The New ESP

Since starting my little Kindle cottage industry, I have been humbled and overjoyed by the support I've received and the new connections we've made. Part of it is the intimacy of the ebook world, in which a reader can click, browse, and email me within minutes. I feel the ESP of story is somehow more immediate and I am linked with the reader in ways that I'm not when the book is on a store shelf across the country.

Readers also have more fun participating in the shared experience of the book, I think. While book clubs have long been popular, the connection by wires seems just as cool as the old-fashioned way of gathering in a living room with donuts and coffee, or crackers and Merlot. The Kindle and ebook audiences are self-selecting, of course, by being the early adopters of a relatively new technology. They are a combination of avid readers and forward-thinking embracers of change. Not that people who cling to paper are lesser readers--they just have a different experience.

What's really exciting as an author is there is no steep spike in sales and then a cliff dive into obscurity. The opposite happens. As the books hang around, more people find them and share them. It can literally mean an entirely new approach to a career--more like a typical small business where you grow over time and reach your customers and learn from them, eventually gathering an accumulation of rewards for your hard and persistent work. Of course, it still starts with a good book. Nothing kills growth faster than lousy customer service, no matter what the business. Thanks for shopping with me. Would you like paper or plastic?

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cobblestones and reviewness

My friend J.T. Cummins has a novella Cobblestones featuring a modern-day witch trial with thriller elements. J.T. is a screenwriter whose fiction has a cinematic flair. Available for Kindle at Amazon and in other formats at Smashwords.

Review of The Red Church up at the bargain-basement blog Dollar Bin of Horror. Mini interview for The Red Church is up at Indie Spotlight. Review of The Skull Ring is at Debbie Wiley's Book Reviews.

"Read an Ebook Week" freebie

In recognition of "Read an Ebook Week," I've made the Burial to Follow ebook free at Smashwords. The ebook contains the novella originally published by Cemetery Dance, three novel excerpts (including the never-before-seen DRUMMER BOY), and a bonus essay on the changing nature of media. I hope you give it a try in one of the various formats and let me know what you think.

There's a Skull Ring review at Mr. Shield's blog.


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Crickets in the snow

My daughter, handy with a camera, has received several photo credits at the newspaper where I work. When I'm busy at a public event, I turn her loose with the camera. She has a good eye and also creates interesting and fresh angles due to being a couple of feet shorter than most of her subjects.

She recently wrote a poem that her teacher praised and said "ought to be in the paper." Anyone who thinks nepotism is dead never heard of Hank Williams Jr. or Joe Hill. So I submitted it to the editor, suggesting it "might" make a good cutline for the next snow photograph, since we've only used about 200 of those this winter.

The poem (posted below) ran in the "Letters to the Editor" section. She was pleased to get published but said no one had noticed it or mentioned it to her. In other words, what's the point of doing something cool and special if nobody notices and you don't get applause and celebrity status and money? (Incidentally, this is the girl who wants to change from her mom's last name to mine so "people will know who I am.")

I put on my Good Dad hat and patiently explained how you can't really expect acclaim or recognition, and I told her about all my rejections as a writer, and how in the end it came down to the feeling of satisfaction--that the accomplish is the accomplishment, not the reward. She was a little dubious, as was I, but it sounded good. I always mumble that when I do something spectacular that should have the world throwing roses at my feet and clamping laurels on my brow. Sometimes I even believe it, though secretly I'm thinking a truckload of cash would be just as welcome.

The Feeling. Sometimes it's all you get, and sometimes it's all that lasts. Books go out of print. Money gets spent. People go on to other amusements, celebrities, and car crashes. But you DID IT!

Negative Snow
By Miranda Owen
Snow is bad.
It makes me mad.
When there's no school,
It's not so cool.
Sitting at my mom's work place,
I'd really rather be in space.
Snow is cold.
The joke gets old.
It falls in your hair.
And everywhere.
Snow makes ice.
Ice brings mice.
In my house.
Traps for the mouse!
Positive I try to be.
But that job's really not for me!
Snow please give us a break.
There's not much more that I can take!

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The Owl

There I was, happy with all the writing projects underway, and the one or two planned out but not yet begun. And then this owl had other ideas.

My daughter and I were rounding a sharp curve here in the Blue Ridge Mountains (which is how we spend most of our driving time), and this majestic barred owl swooped straight toward the car and settled about 20 feet away on one of those rickety wooden chutes through which farmers load their cattle. It calmly looked through the window straight at us, with none of the weird head twisting you usually get with owls. This was broad daylight, about four in the afternoon, when all self-respecting owls should be storing up for a night of rodent slaughter, hooting, and mayhem.

I know from Appalachian folklore that an owl perched on your window in daytime is a sign of impending death. This, of course, is not a good thing. But since it wasn't actually at my house, and wasn't actually perched on the windowsill, my spiritual consultants agree that I probably am not marked for imminent demise. Still, it made me wonder...and from such comes a novel idea.

I believe in synchronicity, serendipity, and the signs that enter our lives. Sometimes they are silly, sometimes they may mean "wake up," sometimes they might just be animals thrust out of their usual patterns to reveal the random connectedness of the universe and our humble place in it.

Maybe I should resent the owl. Its stolid equanimity was startling enough, and it did have a weird face. In various cultures, it's a sign of wisdom, secret knowledge, clairvoyance, and change (and as a keeper of souls traveling from one plane to another, whether that means planes of mortality or planes of awareness or consciousness). So I embrace and honor the owl, despite the six months of work it has visited upon me.

It's hard to be the world's laziest hack when all these wonderful miracles keep floating into my life and inspiring me to explore a little deeper. Quoted from "The Charge of the Write Brigade": Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die...but not until the novel's finished.

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I accept your rejection, thank you

Received today:
"On behalf of [redacted], I would like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to review The Skull Ring.

Our editorial staff has reviewed your submission. Unfortunately, we have determined that it is not right for us at this time. We regret that, due to the many submissions we receive, it is impossible to offer any individual comments.

Thank you for thinking of [redacted]. We wish you the very best of luck with your manuscript. Signed, Publisher."

Written today but not sent:
"Dear [redacted], I thank you for your rejection but it doesn't meet my needs at this time. Due to the number of rejections I get, I am unable to make individual comments to describe why your publishing company is not suited to my project, but in general, the reasons authors reject such proposals are a lack of originality, a failure to understand today's market, or a competitive environment in which most books lose money. I do thank you for your wishes of luck, though. I feel luckier already. Signed, Author. Oh, and P.S: "

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official launch of The Skull Ring

Some people have asked what I have been doing with myself, since I haven't had a new novel out in nearly three years. Yeah, it's been way too long. So here you go:

Julia Stone will remember, even if it kills her...

With the help of a therapist, Julia is piecing together childhood memories of the night her father vanished. When Julia finds a silver ring that bears the name "Judas Stone," the past comes creeping back. Someone is leaving strange messages inside her house, even though the door is locked. The Christian handyman offers help, but he has his own shadowy past. And the cop who investigated her father's disappearance has followed her to the small mountain town of Elkwood.

Now she has a head full of memories, but she doesn't know which are real. Julia's therapist is playing games. The handyman is trying to save her, in more ways than one. And a sinister cult is closing in, claiming ownership of Julia's body and soul...

It's an ebook right now at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003980ELA/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk) and Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9523) and will be in print in a few weeks.

If you'd like to help promote it and be eligible for cool prizes like valuable limited edition hardcovers, weird Scott paraphernalia, and comic books, sign up to be a Microchip by emailing hauntedcomputerbooks@yahoo.com with Microchip in the subject line. Thanks for all your support--this book has been part of me for a long time, with a number of revisions, and explores a lot of mysteries of faith, love, and messed-up motives. Plus Julia is cute.

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