Get the new horror novel from Joseph Willams, The Hunt, free until Sunday!

I’ve been friends with Joseph Williams for a little over a year now.  I met him when I found out about his short story collection, Detroit Macabre.  I tried to bring it into the local stores, but I couldn’t because I could only get it non-returnable through Ingram (luckily, Joe was able to get some at his store without us).  We kept in contact after Borders shut down, and I even picked up his book before the Novi store closed down.

In September of last year, I did a “5 Questions with…” feature with him for Curiosity Killed the Bookworm.  Then, Joe came back to my blog in October to contribute to my 31 Days of Halloween Hijinks blog challenge with a blog about the best Horror films.

We also have plans to start a writing group and a horror blog one of these days.

As it just so happens, Joe released his latest novel, The Hunt, and it’s a free Kindle ebook download until tomorrow.  If you want a great read in the horror genre, consider giving The Hunt a chance.  I’ve read lots of Joe’s short stories, but this is his first novel.  Support independent authors.

Download The Hunt for free today!

Unless of course you want to take Grumpy Cat’s advice.

5 Questions with New York Times Best-Selling Author Michael P. Spradlin + free Blood Riders ebook giveaway

New York Times Bestselling author Michael Spradlin is most known for his books for younger readers and zombie song and poem parodies. This week, with the release of his latest novel, Blood Riders, Spradlin can now add accomplished adult novelist to his resume as well.

I’ve been friends with Michael since 2004 during my time with Borders, and through that time, I’ve been able to see how passionate he is about the book world. Spradlin is a book person’s person and it shows every time I talk with him.

Enough about Mike though…onto Blood Riders!

Blood Riders, set in the late 1800s,tells the story of Civil War vet Jonas Hollister, a man who was falsely accused of perjury when it comes to the disappearance of his 11 men. His group was ambushed by a band of “flesh eaters” and Jonas was the only survivor. The only problem is that there is absolutely no trace of a scuffle or his team anywhere, so Jonas is sentenced to prison at Fort Leavenworth.

After four years of prison, Jonas is pardoned by real-life detective Allan Pinkerton because another attack had occurred and as the survivor of the previous attack, Jonas is uniquely talented for the task of hunting down the perpetrators in exchange for a full pardon. From there, Jonas is paired with the likes of Pinkerton, Oliver Winchester, and a familiar face to all horror fans, Van Helsing. Aside from Jonas, another person is also pursuing the vampiric Archaics who joins Pinkerton’s hunt. Her story just makes Blood Riders even better.

Spradlin’s novel is an intense blend of horror and western (with a little steampunk thrown in for good measure). If Borders were still around, I would be the buyer for this book and I would have definitely promoted it because I want everyone to know about it. Since I can’t do that, I can do the next best thing. Mike has decided to give away THREE Amazon Kindle eBook copies of Blood Riders!

Stay tuned after our 5 Question Interview for details on how you can get a chance to win a free copy of Blood Riders.

So, without further delay, here’s our interview.

Before Blood Riders, your main writing focus has been with books for young readers. What was it like to switch gears and start writing books for adults – especially a novel that blends so many genres?
Obviously writing for children is different in terms of language and themes. But the essentials of the novel are the same. You still have to tell an entertaining story. Paying too close attention to the who the audience is, can sometimes get you in trouble. It’s better to think about making the story as fun and interesting as you can.

The narrative weaves real-life people like Allan Pinkerton with famous literary figures like Van Helsing. Do you feel some sort of responsibility when using them in your book?
I try to be as accurate as I can to who they were and how they are described in my research or in Van Helsing’s case in Dracula. But it’s also fiction so I get to ‘make up the rules’ to a certain degree. Obviously it’s a little easier with a character like Van Helsing as there is only one source. But Pinkerton was a very interesting man and digging into his life added a lot to Blood Riders, I felt, even though he’s a relatively minor character.

What is it about vampires that make them so ingrained in popular culture? What are the vampires in Blood Riders like?
I think they’re ingrained in popular culture because they’re scary and we like to be scared. There is an element of the idea that a human being is taken over and only the darkest side of us remains. That’s a pretty frightening proposition. In Blood Riders my ‘vampires’ are a bit of a hybrid of a couple of different myths. I wanted to explore the idea of an early race of vampires. I wondered if, in the fictional realm, did vampires and werewolves and other monsters evolve and adapt to their environment the way humans did? And what would happen if this group of vampires made a conscious decision hundreds of years ago, to isolate themselves from humanity? In order to insure they were not overwhelmed by the sheer mass of human beings and humans greater use of technology, their cleverness, their ability to band together in a way that a race of beings whose soul purpose is to hunt and feed. They don’t invent, they don’t ‘civilize’ beyond a basic tribal structure. In order to ensure their survival they must remain hidden. That becomes a double edged sword. By remaining hidden they don’t grow, if they don’t remain hidden they risk decimation. It was an interesting question to delve into.

With Halloween just around the corner, do you have any recommendations for scary reads to get us in the mood?
I highly recommend the Richard Kadrey Sandman Slim series. And I’m constantly amazed at the number of people of who’ve never read Dracula. One of the truly scary novels of all time. And it’s always a good idea to read or reread ‘Salem’s Lot around Halloween. You know, just so you’ll be scared to take the trash out in the dark.

Any last words?
None except thanks for giving me a chance to speak to your audience and I hope they’ll buy and read Blood Riders and tell 10,000 of their closest friends!

If you’re like me, that interview grabbed your interest to see what Blood Riders is all about (thankfully, I’ve read it already so I know exactly how much fun you’re in store for). Well, now’s your chance to get an opportunity to win a copy of the ebook in Kindle format directly from the author himself!

Interested in winning a free copy of Blood Riders?

Here’s how: From now until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, September 30th, 2012 all you have to do is comment on this post and let me know what your favorite horror novel is. Simple, right?

BUT, if you want some bonus entries, here’s what to do:

For one extra Bonus Entry, like Michael Spradlin on Facebook
For two extra Bonus Entries, follow Michael Spradlin on Twitter
For three extra Bonus Entries, follow me on Twitter
For four extra Bonus Entries, share this blog with Facebook and Twitter (there are easy to use sharing buttons below)

That’s right, you could potentially have five total entries into the free Blood Riders ebook contest.

I will randomly select three winners based on the above criteria on Monday, October 1st, 2012. If you are going for the bonus entries, please don’t forget to mention which ones you’ve completed in your horror novel comment to this blog.

Good Luck Everyone! Let the games begin!

BLOOD RIDERS Trailer from Harper Voyager on Vimeo.

Also, Blood Riders is currently available now at all major bookstores and online book retailers.

My Brother-in-Law

We live in a time where reality stars are made famous for drinking and getting in fights at the Jersey Shore or being in high school and pregnant.  Seeing these people get scooped up from obscurity is enough to get you frustrated – at least enough to get me frustrated.  I know how hard I’ve worked to get to where I am – high school, good grades, college, more good grades, blah blah blah.  I know I shouldn’t feel entitled, but where’s my piece of the pie?

It’s with that attitude that I became bitter and even a bit cynical.  It was that bitterness and cynicism that caused me to stall my writing.  Well, there are other reasons as well (which I’ll get into in future blogs), but I was pretty angry to see people like Snooki and Lauren Conrad get book deals.  It really takes a lot out of me and I just get angry.

I need to really stop thinking about what I can’t control and I can’t control the media.  What I can control is writing.  I may not ever get published, but I’ll never get published if I don’t write.

Which brings me to my brother-in-law.  I have plenty of stories about my wife to tell when it comes to the support she offers me, but this post is about my brother-in-law.  If you know me, you’ll know I spend a fair amount of time on Facebook.  One would say that the time spent on Facebook could be better served writing, and that’s exactly what my brother-in-law thought.  On April 10th, he threw the gauntlet down and I accepted.  His challenge was to stay off Facebook until I finish a first draft.  I have accepted and I haven’t been on Facebook since.

These blogs are auto-posted on my Facebook account, so that’s why you’ve seen me lately.  Since Facebook allows commenting from e-mails, if you respond to these posts, I’ll see your comments.  My brother-in-law has allowed me to respond to the comments, so that is the only way you’ll see my on Facebook until the first draft is complete.

Okay…now back to the writing (and the blogging about writing – which, at this point, I’m doing a bit more of).

Thoughts on Story Structure

It’s been a long night/day.  My daughter got sick last night, which I believe was a result of a potential food allergy we just discovered.  Needless to say that after two loads of laundry, four linen changes, and a 2:00 AM trip to Meijer for Pedialyte, bananas, and Apple Sauce, the Jackson household is pooped today.  Since my daughter’s daycare has an issue with bringing pukey babies to the facilities (the nerve!), I took a personal day to play nurse.  She seems to have her appetite and spunk back, so I’m guessing this was a one and done occurrence.  One surefire way to find out is to give her some more of what she ate last night, but I’m not ready to take another day off this week.

In between laundry and taking care of my little munchkin, I’ve been thinking about writing.  The first problem with that is that I’m thinking about it as opposed to actually doing it.  Soon enough though – soon enough.  What my wife let me know at lunch (she came to check on the patient and nurse) is that I’m not sticking to one idea – which is true.  If you read my first post, I mentioned I have a horror novel started and a YA trilogy conceptualized.  Lunchtime also reminded me of another idea I was kicking around and was excited to write.  Well, my wife is right.  I’m too scattered (and she wasn’t helping my cause saying I should think about picture books too – love you dear).  I know plenty of authors who can multi-task with several different projects and I think I can do that too – but for the sake of my sanity and desire to get something done, I need to stick with one thing at a time.  During my kid’s last meal (which she actually wanted more of – good signs!), I decided I’m going to scrap the horror novel for now and only focus on the YA trilogy.  Nixing the horror novel was a bit of a bummer since that’s my favorite genre to read, but of my two main ideas, it was the most under-developed.  Besides, there’s plenty of zombie stuff out there these days.

Now that’s I’ve decided to go full speed ahead on the YA stuff, I got to thinking  about story structure.  The first novel I wrote (which will remain unpublished and as a single hard copy that my wife hangs on to) had no real structure.  I had a basic premise and a basic idea of what I wanted to happen, but for the most part, writing it was a discovery.  I was making it up as I went along and because of that real lack of form or plot, the novel really dragged and plodded along.  I just don’t think I can be solely a discovery writer if I want to be successful.  I’ve read many writing books – Bird by Bird, On Writing, Elements of Style, etc. and I’ve gained valuable lessons and inspiration from everything I’ve read, but nothing has helped me as much as this set of YouTube videos.

I’m only posting one of the five-part series, but I highly recommend any aspiring authors take a peek at them.  Dan Wells is one of my favorite authors and his Seven-Point System for Story Structure is going to prove invaluable as I proceed on my goal of being a published author.

I would write more, but it sounds like the little lady isn’t going to nap after all, which is good and bad: good because that means she’s feeling better and bad because she lost a lot of sleep last night and I want her to catch up.

‘Til next time, keep writing – maybe I’ll actually be able to report some positive progress on my projects.

Beginnings

I’ve blogged many times before.  In fact, one of my old haunts in college was livejournal.  Mostly, that blog was to rant, ramble, and entertain.  I’m sure I’ll do some of that on here, but the main purpose for this blog is to keep me on task on my quest to completing a novel (or two…or three).

My writing “career” began in third grade when I wrote science fiction stories about my two cats – Zoot and Adventure Cat.  The stories had my cats as captains of a spaceship fighting off evil dogs.  I was heavily influenced by Star Trek at the time.  From there, I took stabs at writing fake tabloids involving classmates (that had an abrupt end though when my teacher found an issue), comic books, and short stories.  I never really tried anything long form until one cold November when I succeeded in completing a NaNoWriMo novel, and just like most NaNoWriMo novels, it was complete garbage.  It was called Gutbuster, and it was about a fat guy who lived in his parent’s basement and watched B-movies and played video games all day.  It wasn’t the most interesting novel in the world, but it at least showed me that I could write a first draft.  After that, I tried my hand at short stories and even won an honorable mention for one of them.

Now, I realize I probably won’t find any sort of fame as an author, but I’m sick of not giving it the old college try.  So, here I am, trying.

I even gave up Facebook because it took away a lot of my writing time.  My last day on Facebook was April 10th.  The funny (pathetic) thing about it is that it’s now May and I’m finally working on my writing.  This blog will hold me accountable (and keep my Facebook friends who miss me entertained).

And, in case you’re interested, I currently have two projects romping around in my hopper – a horror novel (involving zombies), and a YA trilogy (because everyone is writing them these days, right).

Alright, back to writing.