The beginning
Yesterday I just attended my first public event as an author. It was a sponsored by “A Fresh Cut” in Howard, CO. The boutique and hair salon is owned and operated by Jess Wilda. When my wife told Jess I was an author, Jess invited to be part of her semi-annual showing for local artisans and craftspeople. I gladly accepted. Jess runs a great place and I enjoyed my first public outing as an author. I talked to a few friends, sold a few books and gained some valuable experience.
During one of my conversations, I ended up talking about my book “First Encounters.” F.E. is was the novella I finished right before I started the K.C. Hall series. That (December 2022) seems like a lifetime ago and having spent a full year writing the K.C. Hall series and then moving on to Thomas Akla (still in progress, it will be finished this fall, I promise) and, of course, my current project, “Lewis Hurdy: Small Town Smart Guy,” F.E. got lost in the shuffle, so to speak.
While all my books have a special place in my heart, F.E. stands out in its own way. It’s structured as an interview between an investigator and a person who has been involved with and seems to be hiding key information regarding a species of aliens that have made contact with humankind. It’s a twist on the first contact trope. The interview structure adds a constantly shifting tension to the narrative. My wife joined the conversation in the middle and asked, “Wait, which on is that again?”
I told her, “It’s the one that made you cry.”
She held her hand to her chest and said, “Oh, yeah, I love that story.” Yes, she is my biggest fan and obviously biased. But the story is a good one. I’d forgotten how good until I started talking about it yesterday. Since I’ve been so wrapped up in the Lewis Hurdy series and not put out any new work for my subscribers, I’ve gone ahead and posted a PDF version of “First Encounters” in the story section. If you’re a subscriber, you can download it. If not…
We’ve made significant progress in terms of our audiobook endeavors. Included below is a short sample of the audio version of “We Are All K.C. All.” The first two books of the K.C. Hall series will be available in audio format sometime in the next month.