I'm Giving It Away!

Over at Goodreads, I'm giving away three free copies of Dead Stop. These will be signed copies of the paperback version. I guess I'm in the Christmas spirit since all the stores are already decorating for it. And nothing says Yuletide joy like a bunch of carnivorous dead people trying to munch on a group of victims they have trapped in a truck stop!

(yeah, I better get to writing a new book or the jokes are just going to get worse)

The contest will run until December 10th, so feel free to enter!

A Little More Horn Tooting

Just a little more horn tootin' to get the morning off right :)

Bricks of the Dead, a rather unique blog dedicated to Lego's and zombies, has a a review of Dead Stop. The author of this blog enjoys looking at common situations and cliches in the zombie genre and representing them with Lego scenarios. Check out the rest of his blog.

Headshot Heather over at Doubleshot Reviews has also written a positive review. Doubleshot Reviews examines books and reports on them with a coffee shop flavor...a really cool way to present things.

Other than that, not much to report at the moment. I'm still kind of spinning my wheels, and now trying to excavate my house from under the many layers of kid induced junk in order to try and get it ready for company on Thanksgiving. This is turning out to be quite a tall order...as it seems to buried deeper than normal this year. But I know it's under here somewhere, and I shall keep digging until I find it!

Tooting My Horn!

One of the most intense moments of being a writer is reading a review of your work by somebody else. These are the fruits of your labors, the children of your creativity, and you have now sent them out vulnerable into the world to be greeted with accolades, scorn, or indifference. The intensity multiplies when that reviewer is somebody who runs a website or publication that features reviews. You know that they have gone through a lot of material, and their opinion carries weight.

So it was something of an experience for me to have not one, but two of my works reviewed over the course of five days.

First of all, Majanka Verstraede of I Heart Reading posted a review of Shades: Eight Tales of Terror.

It appears she liked it, and I thought it was cool how she did a story by story mini-review of each work in the anthology. Shades was my first attempt at a self published anthology, and it got sort of orphaned without any attempt at marketing after I published it. Now I've finally sent it to a couple of reviewers so I'm hoping it continues to be well recieved.

Then, five days later, Matthew Scott Baker of Shattered Ravings posts a review of Dead Stop.

It appears the novel was well received as well, which is always a relief. I like that he zeroes in on one of the things I intentionally focused on in the novel...reinventing the graveyard zombie in such a way that it actually makes a little sense, and operates in a fashion that would be rational for such an entity. So it was a bit of a delight to see somebody recognize that.

So now I head into the weekend feeling pretty good about the world. I've dusted off Argiope, and started writing on it again. So far, so good...but as I said before, no promises. I'm also beginning to feel the hint of a short story or two tickling at the edge of my consciousness. So things look promising.

Oh well, back to work!

Post Partum Decompression

Well, my latest progeny has been out in the world for almost two weeks, and I've been busy promoting, posting, and pestering every book blogger I think might even have a chance of being willing to review Dead Stop. Paperback copies of the novel have been mailed as far as England. Heck, I even got one blogger to review the book I released earlier this year...Shades. And I'm playing with the Amazon KDP Select promotions as well, trying to learn that. That's been educational as well.

So I've been busy.

But what I haven't been doing is writing.

The thing about marketing is that it requires a certain mindset and focus that somehow seems antithetical to writing. It's like you can't do both at the same time. Currently that is okay, but I do need to get back to writing soon. But for now, I just want to focus on getting Dead Stop the best start I can. So I'll focus on marketing a little longer. And since i can't seem to write, I'll get some reading in instead.

So it's all good.

It's "Alive!"

Dead Stop is now available at Amazon.com in both paperback and kindle versions.

This is my humble contribution to the zombie genre, using an updated and what I think is a more realistic version of the old graveyard zombie. I actually did quite a bit of research before starting this book. I wanted these zombies to ultimately both make sense and be frightening at the same time. I guess time will tell if I succeeded.

It's the story of a small and varied group of people who find themselves caught in a nightmarish and deadly situation. They are trapped in a rural truck-stop by the residents of the nearby county cemetery during the middle of a fierce storm. Many have already died, and their time is running out before the dead get into the building where they are hiding. Their only hope is to find a way to escape before dawn.

The paperback version costs $8.99 and the Kindle version is currently available for $2.99. .

Countdown to Launch

Dead Stop has been cleared by Createspace and is on it's way to Amazon.com. The ebook version is under review and should hopefully clear in the next 24 hours as well. Both versions should be available soon. I'll be sure and post when they are.

For now, I just wait.

The writing and editing are done. Now I catch myself staring stupidly at my laptop, trying to think about what to do. Novels are like that. They sort of become the reason you're sitting down in front of your computer. Then when they're done, you're left staring at the monitor and wondering "Now what?" Maybe that's why they can become hard to let go of....why the writer always wants to do "just one more editing pass." Because once it's gone, there is nothing to do but start over.

Time to move into the uncharted territory of a new project.

But not quite yet.

There is still a little time to enjoy the sense of closure that comes with a finished project. Maybe even have a celebratory dinner with a friend or fellow author. Then I will have to make sure all the proper announcements are made, and that people get to hear about it. There is still much to do. But...

...the novel is written.

Almost There!

I've just ordered proof #3 for Dead Stop. Errors from the previous two copies have been fixed, and the placement and size of the title on the cover has been corrected. Unless something really unexpected shows up in this copy, I should be hitting the publish button on the print edition late next week.

I'm confident enough in this draft that I'm now moving on to working on the ebook version. Now it's time to play with the vagaries of ebook formatting. I always love this part (not!). Trying to figure out why it puts spaces between paragraphs when your document doesn't have those...trying to figure out why the third link in your active table of contents doesn't work...trying to figure out why it decides to put a page break where you didn't put a page break...and generally by the end of it I'm trying to figure out why I didn't just become a plumber instead.

Oh well, it is what it is...and I'm almost done. Besides, I really like this story. Hitting that publish button is going to sorta be like saying goodbye. I'll kind of miss these characters. They were fun.

Anyways, it's coming soon.

Why We Order Proofs

My second author's proof for Dead Stop came in the mail today, and I can already see the need for a third.

I felt the title and name were a little too small on the first proof, so I had them enlarged so they would be more visible in a thumbnail. The result was the cover in the post below this one. I think the enlargement itself was an improvement, but once the actual author's proof arrived in the mail I could see there was a problem. As can be seen in the photo above, the alteration also brought the title right up against the bottom of the cover. That wasn't so evident when just looking at it on the Createspace preview.

So that's no good.

The lesson here is never trust what the preview on your computer says it's going to look like. Always order a physical copy and see what the real deal is going to be.

I will be raising the title part and uploading it again. Then I'll have to order a third proof to find out for sure what the outcome will be. I will also give the interior manuscript another go over as well. It's coming soon, but it has to be right!

Polish, polish, polish!!!

Tweaks and Corrections

I have just uploaded a corrected manuscript of Dead Stop to Createspace. Lots of words were cut, lots of apostrophes were added (one of my proofreaders asked me if I had some kind of moral aversion to apostrophes) and some misspellings were fixed.  Overall, the manuscript is almost there. Once I get this author's proof back, I'm hoping it will pass a full inspection.

 I also intend to upload a slightly altered cover (above) as well. It's pretty much the same thing, except the title and author part has been enlarged. This is to help it be more visible and clear on thumbnails. It does seem to be an improvement.

So far, that September deadline still looks eminently doable.

Last of all, an author named Dean Wesley Smith demonstrates a rather novel idea on his blog. He is making print copies of single short stories. I have a few of those laying around. Hmmm.....

Dead Stop : Coming in September

Welcome to the Textro Truck Stop…where they have hot food, hot coffee, and even hotter waitresses.

It’s a slow Friday night at the Textro, and business isn’t expected to pick up until the football game lets out in nearby Masonfield. Deke, backed up by his friend Harley, is here on a mission of romance. Rachel Sutherland has come to unwind from a bad day at the clinic. Thomas “Grandpa Tom” Burns and “Leaping” Larry Brown are dropping in for some diesel and coffee while, across the diner, Holly just wants to get her socially disastrous boyfriend, Gerald, home. Waitresses Stacey and Marisa are taking it easy, serving the few patrons while waiting for the game crowd to arrive.

But things are about to get busy in an unexpected and deadly way.


There is a storm coming in and the crowd that arrives with it isn’t from Masonfield…at least, not anymore. These surprise guests are from the nearby Mazon County Cemetery, and they have their own idea of what should be on the menu.

Now a dwindling collection of locals, waitresses, truckers, out-of-towners, and one astonished veterinarian find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against a foe they thought only existed in the movies. And as the night wears on they discover that if they don’t escape by dawn, they may not escape…ever.

Hallelujah and Pass the Whiteout!

Today, at the count of 95,250 words, the (very) rough draft of Dead Stop is done.

It is the largest novel I have written to date, but I assure you it will probably read faster than any of the others I have done. It is fast paced, and an almost non-stop thriller once it gets going. And it gets going pretty fast.

Dead Stop represents my foray into the field of zombie novels. As always, I did a lot of research and read a lot of them before deciding how to develop my own take on this genre. I wanted the zombies to be as authentic as possible and fearsome as well. I also wanted the story to be more than just a buffet of 2 dimensional characters fed to the monsters in a bloody assembly line....although there is plenty of blood.

In the end, Dead Stop does a lot that is classic, but it is mixed with a lot that is new.

It's the story of one slow night at the Textro Truck Stop, and how things liven up when the inhabitants of the nearby graveyard drop in for a bite. Things happen swiftly and over half the living people at the Textro are dead before the initial assault ends...leaving a small band of survivors trapped, cut off from the world, and with time running out. Armed with little more than the courage, wits, and skills they brought in with them, the survivors must find a way to escape by dawn.

While the rough draft is done, it is still a long way from being ready to publish. There is going to have to revisions, edits, and multiple tweaks to both actions and characters. There is also the matter of designing and producing a good quality cover. I have a couple of ideas in mind, but they're going to push my photographic and photo editing skills to the limit.

So there is a long way to go. I don't expect to have this book ready to publish until sometime near the end of summer.

But at least the story itself is done.

Now back to work.

An Outline for Success?

So last week I wrote sixteen thousand words on my new zombie story. That's a pretty good pace of writing. If I could maintain that pace for two months, we would be talking a 128,000 word novel.

Now, I don't think I can keep that pace up, but I am pretty sure I know what has caused it. I was clearly visualizing what was happening in the story, and I knew where it was going. That let me write with a lot of confidence instead of starting, and stopping, and backing up, and trying different things. And at the end of part two, I decided to see if I can do something to maintain at least a portion of that success.

So, today I sat down and decided to outline the rest of the novel. That turned out to be a full day project in itself but I'm really glad I did it. I discovered a couple of things that wouldn't work ahead of time, and came up with a couple of other things that would. Not to mention, I now have a clear idea how it's going to end and it's actually a slightly better ending than the one I originally had. I know who is going to live and mostly who is going to die...and now I'm debating cutting a charactor simply because it doesn't serve a purpose. I've even improved one character, seeing how she could actually carry part of the story better in one place that I would have never seen without outlining the whole thing like I did today.

So, was it a success? The proof is still in the pudding. If I can get the draft of this story done in a timely fashion, then maybe I'll look into outlining more. I do know that if I ever pick up Argiope again I will outline it from the beginning to the end and then completely start over on it. A good outline could have prevented some of the problems I had with that story. I've just never done it before because I didn't need it for the Ways of Khrem because I saw that one so clearly...and short stories seldom need an outline. I may still play with them for a short story or two anyways.

Anyways the zombie story is progressing. It has one evisceration, and one tooth and claw killing so far. More blood is coming, so this is not a Nonnie book! Sometimes that bears repeating for certain family members out there. It's also kind of fun going to my wife who answers questions about certain things then suddenly turns arounds and starts saying "I'm not Listening!" when I try to explain what I'm thinking. I've never figured out how a veterinarian who deals with all kinds of gross stuff and was once absolutely forbidden to talk shop at the dinner table, can be freaked out by gore. Will somebody explain that to me? She does surgeries fer crying out loud!

Oh well....women. Who can figure 'em.

Have a Happy Humpday Folks