January 2010 Blog Posts (151)

How far would a women go to free herself from her ex boyfriend?

A Free Paranormal short story

Relationships are never easy, but when short tempered Brian doesn't heed his girlfriend's warning things turn south for this hot-headed ex-football player. Find out what happens when he pushes his old girlfriend to take drastic measures in the paranormal short story

Lost In Translation

by author Lawrence Johnson Sr.…

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Added by Lawrence Johnson on January 14, 2010 at 3:48am — No Comments

The "Palestinian Mandela"?

Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail, is a key sticking point in negotiations between Israel and Hamas over kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. (I posted this on Global Post.)

The most important man in Palestinian politics is neither president nor prime minister. He doesn’t shuttle between meetings at the U.S. ambassador’s… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on January 14, 2010 at 12:56am — No Comments

Celebrating 1,000 books sold on Amazon Kindle!

Six months ago I self-published my thriller, "Crack-Up," on Kindle and--with virtually no efforts at marketing and not a penny spent--passed 1,000 in units sold yesterday. At my price point of $1.99 the book is consistently in the top five or ten in rank among all independently published novels in the mystery/suspense category.

So the experiment is a success in my eyes. It's been fun to track the sales and to hear from readers through reviews.

Oh, and I was recently… Continue

Added by Eric Christopherson on January 13, 2010 at 11:16pm — 7 Comments

Short Story Writing Contest: "Family Stories"

We are proud to present the 5th writing contest for English books: December 21, 2009 to February 23, 2010

Maybe not every family does have its secrets, but they sure do have their stories! Fiction or nonfiction, we want to read yours. The short stories could be about your family in the past, your family in the future, an imaginary family, a family of ducks or a family of your friends you’ve chosen. Enter the latest BookRix Short Story Writing Contest for free to read exciting,… Continue

Added by Nils on January 13, 2010 at 11:11pm — No Comments

Genre Flash 4 - Just in time for some hot summer reading

Genre Flash 4 has been released and it's a great big, fascinating list of local books and authors.

To download your own copy (for scribbling on and taking off to the bookshop - or to buy from the sites mentioned in there):

Regular catalogue of Great Australian authors and books.

Thanks to Lindy Cameron for the great effort that she puts in on this listing - it's fantastic…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on January 13, 2010 at 10:07am — No Comments

How embarrassing

I just checked, and it's been almost two years since I spent any time here. Why is that?

So many reasons, and not one of them anything but a sad excuse.

It's time. It's past time. I've got my little environment here cleared out so I can spend time in this office without cringing. And someone I know just got herself an agent for a book she wrote last spring. Last spring! How long did that take? I don't know, and it doesn't matter.

What matters here is it is… Continue

Added by Janet Ortegon on January 13, 2010 at 9:32am — No Comments

Day seven: the act of writing

Chatting about the act of writing today on my book tour stop over at My Book Addiction come on by and you might win something for leaving a comment!

Added by Kim Smith on January 13, 2010 at 1:53am — No Comments

Fan Letters

These days they are balm for my lacerated feelings re publishers. A few weeks ago, a serviceman wrote from Afghanistan and that reminded me that I'm really comparatively well off even as a "newly-unpublished" author. Today my ego received another great boost: 3 fan letters in one day, and one of them from a university professor (I have had others, but still!) who plans to use one of my books as reading material in a course he is teaching on Asian culture in American film and fiction. How great… Continue

Added by I. J. Parker on January 13, 2010 at 1:09am — 3 Comments

MIXED BLOOD by ROGER SMITH on the BEST OF 2009 LISTS

http://www.rogersmithbooks.com/

2009 was a great year for my debut thriller MIXED BLOOD. It was published internationally, is in development for a movie with Samuel L. Jackson, and made a number of end of year lists. A huge "thank you" to all who have supported my novel.

Dave Zeltserman @ Flashlight Worthy (#1 Crime pick of the… Continue

Added by roger smith on January 12, 2010 at 6:30pm — 3 Comments

Review - All the Dead Voices, Declan Hughes

Book Title: ALL THE DEAD VOICES

Author: Declan Hughes

Publisher: John Murray

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-84854-068-2

No of Pages: 308

Book Synopsis:

Ed Loy has made some changes. He has moved into a flat in Dublin's city centre, leaving the family home behind. Maybe now he can break free from the ghosts of his past.

But when a fifteen-year-old murder case is re-opened, Loy is hired by the victim's daughter to investigate the suspects… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on January 12, 2010 at 12:24pm — 1 Comment

A new short story up on darkestbeforedawn

A new Turner/Frank short story is up and running on darkestbeforedawn. A grisly little tale about obsessive love. Tell me what you think. Find it at;

http://www.darkestbeforedawn.net

Added by B.R.Stateham on January 12, 2010 at 10:01am — No Comments

Midheaven

Long ago, Viking Press published my novel Midheaven. But the editor who bought it gave up the business, and even when it became a finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for best first novel, no paperback edition came out.

Last year, just for the heck of it, I read it over and, discovering the years had made me a far better writer, I revised and sent it to a couple publishers. The response didn’t surprise me.

The mainstream publisher didn’t approve of the Christian… Continue

Added by Ken Kuhlken on January 12, 2010 at 9:34am — 3 Comments

MISTAKES IN FICTON

The reason I write fiction is so I can make things up.

Suddenly, especially with TV getting so much wrong apparently (I don't watch a lot, so I only know what I read about watching TV), everything in fiction has to be real.

Huh?

The only people who can write fiction anymore without fear of criticism about what they've made up, it seems, are those who write "Speculative Fiction." The rest of us can make up people, places, maybe some situations, but not things,… Continue

Added by Jan Christensen on January 12, 2010 at 9:06am — 7 Comments

Found a new book to use a model for my crime ficiton.

Over the weekend I found a book I did not know exist, an obscure Faulkner books titled "New Orleans Sketches"...

Read review and plan here....

http://brotherkangrants.blogspot.com/2010/01/anderson-faulkner-and-me.html

Brother Kang

Added by KevinRegier@BrotherKangsRants on January 12, 2010 at 3:45am — No Comments

Rewriting a pain or pleasure?

Rewriting comes in many guises and brings with it both pain and pleasure. For me it all depends on when I am rewriting. If I have to rewrite on the editor's request then it is a pain, because, by then, I am already well into the next novel. If it is during the revision stages of a novel (before it has been sent to my editor) then it is often a pleasure with one BIG exception, and that is when I am struggling with the ending. Here I want to make the novel as exciting as possible and, it being a… Continue

Added by Pauline Rowson on January 12, 2010 at 1:04am — 2 Comments

Book Tour day six

Over at Denyse's Fantasy pages talking about planting clues in a mystery. Come along and play with me this week as the virtual book tour for Buried Angel continues!

Fantasy Pages

Added by Kim Smith on January 12, 2010 at 12:13am — No Comments

Moving Blog Site

As I said on Friday, I'm moving my main blog to a site more suited to my subject: less writing stuff, more reader stuff. I will still post on CS from time to time because I enjoy the people here.

If you want to read the "new" stuff, I'll be on three sites

Amazon Central

https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/blog

GoodReads…

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Added by Peg Herring on January 11, 2010 at 10:49pm — No Comments

I Finally Did It

I caved in and finally signed up for Twitter.

Which means that Twitter is now officially no longer cool. Feel free to "follow" me like a lovelorn stalker at:

http://twitter.com/FuriousDShow

Any other Twits out there?

Added by D.R. MacMaster on January 11, 2010 at 12:40pm — No Comments

I'm Never Not Busy

Did that make sense?

I'm always busy. If I'm not busy then I'm watching tv, and while I'm watching tv I think, hey, I could be writing or promoting something I've written.

I took a look at 2009 and I realized that I was doing half and half. I spent half my time working on looking for a new job and the other half of the time promoting stuff my dad's written. I took a look at old e-mails to jobs I've applied for, asisstant - marketing, advertising, pr, things like that and I… Continue

Added by lovelylj on January 11, 2010 at 9:21am — No Comments

Chapter one of Ffolkes' Medicine

Thought I would post chapter one of the next book coming out. It's the pirate-detective novel featuring the loud-mouth pirate Geoffery Armitage Ffolkes. Cyrano de Bergerac has nothing on this guy for brass balls or panache.

Find it here:

http://www.noirtaketurner-frank.blogspot.com

Added by B.R.Stateham on January 11, 2010 at 1:56am — No Comments