Don’t you just love audiobooks? There’s nothing like them to take the tedium out of commuting, long walks or exercising at the gym. So I’m jazzed to tell you about the new audio release of my five-star high-tech thriller, Catch and Kill, narrated by baritone-voiced Tom Taverna. To celebrate, I’ve organized a giveaway of 50 audiobooks — 25 U.S. and 25 U.K. Audible copies. To enter, just answer the question below, then enter your first name and email. That will subscribe you to my Best of Indie Readers’ Circle newsletter with twice-a-month updates about the best free and low-cost ebooks in the Kindle Store. Winners announced Sunday, July 21.

Over the years I’ve written both nonfiction books and novels. Now that I’m firmly encamped on the fiction side — and working on Book 2 of my high-tech thriller series — I thought I’d spend a little time sharing some of the writing resources that I’ve found especially valuable along the way. The books below cover such things as plot, theme, story structure, character development, payoffs, etc., but they also delve deep into topics such as finding great novel ideas, writing faux pas and how to keep the creative juices flowing. Remember: Read a lot of books in your space. Ignore the advice of those who say they don’t want anyone to influence their writing. Reading others’ works will help

It’s funny how the release of a new book takes you down certain paths. When Biohack hard-launched on Amazon about three weeks ago, I imagined that I’d be doing more speaking about indie publishing, as I did at my book launch party in San Francisco. (For 99 percent of new authors, self-publishing is by far the smartest way to go.) But it turns out that a lot of the buzz around “Biohack” is turning out to be about the novel’s premise of an evil Silicon Valley-style biotech startup that goes into the business of genetic enhancement based on the mind-blowing advances in reproductive technologies since the power of CRISPR gene editing was unlocked just six short years ago. In my book,