And You Thought Book Trailers Were All Terrible

My good friend, Simon Woodham, has done it again. With no prompting from me, he has created an engrossing, creepy book trailer for my new horror/lit fic pub, Welcome Home, that not only reflects the genre but also hints at a major theme. That is more than cut and paste.

Physical Edition Makes it Real

I know that many people enjoy their Kindles, but more than a few readers out there prefer to hold a book in their hands. That’s why my latest novel, Welcome Home, is now available in a soft-cover edition at the Lulu.com site.

If you have any interest in reading it, I would love to hear your thoughts. And if you happen to have read my other books, Yolanda Polanski and the Bus to Sheboygan and/or My Heart is a Drummer, I hope you’ll feel free to leave a short review on Amazon. (I’m hoping that my latest publication will spark renewed interest in my previous titles.)

Thanks, and happy reading!

World’s Lamest Blogger

Yes, I believe the award can safely be presented to me at this point. If it’s any excuse, I do write a lot, just not the blogging kind. In fact, since my last post, I’ve completed two novels and am publishing one and writing a third. So rather than the general kind, it’s a very specific form of laziness.

But back to the novel: Welcome Home, which has just hit the cyber bookshelves.

For the six of you out there who can’t get enough of horror/literary fiction, it’s the story of Chris, who moves to a farmhouse in Oregon with two friends and must determine just what’s going wrong in their new home before real harm befalls them. Whatever you’re picturing right now, it ain’t that, so people who enjoy straight-up genre horror will be in for a new experience. And for the scattering of lit-fic readers out there who are imagining a deconstruction of horror, it will surprise you, too, I hope.

The Kindle edition is available now, and it’s only $2.99. You can even download a sample of the writing there to be sure it’s something you’d enjoy. And the paperback version should be available on lulu.com any day now. As a blogger, it is my solemn duty to report when this occurs. Let’s see if I remember to do it.

I welcome your thoughts!

An Interview with a Vamp– I mean Anne Michaud

My good friend, Anne Michaud, is jetsetting around the world on a blog tour for her brand new book, Girls & Monsters. She’s been kind enough to include me in her tour and we spoke about her experience with the publishing world and writing in general…

AS: Why write about girls and monsters?

AM: I had a bunch of short stories that were supposed to be published in anthologies that never saw the light of day and others that had been rejected on claims they didn’t feel finished. Instead of working on them in their original shorter forms, I decided to regroup them into one collection and lengthen them to novellas, exploring each character and their monsters on another level. As I was working on those five stories, I quickly realized the two main themes were girls and monsters, so I found my title, too.

AS: Why did you choose the monsters you did? Without giving anything away, how do they enrich the narrative discourse?

AM: I wanted the monsters to feel real and yet be super different from one another, and although some came out of my dreams, I dug a little bit into my old journals as well. I chose my monsters before choosing my girls, I’m not going to lie. And I really wanted the monsters to be as important as the main characters, even if they don’t get as much page-time. So obviously, the monsters dictated how I developed my characters, my plots and my worlds – everything was according to them, who they were and what they wanted, which means the title should have been Monsters & Girls, really.

AS: One of the main themes running through most of these stories is how family can be our savior or our downfall. Why is this an important subject to you, and how does it inform your writing?

AM: While dealing with make-believe monsters and dark horror, one of my challenges was the reader’s identification to the characters and the stories. I used the family theme because growing up, you’re mostly surrounded by your parents and siblings, and since this collection is aimed at young adults, I wanted them to identify early on with the situations and what the main characters went through.

AS: For the stories inspired by dreams, what did you do to go from subconscious weirdness to a cohesive narrative?

AM: Death Song’s first bathroom scene is a dream I had 3 or 4 years ago that left a deep imprint on me. That’s how I came up with a killer mermaid, this unfocused image of a gloomy woman wanting to eat my soul before escaping through the tub’s drain. We Left at Night’s opening scene with shadows moving and the dread of leaving everything you know and love behind was also a beat by beat replica of one of my dreams. My dreams are uber real, which makes my reality a little more bearable.

AS: How is the state of genre, these days? What do you perceive happening to dark horror and YA, two categories in which you fit in?

AM: Well, it is strange to go into an actual bookstore and find horror/fantasy/sci-fi shelves half-empty of titles and then shop on the internet and find that best sellers are actually these exact genre books, selling in eformats. Does it mean traditional publishing doesn’t know what people want? Maybe, but it also means that virtual bookstores give access to genres that are harder to find, which I think is great.

Whatever trend traditional publishing is trying to create will guide the major retailers’ sales, but I doubt people who seek specific stories will be influenced by what’s on the actual bookshelves, and they’ll eventually find it elsewhere. The publishing world is changing so fast and so much, I can’t wait to see what will happen next and how it will influence writers in their career choices.

AS: Is these still a stigma to self-publishing/small presses?

AM: I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to see a hardback with my name on it, but I won’t die if it doesn’t happen – and most writers I know feel the same. The great thing about what’s happening right now is that you can have both: the great feeling of holding a hard cover and making a living by selling ebooks through self-publishing or small presses. That’s the best thing: you can have both, now.

I think the mentality about self-publishing has changed since success stories like Samantha Young and Amanda Hockings have been popping all over the place. It just proves that readers don’t see self-publishing as a stigma, that maybe only writers and traditional publishers view it as such.

AS: Where will you be in five years?

AM: I’d love to be in the UK, on a rocky, cold beach staring at the raging sea whilst sipping tea and writing my next novel. To actually have the luxury to write all day without the need of a job is the ultimate fantasy. That and a hardback with my name on it, of course.

AS: Next project you’re working on?

AM: Girls & Aliens, a sci-fi collection of novellas, quickly followed by Girls & Ghosts. Then, it’s up to the stars, really. Maybe a French novella about Hiroshima, maybe an indie-drama script, maybe my YA thriller Killer Girl or my SF Rebel – who knows? I certainly don’t:)

AS: Final last words?

AM: Keep writing (as I remind myself everyday).

YA and horror writer, Anne Michaud

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages.

She, who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since.

She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

She blogs http://annecmichaud.wordpress.com

She Facebooks: http://www.facebook.com/annecmichaud

She tweets @annecmichaud

Girls & Monsters Goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17335353-girls-monsters

Giveaway!! Softcover copy + The Monster Collection Skellies, 5 pieces handcrafted by the author: http://www.darkfuse.com/contact/view.php?id=10891&#8243; title=”GIRLS & MONSTERS Giveaway”>GIRLS & MONSTERS Giveaway</a>

** Giveaway link for people on WordPress: http://www.darkfuse.com/contact/view.php?id=10891&#8243; title=”GIRLS & MONSTERS Giveaway”>GIRLS & MONSTERS Giveaway</a>

The winner will be announced during the LIVE CHAT on release day, April 30^th at 9PM east http://www.darkfuse.com/events.html

Cover Reveal for Girls & Monsters

YA and horror writer, Anne Michaud

My great friend, Anne Michaud, has recently received the cover art for her new book, Girls & Monsters, from her publisher. It promises to be a great read, and I’m thrilled to see all of the hard work she’s done pay off.

Here’s the cover!

It’s nice. It’s nasty. It’s the cover of Girls & Monsters.

Want to know more? Here’s an excerpt:

Death Song Excerpt

Something catches in the back of my throat. I hide my face in my hands to quiet the sobs. But then, something ain’t right. Air moves around me and I stop. I look between my fingers, but the blur of my tears thickens everything: the bathtub, the towels, and someone on the floor. A woman’s in here with me, door still closed and locked. An exhale, like after a deep swim, and a smell, like the swamp close to my empty home. A chill runs down my back, I wipe my eyes, rub and scratch them to see more clearly. And I do.

Two gray hands scratch the floor tiles, nails green with algae, putrid flesh sagging on her legs, arms and torso, hair so long and wet and heavy, it drags her down. Diluted, impossible to focus on, like little waves rippling over her body from head to foot, seaweed in the water. Scales and fins, mermaidlike, little knives, those are. And they scrape the floor, like a fork on a plate. It’s her—Limnade.

She opens her mouth of scissor-teeth and the rotten smell of fish wraps around my throat like two hands trying to choke me.

“You can’t be…” I don’t finish my breathless thought and jump backward, knocking over the dish of decorative soaps. Blurry waves, vision impaired, out of focus, unreal. She crawls toward me, eyes unblinking, lethal, hands inches from me: my legs refuse to move, as my body feels like stone. Frozen, hypnotized, a statue. Then I hear something coming from within her…

A melody, reminding me of something lost, tickles my ears. It drags on until the sweetness turns sickly, vibrating into a full-on super-scream, hyenalike, enough to pop my ears and make them bleed. Her large mouth deforms her face into one gap of black, the cry so high and strident, I scream from the pain. Limnade stares at me, everything but her fades away—Jo’s nice bathroom, Jo’s new life, Jo himself— none of it matters anymore. Her fingers brush my forehead, they’re cold and sticky like clams. And I let the darkness take me away.

 

Visit Girls & Monsters’ Goodreads page to get more info and to register to win a copy for yourself.

And here’s a little more about Anne:

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages.

She, who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since.

She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

She blogs http://annecmichaud.wordpress.com

She tweets @annecmichaud

FREE Kindle novel, Dec 30 & 31 only!

I‘m trying out the Kindle Select program, which allows me to offer my work for free during promotional periods. So December 30 and 31, you will be able to download my first novel, My Heart is a Drummer, for absolutely no charge. What could be easier– or cheaper?

Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the book for your PC, Android or Apple products. Amazon offers a free, easy download called Kindle PC that allows you to use your PC as an instant ereader, and Apple’s App Store allows you to do the same thing for your Apple products. It’s a great idea, because Amazon offers hundreds of classic books and other promotions for free all the time. Never pay for another book in your life!

Even if you’ve read or bought the paperback version, downloading the Kindle version will really help me in getting my numbers up on Amazon– which will, in turn, help me to reach more Amazon users.

Please feel free to tell anyone/everyone who might appreciate a good read about this limited-time promotion. I appreciate your support and look forward to your comments/reviews on Amazon!

Subconscious Writing: My New Blog

I’ve managed to finally get a new blog out there, and it’s all about one of my favorite topics: subconscious writing.

If you know what I’m talking about, hopefully, you’ll find some useful information. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there’s only one way to find out…

I hope you’ll have a chance to check it out–and let me know what you think of it! The plan is to get new info on there every week that’s useful to writers.

 

My Heart is a Drummer Trailer

A friend of mine in the U.K. was incredibly kind and offered to produce a book trailer for My Heart is a Drummer. I think he did a beautiful job; it really communicates the tone of the book, I think. And not only did he conceive and write the script, in addition to creating the entire thing in his computer– yes, it’s all computer-generated graphics– but he composed and performed the soundtrack, too. Besides all this, he’s a working screenwriter and novelist. Talk about a one man band!

I‘d love to hear what you think, so please feel free to post comments here and/or on my Facebook page or YouTube.

MY HEART IS A DRUMMER by Adam Sydney

MY HEART IS A DRUMMER by Adam Sydney. My first blog review! And it’s a pretty good one. Please feel free to take a look and see if you agree with the reviewer. I’d love your thoughts, so I hope you’ll leave a comment here or on the review site if you have anything to share.

 

 

A New Interview

My latest inteview has just posted on author Gail Baugniet’s blog. We discuss the parallels between screenwriting and novel writing, the origins of the story, and Gail’s very personal connection with Yolanda Polanski.

I would love to hear what you think, so please feel free to take a look and comment on Gail’s blog and/or this blog, too!

I hope I didn’t embarrass myself too badly…