G’day, eh. Welcome to my blog. I’m the author of the Corps of Discovery series (not the ghost author), so if you enjoy speculative fiction, you’ve come to the right place. Never having blogged, this should be interesting. I don’t post much, or often, but I’ll occasionally throw something out there, so stay tuned.
Cute photo below. I think it reflects the second book, Trekker.
Here’s the cover art for Rescue.
And, yes, that is a fire-breathing pterodactyl.
Not sure if I give my cover artist enough credit, but I’ve found Keith of Keith Draws to be a great guy to work with. He’s very attentive to my wants and needs when it comes to pulling together all the bits and pieces that go into making a really good (IMNSHO) cover.
If you’re an author and need a cover artist, I can’t recommend Keith enough. His website is https://keithdraws.com/.
Rescue is the first book I’ll be trying out Amazon’s hardback printing on. If you want a signed copy, let me know (of course, going through me will increase the price as we have to figure in shipping twice – once to me then once to you).
Okay, Peeps. The Kindle version of Rescue will be available soon. The release date is 26 June 2026 (today is the 18th – so it’s next Friday).
As to the paperback version, there were a couple of minor issues on the back-of-the-book cover art which should be resolved shortly. Once I get that back, I’ll put it up for pre-order, too.
Funny thing. While going through the quality review that KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) has publishers/authors do, it found a “misspelled” word. Turns out that the word “yeet” is not recognized by KDP. I just yeeted that spelling error off the page.
Rescue is designed for the Young Adult (YA) audience, much like Heinlein’s juvenile stories were (Starship Troopers, Tunnel in the Sky, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Citizen of the Galaxy, etc.). But, like Heinlein’s juvenile novels, I think this will appeal to adults of all ages.
Let me know what you think of it when you read it.
This morning I received an email from beta reader Dan McRae. He provided some really quality feedback for Rescue and caught stuff that made it through my editing software, my wife’s review, and my second pass-through. Thank you, Dan!
So, what does that mean for you? It means the book is almost ready to publish. I’m waiting on my cover artist to get through the draft copy and complete the cover art. Keith, my cover artist, does an amazing job, IMNSHO (In My Not So Humble Opinion). Looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.
Here’s the back of the book blurb (and what you’ll see on Amazon):
When your mother’s survey plane crashes on a parallel Earth full of dangerous Pleistocene predators and dinosaurs, and nobody’s willing to rescue her, what do you do?
For 15-year-old Brad Maeda, that was an easy choice: disregard the “official policy”, get in his flitter, and fly across the entirety of North America and rescue her himself.
Brad thought he was prepared for anything the planet could throw at him, but some of the wildlife showed him otherwise. It now became a matter of HIS survival, not just a simple rescue mission.
I know, you probably just starting singing the Fontalla Bass song from the movie Air America when you read that title. I know I did when I wrote it 🙂
Anyhow, just a heads up that Rescue has been through its first, second, and third iteration. It’s now in the hands of a beta reader. I hope to hear back from him soon, so I can wrap it up.
Rescue is shorter than my previous novels, clocking in at only 50,000 words. To give you an idea of normal book length, Surveyor was at 102,000 words. Most SciFi is over 100,000 words. But this is different. First, it’s really a Young Adult (YA) novel told from the perspective of a 15 year old, whose mom goes missing on a Primary Survey.
You’ve met the guy before, in Trekker. And Meri shows up as a 13-year-old (who gets in trouble).
I think you’ll enjoy.
Also, it’s the first novel in which I’ve been able to claim the Pink Flamingo Universe logo for a book. For those not in the know, to get a PFU logo, you have to write a scene (or several) in which pink flamingos are apex predators. You should see what my pink flamingos do to velociraptors!
I know, I know. When will it be available? First, I need to get the cover art done (and approved by me). Fortunately, my cover artist is really good, but unfortunately, he’s so good he’s busy. That means it’ll be over a week before he can get to me. We work well together, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks before the art is approved. Then I need to format the bloody thing and upload it to Amazon and IngramSpark (for bookstores).
As with all my other work, Rescue will be released in both paperback and e-book (Kindle). Those wanting a signed copy can purchase one here (I think – I’ll have to figure out the logistics). I haven’t decided as to how to release the audiobook – let Amazon do its AI magic or record it myself. TBD.
Okay peeps, I finally have some breathing room, so back to the keyboard with me! I’m sure many of you are wondering, “when will Reset come out?” Sadly, not soon. Need to get two screenplays out first, then back to Reset.
One of the screenplays is based on Uncivil Actions, the other is more personal (which I’ll discuss more when I finally finish it – anyone know a good producer/director – ideally Emilio Estevez or Reece Witherspoon?).
A little preview of Uncivil Actions: “A man’s right rest in three boxes; the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” Frederick Douglass, former slave, freedman, and statesman.
The book is done. I’ve just got to approve the proofs for Ingram Spark, and then bookstores can begin ordering.
If you’d like a paperback copy, I recommend asking your local bookstore to order one for you. I always recommend buying local. Our local bookstore, The Dusty Shelf, carries all of my books, so I give them my business (buying books, coffee, wine, and sometimes their big chocolate chip cookies). If you don’t have a local bookstore, then you can still get a paperback by ordering from Amazon (but you can’t pre-order it, apparently).
If you prefer a digital version, they’re available for pre-order at Amazon, Google Books, and Kobo.
I’ve finally finished writing Uncivil Actions, a political thriller that mixes JA Jance with John Grisham. Not gonna reveal the entire plot line, but you can pre-order it on Amazon. Simply put, guy with cancer gets fed up with politicians infringing on his rights.
The launch date will be 9/14/24. One thing to remember – this is fiction (not a blueprint and not my desires). It’s way different than any of my SciFi, but I believe, if you like thrillers, you’ll enjoy it.
On launch day, we’ll be having a launch party at the Dusty Shelf in Enumclaw (1-4 PM). If you live in the Puget Sound area, it might be fun to come on by and buy an autographed copy (and meet me -as the blog says, I’m an all around good guy!).
While working on Reset (the second in the Hayek Chronicles series), I went out and watched the movie Civil War (the one with Kirsten Dunst and Nick Offerman). If you haven’t seen it, it’s quite disturbing.
When I was driving home after the movie, I got to thinking about “what would lead to a civil war in the US.” I’m disregarding the whole election thing, despite the events of January 6th. My conclusion – all hell would break loose if the Democrats pushed some draconian gun control laws (think confiscation).
This led to me starting another novel. Yeah, I know. I should finish the three already in progress. But, this idea really grabbed me, so I’ve decided to run with it and step out of my SciFi genre and into the Political Thriller genre.
I’m already 40+K words into it, and hope to wrap up between 70 and 85K (that works out to between 230 and 250 pages. Just for the record, I haven’t progressed much past 25K words on Reset (Surveyor was 102K words for reference). This is the fastest writing I’ve ever done, starting the project on May 21st and hoping to wrap up by September. I even took several weeks off to visit Alaska during this time, so pretty high speed/low drag writing for me, especially since I have a business to run with multiple cases to investigate.
General plot line – guy gets upset at politicians and takes matters into his own hands. Trial ensues. SHTF.
If you’re interested in getting and Advanced Reader Copy, let me know. The only requirement is that you post an honest review on Goodreads and/or Amazon and posting it on your blog and/or YouTube channel (and if you happen to be friends with a famous YouTuber, radio talk-show host, or TV host, let them know about it).
For those that like my SciFi stuff, not sure this will be for you. It’s certainly not what I’ve ever envisioned writing, but there it is. Other authors (and readers) I’ve spoken to (explaining more of the plot) think it’s an awesome idea. We’ll see.
Why, yes. I do write short stories. Just not many or very often. But, if you’d like to read one that’s not my usual Corp of Discovery stuff, then check out this Kickstarter program Edward Willett is running – it’s for an anthology written for SciFi readers by SciFi authors (including yours truly).
The Kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/edwardwillett/shapers-of-worlds-volume-v.
A little bit about Edward Willett and his anthologies can be seen here on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKvuLT2SVg. Some truly great authors (and to think, Edward invited little ole me to contribute!).
Today I took the plunge and put all my books into audio format using Amazon’s Beta voice AI. We’ll see how it goes. If you listen to it and find something that just ain’t right, let me know so I can fix it (regardless of how many times you proofread something, have an editor proof and edit, and have beta readers read and proof, typos and wrong words still manage to make their way into the story).
James S. Peet, Author, novelist, and all around good guy! 