Psst! Advance promo copies of The Solomon Scandals are on sale now in e-book format (retail $5.95 USD). Twilight Times Books is also taking advance orders for First Editions in trade paperback (retail $16.95 USD). The paperbacks will ship in January 2009. These are “pre-release promotional copies.” Twilight’s phone number is 423-323-0183, and other ordering information is ahead.

A mix of suspense and satire, Scandals is the only Washington newspaper novel with a bio-enhanced Afghan Hound doing a Harry Truman act at the Cosmos Club, Scandals, inspired by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff’s actual secret investment in a CIA-occupied building, is set mainly in the 1970s. But it includes a foreword and afterword written in the late 21st century by Dr. Rebecca Kitiona-Fenton of the Institute for the Study of Previrtual Media.

I’m putting the final touches on version 1.0 of the Scandals Web site, which covers matters ranging from Barack Obama vis-a-vis my fictitious president to the novel’s Internet references. Via email I’ll welcome suggestions for posts on other topics (and typo catches, too—involving either the site or the book). I’m very interested in making the book meaningful to readers outside the U.S., and the right posts could help. The site also includes sample chapters as well as blurbs from James Fallows, author of Breaking the News; James Polk, winner of the Pulitzer for Watergate coverage for the Washington Star; and Bettina Gregory, the former ABC News correspondent.

January is the official publication time for Scandals. But I asked Lida Quillen, publisher of Twilight Times Books, to see what she could do to make my book available at least in E before Christmas, Hanukkah and other holidays, and she came through beautifully.

Price of the nonDRMed e-book is $5.95, as noted, and the trade paperback is $16.95 plus shipping. Available e-formats right now are HTML and PDF, and Lida will soon add ePub. Other popular formats will follow in time.

Kindle owners can use Mobipocket Desktop 6.0 to convert the HTML into nonDRMed Mobi, which the K machine can read.

iPhone owners can load the HTML file into Stanza Desktop, then use WiFi and the Shared option within Stanza’s Library menu on the iPhone. Damn the Tower of eBabel! Why must we bother with such details?

To order by credit card, call the 423-323-0183 number mentioned earlier. If paying by check, please click here for a form to print out. To download now, go here.

At least in the States, you can also order Scandals from your local bookstore. The ISBN is is 978-1-60619-042-5.