Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

The Clearing is out now! The DSA starts here!

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And so it begins! The DSA starts here with The Clearing, on sale now!

The residents of Bellbrook, Ohio have vanished.

Seven thousand people in a four-mile radius disappeared overnight. A dead zone remains, no outgoing signals emanating from the ghost town.

Ben Riley, framed for a crime he never committed, is the latest recruit to the Department of Special Assignments—a secret agency handling unsolved cases, those with open questions and unexplainable circumstances. Unsure what to expect or whether or not he deserves this second chance, Ben is thrust into a bizarre case of science gone wrong.

Now, Ben and the rest of the field team must find out what happened to the residents of Bellbrook…before it happens to them.

Welcome to The DSA, an episodic journey told in a seasonal structure. Six episodes make up each season, creating an immersive experience for the reader.

Available now both digitally and in paperback!

I’m really proud of how the paperback turned out. MiblArt killed it on the cover and the design of the series. I did all right on the formatting side of things. I think it’s going to look amazing on the bookshelf.

I’m really excited that I was able to price the paperback at only $9.99. That for me was one of the main reasons behind telling the story in this episodic fashion. I hate the way Greystone is priced at almost $15 for a paperback. Hate it. This way, if there is someone who loves the feel of the book in their hands it is much more economically-friendly.

You can order your paperback copy of The Clearing at the following:

Amazon – US, UK, CA

Barnes and Noble – Right now, Barnes and Noble is only charging $6.99 for a copy!!

More retailers coming soon for the paperback!

The book can be found digitally through the Books2Read link, which will take you to your favorite retailer. Whether you prefer the Kindle store or the Google Play store, Books2Read has every retailer you could want. I love their service and hope you find it user-friendly.

The DSA continues in Promethean… on sale now!

What is the Promethean Project?

On the hunt for a lead from the Bellbrook affair, Ben Riley and Morgan Dunleavy discover a dead body and a growing conspiracy. The only clue left behind? A handprint burned into the bone of the victim.

Not everything is what it seems as Connor Hendricks, their FBI liaison, connects this latest death with a series of lab-related arsons.

Caught in a web of lies and illicit drug trials, Ben and Morgan must learn to trust each other or be the next victims of an elusive pyrokinetic.

But is he the killer or merely another victim caught up in a larger game?

Promethean is up for pre-order digitally.

Can’t wait until November 13th to read this one? Don’t! The paperback in ON SALE NOW!

Amazon – US, UK, CA

More retailers coming soon!

Spread the word!

I hope you enjoy this new adventure. I’m excited to hear your thoughts on the series and where you think it’s heading.

Thanks for reading!

The Story of the DSA

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This month marks the beginning of a new adventure. The DSA launches on October 9th with The Clearing. It has been one of the most challenging projects of my life. There have been times when I’ve thought about shelving it indefinitely and times when I’ve been so excited about where the series is heading that I couldn’t sleep for days.

What is the DSA?

The DSA is a covert agency within our government. They are known as the Department of Special Assignments in government circles but once upon a time, agents who worked outside the law on their own time took to calling it the Department of Scientific Anomalies.

They deal in science gone wrong, in the strange and bizarre.

More than that, hidden beneath the surface, they are looking at something that has infiltrated the very fabric of our existence. Something that will come to light by the end of the first season of the series. There is a larger game afoot, more than the everyday leaps and bounds humanity appears to be making technologically.

There is a reason behind it all and the DSA finds itself at the heart of the mystery. Why has humanity made such advancements in the last century? What changed and how did it truly come to pass? These are only a few of the questions being asked with each book in the series.

Serial storytelling

Each book is standalone. I made a promise to myself when I was putting together the plot outline to make each book stand on its own in terms of a main plot. It always bothered me to read other serialized stories and have it clearly intended to be part of a larger work.

I don’t like telling half-stories. I want there to be a sense of completion with each installment. Very much like the television shows I used to enjoy, there will be subplots that string the books together. You’ll see that more with Book 2, Promethean, where certain cast members head in one direction and others in another, more subdued role until the next book when they break out into the main plot.

Dangling mysteries

That’s the fun of a series like this, isn’t it? Well, fun for me at any rate.

The Clearing introduces a certain mystery but it doesn’t provide every answer. It is one piece of a larger puzzle and I’ve been very careful about making sure every potential mystery, every conceivable threat to our heroes, gets some face time each season. I don’t want to leave anything hanging, but I also want to explore more through these characters.

Episodic

I love breaking down a series on television. I love the ebb and flow the medium creates with each episode. I’ve tried to bring that to the DSA. It opens with a larger plot for the pilot, introducing all the major players to the reader. From there, the stories get more intimate, focusing in on the characters. It circles back for the season finale where all kinds of things go kablooey and sets up the second season.

You can read it in a chunk. You can read it as they release. I want it to feel big, with larger than life stakes, but also a real study of these flawed characters.

October 9th

The Clearing arrives in ebook.  It’s only $0.99 for a limited time!

Paperback fans will be surprised to know the book is out now! It’s only $9.99 and it looks gorgeous.

I really hope you like the series. It’s been a labor of love and I can’t wait for you to see where things are heading.

Writing Update – November 20, 2018

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Welcome to your monthly writing update! It’s been an insane month behind the keyboard so let’s catch up, shall we?

NaNoWriMo Insanity!

I set a pretty big goal this year. Last year it was a single novel. This year it is three novellas. Why? Because I want to put a pin in this project before New Years.

As I type this I am only 12 chapters away from completing Book Six of the DSA’s inaugural season. 12 CHAPTERS!!!!

I love working on this series. I absolutely adore the scope. No matter how terrified I become because of the sheer weight of managing the series, the format, the sub-plots, the cast–all that STUFF– I love the story being told here.

It’s grown so much over the year. Not just the size of the undertaking but the evolution on such a grounded level. Down to the very core of each character. It’s become this defined entity and when something new comes up it makes complete sense in where things are heading. It’s fantastic to watch. It truly is.

When I finished Book 5 last weekend, my initial plan was a four day break. Maybe watch some movies, catch up on my reading, remember the names of my children. That sorta thing.

I outlined a new book instead. More DSA. Season Two, Book Three. It’s the second of four planned spin-off pilots within the confines of the main series. The concept stems from one conceived a decade ago. I even wrote the first book way back then – it was terrible…

Coming back to it though, I remember the joy of piecing together the mysteries involved. That’s what this is and why the DSA has been this dream project for me. There is weird science fiction aspects, there is the conspiracy thriller side of the main series but every once in awhile it branches off into these new areas.

The first spin-off deals with ghosts and the law. This one? Pure mystery bordering on the cozy mystery side of the genre. An amateur detective working on disparate cases in an attempt to piece together a broader mystery and understand the disappearance of someone close to her.

It’s called The Missing. And yes, I am YEARS from unveiling this beast on you and, yes, it is unfair to tease you so, but it is so exciting to discover these little explorations that I had to share with you.

Hope you don’t mind.

Thanksgiving fun

Thanksgiving is around the corner. I have a HUGE Greystone promo in the works. Two FREE books and the other three for only $0.99! Head over to Amazon for more details starting THIS FRIDAY!

Speaking of Amazon…

For the last six months I’ve been exclusive to the platform. It was my hope to bolster the exposure of the series and pave the way for what comes next.

It was a fun experiment and certainly hundreds of people snagged copies at a steep discount. But I don’t think Amazon is the same marketplace it was a year ago. Things have changed, demanding authors pony up more in advertising than is feasible for someone like me at this stage in the game.

So starting after this session in KDP Select – December 19th or so – Greystone will be available at all major ebook retailers once more! Apologies if this set you off for one reason or another, but I had to see how things worked out and I intend to play with them many more times in the future no doubt.

In Remembrance of Stan.

Stan Lee passed away on November 12th. If you weren’t aware, I am and always will be a huge fan of the comic book medium. To say Stan didn’t have an impact on who I am today would be an utter and complete lie. The man enriched millions of people over the decades and I am lucky to count myself among them.

I had planned to write a piece solely about the man but there is little I can say that you probably haven’t read by much more intelligent people than me.

I can only say thank you to the man once more for all he has given me and also for all he has given my daughters who have absolutely fallen in love with his early work from the 1960’s at Marvel. Watching them tear open a comic written by Stan and enjoy the hell out of it no matter the age is a true testament to the man’s talent and his enduring legacy.

Excelsior, Stan. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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