John L. Monk

July 4, 2014 · 10:26 pm

Fireworks, as an adult with money

Last year, my wife got us one of those horrible packs of fireworks with sparklers and snakes and little swishy spouts of colored flame. As a kid, I always wanted rockets and firecrackers and M-80s and pipe bombs. This year, she went to a bloggers’ conference in Savannah, and when she got home she had rockets and firecrackers and M-5000s and this enormous thing in a box. I would have loved this stuff when I was a kid. And when we lit that box, fire rained down from the sky, banshees screamed into the air and terrifying explosions rattled the bones in my chest. It was awesome…if I was a kid. But as an adult, the only thing I could think was, “I’m so going to jail for this shit…”

4 Comments

Filed under Funny, Just Cool

Tagged as angry neighbors, explosions, fireworks, fourth of july, mayhem, the cops

July 3, 2014 · 1:39 pm

Happy Birthday, America!

The funniest video ever made…by Stephen Merchant…about anything…

Dot2Trot

If our forefathers only knew about what they would be giving up…

I may have to get some Newcastle today for Independence Eve and toast what could have been!

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Need votes: 2014 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards

There’s no way I’m winning this thing, but I’d like to come out with more than 2 votes 🙂 So if you don’t mind registering on yet another website, and voting for me (provided you read my book, liked it, and don’t like any of the others more), I’d appreciate it.

The rules on the site specifically encourage us to go out and solicit votes like this, so it’s a bit of a popularity contest.

Ra ra ra! Sis boom Bah!

5 Comments

Filed under Indie Publishing

Tagged as eBook Awards, eFestival of Words, Sis Boom Bah, Virtual book fair

July 2, 2014 · 1:55 pm

EDYL – Island of Immortality, by Mark Capell

A few weeks ago, an Awesome Indie asked if I’d be interest in beta reading his latest book. I happily agreed. It was wonderful, had me swiping madly with reckless abandon. And now it’s available.

Here’s the blurb:

It’s 2117 and the government has stopped reading your emails. It now reads your mind…

Every year, WOCO (the world government) nominates people to compete in the Edyl Olympiad. The prize? Immortality, and the right to live in the only place left in the world where the sun still shines — Edyl Island. But the competitors are being watched by a secret government division called The Reading Department to see if they’re worthy of that prize.

R77K is a thought reader on his first Edyl assignment. He has three targets: a rock singer, an athlete, and a mechanic. But one of them also moonlights as a contract killer. Why would a contract killer be nominated for immortality? All is not well in paradise.

The deeper R77K delves into the minds of his targets, the closer he gets to them… and to the hidden agenda behind the nominations. Edyl is a festering world of lies, corruption and strife, but defying WOCO means fighting off attacks from other thought readers, means giving up any last chance of his own immortality. Will he pay that price to save the nominees? And join the cause to put the world to rights?

EDYL – Island of Immortality is a dystopian view of the future, an intense mix of intrigue and drama in an epic tale.

http://amzn.com/B00LEJEX68

13 Comments

Filed under Awesome Indies, Reviews

Tagged as awesome indie, dystopian, Edyl Island, mark capell, science fiction

July 1, 2014 · 9:23 pm

More Regulation 19 news….

So P.T. Hylton’s reviews are starting to come in. I’m watching them like a sports fan. He’s gotten 3 “5 star” reviews since his book went free on Saturday. The last one is pretty dang good, and telling — the reviewer admitted to frequently putting down books without finishing them. I told you people Hylton was great 🙂

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3FSG8Y522F0Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00J83J844

I’m sure most of the folks who come to my blog are self-published authors like me. So you know you have to read to get good. You need to see what other folks are doing, how they deal with certain turns in a story, how they transition from place to place. Regulation 19 — as well as any book over in my “Awesome Indies List” — are great sources for all that.

I love my Robert B. Parker and Jim Butcher, but I get a real thrill learning from folks who’ve bucked the system and went indie.

My wife’s now ahead of me in the Hardcore History Podcast

So, my wife just got back from a blogger conference in Savanna Georgia (Fit Bloggin’), and when she got home the first thing she did was yell at me. You see, she had all this great music lined up to listen to for the 9 hour drive. Instead, she devoured all the Genghis Khan stuff and now she’s in the middle of WWI. We just went to dinner and she wouldn’t stop talking about WWI.

I never knew any of this, growing up. Fascinating stuff.

P.T. Hylton’s book “Regulation 19” is free

I think this is the first time he’s made the book free. I do know his sequel is done, and in the final editing, and should be ready by September. That said, if you were leery of buying a book from a newish author, now’s your chance.

Please note: the reason authors put books out for free are:

1) To get reviews (hint)

2) To get more exposure (another hint)

If it was my book out for free, I’d probably be all like “Hey my book’s free, hope you like it…no big woop” while secretly hoping for reviews and word of mouth and the NY Times picking it up and/or Oprah calling my house begging to interview me. But since it’s not my book, I can be a little more obvious on Hylton’s behalf, so if anyone know’s Oprah or whatever, tell her about my book, and never mind P.T. Hylton…

2 Comments

Filed under Awesome Indies

Tagged as oprah, P.T. Hylton, regulation 19, shameless self-promotion

June 24, 2014 · 7:25 am

Indie Author Appreciation Day: Mystery writer Lynda Wilcox

Lindy Moone reads a LOT of indies, apparently. Without her, I wouldn’t have known about the various Awesome Indies on the left side of my blog — I simply don’t have the time, or the money, to wade through Amazon’s tsunami of petunias to find them. So here’s another one of her favorites, though I haven’t read Lynda Wilcox’s book yet. Maybe you, my slavish blog followers, can get the drop on me for a change? 🙂

Belly-up!

Last Indie Author Appreciation Day I brought you horror writer extraordinaire, Harvey Click. Today, I’m in the mood for something (someone?) substantially less… gory.

Introducing Lynda Wilcox, author of the Verity Long Mysteries — charming books to cozy up to in the wee hours, while the hubby’s sonorous snoring, once so endearing, now brings thoughts of murder to mind. Thank goodness you have a murder to solve, and not to perpetrate!

For those of you who don’t know, a “cozy” is a mystery in which the crime is solved by someone other than the police, the FBI, or even a private investigator — a private citizen with a tendency to trip over bodies, and a keen eye for the facts. In some cases, it’s an old lady who could out-sleuth the pros with two knitting needles tied behind her back. (Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, the ultimate cozy crime solver, for example.) In the Verity Long Mysteries, our heroine (um…

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Literary Subversions — coolest author blog I’ve seen yet

One of my Awesome Indies, Lindy Moone, has one of the coolest author blogs around. Here’s a bet: if you go over there and click around the menu system at the top and don’t think it’s cool, I actually might donate my next million dollars to a good cause of my choosing, but won’t tell anyone what I may or may not choose. Deal?

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