New Dark Thriller by Lee Allen Howard Now Available at Amazon.com!
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 “Mama Said” now for the chilling conclusion. Only 99 cents!
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Darkeva over at Hell Notes reviewed my horror story, STRAY. Check it out!
Review of STRAY
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Fractal Despondency by Trent Zelazny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Gimping through his grief over a lost love, lost in a way that can only damage, Blake Gladstone has much to recover from: choices she made, choices he made. As he struggles to go on with life in Santa Fe, he meets Denise, who introduces him to 24/7 spiced rum. And danger.
Has Denise come to rescue him, or finish him off? Blake must deal with more choices: choices she made, choices he made. She disappears and reappears, and when she does, Zelazny portrays it with an electrifying sense of doom. The characters are disturbing, their pain is palpable, the suspense is taut. Recommended.
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Disintegration by Scott Nicholson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
DISINTEGRATION could have been titled DISSOLUTION. The downward spiral of character may not be the most popular form, but it’s a valid one, and Nicholson handles it artfully. He pours on the misery thick and heavy — and never lets up. Blow by blow, he nails the pain of the past to the heartache of the present. Skillfully revealing events from yesterday and the motivations of the moment, he builds a juggernaut of suspense and doom that will keep you guessing until the very last line.
Who’s worst: Jacob, Joshua, or Renee? You decide. All the characters are deep, twisted, enigmatic. The Appalachian setting and the residential contractor trade ground the story in reality, and the description throughout is not just gritty and biting but at times excruciating. Nicholson is a master storyteller, and I can’t recommend his work enough.
Those who want happy characters should switch to mid-grade fiction. DISINTEGRATION is literary intensity.
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When you’re a self-published writer, if you want your book promoted, it’s up to you. The same as it was for the writing, the revision, the editing, formatting, and publication. All yours. Every bit of it. But when it comes to reviews, you can’t go it alone.
Although I’ve read a lot of books in my life, I’ve reviewed very few. This is changing. Why? Because now as a self-published author, I need reviews. And I believe in the Golden Rule of Indie Publishing: Scratch the Backs of Others as You Would Like Yours to Be Scratched.
In the world of e-pubbing, I can’t count on the publishing house’s marketing department to push my book. (Not that it would anyway, had I gone the traditional route.) Nor can I depend on my personal fame to attract strangers to praise me. (I traipsed around in a platinum wig and meat suit like a monster, and all I did was draw flies.) I need the handful of people in my literary circle to pull for me, reading and posting reviews wherever my work appears.
According to the Golden Rule of Indie Publishing, if I want my stuff reviewed, I need to write reviews for others—at least for those who write in the genres I read most. I must comment on their Facebook posts, like their author pages, recommend them to others, visit their blogs, RT their Tweets.
Those who just jumped on the bandwagon should realize that indie publishing is a collaborative effort based on personal relationships and mutual favors. We are the literary Amish, raising each other’s barns.
Even if you don’t yet have a well-established blog or writer’s website, a Twitter account, or a Facebook fan page, one thing you can do is to start building goodwill for yourself among your writing peers. Someday when you get all of the pieces of the business figured out—or enough of them to put your work out there for public consumption—you’re going to need reviews.
You’ll find your hours must be divided between putting stuff out and requesting help from others. When it comes time for reviews and promotion by others, you’ll want to have a full account to draw from. Your back will one day need a good scratching. The best scratchers are those whose backs you’ve already scratched.
Begin now to put people in your debt for those favors you’ll need tomorrow. Instead of your launch stalling, you may find it will take off and soar.
“Don’t look out only for your own interests,
but take an interest in others, too.”
–Php. 2:4 NLT
My pubs, THE SIXTH SEED, STRAY, and SEVERED RELATIONS, are available for review. If you like horror and paranormal fiction, hit me up on my Contact page to request a free coupon of whatever you’re willing to write a review for.
And if you enjoyed this post, please click Like, promote it among your peers, subscribe to my blog—scratch my back. Thanks, karma buddies!
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Jason Jack Miller’s Debut Novel Available on Amazon.com
It’s been a long time since I’ve been truly impressed with a debut novel, but I am with this one. Instead of writing a book report, I’ll share my feelings about what’s being categorized as “Appalachian Gothic.”
This book is so real it’s incredible. The characters are real; they live and breathe and struggle with addictions. The setting is real; I’m there as the West Virginia winter turns to spring in the mountains and in the city. The heartache is real; I groaned out loud for the pain of Preston Black both past and present. And most of all the music is real; I wanted to sing along and tap my foot to the jam. I really wish there was a soundtrack to this book—I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
Miller knows his characters and his music and has created a milieu so real you can’t help but be caught up and swept toward the inevitable doom that his devil has planned.
You catch a few whiffs of something sinister through the first half of the book—plenty to let you know what’s coming as you get invested in the hopes and fears of Preston Black, legend in the making. There’s somewhat of a long build-up, but when it finally hits the fan, it’s a shitstorm of epic proportions, made all the worse because your heart’s tied up with Preston, who only wants to find his father and make it as a musician.
Miller knows how to turn a phrase, and he does so to great effect. I often laughed out loud at his wit and humor.
All in all, THE DEVIL was a terrific read, and extremely satisfying. This is what great fiction should be. I hope for more from this talented writer.
Check out THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK at Amazon.com.
Visit Jason at his blog: http://jasonjackmiller.blogspot.com/
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When you’re an independent author or self-publisher, you get to wear all the hats and do all the work, so any advantage is a plus. Here’s a terrific tip to help polish your work for e-readers.
You’re in Charge
I’m a big believer in self-editing. Even if you submit your work to a traditional publisher, you can’t count on a quality in-house edit. So it’s up to you.
Reformat for a Fresh Perspective
I write my manuscripts using Microsoft Word with a template I’ve devised especially for fiction, but I do most of my editing on paper. When I get to the point where I’m ready to publish my work (or submit it to an editor), I import my manuscript to Adobe FrameMaker to format it like an actual book. Then I print it again and do another edit.
It’s amazing how changing the format will help you spot improvements to make that you didn’t catch previously.
You don’t need to import your work to another program to take advantage of this trick. Simply make a copy of your manuscript file and either attach another template with different formats, or select all the text and change the font.
E-format for a Fresher Perspective
Now that I’m publishing for e-readers, in addition to reformatting my printouts for editing, I now send my final manuscripts to my Kindle for a last edit. I urge you to do this if you want to give your work the ultimate spit-polish.
You can send a Word file to your Kindle email account, but the file converted and sent to your device may still look like a manuscript, and you don’t want that. I recommend converting your manuscript to a MOBI file (or EPUB for Nook) using a conversion program such as Calibre.
I save my Word manuscript as Filtered HTML, drop the HTML file into Calibre, and then convert it to MOBI. I send the MOBI file to my Kindle email address and then sync my device to download it.
E-dit on Your Device
On my Kindle, I review the manuscript one final time. I’m always surprised at what I find. Things I’ve read a dozen times on paper suddenly stick out like a sore prehensile digit. The need for shorter paragraphs becomes evident.
I use the notes feature to make comments and corrections. When I’m finished, I copy the MyClippings.txt file from my device to my PC and then consult the entries there to search my Word manuscript file, where I make the final corrections.
As I said previously, I urge you to try this out and see what a difference it makes in your published e-books. It’s a step you won’t regret.
If you found this article helpful, please share it with others. And if you have any questions or tips of your own along this line, please leave a comment. Happy e-diting!
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THE SIXTH SEED, my dark paranormal novel that’s a mash-up of sci-fi, family drama, alien abduction, and suburban horror, is now on sale for only 99 cents. Download now for a summer scare!
“Lee Howard stitches together a story where the suspense never lets up.” –Ron Edison
Get THE SIXTH SEED for Kindle: 
Get THE SIXTH SEED for Nook:
Get THE SIXTH SEED from Smashwords.com:
Get THE SIXTH SEED in non-printable (view-only) PDF:
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As a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft, an anthology of how-to articles for fiction writers seeking advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels, my work is featured on the MGOC site. Check it out!
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Horror and thriller writer Scott Nicholson shares his practical and spiritual process in making his Liquid Fear a Kindle a bestseller. This is a great read, and I hope you’ll check out Scott’s books, both digital and print:
Seven Secrets to a Kindle Bestseller (But Really Only One)
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