Newsletters – Dave Dobson

Welcome, new folks!

Hi, there. I’ve had a number of people join the mailing list recently. I want to make sure everybody gets their free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven’t gotten it, you can get it free from many sources here.

Get What Grows From the Dead free starting Monday!

As a bonus for you active newsletter subscribers, here’s a bargain on the way: my most popular mystery, What Grows From the Dead, will be free to download from Amazon from July 20th (my dad’s birthday!) to July 24th. Mark your calendar and grab the free book here.

Here’s the blurb:

Morris Drummond is not at his best. Well, he hasn’t been at his best for a while now. But having just suffered two crushing losses, he’s almost at rock bottom, which for him means driving ride-share in his mom’s beat up Chevy, drowning his sorrows in tacos and spray cheese, and avoiding anything related to ambition, self-care, or laundry.

Morris is about to learn that he didn’t even know what rock bottom looked like, and it’s all thanks to his mom. A secret she left behind comes to light, and that brings down a lot of unwanted attention on Morris, the kind that looks likely to send him either to prison or to the hereafter. Blood and treachery from long ago rise to the surface, and Morris has only his lawyer Annie, who’s an old high school friend, and a few unexpected allies to call on as he tries to figure out what his mom was up to and why so many people want him out of the picture.

A humorous mystery with elements of suspense and thrillers, What Grows From the Dead is set in present-day small-town North Carolina, not far from the mysterious Uwharrie Forest.

Content warnings: Coarse language throughout; some gun violence (not graphic).

Enjoy a copy on me! I hope you have fun with it.

Convention appearance, plus Scalzi!

I’ll be at ConGregate in Greensboro this weekend, Friday to Sunday. This is a sci-fi and fantasy convention that happens every year, and this will be my second year. I’m on several panels throughout the weekend, and I’m also doing an improv comedy show with friends from The Idiot Box on Friday right after the opening ceremony.

One of the coolest things to come of this is that one of the panels I’m on is with two big-name authors who are guests of honor at the convention. One is Richard Kadrey, who writes the Sandman Slim series of supernatural noir books. The other is John Scalzi, a multi-Hugo-award winning author with a huge following. I’ve enjoyed every book of his I’ve read, including the Hugo-winning Redshirts. I feel a little like a ball kid at Wimbledon, running around between famous people trying not to get in their way, but I am so excited to be on the panel. Here’s the description:

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Best, is off to a good start!

I’m happy to report that Best, is off to a great start. We’ve sold 44 copies on Amazon plus another seven from my home shop. We’ve had another set of readers read 4373 pages in Kindle Unlimited, an equivalent of another ten copies. Reviews and ratings are starting to come in, and we’re at an average of about 4.5 out of 5 on both Amazon and Goodreads.

One reader had an especially kind review:

Another interested party (my wife) wanted people to know that she laughed out loud at the Mark sections, too. There’s a tiny chance she’s geared towards my humor, though. 🙂

If you’d like to read Best, it’s available on Amazon in ebook and paperback here (free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers) and in paperback through my shop (where you can get a signed copy!) here.

Here’s a picture of the paperbacks on my shelf (with a view of my cool family heirloom Oz books).

Writing update

I haven’t gotten a ton of writing done since I last wrote you all. I had a cross-country (or cross-half-country) trip with my oldest kid from Colorado to Minneapolis in a giant white van, helping them move to a new post-doc position. That was really fun, and I got to see my dad on the way. Once I got back, I had some other life stuff to handle, and I had to do some reading for the SPSFC, which I’m judging this year. I also got a little distracted working on a new boardgame design, which is always fun for me. Once I’m done with ConGregate, I’ll dive back into my sci-fi novel, and I hope to get a first draft done by the end of August.

The upcoming Rings of Adventure anthology (in which I have a story) in is taking shape, and we’re getting ready to launch the Kickstarter at the end of August. All the stories are fantasy and sci-fi, and they’ll be delivered in book form and also advent-calendar style by email, one story a day, during December. If you’d like to keep up with updates and the launch, you can follow the Kickstarter project here.

Some stories to try

I’m part of several author collectives, and we share each other’s work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month:

First up, I have Slice of Sin by J.W. Weld. This is a free prequel story to Weld’s Last Sin series. It’s a villain’s-eye-view of a hunt for an important boy who should be dead.

Next, I have Burning Oath by Rowan Ashborne. This epic fantasy adventure has so much awesome stuff – prophecy, a capital E Empire, rebels, commanders, some place called the Wildlands, dying magic, and even some kind of demon cat. It’s earned a 4.6 average on 38 ratings at Amazon. Check it out!

Next, I have Freak Forward by C.G. Harris. This is a young adult cyberpunk thriller, with neon, hackers, big corps, a city’s underbelly, and all kinds of delicious tropey stuff. Only $0.99! Have a look.

Next, I have The Control Room by Miriam Khan. This is a romance with some sci-fi and mafia elements, and there’s stuff on a train, which is one of my favorite settings. Khan is offering it for free to people willing to consider posting a review. Now that I’m a romance author I’ll have some more of these to share, although I’ll try to stay away from the naked man torso ones where possible.

Finally, I have The Dead Lands by Cheryl Mackey, the second book in her Destiny series. A wasteland, a war, a necromancer, a quest, immortals and a mysterious book – this has all kinds of cool chewy epic fantasy stuff. Not to mention a flaming volcano axe, which everyone needs.

Thanks

Thanks so much for being a part of my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming books! I love hearing from people. As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or book ideas, I’m all ears, especially if you want to talk about one of mine that you’ve read. Don’t forget to grab your free copy of What Grows From the Dead next week starting Monday!

May the Bloodmother watch over you –

Dave

Dave Dobson Books 417 Scott Avenue Greensboro, NC 27403 USA

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Best is here!

Welcome, new folks!

Best, is here!

It’s release day! I’m so excited to share Best, our new novel. It’s a romantic comedy (my first!) starring two quirky, flawed protagonists, Flora and Mark, who need to set aside years of enmity to solve a mystery at the small college where they both work. Along the way, they start to realize that they can actually stand being around each other. At least, some of the time.

I co-wrote this with a good friend and academic colleague in alternating chapters, with her writing Flora and me writing Mark. It was one of the most fun, most rewarding writing experiences I’ve had, and I think that’s reflected on the pages. If you’ve ever worked at a university or attended a liberal arts college, you’ll find many of the quirks, indignities, joys, ironies, and frustrations of that environment mixed throughout the story.

It’s not a bodice-ripper or steamy/spicy at all, although a love story is at the heart of it. That story is an enemies-to-lovers slow burn romance that stays clean throughout, although there’s a lot of swearing by both main characters. If you want to see behind closed doors, you’ll need to write your own Mark and Flora fanfic. 🙂

The book is available in ebook and paperback, and free to read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. If you’re willing to post a review to Amazon, Goodreads, or elsewhere, you can get a free review copy through StoryOrigin. I will have paperback copies to sell through my home shop starting next week, so if you’d like to get one of those, let me know!

Writing update

I’ve been busy getting Best, up and running with the release, and I’ve also been working on a prototype for a deckbuilding card game idea I had about a month ago, which is fun but a lot of work. Think blue underground fantasy people with goat horns riding a boat around building stuff, recruiting allies, and buying and enchanting stuff.

I’ve also been writing! I’ve added over 10,000 words to my new sci-fi novel since June 15, and it’s coming along. I’m still in the throes of a sticky plot point, but I think I’m navigating a satisfying way through. I will be helping my oldest move cross country for the next 4-5 days, but hopefully I’ll still get a little more done while on the road, and I hope to be able to come back refreshed and ready to do more in July. I really love the main character – a resourceful ship’s engineer in the Patrol who’s caught up in a mystery, a betrayal, and a situation spinning well out of her control. It’s set in the same far-future universe as Daros and Kenai, where humanity has spread to the stars but suffered a massive war, leaving only a small set of worlds on the fringes inhabited and communicating with each other. In this book, a pair of deep-space exploration vessels have been sent back to where humanity used to be, before the war destroyed most human worlds.

I had the first 15 pages of my play, A Light Reign, read at the most recent meeting of the Greensboro Playwrights Forum, and I got some useful advice from my fellow playwrights there, along with the joy of hearing people speak the lines. Not sure where to go next with the play, but I’ve got it in the hands of some readers and submitted to some competitions and festivals, so hopefully something will come of that. I’d love to see it produced, or before that, do a staged reading and hear how it sounds all the way through. If you know any theatre folks willing to have a look at a silly medieval farce, send them my way!

Some stories to try

The first is Defiant Space by Richard Rimington. This is the first book in his Infinite Void series. It’s about a planet facing an alien invasion which launches a desperate mission into deep space. The ship, carrying the hopes of the entire planet along with its crew, faces a host of enemies and hazards as it works towards completing its mission. It’s free as a review copy, so click the cover or the link and give it a try if you’re interested and willing to review.

Next, I have Cave of Time by Luna Fox and F. Lowberry. This 100% free fantasy story is about a village drained of its magic, beset now by mysterious enemies, and one boy trying to save it. My OG “Cave of Time” is of course the Choose Your Own Adventure one from my youth, but this looks cool too!

Finally, in honor of the release of Best, I have a set of 21 closed-door (i.e. no naughty bits) romance books and series that are free on Kindle Unlimited. Not all of them have laughing people standing in weeds.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for being a part of my little writing community. I’m so excited to share Best, with the world, and I hope you’ll give it a try if it sounds like your kind of story. As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or book ideas, I’m all ears, especially if you want to talk about one of mine that you’ve read.

May the Bloodmother watch over you –

Dave

Dave Dobson Books 417 Scott Avenue Greensboro, NC 27403 USA

Category: Newsletters

Newsletter, July 15 2026

July 1 Newsletter: A new romantic comedy!

Best is here!