A visit to the Hot 100 New Release list during a special month

One of the challenges indie writers face is that we have to do a bit of everything. Not only do we write – the core of our endeavors – but we have to do or oversee the editing, cover design, formatting, publishing and marketing.

Sometimes, in trying to juggle so much a few things escape our notice. That has happened to me twice this week.

First, the big news. I published my novella and short story collection, THE ALCHEMIST & OTHER DARK TALES, around the first of May. I've been doing a bit of marketing, finding a few websites and blogs willing to do reviews for me and never even noticed, until this morning, that the collection made the Amazon Hot 100 New Releases in the Science Fiction Anthologies category.

How long it's been there, or how high it actually climbed, I don't know. Like I said, I just discovered it today. But it's there!

And that seems appropriate, given the second bit of information I discovered this morning. May is National Short Story Month, so what better time for you to pick up THE ALCHEMIST & OTHER DARK TALES.

The collection starts with a somewhat shortish novella, then dives right in to short story after short story. All of the work is a little – okay, maybe a lot – on the dark side of life, and hopefully a little bit fun, too. I know I enjoyed writing most of the stories.

So, if you want to read a Hot New Release and maybe fill a hankering to indulge in reading a few short stories, this is the perfect time to pick up THE ALCHEMIST & OTHER DARK TALES. Just click on the title of the collection to order for your Kindle, or click right here for your Nook.

The Alchemist & Other Dark Tales now available

What's the old standard, absolute power corrupts absolutely?

I don't know if that's entirely true, but I do believe unchecked power, even if meant for good, can have tragic consequences.

Such is the case in my novella, THE ALCHEMIST.

We have all watched in horror at news reports of school violence, read in outrage at accounts of bullies making life so miserable for their classmates that they drive some to suicide, others to lifelong depression. If you're like me, those emotions are usually followed by rage, or at the least righteous anger, generally directed at the perpetrator and those around him (or her) who did nothing to intervene.

Then again, what would we do if we were there, in the school, or the community, where these tragedies take place? What would you do?

That's the question facing Denny Harris, a teacher at Devane High School. From his position at the front of the classroom, Denny sees the worst that happens in our nation's schools -- the bullies, the thugs, the killers-in-the-making, all preying on those who are innocent, weaker, in need of protection.

Denny is also more than he seems, descendant from an ancient race of beings with the ability to harness a mystical power few know exist. Their purpose is to protect the innocent.

As Denny learns, sometimes it can be difficult to determine who truly needs that protection, and guessing wrong can have tragic consequences.

THE ALCHEMIST is a tale of supernatural horror that examines the question of who really needs our help, and how some modern efforts at addressing teen violence could be misguided. The novella is part of my collection THE ALCHEMIST & OTHER DARK TALES, now available for download to your Kindle here or for download to your Nook here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Writer, thou shalt not live by indie publishing alone

I’ve been working on the indie publishing thing now for a few months, and overall I’ve been pleased with what entering this world has brought.

First, I’ve met some wonderful people – a few readers who’ve contacted me to talk about my work and a number of writers who have been wonderfully supportive and helpful as I learn the ropes.

Second, I’ve managed to see a few sales along the way. My debut novel, CLAIMING MOON, has done okay, though I really seemed to hit on something with the release of several of my horror shorts last autumn and a mini-collection of holiday-related horror shorts in December.

Since then I’ve been concentrating on writing, doing a little marketing work along the way, and interacting with other indie writers, to watch and learn from what they do. I’m also working on a longer collection of horror shorts I plan to release in a few weeks.

While doing some edits on a few of those stories this past weekend, I realized something – I haven’t submitted to a publishing market in a long time. Probably not since 2011. A big part of that is because I’ve been so focused on indie publishing.

But I miss subbing. So I sent out four shorts on Sunday, and I have another handful I hope to send out to various markets over the next week.

I know in many ways indie publishing is a better long-term business model. While the millions of stories and ebooks floating around out there stack the odds against me in terms of getting my work noticed, there is still a measure of control, the ability to generate at least some level of income, in this brave new world of independent publishing.

Still, there are very few thrills for a writer that measure up to getting an acceptance from an honest-to-goodness magazine or website. One of the few thrills that does match that is getting paid. I’ve never subbed to anything other than paying markets, and over the years I’ve been paid as little as $10 for a story and as much as $150, mostly for stories in the 2,000-word to 5,000-word range (unfortunately, most markets won’t take anything longer).

I miss that thrill. Both of those thrills. So I’m taking a slightly different approach over the next few months. I’ll continue working hard at publishing more original novel-length work this year, and I’m still moving forward with the short story collection, but a lot of my as-yet unpublished short fiction will be finding its way into the slush piles at various publications, and hopefully, eventually, find their way into publication.

Who knows, I might even query an agent or three for a couple of my novels.

I’ll keep you posted.

Dealing with Loss

A month ago today, we buried my dad.

It’s been a heck of a month.

For those of you who didn’t know, my father passed away early on Feb. 27. At 5 a.m. to be precise, with my mother, my two sisters, one of my children and myself at his side. He's pictured above with my mom, in a photo taken a little less than two years ago.

I considered writing something about him here, but I did write a tribute of sorts to him in the column I write each Sunday – if you’d like to read it (and I hope you do), go right here.

On March 9 my aunt died. It was my mom’s sister, so yes, it would be quite an understatement to suggest my mother has had a difficult few weeks. My aunt had been sick for several months, some sort of mystery illness the doctors and specialists couldn’t identify. They could treat the symptoms, although even that was eventually going to be a losing battle, and there was nothing fun about those treatments.

Eventually she simply decided enough was enough and discontinued the treatments. Several days later she passed with her sons, her brother and her sister (my mom) at her side.

Although I did get a chance to visit with her a couple of times in the final weeks, I really hadn’t seen my aunt in a number of years. When I was a child, though, I stayed at her house each day after school for several years. Her oldest son and I were fairly close as cousins go – we were the same age (though I took great delight in constantly reminding him I was his senior by three months), we played sports together, tried to one-up one another, played throw-back-and-tackle together with our other cousins (that’s a game that essentially pits a ball carrier against everyone else), and each Friday night I either spent the night at his house or he was at mine.

And yes, we got into some trouble together. We absolutely totaled a go-cart he had racing one another when I cut him off on a turn and he ended up crashing in a creek. And we got a blistering punishment when we dammed up that same creek – so effectively we flooded a neighbor’s yard (and very nearly their house).

We had some fun times. But we grew up, grew apart, and other than visiting her in the hospital, I hadn’t seen my aunt or my cousin in years.

Then, ten days ago I woke to find an e-mail from an old friend, telling me about the passing of another friend, a young lady who was in the same high school graduating class as I was. My high class was small, just 25 students, so we were fairly tight. This particular young lady I had even dated a couple of times, though nothing came of that. We were just friends, and I recall a sweet-spirited, friendly person who never said an unkind word about anyone.

Again, I hadn’t seen her in years – probably two decades – so it wasn’t as if we were close. Still, it was quite sobering to see someone from my youth, someone whose image was still, at least in my mind, 18 and young and ready to take on the world, gone.

And I suppose that reminded me, in a way nothing else could, that I’m no longer young, that I’m no longer ready to take on the world. My own kids are getting to that age – my oldest will marry in September, my second will be transferring after two years of community college to a four-year school, and my next two are entering the later part of their teen years.

We still have one young one – she’s 11 – but even the final child is growing up, and I’m feeling old.

As I’ve aged my writing’s changed, too. I’m a better writer, and that’s good, but somehow along the way the newness, the idea that I’m creating something different every time I write a story, something fresh and exciting (to me if not to anyone else), has faded over the years.

I know that happens to everyone, whether they are a writer or painter, brick layer or traffic cop. As we age, we approach things differently, we see the world through older, sometimes less enthusiastic eyes. I guess it’s the way of life.

But it’s sad to lose that newness, that belief that you really can have an effect on the world, and most of all it’s sad to see those we care about lost.

CLAIMING MOON now available on Nook

Nearly seven months ago my debut novel, CLAIMING MOON, went live at Amazon.com, available for download to Kindle and free Kindle-reading apps.

Several folks asked me then if it was available at Barnes and Noble for download to a Nook, and regrettably, I had to say no.

Starting today, that is no longer the case!

That’s right – CLAIMING MOON is available at B&N for your Nook. As with the Kindle format, you can also download a free Nook app for your computer or other reading device.

So, what’s CLAIMING MOON all about? Here’s the promo:

People are dying in Southwest Virginia, their bodies ripped open, each missing a vital organ.

Clearwater Police Detective Frank Taliaferro has served in larger departments, advised the FBI, even worked international cases for The United Nations, but now he’s back where his career began, in the small town of Clearwater, Virginia. And he’s never seen anything like these killings.

When Frank is forced into a charity bachelor auction as a prospective date, he meets Clearwater Daily Dispatch reporter Cassandra Kincaid, assigned to participate in the auction as a bidder and report her experience.

The murders begin on the night of their date, and the two find themselves drawn together in an uneasy yet passionate relationship, while they both race to uncover what is behind the macabre murders. Working independently of one another, each discovers an awful truth – the deaths are revenge killings, and someone, or something, is still on the loose, looking for more victims.

Cassandra’s probing also uncovers a dark secret from Frank’s past, one that drives a wedge of mistrust between them, yet Cassandra finds she can’t get the detective out of her mind.

In the end her feelings for Frank may not matter because the two find themselves in a deadly face-off with an ancient cult deep in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Only then do they learn the truth behind the grisly murders, but that discovery may be too late for either of them.

So why did it take so long to come to Nook?

I had the novel in the Amazon Kindle Prime Lending Library, which meant it was available to Amazon Prime members as a free “borrow.” Authors like me, with a novel in the program would get a payment for each borrow, just as we do for each sale. In order to be in the Prime Lending Program, I had to give them exclusive distribution rights to the novel, and agree to that for 90 days.

Truthfully, the program didn’t do much for me, and I more or less made up my mind to withdraw from the program at the end of the 90 days when, right as my 90th day approached, I saw a little borrowing activity on the novel. So I re-upped for another 90 days. However, during that time borrows trickled back to nothing, and the per-borrow payment rate also dropped quite a bit. So I suppose I’m joining the ever-growing number of writers leaving the Amazon Prime program because it’s proving to not be a very good business decision to remain.

That’s probably a little more nuts-and-bolts than you were interested in, but what this does mean for you is that you can now get my novel, CLAIMING MOON, on your Nook. Over the coming weeks, additional works I’ve published will show up for Nook, including my planned April 15 release of the horror collection, PROTECT THE INNOCENT & OTHER TALES.

The work features my horror novella PROTECT THE INNOCENT, along with a handful of other scary stories that I hope will keep you up at night. More details later.

For now, mosey on over to B&N and download your copy of CLAIMING MOON on you Nook.

Of course, if you would rather download to a Kindle, and you haven’t yet gotten your copy, you can download CLAIMING MOON right here.

A novel of suspense, lust, desire and craving...

Note: This is a promo for the novel LETHAL OBSESSION by Shandra Miller. It is a novel of explicit depictions of sex and erotica with a heavy BDSM, and while that’s not exactly what I write, Shandra asked if I’d be willing to promote it on my blog. If you’re not into explicit material of this nature, you may wish to pass. However, if you don’t mind that subject matter, and you want a novel of suspense and chills, one that will keep you guessing, then LETHAL OBSESSION is for you. Here’s my take on the novel, with a little help from Shandra with lyrics that open my blog.

Once in love you're never out of danger
One hot night spent with a stranger
All you wanted was somebody to hold on to

Those lyrics are from a Rod Stewart song named Passion. They also describe the state of mind of Detective Angela Martin, the main character of my novel LETHAL OBSESSION.

Angela is like everyone else – she wants to be wanted. She wants to feel love. She wants passion. Angela finds it at the hand of Mr. Tanner, who takes her into a world of domination and submission, bondage and control. He does things to her she’s never imagined. Read this excerpt from the opening chapter:

I am going to die.

Because I’m stupid.

That was the final lucid thought Angela was able to form before emotion replaced rational thinking. His hands – gentle yet deliberate in the way they had already worked the rest of her clothing from her body – unfastened first one strap that hung over her shoulders, then the other, and Angela felt her face flush as the chemise fell, leaving her nude.

She heard a whimper as the hot sting of leather kissed her buttocks, then the whimper grew to a muffled cry with the second and third strike, and Angela realized it was her own voice she was hearing, what little voice she could form through the gag.

Her body trembled at a fourth and fifth strike. Fear and adrenaline coursed through her body, and Angela moaned. Embarrassment competed with fear, embarrassment at being naked and vulnerable, and at the realization her body was responding to his actions, that she could no longer control herself, with each lash from the belt arousal grew; fear as the realization dawned on her, not rationally but in some deep, visceral way, that she was helpless and alone, at the mercy of a stranger who clearly had painful intentions for her.

Then it all went away, replaced by the hard sensation of ice, first against her right nipple, then her left. Angela cried out at the cold, her body jerking, but the sound was muffled, and she moved little, with her arms stretched overhead, wrists bound, snuggly held in place by…by what she wasn’t sure, with her vision nothing more than blackness behind a blindfold.

She turned her body away from the cold as much as she could, and Angela felt another sharp sting of leather across her buttocks.

“You will stand still.”

The voice, little more than a whisper, was firm and even. No anger, no frustration, just a simple command.

Again the ice, but Angela held her footing, though her body trembled in spite of her attempt at remaining perfectly still. The cold pressed against her, hard, and then she felt the ice slipping around the nipple, making larger and larger circles outward, spiraling across her breasts.

As suddenly as the ice had come, it was gone. In its place she felt his lips...kissing her right nipple, gently at first, ever so softly. A mix of sensations rolled through her body – the air against her left nipple, still wet from the ice, almost stinging cold, while his kisses brought warmth to her right nipple. Despite the embarrassment, the fear, Angela felt herself growing wetter than she could ever remember as his hands caressed her hips. She moaned, instinctively arched her hips forward and felt teeth clamp down on her nipple. …

*****

As you read the novel, you see that Angela finds her new-found master has a control over her, an ability to make her crave his touch, his kiss, his discipline, to be bound and helpless at his mercy. Sensations unlike any she has ever felt take hold of her body, her mind, and then the unthinkable happens.

She is called to the scene of a murder, where she finds a woman bound, clearly having been tortured in ways similar to what Mr. Tanner had done to her, so much so as to seem a copy of what she experienced.

Angela is chief detective of the Moose Creek, N.C., police department, the first woman to have ever reached that lofty status. She did it with hard work, uncompromising commitment to the job, and an instinctive ability to ferret out what the bad guys are doing.

Now those instincts tell Angela that her newfound love is behind the murder, while her emotions tell her differently. And her cravings are so strong it may not matter, because she finds herself back in his clutches, unable to resist, even as the danger to her own life ratchets up.

LETHAL OBSESSION is a novel of erotica, BDSM, suspense and danger. And it will leave you breathless, craving more.

LETHAL OBSESSION can be found at here for download to your Kindle or right here for download to your Nook.

LETHAL OBSESSION might be a little different than what you're used to reading, but at its heart the story is one of suspense and lust, desire and, as the name implies, obsession. Check it out.

Want a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card, free fiction, and more? Join Shandra's LETHAL OBSESSION Facebook Blog Tour.

Lessons from the Walking Dead: Good vs. Evil?

I’m not big on watching television. Outside of some sports (NOTHING beats the NCAA basketball season and March Madness), I don’t watch a lot of TV shows.

One show I do watch, as do most of the people in my social circles, is The Walking Dead. Over the past two episodes something has struck me, and being a writer this is the only way I know to share.

I think sometimes in life there is little difference between good and evil, and I believe The Walking Dead shows that, in many cases, the difference is only a matter of perspective.

Let’s take a look at Rick Grimes, leader of our little band of survivors in The Walking Dead. These are people we’ve watched come together and persevere through the zombie apocalypse. They’ve managed to survive, to even find a safe haven of sorts, despite this worldwide epidemic that seems to have claimed most of humanity. They’ve watched their own family and friends fall victim. They’ve endured what few could survive.

Our good buddy Rick has taken on the mantle of leadership. He’s put his life on the line numerous times, he’s shouldered the constant worry of ensuring all are safe, and when they found Sophia, the little girl they had been spent months searching for, had been turned to a zombie, Rick is the one who put a bullet in her head because he knew the trauma of doing so would be too much for anyone else to bear. Quite frankly without his leadership my guess is everyone in his group would be dead by now.

And he’s managed to do so while holding on to some vestige of his moral code – you never leave your folks behind, there are certain rights that are always right, certain wrongs that are always wrong.

A stand-up guy.

Then we have the governor, the man who leads Woodbury. He’s evil. He keeps disembodied heads from his victims – zombies and regular folks – stored in tanks in his private bedroom for his own personal viewing pleasure. He led his men in an ambush where they killed a half dozen or so soldiers and stole their equipment. He assigned one of his men to assassinate Michonne once she chose to leave Woodbury and strike out on her own. And when they captured two of Rick’s people – Maggie and Glenn – the governor let one of his thugs tie Glenn to a chair and then beat the living-crap out of him before letting a zombie loose on the bound prisoner. Then the governor assaulted, and threatened to rape, Maggie.

A true, in-the-flesh bad dude.

But is there really that much difference between Rick and the governor?

Rick’s a good guy, but he’s done some horrible things along the way. When he, Glenn and Hershel encountered a few strangers in an empty bar, Rick shot them down with the icy cold calculation of a serial killer or a gunman in the old West. While his wife withered away emotionally, starving for some sort of comfort from Rick while she carried their baby, he would barely acknowledge her existence. And when it became apparent he and Shane could no longer co-exist in the group, and that Shane was setting Rick up to kill him, Rick went along with Shane’s plan until forced into a fatal confrontation with his former best friend, rather than less violently banishing Shane to go out on his own.

The governor, by contrast, has created an oasis for nearly 100 people, a village where they can live peacefully, protected from the zombies. He allows newcomers to take up residence in the village, provided they do so in small enough numbers as to not pose a threat to the village. And, through the course of the series, we’ve learned the governor has an undying love for his daughter, the sort of all-encompassing devotion only a parent can truly understand. While his little girl has been turned into a zombie, he has kept her there, hidden away but separated from others to keep the rest of the village safe, supporting research into curing the zombie virus, mostly driven by this love.

You might say Rick’s evils, if you want to call some of his acts by that label, are driven by his desire to keep the group safe, that everything he’s done is consistent with his role as group leader, and even the bad stuff is okay when viewed in that light.

I would argue the same for the governor. Virtually everything he’s done can be construed as necessary, or at least likely necessary, to protect the town, to keep its people safe, and to one day bring his daughter back from her zombie state.

Does he take a little more dark pleasure in inflicting pain or retribution on others? Sure, but then again Rick seemed to take some sort of perverse satisfaction in the emotional pounding he inflicted on his own wife, day after day, until she was dead.

Do we view Rick as good only because the show’s creators and producers have shown him to us in that light, and we see the governor as evil, again, only because of the way the show has present him to us.

At their core, is there really a difference between good and evil, other than perspective?

I'm curious to know your thoughts. Leave a comment below and tell me what you think.

Check out my own zombie tale, where you really can't tell the good guys from the bad, for just 99 cents. Summer's End. Again, just 99 cents!

Looking for some excitement in your reading?

I want to introduce you to a couple of writers today – not a long, drawn out review of their work, just a quick little intro to Russell Blake and Kate Aaron.

For those of you who have wondered about indie publishing, or the idea of independent publishing vs. going the traditional route (meaning trying to get an agent, trying to find a publisher, waiting three decades for an answer), Russell is an example of someone who’s done it both ways.

As a successful writer who had already gone the traditional route, he changed course a bit and starting publishing his own work. While I’ve never asked him this point-blank, I believe from various discussions and posts I’ve seen him make, Russell has never really looked back.

The second writer is Kate Aaron, another person who has met with success through indie publishing. One of the things I learned about Kate early on after meeting her online is that she has an incredible amount of knowledge regarding ways to market your work and to utilize every tool to give a published work a chance to find readers.

I’m not talking about some magic formula to get everyone on Twitter or Facebook to suddenly notice your work, but such attention to detail regarding how you list your book, ways to fill in book blurbs and the like.

So, you’re sitting there and saying “great, they know about indie publishing, what’s that got to do with ME?”

I’ll tell you. Above all else, Russell and Kate can tell a story. They can write. If you're looking for well-written, entertaining work, then you need to learn a little more about Russell and Kate.

Russell can take you on a thrilling no-holds-barred ride in espionage and spy works, while Kate can embrace you in the world of gay romance – and some dark vampire works as well.

Maybe those genres aren’t to your liking, and if not okay. But if so, then I really don’t think you can go wrong checking out work by Russell or Kate.

And you can start right now, with Russell’s JET or Kate’s What he Wants.

A couple of writers whose work you should read

One of the things I hope to do with my blog this year is not only let you continue to get to know me and my writing, but introduce you all to some other wonderful writers I know. Some weeks I’ll do interviews, others I’ll simply post a quick bit on them, with links to their blogs, books, and other interviews with them on the web.

There’s no better place for me to start than with two good folks who are exceptional writers and story tellers and who have really stepped out there in the world of indie publishing before it was hot, blazing the way for the rest of us. That’s not only good for other writers hoping to follow their lead, but it’s great for readers because that opens up a whole new world of opportunities for their enjoyment.

Now, without further ado, Bobbi Holmes and Nick Russell:

Bobbi Holmes (who sometimes writes under the pen name Anna J. McIntyre) pens romance -- sometimes sweet tales of love, sometimes stories that are a little more explicit, but always ones that go deeper than traditional romance novels.

Here’s a bit on her most recent saga, The Coulson Series:

After losing her beloved husband in a car accident, Alexandra is left to raise her teenage son alone. Coming to terms with life as a single mother is difficult enough, yet now she must face the sins of her past when Garret Coulson returns to town.

Grandson of the town's founder, the wealthy and powerful Garret Coulson fell in love with another man's wife, resulting in a self-imposed exile. With that man dead, Garret can return to claim what should have been his.

For ten years, Alexandra has kept the secret of her infidelity. The fact she is now a widow does not make that secret any less painful to reveal. Some secrets have the power to shatter lives - yet sometimes they heal hearts.

An adult love story. Contains explicit mature content.

That’s her work. You can find out more about Bobbi at her personal blog Mid-Journey, her Anna J. McIntyre blog here, and at her Facebook page, or by checking out a neat interview Suzie O’Connell did with her at Suzie’s blog.

***

Nick Russell is an old newspaper guy, kinda like me (except I’m not old, despite what my kids and Nick keep saying), so I have a natural affinity for his work.

One of his latest novels is Big Lake, and here’s a bit about that work:

When an armored car hijacking leaves two men dead, Arizona Sheriff Jim Weber takes the crime personally, because one of the dead men is his brother-in-law. His hunt for the killers leads him into a world of sordid sex, deceit, and violence, with a suspect list that includes jilted women, a family of anti-government survivalists, and the beautiful wife of the richest man in town.

With a plot that has more twists and turns than an Arizona mountain road, a cast of characters you won’t soon forget, and a shocking ending that shakes the town of Big Lake to its very foundation, this first book in the Big Lake series will keep you turning pages to the very end!

One reviewer has referred to the Big Lake mystery series as “Mayberry Meets Twin Peaks.” It’s a combination of humor and intrigue that launched author Nick Russell’s first Big Lake book into Amazon’s 100 Top Paid Kindle books for over 78 days!

You can learn more about Nick at his Amazon author’s page and his Facebook page.

I hope you’ll check out work by both Bobbi and Nick. If you enjoy compelling, well-written fiction, you won’t be disappointed.