Pandora and Me: A Free Book!

Free Book, y'all!

Jun 16, 2025

A Little Background

I almost died in 2017. I got a colonoscopy, which dislodged a stone and blocked a duct in my gallbladder—instant sepsis. I landed in the ICU for a week. Upon release, the staff told me I nearly cashed out.

That kind of experience leaves a mark on you. Once I’d recovered, I got down to writing some fiction books—something I’d always meant to do.

The timing was weirdly serendipitous since November was fast approaching. There used to be a thing called NanoWriMo, which is a smashed-together version of “National Novel Writing Month,” a yearly event taking place in (you guessed it) November.

The challenge of NanoWriMo was to write a short novel of fifty thousand words in thirty days. Spurred by my brush with death, I completed the challenge in 2017, producing my first book, Company Town.

“Company” is…okay. It’s about a mousy Hollywood assistant who discovers she’s a powerful sorceress. I’d give it a C+. But I persisted and wrote two more books with the same protagonist. They got better as they went along—the best any of us can hope for.

I don’t draw out my fiction series forever as some authors do. Once I get to the last book, I’ll give you an ending. So it was with Quinn Henaghan, my mousy assistant. Book Three marked the end of her journey. That journey hadn’t been lucrative, so it was time to move on.

Enter Pandora.

Years ago, I worked as an artist in video games. I pitched an idea featuring Pandora, the chick from Greek mythology. The conceit was that Zeus punished Dora by giving her immortality, not allowing her to die until she’d regathered all the creepy crawlies she let out of her box. When we first meet her, it’s modern day, and she’s a three-thousand-year-old badass.

She’s grizzled, she’s got weapons and armor from all over the world, and she’s a scrapper. All the better to wrestle those creepy crawlies back into their itty bitty living space. This, I thought, made her a wicked-cool video game protagonist.

Crickets met my pitch, but it stuck with me. Once I was done with Quinn Henaghan, the Pandora idea raised its hand and said, “Pick me! Pick me!”

I dove in, and the result was “The Mythniks Saga”—a five-and-a-half-book series that only superficially resembles the original concept.

I’m a wiseass, so I bend toward comedy. Pandora, in this new version, was still wickedly competent, but she had problems. Lots and lots of problems. Problems she met with sarcasm.

Not only did I make Dora a neurotic with a sordid history, but I also played fast and loose with Greek mythology. I’m not the first person to slip some zany into the Hellenic canon, and I won’t be the last. The Olympians are fertile ground for fun, and I enjoy playing in their sandbox.

I wrote the first three books—Necrophiliac’s Honeymoon, Die, Brony, Die; and Kumbaya, Space Hippie—along with a short prequel, Angle of the Dangle. Popular wisdom at the time suggested giving a book away to attract people to your mailing list. “Dangle” was that lure. The only problem was that I wasn't sure what to do with my mailing list once I had it. It turns out writers aren’t good at business or marketing, and that’s how I ended up with the initial run of three-and-a-half books.

Eventually, I added Angle of the Dangle to the Kindle store, so the entire saga was available for purchase.

After “Kumbaya”, I thought I was finished with Dora, but I was wrong. A couple of years later, I penned Milk Milk Lemonade and Rectum Hell. What caused me to write another two volumes? Notice how they came after the fall of Roe v. Wade? That’s all I’ll say on that topic.

“The Mythniks Saga” isn’t perfect, but I like it. If I were a character from Greek mythology, I would be Pandora.

And Now… Free Stuff

Below is the Kindle file (and a PDF) for Angle of the Dangle, the prelude to the saga. I think it’s a good introduction to Pandora and her wacky world. Hopefully, it will whet your appetite for more.

If you read this book or its follow-ups, leave a comment below.

Here’s an article from the excellent site Kindlepreneur that explains how to get an ePub file into your Kindle.