• I was going to gripe about the rain, but that seems a bit lame while Florida and the Carolinas are getting way too much. Here, the grass grows incessantly when there’s no rain, but the smaller trees have to be watered during dry spells.
• For those of you scoring at home–as opposed to elsewhere–I am now at 15 out 40 days of radiation therapy. Quite tedious, actually, though the people there are friendly and professional. One of them actually loves tennis: that’s a plus.
• My contemporary fantasy novel The Sun Singer will be free on Kindle September 6 through September 10. This was my first novel and I still like it. OMG, I was actually talking about it back when MySpace was the place for writers to hang out.
• This is a hero’s journey book. The sequel, Sarabande, is a heroine’s journey book. Both of them are greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. No, Joseph Campbell and I are not related.
• Small publishers and self-published authors are still waiting to see what happens with Audible’s attempt to add closed-captioning to our audiobook without paying for it. There’s nothing in our contracts that allows them to do this. Major publishers are suing and those who represent small publishers have supported the suit. We shall see.
• I must be out of touch. Several writer’s magazines I subscribe too are heavily supported by advertising from schools with MFA programs. These ads list “distinguished faculty.” Usually, I haven’t heard of any of them. Out of 15-20 names, you’d think somebody would be a known writer. If you saw that the program director was named Bubba Smith, would you be in a hurry to sign up? (Me, neither.)
• Amazon is getting some flak for releasing copies of Margaret Atwood’s Testaments prior to the official release date of September 10. A clerical error? A misunderstanding? Another way to harm independent book stores? What do you think?

—Malcolm

The sequel is a Thomas-Jacob Publishing release.