They are here! They are hidden among us! They will stop at nothing to destroy us!

 

That’s right! After much anticipation, SILENT INVASION is live and available for sale! If you’ve read DREAM TRAVELER or INSECTLAND, this is the book that started the series. I had release the sequels first, but now the full storyline will all come together. SILENT INVASION took fifteen years to finish. Not write, but finish. Here’s the history. The first draft was completed in September 1997 as a single, stand-alone novel. In November 1997 I got my first agent, Ann Luster of Luster Lit. She spent six months “shopping” the manuscript with no result. A few months after that, her phone got disconnected and I never heard from her again. Turns out, she was part of a huge author scam in the mid-nineties; anyone remember Edit Ink, and the six million dollar lawsuit against them? The only good thing is I never sent her any money, which is why I guess I was never even given a chance. Anyway, I rewrote SILENT INVASION, thinking the manuscript had flaws and decide to turn it into a series. I envisioned three books, each singularly a story, yet all three would have a grander meaning. I wanted these books to be wholly different from anything out there; wild, mind-bending novels for middle school through adult readers. In spring of 1998, I had started work on INSECTLAND, when I got offered representation again. This was a shady agency that did have a few legit sales. I had to pre-pay $300 for printing of manuscripts and materials or I could do it myself. I opted to do it myself (which probably put them off to me right away). It cost about $150 to get everything done and shipped to them. Again, many months went by without a word. Finally, I got a small plain envelope with a photocopied list of all the publishers they’d claimed to have sent it to and then a kind “wish we could do more and good luck with your life” note. By that time, I’d finished INSECTLAND and had completed a first draft of DREAM TRAVELER. I continued my quest for agents, but also started querying publishers. I wrote more novels, switching genres to noir thrillers and then back to sci-fi, on a yearly basis. On average, once a month I’d get a request for a read from either agent or publisher. Most all wrote me back detailing reasons why they didn’t take the book on and suggestions for change. I incorporated those changes and in June of 2006, I got a phone call that would change my life. Gary Heidt of Signature Lit in NY wanted to represent me. I went through the roof. This was a top agent, with huge sales, in a top NY agency. The high of that call lasted days. And in the months that followed, we had moments of sheer excitement as editors and publishers decide if they wanted to take the book on. We tweaked my other novels as an agent-author team and got so close to getting large advances that it hurt. Then, all of a sudden the publishing environment changed and competition for shelf space at the bookstore became overwhelming. Requests for my novels became less and less and then finally in August of 2009 Gary conceded that he couldn’t do anything else for me and we amicably parted ways. January 2010, I discovered Kindle publishing and my whole life changed. Still believing SILENT INVASION had a shot at the corporate publishing world I held off publishing it until now. If you’re interested in reading something completely original, fun, and adventurous, then I think you’ll like SILENT INVASION. Happy reading.

SILENT INVASION

  Thirteen-year-old Tim Madison’s life turns upside down when a strange visitor takes him aboard a magnificent spaceship to train for a future alien invasion. Returned home with new skills and this terrible knowledge, he confides in his two best friends about his experience. Now, they’re in a race against time to prevent an all-out attack on Earth. Can they stop the ruthless, spider-like creatures from constructing a massive extermination army deep inside our planet? Or will we all perish?