You know we’ve been growing and expanding.
But growing pains are tough.
It’s one thing to say, “hey, these books are on Apple now,” or “We’re so close to hitting a target on Youtube.”
It’s another for those words to mean anything.
Lining up the next book in a series is tough, especially in The Shadowboxer Files.
I’m a big fan of Brill Wingfield.
I have the second most number of books outlined in this series, yet it doesn’t move well.
Not on Amazon, not on Barnes and Noble or any other place to get them.
And I’m not sure of the reason.
A smart man would drop it.
Or change it all into SCI FI, which is a consideration.
We’ll still have hitmen in the future, right?
Or make him a magical hitman.
Dresden did pretty good with one of those guys showing up in a book.
Yet still, yesterday, as I reviewed and worked on THE DEATH KING, I couldn’t help but like him the way he is.
So who knows where it will go.
I’ve got a long drive ahead of me today to a baseball tournament in Kansas City.
Lots of time to ponder and consider.
Cold coke in the console and whatever music the side seat decides to play.
I will be thinking of you, and these daily topics.
Of growth and expansion and how to keep affording to play this game.
Because my favorite part of it all…
Of publishing…
Of video making…
Of daily outreach to you…
Is the game of it.
Which is what I tell #10.
If you love the game, it might not love you back.
But…
Your love of it can carry you through the low points.
It does, and I do and here we are, with an excerpt from The Death King, just for you.
"Did you get that?"
"Who's going to pay for this?" Carver asked.
"Take it out of my cut."
"You don't have a cut," said Carver. "You donated the last one to the nuns and orphans."
"And how much of that did you keep? Ten percent? Twenty?"
"Transaction fees are a bitch my friend."
"Perfect. You can bill me for this job. Use the transaction fee as a deposit."
Carver sighed. He would never understand why Brill wasn't motivated by money. After all they were in the "for hire" business. For hire implied get paid, and if Brill ran off every time some woman from his past called looking for help there would be no payment. And as he recalled this he sighed even harder because Brill had in fact run off at the last three phone calls to help damsels from his past, and there had been no pay.
"I know what the sigh means," Brill said.
"It means we can't pay bills on favors. And you have been doing a lot of favors."
"We did the billionaire. We did the Senator. Those were pretty big payments."
"We are an ongoing concern Brill. We have expenses and an image to maintain."
"Alright," said Brill. He knew it wasn't an argument he could win. Carver had been on the poor side of a rebellion in Angola, grew up in a village where food, water and shelter were a privilege denied many. He joined the rebellion to keep food in his belly after losing his family. When he immigrated to America, he embraced capitalism with a whole heartedness that bordered on obsession. The man had literally created a small empire by the sweat of his brow and fruits of his labor.
With Brill's help.
So it was only fair for him to want compensation.
"Call the billionaire," Brill continued. "Get the plane and ask him for a couple of jobs."
"I've lined up three," Carver smiled through the phone and Brill bit back a curse word.
The damn African had been playing him.
"Is the plane ready?"
"It is when you arrive. Since you're staying domestic, I've had a package placed on the plane. You just grab your kit and go."
"Line up a room, line up transpo, and let me know what I'm walking into down there," he said.
"I'm on it."
By I, Carver meant the army of assistants he employed virtually across the globe.
It wouldn't surprise Brill if the man had his group research started the moment he learned Embeth was in Arizona.
The VA's would put together a dossier and maps, each compiled from a different source for Carver to compile so no one person knew too much.
It was scary how the operated like cell's each responsible for a unique question and information to provide.
Carver was the head of a well oiled information apparatus that utilized technology to the fullest.
Crazy he hadn't seen advanced technology until he was sixteen and hadn't owned a cell phone until he was in his mid-twenties.
Brill hung up his encrypted sat phone and began packing.
It didn't take him five minutes because he kept several "go-bags" ready to slip on and out of the door.
He double checked the weather for South Arizona and added a jacket to the pack.
Nights under the Milky Way would get pretty cold where he was going, even as the daytime temps shot up over one hundred.
Now to get my on go back loaded and hit the road.
Get Them All and More When you Upgrade
1. Asset
2. Render
3. Operative
4. Sideways
5. Chokepoint
6. Decreed
7. In The Dark
8. True Nature
9. Nominee
10. False Flag
11. Burn Bag
12. Tin Trooper
13. Nazi Nukes – guest apperance
The Jake Burbank Mysteries
3. A Shot of Revenge
4. A Double Shot of Revenge
5. Death by a 45
Thanks for update, I'll check on those books. Hope others do.
Oh those long drives? That's what CD and audio books are for. I've found I don't get tired and don't dead the drive.