31 Nights of Halloween (That Has My Short “The Full Moon”) Is On Sale

Well it looks as if for a limited time 31 Nights of Halloween has apparently gone on sale from 10.95 to 7.88 on Amazon! So for those looking to pick up one of the novels that has my first short story in it click below and order away!

31 Nights of Halloween brings together thirty-one frightful tales from the worlds most talented ghouls. Each story is guarenteed to send chills down your back and make your blood run cold. With one chilling tale for each night in the month of October, you won’t want to go out trick-or-treating this Halloween. So turn off the lights, crawl into your beds and begin to read, if you think you can survive.

Entertainingly enough, for being “the zombie guy” my first published short isn’t about zombies! What’s it about? Well it’s called “The Full Moon” so I’ll give you 1 guess.

You are only one click away from ordering on Amazon!

The Meowmorphosis: Book Trailer

Here’s the trailer for a fun little mash up that Quirk is sending me for review. It takes the classic The Metamorphosis and instead of having been turned into a giant insect as was told in the original tale, our main character Gregor has turned into a giant cat. While I’ve read and reviews all 3 of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombie novels for Buy Zombie I haven’t had too much of a chance to read their non-zombie mash-ups and I’ll admit I’m looking forward to this one.

I believe that I first read The Metamorphosis when I was in grade school and it freaked the hell out of me. Actually it with a ton of Poe probably laid a lot of the groundwork for my future love of horror and I just now thought about that. At any rate, being able to revisit the novella with cats sounds like a win to me and I can’t wait to be able to crack open my copy when it shows up in the mail!

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.

The phenomenal success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies inspired a massively popular literary-remix movement. Now Quirk Classics once again charts bold new territory, turning the monster-mash-up formula inside out to infuse Franz Kafka’s horrific masterpiece, “The Metamorphosis,” with the fuzziest, snuggliest, most adorable creatures possible: kittens!

Gregor Samsa is a humble young man who supports his unemployed parents and teenage sister by working as a traveling fabric salesman. But his life goes strangely wrong in the very first sentence of The Meowmorphosis, when he wakes up late for work and discovers that he has inexplicably become an adorable kitten.

His family must admit that, yes, their son is now OMG so cute—but what good is cute when there are bills to pay? How can Gregor be so selfish as to devote his attention to a ball of yarn? And how dare he jump out the bedroom window to wander through Kafka’s literary landscape? Never before has a cat’s tale been so poignant, strange, and horrifyingly funny.

Blog Tour de Force

From January 17th to January 29th there are 12 authors who have new books out doing a give away on ebooks, gift baskets, and for one lucky person a Kindle. All 12 of these are independant authors trying to get thier names out. As a horror/zombie fanatic and the editor of Buy ZOmbie I work with a LOT of independant authors and directors. It’s hard to get your name out there initially and these ar 12 who have been able to do so.

Now there are a few romance novels in here. Not my personal interest but I’ll let the paranormal ones (which there are a few of) slide if there is enough of the paranormal.

The Authors

• Carolyn McCray
• Kris Tualla
• Rebecca Tsaros Dickson
• Marissa Farrar
• George H. Sirois
• Ann Charles
• Keta Diablo
• Amber Scott
• Rachel Thompson
• Kait Nolan
• Melissa Ecker
• Susan Schreyer

How To Enter?

There are a variety of options so just make sure you check out the website to do any of the following:

1. Join our Newsletter & get 5 entries!
2. Go to any author’s blog & follow directions
3. Go to @indiebookIBC & RT a promo
4. Put our badge on your Facebook page
5. Shout out our Event on GoodReads
6. Put our badge on your blog/website
7. Follow Scavenger Hunt clues
8. Watch for ‘Bonus’ rounds for extra entries
9. Install one of our widgets on your site
10. Simply shout us out on @indiebookIBC

You can follow the Blog Tour at blogtourdeforce.com which was put together by IndieBookCollective.com

I Won Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall

The reason I love the Internet is how many contests to win books there are! It’s like the gift that keeps giving!

So what did I win? Thanks to a contest on Dark Central Station I now have copies of Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall, the first 2 novels in the Shadow Series by Erin Kellison!

Shadow Bound:

Adam Thorne founded the Segue Institute to study and destroy his monster of a brother, but the key to its success is held in the pale, slender hand of a woman on the run. There is something hauntingly different about Talia O’Brien, her unknowing sensuality, her uncanny way of slipping into Shadow. Twilight is the place between life and what comes after- a dark forest of fantasy, filled with beauty, peril, mystery. And Talia is about to open the door.

While I ‘mostly’ read zombie novels these days (Gee, why ever would that be?) this should be a nice change of pace into the realm of novels Leah really enjoys that I will admit I read now and then. Yes she’s suckered me into them! (I have a feeling with her lack of time on reading lately she may even steal the first one before I have a chance to read it. Assuming she can clear any of this mythical free time she vaguely remembers.)

Thanks for running the contest Erin!

Writing Fiction For Dummies – Free On Kindle

Now I don’t know if this is a mistake or not but Amazon currently has Writing Fiction For Dummies free for the Kindle. (note: there is a Kindle reader for Windows, Mac, iphone, ipad, ipod, blackberries, and android.)

Being a “for dummies” book you know it’s going to have both a lot of humor as well as useful information in it so could be worth the cost of… nothing.

A complete guide to writing and selling your novel
So you want to write a novel? Great! That’s a worthy goal, no matter what your reason. But don’t settle for just writing a novel. Aim high. Write a novel that you intend to sell to a publisher. Writing Fiction for Dummies is a complete guide designed to coach you every step along the path from beginning writer to royalty-earning author. Here are some things you’ll learn in Writing Fiction for Dummies:

• Strategic Planning: Pinpoint where you are on the roadmap to publication; discover what every reader desperately wants from a story; home in on a marketable category; choose from among the four most common creative styles; and learn the self-management methods of professional writers.
• Writing Powerful Fiction: Construct a story world that rings true; create believable, unpredictable characters; build a strong plot with all six layers of complexity of a modern novel; and infuse it all with a strong theme.
• Self-Editing Your Novel: Psychoanalyze your characters to bring them fully to life; edit your story structure from the top down; fix broken scenes; and polish your action and dialogue.
• Finding An Agent and Getting Published: Write a query letter, a synopsis, and a proposal; pitch your work to agents and editors without fear.

So if you are interested at all check it out free on Amazon

…In A Zombie Short Story Anthology

Shocking I know. Zombies right? Well what did anyone expect me to write on? Non-horror? C’mon now.

So this is kind of neat news, for me at any rate. It was announced yesterday that one of my short stories was accepted into one of May December Publications two First Time Dead anthologies!

I’m a bit excited. I had the idea for” Chicago Blues” (the short story in question) originally when I was *gasp* still living in Chicago. It wasn’t until recently though that I had an idea that could tie all the various short stories (and full length novels) I’ve got started and are still just vague ideas in my mind together into one world that I revisited the idea. It’s actually about someone who won’t be showing up a lot in the stories to come but who will be referenced often, his company at least. I know the idea of one large company tying together a lot of stories isn’t fully original (ie: The Umbrella Corporation, OCP, Weyland-Yutani, etc.) I think it’s a fitting idea though with how it’s going to work into the story and unlike most of the companies mentioned they won’t be evil in the grand scheme of things. Not directly at least.

At any rate I’m actually getting published so that’s pretty damn awesome.

So I won another book…

…if only this luck extended to the lotto!

So yesterday I entered a mini contest over at Jennifer Wylie’s Blog to win a copy of Madness and Murder by Jenny Hilborne.. and I won! It’s really amazing how many contests don’t get a lot of entries online that are easy to track down (I’m sure it helps that I’m addicted to the Internet and probably read 100+ blogs at any given time…) Anyway… that’s pretty awesome! One more book to add to the pile

About the book

Frustrated by the rising body count and lack of evidence, veteran homicide detective, Mac Jackson, questions his own ethics when he risks the life of an innocent young woman to trap a cunning and sadistic serial killer. Known for his uncanny precision with a hunch, he is all too aware that, this time, the stakes are much higher if his gamble fails to pay off.

Jessica Croft, withdrawn, vulnerable, and emotionally scarred, moves from Sacramento to begin a new life in San Francisco with her twin brother, Judd. Ninety miles from the sinister, shameful secrets of her past, and the madness that tore their family apart, she hopes to find tranquility, maybe even love. However, her chance for happiness is short-lived when she suddenly finds herself the target of a relentless madman with a deadly agenda. Loath to continue living a life of fear, Jessica tells no one when she takes a bold risk to draw him out; dangerously unaware of the trap he has already set for her. Now nothing may be able to save her except the accuracy of a hunch.

Amazon – 1 : Barnes and Noble – 0

If you enjoy reading e-books you, much like me, were probably gearing up for what should have been a very interesting fight between Amazon and Barnes and Noble in which eBook would reader would reign supreme in Kitchen Stadium (….Iron Chef reference.. if you don’t get it don’t ask.) While the Kindle has been the champion (with the iCan’tReadABookOnABacklitScreenWithoutAHeadache trying to catch on for ebooks) the Nook has made a strong showing with an initial lower price point and being able to test the physical unit itself in stores. The in store part being a key selling point for those who were unsure if they wanted an ereader or not.

Geared up for a great fight yes? Well apparently not. A small piece of news slipped through the cracks yesterday – Barnes and Noble has put itself up for sale.

Let that sink in a minute. The largest brick and mortar book store (well primarily book store as Walmart has been catching up on sales) is looking to leave us. While I clearly have embraced the idea of a digital book the removal of the largest chain of book sellers can only hurt publishing in general.

While the company’s sales have raised 31% the previous quarter and almost 50% in the last quarter it was all on the digital front that this has been occurring. Physical book sales have been dropping.

I personally know multiple independent publishers at this point due to Buy Zombie and know first hand that across the board the successes they are seeing are primarily from online sales. This isn’t the case across the board but it is at the very least in digital store fronts that their books are being moves for those who are selling physical copies.

The world for publishing has been changing for years and this is going to mark a huge blow against the sale of physical copies in the mind of many from my generation. I fondly remember walking through book stores, browsing titles, finding new authors and soon all of this is going to be a thing of the past.

Fortunately they aren’t closing their doors quite yet and with a potential new owner might not be for a long time to come. I do need to make a trip over though to the ‘giant’ who killed so many smaller book shops in it’s time. It’s oddly entertaining how a company who was ‘responsible’ for so many shops closing might have to close due to a book seller who has no physical stores of it’s own.

What Am I Doing Tonight? “An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”

To celebrate the release of her latest Anita Blake novel, Bullet, Laurell K. Hamilton is travelling the country to celebrate it’s release. Guess where the first event is? Chicago baby. So tonight Leah and I will be heading over to the Music Box for a few hours to listen to Laurell talk about… whatever she feels like talking about (probably Anita Blake, the series, the latest novel, and possibly her Meredith Gentry series as well) and doing a Q&A with the audience. Leah got me into Anita Blake originally 10 years ago so we’re lucky to be able to hit this one up as it should be a ton of fun.

BULLET TOUR

As of May 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 1-Chicago, IL (kick-off event)
“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:00 – 9:00 PM
Music Box Theater (sponsored by Borders Books & Music)
3733 North Southport Avenue
Chicago, IL 60613-3718

• Admission is free with the purchase of a signed copy of Bullet ($18.86 plus tax after 30% event discount). There will also be $5 tickets available for anyone who wishes to hear Laurell’s talk but not receive a signed book.
• Laurell will talk and answer questions from the audience for approximately 2 hours.
• Please note that Laurell’s talks can include R-rated topics. Please use discretion in bringing children / teenagers to this event.
• All copies of Bullet will be pre-signed, signature only. Nothing at all (including earlier titles) will be signed during the event. Please do not bring books or other merchandise from home.
• Tickets will be available for sale starting May 17, 2010 at the Borders Oak Brook (630-574-0800), Borders State St. (312-606-0750) and Borders Oak Park (708-386-6927) locations. Tickets can be purchased in person or by phone.
• You will be able to pick up pre-purchased signed books the day of the event starting at 5:00 pm at The Music Box Theater. Signed books will be unavailable until this point.
• Please contact the following Borders locations with questions: Borders Oak Brook (630-574-0800), Borders State St. (312-606-0750) or Borders Oak Park (708-386-6927) locations.

Finished reading Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman. This is the 22nd novel in the Alex Delaware series, about a child psychologist who had been enlisted to help the LAPD by his friend Milo Sturgis. One would think that a series 22 books in by the same author would get old and repetitive? Not the case at all! The characters have been been being developed over the years in a masterful style that keeps you not only interested in the characters but feverishly tearing through the pages to see what happens.

In Compulsion, a murderer is apparently randomly killing people while using expensive cars. It’s very vague and the evidence linking everything together doesn’t give any idea of a suspect and barely ties the cases together. Milo and Alex of course find the thread curious enough to follow and it leads them to a great end that ties everything together. As the investigation continues the body count starts to add up with ‘possibly’ other murders being connected to this one. When the end comes though there is no dues ex here and the hints actually allow you to get an idea of who the killer is before the final act comes to a close. My main fault with Kellerman’s previous novels is that I could barely guess ahead of time who the murderer is and this time we have suspects which end up giving you the ability to think it through. (Not a real fault as I’m obviously addicted to the books being 22 in and still buying them! You usually get enough of a hint 3/4th of the way through but this is the first that you could start making serious guesses 1/4th in.) The problem with writing on any murder/mystery is you can’t really go into details without starting to give away key ones and I know at least 2 of the people who follow this blog are fans of the series.

The subplot in the novel felt a bit under developed and there was low character development between Alex and woman he loves (Robin) however you do get so sucked in by the main plot that these are really much room for the usual subplots to get fleshed out. More than worth picking up if you follow the series. If you don’t, do yourself a favor: Buy the first one and read through it!

Amazon