My new author friend and recently added “awesome indie” P.T. Hylton hosted a giveaway of my book in his monthly book giveaway contest. I’m gonna have to do something similar for him in the next few months, so stay tuned. Also, his book really is amazing, so why wait a few months?
Filed under Indie Publishing, Just Cool
This sounds sort of fascinating.
Siamese-twin brains. Viruses that eat patients’ memories. Blind people who “see” through their tongues. Stroke victims who can’t speak but can still sing…
Official bio:Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he’s a writer in Washington, D.C. His new book is The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. His first two books, The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb were national bestsellers, and both were named an Amazon “Top 5” science books of the year. The Disappearing Spoon was nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010, while The Violinist’s Thumb was a finalist for PEN’s literary science writing award. His work has also been featured on “Radiolab” and…
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Filed under Uncategorized
I won the flash fiction competition for my Goodreads group. To do it, I had to follow a number of guidelines in constructing this story. Here are a few:
If you’re interested in a Goodreads group with a wide range of interests and who do a lot of cool things like quizes, reading/writing contests, giveaways, etc, I can’t recommend Pro-Active Destruction enough.
The Imperial Legionnaires had been bombarding the planet for three days, reducing most of the buildings in the planet’s six population centers to rubble, with one exception: the rebel headquarters. General Foxworthy had whole star systems of ordinance available at his fingertips, but he’d spared the troublesome base.
“General Foxworthy?” his assistant said. “The rebel leader Carter is waiting to see you.”
“Thank you Eliot, please send him in. Oh, and would you ask Rose to make me a sandwich?”
“Certainly sir.”
Moments later, Elliot escorted in a young man dressed in a Mark-3 Zherun war suit. Capable of withstanding impossible compression ratios, the suit could survive almost any sort of conventional attack. Standard-issue suits also came with a complement of sophisticated weaponry molded into the frame. Foxworthy knew about the suit, and the weapons, but had said nothing to Elliot about disarming the man.
Carter surveyed the lavish cabin, his eyes finally drifting to the enormous viziframe covering the wall. It showed the rebel planet C3JU625-Andrew-Prescott. Five hundred standard years previous, the legendary Captain Prescott had discovered the remote little world during his famous exploratory voyage. He’d named it according to the imperial planetary classification system. Two weeks before the General’s bombardment, the planet had been renamed “The Emperor’s A Big Fat Donkey” by Carter, who transmitted news of the change by a looping broadcast throughout Occupied Space.
I’ve read the book — it’s great. Should be a good listen too.
Breaking news…A suspenseful, “hearty [and hardy] historical” novel today made its first appearance as an Audible book. You may check out the audio sample at
Audio versions will soon be available at iTunes and at Amazon.com.
Filed under Uncategorized
I belong to a Goodreads group called “Pro-Active Destruction”. Please don’t worry, we’re only in the planing phase of pro-actively destroying things, so it’s cool.
Anyway, we’re doing a flash fiction contest for authors in the group (still open for new members). You can see my entry where I posted it in my author thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1775080-john-l-monk-at-your-service
Just scroll down to “Emperor’s New War” for a very short 800-word read. If it seems a little weird here and there, it’s because we had to include words like “brother” and “sandwich” and “twilight”, and names like “Carter” and “Foxworthy” in the story to get points.
Good fun.
Filed under Funny
An “Awesome Indie” comes to audio format!
I’ve just pushed the “Approve” button, completing my part of The Girl on theMountain audiobook! This project was made possible by ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange. On the ACX website, authors and publishers can audition prospective narrator/producers for their books. I listened to a lot of great voices and was able to have those who auditioned read different passages.
The narrator I chose made the story come alive for me again, and she was a pleasure to work with. After we agreed on a deadline, she posted several recorded chapters nearly every day. I chose to download and listen to the chapters using iTunes, then I emailed notes and corrections, if any, and she resubmitted the chapters.
In a week or two, the audiobook version of The Girl on the Mountain will be available for purchase through Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. It will not be available on compact disk–I’m told those are less used these days. Listeners download…
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Filed under Awesome Indies, Favorite Books
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/906122854
Lots of animated gifs, I love it.
Filed under Reviews
Ooo, ooo, free!
Many authors do free giveaways to gain exposure. All would appreciate a review if someone downloads it and likes the book. David Lawlor is a class act and a good writer (I read a story of his recently).
My thriller, The Golden Grave (http://goo.gl/lBwn6k), which is set in the old battlefields of post-World War One Flanders, is
FREE
for the next three days (April 25-27).
It’s a tale of lust, greed and double-dealing (they say write what you know!) which follows Liam Mannion, the character from my previous novel, Tan. The synopsis for The Golden Grave is below, to give you an idea of what it’s about.
I’d love you to download the book (click on the link above), and I hope you enjoy it. If you would, please share this post.
Thanks,
David
SYNOPSIS: 1920 – Former British soldier turned republican fighter Liam Mannion is on the run with a price on his head. He looks up with old comrade Ernie Wood, who is being lured back to the battlefields on the Western Front in search of lost gold.
The source of the story is Liam’s former…
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So as everyone in North America knows by now, I made the quarter finals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. The way it works is the entrant submits a pitch, a few chapters, and the full document. Then Amazon’s specially selected reviewers read each piece and decide who goes forward. After that, the samples are all posted on Amazon (just search for “ABNA” to see them all). They’re all available right now.
Here’s mine:
Part of the decision process on who goes forward toward the Grand Prize is based on reader reaction (reviews). There are a lot of samples still there that haven’t gotten any reviews (mine included). So if you have time, please download and review as many as you have time for.
Cheers
Filed under Indie Publishing
The only way “Regulation 19” could have been better is if it was called “Regulation 20”. An incredibly memorable read, it mixes elements of thriller, mystery, sci-fi, and (possibly) fantasy. As Einstein once said, “When you mix sci-fi and mystery together and dribble in what may or may not be fantasy, you’ve got yourself a damn fine novel.” And I agree.
I’m not telling you the plot. The plot is a mystery, to be honest. That’s what’s so damn maddening about this book—I never knew where the story was going beyond what I’d just read. Every page brought new information. Every chapter was like this gargantuan mystery/thriller/sci-fi (fantasy?) looming above me, laughing, and taunting and saying, “Try again Mr. Smart Guy!”
Ok, quick point on the plot and I shall say no more: it’s about a town in Tennessee. Something’s happened regarding the town. There are good guys, there are bad guys, there’s a REALLY bad guy, and that’s all I’m going to give you. Except for one thing: one of the characters is named “Frank.” You learn this right up front, so that ain’t gonna help you.
P.T Hylton eschews both plodding pseudo didacticism and/or the emollient locution typifying some of indie-publishing’s more inchoate scribblers—and after you’ve read the book, I’m sure you’ll feel the same way. Furthermore, he writes like his ass is on fire. He writes so well he makes me want to slap my momma’s English teacher. P.T. Hylton’s writing is “invisible” – you don’t know you’re reading a book, you just know you can’t stop grinning and your wife’s given up on you coming to bed anytime soon. Hylton’s pacing is so maddeningly sneaky and miserly in the way he parcels out the juicy bits that I’m just a tad jealous of him. Everything in the book furthers the plot. Not a moment is wasted on nonsense because there simply isn’t time for that. If you go back and watch those Jim Butcher videos about scene->reaction->scene->reaction, Hylton seems to have channeled Butcher in the way he approached “Regulation 19”. When I interview him, I’m going to ask him about it. Also, he had near perfect editing. What’s not to love?
The characters in the story all had their own voices and motivations. There weren’t any talking heads saying stuff like “as you know, bla bla bla can run 60 miles an hour” or whatever. There’s also a sort of manliness to the guys in the book, which almost makes me think P.T. Hylton was either in the military at some point or possibly in prison for armed robbery. Probably a military prison. When I do my interview with him, I’ll ask him about his “jacket” (he’ll know what I mean).
P.T. Hylton reviewed my book, “Kick”. He also did a book giveaway featuring my book. I kinda wish he hadn’t done these nice things. I would have told him not to if I knew his book was gonna be so amazing. I’m telling you all this because I believe in full disclosure. Would I have read his book if I hadn’t followed his blog, if one thing hadn’t led to another? Probably not. There are simply too many books out there to choose from, and these days I don’t get as much reading in as I’d like (sorry James Patterson, I’ll read something by you one day, I swear). But I have read it, and on my honor I promise you this was one of the most memorable sci-fi/mystery/(possibly fantasy) books I’ve read in a long time.
One of the rules of the Awesome Indie Project is that if I know someone even slightly, or if they’re friends or whatever before I pick up their book, then I can’t add them to the list. This was meant to keep me from giving-in to the natural desire to help my friends. The problem is, awesome indies like P.T. Hylton get skipped over for the crime of being nice to me. I don’t want people to stop being nice to me or stop approaching me and saying, “Hey John, what’s up?” So I need to nix this rule. Just keep an eye out for the disclaimers, and give P.T Hylton a chance—he’ll blow your mind.
Without further adieu, I’m adding “Regulation 19” to the Awesome Indie list.
Filed under Indie Publishing, Reviews
John L. Monk 