2013 The New Year

Happy New Year! The last day of 2012 passed and we enter a new year. 

This year has a thirteen in it. One would say it will be an unlucky year, a bad year, because of the number thirteen. I say it will be a year like every other year, with a lot of bad, and also a lot of good. Depending on who you are and where you are it will be good or bad. The number of the year won't be the determining factor in if the year will be a good one or bad one.

A new year, a new day, it's the same thing, the sun sets and rises. We see it or we don't. We go on with our lives. Everything continues as usual. We go with the flow, wherever it bring us. It's typical of us humans to put some extra value on some days above other days, while the days in itself are the same.

Still, any day that gives us a reason to party is a great day to have. No matter my gloomful thinking. I hope you all enjoyed the New Years. I did enjoy mine, I had some great wine and got to spend the day with my family, which is nice. :D

Due to the amount of wine in my body I forgo spell checking my post. ;)

Dead Quarantine (Zombieclypse Book1)

Dead Quarantine is a fast paced story about two teenagers fighting their way to safety through a zombie apocalypse. It's the first book in a trilogy.

Description:

Unbeknownst to two teenagers—Ralph worried about a history exam he didn't study for and Sarah having studied all weekend—a flu pandemic with apocalyptic proportions rages over the world. On Monday, they arrive at their high school besieged by men in hazmat suits, escorting infected teenagers to buses. Ralph is forced on one of these quarantine buses and Sarah, along with the remaining healthy student body, gets quarantined at school.

This flu however is worse than the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed a hundred million people—much worse. This flu turns its victims into the walking dead. The few not infected are left not only with the grief of their family and friends passing, but also with the horror of their families, friends, and neighbors trying to rip the flesh off them.

Ralph—unsure about the real destination of the bus and trapped inside with kids that are getting worse by the minute—may not get to the destination in time before the first one dies. Sarah, trapped at school, deals with a worsening situation that she soon needs to escape from.

Will the zombies feast on their young flesh or will they escape?

Available at:
GooglePlay

Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iBooks



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Dead Quarantine

Dead Quarantine my zombie apocalypse survival horror novel just got published on Amazon.com. Before I wrote Dead Quarantine I wrote two other novel length horror stories which I didn't publish because they were not good enough. They need a major rewrite and maybe I need to fuse them together into one novel before I even think about publishing them. Maybe this will be my New Year's resolution.

Back to Dead Quarantine; I wrote the story during Nanowrimo, the first draft I finished in two weeks, writing about ten hours daily. Then I went over the work for two more weeks and send it out to my editor. Thanks to her the story is polished to a publishable level. She is great at what she does besides also being nice and helpful. I really can't thank her enough for her work. Thank you Dani.

Dead Quarantine is a fast paced story about two teenagers fighting their way to safety through a zombie apocalypse. It's the first book in a trilogy. The other two I got roughly outlined and I'll start writing the second one in early 2013 and the third one during the 2013 Nanowrimo. I also still got some short stories and novellas to finish and some other projects I'm writing under a pen name. I'll do my best finishing them all by the end of 2013.

The cover:

The description:

Unbeknownst to two teenagers—Ralph worried about a history exam he didn't study for and Sarah having studied all weekend—a flu pandemic with apocalyptic proportions rages over the world. On Monday, they arrive at their high school besieged by men in hazmat suits, escorting infected teenagers to buses. Ralph is forced on one of these quarantine buses and Sarah, along with the remaining healthy student body, gets quarantined at school.

This flu however is worse than the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed a hundred million people—much worse. This flu turns its victims into the walking dead. The few not infected are left not only with the grief of their family and friends passing, but also with the horror of their families, friends, and neighbors trying to rip the flesh off them.

Ralph—unsure about the real destination of the bus and trapped inside with kids that are getting worse by the minute—may not get to the destination in time before the first one dies. Sarah, trapped at school, deals with a worsening situation that she soon needs to escape from.

Will the zombies feast on their young flesh or will they escape?

Available at Amazon for $3.99.

Available at Kobo and Smashwords in January 2013.

I will also be making it available in print (Createspace), at earliest at the end of January but most likely in February.

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you spend a lovely and happy day with your family and friends. My wish for this day and every day after this one is that for each day may be a happy one in which we celebrate life. It would do us good to be festive every single day. Less fighting, more loving.

December 21st, The Mayas, The day I almost touched Wool.

This week I've been (lightly) promoting a free book of mine. First just to get the story out and known to the readers (love you guys) out there, but then when the story placed 90+ in the Short Story ranking on Amazon and I saw Whool ranked second in that category, I got the urge (obsession maybe?) to reach that spot before the alleged end of the world which the Maya supposedly predicted.

I just assume since the Spanish in the far past killed most Mayas and with them all the Maya calendar makers. So now with no way the Mayas can make a new calendar, people are freaking out because they think it signifies the end of the world. Jeez, some Chinese guy even made an arc to survive a flood that he thinks will cover the earth. He burned all his savings on it and I doubt the thing will even float.

Just in the tiny chance that I'm wrong and we all go out with a big bang within a few hours, I wanted to post this picture.

Escape (Gone World) is almost touching Wool... my greedy fingers are stretching out to reach it, who knows I will today, who knows I indeed will. However whatever happens, no Maya apocalypse can grab this away. ;) I am nr. 4 in the short story ranking on Amazon. And you know what? I'm probably the only one who cares. :D And I'm fine with that. It's just a silly thing of me that I tried to do and with some luck actually almost did and maybe still will do. I thank whomever showed interest in my story and I hope they enjoy reading it before the Maya Calendar/Prophecy thing drags us all down or up to wherever.

You can get Escape (Gone World) here if you want to help me reach my silly goal and push my story to new highs, or if you want to safe Wool from me, keeping it away from my reach, you can get Wool here.

Update: World didn't end. :D Didn't expect it would. Oh, and I didn't get to touch Wool :( A step too far for me to touch such greatness, maybe in a year or two I will be able to when I'm a more experienced writer. I've only been writing for four years now, still just a beginner.

Gone World Episode One: Escape

I recently got Gone World copy-edited and updated to address some concerns readers had. This is an improved version and free at Smashwords/Kobo/Amazon.


Description:

What we feared happened. World War III happened. Nuclear war happened.

The United States of America—along with most of the world—has been left in rubble. Pockets of resistance fighters are still fighting the good fight against the invaders, the Sino-Russian Alliance.

Nick and Tina, two rebels, have narrowly escaped an ambush, but Russians still surround them. With the rebel city destroyed and cordoned off by thick walls, their chances to get out alive are slim to none.

Available at (free):

Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Smashwords 


Also available ($0.99):

The Third Party (Gone World #2)
Revenge (Gone World #3)



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"F.C.F. That Within"

F.C.F. That Within a novelette of about sixty pages.

What a reviewer had to say:

"F.C.F. That Within is a one-night-read with a vengeful plot and enough nasty bug-mutants to keep your imagination flowing. Alex Rosaria writes with gritty, crisp descriptions that echo the grim desolation of his characters and setting. He delivers on his action scenes, adding enough blood and guts to conjure up images of the movie "Starship Troopers" with Casper Van Dien. For a short Sci-Fi novel, F.C.F. That Within packs a lot in. Besides the 'no-mercy' style violence, there is some mystery and a light peppering of, believe it or not, romance. I am intrigued to see what else Rosaria has in store for his future works." - Knightengale Books

Description

Sergeant Troy Black goes on a routine mission, but a betrayal sends him crashing into an ambush, which gets his unit killed and leaves him the sole survivor.

Stranded on a moon, with the military outpost a distance away and his oxygen almost depleted, he needs to find his way back to exact revenge on those that betrayed him, and find out what’s going on with the sudden bug infestation.

Will Troy get to the base before his oxygen runs out and get his revenge?


Available at:

Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iBookstore
Smashwords


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Nanowrimo + Book Cover

I may have mentioned before that I would do Nanowrimo this November. Well I did and within twelve days I wrote a 50k word novel, two days before my own set deadline. It's not that I write fast, I actually did write very slow. I went at an average pace of 600 wpm. What I did was write a lot each day I wrote like 83+ hours in 12 days. I did most of my writing early in the morning and in the evenings, averaging around 4k words a day.

Sure the first draft wasn't ready yet. I spend an additional 16 days and three more drafts in improving the novel, spending another 80+ hours. I spend the equivalent of a month working full time on this novel.This I did while also learning for my certification exam to become a Microsoft MCITP Enterprise Administrator (Exam scheduled for December 28th).

After 160+ hours in, the novel is ready for me to send to my copy editor for her to neat up on the spelling, grammar, awkward sentences, and much more. With some luck it will be finished by Christmas and available for the kindle.

Of course I needed a book cover, so I made one:

A professional artist might have done a better job, however with the picture I bought from shutterstock I think I made a real nice cover. Much props to the artist that made the stock photo.

Though opinions might differ about the awesomeness of the book cover, I would like to know yours.

Touch Typing

A long, long, long time ago, when I was barely a teenager. My father bought me and my brother our first Gateway PC. It came in a cow pattern box. It was a neat thing. My brother about two years older installed everything, He could read a manual very well. I don't do the read manual thing. Anyway in the package we got an Encarta Encyclopedia, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and some other stuff I forgot about.

I wanted to learn to type. So I tried. I tried for a week and gave up. I developed my own style of typing with two fingers. It's similar style as those old people you see who never seen a typewriter or computer before, hunched over the keyboard, pecking at the keys, moving very slowly. Only I was not that slow, I managed to type at a 20 words a minute speed and burst of near 30wpm. Though my eyes were half the time on the keyboard which kept my speed limited.

Touch typing benefits us all. You can type without looking at the keyboard and with time as your proficiency increases so does your speed. I knew this and still I drudged with my slow pace typing, because it was sufficient for the occasional email, or report I had to type. Once I started writing I felt the drawback. I would write my stories longhand, because my typing was too slow to keep up with me, and held my storytelling back. Drawback of longhand is that my handwriting is not pretty, making it difficult to read and in typing it over.

It's only now at 34 that I decided to learn touch typing and become proficient doing so. I registered for the free online tutorial typingweb and did the courses for two months, each day typing about 2 hours, practicing till I managed to touch type. I can now type at 40wpm with bursts of up to 60wpm. I wished I've done this before, it saves a lot of time. I can now type at the speed with which I can keep up with my story telling, and I don't need to type my handwriting over ever again.

Added benefit is I can type my emails, reports, and instruction manuals much faster, so it also benefits me on my day job. I don't dread now when asked to document something, now I'm able to do it in half the time I normally would.

I intend in keep improving and up my speed to 70 wpm. I do recommend to anyone who doesn't touch type to teach themselves to do so. You'll benefit from it. Using typingweb.com will help you considerably to do so. The courses and practices are topnotch and it's free. The added benefit is you can certify your typing skill and use this when applying for a job.

Damnation (Maiden-At-Arms)

 Lady Christine D’Ang just turned sixteen, and tired of her privileged life she desires something else, something forbidden to her—love.

Despite her father's order, she leaves the castle in search of a young man she's smitten with, but instead of him, she finds herself accosted by Eadric, a young knight and suitor to her elder sister, Lyna, and she meets an eccentric stranger.

Her pursuit for love and happiness leads her to disappointment, followed by betrayal, and ends in a decision that will curse her and her family.

Damnation is out at smashwords.com. My loyal readers, followers and those who stumble on my blog and random ramblings can get it for free till November 1st 2012. 


Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: NL65Q
Expires: November 1, 2012

Print Books

From the start I also wanted to POD publish my stories, but I just didn't do so until now. I held my self back thinking it was a hard thing to learn to do and would require a lot of time to learn how to do so. Formatting the book in word turned out to be easy till I came to numbering the pages and I ended up braking my head for weeks before I gave up without being able to get it how I wanted it. I finally started from scratch using openoffice instead and I had a print book ready to publish within hours.

For the bookcover I just had to learn the right dimensions taking into account the thickness of the print book, from there on it was easy. Only rested me to upload my files, proof them, and publish them.

I published two novelettes on Createspace; F.C.F. That Within (Sci-Fi) and Soul Eviction (Horror). Both are about 70 pages. I'm selling them for $4.99 while the e-book goes for $2.99. These two so far are my best written work and they are thoroughly edited by someone way better than me in grammar.

It's a complete different feeling having a physical book in my hands compared to having an e-book, in a way it feels more real. It may be that I'm an oldskool reader and that that is why I feel this way about physical books. I can't help it, holding a book in my hand, sniffing the smell of paper, I just love it. Hey, maybe I'm a freak like that, but can you really blame me. I do love my kindle for the ease it brings in carrying many books without the added weight and space, but if you sniff the kindle it only smells like electronics and holding it is just like any other electronic device like a smartphone or pad.

I made some pictures:

Book Cover: Damnation (Maiden-At-Arms Series)

I like making book covers with Gimp. Having a tight, very tight budget I can't pay a digital artist to make covers so I have to do it myself. All available cash I have I put into editing my stories. It's the one thing I can't adequately do myself. Any follower of my blog would know by now I'm no grammar genius.

Anyways this is my most recent made book cover. I did something different and tried make it more fantasy and less horror. Also I tried to give it a feminine touch.

I love Gimp, it takes a while to get proficient in it, but once you are you can make beautiful things with it.

*Update (Changed the author name color + BG color change)

Zombie Slave

It's available today October 1th at amazon.com for $0.99, however if you're one of my loyal readers you will be reading this post in time to get it for free till October 3rd 2012.

Description:

It's 1869 and slavery in the United States has been abolished, but still the freed slaves are not free. They live with the aftermath of the Civil War daily. However, whips and shackles are not the only ways of slavery; there is another way, a mystical way, the zombie way, and this one doesn't know the barriers of color.

Clark Hamilton, a former slave owner, will find this out. Old age made him senile, and living in the past, he does a horrible thing — a thing that will end his life and possibly ruin the life of Eve, a freed slave girl.

A fight for survival ensues in which nothing is what it seems, but the danger is real.

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Soul Eviction - Free ebook ranking on Amazon

Free books on Amazon do have rankings, it gives an indication how many you gave away compared to others giving away their books. It helps to distinguish how well a book is doing. And it's fun to follow.

So far Soul Eviction is doing alright. I gave away more than a hundred in the USA and this is okay for a shorter story. The rankings at this moment in the short story category is:

Numero Uno in Germany (They must have gotten a whiff of my German ancestry)

 #8 in UK

#18 in the USA

I'm just glad 5 people in Germany got my e-book and made me numero uno in the (english) short story category. I usually only get one or two downloads from Germany. To get number 1 in the US you need a few hundreds giveaways in one day.

Soul Eviction

Soul Eviction, a ghost/demon short story. A year ago I finished the first draft and after a few revisions it stayed inside my digital shelf collecting digital dust. The story can be disturbing to some, though it's a story I honestly feel is a good one and I should publish it. So I had it edited twice to make sure it's the best quality I can provide and now it's finally available.

Description:

Roland couldn’t get the days off to go together with his wife and two kids on vacation, so they’ll be going without him. He’s looking forward to spending his time alone at home, with no noisy children running around or a wife with a long list of chores for him.

However, being alone in his house turns out to be different than he expected. Something is stalking him in his house, thoroughly creeping him out. But Ron’s a stubborn man and doesn’t want to share the house.

With each passing day, his situation grows more horrible and gruesome. Hoping to reclaim his house, he seeks out advice on how to get rid of whatever is haunting him. Will he find something that will set his house free of the entity before it kills him and his soon-to-return family?


E-book available at:

Amazon
Ibooks 
Kobo 
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords

Print book available at:

Createspace 

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The current dramatic events surrounding writing; paid reviews, sock puppets, defaming, bullying, utter drama

The current dramatic events surrounding writing; paid reviews, sock puppets, defaming, bullying, utter drama. A mouthful. I thought to keep myself out of it. I thought that would be best for me and maybe it is, but being me I can't help making a tiny blog post about it. (Hey, at least the title is long.)

I read Barry Eisler latest post "And Why Beholdest Thou The Mote In Thy Brother's Eye...?" on his blog and I agree with him. He gave his reservations about putting his signature in support of No Sock Puppets Here Please ("NSPHP") and he eventually reluctantly did put his signature out there in support. Reading his reservations I asked myself why he did so, had I similar reservations (and actually I do)I wouldn't have supported them by putting my sig down. I was pleasantly surprised when later on he asked them to remove his signature.

I respect people that are willing to admit they made a mistake and do something about it. In our world we have too many that won't ever admit they were wrong and some who even when they finally reluctantly do admit that they were wrong, they will do nothing to fix it. They'll go headlong into their next mistake which they will vehemently defend against all naysayers. (Look at politicians)

We as humans quickly forget to think critically once we feel someone wronged us. We get swept by the emotions and without a second thought lapse out in righteous anger at those we feel wronged us. I see this happen often, offline and online, while if we took a few steps back and thought about the situation instead of busting the door open and start shooting, we would often be able to come to the conclusion that yes it is bad, but it's not the end of the world.

I now see writers and readers fall into a sense of paranoia, second guessing everything and being quick in accusing others of perceived transgressions. It's like a tornado indiscriminately sucking everything in and tearing it to shreds. I might be wrong, I do hope I'm wrong and the current drama surrounding writing and publishing will go away with only a whiff, but I fear it won't and many innocents will be burned while those that really did wrong will only get a light slap on the fingers.

I know that I for myself will try to stay out of this discussions and just keep doing what I love doing and that is writing. I've too many stories that need to be put on paper to worry about what's going. (And still I do worry because I guess I care.)

The guy that cried about John Locke and his paid reviews

A fellow writer goes all emotional on the fact that John Locke did buy reviews. The man bought hundreds reviews to pimp up his stories. Sure this is bad, very bad, and not truthful to the readers that fell for these reviews and bought his books, and especially not for those that disliked his stories, however it does not change the stories he wrote. It's still the same stories and they'll eventually have to stand on themselves. If he proves to be a hack writer he eventually will sell nothing more, but if his stories are good he'll still be selling even after this poop that did surface.

Barry Eisler had a nice comment on the blog post: "I'm sorry, but this is just too much.

Reading is a "profoundly intimate experience… sacred… [and] the ultimate act of trust"?

I don't know. Off the top of my head, I would have voted for making love (particularly the first time), or allowing someone to operate on my infant child, or knowing someone has my back in battle and will die to protect me, or choosing the person I want to be by my side when I die. But that's just me, and I suppose these things are idiosyncratic.

"As both a writer and a reader, I find this entire thing utterly repulsive."

Not just concerning, disturbing, ethically wrong, and such? Are you not concerned that you'll have no superlatives left should you be called upon to comment when, for example, a priest rapes an altar boy, or when religious lunatics hold a rally at the funeral of a dead soldier claiming he was killed because God Hates Fags, or when a politician lies the country into war?"

Read the rest in the comments section.

I also did post a comment, guess which one. ;)

Zombie Scare

Zombie Scare, a zombie short story I wrote a while ago. It was fun to write and more fun yet to see how my writing, polished by my copy editor, reads tight and packing.

It's available today August 29th at amazon.com for $0.99, however if you one of my loyal readers you will be reading this post in time to get it for free on August 30th and 31th.

Description:

Jacobs and Smith, two police officers from Maine, set a pointless roadblock to catch potential drunk drivers coming from a festival held in town.

The night is dark and long, and boredom sets in. Looking forward to return home, they spend their time chit chatting about recent events.

Though the night doesn't stay uneventful—things turns out darker for them, ending in a climax neither was expecting


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WIP Gone World 3

I've rewritten this short story about three times now. First two times were because I thought the beginning to be boring, so about 4k words in I started again from the beginning. I can't say I won't change it up a little more and fill it with more action. It's difficult for me to write from the Russian POV being I'm evidently not Russian and that I like my rebel characters better, but it's slowly turning up into a nice story. At least I finished the book cover.

What do you think? Nice or great? ;)

First little tweaking:

Some more tweaks:

And there I go again do some tweaking:

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What to Live For

I just published What to Live For ($0.99) and on the 24 and 25th of august it will be available for free on Amazon.


Description:

A man loses everything: his life, his love. Pent up with hurt and regret, he makes the drastic choice to end it all. However, a strange thing happens, and he gets a second chance. Will he grab it and choose life, or is death a tempting seductress he can't deny?

Remade the cover (title is not readable in thumbzise):

 

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Red Impish Demon

I published Red Impish Demon on Amazon for the price of $0.99 and on 23th of august it will be available for free on Amazon.


Description:

Lance Magon, a librarian who lives his life as best as he can, is happily married.

However, things change for the worst, and he finds himself in a shady town and in a shadier building standing in front of a door to an apartment containing a nightmare.

Opening the door will change his life drastically, for the better he hopes, but since when did making a deal with the devil ever improve one's life? Maybe, just maybe, Lance will outwit the demon, but at what expense?

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New cover for 'Death's Given Chance'

'Death Given Chance' is a short story I never really gave a chance, deep down I don't want people to read it because within it there is a little part of me that I put behind me but still wound in the story. So I gave it the worst book cover I could possibly make and didn't get it edited. However I decided that if I want to write and publish I should not hold back and I certainly should deliver the best I can to any potential reader, so I'll be puting this one up for editing and in the meantime I've made a new bookcover.

Old cover (horrendous really):

New cover (much more edgy):

It's obvious which one I like the most, but you be the judge and tell me which one you like the most.

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What got 'The WAR Z: The Survivor MMO' got to do with wrting

Warning: Unlike with any other blog post I write, with this one I will just let the words flow out without paying any mind to editing, spelling, and grammar, because how can one do different with  a mind full of excitement on the prospect of soon playing the WAR Z a zombie survival MMO. Hey, real digital life the walking dead will be happening in that game.

This is one game that I hope will come out after Christmas. Don't think that this means I don't want it out now, because I really do want it in my hands right now. I want to immerse myself in the game, playing many characters, many types of good guys, bad guys, and inbetween guys. I want my Otis to my Shane, to knee cap a poor bastard and see him chowed down by a horde of stinking zombies while I limp away all serious-like, and after I'm safely back at camp I'll lie through my teeth that he tripped and them damn walking dead got him good. Though I would only do so in a game. I'm not really horrible like that in real life. I would just run faster, because a guy chubby like Otis would have no chance keeping up with me and would eventually be eaten anyway. I wouldn't even have to lie, I would say the truth, he was slow and these damn stinking walking dead got him and ate him up good while I watched and smoked a cigarette. Yeah a man need to rest if he gets a chance while running away from zombies.

Anyway I'm deviating . I want this game out after Christmas because if it happens before that it will mess up the many things I got planned to do. With this game out early it will rob me of many hours that I should be spending instead on writing. This November I'll participate in Nanowrimo and plan to write a novel in one month time and have it publish (certainly after having it edited) on Amazon and Createspace before Christmas or on Christmas. It would be swell if my new monster baby gets born on the same date baby Jesus allegedly was born.

The story of course will be about zombies, well actually about a boy and a girl trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. I wanted to write a zombie novel for a while now, but so far I've only written zombie short stories. So yeah, I can't have the distraction of a zombie game or else I'll be reliving zombie life through the game instead of writing zombie. I already had great difficulty getting myself off the DayZ IV.

I'm already working on the cover design and tried my hand in creating a zombie cover, but I'm not there yet. So far I've made this one:

I'm really not satisfied with this cover. I want to make it a little bit more surreal than real... I'll see what I can do. I might look into and compare other book covers, maybe I'll get a better idea what to do to make a great zombie cover.

September I'll be publishing-for the first time-a print book, the experience in making that one will help me for when I have to do the same with my zombie novel. It looks easy formatting a book and making a cover for a print version, but it's not. Formatting an e-book is easy, a real paper one has a steeper learning curve, but by the time my novel is ready I'll have the knowledge to format a novel for print in less than four hours.

I will be busy these coming months and will have almost no time to game, it will be work, work, work, luckily I like writing so it won't be that bad.

*For those that managed to read through this dredge of text now understand why I hire an editor to clean up my mess. ;)

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Bad Zombie, BAD!

My poor attempt making a zombie book cover for a novel I plan to write. I've ample time improving the book cover before the novel is finished, but I really want an epic design, something surreal. It will be a challenge, a challenge almost as big as writing the novel itself.

Another cover update

Reading Dean Wesley Smith's last post about print publishing short stories got me thinking and excited to do the same. I did already want to publish in print but only short story collections and novels, which I actually planned to do this November or early December, but now I think I'll do it sooner and for a single short story.

I'll be working this month in getting a print version out for 'F.C.F. That Within' it's my highest reviewed story and one that sold best out of the bunch I published second only to 'Gone World' that ironicly is one of my worst reviewed stories. :D.

It will be a learning curve to get it all formatted and to create the jacket for the book. So far I only finished the front cover. It took me hours to create and almost burned down my computer, it's the first time I worked in gimp with a file almost 300 MB in size. It was crazy, my old PC was complaining and stuttering like the old thing it actually was, but I succeeded, or it did succeed because I just clicked some buttons while the machine really did all the heavy lifting.

I might still change a few thing, but for now my machine needs its rest.

*(I might have it copy edited once more before sending it to the printer)

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On a whim

On kindleboards, while reading this post I got the whim to make a book cover and took the opportunity to just do that purely based on some selfish fun. The stock art is just a sample, for this ever to be used commercially a license needs to be bought from this artist at deviantart. The work I've done is free of charge.

Another Book Cover update

Making a new cover for one story I couldn't stop myself making another one for another story.

Old "Don't believe what they say" bookcover:

New cover:

Did some adjustments in font type for name, the current one I had to stretch the font which makes it look a little off.

Book Covers

Having made many book covers I can now say that I'm getting there where I feel I'm getting proficient at it. With this knowledge I've decided to make a new cover for an e-book I released a long time ago. The current one wasn't doing it for me, nor was it generating much sales. I can't only fault the cover for this because the blurb is also atrocious. I'll have to renew that one too.

I think a good book cover can attract readers to your book and in doing so generate more sales. If after seeing the terrific cover the reader still did not buy your book, then it's left to the blurb to tempt them into pressing the buy button. If after your wonderful cover and blurb the reader still hesitates then it's the sample that will sway them to buy.

Reading the story is often the last step a reader makes before buying a book. That is why it's important to have a stunning cover, so you get the chance that a reader will contemplate your story.

And now back to my cover; this is the current one:

And this is the new one:

As you can see I increased the size of my name. The idea is to brand my name and make it recognizable, the more people see it the more likely it will stick in their head, and if someone happen to like my writing they'll much easier find my other work .I also changed to a more apt font for the genre. And I used a picture that depicts the story a little better.

Now I'm curious if the changes indeed will get me more sales, time will tell.


*Did some more additional tiny adjustments.

Maiden-At-Arms

 My newest addition and again you can get a for free at Smashword for a limited time

Retail price: $2.99

Promotional price: $0.00

Coupon Code: UH32J
Expires: August 16, 2012

Lyna D'Ang, a lady, daughter of Lord Robert, lives a sheltered and privileged life at castle Perring along with her siblings. This quickly ends when darkness descends upon the castle.

Death comes knocking in a familiar form that rips her world apart. She is cast out to the lions to face the world alone.

Wounded, shamed, betrayed, she fights the darkness set upon her life. Enduring all thrown at her, she struggles to come out on top, but will she ever get her life back? Will she even survive?

Gone World Episode Two: The Third Party

Thinking about making a new cover, let me know what you think.

Description:


War still rages as opposing parties vie for supremacy over the world.

U.S. Army sergeant Brick Johnson fought the war from the beginning. On a major push against the Russians, his unit gets ambushed. While fleeing, he stumbles upon an unknown combatant near a Russian-occupied city, and things get deadly.

With his brigade shattered, his unit annihilated, and the fate of the war unknown, Brick has to decide if he will go on with the fight or lay down his arms.


Available at (for $0.99):

Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Smashword


Also available:

Escape (Gone World #1)
Revenge (Gone World #3)


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New release: Man-at-Arms

Man-At-Arms, a short story collection:

AMBOS THRONE

Ambos Thorne, a renowned warrior who fought many battles, saw atrocities committed in a war waged in the name of the king and glory, and stared death in the face many times, gets the menial task of escorting Lady Christine.

Faced with superstitious beliefs and orders that make little sense to him, he comes to a cross roads in his life. Follow through with his orders based on superstition or save the life of an innocent woman.

What will he choose and will he regret it?

JAMES FARMER

Tired and desperate, James, a farmhand, is chasing a heavily armed group transporting a woman.

Night is closing in fast and the trail is getting cold.

Will he catch up with them? And if he does, will he be in time to exact the revenge that threatens to burn him alive?

THE DARK WANDERER

In a time that traveling is dangerous, especially for a woman alone, two knights escort a young woman through a forest known for its wild beasts.

Man fears nature, the beasts that roam the world, but sometimes it's not these that fills us with fear. Sometimes, it’s that from beyond the things we know that brings terror to us.

Robert, a young knight, will soon find this out.


On smashwords for free for a limited time. 

Retail Price: $2.99

Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: PF63K
Expires: August 6, 2012

Also available at Amazon and Kobo

GHOST WORKER

Ghost Worker is available on Amazon, KOBO, and Smashwords for $2.99. Till 26 of July it will be free at Smashwords. Use the code SSWIN at checkout to get this book for FREE.


Desription Ghost Worker:

Brian is a happily married man, working a mundane job as a paper pusher. This changes after he's kicked out of his home after a heated argument with his wife. Left with unanswered questions, he wants to confront his co-worker Tom about his alleged dealings with his wife. However, it may not be as easy as Brian would like: everybody at the office claims to have seen him, but it has been weeks Brian saw him last.

In his search to solve the mystery of Tom's absence and finding answers to his questions, Brian stumbles on more trouble than he expected; a job deadline, a weird intern, and an unexpected turn of events.

Will he ever get the closure he seeks? Or is his destiny set in doom?

Description Gone World (Escape):
What we feared happened, World War III happened, Nuclear war happened.

In its aftermath the world has been left in rubble, with pocket of resistance fighters still fighting the good fight against the invaders, the Sino-Russian Alliance.

Nick and Tina, two rebels, just having escaped an ambush, need to find a way to escape the area cordoned of by the invaders. Will they get out? Will Nick and Tina, manage to do deal with the hopelessness of it all, surviving in a gone world?

Excerpt Gone World

I just got Gone World edited and updated. My, my, what many mistakes I left in that one, I really wonder how it sold so many copies. From now on any new e-book I will have (professionally) edited before publishing.

Excerpt Gone World:

GONE WORLD

BY A.ROSARIA

ESCAPE

“Nick.”

His name rang in his pounding head. His head hurt where the stone had hit him, or was it shrapnel? No, not shrapnel. He didn't smell the blood that it would cause.

“Nick.”

A shove against his shoulder lulled his head sideways, igniting the pang to a new high. He squinted his closed eyes as if he could press out the pain.

“Get up. We need to move,” Tina said. It was indeed her, and somehow she had survived.

He opened his eyes to a bright light. Daylight already, he thought. As quickly the light blinded him it swept away, leaving him in darkness. Far away he heard the hum of an engine. They were searching for stragglers—him, Tina and whoever else had survived. Not that it mattered anymore.

“We need to move away from here fast,” Tina said.

“You think!” he said, coughing dust. It tasted bitter, dry, and surely not edible. Give it a few more weeks and it might. He spat the last bit out, leaving his throat dry and wanting water that he didn't have. If they didn't catch and kill him, the dust would; he had gotten enough in him to guarantee him cancer in a decade or two. He smiled. Although, the lack of water might get me first.

“Stop acting like a fool,” Tina said. “We have to leave now.”

He winked the darkness out of his eyes and saw her haggard, brown face swim into his vision with her big eyes too innocent looking to belong to her.

“Where are your buddy Arnoldo and that crazy, Ron?”

Her look soured. “He’s not my buddy, and dead, both of them. We really can't stay.”

Tina's eyes darted around, while sweat mixed with blood ran down her face. It wasn’t her blood. She had no scratches or other visible injuries. She had lucked out again; her luck had no end.

“Why run? Eventually they'll get us.”

Frantically she shook her head, her filthy hair slugging along with the motion, spattering blood in his face.

“Just leave me be. Really, what do you care if I live or die?”

Tina sighed, stood up, and kicked his side. “Fine,” she said with her teeth clenched. “Die then, asshole.”

That was the most emotion he had ever seen from her. However, she still was a bitch to kick him. It hurt like hell. The damn woman could kick with the best of them. She still stood there, not leaving. The hum of the engine drew closer. She had better move soon before the light comes sweeping in.

“What are you waiting for? Go. Don’t wait around to die with me.”

She didn't answer. Instead, she stayed frozen, watching whatever she saw through the big hole in the wall.

“Tina.” Nick stood up. “Let’s go, then.”

“Asshole,” she hissed between her teeth. She ducked away, grabbing his hand and pulling him down with her. His knees banged on the rubble floor; it was a good thing he had on knee pads, or else he would be hurting now.

“What the—”

She punched him before he could finish and raised her index finger to her puckered lips. A beam of light passed over their heads. The vehicle stopped near their hiding place: three walls left standing, filled with bullet holes, covered by a sagging, charred roof. It had once been home to a family now long dead.

The floor trembled lightly along with the stationary vehicle. The heat emanating from the engine already reached them. It was the only comfort brought to them by this uninvited guest, who surely was bringing the gift of death.

The sound of boots hitting the ground was followed by the soldiers’ voices. They were Russians, not Chinese, and there went their advantage of size. Nick wiped blood from his lips, glowering at Tina. He hoped she showed this sort of kindness to them. He unsheathed his trusty, rusty butcher knife and knelt next to her, who was brandishing her own knife. Hers was bigger than his.

Their eyes met, and the right side of her mouth shifted up in a smirk he would have loved to slap from her face. She tapped her right ear and raised three fingers. Fine hearing. He had only heard two. The sound of crushing stones under boots came from the side wall as someone tried to slip around the house. There was no hiding or fleeing anymore; the choice to action had been made for them.

Tina moved lithe on her feet, leaving him behind to stare at her wiggling rear. Great, he thought. She had left him with two to take care of. Way to go. If he had stayed down, his death would have come quick enough. He shook his head. That was not be the way he wanted to go; fighting suited him better. He watched her creep along the side wall, brushing her right shoulder against the stones. The sound was inaudible over the hum of the engine. Her combat knife was clutched in her left hand. She'd manage by herself; it wasn't her first time, or his.

Nick gritted his teeth, hugged the wall, and slid towards the big gap made by a tank shell during the war. He waited for a rustle or grunt, and it came as if on cue, barely audible unless you specifically listened for it.

He rose up, ignoring his stiff, aching muscles and his throbbing headache. Already the feeling of pain was numbed by the rush of adrenaline coursing through his body. He climbed out of the hole and moved to the other side as if it was a common daily occurrence. It took him a second to take it all in. There was rubble everywhere and a sea of gray in the moonlight as if they were on said moon itself.

A Vodnik was parked about ten feet away; it was a Russian-made multipurpose vehicle with an open turret hatch, but instead of a machine gun, it had a powerful searchlight mounted on top. The light pointed away from the house and luckily was not manned. Two tall Russian soldiers in camouflaged fatigues and body armor stood with their backs turned to him, their rifles pointed at the ground.

He approached them quickly without bothering being silent. With long strides he was upon the tallest. He grabbed him by his hair, which the fool had allowed to grow. It was his doom and Nick's luck. He pulled the soldier's head back and pushed the point of his rusted, nicked, but sharp-enough knife into the jugular and out the other side. He forced the knife outward, tearing the front of the man's throat open. Choking on his own blood, the soldier collapsed.

....

Available at smaswords and amazon.