About This Site

In 1999, after failing to find a traditional publisher, Bart and I decided to offer Sleuths of Sorcery to be read, for free, online. In those fifteen years it has lived on three different servers with many countless pairs of weary eyes scanning the pixels. Back then, it wasn't easy to self-publish and it was quite costly. Then there was the stigma of being forced to publish a book via a 'vanity press' (no 'indie' moniker to make one feel legitimate).

But it's a whole different playing field now. Electronic and print-on-demand publishing has traditional publishers miffed at the successes many indie authors are enjoying. Let's face it, if you're a new author you will receive zero marketing budget from your traditional publisher -- and you only get one chance (barely a month on bookstore shelves) to turn a profit. Otherwise, your precious creation has its cover savagely ripped off and returned, naked, to the publisher in disgrace. So, after that failure do you think you'll get another chance at bat? Um, no. In fact, you'll probably have to create a nom de plume for your next work to avoid the taint.

Speaking of second chances, I recently decided to give Sleuths of Sorcery a once-over. After all, I hadn't read it in fifteen years.

Now I understand why it had been rejected. Ack! A lot of redundant adjectives and adverbs and general purpleness. So, I've done a complete slash and burn and banished one embarassing bit of prose after another. It's still essentially the same story, but without a lot of superfluous drivel. I've also redesigned the cover.

Print version now available at Amazon.com. CLICK HERE.

Read the first seventeen chapters for free.