Book Reveal: Sean Coleman #5
Book Reveal: Sean Coleman #5
...and another example of why Facebook stinks
Folks, I can now announce the title of the upcoming Sean Coleman Thriller (due out early next year). It is… Restitution.
Teaser description (there will be a longer one at some point):
Life’s gotten better for hard-edged security guard, Sean Coleman. With personal affairs in order and relationships rekindled, he travels to Las Vegas to help celebrate a buddy’s last days as a bachelor.
Soon after he arrives, however, a twist of fate spawns a reunion with an old flame. Curiosity and a desire to make amends unexpectedly leads Sean down a dark path into the Vegas underground, where another face from the past emerges — a federal fugitive whose family, years earlier, altered the course of Sean’s life.
When I was on vacation in Utah about a week and a half ago, my publisher actually sent me six cover designs for Restitution. They were all quite good, but this one stuck out for me for its simplicity, sleekness, and limited use of colors. It also had kind of a retro look that I found appealing. It quickly became my preference, and my publisher and I soon signed off on it. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
I’ll be telling you all more about Restitution in the coming months, and will also let you know once it’s available for pre-order. In the meantime, if you’re not yet caught up on the Sean Coleman Thrillers, going here will fix you right up!
Something to Celebrate
Last week, one of the Dalys got their first COVID-19 vaccination shot, and it wasn’t me or my wife (we’re not eligible yet). It was our teenage son, who — much to our surprise — received an eligibility text from Children’s Hospital. It was based on a pre-existing condition he has (those who’ve followed my writing for a while know what that’s about).
I couldn’t be happier for him, though I admit I’m kind of jealous. I went with him to the appointment, and was half tempted to pull a page out of the Michael Scott playbook, and piggyback the treatment for myself. 😄
The Best of Both Worlds (until Facebook screws up everything)
Two topics I wrote about in the ‘Daly Grind’ last year were my love for the movie Heat, and my love for the art of Laurent Durieux. So… I was pretty excited when I learned that Durieux had recently been commissioned by the French cinema magazine La Septième Obsession to produce a Heat-themed cover. I think it looks great, and I ordered the issue (it’s on its way):
But I was especially pumped to find out that the magazine would be selling a limited-edition poster-sized variant print from their website — a run of 150 signed copies:
Cool, right? I took note, from the company’s Facebook page, of the time it was scheduled to go on sale:
Thursday at 10 pm in France equated to 3 pm, on the same day, in Colorado. No problem. I had to shuffle my schedule around a little, but I’d be ready with my credit card, in front of my computer, at 3 pm sharp to place the order.
Well… when I woke up on Thursday morning, and got online, I quickly discovered that the sale was already over. It had gone live at 10 am in France, which meant 3 am in Colorado, and the print had sold out in just 20 minutes.
I was not pleased.
At first, I figured La Septième Obsession’s social media person was to blame for posting the wrong info. But I should have known better, being that the platform on which this took place was Facebook. Upon closer look at the original post, I noticed that Facebook had automatically translated it into English from its original French version. Here’s what you get when you compare the translated version with the original:
And… when you copy and paste that last French line into Google to translate it, here’s the result:
“10 a.m.” In other words, Facebook screwed up. And truth be told, they screw up a lot. I complain about this fairly often on other platforms (and actually had just a day earlier):
It may not be apparent to basic or infrequent users, but as a former software developer, I’m often amazed by how poorly designed and poorly maintained the platform is… especially for a company with so many (presumably highly-skilled) developers. Glaring bugs pop up all the time, and persist for months before they’re fixed (if ever). Also, once easy-to-use features now require you to navigate through multiple, chronically slow-loading pages.
It drives me nuts.
Yet, because Facebook is still one of the top social-media platforms in the world, and I want to promote my work (and the work of those I contract with) effectively, I’d be stupid and negligent to stop using it.
So goes my Facebook woes (I figured I’d end that Monday rant with a rhyme).
As for the Heat print: For now, I can just hope that one will turn up on eBay, or that Mr. Durieux may take another crack at the film in the future. At least I still have the magazine issue to look forward to, and it appears to include some additional Durieux art inside, so… yay!
Random Thought
Obligatory Dog Shot
That smile after being picked up from a week of boarding.
Featured Vinyl
Motörhead was one of those groups that, even if you never owned any of their albums, you had to respect their bad-assery. The English metal band produced a sound you could easily imagine blaring out of an auto-mechanic’s oil pit. Hard, fast, rash, and kind of grimy.
Their best known song is probably 1980’s “Ace of Spades.” It’s one of those tunes that, when played in public, guys around my age exchange narrow-eyed nods (as a means of acknowledging the aforementioned bad-assery). It’s similar to the look my father used to flash me whenever he’d hear Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” as if he was pridefully approving of (and passing along) Rogers’ eternal, metaphorical card-playing wisdom of knowing when to hold them, and knowing when to fold them.
Motörhead disbanded in 2015, shortly after their famously hard-living front-man Lemmy died at the age of 70.
2016’s “Clean Your Clock” is a live album recorded from a couple shows just a month prior to Lemmy’s death. I picked it up as a Record Store Day exclusive, in part because I’m one of those narrow-eyed nodding dudes who had never owned a Motörhead album. So, I figured it was time.
Though the band assuredly sounded better in the live performances from their youth, they were still sufficiently bad-ass in their final ones… as this album attests to. It’s a fun listen.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading today’s Daly Grind.
Want to drop me a line? You can email me at johndalybooks@hotmail.com, and also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, please click on the “Subscribe now” button below. Doing so will get these posts emailed directly to you.
Also, if you’re not caught up on my Sean Coleman Thrillers, you can pick the entire series up at a great price on Amazon. And if you’re interested in signed, personalized copies of my books, you can order them directly from my website.
Take care. And I’ll talk to you soon!