Another Day, Another Bit of News

Yeah. September. The month where everything hit at once. At least for me. I’m trying to dribble the news out for you, so I don’t write a post that goes on for pages and pages and pages.

Today’s news? I’m in another bundle. This one, the Political Thriller Bundle, will be available until the day after the U.S. election. And while I seriously can’t wait for this particular election cycle to end, I don’t want this bundle to end too quickly—although it will. November 9 is only 61 days away.

When Nick Harlow contacted me about being in the bundle, months and months and months ago, I figured the bundle would be a great idea–a little diversion in the last frantic months of a rather dull political campaign. Hah! Boy, was I wrong. Good thing I don’t write a lot of predictive science fiction set in the near-future.

In fact, as this bundle got underway, and we bundle authors started talking, I suggested that we tell readers that if they need a respite from this political season, they should read something that makes sense—political fiction.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t read every book in this bundle. I have read the work of every author, though, and even bought some of these authors’ works for Fiction River, albeit under different bylines. 🙂

I haven’t even read the second book here by Allen Drury. What excites me the most about being in a bundle with Drury, though, is that we’re in the bundle with his classic novel, Advise and Consent. It won the Pulitzer Prize. And, the cool thing about that novel, is it’s required reading in Washington D.C., along with that other political fiction classic All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. The Warren book isn’t in this bundle, but a lot of other great fiction is.

Years ago, Nick Harlow told me about his idea for Endgame, about a reality show TV star running for office, and I told him I thought it sounded interesting. Seems like a book editor he asked to look at it said the idea was implausible. Huh. Wow. Guess book editors can’t predict the future either…

I’ve been meaning to read former Naval officer Henry Martin’s submarine thrillers for some time now. The same with the work of Joshua Graham. I had no idea that Michael D. Britton had written a thriller, but judging from the other work of his I’ve read, he’s definitely suited for it.  I get to read all of these, now that they’re in the bundle—along with other fascinating books.

That’s the cool thing about Storybundles. If you pay $15, you’ll get ten books. If you only pay $5, you’ll get five books, but not mine. And, oh, I haven’t told you about mine.

The Enemy Within takes place in an alternate 1964, shortly after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Enemy opens as the detectives show up at a suspect crime scene. Two bodies, one of them belonging to powerful FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. I love this book, and think you will too.

The other bit of news isn’t news if you’ve been following my September posts. The Kickstarter we’ve done for Fiction River still has about a week. It offers discounted subscriptions for Fiction River, as well as other rewards (like workshops for the writers among you).

We’ve had some great responses to the Kickstarter, including from Kickstarter itself. It named Fiction River‘s subscription drive “a project we love,” which is quite an honor.

We’ve done a bunch of trailers, trying to show you what kind of fiction you’ll find in Fiction River. And since politics is scary this year, I will show you a trailer we call Scary Stories of Fiction River. If you’re intrigued, head over to the Kickstarter, watch more videos, and maybe spend a few bucks on a subscription. You’ll find a lot more wonderful fiction there, bundled the old-fashioned way. In an anthology. 🙂