Read About Barry's Brother, and New Author Mark Ozeroff "Charged with adrenaline, Return Fire is a high-speed police thriller that never lets you off the edge of your seat. Equal parts mystery and action thriller, Return Fire is page-turning fiction at its very best." --the American Author's Association (www.americanauthorsassociation.com/) "RETURN FIRE leaps off the page, and hits the reader between the eyes like a high-powered rifle bullet. Barry Ozeroff's writing is gritty, hard-edged, and utterly compelling. This book has bestseller written all over it." --Jeff Edwards, Award-Winning Author of TORPEDO, and THE SEVENTH ANGEL Gresham Author's First Novel a Winner: His debut effort is a potent tale that drips with authenticity. Chock full of authentic detail and action, 'Sniper Shot' is a first-class police procedural. The plot moves at breakneck speed, but with a certainty that permits readers to vicariously walk in Geller's [the protagonist's] shoes. Ozeroff's finale leaves many questions unanswered, making a sequel likely. That's a welcome pleasure to look forward to. -The Cannon Beach (OR) Gazette, 12/15/05 A Good Inflight Read Sniper Shot will keep you at the edge of your seat at 30,000 feet ...the high-adrenaline suspense novel is as accessible as any mystery or thriller. If you're looking for quality distraction during the upcoming holiday traveling season, Sniper Shot is for you. -- The Source Weekly (Bend, OR)

RETURN FIRE

Three years, three months, and thirty days after the release of SNIPER SHOT, I was sitting in my living room in front of my laptop researching publishers for my latest book, when for perhaps the ten-thousandth time I lamented that I still have not seen the sequel to SNIPER SHOT on bookstore shelves, so I decided to write an email...

It has been my thinking for the past two-and-a-half years that, after the closure of iBooks, Inc., that before I could ever generate any interest in the sequel, I would have to first publish another book. This is because iBooks had gone out of business and gone bankrupt, and more than one person whose opinion I respect in the literary world told me that the chances of another publisher taking on someone else's sequel were next to nil.

So, I finished the sequel like a good little author, meticulously edited it, and did my best to prove everyone wrong by futilely submitting it to both agents and publishers alike. Of course, they were right and I was wrong. A year after the sequel had amassed an impressive number of rejections, I quietly folded it up and laid it to rest in a cool dry place with the rest of my "trunk manuscripts," which have no real hope of being published.

I felt sorry for myself, mourning my loss and crying into my beer (well, white Zinfandel - I'm one of the few cops I know who doesn't like beer) for a while, then pulled myself up by my motor boot bootstraps, and did what any writer would do.

I wrote.

I'll save what I wrote for another place and time on this website, but suffice it to say that by February 2008, I had added two very competent titles to the growing list of books I intend to see in print. Once again, I began the long, arduous, and frustrating process of looking for an agent and/or publisher.

As rejections again began stacking up, I found myself still having to explain to fans of SNIPER SHOT patiently waiting for the sequel that it may be a long time, if ever, before it comes out. Of course, everyone wanted (and still wants) to speculate on possible identities of the heretofore unknown co-conspirator of Northwest Healing, the malevolent watchinU@hotmail.com, and I don't blame them. It was rather a cheap trick to stick something like that there in the very end of the book, and I'll let you in on a little secret here, if you promise not to tell anybody… I only thought of that twist after the book was completed, and added it almost as an afterthought. I had already written a sequel to an earlier version of Sniper Shot that was completely different, but I knew it needed to be re-written. Anyway, I added the part about the bribery of jury members with Northwest Healing ransom money and the email from watchinU@hotmail.com as an afterthought; literally the last thing I thought of, as I wrote the ending.

Anyway, people comment almost as much on Ben Geller's affair with Andrea Fellotino as the do on watchinU. I should have waited to write the sequel, because many of the theories put forth by fans are pretty damn good, and would make good books.

To make a long story not quite as long, after my initial rejections for the new books began coming in, I became frustrated. People were still asking about the sequel, and I had nothing to tell them but "who knows?"

I had been watching iBooks, and knew that the all of the Byron Priess Visual Publication companies and assets had been purchased by J. Boylston & Company. Somewhere, among 25 boxes containing thousands of contracts locked in a warehouse somewhere in New York City, was my contract. I called J. Boylston, and talked with the new owner of the rights to SNIPER SHOT, John Colby. In fact, I talked to him several times, and even sent him a few emails, but he was literally up to his ears in contracts, manuscripts, and disgruntled authors, and all I got out of him was that he intended to get iBooks up and running again, publishing books under the iBooks name and light bulb logo.

In my frustration at the idea of having to put out a new book when I actually had a fan out there who was interested in the continuing story of Ben Geller and the Stratton SERT team (okay, maybe even a couple fans), I went out on a limb and sent John a very curt email, explaining that I felt I was dying on the vine as an author, that I had new manuscripts I wanted to see in print, but that I wanted to get the sequel to SNIPER SHOT out first, and that I intended to shop it elsewhere. Finally, I told him I felt a great degree of loyalty to iBooks for getting me started in my career as an author, but now I needed clarification as to whether or not I should consider our relationship over or not.

The following day, I got a phone call from New York. John explained to me that about a week before he got my email, he was reviewing sales information from a source that tracks internet sales on Amazon.com, and was surprised to learn that of all iBooks' titles, SNIPER SHOT was the number one bestseller on Amazon. Though now three years out, sales were still coming in, albeit slowly.

The next thing he said was that he wanted to get the sequel published in less than a year, and gave me a tentative publication date. Needless to say, I was floored. This conversation took place on February 20th, 2008. We discussed some incidentals, and he left me by telling me he was going to be gone on vacation for the entire month of March, but to expect a contract offer in the mail when he returned. I began getting emails at the end of March from the person who develops the catalogue copy and web material for iBooks, and another email from John confirming the pub date he'd given me earlier.

So, I anticipate signing a contract in the next week or two, and when I do, I will make that announcement on this site, as well as give the release date for (and I can say this without using it as a cliché) the long awaited sequel to SNIPER SHOT, tentatively entitled RETURN FIRE.

(click here for more on RETURN FIRE)

BarryOzeroff.Com Oregon, USA E-mail: readermail@barryozeroff.com