Not only does it bring April showers, leading, I’ve been informed, to May flowers, (wait… rain sucks), but it is the month during which I was born, in a New York City hospital which no longer exists. (I suppose some might let loose an expressive “awww” because I can never visit the place of my birth, but this is actually all part of my plan to eradicate any evidence of my existence). And certainly, when I was a kid, birthday’s were a big deal. After all, it had been almost four full months since I’d gained any significant amounts of loot!

According to William and Harry, this is the look she always gets when she learns that I’ve called.

Also, as I share my birthday with the Queen of England, it always affords us the chance to catch up on the past 365 days of our lives: “Well, my grandson Harry’s getting married, I dedicated a battleship, and I worked on my wave extensively. You have to, you know, or you will lose the subtle nuances.” “Sounds like it’s been a great year. Let’s see. My car died, I’m getting sued by a panhandler for giving him Arby’s coupons instead of money, and my dog just threw up.” “Very similar to last year, then?” “Very.” 

This April promises to be special once again, in spite of the fact that I no longer wait frantically for my birthday to come. This April will be special because in only 9 days my new novel The Beauty of Bucharest will become available from Northern Lake Publishing!

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but you can read the first chapter of TBoB for free by clicking the “Book Excerpts” link at the top of the page, or if scrolling to the top of the page is a burden, the link right in this sentence. (As a lazy human myself, I always try to accommodate those similarly inclined or, more probably, reclined).

In fact, April promises to be a very big month for NLP, as Craig A. Hart’s latest Shelby Alexander thriller, Serenity Engulfed drops tomorrow, and the day after April takes it’s last bow the latest SpyCo novella, Assignment: London will also become available.

So it looks like you’ve got some reading to do.

Other News

The S.J. Varengo Readers group is picking up steam! As of today, we are only 30 members shy of 300, which will trigger another giveaway. This time the lucky winner will receive a signed copy of the new novel. (I’ve already gotten my hands on a few paperback copies to give away!).

If you’re already a member of the group, thanks for joining, and don’t forget that if you have friends who you think might be interested in joining the group, you can add them directly. (You might want to ask them first!)

If you’re not yet a member, click here to go to the page, then just click the “FOLLOW” button on the top of the page which will inform me of your desire to join. My pushing of the super-secret administrator’s “ACCEPT” button will follow almost immediately because I have almost no life at all, so I’ll be waiting.

Finally…

Early reviews for TBoB are up… check them out!

What’s Going On?

That is a question that has caused me anxiety in varying degrees throughout my life. A moment of particularly high anxiety occurred during high school when my mom burst into my bedroom while I was in there with my girlfriend. She asked that very question, quite loudly, and I had to assure her that we were just talking. Fortunately, the way my girlfriend was lying on my bed, mom couldn’t see that…

Three is a Mystical Number

Three. A number that throughout the ages has been imbued with symbolic and magical importance. To wit:

The Holy Trinity

The Three Wisemen

Three days in the tomb

Three-for-one jelly donuts at Dunkin

And that’s just in the Christian and the carbohydrates traditions. Here are a few others:

The Pythagoreans taught that 3 was the first true number (meaning 1 and 2 are liars, I guess)

Three is the…

All Our Writing Secrets…

  Would you buy a book from this man?

It’s been very cold here in Central New York. I’m talking below zero on a regular basis cold. When it’s this cold there are only a few things I enjoy doing, and most of them I can’t talk about here. Because they involve things like shoe sales and peel and eat shrimp.

I also like to write.

I’m sure if you’ve ever been to this blog before you’ve probably heard…

Dublin Dispatch - New Years Eve in Dublin. What a party!

Hello and greetings once again from the House that St. Paddy built! (I don’t know if anyone actually calls Ireland that, but it worked for the Yankees with Babe Ruth, so I thought I’d spin it. Probably for the last time.)

In my last communique, I told you about all the Christmas fun I was having. Dammit. Stupid auto correct. Of course, I meant to type “all the really hard, unfun work I’m doing to…

Hi! It’s your old buddy, S.J.V., writing again from the Emerald Isle, which contrary to what you may believe is not a gentleman’s club in Oz, but is a colorful name for Ireland, setting of the upcoming SpyCo novella, Assignment: Dublin. This is day number flrthiflr of my research trip. [Editor’s Note: “flrthiflr” is the sound Scott’s mouth makes when he rubs his hand over it while talking because…

Some Things I Can Tell You…

… others must remain unspoken.

What are your talking about, you lunatic? (Don’t you just love it when I read your mind and ask the question you were thinking?

I’m talking about the conversation that took place earlier today between myself and a certain author from Iowa City, namely my writing partner on the SpyCo thriller series, Craig A. Hart.

What did we talk about? (See? I did the psychic…

The Joy of Sittin’ In – A Black Friday Announcement

There’s a thing that happens sometimes when you go to a bar on open mic night. In general, the guys in the band standing behind that open mic are not super excited. It’s a gig, and it pays, but there’s a very good chance that they’re going to spend the entire night backing up people who shouldn’t even do karaoke, let alone be singing with a live band.

Steve Hurley is the blonde guy. When I knew…