May 2, 2015 · 1:22 pm

Contemporary Suspense

Big fan of this “Awesome Indie.” Gotta see what she does in this one. Available for pre-order.

Carol Ervin's avatarCarol Ervin, Author of the Mountain Women Series

A Mountain Women Thriller

On the eve of a country music festival, three people meet in the West Virginia mountains: Angela, a singer with a wounded voice; B.L., a delusional ex-con on a dangerous quest to prove himself; and Rudy, who’s chasing an old dream. If Angela sings—even speaks—she could ruin her voice for good, but she faces another threat: falling hard for Rudy, her first love, the man she abandoned to follow her career. Over the next few days the three will meet again in Winkler, the small town where the Ridgetop festival takes place.Ridgetop - EBook 300x479

All three will be forever changed. All three will run for their lives

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Ridgetop extends the Mountain Women series with a suspenseful story that takes place 100 years later. Once again the story is set in Winkler, a fictional West Virginia town. And there’s a connection with the earlier stories, revealed only at the end.

Ridgetop…

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May 1, 2015 · 2:45 pm

The show you never knew you needed: Writership Podcast

writership-podcast1400Over on the Sell More Books Show, Jim Kukral announced the launch of a new podcast as part of his new “Author Marketing Institute Podcast Network.” Unlike other author podcasts, this one focuses on craft. Specifically: editing.  Anyone who knows me, or who’s followed the Awesome Indie Project, knows I have an appreciation for good editing. I’m always striving to hone my skills, because the better job I do on my drafts, the easier it will be for a paid editor to help me prepare for publication.

Content

I’ve listened to two shows so far, and both were great. The hosts — Leslie Watts and Alyssa Archer — start the show with a quote about editing from someone famous in publishing, and not necessarily from the trad pubs (the first show quoted Chuck Wendig). After that, they choose a published or unpublished novel someone has submitted and read it on the air for about 10 minutes. Then they tear it to pieces! Haha, just kidding. Actually, they’re incredibly respectful of the work. They say what they like about it, and then suggest improvements from a number of different perspectives: story, pacing, sentence structure, etc.  In my opinion, they do a bang-up job. I really love this stuff and could listen to it all day.

Style

One of the things I love about the show is the personalities of the hosts: calm, focused, friendly, earnest in their mission. Delivery is something I usually don’t think about when it comes to podcasts, but it’s an important consideration. Simon Whistler of the Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast mixes bubbly enthusiasm with a Tony Blair accent, and it’s always fun to hear Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen riffing off each other so naturally on the Sell More Books Show. It’s no coincidence that I mention these other two shows side-by-side with Writership. They’re all winners.

http://www.writership.org/podcast/

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April 28, 2015 · 4:15 pm

Authors playing video games

This weekend, me and three other authors played Left 4 Dead 2.  What a blast. It’s hard to tell who’s talking unless you know our voices, but I’m the most clueless sounding. I repeatedly say stuff like “I got one of those things on me!”  The other guys all seem to know what the monsters are.

Authors / Zombie Bait:

Nick Cole — Apocalypse Weird: The Red King

Chris Pourteau — Apocalypse Weird: The Serenity Strain

TJ Redig — The Philosopher’s Load

John L. Monk — Kick

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April 24, 2015 · 11:38 am

New cover for Thief’s Odyssey is now live!

So after some soul-searching, I decided to go with a new cover for Thief’s Odyssey. This one is a little more in keeping with other books in the genre, and the thumbnail is more readable, which is important when folks are browsing through Amazon looking flow_res_thiefor something to read. I also like the way the letters sort of pop out at you. That said, I love my old artwork to death and am sad to make the change. The previous artist did exactly what I’d asked and hoped for.

The new cover is by Lindy Moone — an incredible artist. She’s also an “Awesome Indie.” Very talented writer and designer. This new cover is, in my opinion, stunning. I love the way the letters slant into each other, drawing the eye. I love the footprints. In particular, I can’t get over that little logo she made. I didn’t even know this was going to be book one in a series, but what am I gonna do? It’s a series now. Lindy Moone has spoken…

Quick note about the new cover: I’m told by a friend that it shows up when you open the book, but the old cover still appears on your carousel/bookshelf. Clearly the image hasn’t percolated everywhere to all the various servers. Also, the new cover won’t appear if you purchased the old book.

Click Here to see the picture in higher resolution.

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April 21, 2015 · 11:35 pm

Harvey Click’s Sequel to Demon Frenzy is out — woot

I bought the book today. Demon Mania. I love the cover — can’t wait to tuck into it. The book, I mean.

demon_mania

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April 18, 2015 · 1:50 pm

Please welcome E.E. Giorgi to the Awesome Indie list

E.E. Giorgi was probably the easiest discovery/addition to the list yet. Originally recommended to me by mega-indie Nicholas Sansbury Smith, she’d won the Reader’s Choice Award, and a B.R.A.G medal. With all this cool stuff, how could I resist?

chimeras_giorgiIt took me a while to get to it because my TBR list is always pretty full. Then P.T. Hylton read her book — wouldn’t shut up about it — and I kept seeing it here and there in various nooks and crannies of the Internet, but my TBR list wasn’t getting any shorter. Then one day I pushed her book to the top of the list and read it — and it was stunning. This is the real/hard sci-fi I remember from growing up: fiction with real science as a critical plot element, and nary a Heisenberg Inhibitor in sight. And get this: E.E. Giorgi’s actually a scientist. A geneticist, to be precise. I imagine she says “that’s very significant” and “indubitably” and “we’re not gods, damn you!” about twenty times a day.

Let me just say, if I had a job where I got to say “indubitably” that often, I’d be the happiest boy in the world.

The basic plot of Chimeras, her award-winning novel is there’s been a murder, and only Detective Track Presius — a genetic Chimera (a real scientific term) — can figure out who the killer is. Okay, he has help along the way from his incredibly funny and wise partner Satish, and a beautiful lab geek named Diane (who works with the police). Together, they make literary music. I love the hard-boiled style Giorgi writes in, reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, as well as the emotional depths she takes us in this story about a virtual outcast of a man with superhuman senses. By the time you finish the book, if you’re not shaking your fist at the sky shouting, “We’re not gods, damn you…!” then nothing can help you.

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April 13, 2015 · 10:47 am

CrimeFiction.FM — Launch Day

Stephen Campbell’s “CrimeFiction.FM” podcast officially launched today, with 2 interviews posted. You can listen to them directly off the site (http://crimefiction.fm/) or via iTunes.  The interviews are fairly short, 10-20 mins. Mine will be out early May.

For those of you with with access to iTunes, a podcast’s launch day is just as important as an author’s launch day. Reviews and downloads play a key role in early success. I plan to leave a review a little later today, after I’ve had a listen 🙂

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April 10, 2015 · 10:49 am

Infographic: Why Is It So Hard To Get Book Reviews?

Interesting analysis. Another great reason to join the Author Marketing Club.

Infographic: Why Is It So Hard To Get Book Reviews?.

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April 8, 2015 · 10:04 am

Interviewed by Stephen Campbell on his new podcast

stephen_campbellIf you don’t know who Stephen Campbell is, he’s the creator of a wonderful podcast called “The Author Biz.”  Head over to iTunes now and subscribe. He’s a great interviewer, easily on par with other great self-pub/author podcasters like Simon Whistler (Rocking Self-publishing Podcast) and Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn). Recently he interviewed Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and followed that up with an interview of Russell Blake, author of the smash hit “Jet” series.

I was just interviewed on his brand new podcast: “CrimeFiction.FM.” He has a 2 minute placeholder recording there now so that people can subscribe, but he’s already recorded a bunch of shows. They’re 10-20 minute quick podcasts with crime authors about new books. And get this: he lumps in indies and trad pubs both. All he cares about is the writing, the quality, and so I feel especially honored to have been tapped for an interview (he actually read my latest book, “Thief’s Odyssey”).

The more subscribers he gets, the higher he’ll appear in the rankings, the better visibility, etc., and I’d like to see this guy succeed. He’s a great asset in the indie community.

He told me the interview will likely go live in early May. I’ll make another announcement then.

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April 7, 2015 · 8:41 am

New Release: Anthology: “For Whom The Bell Trolls: 25 Tales of Terror, Triumph & Trolls”

Big thanks to Christoph Fischer for his review of our charity troll anthology. What a great guy 🙂

Christoph Fischer's avatarwriterchristophfischer

trollFunny, touching, suspenseful—sometimes romantic, titillating and shocking—there’s something for all adult readers in this unique illustrated anthology from 23 authors.

Arranged from light to meaty fare, the antrollogy’s “menu” offers up fanciful and farcical stories, family-oriented tales, romance, mystery, high peak adventure, even magically surreal literary stories—starring all sorts of trolls, from the all-too-real Internet variety to the mythical mountain and bridge-dwelling trolls of legend.

Readers will laugh nervously at Humphrey the half-breed’s unfortunate beginnings, and bite their nails on behalf of Fergus Underbridge, hard-boiled troll detective. They’ll cheer a not-so-ordinary troll-fighting girl and want to hug—or slap—a woman lost in her own neighborhood. And whatever should be done about the boy with the head of a dragon…?

The Book on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Net profits from the book will be donated to Equality Now

We use the law to change the world. Join us.

“When we launched…

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