There Will Be Blog!

Good Morning and Happy New Year! 
The world did not end! No, wait. That's this year. Never mind.

Many New Year's Resolutions are being broken, here on the third day of the year. But fear not, I am blogging. That is the least of my troubles. You see, as seems to always be the case, trouble follows me like a forlorn, starving puppy. This tends to happen most when I am away from what constitutes my normal environs, i.e., work, the day job, my position as a teacher of writing at a local university. It's a bittersweet effort, like most things in life. When it's good, it's very good, and when it's bad...well, let's not talk about that. We are still on winter break, thankfully or not, so I have some time left to fall into mischief.

Perhaps enough said on mischief, the better. Right? And yet, speaking of mischief...


Please read the preceding blog entry and click appropriately to quickly receive a copy of my new novel AFTER ILIUM, a modern retelling of Homer's infamous epic of the Trojan War and the adventures of Odysseus trying to return home after the war. In my take, a young college graduate named Alex Parris goes to see the site of ancient Ilium (Troy) and gets into trouble.

Not simple mischief as I tend to do, but serious, hardcore, desperate trouble. First, there's the woman: Elena (Greek for "Helen") who is older, mysterious, exotic, voluptuous, you get the picture. Elena and Parris, kind of a coincidence, huh? She lets him fall for her only to send him off on his own odyssey across the wild Turkish coast, trying to return to her. What young Mr. Parris experiences in what quickly becomes a fight for survival will teach him a lot more about life than four years of college ever taught him. He will be a very different person After Ilium.

Today After Ilium goes "live" on Amazon.com, available in ebook and paperback formats.
(Don't be alarmed by the glitchy "preview"; the real book you get is perfect and looks perfect.)

Be careful, however. It will make you horny, then make you cry. That's what readers have told me. Which is good, because that's what I intended. I love it when a plan comes together! (My parents are not allowed to read this book, so you know it's juicy.) Romance/betrayal/adventure/desperation/farmer's daughters and Navy doctors/goat piles and eye patches! Yes, youthful exuberance will get you in trouble every time!