China has at last count more than half a billion cell phone users--565 million as of May 2008, according to Xinhua News Service of China. This is almost double to the entire population of the USA. They are not only the world's leading users of mobile phones, but also the leading suppliers. Hello? Has anybody been watching these truly staggering developments taking place behind the scenes while we struggle with our economy, focus on political hype and lose ourselves in Hollywood drama? In China, they are watching us and if imitation is flattery, we should all be very flattered. In his moving memoir, Gene Ayres has accurately described Modern China.
After winning the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First P.I. Novel competition back in 1992 (for Hour of the Manatee, writing as E. C. Ayres) I published three more Tony Lowell Mysteries over the next six years, then took time off to raise my son.
Following three years living and working in China (2004-2007) my first non-fiction trade book, Inside the New China is now available from Transaction Publishers, on Amazon.com and elsewhere. For those of you who remember my hip-detective Tony Lowell (TL is also the original eco-detective) and would like to see more of him they will soon be back in print under my original pen name E.C. Ayres, together with the fifth of this series: Cry of the Heron. Please be sure to visit my web site, www.geneayres.com for details on these and other current and forthcoming books, as well as a photo album, current news, a more detailed biography, and my socio-political satire blogspot (there is a link on my website).
UPDATE: My mystery thriller The Shakespeare Chronicles, written under my pseudonym John Underwood and now translated in six languages, has just been published in Italian by Newton Compton Rome, and is already a bestseller in Italy. I am still awaiting a U.S./U.K. publisher, which has been delayed for six years due to controversial content and subject matter. Recent release of the film Anonymous has opened up the door to this subject, and more should follow.
