Mike Karpa

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers’ Favorite

“The Wealthy Whites of Williamsburg by Mike Karpa is a family drama with plenty of humor and sarcasm to keep you entertained for hours. The story follows the four members of the White family in which Roger and Casey White and their daughters Demmy and Abby have dilemmas to resolve. Roger longs for the day when he gets to write his next big screenplay while going through the motions of his current job as a professor. Casey longs for a better lifestyle that matches her peers. Demmy wants to get into an Ivy League college without trading on the money privilege she enjoys, while young Abby is just existing as she pleases. However, the real issues begin when Casey comes across a secret that can destroy the family. What will Casey do with this discovery?

“The plot is intense, a little ironic, and a bucketful of fun. The humor keeps the story alive, and the eccentric characters make sure you have someone to cling to until the very end. While The Wealthy Whites of Williamsburg seems like your typical family drama, it becomes much more than that as you continue to read. The narrative is sophisticated, the plot is clever, and the execution is even better. Each character is drawn clearly and cleverly to create a vivid image in your mind. Sherbeam, Roger’s mother, seems to be a troublemaker with her attitude and her ego, but everything is a culmination of each of the Whites. Mike Karpa writes the perfect social satire on how the rich upper-class lives and nothing is perfect. Highly recommended!”

—Readers’ Favorite

Slowly, I am making headway on availability over at Mumblers Press (on the days when I wear my publisher’s hat).

Red Dot and Criminals have joined The Wealthy Whites of Williamsburg at B&N and Kobo. (OK, Criminals seems to be missing from B&N, but perhaps soon…)

Barnes and Noble online

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wealthy-whites-of-williamsburg-mike-karpa/1142855633?ean=9781736244449

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-dot-michael-karpa/1140755531?ean=9781736244432

Kobo.com

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-wealthy-whites-of-williamsburg

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/criminals-12

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/red-dot-1

“Karpa’s fictional White family seems at first glance to live and thrive in an increasingly frivolous locale. Several stand to inherit large sums, and trust funds and luxury cars are the norm. However, the complex novel takes off in several unexpected directions, diving into Casey’s Southern roots and Sherbeam’s emotionally abusive behavior. As a result, the narrative becomes absorbing, and it’s well-informed about contemporary fads and mores while staying expertly focused on the characters’ hopes and losses. Overall, it’s a deeply satisfying story that’s written with intelligence and wit, and—like the on-the-go White family—never stays in one place too long.

A sophisticated and discerning family portrait.”

—Kirkus Reviews

It’s been fun holding the lid on this has been challenging, but hella fun. For a few months, I got to say “I have big news coming up . . . but I can’t talk about it. It’s EMBARGOED.” Oh, the intrigue. And now the embargo has lifted and the truth comes out: Kirkus Reviews has named Criminals to its Best of 2022 list for Indies. I am completely honored by this. Thanks, to that first reviewer, who saw Criminals as worthy.

These are fresh, hot scifi novels that are upbeat about the future: Hopepunk. 11 authors, but 19 novels, thanks to the magic of box sets. Get 4 for $5 or all 19 for $20. What a deal! Adam Gaffen, M. Darusha Wehm, M.D. Cooper, Novae Caelum, Dani Hoots, John Wilker, J. Scott Coatsworth, Dave Walsh, O.E. Tearmann, SI Clarke, and your truly. This is really motivating me to get that sequel done… The bundle ends December 15, 2022.

Flash Fiction Forum has put out its inaugural anthology, and many of its featured writers will be reading tonight at Works/San Jose in its new home starting at 7pm. I am delighted to have my piece “Chili Dog” included and plan to get as many of these fun and talented readers’ autographs tonight as I can.

Works/San Jose
38 S Second St, San Jose, CA 95113

I am really thrilled about this one. To buy the book, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Criminals-Mike-Karpa-ebook/dp/B09GRTWYBF/

Thank you, Queerscifi.com

The Review

It’s a wonderful book. Mike Karpa is one of those writers whose prose doesn’t get in the way. It’s literate and careful, but it doesn’t try too hard to be poetic, nor is it flat and unemotive. This quiet realism works especially well with the story, which is a kind of post-apocalyptic maker romance.

We know that the story, set in some unspecified future, is post-apocalyptic, because the author tells us, delivering the truth subtly, in discrete little fragments of history that (as I came to expect) become increasingly hair-raising, even as they continue to be almost throw-away lines in the narrative. That’s a very awkward way to describe it, because I don’t want to tell you anything about the state of the world in which the story takes place. Discovering Mardy’s world is one of the delights of reading “Red Dot.”

Mardy knows he’s in a post-apocalypse world—because he has survived it; been orphaned by it. But it is a world that is weirdly familiar, and comfortable, and certainly pleasant enough for Mardy and his group of twenty-something artist friends to live in. Mardy, his friends Inge, Cat, and Devesh, and the mysterious Hunt twins, are part of a crew of young makers—artists who rent workstations at a high-tech maker-space in San Francisco. They use their skills to compete in shows at a local gallery—run by more friends, a gay couple nicknamed Flaky and Death.

Developing their various artistic practices (which is not entirely like art today, because this is a very high-tech world, in which AI is ever-present) is rooted in a network of competitions—local, regional, continental—that can boost their prominence and marketability. They all have guaranteed basic incomes, and most of them have “day jobs.” Art is their passion, as art should be.

For all its futuristic fantasy, Mardy’s world feels very like the contemporary craft world I knew as a lifelong museum curator. I knew what the red dot of the title meant immediately, and it’s a great title, because it symbolizes what Mardy and his friends strive for.

At the core of the story is Mardy’s yearning to become a fully-realized adult, both through his art, and through his unexpected relationship with a friend’s brother. It is not really a coming-of-age story so much as a coming-to-appreciate-yourself story. It’s not unlike what all of us experienced when we were in our twenties. Before the apocalypse. It is an ordinary story made fresh and emotionally involving through the author’s skill at creating a world that is both frightening to imagine, and somehow optimistic.

The Reviewer

Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.

Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.

By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.

Thank you bloggers Bayou Book Junie (https://bayoubookjunkie.wordpress.com), MM Fiction Cafe (https://mmfictioncafe.com), Emotion in Motion (https://www.elizabeth-noble.com/thoughts-and-things-blog), Love That’s Out of This World (https://annabutlerfiction.com/blog ), QueeRomance Ink (https://www.queeromanceink.com), Liminal Fiction (https://www.limfic.com), and J. Scott Coatsworth (https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com). And hardly least, Joyfully Jay (https://joyfullyjay.com) has a post on the origins of Red Dot that you won’t see anywhere else, and Author Anthony Avina’s Blog (http://www.authoranthonyavinablog.com) gave Red Dot a wonderful review, excerpted below. Please check them all out! There is a lot to see on these blogs, one and all.

The Review

This was such a beautifully constructed sci-fi world the author has crafted. The way they were able to bring about this post-dystopian world was so refreshing and unique, exploring a somewhat more hopeful future that sees environmental disasters conquered and technological wonders an everyday part of life. The emotional depth of a novel of this caliber that delves into the morality and heart of what an AI is or can be in life, and whether they can develop the same level of consciousness that humanity has, was absolutely outstanding and kept the reader both hopeful and teary throughout the read.

The character development of this narrative was stupendous. The LGBTQ representation that could be found throughout the entirety of this cast of characters was phenomenal to see and more relevant to the world we live in. This backstory for many of the characters, including protagonist Mardy himself, was perfect to mirror the themes and atmosphere that the AI conversation crafted naturally, making this such an exciting read. 

The Verdict

Mind-blowing, thought-provoking, and emotionally investing, author Mike Karpa’s “Red Dot” is a must-read post-dystopian and sci-fi read! The fantastic character growth and rich and futuristic setting made this a captivating story, while the mix of romance and sci-fi morality themes made this one of those novels that readers won’t be able to put down. Be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10