CL Pauwels at Large

I’m not sure I truly believed this day would ever arrive, but here we are – Fatal Errors is alive in the ether and in print! Launch day/pub day/book birthday…whatever you want to call it, today (August 13, 2024) is special for me. And “what a long, strange trip it’s been.”*

My first draft of Fatal Errors (originally a singular Fatal Error) came during NaNoWriMo 2011 – 13 years ago! I’d finished two other NaNo novels that became part of my “Toledo Trilogy” (#3 in 2005 and #1 in 2006), and when that series launched in 2014 with Forty & Out, Fatál’s adventures took a back seat. The manuscript languished on my hard drive, gathering multiple tweaks, edits, rewrites, etc., over the years, and yes, too many too-early agent queries along the way. Such is the writing life.

After that first trilogy was completed in 2022, I went back to Fatal Errors in earnest with yet another major overhaul. And thanks to an online writers’ group that brought me out of a major writing slump mid-COVID (Kim and Susan – you know who you are!), my long-awaited novel was finally finished and truly ready for submission. My terrific publisher, Crossroad Press, took on the publication duties with their usual flair – just look at that fantastic cover!

Fatal Errors teaser: Fatál accepts an almost-legal request by her new boss to hack the Ohio college where she’s rebuilding her life. But she discovers the school’s director is using the network for illegal reasons, leading to a second betrayal and the death of her best friend. Fatál is framed for the crimes, and she’s caught between rival law enforcement agencies, a suspicious probation officer…and a murderer. She marshals her personal geek squad, 21st-century tech savvy, and a too often ignored Romani sixth-sense to protect her newly reunited family and to give justice—and karma—a push.

Available now on all the usual sites!

As always, if you order online, email me a copy of your receipt with a mailing address, and I’ll send you a signed bookplate (from the beautiful collection at Bookplate Ink).

*from The Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’”