Latest news with #OnOurWayHome
NBC Sports
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
One-city Big Shield book tour is coming
Big Shield arrives in 10 days. Already, it has more preorders than the three prior novels (Father of Mine, Son of Mine, On Our Way Home) combined. It makes sense, since we're selling a football book on a football website. And it's going to do well, because it's an entertaining story (I believe) on an important topic (I know) in sports. Gambling. Organized crime. Inside information. Under the right (or wrong) combination, things will get interesting. The process of getting the word out for Big Shield includes mentioning the book here from time to time. And talking about it on radio shows and podcasts. (If you've got a show and you're interested in a season preview in exchange for a plug, I'm easy to find.) While I've never done a book tour for any of the five books (including Playmakers) and counting, Big Shield requires a big move in order to promote big sales. A one-city (for now) tour is coming. For one specific appearance. Stay tuned for more details. Until then, it's time to give away a third free, signed copy from the first box of Big Shield books. Send an email to florio@ with this subject line: '8/9/25 Big Shield Giveaway.' Also, preorder the book if you haven't. Even though they say sports novels don't sell, you're already proving them wrong. It probably helps that the ebook is only 99 cents. So do yourself a favor. Get a good book for less than a buck. And do me a favor. Drive the sales to the point where those who say sports novels don't sell will need to add an asterisk to their calculations.
NBC Sports
19-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Get one of the first copies of Big Shield, free and signed
It arrives one month from today. And you can get one of the first copies printed. This weekend's giveaway will give you the second copy of Big Shield that comes out of the first box of books I receive. (The first copy goes straight to the PFT barn.) To enter, you know the drill. Send an email to florio@ with this subject line: '7/19/25 Big Shield Giveaway.' Throw in an address for sending it, with a preferred inscription. For now, the process of proofreading the galleys continues. It's a careful, detailed, and at times excruciating process. Page by page. Line by line. Word by word. And it's more than a hunt for typos. There's something about seeing the words not in their raw, double-spaced word-processor form but in the final font. Last call. Tweak now or forever hold your piece. I'm more than a third of the way through. I'll get it done soon. And it will be ready to go on August 19. You can preorder the ebook for only 99 cents — which is a moronic decision by me. And that's not a bit. It is a stupidly low price point. Still, I made a New Year's resolution to hold the line for all ebook fiction at 99 cents. The goal is to encourage people to choose to read for enjoyment, after being conditioned to hate reading after being forced to do it in school. Whether it's Father of Mine, Son of Mine, On Our Way Home, or the upcoming Big Shield, you'll regard the 99 cents as the best 99 cents you've spent in a long time. Especially since, these days, there's nothing you spend only 99 cents on. Ninety-nine cents. Ninety-nine. Click it, buy it, and (starting a month from now) read it.
NBC Sports
12-07-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
Father of Mine, Son of Mine are always free on Kindle Unlimited
Every one in a while, we'll set the price of Father of Mine and/or Son of Mine to free. There's a way to read both of them for free (or, technically, at no additional charge) any and every day. Kindle Unlimited gives you the unlimited (thus the title) ability to read more than four million books. It's $11.99 a month, with a free 30-day trial. You'll have unfettered access to Father of Mine (mob story set in the '70s), Son of Mine (sequel), On Our Way Home (Christmas/ghost story), and Big Shield (coming August 19). Recently, the total Kindle Unlimited page count for Father of Mine, Son of Mine, and On Our Way Home crossed surpassed 300,000. You also can buy the ebooks for 99 cents each. Including Big Shield, which can be pre-ordered here. (They're going like digital hotcakes.) There's been a clear uptick in book sales lately. Maybe it's positive word of mouth. Maybe the growing throng of positive reviews are moving the needle. Regardless, you'll find few books as cheap as 99 cents. And it gets no cheaper than free (or no additional charge) on Kindle Unlimited.
NBC Sports
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
It's a free, signed Son of Mine weekend
It's been a few weeks since I offered up a free copy of Son of Mine. Now that things are slowing down, I'll be offering up freebies more often. Which allows me to remind you that you can get all three books — Father of Mine, Son of Mine, and On Our Way Home — for a mere 99 cents in ebook format on Amazon. The print editions are available, too. But not for 99 cents. For Kindle Unlimited members, all ebooks are free. (As of this posting, 271,676 pages have been read.) All three are objectively good (in my inherently subjective opinion). And more are on the way, mainly because I've been spending 2-3 hours per night, 5-6 nights per week, for nearly five years blowing off steam by escaping to made-up worlds with made-up people and figuring out their made-up interactions (they're usually arguing, scheming, and periodically killing). The third book in the Father of Mine series will arrive, sooner than later. Audio versions of all books are definitely coming; we're just waiting for the final paperwork from the company that bought the rights. From the logjam on unfinished manuscripts, the current focus is a last major edit to a story that reimagines the aftermath of the mass escape from the West Virginia State Penitentiary in November 1979. There's also a cautionary tale about the intersection of gambling and pro sports that is 95 percent finished. Along the way, an idea inspired by intense fear of The Exorcist, fascination with the slowly-building tension that suddenly explodes into cartoonishly graphic violence in Tarantino films, and a past life of fumbling around in a courtroom became a short story that scared the shit out of me as the words flowed. (After the last line was written, I didn't sleep right for a week.) They're all coming, in time. For now, get a free, signed, personalized copy of Son of Mine. Three are up for grabs over the next three days, or so. To enter, send an email to florio@ with this subject line: '5/17/25 Book Giveaway.' No purchase is required. No purchase will be rejected, either.
NBC Sports
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC Sports
It's a book giveaway weekend
My mom would have turned 91 on Friday. We lost her nearly 30 years ago. I spend too much time thinking about the things she didn't get to enjoy, starting with her grandchildren. She would have showered them with love while pushing them harder than they've ever been pushed. She always pushed me to try to do more, and to try to do it better. Even if I've allowed my work-life balance to become entirely out of whack, she helped instill a desire to never slow down, to never coast, to never be satisfied. I also spend too much time thinking about what she'd think about the decisions I've made over the years. When I told her I wanted to go to law school, she voiced her displeasure. Loudly. When I gave up my law practice to write and talk about football on a full-time basis 14 years, she would have been very pissed about that, too. Starting nearly five years ago, I started devoting any free minute I could find to writing fiction. (Not to be confused with the fiction I'm often accused of writing here.) She would have read every word of it. If she thought any of it sucked, she would have said so. Plainly, clearly, directly. No one really knows what happens after our time here ends. It's nice to think maybe she has the ability to read the stuff I've written. It would be even nicer if she had a way to tell me what sucks, and what doesn't. You can make your own assessment. Three of the 10 or so I've cobbled together (Father of Mine, Son of Mine, On Our Way Home) can be had in ebook form for a mere 99 cents on Amazon. I'll give away two or three signed and personalized copies of the newest one, Son of Mine, based on the submissions I receive this weekend. You know the drill. Send an email to florio@ with this subject line: 4/19/25 Book Giveaway. I'll pick two or three at random and send out the books in a few days. Son of Mine is the sequel to Father of Mine. They're mob books set in the town where I grew up, and where my dad worked as a bookie for the crew that ran the place. The next book in the series has been written and edited/revised once. I need to make another pass through it. I should start today. I don't really feel like it. And I know exactly what my mother would say about that: 'Quit your bitching and do it.' I guess I will.
