(Click for Kindle version)
There are actually several reasons why eBooks hadn’t been taken seriously by either readers or authors until fairly recently: the market was a free-for-all, prices were all over the map and delivery and security issues made it a risky place to put a year’s worth of your work.
In the past, commercial reading devices were expensive ($300+) and each one used a different format so your book selection was limited to only those titles that had been published in your reader’s format. This is still true, to some extent, although Sony offers a device that supports Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word formats along with their proprietary format. Of course no author in his or her right mind would release a novel in Word format if they intended to derive any income from the title!
You can say what you want about giants like Amazon, but until they began their big push the eBook market was a real mess. Titles ranged in price from zero to amounts rivaling print books and author royalties covered an equally wide range. For most authors, including me, it seemed about as appealing as jumping into a swimming pool full of piranhas. Amazon (and others) has finally created the perception of “value” for eBooks and royalties are more realistic and consistent.
An author’s biggest fear is (or should be) losing his or her work to the public domain. I personally spend a year of my life writing a novel and if a pirated version of it suddenly started appearing all over the Internet I would be crushed. In fact, I think I’d quit writing altogether. Today, eBook publishers such as Amazon offer Digital Rights Management (DRM) security, which locks your purchased title to a specific reader device or reader application. DRM is optional, but I refused to publish in eBook format until it was available.
Why did I pick Amazon’s proprietary Kindle format for my novels?
This question also has several answers. Because the Kindle is owned and sold by Amazon, there’s a certain amount of marketing leverage there. The print versions of my novels are also available through Amazon, so when you go to Amazon.com and search for “Tractrix” you’re going to see both the print edition and the new eBook edition listed on the same page – take your pick.
As mentioned above, the security provided by DRM was an absolute must for me. Contrary to popular belief, eBook does not mean “free book” so I waited until this issue was resolved.
However, the primary reason I chose the Kindle format was because I wanted to make my eBooks available to the largest possible market without spending a huge amount of time reformatting the 130,000 word manuscript for a dozen different readers. And what about the millions of people – LIKE ME – who don’t own any kind of reader? Once my title was published in Kindle format, it was instantly available to anyone who owns a PC, a MAC, an iPhone, an iPad, a Blackberry or the new Android. And this required no extra work and no extra expense thanks to Amazon’s FREE eReader software for the above listed devices. So if you own a Sony Reader or a Barnes & Noble Nook you can’t download my Kindle title directly to your device, but I’m betting you also have one of those other devices, too, so you can still read Tractrix in electronic form if you really want to.
Ready to buy? Click here to purchase the Kindle version of Tractrix from Amazon.
Jill Harris is actually a main character during the first half of Tractrix, until a government agent suggests she “disappear” for her own safety. Frank meets the tough ICU nurse when he first arrives in Las Vegas and he soon learns that her family and his investigation are intertwined. However, it is Tony who’s attracted to Jill and they develop a relationship that lasts through the end of the series.
Ben Kingston is an exobiologist employed by the Department of Defense who is brought in late in Tractrix to help Frank, Tony, Linda and Jim investigate the mysterious spheres that are the basis of the novel. Any more information about Ben would reveal too much of the plot, but suffice it to say that his isolated lab, dug into a hillside overlooking Area 51, contains an “out of this world” artifact.
“Fitz” and Susan Fitgerald, along with their dog Sandstrom, join the NWIDI team in the opening pages of book 2, Tsubute. Fitz and Susan are private jet pilots and Sandstrom’s primary role seems to be to pester and annoy Tony! Grrrr!
Bill Ito is a Japanese-American exchange student working in a small hotel on Yonaguni Island when the NWIDI team blows into town in Tsubute. Because of his perfect English and his extensive knowledge of the island, he becomes an unofficial team member until I’m forced to write him out of the story line in chapter 14.
Javier Reyes is introduced in chapter 1 of Triangle and remains a secondary character throughout the rest of the novel. Javier’s experience with a Mexican environmental group buys him a spot on the NWIDI team as they take to the ocean in search of the source of strange signals emanating from deep below the surface near Cuba. However, it is his resourcefulness that saves Linda’s life when they are sent on a covert mission deep into the island nation’s interior.
Miles Adderly is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who owns and operates a hotel on Andros Island in the Bahamas. When Frank, Tony, and Jim show up, Miles seems to be both an ally and an adversary but a book in his library provides Jim with important clues about the origin of artifacts found near Cuba. After teaching Frank how to use exotic rebreather diving equipment, Miles remains with Frank “to the very end” of Triangle – and the series.
After successfully deciphering the messages on the mysterious black spheres in Book 1, Jim is instrumental in determining the origin and purpose of some ancient objects his team discovers deep inside a Japanese mountain in Tsubute. But it’s his brilliant work with the submerged artifacts of Triangle that finally brings him the public recognition that has eluded him in the previous missions.
Linda becomes a much more prominent character in Tsubute, my second novel, when she’s inadvertently stranded on a remote beach in southern Japan and must make her way back to civilization through an underground cave system. She plays an even larger role in Triangle, the third book, when she and a Mexican national named Javier Reyes are asked to sneak into Cuba undercover and investigate strange happenings on the northwestern tip of the island. Later in Triangle, Linda finds her soul mate and her life forever changes.
While in Las Vegas, Frank begins to assemble his team – the characters you will meet over the next three days – and he eventually forms a non-profit organization called NWIDI to pursue his life-long interest in ancient archeological mysteries. After their successful mission in my first novel, Tractrix , they head off to a tiny Japanese island in the China Sea to explore a 9,000-year-old underwater pyramid in Tsubute, and then to the Caribbean to explore the submerged ruins of an ancient city in Triangle, the third and final book in the Seeds series. While Frank is mentioned numerous times in the first three books of the Parallel Ops series, he doesn’t really have a speaking part. Maybe he’ll return in The Teachers, the final book of this series!
