I started this series a few years ago with an agent, trying to go the traditional route. But first there was the Great Recession and then I was diagnosed with terminal cancer (fortunately, that turned out to be wrong) and ended up having some of the muscle in my left leg by the knee removed. On top of that the book just wasn’t getting picked up by a publisher. Then, a group of friends encouraged me to go the indie route and publish the series myself – their names are listed in the front of this book – and I decided it was a good time to change my entire life. It felt like I was getting a second chance right across the board. I got a better job, lost over eighty pounds, started running and swimming, and decided to publish the series myself. Well, with all of my friends and family.
The story you just read is the first of many in the series. Self-publishing has turned out to be one of the better decisions in a short series of them that I made after the cancer diagnosis. I’ve met so many great people, like Michael Anderle who writes The Kurtherian Gambit series and shares what he’s learned as an indie author with an open heart – always there to answer my questions, or Dave Robbins who has helped me to change the covers – twice. Same goes for Michael Bingham-Hawk who’s helped me to redo the website – twice.
It took a great group of indie authors to help me go over the details of the cover, the titles, the descriptions of the book so that my voice became stronger across all of the platforms. It seems I’ve been walking the same path as the main character, Wallis Jones who’s had to learn what real strength is and that eventually life makes you focus, stand up and do something about it. Of course, her story is mixed in with intrigue, some badass car chases and a few bodies dropping, and a plot that will keep twisting and turning. Fortunately, my life is not that interesting even if I did jump out of a plane to celebrate getting a clean bill of health and then ran a 5k. After everything that had happened it was a great way to celebrate with friends and family. I didn’t finish the race anywhere near the front of the pack but I wasn’t last! Just being there and running was a great victory!
You can pre-order The Traitor’s Revenge, Book Two in the Wallis Jones series starting December 1st, 2016 on Amazon. On sale and available in Kindle Unlimited starting December 8th.
If you enjoyed The List Conspiracy, please consider leaving a good review at Amazon or Goodreads. Your kind words and encouragement help any author.
If you want to help with the end of this series or with future series, please consider becoming part of the Advance Team. Join the Facebook Group and let me know you’re interested.
There’s more – you can sign up for the Wallis Jones newsletter and keep up to date with upcoming books in the series, be the first to hear about publishing dates, giveaways, news items on real conspiracies we live with all the time (and how to avoid them) and other exciting news! You can also hang out with me on Facebook and see what the main characters are pinning at Pinterest plus a few tools of the spy trade. Join in and help to decide on new shoes, a better gun or a high-tech spy tool you just have to share with the rest of us.
I am the author of four books and my newest work, The List Conspiracy is the first in the Wallis Jones series, a six-book series.
I’ve written a weekly, nationally-syndicated column on world affairs and life that has run on such political hotspots as The Moderate Voice.com and Politicus.com. My work has run regularly in such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and Newsweek.