Look for The Hag Rider on Amazon in June, 2020.
There is always risk involved when an author branches into a new genre then solicits independent reviews. There are four reviews on GoodReads. This is one of them: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3275255642
Check me out here: http://thefensk.com
I know a lot of people are stuck at home right now. What a great time to catch up on your reading! The safest way right now to get new books to read is to embrace eBooks; they provide a wonderful combination of low price, easy online shopping, and immediate delivery.
Wait, you don’t own a kindle? Amazon has you covered: https://amzn.to/39U6Rno
All you need is a tablet, iPad, computer, or even a phone.
To help get you started, I am offering the first novel of my adventure-mystery series on sale for 99 cents, from March 31 through April 6.
Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Fever-Thomas-Fenske-ebook/dp/B010U5K1PI/
Be safe. Stay home and read!
And it ain’t over yet! Not quite.
If we were having coffee today, well, hopefully, we wouldn’t be, would we? Maybe we picked up to-go coffee at the drive-through and we’re talking in the parking lot like two cop cars comparing notes, me in my car and you in yours.
I’m sorry that I’ve been out of touch. I’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on, not one, but TWO novels. In this case “finishing touches” means working through the changes from the editing process (third-party editors) and then working through the galley approval process, for one at least. I still have that to complete on the second one.
My historical novel, THE HAG RIDER will be out in June. It is set in the civil war and involves a bit of paranormal activity. More later, but I can assure you my history degree came in quite handy while I was researching this one. Hey, I’m finally working in my other field of study! (I have a degree in English as well … so I’ve put that into use too).
The fourth installment of my Traces of Treasure series, PENUMBRA, will be published in August. Still working on this one. Same characters, plus a couple of new ones, a new mystery to unravel … early reports indicate this one surpasses all the others.
In other news: COVID-19, Coronavirus, or as I like to call it, C19.
Demographics at this early stage of the game are useless. This is why I get tired of the endless talking heads on 24-hour news. We’re not even getting other news. How many people know a whack-job was stopped from bombing a hospital in KC last week? Not many. It’s true, look it up.
Here’s a statistic: A virus like this has the ability to spread exponentially. If unchecked, it WILL spread exponentially. It can be like an out of control wildfire. Social distancing is the firebreak.
ANYONE can get this disease. Young, old, healthy, sick, male, female, and no matter the race and ethnic background. It does not discriminate. Do not draw conclusions from the talking heads … if it gets into you, you have no idea how your particular metabolism will react to it.
The only defense against it is for people to refrain from socializing. Period. You can protect from the required occasional need for shopping by strenuous adherence to common sense: keep your distance and no face touching prior to effective hand cleaning or sanitizing. I keep sanitizer in the car
Yes, probably more people won’t get it than get it. A high percentage of people who get it survive it. Our fatality rate is small compared to Italy, but in Italy, it is at least 10% … it is what happens when the hospitals are swamped and they run out of supplies and equipment. A high percentage of the people who survive but are hospitalized do so because of respirators. When they run out, the fatality percentage increases. It will happen here too, in most areas. Also, when protective gear runs out, more health professionals get sick.
One other thing: yes, people who have some underlying condition have a real problem surviving. But a LOT of people get sick and die of this who had nothing else wrong with them. The truth be told, it will be years before the demographics on that are known. I don’t want to flip a coin on this thing …
“Let’s be careful out there …”
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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in NC. Remember, ebooks are the safest books to shop for and read and they are immediately available, virus-free! I have a specialized page with links to my books and some handy tips into joining the ranks of electronic readers. My books are also available in paperback, but right now … well, I hope nobody coughed on them.
https://thefensk.com/fd.html
What’s so lucky about Lucky Strike? Considering the theme of vengeance and the ensuing deep-seated criminal conspiracy, not so much. In fact, we see several crimes in the pages, including threats, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, torture, and murder. What’s it all about? Well, that is the big question, isn’t it?
The story doesn’t depend entirely on information from the previous two books in the Traces of Treasure series, but having that firm background certainly doesn’t hurt. Of course, Sam Milton returns along with his paramour Smidgeon Toll. Lance Norton, one of the main characters in the second book, is part of the story as well. The story also introduces an old lawman, a private investigator named Mule Hollis, who is following a parallel trail that leads directly to our heroes.
Still, I think a fledgling reader can enjoy the book as a stand-alone but here is a brief primer. The first book involves Sam Milton’s long obsession with a lost Gold Mine. As he becomes increasingly desperate, he gets careless and the book follows his struggles with the situations he finds himself in. The second book follows up with a seeming curse that throws a cloud over all the characters and introduces several ghostly associates who have a deep interest in what transpires, as one person after another falls victim to a hidden killer.
So much happened in the second book, it had to have made the news. The bad thing about news coverage is that it sometimes attracts unwanted attention. That’s what happens in Lucky Strike and the repercussions are profound.
An innocent search for some answers to what at first seems to be a small mystery results in a series of desperate acts and the villainous activities eventually involve everyone as they all scramble to make some sense of the situation.
Wait. What about the ghosts? They’re back as well, but they are also confused by the dire situation.
Various twists and turns lead Smidgeon on a long quest from Texas to North Carolina, collecting a confusing array of clues she must somehow piece together.
All the while a mysterious stranger creates havoc as he follows his own trail of vengeance, crime, and destruction.
Add it all up and … well, it doesn’t sound too lucky, does it?
Do you think you can figure it out?
Feeling lucky?
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Find out for yourself … experience the Traces of Treasure
Book 3: Lucky Strike
Book 2: A Curse That Bites Deep
Book 1: The Fever
All three are available in both eBook and Paperback and they are also available on KindleUnlimited.
If we were having coffee today I’d have a couple of things to share.
First off, I’d apologize. I really don’t want to bore you with book news two weeks in a row. Sure we had Hurricane Dorian threatening our doorstep and all, but where I live in NC it wasn’t an issue. Much different story farther east. But anyway, I simply MUST share some book release news.
My new book, Lucky Strike, has always been slated for a publish date of October 1. A local author event late in September has complicated those plans a little. The Kindle edition is still slated for an October 1 release, but my publisher has graciously allowed an early release of the paperback version.
Restaurants often have what is called a soft-opening, an invitation-only chance for them to work out operational kinks. This is kind of like that … I am calling it a soft-release of my book. I guess that’s a bit ironic, considering the fact that it is a hard copy, but what it means is that you can buy the paperback today from Amazon.
This will allow me to have copies on-hand for the author event, but it also allows readers who want that paperback to get them right now! Woo Hoo!
Of course, you can pre-order the ebook too … it will be delivered to your kindle device automatically on the official release date of October 1.
I have links to both on my webpage … https://thefensk.com/lucky.html
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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in NC … get more information on Lucky Strike and his other books at http://thefensk.com
If we were having coffee today I’d be telling you all about my big Labor Day Sale this weekend on my current backlist.
With the third novel in my Traces of Treasure series due out in a few weeks, I thought this would be a great time for the teeming masses to catch up on the first two books. Both ebooks for The Fever and A Curse That Bites Deep are on sale through Monday 9/2 for just 99 cents on Amazon (99p on Amazon UK).
THE FEVER US Amazon Link
THE FEVER UK Amazon Link
A CURSE THAT BITES DEEP US Amazon Link
A CURSE THAT BITES DEEP UK Amazon Link
I tried to make the new book, Lucky Strike, as much of a stand-alone as possible, but your enjoyment is certainly enhanced by the stories in the first two books.
While you’re there you can also check out the free companion cookbook.
Of course, for your convenience, you can buy the paperback versions from both sites — but they aren’t on sale. That’s out of my control.
Don’t sell ebooks short though, they have a lot of advantages. You can carry an entire library around with you. You can easily read in the dark. You can adjust the text size. They are less expensive. They save paper. You can buy and get them 24 hours a day. There are free reader apps for almost any device.
The biggest comment I get is that people like to hold a book. I got over that limitation by buying a nice folio cover for my tablet … it feels like a book, it really does, and the apps have a flip page function and you don’t even have to lick your fingers.
What excuses do you have for not buying a nice ebook for a great price?
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Thomas Fenske is an author living in NC. More information on his books can be found at http://thefensk.com
Time’s a-wastin’ … the next book is coming soon, so you need to catch up!
Note: There May Be A Test!
What would YOU do if you caught Gold Fever?
This public service announcement has been approved by Author Thomas Fenske
The third book in my Traces of Treasure series is coming out this October and I’m looking for new reviewers of this book and the other books in the series.
Why would anyone be interested in these books?
The answer is: I seriously don’t know.
I just write them and hope people find them entertaining.
But what I do know is this: the people who’ve read the first two books in the series really like them. But hey, not enough people have read them yet. I also know that although the subject matter seems a bit male-oriented, seriously, these books appeal to women as well as men. Check out the current reviews on Amazon if you don’t believe me.
These are mysteries centered on a sense of adventure, with a good dose of obsession. The hero of the series (so far) is Sam Milton. He’s a bit of a loner and loser in the first book, The Fever. He’s obsessed and he can’t help it. He got arrested at nineteen and while in jail he helped a sick and dying wino who rewarded him with the riddle. It, the broken little man said, would help Sam find a long lost gold mine out in west Texas.
The Fever is a bit of a what-if scenario. What if this happened to you? Well, you’d think about it, first dismissing it has hogwash. Then you might wonder to yourself late at night … what if? This is where the title comes in. Eventually, you can’t help it. You catch the FEVER, gold fever. When the book opens, a very tired and frustrated Sam is hiking out of the wilderness after yet another fruitless search. It’s dangerous terrain, the home of rattlesnakes and mountain lions. He’s trespassing. He sneaks in and out and drives the eight to ten hours back to his regular life, only to plot and plan his next trip. He’s careful. He has a set routine of procedures designed to keep him safe.
Then, after this latest trip, he stumbles upon the solution to the first clue in the riddle. It’s something he missed for years. It was so simple. Yet, he’s at the end of his hiking season; or is he? The book is about his rush to get back into the field to check out his hunch, throwing out many of the safeguards he had built into his past searches. Love? Family? Job? Who cares … this is gold we’re talking about.
A riddle and an obsession … what could possibly go wrong?
The second book, A Curse That Bites Deep, follows closely on the heels of The Fever. Sam has relocated to the area, relieving himself of the strain of those long drives. I’m trying not to add spoilers here, but suffice it to say, he’s much happier than he’s been in a long time. He’s in love with a cafe owner who befriended him in the first book. Things are finally looking up for him, well, that is until people start dying. One-by-one, people close to Sam seem to pass away. Some deaths can be explained as accidents, but others are obviously murder. As the situation continues to get even more complicated, he must take the initiative to confront the killer before the circle of death tightens around the love of his life. Is it just a random homicidal maniac or is it the curse he had earlier been warned about?
The third book, Lucky Strike, due out in October, definitely proves that Sam’s lost gold mine is not the only treasure-oriented mystery in this small west Texas town. But our friends have a problem: something is definitely wrong but the details are not obvious. They must claw and scratch their way through a bunch of muddled clues to put the pieces together. All the while they are facing a ruthless villain who seems to be everywhere at once. It is a top-notch mystery, sure to entertain. This story is as much about Sam’s girlfriend Smidgeon Toll, as it is about him. See that image on the cover? That’s not blatant sensationalism–she does that more than once in this story.
I need reviews, so I am willing to provide PDF review copies of all three books to people who are willing to read and review them. Books 2 and 3 do have a bit of exposition so they could probably be read standalone. Of course, any review for Lucky Strike would be an advance review but if I get good taglines from an early review I can use that in the book. I have an early August cutoff for that.
I’m wanting to sell books, of course, so if there is a massive rush to the box office I might need to be selective.
So if you are looking for something to read, like to leave reviews on Amazon or even better … are a book blogger — help a guy out and drop me a line. You can get more information on the books at http://thefensk.com — My email info is there as well.
If we were having coffee today one of the first things I’d want to do is show you the new cover from my latest novel. Cover art is always a bit of a challenge because I am not artistically inclined in that way.
At 66 years old I am still pretty much at the stick figure stage. And they aren’t particularly good stick figures either. But I have ideas, and I shared a few of my ideas with my publisher’s graphic artist and she did a pretty good rendering of them. So here it is for everybody in the coffee shop to see:
The book will be published this coming October and is the third in a series of following the adventures of Sam and Smidgeon, who are on the trail of a different kind of treasure this time. As the cover hints, there are long road trips involved and more than once, Smidgeon, the heroine of the book, strikes a very similar pose.
Well, to be honest, they aren’t at all sure what’s going on. It’s a mystery from start to end with a pretty good villain if I say so myself but unlike some mysteries, the reader knows more about it than the characters. Still, I’ve saved a few surprises for the ending. It has many of the elements of the previous books, including tiebacks to my cookbook, The Mossback Cafe Cookbook, and the first two books in the series. Ah, but I have (hopefully) added enough exposition so the casual reader is not totally lost if they happen to read this first.
I even threw in a couple of cameos. One of my favorite writers is Ernie Pyle. He was a remarkable writer, best known as a war correspondent in WWII who eventually died in combat on Okinawa. In reading one of the book compilations of his articles, I noted a man by the name of Elkins he came across in both North Africa and Italy. Pyle was always quick to give home town information of anyone he wrote about and Major Elkins was a college professor from College Station Texas. He actually called Major Elkins “his friend” on both occasions. It was not a term he freely used. When I read that, I started wondering. Years ago back in Texas, I worked very closely with a woman, whose married name was Elkins. I recalled her husband had grown up in College Station as the son of a professor. I asked her about it.
“Oh, yes,” she said, “That’s Bob’s dad! Bob still has letters Ernie Pyle wrote to him.”
Small world. So, I wove this coincidence into the start of this book, a bit of an introductory vignette you might say, and Major Elkins is a part of that bit of storyline.
We novelists, if we are lucky, also employ the use of something we call beta readers. We’ll share our almost completed manuscripts in the hope for an honest assessment of the story. It is part of a working process to make for a better manuscript. I’m hoping for comments on readability and possible logical errors in the story. One caught a discrepancy in a small detail linking back to book 2. It had no bearing on the story, but I like the little details to be accurate so I was glad to be able to correct it.
Anyway, one of these readers wrote back and commented that she had once lived in one of the small West Texas towns I mention in the story. I got a few more details from her about it and she hadn’t put it together that this part of her life almost exactly paralleled the timeline of the story. Well, I couldn’t let something like that pass. I wrote her into one scene, a true cameo, but it also served to add a little more insight into one of the characters.
If writing wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t do it. Anyway, enjoy your coffee.
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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in North Carolina. Information on his work, including the upcoming Lucky Strike, can be found at http://thefensk.com
I’m posting hints from time to time on my FaceBook author page too, so please click that link and follow me.
If we were having coffee today, I’d be showing you the new pictures. No, no, no, not the grandkids, the dog, or the cats … they’d be pictures of me! With the upcoming publication of my third novel, I decided it was time to skip the selfies.
It’s funny, in the beginning, I didn’t even consider a photo. It’s vain, I guess, but I generally don’t like photos of myself. But every new author, especially an independent author, should follow the same processes of self-promotion. This blog is one example of that. A web page is crucial too. (ahem: my web page) An author should learn to use Twitter and Instagram as well. Youtube videos are a plus. And one should never miss an opportunity to drop a link into the conversation.
And, of course, headshots are part of this mix. I’ve generally used opportunistic shots.
I really liked this one, taken at a loft over one of the local storefronts:
Since my cataract surgery, I don’t really need glasses except for reading (my current pair are no line trifocals, clear on top and reading glasses on the bottom). So I tried some without glasses. I don’t know, I think I like pictures of me better with glasses. Maybe that’s because I’ve worn glasses full-time for about thirty years. Anyway, most of my shots were without glasses.
What do you think? Grab another cup of coffee and let me know.
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Thomas Fenske is a writer living in North Carolina. More information on his work can be found at http://thefensk.com
B/W photos by Tonia Taylor at Blue Door Portraits, Mebane NC
Scratching the Surface 