MY TWO NEW FAVOURITE SCIENCE BOOKS

As a writer of science fiction and a de facto ambassador for science, I consider it a duty to share my discoveries when I come across must-read books about science. And two of my newest favourites come from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong. Yong has written science articles for top magazines for years, but then put his gifts and experience to work on book-length projects beginning in 2016 with I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life followed in 2022 by An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. Both are remarkable achievements.

Since I Contain Multitudes has been included on more than a dozen prominent “notable books” or “best of the year” lists, my opinion may not mean a great deal, but I still want to encourage lovers of science as strongly as I can to read this book. First, it’s written the way I wish all popular science books were written: with terrific enthusiasm, unimpeachable diligence and scholarship, impeccable balance, and humour. Second, it’s collection of scientific findings is mind-blowing—you’ll learn not only that bacteria, viruses, and archaea colonize every square centimeter of our planet (and ourselves) in unimaginable numbers, but also that bacteria are brilliantly effective in producing antibacterial agents. You’ll discover wasps that spread an antibiotic paste over the eggs they lay; how mammalian mothers (including humans) provide lifetime protection to their babies via natural births and breast milk; how much we need good bacteria to help our bodies function normally, and why; and how pests like wasps and mosquitoes can be used as disease-fighters thanks to their microbiome (the collection of microbes living on and within them).

To me, two of the most important takeaways of I Contain Multitudes are that 1) microbes don’t automatically mean disease—there are many more necessary or neutral microbes than there are pathogens that do us harm; and 2) when we wipe out existing colonies of (mostly harmless) microbes with antibiotics and antimicrobial chemicals, we’re opening up niches for the nearest opportunistic microbes to take their place, very likely harmful ones (in hospitals, that’s almost a certainty). So, over-sterilizing ourselves and our environments is a bad strategy.

If you’re easily grossed-out, there is a significant “ick” factor in much of what Yong relates, but it’s information very much worth knowing. And I think it’s safe to say that you’ll never look at the world and the people around you in the same way again!

As outstanding as I Contain Mutitudes is, I like An Immense World even better ( I read it first and recently read it a second time).

What an astonishing book! This time Ed Yong takes us on a tour of the senses—not just the five we usually experience, but all the incredible ways animals, fish, birds, and insects perceive the world around us. With notes and a bibliography that runs to dozens of pages, it’s clear how Yong spent the Covid pandemic! Yet he delivers these reams of research in prose that’s always clear and easy to digest, leading the reader from one amazing discovery to another with the flow of a compelling novel. You’ll be gobsmacked by all the things you never knew about vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But then there’s echolocation, electrolocation, magnetic fields and more.

There are startling revelations on every page—so much so that you’ll feel compelled to share them (my wife insists I’ll be the ‘pride of the old folks home’ passing on bits of trivia. I can only wish I could retain half of all the fascinating stuff to be found here.)

Bravo, Ed Yong! Thanks for helping to illuminate the world.

(SOME OF) THE STORY BEHIND INDIGENT EARTH

Unless you buy the hardcover edition, you won’t see all the gorgeous artwork my cover artist provided, so here it is.

Readers often wonder where writers get our ideas. Well, in the case of my newest novel Indigent Earth, a number of sources came into play.

Worldwide, the year 2023 has been a year of fierce heatwaves, devastating droughts, rampant wildfires, and horrendous floods.

Climate change is upon us.

At the time I wrote Indigent Earth, things weren’t quite this extreme, but I knew they could get to be. I’d already taught a college course about climate change for a semester (I didn’t enjoy the experience enough to continue, but that’s another story). I was also watching the rise of private sector space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. I don’t consider them a bad thing, but depending on billionaires for all our space technology might have risks. Plus, economic studies were showing that the world’s 2000+ billionaires hold as much wealth as 60% of the rest of Earth’s population. That divide is increasing, with no end in sight.

Could conditions on Earth get so bad that the rich and powerful might abandon the planet?

On another front, two of my grandkids are part Cree (on their father’s side) and that heritage is very important to them. It’s special to me, too—I have a deep love for the natural spaces of my home country, Canada, and inevitably link them with our indigenous peoples, for whom I have great respect. But, as in many places, Canada’s history with its indigenous peoples is troubled, to say the least.

Indigent Earth is set in a North America of six centuries from now, at a time 500 years after the world’s wealthiest people abandoned our damaged planet to live in space colonies and have now chosen to return. Killian Morningcloud feels like a prisoner in his constrained Earth community (known as an Allocation) and has bright hopes for the colonists’ reappearance. Celebrated citizen of the colonies, Natira Celestia, looks forward to meeting the “noble primitives” she’s sure must inhabit the home planet. Both will have their dreams dashed; thrown together, they will struggle to survive long enough to uncover dark secrets that powerful people are desperate to keep hidden.

Yes, I’m afraid that the face of colonialism may change, but it’s something our species will find hard to escape. My Dedication for the novel reads:

To the indigenous peoples of the world

who have been displaced and marginalized.

I can’t speak your truth; I can only acknowledge it.

More broadly, I believe that being on the wrong side of the ‘privilege gap’ could happen to any of us in the years to come.

So those facts provide some explanation of where the novel came from.  

That said, Indigent Earth isn’t a rant or a lecture! It’s an exciting adventure story with vivid settings and characters including a fire-and-water pairing if there ever was one. Killian and Natira are about as different as two people can be, so it was a lot of fun to write such a charged relationship!

With a publication date of September 30th, I hope you’ll use this Universal Book Link to find Indigent Earth at your favourite online bookseller (or ask your local bookstore to get it for you) and give it a read. I really think it’ll grab you.

A NEW WAY TO FIND GREAT BOOKS

Do you read books…sometimes?

Or do you love books? Devour books?

’Cause if you’re the devouring kind, the process of finding your next great book to read is pretty limited. Friends recommending books to each other can go a long way, but we don’t all have the same tastes. Bestseller lists and the top offerings on the landing pages of sites like Amazon just channel us all toward the same few dozen choices that a lot of strangers have been led to (by the same lists and headers). Even book awards are pretty limiting—there are always biases toward certain kinds of books (I’m not talking about “wokeness” or race, but just trendiness in general—that’s inevitable). And don’t get me started about search engines like Amazon’s or even Google’s. If you haven’t noticed by now that most of your top search results are “sponsored”, then you haven’t been paying attention. I mean, in theory Amazon’s “also bought” recommendations are supposed to be a way to say, “because you liked this you might also like this.” But I find they work about as well as those algorithms on Netflix. The ones that make me think, “are you kidding?”

So what to do?

Well, I was recently made aware of a new website that at least offers a different way of approaching the hunt for books we’ll enjoy. An “if you liked this, you might like this” method that doesn’t use algorithms but suggestions by actual humans. In fact, by authors themselves.

The site is called Shepherd.com, and their approach is that they ask authors to post about one of their own books and then recommend five other books that kind of match. By “match” I mean they might fit into a similar topic, theme, or category. And the categories can be broad or quirkily specific.

Here’s my list of “The best thriller books that combine medicine with technology.” (Pretty specific, right?)

The idea is that if you like my SF thriller The Primus Labyrinth about using nanotechnology to travel through the bloodstream of a VIP facing death, you should check out these other five books, or vice versa. The books on my list aren’t new. Some are really old. But a great book is a great book. Maybe the pleasure you’ll get isn’t from discovering something new but remembering a classic you loved.

Sure, it’s a way for authors to promote their own books, as well, but the recommendations are sincere. We loved these books, you might too, especially if the topic or theme is one that really grabs you. The site even offers links to previews and retailers where you can buy the recommended books (especially Bookshop.org, which supports smaller independent bookstores).

Shepherd.com is a work in progress but growing quickly. It already has searchable separate topic pages featuring, for example, the best books about technology or medicine or dinosaurs, all recommended by other authors. You have to admit that, as a group, authors are pretty discerning and committed to books, so their recommendations ought to be worth something. But don’t just view my list, take the search engine out for a spin. Just plan to spend some time—it can be addictive.

And there’s a really good chance you’ll find your next favourite book.

THE LAUNCH DAY BLUES (AND HAPPIER SONGS)

In my newsletter I called it “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”. Alas, the launch of my newest novel Augment Nation did not go smoothly.

Two technical issues with Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing, panicked waiting for books and book bags, a 2-week postponement, the coldest, wettest day of the Fall (at an outdoor market!) and the ensuing three-weeks-and-still-going battle with a wicked virus, all added up to a launch that’s been memorable in all the worst ways. Mind you my virtual book launch only had a few rough spots and I invite you to take a look here, so thanks to my author buddy Mark Leslie Lefebvre for hosting it for me.

None of this changes the fact that Augment Nation is a good book, and the response by readers has been very gratifying. So that’s the bright side. And there’s other happy news, too.

I recently hired Creative Edge Publicity to help me get the word out about my books, and this season has turned into a very busy one. So if you’d like to get to know about me in a lot more detail, here are some of my appearances so far:

Heather Weidner’s popular blog on November 3rd.

J.M. Northup’s comprehensive website November 4th

I had a great conversation with Alan R. Warren and David North-Martino for NBC’s House of Mystery radio show scheduled for broadcast at 9:00 pm Pacific time on Nov. 9th, live-streamed and then posted on the website. (It was a lot of fun.)

I’ll be interviewed in the Literary Tribune November 25th (for North American readers).

I’ll be featured in the December issue of the Books n Pieces e-zine, another excellent place to read all about new books.

And I’ve been invited to guest on the Blasters and Blades podcast as soon as we can schedule it.

There’s more to come, so I’ll be taking my Geritol and babying my vocal cords, but I’m loving it. The more readers I can reach, and tell them about my books, the happier I’ll be. I hope you’ll check out some of the above sites and keep watching this space for updates.

I think all my books are worth your time and money, but I think Augment Nation will carve new territory and get people talking. I hope you’ll read it and help me spread the word.

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

The publication date for my newest novel Augment Nation is now set for Saturday October 1, 2022. I’m thrilled to be able to bring this book to you, and very happy to be able to say that you can pre-order your own copy of Augment Nation today! The book’s Universal Book Link is https://books2read.com/Augment-Nation which means that when you click on that link it’ll take you to a page with links to find Augment Nation at any of the major online platforms where books are sold. If you have a preferred retailer, just click on that retailer’s logo, or even customize your choice so a UBL will always take you to that retailer.

The novel is available just about everywhere as an ebook, and a print-on-demand edition can be ordered from a number of sellers (like Amazon and Barnes & Noble). POD means the book isn’t stocked in bookstores, but when you order a copy, it’s printed and shipped to you. Some of us still love printed physical books best! And if you’re one of those, you might be excited to know that, for the first time, I’ve produced a hardcover edition of one of my books! It’s something I’ve been itching to try, and when my cover artist, Juan, created two very different covers that I loved, I decided to use one for the hardcover version. The hardcover isn’t available for pre-order just yet, but should be by the launch date of October 1st. Fingers crossed!

Augment Nation is an important book to me. A New York literary agent who represented many of the top science fiction writers in the world during her career, called Augment Nation a “powerful novel” and offered her agency’s services in submitting it to the publishing industry. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t with us, and that relationship didn’t end up producing a book deal for me (science fiction publishing is in a very strange state these days), but I appreciated the effort, and the vote of confidence. If this lady doesn’t know what good SF is, no one does!

I could say the same for my friend Robert J. Sawyer, the dean of Canadian science fiction and winner of every major SF award (and most of the others too). Of Augment Nation, Rob says,

"Scott Overton is a terrific writer and his vision of tomorrow is both realistic and frightening. Read this book!"

So what is Augment Nation about?

Since the age of fourteen Damon Leiter has had a brain-computer interface implanted beneath his skull to correct a neurological disorder. As a teenager, it branded him as an outcast—as an adult it endows him with extraordinary abilities: he may represent the next step in human evolution. When computerized brain augments replace smartphones as the must-have status item, mega-corporations and governments conspire together and marketing becomes mind control. Damon is the only one equipped to lead a global resistance movement. Caught between the fervour of his followers and the tide of rampant consumerism, he can’t be sure he isn’t playing into the hands of the rich and powerful. They may even be in the right. Maybe the real enemy of humankind is Damon Leiter.

That’s the plot, but the essence of the book is about consumerism, marketing, and especially the privacy and personal access we’re willing to trade for sparkly tech “baubles” and convenience these days. It’s a slippery slope, and truly frightening. That doesn’t mean that Augment Nation is a diatribe—far from it. It’s a story of a flawed, very human being, who learns that his exceptional abilities have come at the price of a heavy responsibility and great personal danger. Take a look at a sample chapter here.

Augment Nation takes place only a few years from now. It’s one of our many potential futures. It’s also an exciting and absorbing thriller. I’m proud of it. So I hope your next stop on the internet is to pre-order Augment Nation and get excited about the launch day October 1st when I’ll be presenting a virtual launch via Facebook and YouTube (with my buddy Mark Leslie Lefevbre) plus an in-person event.

It’s almost here!

Why My Next Novel Is Important

Although I’ve mostly stopped writing regular blog posts, it’s still the best way to describe the next novel of mine to reach publication. And I truly believe this novel will be important.

Why?

Well, because Augment Nation takes place in the near future—probably during your lifetime—when projects like Elon Musk’s Neuralink will expand from addressing the needs of those with neurological impairments to the consumer population at large. I think implanted (or closely connected) brain-computer interfaces will become the next smartphones: devices that will provide such extensive augmentation of our information gathering and processing abilities that we’ll wonder what we ever did without them.

But a future like that is not without serious risks. Here’s the novel’s back cover blurb:

This is your brain on silicon.

The mid-21st Century:

Computerized brain augments are the newest “must-have” consumer product. They make smartphones look like a rock and a chisel.

But there is a dark side.

Governments dream of compliant sheep.

Corporations see a marketing El Dorado.

 

When consumerism rages unchecked, the human race needs a leader to save us from ourselves.

Damon Leiter has had a brain-computer interface since he was 14. It gives him extraordinary abilities; he may be the next step in human evolution.

But Damon can’t be sure he isn’t playing into the hands of the rich and powerful.

They might even be right:

Maybe the real threat to humanity is Damon himself.

Sound scary? It could be, at least if we allow free markets to make all the important decisions and continue to let laws and regulations fall woefully far behind advances in technology. Don’t get me wrong—I think technology is great. I’m a science fiction writer! But I also recognize that it has its pitfalls, and the sooner we see them, the better we can correct them.

Augment Nation is about a young man who comes to realize that, not only is a groundbreaking technology going awry, but he may be the only person uniquely equipped to raise awareness of the problem before it’s too late. It’s a cautionary story (think Fahrenheit 451, or even 1984) but also a deeply human one, and an exciting thriller as well.

There are a number of reasons that a date for the publication hasn’t been finalized, but look for Augment Nation everywhere you buy books this Fall of 2022. I invite you to read the opening of the novel here.

It’s important.

Another New Book Takes Flight!

My novel The Dispossession of Dylan Knox is now available, tackling questions about love, trust, duty, and even our responsibility to the future of humanity. Especially the universal question: “Who do we really fall in love with? The person we see, or who they are inside?” Do we fall in love with someone because we like their looks? Or does real love require something deeper: a connection to the inner personality? Can our attraction to that ‘inner self’ be strong enough that outward appearance doesn’t even matter?

When Brooke Chappelle, an assistant to the secretary general of the United Nations, encounters her old high school flame Dylan Knox, Dylan doesn’t remember her. His personality has changed—in fact, over the course of several days he acts like three very different people. Brooke fears he could be an impostor intending to harm the secretary general or sabotage a sensitive space energy project where Dylan works. Or he may suffer from a serious mental disorder. Either way, he could be a threat to national security.

Dylan’s own explanation is too bizarre to believe, especially when he claims that Brooke’s own actions will shape the future. She realizes she’s going to have to choose whether to trust her former lover or to betray him.

Falling in love is the last thing she needs.

Mind you, the novel covers a lot of other ground, too, like the nature of time, and the relationship between consciousness and the physical body. It is science fiction, after all, and to me that means important themes and cool concepts!

I invite you to read a sample opening chapter of The Dispossession of Dylan Knox, and you can use this universal book link to find it at your favourite online retailer.

I also hope you can join me this Friday February 2, 2022 at 7:00 pm Eastern time for the Virtual Book Launch live-streaming on Facebook or YouTube including a reading from the book and a conversation with my friend and fellow author Mark Leslie. You could buy the ebook at a great discount, or even win an autographed print copy.

Oh yeah, and this novel also features a much stronger romance plot than I’ve ever done before—a great fit for Valentine’s Day. Just sayin’.

COMING SOON: A NEW YEAR AND A NEW BOOK

The life of the average author isn’t much like the romanticized portraits you see on TV and in the movies (how do they all afford those loft apartments in New York City anyway??) But it does come with some unique “highs”.

One of those is being able to introduce a brand new book into the world. The obvious comparison is to the birth of a child—obvious because it’s so accurate. Months of anxiety and labour culminating in a creation never seen before.

My next creative “offspring” is still a couple of months from seeing the light of day, but I can show off the literary equivalent of an ultrasound picture. This is the (brilliant) new cover of my forthcoming science fiction novel The Dispossession of Dylan Knox. Here’s the elevator pitch:

Dylan Knox is not the man he was. He may be like no man who ever existed.

Brooke’s old flame doesn’t remember her. Worse, he behaves like a different person every time they meet. A victim of a brain injury? Or an imposter—an assassin targeting Brooke’s boss, the secretary-general of the United Nations?

Dylan’s own explanation is impossible to accept: an airliner accident, a bold space mission. Castaways in time.

Now Brook is faced with a choice: to trust him, or to betray him.

And falling in love is the last thing she needs.

The Dispossession of Dylan Knox is scheduled for publication February 2, 2022. It should be available for pre-order in early January. Suspense, danger, high stakes. Plus a stronger romance element than my usual. I really hope you love it.

In fact, you can read a sample of the opening chapter of the novel right now!

 

OTHER NEWS:

While I’m at it, I’d like to tell you what else I’ve been up to.

I’ve been busy exploring more ways to tell readers about my books. One way is book trailers. I’ve had one for my debut novel Dead Air and a slow, suspenseful trailer for my latest, Naïda. But I wanted to bring more excitement to that one, and I’d never released a trailer for my first SF thriller The Primus Labyrinth at all. So check out these new offerings:

The Primus Labyrinth

Naïda 

On the other hand, some people love to hear a sample of a book in the author’s own words and voice. So I’ve recorded some readings from my novels that weren’t available before. Have a listen to them on Soundcloud.

Naïda

The Primus Labyrinth

Dead Air

And lastly, when I was helping out a fan recently, I noticed that two of my paperbacks—my novel Dead Air and my story collection Beyond—are still listed on Amazon for about 25% less than my usual paperback price (just $15.99 each in North America). With the cost of printing these days, I really have to raise that price, but I’ve decided to put it off until 2022. SO until the end of this year you can still pick up those two books at that price. If you buy both (plus something else worth a few bucks) you can even get Amazon’s free shipping.

About my Beyond collection, Goodreads and freelance book reviewer Christine Ernst-Lomond says, “Solid gold. That's how I'd summarize Overton's collection of sci-fi short stories…I'm honestly not sure I can praise it enough. It's completely brilliant.”

And I didn’t pay her a cent to say that!

Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that hours of great reading enjoyment makes a thoughtful gift!

Have a great holiday season.

ARE SPACE JOYRIDES JUSTIFIABLE?

Courtesy of Blue Origin

Courtesy of Blue Origin

Space tourism is an expensive game, the playing field of billionaires. We witnessed the proof of that in recent weeks as first Richard Branson rode his Virgin Galactic space plane VSS Unity to the edge of space, 53 miles (85 km.) above the Earth on July 11th, and then Amazon’s Jeff Bezos traveled 66 miles up (106 km.) on July 20th in the first of his Blue Origin company’s New Shepard spacecraft to carry humans. The fact that both billionaires traveled aboard the first flights of their respective craft to such heights is either an exceptional testimony to their faith in their companies’ technology or, if you’re a cynic, a powerhouse marketing ploy. Now Virgin Galactic is selling seats aboard future flights at a quarter million dollars each, while Blue Origin may send up two more tourist trips this year at an unspecified price tag (but there are reports of tickets auctioned off at $28 million).

Were Branson and Bezos hailed as heroes? Maybe by some, but there was also immediate loud and high-profile criticism of the joyrides with the predictable message that the money could be better spent helping to fight climate change or any of the other serious environmental or humanitarian crises you could name. And Bezos bombed big-time with his remark before his flight thanking Amazon customers and his (reportedly badly underpaid) Amazon employees for making his flight possible.

So, the question is, are such joyrides by the world’s wealthiest justified?

First of all, as long as capitalism remains our predominant financial system, we’ll have billionaires. In fact, the gap between the planet’s richest and poorest citizens continues to grow. And if money burns a hole in the pockets of anybody who has it, how much more true is that of those who have more than they could ever possibly need? So billionaires will blow big money on big toys and projects that many will consider foolish. If you don’t like billionaires and their lavish spending habits, you’ll have to change the system.

Having said that, is space travel a boondoggle, wasteful and worthless?

Well, the benefits of space tourism might not be immediately apparent (though its supporters hope it will inspire future generations), but it is a means to fund other, more productive, space-related efforts. Branson hopes Virgin Galactic’s spaceplanes can develop into an alternate form of high-speed business travel. Bezos is a proponent of moving polluting industries like chemical manufacturing and energy production off the planet. We already know that many manufacturing processes, including the making of pharmaceutical products, can be done with much greater efficiency in the low gravity of Earth orbit with its abundance of solar energy. That list of potential space industries will grow exponentially as the cost of lifting materiel and personnel out of Earth’s gravity well decreases. And that decrease in cost is why Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX company have put so much effort into developing reusable rocket boosters that can land safely and reliably.

As I’ve mentioned more than once, we need to explore and exploit space beyond Earth.

We owe it to our planet: The more we can move polluting industries out of our fragile ecosystem, and the less we have to ravage the Earth’s surface for diminishing mineral and other resources, the better.

We owe it to our fellow Earth-life: Every day there’s a new story about a species extinction or an environmental disaster caused by humans’ rapacious industrial and agricultural practices. Whatever we can shift out into space, including meaningful numbers of human beings, will reduce the terrible cost being paid by wildlife and vegetation.

We owe it to our fellow humans: Wild animals aren’t the only ones who suffer when climate is altered and green spaces and clean water are depleted. If we could create attractive human habitats in orbit, in outer space, or on other planets, we could make living conditions better for every human being.

We owe it to Life itself: We still have no evidence that life exists anywhere else in the universe. Until we do, we must act as if Earth is the only cradle of life, and right now that cradle is incredibly fragile. Even if we don’t render the planet into an uninhabitable wasteland like Venus through irreversible climate warming, or irradiate the whole surface by nuclear war, life here could still be wiped out by a cosmic collision, a nearby supernova, or a catastrophic event within our own Sun. We have a responsibility to make sure that all of Life’s “eggs” don’t remain in just one basket.

Do these lofty space dreams really begin with billionaires and their expensive toys? The jury is out on that one, but let’s face it, government bureaucracies aren’t the most efficient way to get things done, whereas corporate for-profit approaches do seem to be more productive (provided that meaningful safety regulations are in place).

(If we look to science fiction, especially the so-called “Golden Era” of the early 20th Century, it’s not uncommon to find millionaires and billionaires as the driving force behind space ventures, some of which save humanity. One that springs to mind is When Worlds Collide in which millionaires fund the spacecraft that carries survivors from a doomed Earth when governments refuse to act. Of course, SF probably features an even larger number of billionaires who want to rule the world and wreck the planet, so….)

My own view is that, regrettably, government-driven space ventures can’t be counted on to save us from the threats mentioned above, not just because their bureaucracies are inefficient, but even more so because their funding (and therefore their very existence) is subject to political whims, about the most unreliable force in the universe! If that means our only alternative is to endure the grandstanding of billionaires as a step toward more meaningful progress, I can live with that.

LAUNCH COUNTDOWN

Time is really flying toward the launch of my new novel Naïda and my blood pressure’s probably flying high too, as I scramble to get everything done.

Because of the pandemic, it’s going to be a virtual launch—online only—hosted by my friend and fellow author Mark Leslie (I narrate the audiobook editions of his A Canadian Werewolf in New York fiction series). But all are welcome. It’ll be short and sweet: 30 - 45 minutes during which I’ll give a reading from Naïda and Mark will field questions from the audience. We’ll also be giving away some copies of the book to those in attendance. Afterward, the link will remain available, so if you can’t attend “live” you can still catch it later. Here are the links to join in:

LIVE BROADCAST INFORMATION                                                            

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Mhdym4HzI

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/234583036576020/posts/4550131828354431/

(via Scott Overton’s Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/ScottOverton.author/ )

Virtual Book Launch Image.png

Meanwhile the ebook editions are available to pre-order from many online retailers, and the print edition is becoming available to order, store by store though Amazon’s print edition is still in limbo because of a (so-far 3-week-old) technical problem. Seriously, Amazon?

I sure hope you’ll seek out the book. Of course you can read a free sample chapter, and it will become available in my bookstore on launch day June 1st. I also hope you’ll love it, and it would be a huge help if you would post a review wherever you buy the book or in your online book clubs like Goodreads.

Wish me luck!