by john | Jan 4, 2011 | Real Life, Writing
Now through March 2011, I’m accepting entries into a contest to win a brand new Kindle 3 or Nook e-reader! That’s right, kids, just for being cool and commenting on this here blog you could win almost $200 worth of swanky electronic toys! And to make it better, I’ll load my books onto the device for you, so you don’t have to do anything but take it out of the box and start to enjoy it! This contest will run through the end of March, 2011, and here’s a sweetener for those of you who already own e-readers – if you win and decide you don’t want a Kindle or a Nook, let me know and I’ll send you a $200 Amazon gift certificate! So no matter what, you can get some cool stuff!
Here are the rules for the contest –
1) No Purchase is necessary. You may earn an entry into the contest by simply commenting on this blog post. You will earn one entry for commenting here. You will not earn multiple entries for multiple comments.
2) You can earn multiple entries, and this is how you do that. You earn two entries for each copy of my books you buy, no max. Just send me an email with the Amazon/Apple/BN order confirmation and your name. Please block out confidential information like where you live.
3) You can earn multiple entries by answering trivia questions about the books, and those will be posted below. You get one entry for each correct answer. Please don’t share the answers, the whole point is to generate readers. That said, if you borrow the book from someone, you can still get all the entries for the correct answers.
4) You can get two entries for posting a review on Amazon, regardless of whether you liked the book or not. If you hate it and give it a review (must be at least 100 words, and no bs like “I hated it” 34 times) I’ll give you two entries. That’s two entries per book reviewed, so the more reviews you write, the more entries you get. Obviously you can only review each book once, because to do anything else skews the review process. And I really do want honest responses, so if you think it’s crap, don’t be afraid to tell me. I’ll just curl up under my keyboard any cry, that’s all.
Please email any questions or entries to johnhartness AT gmail DOT com. You know what to do with that.
Trivia Questions – one entry per correct answer
The Chosen
1) In The Chosen, what is Adam’s Irish love’s name?
2) In what famous American town did Cain play cards with Lucky?
3) What apostle was really Adam?
4) Name any three musical acts/musical artists mentioned in the novel.
Hard Day’s Knight
5) Where did Greg and Jimmy go to college?
6) What is Father Mike’s last name?
7) What kind of guns does Jimmy usually carry?
8) What is the wi-fi password to Greg and Jimmy’s wireless network?
Red Dirt Boy
9) What is the stripper’s name in Small Caliber Love?
10) Where was Aftermath originally published?
Alright, those be the questions – email me your answers, your screenshots where you bought books, and leave a comment here for your entries. I’ll have somebody (probably Suzy) do the drawing the first week of April, and then announce the winner once I know what you decide your prize should be!
Good Luck!
by john | Jan 3, 2011 | Real Life, Writing
Just got back in from doing the first workout in the Couch to 5K program. Several of us at the office are trying to get into shape, and two laps around the office park pretty much equals two miles and it took us all of thirty minutes to make it. I couldn’t run more than half of the times I was supposed to run, so I think this 9 week program might take a little while longer than that for me and at least one other slacker. But having people at the office to work out with should provide a great motivator for all of us.
I also managed to meet my ROW80 goal for the day, and am trying out Scrivener as a new writing tool. I particularly like the fact that it will compile and create epub and Kindle format ebooks, so that might save me a couple hundo on each future book. I sent out a couple of sample chapters this weekend, and response has been good so far. I’m something like 12,000 words into the book, and just finished the first big fight scene, so I think I’m about a quarter of the way through the book. I’m hoping for a March release on that, then maybe release a couple of short stories later in the spring, especially if Scrivener continues to be as user-friendly as it appears at first glance.
But I promised you the tale of how we almost died on the way home from the poker game, didn’t I? So we’re cruising north on I-85 almost to Gaffney, and I’ve got the cruise control locked in at 70 or so. The speed limit is 60 or 65, and it’s foggy and been raining all day, so I’m feeling pretty good about not being in too big a rush. I’m in the left lane, because traffic is light and even going relatively slowly, I’m still rolling faster than most of the traffic on the road. Out of the corner of my eye I see a little car zip up alongside us in the right lane, and just as I hear Special K say “John, look out!” I hear the little shitbanger’s oversized exhaust rev up and watch him try to shoot the gap and slide into the lane in front of me. I tap the brakes to kill my cruise control as he does, but the doucherocket can’t keep his little overjuiced Civic under control, and he goes off the left side of the road into the median. I swerve to miss him, making the truck bobble a little more than I’m happy about, but regain control and move into the right lane. He does not manage to regain control, and I see him go sideways into the retaining wires and fence at 70 MPH or so. I can hear the plastic parts snapping off of his car as I hear T get on the phone to call 911. And that’s how we started 2011 off with almost dying on I-85. We didn’t stop, largely because I didn’t see a safe way to get back to provide any assistance, and also because I’m not really qualified to provide any type of first aid or medical assistance. We called 911 and let the professionals take care of it. Part of me hopes the idiot was okay, since I don’t want to wish ill of anyone, but part of me also hopes that he can never drive again, because he was a dangerous driver.
by john | Jan 3, 2011 | Poker
So yesterday Suzy, Special K, T and I rode down to G-Vegas for the annual BadBlood New Year’s Day tournament, an event that I won in 2006 and have not experienced any real success in since then. I continued my streak, managing to save the least amount of face only by not busting first. I busted second. 24th out of 25 runners, that’s me.
But I did pretty well in the cash game, more than making up for my tournament buy-in, and Suzy’s as well. We played half No Limit Hold’Em, Half Pot Limit Omaha, with two $1 blinds. The original idea was to keep the game kinda reasonable, with a $100 max initial buy-in, and if you went busto you could rebuy for $200. That went out the window along about the second hour, and the cap was raised to $300 per reload . It turned into a wild game, with aggro play from TheMark, tight play from Special K, bad play from me that caught up, and generally a good time to be had by most. Depending on the hand. We all complimented BadBlood on his “This dad is so sick…” T-shirt that his son gave him for Christmas, and by the end of the night we had appended several different endings to the shirt title.
Pretty much all of my profit came from a couple of key hands, which is typical for my poker sessions, online or live. After gifting my first buyin to TheMark in a hand you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear about, I reloaded for another hundred. In a round of Omaha, I woke up with kings and a couple of other crap cards, but I did have one suit with my kings. There was a raise in front of me from TheMark, I re-raised, and G-Rob pushed all in right behind me. TheMark called, and I put the last of my chips in the middle, figuring if I’ve run into aces, then I’m glad I brought more money. Turns out I had run into Queens and something else, as I showed my hand to take the main pot and don’t remember what Mark held, but it was better than G-Rob’s hand. So I tripled up and then had some chips to play around with.
Another big hand that featured me and Gucci Rick was probably one I played badly, but caught just enough on every street to stick around. I’m sure there was a raise preflop, and I called with Qd-9-Ad-x. The flop came down nine-high with two diamonds, so I had top pair, decent kicker and the nut flush draw. Rick bet out, and I called. The turn brought a queen, and I checked. Rick bet out again, and I moved all in over the top. It was about sixty bucks more for Rick to call, and he went deep into the tank before finally deciding that there was way too much money in the pot (over $400) for him to fold for another $58. He made the call and showed his flopped two pair. I had caught up, making a bigger two pair on the turn, and my hand held up to bring me up to profitable for the night. I ended up running Rick down another couple of times when straights hit on the river to take a significant chunk of his stack, and I was able to leave the game with a tidy profit, and a win over one of the better players in that game, in my opinion. Rick is one of those guys who up until last night has always had my number, betting me off hands when I have weak holdings and catching up when he needed to against me. But poker, she’s a fickle bitch, and last night things were running my way and I got out alive. It was a good way to start the year, and the first time in a couple of years I’ve been able to log a big win on the first day of the year.
Then we almost died on the ride home because of bad road conditions and a doucherocket on I-85, but that’s tomorrow’s story. Now go buy a book! And if you’ve bought a book, leave an Amazon review, they really do help!
by john | Jan 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
Another year here on the interwebs. I worked out this morning, and now I know why they call it “work.” That crap’s hard. But I’ve let myself become a great big fatass again, so I’ve gotta do it. I can hear Suzy pounding away on the treadmill downstairs as I write this, so we’re definitely getting something going. Of course, it’s January 1, so that’s easy enough to say today. Check back in April, and if I’m still wearing this size jeans, you can feel free to kick my ass. And I’ll still be an out of shape tub o’ lard, so it’ll be easy, too!
Played a little online poker last night, over at Full Tilt. I do a little bit of Rush Poker most every day, micro stakes PLO usually. I’ve found that it’s easier to get people to put their entire stack in while behind in PLO, because most folks just aren’t very good at it. I’m not very good at it either, but I have a little tiny edge in that I’m so broke online right now I cant afford to shove unless I have the nuts, even at micro limits. So I’m making a little bit. I usually open up two tables, and if I win or lose one buy-in, I rathole it and go away. That keeps me from playing too long, so my minute attention span can keep up, and it also doesn’t get in the way of other things I need to do, like writing and working out. And obsessively checking my sales numbers at Amazon. But it’s fun, and is a good way for me to pass a few idle minutes. I’ll have to step up my attention span when the Gambling Tales Freeroll Series kicks off (hopefully this Thursday, download the latest episode for more info!), because if folks are going to just give away money, it would be rude of me not to try and take it, right?
Just a quick note for now, because I need to finish getting ready to head south for my annual New Year’s Poker excursion this afternoon. More about that upon my return. In the meantime, I know you’re off work, go buy a book!
by john | Dec 30, 2010 | Writing
I’ve decided to use Kait Nolan’s Round of Words in 80 Days to kick-start me into finishing Back in Black (and Blue) – Black Knight Chronicles, Vol. 2. I’m about 7,000 words into the book now, and I should be able to finish it out within 80 days if I have someone that I have to report in to. So here goes – I’m going to write the last 50,000 words of Volume 2 between now and March 24th, with an intermediate goal of 5,000 words each week. I usually write 1,000 words per day during the week and give myself the weekends off, but this will let me use the weekends to catch up if I fall behind. I should be able to finish up the first draft during that time, which lets me get the print edition ready to go for the Heroes Con in June!
This word count should leave me a little float time near the end because I know I have a lot of work travel in the beginning of March that could screw me. Wish me luck!
