The Shadow of al-Khayal

I know – the heading makes it sound like a Lovecraftian pastiche, but bear with me – there’s a point here somewhere.

My wife asked me when I started writing. After some serious thought I answered that I probably started in earnest sometime around 2004 but I’d been writing off and on since late 2001. Although September 11^th wasn’t a source of inspiration for my urge to write I would have to admit that it provided a form…

New Releases from Trestle Press in time for Christmas!!

Trestle Press has released another bunch of incredible stories just in time for Christmas to feed those hungry ereaders. Without further ado, here they are:

FULL LENGTH NOVELS:

J.T. Lewis- Murder! Too Close to Home

Paul Grzegorzek-The Follow

Paul D. Brazill- Brit Grit Too

David L. Hoof-Triple Jeopardy

Michel R. Vaillancourt-The Sauder Diaries: By Any Other…

ICE - International Community of E-Publishing

Goal:

• To recognize and promote work of independent authors, agents, editor, publishers and other e-publishing professionals.
• To be able to vet outstanding writing and to provide assistance, via connections to other e-pub professionals to help an author produce quality work and product.

Membership:

• Open to all participants who are working to produce emedia…

Do you have anything to do with ebooks? Aldo Calcagno has an extremely good idea he is reveling today at 5.30 pm EST on The G-ZONE. Tune in or catch it on the archives, you do not want to miss out on this.

Here is the link for the show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop/2011/12/21/aldo-calcagnoanastasia-v-pergakis-and-cheryl-riker

    …

How To Create Quality Characters

By John Hansen

Creating and developing characters is never an easy task, but there are numerous, easy ways to approach it. In this post, I’ll share my method for this madness, but keep in mind there are many other just as successful ways as well.

I tend to base a book off of a plot idea and then build the characters off of that plot. However, some authors prefer to start with the characters first,…

Trestle Press Buy One Get One Free Sale Right Now!!

All the Trestle Press authors are now engaged in providing readers with a buy one get one free sale from this very moment till the end of the day December 24^th,2011. Just send any of us your proof of purchase and we will gladly send you another Trestle Press title of equal or lesser value. Feel…

Stirapalooza 2011:

5 E-Book Trends Stirring Up The Publishing Industry

December 16, 2011 By Leona DeRosa Bodie

Although the publishing industry is dramatically changing, how is technology rewriting the rules?

1. 1.   E-Book Versus Print Book…

As we head towards Christmas and New Year and people start to get into a festive mood, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about something that’s close to my heart. We all know about the great enjoyment we can get from reading, but I’m not sure many people are aware of the fun that can be had when making words, sentences and stories. I’ll try to give you some examples of…

  Where Did Sadie Come From...

Sadie was raised in hell, the Devil’s daughter—a femme fatale character and serial killer in my short story series, The Devil’s Music. Sadie collects the souls of music legends who sign contracts with her in exchange for their success.

I originally wrote this story for a blues festival here in…

     I knew when I was sixteen I wanted to write. I don’t know why, I just did. I’d never even read a novel at that point; too energetic to sit still long enough. I remember coming home from football practice one night in the late ‘50s and lying across my bed with a notebook and pencil. I wrote two sentences, then took the next ten years off to think of a third one. So I came to this writing thing kind of bass akward, not like your typical book-loving library rat.

     In college,…

From Reviewer to Reviewed.

For two and a half years now I have been a book reviewer for the very well respected www.crimesquad.com during this time I have made friends with a lot of authors both face to face and via the world of Facebook. I have also been very fortunate to meet and interview some of the biggest names in…

A note to everyone reading this: I am about inclusion! That being said, I openly invite any author, blogger, or administrator of a Social Network or website to my blog and blogtalk radio show.

Now a word from the Mayor of Book Town on his upcoming visit to The G-ZONE:   

The Deputy Mayor and I will be in The G-Zone Friday December 16th

I am very pleased to announce that the Deputy Mayor and I have been invited back to Gelati’s Scoop GZONE.  The theme of the show is…

Fictional Speculation

                My husband and I were casually discussing the publishing industry and my latest release, Magic University, when we noticed a bizarre likeness between the current debate over traditional versus self-publishing and the divided magic system in my fantasy series.  Any similarities were entirely coincidental,…

It was another busy week for our authors as they continued to release new digital short stories and full length novels again last week. Here is the rundown of the new releases:

Carey Jane Clark- “After the Snow Falls”- a full length novel

Angelique LaFontaine/Eddie Frantom- “Thirty-1 Therabs-Volume 4 “

Angelique LaFontaine- “The Lipstick…

Michel R. Vaillancourt- “The Sauder Diaries-By Any Other Name” a full length novel

David L. Hoof-“ Just Machines”

Chantal Boudreau- “Insurance”

Malcolm Holt- “Crime Tyme Shots-Volume 2”

Graham Smith- “Harry Chambers Chronicles” a novella

Lisa Vooght- “Small Doses-Flash Fiction in a Medical Vein”

Amy Bennett-Rollo’s Journey” a…

Starting tomorrow and running through at least Friday, who knows maybe I will have to add Saturday, we have another intense week on The G-ZONE, my blogtalk radio show sponsored by Trestle Press. Here is the lineup:

Tuesday-December 13-Daniel Palmer and Graham Smith 4pm EST

Weds. December- 14- B.R. Stateham and Paul D. Brazill 4pm EST. Who knows who else may call…

  Obsession

I seem to have two speeds: obsessed and don't care. The greater part of the world falls into "don't care": politics, fashion, television, sports -- I just don't care. For that matter, add cooking and cleaning and talking to people who don't amuse me. Obsessions: writing, Peter Cook, The Fall, writing, myth, magic, folklore, writing, travel, theatre,…

What? You’ve Written a Book?

How long have you had the idea that one-day you would love to write a book? I think many, many people hold this ambition or so I have found anyway since I’ve let the cat out of the bag and admitted to my friends and colleagues that I’ve been lucky enough to have some of my writing published.

People have been astounded…

Trestle Press and Lisa Taylor will be releasing the fourth installment of her popular “Shana Black series” called “Tensions and Traitors”. It will be available for sale December 11. Look for at Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. Here is the synopsis and author biography.…

Heroes.

We all need them.  In a world filled with bad guys, bad times, and bad memories, heroes are the one set of safety pins that keep us all from going irretrievably insane.

But what about our heroes.  Do we really want the caped figures of a Batman or Superman?  Heroes of unimaginably super powers and incredible durability.  Figures born out of…