Back in 2017, shortly after I arrived in NoCo from Da Bronx. I met a loquacious mule named Claire who changed my life.
In 2018, this magical creature came to live at what evolved into my NoCo homestead, Casa Claire. Claire taught me a lot about myself. She made me want to be a better human. And she pushed me to fulfill one of my remaining dreams.
In 2019, I took a shot at writing a novel. I was still operating on my East Coast Circadian Rhythm and instead of doom scrolling the internet at 2 a.m. until the legal world came on-line back east, I decided to use that stolen time to see if I could write something worthwhile. I was in my sixties, not getting any younger, and just needed to get the dream I had been carrying from the 90s out of my system before I ran out of runway.
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Twelve weeks later The Wise Ass was completed. I figured it would sit in my drawer until I died, and when my kids found it when they were clearing out the house, they would burn it in the fireplace.
Claire insisted I review every new chapter with her every day. So, I would tell her what I had written each day when I fed and brushed her. My wife, Lisa, also agreed to read the work as I was writing it. She always believed that I could be a writer – long before I ever became a lawyer. Knowing that I had to answer to someone making the time to read my work made my commitment to completing the project that much firmer. This concept later developed into my inner circle of readers.
That fall, at a writer-friend’s suggestion, I submitted the manuscript to the only publisher I could find that didn’t require an agent cover letter – Black Rose Writing, in Texas.
Then I forgot about it – after all, it was the longest of long-shots. I was happy enough knowing I had at least taken that shot and completed the work.
The following Spring I received the below email, which now hangs in Lisa’s office.
The Wise Ass was published in February 2021.
Honestly, I did not expect that The Wise Ass would do well. After all, it’s a literary gender-crossing novel with a talking, psychic mule as its central character. Goodfellas meets Wizard of Oz. I was just thrilled that I was lucky enough to fulfill a life-long dream of seeing something I wrote published.
McCaffreys In The Library (Who Would Have Believed It?!) – The Wise Novelist
Surprisingly, TWA spent months as #1 on Amazon in the Black humor category.
Reagan Rothe came back to me and said, “What else do you got?”
By 2024, all five of The Claire Saga novels had been published by BRW — I was relentlessly driven to complete this storyline by the fear that I would die with my music still in me –
Namaste Wayne Dyer – The Wise Novelist
Don’t die with the song unsung wayne Dyer – Search
and those five novels regularly appeared together on the Amazon top 100 best-seller listings for Humorous Science Fiction:
I was so surprised at the time that I actually snapped some screen shots.
Even the box set of the first three novels – repackaged as The Claire Trilogy – made the cut.
Who knew I could write Science Fiction?
I’m thrilled that when I went to check on BRW’s website this morning, The Wise Ass still appears on the publisher’s Best Seller list. (See the opening photo).
Anyway, once those books were published, I took a hiatus from writing. I just figured that I had shot my wad, and I didn’t want to go to the Claire well one more time.
I ended the TCS series with WTLLM but I intentionally left a cliff hanger door open that would allow me to continue with a new series based upon the remaining younger generation of Claire’s Motley Crew.
I figured at some point – after I retired from law – I would take a more leisurely run at that new series.
However, after I abruptly retired from my legal practice in October of 2025, I felt compelled to write a couple of stand-alone stories – Free R.A.D.I.C.A.L. (a legal thriller) and Spark of Faith (a medical-spiritual drama). These are two stories that have been percolating in my head for decades. They work as a literary palate cleanser just to see if I can write something beyond TCS. I’m not a one-trick mule.
Spark of Faith – The Wise Novelist
So, I’ve spent the last calendar year fulfilling that personal challenge and completing those two novels with the invaluable assistance of my very supportive and diligent inner circle of readers. Thank you, inner circle.
Free R.A.D.I.C.A.L. has finally made it through the publishing process and has appeared on-line for pre-sale. It drops on January 14th, 2027.
Free R.A.D.I.C.A.L. is Finally On-Line – The Wise Novelist
BRW has already signed off on Spark of Faith, so, I’m tweaking it one final time and gathering author’s blurbs and then will finalize its cover. It’s out with a small selection of cold beta-readers, to gauge their reactions, and the ones that have gotten back to me already have given it five stars. I’ll turn the final Word version of the manuscript back into BRW at the end of this week. Then it will go through the publishing process and hopefully SOF will appear for pre-sale just before FR drops in January.
Spark of Faith drops in May of 2027.
While these two novels are different genres from the mix that make up The Claire Saga, I’ve been told that both carry the hallmarks of the strong character development and engrossing storylines that made TCS so successful.
With any luck and a lot of support by readers who have enjoyed TCS, I’m hoping that Free R.A.D.I.C.A.L. continues the magic and opens as a best seller on Amazon and beyond. If that occurs, I know that Spark of Faith will ride that momentum and reach that same success.
If you are one of my fine, five readers, I’m hoping you can help me make that happen, by telling all of your friends and family to check out these new books, and maybe TCS as well. We’ve gotten this far without Oprah or the New York Times pushing my work, so I know it can happen. I appreciate all the assistance you have provided and will provide to make that happen.
Thanks in advance for everything you have added to my creative journey.
If my plan works out, I’ll be able to turn my creative attention next spring to writing that Claire spin-off series I’ve been letting ferment. I’m intent on publishing at least ten novels before I cross the veil to a new energy plain.
Well, it’s Sunday, the biblically ordained day of rest. I hope you all get to enjoy it in every way that brings you happiness.
And no matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.
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