2020-10-08: 

This is the first of my infrequent newsletters. You are receiving this because you are either one of my First Readers or you signed up for my newsletters at my website above. In either case, you can easily unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of this message.

Feel free to share this newsletter with others. I need all the marketing I can get.

I must confess, it smacks of hubris to assume anyone is particularly interested in anything I have to say other than my work. You can stop reading at any time. There is no quiz at the end, but there may be prizes.

As this is my first newsletter, there is some catching up to do.

A quick historical recap:

I’ll not go as far back as my childhood. If you are interested in my official author’s bio, you can find it here:

https://DomenickVenezia.com/about/

Website & publishing: In May 2020, after writing five novels in five years, and although I was loath to interrupt my writing with the mundane work of publishing and marketing, I bit the bullet, girded my loins, and went to work. All my DIY covers had been quickly thrown-together, and to compete in Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing you need eye-catching covers that look good as thumbnails on mobile devices. Basically, a cover has a quarter second to stop the user’s scroll.

I found a wonderful cover/web designer (Maddee, https://xuni.com) and put her to work. I was not the easiest client. I was polite, even delightful at times, but way slow. It took me forever to get her the content she needed. I agonized over everything—dozens of potential stock photos for each composite cover design, book descriptions, blurbs, research references, and, oh God, a biography and photos. While Maddee worked on the website, I climbed the steep learning curve to self-publish my first four books on Amazon’s KDP.

We started in September 2019 with a January First go-live target date. My agonized dithering led to a go-live date in May 2020 simultaneous with the Amazon publication of Linc Malloy’s four book series.

Yea! I’m a published author, lost in the confusing morass of a million and a half others.

While publishing was a major and distracting endeavor, entering various writing competitions was quick and easy, although I hate writing synopses. Try summarizing a 95k word complex plot and nuanced characters in 250 words.

However, since 2017, I have had some competitive success, and to toot my own horn, I didn't do too badly. At the least, it’s a sort of validation of my work’s worth.

LIBERATOR LEGACY — Linc Malloy Book 1

2017 Clive Cussler Collector’s Society Adventure Writer’s Competition Top 10 Semifinalist

2018 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Faulkner–Wisdom Competition Semifinalist

2019 Chanticleer Book Reviews Somerset Finalist

MINIDOKA LEGACY — Linc Malloy Book 2

2017 Clive Cussler Collector’s Society Adventure Writer’s Competition Top 3 Finalist

2018 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Faulkner–Wisdom Competition Semifinalist

SURINAME LEGACY — Linc Malloy Book 3

2017 Clive Cussler Collector’s Society Adventure Writer’s Competition Top 10 Semifinalist

2018 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Faulkner–Wisdom Competition Semifinalist

2019 Chanticleer Book Reviews Somerset Semifinalist

ANGEL’S SALVATION — Linc Malloy Book 4

2019 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Faulkner–Wisdom Competition Finalist

2019 Chanticleer Book Reviews Somerset Long List

DO NO HARM — A Medical Thriller — Coming Soon

2020 Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Finalist

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

In the fourteen-year history of Clive Cussler Collector’s Society Adventure Writer’s Competition, I was the only author to get three novels into the Top 10 Semifinals. Minidoka Legacy rose into the Top 3. As a finalist, I was interviewed against a backdrop of classic cars. A Minidoka Legacy book trailer was also produced for Minidoka Legacy. The awards presentation was held at the Cussler Auto Museum in Arcadia, CO. Over 100 classic cars from 1906 to 1965 all in pristine running condition. It alone was worth the trip.

Follow the links if you are interested in any of it.

Minidoka Legacy was edged out for the Grandmaster Award by Nate Granzow’s Phaistos Paragon. However, I was invited to be a competition judge, and have been for the last three years. Judging has been a great learning experience. It is humbling to recognize flaws in others’ work that you somehow missed in your own. Perhaps parents would understand.

So, I’m published with some kudos, but still lost among myriad others on Amazon. Now, I need to do some marketing—more not-writing. One of the keys to marketing is reviews. It’s counter-intuitive, but you need reviews to get reviews. The more personal reviews a book has the easier it is to get organizational reviews, and organizational reviews are a key marketing tool.

I need reviews but no pressure. If you have read one of my books and you feel so inclined, I would appreciate a review. But as I tell my First Readers—no pressure—no guilt. Thank you.

Shakespeare wrote, “What’s past is prologue.” So, what have I been doing recently?

Of course, recently is relative. Last year I wrote, Do No Harm, a medical thriller about a universal cure for cancer, a subject near and dear to my heart—and throat. I leveraged my biotech experience and put in science, medicine, corporate intrigue, human suffering, human triumph, and thrilling unexpected developments. I like it a lot and am in the process of publishing.

The bad news: I was firing on all cylinders, more than halfway through Linc Malloy Book 5, Transplant Mercy, in which Linc is hired to transport a human organ, when all hell broke loose across the country—riots, violence, and insanity. If you’ve read my work, it’s carefully researched, realistic, and plausible. When anarchists in Portland, Oregon starting using some of the techniques I had used in the story, I realized I was writing a domestic terrorist handbook. I had to ditch 30k words, and a major plotline. Damn! It was good, somewhat terrifying, with a high potential body count. The 20k that remains is strong and awaits inspiration.

The good news: My current active novel project is a new LM05, Angel’s Legacy, a direct sequel to LM04, Angel’s Salvation. Linc gets himself into another fix, gets another cool airplane, and I get to learn something of Guatemala.

I haven’t written a short story since my ninth Edwerd, back in December 2017. Someday, I will make them available or collect them into a novel-length character arc. A couple weeks ago, I woke up with a short story in my head. 1400 words later I had it plotted. The narrative for Miss Agnes is in process currently at about 2500 words.

Feel free to email me at Domenick@DomenickVenezia.com with any questions, comments, suggestions, or insults.

There is a prize! As a reward for enduring this missive, you can download the aforementioned first Edwerd short story. This slightly weird story, which wrote itself one night in 2014 while I slept, sets the basis for a series of ever-weirder Edwerd stories. I’ll send a link to another with each newsletter. Collect the whole set! Feel free to share them with others.

Thank you for your time,

D