This is the time of year when everyone compiles their Best of Lists. Best Movies. Best Games. Best Shows. And of course, Best Books. I recently contributed a book list to Shepherd.com, which enlists the help of authors and readers, not algorithms, to share recommendations with readers. Shepherd is running a Best Books of 2025 project, which hundreds of authors have already contributed to. Mine is up now, and it’s called…

I don’t know why this keeps happening. Maybe publishers think October = ebook sales?

Who knows?

But right now, you can grab the ebook of my wife's NYT bestselling title, The Girls of Atomic City, for $1.99 at all U.S. book retailers. I have absolutely no idea how long this deal last. Nobody tells me anything.

As far back as 2010 bookstores, book clubs, and other orgs started asking my wife and I to talk to various groups about the publishing business. We started most of those events by reading off a list of book industry statistics, just to give wannabe authors a sense of what they were up against.

• A third of the U.S. population leaves high school and never reads a book again in their lives.

• Forty percent of college grads never crack a book after getting their sheepskin.

• More than 70 percent of Americans have not entered a bookstore in the last year.

So why on earth would you…

Just what the headline says. For the next two days—Oct. 8 to Oct. 10, 2025—the ebook version of our book about the signers of the Declaration of Independence is on sale for $1.99 across all online retailers in the USA. Grab it while it’s on sale, and thrill to the story of the 56 men who birthed a nation. How can I grab the deal, you ask? Funny thing…

Even before I wrote for a living, I read and absorbed the advice that dropped from the lips of writers. I’ve amassed a collection of these gems on my hard drive over the years. This week, in honor of the back-to-school mentality that permeates my soul at this time of year, I thought I’d dig in the files and see if any of the quotes I’ve saved actually makes sense, decades after I collected them.

You know what I discovered? The oldest quotes are the most useless. The one I harvested earlier this year is gold. And I would have expected better from the talented writers and creatives who uttered these words.

The words of wisdom come from people such as…

I’ve written another article about dogs, this time about how dogs are used in various ways the world over to help humans. They are, as I point out, probably the second most employed species on the planet. This article builds on the premise I laid a few weeks ago at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog, when I shared some fun facts about dog noses. If you love dogs, you will want to check this story out.

The post is called…

Joe is fixing things behind the scenes…

If you’re thinking of getting copies of my books, it couldn’t be easier. I’ve got you covered, even for autographed books!

I’m over at SleuthSayers, the mystery blog, today, talking how dogs and humans came to be pals, and other amazing facts about canine noses. I don’t think you’ll want to miss it if you are a dog lover.

The post is called…

Next year is the 250th anniversary of the United States, which means it is necessarily also the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. I know a lot about that document, thanks to the research I did several years ago to write a book about the signers of that hallowed document. Today, I’m talking about a lesser-known individual associated with the Declaration—Timothy Matlack—the man who actually hand-wrote the document that all the Congressmen signed…