Some 99 Cent Special Offers this Summer

Over the next few weeks I've scheduled reduction in price of some of my novels to 99 cents for a week at a time. The first which started yesterday and ends June 7 is for The Fat Cat. I began "The Fat Cat" as a noir novel, but I never know the conclusion of a work when I start. I don't think it ended up as a noir piece. I don't know what it is. I hope a good read. Ellie ran away from the city where she worked as a TV reporter because two things happened. Now, managing a gentleman's club, one of those things is happening again. (You know you're curious what goes on at a strip club, now aren't you?) By the way, cat fans, Gibson, an orange tabby, is the mascot of the strip club called "The Fat Cat." He's also saves the day.

June 8 to 15 StopTime is at 99 cents. It's set in an alternate future history in the Kansas City Plaza Enclave. The barbarians are outside the walls. Also living in Scumtown is a Wiccan healer who has a spell that stops time. And that could change everything. Especially for a student artist living inside the Enclave.

June 15 to 22nd is the 99 cent slot for Dark Side of the Museum. Set in an unnamed art history museum somewhere west of New York City, Dark Side offers a touch of paranormal and a pinch of time travel for an outrageously fun read. Objects conservationist Edgar finds an strange object inside an antique piece of furniture that will take him on a ride he could never anticipated. Meet the Director and curators of the museum who are cast of unforgettables in their own right. Don't miss the cheesecake contest day. (You know you're curious about what goes on behind the scenes at an art museum, now aren't you?)

July 4 (my birthday!) to July 11 Crazy About You is on sale for 99 cents. Write about what you know, they say. I grew up on the grounds of Larned State Hospital because my father was the dentist for that 1,500 patient nut house and the State provided housing on the grounds. My first job was working in the cafeterias dish washing room. Crazy relates one week in the life of a high school junior that will grow him up faster than he could have ever wanted. Several readers have asked me how much of it is real. Upset me at first. Did they think it was just journalism or memoir and I had no creative imagination. Then I realized it was a high compliment. The writing created a reality for them. And that's always been my goal with fiction.

July 11 to 18 I'll feature Very Quirky Tales, a collection of sci-fi and other, well, quirky tales. Tell Us Everything is my kind of homage to Philip K. Dick. It's also centered around an unnamed academic medical center and health professionals should find it fun. It Was Me (I) would have made a neat Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode. The Notebook is a story no reader yet as foretold the ending. The Strange Case of James Kirkland Pilley is my homage to H.P. Lovecraft and one reviewer said it "out-Lovecrafted Lovecraft." A Match Made in Heaven is a tale of the Mormons emigrating from Earth to the Planet Moroni where they discover their destiny. By Pain Possessed: Can the weakest human save us all. It has an ending which the sci-fi writer James Gunn actually provided me when I submitted the story for his class.

"Dark Side of the Museum" is now live

Dark Side of the Museum is live now.

When asked where I get my story and novel ideas and I have to admit I have no clear idea. Not so with Dark Side of the Museum. I remember when I told my father that I was majoring in art history he replied, “What are you going to do with that?” Towards the end of my adult career I was hired as the media relations officer by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art here in Kansas City. Unfortunately, my father had died decades before so I couldn’t call him and tell my art history major paid off.

The Nelson-Atkins was a fantastic place to work with amazing people for colleagues. I really enjoyed it. One day I was looking at a large piece of furniture from the workshop of a Salem furniture maker National Gould. I stared at one of the finials on top of the piece and wondered if it was possible that something could be hidden there.

I had come to the museum from the University of Kansas Medical Center where I had been Director of University Relations. This mean that what was going on around me really was often a matter of life or death.

The professionals I found myself with at the museum worked with the same intensity in what they were doing as I had encountered at the medical center. I came very much to admire the curators with whom I got to work. Their knowledge, articulation and judgment really impressed. But I have quite a bit of fun with the curators in Dark Side, none of whom are based on any real person.

When I wrote my one comedy SPILL I found a writing voice that I quite liked and I wanted to visit that voice again. I don’t know if Dark Side is a comedy or not, there certainly are some laughs in it, at least there were for me. Dark Side is an outrageous exaggerated work in which I get to have fun with a bit of paranormal and time travel.

I am grateful for the many great experiences working at the museum provided for me and the extraordinary environment in which I found myself. Here’s a sampling:

 You get to meet some of the nicest people and work in the most interesting and beautiful of environments. One shot down there is from the roof of the museum when Jacques de Melo came from New York for a photo shoot.

Dark Side of the Museum for Preorder

I'm set to publish my 11th novel November 15, but it's available for preorder now. Dark Side of the Museum is a deliciously outrageous look at the inner workings of an unnamed art museum located somewhere west of New York City. I had a lot of fun writing this one and it's full of fun characters and interesting happenings. At least that's the writer's hope. I titled each chapter and those give a peak inside the book:


Edgar Makes a Discovery and Gets Fired.
Agenda: A More Interactive Museum
Edgar Performs a Desecration.
The Symbol That Could Not Be.
Agnes Hebenstreit Makes a Momentous Decision.
The Chinese Consult Makes an Astounding Proposal.
Local Art Critic Is In the Building.
Decision Time for Ambrose
Edgar Makes Another Discover, Two Actually.
Several Plots Thicken.
Go. See. Know.
Decisions, Decision.
Emily Needs to Pee.
The Day of the Cheesecake Competition Arrives.
Theodore Washington Gets Discovered; Ambrose is Told the Scroll is Ready; Edgar Gets Schooled on Nicolai Tesla and Kurt Goden. Whew!
The Director Catches Edith as She Faints.
Ambrose Waits; the Director Gets to Work.
Canities Subita, RFG, Xenoglossia
A Room for Beatrice
Convergence
The Director's First Night in His New Digs
Getting Rid of Robbie
Moving Things Along
Re-entombing Meryre
Tying Up Loose Ends, Sort Of

(A thank you to Kansas City photographer Roy Inman for letting me use his image as cover art.)

"Dark Side of the Museum" Found an Ending

I think Dark Side of the Museum is finished. I need to have the patience now to let it sit and then reread it. I started this novel over a year ago, although the idea had been percolating longer than that. I don't know how to categorize it other than a good read (I hope). It has a pinch of paranormal and a dash of time travel. The result seems to me deliciously outrageous. The set up is pretty simple and engaging. Engaging, well that's for you to judge. Here's the first chapter. I'm looking for beta readers if anyone is interested.

CHAPTER ONE
Edgar Makes a Discovery and Gets Fired.

I was on my way to report the extraordinary X-ray finding to the chief conservator when I encountered her in the hallway waddling like a penguin toward me in her daily dress of black pants, white blouse, black vest. Stella said, "Ah, Edgar, we need to talk."

I could have told her about the discovery as we walked back to the windowless bowels of the art museum where 93 percent of the collection was stored, a vast majority of which would never been seen by any visitor. I wondered what we NEEDED to talk about. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm polite to the curators. I get on well with them, even Beatrice. Just saying her name is like pulling a pin from a grenade and looking at the thing in your hand. And I get along well with my fellow conservators, except for Nina, that little bitch in the painting department. I glanced sideways at my boss, but her face showed only the slight smile she always wore that kept you guessing. Is she pleased or deeply upset? Her hair, probably dyed black, hung straight to the top of her shoulders and always looked as if grease needed to be shampooed vigorously from its sticky strands.

I kept quiet, sitting in front of her desk as she settled into her own chair adjusting the multiple knobs it offered to ergonomically match her short, dough-girl frame.

"We're going to have to let you go," Stella said, the slight smile showing no uneasiness with having to impart this piece of news. "The cutbacks, you know. Layoffs affecting all departments even, I hear, one of the curators. Full month's notice. Irma in HR will give you the details on your severance package, how to file for unemployment, COBRA insurance and all that. With your credentials, I'm sure you'll find something else soon. You're young. How's the Gould coming along?"

"Fine, fine. X-rays almost all done. Well, thanks."

And I left asking myself: Why me? I'm the only furniture conservator they have. And having just turned thirty-five I didn't feel young. Dejection started to slump my shoulders, but remembering what waited for me back in the lab made my step more brisk. I retrieved the one X-ray that had so excited me, putting it in my briefcase before anyone else could see it.

At 5 o'clock I walked to security where I opened the briefcase for the guard to peer inside. The X-ray elicited no interest. Work being taken home. At my apartment in the old brownstone near the museum, I stuck the film under the light table to examine the anomaly again.

A year ago, the Museum had acquired a Nathaniel Gould chest-on-chest. The massive, though elegant, wooden thing now sat in the lab for examination, cleaning, and, if needed, restoration. The 91-inch tall piece—when the top part was put on the bottom part—now sat in its two separate sections. I had started my work by X-raying the piece so I might see any hidden cracks, inspect joints, and espy the presence of nails.

Its top featured three finials—knob-like extension spires that began as rectangles of wood sitting on which was a round piece that became a kind of upside down toy top. The X-ray of the right finial seemed to show a box-like object within its rectangular base. Some kind of metal was blocking the view so I had headed to tell the news to Stella.

Now, I'll find out for myself—and alone—what's inside that cube of wood.