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Very soon I will be another year closer to 40. 40 for whatever reason seems old to me. I know that it isn't, but...where did the time go?

I always saw myself as one of those 'young' authors. Never quite got my shit together for that though. As time went on I dismissed those authors as somewhat of a gimmick. But who am I to judge really, I don't have anything in print and I'm pushing forty.

At the start of the summer The Wife and I read Stiletto, Dan O'Malley's second book in The Checquy Files series. I highly recommend it. Where the Rook was told from the perspective on a single character, this new novel branches out over several vastly different points of view. Because the Rook did such a good job at setting the stage, Stiletto puts the reader right into the moment, into the actions and lives of both familiar characters, while introducing new ones. The beats are much faster.

You can read Stiletto without having first read The Rook, but do yourself a favor and read The Rook first. Buy both books. They are a collection worth having.

Around the time of Stiletto's release, I had the wonderful librarians I work with order a copy of both Rook and Stiletto. Those two books have not sat on the shelf for longer than a day since they were put out. They've been checked out dozens of times by both local patrons, inter-library loan, and staff members. These are books you need to read. Get them from your library, buy them, own them. Dan O'Malley has tapped into something original, funny, full of tension and suspense--something that'll keep you guessing until the end.

Through the world of written text across the digital screen I raise my glass to you now, Dan, and say, well done!

On a personal side note: I didn't expect the direction you'd taken with Stiletto. I honestly thought the story was going to be about vampires for some reason :-p

I set up a Donations button on the About page of the website. I was on the fence about this for a while. I'm still not sure about it. It's there. I'm not going to start promoting it aside from telling you about it now. If you feel compelled to give because you want to support a yet to be discovered writer, by all means do so. Currently there aren't any incentives to giving apart from my sincerest thanks and gratitude.

I just wanted to put that out there. Financially we're paying the bills. I don't have any sob-story about having to sell all that we own in order to feed the baby. Any extra received would act as a motivation tool. Finding the time to write has been difficult after working all day--often at two different jobs. Taking care of a newborn has also changed when I can write. I was never  good at budgeting my time, and what little free time I have, honestly, when given the choice to zone out and play video games, or write, video games usually wins out. Anyway, I didn't want to turn this into a whoa is me post. I'm just being honest here. It's a time of transition. I'm finding that having a kid tends to put one into a constant state of transition. I'm rolling with it, keeping positive, knowing that the time to write again will happen eventually.

Until then, there are good books to be read and pictures of my son to be laughed at. He's going to kill me when he gets older.