UMBRELLA MAN is coming back into print!

Super happy that UMBRELLA MAN is going to be back in print again soon! It’s about a Russian citizen who is murdered on the Malecon in Cuba. Slava Kadun, a Russian FSB agent, is sent to Cuba to investigate, but Inspector Ramirez suspects he’s the killer.

UMBRELLA MAN hit the #7 spot on the Toronto Star national bestseller list the first week it was released and it introduced Slava Kadun, who is truly one of my favourite characters. (He reappears in SHADOW PLAY and a lot of my readers have a giant crush on him.)

Hoping to be ready to take pre-orders on the reboundpress.com site perhaps as early next week and have UMBRELLA MAN ready to ship by mid-March.

New book cover – and how we create them!

I’m working on a new Jamie Wallace novel — this one’s been years in the making. I had the idea before the pandemic of a fake psychic who scams people and then has what could be a genuine psychic experience that leads her to an address in Mechanicsville that turns out to have a dead woman’s body …. anyway, couldn’t make the story work, and “trunked” it.

But now that readers are telling me how much they like SHADOW PLAY and how they want a new Jamie Wallace story, I decided to start working on it again. I’m a visual person and I like to imagine what the cover on a book will look like, and I also like to engage my readers. I found a photo I really liked on iStock that fit my new character to a tee.

The original photograph had the woman lying on a bed with her head on a pillow with the cellphone light reflecting on top of it, but I didn’t like the way the white around her head looked — it was off. When we switched it to portrait, it just looked weird. Like the pillow was on top of her head.

So my pal Bill Murtagh, who has a software drawing program, tried to remove some of that white to make it look more like just the light from the cellphone so that we could work with it in landscape. He came up with this version. He didn’t just try to fix the pillow/hair issue but also extended the top and bottom of the landscape version so that it would work for a jacket cover.

I sent that off to the wonderful graphic artist I work with on covers, Terry Smith, who worked with that image but came up with a new similar background and did some other tweaks. She then sent me two mock up images which I shared on Twitter and other social media for reader feedback (we always want to know what readers think before finalizing a cover: this is the fourth one we’ve worked on together).

The feedback was pretty evenly split. Some people thought the one on the left was easier to read and brighter; some liked the deeper more intense colour on the left. I liked the way the image on the left popped, but I also liked the darker teal colour on the right. So we merged them!

We’ll do some final tweaks with the pull quotes (those are the front cover reviews): I’m thinking we should just use the Ottawa Citizen review rather than both, so it’s easier to read. But this cover is pretty much finished! Now all I have to do is the finish writing the book. I’m thinking by the time the book is completed to my satisfaction (which will mean multiple reviews, then professional editing and proofreading, then typesetting), it could be a June or July pub date. But this will give you an idea of what’s involved in coming up with a design!

The iStock photo, by the way, was created by Andrey Popov, who will get credit for that on the back cover jacket.

I’m still planning on creating an award for jacket cover art and my pal, Carol Nasvytis, who is a metal artist, is working on a design now, based on a prototype I sent her in the mail: I will keep you posted on that front!

Also, I have a new print run of SHADOW PLAY arriving tomorrow — if you still haven’t picked up a copy, you can order through reboundpress.com! I hope to have UMBRELLA MAN back in print sometime in March, but HUNGRY GHOSTS, which I’ve also reprinted, is available through reboundpress.com now as well.

UMBRELLA MAN will be back in print soon!

Happy to say that the interior of my bestselling novel, UMBRELLA MAN, is off to the typesetter; hope to have it back in print in March! It was allowed to go out of print by my Big Five publisher and I’m super happy to see this one coming back: it was the first book to introduce Slava Kadun!

Gorgeous new cover thanks to Terry Smith! We did some crowd-sourcing on this one: we put the various mockups Terry had created on Twitter and Facebook and readers gave us feedback as to which colour font they liked and which way the mysterious man should face. We took into account all the feedback we received: this really is an interactive cover!

Today’s event at Jabulani Winery!

Great event today at the winery — three people came all the way from Burlington to hear me speak and pick up some books which was incredible .Also had a nice turnout from my always supportive office (Royal LePage Team Realty) and some Twitter pals who I hadn’t met in person showed up — we had about 50 people. I saw someone I used to work with 17 years ago and we made arrangements to get together again; made some new friends — I think people had a pretty good time!

Here are some pictures from the event: we had a revolving police car light, bloodstained balloons, bloodstained napkins and plates and (not shown) a blood \stained film that was applied to the front door glass and told people they couldn’t leave. I talked about my roller coaster journey to publication and why I’m now self-publishing, and I sold some books too!

This little winery is a lovely destination if you are heading into Ottawa to visit or already live here and haven’t discovered it already. The hosts, Tom and Janet, are fantastic and their wine is to die for. Just a lovely spot and a great event!

My January Author’s Event is coming up at Jabulani Winery!

I’m only doing one author’s event in January and that’s going to be a collaboration with Jabulani Winery! They are hosting me on Saturday January 20 for an afternoon event between 2-4. This is a gorgeous facility just on the outskirts of Ottawa, off Dwyer Hill Road, and it’s well worth a visit if you haven’t been there — Tom and Janet are fabulous hosts. Tom makes not just the wine but cheese and balsamic vinegar, and everything they produce is fantastic.

I’ll be talking about my somewhat tortured journey to publication, from being rejected 156 times by agents to having my first (unpublished) novel shortlisted for the UK Debut Dagger and how a chance meeting with Ian Rankin in a bar during the festivities saw me end up being internationally published.

That story went viral — it even hit newspapers in Australia!

And of course, my reverse trajectory since then! It’s quite a ride!

Tickets are through Eventbrite — $20 plus HST/fee includes a glass of mulled wine and some munchies (not sure what these will be, but this couple never disappoints). Non-alcoholic options will be available for those attempting a Dry January. Tickets must be booked by January 18 for catering. Come out and bring some friends!

Register on Eventbrite

My Year in Review!

Looking back over this year, it was a little crazy. I got back to boxing (I finally achieved Level 5) and feel like I have mostly recovered from my Moderna vaccine injury after 2 1/2 years. I have only minor recurrent brain fog from time to time although I still have peripheral neuropathy and probably always will.

I couldn’t write or draw or paint for a couple of years, because of it, and even writing SHADOW PLAY was a struggle because of ongoing issue with word selection. I’d have to look up the spelling of common words and would frequently get common sayings wrong (close, but not correct), but I think I’m past that now. Sure hope so!

When SHADOW PLAY was turned down by my previous publisher although they thought it was a really good book (but didn’t think it would be a bestseller), I decided to create ReBound Press, and published it myself. It has been a wild learning curve! On the plus side, SHADOW PLAY got a full page review in the Arts and Entertainment section of the Ottawa Citizen, a two page spread in Luxe Magazine and was featured in 55 Plus magazine as well, so it’s getting some nice buzz. It’s also getting the highest rankings of any of my books on Goodreads — 4.94/5 so far.

For those of you wondering, my net profits after all my costs (typesetting, artwork, printing editing etc.) will be about $4,500, and I have roughly $ 2,500 in inventory (unsold books). Definitely not enough to live on, so I have to grow this business if I plan to continue doing this as I ease into retirement without a pension, but at least I’m on the right side of the ledger. Many self-published authors aren’t.

I would have done better financially, but I decided put HUNGRY GHOSTS back in print as well. That cost me a bundle not just to reprint it, but because I missed some typesetting errors and had to toss out an entire print run at my expense (don’t ask how much that cost — in terms of lost inventory, it was thousands). Unfortunately, I had shipped out a bunch of them to readers before I realized the mistake, so I got dinged both for re-shipping the replacements as well as re-printing the books I had to throw out. That hurt for sure. 

Due to a printing error, I gave another case of books to the Centretown Community Health Centre so Julia Huckle could arrange to distribute them to precariously housed and isolated people who might like to read a new book they can’t afford to buy. I hope they enjoy them!

On the positive side, back in June, I was awarded the OLIP Welcoming Ottawa Ambassador award for the work I did finding host families for Ukrainian refugees (I placed about 200 Ukrainians with host families). That meant a lot. My friends, Bruce Mayo and Sandra West, got the same award — ironically, they got theirs for being a host family to a young Ukrainian lawyer who I had placed with them!

I also did 23 pet portraits to raise money for Niall Harbison’s dog rescue in Thailand to pay for Tina’s surgery — she was an incredibly special retriever found in a terrible state. It broke my heart when she passed away this year, but a lot of people were moved by her plight and touched by her gentle, loving spirit. I was able to raise around $ 2,500, with people paying whatever they felt was reasonable for the portraits and sending the money directly to Niall. Here’s a sample!

With the help of my friend, Tim Stahl, who arranged a GoFundMe, I was also able to help my friend Pete. Pete found out he was terminally ill in June and because he had given his notice earlier in the year before he found out he had terminal lung cancer, he had to vacate his rental unit by July 1. He was penniless, in debt, and about to be homeless when I found out about his situation. I knew I had to do something to help and started doing more pet portraits; then Tim got hold of me and offered to set up a GoFundMe even though he’d never met Pete.

We raised over $10,000! I’m endlessly grateful to everyone who helped this good man. It meant the world to him to have that support in his final days.

Pete left me all his art supplies and I promised him I will continue to do pet portraits to raise funds for good causes so he can pay it forward even after his death. I dedicated SHADOW PLAY to him, and I’m glad he was able to know that before he passed away–he thought it was “awesome.”

I also organized my annual sock drive, “Sock it to Christmas!” this year, and with Greg MacEachern’s and Eric Kalbfleisch’s help (Barry Larocque from my office also helped to deliver bins), we were able to collect just under 1,000 pairs of new winter socks for the shelters and for the Parkdale Food Centre’s Soup and Socks Program! As always, the Royal LePage Team realtors were incredibly generous — we had six bins out this year in our various offices and will do the same next year. And Greg managed to collect 210 pairs of socks all on his own! Amazing!

Finally, despite all the chaos, I achieved the Royal LePage President’s Gold Award this year (top 20% of individuals in Ontario when it comes to gross commissions), which was a pleasant surprise. It was a challenging year in real estate (in pretty much everything, for most folks) so I started off the year not thinking I’d hit any awards levels at all. Thanks to my wonderful clients — enjoyed working with each and every one of you.

My goals for 2024 are to create two Indie Awards, one for mystery authors like me, whose books were previously shortlisted and won some awards, but who no longer qualify for any Canadian awards because either we’re self-published or our books aren’t available in regular Canadian retail channels. The other will be for jacket cover design artwork. These will be called the Tobys, and I am working on what the award will look like. I’m hoping to find a corporate sponsor in the new year to cover costs. If anyone knows anyone who might be interested, give them a nudge!

Every single one of my achievements, except for boxing, is something I could not have achieved without the help of my community– you supported Ukrainians, bought my books, contributed to my fundraisers, and donated socks. So heading into the New Year, I want to thank you all for your support! Here’s to 2024! I hope mine is a little less frantic and that ReBound Press continues to grow and that readers continue to enjoy SHADOW PLAY!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Jabulani Winery – January 20, 2024 — book your ticket now!

I’ll be at the Jabulani Winery on Saturday January 20, 2024 between 2 and 4 to talk about my unusual path to publication (it’s been a reverse trajectory of sorts!). This is a beautiful spot out in the country, not far from the Town of Richmond, Ontario. Janet and her husband, Tom, the owner/sommelier will be serving up some mulled wine and munchies and these people never disappoint!

They are charging $ 20/ticket (which barely covers their costs) and it’s limited to 60 people so register now! Trust me, it will be fun! (I’ll have books for sale and they’ll have wine for sale — what could be better than a good book and a nice glass of wine?)

Register on Eventbrite

Just a few of the notes I’ve received from happy readers! #ShadowPlay

Here is some of the recent reader reaction I’ve had to SHADOW PLAY!