Post Archive by Month

The Lost has 5 reviews on Amazon US and 3 on UK, with 7 on Goodreads. This is fantastic- probably the fastest review response I’ve had yet- all with very valuable thoughts shared- thank you again! Hopefully more will roll in by the FREE promo that starts tomorrow. I’ll post highlight bits in the next day or so. Reminder– both The Last and The Lost will be free tomorrow, Tuesday 18!! Concerning the 3rd book in the series: The L*st, or TL3 as I call it, I’m having lots of thoughts. There’s so many stories I want to tell, many … Read More

Some reviews have started to come in for The Lost- thank you Rob, Pam, Chris, Dom, Katy and Scott- as well as to all those working them up or getting ready to post. Thank you! Perhaps because of this fast influx, I’ve just heard from the best promo site on my lineup, ENT, that they’re going to run both books on 18 and 19 just as I hoped. Yeah!  In the world of book promos there is Bookbub (who have not run me yet despite many applications), The Midlist (likewise), then ENT. Thank you ENT! The book goes free in … Read More

Today The Lost is out!  I have spent much of the day reeling in my lines, checking my bait, and hoping some gorgeous shiny fish will slip over the bow. I’m talking about reviews. I’m also talking about my combined social media (FB and twit) plus my mailing list. That’s maybe 500 + 600 + 350.  How many of those actually read what I write, maybe 20%? I hope it’s that high. Engagement is tricky, and I have been notoriously absent on most media for lets be honest, ever. 20 delicious souls took on the role of beta reading The … Read More

I’m still in the middle of my Zombie Ocean series, with potentially 4 books left to go in the arc I’ve planned so far, but I’m thinking what I’ll do next, possibly after book 3, and I’m thinking- SUPERHERO. Then I draw a bit of a blank. I feel like I want to write this, though I haven’t got a clear idea yet. To get ideas, I surf Amazon bestseller lists, make lists of what I like about the genre and my favorite books/movies, list up cool plot ideas/characters. What I’ve got so far is simple. I want to write … Read More

I stumbled upon this website- http://tvtropes.org/ – which is crammed full of a seemingly endless parade of tropes used in storytelling. I’ve been clicking through it and just learning and learning- they have names for all the tropes out there, many of them extremely creative, as well as examples of each from books, Tv, movies, comics, etc..  I feel like this should be standard material for writers to know. I’ve read countless books on plot, story, craft etc, but none that I going through tropes, basically all the possible plot shapes/twists/events, in such an encyclopedic manner. I go through it … Read More

The Lost, 2nd book in the zombie ocean series, comes out this Saturday, and I’ve set up a free promotion to signal boost both it and the first book, The Last. The last time I promoted The Last I shipped 5000+ copies, which led to a big boost in sales with almost 1000 sold at full price- $2.99. That was my best promotion yet, paying for itself, the cost of the cover, and some of this promo too. Here’s the new promo plan: Aug 18 The Last Ereader news today- $25 Kindle nation daily- $30 Bknights- $10 Kindle books and … Read More

In line with new designs for The Lost, I updated the cover of The Last. Someday soon I’ll do a full post describing how this cover went from idea to its current state. Briefly, along with the text changes to the title I described for The Lost, I redid the colorization so his shirt pops more, everything is sharper, and I zoomed the image so he doesn’t look tiny next to Anna in The Lost 🙂 Oh, and I added the biohazard icon at the bottom.     Other news SY goes to a salsa class tonight! I’ll have some street … Read More

So yesterday I blogged the cover of The Lost, as part of making the page for my website, but here it is again with commentary-    I have changed a number of things from the first iteration of The Last. I think this is easily my most pro-looking cover yet.  The last font was flat, blank, white, on a line. It stood out, but like typewritten ink on a page. This one is an interesting font for the title- bobbled up and down unevenly, kerned (some letters pushed closer together) and stretched (original font was more squat), destructed (via a … Read More

So Francisco (my cover artist, found through Deviant Art) has almost finished the cover image for The Lost, sequel to The Last. It’s more zombies plus the little girl, Anna. Here it is-   I love it. She’s vibrant and in the thick of things. It’s dynamic. He’ll do finishing touches, then I expect I’ll transform it to be in line with the first book. That means desaturate the zombies, amp up the contrast, and of course add titles.  I’ll work on that today- plus I’ll set up the preorder on Amazon (for just one week away) and start lining … Read More