Gentle Readership,

I’m happy to tell you that I’ve finished the draft of a new novel. It’s called The Year of Perfect Sight. What’s it about? Glad you asked!

Wesley Bennett wants the girl at the bar, but the apps in his vision can’t help him remember her name. He’ll have to follow her down the streets of New York, into a nightmare world of social media addiction, hallucinatory apps in vision, and dubious diagnoses of schizophrenia.

I’m still figuring out whether I’ll pursue traditional or indie publishing with this one. A Chair Between the Rails didn’t sell as well as I hoped, and I swore off self-publishing after that. But now I can see why the book didn’t take off. It just didn’t hook people. My mistake. I felt pressured to put out something else in the Vaulan Cycle, but I was already growing beyond that series artistically. A Chair Between the Rails is spiritual and psychological, a rather abstract journey. While the new one retains that kind of vision, it’s also much more commercial and, I hope, capable of hooking people. I mean, people’s eyes light up when I tell them the premise in person.

As I prepare for potential self-publishing, I’ve worked up a few covers. Kindly let me know which one you prefer.

1) This is the latest iteration. It’s my favorite.

2) I like the feel of this one, but it needs more contrast and a better-defined hierarchy.

3) This one is creepy (good), but I think the code spewing out of the eye might be too busy.

3a) A darker version.

Thoughts, anyone?