Cover Reveal for Book 8, GIRL STALKS THE RUINS

My cover artist, Torrie Cooney, has done it again. Here's the cover for Book 8, which should be available in August. This one is set in France, and follows Emily and Perry in a terrorism thriller.

I'm also preparing Book 9, due out in December. That one is set in Japan, and follows the intersecting stories of Ryonosuke Shinjo, and Okamoto Haru, characters you may remember from earlier books in the series.

I think this is going to be a very good year for Emily Kane, and her fans. Thanks for following along with me, and I hope you enjoy these installments as much as I'm enjoying writing them!

As always, I'd love to hear from you, and you can send me emails care of Emily.

Best wishes!

Emily Kane Adventures #8

I've had a slight change of plans. Instead of writing Shinjo's story, as announced earlier, in Girl Pays A Debt, I've decided to focus on a different story. My wife and I spent last summer in France and England, and we sketched out a couple of possible stories at that time, and she has been urging me to write one of those first. So, here goes!

A team of terrorists invades the Louvre, expecting little resistance from a flock of tourists. Little do they realize they've roused a sleeping dragon. She wasn't lying in wait for them, but when they seize someone she cares about to cover their escape, she'll pursue them across France to get her own back again. No one is what they appear to be in Girl Stalks The Ruins.

If all goes well,  I'll have Book 8 finished by the end of the summer, and then will turn to Girl Pays A Debt, which I hope to complete before Christmas. Wish me luck, everyone!

Book 8 Underway!

Work has begun on Book 8 of the Emily Kane Adventures. This one takes up Shinjo's story from Book 3 -- the Yakuza who agrees to help Emily in Seoul -- as well as the story of Haru Okamoto, who may be the last living member of the once powerful Heiji daimyo. The working title for this book is Girl Pays A Debt.

For the Connie Savaransky fans among you, I've also begun sketching a book to follow her adventures, and it looks like the first one will also include Ip Mao Bao, the girl Connie and Danko met in Myanmar in Book 7, Girl Goes To Wudang. If all goes well, both books should be complete by the end of the summer -- take that promise for what it's worth.

I'll keep you updated on the progress, and if you're on my mailing list, I'll probably send out a few sample chapters in a few weeks. And look for a sample cover here soon!

New Paperback Editions Available, and Kindle Unlimited Ebooks

Just a heads-up about Books 5 & 6 -- paperback editions of Girl Takes The Oath and Girl Rides The Wind are now available in time for Christmas. These would make great presents for the Adventure-Espionage-Thriller lover in your life. There's still plenty of time for orders to arrive and fit under the tree.

I'm almost done with Book 7, Girl Goes To Wudang, and though it's taken longer than I expected, it may well turn out to be the best book in the entire series. Emily is posted to the Defense Attaché's office at the US Embassy in Beijing. She is thrust into the middle of several intrigues, and must determine if it's safe to return Li Li to China and her uncle, Jiang Xi, who has requested a reunion, now that he's getting married.

Also, in a change of policy, Amazon has made it possible for me to offer all six Emily Kane Adventures through the Kindle Unlimited program. What this means is that for a small monthly fee, you can borrow all six ebooks effectively for free. The downside of the KU program is that I have to make the ebooks exclusive to Amazon. If this turns out to inconvenience too many of Emily's fans, I will reconsider participation in the program in 6 months.

As always, I welcome any feedback you may care to offer on this program, or any aspect of the series.

The cover for Book #7 is here

I'm working hard on finishing Book #7, and part of that is putting together a cool cover. And my cover artist, Torrie Cooney, has come up with a beauty.

In this one, Li Li Tang plays a bigger role than in the previous books. So Torrie thought we should have her on the cover, too, alongside Emily.

I know I said this about each previous book in the series, but I really feel that this is the best one yet. I've been doing lots of research into Daoism and the Daoist martial arts, especially Bagua Zhang. I've also put a ton of energy into thinking about character names, and have been studying up on Mandarin to get a better sense of the culture and scenery of Beijing, where much of the story is set.

It'll be finished soon, so look out for it on all the major online ebook retailers.

New Cover???

My cover artist and I have been working overtime on a cover for Book #7 of the Emily Kane Adventures. The working title is :

Girl Goes To Wudang

and the cover will sport a tagline roughly to this effect:

With Li Li in tow, Emily seeks something new at the home of Taoist martial arts,

... but surviving the trip may require more of her old skills.

But don't worry. I'm hard at work actually writing the book. This author stuff turns out to be a complex mechanism with a lot of moving parts. Also, sometimes, taking a moment to imagine the cover can help crystallize certain scenes for me.

I'll try to keep you posted on any developments along the way... and once my cover artist and I are satisfied, we may even give you a sneak peek at the finished product!

New Cover for Book #1, Girl Fights Back

Some of you may have already noticed, but for the rest of the world, it's official, Girl Fights Back has a new cover.

In case you're wondering, I was fond of the old cover, since it seemed to express at least one dimension of the passions I think Emily Kane experiences in Book #1. But other elements of the cover didn't seem to me to fit as well. She wears too much make-up, and seems too socially self-assured, and mainly displays anger and resentment.

By contrast, the new cover seems to me to express those passions and others better. In particular, beyond merely exhibiting anger, this image shows her insecurities and her resolve. That's how I tend to think of Emily, a girl who wishes for friends, and worries about her identity, traits she shares with just about every teenager who's ever lived. But she's different, too, full of confidence in one aspect of her life, but also worried about the implications of her vast abilities in the martial arts.

One last thing it shows is the depth of the darkness of her eyes, which the old cover lacked.

Let's Get The Emily Kane Movie Made!!

I was thinking, the other day, about who I would cast as Emily Kane if anyone ever decided to make the movie. My current choice would be Haruka Ayase -- you can see her in Ichi -- a mediocre remake of the blind-swordsman movie, Zatoichi [follow the linked titles to find out more about them]. By the way, even if it's not much of a remake, she's great in it.

Another candidate would have been Jun Ji-hyun, from around the time she made Blood: The Last Vampire. This is a really bad movie -- maybe wonderfully bad, if that makes any sense -- but it showcases why she might fit the part pretty well. She's probably too old for the part now, but check it out and see if you get the general idea.

Then it occurred to me that in order to catch the attention of any big-time Hollywood producers, the books in the series will need to have a lot more reviews. So, I'm making a blanket request -- if you've enjoyed the books in the series so far, and haven't had time to leave a review yet -- it would really help us get attention in the quarters where it matters if you reviewed them now.

Here's my new motto: Let's get Emily on the big-screen; leave a review now!

Here's a few links to Book One, but please feel free to leave one on any book in the series, as you see fit: Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo .

Oh, and if you have your own idea of who you'd like to see play Emily in the movie (or Connie, or Ethan, or Perry...), post your suggestions.

Best wishes to all of you!
... and let's get that movie made!!!

Reflections on Emily Kane

A few people have mentioned to me that the Emily Kane series has become much darker, and even depressing in Book 6 – especially Timothy Richley, who has sent me some insightful emails on this subject. He suggests that the darkness seems to have entered Emily’s heart right around the time she went to Nepal, and ever since she has been overwhelmed by remorse for all the dead bodies she leaves in her wake, and is even preoccupied by fantasies of her own death.

I think Timothy’s right about this, and I’ve also been feeling a need to turn Emily’s thoughts onto sunnier paths. [A side-note: I’m not entirely in control of this. Emily herself often dictates events as much as I do. If this makes no sense to you, try writing a book; then you’ll see.] In Book 7, I plan on accomplishing exactly this, first by turning the focus back to her little “family” and a reunion of Li Li with her uncle Jiang, but also by giving Hsu Qi’s positive influence a chance to have a greater impact on Emily. In particular, I’d like to have her help Emily find some reassurance from her ghosts.

I think Emily’s development follows an inevitable trajectory, if you consider a couple of recurring motifs in the series. I originally imagined Emily as a remorseful heroine, and wanted to trace the impact of her remorse (and not just her fists) on the people she encounters. Of course, she is saddened by the violence she can’t avoid perpetrating, but she also has an impact on the villains who confront her. In one way or another, she becomes the agent of their redemption. Connie is the most obvious of these, but also Li Li’s father, Tang, from Book 1. The West Virginia bikers are another case, and maybe even Colonel Park, from Book 2. Shinjo is a variant of this from Book 3. Kathy Gunderson plays this role in Book 5, and in Book 6, Lt. Yan and Tsukino, and to a lesser extent Gyoshin Heiji, function in this way.

Book 6 is out. Emily Kane in Girl Rides The Wind

Finally, after all these months, Book Six of The Emily Kane Adventures is available at all major online retailers. It took longer than I expected, but if you ask me, this one is the best book in the series so far. I know, I always say that, but I really think you'll agree with me.

Anyway, you can find it right now, on iTunes, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords.

It's also available on several subscription services, like Scribd and Tolino.

Enjoy!

Girl Rides The Wind, CH. 6 Sneak Preview

Chapter Six

Boarding the Bonhomme Richard

The ride over to Haneda Airport in two buses took just over an hour—luck of the draw, since the other company would leave too late to avoid rush hour traffic—and the charter flights to Nagasaki would occupy another two hours. From there, a short helo-ride would deposit them at the naval base at Sasebo. Seating on the plane sorted itself out in predictable ways, by rank and nation, though nothing required it.

“At least on the bus, we didn’t have to endure the gaijin,” Tsukino muttered, glowering across the aisle to where Emily sat with Durant and Oleschenko. The flight attendant offered him a water bottle and a bag of the orb-like, slightly sweetened cookies called hashimitsu.

“Are you still stewing over the drubbing she gave you?” Ishikawa snorted.

Tsukino growled and turned to Kano for moral support, but none was forthcoming. “You know it’s not right, Captain, not after what she did to us.”

Kano waved him off with an angry glance, and stalked down the aisle to look for an empty seat in the back.

“I could have told you he wouldn’t bite on that one,” Ishikawa said. “But you have definitely got to let it go. So you got your ass kicked… so what? It’s not like you didn’t totally deserve it.”

“Will you ever shut up, Dice?”

“I only wish someone had made a video of it.”

“I’m sure someone did,” Tsukino huffed.

Sneak Preview, Ch. 2 of GIRL RIDES THE WIND, Book 6 of The Emily Kane Adventures

Chapter Two

Treasonous Whisperings

A Few Weeks Earlier

The drive up from the gate of the Soga estate took a few minutes, giving Gyoshin Heiji time to reflect on the changing nature of fortune. More than a millennium had passed since her ancestors broke the power of Minoru Soga’s ancestors within the imperial court, and now the old man was willing to form an alliance with her family.

“How ironic,” she said, to no one in particular. “The Taika reforms undid them, and now they are much wealthier than us, who were only cheated of our influence during the Meiji reforms, barely yesterday.”

Of course, by that time scale, yesterday amounted to a century and a half. Exquisite gardens slipped by, tended by squads of men in pale green coveralls. The main house resembled a shrine from one point in the curving approach, but looked more like a castle as the car climbed the final slope. A man wearing gray gloves waited at the door, bowed from the waist, and ushered her into a lavishly furnished drawing room. Exquisitely carved wood panels decorated one wall, and a painted screen only partially concealed a small writing table in a far corner. She smoothed out a wrinkle in her skirt, and wondered if her navy blue suit, the standard-issue business attire of a civil servant—albeit a relatively high-level one—really suited the occasion.

“Welcome, Heiji-san,” the old man called out from across the room, walking stiffly with a cane. His daughter trailed behind, flowing tall and elegant in a rather non-traditional silk kimono, which, without an obi sash to bind it all together, resembled more a dressing gown than formal attire.

“I am honored by your invitation, Soga-san,” Gyoshin said, with a little bow that extorted more confusion from her than she’d anticipated. Should she bow to a vanquished enemy of her family, and if so, how low? She supposed he affected the cane in order to excuse himself from bowing as low as his ancestors would have been obliged to do a thousand years earlier. With a shiver and a shake of the head, she tried to put her grandfather’s preoccupations out of her mind. The Soga clan now held a controlling interest in one of the largest defense contractors, and was among the wealthiest families in Japan, and in her capacity as Industry Liaison for the Deputy Minister of Defense, she worked closely with Minoru’s daughter, who had assumed the position of Vice President at the Takenouchi Corporation.

“Gyoshin-san,” Jin Soga said. “Thank you for coming. We have much to discuss.”

“I will leave you two to talk,” Minoru said. “You must forgive an old man his hobbies.” With that he turned and hobbled off into another room.

Sneak Peak Short Story, a Preview of The New Series

New release by the Amaterasu Press, a first installment of the post-apocalyptic series, Taking Back Earth. It's available now only on Amazon, and free to Amazon Prime members through the Kindle Unlimited program. It's only ~10 pages long, which isn't much to get for $0.99 (which is the lowest price Amazon allows), so I recommend only getting it through the Kindle Unlimited program, since then it's effectively free to you.

In the jungles of a broken planet, Maia is still haunted by the people she's lost. She can't risk allowing Noah to get close to her... not the way things are. 

When the aliens came they destroyed everything and everyone in their path, and to defeat them, mankind had to make itself into something else... something fiercer, more violent... less human. Rebuilding the planet may require more than just hard work. It may depend on rediscovering what it is to be human. This is Maia's task. 

Nick Russell's Big Lake free this week (10/6 - 10/10) on Amazon

My friend, Nick Russell's hard-boiled police-thriller Big Lake is free this week on Amazon.

He's a NY Times Bestselling author, and this is the first book in a 5-book series, all wonderful, gripping stories. I highly recommend them all!


When an armored car hijacking leaves two men dead, Arizona Sheriff Jim Weber takes the crime personally, because one of the dead men is his brother-in-law. His hunt for the killers leads him into a world of sordid sex, deceit, and violence, with a suspect list that includes jilted women, a family of anti-government survivalists, and the beautiful wife of the richest man in town. 

With a plot that has more twists and turns than an Arizona mountain road, a cast of characters you won’t soon forget, and a shocking ending that shakes the town of Big Lake to its very foundation, this first book in the Big Lake series will keep you turning pages to the very end!  

One reviewer has referred to the Big Lake mystery series as “Mayberry Meets Twin Peaks." It’s a combination of humor and intrigue that launched author Nick Russell’s first Big Lake book into Amazon’s 100 Top Paid Kindle books for over 78 days!