I've been writing fiction for a long time, but I never tried to publish anything until recently. I always knew it would be difficult--some of my friends even told me it would be impossible--but I decided to give it a try anyway.

As it turned out, my friends were right. But even as the rejection letters started to pour in, I refused to be discouraged. I just kept writing and writing, in the vain hope that I'd eventually create a literary work of art that someone would want to publish. But after the stack of rejection letters got so huge that it took two people to lift it, I began to think that nothing I wrote would ever get published unless I published it myself. So that's what I decided to do.

Fortunately, self-publishing is easier now than it's been in the past, due to the growing number of Print-on-Demand publishers. These companies make it easier and less expensive for writers to publish, market, and distribute their books.

Since 2005, I've been gradually publishing everything I've written that I think is worth reading. You can go to just about any online bookseller and order all my books, or you can browse through this web site and see if anything I've written seems interesting to you. If nothing does, then you have something in common with the vast majority of publishers and literary agents. Otherwise, you can check this site occasionally for up-to-the-minute information about publishing dates. You can also email me for any other information.

In the Bibliography section of this web site, I mentioned that I sometimes think my second novel, Vacationing with Jel, is one of the best things I've ever written. That's true, but the rest of the time I think the short stories collected in Essential Stories are probably the best things I've ever written. Now you have the chance to decide for yourself.

It's available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and just about every other online bookstore, or you can get it from the publisher, iUniverse. At only 28.5 cents per story, you can't go wrong buying this book, but if you'd like to read the first few stories for free, you can do so here.

It's still not my favorite of the three novels, but based on what I've learned from publishing the other two, my tastes aren't necessarily the same as everybody else's. So you might absolutely love this book. Or you might not. There's no way of knowing until you read it. You can read the first chapter here, or you can buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iUniverse, and virtually every other online bookstore. At $15.95, it's almost a bargain.

As for The Useless Detective, I should actually be done proof-reading it this week. Once that's done, I'll need to create a front cover for it, and then I can send it off to be published.

But these things often take a lot more time than they should, so it might not be ready until early next year.

If you're looking for an engaging offbeat tale of enduring love, I can't think of a better book for you to buy. It's only $16.95, which is less than the cost of the previous book. (For those who are interested, iUniverse sets the price based on the number of pages, not on the quality of the book.)

It's available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and everywhere else fine books are sold. You can also buy it at iUniverse, or you can read the first few pages here.

If you're not sure you want to buy it, you can learn more about the book here--you can even read the first chapter online if you want, but to maximize your reading pleasure, you'll probably want to buy a copy and read the whole thing.