Anybody There?

I've enjoyed posting information about my novels, writing, and language and culture at this blog site. There's one disadvantage, however: I don't know whether anyone has visited me here. I hope so. My first novel, Songs of Sadness, Songs of Love,  is free, posted at facebook.com/Larry_Andrews.Writer. Enjoy it.

Good Man Tom Nathe

The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery went public yesterday with its listing at amazon.com. It's also available from my publisher, Author House (see above).

A friend for 50+ years, Tom Nathe, now basking under the Arizona sun, the lucky guy, is the first to purchase a copy, to the best of my knowledge.

Thank you Tom. It's rewarding for me to have readers like you with excellent taste when ordering a novel!

Novel #2 Public Today

The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery was listed today, 1/24/11 at amazon.com. For some arcane reason it's not listed under my name with my other books.

To find the novel you'll need to enter the title in the amazon search box. It's my best effort so far. I 'm learning a great deal about writing; how writing means is as important as what writing means.

Bigger pictures

President Obama's State of the Union address gives hope, but all the science, math and engineering emphases forget "bigger picture" ideas from literature and writing.

Who's reading me?

I've added some on-line connections today, those people who identify themselves as authors. There are several characteristics we share: we read a lot because we love to read, it keeps our mental parts working;  we write a lot, because we're curious about people and their behavior; we respect the language we write, understanding that how our writing means is as important as what our writing means.

THE Current Event

My second novel, The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery, will be released by Author House in the next 7-10 days. It couldn't be more timely although I started it four months ago.

The Chinese President's meetings with President Obama have been splashed all over the media. China's decisions to invest in Africa and the Middle-east is described in detail in my book, featuring the theft of US universities' intellectual property.

I'm excited about my 2nd novel's immediate reflection of world events as reported in the media. What do you think?

Creative Retirement

What are you going to do when you retire? is a question almost everyone I talked to in 2008 asked me. I made up some good sounding replies and two years later, I'm doing none of them.

I never needed a Lincoln public Library card before retirement; all of my reading during my 40-year career at Nebraska was focused either on my teaching or my research and writing. So, upon retirement I obtained a library card and read 2-3 novels a week. Some of the authors, particularly Robert B. Parker and his Jesse Stone and Spenser novels, inspired me. I don't know what possessed me, but one day I sat at my computer to check my e-mail and started to write.

Book#2 Available Soon

Making a routine Sunday morning check-up on my e-mail, I found the Author House production team had sent me the corrected galleys for The China-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery. Excited, I went upstairs to shower and dress, then returned to the galleys ASAP to see if all of the vagrant punctuation marks, typos, misspellings (all of which caused by either British Petroleum or El Niño) had been made right. I’ve approved the corrections and tomorrow morning the book will either go to press or get in the queue. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Status: The China-Africa Parallax

Status Report: Book cover for The China-Africa Parallax is finished and set. Production team is working on the edits I sent them to correct typos, etc. I'm anxious to hold a copy in my hand. Parallax is, if I say so myself, a better novel, better story, better written. Finished chapter 8 of book #3 Friday morning. I'm learning so much!

Postal Worker Steals My Novel

Larry Andrews, a retired University of Nebraska professor living in Lincoln, NE, never thought his first novel was very good. "It was, after all," he says, "my first attempt at a novel. It's not valuable enough or good enough for anyone to steal a copy."

He was wrong.

His on-line agent sent him a request for a .pdf file of the novel, Songs of Sadness, Songs of Love, to send to a reviewer. "A postal  worker in the mail room apparently stole the paperback copy you sent me," his agent told him.

Andrews was stunned. "I never thought the novel was good enough for someone to break federal law and steal a copy from the US post. Who knew?"

FREE READING

If you like to read and appreciate good stories, I'll send you two novels at no cost to you --- in either a Word or pdf format. How can a reader beat a deal like this one?

Novel #2 update

I have received a note from my production team. They're at work incorporating corrections on the outside cover and the inside text of The Çhina-Africa Parallax: A Ryan and Gillian Mystery. Three to four weeks, I'm guessing, before it's in print.

Free book

FREE BOOK: If you'd like to receive a free .pdf copy of my first novel --- Songs of 


Sadness, Songs of Joy --- please send me an e-mail request at 


laruandrews@yahoo.com.