else it would have detracted from the main protagonists – Matt Moretti and Han Li. However, the ending of The Patriarch was such a cliffhanger that my wife, and the other “sounding boards” I use to review my novels told me that, prior to sending the manuscript to the editor, that the next Mauro Bruno book had to be written, and that both should be published at the same time. Although publishers like the cliffhanger approach to keep the reader in suspense for what amounts to a year (writing and publishing the manuscript), I agreed. And so, I started typing… and typing … and typing. As a result, I wrote The Scion.
So far that explains the three-book pileup. The fourth, The Artifact, is the third book of Mauro Bruno detective series. And, just as what happened in the first two novels, I couldn’t unwrap from the main character. Therefore, you guessed it, I started typing… and typing … and typing. Finally, I finished the manuscript at nearly midnight, and couldn’t be happier with it. Now, I promise, I have the cover closed on my laptop, have contacted my editor, and I’m sending all four manuscripts to them next week. Once I submit those I’ll start on my next novel, which I’ve already outlined, titled The Forgotten, a Matt Moretti-Han Li thriller.
I’m excited to announce that my second fiction novel, The Archivist is now in print.
Below is a preview of The Archivist
General Lin Bogang, China’s highest-ranking military officer, has a plan that will force the government into naming him his country’s leader. And there’s a strong likelihood hell succeed, thanks to secret documents written by Mao Zedong. The general has two problems. He only has copies, which could be discounted as forgeries, and he doesn’t know the exact location of the originals. Soon he discovers that the key to finding them lies with Matt Moretti, an alcoholic former Army Ranger currently working as an archivist for the US government. Hunted by the general, a Chinese assassin, European police, and his own government, the archivist goes on the run across Europe as he tries to unravel the clues that will reveal Mao’s long-kept secret. Along the way he meets Han Li, a beautiful Chinese agent and assassin in her own right who is also seeking the original documents. Only time will tell, however, whether they will manage to keep them out of the hands of the general. In this thriller, an alcoholic former Army Ranger joins forces with China’s top assassin to recover secret documents that could topple the Chinese government.
Below is a preview of The Abductions
Following a gala, the presidents of the United States and China disappear after retiring for the night within their heavily guarded palaces inside the Forbidden City. After an intense investigation ensues, no one can determine how the dignitaries were abducted while under constant surveillance. When an internet video is released that shows the heads of state kneeling before the flag of the Protectors of Islam, the question of who abducted them and what they want is answered. The Islamic terrorists threaten that unless their demands are met within seventy-two hours, both men will be beheaded live on the internet. With each country’s intelligence agencies paralyzed by a lack of clues, Matt Moretti and his Chinese agent counterpart, Han Li, work outside their organizations bureaucracies to find the leaders. After they uncover a conspiracy focused on attaining a singular objective at any cost, Moretti and Li are arrested for interfering with the investigation. Now they must outrun the army, make sense of complex clues, and race to find the presidents before their abductors carry out their evil plan. In this thrilling story of intrigue and murder, an American civilian intelligence officer and Chinese agent must do everything in their power to stop the beheading of two international leaders by Islamic terrorists.
Like this:
Like Loading...
