BARON HARON HAS TALES TO TELL YOU!

Dear Gentlereaders,

I do like to keep my promises. In my previous blog post I introduced my forthcoming novel BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES. I labeled this novel a cozy romantasy. If you are not familiar with the term, let me refer you to that previous blog post. 

I mentioned how this novel came about. As the third book in a trilogy united by setting, this story follows the misadventures of the grown-up grandson of the narrator of the previous epic novel A TIME OF KINGS. On X just today, in responding to a promotional post, a would-be marketer asked me where the idea came from. I could refer that marketer to my blog post but that would be too easy. Instead, let me tell you the truth: 

After the rough life that Prince Jack has in A TIME OF KINGS, I wished to write a kinder, gentler tale which featured another member of the Baumann family (no relation to the author). Therefore, I chose the baby in the final scene of that epic novel and let him grow into a fine young man: Haron. 

You can read the transition here in the final page of A TIME OF KINGS (left) and the first page of the Prologue in BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES (right); click image to enlarge:

I began writing BARON HARON during that interval when I let A TIME OF KINGS rest prior to the revision phase. It wasn't an idea I had during the writing of A TIME OF KINGS, but I did imagine some third novel to make a complete Medieval America Trilogy. All three books are set in the future America where medieval society is the norm. This is the result of everyone in America reading my FLU SEASON SAGA books and agreeing to play along with a pandemic that collapses society as we know it and with several attempts to rebuild yet failing, we finally rise to the level of medieval culture, featuring walled cities, dangerous outlands, a royal court and all manner of rogues, rapscallions, and ruses aplenty. Trust me: it makes perfect sense.

Into this medieval America of the future, say in the year 3095 - long after the War of the Five Princes in A TIME OF KINGS - come a young man full of promise but without much to speak of for his years. He seeks a wife to dote on, a woman who will bolster his baron title. Barring that he might as well go on a journey whereby he could gain adventures and tell about them once he returns home. Then he will gain attention and admiration and, perchance, woo  woman and gain a wife. 

Happenstance has Haron meet a farmer fellow of similar age named Stewt (supposed to be Stewart but the ink smeared on the registration parchment). Stewt offers to introduce Haron to his cousins. None suit Haron - but for one who has ambitions of her own: Nelda. A journey, you say? She will go along in hopes of finding a fit husband. And the three set out.

The way across the northern tiers of the Kingdom of Chicageaux into the less settled Ioway territory is where our story unfolds, with many mishaps, turnabouts, new companions, and horrors. The land has become wilderness, the remnants of a failed nation, far from the reach of Chicageaux - a place where being a baron on parchment carries no clout. Yet Haron learns to rise above his title and act for himself in often heroic ways, thus gaining the attention of Nelda. 

The rest of the story is, as we may surmise from the 'cozy romantasy' label, already well-written. Now it is for you, dear gentlereader, to follow along for yourself and gain such entertainment that my next trilogy shall be set upon your calendar!

BARON HARON TELLS HIS TALES launches November 20 in paperback and for Kindle. Preorder for Kindle is now open.

Update on my next book. SAVAGES OF AMERICA is completed and undergoing revision. I expect it to be available in Spring 2027. Meanwhile, the second book in what will be a new trilogy which follows survivors of the future Yellowstone eruption, is underway and already 4 chapters in following the 50,000-word goal of this current November Novel Month effort. Thanks for your support!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Putting the Epic in A TIME OF KINGS

It seems we are living in heroic times, as suggested by the plethora of books and movies we encounter these days - and for the past few years. With the expansion of the fantasy genre into new, long series and the proffering of movies based on ancient classic tales, it is easy to look back and bring the past forward for our modern judgment. Or, in the alternative, invent new tales for our modern times that reflect ancient ways and wisdom for either our scrutiny or nostalgic remembrance or both. Yet, what about the future? What about our future?

Since the arrival of our dastardly pandemic days, I've sought to make sense of our lot in life - our fate. And in that effort I wrote a novel, which became a trilogy, to which I then added another trilogy - sequel by sequel. Together we lived through the lives of six generations (a few more in flashbacks) that bring us from today (or a few years back) well into the latter 2100s. Not many of us today will be around to read them in the time period in which the stories are set. So I feel fairly safe in "predicting" the turn we will take from our current America to our future America.

 

I jumped ahead a bit just to have some fun in THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (2025). I could've made it a free-standing new novel but I felt drawn to tie it back to the two trilogies of the pandemic era and after, continuing the Baumann legacy. Then, when I could've just started yet another whole new novel (one that's based on a story idea from my teen years), I chose to invent a narrator who is also of the Baumann lineage - just to keep the theme going. That solved the problem I was having in deciding who best to tell the story of these twin princes who battle each other and nearly destroy the Realm of Chicageaux in the year 3030. 

I know, I know, I know. Some of you will say "But that hasn't happened yet, so maybe it won't ever happen." Gotcha. Let me give you this: "Maybe it will happen." Who can say for sure? I know there are those who see a future of advanced technology. That's great - if you want to lean into that. (Yes, I'm looking at you, AI overlords.) But I foresee a collapse of civilization (read the FLU SEASON Saga) and in the rebuilding, again and again, we find ourselves at the level of civilization as what we would call a medieval society, with all the usual trappings such as walled cities, castles, kings and queens, fighting on horseback with spears and swords while wearing armor. America never had a medieval period . . . in the past. So perhaps we have to wait for it in the future?

How did we get here? I've answered that in previous blog posts. The quick answer is what I've just said: pandemic leading to socio-economic collapse and civil war (local warlords fighting for control of territory). That leads to a realigning of states, in essence a new nation: the Americus. Try and try as those in power might, the rebirth of a "modern" society doesn't last for long. That failure along with deadly accidents and natural disasters and we have to rebuild again. Baumann family members and others like them survive by fleeing to the wild West. Yet other forces still rise to threaten a peaceful existence. The only solution is to build walls - around towns, let them become cities, then capitals of city-states that can be called kingdoms.

In my ribald comedy THE WARRIORS BAUMANN our two brothers are first on a trek to the capital city of Louis (the former St. Louis) in the kingdom of Missouri. Arriving in the walled city, they encounter obstacles to their plans in the form of the dastardly decadence of the city and its Court. This "return" to the past brings new meaning to the idea of what goes around comes around. By then, finished with this "break" from the dire tale of Bad Bart in THE GRANDSONS, I felt finally ready to write my great tome: the masterpiece I'd been training all of my life to be able to write: A TIME OF KINGS.

The title of this epic novel comes from the title of a musical overture I played as a member of my high school band (the tuba part). At our concert, I had my mother hold a small cassette tape recorder with microphone on a cord so I would get a copy of the music. (This was the '70s.) To this day I have not been able to locate information about that piece of music - even with YouTube and the internet at my disposal. I still do not know who the composer was although I felt certain of a couple choices - but the internet said no. This overture was always a part of the story from the first time we played through it in Band class. (I also used much more similar music during the writing and revision of this epic novel.)

Epic novel! I keep calling it that for good reasons. It is a long story (525 pages). It covers the narrator's entire life (80 years). It has depth and breadth in its drama. The story is vast - it concerns an entire Realm and its fate - and I dare compare it with other "epic" stories put to the page. Tolkien, Tolstoy, Cornwell come to mind. But this is my story, completely of my own invention - absolutely no AI assistance. In keeping to this epic scope, we begin with a famous battle that has ramifications throughout the rest of the novel. Then, the core of the novel is a war between twin princes - which also has ramifications throughout the rest of the novel - the aftermath of the war, as it were. Before, during, and after this war we explore the thoughts and actions, the choices, the costs of those choices, in every action the major players undertake. 

Our narrator, at first a boy on a battlefield, is introduced as a flaneur ("observer without being a participant") who becomes a side character, then a co-player, and ultimately a protagonist of his own in the latter portion of the book - mirroring his rise in rank. Along the way, we meet other characters - including several women of note - the queen herself, fair princesses or a devious one, commoners, women warriors, tavern wenches with opinions, wives and sisters - each with richly drawn story arcs of their own. We get the whole experience of a future-medieval society from the Royal Court to the servants, from the military to the domestic precincts, from the war camp to the palace finery. And as always in a book written by me, I offer a satisfactory ending - neither sad nor happy but decidedly realistic.

A TIME OF KINGS launches on August 8, 2026 in both paperback and for Kindle. More info about the story itself and the major characters in particular in the next blog post. 

Meantime, the next novel, BARON HARON, a so-called "cozy romantasy" is finished at my beta reader as I type this. I hope to offer it by the end of the year. And work continues on a novel to follow BARON HARON - further into the dark future as I strive to meet up with my 2017 novel EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

A Medieval Future in Mirth & Madness!

Greetings, weary readers! 

I hear your claims, feel your pains, and in most ways agree. You have need of summerly encounters with worthy word-hoards. You have found the fare lacking thus far. Yet fear not for the summer has yet to conclude and in the interval we may yet partake of a tome or two.

Those of you who have followed this blog may have already found a means by which to endure the summer days. I speak of the ribald comedy THE WARRIORS BAUMANN. This comic relief has been available since this past December (2025) though it is rightly a summer tale. You may read about its origins and some of its delicious content hither (part 1) and thither (part 2).

Next on our future medieval line up we have the might epic A TIME OF KINGS, which shall become available to you and yours upon the 8 of August in this summer. Much has been said about this dramatic turn, according to those responsible for and those so engaged in the War of the Five Princes. This seminal event in our future history is mentioned in my earlier written work: EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS - where it is treated with the reverence of an ancient legend. And so I have emboldened a fine descendant of the family Baumann, a Royal physician, to tell us this great tale in impressive and passionate detail.

While A TIME OF KINGS is true to its realistic nature, a brief mention of dragons is included in order to anticipate the scourge of  aerial beasts in that earlier written tome which is set much later in the timeline. While THE WARRIORS BAUMANN is set in 2353 Missouri, A TIME OF KINGS covers the range from Tulsa to Louis, from Chicageaux to Cinnati, from 2988 to 3079. This leads us to EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS set in the year 8000. 

However, behold the sacred interval! 

Between the end of A TIME OF KINGS and the start of EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS, we have a brand-new book of the kind oft called the "cozy" version of a "romantasy" (romance + fantasy; yet are not all romances actually fantasies? I ask you.). This tale sees the wayward grandson of our fine narrator in A TIME OF KINGS set out on his own quest across the remnants of the upper midwest region of the Americus. This lively tale has just concluded and should be available for the winter holiday gift-giving event. Let us title it thus: BARON HARON TELLS THE TALE OF "A POET, A PRIEST, AND A PRINCE GO INTO A TAVERN". 

It should be noted that this 93,000 word "romantasy" novel began on March 15 and the complete draft was finished on June 15. It bears some sort of a notable accounting. All this was done while awaiting beta reader feedback on the final version of A TIME OF KINGS. Now the revision and editing work begins on Baron Haron's fine tale. More details revealed soon.

And then, just as we put the final word count upon this quest/cozy/romantasy novel, we have suddenly proposed the next book in a series which had not existed only seven years ago. It should be a story of desperation, of survival of the fittest, of the extended Baumann family in, say, the year 3220. But I get ahead of myself. 

To Recap: When Polly Baumann (music professor and tuba player) takes her teen son Sandy out of the city in the sixth year of a worsening pandemic, our grand narrative is set in motion. All does not end well in each volume's entry, yet some member of the family carries on, pushes the narrative forward, and so we come episode by episode through the lawlessness, the civil war, the reconstruction of a new "Ideal Society" - only to have to escape from its tyranny to a western enclave in what many may know today as southwest Kansas. Descendants of that Kansas family hold on....

This covers the six books of the FLU SEASON SAGA. We then advance to 2353 with THE WARRIORS BAUMANN in a medieval Missouri, then to 2988-3079 with A TIME OF KINGS. You can see the pattern: try and try again yet fail and fail again to set our world aright, ever and ever, each in its interval, each in its turn, until we are at the year 8000 with dragons reigning the skies.

In other news, we can now report that this grand narrative and its timeline include the largest novels I've written: EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (233,000), DAWN OF THE DAUGHTERS (Flu Season, Book 3) (151,000), THE GRANDSONS (Flu Season, Book 6) (178,000), and A TIME OF KINGS (187,000). And yet they each read surprisingly quick; the story moves along. Sandwiched between these are a pair of thinner works of equal delight: THE WARRIORS BAUMANN (94,000) and the just-finished BARON HARON TELLS THE TALE... (93,000). 

Furthermore, I can reveal that in all 23 of my published or soon-to-be published novels I have composed collectively with 2,755,000 words. For those deeper into statistics, I can declare that the 6 books of the Flu Season Saga + The Warriors Baumann, A Time of Kings, and Baron Haron consist of 1,129,000 words in total. For those interested in my smallest books, they are AFTER ILIUM (79,000) and A GIRL CALLED WOLF (86,000).

NEXT TIME: All about A TIME OF KINGS: A Who's Who of Ne'er-do-wells!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN & The Writing Life, part 3

Rather than a 'Welcome to 2026' post, I'm continuing promotion of my newest novel THE WARRIORS BAUMANN, a ribald comedy set in medieval Missouri. Although this book is the latest installment in the FLU SEASON Saga, it is only tangentially connected. Our main characters are two Baumann descendants, brothers on a mission in the year 2353 - long after civilization has collapsed and then risen again but only to a medieval level, where former states are now kingdoms. The story is ripe for ruse and witty wiles, with a burly warrior, his clever brother, an out-on-his-luck actor, a girl warrior, a pouty princess, a dastardly duke, a wily wizard, a wayward traveler of the timestream, and a Waffle House waitress. Most of the action occurs along the Royal Road and its towns and in the capital city of Louis. (click to enlarge)

Even as I type this blog post, work continues on my next novel, a more serious epic titled A TIME OF KINGS which concerns the war between Chicageaux and Cinnati in 3030 AD, as told by another Baumann descendent. As I near the end of the initial draft, sitting at 165,000 words with two chapters to go, I am deepening and enriching the original story which I thought up at age 13 and typed up in a screenplay format while in college just to get the whole thing down on paper. More on this medieval story in a future blog post.

Where we left off in the previous blog post about my writing life, I'd thought my novel writing was done. I had published all of my books written prior to the ABNA competition (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) in 2011, 2012, and 2013 (The Dream Land, Book 3: Diaspora was newer than ABNA but it piggybacked off Book 2, obviously.). I had achieved my goal and could sit back satisfied as I continued my teaching career. Then we discovered vampires. Rather, my daughter did: the Twilight series, which became her obsession - to the point of collecting everything and writing fan fiction.

I told her what I knew about vampirism, based chiefly on a TV magazine show about a poor fellow who suffered from porphyria, a hideous disease which caused many of the terrible symptoms we typically associate with vampires. Rather than glittery skin as in the Twilight books and movies, real vampires had dry, scaly skin from a lack of blood flow. They also, based on my research, tended to be from one blood type and that blood type happened to be most concentrated in a little place I like to call Transylvania. Perhaps Bram Stoker also did his research and located his famous vampire in that region. So I sought to write a medically accurate vampire novel just to show my daughter the truth. 

I began with a protagonist who transforms over a short time into a vampire - unaware that his parents did the same and hid away without telling him the family curse. I lived in Oklahoma City at the time, which was 2013, and so I set the story right in my own backyard, and in the same time period as I was actually writing it. Therefore, A DRY PATCH OF SKIN was published on Halloween 2014 - at the very moment he completed his transformation in Zagreb, Croatia - while searching for a cure. It was a big hit, vampires being popular in those years. Even my own doctor deemed it medically sound and praised my research and extrapolation of the cause and effect of the syndrome.

Then life turned strange. I was invited to come and teach a summer course at a university in Beijing, China. The course I chose to teach was American Business English. The university paid for my airfare and my hotel across from the campus, and gave me a salary.  When I was not in the classroom for a couple hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I was free to go sightseeing. Or stay in my hotel room and write a new novel.

The equally strange story of how I came to write A GIRL CALLED WOLF (2015) should be made into a movie. A relative of a Facebook friend saw my vampire book, read it and liked it. We "talked" online and I learned of her background, which seemed like a fascinating story. I encouraged her to write it for 

NaNoWRiMo (National Novel Writing Month [November]) of which I had participated as a way to push myself to write. She tried but didn't get far. So we agreed to work together because I felt her story was interesting and deserved to be told. We started a collaboration where she told me about her childhood and youth, and I wrote it as a novel - fictionalizing where necessary. What was amazing was how I packed up all my Greenland maps and books to take with me to Beijing in the heat of the summer so I could keep on writing it! I cranked down the A/C in my room to better get in the mood for writing about life in Greenland.

That semi-biographical effort was followed the next summer in Beijing (2016) teaching the same course again with EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (2017), what was to be my epic tome that said everything I wished to say about life, the universe, and dragons. Again, I toted my materials to that hotel in Beijing and wrote when not in class. The story that I'm sticking to is that my fellow authors at Myrddin Publishing, mostly of the fantasy genre, challenged me to also write a fantasy novel. I'd written sci-fi before (The Dream Land trilogy) but I knew I had to follow some tropes for my book to be fantasy. At the last moment, I was told my epic fantasy had to include dragons - so it did. 

I took the story as a spoof of epic fantasy (think Tolkien) at first, but as I got myself into the story I became compelled to tell a deeper narrative - with dragons. I treated the dragons as real biological creatures (no talking, no hoarding of gold, no sacrificial virgins). An exiled dragonslayer is determined to locate the dragons nesting place and kill them all to be rid of the menaces once and for all - only to discover on the journey a lot of truths that make him realize things about the nature of the universe. The novel was long enough, but during that month in Beijing I also wrote a novella which I broke into chapters to insert as interludes in the novel, making the work my longest novel. 

Whew! That was an effort, although I was very proud of the story I produced. I thought I really said some things that needed to be put into words. I felt satisfied with this "final" book. Again, I thought I was done writing books - and continued my teaching. But thoughts nagged me about my vampire hero. I wondered what he would be doing now. So I got back into the story - now 13 years into the future (what would be 2027-8) when he leaves his dour home in Croatia (an abandoned villa) for life as a playboy in Budapest, Hungary. In SUNRISE (Book 2, 2018), things happen, obviously, which leads to the third book, SUNSET (Book 3, 2019) in what became a trilogy. A problem which developed later was that I never described the 2020-22 pandemic when a character mentions what she has done through the years up to 2027 in the story. I learned never to give exact dates in a story and followed that advice for the FLU SEASON Saga.

I completed the vampire trilogy, and felt NOW I was finished writing. But then things happened again. A couple of events came together to spark a new idea for me: a crime thriller, which would be a new genre for me to wrote. But I love a challenge (dragons, anyone?) and so I set myself up to write it - only to be stopped in the middle by falling sick with what turned out to be, named a few months later, as something called Covid-19. More on the next phase of My Writing Life in the next blog post. Next time: the covid-era novels.

Meantime, get your copies of the FLU SEASON novels + THE WARRIORS BAUMANN.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2026 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

What's this comedy thing?

Now that most people are reading THE GRANDSONS, my latest offering in the FLU SEASON  Saga and presumably the concluding volume, I find myself recently finishing a brand new novel based on the same family but set further into the future.

Funny story. As I usually do, I completed the draft of THE GRANDSONS and immediately went through the reading and revising phase until I had made it something I could live with. Then, as I typically do, I set it aside for a month. The idea is to come back and read it through again with fresh eyes. (I also send it to my beta reader during this month.)  I felt good about this latest epic, a tour-de-force if ever there was one (well, by me). It turns out to be my second-longest novel after only my EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (in 2017).

Speaking of EF*WD, I'd been trying to make my Grand Timeline meet up with EF*WD and laid some seeds for it in THE GRANDSONS - could be merely Easter eggs that some may find. So I was joking about a story that could bridge THE GRANDSONS (set in 2155-85) and EF*WD (set c. 8000), stretched as it may be, and an idea came to me. It was only a scene, but I decided to type it out, see if it was something. Then I slept on it. I came back and wrote more, had a couple chapters written and most of a plot figured out by the time I returned to THE GRANDSONS for the fresh re-reading.

So, as I worked through THE GRANDSONS again, I started my days by writing on this new novel. This became my routine: composing new text for the new novel, then working on revision/editing on the finished novel. This went on for two months. Once THE GRANDSONS was finished and ready to launch, I had a good portion of what I was thinking then would only be a novella already complete. Even on launch day (which came unexpectedly early) I typed on the new novel. Yes, I knew it would make it to novel length. I've been promoting THE GRANDSONS even while I have the urge to talk about my newest book. It's the writer's constant conundrum.

With THE GRANDSONS out for a month already, I finally got to the end of the new book, what I've titled THE WARRIORS BAUMANN.

Now I can go full-tilt yacking about the "next" volume in the FLU SEASON series, this one set in the year 2330. From the start I felt like writing a comedy. At first, the humor was coming from the main character's reactions to the other main character's predicaments, how ridiculous it all was. Then the comedy grew chapter by chapter until I had to put myself, as author, into the final chapter, as the supreme 'meta-fiction' conceit!

The story involves a pair of rogues: Rory and Stank. Rory is the older yet shorter brother, a clever fellow; Stank (short for Stanley K. Baumann) is the younger yet much bigger brother, a warrior. We find them on the road to the capital because Rory intends to wed the princess. He needs his mighty brother to be his champion and fight a duke to clear a path for Rory. Much occurs along the road, of course, and in towns they visit along the way. The real comedy unfolds when they arrive at the capital city, known to them as Louis, set on a bluff overlooking the Missippi River. Yes, we have traveled through the savage Ozarks, crossed future medieval Missouri, with mentions of events in the past that explain how we got here.

Stank needs long hair.

While each book I've written has moments of comedy - because people will be funny, say funny things, react in quite humorous ways - this is the first novel in which I took off the reins and let my wildest imagination explode. I broke all the rules of 'good writing' to create comedic moments. 

Characters may speak using alliteration (repetition of consonant sounds, e.g. 'laughingly loose lips') especially in the capital. There is much clever wordplay and puns. Insults flung! The ridiculous situations continue as well as characters' reactions to the ridiculousness. 

For example, Rory thinks the princess will be happy to wed him because their eyes happened to meet for a moment at a public gathering, she on the balcony and he among the crowd below, a full year earlier. Stank is a loyal brother despite doubting his brother's tale. They often clash, chastise each other, joke around - more comedy! 

Could be Rory?

And, in the final dramatic turn, ridiculous situations get resolved (or not) in even more ridiculous ways. I even allow myself to become a character in one crucial scene - the very definition of 'meta-fiction' (i.e., where a creative work or its creator references itself in the work). However, in this case, in this odd tale, it works. You'll see. Believe me. 

And the origin of the dragons in EF*WD is revealed to those who have been waiting since 2017 for the information. As a "regressionist" (one who sees the future as a regression of society to an older, less technologically-driven civilization, as opposed to "progressive" or "tech-bro utopia"), I've been pushing us further down the civilization ladder across six books until we literally 'return to the future' of medieval life, this time set in Missouri.

THE WARRIORS BAUMANN is complete and will now undergo the usual revision stage, then editing, then polishing, then setting it aside (will I start yet another book?), then a fresh read-through with more revision and editing, and then publication. Could be ready by December 2025. Then you'll be able to see what's so funny!

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(C) Copyright 2010-2025 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Season of Reading

Small Business Saturday meets CyberMonday!

For end of year holiday shopping, no day is more celebrated than Black Friday and its opulent pre-dawn sales. Then comes Small Business Saturday when our shopping attention is supposed to go to the smaller mom-and-pop stores. Of course, nobody has a smaller business than an independent author who dreams, writes, researches, revises, edits and proofreads, and may get some help with editing and cover art. Finally on the weekend of retail madness comes CyberMonday, the day when everyone who didn't find what they were looking for goes online when they are back to work, more often than not searching for a good book to read or to give to the readers in their families.

This is where I come in. I've never been big on marketing, despite actually passing two courses in college. Granted, I mostly wrote advertising copy for those classes but it did help me get a job at a local TV station. People do not seem to like marketing - or promotion, as it is often referred to in the book world - beyond a few commercials during Super Bowl Sunday. A brief mention of the existence of a product or service is all many of us require. Social media platforms may be the worst. I often must sit through 6 ads to watch even a 3 minute video on YouTube. And scrolling down my Twitter feed is like leafing through a department store catalogue rather than my followers' clever posts.

I've written before on judging books by their covers but, for me, the cover draws me to the shelf, gets me to pick up the book, and then comes the real judging. I flip that book over and read what it is about - the blurb. I don't need to know what other authors thought of it, even famous authors. I don't need to know what awards it won. Just tell me what happens. I may open to the first page of the story and read a little to get a sense of the voice and the style. I may turn to a middle page (the Amazon "surprise me" feature) or skip to the end. If it is non-fiction, I study the table of contents, sometimes the index. If the story seems compelling, the narrator interesting (either it is the author or a character doing the telling), and the setting may be out of the ordinary or appropriate for the story, I'll take chance on it. 

So now we come to the holiday gift giving season and it is important to note that books are one of the easiest gifts to give - often a 1-click purchase and instant electronic delivery or on its way via a delivery service. A book is also one of the more valuable gifts anyone would be thrilled to receive. I know this from personal, first-hand experience. The only real issue is to match the genre to the reader. Therefore, it is my duty to inform you that I write in a variety of genre so there is a book for nearly everyone. And on that note, allow me to share my collection with you for your holiday reading and gift consideration.

First is my forthcoming pandemic novel, the first in a trilogy called FLU SEASON. Book 1 is titled THE BOOK OF MOM, a reference to the main character, as told by her teenage son, a kind of "mom"-memoir set in the near future - actually quite close to now. You can pre-order the ebook for Kindle now (click here) and it will be automatically delivered on November 29. The print version will follow about a week later. Note: Book 2 is finished (I know a lot of readers don't like to start a series if they have to wait for the next book), and Book 3 is started. UPDATE: both paperback and Kindle versions are  now available (click title link above).

Teaser:

A boy and his mom and her tuba try to flee the chaos of a world-wide pandemic.

Sound familiar? We've been there. But everything has returned to normal for most of us.

Yet what if it didn't? What if the worst of the past couple years is now in its sixth year... with no end in sight?

What would you do? How would you get by? Where would you go to survive?

No, wait! There are other books!
 
Scroll backward in time - by publication date - and check out the following novels with links to ebook and print versions.

THE MASTERS' RIDDLE (July 2021)
[sci-fi]

Toog is a simple gardener living with a full-mate and a springling on a planet called Sebbol. Until one night The Masters arrive and capture him, taking him back to their world.

Awaking in a cold, dark cell, Toog fears he will never see his family again. Communicating with other prisoners he learns that The Masters have visited many worlds and brought many different beings back for their laboratory or their work camps. But why? Toog wonders as he vows to escape.

But even if he can get out of the prison or escape a work camp how can he ever hope to return to his world - before his family is long gone and his planet ravaged by time.

Perhaps his hardship is his destiny and serves a bigger purpose. Is that the Masters' Riddle? Only if he can solve the riddle can he go home.

YEAR OF THE TIGER (November 2020)
[action/adventure]

Every night Karl Edwards has strange, violent dreams. He sees the world as though he's looking through the eyes of a Bengal tiger and it's driving him insane. Fortunately, his sexy wife knows a hunky doctor who can help her have Karl committed, that is.

Locked up, the nightmares worsen as the tiger hunts down the men who killed its mate. Karl has a plan, however. All he has to do is persuade Althea, a young nurse, to help him escape. Next, he must get to India. Then he must find that one tiger and kill it. Only then will he have the mind they seem to share all to himself.

But others are also interested in joining the hunt. The doctor who put Karl in the mental hospital, fearing Karl will reveal his crimes. And famous big game hunter Colonel John Barrington will come out of retirement, with worldwide media in tow, for one last chance at a man-eating tiger!

(You can read a lovely review here.)

EXCHANGE (May 2020)

[contemporary crime drama]

An Unspeakable Crime.

High school teacher Bill Masters and his family have a comfortable life in suburban Oklahoma City - until his wife and teen daughter are killed in a mass shooting.

Overwhelmed with grief, Bill struggles to put his life back

together - or construct a new life from what remains - even as he must combat continuing crime that threatens him and his home.

A Second Chance.

When exchange student Wu Ting "Wendy" Wang arrives from China for her year at an American high school, she has no idea what has just happened to her host family.

She's a constant reminder to Bill of why his family is gone. Yet he is determined to protect her at any cost - ready to use his father's gun. And he will not fail this time.

(You can read a lovely review here.)

SUNSET (February 2019)

Book III of the Stefan Szekely, Vampire trilogy

Midnight 31 December 2099.

As the Empire of Europa celebrates the new centennial with battle lines in Ukraine and preparations underway for invading England, the Emperor in His capital of Budapest welcomes His guests, the elite of vampire society.

Yet all is not well in the empire. Different factions agree the time has come for new leadership. As rabid mobs protest and attack palace guards, Emperor Stefan and his closest staff huddle in the imperial suite, awaiting rescue.

But how do you get away from the clutches of the supreme demon who lives forever and exists everywhere? If Stefan can free himself, the world may yet be saved. If he fails, the destruction will continue...until the Anglo-American Union falls and vampire society rules the world.

SUNRISE (April 2018)

Book II of the Stefan Szekely, Vampire trilogy

For Stefan Székely it is a fate worse than death: To be dead yet stuck with his dead parents. 

After 13 years Stefan can endure it no longer. He wants a castle of his own. But first he must visit his family’s bank in Budapest.

With endless strife rumbling across Europe, Stefan hardly recognizes Budapest, now capital of the Hungarian Federation. The world has changed. 

Nevertheless, he embarks on the reign of terror he always denied himself, living the vampire playboy lifestyle. Until he gets a stern warning from the local vampire gang. He is not welcome - unless he plays by their rules.

Should Stefan fight for his right to party like it's 2027? Or will an encounter with a dangerous stranger change everything about his new existence? As clashes between vampire gangs and State Security escalate, Stefan just might be the key to changing the fate of Europe forever!

. . . If he can survive three bloody nights in Budapest.

The sequel to A DRY PATCH of SKIN continues the trials and tribulations of Stefan Székely, Vampire.

EPIC FANTASY *WITH DRAGONS (March 2017)

[epic fantasy!]

CORLAN, MASTER DRAGONSLAYER, the best in the Guild, the best in the Burg!

And yet, returning from his latest expedition, Corlan discovers jealous rivals have conspired with the Prince to banish him from the city.

Sent into the Valley of Death, Corlan conjures a plan. He and his new sidekick, a runaway boy from the palace kitchen, will trek the thousand miles to the far end of the valley, where a vast marsh provides nesting grounds for the dragon horde. Once there, Corlan vows to smash dragon eggs and lance younglings, ending dragon terror once and for all time.

And yet, as dangers, distractions, and detours harry him along the way, Corlan learns ancient secrets that threaten to destroy everything in his world. Even with the aid of wizards and warriors, he must use all his guile, his bravado, and the force of his stubborn will just to survive - and perhaps return home - no matter how the gods challenge him with their harshest tests.

A GIRL CALLED WOLF  (December 2015)

[action/adventure]

Ice and snow are all 12 year old Anuka knows outside the hut in Greenland where she was born. 

When her mama dies, Anuka struggles to survive. The harsh winter forces her to finally journey across the frozen island to the village her mama always feared.

But the people of the village don’t know what to do with this girl. They try to educate and bring her into the modern world, but Anuka won't make it easy for them. She sees dangers at every turn and every day hears her fate echoing in her mama’s voice.

Her mama gave her that name for a reason. She is A GIRL CALLED WOLF who searches for the place where she belongs, a destination always just out of reach, on a path she will always make her own.

(You can read a lovely review here.)

AIKO (May 2015)

[mystery/romance]

When the handwritten letter from Japan arrives, Benjamin cannot help but flash back to when he lived in Hawaii and met Hanako, a Japanese stewardess. 

But Addy, Benjamin’s wife of three years, knows what the letter really means: a love child was born.

Now Benjamin must save a child he has never met, learn the truth behind Hanako’s death, and risk his marriage and his career to do the right thing. But venturing into the lonely woods of northern Ishikawa throws him into an ancient world of strict customs and tight-lipped villagers.

AIKO, a love story wrapped around a mystery, is a modern version of the Madame Butterfly story told from his side.

(You can read a review here.)

A DRY PATCH OF SKIN (October 2014)

(the only medically accurate vampire novel)

Book I of the Stefan Szekely, Vampire trilogy

The truth about being a vampire: It is not cool, not sexy. It’s a painful, miserable existence.

Good reason to avoid that situation, thinks medical technician Stefan Székely. He's too busy falling in love with TV reporter Penny Park, anyway. Until one day when she notices a dry patch of skin on his face.

At first it's just annoying, nothing to worry about, some weird skin disease he can treat with lotions. However, as his affliction worsens, Stefan fears that his unsightly problem will ruin his relationship with Penny.

If only that was all Stefan has to worry about! He soon realizes there is a lot more at stake than his handsome face. To save himself, Stefan must go in search of a cure for the disease which is literally destroying him inch by inch. If only his parents had told him of the family legacy.

A BEAUTIFUL CHILL (February 2014)

[campus anti-romance]

Opposites may attract... but can they stay together?

Íris is a refugee from an abusive youth in Iceland, further abused on the streets of Toronto - until she sees Art as an escape. With a scholarship, she drifts from depression to nightmare to Wiccan rituals to the next exhibit. There's a lot she must forget to succeed in a life she refuses to take responsibility for.

Eric is settling in at Fairmont College, starting a new life after betrayal and heartbreak. Divorced and hitting forty, he has a lot to prove - to his father, his colleagues, and mostly to himself. The last thing he needs is a distraction - and there's nothing more distracting than Íris.

A Beautiful Chill is a contemporary romance set in the duplicitous world of academic rules and artistic license - in a roundabout way a prequel to A Girl Called Wolf.

(You can read a review here.)

AFTER ILIUM (October 2012)

[action/adventure/age-gap romance]

Troy! Ilium! 3000 years ago Greeks and Trojans battled below the fortress city.

Now comes Alex Parris in 1993, freshly graduated and eager to tour the ancient site. On his cruise to Istanbul, however, he meets Eléna, a mysterious older woman who draws him into an affair.

When the two lovers challenge Fate by visiting the ruins of Ilium, they are rudely separated – forcing Alex to embark on his own Odyssey. His struggle to return to Eléna becomes a fight for survival on the wild Turkish coast.

THE DREAM LAND Trilogy (2012-2013)

[sci-fi, steampunk, interdimensional doorways, teenage know-it-alls, world-ruining, political intrigue, time travel, battle hamsters & magic potions]

Book I  Long Distance Voyager  (December 2012)

Book II  Dreams of Future's Past  (June 2013)

Book III  Diaspora  (December 2013)

How far would you go to save the love of your life? Through a portal to another world?

High school sweethearts Sebastian and Gina discover a doorway to a new world. Adventure-loving Gina falls in love with the world of Ghoupallesz and wants to stay, but studious Sebastian fears losing touch with Earth, so he returns alone.

Years later, working the night shift at the IRS, Sebastian feels the cosmic pull once more. Gina is in trouble. Again. Of course he must return and save her! Perhaps this time, he hopes, they can remain together. Returning through the interdimensional doorway, Sebastian must gather his old comrades from the war, cross the towering Zet mountains, and free Gina from the evil Zetin warlord’s castle. 

Unfortunately, there are more questions to answer. Is his adventure on the other side real? Or is it just the dream of a psychotic killer? That’s what the police want to know when his friends and co-workers go missing.

THE DREAM LAND Trilogy is a tour-de-force genre-mashing Epic of Interdimensional intrigue and alien romance, a psychological thriller marbled with twisted humor, steampunk pathos, and time/space conundra. 

NOTE: Check your local Amazon listings. You may be able to get these for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime member!

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 (C) Copyright 2010-2022 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.