This is it!

Honestly, I try not to get too hyper about a new book release, but it’s hard not to get a little excited. So, let’s get this out there right away. Wild Woods and Municipal Blondes are both now available, as of today, in paperback and eBook from popular vendors! And this afternoon, paperbacks will be available from me personally, so I can sign and personalize them, at Chandler Reach Vineyards Tasting Room in Woodinville, WA. Here are the details:

Wild Woods paperback and Kindle eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/195018305X

Wild Woods, ePub for Nook, Adobe Reader, and others: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-woods-nathan-everett/1131673515?ean=2940161211823

“My gods, that was incredible. I get it, too. Who he was didn't matter, it never did. It was always about who he became when he came to town and jumped into that river. Damn good mystery.” The Dark Baron

Municipal Blondes paperback and Kindle eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950183068

Municipal Blondes ePub for Nook, Adobe Reader, and others: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/municipal-blondes-nathan-everett/1131678734?ean=2940161239926

“Great Story and perfect ending. Had me tearing up at the end. Thank You for an excellent read.” Tony Tee

In case you are interested, today also marks the release of Devon Layne’s newest book in “The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins” series, Double Time. The erotic do-over is available as an ePub from https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-time-devon-layne/1131678783?ean=2940161239995

The Kindle book is available only by sending $5 to www.paypal.me/aroslav. Indicate your email address and the words “Double Time” and I’ll send you the download link.

“Aroslav [Devon Layne] has both the talent and the emotional depth to make each one of the characters a three-dimensional person, complete in all respects; for the perceptive reader, a friend who lives not very far away. In that he is not unique on SOL, but his peers in this respect are not his equals.” Daanj

* * *

You can make any number of assumptions about how I’ve been spending my week! Probably wrong. I got into the Seattle area late in the afternoon on Father’s Day to be taken out to a fantastic dinner at the Flavour Bistro in Duvall. What a delicious meal! I had duck and pork stroganoff. As the host said, “It’s a hug in a bowl!”

I’ve spent a good part of the week doing my normal thing and writing. Jason and I are also pulling things together for a smoker fest tomorrow and will be putting a fifteen-pound brisket on the rack. A few friends and family coming over to help celebrate and to help me plan my upcoming trip around the world. It’s a little early to pack my bags, but we’re going to have fun talking about it.

I had the opportunity to have coffee with one of my readers. Les and I had a good conversation about writing, life, and the metaphysics of psychic phenomena. (I lied about that last one. We didn’t really have time to discuss that after we finished solving the world’s problems.)

Q and I headed off to see the Fremont Solstice Parade yesterday and I thought there would be some interesting pictures to post from it. Unfortunately, after driving around for an hour looking for a place to park, we were two miles away from the nearest intersection with the parade. So, instead of naked bicyclists, we settled for a bag of Dick’s.

Spent some time just driving around places I hadn’t been in several years. Including researching a few of the locations that will appear in my next Deb Riley mystery (currently being rewritten). Wallingford and Ravenna both play a part, as well as Queen Anne.

Last night I had a delightful dinner with my friend, Jeri. We were at Arnie’s in Edmonds where we looked out over the marina and the ferry terminal. The view was great, the food was okay, and the conversation was brilliant. First time I’ve been out like that in a very long time!

* * *

I saw a post this week that reminded me a lot of grade school when kids were prone to respond to a disagreement with a direct verbal attack on the other kid. “Your mother wears army boots.” Something that might be taken as a positive fashion statement today. I thought about how little those mindless insults meant and yet how hurtful they could be. Chagrined, the kid might say, “I didn’t mean nothing by it.”

When I look at our world, I see a lot of terrible things. I also see a lot of good people. And I keep trying to figure out how so many good people can do and say so many terrible things. And all the time, they didn’t mean nothing by it.

Something we forget is that one does not need to intend harm to do harm. If we’ve lost something from our society in the past few years, it’s the ability to be civil. Social media allows us to “express our opinion” without filters. It thereby becomes a vehicle for spreading hatred, discontent, disreputation, and social unrest.

I don’t “say what I think” these days. I can think of very few people whose unfiltered thoughts don’t need to be followed by the words, “I didn’t mean nothing by it.” But surely, to someone, it did mean something.

Happy Solstice (a couple of days ago). Hope your summer season brings joy and light!

Economizing

I like toast. For five years in my trailer, I have made toast by melting butter in my frying pan and frying bread. And it was good. I even had a perfectly good smoke alarm to tell me when the toast was ready.

Then, last fall I decided I really wanted a toaster. At Walgreen’s in Blythe, CA, I found a cheap little off-brand (Proctor Silex) toaster for $8. Heaven. I could have toast and usually the smoke alarm didn’t go off. Except the toaster slots are just a little narrower than most loaves of bread. And the racks only drop about half an inch. So, I had to put the bread in sideways and when it popped up, I’d turn it over and toast the other end of the bread. This often resulted in bread that was raw on the edges and burned in the middle.

But it was toast. I like toast. I might have mentioned that.

My solution has been to keep an eye out for bread that is of smaller dimensions than standard loaves. The big round loaves are out. I saw great looking homemade bread at the farmers’ market in Las Vegas but they were huge and I don’t even have room in the trailer to put them on the shelf.

But last week, I discovered Dave’s Organic Good Seed bread. It’s a square loaf of dimensions moderate enough it can be toasted in one pass in my little toaster. Tasty. Toast every morning. I like toast.

I proudly told my card-playing buddies about my new discovery and received their congratulations on my find. Except from Mike. He looked at me with the “You’re a special kind of stupid” look you see in pirated Facebook memes.

“So, you’re telling me that in order to keep using your $8-toaster, you are now paying $10 a loaf for bread instead of $3 a loaf for bread that would fit fine in a $20-toaster?”

Um… Yeah. I think I’ll shop for a new toaster this week.

I like toast.

Just a reminder that the Wild Woods and Municipal Blondes book release party and wine tasting at Chandler Reach Tasting Room in Woodinville is on next Sunday, June 23, from 2-5 p.m. Stop in and say hi. Look at my beautiful new covers. Taste some wine. Talk literary. Buy a book. I’m looking forward to seeing you.

Where time has no meaning

I’m startled this morning to find my book release party is in just two weeks. Pre-orders for eBooks on Amazon and Nook are beginning to trickle in. With three books going live the same day, you’d think someone would buy something. Municipal Blondes and Wild Woods are available on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Double Time is available only at B&N or through my DevonLayne.com website.

Share this!

In the meantime, I’m still writing and loving my little home. (Even though I need to do dishes. Again!) When I get up in the morning about 5:00, I make coffee and settle into my working chair.

The cat was visiting that day, compliments of Mark and Roxanne, who stayed with me over Memorial Day weekend. As you can see, the sun streams through my window and I look out on a perfectly lovely view of the sunrise.

And I write. Did I mention that? I often write all morning and at noon think about food and wandering up to the lodge to play cards. It’s not unusual for me to catch a nap in one of the comfy chairs at the lodge while I’m pretending to do serious work. Maybe the snores give me away.

Sun Meadow is a lovely and relaxed place. A couple of my pickleball player companions have arrived for the summer now, so I’m thinking I might get some exercise sometime soon. Otherwise, my biggest exercise is walking through the meadow to the lodge once or twice a day. There are many fun events there. Cards in the afternoon, movies Friday night, patio cocktail party Saturday afternoon, carry-in dinner Sunday evening, and dances once or twice a month.

But mostly, I end up sitting in front of my computer, albeit in a beautiful setting, and writing. I generated over 40,000 words this week, completing ten new chapters of Double Twist (Book 4 of “The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins”). This week, I will also begin writing the next Deb Riley mystery (sequel to Municipal Blondes) titled Stocks and Blondes. I have a lot of fun with the Deb Riley books and foresee quite a series of them. Someplace along the line, however, I’ll also finish writing the last Dag Hamar mystery, For Mayhem or Madness. It fits between the other two Dag Hamar stories.

We’ve had enough rain that the fields are all incredibly green and lush. I simply get lost in time and don’t remember what day it is or what time. I came back to the trailer after cards and a nap at the lodge yesterday and thought I’d just sit for a few minutes to put down some thoughts on the story before I went back for the patio party. Two and a half hours and 2,000 words later, I realized I’d missed cocktail hour. I made a nice bowl of Ramen noodles and went back to writing.

The writer’s life is idyllic. I’ve entered a world where time does not exist. I’m lost in the lives of my characters and emerge each day to spend a little time in the real world with friends. I kick back with a cigar and a whiskey or a glass of wine in the evening and at night I dream about the stories I’m writing.

There are roughly 40,000 words in the English language, not including variations of the same word, like use, used, user, using. I figure I still have close to 30,000 I haven’t used in one of my books. I think I need to get back to writing!

See you June 23, 2-5 p.m. at Chandler Reach Vineyard Wine Tasting Room, 14450 Woodinville Redmond Road, Suite 107, Woodinville, WA.

Pass it on, okay?

At Last the Details Are Out!

All books have been approved by my various proofreaders and by all-powerful Amazon. My stock of books for the release party are slated to arrive tomorrow. It’s time to get the details of the release party on the table!

You are officially and cordially invited to join me at Chandler Reach Vineyard Wine Tasting Room on June 23, 2019 from 2:00-5:00 to celebrate the release of two new Nathan Everett books, Wild Woods and Municipal Blondes. The celebratory author release party and wine tasting will be at 14450 Woodinville Redmond Rd NE, Ste 107, Woodinville WA. Gifts are not expected. Just buy a book! And leave a review.

The two new books are sequels to early works and continue stories people have long been asking for.

Wild Woods is the sequel to last year’s release, City Limits. In the northeastern United States, the peaceful little town of Rosebud Falls looks like any other small city. Banks, churches, small businesses, an almost-daily newspaper, and a not-for-profit radio station. And seven Families who founded and have run the city for two hundred years. But Rosebud Falls also has a dark secret.

When Gee Evars wandered into town, he lost his memory in a daring rescue of a toddler from the raging Rose River. Now the man without a memory has become a force that even the Families need to reckon with. Someone is making deadly drugs out of the nuts that sustain the city’s economy. And children have disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

When the city votes to annex the area known as South Rosebud, Gee accompanies a small army of high school students and their parents to tear down the fence that has separated the cultivated hickory Forest from the Wild Woods.

This is where Wild Woods begins. Gee and his crew must find a way to tame the Wild Woods, uncover its secrets, and live to tell the story.

Not everyone in this peaceful community wants the truth known. As children who have been trafficked through the Wild Woods begin to show up with no memory, only Gee, the man without a memory, can relate to them and begin to draw them back into a life where they are cared for and protected.

Gee’s real work in Rosebud Falls has just begun.

Pre-order Wild Woods on Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S4CVZKX

Or on Nook at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-woods-nathan-everett/1131673515?ean=2940161211823

For Blood or Money was first released in 2008 by Long Tale Press. It showed a stark picture of how a man’s life might end before he is finished with all the things he wants to accomplish. While he brought his current investigation to an end, he left loose ends for his assistant, Deb Riley, to deal with in Municipal Blondes.

He sent her to get the code from a dead man’s tattoo. He told her she needed to crack the encryption on Simon’s thumb drive. He told her he loved her.

And then he died.

Now Deb finds she is in possession of something everyone wants. There’s Jordan Grant from FinCEN. There’s Simon’s wife, the Muffin Top. And there is the mysterious “Committee” who seem to be willing to do anything to stop Deb from cracking the encryption and revealing the drive’s contents.

Including kill her.

Enter the world of Deb Riley, code breaker, detective, and master of disguise, as she races into the heart of the mystery and risks discovery or worse in Seattle, Belize, and Croatia. She has Dag’s reputation to live up to.

Pre-order Municipal Blondes on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S7YNTFB

Or on Nook at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/municipal-blondes-nathan-everett/1131678734?ean=2940161239926

In case you are looking for something a little more spicy, I’ll also be releasing Devon Layne’s sequel to the erotic do-over, Double Take in eBook only. You can stop by and meet the author Sunday at Chandler Reach. Double Time continues the story of “The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins” as the old man enters his sophomore year in high school in the body of his 15-year-old self. Things are confusing for Jacob to say the least.

Double Time is available for Nook and eReaders at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-time-devon-layne/1131678783?ean=2940161239995

Amazon has declined to release this series, so the Kindle version is available only by contacting me directly. Email devon@devonlayne.com for details. It, too, will be released on June 23.

I do have a limited edition (only three of each left) of the paperback version of Double Take and Double Time. I will have them at the release party for just $25 each. No more will be printed.

And there’s the news! Join me on the 23rd if you can.