'Tis Still the Season
My Christmas Carol Critique Collection (including spoofs which critique Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Season's Critiquings), Frosty the Snowman (Merry Mark-Up), Let It Snow (Holiday Workshopping), and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (Santa Clauses and Phrases)), makes for a great electronic holiday card. A number of my books are also featured in a special local authors' catalog put out by The Republic of Letters. And, as always, I'd appreciate if you do any and all of your holiday Amazon shopping by accessing the site through my affiliate link.

Morse Code Mysteries and Missives

Audiobook is Now Live

Gotta admit, I was a little nervous about attempting to upload the audiobook version of Morse Code Mysteries and Missives on ACX/Audible/Amazon/iBooks. Sure, it has Bruce Pilikenton's well-researched and delightful narration of the clear text of each of the tales (a historical fiction story, a relevant piece of non-fiction, and a steampunk romance), but it also has more than twelve hours of audio dots and dashes and I didn't know if that would give the quality control personnel problems. I got a quick turnaround on the initial submission, but one comment: too much background noise on the track with the title/author/narrator. Since I knew that all of Bruce's files were technically clean, it had to be that those checking the track--the only one which actually has Morse Code dots and dashes in addition to voice--were regarding the dots and dashes as background noise.

Ack! What would they think of hours and hours of dots and dashes? Still, that was the only track they had a comment on. On the other hand, that was the first track. Maybe they stopped there. I quickly resubmitted, replacing the title track with a track of just the voiceover, with no dots and dashes behind it, and held my breath ... for more than a week. Then, poof, the audiobook was live. You can get it on Amazon here and on Audible (with a sign-up deal if you are not already an Audible member) here. Print and ebook are also available. Makes a great gift for military personnel, verterans, merchant mariners, cw and ham radio operators, Boy Scouts, puzzle and code solvers, and anyone interested in the most unique book out there this season. Thoughtful reviews always welcome.

The Test of Thirteen

(A Belated Halloween Tale)

"Bloodroot, nightshade, pond scum, a live tadpole, and fresh guano. Put into a large kettle with two quarts of fetid rainwater and heat while intoning the words: 'Filtum, rexquiet, patter, mordon, crexiphene, noxnos, carn.' Sarah Fellows curtsied to the coven and folded her hands. "Attack of Mucus."

"Correct. Next."

Heather Crenshaw stood and walked to the front of the group as Sarah returned to her place with the other girls--all between the ages of ten and fourteen.

The head witch spoke, enunciating carefully as she spoke: "Rash of the Fire Beetle."

Heather's eyes grew wide, then she chewed on her lip for a moment.

"Come, come," said the head witch. "We haven't got all night."

"Uh ... uh ... Three-leaved creeping vine. Bark of dead oak. Salamander tail. Blood of a pregnant skunk." The head witch snorted, but Heather continued, though her voice quavered. "Apply to area to be irritated and whisper the words "Canem, senti, firefox, mixtotten.'"

"Irritated I may be," intoned the witch judging the spelling bee, but you are the one scratched, I fear." She waved a hand in dismissal. "Perhaps next Blood Moon."

Gwynneth scowled at the old hag. The bitch-witch always delighted when the up-and-coming witches failed at their assigned spelling tests and she had always been especially cruel when Gwynneth failed year after year after year. This was her last chance. She was only a fortnight shy of fifteen years of age. She must pass this dark even or be banished forever to the ranks of the mundanes, the handmaidens to the real power in these tangled woods.

The bitch-witch coughed, hacking unnecessarily loud and long. She held out one skinny, veined arm and beckoned at Gwynneth with a curled, bony finger. "Come, now. Your turn, Gwynneth. Your turn to fail for the last time."

Gwynneth gave her a slit-eyed look and made her way to the front of the pack of apprentice witches. She grit her teeth together as she watched her tormentor leaf through the tattered Book of Spells, until finally she reached an appendix at the very back of the book. An appendix!

"Hand of Foaming Ipecac ..." intoned the bitch-witch, "... Level Nine."

Gwynneth couldn't help her upper lip from curving into a sneer. Foaming Ipecac? Level Nine? Since when were they testing apprentices on the Appendices, especially at lethal levels? She knew nothing about this spell. Nothing at all, except that it shouldn't be asked at a spelling bee. It probably should only be whispered about in dark places at the stroke of midnight. The bitch-witch was sabotaging her chances of ever joining the coven.

"I'm waiting, dearie," sneered her judge and executioner. "We're all waiting to hear if you have any abilities at all."

"No components," barked out Gwynneth. The coven burst out laughing, but she did not stop talking. Instead, she started making intricate hand gestures as she continued. "Sempyr, dyson, orphyte, tang. Mensom, clanton, riddicius, flang. Noxtyr, hopswitch, fennir, klang ..."

The laughing stopped abruptly with a sudden intake of breath as the coven realized what Gwynneth was attempting. No, what Gwynneth was doing.

"...Mortus, portal, jabrite, mang." Her hands were now gesticulating intricate patterns at a speed even she could not fathom. "Crowbeat, foulmeet, sepsus, bang."

A bolt of lightning sprang forth from the clear night sky surrounding the full moon, hitting the bitch-witch, then forking out through her to the other dozen souls sitting on the dewy ground, watching the spelling bee. They jerked and spasmed in syncopated death rhythms as fire spilled from their mouths and engulfed their faces, then their robes, and thirteen pillars of fire lit up the night.

Some of the dozen girls behind Gwynneth screamed, but the majority chuckled. Their teachers ... no, their tormentors ... were charred and broken. Gone from this plane of existence or any other.

The coven was dead.

Long live the coven.

Transformational Tie-Ins

I'm a member of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. These are the people who write tie-in books and stories for movies, televisions shows, video games, and other intellectual property. (No, Jessica Fletcher is not writing all those Murder, She Wrote books.) It's a cool gig, if you can get it. Oddly enough, most tie-in writers are not superfans of the movie or show who have wrangled their way into writing a book or story about their obsession--most are just professional writers who can research efficiently and write quickly and to specifications. Some of my tie-in fiction arose from my connections writing for Dungeons & Dragons--that resulted in a story and a novella for Dragonlance 5th Age. (I ended up turning down a Dragonlance book opportunity, but that's another story.)

While I had familiarity with Dragonlance, my other tie-in fiction was more typical. An editor I had worked with was looking for some BattleTech stories. "I know nothing about BattleTech," I replied. Before the editor could respond, my friend, Randal Lemon, interjected with "You know, it doesn't have to be about the intricacies and politics of the main plot line--it could be about a janitor at one of the facilities." I was skeptical, but promised to think about the project. I did some research, picked a setting that didn't require me to know everything about the broader reaches of the wars involved, and wrote Still Serviceable, which appeared in MechForce Quarterly almost a quarter century ago.

Several years later, I got a message from that same editor, who contacted me and said that he'd given my name to a fellow editor because he knew I could write battle scenes and I could write quickly. A few days later I got an email congratulating me and asking me to write a story for Transformers Legends, and assuring me I could set the story in any one of the several Transformers universes. That was exciting, I guess, but truth was that I didn't know there were multiple Transformers universes. I never played with the toys--I was practicing law by the time they came out. Clearly, I needed to do some research. (For context, this was before the live action Transformers movies. By the way, The Toys That Built America recently did an episode about how Transformers and GoBots came to market.)

I head out to the local chain bookstore and start browsing the kids section aimlessly. (It's surprising how quickly you get customer service attention if you are wandering aimlessly in the kid's section without a kid.) I told the clerk I was looking for Transformers books. He took me to the Science Fiction section, where I picked up a Transformers novel, but then took me to the specialty book section where, oddly enough, there was a coffee table book on the Transformers, picturing and detailing all of the Transformers characters and explaining the various settings where they existed. I dropped a large percentage of my potential payday for the story on these items, then stopped by the local Blockbuster to get the animated movie (in which Orson Welles plays the planet Cybertron, proving that no payday was too tacky for Orson "We will sell no wine before it's time" Welles).

Of course, like most anthologies I was asked to write stories for back in those days, I was coming in at the last minute and had no idea what other authors for the anthology had already written. My standard approach to avoid stepping on the toes of some other story was to try to take an approach that I was reasonably confident no other author would have already taken. In this case, that meant creating an original Transformer as the main character and making that character a pacifist, who refused to transform because his fellow Cybertonians only transformed to battle and he was against violence. Trust me, I was pretty sure nobody else was doing that story. Wrote and submitted the story and got an email back from the editor that he liked it, but, of course, Hasbro had the final say on all stories.

Great. A toy company which puts out transforming robots that battle each other was going to read my story about a non-transforming conscientious objector. Worrisome. But, Hasbro didn't object and the story came out and even seemed to be liked by the ardent fanboys who were the core audience for Transformers.

The moral of this story (not my Transformers story) is that the people who tell you to write what you know are limiting you as a writer. I write about spies and detectives and werewolves and soldiers and serial killers and kender and even chickens. If I wrote what I know, I wouldn't write any of that. But I do write what I can research and what I can imagine and that works for me.

Contest #1

As a thank you for scrolling this far, be one of the first few to email me at orphyte@aol.com with the subject "Net Impact" and I'll reply to that email with a free Audible code to download the audiobook version. (If you use the UK store for Audible, please ask for a UK code.) Reviews encouraged, but not required.

Sera Gamble

The average television watcher doesn't pay much attention to who the showrunner is for the series they watch, but when you find a good one, it's worth seeing what else they've done. A showrunner is generally the leading producer of a show and has overall creative control of the series. While they are not always the creator of the show concept, they are in creative control of the series, outranking the episode directors. They are generally the lead writer and are credited as an executive producer.

I first ran into Sera Gamble on Project Greenlight, where she was a finalist in 2003. She was then a writer for the series Eyes, then became a writer for Supernatural. When Eric Kripke left as the showrunner for Supernatural after the end of the fifth season (of a show conceived as a five season show), Sera was brought in for the thankless task of being the showrunner for seasons six and seven. Though the arc of those seasons was sometimes rocky, Sera managed to extricate the show from a tricky issue involving Ruby and set the show up for a decade of further success. She then became the showrunner for The Magicians, turning what was a good concept (especially post-Harry Potter), but not a very good book, into an entertaining and workable series. She eventually became the showrunner for You, based on the best-selling book by Caroline Kepnes.

So, why am I giving you all of this information about Sera Gamble, aside from being a fan-boy? Well, after watching four seasons of You, I finally read the book on which the first season is based. It's a good book. Well-written and compelling. But, what I learned is that Sera made it a much better television series than book, partly by making all of the characters more likeable. That may seem easy, but, without giving too much away, this is a book about a stalker and the entitled brat he is obsessed with. Neither are remotely likeable in the book. On the other hand, both are much more likeable in the series. Sure, part of this is the stellar casting, and there's an added "save-the-cat" subplot in the first season, but I hold up You as an awesome example of treading the difficult path of making a homicidal stalker likeable enough through an entire season that you are compelled to continue on, without ever really hating him, throughout. That's tough to do and the sign of a great writer and showrunner.

So hats off to Sera Gamble. Check out You on Netflix. It's worth a look, at the very least through the first season.

Charmed and Dangerous, by Karen McSpade

Welcome to Crystal Beach, an enchanting town with a dangerous secret.

Peril and uncertainty loom heavy over Crystal Beach as a cataclysmic event threatens to wipe out Mystic Dunes and its residents. Only one witch possesses the power to halt this impending disaster - psychic Sidney Grace. But is she ready to face such a powerful and deadly force?

As time ticks away, Sidney faces a daunting task—convincing the Crystal Beach police that magic and ghosts are real—and that’s not something they teach at Quipley’s School of Magic. Fortunately, Mojo, her magical feline, lends a paw in this battle to save their town.

Can Sidney harness her magical abilities and unravel the mysteries—a strange death, the enigmatic beach creature, and the ghost's chilling prophecy—before it's too late to avert disaster?

Join Sidney on her most perilous mission yet in Charmed and Dangerous. Don't miss this electrifying installment in the Crystal Beach series.

Grab your copy today and immerse yourself in this spellbinding mystery adventure!

Contest #2

As a thank you for scrolling this far, be one of the first few to email me at orphyte@aol.com with the subject "Wet Work" and I'll reply to that email with a free Audible code to download the audiobook version. (If you use the UK store for Audible, please ask for a UK code.) Reviews encouraged, but not required. Yes, you can do this even if you already entered Contest #1, above.

GIVE AN ENTIRE BOOK SERIES

Tired of giving (or getting) a book that's great, but then having to wait and wait and wait for the next book in the series? Now you can get (or give) the entire Dick Thornby Thriller series as a single ebook (by purchase or as a Kindle Unlimited download). All the action, adventure, and conspiracy theories that you crave, mixed with spycraft and family drama.

Spies in most books and movies fall into one of two categories. There's the James Bond type--handsome men with sultry accents, multiple tuxedoes, luxury cars, fancy gadgets, and plenty of promiscuous female companionship. Or there's the Jason Bourne type--serious loners who have no life other than fighting, driving, and killing.

Dick Thornby is not Hollywood's idea of a spy. He's a new kind of spy for a new kind of world.

Dick's just a regular guy with some skills for a job that needs doing. He also has a wife, a teenage kid, a mortgage, and all the mundane problems associated with life. His friends from the New Jersey subdivision where he lives all think he is a wastewater treatment consultant. But instead of dealing with the dirty job of processing sewage in third world countries, he is really on missions, some mundane and dirty, others of vital importance and even dirtier.

Three books, three stand-alone missions.

Read the reviews!

Net Impact

Says Spy Guys and Gals: "What a terrific ride ... action, great characters, interesting twists, and enough suspense to make you both hold your breath and turn the page"

Says Game Knight Reviews: "This is a spy novel that intersects with the world of MMORPGs and combines a set of topics I haven’t seen before. It is a bit of The DaVinci Code with some James Bond and a modern virtual reality spin."

Wet Work

Says Real Reviews: "Wet Work is an entertaining and crisp countermeasures tale pitting a no-nonsense international covert agent, Dick Thornby, and his rookie partner, against a sophisticated global anarchist with a track record of dealing out death and chaos on a grand scale. In a race against time, Thornby uses his military training, law enforcement, and encyclopedic knowledge of almost everything to spar with an equally-accoutered opponent about to trigger his next earth-shattering attack. Wet Work is a fast-paced, logic-laced, thrill ride - a well-written, fun-to-read, secret agent fling!"

Flash Drive

Says Raymond Benson, author of The Black Stiletto Serial, as well as numerous official James Bond novels:“FLASH DRIVE builds on the universe that Mr. Bingle began with NET IMPACT and continued with WET WORK. This time, everyman spy Dick Thornby and his family are on a mission to… wait, huh? What secret agent in his right mind brings his family along on a dangerous espionage assignment? Find out inside this grand entertainment that sports an intriguing plot, well-written and thrilling action scenes, and a few laughs, too!”

Donald J. Bingle is the author of seven books and more than sixty shorter works in the horror, thriller, science fiction, mystery, fantasy, steampunk, romance, comedy, and memoir genres. His books include Forced Conversion (near future military scifi), GREENSWORD (darkly comedic eco-thriller), Frame Shop (murder in a suburban writers' group), and the Dick Thornby spy thriller series (Net Impact, Wet Work, and Flash Drive). He also co-authored (with Jean Rabe) The Love-Haight Case Files series (a three-time Silver Falchion winning paranormal urban fantasy about two lawyers who represent the legal rights of supernatural creatures in a magic-filled San Francisco; Book 2 just came out). Don also edited Familiar Spirits (an anthology of ghost stories). He also put out the oddest book you've ever seen. Morse Code Mysteries and Missives has three tales (two stories by Don and a relevant piece of non-fiction) presented in Morse Code text, then via links in audio dots and dasher, then in plain English.

Many of Don's shorter works can be found in his Writer on Demand TM collections.

Get the audiobook version of Net Impact at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes and the audiobook version of Wet Work at Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes.

Full disclosure: Various links in my newsletter or on my website may include Amazon Affiliate coding, which gets me a small referral fee (at no cost to you) if you purchase after clicking through.