Solom #1 is now out for Kindle, 99 cents for a limited time! When Katy and her teen daughter Jett move to the Appalachian Mountain town of Solom, they become the target of a legendary supernatural menace.
Solom #2, THE NARROW GATE, is live for Kindle preorder, releasing Feb. 26. Katy and Jett discover that Solom's legends now threaten the entire town, and they find an unexpected ally on Solom's final battleground. A new series derived from my 2006 novel THE FARM. Sign up for my Tao of Boo newsletter for your chance to be eaten by goats in Book #2!
I also have eight different Kindle thriller and horror books on sale for 99 cents for December.
Also having a Kindle box set blow-out, $2.99 or less.
***
My supernatural thriller McFALL is now compiled into a single ebook for Kindle, with paper and audio versions also available for preorder. Currently $6 off the digital list price, McFALL is only $3.99.
http://www.amazon.com/McFall-Scott-Nicholson-ebook/dp/B00DOFW8BM
I also have eight different Kindle thriller and horror books on sale for 99 cents for December. The Amazon list in your country is at http://smarturl.it/supchills
Also having a Kindle box set blow-out, stock up on all my books for only $2.99 each! Your Amazon list is at http://smarturl.it/chillbox
Many of these deals are also available on Nook, Apple, and Kobo! Happy holidays.
99 cents for a limited time! A box set of paranormal thrills, romance, and fun, featuring:
BAD BLOOD (with bestselling authors J.R. Rain and H.T. Night)- A vampire is lured into the clutches of a demonic cult when he tries to rescue an attractive young woman. First in the Spider series.
FANGS IN VAIN- Sabrina Vickers is an angel on a mission from God, but she'd rather save the soul of her vampire boyfriend Luke.
OCTOBER GIRLS- Teen witch Crystal and her dead best friend Bone must save the world from the evil unborn twin of James Dean.
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">Amazon.comAmazon.co.ukNookApple
Mystery Dance: Three Novels is on sale for a limited time-- contains The Skull Ring, Crime Beat, and Disintegration, as well as a bonus story. 99 cents through Nov. 23!
Win $500 worth of
signed books from bestselling horror authors Brian Keene,
Jonathan Maberry, Scott Nicholson, and Bryan Smith! The
SPOOKY STACKS GIVEAWAY runs from Oct. 24-31. Be sure to
pick up your free copy of the Spooky Stacks ebook in all formats at Smashwords.
Enter daily at their web sites or enter below!
In conjunction withe the launch and Kindle Fire giveaway for the Kindle serial McFALL, the two other Littlefield/McFall books are on sale for 99 cents through Sept. 17. Thanks to Elderlemon Design for new covers!
(I'll be moving my blog over there eventually. Here's the "official third-person press release")
McFALL
International bestselling author Scott Nicholson
returns to his supernatural roots in the new serialized novel McFALL, launching
Sept. 3, with new episodes releasing every six weeks.
The supernatural thriller, from Amazon’s 47North
imprint, features characters from THE RED CHURCH, a Stoker Award finalist and
alternate selection of the Mystery Guild Book Club, and DRUMMER BOY, a ghostly
coming-of-age tale. The stories are set in the rural Southern Appalachian
Mountains where Nicholson lives and are inspired by actual local legends.
“I enjoyed working with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer
imprint for my Fear series, and I had been mulling a return to the world of my
first novel,” Nicholson said. “When 47North offered the opportunity to write a
serial, I jumped at it. I am always eager to experiment, and Amazon is proving
progressive in its digital publishing approach. I’ll still be writing McFALL as
it goes live so it’s a bit like walking out on a tightrope in flaming underpants
over a canyon full of cobras. Or perhaps it’s just another day in cyberspace.”
Although it’s exclusive to Amazon, McFALL will be published in paperback and audiobook later this year.. New episodes are automatically emailed
to the Kindles of those who order the first episode. Learn more about the project
at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/mcfall.htm.
"If Evil had fortified secret strongholds across the globe,
the red church was certainly one of them."
When wealthy developer Larkin McFall moves to the small
Appalachian Mountain community of Barkersville, generations-old tales of
supernatural phenomena, sudden deaths, and odd disappearances resurface. Larkin
laughs off the stories as superstition, while promising to bring a bright new
future to the dying town.
Sheriff Frank Littlefield senses a diabolical motive in McFall’s good
intentions. High school friends Bobby Eldreth and Ronnie Day also suspect that
an evil menace has invaded Barkersville, but both soon fall under McFall’s
spell. Has the sinister presence that once infiltrated the abandoned—perhaps
haunted—red church spread to the community as McFall turns the family property
into a luxurious subdivision?
When those who oppose Larkin McFall’s ambitions begin to die
horrifically—or even worse, become the man’s biggest supporters—Sheriff
Littlefield’s investigation uncovers a man with no past and no fingerprints.
A man who destroys people by giving them exactly what they want.
We're also holding a contest to give away four signed copies of BAD BLOOD, the first Spider book (which is also on sale for 99 cents for a limited time). Details at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorScottNicholson
A couple of new releases out, with Crime Beat read by Tom Zingarelli and Ashes by Francesca Townes. Available on Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon.com.
If you already have a Kindle version of these books, you can often buy the audiobook for only $1.99 and Amazon's Whispersync technology allows you to seamlessly shift from listening to reading, and back again. (Also, this is an obvious way to save money if you just want the audiobook--buy them both!)
For fans of vampires, here's a book by my friend Carl Alves:
Blood Street by
Carl Alves
About the Book: Alexei
chose the wrong neighborhood to claim his latest victim. Now Philadelphia mob
boss Enzo Salerno is determined to hunt down the man who killed his associate
in such gruesome fashion in his South Philly row home.
Perplexed by this unnatural murder, Salerno
uncovers clues that lead him to believe that this was not a mob hit, and that a
vampire was responsible for this death. Magnus, the leader of Alexei’s brood,
must now use all of his resources to save them from both the mafia and the FBI
About the Author: After graduating with a
Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and later an
MBA degree from Lehigh University, Carl has worked in the pharmaceutical and
medical devices industries. His debut
novel Two For Eternity was released
in 2011 by Weaving Dreams Publishing.
His short fiction has appeared in various publications such as Sinister
City, Alien Skin and Behind Locked Doors anthology. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association
and has attended the Penn Writers Conference.
You can visit his website at www.carlalves.com.
Praise for Blood Street:
“Alves’
action-packed Blood Street points the
vampire genre back in the right direction. Vampires are ruthless monsters bent
on superiority, power and the inevitable, near-tragic craving of blood, but
here mixed in the frenzy we also have organized crime, which turns out to be
quite similar in its aspirations.”
—Benjamin Kane
Ethridge, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Black & Orange
It's a video about the making of an audiobook about a book!
Skyboat Media produced the video about the making of V-Wars, a vampire anthology edited by Jonathan Maberry. My entry "Heartsick" is narrated by veteran actor Arte Johnson, who gets some face time in the video.
« Personne n’écrit de thrillers comme Nicholson. Personne. » – J.A. Konrath, M. K
Un best-seller dans le Top 30 des e-books Kindle aux États-Unis !
Des frères jumeaux se battent pour le contrôle d’un empire familial bâti sur des bases de cruauté, tromperie et sombres secrets — et une femme se tient entre eux tandis qu’une autre attend dans l’ombre qu’un d’entre eux s’effondre.
Quand un mystérieux incendie détruit sa maison et tue sa petite fille, Jacob Wells est jeté dans une spirale infernale qui l’attire de plus en plus vers un passé qu’il croyait mort et enterré.
À présent, son frère jumeau Joshua est de retour en ville, cherchant à régler de vieux comptes et à réclamer sa part de l’héritage des Wells. La femme de Jacob, Renée, est aux prises avec sa propre culpabilité, car le couple a perdu une fille nouveau-née quelques années auparavant.
Quand Jacob et Joshua retrouvent les rôles malsains qu’ils avaient adoptés sous l’influence de parents cruels et exigeants, ils se livrent une guerre d’orgueil, de richesse et de passion. Ils partagent l’amour empoisonné d’une femme qui les détruirait volontiers tous les deux : Carlita, une Hispanique provocante et manipulatrice dont la famille immigrée a contribué à construire la fortune des Wells.
Si seulement Jacob parvenait à définir lequel des deux est à blâmer. Mais les limites de l’identité sont floues, car Joshua et Jacob partagent bien plus que leur sang.
Et leurs jeux d’enfants sont devenus mortellement sérieux.
Scott Nicholson est un auteur de
best-sellers de renommée mondiale, qui a publié plus de vingt livres, dont Les
Amants de la brume et Les Muses
hantées. Toute son actualité sur son site officiel www.hauntedcomputer.com/french.htm
Caroline at The Ereader Cafe was kind enough to post an interview with me on her wonderful site:
http://www.theereadercafe.com/2013/05/author-interview-with-scott-nicholson.html Also, L'Eglise rouge (the French version of The Red Church) is #40 in Amazon.fr for Kindle today. The French market is still small but I believe it is growing faster than conventional wisdom (i.e. "The French are cultural elites who will be slow to adopt new technology") would have us believe. Thanks to Franck Gandcher for the translation and Guillemette Allard-Bares for the proofreading.
Amazon has seen fit to put the Kindle bestseller LIQUID FEAR on sale for 99 cents for the month of May as part of its Editor's Selections. Available for Kindle only!
Originally self-published, it's my bestselling book overall, peaking at #19 on the Kindle list a couple of years ago before being picked up by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint. The sequel Chronic Fear is also available, at $2.99. I appreciate reviews, too--if you're broke, email me for a review copy at AuthorScottNicholson at gmail.com.
Laughingraccoon won the Happy Camper giveaway. So, Laughingraccoon, if you will email your address, we'll get the books and gift card out to you. Thanks, everyone, and don't forget to follow the newsletter for more giveaways, including a rare signed, limited edition traycase hardcover of The Skull Ring (only 50 made!)
Bloodthirsty mutants attack a camp for troubled teens after a strange infection spreads. Adapted by J.T. Warren and I from my original B-movie horror screenplay, for the real horror fan who likes it spicy.
You can also enter the Happy Camper giveaway by writing a review for Meat Camp. Prizes include a savage stack of books (Hudson House--signed, They Hunger--signed, Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre, and the Dark Faith anthology) and a $25 Amazon gift card. To enter, just write a review of any kind at one of your favorite online stores or sites, then email AuthorScottNicholson@gmail.com.
QuiteDaffy was also recently selected to win a Kindle Fire from my newsletter subscriber list. If you haven't signed up, don't miss the next giveaway and the free prequel to the AFTER series, AFTER: FIRST LIGHT. The newsletter is only for special events and new releases, so sign up now!
Thanks for your input on the cover! We may change later but for now we're using this:
A massive solar storm kills billions and wipes out the technological infrastructure, and the few survivors learn that some among them have...changed.
AFTER: THE ECHO (Book #2 in the After series)
It's six weeks after the shock.
The smoke on the horizon has diminished, and Rachel Wheeler and her two traveling companions head toward the mountains where Rachel's grandfather Franklin has built a survivalist compound.
However, the strange mutated people known as Zapheads seem to be changing from bloodthirsty killers into a force far more menacing. A secret military installation holds the key to rebuilding civilization, but Franklin doesn't trust their intentions.
And the Zapheads are adapting to the new world faster than the human survivors, who must fight for their place in a future that may have no room for them.
The first book in the series, After: The Shock, will also be 99 cents through Apr. 1. Don't forget to sign up for my Mailchimp newsletter by April 1 to be entered for a free Kindle Fire!
Big Supernatural Sale going on for Kindle! 13 books from the likes of J.R. Rain, Jeff Bennington, Mark Tufo, and me. 99 cents each (plus one $2.99 box set). Horror, zombies, paranormal, and more. Offer good Feb. 26-28. Stop, shop, and shock!
I'm currently working on both the AFTER prequel (a novella of about 15k words) and AFTER: THE ECHO, for release at the end of March. The prequel will be free to introduce readers to the series, but if you like to be among the first to receive it, just sign up for my mailing list (You'll also be eligible for a Kindle Fire and gift card giveaway for the After: The Echo launch.)
For a taste, here is the unedited first draft of the AFTER opening, for those who like their apocalypse with a little research!
AFTER: THE STORM
By Scott Nicholson
The sun looked like a cheese pizza that had been broiled
in hell’s hottest oven.
Dr. Daniel Chien frowned at the monitor, concerned less
with the rippling cheese than the rising bubbles of red sauce. Each bubble erupted
with a force equaling 100 billion megatons of TNT, spewing electromagnetic
radiation across the solar system. Chien was intellectually aware that the
pizza was really a massive star around which Earth and the other planets
revolved, but technology had reduced it to little more than a commercial-free
reality-TV show.
Sir Isaac Newton nearly blinded himself staring at the
sun, and I can do it from the comfort of my air-conditioned cubicle.
The images recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory
were a marvel of modern technology. Not only was the space-launched observatory
performing a continuous, real-time monitoring of solar activity, it used an
array of solar panels as it energy source. In turn, the data allowed Chien and
other researchers to study the sun’s electromagnetic fluctuations, solar wind, sunspot
activity, and particle radiation.
The sublime beauty of the system had lured Chien from a
faculty position at Johns Hopkins. Even as a boy in Vietnam, he’d been fascinated by the
sun was the giver of life. The Earth’s precarious position at just the right
orbital distance counted as something miraculous, although Chien was careful to
avoid debates over science and faith. To him, wonder was wonder and did not
require further complications. Let the glory hounds like Newton clog the pages
of scientific history while Chien and his fellow grunt workers added to the
pool of knowledge bit by bit.
But his role as a researcher didn’t diminish his
appreciation of solar myth. After all, there was hardly a more apt metaphor for
human hubris than Icarus flying too close to the sun and having his wings melt.
The sun, as he liked to tell his friends, was cool.
Chien still found childlike delight in the real-time
images of the sun captured in a variety of spectra, available to the public via
the NASA website. The array of sophisticated instruments measured multiple
wavelengths and offered multiple ways to observe and measure solar phenomena. The
main image was the one now commanding his attention, and although he was fully
aware of the sun’s petulant temperament, he didn’t like the erratic pulsations
appearing on its surface.
Somebody’s burning the pizza.
“Katherine?” he said, calling to the other on-duty
researcher at the SDO’s offices in the Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Katherine
Swain was several years his senior, a 20-year veteran of NASA, and a woman who
held no romantic notions of the sun at all.
“Yes?” she said, in an annoyed tone, looking up from her
laptop. She’d confided to Daniel that she was having “family problems,” and
Daniel had projected a polite pretense of concern without pressing for details.
Which meant avoiding her unless something important was happening.
“It looks like some irregular plasma activity.”
“We’re in an irregular phase,” she said, not clicking away
from whatever she was working on. “The moon’s having its period.”
Much like a woman, or the moon, or any other natural
object, the sun went through nearly predictable cycles of behavior. Solar
cycles lasted about 11 years, and the study of radionuclides in Arctic ice had
allowed researchers to map an accurate history of the sun. Although the cycles
followed identifiable patterns, the general agreement was that the current
cycle was among the most active on record.
“It’s not just regularly irregular,” he said.
“It’s crazy.”
“Ah, here comes the big one, huh?” Katherine teased.
“Guess they should have listened to you, huh?”
As a member of a commission asked to assess the nation’s
vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse attack, Chien had testified before an
Armed Services subcommittee. He’d warned of the impact of massive solar flares,
but his cataclysmic scenarios were pushed aside for what were considered the
more-relevant dangers of low-flying nuclear missiles. The military couldn’t
fight the sun, and neither could it procure billions of tax dollars by
provoking the administration’s fear of the sun. Besides, terrorist threats were
far sexier than probability modeling.
Last year, Chien had co-authored a report that painted a
grim picture of infrastructure failure on the heels of a massive solar storm,
calling it “the greatest environmental disaster in human history.” Since then,
Katherine and the other SDO researchers had wryly called Chien “Dr. Doom.”
Chien had stood firm in his quiet way. Besides, it really
wasn’t a matter of “if.” It was a matter of “when.”
But even Chien didn’t really expect “when” to be now.
“Look at AR1654,” Chien said.
Katherine’s keys clacked as she brought up an image on
her laptop screen. “It’s only an M-1,” she said. “At worst, we could get a few
radio blackouts in the polar regions. No biggie.”
“But AR1654 is aligning with the Earth. That means we
will be right in the path of the plasma stream if a flare erupts.”
“And it will pass right over us. That’s why we have an
atmosphere, so we’re not exposed to constant radiation. Otherwise, we wouldn’t
be around to have this conversation.”
Katherine, apparently satisfied with her prognosis,
resumed typing. Chien watched the image on the screen for another minute, as
sauce leaked from the edge of the pizza’s crust and bulged out into space in
huge, curling ribbons.
Maybe I’m no different than Newton, a sensationalistic glory hound. But
he died a virgin, so I’ve got him beat there.
Chien went through the rote recording of data that
occupied much of his duties, but his mind wandered to Summer Hanratty, the
woman he’d been dating for the last six months. He couldn’t escape the irony of
her first name, and its connotation with sunny weather had fueled their initial
conversation at a colleague’s party. Maybe they were getting serious.
Heating up, huh? Well, even Dr. Doom needs a little
comfort in the night.
Katherine’s
clipped voice interrupted his reverie. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Chien had flipped away from the satellite
imagery to tables of temperature, X-rays, and magnetic energy.
“Check the Magnetogram,” she sad, referring to the
telescopic image that mapped the magnetic energy along the sun’s surface.
Chien summoned the proper screen, which now showed the
solar pizza as a mossy tennis ball pocked with violent orange and cobalt-blue
acne. The area near AR1654 showed a brilliant plume erupting from the surface.
“It will loop,” Chien said, referring to the sun’s habit
of bending much of its escaped energy back into the thermonuclear maw. As
turbulent as the imagery made the sun appear, most of the activity took place
deep inside, where hydrogen and helium burned away at astonishing temperatures.
It took light 200,000 years to emerge from the center of the sun to the surface,
and from there a mere eight minutes to reach the Earth.
Chien thought he would share that little factoid with
Summer when he dropped by her apartment tonight. It was the kind of romantic bon
mot that would wash down well with a glass of Chablis.
“Even with a loop, it will likely shoot some electrons
our way,” Katherine said.
“Should we log a report?”
One of the center’s responsibilities was to warn of
potential interference with satellites and telecommunications equipment, which
helped justify the $18 billion NASA budget. A caricature of a notoriously penurious
Republican senator was pinned to the bulletin board near the restrooms, with a
handwritten admonition: “A phone call a day keeps the hatchets away.” Providing
a practical public benefit was essential to the long-term survival of the
center.
“The usual,” Katherine said. “Possible disruption of
regular signal transmission but no need for extraordinary measures.”
“A little static on the cell phone,” Chien said. “A
little snow for the TV viewers with a dish. No Doomsday on the radar.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“I’m thrilled. An apocalypse would be terribly
inconvenient. I’ve got a hot date tonight.”
Katherine managed a rueful smile. “Wish I could say the
same. Take my advice and never get married.”
Chien didn’t want to tiptoe through those conversational
landmines, so he shifted back to business. The bulging projectile of the solar
flare clung to the sun’s surface like a drop of water on the lip of a leaky
faucet. Usually, the flare would collapse again, the charged particles of
helium and hydrogen reeled back by the intense gravity. But this one kept
swelling, a ragged dragon’s breath of plasma leaping into space.
Chien flipped through the suite of instruments, observing
the flare at different wavelengths. “Are you seeing this, Katherine?”
“Let me get this bulletin out first.”
“I’d hold off on it for a moment. We might be upgrading.”
“We can’t upgrade. This is M-1 already.”
Chien’s mouth went dry and his heart hammered. The solar
flare’s footprint grew both on the surface and in its bulge in the heliosphere.
“Looking like an X.”
“Daniel, that’s serious. It means rerouting high-altitude
aircraft and damage to satellites. If we send out a red alert, we’d better be
right.”
“The sun doesn’t care who’s right or wrong,” he said,
watching the ragged hole on the sun’s surface widen further and the plume take
an immense leap.
X-class solar flares dispensed radiation that could
threaten airline passengers with exposure if they were not adequately shielded
by the Earth’s atmosphere. Such flares were rarely recorded, but Chien was well
aware that human measurement of such phenomena was but the blink of an eye
against the ancient history of the sun. No doubt thousands—perhaps millions—of
massive flares had swept across the Earth in ages past, scouring the planet
with radiation and scrambling its geomagnetic fields. Chien was alternately
excited and frightened that he might be witness to one of them.
But Katherine was right. Issuing an X-class bulletin
would set a whole range of actions in motion, affecting the telecommunications
industry, defense, and air transportation. Rerouting flights alone would cost
millions of dollars, not to mention throwing off flight schedules that could
disrupt international travel for weeks. Any shutdown of telecommunications and
satellite service could quickly run to costs in the billions as well. This was
a panic button that, once pressed, could not be easily dismissed.
“You know what happens if we cry wolf,” Katherine said.
As project director, Katherine would be the scapegoat for
any political fallout, but Chien would likely be drummed out as well. Sure, he
could always return to university life, where notoriety was little more than a
mildly eccentric selling point. But he’d likely be done in the field of
government-funded research, and there wasn’t a whole lot of private-industry
opportunity.
But data was data, and the numbers were screaming X all
the way.
“Okay, I will give a warning of ‘possible disruption,
monitoring closely,’” Katherine said. “That should keep us covered until we can
analyze all the data.”
She issued the alert to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal
Communications Commission, and the departments of Defense and Homeland
Security. The data She rated the threat a G3, a strong geomagnetic storm as
measured on a scale of one to five. She logged the data and noted the time,
saying to Chien, “Your shift is up. You better go play Romeo.”
“No way,” he said. “The solar cycle doesn’t peak again
for 11 years, and I’m not getting any younger.”
“Your call. But take my word for it. When you get to be
my age, you wish you’d had more dates with people and fewer with computers.”
The solar plume on the screen had grown to epic
proportions, so much so that Chien had to zoom out on the imagery just to fit
it on the screen. Even for a trained scientist, it was difficult to equate what
looked like a bit of Hollywood illusion with
billions of tons of solar material hurting toward the Earth a two million miles
an hour. Even if the plume proved truly dangerous, the solar wind and its
charged particles wouldn’t reach Earth for at least a day, maybe two.
“Something’s got me worried,” Chien said. “The SDO has only
been operating for two years, and in that time we’ve had no major solar
storms.”
“So?” Katherine had apparently already swallowed her own
downplaying of the threat and accepted mild space disturbance as fait
accompli.
“The SDO is itself a satellite. With a vicious enough
solar wind, we’d lose uplinks and downlinks, as well as orientation. Worst-case
scenario, we won’t be able to track the effect.”
“Well, let’s just pray it’s not a worst case, then,” Katherine
said, with a wry smile. Religious references were rare in the space center.
Chien, a Taoist, was not amused, nor was he comforted.
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