Art Mystery 101

 Hi Guys,

Merry Christmas tomorrow! (And Happy New Year shortly!)

And yes just a brief note from me to tell you that I'm still working on Art Mystery 101. At this stage it's only a few days away from finishing and so should be out some time between Christmas and New Years. I've simply been struggling with the final couple of chapters, but I think I've got them dealt with now. 

After that it should be Good Neighbours - my first book of the new year, an urban sci fi, which is mostly done. I'm just trying to finish it up now and add to the general craziness of the story! (And especially the aliens, because why shouldn't aliens be a little nuts! They came to Earth after all!)

As for me, I've finally got two working eyes again - and let me tell you it's so much better having cataract surgery done when you're unconscious. Much less stressful than watching someone come at your eye with a knife! Also I learned a brand new word, which I'm fairly sure the eye doctors have just made up for kicks. Pseudophakic. (Actually bilaterally pseudophakic.) It basically means I have fake lenses in my eyes. In any case they sort of work and driving has become far less hit and miss, but I think I might need reading glasses for the close up stuff.

On the more negative side, I had a tooth die - which was weird. The outside enamel simply decided to part company with the rest of the tooth and what was left was a huge mercury filling which was slowly crunching down with every bite. Anyway, the tooth's gone now which is a relief, but the bills were shocking. The extraction was about $400 all up, which is good. A crown would have been $1600. And from there the prices for the other options just went up! (The dentist really did try to sell me that crown!) 

By contrast the eye surgery was free. Public health and all that!

But it makes me think - what else is going to fall off or have to be replaced? And how much of me will still be organic by the time I shuffle off? Anyway that's just life I suppose.

So for now, have a good holidays all.

Cheers, Greg.

Yes, I Have A Plan! (And It Might Even Work!)

 Hi Guys,

Ok, so as the title says I have a tentative plan for publishing two more books this year. 

The first is another detective - Art Mystery 101 - which is currently in the process of being edited. And I'm thinking the cover will be similar to the one above - which is another Deep Dream work. The only problem with it is that my character actually is sort of half Oriental and for unknown reasons she actually only has four fingers and thumb on her right hand! (Though ironically enough Cayllee Chambers does have badly damaged fingers on both her hands as a result of an abusive childhood. Could Deep Dream somehow be reading my thoughts?!)

Anyway, the story follows a number of the themes I've had running through my works for a couple of years now, but also takes a couple of sharp left turns. One of them being that she is an actual art forger who has been working quietly away, completely unnoticed by anyone - until an attack / fire / mass murder on the art facility where she is employed for her day drive, threatens to expose her alternative occupation, forcing her to flee.

Of course, nothing is ever what it seems!

The second book is - Good Neighbours - an urban sci fi, set in a fictitious New Zealand town, where our hero is the local vet trying to live a normal life while ignoring the fact that the town is home to an alien research base - and that some of the visitors might actually be insane!

Don't know if this will be the cover - but I love the image!

Good Neighbours is a little further off, but the first draft is complete and I'm flat out working on the edits / revisions. With luck it'll be out for Christmas. Unfortunately, one little wrinkle in my plans is that I'm due for eye surgery next month, so I don't know what that's going to do to everything. The other little wrinkle is that every time I sit down to type, the cat seems to want to sit in front of the screen and get petted!

Anyway, that's where I am at the moment, and I will do my damndest not to get sidetracked as usual. (If the cat lets me!)

Cheers for now,

Greg.

Damn It! I Published Model Behaviour!

Hi Guys,

Yes, I did it! I published the very book that I said I wouldn't for a while! Sorry! And yes, it uses a lot of the tropes I've used elsewhere, which is why I didn't want to put it out too soon. (Detective plot with a white woman turning black through a genetic engineering tweak etc.) But in my own defense - I have none! However, it is a fascinating idea and one that I think has legs. Also it's a good story which was a lot of fun to write and even to revise and edit! And Deep Dream came up with a great cover for it too. (All hail our AI overlords!)

Anyway I'm hoping that it will be a quick, fun read, and I hope people won't guess who the bad guy is too soon. And to give you some idea of what it's about, here's the blurb:

Models are tough. Stupid tough! But the brutal cosmetic surgeries Chloe Carter had recently undergone had pushed her stupidity to its limits! Still here she was, completely transformed by the surgeon's scalpel, walking out on the catwalk once again, basking in the warmth of the cameras – until one lone fascist with a gun decided to ruin her night.

Meanwhile, as Chloe was dealing with the aftermath of the attack and starting to realise that her career as an elite model might be over, Kirk Potter was staring at the dead body of her boss. A man who had been horrifically killed. And trying to work out how it related to either the hundred million dollar life insurance policy he had, or the attack on the fashion show.

Two violent crimes, two days apart, linked only by the fact that the attacks had been committed against members of the same agency, Précieuse Models. And he had to solve them. Before his company had to pay out on the claims – or his boss' head exploded!

So that's it guys, and may we all live well or die trying!

Cheers, Greg.

 

RUN!

 Hi Guys,

As you may have noticed I've been offline for a while now. No great mystery about it I'm afraid - I put my back out about three or four weeks ago, and haven't been able to stand, walk or sit down for any length of time since then. I'm really annoyed about it - long time ago I had a physio tell me that once you pass fifty the frequency of back seizures decreases. Haven't noticed it! And in fact the last couple of seizures have been the worst I've had in years!

Any way the good news is that while I've been offline I have still been writing - by virtue of lying on a couch and typing on a laptop on a coffee table! And as a consequence, I have managed to complete the rough draft of another mystery / detective. The title is Run, and I think the cover will be based on the image above. It still needs to be edited and revised so publication will be a little way off.

Actually I've written two, but the other one - Model Behavior - won't be published for a good while as it falls back into too many old tropes of mine. (The cover might be a little racy too!)

And sadly, I've also been spending a lot of time watching Youtube videos - including a lot of short stories. The one thing I have noticed - most of them appear to be AI generated. Oddly they don't just have the same plots, they have the same character names which spring up again and again. For example, I don't know how many different space navy officers and scientists named so and so Chen - but if that's your name it looks like your career path is already sorted! Congrats! 

Also why does every spaceship in a battle decide to do "jinking"? (I think it's a typo that's somehow been cut and pasted by every AI program out there. You'd think that one of them would have the sense to read a dictionary - unless of course jinking has been added to it!)

The other thing that keeps popping up are the repeated variations of whole sections of text, as if someone decided to rewrite a section, add a few lines here and there to it, and then just pasted it in without cutting the old section. It's really strange and somewhat disconcerting. But then again, maybe that's simply my editing eye coming out. That's one of the consequences of becoming a writer and editing so much of your work - you can't read anything else without picking up issues.

Anyway, that's where I'm at, and hope to have Run out by the time I next update the blog. And I hope you guys are having a better time health wise than me!

Cheers, Greg.

A Busy Couple Of Months!

 Hi Guys,

Blurb:

Brian had too many problems in his life. Living the life of someone in witness protection was never easy. The rules were hard. Never tell anyone your true name. Never engage in personal relationships – they were a trap. And never forget who you were supposed to be. And he always followed the rules. Or he had. But after fifteen years in hiding, things were starting to slip. He was forming personal attachments. There was a girl he liked. And some days he almost forgot he was in hiding!

Then his family, the people he had put away for life, got out of jail!

Medea wasn't finding the life of a constable with the Fijian Police Force that easy either. Constable it turned out, was another term for dogsbody. The detectives treated her like a slave. Her bosses screamed at her. And there was absolutely no respect! Still she put up with it.

But when somebody started murdering tourists on the island and leaving body parts everywhere, their real problems began!

Blurb:

Having a gift was cool. Magic was cool. Krys loved it. He loved being a druid. But he didn't love everything else that came with it. Like being a member of the Assembly. Having to attend the monthly forums. Being bossed around by the watchers. And never being able to reveal his true nature to anyone.

Callista held similar views. Especially after the watchers had not only demanded all of those things of her, but had stolen her money and her mansion as well! They'd forced her into the life of an indentured servant! And now they seemed to actually want to make her into a watcher! All because of a little bit of fraud! Honestly the normals would never have found out about it!

It just wasn't fair!

Then one day a teenage boy started flying around New York, and none of that mattered. The only thing that did matter was keeping their secret lives, secret! Before the witch burnings began!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. But I have been a little bit engrossed in my writing. And now I have two books out to show for it. (Covers and blurbs above!) So not a terrible start to the year. And hopefully there'll be a few more out in the not-too-distant future as well. And yes, Freaksville is on that list, currently going through its third edit.

The covers as usual are the creations of Deep Dream (all hail our AI overlords!) with me just adding a few tweaks and titles etc. And I have to say that while it's a frustrating program, often spewing out results that don't resemble anything like what I asked for, when it gets things right it gets them even better than I could have hoped for!

Anyway, I'm proud of these two books, and busy, losing myself in writing several others as usual. But I will try to update my blog more often in the future (and hopefully apologize less for my failures in doing so as well!

Hope you're all enjoying this new year, and I wish you all the best.

Cheers, Greg.

Happy New Year!

 Hi Guys,

So new year - old problems!

As you may have noticed another book got published right at the end of last year - and strangely enough it wasn't Druid! Those of you who read my posts will know that this is nothing out of the ordinary. I get side tracked and things happen. Which is more or less exactly what happened to me, yet again.

So "The Hunt" is out. Another Detective / Police Procedural / Mystery which follows some well-worn themes - like someone needing to use extreme plastic surgery to escape her would be killers, but handles them in a new way. But it also has some new plot points, new locales, and a much more hard-bitten hero. (The only one who comes with his own armored car and an arsenal!) He also has a somewhat more jaundiced view of the world. And yes - this time I let the bad guys destroy the world! (Just a little bit! But you know - the bad guys just lose so much - they need a little reward every now and then!)

Oh, and the cover as you can probably guess comes from Deep Dream. (Long may our AI overlords rule over us!)

So here's the blurb:

Once she had been Chrissy Fuller – cover model. Then she had become Chrissy Gordon – abused wife. And now she was Brittany Holder – terrified. Fleeing for her life after shooting her husband. Desperate enough to take any risk.

Icarus West meanwhile had always been a soldier. Now he just used his skills as a private detective to recover what was missing. People and property. But little could he know when he was asked to find Harry Gordon's missing wife, that it would lead to disaster. He just knew the guy was bad. That he meant to do his runaway wife harm. And that he couldn't take the case.

But actions have consequences. So does inaction. And sometimes those consequences were completely unpredictable!

Both Brittany and West were stepping into a world they just didn't understand! Where nothing was as it seemed! But one that could kill them both if they made a single mistake!

Hope you enjoy and have a great new year.

Cheers, Greg.

A Pirating We Will Go!

Hi Guys,

 

Just to let you know - The Pirate's Son is now up and out there. It's another mystery / detective, but this time set in New Zealand - Hamilton, Britain and the Canaries. (Also on the Seven Seas!) And it asks that most fundamental of questions - what happened when a banker goes nuts and takes up piracy?!

Anyway, I'm pleased with the book and pleased that it's finally done. And yes, once more the book cover comes from Deep Dream. So for those of you curious about these things, here's the blurb:

A pirating we will go!

It wasn't easy being an architect! That was what Cliff was discovering. Because one day he might be sitting at his desk, designing a barn, and the next he could be in jail because his bastard of a father – who wasn't even his father – had collapsed his bank and run off with the money. And while he did that Cliff would be left to answer for his crimes!

It was that old pirate blood showing through!

Then again, it wasn't so easy being a police detective either as DI Richards was discovering. Not when her suspects were crazy, the mastermind behind the fraud was missing, and the crimes made no sense. But she had hope. It would all come together – maybe. And hopefully her boss wouldn't yell at her!

But then when her chief suspect started cruising the seven seas, plundering in a luxury yacht turned pirate ship, she knew that the chances of that were slim to none!

It was time to batten down the hatches and prepare for a storm as a geriatric madman in a pirate ship declared war on the world!

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the book, and I'll enjoy a nice long nap on the couch!

Cheers, Greg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hobson's Choice

 Hi Guys,

Well yes, it's finally happened! I've put out another book - Hobson's Choice - which is my third detective novel, though not related to either The Keeper or Alone In The Dark. 

As well as a simple detective / police procedural work, it also delves into the spy genre as well. So as well as the basic whodunit plot lines, it also has the more paranoia / suspense plot lines of who's trying to kill me and who have I actually been working for for all these years? There's also a bit of old school spycraft that I remember seeing on shows like Mission Impossible as a kid. And for those who like it, I set the book in Bora Bora. (Yes, I admit it, I do like Death in Paradise - even if it's a different mythical island.)

Also don't ask me what happened to the dagger. I had an image of a dagger covered in black rose petals in my head and Deep Dream had a different one in its! But I still think it's a great image, even if it's not quite right.

Of course as usual, while I was finishing off Hobson's choice, I was also starting two more books, so my timetable for other books has been thrown off a little - but what else is new?

In the meantime, Here's the blurb for Hobson's Choice:

 

One Crime – Two Choices

James Hobson is a copper. A British detective, retired on medical grounds and living in the French Pacific. And life is good. Until a gang of armed robbers raid the Sandstone Resort and kill and injure dozens of his neighbours. After that he has only one choice – to be a copper again. He can't allow such horrible brutality go unanswered. Not on Bora Bora.

Sarah Goldman is a spy. A cleaner for the Agency. And she has covered up the gang's tracks. But after having been there during the raid and seen what they did – can she still be that woman? Will she ever forgive herself?! Then again, can she quit? Or will the Agency kill her first?!

Until she can make that choice however, she has one job to do. To stop Hobson from investigating the crime! If she fails – her tropical vacation will become her funeral!

And here, hopefully, if something is working, is the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Hobsons-Choice-Greg-Curtis-ebook/dp/B0CJQ5HY7W?ref_=ast_author_mpb

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the book, and of course keep yourselves safe and don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

Alone In The Dark Is Out In The Open!!!

Hi Guys,

 

Well it happened guys! I was supposed to be working on Freaksville (which is almost done - still) and got side tracked again. As usual! And I ended up finishing off Alone In The Dark - which is another detective / police procedural.

But I will say this one does touch just a tiny bit on genetic engineering - in as much as it has some skin pigmentation etc mixed in with cosmetic surgery. But in this case, that genetic tweaking, is really not a lot more advanced - if it's more advanced at all that is - than what's currently available, which is why I felt comfortable including it in what is essentially a basic detective novel.

In essence this is a book about a woman in witness protection who is offered the ultimate don't get killed card - change your name, face and race and then take up residence as a new person in a foreign country. And so Maryanne Simpson was born. (Her old name is deliberately never used in the book because the story is not about who she was, only who she has become!) And I have a detective of course - Dan Murdock with the New Zealand police whose job it is to track down criminals using exactly the same sort of technology through the black market clinics, to escape justice.

I wanted to explore in this book, a lot of the reasons that people might use this sort of technology, both for good and ill, as well as of course, what it would be like to live as a different person of a different ethnicity, in a strange land - all while living with the threat of a violent death hanging over you if you get caught. As well as throwing in a murder mystery to round everything out! (There may be a few odd jokes as well!)

Anyway, I hope people enjoy it and as always to all of you, be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

So I Can See Again!!!

 Hi guys,

So the good news is I got through the cataract surgery on my left eye, and it went sort of alright. Sadly I've got something called negative photopsia in the eye, which is something I'd never heard of. It's basically a black border on the outside of my vision, but which will hopefully go away in a few months. If not optomotrists have a cure - sort of. It's called wearing glasses with thick black rims until you stop noticing! (And no, I'm not kidding!)

The bad news is that I got my vision changed to far sight, which makes it difficult to read the computer screen. In short I need reading glasses. 

 And the really bad news is that now that I can see again - I'm starting to see all the typos in my latest books! Bugger! (Guess what I'm going to be doing over the coming month!!!)

But with my new and improved vision in one eye, I finally managed to complete another book - The Keeper - which is a change from my usual fare. It's a straight detective. (Actually when I listed it on Amazon they let me put it in a category called Female Sleuths which seemed to fit perfectly.) So no magic, no spaceships just a crime - and a whole lot of lions! (Also a lot of very bad language and some poor jokes!)

Don't know why I decided to complete this book now, but it's been sitting on my computer for a couple of years and I suddenly felt the need to go back to it. That's the way we pantsters roll I suppose.

Anyway, I'm finally back at it now that I can see the computer screen from more than six inches away. I don't think I'll be able to get Bound out before January - it only needs a few more chapters, but then come the revisions and edits. (And that doesn't include the fact that I might get side tracked again!) But at least my writing speed is up to normal again.

Hope you're all doing well etc, and if you are looking at cataract surgery, do check out negative photopsia - it's actually quite common.

Cheers, Greg.

So A Funny Thing Happened ... !

Hi Guys,

 

 

Yes, you guessed it - the Barton Villa bug grabbed me again! This is the problem with being a pantster - I never know what I'm going to write next.

But I'm really happy with this book. I'd missed that crazy island and it's characters, even after I had so successfully ended the previous trilogy by sending everyone off to Mars to live happily ever after. It's a little like that old sweat shirt you put away in the closet which you think you'll never wear again because it's a bit faded and maybe it's got a loose thread here and there. And then one day you find youself thinking about it and pulling it out because you really liked it.

So that's what happened to me. But as I swung into it again, I decided that I had to make a few changes. For a start I didn't want to bring Moncrief Jones out of retirement - I mean the man's been shot, beaten up, in a car crash and suffered numerous other horrid injuries. It's getting old. So I thought I should let him be. At least for now. (But who knows, there could be another good beating in his future!)

I also wanted it to be a harder, edgier sort of book. More a Sam Watson type story - and you know she's always ready with her gun - and it's trained on the bad guy's nuts!!!

The other thing I did was to go back to the racism theme I explored in book three. I don't know why exactly but something about all the Black Lives Matter protests and the police killing of George Floyd etc, has really got under my skin a little. You can't watch that horrible event and not think to yourself, just what the hell is he doing? It just goes on and on. Also the John Griffin story - Black Like Me - has stayed with me for a long time. Not just the experience of a white reporter medically altering himself to appear black and experience life as such, but the reaction he got after what he'd done was revealed. It really is a thought provoking story. So I returned to that and made the bad guys the white supremacists who had united into a world wide movement. (Something about that feels horribly close to the bone lately.)

The other thing I should mention is that us sci fi writers are supposed to pose questions about the future etc and of course various technological advances coming. The genetic manipulation needed to change a person's skin colour from white to black or any other colour of the rainbow, is probably only five to ten years away. The ethics involved in doing so however are light years beyond us!

So just think - what are you going to do when your son or your daughter comes to you one day and says - I want to be black / or white / or yellow? Makes you think, doesn't it!

Anyway that's where the book comes from, and I hope people enjoy it.

Cheers, Greg.