Today is the day

I warned you about it on Friday, and the day is finally here. You can grab your copy of The Yak Guy Project for free today. To quote pop culture, “Free, free, free, free.”

This is my attempt to ease your isolation by offering something fun to read. I suppose you could grab a copy to read this Fall, too, if you want. Anyway, here is a cover and blurb, plus a purchase link.

Imagine waking up in the desert with no idea what happened to you. You have clear memories of situations and places, but a complete loss in personal matters… like your own name. This situation is bad, and you have no idea how to get home.

When you’re rescued by a talking yak, the situation gets exponentially worse. You’ve obviously lost your mind. The immediate needs of a ride off the salt pan and searing heat, along with a drink of water, outweigh the concerns about your mental state.

This is exactly what happened to the Yak Guy. In fact he’s been placed in an alternate world and given a chance to start over in life.

Can this selfish, almost parasitic, young man learn to start over in a world where charity is hard to find? Life is brutal and short here, but he’s going to have to adapt or perish.

The Yak Guy project is loosely based around The Fool’s Journey from the Tarot. Those with experience in Tarot will spot people and situations from the Major Arcana.

I linked the cover, but this is also a purchase link: http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B07D1QY9Y7

Feel free to share this post by using the buttons below. Maybe one of your friends would like a copy.

Time for a Freeby

Everyone is self isolating, if not outright quarantined right now. It get’s boring, even for those of us who can work from home.

Add into that, a whole bunch of people who lost their jobs and are trying to file for unemployment right now, and we could all use a break.

Reading is a good way to spend a few hours, and all authors would love to have you check out their wares. I don’t want anyone to accuse me of taking advantage, so I’m going to do a free promotion. Even folks who lost their jobs can take advantage of a freeby.

Don’t freak out on me just yet, because I set it up to run on Monday. This post is just so you can line up ahead of time, while practicing your social distancing skills. I’ll run out another post when it goes live.

I try to have a method to my madness. Yak Guy is an older title these days, and I never thought it got as much love as it could have. The reviews are all positive, but there just aren’t enough of them. Hopefully, you follow my logic. I’m not linking the cover, because the freeby trots out on Monday.

This is the one where I based the characters off the Fool’s Journey from the Tarot Deck. Yak Guy is The Fool who goes on the journey. He meets other Major Arcana characters along the way. Obviously, I had to weave in a few others, but it made for a fun way to tell a story. I was kind of proud of my Wheel of Fortune. (It’s an entire city with multiple choices of roads leading out.)

For today, you might want to give your yak an extra ration of oats, maybe use some saddle soap on your rigging. The journey begins Monday.

Lisa says he likes carrots, too.

Looking toward the weekend

I doubt I’m going to do any writing between now and the new year. It could happen, but it’s not high on my list. We have tickets to the new Star Wars movie tomorrow, and that’s my focus now.

We’ll probably catch up on The Mandalorian sometime, too. While we’re there, I have a hunch some other old films are on my agenda.

The free days for The Playground run through the weekend. I know there’s no money in this, but it could bring some new eyes to my work. The fact that some of the characters make a reappearance in Viral Blues could push a few folks that direction. The results were positive yesterday. Check out this horrible screen capture I took last night.

Honestly, “Occult Horror” might not be the best descriptor for this story, but number 12 is still pretty cool. “Paranormal Suspense” is probably a better descriptor, and 33 isn’t bad at all. You can grab your free copy through Sunday (December 22, 2019) at this link http://a-fwd.com/asin=B01D6EF6RI

The hottest new toys of the Christmas season are the Playground Network dolls. They contain a worldwide social network for children. Except the network is controlled by a ruthless businessman with dreams of power.

To reach his goals he turns to the occult. Will our children make up his personal army? Could we have an enemy soldier in every home?

Gina Greybill is a cancer survivor who stumbles into her own brush with the paranormal. She wants nothing to do with it, but may be the only one who can bring down the Playground Network. To do it she’ll have to embrace her new situation, and recover the next generation of Playground software.

There is competition for the software in the form of a brutal thug named Clovis. He’s bigger, more ruthless, and more experienced. To top it all off, he has a head start.

The Playground is suitable for mature readers, due to violence and mature themes.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and May the Force be with you.

If Die Hard is a Christmas movie, then…

There is a debate that rages every year across social media about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It’s placed at Christmas time, and it seems to get shown around the holidays on various cable channels. I’m not entering the debate, but I enjoyed the film. There’s even one thread I saw about whether it’s a missing Harry Potter film, because Bruce Willis chases Professor Snape around a spooky building. (Not touching that one at all.)

I’m here in my usual corny style to make a different connection. If Die Hard is a Christmas movie, then The Playground is a Christmas book. This is one I wrote a few years ago, and I have a deal for you. I don’t usually run deals, but it’s the holidays, so why not?

Blurb:

The hottest new toys of the Christmas season are the Playground Network dolls. They contain a worldwide social network for children. Except the network is controlled by a ruthless businessman with dreams of power.

To reach his goals he turns to the occult. Will our children make up his personal army? Could we have an enemy soldier in every home?

Gina Greybill is a cancer survivor who stumbles into her own brush with the paranormal. She wants nothing to do with it, but may be the only one who can bring down the Playground Network. To do it she’ll have to embrace her new situation and recover the next generation of Playground software.

There is competition for the software in the form of a brutal thug named Clovis. He’s bigger, more ruthless, and more experienced. To top it all off, he has a head start.

The Playground is suitable for mature readers, due to violence and mature themes.

This one is written in the style of a Frank Miller comic, or a Tarantino film, in that three different stories orbit around the main event. They come together at the end to complete the picture.

Clovis and Gina, along with her sidekick, Gupta, make a return to my book world in Viral Blues that published this year. Clovis remains one of the most popular characters I ever came up with, and I got some nice feedback about his return. (Viral Blues is still linked in my sidebar if you’re of a mind to check it out.)

I set up a sequence of free days for The Playground, starting today. If you’re an early visitor, you may have to cycle back through, because I’m on Amazon time here. Pick up your free copy at this link: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B01D6EF6RI

Enjoy your free book, and since I know someone is going to ask, I count Die Hard as a Christmas movie. (Gremlins, too.)

How about some free days?

Once upon a time, I wrote this book called The Enhanced League. It’s my take on a baseball league where performance enhancing drugs are not banned. It’s a little bit science fiction, and a bit human drama.

I wrote it as a collection of short stories and micros. My personal growth plan was to have these stories all set in the same environment, and to tell an overarching story from cover to cover.

It seems like I’m always trying something new, and this book has a few pieces that I called Anthems. These are short bits in second person point of view. They were well received by the reviewers, so I wrote a new one for this post. (Personal theory: second person is best in small segments.)

I thought it deserved a bit of music, and video clips seem to be the simple way to add that in WordPress. This may be my favorite movie scene of all time.

Spring is in the Air

It’s been a long winter. The series ended in spectacular fashion, but that was back in November. Sure, you tried to get into football, maybe checked out the Winter Olympics, but it wasn’t the same.

You listened to the Hot Stove reports on the radio. There were some good free agents this year, and you earmarked a couple for your team. You knew they were long shots, but like all baseball fans, you live on hope and faith.

This year was different. Teams refused to pony up those ridiculous contracts like in the past. Guess they finally figured out super-stars aren’t so super, seven years into a contract for mega-millions.

Passive fans always want the team to spend money and buy all the free agents, but you know better. This is because the business side is every bit as interesting as the game on the field. There’s only so much money, and you have to keep an eye on the future. It’s hard to extend the contract of your ace pitcher next year when you spent it all on some hotshot this year.

When it all shook out, your team settled for an import pitcher from Japan, and a few minor league guys that might come up late this year. For the most part, you’re fielding the same team.

That isn’t bad in some ways. They made a run and got into the playoffs. They might have done better if it weren’t for the injuries. All you need is just a bit of luck and… we’re back to hope once more. Maybe those minor league guys can cover the spots if an injured player has to take some time off. There’s always hope.

You watched the trucks pulling in to the stadium. You imagined they delivered sports apparel and the newest bobble-head dolls of the popular players. It’s too early for hotdogs and other perishables. Still, it’s getting close.

The grass is green, not like it will be in May or June, but all the dead thatch is gone. You watched them testing the lights over the stadium, and Spring Training is underway five states away.

Kids always put a lot of faith in Spring games. You know they don’t mean a thing, and you’re just hoping to get through without somebody getting hurt. Players get their work in and get ready for the big show, that’s what it’s all about.

The radio guys are looking for stories, so they come up with things for you to worry about. So-and-so seems to have lost some velocity on his fastball, or such-and-such seems to be swinging and missing more. You know they’re trying things out in Spring Training, and working up to their full skill set. They’ll be ready, have a little faith.

Hope and faith, they fuel the baseball fan’s world. It’s almost time to take the field and welcome summer in the best way possible. Grab your cap, ice the beer, turn on the game, and let’s watch some baseball.

***

Those who read Enhanced League seemed to like it. It never seemed to get enough readers to make a splash. Now here we are at the end of Spring Training, and the beginning of the Major League Baseball season. What better time to trot it back out and do a small push.

Today through Saturday I’m holding free days for The Enhanced League. I’d appreciate it if you’d pick up a copy, maybe add it on Goodreads. In it’s debut, I had Lisa making the rounds. Here is the poster that came out the best from her promotional efforts.

I added it, because images draw attention, but also for some of you to use. I’m not going to spend a lot of money on a free promotion. If you want to reblog this one, I’d be grateful. Some of you may prefer to assemble your own post. You can clip the Anthem, cover, umpire Lisa, however much or little you want. And thanks for considering The Enhanced League.

Meet Michele Jones

Michele Jones is one of the masterminds behind AIW Press, and the two anthologies I’ve been invited to participate in. She’s also the author of one of the stories inside Quantum Wanderlust. She’s here to give us a behind the scenes of putting an anthology together. Let’s make her feel welcome and use those sharing buttons today. Thanks.

***

Hey Craig, thanks for having me. By the way, I love Lisa’s radio show. You have very interesting guests. If you don’t mind, I thought we could talk about putting together our newest anthology, Quantum Wanderlust.

I believe there are some similarities between producing an anthology and writing a successful story or novel, or producing a live radio show. It all comes down to planning.

Our team meets and discusses ideas and themes for upcoming anthologies. We’ve done holiday, westerns, and wanted something different. Thus, Quantum Wanderlust was born. Of course, the ideas that didn’t make the cut were filed for future use.

Once we have chosen the theme, we develop the concept that all submissions must adhere to. All of our anthologies have guidelines the selected authors must abide by, theme, word count, and of course they must not be offensive to the readers or the participating authors, therefore, we stay away from political and religious topics when producing the anthology.

After hashing out the details, we have a call for submissions. This includes reaching out to the authors that participated in previous anthologies. We provide the details of the anthology, such as theme, word count, deadline, editing process, and marketing.

After we have commitments from the authors, we create an online forum for information pertaining to the anthology. This is where we discuss the progress of the stories and the marketing we will be doing.

While that is happening in the forefront, we work behind the scenes producing the marketing material. We gather the author bio, and any links they provide for their work. As the stories come in we start the editing process. We review all content to make sure it adheres to our rules, and edit for grammar. Once completed, all edits are returned to the author for approval. Don’t be alarmed, any edit that we do will not change the author’s voice or the plot of the story.

Once we have all the finished pieces, we start the layout for the compilation. We come up with a one or two line short synopsis for marketing and we pull a quote to introduce the story.

I’ve read all the stories in Quantum Wanderlust. Craig chose to travel back in time and came up with a great plot twist in his story, Swift Wings. I chose to travel to the future in my story, The Fabric of Time, where one snag in the fabric can alter the future.

Don’t forget to pick up your free copy of Quantum Wanderlust at all the major sites. These thirteen authors will take you on some interesting time travel adventures. Oh, and if you don’t mind, please leave a review.

***

What if you had all the time in the world?

Thirteen authors answer that question with short stories about time travel. Go back in time to right a wrong, forward to see the future. No jump is too large, no method unfeasible, no lesson beyond learning.

• Visit the past to learn a family secret.

• See the formation of a future dictatorship.

• Assume responsibility for weaving the fabric of time.

• Travel back in time to WWII.

• Use a family heirloom to solve problems.

• Wear an inheritance to visit ancestors.

• Leave a dystopian future for the hope of something better.

• Make history come true in an unexpected way.

• Fight evil fairies to protect a chosen angel.

• Live with the childhood memory of visitors until the day they arrive.

• Seek medical help for a memory issue and get way more than bargained for.

• Discover that with great power comes great responsibility.

• Uncover the secrets of a pharaoh’s tomb and curse.

Do the characters observe or interact? Is the outcome better or worse than the original timeline? Read these stories to learn how far they go, how they get there, and what happens when they return.

The scope is virtually limitless, definitely timeless.

Pick up your free copy here

Bio:

Michele Jones lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and two spoiled dogs.

Along with her writing, family, cooking, and sports are her passions. She is a diehard Penguin, Steeler, and Pirate fan… really, a diehard anything-Pittsburgh fan.

Michele writes memoirs, short stories, romance, and poetry, but her passion lies in writing paranormal, suspense, and thrillers.

You can follow her online at www.michele-jones.com

Connect online:

Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Published Works | Goodreads

Guest Interview with Lisa Burton, Personal Assistant to Author C.S. Boyack, on Quantum Wanderlust

Lisa got an invitation to Michele Jones’ site today to talk about Quantum Wanderlust. This one is more like a coffee chat about my story and Michele’s story. Please visit her site and see how it turned out.

***

“Hi everyone. I’ve got radio personality and interviewer, Lisa Burton here with us today. Let’s give her a warm welcome.”

“Hi, Lisa and welcome. I’m super excited to have you stop by today.”

“Hi, Michele, so glad to finally meet you. I’m here today to talk about Quantum Wanderlust.This is a collection of short stories by thirteen awesome authors, and all of them deal with time travel.”

Keep reading here. We explore a couple of the stories in the anthology.

Try out a FREE anthology

I’m proud to be part of this anthology with a talented collection of authors. This time the theme is all about time travel, which is a science fiction standard. How could I not say yes?

I’d never tackled the subject before, and was a bit apprehensive. The publisher didn’t put any restrictions on me as far as travelling into the future or past. As long as time travel was the basis, I was left to my own devices.

I struggled with coming up with a cowboy story, but it just never came together for me. Then the Muse visited, and I changed directions. I hope you’ll enjoy Quantum Wanderlust, and I already have my copy.

The best part for you is this is a free collection. It is available everywhere, and this Universal Link will let you choose the vendor of your choice.

My story involved a lot of research, and I was at risk of becoming a victim of the Research Sirens. I have the dates right, the real people who appear in the story, specific locations, and even some of the research into the discovery.

Our book rankings depend upon a strange algorithm. My experience is that a cluster of downloads all at once will rank a book higher than the same number spread over a couple of weeks. I encourage you to pick up your copy right away, even if you wait for a snowy afternoon to read it. I already have mine.

Other things that help us are those sharing buttons at the bottom of this post. A few tweets and Facebook shares really mean a lot.

Of course, reviews matter too, and I would appreciate if you would leave one. This helps me garner more invitations to participate in future anthologies.

Now this wouldn’t be a C. S. Boyack project without some participation from my spokesmodel, Lisa Burton. Feel free to use Lisa’s poster as your telephone background or wherever you like. From Lisa’s poster, see if you can guess which story is mine.

Spring forward, fall back.

That reminds you of changing the clocks, right? When we talk about the passage of time, it’s usually in short bursts (seconds, minutes, hours) or slightly longer chunks (weeks, months, years).

What if it was limitless? What if you could go forward or back, in any size segment you wanted? Decades, centuries, eons? Would you go back and change your life? Go forward and see your future?

That’s the challenge thirteen writers faced.

Quantum Wanderlust is a time travel short story anthology. Characters travel forward and back—how far they go and how they get there make fascinating tales. Do they observe or interact? Is the outcome better or worse than the original timeline?

You’ve got to read the stories and see for yourself. The scope is virtually limitless, definitely timeless.

 

What if you had all the time in the world?

 

Thirteen authors answer that question with short stories about time travel. Go back in time to right a wrong, forward to see the future. No jump is too large, no method unfeasible, no lesson beyond learning.

 

• Visit the past to learn a family secret.
• See the formation of a future dictatorship.
• Assume responsibility for weaving the fabric of time.
• Travel back in time to WWII.
• Use a family heirloom to solve problems.
• Wear an inheritance to visit ancestors.
• Leave a dystopian future for the hope of something better.
• Make history come true in an unexpected way.
• Fight evil fairies to protect a chosen angel.
• Live with the childhood memory of visitors until the day they arrive.
• Seek medical help for a memory issue and get way more than bargained for.
• Discover that with great power comes great responsibility.
• Uncover the secrets of a pharaoh’s tomb and curse.

Do the characters observe or interact? Is the outcome better or worse than the original timeline? Read these stories to learn how far they go, how they get there, and what happens when they return.

The scope is virtually limitless, definitely timeless.

Dang that is a good looking sphinx. One more time, in case you missed the Universal Purchase Link.

My Birthday Gift to You

That’s right, today marks one more orbit around the sun for me. I’ve been hitting it hard on the promotional front, and am about out of paranormal stories to push. Will O’ the Wisp is on an extensive blog tour, but that doesn’t leave much to do around here.

That means I need to stretch a bit to fit this into the Halloween theme. It’s actually an epic fantasy, but it contains lots of things that could be considered monsters. (If you look at them with your peripheral vision.)

Regular followers know I like to mash things up. This is a Greco-Roman fantasy with some of the traditional Germanic characters thrown in too. Elves, dwarves, and goblins are European in nature, so I decided they must have existed further south too.

They are in the mix with cyclops, satyrs, Amazons, and centaurs. In this world, Remus killed Romulus and the Remsians are the power instead of the Romans.

This is the story of Cobby, a Southern Dwarf. He loses his human family in an attack by some people who look suspiciously like Atlanteans. This sends him on a journey to discover his true heritage. He meets other downtrodden races along the way and seems to collect them all. Eventually it becomes a sizeable band.

It’s like Homer included Exodus in some kind of, well, mashup. I think it’s a fun story, and for my birthday it’s absolutely free. One day only. Hope you enjoy it.

Hail Cobby

This is one of Lisa’s paper doll outfits. You can download your own under the Look Free Stuff page up at the top of this site.

You can get your free copy of The Cock of the South at this link. (LINK)

I don’t know what time Amazon starts these things, and the international date line may come into play in your location.

***

Update: One of my followers said the link didn’t work for him. I used the universal link generator, but he suggested this alternate https://www.amazon.com/Cock-South-C-S-Boyack-ebook/dp/B00P4H37WC

Also this happened:

Product Details

• File Size: 5377 KB
• Print Length: 518 pages
• Publication Date: October 31, 2014
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00P4H37WC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray:
  Not Enabled
• Word Wise: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,377 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Greek & Roman
  • #21 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

 

 

How about some free reading

My friend, D. S. Nelson, is the author of the Blake Hetherington Mystery series. I've read one of these, and finished it in one session. She gets bonus points for that at my house. I really enjoyed it, and must return to the series soon.

She also has a great blog, and has recently been writing about making her own hat. Lisa the robot even visited her this year to talk about her hats. This is because Blake Hetherington is a milliner by trade.

Today she's here to offer you a great jumping on point for her books, and it's absolutely free.

***

First of all I'd like to say a big thank you to Craig for having me over to tell you all about the new Blake Hetherington Mystery. It's great to be here!

I've been writing murder mysteries for four years and the Blake Hetherington Mysteries began in 2013. Blake Hetherington is a gentleman in modern times; a milliner with mystery solving thrust upon him. Delilah is an enthusiastic archaeologist with an unhealthy interest in murder; DS Rob Claringdon is her beau. This unlikely trio is at the heart of this quirky, amusing and quintessentially English, murder mystery series.

The first three adventures feature hats, allotments and voodoo, all in the fictional village of Tuesbury where Blake lives. After a year away from the mystery writing, it's time Blake returned and he'd love to meet you all. Now's your chance to fall in love with a new mystery series and it's absolutely free!

The Visitors Book, is a Blake Hetherington mystery short that will be serialised in eleven parts. It's a newsletter exclusive and it starts on the 14th of December running until the 24th December 2015.

So what's it all about?

Visiting his family in Devon, Blake Hetherington is supposed to be relaxing, but murder just seems to follow him. Picking up the paper in the Bellevue Hotel he discovers the local mayor has died in a fishing accident. The mayors' wife is a family friend and is convinced her husband has been murdered. It isn’t long before Blake is tasked with unravelling the mystery. Why would a man concerned with the environment be catching sea bass out of season? What's an environmental student doing staying in an expensive spa hotel like the Bellevue? And what was the meeting about in the hotel conference room? Can Blake discover the truth that lies in The Visitors Book?

To receive the instalments, absolutely free, all you have to do is sign up to my newsletter here. ( http://eepurl.com/OWBLv)

For murder, mystery and millinery, Blake's your man and to find more of his stories you can download them on Kindle from the US (http://amzn.to/1MWEzeB) and the UK (http://amzn.to/1gXmKv1). Blake's looking forward to meeting you.

Thanks again for having me Craig. I better get back to the editing!!!

***

I don't know about you guys, but I'm in. A segment per day sounds like fun to me. Check out her other social media sites here:

Website: www.dsnelson.co.uk

Twitter: @WriterDSNelson

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriterDSNelson

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/WriterDSNelson