Mark Trainer

Update: Here's a link to New Wife on Amazon.  It's also available on iBooks and elsewhere.

Happy news around these parts.  In mid-September (on my birthday, in a happy twist of karma), I entered one of the many contests we fiction writers enter, even if we don't really imagine it going anywhere.  The colorful Lord Jeffrey Archer has a collection of stories out and this contest would give an e-book-publication contract to the story St. Martin's and Lord Jeffrey liked the best.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago: me at my new day job, first thing in the morning on a Monday.  My cell phone rings, and the poshest female voice you've ever heard says, "Please hold for Lord Archer."  Moments later, across the line comes, "Hello, Mark!" (Next time you see me, I'll do the impersonation for you--sort of a full-on James Mason thing.)  My first conversation with a titled Brit doesn't go particularly well--I'm half sure someone's playing a joke, Lord Archer doubtless wonders how this idiot on the other end managed to write his name, much less a short story.

But the upshot is that the last story I wrote for Bad Daddies, "New Wife," is coming to a Kindle or iPad near you on December 7.  USA Today announces it here (scroll down past Portia and Ricky) and you can read the opening here.

I really could not be happier about this...