In short, it’s a first-person crime noir with a memoir undertone. It takes place in Portland, New Orleans, and Montana (mostly Billings) and clocks in at 292 pages, according to Kindle. I’ve self-published it as an ebook.

If you’re starved for some riveting action – like watching a train wreck (it has a train chase) – then A KILLER STORY might be for you. It will certainly help kill some time. In truth, it could be so wretchedly bad that it’s good. That’s fine with me.

If you’re interested (and I wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t), there’s a book synopsis below and a couple links to where you can find it – on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and a few other places I’ve never heard of.

It will set you back $4.99 (money back if you hate it and can find me). I’m happy to send you a standard pdf file of the book for FREE if you want to forego the five bucks. Just message me your email.

A heads up: This book is a bizarre work of FICTION. In other words, it’s not entirely true.

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086H5PHGY/ref=kwrp_li_stb_nodl

Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and others: https://books2read.com/AKillerStory

SYNOPSIS
Based in part on personal journals, A KILLER STORY is the morally strangled tale of a guy named Teddy Murphy who in his younger years is coerced to take photos for a gang of vigilante New Orleans ex-cops who dispense justice and pain for profit and pleasure. He tries to skip town, is tracked down, and commanded to kill someone or his daughter will disappear, never to be found.

Teddy can’t kill someone (he thinks), so he concocts a mad scheme to fake the hit. The wheels come off and Teddy’s outlandish plan takes a wild turn, ending in the backcountry of remote Montana, where grizzlies and wolves outrank humans.
Will Teddy make the hit? Will he be the one killed? Will his wife leave him? Will he use his “escape bag” to run for his life? Or will he face justice himself and be redeemed for his sins? Whatever the outcome, it’s a killer story for certain.

This came to mind when I read some research on how to communicate with others – especially folks (including children) who don’t see eye to eye with you on certain things.

Be careful with negativity. Research has shown that negativity has a detrimental effect on the brain. It can change neural pathways (form ruts) and lead to long-lasting negative thinking. Evidence also shows that positivity – using words that express kindness and respect – can open pathways to further communication and create connections for more constructive dialogue.

That’s the central premise of "Words Can Change Your Brain," a book co-authored by Andrew Newberg, M.D., director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine and Medical College; and Mark Waldman, Loyola Marymount communication professor.

They believe that from an early age our minds are “hardwired to respond favorably to certain types of speech and negatively to others.” As children, our brains are molded by the words we hear. Teaching children to use positive words helps them with emotional control and can even increase their attention spans.

Newberg states: “If you’re always emotionally stressed as a child, you become more easily stressed and more anxious throughout the rest of your life, almost. Those early childhood years are really essential for trying to create connections in the brain that foster more compassion, love and forgiveness and less fear and anxiety.”

Research also indicates that we often talk too much – longer than the average person is able to easily digest. Our brains can only grasp four things at a time. If you speak too long and make numerous points, the person listening will get just a portion of it. Eyes glaze over. Minds wander off. So I’d better finish this.

To get your point across, try to be more positive than negative. Use short sentences, simple words, and avoid adverbs and adjectives (which show bias). Limit your argument to just a few sentences at a time, approximately 30 seconds max. After that, comprehension drops like a rock.

Compassionate and kind trumps mean and nasty. Enough said.