Beetle now available in print

After some thought, I have withdrawn my ebook versions of the Beetle stories and republished them as a single, stand-alone novel with the Hemlock Lodge Press logo. It is now available from your local book store via Ingram, or through Amazon. Take an look.

Synopsis: Lanie Whitehead, a smartass, interfering but compassionate virtual girl, attempts to insure a future for her nerdy creator and his girlfriend during their last year on a university campus. How do paranoid administrators and a possessive former boyfriend deal with a person who does not really exist, can walk through any wall, listen to any conversation, but cannot ever leave campus or actually touch anything inanimate? And what is she to do if her computer shuts off, and when someone turns it back on, it's a dozen years later, and every person she knows is gone? Being a super-smart virtual girl, Lanie investigates, discovers the truth and kicks butt. A bitter-sweet, often funny story of courage, growth, love and finding understanding.

Crossover fiction set in the near future.

Beetle has a Sequel

Virtual girl Lanie Whitehead, e.k. “Beetle,” is back—restarted and now living in University Salvage’s store. She still is programmed to take care of her creator, Jeff, and his girlfriend, Annie. Only everyone is saying they’re dead, killed twelve years ago in a fix of jealousy by a former boyfriend. So what is she to do? Lanie gets Shadow, her "sister" and look-alike, going again, moves in with a family and soon has many new human friends searching for answers. Problem is: the university’s president is determined to keep the truth buried. But Lanie can’t live with any lie—not if it means giving up her whole reason for existence. She still needs Jeff and Annie, and she won’t stop searching for answers until everyone knows what really happened.

Romantic, virtual-person mystery that draws the threads from the first Beetle story back together.

So first check out Beetle: The Autobiography of a Virtual Girl, then read the sequel: Beetle II: Restoration and Retribution. Both are part of the "Adventures of the Whitehead Virtual Sisters."
Both are available as Kindle ebooks via Amazon.
And remember: you DO NOT need a Kindle to read a Kindle ebook. The software to download and read a Kindle ebook is free and downloadable to any Mac, ipad, iphone or PC computer. Check these two stories out and let me know what you think. They're cheap and they're fun.

New work out as Kindle ebook.

I have been watching as the ebook business continues to expand and have decided to give it a try. So, friends, you can now own Beetle: The Biography of a Virtual Girl in a Kindle edition for the price of 99¢!
Go to Amazon and look under "Beetle Loder" and you will find it quickly enough. Of course you do have to be able to read a Kindle electronic book to enjoy it…
Or link: http://www.amazon.com/Beetle-Biography-Adventures-Whitehead-ebook/dp/B00506U8WE/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
NOTE: Many people have the mistaken impression that you need a Kindle reader from Amazon to read a kindle book. This is not true. You can download the kindle reader as software for free to any modern PC, including Macintosh, Windows, or iOS devices such as the ipad or iphone. So help me out, and give this little story a try. I will post the sequel as soon as I have the right cover. [Sequel is up and available.]

Beetle is a virtual girl created by Jeff Whitehead, college senior with non-existent social skills. Only he has programmed her to look like an eleven-year-old in order to act as a babe-magnet so he can gain a suitable real girlfriend. Beetle tells the story of her successful efforts to do so, and the problems they all run into with interfering college administrators and an ex-boyfriend who won't give up. The closer Jeff and Annie get to each other, and the closer they get to graduation, the more desperate the violence-prone ex-boyfriend gets. Beetle does everything she can, but there is only so much a virtual person can do about a hammer or a gun when she can't touch anything.

There is a sequel, which I will also publish if enough people like the first book and request I do so. So, who will be the first to read? Who will be the first "friend" to give it a five-star review?
Please let me know what you think,