shadow of doubt

My second book is out!

Now, before you do anything crazy, ask yourself if you can really afford to spend another US 99 cents today.  You could probably buy a cheeseburger with that dollar.  Or a lottery ticket.  Maybe give it to a homeless person.  A piece of citrus fruit to ward off scurvy. Once you start looking, you can find a whole lot of cheap, nasty, useless, poorly-made and slightly dangerous shit out there for a dollar.

My advice, buy that instead, or have a look at all the other wonderful e-books you can download for a dollar from writers just like me (okay, maybe not quite as talented or good-looking, but, you know) and buy theirs instead.  I don’t need the money, seriously, I am just doing this because I have to: write or STFU sort of thing.  “So why not give your book away for free?” I hear someone cry.  Because the monkey with the typewriter doesn’t want to.  He wants his banana.  The monkey with the typewriter is an asshole.

I struggled with the title, but in the end it seemed apt.  The second installment of ‘The Border Series’ is all about the protagonist’s doubt.  Liminal states of human emotion are the most vulnerable, whereas end states we prepare for.  Horror we can kill with fire.  Terror can be exorcised.  But how do you deal with  the creepiness you feel when you are confronted by someone wearing a mask, for example?  Don’t you want to rip it off their face?  What if the thing underneath is even worse?

We hate ambiguity, the not knowing, the worming insecurity of doubt.  What chills us more than failing the impossible task of quantifying all things, is failing to chart the black, oceanic depths of your own self.  Only in extremis do we ever really learn about ourselves, and most sensible people avoid extremes.  That’s why writers do such awful things to their characters — the willing suspension of disbelief allows the (ahem, paying) reader a vicarious experience he or she might never willingly endure.  You sure as hell don’t want to experience what Detective Sergeant John Mora goes through.  But don’t take my word for it, go find out for yourself!

ka-ching!