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.)