To Title or Not to Title

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It’s hard to title a book or a movie. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words, but it’s usually those first couple of words that are the hardest. Truth be told, I’m still not 100% happy with The Lead Cloak‘s title. It has just the slightest tinge of fantasy, when it’s really a pretty straight sci-fi adventure. One of the most common things people try with titles is to adapt a famous quote or line from the Bible or Shakespeare. Sometimes this can be devastatingly effective. Other times, pointless or pretentious. After seeing numerous titles adapted from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, Read more…

Top Ten Signs the World of “The Lead Cloak” is Coming True

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What will the future be like? Will we wear our computers on our forearm? Will we bid on next week’s weather? Will we have guinea pig for dinner? Here’s the top ten signs to watch for. I’ll revisit this post in a few decades to see how I did. Take it away, Mr. Letterman! (warning, some mild spoilers of the book below) 10. The United States continues to obsess about safety, especially about head injuries. Football is declared illegal. People must wear soft helmets whenever they not in their homes or a place of worship. 9. Southern Italy and Catholicism Read more…

Last Night’s Launch Party

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Here’s a few photos from last night’s party at Kings Books. Thanks to everyone who came out to join me for the reading and signing! I had a blast. Photo by Marguerite Giguere   Photo by Tasha Church   Photo by Mary Holste   Photo by Post Defiance   Photo by Halley Knigge

How I Wrote It: The Lead Cloak

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The Lead Cloak is now available! Click through for links to find links to your favorite online bookstore. This book was a long time coming. For years I’d been tossing around an idea for a science fiction novel, but I never did anything with it. That was until April 24, 2011, the date I decided to sit down and start writing, just to see if there was something there. How do I know the exact date? Because I charted it. That’s right, I charted my novel. Words on the Y Axis, Time on the X Axis. It’s probably the single nerdiest Read more…

Hanna Rosin, The End of Men, and The Lead Cloak

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Next Tuesday is the book launch for my sci-fi adventure novel The Lead Cloak and we’ll be celebrating at Kings Books at 7:00! Across town, the author Hanna Rosin will be speaking at UWT … at 7:00. Argh! This is really frustrating! Because if I weren’t launching my own book, I would probably be seeing her … especially considering that she inspired a lot of the world of The Lead Cloak! A few months before beginning work on The Lead Cloak, I read Hanna Rosin’s Atlantic article “The End of Men.” It’s an excellent article and well worth your time. (I have Read more…

Announcing "The Lead Cloak!"

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It took me more than two years of writing and editing, but I’m finally ready to announce my next novel. The Lead Cloak  The Lead Cloak is a science fiction adventure set seventy years in the future. It will be available in three weeks, on October 15. Below is the short trailer I created for it, and there is a whole website with information about the book. I am so excited to share this novel. It is an adventure with a lot of action and the highest of stakes. It is a mystery, set in a world without secrets. And Read more…

After all that …

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  Way back in 2011, I was putting the finishing touches on The Marinara Murders and didn’t have a new project to work on. I had an idea for the next Beautyman mystery, but my head was full of a science fiction novel. I’ve never written science fiction, but I couldn’t get it out of my system. So I took a leap and started writing. It ended up going really really well. The book gathered dust during my election campaign that year, and then I picked it up again. Hannah’s arrival the next year actually helped me pick up the pace, Read more…

The Affordable Care Act and My Family

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Insuring the Holste/Hanberg clan is expensive business. Since leaving her full-time job in 2007, Mary has been paying for her health care out-of-pocket (as I have since 2008). Mary’s plan was, until now, the only health plan in Washington that includes maternity (if you’re self-employed and buying insurance on your own) and the monthly premiums were very high. When we added Hannah to the plan last year, they got even higher. I’m on an HSA, which is basically the equivalent of a catastrophic health care plan that includes a couple doctor visits. It’s cheaper, but still not cheap, especially for Read more…