Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Mu Rhythm Bluff, a novel by Jonathan Mitchell



As regular readers of my blog know, I've been talking about it for quite some time.  I was working on self-publishing my novel "The Mu Rhythm Bluff".  By clicking on this link, you can go to Amazon and read the first few chapters for free.  If you're interested and you have a Kindle, you can purchase it for less than $3.00.  You can also check out the artwork by my talented cover artist, Liz Ingersoll.  I'm not sure if she has a web site that I can link to in case you want to hire her for a project, but if I find out about one if she gives my consent to give her business a plug, I'll do so and edit this post. 

Some people are lucky at cards, others are lucky at love.  Drake Dumas is neither.  He loves to play poker, though he nearly always loses.  He's 49 years old and still a virgin.  He either can't get up the nerve to ask women out or he's constantly rejected due to his behavior.

After losing his job, incurring gambling debts and having to move back in with his parents, he hears of an experimental treatment involving suppression of brain waves called Mu rhythms.  Also, transcranial magnetic stimulation which can be used to enhance or inhibit the brain.

Instead of mitigating his autism, it appears to turn him into an expert poker player, unbeatable by even world class players.  When word gets around of his poker prowess, his luck with women seems to change.  However, the old French proverb lucky at cards, unlucky at love does seem to ring true for Drake.  He only seems to have his poker prowess when he's celibate and not involved with a woman.  When he loses the girl, the poker skills return.

He must get to the bottom of this and find a way to permanently keep his skills.  His situation is also complicated by a beguiling reporter who writes an article trivializing his disability and won't seem to leave him alone.  Will she cause danger for Drake?

In the process Drake may learn some things about himself, his autism and love.

As some already know, this is not my first novel.  I have also written several short stories, 14 of them are on my web page which you can check out.  My first novel, "The School of Hard Knocks" was about the experiences of a young autistic boy in an abusive special education school.  I was not able to get it published and I probably won't bother publishing it on Kindle Direct Publishing without some serious revision, which I may or may not do at some point.

I believe my second novel is closer to publishable quality but may still not be there.  However, I don't know how I can make it better and don't have thousands of bucks to pay a book doctor or editor, who may not even be helpful.  So, here it is, ready or not.  I was able to read "The School of Hard Knocks" on a national radio program, so maybe I can repeat that with this one and sell a few more copies.  I submitted an earlier version and have sold two copies as of this writing.  It had a few problems, so I resubmitted it.  I apologize to those who bought the first two copies and I notified amazon and hopefully whoever you are, you can get the updated copy without additional charge or problems.

Now, I have to work on getting a side bar in the artwork and a link, hopefully I'll be able to do this.

I know everyone is enthralled with the 1 in 50 story (which I may write about in a subsequent post), but maybe you can take a break from that, and check out my novel. 

Again if the concept of this novel appeals to you or you've just been a reader of my blog and want to help me out, buy the book and help me out. Thanks in advance to anyone who does so.

5 comments:

leventa2 said...

I bought a copy last Friday! It was an excellent book, I'd say. I felt like I was there when Drake got kidnapped, really suspenseful.

jonathan said...

thanks, glad you liked it. I was wondering who bought the third copy. thanks for your support again. Hope I can sell a fourth copy now.

jonathan said...

You can download my novel for free from April 1 to April 5. I will write a post reminding people in April.

Jake Crosby said...

Congratulations on your new novel, Jonathan.

jonathan said...

@Jake, thanks