Eventful couple of months

I was just in a Borders today and saw the second ACCOMPLICE on the shelves. And here I was told it was supposed to be out on the 5th of February! Imagine my consternation. Seriously, it was a nice surprise to see it out there and facing cover-out on the shelf. By the way. . .anyone who reads this can feel free to put my books with the front cover facing out on any shelves you may find them. Even after doing this for about ten years now (still a pup I know), I still get a charge out of seeing my new books on the shelves and cover out is the best!

The 5th BOOT HILL is due out toward the end of March and my second foray into the Ralph Compton series will be released on April 1st. Hopefully the whole April Fools thing doesn't amount to any bad karma. I've already posted cover shots of the first two and will put a picture of the new Compton cover up as soon as I get it. That one is titled, THE DEATH OF A BAD MAN. It's a story idea I've been kicking around for some time. It's simple, classic, but never really fit into either of my other series. Fortunately, I was able to put it to use in this Compton book. I hope you all like it.

I figure I'll arrange a signing or two once all three books have hit store shelves. It's always more impressive to have more than one new book at that table to keep me company. Once I get something arranged, I'll post it on my site and hopefully a few of you folks will stop by to say hello.

Back to some editing right now. I'll poke my head in here again before too long.

The trail into '08

Well, the holidays are over and they turned out pretty well for me. My wife and I stayed home, which is actually something new since we've traveled to see family for the holidays every year since we've been together. Even the years when we lived closer to family, we still didn't spend Christmas at our place. So that was nice, but next year it will be good to see everyone else again.

As for some new stuff book-wise, here's a look at the cover to the next MAN FROM BOOT HILL book. I could not be happier with how well this turned out. I know I say that about all my covers, but this is another one to add to the list. I especially like the darker color, since it matches the tone for the book. I don't want to give anything away, but things are never really light and breezy for Nicolai anyway. This one comes out in April, I think.

Also, next month the second book in the ACCOMPLICE series comes out. I talked about that one already when I posted that pic, but I'm anxious to see how well this one does. Doc really starts to hit his stride, so I think everyone should be pleased.

Not much else to report on for now. Even though there is a writer's strike going on, I'm not one of the members of any picket line. My friend called me up to complain about all the reruns lately and I told him, "I'm not in Hollywood!" Of course I felt for them when this all started and I'll always be behind the practitioners of my craft, but now I'm just getting sick of reality TV and game shows. Oh well. Just like Clemenza said in the Godfather, "This sort of thing's gotta happen every now and then, kid. It clears out the bad blood." It was something like that, anyway. Since there's nothing on TV, I might as well pop in my Godfather DVD to double check.