by john | Nov 23, 2011 | Business of publishing, Promos/Giveaways
It’s the hottest new toy for the holidays, it’s the Kindle Fire! And I’m giving away not one, but TWO of them! Yep, two lucky winners will get a Kindle Fire this holiday season, and it’s 100% free to enter and win!
Yep, this is how I’m using the last of my marketing budget for the year!
It might be free, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be simple – there are LOTS of ways to gain entries, and if I’m gonna drop $400 on electronics, you better believe I have a plan to sell a few books in the process.
I’ll even go you one better. If any of my books hits the Kindle Top 100 at any point during the contest, I’ll add in a third Kindle! So the more books I move in the next month, the better your chance to win a Kindle!
Here’s how you can win -There might be even more ways to win coming soon, so keep checking back here –
Here are the rules for the contest –
Contest runs through 11PM EST, November 23, 2011, to 5PM EST, December 19, 2011. That should give me enough time to order the kindles and get them shipped to people for Christmas delivery (I’ve got Prime, so it’ll be 2-day delivery). There’s no purchase necessary, and all the ways to earn entries are listed below.
You get one entry for commenting on this blog post. That’s all it takes – one comment that says “I wanna win!” or something to that effect.
You get one entry for signing up for my email newsletter – click the box on the right-hand side of the page
You get one entry for following me on Twitter – @johnhartness
You get one entry for “liking” my Facebook Author page
You get one entry for Following this blog using Google Friend Connect (also in the right sidebar for the folks in RSS reader-land)
You get one entry for following my Ebook promo site – Ebook Deals Today – on Twitter – @ebookdeals2day
You get one entry for “liking” Ebook Deals Today on Facebook
You get one entry for every Facebook post that links to one of my book or Ebook Deals Today.
You get one entry for every tweet that links to one of my books (and includes my twitter handle so I can find it!) or Ebook Deals Today. Retweets count!
If you have a blog, you get one entry for every time you link to this blog, EbookDealsToday.com, or one of my books on your blog.
Take a picture of yourself reading one of my books somewhere interesting, or holding up a sign promo’ing my books somewhere interesting, post it to Facebook, and I’ll give you one entry per photo.
And if you come up with some other type of crazy creative marketing stunt that might result in a few sales for me, let me know and I’ll give you an entry for that, too!
Those are all ways to win without buying anything. No BS, and it only takes one entry to win.
But if you want to max out your chances, you might want to buy a book or two. This is a sales/promo contest, after all.
You get 10 entries for every book of mine you buy between now (11/23/11) and the end of the contest – 5PM on 12/19/11 – you have to email me a receipt (please black out personal info like credit card data) or buy the books through PayPal here on the site.
You can also get 10 entries for every book you buy from me in print form – just order them here on the site or pick them up at one of my live events.
You get 5 entries for every book you buy that is a featured Ebook Deal of the Day on EbookDealsToday.com. These books all have positive reviews and all are under $6.99.
You get 5 entries for every review you write of one of my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes. And the reviews should be honest. If you think my writing is crap on toast (pop quiz, which urban fantasy author did I steal that phrase from – worth another entry to the first correct commenter) then you should say so. 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. So no sock puppet reviews, no multiple reviews, and please don’t slag another book in a positive review for mine (or vice versa).
So there’s the plan – and if you have other things that you can do to promote my site or my books, then you’ll get extra entries for it and I’ll post those methods here so everybody can get the same benefit. YouTube videos featuring my books, getting my book covers on an episode of Vampire Diaries (it shoots in Atlanta, it could be done!), whatever you can do to become my street team and promo my books here at the holidays will earn you entries.
And remember, if any one of my books reaches the Kindle Top 100, I’ll give away a third Kindle Fire!
Please email any questions or entries to johnhartness AT gmail DOT com. You know what to do with that address.
UPDATE – Suzanne gets the bonus entry for knowing that crap on toast is from Kim Harrison’s Hollows series. I love those books. A bunch.
by john | Nov 22, 2011 | Fiction
The fantasy world lost a giant today. Anne McCaffrey has flown from us. This is a small tribute that I made for her. I hope it honors her memory in some small way.
Friends
By John G. Hartness
“And what about you, Anne? What are you going to be when you grow up?” Mrs. Pennywise asked, her saccharine tone hiding the disdain she usually showed for Annie. No matter what the girl tried to do, nothing seemed to make the old woman like her. Her dresses were never starched enough. Her shoes were never polished enough. And her hair, no matter how long she spent brushing, was never done right for the old bat.Annie was through trying to make her happy, though. It didn’t matter what lies she told, she was never going to get a gold star in her class. So why not tell the truth.
“I’m going to be a DrakeKnight, just like my Grandda was!” She pointed out the window at the cloudless sky, defiance written all over her round eleven-year-old face.
Mrs. Pennywise said nothing, just hrmph’d in that condescending way adults had when they thought kids were being stupid, and went on to Darcy Nevins, who sat right behind Annie in class. Darcy wanted to be a ballerina, and Mrs. Pennywise praised her and cooed over how pretty Darcy was and how she could be anything she wanted to be. Of course Darcy could be anything she wanted to be, her father owned the mercantile and half the village. Darcy already was everything the rest of the children wanted to be. She was rich, smart, pretty, and the teacher’s pet. If she wasn’t so darn nice it would have been easy for Annie to hate her.
But Darcy was Annie’s best friend, had been ever since they were little kids in the first form. And now that they were in sixth form and starting their journey into womanhood, the two were even more inseparable. They shared lunches, swapping back and forth the nasty bits of celery and carrots their mothers sent. They walked home together every day, at least as far as Darcy’s house, where the two girls would play until Annie’s father came by to collect her as he walked home from a long day in the woods.
But today Darcy was even more perfect than usual, and Annie was in even more trouble with Mrs. Pennywise than usual. So it was no wonder that when the headmistress rang the bell for recess, Annie bolted from the room before Darcy could even get out of her desk. Annie ran pell-mell across the playground to her favorite sulking spot, a giant elm tree with huge spreading roots that reached out ike sprawled fingers across the ground. Annie nestled among the roots, wishing with all her heart that she could just climb inside the tree and disappear. But she couldn’t, so she sat with her back pressed up against the trunk of the tree and pulled her knees up tight to her chest, making a nice dark cave to hide her head from the brightly lit playground.
She sat there, pretending to be part of the tree for the better part of five minutes until something thunked against the back of her neck. It didn’t hurt, exactly, just surprised her enough to make her jerk her head ever so slightly upward. She caught herself, but too late. She’d been seen. More thunks and plunks rained down on her head and shoulders, and she realized quickly what was happening. She’d been found. Steven and his irritating brothers had found her and now her recess would be even more ruined. Well, they’d picked the wrong day, Annie decided. Today was the day she stopped putting up with any garbage from anybody, even Steven Dawson.
Another acorn plopped off the top of Annie’s head, and she sprang to her feet. She knew one of them was close, she could smell his toothpaste. So she jumped to her feet and dove to her left, planting a shoulder right in the stomach of Steven’s older brother Jamie.
“Oof!” Jamie exhaled hard as she caught him by surprise, tumbling to the ground on top of the winded boy. Annie quickly sprang to her feet, stepping on Jamie’s belly for good measure as she did so. Steven stood by the trunk of the tree, her tree, gawping at her like she was an animal in the zoo or something. She ran at him, swinging her fists wildly, but she’d forgotten the third Dawson brother. Avery Dawson stepped from behind the tree right behind Annie and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her sides in a bear hug. She struggled as hard as she could, but the bigger boy didn’t let go.
“Fight all you want, little DrakeKnight!” Steven chanted. “Dragons are about as real as your mother! Neither one will save you now!” Mention of her mother, dead seven years ago in childbirth, brought hot tears to Annie’s eyes and made her struggle all the harder. By now Jamie had gotten to his feet and was tossing more acorns and twigs at her as he and his snotty little brother called her “midget DrakeKnight” and “Dragonlover” and other names designed to embarrass her about her dreams.
Annie stopped struggling and just stood there, panting with fury as tears streamed down her face. Steven stepped right up to her and whispered nastily “It’s no wonder your mother would rather be dead than have to raise a stupid kid like you, Annie Fanny! I don’t blame your dad for spending every day drunk in the woods so he doesn’t have to look at your stupid face.” Annie just cried all the harder, because he was telling at least some truth. Her dad had been smelling like whiskey when he came home lately, and none of the other woodsmen were still working this late in the fall.
Steven waved to his brothers and they let her go, running back to the swings to terrorize other students for their lunch money. They knew Annie didn’t have any money to steal. Annie curled up on the ground this time, wrapping herself around the tree roots and sobbing into the playground dust. She didn’t know how long she’d been there crying before she fell asleep, but when she woke up she had the bark imprinted all along one arm and the side of her face, so she must have been there for a while. It was colder, and the sun was starting to set, so the school day must have been almost over. They forgot me, she thought. They just left me out here all alone.
Good. I don’t need them. I don’t need any of them. Except Darcy. She’s still okay. But the rest of them can just go to the hot place! No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Annie tried to erase it with a prayer. I’m sorry, Lord. I didn’t mean it. Thy will be done, Amen. Feeling a little better about wishing damnation on her classmates, Annie stood and began walking towards the school. She was only halfway across the playground when the doors opened, spilling happy children into freedom for the end of the school day. Annie had slept all through the afternoon classes under the tree. She edged cautiously over to the side of the school, planning to join the students as they came out. Hopefully no one would be the wiser.
All her hopes were dashed when a huge winged shadow flew low over the schoolyard, scattering children and adults alike. Seconds later, a huge red and green dragon glided to a landing right on top of the school. As dragons go, it was a rather small dragon, less than fifteen feet long from nose to tail. But to a group of six to ten-year-olds, it seemed very large indeed. The dragon roared, and snapped out its neck at a fleeing student. The child dove onto its belly to avoid the snapping jaws, and the dragon drew back its head, seeming pleased with itself.
The dragon hopped down off the building, blocking the door with its hindquarters and facing outward into the yard where all the students were gathered. Some had run for the gate, but the dragon belched a stream of fire at them, herding them back into the yard. Others ran for the far end of the playground, but the dragon simply hopped over them and they shuffled into a clump in the middle of the clearing between the swings and the teeter-totters.
The dragon seemed to take joy in their attempts to escape, flicking out a wing to knock this child over when he tried to run, lashing out with his tail to trip another child as she ran to help her friend. Annie watched all this in confusion for several minutes until Darcy saw her and started to run in her direction. The dragon flicked out a claw, and Darcy stopped in her tracks, the claw hovering just inches in front of her face. Suddenly it dawned on Annie what it was doing – it was teasing them.
“HEY!” She bellowed in her fiercest voice, stomping out into the playground to stand next to Darcy. “Leave her alone!”
“And why should I, little meatling?” The dragon asked, bringing its huge head down to look Annie in the eye. The dragon’s eye was the size of Annie’s whole head, but she wasn’t afraid. She had realized that this dragon was just like Mrs. Pennywise, just like Steven Dawson and his stupid brothers. It was picking on them just because it was bigger. And that wasn’t going to work anymore.
“Because I said so.”
“And who, little meatling, are you?”
“I am Annalisa Chisoman Pern, granddaughter of the legendary DrakeKnight Religan Pern, and by the authority of my bloodline I claim you as my dragon! Now you must do as I say! And I say leave her alone.”
“You claim me, little girl? I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of your grandfather, and I don’t think you’re commanding me to do anything.”
“I don’t care if you’ve heard of him or not, it’s the DrakeKnight law, and you have to do what I say. And I say you leave Darcy alone.” Annie stood firm in front of the dragon, arms folded across her chest. The other children had drawn back when she started speaking, and now they looked from her to the dragon warily, unsure of what was happening.
“Well, if it’s the law,” the dragon drawled. He reared his head back and drew in a deep breath, but halted just before he exhaled at Annie’s upraised hand.
“I didn’t say you could breathe fire.”
“I didn’t ask you.”
“You can’t breathe fire unless I say so. It’s the DrakeKnight law.”
“You’re not a DrakeKnight.”
“Yet, but I will be.”
“Not if I cook you first!” The dragon inhaled again and opened his mouth wide, but nothing came out.
“I told you.”
“How did you do that?”
“It’s DrakeKnight law. My Grandda told me all about the rules. And you have stinky breath.”
“Well, you’re a rude little girl!”
“Then the two of you should get along just fine.” A new voice, deeper and rumbling, came from atop the school. Annie looked up to see a truly huge red dragon hovering over the schoolhouse. She couldn’t land, because the roof would cave in under her weight. The smaller dragon looked around as if trying to find an exit when the bigger dragon spoke again.
“Annalisa Chisoman Pern, I hereby grant you status of Honorary DrakeKnight-in-training, to be bonded with my youngest son Milambrisamon at the earliest opportunity.”
Annie looked up at the huge red dragon and dipped into her best curtsey. “My thanks, lady drake. May I know what you are called?”
“I am Silambristar, called Star by my rider.”
“But my grandda’s dragon was called Star!” Annie exclaimed.
“Indeed. And now his granddaughter shall ride on Star’s child. You may call him Brim.” The huge red dragon flapped her wings once, twice and shot off into the air, quickly fading to a crimson speck on the horizon.
Annie looked around at the children and adults crowded in the schoolyard and stepped closer to Brim. “Don’t worry,” She whispered. “I won’t let them hurt you.”
The dragon leaned in close to her ear, so close that his breath almost burned her neck and he whispered back “Me too.”
by john | Nov 21, 2011 | Book Spotlight
If you’ve been around the self-publishing debate at all, you’ve heard of Joe Konrath. He’s a hero to some, villain to others and a frog-raping monkey to many more. Don’t ask about that last bit. It disturbs even me. Well, Joe and Blake Crouch (buy his book, RUN – it’s completely and utterly badass!) have a new book coming out Tuesday from Amazon’s thriller division Thomas & Mercer, and the boys were kind enough to give me a little interview time to pimp their new book. Here’s a little bit about Stirred, available for pre-order RIGHT THIS SECOND from J.A. Konrath and Blake Crouch.
1) Why would you guys decide to bring these series to an end now? With all the excitement about ebooks and new publishing methods, couldn’t you make more money writing new Jack/Luther novels?
We could. We’ve written almost 2 million words about these characters, so we just wanted to at least take a shot at wrapping it all up. But who knows? If reader demand is high enough, it’s possible some of them could return.
2) How would you describe your collaborative process?
Sometimes we work on scenes on our own, but mostly we work together at the same time in a Google doc. We tend to write in intense bursts. For example, on the day we finished the book, we wrote 9,000 words.
3) What’s next for each of you?
Joe: The sequel to Timecaster, only I’m releasing it myself this time.
Blake: A solo novel call Pines.
4) Will you ever collaborate again or would you rather pick glass out of your eyeballs?
Ha! Our collaboration is fun, effortless, and probably easier than writing on our own. We will definitely continue to collaborate.
5) Who would win in a fight, the winner of this book or the winner of the classic Thing/Incredible Hulk debate?
Oh, the winner of Stirred, no doubt!
Here’s the Amazon blurb –
Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels has seen humanity at its most depraved and terrifying. She’s lost loved ones. Come close to death countless times. But she always manages to triumph over evil. Luther Kite is humanity at its most depraved and terrifying. He’s committed unthinkable acts. Taken human life for the sheer pleasure of it. He is a monster among monsters, and no one has ever caught him. Each is the best at what they do. Peerless. Unmatched.
Until now…
In Luther’s experience, people are weak. Even the strong and fearless break too easily. He wants a challenge, and sets his depraved sights on Jack. But with a baby on the way, Jack is at her most vulnerable. She’s always been a fighter, but she’s never had so much to fight for. So he’s built something especially for Jack. His own, private ninth circle of hell?a nightmare world in a forgotten place, from which no one has ever escaped.
It’s J.A. Konrath’s greatest heroine versus Blake Crouch’s greatest villain in Stirred, the stunning conclusion to both Konrath’s Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels thriller series and Crouch’s Andrew Z. Thomas series.
Only one can survive. And it won’t be whom you think.
by john | Nov 20, 2011 | Return to Eden, Writing
For Sample Sunday here’s a chunk of my newest novel, Genesis – it’s a little like Mad Max meets X-Men:First Class.
The teens stopped cold at the scene in the store. Jake the storekeeper was on the ground in front of the counter, a large man looming over him holding a baseball bat in one hand. Jake was gasping for breath and holding his ribs, and the man standing over him wore a wicked grin. A thinner, equally filthy man stood by the door with a hunting knife in his hand. Christin and Matt froze in the door, then Matt bolted over to the man with the bat, drawing his pistol and aiming it at the big man.
“Drop the bat.” Matt said, and Christin wondered how he kept his voice from shaking.
The skinny man reached for her, and Christin dodged to one side, swatting his hands away. She put both hands on the counter and vaulted over it, putting the cash register between her and the thin robber. The third thug came into the shop then, and Matt’s eyes flickered over to the door, giving the first goon just enough of an opening to flick the bat out and knock Matt’s gun away. The man stepped forward and slammed his big fist into Matt’s jaw, sending the boy crashing to the floor next to Jake. Christin looked up at the noise, and the thin man caught her while she was distracted, pulling her kicking from behind the counter.
“Look what we found, Elmer. We got us some little busybodies.” The skinny man cackled, dropping Christin to the floor beside her brother.
“Yeah, but this one’s cute. Maybe we’ll take her with us to cook and clean up.” The big man rumbled.
“I don’t think so,” Christin spat back defiantly. “You wouldn’t like what I put in a stew. Like your ears!” The man she now knew was Elmer reached down and grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her painfully to her feet.
He bent down level with her face and spoke very quietly and slowly. “Little girl, you’re old enough for me to have some real fun with, but I’m not into that kinda thing. Jed here is, though. So if you don’t shut up and stay out of our way, I’m gonna knock you slap out and give you to him for a birthday present. You understand?”
Christin’s eyes watered at the stench of his breath, a fetid mixture of beer, salted meat and human nastiness that had her stomach threatening to revolt all over the front of the man’s coveralls, but she managed a nod.
“Good. Now sit there like a good girl while we finish our shopping.” He dropped her back to the floor next to Matt, and picked up Matt’s pistol. He handed the gun to the third man and said “Watch them. If the boy moves, shoot him. If the girl moves, shoot the boy.” The other man nodded and leaned on the door, blocking it shut and keeping the gun by his side. The men moved through the store methodically, piling camping goods, hunting equipment and various tools on the counter. When they had amassed as much gear as they could carry, they loaded duffel bags with all their loot and started for the door.
Elmer stood for a moment at the counter looking down at the three of them sitting on the floor. Matt and the shopkeeper were glaring at them with eyes full of rage, but Christin was just trying to avoid the notice of the skinny Jed until they were gone. Elmer cleared his throat and said “I’m sorry we had to do this, Jake, but we ain’t had no work in three weeks, and now I don’t know what’s gone happen to us. We gotta get by best we can, and I’m sorry I had to knock you down for it. We won’t be back.”
“You better not, Elmer Clausen. If I so much as see you cross the street again I’ll kick your sorry ass and your worthless brother’s ass, too!” Jake spat a glob of yellow phlegm onto the big man’s shoe, and Elmer reared back to kick the old man in the face. As he did, Matt reached out, grabbed Elmer’s heavy work boot and pulled backwards with all his strength. The big man toppled backwards, dropping his bat as he flailed around trying to break his fall. Christin shot up and flung herself towards the door, hoping that she could get out and get help before the men regrouped. Jed was too fast for her, though, and he caught her around the waist, lifting her off the floor. She kicked uselessly at the air and squirmed, but the wiry man’s grip was like steel. He carried the struggling girl to the back of the store, into the small storeroom where Jake kept his cleaning supplies.
“Naw, missy, you ain’t gettin’ out of here that easy. You’re gonna give ol’ Jed a little taste before we get done here. Now just lay there and be good.” He tossed her to the floor and turned to lock the door behind them. The small room was dimly lit by a small window set high in one wall, and Christin could see nothing that would help her get away from her captor anywhere on the floor. Christin scooted on her butt along the floor until her back hit a shelf, then she clambered to her feet and made ready to fight off the skinny man.
Jed looked at her standing there, fists clenched and hair tousled, and let out a cackling laugh. “You’re a feisty one, ain’t you? That’s alright, I like ‘em with a little spirit.” He unfastened his belt and pulled it through the loops in his jeans. He wrapped the buckle in his calloused fist and let the worn leather dangle. As Christin looked around for anything she could use as a weapon, Jed flicked the belt out at her legs. The leather snapped painfully on her calf and Christin jumped sideways, only to find the belt flashing in at her from the other side. Again and again he lashed out at her legs and arms with the belt, striking like a cobra at her flailing limbs. Christin started to feel dizzy, and the edges of her vision started to sparkle.
Not now, she thought furiously. I will not faint now. Her head felt stuffed, like the air pressure in the room was too great, and she shook herself to clear her vision. The belt snapped painfully across her right arm again, but this time she reached out and caught the lash before Jed could pull it back. He grinned a nasty grin at her and pulled hard on the belt, dragging Christin into his arms. He put his hands on her upper arms and leaned in for a kiss. The pressure in Christin’s head increased until it felt like someone was stabbing her in the nose with an icepick, then she felt a huge rush outward, and Jed suddenly flew backwards away from her.
The skinny would-be rapist flew through the locked door, splintering it and landing in the aisle of the store. Christin looked down at her hands, which were surrounded by glowing blue sparkles, as if she was generating electricity from her body. Jed clambered to his feet some five yards away and pointed the pistol he’d taken from Matt at her. Christin raised her hands to ward off the bullets she expected to rip through her body, and felt that rush of power again. From behind clenched eyes she heard a terrified scream, and opened her eyes to see Jed running for the front of the store. She walked after him, hands crackling with energy, and watched as he bolted right past his cohorts and out into the street.
Matt stood over the other two men, bat raised for another swat as she made her way to where he stood. Matt took one look at her and dropped the bat. Elmer and his other partner scrambled to their feet and ran for the door as Matt and Jake gaped at Christin. “Sis,” Matt said “what happened?”
“I have no idea.” Christin said as a wave of weariness passed over her like a blanket and she collapsed in the front of the store.
If you like what you read, you can buy Genesis at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
by john | Nov 19, 2011 | Business of publishing, Writing
I missed my Friday post yesterday. Sorry about that. I kinda forgot what day it was until it was late, and then it didn’t happen. Anyway, here’s what’s up in the land of Hartness.
I wrote a short story and submitted it to a magazine. We’ll see how that goes. It’s a stand-alone story that grew out of a lunchroom conversation. If it gets 5 rejections, I’ll self-pub it and you can read it then. This is part of my ongoing plan to get enough SFWA credits to join. I’ll be writing more stand-alone stories and submitting them around while I’m doing my novels and my Bubba stories. Don’t forget, Ballet of Blood is available now! At $1.49 it’s a little more expensive than my other shorts, but at 9,000 words it’s half again as long. Voodoo Children, the first Bubba short story, is one of my best sellers for the month, so that’s pretty interesting.
What makes a best-seller for me, you ask? Well, I didn’t intend for this to be a numbers post, but we can go there. Let’s start with the fact that my sales are off by 50% from the high point this summer. A lot of that has to do with an Amazon algorithm shift, which kicked me square in the nuts, but I’m still making plenty of cash. Here are my numbers so far this month –
Black Knight Chronicles –
Hard Day’s Knight – 214
Knight Moves – 200
Back in Black – 175 (I have NO idea why Book #3 consistently outperforms Book #2, but it does)
Black Magic Woman – 90
Movie Knight – Crazy numbers since it’s been free this month – 1,247
The Chosen is plugging along at 149 copies, just a little below its average pace of 10 copies per day.
Genesis has started off more slowly than I thought, only doing 24 copies so far. But hopefully we’ll see some residual effects next week of my blog tour.
Like I said, Voodoo Children is blowing me away, moving 159 copies this month
And Ballet of Blood has shipped 7 so far. There are a few other assorted things out there, like my holiday story The Christmas Lights. It’s sold 7 copies this month and I’m just as thrilled with that as I could be. It’s a little litfic story that I put up there hoping to sell a few copies ever. It sells five or so a month, and that’s just brilliant with me.
I’ve done a ton of work this week on Red Dirt Review and Ebook Deals Today, the other two sites I actively run. RDR is an online literary magazine that updates every Monday and Thursday. You can check it out online, via RSS, or you can subscribe to it on your Kindle. I’ll also be publishing print and ebook anthologies from the submissions to RDR quarterly.
Ebook Deals Today is a place where authors can feature their bargain ebooks, so you can go there to get daily deals. All ebooks will have at least half a dozen positive reviews on Amazon and be $6.99 or less. So check it out if you’re looking for a good deal on a good read. You can follow the site at @ebookdeals2day on twitter.
Then I spent a couple of hours today updating the ebook files for The Chosen to reflect the revisions the book has gone through. I once again worked with Lynn O’Dell and her team of editor ninjas at Red Adept Editing Services to clean up tense issues, word choice issues, repetition issues and mommy issues. Okay, they didn’t really help me with mommy issues. That’s what tequila is for. But if you haven’t read The Chosen, I now once again recommend it. I’ve spent a lot of time with those people recently, and I like them again. They’re fun. It’s worth a read.
Once I got that done, I reformatted the print edition of Hard Day’s Knight and got it uploaded. I’m down to just three hard copies left with the old cover, so I wanted to repaginate the whole thing and get copies with the new cover on it for my December signings. We’ll see how that works out. Tomorrow I’ll probably spend some time doing the same thing to Back in Black. I have a lot of copies of that one on hand, but when people look at the big canvas print of my new HDK cover, and the Knight Moves cover, they want Back in Black with the new cover. So I might be having a paperback sale here on the site after Thanksgiving. Keep your eyes open!
by john | Nov 16, 2011 | Business of publishing, Fiction, Writing
My new Kindle Fire came in the UPS yesterday. I am teh happy. Honestly, I haven’t had a ton of time to play with it between work, finishing up a short story and sending it off, and then back to work. But it’s really pretty. And I have the next four days off work (two to make up for working Saturday and Sunday last weekend), so I should be able to get some time on the device this weekend.
Between playing Dragon Age II and writing stories, that is. The new Bubba story is out, and I think it’s pretty fun. It ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but there were a lot of monsters to kill, and a lot of ways to devise to kill them, so that took up a few extra thousand words.
Here’s the Amazon link – go buy it, it’s only $1.49.
Here’s the Barnes & Noble link – see above.
There will be a print Bubba anthology coming sometime in the spring. My plan is to get five short stories completed, then offer an anthology that will be available as print and ebook. Genesis print copies are coming, I promise, once I get time to format the book for printing. So probably December.
I’ve also started submitting short stories, because I want my SFWA card, and the quickest way to get one is to get three acceptances by approved publications. So I’ll be hammering on a bunch of short stories and submitting them to magazines for publication. Then once the rights revert, I’ll self-pub the stories as ebooks or in anthologies. I sent my first one off last night, and have several other ideas percolating. So hopefully I can get that rolling this weekend.
by john | Nov 14, 2011 | Appearances, Fiction, Real Life
Yep, he’s back and bigger and badder than ever. This time Bubba faces his most deadly challenge yet – the ballet!
I intentionally went with kind of a cheezy font for this, because it’s kind of a cheesy little fun story. Bubba goes to the ballet to investigate strange occurrences, as usual things are not what they seem, and as usual there ends up with significant bloodshed and property damage. It’ll be out in ebook form sometime later this week.
I’ve also created a new print book that will primarily only be available at signings. It’s a sampler of sorts, with a Black Knight short story (Movie Knight), a Bubba story (Voodoo Children), a few of my literary fiction stories, and a few poems. It is actually available for order in print online (here’s the link), but I won’t be making this an ebook. The stories are all already available in other things, so I don’t see a lot of point in creating the ebook for this one. I just wanted a cheap sampler for people to pick up at art shows and things like that. Speaking of which, I’ll be at the NoDa All Arts Market this Friday night, so if you’re around, come on out to the Neighborhood Theatre and come see me!
Had a great weekend of music and theatre, starting Thursday night with Don Dixon and Marti Jones performing at The Evening Muse. Those guys are just awesome together. Then spent the weekend at the SC Theatre Association meeting, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Then last night I went back to the Muse and saw Bleu Edmondson and Roger Creager. They put on an awesome show in front of only about 60 people (sorry, it’s a bank town, what can I say? Nobody goes out on a school night). I’m a big Bleu Edmondson fan, and Creager killed it. It was a lot of fun, and a lot more dancing and jumping up and down than I’m used to at the Muse. Most of the stuff I go see there is pretty sedate, but most of the stuff I go see anywhere is pretty sedate.
So that’s what’s up. Genesis is gathering some good reviews, and starting to build some excitement, and I’ve already come up with my next bright shiny idea for a trilogy, so I need to get some writing done, fulfill some obligations, and get on with all these novels I have rolling around in my head!
by john | Nov 10, 2011 | Real Life
From Larry Correia’s blog –
Amazon link to Variant: http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0062026089&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr
Today is the day to go purchase Variant by Robison Wells from Amazon, and then to tell all of your friends to do the same.
Rob Wells is a writer with a problem, and he’s lost his job because of that problem. You can help by buying his book, and by telling all your friends to do the same thing. I’m buying it today, and you should too.
Go to Larry’s blog to find out more – Monster Hunter Nation.
by john | Nov 9, 2011 | Appearances, Real Life
Are going to be busy.
I know, broken record and all that. But I’ve got quite a few things going on, and some of them are even exciting, so I figured I’d tell y’all about them. But first, I just deleted about 450 spam comments in one fell swoop from the blog here, so if you left a comment in the past week and it didn’t show up, please let me know what it said, because I probably just nuked it. Sorry.
Next week I’ll be hanging out at the NoDa Arts fest again, showing off new samplers of my short stories and the new canvas promo print. These samplers include a few stories from Returning the Favor, a few poems from Red Dirt Boy, as well as Voodoo Children and Knight Moves, which have never seen print before. It’s only $5, but the only way to get one is to see me in person.
Then the week after Thanksgiving I’m doing a signing at Park Road Books in Charlotte. I don’t do many signings, and even fewer in real bookstores, but Park Road Books is a great independent bookstore and they’re giving me a couple hours to do my thing. Come on out and get some Christmas shopping in!
I’m probably doing the 2-Day Noda Arts Fest in December, right after I get back from my annual Vegas degenerates’ gathering. If any of you guys want books, you gotta let me know how many to bring!
Then in January I’ll be a guest at Chattacon in Chattanooga. And I just got notice today that I’ve been accepted by ConCarolinas as a guest, so I’ll be there this summer.
Then at the end of March I’ll be quitting my day job to write full time. I stuck that at the end of the post to see who reads this far. After sixteen years with the same company, I’m going out on my own in the spring to scribble for a living. Wish me luck!
by john | Nov 7, 2011 | Uncategorized
Note – This is a sponsored post
So every once in a while, people will send me offers for nice things (or even better, cash) if I endorse their products. I don’t really know how they find me, and I don’t really care. I don’t accept all of these offers, probably two or three a year at most. But the most recent folks to reach out to me were the nice people at EasyCanvasPrints.com. They sent me an email asking if I’d review their product here, and in exchange they’d give me a nice sample.
I said sure, because I figured I could get one of my book covers turned into a nice promo piece, and then I’d give them some bloggy love, and that would be all cool. Well, I have to say, it turned out way better than I could have expected! I got an awesome 18″ x 27″ print of my Hard Day’s Knight cover that I couldn’t be happier with.
But that’s the end result, which is only half the process. Their website is super-easy to navigate, even if you don’t really know anything about printing on canvas (like me). It only took me one pass through to get my image uploaded, scaled and set up for printing. And anything that I can manage in one try must be super-simple. Even though I got my print for free, I thought their pricing was very reasonable. For an 18×27 print I think my cost was less than $100 delivered.
Their shipping was fast, and the packaging was very good. My print arrived in just a few days, with plenty of protective packing to make sure that everything arrived intact and undamaged by the vagaries of shipping companies.
So fast shipping, good packaging, reasonable pricing and awesome product – all adds up to a company I’d definitely use again! I love my print, and if I needed another promo piece or just an awesome piece of wall art I wouldn’t hesitate to use easycanvasprints.com.
Like I said, this was a sponsored post, they did give me a cool thing in exchange for my review, but I was absolutely thrilled with the product and the service, so it’s an honest review, I promise. And if you’re at any of my signings/readings in the next few months, you can check out the print for yourself!
