Summer Book Club now free

The Summer Book Club is now free! At Smashwords, and coming free soon to multiple formats.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70762


We're still donating proceeds to the library relief fund at Joplin MO, but are asking people to support the fund directly if they can. Joplin Public Library has established a fund to assist the 10 employees who lost their homes and were injured during the tornado. Please send checks to the Joplin Public Library Staff Relief Fund, c/o Jacque Gage, Joplin Public Library, 300 South Main Street, Joplin MO 64801. The library is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/joplinpubliclibrary and messages of support are appreciated.

Summer Book Club features nine bestselling indie authors.  It's free. Grab it and get a tan from the heat. Or use sunscreen and merely bask. Or jump in the ocean. Whatever metaphor works for you!
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Jared Sandman Blogbuster Tour

Jared Sandman's Blogbuster Tour 2011 runs from July 1st through August 31st.  His novels include Leviathan, The Wild Hunt and Dreamland, all of which are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.  The Shadow Wolves will be released in August.  Follow him on Twitter (@JaredSandman) and be entered to win one of several $25 Amazon gift cards.  See rules at www.jaredsandman.com for eligibility. 

THE SHADOW WOLVES

ALTHOUGH THE TWO men wandered the desert, neither was lost.  Unbeknownst to them, GPS devices had been slipped into the heavy backpacks they carried.  Such technology was unnecessary, however, so long as the North Star shined ahead of them.  Following Polaris would eventually lead to freedom.

They had entered the United States from Mexico deep within the SonoranDesert.  Their sole obstacle at the permeable border had been a barbed-wire fence, cut and repaired so many times that it sagged low enough to the ground to overstep.  The biggest threat it afforded was tetanus if its rusty barbs pricked them.

 That barrier had been left a few hours behind.  They crossed into the U.S. around midnight and had stopped once since then, a ten-minute rest to slake their thirst.  The water from their flasks was warm and stale, yet it tasted sweet on their parched tongues.

 The normally cruel environment became bearable at nighttime, temperatures cool and dipping to the low fifties.  Another twelve hours would drive the mercury well into triple digits.  Had they not worked up a sweat, they would’ve been downright chilly.

 A full moon offered ample brightness by which to journey, the stars overhead sparkling with the light of long-dead suns.

 Neither man spoke to the other.  The travel companions had never met prior to that night.

 The younger of the pair, Carlos, was almost twenty and had never before undertaken such an outing.  He’d been raised to believe America was like heaven, the streets paved with gold.  Now that he was here, he found it looked remarkably like home.

 Diego, Carlos’s partner for the trip, was in his thirties and done this at least a dozen times.  So often, in fact, he knew the route by rote.  On his fourth voyage, the Border Patrol had detained him; after finding no criminal background, he was released back to the state of Sonora. 

 The men started out shortly after nightfall.  Dropped off near the border outside Sonoyta, each had been outfitted with a canteen, a couple apples and their cargo:  twenty-five kilos of marijuana apiece.

 They toted the dope in burlap sacks, the street value of which neared three hundred grand.  Of that amount, the men were being paid two thousand dollars each to trek it sixteen miles across the desert, half on acceptance and half on delivery.

 Two thousand bucks for an evening’s work, easy money only the most steadfast of men might refuse.  Carlos didn’t have the luxury of ethics.  Morality meant nothing to someone who couldn’t afford to eat.  Empty stomachs fueled poor decisions.

 He’d made less than that in six months working fulltime at the maquiladora in his hometown.  That money could feed his extended family for the rest of the year.  Not a diet of tortillas with rice and frijoles either — hearty meals of chicken fajitas and chipotle beef roast.

 Diego stopped atop a slight hillock.  From this higher vantage, the desert basin stretched out before them.  The GrowlerMountains were barely perceivable in the distance, black against black.

 Moonlight threw shifting shadows on the objects below. 

 The albedo light had played tricks with Carlos’s vision throughout the evening.  At a couple points, he thought they were being followed.  He saw shades astir in his peripheral vision; whenever he looked directly at them, they turned out to be saguaro cacti or greasewood trees.

 As Carlos gazed upon the bottomlands, he again fell for this optical illusion.  Only when Diego pointed out the movement as well did he realize the shadows were changing. 

 Amid the sagebrush the men spied a group of illegal immigrants marking a straight path through the desert.

 The smugglers could use this development to their advantage.  If they kept ahead of the migrants, their own footprints would be obliterated by the heavy foot traffic in their wake.  The Border Patrol made regular sweeps through this area, a known passageway for drug running and human trafficking alike.

 They opted to forge in front of the immigrants.  Their destination, the small town of Ajo, was several miles away yet.

 The men walked more briskly now, tried to outpace their compatriots far enough as to go unnoticed. 

They’d traveled for the better part of five hours.  Their legs ached from the added weight of the burlap sacks, their backs a latticework of spastic knots.  The soreness between Diego’s shoulderblades was agonizing, and the straps that dug into Carlos’s chest chaffed his pectoral muscles raw.

 One foot in front of the other.  The promise of cash alone kept the men going.

 The only sounds between them were their labored breaths and the crunch of gravel underfoot.  It would be another hour until they arrived at the drop zone.

 Carlos had spent most of the night lost in thought.  He had a major decision to make.  After unloading the cargo, he could hitch a ride to Mexico and try again.  Another night, another two grand.  Given the poor state of the economy, smuggling at least presented steady employment.  America’s voracious appetite for narcotics continued to grow, and he could choose to feed it.  Working for even a few months would allow him to save up a significant amount of money, enough to move out on his own.  By the end of the year he could buy his own place in Ensenada or La Cruz, somewhere along the coast.  He’d always dreamed of living on the ocean.

 He and Diego would likely stay the day in Ajo and split a motel room.  A hot meal and a cold shower sounded blissful.  Then they’d sleep away the afternoon, after which they’d start back to Mexico at nightfall.

 But Carlos had a second option:  disappear into the American backdrop.  Wire money home to his family once a week after landing a job elsewhere in the southwest.  There was stable employment in the United States for someone with a strong work ethic and a stronger back. 

 That was if he evaded capture.  Because the Border Patrol was ever vigilant and —

 A baleful sound splintered the night, cut short his thoughts of the future.

 The mournful bay of a coyote carried on the air.

 Both men stopped, tried to orient wherefrom the howl originated.  The sound reverberated off the rocky plateaus and foothills, bombarded them from all directions.

 “Ensombreza lobos,” Carlos whispered.  Shadow wolves.

 Diego shushed his partner and listened hard to the night.

 There were stories — superstitious hearsay, really — about devil dogs cooked up by farmers and locals to dissuade drug mules from trespassing through private land.  Many spoke of the animals in jest, others as cautionary tales.  A few were convinced they were real, rabid canines the size of men that roamed the wastelands in search of prey. 

 Nothing more than myths and legends misinterpreted across lifetimes.

 Coyotes did make the desert their hunting ground, but they were scavengers, not predators, and certainly not imbued with supernatural qualities. 

 Yet in that instant both men wondered what the darkness held. 
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Killing Cupid: Summer Book Club

Killing Cupid - Mark Edwards and Louise Voss

Killing Cupid is the first book to be featured in the Summer Book Club. Mark Edwards, who co-wrote this darkly-funny stalker thriller with Louise Voss, will be on Facebook on Saturday evening to answer questions and chat.  He will even answer questions about the controversial Dan Brown/Stieg Larsson subtitle scandal if you are nice. Please drop by as his psychiatrist has warned him several times about talking to himself...  Go to www.facebook.com/summerbookclub for more information.

Can you sum up your book in no more than 25 words?

Killing Cupid is a stalker thriller in which a wannabe writer becomes obsessed with his tutor. But then she turns the tables, with devastating results.

How important is a book's central character?

Vital. Killing Cupid has two central characters. I wrote Alex, who starts off as a creepy stalker but, I hope, becomes more sympathetic as the novel goes on. Louise wrote Siobhan, a lonely writer who it turns out, has a lot of issues. The central idea of the novel is that there is someone out there for everyone - no matter how crazy you are.

What are the central themes of the book?

Love. Or rather, obsessive love.  Both of the central characters in Killing Cupid are lonely and frustrated; they feel that their lives would be complete with a significant 'other'. But neither of them know the best way to find that other person so they act in increasingly bizarre ways.  Of course, we all do stupid things when we're in love, but Alex and Siobhan take it to the extreme. If this makes Killing Cupid sound like a serious book, it isn't. It's a dark comedy with lots of twists and turns and a great joke about haemorrhoid cream.

What was your motivation for writing it?

Killing Cupid was co-written by Louise Voss and me. When we started, Louise was in the middle of a four-book contract with Transworld. I had recently been dumped by my agent. We got drunk one night and came up with the idea of writing something together as an experiment - and also because we thought the idea of a stalker novel in which the stalker becomes the stalkee (I think I just invented that word) was compelling.  Two months into writing it, a lucky meeting attracted the attention of a BBC producer who optioned it. It never got made in the end but it gave us the motivation to make sure we finished it.

What parts of the book are you most proud of?

Apart from the fact that we managed to pull off the tricky act of co-writing a novel without any tantrums, tears or throwing of teacups, my favourite parts of the novel are the scenes where Alex is creeping around Siobhan's house, inspecting her possessions, reading her diary, sitting on her toilet seat for a thrill.. And I love the second half of the book, in which everything turns around and starts moving really fast. And I love Louise's chapters because I just love reading everything she writes.  It was like simultaneously writing and reading a novel. Great fun.

What's your favourite part of the writing process?

I love the first draft because my favourite aspect of writing is plotting, although we never work out the full plot before sitting down to write. We enjoy working it out as we go along. The characters tend to take a life of their own and tell you what they would do next. With Killing Cupid I wrote a chapter which I sent to Louise with some notes about what might happen next. She edited my chapter then did the same. We had no idea how it would all turn out.

Can you tell us something about being an indie writer?

The best thing about the rather insane few months we've spent as indie writers - apart from hitting the No.1 spot on Amazon.co.uk with our second novel, Catch Your Death! - has been the opportunity to 'meet' lots of other writers who have been incredibly supportive.  That's where the idea of the Summer Book Club came from: the idea of creating a mutually-supportive group to celebrate the fact that we'd done it for ourselves, and to show readers out there how many great self-published books there are on Amazon.

Bio: Mark Edwards lives in south London with his girlfriend, their daughter and, arriving this August, a son.  He is the co-author, along with Louise Voss, of Killing Cupid and Catch Your Death, a conspiracy thriller that was the first novel by British indie authors to reach No. 1 on Amazon.  You can find him on Twitter @mredwards.

Killing Cupid is £0.49 on Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/gXGez2

and $0.99 on Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/eGhcPx

Mark's blog: http://www.indieiq.com

Author Keith Latch

I've crossed paths with Keith Latch a bit in the horror genre over the last oh so many years, and I am pleased to have him guesting today. Keith describes himself as happily married, a father of one, career-minded and a little bit of a square. Nonetheless, at times, he finds himself looking to the stars for orbiting alien spacecraft and has been known to carry an enchanted sword in the trunk of his car. Oh, and that hockey mask and machete in the backseat…that’s just for Halloween…

 

1. You've been working in the small press a while. What's happening there as the digital revolution takes hold?

Well, I have to say that I was fortunate enough to find an excellent small press to publish my work. However, that was a different time, almost five years ago, which in publishing can be a lifetime. I enjoyed the experience and learned a lot from it, but now with the digital revolution, I can get the same things: editing, cover art, distribution completed on a timetable that fits me much better.  It’s also a little ironic that you ask. I’ve actually just yesterday received the rights back for three of my backlist books, at my request, from the publisher so that I can actually place those titles up for sale, independently, by mid-summer.

2. What do you see happening with the horror genre at the moment?

In my opinion, horror has always been a niche market. While it has a roller coaster market history, the actual horror fans are a small, yet loyal, group whether it is books, film, or whatever. It may come in vogue every few years, but the swelling in the marketplace that occurs when horror is the new fad…again and again…is a good thing, it allows new writers to emerge. When the bubble bursts, we see only the best and brightest continue to produce work, which in the end is a big win for the reader.

3. You've had ebooks out even before the Kindle revolution, right? What kind of difference has it made?

 I self-published A Ghost Story back in 2006, way before self-pubbing was acceptable. But through word-of-mouth and loyal readers, I actually moved enough copies to attract a small publisher. However, the first version of my first contracted novel Cemetery Things came out in ebook several months before the paperback. For a while, it did not feel like a real book. I still relish the day I got my first print copies. I was caught up with the nostalgia of the printed pulp. I wanted to hold the book in my hand. Back in that time, 2007 it would have been, ebooks were more a novelty than anything. However, there were a few ebook readers available. I actually picked one up from Fictionwise and tried it out. I liked it but the ease in which we have today to purchase and load books just wasn’t there. As time progressed, and the electronic market caught on, I saw more and more readers for the ebook versions of my novels versus the print.

Now, with self-publishing catching on, and the ease in which we can publish, I gain more readers each month than I did in a year with the small press.

At first I considered the ebook revolution both a curse and a blessing. We had more affordable content and a much more diverse catalog to browse. Unfortunately, I also knew that any ninny with a computer could type a few hundred pages, purchase a stock photo, and say they had themselves a literary masterpiece. After the last several months, I‘ve decided that was not so horrible. Instead of the so-called “gatekeepers” of traditional publishing, we could now use our own free will to decide what content we’d like to purchase and read. So I sample a few books, erase what I don’t like, and buy and then read what I do. That’s left me with many options as a reader and just as many as a writer because with the money finally flowing towards the writer, and a much better percentage, I am satisfied with a much smaller readership than I would have needed to be successful in the mass market paperback or even hardcover arena.

4. You write in multiple genres. Do you just follow your moods, an intention to reach different audiences, or is it a wide range of interests? And do you feel if that's made it harder to build what they keep calling the "author brand" these days?

I do dabble in many different genres; horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, and even a little romance (that one was a dare from my wife just to see if I could do it…she now thinks I can). I’ve even done a comic book project with Steve Wands, who has among many other things worked on a run of Green Lantern for DC and Mike Fiortentino, a very gifted artist. I actually write the way I like to read. I read voraciously everything from Scott Nicholson (editors note--I didn't pay him to say that but the 15 percent is in the mail) to Stephen King, to Brandon Sanderson, to Clive Cussler, to John Varley. As I write, I like to explore new terrain and seek out new stories that can sometimes be challenging. I feel that keeps the writing fresh and entertaining for the reader.

While it may limit my “branding” in certain aspects, I hope that my readers can identify in all my works, regardless of genre, that the stories are actually about people, relationships, and hope. No matter if it’s a horde of hungry zombies, a mysterious killer stalking the streets of Memphis, or the return of a long-lost friend who believes that all your success in life is due to him and he’s ready for his cut of the pie even if it means your death, I do think the same themes permeate my writing. I also hope readers begin to identify my name with a good story versus a category of fiction. 

Also, I think the ebook revolution has and technology in general has given writers a way to build a common community with not only other writers but also readers and even potential readers and I love the idea of that.

5. What's coming up next for you?

As I mentioned, I just received the rights back to my books A Ghost Story, Bestseller, and No Small Thing. I hope to revise those quickly and place those up for readers by August 1. I’m also working on a very ambitious science fiction project, which I’m very excited about. More details to follow…

Visit Keith online at http://www.keithlatch.com and follow him at twitter, his username is @keithlatch1

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Alaskan Book Cafe

Alaskan Book Cafe: News on Scott Nicholson

Cristina is just starting out in the blog world, so let's give her a warm welcome (she needs it, being in Alaska and all). Also, brilliant storyteller Willie Meikle's got a new book out, Concordances of the Red Serpent. Visit him

And a big event coming up this summer, so be sure to follow my newsletter to get in on all the giveaways and goodies: scottsinnercircle-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Simon Wood: It's No Accident

This guy's probably one of the more humble writers around--anyone else hitting #2 on the Kindle bestseller list behind Janet Evanovich would be screaming about how great they were. But I've known Simon Wood since before the Kindle era, and he's just a hard-working and talented writer who takes nothing for granted. A former PI and race-car driver, he's won a slew of mystery awards for his short fiction and now he's getting a wider audience with his novels after publishing in paperback with Leisure books and other presses.

His fiction features lots of twists, duplicitous characters, con men, liars, conniving females, backstabbers, and well-crafted writing.

1. First, congratulations on your success. Since we've been sharing ideas for a while, along with Debbi Mack, it's good to see we've all had some luck. And for you, it must seem like a slow grind to the top of the Kindle bestseller list, while from a distance it may seem you're an overnight success. What do you think created the tipping point to break through?

Yes, It’s been a slow haul from my point of view.

I think the success surrounding ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN came from having a game plan for the book.  I have eleven books in eBook form, but I made the decision to focus on one title at a time instead of all of them at once, because it’s too much noise for the readers if have too many titles for people to choose from.  I got ACCIDENTS out to bloggers and review sites with strong followings and provided them with copies of the book.  Their endorsements got some sales traction.  People saw that and they in turn discovered the book and recommended it and momentum took over. 

In the end, there seemed to be some website mentioning the book every day and that helped push the book in Amazon top 100 at the beginning of the month.  Then Amazon endorsed the book by sending out an email blast and it pushed the book over the top.  While there was no predicting what Amazon did, I think the tipping started three months ago when I made sure there was a grass roots following for the book.  Once people latched onto it, I helped give it a nudge.  The trick is to now repeat the success with my other titles.

2. What's the difference between being a midlist paperback writer and a successful indie author?
I’m more in touch with how well a title is performing than with my paperback books.  I won’t really know for weeks/months how well a paperback has done because the chain of custody is so long from bookstore to author, because of the delay from the bookstore, to distributor, to publisher and finally to me. In that situation, it’s hard to react to make the book a better seller.  With eBooks, I get to see how well my e-titles perform in real time and I can react accordingly.

3. Any general tips for the aspiring writers out there?
Take your writing seriously.  You may be new, but any time you put anything out for public consumption, you have a responsibility to the reader.  Make sure it’s the best work you can physically produce.  Make sure your book is edited and copy edited as good as any book put out by New York.  And remember, just because you’ve published a book, don’t think your work is done.  It won’t sell simply because it’s available.  Get it into the hands of reviewers and bloggers who will recommend it.

4. You have a diverse background. How does that spill over into your writing?
Probably the biggest way it shows up in my writing is by way of conflict.  I’ve seen firsthand and secondhand how people react to pressure situations.  Sometimes people triumph and sometimes they fail.  And failure leads to people making some spectacular errors in judgment.  This is great fuel for crime fiction.  Human fragility is always interesting.  Some people tell me they wouldn’t do what my characters do in my books, but you’d be surprised how people will react when their backs are against the wall.

5. What can readers expect next?
Print-wise, I have a new mystery series set in the world of motorsport.  The first book is called DID NOT FINISH and it’s loosely based on something that happened when I used to race.  There’ll be a paperback version of my eBook THE FALL GUY which will be out in November.  Ebook-wise, I hope to be releasing the first in the Terry Sheffield mysteries, which features an English guy who becomes a county sheriff in California.  The first book is called, NO SHOW and will be out before the end of the year.

Thanks, Simon, and best of luck--and all the other stuff besides luck!

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Der Schädelring: Romantischer Thriller

This is pretty cool. I am not a "numbers screamer," because I believe if you brag about how well you are doing when times are good, you should in all fairness be a whining, sullen, unpopular toad when your sales slide. In reality, the words are exactly the same and YOU are exactly the same. Just because you sell books doesn't make you a better writer nor a better much of anything except, for that particular moment, someone who is selling some books. And it will end. It always does. So bragging is never cool.

That said, I want to give a shout out to Christa Polkinhorn for translating The Skull Ring, because Der Schadelring is #122 in the entire German Kindle store. It is cool. But not ego-boosting, "Take that, Gunter Grass" cool, because we're only selling three or four a day. So what this tells me is the German market is very, very small right now. And I wish I had 30 German books, because the market is there for the taking. And I expect that pattern to duplicate as we make our way around the world with Amazon and Kindle. Thanks, Christa! Danke schoen. And all you translators, call me and let's avoid being toads.

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