SPOOK LIVES

This won't be a very long post. I've been on a very tight schedule between working on the new book and trying to promote the two books I already have out.

GAME

It's too early to say too much, but there is interest in SPOOK as a video game from an award winning filmmaker who has been involved in producing video games for Ubisoft ("Assassin's Creed") for the last few years. We should be meeting soon to discuss the possibility. I never thought of SPOOK as a video game, but once I wrapped my head around it, I had a lot of great ideas including how to visually show a mind being remote viewed (cool). I see it as a story-driven, decision based game with an exotic cast of characters. I'll find out soon if the producer is on the same page as I am.

MOVIE
On the other front, the screenplay adaptation of SPOOK is already out to one studio producer and my manager will be getting it to two other studio companies in the coming weeks.

BOOK
I'm working on new deals for the novel.

I should begin work on the sequel to SPOOK in another six months (I have a couple of other novels that I'm working on first). I'm brainstorming on the title for the new book.

That's it for now. Or in the words of the immortal James Brown, "SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!"

SPOOK NOW IN VROMAN'S

My novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is now in VROMAN'S BOOKSTORE in Pasadena, CA.

It is also in BOOK SOUP on Sunset in Los Angeles.

I want to thank all 5,000 plus of you who downloaded SPOOK over my three day free book promotion in honor of MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

I'm now setting my sights on getting SPOOK into the number one book chain in America: BARNES & NOBLE (it's already in their Online store and you can order it at any B&N).

I don't know if I will be successful, but I'm certainly going to try. Or as MLK once said, "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

Have a happy 2015!

FREE COPY OF MY NOVEL

Now through Monday, you can download a copy of my novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" for FREE at Amazon, in honor of MLK Day.


FREE COPY HERE

BOOK GIVEAWAY TO CELEBRATE MLK DAY

I've already posted the news in Facebook about copies of "SPOOK:  CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" now being available for purchase at BOOK SOUP on Sunset in Los Angeles.

Well, it looks like I have another bookstore that will be carrying copies of my novel in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Next, I'm beginning my campaign to try and get SPOOK in Barnes & Noble bookstores nation-wide. It's currently offered in their Online store. You can also order it at a B&N store. However, I'm hoping to get the book physically into their stores.

In other news... 

Starting this Friday January 16th through Monday the 19th, you can download SPOOK for FREE at Amazon for your Kindle or other electronic device. 

All that I ask is, if you like the book, please give a review on the Amazon page where it is sold. 

I'm offering my book free for four days in honor of MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY.

SPOOK is a book series that will traverse the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement in America. My main character JOHN HENRY (yes, John Henry) deals with historical milestones of the time. In the second book in the series, John will be embroiled in the JFK assassination. In the third novel, he will be unwittingly involved in the the MLK and Robert Kennedy assassinations.

I have three other novels to write before I get back to the SPOOK series. 

But I am very excited about what's to come.  

BROOKLYN APACHE PRESS

Martin Luther King Jr.

Book Soup on Sunset

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

I know I've touched on the Cold War espionage and racial themes of my novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY." But I haven't really touched on the conspiracy theory element of my book.

What makes me think of this is I was contacted on Christmas day by someone who had purchased my novel on line. The individual claimed to have studied REMOTE VIEWING (a central element of my book) with the army. This person even mentioned having met the late INGO SWANN, a renown psychic who I believe had worked for the CIA's STARGATE PROGRAM (psychic spies). 

The interesting thing is this person lives in Los Angeles (where I currently reside). 

Originally, it was after talking to someone I knew who had been a CIA agent, that I decided to move forward and write my book. My contact assured me that the CIA's psychic spy program had been real and that some of the operators they had working for them were downright spooky.

While I was writing my book, I tried to contact people who had been involved with government psychic spy programs during the Cold War. A former Interpol agent who had been stationed in Munich during the old days, was even trying to put me in contact with a former member of the STASI (the East German Secret Police). I finally put out a posting worldwide on Craigslist of all places. I was contacted by a number of interesting people. Some I suspected were spying on me (they wanted to know if anyone else had contacted me and, if so, who).

It was a very paranoid phase for me during the development of my book. 

So... I'd like to go on the record and say here and now...

I BELIEVE JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY WAS KILLED BY A JOINT CIA/ MAFIA TASK FORCE KNOWN AS PROJECT MONGOOSE, AFTER JFK SAID HE WOULD NO LONGER TRY TO OVERTHROW CASTRO (THE OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT MONGOOSE). LEE HARVEY OSWALD DID NOT ACT ALONE (IF AT ALL). 

I BELIEVE MARILYN MONROE WAS GIVEN A DRUG OVERDOSE FROM THE MAFIA IN A CIA CONDONED OPERATION, BECAUSE SHE KNEW TOO MUCH ABOUT THE CIA/ MAFIA OPERATIONS.

I BELIEVE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. WAS MURDERED BY THE CIA. NOTE: MLK WAS ONLY KILLED AFTER HE GAVE THE SPEECH TELLING YOUNG BLACK MEN NOT TO FIGHT IN THE WAR IN VIETNAM.

The Marilyn Monroe murder is covered in my novel. JFK and MLK's assassinations will be covered in subsequent novels in my SPOOK series.

My novel may be fiction, but I'm writing these historical events as I believe they had happened. 

To this day, the cover-up of these crimes continues to go on.

Checkpoint Charlie

     

THE GAME'S AFOOT

The game is definitely afoot as Sherlock Holmes was apt to say. 

"SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" has been attracting a lot of interest. I know there are a few favorable reviews being written and hopefully soon I will be able to announce some good news about the novel coming to select book stores.

But right now I have something else on my mind. 

It was recently relayed to me from someone in my Hollywood circle, that I am an arrogant writer for not round-tabling "SPOOK" with other writers and taking their notes. This is a common practice in the Hollywood screenplay world. After nearly every meeting, everybody and their mother has notes for the writer. It's a form of writing by committee to make your script as commercial as humanly possible. 

I've never been a big fan of writing by committee, other than making changes for budgetary reasons or to further the director's vision. I wrote my novel with a young fresh editor because I wanted a young fresh look at a novel that, while set in the past, expounds on themes that are very relevant in America today. 

When I decided to start my company BROOKLYN APACHE PRESS I did so because I wanted to have freedom as an artist to write my novels my way. I also want my voice to be the voice of the unrepresented audiences out there. I want my lead characters to be Black or Spanish or Chinese or  Middle Easterner or female or old or Gay or young. In Hollywood, virtually every script is written for a white male lead. 

What a lot of people in Hollywood don't get is that I'M A FAN OF WHAT I WRITE! I never wrote a sci-fi script because sci-fi was in. I never wrote a horror pilot because "THE WALKING DEAD" is a runaway hit. I write my stories, whether script or novel, as a fan. I'm writing the kind of stuff I want to see. 

I think that makes me selfish more than arrogant.

I love SPOOK. I am a fan of it. Every single word is exactly the way I wanted. This is my voice. It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. I don't expect it to be. But if you are a fan of this genre, I believe you will be entertained. 

I also hope it makes you think... and feel. 

If it does, then I've done my job.

THE SPOOK WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

Well, "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is finally out in paperback on Amazon. 

Later this week, I should have it out as an ebook on Kindle as well. I'm negotiating with a number of book stores which will carry my novel on their book shelves. 

I'm also in the beginning stages of working out a deal for an audio version of the book.

Other things are in the mix, but I can't talk about any of it just yet.

All I can say is that my creation has finally come in from the cold.

My book exists. I may not have big bucks marketing revenue behind me to promote it... and there are millions of books Online nowadays... but I truly believe a well-written and unique novel will be noticed. So...

Sooner or later, it'll find it's audience.

I'm banking on the sooner part.