I managed to turn in a fairly substantial rewrite of The Invisible Enemy, my next spy novel, in the hope of keeping it on track for publication in the spring of 2027. As much as I’d like to nap for a solid week, I’m turning my attention to a spec TV script. Wish me luck!
In other writing world news… A bunch of publishers and Scott Turow are suing META and Mark Zuckerberg specifically for using pirated books in training META’s genAI, Llama. This lawsuit joins a panoply of others against AI companies including OpenAI, Google, etc and it probably rankles Zuck more than expected because Llama is pretty much a failure… Folks have been asking when authors can expect to see their share of the settlement with Anthropic ($3K per title) and the short answer is probably “not in your lifetime” as the courts decide how much of that award should go to the book’s publisher (half is the current thinking).
Not your average chat with Special Forces guy/author Jack Murphy at The Team House podcast. He gets me to talk about my intel career in a bit of detail, something that tends to make former spooks nervous.
May 16 I’m at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, Bohrer Park, 506 S. Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg MD. My panel is at 10:15 with Christina Henry, moderated by Mariko Hewer. I’ll be discussing FIEND and Christina will talk about her latest novel, THE PLACE WHERE THEY BURIED YOUR HEART at the Gertrude Stein pavillon.
TV recommendations: Finally! AMC’s anthology series, The Terror, produced by Ridley Scott, returned for its third season on May 7 with the Devil in Silver, based on the novel by Victor LaValle. I’m tempted to do a tweet-along (only on Bluesky instead of X). What do you think? Would you be in if I did?
And the reason I’m so excited is because… there’s a chance that one of my books might be used for season 4. But I don’t want to get the cart before the horse! Season 3 comes first! Enjoy it. Tell your friends. Tweet about it. Let’s go people: it’s arguably the strongest horror series on television.
Hubs and I started watching Margo’s Got Money Problems on Apple+. (I have not read the book.) I had a slightly hard time getting into the first episode because I kept wondering if this really was Michelle Pfeiffer, how much plastic surgery has she had, and that she looked too old to play the mother. I know, how ageist of me—and I’m that age! But once Nick Offerman shows up all those doubts go out the window because he is, as usual, phenomenal.
Book recs: I started Yesteryear along with everyone else in America but had to put it on hold because of short-fuse blurb requests. So far I’m digging it but I’m under 100 pages in.
I haven’t read it yet but want to put Alan Opts Out by Courtney Maum on your radar. Courtney is a friend with a sharp eye for societal foibles. The book comes out June 2.
“Alan Anderson is a powerful advertising executive who has built a successful life and thriving business by making people buy stuff they don’t actually need. He’s up for the biggest pitch of his career and the account everyone wants, US Dairy: cow’s milk sales are plummeting, and the C-Suite wants to see trendy oat milk kicked to the curb. But when an anarchist farmer tanks Alan’s presentation, Alan bombs the pitch but ends the day with an epiphany. No longer will he exploit the insecurities of others in the service of capitalism. Alan is opting out. Funny, sexy, intelligent, and poignant, Alan Opts Out is the most ambitious novel to date by celebrated author Courtney Maum, acclaimed for her stories that tackle big, chewy subjects of our post-modern America with wit and heart.”
One of Courtney’s inspirations for the novel is the upper-class phenomena of building playhouses as exact replicas of a family’s main house, and she’s written this fascinating piece about it on her Substack.
A word from our sponsor
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The Hunger ebook is on sale for $2.99 a few days longer.
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