Hello everyone, I’ve been very very delinquent in posting to the web site, mostly because I absolutely need to make a habit of updates, but in my head I’d had several things I wanted to happen before I “announced” anything–and they finally did. So, without further ado, here’s a list of things that are cooking and you should be seeing in the scheduled future.

Now that all the contracts have been signed, I can say that I’ll have my first-ever collaboration coming out from Baen Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster) called Time Trials. Yes, it’s being published by a traditional publishing house, which means the schedules for such things are soooo different than when I have more control of things–meaning things take longer to get to the readers, but I hope the wait is rewarded.

It will be distributed everywhere books are sold, and that includes the shelves wherever folks buy books nowadays.

I am also releasing a German translation of the book at roughly the same time as the English version. So, for my German readers, gern geschehen.

My co-author, Dave, is a Renaissance man in his own right, and wears many hats, including attorney, stand-in for the Jolly Green Giant when the green man isn’t available for commercials (maybe I’m joking, maybe I’m not), and an author whose “thing” is history. So, if you can imagine a story coming out of a mashup of efforts from a science/thriller nerd and an alt-history fantasy type person, well… that’s what Time Trials gets you. I think many of you will enjoy it.

I won’t give too much away or talk too much about it until there’s a pre-order page up (which I’ve been told should happen in July). That being said, I can give you a sneak peek at the book cover (it may get tweaked before the final version). I can also give you an idea that it should be released by March 2023.

For fans of the Levi Yoder series, I’m also putting the final touches on The Swamp.

It is currently available for pre-order, and should release by mid-July.

And there’s one more new book to talk about, and I’ll admit to being particularly excited about it. It’s called Multiverse.

It too is available for pre-order and should release near the end of the year or earlier.

Since it’s my first TRUE technothriller since I released Darwin’s Cipher, let me give you a bit of a description.

When Michael Salomon wakes up Tuesday morning, he did so with a smile, knowing that today would be a positive turning point in his career. With a wife he deeply loves and a child on the way, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen. As he drives into work, a feeling of anguish floods through him and he sees himself alone, at the gravesite of an unborn daughter. It feels like a crystal-clear memory, a waking nightmare that nearly sends him crashing into the car in front of him.

Michael is a professor of particle physics at Princeton and he’d made a breakthrough discovery late the night before. The idea of faster-than-light particles has been a part of science fiction lore for fifty years, yet last night he’d proven that they exist.

Going into the office, he hasn’t even had a chance to tell the head of his department what he’s discovered when the men from DARPA came calling. The entirety of his research has suddenly become classified, an object of national security.

But it was only when a young college student intercepts him as he gets into his car that he knows the life he’s looking forward to is over.

The student has memories of her future self… a future where she’s worked with him, and helped extend his research. She knows things that he’s only thought of as possibilities, and she speaks of them as if they’d already happened. And most chilling of all, she speaks of a future where they are both in hiding from the government that sees them as the enemy.

MULTIVERSE is a story about a scientist who uncovers a way to pierce the veil of time and space, and has unwittingly opened Pandora’s box.

Is it even possible to undo what a future version of yourself has done, or is everyone doomed to the chaos that’s been loosed on the world?

And last, but not least of the new literary things, I did release my first book in French, a translated version of Darwin’s Cipher.

For those who are interested, you can find it at this link.

I hope you guys enjoy the books, and I will seriously try to post more often. If you have any particular questions or comments, just respond to this post. Even though I may have “vanished” for a while, I do pay attention to comments/e-mails/etc.

Thanks,
Mike

I am now focusing on upgrading the site. Bear with me, but some changes will occur.

Also, Primordial Press is now a thing. A new publishing house, focused on books within a select set of genres, but all of them key in on elements of “wonder” and will incorporate elements of science and history.

A separate web presence for it will be coming.

In the meantime, here is a quick introductory video.

I am starting to do some updates to the website, and will be posting a bit more regularly (Estimate 1-2 times a month).

And yes, everything is getting updated with fresh information, sorry about that – I’ve just been busy putting out content and at the moment, I’m a one-man shop. I need some minions. 🙂

Stay tuned…

-Mike

This will be an unusual post for me… I’ll use two terms that aren’t necessarily in everyone’s vocabulary: Indie and Tradpub.

By using the term Indie, I mean a book written by an Independent publisher (over self-published).

Tradpub is shorthand for Traditionally Published, meaning published by a traditional publisher with on-hand editing staff and all the normal accoutrement associated with businesses that have traditionally gotten books get on shelves.

This is also not intended to disparage either side, but simply a sober realization of what the current state of Indie-produced versus Tradpub-produced content is.

That being said, let’s dive in.

Books that come from Indie authors often have a mixed reputation. I know it, you know it, if you’d argue the point, you’re somewhat deluded. There is a touch of stigma to the Indie-produced book.

Why? Is it TradPub hating on the Indie industry because they’re awful people?

No… let’s be realistic about the kind of stories that are “published” or made available for purchase nowadays by both Indie and TradPub.

Let’s start at the worst Rating of a 0 to 5.

0 – Don’t torture me like this! Barely intelligible English, no perceivable story, even your mom wouldn’t say this was any good. [can occur only in an Indie market].

These people have an Amazon rating that scrapes the bottom of the barrel. When you see it, your eyes widen and it inevitably makes you feel sorry for the poor schmuck who wrote it.

Net Earnings: $0 – which isn’t bad, because you know that they spent about 2 hours thinking about what font to use on their cover, and just ended up with a black and white cover with a comic sans font on it (sometimes even forgetting to put their own name on it), very much resembling a sixth grade cover letter you’d have written back in the day.

1 – Are you serious? Sentences may exist, but often they lack proper punctuation. The author is in love with run-on sentences and often you encounter page-long paragraphs. However, most of you didn’t get that far, because how interesting is the life story of a mysterious man with a “black hat” who does nothing mysterious at all, other than wearing a “black hat.” Mom loved this story. [Again, only Indie markets produce these.]

The Amazon rating on these are having really up days when they for a day or two crawl above the 7-digit ratings because someone accidentally bought it, thinking it was the historical dissertation on a chapeaux that they’d been looking for all their lives. These books often have no star ratings whatsoever.

Net Earnings: $0 almost certainly, but often negative, since the author heard somewhere on the internet that they need to spend hundreds of bucks on a nice book cover and it’ll make them rich.

2 – Sigh… Okay, we have someone who really is trying. The grammar is passable, sentence structure seems passable as well. Often the story is all over the place. [This is the staple of the Indie market by volume – in other words, many Indie novels are in this category. Don’t get me wrong, Tradpub has a few of these as well, but much less so.]

The Amazon rating is actually not horrifying. It’s often in the 6-digit range, which means it gathers occasional sales, but not reliably so.

Net Earnings: a quarterly celebration with a big Mac combo dinner, for one.

3 – Now we’re talking! This person has mastered English, woohoo! And the story actually makes sense. I may not like it much, but I might not be mad at having spent $5 on it. Very debatable if I’d go back to the author’s other works, but I’m not mad. [Indie does this a lot, and Tradpub is seeing more and more of this nowadays.]

The Amazon rating is anywhere from decent to not terrible.

Net Earnings: enough to buy the family a dinner (Fast Food) once a month, or maybe even once a week. There’s a large variance here.

4 – Shut up, I’m busy reading! Okay, whoever did this knows what they’re doing. A good story, I’m hooked quickly, and once I’m done, I’m gonna start looking for whatever else this person has written. [Less Indies do this than I’d hope, but there’s plenty of them that do, you just need to find them. This is Tradpub’s bread and butter. Their goal is to have the majority of their stuff be in this category.]

The Amazon rating for these books are often in the 4 digits and low five digits.

Net Earnings: that’s it bitches, I’m an author and I’m doing this as a career. With enough books of this sort, an Indie can definitely make a living at this. Tradpub authors have a much harder time of it, since they tend to push less quantity per year and get a smaller slice of the pie.

5 – Where has this been all my life – this stuff is life changing! Not only a good story that hooks you right away – once you’re done, you’re in a dream-like state thinking about the story, the characters, weeping over a dead one, or hoping the next book lets the lost lovers finally meet. [Rare events in both the Indie and Tradpub world – but both have them.]

The Amazon ratings on this can be chart-toppers. Some of these you’ll see on the NYT bestselling list not just for one week or maybe two, that’s the domain of #4 – these are books that are on the charts for many weeks, months, or even years.

Net Earnings: you sleep on a pile of cash, regardless of who you are.

— so, given the breakdown of the types of books and dispersion of where Indies tend to land, we run the gamut, but the Indie bell curve is generally left of the Tradpub one – because you know as well as I there’s lots and lots of Category 0-2 out there in the Indie world, where Tradpub has less of that.

I really try not to spam people on here with constant updates, because let’s face it, this author thing evolves slowly. I prefer to give updates when there’s something substantive going on.

Well, it is 2020, we’re all undergoing a very unusual situation with this pandemic, and I hope you are all doing as well as can be expected in such trying times.

That being said, I figure it’s a good time for some updates:

• Due to popular demand, I’ve released a sequel to Primordial Threat. I honestly hadn’t expected to write it, even though I had a good idea of where I wanted to go. But, this proves that when enough of you buy the first book and ask repeatedly about if a sequel was coming, I’m not exactly immune to influence. So, I recently release Freedom’s Last Gasp. 

• This year I will be releasing a thud of fantasy novels (4) whose protagonists are 17 years olds and up. I still look at them as YA novels (the audio company doesn’t like me saying that) but my beta readers, who range in age from 15 to 72, all seemed to love it. The first title, “Agent of Prophecy” is up for pre-order, and I will shortly be putting up the other three novels for pre-order as well. What you’ll see if the first novel is releasing at the end of June, and then each month, the next releases.

• There are 3 novels (mainstream thrillers) that are very much akin to what you might expect for a Levi Yoder novel, but a new protagonist with a shared world with Levi’s books. [The Outfit is revealed]. Expect to be done with those by end of June and working with some others on the release schedule, but I’d anticipate this year.

• If you’re a reader of German, or know any, you might be interested in hearing that I’m releasing six German novels this year. These are translations of the Levi Yoder series, Primordial Threat (and its follow-on), and Darwin’s Cipher. More will likely come after I see how those do in the German-speaking market.

• Last but not least, a new techno thriller which Im very excited to get back to, and will likely be near the end of the year.

15 new novels for sale in 2020 – ridiculous.

Let’s just say this will be an unusual year – and don’t expect such prolific output as the norm, many of these things were cooking for a long time. There really aren’t enough hours in the day to do quality novels justice, for me, at such a pace.

I’m usually good for 2 maybe 3 novels in a year.

Again, I hope you are all doing well, and we see ourselves healthy and happy after the dust settles.

–Mike Rothman

I’m going to be offline a lot this week, heavy heavy work week, and putting finishing touches on next book.

In the meantime, I’ve put on sale the first book I put out. It’s been fairly well received and has lots of kudos from folks you may recognize.

Share it with whoever you think may enjoy what Larry Niven called, “A good combination of science and adventure fiction.” I guarantee it won’t be this price for more than this week.

If interested, here are a few places where you can get it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FNRP9CF

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/primordial-threat-ma-rothman/1128933477?ean=2940162132196

https://books.apple.com/us/book/primordial-threat/id1400839738

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/primordial-threat

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/M_A_Rothman_Primordial_Threat?id=bO2ODwAAQBAJ

“Primordial Threat is a good combination of science and adventure fiction.”

• Larry Niven, New York Times bestselling author

“With Primordial Threat, Michael Rothman puts the OMG back in Science Fiction! Fascinating characters, an Asimov-sized plot, and lots of intrigue. Michael Rothman delivers. Chilling Science Fiction from a new Arthur C. Clarke. Movie-ready SF from a new master!”

• William C. Dietz, New York Times bestselling author

“Written by one who really knows the science, PRIMORDIAL THREAT zips along–a hard sf treat.”

• Gregory Benford, New York Times bestselling author of TIMESCAPE.

“Michael Rothman’s PRIMORDIAL THREAT is a big disaster novel — maybe the biggest, with the end of the solar system in play. There goes the neighborhood! Filled with innovative science and big-scale action, it shows humanity in crisis, and humanity at its best.”

• Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of BLOOD OF THE COSMOS

“For nail-biting science fiction thrillers, look no further than one of Rothman’s stories. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”

• Larry Correia, New York Times bestselling author.

“It has been a long time since I’ve seen a novel with big mind-blowing hard SF ideas like this. It reminds me very much of Asimov, and that is very welcome indeed.”

• David Farland, New York Times Bestselling, Award-winning Author

“Who says hard science fiction is dead? The field is safe and sound in the hands of Michael Rothman. Real science from a real scientist — and a thrilling page-turner, to boot. What more could one ask?”

• Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night

“A perfect blend of hard science fiction, disaster epic and thriller, this book will immerse you and keep you there till it ends. Then make you wish for a series.”

• Sarah Hoyt, Multi-award winning author

“Michael A. Rothman’s PRIMORDIAL THREAT is a beautifully-conceived hard science adventure, with totally believable characters and events, and a truly satisfying conclusion.”

• Mike Resnick, 4-time Hugo Award Winning author

“Michael A. Rothman’s PRIMORDIAL THREAT leverages real technical expertise to find the human drama in a plausible near-future extinction scenario. This is gripping reading, one part Larry Niven and one part Michael Crichton!”

• D.J. Butler, author of WITCHY EYE and THE KIDNAP PLOT

“The Primordial Threat is the Next Level in Extinction Event thrillers. Rothman deftly navigates actual science with a taut edge-of-your-seat tension that will scare you to death. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t already gaming Worst Case Scenarios for the White House.”

• Nick Cole, author of The Old Man and the Wasteland (Amazon #1 in SciFi) and Soda Pop Soldier (Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review)

“M.A. Rothman has combined the high-frontier space realism of Kim Stanley Robinson, with the big ideas and cosmic scope of Larry Niven, and paced it all like a Michael Crichton adventure. A terrific roller coaster ride, which hits the reader on several levels. Highly recommended.”

• Brad R. Torgersen, Multi-award winning Hard S.F. author

“… exciting sci-fi catastrophism … call it The Day the Earth Certainly Didn’t Stand Still.

Rothman (Perimeter, 2018), an engineer, tackles the hard-science/apocalypse trope of a ‘Very Bad Thing’ threatening Earth in the tradition of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer’s epochal When World’s Collide and Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer.”

• Kirkus Reviews

Just letting you guys know that a new Levi novel is available for pre-order. And during the pre-order phase, it’s being offered at a discounted price.

Below is a brief synopsis and I hope you enjoy it!

Levi is a fixer for one of the New York Mafia families.

However, when Rivka Cohen walks into his life asserting that the police are falsely labeling her husband’s death a suicide, things take an unexpected turn.

In NEVER AGAIN, Levi is thrust into a world filled with old grudges, bigotry, international politics, and treason.

With evidence of a long-festering plot that has its roots in Nazi Germany, Levi knows this is something he can’t ignore.

However, Levi soon learns that it’s the criminal justice system itself trying to bury the case as well as anyone who pursues it.

This may be too much for even him to handle.