It Takes A Village The Book will officially be available for pre-order on December 21ST! The book was firmly, gently, and brilliantly edited by Sophie Gorjance. With her guidance and recommendations, the book grew and improved. Mitchelle Lumumba is also owed many thanks for her keen eye and attention to detail as the book went through its final edits. Maria Korolov designed the book, Adriana Acevedo designed the beautiful interior and Emma Foster helped with the YOUTUBE. Thank you all! This monster is grateful!

I am writing this In a Costa Rican jungle where monkeys, scarlet macaws, and toucans are more plentiful than Internet signals.   This post will be a mix of travel blog and book news. I will tell you about one fabulous anthology that’s coming out and a prize-winning novel as well as a bit about bugs, bats and bromeliads. I end with some travel tips and the secret to happiness. As always, click for links- books here Costa Rica is a tropical wet dream. Last night the scarlet macaws were having a party. They flew across the sky in twos, fours, and sixes, (they mate for life and are monogamous) with an occasional lonely five, a tag-along, winging laboriously across the sky. Macaws and Toucans don’t fly for fun They ’re like the weekend pilot who starts flying for an airline. It’s all about the destination. It’s magic here!  Eco Tico tourists play in warm seas, we swim past rivers of mating red dragonflies and giant trees linger in the slow, deadly embrace of strangler figs.   We stayed in Drake’s Bay a fairly remote mangrove and tropical forest edging a blue sea. We took The Night Tour-, hands down the best tour anywhere. Tracy and her husband, Gian are both extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic biologists. I was amazed by how much personal attention they gave each and every guest, considering they do two tours a night. Whether you are a novice or an expert, I guarantee you will see and learn new things. Gian showed us a velvet worm, a creature so unique it has its own phylum!  I attach a picture of it here, but it’s not very impressive, so I will also include a picture of a cat reading a book.     Velvet worms are kind of like very tiny politicians. They spend most of their time under rocks and use slime as a weapon.   I have decided that I want my own phylum too and plan to start a petition to that effect. #ELIZABETHISHEROWNPHYLUM.   In addition, Tracie and Gian have a lot of cool devices, like a “bat locator,” where you can actually see the echolocation of bats! It’s an interesting coincidence that I wrote a story about a week before my visit with Tracie and Gian about a machine that creates false echoes, causing bats to hallucinate. I could claim ESP, but in fact, I had the story in my head for a while and it has less to do with nature and more to do with manipulation.     I’ve been meaning to work on my new book which I’m quite excited about. It’s a tale of possession. A woman who is denied recognition of her scientific work returns from the grave for vengeance but finds love. But short stories keep coming into my brain so I’m writing those instead, and basking in the great tropical wilderness filled with creatures too colorful and loud to exist outside of dreams. Now- onto my newest anthology and my newest novel. The novel, The Hollywood Portal is a sequel to Electric Detective. It’s the bastard love child of Raymond Chandler or and Philip K. Dick. If you enjoy Chandler I really do think you will like it. I hope you read it or at least buy it. I could really use the cash. And if you like it, please write a review. The Whodunit Award judges a novel on its first three pages.  Here is the beginning of The Hollywood Portal : “LA is a desert in a party dress. Despite miles of green lawn and chlorine oasis, the air is full of sand, grit, and hope so tangible you can feel it in the wind. Perhaps it is our thirst that makes us so isolated. Even the LA River is a highway. A drop of rain falling onto the paved thoroughfare in the San Gabriel Mountains ten thousand feet above the City can reach the sea faster than a speeding car. We are a city of twelve hundred thousand gold diggers prospecting on concrete banks. It was unusually muggy, the air warm and heavy with moisture, the sky low and white. There was no horizon. In the Midwest, weather like this might mean tornados; in the mountains, a sky so pale signaled snow, but here, the blurring of perspective felt like a premonition.” It was on The AAE Books, Editors’ 2018 Book Picks For Christmas “I picked E.E. King’s The Hollywood Portal, this year’s first prize winner in the Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. That in itself says a lot about this book. You can be sure that the words will pull you into the story like a starship’s tractor beam. A terrific read by a talented voice! The judges were unanimous in their praise. E.E. King paints a colorful picture of the City of Angeles, peopled with odd denizens and surreal circumstance. Having lost his family, Ed Evers gets drawn into a case being investigated by his old FBI boss – thirty or so A-list people radiated to crispy critters inside an old fallout shelter at the former home of a Grade-B movie star. Can Eddy solve the crime? After all, he has an extraordinary vision, the result of a lightning strike that turned him into ‘a human voltmeter.’ You can’t put the book down as you go on an electric kaleidoscopic sci-fi journey in the guise of a nail-biting murder mystery.” – Shirrel Rhoades, Publisher I am also in this amazing new anthology, Cosy Crime Short Stories, published by Flametree.  Not only do they produce incredibly beautiful books, they also do something exciting and unique. They mix new works with classics. Thus, I got to be in a collection with Arthur Conan Doyle, and  G.K. Chesterton! Their books are lavishly illustrated, truly books for bibliophiles to cherish! “Following the great success of the Gothic Fantasy deluxe edition short story compilations, this latest is packed with armchair detectives, murders in the vicarage, family secrets

Oh, it’s been too long! Too long since I wrote about all the fabulous anthologies and onlines I’ve been fortunate enough to have been in! One of the best parts of being a writer is receiving and reading all these great anthologies- I want to write about each tale and every author – but better you should read these stories yourself. If I write about every story I’ll never finish my new book. I’m going to put a list with links and a bit about each publication – I hope you check them out because the writing is amazing! You’ll discover new ideas and ways of seeing, which is almost like discovering a new color or tasting a new kind of chocolate. Please forgive me for listing just my pieces, but I can’t list everyone’s work or this blog would be an encyclopedia. I am truly honored to be included in these publications! Marigolds & Monarchs – Artpost– 2018 ARTPOST magazine was created in 2018 with one simple goal in mind: to find and publish creative works of fiction, poetry, photography and artwork from independent authors and artists around the world and pay them fairly for their work. 24/7- Alluvian-2018 Alluvi-what? Alluvian is a group of thinkers, science students, and writers examining the human condition in relation to the natural world. — anything intended to provoke thought on environmental science, global sustainability, and human engagement with nature, the environment, and climate change. For Sale- Flame Tree, Cosy Crime Short Story Anthology, 201 Cosy Crime Short Stories is packed with armchair detectives, murders in the vicarage, family secrets unraveling in gossipy ears, and the ingredients of a genteel bloodbath in an otherwise delightful village. Contains a fabulous mix of classic and brand new writing, with contemporary authors from the US, Canada, and the UK. The Time Before dreams- Bubble off -Feral Cat 2018 This isn’t out yet but I was thrilled to have one of my favorite tales find a home-! I’m Dreaming of a Red Xmas- the War against Xmas 2018 This won’t be out till next year, but Neil Gaiman is in here – So I get to be in two anthologies with Neil Gaiman this year!!! And as usual, the publishers are wonderful. The Faithless Angel- Alternative Theologies This book will remind you that no matter what you believe, we make this journey together. There are poems by some wonderful modern thinkers including Gwyndyn T. Alexander and Jane Yolen, that will explore the nature of our world.  So honored to be in this – I love Bob and B cubed Press – they are our alternative to hate! God’s Gifts- The Gathering Storm – 2018 For great, short, thoughtful modern fables check out The Storm. Ghost Island- Clarksworld- 2018 Clarksworld is on every science fiction writer’s top 5 list  -it’s a thrill- they did a fabulous podcast of my story too, read by the wonderful Kate Baker. Thank you, Kate!   Estevan of the Children- Eldritch roots and Cosmic Shores-  My day of the dead story, digital illustration by Fran Eisemann in this lovely publication! Both Estevan and Ghost Island were reviewed in the thoughtful Tangent Tangent was resurrected in July of 1993 with the purpose (crazy and impossible some said) of reviewing as much of the professional short fiction venues in the fields of science-fiction and fantasy as possible.  It also features insightful articles and essays by some of science fiction’s most well-known names. Special thanks to reviewers Geoff Houghton and Jeffrey Steven Abrams, and Dave Truesdale Founder, Managing Editor and Eric James Stone Webmaster The Grammarian’s Grimoire – Re-Enchant – Wander the dim-lit paths of enchantment conjured by 18 tales from an international roster of authors. Re-Enchant takes readers down twisted walkways to discover strange and magical places, people, and creatures. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I was also nominated For the Rhysling poetry award and lost to Neil Gaiman! That’s a losing thrill. Thanks to amazing poet Linda D. Addison, who chairs the organization. The Rhysling Awards are named for the blind poet Rhysling in Robert A. Heinlein’s short story “The Green Hills of Earth.” In real life, Apollo 15 astronauts named a crater near their landing site “Rhysling.” Nominees for each year’s Rhysling Awards are selected by the membership of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. And as Jenred X  I/we had some poems accepted! Jered X. is a name Jenny, Richard, Dev, Charles and I created by taking a letter from each of our names. As Jered X. we write poems collectively. Each person contributes a line on a theme and then I mold them into a collective piece. The writers in our group are: Charles Christian, an English barrister turned writer, sometime werewolf hunter, and internet radio host. 

christian.uncut@icloud.com
www.UrbanFantasist.com
@ChristianUncut DEVORAH CUTLER-RUBENSTEIN, A stand-up, a poet, an author, a studio exec, a painter, and a dedicated educator.  Check out www.datingyourcharacter.com Richard D. Weaver, an Illustrator of things biological and writer of things fantastic. Jenny Brundage an actress and writer, known for Clarity, which she wrote, and produced. They let me twist and cut their lines, making poems from their fabulous thoughts and ideas. I am honored they let me. We have Eight poems in Anti- Valentine anthology  – coming out in February by Azoth Khem Publishing and Too Much To Dream-  in Wild Musette– Thank you, Tyler Johnson, Executive Editor, Wild Musette Press Anesthesia in Rock & Sling is  coming soon  

  My story The Ham & Cheddar Coast is in The Hamthology! The Hamthology is a  Hamcentric anthology –  I’m a vegetarian, and I originally wrote the tale as The Cheddar Coast for Sally Short’s fabulous New Short Fiction series all about summer and sand. My piece.  The Cheddar Coast was about how a sandwich can take over your kitchen and change your life. When I saw the notice for the Hamthology I thought,  what a fun idea. It made me smile. It made me laugh. I told my friends and they laughed too,  anything that does that is a good thing. So, quick as a fast food chef, I added a slice of ham to my sandwich and submit it. (The cheddar version was never in print, so no one will get a Hamthology and feel cheated.) If you think it’s a fun idea too, please share the sandwich! Check out the kickstart here

He feels protected in the redwoods’ shadow. They are love without argument, relationship without compromise. They climb up toward heaven reaching the stars, straight and unafraid. Under their boughs, he is part of the earth. He likes the constant evening, feeling most comfortable at the vespertine hour when dawn kisses night.

The 2018 Mystery Writers Whodunit Award is to be presented at the 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, a gathering of world-class mystery writers and fans set for June 22-24 in Key West, Florida. “Why just the first three pages? A book either captures a reader in the first three pages, or it doesn’t.” “KEY WEST, FLA. (PRWEB) MARCH 15, 2018 Mystery Fest Key West Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition. The winner will claim a book-publishing contract with Absolutely Amazing eBooks, free Mystery Fest Key West 2018 registration, airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights, meals and a Whodunit Award trophy to be presented at the 5th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 22-24 in Key West, Florida.” I’m going early so I can dive and snorkel- If it was the Bakersfield Award I wouldn’t. “Candidates are invited to submit the first three pages (maximum 750 words) of a finished, but unpublished manuscript. “Why just the first three pages? That criterion is a nod to late author Jeremiah Healy, a world-class mystery writer and a great judge of mystery writing,” says Shirrel Rhoades, co-founder of Mystery Fest Key West. “Jerry’s opinion was that a book either captures a reader in the first three pages…or it doesn’t. The competition judges all agreed with that assessment, and decided to use it as a yardstick for the competition.” Below is the very beginning of the first three pages, maybe a page and 1/2. It’s The Hollywood Portal, the sequel to Electric Detective – available in ebook, paperback and audible. Below is the beginning of the winning pages. The Hollywood Portal By E.E. King Chapter One The Chase LA is a desert in a party dress. Despite miles of green lawn and chlorine oasis, the air is full of sand, grit, and hope so tangible you can feel it in the wind. Perhaps it is our thirst that makes us so isolated. Even the LA River is a highway. A drop of rain falling onto the paved thoroughfare in the San Gabriel Mountains ten thousand feet above the City can reach the sea faster than a speeding car. We are a city of twelve hundred thousand gold diggers prospecting on concrete banks. It was unusually muggy, the air warm and heavy with moisture, the sky low and white. There was no horizon. In the Midwest weather like this might mean tornados, in the mountains a sky so pale signaled snow, but here the blurring of perspective felt like a premonition. I’d been home for a couple of weeks. No cases to investigate, only the continual nudging of electricity in the air, speaking in whispers and signs that only Max-cat and I could understand. It’d been just about eight months since we’d been struck by lightning; eight months since the universe had begun to vomit its secrets into my unwilling ears. I sat at my desk, staring into space. It stared back. We could relate to each other. We both had too much emptiness and nothing to fill it. I poured a cup of coffee. It was black, and too bitter. I looked in cupboard hoping for some sugar, but all I could find was a jar of honey so old it had crystalized. Maggie had probably bought it. I closed my mind to memory and dumped a couple of sticky spoonfuls into the mix making it bitter-sweet. I hadn’t drunk anything stronger for six months, two days and three hours. It wasn’t easy. Once liquor has your number it calls you often and makes more promises than an old lover. It nudges you when you’re lonely, whispering that it will ease your pain. It tempts you when you’re happy, swearing it can make you feel even better. It’s there late at night when all the world is sleeping. It guarantees that this time will be different, this time things won’t get out of control. You start to forget all the bad times. The headaches, the nights you can’t remember. All you recall is that the world had softer edges when you were together. All you can think about is that dusky glow wrapped around you like a cloak. You reconcile, you tell yourself that you can just be friends. By the time you remember why you broke up it’s too late. By the time you realize that the promises are lies you’re hooked again. I sipped my honey-coffee, opened a can of tuna for Max, and watched him drink, his rough tongue scooping the liquid up like a dipper. As usual he refused to touch the flesh. Max likes his fish distilled. Despite the humidity I decided to go for a run. If you’re going to let heat stop you, you shouldn’t live in a desert. I put on some old sweatpants and a discolored tee. A lot of men in Hollywood wear matching jogging suits made of terry cloth, or velour. It doesn’t seem to bother them. I’m not big on fashion, but I don’t like wearing matching clothes made out of towels. And I donated my velour to an artist for his Elvis masterwork. Outside tiny damp pads of moisture prodded me. I ignored them and began to jog down Braham Blvd toward the Hollywood Knolls that rise above Universal Studios. I didn’t jog for the exercise. I ran so that the pounding of my feet on hard pavement, the gasping of my lungs and the beating of my heart would drum all thoughts from my head, leaving it empty and still. Thinking is overrated. It fills you with hope, fear and memories, all of which I could do without. I turned up Wonderview Dr. that led up to the Hollywood reservoir. Large white Spanish houses with red tiled roofs fringed by green lawns and exotic flowers lined the narrow streets that wove up the hill like veins. Up here you’d never imagine that LA was a desert and that water was in short supply. But then, up here there were no shortages.

I invested with Kindra after my mother died. She set me up in an annuity that lost me a lot of money. It gave me a tiny monthly income but would lose me the money that the annuity cost. I would have to live well into my 90’s to get out what I had put in. Also, she took non-taxable income and made it taxable. I pulled out and lost almost 20k – but it was worth it. I invested with a great firm – Douglas Herdt CFP & John A. Brinkerhoff. Last year my investment earned roughly a small monthly income, BUT I did not lose the original investment, which is growing. Also, I owe no taxes. Kindra is very personable and will make you think she’s your friend- but keep your hand on your pocket! Ms. Sailers has a 65 Securities License. That means passing one exam. That’s less than the 9-month course required to be a hairdresser. These programs take a few hours, or at most two days. In other words, Ms. Sailers graduated from the class of three o’clock. I was not wise. Ms. Sailers completely convinced me she was my friend and could invest my money so that I could get a monthly income, which would increase and was safe. Ms. Sailers told me that, if I should need it, most of my money was in “liquid cash.” When I tried to access my money, Mrs. Sailors said, “I said that was what you have to pull from, not what you can take.” My advice is, don’t let someone with only a single license plan your retirement or invest your money There are good insurance agents in your community. A few of them do offer a wide assortment of investment products. Most don’t. The same could be said of stockbrokers who are generally selling stocks and not doing planning. If you want a planner, you need to find a CFP – certified financial planner or a ChFC – Chartered Financial Consultant. They are trained to help you make the best investment decisions. The best is a CFP or ChFC who is also a RIA – registered investment advisor. The “alphabet soup” of financial credentials and confusing terminology such as fee-only vs fee-based (sounds similar, but actually very different!) Sadly, almost anyone can call themselves a “Financial Advisor”. And almost anyone does. If you read all these great reviews it makes me sad- these are people just like me who ” are from people like me,- To quote Amanda C. ” I honestly have no idea, the market is hardly predictable and I do not have time to learn and master it. ” Maggie S. ” She’s a great listener and as we started to work together and have gotten to know Dillon and the whole “family”.” That’s what she does- take you in, make you feel part of the “family,” and take your money. I had a lot of trouble believing she had ripped me off – but finally, through the advice of CFP, I got it. Get a second opinion.

Blood Prism  Is coming out soon on audible- I love the reading by Emily Emerson. It’s so nice to fall in love with a book I wrote  – Thank you, Emily!!!   Someone reading blood prism   From Blood Prism: “Let’s get something straight… I’m not. And I come from the kind of family that’s a whole lot happier seeing their son cradling a gun than another man, funny how you’re a paragon if you kill a man, but a pariah if you love one. I never told them I was gay… I met Mark and fell in love. People seem to think that gay men have sex and straight man fall in love… that’s not true.  I’ve had a lot of sex, but only a couple of loves… I think that’s probably true for most… I still dream of Mark sometimes…I like remembering him, though… tumbling into my ancient Ford. We were like wild creatures, so in lust and so in love… It was like a fever.   The windows of the car clouded with passion thick as a Thule fog… Mark reached over me. I could smell him. I can smell him still. He smelled like longing and memory, hot chocolate and love. Onto the perspiring glass, with long, extended finger he drew roses and the silhouettes of birds flying skyward. The drops wept into silver lines. For months afterward, driving alone in a certain light, I’d see the ghostly outlines on the window, plastered across the sky like a memory of love. We joined a theater company and I met other men. But, it’s never the same as your first… I ran a little wild… did some drugs… lots of drugs, actually. Mark and I both did. It was like stepping into a magical kingdom together… nothing will ever be the same again… nothing will ever be as good… Say what you will, drugs are fun. Only people who never tried them think they’re not. It’s why those anti-drug campaigns never work. Reality sucks. I’ve had friends who say, “As long as I have books and sex, (or ‘love and wine,’ or ‘music and sex’…) why I would try drugs?  I’m happy. That’s all I need.” … and maybe they’re lucky… never knowing what they missed.  I’m fairly content now too… but it doesn’t mean I don’t remember.… At the beginning, it seemed like doorways into new worlds were opening, the ‘doors of perception.’ You feel like people on the other side are duller, less aware, less open. The world will never be as simple as it was, how can it? How can you trust that what you see is real after the alterations of acid? How can you hear music in the same way after becoming part of a melody with Mary Jane? How can you not miss the exuberant mind-sharpening acuity of coke or meth? It’s kinda like climbing a mountain. It starts off like a nice hike; beautiful, new, a time of discovery… then you get too high. The air so thin you can’t breathe. You still have to come down, but now it’s night, supplies are low. You don’t have any water. That wonderful place you just explored is dark and cold…All the friends you hiked up the mountain with are gone, some turned back, some fell and those who are still there are fighting over provisions….” On another note- two of my other books have just come out on audible too, Electric Detective read by the incomparable Christopher Graybill. Not only did he do a bang-up reading ( it is a detective tale) he gave me some fabulous input that I incorporated into the book. Thank you, Christopher!   And the wonderful, talented Miranda Reading-Spring made The Truth of Fiction come alive. None of my work is easy to read – so I am more than grateful to these wonderful talents who have lent their voice to work – Also ,  Simon Prebble- who makes anything sound good, the wonderful Derek Perkins,  the velvet- tongued Brandon McKernanBest Seller  Sample Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife All You Need to Know to Choose the Right Heaven, Plus a Five-Star Rating System for Music, Food, Drink, & Accommodations By: E. E. King Narrated by: Derek Perkins Add to Cart  In Wish List  Sample Dirk Snigby’s Guide to the Afterlife By: E. E. King Narrated by: Simon Prebble Length: 1 hr and 15 mins  Sample Real Conversations with Imaginary Friends By: E. E. King Narrated by: Simon Prebble Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins  Sample Another Happy Ending By: E. E. King Narrated by: Brandon McKernan Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins  Sample The Adventures of Emily Finfeather By: E. E. King Narrated by: Simon Prebble Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins   So don’t just sit there, buy something:) Cat food ain’t free ya know.