“It’s Johnny Cash with a fistful of copperheads singing the devil right back to hell.”
HELLBENDER, sophomore novel by Jason Jack Miller, is as much a sensory experience as his first in the Murder Ballads and Whiskey Series, THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK. Instead of Morgantown, HELLBENDER is set in the mountains of West Virginia, and with Miller’s descriptive skill, I got to experience the flora and fauna of the Appalachians: the sights, sounds, and smells of a place I’ve never been but now felt like I was there.
The Collinses have been feuding with the Lewises for years. And their animosity comes to a head when Henry Collins buries his little sister in the cold, hard ground. Janie is a victim of the Lewises’ malicious spellcraft. Teaming up with love interest Alex, Henry learns she’s adept at the old hills magic that women in both families practice—for good and for evil.
Besides the magic and intriguing family characterization, Miller loads on the action like a railroad car full of coal, stoking the engine toward a violent destination.
I dig Miller’s turns of phrase, his depiction of local color and customs, his description of the rural milieu, and his demonstration of forces supernatural. If you believe in magic—or want to—you owe it to yourself to read HELLBENDER. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
My current work in progress is DEATH PERCEPTION, a supernatural crime story corrupt with horror yet preserved by a sprinkling of black humor. The skinny:
Nineteen-year-old Kennet Singleton lives with his invalid mother in a personal care facility, but he wants out. He operates the crematory at the local funeral home, where he discovers he can discern the cause of death of those he cremates—by toasting marshmallows over their ashes.
He thinks his ability is no big deal since his customers are already dead. But when his perception differs from what’s on the death certificate, he finds himself in the midst of murderers. To save the residents and avenge the dead, he must bring the killers to justice.
Ginormous Multi-author Genre Anthology to Benefit Seton Hill University Alum
Seventy-six writers connected to the Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction program contributed to a multi-genre anthology, HAZARD YET FORWARD. All proceeds from this project benefit Donna Munro, a 2004 graduate of the program. Munro, a teacher living in St. Louis, Missouri, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. An active member of the SHU WPF alumni committee, Munro helps organize the school’s annual writing conference, In Your Write Mind.
To aid Munro and her family, faculty members, alumni, students and friends of the Writing Popular Fiction program immediately responded to compile this massive anthology. The book features flash fiction, short stories and a full-length novella. There are 75 works total from various genres—literally, something for everyone—ranging from horror to romance to mystery, and everything in between.
Notable writers in the anthology are World Fantasy Award winner Nalo Hopkinson, Bram Stoker winners Michael A. Arnzen and Michael Knost, Bram Stoker nominee Lawrence C. Connolly, ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults winner Jessica Warman, Rita finalist Dana Marton, Spur winner Meg Mims, Asimov’s Readers’ Award winner Timons Esaias and WV Arts and Humanities literary fellowships winner Geoffrey Cameron Fuller.
HAZARD YET FORWARD co-compiler Matt Duvall says, “It’s an unprecedented collection of stories from every genre imaginable.” This large volume is an electronic book for the popular Kindle platform and is available for purchase through Amazon, reasonably priced at $9.99.
When I heard about the project, I quickly responded by contributing my story “Mixed Breed, Loves Kids.” Donna was my sponsor when I entered the program in 2004, and she does so much for the WPF program. She’s an all-around fantastic person; I want to support her while she conquers breast cancer.
Here’s a photo of me yesterday at the Seton Hill University IN YOUR WRITE MIND workshop. I presented on “Psychic Development for Writers.” We had a massive book signing in the evening, and I sold and signed a number of copies of THE SIXTH SEED and THOU SHALT NOT.
It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Keep plugging, keep writing, and keep smiling!
Just a quick progress note about what I’m working on.
I’ve had enough sales success with THE SIXTH SEED that I’ve decided to publish it to trade paperback. Cover artwork is completed, and I hope to finish editing the text (one last time) by this weekend. It should go to press by the end of the month.
DEATH PERCEPTION is undergoing a second beta read, then I’ll make some more changes and edit the whole thing again. I’ll be contracting for cover artwork by the end of the month.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support. Post a comment and let me know what you’re working on. 🙂
Ever notice how much alcohol is consumed in a zombie novel? Guest blogger, Armand Rosamilia, author of DARLENE BOBICH: ZOMBIE KILLER, DYING DAYS and DYING DAYS 2, muses about the relationship and turns a drinking game into an intoxicating giveaway—perfect for St. Patrick’s Day…
Armand Rosamilia, author of DYING DAYS 2
Have you ever heard that old line about writers and alcoholics being cut from the same cloth? It doesn’t hold true for me.
I currently have one bottle of rum in the house, which I bought about one year ago while on a cruise. I keep no beer in the house; I have no cool bar on the patio with tiki torches and a neon Budweiser sign flashing while I mix drinks. I’m going on a cruise again in a few days, and will buy my token bottle of rum from the Bahamas and add it to the other bottles collecting dust atop the fridge.
I’m not much of a drinker, preferring gallons of coffee as my poison. But I noticed after finishing my latest zombie book, DYING DAYS 2, that the survivors of the zombie apocalypse can last without good food, toilet paper or communication with others, as long as they have alcohol.
There’s even a bar that plays a huge part in the story (Kimberly Murphy’s Bar, in case you keep track of trivia), and I intended it to be a small, passing chapter. Except a strange thing happened. Most of the characters in the story hang out there. They want to be there when they aren’t, and seem to have the best time there after killing undead all day. Kimberly became as big a character as Darlene Bobich in the tale.
I took a quick glance through the three books in the series (DARLENE BOBICH: ZOMBIE KILLER, DYING DAYS and DYING DAYS 2) and noticed how much drinking I’d added. It’s an interesting observation, although I’m not sure what it means. Post a comment here and share your opinion.
For you zombiephiles, maybe there’s a drinking game in there somewhere: Every time a zombie dies, down a shot… every time a character drinks, take a shot… I don’t suggest drinking every time a character says the “F” word, though, because you’ll probably fall into an alcohol-induced coma, leaving you vulnerable to attack.
GIVEAWAY!
Want to win free eBooks and maybe print books of them? My contest is simple—like a drinking game. E-mail me at armandrosamilia (at) gmail (dot) com with DYING DAYS in the subject line, and I’ll enter you into the daily giveaway. Also, post a comment here, and you get another chance to win. Follow my blog at http://armandrosamilia.com for yet another chance, and friend me on Twitter (@ArmandAuthor) and simply tweet DYING DAYS to me, and you’ll get another shot—nice and easy, right?
If I get enough people joining in the giveaway, I’ll give away a print book that day! Kind of makes you drunk with excitement, doesn’t it?
How You Can Constantly Improve Your Indie-Published Work
When traditional publishing ruled, once a book was printed, it was set in stone. That’s why they employed editors and copy editors to improve the story and ferret out all the mistakes: once the book was typeset and thousands of copies printed, it couldn’t be corrected. But we’re in the digital age now.
If you’re an indie author, you’re responsible for everything: the writing, the formatting, the editing, the publishing, and the marketing. It’s hard to guarantee perfection at every step. The good thing is, nothing’s set in stone. In today’s publishing world your books are tantamount to software. If you didn’t get it right the first time, there’s always version 2.0.
At one point I debated whether this was ethical. After my initial release of a book, should I change it? I was still recovering from the bircks-and-mortar bookstore/paper tome/traditional publishing paradigm. Now I think, If you know it needs to be corrected or can be improved, can you ethically not give your readers the best product you’re capable of providing?
If you discover you need to make corrections to a work already published, you can do so and simply upload a new version to your favorite sales portal. Along with the power of having your own digital Gutenberg comes great responsibility.
As a technical writer 25+ years in the software industry, I adhered to this principle in the millions of pages of documentation I wrote and published: If it needs fixed, whatever the reason, fix it and republish ASAP.
Going the extra mile is in your favor. If you get a less than spectacular review and the reader complains about something you can change, do so as quickly as possible to prevent others from jumping on the bandwagon. For instance, if a number of reviewers (precious few nowadays) bitch about how much they hated the ending, REWRITE IT.
Like the in-house Quality Assurance department, your beta readers don’t always catch everything before you publish. Once your work is in the hands of the public, you become Helpdesk and Support Services, fielding complaints and logging issues for product improvement. Your product.
I’m not advocating changing your fiction at the whims of your readership. If you made a decision that you know is right for your story, stick with it. Yet if it concerns some other issue you can rectify, do so. Reminder: it pays to take your time and ensure you’re putting your best out there the first time.
Sure, some readers will always own 1.0. These are the breaks. But some of your readers getting an improved pub is better than all of them getting version 1.0 with all its bugs. It’s just not necessary with digital texts.
Amazon lets you notify readers that a new version is available. I did this once for a classic I had republished because an OCR scanning error turned into a factual error that I didn’t catch. I don’t recommend you do this unless absolutely necessary. Especially with fiction, once it’s read, it’s read.
But if you get a chance to improve your published work—whether it’s to correct typos, smooth out a scene, fill in a plot hole, or post a new cover—by all means, do it. Constant improvement is the professional stepstool to greater sales.
If you haven’t done so yet, please subscribe for more writing news.
Don’t let a humdrum book description keep readers from clicking Buy Now. Here’s how to make your book sales copy work for you.
You work hard to write a good story, make an eye-catching cover, and format your material professionally. Then you upload it to your favorite sales portal, creating a page where potential readers can find it and, hopefully, buy it. But then there’s that empty field staring your in the face: Book Description.
Just rattle off a few general lines and click Save, right?
Not if you want readers to buy your work.
Why Your Book Description is Important
It’s easy for readers to click a link to find your book online. But there’s a process they go through to decide whether they’ll buy it.
First, they look at the cover and the title in search results. If these intrigue them, they’ll open your book page.
If the price is right, they’ll keep reading.
How many people like the book? More than a few thumbs up. Cool.
Are there any reviews? If not, that means either the book has been posted recently or—gasp!—it’s no good. (We’ll cover the importance of customer reviews at a later date.)
Let’s read the book description… Here’s a significant gate potential buyers pass through en route to a buy.
One or two paragraphs of sales copy determine whether the reader continues the evaluation process or moves on to some other writer’s book. If you’re an indie author, this is the first sample of writing that potential buyers see. If it’s not up to par, they won’t even read a sample of the work.
Unless it’s your mom clicking Buy Now, what you put in that book description is crucial to sales success.
How to Write Good Book Sales Copy
Here’s the formula I use to write my book descriptions. I learned it from Debra Dixon’s excellent GMC: Goal, Motivation, Conflict.
A CHARACTER wants a GOAL because he is MOTIVATED, but faces CONFLICT.
A good book description includes these elements:
CHARACTER = Who
GOAL = What
MOTIVATION = Why
CONFLICT = Why not
Here’s how I used this template in my description for MAMA SAID:
On his thirteenth birthday, Buddy gets shipped up north by his religious mother, who can’t cope with his sister’s teenage pregnancy. Just as he resigns himself to spending the entire summer at Gram’s farm caring for kittens and cows, his bitter sister Brinda arrives, ending his peace and solitude. When her boyfriend Jackie shows up and turns his attentions to Buddy from his bride-to-be, Buddy must do what Mama said–or take matters into his own hands. Download the short story “Mama Said” now for the chilling conclusion.
CHARACTER = Buddy
GOAL = Experience peace and solitude
MOTIVATION = Escape from a stressful home and family situation
CONFLICT = Jackie shows up to torment him
And I hint at the crisis: Buddy must choose to do what his dysfunctional religious mother says, or take matters into his own hands.
The final line prompts the reader to take action: buy now.
You can play with these elements, mix the order. But you need them all for an effective synopsis of your work. Intrigue readers with the promise of some valuable entertainment in store for them, and they’ll be more likely to click Buy Now.
Let me know if you’d like an evaluation. Until then, prosperous clicks to you!
HELLBENDER, sophomore novel by Jason Jack Miller, is as much a sensory experience as his first in the Murder Ballads and Whiskey Series, THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK. Instead of Morgantown, HELLBENDER is set in the mountains of West Virginia, and with Miller’s descriptive skill, I got to experience the flora and fauna of the Appalachians: the sights, sounds, and smells of a place I’ve never been but now felt like I was there.
Look what came in the mail the other day!
