About Us
This is the site for the fictional thriller books of The Enigma Series, authored by Breakfield and Burkey. These are our stories for the 21st century which combine history, technology, romance, intrigue, and humor set in today’s contemporary time frame.
Roxanne Burkey
Roxanne has two passions – working with technology and writing. She enjoys working to drive optimized customer experiences with technology in her role with a high-tech manufacturer. Texas is home for her and her family. When time permits Rox likes gardening, hiking, sewing, refinishing antiques, exploring, wine-tasting, and traveling. She loves to listen to people which often results in odd treasures that come to life in her stories.
Charles Breakfield
Charles holds a master’s degree and works for a high-tech manufacturer as a solution architect, functioning in hybrid data/telecom environments. A long-time technology geek, Charles enjoys writing, studying World War II history, travel, and cultural exchanges. He’s also a fan of wine-tastings, riding his Harley, and continues developing his woodworking skills.
The products and services we offer
Recommendations Received (30)
"Highly recommend! "
"Roxanne Burkey and Charles Breakfield do an amazing job of writing, publishing and marketing..."
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"Roxanne Burkey and Charles Breakfield do an amazing job of writing, publishing and marketing their Enigma Series"
Products & Services
We are able to provide motivating and insightful discussions on relevant technology and how to avoid some pitfalls with best practices
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Recommendations Given (50)
"Kristin provides a good variety of tone and annotation! "
"Linnea Tanner is an accomplished author who will take you back into history with compelling..."
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"Linnea Tanner is an accomplished author who will take you back into history with compelling stories and well developed characters. You need to consider reading all her well written stories."
Recent Activity
I would suggest it is the device you are most comfortable using. If you want to use a specific application to create your work then use it in its native format. I have both MAC and PC but Word as an example behaves differently between the two platforms.
You must be comfortable. You also need...
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I would suggest it is the device you are most comfortable using. If you want to use a specific application to create your work then use it in its native format. I have both MAC and PC but Word as an example behaves differently between the two platforms.
You must be comfortable. You also need to frequently back up files and store some off the device for extra back up. Breakfield and Burkey wrote an article for InD'tale magazine April 2021 that outlines some processes we employ in document control as co-authors in separate locations. You might find these useful considerations. It is online at InDtale.com.
We each prefer to have our laptops in our individual home offices for most of our writings. The digital formats make it easy to shift and move content for formating, editing, and final location in our novels. During travel we've been known to use tablets and journals.
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We each prefer to have our laptops in our individual home offices for most of our writings. The digital formats make it easy to shift and move content for formating, editing, and final location in our novels. During travel we've been known to use tablets and journals.
Great questions. We are doing Virtual Book Festivals, Rox interviews authors with Indie Beacon Radio, and social media (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram).
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Great questions. We are doing Virtual Book Festivals, Rox interviews authors with Indie Beacon Radio, and social media (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram).
Our stories may help folks who are isolated at home enjoy their time. Therefore we reduced the cost of the ebook, The Enigma Wraith, to .99 on amazon and will provide free audiobook codes to anyone who emails us at Authors@EnigmaSeries.com. It is tough to be at home and sometimes a change from...
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Our stories may help folks who are isolated at home enjoy their time. Therefore we reduced the cost of the ebook, The Enigma Wraith, to .99 on amazon and will provide free audiobook codes to anyone who emails us at Authors@EnigmaSeries.com. It is tough to be at home and sometimes a change from television is needed. We are also shipping signed copies from our website within zero shipping costs in the continental US.
Though our books sell well we have not achieved a Best Selling spot. We simply like story telling and talking to folks about our stories which always provide us with great ideas. We know several Best Selling authors and they are so much fun to be around. Lots of tall tales.
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Though our books sell well we have not achieved a Best Selling spot. We simply like story telling and talking to folks about our stories which always provide us with great ideas. We know several Best Selling authors and they are so much fun to be around. Lots of tall tales.
1 Reply
The Investment
By Breakfield and Burkey
I’d just stomped out of admissions office at UT in Austin over a point of honor. Even though I was on the Dean’s list for high grades, they wouldn’t let me back for a third year without declaring a major. I wouldn’t, so that was that. Next the...
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The Investment
By Breakfield and Burkey
I’d just stomped out of admissions office at UT in Austin over a point of honor. Even though I was on the Dean’s list for high grades, they wouldn’t let me back for a third year without declaring a major. I wouldn’t, so that was that. Next the strained discussion was with my Dad who was paying the tuition. He carefully listened to my position, handed me my supper dish, and then showed me to the door.
Of course, now I needed to find work to fund my lofty ideals so I quickly got a job framing houses and roofing on the sideline. It was almost enough to cover the bills so I took my prize comic book collection to the only collectible comic book store in Austin. As I did the transaction it reminded me of Jack selling the family cow for a handful of magic beans. While I was there an elderly man came in with some really old comics also asking to sell. I watched them haggle but he left with his comics because the store owner Jay didn’t have the $500 needed to make the seller happy.
For no reason that I could understand Jay the owner turned to me and complained that those books were worth $1,000 and if he could only borrow $500 for a week then he would split the profit with the lender. I thought, why couldn’t I be that lender? I promised to return at the end of the week and that we would do the deal. I fudged the rent payment and skipped a few meals but I had just enough. We bought those 5 comics for $500 and sure enough the following week I had my seed money back plus $250 profit.
I started showing up each week looking for more investment opportunities and Jay kept on finding more “Golden Age” comics from the 40’s and 50’s for us to buy and the agreement was he would take them to comic conventions to sell to collectors and we would split the profits. One day Jay called me and said he had just scored one of the most valuable Golden Age comics possible, a Marvel Comics #1. If I could just pony up $1,500 it could be ours. My eyes lit up at acquiring such a prestigious Golden Age comic.
To make a long story short, it was missing the center fold of the comic, thus worth only half of what we’d paid. Then the reality set in; all the comics Jay had been buying with my money were nothing but bragging rights for his store. I had provided him the money to over pay for Golden Age comics for the prestige of putting rare comics on his tables at conventions, but were hopelessly overpriced. He didn’t have the money or inclination to make good on his scam, so with a sick feeling in my stomach, I took my property back.
For the next two years I drove nails during the week and drove to any comic convention in the country to try to sell or trade my stock of overpriced Golden Age comics. I carefully partnered with Don who was also trying to make a living at dealing comics. Turns out that Don was honest and knew of the deception that Jay had run against me.
Two years stretched into three until I finally hit it lucky. We drove to Kansas City in an empty van with my Golden Age comics and ended up trading them to a store owner there. We’d traded for bulk, sellable comics. We packed the van with anything that we thought would sell in Austin. I didn’t feel any better seeing my life savings now filling up a Chevy van called, The Blue Meanie.
Don cheerfully stated, “Now we have enough to open a store.”
Before anyone could talk me out of it, I’d signed the lease and began building the book shelves and outside sign we needed. I missed the detail of getting a building permit to add the sign, and fortunately no one forced me to take it down. My house building and remodeling work had great side benefits.
The flea markets, comic conventions, and mail order business already in play, fell behind the store in priority. Heck, we were wholesaling new comics in back of the store to comic stores around the state. At 6 months, Vaughn, the store’s counter guy, came to the back and asked for more new comics as everything was sold out front. We were stunned. Looking back on it, he was like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel.
Working multiple businesses, we’d missed the part where our store had become the place to go, hang out to buy comics, Sci-Fi paperbacks, and other collectibles. Working hard, we hadn’t noticed that our overall sales had topped 2 million dollars a year between our now three stores and wholesale business.
Wholesaling was more to my liking, so I sold my shares in the retail outlets and moved the wholesale arm to Dallas. A mere year later, I decided to computerize the ordering system. Guess who got to learn how to do it? Yeah me, who wouldn’t do the computer programming exercises in high school because they looked like a waste of time.
Soon I was hooked on PCs and networks. I’ve never looked back. I even sold the wholesale distribution business but stayed in the world of high tech. Then something extraordinary happened. I worked with an amazing lady who loved the high tech world as much as I did. We started writing technical manuals together until she hit on the brilliant idea of writing techno-thrillers. Fictional thrillers with high end technology baked in to a story. We wanted full control of our property, so we set up our small press Ltd to maintain artistic control.
I’m starting a new business again with someone who sees the same end goal. Our award-winning 10 book series, 11 in 2020, plus various short stores we believe is destined for the big screen or streamed to your favorite device. I’m back where I started, dreaming of the big time. This time, no smooth-talking confidence man is going to get our intellectual property for a handful of magic beans.
One final note regarding Austin Books on Lamar Blvd. in Austin, Texas. The new owners are celebrating their 35th year in that same location. Don’t let anyone tell you that your dreams can’t happen or that you can’t build an amazing legacy to survive you. If history repeats itself (and it does) then maybe our techno-thrillers are destined for greatness as well. Wish us luck!
Interesting question. Dreams are funny things that we make steps toward or run from. In our case, writing great stories is our end game. Creating short and full novels, getting mind share, increasing marketing, and participating in more library and book club events is on the top of our TTD this...
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Interesting question. Dreams are funny things that we make steps toward or run from. In our case, writing great stories is our end game. Creating short and full novels, getting mind share, increasing marketing, and participating in more library and book club events is on the top of our TTD this year. We love talking to readers and audio book listeners. Next big trip is publishing at sea and a fun event with passengers on board. Can hardly wait.
We have found over our journey to date, with 10 books in the series there are things you need to be do before and after a book.
-First and foremost as an entrepreneur, or authorpreneur, writing is about 20 to 30 percent of the effort, the rest is marketing.
-Research your genre to make...
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We have found over our journey to date, with 10 books in the series there are things you need to be do before and after a book.
-First and foremost as an entrepreneur, or authorpreneur, writing is about 20 to 30 percent of the effort, the rest is marketing.
-Research your genre to make certain you are aligning to the requirements. This falls right into knowing what your audience wants so you can build it into your story
-Plan to leverage social media and follow the rules for each app.
And though all of these items are important follow your passion and write the story you need to tell, knowing that editing and polish counts.
We typically only do freelance writing for short stories or workshops. As an Indie Author we would be open the opportunity of being wildly successful, then we might be able to answer differently. Currently both lines of effort are needed.
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We typically only do freelance writing for short stories or workshops. As an Indie Author we would be open the opportunity of being wildly successful, then we might be able to answer differently. Currently both lines of effort are needed.
