NEW SHORT STORY FROM TRISTOPOLIS

From the city where the skies are eternally deep purple, where elevators are powered by indentured wraiths, and power comes from reactors fueled by the bones of the dead... comes a new short mystery.

Not a Donal Riordan tale, but featuring his sometime friend and colleague Adam Obsidian.

When detective Adam Obsidian finds the Gambuccini brothers murdered, he isn't shedding tears. The dead men were villains, through and through. The problem? Adam Obsidian is the only suspect.

Pursued by Tristopolis PD, can he solve the mystery before someone ends him too?

...Find it on Amazon today!

DECADES... WRAPPING UP 2022

There's nothing sacred about base 10 arithmetic, of course: the base just happens to match the number of fingers plus toes that most of us are born with. And the Earth's orbital period is a parochial peculiarity, as far as the greater universe is concerned. So decades aren't significant cosmically, but hey, I'm only human...

For me, the year 2022 marked:

50 years in martial arts

40 years married to Yvonne

30 years as a published writer

20 books published

Somewhat incredible, really. Tempus fugit!

Have a wonderful 2023, okay?

TWO NEW TITLES TODAY!

Does it break some fundamental rule of marketing to publish two new books on the same day? Most likely...

First, a new Case & Kat thriller:

From award-winning author John Meaney comes another exciting thriller set in the interzone between physical and cyber action.

Case and Kat work the deadliest missions for IACS. But when Case becomes a target and his own agency's systems are compromised, how can he and Kat prevent a deadly series of attacks? Preferably without dying in the process.

And a short thriller, technically a novella:

It was supposed to be a military training exercise, but when an explosion lights up the night in Scotland, special forces cyber specialist Case is plunged into a new kind of operation against Russian covert specialists operating on UK soil. Can he survive the murky world of dark secrets and violent, sudden action?

A short thriller featuring Case during his time as a member of 18 (UKSF) Signals Regiment, the cyber-savvy arm of UK Special Forces, before he became an operative of IACS.

Enjoy, enjoy...

What I Did On My Holiday

It's a little while back now, but we had a long trip through places like Lindisfarne (think Vikings) and Whitby Abbey (think Dracula) and the Western Highlands of Scotland. Here's a view of Ben Nevis (Scotland's highest peak) by moonlight:

The Caledonian Canal features a long series of locks called Neptune's Staircase, and I did take photos of the canal itself, but was struck by this piece of useful advice, which we should always bear in mind every day: 

 

 

 So I did a few things during the trip. One was to grow Very Old Indeed. Back in my youth, reaching age 65 (for a bloke) counted as becoming an OAP (Old Age Pensioner). 

 So I did indeed pass that milestone, but (even with a somewhat knackered hip) I managed to train everyday: either wrestling calisthenics or resistance bands (and karate drills). I can carry a gym in a small bag, which I think is pretty damn marvellous: 

 

 

 And I mostly trained in hotel rooms, but I also got in some nice outdoor training in a rather excellent lodge we stayed at: 

 

 

...Oh, and, I started a new piece of writing also. Current state of play: the latest Case and Kat book is finished bar the actual publishing bit (minor detail!); I've a new novel in progress, plus some other new thing whose eventual length I have absolutely no idea about. Not a Scooby (as we say in Cockney rhyming slang).

ON BECOMING (OLD) BATMAN

There's a profound interface between physicality and cognitive/creative prowess. That's maybe a buried but insistent theme in my books. Too bad that my 65th birthday is only a matter of weeks away and time has taken its toll... but that's not enough to stop me working out 6 or 7 days a week.

These days, I'm more likely than ever to be frightening my neighbours by doing some of my training bare-chested in the back garden. I'm just in from whacking out some punches and cossack squats in the rain and wind. I blame this young chap (young by my current standards) called Adam Sinicki, better known to the world at large as The Bioneer:

Want to become Batman? Or Black Widow? Arrow? Check him out on his YouTube channel.

While I'm here, the latest book I've read from an SF author is Island Reich, but it's not SF: a World War II thriller underpinned by a vast amount of research. (From writing the historic timelines in the Ragnarok trilogy, plus On The Brink and even New Jerusalem, I know how much effort goes into creating this kind of verisimilitude.) It works really, really well, with a nice what if? embedded in the story.

 

The author is better known to SF fandom as Jon Courtenay Grimwood. I haven't seen him for many a year. I do recall a little nunchaku challenge between the two of us at some convention, using a makeshift weapon I constructed out of a shoelace, a hairbrush and a pen. Or something like that.

Mr Grimwood won.

I have two books in progress right now, so more to come from me...