Tag: Doctor Rowena Halley Series

Terminal Degree is now out!

Hello Everyone!

Happy New Year! May 2025 be a year of peace and plenty for all.

Sadly, I was just texting with a Chechen acquaintance about the Ukrainian drone strikes on Grozny, so not really an upbeat end to 2024/start to 2025. If the way you greet the New Year is the way you’ll spend it, then this is not very promising. However, I’d like to think that we have a certain amount of control over our actions, and can consciously choose to act for the better.

Which, as it happens, is a recurring theme in Terminal Degree, which is out now! The ebook and paperback are out today, with the audiobook to follow shortly (I hope). Universal link here. (As a side note, it looks like Kobo may be giving out an old file, even though from my end it’s telling me it has the updated, most recent draft. Sigh… If you get it from Kobo, you will get the complete book, but there might be a few extra typos and maybe some hinky formatting. If you think you got the old file and you’d like the new one, let me know and I’ll send it to you).

Anyway, Terminal Degree starts on December 31st, and is full of themes of karma (kind of a theme of the entire series), redemption (ditto), and helping each other (actually, also kind of ditto). Frankly, from where I’m sitting right now, we as a species could really use a lot of all three. I hope that Terminal Degreeprovides a little hope to its readers, in amongst all the darkness that the characters are navigating. 

Cover and blurb below, and once again, wishing you peace, love, and joy for 2025!

Rowena Halley has hit a dead end. Will it leave her dead?

Russian professor Rowena Halley is at the end of her money, the end of her job contract, the end of her romantic hopes…the end of her tether. And just when she thinks she can’t take any more, she gets dragged into not one, but two sticky situations by her nearest and dearest. Her friend Mel needs her help dealing with a scammer, and her long-lost paternal grandparents want her back in their lives—with cultish strings attached.

But Rowena has even bigger problems. Her ex-fiancé, opposition Russian journalist Dima Kuznetsov, comes to America, bringing old history and new danger with him. Rowena wants to believe they have a future as a couple. The mercenaries and hitmen Dima has been tangling with over the years could mean they don’t have a future, period. And revelations about Dima’s most recent deal with the Devil cause Rowena to doubt their chances to make a life together, even if they do survive.

Rowena wants a happy ending for everyone. But with this many bad guys mad at her, the ending she’s most likely to get is the terminal kind.

Content warning: This book contains an Air Force veteran, an officer in the Marines, and an ex-member of the Russian OMON. The language is accordingly salty.

Get it here!

Want to know what songs are fueling my writing process?

Hello!

Hope your 2024 is continuing to go well–January is such a long month, isn’t it? If you’ve been hit by the various storms that have been sweeping across North America, I hope they haven’t been too exciting. We’ve had thunderstorms, floods, deep freezes, and now flooding again, but so far we’ve at least avoided tornados (knock on wood).

I’m continuing to work on Terminal Degree, the last (planned) book in the Doctor Rowena Halley series. It’s currently looking like it’s going to be rather long, so I don’t have a good idea of when it will be finished, but I thought I’d share a little more of the creative process behind it.

But first, it’s the last weekend of the Strong Women promo, with dozens of free books, including mine! Check it out here.

As I’ve mentioned before, part of my creative process can include specific songs and playlists to either set the mood or provide ideas for plot and character. Total Immersionhad the songs of Florence + the Machine as a running thread throughout the story, for example, while the character Mel listens to the songs of Hayley Kiyoko.

When I started writing Total Immersion, I happened to be listening to “I Wish It Would Rain Down” by Phil Collins (there’s that wild weather again). To be honest, I haven’t quite worked out how the song is going to feature in the book yet, but I have a strong feeling that it needs to. The problem is that it’s a song about endings, and while Terminal Degree will have lots of endings in it, as you might guess from the title, it will also have lots of beginnings, especially for the complex romantic lives of the series’ main characters. So while the melancholy of “I Wish It Would Rain Down” is part of the mood I’m going for, it’s only one part of what is looking to be a long and complicated book.

Then–and I don’t even remember how or why–I went on a Gary Allan kick. I’ve included his songs in earlier books, specifically in relation to Rowena’s brother John, who is a fan. This time, I haven’t name-dropped Gary Allan (yet–the book is still far from finished), but I have included a side plot about John based on the song “Man to Man.” How this will turn out is still to be determined. 

Terminal Degree is supposed to end on a hopeful note (spoiler alert!), especially (further spoiler alert!) for the characters’ personal lives. A song I’ve had on repeat while working on scenes involving second-chance romance (because there’s going to be some of that, of course!) is “Bartender” by James Blunt. In fact, I’ve been binge-listening James Blunt for the past several weeks, as his music is full of themes that feature heavily in the stories, such as trauma, self-criticism, and regret. If that sounds too sad, it’s not! At least, I find James Blunt’s music delightful, with catchy tunes and unexpected moments of humor, and I’d like to think my books have glimmers of humor and hope as well.

What about you? Are you listening to anything you’d like to share right now? I’m always happy to get more listening recommendations!

Oh, and here’s that link to the Strong Women book giveaway again.

Happy reading!

Sid Stark

Massive end-of-year sale on Smashwords!

Hi All!

Happy holidays, and if you’re in the path of the giant cold front that’s currently threatening to sweep across most of North America, I hope you’re staying warm! 

I myself am currently trying to recover from a hectic week of grading and other excitement. The good news is that I managed to get my final grades in with hours to spare. The even better news is, well, see below…

If you’re wondering what Smashwords is, it’s an ebook distributor. They recently merged with Draft2Digital, the distributor that handles my ebooks, and so all my ebooks are now on the Smashwords store.

This is exciting for authors because the Smashwords store offers the best royalties in the business. And they are holding a MASSIVE sale from now until January 1st, so now is the time to check them out! You can access the main storefront here and my personal page here.

Well, I’m sure we all have pre-holiday stuff to do, or maybe just relaxing for the weekend, so I’ll end it there. As always, happy reading!

Sid Stark

Reading Recommendations and a Request for Help

Hi All!

I hope you’re enjoying your July. I’m trying, with marginal success, to stay calm, cool, and collected. I’ll get back to you next month on how that’s working.

I have gotten in some pretty great reading recently, at least. So if you’re casting about for something to read, here’s what I’ve been enjoying:

With the interest in reading works by black authors at a high, now is a great time to check out some great thrillers by black authors, featuring black characters. I just read a couple of books from Kevin Macklin’s Jon Dough series, about a drug dealer with a heart of gold who deals out vigilante justice on the side. Maybe it sounds a little off the wall, but “Certain Reprisal,” the book I just finished, has some very telling and prescient critiques of police violence. Plus the books are zippy, fast-paced thrillers that will keep you turning the pages to the end.

In a different but equally enjoyable vein I just finished “Take a Number” by Janet Dawson. The book came out in 1993, so it’s got some amusingly dated stuff in it about fax machines and pay phones (remember those days? What a blast from the past!), but at its heart it’s a complex, richly told mystery featuring a spunky female PI. If you like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series, you should definitely check out Dawson. Plus, in “Take a Number,” the heroine is dating a Navy officer named Alex, to my intense amusement!

(Spoiler alert!!!!!!

 

 

 

My heroine Rowena dates an ex-Navy officer named Alex.

 

 

 

Spoiler over).

 

What about you? Any great reads lately?

Okay, and in a slightly related vein, this is where I ask you for help. First of all, now that my newsletter is getting bigger, I’m setting up a separate ARC team. So if you’re interested in being an ARC reader/reviewer for me, please click here. You’ll get first crack at reading books before they’re released. You’re not obliged to leave reviews, but of course I would appreciate honest reviews, preferably left on at least two platforms since I’m in the process of expanding beyond Amazon.

Here’s that link again.

Second of all, I’m currently working on “Honor Court,” the next book in the Doctor Rowena Halley series. I’m planning for Rowena to go to Monterey, California over spring break. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Monterey myself and even if my health permitted travel, the pandemic wouldn’t! So if you’ve ever been to Monterey, Monterey County, Carmel-by-the-Sea, the Defense Language Institute, or the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, send me your recommendations for landmarks I need to include in the book, and sights Rowena has to see. If I include something you sent me, I’ll give you a shoutout in the acknowledgements!

And now time for this week’s giveaway:

Mystery & Crime Book Cave July

Check out the Mystery and Crime giveaway on My Book Cave

Happy reading!

Sid

P.S. I normally listen to music when I write, and sometimes I incorporate the music into my writing. I just worked “Marching Bands of Manhattan” by Death Cab for Cutie into my current work in progress. Check it out below, and keep an eye out for it when the book comes out 🙂

A Very Cool Contest

Hi All!

I wish the contest I’m about to mention were cool in physical form as well as concept, but alas, at the moment it’s pretty ephemeral, so you’ll just have to settle for metaphorical coolness.

I hope you’re getting plenty of coolness, physical or metaphorical, in real life as well. I’ve been admiring my flowers, which are flourishing in the jungles of North Carolina. I’ve also been wondering how much this weekend’s dust storm is going to irritate me. Answer: At least somewhat. How are you faring? Has anyone gotten hit hard in the Caribbean?

And I know I’ve been emailing you a lot recently, but there’s good reason! First there was the sale on Campus Confidential. Thanks, by the way, to everyone who helped make it a success. And while the sale on the ebook is now over (although you can still pick it up for a cool $3.99 if you so desire–universal link here–or read it for free by requesting it through your local library), Google Play is still doing a 99c deal on the audiobook. Link here. I don’t know how long that deal will last, so snap it up while you can!

And now I’m participating in a cool contest, run by BookSweeps. You can enter here (entering is free) for a chance at winning a whole bunch of first-in-series books featuring women sleuths, plus a shot at an e-reader. Not only is Campus Confidential one of the books on offer, but I also entered it myself as a contestant–although if I win, I’ll probably give away my winnings to one of my readers 🙂

Female Sleuths Giveaway

Whatever you’re up to this weekend, good luck in all your endeavors!

Take care,

Sid

 

Reading Recommendations and Last Chance to Get “Campus Confidential” for 99c

Hi All!

I hope you’re having a great weekend. Here in the swampy Southeast, it’s appropriately muggy. I used to have a magnificent tolerance for warm, damp weather. Not anymore. Turns out that a lot of chronic health conditions don’t care for this kind of weather.

Between that and the push to finish up two major projects this week, I had a bit of a crash yesterday, but I’m doing better-ish today. AND I finished my projects! I sent in the revised manuscript of my academic book on Chechen war literature to the publisher on Wednesday, and I finished recording the audio version of Trigger Warning yesterday. Yay! There’s still a fair amount of editing to do, but you can listen to the podcast of the first half for free on most podcasting programs.

And speaking of audiobooks, Google Play is running a discount on the audiobook of Campus Confidential right now. You can get the audiobook for just 99c here. Meanwhile, it’s the last weekend to get the ebook of Campus Confidential for 99c on all stores. Universal link here.

If you’re looking for yet more to read (and who isn’t? I know my e-reader is simply groaning under the strain!), here are a couple of interesting-looking books I stumbled across recently:

Avenging Adam

Avenging Adam has dogs! Dogs, I say, dogs! I’m already hooked. It’s free on KU.

Affliction of Praha

Simon Gillard is currently giving away advance copies of The Affliction of Praha here. You may or may not know this about me, but I spent a fair amount of time studying Czech, so a Czech-themed murder mystery caught my attention right away.

Happy reading everyone, and stay safe!

Sid

Get “Campus Confidential” for 99c For a Limited Time

Hi All!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, wherever you are. Things continue to be unsettled around the world. My home state of North Carolina has seen a series of mainly peaceful protests, although there have also been accounts of police in the larger cities using tear gas and pepper balls. And while everyone’s taken their eyes off it, COVID-19 has started to run riot and we are now experiencing pretty scary levels of growth in the number of cases, especially in my region.

Needless to say, I’m staying resolutely at home. Whether you’re staying at home or going out and engaging with the world in a meaningful way, I hope you are staying safe and taking care of yourself and those around you.

In more positive news, I’m discounting Campus Confidential to just 99c for this week!

Campus Confidential Front Cover Small

If you haven’t read it yet, Campus Confidential is a mystery, a thriller, and a story of karma. It’s very much of the real world, and is more gritty than cozy, but it also offers the promise that there are good people in the world, and that good deeds can be rewarded, sometimes when you least expect it. So while it’s not exactly fluffy escapism, it does offer the promise that heroes are real, or can be.

Want to get it while it’s on sale? The universal link is here.

If you’ve already read/listened to Campus Confidential and want to check out the rest of the Doctor Rowena Halley series, I’m currently doing a pre-release podcast of Trigger Warning, book 4 in the series. You can listen to the podcast for free on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and TuneIn.

That’s about it for today, folks. Once again, the universal link to Campus Confidential on sale is here.

I’m Now Podcasting “Trigger Warning”

Hi All!

I hope you are all safe and healthy, and holding up as well as can be expected under lockdown. What special strategies are you using to stay sane?

My wild and wonderful semester is careening to a halt. We are all waiting with bated breath to see what the fall brings, but it only affects me somewhat, since I am supposed to be on research leave. My proposed project is on Anna Politkovskaya, whom I reference several times in the Doctor Rowena Halley series, so expect to hear regular updates about that.

Meanwhile, I’ve started working on the audiobook of Trigger Warning (preorder the ebook here for just 99c!). As with the previous books in the series, I’m planning to release it as a podcast first before putting it up for sale. You can currently listen to Episode 1 on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If all goes well, I should be adding 1-2 episodes a week over the next few weeks.

Recording audiobooks is a ton of work, but I also find it very satisfying artistically. Originally I was against the idea of doing voices, but when people started telling me they liked it when I did voices, I got into it, and now try to do distinct voices with distinct accents and speech patterns for each character. I can’t say that I’m always 100% successful, but it’s fun–okay, incredibly difficult and frustrating, but in a fun way–and people seem to like it.

To increase the fun, I’m contemplating doing a little Kickstarter project in order to make audio versions of the short stories I’m writing from the perspective of Dima, Rowena’s Russian ex-fiance. Stay tuned for more updates, and in the meantime, if you’d like a free e-copy of “Summer Break,” the first of the shorts about Dima, email your proof of preorder of Trigger Warning to sidstark@sidstarkauthor.com.

Stay safe, everyone, and have a great weekend!

This week’s featured free book event is the Romantic Suspense and Mystery Book Giveaway:

Romantic Suspense and Mystery

Living in Interesting Times

Hi All!

I hope everyone is safe and sound and at home. We live in interesting times, do we not? Of course, so do most people. If you’re feeling apprehensive/panicky/outraged at how everyone’s losing their dang minds, maybe now is the time to watch my favorite inspirational speech of all time:

There are other forces at work besides the will of evil.

The good news, from my point of view, is that my university, like many other universities around the country, has mandated a switch to remote learning for an indefinite period into the future. This is good because proactive closing of schools is supposed to be one of the most effective measures you can take to stop the spread of disease. It’s a little irritating for those of us who had our disability accommodations request to study or teach remotely denied because it just “didn’t meet our rigorous standards” or was a “hardship” for our programs, but it is an amusing lesson in karma, I suppose.

It is my sincere hope that in a few weeks we’ll all look back on this and wonder what the big fuss was about. Successful contagion-containment measures always look like overkill. And that’s okay. Better to be safe than sorry.

Meanwhile, for those of us who do mainly intellectual/creative labor, perhaps being trapped at home will bring about a tremendous burst of productivity! As someone who’s mainly trapped at home all the time, I can testify that there’s nothing like it for getting your creative/intellectual work done.

For example, Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s most beloved writer, had one of his most famous bursts of inspiration and productivity while under quarantine at a family estate in the country, as cholera ravaged Russia. He was untouched by it, and wrote some of his most magnificent works, including the wonderful A Feast in Time of Plague. If you’re casting about for something to do while in self-isolation, maybe check it out! Get the entire collection of his Little Tragedies! See what wonderful things can come of quarantine, alongside all the bad stuff.

This also, of course, seems like a great time to plug my own writing, so as a reminder, Trigger Warning, book 4 in the Doctor Rowena Halley series, is currently on pre-order. I’m in the process of transitioning everything to “wide,” meaning available on all stores, not just Amazon, so the link for Trigger Warning is a universal link that will take you to your preferred store.

Trigger Warning Cover 4.5 Small

Currently trialing yet another cover.

And if you preorder Trigger Warning now (it’s just 99c!) and send me your proof of preorder, I’ll send you an exclusive short story, completely free! What’s not to like? Email me your proof of preorder to sidstark@sidstarkauthor.com or reply to this post, and I’ll send you the link for Summer Break, a little side story set in the war zone in the Donbass.

Stay safe, everyone!

And last but not least, here are this week’s selection of giveaways:

Sneak peek promo banner

Check out the Sneak Peek Giveaway to get an exclusive preview of upcoming releases

The Art of Murder

Get an armful of murder mysteries in the Art of Murder Giveaway!

Preorder “Trigger Warning” and Get an Exclusive Free Story

Hi everyone! Happy March!

In Russia it’s the first day of spring. Feels a lot more spring-like here in North Carolina, however, than I imagine it does in Russia. Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying the changing seasons.

I have another short and to the point post today: Trigger Warning is on preorder! For 99c! I’ve decided to “go wide” with the series, so it’s available at most major retailers (Google Play is being a little slow, but it should appear there soon). The universal link is here.

And, as a special exclusive treat, I’ve written a short story that I’ll be giving away just to people who preorder Trigger Warning. Just send me your proof of preorder to sidstark@sidstarkauthor.com and I’ll send you a link to download your copy of “Summer Break,” a short story from Dima’s point of view.

Happy reading, everyone!

This week’s selection of free books is The Art of Murder giveaway on Bookfunnel

The Art of Murder