Drowning Out Evil with Story

Celebrate Purim with a Free Golden Mystery

Neil S. Plakcy

Mar 02, 2026

That morning, I rewrote my entire talk.

I was scheduled to speak at a senior community in Delray Beach with five other authors. I’d prepared the usual remarks about my books and writing life. Then I listened to a podcast on the drive over. An author-psychologist suggested that when we’re overwhelmed by grief or loss, we can shift from being “human beings” to “human doings.” We can create. Act. Build something.

So I changed my plan.

Instead of talking about plot or publication, I told a story.

I told them about the day my husband and I drove our twelve-year-old golden retriever two hours away for a veterinary MRI. By the time we arrived, we knew Samwise was ready to cross the rainbow bridge. We made the long drive home without him, the car unbearably quiet.

That grief could have swallowed me.

Instead, I wrote.

I channeled my sadness into my golden retriever mysteries. I became a “human doing.” I wanted to create stories that offered comfort, escape, and maybe even a little education along the way.

When I finished speaking, people didn’t ask about Amazon rankings or publishing trends. They shared their own stories. Dog lovers. A woman helping a friend through grief. Two readers who once lived in my hometown. We connected.

That’s the lesson Joanna Campbell Slan, a former motivational speaker, has taught me: when you speak to readers, tell a story. Don’t sell. Don’t summarize. Invite them in.

Tonight at sunset begins the Jewish holiday of Purim, when we read the story of Queen Esther. When the villain Haman’s name is spoken, we shake noisemakers to drown out evil. Children dress in costume. We eat triangular cookies called hamantashen (I’m partial to mun, or poppyseed filling, while my husband’s favorite is apricot).

We celebrate resilience. We celebrate survival. We tell stories that remind us darkness doesn’t win.

Let’s drown out the sounds of evil — and tell better stories.

Finding Your “Timothy”

Neil S. Plakcy

Mar 09, 2026

I learned about the concept of “Finding Timothy” from listening to the Novel Marketing podcast. At the Novel Marketing Conference earlier this year, the idea came up again—and it stuck with me.

Thomas Umstattd explains that the New Testament book of Timothy was written for one specific reader. That concept provides a powerful framework for identifying your ideal reader and focusing your book marketing strategy.

In other words:

A book written for one person often becomes universal.

One practical exercise is finishing this sentence:

“This book is for readers who want ___.”

It took me a long time to figure out what I offer readers across my books—from my Golden Retriever cozy mysteries to the harder-edged Mahu, Angus Green, and George Clay crime novels, along with the MM romances I love to write.

Eventually I realized it was already captured in my email signature:

Neil S. Plakcy creates engaging mysteries and romances with humor and heart, celebrating love, identity, and found family (often with a loyal dog).

That’s my core promise as a storyteller. And I think this idea can translate to the marketing of any good. Who wants what you have to buy?

When I applied the “Finding Timothy” idea to my new Formula 1 MM romance, Driven Together, things became much clearer.

The Timothy for this book is someone who loves:

• Second-chance romance
• High-stakes sports competition
• Emotionally complicated characters confronting their past
• It’s for readers who enjoy the emotional rivalry of books like Heated Rivalry, but who also want humor, redemption, and the sense that love—like a well-planned race strategy—sometimes deserves another lap.

When I step back and look at my catalogue, I realize that same reader shows up again and again.

Whether it’s a golden retriever helping solve a mystery or two men rebuilding a relationship, my stories are ultimately about people trying to find their way back to connection, loyalty, and chosen family.

And once you know who your Timothy is, the next challenge becomes a business problem for writers:

How do you help that reader discover your book?

One of the most powerful tools in Amazon book marketing is still the humble review.

Reviews don’t just make authors feel good—they help Amazon’s algorithm show the book to more readers who might be that ideal Timothy.

Thomas recently created a helpful tool that generates a direct Amazon review link for authors, allowing readers to go straight to the review page.

Here’s the free tool Thomas built to create a direct link for readers to add reviews:

https://www.authormedia.com/patron-toolbox/review-linker/

Thomas has a ton of other tools to help writers, but you must join his Patreon at the $10 or higher level to use them. I have been a patron for more than a year, and have used many of his tools, so the subscription is well worth it.

If you’ve read Driven Together, I’d truly appreciate a quick review:

https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=B0GMD9N9FF

Even a short review can help the book reach new readers. One of my longtime readers, author Ulysses Grant Dietz, recently posted a thoughtful review of Driven Together. He always notices details that surprise me—sometimes things I didn’t consciously realize I had written.

Here’s part of what he said:

“All same-sex couples have to negotiate issues of career, but rarely are those issues as intense as they are in Driven Together. It’s an impressive, fascinating read, and a marvelous addition to Plakcy’s oeuvre.”

If you’d like to read Ulysses’ full review, you can find it on Facebook. 

http://bit.ly/40f8Ka8

 My review of The Book of Luke by Lovell Holder.

I really wanted to like this book, because in the blurb I saw similarities to my own The Big Race, an MM romance set against a reality TV background.

But sadly, it disappointed me.

Holder does a great job of  sending up reality TV, but unfortunately the episodic nature of the book and the huge cast of characters make it a tough read. 

We are following at least three distinct timelines-- season 1, season 2 (or maybe 3) and season 20, the present. Many of the chapters end in a cliffhanger-- something like "that was why X was dead." And then the author jumps back in time to when that happened. Often those earlier seasons have lots of characters who never recur, so knowing who to keep track of is difficult. 

The main characters are clearly drawn if sometimes unattractive or unappealing, and the ending is disappointing. The author clearly felt that by leaving a "lady or the tiger ending" -- Luke has to choose between two outcomes-- he was crafting a more "literary" work. Instead it left this reader feeling unsatisfied. 

 Writing the book is the creative act.

Launching it is the business act.

This week, I’ve been testing how far AI can push the business side without diluting the art.

When my formatter, Silvia Mihalcea, delivered the interior files, the creative work was technically finished. But publishing isn’t finished until the files meet the specifications of IngramSpark and Amazon. So I had Ingram generate a template, opened Photoshop, and built compliant print covers myself.

It’s not glamorous work. But it’s part of the modern author skill set.

The next layer was social media.

Each platform speaks a different language: Facebook rewards conversation, Instagram rewards visuals and emotion, and Pinterest rewards search intent and evergreen imagery.

Instead of staring at a blank screen trying to invent six variations of “preorder now,” I used AI to pressure-test angles, generate character visuals, and refine captions with SEO-rich phrasing tailored to each platform.

The result wasn’t automation. It was acceleration. Using the same images and text in different combinations and different formats.

I could test ideas faster, discard weak ones, and schedule posts in advance so marketing didn’t steal writing time. For Pinterest, for example, I found images online of each of the six European racetracks in Driven Together. Then Chat helped me create captions for each that tied the image to the book.

“From above, Silverstone looks open and expansive. Wide run-offs. Sweeping curves. Endless sky. But when the whole world is watching, even wide spaces can feel suffocating. Insider Formula 1 romance — Driven Together”

I recognized that I can’t do everything. I tried my hand at using Canva to create an Instagram reel, but everything I did looked amateurish. So I hired a guy on Fiverr, and gave him images and text that Chat generated. He came up with a 20-second reel. I had neglected to tell him about music, so he added a rap track, which I hated, and which made the video load slowly. He easily removed the music, and I like the final result.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DU_IGFvioJK/

It isn’t ethical to pay reviewers, but good reviews are essential to continued book sales. I hired a promotions company that has a list of over 500 readers who are eager to read new books, and willing to write reviews in exchange for the book. This company will also post social media and YouTube for me.

I deleted a chapter early in the book because I wanted to get to Formula 1 faster. But this chapter shows the growth of their relationship, so I created a separate epub for it as a “lead magnet,” a teaser that will encourage readers to buy the book. That’s a small project in itself—convert the chapter to epub format, create a cover and a brief marketing blurb, then upload it to the hosting platform for free downloads.

https://BookHip.com/FGRHHRN (for New York Interlude)

Preparing the upload requires many steps, too. I kept editing the copy that the reader sees after choosing to download. "Start Your Engine! After you read New York Interlude, get your copy of Driven Together. Full book available at Amazon.com"

What’s important here is that every step of the path toward a sale, a reader can experience friction. It’s up to me to minimize that friction, to make sure that every action is clear.

Final step of this particular process: to document this for you, dear readers, so you can get a glimpse of how business and creativity work together to bring you my new book.

Order Driven Together now and you're off to the races!
https://amzn.to/4rGtzqy

 Driven Together: From Idea to Finish Line

Driven Together releases February 23 and is available now for preorder.

Preorder at Amazon

Some books arrive quietly.

Others feel like they’ve been racing toward you for years.

I came up with the idea for Driven Together in August 2025: an MM second-chance romance set in the high-pressure world of Formula 1. Two men who were each other’s first love. A championship season. A journalist who must remain objective while covering the man he never stopped loving.

From the beginning, I knew this book had to feel authentic.

I immersed myself in race footage, fan discussions, strategy breakdowns, and team politics. I wrote two full drafts before sending the manuscript to my editor. After his feedback, I wrote two more. Then I spent an intense week refining every sentence—tightening prose, checking terminology, making sure the emotional arc and the technical details were equally precise.

An early beta reader who follows Formula 1 closely helped me correct my biggest blind spots. If you love the sport, I wanted you to feel at home in this world.

The cover required just as much attention.

At thumbnail size, a cover has seconds to communicate genre. My early versions skewed too dark—more sports thriller than romance. Through multiple rounds of refinement, I adjusted warmth, lighting, and composition to signal what this story truly is: a romance built on mutuality, tension, and earned reconnection. You can see from these three versions how the cover changed step by step.

Because that’s what Driven Together is at its core.

Two men.

Ten years apart.

One season that forces them to confront what they lost—and what they might still claim.

To support readers new to the sport, I also developed a glossary of Formula 1 terms and added sidebars to make the racing world accessible without slowing the story.

This book represents months of research, revision, and deliberate craft. Now it’s ready to meet readers.

---

Driven Together

They were each other’s first love—and the one that got away.

When journalist Wally Pulaski reunites with his college sweetheart Jonathan Hirsch, now a Formula 1 driver, old feelings ignite with dangerous speed. Jonathan is fighting for the championship of his life. Wally is assigned to cover the season, reporting every triumph and failure to a global audience that demands objectivity. Falling in love again could cost them everything they’ve built.

As the Formula 1 circus sweeps from Monaco’s glittering streets to historic European circuits and roaring modern tracks, Wally is pulled deeper into a world of precision engineering, split-second decisions, and relentless scrutiny. Behind the glamour lies a sport where careers are made and broken in fractions of a second, where every personal choice is magnified under the spotlight.

Balancing professional integrity with unresolved passion becomes a high-wire act. Media pressure mounts. Rivalries intensify. And the closer Jonathan comes to his dream, the harder it is for either man to pretend their hearts aren’t still in the race.

Driven Together is a second-chance MM romance set against the adrenaline and international spectacle of Formula 1—an intimate story of ambition, identity, and the courage to choose love in a world that never slows down.

Ten years after losing each other, they have one chance to get it right.

---

Readers can expect:

• Second-chance MM romance

• High-stakes professional tension

• Formula 1 glamour and strategy

• International settings

• Mature protagonists

• Slow-burn emotional intensity

• Found family

• A hard-won, satisfying HEA

---

Driven Together releases February 23 and is available now for preorder.

Pre-order at Amazon

 

What I learned rewriting six romances

And how readers are finding books now

Neil S. Plakcy

Jan 26, 2026

Last summer I embarked on what turned out to be a much bigger project than I expected.

I wanted to see if I could wring a few new sales out of some romance novels I wrote back in the 2010s—the Love on series. I had fond memories of them and assumed I could do a quick revision: freshen the language, update a few details, and lean a little harder into the romance tropes.

My mistake.

While the books were solid, they needed far more work to meet current reader expectations. I completely rewrote two of them and performed major surgery on two more. What I realized—very clearly—is that back then I didn’t really understand the romance market at all.

I was writing stories about young gay men finding career success and romance on South Beach.

Note the order of those words.

There was plenty of romance, but not in the way today’s romance readers want it centered and foregrounded. Fixing that meant rethinking structure, pacing, emotional beats. Basically everything.

Once the revisions were done, each book still needed a full production checklist: updated copyright pages, added customer reviews, a brief reader summary at the front, a series summary at the back, updated author notes, new tables of contents, new covers, revised descriptions, and new keywords.

That’s a lot of work for one book. I had to do it six times.

I’m now gradually uploading the revised series to Amazon, where the books will be enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, where many romance “whale” readers do most of their reading.

While all of that was going on, I stumbled into another project.

I started paying close attention to how readers are actually finding books now—and it’s changing fast. Instead of typing keyword strings into Amazon search, more readers are asking full questions using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, then following the links they’re given. Even Google now provides AI-generated summaries instead of simple lists of results.

If you’ve tried searching Amazon lately—even by author name or title—you’ve seen how cluttered the results are with sponsored listings.

So the question for authors becomes: how do we make sure our books surface in these new kinds of searches?

I spent months learning how this works, and yesterday I shared what I’ve learned in a presentation at the Boca Raton Library. For those who couldn’t attend, or who wanted more depth, I’ve packaged the material into a 70-page PDF, along with worksheets for both self-published and traditionally published authors, plus an audit sheet you can use to see whether your titles, descriptions, and online presence align with the kinds of questions readers are actually asking.

If you’re an author, reply to this email and I’ll send you a free copy of the audit sheet. It’s a practical tool on its own and gives you a clear preview of the full package.

If you want to see what the whole product looks like you can find it at Gumroad:

Train the AI to Fetch Your Books

One more quick note: the four-book Angus Green FBI thrillers set is currently on sale for 99 cents, reduced from $6.99. You can order from Amazon or your favorite retailer if you like, but I’ll only get 33 cents from each sale. If you order from Curios, I’ll get the whole 99 cents. Not a big deal, but in today’s economy every penny matters. (Well, except for the US Mint.) (BTW I’ve sold 480 copies of this set so far at that BARGAIN price!)

I make the most $ here

Angus at Amazon

Other Retailers

Weather permitting, I’m traveling to Austin, Texas on Thursday for the Novel Marketing Conference. I’m hoping to come home with even more ideas to test. I’ll keep you posted.

Remember, if you’d like to get a Valentine’s postcard from Joanna and me with a link to a free download of the ebook of Death at the Dog Park, enter your name and address here: https://forms.gle/jYCMFAHRaxE7kXes9

I am very grateful that the body of Sgt. Rai Gvili was returned to his family. His was the last of the hostages in Gaza. I hope that the peace process can move forward.

(A balcony on the Aston Aloha Surf Waikiki, where I worked on those page proofs.)

I am also saddened by the death of Don Weise, who was my editor briefly at Alyson Books. He was a strong force in gay publishing, and I was fortunate to know and work with him. Back in the day, editors sent printed page proofs to authors to correct errors and add or subtract information.

We had to be very careful not to change the pagination because that was already set in Adobe InDesign. Don FedExed me those proofs when I was in Honolulu doing research in 2009 before attending Left Coast Crime on the big island, and I sat out on my hotel balcony reading and marking up those pages. (Instead of wandering around absorbing the aloha atmosphere!)

With love and gratitude,
Neil