The more I work in the field of writing and publishing, the more I realize how difficult it is to gauge how much time any given project will take. It's taken a little longer than I'd hoped to get Vatican Abdicator out to you. But now it is finally available!

I self publish using Lulu.com. This link is to their site, to the page that features Vatican Abdicator: www.lulu.com/content/2433033. It takes another 6 to 8 weeks to show up on Amazon.com, so if you don't want to wait you can get it now direct from Lulu.

The official release date is this coming Friday, August 8th. I'll send out press releases and such to trumpet the release. That's when the audiobook of Vatican Abdicator will go live at podiobooks.com, too! I'll be releasing a chapter a week, with me reading aloud from my book, each chapter a free, downloadable mp3 podcast. Almost a thousand people have listened to Vatican Assassin so far! And over six hundred are checking out Vatican Ambassador! I hope the grand finale in Vatican Abdicator doesn't disappoint!

I wrote the first short story about the "Vatican Assassin" about 18 years ago. Didn't know it was going to turn into a book... never mind a trilogy! It was one of many projects started but left unfinished. About eight or nine years ago I began working on the project again, and it mushroomed into its present shape and form. I thought it would be one book. Then I realized it would be one loooooong book, so I decided to finish part one and put it out as Vatican Assassin. I self-published Vatican Assassin in December 2005, right after my 40th Birthday. I dedicated it to my Dad, who was able to read and enjoy the book before he passed away in February of 2006. Makes the book special to me.

The "Glow-in-the-Dark-Radio" Podcast began in September 2006, while I was in between radio gigs. I recorded myself reading from my books. Every other episode was a chapter of Vatican Assassin, and, later, Vatican Ambassador.

I published Vatican Ambassador, the sequel and book two of the trilogy, at the end of March 2007. I was honored to be asked to be a guest at the small science fiction convention 2PiCon in August of 2007. On the podcasting panel I found out about Podiobooks.com. After initial contact, my books were podcat through their wonderful site!

Now it's time for Vatican Abdicator! Live on Podiobooks this coming Friday! And available now at http://www.lulu.com/content/2433033

Sarah suggested some sort of something at the start to remind the reader of what's going on and who is what. So I've created a new preface. Wanna read it?

It's here.

Thank you for your patience!

Mike

It's HERE

...and there was much rejoicing!

The "Readers Editions" are being printed right now for those who do me the honor and the favor of reading through for mistakes, gaffes, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

This keeps Vatican Abdicator on track for Summer publication!

Decided to go with a new cover look:

If you tried to access this site, vaticanabdicator.com, between April 13th at 10pm and sometime early this morning on April 15th, you wouldn't have been able to. The site was disabled by a Denial Of Service (DOS) Attack.

All appears to be well now. BUT it's one hell of a coincidence that the site contains the word "Vatican" and someone went out of their way to disable the site on the eve of the Pope's visit to the US...

The Moon. Our bright light in the night sky. BC looks up, sees the glint of light marking the main dome of Lunar Prime.

          The dome over the atrium. I wonder how tall the new trees under the dome are now? How much has it all grown back?

          As BC watches, the stars in the night sky begin to burn brighter and brighter, nearly blinding him. One of them suddenly drops out of the sky, falling and disappearing below the horizon. Other stars soon follow, at first one by one, and then in a brilliant cascade of falling stars that soon fades, leaving the sky blank and black save for the bright full moon.

          As BC watches, the Moon explodes, shatters like glass, sharp white shards glistening as they fall from the sky to pierce the ground around him. He looks up again in time to see a shard coming at him, running through him. He is ripped in two by the shard of falling light from the full moon.

          BC wakes up in a chilly sweat in his seat on the bridge of Wentworth’s ship, the ship that just rescued him from his botched mission to Mars.

          “Mornin’ sunshine,” the pilot, Drex, says, greeting BC. “You dozed off for a second there. Then you shouted out, ‘The Moon!’ or something! Musta been some dream, anyways, huh?” he asks.

          “Yeah, some dream. About the Moon,” BC tells him, trying to clear his head of the vivid images.

          Guess I’m worried. Wentworth says he’ll work with me, with us. That’s good. I can maybe bring the Project and the UTZ together.

          Otherwise it feels like it’s all falling apart. I thought Al Salid and I were going to be able to bring the UIN and the UTZ to the table, together. I didn’t expect one of Wentworth’s ships to have to rescue me!

          Al Salid! Throwing me in a cell!

          The way the UIN is acting, it’s gotta be Dolomay pulling the strings. The UIN is going along with him.

          “You know, after you freshen up on Wentworth station, talk with Mr. Wentworth, whatever, I can take you anywhere you want to go. You don’t have to back to the Moon,” Drex offers.

          “Why wouldn’t I want to go back to the Moon?” BC asks him.

          “I don’t know. Just the way you said ‘The Moon’ before, there. Anyways, I can take you back to the Moon, if you want. Or anywhere on Earth. Or in orbit. Doesn’t matter to me, anyways. Not back to Mars though, right?” Drex chuckles at his own joke.

          “Right.”

          BC ponders the ill-fated mission, grateful Drex rescued him from the planet’s dusty surface after his plan to meet secretly with Al-Salid went horribly wrong.

It had to be Dolomay!

That whole mission was for nothing! Although, I did find out Fiza was okay. That was a surprise and a half! Hope she still is.

 “Just back to the Moon, I guess. Unless something changes while I’m here. Thanks, Drex,” BC tells the pilot.

          What a strange dream. Killed by a shard from a broken Moon. Wonder if that means anything?