Signed Copies Available For $10.00…

SIGNED TRADE PAPERBACK COPIES OF “THE BRIDGE” AVAILABLE FOR ONLY $10.00, LIMITED TIME!

These are not the 1st edition copies, these are the re-edited 2nd edition copies. Each one is $10.00 a piece, plus $3.00 shipping/handling in the United States. Anyone interested in getting one of these please let me know down in the comments section or e-mail me. Payments accepted through Paypal.

Book Review: “Cat Playing Cupid” from the Joe Grey Mystery Series…

My Rating: 5 STARS

This fourteenth outing for the Joe Grey Mystery Series was both fun and intriguing for me. While I haven’t read the full series yet, I did read the earliest books and was quickly drawn into this wonderful world where some cats can speak and think on par with humans, while others cannot.

Miss Murphy keeps each story building on this mystery either slightly or heavily. In this case it was more heavily focused on while at the same time dealing with a classic whodunnit.  What is the connection between a body, dead 10 years, up in Oregon to the mysterious disappearance of a local man who was going on a hike locally? And when a second body, also dead some 10 years is discovered in an unmarked grave, the big questions arises to this person’s identity. Could this one be the missing local man? If not, then who is it?  And why were they buried with a book that frightens the cats, because it contains hints about them?

These are just a few of the questions that arise in this book.  We also get to see a bit more of the lives of some of these intelligent/talking cats.  Not all wish to live among humans.  Many are feral and distrustful of humans.  Yet they understand that there are some they can reach out to for help in a major crisis.  The scenes where the ferals reach out to those they believe they can trust can be quite touching and moving.  We see their point of view of their world, as well as the humans viewpoint.  We may not entirely agree with either side but the author gives us food for thought.  She makes us take a look at some of the relationships we’ve had over time with people in our own lives who had very different ideas about themselves and the world.

Another nice touch to these books is that they do not focus solely on the cats themselves but the people in their lives. It is an ensemble piece that keeps growing and evolving, along with the characters themselves. We are slowly introduced to more and more of the many residents of Molena Point (which is modeled upon Carmel California where the author resides).

This is an excellent series that keeps you coming back for more. You’ll find yourself cheering for the cats and their people, as well as a number of the secondary characters who keep the series growing. One of the more feel-good mystery series you want to curl up with on a quiet day and maybe make you wonder about any four-footed friends in your life.

Breathing New Life Into Vampires And Other Well Explored Genres…

Okay, in my last entry I disclosed I was working on a vampire novel.  Now this is a genre that has been done and redone so many times it’s unbelievable.  And almost every time there are new twists and turns added to it that they barely seem to resemble the traditional vampires that Bela Legosi and Christopher Lee made legendary in Hollywood.  Today we have vampires that just totally ooze sex appeal, can sparkle in daylight instead of turning to dust, can have sex and produce offspring, are either monsters or saints, etc.  And they are still as popular as ever in spite of all the changes to the original legend.

 

Now I’m not just talking about Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”.  That was not the first vampire story.  There were many others. If you ever get the opportunity check out “The Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories” and you’ll see ones that predate Mr. Stoker’s work by quite a few years.  But in that collection you’ll also meet other kinds of vampires: snow vampires, ones who hide inside portratis, aliens on different planets, etc.  In this collection there are creatures of all sorts and shapes that are still called vampires.

 

This brings me to today’s subject.  How can you breathe new life into a genre that has been written about so many times over?  Well that’s up to the writer.  As in the case of Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer and others, they tweek the original vampire concept to suit their story ideas.  Sometimes they provide and explanation about why their creations don’t adhere to all the old legends, sometimes not.

 

So, you may be thinking, “Okay Allan, how are you going to ‘tweek’ the vampire concept and make it fresh and different?  What changes are you going to make to the traditional weaknesses and rules?”

 

Here’s my answer.  All the traditional rules of garlic, being welcomed into a place, avoid sunlight, shape-shift, control minions, etc. will be in effect.  So where am I making the change?  Simple, my vampire is NOT undead.

 

At this point I’m sure a number of you are thinking if he’s not undead then he can’t be supernatural.  So how can all those limitations and vulnerabilities still apply to him?  That’s where the creative writing process comes in.  All of these things will be addressed in the story.  And it won’t just be about a biography about my vampire.  There will be dangers.  The internet allows people access to a lot of information.  And this story will be taking place in modern day.  So there will be suspicious townspeople, cops on the hunt, the threat of discovery, a ghost, and villains (human and otherwise) to be battled.

 

So there you have it.  A new take on a much used subject.  But instead of changing all the rules, I’m working with them and making new reasons for why they apply.  And in doing so, I’m hoping that a number of you are already really intrigued and are looking forward to checking the story out when it’s ready.  If this is the case, then I’ve succeeded in breathing new life and interest into a genre that has been worked and reworked many times over.  And it can be done with so many other genres such as fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, you name it.

 

So what genre or legendary creature/being have you thought about working on?  Is there one close to your heart that’s been done a lot already?  If so, how can you make it new and interesting?  Are there rules for how it behaves or can be dealt with and what are the explanations behind it?  Is there a new way to approach these things?  Give us a new spin on it that still makes sense and intrigues us.

 

I’d love to hear from you and so would other people who read this blog.  Leave comments below and tell us a little about what you are working on or have in mind.  Be careful not to give your whole idea away.  Just leave tantalizing hints that will get us revved up to check your work out as soon as it’s ready.

 

Until next time,  keep writing.

“The Bridge” Has Finally Come To The U. K.

I just found out today that my beloved paranormal/mystery novel “The Bridge” is now available in the United Kingdom through Amazon.uk.com.  I hope it does well over there.   Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bridge-Para-Earth-Series-ebook/dp/B00B86DR9G/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367594807&sr=1-1

Thoughts On Using The 1st Person Voice In Stories…

Well, a new month has begun and here I am already doing another entry about writing.  This is what happens when the muse takes hold and has something to say.  I hope you all enjoy today’s installment.

Yesterday, against my better judgement, I started writing a second book.  Mind you  I’m still working on “The Ship” which is the sequel to my first novel “The Bridge”.  But I was having troubles with “The Ship”.  I was making progress, but it was so slow I was going crazy at times.  I would write over a 1000 words in one day and then dump about half of them because they weren’t moving the plot along or really helping develop the characters as much.  I kept what did seem to be working and built on that the next day.  Sometimes this is one way of dealing with Writer’s Block for me.

Then yesterday, something else happened.  An idea for a different book that is part of my Para-Earth series started gelling like no one’s business.  It had sat on the back-burner for so long now it was boiling over.  Scenes and characters started coming to life to such an extent I had only one of three options:

A) Start writing the book

B) Leave it alone and hope I don’t forget all this great stuff that was coming up

C) Start taking notes and outlining the damn thing for later.

I tried opting for C but next thing I knew I had written the opening scene of the book and was plunging forward with the project.  Tentatively I’m calling it “The Vampire Blogs”.  And as a homage to Bram Stoker who gave us “Dracula” I’m doing it as a series of journal and blog entries.  I’m choosing this route because I knew I wanted to do the entire book in the 1st person perspective.  Now most 1st person narratives stick with just one character throughout the entire story. This is a great device for a mystery or thriller because the audience can only know as much as the main character.  So when he/she gets surprised by something they didn’t know, so are we.

However, I knew from the start I’d need to be showing the audience what was going on in several different people’s heads while using the 1st person voice.  So how was I going to pull that off without confusing the hell out of my readers?  I turned to my “Spare Brain”, my wife Helen who is more well read than me, and asked for advice.  She told me that from what she could recall it had been done before but that it could be tricky.  Then she struck on the idea of paying homage to Mr. Stoker and instead of just letters and journals, use blogs and journals on the internet since I was using a modern day setting.  This was a masterstroke on her part.  I now had a clear path of how to switch heads and keep the “I” voice without confusing the audience.  The other thing I loved was the fact that I could build more suspense by letting the audience know things that only some of the characters were aware of.  Nothing gets an audience going like seeing some of what’s coming and realizing the characters don’t have a clue about it yet.  Plus you can still surprise your audience at times because they don’t necessarily know everything about the characters or the situation.  They know only what your characters have shared with them so far.

I’m Running A Special Sale This Weekend…

To celebrate my first novel “The Bridge” being #44 on Smashwords Horror Bestseller list of books over 100K words, I’m taking 50% off the price. It’s now available there for $1.50 for this weekend. So take advantage of it while you can. There’s 15 reviews on this page so you can get a good idea of what others have been saying about this strange blend of paranormal mystery and science fiction.

Remember: Smashwords offers this book in the following e-reader formats: Apple, Sony, Nook, Kindle, Kobo, EPUB, PDF (for regular laptops and desktop computers), and others.

Oh, and if you’re one of those people who already bought a copy and loved it, please help spread the word of this special promotion. Thanks so much and have a great weekend everybody.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/272613

I’ve Got A Bestseller On Smashwords…

BIG NEWS! My novel “The Bridge” is #44 in Smashwords Bestselling Horror books (over 100K words).

https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/883/bestsellers/0/any/epic/40

Update About My “Hobbit Birthday Party” Last Weekend…

Well, time for a little update.  Here are the results so far from my “Hobbit Birthday Party” last weekend. Total 40 free books were picked up. And so far 4 reviews have come back, which is great in my book. The fact that people went through it so fast and got back to me is terrific. I’m hoping with time, that as people get to read it and finish the book, they’ll leave reviews too.

Out of the 4 reviews I’ve gotten 3 were 5 Stars and the last one was a 3 star, but a very pleasant one mind you. They still encouraged people to check it out so I’m not going to complain.

This first review is from Amazon.com:

You’ll think twice about going in the water! April 5, 2013

By Michael Drakich

Format:Kindle Edition

Exhilerating! The story kept me tense the whole way through. I normally don’t read horror as I prefer science fiction and fantasy but after receiving a copy of the novel it is my habit to always read all the way through and I’m glad I did. There is even a touch of sci-fi in the mix which pleased me. The story was creative and, at times, frightening, the good way a horror book should be. A number of sub-plots rounded out the novel but it is the main plot that is so riveting. I don’t want to post any spoilers except to say the concept of the evil hidden in the river is a nice change from coming from underground. For fans of the horror genre, this is a must read.

These reviews are from Smashwords:

Review by:  on April 06, 2013 :   

Good ideas, well paced and well plotted, with interesting and engaging characters.

But it needs a thorough editing; I felt like I was reading an unpublished draft. The common banter style made the characters tend to blur together, and really, could they not sometimes just get on with their bloody jobs instead of making with the constant sexual jokes & innuendos? And the author very badly needed to consult someone actually British for the voice of the supposedly British characters – these are teeth-gratingly bad at times. (What is Oye even supposed to mean? Oy? Oi? Aye? What kind of English are we even talking about? Seems to veer randomly cockney & posh.)

I got the book free in exchange for a review; I hope this isn’t so harsh as to be discouraging. There’s a lot of good in it; it just needs some balancing and tweaking.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: April 03, 2013 :     
As someone who got to proof read this, I must say I love it! Found a few surprises in it that were not there before! Can’t wait for the next one!
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: March 31, 2013 :     
The Bridge is an excellent book, well written. A genre I don’t usually read but, I will look out for Allen’s next book.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

A Quick Thank You, Plus An Update On Book 2…

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who took part in my “Hobbit Birthday Party Weekend”.  Whether you picked up a copy of the book or helped promote it, thank you so much.  We all know getting the word out about a brand new book is more than half the battle for Indie Authors.  So this was a real shot in the arm.  I’m pleased to say that 39 people took advantage and snapped up a free copy through Smashwords over the last 3 days.  I felt somewhat vindicated for not going the KDP route, where I would have had to given them the exclusive e-book distribution and sales for up to 90 days.  I know Amazon is bigger and has a wider reach, but I never felt right about cutting off Nook, Apple and other e-reader customers.  So thanks for letting me know I did the right thing.

 

Now, I’ve never done a free e-book promotion before, so any of your more experienced authors please let me know if 39 was a good number or not.  I’m still learning as I go along this path.  As a result of the promotion I already got one 5 Star review that is now up on Smashwords.  I’m hoping for many more reviews, since it helps promote more sales or so I’ve read.

 

Today I’ll be working on my e-press release kit and then a physical one as well.  I also have to do research to find out who/where to send press releases to.  This is seeming to be the next big hurdle for me so if anyone has advice please leave it here, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Finally, book number 2 “THE SHIP” is coming along nicely.  The first draft is about 1/3-1/2 done at this point.  I’ll be doing more drafts of course to clean things up and make sure the pacing is going well.  But even more importantly, to make sure I’m keeping the readers’ interest.  The new book has a similar fun feel to the first, but it’s also feeling quite different to me.  Mostly because I’m dealing with different leading characters, who were prominent in the first book.  But now the focus is on these two women developing their new romantic relationship as well as dealing with new and old enemies.  I’m trying to keep a balance between the nervous romance of two people getting to know each other more deeply, while also developing the secrets they haven’t shared.  It’s an interesting experience for me as a writer.  I know that in the end their relationship will have gone much further, but to make it happen gradually while not losing the fun ‘banter’ that a lot of people enjoyed in the first novel is quite a balancing act.  But, this is still the first draft.  Creating just the right balance is what 2nd and 3rd drafts (along with edits) are for.

 

Take care and have a great week everyone.

 

 

A New 4-Star Review For “THE BRIDGE”

GOT ANOTHER 4 STAR REVIEW FOR “THE BRIDGE” ON AMAZON.COM

4.0 out of 5 stars Normally not my type of Genre, March 17, 2013
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) (Kindle Edition)
This para book is not the genre I usually read. But I got sucked in and loved the characters. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B86DR9G