Setting Boone Free

James Bond? Boone never heard of her. An award-winning lead title, Absinthe and Chocolate is now a free download from most retail venues! Released as a risk-free read in mid-month, the first of five titles in Boone’s File is enjoying success on Amazon and elsewhere. Find out why, and help spread the word!

Get Boone where ebooks come alive:  Amazon – Apple – Nook – Kobo

A Garden in Russia

Boone’s fifth novel is now in full release. “Thank you” to the many fans, helpers, and readers whose enthusiasm also makes my catalog what it is.

Her latest begins moments after the conclusion of her fourth, Meat for the Lion, and largely concerns itself with the events surrounding the resulting constitutional crisis in the Russian Republic. Along the way, nearly all of my surviving characters—Boone, Terry Bradley, Daniel Sean Ritter, Thalia Kebauet, Deborah Vosse, Yael Levin, and Jon and Mary Anthony—either play a role or make an appearance, as do others old and new. Epic, excellent, and already described elsewhere as a work wherein “the emotions never stop,” I’m simply delighted with the result.

Here’s the blurb:

“Spring brings changes: for Boone, the joy of an expectant mother. Both the U.S. and the Russian Federation see tumultuous presidencies reach unexpected ends; in Moscow, the cause is death at the hands of an InterLynk associate.

Washington political operatives seek to shore up a legacy of failure in order to preserve their party’s viability. In Russia, a resurgent movement exploits political turmoil to propose governance in the style of the last century’s Cold War. To those ends, all pursue a family on the run in the Mediterranean: loved ones whose safety is critical to ensure an assassin’s testimony.

Thrust into an international, unavoidable contest of deadly professionals, Boone’s challenge is to summon her faith and overcome fears inhibiting decisive action. Justice, integrity of governance, and the narrative of history in two countries await the outcome.

Approx. 91,500 words / 329 pp. print length”

Choose to love. -DA

Kindle – trade paperback – Apple – Nook – Kobo – Scribd

TYP Full Release Links

A followup to my previous post: Novel10/Sean4, The Yemeni Package is here, there, and everywhere you’re likely to look. As promised, here are the links:

Amazon Kindle
Amazon trade paperback
iTunes
Nook
Kobo
Smashwords
Scribd

 

As always, I appreciate your support, your reads, and especially your reviews. Those last, especially, will never stop helping me.

Choose to Love, -DA

*****

In production news, Novel11/Boone5, A Garden in Russia, is undergoing continuity and fact checking via Content Edit prior to the heavy lifting of production editing, which will to take place through the spring and summer. More info is available by visiting my In The Works page.

The Yemeni Package

By convention, it’s recommended that an author read in his or her own genre and thereby enhance the ability of “writing to market.”  I generally do not, because these days works need to be well conceived, structured, and written to hold my attention, and those increasingly seem few and far between. Besides, I want to write my words, not a rehashed version of theirs. The market can decide what it wants afterward.

Heroes in some very popular series seem to evolve little, if at all, over the span of their respective runs. Life, of course, doesn’t allow stagnation. Each of us change day by day, growing or diminishing or managing both at once in different measures. That people will change makes character stagnation in series fiction a point of departure from reality, and over the long term, in my opinion at least, degrades the sense of attachment between the reader and the characters they engage. Being real, in and out of the bubble of immersion, is a vital part of maintaining any relationship.

So, as Novel10/Sean4 The Yemeni Package opens, we have a non-typical vision of the subject of its story, Daniel Sean Ritter. At this peak in both his career with Air Force Special Operations and physically, the man is also worn down by an invisible op force: pain, grief, and accumulated postoperative trauma. In having experienced more intensity in his thirty years than some will accumulate in a long, comfortable lifetime, he is paying the price. At the branch of his trail is one path leading to a summit, and the other descending into decline.

What sort of life produces a man like Ritter? What grants him the will to win without making him a brute? What price has he paid for taking so many lives in the course of duty? He’s not fragile, not weak by any means, just human. Ritter embodies the noble spirit of longsuffering and resilience related by Kipling’s mighty poem, If, a portion of which reminds us that one can:

 …force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

Ritter, as his Sean’s File series chronicles, held on through the events of the 1990s to appear as the iconic lone wolf AFSOC operator attached to U.S. Army Intelligence’s General Peter McAllen in the first title of Jon’s Trilogy, The Anvil of the Craftsman, where we initially met him under the nom de guerre Matt Kameldorn. In The Yemeni Package we see how, when, and why that happened … as well as why an Air Force major remained, at age thirty-eight, unattached other than by his interservice agreement with his handler.

Everything in my catalogue followed, once the decade of his back-story was completed. The three volumes of Jon’s Trilogy are set in the first decade of the new century, with Boone’s File following in the next. Ritter is there through every one of those stories to date, adding to the fabric sustaining their integrity.

He’s just a man, but a spectacular man. Daniel Sean Ritter was preserved through his formative experiences by essential strength and the hope for a possible future. It’s one he achieved in my second novel, by the way, but it would be better that you learn the details for yourself.

Here’s the blurb:

The year is 1999. Following a failed attack on a USAF base, the leader of an emergent and radical Islamic organization is offered to the United States by his captors. Under political oversight in the persona of a beautiful and deadly female case officer and aided by an apostate cleric, a mothballed Air Force Special Operations unit designated Deep Recovery is tapped for the mission. Their task: quietly deliver a captured terrorist, held overseas, into American custody.

Blindsided by the scope of an opposing force drawn from the ranks of a fanatical cult of personality, Daniel Sean Ritter’s mission intensifies once matters turn deadly. A simple detainee transfer then becomes a hunt for the most wanted man in the region.

Domestic and international political pressures erode their civilian leadership’s resolve. Its operators in the field are left diminished and isolated, forced into a quandary of whom their government wishes to prevail … and into the realization that true strength sometimes is found where there is no one to trust but oneself.

Approx. 81,800 wds. / 300 pp. print length

As usual, an update will be posted later this week as buy links go live.

Choose to Love, -DA

Boone’s fourth is available!

Actions have consequences, some of which are predictable … and some not. In Boone’s fourth novel, complications arising out of her covert history interfere with an attempt to start a new life.

Following simultaneous attacks in Washington and Moscow, Boone and her allies learn of what was thought to be an extinct breed of predator: Vedro Krovi (VAY-dro KROWV-yi), a company of Russian mercenaries unleashed by patrons uncomprehending of the level of commitment and ruthlessness they have unwittingly engaged.

This, while Deborah Vosse—the premier investigative journalist for her left-leaning ForwardNews network—is prompted by the murder of a colleague to examine the relationship between heads of state and the shadowy figures of international intelligence. Connections never intended for public knowledge begin to unveil those who covertly enabled or interdicted the agendas of masters or enemies.

The plot develops into Boone’s largest challenge to date, with everything she holds dear, including her beckoning life and freedom, at risk on multiple fronts.

Here’s the blurb:

“Boone, now a former covert operative, looks forward to a fulfilling marriage, new career, and brighter days. Investigative journalism by one of her country’s most prominent news personalities, however, begins to unravel a thread of actualities thought to have been classified out of existence. Actions once undertaken in the national interest threaten her new life.

When not only Boone’s people but the servants of the ill-intended and powerful are targeted for elimination, the result is an undeclared war between the keepers and the kept. Forced back into a high-stakes game against international players, she will need to call on all her resources in order to defend those whom she loves against two of the world’s most powerful men … and sins of her past.

Approx. 92,370 wds./ 323 pp. print length”

Boone’s Big List of Links:
Kindle – iTunes – Nook – Kobo – Smashwords – Scribd

Trade paperbacks at Amazon and CreateSpace!

As always, your contributions toward signal boost in spreading the word are appreciated. Read. Rock. Review. Recruit. Repeat.

Choose to love, -DA

*****

In more production news, Ritter’s fourth title, The Yemeni Package, has entered Content Edit in preparation for an anticipated first quarter 2018 release.

Your Part of the Story

Or is it You’re Part of the Story? Either sense is correct. Interconnectedness is a vital aspect of the human experience, and without an appreciation of the precept, we would each develop into someone far below our potential.

You, however, are my readers. I’m not content to leave you there.

Many worthwhile things can be accomplished on an individual level, and some of those in no way else. Even the most independent achievement, however, is the culmination of capability fostered by affecting influences. Those are the drops and rivulets contributing to the flow of who we are and what we do … for better or worse.

Likewise, each event in the past contributes its part to the composition of the current scene. Frank Capra did a better than adequate job of illustrating totality in It’s a Wonderful Life, so I won’t bother to recap his conclusions here. It’s a pity, though, that sometimes this essential realization drops while reading fiction when we so wholeheartedly embrace it watching that film. I sometimes wonder if its absence also contributes to a less-than-sufficient grasp of history generally, much less the problems this can cause with dedicating attention to a novel.

I mention every so often how much I dislike encountering formulaic fiction. Emphases vary between plot-driven and character-driven structure such as mine. One won’t find action leading the way in a Dale Amidei novel, for the same reason that unanticipated, out-of-context conduct in real life generates confusion and anxiety in its witnesses. The ideal here is removed from pulpy exploits and steeped in substance instead, and the distinction sometimes requires the accumulation of momentum in defining a character’s situation.

Structure, done from farther out than a singular or first-person perspective, sometimes requires this. I’ve never written under the latter restriction, much preferring the weave of multiple points of view I encountered in my best formative reading. Reading first was a process that stretched across four decades before attempting my own serious novel, one that ran somewhere past thirty consecutive five-stars on Amazon and once was, by one website’s weighting, the second highest-rated fiction title in the Kindle store.

Character-driven fiction requires an investment on the part of the reader in the imaginary folk he or she is encountering. Its dividend must be paid by the author, but this takes time. It also, sometimes unfortunately, requires depositing a span of attention nearly every aspect of modern life seems intent on degrading. No one, if you’ve not noticed, ever dies in a Dale Amidei Chapter One. In Chapter Two and following all bets are off … but by then you will at least have an inkling of what’s happening and why.

What and Why, now that Boone is about to appear in her fourth novel, both play a vital role in her latest adventure. The interconnectedness to which I alluded in beginning this post is coming full circle; the cascading implications of fulfilled duty in her previous title, One Last Scent of Jasmine, extends from Washington to Moscow as two of the world’s most powerful men turn to ruthless pragmatism in seeking to distance themselves from their moral culpabilities.

Boone’s fourth is now set to appear on June 28, 2017. I hope you’ll be coming along on a trip not to be missed, whether you jumped into my interconnected character universe through Jon’s Trilogy, or Sean’s File, or with Boone’s debut in Absinthe and Chocolate. She and I need your reads, your reviews, and your help in boosting my signal on social media. You’re part of this story, and once it’s finished, I promise that Boone’s will remain part of you. To produce a novel that shakes the blessed earth is my prime motivation of course, but also to go forward with you from then on. Afterward, both of us will hopefully fulfill the clear vision of our Craftsman within the remainder of what He intends.

You do your part. I’ll do mine.

Choose to Love, -DA

*****

In production news, as mentioned above, Boone’s fourth novel, Meat for the Lion, is progressing through its final quality assurance steps before publishing later this month. Once retail pages are live, her Big List of Links will appear here as a separate post.

Boone’s second is in full release!

Boone’s return in her second novel, The Bonus Pool, sets her in an adventure capturing the same second-in-series energy of developed characters and synergistic story line as did Jon Anthony’s return in The Britteridge Heresy. In addition, the rich content, international settings, high-voltage action, and substantive themes made the title a true pleasure to produce and, as I’m sure her fans will agree, an experience to be relished.

Here is the blurb:

“A Chinese dissident, targeted by his government for assassination, flees to asylum in Paris through a joint effort of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Peter McAllen’s InterLynk. A rogue intelligence agent, now freelancing, accepts Beijing’s contract to eliminate the man as a threat to Communist regional control. It is an opportunity to damage McAllen’s organization in the process.

A pool of InterLynk contributors is exposed, and the life of a man capable of changing the spiritual direction of the world’s largest authoritarian regime is on the table. His guardian and her allies in InterLynk must match wits with a ruthless adversary.

The challenge before Boone Hildebrandt and InterLynk Field Operations: find and neutralize a deadly assassin. At risk with a spiritual leader for a movement numbering in the tens of millions is ongoing contributor confidence vital to the existence of the West’s preeminent private intelligence firm.

Approx. 87,000 words / 298 pp.”

As promised previously, here is her Big List of Links to the various retail venues hosting TBP, now that the title has achieved full release:

Kindle — Paperback  — iTunes — Nook — Kobo —Smashwords — Scribd

As always, remember the motto of the Dale Amidei reader: Read. Rock. Review. Recruit. Repeat. To this we now add Ready Yourself. Boone will, God willing, be back this winter in One Last Scent of Jasmine.

Choose to Love, -DA

A word from the Editress / Boone June

And now let me diverge from my usual blog format to feature a few words from the woman who contributes an equal number of hours to each Dale Amidei novel. Take it away, She Who Must Be Obeyed:

As Single Candle Press releases The Bonus Pool, I am reminded of when we first began. After agreeing to edit The Anvil of the Craftsman, I really did not know what to expect. I thought the novel would be filled with weaponry specs and other references that would leave me confused. I was wrong, in fact, very wrong. What I found instead were many well-developed characters set in an intricate, well-managed, thoughtful story line.

When I finally finished my part of preproduction, I was impressed. Knowing by that point reviews, particularly good reviews from readers, were extremely important to the independent author, I wanted to post my opinion on Anvil as soon as it made its debut. Instead, I found that I was prohibited from reviewing SCP’s maiden offering because I had been personally involved in its making. My options were to either keep my thoughts to myself or to impersonate someone else and post them anyway. The latter choice was clearly wrong, and the former seemed unfair since I had not been required by the author to like The Anvil of the Craftsman—I truly did enjoy it.

So as difficult as it was, I refrained from reviewing it and left others to provide the commentary. In the few years since that time, the vast majority of Dale’s reviewers have come to see what I saw in the very beginning with the very first novel:  a real talent for writing. More than once I have reminded him that no amount of editing can fix crap. And it’s true—I merely provide some polish. I’m the Monday-morning quarterback of the literary world. I can suggest a more accurate word to use to better convey meaning, and I can check that we are following our grammar conventions. But I don’t do the heavy lifting. I cannot create in my mind a multitude of solid characters, motivations and settings and then intertwine them all into a meaningful whole that magically comes together by the end. Anyone who thinks writing a good novel is easy has obviously never tried it.

With Boone’s latest installment, I think readers will find a continuation of what they have come to expect from Dale Amidei: great characters, flinch-worthy action, light-hearted humor, a roller coaster of emotion and an important message underlying it all. The Bonus Pool begins shortly before  Absinthe and Chocolate ends. Familiar characters return for further development alongside new ones. Boone’s prowess gives way once more to her poetry. Varying tactics of conflict management provide even more business for building contractors, auto body shops, emergency rooms and morgues around the globe. There are the twists and turns to keep readers guessing. And, just as in life, there is a point to it all. No, this isn’t the same old same old. It’s the best one yet. I hope you all will enjoy reading The Bonus Pool as much as I have enjoyed helping to produce it.

~ The Editress

*****

In production news, our sixth novel and Boone’s second, “The Bonus Pool,” is publishing as I write this. Later this week, an update will feature the retail links once they go live.

Choose to Love, -DA

Boone Minus Five

OK, peeps. You’ve heard the name for two years, and now her debut is on the horizon. Boone’s first, Absinthe and Chocolate, is preparing to publish. Normally, the thing would be available at this stage. Being that Labor Day has only recently arrived to end the summer retail doldrums, I’m holding the title until the September 10—five days from now—and hoping to engage some opinion leaders for the title’s initial reviews.

Preorders, by the way, all go through on Launch Day and boost visibility as an effect. I appreciate anyone who wishes to help; your reward will consist of getting an incredible novel for less than a buck.

I’ve wondered, as the time to launch this series—Boone’s File—draws near, how Ian Fleming would have approached James Bond if he had considered writing his character as a woman. In bringing Dr. Hildebrandt to life, I found the depth of complexity and wellspring of emotion available to draw wonderfully enabling. I believe her novels—four of them now—reflect this. The result is an archetypal, satisfying, and dynamic strong female character with growth, plot and romance arcs spanning more than three hundred and fifty thousand words.

This title will be the third gateway into the common universe of my fiction. Characters from The Anvil of the Craftsman and elsewhere pop up to augment Boone’s efforts and fill out the story line. Playing central roles are Daniel Sean Ritter, Bernie Schuster, and General Peter McAllen with cameos from Jon, Mary, and Farrah. Absinthe provided a chance for me to drop back on my messaging, have some fun, and spend eighty-five-and-a-half thousand words introducing a very special personality through a kickin’ adventure.

Boone, when we meet her, concurrently is at the top of her professional game and nearing the nadir of her personal life. She is, in most instances, directly responsible for many aspects of her misery. A life lived in secrets has left her isolated and developing an unhealthy gravitation toward alcohol. Overcompensation for loneliness, compounded by enduring, building guilt from the lives she has taken, is now a lifestyle. Offsetting needs fulfill largely through escapades in the service of her country, specifically in her capacity as a Level One Case Officer working for the Director of National Intelligence. At times, when a kindred spirit draws near enough, she finds solace in her bed as well.

Electronic copies of Absinthe and Chocolate in EPUB and MOBI formats are available to preorder at 99¢—a 75% discount from the full retail price of $3.99—through the links below. By the time you finish, I strongly suspect you will realize the fun waiting ahead in three more of her titles.

Who knows, perhaps Mr. Fleming made a similar offer once, in a different time and format, with Casino Royale. If so, I imagine the people involved remember.

Preorders:
Kindle
iTunes
Kobo
Smashwords

Nook readers will be able to grab their copy at the same price on Wednesday!