About the Midas Rush

The Midas Rush is science fiction with strong romantic elements–it starts on a wedding night and ends with a marriage proposal. In between, all sorts of weird and threatening adventures befall our naive young hero, Tresky Buffrum. All Tresky wants is a taste of adventure before settling down to quiet life of a shepherd on the planet Jones.  What he gets is quite different:

• Marriage to an inscrutable young beauty who insists on remaining a virgin
• A ancient village of autochthonous aliens  miraculously turned to gold
• A caravan journey across almost trackless reaches of an alien desert to reach the Midas crater
• A mad policeman-turned-murderer stalking the caravan
• A gallant but pessimistic policewoman who comes to appreciate Tresky’s true worth
• Mute, mindreading aliens who treat humans as a form of reality television … and who are considering ‘cancelling’ the show and every human alive
• And the only one who can save the humans on Jones is that unlikely hero, Tresky Buffrum

Click here to read a sample of The Midas Rush.

About the Cover

In designing the cover, I wanted to build on the brand I established for The Trial of Tompa Lee–a space background, a short blurb, and a large, eye-catching central image. I chose the Sistine Chapel (how highfalutin can you get?), but instead of God’s arm stretching toward Adam to infuse him with life, it’s the arm of a golden alien.

I wanted a dynamic, well integrated image, so I used slanted text for the author and title to produce a tight, triangular composition that didn’t lead the eye off the image.

And here is the complete, final cover.

Availability of The Midas Rush

The The Midas Rush will be available on Amazon.com on March 9 to coincide with the annual Tucson Festival of Books, one of the largest book festivals in the country. Last year over 100,000 people and 450 authors attended.  Mr. Valentine will be speaking on a couple of panels and also autographing books.  See you there!