Big Kindle foam finger, "We're #2"

As a Taoist, I embrace the ephemeral nature of perceived existence. As a Buddhist, I seek to destroy the ego. As a writer, I am an arrogant swine who wants to be on top of the bestseller lists and let no one else have any of the ice cream, ever. So I am doing the happy dork dance of briefly being Amazon's second-rated author on the horror popularity list (behind King, ahead of Koontz, which shows you how ridiculous the rating is.)

It's mostly on the happy coincidence of After: The Shock still doing well, Amazon pushing Liquid Fear over Christmas, and Amazon pushing The Home in a January special. So, you see, it is hard for me to brag about it because I didn't really cause it, I just happened to be here when it happened. I'm too lazy to track down all the links and I'm probably already slipping, but if you want to look, it's at the bottom of my Author Central page at Amazon.

Sergio Castro is about to finish up the art for our next children's book, Bad Day For Ballooons. He did a cool anime style for it, and we hope to have it out in a few weeks. Then I am committing to marketing the books, something I've been far too slack about.

I was going to revisit my "Predictions for the Future of Digital Publishing" for the third year in a row but I am kind of tired of all that. Summary version is it's here to stay, we are all equally unique, and smarter people than me--like Edward W. Robertson, Joanna Penn, and Lindsay Buroker--are doing a much better job of writing about it.

Also just released Creative Spirit in both Czech (Duch Korban Manoru) and Italian (Spirito Creativo), and in other news, my translators and I have three of the top nine slots on the German Kindle horror charts. My goal is to make a similar impression in Italian, then move on in and take over the world via Brazilian Portuguese and Latin American Spanish. Ah, there goes my ego again...Here's me and a goat, because goat.

Also, The Skull Ring limited editions with high production values and awesome Alan Clark art whose ownership is sure to get your more sex is now shipping from King's Way Press. I'll do a separate rundown of recent audio releases and Italian books in a later post.

Look for some big 99-cent blowout sales coming up on Jan. 17-19, Jan. 29-31, Feb. 26-28, and March 26-28. I gave away 1.2 million books in 2012 but this year my books will rarely be free just because free no longer has value. If you enjoyed them, please consider writing reviews--not for my ego, but because so many of the advertising sites now have star-rating requirements to meet.And I'd like to keep writing books, lest I really have to become a Taoist and Buddhist and actually remove myself from mortal desires.

And my family is not quite ready for that. I hope your 2013 is off to an amazing launch for a wild ride ahead.
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