2/12/2021: Writing During Covid

a classic image from Hamlet

a classic image from Hamlet

It’s been a tough year for everyone. I’ve had it better than most. I live in a beautiful community in a warm part of the country. If you have to be in prison, it’s a pretty nice prison, but like everybody else, I’m sick of it. It’s been hard to concentrate. My previous production, about 3 books a year, has dwindled off. I’m still writing, but at nowhere near the same rate. Kingpin, the latest book in the Kurtz and Barent mystery series, took me nearly six months to write.

However, hope is finally on the horizon. We have two vaccines now, with a third on the way. My wife and I are tentatively scheduled for March 4, 2021. Let’s hope that normal soon returns.

a classic image from Hamlet

8/7/19: USA Today Bestselling Author!

I am thrilled that Do No Harm, a collection of 17 medical mysteries by such talented authors as Judith Lucci, Ed Dasso, Uvi Poznansky, and of course, myself, is a Number 1 Amazon bestseller, and also, as of today, number 55 on the USA Today Bestseller List!

My contribution to the collection is If a Tree Falls, the 6th in the Kurtz and Barent mystery series. In this book, surgeon Richard Kurtz is looking forward to spending a few weeks in his home town in West Virginia, covering for another surgeon and visiting his family, when the bodies of 15 young women are discovered in a shallow grave…

Writing

My last Post, from October, 2018, was on the “Writing Career,” but I find that as time goes on, I have more to say. I’ve been writing for close to thirty years and it’s been an engrossing activity from the beginning, but never more so than now. I hesitate to say it’s a “calling” or even an obsession. There are a lot of myths regarding the process of writing and the life of a writer. For me, it’s a craft, and as such it’s something that can be worked on, honed and improved. I’m not big on the “muse” or the “inspiration.” Mickey Spillane once claimed to have writer’s block. He just couldn’t get into it. Then some bills arrived that he didn’t have the money to pay. He got over his writer’s block pretty quickly. There is an attitude that the writer cultivates, however, and I expect that all writers, to some extent, have it. You learn to pay attention to things. You evaluate what you’re seeing and hearing. You listen to the cadence of a voice or an accent. You note a sunset or a beach or a stand of trees and think about the best words to describe it. To other people, you seem preoccupied or absent-minded. Henry James once described a snippet of dialogue or a overhead conversation that he could use in a book as a “Donner.” In French, this means a “gift.” And it’s also a gift to be have the resources to finally write full-time. In the past two years, I’ve published 9 books: eight novels and one non-fiction book on defensive investing. I hope I never stop.

10/23/18: A Writing Career

One of the best books I’ve read on writing, many years ago, was On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner. The author himself was an acclaimed novelist and teacher, author of Grendel, Nickel Mountain, Jason and Medea and The Sunlight Dialogues, among others. Gardner regarded writing as a sort of calling, and the novelist, as an observer and interpreter of the human condition, as privileged. He also regarded the novelist as a sort of idiot savant, though he did not use that term. Writers are wrapped up in themselves, their minds always on their work, often oblivious to what was happening around them. If they were lucky enough to find a generous spouse who would help them with their work, keep an eye on them, wipe up their messes and even support them during the lean years when they would otherwise be living in poverty, then they should accept the gift with profound gratitude.

It was a romantic notion, indeed, and I’m not certain how true it really is. Most of the writers that I know have day jobs and real world responsibilities. For myself, I’m profoundly grateful to now be able to do what I really enjoy, but I don’t delude myself that the world is waiting breathlessly for the next masterwork by Robert I. Katz (though I hope that the world is…).

My 11th novel, Brighton Beach, the fifth book in the Kurtz and Barent mystery series, was published a few days ago. It’s common at such a time to take a step backward, to examine where we are and where we’re going, and think about how we got here. For me, it’s been a long journey, and among the many things that I’m grateful for are the fans who’ve read and enjoyed my work.

To them, I just want to say, thank you…

5/2/18: The Empire of Ruin

I’m happy to announce that The Empire of Ruin, the fourth book in the Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind, was published yesterday. In this book, Michael Glover and his crew accept a commission to spy for Naval Intelligence. The slaver network is expanding and the Second Empire is under siege. All attempts to identify the enemy have failed. The Empire has almost unlimited power, but power is no use with no one to fight. Michael Glover has accepted the mission, but he’s going to carry it out in his own way, because Michael Glover has secrets of his own…

3/20/18: The Empire of Dust

The Empire of Dust: Chronicles of the Second Empire, is the third book in the series, The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind. It will be published on March 25, 2018 but is available for pre-order now.

“Michael Glover survived every mission the Empire assigned him and then he survived the revolution that ended it all.

But can he survive when everything he knew and held dear has vanished into the past?

Awakened after 2000 years to find a new Empire rising to replace the old, Michael is given a second chance to make a difference. Can he take advantage of that chance? Does he even want to?

Trouble is brewing among the stars. Ships are vanishing. Military bases are being attacked. Chaos is spreading. Is this random piracy or a wide-spread conspiracy?

Naval intelligence is desperate to find out and Michael Glover, a soldier without a country, a man thought dead for over 2000 years, reluctantly decides that he cannot stand by when duty calls.

It’s a new Empire but the same old mission, and Michael Glover, deep in his soul, is still a soldier who can be counted on.

But Michael Glover has an independent streak. He’ll carry out the mission but he’ going to do it in his own inimitable way, whether naval intelligence likes it or not.

You will love this fast-paced science fiction adventure from award winning author, Robert I. Katz.

Buy it now!”

2/19/18: The Chairmen: A Kurtz and Barent Mystery is Now Available

Well, it’s been a long slog getting this book into print. I’ve been thinking about the idea for the Chairmen for a number of years. To some extent, it focuses on some issues outside of the central mystery, namely the challenges facing academic physicians in a work environment that expects the successful practitioner to be able to take care of patients, teach students and residents and also do research. It’s a rare individual who is capable of doing all three and an even rarer individual who is willing to sacrifice the time and the income required.

A chairmen of an academic department in a medical school has to have a history of publishing meaningful and significant research and also requires a history of being able to maneuver through the system of acquiring grants to fund that research. A successful chairman has to provide leadership and has to be able to gain the respect of the medical staff, both within and without the department, and also has to satisfy the myriad demands of the institution, particularly the demand to make certain that the money going out is more than balanced by the money coming in. It’s a tough job, and many chairmen find that it’s not one that they can do, either because they themselves lack the skill or because the institutional environment precludes success.

In The Chairmen, we have a Chairman of Cardiac Surgery who is retiring, a Chairman of Anesthesiology who is making himself so obnoxious that his department is in open revolt and a Chairman of OB-GYN who is being stalked by a lunatic. As harassment escalates into vandalism and then assault, Kurtz, Barent and Moran are propelled into the center of the mayhem!

1/1618: The City of Ashes is Now Available!

The City of Ashes: Chronicles of the Second Empire, is now available for kindle purchase (free with Kindle Unlimited). This is the sequel to The Game Players of Meridien and is the second book in The Chronicles of the Second Interstellar Empire of Mankind.

In this book, Douglas Oliver has survived the siege of Aphelion but the threat posed by the nation of Gath is far from over.

Every five years, Gath sponsors a Grand Tournament, where future leaders are pitted against each other in a series of violent contests. No outsider has ever won the Grand Tournament. Douglas Oliver is determined to change that.

All across the continent, nations are making alliances and choosing sides. War is coming, and Douglas Oliver’s participation in the Grand Tournament represents the opening gambit. Meridien intends to win the game that Gath has started, and Douglas Oliver is his country’s chosen weapon.

 

9/21/17: Updates!

a classic image from Hamlet

Just thought I would put up a post on how things have been going.

So far, my mysteries have been selling decently but I can’t say the same for the science fiction, just a couple of copies plus a few hundred pages read from the kindle library. I’ve decided to change the title on the next, to The Game Players of Meridien and I’m hoping that it will be out sometime in November. Following within a few months, will be the sequel, now tentatively entitled, The City of Ashes. Following that will be the next Kurtz and Barent mystery, The Chairmen, which should be out by April or May of next year.

I’ve been participating in two Group Giveaways on Instafreebie. Both Giveaways will be operational through September 30. The first is a science fiction short story, entitled “Adam,” about a scientist who uses a tailored retrovirus to implant the Fox P2 gene, sometimes called the language gene, into a cage full of rats and a mouse named Adam, and the unexpected consequences that ensue. The second is a prequel to the Kurtz and Barent mysteries, entitled Something in the Blood, featuring Richard Kurtz as a surgical resident on an elective rotation in the Arkansas mountains, solving a medical mystery that spans two tragic generations. These Giveaways offer dozens of excellent short stories and they can be accessed at the following URL’s:

The science fiction short stories: https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/NUsc9q0MB7TXd2RQltIy

The mystery short stories: https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/1TKcGGLVcj5R0HkESAU2

Well, that’s about all for the moment. Hope to have more news soon!