WELCOME READERS

The photo above was taken in the Dolomites of northern Italy. My grim smile reflects the fact we were a good two-hour hike away from the shuttle back to town that was due to leave in an hour. We ended up bushwhacking off the mountain and through the forest and made it back to our hotel by dark. A four-hour hike that turned into a ten-hour slog trek.

My eleventh novel, A LIGHTER SAHDE OF GRAY is now available in at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in both soft and hard cover. The Kindle version will follow shortly. This is the second in a trilogy featuring my protagonist Lilly DeFranco. For those of you who have not yet read the first installment in that series THE UNEVEN SURFACE OF THE SOUL, I would recommend read it it first to gain a full appreciation of this character. I have completed the third part of the trilogy A CARD NOT PLAYED . Look for it to comer out after the first of next year.

The Lilly DeFranco trilogy marls a return to the drama/action genre . In the first installment, I resurrected the character of former ATF agent Harlan Quist from JACK OF ALL TRADES and SIGNS OF LIFE. In this story, he undertakes an off-the-books undercover assignment to locate a violent sociopath who is planning to sell a large shipment of hijacked guns to a Mexican cartel. The only catch is that Harlan requires the help of Lilly DeFranco, an escaped felon with whom Harlan was once romantically entangled during a previous undercover assignment. Locales include Oaxaca, Phoenix, El Paso, and Sinaloa. I will post the first chapter in the Sampler Section and a short essay in the Books Section.

In A LIGHTER SHADE OF GRAY, I pick up Llly’ s story in Mexico City where she has fled the cartel’s retribution.

s retribution. She believes she has secured new life only to be called upon to her old ways as she attempts to save an young woman who Lilly feels is heading down a path similar to her won troubled past. The settings for this story range from Mexico City, Houston, and finally rural Colorado.

As a note, one of latest novels THE SIREN’S REFRAIN, was selected as a finalist in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. It continues to draw positive feedback. This story explores themes of aging, mortality, and regret. At its heart, it is a story of a twenty-five-year-on-and-off-again love affair between two complicated individuals who survive not only the passage of time but also the emotional minefields of their own making. The backdrops for their journey include Colorado, Tahiti, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, the Big Island of Hawaii, Nicaragua, Honolulu, the Texas Hill Country, Austin, and the Yucatan.

One of my previous novels, STATES OF EXILE, was receiving some interest for a screenplay adaption but that project is currently dormant. It was selected as a finalist in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards as was THE ANGEL’S CHAIR. These two books are available through the online book store at www.store.BookBaby.com and from Amazon.

 STILL LIFE IN A RED DRESS was selected as a finalist in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in the Adventure/Drama category. This novel also won First Place in the Mystery/Suspense category in the 2011 Southwest Writers Workshop Annual Awards. There was a nice mention of this novel on my publisher’s blog site  that I have included in my blog.

  JACK OF ALL TRADES, the second in the series garnered 2nd place in Southwest Writer’s Workshop annual awards. LANGUAGE OF THE DEAD, the third installment of the series, was selected as a finalist in the 2016 New Mexico-Arizona Book annual awards.

I have included short essays about my books under the BOOKS Header. The first chapters may be found in the SAMPLER Section. As always, I welcome comments and reviews on my blog or the Amazon site.

 I became interested in writing novels after receiving encouragement from friends who read my letters relating my travels in Asia and the Pacific. My use of visual imagery and my sense of place are what make my novels as much an escape to a geographical location as the mental landscape of my characters. Tapping into my background in anthropology, I weave into my stories a sense of the mythical and the universal in the human experience – the drama and the conflicts that consume us all, regardless of culture.

For some additional insight into my take on writing fiction, I encourage you to go to my blog page and read my short essay THE ART OF THE LIE.  My novels appeal to readers who enjoy an escape to a world outside their experience. My characters, many of them loosely based on actual people, are often complicated and flawed, and for that reason, they don’t fit neatly into one’s expectations of their motives, actions, or the outcomes of my stories. I also like to weave into my stories threads of history, a certain philosophical viewpoint, and my own personal viewpoint of the human condition. What I hope to accomplish is to tell a good story. I hope you enjoy them.

 My email is: djung1947@gmail.com cell:505-699-2905