Kind of an Odd Day

How is, or did, everyone survive without Twitter and several other forms of media? Here in Idaho, Twitter has been down all day due to a malicious hacker who decided we all have better things to do. (we probably do, but that’s not his choice to make.)

For me, it prevented some of my promotional efforts. Today was supposed to be a light day anyway, but I have a couple of things going on I’d like to spread the word about. I’ll just regroup and mention them here.

First, the Paranormal Bar & Grille is at the CBY Book Club today. This post has excerpts from all the books being promoted. I’d appreciate it if people would check it out, and Twitter isn’t available. Here is the link (LINK), maybe you’ll find your next great reading adventure.

Second, my Amazon Giveaway is still going on. It has exceeded my expectation, because I set it up to run until the 30th of this month and it’s almost over. I purchased five copies of Will O’ the Wisp to giveaway. The odd thing is that three of them went in about 30 hours, the fourth one went about ten hours later. Now it’s been seven days, and that last copy is still there. I really don’t want to run a second giveaway for one copy. Therefore; I’ll give you a little inside information.

When I set this up, I had several options. One invoved the first five contestants winning the prizes. The second one involved some kind of convoluted algebraic thing that I couldn’t make much use of. The third one is what I did. It works like this, pick a magic number and every multiple of that number wins a book until they’re all gone. I chose the magic number of 70. Someone won at 70, 140, 210, etc.

Right now the entrants are standing at 338. This means the odds of winning this thing are astronomical right now. You just have to be the one to hit 350 on the nose. If anyone is interested, Will O’ the Wisp is a great Halloween story. Here is the contest link (LINK)

Third, I’ve compared notes with some of my Story Empire compatriots, and the entrants into our various scavenger hunts have slowed down. There are ten Amazon Gift Cards you could win. You can spend these on anything you like, and aren’t limited to books. In addition, there are five ebooks being handed out. But wait, there’s more. There is also a Rafflecopter for a larger Amazon Card that doesn’t even require any thought.

The best page to link to is the Paranormal Bar & Grill homepage. Right in the middle is the path to the Rafflecopter. At the bottom are links to the individual scavenger hunts. Just pick an author’s name and have fun. Here is the link to get in on these prizes (Also a LINK)

Like I said, Twitter is a decent place to share this info, but it’s not available right now. Besides, I’d like to see one of you guys win something anyway. When my month of promotion ends, I’m going to post an assessment, but I’ll probably post it over at Story Empire. That site needs some love too.

It sounds like Old What’s Her Face and I are going out for pizza and beer tonight. That means I drink beer while she goes deeper into the Boise Townsquare Mall and spends money. At least today is payday. There is no baseball tonight, and Boise State played last night. I’ll take my phone, maybe some of you will comment here.

Did some work late last night

I spent a considerable amount of time goofing off yesterday. Two baseball games, a movie with my son, and the last half of the Boise State football game. (Who tries three onsides kicks in a row? Colorado, that's who.)

I went ahead and setup the Amazon Giveaway for Will O' the Wisp. The 99¢ sale for The Playground didn't give me much confidence, but the Amazon contest might generate some interest.

This one is probably the most Halloween-like story in my catalog. That's why I waited for late in the month. I pulled out all my suspense techniques and used them here.

This is the story of a fifteen year old girl, Patty Hall, growing up in a small farming community in the 1970s. I've gotten nearly as many positive comments about the trip down memory lane as about the rest of the story. This setting resonates with a lot of people.

It's also a coming of age story. The character arc is strong in this one, and responses to this part of the tale are also positive.

Aside from the window dressing, there is a pretty good paranormal tale involving an ancient curse, and the strong possibility that Patty might not survive.

This book is not aimed at the young adult market, but it is suitable for them. It's more Goosebumps than Stephen King.

This is the book I'm pushing as part of the blog tour the Story Empire authors are going on this month.

To support all of that, I set up the Amazon Giveaway. This means I bought five copies of the book, all you have to do is enter and you might win one.

Honestly, this is more about getting the title in front of fresh eyes. My regulars already know about this one, and most of you bought it and read it. Still, contests are fun, and maybe you want to share it with someone.

This is the link to enter the Amazon Giveaway. I set the odds at one in seventy, and when I woke up one book had already been awarded.

On the other hand, maybe you don't want to delay your Halloween reading. Maybe you live outside the USA and can't participate in the contest. I published two different versions of this book, because one uses copywrite protected song lyrics. I could only obtain a license in North America. Believe me the difference is about one paragraph.

Here are the purchase links:

North American Continent http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B00UPH6BNS

Rest of the world http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B00UQNDT2C

That's the new event for this week. If the trend continues, I should award all five books in five days. I ran the promo until the 30th, but I may have to come up with something else if they all award this week.

The Scavenger Hunts are still going on for the Paranormal Bar & Grille promotion. There are ten Amazon gift cards and five ebooks at stake here, so get into the hunt. This is the link to the Scavenger Hunts. I have enough entrants to award all my prizes, but the odds of winning are incredible right now. Scroll to the bottom of the page and use the individual author links to enter. Enter all of them and your chances of winning go through the roof.

While you're there, the link to the tour is in the middle of the page. Click that one and scroll to the bottom. There is a rafflecopter for a $30 Amazon gift card you can enter too. This doesn't even require the effort of a scavenger hunt.

I have a new Lisa Burton Radio victim and need to start that process today. I may also check into the Steelers Game and the Cubs are playing the Dodgers today too.

Does anyone know of some additional promotion I could do for next week. I've already used free days for Panama, 99¢ sale for The Playground, the contests for Will O' the Wisp. What's new out there that I haven't tried?

 

Don’t get left out

Lisa Burton, the robot girl here tonight. As Craig's personal assistant, I am the one who put together most of his current promotions. I'm also the spokesmodel for his writing career, but there is no new poster to go along with all the stops he's been making. Although we do have a poster for his Macabre Macaroni stories.

I decided to put my insane sign shaker skills to help with the promotions. Craig thinks I'm silly, but I can toss this thing in the air, spin around and catch it. Robotic precision baby.

First, let's talk about The Playground. This is Craig's latest novel, and it has a decidedly Halloween vibe going for it.

Basically, some nutjob created a social network that targets children. He's brainwashing them to create his own homegrown army. To speed things along, he turns to the occult.

There is this girl who becomes one of the victims, and you get to follow her through the story as her life gets darker, and more desperate.

Then there is the doctor lady. She's a cancer survivor, and is avoiding a return to work by helping end-of-life patients. She takes a job with this goofy old guy, and catches a parasite. It's not just any old parasite though, this one allows her to see into the world of shadows. She has the ability to talk to ghosts, see demons, and that kind of thing.

The next generation software goes missing, so the crazy business guy sends this huge thug after the culprit. This guy is kind of a force-of-nature, and is not to be taken lightly.

The whole thing becomes a chase for the missing software, but in a dark paranormal kind of way. You know, good guy chasing bad guy to fetch the prize before the little girl does something she can't recover from.

Anyway, Craig has The Playground on sale for 99¢ through Friday. Get it now, at the sale price, just in time for Halloween.

Craig also had a story chosen for an anthology called Macabre Sanctuary. There are ten short stories from some incredible authors, and they all have a freaky paranormal thing going on.

Miraculously, there isn't a single werewolf or vampire in the whole book. I told you these are some creative folks, and there are other things out there that are just as spooky, maybe even more so.

Macabre Sanctuary can be read in small bursts, like coffee breaks or while picking up parts for your own robot. At the price of free, what are you waiting for?

But wait, there's more! Craig and several of his friends formed a new blog called Story Empire. They are on a huge blog tour right now called The Paranormal Bar & Grille.

To drive interest in the tour, each author is running a scavenger hunt. I know, crazy right? All you have to do is go to The Paranormal Bar & Grille and click the author links at the bottom of the page.

These links will take you to the individual scavenger hunt for whatever author you choose. It's about too easy. Just answer a few questions on each site to enter. All the answers are found in the Story Empire Book Library.

There are a bunch of Amazon gift cards to win, and the occasional e-book of the winner's choice. Odds are pretty good right now too, so get your entry in.

But wait, there's more. Oh, I already said that. But wait, there's even more than more.

On The Paranormal Bar & Grille page, you will find a link to that massive blog tour I told you about. If you click on it, you can see all the stops along the route, and there will even be book reviews. At the bottom of that page, there is a Rafflecopter for a big old honkin' $30 Amazon gift card.

You have a pretty good chance of winning, but you've got to enter to win.

Rave Reviews Book club 2016 Block Party #RRBC

Welcome to the party, but I hope this isn’t your first stop. There have been prizes and fun posts all month long. There is a prize today too, and anyone can win. It isn’t limited to club members. I’m giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. This is an E-card so it will be delivered via email. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment. I thrive on comments anyway, so leave as many as you like.

There are several Grand Prizes to award after the tour ends, so leave those comments and get in the running for those too.

I volunteered to close this party out, but there is a method to my madness. I know some of you are packing bright shiny new gift cards of your own. I’m going to try talking you out of 99¢. There could be alcohol involved. You see, today is a very special day.

When you do a pre-release sale, you get to have two announcement days. The first one is when the pre-release starts. Today is the second one. This is the day the book delivers. Those first few sales really help as far as the Amazon lists go, so don’t be shy.

My second Experimental Notebook is a collection of short stories and micro-fiction. They are speculative in nature, with a little science fiction, a little paranormal, and one that might pass for fantasy.

This time, there are two stories with no speculative element. So I made sure to have extra stories. Those who only want speculative stuff are getting more than what I included in the first Notebook.

I was in a pulp mood when I wrote these, so some of them reflect that style of fiction.

Here is the link for The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack II.

My hope is the Notebooks will appeal to the lovers of short form fiction, but also serve as a gateway to my longer works. If you’ll take a glance to the right, my two most recent titles have their own linked images, and there is a slideshow of all the titles.

We might as well talk about what you can find here. The right hand column includes the most popular recent posts, the categories I post under to help filter my posts, and a chance to follow my Facebook page. It’s kind of new and could use some help. Those of you who write speculative fiction might enjoy the Idea Mill category.

If you take a look at the top, there are several pages on this site. You can find out more about me, get a free Lisa Burton paper doll, (My attempt at swag since I produce ebooks), and participate in Lisa Burton Radio.

Lisa is my personal assistant, and the spokesmodel for Entertaining Stories. She’s also a robot.

She’s heading out on a world tour after this party to help promote the newest Experimental Notebook. Today she’s generously volunteered to tend bar, but refuses to open the bar until I tell you about her radio show.

Lisa is my fictional character. She has a place on this blog where she interviews your fictional characters. It’s been pretty popular and several of the RRBC members have taken part. If you want to participate, the page at the top includes an email address to make contact.

Her show has its own blog category and you can check a few of them out in the sidebar.

Now, Lisa’s downloaded the Savoy Cocktail Manual into her internal drive, and she’s been watching video of flare bartenders. She’s excited to show off her new cocktail skills. Don’t be shy, and we have clean towels in case of an accident.

Have fun, ask questions, leave a comment to get in the drawing, get tuned up and buy my new book, and let’s party.

 

***

Update:

It’s noon here in Idaho, and we just cracked two of the Amazon lists. I’m so excited you guys. Thank you so much.

An Executive Decision

I pushed my iPad away and rubbed my eyes. This task list was long and difficult, but it's nearly complete. I crossed the room and opened the windows to let the Raven of Doubt outside for some sunlight and air. Lisa Burton* was just finishing up waxing the formerly haunted biplane.

She came inside and put her gear away. “I'm ready to go, whenever you give the word.”

“That's great, but I need you at the big party on Wednesday. We can't start the tour until September.”

“I have Lisa Burton Radio on Thursday. I'll leave after that.”

“Yeah, um, sounds good.”

She placed a hand on her hip. “What's wrong?”

“It's the posters, to be honest with you.”

“Don't you like them?”

“I love them, but I'm struggling with letting my blog hosts reveal them, or doing it here first.”

“It might be fun for the hosts, I suppose.”

“Yeah, but Sean Harrington and I drive a lot of traffic to each other. It's hard for me to drive him traffic when the artwork appears on someone else's blog. He's open for commissions and does a great job. It's the least I can do to help him out.” I clicked on my iPad. “I mean, look at that great cover. It's a completely different style than your posters. That's versatility.”

“I agree. It's a beautiful cover.”

“The pre-sale is almost over. I need six more sales to equal the first Notebook. I'd like to feel like I'm moving ahead with each project.”

“I'm sure the big party and the blog tour will move some copies.”

“It will, but it won't be during the pre-sale.”

“How about this then? Reveal the posters, talk about the stories they represent, and maybe you can move some more copies before the book delivers.”

“Makes sense, I suppose. I mean, nobody's asked for any kind of exclusivity or anything. I just thought it might be fun for my hosts.”

She sat on the couch and crossed her legs. “When you go on a blog tour, the hope is to reach new readers, right?”

“Of course.”

“There is always some overlap among friends, but you get the book in front of new folks too, right?”

“What's your point?”

“Well this is a blog too. You have readers here they don't have… So why not share them with your readers too?”

“It sounds like good advice.”

“Alright, let me explain it how you'll really understand it. Who paid for the posters?”

“That makes a lot of sense. There was the expense of sending you to see Sean, not to mention your wages, printing, shipping and handling, wardrobe expenses,–“

“Stop. So what are you going to do?”

“I think we'll share the posters and talk about them.”

<Squee> Lisa ran from the room to retrieve her leather map tube. She ran back in and took off the cap. Look at this one, it's my favorite.

“That's just because you're obsessed with the rocket-pack.”

“In part, but I like the whole Barbarella feel to it. I think it captures the pulp science fiction vibe you used in the story. Plus, there's my swag deal to consider. I got a new mirror, a Kindle, a new brush, and a blow drier. According to my contract, I get to keep the rocket-pack too.”

“Oh yeah, that's part of the deal isn't it?”

“That's right. I can make quick trips to the spa now, followed up with some Paris shopping, and still be home in time to feed Bunny.”

“Are you going to want the yak when we finish up The Yak Guy Project?”

“Don't be silly. He's a sentient being, you can't own him.”

“Oh yeah, how could I forget. What else do you have?”

“Check this out.” She spread the other poster across the desk.

“Wow, that turned out really cool.”

“I know, right? I think it captures some of the pulp horror vibe. Plus it makes a non-specific political comment too.”

“Yeah, I appreciate that, especially this year.” I smoothed the corners out to make sure it stayed flat. “So are we going to be housing that thing down at the beaver pond?”

“No, but I can use the bolero jacket, shoes, and bracelets again. I might wear the dress somewhere too.”

“So those are the stories you settled on. Fifteen stories boiled down to two. You could have milked that swag deal on Holobarkers. It would be a street scene with lots of cars.”

“I didn't want to get greedy. Besides, I took the old Airstream with the radio equipment you used in Night Bump Radio.”

“Well, the biplane is all ready. The tour spots are locked. You have your posters, and we revealed them here first. I have two critiques to mark up, and I've completed my task list for this weekend.”

“I picked up a growler of pumpkin beer too. When you finish those, just whistle and I'll bet the enchanted beer horns are excited.”

“You're a good personal assistant.”

*Lisa Burton is my personal assistant, and the spokesmodel for Entertaining Stories. She's also a robot.

The newest Notebook is available on pre-order right now. Don't forget to come back Wednesday for the big party and a chance to win an Amazon Gift Card. Then follow Lisa and I as we take the Second Notebook on our blog tour.

 

It’s a PARTY, and you’re all invited #RRBC

I’ve posted about my membership in the Rave Reviews Book Club before. This is a collective of authors who support each other via social media, and other venues. I think it’s a fabulous group, and I’ve benefited many times over from being a member. Now it’s your turn to benefit from a blog party we’re all throwing. This party is open to the general public.

The name of this party cracks me up, it’s called The Rave Reviews Book Club Back to School Book and Blog Block Party. For a bunch that loves Twitter, that one eats up a bunch of the characters in a tweet.

Here’s how it works: Seventy-one individual blogs are going to post throughout the month of August. There are prizes at every stop, and some of them are pretty awesome. All you have to do is visit the post and leave a comment. This will enter you into the daily contest(s). Hopefully, you’ll take a gander at the host’s blog and may even sample their wares while you’re there. Anyone who leaves a comment can win, and some sites are offering multiple prizes.

Remember, these hard working people would love a Tweet or a Facebook share while you’re there. (Or both)

I have a regular group of authors who follow Entertaining Stories. You’ll see many of your friends along this tour, but you could meet some pretty cool new authors too. Readers should pay particular attention, because the prizes include books and Amazon gift cards. (Which you can use to buy MY books… joking, kind of.)

The only hitch is that you have to visit on that author’s designated day to be eligible for the prizes. I’m a little slow in getting this posted, and the first few stops have already handed out their prizes.

There are some wonderful grand prizes that will be awarded at the end of the party too.

To get on this party-bus, simply go to this website. The blogs scheduled that day are one quick link away. Bookmark it, save it on your iPhone screen, and visit every day during August. You have to play to win, etc. ( I won multiple times last year.)

I haven’t written my post yet, but I’m closing this party down at the end of the month. There’s still time for me, and I intend to make it a fun one.

If you’re an author yourself, you really should look into the benefits of membership. We do a lot of things like this, and it’s a pretty good time. Last year’s party brought hundreds of visitors to my blog, and I sold books for the next week because of it. Because I like to be helpful, here is the link to the main page so you can check it out. Rave Reviews Book Club

What are you waiting for? Hit my Tweet button to tell your friends, then get over there.