Good Cop, Dead Cop book signing

Get your copy of Good Cop, Dead Cop signed where the story begins, in the bowels of Union Station. I’ll be at the open house for the Platte Valley & Western Model Railroad club in the basement of the building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 17.




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If you’re not familiar with the book, it opens with my dead cop looking for a shooting suspect in the same basement, and Union Station, of course, is on the cover of the book. The club’s open house will actually be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and if you’ve never visited the club, definitely visit even if you don’t care about my book. It’s actually a fun Christmas thing to do so bring the kids.

I’ll have copies of the book to sell, or you can pick up your copy at the downtown Tattered Cover that’s just across the street.

Good Cop, Dead Cop on Denver’s Channel 7

Thanks to Cathy Langer, lead book buyer for the Tattered Cover, Good Cop, Dead Cop was mentioned on the 11 a.m. 7News broadcast today. Langer was meeting with anchor Bertha Lynn to discuss local authors and GCDC was the second book (of nine) mentioned. Some of the details may have been incorrect, but the book cover was shown, my name was mentioned and the essential information about a dead cop communicating with his partner through the Internet was explained.

Outlining The Background Noise of Souls

For those of you dying to know the progress of the sequel to Good Cop, Dead Cop, I will inform you that I’ve entered the deadly dull outline stage. You see my usual way of writing a new book is to just start hammering away at a scene I particularly like, and it doesn’t have to be the opening scene. I then jump around writing scenes that amuse me and I usually keep typing until I run out of words, which is around a thousand.

When Steve Jobs arrives on the AfterNet …

… everything will change.

Darrin Bell, creator of the comic strip, Candorville, has his main character being visited by the ghost of Steve Jobs. Yes, it is a case of “too soon” as Jobs admonishes Lamont, but I’d like to think that if anyone would understand the power of the AfterNet, it would be the former CEO of Apple.

Of course in my world, Apple has already created a low-cost home AfterNet terminal, and I’m sure the innovations in that terminal are responsible for a lot of the user interface improvements in the present-day AfterNet terminals that you’ll see in the sequel, The Background Noise of Souls.

New sequel title

Although Merely Dead was a pretty good title, a line that I’ve written in the sequel just jumped out as an even better one.

“What was that?” Munroe asked after the sound — he could only describe it as such — faded from the AfterNet field.

“That was what Shel calls the cosmic background noise of souls,” Feore answered.

So the new title is: The Background Noise of Souls

Merely Dead

Merely Dead is the working title for the sequel to Good Cop, Dead Cop, which is currently being written. It’s set eight months after the events of the first book, just about the time that Hurricane Katrina is targeting New Orleans, in fact.

Thanks to the 951 entrants to the GoodReads book giveaway

After two weeks, the GoodReads giveaway is over, with 951 registering in the contest and over a hundred people adding it to their to read shelf. I’ve gotten one text review so far and three ratings, all five star.

The three winners were all women (based on their first names), two in Florida and one in West Virginia. Congratulations and I hope you’ll enjoy the book and want to review it.

GoodReads Book Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Good Cop, Dead Cop

by Jennifer Petkus

Giveaway ends August 08, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

What was the AfterNet?

The AfterNet preceded Good Cop, Dead Cop. I’d actually had the idea for an online community for the dead long before the popularity of the Internet, even before the creation of the world wide web.

E-books very popular with the dead

The Tattered Cover has ordered 15 copies of Good Cop, Dead Cop to be sold at their three metro locations: Colfax, downtown Denver and Highlands Ranch. Obviously I’m excited at the thought of GCDC available at a real book store. Update: I just delivered the books today, July 15.

I should explain that the TC has a Rocky Mountain Authors Program where they highlight books by local authors, and since I live in Denver and the book is set in Denver, I thought I’d qualify for the program and so I dropped off a copy of the book for review. I also set a scene in the downtown Tattered Cover, which wasn’t just a clever ploy to get the TC to stock the book. It just seemed natural to set a scene at the TC, especially when I thought that one of the more popular pastimes for the dead would be reading.

Firearms blunder

Thanks to Roger McPherson who spotted a mistake I made concerning the M1911 .45 ACP. Turns out you can’t engage the thumb safety unless the hammer’s cocked.

Good Cop, Dead Cop available as paperback

Finally, you can buy the book as a paperback at Amazon. Still don’t have the look inside feature working yet and Amazon hasn’t made the link between the Kindle and the paperback, but it is progress.

Good Cop,Dead Cop proof here!

After a lot of back and forth, I’ve received a proof from CreateSpace. So GC,DC is now a 5x8 paperback, 304 pages long.

It looks incredibly good but I’m going to make a few changes including lightening the top half of the Union Station picture on the cover (just a little PhotoShop magic) and probably switching to a cream-colored paper. The very bright white just makes it look a little too self published, and yes I know that’s what it is.

Good Cop, Dead Cop to be a paperback

After lots and lots of work, Good Cop, Dead Cop will soon be available as a paperback from Amazon (and through bookstores, but by special order). I’m awaiting a proof and if all goes well it should be available in about two weeks.

Good Cop, Dead Cop available at Google Books

You can find Good Cop, Dead Cop at Google Books. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Books there’s a video here explaining the benefits.

Approved for Apple

Yes, Apple has approved my application, which means I can now submit my book to Apple and hope that it will be included in the iBookstore. You can keep checking Mallard Press to see me document my experiences.

UPDATE: I’ve sent the epub to Apple and will now await Apple telling me I’ve done something wrong. One of the things that’s bad about a company that sweats the details is that they really, really sweat the details.

ANOTHER UPDATE: At least the iTunes Connect web page now lists my book as Pending. My biggest gripe with the Apple submission process so far has been the lack of automatic confirmation emails. You know: “This is an automated reply to inform you … do not reply to this …”