Forlani Saga Newsletter #4

Hello again to friends of the Forlani Saga,  

Fun at the Book Fair at Cityspace in downtown Charlottesville.

We'd like to thank all of you who came out to get your copies of Life Sentence and Spy Station at the Charlottesville Book Fair yesterday, and a special welcome to our new members: Martin, Jean, Ben, Bob, Dave, Crystal, Emily and Becky.  It was a fine event, expertly organized by Carolyn O'Neal of the Blue Ridge Chapter of Virginia Writers Club.  We were especially happy to say hello again to some readers who had already enjoyed Life Sentence and who shared their admiration with us.  

Short Story Published

Recently our short story "Whipping Boy" was published in the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity 2017 Anthology.  It deals with a time in the relatively near future (22nd century), when our loaded prisons begin to accept substitutes, first typical humans and then later clones, for criminals rich enough to pay the System to avoid serving out their sentences in person.  When one clone begins to realize he is different from some of the other prisoners and to ask thorny questions, fellow inmates begin to reveal the bitter truth.  Will they tolerate this naive, but curious newcomer or subject him to prison discipline?  Will he ever live to get his own tattoos?  The anthology is a limited printing, but we plan to republish this story with others in a collection.

Spy Station Gets 5 Stars

The first reviews are in on Spy Station, released weeks ago, and they are top rate -- five stars on Amazon.  We hope the rest of you who have ordered the book will add your voices as soon as you can.  Just go to our page and scroll down to the Add A Review button.  https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Station-Forlani-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B075R3V1RH 

Life Sentence and Spy Station are a great gift bargain

On Amazon Kindle, you can get either novel for $2.99 or both for $5.98.  The printed books are $18.50 and $12.00 respectively.  Treat yourself to a great reading experience, too.  This is the time of year in Iceland, the world's top country for literacy and rates of reading, when people stock up on books for their long winter nights and we should imitate that example.

Next Events

We have been invited to speak at several conferences.  These include the Agile Writers Conference in Richmond in January, Mysticon at Roanoke in February, and Ravencon in Williamsburg in April.  We plan on adding some local signings in the Fredericksburg area as well.  More to come on these and on the progress of the third series novel, Earth Regained.  For now, we wish you Happy Holidays and continued fine reading.  Jim and John Gaines