DONALD J. BINGLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morse Code Mysteries and Missives Debuts at Origins Game Fair

 

My latest collection has three tales-two stories by me, plus a relevant piece of non-fiction, first printed in triple-space Morse Code text over 310 pages, then provided via link to audio files of Morse Code dots and dashes, then finally provided as clear text. Had a lot of fun showing off the most unusual book ever debuted at Origins Game Fair. Click on the picture for a link to where you can get your copy to help you learn and improve your own Morse Code abilities or grab it for a friend who may have learned Morse in the military, merchant marine, Boy Scouts, or elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Third Book in the Dick Thornby Thriller Series is now available. Flash Drive joins Net Impact and Wet Work.

 

Flash Drive  is the third Dick Thornby adventure, following on the heels of my spy thrillers Net Impact and Wet Work. 

​

It's complicated when you're an international spy with a wife, a kid, and a mortgage, but everyone thinks you're really a wastewater treatment consultant. It's bad when your family finds out about your clandestine life, your wife wants to keep tabs on where you are, and your kid tries to emulate your espionage activities. But, it's downright dangerous for your career, your family, your colleagues, and your prospects of living until retirement when the powers-that-be at the Subsidiary discover you haven't been keeping the secrets you should have.

 

Forced to bring his family in tow on an off-the-books mission to investigate a mysterious flash in the middle of the Australian Outback, Dick Thornby has to contend with foreign agents, a sinister Japanese cult, outlandish conspiracy theories, and futuristic weapons from the past to save his family and himself while still completing his bizarre quest for the truth about what happened out woop woop and why so many people with weapons care.

​

One of the cool things about this third spy thriller is that I got a blurb from Raymond Benson, who wrote a bunch of official James Bond novels some years back.

​

“FLASH DRIVE builds on the universe that Mr. Bingle began with NET IMPACT and continued with WET WORK. This time, everyman spy Dick Thornby and his family are on a mission to… wait, huh? What secret agent in his right mind brings his family along on a dangerous espionage assignment? Find out inside this grand entertainment that sports an intriguing plot, well-written and thrilling action scenes, and a few laughs, too!”

​

Raymond Benson, author of Hotel Destiny—a Ghost Noir and The Black Stiletto Serial

​

This blurb is especially cool because Dick Thornby is not like James Bond. In fact, the book makes several references to how Dick's life is different from James Bond. Dick Thornby is a new kind of spy for a new kind of world.

 

Most spy books and movies fall into one of two categories. There's the James Bond types--handsome men with sultry accents, multiple tuxedoes, luxury cars, fancy gadgets, and plenty of promiscuous female companionship. Or, there's the Jason Bourne types--serious loners who have no life other than fighting, driving, and killing. So when I wrote my first spy novel, Net Impact,I wrote it about a regular guy with a stocky build and some skills (as a former Army Ranger and former Chicago cop) who has a wife, a teenaged kid, a mortgage, and all the mundane problems associated with life, but is secretly a spy. His wife and kid, as well as his friends from the New Jersey subdivision where he lives, all think he is a wastewater treatment consultant. But instead of dealing with the dirty job of processing sewage in third world countries, he is really on missions, some mundane and dirty, others of vital importance and even dirtier.

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

Two Illinois Authors Claim Three Top Literary Prizes

 

NASHVILLE: The Love-Haight Case Files, an urban fantasy novel by Jean Rabe and Donald J. Bingle, garnered three Silver Falchion Awards at the recent Killer Nashville mystery writers’ convention.

 

Rabe, of Tolono, IL, is the author of three dozen fantasy and science fiction novels and the editor of a wide variety of anthologies and magazines. Bingle, of St. Charles, IL, is an author in numerous formats and genres, with an emphasis on action-adventure books.

Rabe and Bingle were recognized at the Killer Nashville Guest of Honor Dinner. Silver Falchion Awards are based upon special merit in a particular subgenre, topic, or category. The Love-Haight Case Files was peer-voted as Best Fantasy and awarded the judges’ choice as both Best Urban Fantasy and Best Multi-Genre Work. Rabe was previously a finalist for best thriller novel by the International Thriller Writers for another work, Pockets of Darkness. Bingle was previously a semi-finalist in 2015’s Soon-To-Be-Famous-Illinois-Author contest for another work, Frame Shop.

 

The Love-Haight Case Files is published by WordFire Press of Colorado and is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Visit the authors’ websites at: www.jeanrabe.com and www.donaldjbingle.com for more information about them and their work.

 

Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference was founded in 2006 by writer and filmmaker Clay Stafford as a trademarked charitable production of American Blackguard, Inc. Since then, it has developed a reputation as a leading advocate for writers and readers of all genres. Media analysis conducted by a third party in the fall of 2012 found that Killer Nashville was the most written about writers’ conference on the web. Guests of Honor in 2016 included Janet Evanovich, Kevin O’Brien, Anne Perry, and Robert J. Randisi. www.killernashville.com.

 

Love-Haight Case Files synopsis: Thomas Brock and Evelyn Love are attorneys who crusade for the rights of OTs—Other-Than-Humans. Their clients include ghosts, gargoyles, vampires, and things that have not yet been given names. The city’s OT element is sometimes malevolent, sometimes misunderstood, and often discriminated against. Brock and Love represent them, whatever the case, whatever the species. Magic hangs heavy in San Francisco, and danger and intrigue is as thick as the fog around the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

“Love-Haight is a comedy, locked within a mystery, hidden in a horror story… Wonderfully clever, stylish, and ghoulish. Delightfully twisted fun!” —William C. Dietz, New York Times bestselling creator of The Legion of the Damned®

 

“You have to enjoy a book where they kill the lawyer and he still defends his undead clients.” —Jody Lynn Nye, New York Times bestselling author

 

“Making the freakiest burg in the nation ten times freakier is a considerable achievement.” —Glen Cook, bestselling author of The Black Company series

 

“A seamless blend of horror, romance, and legal intrigue that makes for an urban fantasy-laced cocktail of literary delights sure to thrill readers of all stripes. Don’t miss Love-Haight!” —New York Times bestselling author Matt Forbeck

 

“Part fantasy noir, part supernatural legal thriller, Love-Haight sparkles with wit and originality. Fans of urban fantasy are sure to love Thomas Brock and Evelyn Love!” —Troy Denning, New York Times bestselling author