A Spaceship for Hire is now available on Kindle, Kobo and Apple Ebooks

The third in my Galactic Smuggler’s series, “A Spaceship for Hire” is now published and available in Ebook on all major Ebook sellers.

Book 3 in my Galactic Smuggler’s series

Book #3 picks up where “Coffee to Go, With a Spaceship” leaves off, continuing the story of Jack and Donna and their nice alien friends.

Exiled from Earth and unable to return home, Jack makes a living running a small cafe on a distant planet at the edge of the galaxy. But when marauding space pirates start raiding galactic trade routes, Jack and his alien friends find themselves cut-off from the rest of the galaxy.

It looks like Jack is soon to be out of business and out of money, and with war spreading he’s unable to go for help.

Help eventually comes from a very unlikely person: Donna, his ex-girlfriend. She’s learned how to fly an old alien spaceship that’s been abandoned in the woods behind her farm, and agrees to help Jack and his friends out.

Jack really, really, doesn’t want to go back into space, but he’s got no choice. Jack, Donna and a band of alien friends leave in Donna’s spaceship to go for help.

Along the way, the unlikely couple discover that they still have feelings for each other. But before they can start living their happily-ever-after, they first have to fight off space pirates, stop an inter-galactic war from spreading, and try to find their way back to Earth for another load of coffee.

This is a ride you don’t want to miss!

I think you’ll really enjoy “A Spaceship for Hire”. I’m really excited about it, and I think you’ll find that it’s a fun read.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think. Now, go find some friends and have a great day!

The 3rd novel in my Aliens & Latte series on track for June 2024 release

Today I’d like to share some exciting news for my fans … the long-awaited 3rd book in my popular Galactic Smugglers series is on track to hit its planned release date June 28.

I’ve been writing like mad for a couple of months now, and recently finished a good clean final draft. The manuscript is currently being edited and reviewed by my editorial staff (full disclosure – as a indie author I don’t have staff, strictly speaking, but I do have lots of friends and a very patient wife). I really do work hard at publishing my books without typos and other errors, and I’ve paid for professional editing for ALL my books in the past. It really does pay off.

But I digress. The point is that I’m well ahead of schedule and right now it looks like I’ll be able to release “A Spaceship for Hire” early. Which is only fair because it’s been too long since the last book came out.

Way too long.

I first published “Coffee to Go, With a Spaceship” back in December of 2017, a little over six years ago. Kind of embarrassing, and I’ve had a lot of fans asking when the third installment was coming out because the end of the second book left things hanging – especially with regards to Jack and Donna’s relationship.

Some fans even noted that the book ends on a sad note because of that. Well, personally I hate sad and depressing endings. We’ve got the daily news for that, so when it comes to fiction – especially the mindless fluff I prefer to write – I’m a HUGE fan of happy endings.

The goal of my novels is to entertain. That’s it. I think writing light-hearted, mindless fluff is a high calling, because there are times when people need that. So all of my books end on an upbeat note and happy ending for the good guys eventually. If you don’t like that, or feel that’s too Pollyanna, feel free to read someone else to leave you sad and depressed. There are plenty of pretentious authors who feel they are being ‘serious’ and more ‘realistic’ by being depressing. Or better yet, don’t waste your money on those guys at all and just turn on the news or read CNN for free.

Anyway, the second book did leave things hanging on a sad note for our two heroes, as I’ve mentioned, and I feel bad that’s it’s taken so long to write the next in the series. But I’m in good company: it took Harper Lee, the author of the world famous novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, forty-five years to come out with a follow-up. So maybe I don’t need to feel all that bad.

Why has it taken so long? My list of excuses:

So why’d it take six years? many of my fans have been asking. What follows is my numbered list of excuses, in no particular order:

  1. I’ve been busy. Up until recently I was still working full-time, holding down a ‘day-job’ that almost all creative people who have to support themselves dread. So I’ve only been able to write part-time.
  2. I’ve got kids and grandkids. Lots of them. Six kids and eight grandkids – far too many in my opinion, but my wife wouldn’t let me send any of them back, so I’m stuck with all of them.
  3. I got sidetracked. Between 2017 and now, I was busy with a few other writing projects that took most of my free time, like The Heretic and The Tolerance Bureau.
  4. I was indecisive. Very indecisive, to be honest. I’ve been working on outlines and story ideas for the third book for much of the last six years – I promise. I’m not lying, I really was. I wrote and re-wrote about twenty different outlines for this book, throwing them all out eventually. I couldn’t come up with a story line for this book that I was happy with until recently, and I never start writing a book without a good outline that I feel really happy with.

That’s it. These are all my excuses to date, but as I think of more I’ll add to the list.

I think you’ll be really happy with “A Spaceship for Hire”. I’m really excited about it; it’s a fun read. It’s available for pre-order now at a special price of 99 cents. I strongly encourage you to go ahead and reserve your copy today, because the price will go up to somewhere between 3.99 and 5.99 when it’s released. I do have to make some money on this, after all.

When the book is released, it will be automatically downloaded to your device if you’ve pre-ordered.

Thanks for reading my blog today. Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.

Contact Me

A New Book in the Aliens & Latte Series Coming this June

I’m excited to announce the upcoming release of A Spaceship for Hire, the 3rd book in my popular Galactic Smugglers series about Jack, Donna and their coffee loving alien smugglers.

Book 3

In the first book, Aliens, Spaceships and the Occasional Latte, Jack and Donna meet the alien coffee smugglers for the first time and have many space adventures with them.

In the second of the series, Coffee to Go, With a Spaceship, evil alien bounty hunters come to Earth to make life difficult for Jack. Jack enlists the help of Montclair, a strange little elf from another planet who agrees to help Jack. Donna, Jack’s daring girlfriend, accompanies them and together the trio give chase to the alien bounty hunters across the galaxy. Along the way Donna discovers a hidden talent for stick-handling spaceships and navigating through space.

Many of my fans have noted how Book #2 leaves our heroes in a tough spot. I can’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil things for those who haven’t read the second book yet, but I’m a huge believer in happy endings and upbeat stories. I’m a bit of a romantic sap that way, but what’s the point in reading stories or watching movies that leave you depressed? We’ve got the daily news for that.

Book #3 continues the story of Jack and Donna and their Radauti friends.

Exiled from Earth, Jack is making a living running a cafe on a distant planet at the edge of the galaxy. That is, until marauding space pirates start raiding the galactic trade routes. It looks like Jack is soon to be out of business, out of money, and with war spreading he’s unable to return to Earth.

But help comes from a very unlikely person – Donna, his ex-girlfriend. She’s finally learned how to fly an old spaceship that’s been hidden in the woods behind her farm (since book #1), and agrees to help Jack out.

As much as Jack really, really, doesn’t want to go back out into space, he also has no other options.

However, the unlikely couple discover that they still have feelings for each other. But before they can start living their happily-ever-after, they first have to fight off the space pirates, stop an inter-galactic war from starting, and try to find their way back to Earth for another load of coffee.

This is a ride you don’t want to miss!

Planned release date June 28, 2024

Available for pre-order now.

From now until shortly after release, I am offering this at a special pre-order price of 99 cents. Soon after release it will return to our normal published prices.

** Be sure to take advantage of our special pre-order price of 99 cents. Order now and the book will be automatically downloaded to you when it’s published **

Please reach out at mikeATmjwahl.com (replace the AT with @) if you have any questions. Thanks and have a great day!

And now for some really good news…

It can get scary out there.

You don’t need me to tell you that it’s been a rough few years, and it’s easy to get the impression that the world is sliding wholesale down into the depths of Hades.

As we are barraged daily with the latest updates on the climate crisis, various wars, numerous humanitarian and ecological crises, some days it feels like the apocalypse is just around the corner.

But hold on – it’s not. The world is, for the most part, getting better. In fact, life for the average person globally is much better than it was back in the middle ages, or even just a hundred years ago. And wars are decreasing. Believe it or not, things are actually getting better.

I’m not making this up. Recently I came across some fun facts that the news media tend to ignore. I mean, when was the last time CNN had a headline that said something like:

Don’t worry, be happy. Things are getting better!

Global poverty dropping!

Cancer deaths on the decline!

Forest coverage around the world is expanding!

But it’s true, and for today’s post I’d like to share some good news I recently came across:

  • World gross production tripled from the year 1500 to 1820, then grew to 3.4 trillion by 1900. Global economic output reached 121 trillion in 2018. This increase in productivity has allowed us to lift the majority of people out of poverty, as will be seen in the next few points.
  • Global GDP per capita barely increased from the time of Christ until 1800. Then it skyrocketed with the spread of free-market capitalism around the world, and the industrial revolution, increasing the average standard of living around the globe ten-fold, and even more in the developed west.
  • In 1830, the global population in extreme poverty was 84 percent. Today it is 8.6 percent.
  • The percentage of people living in urban slums has decreased sharply on every continent since 1990.
  • Since 1952, global inequality between people and countries has been decreasing.
  • People are far wealthier, despite working less. In 1950 we worked an average of 2,123 hours. By 2017 it has dropped to 1,723.
  • There are more trees in Europe today than there was in the Middle Ages. The area covered by trees has also been increasing in Asia and North America.
  • Since 1960 the number of democracies has been steadily increasing and the number of autocracies has plummeted.
  • There are far fewer wars on the planet now than 70 years ago.
  • The global literacy rate in 1820 was only 10 percent. Today it is 90 percent.
  • In 1820 the average global life expectancy was thirty. Today it is seventy-two.
  • Infant mortality has plummeted across the globe since 1950.
  • Rates of malaria and tuberculosis have dropped sharply since 2000.
  • The number of deaths from cancer has been declining since 1995.
  • In 1800, 60 percent of the nations around the world had legal slavery. Today legalized slavery is almost nonexistent.
  • Child labour, common around the world up until the 1800’s, has been disappearing and is no longer acceptable.
  • Access to clean water has increased from 75 percent of the world’s population in 1990 to 90 percent.
  • Air pollution is declining.
  • Infectious diseases have been decreasing.
  • In 1900, US households had to spend 80 percent of their income on necessities like food, clothing and housing. US households now spend less than 50 percent on those same necessities.
  • In 1800 it took 5.4 hours of work to pay for 1,000 lumen hours of light. By 1900 it took .22 hours; today it takes a mere 0.00012 hours of labour for 1,000 lumen-hours. People used to have to work hard just to keep the lights on. Now, the cost of lighting is negligible.

This flurry of fun facts and good news has been gleaned from:

Ten Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know: And Many Others You Will Find Interesting. By Ronald Bailey and Marian Tupy (2020).

I’m not advocating that we stick our heads in the sand like ostriches and ignore what’s going on. There are issues and numerous problems that still must be addressed, and as I’ve blogged previously, we should do our part as we are able to. But that doesn’t mean we need to be chicken littles, nor should we live in fear of impending doom.

I’ll wrap up this post with a quote from Jordan Peterson:

Things aren’t as bad as they are trumpeted to be. In fact, they’re quite a bit better, and they’re getting better, and so we’re doing a better job than we thought. There’s more to us than we thought. We’re adopting our responsibilities as stewards of the planet rapidly. We are moving towards improving everyone’s life.” ―Jordan B. Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life

Now, go find some friends and have a wonderful day!

The Tolerance Bureau, my latest sci-fi thriller

I’m excited to announce the release of my latest sci-fi thriller, The Tolerance Bureau, about a social media skip chaser.

Sci-fi Bounty Hunter

What if in the future you could get dislike‘s, not just like‘s, on your social media posts and comments? Now imagine a cancel culture that’s taking things too far, and getting too many dislikes will get you arrested for cerebral offenses and insensitivity.

That’s where the Tolerance Bureau comes in.

The social media police are coming for you…

Think you can just say whatever you want on social media and get away with it? Think again! The Tolerance Bureau is watching everything you post. The Bureau is the new federal agency responsible for monitoring the internet to make sure it is kept clean from offensive postings so that no one’s feelings ever get hurt.

Offending too many people makes you a Cerebral Terrorist, and the Bureau will bring you in for mandatory psychological therapy. Try to run, and bounty hunters will track you down and lock you up in one of the Bureau’s re-education camps.

That’s Jim Rogan’s job, and he’s one of the best at it.


Hillary Wells, famous astrophysicist, made a few controversial comments on social media – and offended too many people. Now she’s wanted for Intellectual Terrorism and there’s a warrant for her arrest. And the Tolerance Bureau has assigned Special Agent Jim Rogan to track her down and bring her in.

Rogan thinks it’ll be a piece of cake. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, pretty much everything…

The Tolerance Bureau is set in a near future that is all too plausible…

Published on Amazon, February 20, 2023

Available now on Amazon, for your Kindle and in print

The writer MJ Wahl thanks you for visiting

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My New Time-travel Adventure is Here!

The girl from the future…

What does a girl do when she can’t tell anyone where she’s really from?

I’m excited about my latest novel – a fun blend of love, romance, dystopian future and time travel. It’s about Octavia, a woman from a dystopian future who has traveled back in time to our own day. She’s here on a mission: study us and learn how we lived prior to a deadly plague that almost destroys human life and brings on the dystopian world she grew up in.

Octavia never had a family, never knew a mother or father – she was raised on a eugenics farm by robots and impersonal guardians. She arrives in our time and meets Jake, the loving single father of an 11-year old girl, and it’s not long before they fall in love. For the first time in her life, Octavia becomes part of a real family. But she can never tell Jake that she’s from the future – how could he possibly believe it? And that’s not the only secret she has to keep from him.

But falling in love was not part of her mission plan, and the secrets she carries about herself and the terrible future awaiting them soon threaten to tear them apart.

I actually started writing this in 2016, thinking it would be fun to write a story about a world-wide pandemic and time-travel. I finished it prior to 2020 under a different title, and then covid-19 broke out. When covid-19 hit, I no longer felt like promoting a novel about a plague. Reading and writing stories about an apocalypse is fun until it starts to feel like you are really in one. So I shelved the project for a while.

In early 2021 I dusted it off and re-read it, and sent it to an editor for professional proof reading. I like the story and now that it looks like we are getting to the end of the covid-19 pandemic I feel good about publishing it.

It’s a fun, clean read with a feel-good ending. I’m a huge believer in happy endings… I mean, why read a book that leaves you depressed. I can go to CNN for that.

I hope you like reading the book as much as I liked writing it. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Available on Amazon

Octavia Seven Book Review

Does anyone else feel like this?

I no longer find post-apocalyptic movies entertaining.

Some of my favorite books over the years have been: Lucifer’s Hammer, Alas, Babylon, Childhood’s End, and One Second After. And who will ever forget great classics like The Day of the Triffids, On the Beach and A Canticle for Lebowitz. I loved these post-apocalyptic books. I’ve read them all more than once. I even wrote one myself about 4 years ago: The Girl With No Shoes, about time travel and a civilization ending plague.

And some of my all-time favorite movies have been The Quiet Place, The Bird Box, Signs, and I Am Legend, to name just a few. I own the DVD of Signs and binge-watched The Bird Box three times one week on Netflix about a year ago. I loved it.

But now that I feel like I’m in one, I no longer find them quite so entertaining.

I’ve had a few co-workers make comments along these lines (over the phone, of course, while on con-calls). One said that he “feels like he’s a supporting cast member in a sci-fi movie.” Another one said that she “feels like she’s been dropped into a sci-fi plot.” These comments all came unprompted, without a leading question. I found it interesting because I was feeling the same way. When I commented on this to my brother, he quipped: “What took you so long? I’ve felt like I’ve been in a dystopian nightmare ever since Trump got elected.”

I was really looking forward to the release of The Quiet Place II this March in movie theaters. But I never got the chance. All the theaters closed due to the virus the same week it was released. (Does anyone else see the irony in that?) Maybe Netflix will stream it, but I no longer care. It’s going to be a very long time before I’ll be in the mood to watch it.

In the past I’ve had to watch these movies alone or with a friend or one of my adult kids, because my wife doesn’t like them and will leave the room if one is on. She much prefers stuff like Call the Midwife, Doc Martin and Downton Abbey. At Christmas time she binge watches cheesy Hallmark holiday romances. Shows that usually put me to sleep before the opening credits are done.

Like everyone else around the world, my wife and I are in self-isolation at home. Fortunately we both have jobs that are suitable for work from home. My work sent us all home with our laptops two weeks ago and told us not to come back until further notice. My wife’s employer sent them home with their computers and telephones last week. She’s setup in the dining room and my ‘office’ is now in the living room.

We won’t be going out anytime soon, and there is suddenly a lot of time after work to read books and watch TV. And I have absolutely no interest in apocalyptic books and end of the world movies. My wife found out that Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, has a new series on Netflix: The English Game, about soccer in the 1870’s. She wants to watch that.

Sounds good to me Honey. I’ll make the popcorn. And after that’s over, I’ll even watch Call the Midwife with you.

Reading Not Cancelled

Everything, it seems, is being cancelled. When hockey gets cancelled in Canada, and football is cancelled in the UK, you know things are getting serious.

But the cancellations are for a good reason. Social distancing is the best way to curb the spread of this virus. Social distancing and self-isolation is the responsible thing to do. I saw a thing on FB yesterday that made me laugh so hard it brought tears to my eyes. It went like this:

“Our grandfathers were called to storm the beaches of Normandy. We are being called to sit on the couch. You can do this.”

Yes, we can. The isolation won’t be fun, but it is the socially responsible thing to do. Even if you are not in a high risk category, you can still become contagious – so this is about protecting other people as well.

The good news is that reading hasn’t been cancelled. And with the entire world going into quarantine, restaurants, bars and all public events closing, there is going to be a lot of time to read.

This week, from March 16 to March 19, 2020, I am giving away for free the Kindle version of “Aliens, Spaceships and the Occasional Latte”. Available on Amazon now. It is a fun, escapist read that is by no means serious SF and has nothing to do with viruses, so I hope people will find it a refreshing and enjoyable diversion.

This is the first book in my Jack Winters series, about a detective and a group of alien smugglers who come to Earth for our coffee and have all kinds of adventures around the galaxy.

The second book in the series is also available now – “Coffee To Go, With a Spaceship.” The 3rd book is planned, and I hope to have that ready later this year.

Various promotions will continue after the free giveaway ends March 19. After March 19, I will raise the price up to 0.99 in both the US, Canadian and UK markets. (0.99 Euro for UK, and 0.99 USD for the States and something like 1.35 in Canada – whatever the conversation rate works out to.)

The book will be featured in a series of online promotions and email blasts between now and April 5, with BooksGoSocial, Bargain Booksy and BookSends. The price will remain at 0.99 throughout this time and to the end of April.

Please drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Stay safe and stay healthy… and don’t forget to wash your hands!

A New Jack Winters Adventure

In response to the overwhelming demand from my readers, I’m planning the 3rd book in the Jack Winters series. Actually, truth be told, I’d planned on continuing the series from the very beginning. Readers have been asking me when the next is coming, and I expect to have it out in the first half of next year – by spring of 2020.

Thanks to my readers, the first two novels, Aliens, Spaceships and the Occasional Latte and Coffee to Go, With a Spaceship have been a tremendous success and I’m excited about continuing the series.

I will keep readers updated with news and progress. Keep an eye out for future posts on my website!

Thanks!

Mike

Jack Winters is looking forward to his next big adventure!

Spring Promos

There’s a lot happening this month, with a lot of exciting promotions. Aliens, Spaceships & the Occasional Latte is on for 99 cents in several markets – .com , the UK and Canada.

Also, as if that wasn’t enough, the sequel Coffee to Go, With a Spaceship is being given away for free on Kindle for the next few days from May 2 to 6.

Lots of fun! Buy them on Amazon – follow the link here!

Thanks and let me know what you think.