February - So Far

It’s past midnight. But I made it! The first song in my February song project is out and about. Listen in and enjoy. For time being, you can purchase So Far and the future rest of the February songs exclusively on BANDCAMP.

The timeline:

18:00: sit down to write song basics and initial lyrics, stop at 18:45 for dinner. True, 45 minutes, not too shabby, if I might say so.

20:30: continue the song. Redo the ending, structure the middle. Play with the capodaster of my guitar to find the right key, end up at A-major.

21:15: production start. A small ground track with my accoustic guitar and my vocals.

23:30 start mixing

0:00: done. My Mac is a little old, so it has problems rendering music with too many plugins. I give the mastering a very cheap shot, the vocal’s noise gate drives me crazy as it starts clipping off my vocals in the first verse. But 0:10 it’s done and I give it a listen. GEPO - good enough, proceed on.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you “So Far” the first song of my FEBRUARY song project. Song available on BANDCAMP.

Not Writing. Recording.

A quick update on what’s currently going on. Well, I’ll t ell you: a lot.

Podcast: You probably noticed by now, “The Transport” audiobook is in constant output state. A new podcast episode with three to five chapters every Monday. I just uploaded episode 8 to be scheduled on Feb 22nd. I needed to stay ahead of the curve in order to realize my new project, making music again.

Music: Yes, you heard right. With the production of the podcast came back the idea to do some music, too. Tinkering with keyboard, guitar and writing songs. More to come from February 1. I’ll have a separate post as an explainer on Saturday.

Writing: As I need some constant writing outlet, I started plotting for my next Troubleshooter thriller. It will be second book in my “inspired by current events” series, featuring Paul Trouble and Leah Steel. Their first adventure together was COVID Trouble of course. The new book has the working title “Billions of Troubles” and is inspired by the great, ugly, messy real life events around Germany’s Wirecard fraud scheme. A blue chip fin-tech company built on deceit and fraud, imploding after an inquiry by a journalist.

Out Now: The Transport - A SciFi Military Action Alien Thriller

New Year, new book. Sounds as if I had been busy over the last months. First the publication of my new Troubleshooter thriller COVID Trouble, and today the announcement of my first full-length scifi action novel The Transport.

But looks are deceiving. COVID Trouble had its first word written in July 2020 with an aim of 50K words, whereas The Transport already started way back in 2019. From the point of complexity, The Transport was way more ambitious. I aimed for 120K words, put down 130k, split up onto four point of view main characters. With a book of that magnitude, everything takes longer. The conception, the writing, the editing, the external editor reworks, whew!

The additional challenge for this book: I wanted to try something new regarding marketing. So I had the mad idea to create an audio book version of The Transport, too, and publish it as a Podcast. Several lifes ago, I used to be a recording musician and had some idea about recording technologies, but the step from a MIDI sequencer on an ATARI ST1040 to Pro Logic X on the Mac was a big one. But with the help of a lot of YouTube tutorials I managed to set up the narration in an acceptable quality (I hope, you’ll be the judges).

Out Now: COVID Trouble - explosive new thriller inspired by current events.

I am so happy to announce my latest “baby”: COVID Trouble. Started out as a spontaneous project in July, now out in print and as eBook on Amazon and Smashwords (and soon on all other platforms.)

Paris after 2020's COVID-19 first lockdown. France is getting ready for the summer vacations. Someone is infecting supermarket customers with the virus intentionally. 

A madman? A terrorist group? Or anti-Corona activists?

Marine-turned-corporate-troubleshooter Paul Trouble is tasked to support the Metropolitan Police in its investigation and teams up with the formidable but danger-seeking Leah Steel of Interpol. 

Soon, they'll find out it's not only the virus that's killing off people!

What they uncover will shake the City of Light!

"A Brilliant Plan" now available on INKITT.com

Someone pointed me to the Midsummer Mystery Contest writing competition on the storyteller platform INKITT.com and suggested that I submitted my novel “A Brilliant Plan". And I did, of course. I had it previously published as sort of a test balloon on the story platform Wattpad.com with great success. I never had received so many comments, likes and suggestions than anywhere else. I had over 190.000 chapters read on Wattpad, that’s around 4000 readers! I love it.

If you haven’t read “A Brilliant Plan”, do so! One of my first full length novels in the crime mystery genre, it still holds up pretty well. Well, I must say that, as I am the author. But almost ten years and over ten full-length novels later, it still holds a special place in my heart. It was the first book that I wrote, which story-wise shaped up the way I wanted it. In earlier attempts on other stories, I felt that I lacked the voice and the intensity to make a story work over 300+ pages. “A Brilliant Plan” changed that.

It’s available on various platforms by now, if you fancy reading it on phone, tablet or PC. And, of course, in print, too. Just head over to my books page for the various links.

[Updated] And off we go again... Calendar Moonshine "Brilliant #3" in the making

UPDATE Jan 3 2021: You maybe noticed, a lot of stuff has happened since this post from April. COVID Trouble took priority. The Transport completion took priority. And my new project, the Audiobook Podcast Version of The Transport, took priority. The remaining 79066 words of Brilliant #3 might come. But then, maybe not.

Chapter One, Word One. Thirty minutes later 934 words down. 79066 words to go. No pressure.

Should anyone be teased enough, I recommend of course the two first books in the Brilliant Series, both available in all major eBook Retailers and in paperback.

A Brilliant Plan - It was planned as a routine job: get in, crack the safe, fetch the diamonds. Instead Calendar finds a dead body and by sheer chance becomes involved to find the murderer and the stolen jewels. To stay out of jail, Calendar has to use all her wits, skills and charm. And must solve a century old jewelry mystery.

Brilliant Actors - What could be more exciting than attending the Academy Awards ceremony, joining the hottest after-show party, and have an A-movie star wearing your jewelry? All of the above, plus spending the rest of the night in jail after a precious piece of jewelry is stolen! Calendar gets thirty days to clear her name or go to jail—permanently.