New Story Accepted

I just signed a contract with Etopia Press to publish my short story, The Rules. There is no publication date as yet, but they plan to publish it as a stand-alone ebook, which will be available in all the major ebook stores, and as part of a print anthology.

The Rules is the first story in a new series featuring Honolulu PI Ava Rome, who runs The Splintered Paddle Agency. Ava is a former MP and Army CID agent who has left the Army and lives in Hawaii.

Here's a short synopsis of The Rules:

Personal Protection specialist Ava Rome follows three rules: A professional never calls attention to herself or her principal; a professional never leaves her principal; and, the most important rule, a professional never gets involved with her principal. To break the rules is to die.
Ava's principal, Paul, comes from a family with many enemies. The greatest threat, however, comes not from the outside, but from Ava's growing desire. In order to save them both, Ava must leave Paul. But Paul does not want her to leave.

This is a novella length story of about 11,500 words. There are not many markets for stories of that length, although that used to be a common length in the mystery field. Now mystery publications are looking for shorter stories. Romance and erotica publishers, however, are finding the novella length to be very popular and more and more markets are springing up. If you go to the Etopia Press site, you'll find that most of their stories are romance and erotica. The Rules is neither. I consider it a hard-boiled mystery/thriller. Etopia doesn't have many such stories although they do have a category for them in their publication listing. I think they are hoping that mystery readers will also go for this length.

So, look for The Rules from Etopia Press. When I get a publication date, I'll announce it.