Big News, indeed!

I’m thrilled to announce that my next novel, the political/psychological thriller Body Man, is under contract for publication by Amphorae Publishing Group. It’s a long process, but I’m looking forward to working with the fine folks at Amphorae to finalize the manuscript, design the cover, and bring Body Man to print and ebook formats, and possibly audiobook, in April, 2026.

I want to give special thanks to my agent Mira Perrizo of WordLink Literary, her colleague Dean Krystek, and Stacey Walker and Lisa Miller at Amphorae for making the deal happen. I particularly appreciate Amphorae’s willingness, indeed eagerness, to take on a book set in today’s divided America during this fraught time in our country.

Body Man takes a cold look at the hot mess of America today and shows how much worse things could get if we let them. The story is told by two young men from neighboring towns. One gets a communications degree and becomes the Body Man, close personal aide, to a liberal senator who catapults to the presidency on a strong gun control platform. The other becomes a marine corps sniper—a Body Man of a different kind—gets a bad conduct discharge, and is drawn into the militia movement and recruited to assassinate the new president. When the attempt goes horribly wrong, the president launches a war against the militias, sparking nationwide riots and mutinies in the military

In Body Man, you’ll go inside the Alt-Right movement, the White House, and a Marine Corps unit in combat. You’ll experience riots in the streets, insurrection in the military, and desperate last stands mirrored in the president’s private study and a remote cabin in the northern woods.

As the president spirals into depression, Spencer takes on more responsibility and power than a Body Man ever should. By the end, one of them—the president, the marine, or the Body Man—is a national hero. Which one, will depend on your point of view.

I’ll keep you updated—including cover reveal, giveaway, and pre-order information—as we work through the process.

In other news, I’ve been busy in the last few months speaking about writing and the publishing process at several venues.

In October, I gave two seminars at Florida WritersCon, the annual meeting of the Florida Writers Association. My seminar The Secrets of Bad Writing took a humorous (I hope) look at writing pitfalls. In How to Get Published After Really, Really, REALLY Trying, I took aspiring authors through usually long and sometimes torturous process of finding an agent and a publisher.

A few weeks later, I did the How to Get Published seminar at the main Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale. My plan to speak at SleuthFest in St. Petersburg, the conference of the Florida Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, was postponed due to Hurricane Helene. We are rescheduled for next May. If you’re local to me in Delray Beach, I’ll be speaking to a large neighborhood book club in February. That talk will be about my books and my writing process. Drop me a note if you want to attend.

That’s all for now. In case you’re working on your holiday shopping, my first three books—Sandblast, Blowback, and Shock Wave—are available as paperbacks, e-books, and audiobooks on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Watch for updates on Body Man, including the cover reveal, coming soon.

Thanks for reading and all best for the holidays and 2025!