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Newsletter: March 2025 Edition

My Latest Book, An Excellent Author Interview from the Archives, Entertainment Recommendations, and More

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Photo by Scott Semegran

Welcome to the March 2025 edition of my newsletter. It’s been a great month so far! I published a new book on March 4th. I was a featured author at a book festival on March 8th. But as I’ve long known, I’m on the proverbial roller coaster in the life of an author. Whenever good things happen, silence and rejection is sure to follow. Sigh. But I guess that’s life as some say. Anyway, upward and onward to the newsletter.

Let’s start off by saying that my latest book Starman After Midnight came out on March 4th and I couldn'‘t be happier. I love its pocketbook-sized format and newsprint-style paper. It's received some lovely reviews which you can read on Booklist, BlueInk Review, Kirkus Reviews, Lone Star Literary Life, and so on. I had the best pre-order campaign of any of my books so far. It’s a humorous little book with some mystery and suspense, even a tad of magical realism. It takes place in a suburban neighborhood where two beer-drinking neighbors who couldn’t be more different discover a naked man on their security cameras walking around at night. They form a posse of neighbors to find out who this mysterious man is. I would love it if you bought a paperback or eBook.

I was a featured author at the Hill Country Literary Festival this past weekend in Bulverde, Texas at the Mammen Family Public Library. What a beautiful library and a fun event. I was on the “Paths to Publishing” panel with three other authors. Our moderator was Lori Mammen who asked great questions. I also read a couple of pages from my new novel Starman After Midnight. There were so many great authors featured there including May Cobb, Katie Gutierrez, Kimberly Garza, Lucy Griffith, Jenny Browne, and so many more. I sold some books and signed some books, plus got a sweet swag bag. A fantastic day overall!

Newsletter: February 2025 Edition

Notes from the Writing Desk, An Excellent Author Interview, and More

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Photo by Wilhelm Gunkel on Unsplash

Welcome to the February 2025 edition of my newsletter and… Did you watch that Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Half Time show? I’m sure you did and, if you didn’t—oh man, it was a doozy! Packed full of symbolism, it was one for the ages, surely to be studied and referenced for a long time to come. Without mentions of blunts, hoochie mamas, or bling as many may expect, it was a masterclass in Black history, U.S. political division, Lamar’s place in pop culture, and one of the most biting finales in a hip-hop beef EVER (sorry, Drake. Good luck coming back from this one). I really, really enjoyed it. There were the obligatory social media posts afterwards of “I didn’t get it” and that’s to be expected. Lamar is a next-level artist who can navigate between low and high brow, tell complicated stories, and drop bangers. Dude won a Pulitzer Prize for crying out loud (other popular musicians to do that = zero). Those of us in the business of telling stories recognized his mastery. He did it at the Super Bowl of all places. And the funny thing is, I don’t even like to watch football. I had to power through several minutes of some boring excuse for a sport to get to the good stuff. Anyway, up and onward to the newsletter.

Last month, I completed a first draft of a novel I started working on in July 2024. I’m keeping the title and description under wraps for now. It came out to 74,000 words in length, four thousand more than my target of 70k words. I felt really inspired writing this first draft. It brought me a lot of joy, which is something to celebrate in these troubled political times. Rather than inundate myself in national news, I curbed my desire to do just that and focused on writing this novel. It took a lot of discipline! It would have been easy to sink into the political-news rabbit hole and fume and seethe and grit my teeth, something I did a lot from 2016 – 2020 when our orange-baby overlord miraculously won the presidency the first time. But I was determined to focus on the joy of writing and I did just that.

Austin Liti Limits Episode 64 with ANTOINE WILSON is Out Now

Austin Liti Limits Episode 64 with award-winning author ANTOINE WILSON is available now. He talks to me about his excellent novel MOUTH TO MOUTH, one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2022. Such a fantastic interview! Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website.

Or watch right here:

Desideratum Podcast Episode Featuring Scott Semegran and his Novel The Codger and the Sparrow

I'm pleased to announce my appearance on the Desideratum Podcast along with the narrator from my audiobook The Codger and the Sparrow, Brian P. Craig. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning narrator Theresa Bakken, Brian and I discuss with Theresa how we created the audiobook with Vibrance Press as well as my thoughts into the creation of my story. I really hope you enjoy listening to our conversation! Please support the Desideratum Podcast by purchasing my audiobook through their affiliate link to Libro.FM, the audiobook retailer that supports indie bookstores.

Listen Now:

If you enjoy listening to podcasts in your preferred audio servce, then here are links to several:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube Music

Spotify