NAKED EUROPE: Searching for a Soul Mate in Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Austria, Sweden, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Iceland, Hamburg, Gibraltar and a bunch more.

I just hit the ‘approve button’ and sent NAKED EUROPE off to the printers. My tale of a young man searching for a soul mate around Europe is now available on Amazon in Paperback and should soon be available in other retail book stores online and brick-and-mortar stores as well.

NAKED EUROPE is the prequel to the Amazon best-seller KEY WEST.

Here’s the blurb from the back jacket:

NAKED EUROPE: Searching for a Soul Mate in Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Austria, Sweden, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Iceland, Hamburg, Gibraltar, and a bunch more

Have you ever been to Europe?

Did you take your guidebook?

Did you meet that special someone?

Neither did I.

So now I’m on my way back, and I’m going to throw the guidebook in the pissoir this time and endeavor to find my soul mate in the real Europe  -- NAKED EUROPE.

Come with me in the hunt for romance as I roll around naked in the Midsummer night’s dew in Iceland (it’s a tradition!), discover the Jewish gèto in Venice, unearth where the Beatles exploded onto the scene in Hamburg, get sucked into acting in an X-rated film in Amsterdam, clash and crash teaching skiing to an insufferable Saudi prince and his magnum-toting bodyguards in the Austrian Alps, shower with the coed volleyball team in Stockholm, get blown out of a job in the Basque Country by ETA terrorists, and stay with me as I have my heart broken in Paris, discover where the circumcisions took place in Istanbul, get roughed up by Romanians in the Canary Islands, bomb valiantly in language school with a randy lass named ‘Kinkie’ on Spain’s glorious Costa Blanca and just when it looks as if I will never find someone to share adventure with, well …

I've turned to a life of crime

For the past year, along with writing the sequel to KEY WEST, I've been writing a gritty crime thriller. I knew right off that I wanted to base the novel in Glasgow, Scotland. The city has such a rich tapestry of villains and heroes to draw from. The city, itself, is a living, breathing character of its own. The result is DEATH BY GLASGOW. A 21st-century story of revenge.

I finished the novel and was thrilled when it was short-listed this summer for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award. The manuscript is currently making the rounds of publishers so keeping all appendages crossed. Stay tuned for more updates on this.

In order to improve my crime writing skills -- which as any crime writer knows is not easy keeping the pace fast and furious, but, at the same time, slowing down to let the reader catch his or her breath -- I was taken under the  incredibly talented wing of crime writer Alison Bruce. Ms Bruce was kind enough to read my novel despite being under serious time limits to finish her fourth crime book THE SILENCE (which was just published by Constable & Robinson). Alison gave me insightful feedback, suggesting story changes, and helped me shape the book for the commercial market. I'm now indebted to her and owe her many a bottle of Shiraz, as thanks.

Have a peek at Alison's website here

'NAKED EUROPE' - coming out in Paperback

Great news!

My eBook NAKED EUROPE has been selling so well on Amazon that I've decided to publish it also in paperback.


NAKED EUROPE by Jon Breakfield   

KEY WEST (which is actually the sequel to NAKED EUROPE) was published in paperback back in June and, to my great surprise, is doing well in both the U.S. and the U.K., so it made sense to have the prequel follow suit...if you follow me.

Will be using Createspace again as they were incredibly efficient and fast in producing KEY WEST and very user-friendly; not to mention they actually reply to my questions on the same day.

Am hoping that the paperback will be available by the end of August, so if you would like a copy please let me know.

I'm currently knee deep in page breaks and page numbers...here's a tip: Ensure you put in your page numbers before you try to add in your name and title in the headers. A lot of 'head banging' had been going on today, but once I realised I'd put the horse before the cart...

The front cover is done so just the back and sides to work on. Createspace provides a super template for this, so once you've decided on your artwork, you can't really muck it up too badly.

Looking forward to writing up the 'Acknowledgements' ... you'll have to buy a copy and see if you have been named.

Will let you know as soon as it's ready to hit the presses.

And now back to those page numbers.

NAKED EUROPE is coming soon

The prequel to KEY WEST is finished. It's called NAKED EUROPE.
I'm currently working on the cover. Can't decide if I should dig out an old photo of me hanging around some seedy bar in the Reeperbahn or a beautiful snow-capped Alpine scene. Need some input here: How 'bout a vote. OK, I'll put together the options and let the readers decide -- well reader ...