Monday, June 25, 2012

Today Only - Two Books Free for Kindle

Today is the LAST DAY you can check out my books "Warmth" and "The Moon Cried Blood" for free from the Kindle Library if you are an Amazon Prime member... if you ARE an Amazon Prime Member, you may wish to check them out today, while you can still do it for free.

In related news. starting tomorrow these books will be available for the iPad and Nook (I can't offer them for the iPad or Nook until I'm out of the KDP Select Program). When that occurs, of course, they will cost good money. But for now you can check them out for ABSOLUTELY FREE! Today only, because tomorrow they will end their period of exclusive involvement with KDP Select.

Let me give you the links, so you can easily check them out, if you want to.

Warmth - For Kindle


Book Description

 March 27, 2012
"I hate the dead. They have no self-control" - Sera. She is ghula - one of the extremely long-lived though not immortal flesh eaters whose lives can end in only one way - in resurrection as a hungry, ambulatory corpse who will spend the short days of its unlife rotting, eating, and infecting as many as possible. Sera compares her life to a dark comedy - trapped with an unwanted pregnancy for the past 600 years, constantly afraid that the fetus will die and go zombie in-utero, always cold and constantly running a fever like every other ghoul on the planet. Luckily, two things in life sustain her: her joy in hunting and destroying the Dead, and the constant seeking of comfort in warmth.


Warmth actually has one user review: it's for the paperback version, and it's over on Lulu, but I am going to go and paste it here for your convenience.

    
By Desdemona Ekaterina Gare-Frantisek
Mar 15, 2012
Another book I had trouble putting down, I stayed up until dawn totally blown away by all the interesting twists in the story. The characters are compelling, well thought out and unique. Not everything is what it seems and no matter how much you try to hide it, reality has a way of catching up with you in sometimes thoroughly gruesome ways. It was one hell of a ride, sad to see it end. If you have a sick sense of humor, add this to your must read list!


The Moon Cried Blood - For Kindle

Book Description

 March 27, 2012
It is said that the Wolf may howl at the Moon, but the Moon never howls at the Wolf. In the gritty urban streets of Los Angeles in 1975, Leticia Gordon is forced to come to terms with many things: the tragic death of her stepmother and baby sister in a car accident, fear she’ll wind up in foster care, and the sudden revelation she belongs to a long line of powerful witches known as Luna – who exhibit first power at the start of womanhood. Running from foes natural and supernatural, will her newfound powers be the turning point that elevates her position of honor, or will it destroy her like the dark forces that consumed her father? In a world turned upside down where time itself seems in flux, in whom can she trust?

I don't have any reviews for The Moon Cried Blood yet, so perhaps you can be the first to review it?






My first book, "Solitude", is NOT available for KDP Select, but I am going to include it here just in case you want to buy it:  It is available in Hardcover, Paperback, and eBook formats. And it has several great user reviews.

Solitude - for Kindle
Solitude - Large Format Paperback
Solitude - Trade Paperback
Solitude - PDF
Solitude - Hardcover

COMING SOON! Solitude for the iPad and the Nook



Book Description

 March 26, 2012
To what extent does the presence of others affect our thoughts and actions? What do we believe when we are truly alone? Solitude is the riveting tale of diverse individuals isolated in a San Francisco seemingly void of all other human life. In the absence of others, each journeys into personal web of beliefs and perceptions as they try to determine what happened to them, and the world around them. Each of them view events differently. One suspects aliens have invaded, another believes it's a sign of Revelation and end times, some don't know what to think, and others find their minds unraveling as they struggle to cope with unimaginable events. Soon, threats both natural and supernatural leave them too busy fighting to survive in a world of strange and unpredictable events where all of the luxuries of civilization are being slowly eroded to even stop to wonder. And unless they can find each other, they will have to face it all alone, in the dark.

Book Reviews

 




By Desdemona Ekaterina Gare-Frantisek
Dec 6, 2011
Don't read this book before going to bed, you'll never get to sleep! The suspense and attention to character development is impeccable. You get to know and build a personal relationship with them, the story weaves and arch that binds them all together in one unexpected conclusion. READ THIS! You will love this novel.

    
By Michael Lee Totten
Jan 15, 2012
I love the mystery of the beginning of this novel and how it builds up in sinister intensity in its sheer horror!

5.0 out of 5 stars very good, epic novel, evocative of Stephen King's the Stand,April 4, 2012
By 
neutrino78x ('Silicon Valley', California, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Solitude (Kindle Edition)
This is a fascinating and epic novel, evocative of Stephen King, especially his more grandiose works such as The Stand and The Dark Tower. It involves a group of people who wake up to find that everyone in San Francisco seems to have disappeared except for themselves, and soon discover that there are great forces at work. The drama unfolds as they discover the nature of their predicament and attempt to resolve it.



Friday, June 15, 2012

Time Management in the absence of Time Travel

This is a screenshot of me writing this very blog.
I currently have four tabs open in my browser.... and before this sentence is finished, I will have opened and closed Photoshop in order to save a screenshot of my four open browser tabs, because I am busily attempting to multitask. In between these episodes of either frenetic or non-frenetic lazy, slacker-like multitasking I have to go outside, and attend to the daily functionality of my life. This includes things like working, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and getting exercise. Sadly... or perhaps, fortunately, my brain is not yet able to connect to a cybernetic computer matrix directly, and casually browse the web or focus and work on projects while jogging. Even if the technology did exist, I would probably be unable to afford it. I'm still a starving artist. I bust my ass to keep my bills covered, and I can't make a living off of book sales. When I do sell a book, I'm often selling it out of my trunk haggling with someone who wants to see if they can get away with paying $12 instead of $17.95. No... the book costs that much. What? Yes, I will accept a payment plan.

Me posing with my certificates
In the meantime I have had a Day Job, or Two Day Jobs, and/or School occurring throughout  the time I've been a writer. But not always. I've got a part-time long term job that's 16 hours a week/flex time as a care worker for a relative with a mobility impairing health issue, and I take part-time jobs as a computer repair technician - yes, IT, but not as any kind of programmer, I'm the person who replaces your broken fan, upgrades your memory, installs the latest operating system, and runs Norton on your junk. I do this as a temporary worker, which means I'm on temporary contract jobs through an agency, which means sometimes I'm on assignment, and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm at home, and sometimes I'm furthering my education. I wrote the book "Solitude" during a three month period where I was at a technical school working on my A+ and Network+ certification (because my old Novell certifications are dated, expired, largely useless) and renewing my Apple Macintosh Certified Technician (AMCT) certificate. I worked with Stephen Douglas on editing it during a 9 month period where I had two different part time contract jobs as consecutive second day jobs (aside from IHSS/carer). When I have two day jobs, or am in school, I plan my time around these activities. It's the times when I have a lot of free time that are problematic.

Thanks to Kira Fisher and Google + for this toilet clock.
A lot of unstructured, free time creates difficulties for me. I have a tendency to overbook myself. At the moment, I have a bunch of reading assignments connected to interviews or reviews I wanted to do for my blog. I've got a copy of Richard Cotton's short story "The Reaper" in the other window, because I want to give it a much closer read-through because he just asked me for my opinion in a bit more detail over on Facebook. I will do it...later. Right now, I need downtime. I need time to digest my own thoughts. I guess it's no different than other people - with a day job, who have times when they want to watch reruns of "Heroes" on Netflix and play Diablo (these are my recent leisure activities). The only difference is, when you have a set schedule, such as school, or work, it's a lot easier to understand that you need time at ease to regenerate your mind. It's a lot easier to compartmentalize work from leisure than it is when you are working at a flex time job and at a small business. Because I don't have a day job, I find it harder to say "no" - easier to feel like my me-time is just me flushing time down the toilet.

Me in front of Lokal Boy in Oakland, CA
Different people deal with this unstructured time differently. In my case, I make lists of things that I know that I need to do, and I keep calendars, so that I can get everything done that I feel needs doing (or that actually does need doing - like going to the doctor, paying bills, collecting money to pay bills with) on a calendar and/or a list. Because otherwise, I'd forget what I needed to do. I really would. I'm curious as to how the rest of you deal with this kind of thing: I mean, can you leave some comments? I could use any advice I could take on my weak subject of time management. In case you were wondering about the Time Travel, well, I'd never seen "Heroes" before and I'm watching every episode in a row, and thinking how if I had any of these powers, I think Hiro Nakamura's time traveling power would be pretty awesome. All those do-overs. But no, I don't have that. I have to manage the time in a linear fashion, alas. You know that saying "Necessity is the Mother of Invention?" - I think that it's also the mother of entrepreneurial effort. Now that my day-job income is cut back, I notice me and my fiance Greg are both a lot more focused on book sales. A couple of days ago, Greg got the books into a new local outlet, ironically called Lokal Boy.

Go, Team Solitude!


Friday, June 1, 2012

Voting Time! Zombie Contest


Guess what today is? June 1st, the final day of the...

Zombie-Ghoul Contest Thingie

Click on the link above for the Contest Rules. Anyway, today being the final day, I am asking that all of you go over and VOTE for your favorite entry HERE:


... at my author Facebook page. You vote on the entries by "liking" them on the page.  Each of the entrants would appreciate you taking out the time to vote for their work (and some of you probably know some of these people, so you can vote for your friends).  Winners will receive a signed copy of my novel "Warmth". Here I am talking about the novel:

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We had a fun Zombie Video Shoot out on Shattuck and Tommy and Seames would like to enter to win an autographed copy of Warmth, too, so we will be including those entries in the contest.
And now, our lovely contestants:

ZOMBIE CATEGORY:
Radioactive Zombie by Katernya Fury
Radioactive Zombie by Katernya Fury
Zombie - Julie Hoverson
Zombie - Julie Hoverson
Zombie - Jimmy
Zombie - Jimmy
Zombie - Seames Castelblanco
Zombie - Seames Castelblanco
GHOUL CATEGORY
Ghula, Scarlet Winter by Kateryna Fury
Ghula, Scarlet Winter by Kateryna Fury
Ghula - Des Hobbit
Ghula - Des Hobbit