Soapbox Time

We haven’t lugged out the old soapbox for a while, and I think it’s time.

Before we get to that, I’m still fighting this cold. Friday and Saturday were pretty miserable, but with red NyQuil, a home brewed lemon concoction with honey, and lots of tissues I no longer think I’m dying. In fact, I’m feeling frisky enough to step up on this thing once more.

While trying not to die, I looked around on premium services for something to watch on television. I also spent a considerable amount of time on YouTube. Which has prompted this little tantrum.

It seems there is a huge rift in the entertainment industry right now. Words like “Woke,” “Homophobe,” “White Supremacists,” or even the old standby, “Haters,” are thrown around quite frequently.

People are actively politicking for relationships to happen in certain series that just don’t seem to make any sense to me. It’s only for someone’s personal scoreboard and not anything that enhances the plots.

I never accept anything at face value, and it seems to me some of the accusations are fairly accurate. There does seem to be a rift in that narrow groups are trying to change our perception of America. There is a certain amount of pandering to specific groups.

You can see it for yourself in advertising or virtually any other medium out there. Lisa the robot girl was particularly distraught when they canceled the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Green M & M, anyone.

On the other hand, the opposition seems to come down on projects they couldn’t possibly have seen yet. I don’t understand how they can offer opinions about films that are still in production.

It seems this has nothing to do with truth, or any kind of ethical reporting as long as someone gains clicks. (On both sides)

Old What’s Her Face stumbled upon an old Western this weekend and I couldn’t look away. It must have been a Peckinpah project, because it was particularly violent. I was struck with the idea of telling a story where men are men, and women are women, without any social preaching involved at all. There were good characters and a decent plot.

I’d like to see more of this. Sometimes I don’t care what sexual antics a character gets up to. If it isn’t an important part of the plot, leave it out. If there are women or people of color, include them and be honest about it. Unless they are the main character, don’t go to great lengths to make them more heroic or to vilify them.

I can’t imagine anything worse than being a comedian these days. Cancel culture has hit that niche pretty hard. There’s almost nothing they can poke fun at without bringing the torch and pitchfork crowd out in droves.

Before my next statement, please understand I live in Idaho. It might be the most conservative place in the nation, and some of those ideas are “over the top.” There is a lot of buzz here about censorship, at least one bill that would allow the police to arrest a librarian who allows specific materials into the hands of minors, and one large city that is thinking of banning libraries completely. Shades of book burnings, and population controls.

I think right about now people have lost their frigging minds, and this post might even cause someone to twist out somewhere.

There is a solution, however. I write books, and so do a lot of my friends. We work pretty hard to come up with good characters and decent plots. All of our books are available on Amazon and you can even read them for free with Kindle Unlimited. There are even blurbs and reviews to help you choose.

I know it’s kind of old-school, but if you feel like the mainstream entertainment industry is letting you down, pick up a book or two.

For myself, I try to be inclusive in my stories. I’ve included multiple races, and tend to write more female main characters. I think my last male lead was way back in Yak Guy. The Lanternfish Trilogy kind of had co-main characters and one of those was an Asian woman.

Maybe someday the mainstream will get the hint. Until then, there are a lot of authors out there who would be thrilled to find a new reader or two.

Assessing my promo

I’ve done an Amazon free day many times over the years. They used to work pretty well, then stopped being productive.

Back in the day, when Panama was a fairly new publication, I managed to hand out over 400 copies. After that, they seemed to taper off. Future attempts even had me paying for a bit of advertising and boosting posts on Facebook to help things along. Those netted me numbers around 40 – not 400.

I gave up on free days because of this. Any I held after that were more in support of something else I had going on. Meaning if I had a Halloween tour happening, I might have a free-day for The Playground, something along those lines.

I’ve been pretty “In your face” about my interview on Blog Talk Radio this week. I decided to set up my free days based upon my historic experience. Something to reward those who tuned in, maybe give away a dozen books. I never did a lick of promo other than a mention on this site.

I was kind of blown away by the result this time. I chose to have free days for Grinders, because I think it’s one of my best and deserved a bit more love. I also went with Serang. It’s a good story, and it’s also a stepping stone into The Lanternfish Trilogy. This idea stemmed from the idea that the final Lanternfish book will come out this year.

Now that it’s all over, I want to share the results with you. Maybe this is an anomaly, and maybe things have changed on the promo front. If you have deeper knowledge of this, I’d like to hear from you. Any readers might be interested in your comments, too.

The promo ran for three days. This was to take advantage of Fresh Ink Group’s advance promotion of the show, and to gather those who might have tuned-in the day after.

I managed to give away 1,646 books. Now that’s two titles combined, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. If I had sold that many it would cover the mortgage and Old What’s Her Face’s car payment this month.

The dream with freebies is that people will read them. I’ve found that comes to about 10% or even less. Even so, 165 readers can do nothing but help me. Of those I might net a dozen reviews. The other dream is that people enjoyed the stories and take a chance on additional titles.

Keep in mind that Amazon has a bestseller list for free titles. It probably doesn’t mean as much as the paid lists, but it always feels good to see your name on there. Serang peaked at #2 on two different lists.

Grinders actually hit number one for a while yesterday. Here’s the proof.

Okay, Urban Fiction is an odd place to put it. It hit #2 in cyberpunk. Still, we authors tend to work alone and haunt these sites looking for good news. Some days, even I get lucky.

You can still read them for free with Amazon Prime.

Rumor is, this kind of thing will spill over into sales. That remains to be seen. The giveaway ended a few hours ago, but I’ve already sold three copies of Grinders. (One of which immediately returned it for a refund.) I have no idea how to take that one.

Still, I’m happy. I failed to do anything productive yesterday and just allowed myself to enjoy it. I’m also motivated to keep going, and maybe one day I’ll see one of my titles take the top slot on the paid lists.

I’m a firm believer that the indie author group should share. I’ve shared results from almost everything I’ve done on the promo front. That includes some less successful pushes. Maybe someone out there can strike while the iron is hot. Maybe one of you holds some great secret you can share in the comments. We’d all like to know, and maybe we can all benefit.

Entertainment weekend

Old What’s Her Face and I went to the new Star Wars movie yesterday. It’s too early in the game to include spoilers, so I won’t break it down. Suffice it to say we had a great time, and enjoyed the story.

It went places I never expected, had a bit of a plot foible, along with one that involves gravity and atmosphere in space. Nothing unusual for commercial science-fantasy. It also didn’t include some of what I wanted to see. (Rose Tico) I’m fine with that, because I didn’t write it. I was there to be entertained, and I was. It was hard to avoid all the fanboy stuff ahead of time, so I knew a few things before I walked in.

I feel for Disney in a way. They have to take a gigantic franchise, and if it’s to continue, live with what’s come before. They have to dispose of the original characters before they can get people invested in new ones. I think they did a reasonable job of this, and don’t envy them their task. I enjoyed the film, and will watch it again when it comes to cable or Disney+ eventually.

We also checked out The Witcher on Netflix. Everyone is touting this as the new Game of Thrones — it isn’t. It isn’t bad, but it’s no GOT either. We watched a few episodes last night, and the plot still isn’t firmly established. It looks like there are three characters we’re supposed to be following, but we don’t have any kind of goal established.

It’s pretty cool visually, and the action scenes are outstanding. The timeline is maddening, because the last one we watched involved a bunch of people who were killed in the first episode now suddenly back to life. That’s only in the Witcher’s timeline, the other two characters appeared to be in the current timeline. I don’t get it, and whatever they were trying to get across isn’t explained well enough.

We’re going to keep watching it, and I suppose that places it in the plus column. The Superman dude still can’t act, but he may have found a part that doesn’t require too much of him. Gerralt, the Witcher, mostly grunts, nods, and fights. Might work for one season.

In other news, the free days for The Playground are down to free hours. With your sharing, I moved a ton of copies. Maybe it will bring some new eyes to my work. If you didn’t get a copy, and still want one, chop-chop. Here is the link http://a-fwd.com/asin=B01D6EF6RI

We made it into single digits at one point. I think that’s pretty fantastic, and might consider another free push in the future. Now that I’m writing series, I can see some merit in doing a push for the first volume after a few more exist.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend. Mine appears to be all about cinematic drama, so there is no writing going on. If I’m feeling ambitious, I have some critiques I can address to make sure Lanternfish stays on course.

Fallout, by Harmony Kent

Hey everyone. One of my great pleasures is to help my fellow authors with their promotions. Harmony Kent is an old friend and she’s touring her newest book around right now. Please make her feel welcome, and consider using those sharing buttons. I know Harmony would do it for you.

***

Hi, everyone. Harmony here. Many thanks to Craig for hosting me today. I have a new book on pre-order called FALLOUT, which is a post-apocalyptic dystopia. This novel started out life by playing a little game. I sat and closed my eyes and imagined an empty room … in that room, a vial appeared. A dull orange plastic thing covered in scratches. It sloshed when I shook it. From that tiny beginning, the world of Exxon 1 and its deadly virus was born.

Why is Kaleb so eager to help Priya with the vial?

Why doesn’t he just take it from her?

Why does Priya still trust Kaleb?

 

 

Emotions grew around the visual memory like mould. Unwanted and poisonous. He had been but a boy. Young and weak and ignorant. He hadn’t known the way of the world. Not back then. And still, the old feelings held him prisoner so that he could not simply walk away from the woman bleeding out on the dirt floor.

 

Pity and remorse squashed his logic into a dark corner. He had to help her. The responsibilities of his mission—what they meant for mankind—warred with his desire, his need, to help the young victim. 

 

Duty pulled his left leg toward the exit. Pity drew his right toward the woman. If he didn’t make up his mind soon, he’d end up doing the splits. With a sigh of frustrated annoyance, he squatted by the beaten body again. Only then did he notice what the rat had been chewing on. Her left little finger was missing, gnawed down to the lowest knuckle joint in a mess of bloodied flesh and gristle.

WHEN EVERYTHING FALLS APART, WHAT CAN YOU DO?

The year is 3040.

The location is Exxon 1, part of a six-planet system in settled space.

Determined to avoid the mistakes of old Earth, the surviving humans avoided democracy and opted, instead, for a non-elective totalitarian system.

The new way worked well, until now.

A crazy, despotic president releases a nano-virus on the population.

No one was ready for the fallout. It came anyway.

In this post-apocalyptic world, can you stay safe?

 

FALLOUT Pre-order Link: mybook.to/FALLOUT

 

Author Bio

After spending around thirteen years as an ordained Buddhist monk, living in a Zen Buddhist temple, and six years after a life-changing injury following a surgical error, Harmony Kent returned to the world at the tender age of forty.

Now, she is famous for her laughter, and has made quite the name for herself … she’s also, um, a writer … and fairly well known for that too. She’s even won a few awards. Harmony lives in rural Cornwall with her ever-present sense of humour, adorable husband, and quirky neighbours.

Harmony is passionate about supporting her fellow authors.

 

Links

Website: https://harmonykent.co.uk/

Story Empire (co-authored): https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/

Amazon Author Page: author.to/HarmonysBooks

Twitter: @harmony_kent

LinkedIn: Harmony

Goodreads: Author Page

FALLOUT Pre-order Link: mybook.to/FALLOUT

 

 

 

Royalty and Chaos on Lisa Burton Radio

 

Welcome to another edition of Lisa Burton Radio. I'm your host, Lisa Burton, the robot girl. This is the show where we interview the characters that make our stories come to life.

We have a very special guest today. Waiting on the telephone is Queen Trinity of the Chaos Elves.

“Welcome, your majesty. It's an honor to have you here today.”

“Thank you for having me. Majesty is definitely a new one from someone outside of my people. Most aren't very happy to see me. Whole assassin and prankster reputation tends to precede me.”

“So the continent of Shayd doesn't sound like a very nice place. Lots of storms, undead creatures, and only a few edible roots. I always thought of elves as being from beautiful places. Why stay there?”

“The simple answer is that it's our home. Long ago, the original elves were evil and conquered the world. Some fought their demonic nature and helped overthrow the others, but there were some who simply stayed out of the fight. That is where the chaos elves come from. We were not cured entirely of the demon taint and were punished to live in the most inhospitable region of Windemere. Still, the region has made us tougher than the other elf races and only the orcs are more vicious.

“There’s also an issue of being the slaves of an immortal warlord who was cursed by the gods to be forgotten by history. His cage was supposed to be the land of demons, but a global disaster warped the borders. So the ‘great and benevolent’ Baron Kernaghan claimed us as his dear, expendable agents. I’m working on fixing that, but it isn’t like I can fight a being that challenged a god. Better to be a good soldier to keep my people alive.”

“About the Baron. If you work for him, does that make you a minion? I love the minions.”

“I prefer the term agent, but I get the sense you’re talking about something cute. Not really sure how to take that. So I have a question. You’re some kind of intelligent golem that looks and acts like a person. Trying not to make this sound offensive, but the closest thing my world has to someone like you are creatures of stone that have no thought of their own. You like some kind of super golem? What kind of enchantments were used to make you independent and be so sentient?”

“Enchanting maybe, but enchanted, no. It's all advanced hardware and software.”

“Never heard of that. Sounds like gnome gibberish. If you’re ever in Windemere then I’d avoid them. At the very least, don’t let your guard down. They’d want to tinker and see if they could either copy or improve. Crazy gnomes always think they can make stuff better or blow it up trying.”

“It might be like that, if they're master builders. I suppose that means Windemere has some pretty fantastic things in it.”

“Chaos elves don’t get to see a lot of the gnome-made stuff. Sadly, we live among zombies and occasional demons. Windemere does have plenty of odd creatures and powerful artifacts due to its potent magic. It’s definitely more of a world of magic than technology, but the latter is making an impact with plumbing and flying cities. Kind of hard to rationalize some inventions when you have people like me flinging fireballs around a battlefield. Though I’ve heard that some people are trying to tame various monsters to do their fighting. Mostly flying beasts to combat those that already use griffins.”

“I like the idea that the women in Windemere are just as capable as the men. Too many girls sit around and wait for someone to rescue them, or get abused only to drive the hero to new recklessness.”

“It’s a rough and tumble world we live in, especially if you take a path that involves combat magic or swords. Not sure how it works in your world, but once you step onto a battlefield here, your gender no longer matters. Honestly, it’s even worse for adventurers because they don’t have an army behind them and find more dangerous obstacles. You really need to be able to endure physical and mental punishment if you want to survive. Though I’m not beneath using some feminine wiles and manipulation to throw off weaker enemies. Whatever works to get the job done.”

“We're going to pause here to mention that today's program is sponsored by The Legends of Windemere series. This is where you'll find Trinity and more characters like her. The new book is called Tribe of the Snow Tiger and it's available right now.

“We've had a run on antagonists on this program lately. You seem more complicated than that. Your motivations seem to be coming from the right place. Care to expand on this?”

“As I said, we’re slaves to an evil being and follow orders to avoid being wiped out. Until recently, we weren’t treated very well, but I’ve made sure that my people have a future. I claimed the throne at a young age and have used my position to be a shield between my master and my people. I share in their punishments, chores, and victories. To them, I’m a hero even though I do bad things to keep myself and them alive. That’s perfectly fine by me.”

“Trinity, it's been a pleasure having you visit with us today. Any last words for our listeners?”

“Thank you for having me. I hope the people listening become curious about my plight and see what happens to me. Maybe also the champions who are the real heroes while I’m forced to be on the wrong side. Still, I’m a lot more interesting, especially in the story that’s about to come to your world. You people have an issue with spoilers, which a chaos elf would normally indulge in spilling, but this deals with me. I'd rather everyone be surprised by what I’m about to do. Let’s just say, I’m through playing nice.”

***

Charles is the author of the long running Legends of Windemere series, as well as other titles. He's running a couple of pretty sweet bundle deals right now to help get people started. We have limited space here, but you can find them on his Amazon Author Page, and I encourage you to check them out.

Tribe of the Snow Tiger

Timoran Wrath has a shameful secret that is about to see the light of day.

The noble barbarian has always been a constant source of strength and wisdom for his beloved friends. His loyalty has been unwavering and they know that he would never hesitate to lay down his life for them. Even in their darkest hour, the champions know that Timoran will come through and fight to the bitter end. Now they must return the favor as he reunites with his tribe and willingly faces the executioner’s blade.

Is it possible that the honorable Timoran was nothing more than an illusion?

 

Prodigy of Rainbow Tower

Luke Callindor and his friends are about to learn that the life of an adventurer can be brutally unforgiving.

Hungering for another adventure, Luke agrees to escort the heir of Serab along the L’dandrin River and into the safety of Gods’ Voice. A deadly gauntlet of cunning traps and savage creatures lay before the young warrior and his companions. Lacking the powerful magic needed to combat his enemies, Luke’s survival and victory may be in the hands of his newest ally. That’s if the temperamental Nyx doesn’t set him on fire first.

Luke will bravely face everything that is thrown at him, but how can he defend himself when he’s ignorant of the truth behind his mission?

Beginning of a Hero

Every hero must take the first courageous step into adventure. For Luke Callindor, it’s more of a blind stumble.

Depending more on bravery than common sense, Luke sets out to protect a royal heir who is attending the prestigious Hamilton Military Academy. With a demonic assassin in the shadows, the determined warrior will have to think on his feet to defend his charge. If only he waited long enough to find out which student is the hidden noble.

With Luke’s dream on the horizon and a deadly enemy on his path, how will he transform from a reckless adventurer to a true hero of Windemere?

Special Note: This title is now free to help you get started.

Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.

 

You can keep up with Charles at the following locations:

Blog: www.legendsofwindemere.com

Twitter: @cyallowitz

Facebook: Charles Yallowitz

Website: www.charleseyallowitz.com

 

It’s time for a new Windemere story

Charles Yallowitz has a new volume in his popular Legends of Windemere series. He’s here today to tell us all about it. Take it away Charles.

 

Now Available on Amazon for Pre-Order!
Coming to your Kindle on June 1st!

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Timoran Wrath has a shameful secret that is about to see the light of day.

The noble barbarian has always been a constant source of strength and wisdom for his beloved friends. His loyalty has been unwavering and they know that he would never hesitate to lay down his life for them. Even in their darkest hour, the champions know that Timoran will come through and fight to the bitter end. Now they must return the favor as he reunites with his tribe and willingly faces the executioner’s blade.

Is it possible that the honorable Timoran was nothing more than an illusion?

Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads ‘To Read’ List too!

Excerpt: The Snow Tiger

Yahoo Image Search

“The snow is too bright and level for me to see anything clearly,” the barbarian growls. The sound of shuffling and mild cursing draws his attention to Nyx who has sunk up to her nose in snow. “What are you doing, fire sprite?”

Nyx shivers while squinting into the distance, her eyes coated in bronze energy. “The reason you can’t see anything might be because you’re too tall. I’m trying to see if there’s anything that breaks the level ground. My eyes are enhanced right now, but I don’t . . . wait a second . . . I think there’s something buried out there. A beast of some kind? It’s a very subtle up and down motion that reminds me of something breathing. It just stopped moving, but I don’t know what that means. I’ll lead the way.”

Not waiting for a response, Nyx pushes through the thick snow and uses wind magic to gradually shift the powder out of her path. She does her best to move quietly and avoid disturbing whatever they are approaching, but the crunch of frozen grass beneath her boots makes the half-elf cringe with every step. A violent sneeze threatens to erupt from her nose, stifled quickly by a silence spell around her nostrils. Rubbing at her cold legs, Nyx is thankful when Timoran puts a vest made of black fur over her. The Ifrit hair warms her body and drives away the looming cold that has been brewing in her chest for the last few minutes. With renewed energy, the channeler walks a little faster and adds a simple heat spell to the wind that is steadily clearing the path.

“Wow. Such a beautiful creature,” she whispers when she steps into a circular clearing that surrounds the dead beast.

The enormous snow tiger’s blue and black fur is thick, the hairs sparkling when touched by direct sunlight. It has long incisors of glistening white that jut out of its mouth due to their size and sharpness. A slender tail lies limp in the exposed grass and still twitches as the muscles continue to lose their tension. Powerful legs and massive paws are splayed on the ground, giving the body the appearance of having peacefully died in its sleep. The gaping wound in the gorgeous snow tiger’s side is the only sign of an attack, the surrounding fur matted with aromatic blood.

Timoran’s rage boils when he spots the three cubs that are mewling and pushing against their dead mother. Judging from their size and faint, black stripes, he assumes they are no older than three months. Rusty manacles are attached to their back legs, the chains running to a stake that has been driven into the muddy earth. Restraining his anger, the barbarian moves within reach of the animals and gently breaks the metal bindings that are bruising their ankles. Scared and confused, the cubs cower against the still warm corpse and hiss whenever one of the adventurers comes close. One of the snow tigers bravely charges at Timoran and bites his boot, proudly returning to the others when the towering figure moves away.

Need to catch Legends of Windemere from the beginning? Then click on the covers below!

You can start for FREE . . .

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Or grab the $4.99 ‘3 in 1’ bundles!

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
3D Conversion by Bestt_graphics

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

 

Also Available:

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Interested in a new adventure? Then grab your Kindle & dive back into the world of Windemere! Don’t forget an apple for Fizzle.

About the Author:

Charles Yallowitz was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but he has spent most of his life wandering his own imagination in a blissful haze. Occasionally, he would return from this world for the necessities such as food, showers, and Saturday morning cartoons. One day he returned from his imagination and decided he would share his stories with the world. After his wife decided that she was tired of hearing the same stories repeatedly, she convinced him that it would make more sense to follow his dream of being a fantasy author. So, locked within the house under orders to shut up and get to work, Charles brings you Legends of Windemere. He looks forward to sharing all of his stories with you, and his wife is happy he finally has someone else to play with.

Blog: www.legendsofwindemere.com
Twitter: @cyallowitz
Facebook: Charles Yallowitz
Website: www.charleseyallowitz.com

 

Time to play, Would You Rather?

The lovely and talented Rachel Carerra tagged me on this little game, and I've been busy. I should have done this a week ago, but life gets in the way sometimes. Thanks for including me Rachel. If you haven't discovered Rachel's blog yet, you're missing out. Get over there and say “Hi.”

I actually enjoy these blog challenges, it's the research that goes into ratting out my friends that drags me down. I'm sure many of you already played this one. Therefore, I'm going to play along, but I won't be ratting out anyone this time. You don't have to flip to the bottom and breathe a sigh of relief.

This game is an attempt to introduce readers to something we don't often talk about. It's fun to know some of our favorite bloggers in more depth. It's about our reading habits and preferences. Here are my answers:

1.) Would you only rather read trilogies, or only read standalones?

I'm sure this is bound to be hard for everyone that plays. It's hard for me. I read across a wide spectrum, and my reading time is precious. I choose standalone stories. I want to know the author left it all on the page, and didn't hold back something for the sequels. I do like the trilogies that amount to one huge door stopper of a novel, broken into digestible chunks.

2.) Would you rather only read male or female authors?

I really don't care who writes it, I just want it to be good. The gender of the author doesn't even come into play. If an alpaca manages to write a great story I'll read it.

3.) Would you rather shop at Barnes and Noble, or Amazon?

I've gone completely ebook. I use my iPad and a kindle app. I've also used the Apple Store on occasion. I love paper books, but convenience won the day. I'm typing this out on my iPad right now, in my camper at the bottom of Hell's Canyon. I have half a dozen books with me today. (I've been concentrating on one written by Rachel.)

4.) Would you rather books were made into TV shows or movies?

I have to go with movies. I'm back to that idea of leaving it all on the page. Eventually a TV show needs to leave the source material behind. The source made the story famous, and carrying on past that sometimes doesn't work well.

5.) Would you rather read five pages per day, or five books per week?

There are times in my life that I can't do either. Five books per week is my preference, but that's never going to happen. Too much other stuff going on.

6.) Would you rather be a professional author, or a reviewer?

For me, author. My regular readers don't even need to ask this to understand. I post reviews, and I try to leave brief statements in my reviews. I hope someday they help someone as a shopper or the author personally. Writing is what I prefer.

7.) Would you rather be a librarian or a bookseller?

I loathe marketing. I'd probably be more successful if I changed my attitude toward it. Libraries are usually nice and quiet, and there would be some blogging and writing time. For me, librarian. (Maybe I could be one of those librarians that goes on quests with Noah Wylie.)

8.) Would you rather only read your favorite genre, or only read anything but your favorite genre?

This is the hardest question for me. I'm sure it's the hardest for everyone. I read broadly, and my favorite changes from year to year. I choose everything but my favorite genre, because my interests change.

9.) Would you rather only read ebooks or physical books?

Who cares, really? The delivery system is secondary to the material. I love my iPad, and will choose that, but only because of the convenience.

Who makes these things up? I want to file a protest with the international fellowship. There ought to be ten questions. It's a nice even number, and Internet lists are always in clusters of ten.

These little exercises are always fun. I appreciate the invite by Rachel, and I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me. If you feel like letting us have a glimpse into your mindset, please take these questions and blog about it. You are welcome to link to me as your invitation.

Amature Night

I’ve been reading all about 2014 assessments and 2015 resolutions. I never make resolutions, but I’ll blog later about my business plan. Tonight is the big night, and I’ve called it amature night for decades.

I grew up in a small Nevada town where you didn’t have to wonder if the other drivers had been drinking; of course they had. Hell, I did it myself. It was a different time, and in the 1970s, the cops used to make you drive yourself home as punishment.

New Years Eve was the one time to avoid the casinos, stay off the roads, and keep it indoors. I’ve lived by that rule for a long time now. I no longer drink and drive, and haven’t since the 1980s.

Tonight, Old What’s Her Face* and I are staying home. My first order of business was to buy so many books I’ll probably never get them all read.

I like to support indies and my writing friends. With this in mind, I downloaded:

Hats Off to Murder, by D. S. Nelson

No Good Deed, by Tim Baker

One of these is a writer friend. (With a new baby.) The other one I just met through our blogs, and he came highly recommended by another blog friend.

I’m not ready to give up conventionally published fiction. I have some favorite authors, and downloaded two of them:

Maplecroft, by Cheri Priest

Proven Guilty, book #8 of The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher.

While the amatures are working on their headaches, losing their keys, and making bad choices, I’ll be having a quiet celebration at home. I made my bad choices years and years ago.

So if I’m not an amature, what am I? I’ll just say I’m not a tea totaller.

Happy New Year everyone, and have a safe one. I have some reading to do.

* Not my wife’s birth name. Oh, and she is a tea totaller.

My free promotion theories

This is a reminder that my big promotion starts tomorrow. I’m biting my nails hoping I set it up correctly. There were no hours and minutes available. It will either last one whole day, or one whole second. My plan is for a whole day. (Fingers crossed.)

It is designed like this: I will give away a different book per day for three days. If you’ve been wanting to read one of these stories, now is the time to grab it. The adventurous among you are welcome to grab all of them.

Getting my name out there has always been a challenge. I’m a hardcore introvert, and talking about myself and peddling my product is difficult for me. I’m more at ease talking about your product.

A guy has to do something, and this is what I came up with:

Wild Concept is a bit of science fiction that stays close to home. It’s about an experimental robot who has been given emotions and feelings for the first time. Those of you who regularly read my blog know Lisa. This is Lisa’s story. It will be free tomorrow, December first.

Panama is set in the early 1900s during construction of the Panama Canal. Ethan and Coop are retired military men. Ethan was a Rough Rider and Coop was a Buffalo Soldier. One talks with ghosts and the other dabbles in magic. The president asks them to look into some mysterious disappearances at the construction zone. They are ill prepared for what they find. Panama wants independence, Colombia wants to keep them, there is a Spanish Carlist rebel planning a major invasion, plus the Spaniard is backed up by an army from hell itself. This one has been pulling in quite a few five star reviews. Panama is free on December second.

Arson is the story of Perry Wolfe. He is part of an elite group who fight fires in space. He loses his job to a freak accident and must rebuild his life. He goes to the ATF school to train as a federal arson investigator. While there he uncovers some clues to his sister’s murder and a corporate takeover using arson as leverage. This one is deeper science fiction, and has some sexual situations in it. Arson will be free on December third.

But Craig, don’t you have four books out? Yes I do. The Cock of the South is my first fantasy release. It involves fantasy races in a desperate bid to survive in a human dominated world.

Here’s how I envision this. They say no one will buy the cow if you give the milk away for free. I’ve always seen the world differently. Check this out:

Look! Four Spigots.

There are four nozzles on this thing, I have four books published. You can have the milk from three of the spigots, but have to pay for the fourth. That fourth spigot has some amazing milk too. Mmmm. Here, have a free glass and if you like it maybe you’ll want to try the special brand in tap number four.

I don’t know if there is any real value in seeing my name get popular for a few days. Amazon stats change fast, but if there is maybe my stock will rise.

Your free download helps me. Some of you have gone on record saying you’d rather buy the books, that an author deserves compensation. God bless you for that. Don’t feel bad about grabbing a free copy. It helps with my numbers just the same. This time of year brings its own financial crunch. Free reading has to be a bonus to everyone.

If you still want to buy them you can. The Cock of the South is still for sale, and each giveaway only lasts one day. Those of you using the lending library, or Kindle Unlimited can always read them for free. That way I get compensation and you spend nothing.

These titles are all ebook only. You will need a Kindle app. There is a link at the top of my sidebar where you can get one for every device imaginable, and the apps are free. Every self published author out there will thank you for trying a reading app.

These are the last free books from C. S. Boyack in 2014. Don’t miss out, get a free book starting tomorrow.

A few random musings

I’m not completely ready to let go of Halloween. A few days ago I updated my wallpaper with a mad science motif. No apologies. I did my backgrounds by whatever month it was for a year. I’m going to go with things I like for now.

I gave the blog a bit of a facelift. I reduced the size of my book links. I may have taken them too far down. I thought they were starting to overwhelm the page. Let me know what you think. I may take them back up a notch.

I also added the link to the free Kindle apps. People don’t need to own a Kindle to read ebooks. They probably already own a suitable device. I encourage every independent author out there to do this. Let’s make it easy for our consumers to read our books.

I’m still toying with the idea of a new theme. I’d like to find one that would accommodate my linked book covers with a slider or rotating gallery. I found one called itheme, but the image orientation is horizontal, and I need vertical. I’m open to suggestions if you have any. (This is a free WordPress blog, and I’d like to keep it that way.)

Here’s the random musing part of this post. Why hasn’t anyone created computers, phones, iPads, Kindles, and Nooks that we can focus? See, the thing is that I wear glasses. When I’m using my iPad, like now, nobody else is using it, just me. Why can’t some creative soul allow me to focus the screen so I can take these Damned glasses off for an hour or two?

Chime in on my modifications or if you know of a theme I should check out.