Dale E. Lehman's Blog: Lehman's Terms

It's been a long time in the works, but my post-apocalyptic novel Penitence is finally here! Pre-orders are being taken now. The street date is July 23, 2024.

Now you can purchase my books right here on my website. I’ve added a “Buy Books” link in the top menu. It’s a drop-down link. Click on it directly to go to my bookstore, or drop it down to access the “Merch” link where you can buy merchandise I’ve designed for you.

Why would I bother with this? My books are already available at major booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple Books. In fact, it’s mostly a way to reward my Story Corner subscribers. I can readily provide free ebooks by emailing them, but I can’t email a print book. I also don’t have a way to provide discount coupons through major booksellers. And that’s why I created this store.

When you subscribe to Story Corner, you’ll get a free electronic copy of The Fibonacci Murders (Howard County Mystery #1), plus “Seven Apples” (a Howard County short story). Then you’ll receive occasional discount coupons for my books, which you can use when you purchase them here. Problem solved!

I hope you’ll take a moment to browse the store and give me feedback on what you like or don’t like. Also, please let me know if you discover any problems in ordering. It’s new, so there may be a few glitches.

Thank you!

I am not much of a joiner. For most of my life, I’ve maintained only a few close connections, and most of those are family members. I suppose some of us are born more outgoing and others more aloof, but our early experiences probably also shape us. In school I was usually one of the better students, maybe not straight A but close enough to irritate some of my classmates, so it paid to be one of the quiet ones.

My family also moved several times, not with military frequency but enough. I was eight when we left my home town of Sylvania, Ohio for the Chicago suburbs. Three years later, we landed in Sacramento, California. Three years later, we returned to Chicagoland. Three years later, I was off to college. When you’re uprooted time and again, you learn most friendships are temporary, so it’s best not to get overly involved with anyone.

Same with work. Lots companies promote the idea of the workplace as a sort of family. I don’t much see it that way. Over the past forty-plus years, I’ve worked with 19 different groups for 13 different companies. Once I move on, I generally have zero contact with former coworkers, although there have been a few exceptions.

So when it comes to joining clubs or similar organizations, I’m not generally interested. I’m an amateur astronomer, for example, but I’ve never belonged to an astronomy club. I did make one exception some years ago: I joined the Baltimore Bonsai Club so I could learn about the art from people who were actively involved with it. That turned out to be both a great decision and a problem: great because I connected with some wonderful people and learned a lot from them, a problem because as time went on I had little time for club activities. I haven’t been active for some years now.

I have been a member of some online groups, though, principally Baha’i groups (my religion) and writers’ groups. Those are easier to manage and participate in, since all you need is an Internet connection. I’m also a member of the Maryland Writers’ Association, although I don’t participate much right now for lack of time. The only in-person writing group I currently participate in is a creative writing workshop I run at my local library.

Online groups make sense for those like me who have little time or inclination for in-person clubs. Indeed, my Story Corner is such a club. We don’t interact face-to-face, but we keep in touch. I tell you what’s going on in my world, send you book reviews and short stories, and even extend discounts on my books. You have easy access to send me feedback or make suggestions. We read each other’s emails at our leisure, not on somebody else’s schedule. Interaction is so much easier this way than through public events. (Not that public events aren’t good. I know people like to meet authors they follow. Alas, circumstances make that hard for me right now.)

So I’d like to invite you to join the club, even if like me you aren’t much of a joiner. I’ll give you some freebies as a thank you: a free electronic copy of The Fibonacci Murders (Howard County Mystery #1) and free access to “Seven Apples,” my first and so far only Howard County short story. Join here. It’s easy, just a simple little form.

Bonnie and Clyde they’re not!

When Melody Earls dropped her blue saddlebag purse on the table and castigated her husband Bernard for messing up the job, I knew they were a special pair of thieves even though their clever plan had fallen apart.

“An Incident at the Mall” was only my second flash fiction story, and it was basically just a joke. Yet it sparked a string of short stories and a forthcoming novel about two crazy lives of crime joined in head-over-heels-in-love matrimony. I couldn’t have envisioned a better outcome.

In “An Incident at the Mall,” Bernard devises a scheme to rob a jewelry store staffed by a colorblind clerk, but Melody mishears just about every critical instruction. The job fails hilariously, and Melody blames it all on him. The duo returns in “An Incident at the Grocery Store,” where a cash drop goes wrong when Melody becomes more interested in a bag of chips than the money. Next, the theft of a solid gold porcupine flops in “Happy New Year!” when Melody’s light little fingers nab something else entirely.

Formulaic stories all, they nevertheless set the stage for something bigger: a novel. By the time I wrote the fourth Bernard and Melody flash fiction story, I was deep into that novel and had learned much more about them. An art theft in “The Photograph” fails as before, but Melody has become an art aficionado . . . in a manner of speaking. In “Washed Up,” we discover her unique talent for worming out of bad situations when she saves Bernard’s life after a jewel theft goes wrong. In “Still Life with Melody,” the duo discuss art (sort of) while searching for a new vict — er, doing business development at an extravagant book signing. Finally, Melody saves Bernard a lot of trouble when she nabs the wrong jewel in “On the Subjectivity of Value.” Well, Bernard thought it was the wrong jewel, but clearly he has no sense of fashion!

You’ll find the whole collection on Medium.com, where I’ve assembled an introduction and index to them. Medium hides stories behind a paywall but lets you read three a month for free. If you’d like to explore them in more detail, the membership fee is $5/month or $50/year. However, I give my Story Corner subscribers free access to many of my stories. Plus, I give you a free ebook and short story with your subscription.

But back to Bernard and Melody. The novel is titled Weasel Words, a phrase referring to words or statements that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading. Think advertising. Or politics. Or the story itself. Therein, Bernard and Melody are hired to steal a sterling sliver statuette of a pine martin, a European species of weasel. The little monster is a family heirloom currently in the possession of the eldest of five wealthy siblings. His brother wants it for his own. So does his other brother. And his sister. And his other sister. And one of his brother-in-laws.

As the Earls duo worms their way into the family’s social circle, they begin to wonder what this job is really about. After all, the weasel isn’t worth that much. So what is the family hiding? Bernard wants to know. Melody just wants a tablet computer of her very own. Obtaining either may prove harder than they expect.

Weasel Words should be released late in 2020. Subscribe to Story Corner to receive updates on developments as they occur.

The release of my long-awaited science fiction/humor novel Space Operatic approaches! The book will be available in March, probably around the middle of the month. I’ll let you know the exact date, pricing, and other juicy details once everything is set.

Meanwhile, feast your eyes on the cover:

Space Operatic is a tale of high culture–yes, opera–on the fringes of our solar system, surrounded by corporate greed, abuse of power, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, outrageous lies, intense loathing, inane conversations, and more unintended consequences than you can shake a stick at.

It’s taken me five years to bring the novel from concept to publication, so I’m excited to finally be able to present it to you in all its madcap glory. Make sure you don’t miss the release. Subscribe to Story Corner for all the news and updates. Plus, you’ll get a free gift just for signing up.

As November draws to a close, I’m wondering what happened to June. Seriously. Life has moved at breakneck speed for the past half year. Here’s the short list:

Starting a new day job.A vacation in Denver, including excursions into the Rockies and a drive to the summit of Mt. Evans.Selling the house we called home for the past 24 years.Downsizing to a new home, with the attendant divesting, investing, moving, and reorganizing.Closing our publishing imprints One Voice Press and Serpent Cliff.Creating a new imprint, Red Tales.Trying to find time to write.

The last has been a challenge, given how crowded the days have been. I published rather less on Medium, made zero progress on Howard County Mystery #4, and completely failed to move Space Operatic to publication, as I’d promised in my last post back in March.

Yeah, March. I haven’t been posting here much, either.

The good news is, things are starting to free up just a little. My short story “Hot Ice” did well in the NYC Flash Fiction Challenge, placing fifth in my group of 30 entrants. I’ve kick-started HCM #4 (I’ll let you know the title once I figure it out myself), and here’s the big news:

Space Operatic will be released March, 2020.

This is, of course, God willing. Kathleen will tackle final editing, typesetting, and layout starting in January. The cover reveal will likely be end of January, beginning of February. You can read a possible cover blurb in my last post.

Space Operatic is a humorous science fiction tale featuring grand opera, corporate greed, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, and plenty of unforeseen consequences, all on the outer fringes of our solar system. Here’s a small sampling:

Liwanu eyeballed Pauli as a disappointed teacher might a daft student. “Space Operatic is here to raise morale, not make commercials.”

“They’re here to sell tickets,” Worthington snapped. “Where’s the facilities manager? What am I doing here, anyway?”

“You were invited.” The Culture Minister offered him a grim smile, as though she thoroughly enjoyed watching him writhe under torture. Which, he knew, she did.

“No kidding.”

“Didn’t raise his morale,” muttered Liwanu’s appointments secretary, a plump fellow with a face bearing an odd resemblance to a manatee’s. Liwanu smacked him on the arm, a rebuke he took with amazing aplomb. “Hey!”

Pauli drew himself up to his full height, which wasn’t impressive but probably made him feel vaguely assertive. “We could use them. That Macaroni fellow—”

“Maccarone,” Liwanu corrected.

“—would make a great spokesman.”

“At least Nabucco had an escape door,” Worthington grumped. He had no use for an opera company or the owner thereof, no matter how charismatic. What he really needed was one more body on the board of directors, a loyal sidekick who would unhesitatingly follow his lead, a yes-man too stupid or too desperate to question him. He wasn’t going to find such a stooge standing around here.

Liwanu looked out the window and up into the darkness. She pointed. A pinprick light had appeared in the sky: the transport beginning a cautious descent in the feeble gravity. It brightened with almost imperceptible leisure. “Forget Maccarone,” she told Pauli. “He’s a purist. Even if he needs the money, he’d be too stupid to take it.”

Watching the light grow, unsure that it actually was growing, Worthington pondered that and thought, Hmm.

[From Space Operatic, chapter 2, © 2019 by Dale E. Lehman ]

Please help me spread the word. Let’s make March fun!

See the right sidebar? Those are my new covers for the first three Howard County Mysteries. The new editions, published by Red Tales, are now on sale all over the place. You should be able to find them at your favorite online store. Brick-and-mortar stores can order them for you, too. If you don’t mind the original covers, you can still get them at clearance prices at Serpent Cliff.

So that’s one big job for 2019 crossed of my list. Next up: Space Operatic! If you’ve been following me, you’ll have heard me mention it here and there. We’re starting the book design now. The novel will be released sometime later this year (release date to be determined). To whet your appetite, here’s a possible blurb for the back cover:

Curse be damned!

Roberto Maccarone has taken his company, Space Operatic, to the fringes of the solar system in pursuit of artistic acclaim. But in the cold dark of the Oort Territories where the culture scene is lower than that found in most petri dishes, Lady Luck plays hard-to-get. Maccarone’s theater blows up, a power-mad businessman tricks him into spying on a gang of malcontent miners, and a horde of ruthless mercenaries descend, guns blazing. Really, now, how hard can it be to stage a performance?

Some say a curse has followed the company ever since that incident on Titan, but Maccarone will never lose faith, especially since he’s discovered that the most fabulous theater in the solar system lies just next door, cosmically speaking. If only he could play that theater, Maccarone’s success would be assured! But the keys are held in the icy grip of the local Culture Minister, and nothing–not Maccarone, not obscene amounts of money, not even that guy who juggles flaming kabobs while singing an ancient song about how great America was–can pry them loose. Will it be fame for Maccarone and his troupe? Or unemployment in Beelzebub’s outhouse?

Let me know what you think!

In July 2018, I undertook a small experiment and wrote a short story while readers “watched.”

Naturally it wasn’t quite like that. I wrote and published the story on Medium.com, so nobody was actually looking over my shoulder. Instead, I inserted comments as I wrote, indicating some of my thought processes and points at which I took breaks. The result was “Zoe,” one of my most popular Medium stories to date, not bad for a first draft. Two weeks later, I published the final version, which contained substantial edits. You can read both versions here:

Zoe – first draftZoe – final version

I like to think the story proved popular because it’s good, but a lot of writers found it valuable in another sense: they got to see some of my thought processes. The experiment proved so successful that I repeated it in more detail. The result was “The Test.”

“The Test” was presented in three versions, a first draft, a revised draft, and a final draft. The first draft included notes written while writing. The revised draft included notes about what I revised and why. The final draft was the completed story without commentary. If you’re interested in seeing how a story evolves, “The Test” provides a deeper look. You can read all versions here:

The Test – first draftThe Test – revised draftThe Test – final version

If you’re interested in the writing process, I hope you enjoy these experiments and find them valuable. And if not, I hope you enjoy the final versions. Thank you for reading!

In the main, my stories are pure fiction cobbled together from ideas no doubt informed by my experiences but not directly borrowing from them. But there are exceptions.

As 2019 dawned, I wrote a short story based on a writing prompt, a list of words on the theme “wishing well.” (A link to the story appears at the end of this post.) The prompt happened to coincide, give or take a few months, with some research I had been doing that led me to the Celtic goddess Caolainn, the guardian of a magic well in western Ireland. Caolainn used the well to grant wishes, but often her gift was cautionary in nature: be careful what you wish for!

This confluence of events led me to feature Caolainn in the story, with a small twist on the cautionary nature of her generosity. But before I got that far, I had to have someone to make a wish. I found two someones, a young couple named Ian and Piper, hiking not through western Ireland but the western United States.

The change of venue is a nod to my own youth. When I was in junior high school, my family lived in Sacramento, California, where as part of a Boy Scout troop I spent many wonderful days camping and hiking in the mountains. Once, while tripping down an old forested dirt road in the Sierra Nevada, we came upon the shell of a building whose floor was littered with core samples.

The building might once have been part of an exploratory operation by a mining company. All they left behind was the building, the small rock cylinders, and possibly the road itself. No other traces remained. We all picked up a few cores and took them home for souvenirs. I kept mine for some years, but eventually it vanished along with a number of other interesting rocks I’d collected. I don’t know what became of it.

Now that particular ghost inhabits a story. Ian and Piper stumble upon the building, speculate on its significance, and pick up a few samples of their own before moving on. Initially I plugged this reminiscence into the story merely because I wanted to, but then it took on greater significance. The couple find another ghost, an abandoned fire tower, and through these encounters their characters are revealed before Caolainn, who herself possesses some ghostlike qualities, offers to grant them each a wish.

So there’s the story behind the story. As for the story itself, here you go: The Wish. I hope you enjoy it.

[ Image courtesy SidLitke via Pixabay . CC0 Creative Commons . ]

In his song Friends With You, John Denver marveled at what a wonderful friend time was, giving us children, wisdom, stories to tell, and more. He had a point.

But some days, time seems to be our biggest enemy, or rather, lack of time does. We end up with so much on our plates that we can’t possibly attend to it all, and things end up not getting done. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha once said after noting that he hadn’t written to his sister in a long time, “When the most important work is before us, the important must wait.”

That’s why this blog has languished for some time. I have four jobs right now, and blogging is part of the one that gets done in my “spare” time. My day job pays the bills. A side gig I have with a former employer adds a much-needed boost to the kitty. My sideline as CEO and President of One Voice Press doesn’t pay us anything, so we’re in the process of shutting that down. Even so, it takes up some of my time. And then there is my writing, which pays me about enough for a tank of gas every month. Blogging is connected to that, so it often doesn’t get done.

Still, I have good intentions. I hope in 2019 to return to more active blogging.  In the meantime, I’d like to share with you a holiday story I wrote for Medium.com about a cat, an artificial Christmas tree, and a meteor. It’s called “Falling Star.” I hope you like it.

Whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope they are filled with joy, love, and friendship. I’ll see you again in 2019, or if time permits, maybe a bit sooner.