Thursday, December 24, 2020

Status Report December 21, 2020

This has, beyond doubt, been the worst year of my lifetime. I suspect that most everyone I know feels likewise. My goal, achieved, was for my family and me to survive 2020. Looks like we’ve succeeded.

But it was a terrible year for almost everyone still living. The pandemic, accentuated by a chaotic lack of leadership in Washington, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, many of them avoidable.

Lockdowns, to reduce the number of deaths, lead to the near-collapse of the economy, which continues to stagger along at a death knell pace. There are more people unemployed right now than at any time since the Great Depression.

Yes, I know there is a ray of hope. The vaccines now being rolled out might easily end the pandemic, although this will take many months or possibly even years.

The legacy of 2020 will continue to dominate every aspect of life for years, or possibly decades.

If you write fiction, you have the following consideration: How can I write anything that has more tension than today’s reality? Not enough tension and readers will drop your book and just watch the evening news. Too much tension and readers will think you’ve taken the train to crazytown. Many of my friends who are writers have developed pandemic writer’s block. I’d decided to take 2020 off as a sabbatical back in November of 2019, so I was a bystander when the pandemic robbed so many of their will to write fiction.

Two people important in my life died this past year. My handler from my days as a spy died. I miss him. And the writer who inspired me to attempt to write my stories thinly disguised as fiction – John LeCarre –  also died. He was the model and icon writer for so many thriller writers. Without my living idols, I feel somewhat bereft. And we lost many, many others who were close friends and relatives. Some from Covid. Some from other causes.

During the past twelve months, I had dreams which, when I woke, I recognized as ideas for fictional titles, but I’s just saved them on my notebook computer. Now, as this wretched year concludes its arc, I’ve thought over whether there’s anything I want to write next year, and the answer is the I would like to write something. But what? Right now, creating fiction would be an act of desperation.

I feel that I should tread carefully now. It must be an idea that readers will find compelling and that means it must be character-based, not a plot-based book. My plots can’t compete with people’s ideas of 2020. It can’t take place in the future, since the future is becoming increasingly complex and impossible to forecast. It can’t be historical, since the past can’t compare with reader experiences of 2020.

So what I write next will take place in the here and now and focus on a small set of characters that reflect the worst fears we all have felt and still feel. The deaths of friends and family. The lack of available food and clean water. And no hope for a bright future. Okay, all that. But I’ll need an uplifting ending. And, that, friends, is what I don’t yet have.

I hope your holidays lift you from thoughts of what we’ve survived and help you focus on making the future something you can enjoy. 2021 is still a mystery to be figured out, day by day.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

My wife Andrea and I have been taking out food from our favorite restaurants here in the Central Coast of California. We worry that some of our favorite dining places won't make it.
My friend Jerry Krasnow, in Connecticut, offered this note o me as a partial solution to saving restaurants from disappearing during this pandemic. I found it valuable as a possible solution to the restaurant survival problem.
Here's Jerry's proposal. Read on:
"Face masks protect others; face shields protect you. Wearing both works best.
Because face masks block food and drinks, people must remove them; social distancing is the only “solution” offered today.
Face shields only need to be tilted up slightly to get food into one’s mouth. Straw use with face shields enables drinking. Distancing can be reduced so people can sit around tables safely.
Note: to keep the face shield protection, lean forward so the face is over one’s meal when eating. Lower shield when conversing.
Restaurants can open safely by requiring a face shield and straw use. For patrons who arrive without face shields, proprietors will provide them for customers to keep. It will create good will and repeat business.
Straws will come with all drinks.
A safe atmosphere will build up the customer base.
Legally enforcement penalty could be fine or closure. Yet given the need to build the customer base, proprietors will choose enforcement to survive and thrive.
Please broadcast this message to get the dialogue going for restaurants to reopen safely."

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Upcoming DS Kane Author Events

In early December 2019, DS Kane published FalseFlags, the tenth and final book of the Spies Lie series.

To honor that, there are two scheduled author events.

If you are going to be in the Central Coast of California, in Salinas or Carmel, here's your chance to meet DS Kane and acquire one of the Spies Lie series books, signed by the author:

Friday, February 7th from 5pm to 8pm
Downtown Books,
222 Main Street, Downtown Salinas, 93901
(831) 477-6700

Sunday, February 16th from 1pm to 4pm
River House Books,
208 Crossroads Blvd, Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA 93923
(831) 626-2665


FalseFlags, Book 10 – When two spies fall in love and marry, their honeymoon is more than either of them could imagine. Especially when the blueprints for a new military weapon are stolen and the dead drop is part of their itinerary.



Friday, January 4, 2019

DS Kane's upcoming Author Event at River House Books on Sunday, January 13, 2019

On Sunday, January 13, from 2 pm to 3:30 pm, DS Kane will appear at River Hous Books for an Author Event featuring a book signing. 

River House Books is an independent bookstore located at 208 The Crossroads Blvd, Carmel, CA 93923. Their phone number is 831) 626-2665.  

This event will celebrate the release of brAInbender, Book 9 of DS Kane's Amazon Bestselling Spies Lie series. We'll be serving light refreshments outside the bookstore. 

Here's more information on brAInbender:


A gifted Stanford hacker. A million-dollar prize. The contest? Create the world’s most advanced sentient AI…
Ann Sashakovich has returned to Stanford to complete her junior year. It’s there she sees the contest: create the world’s most advanced sentient AI. Win a million dollars.
But after running into her cheating ex-boyfriend, and having the intensity of the competition heat up, Ann is left shaken and unsure of her capabilities; or if she’ll be able to win at all. Worse, it seems likely that one of the teams is going to create an unstoppable AI, one without morals, without a conscience, an intelligence that could endanger all of humanity. 
When the contest AI’s are hacked, it’ll take Ann to stop the AI before it becomes sentient. If she fails, humankind will face an enemy with nearly omniscient power. No one would be safe.
DS Kane’s gripping ninth novel begs the question: just how dangerous could an AI be to the humanity that created it? 

If you have any questions, please email me at Dskane@dskane.com

Friday, November 2, 2018

DS Kane's brAInbender, Book 9 of the Spies Lie series cover reveal:

Coming soon: DS Kane's brAInbender, book 9 of the Spies Lie series. Here's the cover:



You can see that the sky is constructed of numbers and there is a giant eye above Ann's figure...

Saturday, July 14, 2018

"PAGE TURNERS" Local Author Event in Monterey on July 15

"PAGE TURNERS" ...
A Local Authors Book Fest!
Sunday, July 15, 2-5 p.m., Monterey Elks Lodge, 150 Mar Vista
Pre-event presentation at 1 p.m. by DS Kane: How to Write a Thriller
Co-sponsored by Central Coast Writers & Monterey Elks Lodge
FREE PUBLIC EVENT! Come to meet more than 40 local published authors. Book giveaways all afternoon. Wide variety of books available for purchase at “below Amazon” prices: mysteries, memoirs, children’s books, thriller novels, spy stories, poetry, sci-fi! Great chance to pick up books for later gifts.
Come, browse, enjoy!

Monday, March 12, 2018

DS Kane's MindField honored by Kirkus Reviews

I received this moments ago:

David –

I hope your week is off to a good start. I'm writing to let you know that your review for Mindfield was selected by our Indie Editors to be featured in Kirkus Reviews 3/15 Issue. Congratulations! Your review will appear as one of the 35 reviews in the Indie section of the magazine which is sent out to over 5,000 industry professionals (librarians, publishers, agents, etc.) Less than 10% of our Indie reviews are chosen for this, so it's a great honor. I will send you the digital copy when it comes out this week but I wanted to share the news...

All the best, 
Monique


Monique Stensrud
Advertising & Promotions Director
KIRKUS MEDIA LLC
o: 512.637.8665   c: 626.827.4154