A change-of-pace novel in the works this month

WATKINS GLEN, New York - As Fracking Justice continues to get placed in bookstores, wineries, restaurants - and lots of other Finger Lakes locations - I picked up the draft of a novella I penned back in the 1990s, but never published. It was in a drawer with several other works-in-progress.

I was three chapters into rereading my draft of Jack's Boat when realized it would make a good contrast/project for me to tinker with for the next month or two while I continue my research for Fracking Evil, the third book in the trilogy of fracking novels that started with The Fracking War.

Jack London

I posted a detailed explanation about that novella-soon-to-be novel titled "The challenge of reviving a novel drafted years ago" on this website, LINK: Writing For Money.

For readers of The Fracking War and Fracking Justice, Jack's Boat has nothing to do with Jack Stafford, the columnist/publisher in those novels. The Jack in the title of the novella is late American author Jack London. The boat is one of many that London had in his lifetime living in Oakland, San Francisco and the Sonoma County hills overlooking San Pablo Bay.

Jack London's writing and life had a profound influence on me when I was a teenager. His love of sailing, ocean adventuring, journalism - and writing novels - provided a hazy blueprint for me growing up.

Maybe it still does.

Look for Jack's Boat sometime this fall. And Fracking Evil in the spring of 2016.

Fracking Evil cover concept art. Scary enough?