I know it’s been a minute since I posted here, but I’m not going to make any excuses. Aside from, you know, this one: I’m lazy. This will come as a shock to both of you, I’m sure.  Continue reading →

One of my goals for Motherless Children has been to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. That sounds like an obvious goal for a commercial product, but it’s a difficult thing for a self-published author. There’s no marketing campaign or big book tour to push the book into everyone’s consciousness and so word of mouth and reviews and all of that are doubly important. Continue reading →

One of the things that I often struggle with when talking to people about my book is putting it into a specific category. Everyone wants a neat little tag that they can use to drop it into a bin in their heads so they know how to think about it. I’ve been telling most people one of two things: it’s a murder mystery or it’s a crime novel. But the more I think about it now, I’m not sure either one of those descriptions is totally accurate. Continue reading →

Writers love to talk about their own books, but it’s rare that you get to hear one discussing the writers who influenced him and the books he loves to read. So it was fascinating to me to listen to this interview with George Pelecanos as he talked about why he does what he does and whose work influenced him.  Continue reading →

My book giveaway on Goodreads just ended yesterday and I was completely stunned by the response it got. There were nearly 700 requests for one of the three signed copies of Motherless Children, which is pretty amazing. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. For the winners, I’ll be sending the books out in the mail soon, so stand by. Continue reading →

I’m a big fan of book clubs. Anything that gets people interested in reading and discussing books with others is a good thing, especially at a time when fewer and fewer people are reading regularly and authors and independent bookstores are struggling. So I have a special offer for all the book club members out there: Read my book and I’ll come to your book club and talk about it.

Now, this offer obviously will have some limitations. But not many. I live in New England and I can get to pretty much anyplace in the area within a few hours. So if there’s a book club of reasonable size in the area that will commit to buying and reading my book, I will commit to coming and talking to you about it. What’s reasonable size? I don’t know. I’m flexible, but let’s just say that if your book club consists of you and your Aunt Tilly, we may have to discuss a different solution.

Also, if you’re in Yellow Knife or Albuquerque or Key West, it might be a little tough. (Actually, I’ll go to Key West anytime.) But I travel a lot, so let me know, and if I’m in your area, we’ll see if we can make it happen.

We may have to work on the timing and dates, but I’m willing to make this work. I’m interested in supporting people who support my book, so get the word out. Tell your friends, co-workers, enemies, friends with benefits and whoever else you know and then go to CreateSpace or Amazon and buy the book.

You can contact me at dennis (at) motherlesschildrenbook.com.

A big box of books is going to be delivered to my house tomorrow. That’s not that unusual, given how much I read. But this box is going to be full of copies of my book. Which is kind of great. Continue reading →

After nearly two years of writing, editing, swearing, rewriting, reswearing and other assorted fun, I’m proud to say that Motherless Children is now available for purchase. You can go to Amazon to buy both the paperback and Kindle editions.  Continue reading →

Before I decided to publish the book myself, I was considering going the traditional route, finding an agent, looking for a publisher and all of that. Aside from not really seeing the value for me in that whole equation, one of the main reasons I didn’t want to do it was that I wanted to have complete control over the book–not just the words and the story and the characters, but the way it’s marketed and the way it looks.  Continue reading →